The Argument. Including the Prophecies of Ezekiel, Joel, Obadiah, Hosea, Haggai, Micah, Zechariah, and Malachi, respecting the Messiah, and restoration of Israel to a state of happiness and prosperity. THE MESSIAH; OR THE REDEMPTION OF MAN. BOOK VIL JEHOVAH TO THE PROPHET EZEKIEL.* KNOW, Son of man, I've constituted thee A watchman over Israel's tribes to be: Should'st thou not warn them of their vicious state,† * Ezekiel was carried captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, in the year 598 B. C.; and was placed on the river Chebar, in Mesopotamia, where he received the divine revelations contained in his book, and continued to prophecy about 21 years. + See chap. xxxiii. But, if they truly execute thy trust, The crime's their own, and neither Mine nor thine. Repent and live; not one be lost or sold, That instant pardon from Me shall issue! * This certainly, to all unprejudiced minds, affords convincing proof against predestination, before the world existed, to eternal happiness or misery; for, if a certain number were then set apart to be partakers of the former, and all the rest forced to see the latter, this strenuous declaration must have been useless, if not mockery. + See chap. xxxiv. |