The works of the pious and profoundly-learned Joseph Mede, B.D., sometime fellow of Christ's Colledge in Cambridge

AN APPENDIX. CHAP. XV.

That Daniel's 70 Weeks are a lesser Kalendar of Times. That in reference to these Weeks must those Phrases in the Epistles to the converted Iews, [viz. The Last Hour or Time, The End of all things, The Day approaching, &c.] be expounded of the End of the Iewish State and Service at the expiring of the 70 Weeks. That the Apostles were not so mistaken as to believe the End of the World should be in their dayer, proved against Baronius and other Romanists.

I SHOULD now presently come to speak of the Fourth particular which I ob∣served in this Verse: But because in this Discourse of Times, besides the Great Kalendar of Times I so much spake of, there was some mention of a Lesser Kalendar, viz. of Daniel's 70 weeks, give me leave to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 some places of Scripture which I suppose to have reference thereto, for the better clearing not only of our former Discourse, but of some scruples that might trouble our minds, when mention is made of an End then supposed near, though the World hath so many hundred years since con∣tinued, and no end thereof is yet come.

Know therefore that these 70 weeks of Daniel are a Little Provincial Kalendar, containing the time that the Legal worship and Iewish state was to continue from the re-building of the Sanctuary under Darius Nothus until the final destruction thereof, when the Kalendar should expire: Within the space whereof their Commonwealth and City should be restored, and 62 weeks after that the Messias be slain for sin, and at the end of the whole 70 their City and Temple again destroyed and their Com∣monwealth utterly dissolved. To these Weeks therefore, whose computation so e∣specially concerns the Iews, is reference made in those Epistles which are written to the Christian Churches of that Nation, whether living in Iewry, or abroad disper∣sed. Such is S. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews; both S. Peter's to those of the Disper∣sion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bythinia; the Epistle of S. Iames to the twelve Tribes; and likewise the first Epistle of S. Iohn, which though the Salu∣tation expresseth not, as in the former, yet may appear both because Peter, Iames and Iohn were all three Apostles of the Circumcision, and from that passage Chap. 2. verse 2. CHRIST IESUS is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world: that is, not for the sins of us only who are Iews, but for the sins of the Gentiles also. And doth not the name of General or Ca∣tholick Epistle given unto this, as well as to those of S. Iames and Peter, imply thus much? For it cannot be thus called, because written to all Christians indefinitely and generally, since the contrary expresly appears in the former; but because this as well as the rest was written to those of the Circumcision, who were not a people confined to any one certain City or Region, but dispersed through every Nation; as we read in the Acts Chap. 2. verse 5, &c. that at the Feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles, There were sojourning at Ierusalem Iews, devout men, out of every Nation under Heaven: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, Iudaea and Cappadocia, Pontes and Asia, and strangers of Rome, Iews and Proselytes, (that is, Iews by race, and Iews by Religion,) &c. For we must not mistake those here numbred to be Gentiles, but* 1.1 Israelites, both of the Ten Tribes captivated by Shalmaneser, and the other Two; some of whom never returned from Babylon, but lived still in Mesopotamia: but of those who returned, great multitudes were dispersed afterwards in Egypt, Libya, and many other Pro∣vinces, before the time of our Saviour's appearing in the flesh. So that the Apostles of the Circumcision had their Province for largeness not much inferiour to those of the Gentiles.

But I come to note the places I spake of. And first out of the forenamed Epistle of S. Iohn; where from that prediction of our Saviour's in the Gospel, that the arising of false Prophets should Be one of the near signs of the nigh-approaching End of the Iewish State, the Apostle thus refers unto it, Chap. 2. verse 18. Little chil∣dren, this is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the Last hour: and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are many Antichrists; whereby we know that it is the Last time. Here

