udge among the nations, and rebuke many peoples, and they shall
beat their words into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning
hooks.' See also Hosea, ch. iii, and also Dan., ch. ii., where it is
written:--'God hath made known unto king Nebuchadnezzar
what shall come to pass in the latter days,' (or, in the end of days.)
And this pertains to what follows, viz., to this:--'In the days of
those kings, (i. e., of the kingdoms that arose out of the ruins of the
Roman Empire) the God of heaven will raise up a kingdom, which
shall never be destroyed.' Thus you see, that the prophets
predicted, that the kingdom of the Messiah should be after the
destruction of the Roman Empire, not while it was in its vigour;
when Jesus came; in 'the latter days,' and not before.*

"4. Besides all these difficulties, neither were the promises made
to us by the prophets, concerning the things to come to pass at the
coming of the Messiah, fulfilled in the time of Jesus. For examples,
take the following:--'1. In the time of the king Messiah, there was
to be one kingdom only, and one only king upon earth, viz., the
king Messiah--see Daniel, ch. ii.; but behold, we see with our
eyes, many independent kingdoms, distinct, and distinguished by
different laws and customs, religious and political, which things
being so, it follows, that the Messiah is not yet come.

"2. In the time of the king Messiah, there was to be only one
religion and one law throughout the world; for, it is written in
Isaiah, ch. lii. and lxvi., that all nations shall come at stated times
to worship the Eternal at Jerusalem. See also Zechariah, ch. xiv.
and ch. viii., and indeed throughout the writings of the prophets.

"3. In the time of the king Messiah, idols were to be cut off, and
utterly to perish from the earth; as it is said in Zechariah, ch. xiii.,
and so in Isaiah, ch. ii., it is written, 'And the glory of idols shall
utterly pass away;' and so in Zephaniah, ch. ii., 'The Lord shall be
terrible among them, when he shall make lean (i. e., bring to
nothing) all the gods of the earth; and all the countries of the
nations shall bow themselves to Him, each out of his place.'

"4. In the times of the Messiah, there shall obtain no more sins and
crimes in the earth, especially among the children of Israel, as is
affirmed in Deut. xxx., Zephaniah, ch. iii and in Jeremiah, ch. iii.
And l., and so in Ezekiel, ch. xxxvi. and xxxvii.

"5. In the times of the Messiah, there s