fucceeding generations, and furnifh authentic, rare and valuable history, which will inftruct, entertain and edify them, and preach to the people who fhall hereafter be born. In these views, the writer rejoices infuch a publication; and he returns you, Reverend gentlemen, his warmeft thanks for your undertaking and labors. You may depend on his exertions, influence and prayers for its fuccefs. From his own views and feelings he judges of what are thofe of others, and perfuades himself, that it is an acceptable work, and that you have the thanks, and will be fupported by the prayers of the numerous good people of the country. The publication of the magazine will indeed be laborious, de, The Magazine will most proba bly have an extenfive circulation, and inftruct and benefit many of our citizens. It has been already read and will continue to be read in religious meetings and conferences. Those who read it will converse of it to others; one pious friend will hand it to another, and thus its ufefulness will become more and more extenfive. The intelligence it contains will not be confined to Connecticut, to the U. .States, nor to America; but will be tranfported to Europe and there probably be republished. This intelligence will inftruct, comfort and animate our christian brethren in the various and diftant countries of Chriftendom, acquaint them with our religion, the state of our churches, with the gracious vifitations and revivals which they have experi-manding great care and attention; enced, intereft them in our fpiritual welfare, and cause them to give us a remembrance in their prayers. It will not only extensively anfwer the noble purpofes which have been mentioned, but its influ-ries of charitable exertions, inence and utility will be lafting. It will furnish volumes of various, interesting inftruction and entertainment in future times, exhibit ing the religion, tafte, and zeal of the churches and Chriftians of the prefent age, and their exertions in the cause of their common Lord. It will equally atteft his love and faithfulness towards them, his gracious vifitations of them, and care over them, at this demoralizing, tumultuous and wonderful period. It may ferve to give the holy ones, in the millennium, communion with their preceding brethren, and joy in the various fteps and labors, which, in the wifdom of provi. dence, prepared and led the way to that glorious period. It will tranfmit the pious labors and char itable example of the writers to but its favorable reception, the confideration of its important tendendency; that you are preaching, and will continue to preach to thoufands; that your labors are a fe creafing funds defigned for truly benevolent and apoftolical purpofes; the prayers and thanks of your pious brethren; and especially, the teftimony of your confciences and the profpects of the divine approbation will amply fupport you. The pleasure and profit which it is prefumed your readers will experience in perufing the Magazine, its ufefulness in their families, and general tendency to ferve the best purpofes, will induce them as they do me, cheerfully to pay the fmall fum neceflary for its fupport. This particular circumstance, that it is a kind of charity, defigned, for the good of their neighbours, whom it behoves them to love as themselves, like a divine fragrance, will perfume the whole, and afford an additional fatisfaction to the piousand liberal reader. How That the land of Canaan will will he rejoice in the profpect that be restored to the Jews has been what he gives may be the means of argued by some, from the promthe inftruction, joy and falvation ife which the Lord made to Abraof his brethren in the new fettle-ham, in Genefis xvii. 8. “I will ments, and of the illumination and give unto thee, and to thy feed afeternal life of his wild and perifhter thee, the land wherein thou ing brothers of the foreft! Elpe-art a ftranger, all the land of Cacially that it may honor Him, who by all creatures, and in all things, is worthy to be glorified. A. Z. naan, for an everlafting poffeffion." But not to dwell on this, the reader is requested to attend to feveral paffages recorded in the writings of the prophets. Ezekiel, Thoughts on the future glory of the who began to prophecy in the fifth HA Jewish Nation. year of king Jehoiachin's captivi- [Continued from p 94] AVING briefly confidered the fcriptural evidence of the converfion of the Jews to the faith of the gospel, I proceed to inquire whether it appears from the prophecies that they will return to the land of Canaan, or Palestine. -Chriftian divines have been of oppofite opinions on this fubject. It is propofed to bring into view feveral paffages from the infpired writings, which it is conceived, furnish proof that the Jewish nation will, not only receive Jefus of Nazareth as the true Meffiah, but will again inhabit the land from which they were driven, after their city and temple were deftroyed by the Romans. Long have the Jews been "fcat-out from the people, and gather tered