and the Judge of all mankind, as has been already proved in several places, should we not think that the Word of God did foretel that Elias, his forerunner, should come before the dreadful and great day, that is, his second coming?' 'Yes,' said he. That it shall be so,' said I, 'our Lord has taught us in his Gospel, when he said that "Elias shall come; " and this we are sure will come to pass when our Lord Jesus Christ shall come from heaven in his glory.'"*

So Tertullian says: "Enoch and Elias were translated, and their death was not found, being deferred; but they are reserved to die, that they may extinguish Antichrist with their blood."+ Even Augustine and Jerome interpreted the words of our Lord and the prophet in the same way, and expected that Elias would return in the reality of the body. The first, so far as is known to me, who impugned this interpretation was one who desired, wherever it was possible, to get rid

* Brown's Translation, vol. i. p. 197.

† De Anima, 19, 20. In the Paris Collectio Selecta, vol. vi. p. 605. Compare also what is said, p. 588: "Elias autem non ex decessione vitæ, sed ex translatione venturus est: nec corpori restituendus, de quo non exemptus: sed mundo reddendus, de quo est translatus: non ex postliminio vitæ, sed ex supplemento prophetiæ: idem et ipse, et sui nominis et sui hominis."

of the miraculous and the supernatural, and to conform everything to the every-day course of what are called the laws of nature. Desirous to cut up by the roots the Christian argument from our Lord's miracles, he asserts that in the days of the Messiah, the Jews are to expect nothing extraordinary, and therefore denies that there is any authorized tradition for the expectation of the literal Elias, saying, that some prophet will come, but that before the fulfilment of prophecy, it is impossible to know anything certain.*

Unfortunately, this Maimonides, the most acute and determined opposer of Christianity, has found many admirers, and not a few to follow him in his view of the prophecy under consideration. Some think that as the first verse of the third chapter refers to John the Baptist, the words of the text must be interpreted of it also. That the prophet spoke of the forerunner of our Lord's first advent when he said, "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me," cannot be doubted. But that admission implies no necessity for referring chapter iv. to the same time. In many places of Scripture, the first and second advents are spoken of in juxta-position almost in the same verse. Thus, when Isaiah (xi. 1) says, "There shall come forth * Maimonides Hilchoth Melachim, chap. xii.

a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots," he speaks of the first advent; when he adds, in the fourth verse, "He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked," he speaks of the second advent, and then continues that subject to the end of the chapter. So in the fortieth chapter, "The voice of him that crieth, Prepare ye the way of the Lord," refers to the work of John before the first advent; "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together," to the second. So the beginning of the forty-ninth chapter predicts Messiah's humiliation, and the small success of his ministry. The succeeding verses carry us on to the consummation of his kingdom upon earth. And so in Daniel, in the vision of the stone cut out without hands, the prophetic spirit brings together the beginning and the perfection of Christ's kingdom. So in Zechariah ix. the ninth verse represents the Messiah entering Jerusalem upon an ass; the tenth verse the abolition of war, the establishment of peace, and the setting up of Christ's universal monarchy. The fact, therefore, that Malachi iii. 1, speaks of the first advent, does not necessarily imply that iv. 1, speaks also of the same event or time.

The language of the two predictions is alto

gether different. speaks of a messenger without any name. In the fourth he mentions Elijah the Prophet, prefixing the article, to make the application as definite as possible. In the preceding verse he speaks of Moses, Horeb, and Israel; "Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the judgments and statutes." The three proper names are all taken in their proper signification. Why, then, should "Elijah the Prophet" be taken differently?

In the third the prophet

Again, the time spoken of appears also to be different. The third speaks of the period of the second temple; the two last verses of the fourth, of the great day of retribution. It is the great and dreadful day of the Lord. It is the day when the Lord shall make up his jewels,—when the great apparent want of equity in God's dealings with the righteous and the wicked shall be cleared up; when men shall discern between the righteous and the wicked,-between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. Surely this rendering to every man according to his deeds is not to take place until the Second Advent. Of this time, therefore, the prophet must speak.

Again; it is the day "when all the proud,

yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble, and be burned up;" when the righteous shall triumph over them, " ye shall tread down the wicked under the soles of your feet." Now, this was certainly not fulfilled in the days of John the Baptist, nor in the judgments that descended upon Jerusalem. The unbelieving portion of the nation were punished; but they that feared God, still remained a poor and persecuted people. And even if it were possible to interpret "the great and dreadful day of the Lord," of the First Advent, yet the concluding words cannot be applied to the effects of St. John's ministry. Whatever be the meaning of the prediction, "He shall turn the hearts of fathers to children, and the hearts of children to fathers," it is certain that the conversions wrought by John's instrumentality did not prevent the land of Israel from being smitten with a curse. A few received the message of John; the generation rejected him as well as his Master. "Whereunto shall I liken this generation?" said Christ. "It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. The