11;40,41, The Defeription of the Extent of the dominion of That People, who were to poffefs Judea in the latter days; Was it forged after the Event? or can it reasonably be afcribed to Chance? (1) He (1) Dan fball come with Horse-men, and with many Ships, and fhall overflow and pass over: He 42, 43. Shall enter alfo into the Glorious Land, [and (2) (2) Ver. fhall plant the Tabernacles of his Palace between the 45. Seas in the Glorious Holy Mountain;] And many Countries fhall be overthrown: But Thefe fhall Escape out of his hand, even Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall ftretch forth his hand alfo upon the Countries, and the land of Egypt fhall not efcape. But he shall have power over the Treafures of Gold and of Silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and Ethiopians [w]hall be at his Steps. When Daniel, in the (1) Vifion of Nebuchadnezzar's Image, foretold (2) Four Great Succeffive Monarchies: Was This written. after the Event? or can the congruity of his defcription with the things themselves, reafonably be afcribed to mere Chance? (1) The Fame of which, Ezekiel, who was contempowas fo early spread; that rary with Daniel, plainly alludes to it, when he says of the Prince of Tyre, ch. 28, 3, Thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no Secret, that they can hide from thee. (2) Dan. 2; 38-----44. (3) Dan. 9, 24. (4) Weeks, or Septenaries, of Years. Compare Gen. 29, 27. Num. 14, 34. Ezek. When the Angel fays to Daniel: (3) Seventy Weeks (4) are deter mined upon thy people, and upon thy Holy City, to finish the transgreffion, and to make an end of Sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, &c. Was this written after the Event? Or can it reasonably be afcribed to Chance, that from (1) the Seventh year of Artaxerxes the King, (1) Ezra (when Ezra went up from Babylon 4, 6. uno Fe- 7; 6,7, & rufalem with a Commiffion to reftore the Government of the Jews;) to the Death of Chrift, [from F ann. (2) Dan. 9, 25. ann. Nabonaff. 290, to ann. Nabonaff. 780,] fhould be precifely 490 [70 weeks of] years? When the Angel tells Daniel, that (2) ThreeScore and two Weeks the street [of Jerufalem] Shall be built again, and the Wall, even in troublous times, but This in Troublous times, not ובצוק העתים like thofe that should be under Meffiah the Prince, (3) Tois 'Isporchiwoss, κοδομήθη τὸ τεῖχω, ὀγδίῳ καὶ εἰκοσῷ τῆς Ξέρξου Βασιλείας τει, μηνὶ ἐννάτῳ· τέλος δὲ τῶν Texan aborton, &c. fof plus, Antiquit. Jadaie. lib. 11, cap. 5. (4) Dan. 9, 27. (Dan.9, 27. When Daniel further fays: (4) And he shall confirm [or, Nevertheless he shall confirm] the Covenant with Many for one Week: Was This written after the Event? Or can it reafonably be afcribed to Chance, that from the Death of Christ, (anno, Dom. 33) to the Command given firft to St Peter to preach to Cornelius and the Gentiles, (anno. Dom. 40,) fhould be exactly Seven [One week of] years? When he ftill adds: (1) And in the midst of the Week [yaw 3 And in Half a Week] he fball canfe the Sacrifice and the Oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of Abominations he shall make it defolate: Was This written after the Event? Or can it with any reafon be afcribed to Chance, that from Vefpafian's marching into Judaa in the Spring Anno Dom. 67, to the taking of Jerufalem by Titus in the Autumn Anno Dom. 70, fhould be [Half a Septenary of Years,] Three Years and a half? When the fame Daniel foretells a Tyrannical Power, which fhould wear out the Saints of the Moft Moft High, and they should be given into his hand (2) Dan. 7, untill (2) a Time and Times and the Dividing of 25. (3) Dan. 12, 7. (4) Three Years and a Half, or 1260 Days, is, according to the Analogy of all the forementioned Numbers, 1260 Years. 26. 10, 14. 19. Time; and (3) again, For (4) a Time, Times, anda Half: (Which can no way be applied to the Short Perfecution of Antiochus, because thele Prophecies are expreffly declared to be (1) for many Days; concerning (2) what shall befal thy people in the (1) Dan. 8' Latter days, for yet the Vision is for Many Days; (2) Dan. concerning (3) the Time of the End; (4) what fhall be in the Laft End of the indignation; con- (3) ch. 8, cerning those who (5) fall fall by the Sword and 17. by flame, by captivity and by Spoil, Many Days; (4) ch. 8, (6) to try them, even to the Time of the End, be- (5) ch. 11, Cause it is yet for a time appointed; concerning (7) 33; a Time of Trouble, fuch as never was fince there was (6) ch. 11, a Nation; the time (8) when God shall have Ac- 35; (7) ch. 12, complished to fcatter the Power of the Holy people; 1. (9) the time of the End, till which the words are 8) ch. 12, ciofed up and fealed; (10) to which the Prophet 7is commanded to shut up his words, and feal the (9) ch. 12. Book, for many fhall run to and fro, run to and fro, and Know- (10) ch. ledge shall be increased; even (11) the End, till 12, 4. which Daniel was to reft, and then ftand in his Lot (11) ch. at the End of the Days.) When Daniel, I fay, foretells fuch a Tyrannical Power, to continue fuch a determined period of Time; And St. John prophefies, that the (12) Gentiles fhould tread the Ho- (12) Rev. ly City under foot, Forty and Two Months; which 11, 2. is exactly the fame period of time, with that of Daniel: And again, that (13) Two Witneffes, cloath- (13) Rev. ed in Sackcloth, should prophefy a Thousand two hun- 11, 3. dred and threefcore days; which is again exactly the very fame period of time: And again, that the (1) (1) Rev. Woman which fled into the Wilderness from Perfe- 12, 6. cution, fhould continue there a Thoufand two Hundred and threefcore days: And again, that the 9. 