 | Poems |  |
THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS.
Destituunt.------
Claud. Bell. Get. 508.
ARGUMENT.
Invocation:—History of the JEWS from the Exodus, under Moses; —and Joshua:—Their general depravation—followed by the Babylonish;—and the Crucifixion,—by the Roman Invasion:— Their sufferings during,—and after the siege of Jerusalem (by Titus);—and present condition.—Their fate different from that of Egypt,—Babylon,—Tyre,—and the four successive Monarchies— Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman.—The question examined— whether the prophecies, relating to their Restoration, are to be figuratively,—or literally understood;—and reasons assigned for adopting the strict interpretation.—Their return:—The distinction of tribes superseded by the coming of the MESSIAH.— Conclusion.
Fraternal, Idumæa's favour'd tribes
Their Salem shall revisit; from the dust
In prouder state to rear the fallen dome,
And bid th' aspiring pinnacle o'ertop
Its antient elevation—I attune
Th' ambitious string. Thou, Moses (as of yore
Through Egypt's parting waves with heaven-lent power
Thou bor'st the chosen multitude, what time
His cumber'd wheel along the faithless track
Busiris urg'd; while round his troubled host,
The watery ruin roar'd) Thyself a bard,
Inspire the Muse; that with prophetic strain
Would hail their second Exodus, and wake
For future years the high triumphant song.
Has caught with rapture, how by Thee convey'd
Twice twenty summers they their long array
Wound through the intricate and perilous path;
When with impendent pillar, 'mid the wild
Unbroken solitudes, the daily cloud
And flame nocturnal mark'd th' uncertain way
Alternate: Gushing from the riven flint,
In lavish pride, how new-born torrents pour'd
Their liquid health; and, by circumfluous night
Shrouded from glance profane, th' ALMIGHTY trac'd
With his own finger on the two-leav'd stone
His double law: Upon its Lord's descent
Spread darkness: while the consecrated hill,
Guarded by death, even to its rocky base
Shook with strange weight; and lurid lightnings, hurl'd
In awful splendour through the deep obscure,
Announc'd a present Deity: How vain
This prodigal magnificence of Heaven;
Its record soon by novelty's young hand
Ras'd from man's careless heart: How two alone
Surviv'd the lingering maze; and Thou, even Thou,
As burst the glorious vision on thy view
Of Israel's destin'd heritage, wert doom'd
To sleep within an undiscover'd tomb;
Though six-score winters fail'd to chill thy blood,
And quench thy beaming eye:—O'er all this field,
Sown with bright miracles, the verse would range;
If verse were equal to the dazzling toil.
That Joshua wielded when from their huge cliffs
He swept the Anakim: The Sun stood still,
His punctual course remitting in mid sky;
And night's pale Sovereign check'd her rapid orb,
To aid the mighty task. Before him sunk
Devoted Canaan, with unhallow'd gore
Moistening the ground: Not infancy its years,
Nor kings their purple rescued; undiscern'd,
Amid the common carnage, they expir'd
By hostile hands—unsung, unwept, unknown.
Beneath the lustre of the noon-tide ray,
Long Israel flourish'd; 'till, by gradual shade
Darken'd to deepest crimson, guilt provok'd
Th' OMNIPOTENT's accumulated ire,
And urg'd his bolt. Upon the double throne
Sat rash Rebellion, ever prompt to burst
But frail as fair; such, Albion, thine (if thine
Rightly the bard hath noted) mirror-taught
To roll th' obedient eye, and court the glance
Of staggering triflers, or with zoneless waist
Rouse the lascivious fire: There Avarice ground
Wove the false tale; and rob'd Devotion paid
The homage of the lip, intent with prayer
To mask or hallow crimes. Then GOD's wak'd wrath,
Gigantic and impatient of delay,
Sped its vast vengeance from the eastern sky:
Onward by Jordan's stream in mournful line
The exiles move, with oft-reverted look
Sadly solicitous once more to view
Deserted Salem; ere her lessening hills
With dubious image cheat their earnest sight:
The haughty Babylonian stalks around,
And in proud mockery taunts the patriot tear.
Hung 'mid the victor's scoffs the silent harp,
Than Those who stoop'd beneath the arm of Rome!
