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Chapter 4
An Address Of The Prophet Isaiah, Relative To The
Restoration Of His People.
The writer might fill a chapter in illustrating the wrongs
which the Indians have suffered from people in our land; in
noting their reduced and deplorable situation; in pleading
the cause of humanity in their behalf; and in appealing to
the magnanimous feelings of the people of our nation. He
might adduce many evangelical motives the most commanding,
to enforce the duty of saving the remnant of the natives of
our continent from extinction, and from wretchedness. The
duty of sending them the gospel, and of being at any expense
to teach them Christianity and the blessings of civilized
life, is great and urgent on every principle of humanity and
general benevolence. And this duty peculiarly attaches
itself to the people, who are now in possession of the
former inheritance of those natives; and from to many of
whom that people have received insufferable injuries. This
subject must occur with force to the mind of every well
informed American. And it is devoutly to be hoped that far
greater attention will henceforth be paid to it by all among
us who make any pretence to humanity, not to say piety.
But the object of this chapter is to examine and illustrate
an interesting portion of ancient prophetic writing, which
is thought to embrace this very concern.
An address is found in the eighteenth chapter of the prophet
Isaiah, which is apprehended to be of deep interest to
America. It is
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a passage which has been esteemed singularly enigmatical.
This circumstance has usually attended the prophecies, in
proportion to the distance of their events. And they have
often been left in silence, or their true intent misapplied,
till near the time of their fulfilment. Then some incidents
would throw light upon them, and render their import plain
and satisfactory.
The writer was affected with this passage some years ago,
when writing his Dissertation on the Prophecies. He found it
to be an address to some Christian people of the last days,
just at the time of the final restoration of God’s ancient
people; an address to such a people beheld in vision away
over the mouths of the Nile, or in some region of the west;
a call and solemn divine charge to them to awake and aid
that final restoration. He then apprehended it might apply
to Britain, though he felt the difficulty arising from the
fact that Britain lies so far to the north of the direction
specified in the address. It now appears to him far more
probable that the Christian people of the United States of
America are the subjects of the address; or at least are
especially included in it. To prepare the way for the
consideration of the address, let several things be
premised.
1. Some of the greatest and best of divines have thought it
would be strange, if nothing should be found in the
prophetic scriptures having a special allusion to our
western world, which by propitious Heaven was destined to
act so distinguishing a part, both in the religious and
political world, in the last days. They have felt as though
it might be presumed that some special allusions would be
had in some of the prophetic writings to so distinguishing a
community of Zion, and of men. Under this impression, Mr.
Edwards apprehended this passage of Isaiah might allude to
America; “So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the
west.” Almost all other parts of the world are noted in
prophecy. It certainly then is not incredible that our land
should be manifestly noted.
2. The address in the eighteenth of Isaiah to be
contemplated, is clearly an address to some people of these
last days; and concerning events intimately connected with
the battle of that great day of God, which is now future and
not far distant, and is to introduce the Millennium. This is
evident in verses 5 and 6; which will be noted.
3. The address then cannot have been to any ancient people
or nation. This appears with certainty, from their being
cotemporary with the events of that great battle, and the
restoration of the Jews. The call then must be to a people
of the last days; a nation now on
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earth; and a nation to be peculiarly instrumental in the
restoration of the Hebrews in the last days. For this is the
very object of the address; to go and collect the ancient
people of God; because “in that time shall the present be
brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and
peeled, (the very people of the ancient covenant in manifest
descriptions repeatedly given) to the place of the name of
the Lord of hosts, the Mount Zion.” This duty of the
restoration assigned is in the address connected with the
tremendous scenes of judgment, which shall subvert anti-christian
Europe, and her adjutors hostile to the church; as may be
seen.
4. The address then seems manifestly to a nation that may
seem to have leisure for the important business assigned;
while the old and eastern parts of the world (engaged in
anti-christian hostilities) shall be found in the
effervescence of revolutions, and in those struggles which
precede dissolution. This consideration seems clearly to fix
the address to a people distinct, and distant from the
immediate turmoils of the old anti-christian lands; and
hence probably to our own nation; perhaps including Britain.
5. Should it be proved a fact, that the aborigines of our
continent are the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel;
it would heighten the probability to a moral certainty, that
we are the people especially addressed, and called upon to
restore them; or bring them to the knowledge of the gospel,
and to do with them whatever the God of Abraham designs
shall be done
The great and generous Christian people, who occupy much of
the land of those natives, and who are on the ground of
their continent, and hence are the best prepared to
meliorate their condition, and bring them to the knowledge
and order of the God of Israel, must of course be the people
to whom this work is assigned. This one consideration would
do much toward the decision of our question, Who is the
nation addressed?
