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Saints are to be given into his Hand for a Time, Times, and a Half, at the End of which Period the Scattering of the holy People is to be accomplished, and the triumphant Reign of the Meffiab to commence. And for this Purpose I think we cannot poffibly affign a more proper Period than that, when the Pope of Rome had fo far shaked off his Dependence on the Emperor, as to change the Manner of Dating his Bulls and Epiftles from the customary Form of the Year of the Reign of each Emperor, to that of Dating them by the Years of his own being in the Popedom. Which remarkable *Event came to pass A. D. 755, for though the Power of the Pope as Bishop of Rome, was gradually encreafing from the Time that the Emperor Conftantine had declared in Favour of Christianity; yet it was not till the above Year when Pepin King of France came into Italy, and conferred on the Pope the Dominions of the Exarchate of Ravenna, and the Region of Pentapolis, that the Commencement of the Reign of the Pope as a temporal Prince can justly be dated.

But as the Period of a Time, Times and a Half, that is of three Years and a Half, or

Newton's Obfervat. on Dan. p. 79:

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of 1260 literal Days is long fince expired without the Completion of the remaining Part of this Prophecy, that is, of the Re ftoration of the Jews, and the triumphant Appearance of the Meffiab, we muft fuppofe thefe Days to denote fo many Years, as was customary in the Language of the Prophets. For thus the Prophet Ezekiel, in explaining one of his own Prophecies, declares, fay ing, *I have appointed thee each Day for an Year. So that if to this Period of A. D. 755, we add the Length of Time for which the Saints are to be given into the Hand of this little Horn, and which is characterised under the Expreffion of a Time, Times, and a Half, or of 1260 Years, this will bring us to A. D. 2015, which nearly correfponds with the 6000th Year of the Age of the World. About which Time we may probably expect the Accomplishment of the Scattering of the Holy People; as also that the Dominion of the little Horn, which we fee daily decreafing, will then be entirely removed, and conferred on one like the Son of Man; who shall come with the Clouds of Heaven, and there fhall be Dominion and Glory, and a Kingdom given unto him, that

* Ezekiel iv. 6...

that all People and Nations, and Languages fhould ferve him.

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I do acknowledge that this Calculation is made according to the Computation of the Age of the World among Christian Chronologers; who generally compute the 43d Year of the Reign of Auguftus Cæfar, from whence the Chriftian Æra commences, to have coincided nearly with the 4000th Year of the Age of the World. Whereas the Jews fuppofe the 376 ift Year of the World's Age to coincincide with the 43d Year of the Reign of Auguftus, which makes a Differ rence of 239 Years between the two Calculations. But though I have in a Treatise formerly published, vindicated the Chronology of the Hebrew Bible, as far as it is mentioned in the Books of Mofes; yet I fear it cannot be fo eafily vindicated afterwards; and I fear much more, that fince the Babylonish Captivity, and the Decay of the Spirit of Prophecy in the Jewish Church, by the Death of Malachi, the Chronology of the Jewish Rabbins is hardly to be vindicated at all.

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* Published at London, A.D. 1747, by J. Brindley, in New-Bond-Street, and entitled the Chronology of the Hebrew Bible vindicated, &c.

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For though it must be acknowledged that the Jewish Church feems to have been in its greatest Purity during the Reign of the Maccabees, as happens to all Churches when they are under Perfecution, Affliction being the Mother of Devotion; and that the Jews were at that Time very obfervant of the Ceremonies of their own Religion, yet they were then, as at all other Times, very unobfervent of what was doing in the other Parts of the World, or of making themselves acquainted with Arts or Sciences, or with History or Chronology in particular; Jofephus, who lived about the Time of the Deftruction of the fecond Temple, being the only Hiftorian of Note, belonging to that Nation, and his Numbers must be acknowledged to be very incorrect.

I do not propose, at prefent entering into a nice Scrutiny; or going into any critical Difquifitions with Regard to the exact Year in which any of thefe Events either have already, or are likely to come to pass. Some of the Events, thofe for Example, which relate to the Divifion of the Roman Empire, and the Rife of the Popedom, having been fulfilled

*

fulfilled with fufficient Exactnefs, to give us Reason to hope for the fulfilling of the reft. And as the Prophet Zechariah obferves, * that the EVENING of this Day which shall be known to the Lord SHALL BE LIGHT, therefore tho' the precife Time is not exactly specified, there is enough fufficiently revealed to excite our Curiofity, and make us look out for the Break of Day. For in Accounts of this Nature where the Computations are large, are made up out of a great Variety of Events, and the Periods of the Times to be computed are at a great Distance from each other, the Annumeration of a few Years is not to be regarded. And efpecially when we confider that thofe Events, either of the Downfall of the Popedom, or the Restoration of the Jews, or the Establishment of the Kingdom of the Meffiab, will probably not be brought about all at once; fo that although they may begin to take Effect, nearly about the fame Time, yet they will not be compleated in fo fhort a Space of Time as that of a few Years. It being probable that, according to the Prophet Daniel

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* Zech. xiv. 7.

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