View of the Hebrews - Conclusion
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CONCLUSION.
1. It becomes us to be deeply affected with the excommunication of the
ancient people of God. In the temporary rejection of those two branches of
the Hebrew nation, the truth is solemnly enforced, that the God of Zion is
a God of government; and that he will be known by the judgments that he
executeth. The casting out of the ten tribes for their impious idolatries,
is full of instruction. The wonders God had done for them, and all their
privileges in the land of promise, could not save, when they rejected the
stated place of his worship, and united in the abominations of the open
enemies of God. They should be excommunicated from the covenant, hurled
from the promised land, and abandoned to a state of savage wretchedness,
for two and a half millenaries. Their sin in those dark ages of the old
dispensation was no trifle. Its consequence is held up as an awful warning
to the world. It impresses the following language; "Know thou and see that
it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord." To that
event people under evangelical privileges ought to turn their eye, and
take the solemn warning. The God of Abraham is a God of judgment; while
blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
The judgments of Heaven on the Jews were still more dreadful. The Lord of
that vineyard did indeed come in the day when they looked not for him, and
in an
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hour when they were not aware; and did cut them asunder. He came and
miserably destroyed those husbandmen, and burned up their cities, as he
foretold. Upon their turning him off with hypocrisy and will-worship, and
rejecting the Saviour, the denunciation, "Cut it down; why cumbereth it
the ground?" was fulfilled with unprecedented decision. Let all rejectors
of Christ, behold and tremble. The Jews were confident in a fancied
security, to the last. But an impious confidence can never save. It is but
a dead calm before a fatal catastrophe. Such presumptuous leaning upon the
Lord, and saying, "Is not the Lord among us? no evil shall come upon us;"
was so far from saving, that it was a sure precursor of perdition, and of
the coming of wrath upon them to the uttermost. Let gospel rejectors
beware. "Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish." "Let him that
thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall."
2. How evident and rich is the entail of the covenant which will recover
the two branches of the house of Israel! Truly they are "a nation of line,
line;" (Isai. xviii. 2. in the Hebrew, and margin of the great Bible.)
Though they be infidels, and rejected, and as touching the gospel are
enemies for our sakes; yet as touching the election, (the entail of the
covenant,) they are beloved for the fathers' sakes; Rom. xi. 28.--This
entail insures their ingrafting again into their own olive tree, which
shall be as life from the dead to the nations. This is the infallible hold
upon them, which shall finally recover them again to Palestine, and to the
covenant of their God. It is upon this covenant hold upon them, that the
God of Abraham promises to take away their stony heart out of their flesh,
and give them a heart of flesh; to sprinkle them with clean water, and to
make them clean; to put his spirit within them and cause them to walk in
his statutes, and make them keep his judgments and do them; Ezek.xxxvi.
24--27. It is upon this entail, that God thus engages to bring them in
under his new covenant, or the Christian dispensation; that their children
shall be as aforetimes, and their congregations established before him;
and "that
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all who see them acknowledge they are the seed which the Lord hath
blessed;" "that they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their
offspring with them." It will then be understood, that though blindness in
part had happened to Israel, it was that the gentiles might take their
place, and only till the fulness of the gentiles be come in; and then all
Israel shall be saved. The Jewish church will thence be a kind of capital
and model of the Christian world; see Isai. lx. and many other promises of
the same tenor.
The entail of the covenant may be expected thenceforth to have its proper
and perfect effect in the fulfillment of such promises as the following,
which relate to that period; "I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my
blessings upon thine offspring; and they shall spring up as among the
grass, as willows by the water courses;" Isai. xliv. 3, 4. "As for me,
this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord. My Spirit that is upon
thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of
thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy
seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever;" Isai. lix. 21.
This will indeed bring a season of salvation to man.
3. On reading the prophetic scriptures relative to the restoration of the
Hebrews, and the calls of Heaven to aid in the event; the question becomes
interesting. What is the first to be done relative to this restoration?
