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CHAPTER IV.
AN ADDRESS OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH, RELATIVE TO THE RESTORATION OF HIS
PEOPLE.
The writer might fill a chapter in illustrating the wrongs which the
Indians have suffered from people in our land; in noting their reduced and
deplorable situation; in pleading the cause of humanity in their behalf;
and in appealing to the magnanimous feelings of the people of our nation.
He might adduce many evangelical motives the most commanding, to enforce
the duty of saving the remnants of the natives of our continent from
extinction, and from wretchedness. The duty of sending them the gospel,
and of being at any expense to teach them Christianity and the blessings
of civilized life, is great and urgent on every principle of humanity and
general benevolence. And this duty peculiarly attaches itself to the
people, who are now in possession of the former inheritance of those
natives; and from too many of whom that people have received insufferable
injuries. This subject must occur with force to the mind of every well
informed American. And it is devoutly to be hoped that far greater
attention will henceforth be paid to it by all among us who make any
pretence to humanity, not to say piety.
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But the object of this chapter is to examine and illustrate an interesting
portion of ancient prophetic writings, which is thought to embrace this
very concern.
An address is found in the eighteenth chapter of the prophet Isaiah, which
is apprehended to be of deep interest to America. It is a passage which
has been esteemed singularly enigmatical. The circumstance has usually
attended the prophecies, in proportion to the distance of the events. And
they have often been left in silence, or their true intent misapplied,
till near the time of their fulfilment. Then some incidents would throw
light upon them, and render their import plain and satisfactory.
The writer was affected with this passage some years ago, when writing his
Dissertation on the Prophecies. He found it to be address to some
Christian people of the last days, just at the time of the final
restoration of God's ancient people; an address to such a people beheld in
vision away over the mouths of the Nile, or in some region of the west; a
call and solemn divine charge to them to awake and aid that final
restoration. He then apprehended it might apply to Britain, though he felt
the difficulty arising from the fact that Britain lies so far to the north
of the direction specified in the address. It now appears to him far more
probable that the Christian people of the United States of America are the
subjects of the address; or at least are especially included in it. To
prepare the way for the consideration of the address, let several things
be promised.
1. Some of the greatest and best of divines have thought it would be
strange, if nothing should be found in the prophetic scriptures having a
special allusion to our western world, which by propitious Heaven was
destined to act so distinguishing a part, both in the religious and
political world, in the last days. They have felt as though it might be
presumed that some special allusions would be had in some of the prophetic
writings to so distinguishing a community of Zion, and of men. Under the
impression Mr. Edwards apprehended this passage of Isaiah might allude to
America; "So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west." Almost
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all other parts of the world are noted in prophecy. It certainly then is
not incredible that our land should be manifestly noted.
2. The address in the eighteenth of Isaiah to be contemplated, is clearly
an address to some people of these last days; and concerning events
intimately connected with the battle of that great day of God, which is
now future and not far distant, and is to introduce the Millennium. This
event in verses 5 and 6; which will be noted.
3. The address then cannot have been to any ancient people or nation. This
appears with certainty, from their being contemporary with the events of
that great battle, and the restoration of the Jews. The call then must be
to a people of the last days; a nation now on earth; and a nation to be
peculiarly instrumental in the restoration of the Hebrews in the last
days. For this is the very object of the address; to go and collect the
ancient people of God; because "in that time shall the present be brought
unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, (the very people
of the ancient covenant in manifest descriptions repeatedly given) to the
place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the Mount Zion." This duty of the
restoration assigned is in the address connected with the tremendous
scenes of judgment, which shall subvert anti-christian Europe, and her
adjutors hostile to the church; as may be seen.
4. The address then seems manifestly to a nation that may seem to have
leisure for the important business assigned; while the old and eastern
parts of the world (engaged in anti-christian hostilities) shall be found
in the effervescence of revolutions, and in those struggles which precede
dissolution. This consideration seems clearly to fix the address to a
people distinct, and distant from the immediate turmoils of the old
anti-christian lands; and hence probably to our own nation; perhaps
including Britain.
5. Should it be proved a fact, that the aborigines of our continent are
the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel, that we are the people
especially addressed, and
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called upon to restore them; or bring them to the knowledge of the gospel,
and to do with them whatever the God of Abraham designs shall be done.
The great and generous Christian people, who occupy much of the land of
those natives, and who are on the ground of their continent, and hence are
the best prepared to meliorate their condition, and bring them to the
knowledge and order of the God of Israel, must of course be the people to
whom this work is assigned. The one consideration would do much toward the
decision of our question, Who is the nation addressed?
6. Various things are found in the predictions of the restoration of God's
ancient people, which strikingly accord with the idea of a great branch of
them being recovered from this land, and by the agency of the people of
our states. A few of these shall be noted.
In the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters of Jeremiah, the prophet treats
of the united restoration of Judah and Israel. These chapters were written
about one hundred and twenty years after the expulsion of the ten tribes.
And in relation to the ten tribes, they have never yet had even a primary
accomplishment, or any degree of fulfilment. The restoration there
predicted is to be in "the latter days;" chap. xxx. 24; and at the time
near the battle of the great day; see verses 6--8, 23, 24. Much of the
substance of these chapters is appropriated to the ten tribes of Israel;
though Judah is expressly to be restored with them. Of the former (having
then been outcast for an hundred and twenty years.) God says; chap.xxxi.
