answered, if it is a moral battle only. From the 22d to 24th verse inclusive, God shows the prophet, that then he will justify himself in the eyes of his. people, and in the eyes of the world, and show good and sufficient cause why he suffered his people to be persecuted in the world, a scattered and a peeled people; why he suffered the chief princes to rule over them; why they have been so long robbed and spoiled and led into captivity. He gives one good reason; yet we heed it not. He says it was for our iniquities, trespasses, uncleanness and transgressions. Verse 25. "Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name." Some have supposed that we have here a proof of the Jews being gathered to their own land; but I cannot so understand it; for not only Jacob would have to be gathered, but the whole house of Israel; and this would prove too much, unless they admit a literal resurrection before it takes place. They could not all be there without; for Jacob is dead. O yes, says the objector, but Jacob is used in that passage as a figure. Very well, sir; the very same arguments that you would bring to prove Jacob is used in a figurative sense, I will bring to show that the whole house of Israel is used so too; then what becomes of literal Israel? Paul has given us, in Romans xi. 26, the meaning of Jacob; it is those whose sins are forgiven through the atonement, and turned from ungodli ness. Israel is said to be the children of Christ. Rom. ix. 6-8. Then the bringing of them again is the bringing of his sons to glory. Heb. ii. 10. And the gathering of his elect from the four winds of heaven, and from the land of death, the last enemy, and sanctifying them in the sight of the world, (for every eye will see them separated, changed, and caught up to meet the Lord at his coming,) is an explanation of the 27th verse. Verse 28. "Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered Verse 29." Neither will I hide my face any more from them." This certainly must be after Christ's second advent. 1 John iii. 2: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." See Isaiah liv. 8: "In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer." Now let the reader examine this chapter, and he will find the same gathering and promises as in Ezekiel, and if one means Jews only, so must the other. "For I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God." The house of Israel. What language could the prophets have used, in the days when the Old-Testament prophets prophesied, to have described the people of God under the new dispensation, better than Jacob, Israel, &c.? What, my brethren, will rend the veil from your faces in reading the Old Testament? Have you no love for the soul of the perishing Jew? Will you deceive them until the last? Will you forever harp on the old string, "God's ancient covenant people?" Will you not even inquire who are that people? Are they the Jews? No, sir, not the Jews only; for the promise was first made to Abraham, that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. Where is the Jew, as a Jew, said to be entitled to one promise in the gospel, that the Gentile is not? Can you say they have a promise of the land of Canaan, which is not fulfilled? See Joshua,xxiii. 14, 15: “And ye know in all your hearts, and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all hath come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof." Then, in my opinion, the captivity spoken of in verse 25th, is the subjection the people of God have been and will continue in to Gog, the principal kingdoms of the world, until Christ's second advent; when he will destroy all those kingdoms, conquer death, and let his people go free. III. I SHALL SHOW THE TIMES AND PERIODS GIVEN IN THIS CHAPTER. seren First. In the ninth verse, we are told, that they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall burn the weapons of their enemies " years." This must mean either literal or figurative years. If this passage has not been fulfilled, then I argue that it cannot be fulfilled in a literal sense; for we have no such weapons as are there described, at the present day. Again, it would be very unnatural to suppose that there could actually be weapons of war enough collected, contiguous to many cities, to supply the inhabitants of them with fuel seven years. It appears unnatural to me in every view of the subject to understand these things as describing a literal battle, and yet not to be fulfilled; for it is evident that the people of God are meant, as one party. It cannot be in the gospel day, for two reasons: Christ forbade his servants to fight, and the gospel does not permit its subjects to rob and spoil others, because they rob and spoil us. From these considerations, I must conclude that the 9th and 10th verses are figurative language, and that seven years are seven times 360, making 2520 common years; that these kingdoms denominated Gog in our text would lead into captivity the Israel or children of God, spoil and rob them of their peace and rights, and scatter over the earth Judah and Israel; and in process of time would smite the Shepherd of Israel and scatter the sheep. All this has been fulfilled in the history of the children of God for ages past. The (< next question which would naturally arise, would be, When did the seven years begin? Our text tells us, They that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth." This shows us what event will begin our prophecy it will be the children of Israel going forth into captivity. 2 Kings xvii. 20: "And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight." Isa. xlii. 22-24. Amos vii. 11 and 17. Again, 2 Kings xvii. 23: " Until the Lord moved Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.” Isaiah prophesied that within sixty-five years Ephraim should be broken and be not a people. Isa. vii. 8. This was in the days of Pekah and Rezin, 742 years before Christ. Sixty-five years afterwards, B. C. 677, Esarhaddon, king of Assyria and Babylon, came with a large army into the land of Israel and Judah, carried away the last remnant of Israel, and they have not been a nation since.* Then he also made war against Jerusalem, took Manasseh and carried him to Babylon; which begins the "seven times" Judah was to be in bondage to the kings of the earth, and also the "seven years Israel should be a captive, robbed and spoiled people; both beginning and ending at one time, 2520 years, beginning B. Č. 677, ending A. D. 1943. To 1843 add 677, and the sum equals 2520. 99 Perhaps the reader may not be aware that Ezekiel was commanded to understand a day for a year. See Ezekiel iv. 5, 6. We can hardly read a chapter in any of the prophets, but we find this thing prophesied of, i. e., the captivity of Israel, the spoiling and robbing of them, both Israel and Judah, by these great kingdoms of the earth, which Ezekiel has called Gog in our text. It must and will be acknowledged, by every man conversant with his Bible, that the times of their * Rollin's Ancient History, vol. i. page 296. captivity have, in every case, been prophesied of by the prophets of God. And, in general, the cases of captivity, which would end in the dispensation in which the prophet lived who prophesied these things, are given to us in plain language; as 400 years' captivity, or bondage, in Egypt, meant years. This was literally fulfilled before the law was given on mount Sinai, which was the beginning of the Mosaic dispensation. Then the 70 years' captivity of Judah in Babylon was literally accomplished in the same dispensation. Judah was released, (not all Israel,) from their captivity in Babylon; but the captivity of Israel is nowhere limited to the law dispensation: but the release of Israel from their captivity is a gospel release, and the subjects of this release must be gospel subjects; for if the dispensation changes, so, of course, must the subjects change; for "old things are done away; behold, all things are become new." See Paul's most powerful reasoning on this subject, in Hebrews eighth and ninth chapters. Who can read these reasons of Paul's and not be convinced? Moses was faithful over his house; so was Jestis Christ faithful over his house, "whose house are we, (says the apostle,) if we hold fast our confidence unto the end." It was Israel in the flesh that was scattered then, and was never gathered under the law. The gospel came, the law of Israel was done away; he is not a Jew who is of the flesh, but circumcision is of the heart. They are not all Israel which are of Israel; but in Christ thy seed shall be called. For he will gather in one all the children of God (true Israel) scattered abroad. John xi. 52. The high priest, although a Jew, understood that Christ was to gather not only that nation, the Jews, but all the children of God scattered abroad. How can our judaizing priests get over this text? But to return to our subject. The seventy weeks prophesied of in Din. ix. 24-27, are used in a figurative sense; a day stands for a year. Why so? Because these seventy weeks in their fulfilment would carry us seven years, at least, into the new dispensation; and as the veil |