For, be glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. hold, darkness shall cover the earth; and gross darkness, the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light; and kings, to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt see, and flow together; and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged: because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee1. Let any one read attentively the whole prediction, whence this passage is taken; and he will, I think, be satisfied, that the literal Israel of God, now converted and restored to their own land, is the community addressed by the prophet. But, if so, then undoubtedly the house of Israel is described as the appointed instrument of conveying the light of Christianity to the great mass of the hitherto unconverted Gentiles. I may add, that the self-same matter is declared by Zechariah, when, quitting the symbolical style, he speaks plainly and literally and simply. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities: and the inhabit 1 Isaiah lx. 1-5. unts of one city shall go to another, saying; Let us go up speedily, to pray before the Lord, and to seeh the Lord of hosts : I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall comė to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying; We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you1. a safe .This passage, on the principle of Israel's being the appointed seed of God in all ages, Archbishop Newcome applies with an equivalent degree of largeness. It refers, says he, to the great accession of converts which the Jewish Church received between the captivity and the coming of Christ, to the number of Christian disciples which the Jewish preachers made, and to the future conversions of which the restoration of the Jews will be an eminent cause. But, if the conversion and restoration of Judah, according to the voice of prophecy, is to be an eminent CAUSE of the future general conversion of the Gentiles; it is quite clear, that the general conversion of the Gentiles must SUCCEED, not PRECEDE, the general conversion and restoration of Judah. (3.) In truth, by the adoption of any other ar 1 Zechar, viii. 20-23. 2 Newcome's Comment. on Zechar. viii. 23. rangement, we shall violate the whole chronology of prophecy. 71: The conversion and restoration of the Jews are invariably described as synchronising with the overthrow of the antichristian faction at the close of the latter three times and a half1. But the general conversion of the Gentiles and their reception into the millennian Church are no less invariably placed after the overthrow of the antichristian factions. Therefore, plainly, according to the chronology of prophecy, the general conversion of the Jews must precede the general conversion of the Gentiles. III. The common interpretation of St. Paul's phrase, the fulness of the Gentiles, being thus altogether irreconcileable, both with the evident purport of his own predictive argument, and with the uniform voice of prophecy; I am the more confirmed in my persuasion, that the exposition of the phrase, adopted by myself, is the only true exposition. Our Lord's phrase the fulfilment of the times of the Gentiles, and St. Paul's phrase the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles, as they are similar Isaiah lxvi. 5-16. Jerem. xxiii. 1-8. Xxx. 18-24. xxxi. Dan. xi. 45. xii. 1, 6, 7. Joel ii. iii. Micah iv. Zephan, iii. 8-20., Zechar. xii. xiii. xiv. Luke xxi. 24-27. Rev. xviii. xix. Isaiah lxvi. 15-24. Dan. ii. 35, 44, 45. vii. 11-14, 26, 27. Joel ii. 20, 30-32. Micah iv. 1-3. Zechar. xiii. 8, 9. xiv. 1-4, 8-16. Rev. xix. 11-21. xx. 1-4. in verbal construction, so in prophetic import are they identical. Our Lord and his Apostle, alike and harmoniously, declare, that the national restoration of Judah and the national conversion of Judah shall take place at the end of those seven great calendarian times, which are viewed as the specially permitted times of the Gentiles'. From this joint declaration, confirmed by the concurring testimony of Daniel, results the following important position. Since neither the national restoration of Judah nor the national conversion of Judah has hitherto taken place, we may be morally sure, that the seven times of the Gentiles, and consequently their moiety the latter three times and a half, cannot as yet have expired. Dan. xii. 1, 6, 7. Luke xxi. 24. Rom. xi. 25. CHAPTER III. A SUMMARY VIEW OF THE FOUR PROPHECIES RECORDED IN THE BOOK OF DANIEL, WHICH TREAT OF THE GREAT PERIOD OF SEVEN TIMES AND MORE ESPECIALLY OF THE SECOND MOIETY OF THOSE TIMES. HAVING now sufficiently discussed the prophecies of our Lord and St. Paul relative to the restoration and conversion of the Jews, I shall bring together, in one point of view, preparatory to my treating of them more at large, the four predictions of Daniel, which respect the grand calendarian period of seven times and more especially the second moiety of those times or the period of the latter three times and a half: and, when I have thus exhibited them, I shall offer a few introductory remarks on their character and chronology. I. Of the Hebrew seer, the four prophecies, with which we are at present concerned, are the vision of the great metallic image, the vision of the four wild-beasts, the vision of the ram and the he-goat, and the vision of the things noted in the Scripture of truth. 1. The first of the four predictions, recorded by Daniel, is the vision of the great metallic image. This was seen by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon: but, all recollection of the dream having departed |