so soon as the three times and a half terminate. One great body of the Jews will be converted and restored by the instrumentality of some mighty maritime nation of faithful worshippers, and therefore by some maritime nation hostile to the views and principles of Antichrist.*. * Bp. Horsley's translation of the 18th chapter of Isaiah, and some of his remarks upon the prophecy contained in it, are so remarkably apposite to the plan of the present work, that I shall take the liberty of transcribing them. ISAIAH XVIII. 1. Ho! land spreading wide the shadow of (thy) wings which art beyond the rivers of Cush! 2. Accustomed to send messengers by sea, even in bulrush vessels upon the surface of the waters! Go, swift messengers unto a nation dragged away and plucked, unto a people wonderful from their beginning hitherto, a nation expecting, expecting, and trampled under foot, whose land rivers have spoiled: 3. All the inhabitants of the world, and dwellers upon earth, shall see the lifting up, as it were, of a banner upon the mountains; and shall hear the sounding as it were, of a trumpet. 4. For thus saith Jehovah unto me: I will sit still, (but I will keep my eye upon my prepared habitation,) as the parching heat just before lightning, as the dewy cloud in the heat of harvest. 5. For, afore the harvest, when the bud is coming to perfection, and the blossom is become a juicy berry, he will cut off the useless shoots with pruning hooks; and the bill shall take away the luxuriant branches. 6. They shall be left together to the bird of prey of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth. And upon it shall the bird of prey summer, and all the beasts of the earth upon it shall winter. 7. At that season a present shall be led to Jehovah of hosts, a people dragged away and plucked; even of a people wonderful from their beginning hitherto; a nation expecting, expecting, and trampled under foot, whose land rivers have spoiled, unto the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, Mount Zion. COMMENTARY. The shadow of thy wings.] The shadow of wings is a very usual image in prophetic language for protection afforded by the stronger to the weak. God's protection of his servants is described by their being safe under the shadow of his wings. And, in this passage, the broad shadowing wings may be intended to characterize some great people, who should be famous for the protection they should give to those, whom they received into their alliance; and I cannot but think this the most simple and natural exposition of the expression. To send messengers] The original word y may be taken for persons employed between nation and nation, for the purposes either of negociation or commerce. Bulrush vessels] Navigable vessels are certainly meant-If the country spoken to be distant from Egypt, vessels of bulrush are only used as an apt image, on account of their levity; for quick sailing vessels of any material. The country therefore, to which the prophet calls, is characterized as one, which in the days of the conpletion of this prophecy should be a great maritime and commercial power, forming remote alliances, making distant voyages to all parts of the world with expedition and security, and in the habit of affording protection to their friends and allies. Where this country is to be found, is not otherwise said, than that it will be remote from Judea, and with respect to that country beyond the Cushèan streams. A nation dragged arvay] The dispersed Jews: a nation dragged away from its proper seat, and plucked of its wealth and power; a people wonderful from the beginning to this very time for the special providence, which ever has attended them, and directed their fortunes; a nation still lingering in expectation of the Messiah, who so long since came, and was rejected by them, and now is coming again in glory ; Those consequently, who are thus converted and brought back by sea, must clearly be such Jews, as were either scattered through the dominions and colonies of the maritime power, or through those of other smaller maritime a nation universally trampled under foot; whose land rivers, armies of foreign invaders, the Assyrians, Babylonians, Syro-Macedonians, Romans, Saracens, and Turks, have over-run and depopulated. At that season a present shall be led] Immediately after the purgation of the Church, at the very time, when the bird of prey with all the beasts of the earth, Antichrist with his rebel rout, shall have fixed his seat between the seas, in the holy mountain, a present shall be brought; the nation, described in ver. 2. as those to whom the swift messengers are sent, after their long infidelity, shall be brought as a present unto Jehovah. (Compare Ixvi. 20.) They shall be converted to the acknowledgment of the truth, and they shall be brought to the place of the name of Jehovah, to mount Zion: they shall be settled in peace and prosperity, in the land of their original inheritance-This then is the sum of this prophecy, and the substance of the message sent to the people dragged away and plucked. That, in the latter ages, after a long suspension