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observable in every part of these works; and as all the dispensations of God towards his servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their posterity, form parts of one vast plan, of which the final and glorious result is to be seen under the economy of the Messiah; when, not the children of Israel only, but all the nations of the world, all the ends of the earth, are to be brought to the knowledge and worship of the true God; it is certainly altogether improbable, and, indeed, utterly incredible, that unity of design and operation should not run through the whole of this vast plan. The hypothesis of David Levi is directly opposed to the idea of such an unity of design and operation; since it assumes, that the kingdom of the Messiah is to be established in glory immediately after his first advent in the world, and that it is to meet with no successful or long-continued opposition.

This scheme is, therefore, contradictory to the whole analogy of the government of God, both in the natural and moral world, so far as it has come under our observation.

On the contrary, the Christian system, which supposes that the establishment of the Messiah's kingdom was designed to be gradual; that it was to meet with long opposition, so as most severely to try the patience of his servants (see Matth. xxiv. 9-13); is, so far, entirely agreeable to, and consistent with, every preceding part of the procedure of God towards his Old Testament Church. This, indeed, will not, alone, prove the divine mission of Christ; but it at least removes, most effectually, the chief objection to the truth of Christianity, which pervades every part of David Levi's work on the prophecies; and shows, that instead of being an objection, it is what was to have been expected, even a priori, to take place in the kingdom of the Messiah.

CHAP. III.

THE FIRST PRINCIPLE OF DAVID LEVI'S WORK ON THE
PROPHECIES, SHOWN то BE CONTRARY ΤΟ THE

DOCTRINES OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES, RESPECTING
THE KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH.

I

COME now to examine, how far the first principle adopted by Levi, in his work on the prophecies, is agreeable to the Scriptures of the Old Testament. I shall not attempt to follow the learned Jew through all the different passages of the Old Testament which he has considered in the three first volumes of his work, as this would lead me beyond the limits of my present plan. Indeed, this is not necessary; for all, or nearly all, his arguments from prophecy, may be resolved into the one first prin

ciple already mentioned, viz. that the glorious establishment of the Messiah's kingdom is immediately to follow his first advent into the world.

As David Levi has expressed his confidence that the Christians cannot produce one single clear unequivocal prophecy from the Old Testament, which foretells a two-fold coming of one and the same person as the Messiah, it may be proper to observe, that there might be the best reasons for a certain degree of obscurity in the prophecies which relate to the Messiah, as too great a degree of clearness might have interfered with their accomplish

ment.

This is obviously the case with respect to the prophecies relating to the four great monarchies, and to the destruction of the fourth monarchy; i. e. the Roman, which is, probably, very near at hand. These prophecies are sufficiently clear to be understood, in their great outlines, by attentive and impartial persons who make it a study to inquire into the subject; but they

are not so clear as to be understood by the careless and inattentive, or by those who are to be the great agents in their accomplishment, viz. the princes and governors of the world. Were they, thus understood by all, it is evident that they would interfere with their own accomplishment; and would, without the intervention of new miracles, be entirely falsified; for it cannot be supposed that the princes of the Roman world, with their eyes open to the predictions of their own ruin, would take those very measures by which they are to be precipitated into destruction.

It ought also to be considered, that, with regard to the question whether Jesus be the promised Messiah, the Jews are by no means impartial judges; nor can they be so in the very nature of things. The hypothesis that Jesus is the Messiah, involves in it a charge against the Jewish nation of the blackest nature; for if Jesus be the Messiah, then certainly the Jews were his murderers, and to his murder they have added the crime of continuing to

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