mh_parser/scraps/Dan_9_20-Dan_9_27.html

<p>We have here the answer that was immediately sent to Daniel’s prayer, and it is a very memorable one, as it contains the most illustrious prediction of Christ and gospel-grace that is extant in all the <i>Old Testament</i>. If John Baptist was the morning-star, this was the day-break to the Sun of righteousness, the <i>day-spring from on high</i>. Here is,</p>
<p class="tab-1">I. The time when this answer was given.</p>
<p class="tab-1">1. It was while Daniel was at prayer. This he observed and laid a strong emphasis upon: <i>While I was speaking</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.20" href="/passage/?search=Dan.9.20">Dan. 9:20</a>), yea, <i>while I was speaking in prayer</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.21" href="/passage/?search=Dan.9.21">Dan. 9:21</a>), before he rose from his knees, and while there was yet more which he intended to say.</p>
<p class="tab-1">(1.) He mentions the two heads he chiefly insisted upon in prayer, and which perhaps he designed yet further to enlarge upon. [1.] He was confessing sin and lamenting that—“both <i>my sin and the sin of my people Israel</i>.” Daniel was a very great and good man, and yet he finds sin of his own to confess before God and is ready to confess it; for there is not a <i>just man upon earth that does good and sins not</i>, nor that sins and repents not. St. John puts himself into the number of those who deceive themselves if they say that they <i>have no sin</i>, and who therefore <i>confess their sins</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="1John.1.8" href="/passage/?search=1John.1.8">1 John 1:8</a>. Good men find it an ease to their consciences to pour out their complaints before the Lord against themselves; and that is <i>confessing sin</i>. He also confessed the <i>sin of his people</i>, and bewailed that. Those who are heartily concerned for the glory of God, the welfare of the church, and the souls of men, will mourn for the sins of others as well as for their own. [2.] He was <i>making supplication before the Lord his God</i>, and presenting it to him as an intercessor for Israel; and in this prayer his concern was for <i>the holy mountain of his God</i>, Mount Zion. The desolations of the sanctuary lay nearer his heart than those of the city and the land; and the repair of that, and the setting up of the public worship of God of Israel again, were the things he had in view, in the deliverance he was preparing for, more than re-establishment of their civil interests. Now,</p>
<p class="tab-1">(2.) While Daniel was thus employed, [1.] He had a grant made him of the mercy he prayed for. Note, God is very ready to hear prayer and to give an answer of peace. Now was fulfilled what God had spoken <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.65.24" href="/passage/?search=Isa.65.24">Isa. 65:24</a>; <i>While they are yet speaking, I will hear</i>. Daniel grew very fervent in prayer, and his affections were very strong, <a class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.18,Dan.9.19" href="/passage/?search=Dan.9.18,Dan.9.19"><span class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.18">Dan. 9:18</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.19">19</span></a>. And, <i>while he was speaking</i> with such fervour and ardency, the angel came to him with a gracious answer. God is well pleased with lively devotions. We cannot now expect that God should send us answers to our prayer by angels, but, if we pray with fervency for that which God has promised, we may by faith take the promise as an immediate answer to the prayer; for <i>he is faithful that has promised</i>. [2.] He had a discovery made to him of a far greater and more glorious redemption which God would work out for his church in the latter days. Note, Those that would be brought acquainted with Christ and his grace must be <i>much in prayer</i>.</p>
<p class="tab-1">2. It was <i>about the time of the evening oblation</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.21" href="/passage/?search=Dan.9.21">Dan. 9:21</a>. The altar was in ruins, and there was no oblation offered upon it, but, it should seem, the pious Jews in their captivity were daily thoughtful of the time when it should have been offered, and at that hour were ready to weep at the remembrance of it, and desired and hoped that their prayer should be <i>set forth before God as incense</i>, and the <i>lifting up of their hands</i>, and their hearts with their hands, should be acceptable in his sight <i>as the evening-sacrifice</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.141.2" href="/passage/?search=Ps.141.2">Ps. 141:2</a>. The evening oblation was a type of the great sacrifice which Christ was to offer in the evening of the world, and it was in the virtue of that sacrifice that Daniel’s prayer was accepted when he prayed <i>for the Lord’s sake</i>; and for the sake of that this glorious discovery of redeeming love was made to him. The Lamb <i>opened the seals</i> in the virtue of his own blood.</p>
