dently implies rule and government. If Daniel had spoken of Messiah as a teacher, there might have been some plea for such an interpretation as Dr. Stonard's; though even in that case we must have said that our Lord did not enter upon his office of teaching till after he had been anointed with the Holy Ghost at his baptism. He is not predicted, however, as Prophet, but as King; and if Dr. S.'s translation be correct, the period of 62 weeks must run on till he was invested with kingly power, that is, till his ascension to the right hand of the Father.

We have a large space still lying before us, and must hasten forward. Dr. S. understands the word " after," v. 26, as not signifying" immediately after," but including the whole period between the end of the 62 weeks and the close of the 70. At a certain time in that interval Messiah was "cut off and no one on his side." We have already expressed our entire approbation of this translation, and it needs no comment.

"But the days of vengeance' were not far distant. Messiah raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of power' came with the clouds of heaven,' imperceptible indeed to outward sight, but evidently discernible to the eye of faith, in the course of his providence and in the terror of his judgments, directing his human agents and instruments with the might of his omnipotence to sweep away from the earth the guilty city, and the violated, deserted sanctuary which he no longer acknowledged to be His. AND HE (MESSIAH) SHALL DESTROY THE CITY, AND THE SANCTUARY.' It has been sufficiently proved that Messiah is the nominative to the verb destroy, that the city and sanctuary are the accusatives following it, and that any other construction is attended with great perplexity and grammatical difficulty. This having been settled, the words require no explanation. And, as for proof of their accomplishment, every reader knows, that Jerusalem and its temple..have been destroyed accordingly; and will without hesitation or doubt refer the act of Messiah's providence in destroying them, to that terrible and fatal overthrow, which they received from Titus and the Romans, those formidable instruments of vengeance and desolation in the hands of the supreme disposer and judge." P. 361.

6 WITH THE

"It is farther predicted, that the material city and sanctuary will not fall alone; but that Messiah will destroy them LEADER THAT COMETH.' .. According to this rendering of the passage, which has been shewn to be the only unobjectionable one, and is also supported by the highest ancient authorities, Messiah cannot possibly be the leader intended. Yet it can be the leader of no other people but the Jews. The word leader may be used in the same latitude with the word king: not only of a single leader, but of a line or race of kings; and not only of a strictly monarchical or regal government, but of any other form of government whatever.

There was always in Jerusalem, from the period of her restoration to that

of her ruin, some person or body of persons, who might properly be called the leader. The sceptre had not yet departed from Judah.' But it is here declared, that it shall not be so in the last ruin of Jerusalem. The overthrow shall be complete and final.... The polity, both civil and ecclesiastical, under which the Jews had lived, and been ruled according to the Mosaic institutions, was destined not to survive the final ruin of the city and sanctuary, but to perish, by the same irreversible sentence, in the same utter and irretrievable destruction. All that is here predicted has been brought to pass, and that, as every reader knows, to the uttermost. When Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by the Roman armies under Titus, the leader perished with them. No tribual sceptre has ever since been waved over that scattered people.

"The mode of destruction is next announced. AND HIS END SHALL BE WITH AN INUNDATION;' that is to say, the end of the leader.... The final subversion of the Jewish government shall be effected, not in a gentle and easy manner, by a gradual extinction, or, as it were, by a natural decay; but in a signal, violent, and terrible mode, by an inundation; a flood of foreign invaders, rushing through the land, and pouring into the city, overwhelming and sweeping all before it with the irresistible force of an impetuous torrent. (Is. viii. 7, 8.)

"FOR UNTIL THE END SHALL BE THE WAR, THE DETERMINED JUDGMENT OF DESOLATIONS." This cannot be the end of the war, but the end of the term of seventy weeks. The prophet, having predicted the destruction of the city and sanctuary, together with the leader, by Messiah, through the instrumentality of a flood of foreign invaders, is careful to inform us immediately, that this is the last event ordained to wind up the prophetic term, and bring it to its destined close; for that the war, meaning thereby the flood of invasion just before mentioned, in which city, temple, and government will be alike swept away, shall continue unto the end of the weeks, and fully bring in the commencement of the determined judgment of desolations decreed by divine justice against the murderers of Messiah." P. 362.

We have been desirous that Dr. Stonard should be brought fairly before our readers; and therefore have made unusually large extracts. It is not, however, our intention to furnish an analysis as a substitute for the work itself, but as a specimen of the author's mode of interpretation. We hasten, therefore, through the remainder of the prophecy and of his labours.

The supplementary week, mentioned v. 27, is divided into two equal parts; during the whole of which our Lord was confirming the covenant to many of the Jews, and to no other people-by his personal labours during the former half of the period, and during the latter by the ministry of his. Apostles. This began in the sixth year of the sixty-fourth week; that is, in the autumn of the year 27, at his baptism, was thenceforth carried on till the passover of the year 31, when he died; and

was continued by his Apostles till the autumn of the year 34, when, by the signal conversion of St. Paul, who was destined to be the apostle of the Gentiles, a door was opened to them. These dates are most minutely traced out by our author; but for these, as well as for the explanation of the clause respecting the "abomination which maketh desolate," we must refer our readers to the work itself; and we must strongly recommend it to their perusal, as being full of information and critical investigation, of the learning of a sound scholar, and the piety which elevates science and sanctifies research.