20; "Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For since I spake
against him, (or expelled him from Canaan.) I do earnestly remember him
still; therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy
upon him, saith the Lord." The next verse invites and predicts his final
restoration. These yearnings of the divine compassion for Ephraim (one
noted name of the ten tribes) are the immediate precursor of his
restoration. "I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord." Set thee
up way marks, make thee high leaps, set thine heart toward the high
way--turn again, O virgin of Israel;
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turn again to these thy cities." "I will again be the God of all the
families of Israel; and they shall be my people." "For lo, the days come.
saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel
and Judah; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave their
fathers, and they shall possess it." "Fear thou not, O my servant Jacob,
saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel; for lo I will save thee
from afar." "Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather
them from the coasts of the earth." In this country "afar" off, these
"coasts of the earth," they had been in an outcast state. "Because they
called thee an outcast, saying; "This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after."
(For more than 2000 years none sought after the ten tribes.) These ideas
striking accord with their having been outcasts from the known world, in
America. This might with singular propriety be called the land afar off,
and the coasts of the earth.
In the same connexion, when God promises to gather them "from the coasts
of the earth," and says, "they shall come with weeping and with
supplication; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first born;"
he adds; "Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the
isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and
keep him as the shepherd doth his flock." "Isles afar off!" "Isles in the
Hebrew language, signify any lands ever so extensive, away over great
waters. Where can these "isles afar off," (these "coasts off the earth,"
here addressed by God in relation to the restoration of his outcast; yet
beloved Ephraim,) where can they be so naturally found as in America?
In Jer. xvi. 14, 15, 16. God is predicting the restoration of Israel in
the last days. "Therefore behold, the days come saith the Lord, that it
shall no more be said. The Lord liveth that brought up the children of
Israel out of Egypt, but the Lord liveth that brought up the children of
Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had
driven them; and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto
their fathers." Here is the greatness of their restoration. In the next
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verse follows the manner of it. "Behold I will send for many fishers,
saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many
hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every
hill,and out of the holes of the rocks." Here is a most striking
description of Israel's being recovered from a great wilderness like the
sea; and from the hills, mountains, and rocks of the vast wilds of
America. The description seems well to accord with their being sought in a
savage state among such wilds, mountains and rocks, as the wilds of our
continent present; especially the Rocky mountains, in the western regions
of North America. The first missionaries fish them from the plains of the
continent. Afterward missionary hunters are sent to rocky mountains and
hills, more remote and savage. This prediction accords probably with no
other country and its inhabitants so well, as with the wilds and natives
of America. The coincidence with these seems perfect.
In other prophets the same things are found. In Isai.xliii. God promises
this same restoration of Israel. "But now, thus saith the Lord, that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, I have called thee by thy
name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with
thee. I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore will I give
men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not, for I am with thee. I
will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will
say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back; bring my sons
from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth." "Thus saith the
Lord, who maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;
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
deserts." In Isai. xi. is this wonderful restoration. Ephraim and Judah
are both restored, the one from his "dispersed." the other from his
"outcast" state; and their mutual envies are forever healed. And the
places from which they are recovered are noted; among which are
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"the isles of the sea;" or lands away over the sea, and "the four corners
of the earth." Certainly then, from America! This surely is one of the
four corners of the earth. Of such a land away over the sea, it is
predicted, Isai. lx. 9; "Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships
of Tarnish first, (or a power expert in navigation,) to bring my sons from
far."
In Zechariah's prophecy is the same thing. This prophet was sent to
encourage in the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple soon after the
return from Babylon. As this return was to exhibit a primary fulfilment of
many prophecies of the restoration of the Hebrews, which are clearly to
have their ultimate accomplishment; so Zechariah clearly predicted the
latter event, and said various things peculiar to it. Chap. ii. 6; "Ho,
ho, come forth and flee from the land of the north, saith the Lord; for I
have spread you abroad as the four winds of heaven, saith the Lord." This
must allude to the great dispersion of Judah, and outcast state of Israel,
which strewed them over the face of the earth; and could not have been
fulfilled in the Babylonish captivity, which did not disperse them to all
points of the compass. Verse 8; "For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After
the glory hath he sent me unto the nations, which spoiled you." This must
be the same with various predictions which speak of the battle of the
great day as a display of God's glory; and which speak of a subsequent
going forth of missionaries (probably Jewish) to convert the nations where
the Hebrews had resided. See Isai. lxvi. 18--24, &c. Verses 10, 11; "Sing
and rejoice, O daughters of Zion; for lo, I come and I will dwell in the
midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined to the
Lord in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in the midst of
thee."--Many nations were not joined to the Jews upon their return from
Babylon. Nothing of this prediction then took place. It predicted an event
still future, to be accomplished upon the restoration of the Hebrews to
Palestine. The prophet then says, verse 13; "Be silent, O all flesh,
before the
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Lord; for he is raised up out of his holy habitation." This verse
perfectly accords with the numerous predictions of the battle of the great
day, nearly associated with the final restoration of the Jews. But it
received not its fulfilment in the days of Zechariah.
