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I r 
 
 A GUIDE 
 
 «, y TO THE 
 
 STUDY OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 
 
 SELECTED AND ABRIDGED FROM A LARGER TREATISE BY THE 
 
 SAME AUTHOR, ENTITLED "A DISSERTATION ON THE 
 
 PROPHETIC SCRIPTURES," &c. &c. 
 
 BY M. HABERSHON. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 ORRIN ROGERS, 67 SOUTH SECOND STREET. 
 
 E. G. Dorsey, Printer. 
 
 1841. 
 
TO 
 
 THE REV. EDWARD BICKERSTETH, 
 
 RECTOR or WATTON, HERTS. 
 
 My Dear Sir, — 
 
 As the publication of the vohime of which the present tract 
 is an abridgment, led to my introduction to you, and to the 
 commencement of a friendship from which I have already de- 
 rived much gratification and profit, there is no person to whom 
 I can with greater propriety, or with more satisfaction to my 
 own feelings, dedicate these few pages, than to yourself: more 
 especially as it is to you that I am indebted for the hint of 
 condensing in a small compass, and sending into the world in 
 a cheap form, this attempt to throw light on the confessedly 
 difficult and important subject of Chronological Prophecy. 
 
 Whilst, however, I thus make known that it is to your hint 
 this little tract owes its existence, it is due to you to observe, 
 that the approbation which you have expressed respecting it 
 does not at all commit you to any of its precise dates, or to the 
 minutiae of interpretation which I have adopted either here, or 
 in the larger treatise. I feel thankful, indeed, in reflecting 
 that you consider the former work to have a holy, practical, 
 and sober tendency: as far as this is really the case, I trust it 
 will go forth with the Divine blessing, and prove useful to 
 the Church of Christ. 
 
 I can truly say for myself, that the more I reflect upon, and 
 the more deeply I investigate, the subject on which 1 have writ- 
 ten, the more do the leading positions which I have been ena- 
 bled to advance, commend themselves to my own judgment; 
 and in an increasing degree do those great and interesting 
 points of doctrine, in which I rejoice to think our sentiments 
 are in perfect accordance — viz: the speedy approach of the pre- 
 millennial Advent, and the First Resurrection — appear to my 
 mind to rest on the clearest and most convincing Scriptural 
 
iv DEDICATION. 
 
 grounds. So likewise, in an equal degree, does the fact of 
 three years and a half's fierce and awful persecution of the 
 Lord's people, which is immediately to precede these all-im- 
 portant events — and for which trial of its faith and patience 
 the church is so frequently exhorted to be found in an attitude 
 of preparation and watchfulness — seem to me to rest upon the 
 strongest evidence. 
 
 I would indulge the hope, that in the great crisis of the 
 world in which our lot is cast, the attention of many — oh that 
 I could say of mankind in general! — may be turned, with in- 
 creasing interest, from the passing events of time and sense, 
 in which they are so deeply engaged, to those holy re- 
 cords of Inspiration in which these sure predictions are to be 
 found, and which are calculated, under the teaching of the 
 Holy Spirit, to make them wise unto salvation. And may 
 such as are of the household of faith be induced to give a more 
 fixed attention than they have hitherto done to these momen- 
 tous prophecies, from which much of the darkness and mist, in 
 which many of them have been so long enveloped, is now, 
 through the mercy of God, fast rolling away, and giving place 
 to the dawn of a full and clearer vision. Such an attention to 
 the prophecies connected with our own times, would give a 
 holy and Scriptural direction to all their proceedings and alli- 
 ances — to their expectations and prospects — and be a means, 
 under the blessing of God, of placing them in a more safe, more 
 consistent, and more just position, with regard to each other 
 and to the world, than that which they at present occupy. 
 
 With an earnest prayer that the blessing of the Triune Je- 
 hovah, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, may rest upon this, and 
 every effort to promote His glory, I have the pleasure to sub- 
 scribe myself. 
 
 My Dear Sir, 
 Your affectionate Friend, 
 
 M. HABERSHON. 
 
 Mortimer Street, London, February, 1835. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Preliminary Observations— Axioms of Interpretation, - - page vii 
 
 Part I.— Fulfilled Prophecy, 
 
 Iiitroductio7i—0hservaiions on the 120 years' warning of the Deluge, 9 
 
 Period I.— Two-fold commencement, two-fold duration (430 and 400 
 years), and same termination: from the call of Abraham, e. c. 1921, 
 and from the mockery of Isaac, b. c. 1891, to Israel's deliverance out 
 of Egypt, B. c. 1491, 11 
 
 Period II.— Sixty-five years: from the first year of Ahaz, b. c. 742, to the 
 
 final overthrow of the kingdom of Israel, b. c. 677, - - - 14 
 
 Period III.— Seventy years: two-fold commencement and two-fold ter- 
 mination: from the commencement of Judah's captivity in Babylon, 
 B. c. 606, to the decree of Cyrus, b. c. 536; and from the destruction 
 of Jerusalem, b. c. 588, to the decree of Darius Hystaspes, b. c. 518, IG 
 
 Period IV.— Four hundred and ninety years: from the seventh year of 
 
 Artaxerxes, b. c. 457-6, to a. d. 33 or 34, - - - - 18 
 
 Part II. — Unfulfilled Prophecy. 
 
 23 
 
 Introduction — Explanation of the Seals, Trumpets, and Vials, 
 Period V.— Two thousand five hundred and twenty years: double appli- 
 cation (to Israel and Judah), with double commencement and double 
 termination to each application, - - - - - 29 
 
 First Application: Kingdom of Israel: from the final destruction of the 
 kingdom to its restoration: i. e. from b. c. 727 and 677, to a. d. 1793 
 
 and 1843-4, 29 
 
 Second Application: Kingdom of Judah: from the dethronement of the 
 house of David, and the destruction of the kingdom, to the Millen- 
 nium: i. e. from b. c. 677 and 602, to a. d. 1843-4 and 1918-19, - 34 
 
Vi CONTENTS. 
 
 Period VI. — Two thousand and three hundred years: from the seventh 
 
 of Artaxerxes, b. c. 457-6, to a. d. 1843-4, - - - - 36 
 
 Period VII.— Twelve hundred and sixty years: from the giving of the 
 saints into the hands of the Pope to the fall of the Popish apostacy, 
 and from the formation of the ten kingdoms to their destruction: 
 three aspects, three durations (1260, 1290, and 1335 years), double 
 commencement (a. d. 533 and 583-4), and double termination (a. d. 
 
 1793 and 1843-4), 38 
 
 First Aspect — dominion of the Pope himself, - - - - 39 
 
 Second Aspect — dominion of the ten Papal kingdoms, - - 46 
 
 Third Aspect — depressed condition of the Church, - - - 47 
 
 Period VIII. — Three hundred and ninety-one years: from the overthrow 
 of the Eastern Roman Empire, a. d. 1453, to the "drying up" of the 
 kingdom of Turkey, a. d. 1844. . , . . - 50 
 
 Conclusion. — Reasons for concluding that Great Britain, as one of the 
 "ten kingdoms," will be involved in the impending judgments of 
 ruin and desolation. The view which ought to be taken of this sub- 
 ject by the people of God, ., - - - - 52 
 
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 The Reader will do well to bear in mind the following 
 Axioms, which may be considered as of general application in 
 the study of Chronological and Symbolical Prophecy. 
 
 First. On all occasions these prophecies refer to the most 
 deeply important eras in history. 
 
 Second. They have always a special respect to the affairs of 
 the Church, and the history of Redemption. 
 
 Third. They have a reference to events which have pro- 
 duced permanent and striking changes in the world. 
 
 Fourth. They refer to the most severe judgments which the 
 world has ever experienced. 
 
 In proof of these observations, I would instance the princi- 
 pal events that have been the subject of the most remarkable 
 prophecies. 
 
 1. The Deluge — a judgment which destroyed every human 
 being except Noah and his family. Its effect on the church 
 was, that it closed the Antediluvian Dispensation. This was 
 the subject of Noah's prophecy of 120 years. 
 
 2. The Plagues of Egypt; the total destruction of Pharaoh's 
 army in the Red Sea; and the annihilation of the nations of 
 Canaan. — These events brought about the deliverance of the 
 church from the land of bondage, and planted the Israelites in 
 their promised land; and the}^ closed the Patriarchal Dispen- 
 sation. They form the termination of the "First Period," or 
 the 400 years prophesied of to Abraham. 
 
 3. The destruction of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 
 which was effected by the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Ro- 
 mans, in the respective sieges of Samaria and Jerusalem. — 
 These events occasioned the long captivity of the Ten Tribes; 
 the Babylonish Captivity; and the entire dispersion of the 
 Jews into all nations; and put an end to the Levitical or 
 Jewish Dispensation. They are prophesied of in the "Second, 
 Third, and Fourth Periods." 
 
 4. The terrible invasions of the Goths, Vandals, and other 
 barbarian nations, which destroyed and depopulated the 
 Western Roman Empire; and, in co-operation with the rising 
 power of the Bishop of Rome, were the means of establishing 
 the Papal Apostacy. These events are prophesied of in the 
 first four Trumpets, in connection with the first four Seals; 
 likewise in the "ten horns and the little horn" of Daniel's 
 vision of the wild beasts. 
 
 5. The still more terrific invasions of the Saracens and 
 Turks, which overthrew the Eastern Empire, and established 
 the Mahometan Apostacy ; prophesied of in the fifth and sixth 
 
VIU 
 
 Trumpets; and in the "little horn" of the vision of the Ram. 
 and He-Goat. 
 
 These awful judgments and changes are what have already- 
 been fully accomplished, and have produced the successive 
 dispensations through which the Church has passed. 
 
 That still more awful judgment and change which remains 
 to be accomplished, and the fearful note of which, in the con- 
 tents of the sixth and seventh Seals, and the first six Vials, 
 has already tingled in our ears, and given a most fearful note 
 of warning, both in the way of judgment and of mercy, is — 
 
 6. The overthrow and destruction of every existing king- 
 dom, and of every apostacy, preparatory to the full Restoration 
 of the Jews, and the reign of Christ with his saints on the 
 earth. This will form the close of the present dispensation, 
 and introduce the Millennium. 
 
 The prophetical dates which are to usher in this greatest of 
 all former crises in the world's history, are those which form 
 the " Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Periods:" and these 
 events likewise form the subject of the seventh Trumpet and 
 the seventh Vial, both of which equally point to the time as 
 being near at hand. In fact, there appears now no events in 
 prophecy that remain to be fulfilled, but those that are imme- 
 diately connected with this period. 
 
 In addition to the above Axioms of Interpretation, I would 
 further add — 
 
 Fifth. That more than one duration is sometimes assigned to 
 the same prophecy. For instance: 400 and 430 years, to the 
 First Period; and 1260, 1290, and 1335 years, to the Seventh 
 Period. 
 
 Sixth. To the Third, Fifth and Seventh Periods, there is 
 the peculiarity of a double commencement and a consequent 
 double termination. 
 
 Seventh. The language of prophetical dates is generally 
 understood a "day for a year." A ''week," or seven days, 
 is therefore seven years; a "month," or thirty days, is thirty 
 years; and a "time," or three hundred and sixty days, is three 
 hundred and sixty years. For instance — 
 
 The "7 times" of the Fifth Period are 7x360=2520 years. 
 
 The "time, times, and a half," or 360 + 720 + 180=1260 
 years. 
 
 The "1260 days," and "42 months," or 42x30=1260; the 
 same, or 1260 years. 
 
 The "2300 days" of the Sixth Period are so many years. 
 
 The "70 weeks" of the Fourth Period, or 70x7=490 years. 
 
 The "year, month, day, and hour" of the Eighth Period, 
 are 360 + 30 + 1=391 literal days, or 391 years and a 
 month. 
 
A GUIDE 
 
 STUDY OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In the work of which the present is an ahridgment, I was 
 led to consider the date which pointed to the deliverance from 
 Egypt as the "first chronological prophecy on the record of 
 the word of God." My attention, however, has subsequently 
 been directed to, and I have been urged to notice, the anterior 
 date of the 120 years' warning given to Noah, and by him to 
 the world, of the then approaching judgment of the Deluge. 
 To us, who are living on the very eve of the termination of 
 the "times of the Gentiles," this period, which is so pro- 
 minently brought to our notice by the Lord Jesus Christ him- 
 self, as descriptive of the time immediately preceding his 
 second coming (Matt. xxiv. 37 — 39; Luke xvii. 26, 27,) is 
 indeed one replete with interest and importance. 
 
 The following is the Prophecy: — "And the Lord said, My 
 Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: 
 yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." (Gen. 
 vi. 3.) Or, as it is rendered by Dr. Boothroyd, in his Family- 
 Bible: — ''And Jehovah said, My Spirit shall never pronounce 
 judgment on man unwarned. They are but flesh. Their 
 days therefore shall be an hundred and twenty years." 
 
 From this passage it appears that this was truly and pro- 
 perly a prophetical date, and that God, by Noah, declared unto 
 all living, that He would wait 120 years, and only 120 years, 
 before He executed his purposed vengeance on an ungodly 
 
 VOL. III. — 1 
 
20 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 world. There was a date fixed, not for doubtful and dis- 
 putable speculation, but for the same holy purposes as dates 
 are with equal clearness and certainty now fixed, — for warning 
 and watchfulness. And when God has thus been pleased to 
 fix upon dates, it requires not, as some would allege, "the 
 spirit of a prophet to pierce the mystery of the future;" for 
 Revelation, in whatever form it is given, is undoubtedly 
 intended to serve a special purpose to the Church of Christ, 
 and, when the time arrives that it is required, to be under- 
 stood. 
 
 The analogy which our Saviour exhibited of the days of 
 Noah answering to those of the present time, appears, 
 
 1st. In the suddenness of that destruction which is coming 
 upon the world. In one day "the fountains of the great deep 
 were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened," 
 and, to those who were not in the ark, hope for ever fled: so, 
 in like manner, "As the lightning cometh from the East, and 
 shineth unto the West, so shall also the coming of the Son of 
 Man be" (Matt. xxiv. 27). "At midnight there was a cry 
 made, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!" Matt. xxv. 0; 2 Pet. 
 iii. 10; Rev. xvi. 15, &c. 
 
 2d. In its universality. It was not, like the subsequent 
 judgments on Sodom and Gomorrah, on Egypt, on Canaan, on 
 Israel and Judah, or like those on the ancient Roman world, 
 confined to one particular nation; it extended to all mankind, 
 and "took them all away: so shall the coming of the Son of 
 Man be" (Matt. xxiv. 39). See the seventh trumpet and the 
 seventh vial; where it is said, "And the seventh angel poured 
 out his vial into the air." 
 
