CHAPTER III.

SUBSIDIARY ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF THE PROPOSED
INTERPRETATION.

DURING the progress of the author's inquiries and reflections on the subject of the present Essay, several suggestions have occurred to him, tending to shew the probability of the dispensation, which he conceives is here revealed to us, and therefore forming internal and subsidiary evidence of the correctness of his views. Feeling that he should not do justice either to himself or his subject, were he altogether to omit these considerations, he will now in conclusion present them as concisely as possible to the judgment of the reader.

SECTION I.

ON THE REJECTION OF THE JEWS.

THE proposed Interpretation will derive some confirmation from considering the state of the Jews at the time when the sealing up of the Book is supposed to have taken place. Had they acknowledged their Messiah, and willingly admitted the Gentiles to a participation of their religious privileges, they would still have enjoyed the visible favour of God, and have walked in the light of His countenance. But when the Jews refused to

receive the Gentiles as their brethren, they were degraded from their pre-eminence, and the despised heathen were adopted in their stead. The Gentiles were not incorporated with the Jews as the visible Church of God; but were exalted into that station, from which the Jews were first thrust out. The Christian Church was not only placed on the same level with the Jewish, but actually superseded it. This point is marked with great precision in the New Testament. Thus, according to our Lord's denunciation, the kingdom of heaven was not only to be given to others, but was to be taken away from the Jews. The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. (Matth. xxi. 43.) And according to St Paul, not only was the wild olive-tree grafted into the true, but the natural branches of that true olive-tree were broken off. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olivetree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive-tree; boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. (Rom. xi. 17-20.) A sentence of degradation, then,– of degradation absolute and irretrievable, was passed on the Apostate Church of the Jews. And how was this sentence executed? It was neither the destruction of Jerusalem, nor the burning of the temple, nor the dispersion of the people,-nay, nor all these judgments united, which inflicted upon them the peculiar punishment contained in these

denunciations. Notwithstanding all these calamities, had they still retained possession of the authentic copy of God's revealed word, they would still have stood forth among all the nations of the earth, not as degraded outcasts, but as the honoured guardians of Divine revelation. During the Babylonish captivity their city and temple had been utterly laid waste: but the Bible still continued in their custody, and stamped them as the visible Church of God. But at the destruction of the second temple this charter of their spiritual existence was publicly taken from them: the Jewish Law was carried in the Roman triumph: and from that moment their degradation was complete. From that moment the Jewish Church ceased to be. As then the sealing up of the Book was, if we may be allowed such an expression, the overt act on the part of God, by which the sentence of degradation was executed on the Jewish Church, it is not unreasonable to expect that the open remission of that sentence, and the public restoration of the Jews to the favour of the Almighty, will be as unquestionably marked by the unsealing of the same volume. They were degraded by having their Bible visibly taken from them: they will be restored by having it as visibly returned.

SECTION II.

ON THE PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS OF THE JEWS.

IT is certain and obvious to all men, that the Jews since their dispersion have been preserved a distinct and peculiar people, scattered among all nations, but mingled with none. And it is very generally believed, that the design of the Almighty in this dispensation

is, not merely that they may be a standing memorial of the truth of His word, a living evidence of the Divine origin and authority of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, but that they may hereafter be brought to a general and national acknowledgment of that Messiah, whom they nationally rejected, and for the rejection of whom the wrath of God still rests upon them. It is moreover imagined that this public conversion of the Jews will accompany, or rather precede the universal diffusion of the gospel among the heathen nations. On these points there is but little difference of opinion among Christians. But, how such a change is to be accomplished, what instruments or agents can be found equal to the production of such mighty effects, no man has yet been able to divine. If, however, the interpretation now offered of the Apocalyptic Sealed Book be correct, there remains no further difficulty with regard to this fundamental step. Here is an instrument, prepared by the all-wise providence and almighty power of God, admirably fitted for the work, and every way adequate to its accomplishment. The Jews are well known to labour under the most inveterate prejudices against every thing Christian. The New Testament is by the great majority of them either entirely unknown or held in absolute abhorrence. And though here and there a few converts may be made to Christianity, yet, speaking of them as a body, there seems no rational hope of reducing them from their present condition to that of true Christians, without the intervention of some preliminary step. In fact, they must be brought back to the earnest study of the Old Testament, as a preparation for the study of the New. The Old Testament is their Bible, and to none other will they give

heed. They must become humble and penitent disciples in the school of Moses and the Prophets, before they can enter that of Christ. They must become religious Jews, before they can be made religious Christians. For, if they believe not the writings of Moses, how can they believe the words of Christ? (John v. 47.) Yet, though this feeling towards the Old Testament be so essential as an introduction to their conversion, it has not hitherto been easy to perceive by what means it is to be inspired. For though the Jews hold the Old Testament in profound veneration, their reverence for this sacred volume is the offspring, not of enlightened knowledge, but of superstitious ignorance. The Hebrew Bible is but little read among them: and their religion, if such it can be called, is, as the reader is probably too well aware, not built on the revealed word of God, but on the fabulous traditions of the Rabbins. The Bible is honoured in word, but in reality neglected: and the Talmud is implicitly received as the standard both of faith and practice. What event, then, can we imagine so likely to arouse the Jew from his apathy, and awaken him from his spiritual sleep, as the unsealing of the authentic copy of the Old Testament? Such a circumstance would instantly challenge universal attention and its electrifying effect on the inert mass of the Jewish people may be more easily conceived than described. Their minds being once re-awakened, and their hopes rekindled, earnest inquiry and study and discussion would inevitably follow: and the pure word of God, received in simplicity and sincerity of heart, would quickly produce its never-failing fruit in the general conversion of their people.