Daniel, the Coming of the Meffiah in a vlfible Appearance attended with Power and great Glory, will not be till about seventy¬ five Years after the Overthrow of the Popedom; during the first thirty Years of which Period * many fhall be purified, and made white and tried, as the Prophet Daniel expreffeth it. Who fays, that from the Time when the daily Sacrifice hath been taken away, and the Abomination of Aftonishment is fet up, that is, from the Time that the Abomination of Astonishment, or the Popedom, is fet up, after the daily Sacrifice hath been taken away, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety Days, which are thirty Days, or prophetic Years, more than the one thousand two hundred fixty Days which are allotted for the Destruction of the Pope. dom. And from thence to the Completion of feventy five Years, the remaining fortyfive Years will be spent in the further Reftoration of the Jews, and the Calling in of the Gentiles: For, fays Daniel, Bleffed is be that waiteth, and cometh to the Thousand, Three Hundred, and five and thirty Days, Dan. xii. 9, 10, 11, 12. which which are seventy five Days, or Years, more than there are in a Time, Times, and Half a Time, or in forty and two Months of Years. Which therefore will probably be the precife Time of the glorious Manifestation of the Meffiab. However when we speak of thefe Events in general, and in round Numbers, we may suppose they will come to pass about the 6000th Year of the Age of the World. Which wonderfully coincides with an ancient Tradition that prevailed among the Jews above 1700 Years ago, Which Tradition is to be found in the Talmud, under the Head Rofch Hafchana, and in the Section that begins Jom Tob, and is to this Purpose: That this World is to laft 6000 Years, in its prefent State, and after one millinary more, it shall be destroyed; as it is faid, and the Lord alone fhall be exalted in that Day, that is, in the feventh Millinary. According to which Tradition the Jews thep afferted that the Meffiah was to come at the End of 6000 Years from the Creation of the World שיתא אלפי שנה הוי העולם וחד חרוב שן ונשגב יהוה לבדו ביום ההוא. i. e. Sex millibus Annorum erit Mundus, & in uno fcilicet Millenario, erit deftructus; ficut dictum eft, & elevabitur Dominus folus ipfe in Die illo. Ifa, ii. 11. World, that the Manner in which God is faid by Moses to have created the World, by making it in fix Days, and appointing the feventh to be a Sabbath of Reft to Man and Beaft; as alfo his appointing every seventh Year to be a Sabbath of Reft unto the Land, in which they should neither plow nor sow; and every seventh Sabbath of Years, to be a *Jubilee, in which Liberty fhould be proclaimed throughout all the Land, unto all all the Inhabitants thereof, was a Type of this seventh Millinary. Which Tradition the Jews then made ufe of in Argument against the Chriftians, when these last upon the Deftruction of the Temple of Jerufalem, by Titus, and the actual ceafing of the Oblation and Sacrifice, infifted upon it, that according to the Prophecies contained in the Hebrew Bible, the Meffiab must be come: To which the Jews thought it fufficient to reply, that the World was not yet 6000 Years old. Whence it appears that the Jews had a Tradition of the Coming of the Messiah at the *Lev. xxv. 8.9, 10. + See Pezron's Antiq. retab. C. iv. p. 37, 38. and C. xvi. p. 291. as alfo Cotcler. Pat. Apoft. in his Notes on the Epift. of Sect. 15. 1 the End of 6000 Years. But if we confider how they disposed of these fix thousand Years, we shall then find that they had also a Tradition that the Meffiah was to come at the End of four thousand Years. Which Tradition is to be found in the Talmud, un der the Head Shanedrim, Section Helec; as alfo in Havoda Zara, Section Liphne Ede hen, to this Purpose, that this World is to laft fix thousand Years, two thousand Years of which may be reckoned as the Age of Vanity or rather of Inanity; two thousand the Age of the Law; and two thousand the Age of the Meffiah. Whence it is plain that according to this Tradition the Meffiah ought to have been come above 1700 Years ago, or even according to the Calculations of the Jews themselves above +1500 Years ago. And therefore in order to reconcile these two Traditions, we are not to fuppofe there are to be two Mef fiah's * תנא דבי אליהו ששת אלפים שנה הוי העולם: שני אלפים תהו: שני אלפים תורה: ושני אלפים ימות המשיח : Sententia Domus Eliæ. fex millia Annorum erit Mundus; duo millia Inanitatis ; duo millia Legis; & duo millia Dierum Meffiæ. + According to the computation of the Jews the prefent Year 1750 is the 5511th Year of the Age of the World. hab's, as fome of the Jews have vainly ima gined, for the Scriptures pofitively declare that there fhall be but one Meffiah; for thus faith the Prophet Ezekiel, when speaking in the Name of God, || I will fet up ONE Shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my Servant David, he shall feed them, and be fhall be their Shepherd. And therefore fince it is manifeft that the Prophet Isaiah speaks of the Meffiah as in a State of Affliction and Distress, we may suppose these two thousand Years of the Days of the Meffiah, which the Tradition reckons as Part of the fix thousand Years, to be his State of Humiliation; fince it is allowed on all Hands both by Jews and Christians, that the Meffiab hath not yet appeared in his State of Exaltation. And correfpondent hereto is the Tradition of Rabbi Abija, in that Part of the Talmud before quoted, viz. in Rofch-Hafchana, in the Section that begins fom Tob. Wherein he afferts that after two Milliniaries then shall come one of Refreshing, in Proof of which he quotes the Prophet Hofea, where he says, After two Days he will revive us, in the third * Ifa. lii. liji. || Ezek. xxxiv. 23. |