number of concurring circumstances, that fix it to the very date of the advent of Christ. The last blessing of Jacob to his sons, when he commanded them to gather themselves together that he might tell them what should befall them in the last days, contains this prediction concerning Judah; "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be."* The date fixed by this prophecy for the coming of Shiloh, or the Saviour, was not to exceed the time that the descendants of Judah were to continue a united people that a king should reign among them— that they should be governed by their own laws, and that their judges were to be from among their brethren. The prophecy of Malachi adds another standard for measuring the time: "Behold I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall come suddenly to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in; behold he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts." No words can be more expressive of the coming of the promised Messiah; and they as clearly imply his appearance in the temple before it should be destroyed. But it may also be here remarked that Malachi was the last of the prophets with his predictions the vision and the prophecy were sealed up, or the canon of the Old Testament was completed. Though many prophets immediately preceded him, after his time there was no prophet in Israel; but all the Jews, whether of ancient or modern times, look for a messenger to prepare the way of the Lord immediately before his coming. The long succession of prophets had drawn to a close; and the concluding words of the Old Testament, subjoined to an admonition to remember the law of Moses, import that the next prophet would be the harbinger of the Messiah. Another criterion of the time is thus imparted. In regard to the advent of the Messiah, before the destruction of the second temple, the words of Haggai are remarkably explicit : "The desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, and in this place will I give peace." The contrast which the prophet had just Hag. ii. 7.

:

*Gen. xlix. 10.

† Mal. iii. 1.

drawn between the glory of Solomon's temple and that which had been erected in its stead, to which he declares it was, in comparison, as nothing,-the solemn manner of its introduction, "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth;" the excellency of the latter house excelling that of gold and silver; the expression so characteristic of the Messiah, the "desire of all nations ;" and the blessing of peace that was to accompany his comingall tend to denote that he alone is spoken of who was the hope of Israel, and of whom all the prophets did testify, and that his presence would give to that temple a greater glory than that of the former. The Saviour was thus to appear, according to the prophecies of the Old Testament, during the time of the continuance of the kingdom of Judah, previous to the demolition of the temple, and immediately subsequent to the next prophet. But the time is rendered yet more definite. In the prophecies of Daniel, the kingdom of the Messiah is not only foretold as commencing in the time of the fourth monarchy or Roman empire, but the express number of years that were to precede his coming are plainly intimated: "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto Messiah the prince, shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks."* Computation by weeks of years was common among the Jews, and every seventh was the Sabbatical year; seventy weeks thus amounted to four hundred and ninety years. In these words the prophet marks the very time and uses the very name of Messiah, the prince; so entirely is all ambiguity done away.

The plainest inference may be drawn from these prophecies. All of them, while in every respect they presuppose the most perfect knowledge of futurity; while they were unquestionably delivered and publicly known for ages previous to the time to which they referred; while there is Jewish testimony o their application to

Dan. ix. 24, 25.

the time of the Messiah,* which was delivered fifty years before Christ; and while they refer to different contin. gent and unconnected events utterly undeterminable and inconceivable by all human sagacity;-accord in perfect unison to a single precise period where all their different lines terminate at once,-the very fulness of time when Jesus appeared. A king then reigned over the Jews in their own land, they were governed by their own laws, and the council of their nation exercised its authority and power. Before that period, the other tribes were extinct or dispersed among the nations. Judah alone remained, and the last sceptre in Israel had not then departed from it. Every stone of the temple was then unmoved; it was the admiration of the Romans, and might have stood for ages. But in a short space all these concurring testimonies to the time of the advent of the Messiah passed away. During the very year, the twelfth of his age, in which Christ first publicly appeared in the temple, Archelaus, the king, was dethroned and banished; Coponius was appointed procurator; and the kingdom of Judea, the last remnant of the greatness of Israel, was debased into a part of the province of Syria. The sceptre was smitten from the hands of the tribe of Judah-the crown fell from their heads-their glory departed—and, soon after the death of Christ, of their temple one stone was not left upon another-their commonwealth itself became as complete a ruin, and was broken in pieces-and they have ever since been scattered throughout the world, a name, but not a nation. After the lapse of nearly four hundred years posterior to the time of Malachi, another prophet appeared who was the herald of the Messiah. And the testimony of Josephus confirms the account given in Scripture of John the Baptist. Every mark that denoted the time of the coming of the Messiah was erased soon after the crucifixion of Christ, and could never afterward be renewed. And with respect to the prophecies of Daniel, it is remarkable at this remote period how little discrepancy of opinion has existed among the most learned men as to the space from the time of the passing out of the edict to rebuild Jerusalem, after the Babylonish captivity, to the commencement of the Christian era, and the subsequent events foretold in the prophecy. Our design precludes detail; but the minute coincidence of the narrative of the New Testament, and * R. Nehumias, quoted by Grotius de Verit. † Joseph. Ant 17, c. 13 Ib. 18, 5.

