, till he returns again upon earth, in full vigour, sted with that extraordinary commission from e most High, to remove the veil of darkness that ngs before the eyes of the Jews, to shew them eir past error, and introduce them into the fold 7 Christ their God and Redeemer.

That such will be the office committed to Elias, e also learn very clearly from the book of Eccle asticus, chap. xlviii. v. 4, 9, 10, where it is said: Who can glory like to thee, Elias? Who wast aken up in a whirlwind of fire, in a chariot of fiery orses. Who art registered in the judgments of mes, to appease the wrath of the Lord, to recon ile the heart of the father to the son, and to resore the tribes of Jacob.' Elias is here said by the nspired writer, to be registered in the judgments of times, that is, destined to be, at an appointed ime, a kind of mediator, to appease the wrath of the Lord, irritated against the Jews for their infidelity; to reconcile the heart of the father to the son, by bringing them to the faith and the holy sentiments of the patriarchs their ancestors, as we said above; and in fine, he is destined to res tore the tribes of Jacob to the favour of God, by teaching them to acknowledge his divine son Jesus for their Messiah. He will restore the tribes of Jacob, by re-engrafting them on the true olive tree, from whence, according to the apostle, they had been cut off for their infidelity. Because of unbelief,' says St. Paul, they were broken offAnd if they abide not in unbelief, they shall be grafted in for God is able to graft them in again. For if thou (Gentile,) wert cut off the wild olive tree, which is natural to thee; and contrary to nature, wert grafted into the good olive tree; how much shall they, the Jews, that are the natural branches, be grafted in their own olive tree? For, blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in; and so

all Israel should be saved.' Rom. xi. 20, 23, &c. The same account of Elias is confirmed by our Saviour, who told his disciples: Elias indeed shall come, and shall restore all things,' Matth. xvii. 11. But let us here observe, that the expres sion of the book of Ecclesiasticus, Elias will restore the tribes of Jacob, and that of our Saviour, Elias will restore all things, seem to indicate more than the conversion of the Jewish nation to the faith, as this conversion is sufficiently insinuated in the expression of Elias, appeasing the wrath of God, and reconciling the heart of the father to the son. It appears therefore probable, that Elias will, by divine instruction, discover to the Jews the origi nal distinction of their tribes, which they seem to have confounded and lost: then that he will res tore the tribes to their primitive possessions, by re-establishing them in their ancient land of Judæa, each tribe in his new respective partition, as marked out by Ezekiel, ch. 48. The execution of this work will not at all be impossible to the prophet, as he will be endued with so ample a degree of authority from God, and so extraordinary a power of working miracles. This observation will be confirmed in the sequel from the ancient prophets, who represent the Jews in full possession of the Holy Land after the time of Antichrist.doonl

But if the Almighty, through his special mercy to the Jews, appoints them a teacher in Elias, to bring them back into the true path, from which they have so long strayed, it is not to be imagined he leaves the rest of the world without the same kind of assistance. A teacher of extraordinary power and virtue will be more wanted, as iniquity will abound in these times, and even the good will be exposed to dangerous and most severe trials. To answer this exigency the all-bountiful God will send another agent, namely, Henoch.

learn from Moses that this patriarch by a par

lar privilege was preserved from death: He1 walked with God, and was seen no more, use God took him.' Gen. v. 24. We learn the e from St. Paul: "By faith Henoch was taken y, that he should not see death; and he was not nd because God had taken him away.' Rom. xi. 5. the whole class of mankind Henoch and Elias the only two persons to be found, that have not d the debt of nature; which is deterred, till y shall have completed the functions to which y are destined, and which are not to take place the latter days. They will then have, each, eir separate commission. That of Elias will be, as have seen, the conversion of the Jews, &c. or, restore the tribes of Jacob; while Henoch will sent to preach to the Gentiles, as we learn from e book of Ecclesiasticus: 'Henoch pleased God, id was translated into Paradise, that he may ve repentance to the nations,' xliv. 16. The ob ct therefore of Henoch's ministry is to give repennce to the nations, to withdraw idolaters from lolatry, to move bad Christians to repentance and ring them back into the ways of virtue, and in ne to stem the prevailing tide of iniquity. In the ame manner then as St. Peter was appointed the postle of the Jews, and St. Paul the apostle of naions, Gal. ii. 7, 8; so Elias will be sent, chiefly to he former, and Henoch to the latter; but as the preaching of each of the two apostles was not enirely confined to either body of people, but someimes extended to both; so likewise Elias and Henoch will sometimes mix their labours in favour of both Jews and nations. It is here further to be observed, that Henoch represents the an zient patriarchs and people, who lived under the law of nature; and Elias the Jewish prophets with that people, who were bound to the Mosaic institution: so that by their preaching the Christian religion we understand that both the patriarchs and

afterwards dispersed themselves into other countries.

The tribes of Juda and Benjamin, of which consisted the kingdom of Juda, were removed to Babylon by Nabuchodonosor, where they were subjected to a severe captivity for seventy years. These bounds of time God set to his justice, and then the affection of the Father returned. They repented of their iniquities; he replaced them in their country and renewed his blessings to them. Some of the Israelites returned also from Assyria, and uniting themselves to the Jews, formed one body with them.

After a period of years the term arrived, in which their fidelity was to be put to the strictest test. The principal of all the divine dispensations to man, the redemption of the world was now to be performed. The great personage, the Son of God, who was to execute the work, had been announced to the Jews by their prophets, and was to be born of their race. A command from heaven had been given them, through the channel of the same prophets, to receive him as their promised Messiah, to acknowledge him for their new Legislator, and to accept his doctrine and laws in lieu of those they had hitherto followed; and that they might not mistake his person, their prophets had given them a full description of his character, of the time of his coming, of the tenour of his life and his extraordinary miraculous works. But when he appeared, his character and garb not answering to the carnal notions they had formed to themselves of his supposed power and grandeur, they refused to receive him. They expected in their Messiah a mighty conquerer, a potent monarch who would raise them above all other nations. They would not understand that the blessings designed by the divine wisdom to adorn and signalize the Messiah, were of a far nobler, sublimer, and more

as

ing nature, than all that worldly pomp and ginary dominion their hearts were set upon. therefore these temporal views and expectas they did not find in the humble and low dition in which Christ appeared, they rejected r God and Saviour, they despised his doctrine, y contemned and blasphemed his miracles, treated his sacred person with the utmost gnity, and even proceeded to such an unparal d instance of impiety, as to put him to death. s enormous crime, the greatest they had been could be guilty of, drew the whole torrent of ine wrath upon them. They had said: 'His od be upon us, and upon our children,' Matth. vii. 25. And effectually their horrible imprecas fell upon their own heads and upon their dren also. Within less than the space of forty rs after, the Almighty sent upon them his urge; the Romans, who ravaged their country, troyed their city and temple; and after that an umerable multitude of them had perished by ine, plague, and the sword, the remainder were elled Judea, and scattered over the whole face the earth, conformably to the prediction of our iour: There shall be great distress in the d, and wrath upon this people, (the Jews.)d they shall fall by the edge of the sword; and 11 be led away captives into all nations.' Luke . 23, 24. In this desolate condition, without fixed abode or government, the contempt of nkind, they have remained for 1700 years, and s they still continue a dreadful and lasting monent of the divine indignation.

But it must be observed that, notwithstanding 3 most terrible, most severe, and most lasting of the punishments the Almighty has inflicted on the Jews, nevertheless he has not utterly erminated them. Their race subsists, and is y numerous. The calamities and oppression