Lord by St. John; and the last, as we have just seen, by St. Paul, who likewise denominates him the power of God*. All these appellations of the Messiah, which are plainly personifications, were so familiar to the Jews and their neighbours, that, when Simon Magus bewitched the Samaritans, giving out that he was some great one, they unanimously pronounced him to be the great power of God, which was only another mode of acknowledging him to be the Christ. Hence I think myself perfectly warranted in understanding the righteousness of the eternal ages, whose coming Daniel announces in the present prophecy, to be a personification of the Messiah. Nor am I singular in this interpretation. St. Jerome tells us, that the Hebrews of his time adopted itt: and they have been followed by more than one commentator in subsequent ages both Christian and Jewish. By thus expound "Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God." 1 Cor. i. 24. +"Hebræi quid de hoc loco sentiant brevi sermone per "stringam, fidem dictorum his a quibus dicta sunt derelinquens-Nascitur Christus, id est justitia sempiterna." Hieron. Comment. in Dan. in loc. "Quid hæc justitia ?-Est Christus, qui dicitur Jehovah justitia nostra―Justitia hæc dicitur æterna, quia persona quæ hanc justitiam merita est infinita est ac æterna" (Poli, Synop. in loc.). "Justitia sempiterna, Heb. Justitia sæculo 66 rum, expounding the eternal righteousness that should come to denote a person and not a thing, we shall make the passage exactly accord with the language of the New Testament, in which the appellation of the Just One or the Righteous One is peculiarly appropriated to the Messiah*. And it may further be observed, that there is one place in which this Just One is spoken of in the very phraseology of Daniel, almost as if an interpretation of this part of the prophecy had been designed: "they have slain "them, which shewed before of the coming of the "Just One, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers †.” 11. The anointing of the Most Holy, mentioned in the 24th verse, must relate to the anointing of a person; which person must be the Messiah. Dr. Blayney objects to this exposition of the clause, קדש קדשים on the ground that f the words holy of holics are constantly applied in the "Old Testament, not to persons, but to things; to "rum, id est Christus, qui, quasi sol, justitiæ suæ radios in " omnium sæculorum, tam ante quam post se, homines diffu"dit, et Ecclesiam quasi regnum æternum justitiæ, id est justè "et piè viventium, instituit. Ita interpretes, quin et Talmu"distæ ac Rabbini passim, per justitiam hanc intelligunt Mes"siam. Vide eos apud Finum lib. 5. Flagelli cap. 5." Cornel. a Lapid. Comment. in Dan. in loc. * See Acts iii. 14. xxii. 14. † Acts vii. 52. "the "the temple or sanctuary itself, the altar, vessels, "and utensils belonging to the temple, together "with the offerings and other appurtenances of the "temple worship: and it was by the ceremony of "anointing that these things were directed to be "cleansed and sanctified*, so as to be fitted to appear in the presence of that pure and holy Be ing, to whom this worship was directed t." I cannot think this objection a very formidable one. So far as the mere words themselves are concerned, they are undoubtedly just as capable of being translated the holy one of holy ones, as the holy thing of holy things. How they are to be understood, whether of a person or of a thing, can only, I apprehend, be determined by the context. Now, in the present instance, the context imperiously requires us to understand a person. In the course of the prophecy, we twice read of the Anointed One: and this Anointed One is styled the Prince, and the Prince that should come. Hence it was argued, that the eternal righteousness that should come must be the Prince that should come: and it may now be similarly argued, that, according to the most natural view of the general context, the Most Holy that was to be anointed must be the person who is called the Anointed One in consequence of this very anointing. * Exod, xxx. 25—29. + Dr. Blayney's Dissert. p. 22. Besides, Besides, if the eternal righteousness be a person, it will obviously follow, that the Most Holy is a person likewise. In this sense accordingly the clause has been understood by the Jews themselves, who perhaps in some respects may be esteemed more unexceptionable evidence than Christian commentators. The title of the Most Holy, as applied to Christ, perfectly corresponds with the language used re According to Jerome, the interpretation of the Hebrews was, "Ungetur sanctus sanctorum, de quo in psalterio legimus propterea unxit te Deus, Deus tuus, oleo lætitiæ præ consortibus tuis. Qui et in alio loco dicet, de se, Sancti estote, quia et મંદ ego sanctus sum" (Hieron. Comment. in Dan. in loc.). Cornelius a Lapide speaks to the same purpose. * Et ungatur "sanctus sanctorum. Ut scilicet Spiritu Sancto consecretur "Christus in sanctissimum sacerdotem, regem, prophetam, "doctorem, legislatorem, et redemptorem orbis. Hebræi, ut 26 mox dicam, vertunt, et ungatur sanctitas sanctitatum, vel sanc"tum sanctorum, vel sanctuarium sanctuariorum, qui non est "alius quam ipse Messias sanctificatus de filiis David, alt R. "Barnahaman apud Finum lib. v. Flagelli c. 5. Et R. Moses Gerundensis, Messias, ait, vocatur sanctuarium sanctuarios rum, quia futurum erat, ut in eo, secundum humanitatem, omnes thesauri sapientiæ et scientiæ Dei requiescerent; eratque ipse su46 per omnem creaturum oleo gratiæ ac beneplaciti Dei ungendus; Unde merito Hebræis dictus est Messias, Græcè Christus, Latině "Unctus. Ita ipse apud Galatin. lib. iv. cap. 18. Quocirca "Aquila vertit ad ungendum sanctificatum sanctificatorum; Sy"rus, Septuaginta hebdemedes requiescent super populum tuum, "et ad perficiendum visionem et prophetas, et ad Christum sanctum "sanctorum," Comment, in Dan. in loc. 66 specting him in the New Testament. He is called by the angel at the annunciation that holy thing*: by St. Peter, the Holy Onet: by the whole assembly of Christians, the holy child of God: by St. Paul, holy and undefiled§: and by St. John, the Holy One. Nay even the very devils were constrained to acknowledge him as the Holy One of God ¶. 12. The causing of the sacrifice and meat-offering to cease must be considered as synchronizing with the appearance of the abomination of desolation; that is to say, so far synchronizing, that they are caused to cease in the course of the same war that Jerusalem is compassed by the Roman armies. My reasons for laying down the present position are these-1. The citation of our Lord fixes the appearance of the abomination of desolation to the age of the Jewish war. Now, though he seems to have quoted no more than the two words p Do the abomination that maketh desolate, yet those words do not stand in an insulated and detached form in the prophecy, but are immediately connected with the neighbouring context. The chronology therefore of the neighbouring context must, To ayos. Luke í. 35. 1 John ii. 20. Apoc. iii. 7. † Tor aysor. Acts iii. 14. . § Heb. vii. 26. ¶ Mark i, 24. by |