by one, O ye children of Israel, and in that Day the great (Jubilee) trumpet shall be sounded, and they shall come who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt and shall worship the LORD in the holy Mountain at Jerusalem.

Of this grand ultimate convocation, the Apostle Paul thus speaks: "Now we entreat you, brethren, by the coming of our LORD Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him." * "The LORD Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise

first."

It was by His bodily restoration to renewed life that the promises to the fathers became confirmed, His reanimated body being the earnest and pledge of those of His redeemed. Hence His rejection in His office of Prophet by that remnant of the two tribes (which remained after the building of the second Temple,) constituted Him the atonement for the whole-whether present or absent, as also in design for the whole world.

It was of the result which His atonement should accomplish, that the Great Shepherd of the flock thus spake: "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring (again) and they shall hear My voice" (as Lazarus had heard it)" and there shall be one Fold and one Shepherd." The prophet Ezekiel gives this piece of future history in detail: "Thus saith the LORD God, Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whither they are gone and will gather them on all sides, and bring them into their own LAND; and I will make them one nation in the LAND upon the mountains of Israel; and one King shall be King to them all; they shall no more be two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more for ever;

neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; for I will redeem them out of their dwellingplaces wherein they have sinned, and will purify them; so shall they be My people, and I will be their God, and David My servant shall be King over them, and they shall all have one Shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes and do them; and they shall dwell in the Land that I have given unto Jacob My servant, wherein your fathers have sojourned, and they dwell therein they and their children's children for ever; and My servant David shall be their Prince for evermore. My Tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be My people; and the nations shall know that I, JEHOVAH, do sanctify Israel, when MY SANCTUARY shall be in the midst of them for ever."

PRELIMINARY NOTICES OF SPANISH

HISTORIANS.

In order to form a just estimate of the value of testimony, it is necessary to obtain some knowledge of those who record it, since respectability and authentic sources of information constitute their claim to the attention and regard of the reader. The duration of their sojourn, their perfect knowledge of the language, records, and antiquities of the people, whose manners and customs they narrate, as well as the relative circumstances in which themselves were placed, and the interests with which they were connected, are all to be taken into consideration. The Spanish Historians, whose names frequently occur in this work, were all members of the Romish communion, the greater part ecclesiastics, and, as their names indicate, chiefly of Hebrew descent.

Those early Spanish writers, unanimously recognized and acknowledged the manifold analogies which demonstrate the transference of the Levitical economy to the New Continent; but while some of them discerned in this circumstance an indisputable proof of the Hebrew origin of the newly-discovered People; others accounted for this almost fac simile resemblance by asserting that Satan had counterfeited in this People, (whom he had chosen for himself,) the history, manners, customs, traditions, and expectations of the Hebrews, in order that their

B

minds might thus be rendered inaccessible to the faith which he foresaw the church would in due time introduce amongst them!

The Historians who ranked themselves as the advocates of the former of these alternatives, were LAS CASAS, SAHAGUN, BOTURINI, GARCIA, GUMILLA, BENAVENTA, and MARTYR. Those who maintained the latter hypothesis were TORQUEMEDA, HERRERA, GOMARA, D'ACOSTA, CORTEZ, D'OLMES, DIAZ. The circumstances in which Herrera and Gomara were placed, (the former having been Royal Historiographer, and the latter Chaplain to Cortez,) admitted of their taking only the orthodox view of the subject. The "secret correspondence" of Cortez with Charles v. together with the rigorous censorship which was exercised by the holy tribunal,' sufficiently prove that even this least offensive view of the subject was to be expressed with reserve.1

The testimony of writers who rejected the evidence of those facts which they nevertheless admitted and recorded, is peculiarly valuable, since the reader of the eighteenth century is more likely to draw conclusions from these admitted facts, than to assume that hypothesis which left them at liberty to acknowledge them as such.

1 "The secret correspondence of Cortez with the Spanish court, which probably still exists, either in the archives of Simancha, or the Escurial, would, if ever published, throw great light on a mystery which religious and state policy kept concealed. Peter Martyr does not refer to two or three letters of that conqueror, but to a huge volume," which was laid before the council of the Indies, of which Garcia de Loisa (the Emperor's confessor) was president, and both he and Gomara (who was Chaplain to Cortez,) confess that they have imposed reserve upon themselves, in treating of the Mexican superstitions."-Antiq. Mex. fol. vi. page 329,

2

DON BARTHOLOMEW LAS CASAS.

"That Las Casas was firmly persuaded that the Indians were descended from the Hebrews, is evident from his own words, "Loquela tua manifestum te fecit, your speech betrays you," as recorded by Torquemeda. If the work of that illustrious prelate, (who was intimately acquainted with Columbus, whose life he wrote, and who was one of the first Spaniards who proceeded to the continent of America, where he must have had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the traditions, &c.) had ever been published, we should have known his reasons for coming to that conclusion: that bishop was too rational to adopt the hypothesis embraced by Acosta and Torquemeda, that the Devil had actually counterfeited the history, laws, rites, ceremonies, and customs of the Jews in the New World, but he believed that the Hebrews had colonized America."

1 Bartolome Las Casas, a famous Dominican Spaniard, first bishop of Chiapa, and highly worthy of memorial among the Indians. The bitter memorials presented by this excellent prelate to King Charles V., and Philip II., in favour of the Indians against the Spaniards, printed in Seville, and afterwards translated and reprinted in odium to the Spaniards, into several European languages, contains some particulars of the ancient history of the Mexicans. He wrote other works, one a General History of America, in 3 vols. folio. Two volumes are in the celebrated Archives Simancas, which have been the sepulchre of many precious Manuscripts on America. Clavegero Disser. The remonstrance of Las Casas, see Appendix.

2 "The words "Loquela tua manifestum te fecit," in reference to the Mexicans and other Indian tribes, whom he took to be real Hebrews, deserve the most serious attention, because we have here the opinion of a person who was well acquainted with the Mexicans and Peruvians, and who proceeded to America immediately after its discovery by the Spaniards, spent there the greater part of a long life, and solemnly recorded in a testamentary document, his conviction of a fact which he might have had many reasons for not choosing to divulge." Antiq. Mex. p. 331. ("Las Casas even goes so far as to say that the language of the Island of St. Domingo was corrupt Hebrew." Ibid.) "At the same time that great credit must be attached to so solemnly recorded an opinion, it cannot be said that the learned prelate was guilty of any indiscretion in promulgating it; but the contrary is proved by the proviso which he made respecting the publication of his history-that it should not be printed till fifty years after his death; this work was never published, and Don M. F. Navarette says, that when it was referred some years ago to the Academy of History at Madrid, to take their decision respecting its publication, they did not think it convenient.”—Ibid.