Page images
PDF
EPUB

There may be some truth in such a reply: but, however we may theoretically assent to certain of the positions contained in it, I doubt whether in practice it will not greatly tend to slacken our efforts; for it is not in our nature to work heartily, if we have but a very faint, or uncertain, or trifling prospect of success. Wherever this is the case, let it be right, or let it be wrong, still, so far as regards simple matter of fact, we are all inclined to turn our exertions from a less promising to a more promising field and I think it far from clear, whether such an answer be not one of the most prejudicial to the cause of Jewish missions that could have been devised. But, however this may be, the answer, in the present day at least, is happily quite wide of the mark: the real and proper answer to the question is; that we have full reason to hope for success in the national conversion of the Jews, because the appointed time of its accomplishment is near at hand, so near in truth as to be, comparatively at least, at our very doors.

:

1. Men, who have paid little or no attention to the subject, are apt to speak of the conversion of Judah as a matter left wholly uncertain and undetermined in point of chronology.

(1.) Now this is very far from being the case; so far, indeed, that the restoration and attendant conversion of the Jews is distinctly and definitely fixed to one special chronological epoch.

Exactly on the same mixed principles of arithmetick and history, that Daniel calculated the approaching return of his people from Babylon, and that the Hebrew contemporaries and immediate successors of our Lord calculated the speedy manifestation of the promised Messiah; on those identical principles, may we calculate the rapidly approaching conversion and restoration of Judah.

Nor let it be idly pretended, that, to make such a calculation, we ourselves need to be inspired. There is not the slightest reason to suppose, that even Daniel was inspired for the mere purpose of computing the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity; in respect to this matter, he describes himself, not as authoritatively speaking under the influence of inspiration, but as simply turning to the book of the prophet Jeremiah, and as thence understanding (just as any other person might understand) that the predicted seventy years must have been well nigh accomplished in the desolations of Jerusalem.* Still less reason is there to ascribe any inspiration to those, who, at the time of our Lord's nativity, were looking for the promised redemption:† the ground of their hope was doubtless a calculation of the seventy prophetick weeks, made, not by virtue of any special light communicated from heaven, but simply and solely as they would make any other numerical calculation. Yet, taken in a large sense, each calculation was established by the event.

I do not apprehend either that Daniel could learn, from the number specified by Jeremiah, the exact year in which Judah should return from Babylon; or that the Hebrews in the time of our Lord, could learn, from the number specified by Daniel, the exact year in which the

7

Daniel ix. 2.

GOSPEL ADVOCATE, VOL. III.

+ Luke ii. 38.

Messiah should be manifested. The reason of this mingled certainty and uncertainty is well known to those, who have paid any attention to the study of prophecy. A priori, the seventy years of Jeremiah might be plausibly computed from more than a single era: Daniel therefore would, in general, be certain, that they must nearly have run out, because seventy years had elapsed from the sacking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar; though, in particular, from his not assuredly knowing the precise era from which they ought to be computed, he would be uncertain as to the exact year of their expiration. In a similar manner, the seventy weeks of Daniel might, a priori, be plausibly reckoned from more than one edict of the Persian sovereigns: the Hebrews, therefore, in the time of our Lord, would be certain, in general, that they must nearly have run out, because from their own historical documents, they well knew the dates of those several edicts; though, in particular, from their necessary ignorance as to which of the edicts ought to be esteemed the true date of the period, they would be uncertain as to the exact year when it would terminate.

Accordingly, from this very mixture of certainty and uncertainty, an expectation of the promised Messiah commenced some years before the birth of Christ, and it continued on the same avowed principle of calculation, among the unconverted Jews, until the very sacking of Jerusalem by Titus. The event proved them generally in the right: for it might be certainly known, that the Messiah would appear at some point within the limits of an easily specified period; though, for the obvious reasons which have been alleged, it was uncertain, in particular, at what precise point within the limits of the period in question, his manifestation would take place.*

(2.) On this same principle it is, that we may safely pronounce the conversion and restoration of the Jews to be near at hand; though, a priori, no man can be absolutely certain as to the exact year.

Very plausible conjectures indeed may be made, even in regard to the precise year: but still they are only conjectures. We are certain, in general, as to the period about which the Jews will be converted and restored we are uncertain, in particular, as to the exact point of time when that great event will occur.