 3d. In the indifference, sensuality, and infidelity of the 
 world: "They were eating and drinking, manying and giving 
 in marriage, utitil the day that Noah entered into the ark." 
 Peter calls it "the world of the ungodly" (2 Pet. ii. 5). And 
 God saw that "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart 
 was evil continually" (Gen. vi. 5). So in the present day, 
 "there are scoffers, walking after their own lusts" (2 Pet. iii. 
 3; 2 Tim. iii. 1 — 5): and the world abounds to an unprece- 
 <lented degree with infidelity and crime. 
 
 4th. In the exceptions that grace will make. As in the one 
 instance Noah and his family were preserved, he being found 
 righteous before God (Gen. vi. 9; Gen. vii. 1; 2 Pet. ii. 5); 
 so in the coming judgments of God upon the world blessed be 
 His name! there is a special number, the true church of Christ 
 upon earth, who are sealed for deliverance (Rev. vii.; Matt, 
 xxiv. 40, 41; Matt. xxv. 10, &c.); and for whom these words 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. H 
 
 are intended, "When ye see these things coming upon the 
 world, then lift up your heads, for ijour redemption draweth 
 nigh." 
 
 PERIOD I. 
 
 From the call of Abraham and from the mockery of Isaac, lo 
 Israel's deliverance out of Egypt: 430 years, from 1921 to 
 1491 E. C; and 400 years, from 1891 to 1491 5. C. 
 
 The Prophecy. Gen. xv. 12—14 (see also Acts vii. 6, 7); Ex. xii. 40—42 
 (see also Gal. iii. 17). 
 
 The first chronological prophecy on the records of the Holy 
 Scriptures, posterior to the Deluge, was given to Abraham, in 
 connection with the promise of his son Isaac and a ''seed 
 numerous as the stars of heaven," and refers to the rise, sub- 
 jugation, and great deliverance of that seed from Egypt. It 
 commences with the spring-head of Israel as a nation, — the 
 calling of Abraham from a land of idolatry; separating him 
 from the rest of the world, that he and his family might be the 
 depositaries of the oracles of Jehovah, and the recipients of the 
 types, promises, and prophecies which were to shadow forth 
 and represent the coming of Him who was to be the Desire of 
 all nations, and the great atoning sacrifice for sin. 
 
 It includes the first epoch of the wonders of the Jewish 
 history — the days of its youth; — and may be considered as a 
 new foundation laid for the visible church of God, Abraham 
 being called the father of the faithful, and a pattern for believers 
 in all ages. It embraces the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob; of Joseph and his brethren, the heads of the twelve 
 tribes of Israel: and includes the cruel bondage of their 
 descendants in Egypt; and the wonders and miracles done at 
 the court of Pharaoh, through the instrumentality of Moses 
 and Aaron, up to the night of their memorable exodus and 
 great deliverance. 
 
 This period has two durations: 400, and 430 years. The 
 former, that of 400 years, was announced to Abraham in Gen. 
 XV. The history of it is briefly given by Stephen (Acts vii. 
 2 — 6). The latter duration, of 430 years, is not named until 
 after the period had expired, by Moses, Exod. xii. 40; by Paul, 
 Gal. iii. 17. 
 
 The commencement of these two durations is at separate 
 times — the 430 years being reckoned from the calling of 
 
12 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 Abraham; the 400 years from the mocking of Isaac by 
 Ishmael. 
 
 The first commencement is marked by the call of Abraham 
 from the land of his fathers; the promise of the Messiah from 
 his seed; and the grant of the land of Canaan (Gen. xii. 1 — 3, 
 7). This complete gra?2t of the kingdom of Canaan — a grant 
 which never has been, and never can be, rescinded — gives the 
 Israelites a title to this territory which no other people ever 
 had to any earthly possessions: — it is theirs by the gift of God. 
 (Gen. xiii. 14, 15, 17; xvii. S). // is slill, and ever will 6e, 
 their own land. 
 
 The second commencement is the separation of Isaac and 
 Ishmael. This event separated the heir of promise from him 
 that was born after the flesh; and was the ostensible act which 
 shewed to the world that it was in Isaac that Abraham's seed 
 should be called. The Apostle Paul represents this transac- 
 tion as an allegory, signifying the two covenants, and typical 
 of the Levitical and Christian dispensations (Gal. iv. 22 — 31). 
 Thus, as the commencement of the first duration was marked 
 by the grant of the country and land of Canaan; so that of the 
 fecond was, by shewing whose seed, of the two sons of 
 Abraham, was to possess it. 
 
 The liDO duralio7is had a commo7i termijiation — the deliverance 
 from Egypt — an event attested by such stupendous miracles, 
 and followed by such important consequences, that it is not 
 less a subject of encouragement, praise, and wonder to the 
 Jews, than it is to every believer. The Lord himself appeals 
 to it as an astonishing and sublime manifestation of His power 
 and goodness on behalf of his creatures. (Exod. xx. 2; Num. 
 XV. 41; Deut. xiii. 5, 10; Judges ii. 12: &c. &c.) It was, in 
 fact, a season of such surpassing wonders, that it is only to be 
 exceeded by what shall happen when this land shall be again 
 restored to them; and then it shall be exceeded (Jer. xvii. 
 15, 16). 
 
 The exact time of the commertcement, and consequent accom- 
 plishment, of these Izco durations, could only have been knon-n zdth 
 certainty after the deliverance f-om E^rypt had take?i place. — 
 There was nothing in the language of the prophecy itself that 
 could lead the mind to fix upon the date of its commencement. 
 It is difficult to conceive a more abject state of degradation 
 than that to which the Israelites were at this time reduced. 
 From oppression so great, from a night so dark, there could 
 appear no human hope of deliverance. Yet when the predicted 
 hour arrived, Jehovah shewed, in the sight of all their enemies, 
 that there is no depth of misery, however great; no chain's of 
 slavery, however strong; no state of degradation, however low. 
 
OP CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. J 3 
 
 that can bar the accomplishment of His purposes of love and 
 mercy. 
 
 The commencement was not to be dated from the time the pro- 
 phecy was given. — The date generally assigned to the trans- 
 actions between the Lord and Abraham, recorded in Gen. xv., 
 when this chronological prophecy was given, is the year b. c. 
 1913 or 1911; which falls in between the two actual com- 
 mencements. If it were known to the children of Israel during 
 their bondage, they would probably liave calculated the ter- 
 mination from this time, which would have brought it 20 or 
 22 years before it actually transpired; and this circumstance 
 might probably add to the hopelessness of their situation. But 
 though it hath pleased the Lord to throw a certain degree of 
 obscurity around the clearest revelations He hath made respect- 
 ing future events — particularly as it regards times and seasons 
 — yet is there nothing uncertain or indefinite: and such reflec- 
 tions apply to those chronological prophecies the completion 
 of which the church is now looking for. And the posterity 
 of Abraham may rest assured, that that great deliverance, 
 which is promised them, and for which they are now looking, 
 will in the fulness of time be made manifest: and that, how- 
 ever discouraging appearances may at any time be, yet will 
 God then do his work — his greater work — to put them again 
 in possession of their own favoured land. 
 
 But it was not immediately after their deliverance from 
 Egypt that this consummation was permitted to take place. 
 The people were to be led forty years in the wilderness, "to 
 humble them, to prove them, and to know what was in their 
 hearts, whether they would keep His commandments or no." 
 For it is the usual way of God's providence, when He has any 
 very great mercies to bestow, first to prepare his people for 
 their reception, and then to make the bestowment. 
 
 A similar line of proceeding will, it is probable, take place 
 in the "latter day," when possession will be again given them 
 of their country. A period of thirty years, and subsequently 
 of forty-five years, is spoken of as intervening between the 
 time of their restoration and the Millennium. During this 
 time, no doubt the Lord will again plead with them; the hard- 
 ness of their hearts will be taken away; they will look unto 
 Him whom they pierced, and mourn. And it is a reflection 
 that forces itself upon the mind, in connection with the time 
 in which we are living, that not only Egypt vvas thus visited 
 with these heavy and fearful judgments, but likewise the in- 
 habitants of Canaan — the people amongst whom the children 
 of Israel sojourned the former part of this period — were in 
 their turn totally ruined, and became the victims of God's un- 
 sparing vengeance. 
 
14 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 PERIOD II. 
 
 From the Jirsi year of Ahaz to the Jirial overthrow of the kingdom 
 of Israel: 65 years , from 742 to 611 B. C. 
 
 The Prophecy. Isai. vii. 1 — 9.* 
 
 The events which commence and terminate this chronolo- 
 gical Period, are connected with the closing scenes alike of 
 Israel's and Judah's prosperity. As the space of the First 
 Period embraced the days of their youth, so the time between 
 the First and Second Period embraces that of their full matu- 
 rity and manhood. But as the object of prophetical dates does 
 not, on any occasion, appear to be intended for seasons of pros- 
 perity — only as supports in seasons of affliction and trial; — so 
 none were therefore given during this long interval; which 
 lasted, from the conquest of Canaan under Joshua in 1451 e.g., 
 to the period now under consideration, above SOO years. This 
 includes the brightest period of the Jewish history, and the 
 highest external glory of the Jewish church. Being the only 
 instance of a people living under a Theocracy, or the imme- 
 diate government of God, which the world ever saw, the events 
 of their nation must of necessity be of a character correspond- 
 ing to this high distinction; and the mind is prepared, after 
 being acquainted with what the Almighty did for them in the 
 period already considered, up to their conquest of Canaan, to 
 expect something out of the ordinary course of things in their 
 history. (See Heb. xi. 32—35.) 
 
 In the Book of Revelation the Jewish church is compared 
 to the moon, which, when the Sun of Righteousness arose on 
 a benighted world, the church is represented as having under 
 her feet; and this period of its history was when she might be 
 said to be at the full. At the time of Solomon especially — 
 which was about the middle point between the calling of Abra- 
 ham and the coming of Christ — the Jewish church in a re- 
 markable manner shadowed forth, though but faintly, the king- 
 
 * The last two verses are thus rendered by Dr. Jebb: 
 
 "Though the head of Assyria be Damascus, 
 
 And the head of Damascus Retzin; 
 
 And the head of Ephraim be Samaria, 
 
 And the head of Samaria Remaliah's son; , 
 
 Yet within three score and five years 
 
 Ephraim shall be broken, that it be no more." 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. J 5 
 
 dom of Christ in its state of glory, as it shall be in the latter 
 ages of the world. 
 
 This external glory was, however, of short duration. From 
 this time the Jewish Church began to decline, gradually mak- 
 ing way for the more glorious dispensation of the Gospel. 
 
 As soon as her troubles came upon her, then did the Lord 
 have recourse to what has ever been a support to the church 
 under all her sufferings — to prophetical dates. 
 
 But for the apparently insignificant date now under consi- 
 deration, the destruction of the kingdom of Israel would have 
 been, as it generally is, considered to have happened on the 
 invasion of Shalmaneser, kingof Assyria; whereas it is certain 
 that, according to this date, it did not take place till forty or 
 fifty years afterwards. That the country was not wholly strip- 
 ped of its inhabitants by Shalmaneser, appears from many pass- 
 ages of the history of Josiah; for when he began to purge the 
 land from idols, Israelites are mentioned as still remaining 
 there. (3 Chron. xxxiv, 6, 7, 38; xxxv. IS; 2 Kings xxiii. 19.) 
 
 There must have been a few inhabitants until the invasion 
 of Esarhaddon; and it was then, at the expiration of this pro- 
 phetical date of sixty-five years, that the land was utterly de- 
 spoiled, and the irrecoverable ruin of the Ten Tribes took 
 place; for Esarhaddon carried all the remnant of the people 
 into Assyria; and then, to prevent the land from being deso- 
 late, he brought others, from Cutha and from Avah and Havath 
 and Sepharvaim, to dwell in the cities of Samaria, in their 
 stead. 
 
 Thus accurately is the period fixed when ten out of the 
 twelve Tribes were carried captive, and made outcasts from 
 their own land; and thus accurately are we furnished with a 
 datum from whence to calculate the chronological prophecies 
 connected with their restoration. The date was to be reckon- 
 ed from the time it was given to the Prophet Isaiah; which 
 was on the occasion of the King of Israel conspiring with the 
 King of Syria to dethrone the Royal House of David, and set 
 up a stranger as King of Judah in the room of Ahaz: they not 
 knowing, or forgetting, that from his family "a virgin should 
 conceive and bear a Son, and should call his name Immanuel;" 
 which was the sign the Prophet gave him to calm his fears. 
 And this was one of those extraordinary interferences on behalf 
 of Judah, which are so often found in the history of its kings, 
 in which God stepped out of the common order of his provi- 
 dence for their preservation, even though Ahaz himself "did 
 evil in the sight of the Lord." 
 
 The close of the Period was to be marked by the ruin of one 
 of those enemies that had thus plotted his destruction : the event 
 
15 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 happened according to the prediction, and Israel ceased to be 
 a nation. But the prophecy has a reference, not to the capti- 
 vity of Israel only, for the captivity of Manasseh happened at 
 the same time: and as both kingdoms are predicted to be re- 
 stored at the same time, if their united ruin is to be dated from 
 any one period, it must be from the year when one common 
 ruin fell upon them. 
 
 PERIOD III. 
 
 From the Commencement of Judah's Captivity in Babylon, to the 
 decree of Cyrus, 70 years, from 606 to 536 b. c; and from the 
 Destruction of Jerusalem to the Decree of Darius Hystaspes, 70 
 years, from 588 to 51S b. c. 
 
 The Propheaj. Jer, xxv. 8 — 12; xxix. 10. 
 
 The tribe of Judah being the one from which the Messiah 
 was to spring, had an especial blessing resting upon it. As, 
 however, its privileges were great, so likewise the judgments 
 that followed its awful apostacy. Yet, ere their country was 
 left a desolation, it pleased God to give them a distinct promise 
 of a return, and to name the time when it should take place. 
 
 The peculiarity attending this chronological date, is, that, 
 without offering the least violence of interpretation, it will bear 
 to be considered as commencing and ending at two separate 
 and distinct times; each corresponding commencement and 
 termination including exactly the specified period of seventy 
 years. 
 
