428 The Gofpel of the Feai of Tabernacles. in the Winter. Yea, fo cold that at the Paffover they needed a Fire within doors, Yoh. 18. i 8. and furely in the depth of Winter it was much colder. .QHeft. But then how arofe this Miftake to place the Birth of Chrift in the very midft of Winter ? Anfw. They reafoned from that PafIage of Zacharias offering Incenfe, Luke r. 5 I I -36. They did reafon thus, that 3"ohn Baptift was conceived at the end of September, and Chrift fix Months after, which falls out about the end of March ; from whence they reckon his Birth nine Months after, towards the end of December. But in this whole Argumentation there is a Concatenation of ma- nifold Miftakes, Abfurdities, and Incongruities, betides many Uncer- tainties, For I. Zacharias was not the High Prieft. For he was of Abia's Courfe, Luke i. 5. But the High Prieft was of no Courfe ; for he was above all the Courfes. And Zacharias is called a certain Prieft of the Courfe of Abia a Stile too low for the High Prieft. 2. The Incen;fe he offered was not the yearly Incenfe offeredton the tenth day of the feventh Month, but the daily Incenfe. 3. The Angel did not appear to him in the Holy of Holies, but in the Sancîuary ; for the Altar of Incenfe flood in the San- &uary. 4. If there were none of thefe manifeft andpalpable Miftakes in this Argumentation ; yet it is wholly bottomed upon many Suppolitions and Prefumptions which are altogether uncertain, and without any Ground in the. Scripture. As for inftance, it fuppofeth firft, that as foon as Zacharias came home, after the Days, of his Miniftration were ended, his Wife Eli- ..abetb conceived. And fecondly, that this was that Year on the fe- ven and twentieth of our September. And thirdly, that there was fix Months to a Day, between the Conception " of fohn the Baptift and the Angels fpeaking to the Virgin Mary ; When as the Holy Ghoft (peaks in agreater :Latitude.;,; and As to the firft faith thus, after thofe Days his Wife Elizabethconcei- ved, Luke t. 24. but whether it was prefently after, or a month, or two months, or three months after, he faith not. And as to the third, the Angel faith only, that it was in thefixtb month, Verf. 26. and that it was the fixth month ofber being with Child., Verf 36, but whether the beginning, or middle, or end of it, he leaves wholly in the dark. Whereas this Opinion makes into be juft at the txpiringof the ftxth, and entrance of the feventh month. To
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