1. These Prophecies agree with Daniel; and thofe of Ef dras, being after him, explain thèm in many Particulars.

Daniel, Ch. 5. v. 28. only fays to Belshazzar, Thy Kingdom is given to the Medes and Perfians: But the 2d of Efdras Apocryphal, Ch. 5. v. 3. declares, That the Land thou feeft now to have root, shalt thou fee wafted fuddenly. V. 4. After the Three Trumpets, that is, after the Third Coming of Cyrus, and after thefe Prophecies, the Sun's thining in the Night, the Moon thrice in the Day; the City Babylon is the Sodomitifh Sea, or the Lake, which muft make a Noife, and caft out her Fish, or her Inhabitants; and he fhall rule, whom they look. ed not for; and the Fowls fhall take their flight toge ther; (that is, its Captives difmifs'd, or, the Birds fly away.)

Daniel 7. v. 7. defcribes the Fourth Beaft, which is called, the Fourth Kingdom on Earth; but he gives no Figure of that Beaft, but its Iron Teeth, Ten Horns, and a little Horn: But Efdras, Ch. 12. v. 11. fays, the Angel told him, The Ea. gle which thou faweft come up from the Sea, (Daniel allo fays, The Four Beafts came up from the Sea.) is the Kingdom which was feen in the Vifion of thy Brother Daniel; but it was not expounded unto him, (what was the Figure. of the Beaft,) therefore I now declare it unto thee; This Kingdom fhall have Twelve Kings, (or Emperors, fignified by Twelve Wings of the Eagle,) and then many Feathers mall rife on the Right Side; and at laft Three Heads will fet up Three Kingdoms in the Afiatic Parts. These are not defcribed by Daniel, and are under different Symbols in the Revelations.

'Tis confeffed, that Efdras's Prophecy appeared in the Second Century And fince the Hiftory of the Saracens and Turks has happened fince, it could not be invented by any Man; but muft be written by a Propher, who has been fcandalized for want of a fair Interpretation. The Deftation, as well as Rife of the Three Heads, is defcribed after the Lion reproved them. And the Lion is the Son of Man, who will reprove the Eagle for her Wickedness; that is, take away the Dominion from the little Horn (in Daniel's Phrafe.)

Daniel's

Daniel's Vifion in the Third of Cyrus, concerning the King of the North and South, in the latter Days of the Fourth Empire, relates the Battels betwixt the Saracens and Ottomans, two Heads of the Eagle and these brought great Miferies on Jerufalem. These are the Dragons of Arabia, and the Carmanians, Efdr. 15. And their Ways are defcribed, and the Holy War from the Weft, and afterwards the Coming of the Tartars to deftroy Bagdat. Thele are more particu larly, or plainly defcribed by Daniel, Ch. 11.

Daniel only intimates the Return of the Jews, Ch. 12. v. 1. At that time thy People fhall be delivered: But that Return is more fully delivered Ch. 13. of Efdrasions built like a Mountain, and befieged by Gog and Magog's Multitude, which is deftroyed by a Tempeft from the Man that rofe out of the Sea; and Efdras calls him God's Son, ver. 26. v. 52. Chap. 13.

Daniel, Ch. 9. fays, Meffiah fhall be cut off, and the City deftroyed. Of this Efdras fpeaks more clearly, Ch. 7. My Son Jefus fhall be revealed; afterwards Chrift fhall die, and the World be turned into its old Silence. And then he gives a Description of the Refurrection, Judgment; and Millenary Kingdom in Paradife. To all which Daniel refers in the 12th Chapter.

Since Efdras agrees with, and explains Daniel's Prophecies, and the Dialogues betwixt him and the Angel are pious and inftructive, and his Song on the Deftruction of Babylon, Ægipt, and Afia, are elegant Defcriptions of their Miferies under the Turks and Tartars; and fince thefe Dreams are expreffed in the common Prophetic Figures and Stile, like Daniel's; none orght to call them falfe: No good Chriftian could write fuch notorious Lies, as his Pretences to Revelations and Prophecies; and no bad Chriftian could ferve any ill end by fuch pious Difcourfes. But I will further add, That Efdras has given the Fate of the Conftantinopolitan Empire, which is not defcribed by Daniel, nor was fer up till A. D. 309, an hundred Years after this Prophecy was known, and quoted by Authors of the Second Century.

Efdras's 400 Years explains Daniel's 70 Weeks; Efdras's 500 Years, Daniel's Time, Times, and half.

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I will next obferve the Agreement betwixt Efdras's Prophecies and the Revelations.

The 2d of Efdras, Ch. 2. is a Defcription of the 'Sealing of the Saints departed, and their Clothing in White, for confeffing the Son of God in this World. They were crowned, and had Palms in their Hands: And the fame Sealing and Clothing is defcribed Rev. 7.

