Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

and we are no less expressly informed, that to the end of the period of the wonders, there shall be three times and a half or 1260 days:* hence it necessarily follows, that, since the period of 2300 days, and the period of 1260 days, both equally reach to the time of the end, or to the end of the period of the wonders, they both exactly terminate together. Thus it appears, that the period of 1260 days is in fact the latter part of the greater period of 2300 days. This opinion perfectly harmonizes with what we are repeatedly told, both by Daniel and St. John, respecting the termination of the 2300 and the 1260 days. We are informed, for instance, that the sanctuary, which had been polluted by the abomination of desolation connected with the little horn of the he-goat, shall be cleansed at the end of the 2300, the 2200, or the 2400 days,† whichever of these three be the proper reading that the saints are to be delivered into the hand of the little horn of the fourth beast, which has been shewn to be the Papacy, until a time, times, and the dividing of time, or 1260 days; consequently that they are to be freed from his tyranny at the end of that period:§ that the Jews shall begin to be restored at the end of the same time, times, and a half, or 1260 days :|| that the king, who is to magnify himself above every god, shall come to his end contemporaneously with the restoration of the Jews; and consequently at the end of the same 1260 days that the court of the temple, and the holy city, shall be trodden under foot of the gentiles during the same space of 42 prophetic months, or 1260 days ; and consequently that they shall cease to be trodden under foot at the end of that period :** that the ten-horned beast shall practise prosperously in his revived state, during the same space of 42 months, or 1260 days; and con

"Until how long shall be the end of the wonders ?-It shall be until a time and times and a half; and, when he shall have finished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what is the end of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end." Daniel xii. 6-—9.

I shall hereafter shew, that the sanctuary, which was to be cleansed at the end of this prophetic period, was the spiritual sanctuary of the Christian Church, not the literal sanctuary of the Jewish temple. (See. Rev. xi. 1, 2.) This spiritual sanctuary will be cleansed by the overthrow of the two little horns of the third and fourth beasts.

Dan. viii. 14.

Dan. xi. 45. xii. 1.
VOL. I.

§ Dan. vii. 25.
** Rev. xi. 2.

21

|| Dan. xii. 7.

sequently shall cease to practise prosperously at the end of that period:* that the witnesses shall prophesy in sackcloth during the same 1260 days; and consequently shall cease to prophesy in sackcloth at the end of that period and lastly, that the symbolical woman, or the spiritual church, shall be driven into the wilderness during the same space of 1260 days, or three prophetic yeurs and a half; and consequently that she shall be delivered from her thraldom at the end of that period.‡

We are likewise taught, that the end of these two conterminating periods of 2300 and 1260 days will be marked by a wonderful display of the power of God. At the end of the 2300 days, the little horn of the he-goat will be broken without hand :§ at the end of the 1260 days, the judgment will sit, and the dominion of the papal horn or the little horn of the fourth beast, will be utterly destroyed by the Son of man || at the end of the same 1260 days, the king, who magnified himself above every god, will undertake the expedition which will terminate in his destruction; and at that very time the restoration of the Jews will commence:¶ at the end of the same 1260 days, the ten-horned beast, which was to practise prosperously in his revived state 42 prophetic months, and along with him his false prophet, will be ultimately, that is at the end of those 42 months, defeated in a great battle with the personal Word of God:** and lastly, the man of sin will finally, and therefore at the end of the same 1260 days, be consumed with the spirit of the mouth of the Lord, and destroyed with the brightness of his coming.tt

From an attentive consideration of all these different

[blocks in formation]

Rev. xii. 6, 14. Throughout the whole of this statement, the reader will of course understand me to mean, not that the sanctuary will be perfectly cleansed, or that the beast and the king and the borns will be perfectly overthrown; but only that those great events will then begin to take place, that God's controversy with the nations will then commence. Matters of such moment may begin, but cannot be accomplished, in a single day. Accordingly we have reason to believe from Daniel, that the whole length of God's controversy will be no less than 30 years.

[blocks in formation]

tt 2 Thess. ii. 8. The reader will here again understand me to mean, that these events will begin to take place at the end of the two conterminating periods.

passages, and from the plain declaration of the angel both in the vision of the ram and the he-goat, and in the last chapter of Daniel's prophecies, it must, I think, undeniably follow, that the 2300 days, and the 1260 days, terminate together: that, in the course of the memorable period which commences at the termination of these days, the papal horn, the little horn of the he-goat, the ten-horned beast or revived Roman empire, the king who magnified himself above every god, and the man of sin, (whatever powers they may severally prefigure) will all be overthrown, in some manner or another, natural, or supernatural, by the victorious Word of God: and that in the course of the same memorable period, the abomination of desolation connected with the he-goat's little horn, will be removed; the sanctuary of the spiritual temple be cleansed; and the Jews be restored to their own land.