<p class="tab-1">II. The messenger by whom this answer was sent. It was not given him in a dream, nor by a voice from heaven, but, for the greater certainty and solemnity of it, an angel was sent on purpose, appearing in a human shape, to give this answer to Daniel. Observe,</p>
<p class="tab-1">1. Who this angel, or messenger, was; it was <i>the man Gabriel</i>. If Michael the archangel be, as many suppose, no other than Jesus Christ, this Gabriel is the only created angel that is named in scripture. Gabriel signifies the <i>mighty one of God</i>; for the angels are <i>great in power and might</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="2Pet.2.11" href="/passage/?search=2Pet.2.11">2 Pet. 2:11</a>. It was he <i>whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning</i>. Daniel heard him called by his name, and thence learned it (<a class="bibleref" title="Dan.8.16" href="/passage/?search=Dan.8.16">Dan. 8:16</a>); and, though then he trembled at his approach, yet he observed him so carefully that now he knew him again, knew him to be the same that he had seen at the beginning, and, being somewhat better acquainted with him, was not now so terrified at the sight of him as he had been at first. When this angel said to <i>Zacharias, I am Gabriel</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Luke.1.19" href="/passage/?search=Luke.1.19">Luke 1:19</a>), he intended thereby to put him in mind of this notice which he had given to Daniel of the Messiah’s coming when it was at a distance, for the confirming of his faith in the notice he was then about to give of it as at the door.</p>
<p class="tab-1">2. The instructions which this messenger received from the Father of lights to whom Daniel prayed (<a class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.23" href="/passage/?search=Dan.9.23">Dan. 9:23</a>): <i>At the beginning of thy supplications</i> the word, <i>the commandment, came forth</i> from God. Notice was given to the angels in heaven of this counsel of God, which they were desirous to look into; and orders were given to Gabriel to go immediately and bring the notice of it to Daniel. By this it appears that it was not any thing which Daniel said that moved God, for the answer was given as he began to pray; but God was well pleased with his serious solemn address to the duty, and, in token of that, sent him this gracious message. Or perhaps it was <i>at the beginning of Daniel’s supplications</i> that <i>Cyrus’s word</i>, or <i>commandment, went forth to restore and to build Jerusalem</i>, that going forth spoken of <a class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.25" href="/passage/?search=Dan.9.25">Dan. 9:25</a>. “The thing was done <i>this very day</i>; the proclamation of liberty to the Jews was signed this morning, just when thou wast praying for it;” and now, at the close of this fast-day, Daniel had notice of it, as, at the close of the <i>day of atonement</i>, the jubilee-trumpet sounded to proclaim liberty.</p>
<p class="tab-1">3. The haste he made to deliver his message: He was <i>caused to fly swiftly</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.21" href="/passage/?search=Dan.9.21">Dan. 9:21</a>. Angels are winged messengers, quick in their motions, and delay not to execute the orders they receive; they run and <i>return like a flash of lightning</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.1.14" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.1.14">Ezek. 1:14</a>. But, it should seem, sometimes they are more expeditious than at other times, and make a quicker despatch, as here the angel was <i>caused to fly swiftly</i>; that is, he was ordered and he was enabled to fly swiftly. Angels do their work in obedience to divine command and in dependence upon divine strength. Though they excel in wisdom, they fly swifter or slower as God directs; and, though they excel in power, they fly but as God causes them to fly. Angels themselves are to us what he makes them to be; they are <i>his ministers</i>, and <i>do his pleasure</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.103.21" href="/passage/?search=Ps.103.21">Ps. 103:21</a>.</p>
