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Barbara A. Simon (c.1790-aft.1836) The Ten Tribes... (London: Seeley & Burnside, 1836) |
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History of Mexico (1807) | Humboldt's Researches... (1814) | Star in the West (1816)
Ruins of Ancient City (1822) | View of Hebrews (1823) | Antiquities of Mexico (1831)
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THE TEN TRIBES OF ISRAEL HISTORICALLY IDENTIFIED WITH THE A B O R I G I N E S OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. By Mrs. Simon. Behold! I was left alone: -- these, where had they been! -- ISAIAH XLIX. 21. He that scattereth Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. -- JEREMIAH xxxi. 10. PUBLISHED BY R. B. SEELEY AND W. BURNSIDE; AND SOLD BY L. AND G. SEELEY, FLEET STREET, LONDON. MDCCCXXXVI. |
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ix-xl PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS 1-26 PRELIMINARY NOTICES OF SPANISH HISTORIANS (Page 23, line 16, for 'that,' read 'and the.') 27-49 MIGRATION 50-64 NAMES AND ATTRIBUTES OF THE CREATOR 65-85 QUETZALCOATL 86-88 THEOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 89-148 RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES 126-129 CIRCUMCISION 135-148 FESTIVALS 149-157 MEXICAN CALENDAR 158-162 HISTORICAL RECORDS vi CONTENTS. 174-179 CHARACTERISTICS 180-192 TRADITIONS 193-200 TOLTICS OR TULIANS 201-224 PERUVIANS 225-258 HAYTIANS (Page 225, line 11, for 'a royal,' read 'the royal.') 259-273 MEXICAN EMPIRE 263-269 ADMINISTRATION OF LAW 271-272 ARTS AND SCIENCES 273-274 LAW OF SLAVES 274-286 MEXICANS 286-313 MONTEZUMA 315-370 APPENDIX [ vii ]
To "THE ANTIQUITIES OF MEXICO," the following pages are indebted for the most valuable portion of the testimony by which they are enriched. This rare and costly compilation, which was a few years ago published by the Right Honorable Lord Viscount Kingsborough, has hitherto been little known beyond the libraries of Universities, and those of a few Noblemen. "THE ANTIQUITIES OF MEXICO" at the present time consist of seven folio volumes, which, with the exception of the sixth, contain fac-similes and drawings from such historical remains, as had escaped the destruction to which all the primitive records and other memorials of the tribes of the New Continent had been condemned by the policy of their invaders in the fifteenth century. Literary and antiquarian travellers having from time to time transmitted these precious relics to their respective governments, they have been preserved in the Royal Libraries of Paris, Berlin, Dresden -- the Imperial Library of Vienna -- the Vatican Library, in the Museum at Rome, in the Library of the Institute of Bologna, and in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. As a specimen of the genius of a primitive race, over whose origin has long brooded a mysterious obscurity; and as a successful attainment in antiquarian research, the publication viii of Viscount Kingsborough is highly interesting and curious: but rising as it does to the sublime character of an illustration and confirmation of Scripture testimony, disclosing the Hebrew origin, history, experience, and genius of that grand division of the Hebrew nation, which although cut off for a series of ages from their own, and the nations of the earth, have nevertheless occupied a prominent place in the prophetic pages; the importance of such a testimony (at such an ominous crisis in the history of Christendom,) -- so miraculously preserved, -- so long withheld, -- so unexpectedly reclaimed; -- (whether in its internal or relative character) like the Bow of peace and promise, speaks of a PLACE and state of REST beyond the impending cloud of retributive storm.
[ ix ]
Territorial empire was immediately after that purification which the earth received from the Deluge, assigned to the three surviving representatives of the present inhabitants of the globe: and the boundary of each was soon after specifically determined and defined. The appointment was one of unerring wisdom and universal goodness; but alienation of heart and mind from the divine supremacy soon manifested itself in that self-will which suggests covetous desires, and enforces these by arbitrary violence. The LORD blessed all the sons of Noah on their coming forth from the ark to inherit the baptised earth: it was by coveting the possession of territories beyond their rightful empire, that the sons of Ham forfeited that blessing in which they were originally included, and by this demonstration of rebellion against the appointments of the Most High, and usurpation of the rights of others, they incurred that curse by which they have been distinguished. 'Covetousness,' by withdrawing the mind and heart from the will of God, and by constituting some substituted object supreme in our regard, 'is,' in essence and effect 'idolatry.' Hence the incalculable evils of this early infringement of His authority who "appointed to all nations the bounds of their habitations." x PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Self-will and licentious desires prepared the ungodly Ham for that malediction, which a specific provocation at length called forth. It was prophetically addressed to him as the father of Canaan, whose lawless and impious acts would justify the curse of degradation then pronounced by the patriarch. An isolated act of provocation would have called for a personal rebuke; but in that prophetic curse, Canaan, the son of the immediate delinquent, is specially implicated, and that most justly. That the malediction should have been given in the spirit of prophecy -- in a fore-knowledge of the character which would justify it, was in Israel a common occurrence. Children of eight days old were in this spirit so characteristically named, that not alone their own circumstances, but the history of their tribe was frequently involved in the prophetic appellation then given. The descriptive blessings of Jacob and of Moses to the heads of the twelve tribes, fully illustrate this truth. But why did Noah select Canaan as the worst branch of the family of Ham? did he not foresee that Cush also, and his sons, would invade a great portion of that territory allotted to one of the branches of the family of Shem? and that having thus rebelled against the divine appointment, they, on the warrant of the same self-will, would, in renouncing the authority of the Creator, constitute the "host of Heaven" the objects of their supreme regard and homage, together with those 'graven images' which should represent their famous leaders. Assuredly Noah had a premonition of their departure from the Most High, since he foresaw that Canaan would be guilty of a still more aggravated enormity. By sovereign right and choice, the Creator of all had PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. xi selected a peculiar territorial domain as the seat of His government and administration. From its geographical position, JERUSALEM, the metropolitan city of this empire, is to the earth at large what the heart is to the human body -- the central seat of that life and energy which is diffused from thence to the most remote parts of the frame which it animates. The heinousness of Canaan's guilt was in having usurped this consecrated portion, knowing that it was claimed by the Creator as HIS inheritance, and delegated by HIM to the posterity of Shem, of whose line was to be born in due time, the Messiah. That this knowledge of the purpose of GOD was perfectly understood by Noah, and, doubtless, by him communicated to his sons, Ham and Japhet, there can be no doubt, since his manner of addressing Shem is demonstrative of that expectation. He does not say, Blessed art thou; or, blessed shalt thou be of the LORD; but, Blessed be the LORD GOD of Shem." [1] In sacreligiously usurping that LAND which in His wisdom the LORD had set apart for the occupancy