your Glory. 37. Give thanks unto him that hath called you to the Heavenly Kingdom.

Note, Efdras has a Vifiou how he will be commanded hereafter, when he rifes from the Dead to convert the Jews; but they will defpife his Preaching, and then he will convert the Gentiles, when Chrift is nigh at hand. 'Tis faid Ch. 13. of fome of the Ten Tribes who will return, v. 13. fome were glad, and fome were forry, fome were bound, that is, were ftopt from returning; others offered Gifts And Daniel fays, Ch. 12. v. 10. Many fhall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the Wicked fhall do wickedly, and none of the Wicked fhall underftand; but the Wife fhall understand.

That those who rife from the Grave, will endeavour to convert the Jews, we may be informed by Daniel 12. v. 3. They that be wife, fhall fhine as the Firmament in Brightness, and they that turn many to Righteoufnefs, as the Stars, for ever and ever; and Malachi, Ch. 4. v. 5. I will fend you Elijah the Prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord. v. 6. And he fhall turn the Hearts of the Fathers to the Children, and the Hearts of the Children to the Fathers, left I come and fmite the Earth with a Curse, V. 18. of this Chapter, 'tis faid, I will fend my Servant Esay, and Jeremy for thy help. And at that time that will happen, which is written Matth. 10. v. 35. I am come to fet a Man at variance againft his Father, and the Daughter against the Mother. V. 36. And a Man's Foes fhall be they of his own Houfhold. To reconcile thefe Differences about Religion, all thefe Prophets will be fent.

The prefent Chriftian Churches, as well as the Jews, believe, that the Kingdom of the Meffiah will begin with the Refurrection. And fome thought, our Saviour was Jeremy, or one of the Prophets, Matth. 16. v. 14 raised from the Dead, to be Harbingers to the Meffiah. And after Chrift's Refurrection, As 1. v. 6, the Difciples asked, whether at that time he would reftore the Kingdom to Ifrael. This Notion the Jews had from Efdras: And then will be fulfilled what our Saviour faid to his Difciples; You will not have finished,, or converted the Cities of Ifrael, till the Son of Man come: that only can convert the obftinate Jews.

V. 38.

V, 38. Arife up, and ftand; behold the Number of thofe that be fealed in the Feaft of the Lord, to be removed from this World into Paradife above, is defcribed by the fealing or confirming the Juft, and fealing them to a Feat: So when the Ifraelites were delivered from Egypt, they kept the Paschal Feaft.

39. Which are departed from the Shadow of the World, (that is, are now dead) and have received glorious Garments of the Lord: So in Revelations the 7th, the Jews are fealed, and the Saints are clothed in white Robes, and Palms in their Hands; and the Saints Souls, Ch. 6. v. 11. had white Robes.

40. Take thy Number, O Sion, and fhut up those that are clothed in white, who have followed the Law of the Lord; the 144 Thousand, Rev. 7th.) A very few Fews are faved, if this relates to the Millennium: But fince they are fhut up, they are in Paradife: And that Number relates to the firft Converts, as Firft Fruits to God and the Lamb. Efay 26. v. 19. defcribes the Refurrection, when the Jews will return and fing that Song.

41. The Number of thy Children whom thou longeft for is fulfilled; befeech the Power of the Lord, that thy People which have been called from the Beginning, be hallowed.

42. Efdras, befides the Fews mentioned, faw a great People on Mount Sion, whom he could not number; and they all praised the Lord with Songs; and he asked the Angel who they were?

45. He answered, these be they that have put off the mortal Clothing, and put on the Immortal, and have confeffed the Name of God, and now are they crowned, and receive Palms.

46. What young Man is it that crowneth them?

47. It is the Son of God, whom they have confeffed in the World.

48. The Angel commands Efdras to tell the People, the Ten Tribes in Media, what manner of things, and how great Wonders of the Lord his God, he had feen.

The great Wonders are the Return of the Ten Tribes, the Refurrection of their Ancestors to be their Leaders, their Heaven like Kingdom at Ferufalem, the declaring of the Meffiah to the Jews and Gentiles the glorious State of the Dead, who will be clothed and crowned for confeffing Chrift the Son of God. Thefe great Wonders would

animate the Jews under their Captivity, and give them a firm Hope in God's Mercy, for a happier State hereafter. And fince Efdras writ this Prophecy in Media, or at Babylon, the whole Prophecy was defigned for the use of the Ten Tribes in Media, where they were very much encreased in the Days of Jofephus.

Since we may presume that Efdras delivered his Prophecies in the fame Order as they were given him by the Angel; and this Prophecy was not given at the time of his being in Babylon, 30 Years after the Ruin of Jerufalem, but after the taking of Babylon, he was in Media till the time of Artaxerxes, Ch. 1. v. 3. a Captive, carried thither with Daniel by Darius Medus: Therefore we may conjecture, that the First and Second Chapter ought to have been a diftinct Book, and, according to the Order of Time, after the following Prophecies.

