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 Accession No.C3bZv7t/J/ Clevis No. 
 

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 r0p]^ttir ^nqwirg. 
 
 BENJAMIN WILLS NEWTON. 
 
 Ei)ixii lElJttion donsiticralilg lEitlarsetf. 
 
 [TJWITW^SITT] 
 
 LONDON: 
 HOULSTON AND SONS, 
 
 9, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS. 
 

 i^z32>5 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 WERTHEIMER, LEA & CO., PRINTERS, 
 
 CIRCUS PLACE, LONDON WALL. 
 
hJiriVBRSITTj 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PAGE. 
 
 Introductory Observations / i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 No Poetic Exaggeration in Scripture .... 22 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Some Objections to the Doctrine of the Millennial Reign 
 
 considered 42 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 On Zechariah xii. and xiii 58 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 On Zechariah xiv 71 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Futurity of the Manifestation of Antichrist — his con- 
 nexion with Jerusalem 88 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Passages of Scripture respecting Antichrist compared. 115 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Thoughts on Matthew xxiv , 127 
 
lY CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. PAGE. 
 
 On Luke xxi 149. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Remarks on the Prophetic Statements of Mr. Fleming . 170- 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 The Prophetic System of Mr. Elliott and Dr. Cumming 
 
 considered 20a 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 Scriptural Proof of the First Resurrection . . . 274 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 Remarks on Bishop Wordsworth's Lectures on the 
 
 Apocalypse 310 
 
 CHAPTER XIV, 
 Remarks on Indefectibility 387 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Present Tendencies 4-4 
 
 Appendix 446- 
 
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 The first edition of this work was published in 
 1848. Each succeeding year has deepened my con- 
 viction of the certainty and momentous import- 
 ance of the truths feebly and imperfectly treated of 
 in it. 
 
 When the Eastern branch of the Roman Empire 
 shall have been resuscitated, and • when Egypt, 
 Assyria and Jerusalem, shall have become the 
 sphere in which those habits of thought and action 
 now cherished in the West shall have attained 
 the matured form of their development, the end 
 will be very nigh. The very persons, places, and 
 circumstances of which the Prophets and the Re- 
 velation speak, will then be actually present before 
 the eyes of men. 
 
 At present, however, we must not delude our- 
 selves with the hope that much attention will be 
 by any bestowed on these things. 
 
 It is a time of restless activity, when men, and 
 even Christians, are absorbed in pursuing their own 
 schemes. Impatient of direction and control, they 
 like to act unrestrainedly; and are very indis- 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 posed to accept principles that would check many a 
 cherished plan, and blight many a hope. 
 
 There is no part of God's Word that we are 
 more prone to repudiate than His prophetic testi- 
 m-ony. It reveals the extent of our departure from 
 His ways ; it declares His coming judgments ; it 
 reveals the manner in which His kingdom when it 
 comes, will subvert the methods and constructions 
 of men. 
 
 Nor is there any light that Satan dreads more 
 than the light of Prophetic Truth. It is truly a 
 light that shineth in a dark place. He has kindled 
 many fires to illumine this darkness, and has de- 
 ceived m.en into the belief that the fires thus 
 kindled from the pit have been kindled of God. 
 He fears the effect that would be produced by an 
 awakenment to this dread delusion. 
 
 For sixteen hundred years and more, Christen- 
 dom has been deceived into the belief that the 
 present period, in which Satan as the /coa/jLofcpaTcof> 
 sways the nations, is the period when Christ and 
 the saints are reigning. The Teachers of Chris- 
 tendom, age after age, have taught that this is so. 
 It is a doctrine so contrary to all that fact and 
 conscience teach, that it has already prepared 
 many hearts for Scepticism, and will yet prepare 
 many more. Yet it is a doctrine that has by no 
 means ceased to operate, and is by many, who hold 
 high and influential positions, still vigorously main- 
 tained. 
 
PREFACE. Vii 
 
 The danger of this doctrine is by few adequately- 
 apprehended. I have, therefore, at the suggestion 
 of a valued friend, added to this volume some re- 
 marks on Lectures on the Apocalypse delivered by 
 the present Bishop of Lincoln, before the Univer- 
 sity of Cambridge. Mis doctrine respecting the 
 reign of Christ and of His saints is not peculiar. 
 It has been the standard doctrine of Christendom 
 from the second century to the present hour. They 
 who have been delivered from it, and who, when 
 freed, have turned not to Scepticism but to the 
 Bible, cannot be too thankful for the mercy of 
 their deliverance. Statesmen, as well as ecclesias- 
 tics, have been for ages a prey to the deluding 
 notion that there is, at present in the earth, a body 
 of which it can be said that its "foundation is in 
 the holy mountains," and that this body is ap- 
 pointed and commissioned by God to rule all na- 
 tions. I have added some remarks on this subject 
 also. Few are aware of the manner in which 
 strong minds may become fascinated and spell- 
 bound by this thought; and how it has operated 
 silently but potently in bringing about that condi- 
 tion of things in which England now finds itself 
 involved. 
 
 There is not, I suppose, in Europe one God- 
 fearing person who does not contemplate with 
 awe the present condition of the nations. Never 
 did men more need laws, government, and authori- 
 tative control, and yet never was self-will more 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 insolently active. The authority, and often the 
 existence of God, is being very extensively denied ; 
 and even our once favoured land has consented to 
 say, that " civil duty should be separated from 
 religious Truth." Our great legislative Assembly 
 has branded that motto on its brow. Is not this 
 an abandonment of God? What must be the re- 
 sult? Disorganisation and confusion — a confusion 
 that would, if God were not to interfere, become 
 the confusion of hell. Paris once afforded an ex- 
 ample of this. Give to men increased freedom of 
 action ; puff them up with a vain conceit of their 
 own dignity and power ; destroy the distinctions 
 which God has appointed in human society ; honour 
 and patronise those wdio take from men the fear 
 of a judgment to come, and who say that the 
 Bible is not to be confided in ; that there is no 
 certain Truth ; that there is no eternal punishment ; 
 no Heaven ; no Hell ; no Devil ; no God ; and then 
 trust to moral suasion and the natural intelligence 
 and goodness and improveability of man's heart to 
 supply the means whereby order shall be preserved, 
 and government maintained — what would be the 
 result? Demoniacal confusion. 
 
 It is true indeed that God will not wholly aban- 
 don the earth either to man or to Satan. He can 
 preserve order by raising up rulers who will rule 
 with a sceptre of iron, and scourge with scorpions. 
 The Scripture speaks of the bonds of society be- 
 comins:' so relaxed that men are made like " fishes 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 • 
 
 of the sea," like " creeping things that have no 
 ruler over them/' but it speaks also of a drag-net 
 being prepared in which these fishes shall be caught, 
 and controlled ; and the hand that will hold and 
 use that net is the hand of that King for whom 
 "Tophet is prepared." Is it not meet that those 
 nations which have abandoned God should be de- 
 livered over to that King to whom the Dragon shall 
 give his power, and throne, and great authority ; 
 and who will have power to crush, and will crush, 
 all who refuse to honour and worship kwi? 
 
 We may despise the warnings of God, and fold 
 our arms, and say complacently — " Magna est Veri- 
 tas et praevalebit." Truth will not prevail till that 
 whirlwind, whereof God speaks, shall have gone 
 forth and swept away every refuge of lies and 
 every false hiding place. We have to watch now, 
 not for the growth and progress of Truth, but for 
 the growth and progress of Satan's last great lie. 
 
 The concluding chapters of the book which I 
 preface with these remarks, touch upon these sub- 
 jects in connexion with events which are now 
 occurring amongst ourselves. The servants of God 
 are not to be politicians. They are priests of 
 God's sanctuary. But the priests' lips are to keep 
 knowledge: they are to separate between the clean 
 and the unclean, the precious and the vile. They 
 are to watch the signs of the times ; to see where 
 evil and danger lurk, and to use every opportunity 
 that occurs of warning all men, whether governors 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 or slaves, princes or peasants. Paul's relation to 
 Agrippa may guide us as to this. God sees a 
 difference between governors and nations that "kiss," 
 or do obeisance to the Son, and others who say 
 of Jehovah and of Christ, "Let us break their 
 bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." 
 A time will come when some, whom God calls 
 ^^ understanding ones," will be raised up who shall 
 speak of these things more wisely and more holily 
 than any of us can speak of them now. Much 
 darkness, and many sorrows will, I believe, over- 
 take, and well nigh overwhelm the Church of God, 
 before the time of that final testimony comes, for 
 at present the Church of God is grievously turning 
 away from the Word of God, and despising the 
 very light which He has sent to guide them at 
 this peculiar crisis of the Church's and the world's 
 history. We never more needed holy separateness. 
 ■"Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord." 
 ^^ Touch not the unclean thing." I often think of 
 the words, " It is of the Lord's mercies that we are 
 not consumed, because His compassions fail not" 
 We are little aware of the extent to which we 
 have trifled with, or else ignored, the revealed truths 
 of God's Word. 
 
 February^ 1881. 
 
iU«ji v'BESITT] 
 
 Aids to Prophetic Enqitiry. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 There are few periods in the history of the 
 world that have been marked by deeper spiritual 
 darkness than the commencing part of the eigh- 
 teenth century. From 1700 to 1750, Protestantism 
 seemed to have lapsed into lifeless formality — 
 and this, together with the matured abominations 
 of Popery, opened the way for that tide of infi- 
 delity, of which the French Revolution was the 
 manifested result. 
 
 The latter part of the eighteenth century how- 
 ever, was, through the Lord's great mercy, marked 
 by a very decided revival of evangelical truth. 
 The effect of the writings and preaching of Whit- 
 field, Romaine, Newton and others, was widely 
 felt in Europe and in America ; the simple mes- 
 sage of salvation by grace through faith being 
 received by many : and thus the very era in 
 which Revolutionary Infidelity assumed its posi- 
 
 i 
 
2 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 tion of strength, was marked also by a renovation 
 of truth, the effects of which will doubtless be 
 discernible throughout the closing period of Anti- 
 christian evil. 
 
 The result of the evangelical testimony, to which 
 I have referred, was seen in the commencement 
 of the nineteenth century, in a widely-diffused de- 
 sire to spread the knowledge of the Gospel. The 
 Bible Society, as well as the chief Missionary 
 Societies, date from the commencement of the 
 present century, and in many instances were 
 doubtless the result of a sincere desire, in the 
 individuals who founded them, of promulgating 
 truths which they had personally experienced to 
 be precious. In order to stimulate missionary 
 exertion, the Prophets of the Old Testament were 
 appealed to. The time when creation shall cease 
 from its groan, and the lion feed with the kid, 
 and nations learn war no more, and the earth be 
 full of the knowledge of the Lord, was said to be 
 the sure result of that Gospel testimony which 
 was being sent forth among the nations — a con- 
 clusion hastily indeed and erroneously formed ; 
 but God has mercy on ignorance when it is ad- 
 vancing out of darkness into light. More light 
 therefore was given. The Prophetic Scriptures 
 after having been once appealed to, were more 
 continually used, and knowledge gradually in- 
 creased. 
 
 The direction, however, of missionary effort to- 
 
Of TBM >r^ 
 
 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 3 
 
 wards THE JEWS, may be regarded as the chief 
 cause of the advance made in prophetic truth. It 
 would seem as though efforts spiritually to aid 
 that people were peculiarly acceptable to God, 
 even as He has said, " Blessed is he that blesseth 
 thee." (Num. xxiv. 9.) The attempt to evangelize 
 the Jews, necessitated a more frequent and more 
 intelligent use of the 0/d Testament. The pro- 
 spects of the Jews, as revealed in the Prophets, 
 were more carefully enquired into ; and it was 
 soon discovered that on them and their repent- 
 ance the blessing of the Earth at large was made 
 instrumentally dependant : that it was therefore 
 vain to expect the universal conversion of the 
 nations, or the establishment of the reign of 
 peace, until Israel should first "convert and be 
 healed." It is the converted remnant of Jacob 
 that is to be " in the midst of many peoples as a 
 dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, 
 that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons 
 of men." (Mic. v. 7.) Ethiopia will not "stretch 
 out her hands unto God," until Israel, long de- 
 filed, shall have become "as the wings of a dove 
 covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow 
 gold." God will ^rsl bless Israel, and afterwards 
 " all the ends of the earth shall fear Him." 
 
 But even when this important truth had been 
 recognised, it was still imagined that Israel was 
 to be converted by the instrumentality of the Gen- 
 tiles, from whom it was said the Jews nationally 
 
 B 2 
 
4 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 were to receive the Gospel — and a wrong transla- 
 tion of the 31st verse in the eleventh of Romans 
 confirmed the delusion.* Gradually, however, it 
 was discerned that the Gentile Churches were not 
 to be made the means of converting the Jews — 
 indeed that Israel, nationally, would, to the last, 
 resist the Gospel as now preached in weakness^ 
 and would only bow to it and believe when sud- 
 denly confronted, like St. Paul in his blasphemy, 
 by the visible glory of the Lord from Heaven. 
 This indeed was an advance of unspeakable im- 
 portance in the knowledge of Scripture. The Ad-^ 
 vent of the Lord Jesus in glory, was now recog- 
 nised as the alone means appointed of God for 
 the introduction of the Millennium ; and it was 
 clearly seen, that not only the conversion of Israel, 
 but the binding of Satan, and the release of crea- 
 tion from its groan, were made dependent upon 
 agency entirely different from any which God had 
 connected with the suffering period of His 
 Church's testimony. Indeed, no moral instrumen- 
 tality such as the preaching of the Gospel, could 
 
 ■^ The passage literally translated is as follows : — " For the 
 gifts and calling of God are unrepented of. For as ye in 
 times past disobeyed God, but now have obtained mercy by 
 means of their disobedience : so these also have now dis- 
 obeyed the mercy possessed by you, {i.e.^ the Gospel,) that 
 they also might become objects of mercy. For God hath 
 shut up the whole in disobedience, that He might have 
 mercy upon the whole." 
 
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. S 
 
 either bind Satan, or raise the bodies of the saints 
 who sleep. Both these things must be the result 
 of manifested almighty power, and both, accord- 
 ing to the arrangements of God, are made precur- 
 sors of the Millennial reign.^ 
 
 The eleventh and foitrteenth chapters of Zecha- 
 riah — the third of Joel^ and the last of Isaiah, were 
 among the passages appealed to, as clearly reveal- 
 ing that the manifestation of Christ in glory was 
 to precede the conversion of Jerusalem, and the 
 subsequent blessing of the Earth. The last chap- 
 ter of Zechariah, after describing the day of the 
 Lord's visitation on Jerusalem, says, " His feet 
 shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives; 
 ■)«■ ^ ^ ^ \}^^ Lord my God shall come, and all 
 the saints with Thee ; ^ ^ •5^' -s^- in that DAY liv- 
 ing waters shall go forth from Jerusalem, -^ ^ -^ 
 and the Lord shall be king over all the Earth ; 
 -X ^ -K- IN THAT DAY shall there be one Lord, and 
 His name one." Joel speaking of the same period of 
 
 ■^ Thus in the last verse of the 26th of Isaiah, it is said, 
 "Behold the Lord cometh oict of His place to punish the 
 inhabitants of the Earth for their iniquity'' — in the next 
 verse Satan is described as smitten ; after which it is said, 
 " Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world 
 with fruit.'' 
 
 The same order of events is given in the nineteenth and 
 twentieth chapters of Revelation ; viz., Antichrist and the 
 kings under him, smitten by Christ and His saints mani- 
 fested in glory — Satan bound — Christ and the saints 
 
O AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 visitation, says : " The sun and the moon shall be 
 darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shin- 
 ing. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and 
 utter His voice from Jerusalem ; and the heavens 
 and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be 
 the hope of His people, and the strength of the 
 children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am 
 the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, My holy 
 mountain : then shall Jerusalem be holy, and 
 there shall no strangers pass through her any 
 more." No one can doubt, after receiving the tes- 
 timony of these passages, that the manifestation of 
 the Lord in glory must precede the conversion of 
 Jerusalem, and the reign of peace over the nations."^" 
 
 ^ It should perhaps be mentioned, that just at this period, 
 the progress of Prophetic Enquiry was greatly interrupted 
 by the rise of Irvingism. Many who were involved in that 
 heresy had become identified in general estimation with pro- 
 phetic enquiry ; and thus many were stumbled and driven 
 back in alarm from the pursuit of a subject which seemed 
 to involve such evil consequences. 
 
 They who teach on prophetic subjects cannot too carefully 
 remember that the foundation truths of our holy faith (such, 
 for example, as are given in the first eighteen Articles of 
 the Church of England) are to be regarded as settled for 
 ever. The Eternity and true Divinity of the Son of God — 
 the doctrine of the Holy Trinity — the union of the Divine 
 and human natures in the Person of Christ — the sinlessness 
 and perfectness of all His experiences in the flesh — the com- 
 plete and finished satisfaction made for all His beHeving 
 people by His vicarious death upon the Cross, and the doc- 
 trine of justification by faith through grace, are holy and: 
 
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. J 
 
 The pre-millennial Advent of the Lord, when thus 
 recognised and connected with the hopes which 
 the Scriptures reveal as specially belonging to the 
 
 unalterable truths, the rejection of which unfits for further 
 instruction in the word of God. 
 
 It should be remembered however, that Mr. Irving and 
 those who followed him must on the whole be regarded as 
 stern opposers of that particular use of Prophetic Truth 
 which has since been found of such value. They were 
 quite willing to condemn certain ecclesiastical systems to 
 which they did not themselves belong ; but they were not 
 willing to let the light of prophecy fall upon the secular as 
 w^ell as the ecclesiastical systems around them. They were 
 not willing that the nations governmentally should be viewed 
 as " Beasts," and they shrunk from the practical consequences 
 which such an acknowledgment would involve. Accordingly, 
 few have done more than they to darken the testimonies 
 both of Daniel and the Revelation. 
 
 In the earlier part of their career, they allowed that the 
 millennial promises respecting Jerusalem and Israel were to 
 be understood of Jerusalem and Israel, and that they were 
 not to be appropriated to the Gentile Church, or any part 
 of the Gentile Church, of the present dispensation ; but as 
 soon as they fell into the depth of their delusion, they for- 
 sook their former statements, and their pretended prophets 
 began habitually to interpret Millennial Scripture of them- 
 selves — the object being to appropriate to themselves that 
 place of supremacy in the earth which the Scripture reserves 
 for converted Israel in the Millennium. 
 
 It is remarkable too, that Puseyism, which arose just at 
 the same time as Irvingism, equally assailed the truth that 
 "the gifts and calling of God are unrepented of" — and 
 laboured to show that Israel nationally have forfeited their 
 blessings for ever, and that consequently, those blessings 
 
S AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 suffering family of faith, became, to many, the one 
 absorbing thought in connection with prophecy ; and 
 they so lingered in it, that after a little, they con- 
 tracted a dislike to all further prophetic investi- 
 gation. They seemed to forget, that attention to 
 signs predicted in the word of God is a duty ; and 
 that it is the prescribed means to that watchful- 
 ness which should characterise the servants of 
 Christ at His appearing. Others, however, were led 
 to continue their examination into prophetic Scrip- 
 ture, especially in connection with the prospects of 
 Israel. It was soon found that there was a period 
 in Israel's future history largely described in Scrip- 
 ture which had been entirely overlooked, even by 
 those who had received the testimony to their 
 Millennial glory, I mean, the period when they will 
 again return in unbelief to their own Land, and 
 there, under Antichrist, enter into their last great 
 rebellion against God. 
 
 Antichristianism had been a subject on which 
 
 have been made over to the Gentile Church. These two 
 most evil systems acted upon a different class of minds, 
 but the minds on which they acted resembled one another r 
 in this, that they were very proud, and anxious to gratify 
 their pride by exalting themselves ecclesiastically. Hence 
 the appropriation to themselves of the Millennial position of 
 Israel. They wished " to reign as kings " before the time. 
 They wished that "kings should be their nursing fathers, 
 and their queens their nursing mothers." Romanism has 
 ever coveted this. 
 
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 9 
 
 the minds of Protestant Christians had often dwelt ; 
 but they had not connected it with Jerusalem, nor 
 determined with sufficient care its characteristic 
 features. In a word, they had not derived their 
 thoughts respecting it simply from the Scripture. 
 And even now, when the blasphemous infidelity of 
 the French Revolution, as well as the more dis- 
 guised Infidelity elsewhere apparent, has given 
 living evidence that there may be something more 
 terrible even than Popery itself, yet great re- 
 luctance has been shown to receive the history of 
 Antichristianism as given in the word of God. 
 Efforts are still being made to represent Anti- 
 christianism as limited to the comparatively narrow 
 circle of Popery ; and Daniel and the Revelation 
 are still interpreted by many as if Jerusalem and 
 Israel were entirely unconnected with the great 
 consummation of evil in the latter day. 
 
 But as soon as it is distinctly seen m Daniel, 
 that at the " time of the end " when the Divine 
 indignation against Jerusalem is being " accom- 
 plished," there is a king to arise, who, doing m all 
 things according to his will, is to glorify himself 
 on the glorious holy mountain. Mount Zion ; and 
 is afterward to be destroyed at the time when 
 Michael stands up to deliver Israel ; it is evident, 
 that if the prophetic parts of the New Testament, 
 have been interpreted so as to omit this great 
 concluding fact, such interpretation must have been 
 emphatically wrong. The prophecies of the New 
 
lO AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Testament cannot be interpreted in opposition to 
 those of the Old. If the Old Testament has 
 elaborately given the history of the last great 
 Head of the Gentiles, and connected it with Jeru- 
 salem, its testimonies cannot be nullified by any 
 thing revealed in the New Testament. And when 
 we remember that the Disciples, to whom the 
 prophecies of the New Testament were given, were 
 Jews, that they were already acquainted with the 
 Prophets, and that the prophecies of the New 
 Testament are professedly supplemental to those 
 already given in the Old (for Jesus came not to de- 
 stroy the previous testim.onies of God), we can easily 
 see the importance of receiving the instructions of 
 the Prophets, if we wish to apprehend the additional 
 lessons of the Apostles. Accordingly, one of the 
 most important consequences that has flowed from 
 the examination of the Old Testament Scriptures is 
 this, that it has necessitated a change in the habit 
 of interpreting the Book of Revelation, because the 
 system of interpretation that has in modern times 
 prevailed, leaves no room for the accomplishment 
 of the events declared in the Old Testament 
 Prophets as yet to occur in Jerusalem. 
 
 Another consequence that followed the examina- 
 tion of the Old Testam.ent Prophecies was the 
 discovery that all historic detail"^ in Prophetic 
 
 ■^ By " historic detail " is meant, all mention of localities, 
 dates, personages, and the like. When Jerusalem ceased to 
 have a national existence, all such detail was suspended. 
 
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. II 
 
 Scripture is suspended, as soon as the narrative 
 reaches the point at which Jerusalem ceases to 
 hold a national existence in the Earth — that is, 
 when it was desolated by the Romans, eighteen 
 hundred years ago : and the detail is not resumed, 
 until Israel again becomes possessed of a recog- 
 nised national position ; which will not be, until 
 after they have returned to their own Land in 
 unbelief, and have entered upon the last season of 
 Antichristian abomination. Thus the many at- 
 tempts that have been so laboriously made to find 
 a thread of prophetic fulfilment throughout the past 
 eighteen hundred years, have been found to be as 
 wrong in principle as they have been unsatisfac- 
 tory in result. The facts of prophetic history are 
 made by Scripture to revolve around Jerusalem as 
 their centre — and therefore any system of inter-^ 
 pretation which violates this cardinal principle will 
 soon find itself lost in inconsistency. 
 
 There has also been, i)ot unfrequently, great 
 inattention to the mode in which Prophetic Scrip- 
 ture, and indeed all Scripture is written. It is 
 often read consecutively, as if the several chapters 
 or visions, as they proceed, must necessarily follow 
 each other as to time. It is forgotten that in all 
 instruction, especially in narration, whenever the 
 subject of instruction has various ramifications, it 
 is necessary to recur several times to the same 
 point, and to retrace; otherwise all the various 
 features of the subject cannot be fully and dis-- 
 
12 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 tinctly given. Thus the first chapter of Genesis 
 concludes with the day on which God rested from 
 His work, when all was finished ; but the second 
 chapter, instead of being- chronologically consecu- 
 tive, returns to the period described in the 
 preceding chapter, and narrates the manner of the 
 creation of Eve. So also in Isaiah. The first 
 chapter leads us through the whole scene of Israel's 
 evil on to the hour of God's millennial interference, 
 when " He will turn His hand upon them, and 
 purely purge away their dross and take away all 
 their tin, when He will restore their judges as at 
 the first, and their counsellors as at the beginning." 
 The subsequent chapters, therefore, necessarily 
 retrace. So likewise in the Book of Daniel. The 
 first vision, which is that of the Image, leads us 
 on to the time when the Image is smitten — ground 
 to powder, and the Stone that smites it becomes 
 a great mountain and fills the whole Earth. No 
 subsequent vision goes beyond this limit. They 
 all retrace and develop other features belonging to 
 the same period. The Book of Revelation is 
 written on the same principle. The sixth chapter, 
 which, speaking strictly, is the first of the series 
 of prophetic visions, brings us to that final hour 
 when men shall tremble and wail, because the 
 great day of the Lamb's wrath will have come. 
 The other visions on to the nineteenth chapter do 
 but retrace y until the end of the nineteenth chapter 
 describes the manifestation of the Lord in the day 
 
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 1 3 
 
 of His wrath. Yet the Revelation has not un- 
 frequently been expounded, as if each vision 
 followed in order of time that which had preceded. 
 Hence hopeless perplexity has been the result. 
 
 Another principle of arrangement equally impor- 
 tant to be remembered is this : that the final event of 
 blessing (for blessing is the ultimate object of God in 
 all His dealings with His people) is frequently men- 
 tioned Jirst, before the evil or sorrow is pourtrayed 
 through which that blessing is to be reached. 
 The second chapter of Isaiah affords an example 
 of this. The first part of that chapter describes 
 Israel's Millennial blessing, when '^the mountain 
 of the Lord's house shall be established in the 
 top of the mountains, and all nations shall flow 
 unto it, when nation shall not lift up sword against 
 nation, neither shall they learn war any more." 
 After the chapter has thus described the final 
 blessing, it suddenly turns to the day of Israel's 
 iniquity and transgression, and describes the com- 
 ing of the Day of the Lor4 which is to precede 
 and usher in the Millennial rest. The sixth chap- 
 ter of the Revelation affords a similar instance. 
 The first verses describe the Millennial triumphs of 
 the Lord going forth conquering and to conquer ; 
 the rest of the chapter describes the preceding 
 judgments that are to usher in the Day of His 
 appearing. The like may be said of all the suc- 
 ceeding visions in the Revelation ; they each begin 
 by first recording some memorial of the scene of 
 
14 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 final triumph, before they speak of the evil and 
 judgment that are to precede. 
 
 It is also necessary to distinguish very carefully 
 between the different periods of man's history as 
 given in the Scripture. They are five in number. 
 The last of these periods is an unchanged condition 
 of eternal blessing; but each of the other four is 
 terminated by a direct interference of God in 
 judgment. 
 
 The first of these periods extends from the Crea- 
 tion to the Fall. It was terminated by the ex- 
 clusion of Man from Paradise. 
 
 The second extends from the Fall to the 
 Flood. 
 
 The third extends from the Flood to the Second 
 Coming of the Lord Jesus, when God will again 
 interfere as at the Flood, to arrest the progress 
 of human things by an act of judgment. 
 
 The fourth is the Millennial period, which will 
 be marked by a general rebellion of nations at 
 the close : met by a final act of God in judg- 
 ment. Here the history of the Adamic earth 
 ends. 
 
 The fifth period is everlasting, and commences 
 by the creation of the New Heavens and New 
 Earth wherein righteousness is to dwe//. 
 
 Due discrimination between these periods is of 
 the last importance in reading the Scripture. If 
 we were to apply to the present condition of 
 human life the principles which were once true of 
 
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 1 5 
 
 man in Paradise, who would not instantly detect 
 the falsehood ? But the error is scarcely less, if 
 we fail to discriminate between the condition of 
 human life in the Millennium and its condition 
 now. In the Millennium, Satan is to be bound — 
 Christ and His truth to be supreme — Israel con- 
 verted, and made a national witness for God — the 
 nations, minutely regulated by the governmental 
 power of Christ. To confound such a period with 
 one that is carefully and designedly marked in 
 the word of God by characteristics the very oppo- 
 site to these, is an error scarcely less delusive 
 than to suppose that man is now in Paradise. 
 Yet this mistake has been continually made in 
 the exposition of Scripture. How constantly, for 
 example, are Israel's triumphant Psalms, which they 
 will sing in the Millennium, used as if they were 
 strictly applicable to the condition of humanity 
 now. Men are asked to believe that the world, 
 and all that dwell therein should now rejoice be- 
 fore the Lord, because He has arisen to help all 
 the meek upon earth (Ps. xxxvii. 2), because He 
 is judging the world with righteousness, and the 
 peoples with equity (Ps. xcvi. and xcviii.), because 
 He is opening His hand and satisfying the desire 
 of every living thing (Ps. cxlv. 16), because He 
 hath remembered His mercy and His truth toward 
 the house of Israel, and all the ends of the earth 
 have seen the salvation of God. (Ps. xcviii. 3.) 
 This, according to the present use that is made of 
 
1 6 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Scripture, is v/hat men are asked to believe. But 
 all is a delusion. Reverse the picture, and you 
 have the truth. Satan is the god of this world, 
 the ruler of the darkness of this present age — 
 meekness is crushed — righteousness oppressed — 
 Israel scattered — " darkness covering the earth, and 
 gross darkness the peoples," and m.en are obliged 
 to hear and respond to the groan of creation. 
 
 Nothing can be more disastrous than the effect 
 produced on unconverted minds, especially if dis- 
 contented or tending to infidelity, by telling them 
 that they ought to rejoice in the present arrange- 
 ments of human things. To teach men when 
 smarting under oppression, or misgovernment, or 
 penury, or some unrecognised presence of Satan's 
 power, that all is proceeding rightly under the 
 hand of God, is to mock their misery, and to de- 
 lude them with a lie. It misrepresents the charac- 
 ter of God, and teaches them to mistake the sel- 
 fishness of man, or the cruelty of Satan, for the 
 graciousness and goodness of God. God has not 
 said that all things are proceeding rightly, or that 
 they are progressing according to His will. On 
 the contrary. He tells us, that " all the foundations 
 of the earth are out of course :" that " pride hath 
 budded," and is bringing forth its fruits, and that 
 iniquity is for a season to occupy the high places 
 of the authority of earth. Let us tell men this : 
 let us tell them that God is displeased with the 
 present arrangements of the Earth ; that He is 
 
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. I/ 
 
 grieved at the abounding misery, and will soon in- 
 terfere " with mighty hand, and with an out- 
 stretched arm " to bring in and establish prin- 
 ciples which every heart shall recognise as wise, 
 beneficent and good ; although it may be that the 
 hearts of those addressed, will still reject the tes- 
 timony of truth, yet whether they will hear or no, 
 we at least shall be guiltless of misrepresenting the 
 character of God. Our words would not be (what 
 they now are) repugnant both to the convictions 
 of men's consciences, and to the experience of 
 their hearts. It may be that their heart will be 
 softened, and an opening afforded for the declara- 
 tion of the gospel of grace. 
 
 Lastly, it is needful to distinguish very carefully 
 between the Millennial period, and the dispensa- 
 tion that succeeds — a dispensation called in Scrip- 
 ture, "the dispensation of the fulness of times/' 
 when New Heavens and a New Earth will be 
 created. The Millennial Earth although visited 
 and reigned over by Christ and the risen saints 
 (who will themselves dwell in heavenly places not 
 made with hands) will still be essentially the same 
 earth as that in which we now dwell, inhabited by 
 men in unredeemed bodies liable to sickness and 
 death; men, who, even when sanctified by grace, 
 will still have to say as believers now do, " that in 
 them (that is, in their flesh) no good thing dwel- 
 leth." The removal of Satan and his temptations 
 will not change the character of the flesh : " the 
 
 C 
 
l8 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 mind of the flesh, which is not subject to the 
 law of God neither indeed can be," will still be 
 found in all except the glorified : nor will the dif- 
 fusion of blessings from above, and the repression 
 of decay, destroy the consciousness that the prin- 
 ciple of physical corruption is still lurking in every 
 created thing. Death, the last enemy is not to 
 be destroyed until the thousand years are finished. 
 (See I Cor. xv. and Rev. xx.) 
 
 The reign of Christ over men in this Earth, 
 will indeed make manifest the wonderful resources 
 of His grace and power in remedying sorrow, and 
 subduing evil. It will prove that the natural and 
 providential and spiritual blessings of God, so 
 abused in the dispensations that have preceded, 
 can be used, even in this now groaning Earth, 
 for His glory, and for the benefit of those for 
 whose sake they are given. It will be seen how 
 different the condition of human life is, when the 
 plans by which Satan has hindered human happi- 
 ness, will be supplanted by agencies which God 
 will introduce for blessing, and the wisdom and 
 goodness of Christ will be known in contrast with 
 the evil which, under unregenerate man, has 
 hitherto *' destroyed the earth." The Millennium 
 also will be the great harvest-time of the earth, 
 when millions of unconverted souls, will, through 
 the Gospel, be gathered into the garners of God. 
 Nevertheless the Millennium will not be a scene 
 of perfect or everlasting blessing, and nothing that 
 
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 1 9 
 
 is not perfect can satisfy God. It will afford an- 
 other attestation to the truth of the Lord's own 
 saying, that new wine must not be put into old 
 bottles. The blessings of redemption, are not 
 finally to be connected with anything that is not 
 NEW. Therefore the Millennial Heavens and 
 Millennial Earth pass away, and no place is found 
 for them, and He that sitteth on the Throne 
 will say, " Behold I make all things new," and 
 New Heavens and a New Earth will be created 
 wherein righteousness dwelleth, and into which, the 
 Holy City, the Bride of the Lamb, will descend. 
 
 It will be a scene into which Satan will never 
 €nter. No apostasy will be there — no repression 
 of evil^' — no remedial agency against sorrow — for 
 there will be no grief to be soothed, no sickness 
 
 "^ The Millennial Dispensation is not intended to be one 
 of perfected blessing. That which gives it its distinctive 
 character is, that it is a period in which Christ assumes 
 a definite sovereignty (see Dan. vii.) over the Adainic crea- 
 tion in order that " He may put down all enemies : " and 
 He will retain the power of the Millennial kingdom until 
 He has effected this. " He must reign till he hath put 
 all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be 
 destroyed is death." (See i Cor. xv. 25, and Rev. xx. 14.) 
 The Land of Israel — Immanuel's Land — will be "full of the 
 knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the seas " ; but 
 it must not be supposed that this will be the condition of 
 the whole earth during the Millennium. "The sons of the 
 alien [this is not spoken of Israel, but of some among the 
 Gentiles] shall dissemble unto Me." (See Ps, xviii. 44.) 
 Hence the great Apostasy at the close of the Millennium, 
 
 C 2 
 
20 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 to be remedied, no sin to be restrained. All will 
 be instinct with life — all made worthy of Him, and 
 
 after which the Adamic Heavens and earth pass away, and 
 all things are made new. 
 
 The Millennial period will be characterised by the re- 
 straint and subjugation of Evil, not by its abolishment. 
 Human suffering will be effectually met by remedial 
 agencies ; but suffering will not have ceased to be. Hence, 
 in the symbolic description of the Heavenly Jerusalem 
 (which will not enter the Millennial earth, but, till the new 
 earth is made, will be Y^novpavia — above the created Heavens) 
 we read that the leaves of the tree were for the "healing 
 of the nations." In the new earth, there will be no "na- 
 tions " to be healed, nor any sickness. 
 
 In reading Revelation xxi., it is most important to re- 
 member, that the first eight verses of that chapter should 
 be appended to the twentieth ; and that at the ninth verse 
 of the 2 1 St, a new chapter should commence. 
 
 The first eight verses of the 21st chapter describe the 
 creation of the new earth and the relation of the New 
 Jerusalem to //. The New Jerusalem descends into the new 
 earth. At the eighth verse the description of the new earth 
 ends ; and the succeeding verses recur to a previous period, 
 and treat of the relation of the Heavenly City to the Millen- 
 nial earth — this description continuing to the end of the 5th 
 verse of chapter xxii. 
 
 In Isaiah also, where we find the New Heavens and earth 
 first mentioned, there is a similar arrangement. The 17th 
 verse of chapter Ixv. declares the creation of the new 
 heavens and earth. " Behold I create new heavens and a 
 new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor 
 come into mind." The subsequent verses addressed to 
 forgiven Israel describe their condition in the Millennial 
 earth. 
 
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 21 
 
 His glory, who is not as the first Adam, earthy; 
 but who is the Second Man, the Lord from Hea- 
 ven : and if the first Heavens and Earth made in 
 connexion with the first Adam be glorious, what 
 shall be the excellency of that which shall be made 
 in suitability to Him who is the Eternal Son of 
 the Father, God over all, blessed for ever? 
 
22 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 NO POETIC EXAGGERATION IN THE LANGUAGE OF 
 SCRIPTURE. 
 
 There exists in every human heart an innate 
 desire after something more perfect and beautiful 
 than creation in its present condition any where 
 supphes. The eye beholds no form that is quite 
 faultless ; it sees no scene in sea or in earth that 
 is complete in beauty. Man, ever longing after 
 something more excellent than the realities of 
 earth afford, thus furnishes an abiding evidence of 
 the ruin wrought by the Fall, and proves that (since 
 Eden was lost), natural perfectness has ceased to 
 be, and man ceased to be satisfied. 
 
 In order to remedy this, the powers of taste 
 and imagination are employed. The painter for 
 example, seeing nothing in creation that is quite 
 perfect — finding the beauties of nature scattered, 
 and never existing in complete and harmonious 
 combination — strives, by the power of imagination, 
 to collect and to combine these scattered elements,, 
 and thus to produce a whole more perfect than 
 reality any where affords. This has been called 
 the Poetry of painting — its essence being ideality 
 
NO POETIC EXAGGERATION, ETC. 23 
 
 or fiction, whereby it leads from the real, into an 
 unreal, world. The poet seeks after the same 
 thing. Poetry is not a mere metrical arrangement 
 of words. It is an attempt, by means of language, ' 
 to present to the mind a picture heightened above 
 reality, and to add, for the sake of adornment, 
 circumstances which are not found in the facts, or 
 in the scene described. A bare narration of facts, 
 would be mere history ; and this is so seldom 
 welcome, that even the historian, in order to 
 please, is continually tempted to embellish his 
 narration by imagined sentiments, or heightened 
 colouring. In doing this, he so far ceases to be an 
 historian, and becomes a Poet. The essence there- 
 fore of Poetry is ideality or fiction : the secret of 
 its pleasing is, that it leads into an unreal world."^ 
 Of the danger and sin of lingering in an ideal 
 world, it is not now my object to speak. The 
 realities of human life are around us : there is 
 reality in our relation to God here, as well as in 
 the new creation. To tempt from these realities 
 into an unreal world, has ever been one of the most 
 successful efforts of Satan. Men know that they 
 are pleasing themselves with a dream ; but it is 
 illusion they seek : they seek it as one of the 
 opiates of life. They are not deceived by poetry ; 
 
 ■^ "The essence of poetry," says Dr. Blair, is "supposed 
 by Aristotle, Plato, and others, to consist in fiction." Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds also, in his remarks on the poetry of 
 Painting, teaches the same thing. 
 
24 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 they know well that it supplies a heightened and 
 unreal picture, and they never think of mistaking 
 it for truth. 
 
 But herein consists the evil of saying, that 
 Poetry is found in the word of God. If by this 
 were meant merely, that figurative language, and 
 rhythmical arrangement are found in Scripture, that 
 would be very true. But more than this is in- 
 tended. It is meant that, as in human compo- 
 sitions, so also in Scripture, the language is 
 heightened, so as to leave on the mind an exagge- 
 rated impression — an impression that far exceeds 
 the reality of truth. On this ground the terms of 
 Scripture-description are continually subjected to a 
 process of abatement : much, it is said, must be 
 allowed for embellishment : and thus, each reader 
 rejecting or retaining for himself what it suits him 
 to reject or retain, the Scripture becomes nothing 
 more than a flexible rule, to be bent according 
 to the inclination of those who ought to find in it 
 a rigid and unyielding guide. We may therefore 
 unhesitatingly say, that there is no poetry in Scrip- 
 ture ; for there is no description, no statement, 
 which, if received in all the fulness of its meaning, 
 would leave on the mind an impression that would 
 by one jot or tittle exceed the reality. The im- 
 pression received by us might fall very far short 
 of the truth, but certainly would not exceed it. 
 
 The consequences of believing that the exagge- 
 rations of Poetry are to be found in Scripture, have 
 
NO POETIC EXAGGERATION, ETC. 25 
 
 been most disastrous. Indeed, it is difficult to see 
 how the great truth of verbal inspiration can con- 
 sistently be maintained in connexion with such a 
 notion : for it seems like mockery to say that each 
 word is carefully inspired by the Holy Ghost in 
 order that the meaning may be conveyed with 
 rigorous precision, and at the same time to speak 
 of poetic embellishment or exaggeration. And the 
 error is the worse, because it necessarily affects 
 those parts of Scripture most, which we ought 
 chiefly to receive with reverent caution and exact- 
 ness — I mean those parts which speak of the yet 
 future periods of Divine interference in the Earth. 
 These periods, in consequence of being seasons of 
 superhuman and miraculous agency, when the Lord 
 will, in a manner that never yet has been, "make 
 bare His holy arm," are described in language, 
 which must necessarily be of heightened character, 
 in order to convey any just notion of events 
 which exceed every thing which man's experience 
 has hitherto known. Thus the very passages which 
 are of such transcendant importance, because they 
 teach us of that wonderful period when the great 
 results of redemption in relation to this Earth are 
 to be accomplished by the direct interference of 
 almighty power — passages therefore in which of 
 necessity the language bears some proportion to 
 the magnitude of the events described — these are 
 the very parts of Scripture which are not believed, 
 because the force of the language is explained 
 
26 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 away under pretence of poetic embellishment or 
 exaggeration."^ 
 
 Let us take as an example the words in which 
 Daniel describes the time when Israel shall be de- 
 livered and forgiven ; when '' there is to be a time 
 of trouble such as never was since there was a 
 nation even to that same time ;" ^ -^ "^ when "many 
 of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall 
 awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame 
 and everlasting contempt ; and they that be wise 
 shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and 
 they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars 
 
 ■^ There is something revolting and indeed blasphemous 
 in such a passage as the following. It is from Dr. Blair, in 
 his chapter on the Poetry of the Hebrews : " Of the sacred 
 poets, the most eminent are the author of the Book of Job, 
 David and Isaiah. In the compositions of David there is a 
 great variety of style and manner. In the soft and tender 
 he excels ; and there are many lofty passages in his Psalms. 
 But in strength of description he yields to Job, and in 
 sublimity he is inferior to Isaiah. The most sublime of all 
 poets, without exception, is Isaiah. Dr. Lowth compares 
 Isaiah to Homer, Jeremiah to Simonides, and Ezekiel to 
 ^schylus. Among the minor prophets, Hosea, Joel, Micah, 
 Habakkuk, and especially Nahum, are eminent for poetical 
 spirit. -^^^ •5«- -^ The poetry of Job is highly descriptive. It 
 abounds in a peculiar glow of fancy and in metaphor." — 
 Blair's Essays. It is obvious that persons who so think 
 and write of Scripture, can only in name receive them as 
 the testimony of the Holy Ghost. If they read them with 
 these thoughts, they may expect to find in them "a gin and 
 a snare" to their own souls. 
 
NO POETIC EXAGGERATION, ETC. 2f 
 
 for ever and ever." This passage is supposed by 
 Porphyry, Grotius, and others, to have been ful- 
 filled when the Maccabees were conflicting with 
 Antiochus and his successors — the language of 
 course being considered hyperbolical. 
 
 The manner in which the eighteenth Psalm is 
 commonly interpreted, affords a no less marked 
 instance of perversion. That Psalm is a prophetic 
 description of the period at which the power and 
 majesty of the Divine glory will be put forth, in 
 order to deliver the remnant of Israel, who will 
 then be forgiven and treated as part of the mysti- 
 cal body of Christ : " Then the earth shook and 
 trembled ; the foundations also of the hills moved 
 and were shaken, because He was wroth. There 
 went up a smoke out of His nostrils, and fire out 
 of His mouth devoured : coals were kindled by it. 
 He bowed the heavens also, and came down :. 
 and darkness was under His feet. And He rode 
 upon a cherub, and did fly, yea, He did fly upon 
 the wings of the wind. -^ -^ -^ -^ The Lord also 
 thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave 
 His voice ; hailstones and coals of fire. Yea, He 
 sent out His arrows, and scattered them ; and He 
 shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. Then 
 the channels of waters were seen, and the founda- 
 tions of the world were discovered at thy rebuke,, 
 O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils." 
 These words so solemn, and so incapable of being 
 interpreted of any event excepting one^ have never- 
 
28 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 theless been continually explained as if accom- 
 plished, either at the deliverance of David from 
 his enemies, or at the Resurrection — whereas 
 neither of those events were accompanied by any 
 such manifestation of Divine glory. The Resurrec- 
 tion and Ascension were events accomplished with 
 peculiar secrecy. They were the silent withdrawal 
 of Christ from a world that had rejected Him ; 
 and the commencement of a testimony of grace, 
 the like to which never before had been. No 
 arrows were sent forth to scatter — no lightnings to 
 discomfit — no fires to consume. 
 
 In the prophecy recorded in the twenty-fourth 
 chapter of Matthew, our Lord, after referring to the 
 words of Daniel which have just been quoted, re- 
 specting the unequalled season of tribulation, says : 
 '' Immediately after the tribulation of those days 
 shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall 
 not give her light, and the stars shall fall from 
 Heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be 
 shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son 
 of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes 
 of the Land mourn, and they shall see the Son 
 of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power 
 and great glory. And He shall send His angels 
 with a great sound of a trumpet ; and they shall 
 gather together His elect from the four winds, from 
 one end of heaven to the other." These words are 
 still supposed by many to have been fulfilled at the 
 time of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. 
 
NO POETIC EXAGGERATION, ETC. 29. 
 
 The conclusion of the sixth chapter of Revela-^ 
 tion reveals in a symbolic vision, the circumstances 
 of the same great day of visitation : " I saw -^ -^ ^ 
 and there was a great earthquake; and the sun 
 became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole of 
 the moon became as blood ; and the stars of hea- 
 ven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth 
 her untimely figs, when shaken by a mighty wind. 
 And the heaven was separated from its place 
 as a scroll when it rolleth itself together; and 
 every mountain and island were moved out of 
 their places. And the kings of the earth, and the 
 great men, and the chief captains, and the rich 
 men, and mighty men, and every bondman, and 
 freeman hid themselves in the caves and in the 
 rocks of the mountains ; and they say to the 
 mountains and the rocks, * Fall on us, and hide us 
 from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne,, 
 and from the wrath of the Lamb : because the 
 great day of His wrath hath come ; and who is. 
 able to stand ? " These words have been com- 
 monly referred to the period when Constantine 
 and the Roman Empire assumed the profession of 
 Christianity. Such error seems almost inexcusable 
 — but surely it never would have obtained cre- 
 dence, unless lax thoughts respecting the language 
 of Scripture had first been received. It may, I be- 
 lieve, be safely said that the thoughts that have 
 prevailed respecting the *' poetry '' of Scripture,, 
 have nullified the practical use, or rather I might 
 
30 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 say, falsified the testimony, of two-thirds of the 
 word of God. 
 
 It seems to have been imagined, that whenever 
 the Scripture employs figurative words or sym- 
 bols instead of simple language, that its state- 
 ments at once become shadowy and unreal. But 
 even in ordinary human intercourse, men employ 
 sometimes symbols and sometimes figurative lan- 
 guage for the communication of plain substantive 
 facts. Suppose an Indian were to stand before us, 
 and breaking his arrows and his bow, were to 
 bury them beneath a tree that was regarded as 
 the emblem of peace — we should understand that 
 his action was symbolic, and intended to signify, 
 that he had ceased from warfare and had resolved 
 on peace : or if he used words and said, ** Let us 
 sit down together by the river of peace and drink 
 of the water of quietness," we should understand 
 that his words were figurative, but intended to 
 express his desire after peace : nor would his 
 meaning be conveyed at all more clearl}'-, if, in- 
 stead of using figurative words or symbolic action, 
 he were to say in simple language. ''I desire 
 peace with you." It would be a strange mistake 
 to suppose, that because the action was symbolic, 
 or the words figurative, that therefore no plain 
 intelligible fact was intended. Yet this is the mis- 
 take into which many have fallen ; and virtually their 
 words imply, that literal facts are never conveyed, 
 except when no figure nor any symbol is employed 
 
NO POETIC EXAGGERATION, ETC. 3 1 
 
 as the medium. The Scripture employs simple 
 language, figurative language, and symbols, to re- 
 veal its truth ; but whichever of these be used as 
 the medium, that which is communicated is or 
 will be when accomplished, a REALITY — in no 
 respect falling short of the fulness of the descrip- 
 tion given. Thus the restoration of Jerusalem and 
 her people to the Divine favour, which will be, 
 when accomplished, a literal fact, is thus taught 
 in Scripture. 
 
 It is taught by simple statement, as in Zechariah 
 xiv. 10 : " Jerusalem shall be lifted up, and inha- 
 bited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the 
 place of the first gate, and from the tower of 
 Hananeel unto the king's wine-presses. And men 
 shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter 
 destruction ; but Jerusalem shall be safely in- 
 habited.'^ 
 
 Again, the same event is taught us in Ezekiel 
 xxxvii. by a symbolic action. The Prophet is 
 commanded to take two sticks, to write on one the 
 name of Judah or the two tribes, and on the other 
 the name of Ephraim or the ten tribes, and then, 
 in the sight of his people, to join the two sticks 
 together, so as for them to become one in his 
 hand. This is the symbol. Its explanation is next 
 given. " Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will 
 take the children of Israel from among the Gen- 
 tiles, whither they be gone, and will gather them 
 on every side, and bring them into their own 
 
32 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Land : and I will make them one nation in the 
 Land upon the mountains of Israel ; and one 
 King shall be King to them all; and they shall 
 be no more two nations, neither shall they be 
 divided into two kingdoms any more at all. 
 
 Thirdly, the same event is foretold in figurative 
 language thus : " Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and 
 be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice 
 for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her: that 
 ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of 
 her consolations ; that ye may milk out, and be 
 delighted with the abundance of her glory. For 
 thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace 
 to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles 
 like a flowing stream : then shall ye suck, ye shall 
 be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon 
 her knees." (Is. Ixvi. lo.) It is manifest that the 
 two last-mentioned passages are not less clear than 
 that from Zechariah, which is in simple language. 
 The difficulty therefore which has been supposed 
 to exist in the interpretation of symbols and figu- 
 rative language, arises far more from the indisposi- 
 tion of our minds to receive the truth, than from 
 any obscurity in the medium of instruction. 
 
 The two Books in which symbols are chiefly em- 
 ployed, are Daniel and the Revelation. In other 
 parts of Scripture, the use of symbols is compara- 
 tively rare. The thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel 
 already referred to, contains two of the most re- 
 markable instances ; there are some in the com- 
 
NO POETIC EXAGGERATION, ETC, 33 
 
 mencing chapters of Zechariah, and one in the 
 Acts, when Peter saw the sheet let down from 
 heaven. No difficulty can exist in the interpreta- 
 tion of the greater part of the symbols of Scrip- 
 ture, because the Scripture itself supplies the in- 
 terpretation. Thus the two symbols in Ezekiel 
 xxxvii. are interpreted in the same chapter, for we 
 are told that the two sticks on which the names 
 of Israel and Judah were written, represent Israel 
 nationally dead. In the Revelation, the greater part 
 of the symbols are interpreted either in the Book' 
 itself, or by connexion with some other part of 
 Scripture such as Daniel. The golden Candle- 
 sticks are explained to represent Churches ; and 
 the three unclean spirits like frogs that came out 
 of the mouth of the Dragon and of the Beast, and 
 of the false Prophet (see Rev. xvi. 13) are ex- 
 plained to be spirits of devils working miracles 
 that go forth to deceive," etc. In other cases, 
 where explanation is not given, the clearness of 
 the symbol renders the interpretation so self-ob- 
 vious, that no explanation is required. Thus an 
 angel was seen in the vision "coming down from 
 heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great 
 chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the 
 Dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil, and 
 Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast 
 him into the abyss, and shut him up, and set a 
 seal upon him, that he should deceive the • nations 
 no more, till the thousand years should be com- 
 
 D 
 
34 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 pleted." In this case no explanation need be 
 given. The vision explains itself. The principal 
 and almost only rule to be remembered in the 
 interpretation of symbolic visions is, that the sym- 
 bol is to be distinguished from the thing symbo- 
 lised. The first is a sign merely, a sight seen in 
 the vision, an unreal thing ; but the thing sym- 
 bolised is a reality. The golden Candlesticks Vv^ere 
 signs merely, but the Churches whose honoured 
 position in the earth was thereby symbolised, were 
 realities. The outer court of the Temple seen in 
 the eleventh chapter was a symbol merely : it was 
 not a reality : but that which is symbolised thereby 
 is a reality, viz., Jerusalem — the Holy City, for so 
 the symbol is explained in the passage itself. It 
 would be an equal error therefore, to assign reality 
 to the symbol, or non- reality to the thing sym- 
 bolised. 
 
 As respects the interpretation of the figurative 
 language of Scripture, I would again say that even 
 when the Scripture uses the strongest and most 
 vivid figures, the impression left on the mind there- 
 by can never exceed the reality. Moreover no lan- 
 guage is to be regarded as figurative, that can^ 
 without involving an absurdity or impossibility, be 
 interpreted simply. When Israel is spoken of as 
 '* borne upon the sides, and dandled on the knees 
 of Jerusalem," we instantly see that the language 
 is figurative, because a literal interpretation would 
 involve absurdity. But it is otherwise when we 
 
NO POETIC EXAGGERATION, ETC. 35 
 
 read, "that the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and 
 the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the 
 •calf and the young lion and the fatling together; 
 and a little child shall lead them. And the cow 
 and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie 
 down together : and the lion shall eat straw like 
 the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the 
 hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put 
 his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not 
 hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain : for the 
 earth [or Land] shall be full of the knowledge of 
 the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." In this 
 case there is no need to explain the language as 
 figurative, for there is no impossibility in animals 
 again becoming what they once were when origin- 
 ally created. We are told in Genesis that in Para- 
 dise they all ate the herb of the field, and until 
 sin entered, through man, death and destruction 
 was unknown amongst them. The promises there- 
 fore of this passage we expect to be literally ful- 
 filled when the Lord Jesus shall return and assume 
 His Millennial power. We say that the language 
 is 7iot figurative. Nevertheless, the facts described 
 thereby may be symbolic facts, indicating that 
 throughout a wider and more important sphere, 
 there shall be a calming throughout the earth of 
 those evil passions which had, in former Dispen- 
 sations, filled the world with bloodshed, desolation, 
 and woe. 
 
 The rule that language is never to be regarded 
 D 2 
 
36 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 as figurative, except when necessity requires it, is 
 founded on an examination of the mode in which 
 past prophecy has been fulfilled : for we cannot 
 but conclude, that the mode which God has been 
 pleased to adopt in the fulfilment of prophecies, 
 that are past, will be carefully adhered to in the 
 accomplishment of those that are to come. 
 
 The most important of the prophecies already 
 fulfilled concern the appearance of the Lord Jesus 
 in humiliation. If we had lived before those pro- 
 phecies had been accomplished we should probably 
 have regarded much of the language as figurative. 
 We should doubtless have said, that the prophecies 
 respecting the vinegar and the gall — the dividing 
 the garments but the casting lots on the vesture 
 — the smiting on the cheek — the spitting — the 
 riding on the ass and the like, w^ere to be under- 
 stood as general figurative descriptions of suffering 
 and meekness, but that the words were not to be 
 interpreted with too minute exactness. But they 
 have all been fulfilled to the very letter. The 
 following are the circumstances of the crucifixion. 
 
 PROPHECY. FULFILMENT. 
 
 " It was not he that hated " And Judas also which he- 
 me that did magnify him- trayed Him, hiew the place^ 
 self against me, then / for Jesus ofttimes resorted 
 would have hid myself from thither with His disciples." 
 hi7n J but it was thou, a John xviii. 2. 
 man, my equal, 7ny giiidey 
 and mine acquaintance." 
 Ps. \w, 12. 
 
NO POETIC EXAGGERATION, ETC. 
 
 37 
 
 ■'^ And I said unto them, If " What will ye give me, and 
 
 ye think good, give me my 
 price ; so they weighed for 
 my price thirty pieces of 
 silver." Zech. xi. 12. 
 
 ' And the Lord said unto 
 me, Cast it unto the potter : 
 a goodly price that I was 
 prized at of them. And I 
 took the thirty pieces of 
 silver, and cast them to 
 the potter in the house of 
 the Lord." Zech. xi. 13. 
 
 I will betray Him unto 
 you.'* And they weighed 
 to him thirty pieces of 
 silver." Matt. xxvi. 15. 
 
 " Then Judas brought again 
 the thirty pieces of silver, 
 and cast them down in the 
 teinphy and the chief priests 
 took them, and bought with 
 them the potter's field." 
 Matt, xxvii. 
 
 " They shall smite the judge " They took the reed and 
 of Israel with a rod upon smote Him on the head." 
 
 His cheek." Mic. v. i. Matt, xxvii. 30. 
 
 They gave me also gall for 
 my meat ; and in my thirst 
 they gave me vinegar to 
 drink." Ps. Ixix. 21. 
 
 My God ! my God ! wh}^ 
 hast thou forsaken me 1 " 
 Ps. xxii. I. 
 
 " I hid not my face from 
 shame and spitting." Is. 
 1. 6. 
 
 " They gave Him vinegar to 
 drink, mingled with gall ; 
 and when He had tasted 
 thereof, He would not 
 drink." Matt, xxvii. 34. 
 
 " Jesus cried with a loud 
 voice, saying, My God I 
 my God ! why hast thou 
 forsaken me.'*" Matt, xxvii. 
 46. 
 
 " Then they spit on Him." 
 Matt, xxvii. 30. 
 
 They pierced my hands " They crucified Him." John 
 and my feet." Ps. xxii. xix. 18. 
 
38 
 
 AIDS TO PROrHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 ** He keepeth all His bones, 
 not one of them is broken." 
 Ps. xxxiv. 20. 
 
 **^ He was numbered with the 
 transgressors." Is. liii. 12. 
 
 ** They part my garments 
 amongst them." Ps. xxii. 
 
 *' They cast lots for my ves- 
 ture." Ps. xxii. 
 
 " These things were done that 
 the Scripture might be ful- 
 filled : A bone of Him 
 shall not be broken." John 
 xix. 36. 
 
 " They crucified Him, and 
 the malefactors, one on the 
 right hand, and the other 
 on the left." Luke xxiii. 
 33- 
 
 " The soldiers took the gar- 
 ments of Jesus, and made 
 four parts ; to every sol- 
 dier a part." John xix. 23. 
 
 " But his coat was without 
 seam, w^oven from the top 
 throughout ; they said there- 
 fore among themselves, Let 
 not us rend it, but cast 
 lots for it, whose it shall 
 be." John xix. 23. 
 
 Can there be more exact fulfilment, than these 
 prophecies have received ? Let past fulfilment 
 then supply us with the rule for that which is to 
 come. There is much yet to come, for the Pro- 
 phets have not merely testified of the sufferings of 
 Christ — they speak also of the glory that is to 
 follow. 
 
 I have already spoken of the manner in which 
 
NO POETIC EXAGGERATION, ETC. 39 
 
 men instinctively turn from the realities around 
 them, and seek relief in an ideal world. The 
 Believer indeed does not in the same way need 
 relief, because he has joys even in suffering for the 
 Truth's sake which gild many a dark scene in life. 
 *'Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than 
 in the time when their wine and their oil in- 
 creased." There is a present knowledge of God — of 
 His kindness, of His grace, and of His truth which 
 comforts in many a sorrow, and enlightens many 
 a path that would otherwise be cheerless and 
 forlorn. Nevertheless, even the Believer needs, and 
 God designs, that he should have the sustainment 
 of anticipative hope. There are things not seen 
 as yet — things waited for, which, whilst they with- 
 draw the heart from the sad realities around, do 
 nevertheless lead into no tinreal scene. They lead 
 on into the future ; but it is a future pourtrayed 
 by the words of the God of truth — words none of 
 which shall fail ; " none shall want their mate " — 
 for every word that He has spoken is exact ; 
 every promise faithful. It is thus through 
 patience and comfort of the Scripture we have 
 hope. 
 
 The Scriptures reveal the happy prospects of the 
 Earth, and of those who are to reign over it wdth 
 Christ in the age to come. They tell us of the 
 time when converted Israel, and the nations, and 
 creation freed from the bondage of corruption, will 
 together rejoice under the hand of God. They 
 
40 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 reveal, also, the higher glories of those who shall 
 dwell in heavenly places not made with hands, and 
 who shall share in the glories of Christ risen, and 
 have power to follow Him whithersoever He 
 goeth, whether in Earth or Heaven. (See Rev. xiv.) 
 The Revelation especially presents, in a variety 
 of aspects, the various glories of the risen saints. 
 Thus the prospects of the future, and even the 
 circumstances of the kingdom of glory, are so 
 presented as to give to our anticipations such a 
 definiteness and precision as is almost essential to 
 their being influential anticipations. But if the 
 heightened language in which the Scripture de- 
 scribes these future scenes of blessing is explained 
 away under the pretence of poetic exaggeration, 
 not only is the object of Scripture in giving those 
 descriptions nullified, but an occasion is afforded 
 for their perversion. Accordingly the principles of 
 interpretation which have in modern times pre- 
 vailed, have not only caused the descriptions of 
 the earth's Millennial blessing to be applied to 
 this present period of creation's sorrow, but have 
 even so perverted visions of future glory as to 
 cause them to be applied to past or present 
 periods of man's worst iniquity. Thus the corrup- 
 tions of the early post-apostolic Church, the sinful 
 elevation of Christianity in the days of Constan- 
 tino, and the false expectations of Protestant 
 Christianity in England — a country which is 
 governmentally tampering Avith, and fostering, 
 
NO POETIC EXAGGERATION, ETC. 4 1 
 
 almost every form of influential religiousness that 
 is to be found in earth — have been said to be re- 
 presented by some of the most holy and heavenly 
 visions which the RevelatioYi contains * 
 
 Is it any wonder that under such circumstances 
 confusion and darkness should reign, when we are 
 taught to believe that the Scripture celebrates the 
 period of creation's groan in psalms of thanks- 
 giving, and represents dark periods of man's evil 
 by visions of glory. If such interpretations pre- 
 vail, there is reason to fear that the heart will soon 
 cease to feel, and the conscience to judge ; and the 
 book of Prophecy will be not understood, because 
 the eye of the soul will have become dim. " If 
 the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is 
 that darkness ! " 
 
 ■^ Thus in the Revelation, the "woman clothed with the 
 Sun," &c., has been said to represent the political elevation 
 of Christianity in the days of Constantine ; and those 
 standing on the sea of glass, having the harps of God, and 
 singing the song of Moses, and of the Lamb, have been 
 said to represent the condition of Protestant Christians in 
 England, rejoicing after the conclusion of the Revolutionary 
 wars. — See ivo7^ks of Mr. Elliott and Dr. Cinnmmg. 
 
42 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SOME OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE OF THE 
 MILLENNIAL REIGN CONSIDERED. 
 
 Before we proceed to the definite consideration 
 of some of the prophetic parts of Scripture, it 
 may be desirable to consider briefly, some of the 
 objections which have been urged against the Mil- 
 lennial reign of Christ. 
 
 It has been said, that if we teach the personal 
 appearing of the Lord, we must suppose that 
 Christ and the glorified saints, instead of having 
 Heaven for their home, and heavenly glory for 
 their portion, will be necessitated to return to 
 earth, and be restricted to earth as their dwelling- 
 place. 
 
 It cannot be denied that many who have written 
 on the Millennium, from the earliest times to the 
 present, are justly chargeable with error on this 
 subject. Very soon after the Apostles died, the 
 glory of the risen saints in ^' heavenly places," was 
 confounded with that of Israel, and the nations on 
 earth. No adequate distinction was drawn between 
 the Jerusalem which is above, and the Jerusalem 
 which Israel is to inhabit on the earth. Thus 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 45. 
 
 many were stumbled, and Jerome, in the fourth 
 century, denounced the doctrine, and spoke " of the 
 fable of the thousand years' reign/' It had indeed 
 become a fable as taught by men, but the fancies 
 of men are not to be confounded with what the 
 Scriptures reveal. 
 
 The Scriptures teach, that Heaven will always 
 be the home of Christ and of the risen saints. He 
 is gone to prepare mansions for them in His 
 Father's house ; and into those mansions they will 
 be received, and will have them for their own 
 for ever. Hence they are prospectively called in 
 the Scripture, " saints of the high places " * (Dan. 
 vii. 18) — "stars" (Dan. viii. 10)— "Host of the 
 Heavens " (Dan. viii. 10) : but the same chapters 
 which thus describe their heavenly glory, speak 
 of their reigning with Him to whom dominion 
 " over all peoples, nations, and languages " is to 
 be given. (Dan. vii. 14.) They will indeed super- 
 intend, together with Christ, the government of 
 earth, but they will not on that account vacate 
 the sphere of heavenly glory above. Angels even 
 now, during this dark dispensation of sorrow 
 daily visit this earth, ministering to the heirs of 
 salvation. Moses and Elijah have already been 
 seen in glory on this earth. Their feet really 
 stood upon an earthly mountain : and their form 
 was visible to mortal eyes; yet they did not dwell 
 
 ^ I'l^iv? *'??'^*7i^, an expression used four times in Dan. vii.. 
 See verses 18, 22, 25, and 27, 
 
44 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 on earth; Heaven was their dwelling-place, and 
 they were seen to return into clouds of heavenly 
 .glory. So will it be with Christ and the risen 
 saints. They will visit the earth, they will be seen 
 •on earth; the seat or Throne of Christ's earthly 
 .government will be established on earth (for "the 
 Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in 
 Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously": see 
 Isaiah xxiv. 23), but neither He nor they will dwell 
 on earth. His glory will be set " above the 
 Heaven." (Ps. viii.) The ladder which Jacob saw 
 did not indicate that Heaven was changed into 
 ^arth, or earth into Heaven ; it was the symbol of 
 ■connection between two places united in blessing, 
 whilst remaining locally apart. "Ye shall see," said 
 our Lord, " Heaven open, and the angels of God 
 ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." 
 The Millennial earth, therefore, will not be the 
 Jiome either of Christ or of His risen saints. When 
 God descended on Sinai, and when His glory was 
 seen, and when He spake to Moses, and legislated 
 for Israel there, His Jiome was still in Heaven. 
 So will it be when Christ shall legislate for Israel 
 and the earth from Zion. 
 
 Another difficulty has been felt by some in un- 
 derstanding how it can be said of the Lord Jesus, 
 that He has already "all power in heaven and 
 in earth,^^ and yet, at a time still future, be 
 brought before the Ancient of days to be invested 
 with further sovereignty. 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 45: 
 
 This difficulty is easily answered when we re- 
 member that He who essentially possesses all power, 
 may for a season delegate to others the administra- 
 tion of a certain portion of that power. To the 
 Throne of God all power essentially and eternally 
 belongs. It is the source of every thing, upholds 
 every thing, and ultimately controls every thing. 
 But it may delegate to others the administration 
 of a portion of its governmental rule; and it has 
 done this. When God punished Jerusalem by 
 bringing against it the King of Babylon, it was 
 said to Nebuchadnezzar, " the God of Heaven hath 
 given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and 
 glory," &c. — and it was further said, that the Em- 
 pires that were to follow him, should receive the 
 like endowment, and bear rule in all the earth. 
 It was under this delegated power, when vested in 
 Rome, that the Lord Jesus when on earth lived 
 and suffered. When He ascended, it might well 
 be said that "all power was given unto Him in 
 Heaven and in earth," for He entered upon the 
 exercise of all the power of the Throne of the 
 Most High God. But the power which that 
 Throne had delegated, continued delegated still; 
 and so will continue, until the appointed hour 
 comes for its reassumption by the Throne to which 
 it inherently belongs; and then, it will be com- 
 mitted unto Christ, who will be pleased to under- 
 take the definite legislation and government of 
 Israel and of the nations. It will not be a pos~ 
 
46 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 session of new power, but delegated government 
 recovered and assumed. Therefore, when great 
 voices shall be heard in Heaven, saying, " The so- 
 vereignty of the world (97 fiaaiXeia tou Koafjiov) 
 hath become the sovereignty of our Lord and of 
 His Christ '^ (see Rev. xi. 15), it is immediately 
 afterwards said, *' We give thee thanks, O Lord 
 God the Almighty, who art, and who wast, be- 
 cause thou hast taken to thee thy great power 
 and hast reigned." This verse evidently refers to 
 delegated power resumed. 
 
 It has also been asked by some, whether we 
 admit that Christ is now a King. He was ever a 
 King; He was born a King; legislated as a King- 
 centered Jerusalem as a King ; was crucified as a 
 King. As the rejected King of Israel He now sits 
 on the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens, exer- 
 cises all the power of that Throne, governs Hea- 
 ven, controls earth, and legislates for His Church. 
 As King also. He will return ; destroy the govern- 
 mental systems of the nations, and undertake the 
 minute governmental regulation of Israel and the 
 earth, without resigning the sphere of His glori- 
 ous majesty above. 
 
 Again it has been objected, that Millennial 
 writers have represented the Christianity of the 
 Millennium as something different from Chris- 
 tianity as now received, and thus teach another 
 Gospel. It is indeed true that not a few, by their 
 unguarded and erroneous statements, have laid 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 47 
 
 themselves open to the charge. But the Scriptures 
 teach no such error. They teach that Israel in the 
 Millennium, will be brought under the same " New 
 Covenant " of grace under which we who believe 
 in Jesus now are. They will have the same one 
 finished sacrifice, the same priest passed into the 
 Heavens, the same forgiveness through the same 
 precious blood, the same Spirit, the same union 
 with a risen Lord, the same prospects in "new 
 Heavens and a new earth"; where all the redeemed 
 will meet in the same glory ; for they who have 
 Christ, have " all things." There are not two gospels, 
 or two ways, or two ends of salvation. Indeed 
 the character of our dispensation is briefly this. It 
 is one in which all the spiritual and eternal bles- 
 sings which, by and by, will rest on Israel, are re- 
 ceived beforehand by the suffering family of faith. 
 When Israel shall nationally receive the Gospel, 
 the change in external circumstances, will indeed 
 be great. Satan will be bound, creation freed from 
 its groan, and the national government of the 
 earth; be vested in the same hand to which God 
 has already committed the government of His 
 Church. The outward condition of human life 
 will be in harmony then with the blessings in- 
 wardly received by faith : *' Sorrow and sighing 
 shall flee away" (Isaiah xxxv. 10), and Truth will 
 be triumphant, instead of being rejected and de- 
 spised. But this change of circumstances will not 
 alter the essentialities of truth. The eternal veri« 
 
48 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 ties of the Gospel must always be the same — 
 even as gems have the same intrinsic preciousness, 
 whether trodden in the dust, or set in acknow- 
 ledged excellency in the diadem of the King. 
 Those who will rise in the ''first resurrection," at 
 the commencement of the Millennium, are called 
 '' the Church of the first-born-ones," {kKicK.7\(Tioi 
 irpoiTOTOKcctv^ Heb. xiii. 23), but they do not con- 
 stitute the zu/iole Church ; else they would not be 
 called *'the Church of the first-born-ones." The 
 whole Church will not be complete until all those 
 who shall be born into the family of faith during the 
 Millennium shall have been raised and glorified, 
 and joined their brethren in the New Heaven and 
 New Earth w4iere righteousness shall abidingly dwell. 
 The resemblance, as regards spiritual blessings, 
 between the condition of Israel in the Millennium, 
 and that of Believers now, enables us to remove 
 another difficulty which has been felt by many. It 
 has long been a favourite habit with many Be- 
 lievers, to interpret of themselves many passages 
 in Isaiah and the Old Testament Prophets which 
 speak of the blessings that will attach to the peo- 
 ple of God in the Millennial age; and when told, 
 without explanation, that they are wrong in their 
 interpretation, and that these passages belong not 
 to them, but to Israel in another Dispensation, 
 they have been justly offended, and felt as if they 
 were being defrauded of some of their most valued 
 sources of consolation. 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 49 
 
 It is indeed true that it is wrong to interpret of 
 the people of God now, passages that describe the 
 outward physical blessings which will be granted 
 in the Millennial age. Interpretation is to be 
 distinguished from application. We can only inter- 
 pret, when every jot and tittle of the description 
 is applicable to the persons of whom it is spoken ; 
 and that will never be the case, except when we 
 use the passage in its entirety of those for whom it 
 is primarily intended by the Holy Ghost. They 
 who are in circumstances of sorrow and reproach, 
 cannot interpret of themselves, passages which de- 
 scribe a condition of outward prosperity and tri- 
 umph ; but if the spiritual blessings are essentially 
 the same in the case of those who are suffering 
 and in the case of those who are triumphant, there 
 must be parts in the descriptions of those who 
 triumph, which may well be borrowed and applied 
 to those who are in the sorrow. We cannot in this 
 present dispensation say that there is " no lion in 
 the path of the redeemed'' (Is. xxxv. 9), or that 
 *' sorrow and sighing have fled away" (Is. xxxv. 10), 
 or that " tears have been wiped away from all 
 faces " (Is. XXV. 8), or that " the Lord of Hosts is 
 reigning in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and be- 
 fore His ancients gloriously '' (Is. xxiv. 23), but 
 we can say " the desire of our soul is to Thy name 
 and to the remembrance of Thee"; and again, 
 *^Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind 
 is stayed on Thee : because he trusteth in Thee. 
 
 E 
 
50 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Trust ye in the Lord for ever : for in the Lord 
 Jehovah is everlasting strength." Multitudes of 
 such statements we may apply to our own condi- 
 tion now, and from Israel's future songs of thanks- 
 giving, borrow the language of our present confi- 
 dence.^ All the spiritual blessings of the Millen- 
 nium we forestall. 
 
 It is therefore of the last importance in reading 
 the Scripture, that we should distinguish the dif- 
 ferent periods of which it treats; otherwise it 
 is impossible to fulfil the commandment of the 
 Apostle, "rightly to divide the word of truth." 
 
 '^ Every spiritual blessing spoken of in Millennial pas- 
 sages may be taken by ourselves, and we may also use 
 every passage which speaks of the abstract character of 
 God. Thus when it is said : "A father of the fatherless 
 and a judge of the widows, is God in His holy habitation," 
 this will be viatiifestly true in the Millennium — the father- 
 less will be befriended, and the widow cease to be oppressed. 
 But it is true even now that God is this, though He may 
 for a season withhold the interference of His hand ; and 
 faith can recognise this and rejoice, even whilst it suffers. 
 Thus the love and sympathy and power of Christ were as 
 real during the time that He refrained from going to the 
 sorrowing sisters of Lazarus, as afterwards when He went 
 and put forth His power, and relieved them of their anguish. 
 
 It must also be remembered that we do not deny the 
 truth of Christ's spiritual reign, because we say that He 
 will also undertake the outward regulation of the nations. 
 He will reign spiritually in the hearts of His people in 
 the Millennium, even as He now does in all those who are 
 His. 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 5 I 
 
 The periods of which the Scripture treats are, as 
 I have already said, five in number. 
 
 I. The period of man's innocency in Paradise. 
 
 II. The period from Paradise to the Flood. 
 
 III. From the Flood to the Second Advent of 
 the Lord. 
 
 IV. The Millennial period. 
 
 V. The New Heavens and New Earth. 
 
 If these periods are confounded — if, for example, 
 we interpret of the present period those parts of 
 Scripture which belong to the Millennial age, no- 
 thing but confusion and error can ensue. We 
 might just as well assert that we were living in 
 Eden, surrounded with the paradisiacal blessings 
 of Adam in his innocency, as say that we are 
 holding now, or that we are intended to hold now, 
 that position of strength and supremacy in the 
 earth which is reserved for Israel in "the age to 
 come." Before the Apostles died, the temptation 
 to the Church was, " to reign as Kings before the 
 time" (i Cor. iv. 8), and, as soon as the Apostles 
 had died, they yielded to the temptation, and re- 
 nounced the garb of Nazareth for the goodly gar- 
 ments of Kings' Courts. The Lord Jesus was bap- 
 
 E 2 
 
52 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 tized at Bethany ;^ when near Jerusalem He may be 
 said to have Hved at Bethany ; was anointed for His 
 burial at Bethany, and from Bethany ascends into 
 Heaven. Bethany means the house of the poor or 
 afflicted One. It denoted a position that Christ 
 loved : but His people have hated it. They have 
 resolved to exalt themselves, and to rule. It is no 
 wonder therefore that they should have sought to 
 bend Millennial Scripture to their purposes of self- 
 exaltation, and have laboured to sanction their false 
 position, by perverted applications of the word of 
 God. They have wished that " the glory of Leba- 
 non" should come unto them, "the fir-tree, the 
 pine-tree and the box together" ; they have wished 
 to suck the milk of the Gentiles and to suck the 
 breast of kings, and so they have tried to thrust 
 themselves into the place of Jerusalem in her fu- 
 ture excellency, and have sought to gather around 
 themselves the riches and glory of the world, before 
 the time comes for its being hallowed to the Lord 
 of Hosts; before the officers of earth are peace, or 
 her exactors righteousness; before the sovereignty 
 of the earth has become the sovereignty of the 
 Lord — before He has taken to Him His great 
 power and reigned. The sin of this has, for the 
 most part, been unrecognised even by Christ's 
 
 "^ Such is unquestionably the right reading in John i. 28. 
 There were therefore two places named Bethany ; one near 
 the Jordan ; the other near Jerusalem, on the Mount of 
 Olives. 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 53 
 
 true people. But until it is recognised, confessed, 
 and relinquished, we cannot expect recovery from 
 our present state of scattering and confusion. 
 
 In rightly dividing the Scripture, it is also of 
 essential importance to distinguish certain points of 
 subdivision, in the history of the period in which 
 we now are. 
 
 The first, is the call of Abraham, and the con- 
 sequent separation of the nation of Israel. 
 The second, is the era of Nebuchadnezzar, when 
 certain successive Gentile Empires were pro- 
 phetically appointed to hold supreme power in 
 the earth, during the whole period of Jerusa- 
 lem's abasement. 
 The third, is the formation of the Christian 
 
 Church at Pentecost. 
 As soon as the waters of the Flood were with- 
 drawn, the evil of man again began to manifest 
 itself throughout the earth; and the progress of 
 Idolatry was so rapid, that even when Abraham 
 was born, his family were serving other gods. Uni- 
 versal idolatry would have reigned, unless God had 
 interfered in calling Abraham. The rest of the 
 world went onward in their course of darkness, but 
 the family of Israel were separated and brought 
 into the knowledge of the true God. From that 
 time, the history of the family of Abraham forms 
 a distinct subject in the record of Scripture. 
 
 After many years of trial, Jerusalem was proved 
 unworthy of that place of supremacy in the Earth 
 
54 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 which she had held for a short period during the 
 reign of Solomon. She was accordingly removed 
 from that position, and the place of supreme autho- 
 rity was assigned to Babylon ; and after Babylon, 
 to three other Empires which successively followed. 
 The history of these kingdoms is chiefly given in 
 the Book of Daniel. The whole period of their 
 dominance is called in Scripture the "Times of 
 the Gentiles," and is coincident with the period of 
 Jerusalem's abasement. "Jerusalem,'' said the Lord 
 Jesus, " shall be trodden down of the Gentiles till 
 THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES be fulfilled." 
 The history of this period as given in the Scrip- 
 ture is divided thus: — 
 
 I. From Nebuchadnezzar to the destruction of 
 Jerusalem by the Romans. 
 
 II. The period that intervenes between the de- 
 struction of Jerusalem and the return of the Jews 
 in unbelief to their own Land. 
 
 III. The period that intervenes between the re- . 
 turn of Israel in unbelief and the commencement 
 of the Millennial reign. 
 
 Of these periods the second is almost passed 
 over in silence in the historic prophecies of Scrip- 
 ture; for the Scripture gives no detailed history 
 of the Gentile nations except in connection with 
 Jerusalem. It mentions no personages, nor loca- 
 lities, and supplies no dates during the time of the 
 national extinction of Jerusalem. But the third, or 
 future period, is treated of with peculiar precision. 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 55 
 
 Indeed, all the most important parts of the visions 
 of Daniel and the Revelation concern this future 
 period. 
 
 Thirdly, we have to consider the history of 
 Christendom, or the Professing Church, which 
 commenced at Pentecost. Its history from that 
 time proceeds concurrently with that of Israel and 
 the Gentile nations. I scarcely need say that it is 
 of essential importance to distinguish between those 
 parts of Scripture which severally belong to the 
 Jews, the Gentile Empires, and the Professing 
 Church. The history of these bodies is kept care- 
 fully separate in the Scripture, and the habit of 
 confusing them, which has almost universally pre- 
 vailed among prophetic writers, has been one 
 great cause of the difficulties which have perplexed 
 their systems. We can easily conceive how great 
 the confusion must be if we assign to the Pro- 
 fessing Church prophecies which belong either to 
 the Jews, or to the ruling Gentile nations. Yet 
 this has continually been done. 
 
 From the moment when the Jews were first 
 made a separate people on to the time when they 
 shall look on Him whom they have pierced, as 
 well as afterwards, during the Millennium, they 
 have in the Scripture a distinct history of their 
 own. It is by interpreting, therefore, of Judah and 
 Jerusalem prophecies which are avowedly written 
 of Judah and Jerusalem that one great source of 
 perplexity is avoided. 
 
