Jerusalem with Samaria and Sodom for lewdness or spiritual adultery, the divine oracle speaks of a restoration of these nations, when Jerusalem is restored:

Ver. 60, &c.-" Nevertheless, I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish with thee an everlasting covenant. Then shalt thou remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sister, thine elder and thy younger; and I will give them to thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant. And I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah."

Now as the fate of Sodom was, to perish without a remnant, and as we may conclude the reference to Samaria is, when that city was possessed by the mingled people whom the Assyrian conqueror placed there, after he had carried captive the ten tribes, I think the literal Samaria and Sodom cannot be intended; but that they are typically used of some portion of the heathen world, then to be received into the dominion of Israel's King: but not to be taken in the bonds of their covenant-" the everlasting covenant," of which we treated above. Jerusalem is as a mother to them, they "are given to her for daughters, but not by her covenant."

Now whether we consider this covenant as peculiar to the Jews, or, as I am led to imagine, embracing Egypt, and Assyria, and Arabia, perhaps other remnants besides, here is a distinct relation pointed out in which the rest of the nations, at least those symbolized by Samaria and Sodom, stand to the God of Abraham and to his people. They are restored, and brought to the knowledge of the true God, and placed in filial subjection to restored and sanctified Jerusalem; but God does not make with them an unconditional, everlasting covenant, as he does with Israel, so to bring them under the influence of his Spirit, that they shall no more disobey his laws.

This, indeed, will exhibit parts of the human race, under a new and distinct dispensation; in some respects, like that in which Adam was placed at his creation. For you cannot compare the state of the first man, before his fall, to that of a restored Israelite under the new covenant; because, though created upright, there was no engagement on the part of the God of all grace, that he would so influence the spirit of Adam, that he should never exercise his freedom of choice, in any act of departure from him, as there is with the children of Abraham when put in the everlasting possession of the land of Canaan; "and I will put my fear into their hearts, that they shall not depart from me."

Those portions of mankind, however, restored without this special covenant, may, in many respects, be compared to our first parents before their fall. Their sins are caused to pass away, God has restored them to the integrity of a righteous creation, and laws and ordinances are given them whereby they may live. The Son of God will reign over them in Mount Zion, and the Spirit of Christ residing in his saints, will be their light and instructor. Under this dispensation they may long abide in peace and happiness; and it appears will be long preserved from putting forth the creature choice and will in contradiction of the Divine Being, and in despite of the Spirit of his grace. In this view of these nations of the earth, under the reign of the Lord Messiah, we perceive the reason, that when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom, and the saints of " the blessed and first resurrection," reign with him over the earth, "kings and priests unto God and the Lamb," Satan is to be bound during a thousand years, "that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled." *

The Israelites under their new and everlasting covenant, which secures their hearts to God, by an influence of his Spirit, most clearly, could be in no danger of being deceived by the Devil; and if other nations were united with them in the bonds of the same covenant, they also would be secured from defection. But if there are nations of the earth, restored indeed, from all the effects of the fall, and recovered from the power of the Devil; but not sustained by the grace of the covenant, then it is manifest, that as Adam in paradise, so they in the world to come might become the prey of the deceiver. It seems to be the divine pleasure, for some great purpose in God's excellent wisdom, that certain portions of mankind should exist for a long period of time, and under a particular regimen of his heavenly government, beyond the reach of Satan's temptations, until, at the time ordained, he is permitted to manifest the last rebellion of the intelligent creature against God.

For this awful purpose, the final destruction of "the father of lies," is deferred for a season, and instead of being cast into the "lake that burneth with fire and brimstone," at the same time that the antichristian deceivers among mankind are cast there alive, he is only represented as seized and confined as a prisoner in the great abyss till the destined period is accomplished; "after many days shall they be taken account of." Then, when the thousand years-be they literal years, or be they symbolical years are expired,

"Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters or corners' of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city : and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."

The situation of these nations, who are the last that are permitted to believe the lie of Satan, is described as being "in the four corners of the earth," that is, in its remotest regions, in reference to a central position: which central spot can be no other than Mount Zion and Jerusalem, and implying, as I think, a very extensive portion of the habitable earth around the centre, where these deluded nations are not found. Certainly not in Israel, Jehovah's everlasting inheritance; and I should think, not in Egypt, whom he calls my people;" nor in

66

Assyria, whom he names "the work of my hands;" and not in other great nations perhaps beside, who have been united unto restored Israel.

These nations, whom Satan leads by his delusion, to attack the beloved city, though described as being found in all the corners of the earth, are designated as "Gog and Magog." This application is affixed to these last rebels, either because the attack of the restored Jerusalem, under the guidance of the European apostates, which takes place before the millennium, is to be considered as the type of their rebellion; or because they will actually be of Scythian origin, and so the descendants of Magog. God having still gone on so to "enlarge Japheth," that the children of his son Magog are an innumerable host, some great leader also is raised up among them, who is again named Gog, from Agag, probably the first great potentate that made an attack upon ancient Israel at the first Exodus. Whether this be some earthly potentate-or, as many of the ancient fathers conceived of the last enemy of Christ, Satan himself their unseen instigator-the rebellious multitude "come up upon the breadth of the earth," or "the land,"-fill with their numbers, I conceive, the whole breadth of the Holy Land, in order to compass about "the beloved city," "the camp or station of the saints."

That country is not now as it was, when the former Gog and Magog made their attack, "a land of unwalled villages;" they find not Jerusalem inhabited "in village fashion." On the former occasion the enemy made a deep impression, one "half of the