In chapter vii. are predictions of the same final restoration of that
people. After predicting God's great jealousy and fury in behalf of his
people, he says; "I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of
Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain
of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain." It then follows, verse 7; "Thus
saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east
country, and from the west country." By the west country here, we suppose
it meant America. None were saved from any west country, at the time of
the restoration from Babylon. This shows then, that the thing predicted
from, the future of that event. In the original, and in the margin of the
great bible, the phrase is; "from the country of the going down of the
sun." The going down of the sun from Palestine is over America. And as God
had said in a passage just quoted from this prophet, "For I have spread
you abroad as the four winds of heaven;" so America must probably be
included in this description of their being spread over. To decide more
clearly that the ultimate events here predicted are still future, the Most
High says in this 8th chapter, verse 13; "And it shall come to pass that
as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of
Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing." Here is the
express restoration of the house of Israel, with that of Judah. But the
"house of Israel" were not restored with the "house of Judah" when the
latter returned from Babylon; nor have they at any time since been
restored. The event then is clearly future, and was distinct and was
distant from any ancient restoration. It was to take place after a long
and noted scattering of that people to the four winds! and their they were
to be "spread abroad as the four winds," and thence recovered, and
recovered from the "coasts of the
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earth," and "isles afar off," and "from the west;" this surely is not
unfavorable to the idea of Israel's being found in the wilds of America.
In Zech. x. 6-9, is the same event; and Ephraim is by name saved from "far
countries." "And I will strengthen the hose of Judah, and will save the
house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have
mercy upon them; and they shall be as though I had not cast them off; for
I am the Lord their God, and will hear them. And they of Ephraim shall be
like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine; yea,
their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the
Lord. I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them; and
they shall increase as they have increased. And I will save them among the
people; and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall live
with their children, and turn again." "I will hiss for them." God is
represented as hissing for a people, only in two texts beside this; Isai.
v. 26, and vii, 18; in both of which passages, the hiss was to call
distant heathen. God's hissing, in this passage then, to gather the
children of Ephraim in the last days, seems to indicate his providentially
calling them from a distant heathen state! And it is a mode of calling
which perfectly symbolizes with the calls of American natives, a shrill
significant whistling.
Such promises of the restoration of Israel from far countries, from the
west or the going down of the sun, from the coasts of the earth, from the
ends of the earth, from isles afar, their being brought in ships from far,
making their way in the sea, their path in the mighty waters; these
expressions certainly well accord with the ten tribes being brought from
America. And such passages imply an agency by which such a restoration
shall be effected. Where shall such an agency be so naturally found, as
among a great Christian people, providentially planted on the very ground
occupied by the outcast tribes of Israel in their long exilement; and who
are so happily remote from the bloody scenes of Europe in the last days,
as to have leisure for the important business assigned?
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Surely then this business would be assigned. either tacitly or expressly
to our nation. At this conclusion we safely arrive, reasoning a priori.
The circumstances of the case enforce it. And we might expect so
interesting a duty, relative to an event on which the prophecies so
abundantly rest, would not be left to uncertain deductions, but would be
expressly enjoined.
We may then open the prophetic scriptures with some good degree of
confidence, that the assignment of such a task is somewhere to be found.
And where so natural to be found as in the prophecy of Isaiah? he is the
most evangelical prophet; and treats largely upon the restoration of his
brethren.
The expulsion of Israel is supposed to have taken place 725 years before
Christ. Isaiah is supposed to have begun his ministry about the year 760
before Christ; 35 years before the expulsion of the ten tribes. And his
pious heart must have been deeply affected with the event. His prophecy
was "in the days Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah." But
in 2 Kings. xvii. 1; we learn that "in the twelfth year of Ahaz, Hoshea
began to reign over Samaria." And in verse 9 we are assured; "In the ninth
year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away
into Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and in Habor by the river Gozen,
and in the cities (or territories) of the Medes." This event then, must
have been in the days of Isaiah. In Isai. xxxvi. 19, where Rabshakah is
insulting the officers of Hezekiah, he says, "Where are the gods of Hamah,
and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria
out of my hand?" Here it seems Samaria, or Israel, had already fallen.
Accordingly Isaiah laments, chap. v. 13; "Therefore my people are gone
into captivity, because they have know knowledge."
There is one passage that seems to place the captivity of Israel just
subsequent to the prophecy of this prophet, Isai. vii. 8, where Jerusalem
was invaded by a coalition of the king of Syria and the king of
Israel;--Isaiah, to show that this joint effort against the Jews
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should not prevail, predicted "within threescore and five years shall
Ephraim be broken that it be not a people." But it seems from the passages
just quoted, that the main body of Israel were gone before this period, or
the end of sixty-five years. This prediction then, must allude to a
finishing scene, which should sweep away even the gleanings of the nation
of Israel. Hence Scott says upon the passage; "It is computed to have been
sixty five years from this prediction to the time that Esaraddon carried
away the remains of the Israelites." The main body then, it seems, had
been gone before, and were swept away in the days of Isaiah. This must
have most deeply affected his pious heart. And it is natural to view him
revolving in his anxious mind the place of their long exilement; and
delighted with a view of their final restoration.
Behold this man of God, then, wrapt in the visions of the Almighty,
casting an eye of faith down the lapse of time of the days of the final
restoration of his long rejected brethren. He finds presented in vision,
away over the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic, far in the west, or going
down of the sun, the continent of their long banishment. He also beholds
in vision a great nation arising there in the last days; a land of freedom
and religion. He hears the whisper of the Spirit of inspiration, directing
him to address that far sequestered and happy land, and call their
attention to the final restoration of his people.
Isaiah xviii. verse i; "Ho, land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the
rivers of Ethiopia." Our translators render this address, "Wo to the
land."--But this is manifestly incorrect, as the best expositors agree.