<p class="tab-1">4. The prefaces or introductions to his message. (1.) He <i>touched him</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.21" href="/passage/?search=Dan.9.21">Dan. 9:21</a>), as before (<a class="bibleref" title="Dan.8.18" href="/passage/?search=Dan.8.18">Dan. 8:18</a>), not to awaken him out of sleep as then, but to give him a hint to break off his prayer and to attend to that which he has to say in answer to it. Note, In order to the keeping up of our communion with God we must not only be forward to speak to God, but as forward to hear what he has to say to us; when we have prayed we must look up, must look after our prayers, must set ourselves upon our watch-tower. (2.) He <i>talked with him</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.22" href="/passage/?search=Dan.9.22">Dan. 9:22</a>), talked familiarly with him, as one friend talks with another, that <i>his terror might not make him afraid</i>. He informed him on what errand he came, that he was sent from heaven on purpose with a kind message to him: “<i>I have come to show thee</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.23" href="/passage/?search=Dan.9.23">Dan. 9:23</a>), to tell thee that which thou didst not know before.” He had shown him the troubles of the church under Antiochus, and the period of those troubles (<a class="bibleref" title="Dan.8.19" href="/passage/?search=Dan.8.19">Dan. 8:19</a>); but now he has greater things to show him, for he that is faithful in a little shall be entrusted with more. “Nay, <i>I have now come forth to give thee skill and understanding</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.22" href="/passage/?search=Dan.9.22">Dan. 9:22</a>), not only to show thee these things, but to <i>make thee understand</i> them.” (3.) He assured him that he was a favourite of Heaven, else he would not have had this intelligence sent him, and he must take it for a favour: “<i>I have come to show thee, for thou art greatly beloved</i>. Thou art <i>a man of desires</i>, acceptable to God, and whom he has a favour for.” Note, Though God loves all his children, yet there are some that are more than the rest <i>greatly beloved</i>. Christ had one disciple that lay in his bosom; and that <i>beloved disciple</i> was he that was entrusted with the prophetical visions of the New Testament, as Daniel was with those of the Old. For what greater token can there be of God’s favour to any man than for the secrets of the Lord to be with him? Abraham is the <i>friend of God</i>; and therefore <i>Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do</i>? <a class="bibleref" title="Gen.18.17" href="/passage/?search=Gen.18.17">Gen. 18:17</a>. Note, Those may reckon themselves greatly beloved of God to whom, and in whom, he <i>reveals his Son</i>. Some observe that the title which this angel Gabriel gives to the Virgin Mary is much the same with this which he here gives to Daniel, as if he designed to put her in mind of it—<i>Thou that art highly favoured</i>; as Daniel, <i>greatly beloved</i>. (4.) He demands his serious attention to the discovery he was now about to make to him: <i>Therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.23" href="/passage/?search=Dan.9.23">Dan. 9:23</a>. This intimates that it was a thing well worthy of his regard, above any of the visions he had been before favoured with. Note, Those who would understand the things of God must consider them, must apply their minds to them, ponder upon them, and compare spiritual things with spiritual. The reason why we are so much in the dark concerning the revealed will of God, and mistake concerning it, is want of consideration. This vision both requires and deserves consideration.</p>
<p class="tab-1">III. The message itself. It was delivered with great solemnity, received no doubt with great attention, and recorded with great exactness; but in it, as is usual in prophecies, there are things dark and hard to be understood. Daniel, who understood by the book of the prophet Jeremiah the expiration of the seventy years of the captivity, is now honourably employed to make known to the church another more glorious release, which that was but a shadow of, at the end of another seventy, not years, but weeks of years. He prayed over that prophecy, and received this in answer to that prayer. He had prayed for <i>his people</i> and the <i>holy city</i>—that <i>they</i> might be released, that <i>it</i> might be rebuilt; but God answers him <i>above what he was able to ask or think</i>. God not only grants, but outdoes, the desires of those that fear him, <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.21.4" href="/passage/?search=Ps.21.4">Ps. 21:4</a>.</p>