The reason of this mingled certainty and uncertainty, is the very same as that, which has been already assigned in the two cases of the seventy years and the seventy weeks: the period, which defines the restoration of Judah, may be plausibly reckoned from more than a single era; and, though we know in general that this period must have nearly run out, yet, as we neither do nor can know with absolute certainty the specifick era whence it ought to be computed, so neither can we know with absolute certainty the precise time of its expiration.

The period in question is that, which, by Daniel and St. John, is variously expressed as three times and a half, or forty-two months, or 1260 days and these times, and months, and days, are undoubtedly to be understood, like Daniel's seventy weeks, not naturally, but pro

* See my Dissert. on Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks, p. 188–196.

phetically; in other words, the allotted period is equivalent, when the universal necessity and certain Hebrew practice of intercalation is considered, to 1260 natural solar years.*

Now, as Mede and our best expositors rightly understand him, Daniel expressly fixes the restoration of the Jews to the end of this period. The wonders, which the prophet has been foretelling, are all to be fulfilled when the period of 1260 years shall expire: but the scattering of the holy people among all nations is to be finished, when the wonders shall be fulfilled therefore the scattering of the holy people is to be finished, when the period of 1260 years shall expire.†

(3.) I am fully aware, that some moderns, anxious to maintain their favourite opinion, that the 1260 years have already expired, and clearly enough perceiving that such an opinion cannot stand with the old and true exposition of Daniel's declaration, have endeavoured to set aside that exposition.

With this view, they contend, that by the holy people, we are not to understand the Jews, but certain pious Christians who are elsewhere described as living in a state of persecution during this same term of 1260 years. Such a gloss, however, though doubtless necessary to serve an expository turn, as it was never dreamed of by Mede and those who had no particular turn to serve, so it is utterly irreconcileable both with the whole context of the passage, and with the particular phraseology of the passage itself.

As for the context, the revealing angel informs Daniel, that, during that period of unexampled trouble, in the course of which antichrist with his rebel host is destroyed, and which itself is always described as occurring at the close of the 1260 years, the people of the prophet shall certainly be delivered: and immediately afterwards it is added, that these 1260 years, or three times and a balf, will expire, when the predicted wonders shall have been accomplished, and when the scattering of the holy people shall be finished.§

Now, what would Daniel himself, what would any Jew, what would any unprejudiced person, understand by such declarations? Would it ever be for one moment imagined, that by the people of the prophet and by the holy people were meant, not the Jews, but certain pious Gentile Christians (the spiritual people, I presume it would be said, of Daniel) who, in quite a different prediction,|| are represented as being in a state of persecution during the same period of three times and a half? Certainly, when the angel said to Daniel, at that time THY people shall be delivered, the prophet would obviously conclude, that his own literal people, or the house of Judah, was intended and afterwards, when he heard it further declared that the scattering of the holy peo

See my Dissert. on Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks, chap. i.

+ Dan. xii. 6, 7. See Mede's Clav. Apoc. par. ii. synch. 5. Works, book iii. chap. 4. p. 596. Treatise on Daniel's Weeks. Works. book iii. p. 709. book iv. epist. 12. p. 753. epist. 8. p. 744. Bishop Newton's Dissert. vol. ii. p. 192. vol. iii. p. 392. Wintle on Dan. xii. 7. Lowth on Dan, xii, 7.

Daniel vii. 25.
Ibid. xii. 1-7.

|| Dan. vii. 25.

Ibid. xii. 1.

ple should be finished at the close of the three times and a half, he would just as obviously conclude, that by the holy people was meant his own people, of whom the angel immediately before had been speaking; and whose deliverance he had fixed to an epoch, which (as all agree) coincides with the termination of the three times and a half ;* a conclusion, to which he would be the more naturally led, from the application of the epithet, holy, so familiar to Jewish ears whenever either the nation or the metropolitan city was spoken of.†

So again, if we advert to the peculiar phraseology of the passage itself, we shall still find the same interpretation irresistibly forced upon

us.