of that peculiar People whom he had constituted the depository of His revealed mind and will -- which therefore they were appointed to minister to the nations of the earth, Canaan was not alone chargeable with disobedience, covetousness, and injustice, but thus became the means of introducing those detestable and demoralizing idol rites, which not alone would eventually cause the Land to cast them forth of it, but which would necessarily become snares to entrap, and lures to seduce from their allegiance, the rightful occupants who should sojourn amongst them. In the division of the earth it was inculcated upon Israel: __________ 1 Eusebius states, "that Noah explained to his sons the will of God, and allotted to each their particular territory, having received his instructions from Heaven." -- See Bryant's Myth. xii PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. "The LORD's portion is His people; Israel is the lot of His INHERITANCE;" accordingly it is testified -- "Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance." Because it was His, it became also theirs; the LORD's portion being His people. David elsewhere describes "Judah as His sanctuary." Israel as His dominion. The Hebrews therefore held the LORD's Land at will; and were subject to Him as Supreme Proprietor: - - "The Land shall not be sold for ever; for THE Land is MINE." It was this Holy portion which was invaded and appropriated by the race of Canaan; and not alone invaded and appropriated, but polluted by their detestable idol rites. Cush, or Cutha and his sons, under their lawless and self-intitled leader Nimrod, invaded the province of Shinar, in which rightfully dwelt Asshur, [1] a branch of Shem's family. "Nimrod," it is written, "was a mighty hunter" "before the LORD." A term which is scripturally indicative of the violence, crime, and disorder, of a reckless one. This self-willed ruler assumed the title of Alorus of Orion, [2] and subsequently as Belus, became an object of idolatrous worship after his decease. He was the first who assumed the establishment of an independent kingdom and government: -- "The beginning of his kingdom was BABEL." * * * His independent beginning, commenced in rebellion, and established in transgression, was carried on in opposition; __________ 1 It appears that the Assyrian Empire in its original grant to Ashur extended to the extreme eastern coast of Asia, which nearly unites, and probably was then, united to the westernmost coast of the New World. 2 Bryant observes, "It is remarkable that the first tyrant upon earth masked his villainy under the meek title of Shepherd -- if we may credit Gentile writers, it was under this pretext that Nimrod framed his opposition, and gained an undue sovereignty over his brethren, having taken to himself the name of Orion, and giving out that he was born to be a protector and guardian; or, as it is related by Besorus, "He spread a report abroad that God had marked him out for a Shepherd of His people." PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. xiii until that lawless combination of self-wills and self-interests which enmity to His will confederated for a time in one impious design, became by a just retribution so confounded by the confusion of their own speech and ideas, and consequently so estranged and divided in their efforts and purposes, that each party for itself spread abroad over the face of the country. "The Tower of Babel," observes Bryant, "was probably designed for an observatory for 'the Host of Heaven;' as well as for a land-mark and strong-hold against the power of the elements. The Ethnic writers describe whirlwinds as the cause of the overthrow of the Tower itself; from which Nimrod not being willing to depart, he was involved in its fall." The sons of Peleg, in whose days the division of the earth had taken place, were occupants of the territory assigned to their ancestor. From Ur of the Chaldees was Abraham called, as the federal head of that people, iu whom all the families of the earth should be blessed. At Haran, a border part of the Land, he sojourned for several years, but at the command of the LORD, pitched his tent with that of Lot, on a mountain in, or near Jerusalem, where "he built an altar to the LORD." The lawless occupants certainly knew that the Land should ultimately be possessed by the children of Abraham, for whom from the beginning it had been destined. This is to be inferred from that treaty which the king, attended by his chief captain Phicol, requested at the hand of Abraham in token of amity hereafter. "Now, therefore, swear unto me by God, that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor my son, nor my son's son," &c. The same thing happened to Isaac many years afterwards. The herdsmen of the king had assumed the right of compelling those of the patriarch to depart from the place xiv PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. where they were; which led the king, together wild his chief captain, to solicit personally a reconciliation. "And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore are ye come unto me, seeing ye hate me?" they said "We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee, and we said, let there be an oath betwixt us and thee; and let us make a covenant with thee that thou do us no hurt." Abraham having sojourned so long in the empire of the Chaldees, as to have given occasion to be considered a Chaldean by race, as well as by birth; we are pointedly informed that "SHEM was the father of all the children of Heber," the head of the Hebrew nation, whose name they inherit. Although as a Sovereign the LORD would not have acted arbitrarily in expelling the usurpers, he mercifully granted time and opportunity for their amendment, leaving the sins of an ungodly race to their own fatal reaction. To Abraham it was intimated that he should be gathered to his fathers in peace -- be buried in the Land, and that his children should be for a season in Egypt, from whence they should be delivered in the fourth generation, when "the iniquity of the Amorites" should be "full." When at length the LORD did conduct His people into the Land, He thus addressed them, "According to the doings of Egypt wherein ye dwelt; shall ye not do: and according to the doings of the Land of Canaan whither I bring you; ye shall not do. Ye shall observe MY statutes to keep MY ordinances, to walk therein: I AM the Lord your GOD." After an enumeration of the evils which were to be shunned, it is added, "For all these abominations have the men of the Land done, who were before you; and their Land is defiled, and the Land being defiled, therefore do I visit the iniquity thereof upon it; and the Land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants." PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. xv Having contemplated the division of the earth into three shares, these having been appointed for the occupancy of the three sons of Noah throughout their generations, it may be asked, Had the Creator and disposer who is yet to be acknowledged as "the GOD of the whole earth," no ulterior design in reserving for some special purpose present to His foreknowledge, that vast transatlantic Hemisphere with which Christendom has but recently become acquainted? Although not included in his design of appropriation, when the division to which allusion has been made took place, surely it was as a consequence reserved for some extraordinary emergency illustrative of the character and government of the Holy One of Israel. Let us briefly glance at the history of the Hebrew people, after their admission to Palestine under Joshua, the successor of Moses. During the life of this faithful leader, they were loyal-hearted and blessed: but after his decease and that of the generation which had been the eye-witness of so many noble manifestations of Almighty Power in their behalf -- their successors through the seducing wiles by