by the Last time I suppose no other thing to be meant but the near expiring of Da∣niel's 70 weeks, and with it the approaching End of the Iewish Commonwealth: and why might not this Epistle be written in the Last week, at the beginning whereof Iesus Ananiae began that woful cry, Wo unto Ierusalem and the Temple? Ioseph. l. 7. Belli Iudaici. By 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 many Antichrists, are meant no other but false Prophets or Counter-prophets to the Great Prophet,* 1.2 pretending an Unction and Commission from Heaven (as he had) to teach the world some new revelation and doctrine. For the name Christ implies the Unction of Prophecy as well as the Unction of a Kingdom, and accordingly the name Antichrist: and therefore the Syriack here turns it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 False Christs, that is, such as should falsely pretend some ex∣traordinary Unction of Prophecy like unto him. And the coming of such as these our Saviour in S. Matthew's Gospel (a Gospel for the Hebrews) makes one of the Last signs ushering the destruction of Ierusalem: And if the harmony of this Prophe∣cy in the three Evangelists be well considered, there was no more to come but the compassing Ierusalem with armies. Well therefore might S. Iohn, when he saw so ma∣ny Anti-prophets spring up, say, Hereby we know that it is the last time.

Again, because the Desolation of the Iewish State and Temple would be a great confirmation of the Christian Faith; therefore the believing Iews, whom nothing could so much stagger as the standing glory of that Temple and Religion, are en∣couraged by the nearness of that time of expectation when so great a confirmation of their Faith of the Messias already come should appear. Hebrews 10. 23, 25, Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering—and so much the more, as ye see the Day approaching; namely, that day when you shall be sufficiently confirmed. So I take the 35 and 37 Verses of the same Chapter, ••asi not away your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward: For ye have need of patience—For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. What [He] is this, but even He whom Daniel says, The people of the Prince that shall come, shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary? Dan. 9. 26. For even as the destruction of Papal Rome would be a great confirmation of the Reformed Christian who hath forsaken the Communion of that Religion, the continuance and supposed stability of the glory thereof being that wherewith their Proctors endeavour most to shake and stagger us: So was the de∣struction of the Iewish State and Temple to be unto those Iews who had withdrawn themselves from that Body and Religion whereof they once had been, to embrace the new Faith of the Messiah preached by the Apostles. For if at the end of the 70 weeks approaching, the Legal Sanctuary were rased, and the Iewish State dis∣solved; then would it be apparent indeed, That Messiah was already come and slain for sin; because this was infallibly to come to pass within the compass and before the expiration of those 70 weeks or 490 years allotted for the last continuance of that City and Sanctuary, when it should be restored after the captivity of Babylon. Not without cause therefore doth S. Peter in his second* 1.3 Epistle say to the Christian Iews, We have a more sure word of Prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts. Yea and besides, Because Iesus as well as Daniel had prophesied of the approaching desolation of that City and Temple, mentioning all the Sign, that were to usher it; if the Event, when time came, should fall out accordingly, then must Iesus of Nazareth, who foretold the foregoing Signs thereof, be approved as a true Prophet, by whom of a truth the Lord had spoken.

Now for the last place that I mean to alledge; Because the fall and shock of that State might shake the whole Nation wheresoever dispersed, unless God spared the Christians,* 1.4 and made them alone happy in that woful day; or rather because Christ had foretold that one of the next fore-runners thereof should be a general persecution of Christians, as it happened under Nero; therefore the remembrance of the End of these 70 weeks so near the expiring was a good caution to all the Christian Iews to watch and pray. To this sense therefore I take that of Peter, 1 Pet. 4. 7. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, The End of all approacheth; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer: that is, The End of all your Commonwealth, Legal worship, Temple and Service, is now within a few years; Be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer, that ye may be the more happy in that day of vengeance and wrath upon our Nation. Neither need we wonder that this Desolation should be called the End; for our Saviour himself taught them so to

speak in his Prophecy concerning it, as may appear if we consider that Antithesis in S. Luke, chap. 21. 9. Ye shall hear of wars and commotions—but the End is not by and by. Ver. 20. But when ye shall see Ierusalem encompassed with armies, then know that the Desolation thereof is nigh.

