at the time of Christ's death, this necessarily determines us there to fix the end of these weeks which were appointed for the accomplishing of them.

IV. The end of these weeks being thus fixed at the death of Christ, it doth necessarily determine us where to place the beginning of them, that is, four hundred and ninety years before. And therefore the death of Christ, as most learned men agree, falling in the year of the Julian period 4746, and in the Jewish monthTM Nisan, if we reckon four hundred and ninety years backward, this will lead us up to the month Nisan, in the year of the Julian period 4256, which was the very year and month" in which Ezra had his commission from Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia, for his return to Jerusalem, there to restore the church and state of the Jews; for that year of the Julian period, according to Ptolemy's canon, was the seventh year of that king's reign, in which the Scriptures tell us his commission was granted. The beginning, therefore, of the seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years of this prophecy, was in the month Nisan of the Jewish year, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia, and in the 4256th year of the Julian period, when Ezra had his commission; and the end of them fell in the very same month of Nisan, in the 4746th year of the Julian period, in which very year and very month Christ our Lord suffered for us, and thereby completed the whole work of our salvation, there being just seventy weeks of years, or four hundred and ninety years, from the one to the other.

V. It is evident, from the prophecy itself, that these weeks must have this beginning, that is, from the date of the commission granted Ezra. For, 1st. They are pinned down thereto by an express character in the text; and, 2dly. They cannot, agreeable to that and other Scriptures, and the authentic histories of the times to which they relate, have it any where else.

1 Scaliger de Emendatione Temporum, lib. 6, p. 562. Usherus in Annalibus sub anno J. P. 4746. Strauchius. aliique.

m Christ suffered at the time of the passover, which was always celebrated in the middle of the month Nisan.

n Ezra vii, 9. There it is said in the first month, and the first month of the Jewish year was Nisan. o Ezra vii, 7.

And 1st, These weeks must have their beginning from the date of the commission granted Ezra, because they are pinned down thereto by an express character in the text; and that character is the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem: for that from thence the seventy weeks must have their beginning, the text is very express; and, to excite us the more to observe it, introduceth it with this remarkaable preface, Know, therefore, and understand. But this commandment or decree was that which was granted to Ezra in that commission with which he was sent into Judea, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia; and therefore from thence the beginning of these weeks must commence. For the words in the text, to restore and build Jerusalem, are not to be understood literally, but figuratively, for the restoring of the state of the Jews, as well the political as the ecclesiastical, and the resettling of both, according to the law of Moses. And what is more usual in prophecies, than to be given out in figurative expressions? and what is more common in Scripture, than by Jerusalem to mean the whole political and ecclesiastical state of that people? and for the re-establishing of both these, and the settling of them again upon the former basis, from whence they had been overthrown by the Babylonians, and were not as yet but very imperfectly restored, the commission granted to Ezra was very full: for it gave him thorough power to restore the law of Moses, and fully re-establish the observance of it both in church and state, and to appoint magistrates and judges to govern the people according to it, and to punish all such as should be disobedient thereto, either with death, banishment, imprisonment, or confiscation of goods, according as their crimes should be found to deserve. And all this Ezra accordingly executed, in manner as will hereafter be related. Before his coming to Jerusalem with this commission, the Scriptures were in a manner lost, the people in a profound ignorance of the law, and the worship of God

p Daniel ix, 25.

q See the commission in Ezra vii, 11—26. `

neglected, and every thing else, both in church and state, in great disorder and confusion. But, on his coming, he restored the Scriptures, instructed the people in the law, brought the worship of God into due order, and proceeded, as long as his commission lasted, to work a full reformation in all things else. And after his commission was at an end, he gave not over his endeavours herein, but, as a priest, as a skilful scribe in the law of God, and as president of the Sanhedrim," he still carried on the same work; and, having a successor equally zealous in the same design, he did as much in it under his authority as formerly he did by his own: so that he hath been esteemed as another Moses, and deservedly reckoned as the second founder of the Jewish church and state. And therefore the beginning of this work is a noble epocha from whence to begin the calculation of these weeks, and doth most agreeably accord with the intent and purpose of this prophecy, in which they are predicted: for the whole intent and purpose of it is, to foreshew and set forth the age of the restored church of the Jews, how long it was to continue, and when to cease, and be abolished; and from whence is it more proper to reckon this, than from the time when the thorough restoration of it began? And this was then only begun, when Ezra, by virtue of the commission granted to him by Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia, in the seventh year of his reign, did set about this work; and therefore from hence the computation of these weeks, according to the prophecy that predicts them, must begin. And, that this figurative interpretation of the words, and none other, must be the true meaning of them, appears from hence, that they cannot be understood in a literal sense: for, if they are so to be understood, they can be applicable to no other restoring and rebuilding of Jerusalem, than that which was decreed and commanded by Cyrus at the release of the captivity; for this prophecy was revealed to Daniel before this release, and therefore, when it is said therein, that the epocha of these weeks was to begin from the going forth of the com-