When seventy suns had fill'd their annual course,
Chaldæa's vassals saw the righteous shrine
Mark'd out for heavier woe, more fiercely rose
The Flavian Star, and glar'd with redder fires.
Of Glory's King on Calvary for man
Offering Himself (nor less than He could make
Th' accepted sacrifice) while Nature mourn'd
The monstrous guilt; and Earth in wild alarm
Receiv'd within her agitated breast
Its transient Inmate!—Hopeless wish! Dismay'd
From the bold flight she turns, nor dares advance
Her pinion to the sun: Else would she sing
Th' offence, with all the sorrows which ensued;
Sorrows so merited, that even the Youth
Of proverb'd mercy steel'd his gentle breast.
He comes; with meagre Famine in his train,
And fire-rob'd Desolation. Faint and pale,
In his poor boy th' unnatural father sheaths
His frantic blade: And, deed of sadder note!
She, whose proud foot disdain'd the vulgar ground,
Grasping her infant (with far other joy
Plunges the murderous knife, and glows afresh
With guilty health. Twice fifty myriads fell—
Happy to lose in death the maddening sense
Of Hebrew ignominy! They nor saw
The Latian spoiler revel on the wealth
Of their sack'd fane (as from the holy gold
For his own Deities with curious zeal
He cull'd the votive gift) nor, 'mid the crash
Of sinking palaces, with anguish heard
The shriek of female frenzy: Who surviv'd,
Hereditary servitude, beheld
In long succession rising to the view
Unpitied millions destin'd to bewail
Paternal crime and errors not their own.
Gives to their anxious eye his courted beam,
They sigh for evening; with the eve's wan star
Comes its peculiar sorrow. Numerous still
As sands, which pillow Ocean's hoary head,
They thrive by grief and grow beneath the sword.
Erst by the midnight lamp, with learned toil
Skilful to wind the hieroglyphic maze,
Por'd on the treasur'd page by double fate
Denied to future times. With prone descent
Great Babylon is fallen; amid the dust,
Vainly inquisitive, the traveller pries
In fruitless search where Syrian Belus rear'd
His idol form: No human trace around
Instructs his doubtful step; no friendly tone
Of serpents haply rustling through the brake,
As parch'd by tropic fire and wild with thirst
Their sanguine eye-balls flash, his sinking heart
Beats with thick fear: Meanwhile the bittern moans
In hollow-sounding note; and the lone owl,
Dusky and slow, with inauspicious scream
Adds horror to the gloom. Beneath the waves
Old Tyre is whelm'd, and all her revelry:
Those hosts, who barter'd Israel's sons for gold
(The Traffickers of blood) no more renew
Th' abhorred merchandize; no more with glance
Of keen remark compute the sinew's force,
Or weigh the muscles of their fellow-man.
Queen of the isles and mart of distant worlds,
That thou like Tyre (with hands as deep in blood,
Warm from the veins of Africa, and wealth
By arts more vile and darker guilt acquir'd)
Shalt meet an equal doom. The day will rise,
If Justice slumber not, when those proud ships—
The grace at once and bulwark of thy coast,
That now 'mid baffled tempests range the globe—
Unequal to a foe so oft engag'd,
So oft subdued, shall through their yawning sides
Receive the victor main; and in th' abyss
Thy cliffs shall sink, their chalky tops alone
Extant above the brine: While, as from far
Across the wintry waste the seaman views
The humid net outspread, his piteous heart
(Piteous, though rugged) sorrows o'er thy fate.
Like woe-denouncing comets, blaz'd awhile
In evanescent glory. He, whose foot
Trampled upon Assyria's subject neck,
Fled from the Greek: To Rome's imperious race
Greece bent the suppliant knee: The Roman bow'd
Before the Goth: On rude Germania's brow
Shines Cæsar's diadem; and priests preside
Frown'd fierce defiance on th' embattled world.