among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other." Amidst their difperfion they remain a diftinct people to this day. Their cafe is without a parallel in the hiftory of mankind. It furnishes ftriking proof of the truth and infpiration of the Bible. Should they return to the land which was given to their fathers, and continue to pof fefs it, the arm of Jehovah will be made bare in a wonderful manner, in the eyes of all the nations. them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Ifrael by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Ifrael fhall their fold be; there hall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pafture fhall they feed upon the mountains of Ifrael." Jewish and Chriftian writers agree that this prophecy points to fome return of the Ifraelites to the land of C verfe 21ft to the end of the chap ter. "Thus faith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Ifrael from among the Heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every fide, and will bring them into their own nation in the land upon the moun. tains of Ifrael, and one king fhall be king to them all and they fhall be no more two nations, neither : all they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all; neither fhall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their deteftable things, nor with any of their tranfgreffions: but I will fave them out of all their dwelling-places, wherein they have naan; and that it was accomplish- | ple, and to fay unto them, as from ed, in full, or in part, by the ref toration which was begun under Zerubbabel. The inquiry is, was this prophecy fully accomplished in the return from Babylon? That it was not, may be proved from what follows in the fame chapter, particularly in verfes 28, 29-land: And I will make them one And they fhall no more be a prey to the Heathen, neither fhall the beafts of the land devour them: but they fhall dwell fafely, and none fhall make them afraid. And I will raise up for them a Plant of renown, and they fhall be no more confumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the fhame of the Heathen any more." After the return of the Jews, fpoken of in this place, they are no more to be a prey to the Heathen, or the Gen-finned, and will cleanse them; fo tile nations they are not to bear fhall they be my people, and I the fhame of the Heathen any will be their God. And David This prophecy remains to my fervant fhall be king over be accomplished in its fulleft ex-them; and they all shall have one tent. Since the return of the Jews in the days of Ezra, they have been difperfed among the Heathen, or the Gentiles far beyond what they had been in any former period; the time is therefore ftill future, in which an end is to be put to their difperfion, or to their bearing the fhame of the Heathen. more. That the Jews are to be ingathered in the fenfe now contended for, is further apparent from Ezekiel xxxvii. The prophet is commanded to take one ftick and to write upon it, "For Judah, and for the children of Ifrael his companions" and another stick, and to write upon it, "For Jofeph, the ftick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Ifrael his companions." He is then commanded to join them one to another into one ftick, to place the sticks thus united, before the eyes of the peo fhepherd: they fhall alfo walk in my judgments, and obferve my ftatutes, and do them. And they fhall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my fervant, wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they fhall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children forever; and my fervant David fhall be their prince forever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them; it fhall be an everlasting covenant with them and I will place them, and multiply them, and will fet my fanctuary in the midst of them forevermore. My tabernacle alfo fhall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they fhall be my people. And the Heathen shall know that I the Lord do fanctify Ifrael, when my fanctuary fhall be in the midst of them forevermore."? : Some fuppofe that the ten tribes of Ifrael still exist as a distinct peo ple, and that they with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, will return to the land of Palestine. Others fuppofe that many individuals of the ten tribes united themfelves with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, after the latter were carried to Babylon; and that the remainder of the tem tribes are fwallowed up and loft among the Gentile nations. Each of thefe opinions has been maintained by writers of diftinguished abilities. Whether the defcendents of the ten tribes can now be found, or not, it appears from the prophecy before us, that there will be a much more extenfive ingathering of the Jews from captivity than ever has been feen. They are to be gathered on every fide, and to be brought into their own land. The restoration from the land of the Chaldeans included but a small part of the Jews. A great number of them remained in the kingdom of Perfia, in the reign of Ahafuerus, after the clofe of the Babylonian captivity. The time yet to come when all the Jews on the earth, are to be brought back to the land which Jehovah gave unto their fathers. This will be a more remarkable redemption than they have experienced. Ezekiel xxxix. 