 The primary commencement of this period was in the fourth 
 year of Jehoiakim, 606 b. c, when Nebuchadnezzar first in- 
 vaded Judea (2 Chron. xxxvi. 6, 7.) This origin is confirmed 
 by history; and also by the corresponding termination, which, 
 ■when the time arrived, in 536 b. c, was marked by Cyrus, 
 after the taking of Babylon, proclaiming by a formal edict 
 liberty unto the Jews to return to their own land; and to this 
 work he was specially appointed. (Isa. xliv. 28; xlv. 1, 13; 
 2 Chron. xxxvi. 22, 23; Ezra i. 2.) 
 
 This was one termination of the period of seventy years, as 
 the first invasion of Nebuchadnezzar was the first commence- 
 ment. But the predicted desolation was not completed until 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 17 
 
 eighteen years afterwards, when Nebuchadnezzar took Jeru- 
 salem, and fulfilled to the letter the threatening denounced to 
 Hezekiah. (Isa. xxxix. 5,7.) 
 
 This was another, or second, commencement from which the 
 captivity might be dated; and exactly seventy years afterwards 
 it was responded to by another edict of the kings of Persia, 
 issued by Darius Hystaspes, in the fourth year of his reign; 
 forining a second and final termination. 
 
 As, in the First Period, it was noticed that Egypt and Canaan 
 were signally punished; so, in the present instance, similar 
 calamities were threatened to Babylon. (Jer. xxv. 12; Isai. 
 xlvii. 6; xiii. 19—22.) 
 
 Had these fearful predictions been known to the Babylonians, 
 they would have looked upon them with the same unbelief and 
 indifference as we, in this age, contemplate the still more 
 fearful judgments which, under the same oppressive 7iame of 
 Babylo?i, are intended to fall upon those nations which are now, 
 and have been — what Babylon once was — persecutors of the 
 Lord's people, both Jews and Christians. (Rev., xvi. 19. See 
 also Jer. i. 51; Rev. xvii. xviii.) 
 
 These heavy judgments, pronounced in their primary appli- 
 cation against Babylon of old, were not only threalened, but to 
 the very letter executed. And if Babylon, so much against all 
 probability, fell, what security have the nations of Europe, in 
 their armies and in their navies and in their other fancied re- 
 sources, against the equally express declarations of Jehovah? 
 If God has said, their oppressors shall all be overthrown, that 
 word must be accomplished. 
 
 The covenant relations in which God stands towards the 
 Jews, attach an inexpressible degree of importance to them as 
 a people. Nations which have in former times oppressed them, 
 have incurred Jehovah's severest vengeance: and it may be 
 added, that nations which have been kind to them, have had 
 their cup of judgment mingled with mercy. The Persian 
 monarchs, in many instances, treated the Jews with distin- 
 guished favour: they issued edicts b}' which they were rein- 
 stated, under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, in their own 
 land: and hence the kingdom of Persia to this day exists; 
 whilst Babylon is a desolation (Isa. xiii. 19); whilst also ancient 
 Greece and Pagan Rome have been utterly overthrown! 
 
 VOL. III. — 2 
 
1§ A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 PERIOD IV. 
 
 From the Edict given to Ezra in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, to 
 the Death of Christ; 490 years, from 457-6 b. c. to a. d. 33 
 or 34. 
 
 The Prophecy. Dan. ix. 1, 4, 20—27. 
 
 As the Jewish church was noticed to be represented as the 
 moon, so we have now come to her last quarter. Those espe- 
 cial manifestations which had hitherto been her peculiar glory, 
 almost ceased; her solemn ordinances and significant institutions 
 became almost empty ceremonies, observed in the mere letter; 
 and when He came, who was predicted in this prophecy, he 
 found, under a fair outside, all was emptiness and rottenness 
 within. 
 
 Her history was left, at the close of the last Period, connect- 
 ed with that of the kingdom of Persia; and from henceforward 
 becomes connected in the vicissitudes of the ruling nations of 
 the world. The edicts of Cyrus, and afterwards of Darius 
 Hystaspes, granted them great privileges; but a more extra- 
 ordinary interposition in their favour is recorded in the Book 
 of Esther: God, in his wonderful providence, elevated a 
 Jewess to the throne of Persia, and raised Mordecai, her near 
 relative, to the situation of prime minister. To carry still 
 further his gracious designs towards his people into effect, 
 Ataxerxes granted to Ezra and Nehemiah two similar edicts to 
 those of Cyrus and Darius; the former in the year b. c. 457, 
 and the latter in the year 444. The one given to Ezra was 
 the most important, and is fixed as the commencement of the 
 seventy weeks of this prophecy; and ought probably to be con- 
 sidered as the commencement of another yet unfulfilled Period. 
 (Ezra vii. 11—26.) 
 
 Considering the Jewish church and state to have lasted 2000 
 years — that is, from the time of Abraham to the death of 
 Christ — Abraham stands at the head of the first quarter; Moses, 
 the second; David, the third; and Ezra, the fourth and last; each 
 portion occupying about 500 years. So that his name stands 
 in juxta-position with the three most important characters in 
 the holy Scriptures: and this appears to be the proper and true 
 point of time from whence to date the commencement of the 
 2300 years, relating to the more important cleansing of' the 
 same holy sanctuary. 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 19 
 
 With regard to the great event that termi?iates this 490 years, 
 there can be no doubt. There was only one event that ever 
 hapjDcned in this world which could be said '<to finish the trans- 
 gression, make an end of sins, make reconciliation for iniquity, 
 and bring in everlasting ^righteousness;" and that event was 
 the Death of Christ, the God-man Mediator (see 1 Pet. i. 10, 
 11). The salvation thus wrought out by the blood and right- 
 eousness of Christ, was the antitype of all that had been 
 shadowed forth by the priests in all their sacrifices and offer- 
 ings from the beginning of the world. It was the main thing 
 that had been pointed at by the various institutions of the 
 ceremonial Law; it is the subject which runs throughout the 
 whole of the Psalms, and all subsequent prophecy; and it 
 finished the Levitical dispensation. 
 
 And here let it be observed — and it ought to arrest the at- 
 tention of every son and daughter of Adam — that in naming 
 the time when this all-important transaction should take place, 
 it is conveyed in language expressive of the grand essentials of 
 the Gospel, in opposition to every other scheme of salvation 
 devised or trusted to by man. 
 
 First, That, by the fall and transgression of our first parents, 
 sin and sorrow and misery were entailed upon, and have followed, 
 all their posterity, in all successive generations; so that not an 
 individual has escaped the pollution (Gen. vi. 5). But the 
 penal efiects of this hereditary guilt are, in the elect, cancelled 
 by the death of Christ; for by this one great sacrifice "the 
 transgression was finished:" "As in Adam all died, even so in 
 Christ shall all be made alive." Wide and extensive as were 
 the consequences of the Fall, so, wide and extensive are like- 
 wise the consequences resulting from the Atonement, as far as 
 regards the curse entailed by i?iherent sin and pollution, irre- 
 spective of believing or disbelieving, and when unaccompanied 
 by actual sin. Hence it may be presumed none are finally lost 
 irrespective of their own actions, and their own sins; and hence 
 the salvation of infants and idiots, who have never had the 
 power of sinning. 
 
 But the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ extends likewise to 
 actual guilt; for He not only died to "finish the transgression," 
 but to ^^make an e?id of sins." The condemnation therefore is, 
 that "light is come into the world, but men love darkness rather 
 than light, because their deeds are evil." There is no limita- 
 tion in the ofiered mercy (Is. Iv.; xliv. 22; i. IS). Through 
 faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, an innumerable company have 
 washed in this overflowing fountain opened for sin and unclean- 
 ness, and have been made whole. The sins of persons of all 
 characters, and of all degrees of guilt, have been forgiven and 
 
20 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 blotted out, through the blood of his cross (Matt. i. 21; Acts 
 iv. 12; Heb. ii. 2, 3.) 
 
 It is further Implied, however, that God does not leave the 
 sinner here. lie is not only forgiven, not only saved from the 
 awful consequences of sin; but he is, reconciled, by the death 
 of Christ, to Him from whom by sin he is so awfully estranged. 
 Among the blessings enumerated by the Holy Spirit through 
 Daniel, or rather through Gabriel who addresses Daniel, it is 
 therefore added, that this great event also was ^Ho make recoji- 
 ciliatio7i for iniquity.^' God is love: hence He does not, in the 
 salvation of sinners, merely rescue them from eternal damna- 
 tion — no; He adopts him into his family, making him an heir 
 of God and joint heir with Christ. (Rom. viii. 17; 2 Cor. v. 19.) 
 
 It is an act peculiar to God alone, that, in pardoning sin and 
 reconciling us to Himself, He can also justify and make us 
 righteous; for the death of Christ was, further, to "bring in 
 everlasting righteoiisiiess;^^ clothed in which, the believer stands 
 perfect and complete before God. (Ps. xvii. 15; Isa. xxiii. 6; 
 Rom. viii. 33.) Every believer, therefore, stands before God 
 not merely as a pardoned and reconciled sinner, but he stands 
 as justified — clothed with the wedding-garment of Christ's 
 righteousness; pure from every defilement; "complete in Him.^' 
 (Rom. V. 19; 2 Cor. v. 21.) 
 
 Thus clearly is the doctrine of Justification by Faith without 
 the deeds of the Law, expressed by Old-Testament Prophets, 
 as involved in the death of Christ. It is this doctrine for 
 which so many martyrs have shed their blood: it was by this 
 that, under God, Luther, and Calvin, and Cranmer, and Knox, 
 and other Reformers, achieved their triumphs over the errors 
 of Poperj': and it is the saving belief of this that emphatically 
 constitutes the CAt/rc/i of Christ — that true church, respecting 
 which so much is said in the prophetic writings of the New 
 Testament, particularly in the Book of Revelation; and which 
 is destined to have a universal triumph over every system of 
 error and apostacy, whether in the shape of Mohammedanism, 
 Popery, Infidelity, Socinianism, or any other human scheme 
 of salvation; and in which the Jew, as well as the Gentile, 
 shall ere long be enabled to rejoice. 
 
 As the deliverance from Egypt, on the night when the first- 
 born of the land were all slain, was perpetuated throughout all 
 the generations of Israel by the institution of the Passover, 
 which conspicuously typified the death of Christ; so, on the 
 very evening when this type was to vanish for ever, the intro- 
 duction of a new dispensation was appointed to be comme- 
 morated by another, more simple and significant, standing 
 ordinance, to be observed for an assigned period in the Christian, 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 21 
 
 as that had been in the Jewish church; and this was, the insti- 
 tution of the Lord's Supper. (1 Cor. xi.) 
 
 Our attention is not only drawn, in the 24th verse of the 
 chapter in which this prophecy is contained, to those four 
 essential points of doctrine which have been briefly noticed — 
 namely, the finishing of the transgression, making an end of 
 sins, making reconciliation for iniquity, and bringing in ever- 
 lasting righteousness; — two other important circumstances are 
 mentioned, as attendant upon or following the death of Christ 
 — the "sealing up of the vision a?id the prophecy, a7td anointing 
 the Most Holy.''' 
 
 By the "vision and the prophecy," in this place, is undoubt- 
 edly meant the revealed word of God, which soon after the 
 death of Christ was sealed up, or completed. (Heb. i. 2; Rev. 
 xxii. IS, 19.) 
 
 Nevertheless, although He had closed and sealed up his 
 revealed word. He did not leave himself without a continued 
 witness in the church by the gift of His Holy Spirit. (John 
 xvi. 13; Acts ii. 1, 4; 1 Cor. vi. 19,20.) 
 
 After this "sealing up" of the word of God is mentioned, 
 the list is thus closed, "A7id to anoint the Most Holy.'' Thus 
 signifying that it is the ultimate expectation of the Christian 
 church to welcome her coming Lord: and hence we are taught 
 in the Lord's Prayer to say, "Thy kingdom come." 
 
 Having thus noticed the great events which mark the com- 
 mencement and termination of this chronological prophecy — 
 namely, the commission gixen to Ezra, and the death of Christ — I 
 now proceed to notice some peculiarities, which distinguish 
 the structure of this famous and remarkable prediction from 
 the others which have been already considered. 
 
 i. The first foretels events to be accomplished within seventy 
 weeks, in general — which were brought to pass by the death 
 of Christ — contained in the 24th verse. 
 
 ii. The second, events to be accomplished precisely at the 
 end of three particular periods, into which the said general 
 number of seventy weeks is divided; contained in the 25th, 
 26th, and 27th verses. This divides the 490 years into three 
 particular periods, and assigns particular events to be precisely 
 accomplished at the end of each: 
 
 First, seven weeks, or forty-nine years. The building of 
 Jerusalem, begun by Ezra, and finished by Nehemiah 40S b. c. 
 
 Second, sixty-two weeks, or 434 years. The beginning of 
 Christ's ministry. 
 
 Third, one week, or seven years. In the "half" of which 
 happened the death of Christ. 
 2* 
 
22 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 iii. The third peculiarity, that its commencement could not 
 be knovvn till after its completion, because it could not a priori 
 be determined which of the four "commandments" issued by 
 the kings of Persia was the one fixed upon by the Holy Spirit, 
 in assigning the date of 490 years: and because the termination 
 referred, not to the birth, but to the death of Christ. 
 
 iv. Another peculiarity is, that the length of time is not 
 given in the plain term of years, but in the prophetical language 
 of weeks of years — as is expressed in Ezekiel, "a year for a 
 day." See also Num. xiv. 34. 
 
 V. The last remark is, that the point which marks its ter- 
 mination — A. D. 33, or according to Sir Isaac Newton a. d. 34 
 — was but the introduction to a series of eve/its, which was to 
 bring about a consummation of evil and of judgment to the 
 Jewish state. But it was not till the Gospel had been preached 
 to the murderers of the Saviour that the dreadful threatenings 
 were fulfilled; and even then God did not leave them without 
 a gracious reservation. (Hos. iii. 4, 5; Lukexxi. 24; Rom. xi. 
 25; also 12, 15.) 
 
 It is evident that mercy is in reserve for the Jewish people, 
 and that they will ere long be gathered in on every side, and 
 brought to their own land; and that this glorious era will be 
 the introduction of a new dispensation to the world. 
 
 I will only add the fervent prayer, that the ever-blessed 
 Spirit may prepare our minds for His coming judgments; 
 enable us to keep on our watch-tower, with our loins girt and 
 our lamps burning; and when the awful blast is sounded, 
 which shall reverberate through the length and breadth of the 
 world "It is done," may we be able to lift up our heads with 
 joy, to meet our coming and adorable Lord and Saviour. 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 23 
 
 PART II. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Explanation of the Seals, Trumpets, and Vials. 
 