The Hebrew particle here translated Wo to, is a particle of friendly
calling, as well as of denouncing. And the connexion in any given place
must decide which rendering shall be given. In this place, the whole
connexion and sense decide, that the word is here a friendly call, or
address; as in this passage; "Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters."
The land addressed, lies "beyond the rivers of Ethiopia." It is agreed
that these rivers mean the mouths
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of the Nile, which enter from Egypt into the south side of the
Mediterranean. This probably was the farthest boundary in that direction
then known to the Jews. And no doubt it was the most noted of any in that
point of compass. When a landscape of a western continent then, was
presented in vision to the prophet precisely in that course, he would
naturally fix upon the place most notable and farthest distant, by which
to describe the direction of this region of the world. It is then as
though the prophet had said; Thou land beheld in vision away over the
mouths of the Nile. Where would such a line strike? It would glance over
the northern edge of the States of Barbary. But could the friendly address
to a people of the last days, light on those barbarous Mohammedan shores?
Surely not. No land "shadowing with wings," or that would aid the
restoration of the Hebrews, is found in those horrid regions. No; the
point of the compass and the address must have been designed for a new
world, seen in that direction. This address of Heaven must be to our
western continent; or to a hospitable people found here. The prophetic eye
glanced beyond all lands then known; and hence no land is named. It must
have been a land over the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
Thou land "shadowing with wings." The above direction lands the prophetic
vision at the point of the western continent, where the two great wings of
North and South America meet; as the body of a great eagle. This at first
might furnish the prophetic imagery of a land "shadowing with wings." As
though the inspiring Spirit had whispered; The continent of those two
great wings shall be found at last most interesting in relation to your
Hebrew brethren.
And those two great wings shall prove but an emblem of a great nation then
on that continent; far sequestered from the seat of anti-christ, and of
tyranny and blood; and whose asylum for equal rights, liberty and
religion, shall be well represented by such a national coat of arms,--the
protecting wings of a great eagle; which nation in yonder setting of the
sun, (when in the last days, judgments shall be thundering through
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the nations of the eastern continent,) shall be found a realm of peaceful
protection to all who fly from the abodes of despotism to its peaceful
retreat; even as an eagle protects her nest from all harm. Yea, a land
that, when all other lands shall be found to have trampled on the Jews,
shall be found to have protecting wings for them, free from such cruelty,
and ready to aid them.
Verse 2; "Who sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes
upon the face of the waters." It is to be supposed that a great difficulty
would at once present itself to the prophet's view, when beholding in
vision this western continent, over the mighty waters of the
Mediterranean, and the Atlantic, and about to be called to restore his
people. What could be done across such mighty waters? The difficulty at
once vanishes, by the prophet's being ascertained of this characteristic
of the people addressed. They would be most expert in navigation. They
could traverse the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and be able to send
missionaries to Jerusalem, or to the ends of the earth, in those last
days, or convey the Hebrews from one continent to another, with an
expedition similar to that with which the Nile (beyond which this new
world is beheld) used to be navigated with the skiffs made of the bulrush,
or the rind of the papyrus.(*)
Verse 2, concluded. "Saying, go ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered
and peeled, to a people terrible from the beginning hitherto; a nation
meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled." `Saying,'
before the command Go, is interpolated in our translation, and destroys
the sense; as though the nation said this to her swift messengers; whereas
it is what God
(*) Our states may claim the characteristic of expert navigation, equal at
least to any people on earth. Consider our steam boat navigation, and such
accounts as the following; found in Niles' Register, of March 22, 1823.
"Baltimore vessels.--The brig Thessulian arrived at Baltimore on Saturday
evening last, in 79 days from Lima, and 24 from the sight of the city of
Pernambuen, in Brazil; a distance of 12,000 miles; averaging six and a
quarter miles every hour of her passage. This vessel was, less than eight
months ago, on the stocks in this city."
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says to the nation addressed. q. d. Come thou protecting nation; I have a
great business for you. Collect and restore my ancient people; that nation
whose ancient history has been so remarkable and terrible;(*) that nation
so long dispersed, robbed, and insulted, in the people of the Jews; and so
long outcast in the ten tribes; that people of line line, (as in the
Hebrew, and in the margin of the great bible;) or, whose only hope to find
their ancient inheritance must be in the line of divine promise, or the
entail of the covenant. As the land addressed is described as away over
the mouths of the Nile; so various characteristics in the address are
suggested from thought associated with that river, and the people on its
banks; as the bulrush vessel just noted; and here the measuring line. The
river Nile periodically overflowed its banks, and swept away the
boundaries of every man's inheritance on its interval. Every man then, had
to depend on a noted line, to measure anew and find his land. So the
Hebrews, having by their sins, and expulsion from Canaan, and from the
covenant of Abraham, lost all the visible boundaries of their inheritance,
having no ground of hope of regaining their standing either in Palestine,
or in the covenant of grace, but the line of the mere and sovereign
promise of God, for their restoration.(*) The word is doubled, line, line;
a mere Hebraism. to form a superlative. As peace, peace, means perfect
peace,--Isai. xxvi. 3; and as good, good, means the best; so line, line,
means superlatively of line, or altogether dependent on the mere promise
of God. That the allusion is to the event noted is evident from what
follows:--
(*) If this characteristic allude to this people in their dispersed state,
as do the other characteristics here connected with it, it must be
construed, as the Hebrew well admits, as their being subjected to great
terror. This has been the fact. And this well accords with ancient
predictions relative to them. Lev. xxvi. 16. "I will even appoint over you
terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes,
and cause sorrow of heart." Deut. xxvii. 37; "And thou shalt become an
astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all nations whither the Lord
shall lead thee." The Jews during their dispersion, have been a people
worn down with perpetual terrors. But they were terrible to mimical
nations from ancient date, The text may allude to either, or both of these
characteristics.
