FINAL DESTRUCTION OF MYSTICAL BABYLON.

ISAIAH Ixiii. 1-6.

Who is this! that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Boxrah? This! glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? 1 that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my ruiment. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold; therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.

It is not uncommon, I believe, to understand this sublime passage of the coming of the Messiah, to shed his blood for the salvation of his people ;* but it is evidently the design of the Holy Spirit to describe the apparel of the conqueror, not as red with his own blood, but with that of his enemies. The event described is not any personal appearance of the Messiah, but a tremendous carnage among the wicked, which he would accomplish by his providence, and which should issue in favour of his church. The dreadful overthrow of Jerusalem, and that of the Roman heathen empire, are each represented by the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of hea

* This erroneous idea is countenanced by a misprint in one of Dr. Watts's Hymns, where the pronoun 'my' is substituted for their. See book i. hymn 28, verse 5, last line.

ven;' each being a day of judgment, as it were, in miniature.* The objects of his vengeance are described under the name Edom, the ancient enemy of Israel, in much the same way as Rome is called Babylon, as being another Babylon to the church of God.

The period to which the prophecy refers, may I think be collected with a good degree of certainty; partly from the context, and partly from the nineteenth chapter of the Revelation of John, where many things appear to be borrowed from this passage. The foregoing chapter, namely, the sixty-second, is manifestly prophetic of glorious times yet to come; times when the righteousness of the church shall go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth'-when she shall be 'a crown of glory in the hand of her God'-when she shall be called Hephzi-bah, and her land Beulah; for the Lord will delight in her, and her land shall be married'and when God himself shall rejoice over her, as a bridegroom rejoiceth over his bride.'

The three last verses seem to have an allusion to the taking of old Babylon, and to the consequent deliverance of the church from her captivity; in which Cyrus and his armies, though messengers of death to the former, were to the latter the harbingers of life and peace. And while they should be going through and through the gates,' the friends of Zion are commanded to 'prepare the way, and to lift up the standard.' Analogous to this shall be the overthrow of mystical Babylon. Her gates, which have long been barred, must be thrown open. At them destruction shall enter to her, but salvation to those whom she has oppressed and persecuted: and while this is going on by instruments that mean not so,' let the friends of Christ be active in their proper sphere, 'preparing the way,' removing obstructions, and lifting up the standard' of evangelical truth. Lo, then 'cometh the salvation of Zion: behold his reward is with him, and his

*Luke xxi. Rev. vi. 12-17.

work before him!' The issue is: the church shall become 'a holy people, the redeemed of the Lord: and she shall be called, Sought out, a city not forsaken.'

It is thus that the sublime passage under consideration is introduced. It is not enough to say, the Salvation of Zion will come; but we are presented, as it were, with a sight of Him, glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength, declaring to his admiring people, that the day of vengeance is in his heart, and the year of his redeemed, the jubilee of the church is come!

Then follows a penitential confession of the jewish church, which is supposed to be overwhelmed and melted into repentance by his great goodness, and the multitude of his loving kindnesses towards them, amidst all their disobedience and rebellion against him. It is not difficult to perceive from hence, that the prophecy is yet to be fulfilled. But another source of evidence of the same thing may be taken from the nineteenth of the Revelation, where many things, as already noticed, are borrowed from this passage. As in Isaiah, so here we see a glorious personage in warlike attire: 'His name is Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. He is clothed in a vesture dipped in blood, and treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of almighty God.' The fowls of heaven are called together to eat the flesh of kings, and of captains, and of mighty men, and of horses, and of them that sat on them, and of men both free and bond, small and great. The issue of this dreadful war is, that the beast and the false prophet are taken; Satan is bound, and Christ reigns.

But little if any doubt, I think, can be entertained of the events in these two passages being the same, and of their being designed to describe the tremendous wars by which the great Head of the church accomplishes the ruin of antichrist. Behold, he cometh as a thief: blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.'

Influence of the Conduct of Religious people

ON THE WELLBEING OF A COUNTRY.

THE 21st of Sep. 1803 was fixed upon, by several dissenting ministers in London, as a day of fasting and prayer on account of the state of the nation ;* and they expressed a wish that their brethren in the country would unite with them. Being at one of those meetings in the country, I was forcibly struck with an idea suggested in a passage of scripture which was read on that occasion. It was Isai. v. 5. And now, go to: I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down.'

I had often heard it observed, from the intercession of Abraham in behalf of Sodom, and other scriptures, that God might spare a country for the sake of the righteous few; but never recollect hearing it noticed before, that the sins of professing christians might also be the principal cause of a nation's overthrow. Certainly the church is here represented as God's vine, the grand object of his care. He fences it by his providence, cultivates it by the means of his grace, and looks that it should bring forth grapes, or fruit, to his glory. But if instead of this it bring forth wild grapes, what inducement can he have to continue the fence?

I am more afraid, said the minister on the above occasion, on account of the sins of my country, than from the threatenings of the enemy: and I am much more afraid

Several days of public fasting and prayer were voluntarily held by the dissenting body, at distant intervals, during the war with revolutionary France; and this in 1803 was in contemplation of the French invasion.

ED.

for the sins of professing christians in my country, than I am for those who are openly profane. It is true, they are wicked, and will not go unpunished: but God does not look to them for fruit in such a manner as he does to us. If the hedge be taken away, and the wild boar of the wood suffered to enter in and destroy, I fear it will be principally, though not wholly, on our account. Our ingratitude, lukewarmness, worldly-mindedness, animosities, divisions, scandals, and other evils, may be more offensive to God, than all the wickedness of the land besides.

If these remarks be just, what a weight lies upon the religious part of a nation; who either prove, like Paul, the salvation of them that sail with them; or like Jonah the principal cause of the storm!

REFLECTIONS ON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE.

Extracts of a Letter, during the alarm of an Invasion in 1803.

I HAVE been much struck of late, in reading the Epistle of Jude; and think I see there the very character of some of our modern democrats.* (1) They were wicked men; yet they crept in unawares amongst religious people, ver. 4.-(2) They were apostates from the truth, after the example of the devil himself, ver. 5, 6.—(3) They were lascivious characters, given over to fornication and all uncleanness, ver. 7.-(4) They were despisers and depreciators of civil government, using language concerning their superiors which an angel dare not use of the devil himself, ver. 8, 9.-(5) Their real object, whatever

* See Morris's Memoirs of Mr. Fuller, p. 71.