We had thought to trouble our readers with some observations of our own, and to have drawn out for their satisfaction, a few important dates taken from calculations made both forwards and backwards, upon which the mind may properly rest. But we should exceed our limits. We shall only say, therefore, that, though we are greatly indebted to the author before us, there is still, we conceive, ample room for elucidation and research, for learned, enquiring, and devout meditation. These have already, with the aid of the Divine Spirit, in a great measure drawn aside the vail which has hung over this ancient prophecy; and Dr. Stonard has added a respectable name to a long list of labourers in the cause of divine truth, who, by bringing forth from the treasures of their learning and the resources of genius, things new and old,-the recollections of history and the illustrations of fancy,-have gradually unfolded the mystery of godliness and given fresh information to our holy faith. We wait with humble expectation for the further disclosure of the Divine Will,-for light to be thrown upon the past, and for the gradual developement of the future. But here we should sin against taste and feeling, and fair criticism, if we used any other language than that with which Dr. Stonard has closed his volume.

"Since the exhaustion of the phials of judgment is still future, and the restoration of the people and holy city of Daniel is rather implied than expressed, I have refrained from all attempts at a particular interpretation or minute discussion of those subjects; in compliance with that humble and retiring diffidence which becomes a man who has felt the difficulties attending the investigation of predictions already fulfilled, in looking to those futurities, which the spirit of prophecy has yet but dimly and faintly disclosed to the searchers of his awful though animating records.

"Such," he concludes, "is the testimony which, under the translation and interpretation here brought forward, the prophecy of the seventy weeks of Daniel bears to the truth of the Christian religion, and to the pretensions and character of its author, as Messiah which

was to come; a testimony so extensive, so circumstantial, so exact, so decisive, as to render belief in him the most reasonable of moral conclusions, as it is also the first of religious duties. For myself, I look with adoring thankfulness to the FATHER OF LIGHTS, the author of all spiritual understanding and grace, who hath given and allowed me to draw from this sacred source such heartfelt and heart-cheering satisfaction as to the truth of his inspired word; and if he condescend to make me the humble instrument in his hand of conveying the like to others, to his name alone be the praise. 'He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.'• His way is in the sea, and His path in the great waters, and His footsteps are not known,'-save where He hath enabled us to trace them by the clue of revelation. For in very deed He hath shewn us the former things what they be, and the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that he is a just God and a Saviour, and none beside Him.'- O HOUSE OF JACOB, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord!'- Look unto Him, and be ye saved ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH."" P. 490.

The New Testament, arranged in Chronological and Historical Order, with copious Notes on the principal Subjects in Theology. The Gospels on the Basis of the Harmonies of Lightfoot, Doddridge, Pilkington, Newcome, and Michaelis; the Account of the Resur rection on the Authorities of West, Townson, and Cranfield: the Epistles in their places, and divided according to the Apostles' Arguments. By the Rev. GEORGE TOWNSEND, M.A. Prebendary of Durham; and Domestic Chaplain to the Bishop of Durham. 2 Vols. 8vo: 21. London. Rivingtons. 1825.

It is a distinguished and Providential characteristic of Christia nity, that it is easy of access and easy of comprehension. The most important and elevated of all knowledge-it is free from those impediments which obstruct our steps in every other direc tion of human attainment. It is not to be sought for, like the principles of Law, in the endless obscurity of ancient records and practices, or the still more fantastic and shifting glosses of modern authority. It is not, like the physical sciences, the exclusive reward of a peculiar soil and cultivation of mind, the tardy and doubtful prize of learned labour and intellectual subtlety. It is offered to mankind, plain, and beyond the compass of no man's understanding; brief, and within the easiest means of society. Every man may possess a Bible, and every possessor may com

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prehend it. For all practical purposes of virtue, he who runs may read. The displays of divine power and wisdom in the natural world have their glory: but it is of a peculiar kind, and intended for a peculiar condition; it is the writing on the wall of Belshazzar's feast, an effulgence reserved for the eyes of a separated class, and to be interpreted only by practised and lofty intelligence. The Gospel still bears the light of that vision of angels in which it was first proclaimed; a simpler yet a still loftier glory, shining out not in the chosen halls of state or philosophy, but in the open field, and giving its more than human wisdom to humble peasants.

Yet who can doubt the value of Scriptural elucidation, who recollects that the Bible consists of not less than eighty distinct documents, some of them the oldest in the world, alluding to nations and customs, wars and opinions, gone down to the grave, while Europe was yet a haunt of the wolf, and the savage that hunted him; that new races of men have grown up out of the dust of the writers and heroes of those histories; that cities have been raised upon the place of their cities, and the tide of barbarian conquest has over and over again swept the surface of the land, till even their ruins have been ruined? It must be presumed, that, as here is an infinite excitement for manly curio sity, there should be a large occasion for intelligent research; and that if there be a single mind infested by that perverse spirit which loves to reject the truth within its grasp, for the difficulty that eludes it; it is a duty to clear away the difficulty, and either leave unbelief without excuse, or enlighten it into conviction. Finally, the study of Divine Truth, in itself the most strengthening, cheering, and necessary preservative of holiness, cannot be pursued with a too heartfelt and solemn devotedness of the mind.

Mr. Townsend, the author of the present volumes, is already known for his successful labours in sacred literature. His Harmony of the Old Testament, on the basis of Lightfoot's Chronicle, has already received a high degree of public approbation. It would be unjust here to omit our tribute to the Bishop of Durham, a prelate who, to his many claims on national respect, has long added that of being zealous in the discovery of talent and virtue in the Church; and unbiassed and munificent in their protection and reward.

The history of Harmonies would make a volume of no trivial size. It might be curious-as an evidence of the tardiness and perplexity of the human mind, in ages which their posterity so idly laud and magnify-of the reluctance with which early prejudice is abandoned;-and of the striking and admirable im