riah here evidently alludes to the impending possession of the land of Judæa by the Roman legions, to save them from which, according to the prevalent opinion of the temporal nature of the Messiah's kingdom, in performance of his covenant, God, he considers, had raised up a horn of salvation in the house of David.

Let us next proceed to examine, how this interpretation of the word covenant tends to facilitate the explanation of the prophecy; and how it is proposed to answer these obvious questions :

1st. Why is the last week of the Seventy disjoined from the previous sixtynine weeks?

2nd. How was the covenant, according to the proposed interpretation, confirmed with many of the Jews for seven years, at the period of the war with the Romans?

CHAPTER VI.

1st. WHY is the last week of the Seventy disjoined from the previous sixtynine weeks?

The prophecy opens with these words: "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city;" that is, four hundred and ninety years are determined upon the house of Judah and Jerusalem. But from the restoration of Judah from captivity, and the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, to the final destruction of the city, and dispersion of the people, taken from any one of the edicts of the kings of Persia, is much more than four hundred and ninety years. From the first of Cyrus to the destruction of

the city by Titus, is six hundred and six years. From the second of Darius Hystaspis, five hundred and ninety years. From the second of Xerxes, five hundred and fifty-four. From the seventh of Artaxerxes Longimanus, five hundred and twenty-eight. And from the twentieth of the same king, five hundred and fifteen years. It is clear, then, that the words of Daniel cannot be understood as foretelling four hundred and ninety years of existence of Judah as a people, or Jerusalem as a city; but some particular state or condition of the city and people must be referred to, occupying so much time. out of the whole period.

Accordingly, it is usual to explain this part of the subject, by applying the four hundred and ninety years as the times of the duration of the "holy city," that is, the times of the renewed existence of the ecclesiastical polity of the Jews. This is said to have been re-established by Ezra, in the seventh of Artaxerxes Longimanus,

and to have continued in force till the death of our Saviour, being a period of exactly four hundred and ninety years.

But it may be observed, that the "holy city," in this figurative sense, was reestablished long before the time of Ezra, and continued long after the death of Christ. Both the civil and ecclesiastical government of the Jews, as we learn from the book of Ezra, and from Josephus, were restored at the time of the completion of the second temple, in the reign of the king called Darius : when the "priests were set in their divisions, and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God, which is at Jerusalem as it is written in the book of Moses." Shall any one say, also, that at the time of the solemn renewal of the covenant spoken of by Nehemiah, which I have already given reasons for concluding took place before the seventh of Artaxerxes Longimanus, when the people

entered into a curse, and into an oath,

to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God, and his judgments and his statutes," shall any one say, that at this time the figurative city was not rebuilt? It is true that Ezra, in the seventh of Artaxerxes, came to Jerusalem expressly to reform abuses and corruptions which had crept into the Jewish church, and probably restored it to a greater degree of purity and perfection at that time: yet it cannot be said that the church was not in existence before; when we learn, also, from the book of Ezra, that the daily sacrifices had been renewed, and all the appointed feasts kept, long previous to the date of his commission *. The rites and ceremonies of the Jewish church lasted also long after the death of our Saviour, even till the final destruction of Jerusalem. The prophecy moreover says, "the