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the 7th verfe downward, be applied to the times in which our Saviour appeared, the perplexity is removed, the interpretation appears connected, and every expreffion of the prophet has been fully verified by the event.

If ver. 11. fignifies the teaching of Senacherib's rod, how does that agree with the doctrine taught? "To whom he faid, This is the reft "wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest, "and this is the refreshing, yet they would not "hear;" ver. 12. Was it to offer reft that Senacherib invaded Judea? But was not this the defign of the apostle's ministry, to point out Jefus as the Mefliah, whom the prophets foretold, their fathers expected, and in whom their fouls fhould find reft and refreshment? The addrefs to the rulers, ver. 14, 15. if applied to Hezekiah's time, fuppofcs a faction in oppofition to his government, which the history of these times does not warrant; whereas, without fuppofing any thing, but what is on record, thé address is perfectly applicable to the rulers of the Jewish nation in our Saviour's time. They derided and rejected the Saviour, to ingratiate themselves with the Roman people, the great destroyers of mankind at that period. "If we "let him thus alone, (fay they) all men will "believe on him, and the Romans fhall come "and

"and take away both our place and nation;" John xi. 48.

In ver. 18.-22. it appears, that the covenant of the rulers, with the deftroyers called Death, ended in the deftruction of the rulers, and the utter defolation of their land. Was this the end of Senacherib's invafion? Did it not iffue in a glorious deliverance? But every part of this defcription was fully verified by the Roman difperfion.

RULE III.

State of the Jews.

THE hiftory of the Jews is more or lefs mingled with the greater part of the Old Teftament prophecies. They are fometimes represented as in a state of difperfion; at other times, as reftored to the favour of God ;-gathered from among the nations;-brought back to their own land; or as enjoying all happiness in it.

Some one or other of these circumftances annexed to a section of prophecy, at the beginning or end, or blended with it throughout, fhews, that the events contained in that fection of prophecy shall be contemporary with the state of the Jewish nation represented. D

Thus

Thus Joel ii. begins with thefe expreffions, "For behold in those days, and in that time, "when I fhall bring again the captivity of Ju"dah and Jerufalem," to fhew that the feveral events detailed in that chapter fhall begin to be accomplished about the time that the Jews fhall return to the land of Judea, from their difperfion.

The pointed prophecy concerning the fall of Babylon, contained in the 50th and 51ft chapters of Jeremiah, is blended throughout with the return of the Jews. Those two events are related in alternate ftanzas, to fhew that they shall be contemporary and progreffive.

The prophecy concerning Gog and his army, laid before us in the 38th and 39th chapters of Ezekiel, is mingled with accounts of the happiness of the Jewish nation, represented as then living in their own land, in fecurity and affluence, to fhew, that the invafion of Gog fhall take place a long time after their refettlement in Judea.

As the time of each remarkable circumftance refpecting the Jewish nation is fixed in the Apocalypfe, any of thofe circumftances connected with a prophecy, fhews the particular place of that prophecy in the feries of events, and consequently enables us to afcertain its relation to

other

other events, which either precede, are contemporary with, or follow after it.

But a difficulty will readily occur in the application of this rule. All the Old Teftament prophets, three excepted, lived before the Babylonish captivity: When they mention the defolate state of the Jews, the question is," Whether they mean their captivity in Babylon, or their difperfion by the Romans? for both were future events, at the time the prophecy was ut tered. And when they mention their refettlement in Judea, it is a queftion, Whether they understand their past return, or their future reftoration.

In order to remove the difficulty, I would observe, that all the circumftances not fulfilled in the former event certainly refer to the latter. As the prophecies which are yet to be accomplished are only connected with their future restoration, the following circumftances respecting that event will occur to the attentive reader of the prophecies, and clearly diftinguish it from their return from Babylon.

The ten tribes, who have had no national existence fince their captivity by Salmanazar, fhall return together with the two tribes. The kingdoms of Ifrael and Judah fhall form one great united nation'.

They

(1) Ezek. xxxvii. 15-22. Jer. iii. 18. Ifa. xi. 13.

They shall be gathered from all countries and corners of the earth'; whereas formerly they returned from one country only.

They shall be thoroughly cleansed from their fins; whereas they brought much of their perverfeness along with them from Babylon3.

They fhall return under the Meffiah their Leader*.

They shall poffefs all the land, as in the moft flourishing days of David and Solomon, and more extenfively than in their time", which certainly was not the cafe on their return from Babylon.

Their poffeffion of the land fhall be perpetual'; whereas, after their return from Babylon, they were difpoffeffed by the Romans.

The

(1) Ifa. xl. 11.

Jer. xvi. 15. Jer. xxiii. 3. and 8.

Jer. xxxi. 8, 9.

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(2) Ifa. i. 25. Jer. xxxiii. 8. Ezek. xx. 38,

(3) Ezra ix. Neh. x.

(4) Ifa. xi. 10.

xxxiv, 23, 24.

Jer. xxiii, 5, 6. Jer. xxx. 9. Ezek.

(5) Jer. xxxiii. 7. Ezek. xxxvi. 11. Ezek. xlvii. 13 -21. Obad. ver. 19, 20.

(6) Ifa. liv. 7—11. Ezek.'xxxvi. 12—15, Ezek, xxxvii, 25-28.

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