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But this joyous event, has not been left to the testimony of one, or two witnesses; the prophet Ezekiel is not far short of the happy Isaiah, in his views of what God has designed for his people in the latter days.

EZEKIEL.

It has been owing to an unfortunate propensity of allegorizing or spiritualizing only, the express and comforting promises of a God of truth, that this book has given so little comfort to the people of God.According to Ezekiel's prophetic declarations, at the second advent of our Saviour, God is to sanctify his holy name (which had been profaned by his ancient people the Jews) among those nations, with whom God had scattered his people (the Jews) for their sins, and the heathen were thereby to know that he was God, when he should be sanctified in them before their eyes; for he will take his people the Jews from among the nations, and gather them out of all countries, and bring them into their own land.—"Then he is to sprinkle clean water upon them, and they shall be clean-He is to give them a new heart and put a new spirit within them; to take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh-They shall dwell in the land that he gave to their fathers, and they shall be his people, and he will be their God. Their now desolate land is to be tilled and to become like the garden of Eden, and the waste, desolate and ruined cities are to become fenced and inhabited, whereby the heathen shall know the Lord.

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The Lord is to gather the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and will be sanctified by them in the sight of the heathen, and they are to dwell in their land that he has given to his servant Jacob.

They are to dwell safely therein, and build houses, and plant vine-yards. Yea they shall dwell with confidence, when God has executed judgment upon all those that despise them round about, and they are to know that he is the Lord their God.-God is to search for his sheep, and to seek them out: as a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that his sheep are scattered, so will God seek out his sheep (the people of Israel) and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day-He will bring them out from the people and gather them from the countries; and will bring them to their own land and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the countries.

God will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even his servant David, and the Lord will be their God, and his servant David a Prince among them-God will make a covenant of peace with them, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land, and his people shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woodsand they shall be safe in their land, and shall know the Lord, when he shall have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them out of the hands of

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those that served themselves of them; and they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them, but they shall dwell safely and none shall make them afraid.-The mountains of Israel are again to shoot forth branches, and yield fruit to his people Israel, for they are at hand to come-Men and beasts are to be multiplied, and the cities to be inhabited, and the wastes builded. His people are to be settled after their old estates, and God will do to them better than at the beginning. -God will open their graves and cause them to come up out of their graves, and he will bring them into the land of Israel; and they shall know that he is the Lord, when he shall have opened their graves, and brought them up therefrom, and he will put his spirit in them, and they shall live; and he will place them in their own land-He will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be to them all, and they shall no more be two nations; neither shall they defile themselves any more with idols, so they are to be his people, and and he will be their God, and David will be their prince forever-and he will make a covenant of peace with them, and multiply them, and set his sanctuary in the midst of them for ever more."-A new temple is to be built in Jerusalem according to the measures of the angel in the prophetic vision, " and the glory of the God of Israel is to come into it from the way of the east; and his glory is to fill the house." v

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This is to be" the place of his throne, and the place of the soles of his feet, where he is to dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. The Levites are to be ministers in the sanctuary, or keepers of the charge of the house; but on account of their going astray with Israel, they shall no longer do the office of priest, or come near to any holy things; but the sons of Zadock who kept the charge of the sanctuary, when the children of Israel went astray, they shall be priests and ministers unto the Lord, and keep the charge and be judges in controversies between the people."

A different division of the land of Canaan among the tribes, than that ordered by Moses, is to take place; with a special allotment for the use of the sanctuary and provision for the princes-Joseph is to have two portions, and the stranger who sojourns there is to have an allotment also in the tribe in which he lives-Special provision is likewise to be made by means of a river, that heads in the temple, and runs through the desart into the sea; by which the seas, wherever the waters of this river shall come, are to be healed; and thereby all these waters shall produce fish in the greatest plenty, for the use of the inhabitants; and its borders are to be covered with trees, which are to bear fruit every month, for food; and their leaves shall not fade, neither shall their fruit be consumed.-The fruit is not only to be meat, but their leaves are to be medicinal, because the waters issue out of the sanctuary.

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