Jewish Religion, and contained in the Promifes made to Abraham and his Seed: the Law was added to keep up their Obedience to God, and Dependence upon him, and to prevent their falling away from their Faith to Idolatry, and enforced with the Promises of temporal Bleffings to the Doers of it; befides the Spiritual Happiness promised before the Law as the Reward of Faith. And therefore as the Law was to be enforc'd with the Sanction of temporal Rewards and Punishments, Mofes fpeaks of no other as Parts of his Law; nor was it proper that he fhould: the Bleffings of the future State being properly the Rewards to which they were entitled, not by doing the Works of the Law, but by Faith in the Promises of God made to their Forefathers, and to them their Seed. It was for his Faith that God promised Abraham to be his exceeding great Reward, Gen. xv. 1. and declared that he would be his God, and the God of his Seed for ever, Gen, xvii. 7. Exod. iii. 15. Under the Influence of this Faith they were to walk before him with a perfect Heart, Gen. xvii. 1. and worship him alone for their God, according to the Law of everlasting Righteousness.

This was the Covenant which the Children of Ifrael enter'd into with God, in the Land of Moab, befide the Covenant which he made with them in Horeb, Deut. xxi. 1. By this Covenant they were established to be his People, and he to be their God, as he had fworn unto them, and to their Fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,

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Jacob, .13. And this Covenant on their Part was, to ferve the Lord their God with all their Heart; and not to turn away from him to other Gods, and to the Worship of Idols, as it is expreffed in the following Verfes. On this Condition, and not by the ritual Works of the Law, they were entitled to the Bleffings promised to Abraham and this was the Condition, that in all their Difperfions amongst the feveral Nations of the Earth which Mofes foretold; if they returned unto the Lord their God, and obeyed all his Commandments with all their Heart, and with all their Soul; then the Lord their God would turn their Captivity, and have Compaffion on them and gather them from all the Nations, whither the Lord their God had scatter'd them. After which Return into their own Land from a general Difperfion, and Captivity amongst all Nations, even unto the outmoft Parts of Heaven, God promiseth that He will circumcife their Heart and the Heart of their Seed, to love the Lord their God with all their Heart, and with all their Soul, that they may LIVE, Ch. XXX. 1-6, and following.

It is moft probable that these last Declarations of Mofes to the People of the Jews refer to the Gofpel-State, and to their miferable Difperfions and Captivity, and the Defolation of their Country by the Romans plainly predicted from the 49th Verfe of the 28th Chapter of Deuteronomy to the End of that Chapter, and continued in the 29th and 30th Chapters. I fhall transcribe fome Part of them: The Lord fhall bring against thee

a Nation from far, from the End of the Earth, [this could not be faid of the Affyrians or BabyTonians] as fwift as the Eagle flieth, a Nation whofe Tongue thou shalt not understand: a Nation of a fierce Countenance, [under which last Character the Romans are described by Danie, Ch. viii. 23. and it is known that the Eagle was placed upon the Standards of the Roman Legions; ] which (Nation) shall not regard the PerJon of the old, nor fhew Favours to the youngand be fhall befiege thee in all thy Gates, until thy high and fenced Walls come down, wherein though trufteft, throughout all the Land-and thou shalt eat the Fruit of thine own Body, the Fleft of thy Sons and thy Daughters in the Siege, and in the Straitness wherewith thine Enemies fhall diftrefs thee: So that the Man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his Eye fhall be evil towards his Brother, and towards the Wife of his Bofem, and towards the Remnant of bis Children which he shall leave: fo that he will not give to any of them of the Flesh of his Children whom he shall eat, because he hath nothing left him in the SiegeThe tender and delicate Woman among you, who would not adventure to fet the Sole of her Foot upon the Ground for Delicateness and Tenderness, her Eye fhall be evil towards the Hufband of her Bofom, and towards ber Son, and towards her Daughter; and towards her young one that cometh out from between her Feet; and towards her Children which fhe fhall bear for fhe fhall eat them for want of all things, fecretly in the Siege and Straitness,

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wherewith thine Enemy fhall diftrefs thee in thy Gates. If thou wilt not obferve to do all the Words of this Law that are written in this Book, that thou mayft fear this glorious and fearful Name THE LORD THY GOD.

And the Lord fall fcatter thee among all People, from the one End of the Earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt ferve other Gods, which neither thou nor thy Fathers have known, even Wood and Stone. And the Lord fhall bring thee into Egypt again with Ships-and there ye fhall be fold unto your Enemies for Bondmen and for Bondwomen, and no Man fhall buy you. $. 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 64, 68. This Prophetic Defcription of the Miferies, Captivity, and Difperfion of the Jewish Nation, agrees not at all, either to the Affyrian or Babylonian Captivity, or with any Miseries and Difperfions which fell on them before the Time of the Gofpel: But it is fo lively a Description of the unparallel'd Miseries of that People, when after a long War and Siege their City and Temple were deftroyed, and their whole Country laid waste by the Romans, that there can in Reafon be no doubt of its being a Prophecy of it. During this Siege their Diftrefs was fo great through Peftilence and Famine, that thousands died in one Day; and both Men and Women' killed their own Children and eat them for Want of Food. And after the City was taken, of thofe miferable Captives who were faved from the general Slaughter, fome were fold for Slaves in all Parts of the Roman Empire, and great

Numbers

Numbers were fent in Ships, as Mofes foretold, into Egypt, and there forced to work in the Mines; and the reft were kept to be flaughter'd like Beafts in their Theatres at their public Games and Festivals.

These Miseries fell upon the Jews, not for their Disobedience to the ritual Law of Mofes, or for forfaking the Worship of the God of Ifrael; but for their rejecting, the Meffias, the Seed of Abraham, promised both before and under the Law: for their refufing to hearken to the Words of God fpoken to their Forefathers concerning this promised Seed; and refufing alfo to hearken to the Voice of that Prophet whom God promifed by Mofes to fend to them. Deut. xviii. 15, 18, 19.

Their Rejection of the Meffias was a Breach of the Covenant, on the obferving of which, God promised to be their God, and by virtue of which all the Bleffings of the Land of Canaan were given them: for it was the Rejection of that Seed of Abraham in whom all the Na tions of the Earth were to be bleffed; and who was the Prophet by whom God promised to deliver his Commandments to them, and to whofe Words they were commanded to hearken, with the threatning, that it should come to pass, that whosoever should not hearken to "God's Words, which that Prophet Should Speak in his Name, he would require it of him, or would take vengeance of him; as the Greek, Vul gate, and Syriac Tranflations render the laft Words. And therefore, as their Return unto God, Ch. xxx. 2. was to be a returning from

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their