ary; and he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease; and with the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined, shall be poured upon the desolator36. I now give the explanation. And the Roman army shall come to destroy Jerusalem and its temple; they shall cause its sacrifices and its offerings completely to cease; with their idolatrous armies they shall render it desolate; and the land shall continue to be laid waste and overspread with abominations, till the period appointed for their being consummated arrive; and, that determined æra being come, desolation shall overwhelm the desolators themselves. A doubt here arises, to whom does the expression the prince, here allude? The people of the prince, says Dr. Wells, are 'the people of the Roman empire, or Roman army under Titus;' and it is of them he observes, that the pronoun he, which afterwards occurs, is to be understood. But, by the people of the prince that shall come, Mede understands the future people of the Messiah. The two opinions do not, however, stand widely separate; for the people of the Messiah, says Mede, signify the people of the Roman empire, where Christ was principally to have his church and kingdom, whilst Israel should be rejected".' In like manner bishop Lloyd corrects the common translation thus, the prince's (i. e. the Messiah's) future people.—This people that learned prelate understands to be the Romans and their empire, which was the seat of the Christian church40. 6 The quotation which follows is from bp. Chandler. What is in Daniel, even until the consummation, and that determined, shall be poured upon the desolator, is interpreted by 36 The last word I gave, as rendered by Dr. Wells, bishop Lloyd, and bishop Chandler. 37 What is translated overspreading of abominations is perhaps a phrase of general application. It signifies, according to Mede, an army of idolatrous Gentiles.' p. 870. 38 This desolation, says Mede (in loc.), would continue until the monarchies of the Gentiles should be finished.' p. 873. 39 P. 868 40 See Mr. Lowth in loc. Christ, Jerusalem is trodden down of the Gentiles, until the Times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, and then shall be the consummation, i. e. the end of wrath upon this people. The Gentiles in St. Luke are the Desolators in Daniel; and in both the Roman empire is intended, by whose army this great desolation was effected. The Jews therefore are, by Christ's interpretation of Daniel, to remain in a long captivity, till the coming of the period that God hath fixed for pouring out his wrath on the Roman empire. And that empire being still subsisting, as the Jews affirm, in one of its forms, according to the vision of Nebuchadnezzar's image; so it hath happened, that all the efforts of the Jews, though many and vigorous, for rebuilding their city and temple, have been vain. The next extract is a part of Dr. Well's paraphrase on the last two verses from Daniel. 'During the period of time reckoned by scripture to the Fourth and last kingdoms of the Gentiles, not only the Romans, but also the Saracens, and the Popish Christian kings of Jerusalem, and the Turks, (each of which, though of different extract, yet shall be people or inhabitants of the countries once belonging to the Roman empire) in their respective order and times shall be the lords of Jerusalem, and shall profane the said holy city with their respective abominations, or false and idolatrous worship,-even until that grand consummation of God's indignation against the Jewish nation, or Israelites in general, so often and so much spoken of in holy scripture. Then, when this time determined for putting an end to the Fourth and last kingdom, and so to the whole succession of the four kingdoms of the Gentiles, shall be come, that is (in the words of our Saviour, Luke xxi. 24), when the Time of the Gentiles (viz. of their lording over the Jews and other Israelites) shall be fulfilled: then, I say, that utter desolation, which is determined upon all the enemies of Christ or of his true religion, shall be poured upon the desolator, i. e. upon the Gentile 41 Def. of Christianity, p. 360. D d people inhabiting the (once) countries of the Roman empire, namely such of them as shall then be either downright opposers of Christianity, or else false Christians.-As for Israel; all Israel shall then be converted to Christianity.' Immediately after predicting the wide dispersion of the Israelites, Moses says, But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice, (for the Lord thy God is a merciful God); he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto thema2. The great legislator of the Hebrews also elsewhere says, it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, and shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the uttermost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee. And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul43. No less perspicuous is a prophecy of Ezekiel. Nor is it in the least conditional. Thus saith the Lord God; behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, 42 Deut. iv. 29, 30, 31. 43 Deut. xxx. 1-6. whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever44 Not less striking is the declaration in the xlvith chapter of Jeremiah (v. 28).. Fear thou not, a Jacob my servant, saith the Lord: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee. The providence of God,' says bp. Newton, has been remarkable in the destruction of their enemies, as well as in their preservation.' For from the beginning who have been the great enemies and oppressors of the Jewish nation, removed them from their own land, and compelled them into captivity and slavery? The Egyptians afflicted them much, and detained them in bondage several years. The Assyrians carried away captive the ten tribes of Israel; and the Babylonians afterwards, the two remaining tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The Syro-Macedonians, especially Antiochus Epiphanes, cruelly persecuted them: and the Romans utterly dissolved the Jewish state, and dispersed the people so as they have never been able to recover their city and country again. And where are now these great and famous monarchies, which in their turns subdued and oppressed the people of God? Are they not vanished as a dream, and not only their power, but their very names, lost in the earth? What a wonder of providence is it, that the vanquished should so many ages survive the victors, and the former be spread all over the world, while the latter are no more45." The passages next to be quoted, besides ascertaining the restoration and the future meliorated situation of the Jews, corroborate that interpretation of our Lord's prophecy, which was before alleged; because they speak the same language with respect to the period when this persecuted people shall be restored, declaring that this will happen about the time, when a great Revolution takes place in the symbolic heavens and the symbolic earth. The prophet Joel, immediately after foretelling in those verses which have already been cited, v. 9-1447, the decisive defeat of the antichristian armies; in v. 15, declares, in the symbolic language of prophecy, the consequences of that defeat, that the sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining, and that the heavens and the earth shall shake. The Lord, he immediately adds, at this period will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. My favor towards you, ye shall know, ye shall learn by experience. Then Jerusalem shall be untouched by foreign armies, and no more shall they pass through her streets and her provinces at their pleasure. Isaiah after recurring to the same class of symbols, and saying in ch. lxv. 17, behold I create new heavens and a new earth, adds in the two succeeding verses, But ye shall rejoice and exult IN THE AGE TO COME, which I create: for, lo! I create ferusalem a subject of joy, and her people of gladness; and I will exult in Jerusalem, and rejoice in my people. And there shall not be heard any more therein, the voice of weeping, and the voice of a distressful crys1. In another place Isaiah says, that, when men shall not hurt nor destroy, and when the earth shall be full of the knowlege of the Lord, that is to say, at the commencement of the 47 Chap. III. 46 In p. 301, and 302. 48 In explication of these words, Dr. Pococke pertinently cites, Luke xxi, 28, Thẹn look up, and lift up your heads; for your deliverance draweth nigh. 49 To dwell among, says Dr. Lancaster, signifies protection. 50 i. e. in the alwy or eminent period, called the millennium. |