56 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 The prophecies which refer to Jerusalem after 
 the Jews re-gather there in unbeHef (some of the 
 most simple as well as most important which the 
 Scripture contain) have been peculiarly neglected 
 by prophetic writers. It is for this reason that I 
 have selected for the first subject of our considera- 
 tion the concluding chapters of Zechariah. What- 
 ever difference of judgment may exist as to the 
 exposition of particular expressions or verses, I 
 can scarcely conceive that any one can candidly 
 read these chapters without being constrained to 
 allow : 
 
 I. That the Jews will be as a nation converted. 
 
 II. That they will be, at the time of their con- 
 version, in their own Land and City, and con- 
 sequently must have returned in unbelief 
 
 III. That they are again punished, after their 
 return, by Gentile nations being once more 
 gathered in siege against their City. 
 
 IV. That the Gentile nations so gathered are 
 there (that is to say, in the Land of Israel) to 
 be destroyed. 
 
 V. That they will be destroyed by the personal 
 intervention and manifestation of the Lord in 
 glory. 
 
 These are events of no trifling moment. If they 
 be true, if they can be definitely learned from these 
 simple chapters, and be established as ascertained 
 truths, we shall have gained no unimportant light. 
 These facts will be to us as landmarks. They will 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 5/ 
 
 steadily guide us in our subsequent enquiries, and 
 we may safely say that nothing can be true that 
 contradicts them — every system must be valueless 
 that makes no room for them.^ 
 
 ■^ It is worthy of remark, that writers whose views have 
 for the most part little harmonised with those we are now 
 advocating, have been constrained to admit the futurity of 
 that part of Zechariah which we are about to consider. 
 Thus Scott, in his Commentary, quotes with approbation, 
 the following passage from Lowth : " The former part of 
 this chapter * * ^ ^ relates to an invasion made upon the 
 inhabitants of Judaea and Jerusalem in the latter times of 
 the world ; probably after their return to, and settlement in 
 their own land." — Loiuth^ quoted by Scoit, 
 
S8 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON ZECHARIAH XII. AND XIII. 
 
 The twelfth chapter of Zechariah is one of peculiar 
 simplicity. It treats, indeed, of the future, but its 
 statements are so plain that instruction could not 
 be given more simply by the most direct historic 
 narrative of the past. It commences by the Je- 
 hovah of Israel declaring His title to almighty and 
 creative power. At the period of which this chap- 
 ter treats that title will have been denied. One 
 will have arisen in the midst of Israel of whom it 
 is written that "he will do according to his will, 
 and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself 
 above every god, and shall speak marvellous things 
 against the God of gods, and shall prosper till 
 the indignation be accomplished ; for that that is 
 determined shall be done."^ (Daniel xi. 36.) Mul- 
 titudes, both in Israel and among the nations, will 
 
 * It is important to notice the expression, " till the indigna- 
 tion be accomplished," i.e., God's indignation against Jeru- 
 salejn. It is a period frequently referred to in Daniel, called 
 sometimes, "end of the indignation," as in chap. viii. 19. 
 The occurrence of these words identifies these passages in 
 Daniel, as to time, with the chapter in Zechariah we are 
 considering, for that also treats of the last end of the in- 
 dignation against Jerusalem. 
 
ON ZECHARIAH XII. AND XIII. 59. 
 
 have followed him, owned him, and concurred in 
 saying both of Jehovah and of His Anointed, "Let 
 us break their bands asunder, and cast away their 
 cords from us." It will be a time of abounding 
 blasphemy, and therefore many of those parts of 
 Scripture that pertain to this period peculiarly bear 
 testimony to the governmental and creative power 
 of God. "The burthen of the word of Jehovah 
 for Israel, saith Jehovah, which stretcheth forth the 
 heavens and layeth the foundations of the earth, 
 and formeth the spirit of man within him." 
 
 This, His power, which He has so long used 
 against Israel because of their sins, He will now be 
 about to put forth on their behalf. That is the 
 special subject of this chapter. It speaks of Jeru- 
 salem as surrounded by unnumbered hosts of 
 nations, who, wishing to blot out the name of God 
 from the earth, and hating Jerusalem because of 
 its association with that name, will confederate 
 against Israel, and say, '^ Come and let us cut 
 them off from being a nation, that the name of 
 Israel may be no more in remembrance." But the 
 appointed hour will have come for the God of 
 Israel to interfere. " Behold, I will make Jeru- 
 salem a cup of trembling unto all the peoples 
 round about.'' " I will make Jerusalem a burthen- 
 some stone for all the peoples ;"^ all that burthen 
 
 ^- " Peoples," not people, is the right translation through- 
 out these chapters. " Peoples " in the plural always appro- 
 priates the expression to Gentiles. - j^^t^^^^ 
 
 U5IVBE5 
 
60 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though 
 all the peoples of the earth be gathered together 
 against it." 
 
 These words sufficiently indicate the mighty 
 ■Strength and multitude of these nations that will 
 then be congregated against that apparently 
 doomed city. The gathering of these hosts is not 
 unfrequently referred to in the Scripture, and 
 always in language calculated to impress the mind 
 with the peculiar magnitude of the power to be 
 displayed in this last great effort of man under 
 Satan. In the Revelation, for example (ch. xvi. 
 14), it is said that " spirits of devils working 
 miracles shall go forth to gather the kings of the 
 whole world^ to the battle of that great day of 
 God Almighty." Joel also speaks of the same 
 mighty confederation : " Proclaim ye this among 
 the Gentiles, prepare war, wake up the mighty 
 men, let all the men of war draw near, let them 
 come up ; beat your ploughshares into swords and 
 your pruning-hooks into spears; let the weak say, 
 I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all 
 ye Gentiles, and gather yourselves together round 
 about." (Joel iii. 9 — 12.) And what will Jeru- 
 
 •^That is, the Roman world, [17 oLKovficprj] orbis terrarwn. 
 Compare Luke ii. i. The words, " of the earth," are an in- 
 terpolation, and should be omitted. See Tregelles' " Version 
 of the Revelation," printed by Bagster, a book that should 
 be possessed by all who desire to read the Revelation care- 
 fully. 
 
ON ZECHARIAH XII. AND XIII. 6l 
 
 salem appear in their sight ? It will be even as 
 nothing. The tribe of Judah, too, will be with 
 these nations fighting against Jerusalem,"^ so that 
 it will indeed be to that chastened city a day of 
 weakness and of bringing low. 
 
 But Jerusalem is not to be forsaken for ever. It 
 is the place which Jehovah hath chosen to set 
 His name there. He has even said that His eyes 
 and His heart are there perpetually. The nations 
 may be allowed to trample on it for a season ; but 
 
 ■^ That is, that part of Judah which will be dwelling in 
 Judaea, without the walls of Jerusalem. The literal trans- 
 lation of the second verse is as follows. It is given almost 
 correctly in the margin of our Bibles. " Behold, I will 
 make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the peoples 
 round about, and also against Judah shall it (or He) be 
 in the siege against Jerusalem." Whether we take " it " as 
 referring to the cup of trembling or " He " as referring to 
 Jehovah, the general sense will be the same. It is obvious, 
 not only from this verse, but from all the rest of the chapter, 
 that Judah is regarded as in the camp of the enemy. They 
 will not, like the inhabitants of Jerusalem, be defended by 
 walls, and therefore terror, probably, will cause them to unite 
 with the Gentile hosts. The dreadfulness of these hosts is 
 remarkably described in Joel ii. " Blow ye the trumpet in 
 Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain : let all the 
 inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord 
 cometh, for it is nigh at hand. A day of darkness and of 
 gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the 
 morning spread upon the mountains ; a great people and a 
 strong, there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be 
 any more after it, even to the years of many genera- 
 tions." 
 
62 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 they are strange nations to Him, ever symbolised 
 in Scripture by wild and evil monsters {Orjpca) — 
 nations uncalled by His name, who, just at that 
 very moment, will have said, *' Let us break their 
 iDands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." 
 We have especial need to remember this, for they 
 are the very nations among whom we dwell. All 
 the nations of the Roman earth, from Great Bri- 
 tain to the Euphrates, and beyond, (for the gather- 
 ing is said to be from the whole Roman world 
 vraaa rj ocKovfievrj,) will have sent the flower of their 
 strength to Armageddon. The horsemen of western 
 Europe, and of Syria and Arabia in numbered 
 squadrons will be there, and against them, (for 
 these apparently are the pride of their glory) 
 against them first, Jehovah will direct His hand. 
 *' In that day I will smite every horse with as- 
 tonishment, and his rider with madness, and I will 
 •open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will 
 smite every horse of the peoples with blindness." 
 It will be literally true. Astonishment and blind- 
 ness will fall on every horse — madness on every 
 rider. This will commence the ruin of those 
 doomed hosts. But with Judah it will be other- 
 wise. Judah will indeed be in the midst of these 
 doomed nations, and like them will appear in siege 
 against Jerusalem. But at the very moment when 
 He thus smites these hosts of the alien, He *^ opens 
 His eyes upon the house of Judah," and their 
 hearts are touched with repentance. The sight 
 
ON ZECHARIAH XII. AND XIII. 6$ 
 
 of the maddened squadrons around them, com- 
 bined with the sense of their own marvellous ex- 
 emption from the same well -deserved infliction, 
 will probably be the means w^hereby their hearts 
 are softened into repentance : but these means 
 would have been in vain, their hearts would have 
 been proof against every mercy, and against every 
 terror, if His eyes and His power had not been 
 directed towards them in grace and pardoning love. 
 *' He will open His eyes upon the house of Judah,'* 
 and their hearts will be softened. 
 
 The first evidence of the repentance of Judah is, 
 that they recognise Jerusalem to be indeed the 
 City of God. "The Governors of Judah shall say 
 in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall 
 be my strength in the Lord of Hosts their God." 
 And as their hearts utter these words — as soon as 
 they seek their strength in those with whom God 
 is, then they are strengthened. "In that day I 
 will make the governors of Judah like a hearth 
 of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in 
 a sheaf; and they shall devour all the peoples 
 round about, on the right hand and on the left : 
 and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own 
 place, even in Jerusalem." Judah shall be as the 
 torch, and the nations as the sheaf, and they shall 
 be consumed as stubble before the fire. It will 
 be as the day of Midian again, and Jerusalem 
 shall be delivered. 
 
 It is grace, sovereign unmerited grace, that will 
 
64. AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 work this deliverance ; and therefore Judah, even 
 they who had been in confederation with the foe, 
 will be delivered first, "The Lord also shall save 
 the tents of Judah FIRST, that the glory of the 
 house of David, and the glory of the inhabitants 
 of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against 
 Judah." He knows the tendency of the human 
 heart to exalt itself, even at the expense of others, 
 and will therefore provide that no such manifesta- 
 tion of evil should mar the excellency of that day 
 of mercy. It will be true that Judah will be found 
 in a place more rebellious and more evil than 
 that of Jerusalem ; lest therefore Jerusalem and 
 her people should seek to despise or taunt their 
 brethren for their defection, grace, which reaches 
 even to the uttermost, saves the most evil firsts 
 and thus Judah is strengthened even before Jeru- 
 salem is saved, that so every heart might be com- 
 forted, every thought of pride silenced. 
 
 But Jerusalem and her people will in their turn 
 be strengthened also, and that with no ordinary 
 strength. They shall be so strengthened, that "he 
 that is feeble among them shall be as David, and 
 the house of David shall be as God, as the angel 
 of the Lord before them." The house of David 
 shall be as God, for the Son of David, even the 
 Lord Jesus in His glory, shall then assume the 
 headship of David's house. He will appear in His 
 glory as God. " His feet shall stand in that day 
 upon the Mount of Olives," His saints surrounding 
 
ON ZECHARIAH XII. AND XIII. 
 
 Him. "The Lord my God shall come, and all the 
 saints with Thee." (Zech. xiv. 5.) He will come 
 *'to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke 
 with flames of fire." No marvel therefore that they 
 should be strengthened with whom He connects 
 Himself in the power of His salvation, or that they 
 should be destroyed, who are gathered against Jeru- 
 salem and its King. "There shall come out of 
 Zion the Deliverer, and turn away unrighteousness 
 from Jacob." 
 
 It will be an hour of triumph to Israel, such as 
 they never before have known — greater than when 
 they quitted Egypt — greater than when they en- 
 tered the land, and the walls of Jericho fell down. 
 But great as their triumph will be, great as will 
 have been their individual might, (for " he that is 
 feeble among them will be as David,") yet when 
 they return from their victory, this, their glorious 
 day of triumph, will end in self-abasement and in 
 tears. On former occasions, when " Jeshurun had 
 been made to ride on the high places of the earth, 
 he had waxed fat and kicked; then he forsook 
 God which made him, and lightly esteemed the 
 Rock of his salvation." But it will never be so 
 again. He who had come to conquer their foes, 
 had come also to subdue their hearts. He "will 
 pour upon them the Spirit of grace and of suppli- 
 cations, and they shall look upon Him whom they 
 pierced ;" for He will stand before them, as another 
 Joseph in the midst of his astonished brethren, " and 
 
 F 
 
66 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 they shall mourn for Him as one who mourneth 
 for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for 
 Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born." 
 He will desire that they should mourn. Finally, 
 indeed, He will dry their tears : but mourning is 
 first to have its course. ''In that day shall there 
 be a great mourning in Jerusalem. The Land shall 
 mourn, every family apart." It will still be true 
 that the contrite in heart, and the poor in spirit, 
 are alone blessed. And seeing that this rescued 
 and forgiven people are destined for power, and are 
 to be made "princes throughout all the earth," and 
 that nations are to be regulated by them, it is meet 
 that they who are to be entrusted with such power 
 should themselves first be well broken in spirit; for 
 what more terrible than power wielded by the 
 proud, unbroken spirit of man. The hundred and 
 thirty-first Psalm supplies the utterance of Israel 
 then. '' Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine 
 eyes lofty : neither do I exercise myself in great 
 matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I 
 have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that 
 is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a 
 weaned child. Let Israel hope in the Lord from 
 henceforth and for ever." 
 
 Their day of conquest, therefore, ends in contrition 
 and mourning. But grace will accomplish its work. 
 Their subdued souls shall be brought into full ac- 
 quaintance with the Fountain opened for sin and 
 for uncleanness. ''In that day there shall be a 
 
ON ZECHARIAH XII. AND XIII. 6/ 
 
 fountain opened to the house of David, and to the 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for unclean- 
 ness." They will not only be sprinkled and for- 
 given through the blood of the Lamb, but they 
 will understand • also the reason and ground of 
 their forgiveness, and like ourselves (who in this, 
 forestall their blessings) will be able to say that their 
 garments are washed and made white in the blood 
 of the Lamb. Although regenerate, their flesh will 
 yet remain, and in the flesh "good doth not dwell." 
 They will need, therefore, from day to day, refresh- 
 ment and consolation in recurrence to that blood 
 once offered, which cleanseth from all sin. The 
 Holy Spirit will abundantly be poured upon them, 
 both that they might know the things that have 
 been freely given to them of God, and also that 
 they might be heralds of His salvation to the dark 
 heathen world. They will be sent " to Tarshish, Pul, 
 and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, 
 to the isles afar off which have not heard His 
 fame, nor seen His glory, and they shall declare 
 His glory among the Gentiles." (Isaiah Ixvi. 19.) 
 
 Their own Land also will need cleansing, and it 
 will gradually be cleansed. Many an unclean spirit 
 will have been acting there; many a lying prophet 
 will have prophesied ; but then the hand of the 
 Lord will be turned upon them in grace, to purge 
 away the evil. And if any should venture yet to 
 prophesy in the name of the Lord falsely, even his 
 own parents who begat him, will b« willing, rather 
 
 F 2 
 
68 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 than the Lord should be dishonoured, to resign 
 their son to punishment, or even to death. " His 
 father and his mother that begat him shall say unto 
 him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in 
 the name of the Lord, and his father and his 
 mother shall thrust him through when he prophe- 
 sieth/' The claims of nature and of natural love 
 were once dominant in Israel. But they will cease 
 to be so; then grace will have turned the course 
 of the heart's deepest feelings, and they will refuse 
 to flow, save only for God. And the prophets 
 themselves, even they who have worn a rough gar- 
 ment to deceive, they who have purchased influ- 
 ence by self-imposed austerities — they too shall be 
 reached, for grace is able to save, even to the utter- 
 most. They shall be reached and changed, and the 
 desire even of distinction shall cease to sway their 
 spirits. The dignity of office will be surrendered 
 by their repentant hearts. Each will say, " I am 
 no prophet, but only a husbandman — one who was 
 taught to keep cattle from my youth :" and he will 
 willingly fall back into the sphere from which 
 Satan, and not God, had raised him. He will bear 
 also, and be willing to acknowledge the tokens of 
 his former shame, and confess to the wounds which 
 his deception had earned, from the hands even of 
 his own friends. Here, indeed, is an instance of 
 the subduing, sanctifying power of grace. It is 
 hard to resign what we have prized, but harder still, 
 after the resignation, meekly to bear the tokens of 
 
ON ZECHARIAH XII. AND XIII. 69 
 
 the shame. But there will be power of grace in 
 Israel then; and it seems to be the object of this 
 passage to record the completeness of its triumph 
 over the hearts and ways of God's recovered people. 
 
 And if it be asked, how such grace could be 
 shown to such a people — how those so distant in 
 evil should suddenly receive such deliverance, and 
 not deliverance merely, but strength ; and how, after 
 being so strengthened, they should be endowed 
 with such riches of inward grace, the answer is 
 this — that long before, there had been One of 
 whom Jehovah had said, "Awake, O sword, against 
 my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, 
 saith the Lord of hosts." That sword /lad awaked ; 
 the Shepherd /lad been smitten ; and therefore this 
 power and grace can be extended even towards 
 that people who had trampled down the Shepherd, 
 and rejoiced at beholding the scattering of the 
 flock. It is on the atonement once made, that 
 these marvellous actings of grace towards Israel are 
 groimded ; and hence this reference to the smiting 
 of the Shepherd, after the detail of the forgiveness, 
 restoration, and favour, that had been purchased by 
 His sacrifice. 
 
 When the sword awoke against the Shepherd, 
 the sheep were indeed scattered. All the disciples 
 in terror forsook Him, and fled. Yet the Lord 
 remembered them in grace, and turned His gentle 
 hand upon the little ones. Here is our present 
 blessing — the blessing of the feeblest who believes. 
 
yo AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 In the land of Israel, there is desolation, and a 
 still severer doom stands yet pronounced against it. 
 " It shall come to pass, that in all the Land, saith 
 the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and 
 die." But whilst the action of destructive judgment 
 is thus towards Israel, there are some from among 
 the Gentiles, and a few from among Israel, who be- 
 lieve on His name, and on them His hand is turned 
 to guide, to strengthen, and to feed. And so it will 
 be till the last of these sheep shall have been ga- 
 thered in, and then He will remember Israel again,, 
 and though He will bring fires upon them, even 
 fires that shall burn unto destruction against all but 
 a remnant ; yet that remnant, though it be but a 
 third, shall be spared and blessed ; " I will bring 
 the third part through the fire, and will refine 
 them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold 
 is tried : they shall call upon My name, and I 
 will hear them : I will say, It is My people ; and 
 they shall say. The Lord is my God." 
 
71 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON ZECHARIAH XIV. 
 
 I MAY now safely appeal to any who have seriously 
 weighed the evidence of the preceding chapters, 
 and ask them to say, whether certain great sub- 
 stantive facts touching the future, are not conclu- 
 sively proved by them ? It is proved that vast 
 Gentile nations will again be gathered in siege 
 against Jerusalem ; that these hosts are in the land 
 of Israel destroyed ; that the Heads of Israel in 
 Jerusalem are delivered and also converted ; that 
 consequently they must have returned to their land 
 and city unconverted ; and that they are delivered 
 and converted by the personal manifestation of the 
 Lord. These and other such events are ever re- 
 corded as the great characteristic features of that 
 period which is termed in Scripture, **the end of 
 this age." 
 
 There is only one of these facts that I can sup- 
 pose as at all likely to be questioned, and that is the 
 personal manifestation of the Lord. If the words, 
 *' they shall look upon Me whom they pierced," and 
 again, '^ in that day the house of David shall be as 
 God," are not considered conclusive, yet surely the 
 
T2 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 fourteenth chapter, which we are now about to con- 
 sider, must remove all ambiguity. *'Then shall the 
 Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as 
 when He fought in the day of battle, and His feet 
 shall stand m that day on the Mount of OHves, 
 which is before Jerusalem on the east ; -^ -^ -5^ the 
 Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with 
 Thee." 
 
 It is thus that one part of Scripture confirms 
 and renders more definite the testimony of an- 
 other. But the fourteenth of Zechariah is not 
 merely confirmatory. It repeats, indeed, many of 
 the statements that former chapters had made, but 
 it enlarges also, and adds new features. 
 
 In the twelfth chapter our minds have been ex- 
 clusively directed to the interference of the Lord 
 on behalf of Jerusalem. In that chapter destruc- 
 tion is spoken of as being not against Jier, but 
 against her enemies ; and if it were not for the con- 
 cluding words of the thirteenth; v/e might have 
 almost supposed that no outpouring of judgment 
 on Jerusalem, either immediately preceded or ac- 
 companied the day of her final visitation. But the 
 fourteenth chapter supplies this deficiency. The 
 first two verses lead us back to a period immedi- 
 ately preceding that with which the twelfth chap- 
 ter opens, and speaks of a blow that had just been 
 allowed to fall on Jerusalem, by means of these 
 very nations, whose destruction the self-same chap- 
 ter records. It is with this that the fourteenth 
 
ON ZECHARIAH XIV. 73 
 
 chapter commences: ''Behold a day cometh for 
 Jehovah,"^" and thy spoil shall be divided in the 
 midst of thee. For I will gather all nations 
 against Jerusalem to battle ; and the city shall be 
 taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ra- 
 vished ; and half of the city shall go forth into cap- 
 tivity, and the residue of the people shall not be 
 cut off from the city." 
 
 Such will be in part the instrumentality by 
 which the Lord, even up to the very end, con- 
 tinues to punish that city : " You only have I 
 known of all the families of the earth; therefore 
 will I punish you for all your iniquities." (Amos 
 iii. 2.) The Scriptures again and again speak of 
 the wasting destruction that shall fall upon Israel 
 until only a "remnant" of them shall be left. 
 ''Though Thy people Israel be as the sand of the 
 sea, yet [only] a remnant of them shall return : 
 the consumption decreed shall overflow with right- 
 eousness; for the Lord God of hosts shall make 
 a consumption, even determined, in the midst of 
 all the land." (Isaiah x. 22.) The assault and 
 triumph of these Gentile nations will be one of 
 the means by which this " decreed consumption " 
 shall be wrought. 
 
 The nations will be allowed to complete their 
 
 '^ It is not the same expression as " the day of the Lord." 
 When the latter expression is used, it always, I believe, de- 
 notes THE day in which Jehovah personally interferes, and 
 does not include a prolonged period preceding. 
 
74 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 capture, and even to carry half of the people into 
 captivity. But after they have thus accomplished 
 their purpose, and think themselves secure of the 
 subjection of their foe, suddenly, for some untold 
 reason (untold, at least, in this chapter), Jerusalem 
 again excites their enmity, and again they gather 
 together against her ; but it is for the last time. 
 The appointed hour for the interference of the 
 Lord will have come, and He will accomplish that 
 which He has promised in the twelfth chapter,, 
 and in the second verse of the chapter v/e are 
 considering. "He will go forth and fight against 
 those nations, as when He fought in the day of 
 battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon 
 the Mount of Olives." From this verse onward 
 the fourteenth chapter unites with the twelfth, and, 
 like it, testifies to the pardon and deliverance of 
 . Jerusalem. 
 
 But Israel, as a whole, will be little prepared 
 for this sudden visitation. They, as well as the 
 nations, will be overtaken by it as by a snare. 
 " Ye shall flee — ^yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled 
 from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, 
 king of Judah." " Enemies," " adversaries," and 
 " hypocrites " are spoken of as in the midst of 
 Israel, even up to the hour of its final visitation. 
 " The sinners in Zion are afraid ; fearfulness hath 
 surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall 
 dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall 
 dwell with everlasting burnings?" (Isa. xxxiii. 14.) 
 
ON ZECHARIAH XIV. 75, 
 
 " Therefore, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the- 
 mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease Me of Mine 
 adversaries, and avenge Me of Mine enemies, and 
 I will turn My hand upon thee, and purely purge 
 away thy dross, and take away all thy tin ; and 
 I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy 
 counsellors as at the beginning ; afterward thou 
 shalt be called. The city of righteousness, the 
 faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judg- 
 ment, and her converts with righteousness, and the 
 destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners 
 shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord 
 shall be consumed." (Isa. i. 24 — 28.) 
 
 The day of Jerusalem's deliverance is ever 
 spoken of in the Scriptures as a day also of con- 
 suming judgment, so that only a remnant will be 
 left; but that remnant, when delivered and 
 strengthened, is delivered and strengthened as a 
 nation. They are rescued, not as individuals 
 merely, but nationally. "A nation shall be born 
 in a day ; " "A small one shall become a strong 
 nation ; " " Israel shall do valiantly " — are all texts 
 referring to this period of their history, and speak 
 of them as corporately and nationally delivered. 
 
 And as regards the means of their deliverance. 
 It is said that "the Lord shall go forth and fight 
 against those nations, as when He fought in the 
 day of battle; and His feet shall stand in that day 
 upon the Mount of Olives." Can any language be 
 more simple or more definite than this? We 
 
J6 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 believe (unless, indeed, we reject all the past 
 testimonies of the Word of God) that there have 
 been occasions of old when He has interfered in 
 visible, almighty power on behalf of Israel, and 
 delivered them. He divided the sea; He caused 
 the walls of Jericho to fall down ; He fought for 
 them against the kings of Canaan; He descended 
 •on Sinai in their sight, when Sinai trembled and 
 was shaken; and He has said, "yet once more 
 I shake not the earth only, but also heaven." And 
 if we believe that Jesus is Jehovah, and that His 
 feet have already stood upon the Mount of Olives ; 
 that thence He departed from the earth when 
 the angels said, "This same Jesus shall so come 
 even as ye have seen Him go;" — why should we 
 doubt that He will also stand there in glory.? 
 Why should we doubt what is so plainly written, 
 that the Mount of Olives shall tremble and cleave, 
 and bear witness thus to the presence of God } 
 ^'Jehovah, my God, shall come, and all the saints 
 with Thee." They will be with Him, because they 
 will have met Him in the air, and will return, so 
 as to surround Him and be with Him, when He is 
 thus "revealed with His mighty angels, in flaming 
 fire, taking vengeance." 
 
 It will be a day the most momentous of all days 
 in the earth's history. It will not destroy the earth, 
 for it is said immediately afterwards, that "the Lord 
 :shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall 
 there be one Lord, and His name one ;" neither will 
 
ON ZECHARIAH XIV. 77 
 
 it destroy Jerusalem, for it is said, (ver. lo,) "Jeru- 
 salem shall be lifted up and inhabited in her 
 place;" and again, "Jerusalem shall be safely inha- 
 bited." Many a heathen nation also will be spared, 
 as we find from Isaiah."^ But it will be a day the 
 like to which has never been. *' Alas ! for that day 
 is great, it is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but 
 he shall be saved out of it." (Jer. xxx. 7.) It is 
 emphatically called in the Old Testament, THE 
 day of the Lord. 
 
 " It shall be one day known unto the Lord, not 
 day nor night." It shall not be day, for all the 
 natural sources of light shall be withdrawn : " the 
 sun shall be darkened, in his going forth, and the 
 moon shall not cause her light to shine." "The 
 sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars 
 shall withdraw their shining." (Joel ii.) On the 
 earth, therefore, blackness of darkness will rest, 
 such as was on the face of the waters before the 
 Spirit of God moved thereon — before God said, 
 *'Let there be light." But in the midst of this 
 abyss of darkness, there will suddenly be displayed 
 the light of a glory too terrible for human eyes to 
 behold. " He will come in His own glory, and in 
 His Father's glory, and in the glory of the holy 
 
 "^ See Isaiah Ixvi. 19. "I will send those that escape of 
 them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that 
 draw the bo^v, to Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off, 
 that have not heard My fame, neither have seen My glory ; 
 and they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles." 
 
78 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 angels." Saints, also, as well as angels, in all the 
 T^rightness of their unearthly glory, will surround 
 Him in myriads unnumbered. "Afire goeth before 
 Him, and burneth up His enemies round about. 
 His lightnings enlightened the world ; the earth 
 saw, and trembled." (Ps. xcvii. 3, 4.) 
 
 But it shall be only one day. The covenant 
 with Noah forbids that this awful interruption of 
 the course of nature should extend beyond one 
 day : " While the earth lasteth, day and night 
 shall not cease." Therefore night shall again re- 
 sume its wonted course. The tempest of wrath 
 shall have rolled over Israel and the earth, and 
 ^ill have wrought its work. It will have destroyed, 
 not the earth, but it will have " destroyed them 
 that destroy the earth." (See Rev. xi. 18.) The 
 evening shall return with light, pure, serene, and 
 blessed. The stars will again shine peacefully, and 
 a delivered earth wait for the arising of a "morn- 
 ing without clouds." 
 
 We can, in part, conceive the feelings with which 
 the spared remnant of Israel will behold the light 
 •of that evening — the evening which is to introduce 
 the new order of God. They have been described 
 in the twelfth chapter as subdued, contrite, and 
 mourning. And no marvel : carried as they will 
 have been, by a power that they knew not, 
 through such a day of terror, strengthened for 
 the Lord in it, and left at last in a scene of 
 tranquil blessing, received from the hands of One 
 
ON ZECHARIAH XIV. 79 
 
 whom they Jiad despised, but to whom they have 
 now learned to say, "My Lord, and my God;" 
 it would be strange indeed if they should not, 
 whilst numbering such mercies, be bowed in con- 
 trition of spirit. And when they shall at last 
 be comforted, and the Spirit be poured out upon 
 them from on high, when the knowledge of their 
 own past history, and of the world^s history, and 
 of the Church's history, will all be opened to them 
 in the light of God, then, like so many Pauls, 
 monuments of sovereign grace, they shall go forth 
 to the dark places of the earth, rich in experience 
 and in the knowledge of God, and from them shall 
 flow rivers of living water. 
 
 We read m many parts of the Scripture that 
 the land of Israel will, in that day, teem with 
 ■evidences of the miraculous power of God in dis- 
 pensing blessings. On the sides of Zion, for 
 example, the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and 
 the kid, shall be seen together, and a little child 
 shall lead them. Nothing shall hurt or destroy 
 throughout God's holy mountain. These will be 
 sights that no one will deny to be in themselves 
 blessed. But they are symbols, also — living 
 symbols, speaking of higher blessings : for they 
 indicate the peace and harmony and love that 
 shall pervade all hearts and all peoples whom the 
 power of Zion shall effectually reach. And if God 
 has appointed that the spiritual influence of which 
 I have spoken above should go forth from His 
 
8o AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 forgiven and privileged nation in Jerusalem, we 
 might expect to find some outward symbol of 
 this, its relation. And, accordingly, a symbol is 
 given in the perennial flow of those streams which, 
 going forth from the sanctuary in Jerusalem, shall 
 heal waters which, like the Dead Sea, have been 
 accursed, and spread life and refreshment in the 
 midst of desolation. " It shall come to pass in 
 that day that living waters shall go forth from 
 Jerusalem, half of them toward the former sea and 
 half of them toward the hinder sea, in summer 
 and winter shall it be." Ezekiel, in vision, saw 
 them issue forth as "a river that he could not 
 pass over, for the waters were risen, waters to 
 swim in, a river that could not be passed over. 
 And he said unto me. Son of Man, hast thou seen 
 this? Then he brought me, and caused me to 
 return to the brink of the river. Now, when I 
 had returned, behold, at the bank of the river 
 were very many trees on the one side and on the 
 other. Then said he unto me, These waters issue 
 out toward the east country, and go down into 
 the desert, and go into the sea; which being 
 brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be 
 healed. And it shall come to pass, that every 
 thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the 
 rivers shall come, shall live : " etc. (Ezekiel xlvii. 
 
 6-90 
 
 No one, I suppose, who reads Ezekiel, especially 
 
 his reference to En-gedi and En-eglaim, will doubt 
 
ON ZECHARIAH XIV. 8 1 
 
 the literality of the fact. Yet we should not, on 
 that account, forget the more blessed spiritual re- 
 lation of Zion and Jerusalem which this fact 
 symbolises — when "out of Zion shall go forth the 
 law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." 
 
 National supremacy, i.e.^ supremacy in the 
 control and regulation of nations, as well 
 as supremacy in religious truth, will attach to 
 Jerusalem then. Diffusion of truth, such 
 truth as saves and enlightens individual souls, 
 will, doubtless, be the most important function of 
 that favoured city. It will be diffused partly by 
 the service of its people, severally ; partly by its 
 own corporate testimony. Individually, the saints 
 in Israel will not be deprived of that which is 
 the joy and comfort of the saints now, even to 
 preach and to teach the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 to cherish others with that same kind of care with 
 which the Apostle once sought to nurture the 
 Churches — "gentle among them, even as a nurse 
 cherisheth her children; "for though Satan will be 
 bound, yet the flesh in which no good thing dwel- 
 leth, will still remain, so that gracious, kindly, 
 shepherd care will continue to be needed. Jeru- 
 salem will doubtless esteem it her highest calling 
 to be the pillar and ground of the truth ; the 
 golden candlestick fed with golden oil. (See Zech. 
 iv.) But as the chief of nations, also, it will exer- 
 cise authoritative control over the earth — a control 
 most blessed in its exercise, because exerted for, 
 
 G 
 
S2 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 and in subordination to, TRUTH. Then at last 
 there will be no contrariety, no collision between 
 the ministration of God's truth and the sovereignty 
 of the Throne ; for He who sits upon the Throne 
 as the King of kings will also be the Priest of 
 the Most High God. "He will sit as a Priest 
 upon His Throne," He will be the true Melchi- 
 zedek, King of Righteousness and King of Peace; 
 but Priest also of the Most High God, Possessor 
 of heaven and earth. The supremacy, therefore, 
 of Jerusalem and its King, the nations will be re- 
 quired to recognise. One prescribed test of their 
 obedience will be their coming up to Jerusalem 
 year by year to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 
 
 The Feast of Tabernacles was the most joyful 
 of all the feasts of Israel. Throughout it they are 
 commanded to dwell in booths, in remembrance of 
 the time when they knew the sorrows of journey- 
 ing through a waste and howling wilderness. But 
 the wilderness will no longer be around them. They 
 will be in the land of their long-promised bless- 
 ing : the joy of all lands. " Thou shalt no more be 
 termed Forsaken — neither shall thy land any more 
 be termed Desolate ; but thou shalt be called 
 Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah, for the Lord 
 delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married." 
 (Isa. Ixii. 4.) And seeing that nothing so much 
 as contrast gives liveliness to our apprehensions, 
 and that nothing so much heightens joy as the 
 remembrance of sorrow past, there will be brought 
 
ON, ZECHARIAH XIV. 83 
 
 before the recollections of Israel, by the booths in 
 which they sojourn, the features of a former scene, 
 that will stand in strange, but blessed, contrast 
 with their then present and abiding joy. Around 
 them will be the ingathered riches of their Land ; 
 pledges and tokens of their being recipients not 
 only of spiritual, but also of all natural, bless- 
 ings from the hand of the Lord their God. "Thou 
 shalt observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, 
 after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy 
 wine, and thou shalt rejoice in this feast ^ "^ ^ 
 because the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all 
 thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, 
 therefore thou shalt surely rejoice.'' (Deut. xvi.) 
 And in that day they zmll rejoice ; " When the 
 Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were 
 like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled 
 with laughter and our tongue with singing ; then 
 said they among the Gentiles, The Lord hath done 
 great things for them. The Lord /lat/i done great 
 things for us, whereof we are glad." (Psalm cxxvi. 
 1-4.) 
 
 There seems a peculiar suitability in the Gentiles 
 being called to witness this great feast of the joy 
 of Israel. They had been the witnesses of its 
 desolation, and many of them had been instru- 
 mental in causing that desolation. As fierce and 
 cruel monsters (''beasts," OrjpLa)^ they had devoured 
 God's heritage. They had trodden it down, and 
 exulted in its degradation. But now they will be 
 
 G 2 
 
84 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 gathered to behold its glory and its joy. *' The 
 Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the 
 brightness of thy rising." (Isa. Ix.) But they shall 
 not merely behold ; they shall also share the 
 blessings of Israel. Grace will lead even to this ; 
 for grace loves to widen the streams of its good- 
 ness. And, therefore, when we read of Israel's 
 blessings, we read also of the Gentiles being called 
 on to give thanks. " Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with His 
 people." " Sing unto the Lord a new song, and 
 His praise from the end of the earth, ye that go 
 down to the sea, and all that is therein ; the isles,. 
 and the inhabitants thereof Let the wilderness 
 and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the vil- 
 lages that Kedar doth inhabit : let the inhabitants 
 of the rock sing : let them shout from the top of 
 the mountains." (Isa. xlii. lo, ii.) These and 
 such like passages plainly show that the inhabi- 
 tants of the world at large are called to share in 
 the joy of Israel in that day.^ 
 
 ^ The Feast of Tabernacles was the only one of the feasts " 
 of Israel that had an eighth day. (Lev. xxiii. 39.) The 
 eighth, being the day after the Sabbath — the day on which 
 the Lord rose from the dead, is always typical of resurrec- 
 tion-life in the new creation. Israel, in the Millennium, will 
 be reminded by it, that their final rest is not in the fair 
 scene of prosperity which is then spread around them. They 
 will look beyond, even to the " new heavens and new earth,''" 
 wherein dwelleth righteousness. In the Millennium, Israel 
 will be yet in the flesh, and " in the flesh good doth not 
 dwell." "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit." It baits and 
 
ON ZECHARIAH XIV. 85 
 
 Yet, in the midst of all this prosperity, and 
 glory, and joy, Jerusalem will remain holy. Their 
 " heart shall not become uplifted, nor their tongue 
 haughty." Other nations, even while the hand of 
 
 allures away from God and His ways, even where Satan is 
 not, to stimulate its enmity. Their bodies also will be un- 
 redeemed, and the earth, though renovated, will not be new. 
 The Lord will not yet have said, " Behold, I make all things 
 new." Restraint of moral evil, or repression of natural de- 
 cay, through the power of God in redemption, is blessed : 
 yet it is very different from a condition in which there is 
 nothing to be repressed, because all is good. This last con- 
 dition will not pertain to Israel and the nations of the Mil- 
 lennium, until the Millennial earth and heavens have passed 
 away, and no place been found for them. 
 
 In the Millennium certain distinctions connected with the 
 flesh, and which have no place in resurrection, will still con- 
 tinue, such, for example, as those between male and female, 
 Jew and Gentile. In the Millennium, the Gentiles, though 
 entirely one with the Jews in all spiritual privileges, (for in 
 spiritual blessings there is no difference between Jew or 
 Greek, male or female,) yet, as to national position, will 
 ^tand in a secondary place. "The first dominion will come 
 to the daughter of Jerusalem." (Micah iv. 8.) This seems, 
 therefore, to be another reason why the Gentiles should 
 come up to celebrate that feast to which the eighth day 
 was added ; for it spoke both to Israel and to them, of a 
 future and more blessed hour, when there should be perfect 
 co-equality in heavenly blessing in the new creation. 
 
 That typical ordinances, such as the celebration of the 
 Feast of Tabernacles, are not inconsistent with true spiritual 
 religion, is proved by the appointment of two symbolic rites 
 now — Baptism and the Lord's Supper. If such symbolic 
 
86 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 the Lord is pouring blessings upon them, will be 
 discontented and disobey. Some will refuse to gO' 
 up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, and will 
 receive, therefore, the due chastisement for their 
 rebellion. But it shall not be so with Israel. The 
 same grace that has given them their unequalled 
 blessings, will have also subdued their hearts to 
 know and to fear the Lord their God. The 
 prayer w^hich they had offered will have been heard.. 
 They had said : *' Let Thy hand be upon the man 
 of Thy right hand, upon the Son of Man, whom 
 Thou madest strong for Thyself. So will we not go^ 
 back from Theer (Ps. Ixxx. 17, 18.) And they will - 
 not go back from Him : " In that day shall there 
 be upon the bells of the horses holiness unto the 
 Lord ;" that is, the whole external character of life 
 (for that it is which is exhibited in the streets of 
 a city) shall bear in all its parts, throughout all 
 its detail, the impress of holiness unto the Lord- 
 Religious life and fellowship shall be holy also ; 
 for the pots in the Lord's house, vessels which of 
 old the priests had so often defiled, shall be like 
 the bowls before the altar — holy. Private and do- 
 mestic life shall be hallowed too; for ''every pot 
 in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness untO' 
 the Lord of hosts, and all they that sacrifice shall 
 
 rites do not militate against spiritual worship now, much less 
 need the Feast of Tabernacles be objected to then, seeing 
 that it is so peculiarly connected with the natio7tal order of 
 God's government. 
 
ON ZECHARIAH XIV. 8/ 
 
 come and take of them, and seethe therein ; and 
 in that day there shall be no more the Trafficker 
 in the house of the Lord of hosts.""^ 
 
 ^ The word which I have translated "Trafficker," is the 
 same as Canaanite. It seems to be an allusion to that 
 which had given its characteristic feature to the closing 
 period of the Times of the Gentiles, viz., mercantile power. 
 See Zechariah v. — vision of the Ephah, and the whole of 
 the eighteenth of Revelation, as considered in " Babylon : its 
 Revival and Final Desolation," as advertised at end of this 
 volume. See also "Prospects of the Ten Kingdoms," page 88. 
 
88 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FUTURITY OF THE MANIFESTATION OF ANTI- 
 CHRIST — HIS CONNEXION WITH JERUSALEM. 
 
 There are few things more necessary in prophetic 
 enquiry, than to mark the place which JERU- 
 SALEM occupies, in the dispensational arrange- 
 ments of God. The chapters which we have just 
 been considering in Zechariah, sufficiently manifest 
 the wonderful character of the events yet to occur 
 in that city. A city on behalf of which the Lord 
 will visibly interfere, and which He will so mar- 
 vellously strengthen — a city that is to be so marked 
 by holiness, and destined to be the centre whence 
 light and truth are to be diffused over all nations, 
 must be important in the sight of God, in propor- 
 tion as He values that truth, and the spread of 
 the knowledge of His own holy name. Ethiopia 
 shall not stretch out her hands unto God, until 
 Israel shall first have become white as snow in 
 Salmon. (See Ps. Ixviii.) The ends of the earth 
 will not fear Him, until after He has lifted up the 
 light of His countenance on Israel. "Jehovah" (I 
 quote the words of one of Israel's Psalms, Ixvii.) 
 *' Jehovah shall bless US/', and afterward '' all the 
 
FUTURITY OF MANIFESTATION OF ANTICHRIST. 89 
 
 ends of the earth shall fear Him." Well, therefore, 
 may it be said, '^ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : 
 they shall prosper that love thee." (Ps. cxxii. 6.) 
 ^'Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not 
 silence, and give Him no rest, till He establish, 
 and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." 
 <Is. Ixii. 6.) 
 
 After the Flood there were great developments 
 of energy in many Gentile nations. Assyria under 
 Nimrod, and Egypt under the Pharaohs, early rose 
 into eminence. Both Egypt and Assyria were re- 
 strained, until it had been fully proved whether or 
 not Jerusalem was worthy of supremacy in the 
 earth. No Gentile empire was allowed to rise into 
 universal sovereignty — all were held, as it were, in 
 check, until Israel and Jerusalem had been suffi- 
 ciently tried, and had fully manifested their un- 
 worthiness. This is one instance in which the deal- 
 ings of God with the nations were made dependent 
 on the condition of Jerusalem. 
 
 And when Israel and its kings had by trans- 
 gression lost their blessings, and the glory of the 
 reign of Solomon had faded away, the supremacy, 
 which was taken from them, was given to certain 
 Gentile nations, who were successively to arise and 
 bear rule in the earth, during the whole period of 
 Israel's rejection. The first of these was the Chal- 
 dean empire under Nebuchadnezzar. The period 
 termed by our Lord the ''Times of the Gentiles,'' 
 commences with the capture of Jerusalem by Nebu- 
 
90 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 chadnezzar. It is a period, coincident from its be- 
 ginning to its close, with the treading down of 
 Jerusalem. "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of 
 the Gentiles till the Times of the Gentiles be ful- 
 filled." Nebuchadnezzar therefore, and the Gen- 
 tile empires that have succeeded him, have only 
 received their pre-eminence in consequence of 
 Jerusalem's sin; and the reason why they were 
 endowed with that pre-eminence was, first, that 
 they might inflict the appointed chastisements 
 on Jerusalem ; and secondly, that they might 
 be made a governmental centre to the earth 
 during the time that Jerusalem is being chas- 
 tened. When they shall have fulfilled these pur- 
 poses, they shall themselves be smitten, because 
 of their own evil, and be made " like the chaff 
 of the summer threshing-floors." In this we 
 have another evidence that the earthly dispensa- 
 tions of God revolve around Jerusalem as their 
 centre. 
 
 The method which it has pleased God to adopt 
 in giving the prophetic history of these nations, is 
 in strict accordance with this principle. As soon 
 as they arose into supremacy and supplanted Jeru- 
 salem, Prophets were commissioned, especially 
 Daniel, to delineate their course. We might per- 
 haps have expected that their history would have 
 been given minutely and consecutively from its be- 
 ginning to its close. But instead of this, it is only 
 given in its connexion with Jerusalem : and as soorr 
 
FUTURITY OF MANIFESTATION OF ANTICHRIST. 9 1 
 
 as Jerusalem was finally crushed by the Romans,, 
 and ceased to retain a national position, all detailed 
 history of the Gentile empires is suspended. Many 
 a personage, great and glorious in the world's his- 
 tory, has since appeared. Mahomet and Saladin,. 
 Charlemagne and Napoleon have arisen ; mighty 
 battles have been fought ; kingdoms raised ; and 
 kingdoms subverted ; yet Scripture passes silently^ 
 over all such events (however important in the an- 
 nals of the Gentiles) because Jerusalem (having 
 nationally ceased to be) is nationally unaffected. 
 Eighteen hundred years ago, when Jerusalem was^ 
 laid desolate, all detailed history respecting the 
 Gentile nations was suspended. It is suspended 
 still ; nor will it be resumed until Jerusalem re- 
 assumes a national position. Then the history of 
 the Gentiles in its connexion with Jerusalem is again 
 minutely given ; and the glory and dominion of 
 their last great king described. His history will 
 be especially connected with Jeriisaleni and the- 
 Land. " He is to glorify himself on Zion (Isaiah 
 xiv. 13 ; Daniel xi. 45), and to be broken and 
 trodden under foot in the Land, and on the moun- 
 tains of Israel!' (Isaiah xiv. 24 — 27.) 
 
 That the Jews whilst yet unconverted will go 
 back to their Land, and there re-assume a national 
 standing, has been already proved from the con- 
 cluding chapters of Zechariah ; for if, as those 
 chapters teach, they are nationally converted when 
 in their city, they must of course have returned to- 
 
92 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 it when unconverted. Nor would any one who 
 contemplates their present circumstances in the 
 light of mere human probability, esteem that re- 
 turn to be improbable. Their land is, as it were, 
 Avaiting for them — unoccupied. It is still a goodly 
 land, and as forming the great link of connection 
 between Western Europe and the Euphratean coun- 
 tries, it is peculiarly adapted for an intellectual, 
 enterprising and wealthy people, whose idol is com- 
 mercial gain. The Gentile nations also, who used to 
 persecute have begun to favour them. " Many," says 
 the prophet Daniel, when speaking of this period, 
 ''shall cleave to them with flatteries." (Chap. xi. 
 34.) Men are beginning to speak of them as an 
 ancient people, a people wise in their generation 
 and energetic, useful therefore for purposes of na- 
 tional advancement and prosperity, and necessary 
 for the pacification of the East. What wonder 
 then, that the combined influences arising from 
 these, and other like things, should lead them back 
 to their city, and that the blindness of the present 
 liour should be ready to mistake that return, for 
 their restoration under the hand of the Lord in 
 blessing ? 
 
 The condition of their Land when they return 
 Avill be just such as might be expected from their 
 character. " Replenished from the east * -^ -^ -^ 
 their land will be full of silver and gold, neither 
 is there any end of their treasures ; their land is 
 also full of horses, neither is there any end of their 
 
FUTURITY OF MANIFESTATION OF ANTICHRIST. 93 
 
 chariots ; their land also is full of idols." (Isa. ii.) 
 Such will be the aspect of their land ; and as to 
 themselves, pride and haughtiness, the loftiness of 
 the cedar of Lebanon, and the stiff sturdiness of 
 the oak of Bashan will be their characteristics, 
 even till the day of the Lord shall come. There is 
 an awful passage in Ezekiel that speaks of this 
 their return. (Chap. xxii. 19 — 22.) "Therefore 
 thus saith the Lord God, Because ye are all 
 become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you 
 into the midst of Jerusalem. As they gather silver, 
 and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the 
 midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to 
 melt it; so will I gather you in my anger and in 
 my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt 
 you. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you 
 in the fire of My wrath, and ye shall be melted 
 in the midst thereof; as silver is melted in the 
 midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the 
 midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the 
 Lord have poured out My fury upon you." 
 
 The last great king that is to arise among the 
 Gentiles — one who is called in Daniel emphati- 
 cally, "THE King" (xi. 36) and ^'THE Prince 
 that shall come," is one of the chief instruments 
 by which the judgments of the Divine hand will 
 reach that evil people. As the history of this 
 person is so important, and leads us to the very 
 climax of Jewish and Gentile iniquity, it is need- 
 ful that the statements of Scripture respecting him. 
 
^4 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 should, in outline at least, be familiar to our minds. 
 If his rise be future, it behoves us to hiozv that 
 it is future. My present object therefore will be 
 to quote such passages as prove his futurity, and 
 describe his actings in relation to Jerusalem. The 
 first chapters to which I will refer are the eighth 
 and the concluding part of the eleventh of Daniel. 
 
 The subject of the Book of Daniel as a whole^ 
 is the indignation of God directed through the in- 
 strumentality of the Gentile empires upon Jeru- 
 salem : but the vision of the eighth chapter is 
 expressly said to relate to the end of that indig- 
 nation. This is twice stated in this chapter ; first, 
 in the seventeenth verse : 
 
 "Understand, O son of man, for AT THE TIME 
 OF THE END shall be the vision." 
 And again in the nineteenth verse : 
 
 " Behold I will make thee know what shall be 
 in the LAST END OF THE INDIGNATION; for at 
 the time appointed the END shall be." 
 
 Unless therefore we are prepared to say that the 
 indignation against Jerusalem has terminated, and 
 that the time of blessing, both on Israel and on 
 the nations, has come; we must admit that the 
 king described in this chapter, has not yet arisen. 
 Facts prove that no such person is at present act- 
 ing in the earth; and he cannot have finished his 
 course, and be no more, for in that case Jerusa- 
 lem would have been forgiven, and the indignation 
 against her have ceased. 
 
FUTURITY OF MANIFESTATION OF ANTICHRIST. 95 
 
 Whenever this last great King of the Gentiles 
 does arise, he will be known by answering to the 
 criteria supplied by this chapter, which are as 
 follow : 
 
 I. He must arise, not from the West, but from 
 part of the EASTERN division of the Roman 
 Empire, viz., from one of the four parts into 
 which the empire of Alexander the Great was 
 divided. This w^e are taught in the eighth verse. 
 ''^ Therefore the he-goat waxed very great ; and 
 when he was strong, the great horn [which is 
 said in verse 21 to be the first king of Greece, 
 Alexander] was broken; and for it came up four 
 notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. 
 And OUT OF ONE OF THEM came forth a little 
 horn which waxed exceeding great towards the 
 South, and toward the East, and toward the 
 pleasant land." See also the 21st and following 
 verses. 
 
 II. He will find the daily sacrifice offered at 
 Jerusalem, and will take it away. This is taught 
 in the eleventh verse. "Yea, he magnified himself 
 even to the prince of the host, and by him the 
 daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his 
 sanctuary was cast down." 
 
 III. He is to arise ''when the transgressors are 
 come to the full." (Verse 23.) 
 
 IV. He is to act during the last end of the in- 
 dignation against Jerusalem. (See verses 17 and 
 19, already quoted.) 
 
96 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 V. He exalts himself not only against Jehovah 
 as Jehovah, but also against the Prince of 
 princes, i.e. against the Lord Jesus, the Messiah of 
 Israel. 
 
 VI. He is broken without hand, that is, by no 
 human instrumentality, but immediately by the 
 Lord. This is taught us in the 25th verse. " He 
 shall also stand up against the Prince of princes ; 
 but he shall be broken without hand." 
 
 It is scarcely needful to say, that no one, in 
 whom these characteristics are united, has yet 
 arisen. Neither the Pope, nor Mahomet, nor An- 
 tiochus Epiphanes (all of whom have been sup- 
 posed to fulfil this chapter) answer to these tests. 
 Mahomet and the Pope answer to none. Mahomet 
 arose from Arabia, which according to God's cove- 
 nant with Ishmael, has always remained indepen- 
 dent of the four great Empires that have succes- 
 sively arisen, and has never been incorporated with 
 either. Antiochus, however, went far towards ful- 
 filling the predictions of this chapter, and was 
 doubtless intended in an especial manner to pre- 
 figure Antichrist. Antiochus visited Jerusalem ; 
 took away the daily sacrifice and profaned the 
 Temple; (see first chapter of first book of Macca- 
 bees) but he did not live in " the last end of tJie 
 indignation;'^ nor ^^zvheii the transgressors are come 
 to the full; '* nor " in the latter time of those 
 kingdoms " (for Greece and Egypt are still ruling) ; 
 nor did "//^ stand tip against the Prince of princes'' 
 
FUTURITY OF MANIFESTATION OF ANTICHRIST. 97 
 
 (for Christ had not then been manifested) ; nor 
 was he " broken without hand " ; nor did Antiochus 
 Epiphanes spring " ont of one of the four ; for 
 he was one of the fotcr ; nor was he "a Httle horn," 
 that is, a httle Potentate ; he was a horn emphati- 
 cally "great." The fulfilment therefore of this 
 chapter must be future.* 
 
 Let us now turn to the eleventh chapter. That 
 chapter after mentioning, in the 33rd verse, the 
 captivity of the Jews under the Romans, passes 
 rapidly and without detail (in accordance with the 
 principle to which I have above referred) over the 
 present lengthened period of Jerusalem's desolation, 
 and hastening on to the " time of the end," renews 
 its detailed history as soon as he, who is emphati- 
 cally called ''THE KING," appears upon the 
 scene. ''THE KING X shall do according to his 
 v/ill ; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify 
 himself above every god, and shall speak marvel- 
 lous things against the God of gods, and shall 
 
 "^ Antiochus Epiphanes was doubtless a remarkable type 
 of Antichrist, and was generally so regarded by the early 
 Christian writers. Sulpitius Severus, born A.D. 366, says, 
 that his desire to establish uniformity led him not to per- 
 secute the Jews only, but the Gentiles too. " He (Antiochus) 
 did not even spare his Gentile subjects. He tried to make 
 them relinquish their inveterate superstitions, and to make 
 them adopt one form of worship {tmitm rittLni)P Lib. I., 
 cap. xxi. 
 
 For further remarks on this subject see " Prospects of the 
 Ten Kingdoms." 
 
 H 
 
98 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 prosper till the indignation be accomplished : for 
 that that is determined shall be done. -^ -^ -^ * 
 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace 
 between the seas in the glorious holy mountain ; 
 yet he shall come to his end, and none shall 
 help him. -^ ^ -^ ^ And AT THAT TIME thy 
 people {i.e,, Daniel's people — Israel) shall be deli- 
 vered, every one that shall be found written in 
 the book. And many of them that sleep in the 
 dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlast- 
 ing life, and some to shame and everlasting con- 
 tempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the 
 brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn 
 many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and 
 ever." 
 
 Are these things fulfilled ? Has there been one 
 who has prospered till the indignation against 
 Jerusalem Jtas been accomplished f Has all "that 
 determined " against Jerusalem been done ? Has 
 any one thus glorified himself on the glorious holy 
 mountain ? Has such an one been destroyed after 
 having so glorified himself, and that, at the time 
 of Israel's deliverance, and the resurrection of the 
 saints ? Is Israel delivered ? Are the saints 
 raised and shining as the brightness of the firma- 
 ment ? If, then, none of these things have yet 
 come to pass, the prophecy respecting this Wicked 
 King must still remain to be accomplished. 
 
 The seventh chapter of Daniel describes this 
 same last monarch of the Gentiles under the 
 
FUTURITY OF MANIFESTATION OF ANTICHRIST, 99 
 
 symbol of "a little horn," the agent of the power 
 of the Beast from which it springs — that Beast 
 representing all the kingdoms which were of old 
 included in the Roman Empire. This chapter is 
 precise in fixing the period of this monarch's evil 
 reign, as immediately antecedent to the Advent of 
 the Lord in glory; and thereby identifies itself 
 with the chapters we have already been consider- 
 ing. Thus in the eighth of Daniel, he is said to 
 ilourish " in the last end of the indignation " — in the 
 ninth, '' nntil the consummation'' — in the eleventh, 
 ■" until the indignation be accomplished " — in the 
 seventh, ^^ until the Ancient of days came, and judg- 
 ment was given to the saints of the high places; 
 nnd the time came that the saints possessed the 
 kingdom^ " End of the indignation," " consumma- 
 tion," and the like, are all equivalent expressions, 
 referring to the same period. If therefore the 
 passages that have been quoted from the eighth, 
 ninth, and eleventh chapters, are future, the pro- 
 phecy respecting the Little Horn in the seventh 
 chapter, must be future also. The Little Horn 
 could not reign after the indignation against Israel 
 had been accomplished. 
 
 Not that it is necessary to go from the seventh 
 chapter itself in order to prove the futurity of its 
 prediction respecting the Little Horn. That chapter 
 teaches • us that the whole of what was once the 
 Roman Empire (that is, from Assyria to Britain) is 
 to be divided into Ten kingdoms, and that these 
 
 H 2 
 
lOO AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Ten kingdoms, when once developed, are to continue 
 until the close of the dispensation. Are there any 
 such ten kingdoms dividing the Roman World at 
 present ? If not, there are no ten kings amongst 
 or behind whom Antichrist could arise ; or (to use 
 the symbols of another chapter) no ten toes of the 
 Image on which the Stone could fall and "grind 
 them to powder." The very fact that there is, at 
 present, no one who concentrates in his own 
 person the power of the whole Roman World is 
 of itself a sufficient evidence that the prediction 
 is future. When once he has arisen, he will not 
 cease to reign, and to persecute the saints through- 
 out all the kingdoms over which he rules, until 
 the Millennial kingdom comes. This is expressly^ 
 taught \n the 21st and 22nd verses of this chapter. 
 "I beheld, and the same horn made war with the 
 saints, and prevailed against them, UNTIL the 
 Ancient of days came, and judgment was given 
 to the saints of the high places (see Chaldee) ; 
 and the time came that the saints possessed the 
 kingdom/' The present is a time of latitudinarian 
 liberality, not of persecution. Even if the Western 
 Branch of the Roman Empire were alone regarded, 
 there is at present no Sovereign Individual, or 
 System, that rules over it all — neither are there 
 Ten kingdoms to be found within its scope. 
 
 Nor are the statements of the New Testament 
 discordant with the Old. It would be impossible, 
 if Daniel and the Revelation both describe (as 
 
FUTURITY OF MANIFESTATION OF ANTICHRIST. lOI 
 
 they confessedly do) the period which immediately" 
 precedes the appearing of the Lord, that they 
 should speak of the same Ten kingdoms, and of 
 the same city — Jerusalem — without mentioning the 
 great characteristic fact of that period, viz., the 
 manifestation and reign of this great instrument of 
 -Satan. 
 
 Accordingly, we find the Revelation describing 
 him in close accordance with Daniel, and using in 
 .some instances almost the same expressions : 
 
 'Daniel. " He shall speak great words 
 
 against the Most High." (vii. 25.) 
 
 Revelation. " Speaking great and blasphemous 
 
 things." (xiii. 5.) 
 
 ^Daniel. " He made war with the saints 
 
 and prevailed." (vii. 21.) 
 
 Revelation. " He made war with the saints 
 
 and overcame them." (xiii. 7.) 
 " Daniel. *' They shall be given into his 
 
 hand until a time and times and 
 the dividing of time/' i.e,^ 1260 
 ^ days. (vii. 25.) 
 
 Revelation. " Authority was given unto him to 
 act forty and two months," i.e.y 
 1260 days. (xiii. 5.) 
 In the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation, the 
 distinctive characteristics of Antichrist are given 
 even more fully than in the chapters we have 
 been considering. Each fresh characteristic as it 
 is mentioned adds new proof that the person so 
 
 -<! 
 
 < 
 
102 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 characterised has not yet appeared. Who is there 
 for example that is now "making war with the 
 saints and overcoming them " throughout the 
 WHOLE Roman World? 
 
 Who is there that controls the Ten diadems ot 
 the Roman World? 
 
 Where are there any such Ten diadems ? 
 
 Who is there worshipped by every one whose 
 name is not written in the Lamb's book of Life ? 
 
 Who is there, who, himself distinctively a king,. 
 has standing in his presence, one who acts as an 
 ecclesiastical minister on his behalf, and gathers 
 around the King, or rather, around his Image, the 
 worship of all over whom he reigns ? 
 
 Where is there any such Image, or any such 
 worship now ? 
 
 Where is fire being made to come down from 
 Heaven in the sight of men, or where is there 
 an Image miraculously made to speak ? 
 
 None of these things are seen as yet The 
 "strong delusion" and THE "deceiving miracles,"^ 
 of which the Apostle speaks are not yet sent. 
 But must not a strong delusion have fallen on ns, 
 if we believe that these things have been accom- 
 plished in a past 1260 years, or in any other past 
 period ? Do we not, if we assent that these things 
 have occurred, or that they are occurring now, 
 constitute ourselves '* false witnesses against God,'* 
 cara Oeov. Ignorance is no excuse ; for ignorance, 
 in the presence of such light as God has been 
 
FUTURITY OF MANIFESTATION OF ANTICHRIST. IO3 
 
 pleased to vouchsafe on these subjects, must be 
 self-caused, voluntary, ignorance. Could the Scrip- 
 tures be '^searched'' and such ignorance continue? 
 
 The countries once included within the Roman 
 Empire, are those which are to be placed under 
 the headship of this great instrument of Satan. 
 We cannot wonder that these countries should be 
 judicially visited, and that *^ strong delusion should 
 be sent on them to believe a lie," when we re- 
 member how great their responsibilities have been. 
 In these countries the light of revelation, first 
 through Israel, and afterwards through the Chris- 
 tian Church, has most peculiarly shone. In them, 
 Christ and His Apostles personally ministered. 
 Supreme power, also, in the earth, and consequent 
 responsibility as to the use of such power, has from 
 the time of Nebuchadnezzar to the present hour, 
 rested with these nations. Here, arts and civiliza- 
 tion have chiefly flourished; and the influence thus 
 possessed has stamped, religiously and secularly, a 
 character on the whole world. And what has that 
 character been ? It would be vain to argue, if con- 
 science does not rightly answer that question. 
 
 The Eastern part of the Roman Empire was the 
 birthplace of Christianity. Syria, Asia Minor, and 
 the European parts of Turkey, abounded with 
 Churches which the Apostles themselves watched 
 over, and which for a time walked worthy of Him 
 who had called them into His kingdom and glory. 
 Antioch, Ephesus, Thessalonica, Corinth, as known 
 
104 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 in Scripture history, recall to our minds the fresh- 
 ness and power of Apostolic Christianity. In 
 those, and in other cities, Churches were gathered 
 worthy of being represented before God by "Can- 
 dlesticks of gold " — lamps of the Sanctuary. But 
 what are those regions now ? Has the light by 
 which they were thus visited been retained? No. 
 Christianity itself became in those very cities cor- 
 rupted ; and now the hardened Apostasy of Ma- 
 homedanism, and the abominations of the Eastern 
 Churches, as evil or more evil than those of 
 Popery itself, have settled in upon the very coun- 
 tries which were once the home of the early and 
 pure testimony of Christian Truth. 
 
 And if we turn to the Western division of the 
 Roman Empire — speaking generally, it is divided 
 between the superstitions and idolatries of Popery, 
 and the rising power of democratic infidelity. Pro- 
 testantism as exhibited in Switzerland, and many 
 of the German provinces, has become the parent 
 of heartless infidelity. In the midst of all these 
 corruptions, stand, proudly isolated, the Jewish 
 people — civilised, skilful, and energetic, but not less 
 opposed to God and to His ways, than when they 
 said of the Lord of glory, "Not this man, but 
 Barabbas " — ignorant of their own present condi- 
 tion, and of their future prospects, yet scarcely 
 more ignorant than the professing Christianity that 
 surrounds them. 
 
 But whilst the energies of Truth have thus de- 
 
FUTURITY OF MANIFESTATION OF ANTICHRIST. I05 
 
 cayed, the vigour of the world under Satan, aided 
 by debased and prostituted Christianity, is being 
 developed to an extent never before equalled. 
 Not only is the whole earth traversed, and its re- 
 sources laid open to human enterprise ; but the 
 inventions of art, and the discoveries of science, 
 have furnished men with so many new and mighty 
 instruments of action, that a fresh era has con- 
 fessedly been commenced in the history of man- 
 kind. The power thus acquired has already been 
 directed in part, and will be directed yet more 
 decidedly, towards the renovation of those coun- 
 tries, which were the birth-place and home of 
 early civilisation ; but which, because of their ini- 
 quity, have been smitten and brought low under 
 the judgments of God. The condition of Nineveh, 
 Babylon, Egypt, and Jerusalem, has borne witness 
 to the severity of the blow. But when renovated 
 by the influences of Western civilisation, will those 
 countries be at all nearer to God and to His truth, 
 than they were in times of old ? If Egypt, and 
 the cities of Asia Minor and Syria, are to be ino- 
 culated with the principles that prevail in France 
 or Italy, and (I may now add) England, will their 
 moral condition be better than in the days when 
 Pharaoh reigned in Egypt, or Nebuchadnezzar in 
 Babylon? And when we remember that the rege- 
 neration (as men will term it) of the East, is 
 mainly to be effected by the return of the Jews 
 hardened in guilt, to their own Land and City, 
 
I06 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 we can easily understand how great must be the 
 worldliness, and how flagrant the evil, of countries 
 that are moulded under their hand. That also 
 will be the hour when the Ephah in which 
 " Wickedness " is hidden is to be transplanted to 
 the Land of Shinar, and "set there upon her own 
 base." (See Zechariah v.) ^ 
 
 If at such a moment the Lord Jesus were again 
 presented to the world in the meek and lowly 
 ministration of grace, the result would be the 
 same as when He visited the earth before — He 
 would again be despised, rejected and abhorred. 
 The only difference would be, that the scorn would 
 be greater and the hatred more intense, even as He 
 said, " If they do these things in a green tree, what 
 shall be done in the dry.^" that is— if in the 
 youth time of their evil, they reject and crucify 
 Me, what will be done when the old age of ma- 
 tured iniquity shall have come ? 
 
 The Holy One of God will indeed never again be 
 subjected to the contumely and reproach of a rebel- 
 lious world, except indeed as He still suffers in 
 His people. The world has been tested by the 
 mission of Him who came in His Father's name, 
 and it has rejected Him. It is soon to be tested 
 by another who shall come in his own name, glo- 
 rifying himself; and him it will receive. He will 
 be one in whom Satan will peculiarly dwell — *' his 
 
 ■^ See this subject considered in " Prospects of the Ten 
 Kingdoms of the Roman World," as advertised at end. 
 
FUTURITY OF MANIFESTATION OF ANTICHRIST. 10/ 
 
 coming,'^ says the Apostle, " shall be after the in- 
 working {evep^eiav) of Satan." 
 
 Satan indeed will not, for he cannot, become 
 man. It belongs to Omnipotence alone, to unite 
 two distinct natures in one undivided Person. Jesus 
 was not indwelt in by God merely, He zvas God 
 manifest in the flesh — God and man in one Per- 
 son. This coming instrument of Satan, will not 
 be Satan manifest in the flesh. He will be simply 
 a man ; but a man in whom Satan will live and act, 
 in a manner in which he has never lived and acted 
 in man before. God will permit it, for the coming 
 of Antichrist is a judicial infliction of His hand. 
 
 Satan has long studied and practised on the hu- 
 man heart. He knows how to dazzle men by the 
 attractiveness of power, and how to cause them ta 
 quail before its terror. He can gratify the taste by 
 refinement, and the understanding by knowledge ; 
 he can delight the ear with melody, and the eye 
 by beauty ; he can stimulate energy, direct enquiry, 
 and employ his own knowledge of the secrets of 
 creation in assisting men to subdue the powers of 
 nature to their will — delighted to make men great 
 if only he can control that greatness when at- 
 tained, and use it against God. 
 
 Hitherto, indeed, his power has been restrained 
 and often counteracted by the truth and testi- 
 monies of God. The brightest fires of Satan's 
 kindling cannot but burn dimly whenever God 
 sheds around them the power of heavenly light. 
 
I08 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 They require the full darkness of night in order 
 to shine in the strength of their deceiving bright- 
 ness. Hitherto light has been continually given 
 from above, but a time is coming when it will be 
 peculiarly withdrawn ; and God will Himself send 
 on men "strong delusion, that they should believe 
 a lie." 
 
 If we examine the present condition of the 
 nations that fall within the scope of the ancient 
 Roman Empire, we find that all are more or less 
 in a state of transition. Not only are the govern- 
 ments being remodelled, but, besides this, those 
 forms of religion which have been hitherto domi- 
 nant in particular countries are being so counter- 
 balanced by the introduction of other influences 
 as to be deprived of that exclusive pre-eminence 
 which they have, in past ages, possessed. In 
 Turkey, for example, and in Egypt many prin- 
 ciples are being gradually introduced which will 
 take from Mahomedanism exclusive dominance 
 there. The reign of Popery in countries where it 
 was once supreme is being checked by other 
 influences. In our own country the increase of 
 Popery, as well as the spread of latitudinarian 
 infidelity, is taking from Protestantism the exclu- 
 sive position it once occupied here. Neutralisation 
 of religious influences anciently dominant, not their 
 destruction, is the characteristic of the present hour. 
 Thus it will become more easy for the secular 
 power to assume the place of authoritative control 
 
FUTURITY OF MANIFESTATION OF ANTICHRIST. 109 
 
 and to mould the religious systems into sub- 
 servient subjection. 
 
 All this might be well, if the secular power were 
 indeed the servant of God's truth and appointed 
 by Him, for the work of final rectification. But 
 secular government among the Gentiles, never has 
 been the servant of the Truth. As regards its pre- 
 sent condition, the constitutional principle, or (as 
 it has been termed) the principle of self-govern- 
 ment, must necessarily make governments subser- 
 vient to the will of the people. In former times^ 
 even after they began to acknowledge the people as 
 the source of power, Governments professed to have 
 a judgment of their own, and to rule according to 
 that judgment. Now, they seek to embody the 
 will of society — in other words, to embody and 
 carry out the will of those, whom, professedly they 
 govern, but whom in reality they serve. If Juda- 
 ism be found among the people, Judaism must be 
 honoured. However abominable the idolatries of 
 India and the East, they must be upheld. A 
 Temple must be maintained for Juggernaut ; and 
 the mysteries of Buddha reverenced. This has 
 been habitually done by England in India, and in 
 Ceylon. The Priests of Rome must be educated 
 and sustained ; Socinianism, if necessary, patronised 
 or endowed ; for society has a right to think for 
 itself, and the mind of society is that which 
 government is intended to express. Many, too, 
 . are beginning to speak as if God had not re- 
 
no AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 vealed His will ; or revealed it so obscurely, that 
 it cannot be understood. " Truth and error, (says 
 a living"^ and influential statesman,) what words, 
 what mockeries are these in the lips of such 
 as we, and of all like us ! Truth and error ! — 
 which perhaps may escape the accurate discern- 
 ment even of angelic natures. I doubt even if we 
 could summon before us some bright inhabitant 
 of the upper sphere, whether he might not be the 
 foremost to tell us, that the Almighty has made 
 all His creatures to love Him, and none to com- 
 prehend Him." The inference from this (which is 
 simply disguised Deism) is, that, if truth cannot be 
 distinguished from error. Governments need not, in- 
 deed cannot, attempt to discriminate between them. 
 It is assumed that the Scriptures are so obscure, 
 that they cannot be appealed to as a guide. They 
 will not help us to determine what Idolatry is, or 
 whether it be, or be not, a sin. It is possible that 
 the doctrines of Mahomet, and of Socinus, and of 
 " the Jewish Teacher," may be only various aspects 
 of truth, capable of being reconciled, if we had 
 only sufficient penetration to discern the hidden 
 links of unity. At all events, whatever be right, 
 or whatever be wrong, the mind of society must 
 be expressed; and the government, seeing that it 
 owes to society its creation and its authority, is 
 the fit organ for its expression. Such are the 
 
 ■^ He has died since the second edition of this work was 
 published. 
 
FUTURITY OF MANIFESTATION OF ANTICHRIST. Ill 
 
 growing principles of the present hour. Shall not 
 all who fear God strive against them, and resist 
 them, even, if needful, unto death? Shall they not 
 cleave more closely than ever to the plain, clear, 
 simple, instructions of God's Word, and show in 
 their testimonies, and in their lives, that those in- 
 structions are plain and simple, and that they can 
 be understood, explained, and acted on. God has 
 not forgotten the preciousness of His truth, nor for- 
 saken the plans of His own eternal wisdom. He 
 will in due time visit these abominations ; although 
 for the present, He may allow them to progress, 
 until they are in their maturity, and meet those 
 vials of wrath of which the Book of Revelation 
 warns. 
 
 At the present moment, men are not prepared 
 for the blasphemies of open infidelity."^' In some 
 instances, as has been lately seen in France, such 
 blasphemies are also connected with principles 
 which shake the arrangements of society to their 
 centre. But even where this is not the case, men 
 are not yet prepared for an open rejection of the 
 name and authority of God ; and are therefore 
 not ripe for the full development of Antichris- 
 tianism. An intermediate link is necessary. 
 
 Accordingly, the system which is now beginning 
 to prevail, although it has begun to exclude God's 
 
 * This can scarcely be said now. Infidelity has fearfully 
 advanced since the time when these words were first written 
 
112 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 truth from governmental arrangements, excludes ity 
 not on the ground of its being valueless, but be- 
 cause of the difficulty of determining what truth 
 is : and the still greater difficulty of acting on it, 
 if determined. Necessity therefore is made the 
 plea. It is impossible, men say, in the present 
 condition of society, to legislate uncompromisingly 
 for Truth, whatever Truth may be. Expediency 
 will not permit it. Such is men's justification of 
 their new system ; and then too it is argued, that 
 it is a system that does practically succeed. That 
 it should seem to succeed, is not to be wondered 
 at; for when we remember the firm unbend- 
 ing character of Truth, we might expect that 
 the course of human things would run more 
 smoothly, when freed from its resisting influences; 
 and smoothness is likely to be deemed prosperity,, 
 especially whilst a spurious philanthropic morality 
 throws, for a season, a delusive brightness over the 
 scene. 
 
 The manner in which this rising system will be 
 developed in those very countries of the East, in 
 which civilisation found its earliest home — its con- 
 nexion with that commercial greatness which is be- 
 coming THE pillar of the nations' strength, and 
 the recognition of this system, when established in 
 "the Land of Shinar," by the kingdoms of the 
 Roman world, as a federal system which they will 
 unitedly acknowledge, are subjects on which I do 
 not enlarge, because they are elsewhere consi- 
 
FUTURITY OF MANIFESTATION OF ANTICHRIST. II 3 
 
 dered."^ It will be a System distinctively secular ; 
 but false religious systems, whether Jewish, or 
 Mahomedan, or nominally Christian, (Popery, will 
 probably be among the foremost,)! will finally bow 
 to it, and become its handmaids. They will sell 
 themselves to be the channels of its influence, and 
 will thus add to their own intrinsic evil, the guilt 
 of being the pillars of this form of concentrated 
 ungodliness. The Harlot of the seventeenth of 
 Revelation and "the Woman sitting in the Ephah'* 
 (Zech. V.) reveal the history of this evil system. 
 
 Antichristianism, in its full development, comes 
 as God's scourge upon the iniquity of this system. 
 Antichrist, when he first arises, will adopt and sus- 
 tain it. The Woman is seen seated on the Beast. 
 But as soon as he has sufficient power, as soon as 
 the Ten Kings, having one mind, give their power 
 and authority unto him (Rev. xvii. 13), he will 
 turn upon the System whose servant he has been, 
 destroy it, and become himself supreme. He will 
 be the last centre of all governmental authority in 
 the Roman earth, and all shall wonder after and 
 worship him, whose names are not written in the 
 Lamb's book of life. The liberty of the mind of 
 
 ■^ See " Babylon and its Revival," and " Prospects of Ten 
 Kingdoms," and " Europe and the East," as advertised at end. 
 
 t That is to say, Popery if it remain in the Ten Kingdoms, 
 must there consent to aquiesce in the Latitudinarianism of 
 the day. In other parts of the world it will probably main- 
 tain, or seek to maintain, its high pi^etensions. ;% 
 
114 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 man and all the other boasts of latitudinarianism 
 will vanish then. One will have come in his own 
 name, and God will allow him to enforce the 
 authority of that name, and Jew and Gentile alike 
 will bow beneath his power throughout all the ap- 
 pointed sphere. They will own him as their Master, 
 and worship him as their God. 
 
 Such are the prospects of the nations in the 
 midst of which we dwell. The tide of circum- 
 stances is setting rapidly towards this last great 
 gathering point of evil. It is an hour when we 
 peculiarly need watchfulness and wisdom, that we 
 might judge every principle and every system, 
 simply by the word of God. God's truths and 
 God's principles, remain unchanged. He has re- 
 vealed them, and revealed them plainly, by His 
 holy Apostles and Prophets, and blessed are they 
 who cleave to them, and seek to walk according 
 to their testimonies. In the midst of the Anti- 
 christian darkness of the closing hour, there are 
 some who will keep and testify to Truth. They 
 are mentioned in the Revelation as those "who 
 keep the commandments of God, and have the 
 testimony of Jesus" (Rev. xii. 17) ; and even in 
 heaven, their faithfulness is remembered with praise 
 and with thanksgiving, as having '^ overcome be- 
 cause of the blood of the Lamb, and because of 
 the word of their testimony ; and they loved not 
 their life even unto death." (Rev. xii. 1 1.) 
 
IIS 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE RESPECTING ANTICHRIST 
 COMPARED. 
 
 The passages which have been quoted in the pre- 
 ceding chapter to prove the futurity of Antichrist 
 have been chiefly taken from the Book of Daniel. 
 But Daniel is not the only one of the Old Testa- 
 ment Prophets who refers to the actings of this 
 Wicked One and his connexion with the Land of 
 Israel. In the eleventh of Zechariah we find one 
 remarkable passage which is, as yet, manifestly 
 unfulfilled. After the Prophet had described the 
 rejection of the true Shepherd of Israel, and His 
 valuation at thirty pieces of silver, the prophecy 
 continues thus : " And the Lord said unto me, 
 Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish 
 shepherd ; For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd IN 
 THE LAND, which shall not visit those that be 
 cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor 
 heal that that is broken, nor feed that that 
 standeth still • but he shall eat the flesh of the 
 fat, and tear their claws in pieces. Woe to the 
 idol shepherd that leaveth the flock ! the sword 
 shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye : 
 his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye 
 
 I 2 
 
Il6 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 shall be utterly darkened." These words are evi- 
 dently unfulfilled, for since the Jews were scattered 
 by the Romans no such person has been raised 
 up to be their shepherd '^ in the Land!' 
 
 In Isaiah, also, several prophecies are found 
 respecting him. Thus in the eleventh chapter,, 
 after describing what the Messiah of Israel shall 
 be, and what the establishment of His kingdom 
 will effect, when "He shall judge the poor with 
 righteousness, and reprove with equity for the 
 meek of the earth " — the Prophet adds, *' He shall 
 smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and 
 with the breath of His lips shall He slay the 
 Wicked One." (Isaiah xi.) That these last words 
 refer to Antichrist, is manifest from the use made 
 of them by the Apostle in the Thessalonians. 
 
 f And with the breath of His lips shall He 
 ■{ slay the Wicked One. 
 
 '-TT 'T tt:- : 
 
 f The Wicked One whom the Lord shall con- 
 J sume by the breath of His mouth, 
 j 'O avo/-to9 ov 6 Kvpio<; dvaXdoaec rS Trvevfiart 
 \^ Tov arofjiaTO^ avrov. 
 
 In the tenth chapter of Isaiah, we find a very 
 full description of the actings of this last great 
 scourge of Israel. The concluding verses of the 
 ninth and the commencing verses of the tenth 
 chapter foretell the long series of successive 
 chastisements which the Lord would send upon 
 
SCRIPTURE RESPECTING ANTICHRIST. 11/ 
 
 the wickedness of Israel. Each clause of the 
 description concludes with those oft-repeated 
 words : " For all this His anger is not turned 
 away, but His hand is stretched out still." 
 
