dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children, forever: and my servant David shall be their prince forever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know, that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forever more." Ezekiel xxxvii. 21-28.

It was the literal Israel that had gone among the heathen, as here described. This literal character is further shown by the notice of their division into twɔ kingdoms, which was the fact with regard to them prior to their captivity. Now this literal Israel, according to this prophecy, are to be taken from among the heathen, and brought into their own

land, the land that was given to Jacob, wherein their fathers dwelt, which all must admit to be the literal Canaan. That this is yet future is certain; because, when thus restored, they are to be one nation, and no more two nations or kingdoms, as they had been; which union has not yet occurred. There they are to be multiplied, which renders it certain that it is the mortal state that is here spoken of. There they are also to dwell, and their children, and their children's children, forever; which shows a state of some degree of permanence, although the term forever is here qualified by the circumstances of mortality in connection with which it is used, and of course does not have its legitimate signification, endless. Another circumstance which shows the time to be yet future, is, that it is proved to be under the Christian dispensation, by the consideration that David, that is Christ, the spiritual David, is to be their king; whereas they have not yet acknowledged him. That the name David here, and in similar passages, signifies Christ, will be questioned by very few, and is as ev

ident as that, the name Elijah in Malachi signifies John the Baptist, which Christ expressly declared to be the fact. Should it be asked why we make the David spiritual, and the Israel literal, in the same passage, our reply is, that the circumstances of the case require this; the restoration of Israel to the land wherein their fathers dwelt, together with the other circumstances already noticed, proving them to be the literal Israel; and the fact that the literal David was dead before this prediction was made, and that this other David is to reign over them forever, proving the latter to be the spiritual David. The conversion of Israel is proved by the consideration, that they are to receive this spiritual David; and likewise by the various other declarations relative to their purification and obedience as contained in the passage. That the promise relates only to those Israelites who may be living when the time shall arrive, together with their posterity, and not to past generations raised from the dead, as some suppose, is shown by the state of mortality already noticed in connection with the

promise, and likewise by the promise itself being made to those whose fathers dwelt in that land, and of course those fathers themselves not being those descendants, are not included. And lastly, that all these things are to be realized before the termination of the present temporal state of things, is still further proved by the co-existence of the heathen at that period, as shown in the declaration at the close of the quotation: "And the heathen shall know, that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for

In the xxxviiith and xxxixth chapters of Ezekiel, is a prophecy in relation to Gog, in connection with which the case of the children of Israel is brought into view. God, addressing Gog by the prophet, says thus: "After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is 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

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safely, all of them. Thou shalt ascend, and come like a storm; thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou and all thy bands, and many people with thee. And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates. Therefore, son of man, propesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord God: In that day, when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it? And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: and thou shalt come up against my people of Israel as a cloud to cover the land; (it shall be in the latter days;) and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. Thus saith the Lord God; Art thou he of whom 1 have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would