in general think it, incumbent on us to shew, that the seventy weeks reached to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple; because in fact the oblation did not cease till that catastrophe: and then indeed we might be reduced to some expedient similar to the shortening the end of a 'thing;' but we are under no necessity of having recourse to so desperate a measure. If Jesus be the Messiah, (and, if this prophecy relate to the Messiah, that question is decided,) then our interpretation of its language must be taken from Christianity. Now Christians consider, and must consider, all the typical sacrifices and oblations as virtually abolished, when the one great Sacrifice for sin had been offered. They might be tolerated, and attended on by Jewish converts to Christianity, as a matter of expediency, and till they better understood their Christian liberty; but they ceased to be "shadows of good things to "come," ," instituted acts of worship, and ' means ' of grace.' Commemoration immediately succeeded to prefiguration: Christian ordinances to Jewish and from the time when Jesus expired on the cross, when the veil of the temple was "rent from the top to the bottom," the dispensation of the Messiah superseded that of Moses. Sacrifice and oblation ceased, as required or accepted by God, from those who neglected the salvation of Christ, and the whole became as a cancelled bond. 1

This was not, indeed, fully understood, for some time, even by the first preachers of Christianity;

' Col. ii. 14.

and, if we adopt the opinion of those who compute, that the last week of the seventy reached till two or three years after the death of Jesus; till his gospel had been fully offered to the Jews as a nation, and rejected by them; or till the gentiles began to be admitted into the Christian church; our general conclusion will not be in the least affected. From this period, according to Christianity, the Jews, as such, ceased to be the people of God, who now " called his people by another "name." The nation was from that time left in the condition of a condemned criminal; yet “the long-suffering of God waited, as in the days of Noah," that individuals "might save themselves "from that untoward generation." Of this longsuffering many tens and hundreds of thousands availed themselves: but, when the time predicted by our Lord arrived, before " that generation had "passed away," the term of God's long-suffering having expired, he fulfilled the rest of Daniel's prophecy: "And the people of the prince, that "shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a "flood; and to the end of the war desolations are "determined." "The overspreading of abom"ination shall make it desolate, even until the "consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." Then the virtual abolition of the sacrifice and oblation became actual; yea, the observance of the law of sacrifices became impracticable, as it has now been for above 1700 years. But no date is in the pro

VOL. IX.

'Isaiah lxv. 15. Acts xi. 26.

phecy explicitly fixed to any event subsequent to Messiah's death, and the "confirming of his cove"nant with many."

It would be wholly unsuitable to the object of this publication, to enter, critically and fully, into the expressions used by the angel Gabriel in the twenty-fourth verse.1 Perhaps to "finish the "transgression" means, the commission of that crime by the Jewish nation, as the counsel of their rulers, scribes, and priests, adopted by the people, (when, demanding the crucifixion of Jesus, they exclaimed, " His blood be on us and on our "children; 2) by which the measure of their guilt was filled up for the original word is not used by Moses for any of the legal sacrifices. "To "make an end of sin," or of sin-offering, (as the word is often used) evidently means, to abrogate the laws of sin-offerings. "To make reconcilia"tion for iniquity, and bring in everlasting righ"teousness," can mean nothing less, than to offer that atonement, and finish that righteousness, by which all the people of the Messiah should be pardoned, reconciled to God, justified, made holy, and eternally saved. "To seal up the vision and "prophecy," or "the Prophet," means, to fulfil, and seal as accomplished, all the visions and predictions of the prophets concerning the Messiah, and to seal him as the prophet of the new dispensation ; "For him hath God the Father "sealed."3 "And to anoint the most holy," either the "Holy One of God," or the true "holy

1

Mr. C. in quoting Daniel's prophecy, has wholly omitted three out of the five verses of which it consists.

2 Matt. xxvii, 25.

3 John vi. 27.

"of holies;" of which that of the tabernacle, consecrated by anointing, was a type and shadow.ad It is not material to our argument, whether the very best interpretation of all the clauses is here adopted, or not; and I am very willing that others should interpret some of them differently: but, however interpreted, they must all have had their fulfilment in the Messiah here predicted; for the time has long since expired: as also must the clauses," He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week," and " he shall cause the "sacrifice and oblation to cease."-Mr. C. stops in his quotation at the end of the 26th verse; but the reader's attention must be called to the concluding verse: "And he shall confirm the cove"nant with many for one week: and in the midst "of the week he shall cause the oblation to cease, "and for the overspreading of abominations he "shall make it desolate, even until the consum"mation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." It is obvious to consider "Messiah the Prince" as the person spoken of, who would do all these things. JEHOVAH is not mentioned; and it is not easy to conceive in what sense the Roman emperor, of whom some would interpret it, could be said " to confirm the covenant with many for one week." But I here only draw the reader's attention to the language: the prophecy will come before us on other topics, when some of the expressions will be more fully considered. At present we must keep to the main argument; namely, to prove that the Mes

'Ex. xxx. 23-26. xl. 9. Heb. ix. 22-25.

* Dan. ix, 27.

Isiah was to come before the destruction of the second temple.

Is then the Messiah predicted by all the prophets here intended, or is some other person? The words," Messiah the Prince," are in fact more explicit than those used in any other part of scripture. Nothing can be more natural and easy than the application of every clause to Jesus Christ, according to the New Testament: but, if a Jew (as he must, continuing a Jew,) reject this application, let him shew in whom not only one or two clauses may seem to have been fulfilled; but in whom, and in what events, each part and expression of the prophecy, without exception, received its accomplishment.

We may now close this part of the argument, by briefly adverting to what Mr. C. has advanced against the Christian interpretation. (P. 18.1. 3.) That which relates to the seventy weeks, and the time when Messiah should be cut off, has been fully considered. Jesus was crucified at the time predicted, and the several consequences followed, as foretold by the prophet.

The

P. 19. 1.8. Not one of the apostles,' &c apostles adduced those parts of the Old Testament which their argument required: but they never professed to bring forward every prediction of the Messiah contained in it. Several, even of those which the Jews allow to have been spoken of the Messiah, are not quoted: so that their silence is no proof that they could not have thought of 'such a thing.' But there might be special rea