291 PREFACE. Sect. I. N EXT to the Divifions and Immoralities of Chriftians, the fuppofed Obfcurity of Prophecies is the greatest Reproach to Religion. And I efteem all these three Scandals to be equally owing to the Infirmities, Follies, and Inventions of Men: And I speak this with a particular Regard to that Prophecy, which I have undertaken to explain. Sect. 2. Very many of the Jews and Samaritans looked for Redemption about the Time of our Saviour's Birth; and they could argue themselves into this Expectation, from no other Prophecy, but this of the LXX Weeks. The Prediction of Jacob, Gen. xlix. 10. did not point out the Time when the Meffias was to come, but only told what should follow fome Time after his coming. If the Sceptre bad departed from Juda, when it was put into the Hand of King Herod; then the Shilo must have been come thirty and odd Years before our Saviour's Birth. Both Herod and Archelaus were profeft Jews, and governed by the fame Authority. And therefore, if U 2 the the Sceptre did not depart from Juda, while it was held by the Father, neither did it depart, when it was given to the Son. Therefore this Prophecy was not fulfilled till the Jews were put under the immediate Government of Coponius, a known Heathen, about ten Years after the Birth of Chrift. It must therefore have been this Prophecy of the LXX Weeks, which raised in the Jews an Expectation of their Meffias, just at that Time when be did actually come. Sect. 3.. And from this one Confideration, we may fafely conclude, that the Jews did rightly understand this Prophecy in that Age, when it most concerned them to understand it: And that in thofe latter Ages it hath univerfaily been mistaken. For all modern Interpreters agree in one Point; namely, that no Words contained in the Prophecy, do clearly afcertain the Beginning of the LXX Weeks to be at the very Time of the coming forth, and Publication of the divine Decree; but every one thinks himself at Liberty to fix the Commencement of the Weeks as the iffuing of fome Commiffion of the Perfian Emperors; and fo run widely from one another, and from the Truth, and render the Prophecy perfectly ufelefs to the Jews, who lived before Chrift's Birth. For if the Beginning of the LXX Weeks be uncertain, then the feveral Periods mentioned in them, must have been liable to the fame Uncertainty alfo; and by Confequence |