Lord, and may cause his very name to be glorified in you. In the world that is approaching, when the Lamb will publicly take home his Bride, you will be clothed in fine white linen, suited to the occasion. Be preparing those robes, whilst yet you are here ; and by the richest unctions of Divine grace be daily becoming meet for the bridal chamber : and then shall the nuptials soon arrive ; and you shall be for ever happy in the bosom of your God.]
PARABLE OF THE TWIG OF A CEDAR PLANTED IN THE HEIGHT OF ISRAEL.
Ezek. xvii. 22 — 24. Thus saith the Lord God; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it ; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent: in the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it : and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and tinder it shall dwell allfoiul of every wing ; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell. And all the trees of the field shall know, that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish : I the Lord have spoken and have done it.
THE promises of God to his Church are not un- frequently connected with, and, as it were, made to arise out of, his judgments denounced against his ene- mies. Of this we have a very striking example in the chapter before us, where the very images which are used to represent the guilt and punishment of the king of Judah are employed to prefigure the establishment and increase of the Church of Christ.
To understand the text aright, the preceding con- text should be considered.
The prophet was commanded to deliver a riddle, or parable, that should set forth the conduct of the Jewish people in a mysterious, but just, light : and then, lest it should not be fully understood, he was to give them the true interpretation of it. Nebuchad- nezzar, having taken Jeconiah king of Judah and all his princes captive to Babylon, would not entirely destroy Jerusalem, but made Mattaniah (whom he