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338 COMPUTATION OF DANIEL’S WEEKS. [EXERC. XV.
ninety-nine years exceeds the time limited in this prophecy, of four hundred and ninety, the whole space of one hundred and nine years.
9. Hence it evidently appears that the seventy weeks of Gabriel, or the four hundred and ninety years, are not commensurate to the whole space of time between the first decree of Cyrus, in the first year of his general empire, and the final desolation of city and temple by Titus. One hundred and nine years must be taken from it, either at the beginning or at the ending, or partly at the one, partly at the other.
10. We shall first consider the end of them, which, being clear in the prophecy, will regulate, fix, and state the beginning. Two things in general are insisted on in this prophecy:—first, The coming of Messiah the Prince, his anointing unto the work which he had to do, and his cutting off, as we before declared; secondly, The ceasing of the daily sacrifice, with the destruction of the city and temple by war and a flood of desolations. Now, these things happened not at the same time, for the city and sanctuary were destroyed thirty- seven years after the cutting off or death of the Messiah. We are to inquire, therefore, which of these it was that the time mentioned was determined for and was to expire withal. Now, it is the coming, anointing, and cutting off of the Messiah that is the thing chiefly intended in this prophecy. This we have proved undeniably before, manifesting that the vision was granted unto Daniel, and given out by him, for the consolation of himself and the church, as was the way of the Holy Ghost in all his dealings with the fathers of old. Hereunto the desolation and destruction of the city and temple was only a consequent, a thing that should follow and ensue on what was principally foretold and promised. And, [First,] It is doubtless unreasonable to extend the duration of the time beyond the principal subject-matter treated of, and on the account whereof alone the com- putation is granted, unto that which is only occasionally mentioned as the consequent of the accomplishment of the prophecy itself. Be- sides, [Secondly,] The computation itself is pointed directly by the angel unto the Messiah and his cutting off: “Seventy weeks are deter- mined upon thy people. Know therefore that from the going forth ot the commandment unto Messiah the Prince shall be,” ete. “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off.” But there is no guidance or direction of the time limited unto the desolation of the city and sanctuary, which is only said to ensue thereon. Thirdly, It is expressly said that the time limited extends itself only unto the death of the Messiah, or a very few years further; for he was to come after seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, which are the whole time limited within one week, or seven, of years. Now, his coming here intended is not his incarnation, but the time
SECT. 9-12. ] COMPUTATION OF DANIEL’S WEEKS. 339
of his wnction in his baptism, which fell out at the end of sixty- nine weeks, After these sixty-nine weeks, or seven and sixty-two, he is to be cut off,—that is, in the middle or towards the end of the last week,—when he had confirmed the covenant by preaching three years and a half of that seven years which remained. And if we shall say that his unction being to be after the seven weeks and sixty-two, we must grant it to be in the first or second year of the last week, whereunto add the three years and a half of his preach- ing, the remnant fraction of one year or two can no way disturb the account, there being nothing more frequent than the casting in of such parcels of time to complete and fill up an entire and round number. Here, then, must we fix the end of the four hundred and ninety years, in the death of the Messiah; and so wholly lay aside the account of them who would extend the time determined unto the desolation of the city and temple.
11. We must, therefore, in the first place, abate from the whole account of five hundred and ninety-nine years, before stated, the sum of thirty-seven years, which ensued after the death of our Saviour until the destruction of Jerusalem; and the remnant is five hundred and sixty-two years. Now, five hundred and sixty-two years exceed the number of four hundred and ninety stated in Daniel’s vision by seventy-two years. It appears, then, that the beginning and ending of the seventy weeks cannot be the decree of Cyrus and the death of our Saviour, there being seventy-two years between them more than the weeks contain or can be extended unto. The end we have already fixed from the text, and therefore it doth not appear that their date and rise can be taken from the decree of Cyrus. Sundry things are offered to disentangle us from this difficulty.
The most learned Reynolds, in his prelections on the apocryphal books, allowing our account above mentioned, as to the substance of it, especially that which concerneth the Persian empire, about which alone there is any considerable difference, yet resolves at length that the number of seventy weeks, which is a round com- plete number, is put for an uncertain number, thereabouts, more or less, over or under, not much varying from it. And on this sup- position, he dates the beginning of the weeks in the decree of Cyrus. To confirm his opinion, he giveth sundry instances of this kind of computation in the Scripture, and contends that the par- ticular reason of limiting the whole time unto seventy weeks, was to make it answer unto the seventy years’ captivity that imme- diately preceded it, the time to follow being declared to be just seven times as much.