Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

This last verse is quoted by St. Paul, and applied to the call of the Gentiles and to the abandonment of Israel, at the season of the Gospel dispensation. So that we have a safe clew to guide us in the understanding of the time to which the following denunciations are to be appliednot to the Babylonian, but to the Roman captivity. I would further remark, that both the terms, "vanities," and "foolish," in the verses above, are to be understood in particular reference to idolatry; including, however, the false and vain worship of the Pharisees of the first advent.

22. Surely a fire hath been kindled in my wrath,
Which shall burn unto hell beneath;

And it shall consume the land and its produce,
And shall burn up the foundations of the hills.

Here is evidently an allusion to the desolation of the land of Canaan. Nothing can exceed the description given of its primive beauty and fertility. But God had declared by Moses, that for their sins he would" bring their land into desolation, so that their enemies that dwelt therein should be astonished at it."* And again: "The generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they shall see the plagues of that land, and the sickness which the Lord hath laid upon it, and that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, nor any grass growing therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and his wrath, What meaneth the heat of this great anger?"

Every traveller that has visited the Holy Land in its present state has illustrated this prophecy; and even the

* Lev. xxvi. 32.

insinuations of infidels, not aware of the prediction, but meaning to deny its former fruitfulness, as described in Scripture! The prophecy is particularly to be referred to the state of the central district, Jerusalem and its neighbourhood. I shall make a short extract from a late traveller.

[ocr errors]

In proceeding from Rama towards Jerusalem,' he observes, after passing the hills of Latron, vegetation becomes rare and feeble; complete barrenness suc'ceeds; and up to Jerusalem one traverses a red and 'sterile soil. The eye discovers nothing in the distance ⚫ but the signs of vast natural eruptions and catastrophes, dry beds of torrents, and winding roads covered with sharp flint; to complete the picture, ruined cisterns, at the bottom of which a little stagnant water lies, fetid and green, with bare craggy mountains rising around.' Such is the approach, preparing the mind for the awful impression about to be made upon it by the first appear'ance of Jerusalem. I perceived, in fine, long ramparts,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

towers and vast edifices, surrounded by barren and black 'ground, and rocks that looked as if they had been smitten by thunder.'-Mount Sion rose in view, and 'more distant the rugged mountains of the Arabian desert.'

Of the country on the other side towards Jericho, the author says: The road passes through narrow valleys

[ocr errors]

and deep ravines, almost impracticable, that seemed 'made by some recent convulsion. The mountains 'looked as if they were stained with sulphur, as at Solfatara, in the neighbourhood of Naples; mountains of cinders, in the shape of imperfect and reversed " cones, fantastic rocks, riven, overturned, or standing apart-these were the objects we encountered for many 'leagues.'" Throughout the whole of Judea," he has

[ocr errors]

occasion to remark, though the observation is surely to be confined to particular districts!" occasional rain is the only indication of winter." "Autumn brings no fruits, spring expands no flowers."* Such is the picture of a "fruitful land made barren for the wickedness of them that dwell therein." Still, however, we are to bear in mind, that this is the country destined for the wonderful display of the divine mercy and goodness hereafter; and therefore the foregoing observations are not unconnected with the subject of this book. But to proceed with the sacred oracle, which, after describing the fate of their country, describes the fate of the people themselves : 23. I will heap evils upon them,

I will spend mine arrows upon them;

24. They shall be exhausted by famine, consumed by burning heat,

And most grievous pestilence;

And I will send against them the tooth of wild beasts,
With the poison of the reptiles of the dust.

25. The sword destroyeth abroad,

Terror in the secret chambers;

Both the young man and the virgin,

The sucking infant with the man of grey hairs.
26. I said, I will disperse them to the remotest regions,
I will cause their remembrance to cease with man;
27. Were it not that I feared the provoking of the enemy,
Lest their adversaries should mistake themselves:

Lest they should say, Our high hand,
And not Jehovah, hath done all this.

So that we may say these prophecies are preserved, and the Jewish nation made to exist every where before our

* M. le Comte de Forbin's Travels in Greece, Syria, &c.

eyes, that the world, that now is, may understand, that it was no common revolution, effected by the strength of their Roman forefathers, but was the special interference of Providence. These enemies are next described.

28. Surely THESE are a nation lost to counsel,
And there is no understanding in them!

29. Oh, if they were wise, they would understand this,
They would understand their last end;

30. How one shall chase a thousand,

And two put ten thousand to flight!

That is, their enemies, the Roman nation, so to call it generally, for the Scripture, as we shall hereafter see, considers the Roman empire as ruling the destinies of the civilized world, and as the great enemy to the people of God, from the destruction of Jerusalem to the second advent; and this song forebodes, though they are ignorant of it, and will not receive counsel, that at the latter end of their dominion, the sons of Zion will in prowess be immensely exalted above them. This fact subsequent prophecies will illustrate.

31. But, certainly, their Founder hath sold them,

And Jehovah hath delivered them up:

Yet not like our Founder is their founder,
And be our enemies the judges.

Here, "Founder" or "Creator" is to be understood as above, not as the original maker of men and nations, but as the framer, institutor, author, or founder of their civil and religious polity and institutions. Jehovah, in this sense, was the Creator of Israel. They could sing, "For he is our Maker, and we are the sheep of his pasture." But to anticipate the revelations of future prophecies, the being denoted by the Great Red Dragon with seven

heads and ten horns, he is the creator, framer, and contriver of the tyrannical and idolatrous institutions, both of ancient and modern Rome: and his hand it is which sways that combination of human power, which desolates the earth, and opposes the kingdom of Christ in the last days. But in this contest will be seen the inferiority of “the god of this world" to "the God of Israel."

The following lines are meant to portray the ruinous and fatal nature and consequences of these institutions, which are contrasted with the institutions of God. No doubt the blasphemous institutions of modern Rome, which has armed the world against the cause of Christ, are intended; the same that are symbolized in subsequent prophecies by "the cup of fornications," which makes "drunk all the kings of the earth," till they fall together in the great day of the battle of Almighty God.

32. Truly their vine is from the vine of Sodom,

And from the fields of Gomorrah!

Their grapes are grapes of gall,

Their clusters are bitter!

33. Their wine is the poison of dragons,
The virulent venom of asps!

What follows belongs to his people Israel—the true Israel of which he is the Author and Institutor- that is, if you regard the times of the Gentiles, the company of all faithful people among them; for they are the seed of Abraham now; and hence perhaps the metaphor of the sealed-up treasure, because a secret reserve, a remnant according to the election of grace, when the natural Israel would be in a visible state of apostasy, and the machinations of Antichrist have triumphed, almost to the extinction of the institutions of the Gospel. This is the Israel laid

« AnteriorContinuar »