double those of the third period. On the same principle, Moses has reduced the times of Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses, which might have exhibited more or fewer genealogical generations in this or that family, to four chronological genera tions, or four centuries, those years only being omitted, in which Levi, Kohath, and Amram became parents. It is difficult to represent in words the design of Moses or Matthew ; nor can the interpretation of such a matter appear, at first sight, other wise than crude and harsh : if, however, it be frequently pondered upon, the acerbity will disappear.
XIII. The chronological equality of the three periods, is a proof that Jesus is the Christ.
There is a perpetual analogy between the periods of time, defined by Divine Wisdom; and these three most important periods correspond remarkably with each other. From the Captivity to Christ, are Fourteen generations, says St Matthew ; just as Gabriel, when revealing to Daniel the seventy weeks, said, that the city should be built [" in seven weeks, and three score and two weeks from the going forth of the command ment"] unto the Messiah the Prince. — See Dan. ix. 25. And St Matthew had that same system of times in his mind. The Captivity, the revelation which was vouchsafed to Daniel, the Return, the actual commencement of the Seventy Weeks, are separated by short but remarkable intervals. From that point downwards, the Seventy Weeks, throughout their long course, accompany this the last Fourteen, until Christ completes both, and the Fourteen before the Weeks. The Seventy Weeks con sist of less than 560 years, as I have shown in the Ordo Tem- porum, and comprise about twelve generations, each of them (as we have observed in Section IX.) being about forty-six years in duration. It behoved that Christ should come within the Seventy Weeks. The expectation of Israel, therefore, could not be delayed for more than fourteen generations after the Captivity.
XIV. The dissimilarity of the three periods, and the equality of the Fourteens, when taken together, confirm this important con clusion still more, by a cumulative argument.
If any one will compare together, and combine what we have said in the Seventh and Thirteenth Sections, he will perceive