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"Whose land the rivers have spoiled." Whose inheritance (in the Holy Land)
has been torn from them, and overrun by neighboring hostile nations, often
symbolized by rivers, even as the lands by the sides of the Nile often had
their boundaries swept away by the overflowings of that river. Thus the
Romans first, then the Persians, the Saracens, the Egyptians, and the
Turks, have overflowed and possessed the Holy Land. But the line of divine
promise will restore it to the Hebrews.(*)
Go thou protecting people; shadow with thy wings my ancient family, as
though the Most High should say. For thus it is written; "Surely the isles
shall wait for me, (or lands away over the sea from Palestine,) and the
ships of Tarshish first, (a people expert in navigation,) to bring my sons
from far." A far distant land over sea shall be engaged in this work.
Verse 3. "All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see
ye when he lifteth up the ensign on the mountains, and when he bloweth a
trumpet, hear ye." After the land shadowing with wings is under way in
fulfilment of the divine requirement; an apostrophe is made by the Most
High to all nations, to stand and behold of salvation now erected for his
ancient people; and to hear the great gospel trumpet, the blessed Jubilee,
now to be blown for their collection and their freedom. The ancient silver
trumpets in Israel collected their solemn assemblies. And the same
trumpets, with joyful and peculiar blasts, ushered in the Jubilee morn,
and loosed every bond slave of the Hebrews. And the antitype of the event
shall now be accomplished.
(*) Much perplexity had rested on the passage, a nation of line, line,
till the above solution occurred to mind. With this I am fully satisfied.
It is natural, as is the bulrush navigation. It agrees with facts, and is
confirmed by the clause following; "whose land the rivers have spoiled."
Here the long occupancy of their beloved Canaan by hostile invading
nations, is noted by a figure, alluding to the overflowing of the
Nile;--which confirms the idea that the phrase, "a nation of line, line,"
alludes to the same overflowing of the Nile, sweeping away boundaries, and
rendering the use of the line necessary to ascertain every man's bounds.
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This standard of salvation at that period, is a notable event in the
prophets. See Isai. xi. 12, where God sets his hand a second time to
gather his Hebrew family from all nations and regions beyond sea;
doubtless from America, as well as other nations; and it is promised, "He
shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of
Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners
of the earth." If from the four corners of the earth, then surely from
America! In this passage are the descriptive situations from which the two
great branches of the Hebrews are recovered; Judah from being dispersed
among the nations; and Israel from being outcast from the nations; thrown
out of sight of the social world; precisely as they have been in the wilds
of America for more than two thousand years, provided our natives are of
Israel.
Verse 4. "For so the Lord said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will
consider my dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud
of dew in the heat of harvest." The event and the figures in this passage
are best explained by those found in synchronical passages, or prophecies
alluding to the same event. And according to them, it is as though the
Most High should say; I am now about to renew my ancient dwelling place. I
will again have fixed habitation in Canaan; as Zech. i. 16: "Thus saith
the Lord, I am again returned to Jerusalem with mercies; my house shall be
built in it;" and viii. 3; "Thus saith the Lord, I am returned unto Zion,
and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem." And the event shall be as "life
from the dead" to the nations; Rom.xi. 15. Therefore, ye Gentile lands,
now behold. I will now be to my ancient heritage like the genial heat of
the sun to promote vegetation after the death of winter; as Isai. xxvi.
19, "Thy dew is the dew of herbs," which in the spring shall vegetate.
"And I will be like the fertile cooling cloud in the sultry heat of
harvest." The Hebrews shall now become "as the tender grass springing out
of the earth, by the clear shining after rain;" 2 Sam. xxiii. 4. Yes, "I
will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall
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grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall
spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as
Lebanon; Hos. xvi. 5, 6. The nations shall behold this fulfilment of
divine grace to Israel, and shall find instruments raised up adequate to
the work.
But a tremendous scene to the anti-christian world shall be found
intimately connected.
Verse 5. "For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour
grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with
pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches." Or near the
fulfilment of this even of the last days, a vast scene is to be
accomplished, Prophetic notice is ever given relative to that period, that
the salvation of the friends of Zion shall be ushered in with a
proportionable destruction to her enemies. The harvest and the vintage of
divine wrath, called "the battle of that great day of God Almighty," must
be accomplished; and at the time of the restoration of the Hebrews, that
tremendous event shall be at the doors. As in the natural vineyard, when
the blossom is succeeded by the swelled pulp, which soon reaches the size
of the full grape, indicating that the vintage is near; so at the time of
the service here divinely demanded, wickedness shall have blossomed; pride
shall have budded in anti-christian realms. The sour grapes of their
tyranny, violence, and licentiousness, will be found to be arriving at
their growth; indicating that the time for the casting of the vine of the
earth into the wine press of the wrath of God, is just at hand.
Verse 6. "They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and
the beasts of the earth; and the fowls shall summer upon them, and the
beasts of the earth shall winter upon them." Soon the most prominent
branches of the anti-christian vine of the earth, shall be collected and
trodden upon the mountains of Israel, in the noted scene of Armageddon;
Rev. xxi. 16. The passage noted in Ezek. xxxix. 17--20, (at the time of
the slaughter of Gog and his bands, and which is given as an illustration
of the text,) shall then be accomplished.
