Moreover, he is called, Dan. ix. 24, WP WIP, “The Holiest of holies,’ “The most Holy;” “Sanctitas sanctitatum,’ in the ab- stract,—“ The Holiness of holinesses.’” The most holy place in the tabernacle and temple was so called, but that cannot be here in- tended. The time is limited, DOW1? YIP nin? ;—“To anoint” (or “to make a Messiah of”) “the most Holy.” But, by the Jews’ confession, the holy place in the second temple was never anointed, because it was not lawful for them to make the holy oil. But sup- pose it was anointed, it must be so long before the expiration of these weeks, which ended, as they suppose, in its final destruction, and in truth not long before. It must therefore be the person
324 DANIEL’S PROPHECY VINDICATED. [ EXERC. XIV,
typified by the holy place, in whom the fulness of the Godhead was to dwell, that is here said to be anointed. Had there been any Targum on the Hebrew chapters of Daniel, we should have better known the sense of the ancient Jews in this matter than now we do. Some of them in after ages agree with us. Nachmanides tells us, wtp mw sin owip,—“ This Holy of holies is the Messiah;” wypon 37 99219,“ who is sanctified from amongst the sons of David.” So he on the place.
29. (3.) The work assigned to be done in the days of this Messiah here spoken of, and consequently by him, declares who it is that is intended. Sundry things there are in the text belonging unto this head: as,—first, Finishing of transgression; secondly, The making an end of sin; thirdly, Making reconciliation for iniquity; fourthly, The bringing in of everlasting righteousness; fifthly, The sealing up of vision and prophecy; sixthly, His being cut off, and not for him- self; seventhly, Confirming the covenant with many; eighthly, Causing the sacrifice and oblation to cease. All these, especially as coincident, demonstrate the person of the Messiah. He that shall call to mind what hath been evinced concerning the nature of the first promise, the faith of the ancient Judaical church, the person, office, and work of the Messiah, will, upon the first consideration of these things, conclude that this is he; for we have in these things a summary of the Old Testament, the substance of all temple in- stitutions, the centre of all promises, a brief delineation of the whole work of the promised Seed. Wherefore, although it be not an ex- position of the place that we have undertaken, but merely a demon- stration of the concernment of the Messiah therein, yet, because the consideration of the particular expressions above mentioned will give light into the strength of the present argument, I shall in our passage briefly unfold them.
30. The first thing designed is }¥BN x>2. The time deter- mined for the coming of the Messiah is also limited, }¥BT §?32?, —‘ Ad cohibendam preevaricationem ;’ “to restrain, forbid, coerce, make an end of transgression.” ?3 is “to shut, to shut up, to for- bid, to coerce, to refrain, or restrain:” Ps. cxix. 101, ‘28?3;—“T have refrained” (or “kept”) “my feet from every evil way.” Ps. xl. 12, “Thou, Lorp, NPSITND wilt not withhold” (or “restrain” “ thy mercy from me.” So also “to shut up,” or “ put a stop unto,” as Jer. li. 63; Hag. 1.10; 1 Sam. iii. 12; Ps. Ixxxviii, 9. Thence is 823, “carcer,”’ a “prison,” wherein men are put under restraint. From the similitude of letters and sound in pronunciation, some suppose it to have an affinity in signification with 722, “to consummate, to end, to finish.” But there is no pregnant instance of this coincidence; for although 773 doth sometimes signify “to restrain” or “shut up,” as Ps, Ixxiv. 11, yet 823 nowhere signifies “to consummate, finish,” or
SECT. 29-32. DANIEL’S PROPHECY VINDICATED. 325
“complete.” The first thing, therefore, promised with the Messiah, which he was to do at his coming, was, to coerce and restrain trans- gression,—to shut it up from overflowing the world so universally as it had done formerly. Transgression, from the day of its first en- trance into the world, had passed over the whole lower creation like a flood. God would now set bounds unto it, coerce and restrain it, that it should not for the future overflow mankind as it had done. This was the work of the Messiah. By his doctrine, by his Spirit, by his grace, and the power of his gospel, he set bounds to the rage of wickedness, rooted out the old idolatry of the world, and turned millions of the sons of Adam unto righteousness; and the Jews, who deny his coming, can give no instance of any other restraint laid upon the prevalency of transgression within the time limited by the angel, and so directly deny the truth of the prophecy, because they will not apply it unto him unto whom alone it doth belong.
31. The second thing to be done at the season determined is, nixon onn2—“to seal up sins.” Tod oppayicus, “to seal,” or “to seal up.” The expression is metaphorical. To seal, is either to keep safe, or to hide, cover, and conceal. The former can have no place here, though the word seems once to be used in that sense with reference unto sin, Job xiv.17. But this sense hath a perfect inconsistency with what is spoken immediately before, and with what follows directly after in the text. And the most proper sense of the word is “to cover or conceal,” and thence “to seal,” because thereby a thing is hidden, Cant. iv. 12. Now, to hide sin or transgression, in the Old Testament, is to pardon it, to forgive it. As, then, the former expression respecteth the stop that was put to the power and progress of sin by the grace of the gospel, as Titus ii. 11, 12, so doth this the pardon and removal of the guilt of it by the mercy proclaimed and tendered in the gospel. And in this way of expres- sion is God said to “cast our sins behind his back,” to “ cover them,” and to “cast them into the bottom of the sea.” That this was no way to be done but by the Messiah, we have before evinced. Neither can the Jews assign any other way of the accomplishment of this part of the prediction within the time limited; for setting aside this only consideration, of the pardon of sin procured by the mediation of the Messiah, and there was never any age wherein God did more severely bring forth sin unto judgment, as themselves had large experience.