r Nehemiah viii.

mand or decree to restore and build Jerusalem, of what decree can it be more properly understood, than of that, which should first be granted next after this prophecy for that purpose, and by virtue whereof this city was accordingly rebuilt, after its having been destroyed by the Babylonians, and was again repeopled, and inhabited by the same people who had been its former inhabitants? And that this was done by virtue of Cyrus' decree, appears from many places of Scripture. We are told in Isaiah, (xliv, 28,) that "it was Cyrus that should say to Jerusalem, Be thou built, and to the temple, Thy foundations shall be laid." And again, (xlv, 13,) it is said of the same Cyrus, that "God would raise him up, and direct him, that he should build this city, and release his captives;" where it is to be observed, that he that released God's captives, and laid the foundation of the temple, was to be the person that was to rebuild Jerusalem; so that he is not only by name, but also by this character and description, plainly pointed out to be the person that was to do this work. For that Cyrus did release the captive Jews, who were God's people, and that he did no more than lay the foundation of the temple (for it was not perfected till in an after-reign,) is well known. And therefore, according to these passages of holy Scripture, it must be he only that did restore and rebuild Jerusalem. And so accordingly it was done by virtue of the decree which he granted for the return of the Jews thither: for can it be imagined, that Cyrus should grant license for the Jews to return to Jerusalem, and rebuild the temple there, without allowing them to rebuild that city also? Ezra plainly tells us, that as soon as the Jews were returned into Judea, by virtue of Cyrus' decree, they dispersed themselves into the several cities to which they belonged, and again dwelt in them; and can it be thought that they did not then again rebuild them? For without rebuilding of them, how could they dwell in them? And if those who belonged to the other cities of Judah rebuilt, and dwelt in them again, how can we think, that those

s Ezra ii, 1; iii, 2.

S

who belonged to Jerusalem, did not do the same, and that, especially since it was the metropolis of the whole nation, the place where the temple stood, where all went up continually to worship, and where three times a year every male appeared before the Lord at the solemn festivals, and where also the governour dwelt, where the council sat, and all matters of judgment were ultimately decided? The matter is beyond all dispute; when the Jews on their return rebuilt their other cities, they must then most certainly have rebuilt Jerusalem also. The great concourse, which the reasons I have mentioned constantly drew thither, must have necessitated this, had there been no other inducement for it. It is easier to suppose all the rest of the cities of Judah to have been left still in their rubbish, after the return of the Jews from their captivity, than that this city alone should remain unbuilt. The rebuilding of it is not indeed expressly included in the commission of Cyrus. As we have it recorded in the first chapter of Ezra, that only gives license "to the Jews to return into Judea, and there rebuild the house of God which is in Jerusalem." But the license to rebuild the house of God which is in Jerusalem, must either imply a license to rebuild_Jerusalem also, or else (which seems most probable) Ezra gives us in the place mentioned, only an abstract of the chief things granted by that license, and not a recital of the whole, in which, most likely many other things, and among them the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the other cities of Judah, might be fully and expressly mentioned; for it is certain, by virtue of that license, they had power so to do; and accordingly executed it. For the complaint of the neighbouring nations to the Persian court against them that were returned was, that "they builded Jerusalem, that rebellious and bad city, and had set up the walls thereof, and joined the foundations of it;" and the order from Artaxerxes (so the Magian who then reigned, it seems, called himself) was, uTo cause the Jews to cease, that this city be not builded." However, from the first of Cyrus, till the time of this