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joyment of the promised blessing, their guilt could neither alienate nor annul the covenant which God sware unto their fathers. The promise shall ultimately be performed, though by the sins of successive generations it has been long delayed. Their faith in the fulfilment of this covenant was long tried before it pleased God at all to bring them thither; their accession of it was made by degrees and at different times; and, as regards possession of the land in all its extent, it has never yet been more than matter of promise. No time was specified for the accomplishment of God's purpose of goodness towards them. From the first, they were told they should not receive the whole at once; and, at the very time when by the oath of Jehovah it was secured in covenant, Abraham was informed his seed should not enter into immediate possession of any part of it. In extirpating the nations for their wickedness, God would vindicate his righteousess even in the eyes of sinful men ; and the iniquity of the Amorites "was not yet full." Gen. xv. 16. [the first of the nations given into their hand. Deut. ii. 32-36.] The seed of Abraham were meanwhile to be oppressed, strangers in a land not theirs, for four hundred years, whence they were to come in the fourth generation. Gen. xv. 13, 16. This promise was fulfilled in the exodus from Egypt, when the Lord led them out with a high hand, and brought them to the Land of Promise. Their disobedience and manifold provocations were, however, punished by God's withholding from them much of what He sware to give. But when they return to the Lord with all their hearts, He yet will perform that good thing in their behalf.

A literal restoration of the outcast and scattered Israel must therefore be obtained, that they may occupy the land promised to their fathers, and that the faithfulness of God be not found to fail. This is accordingly promised for future times, and the recovery of it is distinctly foretold. "They shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them." ls. xi. 14. This is part of a prediction which clearly re

fers to their future Restoration, (as shown in the preceding Section,) when the Lord "shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy of Ephraim also shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off" and then upon Mount Zion, "there shall be holiness." It therefore refers to a future time, when the united kingdoms of Israel and Judah, claiming the promised land," shall spoil them OF THE EAST together; they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them." "Upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness and the house of Jacob shall possess : their pos sessions; and the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau, [the Edomites, or Idumeans,] for the Lord hath spoken it. And Saviours shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau."* Obad. 17-21. In order that the house of Jacob may "possess their possessions," including "the Mount of Esau," and the captivity of the Canaanites, " even unto Zarephath;" they shall destroy until "there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau :" nor can the fulfilment of this distinct but remarkable prediction be referred back to the time of David or of Solomon, not having been given till hundreds of years after. The destruction it foretells is, besides, very different from receiving "tribute" from the Edomites. Its application to the future Restoration of Israel, is also obvious from its being immediately followed by the Millennium: "And the kingdom shall be the Lord's. ver. 21.

This forcible possession of the promised land was predicted by Moses in the blessing he pronounced on Israel

* 66 They are," says the Rev. Mr. Mason of Wishawtown, "to conquer and possess the Philistines, Edom, Moab, and the children of Ammon.... As Israel, when they came up out of Egypt, did subdue and possess the land of Canaan; so the remnant of this people who are left among the Gentiles when they shall be assembled together, shall conquer and inhabit the land of Promise.”—(Gentiles' Fulness, p. 125.)

before his death: "There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; and He shall thrust out the enemy before thee, and shall say, Destroy them. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine, also his heavens shall drop down dew. Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places." Deut. xxxiii. 26-29. It is also the very threat which the wicked Balaam prophetically declared to Balak concerning Israel and his people" in the latter days.” Numb. xxiv. 14-24.

