after the Babylonish captivity, to the commencement of the Christian era, and the subsequent events foretold in the prophecy. Our design precludes detail: but the minute coincidence of the narrative of the New Testament and the history of the Jews, with the subdivisions of time which it enumerates, are additional attestations of its general accuracy as applicable to Christ. This coincidence is the more striking, as it is unnoticed by the relaters of the facts which establish it, and it has been left, without the possibility of any adaptation of the events, to the discovery of modern chronologists. The following observations of Dr. Samuel Clarke, partly communicated to him, as he acknowledges, by Sir Isaac Newton, elucidate this prophecy so clearly that every reader will forgive their insertion :- "When the angel says to Daniel, Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, &c.; Was this written after the event? Or can it reasonably be ascribed to chance, that from the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king, (when Ezra went up from Babylon unto Jerusalem, with a commission to restore the government of the Jews,) to the death of Christ, (from ann. Nabon. 290, to ann. Nabon. 780,) should be precisely 490 (70 weeks of) years? When the angel tells Daniel, that in threescore and two weeks the street (of Jerusalem) should be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times; (but this, in troublous times not like those that should be under Messiah the Prince when he should come to reign;) Was this written after the event? Or can it reasonably be ascribed to chance, that from the 28th year of Artaxerxes, when the walls were finished, to the birth of Christ, (from ann. Nabon. 311 to 745,) should be precisely 434 (62 weeks of) years? When Daniel farther says, And he shall confirm (or, nevertheless he shall confirm) the covenant with many for one week; Was this written after the event? Or can it reasonably be ascribed to chance, that from the death of Christ, (ann. Dom. 33,) to the command given first to Peter to preach to Cornelius and the Gentiles, (ann. Dom. 40,) should be exactly seven (one week of) years? When he still adds, And in the midst of the week, (and in half a week,) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate: Was this written after the event? Or can it with any reason be ascribed to chance, that from Vespasian's march into Judea in the spring ann. Dom. 67, to the taking of Jerusalem by Titus in the autumn ann. Dom. 70, should be half a septenary of years, or three years and a half?"p That the time at which the promised Messiah was to appear is clearly defined in these prophecies; that the expectation of the coming of a great king or deliverer was then prevalent, not only among the Jews, but among all the eastern nations, in consequence of these prophecies; that it afterwards excited that people to revolt, and proved the cause of their greater destruction,-the impartial and unsuspected evidence of heathen authors is combined, with the reluctant and ample testimony of the Jews themselves, to attest. Tacitus, Suetonius, Josephus, and Philo agree in testifying the antiquity of the prophecies, and their acknowledged reference to that period. Even the P Clarke's Works, fol. edit. vol. ii. p. 721. "Pluribus persuasio inerat, antiquis sacerdotum literis contineri, eo ipso tempore fore, ut valesceret Oriens, profectique Judæa rerum potirentur. Quæ ambages Vespasianum et Titum prædixerant. Sed vulgus (Judæorum), more humanæ cupidinis, sibi tantam fatorum magnitudinem interpretati, ne adversis quidem ad vera mutabantur."(Tacit. Hist. lib. v. cap. xiii.) "Percrebuerat Oriente toto vetus Jews, to this day, own that the time when their Messiah ought to have appeared, according to their prophecies, is long since past, and they attribute the delay of his coming to the sinfulness of their nation. And thus, from the distinct prophecies themselves, from the testimony of profane historians, and from the concessions of the Jews, every requisite proof is afforded that Christ appeared when all the concurring circumstances of the time denoted the prophesied pe-, riod of his advent. The predictions contained in the Old Testament respecting both the family out of which the Messiah was to arise, and the place of his birth, are almost as circumstantial, and are equally applicable to Christ, as those which refer to the time of his appearance. He was to be an Israelite, of the tribe of Judah, of the family of David, and of the town of Bethlehem. The two former of these particulars are implied in the promise made to Abraham-in the prediction of Moses-in the prophetic benediction of Jacob to Judah-and in the reason assigned for the superiority of that tribe, because out of it the chief ruler should arise. And the two last, that the Messiah was to be a descendant of David and a native of Bethlehem, are expressly affirmed. There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots; and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. That this prophecy refers to the deliverer of the human race, is evident from the whole of the succeeding chapter, which is et constans opinio, esse in fatis, ut eo tempore Judæa profecti rerum potirentur. Id de imperio Romano, quantum postea eventu patuit, prædictum Judæi ad se trahentes, rebellarunt." (Suet. in Vesp. lib. viii. c. iv. Julius Marathus, quoted by Suetonius, lib. ii. c. xciv. Joseph. de Bello, lib. vii. c. xxxi. Philo de Præm. et Pen. pp. 923—4.) * Isaiah xi. 1. descriptive of the kingdom of the Messiah, of the calling of the Gentiles, and of the restoration of Israel. The same fact is predicted in many passages of the prophecies: Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee.-I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn to David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice on the earth; and this is the name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. "" S The place of the birth of the Messiah is thus clearly foretold :"Thou Bethlehem Ephratah, in the land of Judah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth," or, as the Hebrew word implies, shall he be born, "that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting.""-That all these predictions were fulfilled in Jesus Christ; that he was of that country, tribe and family, of the house and lineage of David, and born in Bethlehem,-we have the fullest evidence in the testimony of all the evangelists; in two distinct accounts of the genealogies, (by natural and legal succession,) which, according to the custom of the Jews, were carefully preserved; in the acquiescence of the enemies of Christ to the truth of the fact, against which there is not a single surmise in history; and in the appeal made by some of the earliest of the Christian writers to the unquestionable testimony of the records of the census, taken at the very time of our Saviour's birth by order of Cæsar. Here, X s 2 Sam. vii. 16. Psal. lxxxix. 3, 4. Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. * Justin Mar. Ap. i. p. 55, ed. Thirl. Tert. in Mark iv. 19. indeed, it is impossible not to be struck with the exact fulfilment of prophecies which are apparently contradictory and irreconcilable, and with the manner in which they were providentially accomplished. The spot of Christ's nativity was distant from the place of the abode of his parents, and the region in which he began his ministry was remote from the place of his birth; and another prophecy respecting him was in this manner verified: "In the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations, the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." Thus, the time at which the predicted Messiah was to appear, the nation, the tribe, and the family from which he was to be descendedand the place of his birth-no populous city-but of itself an inconsiderable place, were all clearly foretold; and as clearly refer to Jesus Christ,-and all meet their completion in him. But the facts of his life, and the features of his character, are also drawn with a precision that cannot be misunderstood. The obscurity, the meanness, and poverty of his external condition are thus represented: "He shall grow up before the Lord like a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form or comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. Thus saith the Lord, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship. That such was the condition in which Christ appeared, the whole history of his life abundantly testifies. And the Jews, looking in the pride of their hearts for an earthly king, disregarded these Isaiah ix. 1, 2. Matt. iv. 16. z Isaiah liii. 2; xlix. 7. |