could be meant than that of Cyrus, which was given at the time when Daniel is said to be praying. If we take the date of the word given to Jeremiah B. c. 606, the attempt to accommodate the time to Jesus Christ will be baffled still more completely.

The text concerning the cutting off of the Messiah is not quoted by the apostles, which would lead us to suppose that our common reading does not give the sense received in their time. But even if it were the true reading, it might be applied to any other pretender to the Messiahship who was put to death, as well as to Jesus. And this is the only coincidence worth noticing. For Jerusalem was taken and profaned many times; and the description of the actions of Antiochus must naturally apply in part to those of the Romans. But the desolation which they made under Titus was not immediately after the cutting off of Jesus Christ, but thirty-seven years later.

The strong internal evidence that the prophetic parts of Daniel were written about the time of Antiochus is not counterbalanced by any external evidence, as may be seen in the review of the arguments on this point in the fourteenth chapter of Bishop Newton's Dissertations.

Although we be convinced by this examination of the book of Daniel, that it contains no prophecies concerning Jesus Christ, we can at the same time perceive how the disciples were led to draw from it, especially after the fall of Jerusalem, a strong confirmation of his claims. They knew little or nothing concerning Antiochus, and therefore parts of the book seemed to point to the events of their own day, which did in reality somewhat resemble those in the time of Antiochus. Moreover, Jesus himself assumed the title of Son of Man, given to the allegorical representative of the Jewish nation, in

Daniel.

Add to this the text which admitted of the sense that the Messiah was to be cut off, and we need not be surprised that more searching critics than the apostles should have considered this book as the sure word of prophecy. But to the reader who will take the trouble to compare one part with another, in the manner here pursued, it is left to determine whether such a conclusion does not rest upon a total perversion of the real meaning of the book.

Whilst the study of the prophecies convinces us of the absurdity of considering them as inspired predictions, it at the time enables us to comprehend the interest attached to them which supported the delusion. The sublime mystery of penetrating into the future is almost equalled by that of finding the present already foreknown in the past. The events of the day are raised into fulfilments of the divine decrees: an untoward catastrophe is softened, success is enhanced, by the proof which prophecy appears to bring, that all was appointed by the foreknowledge of God before the world began; and the energy of the agents is heightened rather than relaxed by the idea that they are the instruments of destiny, final links of the mysterious chain which connects remote foreknowledge and actual fulfilment.

There are few nations whose early literature does not contain predictions and pretended accomplishments of predictions. But Cuma and Delphos lost their credit even in ancient times. The supposed Jewish oracles still play a conspicuous part in the religion of the day. Yet on comparing them closely with history, accomplishment and failure alternate to such an extent, that one important resemblance to their heathen kindred becomes palpable; their credit can only be maintained by preserving their ambiguity.

:

Egypt, for instance, which was to be "the basest of the kingdoms," Ezek. xxix. 15, (" and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt," xxx. 13,) was for three centuries, under the Ptolemies, one of the principal monarchies of the age. Babylon which "shall never be inhabited," apparently after its capture by the Medes, "and whose time is near to come," Isaiah xiii. 17-22, was inhabited by a diminished population for 245 years, until the building of the neighbouring city of Seleucia, after which it decayed gradually. Ezekiel prophesies that Nebuchadnezzar shall take Tyre, in which he is as correct as might be expected from a cotemporary of the event; but he adds "I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon thou shalt be built no more," xxvi. 14 and "when I make thee a desolate city," (i. e. evidently from the connexion, on the capture by Nebuchadnezzar,) "I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more; though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord God," ver. 19-21. Yet new Tyre, or Tyre of the island, considered by Pliny a part of the old city, and which from the description of Ezekiel appears to have been by him also included in the general name Tyre, continued to be a strong and considerable place long after the time of Alexander; it endured several sieges during the Crusades and afterwards; and has decayed gradually into an inconsiderable place. The "shalt be no more of Ezekiel, repeated several times, is therefore accomplished by the decay of the city in the lapse of 2400 years. Bishop Newton explains for Ezekiel, that in this case, as in that of Babylon, the prophecy was to take effect, not all at once, but by degrees. Modern commentators have disco

vered that, for the most part, the sense of the scripture prophecies can only be ascertained after the event. The prophecies against Edom, Moab, Ammon, &c. are evidently for the most part history; but when they reach into the future, limitations and exceptions are required. (See Jer. xlix. 18, on Edom.) The prophets delivered copious denunciations against all the nations and districts which annoyed the Jews. If a modern poet were to prophesy destruction and desolation under various figures against a dozen neighbouring towns or nations, who would be surprised to find after 2500 years an equal average of fulfilment ?

.....

The instance most resembling fulfilment is that of Jeremiah's prophecy, "Fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, . ... though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee," xxx. 11. Yet this is merely a natural patriotic wish, and it has not been fulfilled in the sense probably contemplated by Jeremiah; for a full end has been made of the Jews, as a nation, as completely as of Babylon. It is certainly true that the preservation of the Jews, as a distinct race, leaves a possibility of the more complete fulfilment of the prophecy at a future time. It is connected, however, with two others which were not fulfilled, viz. the high degree of security which Jacob should enjoy after his return from the Babylonish captivity, and the raising up of another David.

