Such enemies the Lord Jesus foretold his Israel, The world shall hate you, John xv. [18, 19.] You shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake, Matt. xxiv. [9.] All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must be persecuted, or hunted, 2 Tim. iii. [12.] And not only by flesh and blood, but also by principalities, powers, spiritual wickedness in high places, Eph. vi. [12,] by the whole pagan world under the Roman emperors, and the whole anti-christian world under the Roman popes, Rev. xii. and xiii., by the kings of the earth, Rev. xvii. And Gog and Magog, like the sand upon the shore, (Rev. xx.)
Peace. Such enemies, such armies, no history, no experience proves ever to have come against one poor nation as against Israel in the type; and never was nor shall be known to come against any state or country now, but the Israel of God, the spiritual Jews, Christ’s true followers in all parts and quarters of the world.
Enemies against Israel in her own bowels.
[Truth.] Beside all these without, Israel is betrayed within her own bowels: bloody Sauls, Absaloms, Shebas, Adonijahs, Jeroboams, Athaliahs, raising insurrections, conspiracies, tumults, in the antitype and parallel, the spiritual state of the Christian church.
Secondly, consider we the famous and wonderful battles, victories, captivities, deliverances, which it pleased the God of Israel to dispense to that people and nation, and let us search if they can be paralleled by any state or people, but mystically and spiritually the true Christian Israel of God, Gal. vi. 16.
The famous typical captivities of the Jews.
How famous was the bondage and slavery of that people and nation 430 years in the land of Egypt, and as famous, glorious, and miraculous was their return through the Red Sea, a figure of baptism, 1 Cor. x. [2,] and Egypt a figure of an Egypt now, Rev. xi. 8.
How famous was the seventy years’ captivity of the Jews in Babel, transported from the land of Canaan, and at the full period returned again to Jerusalem, a type of the captivity of God’s people now, spiritually captivated in spiritual Babel, Rev. xviii. 4.
Their wonderful victories.