ear more plausible. But it also fails equally in proving the point intended. It appears more plausible to an English ear, because we are not accustomed to apply the word "week," (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 week of months, or a week of years. We confine the expression to a seven of days. In Hebrew, however, it is otherwise. The word which our translators have rendered by week, means simply what the Greeks would call a "hebdomad," i. e. a septenary number, or a number consisting of seven. The word "hebdomad" stands in the same relation to seven, that “decad” does to ten, 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. 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 had been said, "Seventy dozen of days are to be fulfilled," and it was afterwards found that the prophecy really meant seventy dozens of years, then indeed 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 intended. And if on examination we found that days should be supplied, we should supply days, and interpret them as days; or if months, we should insert months, and interpret them as months; or if 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 appointed." 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.

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.

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 verification 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 fulfilled 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 supposing that 1260 days mean 1260 years, which they do not ;-and supposing the Beast symbolized the Papacy, which it does not; and supposing the previous vials had been poured out, which they have not;-yet even then will any one venture 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 woes? 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 weakened, not abolished. He denies that it can be abolished. Now it is impossible that this prediction can be fulfilled, either in this It is a preyear or any other year. diction 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. The dominance, not merely of Popery, but of every other evil system in the earth, will then utterly and for ever end. 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 necessarily incompatible with each other, secures its own frustration. If the Papacy is only to be weakened, 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 affirm, that the events now happening at Rome are no 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 persuade himself to believe that a vision such as that in which "the sun was seen to become black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind, and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places, and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand ?”—he who can persuade himself that a vision like this has been accomplished in such an event as the nominal 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 any thing and mean any thing. Mr. Fleming has accepted this interpretation 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 every kind of prediction and supposed fulfilment. But there is in all this no accomplishment of the Word of God.

To take another example, viz. his conjecture respecting the fulfilment of the fourth vial, in the abasement of popish countries throughout the seventeenth 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 Scripture prophecy. The words of the Scripture are these, "And the

fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun, and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire, and men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues, and they repented not to give Him glory." Now, even if we were to admit that the sun represents a number of popish monarchs and kingdoms, 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? If these kings and kingdoms are symbolized by the sun in this passage, we ought to have seen them and all popish kings and kingdoms greatly increased in power, and beginning to scorch others, I suppose, Protestants, for they could hardly be supposed to scorch themselves. This surely must have been the interpretation-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 very 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, were men so scorched with fire and great heat, or did they in an especial manner, because of their special plagues, 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 under the empire. And as to Papists, their joy and self-congratulation at the supposed advance of their system, both in France, England, and the colonies, has been 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