_Binnui_, were chief Levites in the seventh year of _Artaxerxes_, when _Ezra_ came to _Jerusalem_, _Ezra_ viii. 33. so that this _Artaxerxes_ began his Reign before the end of the second Generation: and that he Reigned in the time of the third Generation is confirmed by two instances more; for _Meshullam_ the son of _Berechiah_, the son of _Meshezabeel_, and _Azariah_ the son of _Maaseiah_, the son of _Ananiah_, were fathers of their houses at the repairing of the wall; _Nehem._ iii. 4, 23. and their grandfathers, _Meshazabeel_ and _Hananiah_, subscribed the covenant in the Reign of _Cyrus_: _Nehem._ x. 21, 23. Yea _Nehemiah_, this same _Nehemiah_ the son of _Hachaliah_, was the _Tirshatha_, and subscribed it, _Nehem._ x. 1, & viii. 9, & _Ezra_ ii. 2, 63. and therefore in the 32d year of _Artaxerxes Mnemon_, he will be above 180 years old, an age surely too great. The same may be said of _Ezra_, if he was that Priest and Scribe who read the Law, _Nehem._ viii. for he is the son of _Serajah_, the son of _Azariah_, the son of _Hilkiah_, the son of _Shallum_, &c. _Ezra_ vii. 1. and this _Serajah_ went into captivity at the burning of the Temple, and was there slain, 1 _Chron._ vi. 14. 2 _King._ xxv. 18. and from his death, to the twentieth year of _Artaxerxes Mnemon_, is above 200 years; an age too great for _Ezra_. I consider further that _Ezra_, chap. iv. names _Cyrus_, *, _Darius_, _Ahasuerus_, and _Artaxerxes_, in continual order, as successors to one another, and these names agree to _Cyrus_, *, _Darius Hystaspis_, _Xerxes_, and _Artaxerxes Longimanus_, and to no other Kings of _Persia_: some take this _Artaxerxes_ to be not the Successor, but the Predecessor of _Darius Hystaspis_, not considering that in his Reign the _Jews_ were busy in building the City and the Wall, _Ezra_ iv. 12. and by consequence had finished the Temple before. _Ezra_ describes first how the people of the land hindered the building of the Temple all the days of _Cyrus_, and further, untill the Reign of _Darius_; and after the Temple was built, how they hindered the building of the city in the Reign of _Ahasuerus_ and _Artaxerxes_, and then returns back to the story of the Temple in the Reign of _Cyrus_ and _Darius_; and this is confirmed by comparing the book of _Ezra_ with the book of _Esdras_: for if in the book of _Ezra_ you omit the story of _Ahasuerus_ and _Artaxerxes_, and in that of _Esdras_ you omit the same story of _Artaxerxes_, and that of the three wise men, the two books will agree: and therefore the book of _Esdras_, if you except the story of the three wise men, was originally copied from authentic writings of Sacred Authority. Now the story of _Artaxerxes_, which, with that of _Ahasuerus_, in the book of _Ezra_ interrupts the story of _Darius_, doth not interrupt it in the book of _Esdras_, but is there inferred into the story of _Cyrus_, between the first and second chapter of _Ezra_; and all the rest