A Scripture Line of Time, Treatise · Part 1 · Section 3
SECT. III.
In which a Line of Seventy Five Years, precedent to the ſeventy Weeks, is aſſerted, and endeavour'd to be prov'd. Dan. 9.
HAving in the precedent Sections eſtabliſh'd the Grand Line of 2300 Ev. Mor. and their Determination to the Kingdom of Christ; I now proceed to the Diſtribution of this Line, and firſt to the Line that muſt, however ſubordinate and collateral, yet ſet out at the very ſame inſtant with the 2300 Ev. Mor. and that is, of the Word going forth.
Now of this, It is moſt evident by Scripture, that it muſt begin at the Perſian Monarchy, or the Monarchy of Cyrus; for at Darius, the Mede, to whom Scripture allows only one Dan. 9.Year, it did not begin; for in that Year Daniel prayed, and had this Viſion in Return of Prayer, as appears enough throughout this Chap. At Cyrus's first year it did begin; for ſo Ezra aſſures us, chap. 1. For muſt not that moſt neceſſarily be the going forth of the Word, when Cyrus ſent forth his Proclamation, and put it in Writing, v. 1, 2. &c?
But although the Word began here to go forth, yet it is moſt manifeſt, It did not here attain its effect; for then would it not have reſted, and ceaſed to go forth any farther? But we find it ſtop'd after the Altar ſet up, and the Foundations laid all the Reign of Ahaſuerus, and in the Days of Artaxerxes; which two, as we ſhall after reaſon, muſt be Cambyſes Ezra c. 4. 24.the Son of Cyrus, and the Counterfeit Smerdis: ſo that it as plainly went forth again in the Reign of Darius, known in common Hiſtory by the Name of Darius Hyſtaſpis. After that, although it came much nearer its Perfection, yet it was contradicted in the Days of Xerxes Ahaſuerus, by ſo ſevere a Decree for the Deſtruction of the Jews, throughout all the Provinces; ſo that Artaxerxes, call'd by Hiſtorians Longimanus, Eſth. 3. 8.illuſtrated his ſeventh Year with the Word compleatly going forth; The Eccho of which for the building of the Wall, was in his twentieth, and in his thirty ſecond the Quavers of that ſame Word, in leave to Nehemiah to reſtore Jeruſalem into its perfect Order and Polity: which plainly argue the Word gone forth in his ſeventh Year.
Now although the great Perplexities of the Perſian Chronology are no way to my main Intention to be concern'd in, yet the making it Evident, that the Going forth of the Word muſt take up ſuch a Time, as 75 Years, is of very deep behoof in that Intention, both as it gives great Aſſurance to the former principal Line of 2300 Years; ſhewing how ſeventy five of them were ſpent, and alſo as it will inlighten ſome Concernments of the Kingdom of Christ, to which all Accounts of Time tend. Upon this whole Conſideration I ſhall endeavour the proof of ſuch a ſpace implied in the word going forth.
And firſt I ſhall obſerve that which I do not look upon ſo conſiderable as to call it an Argument. The very Phraſe of going forth implies ſome protracted and prolonged going Mich. 5 2.forth by the Word. The ſame Word is us'd of him, whoſe goings forth are from everlasting. But more enforcingly to preſs this, I thus argue.
It is impoſſible to ſpare any of thoſe great Decrees we have Argu. 1 ſo ſpecially recorded, Ezra 1. c. 1. c. 6. c. 7. from the words going forth.
Not the first, becauſe it was the first, ſo much foretold of formerly by the Prophet Eſay, of ſo famous Memory, and that first broke the Bonds of the Jewiſh Captivity. Who can with poſſible Reaſon ſuppoſe, That had no Intereſt in the words going forth, in which Prophecy gloried ſo long beforehand, that was even pointed upon by Gabriel, and from which the other Decrees were deriv'd, as is expreſly mention'd in Darius's Decree, Ezra c. 6. compar'd with Dan. 9. 21?
