_Dear Brethren_:...” _p._ 12: A Postscript, To fill up the following Pages, that else had been vacant: Containing, 1 _The Proposals of_ R. Manasses ben Israel, _more fully_. 2 _Part of his Letter written Anno_ 1647. 3 _The late progress of the Gospel amongst the Indians in New-England._ A translation appeared in:―― Neue Schwarmgeister=Brut Oder Historische Erzehlung.... IV. Die Wieder=Einnehmung der Juden in Engeland V. Die Bekehrung der Indianer in New-Engeland ... Gedrukkt im Jahr 1661. pp. 189‒223. (8º. 24 _ll._ + 223 _pp._ + 1 _l._) [I. S.] XXXVI. BISHOP THOMAS NEWTON AND THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL “THE preservation of the Jews is really one of the most signal and illustrious acts of divine Providence. They are dispersed among all nations, and yet they are not confounded with any. The drops of rain which fall, nay the great rivers which flow into the ocean, are soon mingled and lost in that immense body of waters: and the same in all human probability would have been the fate of the Jews, they would have been mingled and lost in the common mass of mankind; but, on the contrary they flow into all parts of the world, mix with all nations, and yet keep separate from all. They still live as a distinct people, and yet they no where live according to their own laws, no where elect their own magistrates, no where enjoy the full exercise of their religion.... No people have continued unmixed so long as they have done, not only of those who have sent forth colonies into foreign countries, but even of those who have abided in their own country. The northern nations have come in swarms into the more southern parts of Europe; but where are they now to be discerned and distinguished? The Gauls went forth in great bodies to seek their fortune in foreign parts; but what traces or footsteps of them are now remaining any where? In France who can separate the race of the ancient Gauls from the various other people, who from time to time have settled there? In Spain who can distinguish exactly between the first possessors the Spaniards, and the Goths, and the Moors, who conquered and kept possession of the country for some ages? In England who can pretend to say with certainty which families are derived from the ancient Britons, and which from the Romans, or Saxons, or Danes, or Normans? The most ancient and honorable pedigrees can be traced up only to a certain period, and beyond that there is nothing but conjecture and uncertainty, obscurity and ignorance: but the Jews can go up higher than any other nation, they can even deduce their pedigree from the beginning of the world. They may not know from what particular tribe or family they are descended, but they know certainly that they all sprung from the stock of Abraham. And yet the contempt with which they have been treated, and the hardships which they have undergone in almost all countries, should