fest from Dan. xi. 41, as well as from the passage before us. It is ours to interpret, and to leave accomplishment to God; and the interpretation surely is, that in the day when Israel shall be gathered unto the standard lifted up by God, both Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon, shall be brought into subjection to him. There is a remarkable chapter in Ezekiel (the xxv th) wherein is contained the doom of these same four nations, the Philistines, the Edomites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites; to which I refer for further information upon the subject. Also, from the passage referred to above (Dan. xi. 41), we gather that the great infidel power, the personal Antichrist, who brings the wickedness of Rome to an end, is not to reach unto Edom or Moab, or the chief of the children of Ammon, but only unto Egypt, and Lybia, and the Cushites. All this seems to intimate clearly, not only an existence, but a certain strength of independency, in these people: or may it be that the identity of the names is preserved in the identity of the places, rather than of the races; just as we call the inhabitants of Spain Spaniards, though there exist few of the ancient races of Hispania. Perhaps this, after all, is the true method of preserving the identity of these nations. But this also is a question of disquisition, rather than of interpretation. What we believe is, that the peoples inhabiting the region of Philistia, Idumea, Moab, and Ammon, shall experience at the hand of Israel that which is here written for them. It is most likely, if we could search the matter, we should find that they are of the same races which anciently dwelt there: either to affirm or to deny this were a hard matter.

VI. We come now, finally, to the great supernatural acts of Divine power, with which Israel shall be restored, which are thus related: "And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry-shod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt" (Isai. xi. 15, 16).-These verses present us with the people returning in two main streams, one from the west and another from the north, by the way of Egypt and by the way of Assyria; and that God, to further their march, will do great marvels; destroying the tongue of the Egyptian sea (that is, utterly doing away with that western arm of the Red Sea which lies in the way from Egypt into the land of Canaan), and smiting the Euphrates in its seven streams, so that it shall oppose no barrier to the march of his people from the northeast; making an high-way for them, as of old, when they came out of the bondage of Pharaoh. This I conceive to be the plain

meaning of the passage, which addeth to the work done upon the nations for his people's recovery, a work done also upon the elements of nature. But it is our duty, as an interpreter, to consider the passage more minutely. The utter destruction of the western tongue of the Egyptian sea is threatened, so as to afford that free intercourse by land between Egypt and Israel and Assyria, which is promised to exist in the latter day (Isai. xix. 22-25). I do not think that there is any thing spoken here concerning a visitation upon Egypt, but simply concerning the geographical fact, that this bay of the Red Sea shall exist no longer. And that it is to make way in the first instance for the return of his people, I gather from ch. xxvii. 12, 13: and perhaps it shall be left so, for a monument of God's power in the sight of the people who dwell around. The shaking of his hand against the river is in power and wrath; as in x. 32, when Sennacherib shakes his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion. This drying up of the streams of Euphrates must be a literal fact also; for it is turned, in Rev. xvi. 12, into the symbol of the exhaustion of the Euphratic or Turkish power: now no symbol can rest upon any thing but a fact, between which and the mystical thing set forth there must be a strict conformity, each in their several departments. The same law which applies to the sacramental symbols of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, applies to all symbols whatever : unless water cleansed and bread nourished the body, no symbol of spiritual purification and nourishment could be taken from them. And as the drying up of the Euphrates is here declared to be for the return of his people, so in the symbol we are to believe that the kings of the East (literally, from the East), for whom the symbolical Euphrates is said to be dried up, must be the same Jewish people figuratively expressed, in order to be in keeping with the symbolical style, though not itself a symbol. Now, as it would destroy the basis of that symbol to make this in the text to be a symbol instead of being a literal fact, and as there is no other fact on which the symbol can rest but this, we have no doubt whatever that in the time of the Lord this thing will be exactly accomplished as it is written. For which mighty act of power, it is declared that God will use the agency of that mighty wind, with which heretofore he effected the passage of the Red Sea. Not that he will wait the opportunity of a high wind, as these poor Neologians doat, but that he will blow with his nostrils, as it is said in the song of Moses. He who calmeth the wind, can raise it when he pleaseth. This proves the second miracle of power to be as surely for that time only, as the first is for ever: when the wind is past, they shall return to their course again. I know not what is meant by the seven streams of the Euphrates, if it be not that towards the sources of this river, where