which they were beset, fell into a toleration of, and compliance with the idolatrous worship and licentious manners of the surrounding nations. This withdrawment from their National Head, who, in delivering them from the tyranny of Egypt, claimed at once their homage as their Creator, Redeemer, Guardian, and Governor, rendered the alienated people at once powerless and defenceless. Again and again, when under oppressive tribute, the spirit of their Judges was stirred up to call upon the LORD for help -- but time obliterated these impressions, and new provocations called forth fresh calamities. The rending of the Ten Tribes from the House of David, about seven hundred and forty years before the birth of the xvi PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Messiah, forms a marked epoch in the History of the Hebrews, and ought to be scrupulously attended to in all its aspects and bearings, in order that a correct estimate may be formed of subsequent and yet future events and promises which include "the outcasts of Israel," as well as "the dispersed of Judah." The act of rending themselves in a spirit of atheistical democracy from the House of David -- also separated them from the enjoined and indispensable statutes and ordinances which were part and parcel of the Theocratic Law of the Land. The next step, for which this disloyalty to their King prepared them, was the substituting of representative objects of worship in direct violation of one of the great commands in the Law. This aggravated departure from the Fountain of Wisdom and Goodness necessarily resulted in demoralization which in its re-action rendered them an easy conquest to the victorious Assyrian, who "plucked them up" out of the soil, transplanted them to the remote provinces of his dominion, and substituted in their stead a mingled colony from various parts of the Assyrian Empire. Hosea, a prophet of Samaria, and belonging to the Ten Tribes, had been commissioned to warn and admonish the transgressors before their expatriation; -- fearlessly did he declare the consequences which their disloyalty was preparing for them faithfully did he reproach their ingratitude to Him who had "been an Husband unto them" -- whose constant love and manifold gifts they had repaid with the basest wanderings of their heart and mind after the dumb vanities of the heathen. He is commanded to reprove and warn them by types and signs, religion having become in their minds confounded with visible representations and mediums. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. xvii An adulteress is summoned as the meet representative of their unfaithfulness. The prophet is instructed to call her first child Lo-Ruhama, signifying 'I will no longer have mercy.' The next was to be named Lo-Ammi, -- 'Ye are not my people.' But, as if three millenaries were a parenthesis -- "a little moment," it is added: -- "Yet shall the children of Israel be as the sand on the sea-shore which cannot be numbered nor measured; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said "Ye are not my people," 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 appoint themselves one Head, and they shall come up out of the land, for great shall be the Day of Jezreel." Their guilt is declared, their punishment is determined; but lest they should despair during that long season of banishment -- and lest the nations (whose term of probation it should become) might, in the apparent success and maturity of their schemes, be induced to presume, the entail of the covenant closely follows the sentence of temporary banishment. "She was unconscious that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied the silver and gold wherewith she fabricated Baal. I will destroy her vines and fig-trees, whereof she hath said, these are my rewards which my lovers hath given me." Yet, (centuries being anticipated) it is added, "Behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortingly unto her, and will give her from thence her vineyards, and the valley of trouble for a door of hope -- and she shall be disciplined there as in the days of her youth; and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. And in that day thou shalt call ME my Husband, and shalt no more call ME my Lord, for I will take away the name of Balaam (Lord's) out of her mouth, and they shall xviii PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. no more be remembered by their names: and I will betroth thee unto ME in faithfulness, and thou shalt know I am the LORD. And I will sow her unto ME in the Land, and I will have mercy upon her that had not received mercy, and I will say to those who were "not My people:" -- "My people," -- and they shall say "MY GOD." To the prophet it was again said, "Go still love a woman who is beloved of her friend yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love their grape offerings." While to her it was said, "Thou shalt abide for me many days * * * thou shalt not be for another -- so shall I also be for thee." For the children of Israel shall continue many days without King, without Ruler, without sacrifice, and without an image, and without Ephod, and without Teraphim: afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the LORD God, and David their King, and shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days." Notwithstanding that in rending themselves from the House of David, they might be said virtually to have disclaimed and renounced the Messiah to be born from thence: they are graciously assured of their being included in the beneficent result of that atonement which (in being rejected as a Prophet,) He should make as their substitute and surety, and in the mediation which He should effect as their Advocate and Intercessor: -- To which promise the prophet Isaiah thus responds, "All we like sheep have gone astray, and the LORD hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all." In harmony with this testimony, the Good Shepherd declares, "Them also I must briny, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one FOLD and one SHEPHERD." The adversary of the Messiah, having succeeded in tempting His degenerate people to forsake the Fountain of PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. xix Eternal goodness, in leading them to false objects of worship, and in bringing upon them all the evils which their defenceless condition involved, at length claimed them as the prey of death and the grave. But his dominion is invaded by their Champion, the power with which their transgression had armed him, is contested by that which the personal obedience of the Redeemer wields in their behalf; the armour wherein the enemy trusted is overcome, his plea is silenced, his claim is cancelled, his prey is released, himself is judged and condemned -- yet a little while, and his sentence shall be executed. The adversary contended with, and overcame those whom, as the deceiver his temptations had first seduced, and of whom he afterwards became the accuser; but now their Redeemer contends with that enemy; -- his power yields to the higher authority of their RIGHTEOUS representative, who in view of His incarnation and its glorious results, thus testifies; Shall the prey be wrested from the powerful, or the lawful captive delivered? Thus saith the LORD God, even the captives of the powerful shall be released, even the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: I will contend with him that contendeth with thee: I will redeem thy children -- I will ransom them from the power of death -- I will reclaim them from the grave. O death, I will be thy visitation! O grave, I will be thy destruction! Thus also are His redeemed taught to identify themselves in the personal death and resurrection of the Messiah. ''Come, let us return unto the LORD, He hath rent and will restore us; He hath smitten, and He will bind our wounds; after two days He will reanimate us, on