treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver." The complete mastery which these figures are intended to express, is set forth in very forcible language in the next verse: Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off." The upper hand is so significant of mastery, as to have passed into one of the most common expressions for it. Sometimes it is used with great dignity of God himself: "Thou hast a mighty arm; strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand." In Deut. xxxii. 27, God promises to deliver his people, "lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely; lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the Lord hath not done all this." And God is described as delivering his people "with a high hand, and an outstretched arm." And to do any thing with the high hand, is significant of the greatest alacrity, and vigour, and effect. When, therefore, it is said, "Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries," it is signified that they shall be brought into the condition of a prostrate foe, over whom Israel stands with uplifted arm ready to smite them, and able to destroy them if she would. But this she doth only to them who will not give in to her supremacy; who, from being her adversaries, become her enemies, and undertake war against her. These shall be cut off; according to that which the Holy Ghost speaketh by Isaiah : " For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted" (Isai. lx. 12).

While I have interpreted these three verses as representing the attitude rather than the action of the remnant of Jacob, I am far from asserting that the reality of these figures will not be exhibited in the splendid achievements and triumphs with which that nation shall be crowned in their perilous passage from their present abjectness to their future supremacy. But while I believe this, I feel assured that the mind of the Spirit is to express the position of merciful patronage and meek power in which they shall stand to the nations of the earth in the future age; being the witnesses of Christ's forgiving grace, gentle government, and most merciful power. If I understand the march of the prophecy, it proceeds by these steps: First, the rejection of the Judge of Israel, and the consequent breaking up of the national polity; next, his return, as the First-born of his brethren, with a glorious company gathered in his exile, like David's mighty men, and the consequent gathering again. of the remnant; next, his withstanding of the Assyrian's invasion of his land, and his appointment of a warlike chivalry to waste and to destroy the Assyrian's borders, and bring about a "praise over all the earth;" finally, the offices of instruction, blessing, and holy government-of Prophet, Priest, and King-which the people under him shall exercise over all the nations of the world.

Such I conceive to be the sublime march of the prophecy, up to the place at which we now stand; when the Prophet is made to contract the eye of his vision, and to reveal the chief acts of internal administration which their Ruler shall accomplish for his people.

These consist in three acts of cutting off: the first done upon all munitions and defences of war, that the people might trust only in the Lord, and because they had a mighty God in whom to trust ;-the second done upon witchcrafts and soothsayers, and all priests and ministers of superstition, that they might look only to the ministers of the living and true God; or, rather, because they should be a nation of kings and priests, knowing him "from the least even to the greatest," and having his Spirit poured out upon them all ;--the third done upon all idolatries, images, and standing images, and works of men's hands, worshipped as gods, upon the groves, and every other vestige of other gods; and, finally, while he doth thus take a merciful and salutary dealing with his people, he promises to pour out such fury and vengeance upon the heathen as they have not heard or known. This, though it be posterior in the narrative and the conclusion of the whole, is not to be applied as if it began when the other closed: for, verily, the other shall never close: that office of blessing and ruling the nations in peace, which is assigned to Israel in the preceding verses, shall never cease, while there are nations to bless and rule. It is not a sequence in time, but merely in narrative. The great work of Messiah having been narrated until the ending thereof, the Prophet returns upon his steps to point out certain great changes which shall be accomplished in the midst of his people, in that day of the triumph of righteousness. These we shall now take up in order.

"And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots; and I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strongholds" (Mic. v. 10, 11).-These munitions of war ought never to have been in Israel, whose bulwark was the Name of the Lord, and their strength that spirit of valour in virtue of which one should chase a thousand and two should put ten thousand to flight. It was thus written in the charter of the nation: "The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face; they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways" (Deut. xxviii.) And how oft this was fulfilled, let the wars of Joshua and the Judges, of David and the godly kings, testify. And this national charter was written, not for them, but for our learning also, to teach us that whatever nation trusted in the God of battles should be invincible. Godly men are the only secure ramparts of a land. From this the children of Israel