Another instance approaching to fulfilment is the spread of the Jewish religion or light among the Gentiles. Yet here also the prophecy was a natural patriotic wish, and it was very far from being exactly fulfilled according to the original meaning; for the Judaism which the Gentiles received was very different from the Jewish law which the prophets seem to have had in view (Isaiah xlii. 4, 21; Micah iv. 2): neither did the Gentiles come bending to receive it from Mount Zion. "For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish, yea those nations shall be entirely wasted." Isaiah lx. 12. Instead of this the Jews perished, because they would not serve the Romans.

As to the New Testament fulfilling the prophecies of the Old,-in the two most conspicuous features of Jewish prophecy there could not be a more decided failure. A triumphant successor of David was promised, and a carpenter's son was crucified. Zion was to be exalted, and Zion was demolished. Nor were the Christian prophecies more fortunate.-The Son of man was to appear again before that generation passed away, and he has not yet appeared.

The cause of failure here is not the same as when predictions of natural phenomena fail; i. e. want of skill in the interpreters. No one pretends that a greater skill in the language of the prophecies would clear up these contradictions; that the reader of the common version, on acquiring sufficient Hebrew and Greek, would see things in a greatly different light. Unless he admit that wide figurative interpretation, which expands indefinitely the meaning of words, he must conclude that the voice prophesying through these records is different from that prophesying in nature, in as much as the one is always right, the other sometimes right and sometimes wrong.

But

The Eneid contains many prophetical allusions to the affairs of Rome, and in the sixth book the shade of Anchises shows himself well acquainted with Roman History up to the time of Augustus, but attempts to foretel nothing beyond it. From passages of this kind the common reader would have inferred the time of the writer to be about or after that date. suppose that Virgil had concealed his name and date, and that some religious interest were attached to the belief in the divine inspiration of his writings; it would then be taken for granted that the author lived at the beginning, not the end, of the prophecy, and the whole poem might by the allegorizing system be easily converted into a prophetical type. If the

interpreter were a Catholic, the victories of the Trojan hero might prefigure the small beginnings of the Roman see on the same plains of Latium; his pious abandonment of the Carthaginian queen being exactly the type of Papal Rome's compulsory separation by divine decree from its mistress Constantinople. The prediction of Anchises, "Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento,' was fully verified, as Peter's pence could bear witness. "Colique meatus describent alii melius," Galileo proved to be true. "Debellare superbos," how exactly fulfilled in the person of the Emperor Henry IV., and “ parcere subjectis," in the lenity shown by Pius VII. towards Napoleon, who was, or ought to have been, spiritually his subject! Certainly a Papist, who might be inclined thus to turn Virgil to account, would find less labour than has been encountered by Protestant divines, with the Book of Daniel, for the sake of identifying the Pope with the "man of sin."

But it is said by Christians that many of the prophecies remain yet to be fulfilled. This may very probably come to appear true as events pass on, for the continued vicissitudes of things may naturally increase the number of apparent correspondences; and there is besides this a deeper reason. Written prophecy itself, if embodied in the literature of a nation, becomes a cause of no small power, and may contain amongst its effects tendencies to its own fulfilment. The anticipations of ancestors, the aspirations of patriots, and the visions of poets, when expressed in the shape of prophecy, may awaken in some breasts a more ardent desire to give the response. Instances are on record of attempts made with a view to fulfil ancient prophecies. And considering the permanent interest which the Hebrew literature has excited amongst its own and other nations, it is highly probable that its prophecies will go on producing a concurrence of inclinations to witness their fulfilment, till at last, in a more closely corresponding sense than hitherto, "the tribes of Jacob shall be raised up, and instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree in his heritages, and the desolations of Israel shall be repaired, and his wastes inhabited."

Onias, who built the temple at Heliopolis to fulfil Isaiah xix. 19, one instance. The rebuilding of the temple by Cyrus to fulfil the Jewish prophecies would be another; but the historical truth of Josephus in this account may be doubted. A kindred case is that of Columbus, who "believed his great discoveries announced in the Apocalypse and Isaiah, aud identified the mines of Hispaniola with the golden quarries which furnished materials to Solomon."-Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. iii. p. 27.

CHAPTER XV.

WHETHER JESUS FORETOLD HIS OWN DEATH AND
RESURRECTION.

MATTHEW says, xvi. 21, "From that time forth," (viz. soon after Herod sought to apprehend Jesus,) "began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day." And again, xx. 17, "And Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, Behold we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again." Similar predictions occur, Matt. xvi. 24, xvii. 22, xxvi. 2, xxvi. 32. “But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee." Mark viii. 31, ix. 9, 31, x. 32, xiv. 28. Luke ix. 22, 44, xiii. 33, xviii. 31. John vii. 8, viii. 28, &c.

This was speaking so plainly that we cannot imagine how the disciples could have misunderstood him. However firm might have been their first expectation of a temporal Messiah, they must have been strangely inattentive not to be prepared for things of which they had been warned so often and so clearly. As the history stands, they seem to have treated the admonitions of Jesus on such interesting points with a carelessness almost irreverent. Luke says, ix. 45, "They understood not this saying, and it was hid from them." But this may be merely his own reflection, and the explanation which