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xx. 35-38:-" And I will bring you into the wilderness "of the people, and there will I plead with you face to “face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wil"derness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with "you, saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to 'pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the "bond of the covenant. And I will purge out from "among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where 'they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of "Israel and ye shall know that I am the Lord." Intimating, moreover, that the former discipline in the wilderness will be reacted precisely-" like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt :" and with a like object-to "purge out from among them the rebels:" for we know that the great majority of those that left Egypt never reached Canaan, and so, it is here intimated that many of those who shall in the beginning be identified with the next restoration shall come short of the promised rest. The same event, also foretold by Hosea, chap. ii. 14, 15, where, speaking of the Jewish nation under the symbol of a wife, the Lord says, "I will allure her, and bring her into the 'wilderness, and speak comfortably to her, and I will "give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of "Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there as "in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she

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came up out of the land of Egypt." The first place that Israel pitched in the land of Canaan was Achor, nigh to Jericho, where, moreover, they were purged of

the "accursed thing;" and so complete will be the parallel in the next Exodus that it is here said, “she "shall sing there as in the days of her youth, and as "in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.”

The dragon being thus foiled in his attempt to destroy the woman, it is added, "And the serpent cast "out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, "that he might cause her to be carried away of the "flood." This "flood" probably means an host of armies which will be sent forth after them, just as Pharaoh sent forth his armies and pursued the Israelites when they escaped from his tyranny in Egypt, which armies God destroyed by bringing the waters to the help of his people; and something similar to this I conclude is intended when we are told (verse 16) "the earth "helped the woman; and the earth opened her mouth, "and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast "out of his mouth."

"The woman" herself having thus escaped, a new direction is given to the "great wrath" of the dragon, namely, against a "remnant of her seed :"-" And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make

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war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the "commandments of God, and have the testimony of "Jesus Christ:" chap. xii. 17. It has been mentioned as an objection to supposing the woman to be an emblem of the church, that there is a difficulty as to discriminating between her and this "remnant of her seed." But on the supposition that she symbolises the Jewish

tion this difficulty does not exist; for, the attentive

:

examiner of the prophecies of Israel's restoration will find that, while the great mass of the nation is restored by a second Exodus wonderfully analogous to the first, and subject to the discipline of the wilderness, "a remnant" in the land is meanwhile exposed to trial of another nature—“ a third left in the land," of which it is said “I will bring the third part through the fire, and will "refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as "gold is tried they shall call on my name and I will "hear them; I will say, 'It is my people;' and they "shall say, "The LORD is my God:"" (Zech. xiii. 9.) And again, chap. xiv. 1, 2-"For I will gather all "nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall "be taken, &c., and half of the city shall go forth "into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be "cut off from the city." That is, this will be a remnant of that first and partial self-effected restoration, which, I have attempted elsewhere to show,* forms one of the most striking features in Israel's future history as given to us in Scripture, and which is exclusive of the general restoration effected for them by the Lord, subsequent in point of time, and synchronous with his own advent and the destruction of the anti-Messiah, after that "the con"sumption and that determined shall have been poured upon the desolate ;" a consumption, however, which in the end "overflows with righteousness" in the purification of this very remnant, which is afterwards reinforced by the accession of the fruits of the second Exodus.

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* Lectures on the Second Advent.

To which I would now add, that we gather from the prophecy before us that this "remnant" is none other than "the 144,000 sealed," of whom we have already had mention: and who are now honoured to endure this great fight of affliction, to maintain the contest against and suffer persecution from the dragon in "the short time of his great wrath," as detailed in the next chapter (xiii.). I say this is to be inferred from the prophecy before us, for,—immediately after the detail of the power and acts of "the Beast" (the new form which the dragon assumes for this "war"), and his false prophet, which occupies ch. xiii.-in the first verse of chapter xiv. we are presented with the 144,000, standing on the mount Sion with the Lamb, their conflict over, singing the song of triumph, being taken from earth to attend upon the Lamb as a "first fruits" of a large company about to be gathered to Him. But of this more in its place.

LECTURE SEVENTEENTH.

THE BEAST AND FALSE PROPHET.

REVELATION, Chap. xiii.—" And I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 2. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. 4. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things, and blasphemies: and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. 6. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. 7. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. 8. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 9. If any man have an ear, let him hear.