VI. It is customary with the prophets in defcribing the latter enemies of the church, to call them by the names of her former perfecutors, This, at firft view, occafions a misapprehenfion of the prophet's meaning. When we find the actors in any particular feene, defcribed to be nations that have no longer an exiftence in the world, we are apt haftily to conclude, that the prophecy respects the paft, not the future. But if by any of the rules already laid down, (for inftance, the ftate of the Jews or the Millennium connected with the prophecy,) we learn, that it points to the latter ages, we ought to confider the names of the actors as a difguife, and referring the prophecy to its proper place, we fhall find that the fenfe is, both intelligible and clear,

་་

That the prophets do make.. ufe of fuch dif guife, is evident, from the term Babylon being ufed in the Apocalypfe, to fignify Rome, and from the defcription of the fame city as fpiritually Sodom and Egypt,

This artifice was partly neceflary; for` as the latter enemies of the church had no name or exiftence when the prophet wrote, as they derived their names afterwards from languages, having little or no affinity with that of the prophet, How could he convey to us their names

(1) Rev. xvii. and xviii. p.

intelligibly

(2) Rev. xi. 8.

intelligibly in his own language? It was an easy matter for the Spirit of God to have revealed the name of each, and for the prophet to have written them; but that name could only have had a certain fimilarity in found to the real name; it would have been readily referred to a Hebrew origin; and this would have involved the most attentive reader in inextricable difficulty'. But fuppofing this artifice not absolutely neceffary, it was highly expedient. A certain degree of obfcurity is competent to prophecy, to prevent its interference with the completion, and to try the fincerity of those who believe it, by affording exercise to their time and talents, in difcovering its meaning. Now, the lowest degree of obfcurity is that which withholds the names of the perfons concerned, when their actions or fufferings are minutely described.

It is not always easy to inveftigate, nor is it perhaps material to know the reafons which induce the prophet to use the name of one ancient perfecutor in preference to that of another. But in general, he seems to have in view a certain refemblance

(1) Calling Cyrus by name, Ifa. xlv. will not overturn this argument. The affinity betwixt the Hebrew and the Perfian languages, as well as the actual existence of the name in both languages, rendered it abundantly intelligible; but neither of these circumstances can apply to the latter enemies of the church,

refemblance of character; and when the character, defcribed is complex, he calls it fometimes by one name, fometimes by another. Thus Rome is called Babylon, for her oppreffion of the people of God; Sodom for her impurity; Egypt for her idolatry; and by the Old Teftament prophets, Tyre for her traffic, Idumea or Edom for her carnal relation to Chrif tians, by profeffing their religion. By this rule, it appears, that the fong of triumph for the fall of the king of Babylon, (Ifa. xiv.) refers wholly to the head of mystical Babylon; the deftruc. tion of Idumea, (Ifa. xxxiv.) to papal Rome; and the deftruction of Pharaoh and his allies, recorded, Ezekiel xxxii. 17.-32. to Antichrift and his adherents, in the battle of Armageddon.

The prophet fometimes changes the name in the fame discoufe, to hint, I fuppose, that we are not to take it literally Thus, what is faid of the king of Babylon, Ifa. xiv. 4.-23. is with the fame breath faid of the Affyrian, ver. 23.-27. to fhew that neither a Babylonian nor Affyrian is literally intended, but one in whom the characters of both unite. At other times, the prophet repeats the fame expreffions, in two different fections of prophecy, but varies the name of the person to whom they are applied. Thus the fame expreffions applied to the King of Edom, Jer. xlix. 19. are repeated, Jer. 1. l. 44.

and

ap

plied to the King of Babylon, with a design to fhew that the name is a difguife, and that the two paffages refer to the fame perfons, and the fame times.

Another reafon by which the prophets seem to be led to the choice of a name, in defcribing the latter enemies of the church, is, to point out the country they inhabit when the prophecy is accomplished. Thus in the description of Gog and his forces, Ezekiel xxxviii. the names of the fons of Noah, among whom the earth was firft divided, are introduced, to fhew that these enemies fhall come from the countries which the perfons mentioned originally poffeffed. The prophet Daniel is directed by this reason, in describing the fubjects of the blafphemous King, Dan. xi. 43. And the prophet Ezekiel seems to be influenced by the fame reafon in enumerating the allies of the fame power, Ezekiel xxxii. 22.-30.

VII. THE prophets describe the spiritual worfhip enjoined by the Gofpel, in terms borrowed from the Mofaic Economy. This is obvious from the use of these terms in the New Testament. The Temple of God is put for the Church'; devout affections are called spiritual facrifices;

(1) 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17. Eph, ii. 20, 21. 2 Theff. ii. 4.

facrifices'; vials of odours or incenfe, fignify prayer'; The use of these terms, therefore, in any particular prophecy, must not prevent our applying it to the Gospel times, if there are other reasons which direct us fo to apply it.

Upon the fame principles, the terms in which grofs outward idolatry is described, may be used to denote any false religion, or even wicked defires. So the apostle calls "Covetousness "idolatry3."