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is asserted both by Zechariah and Daniel. But all those Jews, who are restored by the maritime power, will return in a converted state, as is manifest from the language used by Isaiah :* by whom then can the unconverted Jews have been restored, except by Antichrist, who will make himself master of the whole land of Palestine; and why should be afterwards besiege them in Jerusalem, except on account of their conversion mentioned by Zechariah, and their revolt from his cause! for, if they had not revolted from him after their conversion, no reason can be assigned why he should so bitterly attack them.

Troubled with such unpleasant tidings from the east and from the north, Antichrist hastily quits Egypt and Lybia, and retraces his steps to Judea. Going forth in the height of his fury, he threatens to destroy all such as should oppose him: and, calling in the aid of Popish bigotry he sanctifies his expedition by representing it as a holy crusade against heretics; and, with banners blessed by the false prophet, who (as we have reason to believe from the Apocalypse†) will be his attendant, he devotes many to utter extermination under the blasphemous pretext of religion. His wonted success at first attends him. He besieges Jerusalem now occupied by his enemies, and takes it. Here he exercises his usual barbarity; a barbarity, increased ten-fold by the defection of his late allies. The houses are rifled, and the women are ravished, by his licentious soldiery. Half of the inhabitants are made captive: but the other half are permitted still to remain in the city, under the control most probably of a strong garrison. Thus does he plant the curtains of his tents between the seas in the glorious holy mountain : and thus is Jerusalem, now for the last time, trodden down of the Gentiles.

During these disasters, the troops of the maritime power appear to have retreated towards the sea-shore, in order that they may be able to regain their ships, if all further resistance should prove fruitless. Here they would doubtless be joined by the great body of their allies, the first converted Jews, and by such of those that were af

See the preceding extract from Bp. Horsley.

+ Rev. xix. 19, 20.

terwards converted, as were able to effect their escape from the rage of Antichrist. To this devoted host the tyrant now directs his attention. Anticipating an easy victory over his last enemies, either by suddenly cutting them off from their ships or by compelling them to reembark, and with proud exultation looking forward to the uncontrolled empire of the civilized world, he leaves Jerusalem, and advances with his whole army to Megiddo. Between this town and the sea we may suppose the troops of the maritime power and the Jews to have taken their position, hopeless probably of victory from their vast disparity in numbers to the huge hosts of their enemy. But the battle is not always to the strong, nor the race to the swift. At this anxious moment, the glory of the Lord is suddenly manifested in the midst of Jerusa lem, and Jehovah himself becometh a wall of fire around her. The Almighty Word of God goeth forth, like a man of war, in the greatness of his strength; and all his saints, the innumerable armies of heaven, are with him. His awful commission is from the Most High. For, after the manifestation of the glory, the Lord of hosts sendeth him unto the nations that have spoiled his ancient people; that he may shake his hand over them, that they may become a spoil unto those whom they had made their servants, that they may know that the Lord of hosts hath sent him, that they may learn by bitter experience that he who toucheth Judah toucheth the apple of his eye. The tremendous vision halts for

a moment on the mount of Olives; which, like Sinai of old, acknowledges a present God, and with a mighty earthquake cleaves asunder in the midst. It then advances to the valley of Megiddo, and hovers over the heads of the palsied troops of Antichrist. The divine word displays himself to the assembled nations. The faithful look up with awful wonder, knowing that their redemption draweth nigh. Every eye seeth him ; and they also, his kindred after the flesh, which pierced him, now behold him in his glory. He cometh with clouds; and all the kindreds of the Latin earth wail because of him. He descendeth in his wrath he treadeth the,

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wine-press in the fury of his indignation: his garments are sprinkled with the blood of his enemies.*

It appears from comparing various prophecies together, that the overthrow of the Antichristian confederacy will be effected partly by supernatural and partly by natural agency. Christ will indeed tread the wine-press alone, for to his sole might will the victory be owing: yet will he likewise use the instrumentality of others. While he miraculously smites his enemies with a dreadful plague, so that their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth; he will send likewise among them a great tumult from the Lord, so that they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour. Judah also, summoned to the dreadful task of vengeance by his God, shall take an active part in the destruction of his enemies for, in that day, the Lord will make the gov ernors of Judah like a hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left. Thus will Antichrist come to his end, and none shall help him. Thus will the beast now under his last head be taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both will be cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone: and the remnant will be slain with the sword of that Almighty Conqueror who sitteth upon the white horse, the sword that proceedeth out of his mouth; and all the fowls will be filled with their flesh.

