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And that fatal exhaustion of the Turkish empire, at the time referred to, only suspected as a near occurrence, but since fully manifested, and at this time engaging the chief attention of the political world-cannot but mark the pouring forth of the VIAL of the SIXTH angel "upon the great river Euphrates." If this be correct, the world will soon be seen preparing for the last conflict. We are arrived at the eve of "the battle of the great day of Almighty God."-Precisely at that period, when a voice is heard, -ver. 13,-" Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame."

APPENDIX THE SECOND.

ON THE PROPHETIC NUMBERS.

WITH respect to the time of our Lord's appearing, it was not my intention, on this occasion, to enter into a particular consideration of the several schemes and chronological calculations that have already been advanced. I cannot, however, but remark on the gross impropriety of the check which, in certain quarters, is attempted to be given to all inquirers of this kind, by a quotation of Acts i. 7. "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put into his own power." What, has it been overlooked, that since these words were spoken, the Holy Ghost has been given to the church, respecting whom our Saviour promised, "He shall shew you things to come?" Has it been forgotten, that since this address, which was made at the moment of our blessed Lord's ascention, other divine oracles have been affixed to the "pillar and ground of the truth," and proclaimed in "the church of the living God?" That one of these oracles, containing no small proportion to the whole body of scripture prophecy, bears the title, "The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass." Has it not been noted, how all creatures in heaven and earth are represented in the holy vision, as bursting forth in one common song of new joy and congratulation, because the Lamb "had prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof, and shall a follower of Jesus Christ feel no ardent zeal to possess the blessing with which this, perhaps last behest to the church militant here on earth, invites his attention? "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things that are written therein: for the time is at hand."

Now we find the times and seasons, and the numbered days of the ancient prophets again mentioned and marked as it were afresh, in this last prophecy. We can hardly, therefore, suppose that these numbers and periods-whatever obscurity still may seem to rest upon the dates of their beginnings, and by consequence of their ending were given for no purpose, or practical use to the waiting people of Christ.

True, these periods have been antedated by some, who have preceded us in our inquiries as the event has proved; the best grounded hypotheses of the present day, may possibly, though they cannot but have approximated nearer, be found at last somewhat wide of the mark. But is there no danger, that we may not be post-dating in our best argued schemes, and so that day come upon us unawares?

From some views of futurity rendered distinctly visible by the glimmerings of the prophetic lamp, this certainly will be the fact: "as a snare will it come upon all the inhabitants of the earth." Whether this shall arise from the negligent observations of the watchman, from some error which runs through his calculations, or enters into them somewhere unperceived, or that we are too inattentive to the subject, and exercise no becoming skill or caution, when we receive the various reports that are laid before us, so that after all, the best observations and calculations have not had in the greatest degree our credence and confidence: from whatever cause it may arise, this inadvertance and surprizal with regard to many, is too plainly predicted.

We know it is the mind of the Spirit that the Church of God "should not be in darkness, that that day should overtake them as a thief in the night;" but it is not altogether and universally independent of their own watchfulness. Though he has, we may safely argue, afforded sufficient light, and will, as the times require, give the requisite skill of observation; yet, after all, the admonition is, “Watch, therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour"-" at such a time as ye think not the Son of man cometh." The navigator, with all the astonishing accuracy of the tables of his calculation, which, from experience, he knows he may trust, notwithstanding the utmost nicety and exactness of his chronometers, and other instruments, neglects not the duty of the watch; when known especially, to be approaching the shore--and it may be a dangerous shore to nearthe orders are to keep a good look out a-head; and happy the simplest mariner in the tops, whose penetrating glance into the dusky horizon, is first enabled to raise the welcome shout of "land!"

In closing this volume, I will venture a few observations, as to what has struck my mind most, in considering "the times and seasons," and the mystical numbers contained in the prophecies of holy scripture.

There is one induction, from the mention of dates and numbers in the text of the holy scripture, which corroborated by events recorded in general history, has much fixed my attention and excited my expectations.

In the seventh chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah, we find this chronological prophecy delivered to Ahaz, king of Judah, on a very memorable occasion, when from the alarming tidings he had heard, of the combination of his enemies, it is said, "and his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees are moved with the wind."

Isaiah, a few years previously to this, had seen the vision of THE GLORY OF CHRIST, in the character of THE KING, of THE LORD OF HOSTS; it was then that the approaching desolation of the kingdom of Israel was clearly announced to be at hand. "The Lord would remove men far away;" "there would be a great forsaking in the midst of the land." "But yet there should be a tenth, and it should return." -The holy seed was to be like the stock of a tree in the soil, when its leaves were shed, and all its boughs were eaten; of Judah especially, it was ever the prophetic characteristic, "a remnant shall return."

The immediate cause of alarm to king Ahaz, on the occasion before us, was the report of a confederacy between Resin, king of Syria, and Pekin, king of Israel, having for its object the destruction of the house of David; for with kings and people, a present danger which alarms the public, will often have a deeper impression, than the most tremendous calamities declared in the word of God, as soon to involve the doom of a guilty nation.

