of Years of this Prophecy. This being the method I am to follow, I might now accordingly proceed immediately to confider the first part, or the first seven weeks of this Prophecy, had I not been brought under a neceffity as before-mention'd, of speaking in the first place more largely than I have yet done, concerning the true abstracted nature of these weeks. This therefore I fhall endeavour to establish in the following chapter, wherein I shall fully confider what Mr. L. hath urged to the contrary.

And I fhall fhew as from other confiderations, fo alfo from that very Hypothefis which he hath built upon his imaginary nature of thefe weeks, that it is abfolutely impoffible that they can contain more or less than really feven times seventy, or four hundred ninety Years.

A CHAP

Shewing the abstracted nature of the Seventy Weeks of Years of this Prophecy, as the faid number of Weeks of Tears contains exactly four hundred and ninety years, and that as they cannot poffibly contain lefs, fo neither can they contain more than that number of Years; Or in other words, that they cannot by any means contain five hundred Years in one view, and five hundred and feventy Years in another view, as it hath been fuppos'd that they do in a late Hypothefis of thefe Weeks built upon fuch mistaken foundation, as the faid foundation is here prov'd to be in a particular view, and refutation of it.

T

HE Reverend Mr. L. in his late (a) Effay on these weeks having rejected their true abstracted nature, as they do therein contain exactly four hundred and ninety years, hath instead thereof advanced a twofold computation of them, confider'd, (in his way) according to the Law, as attended by their Jubilees, and Sabbatical Years, and fo, (by his telling us) in respect of Jubilees, amounting to five hundred (b) Years, and in respect of Sabbatical Years, to five hundred and feventy (c). And yet in neither of these additional numbers of years were there according to him (d) any more than just feventy weeks.

For much fuch another period of Weeks, it seems (e) Mr. L. had found out before the date of Cyrus's Decree for the release of the then captive Jews in the going forth whereof, as that according to him had its ending, fo this after it hath its beginning.

:

The original production of that preceding period of Weeks on which the second is founded is as follows.

First, Mr. L. fram'd to himself a period of five hundred Years, ending in the year preceding the Captivity of the Jews (in his twenty Years rais'd beginning of it, as it will appear hereafter) equal

(a) Published in the year 1722.

(b) p. 60, and 66.

to

(c) Befides two odd years, with which I fhall not perplex the Reader, but fpeak of, still in the round number. (d) p. 66, &c. (e) p. 67.

to feventy Scripture Weeks attended with their Jubilees. Afterwards with the addition of the feventy years of the faid Captivity upon a fuppofition that the Land of Judea lay WHOLLY defolate all that time, that is, refted from tillage, and fo enjoyed feventy Sabbaths, of which as is farther fuppos'd she had been depriv'd by the Jews tranfgreffion of duty in this particular the whole feventy Weeks preceding the Captivity (a), he makes another period of five hundred and seventy years (b), in which however as we are told by him (c) there were no more than seventy Weeks.

This being Mr. Lancaster's Hypothefis, and this the ground-work of it, I object against it in general, and I shall endeavour to make good the objection by proving

First, That fuch his addition of feventy years to this imagin'd period to the making it a period of five hundred and feventy Years, and withal to the making the faid period of Years to remain yet but seventy Weeks of years, and to the arguing us from thence into another fuch period of years after in the feventy Weeks of this Prophecy, is abfolutely without foundation, for that on which it is built is truly none, and none it hath elsewhere; And therefore if this firft period of five hundred and feventy Years equal to seventy Scripture Weeks be groundlefs, the latter of courfe muft be fo likewife, as it is entirely depending upon the former. And as to this latter, I fhall fhew afterwards, that even were there any real foundation for the former, yet after all, there is not any room poffibly for arguing from that to this. But

First, of Mr. Lancaster's first imagin'd period of five hundred and feventy years before his (d) date of Cyrus's Decree for the release of the Jews, I affirm it to be without any manner of real foundation. For that on which it is built, Mr. L. is quite mistaken in it, viz. in the end, occafion, and nature of the Seventy Years of Jerufalem's Defolations foretold by Jeremiah (e), which are the very years added in this first period to the making it a period of five hundred and feventy Years, on a mistaken fuppofition that the Land of Judea lay WHOLLY defolate from the very first year of the Captivi ty, and did therefore lye fo defolate all that time by way of God's immediate punishment of his people grounded in the other miftaken fuppofition that they had wholly neglected the Sabbatical Years of feventy preceding weeks.

But all this is indeed Imagination: and fuch withal as in truth. there is no manner of ground for it.

For to come to particulars,

(a) viz. in his twenty years miflaken beginning of it, as it will fully appear here after. (b) five hundred and feventy one Years is the number. p. 67. initio. But we fpeak of it in the round number. See Note c. above. (c) p. 67. initio. (d) For his Year of the going forth of that Decree is not the Scripture Year thereof: as we fhall fee hereafter. (e) Ch. xxv.

First, The fuppos'd Neglect of the Jews is moft improbable. For had the Jews been really guilty of fuch fuppos'd neglect, or Tranfgreffion of a pofitive duty of God to them (a) in this particular, in their having neglected to obferve the respective Sabbatical Years of seventy weeks before their Captivity, they must then without all queftion have been guilty of fuch neglect for fo many preceding weeks (in the words (b) of Mr. L.) either as regularly preceding one another, or elfe at different times.

But if in the former view, then fuch early neglect will neceffarily carry us up not only through the times of Solomon and David, but also even into the times of Samuel (c): times thefe very likely truly (d) wherein to imagine a rife, and continuation of fuch neglect of a pofitive Command of God to his people in this parti

cular.

