REASON, certainly, if it is but permitted to employ the powers with which
it is capacitated, not only instructs us that man lives after death, but
also that he lives more; that is, that he then comes into the essence and
spirit of his life, before imprisoned.
_Nam si aspexerit Mars ad Saturno opposito aut quarto tunc convertetur
mundus in bellorum capium_. Thus writes Avenaris, which, Englished, is,
that when Mars beholds Saturn by opposition, or quartile, the world will
be involved in wars and bloodshed; and this configuration between sullen
Chronus and angry Vulcan we see made this month (viz. August, 1792.)
Opposite appearances also of an exceeding mild and amicable nature
present themselves to our view; there being no less than three friendly
Trines, and three Sextiles also of a pleasing nature, as well as four
Conjunctions, bearing good will to mortals below.
In a prophecy written six or seven hundred years since, taken out of the
library of St. Victor, at Paris, which is to this effect—“Woe to thee,
thou seven-hilled city (Rome) when liberty spreads in France; for then
the fall and destruction of thy mighty men is at hand. Woe to thee, thou
city of blood; the voice of the scourge, and of warlike horses and
chariots, shall not depart from thee; thy gold is darkened; rust hath
consumed it, and spoiled it; that is, the gold of God’s word is obscured,
and religion is corrupted, &c.
“The Pope’s power will receive a very great shock, civil and religious,
before the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred, or near that
time.”
* * * * *
See winged Time as swift as lightning flies:
Redeem each moment, and be timely wise.
AN OLD PROPHECY,
PRINTED 1686.
WHEN New England shall trouble New Spain,
When Jamaica shall be Lady of the Isles and the Main;
When Spain shall be in America hid,
And Mexico shall prove a Madrid;
When Mahomet’s ships on the Baltic shall ride,
And Turks shall labour to have ports on that side;
When Africa shall no more sell out their Blacks,
To make slaves and drudges to the American tracts;
When Batavia the Old shall be contemn’d by the New;
When a new drove of Tartars shall China subdue,
When America shall cease to send out its treasure,
But employ it at home in American pleasure;
When the New World shall the Old World invade,
Nor count them their lords, but their fellows in trade;
When men shall almost pass to Venice by land,
Not in deep water, but from sand to sand;
When Nova Zembla shall be no stay
Unto those who pass to or from Cathay,
Then think strange things are come to light.
Whereof but few have had a foresight.
_From the BEACON_, _October_ 25, 1812.
THE
GATHERING OF THE JEWS,
OR THE
_Approach of the Millennium_.
LETTERS from various parts of Germany state, that great sensations have
been excited among various classes of the inhabitants of Germany by
several preachers having held forth to their congregations that the
approach of the time of the Millennium had arrived, and this doctrine has
been illustrated from the departure of a great number of Jewish families
from different parts of Germany on their way to the Holy Land. The
following letter from Mr. Niety, a merchant in Riga, has been published,
on this subject:—
“My son was last summer in the Crimea, and returning towards the end
of autumn by way of Odessa, he heard a report that many Jewish
families emigrated through that town. During his journey through
Poland, he met himself many travelling Jews. When he afterwards
lodged in a town inhabited by Jews, and met there with a German Jew,
he entered into conversation with him, and asked him, to what country
the emigrating Jewish families went. He replied, to Palestine, to
settle in the country of their Fathers, having a presentiment that
the Messiah would now soon come. The rich of the nation, scattered
in different parts of the world made collections for the journey
expences of the poor.—This account of my son excited my attention. I
wrote to one of our friends at Wilna, as Poland is the chief seat of
this people, and asked him concerning these movements, and the
probable causes of them, to which I received, within these few days,
the following answer:
“‘I have also received interesting accounts concerning the Jews.
There is among them a general desire to return to the land of their
Fathers. Many of them are probably impelled by need, as there is a
stagnation of all trade here: but many are moved by the expectation
of the coming of the Messiah in about eight years. The same persons,
from whom I accidentally heard this, told me, on another occasion,
that fifteen years hence probably no Jew would be left in this
country. In the present times of confusion this memorable people,
scattered in all the world, is little noticed; but if the above
information is confirmed in process of time, and more generally, that
impulse among them is certainly one of the remarkable signs of the
times.’—Thus far from this letter.
“This intelligence excited my attention; and as I undertook another
journey to the German colonies in Poland, in the months of May and
June of 1811, I resolved to ascertain the foundation of these facts.
In two towns which are inhabited by many Jews, I received from their
leaders the following account: That it was certainly true, that for
two years, some hundreds of Jewish families had emigrated from Poland
into Palestine. Enquiring into the purpose of their emigration, I
was answered, that they hoped the promises of the Prophets would now
soon be accomplished, that the Lord would gather the people of
Israel, from all parts of the earth, where they were scattered, into
the lands of their Fathers, and that they would there wait for the
appearance of the Messiah; for after their Rabbies had often been
mistaken in fixing the time of his coming, they now were persuaded
that he would come at length. When I replied that they might again
be mistaken, they said—No matter; if those who now go to Palestine
should not live to see the coming of the Messiah, they, however, are
gathered in the Holy Land with their Fathers, and whenever the
Messiah comes, they will be raised from their graves. The places
from whence these emigrations are most frequent, they said to be
Brody in Volhinia, and Wilna in Lithuania. Though I was led to many
observations by this statement, yet the proper aim of my journey did
not permit me to pursue the subject.”
* * * * *