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The prophet, as he was commanded, taking in his hand his son, who, in view of the approaching judgments, bore the auspicious name for Judah, "a remnant shall return, was sent with this message to the king, " In three score and five years shall Ephraim be broken that it be not a people." This, too, was the occasion of the delivery of that more momentous oracle of mercy, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and shall call his name IMMANUEL."

But, to pursue our present object, surely we have an epocha pointed out here when the kingdom of Israel ceases, and the kingdom of the Gentiles begins to bear rule.

This prophecy in the seventh chapter of Isaiah, according to our received chronology of the Bible, bears date 742 before the Christian era; sixty-five years from this date brings us to B. C. 677. At this time it appears from 2 Kings xvii. Providence completed the destruction of Israel: "The Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets, so was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day." Esarhaddon had three years before seized upon Babylon, which afterwards became the capital of the Assyrian monarchy; in B. C. 678 he had invaded Palestine, and planted a colony of foreigners in Samaria, and in the following year his armies came upon Jerusalem, and took Manasseh, king of Judah, among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon." * He, on his repentance, was restored again to his throne, but the religious corruption, and depravity of Jerusalem, of which "his conduct had been a leading curse, as a national sin was never forgiven;"† and though for Judah alone there was a respite of more than seventy years, from total dispersion; yet it was ever a tributary and dependant kingdom.

Guided by this prophecy, I would fix upon this date, 677, B. C. for the triumph of the first of the "four horns of the Gentiles," which, we are told in the first chapter of Zechariah, should "have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem," before the final restitution of Zion; or, what is the same thing, the beginning of the reign of the four great kingdoms of the Heathen, Babylon, Media and Persia, Græcia, and Rome.

On the prostration of Messiah's throne, symbolically erected in the tabernacle of David, "the throne of the kingdoms" is now set up, and with a few short intervals, as related to "the remnant that should return," the strength of the kingdom of the Heathen has ever since prevailed; the enemies of the peculiar nation of Jehovah have had the upper hand; and still we read that "Jerusalem shall be trodden under foot of the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."

The expression, "the times of the Gentiles," has caught the attention of many expositors, and according to Bishop Butler's description of the progress of divine knowledge-" by particular persons attending to, comparing, and pursuing intimations scattered up and down in scriptures," a conclusion has been come to, that these "times" are a definite period; and, that as at the period of Daniel's prophesying, "three times and an half are so particularly mentioned, the whole number of these times is seven. By comparison with other passages of Daniel, and of other prophetic scriptures, it was manifest that three times and an half were equivalent to "forty-two months," and "twelve hundred and sixty days."

* 2 Chronicles xxiii.

+2 Kings xxiv. 3, 4.

† Haggai ii. 22.

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Nor wanted there intimation in scripture that in the symbolic language of prophecy a day might stand for a year, or the greater solar day. Pursuing this idea, the seven times of the Gentiles would amount to twice twelve hundred and sixty, or two thousand five hundred and twenty years, and dated as above from B. C. 677, they would close in the year of our Lord 1844, (counting one for the year of the era.)

To Daniel, as is well known to the reader, the number of the days of other prophetic periods are given: first, in chapter the eighth, a period of "two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings," -on the same scale so many years. If this period is to be dated, as I think most probably it should be, * from the same epocha as the "seventy-sevens" of the ninth chapter, from the going forth of a decree to restore Jerusalem, which, from the fulfilment of the prophecy, in the death and resurrection of our Lord, has been demonstrated to be that decree which Ezra carried to Jerusalem, B. C. 457. (Ezra vii. 23, &c.) If the two thousand three hundred years are to be dated from the same epoch, (adding one for the year of the era) they also terminate A. D. 1844.

The account which Mr. Cuninghamet has lately laid before the public of the discoveries of Mons. de Chesaux, as to "the great astronomical cycles of two thousand three hundred, and twelve hundred and sixty years, and their difference ten hundred and forty years," I can but view as a matter of great importance, and in how wonderful a manner must the discovery break upon the minds of the students of prophecy! We could not but know that He who "appointed the moon for certain seasons, and taught the sun to know his going down, was the same who "hath determined the times before appointed," and "the bounds of" the "habitation" of "all nations of men," which "he had made to dwell on all the face of the earth;" but who could have imagined that "He who ruleth in the kingdom of men," and "changeth the times and seasons," on the adjusted movements of the heavenly bodies, in their circling orbits, as on a mighty dial inscribed on the sky, had caused, as it were, a shadow to fall, indicative, when we are permitted to read it, of the progress and developements of his great scheme of providence and grace, as it relates to the children of men upon this earth! He had said, indeed, we remember, when he set the "two great lights in the firmament of the heaven," that they should "be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years,"-" for signs," "tokens,” or portents." Not, indeed, as the vain pretenders to the knowledge of astrology have feigned, "He frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad."

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* See "The Epocha of Daniel's Prophetic Numbers Fixed," by the Author of the present work. † See Mr. Cuninghame's "Jubilean Chronology."..

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