6. Various things are found in the predictions of the
restoration of God’s ancient people, which strikingly accord
with the idea of a great branch of them being recovered from
this land, and by the agency of the people of our states. A
few of these shall be noted.
In the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters of Jeremiah, the
prophet treats of the united restoration of Judah and
Israel. These chapters were written about one hundred and
twenty years after the expulsion of the ten tribes. And in
relation to the ten tribes, they have never yet had even a
primary accomplishment or any degree of fulfilment. The
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restoration there predicted is to be in “the latter days;”
chap. xxx. 24; and at the time near the battle of the great
day; see verses 6-8, 23, 24. Much of the substance of these
chapters is appropriated to the ten tribes of Israel; though
Judah is expressly to be restored with them. Of the former,
(having then been outcast for an hundred and twenty years,)
God says; chap. xxxi. 20; “Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a
pleasant child? For since I spake against him, (or expelled
him from Canaan,) I do earnestly remember him still;
therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have
mercy upon him, saith the Lord.” The next verse invites and
predicts his final restoration. These yearnings of the
divine compassion for Ephraim (one noted name of the ten
tribes) are the immediate precursor of his restoration. “I
will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord. Set them up
way-marks, make thee high heaps, set thine heart toward the
high-way--turn again, O virgin of Israel; turn again to
these thy cities.” “I will again be the God of all the
families of Israel; and they shall be my people.” “For lo,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the
captivity of my people Israel and Judah; and I will cause
them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and
they shall possess it.” “Fear thou not, O my servant, Jacob,
saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel; for lo, I
will save thee from afar.” “Behold, I will bring them from
the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the
earth.” In this country “afar” off, these “coasts of the
earth,” they had been in an outcast state. “Because they
called thee an outcast, saying; “This is Zion, whom no man
seeketh after.” (For more than 2000 years none sought after
the ten tribes.) These ideas strikingly accord with their
having been outcasts from the known world, in America. This
might with singular propriety be called the land afar off,
and the coasts of the earth.
In the same connexion, when God promises to gather them
“from the coasts of the earth,” and says, “they shall come
with weeping and with supplication; for I am a father to
Israel, and Ephraim is my first born;” he adds; “Hear the
word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles
afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him,
and keep him as the shepherd doth his flock.” “Isles afar
off!” “Isles in the Hebrew language, signify any lands, ever
so extensive, away over great waters. Where can these “isles
afar off,” (these “coasts of the earth,” here addressed by
God
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in relation to the restoration of his outcast yet beloved
Ephraim,) where can they be so naturally found as in
America?
In Jer. xvi. 14, 15, 16. God is predicting the restoration
of Israel in the last days. “Therefore behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The
Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of
Egypt, but the Lord liveth that brought up the children of
Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands
whither he had driven them; and I will bring them again into
their land that I gave unto their fathers.” Here is the
greatness of their restoration. In the next verse follows
the manner of it. “Behold, I will send for many fishers,
saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I
send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every
mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the
rocks.” Here is a most striking description of Israel’s
being recovered from a great wilderness like the sea; and
from the hills, mountains, and rocks of the vast wilds of
America. The description seems well to accord with their
being sought in a savage state among such wilds, mountains
and rocks, as the wilds of our continent present; especially
the Rocky mountains, in the western regions of North
America. The first missionaries fish them from the plains of
the continent. Afterward missionary hunters are sent to
rocky mountains and hills, more remote and savage. This
prediction accords probably with no other country and its
inhabitants so well, as with the wilds and natives of
America. The coincidence with these seems perfect.
In other prophets the same things are found. In Isai. xliii.
God promises this same restoration of Israel. “But now, thus
saith the Lord, that created thee, O Jacob, and he that
formed thee, O Israel; Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I
have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou
passest through the waters, I will be with thee. I have
loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore will I give
men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not, for I am
with thee. I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather
thee from the west: I will say to the north, Give up; and to
the south, Keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my
daughters from the ends of the earth.” “Thus saith the Lord,
who maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty
waters; Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring
forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the
wilderness and rivers in the desert.” In Isai. xi. is this
wonderful restoration. Ephraim and Judah are both restored,
the one from his “dispersed,” the other from his “outcast”
state; and their mutual
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envies are forever healed. And the places from which they
are recovered are noted; among which are “the isles of the
sea;” or lands away over the sea, and “the four corners of
the earth.” Certainly then, from America! This surely is one
of the four corners of the earth. Of such a land away over
sea, it is predicted, Isai. lx. 9; “Surely the isles shall
wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, (or a power
expert in navigation,) to bring my sons from far.”
In Zechariah’s prophecy is the same thing. This prophet was
sent to encourage in the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the
temple soon after the return from Babylon. As this return
was to exhibit a primary fulfilment of the many prophecies
of the restoration of the Hebrews, which are clearly to have
their ultimate accomplishment in their restoration just
anterior to the Millennium; so Zechariah clearly predicted
the latter event, and said various things peculiar to it.