<p class="tab-1">1. The times here determined are somewhat hard to be understood. In general, it is <i>seventy weeks</i>, that is, <i>seventy times seven years</i>, which makes just 490 years. The great affairs that are yet to come concerning the people of Israel, and the city of Jerusalem, will lie within the compass of these years.</p>
<p class="tab-1">(1.) These years are thus described by weeks, [1.] In conformity to the prophetic style, which is, for the most part, abstruse, and out of the common road of speaking, that the things foretold might not lie too obvious. [2.] To put an honour upon the division of time into weeks, which is made purely by the sabbath day, and to signify that that should be perpetual. [3.] With reference to the seventy years of the captivity; as they had been so long kept out of the possession of their own land, so, being now restored to it they should seven times as long be kept in the possession of it. So much more does God delight in showing mercy than in punishing. The land had <i>enjoyed its sabbaths</i>, in a melancholy sense, seventy years, <a class="bibleref" title="Lev.26.34" href="/passage/?search=Lev.26.34">Lev. 26:34</a>. But now the people of the Lord shall, in a comfortable sense, enjoy their sabbaths seven times seventy years, and in them seventy sabbatical years, which makes ten jubilees. Such proportions are there in the disposals of Providence, that we might see and admire the wisdom of him who has <i>determined the times before appointed</i>.</p>
<p class="tab-1">(2.) The difficulties that arise about these seventy weeks are, [1.] Concerning the time when they commence and whence they are to be reckoned. They are here dated <i>from the going forth of the commandments to restore and to build Jerusalem</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.25" href="/passage/?search=Dan.9.25">Dan. 9:25</a>. I should most incline to understand this of the edict of Cyrus mentioned <a class="bibleref" title="Ezra.1.1" href="/passage/?search=Ezra.1.1">Ezra 1:1</a>; for by it the people were <i>restored</i>; and, though express mention be not made there of the building of Jerusalem, yet that is supposed in the building of the temple, and was foretold to be done by Cyrus, <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.44.28" href="/passage/?search=Isa.44.28">Isa. 44:28</a>. He shall <i>say to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built</i>. That was, both in prophecy and in history, the most famous decree for the building of Jerusalem; nay, it should seem, this <i>going forth of the commandment</i> (which may as well be meant of God’s command concerning it as of Cyrus’s) is the same with that going forth of the commandment mentioned <a class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.23" href="/passage/?search=Dan.9.23">Dan. 9:23</a>; which was <i>at the beginning of Daniel’s supplications</i>. And it looks very graceful that the seventy weeks should begin immediately upon the expiration of the seventy years. And there is nothing to be objected against this but that by this reckoning the <i>Persian monarchy</i>, from the taking of Babylon by Cyrus to Alexander’s conquest of Darius, lasted but 130 years; whereas, by the particular account given of the reigns of the Persian emperors, it is computed that it continued 230 years. So Thucydides, Xenophon, and others reckon. Those who fix it to that first edict set aside these computations of the heathen historians as uncertain and not to be relied upon. But others, willing to reconcile them, begin the 490 years, not at the edict of Cyrus (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezra.1.1" href="/passage/?search=Ezra.1.1">Ezra 1:1</a>), but at the second edict for the building of Jerusalem, issued out by Darius Nothus above 100 years after, mentioned <a class="bibleref" title="Ezra.6.1-Ezra.6.12" href="/passage/?search=Ezra.6.1-Ezra.6.12">Ezra 6:1-12</a> Others fix on the seventh year of Artaxerxes Mnemon, who sent Ezra with a commission, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezra.7.8-Ezra.7.12" href="/passage/?search=Ezra.7.8-Ezra.7.12">Ezra 7:8-12</a>. The learned Mr. Poole, in his Latin Synopsis, has a vast and most elaborate collection of what has been said, <i>pro</i> and <i>con</i>, concerning the different beginnings of these weeks, with which the learned may entertain themselves. [2.] Concerning the termination of them; and here likewise interpreters are not agreed. Some make them to end at the death of Christ, and think the express words of this famous prophecy will warrant us to conclude that from this very hour when Gabriel spoke to Daniel, at the time of the evening oblation, to the hour when Christ died, which was towards evening too, it was exactly 490 years; and I am willing enough to be of that opinion. But others think, because it is said that <i>in the midst of the weeks</i> (that is, the last of the seventy weeks) he <i>shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease</i>, they end <i>three years and a half</i> after the death of Christ, when the Jews having rejected the gospel, the apostles turned to the Gentiles. But those who make them to end precisely at the death of Christ read it thus, “He shall <i>make strong the testament to the many; the last seven</i>, or the last week, yea, <i>half that seven</i>, or <i>half that week</i> (namely, the latter half, the three years and a half which Christ spent in his public ministry), shall bring to an end sacrifice and oblation.” Others make these 490 years to end with the destruction of Jerusalem, about thirty-seven years after the death of Christ, because these seventy weeks are said to be <i>determined upon the people</i> of the Jews 
<p class="tab-1">(3.) But, whatever uncertainty we may labour under concerning the exact fixing of these times, there is enough clear and certain to answer the two great ends of determining them. [1.] It did serve them to raise and support the expectations of believers. There were general promises of the coming of the Messiah made to the patriarchs; the preceding prophets had often spoken of him as <i>one that should come</i>, but never was the time fixed for his coming until now. And, though there might be so much doubt concerning the date of this reckoning that they could not ascertain the time just to a year, yet by the light of this prophecy they were directed about what time to expect him. And we find, accordingly, that when Christ came he was generally <i>looked for</i> as the <i>consolation of Israel</i>, and <i>redemption in Jerusalem</i> by him, <a class="bibleref" title="Luke.2.25,Luke.2.38" href="/passage/?search=Luke.2.25,Luke.2.38"><span class="bibleref" title="Luke.2.25">Luke 2:25</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Luke.2.38">38</span></a>. There were those that for this reason thought the <i>kingdom of God should immediately appear</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Luke.19.11" href="/passage/?search=Luke.19.11">Luke 19:11</a>), and some think it was this that brought a more than ordinary concourse of people to Jerusalem, <a class="bibleref" title="Acts.2.5" href="/passage/?search=Acts.2.5">Acts 2:5</a>. [2.] It does serve still to refute and silence the expectations of unbelievers, who will not own that Jesus is he who <i>should come</i>, but still <i>look for another</i>. This prediction should silence them, and will condemn them; for, reckon these seventy weeks from which of the commandments to build Jerusalem we please, it is certain that they have expired above 1500 years ago; so that the Jews are for ever <i>without excuse</i>, who will not own that the Messiah has come when they have gone so far beyond their utmost reckoning for his coming. But by this we are confirmed in our belief of the Messiah’s being come, and that our Jesus is he, that he came just at the time prefixed, a time worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance.</p>
<p class="tab-1">2. The events here foretold are more plain and easy to be understood, at least to us now. Observe what is here foretold,</p>
<p class="tab-1">(1.) Concerning the return of the Jews now speedily to their own land, and their settlement again there, which was the thing that Daniel now principally prayed for; and yet it is but briefly touched upon here in the answer to his prayer. Let this be a comfort to the pious Jews, that a <i>commandment</i> shall <i>go forth to restore and to build Jerusalem</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.25" href="/passage/?search=Dan.9.25">Dan. 9:25</a>. And the commandment shall not be in vain; for though the times will be very troublous, and this good work will meet with great opposition, yet it shall be carried on, and brought to perfection at last. The <i>street</i> shall be <i>built again</i>, as