square; its situation will be about twenty miles from "the mountain of Jehovah's house," towards the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. We may call it a FEDERAL CITY; for, situated in the precincts of no tribe, all the tribes have a common right in the city, and in the lands assigned for its support; and, as it should seem, all the tribes have their stated respective services to perform in this city. Two most beautiful and fertilizing rivers, moreover, flowing from the mount of God, water this plain, and render it a perfect paradise. One of these rivers, which has been more particularly described, flows eastward into the Dead Sea, and through it into the Arabian Desert, perhaps into the Persian Gulf, or the Southern Ocean; the other flows westward towards the Mediterranean, and of course through or near the great city, the name of which is to be called "Jehovah Shammah,”"Jehovah is there." And we shall remember, though placed at what to us appears a distance from the temple, or house of Jehovah, this city is in a part of the HOLY OBLATION, which together with it is to be consecrated to the God of Israel," holy to Jehovah."

Such, as we have remarked, is the establishment of the THEOCRACY in Israel; through the medium of which, it should seem, Christ and his saints will reign over the earth. His saints are with him in glory, as Moses and Elias were seen with him on the mount of transfiguration. The holy mountain is no more than "the place of his feet," but this is to be "rendered glorious ;" and, therefore, these his earthly courts have their regular appointments of priests and ministers, "to keep the charge of the house," and to perform the sacred rites as appointed by God and all nations, as we have seen, have an interest and a participation in these sacred solemnities.

This worship, it is true, appears to be of that sort, that most Christian writers have supposed never would be reestablished. But our preconceived notions, and all inferences of our own drawing, ought not to weigh much in this case: we are consulting a revelation of God; and what it reveals it becomes us implicitly to receive, and "not to lean to our own understanding." The Mosaic economy is not that scheme, it is probable, which, had we enjoyed the ordinances of the patriarchal ages, we should have devised for the eventual saving of a remnant of all nations: nor, had we lived after the promise and covenant made with Abraham, should we, perhaps, have thought it a proper introduction of that better hope. So in God's government of "the world to come," and in his conducting of the last dispensation of the kingdom, there may be some things regulated not according to our notions or expectations.

But the chief objection is, a more spiritual worship had been introduced by the Gospel. Is the church again to be subjected to ordinances " pertaining to the flesh," and which, if not Mosaic, are something very like those. legal services appointed by the Levitical law? We may answer, the prophecy concerns not that church which the Gospel liberated from Jewish ordinances. That is now the church triumphant in heaven; all its sons are brought to glory. What is here foretold, respects a dispensation upon earth, for the recovering of the whole surviving race of Adam to God. It must depend, therefore, upon circumstances known only to Him, what sort of worship and religious ceremonial will be best suited to the race of men that shall then be upon earth; and to that divine government which he intends, in the person

of his SoN, to exercise over all "the nations of the redeemed."

Spirituality is not necessarily opposed to form and ceremony. It was opposed to it, indeed, when Christ contemplated the hypocritical Pharisee worshipping in the temple at Jerusalem-his Father sought other worshippers, that would "worship him in spirit and in truth." But, surely, Isaiah and David were spiritual worshippers of Jehovah, though they were subject to the Jewish ritual; and Moses and Aaron, when the visible glory of the Elohim of Israel filled the tabernacle, though the observance of many rites and ceremonies regulated their outward demeanour, and marked the circumstance of their approach to God! And what has the discarding of every external solemnity, and ceremonious observance in public worship, done for some Protestant churches or sects, who mistook this for the simplicity of the Gospel? The worship in Ezekiel's temple, therefore, though it retains many of the ancient ceremonies, will, doubtless, be most spiritual and heavenly; and being what God himself has appointed, will be most acceptable in his sight; and, no doubt, most suitable to the circumstances of his favoured creatures.

The solemn entry of the visible glory of Jehovah into this temple, which the prophet beholds in the vision, must not be passed over in these our concluding remarks.

Chap. xliii. 1." Afterwards he brought me to the gate, the gate that looketh towards the east; and, behold, THE GLORY OF THE GOD OF ISRAEL came from the way of the east: and his voice,” or, "its sound, was as the noise of many waters; and the earth shined with his glory. And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that

I saw when I came to destroy the city; yea, the vision was like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face."

These last observations identify the subject of the vision. It is the same glory, described so particularly in a former chapter, which appearance was evidently that of a GLORIFIED MAN, invested with the effulgency of the divine Majesty; and attended with what we considered as the symbols of the multitude of the redeemed from among men: it is" the Son of man coming in his glory."

4." And THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH came into the house by the way of the gate, whose prospect is towards the east. So the Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the GLORY OF JEHOVAH filled the house: and I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me."

That is, the conductor in the vision, who had seemed to show him the temple, and to measure it in his sight. That some should represent this conductor as the Messiah, or an emblem of the Messiah, seems most preposterous. The symbol of the Messiah is " the appearance of the likeness of a man," encompassed with "the glory of Jehovah"--and who is Jehovah ?-the Elohim of Israel in his holy place.

7. "And he said unto me, Son of man, the place," or, "this is the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever: and my holy name shall the house of Israel no more defile, they, nor their kings, by their fornications, nor by the corses of their kings in their high places. In their setting of their threshold by my threshold, and their post by my posts, and the wall between

Compare chap. i., x., xi. 22, &c.

me and them;" [or, as it is in the margin, “for there was but a wall between me and them."] They have even defiled my holy name by their abominations, that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger. Now shall they put away their fornication, and the corses of their kings far from me and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever."

By fornication in this passage is evidently meant, as usual, all false and idolatrous worship. What we are to understand by the dead bodies of their kings, I am somewhat at a loss to determine. Some conceive it means the lifeless idols, worshipped by their kings; others, the human victims sacrificed by them: no doubt, it refers to some of those abominations that had brought down the divine judgment on the ancient inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel; or the passage may mean, that the holy mountain was to be occupied exclusively by the sanctuary: the palaces of their princes would no longer be suffered, as heretofore, in its neighbourhood.

10. "Thou son of man, show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern. And when they shall be ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings-out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof; and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them. This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain, the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house."

This language implies, I conceive, that this part of Scripture is actually one day to be acted upon. Doubtless it is not for nothing that it is preserved as part of the