it; all Nations deftroyed where they are scattered; and God will raise up David for them. The City fhall be built, they fhall go out finging, they fhall have their own King, their Temple built. V, 20. These things fhall be known in the Latter Days: And these things moft relate to the Return of Judab; and what is writ ch. 31. belongs to Ifrael's Return. V. I. At that time I will be a God to all the Generations of Ifrael. V. 2. I found him in the Wilderness warm, (that is, alive, or newly flain,) amongft them that were killed; let him go, and deftroy not Ifrael. V. 3. The Lord was feen afar off to him. This feems to relate to Ifrael's Return, af ter Chrift appears, and Gog is flain. Zach. 12: v. 4. is the Rejoicing at his Return, and his planting Vineyards in the Mountains of Samaria. V. 6. They are commanded to arise, and go to their God (Chrift) in Sion. V. 7. The Remnant of Ifrael is faved. V. 8. I will bring them from the North, at the Feaft of pacex, (or the Paffover.) Many of the Ten Tribes returned with the Two Tribes; but the greateft Part will be the peaceable Multitude, as Efdras calls them, after the Refurrection of the Juft, a great Multitude. V. 21. Sion is admonished to eftablish her felf, to punish, to give her mind to Labour; Ifrael shall return the fame way he went. V. 22. God will make them a new Plantation, and Men shall come about him. V. 17. Feremy prescribes a Repentance to Ifrael. V. 31. God will make a new Covenant with them. 38. The City is to be re-built according to the Dimensions mentioned; and these agree with Zach. 14. v. 10. and with Ezekiel's City.

This is, in short, the Method for interpreting the Old Prophers: 1. By the Civil Hiftory of the Jews, and the Four Empires; 2. By the Gofpel-Hiftory of our Saviour; 3. By readding the Prophets in the Septuagint, according to their Chro nological Order; the Latter will explain the Older: 4. By the Future Hiftory of the Jews, the Return from their Captivity, the Destruction of Antichrift, and the Refurrection, and their profperous State till the fecond Coming of Chrift defcribed by Efdras and St. John in the Revelations, moft particular: ly by the Laft.

A

A Collection of fuch Prodigies as have been predicted, or obferved, before the Revolutions mentioned in the Old and Modern Prophecies.

INCE the Tokens or Prodigies told Efdras by the An gel, cb. 5. are fo much difgfed by Modern Authors,

I have made this Collection to vindicate that Method of God's Providence, and to shew he has frequently used the fame.

Efdras's Tokens predicted Cyrus's Conqueft of Babylon; the Land shall be wafted, and after the third Trumpet, the Sun (a Meteor like it) shall fuddenly shine in the Night, and the Moon thrice in the Day, and Blood shall drop out of the Wood, and the Stone shall give its Voice. Ifaiah, ch. 13. v. 9. gives this Account; The Day of the Lord cometh to lay the Land wafte. V. 10. The Stars of Heaven and the Conftellations thereof shall not give their Light; the Sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the Moon shall not cause her Light to shine. V. 13. I will shake the Heavens, and the Earth shall remove out of her Place. V. 17. I will ftir up the Medes against them. Fer. 51. v. 29. mentions the shaking of the Earth, and that will make the Heavens to appear to fhake or tremble. And V. 55. Jeremy mentions the deftroying of the Noife of the Waters about Babylon. This is Efdras's Sodomitih Sea. Habakkuk, ch. 2. v. 11. ufes the fame Expreffion as Efdras, The Stone fhall cry out of the Wall, and the Timber answer it.

Before the Deftruction of Nineveh, Nahum gives these Signs and Prodigies; Ch. 1. v. 3 The Lord hath his Way in the Whirlwind, and in the Storm, and the Clouds are the Duft of his Feet. V.4. He rebuketh the Sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth ur Rivers; Bahan languifheth, and Carmel, and flower of Lebanon. V. 5. The Mountains quake, and the Hills fhake. By this Account we may ob

ferve,

ferve, that an Earthquake, Dearth and Scarcity, preceded the Deftruction of Niniveh. Before the Deftruction of Samaria, thefe were Signs and Prodigies:

Amos, Ch. 8. v. 9. And it fhall come to pass in that Day, faith the Lord, that I will caufe the Sun to go down at Noon, and I will darken the Earth in the clear Day. And Micah, ch. 1. v. 4. mentions the Earthquake.

