hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast." (Is. xxvi. 20.) Christ graciously assures us that no man is able to pluck us out of his Father's hand, because none shall pluck us out of his hand. The Christian Church in its members is so precious, that like jewels they are treasured up in his garments. Thou art not lost, for thy name is written in the Lamb's book of life. And even in some quiet nook of peaceful seclusion, where war is only perused on paper, and never heard in hoarse trumpets or the sullen thunders of artillery, the Christian is not forgotten. They are not without influence, for many of these calamities are shortened for the sake of the elect. They are the salt, the holy seed, the chosen treasure of the world.* Their prayers are voices which mingle with utterings too great for human words, and enter into the pre- Rev. vii. sence of God by the advocacy of Christ. To increase the number of these servants God's judgments are. poured out. To defend the eternal interests of these servants his revolutions are effected. To manifest his glory by this Church of Christ, for his beloved Son, to the illimitable armies of heaven, is the world thus purified. Let no fear of God's forgetfulness assail the mind of the disciple. He can never be cast off if he remaineth stedfast unto the end. And then the con nection of himself with these mighty prophecies, so far * The servants of God are sometimes in prophecy described as marked or secretly sealed by God's watchful providence, when the judgment of God is passing through nations, and they are then delivered from death. (Ezek. ix. 4.) In one place in history, at the great siege of Jerusalem, they were forewarned, and the Christian Church fled to Pella, and not one perished at the sack and overthrow of that wretched city. from weakening his faith, increases it; for God can never care but little for him, when the love of God was so deep as to shed the blood of the only-begotten Son of God, that he might not perish but have everlasting life. The human heart is the study of God. The individualizing providence of God, and the omniscient inspection of each man by his grace, is as much a part of this stupendous Revelation, as are the magnificent designs and profound arrangements of his power and wisdom in the prophetic changes of empires by war or Revolutions. DISSERTATION IV. And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her THE EXAMINATION OF THE PROPHETS CONTINUED. THE prophet whose declaration is before us, was the sixth in that glorious company of sixteen, whose words we find in the Old Testament. The kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah the Reformer, heard his voice. His predictions were principally issued against Samaria and the ten tribes, but his unfulfilled declarations inIclude the whole of the Jews. 1 IV. 1 The first five verses proclaim that universal peace 1 MICAH amongst all the nations, which is only the property and bliss of the latter days of this world, already hoary with pollution and sin. Then, agriculture and commerce, Verse 3. security of possessions, ease and contentment, the conversion of arms into instruments of farming pursuits, and a general diffusion of religious intercourse amongst the nations, will be some of those astonishing results, which the kingdom of Christ, the mountain-stone, can alone effect. Amid these wonders, the constitution of the Jews into a distinct and prosperous people is enumerated. Their regal honours are to be, as at first, Verse 8. V. 10. V. 8, 9. V. 1, &c. V. 3. under the superintendence of God himself. The visible Head of the nation will be the vice-regal administrator of His laws. As of old, when they entered into Canaan, a sacred theocracy was the form of government, in which God, though invisible was acknowledged as the king who appointed the visible form of government, by Judges or Regal heads, so then in one, and apparently the last of these forms,* his reign over them will be perpetuated at Jerusalem. This government will however be by themselves, and not as some have fondly imagined by a personal advent of the Saviour. He who reigns will be a Jew, of Judah, at Jerusalem, and selected by providential circumstances from the royal house of David, which exists in obscurity, but in its integrity, amongst the scattered families of the nation. The deliverance from Babylon is predicted, but the second gathering is closely united to the general peace for which the Christian sighs and prays in the latter days. So far from the Jews possessing security and ease, during the four hundred years of their existence before their last dispersion, they were continually oppressed or fighting, enslaved or persecuted, and internal feuds, and the assaults of the two last monarchies, by the soldiers of Alexander and the Roman Emperors, distracted and tore their country with alarms and hostile invasions. Peace then to the Jew in his own land, and sweet religious peace to all people, when the art of war shall be only known as a curiosity in museums or books for many centuries, is yet future, and both events are connected as inseparably following each other by the prophet. When I speak of this and other con * Hag. ii. 23. nected prophecies, I am not prepared to place them in direct connection, separated only by a few years from each declaration. Prophecy takes great strides, and marks only one, two, or three of its mighty footsteps. Centuries may, and have, elapsed between events described in the same passage, and I cannot but think that the same rule will be followed in these stupendous changes. The first footstep of restoration, and the peaceful consummation might be filled up with an interval of one or two hundred years.* 1 MICAH VII. 11, 12, 18, V. 13. 1 The twofold desolation of Judæa is distinctly mentioned by this prophet, where the gathering of the people from the cities and countries of Babylon is de- Verse 12. scribed, and the method by which it was effected in the issuing forth of the decree of the Persian kings, and the dispersion of it by Nehemiah amongst the Jews. And then it is added that notwithstanding the partial V. 19. restoration, the land should be still left desolate for the iniquitous fruit of those who dwelt there, which can only refer to their rejection of Messiah. V. 16. The circumstances of the kingdom under the Maccabean kings or Herod, never could warrant such de- V. 17. scriptions as those which close this chapter. When did the ancient Romans, or Grecians tremble at the ness. *The sudden and tremendous outbreak of the last war under Gog and Magog, may be referred either to the times preceding the time of universal peace, or be explained as resulting from it, and closing the last page of this world's eventful history by one such final effort of wickedBut the time and certainty of such occurrences do not effect the existence of universal peace. Those who have not learned war or centuries, will be an easy prey to those who in the depths of their Asiatic and Scythian forests, have still maintained as hunters, some knowledge of defensive arms, and who seem to be the agents in this last assault of the spirit of evil upon man's happiness. (Ezek. 38 & 39.) |