the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His Presence. Then shall we know, in following on to know the LORD, that His going forth is prepared as the day-spring, and unto us shall He come as the latter, and as the former rain unto the Land." xx PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Thus were those who were afar off, by a NEW and LIVING way brought nigh -- even into the presence of their reconciled Father in the person of their risen Advocate and Intercessor, whose resurrection became the earnest and pledge of theirs. The miseries of exile, -- the powerless degradation of a scarcely tolerated existence among the adverse interests of hostile nations, had taught the outcasts of Israel a bitter but salutary lesson: -- that the 'vain devices,' on whom they had bestowed those affections of the heart which were due to their Creator and Saviour, could not help them in time of need. They now felt and acknowledged, that regard to these false objects had been the cause of all that calamity in which they were steeped: -- for now, they who had once been the freemen of no mean city, were cast forth dishonoured and powerless amongst the nations who treated with mockery and derision their forfeited preeminence. Under such circumstances, it were not wonderful to find them so cured of artificial substitutes, as to loathe the very sight of those idol rites to which their dwelling among the Assyrian idolaters subjected them; and that desirous of shunning all intercourse themselves, and anxious that their posterity should be out of the influence of this seducing and mortal sin which had brought upon them the fierce indignation of their constant Benefactor, that they should form the resolution of withdrawing from the neighbourhood of the Assyrian empire, to some seclusion to which they might be graciously directed in the prosecution of their penitent enterprise, -- for in their darkest season, hope still spake of future Promise. This is not suppositions; a valuable fragment of sacred history, and the last notice on record of the Ten Tribes after their expatriation is at once graphic and explicit. -- 2 Esdras xiii. 14. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. xxi The Assyrian empire is involved in an obscurity to which the change of the names of places has chiefly contributed. In the absence of intermediate historical lights, it becomes especially needful in the investigation of so grave a subject as that under review, to recur to those enduring land-marks and characteristics which have been preserved in that History, which amid the fluctuating experience of the kingdoms of this world remains unalterably the same. Two circumstances are to be noted as a key to succeeding events. The first is, that in the original division of territory, the whole of that through which the expatriated tribes passed on their migration to the New Continent, had been appointed to Asshur, the son of the patriarch Shem; although it had been subsequently invaded and usurped by Nimrod, the son of Cush. Hence the Assyrian empire, from having originally received the name of Asshur, retained that name; although it is also made mention of as Cush, which is generally translated Ethiopia. It appears that the Assyrian empire was of short duration after the reign of Esar-haddon; and that a great portion of the Hebrews continued to sojourn in the provinces of Media Persia, and Tartary. The first invasion of the Assyrian monarch Tiglath-pileser, was B.C. 740; by him the inhabitants of Gallilee -- the tribes of Reuben, Naphtali, Gad, and the half tribe of Manassah were made captive, and carried to the provinces of Media. The second invasion by Shalmanezer, was nineteen years afterwards, and this captivity, like the former, was placed in Halah and Habor, by the river Gozan. The third conquest, that of Samaria, was by Esar-haddon, B.C. 678, in which the remainder of the Ten Tribes, with the exception, according to Josephus, of about 600, were carried into the land of Assyria, and it is probable that these last exiles smarting under recent infliction, xxii PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. and not as those who had preceded them in any respect, attached by domestic ties to the soil, formed that body which came to the determination of "leaving the multitude of the heathen to go into a remote country wherein never had mankind dwelt that they might there keep their statutes which they had never observed in their own Land, and there was a great way to go, namely a year and a half, and that region is called Arsareth" (Armenia.) Doctor Elias Boudinot thus writes. "The country into which the Ten Tribes were thus transplanted, was very thinly inhabited and extended farther north than we have any idea of. Those captive Israelites must have greatly increased in numbers before their migration more northward and westward; this is confirmed by the names of cities which to this day bear the names of their founders. Samarcand plainly derived from Samaria; they have a city on a hill called Mount Tabor. A city built on the river Ardon, is named Jericho, which river runs near the Caspian sea upon the north east. There are two cities called Chorazin, the great and the less. The Tartar chiefs are called Morsoyes which closely resembles Moses. The Tartars boast their descent from the Israelites, and the famous Tamerlane, [1] (or Timur,) took a pride in declaring that he descended from the tribe of Dan. Vide note in p 162, Star of the West. The author of Historical Researches has traced many remarkable analogies between the Mogul and Tartar tribes, and those of the Western hemisphere; with respect to the conquests of the Mogul, he observes, 'All the continent of __________ 1 The author of Hist. Resear. p. 12, gives from Timour's Institutes, the following characteristic sentiment: 'If the canopy of heaven were a bow, and the earth the cord thereof; and if calamities were the arrows, and if Almighty God, -- the tremendous and the glorious, were the unerring archer, to whom would the sons of Adam flee for protection? The sons of Adam must flee unto the LORD.' PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. xxiii Asia, except Hindostan and Arabia, was subdued in 1280, (Hindostan was invaded by Timour, but not possessed by the Moguls till 1025); he adds, we must fully acquiesce in the truth of the remark of the eloquent Gibbon, that the rapid conquests of the Moguls and Tartars, may be compared with the primitive convulsions of nature, which have agitated and altered the surface of the globe.' Josephus, the Historian, makes mention of the Ten Tribes as then being 'somewhere beyond the Euphrates;' and calls them Adiabaniens. [1] Other Jewish historians relate that they were carried, not only into Media and Persia, but into 'the northern countries beyond the Bosphorus.' Ortelius speaks of them as being in Tartary. Herodotus affirms that the Scythians, (whom Bryant supposed derived their name from Cush or Cutha,) conquered the Empire of Media, in Upper Asia, soon after the expulsion of the last portion of the Ten Tribes from Palestine. Herodotus, lib. i. c. 157. Prideaux, i. 25-356. Scythia was the ancient name given to Tartary, which extended from the mouth of the Obey in Russia, to the Dnipier, from thence to the Euxine sea -- thence along the foot of Mount Caucasus, by the rivers Kur and Aras, to the Caspian Sea -- thence by the White mountains, including part of Russia, with the districts that lie between the frozen and Japan seas. [2] Sir William Jones, Disser. vol. i. p. 142, &c. __________ 1 From the mouth of the Danube, to the sea of Japan, the whole longitude of Scythia is about one hundred and ten degrees, which in that parallel are equal to zzz1 The river Lyens, which runs a little west of Hala, was anciently called Zeba, or Diava, by Ammianus, which signifies a wolf; whence this portion of Assyria was called Adiabane, and the river Lyens was called sometime Ahavah, (love) or Adiabane. It may cast some light on this subject to know that Josephus, in his Antiquities, book xx. chap. v. says, that Helena, queen of Adiabane, who had embraced the Jewish religion, sent some of her servants to Alexandria, to buy a great quantity of corn; and others of them to Cyprus, to buy a cargo of dried figs, which she distributed to the Jews that were in want. This was in the time of the famine, mentioned by Agabus, Acts xi. 28, and took place in A. D. 47, or thereabouts. This shows that there were many Jews in that country. 