saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen : shall reign for ever and ever.... He which testifieth these things light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall be no more night there; and they need no candle, neither his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there be in it; and his servants shall serve him and they shall see be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. And there shall medicine;"--but the heavenly Jerusalem has "the tree of life, and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for even so; come, Lord Jesus." JOHN TUDOR. CHAP. IV. General Preface, or Argument and final Results of the whole book. 3, 4. Theodosius. 8, 9. Alaric. VI. 1, 2. Constantine. XII. XIII. XVI. 17, Seventh Vial. XIV. 18: XVII.1,13 XIX. 3: XX. Preface to the Millennium and the Eternal State. 19: 15: XXI. XXII. The Millennium and New Jerusalem described. After the Millennium the Eternal State begins, but is not described. 578 INTERPRETATION OF ALL THE OLD-TESTAMENT PROPHECIES QUOTED IN THE NEW. (By the Rev. E. IRVING-Continued from p. 350.) INTERPRETATION IV. From Isai. x. 28 to Isai xiii.; being the Consummation of Immanuel's Action. THE Prophet, after announcing in such large style and with such inclusive language the destruction of all Israel's oppressors under the one name of The Assyrian, is directed by the Holy Spirit to contract the eye of his vision unto the minute features of that invasion of Sennacherib which was about to take place; to the end that, when these particulars should have been exactly fulfilled, the whole strain whereof they are a part might be most surely known to be from the Lord, and as a divinely inspired writing might be laid up in the synagogue. For it is one of the vulgar errors of these times to suppose that a man, being once called to be a prophet, must needs be kept, as it were, in a state of supernatural guardianship from saying any thing wrong. This I believe to be the sole prerogative of Him whose name is The Truth: but for all other prophets, they might speak presumptuously, or they might speak by inspiration of the Lord: and to guide the church to make the difference between the sacred and the common, between the inspired and the uninspired, this rule was given by the mouth of Moses the servant of the Lord, Deut. xviii. 21, 22: "And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not be afraid of him." Now, forasmuch as all true prophets spake in the name of the Lord, and likewise the false prophets, whom the Lord permitted to come, yea, and sent (1 Kings xxii. 22, 23); in order to make this divine criterion available, it was necessary that every true prophecy should contain in it matters which, by being soon fulfilled, should give it Divine attestation, and separate him who spake it from the multitude of lying prophets; who were ever leading the church astray in those times, and in every time, not excepting the present; in which, as it is the time of the end, we may surely expect them to abound the most, and deceive the most cunningly. These matters, which were to be speedily accomplished, gave a stamp to the whole prophecy with which they were interwoven; and thus the canon of true prophecy came to be made up as we now possess it. Now, those parts of the prophecy which looked to events near at hand, and those It more important parts which looked to events afar off, are so intermingled with one another as not to be separable; yea, they are not parts, after the manner of numerical division, nor yet of logical discourse, but after a manner peculiar to prophecy; which is not otherwise to be explained, or understood, than in the belief of a Divine Providence, which did so order the events proximate and the events ultimate as that one set of words should be applicable to both, and capable of describing and foretelling both applicable, not by any straining of their import, but by a true faithful interpretation of them. This is true; and yet it is not the whole truth which I seek to express. For if the letter of any prophecy had received complete accomplishment-as of Babylon, of Cyrus, of the Assyrian, of the rebuilding of the Temple, of Elias, or even of Messiah himself—then were there left no craving for events still future, concerning these things; and no grounds upon which to construct the new strain of prophecy in the Apocalypse, concerning the mystical Babylon, the coming of Christ, the destruction of the last Assyrian, the new Jerusalem, and other matters, which are still in reserve for the church. Our explanation, therefore, that one set of words should be able to express two events similarly constituted by an all-wise Providence, is therefore not complete. must be manifest that the first event is accomplished, truly and literally accomplished; and yet that the prophetic word is not exhausted; that there are distant hints and dark discoveries of a thing yet more remote, of an event yet more grand, of a consummation yet more glorious. And it always is so the word is too large and swelling for the event which it includes within itself, but is not included by. The event at hand is not loosely stated, but minutely and circumstantially described; is not, as by an ancient oracle, equivocally expressed, or included in some general truth; but most accurately traced out, so as to forewarn, and be demonstrative of Him who knows the end from the beginning.