henceforth again speak to Israel, and should do so. J. D. Michaelis remarks quite correctly: "the prophet fell into ecstasy," and the word contained in vers. 2-20 was imparted to him. In regard to the time, it is more precisely stated that the divine cause comes into operation on the evening before the coming of the escaped; and parallel therewith was the effect, the opening of the prophet's mouth," Nay, therefore in the interval between the evening and the morning. It was hence independently of the escaped that the prophet got a renewal of his commission, and, indeed, while there was combined with the removal of his previously enforced silence a direct positive revelation and communication. Through a divine movement and working, everything was thus prepared and introduced for that which was going to take place on the fugitive's arrival. For the circumstance that on his actual arrival Ezekiel's mouth was opened (is not to be regarded as an emphatic repetition for the purpose of connection with what follows, but in contradistinction to), adds to what was done potentia, as it now also took place actu, so that the divine word, vers. 2-20, given with this aim, for this particular moment destined, was now also spoken to the people by the prophet; and in proof that he was no more dumb, he immediately proceeded to give the continuation of it (ver. 23 sq.). In ch. xxiv. 27 it was said Ezekiel's mouth should be opened "with" the escaped. In the wider sense, namely, at the same time, about the time, when the escaped should come, it took place in the evening; literally, it took place with him in the morning, and the renewed prophetical mission of Ezekiel began then in fact.["One may designate the following prophecies as the prophetically represented victorious history of Israel, of the kingdom of God among men. The wonderful, truly great, and divine is set forth here as a contrast to the present. In the presence of death only resurrection and life! The deepest humiliation of the covenant-people, their apparent annihilation is the path to their true greatness, nay, to their eternal glory."-Häv.] Hengst. remarks: "On the night before the arrival of the exile-band, which was doubtless announced the day before, took place the opening of the prophet's mouth, the removal of the seal as it were from it. The impulse to speak to the people again asserted itself. The prophetic activity itself first commenced after the exile - band appeared, the arrival of which was to form the ground for the receiving of the new disclosures. Only after the complete death exhibited before their eyes, the annihilation of all earthly hopes, could the announcement of the joyful resurrection be made." Comp. besides

on ch. iii. 26, 27, and xxix. 21.

Vers. 23-33. The Renewed Mission of Ezekiel in view of the State of Heart of those in Canaan (vers. 23-29), and then of those in the Captivity (vers. 30–33).

TT:

"That there

things stand in their proper order, and it entirely corresponds with a continuation of the divine dis course, that such a position of the prophet at the renewal of his divine mission first of all comes to an explanation with those who are still to be warned, to be threatened. The beginning of the divine word made known to Ezekiel corresponds very closely with that contained in vers. 8, 9. It is a complete misunderstanding on the part of Kliefoth, when he would not find "the inhabitants of these waste places," as he renders, in the desolated Jerusalem, or in the desolated cities of Judah, or in the desolated land of Canaan, i.e. in the remnants of the people who still remained there, but drags into the text the exiles in "the certainly not too well cultivated regions on the Chaboras." in with the article implies demolition, ruins of cities and houses. HITZIG: "these wastes," less Jerusalem itself than the other cities which had been stript of their inhabitants (Jer. xxxiii. 13, 10), in which those who were without possessions (Jer. xxxix. 10) shared all at once come to great wealth of land, and were with the returned fugitives (Jer. xl. 12), having puffed up. Things were lying in a comfortless state; how do the hearts adjust themselves to the comfortless position of things? were people who still, ever giving themselves up to illusions, thought that the judgment would not inexorably run its course, was proved by the revolt in which Gedaliah, the Chaldean governor, was slain" (HENGST.). Comp. also the representation in Neh. i. of the desolate condition of things, though an interval of upwards of a cen tury had meanwhile elapsed!--As even in the time of Jesus they were always throwing themselves back on Abraham (for example, John viii., Matt. iii. 9), so was it the case here. An argumentum a minori. Since to Abraham, an individual man, in his posterity the land was given for a heritage, the less they conceive could it possibly fail to them-namely, to keep the land; not so properly with HENGST. to receive it again, for they do not give it up as lost-when in point of number they were many, and still more in the feeling of their souls they were without the knowledge of sin and the sense of guilt. In the words of Hengst: they held themselves to be the true continuation of Abraham's being, the bearers of the promise given to him" (Gen. xv. 7-the posterity in whom Abraham inherited it, They to whom therefore it was given.' overlooked the wide gulf that stood between them and him; if they were Abraham's children, they would have done his works." (Comp. at ch.

xi. 15.)

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fundamental law of the theocracy (Häv.). The prohibition was given so early as at Gen. ix. 4. There with respect to the shedding of blood, as the infliction of death, murder; so that it was aimed against the spirit of murder (HENGST.). TARGUM "You eat upon innocent blood.