 Before we proceed in the regular order of the Periods, it 
 will be found of material advantage briefly to turn our atten- 
 tion to the symbolical visions of the Apocalypse. I consider 
 the Seven Seals and the Seven Trumpets, as descriptive oi hoo 
 distinct series of events, running in nearly parallel lines. 
 
 The first of these series, being given under the emblematic 
 representation of the opening of Seals, has a reference to those 
 great events which were to receive the stamp of legitimate 
 authority, or the seals of established empire. 
 
 The second series, being given under the opposite emblem of 
 the sounding of Trumpets, represents those events which were 
 to be ushered in by successful invasions, ravages, and over- 
 throws; by the "sound o? trumpet and the alarm of war. " 
 
 Before applying these general principles to the events of 
 history, we must refer to the unfulfilled prophecies of the Old 
 Testament, which appear to be the six following: — 
 
 1. The destruction of the undivided Roman Empire — repre- 
 sented by the cutting down the great tree of Nebuchadnezzar; 
 tlie demolition of which did not take place until the empire 
 was attacked by the barbarous nations; when it was bound 
 together by a "band of iron and brass," or by the Latin and 
 Greek kingdoms. 
 
 2. The division of the Western or Latin branch of the Roman 
 Empire into ten kingdoms — predicted by the ten toes of the 
 great image, and the ten horns of the monstrous wild beast. 
 
 3. The springing up of the little Papal horn, or kingdoiTi, in 
 the midst of these ten kingdoms, which was to do such great 
 things; into whose hands the saints were to be given, and 
 which was to wear them out by its persecutions, and that for 
 1260 years. 
 
24 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 4. The similar springing up of the Mohammedan little horn, 
 out of, or behind, one of the four Grecian kingdoms, into 
 which Alexander's conquests were divided; and which was to 
 profane the sanctuary, cast the truth down to the ground, and 
 to "practise and prosper." 
 
 5. The rise of the still professedly more anti-Christian power 
 of Infidelity, which was to appear towards the close of the 
 1260 years, or towards the "time of the end;" and which was 
 to magnify itself above every God; and for a short time to 
 enjoy, in its blasphemies and persecutions, a course of extra- 
 ordinary prosperity. 
 
 6. The breaking in pieces and total disruption of the king- 
 doms of this world, and the subsequent setting up of Messiah's 
 kingdo7n, predicted b}' the destruction of Daniel's great image, 
 and also in the Psalms and Prophets. 
 
 It may be observed, that the Seals refer to events more par- 
 ticularly connected with the affairs of the Church; the Trum- 
 pets, to secular events with which such Church affairs were 
 connected; the Vials, irrespectively to both series of events. 
 
 The Seals from the first series of Apocalyptic visions — from 
 their referring to events which happened foremost in the order 
 of time, and from their bringing into the Church that daring 
 imposture, which drew down Divine vengeance, and brought 
 on the judgments of the Trumpets. 
 
 Popery, which had commenced in the time of the early 
 Christians, became legalized and established by four distinct 
 acts or decrees of Roman Emperors. 
 
 First Seal. — The ratification of the canons of the Council 
 of Nice by Constantine, a.d. 325. The seal of the triumph of 
 Christianity over Paganism — hence a "white horse," a "bow" 
 and "a crown." 
 
 Second Seal. — A decree issued by the emperor Gratian, 
 A.D. 379. This slaughtering and bloody period is justly ex- 
 pressed by a "great sword" and "red horse." 
 
 Third Seal. — An edict issued by Valentinian III., a.d. 445. 
 The state of the church was one of gross ignorance and dark- 
 ness. Dissensions continued. The vices and corruptions of 
 the clergy, and the many heresies that prevailed, produced a 
 famine of the faithful preaching of the Gospel — thus a "black 
 horse," "a scarcity of bread," and a "pair of balances," are 
 expressive symbols. 
 
 Fourth Seal. — The celebrated edict of Justinian, a.d. 533, 
 which fully established Popery, by acknowledging the Pope 
 head of all the churches. The desolation to the true church 
 which this caused, is truly expressed by "Death" and "Hell." 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 25 
 
 This event, as forming the first commencement of the period 
 of 1260 years, will be hereafter more fully considered. 
 
 Fifth Seal. — The great Treaty of Passau, a.d. 1552, the era 
 of the Reformation; when the Reformed Churches had many 
 privileges confirmed to them, and were acknowledged as a 
 separate religious body. It expresses d, feeling of disappoint- 
 ment at such a termination of the Reformation; for it left the 
 <'souls under the altar," who had been slain for the faith of 
 Jesus, rather in a state of expectation than of joy. 
 
 Sixth Seal — The events represented by this seal form the 
 termination alike of the "Fifth and Seventh Periods," or those 
 of 2520 and 1260 years. 
 
 The French Revolution, in the progress of which Francis 
 II. issued a proclamation, by which he placed the affairs of the 
 church under the dominion of Napoleon, the infidel Emperor 
 of France, who now became the seventh head of the Roman 
 empire and the successor of the Csesars. The language used, 
 after the opening of this seal, commences by stating the fact 
 that there shall be a great revolution. That which in 1789 
 broke out in France answers all the other particulars; and God 
 grant that the referring the momentous events which have cha- 
 racterized the present period of the world to their proper place 
 in the prophetic page, may be the means of stirring up many 
 to sigh and cry for the abominations of the land. 
 
 But the correctness of this application of the events of the 
 Sixth Seal, to those of the French Revolution, admits of still 
 clearer demonstration; and that from another series of events, 
 which is symbolized by the pouring out of Seven Vials. They 
 are denominated the seven last plagues; and bear the most 
 convincing proof that they are interwoven with the last two 
 of the seven seals, with the ceasing of the sixth and the sound- 
 ing of the seventh trumpet. 
 
 In introducing them (Rev. xv, ) the Apostle saw those who 
 are represented in the Fifth Seal as feeling disappointment at 
 God's delaying vengeance, now expressing the most perfect 
 approbation of his righteous and merciful dispensations. 
 
 The symbolical representations of the first five of these vials 
 (Rev. xvi.), furnish a connected historical outline of those 
 great events which, in the Sixth Seal, were given in general 
 terms and without regard to order; likewise they exhibit, in 
 five distinct scenes, the different aspects which these awful 
 judgments assumed, from their rise in 1789 to their close in 
 1815. 
 
 First Vial. — The ^'noisome and grievous sore,''^ was the 
 prevalence of the spirit of revolution and infidelity in all the 
 countries overrun by the French armies, from 1789 to 1793. 
 
26 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 Second Vial. — The "sea," in the language of prophecy, de- 
 notes a nation, or nations, in a state of violent agitation, set free 
 from the restraints of all laws, and in the wildest disorder. 
 Such was France during the reign of terror, between 1793 
 and 1796. 
 
 Third Vial. — By "rivers" I understand the richest and 
 most fertile parts of the empire; and by "fountains of wa- 
 ters," those parts or places which are more eminently the head 
 quarters, the principal possessions, &c. of the church. The 
 Divine vengeance fell upon those Papal states and nations con- 
 nected with the Papal dominions, from 1796 to 1806. 
 
 Fourth Vial. — France, as the instrument of the Lord's ven- 
 geance under the former vial, was, with the exception of the 
 last year or two, a Republic. But after the Emperor of Aus- 
 tria's renunciation of the headship of the Roman Empire, Na- 
 poleon, who had been crowned King of Italy, became the 
 "sun" of the Western Roman world, and its "seventh head." 
 The rays of this political sun scorched with all the fury of an 
 intolerable military despotism all the nations of Europe, from 
 1806 to 1812. 
 
 Fifth Vial. — The throne of the Roman Empire, or of the 
 wild beast of Daniel's vision, or of the infidel beast in Rev. 
 xvii., was now, on Napoleon's becoming the seventh head, 
 transferred to France. This vial exhibits the downfall of that 
 short-lived imperial power — one of the most memorable re- 
 verses the world ever witnessed — from 1812 to 1815, which 
 ends the commotions of the Sixth Seal. 
 
 Seventh Seal. (Rev. viii.) — Admitting that the interpreta- 
 tion of the former six seals is correct, it must follow that the 
 operation of the Seventh is now rapidly going on, and that 
 for the last nineteen years we have been living under its influ- 
 ence. Its character is neither that of expectation nor of retri- 
 bution, but o( silence — of awful suspense. It is an interval in 
 the work of desolation — such perhaps as preceded the Deluge 
 during the building of the Ark, or such a one as preceded the 
 destruction of Jerusalem after the death of Christ. 
 
 The event which gave it the seal oi empire, was the abdica- 
 tion of the Emperor Napoleon, June 1815. This great act is 
 confessedly connected with an epoch in the history of Europe 
 as important as has ever been recorded. It left the Roman 
 world, for the first i'lme, without a head; thus stamping upon 
 it a most permanent change. 
 
 The complicated events of the Sixth Seal are arranged and 
 explained by the frst five Vials; those of a more quiet cha- 
 racter, under this Seventh Seal, will be found to be explained 
 by the sixth Vial. But as this vial contains the symbolical 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 27 
 
 representation of two such silent operations, one of which is 
 connected with the ceasing of the Sixth, or Turkish, ^^Trum- 
 pet," it will serve to place the subject in a more striking point 
 of view if, before we proceed with its explanation, we consi- 
 der the whole series of Trumpets up to this point of time. 
 
 The nature of the events signified by the Trumpets may be 
 briefly summed up thus: 
 
 1. They have been produced — not by means of international 
 wars, but — by the instrumentality of barbarous nations situated 
 beyond the bounds of the Roman earth. 
 
 2. They have been caused by great external violence, of the 
 nature of invasions, rapid conquests, and comj)lete over- 
 throws. 
 
 3. They have uniformly been characterized with the very 
 worst evils attendant on war; such as indiscriminate slaughter, 
 rapine, devastation, and exterminating ruin. 
 
 First Trumpet (Rev. viii. 7). — The invasion of the Northern 
 Goths under Alaric, a.d. 396. 
 
 Second Trumpet. — The invasion of the mighty and nume- 
 rous hordes of the Huns under Attila, a.d. 433. 
 
 Third Trumpet. — The devastation made by the Vandals, un- 
 der Genseric and their persecutions, a.d. 439. 
 
 Fourth Trumpet. — The extinction of the Western Empire, 
 under Odoacer, a.d. 476. 
 
 The three following are ushered in as Woe Trumpets. This 
 proclamation plainly intimates, that the calamities of these 
 trumpets shall be greater and more terrible, and refer to events 
 of higher importance, than the four former ones; and hence 
 our attention is in a more special manner called to their con- 
 tents, which are consequently set forth with more particularity. 
 
 Fifth Trumpet. — The Saracens, who propagated the religion 
 of Mahomet by the sword. 
 
 Sixth T-umpet. — The Turks, who in a.d. 1453 overthrew 
 the Eastern Empire, by the taking of Constantinople, under 
 Mahomet II. 
 
 Thus we have brought up the trumpets and seals to the pre- 
 setit time, or to the sixth vial; which contains /rtjo distinct silent 
 operations; one predicting the ceasing of the Sixth or Turkish 
 trumpet; and both involving and explaining the characteristic 
 <'silence" of the Seventh Seal. 
 
 Sixth Vial. — The drying up of the Turkish Empire. The 
 appearance of the three unclean spirits of Despotism, Infidelity, 
 and Popery; the issue of whose conflicting struggles is stated 
 to be, to gather "the kings of the earth'^ — that is^, the kings of 
 the prophetic earth — and likewise "of the whole world,'' "to the 
 battle of that great day of God Almighty." 
 
2g A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 And this annunciation being followed up with an idea of its 
 extreme suddemiess, an earnest admonition for all to be on their 
 watch, and the name of the place where this great gathering is 
 to be, surely implies that something of a most awful nature is 
 to take place! 
 
 Seventh Trumpet. — We may with certainty conclude it will 
 form an important epoch in the world, and a time of extrenme 
 "wrath" and vengeance. 
 
 Seventh Vial. (Rev. xv. 17 — 21.) — It is said, first, there will 
 ho. great commotio7is — "voices, thunders, and lightnings;" — that 
 these will be followed by a Great Revolution, so '-great and 
 mighty^' as was never before seen. From this it appears, that the 
 spirit of insubordi7iation and i?ijidelity, which now agitates the 
 nations, will ere long become universally triumphant, and pro- 
 duce the greatest revolution that ever was known; which will 
 be followed by a very great hail-storm, or a great Northern 
 Invasion. These events of the Seventh Trumpet and the 
 Seventh Vial, according to the subsequent chronology, will 
 happen in 1843 — 4. 
 
 The connection of these great events with the preservation 
 of a "sealed" people — with "the battle of that great day of 
 God Almighty" — with the restoration of the Jewish nation — 
 and with "the kingdoms of the world becoming the kingdoms 
 of our Lord and of His Christ, will be hereafter considered; 
 and I now conclude by saying, that while all should "sigh and 
 cry for the abominations of the land," believers ought to look 
 beyond the present darkened atmosphere, to the righteous deal- 
 ings of God therein — to their own everlasting safety in Christ, 
 their exalted Head — to the dishonour now done to His great 
 Name being for ever effaced — and to the new and glorious 
 dispensation which will ere long arise on the world. We 
 may all, therefore, with a firm reliance on our covenant God 
 and Father in Christ, join with Cowper, the poet of the New 
 Testament, in saying, 
 
 "Haste Ihen, and wheel away a shatter'd world, 
 Ye slow-revolving seasons! we would see 
 (A sight to which our eyes are strangers yet) 
 A world that does not dread and hate His laws, 
 And suffer for its crime; would learn how fair 
 The creature is that God pronounces good; 
 How pleasant in itself what pleases Him." 
 
OP CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY, 29 
 
 PERIOD V. 
 
 This Period admits of a double application; first, to the king- 
 dom of Israel; secondly, to the kingdom of Judah. Each of 
 these distinct applications has a double commencement and a 
 double ierminalio?i. 
 
 First applicatio7i [Israel). From the Final Destruction of the King- 
 dom of Israel to its Restoration: 2520 years, from B. C. 727 to 
 A. D. 1793; and from B. C. Gil to A. D. 184 3-4. 
 
 The Prophecy— hev. xxvii. 14—28, 31—33, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45 (See also Dan. 
 iv. 16, 23, 25, 32). 
 
 The Jews are kept, not only as witnesses against themselves, 
 but as the Lord's witnesses in all quarters of the world, sepa- 
 rate and distinct from all other people. 
 