The first object, no doubt, must be, to christianize them, and wait the
leadings of Providence relative to any further event. God will in due
time, be (to all who are willing to wait on him) his own interpreter; and
to such he will make the path of duty plain. In his own time and way,
after his ancient people shall be duly instructed, and taught the
Christian religion. God will open the door for the fulfillment of his
designs relative to any local restoration; and will bring that part of
them, whom he designs, to their ancient home. All the Jews did not return
to Palestine from their seventy years captivity. Many chose to continue
where they were planted in the east. Something of the same may be realized
in the final restoration of Judah and Israel.
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A remnant only of the ten tribes is to return. This is clearly taught.
Isai. x. 20--22: "And it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant
of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more
again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Lord, the
Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return, even the remnant
of Jacob, unto the Mighty God. For though the people of Israel be as the
sand of the sea; yet a remnant of them shall return." Here the number
restored is comparatively small; as Jer. iii. 14, upon the same event;
"Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you;
and I will take you one of a city (village) and two of a family, (tribe)
and will bring you to Zion." One from an Indian village, and two from a
tribe, would indeed be a small remnant. This proportion may here be
proverbial; but certainly indicates that but a small number compared with
the whole will return. A proportion of that nation will in due time be
offered, to return to the land of their fathers, where they may form a
kind of centre or capital to the cause of Christ on earth. Relative to
many particulars of the event, the holy oracles are not express. They have
strongly marked the outlines or leading facts of the restoration; and the
unrevealed particulars, the events of Providence must unfold. That great
number will return, there seems not room to doubt. But the actual
propostion to return, will doubtless be a free-will offering of those
hearts God shall incline. The first duty must be to recover them to the
visible kingdom of Christ. To this our prayers, alms, and all due
exertions must be devoutly tend.
4. Viewing the aborigines of America as the outcast tribes of Israel; an
interesting view is given of some prophetic passages, which appear nearly
connected with their restoration.
In Isai. xl. 3, relative to this restoration of the ancient people of God,
we read; "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness' Prepare ye the
way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God." This
received a primary and typical fulfillment in the
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ministry of John the Baptist, in the wilderness of Judea, to introduce
Christ. Hence the passage was applied to him. But it was to receive its
ultimate and most interesting fulfillment at a period connected with the
commencement of the Millennium, when "the glory of the Lord shall be
revealed, and all flesh shall see it together;" as the subsequent text
decides. It is intimately connected with the restoration of the Hebrews;
as appears in its context. "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your
God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, (a name here put for all the
Hebrew family, as it was their capital in the days of David and Solomon,)
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is
pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her
sins." Here is the final Hebrew restoration, after the time of their
doubly long corrective rejection for their sins shall have expired. The
voice in the wilderness then follows, as the great means of this
restoration.
A wilderness has justly been considered as a symbol of a region of moral
darkness and spiritual death. It has been considered as a symbol of the
heathen world; and it is a striking emblem of it. And the emblem receives
strength form the consideration, that it is in a sense literally true. The
voice, which restores Israel, is heard in the vast wilderness of America,
a literal wilderness of thousands of miles, where the dry bones of the
outcasts of Israel have for thousands of years been scattered. The voice
crying in the wilderness has a special appropriation to these Hebrews. As
it had a kind of literal fulfillment in the preaching of the forerunner
John, for a short time in the wilderness of Judea; so it is to have a kind
of literal fulfillment, upon a much greater scale, in the missions, which
shall recover the ten tribes from the vast wilderness of America.