Nor can the ſecond Decree of Darius be denied a place in it, which ſo united it ſelf with Cyrus's Decree, that if either was the word going forth, both muſt be ſo; for tho they were diſtant in Time, they were one in Subſtance, and by it the Temple was built.
And leaſt of all can the Decree of Artaxerxes in his ſeventh Ezra 7.year, be impeached as to this Right; for it was the perfective Decree, ſo liberal and ample, with ſuch Peculiarities in it all along, that there is not a word in the whole but yields an Argument: It excells all that went before, and leaves no Room for any to come after; It carries a great Senſe of God, revives all his Statutes and Judgments; It gives the laſt Hand of Beauty, as Ezra expreſſes it, to beautifie the Houſe of Jehovah; Ezr. 7. 25.and all this by the Decree of the King, his ſeven Counſellors, and Great Princes. Such a Decree, as there was none like it before it; nor after it any ſuch. The King only writ Letters after it, to the Keepers of the Forest, and after that Neh. 2. 8.gave only a Paroll Leave to Nehemiah, without writing any thing: ſo that this muſt be the Concluſive, Terminative Decree, after which the ſeventy Weeks proceeded immediately.
By the building and reſtoring Jeruſalem, we are to underſtand the Temple in the firſt and moſt eminent ſenſe; ſo the Argu. 2 Enemies of the Jews remonſtrated to the Princes of Perſia, becauſe the Temple was the Glory of the City, and carried the Building of that with it: this therefore they accus'd, but the Ezra 4.Building of their own Houſes was quickly permitted. God upbraids the People therefore by Haggai, Is it Time for you, Hag. 1. 4.Oh ye, to build your own Houſes, and to let this Houſe lye waſte?
Now the Temple was ſaid to be finiſh'd by the Command of the God of Iſrael, of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, King Ez. 6. 14.of Perſia, and does as it were point to the Angels Embaſſy to Daniel upon his Prayer, that the Commandment was come Dan. 9. 23.forth, that is, from God, and was to run, as a Line of Time, through theſe three Kings, who are every one nam'd, and the Kings between them comprehended in Time, but left out as to the Building of the Temple. The Decrees of theſe three Kings are moſt diſtinctly, and by this peculiar Hiſtory of Ezra, given, as an Explication of Daniel's Prophecy, and God's peculiar Care over it; the want of which Care over Antiochus's Hiſtory, argues him only a Type of Antichrist, to whoſe Bible his Story is rejected.
This then is the natural Order of the words going forth, by which the Temple was built. The original, and ſupreme Commandment was God's: The ſubordinate, and miniſterial Commandment was of Cyrus, Darius, and after them of Artaxerxes, King of Perſia, Ezr. 6. 14. Which laſt is indeed proleptically nam'd, or before hand, but is ſo remark'd, The King of Perſia, that he could be no other than that Artaxerxes, whoſe Decree immediately follows, chap. 7. the Hiſtory of whoſe long Reign, and as long-liv'd Friendſhip to the People of God, makes ſo great a Figure in the ſacred Perſian Story. And although it muſt be acknowledg'd we have no Evidence from thoſe ſacred Records, that this Artaxerxes was the Son of Eſther by the Great Xerxes, yet his long continuance to reſtore Jeruſalem by his Decree, his Letter, his Leave to Nehemiah, firſt reſtoring it fully in its Temple, then Neh. 2. 8. c. 13. 6.in its Wall, laſtly in its Order, and all with ſuch a ſtrain of Piety, Love to God and his Church, ſavours of ſuch a Deſcent, and that God honour'd his Servant Eſther with ſuch a princely Son: however, his Education in a Pagan Court, the Intereſts of Government, the Permiſſion of Providence to Things to go on in their own Courſe, the very Current of Prophecy in this ſecond, Perſian Monarchy, might ſurpriſe his Proſelitiſm to the Religion of the true God, and ſo he is no farther honoured in Sacred Story, than with that general notice he took of the Laws of God, and his fear of his diſpleaſure: for why, ſaith he, ſhould there be Wrath againſt the Realm of the King, and his Son; viz. from that God whom he ſolemnly ſtyles The God of Heaven?