Since the Jews are to be restored in the midst of war and bloodshed, or as Daniel expresses it, during a time of

* After a long and attentive examination of the subject, I rest in Mr. Mede's opinion that there will be some preternatural manifestation of the Messiah, though I cannot think that he assigns to it its proper place in the succession of events. He supposes, that it will be the cause of the conversion of the Jews: whereas, according as matters appear to me, they will be previously converted; and Christ will be revealed, not to turn them to the faith, but to execute judgment upon his enemies. See Isaiah lxiii. 1-6. Dan. vii. 9, 10, 11. Joel iii. 16. Zechar. ii. 8—11. xiv. 3, 4, 12, 13. 2 Thess. ii. 8. Rev. xix. 11-21.

trouble such as never was since there was a nation, we may reasonably suppose that great numbers of them will perish. Accordingly we find, that their return from the countries of their dispersion is expressly compared by Ezekiel to their ancient exodus from Egypt. As God pleaded with their fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt; so will he likewise plead with them, causing them to pass under the rod, and purging out from among them the rebels. It is probable indeed, that only a small part of the first generation of those that are restored will quietly sit down under their own vines and under their own fig-trees. One whole generation of the Israelites, that were brought out of Egypt, perished in the course of forty years in the wilderness and there is reason to think, that the conversion and restoration of Judah, and the expedition and destruction of Antichrist, will occupy a period of not less than 30 years. The swift messengers of the great maritime power will begin the work of converting the Jews, that is to say such Jews as are scattered through the countries subject to their influence. Antichrist meanwhile will collect the unconverted Jews from those parts of the isles, or the regions of Europe,* which are under his immediate control, for the purpose of bringing them back in an unbelieving state to their own country: but whether he, or whether the maritime power, will absolutely begin the work of restoring the ancient people of God, cannot, I think, be certainly gathered from Scripture. His plan will be a plan of pure

By the isles of the Gentiles the Jews understood all those countries which they could not reach from Palestine except by sea. Hence the name was given to Europe, in contradistinction to Asia, which to them was strictly continental. See Mede's Works, Book I. Disc. 49. p. 272.

That the maritime power, mystically termed by Isaiah the ships of Tarshish, will be the first, or (as the original expression is rendered by the LXX and in the Latin translation of the Arabic version) among the first, to attempt the conversion of the Jews; and that they will afterwards bring back to Palestine such as shall be converted by their instrumentality, seems to be revealed with sufficient plainness: but it is no where, I believe, positively declared, that they shall begin the work of restoring the Jews. Since part of them are to be brought back by Antichrist in an unconverted state, and part by the maritime power in a converted state, it certainly is possible that Antichrist may begin to restore the one division previous to the restoration or even the conversion of the other division. Most probably however the two events will be nearly, if not altogether, contemporary. The prophecy, contained in Isaiah Ix. 8, 9, relates solely to the restoration of the converted Jerus, because they are declared to be brought unto the name of the Lord and we are taught, that some power, mystically termed the ships of Tarshish, shall be among the first to undertake this great enterprize.

Machiavelian policy: and, considering the frailty of human nature, it is much to be feared that the plan of the maritime power, strenuously as that power will exert itself in converting no less than in collecting the Jews, will be somewhat alloyed by worldly motives, and will not be adopted simply from a desire to promote the glory of God. Most probably politics will have taken such a turn at that eventful period, as to make it seem to be the interest of both those great powers to attempt the restoration of the Jews. Thus doubly brought back by two mighty contending nations, and thus plunged into the midst of perils and of war during the space of 30 years (for so long a time will, I think, intervene between the first effusion of the seventh vial at the close of the 1260 years when they begin to be restored, and the destruction of Antichrist at Megiddo), the Jews must inevitably suffer many calamities; and we are taught accordingly by Ezekiel, that such will assuredly be the case.

When the army of Antichrist is miraculously overthrown, the Lord, who forgetteth not mercy even in the midst of judgment, will not make an entire end; but will spare some of the least guilty of his enemies reserving them for the noblest purposes. Zechariah teaches us, that even so much as a third part shall be spared. These may be supposed to be less hardened in wickedness than their associates; and to have taken a part in the expedition, either through the inveterate prejudices of a Popish education (the expedition having been blessed and sanctified by the false prophet), or through the tyrannical compulsion which we have already beheld Antichristian France begin to exercise over her degraded allies. Nor will they only be spared: plucked as brands out of the burning, they will likewise be converted by the mercy of God to a zealous profession of genuine Christianity.

Thus wonderfully preserved and converted, they will become proper instruments to accomplish the yet unfulfilled purposes of the Most High. Scattered over the

face of the whole earth, they will carry every where the tidings of their own defeat, of the marvellous power of the Lord, and of the restoration of Judah. Meanwhile

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