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CHAPTER V.

Racapitulation and Conclusion.

ARRIVED now at the consummation of his labours, it is with awe and trembling, not less than with satisfaction and gratitude, that the author turns back his thoughts to the subject of them, in all its serious, important, and, it may almost be said, tremendous bearing, on the revelation, which God has given in the holy scriptures. For the prophecy which has passed under our review, though comprehended in the compass of four verses, is of the most bold, decisive, and eventful character, resting its evidence to the truth on the accomplishment of a great variety of remarkable and extraordinary incidents, predicted to take place under no less than seven different terms, each consisting of one or more septenaries, or weeks of years, or of a part or parts of such weeks; it being evident, that every division of

the principal term constitutes of itself a separate one. Now since all these terms must have expired many ages since, it follows, that if any one of them can be proved to be erroneously fixed in the prophecy, or if any of the numerous events appointed to be fulfilled in them has not taken place at all, or took place at some other period, than that, which in the prophecy is allotted to it, then the evidence, which the prophecy bears to the religion of Christ, will be materially, if not wholly, invalidated, and perhaps a degree of suspicion will be thrown on the prophetical evidence of christianity in general. Or again, if any part of the prophecy has not received for itself an intelligible and consistent interpretation, or if sufficient proof has not been adduced of its completion; then the citation of it, as an evidence. in favour of christianity, is nothing better than the production of a witness, who cannot testify to more than a part of the facts, the whole of which he is summoned and expected to prove; and who consequently leaves the cause, if uninjured, at least still undecided, still in doubt and jeopardy.

It will certainly be remembered, that the principal avenues, through which escape might have been effected on the detection of any failures, have been carefully closed by the author against

himself in the early parts of his work. In the course of the examination, into which it was necessary to enter, of certain alterations in the Hebrew text proposed by two learned authors, it was found, not only that those alterations were unwarranted by any sufficient or even plausible authority, but that with the exception of three words, over each of which some doubt might hang as to a single letter, without however affecting at all the construction, or in any material degree the meaning, of the sentence in which they oceur, the text might with great reason be deemed faultless and perfect. Therefore, if a clear and satisfactory exposition of the prophecy, and proof of its accomplishment accordingly, as it now stands in our Hebrew bibles, has not been afforded in the foregoing dissertation, he cannot turn round upon the gain-sayer with the plea, that there are errors and corruptions in the original text, which, until they can be removed, must partially obscure the meaning of the prediction and prevent any man from offering a correct interpretation or shewing the complete fulfilment of it. And even as to the translation, although it be a merely human performance, liable to objection and controversy, yet even here, having taken a minute review of the Hebrew words and phrases, of which the passage consists, having

attained, as he conceives, to a correct understanding of them, having professedly rejected and renounced all forced renderings made to favour particular interpretations, and having followed by choice and avowedly the path of our learned English translators, without any deviations, except what the necessity of the case compelled, or perhaps the offer of a more expressive word persuaded, him to admit, the author is precluded from every pretence, that would impute any awkwardness in his expositions, or any failure in his proofs of accomplishment, to a defect in the translation, or to difficulties in the phraseology of the original composition.

But if, on the other hand, under these circumstances, and after due consideration had of the obscurity, which, as mentioned in the preface, almost necessarily impends over a chronological prophecy, an interpretation has been given, natural, consistent, and intelligible; and if the accomplishment thereof, through all its periods, and in all its events, has been ascertained to any high degree of probability; then it must be confessed, that the spirit of the all-knowing God, by the ministry of his angel, dictated to Daniel the substance, and probably the very words, of the prophecy; that his Almighty providence directed the affairs of the world, so as to bring about the

things predicted in it; and that by the correspondence of the two, the divine origination of christianity and especially the Messiahship of the Lord Jesus Christ are established on foundations, as sure as the spirit of prophecy seems capable of affording.

It is true, that in several instances the accomplishment of its predictions is not and cannot be ascertained by such direct historical evidence, as to bring the facts exactly up to the very point of time fixed by the prophecy. But upon that deficiency no objection of any importance can be grounded, when, as in the case of the going forth of the word to rebuild Jerusalem, it is shewn, that an answerable event began to take place not long after the time fixed; and that, not only the general state of worldly affairs at that juncture was such, as to allow of our dating the fact at the period predicted, but that particular and sufficient causes and motives existing among human agents are assignable for giving it effect at that precise moment. For although it must be allowed, that in the case of a chronological prophecy the ability to assign the specific dates of events in agreement with its predictions affects the mind with a livelier and more satisfactory sense of its verification, than when that correspondence can be made out only by bringing together a multi

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