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45 JEHOVAH their God. But I will for their fakes + remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the fight of the heathen, that I might be their God I am Jehovali.

Here we have a promife of not abhorring or ut terly deftroying them; but of remembering the covenant which the Lord made with their ancestors, &c. Now the purport of this covenant we find, Gen. xiii. 14. And the Lord faid unto Abram, Lift up thine eyes, and look from the placé where thou art, northward and fouthward, and eastward and weftward; for all the land that thou feeft to thee will I give it, and to thy feed FOR EVER.

Now how this covenant can be faid to be remembered, if Ifrael is to continue difperfed, and to be for ever excluded from the land here spoken of, is what I can by no means conceive. As to the return from the Babylonish captivity, it will not at all answer the intent of the promife. Because the being restored to their own land for a few ages, and afterwards for near four times as

So it ought to be tranflated, not only here, but in all other places of the Old Teftament, where the fame word oc curs; Jehovah being the proper name which God had af fumed to be diftinguished by from all other lords and gods.

The words, their fakes, hère mean the fakes of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, mentioned ver. 42. Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Ifaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I rememberi and I will remember the land.

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long a period being dispersed among all nations, without any hopes of a return, can never be the true meaning of giving that land to the feed of Abram for ever *.

II.

DEUT. iv. 27. And the Lord fhall scatter you 29 among the nations, &c. But if from thence thou fhalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy 30 foul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and fhalt be obedi 31 ent to his voice: (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God) he will not forfake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which he sware unto them.

This

* I cannot here pafs by an explication of this text, Gen. xiii. 15. by the learned Mr. MEDE, in his anfwer to Dr. Twiss's fourth letter.

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I doubt not but you have felt fome fcruple (as well as ⚫ others) at our Saviour's demonftration of the resurrection in the gospel, Mat. xxii. Mark xii. God faid to Mofes in the bufh, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Ergo, Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob muft one day • rise again from the dead. How does this conclufion follow? Do not the fpirits of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob yet live? God fhould then be the God of the living, though ⚫ their bodies should never rife again. Therefore fome So• cinians argue from this place, that the fpirits of the juft lie in the fleep of death until the refurrection. Or might not the Sadducees have replied, the meaning to be of what God had been, not of what he should be, viz. That he was that

• God

This Prophecy, as appears by ver. 30. relates to the latter days, which in fcripture always fig. nify the times after the coming of Christ; and, therefore, cannot be applied to the return from the Babylonish captivity.

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III.

DEUT. XXX. I. And it fhall come to pass when all these things come upon thee, the bleffing and the curfe that I have fet before thee, and thou fhalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither

• God who had once chosen their fathers, and made a covenant with them; I am the God that brought Abraham out of Chaldee, who appeared to Ifaac and Jacob whilst they lived, &c. But how would this then make for the refurrection? "Surely it doth. He that could not err faid it. Let us, therefore, fee how it may.

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I fay, therefore, the words must be understood, with " fupply of that they have reference to; which is the covenant which the Lord made with Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob; in refpect whereof he calls himself their God. This covenant was to give unto them, and to their feed, the land where

in they were strangers: (mark it) Not to their feed, or offSprings only, but to themselves. Vide Loca.

8.

To Abraham, Gen. xiii. 15. xv. 7. & xvii. 8. To Ifaac, xxvi. 3. To Jacob, xxxv. 12. To all three, Exod. vi. 4, Deut. i. 8. and xi. 21. and xxx. 20. If God then make good to Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob this his covenant, whereby he undertook to be their God, then they must needs one day live again to inherit the promised land, which hitherto they have not done. For the God that thus covenanted with them, covenanted not to make his promise good to them dead, but living. This is the ftrength of the divine argument, and irrefragable; which otherwife would not • infer any fuch conclufion.'

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3

2 the Lord thy God hath driven thee, And fhalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice, according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all thy foul: That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compaffion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered 4 thee. If any of thine be driven out to the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee, 5 And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers poffeffed, and thou fhalt poffefs it and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.

Amongst the things which fhould come upon them, which are defcribed at large in the two preceding chapters, it is particularly said, ver. 64. chap. xxviii. And the Lord fhall fcatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other. Therefore this captivity, from which the Lord will bring them back, cannot be the Babylonian, during which, they were very far from being scattered among all people from one end of the earth to the other. Obferve farther, ver. 5. that the Lord promises to do them good, and to multiply them above their fathers; which laft circumstance does not appear to have been their case, during the time that they poffeffed their land, after the return from Babylon.

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THE next Prophecy in order of time, wherein we meet with any thing that evidently relates to the restoration of Ifrael, is that of 70 EL, who began to prophefy to the kingdom of Judah about 800 years before Chrift.

IV.

JOEL ii. 18. Then will the Lord be jealous for 19 his land, and pity his people. Yea, the Lord will anfwer, and fay unto his people, Behold, I will fend you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye fhall be fatisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a 20 reproach among the heathen. But will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him. into a land barren and defolate, with his face toward the east fea, and his hinder part toward the utmoft fea; and his ftink fhall come up, 21 cause he hath done great things. Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do 25 great things. And I will reftore to you the

be

ears that the locuft hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great 26 army which I fent among you. And ye fhall eat

in plenty and be fatisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with 27 you and my people fhall never be ashamed. And ye fhall know that I am in the midft of Ifrael, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people fhall never be afhamed..

Chap. iii. 1. For behold in those days, and in that time, when I fhall bring again the captivity of 2 Judah and Jerufalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehohaphat, and will plead with them there for my B 4 people,

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