28. "Then fhall they know that I am the Lord their God, who caufed them to be led into captivity among the Heathen; but I have gathered them unto their own land, AND HAVE LEFT NONE OF THEM ANY MORE THERE." is It is alfo declared that on the return of the Jews, David fhall be king over them, and that he fhall be their prince forever. At the restoration here promised, they are to embrace the Meffiah, typified by David the Son of Jeffe, and are to continue united with him as their king. This prophecy was not fulfilled in the days of Zerubbabel, nor has it been fince. The Meffiah did not come until feveral hundred years after the Jewish city and temple were rebuilt. When he appeared, the body of the Jewish nation rejected himand procured his death. They ftill confider him as an impoftor. I fee not how this prophecy can be interpreted, unless another return of the Jews to their own land be admitted. As a further confirmation of the fense which has been put upon the paffage under confideration, it is to be remarked that the language of the promife is very definite and full in pointing to the particular land given by covenant to Jacobthe land in which the ancestors of the Jews dwelt; and in infuring their continuance in it, from generation to generation, to the end of time. They fball dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my fervant, wherein your fathers dwelt, and they fall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children forever. (To be continued.) An anfwer to both thefe quef-, tions will be attempted in the following obfervations. 1. The literal fenfe of words is primary and original-Words are the names of ideas. The first inventor of lauguage, fuppofe Adam, in giving names to the beafts and fowls, muft have used them without any metaphorical application. Afterwards those names, might be applied to exprefs other ideas, related to the first by fimili tude. 2. The metaphorical fenfe of words is fecondary and derived, and is founded principally in the relation of fimilitude, the idea expreffed by the fame name, is fuppofed to be in fome refpects, like that to which the name is primarily applied. This is equally true, whether we fuppofe language to be originally arbitrary, or that names were firft given from a fuppofed likeness between the found of the word and the qualities of the ob ject named. cific names in plants and animals, and other things. In like manner, names are applied* to fenfible objects in the fecondary fenfe. Thus the name Zion pri marily denotes a certain eminence where the temple was built; then the city where it flood; next the fociety of faints on earth; laftly the heavenly state. 4. Words are always to be un derflood in their primary and literal fenfe,unless a particular and obvious reafon offer for the rejection of this, and adoption of the fecondary and figurative, which reafon will not apply to language in general. This rule is founded on the nature and ufe of language, and on the ground and reafon of the introduction of the metaphorical ufe of words. 5. When words are to be underftood in a fecondary or meta-" phorical fenfe, they are to be applied in that metaphorical fenfe in which the relation of fimilitude is the most obvious, unless this appli cation interfere with other necef fary rules of construction. Otherwife, when the literal fenfe is rejected it would be impoffible to fix"> on the true metaphorical fenfe, de er would be left to fix a fenfe agreeably to the caprice of his own imagination. 3. Words in their primary and literal meaning exprefs fenfible ideas. This holds true in moft cafes; if exceptions are to be admitted, the occafion is obvious.figned by the writer,and each readThe human mind, in the first ftages of thought, is principally employed on fenfible ideas. Thus it muft have been with the first man. Hence he would firft give names to thofe ideas, and afterwards in contemplating ideas of fpiritual objects and relations, and difcovering fome kind of likeness, would apply the fame names, not only to avoid the labor of inventing new founds but alfo for affiftance to memory in retaining names. It may be added that from like caufes, the primary fenfe is often extended from one to many, where the likeness is great. This feems to be the origin of general and fpe Reasons for understanding fcripture paffages in the fecondary or metaphorical fenfe are such as these which follow. 1. When the literal fenfe would be unintelligible, abfurd, false, or contrary to the analogy of faith, the metaphorical muft be adopted, for none of these epithets can be juftly applied to the holy fcriptures. 2. When a metaphorical fenfe offers in which the relation of fimilitude is obvious, and the ideas expreffed by it are intelligible, im |