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"of Princes; and this is the Character, not of "Antiochus, but of Antichrift. The Horn "cast down the Sanctuary to the Ground, and "fo did not Antiochus, he left it standing. "The Sanctuary and Hoft were trampled un"der foot two thousand three hundred Days; "and in Daniel's Prophecies, Days are put for Years but the Profanation of the Temple "in the Reign of Antiochus, did not laft fo many natural Days. These were to laft to "the time of the End, till the last End of the "Indignation against the Jews; and this Indignation is not yet at an End. They were to laft till the Sanctuary, which had been "caft down, fhould be cleansed, and the "Sanctuary is not yet cleanfed." In the remaining part of this Chapter, our Author fhews, that the fame Prophecy, which is here explained, is again repeated with fome new Circumftances in the eleventh Chapter of Daniel: but for this we must refer the Reader to the Book it felf.

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THE tenth Chapter treats of the Prophecy of the Seventy-Weeks. As this is a very important Subject, and Sir Ifaac Newton's Obfervations being mostly new, we think it proper to lay before the Reader the greatest part of this Chapter in the Author's own Words.. He gives us first a Translation of his own of this Prophecy; we will transcribe it here, and put in a Parenthefis the Words of our English Tranflation, when it differs from that of Sir Ifaac. SeventyWeeks are cut (determined) upon thy People, and upon thy holy City, to finish Tranfgreffion, and to make an end of Sins, and to expiate (make reconciliation for) Iniquity, and to bring in everlasting Righteousness, to confummate (feal up) the Vi

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fion, and the Prophet (Prophecy), and to anaint the moft Holy. ver. 24.

KNOW alfo (therefore) and understand, that from the going forth of the Commandment, to cause to return (to reftore) and to build Jerufalem, unto the Anointed, (the Meffiah) the Prince, fhall be feven Weeks. ver. 25.

YET threefcore and two Weeks shall it return, and the Streets be built, and the Wall, but in troublesome times (and threefcore and two Weeks the Streets fhall be built again, and the Wall, even in troublesome times.) Ibid. And aft.r threefcore and two Weeks the Anointed (Meffiah) fhall be cut off, and it shall not be his (but not for himself) but (and) the People of a (the) Prince to come (that hall come) fhall deftroy the City, and the Sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a Flood, and to the end of the War Defolations are determined. ver. 26.

YET fall be (and he fhall) confirm the Covenant with many for one Week: and in half a Week (in the midst of the Week) he shall caufe the Sacrifice and Oblation to cease, and upon the Wing (for the overfpreading) of Abominations be shall make it defolate, even until the Confummation, and that which is determined be poured upon the Defolate. ver. 27.

OUR Author has nothing very particular with regard to the first part of this Prophecy, viz. the Seventy-Weeks taken together; he places the Beginning of them in the feventh Year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, and the End at the Death of Chrift; and he is of opinion, that the four hundred ninety Years must be understood of Lunar Years: and he adds, that the former part of the Prophecy relates to the first coming of Chrift as a Prophet; and that the Words

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in the Beginning of the twenty-fifth Verse feem to relate to his fecond coming, when he is to be a Prince or King. There (viz. in the first part of the Prophecy) the Prophet was confummate, and the most holy Anointed; here (viz. ver. 25.) he that was anointed comes to be Prince, and to Reign. Our Author obferves in this place, that Daniel's Prophecies reach to the End of the World, and that there is fcarce a Prophecy in the Old Teftament concerning Chrift, which does not in fomething or other relate to his fecond coming: and he adds, that if divers of the Ancients applied the half Week to the time of Antichrift, we may by the fame Liberty of Interpretation apply the feven Weeks to the time when Antichrift fhall be destroyed by the Brightness of Chrift's coming. But whether this Liberty of Interpretation will fatisfy our prefent Infidels, we fhall not determine; the Reader may eafily guess what Confequences can be drawn from this way of expounding Prophecies.

