slain by a flame of fire, which should proceed from under the throne of glory. This was said in reference to the signal manner in which they were destroyed. See Ezekiel xxxviii. 22.-" And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hail stones, fire and brimstone." Thunder with lightning, mingled with the rain and great hail, is meant, undoubtedly, such as fell upon the Egyptians in their plagues, which ran along on the ground. And their carcasses were to fall on the mountains of Israel, and all the wild fowls of heaven, with the wild beasts of the field, shall devour them. This was all literally fulfilled in the destruction of Antiochus, who attempted to destroy, root and branch, the Jews. He was called Gọg, and his country Magog, and they fell on the mountains of Israel, by the hand of king Messiah, who employed Judas Macabeus as the terrible instrument of the ruin of Gog and Magog. But these prophets extended their views further than this event, even till the time when all the dead of Israel shall rise again to life. Although the Jews have, at several times in the process of ages, been recovered from a captive state, from among their enemies, yet they have never had a time of peace and prosperity, of sufficient universality and duration, to warrant so strong a figure as the resurrection from the dead of all Israel. This view, therefore, extends to the time of the first resurrection spoken of by St. Paul and by St. John. See 1 Cor. xv. 23; Thess. iv. 16; and Rev. xx. 5. D* This first resurrection I apprehend, as spoken of by those two prophets, and the thousand years of his (that is Christ's) subsequent reign on the earth, as spoken of by St. John, should be considered, in a more emphatic sense, to be the days of the Messiah, than any other time since his advent. Because then this government will be universal and particular, and without any opposition, for a thousand years. To this opinion, Rabbin Eliezer, one of the ancient Jewish doctors, agrees, by saying that in the house of Elias, the prophet, there was a tradition, that the righteous whom the holy blessed God should raise from the dead, should not return again unto the dust but for the space of a thousand years. And again, when the question was proposed among the Jewish Rabbins, how many the days of the Messiah should be, they answer, the days of the Messiah are a thousand years, and unquestionably refer to the same thousand years with St. John after the first resurrection, and agrees with the view of those two prophets. As to the validity of those prophets, I think there can be no doubt; for the scriptures bear ample testimony to their veracity. We see that in the eleventh chapter of Numbers, their names are mentioned, and associated with the seventy elders who prophesied on that memorable occasion, and that the spirit of prophecy rested on those two in a remarkable manner, for they were more zealous than their fellows, and continued to speak when the others had ceased. We see that Eldad's prophecy was fulfilled, which was, that Joshua should succeed Moses in the government of Israel.-Deut. xxxiv. 9. 1 Medad's prophecy was also fulfilled, which was, that quails should arise out of the sea, and be a stumbling block to Israel. -Num. xi. 31, 32, 33. The reader will perceive, that the use I wish to make of Jonathan Ben Uziel's account of Eldad and Medad's prophecy, is to establish the fact, that the latter prophecies of those two prophets relate to king Messiah's kingdom, or to the Millennium, and to the resurrection of the just, at its commencement, and will as surely be fulfilled in their time, as were their prophecies respecting the exaltation of Joshua, and of the quails which became a stumbling block to Israel. We will now bring forward the testimony of another Jewish Rabbin, by whom we shall prove that the Millennium was expected by the Jewish Church. This Rabbin's name is Eliezer, the son of R. Jose, of Galilee, and his remarks are found in a Sanhedrim folio book, in which a question is found proposed, saying, how many are the days of the Messiah? The answer is-There is, in the house of Elias, a tradition (and Paul says to Timothy, Keep the traditions) that the righteous whom the holy blessed God shall raise from the dead, shall not return again to dust but for the space of a THOUSAND YEARS, in which the holy blessed God shall renew the world. A plain intimation this, that the waters which Ezekiel saw in his vision shall not only heal all nations of their depraved natures, who are alive at the commencement of the Millennium, but that also the world shall be renewed, i. e. shall be delivered from all natural and moral evil, as it respects the saints during the thousand years of the days of the Messiah. But when all Israel shall arise, their tradition goes on to say, that they shall have wings like the wings of eagles, and shall fly above the waters. This view of the Targum, respecting all Israel, who shall arise from the dead, and are to be capacitated with wings, and shall fly above the waters, is to be understood of their belief in the resurrection of the righteous, to which St. Paul agrees, when he says to the Thess. iv. 16. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first." But they shall not return again to dust, but for the space of a thousand years; not that the Targum means that when the thousand years are finished they shall again return to dust, but that during that thousand years the earth shall be renewed to its original blessedness, and its inhabitants to original holiness. Indeed many of the prophets bear their testimony, some in a greater, and some in a less degree, to the same expectation. Thus we see Moses recording, from the very mouth of the holy blessed God, "But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord."-Num xiv. 21. How plainly does this signify, that, in the view of Him who sees all things at a glance, a time should come, when a disordered earth should be filled with the healing healthful glory of the Lord. David, the sweet Psalmist king, seems frequently to anticipate the final universality of the Messiah's kingdom on the earth. "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." Psalms ii. 8. "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great king."-Psalms xlviii. 2. "Then shall the earth yield her increase, and God, even our God, shall bless us: God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear him." -Psalms Ixvii. 6, 7. "Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him." -Psalms lxxii. 11. "And blessed be his glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and amen." Psalms lxxii. 19. To Isaiah the prophet, the Lord has spoken plainly of the kingdom of his son. Many places in the book of his prophecy, declare that his government shall be from the rivers to the ends of the earth, and that all souls then on the earth shall come to have a saving knowledge of his grace. "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above all hills, and all nations shall flow unto it." Isa. ii. 2. From which nothing can be clearer, than that a time must arrive, as the zenith of what the Saviour began to do (when he made to the woman her first promise, that her seed should bruise the serpent's head, this shall be done,) when Satan shall be shut up in the bottomless pit, and a knowledge of the Lord conse |