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phecy fhould be until the coming of the Meffiah, when we fhall fee all things clearly; but the period marked out is past near two thousand years. During that time Ifrael has had no communication with her God, having neither prophet, temple, or facrifice, and not even a refting place, which they can fay, this is mine. O miferable, forfaken and loft nation, no longer a people, but the dregs and excrefcence of the human race, not pitied, but defpifed, hated, and fhunned, as an adder whofe fting is deadly, abandoned by her Creator, and hated as condemned wretches by her own fpecies, fufpected capable of every treafon, faithlefs, and not having the common feeds of honefty. Ifrael, from the beginning never was without her God, her prophets, even in her captivity. She had her princes, her temple, her facrifices, and was always a nation; but when the expected more transcending glory and to be at the fummit of her wishes, under the wing of her Meffiah, the most dear fpoufe and darling of her foul, fhe finds herself at that very epoch and period of time caft down in the horror of unparalelled woe. Her temple, cities, towns and all that appertained to her, totally destroyed, her country parcelled out to ftrangers, and themselves deftroyed; fo that the woods could not fupply croffes to gibbet the number of wretches that was put to death. What offends human nature still more, three parties of themfelves in the city of Jerufalem feemed refolved to favour the deftruction of Ifrael; every man's fword was against his neighbour, deftroying all L 3

within

within the city, whilft the Roman army hemmed them in on all fides without, they destroyed each other within, whilft the Roman army deftroyed whoever was found without; fo that difficulties within and without ftarved them into the unnatural cataftrophe of feeding on each other, the most delicate ladies eating their infants. After this unequalled and unparalelled scene, enfues another equally bafe. Ninety thousand were fold flaves into Egypt and elfewhere; flaves, according to hiftorians of that age, thirty for a piece of filver. The prophet Jeremiah mentions one fold for thirty pieces of filver, and the price was laid out in the purchafe of the potters field; but here we find thirty bought for one piece of filver. Here would come in the lamentation of the fame prophet very seasonably. "O Ifrael, miferies are not to be recounted, being numberlefs. O my people."

Boy. Know, therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to reftore and to build Jerufalem unto the Meffiah, the prince shall be seven weeks; and three fcore and two weeks the street fhall be built again, and the wall even in troublesome times. And after three fcore and two weeks fhall the Meffiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of the prince that fhall come shall destroy the city and the fanctuary; and the end thereof fhall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war defolations are determined.

Mojes. It was the moft bloody and obftinate and most dreadful war in the annals of the world.

world. The number gathered to Jerufalem to folemnize the Great Paffover, or Eafter, were computed to amount to three millions, which were all deftroyed but about one thirtieth part, that were fold flaves; fo that, as the prophet terms it, we may truely call it a flood of blood, and to this period defolation. And that no footsteps might remain to declare its former grandeur and magnificence, Titus, the Roman general, made a total defolation, according to the prophet.

Boy. And he fhall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the midft of the week he fhall caufe the facrifice and the oblation to ceafe and for the overfpreading of abominations he shall make it defolate, even until the confummation, and that determined, fhall be poured upon the defolate.

Mofes. The prophecy is clear and determined. Ifrael has brought a curfe upon herfelf, and entailed defolation and infamy on her pofterity; fo that when we expected a blefling, we received a curfe, and this at the time the bleffing was promised; for immediately after, Caius, who fucceeded Tiberius in the empire, greatly diftreffed the Jewish nation; and he changed and transformed the temple of Jerufalem, which had hitherto been the temple of the living God, into a temple dedicated to himself, caufing it thenceforward to be called the temple of Caius Junior Jupiter Confpicuous. And at the expiration of forty years, after the expectation of the Meffiah, when Jerufalem and all Judea was laid waste and deftroyed by the L 4 Ro

Romans, Ifrael has ceased to be a nation; but as fugitives and vagabonds are fhifted and fcattered, defpifed, and hated over the whole face of the earth, confidered by all the tribes of the earth as the common enemy of the human race; and this upon the eve of two thousand years: and, at this day, not the leaft gleam or diftant profpect of reconciliation with her God. All vifion and prophecy are fealed up, and Ifrael devoted as a curfe in the mouth of all nations, her country, at this period, over-run with briars and thorns, and in the hands of a most base people and, on the ground where her temple ftood, there is erected a Turkish Mosque.

Boy. And he fhall confirm his covenant with many.

Mofes. That Ifrael cannot fathom or underftand, as he has not manifefted himself.

Boy. The fcriptures will be, and must be

true.

Mofes. Ifrael dare not contradict her God: but he has not obtained the promife.

Boy. And after threefcore and two weeks the Meffiah fhall be cut off, but not for himself.

Mofes. This is alfo incomprehenfible, as the Meffiah is exprefsly promifed to gather Ifrael from all countries into their own land, to enjoy every bleffings, He being Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and that they will be a bleffing to the whole earth.

Boy. Two thousand years experimentally, points out and unfolds your misconftruing and erroneous conceptions of the prophecies. The Promised Bleffing, at the fulness of time, ma

fested

1

nifefted Himself, who you rejected and hung on a tree, treating the Lord of Glory with the vileft ignominy, and has brought down your rancour and inveterate hatred, inculcated, nourished, and lodged from father to fon in the heart of every Jew throughout your generations to this day. O the mifery and mif chievous tendency that await the abuse of freewill. This abufe originated in the angels, whence their malice have loft them their original birthright, and placed them in the prifon of eternal woe. Next falls man, beginning in our first parents, which has multiplied in their pofterity; but Ifrael, as fhe was exalted above her fellows, becomes more criminal in an equal crime but fhe has perpetrated and glories in her guilt, Black Infamy. The thought fills my foul with horror, my heart bursts with grief. The Lord of Life nailed and hanging on a tree betwixt two thieves, naked, bleeding, and all covered with wounds, fpittle and dirt. In this most ignominious manner he remained a fpectacle and gazing-tock to angels and men, and when He gave up His life, their rage pieced His fide with a lance penetrating His

heart.

Scene changes to Luther's apartment.

Grace before Dinner.

Luther. REPLETE with keen, eager, fharp and whetted appetite, I repair to the delight of my chafte defire. So be. it.

Take

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