THE Ifraelites, fays further our Author, in the Days of the ancient Prophets, when "the ten Tribes were led into Captivity, ex"pected a double return, and that at the firft

the Jews fhould build a new Temple, infe"rior to Solomon's, until the time of that Age

fhould be fulfilled; and afterwards they "fhould return from all places of their Captisvity, and build Jerufalem and the Temple "glorioufly: Tobit xiv. 4, 5, 6. Now while "fuch a return from Captivity, was the Ex"pectation of Ifrael, even before the times of "Daniel, I know not why Daniel fhould omit

it in his Prophecy. This part of the Pro"phecy being therefore not yet fulfilled, I

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"fhall not attempt a particular Interpretation "of it, but content myfelf with obferving, "that as the Seventy and the fixty-two Weeks "were Jewish Weeks, ending with fabbatical "Years; fo the feven Weeks are the Compafs "of a Jubilee, and begin and end with Actions

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proper for a Jubilee, and of the highest Na"ture for which a Jubilee can be kept; and "that fince the Commandment to return and to "build Jerusalem, precedes the Meffiah, the "Prince, forty-nine Years; it may perhaps

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come forth, not from the Jews themselves, "but from fome other Kingdom friendly to "them, and precede their return from Capti"vity, and give occafion to it; and laftly, "that this rebuilding of Jerufalem, and the "wafte places of Judah, is predicted in Mich. "vii. 11. Amos ix. 11, 14. Ezek. xxxvi. 33,

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35, 36, 38. Isa. liv. 3, 11, 12. lv. 12. lxi. 4. "lxv. 18, 21, 22. and Tobit xiv. 5. and that "the return from Captivity, and coming of "the Meffiah and his Kingdom are described "in Daniel vii. Rev. xix. A&t. i. Mat. xxiv. Joel iii. Ezek. xxxvi, xxxvii. Isa. lx. lxii,lxiii. "and lxvi. and many other places of Scrip"ture: the Manner I know not, let Time be "the Interpreter." Thus, according to our Author, the Jews are to be restored to their former State, and Jerufalem and the Temple will be rebuilt; this Reftoration is foretold in part of the Prophecy of the feventy Weeks, but when and how this will happen, is yet unknown; this only is certain, that the Meffiah will come a fecond time, forty-nine Years after the Beginning of this Restoration. It would be too long and too tedious to make Obfervations upon all the Paffages to which our Author reHh 4

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fers us; but we cannot forbear obferving, that what Chrift himself fays in the twenty-fourth Chapter of St. Matthew feems to overthrow our Author's Scheme. Our Saviour having foretold his fecond coming, tells us in express Words, This Generation fhall not pass till all thefe things be fulfilled; which Words muft fignify, that he would come a fecond time within the space of forty Years for the utmost: and accordingly moft Commentators understand that Prophecy of the overthrow of the Jewish Nation by Titus Vefpafianus.

OUR Author next fixes the Date of the threefcore and two Weeks. The Prophet "having "foretold both comings of Chrift, and dated

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the laft from their returning and building "Jerufalem; to prevent the applying that to the building of Jerufalem by Nehemiah, he diftinguishes this from that, by faying, that from this Period to the Anointed fhall be, "not feven Weeks, but threefcore and two Weeks, and this not in profperous but in troublefome times; and at the end of these "Weeks the Meffiah fhall not be the Prince of

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the Jews, but be cut off, and Jerufalem not "be his, but the City and Sanctuary be deftroyed. Now Nehemiah came to Jerufalem in the twentieth Year of this fame Artaxerxes, while Ezra ftill continued there, Nebem. xii. 36, and found the City lying waste, and "the Houfes and Wall unbuilt. Nehem. ji. 17. vii. 4. and finished the Wall the twenty-fifth Day of the Month Elul, Nehem, vii, 15. in the twenty-eighth Year of the King; that is, in September, in the Year of the Julian Period, 4278. Count now from this Year, "three

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ver. 34.

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