come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood." Then at verse 5: "Behold it shall come down upon IDUMEA; (i. e. Edom;) and upon the people of my curse, to JUDGMENT. "The sword of the Lord is filled with blood-for the Lord hath a great sacrifice in BOZRAH, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea-the land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness-for it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion." Then (after dwelling upon the manner in which the land shall be desolated) it bursts out, in the next chapter, with a rapturous description of the way in which the earth shall afterwards be renewed for the righteous.

In this passage I will chiefly call attention to the circumstance, that the judgment therein spoken of falls on Idumea, (or Edom,*) of which Bozrah was the capital. This will clearly connect the prophecy with another in Isaiah lxiii. 1–5; which informs us also who is to be the great actor in the tribulation.

"Who is this that cometh from EDOм, with dyed garments from BOZRAH? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength?" Answer."I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save."-"Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth the winefat?" Answer. "I have trodden the wine-press alone; and of the people there was none with me. For I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and-the year of my redeemed is come." Here, in addition to Idumea and Bozrah, is introduced the treading of the wine-press, and that evidently by MESSIAH, and the staining of his garments thereby with blood: now mark how this identifies the words of Isaiah with those of St. John.

In Rev. xiv. we have a description of "the vine of the earth, which is cast into the great wine-press of the wrath of God; and the wine-press is trodden without the city, and blood comes out of the wine-press even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs:"-a symbolical and figurative description; but calculated to afford us a most awful notion of the great slaughter and destruction alluded to! In Rev. xix. we may recognise further circumstances: Messiah is introduced "clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called THE WORD OF GOD, &c. and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his

* The ancient, as also the modern, Jews, and after them various expositors, interpret Edom to be Rome; but as my object is not now so much to apply the prophecy, as to mark its character, I enter not into this question.

vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF Lords. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, captains, mighty men, horses, &c."

I add the latter part of the above passage, in which the fowls of heaven are called to a great supper, for the purpose of shewing, that this again connects St. John with a well known prophecy in Ezek. xxxix. concerning the destruction of Gog and Magog, the slaughter of whose armies will be so great as to require seven months to bury the dead. At verse 17 are these words: "And thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God; speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of princes of the earth-ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war saith the Lord God. 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."

In this manner we might glance at many other prophecies, and shew their evident relation to the same period of destruction, by similar internal and conspicuous marks: particularly a variety of passages, which shew the destruction to be sudden as well as extensive, coming upon the nations with the fierceness and rapidity of a whirlwind; which is the figure frequently used to describe it. "He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.-The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked: so that a man shall say, verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth."*

III. There is another important feature connected with the judgment, which must also be noticed; viz. the effect to be produced by the supposed agency of FIRE at this period.

Most christians admit, that there is to be a conflagration of the world; and it was the opinion of the early Millennarian Fathers, as also of many of the Reformers, that it would be the great agent employed to regenerate the material globe, to purify and restore it to its pristine state (yea more than its pristine

* Psalm lxviii. 9-11. See also Prov. i. 23-33; Isa. xvii. 12-14; xl. 1824; xli. 14-16; lxvi. 15, 16; Jer. xxv. 15-38, but especially verses 31-33. Compare also Jer. xxiii. 19, 20, with xxx. 23, 24; Hab. iii. throughout, but especially verses 12-15.

state) of beauty and salubriousness, and thus to fit it for the abode of the righteous. But it has been and is disputed, whether this conflagration is to take place before or after the Millennium; and secondly, among those who believe it to be premillennial, it is further disputed, whether it is to burn up the whole world, or only the prophetical earth, or only the region of Palestine in its utmost limits.

As to the extent of the conflagration, while I incline from various considerations to conclude, that there will be a judgment by fire before the Millennium; (whatever may take place after it;) yet I confess, that great difficulties present themselves, and much may be said on the other side of the question. So that on this point I submit certain particulars more in the way of inquiry, and of communicating what may be gleaned from Scripture, than as a demonstration of the truth.