12, 13. (2) Rev. should (2) fly into the Wilderness, for a Time, and 12, 14. Times, and Half a Time; which is ftill the very fame period: And again, that a Wild Beaft, a Ty(3) ch. 13. rannical Power, (3) to whom it was given to make War with the Saints, and to overcome them, 7. (4) ch. 13, 5. (5) ch. 13; 7, 8. +There has prevailed among Learned men a very Important Errour, as if the 1260 Days (or Years) here fpoken of, took their Beginning from the Rife of the Tyranny here defcribed. Whereas, on the contrary, the words of Daniel are exprefs, that, not from the Time of his Rife, but after his having made War with the Saints, and from the time of their being given into his hand, fhould be a Time, and Times, and the Dividing of Time, ch. 7; 24, 25. And St John no less expreffly fays, that the time, not of the Two Witnesses Prophefying, (for in Part of That time they had Great Power,) but of their Prophefying in Sackcloth, fhould be a thoufand two hundred and threefcore days, Rev. 11, 3. And the perfecuted Woman, after her Flight, was to be actually in the Wilderness, (and in her Place there, of Riches and Honour,) a thousand two hundred and Threefcore days, ch. 12,6. Wherefore alfo the forty and two months, (the very fame period,) during which time Power was given unto the Wild Beaft to Continue, (in the original it is, romuar, to do what he was (4) to continue Forty and two Months, (ftill the very fame period of time,) and to have (5) Power over All Kindreds, and Tongues, and Nations, fo that All that dwell upon the Earth should Worship him: Is it credible or poffible, that ignorant and Enthufiaftical Writers fhould, by mere Chance, hit upon fuch Co-incidencies of [occult] Numbers? especially fince St John could not poffibly take the Numbers from Daniel, if he understood Daniel to mean nothing more than the Short Perfecution of Antiochus, And if he did understand Daniel to mean a much Longer and Greater and Remote Tyranny, which John himself prophefied of as in His time still future; then the Wonder is ftill infinitely Greater; that in Thofe early Times, when there was not the leaft Footstep in the World of any fuch Power as St John diftinctly describes, (but which Now is very Confpicuous, as I fhall presently obferve more particularly;) it fhould ever more enter into the Heart of man to conceive fo much as the Poffibility of fuch a Power, fitting, not upon the Pavilion of Heathen Perfe cutors pleafed, Rev. 13, 5;) evidently ought not to be reckoned from his Rife, or from the time when the ten Kngs (ch. 17, 12,) received Power With him; but from tally overcome the Saints, and the time of his having toof his being Worshipped by Al that dwell upon the Earth, ch. 13; 7, 8. But Thefe Prophecies, which either relate to Particular Places, or depend upon the computation of Particular Periods of Time, are (as I faid) of fuch a nature, as that they cannot be judged but by perfons skilled in Hiftory. There are fome Others more General, running through the Whole Scripture, and obvious to the confideration of the Whole World. of, 26, 33. (3) Deut. 4, 27. 28, 64. (5) Deut. 4, 27. For Inftance: It was foretold by Mofes, that when the Jews forfook the True God, they fhould be (1) removed into all the Kingdoms (1) Deut. of the Earth; fhould be (2) fcattered among the 28, 25. Heathen, (3) among the Nations, (4) among all people (2) Levit. from the one end of the Earth even unto the other; fhould There be (5) left Few in number among the Heathen, and (6) pine away in their iniquity in their (4) Deut. Enemies lands; and fhould (7) become an astonishment, a proverb, and a By-word, among all Nations; and that (8) among thefe Nations they fhould find (6) Levit. no Eafe, neither thould the Sole of their Foot have 26, 39. Reft; but the Lord should give them a Trembling Trembling (7) Beut. Heart, and failing of Eyes, and forrow of Mind; (8) Deut. and (9) fend a Faintnefs into their Hearts, in the 28, 65. Lands of their Enemies; fo that the found of a (9) Levit. Shaken Leaf fhould chafe them. Had any thing like 26, 34 This, in Mofes's time, ever happened to Any Nation? Or was there in Nature any Probability, that any fuch thing should ever happen to any People? that, when they were conquered by their Enemies, and led into captivity, they should nei ther continue in the place of their captivity, nor be fwallowed up and loft among their Conquerours, but be scattered among all the Nations of the World, and 28, 37. |