 The writings of the Prophets may be considered a continua- 
 tion of scriptural or inspired history, one leading subject of 
 which is the reiteration of the gracious designs of God with 
 regard to his ancient people of Israel. And, assuredly, as their 
 punishments and their unexampled sufferings, recorded in this 
 history, have received a literal accomplishment, so also shall 
 the promises of their restoration and future glory. The apathy 
 and indifference shewn by the world, and by Christian nations 
 in particular, to the high destinies which await the Jews, as 
 clearly revealed in the immutable word of God, can only be 
 accounted for by the prevailing infidelity of the age. We are 
 so accustomed to look upon the Jews as a powerless and con- 
 temptible people, from whom nothing can possibly be appre- 
 hended, that we consider it impossible that they can have any 
 influence in the great movement that has for the last forty years 
 been going forward in Europe, and the effects of which still 
 threaten to rock every kingdom to its very centre. The lan- 
 guage of Prophecy speaks otherwise, Num. xxiii. 24; Micah 
 V. 8, 9, 15; vii. 16, 17; Zech. x. 3—6; Jer. li. 20—24. As 
 to the question — How can these things be? — we have only to 
 believe that what God has promised He is able to perform: 
 "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this" (Isa. ix. 7; 
 Jer. xxiii. 7, 8; Micah vii. 15; Ezek. xx. 33 — 36; Isa. xi. 11, 
 12; Jer. xxxii. 37, 38; Amos ix. 15; Ezek. xxxvi. 33 — 35; 
 Isa. Ixi. 4—6). 
 
 VOL. III. — 3 
 
30 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY. 
 
 The fact appears clear that both the kingdoms of Israel and 
 Judah shall be restored to their own land: and the question 
 here starts, how long shall it be ere this happy consummation 
 takes place? 
 
 The perfection of calamity, which has fallen upon the whole 
 Jewish nation, has aperfectio?i of duration attached to it, in the 
 clear, intelligible, and Divinely accredited term of seven times, 
 named in four several places in this important prophecy of the 
 26th chapter of Leviticus. 
 
 The celebrated Mede, who wrote on prophecy above two 
 hundred years ago, considered that the three times and a half 
 of Daniel and St. John were the bisection of a complete num- 
 ber of seven times; which he called the sacred calendar, or the 
 great almanac of prophecy; and to which he thought "all men- 
 tion of times in Scripture had reference." 
 
 The reasons which have induced me to consider the often- 
 repeated mention of the term in Lev. xxvi., as well as in Dan. 
 iv., as having a chronological signification, are these — 
 
 1. From its being mentioned in this place in immediate con- 
 nection with Israel's and Judah's awful punishment. Also in 
 other places: Gen. xxxiii. 3; Josh. vi. 4 — 15; 1 Kings xviii. 
 43, &c. 
 
 2. There exists a probability that this "seven times" has a 
 chronological import, from the actual time to which the event 
 which it represents has already run, in connection with the 
 signs of the times, and the general expectation of the church. 
 Israel's first captivity took place b.c. 677-6. Add this to a.d. 
 1835, and this captivity has already lasted 2511-2 years.. 
 "Seven times," or 360 multiplied by 7, is 2520: it follows, 
 that the whole period has only eight or ni?ie years to run. 
 
 3. The great national shocks which attended Israel's and 
 Judah's fall, have been responded to by corresponding shocks, 
 portending their deliverance, and the downfall of the nations 
 who oppressed them, calculating "seven times," or 2520 years, 
 as the intervening period. The events which preceded the 
 destruction of the Ten Tribes were — first, the calling in of Ti- 
 glath Pileser king of Assyria, by Ahaz king of Judah; who slays 
 Rezin, and leads a small part of Israel into captivity, b.c. 740. 
 B. c. 731. Shalmaneser invades Palestine, and makes Samaria 
 
 tributary to him. 
 727. He carries Israel into captivity. 
 724. — lays siege to Samaria. 
 722. — takes Samaria a second time. 
 714. Sennacherib invades Judea. 
 
 708. loses his army before Jerusalem. 
 
 677. Esarhaddon finally extinguishes the kingdom of 
 
 Israel. 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 31 
 
 The corresponding dates to this chronology, calculating the 
 intervening period of "seven times," or 2520 years, are the 
 following: — 
 
 B.C. 740 - was responded to in - 17S0 a.d. 
 731 1789 
 
 727 1793 
 
 724 -.-.-. 1796 
 
 722 1798 
 
 714 1806 
 
 708 1812 
 
 677 - will be responded to in - 1843-4 
 
 It now remains to be shewn that the shocks among the na- 
 tions which were caused by the French Revolution, have cor- 
 responded to those which preceded and hastened Israel's 
 ruin. 
 
 The leading characteristic of the French Revolution was 
 Atheism; the open avowal of which by the leading members 
 of the National Convention, and by the nation in general, was 
 a most extraordinary moral phenomenon. 
 
 The first overt act which gave impulse to this diabolical prin- 
 ciple, occurred in 1780, when the French army having imbibed 
 revolutionary principles in America, on its return spread them 
 throughout France. 
 
 This event — by which the king of France, like the king of 
 Judah in inviting the Assyrians to his help 2520 years before, 
 nourished a principle which produced such awful consequences 
 to himself and his kingdom — happened in the year in which 
 this prophetic chronology requires it should have happened — 
 namely 1780. 
 
 The next dates, of 1789 and 1793, equally correspond to 
 those of 731 and 727 B.C., and bring us to the acme of that awful 
 catastrophe by which the nicely poised balance of power among 
 the European nations, and the old institutions and long-esta- 
 blished barriers of civil society, were shattered to the earth, the 
 constitution of the Republic formerly proclaimed, the Christian 
 era abolished, all religious worship suppressed, and death de- 
 clared to be an eter?ial sleep. Thus was the important event of 
 Shalmaneser's carrying the Israelites into captivity, and de- 
 stroying the well-being of their nation, responded to by an 
 equally important event that has shaken all modern kingdoms 
 previous to their restoration. 
 
 The next date, 1796, brings us to the first appearing of God's 
 modern scourge, Napoleon Bonaparte, who in this year began 
 his victorious career, as the leader of the infidel hosts, against 
 the Papal nations. In 1798 the French army took and entered 
 
32 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 Rome; making the Pope a prisoner, banisliing the cardinals, 
 and abolishing for the time the whole system of Popery. 
 
 In 1806, Napoleon obliged the Emperor of Germany to 
 resign his imperial headship over the Western Empire; thus 
 abolishing for ever the ^^sixih head,^^ or form of government, and 
 establishing in his own person the "seventh head;" making 
 himself King of Italy, and being crowned by the Pope. It 
 was this act which constituted him the ^'siai" of the empire. 
 And it was in the year corresponding to this, when Senna- 
 cherib, a similarly blasphemous character, first appeared in the 
 land of Judea; and for several years, that is, from 714 to 708 
 B.C., was a scourge both to Israel and Judah: until, in the latter 
 year, his immense army was destroyed in a miraculous manner 
 before Jerusalem. In a similar way Napoleon, after he became 
 head of the Empire for the same number of years — from 1806 
 to 1812 — by a similar interposition of Providence lost in the 
 snows of Russia a host more than double in number the army 
 of Sennacherib. 
 
 4. Another reason which has induced me to consider the 
 expression "seven times" as a chronological term, is the pre- 
 sent "sig?is of the times.'' 
 
 i. The nations of the earth are again rearing the standard of 
 hifidelitii. 
 
 ii. The renewed efforts of Poj:»er7/ to propagate its anti-Chris- 
 tian abominations. 
 
 iii. The zvasting azvay oi' the Ottoman Empire. 
 
 iv. The propagation of the Gospel through the world by 
 means of Religious Societies and Missionaries. Matt. xxiv. 14; 
 Rev. xiv. 6, 7. 
 
 V. The extraordinary movement that has been made in fa- 
 vour of the Jews by the Lord's people. 
 
 vi. The fatal security and indifference shewn by the world 
 during the present calm to any a]5proach of danger. 
 
 In the contents of the sixth Vial we have these "signs of the 
 times," and here the book of Revelation perform the oj/ice of 
 a livi?ig prophet. 
 
 The mystical "drying up of the Euphrates," to prepare the 
 way of the kings of the East, is generally understood to mean, 
 to prepare the way for the return of the Te?i Tribes, which were 
 carried captive into the Eastern nations by the kings of Assy- 
 ria: but I think the term "kings" had a more literal significa- 
 tion, and that it means real sovereigns. What at present con- 
 stitutes the kingdom of Turkey (which threatens very shortly 
 to be in the hands of Russia), and the kingdom of Egypt — are 
 called by Daniel (xi. 40), ^^King of the J\'orlh," and "King of 
 the South" — but with regard to the Infidel powers against whom 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 33 
 
 the latter is said to "push" and the former to come "like a 
 whirlwind," they are "kings of the East,''' as they form the 
 eastern boundary of Europe. 
 
 The next particular in this Vial, as forming another "sign of 
 the times," is the existence of three distinct master-"spirits," 
 unclean, like frogs: the spirits of devils — Despotism, Infidelity, 
 and Popery. The final issue of this collision is here said to 
 be, to gather the kings of the earth (that is, of the Western 
 Roman Empire), and of the whole world, unto the battle of 
 the great day of God Almighty. Joel iii. 9 — 17; Zeph. iii. 8; 
 Hag. ii. 21, 22. 
 
 Various passages, especially Zech.xii. 11, seem to point out, 
 as the site of this great battle of Armageddon, the Plain of 
 Megiddo, the place where King Josiah fell; which melancholy 
 event occasioned so much mourning in Jerusalem. Modern 
 tavellers have described, as peculiarly impressive, the grandeur 
 of this vast plain. 
 
 Preparatory to this consummation, it appears that Infidelity 
 will triumph over Popery, and Despotism over Infidelity. 
 
 The other particular to which the attention is directed in 
 this Vial, besides the drying up of the Euphrates and the ex- 
 istence of three unclean spirits, is the sudde?iness xvilh which its 
 silence shall be broken: "Behold, I come as a thief: blessed is 
 he that watcheth." How can any one be on the watch, 
 unless he see the danger approaching; and how can he see 
 the approaching danger, but from the roll of prophecy? That 
 some 7vill be found on this their watch, is fully implied; and 
 from the mode of sealing described in Rev. vii., that there 
 will be in the number of those who shall have oil in their 
 lamps, some of every sect and denomination called Christian, 
 but one: and it is an appalling fact, that in the symbolical 
 representation of the elect of the Christian Church, what 
 are described under the names of the tribes of Israel, al- 
 though a complete number of twelve is mentioned, yet that it 
 is not the complete number; for one tribe, the tribe of Dan, is 
 totally omitted. If this allusion be made to any one sect, de- 
 nomination, or tribe calling itself Christian, it is easy each for 
 himself to discover to which it refers by a careful perusal of 
 the former part of Rev. xiv.; where is described the mystical 
 number of 144,000 sealed, as those who "are not defiled with 
 women," i.e. false or heretical doctrine; those "who follow the 
 Lamb whithersoever he goeth;" and those who, standing in 
 the righteousness of Christ, are "without fault before the throne 
 of God." 
 
 5. The last reason which has induced me to consider this 
 term of "seven limes" as chronological is, that its termination 
 3* 
 
34 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 1843 or 1844 is equally the termination of the Fifth, Sixth, 
 and Seventh Periods. 
 
 These five reasons carry strong presumptive evidence that 
 the hypothesis I have advanced is correct; and that the long 
 period of Israel's and Judah's captivity and dispersion is nearly 
 at an end: and that this termination will correspond to the 
 2520 years from the final ruin and destruction of the kingdom 
 of Israel. Further, that whenever tiiis time arrives ^Hhe stone 
 which is to be cut without hands," will smite the great sym- 
 bolical image of Nebuchadnezzar — representing the four suc- 
 cessive general monarchies — and break it in pieces; when they 
 all will become "like the chaff of the summer threshing Jloor, and 
 the 'dind will carry them aicaij, so that no place will be found for 
 them." 
 
 The awful truth that this state of things is fast coming upon 
 us, appears to be the burden and end of many prophecies, sym- 
 bolical as well as chronological; some of which have been al- 
 ready noticed, and some which remain to be considered. It 
 is an alarming reflection, on reviewing the former, that if 
 changes so extensive, and attended with so many calamities, 
 have characterized these intervening epocha of this great period 
 of 2520 years, or what is emphatically termed 'Hhe times of the 
 Gentiles," of what nature may we suppose that change will be 
 which closes it? 
 
 Second application [Judah). From the Delhro7iement of the House 
 of David, and the Destruction of the Kingdom of Judah, to the 
 Millenniu7n: 2520 years, from B.C. Qll, to'A.D. 1843-4; 
 a?idfrom B. C. 602 to A. D. 191S-9. 
 
 It will appear that the chronological term "seven times," 
 as it occurs in Lev. xxvi. and Dan. iv., has likewise a special 
 reference to the tribe of Judah, to whom God gave a marked 
 pre-eminence in its being the chosen tribe from which the 
 Messiah, after the flesh, was to descend; and to which a grant 
 of the sovereignty was distinctly and formally given. 
 
 There have been two separate and most remarkable grants 
 given to the posterity of Abraham. First, the grant of Canaan 
 which is common to all the tribes; second, the grant of the 
 throne which is confined to the tribe of Judah, and the house 
 of David. 2 Sam. vii. 13, 16; Ps. Ixxxix. 3, 4, 35—37. To 
 both of which grants this perfection of calamity of 2520 years 
 may be applied. 
 
OP CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 35 
 
 The crown continued in one unbroken line of succession, 
 from David to Jehoiakim, from father to son, for about 450 
 years, though many were wicked (1 Kings xv. 4; 2 Chron. xxi. 
 7), and were on the brink of destruction (2 Kings xi.; Isa. vii. 
 6); but was preserved till Nebuchadnezzar's invasion; when, 
 with the nation in general, it went into captivity. 
 
 In Period three, we have seen that there were two com- 
 mencements from which this captivity is to be dated — 606 and 
 5SS B.C.; it must therefore be somewhere between these two 
 points of time, from whence the loss of this sovereign autho- 
 rity is to be reckoned. The last sovereign act of Jehoiakim 
 must have been in 602 or 601 b.c. — 2 Kings xxiv. L Conse- 
 quently after the long period of 2520 years, the year 191S 
 or 1919 A.D. will be the time when it will be again restored to 
 its rightful owner. 
 
