SECTION IV.

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED.

There are three objections urged against our argument, which are, however, only of a verbal kind.

First. It is objected that the names of Judah and Jerusalem, Jacob and Israel, are literal terms. We answer, that in all the descriptions of Israel restored, two of these terms, or similar ones, are used to designate the Israel of God, and that this dualism is of itself an indication that they are figurative terms. Again; in most of these cases, the terms are so associated with others, in the context, that they can not be understood in a literal sense of carnal Israel. Again; to interpret them of carnal or Mosaic Israel, rather than of the Israel of Christ, is in direct antagonism with the plain evangelical doctrines of the New Testament, as we have fully shown.

Second. It is objected that Israel was to be restored in the land promised to Abraham and the fathers. We answer, that in some cases objectors bring forward prophecies which were fulfilled in the restoration of Israel from the Babylonish captivity. But in other cases, the land of promise to the fathers can not be limited to Palestine; for Palestine was but typical of the possession of the whole world which was promised to the fathers, with as much emphasis as ever Palestine was. All the prophecies, therefore, which relate to the Christian or realizing age, can not by possibility be restricted to a mere typical country; but must be

interpreted of the world promised as the inheritance to the fathers. No promise belongs, or can belong to Palestine in the Christian dispensation, any further than as Palestine forms a part of the great world at large. Again; the promise to Japhet, was a promise of enlargement in the Christian age, and that promise inured to the fathers as heads and representatives of Christianity. America, therefore, being promised to Japhet, was a land promised to the fathers.

Third. It is objected that Israel is to dwell in the land where their fathers dwelt.-Ezek. xxxvii. 25. To this we answer, that Ezekiel is one of the most involved prophets, in his meaning, of any in the scriptures, and to interpret any Mosaic term he uses, in a literal sense, when that term refers to the latter day, is presumptuous. But his prophecy in which the objection is found, is one which details the state of the world after the resurrection of the dead; and it plainly coincides with the new heaven and earth of Isaiah, St. Peter, and St. John, and all, therefore, that can be inferable from it is, that the dwelling place of Israel, restored by the resurrection, will be on the globe regenerated, in which the tabernacle of God will be with men. No other consistent interpretation can be put upon it; and any other interpretation would limit and carnalize a promise to a few, and exclude from its benefits all the Israel of Christ, not of Jewish extraction according to the flesh.

SECTION V.

PARALLEL PROPHECIES OF ISRAEL.

The restoration of Israel and its fulfillment in the rise of the United States, has its parallels in the Hebrew escape from Egypt across a sea, and its erection of a republic in the wilderness; and in the stone cut out of the mountain, or fifth great empire of Nebuchadnezzar's vision; in the ancient of days, or fifth empire of Daniel's vision of empires; and in Michael, in his last vision; in the two witnesses; the woman and her twelve stars; in the woman and her man child; and the man with many diadems, on a white horse; and in the sealing of the twelve tribes of Revelation.

An Israel restored was promised by the prophets on a mighty scale, and it was to be a Christian Israel. If we look at our own glorious country, we see clearly a Christian Israel, enjoying the greatest and most glorious of all nationalities. Here is a coincidence with the prophets; and here then is their fulfillment.

Christ assured his disciples, that the restoration was to be a mystery, and Daniel told that its history, in prophecy, would be concealed, till just before the battle of the Kings; and the blindness on the subject hitherto, has resulted from the order of God. This concealment of our country as the Israel restored of the promises, every wise man can see was a prudent measure with reference both to our past and future history.

CHAPTER V.

EZEKIEL'S SYMBOLIC PROPHECIES OF AMERICA.

EZEKIEL is both a literal and symbolic prophet, and in this he differs from Daniel and John. He also differs from them in this, that he does not give the history of the four great empires that were to precede the final triumphs of Christianity. He, however, coincides with them as to Israel's restoration, and the freeing of the earth from the curse. The parts of his prophecy which we take up, are those which relate to the close of the fourth monarchy by the battle of the great day; the rise of Israel; and the final empire of Christ on earth.

SECTION I.

ISRAEL RESTORED-AMERICA.

We have already considered some prophecies of Ezekiel, which show that the Israel of Christ was to be restored in the latter day: we shall now add a few additional points of interest. From the forty-third to the forty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel, he gives a description of the whole Christianity, in all its progress and triumphs after the rise of the Israel of Christ to nationality. He embraces all that Daniel does, beginning with the rise of the stone kingdom, and all that John does, beginning with the kingdom that sprung from the woman or chuh

in the wilderness. We can not quote these chapters, and shall only give the strong points of coincidence between the three prophets mentioned. We say, that this vision coincides with Daniel and John's descriptions of the

same era.

1. This must be true, because they both describe the same era, and, of course, must coincide in the same subjects.

2. Both John and Daniel predict the universality of the empire of Christ, and Ezekiel does the same. The holy city of Ezekiel, and his trees of life, and river of the water of life, also coincide with the city New Jerusalem, the river and trees of life given by St. John. This shows that their descriptions of these things refer to the very same era.

3. Ezekiel, in addition to this, describes the rise of Israel, and his occupancy of the promised land. In this description it is plain that Israel did not, at the time of this settlement, possess the whole earth, but only a part of it, and thus it coincides with the descriptions of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and John. In the forty-eighth chapter he says, the divisions of the promised land to the tribes, shall not be as in ancient times, but that they shall extend from east to west, and lie side by side of each other. He says, also, that there shall be a sea on the east side of the land, and a great sea on the west. "This shall be the border whereby ye shall inherit the land according to the twelve tribes of Israel; Joseph shall have two portions."-xlvii: 13. In this land, also, was to be an inheritance for strangers: "And they shall be unto you as born in the country among the children of Israel, and they shall have inheritance with you