2 From the mouth of the Danube, to the sea of Japan, the whole longitude of Scythia is about one hundred and ten degrees, which in that parallel are equal to xxiv PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. "The Caspian or Circasian Straits, through the mountain of Caucasus, lies about midway between the Euxine sea to the west, and the Caspian sea to the east, through Iberia. After passing through the Strait on the north, keeping a little westward, you pass on in the neighbourhood of the Euxine Sea through Armenia Minor, into Syria Proper, and by the head of the Mediterranean Sea to Palestine, without crossing the Euphrates. But all who are in Persia, in Armenia Major, and in the eastward of Mesopotamia and beyond Babylon, must pass the Euphrates to get there." -- Star in the West, page 167. Giles Fletcher, LL.D. in his treatise, printed in 1667, observes: -- "as for two of these Colonies of the Samaritan Israelites, carried off by Salmanassar, which were placed in Harak [1] and Harbor, they bordered both on the Medians (where the others were ordered on the north and north-east of the Caspian Sea, a barren country.) So that those tribes might easily meet and join together when opportunity served their turn, which happened unto them not long after, when all the provinces of Media, Chaldaran, and Mesopotamia with their rulers, Merodach, and Baladan, and Dejoces, called in Scripture Arphaxad, by desertion fell away from the Assyrians in the tenth year of Esar-haddon, and that these tribes did not long after re-unite themselves and join in one nation." Doctor Boudinot observes, "They __________ five thousand miles. The latitude reaches from the fortieth degree, which touches the wall of China above one thousand miles northward to the frozen regions of Siberia. -- Robertson's View of the Progress of Society in Europe, p. 335. 1 "Harrah, or as it is called by some, Hara, which in Hebrew signifies bitter, is the root from whence it is used to signify a mountainous tract, and thus gave that name to the country north of Assyria, near to Media, which perhaps ran through it. On the north of this tract runs the river Araxis, now called Aras. Obarius, 296. Obarius, on whom much dependence may be placed, describes the source of the river Araxis to be ill the mountains of Ararat, of Armenia, so that Harah is no other than the province of Iran, situate between the rivers Charboras or Araxis, as it is called in the Anabasis of Xenophon and Cyrus, now called Aras and Kur." Star in the West. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. xxv must have known the success of the Scythians, then the Medes, and then the Persians under Cyrus, which was followed by the easy conquest of the whole of Media and Persia, as Herodotus has shewn in his history, and by which they must have been encouraged in so important a business. The power of the kingdom was also comparatively weak, at so great a distance from the capital, and distracted with political cabals and insurrections against Astigages, who reigned over both Media and Persia, and who was conquered by his grandson Cyrus. And it is not improbable but that a removal more north, by which such restless subjects would leave their improvements and real property to the other inhabitants, and extend the territory of their governors, would not have been disagreeable either to the princes or people of that country. Again, "the usual route from the Euxine sea to the northward of the Caspian sea, through Tartary and Scythia, to Serica and the northern parts of China, by which the merchants carried on a great trade, might enable the tribes to travel northward and eastward, towards Kamschatka. At least this is the assertion of that able geographer D'Anville, in his ancient geography, written before the late discoveries of Cook and others." -- Vol. ii. p. 521--523. "But the most minute and last account we have of them, is in the thirteenth chapter of the second book of Esdras." "These Israelites, then, accordingly executed their purpose, and left their place of banishment in a body, although it is hardly to be doubted but some, comparatively few, from various motives, as before observed, remained behind; although their places may have been filled up by many natives, who might prefer taking their chance with them in their emigrations, which were common to the people xxvi PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. of that region, especially the old inhabitants of Damascus removed to the river Ker by Tiglath Pilezer, some time before the taking of Samaria, and the removal of the ten tribes. They proceeded till they came to a great water or river, which stopped their progress, as they had no artificial means of passing it, and reduced them to great distress and almost despair. How long they remained here, cannot now be known; but finally, God again appeared for them, as he had done for their fathers of old at the Red Sea, by giving them some token of His presence, and encouraging them to go on; thus countenancing them in their project of forsaking the heathen." Star in the West. The Historical Records of the transatlantic people are to authenticate this migration through Asia, as well as the expectation of a Redeemer, and that redemption of their bodies, from the power of the grave, which the prophets ascribe to Him, and which was the Hope of Israel. The events which are to fulfil this expectation being represented as simultaneous, and at the close of 'the times of the gentiles,' -- or end of the existing world or age, the following extracts from this page of future history, come home with all the weight and power of that Truth to which all must sooner or later - - willingly or unwillingly bow. The deliverance from Egypt was altogether prefigurative of that ultimate redemption, which at His second coming, shall crown the travail of the Messiah's soul; hence it is said, "Behold the days come when it shall no more be said, the LORD liveth who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt; but the LORD liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the Land of the north; and from all the lands whither he had driven them; and I will bring them unto their own Land, that I gave to their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishers, and they shall fish them; and PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. xxvii for many hunters, and they shall hunt them; * * * Therefore I will make them to know at that time -- I will cause them to know Mine hand and My power, and they shall know that My Name is JEHOVAH." "Remember not the former doings, neither revolve the acts of old times, Behold, I will do a new thing; now shall it begin -- and shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and give rivers in the desert. The wild beasts shall reverence Me, the ostrich, and the daughters of the owl, because I give water-springs in the wilderness, and streams in the desert to refresh My people. My chosen. This people I have formed for Myself, they shall manifest My glory." The prophet Ezekiel thus characterises the same place and people. "As I live, saith the Lord God, assuredly with a strong hand and an extended arm, and with ardent zeal will I govern you, and I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you out from the countries wherein ye are scattered, and I will bring you unto