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And I "fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. "will call for a sword upon him throughout all my "mountains, saith the Lord God; every man's sword "shall be against his brother. And I will plead "against him with pestilence, and with blood; and I will "reign upon him and upon his bands, and upon the ma"ny people, that are with him, an overflowing rain, "and great hail-stones, fire and brimstone. Thus will "I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be "known in the eyes of many nations; and they shall "know that I am the Lord."

Here we have the tremendous scene of the vintage* on Gog, and his vast armies. The judgments, at the same time, will be executed on the cities of the nations, and on the enemies of the cause of Christ through the Christian world. Here is the battle of that great day of God Almighty, the seventh vial.

The next chapter, Ezek. xxxix, is taken up in repeating and enlarging on the predictions of this destruction of Gog and his bands. In verse 6, the judgment is extended. And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles. The empire of Gog, the nations of his government, will be burnt in the same fire. And the wicked and careless people of distant lands will perish. As in other prophecies; The cities of the nations fell. To the isles he will repay recompence. This slaughter is not to be confined to the literal armies of Gog. Nor will it probably be effected at once. But the fatal evil will progress through the nations. The slain of the Lord are to be from one end of the earth to the other.

In this xxxixth chapter, the beasts and fowls are invited to come and partake of the supper of the great God, the sacrifice, about to be made for them; as in Rev. xix, 17; where the same figure is used upon the same occasion; being borrowed from this passage. The stench of the unburied carcasses of the bands of Gog fills various parts of the land. Seven months are

† Isa. Ixiii, 1,— Rev. xiv, last part.

occupied in burying their carcasses, and cleansing the country.

The military apparatus of these slaughtered hosts furnishes the nation of Israel with a sufficiency of fuel for seven years. And the account closes thus: Then shall they (the Church of Israel;) know that i am the Lord their Cod, who caused them to go into cativity among the heathen: But I have gathered them into their own land, and have left none of them any more there; (in heathen lands;) neither will I hide my face any more from them; for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.

Thus ends the infidel Power of the last days. After he shall have filled a considerable part of the world, for a course of years, with carnage and terror, he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.* He is thus slain, and his body_destroyed, and given to the burning flame.t The Beast, that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, thus goeth into perdition. And the beast was taken and with him the false prophet, that wrought miracles before him-these both were cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone.§

The nine succeeding chapters of this prophet, which close the book of Ezekiel, present a description of the Church of God in the Millennium, under the similitude of a vast capacious temple and city, whose name thenceforth shall be, THE LORD IS THERE.

SECTION III.

Mr. Faber's Opinion concerning Gog and Magog considered.

SINCE the writing of the preceding section, I have learned that Mr. Faber supposes the Gog in Ezekiel not to be the same with Antichrist; but to be the power that is to rise at the close of the Millennium, or the Gog and Magog in Rev. xx, 8. To evince this point he has labored for nearly twenty pages. I have

* Dan. xi, last part. Rev. xvii, 8, 11

† Dan. vii, 11,
§ Rev. xix, 20, 21.

endeavored to weigh his arguments; and I think them inconclusive. I will state my reasons for disbelieving his scheme upon this point; and make some remarks upon his arguments. My reasons for disbelieving his scheme, are the following:

1. The attack made by Gog and his bands upon the land of Judah and Israel, is evidently an event intimately connected with their return from their long dispersion. In the latter years thou shalt come into the land, that is brought back from the sword, and gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste; but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. Could the bringing back of Israel, here spoken of, have been a thousand years before this invasion of Gog, which occasioned the address? Again Gog attacks Israel, to take a spoil and to take a prey, to turn thine hand upon the desolate places, that are now inhabited, and upon the people gathered out of the nations. Surely this gathering of Israel must have been of recent date, when Gog arrives; and those places having been desolate, a recent event; and not an event of a thousand years before; and an event as it were unknown to them; as must have been the case, if the address be to a power at the close of the Millennium.