Chap. ii. 6; “Ho, ho, come forth and flee from the land of
the north, saith the Lord; for I have spread you abroad as
the four winds of heaven, saith the Lord.” This must allude
to the great dispersion of Judah, and outcast state of
Israel, which strewed them over the face of the earth; and
could not have been fulfilled in the Babylonish captivity,
which did not disperse them to all points of the compass.
Verse 8; “For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory
hath he sent me unto the nations, which spoiled you.” This
must be the same with the various predictions which speak of
the battle of the great day as a display of God’s glory; and
which speak of a subsequent going forth of missionaries
(probably Jewish) to convert the nations where the Hebrews
had resided. See Isai. lxvi. 18-21, &c. Verses 10, 11; “Sing
and rejoice, O daughters of Zion; for lo, I come, and I will
dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations
shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my
people; and I will dwell in the midst of thee.”--Many
nations were not joined to the Jews upon their return from
Babylon. Nothing of this prediction then took place. It
predicted an event still future, to be accomplished upon the
restoration of the Hebrews to Palestine. The prophet then
says, verse 13; “Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord;
for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.” This verse
perfectly accords with the numerous predictions of the
battle of the great day, nearly associated with the final
restoration of the Jews. But it received not its fulfilment
in the days of Zechariah.
In chapter viii. are predictions of the same final
restoration of that people. After predicting God’s great
jealousy and fury in behalf
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of his people, he says; “I am returned unto Zion, and will
dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be
called a city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of
hosts, the holy mountain.” It then follows, verse 7; “Thus
saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from
the east country, and from the west country.” By the west
country here, we must suppose it meant America. None were
saved from any west country, at the time of the restoration
from Babylon. This shows then, that the thing predicted was
distinct from, and future of that event. In the original,
and in the margin of the great bible, the phrase is; “from
the country of the going down of the sun.” The going down of
the sun from Palestine is over America. And as God had said
in a passage just quoted from this prophet, “For I have
spread you abroad as the four winds of heaven;” so America
must probably be included in this description of their being
spread abroad. To decide more clearly that the ultimate
events here predicted are still future, the Most High says
in this 8th chapter, verse 13; “And it shall come to pass
that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah,
and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a
blessing.” Here is the express restoration of the house of
Israel, with that of Judah. But the “house of Israel” were
not restored with the “house of Judah” when the latter
returned from Babylon; nor have they at any time since been
restored. The event then is clearly future, and was distinct
and distant from any ancient restoration. It was to take
place after a long and noted scattering of that people to
the four winds! and their being viewed as a “curse” there by
the nations. If they were to be “spread abroad as the four
winds,” and thence recovered, and recovered from the “coasts
of the earth,” and “isles afar off,” and “from the west;”
this surely is not unfavorable to the idea of Israel’s being
found in the wilds of America.
In Zech. x. 6-9, is the same event; and Ephraim is by name
saved from “far countries.” “And I will strengthen the house
of Judah, and will save the house of Joseph, and I will
bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them;
and they shall be as though I had not cast them off; for I
am the Lord their God, and will hear them. And they of
Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall
rejoice as through wine; yea, their children shall see it,
and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord. I will
hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them and
they shall increase as they have increased. And I will save
them among the people; and they shall
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remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their
children, and turn again.” “I will hiss for them.” God is
represented as hissing for a people, only in two texts
beside this; Isai. v. 26, and vii. 18; in both of which
passages, the hiss was to call distant heathen. God’s
hissing, in this passage then, to gather the children of
Ephraim in the last days, seems to indicate his
providentially calling them from a distant heathen state!
And it is a mode of calling which perfectly symbolizes with
the calls of American natives, a shrill significant
whistling.
Such promises of the restoration of Israel from far
countries, from the west or the going down of the sun, from
the coasts of the earth, from the ends of the earth, from
isles afar, their being brought in ships from far, making
their way in the sea, their path in the mighty waters; these
expressions certainly well accord with the ten tribes being
brought from America. And such passages imply an agency by
which such a restoration shall be effected. Where shall such
an agency be so naturally found, as among a great Christian
people, providentially planted on the very ground occupied
by the outcast tribes of Israel in their long exilement; and
who are so happily remote from the bloody scenes of Europe
in the last days, as to have leisure for the important
business assigned?
Surely then this business would be assigned, either tacitly
or expressly, to our nation. At this conclusion we safely
arrive, reasoning a priori. The circumstances of the case
enforce it. And we might expect so interesting a duty,
relative to an event on which the prophecies so abundantly
rest, would not be left to uncertain deductions, but would
be expressly enjoined.
