4. If any of thine be driven out into the utmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will be fetch thee.

5. And the Lord thy God will bring thes into the land which thy fathers poffeffed, and thou shalt poffefs it, Sr.

For though the Jews were to fuffer all thefe calamities, to be scattered and dif perfed in the manner foretold, yet they were not to be abfolutely deftroyed, as appears by feveral places in the prophets :Jeremiah xxx, 10. Therefore fear thou not, O my fervant Jacob, faith the Lord, neither be dismayed, O Ifrael: for lo, I will fsave thee from afar, and thy feed from the land of their captivity, and Jacob shall return, and shall be in reft and quiet, and none fhall make him afraid.

11. For I am with thee, faith the Lord, te fave thee though I make a full end of all nations whither I have fcattered thee, yet will

I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in meafure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.

Again, Jeremiah xlvi, 28. Fear thou not, O Jacob, my fervant, faith the Lord, for I am with thee, for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee, but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure, yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished; in the margin of the bible now lying before me it is not utterly cut thee off, and probably it ought to be fo tranflated.

A remnant was to return out of all countries whither God had driven them. Jeremiah xxiii, 3. And I will gather the remnant of my flock, out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and increafe.

Isaiah x, 20. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Ifrael, and fuch as are escaped of the house of Jacob, fall no

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more flay upon him that fmote them: but shall Ray upon the Lord, the holy One of Ifrael, in truth.

21. The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.

Ifaiah xi, 12. And he shall set up an enfign for the nations, and fhall affemble the outcafts of Ifrael, and gather together the difperfed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Exekiel vi, 8, after feveral judgments are denounced, Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have fome that fhall escape the fword among the nations, when ye shall be fcattered through the countries.

I fuppofe it not neceffary to cite any more of the prophecies of the Old Teftament; let us now examine fome of the New.

2

In the xxivth chapter of Matthew, Jefus foretells the deftruction of Jerufalem, when his disciples were defirous that their master fhould obferve the magnificence and beauty of the temple.

Verfe 2. And Jefus faid unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I fay unto you, there fhall not be left here one ftone upon another, that fhall not be thrown down.

See also Mark xiii, 1, and Luke xxi, 6, which are parallel places,

Again, Matthew xxiv, 3. And as he fat upon the mount of Olives, the aifciples came unto him privately, faying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the fign of thy coming, and of the end of the world* ?

It should have been tranflated "the end of the age," καὶ τῆς συντελείας τε αιώνος, the word άιων fignifying ævum, or fæculum, as well as mundus: that this should be fo tranflated, appears from the 34th verfe of this chapter, Verily I fay unto you, this generation shall not pafs, till all these things be fulfilled; and I take it that VOL. III.

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4. And Fefus anfwered and faid unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

5.

For many Jhall come in my name, faying, I am Chrift: and fhall deceive many.

6. And ye fhall hear of wars and rumours of wars: fee that ye be not troubled: for all

the destruction of Jerufalem was not forty years after the crucifixion of our faviour. I am affifted in this remark by the ingenious author of the "Harmony

of the gospels," who, by the end of the age to happen at his coming, fays, "the difciples could mean nothing but the end of the political oeconomy, "or form of government by heathen governors, or "procurators, which then fubfifted, and they might "look on their mafter's coming to deftroy the age, or

political conftitution of the nation then fubfifting,

as a very agreeable event; and as to the demoli "tion of the temple, they might expect a larger and "more fuperb building in its ftead, proportionable "to the number of the Meffiah's fubjects.-There"fore, to fhew them their mistake, Jesus told them " he was not coming to raise the Jews to univerfal "empire, as they fuppofed, but to punish them for "their perfidy and rebellion, by destroying their "nation."

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