and destroyers of Judea, both came from commanding the Roman legions in Britain, which, to the Jews, was nearly the very remotest known island of the western world. "A nation (their "Lawgiver adds) whose language they should not understand;"— a character improbable from the intermixture of dialects in the various Asiatic nations, but strictly true of the Romans, whose language, in its sound, its construction, and its written character, is to this day most different from the language of the Hebrews. A nation, he further describes, "of fierce countenance, "which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to "the young." This too was most strictly fulfilled by the Romans, who, though in general disposed to spare the nations they conquered, yet to the Jews, at the time of their final destruction, showed themselves cruel and implacable. In truth, the destruction of Jerusalem exhibited every scene of horror which imagination can conceive. The besieged divided into three* parties, and butchering one another, first destroying each the provisions of the rest, and then all perishing by the agonies of famine-yet still all ferocious and unyielding in their opposition to their common enemy. Rejecting every overture for peace, fulfilling the prediction of the prophet, "that they should trust "in their strong holds, yet trust in vain," they provoked the fury of the Roman legions to such a degree, that no authority could restrain it.†

In Jerusalem, during the whole siege, according to Josephus, eleven hundred thousand perished; and during the war, ninetyseven thousand were made slaves. And here another remarkable prediction of their Lawgiver was fulfilled: "the Lord (says he) shall send thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way "whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: "and there ye shall be offered for sale unto your enemies for "bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you." This prediction was fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, says Josephus : Of the captives above seventeen years of age, he sent many bound to the works in Egypt; those under that age were sold; but so little care was taken of those miserable

Josephus of the Jewish War, Book v. chap. i. + Josephus, Book vi. chap. ix. sect. 3 and 4. Josephus, Book vi. chap. ix. sect. 2.

Deut. xxviii, 68.

captives, that eleven thousand of them perished for want. And the historian adds, that " they were sold with their wives and "children at the lowest price, there being many to be sold, and "but few purchasers." And after their last overthrow by Adrian, we have the unquestioned testimony of history, that many thousands were sold; and those who could not be sold were transported into Egypt, and perished by shipwreck or famine, or were massacred by the inhabitants.* Now such an

event as this cannot surely be said to come within the common course of human conjecture, and its accomplishment at two remote periods within the regular and natural progress of human events Surely we may here conclude there exists the prescience of Inspiration, and the distinct agency of Providence.

The universal dispersion of this singular people forms a still more extraordinary feature in their fortune. The Lord shall "scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth " even unto the other," says their Legislator.+ And how wonderfully is this prediction, at this hour, verified! From the burning sands of Africa, to the frozen mountains of Polandfrom the confines of China to the British isles; every country has been traversed by the wanderings, and has witnessed the sufferings of this unhappy race; every where we see the traces of their commercial activity; every where they exhibit proofs of their unshaken adherence to their Law. At one period, before the refinement of modern civilization had opened such general intercourse amongst the nations of the earth, that the established merchant can command universal credit, the Jews monopolized the management of almost all remote pecuniary transactions; because, from their universal dispersion, their common language and national connexion, the orders of the Jewish money-brokers could find in every country, and almost every city within the range of commerce, other Jews by whom they would be received and respected. And still do they continue to exist in almost every nation of the habitable globe. On this point we have recent satisfactory testimonies from the East.

During my residence in the East," says the very respectable

* Vide Basnage, Book vi. chap. ix. sect. 26 and 28.

+ Deut. xxviii. 64.-Vide the particulars of this dispersion, Basnage, Books vi and vii.

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Dr Buchanan,* "my mind was much occupied with the pre"sent state and circumstances of the Jews. I visited them in "the different provinces of the British dominions."—" By the "events of the late war in India, a colony of Jews have become "subject to Great Britain, the colony of the white and black "Jews of Cochin: I visited this colony; its number is calcu"lated to be 16,000. The number of the Jews in the United Kingdom is not reputed to be greater than 14,000; so that our Jewish subjects in the East are yet more numerous than "in the West. The white Jews live on the sea coast-the black "Jews live chiefly in the interior; they call themselves BeniIsrael, for their ancestors did not belong to Judah, but to the "kingdom of Israel; they consider themselves to be descended "from those tribes who were carried away at the first captivity. "In some parts of the East (for they are dispersed through it) they never heard of the second Temple; they never heard of "the coming of the Messiah: some of them possess only the "Pentateuch and Psalms, and the Book of Job."-" The Jews "of Cochin (he adds) may be addressed with advantage on the "subject of the Christian religion, for they have the evidence of "the Syrian Christians before them; these ancient Christians “live in their vicinity, and are our witnesses. At one place in "the interior of the country which I visited, there is a Jewish synagogue and a Christian church in the same Hindoo village;

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they stand opposite to each other, as it were the Law and the "Gospel, bearing testimony to the truth in the presence of the "heathen world."

