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destruction of Antichrist. But another still more glorious one shall follow; probably the full conversion of the Gentiles, and the commencement of the Millennium; for (Dan. xii. 12.) we have it further stated, "Blessed be he that waiteth to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days."

Here are, at least, three different periods; twelve hundred and sixty years; twelve hundred and ninety years; and thirteen hundred and thirty-five years. What is the precise time of their beginning, we cannot with certainty determine; consequently, we cannot pronounce as to their ending. TIME alone will develope it as the angel says (verse 9), "the words are closed up, and sealed, till the end of time." But the certainty of what has been wonderfully fulfilled already, is a pledge that eventually "all shall be accomplished."

Upon the whole, then, what an amazing prophecy is this! comprehending so many various events, and extending through so many successive ages, from the first establishment of the Persian empire, five hundred and thirty years before Christ, to the general Resurrection! What a confutation of those falsely called philosophers, who deny the Providence of God! and how strikingly does it manifest that the world is not governed by chance, but by Him who worketh all things according to His own will.

Well did holy Daniel deserve the appellation our Saviour bestowed upon him of " Daniel the Prophet;" as well as the character which Ezekiel hath left of him (chap. xiv. 20, and xxviii. 3), for his piety and wisdom. Indeed these go together; for, as the angel saith (verse 10), "none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand." Happy, then, are they who both know the will of God and do it!

BOOK II.

DISSERTATION XVIII.

OUR SAVIOUR's Prophecies relating to the DESTRUCTION OF JERusalem.

SECTION 1.

THE Jewish Church, consisting of one single nation, living under a Theocracy', or the immediate government of God, experienced continual Divine interpositions in its favour, and was instructed by Prophets raised up in succession, as circumstances might require. Whereas, the Christian church, being designed to comprehend the whole world, was, like the natural world, at first erected by miracle; but, like it also, it

! See Part II. GRAVES; Book I. Chap. I. page 174.

has since been governed by ordinary providence, and through the medium of second causes. Hence Prophecies and Miracles, which were so frequently peated, and so long continued, in the Jewish Church, were confined, in the Christian Church, to the first ages, and limited chiefly to our Saviour, and His immediate disciples and their associates.

We have statements in the New Testament of prophecies being delivered by different persons. (Acts xi. 27, 28; xxi. 10, 11, &c.) But the only ones which the Spirit of God hath specially recorded, are some by our Saviour and His Apostles, particularly St. Paul and St. John.

Our blessed SAVIOUR (the great subject of prophecy) was an eminent prophet himself; and proved His divine mission, as well by miracles as by prophecies also; showing thereby, as He himself stated (John xiii. 19.), that He was, indeed, the promised Messiah. He foretold His own Passion, Death, and Resurrection, with all the minute circumstances thereof; such as His betrayal, the desertion and denial of Himself, &c. He foretold the power from on high, wherewith His Apostles should be endued; and, though poor fishermen, be enabled to propagate his religion to the uttermost parts of the earth. He foretold the rejection of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles; and the wonderful and amazing increase of His Church, which

should be so founded upon a rock, that "the gates of hell should never prevail against it." Some of these things have been already accomplished, and others are in the course of completion at this present time.

But the most remarkable prophecies of our Saviour, are those relating to the DESTRUCtion of JerusaLEM, as they are recorded in the twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew, together with the super-added particulars given by the other Evangelists St. Mark and St. Luke, on parallel occasions. These Gospels, it is admitted on all hands, were all published some years before the events they predict. And if the circumstance of these events being interwoven in various places into the very substance of the Gospel narrative, did not of itself cut off all pretence of interpolation, yet the fact that we see some of them in the course of fulfilment at this very day, would be a complete answer to any objection on that head1.

Our Saviour had been, with most compassionate feelings, pronouncing the sentence of desolation upon Jerusalem (Matt. xxiii. 37, 38.); even weeping over its impending fate (Luke xix. 41, 42.). And as He was departing out of the Temple, "his disciples came

'It is worthy of remark, that St. John was the only Evangelist who lived and wrote after the destruction of Jerusalem, and he omits these prophecies; as if purposely to prevent this very cavil that some have raised of their being written after the events they describe.

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