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النشر الإلكتروني

1094

DISCOURSE VI.

THE KINGS OF THE EAST, OR THE TEN TRIBES.

REV. XVI. 12.

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, THAT THE WAY OF THE KINGS OF THE EAST MIGHT BE PREPARED.

HAVING in two former discourses, dearly beloved brethren, placed, almost beyond a doubt, the meaning of the former part of this verse, and made it apparent from all the Scriptures that it denotes a judgment of inward consumption upon that Anti-Christian power which for seven centuries hath tyrannized over Euphrates, the Holy Land, and the Eastern part of Christendom, we feel disposed to go into the examination of this latter clause of the verse a little more at length than we were able to do in our first discourse, and to disclose more fully the grounds upon which we believe the tribes of Israel to be pointed out under this emblem of the kings of the East: and I trust we shall be enabled a little to clear the mists which have gathered around that pole-star of the providence of God, the conversion and restoration of the Jews, which is the guide through the

labyrinth of all the prophets, and ought, as I have said, to be the beacon-light of the church through these dark and cloudy times which are setting in.

In handling this subject, I shall first search out the doctrine; secondly, confirm it by the testimony of Scripture; and, thirdly, draw out lessons of improvement.

I. You will observe, then, that three descriptions of kings are mentioned under this vial ;-the kings of the East, the kings of the earth, and the kings of the whole world; of which we know, without any doubt, the precise import of the two latter, and inquire into the import of the former. The kings of the earth signify the ten kings of the Papal Apostasy, against whom especially the judgment of the great day of God Almighty is prepared; and the kings of the whole world are all other powers and potentates besides, upon the face of the whole earth, who are in that same great day of discomfiture to be confederate against the Lord and his anointed, and to be by them stripped of their abused dignities, in order that the earth and the fulness thereof may pass into the hands of the great Son and Heir who hath been sitting now a long season expecting, till his enemies be made his footstool,-according to the decree declared of old, even from the day of his generation : "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." This confederacy of the kings, and princes and peoples of the earth against him, is always given as the sign and the time of his installation into his long decreed throne upon the holy hill of Zion. And in all

the prophets who make mention of these things, this great gathering and discomfiture of nations is represented as taking place at Jerusalem, and in the valley of Jehoshaphat:-" For, behold, in those days, and in 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." (Joel iii. 1.)—" As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem..... For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh and the slain of the Lord shall be many." (Isaiah lxvi. 13, 15, 16.)- For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof towards the east and towards the west, and there shall be a very great valley: and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south." (Zech. xiv. 2—4.)—To the same great crisis of the destruction of all Anti-Christian power for ever from

the earth, doth the lxxxiiid Psalm refer, where all the nations and peoples then known, being ten in number, take crafty counsel together against thy people, and consult against thy hidden ones, saying, "Come and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance." And the same mystery I take to be couched under Ezekiel's prophecy of Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Moab, and Meshech, and Tubal, who bringeth with him also Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya ; Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all her bands; and many peoples with them. This confederacy of all nations, under Gog, cometh up like a cloud against the kings of the East, the children of Israel dwelling securely in their own land; and the account of it follows immediately after the prophecy of their conversion and restoration. And the language in which the battle of Armageddon is described is taken almost verbatim from it, which I shall read. "Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come, gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the

Lord God. And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies; so fell they all by the sword." (Ezek. xxxix. 17-23.)

To any one who gives the least heed to the holy prophets, and hath an ear able to understand plain words, it is manifest from these, and a hundred other passages, that the kings and nations of the whole world are gathered together to contend against, and utterly to make away with, the Jewish people, already restored, or in the way of being restored to their own land. Their hatred to God expresseth itself in a bloody purpose of exterminating his chosen and peculiar people, for whom he hath in a striking way interfered, and by mighty acts restored them to their inheritance. And this, no doubt, is the mystery of the battle of the great day of God Almighty, mentioned under this vial, to which the kings of the earth and of the whole world are gathered together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. Little indeed is said in the Apocalypse concerning any other kings save those of the earth, or apostate Gentile church, with which it hath chiefly to do; but in this place they are added, in order to parallel and synchronize in the act of Armageddon, with the act of universal destruction of all AntiChristian power which is every where in the Pro

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