the streams are very numerous, and of the Hiddikel or Tigris, the high-way of his people will be prepared. That is, they will descend by the way of the north, which is the quarter most frequently mentioned in Scripture for their return. There are many footsteps of this same act of power in the prophetic Scriptures, and most frequently in connection with the restoration of the Jews: for example: "I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs, and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools. And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them" (Isai. xlii. 15, 16). The mention of an “highway for the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria," hath nothing of the force to our minds which it must have to those dwelling in lands surrounded by tractless deserts, where a man may wander for ever, and wherein whole caravans of men are frequently lost. This same mention of an highway, in the lxiid of Isaiah, conveys likewise the notion of all impediments whatsoever being removed; as it is written: " Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a high-way for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made. straight, and the rough places plain" (Isai. xl. 3, 4). Moreover, this same mention of an highway, as it is given in Isai. xix. 23 to the end, conveys to me likewise the idea of friendly relations, for loving and profitable intercourse, established between Israel and Assyria, between Israel and Egypt: it conveys to my mind the idea of Israel, the capital and sanctuary of the world; where the high-ways and the church-ways, for commerce and for religion, shall concentrate from all quarters of the earth; and all nations shall send up their service and their offerings unto the Lord of hosts, who dwelleth in mount Zion. "In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt, and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance" (Isai. xix. 23-25). There is a beautiful passage illustrative of all this in the xlix th chapter of Isaiah, which hath served us already in so much stead. After God the Father hath comforted Messiah, mourning over the bad success of his first endeavour to gather Jacob, and given him for a light to the Gentiles, he addeth, that he would likewise " give him for a covenant of the people;" not the Gentile, but the Jewish people, who are to have

a covenant peculiarly their own (Ezek. xvi. 61); called sometimes a covenant of peace (Ezek. xxxvii.), and sometimes a new covenant (Jer. xxxi.); and most frequently an everlasting covenant; whereupon he should establish the earth, that it should not be removed for ever, or shaken any more; and cause to inherit the desolate heritages. Thus, having stated generally to his Son the dignity yet in reserve for him as the Redeemer of his people, the Father doth thus represent the great deliverance which he should effect: "That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from far; and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim" (Isai. xlix. 9-12).-In making this quotation, I draw the attention of my reader to two things, confirmatory of the matters contained above. The first, that the people are divided into two classes; the one class called prisoners, answering to those dispersed within the hold of the mystical Babylon, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin; the other class denominated "them that are in darkness," answering to the "outcasts" of the prophecy before us, but more strikingly conveying the mystery contained under the ten tribes, as we have shewn it above to be the mystery of that portion of the church which is dead out of the world, and forgotten out of the minds of men. The second observation upon the passage which I have quoted is, that, besides the division which cometh by the west from Egypt, and the division which cometh by the north out of Syria, there is a third division, which cometh from the land of Sinim, generally believed to be the land of China, called by the ancients Sin; where if they be, they truly are and have been in darkness.

VII. There only remains, to the complete interpretation of this passage, that we should explain what is the force of these words. Like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt." In what does the resemblance lie? I think, in the whole exodus, or going out, of the people; to signify and declare, that the exodus from the land of Egypt is the only worthy similitude of the exodus that is to be out of all the nations mentioned in the context. I consider this concluding word to refer to the whole subject of our present interpretation. As in the preceding chapter it had been declared that the Assyrian (which is, being interpreted, the personal Antichrist to come, the last great oppressor of the people of God) should smite them with a rod,and lift up a staff against them, after the

manner of Egypt, with Pharaoh's sore and cruel oppression; so doth the Lord herein declare, that after the manner in which he had delivered them from Egypt, -with so high a hand and with so outstretched an arm, should he deliver them out of the oppression of all nations. Now the Prophet Jeremiah doth ascend to a still higher pitch, when he declareth, concerning this same deliverance, that it shall utterly make the deliverance of Egypt to be eclipsed and forgotten: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land." (Jer. xxiii. 5-8). The last half of this quotation, which chiefly concerneth our present subject, is deemed of such importance as to be contained word for word in the xvith chapter of the same Prophet. How, now, could the wonderful glory and power displayed in a thousand ways in the exodus out of Egypt be surpassed, save by demonstration of power and glory mightier by far than any heretofore exhibited in the sight of men? Doubt therefore have I none, that "with a high hand, and an outstretched arm, and fury poured forth, shall God bring out his people:" for he hath a controversy with the nations; "he is very sore displeased with the nations that are at ease: for he was but a little displeased with his people, and they helped forward the affliction: He is very jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion, with a great jealousy." Nor shall it be by miraculous signs alone, by the raining down from the cloud of gathering fire, and brimstone and furious storms; but likewise it shall be by the arm of Israel, girded for the battle and strengthened with the strength of God. For is it not written, "Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon? For thus saith the Lord of hosts, After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you; for he that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye. For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me" (Zech. ii. 7-9). And is it not written again of Judah, by the same Prophet, "They shall be as mighty men, which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle; and they shall fight, because the Lord is with them, and the riders on horses shall be con

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