was not yet taken away, and they could only see into the new as through a glass darkly, God therefore only spake to them by his law and prophets in types and figures. Therefore the "seven years" must be used in a figurative sense, for the above well-grounded reasons. And the children of God in the new dispensation are called Israel, for the same reason that papal Rome is called Babylon under the new. For the law was a shadow of good things to come; it made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better covenant did perfect the comers thereunto.

Now carry out this reasoning of Paul's, and what must Israel be in order to be made perfect? They cannot be made perfect without us Gentiles. See Heb. xi. 40, also ix. 8-12. How a man can read the arguments of the apostle, and retain these judaizing sentiments of gathering the Jews, as Jews, to their own land, and building up their temple and city again, I cannot conceive. But another time is specified in our context. See verse 12: "And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land." See also verse 14. This transaction is in the last days of Gog's power, and probably under the last form which Gog may assume, and must mean Rome papal, which is the last head of abominations; who has, by her abominable doctrine and practices, filled the world with her sorceries and fornications;-she has made the kings of the earth support her ecclesiastical power, and commit fornication with her; she has filled the earth with her murders, and drenched the soil with the blood of victims which she called heretics;-she has leagued herself with kings and princes to support a power, which she blasphemously pretended was given her by God. By these means, and many more, she has filled the world with the cup of her abominations, and covered the earth with her pollutions. The " seven months" spoken of in the verse we have quoted, are 210 days, or 210 years, as Ezekiel was commanded to reckon. Then the people of God would be 210 years putting away this rotten carcass

of papal power, which had for ages ruled over kings and lorded it over his people. The year 1588, the edict in favor of Protestants, which was afterwards called the edict of Nantes, was first published by Henry IV., king of Navarre, one of the principal heads of the Protestant cause in France, who began a war in Europe between the Catholics and Protestants, which lasted, with very little cessation, for 210 years, until 1798; when finally the Protestants destroyed the power of the pope, and he that had ruled over kings, became weak and inefficient as any of the smallest dukedoms in Europe. The struggle between the Protestants on the one part, and the Catholic league on the other, was, with the former, to destroy the power of this Gog, of whom we have been speaking, and to humble in the dust this Meshech and Tubal of modern times; while with the latter it was to retain power, which papal Rome had long exercised over the kings of the earth, and over the consciences, lives, and fortunes of her subjects. All the civil power was finally taken from her, and nothing remains but the bones, or principles of the carcass. The kings of the earth have eaten her flesh, and burnt her with the fire of their anger; nothing remains but a skeleton of this once most powerful empress, that had humbled kings at her feet, and had made princes vassals at her will. But John had, many centuries before, prophesied her consumption, and the manner of it. See Rev. xvii. 16: "And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire." He also has given us to understand that there would be kings and great men of the earth who would lament her fall and loss of power. See Rev. xviii. 8-16. All this was literally fulfilled in those wars to which I have directed your attention.

One thing more I will notice. After they had eaten her flesh and buried her power, they severed out men of continual employment, meaning missionaries, who were to go through the land and search for her bones,

or principles, which would remain on the face of the earth, after the "seven months," that is, after the civil power of Papacy should be destroyed, which took place A. D. 1798. And when any should see a man's bone, they were to set up a sign by it, until the buriers should bury it in the valley of Hamon-gog. Who can but see, that the relics of Papacy are to be found in almost every church in our land? The love and practice of slavery is a bone of the old mother; the love and practice of war is another bone; sectarian prejudices, and a tyrannical display of physical force to put down principles not harmonizing with our views, is a great bone. Taking to ourselves titles that belong to God, or calling men Rabbis, which belong only to Christ, are men's bones. Puffing each other in public papers, and passing resolu tions in our own favor, are bones of the feet or the hands of man. To preach the traditions of men, instead of the word of God; and the laws and ordinances of the church and councils, instead of the laws of the Scriptures and ordinances once delivered to the saints by Jesus Christ and his apostles, is the backbone of Gog, and must and will be buried, and will no more come into mind. Some may inquire, Is this the same Geg in Ezekiel, as we find in the twentieth chapter of Revelation? I answer, it is the same, with this difference only: this is prophesying of his power, his acts, death and burial; that of his resurrection, judgment, and final and last destruction from the earth. Now, my dear reader, do you want to know whether you belong to Gog, or the saints? Try your spirit. If you are proud, haughty, tyrannical, selfish, worldly, dogmatical, full of bigotry, egotism and wilfulness, prone to misrepresent, deceive and lie against your neighbor, because he cannot see in every point exactly as you do; you may rest assured that your warrant is not a counterfeit, -you belong to the ARMY OF GOG. AMEN.

LECTURE ON

THE TWO STICKS.

EZEK. xxxvii. 15-17.

The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions: and join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thy hand.

I AM well aware, my brethren, that the views I have of this text will be called by many ultra-biblical, a vagary, or fanciful, at least; and many a man will turn away with disgust, curl the lip, and go to work in imagination, at least, to confute what they have not heard, and think they can destroy at a nod what may be built upon the immutable pillars of truth; so that truth may be cast down in the street, while tradition, bigotry, and falsehood are clasped to our hearts. But wisdom teaches us "to hear and then judge." "Prove all things, and hold fast that which is good." If men were to treat earthly things as bigots do religious subjects, reject every new thing, or new measure, because it is to them new, what would become of the improvements of the present day? or where would be the increase of knowledge spoken of by Daniel the prophet in the latter day? Christ, in speaking of these same characters, calls them “blind guides," or "blind leaders of the blind." any such person should hear or read this discourse,

lf

I beg of them to hear, weigh the evidence, and then judge.

I shall therefore,

I. SHOW WHAT THE HOLY SPIRIT DESIGNED BY THE

TWO STICKS.

II. WHAT IS MEANT BY THEIR BECOMING ONE.

Our text is an allegory, as all must agree, for the 18th and 19th verses, "And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these? say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in my hand," thus prove it: "Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these?" The Holy Spirit then tells him plainly that the two sticks mean,-1st. Judah, and the children of Israel his companions; and, 21. Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows. Thus far we cannot be mistaken. And, say you, the text itself proves it thus, and why call it an allegory? Because we have not yet got the meaning of Judah, Joseph and Ephraim; these must be understood as allegorical; for no one believes a moment that this can mean Judah, Joseph, and Ephraim literally; for they have all been dead many thousand years, and must arise from the dead, and all their companions, in order to be united in one kingdom on the mountains of Israel. See verse 22: "And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all." Then, say you, Judah must mean the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, and Joseph and Ephraim must mean the ten tribes, and put them together and they will make the twelve tribes. Then, if Judah and Joseph stand for these tribes, I ask, who are their companions? For the text says, take thee one stick, and write upon it,