Of the same period and event, the same evangelical prophet says, Isai.
xxxv. 1. "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them;
and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; it shall blossom
abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon
shall be given unto it, and the excellency
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of Carmel and Sharon; they shall see the glory of the Lord and the
excellency of our God." In such passages, while the prediction is to have
its mystical and full accomplishment in the conversion of the heathen
world to God, the prophetic eye evidently rested with signal pleasure, on
a literal restoration of his long lost brethren, as involved in the event,
and as furnishing the ground of the figure. They will be literally, and
the fulness of the Gentiles mystically, restored and brought to Zion. It
is not an uncommon thing for prophetic passages to receive a kind of
literal fulfilment; while yet the passage most clearly looks in its
ultimate and most important sense to mystical fulfilment. Take the
following instances for illustration. In Isai. xxxv. 5--predicting the
blessed effects of the mission of Christ on earth--the prophet says; "Then
the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be
unstopped, then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the
dumb shall sing." This had a literal fulfilment in the miracles wrought by
our Lord on earth. And yet its mystical import upon the souls of men is
infinitely more interesting, and will be extensively fulfilled in the
introduction of the Millennium. This stands connected with the wilderness
and the solitary place being glad; and the desert rejoicing and blossoming
as the rose; and is followed by the clause; "For in the wilderness shall
waters break out, and streams in the desert." And as the one was prefaced
by a literal fulfilment; the other may be accompanied with a kind of
literal fulfilment.
Again; Zech. ix. 9; "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O
daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy king cometh unto thee; he is just, and
having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal
of an ass." This stands connected with the time, "when (verse 1) the eyes
of men, as all tribes of Israel, shall be toward the Lord;" and when
(verse 10) the battle shall be cut off; and he shall speak peace unto the
heathen; and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from river even to
the ends of the earth." It stands connected with the battle
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of the great day, and the introduction of the Millennium; and is a
striking emblem of the means used by Christ, (in the estimation of the
scoffing infidel world,) to introduce his kingdom--:by the foolishness of
preaching"--"not by might, nor by power; but by my spirit, saith the Lord
of hosts." Yet even this must be preluded by a literal fulfilment, in the
riding of Christ into Jerusalem. See Matt. 1--Zech. xi. 1. "Open thy
doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars." This is to have
its ultimate accomplishment in the battle of the great day of God
Almighty," of which the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem was but
a type. But this too must be prefaced with a literal accomplishment.
Josephus, assuring us of the miraculous portents of the destruction of
Jerusalem, says; "About the sixth hour of the night, the eastern gate of
the temple was found to open without human assistance." "It was secured
(he adds) by iron bolts and bars that were let down into a large threshold
consisting of one entire stone." The Jews considered this as a
manifestation that their divine protection was fled. "M. Johanan,
directing his speech to the temple said; I know thy destruction is at hand
according to the prophecy of Zechariah," "Open thy doors, O Lebanon, &c."
(Scott.)
Thus mystical texts often have a kind of literal fulfilment. And
accordingly the predictions of the restoration of Israel, in the last
days, while they deliver them from a mystical wilderness of spiritual
wretchedness, of ignorance and mortal death;--may at the same time redeem
them from vast literal wilderness! And the prediction of the former may be
phrased from this very circumstance.
As the wilderness of Judea in a small degree rejoiced and blossomed as the
rose, when John the Baptist performed his ministry in it; so the
wilderness and solitary place of our vast continent, containing the lost
tribes of the house of Israel, will, on a most enlarged scale, rejoice and
blossom as the rose, when the long lost tribes shall be found there, and
shall be gathered to Zion. The event in relation to these ancient heirs of
the covenant, stated in the last verse of this chapter, will
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then receive a signal fulfilment; "And the redeemed of the Lord shall
return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee
away." Upon this final restoration of his brethren, this prophet exalts in
lofty strains. Several of the many of these strains shall be here
inserted. Isai. xlix. :Listen O isles, unto me; (or ye lands away over the
sea) hearken ye people from afar. I will make all my mountains a way; and
my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from far; and lo,
these from the north, and from the west; and these from the land of
Sinim.--Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into
singing, O mountains; for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will
have mercy upon his afflicted." Such text have a special allusion to the
lost tribes of the house of Israel. And their being called over mountains,
and over seas, from the west, and from afar, receives an emphasis from the
consideration of their being gathered from the vast wilds of America.