2. One object of the judgments upon Gog is stated. to be, that the nations may know that Israel had been dispersed for their wickedness. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they trespassed against me; therefore I hid my face from them, and gave them unto the hand of their enemies. Can this apply, as the reason for gathering the Gog and Magog at the close of the Millennium and of the world? that the heathen may know that God some thousands of years before, had dispersed Israel for their sins? The reason perfectly applies at the time of the overthrow of Antichrist. rael then will have recently returned from their long

Ezek. xxxviii, 8. † Verse 12.

Chap. xxxix, 23. See also verse 8-21.

Is

dispersion for their sins. But it does not apply at all at the time of the overthrow of the apocalyptic Gog and Magog.

3. This Gog in Ezekiel is the very power long predicted by the prophets in Israel, to make this attack. Thus saith the Lord God, Art thou he, of whom I have spoken of old times by my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophecied in those days, many years that I would bring thee against them?* But Mr. Faber has, in his last volume, clearly shown, that it is Antichrist before the Millennium, who is so abundantly predicted in the prophets, to attack the Jews, upon their restoration. But the apocalyptic Gog and Magog were never expressly predicted in the prophets.

4. The destruction of Gog in Ezekiel is said to be, that the house of Israel may know God is their God. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward.† Can this apply to the destruction of the Gog and Magog, at the end of the world? Will the Church of Israel, after all their millennial glory, have to learn, that the Lord is their God? To Israel at the beginning of the Millennium the remark perfectly applies; but in no sense at the close of it.

5. The destruction of Ezekiel's Gog is said to be, that God may be known and magnified among the nations. Then will I magnify myself, and sanctify my self; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. This fitly applies to the destruction of Antichrist in Palestine. But we cannot think it so fitly applies to the scene at the end of the world.

6. The calling of the fowls of heaven to feast on the slaughtered carcasses of the bands of Gog, in chap. xxxix, 17, fully accords with the prediction of the same event, in Rev. xix, 17, relative to the slaughter of the bands of Antichrist. The latter passage appears to be copied from the former, and evidently to relate to the same period and event. But how absurd to apply it to the scene at the end of the world, which is suc

Chap. xxxviii, 17.

† Chap. xxxix, 22. Chap. xxxviii, 23.

ceeded by the general resurrection, and the final judg

ment!

7. The Israelites being seven months, burying the slain of Gog, and cleansing the land; and seven years burning for fuel their implements of war, (chap. xxxix, 9,) is a very different account from that of the final judgment, which succeeds the overthrow of the аросalyptic Gog and Magog.

8. All that is said in these chapters of Ezekiel, upon events subsequent to the overthrow of Gog, clearly indicates the re-establishment of Israel in the land of their fathers, and their quietly dwelling there from that time forward. But I have gathered them (Israel) into their own land, and have left none of them any more there (among the heathen.) Neither will I hide my face any more from them; for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.* How utterly irrelevant is this to the time of the overthrow of the Gog and Magog of the Revelation!

9. The two passages are very different in point of the extent of their objects. The Gog and Magog at the end of the world inhabit the face of the earth, upon the four quarters of the world. Their number is as the sand of the sea; and their going up against the saints is upon the breadth of the earth. But the bands of Ezekiel's Gog are not so extensive. And their fall is upon the mountains of Israel. We might as well speak of all the people of New England's being seated at once in the state house at Boston; as of the apocalyptic Gog and Magog's falling upon the mountains of Israel. And were the latter possible, and even were they to be slain and buried, instead of going to the judgment (which is represented as immediately succeeding their overthrow) neither seven months, nor seven times seven, could suffice for the cleansing of the land of them, by the saints in Palestine.

10. The whole description of the expedition and overthrow of Gog and his bands, in Ezekiel, accords with the expedition and overthrow of Antichrist in

Chap, xxxix, 28, 29.

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