lem, in consequence of the permission granted by Cyrus and Darius, the Persian monarchs. During the period which elapsed between the return from Babylon, and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, the Jews enjoyed little tranquillity; and were always harassed, and often grievously oppressed, by the Persians, the Macedonians, and the Romans.

The sum of the whole of what has been said upon the procedure of God towards the children of Israel, is this: More than four centuries elapsed between the giving of the promise to Abraham, and the redemption of Israel out of Egypt. Forty years more elapsed before God began to execute his promise, by giving to the Israelites possession of the land of Canaan ; and neither in the time of Joshua, nor even of David and Solomon, was the promise fulfilled in its full extent; and still less has it been so since the reign of Solomon; so that, though a period of nearly four thousand years has elapsed, since the giving of the promise of the land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham, the fulfilment of that promise, in its full extent, is still fu

ture.

I think, therefore, it cannot be denied, that an examination of the procedure of God towards the chosen people, furnishes another strong instance of the analogy which I have endeavoured to trace, in the histories of the patriarchs; and tends to confirm the presumption, that something of the same kind was to be expected in the economy of the Messiah. For with what colour of reason, and upon what grounds, can the Jew assert, that, in the procedure of God towards the Messiah, there is to be a total departure from all those principles, and an entire deviation from those analogies, which are observable in all the other works of God; and in his dispensations towards his most faithful and highly-honoured servants, and towards that people whom he chose for himself, when all the other nations of the earth were sunk in brutish idolatry? It is evident to every enlarged mind, and to those who attentively study the works and the word of God, that there is the closest analogy 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