With the prophet Hosea, the rejection and recovery of the ten tribes are a
great object. In chapter 2d, their rejection, and the cause of it, are
stated, and also a promise of their return. God threatens to strip them
naked, and "make them as a wilderness." "And I will visit upon her the
days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them;" i. e. to Baalim, her
false gods. The visiting upon her her idolatries, was to be done in her
subsequent outcast state, in which God there says; "she is not my wife,
neither am I her husband." But he says, v.14--"Therefore behold, I will
allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto
her.--And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of
Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there as in the days of her
youth, and as in the days she came up out of the land of Egypt." Here is
Israel's restoration; and it is from the wilderness, where long they had
been planted during the period of their outcast state. In this wilderness
God eventually speaks comfortably to them, and restores them, as he
restored from Egypt. Here
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God gives them "the valley of Achor for a door of hope." The first
encampment of the Hebrews in the valley of Achor, was to them a pledge in
their eventual possession of the promised land, after the Lord had there
turned from the fierceness of his wrath; Josh. vii. 26.
Upon the same event God says; Isai. xlii. 19, 20; "Behold, I will do a new
thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a
way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beasts of the field
shall honour me; the dragons and the owls; because I give water in the
wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, to my
chosen." If such texts have a glorious, general, mystical fulfilment in
the conversion of pagan lands; yet this does not preclude, but rather
implies the fact, that the people whose restoration is in them
particularly foretold, shall be recovered from a vast wilderness; and
their conversion shall be almost like a conversion of dragons and owls of
the desert. Rivers of knowledge and grace shall in such wilds be open for
God's chosen. It will then truly be fulfilled that God in comforting Zion,
will "make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the
Lord;" Isai. li. 3. Such passage will have a degree of both literal and
mystical fulfilment.
A signal beauty will then be discovered in such passages as the following;
Isai. xli. 14. "Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will
help thee, saith the Lord God, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I
will open rivers in the high places, and fountains in the midst of
vallies: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land
springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah
tree, and the myrtle, and the olive tree; and I will set in the desert the
fir tree, the pine, and the box tree together, that they may see and know
and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the
Holy One of Israel hath created it." The view given of the place of the
long banishment of the ten tribes, gives a lustre to such predictions of
their restoration.--These will have a striking fulfilment in the vast
wilds of our
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continent, when the glad tidings of salvation shall be carried to the
natives of these extensive dreary forests and those regions of
wretchedness and death shall become vocal with the high praises of God,
sung by his ancient Israel. In Micah vii. is a prediction relative to
Israel's restoration. Micah, as well as Isaiah, lived in the days of
Israel's dispersion. He began his ministry about eighteen years before
this event; and continued it about twenty- five years after the event.
Though he was of Judah, Scott says, "He addressed his messages both to
Judah and Israel." Of the passage, verse 11--13, Bp. Lowth says, "The
general restoration of the Jews shall not be brought to pass till after
their land hath lain desolate for many ages." Bp. Newcomb says, of verses
14--17; "They may likewise have a reference to the times of the future
restitution." Scott says of the verses following, "They evidently related
to Christ, and the success of the gospel to the end of time; and the
future restoration of Israel." In verse 12 the application for this
restoration is made to them "from sea to sea; and from mountain to
mountain." The prophet then prays for them, verse 14; that God would feed
his people, "the flock of his heritage, which dwell solitarily in the
wood;" that he would feed them in the midst of Carmel, Bashan and Gilead,
as in the days of old. Where are this people to be found "from sea to sea;
from mountain to mountain; and in the wood?" This answers to nothing of
ancient date. But to the situation of Israel of modern date, (if they be
in the wilds of America) it well accords. Here they must indeed be sought
"from sea to sea; from mountain to mountain;" and "in the wood." And this
event is to be, verse 13, "after that their land hath been desolate;" as
Scott renders it from the original. And this is to be in fulfilment of
"the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which God had sworn from
the days of old;" verse 20. God then, as in verses 18, 19, pardons the
transgression of the remnant of his heritage, retains not his anger
forever, but turns again and has compassion on them, and casts all their
sins into the depth of the sea. All these expressions seem to
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apply perfectly to the final restoration of Israel; but not to anything
antecedent to that event. This branch of Israel are to be found then,
"dwelling solitarily in the wood;" and are to be sought "from sea to sea;
and from mountain to mountain."
