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God; when their former envies and jealoufies being laid afide, tranquillity and harmony fhall continually prevail.

Do you, my friends, whatever lies in your power to haften the full accomplishment of this prophecy. Ta earnest prayer, add vigorous exertions, in curbing envy, and the other malevolent paffions. Convinced that envy, with its infeparable concomitants, contaminate the fpirit, and are as rottennefs to the bones, let not your hearts envy finners: but be in

the fear of the Lord all the day long. Beware of repining at the felicity of others; but endeavour, by cultivating affection and friendship for them, to make their good your own. To have a heart difpofed to praife God, for the benefits he confers upon your neighbours and acquaintances, is a happy attainment, which will enable you to participate in the bleffings they receive. In this manner you may enjoy all the favours, deliverances, and comforts, beftowed upon thofe in whofe gifts, graces, and privileges, you cordially rejoice; and have your happiness increafed not only by your own mercies, but by thofe conferred upon them who are around you. In this manner you may haften the completion of this prediction; which, in fome measure, was fulfilled after the Babylonifh captivity, according to the word of the Lord which came to the prophet Ezekiel, faying, 'Take thee one ftick, for Judah; and another, for Ephraim: and join them together into one stick, and they fhall become one in thine hand.-And fay unto them, Thus faith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the ⚫ children of Ifrael from among the Heathen whither they be gone, and will gather them on every fide, and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Ifrael, and one king fhall be king to them all and they fhall be no more two nations, neither

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* Prov. xxiii. 17.

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'fhall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. When God doth this, the ground of envy is removed. To a future period, however, the prediction still looks forward, of which we ought to entertain the pleasing prospect; when all the Ifrael of God being intimately united into one body, under Jefus Chrift their common Head, in whom there is no diftinction of Jew or Gentile, all national differences fhall fubfide, and the most delightful unanimity and concord fhall reign throughout the kingdom of God.

14 But they fhall fly upon the fhoulders of the Philistines toward the weft, they fhall fpoil them of the east together: they fhall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon fhall obey them,

The remaining enemies of Jefus Chrift and his kingdom, fhall, according to this prediction, become fubfervient in promoting the interefls of his church. The Philiftines, who were anciently the inveterate foes of Ifrael, inhabited the country which lay to the weftward of the land of Canaan. Ephraim and Judah, having dropt their former animofities, and being united into one people, fhould, with the affiftance of the Philistines, flee fpeedily toward the west, where their influence was to extend with great rapidity. The expreffion used by the prophet, intimates, that, in the execution of their benevolent defign, of enlarging the boundaries of the kingdom of their common Lord, they should receive friendly aid from thofe who were once their greatest adverfaries. They fhall Spoil them of the caft together. The people who inhabited the countries fituated to the eastward of Canaan are here intended; the Syrians, the Arabians, the Amalekites, and others, who, in times of old, were

* Ezek. xxxvii. 15. et feq.

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likewife the bitter enemies of Ifrael. These children of the east, as they are called, fhould be deprived of the honour and renown which they once poffeffed, of the vaunted skill and fortitude which they employed against the peculiar people of God.--They fhall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab. Efau, who was also called Edom, was the elder brother of Jacob, and the father of the Edomites, who were almoft continually in a state of hoftility with the children of Ifrael. Moab was the name of Lot's eldest daughter's fon, and the father of a numerous people, called Moabites, who were often at war with the Ifraelites. Upon both these people it is here foretold, that Israel and Judah fhall lay their hand with such skill and force, and fo exert their strength and influence, as to bring them under their fubjection.And the children of Ammon fhall obey them. This people, who were the pofterity of Benammi, the fon of Lot's younger daughter, often joined in confederacy with other nations against the inhabitants of Canaan, and proved a very powerful foe, by whom they were from time to time greatly diftreffed. Thefe Ammonites were to be reduced to a state of fubjection to Ifrael and Judah, whofe authority they were to acknowledge, and to whofe conimands they should yield obedience.- -The fentiment contained in the various expreffions used in this verse, imports, if I mistake not, that the feveral nations now mentioned, fituated in the vicinity of Judea, fhould fubmit to the kingdom of Ifrael and Judah, when converted to Jefus Chrift by the miniftry of the gofpel; in confequence whereof, the kingdom of Satan, which had been long established among them, fhould be overturned, and in its room the kingdom of the Son of God fhould be erected. Accordingly, after the return of the Jews from captivity in Babylon, in the times of the Maccabees, the inhabitants of Judea reduced the remains of the nations here fpecified into their fubjection. In their conquefts, we behold a lively image of the progrefs of the kingdom of Jelus Chrift,