בצע

:יזי

"doing" of that they make out of the words of God spoken by the prophet. Hence, after that in ver. 31 the expression Dy has been explained, or more exactly defined, the statement: "and they hear thy words," etc., is again resumed. So that their doing remains in the mouth; the heart does not participate in it, as is presently indicated when it is said that their heart goes after its covetous, fraudulent gain (y from to make a cut; ch. xxii. 27, 12). Nay, they take such advantage of the words of God, which Ezekiel announces to them, that they turn them to their own account; whence it is not so much their warm regard for Jehovah, as Jehovah's for them, which here comes into consideration. In some such way they treat the divine promises as loving declarations of a hot paramour. We are not, however, on this account obliged to interpret D'ay by: "frivolous jokes,' ," "words of mockery" (with the Targum), or: "falsehood," 'deceit,' with the older translations. Not that they would "only amuse themselves," but more, they turn grace into wantonness (Jude 4). With them also, therefore, the matter concerns the substance of things, not so much "the lovely form;" and they were perverting it to excess according to their heart's lust.

Ver. 32. According to Hitzig, not song, but "lovely singer." Sip

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must signify

does not necessitate that, for it may be referred to the fine tones of the song. But if it applies to the fine voice of the prophet, then it is to be understood that, after he has in been coupled with his prophecy (to which, however, the reference according to the connection must chiefly be made), he is thought of apart, and continues the reference to the prophet, without therefore constraining us by this personal reference to understand also directly and simply of him. '' (Hiph. of 2), with 3, signifies either to play well, beautifully, or to do so vigorously, bravely. Junius refers what is said to the prophecies of doom upon those who are without (ch. XXV.-xxxii.). Hengst., in a manifestly modern fashion: 'they rejoice amid the national impoverishment at the admirable rhetorical gifts of the new classic" (!).-Ver. 33. This verse joins to the repetition of their not doing the prediction of their unfailing and so different knowledge of the prophet.--And when it comes, in a general sense, what he speaks; not the more special utterance in vers. 27-29, which at least does not sound like a song of loves, rather the prophecies which were now going to follow. Thus the tone with which this second main division of the book commences is different; not: they shall know that I am Jehovah, but as at ch. ii. 5, where the language employed was still of a general kind. (See there.) -The behold it comes, points back to the circumstance that the judgment on the people has actually come; and as such a thing has come, so certain also shall the following discourses be seen to be as to their fulfilment. (HITZ.: the matter shall certainly come to pass which is the object of thine address. Häv.: "And lo! it is already

fulfilled; this must signify, Jerusalem is fallen, and the truth of the predictions perfectly established.")" The experience is, however, a painful one, because the people's impenitence will exclude them from the future salvation. What far-reaching and, at the same time, true prospective vision, even to the days of the Son of man! It had already been declared to them through the prophets in the midst of them; so much the more, when He Himself actually came and spoke to them, did every pretext for their sin fall away,

John xv. 22.

DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS.

Compare the Reflections at pp. 72, 73, and on ch. xviii.

1. "Woe is me," exclaimed the apostle, "if I preach not the gospel!" (1 Cor. ix. 16.) This is a lesson which belongs to all those who have had the care or oversight of others committed to them. With that is not to be confounded the circumstance, that each individual has his particular gift from God, by means of which he can be profitable to his neighbour. The general love demands that we should seek the salvation of each other, Jude 21-23 (CoCCEIUS).

2. In the office, calling, service which belongs to preachers, two things unite,- namely, the appointment through men, that is, in the present case, through the Church, as is implied in the similitude ver. 2 sq.; and that the Lord gives preachers to Jerusalem, as is said at ver. 7. Where this latter is not regarded, there the other also cannot be considered. If the civil magistrate, hence the State, or private individuals to whom the patronage belongs, will assert for themselves the vocatio ministrorum, they thereby ignore the Christian rights of the Church, just because they do not acknowledge the supreme right of God over His people. For it belongs to the Church to choose and ordain her servants,

according to the order of Christ and His apostles; and a particular community, although it may be locally formed, does not at all stand related to the whole Church after the manner that a single commune, as a section of the civic commonwealth, stands related to the State; but it is in respect to constitution the Church itself, which has its representation in the community as regards its full possession of life. Not otherwise appear to us the communities of the Acts of the Apostles and of the apostolic epistles. Hereditary relations might well enough beget a temporary legal right of a historical kind, but really destitute of foundation, in so far as it is at variance with the fundamental rights of the Church, and can be proved to be the remnant of an antagonistic claim of rights, an unjust usurpation. We are not to speak with the Remonstrants of rights conferred upon the Church by the State in the matter of the vocatio ministrorum, since the State has no right to confer, because possessing none. And so the Reformation, if it found itself very much in the position, could not have the right, to erect a throne for the Cæsareo-papal government of the Church, since the Church, having the right to govern itself, renounces itself when it gives up to the State, or to the persons in whom the cavil power concentrates itself, rights which are absolutely the Church's own, which therefore the civil power cannot possess, unless these rights are to