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"And thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God, speak unto every feathered
fowl, and to every beasts of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come;
gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for
you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat
flesh, and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink
the blood of the princes of the earth; of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of
bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. And ye shall eat fat till ye be
full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have
sacrificed for you. Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and
chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord God."
Also the further illustration of the same, Rev. xix. 17, 18; "And I saw an
angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all
the fowls that fly in the midst of Heaven, Come and gather yourselves unto
the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings and the
flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses,
and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and
bond, both small and great."
Verse 7. "At that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts
of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from the
beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot; whose land
the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, to
Mount Zion." Just at that period of the world, the present which I claim
of you shall be brought to the Lord of hosts, of that scattered and
outcast people; of that people so terrible in ancient times to their
enemies by the presence and power of their God with them; that people of
"line, line," or depending solely on the measuring line of promise, or the
entail of the covenant, found in the sacred oracles, for their restoration
to their ancient inheritance in the church of God, and in the promised
land; inasmuch as the boundaries of their inheritance in both these
respects have long since been swept away. A present of this people must be
brought by you, sequestered land
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shadowing with wings, unto the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the
Mount Zion.
Ye friends of God in the land addressed; can you read this prophetic
direction of the ancient prophet Isaiah, without having your hearts burn
within you? Surely you cannot, if you can view it as an address of the
Most High to you. God here exalts you, in the last days, the age of terror
and blood, as high as the standard to be raised for the collection of the
seed of Abraham; "on the mountains." Nor is this the only passage, in
which this your exaltation is recognized. See the same honor alluded to,
in Zeph iii. 10.--There nearly connected with the battle of the great day
of God, in which he there asserts he "will gather the nations, and
assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them his indignation, even all his
fierce anger, and all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of his
jealousy;" and that he will then "turn to the people a pure language, that
they may all call upon the name of the Lord, and serve him with one
consent;" he informs, as in the address in Isaiah; "From beyond the rivers
of Ethiopia, my suppliants (or a people who are my worshippers,) shall
bring mine offering, even the daughter of my dispersed." (as the verse
should be read.) Here is the same people, away in the same direction, over
the mouths of the Nile, who are called God's suppliants, and who, in those
days of vengeance, are to bring their offerings to God, consisting of the
descendants of his ancient people.
If these views be correct. Christians in our land may well bless God that
it is their happy lot to live in this land shadowing with wings; this
protecting realm, an asylum of liberty and religion; a land so distant
from the seat of anti-christ and of the judgments to be thundered down on
old corrupt establishments in the last days. And their devout gratitude to
Heaven ought to rise, for the blessing of having their existence so near
the period alluded to in this sublime prediction, when this land of
liberty is beginning to feel her distinguishing immunities compared with
the establishments of tyranny and corruption in the old continent. We may
rejoice
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to have our earthly lot with a people of whom such honourable mention is
made by the prophetic spirit of old; and to whom so noble a work is
assigned. Our children coming upon the stage may live to see the meaning
and fulfilment of this prophetic chapter, which is most rich in sentiment,
and when will not fail of accomplishment.
The great argument found in this sacred address, to induce to a compliance
with the duty demanded, is the terrors of the days of vengeance on eastern
corrupt nations; which seems to imply some good degree of exemption in our
own case, and our happy leisure for the business assigned. Heaven will
show despotic nations, and old corrupt empires, the difference between
them, and a land shadowing with wings;" a happy asylum of liberty and
religion in the west.
Can a motive be wanting to induce us to maintain the character implied in
this address, and to obey the injunction of Heaven here urged upon us?
Should and say, what can be done? Let this be the reply; be devoutly
disposed and prepared to obey; and Heaven will, in due time, make the duty
plain. By prayer, contributions, and your influence, be prepared to aid
every attempt for the conversion of the Jews and Israel; and God will be
his own interpreter, and will make the duty plain.
A leading step has already been taken in a Jerusalem mission. This may
prove, in relation to a fulfilment of our text, a cloud like a man's hand,
which shall afford a sound of great rain; and shall water the hills of
ancient Zion. How great effects spring from little causes! A purling
stream from the threshold of the sanctuary, soon rises to the ankles, to
the knees, to the loins, and to an unfordable river, which heals the Dead
sea; Ezek. xlvii. Already has the bulrush vessel slipped from the "land
shadowing with wings," across the mighty waters, over the prophetic eye
glanced; over the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, by the mouths of the
"rivers of Ethiopia," and has landed her "ambassadors," for a Jerusalem
mission! Bless the Lord, O children of Abraham, for this ray of light from
the
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land of the going down of the sun. This may shed an incipient lustre on
the noted passage in our evangelical prophet. It may prove to the children
of Abraham, in these days of signal phenomena, a morning rising in the
west to break their long and dreadful night! Let us, dear country men,
second this attempt with our intercessions, our contributions, and our
influence. May all societies formed in behalf of the Jews, and all
solicitations in their favour, meet our most fervent patronage. And God
will not fail of fulfiling by us his gracious designs. The blessed
business will be brought within our reach, and will be accomplished.
