430 The Gofpel of the Feaf ofTabernacles. -b1e, about the time of Chrift's Death, john i i. 49, 51. Alt, 4.6. when as by the Law of God it ought to have been during Life unchange- able. And thirdly, if both there were granted, or could be as firmly pro- ved as they are ftrenuoufly fuppofed ; yet we are ftill in the dark, un- lefs we can certainly and demontratively fix the beginning of our rec- koning of the Succeffion of the Courfes of the Priests both to a Year, and to a Month,yea to a very Day precifely.But whether this Computa- tionof the Succeffion of the Courfes ofthe Prieffs muft begin from the firft ordaining of them in the later end of David's Reign, or from the finifhing and dedication of the Temple in Solomons, or from the ere&- ing of the Altar at the firft return from Captivity in Cyrus's Reign, or from the re- building of the Temple in the Reign of Darius, or from the cleanfing and new Dedication of it, after its Pollution and Pro- fanation by Antiochus, ofwhich we read in the Maccabees, is ftill fub- je& to endlefs undeterminable Controverfy and Difpute. Fourthly, if we could attain convincing clearnefs in all the former ; yet there will arife a further unrefolvable Queftion touching the Rule ' of the proceedure of this Computation ; namely, whether it muft be- gin with the Lot of Yoarib, which came out firft, in David's ordering of them, and doubtlefs at their firft entring on the Execution of their Attendance by Courfes was the firft ; or whether it muft begin where at the Interruption it left off; or whether at the Courfe towhich it would have fallen at the Reftauration, had no fuch Interruption in- tervened. Laftly, If all thefe fnarling Intanglements were extricated unra- velled and made plain ; yet we are never the nearer to our Bunnell of finding out the time of Zacharias Miniftration either as to month or Year, much lefs as to the Day, unlefs we could certainly make out, how many Years there are from the time that we begin our reckon- ing at, to the Year of that Miniftration ofZacharias. But this lies in- volved under fo much Darknefs and fo many Perplexities, that the molt learnedChronologers, who have let themfelves with greateft Indafiry and molt Advantages to make out the Tear of the Birth of Chrifb, have given fo little Satisfa&ion to others, that there are almoft as many feve- -xal Years fixed on for it, as there are ,Chronologers. Some have reckoned up forty feveral Opinions of LearnedMen about it, and per- haps more might be added. Mr. Perkins placeth it about the three thoufand nine hundredthYear of the World. Others feven and twenty 'Years later. Yea feveral Years between that and the four thoufandth are fixed on by feveral Chronologers. Others again go beyond the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=