5. If it be a fact that the native Americans are the tribes of Israel, new
evidence is hence furnished of the divinity of our holy scriptures. A new
field of evidence is here opened from a race of men, "outcast" from all
civil society for a long course of centuries. Impressed on these wild
tenants of the forest, (these children of nature, without books or
letters, or any thing but savage tradition,) striking characters are found
of the truth of ancient revelation.
The intelligent vindicator of the word of God has never feared to meet the
infidel on fair ground. His triumph has not been less certain than that of
David against Goliah. But in the view taken of the natives of our
continent, the believer will find additional arguments, in which to
triumph. He will find more than "five smooth stones taken out of the
brook," (1 Sam. xvi. 40.) each one of which is sufficient to sink into the
head of an impious Goliah, challenging the God of Israel.
Let the unbeliever in revelations undertake to answer the following
questions.
Whence have the greater part of the American natives been taught the being
of one and only one God; when all other heathen nations have lost all such
knowledge, and believe in many false gods?
Whence have the Indians, or most of them, been kept from gross idolatry,
which has covered the rest of the heathen world? and to which all men have
been so prone?
Whence have many of them been taught that the name of the one God, the
Great Spirit above, is Yohewah, Ale, Yah, (Hebrew names of God,) who made
all things, and to whom alone worship is due?
Who taught any of them that God, at first, made one man from earth; formed
him well; and breathed him into life? and that God made good and bad
spirits; the latter of whom have a prince over them?
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Whence came the idea among the untutored savages, that Yohewah was once
the covenant God of their nation; and the rest of the world were out of
covenant with him,--the accursed people? God was the God of Israel, and no
other nation during their commonwealth. "I entered into covenant with
thee, and thou becamest mine."
Whence their ideas that their ancestors once had the book of God; and then
were happy; but that they lost it; and then became miserable; but that
they will have this book again at some time?
Whence their notion that their fathers once had the spirit of God to work
miracles, and to fortel future events? Whence the general Indian tradition
of offering their first ripe fruits. See Exod. xxii. 20; and xxii. 19.
Lev. ii. 14; and xxii. 10, 11.
Who taught the untutored savages to have a temple of Yohewah; a holy of
holies in it, into which no common people may enter or look?
Who taught him a succession of high priests? that this priest must be
inducted into office by purifications, and anointing? that he must appear
in an appropriate habiliment, the form of which descended from their
fathers of remote antiquity?
Whence their custom of this priest's making a yearly atonement, in or near
the holy apartment of their temple? Lev. xxii. 27, and vi. 30.
Whence their three annual feasts, which well accord to the three great
feasts in Israel? Exod. xxiii. 14 and on.
Whence came their peculiar feast, in which a bone of the sacrifice may not
be broken; and all that is prepared must be eaten; or burned before the
next morning sun? and eaten with bitter vegetables. Exod. xii. 3, 10, 46.
Whence a custom of their males appearing three times annually before God
at the temple? Exod. xxii. 17, Deut. xvi. 16.
Who taught wild savages of the desert to maintain places of refuge from
the avenger of blood; "old, beloved, white towns?' Joshua chap. xx.
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Who taught them to keep and venerate a sacred ark, containing their most
sacred things; to be borne against their enemies by one purified by strict
rites?--That no one but the sanctified keeper might look into this ark;
and the enemy feeling the same reverence for it, as the friends? Exod.
xxv. 10, and on. 1 Sam. vi. 19. 2 Sam. xi. 11.