 But after the fourth verse of the tenth chapter 
 these words are repeated no longer, because the 
 hour of the last infliction on Israel will have 
 come. A king of Assyria is to be raised up by 
 whom " the Lord will perform His whole work 
 upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem" (verse 12), 
 and at the time of whose destruction " the indigna- 
 Hon shall cease " (verse 25). The rise of this 
 person, therefore, must be future; for the Lord 
 has not yet *' performed His whole work " against 
 Jerusalem, neither has the time of the ^^ last 
 indignation'' come. His commission against Israel 
 is thus described : " I will send him against an 
 hypocritical nation, and against the people of my 
 wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, 
 and to take the prey, and to tread them down 
 like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth 
 not so, neither doth his heart think so; ^ "^ "^ 
 wherefore it shall come to pass, that whe7t the 
 Lord hath performed His whole work up07i Mount 
 Zion and on Jerusalem^ I will punish the fruit of 
 the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the 
 ^lory of his high looks. For he saith, By the 
 strength of my hand I have done it, and by my 
 wisdom; -^ -^ -^ Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord 
 of Hosts, send among His fat ones leanness; and 
 
Il8 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the 
 burning of a fire. And the light of Israel shall 
 be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame : and 
 it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briars 
 {i.e.^ all his defences) in one day ; . . . . And it 
 shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of 
 Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of 
 Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that 
 smote them ; but shall stay upon the Lord, the 
 Holy One of Israel, in truth. ^The remnant shall 
 return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the 
 mighty God. For though thy people Israel be as- 
 the sand of the sea, yet [only] a remnant of them 
 shall return : the consumption decreed shall over- 
 flow with righteousness. For the Lord God of 
 Hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, 
 in the midst of all the Land." No words can be 
 plainer than these. They cannot be fulfilled until 
 " the remnant of Jacob shall return unto the 
 mighty God," when '' the Lord, the Lord of 
 Hosts, shall lop the bough (of Gentile power) with 
 terror : and the high ones of stature shall be hewn 
 down, and the haughty shall be humbled." la 
 other words, the day of man will have ended, and 
 the day of the Lord have come. 
 
 The last verse of the ninth of Daniel contains a 
 virtual quotation from the passage just cited from 
 Isaiah x. The words of Daniel, literally trans- 
 lated, are as follow : "And he (the prince that 
 cometh) shall confirm a covenant with the many 
 
SCRIPTURE RESPECTING ANTICHRIST. II 9 
 
 (i.e.^ with the multitude) for one hebdomad ; and 
 at half the hebdomad, he shall cause sacrifice and 
 oblation to cease, and upon the pinnacle of abomi- 
 nations {i.e., the idolatrous pinnacle) shall be that 
 which causeth desolation ; even until the consum- 
 mation, and that determined, be poured upon the 
 causer of desolation.'^ 
 
 The words " consummatioti " and " that determined^' 
 show that the two passages in Isaiah and Daniel 
 speak of the same event, and of the same period. 
 In the Hebrew this connexion is clearly seen : 
 
 For a consummation, and that determined, the 
 Lord Jehovah of Hosts maketh. (Is. x. 23.) 
 
 Even until the consummation, and that deter- 
 mined. (Dan. ix. 27.) 
 " The King of Assyria," " the Prince that shall 
 come," and " the Desolater," are thus shown to 
 be the same. 
 
 The following quotations identify " the King " of 
 the eighth chapter of Daniel, with "the Prince that 
 shall come" in the ninth chapter. 
 
 f viii. II. He shall take away the daily sacrifice, 
 ix. 27. He shall cause sacrifice and oblation 
 
 to cease, 
 viii. 19. He shall prosper in the last end of 
 
 the indignation. 
 ix. 27. -^ 5{^ -^ till that determined is poured 
 on the desolater. 
 
 I' 
 
I20 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Thus "the King of Assyria" (Is. x.), "the Prince 
 that shall come " (Dan. ixi), and " the King of 
 fierce countenance" (Dan. viii.), are identified. 
 
 The following comparison proves the connexion 
 of the eighth with the latter part of the eleventh 
 chapter. 
 
 r viii. 9. He waxes great toward the pleasant 
 ^ land. 
 
 L xi. 41. He enters into the glorious land. 
 
 iviii. 17. At the time of the end shall be the 
 vision, 
 xi. 40, 41. At the time of the end shall he enter. 
 
 ' viii. 19, 24. He prospers in the last end of the 
 indignation. 
 xi. 36. He shall prosper till the indigna- 
 
 tion be accomplished. 
 
 Thus ^'- the King of Assyria " (Is. x.), " the Prince 
 that shall come " (Dan. ix.), " the King of fierce 
 countenance " (Dan. viii.), and " the King who shall 
 do according to his will/' are identified. 
 
 A comparison of Dan. xi. and Dan. vii. identifies 
 "the King who shall do according to his will" and 
 the little horn. 
 
 " vii. 25. He shall speak great words against the 
 Most High. 
 xi. 36. He shall speak marvellous things against 
 the God of gods. 
 
SCRIPTURE RESPECTING ANTICHRIST. 121 
 
 ' vii. 25. He changes times and laws, 
 xi. 37. He shall not regard the God of his 
 fathers, ^ -^ -^ nor any god, but 
 shall magnify himself above all. 
 
 vii. 22. He shall continue until the saints pos- 
 sess the kingdom, 
 j xi. 36. He shall prosper till the indignation be 
 L accomplished. 
 
 By a comparison of passages already made (page 
 loi) the Little Horn of the seventh of Daniel has 
 been shown to symbolise the same person as the 
 ten-horned Beast of the thirteenth of Revelation. 
 Thus " the King of Assyria " (Is. x.), " the Prince 
 that shall come" (Dan. ix.), "the King of fierce 
 countenance" (Dan. viii.), "the King who shall do 
 according to his will " (Dan. xi.), the '* little horn " 
 (Dan. vii.), and the ten-horned Beast (Rev. xiii.), are 
 shown to be identical. The following summary 
 clearly proves that the period spoken of in these 
 several chapters is the same : 
 
 '''The King of Assyria" (Is. x.)— 
 
 period — "When the indignation shall 
 cease" (v. 25), and "when 
 the Lord shall have fulfilled 
 His whole work upon Jeru- 
 salem." (v. 12.) 
 
 ■" The Prince that shall come " (Dan. ix.) — 
 
 period — " Until the consummation, 
 and that determined be 
 poured upon the Desola- 
 ter." (v. 27.) 
 
122 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ?gNQUIRY. 
 
 " The King of fierce countenance " (Dan. viii.) — 
 
 period — "The last end of the indig- 
 nation." (v. 23.) 
 " The King who shall do according to his will " (Dan. xi.) — 
 period — " Till the indignation be ac-^ 
 complished." (v. 36.) 
 " The little horn " (Dan. vii.)— 
 
 period — " Until the time comes for 
 the saints to possess the 
 kingdom." (v. 22.) 
 The ten-horned Beast (Rev. xiii.) — 
 
 period — Until the gathering at Arma^ 
 geddon, and the coming 
 forth of the Lord, with the 
 armies of Heaven following. 
 
 In the fourteenth of Isaiah, Antichrist is again 
 called the Assyrian. "The Lord of hosts hath 
 sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall 
 it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall 
 it stand : That I will break the Assyrian in my 
 Land, and upon my mountains tread him under 
 foot : then shall his yoke depart from off them, and 
 his burden depart from off their shoulders" — i.e.^ 
 the shoulders of Israel. 
 
 In the same chapter he is also called " the King 
 of Babylon," and " Lucifer" (the Bringer of light),, 
 because he will blasphemously assume the cha- 
 racter of Christ as the bright and morning star."^ 
 
 His connexion with Mount Zion, and the Temple 
 
 ■^ For the nature of his connexion with Babylon and 
 Assyria, see " Babylon — Its Revival " as advertised at end. 
 
SCRIPTURE RESPECTING ANTICHRIST. 1 23, 
 
 of God at Jerusalem, is distinctly marked in the 
 following passages : 
 
 Isaiah xiv. " I will sit also upon the Mount of 
 the congregation (Zion), in the sides 
 of the north." 
 
 Dan. viii. " By him the daily sacrifice was taken 
 away." 
 
 Dan. ix. " Upon the pinnacle of abominations 
 shall be that which causeth desola- 
 tion." 
 
 Dan. xi. " He shall plant the tabernacles of 
 his palace in the glorious holy moun- 
 tain." 
 
 Dan. xii. " From the time that the daily sacri- 
 fice shall be taken away, and the 
 abomination [idol] that maketh de- 
 solate set up," etc. 
 
 Matt. xxiv. " When ye shall see the abomination 
 of desolation (desolation-idol) spoken 
 of by Daniel the prophet, stand in 
 the Holy Place," etc. 
 
 2 Thess. ii. " He shall sit in the Temple of God,, 
 showing himself that he is God." 
 
 The idol or abomination (for the word is the 
 same in Hebrew) which is referred to in the pre- 
 ceding passages, is more fully described in Rev. xiii. 
 It is there spoken of as the great object of wor- 
 ship throughout the whole extent of Antichrist's 
 dominions — "And it was given unto him [the false 
 
124 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Prophet] to give breath unto the Image of the 
 Beast, that the Image of the Beast should both 
 :speak, and cause that as many as would not wor- 
 ship the Image of the Beast should be killed." 
 
 It is evident that none of these things have as 
 yet been fulfilled either at Jerusalem or elsewhere. 
 It is true indeed that every form of influential 
 wickedness that has yet appeared, has displayed 
 .some feature of evil that will finally be found in 
 Antichrist; for he will be the concentration of all 
 •evil. Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, An- 
 tiochus, Herod, may all be regarded as types or 
 forerunners of the last great Destroyer. God has 
 appointed them to be this, in order that we might 
 be forewarned. The same may be said of systems 
 like Popery, and individuals like Napoleon, who 
 liave appeared since the thread of the prophetic 
 narrative of Scripture was broken at the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem. Many of the principles of Anti- 
 christ were no doubt developed in the latter ; and 
 many of the features of the false Prophet who will 
 minister in the presence of Antichrist are traceable 
 in Popery. But none of these things, nor any 
 thing that has yet appeared among men, answer to 
 the specific descriptions by which Scripture identifies 
 the last great Destroyer. His reign is to be but for 
 a little season ; and with him the triumph of iniquity 
 will end for ever. 
 
 The two following quotations sufificiently show 
 
SCRIPTURE RESPECTING ANTICHRIST. 125^ 
 
 how distinctly the expectation of Antichrist, and 
 his future connexion with the Jews, was retained 
 in the early ages of Christianity; even after the 
 progress of corruption had perverted or destroyed 
 other branches of truth. The first is from Cyril, 
 who was Bishop of Jerusalem in the fourth century. 
 The second is from John Damascene, who lived in^ 
 the end of the seventh and beginning of the eighth 
 century. 
 
 Cyril. — But this afore-mentioned Antichrist comes when- 
 the times of the sovereignty of the Romans shall be fulfilled^ 
 and the concluding events of the world draw nigh. Ten 
 kings of the Romans arise at the same time, in different 
 places perhaps, but reigning at the same period. But after 
 these, the Antichrist is the eleventh, having by his magic and 
 evil skill, violently possessed himself of the Roman power. 
 Three of those who have reigned before him, he will subdue 
 — the other seven, he will hold in subjection to himself. At 
 first he assumes a character of gentleness (as if a wise and 
 understanding person) pretending both to moderation and 
 philanthropy, deceiving, both by lying miracles and prodigies- 
 which come from his magical deceptions, the Jews, as if he 
 were the expected Messiah. Afterwards, he will addict him- 
 self to every kind of evil, cruelty, and excess, so as to surpass 
 all who have been unjust and impious before him, having a 
 bloody and relentless and pitiless mind, and full of wily de- 
 vices against all, but especially against us Christians. But 
 after having dared such things for three years and six months, 
 he will be annihilated by the second glorious coming from 
 heaven of the Only begotten Son of God, even Him who is 
 our Lord and Saviour, Jesus, the true Messiah, who, having 
 destroyed Antichrist by the Spirit of His mouth, will deliver 
 him to the fire of Gehenna. 
 
126 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 John Damascene writes as follows : We ought to know 
 that THE Antichrist must come. It is true, indeed, that 
 •every one that doth not acknowledge that the Son of God 
 "hath come in the flesh, and that He is perfect God, and 
 hath become (in addition to being God) perfect man, is an 
 antichrist — nevertheless in a peculiar and especial manner 
 Tie is called Antichrist, who is to come at the conclusion of 
 the age. Accordingly, the Gospel must first be preached 
 among all the Gentiles, even as the Lord hath said, and 
 then Antichrist will come for the conviction of the rebellious 
 Jews, for the Lord said to them : "I have come in the 
 name of my Father, and ye receive me* not — another is 
 'Coming in his own name, and him ye will receive." So 
 also the Apostle : " Because they received not the love of 
 the truth, that they might be saved, and for this cause God 
 shall send upon them strong delusion," etc. Accordingly, 
 the Jews did not receive Him who is the Son of God, our 
 Lord and God, Jesus Christ ; but the Deceiver who calleth 
 himself God, him they will receive. That he will call him- 
 self God, the angel when teaching Daniel signifies thus — 
 " The gods of his fathers he (Antichrist) will not acknow- 
 ledge," etc. So also the Apostle : " Let no one man deceive 
 you by any means," etc. After quoting this passage from 
 the Thessalonians, John Damascene continues, " By the 
 Temple of God, he means not ours, but the ancient one of 
 the Jews ; for he will come not to us, but to the Jews. He 
 will come not on behalf of Christ, but against Christ and 
 those who are Christ's, therefore also he is called Anti- 
 christ.* (Page 299 — Vol. I.) 
 
 * For further quotations on this subject see " Prospects of 
 the Ten Kingdoms." 
 
12/ 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THOUGHTS ON MATTHEW XXIV. 
 
 From all that has been said in the preceding- 
 chapters, it is obvious that the great leading events 
 of "the end of this age" (Matt. xiii. 40) have 
 been revealed very plainly in the Old Testament 
 Prophets. They have spoken of the final visita- 
 tion on Jerusalem — of the destruction of the Gen- 
 tile power now paramount in the earth — of the 
 manifestation of the Messiah of Israel in glory — 
 and of the forgiveness and restitution of Jerusalem. 
 Consequently, these events must have been familiar 
 to the expectations of all who knew what God 
 had spoken through the Prophets of Israel. 
 
 When, therefore, the disciples of the Lord Jesus 
 stood around Him, as He was quitting for the last 
 time the gates of Jerusalem, and heard Him speak 
 of the desolation that was about to come upon 
 that City and its Temple, it was most natural that 
 their thoughts should instantly revert to the testi- 
 monies of the Prophets respecting the closing events 
 of the age — that they should think of what Daniel 
 and Zechariah had written, respecting the "last 
 end of the indignation," and imagine that the Lord 
 
128 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 was speaking respecting that same final hour of 
 visitation. How could they have thought other- 
 wise, with the knowledge they then possessed ? 
 Hence, as soon as He had spoken of the desola- 
 tion of the Temple, they instantly said, "Master, 
 when shall these things be?" — that is, when shall 
 this destruction, of which Thou hast spoken, fall 
 upon this Temple? — and, "what shall be the sign 
 of Thy coming, and of the end of the age ? " 
 
 They instantly connected (and herein lay their 
 error) the destruction of the Temple with " the 
 end of the age," and with the manifestation of the 
 Lord in glory. They imagined that when His 
 prediction respecting the overthrow of the Temple 
 should be accomplished. He would appear in His 
 glory and terminate the indignation against Jeru- 
 salem by the destruction both of its Gentile op- 
 pressors and of His own adversaries in Israel. It 
 was this error that the Lord Jesus, in the succeed- 
 ing prophecy, sought to correct. He had no de- 
 sire to lessen in their souls their apprehension of 
 those great events^ which are yet to occur at *^the 
 end of the age." He did not wish that they 
 should forget one word which the Prophets had 
 spoken respecting that all-important crisis in the 
 history of Israel and of men ; but He did desire to 
 correct their mistake as to the time of His appear- 
 ing, and to enlarge their knowledge respecting the 
 circumstances that were first to come to pass. 
 
 The history of the present Dispensation — the 
 
THOUGHTS ON MATTHEW XXIV. 1 29 
 
 Dispensation in which we live — was that of which 
 the disciples were chiefly ignorant. They imagined 
 that the time of suffering and reproach for the 
 servants of God was nearly concluded, and that 
 the kingdom of God was about immediately **to 
 APPEAR." They were uninstructed in the history 
 of Christianity through the long eighteen hundred 
 years which have since witnessed its rise and its 
 corruption. The long absence of their Master 
 from the earth — the character of the service in 
 which they were about to be employed, in preach- 
 ing the Gospel of the grace of God, and all the 
 attendant sorrows, were as yet unknown to them. 
 Of the corruptions of professing Christianity, and 
 how it would combine both with Judaism and 
 national Gentilism in giving birth to the anti- 
 christian abominations of the latter day — of all this 
 they knew nothing. They thought that the evil 
 generation then around them was almost imme- 
 diately to pass away from before the presence of 
 their Master, manifested as the King of Israel in 
 His glory ; and that it was to be succeeded by 
 that new generation who should "know the Lord," 
 whom men should call ''priests of the Lord, and 
 ministers of their God." 
 
 Accordingly, the first object of the Lord Jesus in 
 this prophecy, was to instruct them as to the cha- 
 racter of the period, in which they themselves 
 were about to serve and to suffer. He knew that 
 wars were about to come upon the land of Israel, 
 
 K 
 
I30 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 which would result in a more entire desolation of 
 Jerusalem than any that had yet been. He knew 
 that the sorrows thus about to come, would in 
 many respects resemble those more terrible cala- 
 mities which are to conclude the age; and that 
 His disciples, if not forewarned, would be likely to 
 regard these early sorrows (especially when Satan 
 had raised up false Christs around them) as signs 
 of the near approach of the end. Against this 
 He guards them. He tells them to beware of 
 regarding the coming wars and commotions as 
 signs of the end: "And Jesus answered and said 
 unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you ; 
 for many shall come in my name, saying, I am 
 Christ, and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear 
 of wars and rumours of wars ; see that ye be not 
 troubled, for all these things must come to pass. 
 BUT THE END IS NOT YET." 
 
 It would indeed have been joy to the disciples 
 if these events had ushered in the end. They 
 would have rested from their labours and received 
 their crown of life, and been numbered among 
 those " saints of the high places " to whom, it 
 had been said in Daniel, "the kingdom, and do- 
 minion, and greatness of the kingdom under the 
 whole heaven shall be given." Creation would 
 have been freed from the bondage of corruption, 
 and all the trees of the wood have clapped their 
 hands. Nation would have ceased to rise up 
 against nation, neither would they have learned 
 
THOUGHTS ON MATTHEW XXIV. 13I 
 
 war any more. The Lord would have opened His 
 hand to satisfy the desire of every living thing. 
 The Lord of Hosts would have reigned in Mount 
 Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients 
 gloriously. All this would have been joy to the 
 Disciples ; but they would have missed their dis- 
 tinctive honour and blessedness. That to which 
 they were specially called was to serve in the 
 midst of enemies, to know suffering, trial, and 
 reproach. They were to suffer first, and to reign 
 afterwards. 
 
 But how different was the scene about to be 
 opened before them. Christianity, after appearing 
 and being rejected in Jerusalem, was (like another 
 Naomi, driven from the land of her birth) to go 
 down and complete a sorrowful sojourn among the 
 Gentiles, there to lose its manhood and its 
 strength. The nations, unreached by its gracious 
 testimony, were to continue fierce monsters, devour- 
 ing one another. '' Nation,'' said our Lord, " shall 
 rise against nation, and kingdom against king- 
 dom." The relation of God to the earth, instead 
 of being one of Millennial peace, was to be a 
 relation of judgment. He would be obliged, 
 because of iniquity, to send the earthquake, the 
 pestilence, and the famine. " There shall be 
 famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers 
 places." The relation of the nations to the Church 
 was to be one of fierce and destructive persecu- 
 tion. " They shall deliver you up to be afflicted, 
 
 K 2 
 
132 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all 
 the Gentiles (twv idvoov) for My name's sake/' 
 And in the midst of these trials the energy of 
 the Church itself would decay; evil would arise 
 in its own bosom ; and because iniquity should 
 abound, the love of the greater part (rcov TroWwy), 
 even of Christ's own people, would wax cold ; and 
 it would be found a hard thing to hold fast unto 
 the end. '* He that shall ENDURE to the end, 
 the same shall be saved." 
 
 Such is the picture, drawn by our Lord Himself, 
 of the Dispensation in which we live. And how 
 truly has it been verified ! Yet this is the picture 
 which we, Gentile Christians, have ventured to re- 
 verse. " Wise in our own conceits," we have not 
 only borne false witness to Israel, and hidden the 
 prophecies which speak of the judgments about to 
 fall on them, and of the succeeding glory, but we 
 have perverted also, or buried out of sight, the 
 prophecies which speak of our own corruptions. 
 We have said that there has been, and shall be, 
 both in the Churches and in the world, progress 
 of light and increase of blessing; and neither the 
 most obvious facts nor the plainest testimonies of 
 Scripture have availed to awaken us from the 
 delusive dream. We turn to the countries where 
 St. Paul and the Apostles first spread the light of 
 Christianity, and we behold black, settled dark- 
 ness ; we look upon the western nations of Europe, 
 and we see worldliness — idolatry — infidelity ; we 
 
THOUGHTS ON MATTHEW XXIV. 1 33 
 
 look to the condition of real Christianity, we 
 discern unsettlement — discord — love waxing cold^ 
 and yet many still persist in saying that progress 
 is being made — progress according to Christ and 
 to God ; and some even assert that the Chris- 
 tianity of the present day stands in favourable 
 contrast with that of the Apostolic period. But 
 the Lord does not so judge. He has said, ''As 
 it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the 
 Son of Man is revealed." (Matt. xxiv. 37.) "This 
 know, that in the last days perilous times shall 
 come." "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse 
 and worse." (2 Tim. iii. 13.) Such is the picture 
 drawn by the word of God, and verified by each 
 day's experience. Nevertheless, in the midst of 
 all this ruin "the Gospel shall be preached for a 
 witness" — (observe the word, for a witness) — 
 throughout all the world (r) olKovixevrf)^ and then 
 shall the END come. 
 
 Here the first division of this prophecy con- 
 cludes. The Lord had given a brief and rapid 
 statement of the general character of events 
 throughout the Dispensation up to the "time of 
 the END." It is usual in Scripture to gvjo general 
 descriptions first. They are given first, and extend 
 over the whole of the period spoken of, and then 
 the same ground, or part of it, is retraced with 
 more particularity of detail. Accordingly, the next 
 division of this chapter, extending from the 15th 
 to the 28th verses inclusive, is as specific as the 
 
134 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 former part had been general. It refers to a 
 period yet future — the period termed in Daniel 
 "the time of the end," when Jerusalem shall again 
 be inhabited by her own people, and the iniquity 
 of Israel, of the Gentiles, and of a large portion 
 of professing Christianity, be gathered round a 
 common centre of apostasy in the worship of 
 Antichrist in Jerusalem. 
 
 And here we arrive at that part of the prophecy 
 in which the words of our Lord agree with those 
 of Daniel and the Prophets of the Old Testament, 
 He had indeed added new things ; for " a scribe 
 well instructed unto the kingdom of heaven 
 bringeth out of his treasures things 7iew and old!^ 
 He had given the moral histor}^ of the lengthened 
 period in which we live — a period respecting which 
 the Old Testament affords no detail, and now, in 
 proceeding to speak of the hour which immediately 
 precedes His appearing, He would necessarily 
 dwell on those events which form the great theme 
 of the Old Testament prophecy when treating of 
 "the time of the end." 
 
 I have already referred, in the previous chap- 
 ters, to the testimonies of Isaiah, Daniel, and 
 Zechariah, respecting that "time of the end." We 
 have seen that they all speak of Israel, still uncon- 
 vei'ted, being nationally in Jerusalem at the time 
 when the Lord appears. We have seen that they 
 speak of the Temple as existing ; of its being pro-^ 
 faned, and the idol of the Desolater being set 
 
THOUGHTS ON MATTHEW XXIV. 1 35 
 
 there; and that that period is said by Daniel to 
 be "a time of trouble, such as never was since 
 there was a nation, even to that same time.*' 
 These are the very things of which the Lord Jesus 
 speaks. He speaks of the idol (for "abomina- 
 tion " is a word used in Hebrew to denote an 
 idol) being set in the Holy Place. He speaks 
 of the time of trouble, such as never was. His 
 words are, in fact, a quotation of the words of 
 Daniel. The words in Daniel are, "a time of 
 trouble, such as never was since there was a na- 
 tion, even to that same time.'' (Dan. xii. i.) The 
 words in Matthew are, " There shall be great 
 tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of 
 the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." 
 (Ver. 22.) 
 
 It seems wonderful that any doubt should ever 
 have arisen as to the futurity of all that is re- 
 corded in this part of the prophecy — that is, from 
 verse 15 to 28 inclusive. There cannot be two 
 unequalled seasons of tribulation, and therefore the 
 reference by our Lord to the words of Daniel just 
 quoted would be alone sufficient to prove that the 
 period of which He speaks, is future still. For 
 who doubts the futurity of the words as found in 
 Daniel? They are there expressly connected, first, 
 with the destruction of that wicked king, who, 
 after " planting the tabernacles of his palace in the 
 glorious holy mountain, comes to his end, and none 
 shall help him " (Dan. xi. 45) ; secondly, with the 
 
136 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 deliverance and forgiveness of Daniel's people, 
 Israel; thirdly, with the resurrection of the saints. 
 It is the time when the "wise shall shine as the 
 brightness of the firmament, and they that turn 
 many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and 
 ever." Unless, therefore, we can say that Anti- 
 christ has glorified himself in Zion and been de- 
 stroyed, and that Israel has been forgiven, and that 
 all the sleeping saints have been raised, we must 
 admit that the time of unequalled tribulation 
 spoken of in Daniel is yet future; and if future 
 in Daniel, it must be future likewise when spoken 
 of by our Lord ; for, as 1 have already said, there 
 cannot be two tmequalled periods of woe.* 
 
 But again, even if the reference to the words of 
 Daniel were not conclusive (which it is, and there- 
 
 * The passage in Daniel to which I refer, is as follows : 
 "And he (Antichrist) shall plant the tabernacles of his 
 palace between the seas in the glorious holy Mountain 
 (Zion) ; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help 
 him. 
 
 "And AT THAT TIME shall Michael stand up, the great 
 Prince which standeth for the children of thy people {i.e. 
 Israel), and it shall be a time of trouble such as never was 
 since there was a nation even to that same time^ and at that 
 time shall thy people (Israel) be delivered, every one that 
 is found written in the book. And many of them that sleep 
 in the dust of the earth shall awake — some to everlasting 
 life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." For 
 further remarks on this passage, see " Prospects of Ten 
 Kingdoms," p. 264. 
 
THOUGHTS ON MATTHEW XXIV. 1 37 
 
 fore no other argument need be added), yet a care- 
 ful examination of the words of our Lord, as re- 
 corded in Matthew, would sufficiently prove the 
 same thing. For His mention of the unequalled 
 season of tribulation is His reply to the enquiry 
 of His disciples respecting the sign of His coming. 
 They had asked, "What shall be the sign of Thy 
 coming, and of the end of the age V In the first 
 part of the prophecy He tells them of certain 
 events which are not the sign of His coming 
 (ver. 6), but in this second part of His prophecy, 
 He speaks of this unequalled season of tribulation 
 as being the great constituted sign. "IMME- 
 DIATELY " — (no word can be more emphatic ; it 
 is the emphatic word of the clause) — "immediately 
 after the tribulation of those days shall the sun 
 be darkened, and the moon shall not give her 
 light, ^ "J^- '5«- and then shall appear the sign of the 
 Son of Man m heaven." And seeing that there 
 is at this present moment, no such season of tribu- 
 lation (" a tribulation such as never was ") resting 
 either upon Jew or Gentile, that the Jews are being 
 relieved even of that lighter pressure which has for 
 ages borne on them, and that they are "to be 
 holpen with a little help, and that many will cleave 
 to them with flatteries" (Dan. xi. 34), it follows that 
 the unequalled season of sorrow, which is to be im- 
 mediately followed by the appearing of the Lord, 
 must be future. 
 Nor would the argument be less conclusive, if 
 
138 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 founded simply on the words "abomination of de- 
 solation/' Since our Lord spake these words, no 
 idol has ever been set in the sanctuary at Jeru- 
 salem. The Romans, even if they had desired it 
 (which they did not) would have been unable to 
 set an idol there ; for during the capture of the 
 city, the Temple was, by means of a firebrand 
 accidentally thrown by a Roman soldier, burnt to 
 the ground. The sanctuary therefore was destroyed, 
 and it has never since been restored; consequently, 
 neither Roman, nor Saracen, or Turk, would have 
 been able (even if they had wished it) to plant an 
 idol there.* 
 
 But this argument becomes even more conclu- 
 sive when connected with the words of Daniel : 
 and it must be so connected, because our Lord 
 Himself says, " when ye see the abomination of de- 
 solation, spokeii of by Daniel the PropheC (Ver. 15.) 
 
 There are three passages in Daniel which speak 
 of an idol in connexion with the temple of Jeru- 
 salem. A King, named Antiochus Epiphanes, who 
 lived about a hundred and sixty-eight years before 
 our Lord, placed an idol in the Temple of God at 
 Jerusalem, and caused it to be worshipped there. 
 This is referred to in the 31st verse of Daniel xi. 
 where it is said that this king, and they who are 
 with him "shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and 
 
 * It is remarkable that the Romans are referred to in 
 Daniel as " destroying the city and sanctuary " (chap. ix. 26), 
 but_^not as planting the abomination. 
 
THOUGHTS ON MATTHEW XXIV. 1 39 
 
 shall place the abomination that maketh desolate/' 
 But seeing that this was done more than a cen- 
 tury and a half before our Lord was born, the 
 prophecy of our Lord in Matthew can have no re- 
 ference thereto. It was a fact accomplished, and 
 therefore incapable of being predicted."^ 
 
 * The history of Antiochus is important, as being evi- 
 dently intended to foreshadow the actings of the last great 
 Gentile persecutor in Jerusalem. The first chapter of the 
 first of Maccabees, which is perfectly authentic, should be 
 read throughout. It gives a vivid impression of what the 
 future scene in Jerusalem is to be. Antiochus is there said 
 to have " set up the abomination of desolation," and " sacri- 
 fice was offered upon the idol altar which was upon the 
 altar of God." 
 
 "Now the fifteenth day of the month Casleu, in the hun- 
 dred and forty and fifth year, they set up the abomination 
 of desolation upon the altar, and builded idol altars through- 
 out the cities of Judah on every side — and burnt incense at 
 the doors of their houses and in the streets. And when 
 they had rent in pieces the books of the law which they had 
 found, they burnt them with fire. And wheresoever was 
 found with any the book of the Testament, or if any con- 
 sented to the law, the king's commandment was that they 
 should put him to death. Thus did they by their authority 
 to the Israelites every month, to as many as were found in 
 the cities. Now the five and twentieth day of the month 
 they did sacrifice upon the idol altar which was upon the 
 altar of God. At which time, according to the command- 
 ment, they put to death certain women that had caused 
 their children to be circumcised ; and they hanged their in- 
 fants about their necks, and rifled their houses and slew 
 them that had circumcised them." I Maccabees i. 
 
 These things had occurred not very long before the Lord 
 
140 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 The other two passages in Daniel, in which the 
 " abomination of desolation " is mentioned, refer to 
 a time which is still future. The first of these is 
 Daniel ix. 27, of which the literal translation is as 
 follows : " And upon the pinnacle of abominations 
 {i.e. the idolatrous pinnacle) shall be the Desolater, 
 €ven until the consummation and that determined 
 be poured upon the Desolater." In the preceding 
 paper, I have remarked on this passage, and on 
 the force of the words " consummation " and " that 
 determined.""^ Unless therefore we can prove that 
 the close of Jewish desolation has been already- 
 reached, and that all " that is determined '* has 
 been poured upon the last great "Desolater," it 
 follows that the setting up of the abomination of 
 desolation, is an event yet to be accomplished. 
 
 The other place in which the abomination of 
 desolation is mentioned, is in the nth verse of 
 chapter xii. This must be future, because the 
 completed period of Jewish blessing is mentioned as 
 occurring 133S days after it has been set up. Since 
 therefore the words of our Lord in Matthew can- 
 not refer to Antiochus, who lived 160 years before 
 
 Jesus was born. They were fresh in the remembrance of 
 Israel. They well understood what "abomination of desola- 
 tion" meant. When the Lord therefore used that expres- 
 sion, it was one which the disciples found little difficulty in 
 apprehending. 
 
 "^ See p. 119. 
 
THOUGHTS ON MATTHEW XXIV. 141 
 
 the Lord Jesus came, they must be quoted from 
 one of the other passages, and both these are 
 future, and belong to the close of Jewish desolation. 
 
 And can we, after all that we have read in 
 Isaiah and in Daniel respecting the history of 
 Antichrist and of Israel in the latter day, doubt 
 respecting the meaning of the passage before us? 
 Are not the Jews to return to Jerusalem in un- 
 belief? Will they not rebuild their Temple ? Are 
 they not quite ready to welcome any one who shall 
 come to them, glorious in this world's glory, and 
 to make him their staff whereon to lean? They 
 would 7iot receive Jesus of Nazareth, their King.. 
 They saw no beauty in Him that they should de- 
 sire Him ; but when another shall come to them 
 (as this great messenger of Satan will come) in 
 his own name, him they will receive. (John v. 43.) 
 We read in the Revelation of his glory, for he is 
 to wear the ten diadems of the Roman world — we 
 read also of his Image, and of its being wor- 
 shipped. How then can we doubt that the abo- 
 mination of desolation will indeed stand in the 
 holy place, and that Antichrist will be worshipped 
 there. " He as God shall sit in the Temple of 
 God, showing himself that he is God." (2 Thess. 
 ii. 4.) 
 
 It is possible that men now living may behold 
 these things; for the time is at hand. But how- 
 ever this may be, there will be some "holding the 
 faith of Jesus," who will be in Jerusalem at that 
 
142 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 hour. They may tarry there until then, but as 
 soon as this consummation of blasphemy takes 
 place, they are commanded instantly to depart. 
 They are commanded instantly to flee, because the 
 Lord God of Israel — He who will have been so 
 long outraged and contemned, will at last pour 
 forth the fulness of His wrath upon that Land 
 and City, and will send upon Jerusalem tribula- 
 tion such as never was since there was a nation, 
 ^ven to that same hour." His chastening hand 
 will deal in overwhelming fury with Israel then : 
 "You only have I known of all the families of the 
 earth : therefore I will punish you for all your ini- 
 quities.*' (Amos iii. 2.) " Except those days should 
 be shortened, no flesh should be saved, but for the 
 elect's sake those days shall be shortened." (Ver. 
 22) 
 
 The merciful loving-kindness of the Lord Jesus 
 desires that His people, even all who believe in 
 His name, should be withdrawn from the sphere 
 on which the weight of this sore tribulation is to 
 fall. He directs them, therefore, to quit Judaea 
 and Jerusalem : and, as if to show the minuteness 
 of His care. He directs them to pray that things 
 may be so ordered, as that neither local circum- 
 stances, nor the inclemency of winter might impede 
 their way. " Pray ye that your flight be not in 
 the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." (Ver. 20.) 
 He will not cease to number the hairs of the head 
 of His people : themselves, their families, their 
 
THOUGHTS ON MATTHEW XXIV. 1 43 
 
 children will still be the subjects of His solicitude 
 and care. At a past period,"^ when the days of 
 vengeance first began to close in upon Jerusalem, 
 the servants of Christ were commanded to flee (see 
 Luke xxi. 2i), and they did flee, and a Pella was 
 provided for them. So will it be again in the yet 
 deeper season of coming woe. The circumstances 
 may be different, the tribulation more intense, faith 
 perhaps weaker : but there will be the same everlast- 
 ing arm of power, the same heart of faithfulness, 
 that shall protect in future even as in past sorrows. 
 "IMMEDIATELY after the tribulation of those 
 days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon 
 
 ■^ The twentieth verse of Luke xxi., which has commonly 
 been confounded with the fifteenth of Matthew xxiv., has no 
 connexion with it whatsoever. More than eighteen centuries 
 separate the two verses. Luke speaks of "Jerusalem being 
 compassed with armies," ix, the Roman armies under Titus, 
 and then details the sufferings and the scattering of the 
 Jews which have since followed. Matthew speaks of no 
 armies, but of the abomination being set up by one who is 
 in possession of the city in which he quietly perpetrates this 
 evil. The early Christians, in obedience to the command in 
 Luke, did quit Jerusalem when they saw the Roman armies 
 collecting against it ; but it would be too late to flee from 
 armies when they had already captured the city, and were 
 in possession of it, and of the Temple. Accordingly, in 
 Matthew, the reason of the flight is the coming judgments 
 of God — not the siege of armies. Luke (xxi.) in the 20, 21, 
 23 and 24 verses speaks of the past ; Matthew xxiv. 
 from verse 15 and onward, of the future tribulation that 
 is to come on Jerusalem. 
 
144 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall 
 from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall 
 be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the 
 Son of Man in heaven : and then shall all the 
 tribes of the Land (irdaat al ^t>Xat ri}? 7^9) mourn, 
 and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the 
 clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 
 And He shall send His angels with a great sound 
 of a trumpet;, and they shall gather together His 
 elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven 
 to the other." (Ver. 29 — 32.) 
 
 These words require little comment. They teach, 
 what indeed all Scripture teaches, that Israel, as a 
 whole, will be unprepared for His coming. "All 
 the tribes of the land shall wail at Him. Even so, 
 Amen." (Rev. i. 7.) The signs in the heavens, 
 the darkening of the sun, and moon, and stars, 
 the shaking of heaven and earth, are always men- 
 tioned as the accompaniments of the hour of His 
 appearing. " But now He hath promised, saying, 
 Yet once more and I shake not the earth only, 
 but also heaven." (Heb. xii. 26.) I may here 
 refer to the remarks I have already made on the 
 fourteenth of Zechariah in confirmation of these 
 things. 
 
 The age was not to end — the generation then 
 present was not to pass away, until all these things 
 had first been fulfilled. The individuals indeed, 
 then living and acting, were to die. Herod and 
 Pilate, Annas and Caiaphas, were to sink into the 
 
THOUGHTS ON MATTHEW XXIV. 1 45 
 
 grave — but they were to be succeeded by others, 
 like themselves, who would still maintain the same 
 moral character of the "generation,*' and make it, 
 in the estimate of God, one unchanged evil gene- 
 ration, even to the end. Neither in the ordinary 
 arrangements of men, nor in the Scripture, are 
 corporate bodies supposed to die. They may be 
 abolished ; but as long as they are permitted to 
 remain, their existence and action corporately, is 
 entirely irrespective of the presence or absence of 
 the individuals of whom they may have been 
 originally composed. They have a corporate iden- 
 tity, unaffected by mere circumstantial variations. 
 The generation, therefore, that rejected the Lord, 
 is still considered to exist; and it will not pass 
 away and be succeeded by that new generation, 
 which shall know the Lord, "from the least of 
 them unto the greatest of them'* (Jer. xxxi. 34), 
 until the things of which the Lord has here spoken 
 have been fulfilled.^ 
 
 It is not my desire at present, to dwell on the 
 
 * The contrast between the generation which is to con- 
 tinue till the end of the age, and the new millennial gene- 
 ration, is sustained throughout the Scripture. The thought 
 of "newness" is so marked, that in the Psalms the mil- 
 lennial generation is even called "a people that shall be 
 created." " This shall be written for the generation to come, 
 and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord." 
 (Psalm cii. 18.) Chapter Ixv. of Isaiah is almost equally dis- 
 tinct. "And ye [that is, you who compose the old genera- 
 tion] shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen ; 
 
 L 
 
146 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 practical consequences that may flow from these 
 things — my object chiefly is, to awaken attention 
 to the facts of this prophecy, especially to the 
 great future facts which mark the character of this 
 Dispensation at its close. It can scarcely surprise 
 any who mark what is now passing in the world, 
 to be told, that the present convulsions will at 
 last terminate in establishing a tenfold division of 
 territory among the countries once reigned over by 
 Rome ; that similarity of institutions and laws will 
 prevail throughout the countries thus divided, and 
 that infidelity will reign in their midst. He must 
 be blind indeed, who discerns not already its rising 
 
 for the Lord God shall slay thee, and call His servants by 
 another name." 
 
 The same corporate sense attaches to words in other parts 
 of this prophecy. When our Lord quitted the gates of Jeru- 
 salem, and saw certain persons before Him who stood as 
 the representatives of Israel nationally, He said, " Ve shall 
 not see me till ye shall say, Blessed," etc. They have not 
 yet said this ; so that " ye," in its corporate sense, has al- 
 ready extended over more than 1800 years. So also it was 
 said to the Apostles, who were the representatives of Chris- 
 tians, "When ye shall see the abomination of desolation." 
 Personally, they never lived to see it, but those whom they 
 represented will. So also St. Paul says, " We which are 
 alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord." He kneii/ 
 that he was to die. It is the corporate "w^." 
 
 For further remarks on the force of the word "genera- 
 tion," see " Prophecy of the Lord Jesus in Matthew xxiv. and 
 XXV. considered" (pages T2>) 74> etc.), as advertised at end. 
 
THOUGHTS ON MATTHEW XXIV. 1 4/ 
 
 floods. It is difficult to understand how any one, 
 judging even from present appearances, can doubt 
 that iniquity will prevail over the most civilised 
 and influential nations of the earth; and that of 
 them it may be peculiarly said, *' as it was in the 
 days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of Man 
 is revealed." 
 
 But whilst such is, and will be, the condition of 
 the nations, there is a relation to Christ that may 
 be held in the midst of them, which can be owned 
 by Him, even in these days of weakness, as accord- 
 ing with His will. " Who then is that faithful and 
 wise servant, whom his Lord shall make ruler over 
 his household, to give them their portion of meat 
 in due season?" There may be households — 
 gatherings of the family of faith, having over them 
 wise and faithful servants, dispensing to each his 
 portion of meat in due season. With such may 
 we desire to be. Whether we be among the 
 teachers or the taught, it is the position that the 
 Lord has pronounced blessed. Association in the 
 name of the Lord Jesus {when its principles 
 are not self-devised and arbitraryy but the prin- 
 ciples of His revealed will,) stands in such contrast 
 with the confederated lawlessness of the latter 
 day, that it cannot be valueless in the sight of 
 Him who does not "despise the day of small 
 things."*^ That the general condition of real 
 
 ^ Simply to gather together the children of God is one 
 thing : so to gather them together that they should be ser- 
 
 L 2 
 
148 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Christianity throughout the whole earth, will be 
 one of slumber at the close, is too plainly taught 
 in the parable of the virgins to admit of question. 
 But because Christianity, as a whole, slumbers, 
 therefore we, as individuals, are exhorted to watch 
 and to trade with our talents, not believing that 
 our Master is austere or hard, gathering where He 
 has not strawed, but that His grace is such, that 
 the least act done to the feeblest of His believing 
 people for His naipe^s sake, shall be owned by Him> 
 even when He shall sit upon the throne of His 
 glory, as if done to Himself. It will stimulate us 
 to trade on with our talent, when we remember 
 that we are serving One who so estimates and so 
 acknowledges what any thing but grace would 
 scorn. If the close of this Dispensation settles down 
 into a night of deep darkness, the more precious 
 is any light that even glimmers in the midst of 
 the gloom. 
 
 vants of and witnesses to the Truth, is quite another thing. 
 In this last case we may expect the blessing of God. 
 " Sanctify them through Thy truth ; Thy word is truth." 
 
149 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ON LUKE XXI. 
 
 It may seem scarcely needful, after reading the 
 enlarged and specific prophecy in the twenty- 
 fourth of Matthew, to dwell on the more brief and 
 general statements in the gospel of Luke. The 
 prophecy in Luke has been commonly considered 
 to be a mere repetition, in a more general form, of 
 the instructions in Matthew; and attempts have 
 frequently been made to represent them as strictly 
 parallel throughout. 
 
 But there are seldom, if ever, mere re-statements 
 in Scripture. It is true, indeed, that when two 
 different passages record the same facts, or deliver 
 like precepts, there must be a substantial simi- 
 larity between them. But even then, the addition 
 of new circumstances, or an altered arrangement in 
 the order of instruction, or even a change in the 
 form of expression, may mark a character of differ- 
 ence important to be recognised in a careful expo- 
 sition of the word of God. Passages strictly 
 parallel are seldom, if ever, found. 
 
 So is it in the chapter before us. There is, of 
 
ISO AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 course, a substantial agreement with the prophecy 
 in Matthew. The events which were immediately 
 to follow our Lord's departure from the earth, and 
 also the signs — "signs in the sun, and moon, and 
 stars,'' which are to usher in His return, are spoken 
 of almost in the same language both in Matthew 
 and Luke. But in treating of the intervening 
 period, there is a marked difference. The great 
 event recorded in Luke respecting Jerusalem, is, 
 its destruction by the Roman armies. He speaks 
 also of the events connected with that destruction,, 
 in their relation both to the disciples and to the 
 Jews. But in Matthew, all this is so slightly 
 touched on, that it may be almost said to be 
 passed over in silence.^ In Luke, on the other 
 
 * The only reference to this event in the prophetic part 
 of Matthew xxiv. is in the sixth verse, where the Lord 
 speaks of those wars which were to follow His departure 
 from the earth, but which were NOT signs of "the end of 
 the age.'' 
 
 It is quite in consistency with the character of Matthew's 
 gospel to dwell on the last Antichristian abominations in 
 Jerusalem, and pass over in comparative silence its past 
 destruction : for the gospel of Matthew is specially concerned 
 with the history of Christianity and its corruptions. After 
 stating the rejection of the Lord by Israel and the setting aside 
 of Israel corporately (see close of chapter xii.), it speaks ins 
 a number of prophetic parables (see chapters xiii. and xxv. 
 also chapter xxii.) of the history of Christianity and its cor- 
 porate failure. And inasmuch as the past destruction of 
 Jerusalem was not caused by Christianity or its corruptions, 
 we should not expect that much would be said respecting it ;; 
 
ON LUKE XXI. 151 
 
 hand, the great event which Matthew records 
 respecting the latter-day history of Jerusalem, is 
 not mentioned. Nothing is said respecting the 
 " abomination of desolation," and merely a general 
 reference made to " the Times of the Gentiles " 
 being concluded by distress, terror, and signs from 
 heaven. The two prophecies therefore are not 
 identical. It is by reading them separately, and 
 then uniting their instructions, that we learn re- 
 specting the past and coming chastisement of Jeru- 
 salem : and with the past and future history of 
 that city, so many threads of Jewish history, and 
 of Gentile national history, and of Gentile-Christian 
 history are blended, that we might almost say that 
 to know the two periods of which Matthew and 
 Luke treat, is to know the Dispensation in which 
 we live, as to its most important and character- 
 istic features, from its beginning to its close. 
 
 The prophetic part of Chapter xxi. of Luke 
 commences with the eighth verse. The eighth and 
 ninth verses form the first division of the chapter. 
 
 but seeing that Antichristianism is to spring out of the 
 very bosom of professing Christianity, and absorb into itself 
 the iniquities of Gentiles and Jews in Jerusalem as a centre, 
 we might expect that an event so intimately connected with 
 the history of the professing Church, would be very distinctly 
 referred to in Matthew. 
 
 Besides this, it may be given as a general rule, that every 
 thing ^^ corporate ^^ in character is found in Matthew— that 
 which is individual in Luke. 
 
152 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 They are as follow : " Take heed that ye be not 
 deceived: for many shall coine m My name^ saying, 
 I am Christ ; and the time draweth near: go ye not 
 therefore after them. But when ye shall hear of 
 wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these 
 thiitgs vmst come to pass ; but the end is not iinme- 
 diate" (ovic evOeco^,) These verses are closely 
 parallel to the fourth, fifth, and sixth verses of 
 Matthew xxiv., and speak of events which imme- 
 diately succeeded the Lord's departure from the 
 earth, events which were 7iot to be mistaken for 
 signs of the end. '*The end is not immediate.'* 
 Accordingly, the troubles in Judaea came ; Jerusalem 
 was taken, its Temple destroyed, its people 
 scattered, and eighteen hundred years have since 
 passed, but the end is not yet come. 
 
 The tenth and eleventh verses form the next 
 division of the chapter. " The7i said He unto them. 
 Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom 
 against kingdom : and great earthquakes shall be in 
 divers places, and famines, a7id pestilences ; and 
 fearful sights and great signs shall there be from 
 heaven!' These verses describe the governmental 
 relation of God to the earth during all the long 
 period of Jerusalem's punishment, until "the Times 
 of the Gentiles" shall have been fulfilled. 
 Instead of its being a millennial relation of peace 
 and blessing, the earth throughout the whole of 
 this lengthened period is to be visited, again and 
 again, with wars, pestilences, and famines, to be 
 
ON LUKE XXI. 153 
 
 followed, at the close, by fearful sights and signs 
 from heaven. 
 
 These fearful sights and signs from heaven have 
 never yet been. As yet, though the earth has 
 been the scene of many a convulsion, the heavens 
 have remained in their tranquillity. " The sun has 
 not yet been turned into blackness, nor the moon 
 into blood.'* The still peacefulness of the firma- 
 ment, as the stars nightly resume their course, 
 has often stood in strange contrast to the unquiet 
 restlessness of the scene below. But an hour is 
 coming when the heavens also shall be shaken. 
 " Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but 
 also heaven," and then the end shall come.^ 
 
 ^ These signs from heaven are again referred to in the 
 concluding part of this prophecy (verse 25), where our Lord, 
 after re-tracing the same period as is gone over in verses 
 10, II, and re-tracing it with specific reference to the cap- 
 ture of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews, again 
 speaks of " the time of the end," and refers to these signs in 
 the heavens, saying, "there shall be signs in the sun, and 
 in the moon, and in the stars." 
 
 Some have imagined that signs of this kind were seen at 
 the past siege of Jerusalem, and have referred to Josephus 
 in verification of their statement. But in the first place our 
 Lord does not, either in this or in the corresponding passage 
 in Matthew, speak of the commencement, but of the close 
 of the " days of vengeance." He is expressly speaking of 
 the period when " the Times of the Gentiles " are fulfilled: 
 the same period that is called in Daniel "the last end 
 of the indignation." 
 
 Moreover, all parts of Scripture which speak of these 
 
154 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Having thus predicted the woes that were about 
 to be sent upon Judaea, and also the more general 
 
 signs in the heavens speak of the period as one of 
 universal dismay and terror over the face of the whole 
 earth; "men's hearts faiHng them for fear," etc. It was 
 anything rather than this, throughout the world generally, 
 when the Romans took Jerusalem. 
 
 Nor does Josephus himself record anything that is worthy 
 of being considered "signs in the sun, and moon, and 
 stars." The pretended prodigies, recorded apparently on the 
 report of others, are as follow : — 
 
 First, a star resembling a sword, which is said to have 
 stood over the city, and a comet which lasted a year. 
 
 Secondly, a light, bright as day, shone around the altar 
 and holy place, at the ninth hour of the night, for half an 
 hour. 
 
 Thirdly, a heifer, as she was led by the High Priest to be 
 sacrificed, brought forth a lamb in the midst of the temple. 
 
 Fourthly, the brazen gate of the inner court of the temple, 
 when firmly fastened, opened of its own accord, and could 
 not be shut again without great difficulty. 
 
 Fifthly, on one occasion, before sunset, chariots and troops 
 of soldiers in their armour were seen running about among 
 the clouds and surrounding cities. 
 
 Lastly, the priests, when going by night into the inner 
 court of the temple, said they felt a quaking, and heard a 
 great noise, and afterward a sound as of a multitude, say- 
 ing, " Let us remove hence." 
 
 Such are the statements of Josephus, not one of which, it 
 should be remembered, is confirmed by Tacitus, who gives 
 an account of the siege, nor by any other historian. The 
 habit of the Romans apparently was, to invent stories of the 
 kind to terrify the besieged into the belief that they were 
 
ON LUKE XXI. 155 
 
 chastisements upon the nations, which extend 
 throughout the Dispensation, the prophecy, in its 
 next division, from the twelfth to the nineteenth 
 verse inclusive, proceeds to speak of the early condi- 
 tion of the Church. " Bitt before all these, \i.e, before 
 the wars that are to desolate Jerusalem shall com- 
 mence] they shall lay their ha^ids upon yotiy and per- 
 secute you, delivering you up to tlie synagogues, and 
 into prisons y being brought before kings and rulers 
 for My name's sake. Settle it tlierefore in your hearts, 
 not to meditate before what ye shall answer : for I 
 zvill give you a mouth and wisdom^ which all your 
 adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. 
 And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, 
 and kinsfolk, and friends ; and some of you shall 
 they cause to be put to death, A7td ye shall be hated 
 of all men for My name's sake. But there shall not 
 a hair of your head perish. In your patiefice possess 
 yc your souls^ 
 
 These words describe the early condition of Chris- 
 
 forsaken by their gods. (See Livy, passim^ But whatever 
 may be thought respecting these statements, it is manifest 
 that they cannot be fulfilments either of Matthew or of 
 Luke. Matthew says, "Immediately after the tribulation of 
 those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall 
 not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and 
 the powers of the heavens shall be shaken." Luke says, 
 " There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in 
 the stars ; and upon the earth distress of nations^ [not of 
 ""ews merely,] with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring." 
 
15^ AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 tianity, when the Church, in Pentecostal power, 
 first took its place as God's witness in the earth. 
 It witnessed of truth and grace. It testified re- 
 mission of sins through the blood of the Cross, 
 amongst those on whom chiefly rested the guilt of 
 the rejection and death of the Lord Jesus. "Men 
 and brethren, through this Man is preached unto 
 you the forgiveness of sins: and through Him, all 
 who believe are justified from all things." Such 
 was the character of their testimony, even among 
 those who had been His betrayers and murderers. 
 Before any of the threatened chastisements were 
 sent, either on the land of Israel or on the nations, 
 this message was first to be given. It was given, 
 and it was rejected. The governors of Jerusalem 
 and of the nations, heard and scorned it, and at 
 length began to persecute and destroy those who 
 bore it. James, Stephen, and others, sealed their 
 testimony with their blood, and then in well- 
 deserved retribution, the days of vengeance began 
 to settle in upon Jerusalem, and nothing but tur- 
 bulence and sorrow has prevailed throughout the 
 earth ever since. Nor can it be otherwise, for the 
 destinies of the Gentile nations, as nations^ are 
 bound up with the destinies of Jerusalem. "The 
 Deliverer must come out of Zion, and turn away 
 ungodliness from Jacob," and then [not before] 
 "His ways shall be known upon earth, and His 
 saving health among all nations." 
 
 We do not find in these words of Luke any in- 
 
ON LUKE XXI, 157 
 
 timation, as in Matthew, of the corruption and 
 failure of Christianity. We do not find it said, 
 that "iniquity shall abound," or "love wax cold.'* 
 At the time when the " abomination of desolation " 
 shall be set up, it will be so. Indeed it is so 
 already. But before Jerusalem was compassed by 
 the Roman armies, it was not generally so. The 
 Church (though it had begun to decline) had not 
 yet lapsed and forfeited (as soon afterwards it did) 
 its corporate standing. The Gentile Churches were 
 still worthy of being symbolised by " candlesticks of 
 gold." The servants of Christ were still preserving- 
 their separateness ; and still remembered the words 
 of their Lord, that, although hated of all men and 
 given over to death, not a hair of their heads 
 should finally perish. They knew that their hope 
 was in resurrection, and in patience possessed their 
 souls. This past description of the Church, as 
 found in Luke, differs greatly from the description 
 which Matthew gives of the corruption and failure 
 of Christianity at the closing period of its his- 
 tory — the period on which we are now about to 
 enter. 
 
 The " days of vengeance " began to settle in 
 upon Jerusalem, as soon as the Roman armies 
 were gathered together against it. These days of 
 vengeance are continuing still, and will continue^ 
 until all that has been written against Jerusalem 
 and her people shall have been fulfilled : " When 
 ye shall see Jenisalem co^npassed with armies^ then 
 
1S8 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 knoiv that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let 
 them which are in Jiidcea flee to the mountains ; and 
 let them which are in the midst of it depart out ; 
 and let not them that are in the countries enter there- 
 into. For these be the days of vengeance^ that all 
 things which are written may be fulfilled. But ivoe 
 nnto them that are with childy and to them that give 
 suck in those days! for there shall be great distress 
 in the landy and wrath upon this people. And they 
 shall fall by the edge of the szuord, and shall be led 
 away captive into all nations: a7zd Jerusalem shall 
 be trodden down of the Ge^itiles^ until the Times of 
 ike Gentiles be fitlfilled'^ 
 
 The disciples obeyed these directions. They saw 
 Jerusalem compassed with armies, and they fled. 
 A refuge was provided for them in a little city 
 named Pella, where they were preserved. Their 
 history remains as a memorial of the faithfulness 
 and care of God, and will, no doubt, comfort and 
 encourage those, who, at an hour yet future, will 
 again be called on to quit Jerusalem, when a tri- 
 bulation far greater and more terrible shall fall 
 upon it — a tribulation not caused by human agency 
 merely (though that will not be wanting), but by 
 the immediate infliction also of terrors and judg- 
 ments from God*s own outstretched arm. " Woe 
 is me : for that day is great : it is even the time 
 of Jacob's trouble ; but he shall be saved out of 
 it." So "the Times of the Gentiles" shall end. 
 Not more than twelve hundred and sixty days will 
 
ON LUKE XXL 1 59 
 
 pass between the setting "the abomination of deso- 
 lation" in the Holy Place, and the conclusion of 
 "the Times of the Gentiles," when the day of visi- 
 tation shall come. 
 
 The conclusion of "the Times of the Gentiles'* 
 will be indicated by ^^ signs in the sun^ and in the 
 moo7ty and in the stars; and upon the earth distjrss 
 •of nations with perplexity at the roar of the sea and 
 of the snrge ;'^ ineiis hearts failing them for fear, 
 and for looking after those things that are coming 
 on the world (ttj olfcovfjuiur)) ; for the powers of the 
 heavens shall be shake^ir These words plainly 
 teach us that it is these signs in the Heaven 
 above, and in the earth beneath, that will break 
 in upon the world's slumber, and cause all to 
 realise that the Day of Visitation is at last come. 
 These " signs " will harm no one. They are not 
 in themselves judgments : they are only signs of 
 judgments about to be. As soon as the " signs " 
 appear, the cry will go forth throughout the whole 
 of the slumbering Church, '' Behold, the Bride- 
 groom Cometh." They also who dwell in the 
 uttermost parts of the earth, in the dark heathen 
 lands, will be " afraid " at the " tokens," though 
 they will not at that time understand what those 
 tokens indicate. The true people of Christ are 
 commanded, the moment these signs appear, to 
 
 ■^ The corrected reading is, I'ni t^? y^s avvoxv iBvcov iv 
 aTTopla TJ)(ovs 6a\d(r(TTjs Koi arakov. See Tregelles in locum. 
 
l6o AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 "look up and lift up their head" in confidence 
 and joy. *^Now, when these things begm to co7ne 
 to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for 
 your redemption draweth nigh." Such are the 
 words of the Lord Jesus ; and can any words be 
 more plain ? The saints, therefore, will certainly 
 be on the earth when these signs appear; but 
 when the Lord comes to the earth, they will not be 
 there ; for they are to meet Him in the air, into 
 which He first descends, and thence are to come 
 with Him.^ Other men, indeed, "will see Him 
 coming to the earth m power and great glory ; " 
 but the saints will have been changed and caught 
 up to meet Him, and will have fallen into the 
 train of His glory whilst He is yet in the air, 
 and before He is seen conimg to the earth. They 
 will be with Him before one of the judgments 
 which He comes to inflict shall be administered ; 
 consequently, they will escape all those things 
 that shall come to pass ; that is to say, they shall 
 escape all the judgments of the Day of the Lord. 
 
 * The word anavTr](Ti^, which is used in I Thess. iv. 17, de- 
 notes a meeting and coming with the person met. The word 
 cTTeira, which is used in the first clause of this verse, should 
 be translated not ^^ then,'' but '^ afterward'' The saints are 
 to be " changed in the twinkling of an eye " (see I Cor. xv.) ; 
 but they will not be raptured or caught up in the twinkling 
 of an eye. A brief interval is to elapse between their change 
 and their rapture ; in which interval the separation spoken 
 of in Matt. xiii. 49 will take place. 
 
ON LUKE XXI. l6l 
 
 They shall see the signs that usher in that day, 
 but the signs, as I have already said, harm no 
 one. They are tokens merely; and when they 
 see these tokens they are commanded to rejoice : 
 "When ye shall see these things come to pass, 
 then look up, and lift up your heads, for your 
 redemption draweth nigh." 
 
 Yet this, it must be remembered, cannot be said 
 to all who name the name of Christ. In the 
 professing Church there are some who have no 
 oil in their lamps ; some who, because of their 
 profession, are regarded as branches in the true 
 vine, but fruitless. The period of our Lord's 
 return will be a time when (for certain special 
 reasons that could easily be pointed out) multi- 
 tudes in Christendom, and throughout the world 
 generally, will be peculiarly absorbed in "the 
 cares of this life," for there will be especial reasons 
 for anxiety and carefulness then, because of 
 certain disastrous events that will have occurred 
 in the earth, and shattered the very pillar of its 
 prosperity. The nations of the Roman World will 
 have received a blow such as they never had 
 received before ; and on all who are absorbed by 
 the anxieties consequent on that blow, that Day 
 will come "unawares as a snare," and all those 
 on whom it comes " as a snare " will perish."^ 
 
 * The words, ^^ as a snare^'^ should be appended to the 
 34th verse; "and so that day come upon you suddenly as 
 a snare." The next verse is, " For it \i.e. the Day of visita- 
 
 M 
 
1 62 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Therefore, we are commanded to watch and to 
 pray always, that we may be strong and prevail 
 against all the influences of that evil hour, and 
 so be numbered among " the overcomers." " He 
 that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second 
 death." They that overcome shall escape every 
 judgment, and shall stand before the Son of Man. 
 They shall not "be ashamed away from Him 
 [ott' avTov, see I John ii. i8] at His coming." 
 The inhabitants of the earth will, at the period of 
 
 tion] shall come upon all them that dwell on the face of 
 the whole earth." (See revised Greek Test. Tregelles.) The 
 day itself shall come upon a// men throughout the whole 
 earth. It shall be a day of universal visitation : but it shall 
 not come " as a snare^^ i.e. destructively on the saints ; nor 
 indeed on any of those who shall be spared and subse- 
 quently converted, as many will be, both among the Heathen 
 and the Jews. 
 
 In the following verse instead of " that ye may be counted 
 worthy \KaTa^i(iiBriT^ to escape," read, " that ye may be strong 
 \KaTi(j^(T7yri\ to escape." The preposition Kara may be taken 
 as intensifying the force of ttrxvco, to be strong; or it may 
 express the meaning "to be strong againsV'^ something ; and 
 might then be rendered "to prevail." In that case, how- 
 ever, the object against which the strength is put forth is 
 commonly expressed. Whether we translate, "that ye may 
 be strong to escape," or "that ye may prevail to escape," 
 the general sense is the same. We shall need that strength 
 which grace only can give, to enable us to prevail against 
 the many influences that will then bear on us either to drive 
 us, or to lure us from " abiding in Christ." They that do not 
 abide in Him will not escape the things that will come to pass. 
 
ON LUKE XXI. 163 
 
 our Lord's return, be distributed into five great 
 •classes. 
 
 I. There will be the uncivilized Heathen ; those 
 who have not heard the fame or seen the glory 
 of God. (See Isaiah Ixvi. 19.) Of these, a large 
 portion will be spared, and receive the Gospel of 
 the grace of God, preached by converted Israel. 
 
 II. There will probably be multitudes of Ma- 
 hommedans, Buddhists, and the like (especially 
 in India and in Central and North-Eastern Asia), 
 who will not be absorbed into Antichristianism, 
 but will continue in their present forms of 
 Apostasy. All such, seeing that they will have 
 had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with 
 the Bible and with the doctrines of Christ, will 
 be under greater responsibilities than the uncivilized 
 Heathen. 
 
 III. There will be the Jews ; some in their 
 Land, others scattered throughout the earth. Of 
 those in the Land, " a third part " will be spared 
 (see Zech. xiii. 8), and among those that are 
 scattered, there will also be a remnant. These will 
 be converted, and made a blessing in the earth ; 
 but the great majority of Israel, especially those 
 in the Land, will have linked themselves with 
 Antichrist, and will share his doom. 
 
 IV. There will be the Antichristian nations ; 
 that is, all the nations of the Roman World (t7j<; 
 oiKovfjL€V7)<;)j then divided into Ten Kingdoms. 
 These, nationally and governmentally, will have 
 
 M 2 
 
1 64 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 renounced all recognition of God and of Christy 
 and (with the exception of " Edom, Moab, and the 
 chief of the children of Ammon," see Dan. xi. 41) 
 will be under the full control of Antichrist. These 
 countries, however — that is to say, Moab, Edom, 
 and part of Ammon, and also the Arabian tribes 
 (Ishmaelites and Haggarenes, see Ps. Ixxxiii. 6) — 
 will, at the very end, associate themselves with 
 Antichrist with the avowed object of utterly 
 destroying Israel. "Come, and let us cut them off 
 from being a nation; that the name of Israel may 
 be no more in remembrance." Joining the mighty 
 hosts of Antichrist (which will have been assembled 
 at Armageddon for another object), they will 
 thence unitedly advance into the valley of Jehosha- 
 phat, and will there be trodden in the wine-press 
 of the fury and wrath of Almighty God. (See 
 Joel iii. 12, Zech. xiv. 12, and Rev. xix. 15.) 
 
 V. There will be Christendom — the "wheat and 
 tare field." Multitudes throughout the earth will 
 still continue to profess the name of Christ. Ab- 
 stract the Ten Kingdoms of the Roman World, 
 and (with that exception) Christendom will, in all 
 probability, at that time be just what it at present 
 is. All who shall continue (whether nominally or 
 in sincerity) to profess the name of Christ, will be 
 regarded by Him as included in His kingdom. 
 
 Heathendom, the Jews, and the Antichristian na- 
 tions will not be dealt with in the same way. They 
 will all be dealt with differently and distinctly. 
 
ON LUKE XXI. 165 
 
 But Christendom will not escape judgment, though 
 none will fall on the saints who form a part 
 thereof. The end of Christendom will have come. 
 The first act of the Lord Jesus when He descends 
 into the air will be to gather (not out of the earth 
 generally, but out of Christendom) " all things that 
 offend, and them that do iniquity." Speaking of 
 the end of Christendom, the Lord Jesus says, 
 " Thus shall it be at the end of the age ; the 
 angels shall come forth and sever the wicked out 
 of the midst of the righteous (a^opcovai tou? 
 ^opTjpov^ ifc jjbkaov rdv ScKaLcov), and shall cast them 
 into the furnace of fire ; there shall be weeping 
 and gnashing of teeth." Have we not reason, then, 
 to watch and pray that we may have strength 
 to resist all seduction, and all the power and wiles 
 of the Enemy, so that we might abide in Christ, 
 and not be " ashamed away from Him at His 
 coming " ? 
 
 It is well that we should endeavour to realize 
 the circumstances in which Christendom will find 
 itself in the day of its visitation. Let us imagine 
 a family of ten persons assembled in one room — 
 five of them real^ five nominal believers. Suddenly 
 there will be signs in the sun, and in the moon, 
 and in the stars. Immediately after, the Lord will 
 descend into the air, and then, in the twinkling of 
 an eye, the five who are true believers will be 
 changed into His glorious likeness. In them all 
 mere natural feelings will cease to be : nothing can 
 
1 66 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 pain them : nothing affright. Mortality will be 
 swallowed up of life. Having been through grace 
 made strong so as to prevail against all obstruc- 
 tions to an abiding in Christ, they will escape 
 everything that has the character of judgment, 
 whether directed against Christendom, or the Jews, 
 or the Heathen, or the Antichristians. At the 
 same moment that the saints are changed, holy 
 angels will enter that room, and sever out of the 
 midst of the changed those that remain unchanged. 
 There will be glory and deliverance to the one : 
 judgment to the other. 
 
 These truths have not been realized by multi- 
 tudes who have spoken and written much 
 respecting the coming of the Lord. Their atten- 
 tion has been so fixed on Antichrist, and on the 
 chastisements God will send on Israel in connexion 
 with him, and on the persecution that will fall 
 on all the true servants of Christ who come within 
 the scope of his power, that they have become 
 absorbingly (might I not say, exclusively?) occu- 
 pied with the question whether they themselves 
 will, or will not, be exempted from these sorrows* 
 As a consequence, their minds have become totally 
 unfitted to receive the instructions which the Lord 
 has given in the Scripture respecting the accom- 
 paniments and characteristics of the Day of 
 Visitation. As regards the persecutions of Anti- 
 christ, they will be restricted to a comparatively 
 small portion of the earth, for the countries over 
 
ON LUKE XXI. 167 
 
 which he will rule are little more than the borders 
 of the Mediterranean Sea ; and although it is 
 true that other countries, attracted by the blaze 
 of his glory, may voluntarily associate themselves 
 with his ways, and help forward his persecutions, 
 yet God has on past occasions often shown that 
 He has many means of neutralizing or modifying 
 the fiercest efforts of persecuting power. And 
 what will these persecutions be to them on whom 
 they fall ? Will they be curses ? Will they be 
 judgments from the hand of God ? Will they 
 not rather be for honour, joy, praise, and glory ? 
 Who more honoured, who more blessed, than they 
 who shall be counted worthy to stand, faithful 
 and true, in the last great conflict between truth 
 and falsehood, between God and Satan ? Of them 
 it is written, "They overcame him because of the 
 blood of the Lamb, and because of the Word of 
 their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto 
 the death." Such will be the thanksgiving of 
 Heaven over their faithfulness. And, although 
 sore judgments, the like to which never yet have 
 been, will fall, measurably on all the Antichristian 
 nations, and fully on the Land of Israel, yet those 
 judgments will not be directed against the people 
 of Christ who may be dwelling in those nations. 
 The plagues sent on Pharaoh and Egypt were not 
 directed against the children of Israel, whom God 
 came to deliver. There was light in Israel's 
 dwellings when there was darkness in the whole 
 
 flnHIVlRSITTl 
 
1 68 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 land besides. It is the heritage of God's people 
 to escape destroying judgment; but to escape 
 suffering for Christ's sake and the Gospel's, is not 
 their heritage. To meet and to endure such 
 suffering, is their honour and their joy. 
 
 If Luther, and they that were with him, in their 
 conflict with the Papal Antichrist, instead of giving 
 themselves to the ordering of those truths whereby 
 Romanism and its lies were to be confronted, had 
 thought merely of succour or deliverance for them- 
 selves, should we ever have been blessed with the 
 light of Protestantism? And are there tip signs 
 of a coming conflict in the future, both with old 
 enemies and with new? A mighty system of 
 infidel Latitudinarianism is rising up amongst us, 
 ready to shelter Romanism, Mahommedanism, and 
 everything else that exalts itself against the 
 oneness of Revealed Truth; and that system will 
 be organised, established, and at last sustained 
 and worked, not by an Antichrist, but by THE 
 Antichrist. All who come within the scope of 
 this system (they only excepted whose names are 
 written in the Lamb's book ^of life) will give them- 
 selves over to its harlotries and its seductions. 
 Will God, when that system is developed, raise 
 up no testimony against it ? Will He be silent ? 
 No. He will raise up a testimony more full, more 
 pure, more blessed, than any that has been heard 
 on earth since the Apostles died. Shall we not 
 then bethink ourselves where and what that testi- 
 
ON LUKE XXI. 169 
 
 mony is to be, and order ourselves and our ways 
 accordingly ? Or shall we give way to the 
 delusion of the hour, and speak of being taken 
 out of the earth before the hour of Antichristianism 
 comes, and so direct our thoughts and the thoughts 
 of others away from those very facts and truths, 
 the knowledge of which is specially intended to 
 strengthen the true people of Christ for their final 
 hour of conflict ? The saints have not only to do 
 with God and the works of God : they have also 
 to do with Satan and the works of Satan. They 
 have to be with the one and against the other. 
 The same book that tells us of the Heavenly 
 City — the Bride of the Lamb — tells us also of 
 another city that is the mother of all the harlotry 
 and abominations of the earth. Are we to close 
 our eyes to the characteristic course and history 
 of that evil city ? 
 
 The heart of the believer needs to be chastened 
 by the knowledge of evil as well as comforted by 
 the knowledge of good. To be ready for the 
 coming kingdom of our God and Saviour in the 
 sense of having a valid title to inheritance therein, 
 can be affirmed by all who have truly rested on 
 the finished work of the One great Substitute : 
 but to be practically ready is another thing. 
 Practical readiness can only be found in us when 
 our thoughts, feelings, and ways are found to be 
 right, wise, and true when tested by the Word 
 of God. 
 
170 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 REMARKS ON THE PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF 
 MR. FLEMING.^^ 
 
 Upwards of twenty years have now passed since 
 circumstances, into the special character of which 
 it is not necessary to enter, awakened among 
 many, both in this country and abroad, an anxious 
 desire to understand the prophetic parts of Scrip- 
 ture. It resulted in not a few being thoroughly 
 and abidingly convinced, that whilst the Scriptures 
 teem with predictions of blessing both to Israel 
 and to the nations, previous to the dissolution of 
 the present heavens and earth, yet that the period 
 in which these promised blessings are to be dis- 
 pensed, is one materially different from that in 
 which the Church of God is now suffering ; and 
 that the great event which is to close this present 
 dispensation and introduce the promised age of 
 blessing, is the appearing in glory of the great 
 God our Saviour, Jesus Christ. 
 
 I feel assured that I shall carry with me the 
 feelings of every heart that has learned to expect 
 
 * This paper was first published in 1848. 
 
PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF MR. FLEMING. 171 
 
 the personal return of the Lord Jesus, when I say 
 that they esteem it now as one of the most pre- 
 cious of the truths of God — at once the object of 
 their hope, and the subject of their testimony ; and 
 I shall not in vain ask them to discountenance the 
 circulation of any writings that tend to destroy the 
 expectation of the Lord's return, or to throw any 
 veil over the interpretation of those parts of Scrip- 
 ture that are connected therewith. 
 
 It grieves me to be obliged to number among 
 such writings, the work of Mr. Fleming lately re- 
 published, and now extensively circulated. We 
 almost instinctively feel a reverence for those who 
 (though they may have been mistaken) have 
 written and acted in the fear of God. This, 
 however, must not deter us from openly expos- 
 ing their errors; being persuaded of this, that 
 they themselves, if they could now speak, would 
 not ask that any thing they have said or done 
 contrary to Christ and His truth should be 
 spared. Their earnest desire would be, that every 
 thing which through them may be acting prejudi- 
 cially on the Church of God, might be frustrated 
 in its results. And that must be prejudicial to the 
 Church of God, which either subverts any of the 
 great substantive facts that He has revealed, or 
 which presents those facts in different order and 
 connexion from that in which He has been pleased 
 to set them in His word. 
 
 To those then who expect the pre -millennial 
 
172 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Advent of the Lord Jesus, (and to such principally I 
 now write,) it is sufficient to say, that the book we 
 are considering denies that Advent to be personal. 
 On this ground only, I might ask that its claim 
 should be rejected, for it claims to be regarded as 
 a true exposition of the prophetic testimonies of 
 God. As suchy it must utterly be rejected. All 
 who have learned to wait for God's Son from 
 heaven, will feel too distinctly the solemn force of 
 the concluding part of the nineteenth of Revela- 
 tion, to admit of its being explained away on the 
 ground of symbols or figurative language, or on 
 any other ground. To such the quotation of the 
 passage which I cite at the foot of this page 
 would be sufficient to secure their condemnation of 
 the work.* There are, however, a few other points 
 to which I would desire briefly to direct their at- 
 tention. 
 
 "^ " Seeing I have but slightly touched upon the millen- 
 nium or the thousand years' reign of the saints on earth, I 
 shall desire you to think a little further on this, as the 
 greatest event that is to happen before the end of the world. 
 I dare not indeed expatiate upon this vast subject ; only I 
 shall suggest a few things concerning it. The first is, that 
 this is to begin immediately after the total and final destruc- 
 tion of Rome papal, in or about the year 2000 ; and that there- 
 fore Christ Himself will have the honour of destroying that 
 formidable enemy, by a new and remarkable appearance of 
 Himself, as I said before. But, secondly, we must not 
 imagine that this appearance of Christ will be a personal 
 •one^'^ etc. — Flemi7tg, pp. 39, 93. 
 
PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF MR. FLEMING. 1 73 
 
 One of the great objects of God in giving en- 
 larged acquaintance with the Scripture, especially 
 prophetic Scripture, is to bring into His Church a 
 more distinct recognition of the principles, which 
 throughout this dispensation should have charac- 
 terised His people, and marked them as separate, 
 both from Israel, and from the nations. The lead- 
 ing nations of the earth, up to the very end of the 
 present dispensation, are symbolised in the Scrip- 
 ture by fierce beasts which know not Christ and 
 own no subjection to His laws; Israel is left to 
 grope in judicial blindness and sin ; but in contrast 
 with both, the people of God stand peculiar in 
 their principles and testimonies, commanded indeed 
 to fight, but to fight only with spiritual weapons — 
 holding both the shield and the sword, yet enter- 
 ing no path unsuited to those whose "feet are 
 shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." 
 
 Such, while the Apostles lived, were the prin- 
 ciples and the position of the children of God. 
 Such ought they to have been throughout the dis- 
 pensation. But they soon abandoned this position, 
 and mingling with the nations, learned their ways ; 
 and now as the latter days are closing in, God, 
 whose word we have neglected, seeks, in mercy, 
 to awaken us from our slumber, and to lead us 
 back to that " sure word of prophecy " which marks 
 the course of these nations, and their evil end. 
 Many have read in the light of that word, the his- 
 tory and the doom both of Israel and the nations. 
 
174 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 and have seen the necessity of seeking to recover 
 those principles, which give a characteristic sepa- 
 rateness to the children of God. 
 
 Any book, therefore, especially any book on Pro- 
 phecy, which counterworks this end ; any book 
 which tends to rivet the principles which have so 
 long and so ruinously sunk the Church into iden- 
 tification with the nations, and deprived it of its 
 peculiar testimonies, is most earnestly to be depre- 
 cated at a moment like the present. The prin- 
 ciples of this book did not, and could not raise 
 Mr. Fleming into dissociation from the nations or 
 their ways. On the contrary, his principles (and it 
 was their necessary result) led him to ask that 
 their swords should be unsheathed for the main- 
 tenance or protection of the truths of God. A 
 war between France and England is said to have 
 been the immediate result of the influence he 
 exerted over the monarch of the day. This was 
 the practical result of his prophetic principles. How 
 indeed could it be otherwise } For if angels com- 
 ing forth with golden vials from the temple of God, 
 and "clothed in linen pure and bright," are sym- 
 bols really employed by God to designate the 
 struggles and victories of Protestant over Popish 
 nations, who would not desire to set such agency 
 in action — who would not long to be engaged in 
 conflicts worthy of being represented by symbols 
 such as these ,'* 
 
 But it is not so. They who are commanded to 
 
PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF MR. FLEMING. 175 
 
 follow Him, who, **when He was reviled, reviled 
 not again," are not commissioned to wield the 
 sword of destruction. If any thing could have jus- 
 tified its use by a disciple, it would have been 
 the hour when Jesus was betrayed. But if even 
 the defence of His sacred Person did not justify 
 it — if even then it was said, " Put up thy sword 
 within its sheath, for all they that take the sword 
 shall perish by the sword ;" how much more does 
 it become us to allow it to continue sheathed till 
 it shall please Another, holier and more mighty 
 than we. Himself to take hold on judgment, and 
 to terminate the age in which it has pleased Him 
 to appoint that Truth should suffer. The very dis- 
 tinctive feature of the Church at present is meek 
 and patient suffering. How then ought we to 
 shrink from the principles of a system which de- 
 stroys our apprehension of the Church's present 
 calling; recognises not the distinction as drawn in 
 the Scripture, between the coming dispensation in 
 which Truth is to triumph, and the present in which 
 it is appointed to suffer ; and conceives that the 
 sword of the earthly potentate is the fitting instru- 
 ment whereby Christ's people are to be made to 
 conquer. 
 
 But even if we could persuade ourselves to glory 
 in those evil and cruel wars by which, after the 
 true power and vigour of the Reformation had de- 
 parted, the Protestant kingdoms fought for mas- 
 tery ; if we could deceive ourselves into the belief 
 
176 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 that the agency of earthly kingdoms contending 
 with the Papacy, may fitly be represented by holy 
 angels clothed in white, and that their triumphs 
 were celebrated with thanksgivings in heaven; even 
 if there were nothing in all this to shock us — if 
 angels so clothed in white, could fitly represent the 
 agencies of England, and Holland, and Sweden, 
 contending with the Pope, shall we likewise say, 
 that these same holy symbols are employed also to 
 designate that agency which, in 1793, overthrew the 
 throne of the French monarchs, and is now, in 
 1848, destroying, as is supposed, the authority of 
 the Pope ? This we must believe, if we receive the 
 interpretations of Mr. Fleming. The triumphs of 
 revolutionists and infidels, must be the triumphs of 
 Christ and His truth. 
 
 I have no desire to shield Popery or its abomi- 
 nations. A system which solemnly and deliber- 
 ately pronounces those who teach the blessed doc- 
 trine of justification by faith and the imputed 
 righteousness of Christ, to be accursed, must be 
 itself accursed.*^ (Gal. i.) But shall we, because we 
 
 * Cone. Trid. Canon IX. Si quis dixerit sola fide impium 
 justificari, ita ut intelligat nihil aliud requiri, quod ad justifi- 
 cationis gratiam consequendam co-operetur, et nulla ex parte 
 necesse esse eum suae voluntatis motu prseparari atque dis- 
 poni, anathema sit. 
 
 "If any one shall say that an ungodly person is justified 
 by faith only, so as to understand that nothing else is re- 
 quired to co-operate to the attainment of the grace of justi- 
 fication, and that it is in no respect necessary that he should 
 
PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF MR. FLEMING. 1 77 
 
 see the wickedness of Popery, hallow, as it were, 
 and pronounce blessed, the no less abominations of 
 those agents of Satan who were permitted of God 
 to overthrow the monarchy of France? Or shall 
 we consider the triumph of those who are now 
 
 be disposed and prepared by the motion of his own will, let 
 him be accursed." 
 
 Canon XI. Si quis dixerit homines justificari vel sola im- 
 putatione justitiae Christi, vel soli peccatorum remissione, 
 exclusa gratia et caritate, quae in cordibus eorum per Spiri- 
 tum Sanctum diffundatur atque illis inhaereat, aut etiam 
 gratiam qui justificamur esse tantum favorem Dei, anathe- 
 ma sit. 
 