-Of this rule we have already seen several examples in the course of these interpretations; and I may say, that it is impossible to interpret a single prophecy without having examples obtruded upon our attention. A reader has only to set himself down to the word of God, as he would sit down to the writing of any trust-worthy man, resolved to understand the words according to their honest meaning, and he will be brought to the conclusion which is stated above-to wit, that there is such an exact prediction of the proximate event, as to put it beyond a doubt that the prophecy is of Divine origin; but, at the same time, that there are such hints of other things far remote; such enlargements upon the event that hath come to pass; such rangings onward, even unto eternity; such descriptions of One more mighty than the sons of men, destined to accomplish things beyond the measure of what man hath seen or can well imagine-in one word, such descriptions of a state of blessedness yet about to be realized upon the earth; as will leave no doubt upon the mind of an honest man, that the Giver of the prophecy had other, and higher, and remoter, and vaster ends in view, than merely to foretell a coming event, or to give warning of a judgment at hand. Now, instead of addressing themselves to discover and define what this great ultimate event is, upon which God is so intent as never to lose sight of it, the most part of the readers, yea, and interpreters of prophecy, have altogether given up this object, and contented themselves-some, with comparing the event fulfilled with the prophecy; others, with the higher object of deriving from the whole, lessons of the Divine being and providence. These are great and good objects, and we have towards those who pursue them no feelings but those of goodwill and brotherhood; while at the same time we assert for ourselves, or rather for the church, or rather for God himself, another object in all prophecy, intermediate between these two, which is, the object of foreshewing unto the world the manifestation, the action, and the consummate work of the man Christ Jesus; as it is written, "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." To foretell His coming, the manner of it, the end of it, and the cause of it; to foreshew his experience both of weakness and of power, of abasement and exaltation, of death, resurrection, and triumph over all his enemies; and his final establishment of the redeemed earth in rest and joy-this is truly the proper object, the perfect unity, the God-like purpose of all revelation by inspired men. Now, from the scattered leaves of prophetic truth I seek to inform myself, and to inform the church, and to inform the world, concerning this glorious act of God. I seek to know it, not with vague indefinite confusion, but with distinct and clear apprehension, so far as God hath given me the materials; and in so doing I believe that I am glorifying God, and occupying the talent which my Lord and Master has given to me and though ten thousand voices should lift themselves up against me, with the hideous cry of blasphemy and presumption, I will pursue my path, with undismayed confidence in my Teacher and Guide; who said, before he was removed from us," Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak; and he will shew you things to come." Let us, then, proceed upon our way, and bring our interpretation of this glorious prophecy to a close. Our former interpretation concluded a strain of general redemption unto Israel from all her oppressors; as it is written in these words (x.27): "And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulders, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing." These words finished one of the large prospective passages of the prophecy, wherein the hope of the Jewish people is carried forward, over the dark period of their oppressions, unto the glorious time of their kingdom; whereof the great procuring cause is declared to be the anointing of Immanuel to be their King; which anointing we shewed to be his generation and possession of the Holy Ghost. This grand emancipation of Israel from all their troubles, God, being willing to enforce upon their faith with all argument, and to place beyond all doubt whatever, doth straightway confirm the certainty of it, by foretelling with the most studied minuteness a deliverance of Jerusalem close at hand, at which not only Israel but the whole world should be astonished. This was that destruction of Sennacherib and his host by the angel of the Lord in the passing of a night described Isai. xxxvii.; which event is here anticipated with minutest particularity, for the purpose of attesting the prophecy, and likewise foreshewing how the last Assyrian oppressor, and all oppressors together of God's people, should be brought to an end: as if God had said, 'Doubt not what my Prophet hath told you concerning your deliverance out of all your troubles; for, behold, by his mouth I shew you a deliverance of the like kind, which not many days hence all of you shall see accomplished. I give you a sign; and that sign is the destruction of the Assyrian whom ye fear, and of that host which, like the swellings of Euphrates, hath poured over the plains of Israel and Judah, of Egypt and Ethiopia, and deluged to the very walls of Jerusalem. This shall be the sign to your posterity, over whom a thousand storms are yet to pass, that they shall yet see days, years, and ages of rest and royalty and to this poor land of yours, which is now overflowed to the neck with the waters of Euphrates, and which many rivers shall yet spoil, be this the assurance that it shall in the end rejoice and blossom like the rose.' "He is come to Aiath; he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages.' This describes the march of the Assyrian upon Jerusalem. Aiath is believed to be the territory around the town of Ai, which Joshua smote first after Jericho fell into his hands, situated about three leagues, as is believed, from Jericho, towards the north and I conceive it to be first mentioned, as being the first place on this side. Jordan at which the Assyrian's army would make itself to be felt. And next in his march he took in Migron; of which little |