Egypt, (a river not far from the north-east corner of the Red Sea, and running into the Mediterranean.) Thence northward, on the shore of the said sea, as far as the point due west of Mount Lebanon. Thence eastward, over said mountain, away to the river Euphrates. Thence southward, as far as the south line of Syria.Thence westward, including the whole of Syria, to the first named river. The whole of this territory, the natural seed of Abraham were to possess, "for ever." The inhabitants "should be driven out before them." But this people anciently possessed but a small part of this territory. There was indeed a kind of typical possession of it, in the reign of Solomon ;-which reign was a type of the Millennium. (See Psalm lxxii.) David, in his wars, which were typical of the wars that will introduce the Millennium, subdued and put under tribute the Syrians, Moabites, Ammonites, and most of the nations dwelling in the above named territories. And they continued in subjection in the reign of Solomon. (See 1 Kings, iv. 21.) But those nations were not then driven out; nor was their Tand possessed by the children of Abraham.--They afterward threw off their yoke, and were extremely troublesome to the people of God. They were only made tributary during a part of two reigns. But God promised-Exod. xxiii. 31-"I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river (Euphrates.) For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hands, and thou shalt drive them out before thee." The land east of Canaan, and away to the river Euphrates, was never possessed by Israel. Their lite

ral possession of that extent of territory, must be an event still future.

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The promised land was given to Israel" for an everlasting possession;" Gen. xvii. 8. Surely this must mean a longer time than they did in ages past possess it. This promise remains then to be yet fulfilled. It must mean an undisturbed possession of it, so long as the possession of it on earth may be desirable; or to the end of the world. We accordingly find that people, at the time of the introduction of the Millennium, expostulating with God, and pleading that ancient grant; Isa. lxiii. 17, 18; “O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy way, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return, for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. The people of thy holiness have possessed it (thine inheritance) but a little while our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary. We are thine. Thou never bearest rule over them; they are not called by thy name." Here is a plea, put into the mouths of the ancient people of the Lord, at the time of their restoration, not long before the battle of the great day, with a description of which battle this chapter begins.They expostulate, relative to the sovereignty of God, in the resting of the veil of blindness and hardness so long on their hearts, during their long infidel state. They plead that they are God's servants, according to the ancient entail of the covenant. They plead for a restoration;and plead that their nation had enjoyed that, their everlasting inheritance, but a little while; but that a people not called by God's name, nor governed by his word, had trodden down the sanctuary; a description exactly fulfilled by the Turks. This fully implies the entering again of

the Jews upon their ancient inheritance, in the last days.

3. I shall now adduce some of the numerous express predictions of this event. In the prophecy of Ezekiel, the restoration of the Jews and of Israel to their own land, as well as their conversion in the last days, is clearly predicted. In chapter xxxvi. we have their long dispersion, and their guilty cause of it. But God, in the last days, works for his own name's sake, and recovers them. God says, "And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord,-when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For 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 sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give unto you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 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 waysand shall loathe yourselves.-Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you. Thus saith the Lord God; in the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities, I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all the heathen that passed by. And

they shall say, This land that was so desolate, is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced and are inhabited. Then the heathen, who are left round about you, shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that which was desolate. I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it." Here is their regeneration; having a new heart; being cleansed from all sin. And beside this, we find expressly promised, their being reinstated in the land of their fathers, which had long lain waste. They rebuild their ancient cities. That this is in the last days, connected with the introduction of the Millennium, the connexion of the whole passage, and the following chapters, fully decide. Both houses of the descendants of Abraham, (viz. Israel and Judah,) are recovered, as will be seen. Those predictions cannot be fulfilled merely by the conversion of that people. For over and above their express conversion, they are established in the land of their fathers.

The prophet proceeds further to predict and illustrate the wonderful event, by the resurrection of a valley of dry bones; chap. xxxvii.: which figure God thus explains: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried, and our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophecy, and say unto them; Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. Then shail ye

know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord."

The re-union of the two branches of that people follows, by the figure of the two sticks, taken by the prophet. On the one he writes, "for Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions." Upon the other; "For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions."

Lest any should say, the prediction which here seems to foretel the restoration of the ten tribes, as well as that of the Jews, were accomplished in the restoration of that few of the Israelites, who clave to the Jews under the house of David, and the ten tribes are irrecoverably lost; it is here expressed that the Jews and those Israelites, their companions, were symbolized by one stick; and Ephraim, all the house of Israel, (the whole ten tribes,) by the other stick. These sticks miraculously become one in the prophet's hand; which is thus explained. "Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel (their general ancient name, including the twelve tribes) from among the heathen, whither they be gone; and I will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. And

I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. And they shall dwell in the land that I gave unto Jacob, my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children, and their children's children, forever." Can a doubt here rest on the subject, whether the Jews and the ten tribes shall be re-established in Palestine?