Whence came the deep and extensive impression among these savage tribes,
that the hollow of the thigh of no animal may be eaten? Gen. xxxii. 32.
Let the infidel inform how these savages (so long excluded from all
intercourse with the religious or civilized world) came by the right of
circumcision? and some idea of them an idea of a Jubilee?
Whence their idea of an old divine speech; that they must imitate their
virtuous ancestors, enforced by "flourishing upon a land flowing with milk
and honey?"
Whence their notion of the ancient flood? and of the longevity of the
ancients? also of the confusion of the language of man at building a high
place? evidently meaning the scene of Babel.
How came these wild human herds of the desert by various Hebrew words and
phrases; and such phrases as accord with no other language on earth? See
the table furnished, page 90.
Who taught them to sing, Halleluyah, Yohewah, Yah, Shilu Yohewah; and to
make the sacred use they do of the syllables, which compose the names of
God? singing them in their religious dances, and in their customs; thus
ascribing all the praise to Yohewah? I ask not, who taught them the spirit
of holiness of such religious forms? For probably they have little or no
intelligent meaning. But whence have they brought down these traditional
forms?
How came their reckoning of time so well to accord with that of ancient
Israel?
Whence their tradition of twelve men, in preparing for a feast similar to
the ancient feast of tabernacles; taking twelve poles, forming their
booths; and their altar of twelve stones, on which no tool may pass; and
here offering their twelve sacrifices? and some tribes
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preceding by the number ten instead of twelve? indicating their tradition
of the twelve tribes; and their subsequent ten, after the revolt.
Whence came their tradition of purifying themselves with bitter
vegetables? also fasting, and purifying themselves when going to war, as
did Israel.
Who taught them that at death their beloved people sleep, and go to their
fathers?
Whence their custom of washing and anointing their dead; and some of them
of hiring mourners to bewail them; and of singing round the corpse (before
they bury it) the syllables of Yah, Yohewah?
How came they by their tradition answering to the ancient Jewish
separations of women? Lev. xii. 1--6, also of a tradition taking their
shoes from their feet, on solemn occasions? Exod. iii. 5. Deut.xxv. 9.
Whence were some of them taught in deep mourning to lay their hands on
their mouth, and their mouth in the dust?
And whence came their tradition of their ancient father with his twelve
sons, ruling over others? and the mal-conduct of these twelve sons, till
they lost their pre-eminence?
Let it be remembered, it is not pretended that all the savages are in the
practice of all these traditions. They are not. But it is contended that
the whole of these things have been found among their different tribes in
our continent, within a hundred years. A fragment of these Hebrew
traditions has been found among one tribe; and another fragment among
another; and some of the most striking of these traditions have been found
among various and very distant tribes; as has appeared in the recital from
various authors, traders and travellers.
Let the unbeliever in revelation set himself to account for these events.
No account can be given of them, but that they were derived from ancient
revelation in Israel. And hence in the outcast state of the ten tribes of
Israel, (in their huge valley of dry bones, in this vast new world.) we
find presented a volume of new evidence of the divinity of the Old
Testament;
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and hence of the New; for the latter rests on the former, as a building
rests on its foundation. If the one is divine, the other is divine; for
both form a perfect whole.
We are assured by the chief apostle to the Gentiles, that the restoration
of the ancient people of God in the last days, when "all Israel shall be
saved," shall be to the nations "as life from the dead;" Rom. xi. 15. Its
new and demonstrative evidence of the glorious truth of revelation, will
confound infidelity itself; and fill the world with light and glory. These
Indian traditions may be viewed as beginning to exhibit to the world their
quota of this new evidence.
In our subject, we find a powerful evidence of the truth of revelation,
extending through a wild continent, in savage traditions; which traditions
must have been brought down from 725 years before the Christian era.
