completely effected till a period of 30 additional years shall likewise have expired. This conjecture is founded upon a remarkable chronological passage in the book of Daniel. The prophet teaches us,

"1st then, The Jews are yet a distinct people from all the "nations amongst which they reside. They seem therefore "reserved by Providence for some such signal favour, after they have suffered the due chastisement.

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2dly. They are to be found in all the countries of the "known world. And this agrees with many remarkable passages of the Scriptures, which treat both of their dispersion "and of their return.

"3dly. They have no inheritance of land in any country. "Their possessions are chiefly money and jewels. They may "therefore transfer themselves with the greater facility to "Palestine.

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4thly. They are treated with contempt and harshness, and "sometimes with great cruelty, by the nations amongst whom "they sojourn. They must therefore be more ready to re"turn to their own land.

"5thly. They carry on a correspondence with each other throughout the whole world; and consequently must both know when circumstances begin to favour their return, and "be able to concert measures with one another concerning 16 it.

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"6thly. A great part of them speak and write the Rabbi "nical Hebrew, as well as the language of the country where they reside. They are therefore, as far as relates to them. "selves, actually possessed of an universal language and cha"racter; which is a circumstance that may facilitate their return, beyond what can be well imagined.

7thly. The Jews themselves still retain a hope and expec. "tation, that God will once more restore them to their own

"land."

that

that 75 years will intervene between the expiration of the 1260 years and the commencement of the millennium: and these 75 years he divides, without specifying any reason for such a division, into 30 years and 45 years. What particular event will happen at the era of the division, we undoubtedly cannot determine with any degree of certainty; because Daniel has left it wholly undetermined: but we must conclude, that the point of the division will be marked by some signal event; otherwise how can we rationally account for such a division having been made? Now, when we find, by comparing prophecy with prophecy, that the restoration of Judah will precede the restoration of Israel, and that the restoration of Israel will not even so much as commence till the restoration of at least the main body of Judah* is completed, and till the power of Antichrist is broken: it is at least highly probable, that the 30 years will be occupied in the conversion and restoration of Judah, in the great earthquake or political convulsion that divides.

It appears from the mention of some countries, into which (according to Isaiah) the fugitives from the Antichristian army will wander, that several scattered Jews will be left behind in Europe both by the maritime power and by Antichrist. These will be converted and hasten to join their brethren, both in consequence of the report of the fugitives, and of their beholding from afar the glory of the Lord manifested over Jerusalem in the awful sign of the Shechinah. See Isaiah lxvi. 18, 19.

the

the Latin empire into three parts, in the wars of Antichrist with the kings of the north and the south, in his grand expedition against Palestine and Egypt, and in the contemporary naval expedition of the maritime power undertaken for the purpose of bringing back the converted Jews; that the 30 years will close with the complete overthrow of Antichrist in the valley of Megiddo, an event than which we cannot conceive one better calculated to mark a signal chronological epoch; and that the 45 years will be employed in the wanderings of those who, escaping from the rout of the Antichristian army, will carry every where the tidings of God's supernatural interference, and in the subsequent conversion and restoration of the whole house of Israel. I wish this to be understood only as conjecture; for it would be folly to speak positively before the event.

16. When the 45 years shall have expired, when the whole family of Jacob shall have been converted and restored, and when the stick of Judah shall have united itself for ever with the stick of Joseph; then will commence the season of millennian blessedness*. We have reason to suppose, that the

ancient

* What Mr. Mede has said upon the subject of these numbers is to me altogether unsatisfactory. He computes then from the profanation of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes, thus making the first number terminate about A. D. 1120, and the second about A. D. 1166; and he refers them altogether to

the

ancient people of God, now converted to the faith of Christ, will be greatly instrumental in spreading the glad tidings of the Gospel among the heathen

nations,

the suspicions, which then began to be entertained by many, that the Pope was Antichrist. (Sce Mede's Works, B. iii. p. 717-724.) But what great blessedness was there in living about the year 1166? Mr. Mede answers, that then the Waldenses began to be persecuted, and the promise to be fulfilled that "blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Such an answer, I must confess, appears to me little better than a quibble. In fact, it can only be by a very strained construction that we can make these numbers relate to the times when the wise first began to understand. According to the general context of the whole passage, they obviously extend beyond the 1260 years, and reach to the very end of the days, to the commencement of some period of great blessedness. Bp. Newton, much more judiciously than Mr. Mede whom he scruples not to pronounce mistaken, connects these numbers with the 1260 years, making their overplus reach beyond them. At the close of the 1290 years, if I mistake not, he places the complete restoration of the Jews, and the destruction of Antichrist; at the close of the 1335 years, the full conversion of the Gentiles, and the beginning of the Millennium. See Dissert. xvii. towards the end. Mr. Wintle, like myself, inclines to prefer Bp. Newton's opinion to that of Mr. Mede. See Note on Dan. xii. 11. See also Mr. Lowth in lcc. Mr. Fleming's opinion, though it differs from that of Mr. Mede in computing the number 1290 from the final desolation of Jerusalem in the year 135, and the number 1335 from the end of the number 1290, appears to me to be equally objectionable; or, I should rather say, much more objectionable, because it is founded upon an absolute error. By the accomplishing of the scattering of the holy people (Dan. xii. 7.) he understands the commencement of

their

nations, already prepared to receive it by so many supernatural interpositions of Providence, and by beholding with their own eyes the glory of the Lord permanently manifested over Jerusalem. According to the united testimony of many of the prophets, Israel, after his restoration, will be sown among the Gentiles; and will thus be made, in a wonderful manner, from first to last, the seed of the Church. This preaching of the Gospel by the converted Israelites, unlike the preaching of it by that first handful only of seed, the Hebrew Apostles of our Lord, will, I apprehend, be totally unattended by persecution or opposition: for all trials of that nature would be incompatible with the predicted peace and blessedness of the millennian church. God will incline the hearts of the Gentiles to receive the word gladly. Great shall be the day of Jezrael. For, if the fall of the Jews be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more

F

their complete scattering by Adrian in the year 135; whereas the expression means the very reverse, namely the termination of their scattering or the beginning of their restoration. In this sense accordingly it is understood both by Mede, Newton, Lowth, and Wintle. Our common English translation indeed employs two different words, accomplish and finish; but the self-same word in the original is used in both places, and in both alike ought to have been rendered by finish:-" when he "shall have finished to scatter the power of the holy people, "all these wonders shall be finished." Fleming's Apoc., Key, p. 74.