Efdr. ch. 13. defcribes Chrift's Second Coming with the Thousands of Heaven; and this is like his Second Coming, Rev. ch. 19. to deftroy Antichrift, to make War, and to judge; And out of his Mouth goeth a fharp Sword, with which he fhall (mite the Nations: And Efdras fays, he fent out of his Mouth a Blaft of Fire, by which he burnt up the Multitude: And this is called a Lake of Fire by St. John: Or, this may relate to Revel. 14. when the Saracens are deftroyed. The Rife of the Saracens is from Arabia, Efdr. 15. and Revel. 9. and the Turks Army is described in the fame Chapters.

Efdras, ch. 4. mentions the Martyrs Complaints in their Chambers; and this is likewife in St. John, ch. 6. The Souls of them that were flain, were under the Altar, and they prayed that their Blood may be avenged on their Enemies.

Efdras, ch. 15. defcribed the Deftruction of Babylon by the Tartars; and Rev. 14. the Angel fays, Babylon is fallen, is fallen.

Rev. 13. mentions the wounded Head; and this is the Sa racen Head of the Eagle, and the Second Beaft in the Ottoman Empire,

Rev. 15. mentions the Sea of Glafs mingled with Fire; and this is the time of the Return of the Two Tribes, when the Multitude fights, and one Countrey wars with another, as is defcribed Efdr. 13. Before Sion is re-built by the Two Tribes on the Borders, and they fing Mofes's Song, after that Victory over the Beaft.

The Sibylline Oracles mention Uriel, Efdras's Angel, Lib. 2. and they call him, an Angel of the immortal God: And Dan. 10, calls one Angel, the Prince of Perfia, another, Prince of Grecia, and the third, Michael your Prince: And the Ora cles declare, that the Ten Tribes fhall come from the Eaft, as Efdras fays Ch. 1. And the Sibyls, Lib. 5. fay, After Advi an Three fhall reign: These are Efd as's Three Heads. And at the End of that Book of Oracles, the Tartars and Ethio

pians are named; the Two laft Feathers of the Eagle, which muft fucceed the laft Head, the Turk.

Daniel's Prophecy of the Fourth Empire refpects the Hiftory of it; and Efdras and the Sibyls relate to the fame. Hydapes, the old King in Media, or Bactria, has this Prophe cy, which Lactantius quotes; Sublatum iri ex orbe Imperium nomenque Romanum, multò antè profatus, quam illa Trojana gens conderetur. And Efdras lived at the fame time, and in the fame Countrey as Hydafpes.

Thus Efdras agrees with all the Old Prophecies, in affert ing the Return of the Jews, their building of a glorious City, the Deftruction of Gog, or Antichrift, at the Siege of it: And then fhall Chrift be declared, and ftand on Mount Sion: Then the Jews fhall fee Chrift, whom they pierced, and be converted, as in Zach. 12. and 14.

Daniel, as well as Efdras, feems to make 500 Years one of his Times, ch. 7. v. 12. He fays, the reft of the Beafts had their Kingdom taken away, yet their Lives were prolonged : “Bws naspssj naspä; that is, the Men then alive, were to have their Lives prolonged in Chrift's Millenary Kingdom twice 500 Years: Therefore the Reign of the little Horn is to be until 1750, from Daniel's 70 Weeks, a Time, Times, and half a Time, Dan. ch. 7. and ch. 12. There is another Place in Daniel, which intimates, that Daniel reckons a Time about 500 Years, ch. 8. v. 17. "ET 28' eis xalpã míeas à es: And the fame Words are repeated, v. 19. So that it feems a Computation to what time the Vifion reached; and from the Third of Balthafar, to Craffus, who plundered Jerufalem, 54 Years before Chrift, and was killed 53, by the Parthians, is 500 Years.

'Tis faid of the little Horn, Dan. 7. v. 25. They fhall be given into his Hand, until a Time, and Times, and the dividing of Times, which is 1750. This is not a Computation of Antichrift's Kingdom, how long it fhould continue; but when it fhould end. But the Computation in the Reve lations is by Prophetic Days, or Years: And the time of Antichrift's Kingdom is by 42 Months; fo many Days it muft continue. The Witnefs muft prophefie 1160 Prophe tic Days; and the Woman's Flight into the Wilderness is competed by Times; which may be reckoned by the Days I

in

in a Year; tho' Daniel reckons them by the Parts of the Dụ: ration of the World, to fhew at what time the Events will happen. But Chriftians reckon all Times by Years. And fince the Revelations mention a Calculation of 1260 Days or Years, and they may be divided into Times, Time, and half a Time; we muft compute that in the Revelations by 1260, but in Daniel by 500 Years. Daniel predicted the Deftruction of the Jews City and Temple, and their Difperfion and from that time the 1750 Years may be reckoned for the Fall of Antichrift, and Return of the Jews.

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CHAP.