repelled by the apostate church; which for upwards of a thousand years hath trampled upon truth and holiness, (yet with the highest pretensions to both,) to serve the base ends of an interested policy.

But for such an expectation we have not only rational conjecture, from the similar conduct of perverse men and destitute of the truth, placed in similar circumstances, but the positive assurances and authority of holy scripture. The commission to the great conductor of this mighty enterprize, whom God at the appointed time will raise up unto Israel, runs in these remarkable terms; in which the continued allusion to the Exodus under Moses, and the wonder-working rod, by which God empowered him to work the most stupendous miracles, is strikingly evident. "Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, AS IN THE DAYS OF OLD, ACCORDING TO THE DAYS OF THY COMING OUT OF

EGYPT, will I (again) shew unto him mar

X

vellous things." If the miracles of a similar nature, which are here promised to be shewn in favor of Israel, do not refer to the Exodus in the latter days, or deliverance promised to him over and over again, out of his present captivity in the mystical Egypt, it will be hard to say to what fact resembling that in the days of old, they do allude. The sense I understand it in, as apparently the most natural and obvious, is this.-That God will again put the rod of his power, with which he then made Moses a God unto Pharoah,† a second time into the hand of a man; and by his agenсу, will give (in the sight of Israel) such signal evidences of his power and presence with his repentant people, as shall have a considerable analogy with that ancient and celebrated work of redemption.

The great terror of the people, the enemies of the jews, and which have hitherto successfully opposed the mighty purpose of God, (whose hand lifted up in behalf of that long + Exodus vii. 1.

*Micah vii, 14,

forsaken and despised nation they would not believe,) is represented in the verses immedi ately following, and gives considerable confirmation to my idea of this prophecy. "The nations shall see, and be confounded at all their might they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee. Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?" (Micah vii. 16.)*

There is a prophecy in Isaiah, which has a great analogy with this. Speaking of the great consumption, or destruction of the peo

* Whoever the opposers of the jews at this time may be, their opposition will be carried to a very daring height. Their astonishment and fear, (when at last convinced of a divine interposition,) is signified by a similitude very expressive, and which cannot have escaped the observation of most people. The bold curiosity of the earth worm, which darts out of his hole when the soil is stirred, as if in defiance of the ruffian hand that has interrupted his repose; but on being touched, glides back again

ple of Israel, he concludes the dreadful tale in the accustomed manner, with an assurance of their surviving it, by the preservation of their stock and lineage. "Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, O my people, that dwellest in Zion,"-(the church and covenant of God figuratively so called,)—" be not afraid of the Assyrian ;† he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee AFTER THE MANNER OF EGYPT,”—(by an attempt forcibly to detain thee in servile subjection, and by an encrease of his former severities towards thee, yet fear not ;)—“ for

yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine and mine anger in their destruction," When these signs of the times begin to appear, and there arises an augmented oppres→ sion, and a new persecution against the jews,

to his retreat, with as great a rapidity and trepidation. "His enemies shall lick the dust, (Ps. lxxii. 9,) is a phrase expressive of their entire subjection;-and the last words, applying this prophecy to God's mercy in pardoning "THE REMNANT of his heritage," fixes the interpretation both as to the time, and the parties concerned in it.

The Assyrian Sennacherib, once the enemy of Israel, is figuratively introduced here for another tyrant, in later times.

we may then conjecture that God's great and lasting anger upon his people, (prophetically denominated "THE INDIGNATION,") is drawing towards its close, and their redemp tion is near at hand. For the Lord of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him," (the tyrant of that day,)" after the slaughter of Midian, at the rock Oreb.* And as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up, after the manner of Egypt."-By a persecution raised against them on account of their religion, or for their attempting to assert their civil and religious liberty, in obedience to the call of God." And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing." (Isaiah x. 24.)‡.........

*Psalm lxxxiii. 9.

+ The sea is an emblem of peoples and nations under his ty ranical despotism. (Rev. xiii. 1.—viii. 8.—xvi. 3.—xvil. 15.)

"Because of the anointing."-The meaning here, according to the present reading of the Hebrew is so very obscure, that Bishop Lowth considers the passage as in want of correction, and translates it after the reading of the septuagint, an Twy wew vw, from off your shoulders; not being able, he