That the kingdom or royal government of the Messiah, the site of whose throne, as it is connected with the "visible" and "earthly," is at the holy mount of Zion, will extend over all the earth, there can, however, be no doubt:

Daniel vii. 14. "And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people and nations and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."

Ver. 27. "And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominion shall serve and obey him."

We may infer also, from a passage in Zephaniah, that that cause of the divisions of nations, "the confusion of tongues," which took place at the destruction of the Tower of Babel, will be removed or obviated. It was said in Genesis, "and all the earth was of one tongue" or "lip," and of one language. But the Lord on that occasion "confounded" or "confused their lip, that a man could not understand the lip of his neighbour."

In Zephaniah, it is foretold:

iii. 9. "Surely I will then pour upon the people a pure language," or "lip, that they shall all of them call on the name of Jehovah, that they shall serve him with one consent," or "with one shoulder."

Whether the Lord shall literally perform such a wonder, for the dispersed families of mankind to

* Genesis xi. 1.

unite them together in his holy fear and worship; or whether the gift of tongues, through the power of the Holy Ghost, shall be so extended as to obviate all inconvenience in the intercommunion of nations, there must be a fulfilment of this prophecy; and I conceive, as has been intimated before, that in this will be seen the complete fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel, which had only an inchoate fulfilment on the day of Pentecost.-They but "tasted" "the powers of the world to come."*

It is again remarkable, that the spirit of antichrist "should have fallen upon a device, in some measure to anticipate this circumstance in the universal reign of Christ, in the attempt of the Church of Rome to make the Latin language, that which should be exclusively employed in the principal parts of divine worship in all the nations over which her authority could be extended.

* Hebrews vi. 5.

SECTION THE THIRTEENTH.

THE REIGN OF MESSIAH FROM

JERUSALEM UNTO THE ENDS

OF THE EARTH.

From Zion his first dominion, as we read, the kingdom of Messiah is exextended over all the earth-Besides Canaan, Assyria, Egypt, and Arabia, with other great nations which are intimately united with Jerusalem, under the dominion of her king-Another kind of relation to Zion with respect to some nations of the earth, is shown under the type of restored Sodom and Samaria—The everlasting covenant not made with them, though they are submitted to the sceptre of Messiah-This will exhibit parts of mankind under a peculiar dispensation-Compared to that of Adam in Paradise-Satan confined that he should not deceive these nations-Hence at the termination of his confinement, the second Gog and Magog-Their situation in the four corners of the earth-Jerusalem the object of their attack -The circumstances of this expedition, and the destruction of the enemy, very different from those of the former Gog and Magog.

FROM what has been said, we learn by the word of prophecy to anticipate in what manner Jerusalem will be made "the joy of the whole earth;" and “in Abraham and his seed all the families of the earth be blessed." It may still, however, be a question, whether the surviving nations of the earth, are all equally invested with the privileges of restored Israel, or with those blessings which through that nation are to be conveyed to the rest of mankind. And I think

there are grounds to expect, that, at least during the millennial period of the everlasting reign, the nations of the earth are not all equally privileged in their being united or subjected to Jerusalem, as the mother church and metropolis of Messiah's kingdom.

What is said in an oracle lately quoted, respecting the receiving of Egypt and Assyria in union with Canaan into this heavenly dominion, can hardly imply less, than, that next to the Holy Land, the very inheritance of the tribes of Israel, these two countries of ancient renown, will receive some superior honour and blessedness, distinguishing them beyond the other nations of the earth. And perhaps other scriptures may lead us to a similar conclusion respecting the now wide-spread deserts of Arabia, in that day to be a well-watered garden, "bursting forth into blossom like the rose-bud." Thus Abra ham's native country "beyond the river," the abode of the ancient patriarchs, and, together with the land of promise, the country where his seed sojourned so long and moreover that remarkable country, where so many of the children of the circumcised Abraham still survive, and where are found at this day, the descendants of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, who received a promise from the Lord that "He should not want a man to stand before him for ever." These countries seem to be marked out in prophecy as scenes of particular blessedness, under the reign of the promised seed in the world to come. A goodly patrimony this in the midst of the earth, replenished more fully with that glory of Jehovah which shall beam forth nevertheless to all the corners of the earth!

We shall recollect also, that in the scenes displayed in prophecy, respecting the new formation on the earth's surface, we are not only called to witness the beautiful change in the arid deserts of Arabia; but we are told, "that Jehovah will dry up the tongue of the Egyptian sea," the gulph that now separates Arabia from Egypt; and that he will smite the great Assyrian river, the river Euphrates, into seven streams: which, perhaps, taken literally, may be most blessed in its effects, when the Creator renews the face of the earth. Neither can we determine to what extent we are to apply the term Assyria; it may apply to all which Nineveh possessed, or over which Nebuchadnezzar reigned in his golden sway.

It cannot be only to denote some small distinction in the privileges of these countries that we have read:

In that day,

Shall Israel be a third,

Together with Egypt and with Assyria,

A blessing in the midst of the earth,
Which Jehovah Sabaoth shall bless."

Saying:

"Blessed be Egypt my people,

And Assyria the work of my hand,
And Israel mine inheritance."

In the sixteenth chapter of Ezekiel, at the same time, there seems to be given an intimation of another sort of relation between certain portions of the Gentiles and restored Israel. Having parallelled