Daniel's people, or the holy people, is said to have been SCATTERED: and this their SCATTERING is to be finished at the close of the three times and a half. What then are we to understand by the SCATTERING or the DISPERSION, here predicated of Daniel's holy people? And who are the people thus SCATTERED or DISPERSED for a season, and at length at the end of the three times and a half brought back from this their SCATTERING OF DISPERSION? Shall we say, that this dispersed people are certain pious Gentile Christians, who labour under persecution during the term of 1260 years? These good men have doubtless lived, according to the several places of their nativity, some in Bohemia, some in Germany, some in Savoy, some in Provence, some in England but can this diversity of local habitation be meant by the Spirit of God, when he so emphatically speaks of the SCATTERING of Daniel's holy people; and is it from such a scattering that they are all to be gathered together into some one particular region at the close of the appointed period? Surely this is a mere childish trifling with words : and yet, save such partial emigrations as those produced by the revocation of the edict of Nantz, or by the synchronical persecution of the Waldenses, it is not easy to point out any other scattering, which the harassed Christians of the middle ages have experienced. What then is the result, which (I think) inevitably springs from the peculiar phraseology of the passage? Clearly it is this: that Daniel's people, who are said to be scattered, and whose scattering is accomplished or finished at the end of the three times and a half, can only be the natural house of Judah, the remarkable circumstance of whose dispersion is notorious and familiar to the whole world.

(4.) This old and (if I mistake not) irrefragable interpretation of the passage exactly agrees with the parallel prophecies of our Lord and St. Paul for all the three, in truth, mutually elucidate and corroborate each other.

Our Lord assures us, that the Jews" shall be led away captive into all nations and that Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles,

* The deliverance of Daniel's people is declared to synchronize with the last expedition and destruction of antichrist; but this event occurs at the close of the 1260 years therefore, also, at the close of the same period, Daniel's people is delivered.

+ Exod. xix. 6, Ezra ix. 2, Isaiah vi. 13, xxvii. 13, lxiv. 10, 11. Zech. ii. 12, Psalm lxvii. 17.

until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."* Here, a fixed term is assigned for the end of the captivity or dispersion of Judah; and that fixed term is the expiration of the times of the Gentiles. What then are these times of the Gentiles; and to what does our Lord refer, when he thus speaks of them? He refers, I think, plainly enough to the very passage in Daniel which we have been considering; for such an expression as the times of the Gentiles is not to be deemed a mere arbitrary and accidental phrase; a phrase then first employed; a phrase wholly indefinite; a phrase which has no relation to inore ancient prophecies. Accordingly," the captivity of Judah among all nations," foretold by our Lord, corresponds with the "scattering of the holy people," mentioned by Daniel: and "the mighty revolutions in the course of which the captivity of Judah is to be turned," as announced in the prophecy of Christ, answer to the period of unexampled trouble during which the people of Daniel is to be delivered," as predicted in the oracle of the Hebrew seer.t Such being the case, the times of the Gentiles," as Mede long since rightly pronounced, are the same period as "the three times and a half :" unless indeed, what however will make no difference in regard to termination, we may rather choose to identify them with that integral term of seven times, the latter moiety of which is the celebrated three times and a half of Daniel and St. John, and the complete duration of which measures the chronological length of the four great Gentile empires, when computed from the birth of Nebuchadnezzar the head of gold. Hence it follows, that our Lord, thus confirming and explaining the oracle of Daniel, similarly declares, that the captivity or scattering of Judah shall come to an end when the three times and a half shall expire.

In like manner, St. Paul teaches, that" blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come."§ The apostle does not mean to say, as many have erroneously understood him, that the fulness of the Gentile converts must come into the church, before blindness shall depart from Israel; for, if he did, he would contradict the whole tenor of prophecy, which makes the conversion of Judah precede and produce the general conversion of the Gentiles, not succeed and be produced by it. But he means to say, that Israel for the most part will remain in a state of spiritual blindness, until the fulness or the accomplishment of the times of the Gentiles shall arrive. He refers to the prophecy of our Lord, just as our Lord referred to the propheof Daniel; and thus all the three agree in telling us, that Judah will be restored and in part converted at the close of the times of the Gentiles, or of the three times and a half, or of the 1260 years.

cy

*Luke xxi. 23, 24. + Compare Luke xxi. 23-27, with Dan. xii. 1-7. The period of seven times, which is the root of the well-known three times and a half, is discussed at considerable length, in its relation both to the four Gentile empires collectively, and to the Roman empire singly, in a MS. work on prophecy, which at some future time I may possibly publish. The measure of these seven times is the great metallick image. See Dan. ii.

Rom. xi. 25.

See my connected View of the Prophecies, relative to the restoration of Judah, Proph xliii.

« PreviousContinue »