 And who is this rightful owner? The genealogy of the ro3^al 
 house of David, from Jehoiakim downward, to Christ, is given 
 in Matt. i. 12 — 16. He was thus "legally descended from the 
 kings of Judah;" and consequently is the legal heir to the 
 throne. 
 
 The grant of sovereignty therefore which was entailed upon 
 the house of David, is thus graciously accepted in his person 
 as God-man Mediator, by him who conferred it, and who is at 
 once the root as well as the offspring of David. 2 Sam. vii.; 
 Acts ii. 30; Luke i. 30 — 33; Ezek. xxi. 26, 27. At his first 
 coming he came to suffer, but at his second coming it will be 
 to triumph. Rev. xix. 11 — 16. The house of Jacob will then 
 be an united, no longer a divided nation. Ezek. xxxvii. 
 
 The conclusion appears irresistible from so many strong pas- 
 sages in the Bible, that at the time of the restitution "of all 
 things, Christ will take unto himself his great power, and 
 
 REIGN. 
 
 There appears no doubt but that Nebuchadnezzar's dream of 
 the great tree (Dan. iv. 11 to the end) represents the sove- 
 reignties of the world during the 2520 years during which Ju- 
 dah was deprived of the throne. This appears confirmed by 
 the frequent repetition of this very term "seven times," which 
 runs parallel with this second application of the "seven times," 
 Lev. xxvi. The moment in which Judah was dethroned, and 
 lost its regal honours, that moment was Nebuchadnezzar, "the 
 head of gold," invested with them: when, therefore, the house 
 of David again resumes the throne, in the person of Christ, 
 and forms a Jiflh general mo?iarchi/, then will every other rule 
 and authority cease, and men shall know that the Most High 
 ruleth over all. Rev. xx. 1 — 5. 
 
36 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 PERIOD VI. 
 
 From the Edict given to Ezra in the seventh year of Artaxerxes to 
 the Cleansing of the Sanctuary: 2300 years, from B. C. 457 to 
 A. D. 1843-4. 
 
 The Prophecy. — Dan. viii. 
 
 "Two thousand three hundred days," in this place, can only 
 mean a day for a year, or two thousand three hundred years. 
 At this period misfortune had gathered round the house of 
 Israel, and God was pleased to give them, through the instru- 
 mentality of Daniel, a variety of revelations, all reaching to the 
 period when a ierminatioTi was to be put to all these sufferings. 
 
 The present vision, under the symbols of a ram and he-goat, 
 gives a clear but concise history of the Persian and Grecian 
 monarchies (the Babylonian having been previously over- 
 thrown); and then, after naming the division of Alexander's 
 conquests amongst four of his generals, up to the "latter end" 
 of their kingdom, it leaves altogether unnoticed the Roman 
 Empire; and relates the history of that new power — the king- 
 dom founded by Mahomet which arose "out of," or "behind," 
 one of them. The conquests of Mahomet are accurately de- 
 scribed, Dan. viii. 9; and these limits have been remarkably 
 observed. 
 
 The object of this prophecy is two-fold: — first, to describe 
 the power that should be raised up to punish the apostacy of 
 the East, as Popery was raised up to be a scourge to that of 
 the West; and second, to describe this power as enduring for 
 a long period. History proves how accurately the description 
 has been drawn in verses 10 — 13. 
 
 Mahomet overthrew the altars of Jehovah. With the im- 
 pure pages of the Koran in one hand, and the sword in the 
 other, he established a religion and a kingdom, the ferocity of 
 which are fearfully represented under tlie Fifth and Sixth 
 Trumpets; which are emphatically denominated, from the 
 misery and ruin they brought upon the world, '^woe trumpets.'' 
 
 This horn now wanes to its very extinction; the Ottoman 
 power is but a shadow. "Then shall the sanctuary be cleans- 
 ed." Ezek. xxxvii. 2G— 28; xliii. 4, 7; Isa. Ix. 15, 18, 19. 
 
 With regard to the new temple that shall be built, it shall 
 exceed in glory all that have gone before it. God has also 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 37 
 
 given us an account of the ceremonial services which will be 
 observed in this new temple. Ezek. xliii. xliv. xlv. For I 
 believe the word of God should be interpreted literally, unless 
 there be a manifest impossibility that it should be otherwise. 
 These things may be again used, to have a retrospective, as they 
 formerly had a prospective, aspect to the great atoning sacri- 
 fice of Christ. Ps. li. 18, 19; Mai. iii. 4. Perhaps it will be a 
 commemorative service, in place of the Lord's Supper, which 
 was limited in its duration till the Lord's second coming. 
 This cleansing of the sanctuary will not be merely external. 
 Ezek. xxxvi. 24 — 27; xxxvii. 24 — 28. 
 
 The difficulty which has ever been experienced in regard to 
 the chronology of 2300 years is, when to fix its commencement. 
 It appears to me that it should be dated from one of those four 
 edicts of the kings of Persia already considered. The time 
 at which they were issued stands thus: 
 
 Edict of Cyrus . . - - 586 b.c. 
 Edict of Darius Hystaspes - 518 
 
 Edict of the 7th year of Artaxerxes 457 or 456 
 Edict of the 20th of ditto - - 444 
 2300 years calculated from each of these dates, will bring us 
 to A.D. 1764, 1782, 1843, 1856. The two former being past, 
 we are limited to the two edicts of Artaxerxes given to Ezra 
 and Nehemiah. As the commission given to Ezra is the event 
 from which the ^'Fourth Period," relating to the cleansing of 
 the same holy sanctuary, is dated, I give it the preference, as 
 that from which the commencement of these 2300 years ought 
 to be dated. 
 
 This also brings the termination to 1843 or 1844, the same 
 year in which the consummations of all the prophecies relative 
 to the deliverance, both of the Jewish and Christian churches, 
 centre. The final termination of the "seven times" was prov- 
 ed to correspond exactly to this year — that is, 2520 years reck- 
 oned from 677 or 676 B.C., the date of Israel's final ruin; and 
 2300 years reckoned from Ezra's commission, in 457 or 456 
 B. c, both terminate in 1843 or 1844. This, as it regards the 
 former, will bear to be expressed as the ejid of the times, or of 
 "time" (Rev. x. 6; see Dan. xii. 7); whilst that of the latter 
 is expressed as "the time op the end." Thus, even from 
 the peculiarity of expressions, the respective consummations 
 appear to be one and the same. 
 
38 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 PERIOD VII. 
 
 From the giving of the saints into the hands of the Papal horn, to 
 the inchoative full of that apostacy; and from the formation of 
 the te?i Papal kijigdoms, to their destruction: 12 GO years, from 
 A. D. 533 to 1793; and from A. D. 583 or 584 to 1843 or 
 1844. 
 
 The peculiarities in tliis period are, 
 
 I. It is presented under three distinct aspects, each aspect hav- 
 ing the chronology of 1260 years, expressed by a different 
 chronological term. 
 
 The first aspect exhibits Popery as it appears under the 
 actual dominion of the Pope himself; and that in three prophe- 
 cies, in each of which the duration is expressed by the term 
 of three times and a half. 
 
 The 1st Prophecy (Dan. vii. 27) is expressed as "a time, 
 times, and the dividing of time," and presents to our view the 
 rise, character, and actions of Popery under the emblem of a 
 little horn rising in the midst of the ten horns of the Western 
 Empire. 
 
 The 2d Prophecy is in Dan. xii. 7, "time, times, and a half;" 
 and identifies the fall of Popery with that of Mohammedanism, 
 or the "time of the end;" likewise with the rise and fall of In- 
 fidelity, with the deliverance of the Jewish nation, with an 
 unprecedented time of trouble, and with a partial resurrection 
 of the dead. 
 
 The 3d Prophecy is in Rev. xii. 14, "a time, times, and half 
 a time;" and shews the means which God had provided the 
 true church for its preservation during the awful period of the 
 dominion of the head of the Popish apostacy. 
 
 The SECOND ASPECT exhibits Popery as it appears under the 
 tyrannical dominion of the ten Papal kingdoms; and that in tzvo 
 distinct prophecies, in each of which the duration of 1260 
 years is expressed by the term "forty and two months." 
 
 The 1st Prophecy (Rev. xi. 2) names, under the symbol of 
 outer-court worshippers, that the visible church shall be given 
 during this long period into the hands of the Papists. 
 
 The 2d Prophecy (Rev. xiii. 5) particularly describes these 
 Papists, or "Gentiles," as forming the ten kingdoms of the 
 Western Roman empire. 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 39 
 
 The THIRD ASPECT exhibits Popery as it appears in the de- 
 pressed condition of the true church of Christ; and this likewise 
 in two prophecies, expressed by the chronological term of "one 
 thousand two hundred and threescore days." 
 
 The 1st Prophecy (Rev. xi. 3) describes the state of the true 
 church, under two distinct witnesses, as one of depression and 
 mourning. 
 
 The 2d Prophecy (Rev. xii. 6) describes a place of refuge 
 having been provided for the church during this its period of 
 depression. 
 
 II. The second peculiarity of this Period is, that it has three 
 durations, 1260, 1290, 1335 years (Dan. xii. 11, 12); which 
 will be considered under the Second Prophecy of the First 
 Aspect. 
 
 III. The third peculiarity is, that this Period has a double 
 commenceme?it and double corresponding termination. 
 
 The former six Periods have chiefly had a reference to the 
 Jews, or the Eastern Church: the present Great Period pro- 
 ceeds to describe the apostate power of the West. 
 
 riRST ASPECT. 
 
 First Prophecy — Dan. vii. 
 
 What is to be understood by Popery, may be found in 2 
 Thess. ii.; 1 Tim. iv. 1 — 3; Rev. xiii. 11 — 18. As the vision 
 which was the subject of the last Period was explained to con- 
 cern only the Empire of the East; so the present vision, after 
 running in the same channel until it arrives at the division of 
 Alexander's conquests, takes the direction of the West. 
 
 The application of the respective symbols of this vision to 
 the empires which they represent, is very striking — but the 
 vocabulary of nature had been exhausted to find out a monster 
 sufficiently horrible, the beast without a name being descriptive 
 of the rapacity, strength, and tyranny of ancient Rome. This 
 stupendous empire seemed destined to stand for ever. It was 
 Satan's proudest work, the citadel of his strength, when it 
 pleased God that He who was to destroy the works of the 
 arch-enemy of mankind should be born. 
 
 It is said, it had ten horns; and that these horns "are ten 
 kings that shall arise out of this kingdom." When the Roman 
 Empire had remained at its climax for two or three centuries, 
 
40 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 unexpectedly it was attacked by unknown barbarians, and crum- 
 bled in pieces. History details how exactly this prophecy was 
 fulfilled, in ten kingdoms being formed out of the proper ter- 
 ritorial limits of the fourth beast, or the empire of Rome. And 
 it was necessary, for the full accomplishment of other prophe- 
 cies, that this territorial division should be observed; for other- 
 wise the great image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, represent- 
 ing the four monarchies, could not be still standi?ig, as it 
 undoubtedly is, for it is not yet smitten to pieces by the stone. 
 
 These ten kingdoms are generally classed as follows: — 
 1. Ravenna; 2. Lombardy; 3. Rome — (which three form the 
 Papal States;) 4. Naples; 5. Sardinia; 6. France; 7. Austria; 
 8. Spain; 9. Portugal; 10. Britain; — although some persons 
 consider the number ten in this place indefinite, and only 
 intended to signify that they shall be always near this number. 
 
 As the Prophet was considering these ten divisions of the 
 Roman Empire, there came up in the midst of them a little 
 horn — the Papal dominion. It is first described as plucking 
 up three of the first kingdoms by the root — Ravenna, Lom- 
 bardy, and Rome — to which fact the Pope gives his sanction 
 by wearing a triple crou-n. He has two swords carried before 
 him, to mark both his temporal and spiritual dominion, de- 
 scribed in Revelations by his two lamb-like horns. It is said 
 further, that the Pope should have "eyes like the eyes of a 
 man, and a mouth speaking great things, and a look more stout 
 than his fellows." That is, that he should be a spiritual power, 
 "eyes" intimating a prophetic character. The Popes have 
 exercised undisputed tyranny, and have assumed the attributes 
 of Deity. 
 
 The Prophet adds, that the Papal power "should make war 
 with the saints, and prevail against them." It is natural that 
 this arch-deception, which keeps the Scriptures from the people, 
 and teaches its own traditions in their place — darkening the 
 beautiful simplicity of God's plan of salvation by the unscrip- 
 tural dogmas of purgatory, worship of saints and the Virgin 
 Mary, celibacy of clergy, the doctrine of human merit, prayers 
 for the dead, and other pernicious tenets — should persecute 
 those who maintained inviolate the holy principles of the 
 Gospel. Wherever the humble followers of the Saviour have 
 been found, there has the faggot, the sword, and every instru- 
 ment of torture and of death that bigotry and cruelty could 
 devise, been employed to induce them to renounce their faith 
 and join this apostate church. Though a veil as thick as mid- 
 night has been attempted to be thrown over the atrocities of 
 the Inquisition, enough has transpired to give some idda of 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 
 
 41 
 
 the dreadful scenes of suffering transacted within their dark 
 abodes. 
 
 The prophecy then names the length of time Popery waste 
 continue — 1260 years. 
 
 I feel no hesitation, with the majority of modern commen- 
 tators, in fixing as the commencement of this period the edict 
 of Justinian, a. d. 533. 
 
 1st. Because no other edict was of equal importance. 
 
 2d, Popery had attained real life, 
 
 3d, The church was in this year cleansed from the heresy 
 of Arianism, *'The earth," or the Roman empire, helped 
 "the woman," or the church, to escape from being over- 
 whelmed by the ''flood," in this very year 533, when Justinian, 
 in his zeal for orthodoxy, brought the Arian nations to utter ruin. 
 
 4th, As this great Period of 1260 years constitutes the latter 
 half of the complete period of 2520 years, or "seven times;" 
 so 533 being exactly the middle point between the first com- 
 mencement and first termination of this complete period — that 
 is, between b. c. 727 and a, d, 1793 — therefore the edict of 
 Justinian, issued this year, forming such middle point, must of 
 necessity be the true era from which to date the first or inchoa- 
 tive commencement of the reign of Popery, or the captivity of 
 the Christian church, 
 
 5th, This conclusion receives additional evidence from the 
 events of the French revolution which happened in 1793, when 
 Infidelity aimed a deadly blow at Popery, Though its power 
 was then shaken, it has been suffered to rise again for a time; 
 which rather confirms than invalidates the correctness of the 
 above reasoning. If the year 533 formed the first commence- 
 ment of Popery, and 1793 its first termination, it requires, in 
 order that the half period may fully harmonize with the full 
 period, that there should be a second commencement, and a 
 second and final termination; and that these should correspond 
 with those of the complete and full period. Accordingly, 
 as the middle point between the year b. c. 677 or 676, and the 
 year a, d, 1843, or 1844, is 5S3 or 584, this must in someway 
 have marked the full rise of Popery. 
 
