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2. This opinion, unless I be greatly mistaken, will by no means bear the test of examination.

It seems only reasonable to conclude, that, whatever mode of computation was ordinarily used by the ancient Jews, the same would likewise be used in the interpretation of numerical prophecies. Now the ancient Jews must either have used true solar years; or, by means of intercalation, they must have made a series of their years equal to a series of the same number of solar years. This is manifest from the Levitical ordinance respecting the due observation of two of their great festivals.

From the very time of the original institution of the Passover, the observance of it was fixed to the fourteenth day of the first month Nisan, otherwise denominated Abib or the month of green ears; at which time, in Judea, the harvest was beginning: and, in a similar manner, the feast of tabernacles was fixed to the middle of the seventh month Tisri and to the time of ending the vintage.

Now these two eminent festivals were thus observed by the ancient Israelites.

The Passover they celebrated, on the fourteenth day of Nisan or Abib, by killing the paschal lamb: the fifteenth day of the same month was the first of the days of unleavened bread, and was ordained to be kept as a sabbath: and, on the morrow of this parergal sabbath, as being the beginning of the barley-harvest, they were directed to bring a sheaf of the first-fruits for a wave-offering before the Lord.

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The feast of tabernacles they celebrated on the fifteenth day of Tisri: and this festival was also called the feast of in-gathering; because it was celebrated after they had gathered in their corn and their wine.

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If, then, the ancient Jewish year consisted of no more than 360 days; and if it were neither annually lengthened by the addition of five supernumerary days, nor occasionally regulated by monthly intercalations: it is evident, that all the months, and among them the months Abib and Tisri, must have rapidly revolved through the several seasons of the year. Hence it is equally evident, since the Passover and the Feast of tabernacles were fixed respectively to the fourteenth day of Abib and the fifteenth day of Tisri, that they must similarly have revolved through the seasons.

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Such being the case, how would it be possible to observe the ordinances of the Law, when the months Abib and Tisri had passed into the opposite seasons of the solar year? How could the Israelites, in the climate of Palestine, offer the first-fruits of their harvest after the Passover, when the month Abib, in which it was celebrated, had passed into autumn or winter? And how could they observe the Feast of tabernacles, as a feast of the in-gathering of their corn and their wine, when that month had passed into spring or summer? It is plain, that, unless Abib and Tisri always kept their places in the solar year; unless Abib were always a vernal month, and Tisri always an autumnal month:

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it is plain, that the Passover and the Feast of tabernacles could not have been duly observed. And hence it is equally plain, that the ancient Israelites could not have reckoned by years of 360 days each without some expedient to make those years fall in with natural solar years. But, if this be allowed, it will necessarily follow, that, whatever might be the length of single Jewish years, a sum of them collectively must, by intercalation of some kind, have been made equal to the corresponding sum of solar years. A single year might be reputed to contain no more than 360 days, and the small collective sum of three years and a half might be reputed to contain no more than 1260 days: but, unless we calculate numerical prophecies after a manner wholly unknown to the Israelites, any large collective sum of years, 1260 years for instance, must contain the very same number of days, and therefore be precisely of the same length, as the corresponding sum of natural solar years1.

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See Mos. Maimon. Tract. de ration. intercal. c. iv. p. 356, 357. Morin. Exercit. in Pent. Samar. exercit. i. p. 39, 40, 51, 52. Petav. Rationar. Temp. par. ii. lib. i. c. 6. Selden. de anno civili vet. Jud. c. i. Jackson's Chronol. Ant. vol. ii. p. 15–23. Prideaux's Connect. part i. book v. p. 292. Sir I. Newton's Observ. on Dan. chap. x. p. 137, 138. Blayney's Dissert, on Daniel's Seventy Weeks, p. 33, 34. Davies's Celtic Research. p. 23-29.

Mr. Cuninghame has started yet a different mode of calculating the 1260 days of Daniel and St. John, which is so utterly untenable, and which involves so many inconsistencies, that my

III. On these grounds, I consider it as proved, that each day in the numbers of Daniel and St.

wonder is, how this able and acute writer could ever have hazarded such a theory.

I. In the carelessness of familiar speaking and writing, the Jews have sometimes appeared to reckon by current and not by complete time. Thus it is said of our Lord, that he rose after three days, and that he was three days in the grave; though, having died on the friday afternoon and having risen early on the sunday morning, he was in truth dead and buried not quite even two natural days.

1. Availing himself of this circumstance, Mr. Cuninghame contends, that the 1260 days ought to be reckoned on the same principle. Whence, though he allows each day to be a natural solar year, he maintains, that, collectively, the 1260 days are only 1260 defective years of current time, or, in other words, that the 1260 days are only 1259 natural solar years with peradventure the indefinite addition of a few weeks or months. See Dissert. on the Seals and Trumpets chap. xiv. p. 203-209.

2. Mr. Cuninghame's object in such an arrangement is sufficiently obvious. He had determined, that the 1260 years must have expired in the year 1792: and he had found, that Justinian, in regulating the point of episcopal precedence, had given, in the year 533, the first rank to the Bishop of Rome. But, if 1260 years be reckoned backward from the year 1792, we shall be brought to the year 532; or, if 1260 years be reckoned forward from the year 533, we shall be brought to the year 1793. In neither case, therefore, will the ordinary mode of computation suit the plan of Mr. Cuninghame: for, in each case, we have unluckily a whole year more than we can well dispose of. What then was to be done for the purpose of accomplishing the difficult task of making 1260 calendar years commence in the year 533, and yet of making them terminate in the year 1792? Mr. Cuninghame lays the period upon that bed of Procrustes, current time: and, by thus ridding himself

John is not a natural day, but a year; and that

of the superfluous year, he solves a problem of otherwise very difficult solution.

II. I fear, if this mode of computation be adopted, we must unhinge both the whole chronology of Scripture history and the whole harmony of prophetic numerical reckoning.

1. With respect to the former, we must at once throw aside the Annals of Abp. Usher: for both that chronological Work, and every other with which I am acquainted, proceeds on the system of complete time, not (as Mr. Cuninghame would have us proceed) on the system of current time.

2. And, with respect to the latter, if we compute the 1260 days by current time, homogeneity will require us to compute equally by current time every other prophetic number recorded in Scripture. Thus, if the 1260 days be only 1259 days, in that case, unless we depart altogether from our principle, the 70 weeks will be only 69 weeks, the 2300 days will be only 2299 days, the 1290 days will be only 1289 days, the 1335 days will be only 1334 days, the 5 apocalyptic months will be only 4 months, and the 3 apocalyptic days will be only 21 days. This result from Mr. Cuninghame's plan is alone sufficiently appalling but confusion becomes worse confounded as we adThe 3 times, the 42 months, and the 1260 days, are, as we all know, identical; constituting only one and the same period under three several denominations. Yet, if we are to reckon the 1260 days, as being only, by current time, 1259 days I see not how we can consistently avoid computing the 3 times, as 21 times; and the 42 months, as 41 months. But, when this triple operation shall have been performed, it would puzzle that arch-arithmetician, Nicomachus the Gerasenian himself, to identify 41 months, 2 years, and 1259 days. III. Does Mr. Cuninghame, however, abide stoutly and fairly by his own avowed principle of current time?

vance.

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Verily, nothing of the sort. Though he reckons the 1260 days to be only 1259 days, making them commence in the year 533 and terminate in the year 1792: yet he estimates the 5

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