reject and blaspheme him, for a period of eighteen centuries. Now, it cannot be maintained by a candid Jew, that his nation are qualified to act as impartial judges in this matter; for this were to say, that a man may, at once, act the part of a party and a judge, which is contrary to all the received maxims of human jurisprudence, as well, indeed, as of common sense. The candid Jew must therefore admit, that he comes to the examination of this question under circumstances peculiarly unfavourable; and that, even if the truth be on the side of Christianity, he is under a strong bias against the truth, and has strong temptations to resist and reject its evidence.

If there be candid and reasonable men among the Jews, these considerations ought surely to render them suspicious of themselves; and it certainly is a part of the character of every serious and humble inquirer into divine truth, to examine himself narrowly, lest he should unfortunately be under any secret bias against the system, into the merits and evidence of

which he is searching. Neither can it have escaped the observation of candid. Jews, that many well-informed and learned persons of the Gentile nations, among whom they are scattered, have, at one time, doubted the truth of Christianity; and yet, on more mature examination, have become sincere converts to it. All these persons have maintained, that the evidence of the divine mission of Christ from the prophecies of the Old Testament, is of the strongest and most powerful nature; and when the Jew asserts the contrary of this, he should at least remember, that he is under the strongest temptation to make this assertion, even if it be false, and to shut his eyes against the evidence which Christians commonly refer to, in support of the pretensions of the founder of their religion. Let, then, the candid and humble Jew only come to the examination of this question, with that degree of self-diffidence which becomes the serious inquirer into divine truth. In opening the Old Testament, let him bend his knee in humble prayer and supplication to

E

the God of his fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, that He may condescend to illuminate his mind to see and embrace the truth; and Christians will then have little doubt of the result of an investigation entered upon with such a spirit.

Indeed, it deserves the particular attention of the candid Jew, that this spirit of self-diffidence, and a sense of his need of divine illumination, is not to be found in the pages of David Levi. We do not see, in his work, the same spirit which animated the pious psalmist, the sweet singer of Israel, when he uttered such petitions as the following With my whole heart have "I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy • commandments. Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. "Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me thy

.

statutes.' (Psalm cxix. 10-12.) And again,

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. I am a stranger "on the earth, hide not thy commandments from me.' (Ibid. 18, 19.) Again, the psalmist

I

prays, Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy 'statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole ' heart. Make me to go in the path of thy com'mandments, for therein do I delight.'

In

another Psalm, the xxv., David prays, Show

me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. 'Lead me in thy truth, and teach me; for thou

art the God of my salvation; on thee do I • wait all the day.'

It appears from these passages, that the psalmist was deeply and habitually impressed with a sense of his own blindness, and need of the divine teaching, in order to understand the law of God. O that there were, in the minds of the modern Jews, the same sense of their great and absolute need of illumination from the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, in order to their understanding the prophecies relative to the Messiah!

Having made these general observations, I shall now endeavour to show, that though,

perhaps, there be not any one passage of the Hebrew Scriptures, which clearly shows a twofold coming of one and the same person as the Messiah; yet, by comparing different passages of the Scriptures one with another, we must arrive at the conclusion, that there are two advents of the Messiah revealed in the Old Testament.

Of all the prophets of the Old Testament dispensation, Daniel seems to have been the only one to whom the events which form the subject of his prophecies were revealed in chronological order. If, therefore, the time of the advent of the Messiah be revealed at all, we may expect to find it in the book of Daniel. The first passage of this prophet which I shall consider, in reference to this point, is that part of the second chapter wherein Daniel explains the prophetical dream of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

Two distinct symbols were presented in sleep to the mind of the Babylonian monarch. First, a great image,' described in ver. 31—33.; and,