 The force of the argument thus appears more clear. 
 
 B.C, 
 
 727 
 
 A.D, 
 
 533J 
 
 The events that 
 led to Israel's 
 final captivity. 
 
 The events that 
 led to the rise 
 of Popery. 
 
 I/ears 
 2520 
 
 1260 
 
 r 
 
 The events that 
 led to Israel's 
 restoration. 
 
 The events that 
 led to the fall 
 of Popery. 
 
 A.D, 
 
 1793 
 
 VOL. III. — 4 
 
42 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 ^'^' S Year of Israel's/ _-__ S Year of Israel's ,0^0 
 ^•^^^^ £ 1 • y 2520 < . .- 1843 
 
 677-6 J final ruin. t J restoration. 
 
 C ) C (-or 
 
 A.D. C The full rise of > „ C The downfall of I 1844 
 583-4 I Popery. 5 ^^^^ ^ Popery. J 
 
 Some event, therefore, marking a prophetical era, must have 
 happened in 583 or 584: and we find, accordingly, from the 
 best information which can be collected, that the last of the 
 ten Papal nations was established at this time; and likewise, 
 according to Bower, in his Lives of the Popes, that in the year 
 584 the Pope assumed the most characteristic and most potent 
 mark of his apostacy, — the Divine attribute of Infallibility. 
 
 The events which took place in the intervening fifty years, 
 from. 533 to 583-4, are mentioned by Gibbon as peculiarly 
 marked by comets, earthquakes, inundations, tempests, war, 
 pestilence, and famine. Chap, xliii., closing his history of the 
 reign of Justinian, which forms a striking comment on the 
 calamities of the Fourth Seal. 
 
 Second Prophecy. — Dan. xii. 
 
 This prophecy, from its importance, is called the ''great 
 visio?i/^ and relates to the Jews. It commences in the 10th 
 chapter, which forms an introduction to the historical events 
 that are related in the 11th and 12th chapters. 
 
 The 11th chapter particularly confines its details to the most 
 important epocha in the history of the Jews — namely, the per- 
 secutions o( their 7iation by Antiochus Epiphanes; and the rise, 
 exploits, and fall of that Infidel power which is to have such a 
 great and decisive influence in bringing about their restoration. 
 The chapter may be divided into three parts: the first thirty 
 verses relate to events connected with their nation as long as 
 they coiilmued a nation: the second part is contained in the next 
 five verses, and belongs to the ijUerregnum between the time of 
 their dispersion by the Romans and the occurrence of the events 
 that are to unite them as a people: and the third part, the 
 remaining ten verses, belongs to the time immediately pre- 
 ceding the close of the Gentile dispensation, and the termina- 
 tion of their long dispersion. 
 
 The 11th chapter commences with the first three kings of 
 Persia, — Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius Hystaspes; and a fourth, 
 Xerxes. The eight succeeding monarchs are passed over; and 
 the 3d and 4th verses describe Alexander's powerful empire, 
 and its fourfold division among his generals at his death. 
 
 Till ver. 30, are recorded various transactions connected with 
 Egypt and Syria, the two kingdoms between which Judea was 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 43 
 
 situated, and called here the kingdoms of the South and the 
 North. Verse 21 brings it to Antiochus Epiphanes, the greatest 
 enemy the Jews ever had; who, after being checked in Egypt 
 by the Romans, vented his rage on the Jews, plundering Jeru- 
 salem, and dedicating the temple to a heathen deity. God, in 
 this hour of distress, raised up the family of the Maccabees, who 
 roused the dormant energy of the whole nation, and restored 
 it to comparative prosperity for nearly 100 years. 
 
 Ver. 31 describes the Roman Empire as taking part against 
 them; and ver. 32 the general apostacy at this period under the 
 abominations of Popery. 
 
 Ver. 34. The church during this season of persecution is 
 permitted a breathing time, "a little help:" — and here I con- 
 sider it was that the Fourth Seal ended, and the Fifth was 
 opened — the time of the Reformation. 
 
 The remaining ten verses form the third division of this 
 chapter, and describe the rise and fall of the Infidel power of 
 the last times, immediately preparatory to the Lord's last signal 
 interposition in behalf of the Jews. 
 
 In order to their proper understanding, they should be studied 
 in connexion with the Revelation. Rev. xvii. represents this 
 Infidel power as the Western Roman Empire under the third 
 symbolical beast. 
 
 The first beast represented Pagan Rome, Rev. xii. 13; the 
 second beast. Papal Rome, Rev. xiii. 1; the third beast, Infidel 
 Rome, Rev. xvii. 3. This beast is represented as stipporti?ig 
 the Papacy, vers. 3 — 8; and all the earth shall zvonder when 
 it shall disappear, except "those whose names are written in 
 the book of life." 
 
 The seven heads, vers. 9 — 11, have a two-fold signification: 
 first, identifying the woman to be Rome on seven hills (see 
 ver. IS); and secondly, signifying "seven kings," or the seven 
 distinct forms of government which have existed in Rome since 
 its foundation. Five were fallen when the Apostle wrote — 
 "kings," "consuls," "dictators," "decemvirs," and "militar}^ 
 tribunes with consular authority." It is then said, "one is," 
 which was the sixth or imperial head, established b.c. 27, and 
 which subsisted at the time of the vision. After the death of 
 Theodosius the Great, his headship was divided into the Eastern 
 and Western branches. The Eastern fell in 1453, when Con- 
 stantinople was taken by the Turks. The Western ceased to 
 exist in 1806, when Francis II. of Austria was deprived of it 
 by Napoleon, who became the seventh or Infidel head, and who 
 was to "continue a short space," which ended in 1815, after 
 the battle of Waterloo. But this Infidel head is to re-appear 
 "and is to be" the eighth, "and is of the seven" — that is, is 
 
44 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 to be of one of the seven forms of government that have already 
 appeared. There is, therefore, yet to arise some other infidel 
 form of government — uncrowned! 
 
 We must now return to Daniel (xi. 36 — 39), who describes 
 this infidel power which can be no other than Napoleon, who, 
 as we have already seen, became the "seventh head." It seems 
 difficult to imagine in what other words the character, exploits, 
 and policy of this extraordinary individual could have been so 
 briefly, as well as so accurately, portrayed, as those which 
 were here used by the Holy Spirit, in predicting his appearance 
 above 2300 years before he was born. 
 
 In ver. 36, the length of time is given during which these 
 infidel principles should prosper — "till the indignation should 
 be accomplished." I consider the "indignation" here spoken 
 of, to be the accomplishment of God's indignation against the 
 Jews as a people, and its termination that of the "seven times," 
 or 2520 years of their dispersion. 
 
 Between the 39th and 40th verses there is evidently an inter- 
 vening space of time — it is the silence of the seventh seal, the 
 ceasing of the sixth trumpet, and the time of preparation for 
 the "great battle of God Almighty." It is, consequently, the 
 time of expectation — of, first, the sounding of the seventh 
 trumpet; secondly, of the great battle of Armageddon; and 
 thirdly, of the coming of Christ (Rev. xvi. 15). The 40th 
 verse, like the seventh trumpet and seventh vial, predicts a 
 destructive Northern invasion, which, like a "whirlwind," shall 
 root up the Western or Infidel nations. 
 
 Vers. 41 — 45 end with the great battle of Armageddon. 
 The King of the North, after having entered into the land of 
 Judea and overthrown many countries, shall pitch his tents in 
 the great plain of Armageddon, where "he shall come to his 
 end." "And at that time (Dan. xii. 1) shall Michael stand up, 
 the great Prince which standeth up for the children of thy 
 people, and there shall be trouble," &c. 
 
 At the close of the sixth vial — under which, be it remem- 
 bered, we are now living — the intimation of the Lord's coming 
 is thus given: "Behold, I come as a thief." In Rev. vii. the 
 elect of God are represented as being "sealed in their fore- 
 heads" for an especial deliverance, which deliverance is con- 
 nected with the great event mentioned in Dan. xii. 2, 3, which 
 should be literally understood. The 4th verse evidences that 
 the "time of the end" cannot be far distant. Till the French 
 Revolution, the prophecies were shut up and sealed: since that 
 time light has dawned upon the subject; and as the crisis draws 
 near clearer indications will, no doubt, be given of its approach. 
 There are yet two indications in the 4th ver. marking the 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 45 
 
 «'time of the end," — the improved facilities of conveyance to 
 all parts of the world, and the unexampled diffusion of knovv- 
 ledo-e. The "time of the end" and the termination of the 
 
 n 
 
 1260 years must be one and the same. 
 
 Ver. 7 expresses clearly that the two great events, the fall 
 of Popery and restoration of the Jews, are to happen at the 
 same lime. 
 
 Thus is the prediction of this cluster of wonders, from. xi. 35 
 to xii. 10, and all of which are to take place at the "time 
 of the end," begun and closed by the mention of a great 
 persecution. 
 
 This "great vision" closes with the important information 
 that the series of events which will commence at this period 
 of unprecedented wonders, will extend, in the first place, over 
 a period of thirty years, or to 1290 years; and subsequently to 
 1335 years, or seventy-five years onwards; when a season of 
 blessedness will commence, which is generally considered the 
 Millenniunti. 
 
 No intimation is given of the particulars of that series of 
 events which is to occupy the above space of seventy-five 
 years. It is likewise remarkable, that the same silence is 
 xprcssly observed with regard to the same series of events in 
 the 10th of Revelation. I allude to the seven ihunders, ver. 4. 
 These seven thunders relate to events which are to happen 
 during the seventy-five years, because both stand exactly in the 
 same position in regard to order of time (compare Dan. x. 5, 
 6, xii 7; with Rev. x, 1 — 6); consequently, the seventy-five 
 years and the seven thunders both commence at the end of 
 the 1260 years. 
 
 If it be asked, why is such an impenetrable veil thus thrown 
 over the deeply calamitous events which are destined to be 
 inflicted on the world; and why were not the seven thunders 
 allowed to be written, as well as seven seals, the seven trum- 
 pets, and the seven vials? the only answer we can give is, — 
 Because it will not concern the Lord's people, the disciples 
 of Jesus Christ, to have this information: otherwise it would 
 assuredly be given them. They will be taken from the reach 
 of all those troubles, as Noah was from the destruction of the 
 Deluge; Lot, from that of Sodom and Gomorrah; and the 
 Christians, from the evils of the siege of Jerusalem: see Joel 
 iii. 16, ii. 32; Heb. xii. 22; Rev. xiv. 1; Obad. 17; Ps. xlvi. 
 First, the Lord's people will be preserved (Matt. xxiv. 30, 31 
 —37; 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52; 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17). Secondly, the 
 children of Israel will be preserved (Jer. xxx. 5 — 9). 
 4* 
 
46 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 Third Prophecy — Rev. xii. 7 — 17. 
 
 The former part of this prophecy refers to the struggle 
 between Christianity and Heathenism; to the triumph of the 
 Gospel; and to the final expulsion of Paganism from the 
 Roman Empire. And it is over the victory thus obtained 
 that the church triumphant is called on to rejoice. As we 
 have seen, in considering the first four Seals, happiness did 
 not attend this conquest. Heresies, and particularly Arian- 
 ism, abounded; and then the awful apostacy of Popery. What 
 was left of the true church ultimately fled from sight "into the 
 wilderness," "where she is nourished for a time and times 
 and a half a time." The mention of this chronological period 
 in the very terms used by Daniel, appears to have been for 
 the express purpose of shewing that the persecution here 
 alluded to are those which the church was to experience under 
 the Papal dominion. (Dan. vii.) 
 
 The church, therefore, in its wilderness state, when driven 
 into the mountains and fastnesses of Piedmont, and only a 
 small remnant appeared to be left, having these prophecies, 
 had the strongest motives for faith and patience. The assur- 
 ance was given that this apostate power was only for an 
 appointed period. (Dan, vii. 22; Rev. xviii. 21, 24.) 
 
 SECOND ASPECT. 
 
 First Prophecy: Rev. xi. 1. 2. — Second Prophecy: Rev. xiii. 10, 11. 
 
 The first aspect under which this great Period of 1260 years 
 is presented to our view, refers to the apostacy of Popery itself. 
 The second aspect refers to the secular arm by which this 
 apostacy exercised its tyranny; the same duration being given 
 to both, under different terms. 
 
 I would remark, 1st, that from the position in which the 
 first of these two prophecies is placed — between the sixth and 
 seventh Trumpets — it affords another confirmation that the 
 1260 years end with the ceasing of the sixth, and before the 
 seventh and last Trumpet shall sound. 
 
 2d remark. That the nations who shall '<tread under foot" 
 the "holy city" are Gentiles, or Pagans; those who had re- 
 lapsed from the simplicity of the Gospel into a religion resem- 
 bling the ancient idolatry of the heathen. And this at once 
 identifies them as Papists. 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 47 
 
 3d remark. These "Gentiles" are further identified as the 
 Papal nations, by the length of time they are predicted to form 
 the professing church — forty and two months, or 1260 years. 
 
 The above remarks on the "First Prophecy" of this Second 
 Aspect under which Popery appears, afford a correct clue to 
 the interpretation of the "Second Prophecy," and enable us to 
 apply the particular description there given of a ten-horned 
 beast of the sea, to the "Gentiles, or Papal nations. And such 
 an application fully accords with every characteristic of the ten 
 kingdoms of the Western Roman Empire. 
 
 1. From this beast rising ow^ q/Me sea — that is, the agitated 
 state of the empire. 
 
 2. From its seven heads and ten horns, before named. 
 
 3. From these ten horns being crowned. 
 
 4. From its terrible nature and qualities. 
 
 5. From its great power. 
 
 • 6. From one of its heads being wounded to death. 
 
 7. From its having been the wonder and dread of the wovld, 
 especially during the Crusades. 
 
 8. From icS blasphemies. 
 
 9. Fro.n the chronological term here used. 
 
 10. From its persecutions. 
 
 11. From its most extensive dominion. 
 
 THIRD ASPECT. 
 
 Pirsl Prophecy: Rev. xi. 3 — 14. — Second Prophecy: Rev. xii. 1 — G. 
 