spacious and splendid as ever it was, and <i>the walls, even in troublous times</i>. Note, as long as we are here in this world we must expect <i>troublous times</i>, upon some account or other. Even when we have <i>joyous times</i> we must rejoice with trembling; it is but a gleam, it is but a lucid interval of peace and prosperity; the clouds will <i>return after the rain</i>. When the Jews are restored in triumph to their own land, yet there they must expect troublous times, and prepare for them. But this is our comfort, that God will carry on his own work, will build up his Jerusalem, will beautify it, will fortify it, <i>even in troublous times</i>; nay, the troublousness of the times may by the grace of God contribute to the advancement of the church. The more it is afflicted the more it multiplies.</p>
<p class="tab-1">(2.) Concerning the Messiah and his undertaking. The carnal Jews looked for a Messiah that could deliver them from the Roman yoke and give them temporal power and wealth, whereas they were here told that the Messiah should come upon another errand, purely spiritual, and upon the account of which he should be the more welcome. [1.] Christ came to <i>take away sin</i>, and to abolish that. Sin had made a quarrel between God and man, had alienated men from God and provoked God against man; it was this that put dishonour upon God and brought misery upon mankind; this was the great mischief-maker. He that would do God a real service, and man a real kindness, must be the destruction of this. Christ undertakes to be so, and <i>for this purpose</i> he is <i>manifested, to destroy the works of the devil</i>. He does not say to <i>finish your</i> transgressions and your sins, but <i>transgression</i> and <i>sin</i> in general, for he is the propitiation not only for <i>our sins</i>, that are Jews, but <i>for the sins of the whole world</i>. He came, <i>First</i>, To <i>finish transgression</i>, to <i>restrain</i> it (so some), to break the power of it, to <i>bruise the head</i> of that serpent that had done so much mischief, to take away the usurped dominion of that tyrant, and to set up a kingdom of holiness and love in the hearts of men, upon the ruins of Satan’s kingdom there, that, where <i>sin and death</i> had <i>reigned, righteousness</i> and <i>life</i> through grace might <i>reign</i>. When he died he said, <i>It is finished</i>; sin has now had its death-wound given it, like Samson’s, <i>Let me die with the Philistines. Animamque in vulnere ponit—He inflicts the wound and dies. Secondly</i>, To <i>make an end of sin</i>, to abolish it, that it may not rise up in judgment against us, to obtain the pardon of it, that it may not be our ruin, to <i>seal up sins</i> (so the margin reads it), that they may not appear or break out against us, to accuse and condemn us, as, when Christ cast the devil into the bottomless pit, he <i>set a seal upon him</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Rev.20.3" href="/passage/?search=Rev.20.3">Rev. 20:3</a>. When sin is pardoned it is <i>sought for and not found</i>, as that which is <i>sealed up. Thirdly</i>, To <i>make reconciliation for iniquity</i>, as by a sacrifice, to satisfy the justice of God and so to <i>make peace</i> and bring God and man together, not only as an arbitrator, or referee, who only brings the contending parties to a good understanding one of another, but as a surety, or undertaker, for us. He is not only the <i>peace-maker</i>, but the <i>peace</i>. He is the <i>atonement</i>. [2.] He came to <i>bring in an everlasting righteousness</i>. God might justly have made an end of the sin by making an end of the sinner; but Christ found out another way, and so made an end of sin as to save the sinner from it, by providing a righteousness for him. We are all guilty before God, and shall be condemned as guilty, if we have not a righteousness wherein to appear before him. Had we stood, our innocency would have been our righteousness, but, having fallen, we must have something else to plead; and Christ has provided us a plea. The merit of his sacrifice is <i>our righteousness</i>; with this we answer all the demands of the law; <i>Christ has died, yea, rather, has risen again</i>. Thus Christ is <i>the Lord our righteousness</i>, for he is <i>made of God to us righteousness</i>, that we might be <i>made the righteousness of God in him</i>. By faith we apply this to ourselves and plead it with God, and our <i>faith is imputed to us for righteousness</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Rom.4.3,Rom.4.5" href="/passage/?search=Rom.4.3,Rom.4.5"><span class="bibleref" title="Rom.4.3">Rom. 4:3</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Rom.4.5">5</span></a>. This is an <i>everlasting</i> righteousness, for Christ, who is <i>our righteousness</i>, and the <i>prince</i> of our <i>peace</i>, is the <i>everlasting Father</i>. It was from everlasting in the counsels of it and will 