be turned to foolishness. In every tyranny exercised on the conscience, foolishness plays its part. But the claim of right, which, since the Reformation, has crept in for the conferring of rights which are against right, is of a piece with that of summus episcopus-whence the Papistical leaven of this title clearly appears. For it is Papistical doctrine in the general to ascribe the right of vocation to the bishops, if the Roman chair should not have granted special exceptions in regard to the election of pastors. When the limits of State-power have been formulated in this way, that it has to do with things circa sacra, but not in sacris, it certainly does look odd enough that "a supreme bishop" should indeed inspect the walls of the sanctuary, but must not tread upon them. The experience of upwards of 300 years, however, has shown much else than the absurdity of the formula in question -has proved the neglected, though oft-repeated and powerfully expressed, warnings of Luther and of the symbolical books, against the intermingling of the spiritual and civil jurisdictions, to have been only too well grounded. And when the Reformed theologian Heidegger, in his Medulla Theologia, with the view of smoothing over the folly of that formula, would not have the oversight and power of the State limited to the circa religionem et ecclesiam, but apostrophises the magistrate as μOTITTOS et ecclesiæ membrum excellens, thereby giving him to participate in the power which belongs to the Church, and then ascribing to him the obligation of serving Christ and His kingdom, and of advancing this king. dom with the authority lent him by God ;;-or when Burmann, also a Reformed theologian, enumerates the offices of the magistrate circa sacra, and among these reckons not merely the appointment and ordering of the acts of public worship, so as to secure that all be done according to the word of God, and the providing a safeguard against ecclesiastical arbitrariness, and the interposition on behalf of oppressed fellow-believers, and so forth, but also the suppression of errors, of heretics and heterodox, the reformation of the Church when it has become corrupt, etc.;· - in all this we have a glance afforded us into a state of things which has actually existed, but which, and along therewith the alleged ground for such civil interferences, in spite of the so-called "Christian State," has long since passed away. But what is to be matter of controversy with the State will, above all, have reference to the so-called church patrons, for patronage is really of Romishheathenish origin, and has never at all, in conformity with its proper sense, been Christianized as a juridical advocateship; at least a good part of the Germanic feudal lordship has infused itself into this assumption of a right of private domination. Now if, in opposition to all of this nature that is at variance with the self-government of the Church by means of the organization peculiar to her, a stand is to be made, and, in particular, the choice and calling of pastors are effected in this way through men, there still is, as the other factor, the Lord, whose body the Church of God is, and the right of the Church in its last source is the constitution granted by her sole Head, Christ. In consequence of this regimen principale, all are brethren who serve one another, the Lord alone has the supreme authority (theocracy or Christocracy); so that the Church, in respect to

its inner spiritual form, is no democracy, neither is it an aristocracy any more than a hierarchy, but a monarchy in the highest sense of the word. Through the Holy Spirit, and by dint of such supreme invisible sovereignty, was Ezekiel sent to Israel, just as in ordinary circumstances the humblest village pastor is sent from the same quarter, whether it may be for grace or for judg ment. For it is God's good pleasure that through such service on the part of men the divine will in respect to men should be accomplished (Eph. iv. 11 sq.); and the calling of a minister in any particular case will be perfect, where the internal through the Spirit corresponds with the external through the Church or its organs.

3. Ewald maintains that "the ultimate ground of all possibility of a true conversion stands in this, that in connection with the divine grace, which is ever working for good, a genuine prophet never fails, who, in perilous times announc ing the pure truth, informs and warns all with dauntless, clear words." Against enthusiasts and Schwenkfeldians it has not, indeed, been denied by the teachers of the Church, that God, if such had been His will, could also immediately as from Himself have converted and saved men; yet still the Church has always held fast the conviction, that the public ministry and vocation to it in the Church is requisite by a hypothetical necessity, namely, with reference to the good pleasure and purpose of God.

4. The prophets are to be reckoned among the "extraordinary ministers." In the old Reformed theology, the extraordinary vocation was represented as threefold:-(1) When God effects it directly through His voice, as in the case of Abraham, Moses, the prophets under the Law, John the Baptist, and the apostles; (2) when it takes place by announcement through a human instrumentality, as in the case of Aaron and the tribe of Levi, by means of Moses as the mediating agency; (3) when the internal impulse of the Spirit drives in one direction or another, as was the case, for example, with the deacon Philip.

5. Death is the wages of sin, and sin is the destruction of people; and so, by reason of the universal sinfulness, quite apart from particular charges of guilt, an absolutely sinless extinction of life is not to be thought of; only relatively heavier or lighter will the guilt weigh in particular cases. But beside one's own guilt, that of each individual man, there stands upon the tablet of the Judge, as fellow-partakers there. of, human society in the general (through educa tion, instruction, customs, etc.), and in particular its chiefs, as governors, princes, lords, teachers, etc., who should serve not merely as possessors of the dignity and of office, but also as examples to be looked up to in whatever place they may be.

6. "This is, however, the brightest and most glorious distinction of the prophetic calling, to proclaim the joy of the Creator in connection with the life of the converted sinner" (UMBREIT).

7. We have not on this account to despair of life, because knowing that we are in the midst of death. For this knowledge of death excludes only the thought of life, as that which might still be in ourselves, and could proceed out of us; but such knowledge by no means takes from us, it rather brings nearer, the prospect of life out of ourselves, namely, in the living God. The con