which was foretold in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, Chap. ii, and of which the meaning is exactly similar; and to this prophecy the Angel seems to have alluded, when he announced his birth to the Virgin Mary, Luke i. 32, The Lord shall give unto him the throne of his Father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

About 17 years after this last vision, and between five and six hundred years before Christ, it pleased God to favour Daniel with another very remarkable revelation, in which he told him the precise time when the Messiah should appear. In the ixth chapter of this prophet, whilst he was addressing himself in supplication to God, the Angel Gabriel, who afterwards appeared to Zacharias and to the Virgin Mary*, came to him, to give him skill and understanding; or, as Wintle renders it, "to improve him in understanding." The

* Luke i. 19, and 26. Gabriel means, a man of God, or, the strength of God..

prophecy of this Angel, as delivered to us by Daniel, Chap. ix. ver. 24, &c. is this; Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.

Now these seventy weeks are generally believed to be weeks of years; a mode of expression frequent in the prophetic writings, and not unusual in the works of the ancients*. And Daniel himself, when speaking of common weeks in Chap. x. 3, calls them expressly weeks of days, to distinguish them from the prophetic weeks of years. These seventy times seven years amount to 490 years; and at the end of this period, transgression was to be finished,

See Note in Chandler's "Defence," P. 136. Indeed almost all Commentators agree in this mode of interpretation; though Wintle thinks the Prophecy has a double meaning; 1st. the return of the Jews from captivity in 70 weeks of days, and 2dly. the coming of Christ in 70 weeks of years.

or

or restrained *; sins were to be made an end of; reconciliation, (or expiation, according to Prideaux and Wintle) was to be made for iniquity; everlasting righteousness was to be brought in; the vision and prophecy were to be sealed up or completed; and the most Holy to be anointed. And accordingly at this appointed time, all these things were accomplished by the coming of our Lord; for the most Holy (or as the Greek version expresses it, the Holy of Holies) was anointed with the Holy Ghost, and with power, Acts x. 36; he finished our transgression (or, according to Wintle, "restrained" our " apostacy,") and made an end of our sins, both by giving us a perfect law, and by the blessed atonement, to make which he bare our sins in his own body on the tree, 1 Peter ii. 24; and by this last sacrifice, that of himself, he also made reconciliation for the sins of the people, Heb. ii. 17. Then was righteousness brought in, that of the Gospel, which was not to be a temporary law like that of Moses, but to

* According to Wintle " to restrain the Apostacy."

be

be everlasting; and thus, as there was to be no farther revelation, and the law and the prophets were to be fulfilled in Christ, (Matt. v. 17 and 18,) the vision and prophecy were then to be sealed up, finished, completed, and put an end to for ever*.

The Angel continued thus: Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Princé, shall be seven weeks; and threescore and two weeks the street shall be built again, and the wall even in troublous times. And after

threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:

*This was written before the Author had seen Mr. Dimock's" Critical Remarks," in which that intelligent and learned Commentator explains this passage nearly in the same manner; " and to complete the vision and the prophecy, in the person of Christ, in whom all the visions and prophecies from Abraham to Malachi were fulfilled.”

and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined be poured upon the desolate.

Now it is to be observed that in these three last verses, the original date of 70 weeks of years, is subdivided into three portions; 7 weeks, or 49 years; 62 weeks, or 434 years; and 1 week, or 7 years; making in all 490 years; and at the expiration of this term the Messiah was to suffer, and then the city and polity of the Jews was to be totally destroyed. The first date of these 7 weeks, or 49 years, is from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem; that is, from the commission granted to Ezra, to build Jerusalem again and restore the Jewish government; and that this was really in troublous times may be easily seen, by referring to the history of those events as recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The second date of threescore and two weeks, or 434 years, begins from the conclusion of the 49 years, in which Jerusalem