In this short Prophesy (according to yethe following interpretation are predicted all the main periods of time relating to the Messiah, that of his death, those of both his comings and that of the ceasing of the dayly sacrifice, the period ceasing of his acting as a Prophet & commencemtcommencement of his High-Priesthood; the commencemtcommencement of his reign as Prince, the time of his birth or coming as a Prophet & the time of taking away the dayly sacrifice & setting up the abomination: and setting up the Abomination of desolation. so that the interpretation is full. It renders yethe whole prophesy very significant wthoutwithout defect or superfluity.

1. The death of the Messiah period of his acting as Prophet & commencement of his High priesthood is thus predicted. While I was speaking in prayer the man Gabriel touched me & informed me by talking with me & said, O Daniel I am now come forth to give thee skill & understanding [about thy People for whose restauration after 70 years captivity thou prayest.] At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth [from God] and I ame come to shew it thee, for thou art greatly beloved. Therefore observe well the speech & consider the Vision. Seventy weeks [of years] are aa Heb. Cut upon a phrase taken from yethe practise of numbring by cutting notches. numbred upon thy people & upon thy holy City [in the end of that time] to finish transgression & to bb. Heb. Seal, viz as a book is sealed ytthat it cannot be read. blot out sins & to make reconciliation for iniquity & to bring in everlasting righteousness [by yethe attonement of yethe great High Priest] & to cc. To seal a writing is in yethe language of yethe Iews, to consummate or finish it: a figure taken from sealing wtwhat is finished. So the Iews compute Ad obsignatum Misna, Ab obsignatum Talmud, ytthat is, ad absolutum. seal [or finish] the [book of] Vision & Prophesy [that book opened in the Apocalyps,] [by the death of the great expected Prophet] & to annoint the most Holy [or consecrate the great High Priest,] who makes yethe attonemtattonement]

2. The double coming of the Messiah commencement of his reign is in the next words, thus predicted. Know also and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to build Ierusalem again untill the Messiah the Prince [that is, untill his coming to reign as Prince] be Prince or untill the beginning of his reign shall be seven weeks.

3 Then follows the birth of the Messiah & state of the Iews consequent thereto in these words Also [untill the Messiah] that you may not mistake the commandment,] know that] there shall precebyde vertue of another commandment by means of th for to build Ierusalem & thereby] threescore & two weeks the street shall be built again & the wall, [untill the Messiah] the Prophet] but [this shall be] in troublesome times, and after the threscore & two weeks the Messiah shall [not reign as Prince but comes only as a Prophet & shall] be cut off and it [the people or City] shall not be his, but the people of a Prince that shall come shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a flood and untill at the end of the war [untill Gods wrath against thy people shall be fulfilled & they shall return from captivity & rebuild Ierusalem] the commandment shall go forth to build Ierusalem again] desolations are decreed.

4. In the last place the time of the ceasing of the daily sacrifice is thus predicted. And he [that other Prince or people] shall make a firm covenant wthwhich many for a week, and in half the week [the latter half] he shall [destroy the City & sanctuary. ]&] make the sacrifice & Oblation to cease & on the Verge [of the Temple set up]3v up] the abomination of desolation, andee Or, at ..........desolator. untill the consummation even that wchwhich is decreed shall be poured upon yethe desolate.