The ten tribes, as well as the Jews, belong to the "nation scattered and
peeled, and terrible from the beginning." Yes, the stick of Ephraim is to
become one in the hand of the prophet, with the stick of the Jews; Ezek.
xxxvii. 15.--If it is a fact, that the aborigines of this "land shadowing
with wings," are the tribes of Israel; we perceive at once what can be
done to fulfil the noted demand of God, as it relates to them.--And all
who fear God will leap for joy, that as the Jerusalem mission is already
under way; so missions to these tribes of Israel are already under way!
Should we find ample conviction that our natives are of the lost tribes of
the house of Israel, and that the address noted is directed to us; we may
in the light of this address, and of evangelical considerations connected
with it, imagine ourselves as though seated in the audience of the prophet
Isaiah;--may imagine him sighing at the long and dreadful exilement of his
brethren of Israel;--and uttering the following sentiments of the holy
prophetic spirit;
Ho thou nation of the last days, shadowing with thy wings of liberty and
peace; pity, instruct, and save my ancient people and brethren; especially
that outcast branch of them, who were the natives of your soil. Pity that
degraded remnant of a nation so terrible in ancient times, but who have
been now so long wretched. Bring a present of them, ye worshippers of
Jehovah, to the God of Abraham. Give not sleep to your eyes, till a house
be builded to your God, from those
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ancient and venerable materials.--Were not your fathers sent into that far
distant world, not only to be (in their posterity) built up a great
protecting nation; but also to be the instruments of gathering, or
recovering the miserable remnant of my outcasts there, in the last
days?(*) Rejoice, then, ye distinguished people in your birth-right, and
engage in the work by Heaven assigned. Let not those tribes of my ancient
people, whom I have borne as on eagles, wings for so many ages; let them
not become extinct before your eyes; let them no longer roam in savage
barbarism and death! My bowels yearn for Ephraim, my first born. "For
since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still." "I have
seen his ways, and will heal him. I will restore peace to him, and to his
mourners; peace in the renewal of my covenant. I will again hear him on
eagles wings, and bring him to myself. For you, (my suppliants in the
west.) this honour is received;" Zeph. iii. 10. The wings of your
continent have long
(*) This day of christianizing the natives of our land, even be they from
whatever origin, is enforced from every evangelical consideration. Rev.
Dr. Mayhew accordingly remarks; "As the conversion of the heathen (in this
land) was from the first one professed aim of our forefathers in settling
New England; so almost all the royal charters, grants, letters patent, and
aces of government in England relative to this country, have made mention
of, and encouraged, yea enjoined upon the settlers, the prosecution of
this pious design." The same author notes in the new charter granted by
William and Mary to Massachusetts, an express recognition of this object.
viz "to win the Indians to the knowledge and obedience of the only true
God and Saviour of men." The same object is expressly recognized in the
charter granted by king Charles II. to William Penn of Pennsylvania. How
sadly has the object been neglected and forgotten! If our natives be
indeed from the tribes of Israel, American Christians may well feel, that
one great object of their inheritance here, is that they may have a
primary agency in restoring those "lost sheep of the house of Israel."
Those Hebrews first occupied the blessings of the covenant under the old
and dark dispensation. Then the Christian Gentiles came into possession of
the blessings of this covenant, under its last, the Christian
dispensation. Noah, more than four thousand years ago, in prophetic
rhapsody, uttered the following prediction. Gen. ix. 27; "God shall
enlarge Japheth; (i.e. the Gentiles) and he shall dwell in the tents of
Shem," (or of the Hebrews.) But this event is only till the fulness of the
Gentiles be come in; Rom. xi. 25. Then shall the Hebrews again take their
place, as God's first born. (Jer. xxxi. 20, 21; Zech. i. 16. Isai. lx) Let
us thou be active in restoring their long lost blessing.
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borne him in his banishment. Let now the wings of your liberty,
compassion, and blessed retreat, bear him from his dreary wild to the
temple of God.
Look at the origin of those degraded natives of your continent, and fly to
their relief.--Send them the heralds of salvation. Send them the word, the
bread of life. You received that book from the seed of Abraham. All your
volume of salvation was written by the sons of Jacob. And by them it was
transferred from Jerusalem to the lost heathen world, and to you;
otherwise you had now been heathen, and eternally undone. Remember then
your debt of gratitude to God's ancient people for the word of life.
Restore it to them, and thus double your own rich inheritance in its
blessings. Learn them to read the book of grace. Learn them its history
and their own. Teach them the story of their ancestors; the economy of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Sublimate their views above the savage pursuits
of the forests. Elevate them above the wilds of barbarism and death, by
showing them what has been done for their nation; and what is yet to be
done by the God of their fathers, in the line of his promise. Teach them
their ancient history; their former blessings; their being cast away; the
occasion of it, and the promise of their return. Tell them the time draws
near, and they must now return to God of their salvation. Tell them their
return is to be as life from the dead to the Gentile nations. Tell them
what their ancient fathers the prophets were inspired to predict in their
behalf; and the charge here given for their restoration. Assure them this
talk of an ancient prophet, is for them, and they must listen to it and
obey it. That the Great Spirit above the clouds now calls them by you to
come and receive his grace by Christ the true star from Jacob, the Shiloh
who has come, and to whom the people must be gathered. Inform them that by
embracing this true seed of Abraham, you and multitudes of other Gentiles,
have become the children of the ancient patriarch; and now they must come
back as your brothers in the Lord. Unfold to them their superlative line
of the entail of the covenant; that "as
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touching this election, they are beloved for their fathers' sakes;" that
they were for their sins excluded for this long period, until the fulness
of the Gentiles be come in, so all Israel shall be saved.