Where Israel's relics rest; or how, recall'd
To repossession of their native seat,
His dissipated tribes the glad behest
Shall hear, and how obey: So may'st thou dare
To question GOD's omnipotence, and ask
How wake the dead. The same Almighty Word,
Which summon'd into being and dissolv'd
The hallow'd polity, in pristine form
(At his appointed time) shall re-unite
The ruin'd pile. This hapless Julian knew;
With puny effort, so perchance to thwart
MESSIAH's plan: Him hurl'd from central depths
By arm divine the conglobated fire
Repell'd , as oft his daring hand resum'd
Th' abortive work. Whether (as some suppose
In light conjecture) the prophetic song,
Glittering with eastern metaphor, expect
Its certain end in New Jerusalem—
Holiest of cities; or (as others frame
The surer inference, with scripture's voice
Combining circumstance) shall in the Old
Meet strict accomplishment: For still they lack
Haply in Arsareth with frequent prayer
To human haunt : Still, though dispers'd, distinct—
So GOD pronounc'd—by no mild offices
Of Gentile courtesy attach'd abroad,
With wealth unfasten'd to an alien soil,
They still articulate Judæa's tones;
Still pant in patriot sympathy; and still
The hope of Restoration gilds the gloom
Of present banishment: With brighter hues
Glows the gay vision 'mid their long dark night,
And borrows brilliance from surrounding shade.
Countless as Perfian bowmen, who beset
Freedom exulting on her Attic rock;
When Asia rous'd her millions to the war,
And sunk in all her pomp before the foe
Her vengeance fondly doom'd. With ranks as full,
But with more prosperous fates and purer joys
Than swell the warrior's breast, their destin'd march
The Hebrews bend, from where Hydaspes rolls
His storied tide; or cleave with holy prow
Th' Atlantic main, whose conscious surge reveres
Its buoyant load. No Spaniard plunderers they,
Allur'd by gold (whom will not gold allure?)
With dauntless foot to traverse new-found realms,
And plunge the wondering savage in the mine,
Where—guiltless then—the unsunn'd mischief slept:
No mad crusaders, by the Roman priest
Baptiz'd Invincible, with impious zeal
To combat Hali's turban'd race; and wade
But call'd by GOD or from the western stream
Of Plata, or where Ganges pours his urn,
In love-knit league they throng. With guardian hand
MESSIAH, erst their nation's deadliest hate,
Guides the returning host; and high in air
Waves the bright ensign of the Cross, that once
Led on th' Imperial Christian to the sight,
And to his shrinking legions gave the field.
Judah resigns; and Levi's hallow'd sons
Renounce the ephod, prompt in earlier times
To purge the public stain: For now they own
Their SHILOH come; nor longer, idly vain,
Assert the useless privilege of birth.
With magic touch explore the trembling strings,
While, with past solitude contrasting still
Present society (so sweeter deem'd)
He cheats the summer day of half its hours:
Oft, to the harp in tuneful concert join'd,
Swells the glad voice; and oft, as on the ear
The music falls, they move in measur'd step
Responsive; while the joyous sounds deceive
Their lifted foot, and steal it from its toil.
The dazzling blaze of prophecy fulfill'd,
Shall some rapt Simeon raise the grateful song
And hail th' accomplishment: “LORD, now dismiss'd
“In peace thy servant sleeps; his eyes have seen
“ISRAEL restor'd, and all thy people bless'd.”
The following Sonnet was written soon after the poem made its first appearance; and, notwithstanding the terrible denunciation of a friend (viz. “that it might perhaps make my peace with one of “the sex, at the expence of irretrievably offending all the rest”) I am unwilling to omit this opportunity of introducing it.
To MYRA.
What! Though of Albion's dames the Poet sungThat, frail as fair, with artificial glance
They roll'd th' obedient eye; and 'mid the dance
Guileful upon the staggering trifler hung:
He then nor knew, fond bard! the modest grace
Of Myra's frame; nor haply then divin'd
That Nature e'er had link'd so fair a face,
In bond harmonious, with so pure a mind.
Ah! Had he still in error persever'd!
Still cherish'd his mistake! Now doom'd to pine,
By viewing in that angel form of thine
A more than angel's chastity inspher'd,
Fatal discovery! from thy bright eyes
And brighter soul he learns his guilt—and dies.
