There men eat men, a dreadful banquet there,
E'en children on their aged fathers feast
In pious zeal, exulting in the deed.

And after the appointed time wherein
The advocates of Mahomet shall fail,
With all the numberless deluded sons
Of Superstition, who possess'd the world,
A potent angel from high heav'n shall come,
Bearing the key of the infernal pit f,

And in his hand a chain of size immense,
Who shall take hold of Satan's wither'd form,
(As if a gladiator's vig'rous arm,

And tough with intertwisted sinews large,
Should grasp a puling infant's flimsy limbs)
And shut him up, that for a thousand years
The troubled world he should no more deceive;
And with the breath that from his lips proceeds,
He shall destroy the palace of this fiend,
Of this detestable fell sorcerer,

Whose attributes in lov'd harmonious verse,
The muse benignant has vouchsaf'd to sing;
As some slight house in those unhappy climes,
Where Heav'n's fierce indignation often smites,
Is from its loose infirm foundation torn,
Brush'd by the pinion of a hurricane.

There are some very interesting communications about the idol Juggernaut, and the cannibals in the Malayau Archipelago (which consists of Sumatra, Borneo, and other large islands), in Dr. Buchanan's Researches in India, to which I would refer the pious reader, who is willing to propagate the Gospel. Dr. Buchanan says (without attending to the immense body of the Pagans and Mahometans in the Indian islands), that "one hundred thousand Bibles will not suffice the Malay Christians." These islands are of more consequence than Otaheite, upon which such vast sums of money have been lavished, with scarcely any effect whatever in regard to conversion. Revelation.

+ Revelation, xx,

THE

RESTORATION OF JERUSALEM.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; for it shall surely come. Habakkuk, ii. 3. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Isaiah, xl. 1, 2.

PREFACE.

THE same prophets who foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, foretold its final restoration. We have found them true in the first instance, and shall find them true in the other. It was foretold by Daniel that the Messiah should come seventy weeks (which in the prophetical language signify 490 years) after the commandment, in the first case, to restore and to build Jerusalem. The Messiah came at the time foretold by the prophet, though erroneous suppositions were made about the manner and the exact time of his appearance. The Romans, we are told by their own authors, supposed the prophecy to refer to the Emperor Vespasian. The character of the prophet was, however, established by time, notwithstanding the various errors which were entertained relative to the prophecy. In the same manner various errors will be entertained relative to the prophecies concerning the final restoration of Jerusalem; but the character of the sacred prophets for truth, will at last be completely established by the event.

It seems to be foretold by Daniel, that the final restoration of Jerusalem shall take place after the abolition of the Mahometan power. It appears to be prophesied that the Mahometan power shall continue for "a time, times, and a half." Daniel, xii. 7*.

A time is a year, that is

Times are two years
Half a time

360 days

720

180

1250

This we know to signify in the prophctical language 1260 prophetical years. There are no authors of repute who suppose the rise of the Mahometan power to be earlier than the year 606. Its final abolition, therefore, cannot any how happen before the year 1848. It is very disputable, however, and supposed by very few authors, that the Mahometan power rose so early as the year 606. It probably arose some time after. Some make its rise in 614, others in 622; and it may perhaps be later. The

downfal of the Mahometan power, and the restora tion of Jerusalem can scarcely happen much before the conclusion of the present century, much before the year 1900.

It is said by Isaiah, "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and' set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters sball be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing-fathers; and their queens thy nursingmothers." Chap. xlix. ver. 22, 23.

At the time of the restoration of the Jews we cannot therefore suppose that republics will be generally established in the world.

Great mischief may spring from being too sanguine in regard to the approaching downfal of the Mahometan power, from making the calculations of fallible:

St. John uses "a time, times, and half a time," and "a thousand two hundred and three score days," indiscriminately for the same period of time. See Revelation, xii. 6, 14.

That days signify years, in the prophetical language, appears from Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks, and from St. John's calling the famous ten years' persecution under Dioclesian and the other Roman emperors," a tribulation of ten days." Revelation, ii. 10. It is said in Genesis, "Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service, which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years,' "Chap. xxix. ver. 27. A week is here synonymous with seven years.

Sir Isaac Newton, however, supposes, that when we reckon many of these years together, we should calculate them to be Jewish years, which are nearly the same as our common years of 365 days. See his "Observations on Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John, pages 137 and 138. The facts will teach us to fix with exactness every thing relative to the prophetical numbers.

men about the prophetical numbers a spring for action. It seems an undoubted principle of good sense, if there is a period fixed by the prophets of the Almighty for the dispersion of Israel, that they must be restored at the appointed time. No exertions of their own will cause their restoration before the appointed time; and the time cannot pass away without their knowing the foretold success. We must wait till summer to reach the harvest of grain, and not snatch at it in spring. To be patient that every thing may be brought to its proper maturity, is to be wise as well as good.

An irresistible argument may be drawn from the prophets, to manifest that the restoration of the Jews to their own country cannot be effected immediately. It is certain that the ten tribes are ultimately to be restored. The house of Judah were carried away captive by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon, and after seventy years were peaceably restored to the land of their forefathers, by the decree of Artaxerxes. Hosea represents the Lord as saying, "I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by battle, by horse, nor by horsemen." Chap. i. verses 6 and 7. The house of Israel, the ten tribes, were carried away captive by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and have not yet been ever restored. Hosea, however, at the conclusion of the first chapter, says of the ten tribes, whom he calls Israel, "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered: and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land." It is not yet agreed where all the ten tribes are to be found. In an "Essay on the Propagation of the Gospel," which I published, I endea

voured to prove (in which opinion, Grotius, William Penn, and all the Jews theirselves, seem to concur) that many of the Indians in America are the descendants of the ten tribes. The Tartars are generally supposed, and the Turks, by some, to be their descendants. The celebrated Sir William Jones thinks that the Afghans, a people in the East Indies, are also sprung from them. The descendants of the ten tribes are to be found in various parts of the world, but a great body of them remain where their ancestors were first carried captive,

The ten tribes are all to be ascertained, to be con verted, and to join the other two tribes, before the twelve can unitedly, under one leader, proceed to Jerusalem. All which things cannot happen before a very considerable number of years have passed.

An emigration has lately taken place among the Jews, from Poland and other countries, to Palestine. This is unwise conduct, and should be discouraged by all friends to the Hebrew nation. Palestine is the country which they should at present avoid. Moses says of the Hebrew nation, "The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindiness, and astonishment of heart." And this emigration to Palestine, with other things, proves the truth of his predictions.

It is probable that at some future time there will be a great massacre of the Jews by the power which has possession of Palestine; and, therefore, it is wise in the Jews to keep as much as possible out of its hands, until the time arrives for the destruction of that power. Daniel says, "But tidings out of the East and out of the North shall trouble him; therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him." Daniel, ii. 44, 45.