In the pride of his political speculations he had said, The land of these two nations, Israel and Judah, shall be mine: I will possess it: I will make it a province of my empire, conveniently subservient, from its central situation, to my future schemes of yet more extensive aggrandisement. Thus he: whereas the Lord was there. The Lord, who hath heard all his contemptuous speeches against Israel and all his words which he hath multiplied even against the Lord, will suddenly go forth in his great wrath to judge him. As he rejoiced at the desolation of Jacob, so shall he become a desolation of desolations while the whole earth rejoiceth.

The fall of Edom shall be the rise of the house of Israel. They, who had long been scattered through all the lands, monuments of God's vengeance; they, who had profaned his holy name by calling themselves his people, when they were manifestly rejected of him: shall now be restored, though not for their own sakes; and shall be admitted into a new and spiritual covenant with the Lord. Judah and Israel shall both be brought back; but the house of Judah first. Although they have so long been politically and nationally dead, that they may be compared, not merely to putrid corpses, but to dry bones; yet they shall assuredly rise again, bone to his bone; shall resume their rank among the nations; and shall become, in the highest sense of the words, God's own people, a peculiar people zealous of good works, a people

constantly living under the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit. Judah and Israel however shall be no longer, as formerly, two kingdoms. As the two sticks became one in the hand of Ezekiel; so shall the two kindred nations become one in the hand of the Lord. And, as the literal David reigned first over Judah separately, and afterwards over Judah and Israel jointly *; so shall the mystical David first reign over the House of Judah for a short time separately, and afterwards over Judah and Israel now for ever united. When Judah is restored and converted, and when the confederacy-of Antichrist is broken; "then shall

come all the tribes of Israel unto David, and "shall speak, saying; Thou wast he that leddest "out and broughtest in Israel; thou shalt hence"forth therefore feed the Lord's people: thou "shalt be a captain over Israel; thou art the "anointed king, the Messiah of God t." With this united kingdom the Lord will make an everlasting covenant of peace. He will establish them, and set his sanctuary in the midst of them for He will be their God, and they shall

evermore.

be his people.

We have seen the restoration of Judah partly in a converted and partly in an unconverted state, the destruction of the mystic Edom or the Roman Antichristian faction, the political resurrection of

2 Sam, v, 5.

+ 2 Sam, v. 1, 2, 3,

Judah

Judah and Israel after their long national extinction, their coalition into one people under one king the Messiah, and their unexampled prosperity and happiness in the land of their fathers while living in covenant with God and beholding his sanctuary in the midst of them: we have seen, in short, the commencement of that season of blessedness, which is usually denominated the Millennium. The prophet now directs our attention to a new enemy of the Church, whom he styles Gog and Magog. That this new enemy cannot be the same as Edom or the Roman confederacy, is plain, both from the time when he makes his appearance, namely at some indefinite period after the commencement of the Millennium; from the countries whence he draws his forces, which are without the limits of the papal Roman empire; and from various circumstances in his prophetic history, which do not accord with the prophetic history of the Roman Antichristian confederacy as elsewhere detailed : to all which may be added the improbability, that Ezekiel, after he has described the downfall of that confederacy under the mystic name of Edom exactly at the era where other predictions had taught us to look for it, the era of the restoration of Judah; should now afresh describe its downfall under a different mystical name not used by any one of the ancient prophets, and that too at an era where no other predictions had taught us to look for it, an era posterior to the restoration of the

house

house of Israel and the commencement of the Millennium. Ezekiel only teaches us, that the expedition of Gog and Magog should be undertaken, when the united Jews and Israelites were dwelling in careless security under David their king in their own land, when they had spread themselves through all the unwalled villages, when they had become rich in cattle and goods, and when living under the immediate protection of heaven they little expected any assault from man; in other words, that it should be undertaken at some indefinite period after the commencement of the Millennium: but St. John is more explicit; he fixes this period to a thousand years, either natural or prophetic, after the season of great blessedness has commenced. The confederacy however of Gog and Magog will be even less successful than that of Antichrist. While these apostates surround the beloved city, fire from heaven will descend upon them; God will rain upon them an overflowing rain, a rain of hailstones, fire, and brimstone; and, agitated with the madness of terror, those, who escape the devastating tempest, will turn every man his sword against his brother. Yet even of these incorrigible offenders will God mercifully spare the sixth part *,

as

I have already stated the uncertain meaning of the word ww; and have observed, that, however it be translated, the present argument will not be at all affected. Whether Gog and Magog be totally destroyed, or whether a sixth part be left,

there

as he had already spared the third part of the Antichristian confederacy. Thus magnifying his great name, will the Lord shew to all nations, that, as he scattered the children of Israel for their sins, so, after he has restored them at once to their own land and to the privileges of his covenant, he will cause them to dwell in confident security, and will suffer none to make them afraid.

On the whole it appears, that Ezekiel arranges events which are to take place subsequent to the close of the 1260 days, in the following order: 1. The restoration of Judah partly in a converted and partly in an unconverted state, and the contemporary war between the two parties supported by their several allies the maritime nation and Antichrist; 2. The destruction of Antichrist and his Roman colleagues under the general mystic name of Edom, and the Lord's vindication of himself for restoring so stubborn a race as that of the Jews; 3. The na'tional resurrection of Judah and Israel to which the overgrown power of Antichrist was the only impediment, and their everlasting union under the mystic David their prince; 4. The commencement of the Millennian season of blessedness and tranquillity; 5. The destruction of Gog and Magog.

there will be no correspondence between their fate and that of the Antichristian confederacy; of which Isaiah teaches us that a considerable number shall be spared, while Zechariah more definitely limits that number to a third part of the whole. See Isaiah lxvi. 19. and Zechar, xiii, 8.

Precisely