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of the Euphrates were literally dried up by stratagem to prepare the way for eastern kings with their invading hosts to enter Babylon, take possession of it, and ultimately subvert the Chaldean Empire; so the Ottoman Turkish Empire, (emblematically represented by the great river Euphrates,) according to Divine prophecy, must be overthrown, subverted, and thus literally and effectually, be removed out of the way as an obstruction, that the way may be prepared for the Jews, God's ancient covenant people, (one branch of whom are scattered among all nations, and the other branch "cast out to the ends of the earth,) may, like the ancient kings and priests of the east, who once worshipped in the Temple, be providentially gathered, united, and restored to the possession of Palestine, to build up, cultivate, and enjoy for evermore, while the world stands, the ancient land of promise, in fulfilment of all the predictions of God's word, in relation to the restoration, reunion, and conversion to God in Palestine, of the remnant of the dispersed nation of the Jews, and of the long lost, and outcast tribes of Israel.

Hence we are warranted from the authority of Divine Revelation to understand and believe, that the remnants of both houses of Israel will providentially be literally restored to Palestine, the ancient land of God's promise to the fathers of the whole house of ancient Israel. That their long calamitous state of desolation, and heart-rending reproach and trials, are in fulfilment of foretold denunciations of Divine displeasure upon them, for their heinous and most aggravated sins against God, by murdering the Lord Jesus, and blasphemously imprecating the vengeance of his blood upon themselves and children; thus entailing the sin of unbelief in the Messiah upon their posterity; which soul-damning sin of unbelief, is still a nationa

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sin of the Jews to this day, provoking God still to protract the curse upon them. That their restoration to Palestine, will be an act of DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY, a merciful fulfilment of God's own covenant promise made to Abraham and his seed, and in fulfilment also of Divine predictions which foretold their merciful restoration to the land of their fathers. And that the Turkish Empire, now holding the possession of Palestine, will be totally subverted, to prepare the way for the restoration of the Jews to the ancient Covenant Promised land, in fulfilment of the predictions of God's word.

And Oh that the unbelieving Jews, who are now identified with all the combined powers of Antichrist against the truth of God, in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only true Messiah of the Jews, and the only Saviour of both Jews and Gentiles-Oh, we repeat, that they would now hear the voice of God to them by an ancient Jewish Prophet, whom God inspired to foretell his own merciful designs to restore them to the land which he once gave to Abraham and his seed by covenant, secured by his promise, and confirmed by his oath, that the inheritance should be kept in reversion for the heirs of the promise. That Prophet, (if they would hear him in God's word,) would speak to them, now, as he spake to their fathers, "Thus saith the Lord: I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe

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yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen whither ye went. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed, and your own ways, O house of Israel.

confounded for Then the heathen

that are left round about you, shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate. I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it. Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet, for this, be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them." Hear this word of the Lord, O ye seed of Abraham; ye dispersed of Judah, ye outcasts of Israel, hear it: Jesus Christ is your Messiah! Believe and live. The God of Abraham speaks to you this word, viz.: “I will be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them."

But, alas! how many generations have passed away without such an inquiry; have lost the blessings of God's covenant, by their unbelief and rejection of Him whom their fathers crucified; and have proved that "They are not all Israel which are of Israel." Born in countries where they have been dispersed ; educated in the principles of unbelief in the Gospel of Jesus Christ; the Jews have entailed sin, and the curse of God on succeeding generations, which have successively arisen upon earth, walked in the footsteps. of their unbelieving fathers, and passed away under the curse of unbelief, (the sure precursor of endless ruin,) without ever seeing Palestine, the land of God's promise to Abraham and his seed, and have as fearfully come short of seeing the Palestine of Heaven !!! But it will not always be so. God will accomplish all the conditions of his covenant with Abraham, al

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A LEMNANT WILL BE SAVED.

though millions of Jewish descendants perish forever with Antichrist, through unbelief and Infidelity. “God hath not east away his people whom he foreknew." At this present time, "there is a remnant according to the election of grace." Through the fall of some, salvation is come to the Gentiles. And the great mystery is explained, "That blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel, (foreknown as heirs of the covenant of promise,) shall be saved." And the "remnant according to the election of grace," will, in due time, be gathered from the ends of the earth into Palestine, the promised land which God gave to their believing fathers as a type of heaven; and there they will be converted to God, through faith in the Messiah, whom their unbelieving fathers murdered; and there they will be united together in love; and there they will enjoy all the blessings of the ancient covenant, unmolested by Satan, or sinners, during the remaining existence of the world, in fulfilment of God's covenant of promise, and the predictions of his holy prophets. But as these predicted events are evidently future, and the particular circumstances of their accomplishment are not revealed, it becomes us not to prophesy what those circumstances will be; but leave them to be the subject of future history, after the events shall have come to pass, as they most assuredly will come to pass in God's time, and by the instrumentalities which He has foreordained.

II. It is also foretold that about the commencement, or just before the great battle day of the Lord, God's Witnesses shall be slain. That their dead bodies shall lie upon the earth unburied three and a half days, and then be raised to life, and taken under special Divine protection in presence of their enemies. The pre

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diction of these events is recorded in Revelation xi. 3-12.

"And I will give power unto my two Witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand, two hundred and three score days, clothed in sackcloth.-(The witnesses are here figuratively described.)—And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations, shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

"And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them that dwell upon the earth.

"And after three days and an half, the spirit of life from God entered into them and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them which saw them.”

In this remarkable prediction, (part of which has come to pass, and is now in progress of fulfilling, but the greatest portion of which is still enveloped with inscrutable futurity,) the following points are revealed for our understanding, which will be subjects of our present consideration.

I. Who are God's two Witnesses, and what is the power with which they are invested?

II. The duration of their prophecy in sackcloth from a given period.

III. The time of their death-the enemy that will kill them in a war of extermination—their cruel death ! their ignominious state of visible putrefaction, un