AND thus much I thought to add to my former discourse of Latter Times, lest through ignorance thereof we might incline to that little better than blasphemous conceit which* 1.5 Baronius by name and some other of Rome's followers have taken up; viz. That the Apostles in such like passages as we have noted were mistaken, as be∣lieving the End of the World should have been in their own time; God of purpose so or∣dering it, to cause in them a greater measure of zeal and contempt of worldly things. An opinion, I think, not well beseeming a Christian.

• 1. For, first, whatsoever we imagine the Apostles might here conceive in their private opinions as men; yet we must know that the Holy Ghost, by whose instinct they wrote the Scriptures, is the Spirit of truth; and therefore what is there affirm∣ed must be true, yea, though the Pen-man himself understood it not.
• 2. It was not possible the Apostles should expect the End of the World to be in their own time, when they knew so many things were to come to pass before it as could not be fulfilled in a short time. As 1. The desolationa 1.6 of Ierusalem, and that not till the seventy weeks were expired. 2. The Iews to beb 1.7 carried captives over all Nations, and Ierusalem to be troden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled. 3. That in the mean time the Roman Empire must be ruined, andc 1.8 that which hindered taken out of the way. 4. That after that was done,d 1.9 the Man of sin should be revealed, and domineer his time in the Temple and Church of God. 5. After all this, viz. when thee 1.10 fulness of the Gentiles should come in, that Israel should be received again to mercy. 6. That Christ shouldf 1.11 reign in his Church on earth so long till he had put down all rule, all autho∣rity and power, and subjected all his enemies under his feet, before he should sub∣due the last enemy, which is death, and surrender his kingdom into the hands of his Father. 7. That the time should be so long, that in the last days should come Scof∣fers, saying,g 1.12 Where is the promise of his coming? How is it possible they should imagine the Day of Doom to be so near, when all these things must first come to pass, and not one of them was yet fulfilled? And how could the expectation of this Day be made a ground of exhortation, and a motive to watchfulness and prayer, as though it could suddenly and unawares surprize them, which had so many wonder∣ful alterations to forego it, and none of them yet come to pass?

I have spoken hitherto of what was revealed to all the Apostles in general. But if we take S. Iohn apart from the rest, and consider what was afterward revealed to him in Patmos, we shall find in his Apocalyptical Visions, besides other times more obscurely intimated, an express prophecy of no less than a thousand years; which, whatever it mean, cannot be a small time, and must be fulfilled in this world, and not in the world to come. Notwithstanding all this, I make no question but even in the Apostles times many of the believing Gentiles, mistaking the Apostles ad∣monitions to the Iews of the End of their State approaching, thought the End of whole world and the Day of the Lord had been also near; whom therefore S. Paul 2 Thess. 2. beseeches to be better informed, because that Day should not come until the Apostasie came first, and the Man of sin were revealed.

Notes

• * 1.1

  See this fully proved in Book I Dis∣course XX.
• * 1.2

  Cyril, Hierosol, C••tech. 6 ex∣pounds this of Iohn to mean Simon Magus.
• * 1.3

  〈…〉〈…〉
• * 1.4

  Thus must that of S. Iames in chap. 5. 3. be ex∣pounded, and so Occumenius expounds the words, Weep and ••oul, y••••richmen, for the miserus that shall come upon you:—Ye have heaped up goods for the last dayes; that is, when the land of your State is a coming, and the Romans shall spoil you of all. This being supposed to be the reason why many of the Christian Iews sold their lands, and laid the mony at the Apostles ••eet.
• * 1.5

  An. 57. S. 19. An. 72. S. 26. An. 82. S. 3.
• a 1.6

  Matt. 24. Mark 13. Luke 21. Dan. 9. 24.
• b 1.7

  Luke 21. 24.
• c 1.8

  2 Thess. 2. 7.
• d 1.9

  lbid. v. 8.
• e 1.10

  Rom. 11. 25.
• f 1.11

  1 Cor. 15. 24, 25. & Hebr. 2. 8.
• g 1.12

  3 Per. 3. 4.