 " If any one shall say that men are justified, either by the 
 mere imputation of the righteousness of Christ or by the 
 mere remission of sins, to the exclusion of grace and love, 
 to be diffused in their hearts by the Holy Spirit and to in- 
 here in them, or moreover that the grace by which we are 
 justified is only the favour of God, let him be accursed." 
 
 Canon XII. Si quis dixerit fidem justificaKem nihil aliud 
 esse quam fiduciam divinae misericordias, peccata remittentis 
 propter Christum, vel eam fiduciam solam esse, qua justifica- 
 mur, anathema sit. 
 
 "If any one shall say that justifying faith is nothing else 
 than reliance on the divine mercy remitting sin for Christ's 
 sake, or that that by which we are justified is reliance, and 
 reliance only, let him be accursed." 
 
 Condemnation for the rejection of these the cardinal doc- 
 trines of our faith rests equally on that system known as 
 Tractarianism in this country. I mention this, lest, because 
 I maintain, as they do, that Antichrist is a secular person 
 yet to arise, it should be supposed that I do not recognise 
 the evil of their soul-destroying system. 
 
 N 
 
178 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 striving to introduce the principles of infidel liber- 
 alism into Italy, to be indeed the victory of God's 
 truth over the lie of Satan ?^ If it be so — if the 
 agencies of such men as Voltaire and Robespierre — 
 if liberalism and infidelity are to be thus regarded — 
 if these agencies are to be symbolised by angels of 
 white, and rejoiced over in heaven, then indeed we 
 may abandon all hope of distinguishing between 
 light and darkness, evil and good, the actings of 
 God, and the actings of Satan. We may say that 
 evil and good have exchanged places one with the 
 other, or that all has been commingled in hopeless 
 undistinguishable confusion. 
 
 The analogy of the past would little teach us, that 
 that which overthrows evil, must itself be good. 
 Jerusalem was overthrown for its iniquity, but were 
 the nations that trampled it down blessed ? Were 
 they not, on the contrary, more wicked, more obdu- 
 rate in evil, even than those whom they overthrew ? 
 Scripture and facts alike teach us, that it has been 
 the order of God to allow evil to punish evil, and 
 then to permit the evil that punishes, to exalt 
 itself and to wax stronger in iniquity, than that 
 which it has supplanted. And thus there has ever 
 been an onward progress of evil, a strengthening 
 and consolidation of iniquity ; and prophetic Scrip- 
 ture declares that it shall be thus even to the end. 
 But God has appointed that end ; and this it is 
 the especial subject of the Revelation to declare. 
 
 ^ This was written in 1848. 
 
PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF MR. FLEMING. 1 79 
 
 The object of the Revelation is not to trace the 
 steps by which the evil of this present dispensa- 
 tion gradually advances. Its' object is not the his- 
 tory of evil in its progress, but in its doom. It 
 describes not t/ie growth of the great and flourish- 
 ing tree of Gentile greatness ; but it declares 
 the manner in which, after it has attained that 
 growthy it will be smitten and cut down, and that 
 by no mere human hand. The Revelation does not 
 detail the steps by which one system of evil super- 
 sedes another, and then flourishes more abundantly 
 than that which it has supplanted : but it reveals 
 the form which the evil of this dispensation will 
 exhibit when it has attained the maturity of its 
 growth, and the manner in which God will at first 
 chasten, and at last send His Son utterly to de- 
 stroy that which has thus been allowed to ripen. 
 This, however, has not been recognised by Mr. 
 Fleming. He has read the Revelation as if it 
 were the history of the gradual growth of evil, 
 and of its gradual subjugation, by providential 
 means. And even that evil he has sought in one 
 small section of the prophetic earth, as if there 
 were no evil against which God prophesies except- 
 ing Popery."^ 
 
 ■^ By the prophetic earth, I mean the part included within 
 the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire embraced most 
 important countries in the East ; Syria for example, and 
 Greece and Egypt. Its eastern division was more important 
 even than the western. Yet by some strange carelessness, 
 
 N 2 
 
I So AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 And what has been the actual practical result 
 of this system of interpretation ? Has it placed 
 the testimonies of the Revelation in firm and 
 solemn opposition to the wickedness of these latter 
 days ? Has it put the sword of the Spirit into 
 the hands of the Church for warfare against Satan, 
 and enabled them to testify "against (ein) peoples, 
 and nations, and tongues, and many kings ? " No ! 
 It has done exactly the reverse. It has enabled 
 the world, and some of the worst in the world, to 
 seize on these most solemn of the testimonies of 
 God, and to use them not merely as a palliation 
 or defence, but even as a sanction, for the darkest 
 deeds of their iniquity. At the time of the Revolu- 
 tion of 1793, Mr. Fleming's book was republished, 
 both in America and in England, and used by the 
 
 the western only has been regarded by modern interpreters 
 of prophecy, and the east forgotten. The seventh chapter 
 of Daniel speaks of the ten horns (which represent the last 
 ten kingdoms, into which the Roman territories are finally 
 to be divided) as the horns of a symbolic Beast, which (as 
 is admitted well nigh by every one) represents, not a part of 
 the Roman Empire, but all of it. Nor does the second 
 chapter of Daniel place the ten toes which represent the 
 same ten kingdoms, on one only of the feet of the image. 
 Five were found on each foot. We shall finally see the 
 present convulsions in Europe terminate in the development 
 of ten kingdoms, five in the eastern and five in the western 
 branch of the Roman Empire. It is manifest that Popery 
 has never prevailed in the eastern branch of the Roman 
 Empire— but Antichristianism will. 
 
PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF MR. FLEMING. l8l 
 
 liberal party of the day in justification of their 
 views touching the occurrences in France. Doubt- 
 less it well suited them to be told that the 
 revolutionists of Paris were symbolised by angels 
 of God. But when we remember what the 
 liberalism of that moment was, how truly it 
 answered to the fearful picture which the Apostles 
 draw, we may well tremble to think of the delusion 
 which has made even the Book of Revelation to 
 testify on their behalf The Apostles speak of 
 those who " despise government ; presumptuous 
 are they, self-willed ; they are not afraid to speak 
 evil of dignities. Whereas angels, which are 
 greater in power and might, bring not railing 
 accusations against them before the Lord. But 
 these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken 
 and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they 
 understand not; and shall utterly perish in their 
 own corruption." (II Pet. ii. lo.) " Likewise also 
 these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise 
 dominion, and speak evil of dignities.^ Yet 
 Michael the archangel, when contending with the 
 devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst 
 not bring against him a railing accusation, but 
 said, 'The Lord rebuke thee.' But these speak 
 evil of those things which they know not ; but 
 
 ^' It would be well if many among the political Non- 
 conformists were to lay to heart these words. They seem 
 not to be conscious that Rulers are to be honoured as well 
 as feared. 
 
1 82 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in 
 those things they corrupt themselves." (Jude 
 8 — ID.) Such is God's description of the insub- 
 jection of the latter days. Such the iniquity 
 which the book before us has been quoted to 
 defend. 
 
 And now let us turn from the moral effects pro- 
 duced by this work to the system of interpretation 
 adopted in it. It teaches (and in this, indeed, it 
 is not singular) that " days " in prophetic Scrip- 
 ture do not mean " days^' but ''years,'' on which 
 assertion the whole of this system is based. 
 
 As this assertion is so important, and affects so 
 vitally every thought that we can form in con- 
 nexion with the whole scope of prophetic enquiry, 
 it becomes very needful to examine carefully the 
 ground on which it is based. It would seem at 
 first sight very strange, very contrary to the sim- 
 plicity of Scripture, that God should use the word 
 " day,' when really He means not " day," but 
 " year." What, then, are the grounds on which it 
 is asserted that He does so? 
 
 The arguments used by Mr. Fleming are as 
 follow: he refers first to Exodus xxiii. lO — 12: — 
 "Six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt 
 gather in the fruits thereof But the seventh year 
 thou shalt let it rest and lie still, that the poor of 
 thy people may eat ; and what they leave, the 
 beasts of the field shall eat. -^ -^ -^ -^ Six days 
 thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day 
 
PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF MR. FLEMING. 1 83 
 
 thou shalt rest ; that thine ox and thine ass may 
 rest, and the son of thy handmaid and the 
 stranger may be refreshed.'' 
 
 These are the verses which Mr. Fleming quotes 
 in support of his theory that a day means a year. 
 But surely if there be any passage in which day 
 means day, and year means year, it is this : for 
 every one knows that Israel were commanded to 
 keep every seventh year as a sabbatical year, and 
 every seventh day as a sabbatical day; and every 
 seventh day they did keep, and no one among 
 them ever dreamed of its meaning anything else 
 than a day. Throughout the passage " day " 
 means " day," and " year '^ means " year." 
 
 The second argument is, that after the spies of 
 Israel had searched the land for forty days, they 
 were punished by wandering in the wilderness for 
 forty years. Is day here put for year ? Did they 
 not search the land for forty literal days, and were 
 they not punished for forty literal years ? No 
 passage could prove more convincingly that " day " 
 means 'May," and that "year" means "year." 
 
 Again, he quotes a similar passage in Ezekiel 
 (Ch. iv.). Ezekiel is commanded to lie on his side 
 for forty days, typically to bear the punishment of 
 sins which Judah had committed for forty years. 
 Did not Ezekiel lie on his side for forty literal 
 days, and did not Judah sin for forty literal years? 
 Ezekiel would surely have considered it a strange 
 thing if he had been told that God had said indeed 
 
1 84 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 that he was to lie on his side forty days, but that 
 He really meant forty years ! It • must have been 
 so, if day be put for year. Did Ezekiel so think or 
 so act ? Did he lie on his side for forty year's ? 
 
 Mr. Fleming adds, "Nay, our Saviour Himself 
 speaks in this dialect when He calls the years of 
 His ministry * days,* saying, ^ I do cures to-day 
 and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be per- 
 fected.*" But Mr. Fleming in saying this seems 
 to have forgotten two things — first, that these 
 words were spoken at the time when He wept over 
 Jerusalem, and left it for the last time just three 
 literal days before His death, whereas, on Mr. 
 Fleming's theory, they ought to have been spoken 
 during the first year of His ministry ; secondly, 
 he has forgotten that the duration of our Lord's 
 ministry was not three years, but three years and 
 a half. Each, therefore, of these arguments proves 
 exactly the reverse of that which it is adduced to 
 ustain."^ 
 
 ■^ Mr. Fleming adds also, "The seven years of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar's lycanthropy is called indefinitely days or tirnesP 
 But this is not true. The seven years of Nebuchadnezzar's 
 madness is never called "days." The Hebrew word for 
 days is D"'D^ and the Chaldee word for times is V;)*^]/ It is 
 the same word that is used in the seventh chapter, where 
 the power of Antichrist is said to be for a time, times, and 
 dividing of time, i.e., for three years and half a year, or 42 
 months, or 1260 days. Now, if three times and a half mean, 
 as Mr. Fleming asserts, 1260 years, then Nebuchadnezzar's 
 madness must last double that time, for it is said to be for 
 
PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF MR. FLEMING. 1 8$ 
 
 The next and last argument derived from 
 Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks appears 
 to an English ear more plausible. But it also 
 utterly fails in proving the point intended. It 
 appears more plausible to an English ear, because 
 we are not accustomed to apply the word zveek (a 
 word which our translators have chosen as their 
 rendering of the Hebrew expression) to any period 
 longer than seven days. We are not accustomed 
 to say a week of weeks, or a zveek of months, or a 
 %veek of years. We confine the expression to a 
 seven of days. In Hebrew, however, it is other- 
 wise. The word which our translators have ren- 
 dered by ''week" means simply what the Greeks 
 would call a "hebdomad," i,e., a septenary number, 
 or a number consisting of seven. The word ''heb- 
 domad " stands in the same relation to " seven " 
 that '' decad'' does to tejiy or our English word 
 ''dozen'' to twelve. As, therefore, we can say a 
 dozen of days, or a dozen of months, or a dozen 
 of years, so we can say a hebdomad of days 
 (i.e,y seven days), or a hebdomad of months (i.e,^ 
 seven months), or a hebdomad of years (i.e., seven 
 years). 
 
 Now supposing that in the prophecy before us it 
 
 seven times, which would be equal, on Mr. Fleming's prin- 
 ciple, to 2520 years, and consequently since he — i.e., Nebu- 
 chadnezzar—lived only about 600 years before the Christian 
 era, his madness must be continuing still. He must still 
 be on earth : he must still be eating grass as oxen. 
 
1 86 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 had been said, '' Seventy dozen of days are to be 
 fulfilled," and it was afterwards found that the pro- 
 phecy really meant seventy dozens of years, then in- 
 deed it might be said that " day " meant year, and 
 the point would be unquestionably proved. But if 
 the word day was not mentioned at all, and the 
 prophecy simply said, *'' Seventy dozens are to be 
 fulfilled," then we should say that the prophecy was 
 ambiguous — that it might mean dozens of days, or 
 of months, or of years, and that we must endeavour 
 by other means to discover which of these was in- 
 tended. And if on examination we found that days 
 should be supplied, we should supply days, and in- 
 terpret them as days ; or if monthsy we should insert 
 months, and interpret them as months ; or \i years, we 
 should insert years, and interpret them as years. In 
 either case, day would mean day, and month, month, 
 and year, year. It would simply be a question 
 of which should be inserted. There would be no 
 question respecting their meaning when inserted. 
 
 Thus is it in this prophecy of Daniel. It is not 
 said, " Seventy hebdomads of days are appointed \ 
 it is merely said, " Seventy hebdomads are ap- 
 pointed." Consequently, seeing that the word " day " 
 does not exist in the passage, that which does not 
 exist cannot be put for any thing, nor mean any 
 thing, and there is an end of the question."^^ 
 
 * See this passage respecting the "seventy hebdomads'* 
 considered in "Prospects of the Ten Kingdoms," page 215. 
 
PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF MR. FLEMING. iS/' 
 
 Such, then, are the reasons given for this strange 
 imagination — reasons of which it may be fairly- 
 said, that they are no reasons at all, and therefore 
 it follows that the whole superstructure built on 
 such a foundation utterly falls."^' 
 
 ■^ Some have said, that the Jewish Rabbis teach that 
 "day" is to be understood as meaning "year.'' It is true 
 indeed that Rabbinism has enough to answer for as respects 
 perversion of Scripture, but it is not amenable to the pre- 
 sent charge. The Jews do not allow that day is put for 
 year. Aben Ezra, who lived in the twelfth century, says,, 
 " Our honourable master Saadias expounds correctly and well^, 
 in Holy Scripture days are always days, and never years. 
 Yet it is possible that the word ' day ' may mean an entire 
 year, since the repetition of the days produces a return of 
 the year, as when it is said in Ex. xiii. lo, 'from days to 
 days,' i.e. 'from year to year'; days meaning a complete 
 year. Btit when the number is stated as two days, three daySy, 
 it cannot mean years, but must be days as it stajids.^^ .(See 
 Aben Ezra as quoted by Haitian d in his Apostles' School of 
 Prophetic Interpretation.) 
 
 " The calculation," says Dr. Todd in his sermons preached 
 before the University of Dublin, "from which Mede has de- 
 rived his main position, that 'the time of the end,' or the 
 coming of the Antichrist, began in the twelfth century, de- 
 pends altogether on the untenable assumption that days in 
 prophetic language denote years j an assumption, which an 
 eminent living writer has so completely refuted, that no 
 theory built upon it can be considered as requiring any further 
 confutation. I shall not therefore detain you by repeating 
 the arguments employed by the writer to whom I allude 
 and other learned men, to overturn this principle ; it may b& 
 enough to remark, that every prophecy, which is already 
 known to have been fulfilled, and in which days or years are 
 
1 88 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 And if it be asked, how it can have happened 
 that Mr. Fleming's predictions have in certain cases 
 been verified by the event, I reply, where is there 
 any instance of such verification ? The verifica- 
 tion of a Scripture prophecy is the fulfilment of it 
 in that sense in which God has spoken it. Where 
 then has any prophecy of the Scripture been ful- 
 filled at the time, and by the circumstances spoken 
 of by Mr. Fleming as about to fulfil it } Have 
 circumstances which he has predicted fulfilled one 
 prophecy of the word of God ? We may safely 
 answer. No ! 
 
 Let us take for example his prediction respecting 
 the present year, 1848,"^ in which he supposes the 
 1260 days will end by the weakening of the Papacy 
 under the pouring out of the fifth vial. Now sup- 
 posing that 1260 days mean 1260 years, which 
 they do not, and supposing the Beast symbolised 
 the Papacy, which it does not, and supposing the 
 previous vials had been poured out, which they 
 
 mentioned, can be shown to have been fulfilled by literal 
 •days, and literal years ; and that the opinion that a day, in 
 prophetic language, means a year ; and a year, three hundred 
 •and sixty years, is an arbitrary assumption, destitute of any 
 Scriptural evidence, and which, even those commentators 
 who most warmly advocate it, are unable uniformly to ad- 
 here to." (Discourses preached before the University of 
 Dubhn, at the Donellan Lecture in 1838, by James H. Todd, 
 B.D., Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, p. 19. 
 
 * The first edition of this book was published in 1848. 
 
PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF MR. FLEMING. 1 89 
 
 have not been — yet even then, will any one ven- 
 ture to affirm that Rome has in this year begun 
 to be full of darkness, in the sense meant in the 
 Scripture, and that they have begun to " gnaw their 
 tongues for pain, and blaspheme the God of Heaven, 
 because of their pains and their sores }" Revelry 
 and rejoicing, because of conquest and deliverance, 
 is far more likely to resound from one end of Italy 
 to the other. Where then is there any fulfilment 
 in this ? But again, his prediction is, that the 
 1260 days are to conclude in 1848 by the Papacy 
 being weakenedy not abolished. He denies that it 
 can be abolished. Now it is impossible that this 
 prediction can be fulfilled, either in this year, or 
 any other year. It is a prediction that secures its 
 own frustration. For whenever the period of 1260 
 concludes, (and, as regards the present point, it is 
 immaterial whether it be a period of days, or years,) 
 whenever it ends, the reign of evil ends from one 
 end of the earth to the other. The day of man 
 ends and the Day of God begins. The dominance, 
 not merely of Popery, but of every other evil sys- 
 tem in the earth, will then utterly, and for ever 
 terminate. The night will have passed, and the 
 morning without clouds will have arisen : it will have 
 dawned with its unchangeable light of blessing on 
 a reconciled and recovered earth. His prediction,, 
 therefore, seeing that it consists of two parts neces-^ 
 sarily incompatible with each other, secures its own 
 frustration. If the Papacy is only to be weakened^ 
 
tgO AIDS TO PROrHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 and not abolished, then his prediction respecting 
 the termination of the 1260 days is falsified; for 
 they cannot terminate until all evil terminates. If, 
 on the other hand, the period of 1260 were now 
 to end, then his prediction respecting the Papacy 
 being weakened merely, and not abolished, would 
 be falsified ; for it would be abolished, and not 
 weakened. 
 
 Whether the Papacy be really weakened by that 
 which is now occurring at Rome, is a question on 
 which I express no opinion. Facts may possibly 
 prove that it is rather being strengthened. But 
 however this may be, we may with all certainty 
 afhrm, that the events now happening at Rome arc 
 TIG more the fulfilment of the passage above quoted 
 in the Revelation than the conversion of Constantine 
 was the fulfilment of the solemn words that follow 
 the opening of the sixth seal. He who can per- 
 suade himself to believe, that a vision such as that 
 in which " the sun became black as sackcloth of hair 
 •and the whole of the inoo7i (77 aeXrjvT] oXt}) became as 
 blood ; and the stars of heaven fell tcnto the earth, 
 even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figSy zvhen 
 shaken by a mighty wind. And the heave^t was sepa- 
 rated from its place as a scroll when it rolleth itself 
 together (aTre^^wp/cr^?; «<? ^i^Xiov eWtao-o/jbevov) : and 
 -every mountain and island were moved out of their 
 places. And the kings of the earth, and the great 
 mcjt, and the chief captains, and the rich men, and 
 ihe mighty men, and every bondman, and freemaUy 
 
PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF MR. FLEMING. I9I 
 
 hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the 
 mountains ; and they say to the monntains and the 
 rocksy ^ Fall on us^ and hide us from the face of 
 Him that sitteth on the throne^ and from the wrath 
 of the Lamb : because the great day of His zvrath 
 hath come ; and who is able to stand f' — he who 
 can persuade himself, that a vision like this has 
 been accomplished in such an event as the nomi- 
 nal conversion of the Roman Empire, will certainly 
 find little difficulty in making any part of the Word 
 of God accommodate itself to any prediction that 
 he may please to utter. Such interpretations of 
 the Word of God will accommodate themselves to 
 anything, and mean anything. They are simply 
 non-natural interpretations, false meanings put upon 
 the words of God. Mr. Fleming has accepted this 
 interpretation of the vision given at the opening of 
 the sixth seal. It is not wonderful, therefore, that 
 such a system of interpretation adopted throughout 
 the Revelation as a whole, should open a door 
 sufficiently wide for all kinds of imaginary fulfil- 
 ments. But there is in all this no accomplishment 
 of the Word of God. 
 
 To take another example, viz., his conjecture re- 
 specting the fulfilment of the fourth vial in the 
 abasement of popish countries throughout the seven- 
 teenth and eighteenth centuries, and especially by 
 the overthrow of the French monarchy in 1793. 
 Whatever may be thought of this as a conjecture, 
 it has no title to be regarded as any fulfilment of 
 
192 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Scripture prophecy. The words of the Scripture 
 are these, '^ And the fourth angel poured out his 
 vial upon the stin ; and it was given unto it to 
 scorch niefi with fire. And men voere scorched with 
 great scorching, and blasphemed the name of God, 
 who hath authority over these plagues : and they re- 
 pented not to give Him glory. ^^ 
 
 Now even if we were to admit that the sun re- 
 presents a number of popish monarchs and king- 
 doms, from our James II. to Louis XVI. of France, 
 how is it that increased power given to the sun 
 indicates increased weakness in those whom that 
 sun is said to represent t If these kings and king- 
 doms are symboHsed by the sun in this passage, 
 we ought to have seen them, and all popish kings 
 and kingdoms, greatly increased in power, and be- 
 ginning to scorch others, (I suppose) Protestants ; 
 for they could hardly be supposed to scorch them- 
 selves. This surely must have been the interpre- 
 tation — the Papists must have been strengthened, 
 not weakened ; yet for some unexplained reason, 
 Mr. Fleming suddenly reverses the symbol and 
 says that the strengthening of the sun indicates 
 the weakening of the Papists, whom that sun is 
 said to represent. Is this fulfilment of prophecy.? 
 
 But again, when James II. was driven from 
 England, or when Louis XVI. fell, or during the 
 intervening centuries, w^ere men so "scorched with 
 fire " and " great scorching," or did they in an 
 especial manner, because of their special plagues. 
 
PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF MR. FLEMING. 1 93 
 
 blaspheme God ? The fall of James II. is looked on 
 in England as the dawn of liberty and prosperity ; 
 and the fall of the French monarchy is looked at 
 in France as issuing in the most glorious period of 
 their history, when under Napoleon they shivered 
 Europe under the Empire. As to the Papists, their 
 joy and self-congratulation at the supposed advance 
 of their system, both in France, England, and the 
 Colonies, is certainly very unlike the wail of torment 
 or despair. 
 
 It would be easy to accumulate instances of 
 similar inconsistencies of interpretation. We might 
 ask, If the ten-horned beast of Revelation xiii. 
 represents the Papacy, how does it happen that 
 there are within the sphere of its influence un- 
 converted men who are not Papists ? For (with 
 the exception of those whose names are written 
 in the Lamb's book of life) all who fall within 
 the scope of " the Beast's " influence will worship 
 him when he appears. Have all wicked men 
 worshipped the Pope? We might ask how, if the 
 ten-horned beast represent the Pope (who is eccle- 
 siastical), another beast, also ecclesiastical in 
 character, is in the same chapter (Rev. xiii.) said 
 to minister in his presence, ' and what the image 
 is, which speaks and is worshipped,' and commands 
 that whosoever will not worship it should be 
 killed? Has the world ever yet seen such an 
 image? If so, where is it? And where are its 
 worshippers? We might ask, too, how a beast, 
 
 o 
 
194 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 which wears throughout the whole of the 1260 
 days the crowns of all the kingdoms of the Roman 
 world, can represent the Pope, who has never worn 
 those crowns? And how, if the harlot represents 
 the Papacy, can she be destroyed by the ten horns 
 of that beast (Rev. xvii. 16, 17), which is sup- 
 posed to represent the Pope ? How is it that 
 during the whole of the 1260 days the beast is 
 represented as having authority in the holy city, 
 even " the city where our Lord was crucified " 
 (see Rev. xi. 7, 8), whereas the Pope has never 
 exercised authority in Jerusalem at all? We read 
 that all who shall worship the beast or receive his 
 mark are certainly doomed to everlasting wrath 
 (Rev. xiv. 9), whereas it is possible for Papists to 
 believe and to be saved. Many a question of this 
 kind might be multiplied, difficult indeed to be 
 answered by those who seem to speak as if all 
 evil were concentrated in the Pope alone. 
 
 God does not think so. He sees in the corrupt 
 churches of the East, in Mahomedanism, in 
 Judaism, and in latitti dinar iafi Protestantism, evil 
 as great, and, in the latter instance, greater than 
 in Popery itself; and He has not delineated in 
 His word the final climax of evil, without including 
 in that delineation all the channels which unite in 
 that final meeting point. The Old Testament, in 
 many of its prophecies, describes the same period 
 as that of which the Revelation treats, that is to 
 say, the period which immediately precedes the 
 
PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF MR. FLEMING. 1 95 
 
 appearing of the Lord. It speaks abundantly of 
 the antichristianism of Israel in Jerusalem, and of 
 the antichristianism of the great Gentile nations 
 (the nations of the Roman earth) at the closing 
 hour. Does the Revelation contradict these testi- 
 monies of the Old Testament Scriptures, or is it 
 silent respecting these great events of the latter 
 day, which are to knit the East and the West to- 
 gether in a confederacy of evil, the like to which 
 has never yet been seen? Is it silent respecting 
 the very events which give to the period of which 
 the Revelation professes to treat, its most distin- 
 guishing and characteristic features? It must be 
 silent about these things if it only speaks of 
 Popery ; for neither the Jews, nor half of the Gentile 
 nations are Papists, and therefore, never could be 
 included in the warnings respecting the beast or 
 his image, if Popery be that which is designated 
 thereby. 
 
 And is this really to be the burden of our tes- 
 timony ? Are we to teach the Jew, the Mahome- 
 dan, the Protestant infidel, that he is in no danger 
 from that ''hour of temptation that shall come 
 upon the whole world, to try those who dwell 
 upon the earth." That hour will bring with it a 
 mightier strength of delusion, and a power of judi- 
 cial blinding more terrible than any that has ever 
 yet visited the earth. Are Papists the only per- 
 sons that will be endangered by it ? (Rev. iii. 10.) 
 Are we to teach them that Popery so concentrates 
 
 O 2 
 
196 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 within itself all evil, that they who are not Papists 
 are safe from the fearful denunciations of the clos- 
 ing book of the Scripture? Are we thus to nullify 
 the word of God — to turn the course of the sword 
 of the Spirit, and to blunt its edge ? 
 
 This no doubt is the desire of Satan. To lead 
 into such vagueness of thought and interpretation 
 as takes all definiteness from the symbols and ex- 
 pressions of Scripture; to confine the most solemn 
 of its warnings and denunciations within a circle 
 too narrow to include half of those for whom they 
 are intended ; to persuade us that that is past^ 
 which is not only future, but near ; and so to hide 
 from men the gulf which is yawning almost before 
 their feet — this no doubt, is one of the chief 
 anxieties of the great enemy of souls. And he 
 has fearfully succeeded. He has succeeded in per- 
 verting, when he has not been able to hide, the 
 very light which is set to guide us through the 
 night until the day-star arise. 
 
 No one, I suppose, who believes in the personal 
 existence of Satan, will doubt that he is able to 
 tempt, and to put evil thoughts into the heart. 
 And if able on other subjects to deceive, he is 
 able also to lead into wrong interpretations of the 
 word of God. He is acquainted with the facts that 
 Scripture reveals as about to be, and he is fre- 
 quently himself permitted (as when he was allowed 
 to afflict Job) to conduct the train of circumstances 
 which is to lead on the series of events to their 
 
PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF MR. FLEMING. 1 9/ 
 
 appointed issue. It is not therefore to be won- 
 dered at, that, after having turned our minds into 
 a wrong channel of thought, he should suggest 
 such anticipations as should receive confirmation 
 from the events which he knows are about to 
 happen. 
 
 If for example, we could now be persuaded to 
 believe that the waning of the Turkish power is 
 the fulfilment of that passage in the Revelation 
 which describes the pouring out of the sixth vial on 
 ^*the great river, the river Euphrates"; if we could 
 be seduced into the belief that when the Scripture 
 speaks of " the way of the kings from {airo) east '* 
 being prepared, it refers to the return of Israel to 
 their own Land ; if the words, " Behold I come as 
 a thief; blessed is he that watcheth," etc., are not 
 to be understood of the personal advent of our 
 Lord, but indicate merely some providential inter- 
 ference of His hand — if we could be induced to 
 accept interpretations such as these, we should not 
 be long in finding in events soon about to occur, 
 an apparent verification of our expositions. It is 
 true that the sphere of Constantinopolitan power 
 and influence will be narrowed greatly. Syria for 
 example will be separated from Constantinople, just 
 as Egypt and Greece have been. That might be 
 represented to be the pouring out of the sixth vial 
 on the Euphrates. Israel, while yet unconverted 
 will return to their own Land. This will be re- 
 garded as the coming of the Kings from the East, 
 
193 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 an apparent verification of our expositions ; and the 
 false prosperity which for a season will attend them 
 after their return, will be represented as the figu- 
 rative coming of the Lord. We might even ven- 
 ture to predict the periods (for they are not far 
 off) when these things are likely to be, and yet 
 all would be delusion. The events are not the 
 events which God has intended to indicate, and the 
 very fulfilment of our anticipations, would only lead 
 into deeper darkness as to the real meaning of 
 His word. 
 
 There are many other grave and serious objec- 
 tions that might be urged against this work. It 
 might be shown how entirely it fails in rightly 
 dividing the Scriptures. It is really written as if 
 God had made no distinctions in His word be- 
 tween the Jews, the Gentile nations, and the Church. 
 The history of Christianity is confounded with that 
 of the Gentile nations: and as to Israel, their his- 
 tory, both when they return to their land in un- 
 belief, and also after they are restored under the 
 blessing of the Lord — all that they are to be in 
 sin, and all that they are to be in millennial 
 blessedness, appears to have been unnoticed and 
 unknown. And yet Israel is the very centre of 
 the earthly arrangements of God ; the turning point 
 on which His dispensations hinge. 
 
 But I have said enough. He who, after con- 
 sidering the practical effects of this work — its failure 
 in the very first principles of prophetic interpreta- 
 
PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF MR. FLEMING. 1 99 
 
 tion, and above all, its rejection of the personal 
 Advent of the Lord, can yet consent to regard it 
 with complacency, will be little affected by any 
 accumulation of further evidence. But I trust that 
 many will escape the snare ; and that the very 
 publication of this book may tend to excite an 
 enquiry that may end in the discovery of truth. 
 The very perplexities in which this subject has 
 been so industriously involved, may teach us its 
 importance, for in a world like this, that which is 
 most precious, is likely to be most hidden. But if 
 there be a little patience — a little honest persever- 
 ance in using the Scripture, a real desire "to buy 
 Truth and sell it not," these mists of darkness will 
 disappear, and truth will be seen in the clearness 
 and simplicity which might be supposed to belong 
 to a subject, which the word of GOD professes to 
 Reveal. " His testimonies are sure, making wise 
 the simple." 
 
200 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE PROPHETIC SYSTEM OF MR. ELLIOTT AND 
 DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 
 
 The political and social convulsions which spread 
 throughout Western Europe after the late French 
 Revolution in 1848, had a marked effect in arous- 
 ing the minds of many to enquiry respecting the 
 future. They knew that they were very ignorant 
 of all that God had revealed touching the pros- 
 pects of the nations : they felt ashamed of that 
 ignorance, and not a few rushed with inconsiderate 
 haste to the perusal of any writings that seemed 
 likely to satisfy their enquiries. The avidity with 
 which the book of Mr. Fleming was sought after, 
 bears witness to the state of feverish excitement 
 that then prevailed. Two years have since passed, 
 and now that book is scarcely heard of any longer. 
 Men probably are convinced that Mr. Fleming was 
 wrong. They see that in 1848, Popery neither re- 
 ceived its death-blow, nor ceased to be supported 
 by France. Indeed, the attempt now being made 
 in Austria, Italy, and France, is to rule by help of 
 the Jesuits ; and with this object. Popery is sus- 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 20I 
 
 tained. The final impression left on men's minds 
 by Mr. Fleming's work, will probably be a painful 
 conviction of having been deceived ; and thus deeper 
 prejudice than ever will be excited against every 
 form of Prophetic enquiry."^ 
 
 There is, however, another work, the Horce Apo- 
 calypticce of Mr. Elliott, w^hich although not less 
 open to objection than that of Mr. Fleming, is still 
 maintaining a considerable influence over many. 
 Its influence has been extended more widely, in 
 consequence of its having been made the ground- 
 work of a popular exposition of the Revelation, 
 lately published by Dr. Gumming. Dr. Gumming 
 avowedly adopts the opinions of Mr. Elliott, stating 
 
 * Many changes have taken place since this was written, 
 all tending to frustrate the predictions of Mr. Fleming. 
 During the reign of Napoleon III. the Papacy was vigorously 
 upheld by France ; and even now its power in that country, 
 though curbed, is not destroyed. In England the influence 
 of Romanism has greatly increased. Nevertheless, neither 
 in France, nor in England, nor in Austria, will Rome again 
 become do7iiina7it. In all the Latin half and in all the 
 Greek or Eastern half of the Roman World none of the old 
 religious systems will regain their ancient supremacy. The 
 conflict between them and Latitudinarianism may be fierce, 
 and perhaps prolonged, but it will end in the triumph of 
 Latitudinarianism, which subsequently will have itself to 
 succumb before the supremacy of the Antichrist. In those 
 parts of Christendom which are external to the Roman 
 boundary the doctrinal, if not the secular, system of Popery 
 will probably have great influence until the end. Not till 
 then will Iniquity hide its head. 
 
202 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 that he regards his " Horae" as about to " occupy a 
 place in reference to unfulfilled prophecy, that New- 
 ton's 'Principia' has occupied in reference to 
 science.""^ We may therefore consider these two 
 writers as identified. In the following remarks, I 
 shall regard them as one — and my observations, 
 even when I do not specify the name of each, 
 must be regarded as applying equally to the 
 opinions of both. 
 
 It will not be necessary, in order to determine 
 the character of these works, to follow the authors 
 through all their statements. The consideration of 
 a few cardinal points will be sufficient ; nor will 
 I at present enter into the question whether the 
 Revelation be intended to supply the continuous 
 history of the past 1800 years, or whether it be on 
 the contrary, the declaration of the manner in which 
 God will visit with His judgments the evil of the 
 present dispensation zvhen matured. Mr. Elliott and 
 Dr. Gumming have unhappily determined, that the 
 Revelation does supply the consecutive history of 
 the past 1800 years; and hence their effort to 
 find in it the record of events, which the very 
 character of the Book requires to be passed over in 
 silence. 
 
 One of the most remarkable events that have 
 
 occurred during the past 1800 years — an event 
 
 which Mr. Elliott supposes to be largely dwelt on 
 
 in the Revelation, is the assumption of the pro- 
 
 ^ Gumming, p. 15. 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 205 
 
 fession of Christianity by the Roman Empire in 
 the days of Constantine. Long before Constan- 
 tine, not only had the freshness and vigour of 
 Christianity entirely departed, but there was scarcely 
 a truth that had not been adulterated or denied — 
 scarcely an error that has since flourished under 
 Popery, of which the seed had not been abun- 
 dantly sown. Even the very framework and order 
 of the Church had become entirely diverse from 
 that which the Apostles had prescribed in their 
 Epistles. Persecution instead of driving back to 
 God, caused many, according to the words of the 
 Lord, to be offended — they betrayed and hated one 
 another — iniquity abounded, and love waxed cold. 
 (Matt, xxiv.) Well indeed it may be said that 
 iniquity did abound. The Church had become in 
 many places, a mere school of philosophy — an arena 
 for the display of Rhetoricians and Sophists : and 
 the writings of those Teachers who were considered 
 most orthodox and influential, such for example as 
 Origen, had deepened the darkness which since the 
 Apostles died, had steadily settled in upon the word 
 of God. Heresies of various kinds abounded ; and 
 Arianism, at the time when Constantine assumed 
 the profession of Christianity, was in many places 
 destroying the very form of orthodoxy. 
 
 Such was the condition of the fallen Church,, 
 when Constantine, professedly converted by a vision,, 
 adopted the Cross as his distinctive military en- 
 sign. That token of the relation of the Prince of 
 
■204 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Peace to a world that had rejected . Him — the 
 sign to a believer that he has been crucified to 
 the world, and the world unto him — the sign 
 also that he has been entrusted with the ministra- 
 tion of the Gospel of peace and grace — that em- 
 blem was now adopted by the proud and warlike 
 master of the Roman World as his peculiar device. 
 ^*It was seen," says Mr. Elliott, "glittering in the 
 helmets, engraved on the shields, and interwoven 
 with the banners of his soldiers. More especially 
 in his principal banner, the Lab arum, he displayed 
 at its summit the same once accursed emblem, with 
 a crown of gold beside it, and the monogram of 
 the name of Him who, after bearing the one, now 
 wore the other." (Elliott, p. 113.) 
 
 The character of the religion of Constantine may 
 Idc judged of from this, that subsequently to the 
 <:elebrated vision by which he was said to be con- 
 verted (A.D. 312) he publicly invoked the Deity as 
 one and the same in all forms of worship : and at 
 a later period (A.D. 321), he promulgated simul- 
 taneous edicts for the observance of Sunday, and 
 the due consultation of the heathen soothsayers."^ 
 Many of the heretics and schismatics, whose con- 
 venticles he suppressed, "through fear of the Im- 
 perial threat," says Eusebius, "joined the Church 
 with hypocritical minds." The prelates of the 
 Church began to revel in king's courts. Eusebius 
 
 ■'^ See Newman's Hist, of Arianism, p. 281. 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 20$, 
 
 Bishop of Nicomedia, and Eusebius Bishop of 
 Csesarea, were Constantine's chief favourites. Both 
 were patrons of Arianism, the former probably 
 because he virtually was an Arian, the second be- 
 cause he was a worldly latitudinarian. The first 
 banishment of Athanasius, and the temporary re- 
 storation of Arius, was effected by their wiles;, 
 nor did even the awful death of Arius under the 
 hand of God, damp the efforts of the court party 
 against those who still retained the true confes- 
 sion of the Person of the Son of God. Constan- 
 tius, the successor of Constantine, was a persecut- 
 ing Arian."^ 
 
 ^ Immediately after the Nicene Council, the semi-Arian 
 party, who hypocritically adopted its confession, contrived,, 
 by flattering Constantine, and accommodating themselves ta 
 his political and latitudinarian views, to get the power into 
 their own hands ; and the orthodox, after having apparently 
 triumphed at the council, found themselves discountenanced 
 and persecuted. This was one of the first results of the 
 Church being patronised by the Imperial power. Sulpitius 
 Severus, born A.D. 366, who was by no means disposed to 
 look unfavourably on the attempt to dignify Christianity, after 
 referring to what the Empress Helena had done in building 
 churches, and the liberty from persecution attained under 
 a Christian Monarch, proceeds thus : *' But a far more 
 tremendous danger ensued to all the Churches from the 
 peace thus acquired, for at that time the heresy of Arius burst 
 forth, and by the error it introduced threw the whole world 
 into confusion. For even the Emperor himself was drawn 
 aside by the two acute authors of this perfidious doctrine, 
 both of whom bore the name of Arius. (Etenim duobus 
 Ariis, acerrimis perfidy hujus auctoribus, Imperator etiam 
 
-206 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 This is but a faint picture of the corruptions of 
 that evil hour. How then can it be imagined, that 
 such an exaltation of such Christianity could be 
 
 depravatur.; Under the impression that he was fulfilling 
 a religious duty, the Emperor began violently to persecute ; 
 the Bishops were driven into exile ; the clergy were raged 
 against ; the laity punished in cases where they had sepa- 
 rated themselves from communion with the Arians. The 
 -doctrine which the Arians maintained was to this effect, 
 that the Father of the Lord, for the sake of creating the 
 world, had begotten a Son — that so according to His 
 almighty power, a new and another Lord was made, in a 
 ■new and another substance ; and that a time was when the 
 Son was not. In consequence of this evil, a Synod was 
 convened at Nicaea from the whole world. Three hundred 
 •and twenty-two Bishops were assembled ; a full confession of 
 faith drawn up, and the Arian heresy condemned. The 
 Emperor accepted the Episcopal decree. The Arians, not 
 daring any longer to treat of the question in opposition to 
 the orthodox faith, mingled with the Churches, as if 
 acquiescing in the decision, and not differing in opinion. 
 Nevertheless, there remained in their bosoms a deep-seated 
 enmity against men of catholic doctrines, and seeing that 
 they could not overcome them in discussion, they began to 
 attack them by suborning accusers and inventing charges. 
 * "^ "^ By such means they so far influenced the Emperor 
 that Athanasius was sent into exile to Gaul." (Sulpitius 
 Severus, Lib. II., c. xxxvi.) 
 
 As regards Eusebius, nothing can be more wickedly 
 latitudinarian than the manner in which he continually 
 speaks of the Arian controversy. Instead of marking the 
 doctrine of Arius, as being, what it really was, utterly 
 subversive of the faith, he strives, in his life of Constantine, 
 to represent the controversy raised upon the question as 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 20/ 
 
 the work of God in blessing ? Besides, even if there 
 had not been such corruption of truth, could it ever 
 have been the desire of God that the Cross should 
 be identified with the banner of Imperial Rome — 
 setting aside for the present the question of the 
 ungodliness with which that banner was associated ? 
 If the real, true, pure doctrine of the Cross had 
 verily become supreme among the nations, the essen- 
 tial character of the Dispensation must have been 
 
 entirely needless, and speaks of the Bishops on both sides 
 as "arranging themselves in angry hostility against each 
 other on pretence of a jealous regard for the doctrines of 
 Divine Truth." (Ch. 6i.) He quotes with delight the letter 
 which Constantine wrote to Alexandria, in w^hich the 
 Emperor speaks of the difference between Arius and his 
 opponents as being " intrinsically trifling, and of little 
 moment " (^LKpas kol Xluv cvreXovs) and tells them that they 
 are in reality " of one and the same judgment." 
 
 It is said by some that Constantine would not have so 
 written after he had learned more about the real nature of 
 the controversy. That is questionable ; for he persecuted 
 Athanasius after the Nicene Council. But, however this may 
 be, it cannot affect Eusebius. Eusebius well understood 
 the controversy, and wrote thus, long after the Nicene 
 Council — and Eusebius was Cpnstantine's favourite. The 
 condition of Eusebius' mind on other subjects may be 
 judged of from the following passage. Speaking of the 
 structures that had been reared by Constantine at Jeru- 
 salem in honour of Christ, he adds, " It may be that this 
 was that second and new Jerusalem spoken of in the pre- 
 dictions of the prophets, concerning which such abundant 
 testimony is given in the divinely inspired record." (Euse- 
 bius, Vita Constant., ch. xxxiii.) 
 
208 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 changed. The time would have come for the 
 saints to reign; and Constantine the Master of 
 the Roman World, and the Prelates who shared 
 his dignity, would have become the proper repre- 
 sentatives of the right condition of Christian Truth, 
 instead of the Apostle Paul who died daily. But 
 was it so ? 
 
 Mr. Elliott and Dr. Gumming according to their 
 principles, should answer, Yes."^ 
 
 It is said that the Cross was seen by Constan- 
 tine in a dream, with the inscription, " By this 
 conquer." But is it forgotten that Satan can 
 send deluding dreams, and that God is likely to 
 permit it, when men cease to walk by the prin- 
 ciples of His written word, and give themselves 
 over to other guidance? Or, dreams may arise 
 from the multitude of our own thoughts within 
 us. In every case, both miracles and dreams need 
 to be tested by the word of God. Their origin 
 is soon determined to be not from Him, if they 
 lead into practices which His word condemns. 
 There had been another occasion on which Satan 
 had sought to connect himself with Christianity 
 and to grasp its influence. When Paul and Bar- 
 nabas first turned their steps towards Europe, and 
 began to preach in Philippi, who would have 
 
 * '' Constantine (says Mr. Elliott) was the first crusader; 
 and, with better reason than the Princes of the eleventh 
 century at Clermont, might feel as he prosecuted the war 
 that it was ^ the will of God.'" (Elliott, p. 114.) 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 209 
 
 thought that an unclean spirit would have been 
 the first to say of those two despised strangers, 
 '* These men are the servants of the Most High 
 God, who show unto us the way of salvation ?" 
 Satan's object, doubtless, was to connect himself 
 with the testimonies of Christianity, in order that 
 he might mar, disgrace, and ruin them. St. Paul 
 was on his guard ; but the Church in the days of 
 Constantine were not as St. Paul. They had long 
 ceased to be guided by the word of God. They 
 had long coveted exaltation. 
 
 It is not necessary to say whether the vision or 
 dream of Constantine came immediately from 
 Satan, in order to determine the character of the 
 Christianity that prevailed both at, and after, his 
 conversion. That is a question for conscience to 
 decide. And will any real Christian with the 
 Scripture in his hand, deliberately say, that even 
 the orthodox Christianity that prevailed before Con- 
 stantine, was such as God could honour : or, if He 
 had intended to honour it, that He would have 
 done so by exalting it into the Imperial Throne } 
 This is a question which needs no reference to 
 prophetic Scripture : it is determined by the essen- 
 tial characteristics of the primary doctrine of 
 Christ.^ 
 
 If the conversion of Constantine and the subse- 
 quent exaltation of Christianity, had really been 
 
 * Hagenbach, in his " History of Doctrines," gives the fol- 
 lowing account of doctrines taught immediately after the 
 
 P 
 
2IO • AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 an act of God's hand in blessing, there are two 
 parts of Scripture, which, from the nature of their 
 
 Apostles died. It shows how early the distinctive truth of 
 the Gospel was lost. 
 
 Clement, of Alexandria, writes as follows : " Perhaps as 
 we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, so 
 some will be redeemed by the precious blood of the martyrs." 
 (Vol. I., p. 178.) 
 
 " Origen also ascribed somewhat of the effects of an atone- 
 ment to the death of the martyrs, as Clement had done be- 
 fore him." (Hagenbach, p. 173). 
 
 " That theory of satisfaction had not then been formed 
 which represents Christ as satisfying the justice of God, by 
 suffering, in the room of the sinner, the punishment due to 
 him. The term ' satisfactio ' occurs indeed in the writings 
 of Tertullian, but in a sense essentially different from and 
 opposed to the idea of a sacrifice made by a substitute." (P. 
 
 ^73') 
 
 " The forgiveness of sins was made dependent both on true 
 repentance, and the performance of good works." (P. 180.) 
 
 "From all that has been said in reference to the subject 
 in question, it would follow that the primitive Church held 
 the doctrine of vicarious sii^erings^ but not of vicarious 
 saUsfaciion^' (p. 178)— that is, although they admitted that 
 no one could be saved unless Christ had suffered on his be- 
 half, yet they also taught, that something else was needful 
 in addition to those sufferings of the Redeemer : conse- 
 quently, His sufferings did not make ^^ satisfaction.^^ Thus 
 the distinctive truth of the Gospel was utterly set aside, and 
 the doctrines of the Epistles to the Romans and to the 
 Hebrews virtually blotted out from the Bible. 
 
 What a mercy to be able to turn from these "doctrines 
 »of men " to the sure testimonies of God's own word. There 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 211 
 
 subject, must have so mentioned it. One is the 
 prophecy of our Lord in the 24th of Matthew. In 
 that prophecy the Lord speaks of the early perse- 
 cutions which Christianity would meet when it 
 should go forth among the Gentiles. "Then shall 
 they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill 
 you : and ye shall be hated of all the Gentiles 
 {yiro TravTcov rcov idu&v) for My name's sake. And 
 then shall many be offended, and shall betray one 
 another, and shall hate one another." Such is 
 the picture of the condition of Christianity in the 
 midst of its early persecutions. And does the 
 Lord say, that after this the scene would change, 
 and that God would interfere to exalt Chris- 
 tianity in the earth and so give it His bless- 
 ing ? No : the prophecy says exactly the reverse ; 
 it says that "iniquity shall abound, and the love 
 of the greater part (rcov iroWcov) wax cold," so 
 that it should be a hard thing to "endure unto 
 the end." The Lord could not have thus spoken, 
 if God had miraculously interfered in the days 
 of Constantine to make Christianity triumphant. 
 Again, in the seventh of Daniel, the Empire over 
 which Constantine ruled, is represented from the 
 beginning to the end of its course, by one unaltered 
 symbol, viz., a "beast dreadful and terrible, and 
 
 we find that all who believe, are " sanctified by the offering 
 of Christ's body once" (Hebrews x. 10) — and that all so sanc- 
 tified are, as to acceptance, " perfected for ever." (Heb. 
 X. 14.) 
 
 P 2 
 
212 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 strong exceedingly ;" always evil, and, at the last^ 
 blasphemous. It would have been impossible to 
 represent it thus, if God had at any one moment 
 of its course, brought it into holy and blessed con- 
 nexion with the Cross of His Son. In that case 
 the symbol would have been changed. The terrible 
 monster w^ould have disappeared, and Constan- 
 tine*s Empire would have been represented by a 
 Lamb, or some other such symbol of gentleness and 
 peace. But the symbol remains unchanged. The 
 Roman nations governmentally regarded (whether 
 Pagan as at first; or nominally Christian as un- 
 der Constantine, or as now, partly Mahommedan, 
 partly of the Greek communion, partly Papal, and 
 partly Protestant) are, in each and in all these 
 conditions, represented by the same Monster which 
 ends its course in blasphemy, and is then adjudged 
 to be "given to the burning flame," and the "time 
 came for the saints to possess the kingdom." (See 
 Dan. vii. 22, and Rev. xi. 17.) 
 
 And now let us consider those parts of the Re- 
 velation which are interpreted by Mr. Elliott and 
 Dr. Gumming of the conversion of Constantine. 
 The first is the following most solemn passage 
 from the end of the sixth chapter. "And I saw 
 when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a 
 great earthquake; and the sun became black as 
 sackcloth of hair, and the whole of the moon be- 
 came as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto 
 the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 213 
 
 figs, when shaken by a mighty wind. And the 
 heaven was separated from its place as a scroll 
 when it rolleth itself together; and every moun- 
 tain and island were moved out of their places. 
 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, 
 and the chief captains, and the rich men, and the 
 mighty men, and every bondman, and freeman, hid 
 themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the 
 mountains; and they say to the mountains and the 
 rocks, ' Fall on us, and hide us from the face of 
 Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath 
 of the Lamb : because the great day of His wrath 
 hath come; and who is able to stand?'" 
 
 This is the passage which Mr. Elliott and Dr. 
 Gumming interpret of the political fall of Pagan- 
 ism in the days of Constantine. Mr. Elliott, in- 
 deed, seems constrained to allow, that the language 
 may also refer to the great final convulsion when 
 the Lord shall return, and shake all things ; and 
 adds, that it is the habit of Scripture to make a 
 less event of the same character^ typical of a greater 
 that is to follow. It is indeed most true, that a less 
 event of the same character is often made to fore- 
 shadow (I would not say be typical of) a greater that 
 is to follow. Thus the past destruction of Jeru- 
 salem, forewarns us of the greater and more ter- 
 rible season of tribulation yet to come on that City. 
 The desolations that have fallen upon Egypt and 
 the cities of the East, are intended to warn us of 
 greater judgments yet to fall upon those regions. 
 
214 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 In such cases, the actings of the Divine hand may 
 rightly be said to be of the same character. But 
 are we to beheve that the great final act of God 
 in shaking all things in order to establish the 
 glorious kingdom of His Son, is of the same cha- 
 racter as that by which worldly secularised Chris- 
 tians, whom He designed to chasten, were permitted 
 by Him to introduce the wicked Christianity of the 
 days of Constantine ? Did God indeed put forth 
 His mighty power in order to establish and give 
 effect to evil ? Is He the author of sin ? 
 
 It would be strange, indeed, if a period when 
 all kinds of worldliness flourished with new strength, 
 and when even Paganism continued in such vigour 
 as after a little again to threaten Christianity with 
 extermination— it were strange if such a period were 
 one in which the great day of the Lamb's wrath 
 had come, or in which men imagined that it had 
 come. There were, doubtless, many individual 
 Pagans who were vexed and angered that Chris- 
 tianity was favoured, and Paganism endangered * 
 but does Mr. Elliott really believe that there was 
 one living Pagan throughout the whole Roman 
 Earth, who thought, when Constantine assumed 
 the profession of Christianity, that the day of the 
 Lamb's wrath was come? Why, they did not 
 not believe even in the existence of the Lamb of 
 God. How, then, can it be said that "every 
 bondman, and freeman," as well as "the kings of 
 the earth, and the great men, and the chief cap- 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 215 
 
 tains, and the rich men, and the mighty men, hid 
 themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the 
 m.ountains; and said to the mountains and the 
 rocks, *Fall on us, and hide us from the face of 
 Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath 
 of the Lamb ? ' " It is language thoroughly in- 
 applicable to the days of Constantine, for then 
 not only was there no general wail, but the shield 
 of Imperial protection was thrown even over Pa-, 
 ganism itself. It was anything rather than a day 
 of general woe.* 
 
 The disastrous effect of explaining away pas- 
 sages like this, which belong exclusively to the 
 great coming hour of Christ's return in glory, and 
 the encouragement thereby afforded to neologian 
 tendencies, is most manifest. Two things should 
 have been sufficient to guard Mr. Elliott against 
 such an interpretation of this passage, first, a con- 
 scientious judgment of the circumstances, which 
 would have showed him that the establishment of 
 
 ■^ The twentieth anniversary of Constantine's accession (says 
 a recent writer) was hailed with general rejoicings through- 
 out the world. Since the Augustan age, so long a cessation 
 from bloodshed had not been known. " Throughout the 
 whole kingdom," says Eusebius, " the sword of justice hung 
 idle ; and men and nations obeyed rather from filial affec • 
 tion than by means of force." The heathen rejoiced scarcely 
 less than the Church : it was clear that no rod of iron was 
 as yet to be swayed by the triumphant faith. Therefore, on 
 the twentieth anniversary, the people set apart a day for 
 feasting. (Maitland, p. 207.) 
 
2l6 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 the wicked Christianity of the days of Constan- 
 stine, could not have been an act of God analo- 
 gous to that by which He will introduce the king- 
 dom of His Son. Secondly, a regard to the struc- 
 ture of the Book of Revelation would have pre- 
 served him from the error. It is written on the 
 same principle as the visions of Daniel — visions 
 which are not chronologically successive to each 
 other, for the very first vision (the vision of the 
 Image) reaches to the end of "the times of the 
 Gentiles," when the Image is smitten, ground to 
 powder, and the Stone by which it is smitten, fills 
 the whole earth. The subsequent visions belong 
 to the same period of which the second chapter 
 treats : they add an abundance of fresh instruction 
 but they do not chronologically go beyond the 
 scope of the second chapter. The first vision is as 
 to its subject matter limited, and its instruction, 
 consequently, is narrow as to its scope : whereas, 
 the subsequent visions are wide and diversified 
 in subject, and many of them minute in detail. 
 The visions of the Revelation are arranged on 
 the same principle. The sixth chapter, which we 
 have been considering, extends over the whole 
 period of which the subsequent visions up to the 
 nineteenth chapter treat. Its instruction is general, 
 not specific, extending up to the period of the 
 Lord's return. The subsequent visions do but 
 retrace and lead us to the same end. The words 
 of our Lord in Luke xxi. may be quoted as 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 21/ 
 
 parallel to the end of the sixth chapter of the 
 Revelation. "And there shall be signs in the sun, 
 and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the 
 earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roar 
 of the sea and of the surge ;"^ men's hearts failing 
 them for fear, and for looking after those things 
 which are coming on the earth : for the powers 
 of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they 
 see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power 
 and great glory." Our Lord describes in simple 
 language, the same event that is signified in the 
 Revelation by a symbolic vision. 
 
 But this is not the only passage in the Revela- 
 tion, which these writers consider to belong to the 
 days of Constantine. One of the objects of the 
 Book of Revelation is to show how differently 
 things are estimated by God in Heaven, and by 
 man upon the earth beneath. Thus golden can- 
 dlesticks, in the midst of which the Son of Man 
 walketh, are used as the expression of God's hea- 
 venly estimate of the honourable position of some 
 in the earth, who, viewed in the light of human 
 judgment, were contemptible and worthless, and 
 counted as the off-scouring of all things. Thus 
 also the kingdoms of the Roman World, when 
 manifested in their utmost glory, and delighted in 
 by men, are symbolised in the Revelation by "a 
 Dragon great and fiery red (BpaKcov /jLeya<s irvppos;), 
 having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his 
 ^ See corrected Greek reading. 
 
2l8 AIDS TO PROPPIETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 heads seven diadems ;" and the Dragon is said to 
 be "the old serpent, that is called the Devil, and 
 Satan." Such is Heaven's estimate of the king- 
 doms most glorious in the sight of men. And at 
 the same moment when God gives this as His 
 expression of the condition of the Roman King- 
 doms, He also signifies His estimate of the only- 
 thing which He now sees pure and precious in the 
 earth, viz., His own system of revealed Truth — 
 that system which, however it may be outcast and 
 despised. He will by and by establish by His 
 own mighty power, in the place of supremacy and 
 honour. "A woman clothed with the sun, and the 
 moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown 
 of twelve stars," is the symbol by which God ex- 
 presses His sense of the excellency of His own 
 Truth — Christ's Truth — now suffering in the earth. 
 The symbol was seen in Heaven, because it is 
 Heaven's, and not Earth's estimate of the value of 
 God's holy system of revealed truth."^ 
 
 ■^ There are in the Revelation, some symbols which refer 
 to a corporate condition of God's people, whilst other sym- 
 bols refer to them as individuals. But there is still another 
 class of symbols which do not refer to them at all, but to the 
 Truth which has an abstract existence in the earth, and re- 
 mains unchanged in its excellency, even when God's people 
 may have failed and fallen from the corporate place of 
 honour which they once held. After the Apostles died, the 
 Church, as to its corporate position in the earth, was not 
 worthy of being represented, and is not represented in 
 Scripture, by any symbol ofl honour. The "golden candle- 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 219. 
 
 But Mr. Elliott having first determined that the 
 enthronement of Christianity in the days of Con- 
 stantine, was a work of God's hand in blessing, says 
 that the woman clothed with the sun, etc., repre- 
 sents the Church elevated under Constantine inta 
 the Heaven of political power. "The heaven 
 meant," says Mr. Elliott, " is evidently that of poli- 
 tical elevation."^ (Elliott, Vol. II., p. 772.) And 
 again, "was not the state of things in the Roman 
 Empire" {i.e. under Constantine) "one that pre- 
 cisely answered the crisis depicted in the vision ? — 
 First, the Christian Church, united as one, and 
 morally bright and beautiful, — abundantly the more 
 
 sticks," was the last symbol which so represented it. Im- 
 mediately after the Revelation was given, the Church cor- 
 porately ceased to answer to that symbol, and lapsed into 
 the world ; and it is never again represented by any cor- 
 porate symbol of honour, until it is made, perfect in glory. 
 The condition of the Church at and after the days of Con- 
 stantine was such that it could not be represented by 
 such a symbol as " a woman clothed with the sun," etc. But 
 God's system of Truth which stands revealed in His word, 
 and is in the earth, cannot lose its excellency. Christianity 
 is something that must be distinguished from Christians : 
 they may change, it cannot. 
 
 * It is a favourite thought with Mr. Elliott, that "political 
 elevation " is in this dispensation a blessing. Thus he speaks 
 of the rod given by the angel to John when he was told to 
 measure the sanctuary (Rev. ix.) as representing " the authority 
 of the civil magistrate or ruler " as given to Luther and the 
 Reformers. Thus the very blot and reproach of the Refor- 
 mation, is looked upon as its honour and blessing. 
 
220 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 SO from the purifying effect of the late persecu- 
 tion, — appeared before the world ascendant, for the 
 first time, in the political heaven ; with the sun- 
 shine embracing it of the highest of the three Im- 
 perial dignities, and the light and favour of the 
 second also beaming on it : moreover with the chief 
 Bishops resplendent at its head, as a starry coro- 
 nai;' (Elliott, Vol. IL, p. 779.) 
 
 Surely one might well weep over the delusion 
 which causes any one thus to speak of the cor- 
 rupted Christianity of the days of Constantine, 
 and to sanctify the evil act of its elevation, by 
 attributing to that act these holy symbols. One 
 born in the days of Constantine, and who lived to 
 witness the effects of his proceedings, says, that 
 the condition of Christianity was such, that one 
 might **weep over it like Jeremiah. To what will 
 these things grow, and at what point will they 
 stop? I fear lest the things now around us should 
 be the smoke of the expected fire, lest Antichrist 
 should come in upon these things, and make our 
 failures and weaknesses the occasion of his own 
 greatness/'* 
 
 ■^ Gregory Nazianzen, born A.D. 324. His words are just 
 as applicable to the beginning, as to the close of the century 
 in which he lived. Mr. Elliott seems to speak of the Woman 
 appearing in Heaven, as representing the exaltation of the 
 real, as contrasted with the professing Church. But this is 
 refuted by fact. The Christianity exalted in the days of 
 Constantine was Christianity as a whole; it was emphatically 
 professing Christianity. Ages before Constantine, the true 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 221 
 
 And if we turn to the remarks of Mr. Elliott on 
 the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, why should 
 he say that *' Heaven '' is not to be understood as. 
 meaning " Heaven/' but that it indicates the "heaven 
 of political authority and power." If this were so, 
 we might certainly expect to find the symbolic 
 parts of the Revelation habitually employing the 
 word in this meaning. Let us take, then, the first 
 six instances and the last instance in which the 
 word occurs in the symbolic parts of the Revelation. 
 
 "After these things I saw, and, behold, a door 
 was opened in heaven: and the first voice which 
 I heard was as it v/ere of a trumpet speaking 
 with me, saying, 'Come up hither, and I will 
 show thee things which must be hereafter.'" (iv. i.) 
 
 " Immediately I was in the Spirit : and, behold, 
 a throne was set in heaven, and upon the throne 
 one sitting." (iv. 2.) 
 
 "And no one was able m heaven, nor in earth, 
 ^ ^ -^ to open the roll." (v. 3.) 
 
 ''And every creature which is in heaven, and on 
 the earth, "^ "^ ^ heard I saying, ' Unto Him that 
 sitteth upon the throne,'" etc. (v. 13.) 
 
 Church had become an invisible remnant in the midst of a 
 corrupt visible body. 
 
 It is very evident that prophetic Scripture can be under- 
 stood by none, whose consciences are so darkened, that they 
 distinguish not the triumphs of Satan from the works of God. 
 
>222 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 "And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth." 
 <vi. 13.) 
 
 " And the heaven was separated from its place as 
 •a scroll when it rolleth itself together." (vi. 14.) 
 
 " He showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, de- 
 scending out of heaven from God." (xxi. 10.) 
 
 In these passages (and there are a multitude of 
 like instances), who would think of saying that 
 Heaven meant ^^ political aiUhority and power'' 7 If 
 bad political authority and power be meant, then 
 God's throne could not be set therein; if good be 
 intended, then it could not pass away as a scroll 
 under the visitation of the hand of God. Moreover 
 it would be difficult to say in what sense John 
 could be commanded to come up into "political 
 authority and power," or how the Heavenly City 
 could descend from it. If, then, Mr. Elliott be de- 
 terred by these difficulties from saying that in these 
 cases Heaven means "political authority and power," 
 why should he deviate from the general meaning 
 of the word throughout the Apocalypse, and arbi- 
 trarily assign another signification in the twelfth 
 chapter } 
 
 But let us adopt the strange hypothesis, and 
 suppose that in the twelfth chapter of the Revela- 
 tion, Heaven does mean the Heaven of " political 
 authority and power." How then will the inter- 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 223 
 
 pretation hold? We must believe, if we adopt the 
 system of Mr. Elliott, that Satan after having held 
 political authority and power till the days of Con- 
 stantine, was at the conversion of Constantino de- 
 prived of "political authority and power;" and if 
 so he must have been deprived of it for ever, 
 because it is expressly said that his place was 
 not "found ANY MORE in Heaven." Was then 
 Satan deprived, and that FOR EVER, of all poli- 
 tical authority and power when Constantine as- 
 sumed the profession of Christianity? Did he 
 exercise no " political authority and power " when 
 under Constantine, he strove to persecute Athana- 
 sius and to exalt Arius? In the days of Con- 
 stantius, Constantine's Arian successor, and of Julian 
 the Apostate, and of the Arian Goths, did Satan 
 exercise ^' 7io more'' "political authority and power?" 
 In the days of the Popes, and of the Emperors 
 and Kings of Papal Europe, or in the days of 
 Mahomet and his successors, or in the days of 
 Robespierre or Napoleon, was Satan possessed ";/<? 
 more'' of political authority and power? Why, 
 even the very chapter which is quoted in support 
 of this extraordinary statement expressly teaches the 
 very reverse ; for at the moment when Satan is sup- 
 posed by Mr. Elliott to be cast down from "poli- 
 tical authority and power," a "voice is heard in 
 heaven saying, •5€- -x- ^ Woe to the earth and to the 
 sea! because the devil hath come down unto you, 
 having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a 
 
224 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 short time/' In other words, it is a time when 
 his power will be increased and not diminished, 
 and as a consequence, he raises up Antichrist, (it 
 matters not in the present question who Antichrist 
 may be) and Satan gives to Antichrist " his power, 
 »and his throne, and great authority, ^ ^ and all 
 the earth is astonished after him." All this imme- 
 diately follows the fi'nal ejectment of Satan from 
 the presence of God in heaven, or as Mr. Elliott 
 says, his ejectment from "political power." It would 
 be strange if such undisputed supremacy in the 
 earth, should be the immediate consequence of his 
 loss of all political power. 
 
 Mr. Elliott indeed supposes that when it is said 
 that Satan is to be "cast out into the earth" (xii. 9), 
 and again, "Woe to the earth and to the sea! be- 
 cause the devil hath come down unto you, having 
 great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short 
 time," — Mr. Elliott supposes that ^' earth'' does not 
 mean '^ earth!' What it does mean, he does not 
 very explicitly state, but he can be allowed no 
 liberty of choice as to the interpretation. If he 
 insist on saying that ^^ heaven" means political 
 power, he is bound to give a corresponding mean- 
 ing to ^^ earthy If the being in heaven is supposed 
 to signify the possession of political power, the 
 being in the earth, when used in contrast, must 
 signify the non-possession of political power: and 
 inasmuch as those supposed to be exalted into the 
 heaven of political power were Christians , those re-- 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 225 
 
 presented by the "earth" must be Pagans. In 
 what way then did Satan, when dispossessed (as Mr. 
 ElHott asserts) of political power, attack the non- 
 possessors of political power, i.e, the Pagans. In 
 what sense had he great wrath against them? Why 
 he must rather have favoured them, for they were 
 his own servants, and how should they be the 
 objects of his rage? Moreover, how does their 
 being the object of Satan's wrath, consist with 
 Mr. Elliott's former interpretation of their being at 
 that moment subjected to the wrath of the Lamb? 
 But once more; there are few passages in Scrip- 
 ture of more solemn moment than that which, in 
 this chapter, directs our thoughts to the accusations 
 of Satan against us ^'before God" or more literally, 
 " in the preseitce of Godl' (ivcoinov 0eov).^ What 
 Satan was in the days of Job and of Jehoshaphat, 
 that he still is — " the Accuser of the brethren," 
 accusing ''them before our God day and night." 
 Few verses perhaps are more mysterious than that 
 in Job, which says, "Now there was a day when 
 the sons of God came to present themselves before 
 the Lord, and Satan came also among them ;" but 
 it plainly reveals just what this passage in the 
 Revelation declares, that Satan, as the Accuser, is 
 
 ■^ "And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, 'Now 
 hath come the salvation, and the power, and kingdom of our 
 God, and the authority of His Christ : because the accuser of 
 our brethren hath been cast out, who accused them before 
 our God day and night.' " (Rev. xii. lo.) 
 
 Q 
 
226 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 admitted even into the presence of God. Mr. 
 Elliott seems to forget the words " before God',' and 
 treats the passage as if it merely referred to the 
 persecutions conducted by earthly Pagan Princes, 
 acting on the accusation of earthly adversaries in- 
 stigated by Satan. 
 
 But if it were so, there should have been no 
 persecution of any kind, or in any place, since the 
 days of Constantine ; for when Satan is once ex- 
 cluded as the Accuser, his place after that is " found 
 NO MORE in Heaven;" consequently if he had 
 been excluded in the days of Constantine, all accu- 
 sation (i.e. according to Mr. Elliott, all persecution 
 instigated by him) must from that time have 
 ceased. But persecutions instigated by Satan 
 abounded after the days of Constantine — witness 
 the persecutions under Arianism, and under Julian 
 the Apostate ; and in later days the Inquisition 
 and fires of Popery. 
 
 The elevation of Christianity by God into poli- 
 tical power, and the exclusion of Satan from it, 
 would certainly have been followed by a peculiar 
 season of tranquillity and peace ; but instead of this, 
 the chapter before us expressly declares that the 
 ejectment of Satan from Heaven is immediately 
 followed by a time of peculiar persecution and dis- 
 tress. " When the dragon saw that he was cast out 
 unto the earth, he persecuted the woman." "^ If 
 
 * That the ejectment of Satan from Heaven is imme- 
 diately followed by the persecution of the woman, is suffi- 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 22/ 
 
 then ejectment from Heaven means the loss of 
 political power, how could he who had just lost 
 power in the earth, begin, and that successfully, to 
 persecute her who had just received power in the 
 earth? And if the imperial favour which Chris- 
 tianity received in the days of Constantine, raised 
 her into " the heaven of political power," surely the 
 subsequent and far more effectual favour of Theo- 
 dosius should have preserved her there : yet in the 
 time of Constantine, Mr. Elliott speaks of her as 
 being in heaven — in the time of Theodosius, as on 
 the earth. Again, if the Woman when driven into 
 the wilderness, represents "the true, primitive, or- 
 thodox Church" (Elliott, vol. II., p. 792), in con- 
 trast with the false professing body, does she when 
 seen in Heaven represent only "the true, primi- 
 tive, orthodox Church?" Was the true Church 
 
 ciently proved by the word whe7t in verse 13. " WHEN 
 the dragon saw that he was cast out unto the earth, he 
 persecuted the woman." Mr. Elliott's system requires that 
 nearly 300 years should elapse between the ejectment of 
 Satan, and the Woman's reaching the wilderness. 
 
 Theodosius the Great is supposed by Mr. Elliott to be 
 "THE great eagle" whose wings were given to Christianity, 
 to flee into the wilderness. It is rather strange that an 
 Emperor who far more effectually than any other exalted 
 Christianity, should be the person who helped it into the 
 wilderness. Constantine and Constantius did persecute Atha- 
 nasius ; but Ambrose made Theodosius bow down at his 
 feet. 
 
 Q2 
 
228 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 only exalted into political power? Alas, the 
 Church had not only brought itself into a condition 
 in which no mortal eye could certainly distinguish 
 the true children of the kingdom ; but, more than 
 this, the influence of worldly professors had become 
 so predominant long before the days of Constan- 
 tine, that the history of his reign is little more 
 than a record of their successful agency. 
 
 But I forbear to enlarge further on this subject. 
 It may be that Mr. Elliott and Dr. Gumming will 
 live to be convinced that this chapter is as yet un- 
 fulfilled. Then they will bitterly regret having 
 written as they have. It cannot be fulfilled, until 
 the zvhole Roman earth — Eastern and Western — 
 has been divided into Ten Kingdoms, answering 
 to the ten horns that were seen on the head of 
 the Dragon. It cannot be fulfilled, until Satan is 
 finally excluded from Heaven, and ceases to be 
 "the Accuser of the brethren before our God.'' It 
 cannot be fulfilled, until Satan, being confined to 
 earth, enters on the last and shortened period of 
 his power — shortened, because limited to twelve 
 hundred and sixty days. During that time, Chris- 
 tianity will be driven from all the Ten King- 
 doms of the Roman World; and blasphemous in- 
 fidelity, under the Antichrist, will reign. 
 
229 
 
 §11. 
 
 The whole prophetic system of Mr. Elliott and 
 Dr. Gumming depends like that of Mr. Fleming, 
 on the assumption that days^ in the language of 
 Scripture, mean not days, but years. 
 
 The doctrine that days mean years, is a compa- 
 ratively modern notion. The following quotations 
 sufficiently show the prevailing doctrine on this 
 subject, during the early centuries. 
 
 IrencBtiSy in the second century, says : " When 
 Antichrist shall have ravaged all things in this 
 world, reigning three years and six monthsy and 
 shall have sat in the Temple at Jerusalem, then 
 the Lord shall come from Heaven in clouds, in the 
 glory of the Father, to cast him and those who 
 obey him, into the lake of fire." (Irenseus, Adv. 
 Heres., chap, xxx.) 
 
 Hippolyttcs, in the third century, says, comment 
 ing on Daniel : " Time, times, and half a time ; 
 by which Daniel means three years and a half!' 
 
 Cyril of Jerusalem^ A.D. 360, says : " Antichrist 
 shall reign three and a half years only. I say not 
 this from the Apocryphal writings, but from Daniel, 
 for he says, * and it shall be given into his hand 
 
230 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 until a time, &c. ;' now a time is one year!*' 
 (Catech. xv.) 
 
 Jero7ney in the fifth century, says : " Time signi- 
 fies a year: times (according to the idiom of the 
 Hebrews, who themselves have a dual number) 
 signify two years; half a time six months." Jerome 
 speaks of this as being the doctrine which "^// 
 ecclesiastical writers have deliver edr (Jerome on 
 Daniel.) 
 
 Theodorety who lived in the middle of the fifth 
 century, says in his commentary on Daniel vii. : 
 " By a time, times, and half a time, the prophet 
 means three and a half years, during which that 
 horn which speaketh great things shall prevail." 
 
 Bede, who lived in the seventh and eighth cen- 
 turies, commenting on the twelfth and thirteenth 
 chapters of the Apocalypse, says : '^ Time signifies 
 a year ; times y two years ; half a time, six months : 
 for before the three and a half years, he (Anti- 
 christ) does not blaspheme openly" (aperto ore). 
 
 Quotations to this effect, might be almost inde- 
 finitely multiplied — but it is unnecessary. Evea 
 Mede allows, that until the twelfth century, all 
 expected an Antichrist "who would last for three 
 years and six months " (Triennalem et semes- 
 trem expectabant). Indeed Mr. Elliott himself 
 says, '' It is, I believe, the fact, that for the first 
 four centitrieSy the days mentioned in Daniel and- 
 the Apocalyptic prophecies respecting Antichrist, 
 were interpreted literally as days, not as years, by 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 23 1 
 
 the Fathers of the Christian Church. -^ -^ "^ They 
 looked perpetually for the breaking up of the Roman 
 Empire into te7i kingdoms^ as a sign of its near 
 approach : that division being understood by them 
 to mark the time oi Antichrist' s revelation ; and, in 
 accordance with the literal interpretation of the 
 prophetic days, as the forerunner, at only three a7id 
 a half years interval, of the coming of the Son of 
 Man. Such was the expectation of Irenaeus, Hip- 
 polytus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius, Cyril, Chry- 
 sostom, Jerome, and in fine Augustine.'' (Elliott, 
 Vol. III., p. 966.)^ 
 
 ^ Nor are testimonies to this effect confined to writers 
 before the twelfth century. 
 
 Sebastian Mtmster, born in 1489, originally a Franciscan 
 Monk, but eventually one of the Reformers, and said by 
 Dupin to have been one of the ablest of those who em- 
 braced the Protestant faith, in his commentary on Daniel vii., 
 writes thus : " God, says the Prophet, will not permit the 
 tribulation from Antichrist and his followers to assail His 
 elect with undue severity ; but it shall continue for a iime, 
 that is a year ; and times, that is two years ; and half a 
 time J that is half a year ; in other words, it shall not last 
 through a septenary and full period, but through the half 
 of a hebdomad or septenary period. For those days shall 
 be shortened for the elect's sake." (See Critici Sacri in 
 loco,) ClaritLs also, a Benedictine of the sixteenth century, 
 and Vatablus, Professor of Divinity at Paris in that century, 
 write to the same effect. Their remarks may be seen in 
 the commentaries on Daniel given in the Critici Sacri. See 
 also the commentary of Zeger on the Apocalypse given in 
 the same work. 
 
 Grotius gives the same interpretation, and quotes in con- 
 
232 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 It is of course possible that all these writers may 
 have been wrong. On many most important truths, 
 their teaching was wrong; but in such cases we 
 are able clearly to disprove their statements by the 
 word of God. What ground then is there in Scrip- 
 ture for saying that days mean years? The argu- 
 ments used by Mr. Elliott are as follow: 
 
 The first is nearly the same as that given by Mr. 
 Fleming. It is argued that because Israel had a 
 
 firmation the following passage from Josephus^ who speaking 
 of Antiochus, says, that he despoiled the Temple, and caused 
 the daily sacrifice to cease for three years and six months, 
 (Josephus on the Jewish War, Lib. I., cap. i.) Claritis also 
 refers to this : after saying that the saints would suffer under 
 Antichrist for three years and a half — or as stated by John, 
 forty and two months, he adds : " for so long a time the 
 Temple was profaned by Antiochus, who was himself a type 
 of Antichrist." 
 
 The passage from Josephus clearly proves that he under- 
 stood days to mean days. The following passage shows the 
 doctrine of the Jews on this subject at a later period. Aben 
 Ezra, who lived in the twelfth century, referring to Saadias, 
 a celebrated Jewish Teacher, says : " Now Saadias expounds 
 correctly and well ; know also that in Holy Scripture days 
 are always days, and never years. Yet it is possible that 
 the word days may mean an entire year, since the repetition 
 of the days produces a return of the year ; as when it is 
 said, Ex. xiii. lo, * from days to days,' that is from year to 
 year ; days meaning a complete year. But when the number 
 is stated^ as tw(h days, three days, it cannot mean years, but 
 must be days^ as it stands,^'' (Aben Ezra, as quoted by Mait- 
 land. See also Dr. McCaul.) 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 233 
 
 sabbatical day^ and also a sabbatical year^ that this 
 may be an intimation that day is to be understood 
 as meaning year. But surely there can be no 
 better argument to prove that day means day^ 
 and year means year. Did not Israel understand 
 that every seventh day was a sabbath day, and 
 every seventh year was a sabbatical year? Did 
 they not know that God intended that they should 
 keep the day, and keep the year? They would 
 have been astonished, indeed, if any one had told 
 them that day meant year, and that year meant 
 360 years; for in that case they ought not to have 
 kept any seventh day at all. "Remember the 
 sabbath day to keep it holy" would have meant, 
 *' Remember the sabbath year!' Six year^ should 
 have intervened between each sabbath day; and 
 six times 360 years between each sabbatical year; 
 and each sabbatical year, when it at last came, 
 should have been 360 years in duration. 
 
 Another argument is, that when the spies of 
 Israel had searched the Land for forty days, Israel 
 was punished by wandering in the wilderness a 
 corresponding number of years. But in this case 
 also " day " means " day," and " year " means 
 ^'year:" otherwise the spies must have been in the 
 Land for forty years, and the Israelites have been 
 punished for 40x360=14,400 years, and therefore 
 be still in the wilderness. 
 
 Again, it is argued, that Ezekiel was commanded 
 to lie on his side, and did lie on his side for 390 
 
234 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 days, in order typically to bear the iniquity that 
 Israel had been committing for 390 years. In this 
 case also, days mean days, and years mean years ;; 
 otherwise Ezekiel must have lain on his side 390 
 years, and Israel's iniquity must have extended to 
 390x360=140,400 years."^ 
 
 Mr. Elliott's next argument is, I believe, pecu- 
 liar to himself — indeed he allows that it has never 
 before been used in this controversy; and it is 
 this, that there is in Hebrews vii. a text in which 
 daily means not daily, but yearly. The text is 
 this : " Who needeth not daily (/ca^^ r^ijuepav) as 
 those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for His 
 own sins, and then for the people's." On this pas- 
 sage Mr. Elliott observes, on the authority of Mac- 
 knight, that the High Priest of Israel never 
 offered sacrifice, except once in the year, and there- 
 fore daily {KaB* rj/nepav) must be understood to 
 mean yearly (/car iviavTov). 
 
 They who make this very extraordinary state- 
 ment seem to have forgotten that there is, in the 
 itent/i of Hebrews, another text in which the word 
 " daily " occurs. It is this : *' every Priest standeth 
 
 * I am aware that the writers who quote these passages, 
 are not accustomed to insist upon the non-literaHty of the 
 years as they do on that of the days. But they must in 
 consistency do so. If in Daniel the word " time," which all 
 allow to be equivalent to the word "year," is to be under- 
 stood of a year of years, and not of days ; year in the other 
 passages must mean a year of years — and then all the im- 
 possibilities mentioned above would follow. 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 235 
 
 DAILY ministering," Sz:c. If daily means yearly 
 in the seventh of Hebrews, we must of course sup- 
 pose that it means yearly in the tenth chapter. 
 Indeed there is no alternative ; for seeing that the 
 words " EVERY Priest " must include the High 
 Priest, the same reason which is supposed to neces- 
 sitate the alteration in the seventh chapter, must 
 necessitate the same alteration in the tenth chapter. 
 If it be true that the High Priest never sacrificed 
 but once in the year, then it cannot be true that 
 " EVERY Priest standeth daily " offering sacrifice. 
 Thus '' daily'' mws^t be altered into ''yearly'' in the 
 tenth of Hebrews also, and we should be obliged 
 to say that there was no " daily sacrifice " offered 
 in the Temple at all. 
 