 First Propheci/. 
 
 The Lord's people form two distinct churches — the one with- 
 out the visible professing church, or totally unconnected with 
 the religion of the state; and the other within such visible pro- 
 fessing church, but free from its corruptions and abuses, or 
 otherwise sighing over them. They are said to consist of two 
 distinct witnesses, who are to bear their testimony to the faith 
 and love of Jesus, in a depressed and sorrowful condition, dur- 
 ing the whole of the tyrannical dominion of the Papacy and 
 the Papal kingdoms. Their symbols are two olive trees, and 
 .two candlesticks. 
 
 1st. Ever since the religion of Jesus Christ became united 
 with the powers of secular government, particularly since the 
 establishment of Popery, a church has existed separate ajid 
 distinct from such connection. The Albigenses and Waldenses 
 are instances. 
 
48 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 2d. Likewise a spiritual church was contained within the 
 pale of the Popish apostacy itself, composed of members of its 
 communion — men who were raised up from lime to time to 
 make a stand against and expose its corruptions, and who have 
 left good evidence of having held the faith in uprightness. 
 Since the Reformation, both in the Reformed and un-reformed 
 churches, the same two distinctive witnesses have continued to 
 exist, up to the present moment. Can we say the Lord hath 
 only one witnessing church in England, when we look to the 
 names of Romaine, Toplady, Scott, — Watts, Owen, and Dod- 
 dridge? 
 
 Verses 7 to 10 describe an overwhelming and general perse- 
 cution of the Lord's two witnesses, throughout the Western 
 world; which, it is said, is to last for three years and a half, 
 and which will be the fulfilment of the literal 1260 days, for 
 which some contend. The prediction is placed between the 
 sixth and seventh Trumpets; and at the end of the prophecy 
 it is said "the second woe is past;" or, that when this pro- 
 phecy ends, the second woe, or the Turkish empire will like- 
 wise end. It is further said to happen when the two witnesses 
 shall have Jinished their 1260 year's testimony, as it must in 
 this case form the last three years and a half of this period. 
 The twoivitnesses, I am persuaded, have never yet been slain; 
 but slain assuredly they will be. What is to be understood by 
 the two witnesses being killed, the exposure of their dead 
 bodies, their not being suffered to be buried, must be some- 
 thing to which a church can be subject, something which the 
 hand of man may have the power to inilict. It is probable it 
 will be a state of great tribulation and misery to the Lord's 
 people; a season of unprecedented persecution, and one in 
 which Infidelity will appear to have obtained a complele tri- 
 umph. 
 
 Verses 11, 12, predict that at the end of the three years and 
 half of this terrible persecution a most wonderful deliverance 
 shall be wrought in favour of the Lord's two witnessing 
 churches. At the moment when infidels shall imagine they 
 have overturned Cliristianity, the Spirit of life, it is said, will 
 enter into them; they will stand on their feet; great fear will 
 fall on all who shall see these things; and a great voice from 
 heaven will be heard, saying, "Come up hither;" when they 
 will, in the sight of their enemies, ascend up to heaven in a 
 cloud. Luke xxi. 24 — 27; Matt. xxv. 1 — 13, 
 
 The Prophet Elijah appears to have been an eminent and 
 remarkable type of these two witnesses (Luke iv. 25, 26; 1 
 Kings xiii. 9 — 16); teaching us that the supply of bread and 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 49 
 
 oil which His poor and despised church has received, in her 
 mournful and despised condition, has been the result of Sove- 
 reign, discriminating Mercy. This prophecy then says, that 
 at the time of this great interposition in favour of the Lord's 
 people there shall be a great revolution; that one of the ten 
 kingdoms of the Roman Empire shall fall ; and that in this fall 
 there will be great slaughter. Immediately after the kingdom 
 falls, the Turkish empire will cease and the seventh Trumpet 
 will sound. 
 
 Second Prophecy. 
 
 The vision opens with a representation of the true church, 
 as it appears under the Christian dispensation, "clothed with 
 the sun;" while the Jewish church, represented as the moon, 
 is under her feet; and on her head a "crown of twelve stars," 
 or the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. For forty weeks (the 
 time of gestation in women) or 280 years, the church struggled 
 with her enemies; till at length, about the year 313 or 314, in 
 the time of Constantine — that is, 280 years after the death of 
 Christ — his Kingshijj, or triumph over the powers of Pagan- 
 ism, burst on the astonished world: and this is what I conceive 
 by a man-child being born, ivho was to rule the world "with 
 a rod of iron." But Satan, personified by the Roman Empire, 
 after he had by many persecutions brought the truth very low, 
 stood ready, on this triumph being obtained, to destroy this 
 rule or kingship of Christ over the world, so soon as it should 
 be obtained. And he was successful: "And the child was 
 caught up to God and His throne," At length, however, after 
 the woman, or the true church, had been in her depressed con- 
 dition the appointed term of "a thousand two hundred and 
 three-score days," or 1260 years, that kingship over the na- 
 tions, maugre all opposition from Satan or the world, shall be 
 successfully and permanently resumed (Ps. ii, 9; Rev. xix. 15; 
 Ps. Ixii. 7 — 11). "And the seventh angel sounded, and there 
 were great voices in heaven, crying. The kingdoms of this 
 world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, 
 and he shall reign for ever and ever." 
 
50 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 PERIOD viir. 
 
 From the overthrow of the Eastern Roman Empire, to the dryivg- 
 up of the kingdom of Turkey; 391 years, from A.D. 1453 to 
 1844. 
 
 We have seen, in the consideration of the last three Periods, 
 that each terminates in the year 1843 or 1844. If we take the 
 death of Christ to have happened, as Sir Isaac Newton proves 
 it did, in the year 34, the latter will be the right year; for this 
 brings the commencement of the Fourth Period to the year 
 B. c. 456; and the 2300 years of the Sixth Period, reckoned 
 from it, will end in 1844, The respective dates of the above 
 Three Periods, will, in this case, stand thus: — 
 
 Period V. b.c. 67G — 2520 years, to a.d. 1844 
 Period VI. b.c. 456 — 2300 years, to a.d. 1844 
 Period VII. a.d. 584 — 1260 years, to a.d. 1844. 
 
 As if this cloud of evidence, however, was not sufficient, 
 and, as it would appear, with the view of drawing our atten- 
 tion still more intently upon the approaching great crisis, God 
 hath been pleased to give us another chronological prophecy; 
 one which affords, perhaps, the most clear and distinct corrobo- 
 ration of the correctness of the above conclusions of which 
 the subject will admit. For, in the first place, the date from 
 which it is to be reckoned is known even to a day, namely. 
 May 29, 1453; the prophecy itself is given with with unusual 
 precision, namely, "an hour, a day, a month, and a year," 
 which signifies (360 + 30+1=391) 391 years and a month; 
 and of all the present signs of the times, the consumption of 
 the Turkish Empire is the most distinct and unequivocal. 
 
 The taking of Constantinople by the Turks was at the time 
 above named, in 1453; and this, I conceive, is the only event 
 in the Turkish history from which this Period can be dated; 
 and for the following reasons: 
 
 1st. Because it is the only such event that bears the charac- 
 ter of a prophetical era — namely, as being one of surpassing 
 historical importance, one that has a special respect to the 
 afiairs of the church of Christ, one that produced a permanent 
 change in the political aspect of the Roman world, and one of 
 God's most severe judgments. 
 
 2d. Because, all the Trumpets being intended as judgments 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 51 
 
 upon the degenerate Christian church, the Turks before this 
 period fell upon that part of the Roman Empire not under 
 such jurisdiction, and therefore were no more the subject of 
 prophecy than were the great exploits of Hannibal or Tamerlane. 
 
 3d. Because no preceding event in the Turkish history 
 could be said to "kill men," that is, to cause the political 
 death of a part of the Roman Empire. 
 
 4th. Because in no preceding event was artillery used, yet 
 such is mentioned in this prophecy; and it is a great histori- 
 cal fact, that the use of this newly invented engine of destruc- 
 tion mainly contributed to the success of the Turks on this 
 occasion. 
 
 5th. Because the termination of this Period is to take place 
 immediately on the ascension of the two witnesses, which, if 
 the date be reckoned from this event, will be the case. (See 
 the Seventh Period.) 
 
 6th. Because, if reckoned from this event, it will end in 
 the same year as the 2300 years of the Sixth Period, which 
 has equally a reference to the existence of the Mohammedan 
 apostacy, and are thereby required to have one common ter- 
 mination. 
 
 I would merely add, that the very gradual extinction 'of 
 Turkey, expressed in propliecy by the terms "drying up," 
 and "broken without hand," appears to be for the express 
 purpose of a general warning to the world, similar to what the 
 building of the ark was to the antediluvian world; for there 
 are none who may not observe it; the prophecy is in all 
 respects clear and definite; and it exactly agrees with the 
 actual condition of the nation to which it refers, the influence 
 of Turkey being every where spoken of as at an end, and the 
 empire itself having only a nominal existence. Let believers, 
 then, be awake and alive to the all-important times which are 
 at hand; let them abandon every pre-conceived idea of the 
 future, not founded on the word of God and the clear light of 
 Divine prophecy; and, with their lamps trimmed and their 
 loins girt, let them, in humble resignation and joyful hope, be 
 prepared both for that tierce persecution, as well as for that 
 glorious exaltation, which is appointed for them; and which 
 are thus appointed to take place immediately preceding the 
 final extinction of this universally acknowledged expiring 
 empire. 
 
52 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 It will be perceived that I have taken it for granted that the 
 fate of Britain will be involved in that of the ten Papal king- 
 doms of the Western Roman Empire. There appears in the 
 Bible no exception whatever made in the denunciation of wide- 
 spread ruin and desolation coming upon the world, in favour of 
 any people, except the literal Israel, and a spiritual people typi- 
 fied in Rev. vii. by that nation. The Jews alone, as a nation, . 
 are to be restored to their own land. As it regards them, the 
 deliverance will be «a/i07«a/ (Jer. XXX. 11; Ixxi. 2S; xxix. 14): as 
 it regards believers, it will be iiidividual (Matt. xxiv. 31 , 40, 41.) 
 
 With respect to Britain it may be urged, that, in the fearful 
 trial which the nations of Europe passed through in the last 
 war, she was preserved; to this I reply, — 
 
 1st. The fatal link has since that time appeared, which has again 
 identified us as one of the ten Papal nations. — The bulwarks which 
 the piety of our forefathers set up against Popery, and which 
 it has often been thought had for ever dissevered England from 
 all connection with the Romish church, the Liberalism of the 
 present day has greatly demolished. In the Lord's dealings 
 with England, the warnings against that fatal apostacy have 
 been distinct and intelligible; for, whatever were the rank 
 which England as a nation obtained under a Protestant sove- 
 reign, it ahcaijs sank under a Popish; and let its loss of honour 
 or power be what it might under a Popish sovereign, it ahoays 
 recovered under a Protestant. 
 
 2d. Her identification as a great maritime power. And over 
 such a power, on the fall of the symbolical Babylon, a rejoic- 
 ing is represented to take place. Rev. xviii. 11 — 20. 
 
 3d. The present political aspect of England being in exact 
 accordance with the nature and order of the predicted and an- 
 ticipated judgments on the ten Papal nations — which is that of 
 Revolution (see Rev. xi, 13 — 19; xvi. 8) — furnishes another 
 argument against its probable preservation. 
 
 4th. Another argument, that looks with a lowering aspect on 
 
 . England, is, that, zcith such an awful state of things in prospect, 
 
 a great part of the unestahlished professing church should range 
 
 themselves on the side of Infdels, Heretics, and Papists, fof the 
 
 overthrozo of the Established Church. 
 
OF CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 53 
 
 5th. Another and powerful argument against the probable 
 preservation of England, in the fearful times that are approach- 
 ing, is the consideration of oicr arvfid ?iational si?is. 
 
 There is but one hope, and that is, the king and people of 
 England imitating the conduct of the king and people of Nine- 
 veh (Jon. iii. 5 — 9; Jer. xviii. 7, 8). 
 
 However, under all circumstances, "though the earth should 
 be removed, and the mountains cast into the midst of the sea," 
 yet the Lord's believing people have nothing to fear. By faith, 
 like the saints of old (Heb. xi.), they may realize the provision 
 which God hath made for their safety (Ezek. ix. and Rev. vii.), 
 and in this confidence "look for that blessed hope, and the 
 glorious appearing of the Great God and our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ" (Titus ii, 13). Let the fate of England be what it may, 
 their "groaning" (Rom. viii. 23) will soon be at an end; for 
 the time undoubtedly is now near at hand when "the redemp- 
 tion of the body" shall be experienced, and when these bodies 
 of our humiliation shall be fashioned like unto His own glori- 
 ous body. Well may the church, then, exult in the prospect 
 before her, of her complete and final deliverance from all her 
 enemies; and anticipate, with feelings of the highest delight, the 
 joyful annunciation "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!" Her 
 days of mourning and sorrow will then be at an end, and "God 
 himself will wipe away all tears from their eyes.*' Christ will 
 take unto himself his great power, "and reign with his saints 
 on the earth;" and the time be fully arrived, when the great 
 Jubilee of a thousand years, so beautifully and rapturously de- 
 scribed by Isaiah, and in the last chapters of the Revelation,^ 
 will commence. — 
 
 "O scenes surpassing fable, and yet true! 
 Scenes of accomplished bliss! which who can see, 
 Though but in distant prospect, and not feel 
 His soul refresh'd with foretaste of the joy'? 
 ***** 
 
 One song employs all nations; and all cry, 
 'Worthy the Lamb, for He was slain for us!" 
 The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks 
 Shout to each other, and the mountain tops 
 From distant mountains catch the flying joy; 
 Till, nation after nation taught the strain, 
 Earth rolls the rapturous Hosanna round. 
 Behold the measure of the promise fiU'd! 
 See Salem built, the labour of a God! 
 Bright as a sun the sacred city shines; 
 All kingdoms and all princes of the earth 
 Flock to that light; the glory of all lands 
 Flows into her; unbounded is her joy, 
 And endless her increase. * * * 
 Praise is in all her gates: upon her walls, 
 
 VOL. III. — 5 
 
54 STUDY OP CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY. 
 
 And in her streets, and in her spacious courts, 
 Is heard Salvation. 
 
 From every clime they come 
 To see thy beauty and to share thy joy, 
 O Sion! an assembly such as earth 
 Saw never, such as Heav'n stoops down to see." 
 
 COWPER. 
 
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