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xlix. 21. "They shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders, and kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and shall lick the dust of thy feet."-And so again, Isaiah lxvi. 20. "And they shall bring again all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord." The reader will judge for himself, upon examining these last-mentioned passages with their contexts, and with the other corresponding Scriptures, whether they do not rather refer to the time, when "the kings and the nations of the earth, shall bring their glory and honour into" the Millennial Church, after she has sat down in her rest, than to the Lord's remnant in the flesh, during their deliverance, and whilst travelling towards their rest.

Different

opinions are entertained, and no one, perhaps, is very competent to declare the exact fulfilment.

CHAP. XXXII.

Messiah's Judgment.

The fourteenth chapter of Revelations describes the harvest and the vintage. The parable of the tares in Matthew xiii. refers also to the same events. There is a trifling variation, however, of the order in which the events are spoken of in these two places. In Rev. xiv. the harvest, or collecting together of his redeemed ones, is mentioned first.-In the parable, it should seem that the tares are first collected, and bound up into bundles to be burned: and in the explanation, in verse 43, it is said, “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."-Matt. iii. 12, quoting from Mal. iii. 3. describes the Lord Jesus as coming with his fan in his hand, "and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into his garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire:" and in that day every plant which God hath not planted will be rooted up.

The going forth of Messiah in the latter day, is described in Rev. xix.

The eleventh verse begins the subject; and to preserve the context entire, the chapter should have commenced at that verse; for the preceding portion of it belongs to the subject of the eighteenth chapter, and describes the rejoicing of the Church over the fall of the mystic Babylon, which fall is related in the eighteenth; and is again briefly adverted to, in the latter part of the nineteenth chapter, for the purpose of shewing, that although the ten kings of the earth shall hate the whore, and make her desolate, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire, (Rev. xvii. 16.) yet that this will be brought to pass, at the time of the manifestation of the immediate presence of Messiah, who cometh to take vengeance. He is described as going forth, seated upon a white horse. In vain do the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his Anointed." Ps. ii. 2.-In vain do "the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gather together to make war against HIM that sitteth upon the horse, and against His army." Rev. xix. 19. "The Lord shall laugh them to scorn.”—The application of these Scriptures is plain; and Ezekiel also speaks of the same events, under the names of Gog and Magog, in chapters xxxviii. and xxxix. The last chapter of Zechariah, and Joel iii. speak of them likewise, as do others of the prophets.-The expression of Joel in

verse 9, is, "sanctify war," (see margin) as if to denote a contest of a religious kind: and Zechariah shews that the enemies are smitten with an immediate destruction from the Lord. The Gog and Magog of Ezekiel are smitten in like manner, and they are by no means to be confounded with the Gog and Magog of Rev. xx. for these come forth at the end of the Millennial dispensation, and not at the commencement : but the Gog and Magog of Ezekiel are at the commencement of it, and before the latter-day temple, or Millennial Church, is built up. Without transcribing the passages, it is difficult to give the full effect of them; and, therefore, it may be better that the reader should himself refer to them. The Lord's sacrifice in Bozrah, even his great slaughter in the land of Idumea, or Edom, spoken of in Isaiah xxxiv. is the same event, and it will be seen that Messiah is described in Isaiah lxiii. as coming up from this very slaughter, after having trodden there, in Edom, without the city of God, "the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." See Rev. xiv. 20, and xix. 15.

It seems the general opinion, that the vengeance which is spoken of in the Scriptures here referred to, is upon certain armies of men, who join together as soldiers, to fight against Messiah and his army. It may be asked, whether it is possible that any should

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be found so hardy as to engage in such a warfare. But, on the other hand, if the Lord so ordain, instruments will certainly be found it may be, that their eyes shall be blinded, so that at this time they may not know him to be Messiah; and if, as a modern commentator thinks, Buonaparte is again to be released, he might prove himself a fit leader of such an expedition: still, however, it would not follow, according to the general opinion, that the destruction of that day will be confined to the armies thus assembled. A further examination of Scripture leads to the conclusion, that a far greater calamity is prophesied of; and that the ruin will be as disastrous and almost as extensive as that in the days of Noah. Our Lord compares it to the days of Noah-He says, "except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved." And Paul says, 2 Thess. i. that the vengeance of that day will be upon them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ-which description must necessarily include many who could not be gathered together unto the battle. The apostle Peter speaks, if possible, in more direct terms, from which it may be collected, that the present heavens and earth are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against that day; and that they will be as completely destroyed by fire, as they were before by water; and then there shall be made new

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