 But it is not so. There is not in the whole 
 Bible an expression of more fixed and unalterable 
 meaning than the words translated "daily" {icaff 
 rjfiepav). It is used sixteen times in the New Tes- 
 tament, and never means anything else than 
 " daily." Any one may satisfy himself in a mo- 
 ment by turning to a Greek Concordance. 
 
 The notion that the High Priest of Israel only 
 ministered at the altar once in the year, is entirely 
 mistaken, and arises from confounding between the 
 ministration in white linen garments^ (which was. 
 special and peculiar to the Day of Atonement,) 
 and the ministration which devolved on him daily 
 in his proper priestly garments, which are fully 
 described in Exodus xxviii. "And for Aaron's 
 
2^6 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 -sons thou shalt make coats, and thou shalt make 
 for them girdles, and bonnets shalt thou make for 
 them, for glory and for beauty. And thou shalt 
 put them 2cp07z Aaron thy brother, and his sons with 
 him ; and shalt anoint them, and consecrate them, 
 •and sanctify them that they may minister unto 
 me in the priest's office. "^'" "^* ^ And they shall be 
 upon Aaron, and upon his sons, when they come 
 in unto the tabernacle of the congregation, or when 
 they come near unto the altar to minister in the 
 holy place; that they bear not iniquity, and die. 
 It shall be a statute for ever unto him, and his 
 seed after him." Aaron could never have ap- 
 proached the altar in these his proper priestly gar- 
 ments at all, if his ministration had been confined 
 to that of the white linen garments of the Day of 
 Atonement, which was annual : nor could he ever 
 have offered the necessary sin-off*erings for himself 
 according to the ordinance in the fourth of Levi- 
 ticus; and therefore his priesthood must have been 
 defiled ; for the fourth of Leviticus enacted that 
 for every sin which the anointed Priest committed 
 in ignorance, he should as soon as it came to his 
 knowledge, immediately offer a sin-offering; other- 
 wise he would bear his iniquity. This might be 
 necessary mafiy times every day ; so untrue is it 
 that he only offered annually. Accordingly, the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews contrasts, not only the 
 annual ministration of the High Priest on the Day 
 of Atonement, but also the daily ministrations of 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR, GUMMING CONSIDERED. 237 
 
 all priests, with the one offering now once and for 
 ever made, and never repeated. The daily as well 
 as yearly sacrifices are contrasted with the one 
 offering — consequently, the word means emphati- 
 cally daily in the two passages quoted. 
 
 It may therefore be safely said that not only 
 does Scripture afford no instance of ''days'' mean- 
 ing "years," but that all the instances quoted in 
 support of this assertion, prove exactly the reverse. 
 They prove that " days " mean '' days," and " years " 
 mean "years." It would be strange indeed if it 
 were otherwise ; for what possible reason could 
 there be that Scripture should not say days when 
 it means days, and months when it means months, 
 and years when it means years? 
 
 Mr. Elliott candidly resigns the argument which 
 is commonly founded on the seventy hebdomads 
 of Daniel, and admits that no proof of days mean- 
 ing years can be founded on it.^^ Indeed, even in 
 his mode of using the arguments just recited, it 
 appears to me that there is a degree of hesitation 
 apparent, which seems to intimate, that he is some- 
 
 ■^ Mr. Elliott's words are : "I do not rest, in this argu- 
 ment, on the parallel of Daniel's celebrated prophecy of the 
 sevejtty weeks: -J?- -J^- -J^- -^ * and for this reason, because the 
 Hebrew word V-ll*^^, rendered a week, has been shown to be 
 a word etymologically of ambiguous meaning, signifying any 
 septenary, and applicable to seven years as well as seven 
 daysP (Elliott, Vol. III., p. 962.) For further remarks on 
 this passage of Daniel, see "Prospects of the Ten King> 
 doms," p. 217. 
 
238 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 what mistrustful of their soundness. Other writers, 
 such for example as Mr. Fleming, boldly refer to 
 these arguments, as if they plainly and satisfac- 
 torily proved, that "days'* mean "years." Mr. 
 Elliott uses far more cautious language, and speaks, 
 somewhat obscurely, of a "transition from days to 
 years, as if the lesser were a type of the greater." 
 (Elliott, Vol. III., p. 958.) But this very statement 
 does in fact surrender the argument; for the lesser 
 must absolutely exist, otherwise it could not be a 
 type of something greater to follow. Therefore, 
 according to this principle, Antichrist must reign 
 for 1260 literal days, in order to become a type 
 of 1260 years, which must on this hypothesis 
 follow ; for a type precedes an antitype. Thus the 
 fact of Antichrist's literal reign is conceded. We 
 may safely leave the consideration of the 1260 
 years that are supposed to succeed ; for seeing that 
 the millennium immediately follows the reign of 
 Antichrist, there would be no room for the succes- 
 sion of 1260 years of woe. 
 
 If there were no other argument to be urged 
 against this very extraordinary notion, the par- 
 tiality of its application would be sufficient for its 
 refutation ; for why, when the expressions two days 
 — three days — forty days — three years — seventy 
 years, and the like, occur hundreds of times in 
 Scripture, should the words "days" and "years" 
 be uniformly understood to mean days and years 
 in all these passages, and in one or two other pas- 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 239 
 
 -sages, equally definite, be interpreted differently ? 
 Why, when it is said of Nebuchadnezzar in his 
 madness, that " seven times " should pass over him, 
 do we say that " seven times " mean seven years — 
 -and immediately after, when the same word occurs, 
 say that " three and a half times " mean 1 260 
 years? Soundness of interpretation requires con- 
 sistency. If " time, times, and half a time " in the 
 seventh of Daniel mean 1260 years, then seven 
 times in the fourth of Daniel must mean the 
 double of that period, and then we must say that 
 Nebuchadnezzar is yet alive, and his madness con- 
 tinuing still."^ 
 
 But if we were to allow Mr. Elliott's hypothesis, 
 and suppose that days mean years, even then, his 
 system will not bear the test either of Scripture or 
 •of fact, nor is it consistent with itself. 
 
 * Mr. Elliott endeavours to obviate the force of this argu- 
 ment, by supposing that Nebuchadnezzar was personally de- 
 graded for seven literal years, in order to be a type of the 
 degradation of his Empire for 2520 years. But in this case 
 the literal interpretation as regards Antichrist is granted, and 
 he must reign for three and a half literal years. In this case 
 too, seeing that a type precedes that which it typifies — if the 
 three years and a half of Antichrist's reign were typical, it 
 must precede that which it is supposed to typify, viz., the 
 1260 years of his mystical reign ; just as Nebuchadnezzar's 
 degradation precedes the supposed antitypical period of his 
 Empire's degradation. Thus the notion refutes itself; for 
 Antichrist's literal reign terminates the dispensation of sor- 
 row and of evil. 
 
240 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 The events to which the period of 1260 days, or 
 as Mr. Elliott says, years, belong, are : 
 
 The power of the little Horn, as described in 
 Daniel vii. 
 
 The sackcloth testimony of the two Witnesses. 
 
 The sojourn of the Woman in the Wilderness. 
 
 The reign of Antichrist as the sole Head of the 
 Roman World, described in Rev. xiii. 
 
 These periods are made parallel or coincident 
 periods in the Scripture, and are rightly so re- 
 garded by Mr. Elliott and Dr. Gumming. They 
 begin at the same moment, and they terminate at 
 the same moment. The event that terminates 
 them, is the Advent of the Lord in glory. 
 
 Now it is obvious that the period thus marked 
 by 1260, whether days or years, must be a defi- 
 nite period. In other words, it cannot extend over 
 a period longer than 1260. There must be 2. fixed 
 moment in the counsels of God (whether we dis- 
 cover it or not) for the commencement of this 
 period; and when it has once commenced, from 
 that moment the numbering of the 1260 must 
 begin. To say that there may be two different 
 periods for its commencement, would be to say, 
 that it was not a definite period at all. It would 
 be equivalent to saying that it did begin, and yet 
 that it did not begin — it would oblige us to say 
 that it has ended, and yet has not ended. 
 
 But Mr. Elliott maintains that there are different 
 epochs for the commencement of this period. One 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 241 
 
 he places at the sera of Justinian, A.D. 533 — 
 the other in A.D. 606, when Phocas acknowledged 
 the primacy of the See of Rome ; so that, after 
 having commenced in A.D. 533, about seventy years 
 afterwards it commenced again ; and consequently, 
 after having ended in A.D. 1793, will, in about 
 fifteen years more from this present period, end 
 again. Therefore, according to the theory we are 
 considering, this most precise and definite period 
 did^ and that by the appointment of God, com- 
 mence in A.D. 533, and yet did not commence: it 
 did end in 1793, and yet will not end until 1866."^ 
 
 * The year 1866, so long looked for, has now passed. 
 Would that at its expiration the evil and misleading theories 
 which we are considering, had expired also. But it is far 
 otherwise. Efforts are still being made by astrological cal- 
 culations, and otherwise, to perpetuate the delusion. 
 
 The notion that there may be a year-iperiodf and also a 
 ^ay-^enod has been suggested by others besides Mr. ElHott 
 — only /ie considers a ^^j-period to come first, and a j^ear- 
 period after, whereas t/iey imagine 1260 years to come first, 
 and 1260 days after ; and they regard the 1260 years as 
 passed or nearly so. 
 
 But such a notion is immediately set aside by the fact 
 that during the last twelve centuries there has been steady 
 progress in the world's prosperity. Civilisation has advanced, 
 and is advancing still — God allows this ; even as when He 
 said of Pharaoh, "For this same purpose have I raised thee 
 up, that I might show My power in thee and that My name 
 might be declared in all the earth." God intends that pride 
 should bud and blossom. What likeness can there be be- 
 tween two periods, one of which is a period of advancing 
 
 R 
 
242 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 And when we consider the nature of the events 
 that are to close this period of 1260, we cannot 
 but feel more than ever astonished at the suppo- 
 sition of there being a duplicate termination of 
 such a period : for what are the events that are to 
 conclude this period ? They are these ; the termi- 
 nation of the Woman's sojourn in the Wilder- 
 ness ; the destruction of Antichrist by the bright- 
 ness of the Lord's appearing — in a word, the abo- 
 lition of the reign of evil, and the commencement 
 of the reign of righteousness and peace.* Did 
 any of these things occur in 1793? Was the Lord 
 manifested in His glory in 1793, or 1866, or at any 
 past period ? Was the reign of Satan ter^nhiated, 
 in any sense whatever, by the French Revolution? 
 The French Revolution terminated no evil. On 
 the contrary, it was a period when the energies of 
 men were set more free than ever to work their 
 own designs; and the result is seen around us on 
 
 prosperity, and the other a period of judgment, curse, and 
 destruction. The period of the 1260 days will be one in 
 which God's hand will be stretched out to smite the strength . 
 of man with plagues more terrible than those which He poured 
 upon Egypt of old. What likeness can such a period have 
 to the years of prosperity which precede ? 
 
 * Nothing can be more express than the words of Daniel : 
 ■^' I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and 
 -prevailed against them : UNTIL the Ancient of Days came, 
 and judgment was given to the saints of the High Places f 
 i.e, the reign of the saints immediately follows the fall of An- 
 itichrist. 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 243 
 
 ^every side, in the continuance of old systems of 
 iniquity, as well as in the development of new. 
 
 Those periods in the past 1800 years, when God 
 has permitted one form of evil to chasten or to 
 supplant another (and this was the case at the Re- 
 volution, when Infidelity warred with Popery) are 
 as different in principle from that great coming 
 liour, when God will interfere, by the mission of 
 His Son, as the workings of Satan are different 
 from the direct agencies of God. In the former 
 case, evil, and that of increased intensity, supplants 
 former evil, and strengthens itself on the ruins of 
 that which it has supplanted : in the latter case, 
 God by His own immediate hand terminates for 
 ever the reign of wickedness, and brings in the 
 kingdom of righteousness and peace. This is the 
 subject of the Revelation. It is not the history of 
 the progress of human evil. It is the record of the 
 manner in which God finally smites that evil, and 
 establishes His own glory. Holy angels clothed 
 in white, issuing from the Temple of God, are fit 
 •expressions of such agencies of Heaven : but who, 
 unless his mind were under the power of some 
 radical error, could suppose that such hallowed 
 symbols could represent the wickedness and 
 triumphs of prospering Revolutions? Who, un- 
 less fatally deceived, could find in the occurrences 
 of 1793, anything similar in principle to that hour, 
 when God will " arise to judgment, to save all the 
 meek of the earth." 
 
 R 2 
 
244 ^IDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 But again, let us pass by this error also — let 
 us suppose that the 1260 days, or, as Mr. Elliott 
 says, yearSy have a duplicate commencement and a 
 duplicate end: even then, the system refutes itself. 
 Mr. Elliott and Dr. Gumming suppose this period 
 to have commenced first in A.D. 533, and to have 
 commenced again in A.D. 606 — in which case it 
 must have terminated first in 1793, and would again 
 have terminated in 1866. Now since we are told in 
 the eleventh of Revelation that the two Witnesses 
 prophesy in sackcloth throughout the whole of the 
 1260 days, or, as Mr. Elliott says, yearSy the first 
 termination of their testimony, according to Mr. 
 Elliott, should not be earlier than 1793; and the 
 second termination should not be earlier than 1866. 
 In apparent forgetfulness, however, of the dates 
 they have fixed on for the commencement of the 
 sackcloth testimony, Mr. Elliott and Dr. Gumming 
 go on to say, that the Witnesses died in A.D. 1514^ 
 revived in 15x7, and ascended in 1555."^ Now see- 
 ing that the sackcloth testimony cannot be con- 
 tinued after they have died and ascended, (what- 
 ever that ascent may mean, for the Scripture ex- 
 pressly says, "When they shall have completed 
 their testimony, the beast shall kill them") — it fol- 
 
 •''- Mr. Elliott supposes the Witnesses to have died, when 
 the Lateran Council was held, and none of the "Bohemian 
 Heretics " appeared to plead before it : their resurrection and 
 ascent is supposed to be at the political establishment of the 
 Keformation. See Elliott, Vol. II., p. yzS- 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 245 
 
 lows, that if they were killed in 15 14, the 1260 
 days, or years, ought then to have concluded, 
 whereas, according to Mr. Elliott's previous state- 
 ment, they cannot conclude earlier than 1793 or 
 1866. 
 
 Another inconsistency is this ; if, as Mr. Elliott 
 says, the Witnesses ascended into the "heaven of 
 political power" in 1555, how can the Woman be 
 in the wilderness hundreds of years after they have 
 reached the "heaven of political power?" — for Mr. 
 Elliott supposes the Woman to remain in the wil- 
 derness till the middle of the present century. 
 Nor, if the period of Satan's being excluded from 
 heaven was, as Mr. Elliott says, in the days of 
 Constantine, i.e. about A.D. 320, must Mr. Elliott 
 be permitted to delay the flight of the Woman 
 into the wilderness until A.D. 600 or 606, i.e. nearly 
 three hundred years after. The Scripture expressly 
 says that ""when the Dragon saw that he was cast 
 unto the earth, he persecuted the Woman," and 
 seeing that the Woman did not, and could not 
 resist, she has no alternative save instant flight 
 and sojourn in the wilderness. It cannot therefore 
 be admitted that there should be three hundred 
 years, or even one year between the exclusion of 
 Satan from Heaven, and her flight. 
 
 It is instructive to observe the marvellous incon- 
 sistencies into which even thoughtful minds may 
 be led, when they cling to an erroneous system. 
 The truth \Sy that all these things are future. The 
 
246 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Day of the Lamb's wrath did not come, nor was^ 
 supposed by men to have come, when Constan- 
 tine was nominally converted. It will not come. 
 until the Lord is revealed in His glory — the 
 armies of heaven following Him. The " Woman 
 clothed with the sun," etc., does not represent the 
 spurious Christianity of the days of Constantine„ 
 The vision is future ; it describes a scene which 
 immediately precedes the last 1260 days; the 
 Woman being the abstract expression of the essen- 
 tial excellency of Truth apart from the condition, 
 of her supposed, or even of her real children. 
 Satan was not excluded from Heaven, neither did 
 his accusations before God cease, when Constan- 
 tino professed Christianity. That hour of exclu- 
 sion is still future, and will be immediately fol- 
 lowed by the 1260 days of matured Antichristianv 
 blasphemy. The two Witnesses did not begin 
 their sackcloth testimony when the Pope was ac- 
 knowledged either in A.D. 533, or in A.D. 606 — 
 nor did they ascend into Heaven when Protestants^ 
 in 1555 began to bask in the sunshine of princely 
 favour or (to use the words of Mr. Elliott) "were 
 admitted, equally as Romanists, to sit as judges 
 in the Supreme Imperial Chamber." (Elliott,. 
 Vol. II., p. 741.) The path of the two Witnesses 
 will be one very different from that which either 
 the Paulicians,"^ or the Reformers trod. They are 
 
 * As regards the Paulicians, whom Mr. Elliott wishes to- 
 honour by assigning to them the place of one of the Wit- 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. CUxMMING CONSIDERED. 247 
 
 reserved for the furnace of Antichristian evil : the 
 place of their testimony will be Jerusalem, *'the 
 city where their Lord also was crucified :" the time 
 of their ascent into Heaven will be at the conclu- 
 sion of the 1260 days of evil, and is immediately 
 followed by "the sovereignty of the world becom- 
 ing the sovereignty of our Lord and of His Christ." 
 Antichrist did not assume the headship of the zvhole 
 Roman world either in A.D. 533 or in A.D. 606; 
 for the Ten Kingdoms over which he is to rule, 
 are as yet undeveloped ; neither did God interfere 
 in 1793 to stop the further progress of human evil. 
 On the contrary, the French Revolution was a 
 period when human evil gathered new strength, 
 and rushed forward into fresh channels which 
 Satan opened for its tide. 
 
 Whether, therefore, we regard the past, the pre- 
 sent, or the future, we have alike reason to sorrow, 
 and to sorrow bitterly over the views of Mr. Elliott 
 and Dr. Gumming. As to the future, their doc- 
 trines hide it from us, and throw an impenetrable 
 covering over the very period which it is the object 
 of the Revelation to unveil. But more than this, 
 they tend to hide from us even present facts, such, 
 for example, as that of Satan's accusations against 
 us before God. And, as regards the world's past 
 
 nesses, he will find, if he more closely examines their his- 
 tory, too much reason to believe that their doctrines were 
 deeply tinged with heresy on many most important subjects. 
 
248 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 history, its most important periods, such as the 
 exaltation of Christianity in the days of Constan- 
 tine, the poHtical elevation of Protestantism, and 
 the era of Infidelity's triumph at the French Revo- 
 lution, are presented in aspects essentially untrue. 
 The secular exaltation of Christianity was not re- 
 joiced over in Heaven, nor recorded in the Reve- 
 lation in honourable and heavenly symbols ; the 
 commingling of Protestants with Papists in legis- 
 lative councils was not (as the ascent of the Wit- 
 nesses will be) the result of a command from 
 Heaven, but was a device of the Evil One ; nor 
 were the deeds of such men as Voltaire, Robes- 
 pierre, and Napoleon, similar, either in kind or in 
 effect, to those holy and heavenly agencies of God, 
 which are finally to usher in and establish the 
 kingdom of His Son. We cannot too earnestly 
 deprecate such principles. They render right ex- 
 position of Scripture hopeless, and may be said to 
 nullify the very object for which the Revelation is 
 
249 
 
 § ^11- 
 
 It will, I think, be admitted by all who carefully 
 consider the objections already advanced, that they 
 do entirely invalidate any system of prophetic ex- 
 position to which they apply. It is not therefore 
 necessary to say anything further. I will, however, 
 briefly consider the remarks of Mr. Elliott on the 
 thirteenth and seventeenth chapters of the Apoca- 
 lypse. 
 
 Mr. Elliott begins by maintaining very properly, 
 that the little Horn of Daniel vii. — the Man of 
 Sin of 2 Thessalonians ii. — the Antichrist of St. 
 John — the Beast of the thirteenth of Revelation — 
 and the Beast of the seventeenth of Revelation — 
 all refer to the same person, or, as Mr. Elliott 
 thinks, a succession of persons. 
 
 But Mr. Elliott seems to forget that two chapters 
 which treat of the same person, may treat of him at 
 different periods of his history. Thus for example, 
 if we were describing in symbols the history of the 
 last great Emperor of the French, we should repre- 
 sent him very differently in the early period of his 
 power, whilst the servant of the Revolutionary 
 System through which he rose into greatness — 
 and afterwards, when having destroyed that System. 
 
2SO AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 he became himself supreme. Thus the seventeenth 
 chapter of the Revelation, although it speaks of 
 the same person as the thirteenth, is not coinci- 
 dent with the thirteenth as to time. It treats of 
 the more early history of Antichrist. It supplies 
 his history before the Ten Kings, who finally 
 divide the Roman Empire, give him their autho- 
 rity; and before he and they unite in destroying; 
 the harlot."^ The thirteenth chapter describes him 
 after he has ceased to be the servant of the harlot,, 
 and after the Ten Kings are crowned — for in the 
 thirteenth chapter, the ten horns which represent 
 them are crowned. The thirteenth chapter as to- 
 time, commences when the seventeenth ends.-f* 
 
 The difference of symbol in the seventeenth and 
 thirteenth chapter is very distinctly marked. 
 
 In the seventeenth chapter, Antichrist is repre- 
 sented by a Beast with ten horns uncrowned ; in 
 the thirteenth, by a Beast with ten horns crowned. 
 In the seventeenth chapter, he is sustaining a cer- 
 tain wicked system represented by " the Harlot" ; 
 in the thirteenth chapter, having destroyed the 
 
 ■^ The right reading in Rev. xvii. i6 is, Kal ra bUa Kepara d 
 ^tSfs KAI TO Brjpiov. "The ten horns which thou sawest 
 AND the Beast," etc. 
 
 f The most simple method of instruction is, to communi- 
 cate first the end ; afterwards, to narrate the circumstances, 
 that lead to that end. This is the method adopted not only 
 in the Revelation, but also in all other books of prophecy.. 
 The order is that of narration — not of fulfilment. 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 251 
 
 Harlot, he is himself supreme. In the seventeenth 
 chapter the Harlot is the object of attraction to 
 the nations ; in the thirteenth, he is himself wor- 
 shipped. The seventeenth chapter is unlimited as 
 to time; the thirteenth, is confined to 1260 days, 
 or, according to Mr. Elliott, years. 
 
 Mr. Elliott has failed to draw the necessary dis- 
 tinctions between these two chapters. This would- 
 be of itself sufficient to invalidate his exposition of 
 them. But when we examine his statement more 
 minutely, we find still further inconsistency. His 
 explanation of the various symbols, is as follows : 
 
 The ten-horned Beast acting, as Mr. Elliott says,, 
 under his eighth head, represents the Pope. 
 
 The two-horned Beast of the same chapter, re- 
 presents the Papal Clergy. 
 
 The Image of the ten-horned Beast represents 
 the Papal General Councils. 
 
 The breath given to that Image, represents the 
 Clergy as voting in those Cotmcils. 
 
 The Harlot represents the Church of Rome. 
 
 One single question sufnces to nullify this extra- 
 ordinary exposition. If the ten-horned Beast repre- 
 sents the Pope, how is it that the Pope enters on 
 his supremacy by destroying the Harlot, that is,, 
 according to Mr. Elliott, the Church of Rome? 
 The words of the Scripture are express : " The 
 ten horns which thou sawest and the Beast, these 
 shall hate the Harlot, and shall make her desolate 
 and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her 
 
:252 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 with fire." If therefore Mr. Elliott's exposition be 
 true, the Pope must have entered on his supreme 
 power as Pope by first destroying the Church over 
 which he rules! 
 
 But further, Mr. Elliott and Dr. Gumming are 
 absolutely obliged to alter one of the leading sym- 
 bols of the chapter, in order to accommodate it to 
 their system. They continually speak of the 
 ''eighth head" of the Beast, or "the Beast under 
 its eighth head," etc.; and they make this posses- 
 sion of an eighth head one of the cardinal points 
 of their system : whereas the symbol both of the 
 seventeenth and of the thirteenth chapter, is a 
 Beast with seven heads, and seven only. Even if 
 the healing of the wounded head in the thirteenth 
 chapter, made it another head, yet this could have 
 no place in the seventeenth chapter, where no head 
 was wounded, and none healed; nor is a healed 
 head another head, for if it were another, then it 
 could not be a head healed. What then becomes 
 of their system? Its pillar is gone as soon as it 
 is proved that the symbolic Beast had seven heads 
 only. 
 
 It would not be too strong to say, that the in- 
 terpretation which assigns these two chapters to the 
 history of the Pope or Popery, will not bear the 
 test of one of the criterion points of these chapters. 
 For example, it is said in the seventeenth chapter, 
 that the Ten Kings after receiving power as Kings 
 at the same period as the Beast, concur in giving 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 253 
 
 their power unto the Beast until the words of God 
 are fulfilled. When did this happen to the Pope? 
 When did the Pope receive the homage of all the 
 Ten Kingdoms of the Roman World, in its Eastern 
 as well as Western branches, from the Euphrates 
 to Britain? Or, if Mr. Elliott, contrary to Scrip- 
 ture, insists on obliterating the Eastern and most 
 important branch of the Roman Empire, will he 
 say, that the Western branch of the Roman Em- 
 pire is divided into Ten Kingdoms who have 
 given, and are giving their concurrent homage to 
 the Pope ? — for, observe, they continue to give it 
 "until the words of God have been fulfilled;" or to 
 use the words of Daniel, ''until the Ancient of 
 Days has come, -^ -^ "^ and the time has come that 
 the saints should possess the kingdom?" Accord- 
 ing to the system of Mr. Elliott, all in these 
 Western countries, whose names are not written in 
 the Book of Life, should worship the Pope. There 
 should be no Mahomedanism in North Western 
 Africa ; no worldly Protestantism in England, or 
 France, or Switzerland. For 1260 years past, all 
 evil in Western Europe should have been concen- 
 trated in Popery alone. 
 
 Mr. Elliott's attempt to find various periods for 
 the commencement of the 1260 days (or as he 
 says, years), and thereby to destroy the definiteness 
 of that period, has been already mentioned. If 
 periods marked by dates are not to be regarded as 
 definite, there is certainly nothing in Scripture that 
 
254 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 can be considered definite ! If God be pleased to 
 inform us respecting a coming period of unequalled 
 blasphemy and tribulation, and at the same time to 
 tell us, that it is not to exceed three and a half 
 years — ("that for the elect's sake those days shall 
 be shortened ") — am I to believe that in order to 
 make this instruction indefinite, He purposely com- 
 mences this period at two epochs more than fifty 
 years apart (in A.D. 553 under Justinian, and after- 
 wards in A.D. 606 under Phocas*)? — and that the 
 period, having commenced from one or other of 
 these epochs, was to last 1260 years f And even 
 if it could be possible for Antichrist to have ap- 
 peared so many ages ago, and yet for multitudes 
 of real Christians in ancient and in modern times 
 not to have recognised him ; if it should be pos- 
 sible for him thus to have been unknown by a 
 large portion of the Church of God during his life, 
 is it possible that he should also have been de- 
 stroyed, and yet that there should be one real 
 Christian who is ignorant of such an event } The 
 
 * In page 1009, Vol. III., Mr. Elliott says — "I have noted 
 the epoch of the promulgation of Justinian's Code and De- 
 cretal Epistle to the Pope, as that of the commencement (at 
 least primary commencement) of the Papal Beast's 1260 pre- 
 dicted years of prospering." Justinian's era was A.D. 533. 
 
 In page ion, Mr. Elliott says — "It may also be remem- 
 bered that I noted Phocas's Decree in recognition and con- 
 firmation of the Papal supremacy, as perhaps constituting a 
 secondary ^-^oc^ of commencement to the Beast's 1260 years 
 of prospering." The era of Phocas was 606. 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 255 
 
 Scripture tells us, that he is to be destroyed by no 
 mere human instrumentality, but by the Epiphany 
 of the Lord in glory : and his destruction is imme- 
 diately to be followed by the saints possessing the 
 kingdom. Has anything of this kind taken place? 
 If the 1260 years of Antichrist did i7i any sense 
 whatever commence in A.D. 533, they must have 
 ended by his utter destruction, and that, by the 
 Appearing of the Lord in 1793. It is impossible 
 that he should have a primary destruction, and a 
 secondary destruction ; or a gradual destruction in 
 any sense — for the very point of all the descrip- 
 tions given of him during the period marked by 
 1260 is this — that he is at the acme of triumphant 
 power throughout it, which instead of waning, 
 never wanes at all, but is destroyed by the sudden 
 appearing of the Lord from heaven. 
 
 There are many like statements on which we 
 might similarly comment. Thus, for example, the 
 Image of Antichrist, which all in the whole Roman 
 World will be commanded to worship, is said by 
 Mr. Elliott to mean the General Councils of the 
 Romish Church. But where are these councils now ? 
 They ought, if they are the Idol of Antichrist, and 
 if the Pope be the Antichrist, to have been in con- 
 tinuous existence for the past 1260 years, and to 
 have been ''worshipped'' throughout the whole 
 period. But instead of this, nothing has been more 
 rare, nothing of which the Popes have been more 
 jealous, than General Councils: and when they 
 
2S6 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 have been assembled, I know not in what sense it. 
 could be said that they were worshipped, even by 
 Papists — but certainly they were never worshipped 
 by Jews, Mahomedans, Greeks, or Protestants. If 
 for 1260 years throughout the whole Roman World, 
 men have been, and are, worshipping Papal Gene- 
 ral Councils, and are punished with death in case 
 of refusing to worship them, none certainly are 
 aware of the fact. We are neither aware of the 
 existence of such an Image, nor of any such com- 
 mandment to worship, nor of death being inflicted 
 on such as disobey. 
 
 But it is needless to multiply examples. It is 
 evident, that whatever system of interpretation be 
 true, that of Mr. Elliott cannot be true ; for it is 
 inconsistent with itself, as well as contradicted both 
 by Scripture and by fact. 
 
 It should be observed also, that the principle 
 which Mr. Elliott has adopted as his guide in in- 
 terpreting the symbols of the Revelation, must ne- 
 cessarily and always lead him into error. The 
 symbols of Scripture should be expounded from 
 the Scripture itself, and not by reference to the 
 works of men ; but Mr. Elliott, neglecting the 
 guidance afforded by Scripture, seeks for the key 
 of interpretation in some incident of human his- 
 tory, such as the inscription of a coin, or a sculp- 
 ture upon a ruin, or some practice adopted by 
 men. Thus, the rider on the white horse who 
 goeth forth " conquering and to conquer," must,. 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 257 
 
 according to Mr. Elliott, be a Cretan, because he 
 has a bow, and Cretans had bows (Elliott, Vol. I., 
 p. 48) : and the symbolic horsemen in the ninth 
 chapter must be Turkmans, because prominence is 
 given in the vision to the tails of the symbolic 
 horses, and the standard of the Tnrknians zvas three 
 horse tails. (Elliott, Vol. I., p. 335.) Hence the 
 pictures and inscriptions by which Mr. Elliott has 
 illustrated his whole work. We might smile at 
 these things if they were of less solemn moment. 
 Many of Mr. Elliott's analogies are doubtless mere 
 fancies; but when we remember how frequently 
 men, in following their own plans of pride and 
 Avickedness, use expressions or illustrations found 
 in Scripture in a sense entirely diverse from that 
 in which God employs them, we may well tremble 
 at a principle which teaches us to seek in the per- 
 verted notions and words of men, the key to the 
 interpretation of the word of God. Satan well 
 knows how to deceive by inducing men to use 
 thoughts or expressions borrowed from Scripture, 
 in a way foreign to the intentions of God, and 
 then leading them to take that perverted use as 
 the guide of their interpretation.^ 
 
 ^ This is especially to be remembered, in cases where the 
 blasphemous arrogance of Popery has ascribed to itself ex- 
 pressions and symbols borrowed from the Revelation. In- 
 stead of such applications being taken (as is not unfre- 
 quently done by Mr. Elliott) as guides to the right interpre- 
 tation, they should be regarded as beacons of warning. Such 
 
 S 
 
2S8 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Many instances might be given of the manner in 
 which Mr. EHiott forsakes the guidance afforded bj^ 
 Scripture in the interpretation of its symbols. For 
 example, the imagery used in the fifteenth and fol- 
 lowing chapter of the Revelation, where those who 
 have triumphed over the Beast are seen on a sea 
 of crystal, having the harps of God, and singing 
 the song of Moses, is imagery derived from the 
 events of Israel's history, when, delivered from 
 Pharaoh, they sang their song of triumph, and be- 
 held the waters of the Red Sea separating them 
 for ever from Egypt and its sorrows. The plain 
 allusion to the deliverance from Egypt, might have 
 deterred Mr. Elliott from applying this passage to 
 any event, except the final deliverance of the people 
 of God into their heavenly rest ; for when, except- 
 ing then, will the antitypical Egypt be visited by 
 the destroying angel ; when else will the saints of 
 God, changed and glorified, be found perfect in 
 crystal purity ; when else can it be said that the 
 song of Moses could be sung because the Lord 
 had triumphed over His enemies, and delivered His 
 people.^ But neglecting all these things which 
 might have guided him — forgetting that both the 
 
 applications are sure to be either perversions or falsifications 
 of the real meaning of the passage. The object of the 
 Church of Rome is to ascribe to the condition of Chris- 
 tianity, as exhibited in herself, the titles and glories that 
 belong to the people of God after they [have entered into 
 vthe heavenly kingdom. 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 259 
 
 -waters of the Red Sea in which Israel were typi- 
 cally buried, as well as the symbolic sea of crystal, 
 alike indicate the possession of heavenly purity, and 
 heavenly separation by those who antitypically re- 
 ceive the blessings signified, Mr. Elliott seeks for 
 the fulfilment of these things in some place be- 
 neath the skies, and in some earthly waters of 
 separation. The first he finds in the island home 
 of the English Protestants ; and the latter, in the 
 protecting waters of the British Channel, which is 
 supposed to have kept them from the terrors and 
 evils of Revolutionary France. 
 
 Another instance of disregard to the guidance of 
 Scripture, may be found in Mr. Elliott's interpre- 
 tation of the rider on the white horse in the early 
 part of the sixth chapter. "And I saw, and be- 
 iiold a white horse; and he that sat on him having 
 a bow ; and a crown was given unto him : and he 
 went forth conquering, and to conquer." The 
 words ** conquering, and to conquer" sufficiently 
 show that there is One only to whom this symbol 
 can apply: others may conquer, but of Him only 
 whose kingdom is '* unto everlastingl' can it be said, 
 "conquering, and to conquerr It is the descrip- 
 tion of Him of whom it is written, that "• of His 
 kingdom there shall be no end." These words 
 should have been sufficient to prevent Mr. Elliott 
 from interpreting the passage of a Roman Em- 
 peror. If instead of searching into human history 
 to establish the fact that one of the Emperors was 
 
 S 2 
 
260 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 a Cretan, and therefore an archer, and thereupon 
 inferring that he must be mentioned in this pas- 
 sage — if instead of this Mr. Elliott had searched 
 the Scripture, he would have found how constantly 
 "the bow" is mentioned to indicate that far- search- 
 ing, rapid, and destructive power which "the King 
 of kings " will exercise, when He is sent " forth 
 conquering, and to conquer." Thus, when His 
 appearing is described in Habakkuk, it is said 
 that " His bow was made quite naked." Israel's 
 address to Him is, " Thine arrows are sharp in 
 the heart of the King's enemies; whereby the people 
 fall under thee." (Ps. xlv. 5.) And again, "Yea, 
 He sent out His arrows, and scattered them ; and 
 He shot out lightnings, and discomfited them." 
 (Ps. xviii. 14.) Such is the character of the power 
 symbolised in this passage : but Mr. Elliott, seeing 
 nothing in it that refers to the future, and seek- 
 ing to history instead of to Scripture for the guide 
 of his interpretation, sinks this description of the 
 final triumphs of the Son of God, into a descrip- 
 tion of the victories of a Roman Emperor. 
 
 The principle therefore that Mr. Elliott has 
 adopted for his guidance in the explication of 
 symbols, would be of itself sufficient to invalidate 
 his interpretations. 
 
26l 
 
 § IV. 
 
 In concluding these remarks, it may be desirable 
 to mention some of the principles which it is 
 needful to observe in interpreting the Revelation. 
 
 In the first place, we have to remember, that 
 the Prophecies of the New Testament are supple- 
 mental to those of the Old. One great theme of 
 Old Testament prophecy is the condition of the 
 Kingdoms of the Roman World and the condi- 
 tion of Jerusalem at the time immediately pre- 
 ceding the Advent of the Lord in glory. Chapter 
 after chapter describes the dark picture of Israel's 
 evil, when they shall re-gather to their Land in 
 hardened unbelief Jerusalem is continually men- 
 tioned as the great scene of Israel's national blas- 
 phemy, and Mount Zion as the place on which the 
 last great Head of the Gentiles glorifies himself 
 against God. It is impossible, therefore, that the 
 Revelation should avowedly treat of the same 
 period, and yet say nothing of Jerusalem, and 
 Antichrist's relation to Jerusalem; for in that case 
 it would bury every leading fact in Old Testa- 
 ment prophecy. The history ]J of Antichristianism 
 
262 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 given in the New Testament must accord with 
 that given in the Old; and if, in our system of 
 exposition, they do 7iot accord, it is a sufficient 
 proof that our system must be erroneous. We 
 have also to remember, that the Revelation does 
 not record the steps by which Jerusalem and the 
 nations gradually reach the height of their final 
 greatness. When Israel, after their deliverance 
 from Egypt, slowly rose into power, the steps of 
 their progress are minutely given in the Old Tes- 
 tament. But there is no such history of progress 
 in the Revelation. The prophetic part of the Apo- 
 calypse commences when man Jias reached the 
 height of his evil glory; and when the Lord, nO' 
 longer permitting Satan and circumstances to 
 favour the increase of that glory, interferes to- 
 aiTest its progress, and finally to crush it by His 
 judgments. Accordingly, the first mention that is 
 made of Antichrist in the Revelation (see chap, xi.) 
 refers to him as already being in the plenitude of 
 his power; and the first allusion to Babylon is- 
 the record of its fall. (Rev. xiv. 8.) 
 
 We have also carefully to distinguish between 
 the ordinary providential inflictions of God's power,, 
 such as the " earthquakes, pestilences, and famines," 
 which in every age occur, and those interventions 
 of His hand which are more direct and special in. 
 their character. Thus the famine that drove 
 Abraham into Egypt was an act of God's provi- 
 dence very different from that more wonderful 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 263 
 
 interference of His " outstretched arm," when He 
 sent Moses and Aaron, clothed with miraculous 
 power, to smite the land of Egypt with peculiar 
 plagues : and again, the plagues thus inflicted are 
 to be distinguished from His final and utterly 
 destroying judgments, such for example as that at 
 the K.ed Sea, which admitted of no repentance, 
 and was inflicted by the direct agency of God's 
 own presence. 
 
 The interventions of God in judgment admit 
 therefore of a three-fold classification, first, the 
 ordinary inflictions of His providence ; secondly, 
 the special and more direct interventions of His 
 hand, terrible, but still allowing opportunity for 
 repentance; and thirdly, final acts of utterly de- 
 stroying judgment, allowing no opportunity for re- 
 pentance. The judgments of which the Revela- 
 tion treats, fall mainly under the second and third 
 of these classes. They will be the result of an 
 action of God's hand similar to that which He 
 directed against Pharaoh and the land of Egypt; 
 concluding with the visible manifestation of His 
 glory, and the final deliverance of His people — 
 even as when He delivered Israel and overthrew 
 Pharaoh at the Red Sea. Of such judgments and 
 of such intervention we can still say, " the time is 
 at hand." We could not so speak of His ordinary 
 providential judgments : we could not say of them 
 that they are at hand, because they ever have been, 
 and are, around us on every side. Ordinary pro- 
 
264 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 vidential judgments are not signs of " the end :" but 
 judgments which come under the second class just 
 mentioned (analogous to the plagues sent on Egypt 
 by the hand of Moses and Aaron) will be signs 
 of the end. 
 
 The prophetic parts of the Revelation belong to 
 the same period to which those parts of Daniel 
 which are yet unfulfilled belong. Whenever Israel 
 has not only returned to Jerusalem, but is nationally 
 recognised in Jerusalem, we may expect that period 
 to begin. 
 
 We must also carefully remember that the Re- 
 velation, like Daniel, is divided into many sepa- 
 rate visions which are independent of each other, 
 and are not chronologically successive. Thus the 
 sixth chapter is a vision complete in itself, tracing 
 briefly and in outline the whole period of God's 
 chastisements, and terminating as soon as it has 
 reached the hour at which the Lord Jesus is to be 
 revealed. Subsequent visions retrace the same 
 period, and fill up the outline. Isaiah and Daniel 
 are also written on this principle. 
 
 It must also be observed, that the Revelation 
 (and the same may be said of the rest of Pro- 
 phetic Scripture), having for one of its primary 
 objects the comfort of those who in the midst of 
 abounding evil fear God and abide in His truth, 
 is accustomed before it details the action of God's 
 hand in judgment, to preface each vision of sor- 
 row with some intimation of the final blessing that 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 265 
 
 is to come, after the judgments have wrought their 
 .appointed work. Thus the sixth chapter, before it 
 refers to those dark agencies of judgment which it 
 is its chief object to reveal, speaks of Him who 
 finally shall go forth "conquering, and to conquer, 
 the results of whose triumphs will be to fill the 
 earth with blessing. We find a similar example in 
 the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters, which contain 
 one connected vision. The last of these chapters 
 reveals the hand of God stretched out to smite 
 the glory of the future great Pharaoh of the earth. 
 The scene in that chapter may be said to be laid 
 in Egypt; but the chapter which precedes, places 
 us, so to speak, on the happy side of the Red 
 Sea, where the people of God sing their song of 
 triumph, delivered for ever from the land of their 
 travail, and guided by God's strength unto His 
 holy habitation. The song of triumph is recorded 
 first, before we hear of the dark circumstances out 
 of which it springs. Each separate vision in the 
 Revelation has thus its own preface of blessing."^ 
 
 ■^ The following may be given as a division of the Revela- 
 tion, on the principles which have been stated, from the 
 sixth to the eighteenth chapters inclusive. 
 
 The sixth chapter is a vision complete in itself— its pre- 
 face of blessing is in the second verse. 
 
 The seventh, eighth, and ninth chapters, form one series, 
 :and should be read together. The preface of blessing is in 
 the seventh chapter. 
 
 The tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth chapters, should 
 be read together. The tenth contains the preface of blessing ; 
 
266 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 These visions of final glory have a needful pro- 
 minence given to them in the Revelation, because 
 it is a Book especially intended for the comfort of 
 those who live during the failure of the Church's 
 testimony. The Revelation was given to the 
 Church at a time very similar to the period when 
 the Book of Daniel was given to Israel. That 
 
 the three chapters which follow it, being separate narratives 
 of the same evil period — the eleventh describing Jerusalem 
 during the prophesying of the witnesses — the twelfth describing 
 the sojourn of the woman in the wilderness during the same 
 period, with the addition of some antecedent concurrent cir- 
 cumstances — the thirteenth describing the concurrent period 
 of Antichrist's full dominion. 
 
 The fourteenth should be read by itself— its preface of 
 blessing is in the five commencing verses. 
 
 The fifteenth and sixteenth chapters form one vision — the 
 preface of blessing is in the fifteenth. 
 
 The seventeenth chapter must be read by itself It de- 
 scribes Babylon morally j and shows that Antichrist at first 
 sustains, but afterwards destroys the peculiar system of law,, 
 religion, etc., which will give to Babylon its characteristic 
 distinctness. The first verse contains the announcement of 
 destruction, previous to the description of that which was ta 
 be destroyed. 
 
 The eighteenth chapter describes Babylon physically, as to 
 its outward wealth and greatness. As in the former chap- 
 ter, the announcement of the destruction is given before the 
 description of that which is destroyed. (For further remarks 
 on these subjects, see " Babylon, its Revival, etc.," also. 
 "Thoughts on the Apocalypse," and "Prospects of the Tea 
 Kingdoms," as advertised at end.) 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING GONSIDERED. 267 
 
 Book was given to Israel, just at the moment when 
 Jerusalem lost the place of honoured separation, 
 which till then it had occupied in the earth : the 
 Revelation was given to the Churches, just at the 
 moment when they too were about to lose their 
 separate place of testimony. Even before the 
 death of the Apostle Paul, Christianity had begun 
 to exhibit symptoms of its approaching fall. The 
 Church was ceasing to be " the pillar and ground 
 of the truth;'' and many ''seducers" had crept in,, 
 who were perverting the pure testimonies of God^ 
 and " beguiling unstable souls." The messages 
 sent in the Book of Revelation to the Churches, 
 clearly indicate the progress of this corruption. 
 Although warned, they gave no heed to the warn- 
 ing, and repented not. Their candlesticks there- 
 fore were removed : in other words, God refused 
 any longer to own the corporate testimony of Chris- 
 tianity, and visible Christianity became, from that 
 time forward, synonymous with visible evil. A 
 remnant has indeed been preserved in the midst 
 of the general ruin, but they have been few and 
 feeble, divided one from the other, and not unfre- 
 quently associated with the professing Church in 
 some of its worst corruptions. Unity and strength 
 have been no more restored to the fallen Church 
 than was the presence of the glory of God restored 
 to Israel, after it departed before the desolating 
 power of Babylon and of the Gentiles. 
 
 It is impossible therefore that the prophetic part 
 
-268 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 ■of the Revelation should represent the corporate 
 condition of Christianity by any symbol of honour ; 
 for how could it put light for darkness, or declare 
 that evil was good? When visible Christianity 
 invited the world into its fellowship, and formally 
 identified itself with the nations, it could only be 
 represented by symbols of the same character as 
 those that pertained to those nations — symbols not 
 ■of honour, but of abomination, such as a " beast 
 •dreadful and terrible" (Dan. vii.), or "a dragon 
 great and fiery red, having seven heads and ten 
 horns, and upon his head seven diadems." (Rev. 
 xii. 3.) It could only have been represented by 
 some such symbol as this, because the same prin- 
 ciples that regulate the nations have regulated and 
 'do regulate the visible Church. 
 
 The visions of glory therefore in the Revelation^ 
 'even when they refer, as in some cases they do, to 
 .a relation which the Church is to hold towards the 
 •earth, do not belong to any condition which Chris- 
 tianity has ever yet occupied ; nor do they belong to 
 this dispensation at all. They belong to other ages, 
 and other scenes, when the present season of Satan^s 
 triumph shall have ended, and the Day of the 
 Lord have come. They are intended to stand in 
 •contrast with every thing that the eye now beholds, 
 and to comfort those who through tribulation are 
 seeking to endure unto the end. 
 
 But how should we shock the faith of such — how 
 should we take from them their appointed consola- 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 269 
 
 tions — if we were to tell them that these visions 
 of glory referred, not to the future^ but were de- 
 signed to represent a visible condition of Chris- 
 tianity yet found on earth. Suppose we had said 
 this to any (if such there were) whose eyes were 
 opened in the days of Constantine to discern the 
 real character of that evil hour — suppose we had 
 told them that the visions by which they were sus- 
 taining their souls in hope towards the future were 
 not future, but were being fulfilled in the scenes of 
 rising greatness around them : would they not have 
 felt that we were not only depriving them of their 
 hopes, but that we were attempting to hallow, by 
 some of the most sacred passages of God's word, the 
 very evils against which they were maintaining (for 
 God's sake) a tried and sorrowing testimony ? Or if 
 we had succeeded in persuading them, we should 
 thus far have become perverters of their souls ; we 
 should have turned them back from the truth and 
 testimonies of God, to seek comfort in the false 
 fires of Satan's kindling; until perhaps they would 
 have rejoiced like others in their deceiving bright- 
 ness, and have said with them, " Aha, we are warm,, 
 we have seen the fire." (Is. xliv. 16.) 
 
 Mr. Elliott and Dr. Gumming are, I doubt not,, 
 sincere in their hatred of Popery and Puseyism. 
 Indeed, who that has learned to appreciate the 
 way of salvation by grace through faith, would not 
 desire to lay down their lives (if need were) in tes- 
 timony against those deadly systems? But what 
 
270 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 gave birth to Popery? It was not the growth of a 
 moment. It sprang from earlier principles of evil 
 long fostered. Are we to accept those principles, 
 and sanctify « them by the visions of the Revela- 
 tion ? 
 
 The principles of evil that are now being sys- 
 tematised and brought into concurrent operation in 
 the Roman World, are not to be attributed to 
 Popery alone. The Latitudinarianism to which 
 even Evangelicalism has in this country yielded, in 
 consenting to recognise men, whose sentiments 
 they know to be essentially and vitally at variance 
 with the Word of God, as teachers who merely 
 belong to " schools of thought '* different from their 
 own — all capable, however, of being received, 
 through the elasticity of love, into one and the 
 same circle of service and of communion — Latitu- 
 dinarianism such as this cannot be less evil than 
 Popery, because it sustains and gives effect to 
 Popery, and to every known form of influential 
 evil besides. It quenches the light of Scripture, 
 and avowedly seeks the basis of its unity in the 
 •exclusion of the definiteness of Revealed Truth, 
 To insist on the recognition of such definite- 
 ness is now on every hand deemed impracticable. 
 That may be so. But the question still remains, 
 What has caused that impracticability ? Is it sin ? 
 If we examine the principles that are now chiefly 
 influential throughout this country — a country that 
 has been so long favoured with the unrestricted circu- 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 2/1 
 
 lation of the Holy Scripture, we shall find that they 
 fall under one of two classes — they are either such 
 as lead men into the darkness and death of mere 
 ritual religion, or they are the latitudinarian prin- 
 ciples just described. These are at present, the 
 two conflicting systems — both, however, equally cha- 
 racterised by setting aside the supremacy of Holy 
 Scripture. 
 
 Of these systems, the latter is that which will 
 finally prevail. Its comprehensiveness (for it is as 
 comprehensive as evil itself) gives it a necessary 
 superiority over a system essentially contracted. A 
 strict system of ritual Christianity is far too narrow 
 for a sphere in which Judaism, Mahomedanism, 
 and every other form of human thought have to be 
 conciliated : it could not adapt itself to such a 
 sphere; — but a latitudinarian system can. The lati- 
 tudinarian system can honour and use even its 
 rival, if that rival will consent, as finally it will, to 
 take a lower and less exclusive place ; and to pre- 
 serve • a partial, though still extensive rule, by re- 
 signing its claim to sovereign and universal sway. 
 
 When such a system — having wealth, or as men 
 say, "property," for the pillar of its social fabric, 
 .and commerce as the channel through which that 
 wealth accrues — has been established in the Eastern 
 -as well as Western divisions of the Roman World, 
 we shall see before us the sphere of which the 
 Revelation treats — the sphere on which the judg- 
 ments respecting which it forewarns us are to fall. 
 
2/2 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Israel will be in Jerusalem, and will supply one 
 chief feature in the scene. 
 
 If we read the Revelation and the rest of Pro- 
 phetic Scripture with this scene before our minds,„ 
 and remember the principles that have been stated, 
 many a supposed difficulty will vanish, and Pro- 
 phetic Scripture in all its leading statements will 
 be found as simple as any other part of the word 
 of God. It would then afford substantial subject 
 for our meditation and for our service. We might 
 perhaps be able to meet the revived energies of 
 the nations, by the recovered testimonies of the 
 Holy Apostles and Prophets — recovered out of a 
 darkness in which they have long been buried, as 
 in a grave.^ 
 
 * Many of the foregoing remarks apply equally to writers ^ 
 whose general views are very dissimilar from those of Mr. 
 EUiott and Dr. Gumming. Thus Dr. David Brown, whose 
 book against the pre-millennial Advent of our Lord has ob- 
 tained such wide circulation, writes as follows : 
 
 " It is notorious, too, that a large number of the primitive • 
 Christians for three centuries, fell into the same mistake, 
 expecting the struggles in which they were engaged, to issue 
 in the personal appearing of their Lord, and ^the first re- 
 surrection ' of His martyred witnesses. The militant did in- 
 deed become a triumphant Church, but in a very different 
 sense from what was expected. The martyred testimony of" 
 Jesus * lived and reigned,' but the martyrs themselves lived 
 not. The Gospel slew the great red dragon — Paganism was. 
 defeated in the high places of the field — Christianity ascended 
 the throne of the Caesars: that was the reality contemplated,. 
 
MR. ELLIOTT AND DR. GUMMING CONSIDERED. 2/3 
 
 in the word, but which the enthusiasm of so many had led 
 them to misinterpret." 
 
 If our conscience misjudges facts — if we do indeed believe 
 that the great red Dragon was slain, and that the saints 
 arose, according to the twenty-first of Revelation, when Chris- 
 tianity ascended the throne of the Caesars in the days of 
 Constantine — it is quite certain that the testimonies of the 
 Revelation and all the Prophets will be sealed books to 7is, 
 
274 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE 
 FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 We must never forget that the bias of the human 
 inind is against, not towards, Revealed Truth. It is 
 one of the consequences of the Fall — one of the 
 results of "sin that dwelleth in us," and of the 
 power put forth against us by Satan. In the re- 
 ception of naticral truths it is otherwise. There, 
 for the most part, the mind is ready to receive 
 anything that is proposed to it by competent 
 authority. In its own generation it is wise. But 
 in religious truth, men not only manifest an indis- 
 position to receive, but also a disposition to lose 
 that which they have received. What more re- 
 markable example of this than when the Corin- 
 thians, even under the Apostle's own eye, began 
 to question the fact of there being any resurrec- 
 tion ? " How say some among you that there is 
 no resurrection of the dead ?" If, then, among 
 those whom the Apostle himself taught, the fact 
 of there being any resurrection was disputed, can 
 we wonder that in these latter days — days in 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 2/5 
 
 which the Scripture tells us falsehood would flourish 
 — can we wonder that now the truth of the First 
 Resurrection should be denied ? Shall we, be- 
 cause few believe and teach it, say that it is false? 
 Or shall we, remembering the tendency in man's 
 mind to quit its grasp on truth, refuse to be led 
 blindly by the authority of others, and search for 
 ourselves, humbly and diligently, the Scriptures 
 of God ? 
 
 Resurrection (that is to say, resurrection into that 
 condition of spiritual being, into which all the re- 
 deemed will finally be brought) is, at present, seen 
 only in Christ the Lord. He only, as the "First 
 fruits of them that have fallen asleep" (r&v kskol- 
 /jL7]fievcov)j has risen into the glory of the new crea- 
 tion of God. Enoch indeed, and Moses, and Elijah 
 exist in Heaven in bodies miraculously sustained, 
 and glorious; but they have not yet their spiritual 
 bodies, nor will they have them until the time shall 
 come for all the Church of the first-born ones (rw 
 irpcoTOTOKcov) to rise into their appointed glory — 
 made perfect in the likeness of Christ. " David," 
 says the Apostle, "hath not ascended into the 
 heavens." The spirit of David is indeed with 
 Christ in the paradise of God, there, together with 
 the spirits of all departed saints, comforted and 
 blessed with joys unspeakable ; but David, as to 
 the integrity of his person, that is, in body as well 
 as soul and spirit, is not there. He is still, as to 
 this, numbered amongst those "that have fallen 
 
 T 2 
 
2/6 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 asleep," whose "first-fruits" Christ is. All, there- 
 fore, that Rome teaches respecting the assumption 
 of the Virgin Mary, and the condition of the saints 
 in heaven, is a blasphemous fiction — a lie from the 
 father of lies. Mary and the rest of the saints re- 
 main yet, as to their bodies, in the dishonour of 
 death. Their flesh has seen corruption. The worm 
 has fed on them. They wait for the resurrection- 
 morning. To teach otherwise is virtually to teach 
 the heresy of Hymenseus and Philetus, who said 
 "that the resurrection was past already, and over- 
 threw the faith of some." 
 
 The resurrection of the Lord Jesus is to us the 
 manifested proof that the mighty debt which He 
 undertook to discharge on behalf of His believing 
 people has been fully paid. As the Surety of His 
 people, performing for them what they could not 
 perform, and bearing for them what they could not 
 bear, Jesus lived and died. But as soon as He 
 was able to say " It is finished," the claim of 
 Divine Justice was satisfied. The debt was fully 
 paid : and this was proved when he burst the 
 prison of the grave, where He had lain to fulfil 
 the Scripture, and to show not only the reality of 
 His death, but also that death had no longer 
 power against Him; for it could not prey on Him. 
 His holy body saw no corruption. Death never 
 had any power against Him except as the Surety 
 discharging the debt of His people. As soon, 
 therefore, as that debt had been discharged. Death 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 277 
 
 lost its title against those whose Surety He was : 
 and of this His resurrection afforded the manifested 
 proof It proved that every claim against them 
 was satisfied for ever. 
 
 Moreover, the Lord Jesus rose as *'the First- 
 fruits" — that word being the pledge that all His 
 believing people shall finally be conformed to His 
 heavenly likeness. In Him, too, their new cove- 
 nant Head, they have life. " Our life is hid with 
 <3hrist in God." In the Epistle to the Ephesians 
 we read of the exceeding working of God's mighty 
 power " to US-ward who believe, which He wrought 
 in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and 
 set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly 
 places.'' This mighty power was towards 21s, be- 
 cause, in raising Christ, it raised Him as our 
 Head. Consequently, believers, though personally 
 on earth, are representatively in heaven. In Christ 
 risen they are ^'quickened;" in Him they are 
 "raised up and made to sit in heavenly places;" 
 all this the result of His resurrection. By resur- 
 rection, too, He has entered as our "Forerunner" 
 within the vail, *' able to save to the uttermost 
 those that come unto God through Him, seeing 
 He ever liveth to make intercession for them." 
 
 There is, however, an hour coming when the life 
 which is now hidden for us with Him in God, will 
 be no longer hidden, because the time of fruition 
 and manifestatiort will have come. But when, and 
 under what circumstances? We know that the 
 
2/8 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 earth is, in the Scripture, promised a period of 
 millennial rest, when "nations shall learn war 
 no more"; when converted Israel shall "blossom, 
 and bud, and fill the face of the world with 
 fruit"; when creation, which now groaneth, shall 
 groan no longer ; when the wolf and the lamb 
 shall feed together ; when Satan shall be bound ; 
 when the Lord shall be King over all the earth,, 
 and His name alone be exalted ; when at last it 
 shall be truly said, " O worship the Lord in the 
 beauty of holiness : fear before Him, all the earth. 
 Say among the Gentiles that the Lord reigneth : 
 the world also shall be established that it shall 
 not be moved : He shall judge the peoples right- 
 eously. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth 
 be glad ; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. 
 Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein :. 
 then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before 
 the Lord ; for He cometh, for He cometh to judge 
 the earth ; He shall judge the world with righteous- 
 ness, and the peoples with His truth/' (Psalm 
 xcvi.) Blessed words, that shall be fulfilled in 
 their season ! But when the hour of their fulfil- 
 ment comes, what shall be the condition of those 
 who have fallen asleep in Jesus? Will Abel and 
 Abraham — will the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, 
 and all who have followed them in the path of 
 suffering for Christ's sake, be shut out from the 
 joy of that morning of life? Will their bodies be 
 still left in the corruption of death? Or, will one 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 2/9 
 
 of the first acts of their Lord in the day of His 
 manifested glory, be the calling from the grave 
 all who have suffered for His name's sake, that 
 they may share His joy, and administer His 
 power ? 
 
 One thing certainly is evident, that that day of 
 gladness cannot be until the dark day of evil 
 described in the Epistle to the Thessalonians shall 
 have first run its course. The Apostle there teaches 
 us that the mystery of iniquity then working should 
 continue to work silently, until it should be at last 
 manifested in all its fulness under " the man of 
 sin," '' the wicked " or " lawless one." Now, with- 
 out here inquiring who '^ the man of sin " is, this, 
 at least, is manifest, that the reign of righteous- 
 ness and peace cannot be coincident with the reign 
 of "the man of sin." Men cannot at the same 
 time obey Christ and Satan. The nations cannot 
 at the same time bow down before Christ and 
 before Antichrist. The mystery of iniquity and 
 its head must cease to be, before truth and right- 
 eousness triumph. To what then does this great 
 head of iniquity succumb? By what is he con- 
 sumed? By "///^ brightness of the coining of the 
 Lordl' says the Apostle. Therefore the brightness 
 of the coming of the Lord precedes and introdtcces 
 the reign of peace. 
 
 But there is another event mentioned in this 
 chapter as taking place at the coming of the 
 Lord. In the first verse the Apostle speaks of 
 
28o AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 "our [i.e.y believers] being together gathered unto 
 the Lord." "Now we beseech you, brethren, by 
 the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our 
 gathering together unto Him." If, then, we are to 
 be gathered to Him at His coming (and the fourth 
 chapter of the previous Epistle describes how), it is 
 evident that the resurrection of all who shall have 
 believed in Christ up to the hour of His appear- 
 ing, shall take place when He comes to destroy 
 " the wicked one," and to introduce the glory of 
 the millennial age. 
 
 If, indeed, the history of the earth were to ter- 
 minate at the coming of the Lord to destroy the 
 wicked one — if there were to be no reign of peace, 
 no period when righteousness shall flourish in the 
 earth, then, doubtless, there would be no second 
 period of resurrection for the saints, and conse- 
 quently there would be no FIRST resurrection. 
 But if forgiven and converted Israel are to be in 
 the millennial earth '' holiness unto the Lord " — 
 if the spared heathen are to receive through Israel 
 the gospel of grace — if Ethiopia shall then, at last, 
 " stretch out her hands unto God," and the millen- 
 nium be the great harvest-time for gathering souls 
 into the heavenly garner, will they who shall, in 
 the millennial earth, be thus born again through the 
 word of truth, never be brought into resurrection 
 glory? Will they never bear the heavenly like- 
 ness of their Redeemer? Will they always remain 
 in an earthy, fallen body ? No ! this cannot be. 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 28 1 
 
 Well, then, if they are to be finally changed and 
 •glorified, there must be a second period of resur- 
 rection unto life : and this, Scripture uniformly 
 teaches. 
 
 In the twentieth chapter of the Revelation we 
 find the following passage : " I saw thrones, and 
 they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto 
 them : and I saw the souls of them that were be- 
 headed for the witness of Jesus, and for the word 
 of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, 
 neither his image, neither had received his mark 
 upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they 
 lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 
 But the rest of the dead lived not until the thou- 
 sand years were finished. This is the first resur- 
 rection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in 
 the first resurrection : on such the second death 
 hath no power, but they shall be priests of God 
 and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thou- 
 sand years." 
 
 The obvious meaning of this solemn passage is 
 frequently sought to be evaded on the plea that 
 the Revelation is a symbolic book. Now, what 
 does this mean } Does it mean that, because 
 symbols are employed as the medium of instruc- 
 tion in the Revelation, therefore, no facts are taught 
 therein ? It would seem to be the thought of some 
 that symbols and figurative language can indicate 
 nothing except that which is shadowy and impal- 
 pable. It seems to be imagined that plain and in- 
 
282 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 telligible facts can only be taught where na 
 symbols and no figures are : and that the presence 
 of these is a sign that the interpretation may be 
 as loose as the symbols are supposed to be uncer- 
 tain. Yet does not such a thought impugn the 
 wisdom of God, who has been pleased in the Scrip- 
 tures so frequently to employ figures and symbols? 
 Shall we say that He intended that the trumpet 
 should give an uncertain sound ? 
 
 Literal facts may be taught either by simple 
 language, or by figurative language, or by sym- 
 bolic actions. This is true both in Scripture and 
 in the ordinary intercourse of men.^ An Indian 
 may come to m.e and say in simple language, " I 
 desire to make peace with thee"; or he may use 
 figurative language and say, " Let us bury our 
 weapons beneath the tree of peace"; or he may 
 say nothing; but, silently, in symbolic action, may 
 dig a grave beneath an olive tree, and there deposit 
 his bow and his battle axe. The modes of com^ 
 munication are in the three cases different, but the 
 same substantial literal fact is conveyed by all, viz., 
 his desire to make peace with me. Nor is it other- 
 wise in Scripture. Thus, the future restoration 
 
 * The only difference is that the symbols of Scripture 
 are sometimes actually presented to the outward eye, as when 
 Ezekiel took into his hand two sticks, symbolising respec- 
 tively Israel and Judah ; or the symbols may be presented 
 in vision^ as in the Apocalypse. This last form of sym- 
 bolic instruction can be employed only by God. 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 283, 
 
 and union of the twelve tribes of Israel (which 
 when accomplished will be a literal fact) is taught 
 sometimes in simple language, as when we read 
 in Jeremiah 1. 4 : *' In those days, and in that time,, 
 saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come,, 
 they and the children of Judah together, going 
 and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord 
 their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with 
 their faces thitherward, saying. Come, and let us 
 join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant 
 that shall not be forgotten." And again in Hosea 
 i. ii: "Then shall the children of Judah and the 
 children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint 
 themselves one head, and they shall come up out 
 of the land : for great shall be the day of Jezreel." 
 In these two passages there is no figurative lan- 
 guage, nor any symbol. But in Ezekiel xxxvii. 16,. 
 we find the same event taught in symbol. Ezekiel 
 v/as commanded to take two sticks; to write on 
 one, *' For Judah, and for the children of Israel 
 his companions'' ; and on the other, ^" For Joseph, 
 the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of 
 Israel his companions : and join them one to an- 
 other into one stick; and they shall become one 
 in thine hand." Such was the symbol presented 
 to the eyes of the people, and thus it was ex- 
 plained, " Say unto them. Thus saith the Lord 
 God, Behold, I will take the children of Israel from 
 among the Gentiles, whither they be gone, and 
 will gather them on every side, and bring them 
 
284 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 into their own land : and I will make them one 
 nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel ; 
 and one king shall be king to them all : and they 
 shall be no more two nations, neither shall they 
 be divided into two kingdoms any more at all." 
 Surely, after such an example we cannot say that 
 a plain literal fact cannot be taught by symbol. 
 
 But now to return to the passage quoted from 
 the Revelation : the Apostle saw in the vision 
 thrones occupied by persons who sat thereon, and 
 to them ''judgment [that is, authority to rule] 
 was given." " I saw thrones, and they sat on 
 them, and judgment was given unto them." He 
 saw, also, those who had suffered for the name 
 of Jesus under Antichrist, in a disembodied state 
 (for it is said he saw their ^' sotds'')\ but it is added, 
 he saw them " live,'' that is, become repossessed of 
 their bodies. "They lived and reigned with Christ 
 a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived 
 not {ovic i^rjaav^) until the thousand years were 
 finished." 
 
 Let us suppose that to ourselves such a vision 
 had been sent. Suppose that we had seen those 
 whom we had first beheld in a condition of death, 
 LIVE and reign with Christ, should we have needed 
 to be told we had seen a resurrection ? I think not. 
 
 ■^ Such is the right reading in this passage. For further 
 remarks on this subject, see note appended to the present 
 chapter ; and also " Prospects of the Ten Kingdoms," page 
 265. 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 285 
 
 But what if we had also heard an authoritative 
 voice say, " THIS IS THE FIRST RESURRECTION : 
 blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first 
 resurrection : on such the second death hath no 
 power, but they shall be priests of God and of 
 Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years," 
 — could we, after hearing this solemn comment of 
 God, have doubted what the vision was intended 
 to teach ? I say " commenty' for these words were 
 spoken, not to show that " resurrection" was taught 
 in the preceding vision, but to show what resur- 
 rection it was, and what was the blessedness and 
 honour pertaining to those who were included 
 therein."^ 
 
 "^ The fact is that this passage was not so much intended 
 to teach, as to confirm, the truth of the First Resurrection ; 
 seeing that it had been already abundantly taught through- 
 out the Scripture. Even the Jews believed that there would 
 be a resurrection of the righteous when their Messiah came to 
 reign : though they believed it after their own carnal manner, 
 making no distinction between the "first man" who was 
 "earthy," and "the second man" who was from Heaven. 
 Thus we read of Rabbi Jeremiah saying, " When you bury 
 me, put shoes on my feet, and give me a staff in my hand, 
 and lay me on one side ; that when the Messiah comes, I 
 may be ready." See Lightfoot, Vol. xi. p. 354. 
 
 The teaching of the Lord and His Apostles swept away 
 these vain imaginations. They taught that there was in- 
 deed to be a resurrection, but that it was to be a resurrec- 
 tion into tmearihfy glory — glory above the Heavens, into 
 which "flesh and blood" cannot enter, and that all who do 
 enter,- must be freed from their sins by the Messiah's atoning 
 
2S6 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Observe, also, these words : " They " (the saints) 
 "LIVED and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 
 But the rest of the dead LIVED NOT until the thou- 
 
 iDlood and changed into His glorious likeness, as the Head 
 «of the new creation of God. 
 
 Throughout the Apocalypse the fact of the First Resur- 
 rection is acstuned. It teems with visions of unearthly- 
 glory— all of which belong to "the Church of the First- 
 "bom ones," whose home during the millennium will be, not 
 •earth (though they will reign over it) but Heaven, and the 
 Jerusalem that is above. 
 
 The object of the twentieth chapter is not to announce 
 the fact of the First Resurrection, but to declare the time 
 and circumstances that are to be associated with its accom- 
 plishment. " I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judg- 
 ment was given unto them." That is, John saw the saints 
 -enthroned and reigning. Subsequently it is said, " This " 
 [that which thou hast seen] "is" [i.e. represents, it is the 
 symbolic is] "the First Resurrection." We know from 
 other Scriptures that in it are included all those "who are 
 Christ's at His Coming." They who are specifically men- 
 tioned in this passage are those who will encounter the 
 last great outbreak of Satan's rage, when he will come down 
 "having great wrath that he hath but a short time." Their 
 <:onflict will be great ; and they will need great consolation. 
 They will read this passage : will see in it the recognition of 
 the value of their sufferings in God's sight, and will rejoice 
 ^vith a joy given by the living power of God's Spirit. 
 
 We frequently find in Scripture, blessings pronounced on 
 individual persons or classes of persons, whose devotedness 
 may be made by God the occasion of making known His 
 mercies, but who are not intended to be the sole possessors 
 of these mercies. Thus when the Lord Jesus said to Simon 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 28/ 
 
 sand years were finished." Few, I suppose, will 
 •doubt that the last clause of this passage refers to 
 the general resurrection described at the close of 
 this chapter. If, then, the word " LIVE," as applied 
 in the last clause to the wicked dead, means re- 
 surrection, can we arbitrarily attach another mean- 
 ing to the same word in the first clause, and say 
 it does not mean resurrection? No principle that 
 at present guides us in the interpretation of lan- 
 guage would remain if such licence as this were 
 allowed. 
 
 And if a resurrection unto life be not taught in 
 the passage we have been considering, what evi- 
 dence is there of there being any resurrection at 
 all? The same arguments that nullify the force 
 of the words "LIVE and "RESURRECTION," in 
 this passage, would nullify these words, or any 
 like words in any part of 'Scripture. The reasons 
 urged against '' resurrection " meaning " resurrec- 
 tion" in the central part of this chapter, tell with 
 equal force against that solemn passage which 
 describes the last resurrection at the close of this 
 •chapter. The doctrines of a first and of the last 
 resurrection stand or fall together. If the first be 
 
 Peter — Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona . . . thou shalt be 
 ■called Peter (Trerpo?, a rock-man), the blessing was not in- 
 tended to be confined to him, but to be extended to all 
 those who should similarly confess Christ as the Rock 
 (Trerpa). All believers are rock-men. 
 
288 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 a mere figure of speech, so is the other. Surely 
 we must beware of explaining away on neologian 
 principles, the "true sayings of God." It ap- 
 proaches very nearly to the sin described in the- 
 concluding chapter of this book. (See Rev. 
 xxii. 19.) 
 
 It has frequently been said of late that the 
 words, "THIS IS THE FIRST RESURRECTION," indi- 
 cate not a resurrection of persons but of principles. 
 The principles of the martyrs, which will, as it 
 were, have died out, are, it is said, to be revived 
 in great power at the commencement of the mil- 
 lennium; and this is termed a resurrection. 
 
 But does not such an interpretation as this laclc 
 the very semblance of plausibility? For, in the 
 first place, how can the principles of the martyrs- 
 be said to die out, when we know that during the 
 whole antichristian period, on to its very end, they 
 will be manifested in a power unequalled by any 
 thing that has been seen among Christ's servants> 
 since the Apostles died ? And, secondly, how can 
 the distinctive principles of the martyrs be found in 
 the millennium, seeing that then the time of the 
 Truth's sufferings will have passed, and, conse- 
 quently, martyrdom will have ceased to be? 
 
 Moreover, is it not said that they who are raised 
 in the first resurrection shall be made "priests and 
 kings unto God and unto Christ " t We can un- 
 derstand this of persons^ but how could principles 
 be made kings and priests unto God? Is it not 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 289 
 
 also said that over those who rise in the first re- 
 surrection, the second death shall have no power? 
 Can we speak of principles being subject to the 
 second death? "WHOSOEVER was not found 
 written in *the Book of Life, was cast into the 
 lake of fire." Can principles be so spoken of? If, 
 then, they who rise in the last resurrection be per-- 
 sons, they who rise in the first resurrection must 
 be persons likewise. 
 
 But the Revelation is not the only book in 
 which the doctrine of the first resurrection is 
 taught. In the first Epistle to the Corinthians, in 
 the chapter which is specially devoted to the sub- 
 ject of resurrection, we find a passage which ex- 
 pressly treats of the order of resurrection. "Every 
 one in his own order : Christ the FiRST-fruits ; 
 AFTERWARD {eTreiTa) they that are Christ's at His 
 coming; THEN (or NEXT, eha not Tore) cometh 
 the end." The words translated afterwards, and 
 then or next ( eireira and elra) are what are called 
 "particles of sequence," that is, they indicate suc- 
 cession of events at certain intervals, as when we 
 say, first, second, third. Accordingly, in this pas- 
 sage we are taught that the order of resurrection 
 is, first, Christ's own resurrection : secondly, the re- 
 surrection of those who are Christ's at His com- 
 ing : thirdly, the resurrection of those who live be- 
 tween that coming and the time when the last 
 enemy, Death, is destroyed; which event both here 
 and in the Revelation, is said to be at the close 
 
 U 
 
290 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 of Christ's millennial reign ; after which, " He that 
 sitteth upon the throne saith, Behold, I make all 
 things new." 
 
 Unless, therefore, we can cancel the words 
 " AFTERWARD " and " NEXT," we must acknowledge 
 that there are two distinct periods in which the 
 saints will rise in life; one when Christ (having, 
 according to Daniel vii., been brought before the 
 Ancient of Days and formally assumed the sove- 
 reignty of earth) shall come forth to put down all 
 enemies; the other, when that object shall have 
 been effected by the destruction of Death, the last 
 enemy. Thus both the commencement and the 
 end of the millennial reign of Christ — that is to 
 say, the period when He shall come forth in order 
 to subjugate all enemies, and the period when He 
 shall have subjugated all enemies, will alike be 
 marked by a putting forth of that glorious power, 
 whereby, as Son of the living God, He will quicken 
 and bring into His own heavenly likeness those of 
 His servants whom death will for a season have 
 grasped. If, then, there were no other passage but 
 this in the Corinthians, we should be constrained 
 to say that there must be a Jirst resurrection. I 
 scarcely need point out the accordance of this pas- 
 sage with that in the Revelation. 
 
 In the fifth chapter of John, also, we find a pas- 
 sage in which the jirst resurrection is referred to 
 in contradistinction with the last. The 25 th verse 
 speaks of the first resurrection, and the 29th ver.se 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 29 1 
 
 of the general resurrection ; but as these verses, in 
 order to their being properly understood, should 
 not be separated from their context, it will be 
 needful to consider the whole passage. 
 
 In the 24th verse of the fifth chapter of John we 
 find these words : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
 He that heareth My word, and belie veth on Him 
 Ihat sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not 
 come into judgment (KpicrLv), but is passed from 
 death unto life." This verse speaks of the power 
 put forth through the preached gospel — the word 
 that Jesus was then preaching, not in the power of 
 His manifested glory, but in humiliation, as the 
 -sower going forth to sow. By that word believers 
 were and are quickened as to tJieir souls — "born 
 again," says the Apostle, " not of corruptible seed, 
 but of incorruptible, BY THE V^ORD OF GOD. And 
 this is the word which by the gospel is preached 
 unto you." But this blessed word, which when re- 
 ceived bringeth our souls unto life, reacheth not 
 our bodies. Death still preys upon them^ and the 
 outward condition of believers contrasts sorrowfully 
 with that of the " new man " within. But it shall 
 not always be so. The quickening power of life 
 that is in the Lord Jesus has readied the souls, 
 and shall reach the bodies of his saints. " Verily, 
 verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and 
 now is, when the dead \qI veKpoi, the dead m body] 
 shall hear the VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD; and 
 they that hear shall live." Observe the words, 
 
 U 2 
 
292 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 ** voice of the Son of God." This is not the word 
 which He preached in humiliation — a word often 
 rejected and despised, that which the Apostle calls 
 ** the weak thing (to aa-Beve^;) of God, the foolishness 
 of preaching." "Voice," is a word denoting autho- 
 rity and manifested power, as when at the grave 
 of Lazarus, " He cried with a loud VOICE, Lazarus,, 
 come forth." And when He shall descend from 
 heaven with a shout, it is with the VOICE of the 
 archangel, and with the trump of God. Jesus 
 spake of the hour when this glorious power is 
 to be manifested, as future: "The hour is com- 
 ing." He said not this of the word of recon- 
 ciliation which He was preaching; that was pre- 
 sent: but the hour when death shall be effec- 
 tually triumphed over in the grave is even yet not: 
 come. We still wait for it in hope. Nevertheless,^ 
 although the appointed hour for the full display of 
 that power whereby death is triumphed over is 
 yet not come, yet the power whereby this is ta 
 be effected was present in the earth when Jesus 
 was present in the earth. He being Himself "the 
 resurrection and the life," One in whom "all ful- 
 ness dwells." There is no form, no character of 
 glorious power, that shall in the ages to come be 
 displayed in Jesus glorifiedy that was not present in 
 Jesus rejected, therefore He adds the words, ^^ 710m 
 is." "The hour is coming, and now is." Of these 
 last words the grave of Lazarus supplied the evi- 
 dence; the scene there witnessed being the pledge 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 293 
 
 to US that the same mighty voice that called 
 Lazarus from the grave, shall soon be heard by 
 every saint that sleeps. Then death shall cease 
 to sever those that have known and loved one 
 another in Christ, and all will be happy, and all be 
 perfect, because all shall alike bear the image of 
 their Lord. But observe, all the dead are not spoken 
 of as raised at that hour. On the contrary, the 
 concluding words of this verse put an express limi- 
 tation, " THEY THAT HEAR shall live "—as if all the 
 dead would not then hear that voice of power. 
 Nor will they. "The rest of the dead lived not, 
 until the thousand years were finished.""^ 
 
 "^ It was appointed of God that the Lord Jesus, before He 
 finally closed His earthly ministry, should make it manifest 
 that He was even then possessed of the same power that 
 will be developed in all fulness when He comes to establish 
 His millennial kingdom. Thus while He could say, "The 
 hour IS COMING," He could also add "AND NOW 
 IS." 
 
 Three events will especially mark the commencement of 
 His millennial reign. I. The resurrection of the saints. II. 
 The gathering of Israel, who shall say, " Blessed is He that 
 •Cometh in the name of the Lord." III. The coming in of 
 the Gentiles to own and rejoice in His glory. The typical 
 pledge of these three things was given during the last week 
 of His earthly sojourn. Lazarus, raised from the dead, sat 
 at the table with Him. Here was an earnest of the First 
 Resurrection. "The hour is coming, and now IS." "The 
 next day much people that were come to the feast, when 
 they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches 
 -of palm trees, and went forth to meet Him, and cried. 
 
294 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 And see how clearly this intervening period of 
 the Lord's millennial reign is referred to in this 
 passage. After He has spoken of the first resur-- 
 
 Hosanna ! Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the- 
 name of the Lord." (John xii. 12.) Here is the typical token, 
 and pledge of that which shall be when the vail shall be 
 taken from the heart of Israel, and they shall recognise their 
 Lord. Moreover, "there were certain Greeks among them 
 that came up to worship at the feast. The same came 
 therefore to Philip that was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and' 
 desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus." Here- 
 was the pledge of the conversion and gathering in of the 
 Gentiles. 
 
 The disciples, if they had been at that moment asked to 
 declare their expectations, would doubtless have said, Now 
 the time is come for our Lord to manifest His glory, and 
 for the Kingdom of God to APPEAR. This conviction had 
 been expressed by them only a few days previously. See 
 Luke xix. 11. But they little knew the path which their 
 Lord had first to tread. " I have a baptism to be baptised, 
 with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." His- 
 atoning work was not yet done. If He had been glorified 
 then, He must have been glorified alone. Not only could 
 none have shared His glory : all must have been left to^ 
 meet the wrath to come, for none as yet had been redeemed. 
 The appeasing blood had not yet been shed. It was neces- 
 sary that the Lord should by redemption acquire His title 
 to raise His saints, and to restore Israel, and to gather the 
 Gentiles, and free creation from its groan. Therefore, said 
 He, " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,, 
 it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." 
 If He had not died an atoning death, He must indeed have: 
 abode alone. None that had ever lived on earth could 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 295 
 
 rection (in verse 25) but before He speaks of the 
 general resurrection (in verse 29), He says that the 
 Father had " given Him authority to exercise 
 judgment also" (i.e.^ kingly rule), "because He is 
 the Son of Man!' As Son of the living God He 
 quickens ; but it is as Soft of Man that He is to 
 be brought before the Ancient of Days, to be in- 
 vested with the millennial power of earth. "I 
 saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the 
 Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and 
 came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought 
 Him near before Him. And there was given Him 
 dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all 
 peoples, nations, and languages, should serve Him ; 
 His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which 
 shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which 
 shall not be destroyed." In the eighth Psalm also 
 it is Jesus, as Son of Man, under whose feet all 
 things are to be subjected. But His power is not 
 limited to this. He is not only to quicken, first 
 the souls, and then the bodies of His saints, and 
 to give them rule with Himself over the millennial 
 earth. His power is also to reach back over all 
 the past, over all the world of the dead; and He 
 
 have inherited His glory. The hindrance to all blessing 
 was SIN unatoned for. That hindrance, has, for all God's 
 believing people, been now for ever removed. The great 
 fact of redemption having been accomphshed, all the results 
 will, in due season, follow. 
 
