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Visions, or Dreams, or by dark and enigmatical Expreffions.

'Tis faid indeed of Joshua, that he was full of the Spirit of Wisdom, for Mofes had laid his Hands upon him, and the Children of Ifrael hearken'd unto him; but that the Prophefy is not applicable to him, the following Words declare, But there arofe not a Prophet fince in Ifrael, like unto Mofes, whom the Lord knew Face to Face, and as Ezra, (who out-liv'd the latest of them) adds, in all the Signs, and all the Wonders, which the Lord fent him to do. They had no fpecial Commiffion, no new Inftitutes of Religion to publish; nor had they ufually any extraordinary Credentials to produce. Their Bufinefs, in fhort, was to explain and inculcate the Law, which Mofes gave, and even in this 'tis hardly fuppofable that they were always infallibly directed, because it is faid of feveral of them, that they "erred in Vifion, and fumbled in Judgment. How improper is it then to fay, they were like unto Mofes, and how much more improper would it be to give them this additional Character, I will put my Words in his Mouth, and he fhall Speak unto them all that I fhall command him; which certainly implies an extraordinary

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nary Commiffion to publish, fomething that was not revealed before.

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Jefus,that he was a Teacher fent from God, for that no Man could do the Miracles, which he did, except God were with him; that he came to declare God, or, which is all one, to reveal a new Religion, which was confirm'd z by Signs and mighty Wonders; and, to qualify him for this, that he was from the Beginning with God, and b is in the Bofom of the Father: when it is exprefsly faid, that he is the Mediator of a new Covenant in his Blood, for the Redemption of the Tranfgreffions of the former Covenant; and, das Mofes was faithful in all his Houfe as a Servant, for a Teftimony of thofe Things which were to be spoken after, fo he, as a Son, was faithful to him, that appointed him, and was counted worthy of more Glory, than Mofes, in as much as he, who hath builded the House, bath more Honour than the Houfe: when all this, I fay, is affirmed and verified of Chrift, 'tis manifeft, that the great Lines of the prophetical Description here under Confideration, in their true and primary Senfe, meet only in him, and that, to apply them to any other Perfon, muft

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Joh. i. 18.

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Heb. xi. 15. Heb. iii. 2, &c.

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Dan. ix.

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The Prophefy of Daniel indeed, as Quotati- it depends upon the Computation of a particular Period of Time, is fomewhat obfcure, and requires a competent Skill all vindi- in Hiftory to clear it up: But then there are certain Truths, contained in it, which are plain and obvious to the meaneft Capacity. The Words of the Prophet are thefe, Seventy Weeks are determin'd 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, and to bring in everlasting Righteousness, and to feal of the Vifion and Prophecy, and to anoint the moft Holy. Know therefore and underftand, that from the going forth of the Commandment to build Jerufalem again, unto the Meffiah the Prince, fhall be feven Weeks; and threefcore and two Weeks, the Street fhall be built again, and the Walls, even in troublefome Times. And after threefcore and two Weeks fhall the Meffiab be cut off, but not for himself; and the People of the Prince, that shall come, ball deftroy the City, and the Sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a Flood, and at the End of the War Defolations are determin'd. And he fhall confirm

Dan. ix. 24.

confirm the Covenant with many for one Week, and, in the midst of the Week, he fball caufe the Sacrifice and the Oblation to ceafe, even until the Confummation, and that determin'd fhall be poured upon the defolate.

Now, from the very Letter of the Prophefy 'tis obvious, ift. That a Meffias, the Prince (be he who he will) is to come feven Weeks, and fixty-two Weeks, i. e. fixty-nine Weeks after the Date of a Decree to rebuild Jerufalem. 2dly. That this Meffias is to be judicially put to Death after fixty-two Weeks, which follow the feven Weeks. 3dly. That, foon after his Death, a Gentile Army is to wafte the City and Temple of the Jews, and, like a Flood, carry away the old Inhabitants of the Land, leaving it, at the End of the War, in Defolations. And 4thly. That, in the fame Week, and before these Calamities fhould befal the Jews, the daily Sacrifice and Oblation of the Temple is to cease, and another Form of Religion be inftituted: So that the only Difficulty, is, how we are to compute the Weeks, and fix the Decree and Defolations here mention'd.

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Now it seems to me very plain, A true that, by the feventy Weeks here fpoken tation of of, we cannot understand Weeks of Days, the H 4 which Weeks

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which, in the whole, make no more, than one Year, four Months, and fome odd Days, too fhort a space by much, for fo many Events, as are here fpecified, to be fulfilled in; and, confequently, are oblig'd to compute them f for fabbatical Weeks, or Weeks of Years, which amount exactly to four hundred and ninety Years; that, by the Commandment to build Jerufalem, can be intended neither the Decree granted 8 by Cyrus, nor the Confirmation of it by Darius, because Jerufalem was not reftor'd or rebuilt by Virtue of either of these, but the Decree, i which Artaxerxes iffued out, in the seventh Year of his Reign, which was the fulleft and most effectual of any, as giving a general Release to all the Captive Jews, with full Power to return and fettle at Jerufalem, and not only to rebuild their City, but to become (as they were before) a separate People, govern'd by their own Laws, both Civil and Religious: That, reckoning from this Decree feven and fixtytwo Weeks of Years, in the Week immediately following, Chrift our Lord did appear under the Character of the

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Meffias;

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ii.

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