of the visible interpositions of Providence, God, who all the while regards that dwelling place which he will never abandon, and is at all times directing the events of the world to the accomplishment of his own purposes of wisdom and mercy; immediately before the final gathering of his elect from the four winds of heaven, will purify his Church by such signal judgments, as shall rouse the attention of the whole world, and, in the end, strike all nations with religious awe. At this period, the apostate faction will occupy the Holy Land. This faction will certainly be an instrument of those judgments, by which the Church will be purified. That purification therefore is not at all inconsistent with the seeming prosperity of the affairs of the atheistical confederacy. But, after such duration as God shall see fit to allow to the plenitude of its power, the Jews, converted to the faith of Christ, will be unexpectedly restored to their ancient possessions. The swift messengers will certainly have a considerable share, as instruments in the hand of God, in the restoration of the chosen people: otherwise, to what purpose are they called upon (ver. 1.) to receive their commission from the prophet? It will perhaps be some part of their bu siness to afford the Jews the assistance and protection of their fleets. This seems to be insinuated in the imagery of the first verse. But the principal part, they will have to act, will be that of the carriers of God's message to his people. This character seems to describe some christian country, where the prophecies, relating to the latter ages, will meet with particular attention; where the literal sense of those, which promise the restoration of the Jewish people, will be strenuously upheld ; and where these will be so successfully expounded, as to be the principal means, by God's blessing, of removing the veil from the hearts of the Israelites. Those, who shall thus be the instruments of this blessed work, may well be described, in the figured language of prophecy, as the carriers of God's message to his people. The situation of the country, destined to so high an office, is not otherwise described in the prophecy, than by this circumstance; that it is to be beyond the rivers of Cush: that is, far to the West of Judèa, if these rivers of Cush are to be understood, as they have been generally understood, of the Nile and other Ethiopian rivers; far to the East, if of the Tigris and Euphrates. The one, or the other, they must denote: but which, is uncertain. It will be natural to ask of what importance is this circumstance in the character of the country; which, if it be any thing is a geographical character, and yet leaves the particular situation so much undetermined, that we know not in what quarter of the world to look for the country intended, whether in the East Indies, or in the western parts of Africa or Europe, or in America? I answer, that the full importance of this circumstance will not appear, till the completion of the prophecy shall discover it. But it had, as I conceive, a temporary importance at the time of the delivery of the prophecy; namely, that it excluded Egypt. The Jews of Isaiah's time, by a perverse policy, were on all occasions courting the alliance of the Egyptians, in opposition to God's express injunctions by his prophets to the contrary. nations in alliance with and professing the same faith as the great naval power itself. Another considerable body of the Jews there is reason to believe will be restored by land and in an unconverted state by the Antichristian faction; and that for mere political purposes. Those consequently, who are thus brought back, must be such Jews as are scattered through the territories of the infidel king and his vassal allies. Daniel has given us a wonderfully minute account of the progress of the Antichristian confederacy to Palestine; which, as might naturally be expected from the circumstance of the maritime power commanding at sea, is plainly by land. This expedition of the infidel king, which we must conclude both from local and chronological evidence to be the same as the expedition of the beast under his last head, the false prophet, and the kings of the Latin earth, will at its first setting out be opposed by two kings of the south and the north. Now, if the infidel king be France, he must, in his attempt to invade the holy land from his empire in the West, necessarily pass through Turkey. Here therefore most probably will be the first collision. The Ottoman power, as we learn from St. John, will have previously fallen under the sixth apocalyptic vial: but in whose hands Turkey and Asia minor will then be, no one can at present with certainty determine. In spite however of all the opposition made by the two kings, Antichrist will enter into the countries, overflowing them like a resistless torrent; will pass over the narrow channel of the Constantinopolitan sea; and will force his way into Palestine. Such being his progress, he must unavoidably enter the holy land from the north : hence his invasion is so frequently spoken of as proceeding from that quarter. Successful in his first attempt, and having placed his allies the unconverted Jews in Jerusalem and its vicinity, he will next direct his steps towards Egypt. Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon, will nev Isaiah therefore, as if he would discourage the hope of aid from Egypt at any time, tells them, that the foreign alliance, which God prepares for them in the latter times, is not that of Egypt, which he teaches them at all times to renounce and to despise, but that of a country far remote: as every country must, that lies either West of the Nile, or East of the Tigris. Bp. of St. Asaph's Letter on Isaiah xviii. ertheless, escape out of his hand. For this they have to thank, not his moderation and clemency, but merely their local situation. A map will best explain the reason of their security. The districts, which those nations formerly occupied, lie so far to the east, as to be entirely out of the way of any army which is passing from Judea into Egypt. But, over other countries more closely adjoining to Egypt, he will stretch forth his hand: and, while Egypt is unable to escape his marauding rapacity, those, whom Daniel calls the Lubim and the Cushim, will be compelled to attend his steps, and probably either augment his armies or perform the more menial offices of his camp. In the midst of his African conquests, he will be troubled by tidings out of the east and the north. What these tidings are, Daniel does not positively determine: but the subsequent context plainly shews, that they must relate to the approach of some new enemy, and to some disagreeable intelligence respecting Jerusalem. From these data, and by the assistance of other parallel prophecies, we may form no improbable conjecture at least respecting those tidings out of the east and out of the north, which are described as so grievously troubling Antichrist. We left the great maritime power bringing by sea its allies, the converted Jews, as a present to the Lord of hosts, to mount Zion. Now, in whatever part of the world this power may be situated, whether far beyond the eastern or the western Cushèan streams, it is plain that its navy can only approach Palestine by the way of the Mediterranean sea. Such then will indisputably be its course. The maritime expedition, which we may conceive to set sail at some indefinite period after the close of the 1260 years, in order that we may allow a sufficient space of time for the collecting together and converting such of the Jews as are destined to be restored by the agency of the great naval power, at length reaches Palestine: but the believing Jews, and their protectors, findthemselves opposed by the unbelieving Jews, and the troops which Antichrist had left behind him to garrison Jerusalem and other strong-holds. Apparently after no trifling bloodshed, and (if judge rightly from some prophecies) when the convert ed Jews had suffered very considerably, the eyes of their unconverted brethren will unexpectedly be opened; they will spiritually look upon him whom they have pierced; and, throwing off the base yoke of Antichrist, they will cordially join such of their nation as had embraced christianity, and had allied themselves to the faithful maritime power. Thus will the Lord bring to salvation the tents of Judah first; or that body of the Jews, who are attached to the army of the great maritime nation, and who have not yet acquired a permanent settlement in citties and afterwards the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; or those Jews, who have been restored in an unconverted state, and have been placed in their ancient metropolis by Antichrist. At the period when these events happen, and that they will happen may be collected with sufficient clearness, we may suppose Antichrist to be in Egypt and Lybia : for to what other time, in the course of his whole progress, can we with equal propriety ascribe them? Thus situated, he would plainly receive the intelligence from the north and from the east. From the north and the northeast he would learn, by means of some light vessels, first that the navy of the maritime power was approaching, and afterwards that it had safely reached the coast of Palestine: from the east and the northeast he would learn, by means of his own fugitive troops which had been stationed in Judea, that the maritime power had completely succeeded in its first attempt, that it had brought back a large body of converted Jews, and that those who had been restored by Antichrist in an unconverted state had suddenly embraced the faith of protestant christianity, and had revolted from him to their already believing brethren. Unless we admit, that ei ther this or something like it will be the case, we shall find it no easy matter to account for the fury with which Antichrist is represented as returning into Judea which he had already subdued, and as besieging Jerusalem which he had already given to his allies the unconverted Jews. For, that certain unbelieving Jews will be converted in Jerusalem, is plainly asserted by Zechariah : and, that the city will afterwards be besieged and taken, |