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It is thus quite evident, from the Old Testament Scriptures, that at the period when Israel is cast off from being the people of God, the Lord takes to himself a people from among the Gentiles. Now, where will the Jews look for this people of God, unless it be among the Christians? It is apparent that the Mahommedans, and those who continue in Pagan idolatry, are not the people of God; and as I suppose the Jews will agree with us in this point, it seems unnecessary to enter upon the proof of it. It only remains, therefore, that the people of God are among those nations which profess the Christian faith ;* and, if so, it follows, undeniably, that Jesus is the Messiah.

* When I say that the people of God are among those nations who profess the Christian faith, I mean to distinguish between real Christians, and those who bear that name only, but by wicked works deny the faith. It is to the first only that the honourable appellation of the people of God belongs. And no candid Jew will object to a distinction, which is equally to be found in the Old Testament history of the church of Israel.

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I SHALL Consider this harmony, first, as it relates to the view taken both in the Hebrew Scriptures, and those of the New Testament, of the present and future condition of the Jewish nation.

The ancient prophets are unanimous in declaring, that the great national redemption and restoration of Israel are to happen when the Roman kingdom (the fourth beast of Daniel, and the Edom of Isaiah,) is destroyed: and, from the prophecies of Daniel we learn, (vii. 26.) that the destruction of the fourth beast, i. e. the

Roman empire, is to commence at the conclusion of a certain period which is called a time, times, and the dividing of time; i. e. one year, two years, and half a year, or three years and a half. Christian writers have shown, with abundant clearness, that this period, being reduced to days, is equal to twelve hundred and sixty days; and they are pretty generally agreed in sentiment, that each of these prophetical days signifies a year; and that, consequently, the true period announced by Daniel, when the destruction of the Roman empire is to commence, is twelve hundred and sixty years; but from what particular era this period is to be dated, remains, as yet, a disputed point. It is also probable, from the concluding chapter of Daniel's prophecies, that the destruction of the Roman empire will occupy a space of about thirty years, being the difference between the above-mentioned period of twelve hundred and sixty days, and another period of twelve hundred and ninety days, announced to Daniel by the angel, in chap. xii. 11.

Now, in the most exact harmony with the prophecies of Isaiah and Daniel, Jesus, after predicting with wonderful minuteness the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, informs his disciples, (Luke xxi. 24.) They' (the Jews) shall fall by the edge of the sword, and 'shall be led away captive into all nations; and 'Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gen

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tiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.' By the times of the Gentiles, we are certainly to understand the period allotted for the duration of the four Gentile monarchies; and Jesus seems to have had a particular reference to the time, times, and half a time, or twelve hundred and sixty days of Daniel, at the expiration of which the destruction of the Roman monarchy was to commence. Till this period, therefore, Jerusalem is trodden under foot of the Gentiles, according to the prediction of Jesus; and then commences that awful series of judgments on the nations composing the empire of Rome, or Edom, which is to issue in the destruction of that empire, and the national redemption of Israel.

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These judgments are described in Luke xxi., in the same symbolical language as is used in Isaiah xxxiv. 4, to signify the dissolution of the heavens politic at the destruction of Rome. Thus Jesus declares, there shall be 'signs in the sun, moon, and stars;' and Isaiah says, the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all their host shall fall down.'

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It appears, therefore, that Jesus speaks precisely the same language as the prophets of the Old Testament, with regard to the time when the Jews are to be restored; and is not this an evidence of the most powerful nature of his For it is inconsistent with all our ideas of the perfections of God to suppose, that if Jesus had been an impostor, or an enthusiast, he would have been so far enlightened as to be enabled to discover the exact meaning of the prophecies of the Old Testament; which were, at the time of his appearance, so little understood by the best-informed of the Jewish nation, that it is plain they expected the immediate fulfilment of the predictions respecting

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