the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face, like as I pleaded with your ancestors in the wilderness of the land of Egypt; thus will I admonish you, saith the Lord God, and I will cause you to pass under the rod, and will bring you under the obligation (fetter) of the covenant; and I will purge out from among you the rebellious, and those who transgress against Me. I will bring them forth out of the countries where they sojourn; and they shall not enter into the Land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am YEHOVAH." The prophet Hosea testifies to the same prospective experience. "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortingly unto her, and will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of tribulation for a door of Hope; and she shall be taught there, xxviii PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. as in the days of her youth, as in the days when I brought her up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be in that Day, saith the Lord, thou shalt call Me my Husband, and shalt no more call me my Lord. And I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in justice, and in loving- kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the LORD." "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall smite off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. And that day the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship YEHOVAH in the holy mountain at Jerusalem." On this passage much additional light is reflected by the words of the Divine prophet. "And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His chosen from the four winds, from one extreme under Heaven to the other." The generation which should live to see the first symptoms of returning life in the long dormant vine of Israel, and fig-tree of Judah, shall also see its fruition. "This generation," (said He of those who shall see these things begin to come to pass,) "shall not pass away till all be accomplished." "And God said unto Jacob, arise and go to Bethel, and sojourn there; and build there an altar unto God, who appeared unto thee when thou didst flee from the face of thy brother." "The Land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the Land." In blessing the two sons of Joseph, Israel thus testified of their prospective inheritance." God Almighty, who appeared unto me in Luz, in the land of Canaan, blessed me, and said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. xxix and multiply thee, and will make of thee a multitude of nations, and will give this Land unto thy seed after thee, for an everlasting possession; and now thy two sons Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born unto thee in Egypt before I came thither unto thee, shall be mine -- as Reuben [1] and Simeon shall they be to me." "And he blessed Joseph and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk -- the God who sustained me all my life unto this day -- the angel who redeemed me from all evil, bless the youths, and let my name be named upon them, and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them increase into a multitude in the midst of the earth. Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I won out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my Bow." The portion to which allusion is here made, was prospective, even as the weapons are emblematical of that faith by which Israel laid hold of the Word of God, and that prayer by which he appropriated His promises. In the blessing which the dying patriarch gave to Joseph, the same Bow is alluded to in the hand of Joseph. "Joseph is a fruitful branch, a fruitful branch to look upon, whose off-shoots extend over the wall; with bitter pride they (the adversaries) shot at him, but his Bow abode in strength; and the power of his hands continued strong by the hands (oversight) of the Omnipotent of Israel, from whom is the Shepherd, the Gem of Israel -- even by the God of thy fathers, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty who shall bless thee with the blessings of Heaven above, -- the blessings of the abyss that lieth under -- the blessing of the fields and of the womb. The blessings of thy father have prevailed unto the utmost __________ 1 The portion of the first born (a double portion) having been forfeited by Reuben, was given to the tribe of Ephraim. xxx PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. bounds of the enduring mountains, they shall continue on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the separated from his brethren." Moses prospectively characterizes the tribe of Ephraim in his blessing upon Joseph, in language almost identical; "And of Joseph, he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land for the precious gifts of Heaven, for the dew and for the void place (abyss) that coucheth beneath. For the precious gifts brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon; and for the chief things of the enduring mountains and for the precious things of the eternal high places; for the precious things of the earth in its fulness, -- His favour that dwelt in the thorn-bush continues on the head of Joseph: and on the crown of the separated from his brethren." This language is peculiarly significant, when it is recollected that Ephraim was the crowned head, to whom, in its extension, the blessing was directed. The secluded tribes are by the prophet Isaiah thus graphically characterized: Ho! to the land of quivering wings, which is beyond the river of Cush, that sendeth messengers by sea, in light vessels upon the face of the waters, saying, Go ye swift messengers to an extended nation, whose land has been meted out and trodden under foot -- to a people terrible before and since -- a people of strength, meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers [1] have invaded: [2] All the dwellers upon earth, and the inhabitants of the land when He lifteth up a signal upon the mountains 'behold,' and when He bloweth the trumpet 'listen,' for thus the LORD said to me. I will remain quiet (be inactive.) I will observe in My dwelling place in still warmth, (serene heat) __________ 1 [Hebrew word] used metaphorically of the confluence and inundation of nations. 2 root is booty, or prey, PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. xxxi as the Light at a threshold, [1] and as the dew upon the harvest field; for before the harvest when the blossom is full, and the embryo grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the twigs with knives, and lop off the branches. They shall be left together, unto the fowls of the mountain, and to the ravening beasts of the earth; the fowls shall harvest upon them, and the beast of the earth shall winter upon them. At that time shall be brought to the LORD of hosts as a costly present; a people terrible and far removed -- a nation meted out and trampled under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the appointed Place, to the Land of the dwelling Place of the Name of the LORD of hosts, the Mount Zion.' Isaiah xviii. The image of quivering or fluttering wings, seems to be descriptive of the expecting attitude of the people to whom the allusion is made; as doves plume and put in motion their pinions preparatory to an expected flight; in this beautiful attitude they are also characterized by David. 'Although ye have been hid in the stalls (places in the suburbs where sacrificial victims were penned) as the wings of a dove, radiant as silver, and gleaming as gold, shall ye come forth.' This applies to the identical period and event, of which Mount Zion shall be the scene. 'Wherefore do ye contend, ye high mountains? This is the Mountain in which God desireth to dwell, yea, Yehovah shall dwell there for ever.' 'The LORD said, I will bring again My people from Bashan, I will bring also from the seclusion beyond sea.' 'Princes shall come forth from Egypt, Cush shall speedily stretch forth her hands unto God.' Psalm Ixviii. 