THE OTHER COUNTRIES OF THE CAPTIVITY. 259

Major Rennell observes', that the whole of the inhabitants of Israel were not carried into captivity; but under any circumstances we may conceive that a very great number of those who had thus been placed in foreign countries, would have become established in them, and would have formed relations which (in spite of the love for the land of his fathers of which nothing can divest the Israelite,) would have induced a disinclination to seek an immediate return to their native country.

These Israelites, although, as we well know, they had departed widely from the pure worship of Jehovah,—for it was in consequence of their sinfulness alone that the Almighty had withdrawn His protection from them, and given them for a prey

views under which I propose that the kingdoms of Mitzraim and Egypt should be considered, will require that the Geography of early Profane History should be remodeled upon almost as extensive a scale as that upon which the Geography of Sacred History has in the present Work been attempted to be arranged. my second Volume I purpose to consider this subject more in detail.

In

I am not prepared to assert that the City of Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar is not represented by the ruins near Hillah to which its name has been attributed; but I think that an investigation of this subject, having reference to the different light in which the geography of this particular neighbourhood is placed by the system I have proposed, will become necessary before it can be absolutely affirmed that the locality of that mighty city has been correctly determined.

1 Geogr. of Herodotus, p. 400.

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MANY OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CONVERTS

to their enemies, and although in their captivity they "did eat of the bread of the Gentiles';" yet, as is most probable, many of them still continued in some degree" to keep the law and the commandments, and to show themselves merciful and just." At all events, it is quite certain that the descendants of these Israelites, degraded as most of them may have become, could not altogether have lost the recollection of the God of their fathers; and consequently they must have been in a far better state of preparation for receiving the pure light of the Gospel than the Pagans by whom they were surrounded; whilst at the same time even in the minds of those who had not yet forgotten that their forefathers had been chosen by the Lord "to be a special people unto Himself, "above all people that are upon the face of the "earth"," the peculiar characteristics of the Israelitish Church would have become so weakened and modified, that in them the opposition to the new dispensation, which was manifested by the Jews generally, would probably not have existed.

The gentilized descendants, therefore, of the ten tribes of Israel,-as well those who had returned to their native country then known by the name of "Galilee of the Gentiles," as also those who continued in the land of their captivity,-having thrown off that national obstinacy which, even to the present

1 Tobit i. 10.

3 Deut. vii. 6.

2 Tobit xiv. 9.
4 Matth. iv. 15.

DESCENDANTS OF THE TEN TRIBES OF ISRAEL. 261

day, precludes the inflexible Jew from receiving another faith, would, in the same condition as that of Cornelius, who "feared God with all his house, "which gave much alms to the people, and prayed "to God alway'," have been in that very state of preparation which probably best fitted them for the reception of the truths of the Gospel; and it is they, consequently, who may be regarded as having formed a considerable portion of the early converts to the Christian religion.

Since, also, the denunciation of the Lord upon His once favoured nation-" among these nations shalt "thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy "foot have rest"",-had already begun to operate, and the Israelites, deprived of their hereditary possessions in the land of promise, had become wanderers upon the face of the earth, and, from their retaining no permanent settlements, had devoted themselves almost exclusively to trade ;—as we find the Jews also have continued to do since the loss of their national independence ;-it may further be imagined that the descendants of the ten tribes would, in the prosecution of their commercial pursuits, have spread themselves, in the course of time, into the rich and flourishing country of Asia Minor, which lay immediately adjoining to Media and the north of Mesopotamia, where they had first been carried into captivity; and thus in Asia Minor also, the first Christians-" the strangers [who

1 Acts x. 2.

2 Deut. xxviii. 65.

262

ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PROPHECIES

were] scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia';" and the members of "the seven churches which are in Asia" may possibly have consisted in great part of the same Gentilized Israelites.

It is generally considered that these primitive converts consisted principally of Judaized Gentiles, and not of Gentilized Jews or rather Israelites, as I conceive they were. It is far from being my intention to assert that many of the former also may not have existed; but it is certainly scarcely to be imagined that whilst the Jewish nation was daily falling, not only into decay, but also into contempt among the surrounding nations, they should have met with many converts to their religion; and this, the more especially when we consider the difficulties which were placed by the Jews in the way of proselytism, notwithstanding their apparent desire at all times to conform to the Law. This observation, however, is not intended to apply to the descendants of the ten tribes, to whom the God

worshiped by the Jews was not an

unknown god,'

and of whom, consequently, many may have been desirous of reentering into communion with that Church which, even in its degraded state, was, in the profession of its faith in One God, immeasurably superior to the pantheism and idolatry which characterized the Heathen world. It is perfectly intelligible, therefore, how, in the time of our Sa

1 1 Peter i. 1.

2 Rev. i. 4.

RELATIVE TO THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL. 263

viour and his Apostles, there may have existed among the Gentilized descendants of the ten tribes many proselytes to the Jewish Church, who, from the religious feeling which had prompted them to join that Church, may be conceived to have been among the first to receive also the blessings of the Christian dispensation; whilst on the other hand the idea that proselytism to the Jewish Law should have been adopted (at least to any great extent,) among the idolatrous heathens, appears to be one which upon consideration cannot be retained.

The suggestions here offered respecting these early members of the Christian Church are advanced in the hope that the subject may receive the attention of those who are far more fitted to discuss it than I am; and I will refrain from saying more respecting them, than that should they be found to possess any considerable degree of truth, they will doubtless have the effect not only of presenting the early history of the Christian Church in a light in which (I believe) it has not hitherto been regarded, but also of requiring the prophecies respecting the restoration of Israel to be subjected to a fresh investigation, with reference to the particular interpretation, that of their full accomplishment in times now long past, namely, at the establishment of Christianity, which they will thus receive.

But to return once more to the consideration of the Hamitish languages. The course by which the