the Gospel, came on the Gentiles, which introduced the Gentiles into the kingdom of heaven, which is the gospel kingdom. So the Gentiles became the children of the kingdom, then, by divine command; and turned the dragon, devil, and Satan, which was fallen Israel, out of the kingdom, into outer darkness, where they had wailing and gnashing of teeth. John 'saw an angel come out of heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand ; and he laid hold on the old dragon, that serpent, the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. This pit was Jerusalem, the angel the Roman Emperor, who by his laws, bound the Jewish nation (called the dragon) to his own government. After he had bound him, he cast him into the bottomless pit, and set a seal upon him; that was, he sealed him to his own laws, and bound him with the same; so he should deceive the nations no more by his pretended piety. By this we are to understand the dragon was bound by the Roman chain of laws, and deprived of all their former power-so they could not take life without the voice of the Roman authority. This continued for a season, then the dragon was to be let loose.

At this conclusion, the dragon Israel rose up in rebellion against the Roman authority, and mustered a very great army, determining to recover their former kingdom; which terminated in their being cast into the lake of fire and brimstone in Jerusalem, which was like one vast sea of fire, in which that unhappy people, called dragon, devil, Satan, death, and hell, burned, which John calls the second death.'

This was the second death of the house of Israel, a political death. As there are manydeaths spoken of in scriptures, I shall only make mention of four, two moral deaths, and two national deaths. As I am speaking wholly of the house of Israel, I shall endeavor to show that Israel experienced four deaths, in the first place, Jews, and Gentiles; in the first place by partaking of the nature of the first Adam, they became morally dead; which death all must experience. So we must all bear the image of the first Adam, before we can bear the image of the second Adam. all nations have become morálly dead in the first Adam; but Israel having been chosen of God as his peculiar people, they became alive unto God. Spiritually, they had the lively

So

oracles of God committed to them, and Jesus Christ preached to them in the wilderness; but Paul says the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them who heard it, and so by unbelief backslid from God, who was Israel's habitation, and turning to the worshipping of Idols, they became the second time morally dead. Israel was like the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire. This revolt from God, which Israel took, brought on them the second moral death, which resulted in their conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. Daniel gives us an account of this affair, of the captivity of the children of Israel, by the King of Babylon. Dan. i: 1. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiacim, King of Judea, came Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, unto Jerusalem, and besieged it, and the Lord gave the King of Judea into his hands, with part of the vessels of the house of God, this judgment was brought on Israel for their leaving the worship of the true God, and turning to the worshiping of Idols, and the works of their own hands, So the Lord gave the whole house of Israel into the hands of the King of Babylon, and he demolished the first

temple and threw down the walls of the city of Jerusalem to the ground, and carried the Israelites captive to Babylon. Here the Israelites remained seventy years in captivity; there they experienced seventy years of a political death; this was the first political death of Israel. Seventy years Israel was not known as a political nation; the Lord had given them into the hands of the King of Babylon, and that he should rule over them; this was inflicted on Israel for their moral revolt from God. The death of the people of God, resulted in a national death, a death to their national existence. After the Lord had punished Israel seventy years with this national death, he informed Ezekiel that he should raise Israel out of their graves, and re-establish them in their own lands again, and establish Israel once more a political nation. See Ezekiel xxxvii: 1. The dead hope of Israel revived, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of a valey which was full of dry bones, and he caused me to pass by them round about, and behold there were very many in the open valley; and lo, they were very dry, and he said

unto me, son of man can these bones live, and I answered, O Lord God thou knowest; again he said unto me, prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones hear the word of the Lord; thus sayeth the Lord unto these dry bones, behold I will cause breath to enter into you. and ye shall live; and I will lay sinews upon you, and I will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you and you shall live, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as he commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a noise and a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them; then said he unto me, prophesy O Son of man and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came in to them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold they say our bones are dryed, and our hope is