The circumstantial agreement of the Mosaic prophecies (particularly Deut. xxviii. 49,57.) with the events, as detailed by Josephus in his narrative of the sufferings sustained by the Jews during the siege, has not escaped the observation of Bishop Newton; who remarks, in his Dissertations on the Prophecies, vol. i.p.102, &c. that, though a great part of those predictions was accomplished at the time of the Babylonish captivity, they were all more amply fulfilled under the Roman invasion. Of the famine indeed of the latter period, the Jewish Historian has left us a very dreadful account; and, from its exact concurrence with prophecy, we know to how much faith it is entitled.
Γυναικες γουν ανδρων, και παιδες πατερων, και (το οικτροτατον) μητερες νηπιων εξηρπαζον εξ αυτων των στοματων τας τροφας. Joseph. Bell. Jud. v. 10. 3. Των δ' υπο του λιμου φθειρομενων κατα την πολιν απειρον μεν επιπτε το πληθος. vi. 3. 3.
Deut. xxviii. 56, 57. — Δια γενος και πλουτον επισημοσ---- οπτησασα, το μεν ημισυ κατησθιει: το δε λοιπον κατακαλυψασα εφυλαττεν. Id. ib. vi. 3. 4.
Των δε απολουμενων κατα πασαν την πολιορκιαν(αριθμος)μυριαδες εκατον και δεκα. Id. ib. vi. This account is confirmed by Zonaras and Jornandes, who agree in relating that 1100000 (men, women, and children) perished during the siege by famine, disease, and the sword. Omnes (says Lipsius in his notes to Tacitus, Hist, V. 13.) undecies centena millia periisse obsidione illâ clarè tradunt, fame, morbo, Jerro.
Αλλ' ειθε παντες ετεθνηκειμεν, πριν την ιεραν εκεινην πολιν χερσιν ιδειν κατασκαπτομενην πολεμιων, πριν τον ναον τον αγιον ουτως ανοσιως εξορωρυγμενον. Joseph. vi. 3. 4. and vii. 8. 7.
The attachment of the Jews to their country, so pathetically described in the hundred and thirty-seventh Psalm, is confirmed by Tacitus (Hist. V. 13.)—ac, si transferre sedes cogerentur, major vitæ metus quàm mortis.
Of their present numbers Basnage (who has written a history of the Jews, as a supplement and continuation of the history of Josephus) observes—“that it is impossible indeed to fix it; but “that we have reason to believe there are still near 3000000 of “people who profess this religion, and (as their phrase is) are “witnesses of the unity of God in all the nations of the world.”
The library of Alexandria was founded by the first Ptolemies, and gradually enlarged to 700000 volumes; 400000 of which were lodged in that quarter of the city called Bruchion, and the remaining 300000 within the Serapeum. The first part was casually destroyed by fire, when Julius Cæsar was making war upon the place; but restored in number by Antony's munificent present, of the Pergamean library, to Cleopatra: the whole were afterwards burnt by the command of Omar the Caliph.
Bishop Newton proves (vol. i. pp. 174. 177. &c.) by copious extracts from six or seven modern writers of eminence that the present desolate state of Babylon, Egypt, Tyre, &c. fulfils, with a melancholy degree of exactness, the prophecies of the Old Testament relative to their ultimate condition.
Exsilit in siccum; et flammantia lumina torquens
Sævit agris, asperque siti atque exterritus æstu.
Virg. Georg. III. 432, &c.
44
Æschyl. Sept. contra Theb. 383.
This traffic is however still patronised by the British Senate; and its continuance was voted, March 16, 1796, by a majority of—four!!!!
The following lines, by an anonymous writer, upon that event (transcribed from the Cambridge Intelligencer, March 19.) possess very considerable merit:
Of vengeance? Drench'd he deep its thirsty blade
In the foul bosom of his tyrant Lord?
Oh! Who shall blame him? Through the midnight shade,
Still on his tortur'd memory rush'd the thought
Of every past delight—his native grove,
Friendship's best joys, and liberty, and love:
All lost—for ever! Then remembrance wrought
His soul to madness: 'round his restless bed
Freedom's pale spectre stalk'd, with a stern smile
Pointing the wounds of slavery; the while
She shook her clanking chains, and hung her head.
No more he pours to heaven his suppliant breath,
But sweetens with revenge the draught of death.