It has been shewn, that the period, whence the 1260 days ought apparently at least to be computed, is the year 606; because in that year the saints were given into the hand of the papal little horn. Having therefore ascertained this period, as far as matters of this nature can be ascertained, we shall now be able both to point out the power symbolized by the little horn of the he-goat, and to determine whether 2200, 2300, or 2400 days, be the proper reading of that greater number, of which the 1260 days constitute the last part.

Since the angel informs Daniel, that all the wonders shall be finished at the end of 1260 days; and afterwards computes two other periods, namely 1290 and 1335 days, (the one period reaching 30 days, and the other 75 days, beyond the 1260 days,) from the setting up of the abomination of desolation: it is manifest, that this abomination, which I have shewn to be the abomination connected with the he-goat's little horn, was set up at the beginning of the 1260 days: for, since all the wonders were to be finished at the end of the 1260 days, the pollution of the sanctuary by the abomination connected with the he-goat's little horn was likewise to be finished at that period, and therefore its cleansing was to begin at that same period; and, since Daniel dates 1290 and 1335 days from the abomination of desolation, (the first of these numbers

...........

reaching 30, and the second 75 days, beyond the 1260 days, when all the wonders were to be finished, and therefore among the other wonders the pollution of the sanctuary,) it is plain, that, between the setting up of the abomination and the incipient cleansing of the sanctuary, there were to be precisely 1260 days; in other words, the date of the setting up of the abomination, and the date of the 1260 days, is the same.

This being the case, it seems almost necessarily to follow, that the tyranny of the little horn of the Roman beast will continue the very same length of time as the tyranny of the desolating transgression connected with the little horn of the Macedonian beast; for we are specially informed, that the saints should be delivered into the hand of the papal little horn during the space of three times and a half, or 1260 prophetic days: and, since the tyranny of each is apparently to finish at the end of the same 1260 days, the tyranny of each must in that case begin at the commencement of the same 1260 days. Hence, in the very year that the already existing papal little horn was to commence its tyrannical career of 1260 days, the desolating transgression connected with the little horn of the he-goat, which was shortly to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot, was first to be set up. Bp. Newton accordingly very justly observes from these premises which certainly seem to be undeniable, that, whatever power be meant by the last mentioned abomination of desolation, that power will prevail for the space of 1260 years; let it be Mohammedism, or let it be any other power.*

The 1260 days then of the desolating transgression connected with the he-goat's little horn are precisely the same. period as the 1260 days during which the saints were to be given into the hand of the fourth beast's little horn: consequently they are the same period also as the 42 months, during which the ten horned beast was to flour

*The abomination of desolation "may with equal justice be applied to the Mobammedans invading and desolating Christendom, and converting the churches into mosques; and this latter event seemeth to have been particularly intended in this passage, (Dan. xii. 11.) If this interpretation be true, the religion of Mohammed will prevail in the East the space of 1260 years." Dissert. XVII.

ish in his revived state. Thus it appears, that the beast was to revive at the very time when the saints were given into the hand of his little horn. Whence we must almost necessarily conclude, that the revival of the beast is so closely connected with the giving of the saints into the hand of the little horn, that in some sense or another he revived by committing the sin of thus giving the saints into the hand of his little horn. Here therefore it will be proper to consider the meaning of this revival.

"A beast," as it is most truly remarked by Bp. Newton, and as I have very fully stated in a preceding chapter, "A beast, in the prophetic style, is a tyrannical idolatrous empire: the kingdom of God and of Christ is never represented under the image of a beast." This being the case, an empire is said to continue in existence as a beast, so long as it is a tyrannically idolatrous empire : when it puts away its idolatry and tyranny, and turns to the God of heaven, the beast, or those qualities whereby the empire was a beast, ceases to exist, though the empire itself may still remain as a body politic of faithful worshippers and, when it resumes its tyranny and idolatry, though they may not perhaps bear precisely the same names as its old tyranny and idolatry, it then revives, it then once more recommences its existence in its original character of a beast. To this description the character of the ten horned or Roman beast exactly answers. empire was originally a beast by its profession of paganism: it ceased to be a beast by its embracing Christianity under Constantine: and it once more became a beast by its setting up a catholic spiritual tyrant, and by its persecuting at his instigation all, who refused to own his supremacy, and to embrace his new idolatry. On these grounds, St. John informs us, that the ten-horned or Roman beast "was, and is not, and yet is." It was, while in its original pagan state: it is not, while in its Christian state under Constantine: it is, while supporting papal tyranny and idolatry. In this last of its three states, St. John beheld it rise from the sea of Gothic invasion and in this last state it is to practise prosperously, as he carefully informs us, 42 months, or 1260 days. The same duration is assigned to the tyrannical reign of its own little

That

« ElőzőTovább »