296 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 shall summon them all to life again, and shall be 
 their Judge. "The hour is coming, in the which 
 ALL that are in the grave shall hear His voice, and 
 shall come forth ; they that have done good, unto 
 the resurrection of life ; and they that have done 
 evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." This is 
 the last, the general resurrection. All the wicked 
 dead of every dispensation, as well as the count- 
 less multitude of those who have lived and died 
 in faith during the Millennium, will be there — 
 the righteous rising in the resurrection of life, the 
 others in the resurrection of damnation, to be 
 judged and to be consigned to "the second death." 
 "Whosoever was not found written in the book of 
 life, was cast into the lake of fire." 
 
 And observe, what a marked contrast there is 
 between the twenty-fifth and twenty-eighth verses 
 of John V. In the twenty-fifth verse, a limited re- 
 surrection is spoken of. . "THEY THAT HEAR 
 shall live." But in the twenty-eighth verse it is 
 said, '^ All that are in the graves shall hear His 
 voice." Surely no words can more plainly contrast 
 the two periods of resurrection. Thus, too, the 
 proper succession of these verses is preserved; for 
 their subject is, power appointed by the Father to 
 be exercised by the Son, and its successional de- 
 velopment is said to be this : first, that which He 
 exercises through His preached word in quickening 
 souls; secondly, that which He will, at "the end of 
 the age," exercise in quickening the bodies of His 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 297 
 
 saints; thirdly, that which He will exercise during 
 the millennial reign ; fourthly, that which He will 
 exercise at the close of that reign, when the hour 
 of the last resurrection shall have come. 
 
 Nor is the indirect evidence of Scripture less con- 
 clusive as to the truth of a FIRST resurrection. 
 How, if there were not a resurrection of special 
 and distinctive privilege, could we explain the 
 words of our Lord, in Luke xx. 35 ? " They that 
 shall be counted worthy to obtain that age {al(ovo<^) 
 and the resurrection from the dead," etc. Here a 
 resurrection is spoken of that cannot be universal, 
 for it will be attained only by those who shall be 
 ** counted worthy." It must therefore be distin- 
 guishing and peculiar. So also in the Epistle to 
 the Philippians, the Apostle says, " If by any means 
 I might attain unto the resurrection from the 
 dead." He could not thus speak of the general 
 resurrection, inasmuch as all imist then arise. His 
 words could only apply to a resurrection that is 
 distinguishing and peculiar, which the first resur- 
 rection is. Observe too, the expression FROM (eV, 
 •out of, or from among) the dead — avacnda-L^ rj ifc 
 i^efcpcov. It is not the same expression as "resur- 
 rection of the dead," t) avaGrdai^ r&v veKpcov. Ac- 
 cordingly, it is never used of the general resurrec- 
 tion. Indeed, such words could only be applied to 
 a resurrection that is distinguishing and peculiar. 
 When we say of any that they have been taken 
 out of an assembled multitude, our words imply 
 
298 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 selection : they imply that those not thus selected 
 are left.^ 
 
 Nor could the expression "church of the first- 
 born ones" (rj ifCKXrjo-ta rwv TrpcoroTOKcov) be ex- 
 plained unless there were a Jirsl resurrection. 
 Christ is called " The firstborn from the dead/* 
 because He has Jirst risen into glory. On the 
 same ground a part of the church are called " The 
 church of the firstborn ones," because they pre- 
 cede another part of the church, who will in due 
 
 ■^ The word avatTTaai^ is once used in Scripture in its 
 primary sense of rising again, in the sense in which one 
 rises after a fall. " Behold, this child is set for the fall 
 and rising again {avauraaiv) of many in Israel." In every 
 other place, (and it occurs forty-one times) it is used of 
 resurrection, properly so called, i.e. resurrection of the body. 
 
 The reason why it is never applied to the quickening of 
 the soul is obvious. In that case, there is a itew creaiiojty. 
 not the rising again of anything that in any sense existed 
 previously. Accordingly, in Ephesians, we read of the " new 
 MAN which after God is created in righteousness/' etc., 
 and similar expressions are used in the Colossians. Now,, 
 "creation" and "resurrection" are contrasted exercises of 
 Divine power, and therefore we never find " resurrection ^* 
 applied to the quickening of the soul. 
 
 Moreover, quickening of the soul must in every case pre- 
 cede the resurrection spoken of in the passages above quoted, 
 St. Paul was already quickened when he spoke of pressing 
 on towards the resurrection fro7n the dead. The souls of 
 those "beheaded for the witness of Jesus" were quickened 
 before they were beheaded, and consequently before they 
 *' lived and reigned." 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 299 
 
 time follow; and form in the new heavens and 
 new earth (which will be created after the millen- 
 nial heavens and earth have passed away), one 
 glorified church for ever. 
 
 And if we turn to the Old Testament, how con- 
 clusive the evidence there! In the last chapter of 
 Zechariah, for example, we are taught respecting 
 the coming of the " Day of the Lord,'' and how it 
 will usher in the long promised blessing to Jeru^ 
 salem and to the earth : " In that day Jerusalem 
 shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place, . . • 
 and there shall be no more utter destruction, but 
 Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.'' "In that 
 day the Lord shall be king over ALL THE EARTH; 
 in that day there shall be one Lord, and His 
 name one." No one can tricthftdly say that these 
 things have been fulfilled as yet ; no one, unless 
 he rejects the testimony of the prophet, will deny 
 that these things will be fulfilled in their season. 
 But what event is spoken of as precedhig the period 
 of blessing to Jerusalem and "all the earth"? The 
 manifestation of the Lord with all His saints. 
 That is the preceding event. " His feet (the feet 
 of the Lord) shall stand in that day upon the 
 Mount of Olives, .... the Lord my God shall 
 come, and all the saints with Thee." No one, I 
 suppose, will affirm that the saints who thus accom- 
 pany the Lord when He stands upon the Mount 
 of Olives, will be in a disembodied state. If any 
 should affirm it, they may be referred to the Epistle 
 
300 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 to the Thessalonians, where the Apostle teaches us 
 that the saints, in changed and glorified bodies, 
 will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and 
 to come with Him. Now, if they meet the Lord 
 in glorified bodies in the air, they must be in glo- 
 rified bodies when His feet stand on the Mount 
 of Olives. If then, as is taught by Zechariah, the 
 saints accompany the Lord when He comes to the 
 Mount of Olives, and if Jerusalem and the earth 
 teem with inhabitants afterwards, there must be 
 two periods of resurrection ; for those in Israel and 
 among the nations who are brought into the fold 
 of faith during the MillenniuMy must finally be 
 changed, and bear the likeness of their risen Lord, 
 otherwise, they could not be saved persons. All 
 the saved must finally bear the image of the Hea- 
 venly, even as they have borne the image of the 
 earthy."^ 
 
 Again, in Daniel vii., where the Son of Man is 
 seen to receive "dominion, and glory, and a king- 
 dom, that all peoples, nations, and languages, 
 should serve Him," we are also taught that " the 
 
 ■^ During the Millennium, part of the one redeemed family 
 will have their home above the heavens, perfected in the 
 likeness of their risen Lord : the other part, will for a season, 
 dwell in the millennial earth below, in bodies of flesh and 
 blood. Finally, however, they too will be changed and join 
 their brethren who have gone before, and with them form 
 one glorified Church in the New Heavens and New Earth, 
 where this Adamic creation, and all that is in it, shall have 
 passed away for ever. 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 301 
 
 saints of the high places shall take the kingdom, 
 and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever 
 and ever": and again, "Judgment was given to 
 the saints of the high places; and the time came 
 that the saints possessed the kingdom/' Shall we 
 say that those who will thus reign together with 
 Christ from the "high" or "heavenly places'^ are 
 disembodied saints ? If not, there must be a first 
 resurrection. 
 
 Again, observe the quotation made by the Apostle 
 in the fifteenth chapter of the first of Corinthians. 
 The Apostle is speaking of the time when *' the 
 dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be 
 changed. "For this corruptible must put on incor- 
 ruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 
 So when this corruptible shall have put on incor- 
 ruption, and this mortal shall have put on immor- 
 tality, THEN SHALL BE BROUGHT TO PASS the say- 
 ing that is written. Death is swallowed up in 
 victory." These words — "Death shall be swal- 
 lowed up in victory " — are a quotation from 
 Isaiah xxv. But in what connection do they there 
 occur t They occur in a passage which describes 
 the final forgiveness and blessing of Israel, and 
 the blessing of all nations in connexion with Israel. 
 The passage in Isaiah is as follows : " Then the 
 moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, 
 when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount 
 Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients 
 gloriously. . i . . And in this mountain [Zion] 
 
302 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people 
 
 a feast of fat things and He will 
 
 destroy in this mountain (Zion) the face of the 
 covering cast over all people, and the vail that is 
 spread over all nations. He will swallow UP 
 DEATH IN VICTORY; and the Lord God will wipe 
 away tears from off all faces ; and the rebuke of 
 His people shall He take away from off all the 
 
 earth, for the Lord has spoken it In that 
 
 day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah," 
 etc. If then the words of St. Paul in the Corin- 
 thians are to be fulfilled at the time when " the 
 rebuke of Israel is to be taken away from off all 
 the earth," and when they, together with the 
 nations, shall be converted to the Lord, is it not 
 very manifest that the resurrection of the saints 
 precedes the reign of peace? The Apostle dis- 
 tinctly affirms that the words of Isaiah, " Death is 
 swallowed up in victory^' refer to the resurrection 
 of the saints, and that that resurrection will take 
 place coincidently with the forgiveness and resto- 
 ration of Israel as described in Isaiah. 
 
 In the succeeding chapter too — a chapter de- 
 voted to the description of forgiven Israel's con- 
 fession and praise — we find the following words 
 addressed by the Lord to them : "Thy dead men 
 shall live. My dead body, they shall arise."^ Awake 
 and sing, ye that dwell in dust ; for thy dew is 
 
 * Such is the proper rendering of this passage. 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 303 
 
 as the dew of light, and the earth shall cast out 
 the dead." The departed saints of Israel are here 
 spoken of as Christ's mystical body, at present 
 dead. The Lord calls them, "My dead body." 
 But in the morning of Israel's joy, they shall arise. 
 They shall then be bound no longer in the bonds 
 of death. Surely, it well becomes the great Head 
 of Israel, in that day of glory, to call those who 
 have mourned with Him over Israel's and the 
 earth's darkness and woe, to rejoice with Him in 
 the day of Israel's and the earth's gladness. 
 
 And do we doubt that at present all creation 
 .groaneth? "The whole creation," says the Apostle, 
 "groaneth and travaileth in pain together until 
 now." When, then, is this groan to cease } When 
 is creation to be delivered ? At " the manifestation 
 (or rather ^revelation' airoKoXvy^L^;) of the sons of 
 God." Such is the statement of the Apostle in 
 the eighth of Romans. Shall we reject it? 
 
 Our appointed hope, therefore, is not resurrec- 
 tion only, but resurrection accompanied with cer- 
 tain circumstances of joy and triumph in earth and 
 heaven, which, by God's appointment, throw an 
 added halo of blessing around that hour of life. 
 The coming of the Lord to " reign gloriously," and 
 to fill the earth with the blessings of truth, and 
 righteousness, and peace; the destruction of the 
 great human head of evil — Antichrist ; the bind- 
 ing of Satan ; the conversion of Israel, and subse- 
 quently of the nations ; the release of creation from 
 
304 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 its groan ; these, and like events are, together with 
 our own resurrection, our appointed objects of 
 expectation and hope. And remember, it is God 
 who appoints these objects, and therefore, it is not 
 for us to substitute for them any self-chosen 
 objects. Truth only sanctifies. " Sanctify them 
 through Thy truth; Thy word is truth.'* Our ex- 
 pectations are to be guided, not by our own con- 
 jectures, but by Scripture. If God had bidden us 
 wait for the general resurrection as our hope, then 
 that would have been the right sanctifying object 
 of expectation. But if He has not commanded us 
 this ; if He has commanded us to wait for ** the 
 first resurrection," and for the joy of the millen- 
 nial morning, when the heavens shall rejoice and 
 the earth be glad ; if He has been pleased to 
 describe the character of the glory that is then to 
 be ours, and has made the commencement of the 
 day of the joy of Israel, His people, the moment 
 also of our being raised into glory, shall we ven- 
 ture to despise these things, and say that they will 
 never be ours, and persist in expecting things that 
 God has told us not to expect — cancelling, as it 
 were, the promises of His holy Word? 
 
 I would not desire to speak with undue harsh- 
 ness of those who reject the truth of the first re- 
 surrection ; but we are bound, for the truth's sake, 
 energetically to resist their statements. It is no 
 light thing to assert, as one well known opponent 
 of these truths is wont to do, that creation no 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 30S 
 
 longer groans. What ! Have we indeed no ear to 
 hear the groan ? Did the Lord Jesus, when He 
 trod this earth, think that creation did not groan ? 
 Did the Apostle Paul think so? And surely the 
 condition of creation has not altered since. If 
 <:reation had ceased to groan, the sons of God 
 would have been " REVEALED " long since in their 
 glory. (Rom. viii.) Are they thus revealed ? " Be- 
 loved," says the Apostle, " now are we the sons of 
 God, but it hath not yet been manifested {pviro} 
 i(^av€pay9*q) what we shall be." The same prin- 
 ciple that would lead us to say that the sons of 
 God have been manifested, and that creation had 
 ceased to groan, would lead us also to say with 
 Hymenseus and Philetus, that the resurrection was 
 past already. 
 
 It is no doubt true that many incautious and 
 unscriptural statements have been made by mille- 
 narian writers, both in the early centuries and now. 
 But it is not impossible to separate between chaff 
 and wheat. Truth is not to be rejected because 
 its advocates may err. 
 
 We may hold the doctrine of the first resurrec- 
 tion and of the millennial reign of Christ without 
 renouncing the truth that Jesus was, and is, and 
 ever shall be, a King. He is also the great Mel- 
 chisedek Priest, and will be for ever. They who- 
 are converted in the Millennium will be depen- 
 dent on His priesthood and intercession, as much 
 as they who are converted now. In the Millen- 
 
 X 
 
306 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 nium it will still be true, that in Christ there is 
 "neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, bond 
 nor free," all being one in Him risen. Nothing 
 that is now spiritually true of believers will cease 
 to be true of Christ's people in the Millennium. 
 In this dispensation we forestall the spiritual bless- 
 ings of the Millennium ; but, seeing that it is a dis- 
 pensation of suffering, not of triumph, we have not 
 the outivard blessings. 
 
 But although it is true that Christ sitteth on 
 the throne of God, and exerciseth the power of 
 that throne, having all power in heaven and earth, 
 yet it is also true, that from the days of Daniel 
 until now, the throne of God has delegated certain 
 power in the earth to successive Gentile empires, 
 the last of which has not yet run its course. 
 Now, delegated power must of necessity belong to 
 him who delegates it ; but its immediate adminis- 
 tration is in the hands of those to whom it is de- 
 legated. This delegated power is to be resumed 
 by the throne of God when the Ancient of Days 
 shall sit, and Christ will enter on the administration 
 thereof; and this '* taking to Himself His great 
 power," will commence the millennial reign. 
 
 Again, even as the earthly distinction between 
 male and female, bond and free, subsists now, be- 
 tween those who are nevertheless one in Christ risen 
 (the man having, even in the Church, privileges 
 which the woman has not), so in the earthly ar- 
 rangements of the Millennium, although govern- 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 307 
 
 mental precedence will be granted to Israel in the 
 •earth ("to thee shall it come, even the first domi- 
 nion, the kingdom shall come to the daughter of 
 Jerusalem"), yet this will not prevent Jew and 
 Gentile being one in Christ risen. 
 
 Nor do we, in saying that Christ and the risen 
 saints will reign over Israel and the earth, imply 
 that earth will ever again be their home. Heaven 
 will be their home. The saints are themselves 
 called " the saints of the high or heavenly places." 
 We do not doubt that Moses and Elias appeared 
 in glory on the holy mount. They stood on earth, 
 and were seen on earth. Yet earth was not their 
 home. They departed into the cloud of glory 
 above. 
 
 Nor is the millennial the final dispensation. It 
 is not "the dispensation of the fulness of tijnes." 
 After the Millennium has passed. He who sitteth 
 on the throne shall say, " Behold, I make all 
 things new " ; and then new heavens and a new 
 earth will be made, where no traces of the first 
 Adam will be found ; where the flesh will cease 
 to be, and all be formed in suitability to the 
 heavenly glory of the Second Man. The millen- 
 nial saints will say, even as we now do, "We wait 
 for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness." The resurrection of the Church of 
 the FIRST-BORN will be a step onward in the path 
 of blessing, but it will not be the consummation. 
 If these things be remembered, no doctrine con- 
 
 X 2 
 
308 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 nected with the first resurrection and the millen- 
 nial reign will be found to jar with any part of 
 the faith once delivered to the saints; nor will one 
 part of Scripture be found at variance with an- 
 other. The Old Testament and the New Testa- 
 ment will be found to bear concurrent witness to the 
 sufferings of Christ and the glory that is to follow, 
 and the suffering saints will not be deprived of 
 their appointed objects of faith and hope. 
 
 Note. — I have said in the preceding chapter that the 
 statement of the Apostle in i Cor. xv. 22, does of itself 
 prove that there are three, and only three, periods of re- 
 surrection unto life — the words used (ineiTa, afterwards^ 
 and tXra^ then) being particles of sequence indicating, as 
 used in that passage, that there are two periods of resur- 
 rection only subsequent to that of Christ. 
 
 This, indeed, has been, by some, denied : and as their 
 argument is plausible, it may be desirable to supply the 
 answer. 
 
 It has been argued by some, that although eVftra, after- 
 wards and dra^ then^ are particles of sequence, and denote suc- 
 cession as regards the events to which they are respectively 
 applied, yet the enumeration so made is not necessarily an 
 exhaustive one. It does not necessarily include all the classes 
 or individuals that fall within the circle of the things spoken 
 of. Thus (say they) we find in i Cor. xv. 5 an enumeration 
 of certain persons who at various times saw the Lord Jesus 
 after His resurrection ; and in that enumeration, these par- 
 ticles, dra and iircira, are employed. " He was seen of 
 Cephas, then {elra) of the twelve ; afterwards {iTreiTa) He 
 was seen of James, then (fiVa) of all the Apostles," etc. 
 
DOCTRINE OF TPIE FIRST RESURRECTION. 309 
 
 We know, however, from other parts of Scripture, that the 
 enumeration here given is not a complete enumeration. 
 Others, besides those here mentioned, saw the Lord. Hence, 
 it is argued, that although in i Cor. xv. 22, etc., there are 
 three periods of resurrection only mentioned, it does not 
 follow that there may not be other periods at which others 
 may rise, who are not included in this enumeration. 
 
 This argument seems plausible ; but it will not bear exa- 
 mination. No parallelism can be drawn between the two 
 cases. In his enumeration of those who saw the Lord, the 
 Apostle does not first tell us that he is about to speak of 
 ALL those who saw the Lord ; but in speaking of the resur- 
 rection he expressly declares that he is setting forth the order 
 {rayiia) of the resurrection of ALL who rise in the resurrec- 
 tion of life, including even Him who has risen as the First- 
 fruits of those who have fallen asleep. " So in Christ shall 
 ALL (i.e. all who are in Him) be made alive. But EVERY 
 ONE in his own order. [Mark the words, ALL and EVERY 
 ONE.] Christ the first fruits ; afterward, those who are 
 Christ's at His coming. Then (eiVa) cometh the end," when 
 as we know from other parts of Scripture, all the saints 
 who have died during the Millennium will rise, and be glori- 
 fied. 
 
 There is, therefore, no parallelism between the two pas- 
 sages. The Apostle does not in the commencement of the 
 chapter profess to speak of ALL those who saw the Lord : 
 but he does profess to speak in the other passage of ALL 
 vthose who rise in the resurrection of life. 
 
3IO 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH'S LECTURES ON 
 THE APOCALYPSE. 
 
 §1. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 In Genesis xv. i8, we read, " In the same day the 
 Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto 
 thy seed have I given this land, from the river of 
 Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates t 
 the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmon^ 
 ites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the 
 Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites,, 
 and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites." The spe^ 
 cification of these nations can leave no question as 
 to the locality of the land indicated. It extended 
 " from the river of Egypt to the great river, the 
 river Euphrates." That land God has appointed 
 to be finally the regulating centre of the whole- 
 earth. It is Immanuel's land. Its people shall be: 
 all righteous. " Thy people shall be all righteous : 
 they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of 
 my planting, the work of my hands, that I may 
 be glorified." Thence all nations are to be governed. 
 '' The law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of 
 the Lord from Jerusalem And thou, O tower 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 3II 
 
 of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, 
 unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion ; 
 the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jeru- 
 salem/' (Micah iv. 2, 8.) The supremacy of that 
 land is a means which the appointment of God 
 has rendered necessary for the rectification of the 
 earth's government ; for until the veil that now rests 
 upon the heart of Israel is removed, and until they 
 are again planted in their own land, the manifested 
 results of redemption, both in heaven above and in 
 earth beneath, are stayed. Until the time come 
 for Israel to be forgiven, Christ will not take to 
 Himself His great power; creation will not be 
 freed from the bondage in which it groans; Satan 
 will not be bound, nor the saints arise in glory. 
 Well, therefore, might David, and Daniel, and all 
 the Prophets, long for the exaltation of Israel and 
 Israel's land, whence all nations are to be controlled 
 for blessing. The expectation of these things was 
 livingly present in the souls of the saints of old. 
 No sorrows, no chastisements, no trials of their 
 faith, no exercise of their patience, destroyed the 
 vividness of their anticipations. And they form the 
 subject of their anticipations still. Their spirits, 
 indeed, rest in blessedness unspeakable above. 
 Heaven is their everlasting home. Thence, to- 
 gether with Christ, they are to reign over the earth, 
 and over all things. But they are not yet perfected 
 in glory. Their bodies are still in the dishonour 
 of death. God is not yet glorified in the earth; 
 
312 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Satan Is not yet bound ; Israel is not yet saved. 
 Consequently, the promises for which the "holy 
 men of old " waited, are still in abeyance. Have 
 we no fellowship with their desires? If not, how 
 can we have fellowship with God who gave them 
 those desires? 
 
 The expectation of the disciples of the Lord 
 Jesus touching these things, was no less fervent. 
 They recognised in Jesus of Nazareth the Head 
 of the promised Kingdom. On the last occasion 
 on which they accompanied Him to Jerusalem, we 
 are told that He spake to them a parable "be- 
 cause they drew nigh to Jerusalem, and because 
 they thought that the kingdom of God should imme- 
 diately APPEAR." They remembered, no doubt, 
 the words, "When the Lord shall build up Zion, 
 he shall APPEAR IN PIIS GLORY." They knew 
 that they were approaching the Mount of Olives, 
 and they remembered that Zechariah had said, 
 "His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount 
 of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, 
 and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst 
 thereof .... the Lord my God shall come, and all 
 the saints with thee." (See Zechariah xiv.) Re- 
 membering these and like words, the disciples 
 thought that their Lord (whose glory they had 
 once momentarily seen on the Mount of Transfi- 
 guration) would again suddenly display that glory; 
 destroy His enemies ; forgive and spare a remnant 
 in Israel; would exalt Jerusalem, and make it and 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 313 
 
 its people "a praise in the earth." But they erred. 
 Although right in expecting that the kingdom of 
 their Lord would eventually APPEAR, they were 
 utterly mistaken in expecting that He would 
 APPEAR then. 
 
 Accordingly, the Lord corrected their error. He 
 told them that He was to be as " a nobleman who 
 went into a far country to receive for himself a 
 kingdom^ and to return^ Until He shall receive 
 that kingdom (and that will not be until, as we are 
 taught in Dan. vii., He shall be brought before 
 the throne of the Ancient of Days, and there in- 
 vested with the power of earth, when "the Times 
 of the Gentiles " shall be fulfilled), until that time 
 ^hall come, the people of Christ are to remain as 
 ** pilgrims and strangers in the earth," and to share 
 the rejection of their Lord. Their appointment, 
 now^ is not to reign, but to suffer. The exaltation 
 of their Lord in the Heavens brings no correspond- 
 ing exaltation to them in the earth. They are 
 Jeft to bear testimony to His truth ; and that testi- 
 mony is by all (except a little flock) to be rejected, 
 •or else perverted. The disciples, when their Lord 
 left them, little understood these things, but when 
 the Spirit was sent to them as the Paraclete, they 
 understood perfectly the character of their future 
 course ; renounced all present expectation of a glo- 
 rious kingdom, and became content to wait, and to 
 suffer. 
 
 But although they had not been brought into a 
 
314 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 kingdom of manifested glory, they nevertheless re- 
 cognised themselves as the subjects of a kingdom 
 new and blessed — a kingdom that had laws and 
 principles distinctively its own ; having for its King^ 
 One who is at present hidden in the Heavens; for 
 its laws, the precepts of Christ and His Apostles ; 
 and having for its power the SPIRIT sent down 
 from Him who is the Head of the new Creation of 
 God. Israel and the earth were once more to be 
 tried, to prove whether, after they had rejected 
 the testimony to the Lord of glory humbled^ they 
 would also reject the new testimony to Him glo- 
 rified. That testimony was (as I have already 
 said) still to be given by His servants in Immilia- 
 tion. They were still to wear the garb of Naza- 
 reth. The exaltation of their Lord in the Heavens 
 brought them into the recipiency of many new 
 spiritual blessings, but those blessings did not exalt 
 them in the earth. On the contrary, they brought, 
 them into increased trial and reproach. The laws 
 and^ the principles of the kingdom to which they 
 belonged were utterly opposed to the laws and 
 principles of the world around them. Their way 
 was to be narrow : the zvay of the world broad. 
 The relation of Christ's truth to the systems of 
 men, both religious and secular, was to continue 
 that which it had been when the Lord Jesus Him- 
 self stood as its witness in the presence of Caiaphas 
 and of Pilate. He was there a witness for the 
 truth : but a despised and rejected witness. 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 315 
 
 The Apostles well understood these things. They 
 saw the infinite importance of keeping the Church 
 of the present Dispensation in the place of humi- 
 liation, and they steadfastly resisted every attempt 
 to raise it into that place of exaltation which con- 
 verted Israel will nationally hold during the mil- 
 lennial day. They refused to appropriate to them- 
 selves the glories reserved for Zion. They would 
 not reign as kings before the time. (See i Cor. iii.) 
 
 But as soon as the Apostles died, the doc- 
 trines and practical habits of the Church changed. 
 For a time the doctrine of a millennial reign lin- 
 gered. Irena?us and others maintained it, but none 
 taught it scripturally. 
 
 The Scripture, in its descriptions of the millen- 
 nial earth, carefully distinguishes between the con- 
 dition of the earthly Jerusalem, which, though glo- 
 rious, will be strictly that of a city inhabited by 
 mortal men in an Adamic earth, and the condition 
 of that New Jerusalem — Jerusalem above the heavens 
 (lepovaaXefjb eirovpavLo^;, see Heb. xiii.) into which 
 flesh and blood cannot enter. That celestial city 
 will never enter this Adamic earth. During the 
 Millennium, it will be the home of the risen saints 
 — the Church of the First-born ones {rciiv Trpcoro- 
 TOKcov) raised in the first resurrection to share the 
 glory of their risen Lord. As glorified, and having 
 spiritual bodies, their condition will of course be 
 altogether contrasted with that of their brethren 
 yet in the flesh, who will, for a season, inhabit the 
 
• 316 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 earth below; yet they will be one with them in 
 spirit, and will, together with angels, watch over 
 them, and from time to time, will visit the earth 
 unto that end. Moses and Elijah were seen on 
 the Mount of Transfiguration : they appeared in 
 :glory: but earth was not their home. God mani- 
 fested His glory on Sinai ; angels accompanied 
 Him ; yet neither God nor the angels resigned 
 Heaven as their home. Israel in the Millennium 
 shall manifestly be brought under the tutelage of 
 heaven, and from their city, the earthly Jerusalem, 
 legislation and instruction shall go forth unto all 
 nations. Wars shall cease ; creation be relieved 
 from its groan ; the lamb and the lion shall 
 feed together ; and millions will, by the preached 
 Gospel, be gathered into the everlasting fold. But 
 the millennial earth, though, blessed, will never be 
 brought even into a paradisiacal^ much less into a 
 heavenly, condition. Death, the last enemy, will 
 not have been destroyed. Corruption, physical and 
 moral, although restrained and counteracted, will 
 still continue to attach to this Adamic earth and 
 all whose home is in it, until He that sitteth on 
 the Throne shall say, " Behold, I make all things 
 new." Then the Adamic earth and heavens shall 
 pass away, and a new earth, and new heavens be 
 •created, whose glory shall as much exceed that of the 
 Adamic earth (whether in its paradisiacal, or in its 
 millennial state) as the glory of the Only-begotten 
 of the Father exceeds that of the first Adam, who 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 317 
 
 was earthy. No one, therefore, can teach the doc- 
 trine of the Millennium aright, who fails to assign 
 to the nation of Israel its distinctive place in the 
 earth's millennial government ; and who does not 
 carefully distinguish and contrast the condition of 
 the Church of the first-born ones glorified, with 
 that part of the Church which will be gathered 
 during the Millennium, and have for a season ta 
 tarry in the earth. These, as soon as the millen- 
 nial reign terminates, will join their brethren who 
 have risen in the first resurrection, and will with 
 them, in the new heavens and new earth, form one 
 glorified Church for ever. 
 
 Irenseus taught otherwise. He imagined that 
 the earth during the millennial reign of Christ 
 would be restored to its ^''. primcevaV condition. 
 He held that the righteous dead who would be 
 raised at the commencement of the Millennium,, 
 would not then attain their final condition of incor- 
 ruption, but that they would be brought merely to 
 " a commencement " of incorruption, and become 
 gradually accustomed to comprehend God (capere 
 Deum). " In the times of the resurrection," Ire- 
 nseus says, "the righteous shall reign in the earth,, 
 waxing stronger by the sight of the Lord ; and 
 through Him they shall become accustomed to par- 
 take in the glory of God the Father, and shall 
 enjoy in the Kingdom intercourse and communion 
 with the holy angels, and union with spiritual 
 bein2:s." 
 
3l8 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Besides the risen saints, Irenaeus taught that 
 there would be others ''whom the Lord shall find 
 in the flesh awaiting Him from heaven, and who 
 liave suffered tribulation as well as escaped" out 
 of the hand of Antichrist, and that those thus left 
 ■*' shall multiply in the earth, and shall be under 
 the rule of the saints, and shall minister in this 
 Jerusalem ; " that is, a restored earthly Jerusalem, 
 which Irenaeus imagined would be built after the 
 pattern of Jerusalem above."^ Thus all that the 
 Scriptures teach respecting the future of the con-- 
 verted nation of Israel during the millennial reign, 
 and all that they teach respecting the unearthly 
 glory of those who rise in the First Resurrection 
 was, by Irenaeus ignored. The earthly Jerusalem 
 is, according to him, to be the city, not of con- 
 verted Israel, but of risen saints who are to reign 
 there; and those risen saints are not to have 
 spiritual bodies, but restored natural bodies — 
 bodies adapted to this Adamic earth. If this were 
 ■so, all that the Apostle Paul teaches in the Corin- 
 thians, and elsewhere, respecting the resurrection of 
 the saints must be false, for he teaches that they 
 shall be raised in glory, and bear the likeness of 
 their risen Lord." "This corruptible shall put on 
 incorruption ; and this mortal shall put on immor- 
 tality." We cannot hold the doctrines of Irenaeus 
 and those of Scripture together. One or the other 
 we must renounce. Jerome and others felt this. 
 * See Irenaeus, Book v. § 2>S' 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 319 
 
 They maintained that the condition of the risen 
 saints was by the statements of millennial writers 
 carnalised. They denounced therefore the doctrine 
 of the Millennium, and pronounced it to be "a 
 fable." 
 
 The doctrine of Lactantius (drawn chiefly from 
 the Pseudo - Sybilline writings, which he quotes 
 abundantly) does not materially differ from that 
 of Irenaeus. Neither of them, however, fell into the 
 deadly error of teaching that the Church is reign- 
 ing now. On the contrary, they maintained that 
 the present place of God's people is one of 
 suffering and reproach. They remembered the 
 words of John, " I John, your brother, and fellow- 
 partaker in the tribulation, and kingdom, and en- 
 durance in Jesus." They received not the false- 
 hoods, soon after enunciated, respecting Satan being 
 bound, and the saints reigning now. But when 
 •" Christianity had ascended the Throne of the 
 Cassars," and firmly seated herself there, darkness 
 rapidly advanced. A cursory reference to the 
 writings of Augustine and Jerome will suffice to 
 show its depth. It came in like smoke from 
 the bottomless pit, and has brooded over Chris- 
 tendom ever since. 
 
 Augustine once held the doctrine of a millennial 
 reign, but says that he was stumbled by the 
 manner in which it was taught."^ If he and 
 
 * Commenting on the words, " Blessed and holy is he that 
 hath part in the first resurrection," Augustine says, "Those 
 
320 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Jerome had endeavoured to correct the errors of 
 Irenaeus and other Millenarian writers, they would 
 have done well. But instead of that they attacked 
 the doctrine of the Millennium as taught in the Scrip- 
 tures, and overthrew it. If Papias and Irenseus 
 had written wildly, they wrote more wildly still. 
 
 who, on the strength of this passage, have suspected that 
 the first resurrection is future and bodily, have been moved^ 
 among other things, specially by the number of a thousand 
 years, as if it were a fit thing that the saints should thus 
 enjoy a kind of Sabbath-rest during that period, a holy 
 leisure after the labours of the six thousand years since man. 
 was created, and was on account of his great sin dis- 
 missed from the blessedness of paradise into the woes of 
 this mortal life, so that thus, as it is written, * One day is 
 with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as 
 one day,' there should follow on the completion of six thou- 
 sand years, as of six days, a kind of seventh-day Sabbath in 
 the succeeding thousand years ; and that it is for this pur- 
 pose the saints rise, viz., to celebrate this Sabbath. Ana 
 this opinion would not be objectionable^ if it were believea 
 that the joys of the saints in that Sabbath shall be spiritual, 
 and conseqtient on the presence of Godj for I myself too, once- 
 held this opinion. But, as they assert that those who then 
 rise again shall enjoy the leisure of immoderate carnal ban- 
 quets, furnished with an amount of meat and drink such 
 as not only to shock the feeling of the temperate, but even 
 to surpass the measure of credulity itself, such assertions 
 can be believed only by the carnal. They who do believe 
 them are called by the spiritual Chiliasts, which we may 
 literally reproduce by the name Millenarians." (Augustine, 
 <' The City of God," Book xx. § 7.) 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 321 
 
 Their perversion of the Scripture was worse, and 
 the results more disastrous. 
 
 The following extracts will give some notion of 
 Augustine's teaching. Commenting on the words, 
 " And he cast him [Satan] into the abyss," Augus- 
 tine says, " By the abyss [bottomless pit] is meant 
 the countless multitude of the wicked, whose hearts 
 are unfathomably deep in malignity against the 
 Church of God ; not that the devil was not there 
 before, but he is said to be cast in thither, be- 
 cause, when prevented from harming believers, he 
 takes more complete possession of the ungodly." 
 
 "And shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that 
 he should deceive the nations no more till the 
 thousand years should be fulfilled." " * Shut him 
 up,' — i.e. prohibited him from going out, from doing 
 what was forbidden. And the addition of 'set a 
 seal upon him' seems to me to mean that it was 
 designed to keep it a secret who belonged to the 
 devil's party, and who did not. ... By the chain and 
 prison-house of this interdict the devil is prohibited 
 and restrained from seducing those nations which be- 
 longed to Christ, but which he formerly seduced or 
 held in subjection. . . . The devil, then, is bound and 
 shut up in the abyss that he may not seduce the 
 nations from which the Church is gathered, and 
 which he formerly seduced before the Church 
 existed. For it is not said * that he should not 
 seduce any man,' but * that he should not seduce 
 the nations' — meaning, no doubt, those among 
 
 Y 
 
322 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 which the Church exists — 'till the thousand years 
 should be fulfilled,' — z>., either what remains of the 
 sixth day which consists of a thousand years, or all 
 the years which are to elapse till the end of the 
 world." Augustine, " City of God," lib. xx. § 7. 
 
 I could quote much more, but I prefer to con- 
 sign further extracts to the Appendix. If there 
 be one thing emphatically declared in Scripture 
 and momentarily evidenced by experience, it is the 
 fact that Satan is at present unboimd. He is a 
 roaring lion, going about, seeking whom he may 
 devour. Nor are any nations on earth more fatally 
 and thoroughly blinded and deceived by him than 
 the nations out of which the Church has been 
 taken. They are, indeed, the very nations which 
 are giving birth to Antichristianism, and over whom 
 Antichrist is to reign. How then shall we cha- 
 racterise teaching such as this of Augustine ? 
 What words would be strong enough to condemn 
 it? Yet this is the kind of teaching by which 
 Christendom has been for seventeen centuries de^ 
 ceived. 
 
 As soon as the Teachers of the Church resolved 
 to maintain that the present is the final Dispen- 
 sation appointed to this Adamic earth, they of 
 course found it necessary to affirm that every mil- 
 lennial promise is being accomplished now, " The 
 times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord" 
 have (according to them) already come; Satan has 
 been bound. Israel is blossoming and budding, and 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 323 
 
 filling the face of the world with fruit. Creation 
 no longer groans ; the First Resurrection has come. 
 The saints are reigning with Christ. Nations learn 
 war no more.^ All these, and like things (it is 
 said) have been accomplished, or are being accom- 
 plised now. At a moment when tears and tribula- 
 tion peculiarly abound, we are asked to believe 
 that tears have been wiped away from off all faces, 
 and that sorrow and sighing have fled away. The 
 doctrine of Transubstantiation is not more repug- 
 nant to Scripture, to fact, and to reason, than are 
 the statements by which the Teachers of post- 
 apostolic Christendom have sought to convince us 
 that the present age of darkness and sorrow is the 
 new age of light, joy and glory. According to 
 Jerome, only Jews and Judaisers believe that the 
 
 ^ Thus Jerome's comment on the words, ^^ they shall beat 
 their swords into ploughshares^^ is, " All desire after war shall 
 be changed into the pursuit of peace : and instead of dis- 
 cord there shall be, throughout the whole world, concord ; 
 and lances shall be changed into pruning hooks ; so that 
 abandoning the fierce passions of war, men should devote 
 themselves to the culture of the earth and reap abundant 
 harvests, which indeed may also be understood spiritually 
 when all the hardness of our heart is broken by the yoke 
 of Christ and the thorns of vice are eradicated. The words 
 'nation shall not rise up against nation' were, according to 
 Jerome, accomplished when a census of the Roman Empire 
 was taken in the time of Augustus Caesar. If that were so, 
 the nations should never have learned or practised war from 
 that day to the present ; for it is said, " Neither shall they 
 learn war ANY MORE^ (See Jerome in locum,\ r-^ 
 
 7' /T^'lTBRSnTl 
 
324 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 prediction of Isaiah respecting the wolf and the 
 lamb dwelling together will receive a literal accom- 
 plishment. These predictions were fulfilled when 
 Paul who was of the tribe of Benjamin — a tribe 
 that ravined as a wolf, was baptised by Ananias^ 
 and consorted with Peter, to whom it was said, 
 "Feed my la7nbs!' Paul, therefore, was the wolf; 
 Ananias the lamb ; and Peter the shepherd ! ! We 
 read also in Isaiah that the leopard shall lie down 
 with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and 
 the fatling together, and a little child shall lead 
 them. " Daily," says Jerome, " are these words ful- 
 filled, for in the Church we behold the rich and 
 the poor, kings and men of low degree, associated 
 under the teaching and governance of children, that 
 is to say, of Apostles and Apostolic men who 
 are rude in speech, though not in knowledge.'*^ 
 The simple words found in Scripture is the straw 
 which the lion eats. The infant also, that is to 
 say, one who is in malice a child, puts his hand 
 upon the hole of the asp when he drives off from 
 the bodies of men, the devils by whom they have 
 been besieged. "The weaned child, that is, one 
 who is able to dispense with milk, and to take 
 strong meat, puts his hand on the cockatrice den, 
 when he puts it into some dwelling-place of Satan 
 and thence drags him out." The holy mountain, in 
 which nothing is to hurt or destroy, is not Mount 
 Zion (as Jews and Judaising Christians say) but the 
 Churchy whence all the lions, leopards, and creatures 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 325 
 
 of earth are to be overspread with Truth, even as 
 
 the waters of the sea cover that which is beneath 
 
 them. Such is the teaching of Jerome and his 
 
 School — a School in which Origenism, Mysticism, 
 
 and Neologism may flourish; but Truth perishes. 
 
 It would seem as if Jerome had no ear to hear 
 
 the groan of creation; no heart to pity the throes 
 
 of suffering humanity. He stigmatises as Judaisers 
 
 all who regard relief from pain and other like 
 
 :Sorrows as a blessing worthy to be spoken of by 
 
 the Prophets. He avows that he agrees with the 
 
 Stoics in saying that there is nothing good but 
 
 virtue, nothing evil but vice. Health of body and 
 
 plenty are not to be looked on as blessings. They 
 
 are to be numbered "among things indifferent^ 
 
 When the Lord Jesus in answer to the enquiry of 
 
 John, cured many of their Jnfirmities and plagues, 
 
 and of evil spirits, and gave sight to many that 
 
 were blind, Jerome (had he been present) must have 
 
 said. The removal of things like these, " things 
 
 indifferent," is no sufficient proof of the presence 
 
 of the Kingdom of God. His hard-hearted 
 
 Stoicism might prepare for the use of the racks, 
 
 and torments of the Inquisition, but certainly it 
 
 would lead no heart to welcome the peace and 
 
 grace of the Millennial reign. If it be asked how 
 
 it was that the Church became so blinded as to 
 
 accept falsehoods so palpable, the answer is, their 
 
 consciences were darkened,] and their hearts were 
 
 perverted. They wished to reign as kings. They 
 
326 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 coveted the glories of Zion, and longed for exalta^ 
 tion. " Kings," said they, " shall be our nursing 
 fathers, and their queens our nursing mothers." 
 They could only assume the place they lusted 
 after, by consenting to say that the Millennium had 
 already come. They hesitated not to affirm this,, 
 and so to adopt a heresy more deadly and more 
 widely destructive than that of Hymenaeus and 
 Philetus. 
 
 Any one who reads the writings of Eusebius (the 
 flatterer of Constantine), or the sermons and dog- 
 matic books of the Papists (such 'for example as 
 the Catechism of Pope Pius IV.), will see how all 
 those parts of Scripture which speak of the glories 
 of Zion and of Jerusalem in ''the age to come," 
 are grasped by them, perverted, and made the 
 foundation of their claims to supremacy in the 
 earth. They have virtually pronounced the su- 
 premacy of Satan to be the supremacy of God, 
 and have confounded a period during which Scrip- 
 ture declares that the diadems of earth are on the 
 head of the Dragon, to be identical with that in 
 which the sovereignty of the world shall become 
 the sovereignty of our Lord and of His Christ. 
 What darkness can be deeper than this? What 
 delusion more deadly?^ 
 
 * Augustine, commenting on the words of Rev. xx. "And 
 I saw thrones and them that sat upon them," etc., says, " It 
 is not to be supposed that this relates to the last judgment, 
 but to the seats of the rulers, and to the rulers themselves- 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 327 
 
 It might have been hoped that the h'ght of the 
 Reformation would have dispelled this darkness. 
 But it did not. They who were in derision termed 
 " Fifth Monarchy Men," seem to have given a kind 
 of testimony to the truth ; but it was partial, con- 
 nected in many cases with serious doctrinal errors, 
 and in no case rose higher than the level of 
 Irenaeus and Lactantius. Their system, accordingly, 
 (ridiculed rather than argued against by Lightfoot 
 and others,) perished under the weight of its own 
 errors. Lightfoot for the most part followed the lines 
 laid down by Augustine and Jerome. Like them he 
 maintained that the First Resurrection is past, and 
 that Satan was bound when the Gospel began to 
 be preached. Truths which Jerome and Augustine 
 spared, Lightfoot cancelled. For example, the final 
 division of the Roman Empire into Ten Kingdoms 
 and the reign of Antichrist in Jerusalem, they 
 taught ; but both these great truths Lightfoot 
 ignores. Lightfoot's writings have materially influ- 
 enced the views of Protestants, both within and 
 
 by whom the Church is governed. And no better interpre- 
 tation of judgment being given can be produced, than that 
 which we have in the words. What ye bind on earth shall be 
 bound in Heaven, and what ye loose on earth, shall be 
 loosed in Heaven." Augustine, "City of God," lib. xx. § 9. 
 Lightfoot follows the same line of thought, but finds the 
 evidence of the saints' reign in the secular rather than in 
 the ecclesiastical magistracy. Such in their view is the First 
 Resurrection ! ! ! 
 
328 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 without the Church of England, down to the pre- 
 sent time. The lectures of the Bishop of Lincoln, 
 which we are about to consider, are an example. 
 The writings of Augustine and Lightfoot have 
 materially guided his thoughts, as may be seen 
 from his references.^ 
 
 * Lightfoot's views may be judged of from the following ex- 
 tracts : " Observe, by the way, the phrase, ' He shuts him 
 [the Devil] up '; that is, restrains him from seducing and de- 
 ceiving people. It is Hell and prison to the devils not to 
 be doing mischief They sleep not, rest not, if they do not 
 evil. It is a torment to them, if they may not be sinning. 
 
 "Well, how doth Christ 'bind Satan' that he do not 
 deceive? By sending the Gospel to undeceive them. So 
 that this is the victory of Christ against the Devil. The 
 very telling of His death and merits is that that overcomes 
 the Devil : the very word of His death and resurrection 
 is that that overthrows the Devil and his power. So is 
 I Cor. vi. 3 to be taken, ' Know ye not that we shall judge 
 angels V '' (Lightfoot, Vol. VI., p. 1 5.) 
 
 "The Old Serpent had deceived the nations (ra eSvr)) the 
 heathen, for above two thousand years, with idolatry, false 
 miracles, false oracles, and with all blindness of superstition. 
 Now Christ, sending the Gospel by His Apostles and minis- 
 ters among the heathen or Gentiles, bound the Devil and im- 
 prisoned him, curbed his power and delusion, that he should 
 not deceive the world in manner as he had done ; but the 
 world now becomes Christian, and heathenism is done 
 away ; and this is then called ' the first resurrection ' — 
 
 viz., the resurrection of the dead heathen Well 
 
 thus *the Devil is bound a thousand years' during which 
 time the gospel runs through the world, and prevails and 
 makes it Christian. At verse 7 the Devil is let loose 
 again, and, by Popery, he makes the world as blind, de- 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 329 
 
 The fact is (and it is a truth that cannot be 
 too solemnly laid to heart) that the teaching of 
 Gentile Christendom has systematically set itself 
 against the doctrine of the eleventh of Romans, and 
 has virtually cancelled that chapter, though it is the 
 great prophetic chapter of the Apostolic Epistles. 
 It speaks specifically to Gentile Christendom, and 
 
 luded, heathenish, as it had been in the worst times under 
 heathenism. And it were no hard thing out of history to 
 show that Rome Papal did equal, nay exceed, Rome heathen 
 in all bhndness, wickedness, cruelty, uncleanness, and in all 
 manner of abomination. But an hour, a day, a week, would 
 not serve the turn to describe that full parallel. The text 
 gives a full summary of all, though in few words, when it 
 tells us, that the Dragon, the Devil, *gave his .power, seat, 
 and authority ' to Rome ; and it hath, and doth, and will act 
 in that spirit, while it is Rome ; and can any thing but mis- 
 chief be expected from such a spirit." Lightfoot, Vol. VII., 
 
 P- 157. 
 
 Perhaps, there never was a period more marked with 
 ilagitiousness and misery, physical and moral, than the years 
 that intervened between the Apostolic era and the establish- 
 ment of Popery — yet during that period, according to Light- 
 foot, Satan v/as bound, and ceased to deceive the nations ! ! 
 
 During this period also he says, the saints were reigning 
 and judging angels — the greatness of the kingdom under 
 the whole Heaven having been given to the people of the 
 saints of the Most High, when Christians were established 
 as magistrates and rulers in the Roman Empire. According 
 to Lightfoot, Christ has come and set up His kingdom 
 through the world, and put it into the hands of Christians, 
 "that they should rule and judge in the world, as those 
 heathen monarchies had done all the time before." (P. 260.) 
 
330 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 declares that if it continue not in God's goodness, 
 its doom (like that of Israel before) will be abscission, 
 " To thee goodness, if thou continue in His good- 
 ness, otherwise thou also shall be cut off" — no wel- 
 come announcement to those who persistently 
 ascribe to themselves an indefectible standing in 
 the earth, believe themselves to be the Zion of God 
 that standeth fast for ever, and claim that to them 
 all nations should bow. Growth, progress, and 
 triumph, they regard as the very law of their being ; 
 and seeing that God's faithfulness is pledged to 
 them, how is it possible that they should fail? 
 "We,'' say they, "are His people. His chosen, who 
 are to blossom, and bud, and fill the face of the 
 world with fruit ? Have we not blossomed } Look 
 at the Palaces, the Castles, the Temples, the 
 Crowns and Banners of Christendom. Have we 
 not marked upon them all the token of the Cross ? 
 Are we not advancing still.?" So speaks the can- 
 kered Gentile olive branch, " proud in its own 
 conceits," utterly unconscious of its approaching 
 doom, and finding in the very things that evi- 
 dence its shame, the tokens by which it persuades 
 itself that it has eminently continued in God^s 
 goodness. And as to Israel, if Christendom con- 
 descends to think of them at all, it is to con- 
 tradict all that the Scripture teaches respecting 
 their wondrous future. The leaders of Christen- 
 dom, "boasting themselves against the natural 
 branches," affirm that Israel having forfeited their 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 33 1 
 
 national blessings, those blessings have been made 
 over to them; and that no blessing, no salvation, 
 is to come to Israel, save that which now, from 
 time to time, reaches individual Israelites, when, 
 owning Christ, they are graffed into the Gentile 
 olive branch. Is this that which the eleventh of 
 Romans teaches respecting the future of Israel ? 
 Does it not positively tell us that Israel, as a dis- 
 tinct branchy are collectively as a nation to be graffed 
 back into their own olive tree, and that their 
 restoration is to be as " life from the dead " (not, 
 indeed, to Gentile Christendom, for the time of its 
 abscission will have come) but to the spared hea- 
 then nations, and to the earth generally, whose 
 day of jubilee will have come?" But all this the 
 Teachers of Christendom (speaking generally) have, 
 for the last sixteen centuries and more, persistently 
 rejected. That their views are unchanged, and 
 their course unaltered, is too clearly proved by the 
 Lectures we are about to consider. They were 
 preached by the present Bishop of Lincoln before 
 the University of Cambridge in 1848. They have 
 the sanction, therefore, of high authority, and have 
 been extensively disseminated. 
 
%X2 
 
 % II. 
 
 In his commencing Lecture Bishop Wordsworth 
 acknowledges that "there is scarcely any book i» 
 the Bible whose genuineness and authenticity were 
 more strongly attested on its first appearance, than 
 the Apocalypse." (Page 3.) Papias, Iren^us, Justin 
 Martyr, and Melito, who lived in the next age 
 after it was written, positively attest its genuine- 
 ness. 
 
 Nevertheless, no long time after, that is to say 
 *"■ in the third and fourth centuries of the Christian 
 era, many private persons, and even Churches, 
 especially in Oriental Christendom, questioned its 
 canonicity." (Page 3.) And why? Because it 
 taught the doctrine of a millennial reign ! 
 
 On this I would only observe that these " many 
 private persons and even Churches" must have 
 been thoroughly convinced (and that after careful 
 examination) that the doctrine of a millennial 
 reign was unquestionably taught in the Apocalypse : 
 otherwise they would not have placed themselves 
 in the invidious position of rejecting that holy 
 book, and trampling under foot all the evidence upon 
 which its authority is demonstrated. There must. 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 333. 
 
 however, have been great self-will, great insubjec- 
 tion to the authority of God in these persons; and 
 it might have been expected that Bishop Words- 
 worth would have recognised their sin, and visited 
 it with his severest censure; for surely it is no 
 little sin to reject a book of Scripture because it 
 teaches a doctrine that is to us distasteful. Yet 
 Bishop Wordsworth censures them not. On the 
 contrary, he seems rather to sanction than con- 
 demn their course, for he says, "If it [the doctrine 
 of a Millennium] were a true doctrine, then Christ's 
 promises to the Church would have failed." (Page 
 39.) And again, "If it [the said doctrine] cotild 
 be proved from the Apocalypse, the Apocalypse wotdd 
 not he Scripture!' (Page 27.) If this be right, I do 
 not see how Neologianism is wrong. If instead of 
 resting on the irrefragable evidence by which God 
 has sustained the authority of His Word, they to 
 whom the Scripture is sent are to become its 
 judges, and to receive what it pleases them to re- 
 ceive, and to reject what it pleases them to re- 
 ject, there would in that case, be no recognition 
 of the authority of God, but simply an assertion of 
 the right of self-government grounded on the pos- 
 session of a verifying faculty in ourselves. Whether 
 the possession of such a faculty be claimed for in- 
 dividuals or for the Church collectively, matters 
 not. In any case the claim is a false one. God, 
 after having established by adequate evidence the 
 authority of His written Word, commits it, it is true. 
 
334 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 to ^Q guardianship of His people; but He makes 
 them not its judges. To reject the Scripture is 
 to reject God. Here then, is a point of unspeak- 
 able importance, on which we must be hopelessly 
 at variance with Bishop Wordsworth. The gulf 
 which separates us on this point cannot be bridged 
 over. No wonder that on other subjects there 
 should be no fellowship of thought. 
 
 Bishop Wordsworth stigmatises the doctrine of a 
 millennial reign as one that sprang out of ignorant 
 Jewish tendencies of thought that were found occa- 
 sionally even in Christ's disciples. No doubt wrong 
 tendencies of thought were from time to time 
 manifested by the disciples ; but the Lord did 
 not sanction those wrong tendencies. On the con- 
 trary, He uniformly corrected them. But did He 
 correct them in the two cases which Bishop Words- 
 worth cites as instances of erroneous expectation ? 
 •"'The literal interpretation," says Bishop Words- 
 worth, ** of what is spoken figuratively in Holy 
 Scripture, especially in the Prophets, has been 
 
 one of the most prolific sources of error 
 
 It suggested the question of St. John himself, and 
 of his brother St. James, ' Grant, Lord, that we may 
 sit, the one on Thy right hand, the other on Thy 
 left, in Thy kingdom.' " (Page 7.) Such was the 
 petition of John and James : but did the Lord 
 Jesus rebuke them, or say that their request was 
 founded on ignorance and error } Did He say that 
 there should be no such kingdom, or no such 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 335 
 
 sitting on His right hand, and on His left in that 
 kingdom? He said exactly the reverse. His an- 
 swer was : " To sit on My right hand and on My 
 left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to 
 them for whom it is prepared." (Mark x. 27.) The 
 Lord Jesus therefore admitted the rightness of 
 their anticipation. Was He wrong m doing this? 
 Is He to be charged with error? 
 
 The other example given by Bishop Wordsworth 
 is the question of the disciples recorded in Acts 
 i. 6. "Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again 
 the kingdom to Israel?" In replying the Lord 
 does not say, "Ye err, not knowing the Scripture 
 nor the ways of God : there will be no kingdom 
 restored to Israel." On the contrary, His answer 
 distinctly implies that there would be such a re- 
 storation. *' It is not for you to know the times 
 or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His 
 own power." These words distinctly sanction the 
 expectation of the Apostles, and virtually declare 
 that the kingdom would come at the time and 
 season appointed of the Father. How, indeed, 
 could He who came not to destroy the Law and 
 the Prophets, but to fulfil, say otherwise. Do we 
 not find these words in the Prophet Micah, "Unto 
 thee shall it come, even the first dominion ; the king- 
 dom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem!' (Micah 
 iv. 8.) And is not Jerusalem addressed thus in 
 Isaiah; "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and 
 the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, 
 
336 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 behold the darkness shall cover the earth, and 
 gross darkness the peoples : but the Lord shall 
 arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon 
 
 thee The nation and kingdom that will not 
 
 serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall 
 be utterly wasted." (Isaiah Ix.) All this is utterly 
 untrue now, but it shall be fulfilled in every jot 
 and tittle "when the Lord of hosts shall reign in 
 Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His an- 
 cients gloriously." (Isaiah xxiv. 23.) It is not the 
 twentieth of Revelation only that teaches the doc- 
 trine of a millennial reign. The Old Testament 
 teems with testimony thereunto. 'If then, on the 
 two occasions referred to, we concur with Bishop 
 Wordsworth in condemning the questions asked by 
 the disciples, our condemnation cannot be re- 
 stricted to them only : it must be extended also to 
 that Holy One who sanctioned those questions. 
 Do we purpose to do this? Shall we impute to 
 the Lord Jesus ignorance, error, and Jewish preju- 
 dice? 
 
 That the doctrine of the Millennium as taught 
 by Papias, Irenseus, Lactantius and others is 
 thoroughly unscriptural, is true. It is not wonder- 
 ful, therefore, that such men as Dionysius and 
 Jerome found little difficulty in overthrowing it. 
 But Millenarianism as taught in Scripture^ and 
 Millenarianism as taught by meiij are two very 
 different things. I have already referred to the 
 errors of some of the early Fathers on this sub- 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 337 
 
 ject. I will only now observe, that if Bishop 
 Wordsworth had confined himself to the pointing 
 out these errors, he might have done good service 
 to the Truth. But he has not done this : he has 
 presented for our acceptance another system — a 
 system which is virtually that of Jerome and 
 Augustine, and Lightfoot, and other assailants of 
 Millennial Truth. When we examine the system 
 which has thus been constructed on the ruins of 
 patristic Millenarianism, we are compelled to say 
 that that which has been so constructed is incom- 
 parably worse than that which has been over- 
 thrown. Irenaeus erred in his interpretations ; but 
 he did not wrest and torture the Scripture as his 
 opponents do. 
 
 Whether or not I am justified in saying this, the 
 following remarks will show. 
 
338 
 
 § ni. 
 
 The Apocalypse commences thus: "The Revelation 
 of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to 
 show unto His servants tJie things that must shortly 
 come to pass" Again, when the sealed book or roll 
 was about to be given from the Throne, it was said 
 to John, " Come up hither, and I will show thee 
 things that must be HEREAFTER." 
 
 With these words before us can we doubt that 
 every event symbolically denoted in the Apocalypse, 
 from the sixth chapter onward, was, at the time 
 when the Vision was given, FUTURE? That the 
 Apocalypse is emphatically a prophetic book, is a 
 truth so patent, as, seemingly, to require no proof. 
 
 Bishop Wordsworth, however, refuses to acknow- 
 ledge this. He affirms that the greater part of the 
 twentieth chapter of Revelation (that is to say, all 
 that part which describes the binding of Satan, 
 and the first resurrection, and the millennial reign) 
 was not whe7i written intended to be a prophecy of 
 the future^ hut was giveii as a record of the past. 
 He thinks that it was accomplished at the Cross, 
 many years before the Revelation was written. 
 We may marvel that Bishop Wordsworth should 
 have come to such a conclusion, but we must re- 
 member that his antipathy to the doctrine of a 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 339 
 
 millennial reign is so great that he has said, "If 
 it [the doctrine of the Millennium] could be proved 
 from the Apocalypse, the Apocalypse would not be 
 Scripture." (Page 27.) 
 
 Bishop Wordsworth evidently shrinks from 
 avowedly repudiating the inspiration of the Apo- 
 calypse : yet indirectly he does this in saying 
 that the twentieth chapter is not prophetic ; for all 
 that comes within the scope of the roll given from 
 the Throne (and the twentieth chapter does come 
 within that scope) is in the Apocalypse itself de- 
 clared to be prophetic. In saying this, has the 
 Apocalypse said what is false I If so, it cannot be 
 inspired. 
 
 Bishop Wordsworth, however, persists in saying 
 that the twentieth chapter (or, at any rate, that 
 part of it which treats of the binding of Satan 
 and the millennial reign) is not prophetic. He 
 avers (in this following Lightfoot) that it treats of 
 something that had been accomplished before the 
 Apocalypse was written. His doctrine is, that 
 Satan was bound and " consigned to his dark 
 prison-house," when the Lord Jesus suffered on 
 the Cross."^ This he again and again affirms : yet 
 there is really not one of his many arguments that 
 will for one moment bear the test either of Scrip- 
 
 ■^ Bishop Wordsworth does not here appear to deny that 
 Satan is described in the twentieth chapter as personally im- 
 prisoned, nor does he say that the bottomless pit is not 
 really the bottomless pit. Subsequently, it will be found that 
 he admits neither of these things. 
 
 Z 2 
 
340 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 ture, or of fact. He draws, for example, an utterly 
 false analogy between the condition of the Lord 
 Jesus in death, and a supposed state into which he 
 imagines Satan to have been brought by that death. 
 As Christ died, was buried, placed in the grave, 
 and a seal set on the door of the sepulchre, so 
 Bishop Wordsworth imagines that Satan, when 
 Christ died, was, as one brought under the power 
 of death, buried in the bottomless pit, and a seal 
 set upon him there. But all this is fiction. Satan 
 was an agenty not a sufferer at the Cross. He 
 there ^^ bruised'' the heel of the Holy One, brought 
 as the Substitute of His people under the power 
 of judicial death. It is true, indeed, that the 
 kingdom of Satan received at the Cross a blow 
 that will ultimately be found to be its death-blow; 
 but Satan himself was not smitten at the Cross, 
 No stroke of the Divine hand fell on him person- 
 ally. He remained what he was before, "the god 
 of this age" — "the prince of the power of the 
 air" — "the spirit that now worketh in the children 
 of disobedience" — "the Accuser of the brethren,'" 
 and he, and the spirits that are under him, are de- 
 clared to be the KOGfioKparope^ "the world-wide 
 rulers " of the darkness of this present age."^ The 
 
 * It is quite true that the title to bruise the head of Satan 
 was acquired by the great Surety at the Cross : but the pos- 
 session of a title, and its enforceinent^ are two different 
 things. The punishment adjudged to Satan has not yet 
 been inflicted. By the adjudication of God, founded on the 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 34I 
 
 Apostle Peter did not think that Satan had been 
 bound when, writing to the saints, he said, **Be 
 sober, be vigilant : because your adversary the devil, 
 as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he 
 may devour." (i Peter v. 8.) Nor did Paul think 
 him to be bound when he spoke of himself as 
 being " hindered " by Satan ; and when, seeing other 
 of Christ's people similarly tried and buffeted, he 
 said, " The God of peace shall bruise Satan under 
 your feet shortlyy It may be truly said that there 
 is not one page of Scripture, or one page of human 
 history that does not attest, not only the perpetua- 
 tion, but the increase, of Satan's power during the 
 last eighteen hundred years. " The annals of Chris- 
 tendom,'' said Lord Bolingbroke, "have been the 
 annals of Hell." Can this be denied? Yet, not- 
 withstanding the evidence both of Scripture and of 
 fact, Bishop Wordsworth maintains that when Christ 
 died, Satan was " chained in his dark prison- house ^'' 
 and that ^^ the Cross restored the wandering nations 
 to life, healthy peace, and Joy!' (Page 52.) 
 
 Has Bishop Wordsworth forgotten that the Lord 
 Jesus Himself especially treated of this very sub- 
 ject? Did He say that after His departure from 
 the earth "the nations would be restored to life, 
 
 title acquired by the Lord Jesus at the Cross, Satan is sen- 
 tenced to a deprivation of all the power he acquired through 
 ;the sin of Adam, and is sentenced to everlasting torment : 
 'but the sentence pronounced on him is not yet carried into 
 effect, nor will be, until Christ returns in glory. 
 
342 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 health, peace, and joy"? He says the very re- 
 verse. "Nation," said He, "shall rise against na- 
 tion, and kingdom against kingdom : and there 
 shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, 
 in divers places. All these are the beginning of 
 sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be 
 afflicted, and shall kill you : and ye shall be hated 
 of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall 
 many be offended, and shall betray one another, 
 and shall hate one another. And many false 
 prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And 
 because iniquity shall abound, the love of the 
 greater part [tq)v TroXXcav] shall wax cold." (Matt, 
 xxiv. 7-12.) A very different picture this from that 
 which Bishop Wordsworth has drawn. We read 
 nothing here of "life, health, peace, and joy" being 
 "restored to the wandering nations." The teaching 
 of Bishop Wordsworth stands in direct contrariety 
 to that of our Lord. Which shall we follow ? 
 
 And when we ask where and in what Bishop 
 Wordsworth finds this happy change among the 
 nations, his answer is, " Christ at His coming 
 chained Satan who had chained the nations. Bel 
 boweth down, and Nebo stoopeth, before whom 
 myriads had laid prostrate. The idols whose altars 
 had reeked with human blood were cast to the 
 moles and to the bats. The Oracles are dumb. 
 The pagan temples become Christian churches. 
 Basilicas are now Cathedrals. The Cross, once the 
 scandal of the world, floats on the banners of 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 343 
 
 armies, and is set on the diadems of kings." (Page 
 50.) Such is Bishop Wordsworth's reply. Does he 
 really ask us to believe that in the early centuries 
 of the Christian era, when the lords of the Gentiles 
 sought to sanctify their ambition, rapine, licentious- 
 ness, lust, and revelry by assuming the Cross as 
 their emblem, does he really ask us to believe 
 that we are to find in that hypocritical assumption 
 the evidence of Satan being bound, and the reign of 
 Truth having come? Was there any one essential 
 doctrine of Popery that was not germinant, and 
 more than germinant, in the days of Constantine, 
 and before? Would that Bishop Wordsworth would 
 remember the warning words of Hegesippus."^ And 
 as to Basilicas being turned into Cathedrals, is 
 there in all the past history of the world any 
 
 "^ Hegesippus, A.D. 157, wrote thus: — "The Church con- 
 tinued until then [the commencement of the second cen- 
 tury] as a virgin pure and incorrupt ; whilst if there were 
 any that attempted to pervert the sound doctrine of the 
 saving Gospel, they were yet skulking in dark retreats ; but 
 when the sacred company of the Apostles came to the end 
 of their course, and the generation of those who had been 
 privileged to hear their inspired wisdom had passed away, 
 then the conspiracy of godless error commenced by the fraud 
 and delusion of false teachers who, as there were none of 
 the Apostles left [the deadly doctrine of Apostolic succession 
 was not accepted by Hegesippus], thenceforth attempted 
 without shame to put forward their knowledge falsely so 
 called, and to bring it into antagonism with the preaching 
 of the Truth." Hegesippus as quoted by Eusebius, Eccl. 
 Hist. lib. iii. § 33. 
 
344 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 thing more dark — nay, I will say, so dark, as the 
 history of the Cathedrals of Christendom? Of 
 what, at this present moment, are St. Paul's and 
 Westminster Abbey the symbols in the estimate of 
 God ?"^ They are standing monuments not only of 
 the past, but of the present, triumphs of Satan over 
 God's people and God's truth. At the present 
 moment. Sacerdotalism reigns in the one; Latitu- 
 dinarian Babylonianism in the other. Is it in such 
 things as these that we are to find the evidence 
 that Satan has been placed in the bottomless pit, 
 and that the Cross brought " to the wandering 
 nations life, health, peace, and joy"? *' If the 
 light that is in thee be darkness, how great is 
 that darkness." When our consciences judge 
 wrongly of facts, our hearts will not be open to 
 the instruction of the Word of God. When our 
 conscience bears false witness, we may be very 
 sure that our understandings will not be allowed 
 to apprehend, nor our heart permitted to feel, the 
 appeals of Truth. 
 
 One of the authorities cited by Bishop Words- 
 worth is a clause from the second verse of the 
 second chapter of Ephesians. I will cite the whole 
 passage, and distinguish by italics the clause quoted 
 by Dr. Wordsworth. "Wherein in time past ye 
 walked according to the course of this world, ac- 
 
 ^ I do not mention St. Peter's at Rome, for Bishop 
 Wordsworth's system requires him to say that Satan was 
 unbound during the days of mediaeval Popery. 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 345 
 
 •cording to the prince of the power of the air^ the 
 spirit that now worketh in the children of dis- 
 obedience." Does this passage teach us that Satan 
 is "chained in his dark prison-house"? It teaches 
 the very reverse. It teaches us that he is "the 
 prince of the power of the air" (as he ever has 
 been since the Fall), and that he "NOW worketh 
 in all the children of disobedience." He could not 
 be this, or do this, if he were shut up in the 
 bottomless pit. The Bishop proceeds to say, 
 ''When He [Christ] ascended up on high, He led 
 captivity captive, and gave gifts to men ; enabling 
 them also to wrestle against principalities and 
 powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this 
 world, against spiritual wickedness in high places, 
 and He bruised Satan under our feet. THUS 
 Christ bound Satan, and cast him into the bottom- 
 less pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon 
 him in order that he should deceive the nations 
 no more." (Page 49.) These words, " Thus Christ 
 bound Satan," etc., are Bishop Wordsworth's own 
 words; yet they evidently nullify all that he has 
 before said respecting Satan having been placed in 
 the bottomless pit, by the work of the Lord Jesus 
 on the Cross : for if that work had placed Satan 
 in the pit, he could not have been placed there by 
 the wrestling of the saints afterwards. These words 
 also show that Bishop Wordsworth does not recog- 
 nise " the bottomless pit " as the name of an actual 
 locality ; for we cannot suppose that he imagines 
 
346 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 the wrestling of the saints to be an agency ca- 
 pable of binding Satan, and placing him actually 
 in the bottomless pit. He looks on the binding 
 of Satan, and the shutting him up in the bottom- 
 less pit, as figures of speech, that indicate nothing 
 more than a curtailment or restriction of his power, 
 which restriction is continued if the saints wrestle 
 with him successfully, but removed if they fail in 
 so wrestling. It would be necessary to accept in 
 its entirety Cardinal Newman's system of '' non- 
 7iaturar' interpretation before we could acquiesce 
 in comments such as these. Moreover, a host of 
 difficulties would still remain unsolved. If the 
 conflicts of God's people with Satan and their vic- 
 tories over him could avail to bind him, he must 
 have been bound before the Cross, for from the 
 time of Abel downwards the people of God wrestled. 
 The eleventh of Hebrews details many victories of 
 faith. Moreover, if victories of faith could bind 
 him, he must certainly have been bound during 
 the Apostolic period, for then, most unquestionably, 
 he was wrestled with and overcome by very many. 
 But that he was not bound tJien is evident, for he 
 is emphatically declared to have been " a roaring 
 lion, going about, seeking whom he might de- 
 vour;" and the Apostle Paul speaks of himself as 
 withstood and hindered, by the devices of Satan. 
 Are we then to say that the post-apostolic period 
 supplied more successful wrestlers than that of the 
 Apostles themselves.'* Were the Apostles' children,, 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 347 
 
 and their successors giants? And are the evidences 
 of these mighty triumphs to be found in the trans- 
 formation of BasiHcas into Cathedrals, and the em- 
 blazonment of the Cross upon the banner of kings? 
 It must certainly be admitted that the Apostolic 
 age did not supply such evidences. 
 
 Yet, although Bishop Wordsworth is quite ready 
 to accept the change of Basilicas into Cathedrals^ 
 and suchlike transformations, as supplying adequate 
 proof that Satan has been bound and shut up 
 in the bottomless pit, it is very evident that he is 
 not a little mistrustful of his own conclusions. He 
 sees that it may be urged that even nations that 
 have had Cathedrals in their cities, and the Cross on 
 their banners, have not apparently been free from 
 the deceiving power of Satan; and even if it were 
 otherwise, if such nations were free from the power 
 of Satan, their number is comparatively small ; 
 whereas the Scripture speaks of ^^ the nations^' that 
 is, all the nations being delivered from the presence 
 and power of Satan during the whole period of his 
 being bound, whether that period be brief or long. 
 Moreover, nations that once had the Cross on their 
 banners, have substituted for it the Crescent, and 
 the eagle, and various other emblems. On Bishop 
 Wordsworth's own principles, this evidences the 
 presence, not the absence, of Satan's power. Can 
 these difficulties be met? Bishop Wordsworth 
 endeavours to meet them by taking a further step 
 in the path of self-contradiction. 
 
348 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 He meets them by denying virtually \h'^\, Satan 
 has been bound at all. I will quote his own words. 
 ^' It is not said that Christ rendered it impossible for 
 the Devil to deceive; but that He did His part, in 
 order that he should NOT DECEIVE." (Page 50.) 
 And again : " If Satan still has power in the world 
 {as doubtless he has"^), this, let us remember, is due 
 to man, and not to God. It is because men sleep, 
 when God bids them to watch; therefore the enemy 
 comes. But the Devil is chained to all who do 
 not loose him by their own sin." (Page 49.) 
 
 The Bishop's theory, then, is this. Christ (not 
 indeed without the co-operation of His saints 
 whom He strengthened to wrestle) chained and 
 placed Satan in the bottomless pit as respected 
 thejn; but as respects " the nations " generally, 
 seeing that they did not so wrestle, Satan was 
 not chained, nor is he chained to any except those 
 who are careful not to loose him by their own sin. 
 Obviously, then, the casting Satan into the bot- 
 tomless pit means nothing more than a check or 
 restriction placed upon his power : and that re- 
 striction affects only a few; and even as respects 
 those few, the restriction is contingent : it depends 
 on their being careful not to loose him again by 
 their own sin. Consequently Satan is bound and 
 not bound, imprisoned and not imprisoned, at the 
 same moment. Bishop Wordsworth says, *' It is 
 not said [in Scripture] that Christ rendered it 
 ■^ These italics are mine. 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 349 
 
 impossible for the Devil to deceive." Is this so? 
 I find in the Revelation these words — " I saw an 
 angel come down from Heaven having the key of 
 the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 
 And he laid hold on the Dragon, that old serpent, 
 which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a 
 thousand years.^^ Observe, it is not said in this 
 passage that the angel laid hold of Satan ijt order 
 that he might bind him. It is said that he laid 
 hold on him and bound him, and that for a thou- 
 sand years. The binding is spoken of as an accom- 
 plished fact, cojitingent upo7i nothing, and irreversible 
 until the thousand years were finished. How, then, 
 can Bishop Wordsworth say, ''It is not said [in 
 Scripture] that Christ rendered it impossible for 
 the Devil to deceive"? Could he deceive when 
 shut up ? The shutting up is not spoke?i of as a 
 co7itingency. It is spoken of as an accomplished fact. 
 Bishop Wordsworth says that there is no reason 
 why we should take a thousand years definitely to 
 mean a thousand years. We reply, that there is 
 a reason ; for we cannot suppose that God would 
 say what He does not mean. Why should He 
 say "a thousand years'* if He does not mean 
 " a thousand years " ? If He had wished to mark 
 the period as indefinite, would He not have avoided 
 the use of numerals, and used some general ex- 
 pression? This He does immediately afterwards 
 when the period during which Satan is loosed is 
 mentioned. Of that period He does not define the 
 
3S0 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 length, but says, "he must be loosed for a short 
 season." The length of Satan's imprisomnent God 
 has been pleased to define : the length of the subse- 
 quent release He has not been pleased to define. 
 Had He not some purpose in doing this? Shall 
 we countervail that purpose, and alter His words ?"^ 
 Nothing can be more true than the rule laid 
 down by the Hebrew writers that whenever periods 
 of time are denoted in Scripture by afBxed nume- 
 rals, the period is literally that which the affixed 
 numeral or numerals denote. It may suit men, for 
 the sake of their own theories, to deny this ; yet 
 so it is. But suppose it were otherwise? Sup- 
 pose that a thousand years means ten thousand 
 years, or ten years, or ten months, or anything 
 else that any one may choose to conjecture, how 
 is Bishop Wordsworth's position helped thereby? 
 It must still be admitted that Scripture does speak 
 of Satan being bound for some definite period, hov/- 
 cver long, or however short that period may be. 
 
 * We are not at liberty, whenever we please, to divest 
 numerals of their definitiveness, because they may sometimes 
 be used symbolically. "Three" not unfrequently denotes 
 repetition; and "seven," completeness; but we do not, on that 
 account, say that they are never to be understood definitely. 
 We believe that our Lord rose from the grave on the third 
 day ; and that Nebuchadnezzar was punished for seven years. 
 We continually hear men say, " I have told you a thousand 
 times " ; but we do not understand that they use " thousand " 
 with like indefiniteness when they are avowedly making a 
 calculation, or historically stating the length of a period. 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 3$ I 
 
 Suppose it be a thousand hours ? During those 
 thousand hours it would be impossible for Satan to 
 deceive the nations. What becomes of Bishop 
 Wordsworth's assertion? He says, "It is not said 
 in Scripture that Christ rendered it impossible for 
 the Devil to deceive." In that case the Scripture 
 can nowhere have spoken of Satan being bound. 
 Will Bishop Wordsworth affirm this? Or will he 
 say that whether bound, or whether loosed, Satan 
 could in either case equally deceive ? It is not 
 very apparent which of these alternatives Bishop 
 Wordsworth would choose. In either case Scrip- 
 ture is contradicted ; its light is quenched ; and we 
 are left in darkness. The further we advance, the 
 greater becomes the perplexity. 
 
 Note. — With reference to the words "that he might not 
 deceive" — ha fir) TrXavrja-Tjj Dr. Wordsworth observes, " It is not 
 said that Christ rendered it impossible for the Devil to de- 
 ceive, but that He did His part in order that he might not 
 deceive." 
 
 It is quite true that the words, iva and Ipa firj, may be 
 used to indicate a proposed end which God may allow to 
 be frustrated ; or they may on the other hand express a 
 fixed purpose that cannot be frustrated. T/te context will, 
 in each case^ deter7nine this question, John v. 34 supplies 
 an example of a proposed end frustrated — " These things I 
 speak that ye might be saved" — \va acadi^Te. On the other 
 hand, the passage we are considering in the Revelation 
 supphes an example of a fixed purpose carried into effect, 
 as the context proves. 
 
 Dr. Wordsworth does not seem to have observed the clause 
 which nullifies all his statements. It is not said that the 
 angel laid hold of Satan in order that he might bind him. 
 
352 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 It is said that the angel laid hold of Satan " a-nd hou7icC 
 hiin^^ and that "for a thousand years." The accomplish- 
 ment of the binding proves the certainty of that which is 
 made dependent on the binding, viz., the non-deception of 
 the nations during the appointed period. 
 
 May I be permitted here to say that Bishop Words- 
 worth should be more careful in his criticisms. When 
 speaking of the two Witnesses (Rev. xi.) he argues that 
 they could not be two individuals because it is said that 
 "their body" (irrcofia avrcov), not their bodies, "lay in the 
 street," etc. If he had examined the Hebrew of Psalm 
 Ixxix. 2, which text he quotes, he would there find the 
 same form of expression. "They have given the dead-body 
 [n*?33"nx singular] of Thy servants [plural] as meat," etc. 
 It is a form of expression continually used in the Hebrew 
 Scriptures, and adopted in the Greek. Thus in one chapter 
 of Leviticus alone, Lev. xi., there are no less than nine 
 verses in which we find the expression, "^kei'r dead-body,^'' 
 So Deut. xiv. 8. " Their dead-body ye shall not touch." 
 See also Isaiah v. 25. " Their dead-body was as the mire- 
 in the streets." In Ps. Ixxix. 2, the singulars, ^^ corpse ^^ 
 ^^ bird,'^ and ^^ beast^' are all collectives. In the New Testa- 
 ment we find abundant examples of the same form of ex- 
 pression. See Rom. iii. 13, 6 Tiapvy^ avroav, 14, odv to (rrofia; 
 Matt, xviii. 16, dia arofiaros ^voo fiapTvpcov, by the mouth of 
 two witnesses ; Acts iii. 21 ; Eph. iv. 29 ; Col. iii. 8 ; Rev. 
 ix. 17, ix. 18, xi. 5 ; I John iii. 20; 2 Cor. iii. 15, em rrjv 
 Kaphiav avTcov, Nothing can be more frequent than this, 
 usage of the singular both in the Old and New Testa- 
 ments. That the expression to TrTcojia avrap is to be under- 
 stood in a plural sense is proved by the fact that the ex- 
 pression Ta TTTcopara avrccv (plural) is in the very same verse 
 used as synonymous with to TTTcofia avTtov. See Rev. xi. 9. 
 
 The two Witnesses were officially one — one in testimony. 
 Individually, however, they were distinct. Hence nTcofia and 
 TTTcop-ara are both used of them. 
 
353 
 
 § IV. 
 
 It will be seen from a preceding chapter"^ that the 
 doctrine of " The First Resurrection " is not taught 
 merely in an isolated passage of the Apocalypse, as 
 is very commonly affirmed : it is frequently taught 
 both in the Old and in the New Testament, and 
 in no passage more clearly than in i Cor. xv. 23. 
 There the Apostle reveals the order (rajfia) of the 
 Resurrection of Christ and His saints. "Every one 
 in his own order : Christ the first-fruits ; afterward 
 [eVeira] they who are Christ's at His coming. Then 
 [elra] cometh the end," when the last resurrection 
 takes place.f Thus there are three periods of re- 
 surrection, and three only. First, Christ's : secondly, 
 the resurrection of those who are Christ's at His 
 coming, which is the jfirsi resurrection of the saints : 
 thirdly, the final period, when all the saints who 
 have lived during the Millennium will rise, as well 
 as the rest of the dead of all generations. The 
 
 * See Chapter XI I L, page 274. 
 
 f 'ETTctra, afterivards, and etVa, the7ty are particles of se- 
 quence, and are equivalent to secondly^ thirdly. See pre- 
 vious remarks on this subject. The First Resurrection is a 
 resurrection otit ^the dead, implied by the preposition ck. 
 
