P. 86. 1. 30. Seventy nations.-The seventy nations, and the age of Abraham at the building of Babel, have occupied enough of our attention: the whole is destitute of foundation, and indeed inconsistent with the scripture.

P. 86. 1. 34. The Lord made a covenant with 'Abraham.-Abraham was seventy years old.'Moses expressly records that " Abram was seventy "and five years old when he departed out of "Haran." Some time occurred after this before God entered into covenant with him; 2 and he was "ninety-nine years of age," when circumcision, the outward seal of the covenant, was instituted.3 These scriptural dates are quite sufficient to sweep away the cobweb of the seventy nations, seventy years, seventy descendents, seventy angels, &c. It is wonderful that a Jew, writing on such an argument, and building so very much on these numbers, should not have previously examined the dates of his Hebrew Bible!

P. 87.1. 25. Every nation,' &c.-Daniel's words shew no more than that the angel who spake to him was, on that particular occasion, commissioned to aid the kings of Persia. How absurd it is to suppose, that God so left the nations of the earth to guardian angels, that these angels, aiding Persia, or Greece, should fight, by God's approbation, against each other! or that he should commission one angel to help this nation, and another to help that nation, in direct opposition to one another! just like the gods and goddesses in Homer's Iliad, or Virgil's Æneid!

'Gen. xii. 4.

2 Gen. xv.

Gen. xvii. 1. 24.

P. 81. 1. 1. From the destruction of the first ' temple,' &c.-It has been shewn, that above six hundred and fifty years intervened between the destruction of the first temple and that of the second: but, apart from the chronological computation, the language of the angel, "from the going forth of the commandment to restore and "to build Jerusalem," cannot possibly allow us to date the seventy weeks from the desolation of the first temple.

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P. 88. 1. 17. Account.-From the covenant'― 1. 20. From the desolation,' &c.-I shall not stay to inquire how far this computation agrees with one before given. (p. 67.) Neither of them proceeds on any fixed principles of chronology which can stand the test of examination; and enough has been said to shew that the seventy jubilees have no foundation in scripture.

P. 88. 1. 31. By this calculation,' &c.-Mr. C.'s conjectures, in this passage, coincide with those of some Christian expositors of prophecy: but how far recent events operate to deduct from the vast importance given, by these calculations or conjectures, to the French revolution, or to subvert the whole system, I do not determine. He who lives at the end of the thirty-six years, here mentioned, will know whether the passage printed in capitals has then been verified. A former calculation left 137 years yet to pass, before these expected events: (p. 67.) but the end of the 'things' seems to have been shortened,' to make it concur with the French revolution: and, should the Bourbons be again established on the throne of France, as it is probable that they will, the end

may perhaps be again lengthened. I do not, however, at all profess to prophesy from prophecy. Our posterity will be more competent judges than

we are.

6

P. 89. 1. 6. Israel is separated for ever from 'all nations,' &c.-There is an important meaning in which this position is grounded on scripture : Israel will never be finally or totally mixed with the other nations of the earth; but will be gathered from their present dispersions, to reside, as a separate nation, in their own land. But Mr. C. is neither consistent with scripture, nor with himself, when he avers, that all the gentiles 'will not worship the true God even until the 'last day.'

P. 89. 1. 24.Moses foretold,' &c. P. 90. 1. 2. 'But what,' &c. ?-The writer of the thirty-fourth chapter of Deuteronomy, whether Joshua, or Samuel, or some other prophet, previous to the captivity, or Ezra, merely stated the fact; that, at the time when he wrote, there had not arisen a prophet in Israel like unto Moses, &c.1 but he by no means asserted that there would never be another prophet equal to Moses. This indeed would be directly to contradict the words of Moses himself. Christians maintain, that the Messiah (not the Messiah of the gentiles,' as distinguished from some other Messiah,) was predicted, as "a prophet like unto Moses ;" and that he was far superior to Moses. And, if the Messiah were indeed to be a prophet, (as the name imported, p. 16.) one would suppose that even Jews

'Deut. xxxiv. 10-12.

themselves would allow him to be a prophet at least equal to Moses.

P. 90. 1. 6.

'The text says, I will put my words ' in his mouth,' &c.-God says to Moses, "Thou "shalt speak to him," (Aaron,) "and put words "in his mouth," "" 1 Does this text prove that Moses and Aaron did not "speak face to face" with each other?

P. 90. 1. 8. 'Again, what honour,' &c.-It seems of little use to dispute, whether the prophet or the high priest in Israel were the more honourable character; especially, as Israel, during so many ages, has had neither the one nor the other.

The reader, may, however, be reminded, that God instructed even "the child Samuel," as a prophet, to warn and rebuke Eli the high priest; 2 that Josiah sent "Hilkiah, the high priest to the "prophetess Huldah, to inquire of God by her." 3 "And by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of “ Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved." 4 Moses was a prophet, and a priest, and "a king "in Jeshurun." As a priest he anointed and consecrated Aaron and his sons. In this union of the three offices respecting which anointing was prescribed; and in his being a mediator between God and Israel, and mediator of the Sinai covenant; Moses was especially a type of the Messiah. Various other particulars might be mentioned, in which a most remarkable coincidence between Moses and Jesus Christ appears: perhaps indeed there are more points of similarity, than between

3

Ex. iv. 15.

21 Sam. iii.

2 Kings xxii. 8- 14.2 Chron. xxxiv. 9-22.

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any other two persons who ever lived on earth. The above, however, seems the great outline of the prediction delivered by Moses, concerning a prophet like unto him."-But, even to the close of the Old Testament canon, 66 no prophet had arisen," in these respects, at all like unto Moses; nor has there arisen any since, except Jesus Christ. Neither does it appear, according to Mr. C., that there ever will: for he passes over the priesthood of the Messiah, and speaks not very clearly of his prophetical character. Some notice will ere long be taken of his interpretation of the prophecy: but the application made of the prophecy by the apostle Peter, and by Stephen the first martyr of Jesus; compared with the state of the Jewish nation, ever since they crucified the Lord Jesus, and finally refused to hearken to him; gives immense weight to our interpretation of the passage.

We maintain, then, that Moses predicted the Messiah," the light of the gentiles, and the glory "of his people Israel," as a "prophet like unto "himself;" a Lawgiver and King, a Priest and a Prophet, a Mediator of a covenant between God and his people; and as introducing a new dispensation to the worshippers of the true God, which Moses also had done.

Every text in the Old Testament, which speaks of the Messiah as "sending forth his law," as "teaching the people," as "the light of the people," and of the gentiles," shews that he "would be a prophet and the Sun of Righteousness." 2

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2 Is. xlii. 1-4. 6. 7. xlix. 6.

Acts iii 22, 23. vii. 37. lv. 3, 4. lix. 20, 21. Ixi. 1-3. Mal. iv. 2.