"and of the finners fhall be together, and they "that forfake the Lord fhall be confumed. "And the ftrong shall be as tow, and the ma"ker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn "together, and none fhall quench them ;" Ifa. i. 28. 31. "Wo to the multitude of many people, "which make a noise like the noise of the feas "and to the rushing of nations, that make a "rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! "The nations fhall rush like the rushing of

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;

many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and "they fhall flee far off, and fhall be chaced as the "chaff of the mountains before the wind, and "like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

And, behold, at evening-tide trouble; and "before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of "them that rob us';" Ifa. xvii. 12.-14.

"Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind; "it fhall fall with pain upon the head of the "wicked.

(1) The chaff of the fummer threshing-floor is the figure ufed, Dan. ii. 35. to fignify the deftruction of the enemies of religion, immediately before the kingdom of Christ, or the Millennium commences. Here too the cir cumstances fix the time, " at evening-tide," towards the clofe of the long calamitous day of their difperfion, there shall be trouble arifing from the perfecution of the blafphemous king, and before the morning of the first resurrection, or Millennium, he their oppreffor ceases to exist. Z z

"wicked. The fierce anger of the Lord fhall "not return, until he have done it, and until "he have performed the intents of his heart: "in the latter days ye fhall confider it ;" Jer. XXX. 23, 24. Say to the foreft of the fouth', "Hear the word of the Lord, Thus faith the "Lord God, Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, " and it shall devour every green tree in thee, "and every dry tree: the flaming flame fhall "not be quenched, and all faces from the fouth "to the north fhall be burnt therein. And all "flesh fhall fee that I the Lord have kindled "it it fhall not be quenched;" Ezek. xx. 47, 48.

CHAP.

(1) Armageddon or Judea may be called the Forest of the South, because at the time the kings of the earth and their armies are gathered together there, the Jews, to whom the prophecy is directed, lie to the north of them, in the wilderness of Affyria.

CHAPTER VI.

Of the Events that take place betwixt the Battle. of Armageddon and the Millennium.

ET us now fee the confequences of the victory obtained at Armageddon, or the events that occur during the five years which intervene betwixt the battle and the commencement of the Millennium.

SECTION I.

Refettlement of the Jews in the Land of Promife.

THE firft and immediate effect of this victory is, that the Jews take poffeffion of the land given by promise to their fathers, out of which they had been ejected 2000 years.

It appears from the concurring teftimony of the prophets, that they fhall be very numerous; for it is at that period God addreffes Zion: "Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: "all these gather themselves together, and come "to thee. As I live, faith the Lord, thou shalt

furely clothe thee with them all as with an "ornament,

-

" ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride "doth. For thy wafte and thy defolate places, "and the land of thy deftruction, shall even "now be too narrow by reason of the inhabi"tants, and they that fwallowed thee up fhall << be far away. The children which thou shalt "have, after thou haft loft the other, fhall fay again in thine ears, The place is too ftrait for "me; give place to me that I may dwell," Ifa. xlix. 18.-20. "But ye, O mountains of If"rael, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and "yield your fruit to my people Ifrael; for they "are at hand to come. And I will multiply "men upon you, all the houfe of Ifrael, even "all of it and the cities fhall be inhabited, "and the waftes fhall be builded: and I will "multiply upon you man and beaft; and they "fhall increase and bring fruit: and I will fet"tle you after your old eftates, and will do "better unto you than at your beginnings; " and ye fhall know that I am the Lord.-As "the holy flock as the flock, of Jerufalem in "her folemn feafts, fo fhall the wafte cities be "filled with flocks of men; and they shall know "that I am the Lord," Ezek. xxxvi. 8. 10. II. 38. "Yet the number of the children of Ifrael "shall be as the fand of the fea, which cannot be "measured nor numbered," Hofea i. 10. " I "will furely affemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I

" will

"will furely gather the remnant of Ifrael; I "will put them together as the sheep of Boz"rah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: "they fhall make great noife by reafon of the "multitude of men," Micah ii. 12. “Run,

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speak to this young man, faying, Jerufalem "fhall be inhabited as towns without walls for "the multitude of men and cattle therein," Zech. ii. 4. "I will bring them again also out "of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Affyria and I will bring them into the land "of Gilead and Lebanon, and place fhall not be "found for them," chap. x. 10.

After the battle of Armageddon, the ten tribes of Ifrael fhall poffefs the land in conjunction with the two tribes. "In those days the "houfe of Judah fhall walk with the house of "Ifrael, and they fhall come together out of "the land of the north, to the land that I have "given for an inheritance unto your fathers;" Jer. iii. 18. "Then fhall the children of Ju"dah and the children of Ifrael be gathered to"gether, and appoint themselves one head, and "they fhall come up out of the land: for great "shall be the day of Jezreel;" Hofea i. 11. "The word of the Lord came again unto me, faying, Moreover, thou fon of man, take thee

one stick, and write upon it, for Judah, and "for the children of Ifrael his companions: then.

"take