 A A 
 
354 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 First Resurrection is also taught wherever the ex- 
 pression rj i^avacTTaai^ rj ck veKpcov, or ^ dvacrTacrL<; 
 €K v€Kp(ov is applied to Christ's people : as also 
 whenever we find the expression, "saints of the 
 high places." The evidence afforded by these, and 
 such like passages, is irresistible; yet it weighs as 
 nothing with Bishop Wordsworth. Being, no doubt, 
 conscious that the doctrine of the millennial reign 
 is so intimately associated with that of the First 
 Resurrection that they stand or fall together, and 
 being prepared to reject the inspiration of the 
 Apocalypse rather than admit the truth of the mil- 
 lennial reign. Bishop Wordsworth finds himself 
 under the unavoidable necessity of repudiating the 
 doctrine of the First Resurrection as taught in the 
 Apocalypse, and (it must be added) as taught in 
 the rest of Scripture. 
 
 Let us consider his arguments. He first quotes 
 Rev. XX. 4, 6. "And I saw thrones, and they sat 
 upon them, and judgment was given unto them: 
 and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded 
 for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, 
 and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his 
 image, neither had received his mark upon their 
 foreheads, or in their hands ; and they lived and 
 reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the 
 rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand 
 years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 
 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first 
 resurrection : on such the second death hath no 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 355 
 
 power, but they shall be priests of God and of 
 Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand 
 years." 
 
 "These words," says Bishop Wordsworth, ''are 
 " not spoken of the bodies of the saints, but of their 
 " souls, I saiv the sotils of them who had been be- 
 " headed for the witness of Jesus, This must be care- 
 " fully borne in mind, because the error of the mil- 
 ** lenarians is mainly due to neglect of this distinc- 
 " tion. They have imagined a bodily resurrection, 
 ** whereas St. John is speaking of a spiritual one/' 
 (Page 53.) 
 
 How could anything else than a bodily resurrec- 
 tion be indicated by the sight of the souls of be- 
 headed persons living again? If beheading took 
 from them their bodies and brought them into a 
 state of death, their restoration to a state of life 
 necessarily implies the restitution of their bodies. 
 The beheaded must have been possessed of bodies 
 once, otherwise they could not have been beheaded ; 
 and after they had been beheaded, their souls, 
 if seen by the Apostle at all, must have been in 
 a disembodied state in order that he might see 
 them brought out of that state and "LIVE," 
 that is, become re-united to their bodies — *^ live'* 
 being a word used only of those who are in the 
 possession and exercise of the proper powers of 
 their being: and those powers are not possessed 
 by any whose bodies are in the grave. Disem- 
 bodied souls exist, and are conscious (see Rev. vi.), 
 A A 2 
 
35^ AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 but they are not said to ^^ liver All who are 
 separated from their bodies are regarded as being 
 in a state of death, not of life, till their bodies 
 are restored to them. Accordingly, as soon as 
 the Apostle had seen them "live,'' that is 
 restored to the possession of their bodily powers, 
 we find the words, "this is the first resurrec- 
 tion" — resurrection being a word used of the re- 
 suscitation of the body, but not tised in Scripture 
 of the quickefting of the soul through the Spirit!^ 
 
 Bishop Wordsworth, however, heeds none of these 
 things. The words " that had been beheaded," seem 
 to present no difficulty to him. He thinks that 
 when the souls of those "that had been beheaded 
 for the witness of Jesus " were seen to live and 
 to reign, the lesson taught is, the entrance of the 
 baptised into that new life pertaining to the mysti- 
 cal body of Christ, of which Baptism is the door. 
 (Page 57.) Now, even if we were to admit that 
 those who have been duly sprinkled with the 
 mystic waters of baptism by priestly hand, were 
 thereby brought into the glory and blessedness of 
 the First Resurrection, y^t it would seem difficult to 
 explain how any one who had been beheaded could 
 be either baptised, or quickened with spiritual life. 
 How could a beheaded person be baptised? Ob- 
 viously, it is necessary for Bishop Wordsworth either 
 to cancel the words "had been beheaded," or else 
 
 ^ It is most important to remember this. The rejection 
 of this truth involves grave doctrinal error. 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 357 
 
 to abandon his theory of Baptism bringing into 
 the blessedness of the First Resurrection. When 
 too we think of the course which baptised Chris- 
 tendom has trodden, there seems something very 
 av/ful in its being said that baptism entitles any 
 to ascribe to themselves the blessedness which these 
 solemn words declare. "Blessed and holy is he 
 that hath part in the first resurrection : on such 
 the second death hath no power, but they shall be 
 priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with 
 him a thousand years." 
 
 Bishop Wordsworth is not very likely to re- 
 nounce his doctrine respecting Baptism, for it is 
 the very pillar of his system. But if he should see 
 the absolute impossibility of saying that those who 
 had been beheaded could after such beheading be 
 either baptised or spiritually quickened, and if he 
 should further acknowledge that the souls of the 
 .beheaded must be disembodied souls, he would, in 
 that case, be obliged to abandon the thought that 
 '" livel^ when applied to such disembodied souls, 
 could mean that they were quickened with spiritual 
 life : for spiritual life cannot be communicated to 
 souls after death ; nor, secondly, could any have 
 been "beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for 
 the word of God" who had not been spiritually 
 quickened whilst yet in the body. Persons dead 
 in sin could not bear witness for Jesus. 
 
 Millenarian notions are, according to Bishop 
 Wordsworth, ascribable to low and inadequate no- 
 
358 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 tions of our baptismal privileges and obligations, 
 and of the sacred duties and inestimable blessings 
 of Church membership and Church unity; and 
 wherever unworthy notions are entertained on these 
 momentous points, there the doctrine of the Millen- 
 nium may be expected to prevail. 
 
 " Our spiritual adoption into the mystical body 
 " of Christ [I continue to quote the words of Bishop 
 " Wordsworth] is only the begimmig of our Christian 
 " life ; it is the new births that is, it is the entrance 
 " into the new life. Baptism is the door by which 
 " we enter Christ's Church. But the door is not the 
 *^ house. [Yet baptism, according to Bishop Words- 
 worth, brings us through the door into tJie hoitse^ and 
 that house, a house of present glory in the earth.] 
 '' There must not merely be new birth^ but a new 
 ** life. [But he who has the new birth must have 
 new life; and it is the possession, not the develop- 
 ment of this life which, according to Bishop Words- 
 worth, brings into the First Resurrection; and the 
 possession of that life was, he says, attained by 
 " baptism.] There must be not only the mark of 
 " Christ imprinted on the forehead, but there must 
 " be the spirit of Christ moving in the heart, and* 
 " bringing forth the work of Christ in the hand.. 
 " This is the First Resurrection. We rose with 
 " Christ, [in baptism] to live with Christ ; and Christ 
 " assists us in this work by manifold gifts and 
 " graces. In the Holy Communion of the body and 
 " blood of Christ, the Christian soul receives spiritual' 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 3 59 
 
 " Strength from Him, and is knit more closely to 
 " Him. There we dwell in Christ, and Christ with 
 " us. We are one with Christ, and Christ with 
 " us. Thus the soul which was born again in 
 " Christ, [by baptism] lives with Christ, [by means of 
 '' the Eucharist] It is dead to sin, and is ready to 
 " suffer for Christ, and knows no other object of 
 *' worship than Christ. [Has this been so in sacer- 
 '' dotally baptised Christendom ?] / saw the souls of 
 " them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, 
 *' and zvhich had 7iot worshipped the beast, neither his 
 " image, neither had received his mark in their fore- 
 *' heads, or in their hands — that is, who had not 
 " broken their oath of allegiance to Christ, either in 
 " word or deed : and they lived and reigned with 
 '' Christ a thonsaitd years. This is the First Resur- 
 " rection." 
 
 Such are the statements of Bishop Wordsworth. 
 First, we are told that men are brought into the 
 blessedness of the First Resurrection by baptism. 
 Now, we are told something very different We 
 are taught that those brought into this blessedness 
 were those who had been beheaded for the witness 
 of Jesus, had testified against the beast, and his 
 image, and " had not broken their oath of allegiance 
 to Christ either in word or in deed.'* Are these 
 things pre-requisites to baptism ? If so, how was 
 it that the Pentecostal Church was baptised, for 
 they certainly did not testify against the beast, or 
 his image, nor had they had any time to prove 
 
S6o AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 the Sincerity of their allegiance to Christ, seeing 
 they were baptised the moment they believed. If 
 baptism be the door, then these things cannot 
 be the door; or if these things be the door, 
 then baptism cannot be the door. Can Bishop 
 Wordsworth explain which he means, or has he 
 involved himself in a labyrinth from which there 
 is no extrication.? 
 
 To those who understand the Scripture I need 
 not say, that Bishop Wordsworth has no apprehen- 
 sion whatever of what the blessedness, holiness 
 and glory of the First Resurrection really is. If he 
 had, he would never have dreamed of saying that 
 we are by baptism brought into it. He is utterly 
 ignorant of what the Scripture declares respecting 
 that now approaching period when "the kingdom, 
 and dominion, and the greatness of the king- 
 dom UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVEN shall be given 
 to the people of the saints of the Most High," 
 (Dan. vii.,) and " the sovereignty of the world be- 
 come the sovereignty of our Lord and of His 
 Christ." Rev. xi. The national conversion of 
 Israel, and their establishment as God's saintly 
 nation in the earth; the binding of Satan, so that 
 he shall cease for the thousand years to deceive 
 the nations; the release of creation from its pre- 
 sent groan ; the cessation of strife among the na- 
 tions, so that they "beat their swords into plough- 
 shares, and learn war no more;'* the extinction 
 of savage passions in the animals, so that the lion 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 36 1 
 
 shall eat straw like the ox, and the wolf and the 
 lamb lie down together; the resurrection of the 
 saints into glory above the heavens, whence they 
 will reign with Christ over all things; the con- 
 tinuance of this Adamic earth for a thousand years; 
 the occurrence at the close of that period of a 
 brief apostasy of the nations; the termination of 
 the history of the Adamic earth, and the creation 
 of a New Heavens and a New Earth in which 
 righteousness, and only righteousness will dwell — 
 all these characteristics and results of the coming 
 reign of Christ are, by Bishop Wordsworth, unre- 
 cognised and unknown. 
 
 Bishop Wordsworth^s description of the reign of 
 the saints is as follows : — *' / saw thrones^ and they 
 ** sate tipon them^ and Jtidgment was given them. Our 
 *' Blessed Lord expressly says, that the Judgment of 
 *' Satan was already begun at His own Incarnation. 
 *' Nozv is the judgment of this world, Nozv is the 
 '' Prince of this world judged. And now, even now, 
 *' the Saints of Christ judge the world ; yea, accord- 
 ^' ing to St. Paul's words, they judge Angels^ the 
 '' Angels of Satan. The Saints of God prove, by 
 *' their faith and holiness and steadfastness, that the 
 " fall of Satan and of his Angels was due to their 
 ^' own sin : they show, by their virtues, that God is 
 '' good, and that His grace is sufficient for all those 
 " who pray to Him, trust in Him, and obey Him ; 
 " and that it is made perfect in their %veaknesSy and 
 " that His commandments are not grievous ; and hav- 
 
362 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 ** ing been iorttiredy tempted, afflicted, tormented, and 
 " having resisted even unto blood, and having come 
 ^^ forth more than co7iquero7's, they judge the world. 
 ** They condemn it of blind infatuation, and of base 
 " ingratitude to God. The life and death of the 
 " Saints is the judgment of the world. 
 
 ** Again, in another sense, the Church of Christ 
 *' now judges the world. She has received from 
 " Christ the power of the keys ; the power of bind" 
 " ing and loosing; and whatever she does on earth, 
 *' orderly and rightly, in the ministry of remitting 
 " or retaining sins, is ratified by Christ in heaven, 
 " Thus, even now, the Saints of God sit upon thrones, 
 " and to tJiem judgment is given. 
 
 " Yet more ; in another manner the Saints of God 
 *' are even now seated upon Thrones, and judge the 
 '' world. 
 
 " In the precepts of the Law, in the revelations of 
 " Prophets, in the melody of Psalms, in the instruc- 
 " tion of Proverbs in the Old Testament, the Twenty- 
 " four Books of which were believed to be repre- 
 *' sented by the Twenty-four Elders sitting enthroned . 
 ^' in heaven ; and in the four Gospels typified by the 
 " four living Cherubim on which the Throne of God 
 *' is set ; and in the Royal Law of the Letters of 
 " the Apostles, whom God has made Princes in all 
 '* lands ; which books, be it remembered, have been 
 *' placed on Thrones in the great Council-halls of 
 *' Christendom, and have been delivered as a Law to 
 ** anointed Kings at their solemn enthronisation ; yes. 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 363: 
 
 *' taken from that very altar,"^ and placed in the 
 " hands of the most august Monarchs of the world, 
 *' in this national Temple, at their Coronation ; and 
 " whose sanctity is proclaimed by solemn adjurations 
 " in Courts of Justice ; and which are delivered to 
 " Bishops and Priests at their Ordination, as the 
 " Royal Code of their Teaching, and the Divine 
 " Charter of their Ministry ; and which sound forth 
 " daily from Pulpits and the steps of Altars — as it 
 " were, from Christian Thrones and Tribunals — in 
 " every part of the world : thus, I say, they whom 
 *' God has employed to declare His Will to men, 
 " are now, even now, seen by the eye of Faith sitting 
 *' upon Thrones; and to them Judgmeyit is given. 
 
 "In this manner we see that the souls of the 
 " Saints, by virtue of their spiritual incorporation 
 " and indwelling in Christ, have risen from the dead 
 " with Christ ; that in Christ they live ; that they 
 " ascend with Him, and sit with Him in heavenly 
 " places ; that they are Priests of God and Christ ; 
 " that they reign together with Him ; and that with 
 " Him they judge the world. Therefore — Blessed and 
 " holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection!' 
 
 Thus, that which was the Church's curse, shame, 
 and apostasy, in that it refused to follow the steps- 
 
 ** These sermons appear to have been preached in West- 
 minster Abbey as well as before the University of Cam- 
 bridge. It should be observed that wherever there is a deli- 
 berate substitution of the word "a//<^r" for "table," there 
 is a virtual abjuration of Protestantism. 
 
,364 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 of the Lord Jesus, and resolved, laying aside the 
 garb of Nazareth, "to reign as kings" whilst Satan 
 continued to be the god of this world — that step of 
 apostasy taken immediately after the Apostles died, 
 ratified in the time of Constantine and not since 
 repented of, Bishop Wordsworth glories in. He 
 calls it reigning with Christ. He should rather have 
 said, reigning with Satan. Even before the Apostles 
 died, the disposition to exalt themselves in the world 
 by means of God's Truth, and to reign as kings be- 
 fore the time, was manifested ; but the Apostles 
 checked it. "Already ye are full," said the Apostle 
 Paul to the Church at Corinth, "already ye are 
 rich, ye have reigned as kings without us : and 
 I would to God ye did reign, that we also might 
 
 reign with you We are fools for Christ's sake, 
 
 but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are 
 strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. 
 ; . . . . we are made as the filth of the world, and 
 are the offscouring of all things unto this day." 
 Such was the place which the Apostles held, and 
 while they lived, the Churches were not permitted 
 quite to abandon it. 
 
 There was a period in the history of the Lord 
 Jesus when the multitudes wished " to come and 
 take him by force and make him a king." They 
 had discovered that He was possessed of mighty 
 powers, and they deemed those powers available 
 for the promotion of their worldly interests. They 
 -wished Him to sanction their principles, and to be- 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 365 
 
 come their leader in the vicious paths that they 
 were seeking to tread. In a word, they desired 
 Him to take the headship of human things as 
 they at present are. If He had consented to do 
 this, they would gladly have owned Him as their 
 Lord and Master. But He consented not He 
 came to bear witness for God and for His Truth, 
 and -to declare that " the foundations of all things 
 were out of course " ; that, consequently, essential 
 change was needed, not modification. When, there- 
 fore, they found that He would not yield to their se- 
 ductions, or sanction their principles, and that there 
 was, as it were, "a hiding of His face from them,""^ 
 they despised, hated, and at last crucified Him. 
 One aspect of the Cross is, that it is the abiding 
 memorial of the distance which separates unregene- 
 rate man from God. Man reared the Cross, and 
 nailed thereunto the only One in the earth in 
 whom God delighted. They crucified One who was 
 indeed man, holy, perfect, and blessed, but One who 
 was also God their Creator. So far from having 
 been brought nearer to God either by the Incar- 
 nation, or by the Death or by the Resurrection of 
 Jesus, the world has gone into further distance 
 from Him, for it has seen, considered, and spurned 
 Him and His Truth. '*The whole world," said the 
 Apostle, "lieth in the Wicked one." This was 
 true before the Incarnation, and it is true still. The 
 
 ^ See these words considered in "Thoughts on Scriptural 
 Subjects," page 192, as advertised at end. 
 
366 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Church was chosen out of the world in order that 
 it might bear witness to the fact of the world's 
 condition, and also that it might testify to grace. 
 All true believers (not those who may, like Simon 
 Magus, have been baptised) having a legal oneness 
 with Him who obeyed, died, and rose in their 
 stead, and having also a living union with Him 
 through the Spirit, are representatively in Heaven, 
 and in that sense are exalted : but they are not 
 personally in Heaven. Personally they are on earth, 
 appointed for the present, not to reign, but to 
 suffer: to be persecuted even as their Lord was 
 persecuted. To know "tribulation" and "endur- 
 ance" is the present portion of those who are "in 
 the kingdom in Jesus ;" yea, to seek as their 
 highest honour not to reign as kings, but to lose 
 their lives in this world, and to suffer. For a 
 little while, the Churches walked in this path; but 
 ivhen the Apostles died, they corrupted themselves. 
 They sought influence and aggrandisement in the 
 world by means of Christ's Truth. They adulte- 
 rated the doctrines, and lowered the principles of 
 Christ into adaptation to the world's thoughts. 
 Adulterated Christianity soon won the world's fa- 
 vour; for it was found serviceable to men's present 
 interests. Accordingly, to debased and fallen 
 Christianity, kingship was tendered, and thus, to 
 use the expression of a modern writer, " Chris- 
 tianity ascended the throne of the Ccesarsl* It en- 
 throned itself and apostatized. Nor has the sin 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 367 
 
 been repented of. On the contrary, it is rejoiced 
 in and extolled; and although not frequently mag- 
 nified in words so jubilant as those I have just 
 quoted from Bishop Wordsworth, yet the general 
 sentiment of Christendom has been, and is, that 
 the Church is at present enthroned, or designed to 
 be enthroned, on Zion and reigning with Christ. 
 Orientals, Papists, Protestants, Conformists, and 
 Nonconformists, have alike welcomed the delusion 
 and fallen into the deadly snare. Nor will Chris- 
 tendom as a whole ever repent of their early sin. 
 A remnant, as in Israel of old, will be gathered 
 out; but Christendom as a whole will not retrace 
 its steps. A large portion of it — all that is in- 
 cluded in the name 'H OlKov/xevr], will avowedly 
 reject Jehovah and Christ, and gather around Anti- 
 christ. The rest of Christendom, though it will not 
 in the same way governmentally apostatize, will 
 nevertheless teem with infidelity and false profes- 
 :sion. "Tares," "bad fishes," "foolish virgins," 
 ^* wicked servants," " goats," " fruitless branches " 
 in the vine, will abound. The nations have never 
 ceased to be deceived by Satan. They have never 
 truly been brought to Christ. His true servants 
 have ever been "a little flock" — "lambs in the 
 midst of wolves." The path of "the just" will 
 surely not widen : it will become more and more 
 narrow, as the closing hour comes on. 
 
368 
 
 § V. 
 
 Will "the morning without clouds" ever arise 
 upon this groaning earth ? That is a solemn 
 question. We have seen the way in which the 
 Teachers of Christendom are wont to answer it. 
 They reply, " It will never arise in any other way 
 than that in which it has already risen. The true 
 light has already come. Has it not shone? And is 
 it not shining still"? Yes; it has shone. "The 
 Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness 
 comprehended it not." The darkness of Heathen- 
 ism has not departed. The darkness of Judaism 
 has not departed. The darkness that has come in 
 over Christendom has not departed. On the con- 
 trary, it is increasing every day; as the present 
 condition of our own once favoured country abun- 
 dantly testifies. Before "the morning without 
 clouds" can come, the earth must be brought 
 under the present controlling power of One that 
 is ^^jnst, riding i7i the fear of God'' — One who shall 
 not only be strong enough to grasp "the sons of 
 Belial," but who, after having grasped and gathered 
 them, shall cause them to be "utterly burned 
 with fire in the same place." "The sons of Belial 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 369 
 
 shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because 
 they cannot be taken with hands; but the man 
 that shall touch them must be fenced with iron 
 and the staff of a spear; and they shall be utterly 
 burned with fire in the same place." (2 Sam. xxiii. 
 6, 7.) The sons of Belial are not yet thrust away 
 and burned. Their strength increases, and will in- 
 crease greatly. He whose coming is to be as the 
 light of the morning when the sun riseth has not yet 
 returned in the greatness of His strength to grasp 
 them; and until He shall thus return, "the morn- 
 ing without clouds " cannot be. " Watchman, what 
 of the night f Watchman, what 0/ the night ? '* is 
 still the enquiry amongst God's people. "The 
 morning COMETH" is part of the reply; but, it 
 is added, ''also the night!' We have long been in the 
 night, but its darkest hour — the hour that imme- 
 diately precedes the dawn, is yet to come. There 
 have already been " many antichrists " ; but " THE 
 antichrist" has not yet been revealed. It is 
 well for us to remember that if, of old, Israel took 
 the lead in rejecting Christ, Christendom is now 
 foremost in preparing the way of Antichrist. The 
 ten kings that are to "have one mind,'' and "agree 
 to give their kingdom and power" to him, are 
 Gentile Kings. They will be kings whose king- 
 doms are to be formed out of h oikoymenh, the 
 Roman World; and the nations of the Roman 
 World once were, and many of them still are, the 
 very centre and soul of Christendom. 
 
 B B 
 
370 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 The Western nations of the Roman World are 
 now engaged not only in ^^ changing'^ (I do not 
 say, re-modelling) their own institutions, but they 
 are intent also on resuscitating those Eastern coun- 
 tries whence Western civilization was derived. 
 They are re-entering the regions in which the 
 Patriarchs, and the Prophets, and Ci-IRTST, and 
 the Apostles testified. They are re-entering that 
 Land which God has claimed as peculiarly His 
 own and named it Immanuel's Land. They are 
 re-entering the lands which God has prophesied 
 of by name — lands which He has already, because 
 of past iniquities, smitten, but which are again to 
 become the platform of the last developments of 
 the counsels of men — lands whose course, and 
 whose doom, God has pourtrayed with faithful 
 accuracy in His holy Word. Those lands Western 
 Europe is now re-entering to mould them anew, 
 and is fashioning them according to its own prin- 
 ciples. And what are those principles.'* God has 
 given them their name. He calls them principles 
 of Lawlessness (anomia), that is to say, a lawless 
 licentiousness of thought and action, that boasts 
 in having set itself free from all restrictions that 
 come from Him, Men will say both of Jehovah 
 and of Christ, "Let us break their bonds asunder, 
 and cast away their cords from us.'* 
 
 Sometimes in the history of the world incidents 
 occur, trivial in themselves and transitory, but not 
 without significance to those who watch the signs 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 37 1 
 
 of the times in the light of the Word of God. A 
 few years ago the reign of Ecclesiasticism and 
 Mediaevalism in Rome suddenly collapsed. The 
 power which Ecclesiasticism had so long wielded 
 over that city was transferred into other hands. 
 Sacerdotalism retired, and Secularism entered — 
 entered on an inheritance whose condition seemed 
 fitly to indicate the character of the rule of its 
 former lords. Storm, tempest, and devastating 
 floods had visited Rome. The Tiber had over- 
 flowed its banks, and was rushing through the 
 streets of the city. Famished and homeless mul- 
 titudes were wandering in search of food and 
 shelter; but there was no kindly care extended, 
 no voice to direct, no hand to succour. On a dark 
 and stormy night, summoned by their cry of an- 
 guish, the new Monarch of Rome entered. As 
 soon as the morning dawned he went forth to 
 view the scene, and took his stand in front of the 
 Capitol, there to inaugurate his reign. 
 
 Behind him therefore, was the symbol of the 
 departed greatness of Pagan Rome — the memorial 
 of a period of darkness, misery and evil, the real 
 character of which eternity only will unfold. Be- 
 fore him stood the yet unruined trophies of Rome's 
 Ecclesiastical greatness ; but over them all dark- 
 ness brooded, and from them the wail of distress 
 came. An instructed eye, whether looking back 
 upon the past, or contemplating the present, could 
 see nothing but misery there — misery for time — 
 B B 2 
 
372 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 misery for eternity. Such was the scene in the 
 midst of which Rome's new Deliverer appeared. 
 Rome's ancient history, and Rome's mediaeval his- 
 tory had closed. Victor Immanuel could truly say 
 to the stricken multitude that stood before him,. 
 "The past has brought to you no prosperity. It 
 has brought you no deliverance from desolation, 
 and misery, and woe. Ye need a deliverer." What 
 if he had taken the Bible in his hand and said, 
 "Let Him who wrote this book be your Deliverer. 
 Seek ye unto Him. Pour out your heart before 
 Him, ye peoples. God is a refuge for us." But he 
 spake not, he thought not, of this. He stood there 
 as the impersonation of modern principles, that he 
 might present himself acting in the power of those 
 new principles as their Deliverer. His words vir- 
 tually were, " Follow me as your leader and guide, 
 and I will show you what human energy can effect 
 when its bonds are rent, and its proper liberty of 
 thought and action restored." Self-government is 
 the idol of the day. It is one of the forms under 
 which man worships himself It is being tried in 
 the West; it is to be introduced into the East as 
 the panacea of the evils under which Syria, Asia 
 Minor, Greece, and Egypt, have so long groaned. 
 But self-government is not the government of God. 
 Men even if perfect, as the angels are, would still 
 need to be governed. But what must self-govern- 
 ment entail when men are not only not perfect, but 
 instinct with various forms of evil, more numerous 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 373 
 
 than the hairs of the head, and surrounded also 
 by spirits of darkness whose multitude no man 
 can number? 
 
 England has been the country in which self- 
 government has been longest tried. And to what 
 is it leading England? There seemed to be dis- 
 guised, but bitter irony, in the words recently ad- 
 dressed by the Prime Minister to the House of 
 Commons when he reminded them that having 
 retired from the positions which they once held 
 — first, as an assembly of Churchmen, then of 
 Protestants, then of Christians, they need not hesi- 
 tate to carry out their principle to its legitimate 
 conclusion, and profess themselves to be, 7'eligiously, 
 nothing. " The narrow ledge of Theism " was all 
 that was left, and was it worth while to fight for 
 the maintenance of that } Expediency is the great 
 rule of natural and social life now ; therefore, if ex- 
 pediency requires that atheists should be admitted 
 as legislators, it must be so. England consents 
 to accept as one of her future axioms that men 
 who deny the existence of God, and spurn the 
 Bible, are as well, it may be better qualified to 
 govern, than those who fear God, and own the 
 authority of His Word. Daniel and Paul did not 
 think so. Else they would not have said what 
 they did say to Nebuchadnezzar and to Belshaz- 
 zar, to Festus and to Agrippa. Yet both Daniel 
 and Paul spoke as the divinely-inspired messengers 
 -of God. But who or what is God, and what the 
 
374 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 value of His Word, when compared with the 
 majesty, and dignity, and scope of modern 
 thought and "the higher culture?" So saith the 
 fool. Society listens, and obeys. 
 
375 
 
 §VI. 
 
 If it be asked what will the end of these things 
 be, the Scripture supplies an unambiguous answer. 
 The present efforts of Western Europe to resusci- 
 tate the East, and then to indoctrinate it with 
 modern principles, will ultimately succeed. The 
 unerring (though despised) voice of God has de- 
 clared that a system of governmental lawlessness 
 (avofiia) is to be established in the land of Shinar."^ 
 That such a system has been long in process of 
 construction in the West is too obvious to need 
 proof. The question, whether the force of the 
 rules and principles that are to guide society, is to 
 be founded on the authority of God, or merely on 
 the authority of man, has been long considered, 
 and been determined in favour of man. The ignore- 
 ment of laws, natural and revealed, hitherto recog- 
 nised as proceeding from God, and the ignorement 
 in many cases of the fact of His existence, must 
 necessarily introduce a radical change into the 
 order of society. The principles of this new and 
 
 ■^ See Zech. v. 5, as considered in " Prospects of the Ten 
 Kins^doms." 
 
^6 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 godless system may be said to be accepted now, 
 though its rules are not yet matured and codified. 
 The time is not yet fully come for their embodi- 
 ment and promulgation, and when it has come, the 
 promulgation will be from "the Land of Shinar," 
 where the recognised Areopagus of the Ten King- 
 doms of the Roman World will be. Assyria and 
 the Valley of the Euphrates will soon become the 
 great sphere of human action. Those names will 
 soon be as familiar to the ears of men as Greece 
 and Egypt, Athens, and Cairo, now are. 
 
 At present, however, the way is being prepared 
 merely. " The Transgressors " (see Dan. viii. 23) 
 are not yet " come to the full," nor will they, until 
 apostatising Europe has first practised upon Israel, 
 and drawn them, as a nation, into avowed as- 
 sociation with its godlessness. Israel is not quite 
 prepared for such association now. Although tin- 
 convertedy when first they return to their own Land, 
 they will nevertheless stand (for a time at least) 
 in favourable contrast with the empty pretentious 
 Scepticism, and the debasing Idolatries that are now 
 spreading over Europe. They will not consent to 
 disown Jehovah as their God ; or to charge un- 
 truthfulness on Moses and the Prophets. They 
 have not yet forgotten that David has said, "The 
 fool hath said in his heart. There is no God'*; 
 and the Psalm that contains those words, they will, 
 no doubt, chant in their Temple with a keen 
 sense of its being before their eyes fulfilled. Never- 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 377 
 
 theless, having rejected the One Shepherd, they 
 will have with them no adequate power to cope 
 with the Destroyer. The subtilty and blandish- 
 ments of European Antichristianism will surround 
 them. On them too the power of the coming de- 
 lusion will in all its intensity fall, and they also 
 shall believe the last great lie of Satan, and be 
 even foremost in sustaining it. When the apostate 
 Jew shall join with the apostate Gentile (whether 
 such Gentile be nominally Christian or Heathen) 
 in avowedly repudiating the authority of an unseen 
 Supreme Ruler greater than themselves, the Trans- 
 gressors will have come to the full; Lawless- 
 ness will have been enshrined in the Land of 
 Shinar; and THE ANTICHRIST will have been re- 
 vealed. 
 
 How marvellous the blindness that has for ages 
 rested on true Christians, so as utterly to prevent 
 their recognising the future of Assyria as deli- 
 neated in the Word of God. If they think of 
 Assyria at all, they think of it as a country that 
 once was, but which has vanished now, and sunk 
 into the grave of ages never to rise again. Yet 
 Assyria is to be revived — revived first by man in 
 order to defy God in a manner in which no nation 
 or country has ever yet defied Him : afterward it 
 is to be revived again under the hand of God, in 
 order that it may serve and glorify Him, and be- 
 come a blessing in the earth. Although it will be 
 one of the chief agents of Satan in the coming 
 
37^ AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 night of evil : it will also be one of the chief in- 
 struments of God for good when "the morning 
 without clouds" shall have come. 
 
 Read the nineteenth chapter of Isaiah. The 
 bruising and healing of EGYPT is there first 
 spoken of. Egypt has not yet been healed. When; 
 once it has been healed, it will be healed effec- 
 tually and for ever. A terrible blow more crush- 
 ing than any it has yet received, impends over 
 E^ypt- Yet, even Egypt is to be finally forgiven.. 
 Its healing is mentioned; and then the chapter 
 proceeds to speak of Assyria, " In that day shall 
 there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and 
 the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyp- 
 tian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve 
 him with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel 
 be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a 
 blessing in the midst of the earth [V^isn] : whom 
 the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying. Blessed be 
 Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my 
 hands, and Israel mine inheritance." This will be 
 when " the morning without clouds " shall have come. 
 
 But Assyria will have a dark and awful history 
 first. Assyria and her last great Monarch (soon 
 to appear) will be at the head of the Apostasy 
 that ends the history of this evil age. Asshur [nit2?s] 
 is the great denominative title of Antichrist in the 
 Old Testament Scriptures. Sometimes he is called 
 '' the King of Babylon " ; sometimes " Asshur." 
 These names are used interchangeably, even in the 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 379 
 
 same chapter. (See Isaiah xiv.) As the Head of 
 Assyria he leads the last great Apostasy against 
 God; seduces, and then betrays the Jews; tramples 
 them down as the mire of the streets ; places his 
 Idol on the pinnacle of their Temple ; destroys in 
 Jerusalem the two Witnesses ; sacks Jerusalem^ 
 and carries half the people into captivity; again 
 assaults Jerusalem with the view of blotting it out 
 utterly, that the name of Israel might be no more 
 had in remembrance, when, suddenly, the great 
 Head of Israel will interfere, forgive and rescue 
 Jerusalem, and the kingdom of God will come. 
 ''Let the Gentiles [D>i:in] be awakened, and come 
 up to the valley of Jehoshaphat : for there will I 
 sit to judge all the Gentiles round about. Put 
 ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe : come, get 
 you down; for the press is full, the fats over- 
 flow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes^ 
 multitudes in the valley of decision : for the day of 
 the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The 
 sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars 
 shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall 
 roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jeru- 
 salem ; and the heavens and the earth shall shake ; 
 but the Lord will be the hope of His people, and 
 the strength of the children of Israel. So shall 
 ye know that I am the Lord your God. dwelling 
 in Zion, My holy mountain : then shall Jerusalem 
 be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through 
 her any more." 
 
380 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 One of the most remarkable descriptions of the 
 glory and fall of the great Head of Assyria is 
 found in \hQ fourtee7tih chapter of Isaiah — a chapter 
 the more to be noted, because the most careful 
 expositors of Isaiah, such as Vitringa, Bishop Lowth, 
 and Bishop Horsley, admit that that chapter has 
 not yet been fulfilled. They admit that it gives 
 us a prophetic sketch of the course and fall of the 
 last great Head of the Gentiles. In admitting 
 this they virtually admit the revival of Assyria and 
 Babylon, as well as the futurity of all other chap- 
 ters (such as Isaiah x.) which speak of the same 
 personage, and the same period — the period being 
 marked by its being the time when God rescues, 
 and forgives Israel, and restores them to His fa- 
 vour for evermore. Israel is not yet forgiven. 
 The indignation of the Lord against them hath 
 not yet passed. They are not yet " blessed in 
 basket and in store, blessed in their going out 
 and in their coming in." All nations do not yet 
 " call them blessed." " It shall come to pass in the 
 day that the Lord shall give thee [Israel] rest 
 from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from thy 
 hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, 
 that [theuy not before] thou take up this proverb 
 against the King of Babylon, and say, How hath 
 the oppressor ceased ! the golden city ceased ! " 
 (Isaiah xiv. 3.) The rise, therefore, and glory, and fall 
 of this great Oppressor must be accomplished be- 
 fore Israel is forgiven. He it is who shall head 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 38 1 
 
 **the sons of Belial who are to be gathered and 
 utterly burned with fire in the same place/' "The 
 Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have 
 thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have 
 purposed, so shall it stand : that I will break THE 
 ASSYRIAN in my land, and upon my mountains 
 tread him under foot : then shall his yoke depart 
 from off them [Israel], and his burden depart from 
 off their [Israel's] shoulders. This is the purpose that 
 is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand 
 that is stretched oict over all nations. For the Lord 
 of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul 
 it? and His hand is stretched out, and who shall 
 turn it back ? " 
 
 Will any one affirm that any event has ever 
 occurred in the Land of Israel, or anywhere else 
 throughout the wide earth, that has resulted in the 
 forgiveness of Israel, and in the accomplishment of 
 the purpose for which from the beginning, the hand 
 of Jehovah has been ^'stretched out over all the na- 
 tionsr 
 
 It will be an awful hour in the world's history 
 when the lips of God shall really say, '' Ho^ 
 Assyrian',' and so give him a charge against 
 Israel " to take the spoil, and to take the prey, 
 and to tread them down like the mire of the 
 streets." (See Isaiah x.) The kings of the whole Ro- 
 man World (t?;? oZ/cou/xei/T^? 0X779) and their armies, 
 will by Him be summoned to Armageddon in the 
 vicinity of Carmel. To this mighty power a vast 
 
382 AIDS TO PROniETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 addition will suddenly be made by the accession of 
 the Arabians and others of the kindred of Israel. 
 The enumeration of these added nations is thus 
 given in the eighty-third Psalm. "The tabernacles 
 of Edom, and the Ishmaelites ; of Moab, and the 
 Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the 
 Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assur also 
 is joined with them ; they have holpen the children 
 of Lot." (Ps. Ixxxiii. 6 — 8.) The object of this 
 mighty confederation — more mighty than any that 
 the world has ever yet seen, will be the utter de- 
 struction of Israel and of Jerusalem. " Come, and 
 let us cut them off from being a nation ; that the 
 name of Israel may be no more in remembrance." 
 See verse 4. With this object THE ASSYRIAN 
 will advance upon Jerusalem. His progress is re- 
 corded thus. " He is come to Aiath, he is passed 
 to Migron ; at Michmash he hath laid up his car- 
 riages : they are gone over the passage : they have 
 taken up their lodging at Geba ; Ramah is afraid ; 
 Gibeah of Saul is fled. Lift up thy voice, O 
 daughter of Gallim : cause it to be heard unto 
 Laish, O poor Anathoth. Madmenah is removed; 
 the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee. 
 As yet shall he remain at Nob that day : he shall 
 shake his hand against the mount of the daughter 
 of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. Behold, the Lord, 
 the Lord of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror : 
 and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, 
 and the haughty shall be humbled. And he shall 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. 383 
 
 cut down the thickets of the forest with Iron, and 
 Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one." (Isaiah x. 
 28 — 34.) The proud power of the Gentiles shall 
 fall, and shall never rise again. Are we to be 
 told that this has already been? If so, the Image 
 of which we read in Daniel would have been 
 smitten, ground to powder, and scattered to the 
 four winds of heaven. 
 
 And what is more, the chapter which follows, 
 and which is really another section of the tenth, 
 would have been fulfilled likewise. When the 
 Assyrian falls, " the times of the Gentiles " will 
 'Cnd, and the time will have come (to use the 
 words of Daniel) for "the saints to possess the 
 kingdom.'' Not till then shall " the rod from the 
 stock of Jesse COME FORTH," and "the Branch 
 from his roots FLOURISH," that is, He who is 
 now withdrawn from the earth and hidden in the 
 heavens shall COME FORTH, not again to be as 
 ^'a root out of a dry ground,'' but ^^ shall come 
 forth'' to flourish, and the result shall be righteous 
 judgment in the earth, so that "the poor" and 
 " the meek " (who now suffer) shall be vindicated 
 . and upheld. The earth also, which has hitherto 
 been the subject of His long-suffering mercy, shall 
 be SMITTEN, and the Leader of its rebellion de- 
 stroyed. " He shall smite the earth with the rod 
 of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall 
 He slay The Wicked One." Even if the Apostle 
 liad not quoted and explained these words in 
 
384 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 2 Thess. ii. 8, no one who had regard to facts 
 could doubt the futurity of the event spoken of 
 
 Wickedness, falsehood, and misery, shall fall : 
 righteousness, truth, and peace, enter. Such is the 
 subject of this chapter. The wolf shall prey upon 
 the lamb no longer: they shall dwell in peace to- 
 gether. The lion, as in Paradise, shall feed on the 
 fruits of the'^field. The Land of Israel, for ages the 
 resting-place of lamentation, darkness, mourning, 
 and woe, shall be *' filled with the knowledge of 
 the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." None shall 
 hurt nor destroy in all God's holy mountain. 
 Ephraim and Judah shall no longer vex each other,, 
 but shall be gathered back to the Land from which 
 they have been driven, and dwell in peace together. 
 The tongue or bay of the Egyptian sea which has 
 ever severed, and still severs Egypt from the Land 
 of Israel, shall sever it no longer; for it is to be 
 dried up. Egypt is to be brought into close and 
 blessed association with ImmanueFs Land. So- 
 also is Assyria. " The river," that is the Euph- 
 rates,"^ is to be smitten (not in^ but) " into [ ? not 4IJ 
 seven streams, and men shall pass over it dry- 
 shod" [eV v7roir)ixaai, Sept., with their sandals on].. 
 What nations hitherto have been more divided — 
 
 ■^ The reasons for saying that "the River," which is to 
 be "smitten mto seven streams," means the Euphrates are 
 elaborately given by Vitringa i7i locum. He observes "UBi 
 inj dTrXcos occurrit passim tistirpatur de Euphrate." See 
 also Alexander t7i loaun. 
 
REMARKS ON BISHOP WORDSWORTH. • 385 
 
 what more set in hostile and jealous rivalry against 
 each other than Assyria, Israel, and Egypt? But 
 when the time spoken of in the eleventh of Isaiah 
 comes they shall be divided no longer. Linked in 
 hallowed brotherhood, they shall be a blessing in 
 the earth. " In that day shall Israel be the third 
 with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing m 
 the midst of the land : whom the Lord of hosts 
 shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, 
 and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel 
 mine inheritance/' (Isaiah xix. 24.) Shall we say 
 that these things are accomplished 1 We may say 
 so, if we please. Christendom has said so. It might 
 just as truly have said that we are now in Para- 
 dise, and that Adam had never fallen. When the 
 testimonies of God and the plainest evidence of 
 facts are rejected, it can be of little use to argue. 
 A cloud has settled in which nothing but the in- 
 tervention of God's almighty power can remove. 
 
 If we ignore all that the Scripture has revealed 
 respecting the specific characteristics of the present 
 night of evil — if we ignore also all the agencies 
 that are to introduce the morning of deliverance, 
 and all the characteristics of the succeeding Day, 
 what remains to us of Truth? Bishop Words- 
 worth's system affords no place for the history of 
 Assyria, or of Egypt, or of Israel, either during 
 the coming period of their evil greatness, or during 
 the subsequent period of their blessing. The facts 
 of Scripture are buried by him in the darkness of 
 
 c c 
 
386 * AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 a wild Origenism. His principles would lead us 
 back to the days of Constantine, and would make 
 us what Eusebius was, a worshipper of Constantine 
 and Constantine^s principles. Yet what seed-prin- 
 ciple of Popery is there that was not germinant, and 
 more than germinant, in Constantine's time? You 
 may divest Romanism of its political and practi- 
 cal configurations, yet doctrinal Romanism remains. 
 Evidently, in Bishop Wordsworth's judgment, Satan 
 was more manifestly bound during the age of Con- 
 stantine than in any other part of the past thousand 
 years of the saints' supposed reign. Armageddon, 
 which Scripture places before the thousand years of 
 blessing, Bishop Wordsworth places after. No un- 
 important alteration this. He thinks the gathering 
 to Armageddon to be nigh. Satan will be loosed 
 and the Holy City, and the camp of the saints 
 assailed, and that then'^ all will end. What he thinks 
 the Holy City and the camp of the saints to be, 
 does not clearly appear. That his thoughts on 
 that, as well as all kindred subjects, are utterly 
 opposed to the Scripture, is, alas, too evident. 
 
33/ 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 REMARKS ON INDEFECTIBILITY. 
 
 Indefectibility, that is, perpetuity of continu- 
 ance in a condition of privilege or blessedness pos- 
 sessed, can only attach to creatures by the ap- 
 pointment of God. As He only can give, so He 
 only can preserve blessedness that has been given. 
 In Heaven, the condition of the elect angels is in- 
 defectible, because God has appointed that so it 
 should be. In earth, the condition of man in 
 Paradise might have been made indefectible ; but it 
 pleased God to appoint otherwise. No corporate 
 body that has hitherto been constituted in the 
 earth, has been called into an indefectible con- 
 dition of blessing. Yet there is a body to which 
 the promise of an indefectible standing in the earth"^ 
 
 ^' I emphasise the words " m the earth^^ because I am 
 not here speaking of the invisible Church, consisting of all 
 the elect of all Dispensations from Abel down to the last 
 individual that shall be gathered into the fold of faith dur- 
 ing the Millennium. The standing in Christ of each indi- 
 "vidual believer is indefectible from the moment he believes ; 
 and the standing of the whole Church corporately will be 
 indefectible, when they shall be gathered together as one 
 glorified body in the new Heavens and new earth, in " the 
 
 C C 2 
 
388 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 is given. It is promised, not to Gentile Christen- 
 dom, for Christendom, like Israel before, has failed r 
 it has not continued in God's goodness, and there- 
 Dispensation of the fulness of times." Of this I am not now- 
 speaking. What I have said is, that no visible body as yet 
 constituted (whether Israel, or those gathered at Pentecost) 
 had bestowed on them the privilege of indefectible standing 
 in the earth — that is, no pledge was given them that they 
 should corporately retain the privileged and honoured posi- 
 tion in which they were at first set. Israel, who were first 
 called into such a position, were cut off, and a similar ab- 
 scission {aTTOTOfxia) was threatened to Christendom if it con- 
 tinued not in God's goodness. It has not continued in 
 God's goodness. Scripture predicted this ; and present facts 
 attest it. 
 
 The words, "I am with you alway, even unto the end of 
 the age"' {al(ovos), were addressed to the Apostles — not to 
 the Church, or Churches gathered by them. The Apostles 
 Avere the Legislators of the Church. In that office they 
 have no successors. Their testimony was inspired testimony. 
 It was committed to writing, that it might be an abiding 
 testimony, and by it Christ works every day, and will con- 
 tinue so to work, even " till the end of the age." No new 
 testimony will be sanctioned by Him as authoritative. 
 
 The false interpretation of this text has deceived multi- 
 tudes unto destruction. If there were a body now existing 
 in the earth to whom God had granted an authoritative and 
 indefectible standing, it would be an act of rebellion against 
 Him if we did not join it : but it would be no less an act 
 of rebellion to join a body that falsely assumed such autho- 
 rity. To own a false Church, is as great a sin, as to own a 
 false Christ. 
 
 The Church of Rome is a body that has so rioted in ini- 
 quity, as to make even unregenerate men shudder. To 
 
REMARKS ON INDEFECTIBILITY. 389 
 
 fore shall be "cut off." The body to which 
 it is promised is Israel, when the day of their 
 blindness having passed, they shall be brought 
 as a natioUy under the New Covenant of grace. 
 " The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto 
 them that turn from transgression in Jacob, 
 saith the Lord. As for Me, this is My cove- 
 nant with them, saith the Lord ; My Spirit that 
 is upon thee, and my words which I have put 
 in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy motiih, 
 nor oitt of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of 
 the mouth of thy seeds seed, saith the Lord, from 
 henceforth ajid for ever. Arise, shine; for thy light 
 is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon 
 thee. . . . Thy sun shall no more go dozvn ; neither 
 shall thy moon zvithdraw itself : for the Lord shall 
 be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy 
 
 ascribe to such a body the attributes of an unfallen Church, 
 is an act either of wicked perverseness seeking to deceive, 
 or else an act of madness. Was it said to the Church in 
 Ephesus, simply because it had left its first love, "I will re- 
 move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent," 
 and has no similar sentence been pronounced over a Church 
 which once shone as a lamp of God's sanctuary in Rome, 
 but now stands there as a synagogue of Satan .^ 
 
 They who desire to partake of the blessing promised to 
 the Apostles, must seek to abide in the Truth which they 
 ministered. They who depart from that Truth, and teach 
 other things, even though they be true believers, must ex- 
 pect chastisement — not blessing. 
 
390 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 mourning shall be ended. Thy people also shall 
 be all righteo2is : they shall inherit the land for 
 ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my 
 hands, that I may be glorified." (Is. lix. and Ix.)- 
 These words are conclusive as to the indefectibility 
 of the standing of converted Israel. They "shall 
 be ALL righteous : they shall inherit the land for 
 ever." The words which God shall put into their 
 mouth shall not depart out of their mouth for ever. 
 And as their standing in righteousness and truth 
 is to be indefectible, indefectibility attaches also 
 to the place of supremacy assigned to them in the 
 earth. " To thee shall it come, even the first 
 dominion ; the kingdom shall come to the daughter 
 of Jerusalem." (Micah iv. 8.) "The nation and 
 kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, 
 those kingdoms shall be utterly wasted." Such, 
 supremacy indeed is the necessary result of having 
 IMMANUEL for their king. He it is that "shall 
 have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river 
 unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in. 
 the wilderness shall bow before him; and his ene- 
 mies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish 
 and of the isles shall bring presents : the kings of 
 Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings 
 shall fall down before him : all nations shall serve 
 
 him His name shall endure for ever: his 
 
 name shall be continued as long as the sun : and 
 men shall be blessed in him : all nations shalj call, 
 him blessed." (Ps. Ixxii. 8—17.) 
 
REMARKS ON INDEFECTIBILITY. 39I 
 
 Such is the promised heritage of Israel, Know 
 ing the tendencies of man's nature, we cannot won- 
 der that Gentile Christendom should have coveted 
 that inheritance. "Wise in their own conceits/ 
 Gentile Christians early began to boast themselves 
 against Israel ; to speak of them as having for- 
 feited their ancient blessings, and to arrogate to 
 themselves glories that are reserved for Israel and 
 Je7'usalem alone. 
 
 When, in the days of Constantine^ " Christianity 
 ascended the throne of the Caesars," the true doc- 
 trine of the Millennium received its death-blow. 
 How could that be waited for that had already 
 come ? Was there not a present King, present 
 exaltation, present glory ? The Dragon was van- 
 quished; Christ had triumphed. Zion was estab- 
 lished. Such was the prevailing sentiment of the 
 day. 
 
 '*The history," says a recent writer, "of this age (the 
 fourth century) opens badly. Eusebius is a semi-Arian, a 
 rationalist, and almost a praaterist. In prophecy he can 
 believe nothing but what he sees ; he must be shown a 
 
 fulfilment either in history or in passing events 
 
 At first he received the Apocalypse : since he explained 
 the seven seals as the obscurities of the Old Testament 
 prophecies, which Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, 
 now opens. Afterwards, the establishment of Christianity 
 seemed to interfere with the literal millennium ; and then 
 Eusebius vnist needs reject both Apocalypse and Mtllen7zlum." 
 
 " Lastly, Constantine begins to rebuild Jerusalem as a 
 Christian city : and now the Apocalypse seems to be thought 
 
392 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 of again, for this may be, perhaps, the beginning of the new 
 JencsaleinJ^* — Maitland's "Apostolic School of Prophetic In- 
 terpretation." 
 
 ^ The words of Eusebius are : " It may be that this was 
 that second and new Jerusalem spoken of in the predictions 
 of the Prophets, concerning which such abundant testimony 
 is given in the divinely-inspired records." (See Eusebius, 
 " Life of Constantino," lib. iii. ch. 33.) 
 
 Constantine's words were, " Now that the Dragon is re- 
 moved from the administration of affairs, through the pro- 
 vidence of the supreme God, and by my instrumentality, I 
 imagine that the divine power has been made clear to all 
 men." (" Vita Constantini," lib. ii. ch. 46.) 
 
 Such being the temper of the day, we cannot wonder 
 that Jerome and others who had been trained in this at- 
 mosphere should, in expounding such a Psalm as the Ixxii., 
 comment thus : " He shall come down like rain upon the 
 mown grass [or according to Jerome "fleece"] as showers 
 that water the earth." Jerome understands this of the incar- 
 nation, for like as "when the rain descended on the fleece 
 of Gideon when the earth failed from drought, so He [the 
 Son] passed into the Virgin's womb by the infusion of the 
 Holy Ghost. For the earth of the human body was dry 
 when He came, and was unable to bring forth any fruit of 
 holiness, but He, when He had given it fecundity by the 
 distillings of His own preached Word, filled it with fruit for 
 evermore." 
 
 We read in Is. xxvi. and xxvii. that after the Lord 
 shall have come out of His place to punish the inhabitants 
 of the earth for their iniquity (see Is. xxvi. 21, and com- 
 pare it with Rev. xix. 11), and after He shall have "slain 
 the Dragon that is in the sea (see Is. xxvii. i, and compare 
 it with Rev. xx. i), and after the mystical body of Christ now 
 dead shall have arisen (see Is. xxvi. 19, and compare it 
 
REMARKS ON INDEFECTIBILITY. 393 
 
 The halo of deceiving brightness in which Euse- 
 bius and Constantine had contrived to invest the 
 period in which they lived was soon rudely dissi- 
 pated. Heresy, strife, and persecution, distracted 
 the Church ; bloody and destructive wars devastated 
 the world ; and civilization seemed likely to be 
 swept from the earth by the fierce inroad of bar- 
 
 with Rev. xx. 4), that then, not before, " Israel shall blos- 
 som, and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." 
 {See Is. xxvii.) The earth is replete with "thorns" now-. 
 Jerome and Christendom would have us think that it is 
 filled with the myrtle and the rose. No trifling difference 
 this. The thoughts of men, and the thoughts of God are 
 separated as pole from pole. 
 
 On the words, "zV/ His days shall the righteous flourish, 
 and abundance of peace as long as the moon endureth,^ 
 Jerome observes that this "was fulfilled in the days of 
 Augustus Caesar when the Lord was born (cum Dominus 
 de thalamo virginale processit) for that, at that time all 
 wars ceased in such a manner that that also was ful- 
 filled which another Prophet sang, saying, " They have 
 changed their swords into ploughshares, and their spears 
 into pruning hooks." On the sixteenth verse he ob- 
 serves, that "above all the heights of secular greatness, 
 the grace of baptism, whereby sins are taken away, is 
 exalted : and that, therefore, the saints born again by 
 baptism, shall flourish from the heavenly Jerusalem, shining 
 forth in the adornment of their good works (bonorum 
 operum ornamento splendidi)." The words, "all the earth 
 ■was filled with His glory," were fulfilled when, as we read 
 in the Acts, "the Holy Ghost was poured out on all flesh." 
 Jerome, therefore, could have found little difficulty in assent- 
 ing to all that Constantine and Eusebius had said. 
 
394 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 baric nations. In a little more than a century after 
 the death of Constantine, barbarian hordes domi- 
 nated over Western Europe. The words, Vce preg- 
 na7itibus et nutrientibus (Woe to them that are with 
 child, and to them that give suck) were so constantly 
 in the lips of Jerome that they were said to be his 
 motto : and yet, although the whole earth groaned 
 and was filled with violence, it was still taught, that 
 the saints were reigning, and that the millennial 
 promises were being fulfilled ! ! If war meant 
 peace ; swords, ploughshares ; and anguish, joy, it 
 might have been true. 
 
 It is not to be denied that out of this vortex of 
 universal woe, something that called itself Chris- 
 tianity contrived to raise its head. About the year 
 448, whilst Northern Africa was being occupied by^ 
 the Vandals, and whilst Attila and the Huns were 
 subduing Gaul and Northern Italy, Leo conceived 
 the hope of making Rome the head and centre of 
 the Christiaji world. "The project (says Maitland) 
 was to be carried out by means of two assump- 
 tions : the first, that St. Peter had received the 
 right of exercising dominion over the other 
 Apostles : and the second, that he had been made 
 Bishop of Rome, and had bequeathed to the 
 Church of that city the inheritance of his sup- 
 posed powers." 
 
 In a sermon preached on the festival of Sts. Peter 
 and Paul, Leo thus expressed himself respecting 
 Rome : 
 
REMARKS ON INDEFECTIBILITY. 395 
 
 "These are the men that have promoted thee to sa 
 great glory, that being a holy nation, a chosen people, a 
 royal and priestly city, and made head of the world through 
 the holy seat of the blessed Peter, thou shouldest rule more 
 widely through divine religion, than before by earthly sway. 
 For great as thou didst become by thy many victories, ex- 
 tending by land and by sea thine imperial rule, the toils 
 of war have won thee less than what Christian peace has 
 placed beneath thy feet." 
 
 " This sermon of Leo became in turn a text, upon 
 which his successors loved to dilate. Clement the 
 Eleventh, preaching in 1706, thus hails the fulfil- 
 ment of Leo's hopes : 
 
 " Rome exults in the most firm foundation of the apos- 
 tolic rock : so raised to the summit of human affairs, that 
 she now rules more widely through divine religion, than 
 before by earthly sway. . . . Henceforth thou shalt be called 
 the city of the Just One, the faithful city, the new Jeru- 
 salem ; even the same that John saw coming down from 
 heaven, prepared by God as a bride adorned for her hus- 
 band ; by imitation of which other things become fair, by 
 comparison with which, foul. Hear this, you that inhabit 
 the city of the Holy One, the city of the Just One, the 
 faithful city, the new Jerusalem, by imitation of which other 
 things become fair, by comparison with which, foul. It is 
 monstrous to be in Rome, and not to be holy." 
 
 Whether they who first put forward these proud 
 pretensions really believed their claim to be valid, 
 we will not now enquire. It is very evident that 
 some such conclusion as that which they drew 
 must be deduced from the premises supplied by the 
 
39^ AIDS TO PROPPIETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 instructors of Christendom, who, wellnigh with one 
 voice, affirm that the time for the promised supre- 
 macy of Zion and the reign of the saints is come. 
 The Catechism of Pope Pius IV. is sufficient to show 
 the use that has been made of the deceiving 
 notion. Grant its premises, and we cannot escape 
 the conclusion. Nor can we deny, that if there 
 be such a thing as Revealed Truth, it is utterly 
 impossible that the world should be blessed until 
 that Truth be supreme. TJiat, Reason teaches us. 
 Accordingly, Scripture declares that there is to be 
 a time when Truth shall be supreme. If, there- 
 fore, Satan can deceive any into the belief that the 
 time for the supremacy of Truth is come, and if he 
 •can also induce them to believe that they are the 
 constituted guardians and administrators of that 
 Truth, such men will certainly deem themselves to 
 be the appointed regenerators of the world, and the 
 sure healers of all its woe. They who are once 
 deceived into this notion, are under a spell that 
 no human power can break. Superstition, when 
 it combines itself with ambition, is a terrible force. 
 When strong natural tendencies are stimulated by 
 supposed religious duty, the effect is potent, and 
 the consequences disastrous beyond conception. 
 One spark of deadly falsehood from the pit can 
 kindle a conflagration that may extend to the 
 world's end. 
 
 That this delusion has, since the Anglo-Catholic 
 party appeared, been working potently in England 
 
REMARKS ON INDEFECTIBILITY. 397 
 
 is obvious to all who do not, ostrich-like, bury their 
 eyes, and refuse to see. It is true that many, per- 
 haps the most influential of that party, do not seem 
 inclined to follow fully either Constantine or Leo. 
 They would go back (not, indeed, to the Apostles,, 
 but) to the days BEFORE Constantine, and would 
 found, on other principles than his, and on a basis 
 wider than that which Vaticanism sanctions, a 
 scheme for the union of Apostolic Christendom. 
 Political Vaticanism they abjure; and by the vehe- 
 mence with which they sometimes assail it, they de- 
 ceive many into the belief that they are the ene- 
 mies of docirijial Popery ; though doctrinal Popery 
 they adore. Nor would they refuse, if Christendom 
 were doctrinally one, that it should have a visible 
 symbol of its unity in the precedency (under cer- 
 tain restrictions) of the Chair of Peter. They seem 
 to think that Rome has narrowed her basis too 
 much to be genuinely Catholic. They desire not 
 so much uniformity as unity; and say that he who 
 sits as a Priest upon his throne, destroys the dis- 
 tinctive characteristic of his supremacy, if, forget- 
 ting that his authority is wholly spiritual, he con- 
 descend to place himself on the level of earthly 
 monarchs by wearing a temporal diadem. Secu- 
 larity, in certain aspects, they deem to be Baby- 
 lonianism. Yet Catholic doctrine^ and Catholic 
 dogma, they love with an intensity that Vatican- 
 ism cannot equal. Their doctrine of Develop- 
 ment enables them to be eclectic ; so that they 
 
39^ AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 can select some, and reject other, of the things 
 which InfalKbihty has in past ages sanctioned; 
 for development implies progress, and progress 
 implies alteration ; so that that which may be 
 quite right in the youth-time of Catholicism may 
 be quite wrong in its more mature age. The 
 text, " His [Jehovah's] foundation is in the holy 
 mountains," may be regarded as their motto. 
 Churches whose Priesthood can claim for itself 
 apostolic lineage have their foundations in those 
 ^'holy mountains'*; and such Churches, therefore, 
 are or should be the centre of Jehovah's govern- 
 ment in the earth. To t/iejn the promises made 
 to Zion belong. T/ieir standing is indefectible; 
 and to them all nations shall finally bow. He, 
 therefore, who resists the establishment of Catholic 
 unity as the only right centre of the earth's go- 
 vernment, resists God. Such is a brief, but I be- 
 lieve not untrue outline of the system that has for 
 many years been working potently in England. 
 
 It may seem strange that men belonging to this 
 High School — men who would jeopardise every 
 thing for the maintenance of Catholic Dogma; who 
 hate Radicalism, and loathe and despise Dissent; 
 who believe (and in this they are not wrong) that 
 all power, both in the Church and in the world, 
 comes from God ; who scorn the right of private 
 judgment, and consign all who are not brought 
 into their apostolic circle, to the uncovenanted 
 mercies of God — it may seem strange that such 
 
REMARKS ON INDEFECTIBILITY. 399 
 
 ■men should consent to enter into close political 
 alliance with those who repudiate all dogma, and 
 assert that governments as governments should be 
 atheistic, and maintain that if a man be sincere, it 
 matters little (for purposes of legislation at any 
 Tate) whether he be a Catholic or a Protestant, a 
 Deist or a Blasphemer. It seems strange that 
 men who have drunk in from their earliest years 
 ;the doctrines of Oxford Catholicism, should ally 
 themselves to Destructives, and help the efforts of 
 men who, if they succeed, would root up all an- 
 ^cient land-marks, resolve Society into its elements, 
 and make "men like the fishes of the sea, like 
 •creeping things that have no ruler over them." 
 
 Do, then, these votaries of Neo-Catholicism in- 
 ^deed love chaos, and hate order? No. They hate 
 -chaos, and love order; that is to say, their own 
 order — the order that they approve. The founda- 
 tion of Jehovah is in the "holy mountains." All 
 order, therefore, that hinders and resists the estab- 
 lishment of their "holy mountains," they abhor. 
 Consequently, the present order of society, which 
 does effectually hinder it, they abhor.^ They wish 
 
 "^ Protestant ascendency in Ireland hinders it ; therefore 
 the Protestant Church was disestablished there ; and seeing 
 that the system of Land-tenure in Ireland is a remnant (the 
 last remnant nearly) of Protestant ascendency, that also 
 should be abolished. Protestant ascendency is regarded as 
 the great Upas tree — to be destroyed wherever it exists. 
 
 Mr. Froude, the historian, will not be suspected of any 
 peculiar attachment to Protestantism in any of its forms. 
 
400 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 to destroy it that they may make way for a better 
 order — the order of God's Church — the order of 
 the true Zion — the order to which the promise of 
 indefectible establishment is made. Empires may 
 
 yet even he, in a recent article on the Irish-land Question 
 writes thus : — 
 
 " But there is another and very serious question. What 
 did Mr. Gladstone mean by sanctioning this Act of his Irish 
 Secretary? Mr. Gladstone does not know Ireland well, nor 
 its history well ; but he has attended to both, he has formed 
 views about both, and to some extent must have understood 
 what he was doing. It may have been that he was merely 
 careless, that he wished to please his Irish supporters, to 
 pass pleasantly through the remainder of the Session, and 
 to save himself from bein^ troubled, for a few months at 
 any rate, with Irish disturbances. But Mr. Gladstone is not 
 a person to act in so serious a matter without a clearer 
 purpose, and expressions have dropped from him which be- 
 tray a feeling of another character. The landowners were 
 a branch of the Upas tree, a surviving symbol of Protestant 
 ascendency." 
 
 I am not regarding this question politically. I am not 
 defending either the Irish Church, or anything else in Ire- 
 land. But I cannot close my eyes to the fact, that they 
 who have chiefly contributed to the overthrow of the Estab- 
 lished Church in Ireland, attacked it not because of the 
 evil that was in it, but attacked it because they hated Pro- 
 testant Truth. Shall the servants of Christ for selfish pur- 
 poses, or for any other reasons, co-operate with the haters 
 of God's Truth? If they do, God will not allow them to 
 wield His spirittcal weapons. They will drop out of their 
 hands. They will find themselves partakers of other men's, 
 sins, and will, unless they repent, be smitten with them. 
 
REMARKS ON INDEFECTIBILITY. 4OI 
 
 crumble ; nations fall ; democratic fury may rage, 
 and possibly for a season subvert society. Order 
 may temporarily give place to ruin; yet we, or if 
 not we, our principles, seeing that they belong to 
 *^ the holy mountains," v/ill outlive every storm ; 
 subdue every enemy; come, like "the woman 
 clothed with the sun," out of the wilderness into 
 which Antichristianism may drive us for a season, 
 and so become the new and lasting centre of order 
 and stability to the world. Surely, every thing 
 should be swept away that hinders the attainment 
 of an end such as this. Soldiers who are pre- 
 paring for the defence of a fortress that is about 
 to be besieged, are not accustomed to spare the 
 city that may surround their citadel. They sweep 
 it all away, lest it should supply shelter to the foe, 
 or narrow the scope of their own operations. De- 
 structiveness becomes, under certain circumstances, 
 a virtue. It may be needful to destroy before we 
 can construct. Whilst destroying, we welcome only 
 those who will help us to destroy : when con- 
 structing, we repudiate all who will not help us 
 to construct. The allies of to-day may be cut off 
 to-morrov/. Versatility and change are necessary 
 concomitants of development. 
 
 Many, no doubt, will scoff at all this. They will 
 say, " Such notions, if they anywhere exist, are the 
 wild dreams of fanatics, and will perish under the 
 weight of their own folly." That may be so; yet 
 experience teaches us that energetic fanaticism is 
 
 D D ^/^^ -^^\ 
 
 TIT. ITyI 
 
402 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 not to be despised. It may originate in the cell 
 of the recluse; but the seeds there prepared may 
 be scattered over all nations. Peter the Hermit was 
 a fanatic, and so was Ignatius Loyola; yet their 
 fanaticism shook the world : and the principles of 
 the latter are in operation still, as the condition of 
 Germany, of France, and of England, shows. Any 
 system in which conscience, reason and principle, 
 are ruthlessly subjugated to an authority so omni- 
 potent that it can change the nature of things, 
 making virtue vice, and vice virtue, is sure, more or 
 less, to prosper in a world like this, where, for the 
 most part, expediency and self-interest rule. Cold, 
 calculating, ambitious, reckless hearts (like that of 
 Warenne in the tale of Father Clement, and there 
 are many such) love such systems, for they sub- 
 serve their ambition and their selfish interests : whilst 
 others, weak, timorous, amiable and morbidly sen- 
 sitive (like Dormer) are awe-stricken, and bow to 
 them in superstitious fear. The frivolous too, and 
 the sentimental, and the imaginative, become ready 
 victims. Moreover, there is a mighty one ever near 
 us, who well understands the character and ways 
 of man, and who can, when God permits, so touch 
 the inward strings of thought and feeling as to 
 make the strongest, and the wisest of men, slaves 
 to superstition. Was not Charles V. an example? 
 Fanaticism, therefore, is not to be despised. Jesuit- 
 ism in its origin, must surely be regarded as the 
 offspring of fanaticism. Yet, has not Jesuitism 
 
REMARKS ON INDEFECTIBILITY. 403 
 
 lately, by its alliance with Socialism and the like, 
 made Germany tremble ? Does Prince Bismarck 
 think that fanaticism is harmless? In England the 
 coalition that has been formed between Anglo- 
 Catholicism and the extremes of Radicalism and 
 political Dissent, has resulted in placing in India a 
 Romanist Viceroy, and bringing into our legislature 
 at home a declared Atheist. Would these, and like 
 things — things that have caused, and do cause, the 
 hearts of those who fear God to tremble — would 
 these deeds have been perpetrated without the aid 
 and the countenance of Anglo-Catholicism ? That 
 there will finally be a conflict between Anglo- 
 Catholicism and those whom it is now using as its 
 tools, is certain: but such a conflict is not to be 
 lightly thought of. It may shake Europe to its 
 centre. In some way or other, fearful chastise- 
 ment must come : for our carelessness, ignorance, 
 and worldliness are earning it. 
 
 The energy and the daring that have recently 
 characterised some of the movements of Anglo- 
 Catholicism in England seem to indicate that they 
 who have inaugurated or led these movements, re- 
 gard themselves as being in undisputed possession 
 of the field. Doubtless, the circumstances of the 
 times greatly favour their plans. A lax, careless 
 indifl*erentism to religious truth, and a devotion to 
 the " material interests " of men, have leavened vast 
 masses. Among such it is very certain that none 
 will be found to do battle for Truth, or to make 
 D D 2 
 
404 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 for it any sacrifices. The philanthropy of the day 
 is, for the most part, unguided by religious know- 
 ledge, and is soon conciliated by a sop, or a smile. 
 Political Dissent, instead of restraining, stimulates 
 aggression on any thing to which it is ecclesias- 
 tically or secularly opposed. Moreover, there is in 
 men's hearts an innate love of change that natu- 
 rally inclines them to side with those whose object 
 it is to alter, or to destroy. Firmness of action too,, 
 and stedfastness of purpose (qualities peculiarly 
 found in men who serve a fixed dogmatic system) 
 contribute greatly to success in the midst of a multi- 
 tude that have few definite thoughts, or if they have 
 them, have no steady principle of cohesion. It is 
 not, therefore, to be wondered at, that men who can 
 deceive themselves into the belief that the strength 
 of " the holy hills " is indefectibly theirs, should 
 in the present social and political condition of 
 England, be daring in excess. Even if all the 
 winds of heaven were loosed from their prison- 
 house they would not be disconcerted, because they 
 imagine that they have the power to control the 
 storm, and to hush it as soon as it has wrought 
 the effects which they desire. 
 
 In ''The Times'' of June 23rd, 1880, Mr. Glad- 
 stone, speaking on the Bradlaugh case, is reported 
 thus : — 
 
 " They are about to take up the position of objecting on 
 religious grounds to the appearance of Mr. Bradlaugh in 
 this House. Very nearly two centuries ago this House was 
 
REMARKS ON INDEFECTIBILITY. 405 
 
 the scene of conflicts of the same kind as the present. 
 Those conflicts lasted from the beginning of the last cen- 
 tury down to the year 1828. They were really carried on 
 in defence of the Church constitution de pire existing. Up 
 to that time it was assumed that members had qualified 
 themselves by a solemn act of communion with the Church 
 of England."^ The House was rallied by that call. The 
 doctrine was perfectly clear and consistent. But in that 
 
 ^ This is a mistake. It was never required of Members 
 of Parliament that they should belong to the Established 
 Church. The Nonconformists were not excluded from Par- 
 liament by the Test and Corporation Acts. The Romanists 
 for special reasons (reasons justly held to be valid by the 
 Nonconformists in the reign of James II., and by Wesley 
 afterwards) were excluded. 
 
 It is not the desire of God that a fictitious position should 
 be assumed by any. For those to pretend to belong to the 
 Church of Christ who have not by personal conviction, and 
 personal faith, been brought into it, is untruthfulness ; and 
 God cannot sanction untruthfulness. The world is one 
 circle ; the Church another. These circles are not to be 
 confounded. But the world, though it is not the Church, 
 has its duties. Men, as men, have certain relations to God 
 as their Creator, which He expects them to observe: and 
 the secular governor is bound to do all in his power to 
 prevent men from violating these natural relations. On the 
 other hand, the servants of Christ are to act as Paul did 
 towards Felix and Agrippa. He did not seek to force them 
 to any thing, nor did he seek to enter into any alliance 
 with them. If he had, he would have sinned like Jehosh- 
 .aphat. All that he did was to reason with them out of the 
 Scripture, and to impart to them all the light they were able 
 to receive. He attempted nothing more. He left the rest 
 with God. 
 
406 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 year the Test and Corporation Act was repealed. That was- 
 followed by another rally. The country was next told to 
 rally round the Protestant constitution of the House. That 
 controversy was mixed up to a certain extent with the pre- 
 ceding one. Then it was felt that that was not a satisfac- 
 tory solution ; and, in consequence, Roman Catholics were 
 admitted to take seats in the House, many years having 
 been angrily spent in the contest. (Loud cheers.) Then, 
 having got rid of the Protestant character of the House, 
 the country thought there could be no further religious war. 
 But then a fresh cry arose. That cry was on the Christian 
 character of the House. It was observed and insisted upon 
 that nothing could be so injurious, so destructive to the re- 
 ligious character of the country, as the admission of Jews. 
 For thirty years that controversy raged. There was another 
 rallying cry to adhere to the Christian character of the con- 
 stitution. That era was closed by Jewish emancipation, if, in- 
 deed, it can even now be said to be absolutely closed, for we 
 have found by this amendment that there is another branch 
 of the same contest, and it is sought to bring within the? 
 discretion of the House the question whether this or that 
 member shall be allowed to take his seat. It was justly 
 and truly said last night by my right hon. friend [John 
 Bright] that the House was now invited to make a final 
 rally for the theistic constitution of the House. We have- 
 been driven from the Church ground ; we have been driven 
 from the Protestant ground ; we have been driven from the 
 Christian ground ; and now it appears there is to be a 
 final rally upon this narrow and illogical basis of theism. 
 (Cheers and counter-cheers.) That will go whither your 
 Protestantism and your Christianity have gone. . . . There 
 is a theory that it does not matter what god you worship 
 provided you worship some god or other ; and I must con- 
 fess that in my opinion there is greater danger of irrever- 
 ence and impiety in this kind of loose and rambling theory 
 
REMARKS ON INDEFECTIBILITY. 407 
 
 than there is in a frank acknowledgment of the absolute 
 separation that has been drawn in the spirit of the law of 
 this land, and, as I believe, in the letter of the law of this 
 land, between civil duty and religious duty." 
 
 And contrast now this speech with the words of 
 Mr. Gladstone in 1838: — 
 
 "The point of view from which it is now proposed to 
 contemplate and discuss the question, is that which men 
 occupy as members of a State ; and the aim is to show, 
 that the highest duty and highest interest of a body politic 
 alike tend to place it in close relations of co-operation with 
 the Church of Christ. It is from this position that I pro- 
 pose to regard it ; first, because the combatant in defensive 
 warfare naturally resorts cVt to Kdfxvov, to the quarter which 
 is threatened and in danger : because the Church is not 
 likely to be the moving party in measures for the dissolu- 
 tion of this connection, while the State has, it is too certain, 
 given signs, though perhaps unconsciously, of that inclina- 
 tion ; and therefore it is the mind of the State, not of 
 the Church, which requires to be more fully exercised upon 
 this subject, in order to the better knowledge and fulfil- 
 ment of its duty. 
 
 "But besides the fact that we are more ignorant of our 
 duty as citizens than as churchmen, in respect of the con- 
 nection, we shall find another reason for instituting the in- 
 vestigation in the former capacity rather than the latter. 
 The union is to the Church a matter of secondary import- 
 ance. Her foundations are on the holy hills. Her charter 
 is legibly divine. She, if she should be excluded from the 
 precinct of government, may still fulfil all her functions, and 
 carry them out to perfection. Her condition would be any- 
 thing rather than pitiable, should she once more occupy the 
 position which she held before the reign of Constantine. 
 
408 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 But the State, in rejecting her, would actively violate its 
 most solemn duty, and would, if the theory of the connec- 
 tion be sound, entail upon itself a curse. We know of no 
 effectual preservative principle except religion ; nor of any 
 permanent, secure, and authenticated religion but in the 
 Church. The State, then, if she allows false opinions to 
 overrun and bewilder her, and under their influence, sepa- 
 rates from the Church, will be guilty of an obstinate refusal 
 of truth and light, which is the heaviest sin of man. It is 
 of more importance, therefore, for our interests as a nation, 
 that we should sift this matter to the bottom, than for our 
 interests as a Church. Besides all which, it may be shown 
 that the principles, upon which alone the connection can be 
 disavowed, tend intrinsically and directly to disorganisation, 
 inasmuch as they place government itself upon a false 
 foundation." — The State in its relations with the Church, 
 f' 3, 4- 
 
 " The principles," says Mr. Gladstone, " upon which 
 alone the connection can be disavowed, tend in- 
 trinsically and directly to DISORGANISATION." 
 Therefore, in his speech, according to his own ac- 
 knowledgment, he has sanctioned principles which 
 "tend intrinsically and directly to DISORGANISA- 
 TION." 
 
 It will be said by some that Mr. Gladstone's 
 principles have changed since he wrote these words. 
 Where is there any evidence of this t Has he 
 ever said so .'^ All the facts of his past and pre- 
 sent history seem to show that he has acted, 
 and is acting, in strict consistency with his prin- 
 ciples. His contention is, as I understand it, this. 
 The State is bent on disorganising itself. He and 
 
REMARKS ON INDEFECTIBILITY. 409 
 
 others have warned it; but in vain. It is now- 
 best that the disorganisation should proceed. The 
 time will come when re-organisation will be sought 
 after. " She whose foundations are in the holy hills "^ 
 -has alone power to effect this re-organisation. " Her 
 charter is legibly divine." She alone can mould 
 rightly human things. If she fail in doing this, 
 there is nothing else that can succeed. If such be 
 liis views, I can see no inconsistency in his past or 
 present course. I can see no evidence that he has 
 •changed his views. He has tried many parties, 
 and many individuals, but will use only those 
 who are subservient to his views. It would be 
 strange indeed that his mind (surely not one 
 wanting in perspicacity) should in the year 1838 
 have discerned *' disorganisation," whilst compara- 
 tively it was yet in the distance, and that it 
 should not recognise it in 1880 when it is well-nigh 
 present. 
 
 In one of the Nonconformist journals — "The 
 
 * " Her foundations are in the holy hills " is a misquota- 
 tion. The words of Scripture are, ^^ HIS \i,e. Jehovah's] 
 foundations are in the holy mountains." In the next Dispen- 
 sation, when the present age of evil shall have passed, and 
 when the Son of Man shall have been brought before the 
 Ancient of days, and shall have taken to Himself His great 
 power (see Rev. xi.), the foundation of the Divine Govern- 
 ment in the earth will be in the holy mountains of Im- 
 manuel's Land, and more especially in Zion. The Church 
 will not rule as the vice-gerent of Christ. He will Himself 
 reign. 
 
4IO AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 Methodist " — there is the following comment on 
 Mr. Gladstone's speech. The italics are mine. 
 
 "Very important principles are involved in the Bradlaugh 
 case. It is to be regretted that these principles cannot be 
 separated from such a man. There is hardly a member on 
 either side of the House who is not disgusted that this dis- 
 cussion has arisen in connection with such a name. To the 
 reverent mind of the Premier the entire episode must be 
 painful. But what can be done ? There are two courses 
 open. One is that civil right and orthodoxy should coin- 
 cide. This course is impossible. The nation has with- 
 drawn from it. // can no more Uir7i back than the river ca7i 
 turn back. The other course is to accept the absolute sepa- 
 ration between civil chity and 7'elioiotis belief. This is the 
 logical issue which must come, as Mr. Gladstone put it in 
 his magnificent speech on Tuesday night. The House has 
 already lost its Church, its Protestant and its Christian cha- 
 racter, and its theistic character will have to go. We have 
 admitted Nonconformists, Catholics, and Jews, and we shall 
 have to admit Agnostics and Secularists. Illogical compro- 
 mises last only for a time. Practical difficulties must be 
 dealt with."— "The Methodist," June 25, 1880. 
 
 It will be an awful thing for those who have thus 
 abandoned God, to meet the "practical difficulties"' 
 which must and will arise. They little know what 
 those "practical difficulties" will be, and what the 
 Scriptures have revealed respecting them. We are 
 told that we must quietly ''accept the absolute sepa- 
 ration between civil duty and religious belief!' We 
 are to believe that men who avowedly disown God 
 their Creator may as efficiently discharge the duties 
 of life as those who acknowledge Him. Does the 
 
REMARKS ON INDEFECTIBILITY. 4I I 
 
 history of the past, either in the case of nations^ 
 or individuals, teach me that this is so? Does 
 Holy Scripture teach me that it is so? Does not 
 the Scripture say that they who refuse to retain 
 God in their knowledge are by Him given up "ta 
 a reprobate mind to work all uncleanness with 
 greediness?" (See Rom. i. 28.) Are men of repro- 
 bate minds as fitted to discharge their duties as 
 men who are not thus hardened ? The light 
 and the power necessary to fulfil "duties" must 
 be absent where the one source of light and 
 of power is withdrawn from. The lessons both 
 of Providence and of Revelation teach me 
 that curse must rest on the head of those 
 whom God abandons. Moreover, I should have 
 thought, that if wrong steps have been taken, it 
 would be our duty to humble ourselves and to 
 confess : and if they cannot be retraced, to pray 
 earnestly that we may be preserved from advanc- 
 ing further in the path of evil. But no : instead 
 of this, we are exhorted to add sin to sin, and 
 boldly to advance in the course on which we have 
 entered. To confess, and to repent, would be 
 weakness and folly, and would compromise our 
 consistency. Consistency is one of the chief of 
 virtues; our consistency, therefore, must be main- 
 tained, even if the result be the abandonment of 
 God, and the refusal to own any unseen Being 
 superior to ourselves. A new path this, which na- 
 tions have not hitherto trodden. The Scripture, 
 
412 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 however, tells us that in the latter times a large 
 section of mankind will persist in treading it; 
 and it reveals to us the end. 
 
 If any say, We desire that the disease should be 
 developed in order that the remedy may be ap- 
 plied, we reply, Does God command us to en- 
 courage rebellion against Him that we might 
 thereby reach good? Even if a remedy were be- 
 yond, we are not to reach it by an increase of 
 sinning. But there is no remedy beyond. The 
 expectation is delusion. The wickedness and 
 falsehoods of the so-called Church have brought on 
 the plague. The votaries of a false Christianity 
 may stimulate that plague; but they are power- 
 less to heal it. Jehovah hath not yet " founded 
 Zion." His foundation is not yet in the holy 
 mountains. (See Is. xiv. 32, and Psalm Ixxxvii.) 
 They who pass deliberately over " the narrow ledge 
 of Theism" will find themselves plunged into a 
 gulf of hopeless Diabolism. They will have said, 
 "Evil, be thou my good," and with Evil and the 
 Evil One they will dwell. The Atheistic blas- 
 phemy that is to reign over all the Ten Kingdoms 
 of the Roman World will finally be abolished ; but 
 not by any human power. Christ will meet it by 
 the manifestation of Himself in glory. Then all 
 they that have abandoned God, and all the vota- 
 ries of a false Catholicism, who have blocked the 
 way of Truth and stumbled men by their corrup- 
 tions, will (unless they repent) find themselves swept. 
 