When the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled (Luke xxi. 24.) or—as St. Paul expresses it—when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be come in, the fulness of the Jews also shall come in, and all Israel shall be saved (Rom. xi. 12.25.26.) that is, says Newton, II.70. when the times of the four great kingdoms of the Gentiles, according to Daniel's prophecies, shall be expired, and the fifth kingdom (or the kingdom of CHRIST) shall be set up in their place; and the Saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever (Dan. vii. 18.)
But these prophecies have not yet received their full and entire completion; our SAVIOUR hath not yet had the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession (Psalm xi. 8.) All the ends of the world have not yet turned unto the Lord (xxii. 27.) All people, nations, and languages, have not yet served him (Dan. vii. 14.) neither are the Jews yet made an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations (Isai. lx. 15.) The time is not yet come, when violence shall no more be heard in their land, wasting and destruction within their borders (18.) GOD's promises (Ezek. xxxviii. 21.25. xxxix. 28,29.) are not yet made good in their full extent; however, what hath been already accomplished is a sufficient pledge and earnest of what is yet to come. We have seen the prediction of Hosea, who prophesied before the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel (iii.4.5) fulfilled in part, and why should not we believe that it will be fulfilled in the whole? 1,137,138.
This event will take place (Newton afterwards observes, II. 395, &c.) about the time of the fall of the Othman empire (denoted by Ezekiel's Gog and Magog) and of the Christian Antichrist (referred to Dan. xi. 46. and xii. 7.) Then, in the full sense of the words, shall the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever (Rev. xi. 15.—See also xx. 4. &c. and Dan. vii. 26, 27.)
About the particulars of that kingdom our prudence and modesty are equally concerned to forbear inquiry; as they are points which the HOLY SPIRIT hath not thought fit to explain, and of which the perfect comprehension may perhaps constitute a part of the happiness of that period.
Vid. Julian. Epist. xxv. Ιουδαιων τω κοινω. Ambitiosum quoddam apud Hierosolymam templum, quod post multa et interneciva certamina obsidente Vespasiano posteaque Tito ægrè est expugnatum, instaurare sumptibus cogitabat immodicis:—Metuendi globi flammarum propè fundamenta crebris assultibus erumpentes fecêre locum, exustis aliquoties operantibus, inaccessum; hocque modo elemento destinatiùs repellente, cessavit inceptum. Amm. Marcell. xxiii. 1.
Vide Hartley's Observations on Man, p. 11. iv. §.2. Prop. clxxxii. where, besides these two arguments in favour of the Restoration of the Jews to Palestine, viz.
I. That the predictions have never yet been adequately fulfilled of any Jews; and
II. That the ten Tribes or Israelites, carried away captive by Shalmaneser (II Kings xviii.2.) have never yet been restored at all, he alleges
III. That a double return seems to be foretold in several prophecies;
IV. That the prophets, who lived since the return from Babylon, have predicted a return in terms similar to those who went before; whence it follows that both classes must refer to some Restoration yet future; and,
V. That the Restoration of the Jews to their own land seems to be foretold also in the New Testament.
To these arguments, drawn from prophecy, he adds some concurrent evidences suggested by their existing circumstances:
1. That they are yet distinct from all the nations amongst which they reside;
2. That they are to be found dispersed in all the countries of the known world;
3. That, having no inheritance of land in any country, their property (money and jewels, &c.) admits of being easily transferred to Palestine;
4. That they are treated with contempt and cruelty every where;
5. That they correspond with one another throughout the world;
6. That most of them, by the Rabbinical Hebrew, have an universal medium of communication; and,
7. That they still hope and expect themselves to be RESTORED This Restoration (he subjoins) may alarm mankind, and open their eyes; while, by affording an opportunity of a careful survey of Palestine, it may prove the genuineness and divine authority of the Scriptures.
Pistorius, a Norwegian (in his notes and additions to Hartley, i. p. 706. &c.) after expressing his doubts of the destruction of all the present powers of the earth “by a fifth Monarchy or Millen-“nium,” &c. proceeds to vindicate the expectation of a future general Conversion and gathering of the Jews into the Church of CHRIST; proving, by many incontestable arguments, that Rom. xi.26. cannot be understood of a spiritual Israel, or as having happened long ago: About their Restoration to Palestine he is less certain.
| Poems | |