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ing for sin." On this account it is said, that "Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness tơ

every one that believeth t." In him all the typical sacrifices under the Law were perfected; and to him, as its completion, the whole scheme of the Levitical dispensation referred. The Jews themselves indeed seem to have had an idea, that the sin-offerings would be perfected by the Messiah: Maimonides at least, in his treatise on the red heifer, mentions a curious tradition, which seems to involve some such idea, inasmuch as it represents the Messiah as completing an ordinance originally instituted under Moses. "Nine red heifers," says he, "have been sacrificed between the first delivering of this precept and the desolation of the second

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temple. Our master Moses sacrificed the first; "Ezra offered up the second; and seven more were "slain during the period which elapsed from the "time of Ezra to the destruction of the temple. The "tenth king Messiah himself will sacrifice. By his speedy manifestation he will cause great joy. Amen: may he come quickly."/ (3.) The third particular is the making atonement for iniquity.

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Heb. vii. 18, 19, 23, 24, 27. ix. 6—14, 22—28. x. 1—

12, 14, 18.

+ Rom. x. 4.

Maimon. de vacca rufa. c. iii. p. S4.

This must relate to the true atonement made by the alone meritorious sacrifice of the Lamb of God. To the typical atonement it cannot relate; because the making of that was no way peculiar to the period of the seventy weeks. The typical atonement had equally been made, long before the commencement of the seventy weeks, from the days of Moses, not to say from the fall itself. This making of atonement for iniquity therefore must be something peculiar to the seventy weeks; something, that had never occurred before, and now for the first time takes place within the period of the seventy weeks, that is to say, either during their lapse or at their expiration. But to such a description the atonement made by Christ himself will alone be found to answer, and will alone be found to correspond with the dignity of the prophecy. Hence, the ministry of the Gospel is styled the ministry of reconciliation; and the Gospel itself, the word of reconciliation. Hence it is said, that God hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ *. And hence the Messiah is described as being " merciful and faithful high-priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins "of the people t." In short, the whole of this mysterious transaction, of which the various reconciliations under the Law were only types, is thus amply set

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2 Cor. v. 18-21.

+ Heb. ii. 17.

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forth by the Apostle as accomplished under the Gospel. "When we were yet without strength, in "due time Christ died for the ungodly. For

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scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet "peradventure for a good man some would even "dare to die. But God commendeth his love to"wards us, in that while we were yet sinners "Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from "wrath through him. For, if when we were ene"mies we were reconciled to God by the death of "his Son, much more being reconciled we shall be "saved by his life. And not only so, but we also 'joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by "whom we have now received the atonement*.

(4.) The fourth particular is to cause him who is the righteousness of the everlasting ages to come.

That by this righteousness is meant a person, even Messiah the prince that should come, has already been shewn †. I apprehend, that his coming here spoken of specially means his ministerial coming: because, when Daniel afterwards descends to parti, culars, we are told, that unto the Messiah, by which I think we can only understand unto his coming, there shall be weeks seven and weeks sixty and

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(5.) The fifth particular is the sealing of the vi sion and the prophet.

In this expression there is a considerable degree of obscurity, arising from the various senses in which the verb to seal is used in Scripture. 1. Daniel employs it to describe the unintelligibleness of a prophecy on account of its not having yet received its accomplishment *. 2. Isaiah uses it to describe the same unintelligibleness of a vision though arising from a different cause, the spiritual stupidity of those who might have understood it †. 3. St. John and St. Paul use it to describe a formal authentication or acknowledgment: and the first of these apostles directly applies it to God's authentication of the ministry of Christ. 4. Nehemiah and Jeremiah use it in the sense of ratifying any thing or making it sure §. 5. The Jews themselves employ it to de

* Dan. xii. 9. See also Rev. v. vi.

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+ Isaian xxix. 9-18. It is probably used in the same sense in Isaiah viii. 16. where, instead of seal the law among my disciples, the LXX read they that seal the law so that they understand it not. Bp. Chandler thinks that they read that it be not understood, and approves this reading. See Bp. Lowth's Isaiah in loc. Such is the turn also St. Jerome gives it: Certe lex et "prophetia usque ad Johannem ligetur apud eos, et clausa sit "atque signata: ut, quod legunt, non intelligant." Comment, in loc.

2 Tim. ii. 19-2 Cor. i. 22.-Eph. i. 13. iv. 30-John vi. 27-Rev. ix. 4.

§ Nehem. ix, 35-Jerem. xxxii. 44.

note

note the finishing or completion of a work, a metaphor evidently borrowed from the sealing of a letter, because the sealing of it is a proof that it is finished*: but I cannot find, that it is used in this sense by any of the inspired writers, unless perhaps by the author of the book of Job †. Yet such is the meaning that Aquila, the Vulgate §, and the Syriac ||, ascribe to it. This interpretation however is somewhat ambiguous, and may be differently understood. The finishing or completion of the vision and the prophet may either mean the accomplishment of the grand scheme of prophecy, and especially of this particular vision, in the person of Christ; or it may mean the finishing of the prophetic canon with Malachi, which took place in the course of the seventy weeks. The former of these opinions has been adopted by Africanus, Cornelius a Lapide, Sir Isaac

* "Perficere, sive reipsa complere, vel ultimam manum imst ponere, ad finem perducere, concludere: ut v. g. Judæi hodie "dicunt, tot vel tot annos transiisse on nonns a completa, sive absoluto, Talmud." Pol. Syn, in loc,

↑ Job ix. 7. xxxiii. 16. To the former of these passages the Bp. of Killalla gives a turn which renders the word incapable

of bearing the sense of completing; and in the latter it is extremely doubtful whether such be its import.

* Το τελεσαι ὁραματισμον και προφήτην.

§ Impleatur visio et prophetia.
|| Compleantur visio et propheta,

i

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