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tainly takes place after the battle of Armaged don, about the beginning of the Millennium; for it is then, "when the eyes of man, as of all "the tribes of Ifrael, fhall be towards the 66 Lord," ver. 1. that is," when all nations "fhall ferve him,"-" he that remaineth shall "be for our God," ver. 7. All that escape deftruction fhall fubmit to the true religion, when God" will encamp about his house, and no oppreffor fhall pafs through them any more," ver. 8. All these circumftances can apply only to the Millennium.

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The punishment of the Cufhites (Ethiopians, or rather Arabians) and Affyrians, mentioned Zeph. ii. 12, 13. feems to take place at the fame time, because it is mentioned together with the conqueft of Paleftine, Moab and Ammon.

The punishment of Affyria, coeval with this period, is clearly afferted, Micah v. 6. " They "fhall waste the land of Affyria with the sword, "and the land of Nimrod in the entrances "thereof." This wafting of Affyria takes place when the Ruler of Ifrael "fhall ftand and feed "in the ftrength of the Lord his God, and they

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(the children of Ifrael) shall return," ver. 4. ; that is, about the time the Jews are converted and submit to the Meffiah, when he (the Ruler) fhall be great to the ends of the earth," ver. 4. when he fhall deliver his people from

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the Affyrian', then in their land, that is, from the blafphemous king then dwelling in Judea, ver. 6. when the Jews fhall propagate the truth among the nations, ver. 7. and effectually fub. due the enemies of religion, ver. 8.; confequently this wafting of Affyria takes place after the battle of Armageddon.

Perhaps too the punishment of Elam, (or Perfia), recorded Jer. xlix. 34-38. shall be executed at the fame time. There are indeed. no circumstances in the narration to fix the time of its completion, unless we confider that expreffion, "I will fet my throne in Elam," ver. 38. to imply the establishment of the true religion in Perfia; in which cafe, the deftruction accompanying or preceding the establishment of the true religion must be after the battle of Armageddon, and immediately before the Millennium.

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(1) The mixture of the figurative and literal meaning occafions the greatest difficulty of all others in the interpretation of prophecy. The Affyrian here fignifies the blafphemous king, then refident in Judea. But the land of Affyria is to be taken literally; for the design of the prophecy is to intimate, that in regard forces are fent from Affyria to fupport the blafphemous king, they, as well as the other allies, fhall be punished by the fword of God in return.

The conquest of Egypt at the fame time is largely described, with the steps that lead to it, in chapters xviii. and xix. of Isaiah.

The three last verses of the nineteenth chapter are evidently defcriptive of the Millennium, and can apply to no other period. The whole of the preceding prophecy is connected with that period by the expreffions," in that day," frequently repeated; fo that the application of this prophecy to the conqueft of Senacherib, or to any period already paft, muft be erroneous, while the application of it I now offer muft be juft.

The eighteenth chapter fhews the cause of the punishment inflicted on the Egyptians, which is recorded in the nineteenth chapter. Egypt is the land of "the winged cymbal," (as Lowth properly explains it), if by Cufh we understand Ethiopia or Arabia; the word tranflated beyond fignifies either on this fide or the other, and fo is applicable to Egypt, as bordering on both these countries.

The crime laid to the charge of the Egyptians is, that they "fend ambaffadors by the fea, and "in veffels of bulrushes (papyrus) on the wa"ters, faying, Go ye fwift meffengers, to a na*tion scattered and peeled, to a people terrible "from their beginning hitherto; a nation

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"meted out and trodden down, whofe land the "rivers have spoiled '."

The meffengers are fent to collect troops, in order to affift the beaft at Armageddon.

The people against whom these troops are fent, are the Jews. The description given of the Jews by the Egyptians, (for the address to the messengers is put in their mouth), seems intended, to excite the hatred, and animate the courage of their troops, against the Jews. They are represented as a people " fcattered" or dif persed throughout the world, "peeled,” or oppreffed by all nations, "terrible from their be

ginning hitherto ;" either that they are to be dreaded by other nations, on account of their enmity to them, or that they are objects of terror and astonishment, on account of the judgments inflicted on them: "a nation meted out"

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(1) Bishop Lowth translates the paffage thus: "Go "ye fwift meffengers to a nation ftretched out in length, "and fmoothed; a nation meted out by line, and trodden "down, whose land the rivers have nourished." with all deference to the learned prelate, I think the common tranflation preferable. He fuppofes the meffengers fent to the land, and described by its appearance; no doubt confidering the land as a metaphor, fignifying the people but then I find the words nation and people three several times inferted in the addrefs, in all which, the term land fhould have been expreffed or understood, in order to make the metaphor tolerable.

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(of line), on whom God himself has extended the line of deftruction; "trodden down," defpifed, and treated like the mire of the streets; "whose land the rivers have spoiled," has been fucceffively over-run by every conquering army2. The defign of this description is, to represent them as a people hated of God, and therefore worthy of being extirpated by men. fult of this expedition is given us, verses 3.-6. and it correfponds exactly with the description of the battle of Armageddon.-After a folemn invitation to all the inhabitants of the world to give ear, as to a matter of importance, in which all are interested; God intimates, that he will at first give success to the expedition, so far as to collect a formidable army; but that he will afterwards blast the expedition, by utterly deftroying the forces fo collected. All this is represented, by a fit and elegant metaphor. The conduct of Providence, in the first stage of the expedition, is compared to a "clear heat after rain, or a "dewy cloud in a day of harveft," which rapidly

(1) 2 Kings xxi. 13. Ifa. xxxiv. 11.

(2) A conquering army is frequently compared to an overflowing river; as Ifa. viii. 8. and Dan. xi. The description is most applicable to the land of Judea, for it has been fucceffively over-run, by the Affyrians, Babylonians, Perfians, Grecians, Romans, Saracens, and Turks.

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