REMARKS ON INDEFECTIBILITY. 413 
 
 together with their victims, into that outer darkness 
 where hope never cometh. "THE Apostasy" is 
 fast coming on : but it will be met by no remedy. 
 Destruction is not remedy. When the blood of 
 the Lamb of God is trampled under foot, what can 
 remain except a "fearful looking for of judgment 
 and fiery indignation, which shall devour the ad- 
 versaries." 
 
414 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PRESENT TENDENCIES. 
 
 §1- 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that they who be- 
 lieve that there is now existent in the earth an 
 organised Body "dowered" by Christ with inde- 
 fectible grace and gifts and power, and appointed 
 by Him to rule supremely in the earth — it catinot 
 be wondered at that such men should be utterly dis- 
 satisfied with every relation which that body now 
 stands in, or indeed ever has stood in, towards the 
 secular Governments. They would have been satis- 
 fied if the Governments had unreservedly bowed to 
 the Church, and owned her sole supremacy ; but in 
 default of this, they would prefer that the State 
 should avowedly renounce all regard to religious 
 Truth, and abandon even *^the narrow ledge of 
 Theism." Thus would be proved not only its in- 
 capacity for riding the Church, but also its utter 
 unfitness for any kind of association with it; for 
 how can they who spurn God have any connec- 
 tion with the inheritance of God ? How could 
 the regulation of the moral and educational, and 
 
PRESENT TENDENCIES. 415 
 
 religious arrangements of Society be entrusted to 
 a Body that included within itself blasphemers of 
 God and that might become wholly atheistic ? 
 By isolating the Church therefore, and bringing it 
 back into the condition that it occupied before the 
 days of Constantine, they hope that it will be 
 once more placed in a condition to assert suc- 
 cessfully its claim to be the moral Ruler of 
 the earth — a claim more likely to be recognised 
 when men shall have been made sensible of the 
 'effects of the " disorganisation " and ^' curse " (to 
 borrow Mr. Gladstone's expressions) which the 
 rejection of God and of the Church will have 
 entailed. High expectations these. If indeed it 
 were true that the present professing Gentile body 
 •inherited the earthly promises made to Israel — if 
 .they were appointed to reign, and not to suffer — 
 if restoration to the position which the professing 
 Church held before the days of Constantine were 
 a restoration to the position held by it while the 
 Apostles lived; if Ecclesiasticised Christianity were 
 Apostolic Christianity — if the conditions implied by 
 all these momentous ^^ifs'' were duly met, then, 
 no doubt, the fulfilment of these lofty anticipa- 
 tions might be looked for. " The holy mountains " 
 would be established ; Truth would reign ; Kings 
 would be its "nursing fathers," and their queens 
 its nursing mothers." 
 
 Few who read these pages will need to be told 
 that the conditions have not been fulfilled, and 
 
41 6 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 that the expectations will not be realised. They 
 will be as the dream of a night vision. Never- 
 theless, the effort to maintain these principles 
 will doubtless bring to many eternal ruin, and 
 may cause vast national calamities. Nor is this 
 the only system by which we are threatened. An- 
 other "school of thought" has arisen in England 
 (which also has been chiefly nurtured in Oxford) 
 whose principles, though operating more slowly, 
 are more suited to the temper of the day, and 
 more akin to genuine Antichristianism. Men of 
 this School bow to no prescriptive authority. They 
 decline the control of Scripture, and of Tradition, 
 and of everything dogmatic and fixed. Refusing 
 to admit the absolute truthfulness of Scripture, 
 they think apart from it. They little trouble them- 
 selves to enquire whether there be, or be not, a 
 millennium — whether any promises yet unfulfilled, 
 have, or have not been made to Israel — whether 
 there has been, or has not been an Antichrist. 
 They prefer to leave such questions to unpracti- 
 cal minds who are fond of amusing themselves with 
 phantasies. One thing (say they) is obvious. The 
 world must be governed. Society must not be 
 allowed to become disorganised. If it cannot be 
 controlled by old and effete principles, we must 
 devise new. Channels must be made in which the 
 thoughts of those who profess, and of those who 
 renounce, a regard to religious truth may be 
 made to flow peaceably together. Influence is the 
 
PRESENT TENDENCIES. 417 
 
 great thing needed. Whatever promotes such in- 
 fluence is to be valued — whatever promotes it not, 
 is to be eschewed. The world is not now what it 
 was three centuries ago. Knowledge and civilisa- 
 tion were then confined to a corner of Western 
 Europe. Now they are extended over the globe. 
 Old countries are being revived : new countries are 
 being penetrated. A world-wide sphere requires 
 world-wide principles. Consequently, the narrow- 
 ness of former ages must be abandoned; and in- 
 fluence be sought by devising some system that 
 may adapt itself to, and become the expression 
 of, the thoughts of civilised humanity wherever 
 found. 
 
 It was to be expected that men of sagacious 
 mind, indisposed to submit to the lordly restrictive- 
 ness of Anglo-Catholicism, and yet anxious to 
 secure the influence that Religiousness bestows, 
 would look upon a re-organised State-Church as 
 the instrument best suited to forward their designs. 
 Men, for the most party are prone to worship some- 
 thing. They are not disposed to renounce every 
 form of religiousness, but they like their religious- 
 ness to be dignified, and to be aesthetically, if not 
 intellectually, pleasing. A Catholicism founded on 
 dogma would not suit them; but a Catholicism 
 founded on a well-nigh unrestricted comprehensive- 
 ness they welcome. A Church united to a latitudi- 
 narianised State must latitudinarianise itself also. If 
 the State adapts itself to the mind of Society, and 
 
 E E 
 
41 8 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 becomes expressive of its will, the Church must 
 do likewise. A latitudinarianised State is not de- 
 void of order: a latitudinarianised Church may 
 have order too — an order, however, which expe- 
 diency, not principle, must supply; for fixity of 
 principle would lead to dogma, and dogma is in- 
 compatible with comprehensiveness, and compre- 
 hensiveness cannot be dispensed with, for Society 
 (which refuses to be regulated except in confor- 
 mity with its own will) demands it. Therefore, un- 
 less Society be left unregulated, its will must be 
 obeyed. There must be self-governme7it. That the 
 liberty of human thought and action should be re- 
 strained only by such checks as men may agree 
 to impose one on the other, may be a plan well- 
 pleasing to them; but it brings into necessary in- 
 dependence of God. The service of His people is 
 altogether guided by dogma — dogma founded, not 
 on the Traditions of men, but upon His written 
 Word. When, therefore, dogma is repudiated, God 
 is abandoned, for God controls by dogma. By 
 Revealed Truth God authoritatively moulds the 
 minds of those who obey Him. If men refuse 
 to bow to His authority, and persist in being the 
 guides of their own steps, there can be only one 
 result. They must become the slaves of Satan, for 
 he it is who " worketh in all the children of dis- 
 obedience." 
 
 Reflections, however, such as these, have not the 
 slis:htest weight with those who are bent on having 
 
PRESENT TENDENCIES. 419 
 
 the mind of Society expressed, secularly by the 
 State — religiously by an all-cc*" prehensive Church. 
 As to the definition of the term " religious," that 
 is a point which men are to determine for them- 
 selves. They who can be induced to believe that 
 the inspiration of Joshua, and of David, and of 
 Solomon was in kind not different from the in- 
 spiration of the chieftains, poets and philosophers 
 of the world, will readily admit, that to serve men 
 secnlarly^ is to serve God religioicsly. The cultiva- 
 tion of philosophy, science and art, is to be re- 
 cognised as the fulfilment of a religiotts duty. He 
 who studies Shakespeare is to be regarded as 
 studying a book of God. Schools of philosophy 
 and art are places where, as truly as elsewhere, we 
 may serve and worship God. Such are the dogmas 
 of this system. 
 
 At present, however. Society in England, though 
 grievously perverted, is not sufficiently debased to 
 receive these principles in their entirety. It has 
 been suggested by some that Westminster Abbey, 
 and like structures, might be used as places where 
 successively Philosophers might lecture neologically, 
 and Cardinals celebrate High Mass, and Ritualists 
 practise histrionically, and Protestant Evangelists 
 preach ; yet even this comparatively moderate sug- 
 gestion has met with little favour."^ Another plan, 
 
 ■^ A proposal of this kind lately made by Dean Stanley 
 has thus been commented on in one of the London jour- 
 E E 2 
 
420 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 therefore, having a more religious aspect, is pro- 
 posed. Yet it points in the same direction. 
 
 nals. Christians would do well to note the passage I have 
 placed in italics. 
 
 "The recent letter of Dean Stanley advocating a peculiar 
 form of ecclesiastical unity was adverted to at the Con- 
 gress, but found no supporters. The idea of the Dean is 
 that even the present subscription, which requires from the 
 candidate for ordination nothing but assent to ' the doc- 
 trine' of the Church, should not be required. He would 
 also open the churches to the services and sermons of all 
 Nonconformists. This is certainly a bold advance towards 
 a very elastic and very Erastian Catholicity. The only part 
 of the world where it is even partially realised is in China,^ 
 where Buddhists, Taonists, and the disciples of Confucius 
 share the same temples, mutually tolerating rival symbols 
 and controversial inscriptions. The Dean would evidently 
 transform the churches into somethi7ig like those monthly re- 
 views, now so fashionable, which ope7i their pages to all 
 writers of all parties a7id creeds. In London itself this 
 toleration is personally carried out by habitual sermon- 
 hunters, who run after various preachers, hear Cardinal 
 Manning one Sunday, Mr. Voysey on a second, Canon 
 Liddon on a third, filling up after vacancies with Mr. 
 Spurgeon or Mr. Stopford Brooke. The Dean's idea would 
 be to keep the congregation stationary, and let the pulpit 
 door admit in turn a supply of rival preachers to meet the 
 modern demand for variety of doctrine and thought. We 
 doubt the practicability of the plan ; if practicable, we 
 should doubt its utility. Congregations thus assailed by 
 controversial disputants — the doctrine of one Sunday de- 
 nounced on the next — would be apt to take refuge in a 
 mild scepticism, they would suspend their judgment and 
 
PRESENT TENDENCIES. 421 
 
 accept nothing until they heard the advocate on the oppo- 
 site side. In no age, in no country, has a church or a 
 creed been thus transformed or split up. Then the proposal 
 of the Dean that clergymen should not be asked for any 
 'subscription' is hardly more felicitous." 
 
 The periodicals and journals of Christians are, in their 
 way, becoming just as latitudinarian as journals conducted 
 -by others. 
 
422 
 
 § II. 
 
 The judicial decisions, first in the Gorham case,, 
 secondly in that of the " Essays and Reviews," and 
 lastly in the Bennett case, formally widened the 
 basis of the Established Church of England, so as 
 to include Evangelicalism, Neologianism, Infidelity, 
 and doctrinal Popery. The national Church has 
 thus been made to express, not indeed the mind 
 of Society as a whole, but the mind of three great 
 sections of Society. Articles of faith have been 
 professedly retained, but the adoption of the prin- 
 ciple of " 71071-naiural interpretation '' has practically 
 cancelled them. Recently, the Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury in Oxford, with the Popery of Keble Col- 
 lege on one hand, and the scepticism of Balliol 
 on the other, pronounced his panegyric on the 
 course which Oxford has pursued of "honouring 
 honest conviction wherever found.''"^ The Croy- 
 don Congress soon followed, where the Archbishop 
 had the gratification of seeing his principles prac- 
 tically carried out by Evangelicanism, Neologian- 
 ism, and Ritualism consenting to unite, and ac- 
 knowledge each other as " different Schools of 
 
 * See this further considered in " Europe and the East," 
 p. 88. 
 
PRESENT TENDENCIES. 423 
 
 thought" CO- existent in one Church. This was a 
 momentous step onward in the path of ruin, and 
 has doubtless sealed the doom of Evangelicalism 
 as a system, for it is a step that has not been re- 
 pented of, but has been acquiesced in and even 
 vindicated. Soon afterwards, the Pan-Anglican 
 Synod was convoked at Lambeth. There the 
 Protestant Episcopacy of the world virtually ac- 
 quiesced in the principle of a latitudinarianised fra- 
 ternisation. Lambeth seems desirous of erecting 
 itself a centre for all peoples, and is (as we are 
 told) receiving advances even from the ancient 
 Churches of the East. It would aim, apparently, 
 at establishing under its nominal headship, an ten- 
 dogmatic Church. One of the chief organs of pub- 
 lic opinion in England, distinguished by the keen- 
 ness of its sagacity, observes that the comprehen- 
 siveness of the Archbishop's last charge is so great, 
 that apparently none need to be excluded from it 
 who do not voluntarily exclude themselves :^ and 
 another journal, scarcely less influential, observes : 
 
 * The following is an extract from " The Times." The 
 italics are mine. "The Archbishop of Canterbury, in the 
 charge he delivered yesterday at Croydon, goes over a wide 
 ground. The Church of which he is the head has been ex- 
 tending its influence at home and abroad. It has estab- 
 lished relations more or less intimate with all Christen- 
 dom outside the Roman Catholic Communion. Lambeth 
 has become the common centre to which a hundred and 
 sixty-two Bishops are looking from all parts of the world; 
 and there are many Christian bodies, too, not ruled by 
 
424 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 "The Archbishop of Canterbury preaches in his 
 visitation charges a tolerant and tJwughtful TkeisiUy 
 
 Bishops, but which the Primate recognises as separated 
 from his own Church by an indistinct and fading line. All 
 these are dealt with in the charge. The claims of all of 
 them are acknowledged, and a hearing is promised to the 
 cry for help which is continually coming in from a good 
 many of them. At home the Archbishop's charity is limited 
 only by the perversity of its possible subjects. He will hold 
 out his hand to everybody who will take it ; and if he finds 
 his hand refused, he will not the less cultivate such more 
 distant friendly relations as may conduce to the general 
 good. The Archbishop, in a word, finds himself the ac- 
 knowledged head, not only of the Established Church of 
 England, but of that larger and looser communion which 
 was represented two years ago at the Pan-Anglican Synod, 
 and he is willing to extend the line beyond even this. A 
 common Christianity^ and a desire, or even a non-refusal, to 
 be taken i7i, are the sole conditions he insists tipon. Where 
 these essentials are to be found, he will sink all minor dif- 
 ferences. The Church of Rome is the one body which he 
 has no near hope of acting upon, or acting with. The 
 American Church, the various Eastern Churches, the Old 
 Catholics, the Lutheran Churches everywhere, the Protes- 
 tants of France and Spain and Mexico, all come within the 
 sphere of his sympathy, and he demands recognition for all 
 of them and help where help is needed. His ideal Church 
 is naturally his own Church, or, together with his own 
 Church, the Churches which most closely resemble it. The 
 picture which commends itself to him is drawn from real 
 life, a little softened down in some of its details, and a 
 little aided by a determination to look at things as they 
 ought to be and as they may be, rather than exactly as 
 they are." 
 
PRESENT TENDENCIES. 425 
 
 and while exhorting his clergy to believe in the 
 Atonement and in the inspiration of Scripture, ad- 
 vises them not to define too closely the character 
 of the doctrines they teach. To avoid barren con- 
 troversy, to cultivate charity, and to do practical 
 good, are the notes of our religious teachers to- 
 day. From the point of view of the theologian, 
 this may seem a falling off; but practical men find 
 plenty of compensation in these not unwelcome 
 signs of the times." 
 
 These strictures cannot be deemed excessive. 
 Indeed they are the strictures of a friend. If the 
 principles of "the Charge" were carried out, it 
 would certainly bring the Established Church, and 
 all that shall come within the Lambeth circle, to 
 that "narrow ledge of Theism," which the House 
 of Commons (after having for some time occupied 
 it) has recently renounced. If the Scripture be 
 abandoned (and it certainly is abandoned, if its 
 inspiration and the strict definiteness and truth 
 of all that it reveals is denied) the abandonment 
 of God will soon follow. 
 
 The struggle between the dogmatic Catholicism 
 of the Vatican and the undogmatic and elastic 
 Universalism of Lambeth may be severe and long, 
 and may bring calamity and ruin upon thousands. 
 Yet the conflict of these tv/o great Ecclesiastical 
 systems will only render it the more easy for the 
 secular Governments to establish their claims to 
 supreme religious control. Without conceding pre- 
 
426 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 eminence, much less supremacy, to any one eccle- 
 siastical or religious body, the secular Govern- 
 ments will undertake the patronage and regulation 
 of all, on terms more easy than even pliable Lam- 
 beth could propose. If the duty of submission to 
 the State be recognised, and the struggle for reli- 
 gious supremacy renounced, no further concession 
 will be required, except on one point; but that 
 point the servants of Christ will regard as vital, 
 though by the multitude it will be esteemed as 
 nought. Aggressiveness will be forbidden ; and 
 yet aggressiveness is a necessary characteristic of 
 all faithful soldiership for Christ. '' Think not," said 
 He, "that I am come to send peace on earth; I 
 came not to send peace, but a sword." These 
 words, however, will be cast aside, and the peace 
 of concord sought after — concord in error. If that 
 be acquiesced in, nothing more will be required. 
 There will not only be equality of protectioiiy but 
 equality of position, emolumenty and honour^ in all 
 that the State dispenses : whilst they who refuse 
 to join the unholy combination will be trampled 
 down. This is the end towards which we are 
 advancing, and Lambeth is smoothing the way: 
 but we must not expect to see this system per- 
 fected and presented in its full development, until 
 the Ten Kingdoms, into which the Roman World 
 is to be divided, shall have been formed and fede- 
 rally united. The religious equality so long coveted 
 by many, will then be attained : but it will last 
 
PRESENT TENDENCIES. 427 
 
 but for a moment. It will be an equality pur- 
 chased by the abandonment of God : and the 
 scourge of God will come. The despotic might 
 of Antichrist will force all who fall within the 
 scope of his power (and all the Ten Kingdoms 
 will) into a unity, the like to which the world 
 has never yet seen. All who fall within the scope 
 of his power " shall worship him, whose names have 
 not been, from the foundation of the world, written 
 in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been 
 slain.'' 
 
 How earnestly, then, ought we to pray for our- 
 selves, and for others, that we might be preserved 
 from being connected directly, or indirectly, with 
 the circle of Lambeth, or with Vaticanism, or with 
 Anglo-Catholicism. Separation unto the Bible, and 
 to the Bible alone, was never more needful than 
 now. 
 
 Nothing can be more important than that we 
 should clearly recognise the distinction that sub- 
 sists between those who are brought by personal 
 faith into the fold of Christ, and all who are in 
 the world besides. In the case of all who are 
 saved, there is a period in their lives when they 
 become, more or less deeply exercised in their con- 
 sciences because of their condition in relation to 
 God. They become conscious of the sin that is 
 in them, and of the sin that is around them. They 
 become troubled ; and their trouble never departs 
 until they recognise that there is " a fountain 
 
428 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 opened for sin, and for all uncleanness" in the 
 blood of the Lamb, and wash there. Faith is 
 reliance — reliance on God as testifying the efficacy 
 of the atoning work of Jesus. God "preaches 
 peace by Jesus Christ." All who truly receive 
 that testimony are brought within the circle of 
 grace. They become children of God by redemp- 
 tio7i. They belong to the Church of God; for the 
 Church of God is composed of those who are 
 sanctified by faith. They stand in a new spiritual 
 relation to God, being quickened by His Spirit. 
 
 But, because such relations to God as these 
 belong only to believers, we must not on that 
 account ignore the relations in which men as men 
 ^tand to God. Adam when first created was 
 not the son of God by redemption, but he was 
 the son of God by creation. (See Luke iii. 38.) 
 The Apostle Paul also, when speaking respecting 
 God to the Athenians, says, " We are also His 
 €ffsprhtgr Nor has God left Himself without wit- 
 ness among His creatures. The works of creation 
 testify of " His eternal power and Godhead." (See 
 Rom. i. 20.) He " sends rain from heaven and fruit- 
 ful seasons, filling their hearts with food and glad- 
 ness," and thereby declares His kind consideration 
 for their need. He sends providential deliverances 
 also, as when "they cry unto the Lord in their 
 distress, and He bringeth them unto the desired 
 haven." He has sent also into the world His 
 written Word, and preaches likewise the Gospel of 
 
PRESENT TENDENCIES. 429 
 
 His grace through Christ. All these and like 
 things are mercies directed towards men as men. 
 Are they to be ignored? Are no responsibilities 
 contracted by neglecting or despising such mercies 
 as these? 
 
 There cannot be a greater mistake than to sup- 
 pose that because men are naturally born in sin, 
 and therefore in moral distance from God, it 
 matters not whether that distance be, or be not, 
 increased. There are degrees of darkness, as well 
 as degrees of light. All disobedience is sin : deli- 
 berate rebellion is sin, and apostasy is sin, but 
 they are different gradations of sin. We have to 
 beseech men not to "add rebellion" to their sin, 
 much less apostasy. A conscience open to the 
 appeals of Truth is different from "a conscience 
 seared with a hot iron." One great object to be 
 kept in view in the education of children is, to 
 prevent the voice of conscience being silenced. 
 
 Was there no difference in the condition of 
 Nebuchadnezzar when '*his heart was lifted up, 
 and his mind hardened in pride/' and afterwards 
 when he had been smitten and owned the justice 
 of the blow, and said, "Now I Nebuchadnezzar 
 praise and extol and honour the king of heaven, 
 all whose works are truth, and His ways judg- 
 ment : and those who walk in pride He is able 
 to abase"? Did Daniel speak foolishly when, after 
 recounting to Belshazzar the history of his father's 
 chastisement, he said, " And thou his son, O Bel- 
 
430 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 shazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou 
 knewest all this ; but hast lifted up thyself against 
 the Lord of heaven; . . . and the God in whose 
 hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, 
 hast thou not glorified." Did Daniel think it a 
 matter of no moment whether Rulers reverenced 
 God, or defied Him? Did he adopt the vaunted 
 maxim of these modern days and say, that 
 " civil duty is to be separated from religious 
 truth"? When Paul said to Agrippa, "I think 
 myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall 
 
 answer for myself this day before thee, &c 
 
 King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets ? I 
 know that thou believest." Did he see no differ- 
 ence between the ignorant indifference of Festus 
 and the sensibility of Agrippa to the appeals of 
 Truth? Is it a matter of no consequence whether 
 they who govern, ow7i God, or whether they bias- 
 pheme Him? Do rulers who "kiss," that is, "do 
 obeisance to the Son," stand in the same relation 
 to God as those who say of Jehovah and of 
 Christ, " Let us break their bands asunder, and 
 cast away their cords from us." The second Psalm 
 is God's own answer to that question. We can- 
 not blot that Psalm out of the Word of God. It 
 remains a standing witness against all those who 
 would separate "civil duty" from religious Truth. 
 What can be more monstrous than to be asked to 
 believe that it matters not whether the world be 
 ruled by men who are "founded together [such is 
 
PRESENT TENDENCIES. 43 1 
 
 the expression"^] against Jehovah and against His 
 Christ," or by men who, like our own Edward VI., 
 .seek to rule in the fear of God. Do the past his- 
 tories of Protestant England and Catholic Spain 
 present no contrasts? Will England, now that she 
 has begun to despise and trample down the Bible, 
 be morally and socially what she was when she 
 reverenced the Bible ? Facts are already answer- 
 ing that question. 
 
 In defiance of every lesson supplied by Scrip- 
 ture, fact, and experience, and even by Nature 
 itself, we are on every side met by the cry that 
 "the Bible has no more to do with Legislature 
 than it has with a mechanic in making a ma- 
 chine " ; that Governments as Governments should 
 be atheistic, and that "civil duty is to be sepa- 
 rated from religious Truth." The political Non- 
 conformists, as a body, have adopted these prin- 
 ciples. They have certainly been the chief sup- 
 porters of a movement that has resulted in placing 
 a Papist as Governor over the chief dependency 
 of the Crown, and in introducing an avowed 
 Atheist into the Legislature. We are asked to be- 
 lieve that power (which is the gift of God alone) 
 can be wielded rightly by men who deny that 
 •which the Devils own — the existence of a supreme 
 
 "^ "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers 
 are founded together (*inj"npi2), against Jehovah, and against 
 His Christ." (Ps. ii. 2.) 
 
432 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 God. Do we see no sign of the times in these 
 things — no token of the coming Apostasy ? 
 
 The history of Nonconformity is sorrowfully in- 
 structive. When the progress of the Reformation 
 in England was arrested by Elizabeth and her suc- 
 cessors, and when the Bishops, acquiescing in the 
 requirements of the Crown, consented to retain and 
 to sanction certain vestments, observances, and doc- 
 trines, in which the plague-spot of Popery still re- 
 mained, and which should (like Amalek of old) have 
 been unsparingly extirpated, the Nonconformists re- 
 fused to yield. They manfully withstood the current,, 
 and refused the unholy compromise into which others 
 entered. Accordingly, in their ranks, for many 
 long years, the chief defenders of God's Truth 
 were found. Although persecuted, even unto deaths 
 they "endured as seeing Him who was invisible." 
 " They took joyfully the spoiling of their goods^ 
 knov/ing that in heaven they had a better and an 
 enduring substance." The Established Church of 
 this country has a terrible account to render touch- 
 ing these things. The ejection of 2,000 godly 
 ministers by the Act of Uniformity, is a sin that 
 has not been repented of Its effects we shall 
 never, whilst in this world, duly estimate. 
 
 When James the Second ascended the Throne^ 
 the days of the Established Church seemed num- 
 bered. He was avowedly a Papist, and his resolve 
 was (just as it is the aim of certain Statesmen 
 now) to seduce, or else to force the Established 
 
PRESENT TENDENCIES. 433 
 
 Church back into Popery; or (failing that) to de- 
 stroy it and to establish Catholicism on its ruins. 
 James expected to find in the Nonconformists 
 willing allies. He knew how grievously they had 
 suffered, and he thought that by freeing them from 
 those sufferings, he might bribe them to become 
 his tools. He condoled with them therefore ; pro- 
 fessed to be the upholder of the principles of 
 " civil and religious liberty ;" repealed the enact- 
 ments that had borne most heavily on them; and 
 asked their aid in repealing certain other Statutes 
 that had imposed civil disabilities on them, and on 
 the Papists. The Nonconformists saw the snare 
 laid for them, and they refused to enter it. They 
 declined to recognise a community of standing be- 
 tween the Papists and themselves. They knew 
 that they had been excluded because of Truth : 
 the Papists because of evil. Rather than purchase 
 privileges for evil, they preferred to remain unpri- 
 vileged themselves. They did not think that the 
 principles of civil and religious liberty required that 
 no distinction should be made between superstition 
 and Truth ; blasphemy, and the acknowledgment of 
 God. Because men, 'for their own purposes, may 
 find it expedient to ignore the line that separates 
 Truth and Falsehood, they would do nothing that 
 would imply that no such line existed. They 
 would not strike the sword out of the Ruler's 
 hand because of the possibility that the Ruler 
 might use it amiss. They would rather trust God 
 
 F F 
 
434 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 respecting that, and allow the sword to remain 
 where God had placed it. 
 
 All to whom God has given positions of influ- 
 ence (whether as parents, masters, magistrates, legis- 
 lators, or electors) are responsible to God for the 
 exercise of that influence. They are responsible 
 for favouring and honouring that which is good, 
 and for refusing to countenance that which is evil. 
 What if a parent should resolve to smile on all 
 his children alike, and were to make no difference 
 between profanity and virtue, lying and truth ? 
 Or what if the child who was most morally cor- 
 rupt, should, because of his attractiveness, or the 
 superiority of his intellectual powers, be favoured 
 most? Should we expect such a family to pros- 
 per? Should we not anticipate a curse? It is 
 not otherwise in a State. The Scripture tells us 
 what to expect when "vilenesses" [^^'^Q are exalted. 
 (See Psalm xii. 9.) 
 
 We hear much said respecting "the rights of 
 men." But has not God also His rights. If men 
 turn from Him and worship that which their own 
 hands have made, if they refuse to acknowledge the 
 supreme and sole authority of Holy Scripture, if 
 they insult His name, or deny His existence, they 
 infringe the rights of God ; and they who favour, 
 or honour, or promote those who do such things, 
 become partakers of other men's sins. 
 
 I extract the following from the Baptists' Con- 
 fession of Faith, presented by them to Charles II., 
 
PRESENT TENDENCIES. 435 
 
 March 1660; "for which (say they) we are not 
 only resolved to suffer persecution to the loss of 
 our goods, but also life itself, rather than decline 
 from the same." 
 
 "We believe that the same Lord Jesus, who 
 " showed Himself alive after His passion by many 
 *' infallible proofs (Acts i. 3), which was taken up 
 " from His disciples and carried up into heaven 
 *^ (Luke xxiv. 51), shall so come in like manner 
 "as He was seen go into heaven. (Acts i. 9, 10, 
 "' II.) 'And when Christ who is our life shall ap- 
 " pear, we also shall appear with Him in glory.' 
 "" (Col. iii. 4.) For then shall He be 'King of 
 ^' kings, and Lord of lords.' (Rev. xix. 16.) 'For 
 " the Kingdom is His, and He is the Governor 
 *' among the nations ' (Ps. xxii. 28), and ' King 
 ^' over all the earth' (Zech. xiv. 9), and 'we shall 
 *" reign with Him on the earth.' (Rev. v. 10.) The 
 " kingdoms of this world (which men so mightily 
 '' strive after here to enjoy) shall become the king- 
 " doms of our Lord and His Christ. (Rev. xi. 15.) 
 '' ' For all is yours (ye that overcome the world), 
 " for ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' (i Cor. iii. 
 " 22, 23.) ' For unto the saints shall be given the 
 " kingdom, and the greatness of the kingdom, under 
 " [mark that] the whole heaven.' (Dan. vii. 27.) 
 " Though (alas !) now many men be scarce content 
 " that the saints should have so much as a being 
 " among them ; but when Christ shall appear, then 
 " shall be their day, then shall be given unto them 
 F F 2 
 
436 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 *' power over the nations, to rule them with a rod 
 " of iron, (Rev. ii. 26, 27.) Then shall they re- 
 " ceive a crown of life, which no man shall take 
 " from them, nor they be by any means turned or 
 " overturned from it, for the oppressor shall be 
 " broken in pieces (Ps. Ixxii. 4), and their vain re- 
 ''joicings turned into mourning and bitter lamen- 
 " tations, as it is written " (Job xx. 5 — y).^ 
 
 Suppose that the 20,000 men who *' owned and 
 approved this Confession had been asked to unite 
 with Papists, and Anglo-Catholics, and Infidels, in 
 an attempt "to separate civil duty from religious 
 Truth,'' what would have been their reply? They 
 would have said, " We choose rather persecution, 
 imprisonment, and death. Through the Lord's help 
 we will struggle on to our life's end agamst False- 
 hood, and fo7' Truth ; but we will fight only with 
 spiritual weapons, and we will ally ourselves with 
 no Ahabs. We remember what befell Jehosaphat. 
 We desire not that that which was said to him 
 
 "^ This confession is *' subscribed by certain elders, dea- 
 cons, and brethren, met in London, in the behalf of them- 
 selves and many others unto whom they belong, in Lon- 
 don, and in several counties of this nation, who are of the 
 same faith with us." Then follow forty-one names, after 
 which is written, " Owned and approved by more than twenty 
 thousand." Hence it appears that the Dissenters had once 
 the honour of contending for the personal reign of Christ 
 on earth, and of suffering for professing of the same. — 
 From Crosbys History of the Baptists^ Vol. ii. AppendiXy 
 
 p. 85. 
 
PRESENT TENDENCIES. 43/ 
 
 should be said to us : ' Shouldest thou HELP 
 THE UNGODLY, and love them that hate the Lord? 
 Therefore is wrath upon thee from the Lord.'" 
 (2 Chron. xix. 2.) 
 
 It may safely, I believe, be affirmed that such 
 would have been the language of those who 
 signed this Confession. They had not despised 
 the teaching of Daniel and the Prophets. But it 
 must be acknowledged that the Nonconformist 
 body as a whole, were not prepared to follow in 
 this path. If they had been, their history would 
 not have been what it is. The Political Dissent of 
 modern days would have had no existence. 
 
 The stedfast resistance of the early Nonconfor- 
 mists to the doctrines and order both of Popery 
 and Anglican Sacerdotalism, cannot be too highly 
 praised. Nevertheless even they were not careful 
 to use spiritual weapons only ; nor did they keep 
 themselves separate from men who knew not God. 
 Their principles too were defective. They virtually 
 accepted as their motto, Vox populi, vox Dei. They 
 favoured Democracy both in the Church and in the 
 world. They seemed to imagine that through them 
 the truths of the Gospel would penetrate Society, and 
 that if Governments could be made the expression 
 of the mind of Society after Society had been thus 
 penetrated, mankind would be regenerated, and the 
 sovereignty of the world become the sovereignty of 
 our Lord and His Christ. What the Scripture re- 
 weals respecting the course and end of this present 
 
43^ AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 age (alcovo^;) they considered not ; nor did they 
 recognise the future of converted Israel and of 
 the nations, in "///^ ag-e to comer "The times of 
 the Gentiles," — that is to say, the whole present 
 period of Gentile supremacy (a period which has 
 at its commencement Nebiichadneszar, at its centre 
 Pilate, and at its end Antichrist) is the period 
 which they looked on as including within its 
 scope THE millennium!! They imagined that the 
 Gospel had long commenced to smite the Image 
 of Gentile greatness, and was grinding it to powder. . 
 Their thoughts on these subjects seem to have 
 coincided with those of Lightfoot. These were 
 fatal errors, seldom, if ever, escaped by those who 
 neglect prophetic Truth. 
 
 *' Lex rex " is the compendious form which men 
 have chosen to express the conclusion at which 
 they have arrived respecting Government. But it 
 embodies a sentiment which God has not sanc- 
 tioned. In Heaven a Person is recognised as King : 
 and that Person is the One Living and True God. 
 None speak in Heaven of ''Law" being "King." 
 " Law " is recognised as proceeding from the King, . 
 and is known to be perfect because He is perfect.. 
 This is the order of Heaven, and in the Mil- 
 lennium it will become the order of earth. But it 
 is otherwise now. Men have discovered to their 
 sorrow that no one person among themselves can 
 safely be entrusted with the origination and minis- 
 tration of Law. Various devices have been, in- 
 
PRESENT TENDENCIES. .Jf ^^ 439 
 
 past ages, tried, to make power in the hands of 
 men, bearable; but they have failed. The last 
 device is to sink the Ruler into a mere func- 
 tionary, and to exalt "Law'' (that is to say, the 
 will of Society — the will of the governed) into the 
 Throne. Men have long tried this plan; but they 
 are not yet satisfied. There are conflicting opi- 
 nions, and conflicting interests which they know 
 not how to reconcile. They imagine now that re- 
 ligious truth, or that which professes to be reli- 
 gious Truth, is the great cause of discord. Instead 
 of waiting to ascertain whether or not Truth can 
 be distinguished from its counterfeits, their resolve 
 is to regard all religious truth as a sword in the 
 household, and to cast it out. Let men's laws, say 
 they, be formed without reference to God's laws, 
 and so governmental harmony may be reached. In 
 Paris in 1792 this plan was thoroughly tried. What 
 were the results ? Licentiousness, bloodshed, and 
 misery, until a despot came, and was hailed as a 
 deliverer. 
 
 In the second and third decades of the present 
 century, the results of the convulsions of preceding 
 years developed themselves in England. Demo- 
 cratic liberalism strengthened itself greatly during 
 the revolutionary wars. Roman Catholicism saw 
 its opportunity, as in the days of James II., and 
 courted the Liberals. Its advances were not re- 
 pelled. The vigour of Protestantism had waned. 
 It had become, throughout a wide sphere, nomi- 
 
440 AIDS- TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 nal, educational Protestantism — Protestantism that 
 cared more for its own social status than for Truth. 
 An alliance between the Catholics and Liberals 
 was formed. The Catholics w^ere emancipated. 
 The Liberals v/ere recompensed by the Reform 
 Bill. The Irish Church was assailed, and its 
 dioceses summarily re-organised without its concur- 
 rence being granted, or even requested. The Estab- 
 lished Church was startled, and resolved, under new 
 leaders whom Oxford supplied, to abandon Hooker, 
 and to retire upon Laud and Rome. Two Schools 
 arose in Oxford — a sacerdotal School which founded 
 itself on a non-natural interpretation of the Articles ; 
 and a Rationalistic School which founded itself on 
 a non-natural interpretation of the Scripture. Re- 
 vealed Truth became a plaything. The Word of 
 God was made of none effect. If used, it was 
 used to blind and to deceive. 
 
 Darkness came in, and strong delusion. Yet at 
 the same moment God mercifully interfered, and on 
 behalf of those who feared His name, drew aside 
 the veil that had for centuries been cast over Pro- 
 phetic Scripture. Isaiah, Daniel, and the Revela- 
 tion were read and understood. The coming period 
 of Antichristian Apostasy, and the glory that is to 
 follow, the place of Israel in that Apostasy and 
 their subsequent place in the reign of glory; the 
 place of the servants of Christ in suffering now 
 and in glory above the Heavens when their Lord 
 shall have come — these, and other like things, were 
 
PRESENT TENDENCIES. 441 
 
 apprehended with a distinctness and power that 
 caused many to feel that they were enabled (in a 
 manner unknown before) to understand and use the 
 Scriptures as a whole. 
 
 But the Nonconformists for the most part, pre- 
 occupied with other things, discerned not this inter- 
 position of the hand of God, and refused the light 
 that had been given. They might have rallied to 
 the Bible. They might have repelled the advances 
 of the Romanists, and have avowedly raised an 
 •exclusively evangelical banner. They might have 
 placed themselves within the circle of revealed 
 Truth, and declined to fight with any except 
 spiritual weapons. They might have said, "We 
 will unite with none except those who accept the 
 Bible in its integrity, and recognise it as the one 
 only Rule." God would have blessed them then : 
 the advancing floods would in all probability have 
 been stayed. But they determined otherwise. They 
 united politically with the foes of the Bible, and 
 fought by the side of those who were fighting 
 against Protestantism and Bible-Truth. 
 
 The results are manifest. They could scarcely 
 be defined more clearly than in the words of Mr. 
 Gladstone already quoted. The Protestant charac- 
 ter of the Legislature was first destroyed — next its 
 Christian character, and now its Theistic. A person 
 may now be a legislator who denies the existence 
 of God. The principle that "civil duty is to be 
 separated from religious Truth" is now established, 
 
44-2 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 and all this is considered to be a triumph ! ! Apart 
 from the Nonconformists, these steps would not 
 have been taken : these triumphs would not have- 
 been gained/'^ 
 
 I cannot but hope that there are many among 
 the Nonconformists who have anxious misgivings- 
 as to the rightness of the path pursued. May they 
 have grace to consider their ways, and to make 
 open and unreserved confession. They ought not 
 to have allied themselves with the enemies of 
 God's Truth. They might have distinguished be- 
 tween the abstract truth of certain principles and 
 their misapplication or perversion, and have, whilst 
 assailing the perversions, have vindicated the prin- 
 ciples. In struggling against unrighteous tests and 
 restrictions they need not have destroyed righteous 
 tests and restrictions. Probably if left to them.- 
 selves they would not have done this. But they 
 linked themselves to aliens. They had disobeyed 
 the explicit command, " Be ye not unequally yoked 
 
 together with unbelievers What concord hath 
 
 Christ with Belial?" The consequences of their 
 disobedience in these things, and their neglect of 
 
 * Mr. Bradlaugh, addressing his constituents in the Town 
 Hall, Northampton, is reported to have said : — " He would 
 not go over the past struggle, but he could not fail to re- 
 cognise that it was by the solid vote of the Nonconformist 
 party, scarcely broken, that he was put in the position he 
 had sought. The statement was received with cheers." (See 
 "Daily Telegraph," October 29, 1880.) 
 
PRESENT TENDENCIES. 443 
 
 the light which Prophetic Scripture sheds upon 
 the future, have been disastrous beyond conception. 
 Eternity alone will reveal the real character of the 
 results, and the extent of the ruin wrought. '' The 
 narrow ledge of Theism," as it has been called, 
 was infinitely important in Gods sight; and if the 
 Christian Nonconformists of England, instead of 
 leading the assault, had aided in the defence, "the 
 narrow ledge" would not have been abandoned. 
 But they did otherwise. They joined the enemies 
 of the Bible, and accepted the principle that civil 
 duty is to be separated from religious Truth. That 
 which has been done cannot be undone. The 
 flood-gates have been opened, and they cannot 
 now be closed. Fifty years ago it would have been, 
 I believe, quite possible to have required and ob- 
 tained from every Legislator an acknowledgment 
 of the existence of a God, of the Lordship of 
 Christ, of the inspiration of Scripture, and of its 
 supreme and sole authority as a rule. Such tests- 
 (though not all that could be desired) would have 
 preserved this country from becoming government- 
 ally Atheistic, Deistic, Romanist, or Pagan. But 
 the opportunity has been lost, and will never again 
 recur. 
 
 Will the Nonconformists recognise the greatness 
 of the sin that has been committed, and openly 
 confess it before God, and before men? Will they 
 separate themselves from aliens, and return to 
 Scripture and to God? If not, what can they 
 
444 AIDS TO PROPHETIC ENQUIRY. 
 
 expect? Can they expect to be kept from that 
 *' hour of temptation which is coming on the whole 
 world [eVt tt)<; olKovfjuevq^ 6X779] to try them that 
 dwell upon the earth"? I believe not. 
 
 It is no joy to me to write these things. I write 
 them with deep sorrow. I write them not as an 
 enemy, but as a friend. I see the pitfall, and I 
 cannot but warn of it, however much my feeble 
 ^varning may be spurned, and myself despised. 
 
 According to present appearances the political 
 Nonconformists will, during the present year, have 
 an opportunity once more afforded them of either 
 manifesting their repentance, or of persevering in 
 the path which they have so long trodden. They 
 will, no doubt, be asked to aid those who wish to 
 place Protestantism under the feet of the Papacy 
 in Ireland. They will be asked also to unite with 
 those who (not because they oppose error, but be- 
 cause they hate Protestantism and the Bible and 
 Truth) are about to assail the establishment in this 
 country. They will be urged to sustain the prin- 
 ciple, that civil duty is to be separated from reli- 
 gious truth. If because of party-interests and social 
 advantages they consent to follow in the paths 
 thus opened, if they refuse to humble themselves 
 and to consider their ways, and to turn to Him 
 from whom they have greatly revolted, I see 
 nothing before them but ruin. " Behold, all ye 
 that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about 
 with sparks : walk in the light of your fire, and in 
 
PRESENT TENDENCIES. 445 
 
 sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have 
 at my hand ; ye shall lie down in sorrow." 
 
 There will, I trust, be individuals who will read 
 aright the signs of the times, and will break the 
 links that unite them to the onward progress of 
 godlessness. But let them take heed that they 
 form no new links rashly. Let them gather to 
 none among whom the Bible does not rule. Many 
 besides Papists can speak of "the one Body," and 
 of " the living voice of the Spirit in the Body," and 
 of the Church " dowered " with grace and gifts 
 by a heavenly Bridegroom. Let them rem.ember 
 that grace and gifts are not found where the 
 Bible does not rule. He that *'abideth not in the 
 doctrine of Christ, hath not God." The doctrine 
 of Christ can be received only through His written 
 Word. In the days of Israel's calamity which 
 Jeremiah witnessed, it was long before Ezra and 
 Nehemiah came. But they came at last : and the 
 Scriptures were agaifi read and understood, and a 
 remnant, though they were few and feeble, heard 
 and responded to the words, " Let joy in Jehovah 
 be your strength." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 .ANTICHRIST TO BE KING OF ASSYRIA AND BABY- 
 LON — PRESENT PROSPECTS OF THOSE COUNTRIES 
 AS SHOWN BY THE OFFICIAL REPORT OF GENERAL 
 CHESNEY. 
 
 .Antichrist is several times referred to in the 
 Scriptures as '' King of Babylon " (Isaiah xiv. 4) — 
 and "King of Assyria" (Isaiah x. 12). He is also 
 ■ called in Daniel "King of the North," z.e. King of 
 Syria. Syria, as so applied, includes Assyria, and 
 all the Euphratean district. 
 
 In the foregoing pages, I have not entered into 
 the question of Antichrist's relation to Assyria and 
 Babylon, because I have elsewhere considered it. 
 In the book advertised at end and entitled, " Baby- 
 lon — Its Revival and Final Desolation," I have 
 shown from Scripture that Babylon, at the period 
 of the Lord's return, will have recovered a condi- 
 tion of prosperity exceeding even its former great- 
 ness. Like Jerusalem, Egypt, and other countries 
 • of the East, it will revive for a season under the 
 
44^ APPENDIX. 
 
 hand of man. The blow which brings it into its 
 final state of utter desolation, is to be inflicted 
 when Israel is forgiven, and when the Day of the 
 Lord comes. I have also shown, on the authority 
 of General Chesney and others, that the present 
 condition of Babylon and Babylonia, is not one 
 of utter desolation, such as the Prophets describe. 
 The site of Babylon has always been inhabited,, 
 and is, at this moment, the seat of a considerable 
 city containing probably 10,000 inhabitants. 
 
 The thought of Antichrist's connexion with Baby- 
 lon was preserved in the early ages of Christianity:; 
 and has not been entirely quenched even in its 
 darkest periods. Cyprian^ in the third century, ap- 
 plies to Antichrist that remarkable passage in 
 Isaiah which describes the greatness and fall of 
 the last King of Babylon — " Is this the man that 
 made the earth to tremble, that did shake king- 
 doms?" (Isaiah xiv. 16.) Jerome^ in the fourth 
 century, speaks of Antichrist as about to arise 
 from among the Jews, and to come from Babylon, 
 [Nasciturus de populo Judseorum et de Babylone 
 venturus — Jerome o?i Dan, ii.] Cassiodorits^ in the 
 sixth century, again suggests the thought of Baby- 
 lon meaning the Chaldean city.^ Aretas does the 
 same. Bede also, in the eighth century, in his re- 
 marks on the Apocalypse, hints at the possibility 
 of the Euphratean City being the place of Anti- 
 
 * See " Prospects of the Ten Kingdoms," p. 393. 
 
APPENDIX. 449 
 
 Christ's greatness. In the twelfth century, Roger 
 of Hoveden says : " in the City of Babylon which 
 was of old the illustrious and glorious city of the 
 Gentiles and the head of the kingdom of the Per- 
 sians, Antichrist will be born ; after being born m 
 the kingdom of Babylon, he will come to Jeru- 
 salem." (Scrip. Anglicani, p. 68 1.) 
 
 Even as late as the sixteenth century, we find 
 Malvenda in his elaborate treatise on Antichrist, 
 speaking of Babylon as the place from which he 
 is to arise. He connects with this thought the 
 fact of the Jews (from whom he expects Anti- 
 christ to spring) having been so long established 
 in the Euphratean regions. He quotes Josephus 
 in proof that two cities of Babylonia (Nearda and 
 Nisibis) had been for a long time the chief depo- 
 sitories of Jewish wealth. Thence also the Jews 
 promulgated their Talmud in the latter part of the 
 fifth century. *' Although," says Malvenda, " the 
 celebrity of these Talmudic Schools did not con- 
 tinue after A.D. 1024, yet it cannot be denied that 
 innumerable Jews are up to the present moment 
 [i,e.y the sixteenth century) collocated in those re- 
 gions, and that it still continues the great conser- 
 vatory of Jewish doctrine." Malvenda supposes 
 that the long settlement of the Jews in Babylonia, 
 will make it more easy for Antichrist, as thence 
 arising, to pretend that he is descended from their 
 royal line. (P. 82.) 
 
 "All," continues Malvenda, "are aware that it 
 G G 
 
450 APPENDIX. 
 
 "is a universally - admitted truth, ^ that Anti- 
 " Christ is to be born in the city of Babylon. 
 " Jerome, in his commentary on Daniel ii., express- 
 " ing his own judgment, and the judgment of all 
 *^ the Fathers of the Church, sa3/s : ^ Our writers 
 " interpret all these things of Antichrist, who is to 
 " arise from the people of the Jews, and to come 
 " from Babylon.' Bede, referring to this opinion of 
 " Jerome and of the Fathers, observes, when com- 
 " menting on the seventeenth of the Revelation : 
 " * Some interpreters say that Antichrist, having his 
 " origin from Babylon, will overthrow the King of 
 " Egypt, Africa, and Ethiopia.' Aretas, when ex- 
 " plaining the following passage in the Apo- 
 " calypse — * Loose the four angels, who have been 
 " bound in the great river Euphrates,* says : ' the 
 " thought is not be rejected that daemons are 
 " bound at the Euphrates, since in a short time 
 " Antichrist is to proceed thence, arising from 
 " among the Hebrews who are in captivity, either 
 " those reserved in Jerusalem, or those who have 
 " settled in those (Euphratean) districts." 
 
 "The reasons for which it •hath pleased God to 
 " appoint that Antichrist should arise from Baby- 
 " Ion rather than elsewhere. He hath buried deep 
 " in the secrets of His own bosom : nor has Pie, 
 '* up to the present time, revealed it, as far as can 
 
 * " Communi omnium consensu receptissimum esse norunt 
 omnes, Antichristum in Babylone urbc in lucem edendum." 
 
APPENDIX. 45 1 
 
 "' be ascertained, to any among men. Nevertlie- 
 *' less the erudite and pious meditation of some 
 "*' orthodox believers has alleged ^^ '^ "^ ^ the fol- 
 *' lowing fitting reasons for the Divine decree. In 
 *' the first place, as Nimrod, the founder of Babel, 
 *' i.e. the Tower of Babylon, a savage Tyrant and 
 "' cruel oppressor of men, was the person who de- 
 *' clared open w^ar against God; so it is meet that 
 "* there should arise from the self-same Babylon, 
 *' the last and most atrocious persecutor of the 
 ** Church — Antichrist. Moreover, seeing that Nebu- 
 *' chadnezzar and Antiochus Epiphanes — two Mo- 
 "*' narchs who bore upon the Church with an over- 
 " whelming power of destruction, and who were the 
 ■*' Antichrists of the Old Testament, and remark- 
 " able types of the Antichrist that is to come — 
 " seeing, I say, that these Monarchs reigned in 
 •"^ Babylon — it is fitting that the true Antichrist of 
 " the New Testament should arise from the same 
 ^' Babylon.'' 
 
 " Besides, no place can be pointed out more 
 '^ meet for the nativity of Antichrist than Baby- 
 " Ion, for it is the City of the Devil ; always dia- 
 ''^ metrically opposed to Jerusalem, which is deemed 
 *' the City of God : the former City, i,e, Babylon, 
 ^* being the Mother and disseminator of every kind of 
 " confusion, idolatry, impiety ; a vast sink of every 
 ''foul pollution, crime, and iniquity; the first city 
 ^' in the world which cut itself off from the worship 
 ^* of the true God ; which reared the citadel of uni- 
 
 G G 2 
 
4S2 APPENDIX. 
 
 " versal vice ; which perpetually (according to the 
 " record of Holy Writ) carries on the mystery of 
 ** iniquity, and bears imprinted on her brow the 
 " inscription of blasphemy against the name of 
 " God. The consummation therefore of impious- 
 " ness, which is to have its recapitulation in Anti- 
 " christ, could not break forth from a place more 
 " fitting than Babylon." 
 
 I make these quotations, not as agreeing with 
 every sentiment they express — much less with 
 the doctrines of the writers on other subjects: I 
 have given them merely to show, that the thought 
 not only of the personality of Antichrist, but of 
 his connexion with Babylon, has never been en- 
 tirely extinguished, even by the black corruptions 
 of Romanism. It seems to be reserved for the 
 worldliness of Protestantism to quench this remain- 
 ing light, and then to cheer men onward in the 
 course which is to end in establishing " in the 
 Land of Shinar" (see Zech. iv.) that system of 
 "wickedness," under which Babylon, Israel, and the 
 nations will ripen for their final doom. 
 
 There is no joy, no gratification in being ob- 
 liged to look forth upon the rising prospects of 
 the nations — prospects, which are interesting the 
 hearts and employing the energies of millions, and 
 to say that they will soon end in overwhelming 
 ruin —to say that the influences now being deve- 
 loped around us are urging men onward to the 
 point where they will be confronted by the stern 
 
APPENDIX. 453 
 
 but righteous judgments of God. But we dare not 
 say otherwise; w^e dare not hide the Scriptures of 
 God, nor prophesy peace where there is no peace. 
 
 This our Protestant country has taken the lead 
 in constructing that new governmental system which 
 .avov/edly excludes a regard to God's truth in 
 legislation and government : and calls together 
 into Satanic union, Mahomedanism, Judaism, In- 
 fidelity, and false Christianity, that they may to- 
 gether fashion educationally, morally, and religiously, 
 the hearts of men. This country has taken the 
 lead in indissolubly connecting these principles with 
 that rising system of commercial greatness by 
 which she expects the nations to be swayed ; and 
 intends that wealth, derived from commerce so 
 pursued, should be the pillar of the social system. 
 This country also has been the first to enter those 
 once-flourishing regions of the East, which have 
 been smitten under the judgments of God, and are 
 still obnoxious to His curse : it has entered those 
 regions with the view of considering how far they 
 can be recovered from their ruin, and again made 
 the depositories of wealth and civilisation. 
 
 Some years ago, the Government of this country 
 sent out an expedition to survey the Euphrates, 
 and report upon the facilities it afforded for com- 
 merce, and for becoming the channel of communi- 
 cation between Europe and the East The expe- 
 dition was commanded by Colonel Chesney, and 
 the Report which he has just published, affords 
 
454 APPENDIX. 
 
 abundant evidence to the zeal and ability with 
 which he fulfilled the mission.^ Few after read- 
 ing it will question the capabilities of those re- 
 gions. Can it be doubted that the tempting 
 picture will act upon the cupidity of the pre- 
 sent age ? Is it likely that they, whose energies 
 are exploring every land and traversing every 
 sea, will forbear from entering rivers such as the 
 Euphrates and Tigris, situate as they are in the 
 midst of the ancient garden of the earth, and 
 having beyond them the Indian seas, which have 
 now become the seat of European civilisation ?^ 
 They will certainly be entered, and probably very 
 soon. God indeed only knows the time, but He 
 has said that "the Ephah," with "wickedness" 
 hidden in its midst, is to be established in the 
 Land of Shinar, and His words must be accom- 
 plished in their season. In the meanwhile, whilst 
 we behold the latitudinarian infidelity of the rising 
 commercial system strengthening around us, and 
 if we should live to see the river of Babylon re- 
 entered and traversed by successful energy, and 
 Babylon and the Land of Israel touched by the 
 hand of Western civilisation, and revived, may we 
 then remember the words of the angel who cried,, 
 saying, " Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great, who- 
 
 * It is entitled, "The Expedition for the Survey of the 
 Rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the 
 British Government in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837, by 
 Lieut. -Colonel Chesney, R.A., F.R.S., &c., Commander of the 
 Expedition." (Longmans. 1850.) 
 
APPENDIX. 455 
 
 made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath 
 of her fornication :" — may we more anxiously than 
 ever read the circumstances of that day of man's 
 chiefest glory, in the light of the closing testi- 
 monies of the Book of God. 
 
 The following quotations from General Chesney's 
 work will sufficiently show the opening prospects of 
 those regions : 
 
 "The river now about to be described (/.<?. the Euphrates) 
 rises at no great distance from the shores of the Euxine, 
 and in its course to the Indian Ocean, almost skirts those 
 of the Mediterranean. -^ -^ ^ -^f fj^g Euphrates at one time 
 formed the principal link connecting Europe commercially 
 with the East. Its historical celebrity has excited in its 
 favour an interest superior to that which has been felt for 
 any other river ; and it may reasonably be expected, that 
 when its advantages shall be fully known, and duly appre- 
 ciated, it will rise to a high degree of political and commer- 
 cial importance." 
 
 "In a range of more than 1,780 miles from its eastern 
 source, this river may be said to unite three great and im- 
 portant seas ; which, without it, would be destitute of any 
 water communication with each other, whilst the varied pro- 
 ductions of the intervening territory would, in a great mea- 
 sure, be lost to the rest of the world." (Vol. I., p. 40.) 
 
 ^^ Bir is one of the most frequented of all the passages 
 into Mesopotamia, and about sixteen large passage boats 
 are kept, "^ "^ "^ for the use of the caravans, which occasionally 
 number 5,000 camels." (P. 46.) 
 
 "This great river then proceeds through the Date-groves 
 * "^ "^ across a bare country onwards to Hillah. -^^ * ^ This 
 Town is built on a part of Babylojt, and chiefly with mate- 
 rials obtained fro??t its ruins: it contained, in 1831, the time 
 
4S6 APPENDIX. 
 
 of my first visit, about 10,000 inhabitants, whose dwellings 
 are principally on the right bank ; the line of houses forming 
 an obtuse angle, almost midway between the Mujelleb(^ and 
 the still more celebrated Birs Nimroud."* (P. 57.) 
 
 Extracts of Letters to Colonel Chesney, from Officers sejit by 
 
 hitu to explore the capabilities of the Euphrates for Steam 
 
 Navigation and Traffic. 
 '^SlR, 
 
 "The noble and interesting river Euphrates is far too 
 celebrated to require from me more than a fair view of the 
 prospect it offers for establishing an economical and more 
 rapid communication between Great Britain and her Indian 
 possessions, than has hitherto been attained. The brilliant 
 prospects of a new channel being opened to our enterprising 
 mercantile world through a steam establishment on the 
 Euphrates, ought to awaken our best energies." 
 
 "The Town of Hit produces salt and bitumen to any ex- 
 tent : — 190 miles below Hit is Hillah, a very considerable 
 Town, having a bridge of boats across the river, which 
 being under the control of the Musellim of the place, can 
 always be opened by his orders on the approach of 
 steamers." 
 
 " Basrah is about forty miles below Kurnah, and I con- 
 sider it admirably suited for the magazines, dockyards, etc., 
 of a large force." 
 
 "I consider that a rapid steam voyage may be performed, 
 both up and down the Euphrates, at any season of the 
 year." (P. 687.) 
 
 (Signed) " R. F. Cleveland, R.N. 
 
 "Dated 17th July, 1836." 
 
 ■^ For a further account of Hillah and the condition of 
 Babylon itself, see " Second Series of Aids to Prophetic 
 Enquiry." For many of the particulars there given, I was 
 indebted to the kindness of General Chesney. 
 
APPENDIX. 457 
 
 Extract of Letter from E,P. Charlwood, Esq., R.N.^ to 
 Colonel Chesney, {P. 691.) 
 
 "The Arabs always evinced great eagerness to barter 
 their provisions, and in fact every thing they possessed, for 
 our Glasgow merchandise, "^ "^ ^ "^ so that I am convinced, 
 •considerable commerce would be carried on with great suc- 
 cess on the river. Taking all these things into consideration, 
 I should say it would be highly advisable to navigate this 
 river, as being the speediest and most secure route between 
 Oreat Britain and her Indian possessions." 
 
 Extract of Letter from yames Fitzjames., Esq., R,N., to 
 Colonel Chesney. (P. 694.) 
 
 " The advantages that would ensue from the establishment 
 of a regular steam communication on the Euphrates, would, 
 I am convinced, amply repay any outlay and trouble which 
 might attend the commencement. The avidity with which 
 the inhabitants of the different towns on the river bought 
 our Manchester woollen goods, etc., sufficiently proves, that a 
 ^reat opening is presented to our commerce. Aleppo, Bag- 
 dad, Basrah, and (should the Karim be navigated) Ispahan, 
 •would soon become marts for British produce, and the in- 
 fluence of the British name be thus increased and ex- 
 tended." 
 
 "Taking these things into consideration, it appears to me, 
 that England would not have cause to regret having made 
 the Euphrates the high road to her Indian possessions, even 
 should it afterwards be found that letters and passengers 
 might be conveyed with more speed by the line of the Red 
 Sea." 
 
 " A splendid road might be made over the 100 miles which 
 separate the Euphrates from the Mediterranean. I should 
 think a railroad impracticable, but I think a canal might 
 be cut. "^ * "^ This would complete the communication by 
 water, of England with India, by the shortest possible line." 
 
45 S APPENDIX. 
 
 Extract fro7n Letter of W, Ainsworth, Esq., Surgeon a?td 
 
 Geologist -to the Expedition. 
 "The river Euphrates is evidently a navigable stream. I 
 am acquainted with it "^ '^ ^ from the Taurus, to its em- 
 bushure in the Persian Gulph, a distance of upwards of 1,200- 
 miles ; and in that extent, there are only two real difficul- 
 ties, botli of which are superable, by undergoing an expense 
 quite disproportioned to the importance of rendering efficient 
 at all seasons of the year, and throughout so lengthened a 
 course, the navigation of this noble river. -^^ -^ -^^ In a com- 
 mercial point of view, the close communication thus estab- 
 lished with so great an emporium of trade as Bagdad, is of 
 the very first importance ; nor is the connexion that would 
 be established between Basrah and Bagdad of a trifling cha- 
 racter ; but there are also on the river between Kurnah and 
 Felujah, large towns, as Sheikhel-Shuyakh and Hillah, and 
 powerful tribes, as the Mountefik Arabs, who have long been 
 actuated by the spirit of commercial enterprise." 
 
 " There is, indeed, amongst almost all the tribes a cupi- 
 dity that is easily aroused, and which would stir up the 
 people to new exertion, in order to obtain comforts and 
 luxuries with which they would then first become acquainted, 
 and would not be slow in appreciating. The boasted fruga- 
 lity and indifference of the Arab, are not proof against the 
 inventions of an improved mechanism in cutlery or fire- 
 arms ; and nowhere is there displayed a greater anxiety for 
 gay dresses and ornaments : this taste has become almost a 
 passion with both sexes. We have abundant evidences of 
 the love of decorating their children, and of a desire to im- 
 prove their condition." 
 
 "The advantages which are presented by the opening of 
 the navigation of the river Euphrates, belong to universal 
 
 civilisation, as well as to increase of national power. The 
 waters of this great river flow past the habitations of four 
 millions of human beings, amongst whom their own tradl- 
 
APPENDIX. 459 
 
 tions have transmitted the sense of a revolution to be 
 effected by the introduction of a religion of humility, of 
 charity, and of forbearance." 
 
 "The intellectual powers of the descendants from the most 
 noble stocks of the human race, are not extinct in their 
 present fallen representatives, and it would be difficult to say 
 to what extent civilisation might flourish, when revived in its 
 most antique home." 
 
 "The national importance of this navigation, is of the 
 most comprehensive character. All acquainted with the his-^ 
 tory of the communication of nations, which, as Montesquieu 
 has ably pointed out, is the history of commerce, must be 
 aware, that those circumstances which led to the annihila- 
 tion of the commerce of the East, would be revolutionised 
 by the opening now proposed to be effected ; and that whilst 
 civilisation might be confidently expected to return to its 
 almost primeval seat, it would do so under a very different 
 aspect, and with vastly improved means, over the days of 
 Opis and Ophir, or of Caucasium and Callinicum.'' "AIL 
 these advantages are to be obtained by the navigation which 
 you have entered upon, and of which you have proved the. 
 practicability." (P. 697.) 
 
 Sir A. Layard, writing to an eminent English merchant in 
 1843, says, " I beheve Susiana to be a province highly 
 capable of the most varied cultivation ; the soil is rich, la-^ 
 bour cheap, the inhabitants well disposed, and the country 
 traversed by several noble rivers : ^ "^ ^ the land is highly 
 favourable for the cultivation of coUou, which is now much, 
 neglected, but which might be much improved. I made many 
 enquiries as to the growth of hemp, -^ -^ -^ and I found the 
 country well adapted for its cultivation." (P. 701.) 
 
 "At Mosul (Nineveh) a considerable opening for British- 
 commerce exists. The present consumption of British goods 
 in Mosul and the adjacent country, is more than sufficient 
 to support a mercantile establishment. '^- "^ "^ A piece of 
 
460 APPENDIX. 
 
 print worth thirteen shillings in Manchester, is sold in Mosul 
 for thirty-two. -^ ^ -^ The trade of such an establishment 
 would probably soon extend into Persia, where Russian trade 
 is now increasing." (P. 703.) 
 
 " Notwithstanding all the existing disadvantages, boats with 
 merchandise are continually tracked up the rivers in Meso- 
 potamia ; but the fleets going up the Tigris against the 
 stream, from Basrah to Bagdad, consume from thirty to forty 
 days, while a steamer would perform this distance in four 
 •days and a half." (P. 705.) 
 
 " Good freights are therefore secured for steamers, and a 
 valuable opening presented for trade, since an Arab popula- 
 tion of about twelve millioits is to be supplied. The actual 
 trade to Bagdad was in 1833 — 12,000 bales or packages, 
 brought up the Tigris at a freight of ;^i per bale." 
 
 " The establishment of the navigation, would probably lead 
 to that of English mercantile houses at all the chief places 
 of trade on the Euphrates and other rivers and branches at 
 the interior stations." (Pp. 704, 705.) 
 
 ^^ Armenia is the territory ranging along the course of the 
 Euphrates : "^ "^^ "^ in the table lands, the soil is rich ; it is 
 but partially cultivated, but almost every kind of vegetable 
 production is to be found." 
 
 " The wheat and barley are particularly fine ; nor is it 
 very uncommon to have three successive crops of grain in 
 some places. The gardens yield grapes in abundance, also 
 oranges, peaches, nectarines, figs, apples, pomegranates, and 
 other fruits. Honey, wax, manna, and gall-nuts, are ex- 
 ported from the more mountainous districts, where, especially 
 -eastward of Tarabusim, the finest timber is very abundant. 
 The scenery here is at once beautiful and strikingly grand 
 from various points of view, as the mountains are seen rising 
 abruptly from the sea to an elevation of four or five 
 thousand feet, their sides being covered with dense forests, 
 -composed of gigantic chesnut, beech, walnut, alder, poplar. 
 
APPENDIX. 461 
 
 willow, ash, maple, and box trees, with firs toward their 
 summits, and a magnificent underwood of rhododendron, bay,, 
 and hazel, etc. ^ -^^ -^ The less elevated grounds produce 
 cotton, hemp, tobacco, and raw silk in abundance ; besides 
 precious stones, such as the turquoise, beryl, chrystal, pearl,, 
 and ruby. Besides the more valuable metals, gold and silver, 
 Armenia abounds in copper, lead, iron, saltpetre, sulphur^ 
 bitumen, quarries of coal, marble, and jasper, with several 
 mineral springs, which have been celebrated for many ages." 
 
 " The Armenians are exceedingly fond of foreign com- 
 merce and home trade, both of which are prosecuted with 
 such success, that even the Jews are in many instances 
 driven out of the field of competition. The Armenians have 
 been described as brave, a quality however that has long 
 passed from them. They are now a commercial and agri- 
 cultural people ; well clad, abundantly fed, and possessing 
 sheep, cattle, and fine horses in abundance." (Pp. 95 — 99.) 
 
 " The exports of Mesopotamia are : wheat, barley, rice, 
 and other grains, horses, pearls, coral, honey, dates, cotton, 
 silk, tobacco, gall-nuts, wool, bitumen, naptha, saltpetre, salt, 
 coarse coloured cottons, fine handkerchiefs, and other manu- 
 factures of a country enjoying advantages which will even- 
 tually make its commerce more important than that of 
 Egypt." (P. 109.) 
 
 " The numerous towns along the Euphrates, and the exten- 
 sive population, partly permanent, and partly nomadic, on 
 the banks of that river, will ultimately require several sta- 
 tions ; but for the present one should be at Hillah (Babylon), 
 and another at Anah, and a third at Beles." 
 
 "Though the subject has only been considered relatively 
 to the people in their present state, it should not be for- 
 gotten that Mesopotamia possesses as many advantages as, 
 or perhaps more than, any other country in the world. Al- 
 though greatly changed by the neglect of man, those por- 
 tions which are still cultivated, as the country about Hillah 
 
462 APPENDIX. 
 
 (Babylon), show that the region has all the fertility ascribed 
 to it by Herodotus, who considered its productions as equal 
 to one-third of those furnished by all Asia. Being equal to, 
 and in many respects even superior to Egypt with regard to 
 its position and its capabilities, the time need not be distant 
 when the date-groves of the Euphrates may be interspersed 
 with flourishing towns, surrounded with fields of the finest 
 wheat, and the most productive plantations of indigo, cotton, 
 and sugar-cane." (Vol. II., p. 603.) 
 
 Extracts of the same character might be almost 
 indefinitely multiplied ; but enough has been quoted 
 to show that even if we judged merely from the 
 present aspect of circumstances, we should expect 
 the revival of the Euphratean countries at no dis- 
 tant period. 
 
 Professing Christianity in the days of Constan- 
 tine, was called upon to pronounce on the cha- 
 racter of the change that then took place in its 
 condition, and it declared the change to be of God. 
 The consequences of that fearful error are now 
 seen around us, both in the East, and in the 
 West — on every side. " Iniquity abounds." Pro- 
 fessing Christianity will be tried once more. It 
 will have to pronounce on the character of that 
 rising system, which will spread civilisation through- 
 out the countries of the East, and reign over the 
 Kingdoms of the Roman World. It will pro- 
 nounce that also to be of God; and will thus seal 
 its own condemnation. It will declare the master- 
 piece of Satan to be the work of God. 
 
APPENDIX. 463 
 
 The fair scene of prosperity soon to be displayed 
 in Jerusalem and in Babylon, will only be rejoiced 
 in by those who blot from their remembrance the 
 testimonies of Jeremiah and the Revelation. The 
 words of such a chapter as the eighteenth of Reve- 
 lation pronounce so solemn a denunciation on " civi- 
 lisation revived in its antique home," that the 
 thought of such revival, is shrunk from with 
 horror by all who remember what God has 
 .spoken. " I saw another angel coming down from 
 Heaven, having great authority : and the earth 
 was lightened with his glory. And he cried 
 with a mighty voice, saying, * Fallen, fallen, is 
 Babylon the great, and is become a habitation 
 of demons ; and a hold of every unclean spirit, 
 .and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 
 Because by reason of the wrath of her forni- 
 cation all the nations have fallen, and the kings of 
 the earth have committed fornication with her, and 
 the merchants of the earth have waxed rich through 
 the power of her delicacies.' And I heard another 
 voice from heaven saying, ' Come out of her, my 
 people, that ye may have no fellowship with her 
 sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues — 
 because her sins have been builded together unto 
 Heaven, and God hath remembered her unrighteous- 
 ness.'" 
 
 These are the words to be held fast by all who 
 fear God, and reverence His Scripture. They no 
 ■doubt place us in sorrowful isolation. The Reve- 
 
464 APPENDIX. 
 
 lation was given that it might isolate us : but how- 
 blessed to be isolated in the midst of such a scene I 
 God hath not said in vain : " Blessed is he who 
 readeth, and those who hear the words of the 
 prophecy, and keep the things which are written 
 therein : for the time is nigh.'' 
 
EXTRACTS FROM THE WORKS OF 
 DR. LIGHTFOOT. 
 
 Bishop Wordsworth having frequently referred 
 to the works of Dr. Lightfoot, I have thought it 
 well to add a few more extracts to those already 
 given. His writings exercised considerable influ- 
 ence at the time of the Commonwealth ; and as 
 respects the Millennial reign of the Lord Jesus, are 
 much in harmony with those of Bishop Words- 
 worth. 
 
 Dr. Lightfoot was born in 1602, and took a 
 leading part in the Westminster Assembly, where 
 he was regarded as an Erastian. During the Com- 
 monwealth he was appointed Master of Catharine 
 Hall, Cambridge, an appointment he retained after 
 the Restoration. The establishment of Christian 
 Magistracy was to Dr. Lightfoot the evidence that 
 Satan was bound and the saints reigning ! 
 
 " In the text it is said, * Judgment was given 
 unto them ' ; what can this mean, but power and 
 authority to be magistrates and judges? * Yes 
 (say our mistakers) ; it means that the saints, at 
 the day of judgment, shall sit upon seats with 
 Christ, approving and applauding His judgment.' 
 
 H H 
 
466 APPENDIX. 
 
 And they misapply other Scriptures as much for 
 the confirmation of this, as they do this to such 
 a construction. And those are Matt. xix. 28, Luke 
 xxii. 30, which speak one and the same thing : 
 where Christ speaks not at all of the saints judg- 
 ing the world, in such a sense as they feign to 
 themselves, but only the twelve apostles [and Judas, 
 if you well observe the places, to be reckoned for 
 one] judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And the 
 meaning is but this, — that ^ when Christ should 
 come to reveal Himself, in His glorious appearing 
 in vengeance, against Jerusalem and the Jewish na- 
 tion, — the doctrine that they had preached, should 
 condemn the twelve tribes, that had not believed 
 it, as if they themselves sat on the thrones to 
 judge and condemn them.' And so some of the 
 ancients have, of old, well 'understood it, that it is 
 not spoken of their persons, but of their doctrine, 
 judging and condemning. 
 
 " And to the true sense, that I say the text 
 speaketh, speaketh also that equally abused place, 
 I Cor. vi. 2 : ' Do ye not know, that the saints shall 
 judge the world'; i.e.^ * know ye not, that there 
 shall be a Christian magistracy ^ that Christians 
 shall be kings and magistrates, to rule and judge 
 the world ? ' 
 
 "And the very same sense speaketh Dan. vii. 18, 
 26, 27 ; from whence both my text and that pas- 
 sage of Paul are taken ; ' know ye not (saith he), 
 that the saints shall judge the world?' How 
 
APPENDIX. 467 
 
 should they know it? Why, plainly enough out of 
 that place in Daniel, where in ver. 18, it is fore- 
 told, that ^the saints of the Most High should 
 take the kingdom ; and possess the kingdom for 
 ever and ever.' And in verses 26, 27; *The judg- 
 ment shall sit (as in the text), and the kingdom 
 and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom 
 under the whole heaven, should be given to the 
 people of the saints of the Most High.' 
 
 "Two considerations will put the matter out ot 
 all question. 
 
 " I. That the word ' saints ' means not strictly nor 
 really sanctified, in opposition to men *not really 
 sanctified,' but it means ' Christians in general,' in 
 opposition to ' heathens.' And so the Apostle 
 himself clears it in the verse before that I cited : 
 
 * Dare any of you go to law before the unjust and 
 not before the saints ? ' What is meant by the 
 
 * unjust' there? 'Heathens,' or 'infidels,' as he calls 
 them, ver. 6. And then, what is meant by 'saints?' 
 but ' Christians ' in opposition to ' heathens.' 
 
 " n. Observe the tenor of the contents in Daniel, 
 and that will illustrate the sense of these verses 
 that I produced. He speaks before of the four 
 heathen monarchies, the Babylonian, Mede-Persian 
 Grecian, and Syro-Grecian, that had had the king- 
 dom, and dominion, and rule in the world, and had 
 tyrannised in the world, especially against the 
 church that was then in being : but at last they 
 should be destroyed, and upon their being de- 
 ll H 2 
 
468 APPENDIX. 
 
 stroyed, Christ should come and set up His king- 
 dom through the world ; and then the kingdom, 
 and rule, and dominion in the world, should be 
 put into the hands of saints or Christians, and 
 they should rule and judge in the world, as those 
 heathen monarchies had done all the time before. 
 
 "And thus you have the words unfolded to you, 
 and I hope according to the meaning of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 "And now, my Lords and Gentlemen, you may 
 see your own picture in the glass of the text ; 
 for you are of the number of those of whom it 
 speaketh. In it you may see yourselves, im- 
 benched, commissioned, and your work put into 
 your hands. 
 
 *' In the first clause, the institution of the function 
 the ordaining of magistracy and judicature : * I saw 
 thrones set.' In the second, the commissionating 
 of Christians unto that office and function, *They 
 sat upon them.' In the last, the end of this office, 
 and the employment they are set upon in it, 'Judg- 
 ment was given unto them/ 
 
 " * Thrones set ' : by whom ? By Him that had 
 been the great agent in the verse before, Christ, 
 that had bound the devil and chained him up. 
 
 " * They sat upon them ' : — who ? They that are 
 the persons mentioned in the verse before. Men 
 of the nations, undeceived from the delusions of 
 Satan, and brought into the truth of the Gospel. 
 
 "'Judgment was given them': for what end .^ 
 
APPENDIX. 469 
 
 For judgment's sake, that they might execute judg- 
 ment and righteousness among the nations. 
 
 "And so I have my words fairly cut out before 
 me; and the matter and the method of the text 
 •call upon me to speak unto these three things : — 
 . "I. Of the institution of magistrates, as an ordi- 
 nance of Christ. 
 
 "II. Of Christian magistracy, as a gospel-mercy. 
 
 "III. The great work, the all-in-all of magistracy, 
 the execution of judgment." (Lightfoot's Works, 
 Vol. vi. p. 259.) 
 
 Sermon-Note on Rev. xx. i — 3. " And yet, all 
 these thousand years he [Satan] was at liberty as 
 before. He encompassed the earth, and walked 
 in it as aforetime ; caused the ten bloody persecu- 
 tions against the Christians ; caused the Roman 
 emperors and nations to wallow in that bloodiness 
 and filthiness, as they did : and yet, because he 
 could not deceive the world with blindness and 
 lieathenism, as he had done, — but that the gospel 
 was now come in, and undeceived men, and 
 brought light and life among them, — he is said to 
 be bound, and cast into the bottomless pit, and 
 shut up. It is as chains and imprisonment, and 
 the bottomless pit and hell, to him, that he cannot 
 do the mischief, and work the destruction, by the 
 blindness of heathenism, that he had done before." 
 (Lightfoot's Works, Vol. vii. p. 413.) 
 
 
WORKS BY 
 
 BENJAMIN WILLS NEWTON. 
 
 HOULSTON & SONS, Paternoster Square. 
 
 Aids to Prophetic Enquiry. First Series. Third Edition (in 
 the Press). 
 
 Babylon : its Revival and Final Desolation. Second Edi- 
 tion. Price y. 
 
 Trospects of the Ten Kingdoms of the Roman Empire Con- 
 sidered. Second Edition, revised. Price ys. 
 
 Thoughts on the Apocalypse. Second Edition, revised. Price 
 Ss. 6d. 
 
 Thoughts on Scriptural Subjects. Price 4s. 6d. 
 
 The Prophecy of the Lord Jesus as contained in Matt. 
 XXIV. and XXV. Price is. ^d. 
 
 Occasional Papers. — No. i. Price 2s. 
 
 'Occasional Papers. — No. 2. Price 2s. 6d. 
 
 Thoughts on Leviticus. Price y. 6d. 
 
 Things Clean and Unclean. — Leviticus xi. Price 6d. 
 
 The Leprosy. — Leviticus xiii. Price /^d. 
 
 Gospel Truths. Cloth, Price is. 6d. Limp, i^. 
 
 Europe and the East. Second Edition, enlarged. Price 2s. 
 
 David, King of Israel. Second Edition. Price 2s. 6d, 
 
 The Judgments on the "Essays and Reviews" Considered. 
 Cloth, Price 2s. Wrapper is. 6d. 
 
 Romans vii. Considered. Second Edition. Price is. 
 
 Modern Doctrines respecting Sinlessness Considered. Price 
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 Salvation by Substitution. Price 6d. 
 
 Five Letters on Events Predicted in Scripture as Ante- 
 cedent to the Coming of the Lord. Second Edition. 
 Price IS. 
 
 Order of Events connected with the Appearing of Christ. 
 Second Edition. Price 6d. 
 
 The World to Come. Price i^d. 
 
 On ']Che Spread of Neology in England. Price 2d, 
 
 What is the Ephah of Zechariah v. ? Price 3^. 
 
 Conversation on Revelation xvii. Price 2d. 
 
 Scriptural Proof of the First Resurrection. Price 4^. 
 
 The Second Advent not Secret but in Manifested Glory. 
 Price 2d, 
 
 [Turn over. 
 
WORKS BY BENJAMIN WILLS NEWTON. 
 
 The Day of the Lord. A Lecture on Zechariah xiv. Fifth 
 
 Edition. Price 2.d. 
 Duty of giving heed to the Predictions of Scripture re- 
 specting Events that are to precede the Return of 
 
 OUR Lord. Price 2.d. 
 On the Prophecies respecting the Jews and Jerusalem, in 
 
 THE FORM OF A Catkchism. Price id. 
 Jesus Washing His Disciples' Feet. Price 2d. 
 Remarks on a Tract entitled "Justification in a Risen 
 
 Christ." Price 3^/. 
 Catholicity in a Dispensation of Failure the sure Token 
 
 OF Apostasy. Price 2d. 
 The Blood that Saveth. Large type. Price \d. 321110. J^., or 
 
 3^. 6^. per 100. 
 
 Acceptance with God. Four for \d., or 2s. per 100. 
 
 Doctrines of Popery. No. I. — On Holy Scripture and Tra- 
 dition. Price %d. 
 
 Doctrines of Popery. No. II. — On Original Sin. Price 4^. 
 
 A Letter to the Minister of Silver Street Chapel^ 
 Taunton. Price 3^. 
 
 Jerusalem, its Future History. Price 4^. 
 
 Natural Relations of Men and Governments to God. Price 
 
 Tracts on Doctrinal Subjects : 
 
 • No. I. — Our Altar. Heb. xiii. Price 2d. 
 No. II. — An Erroneous Mode of Stating the Gospel. 
 
 Considered. Part I. Price yi. 
 No. III. — An Erroneous Mode of Stating the Gospel 
 
 Considered. Part 11. Price 2d. 
 No. IV. — An Erroneous Mode of Stating the Gospel 
 
 Considered. Part III. Price z^i. 
 No. V. — An Erroneous Mode of Stating the Gospel. 
 
 Considered. Part IV. Price 3^^. 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CAIylFORNIA IvIBRARY 
 
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