In the first part of the Prophesy seventy weeks of years are recconed for the duration of the People & Holy City unto yethe death of Christ whereby he ceased to act as a Prophet & was consecrated an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck. For they are recconed unto the finishing of Transgression & blotting out of sins & making reconciliation for iniquity & bringing in everlasting righteousness (all wchwhich were accomplished by the death of Christ who as a more perfect High Priest then those under the Law offered himself once for all a sacrifice for sin Heb. 7.27 & 9.12, 14, 26.) & unto the sealing of the book of Vision & Prophesy that book opened in yethe Apocalyps, part of wchwhich may be justly accounted the prophesies of Christ untill his death he being the Prophet predicted by Moses the last & greatest of the Prophets under the law, & lastly unto the annointing of the most Holy or consecrating the great High Priest, wchwhich also was accomplisht at his death. For as the High Priest under the law was consecrated wthwhich water oyle & blood (Exod. 29.4, 7, 21) so Christ was consecrated an eternal High Priest by baptism with water, unction wthwhich the Holy Ghost & sprinkling with his own blood. Now the duration of the People & Holy City began when they first returned from captivity so as to become again a people & Holy City, & this was under Ezra. There were but two returns from captivity Zerubbabel's & Ezra's. In Zerubbabel's they had only a commission to build the Temple, in Ezra's they first became reincorporated into a City or polity or people by people or polity by a government of their own. For Ezra not only revived the worship but also by the Kings commission Ezra 7 (Ezra 7) set up Magistrates & Iudges in all the land to judge & governe the people according to yethe law of God & the King & punish offenders wthwhich death banishment confiscation of goods & imprisonment (Ezra 7) & hereby was the Sanhedrim restored & the scattered Iews, (in the language of the scripture (Isa. 23.13 & 7.8 & Ier. 48.42, 46, 47) became reunited into a people or city. Now it This return of Ezra from captivity was in the seventh year of Artaxerxes that Ezra returned from captivity (Ezra 7.7, 8, 9) & the years of Artaxerxes began about two or three months after the summer solstice in autumn (Ezra 7.7, 8, 9. Nehem. 1.1 & 2.1 & 5.14) & his seventh year fell in wthwhich the third year of yethe 80th Olympiad & the latter part thereof wherein Ezra went up to Ierusalem was in yethe 4257th year of yethe Iulian Period. Count the time from thence to yethe death of Christ & you will find it just 490 years, or 70 yweeks of years. If you count in Iudaic civil years commencing in Autumn & date the recconing from the first Autumn after Ezra's coming to Ierusalem when he put the Kings Decree in execution: the4r the death of Christ will fall on the year of the Iulian Period 4747 anno dom & year of orour Lord 34, & the weeks will be Iudaic weeks ending with sabbatical years. And this I take to be yethe truth. But if you had rather place the death of Christ in the year before as is commonly done, you may include yethee year of Ezra's Iourney in the recconing.

By The next part of the Prophesy concering yethe coming of yethe Messiah as Prince is not yet fulfilled. Bby that part which follows. By yethe 3d ꝑpart thereof the street & the wall were to be build sixty & two weeks of years or 434 years untill the Messiah, that is untill his first coming his other coming when he should not reign but be cut off. Now before the Iews attempted to rebuild the wall they rebuilt the Temple in the reign of Cyrus & Darius. Then they that came up with from Artaxerxes, (that is Ezra & his companions,) having a larger Commission then Zerubbabel's, attempted to rebuild also the City & the wall but were opposed & prohibited (Ezra 4.12, 21, 23) & in the 20th year of the King Nehemiah came to Ierusalem while Ezra still continued there (Nehem. 12.36) & found the City lying wast & the houses & wall unbuilt (Nehem 2.17 & 7.4) and rebuilt them by the Kings commission and finished the wall in the 25th day of the Month Elul (Nehem. 6.17) in the 28th year of the King (Ioseph. ) that is in September in yethe end of the Iewish civil year, either in the end year of the Iulian Period 4278 or perhaps in the year before accordingly if yethe 25t of Elul fell on the end beginning of the 28th year of the King. or on the beginning of that year. Count now 434 years from September anno I.P. 4278 & yethe recconing will end in september anno I.P. 4712, the last year of wchwhich recconing is the year in wchwhich Christ was born according to Clemens Alexandrinus, Irenæus, Eusebius, Epiphanius, Ierome, Orosius, Cassiodorus & other ancients. For this was the general opinion of the Ancients till Dionysius Exiguus invented the vulgar accopmt in wchwhich Christs birth is placed two years later. And it is observable that in this recconing the sixty two weeks (as well as the seventy) are Iewish weeks ending with sabbatical years; wchwhich makes the Prophesy more elegant. If wthwhich some you reccon that Christ was born three or four years before the vulgar accompt, yet his birth will fall in the latter part of the last week, wchwhich is enough. How after these weeks Christ was cut off & the city & sanctuary destroyed by the Romans is well known.