We may then open the prophetic scriptures with some good
degree of confidence, that the assignment of such a task is
somewhere to be found. And where so natural to be found as
in the prophecy of Isaiah? He is the most evangelical
prophet; and treats largely upon the restoration of his
brethren.
The expulsion of Israel is supposed to have taken place 725
years before Christ. Isaiah is supposed to have begun his
ministry about the year 760 before Christ; and 35 years
before the expulsion. He lived then, it appears, to see the
expulsion of the ten tribes. And his pious heart must have
been deeply affected with the event. His prophecy was “in
the days Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of
Judah.” But in 2 Kings, xvii. 1; we learn that “in the
twelfth year of Ahaz, Hoshea began to reign over Samaria.”
And in
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verse 9 we are assured; “In the ninth year of Hoshea, the
king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into
Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and in Habor by the river
of Gozen, and in the cities (or territories) of the Medes.”
This event then, must have been in the days of Isaiah. In
Isai. xxxvi. 19, where Rabshakah is insulting the officers
of Hezekiah, he says, “Where are the gods of Hamah, and
Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered
Samaria out of my hand?” Here it seems Samaria, or Israel,
had already fallen. Accordingly Isaiah laments, chap. v. 13;
“Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they
have no knowledge.”
There is one passage which seems to place the captivity of
Israel just subsequent to the prophecy of this prophet, Isai.
vii. 8, where Jerusalem was invaded by a coalition of the
king of Syria and the king of Israel;--Isaiah, to show that
this joint effort against the Jews should not prevail,
predicted “within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be
broken that it be not a people.” But it seems from the
passages just quoted, that the main body of Israel were gone
before this period, or the end of sixty-five years. This
prediction then, must allude to a finishing scene, which
should sweep away even the gleanings of the nation of
Israel. Hence Scott says upon the passage; “It is computed
to have been sixty-five years from this prediction to the
time that Esarhaddon carried away the remains of the
Israelites.” The main body then, it seems, had been gone
before, and were swept away in the days of Isaiah. This must
have most deeply affected his pious heart. And it is natural
to view him revolving in his anxious mind the place of their
long exilement; and delighted with a view of their final
restoration.
Behold this man of God, then, wrapt in the visions of the
Almighty, casting an eye of faith down the lapse of time to
the days of the final restoration of his long rejected
brethren. He finds presented in vision, away over the
Mediterranean, and the Atlantic, far in the west, or going
down of the sun, the continent of their long banishment. He
also beholds in vision a great nation arising there in the
last days; a land of freedom and religion. He hears the
whisper of the Spirit of inspiration, directing him to
address that far sequestered and happy land, and call their
attention to the final restoration of his people.
Isaiah xviii. verse 1; “Ho, land shadowing with wings, which
is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.” Our translators render
this address,
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“Wo to the land.”--But this is manifestly incorrect, as the
best expositors agree. The Hebrew particle here translated
Wo to, is a particle of friendly calling, as well as of
denouncing. And the connexion in any given place must decide
which rendering shall be given. In this place, the whole
connexion and sense decide, that the word is here a friendly
call, or address; as in this passage; “Ho every one that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters.”
The land addressed, lies “beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.” It
is agreed that these rivers mean the mouths of the Nile,
which enter from Egypt into the south side of the
Mediterranean. This probably was the farthest boundary in
that direction then known to the Jews. And no doubt it was
the most noted of any in that point of compass. When a
landscape of a western continent then, was presented in
vision to the prophet precisely in that course, he would
naturally fix upon the place most notable and farthest
distant, by which to describe the direction of this region
of the world. It is then as though the prophet had said;
Thou land beheld in vision away over the mouths of the Nile.
Where would such a line strike? It would glance over the
northern edge of the States of Barbary. But could the
friendly address to a people of the last days, light on
those barbarous Mohammedan shores? Surely not. No land
“shadowing with wings,” or that would aid the restoration of
the Hebrews, is found in those horrid regions. No; the point
of compass and the address must have been designed for a new
world, seen in that direction. This address of Heaven must
be to our western continent; or to a hospitable people found
here. The prophetic eye glanced beyond all lands then known;
and hence no land is named. It must have been a land over
the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
Thou land “shadowing with wings.” The above direction lands
the prophetic vision at the point of the western continent,
where the two great wings of North and South America meet,
as at the body of a great eagle. This at first might furnish
the prophetic imagery of a land “shadowing with wings.” As
though the inspiring Spirit had whispered; The continent of
those two great wings shall be found at last most
interesting in relation to your Hebrew brethren.
And those two great wings shall prove but an emblem of a
great nation then on that continent; far sequestered from
the seat of anti-christ, and of tyranny and blood; and whose
asylum for equal rights, liberty, and religion, shall be
well represented by such a national coat of arms,--the
protecting wings of a great eagle; which nation in yonder
setting of the sun, (when in the last days, judgments shall
be
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