Ah! wretched, spurn'd, Judea, doom'd to mourn, To grace the conqueror's triumphant car; Or sold as slaves, and scatter'd o'er the world, 230 As the loose stubble by the storm is hurl'd; Line 235. St. Paul (addressing himself to the Gentiles) says, "For I would not brethren that ye should be ignorant of this mystery (lest ye should be wise in your own conceit) that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written there shall come out of Sion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." Romans, chap. i. verse 25 and 26.—And the Prophet Amos, says, "I will not utterly destroy the House of Jacob saith the Lord, For lo, I will command, and I will sift the House of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. And I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them—And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of the land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God." See chap. ix. from verse 8 to the end. The white-wing'd day shall come when thou no more, For ever firm, with lasting splendor grac'd. 235 As a brave shepherd guards from wolves his sheep. END OF THE FIFTH BOOK. |