13, 22, 31. The prophet Isaiah adopts the same imagery, "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as doves to their windows? __________ 1 [Hebrew word] an architectural expression -- the colonnade or entrance to a Temple. xxxii PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Surely the islands shall attend upon Me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them, unto the Name of YEHOVAH thy God, and unto the Holy Israelite, for He hath glorified thee," Isaiah Ix. 8, 9. "In that Day there shall be a Branch from the Root of Jesse, to Him shall the nations seek, and His liest shall be glorious. And it shall be in that Day, that the LORD shall put to His Hand a second time to Redeem the remnant of His people which shall remain, from Assyria, and from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He shall set up a standard for the nations, and He shall assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four extremes (wings) of the earth." "And the Lord shall utterly cut off the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and with a mighty wind shall He shake His Hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and men shall walk over in their shoes, and there shall be an high-way for the remnant of His people which shall be left from Assyria, like as there was to Israel in the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt." Isaiah xi. It is to be noted that during his natural life, Abraham possessed only one field which he purchased of the sons of Heth: -- and yet it was said to Abraham, I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the Land wherein thou art a stranger -- all the Land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God." Gen. xvii. 8. Accordingly, when Sarah died, Abraham stood up from before his dead, and thus spake to the sons of Heth. "I am a stranger and sojourner with you, give me possession of a burying-place with you that I may bury my dead out of my sight." The martyr Stephen is peculiarly explicit respecting the PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. xxxiii prospective inheritance: "He gave him (Abraham) none inheritance in it -- no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet He promised that He would give it to him for an inheritance. and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child." Acts vii. 5. Jacob had also only one field in the Land wherein he was a stranger, which he purchased from the sons of Hamor, and which is thus recognized in after times, "Then cometh he to a city of Samaria (Sychar) near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph -- now Jacob's well was there." In like manner, as a memorial or pledge of future possession at the very time when Jerusalem was besieged by the king of Babylon, and when Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the king's prison, because of the faithfulness of his testimony -- even then, although he should never return from that captivity, he was commanded to purchase a field. The prophet was amazed at the command: until Hanameel offered to sell him the field, the right of redemption being his. "Then I knew that it was the Word of the LORD, and I bought the field of Hanameel that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, seventeen shekels of silver; and I subscribed the evidence, and took witnesses, and weighed the money in the balances; and I took the evidence of the purchase, us well that which was sealed as that which was open." "Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Take these evidences of the purchase, as well that which is sealed, as that which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days. For thus saith the LORD of hosts, Houses, and fields, and vineyards shall be repossessed in this Land." Jeremiah thus despondingly pleads: "Behold the engines xxxiv PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. are brought unto the city, and the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans, who fight against it in the midst of sword and famine and pestilence, and what thou hast said has come to pass, and Thou beholdest! -- yet, O LORD God, thou hast said to me, Buy thee a field for money, and take witnesses, although the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans. Then came the Word of the LORD to Jeremiah, saying, Behold I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: Is there anything too hard for Me? * * * "Behold I will gather them out of all countries whither I have driven them in mine anger and in mine indignation: and I will bring them again unto THIS PLACE, and will cause them to dwell securely; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God; and I will give them one heart and one WAY, that they may reverence ME constantly for the good of them, and of their children after them, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them in stability, to endure for their good; and I will put My fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from Me; yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this LAND of a truth with My whole heart and with My whole soul. For thus saith the LORD, Even as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them; and fields shall be bought in this LAND (whereof ye say it is desolate without man and beast, it is given unto the hands of the Chaldeans) men shall buy fields for money and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witness in all the places around Jerusalem, for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the LORD." Jeremiah xxii. In like manner it was said to Daniel, 'Go thy way and repose till the end, for thou shalt stand up in thy lot at the end of the days. The call again is to the land of wings. Ho! PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. xxxv Ho! fly from the land of the north, for, saith the LORD, I have spread you abroad as the four winds of Heaven, saith the LORD. Save yourselves from the daughter of Babel, for thus saith the LORD of Hosts, after the glory, He sendeth me to the nations which spoiled you, for they that injure you, touch the apple of His eyes. For behold, I will shake Mine hand upon them, and they shall be for a spoil to their servants, and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent Me. Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for behold I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD, and many nations shall become united to YEHOVAH in that day, and shall be My people; and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent Me unto thee. And the LORD shall inherit JUDAH His portion in the Holy Land, and shall again choose JERUSALEM. Be still, O all flesh before the LORD, for He is roused from His Habitation of Holiness. