himself) came in the clouds of heaven to the ancient of days, and was brought near before him, and there was given to him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages should serve him his dominion is to be an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."-This can only relate to the second coming of the Messiah, and his perfecting the kingdom he has set up in the earth, when all the nations of the earth shall become the nations of our Lord and his Christ-But to prevent uncertainty arising from the misapprehensions of fallible men, the vision is interpreted to Daniel by the angel -He expressly and plainly tells him, that the four beasts were four kings or governments, which should arise in the earth-The fourth beast was the fourth government, which was to be diverse from all governments; and as it had appeared exceedingly dreadful, with iron teeth and brass nails, and it had ten horns; the meaning was that this beast or government was to devour the whole earth, and tread it down and break it in pieces-And the ten horns were to be ten kings, that should arise in that fourth government, or depending upon it, and another little horn or government was to arise after them, diverse from the first, and should bring down or humble three of the ten kings, and should speak great words against, or as, the Most High,* and should wear out the saints,

* In Gratian's Decretals, the pope hath the title of God given to him-and Mr Faber says, these words should be translated "by the side of the Most High.”

and think to change times and laws, and his power was to continue a time, and times and the dividing of time, that is three and an half years or 1260 days.This plainly fixes this government to be a power that shall exist only during the 1260 years-But in the end, the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it until the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers shall serve and obey him.

Indeed it is matter of great wonder and surprize, that notwithstanding these clear predictions, the Jews, forsaking the natural and plain sense of the language of their prophets, and wholly mistaking the nature of the true church or kingdom of the Messiah consisting of two parts, militant and triumphant, substituted in the room of, or made additions to their prophets, of vain traditions and glosses of their fathers; so that they could not feel the power of Christ's arguments which he made frequent use of with the Jews, or see the conclusive nature of the evidence he adduced. Thus blinded and misled by their strong ideas of the kingdom of the Messiah being of this world, and specially designed by God to deliver them from the Roman yoke, as well as from all other temporal enemies; they had no settled ideas of the nature of that life and immortality which were so clearly brought to light by the gospel-This

paved the way for their temporary rejection and dispersion, in fulfilment of the very prophecies, on which they founded their peculiar tenets, relative to the temporal kingdom of their expected Messiah.---This event, from their own construction of their scriptures, they now concluded was speedily to come; all the predictions of their prophets, as to the time, being now fulfilled, or very near it; so that their high raised expectations, prepared their minds to receive the evidence that was so fully given to them; had not their sinful practices, and careless examination of their scriptures, so hardened their hearts, and blinded their eyes, as to prevent them from understanding their figurative language, and thereby precluded conviction, from reason and argument.

Perhaps nothing led the superficial and careless examiner more naturally into error, than the indefinite manner, in which all the prophets (except Daniel) spake of Christ's coming, his suffering and dying, and the subsequent glory of his kingdom, in which the Jews were literally to be restored to more than their pristine splendor and power; and in which all the promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David were to be completely fulfilled, and all the nations of the earth to be blessed in them indeed-For the promises made to the three first were, that they and each of them should actually possess the land of Canaan; but if neither of them in their lives, ever did inherit any part of it, then the promises cannot be fulfilled or made good, unless Abraham, Isaac

H

and Jacob are raised from the dead to receive these promises in their utmost extent.

The promise to David is, that he shall be prince under Christ, the king of all his people; and "that of his government there shall be no end." Now David is certainly dead, and his former kingdom has come to an end, therefore David must be raised from the dead, before the promise can possibly take place or be fulfilled.

The truth and certainty of these great and precious promises, were the firm objects of the patriarchs' faith; and particularly so great was Abraham's, when he was ordered to sacrifice Isaac his beloved son, who was to inherit these promises according to the terms of them; and so fixed was he on the expected possession being after the resurrection of the body from the dead; that he did not hesitate a moment, knowing and believing that God was able to raise him from the dead; and this was the faith, which was accounted to him for righteousness.

This principle is confirmed by the opinion, which the ancient Jews always held, of the nature of the promises; although the race existing at our Lord's appearance in the flesh, so completely lost sight of it.

Hence the language of their liturgy to this day in the morning prayer of Rosh Hashanah is, "speedily revive the fathers with all the dead, and be unto Israel as a dew to refresh them, and to restore them to life to sanctify the holy one of Jacob and the God of Israel,"

The Amidah or standing prayer for every day is, "Thou O Lord art forever powerful. Thou restorest life to the dead and art mighty to save:-sustaining by thy benevolence the living, and by thine abundant mercies animating the dead:-performing thy faithful word to those that sleep in the dust-who is like unto thee, most merciful Father, who killeth and again restoreth unto life: who remembereth his creatures in mercy unto life, and art faithful to quicken the dead -blessed art thou, O Lord the restorer."

On the second day of Rosh-Hanah, "Vouch-safe me this day the reward of the righteousness of my ancestors-grant me the same lot and portion with them in glory; and may glad tidings be proclaimed unto my people saying, I will redeem them from the power of the grave, because that Abraham obeyed my voice." And in the prayer Adonai bekol shophar, or the trumpet," the Lord with the sound of shophar, will publish salvation, to assemble the dispersed sheep of the house of Israel, at the coming of the vision of salvation. God hath exalted himself with jubilation"- "The Lord with the sound of shophar -Thou wilt sound it on the holy mountain-Thou wilt erect the holy temple and cleave Mount-Seirand the fixed stake shall be plucked up and removed -God hath exalted himself with jubilation, the Lord with the sound of shophar,"

Indeed while our Saviour was on earth, the Jews used to urge these promises as contained in Exodus vi. 4. and Deut. xi. 21. as convincing evidence to