departed, and put their confidence in the horsemen and chariots of Egypt; and in the days when Isaiah prophesied destruction and desolation upon the land, "it was full of horses, neither was there any end of their chariots." But in that day when the heart of the people shall be turned unto the Lord, they shall, of their own will, beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks, and learn the art of war no more." Of this great work, wherein "God shall cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem," a notable type was given in Joshua's last battle with the kings of Canaan, when he was commanded to "hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire" (xi. 6); which also he faithfully performed. So the true Jesus, when he shall lead his people into their inheritance, shall put an end to all preparations for war; being Himself the bulwark of his people: and in that day they shall be willing to trust in him. At length they shall be able to receive that word of the Lord, from which they turned to seek refuge in the arts of war: "For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift. One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill" (Isai. xxx. 15-17). For the same reason the Lord shall take away the fortified cities, with their munitions, because "Salvation shall be for walls and bulwarks;" the Lord shall be their rock, and their fortress, and their high tower. And in such a state do we find the people dwelling in their land, when Gog comes up against them, saying, "I will go up to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, to take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land" (Ezek. xxxviii. 11, 12). This, no doubt, refers to a period consequent upon the gathering of the people, and antecedent to the time of long and ultimate peace. It is not the insurrection of Gog and Magog mentioned in the Revelation as to take place at the end of the thousand years, because then the nations are utterly destroyed, and made an end of; whereas in this case the nations remain, and glorify God when they behold his mighty interference for his people: "Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord" (Ezek. xxxviii. 23). Moreover, this con

summation of God's judgments in the overthrow of Gog is at the time of the pouring out of the Spirit upon all Israel, and to the end of their acknowledgment of God perfectly, and trusting in him entirely: "Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God" (Ezek. xxxix. 28, 29). Being so, therefore, that the attack and invasion of Israel by the confederate bands of Gog takes place before the long age of Israel's blessed dominion, and that at that time they are found dwelling securely in unwalled villages, without gates or bars, we are enabled to assign the period, and somewhat to understand the meaning, of the ordinance contained in the verses under consideration. The Assyrian, or infidel king of Rome, who is to rise up and oppose the return of the people, being cut off, and his land spoiled, God requires of his victorious tribes to trust in him; and doth, as it were, renew the ancient covenant which he made with Joshua, that, if they will keep his commandments, he will be their bulwark in the hour of need. And the people, being willing in the day of his power, do with ready hand destroy the war-horse and the chariot, and dismantle all their strong-holds, trusting in the living God. In such a defenceless condition Gog, who is the head of the Greek church, beholds them, and, gathering together all his bands, approaches their land in all the pomp and splendour of embattled might; and the people wait to receive him in all the rest and confidence of faith. And in this great controversy, between an embattled world and a believing church, God taketh witness, in the sight of all men and angels, of his power and faithfulness; whereof the issue is according to that which is written by the Prophet Ezekiel "I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: and I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field, to be devoured. Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God" (Ezek. xxxix. 2-5). The sixth part, that are left from the army of Gog, have their end and destination, which is thus given by the Prophet Isaiah: "And I will set a sign among them, and I will. send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the sles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen

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my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord, out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord" (Isai. Ixvi. 19, 20). This remnant of Gog's army, having, like the centurion at Christ's cross and tomb, seen the mighty works of God, are converted to the Lord God of Israel, and, being preserved, make haste, like Nebuchadnezzar and Darius, to proclaim Him in the several countries out of which they came forth to defy him and do battle against the people of his covenant: and, being thus mightily afraid of the Lord and of his people, they make speed to gather every Jew, as a precious relic; and with great honour and much haste, upon swift dromedaries, do they bring them to the Lord, who dwelleth in Mount Zion. "So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, and the Holy One in Israel. Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord God; this is the day whereof I have spoken" (Ezek. xxxix.7, 8). Such are the wonderfully grand and highly important moral ends which are served by the dismantling of the fortifications and destroying the warlike preparations of his people, when they are gathered together, and have executed vengeance upon the Assyrian. While dealing with him, they are exhibited as the battleaxe of God, smiting and being smitten; because as yet they have not fully known the Lord, nor are able to trust in him: but being purified in the furnace of war, and taught to know God in adversities, and having proved the mighty power of the "Man of war," they are prepared for that greatest act of faith, which doth make a free-will offering of arms and defences, in order to make the Lord their buckler and the word of the Lord their two-edged sword. This done, they are in readiness for the invasion of Gog; and they stand still and behold the salvation of their God, who getteth all the glory of this second and more terrible encounter. Whereupon, God, having begun with Gog's army, doth send his judgments, and they run speedily through the earth, being interpreted every where by the word of those who are escaped; as it is written: "And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles; and they shall know that I am the Lord" (Ezek. xxxix. 6). And the end of all these judgments and witnessings is thus expressed in the same vision:" And I will set my glory among the heathen; and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them" (Ezek. xxxix. 21). In what I have now written concerning Gog, I have anticipated