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will hardly peruse, with satisfaction, a book in which the Persian has not lent its aid to adorn the style. To the rest, a large proportion of Hindee is more acceptable. The difficulty of ascertaining the point equally removed from either extreme, would be considerably lessened, were there any prose compositions in the language, of acknowledged purity. But unfortunately no such standard exists: no works of any description indeed have been found but poems. Lately some translations in Hindostanee prose have issued from the college of Fort William; but as they have not yet stood the test of time, and are very little known in the country, they could not be safely referred to as a standard. Thus I have been left to the guidance of my own judgment far more than I could have wished."

In regard to the Arabic and Persian translations, both of which Mr. Martyn superintends, as well as the Hindostanee, he thus writes.

"In the Persian and Arabic translations there are happily no such difficulties. The valuable qualities of our Christian brother, Nathaniel Sabat, render this part of the work comparatively easy. As he is, I trust, a serious Christain, the study of the word of God, and the translation of it, are of course a matter of choice with him, and a rigid adherance to the original a point of duty.* As a scholar, his acquire ments are very considerable. He was educated under the care of the most learned man in Bagdad; and having continued to exercise himself in composition, he has acquired in consequence a critical acumen, and great command of words: His ill state of health renders it impossible to say exactly when the work

The solicitude of these translators to infuse the true meaning of the original into their versions, and not to trust entirely to the English Translation, wil appear from the following observations of Mr. Martyn in his last letter. "The Psalms we must leave till the end of the New Testament, for this solid reason, that I do not understand a considerable portion of that book. Much of the present translation is certainly unintelligible. It appears to me, that the two royal authors have suffered more from the plebeian touch of their interpreters, than even the Prophets, or any others but Job. Hebrew has been of late my constant

meditation."

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he has undertaken will be finished; but if nothing untoward happen to interrupt us, you may expect the New Testament in the three languages, in the course of two years."

THE JEWS.

There are three remarkable prophecies concerning the Jews.

1. "The children of Isreal shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim," Hos. iii, 4.

2. "The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other,? Deut. xxix, 64. And yet, "the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned amongst the nations," Num. xxiii, 9.

3. "Thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a bye-word among all the nations whither the Lord shall lead thee. Among these nations shalt thou find no ease, niether shall the sole of thy foot have rest," Deut. xxviii, 37. 65.

The first of these prophecies is very remarkable; for who ever heard of a nation "abiding many days" without its civil and religious polity, and surviving its political existence? The very assertion seems to involve an absurdity. Did the Egyptian, Chaldeans, Greeks, or Romans, survive their civil and religious polity?

The second prediction is not less singular than the former; for if the Jews were to be received among the nations of the earth, why should they not "be reckoned with the nations?" Would any man, in a remote age, venture to foretell that there was a cer*ain nation, which, in the ages to come, would be re

ceived and tolerated by all other nations, merely to be persecuted?*

But the third prophecy is such as must afford a contemplation to infidelity, to the end of time. The Jews were to become, "an astonishment, and a proverb, and a bye-word among all the nations," because they shed the blood of the Savior of the world. Now it is not surprising that Christians should reproach them for such a crime. But how should we expect that they should be "trodden down to the heathen world," who never heard of such a Savior? Behold the Hindoo, at this day, punishing the Jew, without knowing the crime of which he has been guilty!

These three prophecies have been manifestly fulfilled; and if we had no other evidence, this is sufficient to prove "that there is a God, and that he hath made a revelation to man."

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There is a fourth prophecy concerning this people, which will shortly be accomplished. Prophet Hosea, after foretelling that the children of Israel should abide many days without a king, adds these words: "Afterward shall they return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days," Hosea iii, 5.

The question, which is now in the mouth of eve ry Christian, is that which was asked in the vision of the prophet Daniel on the same subject; "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" Dan. xii, 6. When shall the "indignation against the holy

*To this day the Jews "are not reckoned" with the English nation. The propoetical record influeneed the last parliamentary proceeding respecting them. In one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three, a bill was passed to naturalize the Jews; but after a few months it was repealed, the voice of the people demanded that the devoted nation should "not be reckoned with them." So true it is that our last national deliberation concerning this people was influenced by the ancient prophecy. The time is now come when parliament may restore to the Jews the franchise of a fellow creature, without contravening the divine decrees. It is prophesied again, that "Israel shall return to the Lord their God," and that the period of this event is not far remote. In obedience then to the dictate of this prophecy, let our Christian nation proceed, without delay, to take away the reproach of the Jewish people; and pronounce the act in the most public and solemn manner, as an example to the rest of the world.

people be accomplised?" Dan. xi, 31; that they may return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king?"

To Daniel the prophet, and to John the Evangelist, was given a revelation of the great events of the general church to the end of time.' Daniel foretels that the Christian church shall be oppressed by the persecuting powers for "a time, times, and the dividing of a time," Dan. vii, 25. The same period he assigns for the accomplishment of the indignation against the holy people Israel. "One said, how long shall it be to the end of these wonders? And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever, that it shall be for a time, times and a half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be fulfilled," Dan. xii, 7. Now the same form of words is used in the Revelation of St. John, to express the duration of the Papal and Mahomedan powers. Oppressed by them, the church of Christ was to remain desolate in the wilderness, "for a time times, and half of a time," Rev. xii, 14. Every one, who is erudite in sacred prophecy, will understand that this great period of Daniel and St. John commences at the same era, namely, the rise of the persecuting powers; and that its duration is one thousand two hundred and sixty years.*

Here then are three great events hastening to their period; the extinction of the Papal dominion; the subversion of the Mahomedan power; and "the ac complishment of the divine indignation against the holy people," or the return of the people of Israel "to seek the Lord their God, and David their king."

Our blessed Savior has not left an event of this importance without notice. "The Jews," saith he, “shall

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he led away captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled," Luke xxi, 24. What these "times of the Gentiles" are, our Lord has explained in his subsequent Revelation to St John. "The court which is without the temple is given unto the Gentiles; and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months;" or, in prophetical language, at a day for a year, one thousand two hundred and sixty years. Rev. xi, 2.

The apostle Paul hath also recorded this event. "I would not, brethern, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, that blindness, in part, is happended to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved," Rom. xi, 25. The fulness of time for the conversion of the Gentiles will be come in, when the Mahomedan and Papal obstructions are removed. Such events as the fall of the Pope in the west, and of Mahomed in the east, both of whom persecuted the Jews to death, will probably be the means of awakening the Jews to consider the evidences of that religion which predicted the rise and fall of both.

But the grand prophecy of the apostle Paul on this subject, is that which respects the consequence of the conversion of the Jews. "The receiving of the Jews," saith he, "What shall it be to the world, but life from the dead?" Rom. xi, 15. Dispersed as they are in all countries, and speaking the language of all countries, they will form a body of preachers ready prepared; and they need only say, "Behold the scriptures of God, in our possession; read our history there, as foretold three thousand years ago, and read the events in the annals of nations. We are witnesses to the world, and the world to us. Let the whole race of mankind unite and examine the fact." "All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when the lord lifteth up an ensign on the mountains: and when he bloweth

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