I will here collect what Efdras farther faith about the State of the Dead, or the Millennium.

Ch. 4. V.7. The Angel asked Efdras, amongst other things which he knew not, which are the Out-goings of Paradife ? v. 8. Peradventure thou wilt fay, I never went down into the Deep, nor as yet into Hell; neither did I ever climb up into Heaven. V. 35. Did not the Souls also of the Righteous ask Queftions of these things in their Chambers, faying, How long fhall I hope on this fafhion when cometh the Fruit of the Flower of our Reward? This is like the Complaint of the Souls under the Altar, Rev. 6.

2 Efdr. Ch. 6. v. 2. mentions the laying the Foundation of Paradife in the Beginning of the Creation; and verfe 5. that they are fealed who gather Faith for a Treature.

Ch. 7. Efdras plainly diftinguishes betwixt the Piace of the Body, and the Souls, after Death.

V. 32. The Earth fhall reftore thofe that be asleep in her, and fo fhall the Duft thofe that dwell in Glence; and the fecret Places fhall deliver thofe Souls that were commit ted to them..

Ch. 8. v. 19. This is the Beginning of the Words of Efdras before he was taken up.

V. 52, Is a large Defcription of the Millenary Paradife, the Tree of Life, a City builded, Plentcoufnefs, &c.

Ch. 14

Ch. 14. v. 9. Thou shalt be taken away from all, and from henceforth thou fhalt remain with my Son, and with fuch as are like thec, until the times are ended.

Subdue your Underftandings, reform your Hearts, ye fhall be kept alive, and after Death ye fhall obtain Mercy: 35. But after Death fhall the Righteous come, when we fhall live again; and then fhall the Names of the Righteous be manifeft, and the Works of the Ungodly fhall be declared.

Ch. 15. v. 8. The innocent and righteous Blood crieth unto me, and the Souls of the Juft complain continually : Therefore, faith the Lord, I will avenge them, verfe 9.

Note, That Efdras afferts a Paradife in this Creation, by mentioning the laying its Foundation in the Beginning of the Creation.

Note, He diftinguishes the Two Hades, the Deep or Hell, into which the wicked Souls defcend, and the Chambers of the Righteous, and the climbing up into Heaven, when they go thither. Thefe are the fecret Places, he fays, he was to be taken up into, and to remain with God's Son: The Souls of the Juft complain con tinually.

Note, They are fealed who gather Faith for a Treafure: They are fealed in the Feaft of the Lord ; they are departed from the Shadow of the World, and received glorious Garments; they are clothed in White: this is in their feparate State. Origen fays, the Souls will have Bodies given them fuitable to the Place they are in, that is, Etherial Bodies.

Note, The Jews will return to Sion, a great People: And there they praife God with Songs : There will be their Heavenly Kingdom; and there they will be crowned by the Son of God: The Heathen were to look for their Shepherd: They must be ready to receive the Reward of the Kingdom.

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From this Chapter the Jews had their Tradition of their laft Return at the Refurrection of their Patriarchs and Prophets; and this will be on Earth a Heavenly Kingdom, and the Heathen Believers will be admitted into it. This agrees with the 7th of the Revelations ; which may be applied both to the fending of the Saints into their feparate State, as well as their Sealing by St. Michael their Angel, who is to ftand up for them at their Return, Dan. 12. But it feems to me moft probably to belong to Saints in Paradise, both the Jews and Gentile Saints are there; and thence they will come into the Millennium. Thefe have put off the mortal Cloathing; that is, been dead, and put on the Immortal; they are raised from the Dead in the Beginning of the Millennium.

Chap. 2. v. 7! Let them be scattered abroad amongst the Heathen; let their Names be put out of the Earth. This is now true concerning the Ten Tribes, who are scatter'd amongst the Eaftern and Northern Nations, and appear not as a Nation any where. And Micah mentions their Difperfion like the Dew, or fcattered Vide Sept. Lambs in the Field: fo will the Remnant of Jacob be amongst many People, not gather'd together, nor appearing amongft the Sons of Men: But at laft that Remnant would conquer, as a Lion does, all other Nations amongft whom they are difpers'd, Micah 5.

Note, That the Saints, or Chriftians, are faid to be fealed when they are baptiz'd, and when they de part this World, and when they come into Chrift's Kingdom. To these three Sealings this Prophecy relates; but moft evidently, to the fealing in the Feaft of the Lord, which is called in the Revelations, the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb, in the Beginning of the Millennium.

St. Peter, in his Second Epiftle, Ch. 3. v. 10. calls the Millennium the Day of the Lord, in which the Heavens will pafs away: And v. 8. he gives this Reafon for it; because one Day with the Lord is as a thousand Years, and a thousand Years as one Day; viz. We muft look for the coming of the Day of the Lord. And St. Paul calls the time of the Millennium, Rom. ch. 2. v. 5. the Day

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