linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords. And I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which be deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth and all the fowls were filled with their flesh."* 2. "I beheld, till the thrones were set, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued, and came forth, from before him : thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the little horn spake : I beheld, even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame -The little horn shall wear out the saints of the Most High-and they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit; and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it unto the end. 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 dominions shall serve and obey him." "And a king shall do according to his will :-And at the time of the end a king of the south shall butt at him; and a king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots, and with horsemen, and many ships. Yet he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow, and pass over, and shall enter into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown : but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and to devote many to utter destruction under the pretext of religion. And he shall plant the curtains of his pavilions between the seas in the glorious holy mountain: yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book."* 3. "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burthensome stone for all people all, that burthen themselves with it, shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gath Dan. vii. xi. xii. : ered together against it. In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness. And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God. In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David, and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah. In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he, that is feeble among them, at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one that mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of the vintage shouting of Rimmon in the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn every family apart-All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness -And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends-In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts : and all they, that sacrifice, shall come and take of them, and seethe therein and in that day there shall be no more a trafficker in the house of the Lord of hosts."* 4. "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain : let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand a day of darkness, and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall there be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.† A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them-Before their faces the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness-They shall run to and fro in the city: they shall run upon the wall; they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army for his camp is very great for he is strong, that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it ?-Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people. Yea, the Lord will answer, and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil; and ye *Zechar. xii. xiii. xiv. I apprehend, that by this expression we must understand the last attempt of Satan against the Lamb at the close of the Millennium; when, after "the years of many gen erations" subsequent to the outrages of "the great and strong people" here predicted, he shall stir up from the four quarters of the earth the nations styled by St. John Gog and Magog. Meanwhile, during the millennian rest, there shall be none like that strong people, till the years of its many generations shall have fully elapsed. The Gog and Magog, mentioned by St. John, are evidently the same as the Gog and Magog, predicted by Ezekiel. The expedition of these nations against Palestine bears a strong resemblance in many points to the expedition of the infidel king and the false prophet. Yet it certainly cannot be the same, both because St. John informs us that it shall take place at the end of the Millennium; and because Ezekiel, in strict correspondence with him, asserts that it shall be directed against the Jews so long after their restoration to their own land, that they should be dwelling there in all the -confidence of unsuspecting security. (See Ezek. xxxviii. 8, 11, 12, 14.) The war of Gog and Magog is fully discussed in my unpublished Work on the Restoration of brac and the overthrow of Antichrist, shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen. But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea : and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things-Be glad then ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God-And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. And it shall come to pass afterwards, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.* And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. For, behold, in those days, and at that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people, and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. The children also of Judah, and the children of Jerusalem, have ye sold unto the sons of the lonim,† that ye might remove them This is applied by St. Peter to the effusion of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, though strictly relating to the era of the restoration of the Jews and the glorious period of the millennium. The first advent of Christ is frequently considered by the inspired writers as a sort of type of his second advent: whence we find, that predictions, which properly belong to the one period, are often applied by anticipation to the other. Thus, in a similar manner, the apostles apply the prophecy of David, in the second Psalm, to the conspiracy of the chief priests with Herod and Pontius Pilate against our Lord; yet, if any one will compare that second Psalm with the description of the Word of God routing his congregated enemies in the nineteenth chapter of the Apocalypse, he will be convinced, that it does not receive its ultimate accomplishment till the second advent, whether literal or spiritual, at the commencement of the millennium, By these Ionim scem to be meant all the various worshippers of the Ionah, or Noctic dove, both in the East and in the West; not the Ionians of Greece exclusively. The |