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Caw & Elder, Printers.

DISCOURSE I.

EZEKIEL XXXVii. 19." They shall be ONE in "mine hand."

THE reduction of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity was one of the most signal deliverances wrought in behalf of the ancient people of God. It was not, indeed, immediately effected by miraculous power and the exhibition of visible signs and wonders, like the eduction of their fathers from the House of bondage; but it was attended with the most convincing proofs of extraordinary providential interposition. And such was the magnitude of the mercy itself, the change on the national character which accompanied it, and the connection in which it stood with the ulterior plans of Heaven, that it so far threw into shade, and took the place of that deliverance which had hitherto been commemorated in the sacred invocations of every pious and patriotic Israelite. "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no

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more be said, The LORD liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The LORD liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them*."

This joyful event had been announced by the prophet Isaiah, who named Cyrus as the prince who should" say to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built, and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid." The period at which it would happen was defined in the prophecies of Jeremiah, which contain a magnificent description of the overthrow of Babylon. The predictions of Ezekiel, while they confirm those which had been previously given out, add to them facts which are deeply interesting and permanently instructive. In the preceding chapter we are told that God would not only restore Israel to their own land, but also produce a change on their hearts and conduct. The whole house of Israel were polluted with guilt, and especially with the sin of idolatry. Neither mercies nor judgments had hitherto been sufficient to divorce and separate them from their idols. But their captivity and release should be sanctified and blessed for producing a real and lasting reformation. They should be made the objects of pardoning mercy, and the subjects of renewing grace. "Then will I 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

*Jer. xvi. 4, 5. comp. Isa. xliii. 18, 19.

I give 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 *."

Two objections of great force would present themselves to the minds of the Jews when told that their captivity should be turned back; and these are removed in the chapter before us. Crushed

under the irresistible power of their conquerors, trodden under foot, scattered, exanimated, they could only sigh out, "Our hope is lost; we are cut off for our part !" To enable him to meet this objection, Ezekiel was "carried in the spirit" into the midst of a valley full of bones, bleached and dry; and while he prophesied to them by divine direction, "behold, the bones came together, bone to his bone," and on a sudden the appearance of the valley was changed from that of a field of slaughter, into the site of a grand military review. Those whose "bones were scattered at the grave's mouth" stood up not only in the attitude of living men, but " every man in his own order," and all together united and marshalled—“ an exceeding great army." The prophet then addressed the captives in God's name, "Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves,and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live. This emblematical vision went far to solve the

*Chap. xxxvi. 25-27.

second objection, which is completely removed in the words of our text. He who believes in the resurrection of a dead people will not despair of the cure of a divided people. He who has seen "the bones come together, bone to his bone," is prepared to witness the congregating of living men, every one to his fellow. The second objection was founded on the dissention which had subsisted among the people of Israel since the death of Solomon, when ten tribes were violently rent from the royal house of David, and formed themselves into a separate and independent kingdom. What was at first a political division soon produced an ecclesiastical schism, and led to the establishment and practice of a worship at Dan and Bethel, different from and opposite to the worship of God at Jerusalem. This dissention between the families of Judah and Israel still remained; and was there not reason to fear, if they were restored to their own land, that, like "a root bearing wormwood and gall," it would again" spring up and trouble them?" Against the fears of this, the prophet was instructed to comfort the "prisoners of hope," first by exhibiting a sign, and then by explaining its meaning. In the instructions which God has been pleased to convey to men, sublimity is blended with condescension: the emblem formerly presented to the prophet was grand; the sign which he now shewed to the people was familiar. He was directed to take two sticks, or, as the word also signifies, thin plates of wood, so fashioned as that, when brought into contact,

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