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and in the third year fow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits *.

FROM the 13th verfe of the 18th chapter it is evident, that, in the 14th of Hezekiah, Sennacherib came up against all the cities of Judah, and, no doubt, laid the country under exorbitant contributions, for the fupport of his numerous army. It is not here enquired, whether that was actually obferved as a fabbatical year, for the reverfe is certain; but whether it was fuch in rotation? The years of Hezekiah began with Abib, those of reft from tillage with Tizri. Computation muft, therefore, proceed from the 13th of that reign, A. M. 3382. Hence fubtract that year, which is the fource of computation, 2568; the furplus, 814, which, divided by feven, quotes 116 years of reft for the land, and leaves two for the fractional part of a 117th cycle. That year, confequently, was not fabbatical by rotation, But God gave, for a fignal to fupport the faith of Hezekiah, and his people, a gracious promise of an extraordinary fupply, from the fpontaneous fruits of the

earth.

* 2 Kings, xix. 29.

Without entering into a minute explication, how the pro duce of one year should fuffice for three, be it remembered, that the Hebrew year had a double commencement, the CIVIL from the autumnal equinox, the SACRED from the oppofite cardinal point. Both commencements are here specified, and either interval reckoned for a full year. The Ifraelites had the promise of immutable veracity, that the increase of every fixth year fhould be adequate to the confumption of 18 months.

2. In the eighth year of Zedekiah, A. M. 3418, when the fovereign had made a covenant with all the people, that every man should proclaim liberty to his male and female fervants; and, even after an actual difmiffion, the princes recalled them into fervitude, in the profpect of aid from the king of Egypt against Nebuchadnezzar, a prophet was fent to denounce the unavoidable captivity of Zedekiah, and the defolation of the city. It is enquired, was that year fabbatical? Anfwer, It was the third after the paft, and the fourth before the next feptenary release. Though neither of the specified years concluded a cycle, the operations fhew the times of the circulating repetitions.

3. In the fourth of Joiakim began the 70 years captivity of Judah: " To fulfil the word of the Lord, by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her fabbaths; for as long as the lay defolate, fhe kept sabbath, to fulfil three fcore and ten years +."

HENCE it is certain, that 70 returns of years, facred to reft and releafe, with the remiffion of debts, and the recovery of eftates, prior to the fourth of Joiakim, had been fucceffively neglected. The years of fowing and reaping, corresponding to 70 fabbaths of years, are 420 and 420 + 70490. From the fecond of that reign, A. M. 3401, which was fabbatical, deduct 490, the difference, 2911, fixes the firft continual omiffion of those pious folemnities to the first of Saul.

IT remains to be fhewn, that all the fabbatical years, of which mention occurs in hiftory, pofterior to their t2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. restoration

Jer. xxxiv. 8-22.

reftoration by Nehemiah, were computed by the new feries.

IT is not certain, whether the lands enjoyed a paufe from cultivation, during the 21ft of Artaxerxes. Every probability lies on the other fide. The people (not having that article of reform in contemplation, before the reading of the law, on the feveral days while they were folemnizing the feast of tabernacles, in that very year and month, when that covenant of reformation was ratified) might not be provided with the means of returning the money due upon mortgaged inheritances. This circumftance, alone, might induce the princes of tribes to defer the fabbatical folemnity, till fix feasons of sowing and reaping should elapse. This permission was granted, after the partition of the land; and after the re-establifhment of all these ordinances, the like indulgence might be expedient and neceffary. But this conceffion, though admitted, does not affect the argument. For if the 28th of Artaxerxes were the first actual year of rest, release, and redemption of hereditary property, yet ftill the 21ft is the true fource of computation.

ANOTHER preliminary remark, it is proper to fuggeft. The feptenary cycles were never, perhaps, more regularly observed in the days of the Judges, than in the times fubfequent to the administration of Nehemiah. Ordinances fo infeparably connected with humanity, juftice, religion, and fecular intereft, would, on this laft account alone, though all the other motives had a lefs powerful influence, be moft punctually obferved.

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That people was no fooner subject to a foreign yoke than put under tribute. In a ftate of unavoidable dependence, exemption from the taxes of the feventh year, the Jews always implored, and, for any thing now known, it was ever granted, as an equitable indulgence. A few inftances, in the chronological order, are fubjoined.

A. M.

3565

7 3572

e-105 3677

Sabbatical cycles restored, 21ft Artaxerxes
Firft reft for the land, and release of fervants
Alexander remitted the tribute of the fe-
venth year, Jofephus, Ant. xi. 8. 5.
Bethfura furrendered for want of ftore in
the feventh year, 1 Maccab. vi. 49. 168 3845
Ant. xii. 95.

Siege of Beth Dagon continued to the year
of reft, Ant. xiii. 8. 1. War. i. I. 14.
In a famine of the feventh year Herod took
Jerufalem, Ant. xiv. 16. 2. & xv. 1. 2.

A famine in the seventh year, because the
feed of the foregoing feason perished in
the foil, Ant. xv. 16. 1.
Year of the crucifixion

28 3872

98 3971

14 3985

56 4041

THESE Computations, conftructed on true chronological principles, give to the poftulates, above affumed, all the certainty of infallible felf evident axioms. As fuch they are here rep ated.

1. ARCHBISHOP Uther unhappily antedated the septenary cycles, in either feries, the one by feven, the other by nine years, which entirely defeats the fubferviency of both to historical arrangement.

7

2. By

2. By a rash, unjustifiable abbreviation of one reign, and the proportional enlargement of another, hiftorical order is violated in favour of a hypothesis, visionary, fallacious, and repugnant to the evidence of every authentic record. This artful and arbitrary transpofition of numbers brings the beginning of the famous 70 weeks nine years lower than their true epoch; and this fum protracts the currency of these weeks as much beyond that point in hiftorical time, where, by every fair mode of reckoning, they ought to end. If four years taken from the date of the creation be restored, the metachronism will amount to 17 years. The refult disjoins the natural connection which fubfifts between the oracles of prophecy and the report of hiftory. From different terms may this memorable prophetical period be computed, in the defcending feries. But with the crucifixion it must end. Allow 21 years for the reign of Xerxes, and 41 for that of his fon, Longimanus, the artificial confufion in the Annals, for this period, disappears, and every obftruction to a just arrangement in the afcending series is removed. Easy and certain is the operation. From 4041 deduct 490, the remainder, 3551, denotes the seventh of Artaxerxes, as before.

3. SIR Ifaac Newton and others, taking it for granted that the fabbatical years of Nehemiah were a continuation of the feries begun by Joshua, have inadvertently combined two eminent chronological charafters, which if kept diftinct, (as every hiftorical crite rion of those times requires), would have been fufficient

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