many, and make many proselytes to their religion ; neither did the persecution, which Antiochus raised against the Jews, continue many days, or years, according to the prophetic style, for it lasted only a few years."*

We shall direct our attention, in the first place, to the latter of these objections. The Hebrews, we know, numbered their years by weeks, or sevens, as well as their days; and out of that practice naturally arose a habit of expressing any number of years by an equal number of days; and even of representing numbers of years, in the aggregate, as composed of weeks, months, and times, or years, of years. It is unquestionable, that this is a form of reckoning time introduced in some of the prophetic writings. It is expressly introduced in Ezekiel iv. 5, 6. The proofs appear very satisfactory, that it is the method of reckoning time, in some of the preceding prophecies of Daniel. There exists not the least doubt, that it is so, in the prophecy of the seventy weeks. There is a very high presumption, that it is so, also, in the vision of the four monarchies, in the seventh chapter, and in the distinct prophecy of the evenings and mornings of the eighth chapter; although, in these, we cannot demonstrate the exact measures of the times, by shewing their commence. ments and conclusions; as the prediction of the evenings and mornings is, obviously, not yet fulfilled, and the concluding part of the vision of the four monarchies appears to be in the same condition. It is not, however, at all apparent, that the same method of reckoning time is

*Dissert. xvii.

+ Leviticus xxv. 8.

employed in this last vision of Daniel. At the introduction of the account of the vision, the prophet uses the term day, obviously, in its most common acceptation, as expressing one diurnal revolution of the heavenly bodies. In those days," says he, “I Daniel was mourning three weeks of days. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all till three weeks of days were fulfilled."* Here we have the term day three times used, obviously in its most common sense. Are we not entitled to look at this as a guide to the meaning of the term, as it is employed every where else in the vision? It appears, at least, an index to the meaning of it, in the 13th verse of the tenth chapter, since the number of days there reckoned," one and twenty days," agrees with that of the days of Daniel's fasting. There is nothing, in the prophecy itself, to indicate, that the term is afterwards used in any different sense; and we trust to be able to shew, satisfactorily, that the 1290 and 1335 days, of the 11th and 12th verses of the succeeding xii. chapter, admit of a good explanation, taken as natural days, and not as days numbered for years, when we come to illustrate these verses. The time mentioned, then, in the 33d verse immediately under consideration, might not bear out Bishop Newton in his objection respecting it, even although the text expressed many days. But we observe, further, that he has fallen into an error here, by attending only to our common translation, and not to the original. We have already seen,

* Daniel x. 2, 3. The marginal translation, which is literal.

K

that there is no term in the original to authorise the addition, many, to days. That has only days; and therefore does not imply any such length of time, as would be inconsistent with the duration of the persecution of the Jewish people, by Antiochus Epiphanes. One of the objections thus entirely fails; and the other is of no more validity. The force of it lies in the interpretation that Bishop Newton puts upon the word instruct,-which isto make proselytes to the Jewish religion. But there are the strongest objections to this interpretation. The Jews were a peculiar people, separated, for a time, to answer highly important ends, from all the other nations of the earth. The religious institutions, which they received by revelation from God, were, many of them, adapted to their peculiar and separated state; and many could be strictly adhered to, only by those who were inhabitants of the ancient Canaan.. Their religion, therefore, in its entire completeness, did not admit of a universal diffusion; and, accordingly, although they were enjoined to treat with kindness those of other nations, who might freely join themselves to them, and to admit them to partake of certain religious privileges,-some after shorter, and others after longer intervals of time,*-yet they had no appointed means nor instructions given them, to proselytize other nations. It was only when He, who is a light to lighten the Gentiles, as well as the glory of his people Israel, revealed a pure and spiritual religion, adapted to every individual of the human race, of whatever nation, or con

* Deuteronomy xxiii. 3. 8.

dition of life, that He gave injunctions to his church to teach all nations, and to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.* It was not, then, the business of Jewish teachers, as it is now of the disciples of Christ, to go forth to make many proselytes to their religion. It was their business to teach their own countrymen, the descendants of Israel,-to instruct them in those doctrines and laws, which were revealed peculiarly to their nation, to exhort them to a stedfast adherence to them,— and to warn them against the evil and danger of departing from them, and adopting the debasing and demoralizing superstitions of the heathens.

Now, in this way, it may be truly said of the teachers of the Jewish people, in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, that they did, indeed, "instruct many"-many of their countrymen, who, under the terrors of a cruel persecution, and amidst an extensive defection of their nation, were in danger of deserting their religious faith and obedience.

There are several of their sublime and heart-stirring speeches, and instructions, handed down to us in the two First Books of Maccabees; and many of these were, in point of fact, the instructions of those, who were the authorized and legitimate teachers of the Jewish people,— of those, whose duty it was to cause them to be wise. It was the appointed province of the Sons of Aaron "to teach the children of Israel all the statutes, which the Lord had spoken unto them, by the hand of Moses."+ And the Levites were "to teach Jacob God's judgments, and

* Matthew xxviii. 19; Mark xvi. 15.

† Leviticus x. 11.

Israel his law."*

The priests and Levites were thus the teachers of the Jews, according to their law; and we have therefore good ground to interpret the terms of the prophet, "They that cause to be wise," as signifying those functionaries. In accordance with the prediction of the prophet, that their teachers would instruct many, we find, that the man, who, both by his exhortations and example, first instructed many of the Jewish people to stem the torrent of defection, and to remain faithful to the cause of revealed religion, in defiance of the persecution of Antiochus, was of the family of Aaron. "In those days arose Mattathias, the son of John, the son of Simeon, a priest of the sons of Joarib." He first led the way in resistance to that violence and treachery, which threatened to exterminate the name of the Jews, and to blot out the knowledge, and even the remembrance, of their divine religion. He commenced that noble struggle, in behalf of God and his law, which issued in the expulsion of the enemies of both from the Jewish territories, and in the re-establishment of the institutions of Moses, in full freedom and security. Thus he instructed many.

His verbal instructions, and those of his sons and coadjutors, are of a quality that calls for our high approval and admiration. They were eminently adapted to the trying period in which they lived; and are not to be surpassed in piety, and stirring eloquence, by any thing, not in the book of divine revelation. We consider them too long for insertion here; but we refer, in proof of the just

* Deuteronomy xxxiii. 10.

+ 1st Maccabees ii. 1.