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distant spiritual redemption from the bondage of sin, perhaps also a temporal restoration, even now future, by the good shepherd, the King of the Jews, the son of David.

In the xxxvith chapter, beginning at the 25th verse; and in the xxxviith at the 21st, are prophecies, which I notice only because they are applied by the last translators of our Bible, to the "blessings and promises of Christ's kingdom," although they were not so by their predecessors. But certainly they do not appear to foretel the first coming of the Messiah, and therefore do not relate, unless very remotely, to the present subject. Probably they are not yet fulfilled, and may point out some distant state of things, such as a future restoration of the Jews to their own land, and (as the translators of the Great Bible express it) "the union of the ten tribes with the two;" events awful, important, and highly interesting, but which are as yet involved in mist and obscurity, and concerning which it is hard

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ly possible, for short-sighted and erring mortals to give a decided opinion *.

Whatever be the precise meaning of these predictions, there seems to be an immediate connection between them, and the remaining part of Ezekiel's prophecies and visions; unless that of the holy waters in the xlviith chapter has any reference, as some think it has, though very darkly, to the spreading of the gospel. "The last twelve chapters of Ezekiel," as the Bishop of Lincoln very justly observes (Elements of Christian Theology, vol. i. p. 116,) "bear a striking resemblance to the concluding chapters of the book of Revelations;" and may therefore be supposed to relate to the same events.

* This passage was written, before the Author had seen Mr. Faber's excellent " Connected View" of this subject.

CHAP.

CHAPTER XI.

The Prophecies of Daniel.

BEFORE Ezekiel ceased to write, arose the prophet Daniel, endued by the power of God, not only with the spirit of prophecy, but also with wisdom and virtue far beyond the ordinary lot of man. Though he was carried away in his youth, among the Jewish captives to Babylon, yet his fame soon extended over all the East; and Ezekiel, who was living in exile on the river Chebar, in a remote part of the country, mentions him first in his xivth chapter as an example of righteousness, and then in his xxviiith as proverbial for wisdom.

The Jews however do not allow Daniel to be a prophet, and reckon his works, with the Psalms and the writings of Solo

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mon, among what they termed the Hagiographa. But their reason for such an exclusion is a very weak one; that he lived not like a prophet, but in a palace, as being the minister of a great monarch; and that though he had revelations from God, yet they were delivered to him only by dreams and visions, which they consider as the most imperfect mode of receiving prophecy. But distinctions like these are considered by the learned Bishop of London* as most vain and futile, neither founded in the nature of things, nor proved by scripture. Yet, as he observes, the difference of his way of life from that of other prophets, may be a reason for his manner of writing being so different from theirs, and so wholly free from that poetic style, which they in some measure derived from their education in the schools in

* Ea omuia sunt vanissima, &c.-causam forsen ostendit, cur Danielis stylus tantam habeat a reliquis dissimilitudinem, tantumque abhorreat a Poetico charactere, quem cæteri fere communem habent, quemque, ut supra exposui, e disciplina et scholis aliqua ex parte hauserant.

Lowth, De Sacra Poesi. Prælect. xx.

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which the sons of the prophets were brought up*. It was not however till some time after the death of our Saviour, that these objections were made to Daniel; for Josephus in very strong terms speaks of him as being even superior to the other prophets, inasmuch as he not only foretold future events, but also set a time for their coming to pass: And Jonathan, who wrote his Targums before the coming of Christ, in several places quotes the prophecies of Daniel, as being both fuller and clearer than the others. Whether he made any Targum on Daniel himself, as none is known to be extant, is not certain; nor was it equally necessary, as so great a part of the book is written in the Chaldee

These Schools were regular seminaries of education in the Levitical cities, generally under the superintendance of some old prophet, in which the scholars were instructed in the Law and in other learning.

See Lightfoot, Vol. ii. P. 86. * Ου γαρ τα μελλονία μόνον προφητευων διελέλει καθαπερ και οι αλλοι προφηται, αλλα και καιρον ώριζεν εις ον ταυία απο βησείαιαπο δε 18 τελους αυτων, αληθειας πισίον και δόξαν όμου θειοτητος, παρα τις άλλες αποφέρεσθαι.

Joseph. Antiq. x. Cap. xii. Edit. Colon.

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