First then let me observe, that a judgment by fire is not always in the Scriptures to be understood literally; but it is a figure used by the prophets to denote tribulation and wrath. Thus Isaiah says, "The Lord shall purge the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the Spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning:" upon which bishop Lowth observes, that these are bold figures to set forth the Lord's wrath. Of this we have a convincing proof in the promise which Moses makes to the children of Israel, just previous to their taking possession of the land under Joshua. "Understand therefore (he says) this day, that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee: as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, (thine enemies,) and he shall bring them down before thy face."m not unlikely therefore, that some places, which speak of fire, only respect that time of bloodshed and trouble we have considered: as where it is said in Zephaniah, "All the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy."'n

It is

It is also worthy of remark, as proving fire to be frequently a symbol, that whereas in St. Luke's Gospel Jesus says, "I am come to send fire on the earth;" the parallel place in St. Matthew is "I came not to send peace, but a sword."r And indeed Luke himself afterwards explains it of the divisions and persecutions which would accompany the Gospel. I cannot however understand St. Paul as speaking otherwise than literally, when he says, "that the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." Nor can it be figure when St. Peter says, "that the heavens and the earth, which are now, are reIsa. iv. 4. m Deut. ix. 3. » Zeph. iii. 8. Chap. xii. 49. P Chap. 92 Thess. i. 7, 8.

x. 34.

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served unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. "r And Isaiah appears plainly to distinguish between the judgments of fire and the sword when he says, that "the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire: for by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh."

IV. Another point remains for inquiry which is of intense interest to the Church of Christ; viz. What becomes of the Lord's people during this time of tribulation?

1. Previous to shewing their safety, it may be well to notice of the nations generally, that, however some Scriptures may apparently speak of their absolute and entire destruction, living creatures will nevertheless be left, both men and animals, from out of that dreadful time of desolation. This is indeed for the most part to be proved rather in the way of inference, from certain expressions in those passages themselves, which, in their first aspect, would lead us to conclude the contrary: for I apprehend, that the Spirit would have men's minds to notice chiefly the tribulation which is coming, that they may stand in awe and sin not.

First, let us take the prophet Isaiah. In chapter xxiv. 5, 6, we read: "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and— few men left." This at first view speaks as if all were burned; but afterwards it lets fall an intimation, that a few will be left.

In chap. lxvi. 16, when the same Prophet says; "By fire and by his sword the Lord will plead with all flesh," he adds— "and the slain of the Lord shall be many:" but that this does not mean all, though the prophecy relates to the great catastrophe under consideration, is evident from verse 19-"And I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, Lud, Tubal, Javan, &c." which is important as giving colour to the opinion, that the nations on whom the desolation falls are those of Christendom, or of the prophetic earth, and does not include the tribes and families of the earth still called heathen, as Tarshish, Pul, &c.

Jeremiah xliv. is worthy also of notice; not as containing matter immediately bearing upon the Judgment, but as evincing how expressions must be qualified and determined by the general context. In verse 14 we are told, "that none of the

r 2 Pet. iii. 7. • Isa. lxvi. 15, 16.

remnant of Judah, which are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain, &c.:" yet at the end of the verse is added "none shall return but such as shall escape." Verse 27 is still more sweeping in its sentence of destruction: "Behold I will watch over them for evil, and not for good: and ALL the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine until there be an end of them." But in the next verse it is added, “Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return, &c."

A similar instance occurs in Zechariah, chap. xiv., in which all nations are first described as gathered against Jerusalem to battle (v. 2,) then as smitten with a plague which consumes them (vv. 12-15); but afterwards there is mention of "every one that is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem."

Our Lord's intimation likewise concerning the tribulation, is to the point in hand; "that except those days should be shortened there should no flesh be saved:" for they clearly intimate that some in the flesh will be saved.

I apprehend that what is spoken of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel xxxix. 2, before the whole prophecy concerning this war is set out, is the real key to this difficulty: "I will leave but the sixth part of thee:" and that the numerous passages which speak of "them that escape of the nations," "the nations of them that are saved," "the remnant of them," "all that are left," must be considered as referring to this circumstance.

Further, in regard to brute animals, the promise to Noah appears to justify the conclusion, that there will not be an utter destruction, any more than when the earth was destroyed by water: "neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done."-Which is another instance also, that the words "every thing living" must be qualified, and the contents of the ark deducted.

Psalm viii. is likewise applied to the reign of Christ, both in Corinthians and Hebrews; and this states,-"Thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea:" so that if the conflagration be pre-millennial, there are animals preserved from it. By what means I presume not to state. Until God by his special power brought them to Noah into the ark, no man could have conceived how they should have been saved from the waters of a flood; neither have I a satisfactory perception of the mode in which all these things will be so brought to pass as to harmonize with the entire Scriptures.

2. But of the safety of God's people at this period of judgment, we have abundant and clear testimony. The world and the merely professing Church, will, alas! be taken by surprise.