The enjoyment of their land, to the extent of the original promise, is accordingly one of the blessings announced to be received by Israel for the Millennial period; and its boundaries are fully marked out in that remarkable prophecy with which the book of Ezekiel concludes: "Thus saith the Lord God, This shall be the border whereby ye shall inherit the land, according to the twelve tribes of Israel; Joseph shall have two portions. And ye shall inherit it, one as well as another; concerning the which I lifted up mine hand, to give it unto your fathers; and this land shall fall unto you for inheritance. And this shall be the border of the land toward the North side; from the great sea, [the Mediterranean,] the way of Hethlon, as men go to Zedad; Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, (which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath,) Hazarhatticon, [which is by the coast of Hauran;] and the border from the sea shall be Hazar-enan, the border of Damascus, and the north northward, and the border of Hamath; and this is the north side. And the East side ye shall measure from Hauran, and from Damascus, and from Gilead, and from the land of Israel by Jordan from the border unto the East Sea, the Salt or Dead Sea, which having then been "healed" (Ezek. xlviii. 19.) and having lost its present characteristics,

will be then named “ East” in reference to its situation with respect to Jerusalem] and this is the east side. And the South side southward, from Tamar even to the waters of strife in Kadesh, the river Nile to the great sea, the Mediterranean, and this is the south side southward. The West side also shall be the great sea, the Mediterranean, from the south border till a man come over against Hamath; this is the west side. So shall ye divide this land unto you, according to the tribes of Israel." Ezek. xlvii. 13-21. This is an extent of territory vastly beyond what Israel has ever yet enjoyed. Their land, as formerly possessed, is even given as one of the marks by which the new boundary on one side is to be ascertained: "FROM the land of Israel by Jordan." ver. 18.

SECTION VI.

NEW DIVISION OF THE HOLY LAND.

THE enlargement of Israel's inheritance will necessarily occasion a new division of the land. Accordingly, the divine allotments to the various tribes, after their restoration, are distinctly recorded in the interesting and important prophecy, concerning the Latter Day, with which the book of Ezekiel concludes. It is a regular division, altogether different from that made in the days of Joshua, the lots of the tribes being proportioned to the extent of the enlarged inheritance. It embraces the whole land, as marked out in the 47th chapter, already cited at the end of the preceding Section, having the same boundary marks assigned on the North and on the South. It begins "from the North end to the coast of the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to Hamath, Hazarenan, the border of Damascus northward, to the coast of Hamath, (for these are his sides east and west,) a portion for Dan." "And by the border of Gad, at the South side southward, the border shall be even from Tamar unto the waters of strife in Kadesh, and to the river toward the great sea." Ezek. xlviii. 1, 28. Dis

tinct specification is made of the relative situations of the whole, all running parallel to each other from east to west. In this, the New Division differs entirely from that made by Joshua; and we know of nothing better calculated to convince the inquirer of its reference to future times, than a careful examination of the prophecy, and the perfect contrast which its division presents to any which has ever yet obtained. The utmost regularity is here prescribed, each lot lying alongside of the others; while the most casual inspection of any map of Palestine will show that the Division by Joshua was regulated by no principle of regularity or order. That division was made evidently with a respect to what territory had already been acquired, and which could therefore be made available for possession by the different tribes. It was exceedingly irregular, and the manner in which the allotments were made gives pretty striking indications of the division not having been designed to be permanent. The lot of the tribe of Manasseh is divided into two, the parts of which do not lie contiguous; the extensive country to the east of Jordan was given to the two tribes and a half, at their own request, before any of the rest of the land was conquered; (Numb. xxxii.) and after Joshua's lot was fixed, it was found to be too large for them, and Simeon's lot was taken out of it, (Josh. xix. 1, 9.) These circumstances sufficiently show, that however necessary it was to have some division at the time, that the one made was only temporary. But when Israel shall be restored and converted, and receive the whole of the land promised to their fathers, a New Division will be made more in accordance with their happier circumstances, and to remain as the fixed boundaries of their several tribes, as fully and minutely predicted by Ezekiel. (xlviii.) The distinction of tribes having long been lost, it can now be regained only by miraculous information: but it will doubtless be supplied, otherwise the specification contained in this chapter had never been given. But besides the portions allotted to the Twelve Tribes, nearly in the centre of these a large portion, called the Holy Oblation, is also reserved as an offering unto the Lord:

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