Surely we cannot but see, in this statement, a clear and irrefragable proof of the accomplishment of those predictions, which foretel the dispersion of the Jewish race from one end of the earth even to the other; and yet the facility with which Providence may prepare arrangements for again re-uniting them, when we see two bodies of Jews so numerous, and from each other so remote, as those of our United Kingdom and those of Cochin in Asia, brought as it were into contact, by being placed under the dominion, and capable of being influenced by the measures,

* Vide Dr Buchanan's Speech as to the State of the Jews in the East, delivered at a Public Meeting of the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, in December, 1809, published in London in 1810.

of the same Christian power. Can it be conceived that such predictions should have been the mere effusions of random conjecture, and such accomplishment the effect of blind chance?

Next to the universal dispersion of the Jewish race, the prophet foretells the miseries and sufferings which should every where attend them, so emphatically expressed by the declaration, "I will draw out a sword after you;" and in the prophetic Legislator's final address to the people,* "The Lord shall scat"ter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even "unto the other; and among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the "Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind." On almost the slightest glance into the records of history, we find melancholy proofs of the accuracy with which this prediction has been fulfilled. The learned Historian, who has exhibited so accurate a view of the fortunes of the Jews from the destruction of Jerusalem to the beginning of the 18th century, observes, that in former captivities + "God was careful to preserve the nation in a body, by "conveying them to the same place; it was all united together "in the plains of Goshen, preparatory to its departure from "Egypt. In the Babylonish captivity, one part inhabited the "same cities, and another peopled both the banks of the same "river; so that when Cyrus determined to restore them, he re"united them with ease. But at the destruction of Jerusalem, "and afterwards in the war of Adrian, the nation, weakened by "unheard of massacres, was dispersed into all the provinces of "the empire: this dispersion continues to this hour, and has even extended to the ten tribes, of whom it is difficult now to "discover the remains in the East, where they were once "numerous and considerable." In the earlier period of their dispersion, they frequently rebelled, and struggled against the oppressions they sustained, which only terminated in rendering them more severe. Thus they were prohibited, by the most rigorous edicts, from appearing at Jerusalem, to which they always turned with unceasing and unabated desire. Wherever we find them recovering any degree of populousness, tranquillity,

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* Deut. xxviii. 64, 65.

Basnage, Book vi. ch. i. sect. 2.

Ibid. Bock vi, eh. ix. sect. 27 and 28.

and respect, we see the transitory gleam is soon obscured by the darkest shades of sorrow. If in the tenth century they enjoyed in the East a temporary tranquillity, with an establishment of academies and schools, it was speedily destroyed: "When the "house of the Abassides (says their historian) which always fa"vored them, sunk from its authority, the sultan who succeeded "to their power, resolved to exterminate the Jews: he shut up "their academies, which have never since been opened-ban"ished their profession, killed the prince of the captivity with "his family, and raised so severe a persecution as to reduce the "Jews to a handful of men, disperse them into the deserts of Arabia, and drive them into the western world.”*

Nor could

they in the western world find rest. When a military fanaticism collected the Europeans in thousands to recover the Holy Land, the same spirit led them to persecute with indiscriminate fury the nation which in that land had crucified the Lord of Christians, and still regarded his followers with contempt or aversion. "This persecution (says their historian) was universal—it was "felt alike in Germany and in England, in France and Spain, "and Italy; the public cry was, Come, let us massacre them "in such a manner that the name of Israel shall be no more "remembered. They put to death great numbers, but still "greater numbers, driven to despair by such violence, destroyed "themselves." In other instances, avarice and injustice were as destructive to them as in this instance fanaticism. Universally engaged in commerce, they accumulated wealth, and wealth drew down upon them pillage and extortion. Well may we here adopt the language of their elaborate historian: "We here be"hold the greatest prodigy, in the preservation of the Jewish nation, in despite of all the calamities it has sustained for 1700

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years; we here see a church, which has been hated and per"secuted for 1700 years, still subsisting and numerous: kings "have often employed the severity of edicts, and the hands of "the executioner, to destroy it; the seditious multitude has "perpetrated massacres and persecutions infinitely more tragical "than the princes; both kings and people, heathens, Christians, "and Mahometans, however opposite in other points, have • Basnage, Book vii. ch. iv. sect. 13.

Ibid. Book vii. ch. vii. sect. 32.