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rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain. I will also leave in the midst of thee, an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid."

This prophecy, also, as appears from the sequel, relates to the times immediately antecedent to the manifestation of the king of Zion.

These passages, with others which may be compared with them, will serve to afford us some idea of the character and condition of the people first restored to the land of their fathers. To a great degree the national character is the same as when the sword dispersed them; they are as senseless formalists, and blinded bigots, as when they crucified the Lord of glory. And it is for this cause that, though finally delivered, we see Jerusalem and her people partakers of so large a share in the judgments of the last dreadful times: but still we find there is a remnant in the midst of them, whom their God will chasten, and purify, and make ready as a people prepared for the Lord. And here I would place the ministry of Elijah the prophet "before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes;" conceiving it to be a dispensation which concerns mainly Israel and their land.

"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of Jehovah; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth” or land "with a curse.”—Malachi iv. 5, 6.

The mission of John the Baptist, preceding the first advent, prefigured and symbolized this, "and many of the children of Israel did he turn unto the Lord his God." But the general rejection of the meek and lowly Saviour, and his betrayal and murder at that time brought a curse and not a blessing upon the land, under which it lies to this day. But still Elijah shall come first "before the great and dreadful day" "and restore all things," shall bring back the hearts of parents and children together, and arrange the survivors of Israel, a people prepared for their appearing Messiah, as Moses arranged them at Mount Zion, when Jehovah descended and the people entered into the first covenant. And this I believe to be "the times of the restitution of all things," mentioned Acts iii. 20, 21; compare Matthew xvii. 11; Mark ix. 12; and remark that the same term is used in the original.

SECTION THE THIRD.

THE LAST MORTAL FOE AND INVADER OF RESTORED ISRAEL.

That foe the Roman Empire-All the Predictions and Symbols respecting the last Enemy fulfilled in the character and history of this Empire-Opposed by certain Kings of the North and South.

THESE times of affliction, in which Israel does not go unpunished, and in which the nations hostile to them and to the approaching kingdom of the Messiah, are, in a manner, totally destroyed, will claim much of our attention; as all have a deep interest here. But the time of the bursting forth of these dreadful judgments upon the world, is marked in prophecy, as preceded by a combination of events, to take place in the history of the nations upon earth, to which we must first advert.

I have already in a former publication declared my conviction, that it is one and the same adversary, who is every where in Scripture in view of the Spirit of Prophecy, when he designates the events of the latter days, whether that adversary is spoken of as the "scoffers of the last days;"* the 'foe

* Enoch in Jude.

from Chittim;'* denoted as “that wicked” in the Psalms; so variously described in Isaiah and in the other prophets, and typified both by the Assyrian and by the Babylonian invader; and in the prophecy of Ezekiel, to which our attention has been much called, addressed as "Gog of the land of Magog," and Gog‘of' described as at the head of all the sons of Japheth "by whom the isles" and "coasts of the Gentiles were divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations:" + combining with them also other nations in this last warfare," Elam, Cush, and Put," taking possession of the land of Egypt, "so that the Ethiopians are at his steps."+

In this prophecy of Ezekiel, I think, the word of God advertizes us, that one and the same adversary has been all along the theme of the prophetic Spirit, for Gog is addressed:

xxviii. 17. "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; art thou not of whom he I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years, that I would bring thee against them."

This certainly individualizes the subject. And for the final catastrophe as described in the subsequent pages of prophecy, the supposition of a different leader of the last invasion, seems altogether unnecessary.

There were four "horns of the Gentiles which lifted up the horn over the land of Judah, to scatter it."S These answer to the four monarchies of

* Numbers xxiv. 24. Second Advent vol. i. p. 535.

↑ Genesis x. 2, &c.

§ Zechariah i. 21.

Sect. 2.

re, are in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain. I will also leave in the midst of thee, an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid."

This prophecy, also, as appears from the sequel, relates to the times immediately antecedent to the manifestation of the king of Zion.

These passages, with others which may be compared with them, will serve to afford us some idea of the character and condition of the people first restored to the land of their fathers. To a great degree the national character is the same as when the sword dispersed them; they are as senseless formalists, and blinded bigots, as when they crucified the Lord of glory. And it is for this cause that, though finally delivered, we see Jerusalem and her people partakers of so large a share in the judgments of the last dreadful times: but still we find there is a remnant in the midst of them, whom their God will chasten, and purify, and make ready as a people prepared for the Lord. would place the ministry of Elijah the prophet And here I "before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes;" conceiving it to be a dispensation which concerns mainly Israel and their land.

"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of Jehovah; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth" or land "with a curse."-Malachi iv. 5, 6.

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