of Agrippa had any political connexion with these judgments: and, being the act of the Romans, could not be the deserving cause of them before God. Indeed, this (as far as I can learn) new interpre-tation is a confession of the insuperable difficulties, to which Daniel's prophecy reduces all those who refuse to own Jesus, as " Messiah the "Prince." P. 20. 1. 3. Thus far,' &c. It is not difficult or uncommon for men to boast of victories which they have not obtained; and with such evident complacency, as shews that they really think they have obtained them. P. 20. 1. 6. The coming of the Messiah until 'this day is unknown.' Mr. C. has, however, bestowed considerable pains in the subsequent pages, to ascertain this unknown 'mystery.' In fact, scarcely any predictions in the scripture are so clearly dated, as those which relate to the coming of the Messiah. This has already been shewn. The reader must judge in what way the two texts, adduced in proof of this assertion, bear at all on the subject. In the first, (1.9.) the Messiah returning from the slaughter of his enemies, represented by Edom, says, "For the day of vengeance " is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is "come." He had had it long at heart to execute vengeance on his enemies, and to rescue his people, and the fixed time was at length arrived. Nothing is said of the coming of the Messiah, but of his victory over his enemies. Whatever God determines, whether revealed or concealed, is " in his "heart:" and the time being come implies that it was no longer concealed. In the second, (1. 21,) Daniel was 'longing to know,' not 'the coming of the Messiah,' as Mr. C. asserts, (1. 25,) of whom no mention is made; but when God "should " have accomplished to scatter the power of the "holy people," 2 that is, the time of the gathering of Israel from their dispersions, their conversion to Christ, their restoration, and the final triumphs of the gospel: and even of these events the prophet had received such clear revelations, as have been a clew and guide to the expositors of prophecy, in every subsequent age; though they could not fully understand every thing respecting it. P. 20.1. 28. The Messiah is not yet come. 'We must look,' &c. This whole passage (p. 20-26,) is a mixture of scriptural truth; of human traditions, which are not entitled to the least credit; and of inaccuracies of little consequence. P. 21.1.4. The third,' &c. -The kingdom of the Messiah is afterwards stated to be 'absolutely ' earthly,' (p. 53-57,) and is such a kingdom, perfect, and to ' endure for evermore?' P. 21. 1. 25. ' Angels could give no names,' &c. Angels did not give names to the animals, for they were not directed to do it: but we have no reason to conclude from any thing revealed in the Old Testament, that man was ever superior to angels, or equal to them: man also was created with a material body, angels are immaterial spirits. Our main argument, however, is no ways affected by the opinion. Again, we are not informed what Satan was when God created Adam: we only Is. Ixiii. 1-6. * Daniel xii. 7, 8. 1 know, that, concealed in the serpent, he tempted and ruined our first parents, and all their posterity in them. P. 22. 1. 11. 'Six thousand years, but no 'longer.' Mr. C. has then discovered 'the un'known mystery:' for 'this last period will com'mence with the coming of the Messiah.' (P. 21.) He will come then exactly at the end of the six thousand years from the creation: and it is not difficult to compute those years, principally from the Old Testament. The present is about 5818: and one hundred and eighty-two years, or about that time, will complete the six thousand years. Six thousand years, however, from the creation, either as the time of the coming of the Messiah, or to the millennium, is no where stated in scripture: yet many Christians have conjectured, that the millennium will begin at the end of six thousand years; and argued for it with considerable plausibility. But this has not the least relation to the coming of the Messiah; and is no more than a remote consequence of that event. P. 22. 1. 19. Of what use would his coming be?' -It must appear to every real Christian, that the coming of a Messiah, to establish an 'absolutely ' earthly kingdom,' can never be of much use to sinful dying men; but, as Mr. C. repeats this question afterwards, I shall endeavour, once for all, to give it a distinct answer. Corruption admits of degrees; and it might be of some use for the Messiah to come, even if only to render the world far less corrupt than it otherwise would have been. P. 22. 1. 25. 'The new world will commence,' &c. It will commence at the end of 6000 years from the creation, and with the coming of the Messiah On this ground, the time of the Messiah's coming, so far from being unknown, never 'told to any of the prophets,' ' never revealed;' (p. 20.) is known beforehand with an unexampled certainty and exactness. P. 22. 1. 30. 'Mankind will be above the angels.' -Some Christians have collected an opinion of this kind, from the relation in which the redeemed stand to Immanuel, and from the revelation of St. John; but not a hint of the kind is given in the Old Testament.-It does not appear, how this most exalted view of the new world under the Messiah' can consist with his kingdom 'being ab'solutely earthly,' or with the view given in the subsequent pages of the state of the gentiles (that is, of an immense majority of the inhabitants of the earth,) under the reign of Messiah. 6 P. 23. 1. 4. The Messiah is not yet come. 'We are assured,' &c. Isaiah, in the text referred to, says, "The Redeemer shall come to Zion : and " unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, " saith the Lord. As for me, this is my covenant "with them, saith the Lord, &c." With whom? Not with Israel, as a nation, but "with them that "turn from transgression in Jacob." But how will it be with those who " do not turn from trans"gression in Jacob?"-Let us, however, hear in what way the apostle quotes it from the Septuagint: "There shall come out of Zion, the Deliv erer, and shall turn away ungodliness from "Jacob; for this is my covenant with them, when " I shall take away their sins." 1 When the Deliverer, or Redeemer shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; then he will "take away their sins," by forgiveness, confirm his covenant with them, and so "all Israel shall be saved." But, till ungodliness is taken away, this will not be the case. Thus, in coincidence with all the prophecies of Israel's restoration, that event is connected with their conversion from sin and ungodliness; not with the coming of the Messiah, which is not once mentioned in connexion with their restoration. The subject, on which the apostle was discoursing, shewed that he had in prospect Israel's receiving Jesus as their Messiah and Saviour : indeed, not the coming of the Messiah, but believing in him, is effectual for the blotting out of sin, either of Jew or gentile : and how can the author persuade himself, or hope to persuade others, that the apostle meant by one line in a quotation, to contradict and disprove that fact, which he spent and ended his life, in unremitted labours and sufferings, to render universally credited, viz. that the Messiah was come, and that Jesus the Nazarene was the Messiah? Or how does all this accord with Mr. C.'s opinion, concerning the absolutely earthly kingdom of the Messiah; and that the Messiah will not forgive sins? (See, on 1. 19.) P. 23. 1. 24. That the Messiah is not yet come,' &c. There is not one word in the quotation from Leviticus, or in the whole passage, concerning the 'Is. lix. 20, 21. Rom. xi. 26, 27. * Lev. xxvi. 41, 42. Deut. iv. 29, 30. xxx. 1-10. Jer. xxxii. 39-41. Ez. xi. 17-20. xxxvi. 24-28. xxxvii. 23-28. Hos. iii. 4, 5. xiv. 1-8. Zech. xii. 10-12. |