By the last part of the Prophesy the Romans who captivated the Iews were to make a firm league with the I many for a week, and in half the week to take away the daily sacrifice & set up the abomination, and so it fell out. The Romans made a firm peace wthwhich many the eastern Princes of the Medes Parthians & Armenians A.D. 63 towards yethe end of summer A.D. 63 upon wchwhich the Temple of Ianus was shut (as the learned BpBishop of Worcester has explained) and in the beginning of the year 67 in spring or towards the end of winter, under the conduct of Vespasian & Titus they began4v began the war upon the Iews & made yethe sacrifice & Oblation to cease Iuly 17, A.D. 70, & set fire on the Temple Aug. 10 ensuing, & while the Temple was burning set up their ensignes, wchwhich were the Images of their Gods, in the Close or border of the Temple over against the eastern Gate & sacrificed to them according to their idolatrous manner & soon after burnt the lower City & on Sept 7th ensuing took the upper City & by these & other ensuing wars the land was emptied of Iews & remains desolate to this day.

The seven weeks from the going forth of the commandment to build Ierusalem again unto the Messiah the Prince remain to be interpreted because not yet fulfilled. In dating them from that a commandment wchwhich shall is to ends the great captivity & ushers in the reign of the Messiah the Prince, I beleive the Iews who express such a coming his future reign, will readily be on my side, & perhaps not without reason not much oppose me. For all Daniels Prophesies reach to those times & there is scarce a Prophesy in the old Testament concerning Christ wchwhich doth not in something or other relate to his second coming. If divers of the Ancients as Irenæus (l. 5 Hær. c. 25) Iulius Africanus (apud Hieron. in h. l.) Hippolitus the Martyr & Apollinaris Bishop of Laodicea (apud Hieron. in h. l.), applied the half week to the times of Antichrist, why may not we by the same liberty of Interpretation apply the seven weeks to yethe time when Antichrist shall be destroyed by the brightness of Christs coming. The Israelites in the days of the ancient Prophets when the ten Tribes were led into captivity expected a double return from Captivity & that at yethe first return the Iews should build a new Temple but not like inferior to Solomon's untill the time of that age should be fulfilled and afterwards they should return from all places of their captivity & build Ierusalem and the Temple gloriously (Tobit 14.4, 5, 6) And to express the glory & excellence of this City tis figuratively said to be built of precious stones (Tobit 13.16, 17, 18. Isa 54.11, 12. Apoc 21) & called the new Ierusalem, the heavenly Ierusalem, the holy City, the Lambs wife, the City of the great King, the City into wchwhich the Kings of the earth do bring their glory & honour. And while such a return from captivity was the expectation of Israel even before the times of Daniel, I know not why Daniel should omit it in this Prophesy. This part of the Prophesy therefore being not yet fulfilled I attempt not to interpret it, but shall only content my self with observeing, that as the 70 weeks & the 62 weeks were Iewish weeks ending wthwhich sabbatical years so the seven weeks are the compass of a Iubile & begins & end with actions proper for a Iubile & of the highest nature for wchwhich a Iubile can be kept; and that since yethe Commandment to rebuild Ierusalem precedes the Messiah yethe Prince 49 years, it may perhaps come forth not from the Iews themselves but from some other Kingdom friendly to them before they & precede their return from captivity, & give occasion to itheir return & lastly that this return from captivity & coming of the Messiah & his Kingdom are described in Dan. 7 Apoc 19. Act. 1 Matt. 24 Ioel 3. Ezek 36, 37. Isa. 60, 62, 63, 65, 66 & many other places of scripture. The answer I know not. Let Time be the Interpreter.