soners.

and altogether in the siege, upwards or 1,100,000 were destroyed; besides nearly a million made priTitus sent those above seventeen years of age, bound, to work in Egypt; and those under that age, were sold as slaves; but thousands of them perished for want; and from their vast numbers, purchasers were difficult to find. And that they have been also "plucked out of their own land," and 66 scattered among all nations of the earth," is a matter of plain history and observation; every part of the civilized world witnessing it.

But though so dispersed, they still were to subsist as a distinct people; "and yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away-nor destroy them utterly, to break my covenant with them." (Levit. xxvi. 44.) And is it not even so? The Jewish nation, like the bush of Moses, hath been always burning, but is never consumed! Amidst all their persecutions, famines, massacres, and slaveries, they are not destroyed utterly, but subsist as a distinct people, though scattered among all other people! What thing comparable to this is to be found in the history of any nation under the sun?

They were also to suffer much in their dispersion. They were to "find no ease; neither shall the sole of their foot have rest;" they were to be "spoiled and

oppressed ever more;" their "sons and daughters were to be given to other people." The frequent banishments, and the plunderings, and confiscations, they endured, when forced to redeem their very lives from the violence of tyrannical princes and governments, are notorious; and in some countries, their children have been taken from them, to be educated in the popish religion.

They should be mad for the very sight of their eyes, which they should see." (Deut. xxviii. 34.) The persecutions and violence they have undergone, have often driven them to furious desperation. Two memorable instances of this, from ancient and modern history, may be adduced; one after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, when at the siege of the castle of Misada, by the persuasion of Eleazar, their leader, they first murdered their wives and children; then ten, chosen by lot, slew the rest of their companions; next, one of the remaining ten slew the other nine, and, setting fire to the place, stabbed himself. And thus perished the whole nine hundred and sixty! The other similar instance is recorded in English history, in the reign of Richard I., when, to avoid a general massacre, fifteen hundred Jews shut themselves up in the castle of York, and being refused ransom and capitulation, at the instigation of one of their Rabbies, each man stabbed his own wife and children, and then, setting

fire to the place, they were consumed in the conflagration'.

They should "serve other gods, wood and stone." (Deut. xxviii. 36.) To avoid confiscations in popish countries, they often have complied with the forms of idolatrous worship'.

"They should become a proverb and a by-word among all nations." all nations." Are not the avarice and usury of a Jew proverbial? Their "plague should be wonderful and of long continuance." (Deut. xxviii. 59.) And what nation has suffered so much, and endured so long, even for eighteen centuries?

Here then are prophecies, delivered three thousand years ago, fulfilled, and continuing to be fulfilled at this very time. Is it not a proof of the divine legation of Moses? And are not the people of the Jews, as Moses predicted, "a sign and a wonder for ever," to all nations of the earth?

1 Some few, refusing to join their brethren in this horrid deed, and trusting to the compassion and promises of their enemies, opened the gates, and were immediately and cruelly murdered.

2 Basnage, in his History of the Jews, gives some singular accounts of this. He states that the Jews in Spain and Portugal are numerous, though concealed under the semblance of being Christians; nay, that they are even intermingled amongst the ecclesiastics, and enter into ecclesiastical dignities, so that the very convents are full of them."

DISSERTATION VIII.

Prophecies of OTHER PROPHETS respecting the Jews.

THERE are Prophecies of other Prophets, besides Moses, respecting the present state and condition of the Jews; particularly concerning, 1st, The Restoration of the two tribes of Benjamin and Judah from captivity;-the Dissolution of the ten tribes of Israel. 2nd, The Preservation of the Jews, and destruction of their enemies. 3rd. The Desolation of Judea. 4th. The Infidelity and reprobation of the Jews; and, 5th. The Calling and obedience of the Gentiles.

I. It was foretold that the king of Assyria should carry away captive the ten tribes of Israel; and the king of Babylon the remaining two tribes of Benjamin and Judah; but that the ten former should be dis

solved and lost, whilst the two last should be restored. The precise time of their captivity and restoration was predicted: "This whole land should be desolate, and the nation should serve the king of Babylon seventy years; and after that, God should cause them to return to their place." (Jer. xxv. 10, 11. and xxix. 10.) The prophecy began to be executed the same year in which it was delivered. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judea; took Jerusalem; made Jehoiakim his subject and tributary; took his and the nobility's finest children, to be slaves and eunuchs in his palace at Babylon; took also the vessels of the house of the Lord, and put them in the temple of his god there. Seventy years after this, Cyrus made his proclamation for the restoration of the Jews, and the rebuilding of their temple at Jerusalem.

But the fate of the ten tribes was to be different; Ephraim, being the chief of them, is often put for the whole; and Isaiah predicted (chap. vii. 8.), “Within three score and five years, shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people." Now, reckoning sixty-five years from the first year of the reign of Ahaz, we shall arrive at the twenty-second year of Manasseh's reign, when (conquests over them having frequently been made by others) Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, finally completed the ruin of the ten tribes; carried away the remains of the people; and to prevent the