If in the latter view, I cannot then tell indeed whither Mr. L. will carry it. But as to that, we need not to be concern'd, becaufe wherever he carries it, the FACT of the land's keeping Sabbath, or refting from tillage by way of EXACT (e) recompence for fo many Mr. L. his fuppofedly neglected fabbatical Years among the Fews will after all lye against him, to the proving directly not only against the mistaken fuppofition of neglect fimply, or in it self barely confider'd, but also farther against it, if in the next place we confider it, viz.

Secondly, as it is Mr. L.'s REASON (f), or affign'd OCCASION of the Seventy Years Defolations of the land. I might here make short work with the faid imagin'd Occafion, by fhewing immediately against it, that the failure in fact (g) plainly overthrows it, or evidenceth the groundlesness of the fuppofition.

But I must not fo pafs over this affign'd Occafion of the land's feventy Years fuppos'd reft from tillage, for this is what Mr. L. means by the Seventy Years Defolations of the Land, without speaking yet a few words to it; efpecially as Mr. L. hath endeavour'd to confirm it by certain texts of Scripture by him interpreted accordingly.

Indeed

(a) Levit. xxv. 2, 3, &c. (b) p. 67. (c) Evidently fo in Mr. L. his Hypothefis for to his period of five hundred and feventy one years before his firft of Cyras, add five hundred and thirty eight as the year before A. D. anfwering to his firft of Cyrus, we have the number given one thoufand one hundred and nine before A. D. which is fourteen years above the first of King Saul, which was in one thousand and ninety five before A. D. And in the true reckoning here, as adding to the year before A. D. 606, the true firft Year of the Captivity four hundred and ninety years only as the years of feventy weeks, we are thus brought up to the next year above the first of the reign of King Saul. See the learned Dr. Prid. [Con. Hift. Vol. 1. p. 137.] as touching this point. (d) For SAMUEL was known by all Ifrael to be a Prophet. 1 Sa. iii. 22. iv. 1. And he was a fecond Mofes for forty years over all Ifrael. See our Chronological Tables [printed at Oxford. 1713.] fub anno ante A. D. 1135. (e) Mr. L's. word us'd in p. 67. (f) p. 25, the REASON why the WHOLE Land of Judea lay defolate and untill'd feventy years was because the fews had neglected the keeping of feventy fabbatical years. So Mr. L. tells us again p. 26, and alfo p.60. (g) For, as it will appear, the Jews could not have neglected more than fifty two of Mr. L's exact Seventy.

Indeed that fuch affign'd Occafion of the Defolations of Jerufalem might be fo in part, I make not the lealt question. I add that the tranfgreffion of the Jews in this particular might be a main occafion of the protractedness of their Captivity, as God would not fuffer them to return to their Land, 'till it had enjoyed her Sabbaths (a). But I can by no means concur with Mr. L. in making the faid exact neglect, the whole or fole occafion, as he evidently makes it (b), or the REASON abfolutely, as he calls it (c), of the whole land of Judæa it's lying defolate, or untilled (as he frequently tells us that it did) SEVENTY years, for the following reasons;

viz. because

First, in that cafe the Land muft neceffarily, and unavoidably have lain wholly defolate without fo much as a poffibility, or any the leaft room left for any Inhabitants to have been remaining in her during those ferventy Years. But fo far was it from that in fact, that after the deftruction of the City, and Temple by Nebuchadnezzar, Gedaliah was by him made Governour over the cities of Judah (d). And unto him were committed Men, Women, and Children and of the poor of the land, of them that were not carried. away to Babylon (e) to till the ground, and dress their vineyards (f). And there they might have remained fecurely fo doing for any thing that appears to the contrary, had it not been for the wicked flaughter of Gedaliah by the treachery of their own country-man Ishmael afterwards in that year.

Nay also after that by a pofitive meffage from God to them by his Prophet (g), there might yet with fafety have tarried in the Land Johanan and the remnant with him, had they not been deaf to the voice of God to them by that Prophet, and refolutely bent upon going into Egypt to their fure deftruction after. Which fooner, or later did befall them accordingly: fuch of them as either made no long stay in Egypt, but return'd again into Judea, or otherwise had not gone out of their own country at all, being carried away by Nebuzaradan four years after, who were only seven hundred and forty five perfons (b); and such of them as ftaid it out in Egypt, most of them there falling into the hands of the Babylonians in the ravage made upon that Land by Nebuchadnezzar after (i). And yet after all, still a few of them, a small number, according to the ProC 2

phet

(a) 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. (b) p. 12, 13, and elsewhere. (c) As in the places quoted in laft Note f. (d) Fer xl. 5. (e) ver. 7. (f) ver. 10. See Jofephus here alfo, lib. Ant. x. c. ix. Ed. Hudf. p. 451. where he reprefents Gedaliah counselling to remain in the Country without any fear of the Babylonians, promising that in MA NURING their LAND they should incur no inconvenience, &c So far was he from thinking with Mr. L. that the Land was unavoidably, and neceffarily to lye defo. late the whole time of the Captivity. (g) Fer. xlii. 10. If Te will STILL abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you. &c---- See Fosephus alfo in loc. fup. cit. (b) Fer. lii. 30. (i) Probably in the Year after the t3king of Tyre, viz. in five hundred and feventy two before A. D. or according to Dr. Prideaux in the year of the taking of Tyre, viz. in five hundred and feventy three. Nebuchadnezzar ravaging Egyps prefently after it.