people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.

Know therefore and understand, that

death I shall ever regret, had made astronomical discoveries from these admirable prophecies, which astonished two of the first astronomers of our time, Messrs. de Mairan and Cassini.— I speak of the late Mr. de Chezeaux, who died in 1751, aged 33; whose uncommon knowledge and surprising information were adorned by a modesty, candour and piety, still more uncommon. -See the advertisement to his posthumous memoirs on various subjects of astronomy and mathematics; Lausanne, 1754, 4to. a work little known, but well deserving the attention of the learn ed: yet not easily understood, unless by those who are initiated in the secrets of the sublimest astronomy.

The following are the words of the illustrious Mairan, to this young astronom r:-"There is no possibility of rejecting the truths and discoveries which are proved in your dissertation; "but I cannot conceive how, and for what reason they are so "clearly contained in holy writ. Who could have imagined ❝that improvements in astronomy, and a degree of precision superior to that resulting from calculation, on certain very difficult points of that sublime science, should be derived from the study of a prophet?"

The reader, desirous of forming to himself an idea of the chronological and astronomical discoveries made by Mr. de Chezeaux, in the prophecies of Daniel, will find a very precise abstract of them, at the end of the third volume of the ADDISON of Mr. CORREVON, printed at Geneva,1771.

from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks; and threescore and two weeks.

And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself....

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease.

I know that these weeks of the prophecy are weeks of years, each of seven years. The inspired writer is therefore speaking of an event which was not to take place till 490 years afterwards.

By history I am informed of the time of the coming of that Christ, which the prophecy foretells. I therefore go back from this Christ as far as 490 years; for the event will be the most faithful interpreter of the prophecy.

I arrive therefore at the reign of that prince, from whom came the last edict for the re-establishment of the nation held captive within the dominions of that prince; and it is from the hands of that very nation itself, that I receive this prediction, which is the most powerful reproof and conviction of their incredulity,

* Artaxerxes, L. M. towards the twentieth year of his reign, according to some chronologists, and the seventh according to Prideaux. This celebrated writer has shown, that if the seventy weeks are calculated by beginning with the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes, L. M.; or dating from the edict of that prince granted to Esdras; the seventy weeks, or 490 years, are found, month by month, from that edict, until the death of Christ. Amazing precision! Marvellous conformity with the event! Can chance thus direct things? Can a judicious and impartial mind reject such proofs? Vide the History of the Jews, by that learned Englishman, vol. ii. p. 10. and following, of the edition 1722.

Mr. de Chezeaux was also engaged in inquiries concerning the seventy weeks of Daniel, and had embraced the opinion of Prideaux, as being the most consonant to history, and the best method of calculating the times of the prediction. Vide the short account of the astronomer of Lausanne, inserted in the third vol. of the Addison of Mr. de Correvon, p. 332. The same chronological result, as that of the English historian, will there be found.

Two anterior edicts had been given; the first was granted by Cyrus, in the first year of his reign at Babylon, about 537 before Christ; the second edict was given by Darius, son of Hystaspes, about 518 years before Christ.

Shall I doubt the authenticity of writings,. which contain such predictions as these? But the nation to whose care they have been constantly committed, has never entertained the smallest doubt on this head. What hen shall I oppose to so ancient, so constant, so formal a testimony? I cannot imagine this nation to have fabricated these writings how absurd would such a supposition be! Would not the prophecies themselves confute it? Would it not, further, be contradicted by so many passages which load that nation with ignominy, and the strongest reproaches for its disorders and crimes? That nation, therefore, has neither counterfeited, altered, nor suppressed, any thing, since it has preserved these records, so humiliating to itself, and so favourable to the great society of which Christ was the founder.

Shall I have recourse to the wild supposition, that the harm onybetween the events. and the predictions is the effect of chance? It is impossible to find, in the coincidence of so many and such various circumstances,

any appearance of casualty.* A more rational occasion for scepticism oceurs to my mind:-Can I clearly prove to myself, that the predictions which are so striking, did really precede, for the space of five or six centuries, the events which they foretold in such plain and decisive terms? Am I acquainted with any contemporary authorities, which attest, that the authors of whom I am writing, really existed five or six centuries before Christ?-I do not engage myself in this learned and laborious inquiry. I perceive a nearer, an easier, and a safer road; one indeed which will bring me to a more decisive conclusion.

I have learned from history, that a Greek version of the writings in question was made in the reign of a king of Egypt;† I consult this famous version, and I find the same predictions contained in it, as in the original

text.

This version, made by interpreters of

* Vide P. 16. Chap. iv. Phil. Paling.

+Ptolomæus Philadelphus.

The seventy interpreters.-Whatever has been reported con cerning them, and their version, by the false Aristeus, may be