And our Lord himself, in the midst of the week, caused the facrifice and oblation to cease; for at that time, having completed the exercife of his divine miffion in exactly the space of three years and a half, he fulfilled the great object of the ceremonial Law, which was the type of atonement for fin by the facrifice of himself upon the crofs. The facts thus predicted by Daniel will not agree with the ravages committed by Antiochus Epiphanes in Judea, great and atrocious as they were. He proceeded indeed to pollute the Temple, but he did not entirely destroy it; neither did he exhaust Jerufalem of all its inhabitants. The Jews at the close of his wars were restored to peace, but, on the contrary, at the period foretold by Daniel, the defolation was to begin, and the city and fanctuary were to be deftroyed. So confident were the Jews, as to the precife application of the Prophecy, that this faying is ftill extant in the Talmud, as the tradition of very ancient times h. Daniel is delivered to us 'the end of the Meffiah;"—that is, the period at which he ought to come, as Jarchi, a celebrated doctor of the A Chandler's Defence, p. 116. "In Law, Law, explains it. Nehumias, likewise a learned Rabbi, who lived fifty years before the Chriftian era, declared, that the time fixed by Daniel for the Meffiah could not be more than fifty years before it was accomplifhed." Jofephus obferves, that "Daniel did not only predict things to come, which was common to him with other Prophets, but also a certain fixed time when they were to take place. He did not only foretel the calamity. that afflicted our nation by Antiochus many years before it happened; but he also wrote of the dominion of the Romans, and of the great defolation they should hereafter bring upon Judea." In no paffage, except in this Prophecy of the 70 weeks, does Daniel fpeak of the desolation which his country was to fuffer from the Romans, and in no other paffage is a precife time fixed for these events. We may therefore be confident, that Jofephus referred to this particular Prophecy. And, indeed, it is acknowledged by the Jews themselves, that at the time when Jefus appeared, the Meffiah was expected; and that the period, which Daniel had fixed, expired a fhort time before the City and Temple were deftroyed by Titus i Jofeph. Antiq. lib. x. c. 11. before before the customary facrifices were abolished and before the Jewish government was overthrown *. How ftrong this expectation was among the Jews, and how general throughout the world, is evident from both facred and profane hiftorians. The Scriptures inform us, that at the precife time when our Saviour appeared, the Jews expected fome perfon endowed with fuch qualities, and distinguished by fuch actions, as the facred writers attribute to the Meffiah. Not only Simeon, and Anna the Prophetess "waited for the confolation of Ifrael," but many other devout perfons were infpired with the fame hope, and thought that the Kingdom of God was at hand. This expectation was not confined to the vulgar and illiterate; for as foon as John * Ferguson, the celebrated Astronomer, wrote a Treatife on the year of our Saviour's crucifixion. He illuftrates this Prophecy of Daniel by applying to it the rules and calculations of his favourite fcience, He concludes his Treatife with the following words" Thus we have an Aftronomical demonftration of the truth of this ancient Prophecy, feeing that the Prophetic year of the Meffiah's being cut off was the very fame with the Aftro'nomical." 1 Luke ii. 25, &c, the the Baptift began to preach, a deputation of Priefts and Levites was fent to afk him, whether he was the Christ m. When the people faw the miracles of our Lord, they concluded that their promised king would immediately be manifested". And. conftantly cherishing the pleafing hope of his arrival, they asked the Scribes and Pharifees that remarkable question, "When Chrift cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?” Convinced by his wonderful works, many openly acknowledged, "this is in truth the Prophet who was to come into the world." The jealoufy, which Herod entertained against Chrift, proceeded from an apprehenfion that he would declare himfelf the expected King of the Jews; and Jofephus expressly fays P, That the chief motive, which instigated the Jews to rebel against the Romans, was, a Prophecy found in the Scriptures, that at that time a person should arise from their country, who should obtain the empire of the world." The Samaritans entertained the fame hope, not fo much derived from the Jews, John i. 19. n Luke xix. II. • John vii. 31. whom whom they hated, as from the testimony of the Scriptures themselves, and the most ancient traditions and interpretations of Scripture. It is a very striking fact in proof of the general belief of the Jewish nation respecting the time of the Meffiah's appearance, that from the death of Herod the Great, when Judas of Galilee and Simon first affumed the title of Kings and Deliverers of the Jews, to the destruction of the Temple, the Jewish history is filled with the names and actions of falfe Chrifts and false Prophets, who deceived both the Jews and the amaritans None appeared before this riod, and not more than one for five or fix centuries after it. pe According as the Reader shall reject or admit the hypothefis concerning the religion of the eastern nations, which many learned authors have laboured to establish, he will fuppofe the general expectation which pre See Maurice's Indian Ant. and Hift. and Afiatic Researches, where the mafs of evidence collected upon this curious and important subject will be found fufficiently strong to baffle the attacks of modern philofophy. |