God, thou nation highly distinguished in the last days; save the remnant
of my people.--Bring me a present of them "to the place of the name of the
Lord of hosts, the Mount Zion."
NOTE.--Since publishing the first edition of this View of the Hebrews, the
writer has for the first time obtained sight of an exposition upon this
chapter of Isaiah by Dr. McDonald, and feels himself strengthened in a
persuasion of the correctness of applying this address of the prophet to
America. As the two expositons are before the public, the writer forbears
to make any remarks, except upon one idea. Dr. McDonald, upon the bulrush
navigation of the nation addressed, conceives that it may have, perhaps,
considerable reference to the boat and canoe navigation of internal
streams. And observing that "the central and eastern regions of Asia are
generally supposed to be the present seats of Israel's dispersion' what
nation then of Christendom can convey with so much ease and expedition, as
the Americans, their messengers to the shores of that vast and unexplored
country? What nation is better qualified to search and discover them in
their unknown retreats? Sheltered in the capacious bosom of mountains,
that reach the clouds, occupying the extensive sides of rivers rapid and
broad, who waves never felt the keel, and on whose banks a highway has
never been stretched; to European missionaries their retreat would be
inaccessible, without a great expense of time and labour. But these
obstacles oppose difficulties early surmounted by the nation of the canoe.
Bred with the paddle in their hand, and taught to construct vessels,
lighter than the bulrush, they can ascend every stream, wind round the
foot of every mountain, and as circumstances require, they can carry their
canoe, or be carried by it." Had this author been led to believe that the
natives in the vast wilds of America are the ten tribes of Israel; and it
comes within the prescribed duty of the people addressed by the prophet,
to recover these outcast tribes; he would have perceived the application
he makes, to come with still greater force to the sons of America, in
relation to their searching out the wild tenants of the forests in the
west, and through the wilds of America. It is a fact, the bulrush
navigation, or light boats and birch canoes, have been a powerful
auxiliary to travellers among the Indians, in ascending and descending
their streams, in coming at their villages, and winding round the feet of
mountains, carrying their canoes, or being carried by them in turn, to
learn the existence and the customs of the natives. And the same means
must be pursued, (and have already in a measure been pursued,) in carrying
to them the world of life, and blessings of civilization. While the writer
of these sheets still believe the leading object in the allusion to the
ancient bulrush navigation of the Nile, when addressing our land, is to
fix our characteristic of expertness
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in the navigation of seas and oceans--"who sendeth messengers by the sea
even in vessels of bulrushes"--yet he feels no difficulty in admitting
that it also comprehends our great facilities in inland navigation. The
eye of the prophetic spirit might partially rest on this circumstance, in
fixing this characteristic of the nation in the west, who was the subject
of the message.
In relation to the American people having a favourable agency in
meliorating the condition of the Jews, as well as the tribes of Israel, it
appears the thought has struck the minds of some on the eastern continent,
as well as the western. Consult the following:
Extract of a letter from Erasmus Hermanus Simon of Stockholm, to the
Secretary of the American Meliorating Society, dated April 26, 1823.
"I am constrained to congratulate you, western Christians, on the glorious
prospects which are before you. It has become evident to me, that the Lord
reserves for the Christians of America the scriptural means of effectually
benefitting the lost stock of Israel. Nothing can be conceived worse than
the present state of religion over the continent (of Europe) in general.
And nothing so subversive of that little serious impression, which means a
month or two of superficial teaching may have made, than their being left
to the danger which abounds on every hand in what are denominated places
of Christian worship. The reception which proselytes with the best desires
and characters meet with, is truly deplorable. The Society of Frankfort,
had it not been for the American Meliorating Society, would have
degenerated into a mere tract society, having constantly heard of the
miseries which beset those proselytes whom they sent seeking for
employment among Christians."
In another letter from the same place, the writer says; "I unite my voice
of thanksgiving and praise to the Supreme Disposer of hearts, who has in
this time of Israel's extremity, turned so many in America to undertake
their neglected cause. Our souls are refreshed by the prospect which is
held out, of "a lodge in the wilderness for the wayfaring men of Israel,
where they may hasten to escape from the storm and tempest. Happy country,
which affords a refuge for Abraham's believing sons!"
The following is ascertained from sample authority; that in many of the
old establishments of Europe, the convicted anxious Jew can obtain little
or no evangelical instruction. Such an one applying to a professed
minister of the reformed church, was informed, "that it was not necessary
to his salvation to believe in the Divinity of Christ. It would be
sufficient should he preserve in the duty of being a good member of
society."
"To a minister in Wurtemburg, (one of the most religious parts of Germany)
a young Israelite came for instruction. He said he found no consolation in
the present state of Judaism, as an immortal being, guilty before God. And
that he wished candidly to inquire into Christianity. The instructor said
to him, (clapping him on the shoulder,) are you an honest man? and do you
disturb nobody? If so; you need not give yourself any trouble about being
saved; you are sure enough of that!" Must not these things operate as a
thousand
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arguments on the people of our Christian land, and of our superior
advantages, to aid the children of Abraham, from whom we have received the
blessings of salvation, and who in their turn are in a perishing state,
and are stretching out their hands, and directing their wishful eyes
across the Atlantic to us, for a return of that same word of eternal life?
May they here find a present asylum; and here be led to the "Balm of
Gilead, the Physician there."
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