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout O daughter of Jerusalem, behold thy King cometh unto thee, just and gracious, humbly carried upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will take away the war chariot from Ephraim, and the war-horse from Jerusalem, and the battle- bow shall be unstrung, and he shall speak peace to the nations, and His dominion shall be from sea to sea, from the river (Euphrates) to the ends of the earth: -- as for thee also, whose covenant is by blood, I have released thy prisoners from the abyss wherein is no water. Turn you to the strong hold, ye captives of Hope, even in this day do I declare that I will render precious gifts double unto thee. When I have bent Judah for Me, and filled My Bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the warriors' sword, and the LORD shall be seen over them, and His arrow shall go forth xxxvi PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. as lightning, and the LORD God shall sound the trumpet (of Jubilee,) and shall go amid whirlwinds of the south. And the LORD God shall save thee in that Day, even the flock of His people, for they shall be as the gems of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon His Land. I will strengthen the House of Judah, and I will redeem the House of Joseph, and I will bring them to establish them, for I have mercy upon them, and they shall be as though I had not banished them; for I am the LORD their God, and will hear them. And they of Ephraim shall be conquerors, their heart shall rejoice as with wine; yea, their children shall see it and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the LORD. I will hiss to them and gather them, for I have redeemed them, and they shall increase as they have increased, and I will sow them in peoples, and they shall remember me in far countries, and they shall live, and with their children, return again. And I will bring them a second time out of the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria, and I will bring them unto the country of Gilead and Lebanon, and place shall not be found for them. And he shall pass through the waters with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river (Euphrates) shall be dried up; and the pride of Assyria shall be humbled, and the dominion of Egypt shall cease, and I will strengthen them in the LORD, they shall walk hither and thither in His Name, saith Yehovah." The preceding considerations teach us to expect that the sons of Joseph have become in their seclusion as the countless stars, 'a multitude of nations,' not only on the earth, but expecting (in the place of separate spirits,) the voice which shall restore to them at once their redeemed bodies and inheritance. They who are alive and remain at the coming of the LORD, (whose voice shall call forth the prisoners of PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. xxxvii hope from their concealment,) shall not prevent those who are asleep. Such as (like the Sadducees of old,) have explained away to a shadowy abstraction the resurrection of the body can form a very inadequate idea of the substance and locality which this most heart-cheering truth afforded to Abraham, and the heirs of those promises which in their redeemed bodies should be fulfilled to them. They did not view the age or world to come, as invisible in the sense of being immaterial and impalpable; to their mind it was invisible only in the manner that the celestial luminaries are so, when for a season hid by the intervention of dense clouds and smoke. Their faith supplied the place of vision, for they knew that in reality and substance, a KINGDOM and KING were in reserve, and should visibly appear when the Roman Empire (the last of the four interposing Monarchies) shall have, like those which it supplanted, in turn become the subject of that dissolution to which all that is in opposition to the Law of God is destined. Again, to Jacob the promised Land was confirmed, when the LORD appeared as the Head of that mystic ladder, which resting upon earth should, (as a type of the Messiah,) become the medium of restored communion between Heaven and earth, "I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and of Isaac -- the Land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed, and thine offspring shall be as the dust of the ground, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee, and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold I am with thee, and will preserve thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again to this Land, for I will not forsake thee until I have accomplished that which I have declared." A series of ages having elapsed, the house of Israel is described as tacitly saying, xxxviii PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. "behold our bones are dead, and our hope is gone, for we are cut off from our parts." "Thus saith the LORD God, Behold, O My people, I will open your graves, and bring you unto the LAND of Israel; and ye shall know that I am YEHOVAH, When I have opened your graves, O My people, and have redeemed you out of your graves; and shall put My Spirit within you, and ye shall live, and I shall restore you to your own Land: then ye shall know that I the LORD have spoken and performed, saith the LORD." David beautifully compares this resurrection-Day to the dew of the morning: "From the womb of the morning shall appear the dew of thy bringing-forth." It should be determined what is the nature of redeemed existence -- of incorruptible and glorious bodies, before it is asked how the limits of the promised Land can contain the myriads who shall make good the promises there for a Thousand yours, before a still progressive state is entered upon. Upon Mount Zion alone were prospectively seen, 144,000 of the Twelve Tribes, and with them a great multitude of those from among the Gentiles who had chosen the better portion -- thus having been made meet for the inheritance of the holy ones in Light. Revelation vii. The Prophet Isaiah testifies to this comforting Truth which the characterizes as "The Hope" of Israel. Acts xxvi. 6. "Thou hast increased the nation O LORD, thou art glorified! LORD, in trouble they have besought thee, they poured out a secret prayer when Thy chastening was upon them." Thy dead shall revive -- with My dead body shall they arise. Awake, rejoicing, ye that dwell in the dust; for as the dew to the light, so is thy dew, for the earth shall yield up the preserved (praying). And it shall come to pass in that Day, the Lord shall smite off 'from the channel of the river (Euphrates) unto the river of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. xxxix by one, O ye children of Israel, and in that Day the great (Jubilee) trumpet shall be sounded, and they shall come who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt and shall worship the LORD in the holy Mountain at Jerusalem. Of this grand ultimate convocation, the Apostle Paul thus speaks: "Now we entreat you, brethren, by the coming of our LORD Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him." * * * "The LORD Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first." It was by His bodily restoration to renewed life that the promises to the fathers became confirmed, His reanimated body being the earnest and pledge of those of His redeemed. Hence His rejection in His office of Prophet by that remnant of the two tribes (which remained after the building of the second Temple,) constituted Him the atonement for the whole -- whether present or absent, as also in design for the whole world. It was of the result which His atonement should accomplish, that the Great Shepherd of the flock thus spake: "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring (again) and they shall hear My voice" (as Lazarus had heard it) "and there shall be one Fold and one Shepherd." The prophet Ezekiel gives this piece of future history in detail: "Thus saith the LORD God, Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whither they are gone and will gather them on all sides, and bring them into their own LAND; and I will make them one nation in the LAND upon the mountains of Israel; and one King shall be King to them all; they shall no more be two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more for ever; xl PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; for I will redeem them out of their dwelling-places wherein they have sinned, and will purify them; so shall they be My people, and I will be their God, and David My servant shall be King over them, and they shall all have one Shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes and do them; and they shall dwell in the Land that I have given unto Jacob My servant, wherein your fathers have sojourned, and they dwell therein they and their children's children for ever; and My servant David shall be their Prince for evermore. My Tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be My people; and the nations shall know that I, JEHOVAH, do sanctify Israel, when MY SANCTUARY shall be in the midst of them for ever." |