Before the Deftruction of Jerufalem by Nebuchadnezzar, Zer, ch. 4. v.23. I beheld' the Mountains, and they trembled, and the Hills moved. V. 24. The Heavens had no Light." V. 25. The Birds fled away. And Joel 2. A Day of Darknefs and Gloominefs, a Day of Clouds and thick Darkness. V. 19. The Earth fhall quake before them, the Heavens tremble, the Sun and Moon be dark, the Stars fhall withdraw their Shining, the Day of the Lord is great and terrible.

Before the Deftruction of Idumaa and other Nations, thefe Signs or Prodigies: Ifa. 34 v.4. All the Hoft of Heaven fhall be diffolved, and the Heavens be rolled together as a Scrowl, and all the Stars fall as Leaves off the Vine, or Figgs from the Figg-tree. And thefe reprefent the Deftruction of their Kings and great Men.

A great Drought was in Egypt before the Three Years Ravage made in it by Sennacherib. The Prodigies which preceded the Destruction of Jerufalem by the Romans, are recorded by Fofephus and Tacitus; and Foel, ch. 2. refpects that time; I will hew Wonders in the Heaven and Earth, Blood, Fire, Pillars of Smoke, v. 30. The Sun fhall be turned into Darkness, and the Moon into Blood, before the great and terrible Day of the Lord comes. This is the Destruction by Titus, after the Effufion of the Holy Spirit, v. 20. on the Apokles. A Comer appeared in the first Year of Alexander's Reign, before his Conqueft of Perfia.

Rev.6. A great Earthquake, the Sun black, the Moon bloody, the Stars fall, (that is, fome Fiery Meteor reprefenting a Star,) the Heavens rolled up, (this is fome Rolling of the Clouds,) the Mountains and Ilands moved by the Earth. quake; and this time was the Destruction of the Pagans, or Antichrift, before the Millennium. Joel 3. 14. The Day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decifion. V. 15. The Sun and Moon fhall be darkned, and the Stars withdraw their Shining. V. 16 The Heavens and the Earth fhall shake, before the Deftruction of Antichrift.

In the Reign of Valens, 366, a horrible Earth quake, with Thunder, Lightening, and an Inundation by the Sea, which

de

Atroyed 50000; and this preceded the Northern Invagons on the Weftern Provinces. In Theodofius's Days, an Earthquake, Rains exceffive, and Darkness. About 4. D. 400, a Comet, before the Goths took Rome. 402, before Alaricus's Invafion

of Italy, Thunder, Hail, a Comet. Before the War with Attila, an Earthquake at Rome. Before the Invafion of the Huns, 557, an Earthquake at Conftantinople and at Rome, and a Comer: Vide Procopium.

633, A Comet in the Shape of a Sword was believed to be a Forerunner of the Wars with the Saracens, who con quered Perfia, and befieged Jerusalem Two Years, A. D. 627, when it was taken by Omar: 741, a dreadful Earthquake at Conftantinople; it continued 11 Months: 746, Syria and Paleftine were fhaken, and a Darkness in Auguft; then a Peftilence raged three Years: And 671, Conftantinople was befieged, feven Years after the Comer. 763, the Turks made Incurfions into Armenia, Perfia, Afia Minor, thro' the Caspian Gates, and returned home again: Then was a great Froft on the Euxine, leveral Prodigies in the Air, the Stars feemed to fall, and a Drought. 1096, Sigebert and Aventine record the Prodigies which happen'd before the Holy War; the Heavens leem'd to burn, the Sun and Moon to lose their Light, the Stars to fall, burning Torches, fiery Darts, Armies in the Air, new Stars: A Comer, before the Deftruction of Conftantinople by Mahomet II.

I collected thefe Obfervations from the Conftantinopolitan Hiftory, to fhew, that Efdras's Obfervation, ch. 9. v. 6. is true. The Times of the Higheft have ftrange Beginnings in Wonders and powerful Works, and that Providence will use the fame Method to the End of the World: Great Prodigies will be before the Revolutions predicted by the Prophecies. This Opinion is confirmed by St. Mark, 13. v.8. Nation fhall rife against Nation, and Kingdom against Kingdom; and there fhall be Earthquakes in divers Places. V. 24. mentions the Signs of Chrift's second Coming.

FINIS,