<p class="tab-1">(3.) Concerning the final destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish church and nation; and this follows immediately upon the cutting off of the Messiah, not only because it was the <i>just punishment</i> of those that put him to death, which was the sin that filled up the measure of their iniquity and brought ruin upon them, but because, as things were, it was necessary to the perfecting of one of the great intentions of his death. He died to take away the ceremonial law, quite to abolish <i>that law of commandments</i>, and to vacate the obligation of it. But the Jews would not be persuaded to quit it; still they kept it up with more zeal than ever; they would hear no talk of parting with it; they stoned Stephen (the first Christian martyr) for saying that Jesus should <i>change the customs which Moses delivered them</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Acts.6.14" href="/passage/?search=Acts.6.14">Acts 6:14</a>); so that there was no way to abolish the Mosaic economy but by destroying the temple, and the holy city, and the Levitical priesthood, and that whole nation which so incurably doted on them. This was effectually done in less than forty years after the death of Christ, and it was a desolation that could <i>never be repaired</i> to this day. And this is it which is here largely foretold, that the Jews who returned out of captivity might not be overmuch lifted up with the rebuilding of their city and temple, because in process of time they would be finally destroyed, and not as now for seventy years only, but might rather rejoice in hope of the coming of the Messiah, and the setting up of his spiritual kingdom in the world, which should <i>never be destroyed</i>. Now, [1.] It is here foretold that <i>the people of the prince that shall come</i> shall be the instruments of this destruction, that is, the Roman armies, belonging to a monarchy yet to come (Christ is <i>the prince that shall come</i>, and they are employed by him in this service; they are <i>his armies</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Matt.22.7" href="/passage/?search=Matt.22.7">Matt. 22:7</a>), or the Gentiles (who, though now strangers, shall become the people of the Messiah) shall destroy the Jews. [2.] That the destruction shall be <i>by war</i>, and the <i>end</i> of that <i>war</i> shall be this <i>desolation determined</i>. The <i>wars of the Jews</i> with the Romans were by their own obstinacy made very long and very bloody, and they issued at length in the utter extirpation of that people. [3.] That the <i>city</i> and <i>sanctuary</i> shall in a particular manner be <i>destroyed</i> and laid quite waste. Titus the Roman general would fain have saved the temple, but his soldiers were so enraged against the Jews that he could not restrain them from burning it to the ground, that this prophecy might be fulfilled. [4.] That all the resistance that shall be made to this destruction shall be in vain: <i>The end of it shall be with a flood</i>. It shall be a deluge of destruction, like that which swept away the old world, and which there will be no making head against. [5.] That hereby the <i>sacrifice and oblation</i> shall be <i>made to cease</i>. And it must needs cease when the family of the priests was so extirpated, and the genealogies of it were so confounded, that (they say) there is no man in the world that can prove himself of the seed of Aaron. [6.] that there shall be <i>an overspreading of abominations</i>, a general corruption of the Jewish nation and an abounding of iniquity among them, for which it shall be <i>made desolate</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="1Thess.2.16" href="/passage/?search=1Thess.2.16">1 Thess. 2:16</a>. Or it is rather to be understood of the armies of the Romans, which were abominable to the Jews (they could not endure them), which <i>overspread the nation</i>, and by which it was <i>made desolate</i>; for these are the words which Christ refers to, <a class="bibleref" title="Matt.24.15" href="/passage/?search=Matt.24.15">Matt. 24:15</a>; <i>When you shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of