Christ, of its extenfion over many peoples and nations, and of the glorious fuccefs and complete triumph with which the gofpel fhall be accompanied, at the happy period in which this prophecy fhall receive its full accomplishment. That we may participate in the felicity of the Redeemer's subjects, let us unite our fupplications, that he may gird his fword upon his thigh with his glory and his majefty; and in his majefty ride profperously, because of truth, meeknefs, and righteoufnefs and let us cheerfully fubmit to his divine authority, and gracious adminiftration, whofe empire fhall yet extend over all the earth.

15 And the LORD fhall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian fea, and with his mighty wind fhall he shake his hand over the river, and fhall finite it in the feven ftreams, and make men go over dry-shod.

In this and the following verfe, the abolition of the Egyptian and Affyrian power is foretold, in order to remove every obftruction that might retard the progrefs of the gofpel, and the advancement of the Meffiah's kingdom.By the tongue of the Egyptian fea may be meant, the narrow gulf of the Red fea, which extended in the form of a tongue at the extre mity, toward the fea-coaft; and might be called the Egyptian fea, as it formed the boundary of Egypt toward the eaft. This tongue the Lord declares, by our prophet, that he would utterly deftroy. The word here ufed, fignifies, to deprive any thing of its former usefulness, fo as to render it unfit for the purposes to which it was applied. When, therefore, it is foretold, that the tongue of the Egyptian fea fhould be utterly deftroyed, the expreffion imports, that it fhall ceafe to be fubfervient in promoting the defigns of the Egyptians, as in times paft, and no longer fupply them with thofe conveniencies which it had afforded them. The Almighty, by fome remark

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able interpofition of his divine providence, would render this bay of the fea altogether improper for ferving the purposes for which it had been employed. Our prophet frequently. foretels the great revolutions that God was to accomplish in the state of the world, and the church, in metaphorical language, borrowed from the most extraordinary conceivable changes on things visible; fuch as the removal of great obstacles, by the levelling of mountains, and the drying up of waters. Viewing the tongue of the Egyptian fea as forming a confiderable part of the ftrength of Egypt, and one of its chief defences, the deftruction of its power is intended in this figurative prediction: Though I may not be able exactly to point out the literal fulfilment of this prophecy, commentators being greatly divided in opinion as to this matter, there cannot remain a doubt with Christians, however deficient their information, and various their fentiments, that it hath received its accomplishment. Prior to the collection of Jews and Gentiles into the kingdom of Jefus Chrift, the Most High, by fome remarkable providences, abridged the power of Egypt, altered her boundaries, and diminifhed her influence, that he might open a way for the ministers of his gofpel, and give free courfe to the word of his grace. In confequence whereof, his people, who were difperfed through that country, abandoning their former idolatry and fuperftition, fubjected themfelves to the Meffiah's fceptre of righteoufnefs; and every obftacle was removed that might prevent the fpread and fuccefs of the everlasting gofpel in that quarter.

And with his mighty wind shall be shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry-fhod. The river here intended, feems to be the great river Euphrates, which formed one of the boundaries of the land which the Lord gave for a poffeffion to the pofterity of Abraham. In the old Teftament, it is fometimes called the River, by way of eminence, though its name is not mention4 T.

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