the history of the Jews, with the subdivisions of time which it enumerates, are additional attestations of its general accuracy as applicable to Christ. This coincidence is the more striking as it is unnoticed by the relaters of the facts which establish it, and as it has been left, without the possibility of any adaptation of the events, to the discovery of modern chronologists. The following observations of Dr. Samuel Clarke, partly communicated to him, as he acknowledges, by Sir Isaac Newton, elucidate this prophecy so clearly that every reader will forgive their insertion :-" When the angel says to Daniel, Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, &c. was this written after the event? Or can it reasonably be ascribed to chance, that from the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king (when Ezra went up from Babylon unto Jerusalem with a commission to restore the government of the Jews) to the death of Christ (from Ann. Nabon. 290 to Ann. Nabon. 780) should be precisely 490 (70 weeks of) years. When the angel tells Daniel that in threescore and two weeks the street (of Jerusalem) should be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times (but this in troublous times not like those that should be under Messiah the prince when he should come to reign);-was this written after the event? Or can it reasonably be ascribed to chance, that from the 28th year of Artaxerxes, when the walls were finished, to the birth of Christ (from Ann. Nabon. 311 to 745), should be precisely 434 (62 weeks of) years? When Daniel further says, And he shall confirm (or, nevertheless he shall confirm) the covenant with many for one week;-was this written after the event? Or can it reasonably be ascribed to chance, that from the death of Christ (Ann. Dom. 33) to the command given first to Peter to preach to Cornelius and the Gentiles (Ann. Dom. 40) should be exactly seven (one week of) years? When he still adds, And in the midst of the week (and in half a week) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate ;-was this written after the event? Or can it with any reason be ascribed to chance, that from Vespasian's march into Judea in the spring Ann. Dom. 67, to the taking of Jerusalem by Titus in the autumn Ann. Dom. 70, should be half a septenary of years, or three years and a half ?”*

Clarke's Works, fol. edit. vol. ii. p. 721

That the time at which the promised Messiah was to appear is clearly defined in these prophecies; that the expectation of the coming of a great king or deliverer was then prevalent, not only among the Jews, but among all the eastern nations, in consequence of these prophecies; that it afterward excited that people to revolt, and proved the cause of their greater destruction; the impartial and unsuspected evidence of heathen authors is combined with the reluctant and ample testimony of the Jews themselves to attest.

Tacitus, Suetonius, Josephus, and Philo agree in testifying the antiquity of the prophecies, and their acknowledged reference to that period.* Even the Jews to this day own that the time when their Messiah ought to have appeared, according to their prophecies, is long since past; and they attribute the delay of his coming to the sinfulness of their nation. And thus, from the distinct prophecies themselves, from the testimony of profane historians, and from the concessions of the Jews, every requisite proof is afforded that Christ appeared when all the concurring circumstances of the time denoted the prophesied period of his advent.

The predictions contained in the Old Testament, respecting both the family out of which the Messiah was to arise and the place of his birth, are almost as circumstantial, and are equally applicable to Christ, as those which refer to the time of his appearance. He was to be an Israelite, of the tribe of Judah, of the family of David, and of the town of Bethlehem. The two former of these particulars are implied in the promise made to Abraham,-in the prediction of Moses,-in the prophetic benediction of Jacob to Judah,-and in the reason assigned for the superiority of that tribe, because out of it the chief ruler should arise. And the two last, that the Messiah was to be a descendant of David and a native of Bethlehem are expressly affirmed. There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow

*Pluribus persuasio inerat, antiquis sacerdotum libris, contineri-eo ipso tempore fore-ut valesceret Oriens, profectique Judæa, rerum potirentur. Quæ ambages Vespatianum et Titum predixerunt. Sed Vulgus (Judæorum), more humanæ cupidinis, sibi tantum fatorum magnitudinem interpretari, ne adversis, quidem, ad vera mutabantur.-Tacit. Ann. v. 13. Percrebuerat Oriente toto constans opinio esse in fatis, ut eo tempore Judæa profecti, rerum potirentur. Id de imperio Romano, quantum postea eventu patuit, prædictum Judæi ad se habentes, rebellarunt.-Suet. in Vesp. 1. 8, c. 4.-Julius Maranathus, quoted by Suetonius, lib. 2, 93.-Joseph. de Bello, vii. 31.-Philo de Præm. et Pen. p. 923, 4