The preservation of the Jews, as a distinct people, for eighteen
centuries, has been justly viewed as a kind of standing miracle in support
of the truth of revelation. But the arguments furnished from the
preservation and traditions of the ten tribes, in the wilds of America
from a much longer period, must be viewed as furnishing, if possible, a
more commanding testimony. And it is precisely such evidence as must have
been expected in the long outcast tribes of Israel, whenever they should
come to light; and just such evidence as must rationally be expected to
bring them to the knowledge of the civilized world.
6. The people addressed by the prophet Isaiah, (be they America or
Britain, or who they may,) are highly honoured of God. They are a "land
shadowing with wings." God is abundantly represented as shadowing his
people with his wings. "Hide me under the shadow of thy wings." "The
children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings." To Israel
as brought from Egypt, God said; "I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought
you unto myself." Wings, and especially eagles' wings, are much used in
the holy oracles, to denote special aid, and that of the most diginified
kind. Of the children of God it is said; "They that
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wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with
wings as eagles; they shall run and not weary; they shall walk and not
faint."
And if the ancient tribes of the Lord are to be recovered at last by an
agency well denoted by a "land shadowing with wings;" this prophetic
imagery is certainly very honourable to the nation addressed; as the
business assigned them is also very honourable. And probably no other
nation on earth can, from its national character, the excellency of its
government, and its local situation, lay so good a claim to this inspired
characteristic. The American Eagle is a term well known in the civilized
world. And no other nation has so good a right to this honour.
7. May the people addressed by the prophet Isaiah, awake to a diligent
performance of the duty assigned them. Here is a rich opportunity of being
workers together with God in a business, which will excite the attention
of heaven and earth. "All the inhabitants of the earth, see ye when he
lifteth up the ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth the trumpet,
hear ye." The ancient restorations of Israel were remarkable. Nations that
stood in their way sank, as under a deluge;--as Egypt, Babylon, Amalek,
and many others could testify. The Ammonites and Moabites were branded
with infamy. "because they met not Israel with bread and water when they
came forth out of Egypt."
And the final restoration of Israel is to exceed all antecedent
restorations. "It shall no more be said, The Lord liveth who brought up
Israel from Egypt; but, The Lord liveth who brought them from all the
countries whither I have driven them." Divine judgments then, may be
proportionably greater against all who withstand the final restoration. "I
will undo all that afflict thee." Wo will be to them, who shall have the
unbelief or temerity to place themselves before the wheels of divine
providence when Christ shall ride forth in the chariot of salvation to
bring the dispersed Jews, and outcast to himself. God will arise, and his
enemies will be scattered. As smoke is driven
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away; and as the wax melteth before the fire; so God will drive away and
melt the enemies of his ancient people. He will ride in the heavens by the
name Jah. And while his friends rejoice, his enemies shall tremble at his
presence. God will go before his people, and march through the wilderness.
The earth, it is said, shall shake; and the heavens shall drop at his
presence. Though his long banished people have lain among the pots; yet
now shall they be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her
feathers with yellow gold. The mountains and hills shall leap at the
presence of the of the God of Jacob. And God will wound the head of his
enemies, and the hairy scalp of them that oppose his march, when he shall
again bring from Bashan, and recover his banished again from the depth of
the sea. Their foot shall be dipped in the blood of their enemies; and men
shall again see the stately march of the God of Zion; and shall bless the
Lord, even the Lord from the fountains of Israel. Little Benjamin, and his
ruler (or chief) shall be there, with the princes of Judah and their
counsel. God will command his strength. He will rebuke the armies of the
spearmen, with the bulls and calves of their mighty coalition. He will
scatter those who delight in war, till every one shall submit himself with
pieces of silver.
May the suppliants of God in the west, in the land shadowing with wings,
be hid in that day of the Lord's anger. May they be found in the chambers
of his protection, until the indignation be overpast; faithfully obeying
the direction to bring his present of the people obeying the direction to
bring his present of the people scattered and peeled, to the place of the
name of the Lord of hosts, the Mount Zion.
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