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Dan.

XII. II.

12.

fignifie Tears, even in the Account of Things past, by the fame Prophet, who imploys them in that Senfe in his Predictions of Things to come,

as in the Two Thousand three Hundred Days, the VIII. 14. One Thor fand two Hundred and Ninety Days, and One Thoufand three Hundred and thirty Five Days, and in effect, tho' in other words, when he mentions Times, Time, and an Half, or Times, Time, VII. 25. and the dividing of Time; and in a very particuIX. 24. lar manner in the Seventy Weeks, which no In

XII. 7.

Luke

XIII. 31.

terpreter, not even Roman Catholick, has ever pretended to be other than Four Hundred and Ninety Tears; and their general Agreement in taking this Passage as the Proteftants do,in their Arguments against the Jews, to prove the Coming of Chrift to be according to the Prophecy, cuts off all their Pretences to refuse taking a Day for a Tear in other Paffages of Daniel when it is made use of against themselves.

But before I leave this Subject, I must not omit an Example in the Gofpel, where our Saviour himself uses a Day for a Tear, when

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"There came certain of the Pharifees,

"faying

faying unto Him, Get thee out, and depart hence, for Herod will kill thee.

"And he faid unto them, Go ye and tell that "Fox, Behold, I caft out Devils, and I do "Cures to Day and to Morrow, and the Third Day I fhall be Perfected.

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"Nevertheless, I muft Walk to Day and to "Morrow, and the Day following---

In this place it cannot be our Saviour's meaning that he had but Three days to live; but that He was by His Father appointed to carry on His Ministry Three full Years; And this was the full Number of Tears which he was to Perfect or Compleat, befides a few Months, which not making up so much as half a Tear, are not mentioned in this short and occafional Reply.

Thus it appears, that by a Day, among the Jews, it was ufual, in the Figurative Stile, to mean a Year; and fo this Period of Time, Times and an Half, or Forty two Months, or One thousand two hundred and fixty Days, may justly be allowed to fignifie One thousand two hundred and fixty Tears. And here fome Eminent Chronologists

3210

33.

have endeavoured to fhew, that fince every one of thefe Years did confift but of three hundred and fixty days among the Chaldeans, that in the adding up of the Sum, no more natural Days fhould be counted than 1260 times 360, which would shorten the Term by more than five days in every year. But it must be confidered, that neither the Chaldeans, nor indeed any other Nation, did at the end of a considerable number of common or Solar Years, count any more than we now do, but that they either fuffered five days to pafs over without counting them at the end of every year, or when in a few years they perceived the Seasons to go contrary to their Kalender, they threw in a Month extraordinary, to bring them right, and whatever way they varied this, ftill we find, in effect, that they counted no more years, at the long run, than the Sun actually. performed; and therefore we must follow their Method through-out, and according to their Kalender allow no more than 360 days to a year, in computing the number of the Figurative Days which fignific fears. But when we confider

how

how many
of thefe Years are paft and gone, we
must not only Obferve the Kalender, but alfo
make the fame Allowances that the Antients did,'
from time to time, and then we are fure to agree
with them in every part of our Calculation.

A

SECT. IIL

The Method of the following Enquiry.

ND now that I have fhewn what is meant

Dan:

by Time, Times and a Half, Igo on to con- XII, 7 fider what is meant by the words that follow,

"And when He shall have accomplished to "fcatter the Power of the holy People, all these things shall be finished.

The Expreffion is very short, but fufficient to Remind Daniel, that it fhould certainly come to pafs, as he had been informed already in the Vision of the Four Beafts, That " He shall speak great Words against the most High, and shall VII. 25,

E 2

"wear

Chap:

"wear out the Saints of the moft High, and "think to change Times and Laws; and they "fhall be given into his hands until a Time, and "Times, and the dividing of Time.

The Sameness of the Period fhews plainly, that the [He] is the fame in both these Places; and the Defcription of Wearing out the Saints of Xil. 7. the moft High, is very agreeable to that of Scattering the Power of the holy People; And their be

Chap.

VII. 25.

ing given into his hand until Time, Times, &c. has the fame Force with, When he shall have

XII 7. accomplished to scatter the Power of the holy

Chap.

VII. 24.

People, all thefe shall be finished, that is, 'All thefe Time, Times, &c. for the word [things] is not in the Original.

All that is wanting to understand these two Places, is to know who is meant by this [He] and that is to be learn't more particularly from the preceeding Verfe in the VII Chapter.

---- "Ten Kings that. shall arife, and another "shall rise after them, and He fhall be diverse " from the first, and He shall subdue Three Kings And then follows,

And

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