When the Jews are put in poffeffion of the land' given to their fathers, at this period, they shall never be ejected out of it, but shall continue in poffeffion of it while the earth remains. So God explicitly afferts. "Thou shalt no more be term"ed, Forfaken; neither fhall thy land any more "be termed, Defolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, (I have delighted in her), and thy land Beulah, (married): for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be mar"ried;" Ifa. lxii. 4. "The Lord hath fworn

..

by his right hand, and by the arm of his ftrength, Surely I will no more give thy corn "to be meat for thine enemies; and the fons "of the ftranger shall not drink thy wine, for "the which thou haft laboured: but they that "have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the "Lord; and they that have brought it toge"ther fhall drink it in the courts of my holi"nefs;" ver. 8, 9. "And they shall dwell in "the land that I have given unto Jacob my "fervant, wherein your fathers have dwelt: "and they fhall dwell therein, even they and "their children, and their childrens children, " for ever; and my fervant David shall be their prince for ever;" Ezek. xxxvii. 25. " But

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Judah fhall dwell for ever, and Jerufalem from generation to generation;" Joel iii. 20,

"I will plant them upon their land, and they "fhall no more be pulled up out of their land "which I have given them, faith the Lord thy "God;" Amos ix. 15.

SECTION II.

Final extirpation of Popery.

ANOTHER remarkable event, confequent upon the victory at Armageddon, is the final extirpation of Popery, that fyftem of Antichriftianism which had continued fo long in the world, for the deftruction both of the fouls and bodies of men.

The horrible confternation of Popish idolaters after the battle of Armageddon, is reprefented by Ifaiah, chap. ii. 10, 11.-18, 19, 20, 21. "Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the "duft, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory "of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall "be humbled, and the haughtiness of men "fhall be bowed down; and the Lord alone. " shall be exalted in that day.And the idols "he fhall utterly abolish. And they fhall go "into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves " of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the "glory of his majefty, when he ariseth to shake terribly

"terribly the earth.

In that day a man shall "caft his idols of filver, and his idols of gold, " which they made each one for himself to wor"ship, to the moles, and to the bats; to go in"to the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of "the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and "for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth "to fhake terribly the earth.”

This confternation in them fhall be accompanied by a conviction in others, that the fyftem maintained by them is moft offenfive to God, and fubjects thofe who adhere to it to the pu nishment of eternal death. We might infer this from the feveral texts which intimate the deftruction of the beaft by fire, as Ifa. xxx. 33. chap. xxxi. 9. Dan. vii. 11.; for all these feem to have an aspect not only to the material fire at Armageddon, but likewife to the torments of hell, fo frequently defcribed by fire in fcripture.

But the fentiment is explicitly afferted in the following texts. "And they fhall go forth, "and look upon the carcafes of the men that "have tranfgreffed against me : for their worm "fhall not die, neither fhall their fire be "quenched; and they fhall be an abhorring "unto all flesh;" Isa. lxvi. 24.

The tranfgreffors mentioned here are thofe deftroyed at Armageddon ; for their deftruction is coeval with the return of the Jews, ver. 20. and

Their

and the Millennium, ver. 21, 22, 23. punishment is expreffed by a phrase fignifying the torments of hell; Mark ix. 44. 46. 48. That punishment is seen in their carcases; that is, a conviction of it is impreffed upon the mind, by the manner of their deftruction. "And the beaft

was taken, and with him the false prophet "that wrought miracles before him, with which "he deceived them that had received the mark, "of the beaft, and them that worshipped his

image. These both were caft alive into a lake "of fire burning with brimftone ;" Rev. xix. 20. The punishment reprefented here can be no other than the torments of hell; for they are cast alive into the lake, confequently it must be that place where "the worm dieth not, and the fire " is not quenched;" besides it is the fame lake into which "death and hell are caft" after the general refurrection, exprefsly termed the fecond death; Rev. xx. 14. The perfons fo punished are the beaft and false prophet," in other words, the Pope and the Popish clergy looking not to individuals, but to the head and fupporters of the fyftem of Popery. They are faid to be taken at Armageddon, because the finfulness of the fyftem is there fully detected and clearly exposed by the interpofition of the Deity in the deftruction of its fupporters. The fame punishment is denounced against all those

who

who adhere to the fyftem: "And the third an"gel followed them, faying with a loud voice, "if any man worship the beast and his image, " and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his

hand, the fame fhall drink of the wine of "the wrath of God, which is poured out with"out mixture into the cup of his indignation; " and he fhall be tormented with fire and brim"ftone in the prefence of the holy angels, and "in the presence of the Lamb: and the fmoke "of their torment afcendeth up for ever and

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ever: and they have no reft day nor night "who worship the beaft and his image, and "whofoever receiveth the mark of his name;' Rev. xiv. 9.-11. The voice of this angel is coeval with the period immediately following the battle of Armageddon'. This proclama

tion

(1) Mede, Newton, and fome others, fuppofe the voice of this angel to have been fulfilled by the Reformation; but to this interpretation I cannot agree, for the following reafons: 1. This angel follows after the former two, and the first of them points to a period still future, as we have feen: 2. It is not true, that the reformers denounced eternal damnation against all that remained members of the church of Rome. They fpoke of the difficulty of falvation in the church of Rome, but that is a language effentially different from the peremptory declaration of this angel. But we may eafily conceive, that at fome future period,

when