highway for the remnant of the people which shall be left from Assyria, like as it was to

Israel in the day land of Egypti."

that he came up out of the "I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry, and Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling for dragons ;""a drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up1." The threatened destruction of "Babylon" is entitled, "the burden of the desert of the seam." The drying up the sea, the annihilation of the dwelling of "the dragon" and the "serpent," denotes the annihilation of the empire of the spiritual Pharaoh, the destruction of the power of Satan. The waters of Egypt and of Babylon are to be dried up; the abode of the dragon is to be made a way for the ransomed to go to Zion: "I will bring them again out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria"." "It shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river [Euphrates] unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come that were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of

i Isaiah, xi. 15, 16.

* Jere. li. 36, 37.

m Isaiah, xxi. 1.

"Zech. x. 10. Isaiah, xi.

Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem","

Thus the spiritual " children of Israel" shall be delivered from spiritual bondage, and shall be established in the spiritual kingdom of the new Jerusalem.

Throughout the prophetic writings, severe judgments are denounced against Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt; and, although these were, in part, directed against the temporal enemies of the seed of Jacob, yet they have a relation principally to spiritual Assyria, spiritual Babylon, and spiritual Egypt.

"It shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work, upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day." "The fire of the Lord is in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem¶.” Christ is like a refiner's fire';" He is "the light of the worlds:" He will destroy him that "beareth thorns and brierst;" of Him it was predicted, "This shall be our peace when the

66

Isaiah, xxvii. 12, 13. P Isaiah, x. 12, 17.

Isaiah, xxxi, 9.

Malachi, iii. 2; iv. 1. Matt. iii. 10-12.

John, viii. 12.

t Hebr. vi. 8.

Assyrian shall come into our land; and they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof, thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian";" for this prediction refers to Him who was to come forth from Bethlehem to be "a Ruler in Israelw" This "Assyrian," from whom Christ was to deliver mankind, is the spiritual Assyrian. When He shall pass through the sea with affliction, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up; then shall the pride of Assyria be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away."

Yet, severe as are the denunciations against these enemies of the spiritual Jerusalem, promises are held out, that these seats of infidelity and idolatry shall, after they have been smitten, be united to Christ's kingdom: "In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord; and it shall be for a sign and a witness unto the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt, for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a Saviour and a great one, and he shall deliver them: and the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and perform it.

u

Micah, v. 5, 6.

* Zech. x. 11.

R

And the Lord shall smite Egypt; he shall smite and heal it; and they shall return to the Lord, and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them. In that day shall there be an highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of Hosts will bless, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritancey." Egypt and Assyria are to be united with Israel; the spiritual Egypt and the spiritual Assyria are to be added to "the Israel of GOD." So also it is said, that "Jerusalem" hath two sisters, "Samaria" and "Sodom";"" Jerusalem" denoting the "new Jerusalem," or the church of Christ; while Samaria [or specific Israel], and Sodom [called also, elsewhere, Egypt and Babylon], represent unbelievers and idolaters. And the Lord saith unto Jerusalem, "I will establish with thee an everlasting covenant; then thou shalt remember thy ways and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder [Samaria2] and thy younger [Sodom"], and I will give them unto thee for daughters." Thus the spiri

y Isaiah, xix. 19–25. Ezek. xvi. 46.

a Ezek. xvi. 60, 61,

tual Samaria and spiritual Sodom shall become the daughters of that " Jerusalem which is above, which is the mother of us all ";" for Christ has gained "the heathen for an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession."

Thus we find, that the several parts of the prophetic writings agree in announcing the establishment of Christ's kingdom, the downfall of infidelity and idolatry, and the incorporation of "all nations, and kindred, and people, and tongues," in the church of Christ.

Throughout the prophetic writings, the church of Christ is spoken of under the figurative appellation of "Zion," "Jerusalem," and "Judah;" while the kingdom of Israel is made to represent those who stand opposed to the spiritual kingdom of Christ. The enemies of the children of Israel are also made use of as figures to denote the enemies of Christ's church: thus Egypt, which held all the Israelites in hard bondage; Assyria, into which the people of the kingdom of Israel were carried captive; Baby

Gal. iv. 26.

lxii. 2; Ìxv. 1; lxvi. 13, 19, 23. Ezek. xvii, 23; xlvii. 22. Dan. vii. 14, 27. Amos, ix. Micah, v. 4. Habak. Malachi, i. 11.

‹ Psalm ii. 8; xxii. 27; l. 1; lxvi. 4; lxxxvi. 9; cvii. 3; cxiii. 3; cxxxviii. 4. Isaiah, 12. xlii. 1, 6, 7; xlix. 6; liv. 1-5; ii. 14. Ivi. 6-8; lx. 3, 5; lxi. 1, 9;