Dan. xii. 7. I fhall go on to obferve, that at the feventh Verfe, where the Time, Times and an Half (or part) are declared, which moft Intrepreters make equal to the fame Words in St. John, and also to the 1260 Days, and the 42 Months of this Prophet. It is faid by the heavenly Interpreter, who fware by him, who liveth for ever, that when he shall have accomplished to Scatter the Power of the holy People, all thefe Things fhall be finished. This Declaration marks out a Time determined for the Dispersion of the Jews, who then were the holy People. The Time correfponds to the 1260 Days for the two Witnesses, and to the 42 Months for the Power of the Beast; fo that the holy People may mean also the Gentiles, who are become the People of God, by receiving the Gospel, but who may be faid to be scattered: because the Church of Chrift is in the Wilderness yet, and the Gospel scarce known as the Kingdom of God within us; fuch a Kingdom of spiritual Powers, as Jesus Matt. xvii. CRHIST, the glorious Adam or Head exhibited on Mount Tabor. Hence the Time for the Jews may be reckoned from one Period, or Age of the Chriftian Church; and the Time for the holy People of the true Ifrael to be scattered as Lights in the World, may be reckoned from the Number 666; at the End of which, the Jew and Gentile will be brought in, and the Captivity of the Church, both to an outward perfecuting Power, and to an inward and false Representation of it, by the Doctrines of Men, will conclude in a glorious Exode under the true Mofes and Joshua, JESUS CHRIST. To the last Number of 1335 Days, a peculiar Bleffing is anDan. xii. 12. nexed: Blessed is He that waiteth and cometh to this: which Paffage, in the Judgment of many, alludes to the 20th Chapter of Revelation, where it is faid, as the Antitype or Counterpart; blessed and holy is he, who hath Part in the FIRST RESURRECTION. This Opinion is more credible, as the first Resurrection is affigned as a peculiar Reward to the Martyrs, and to fuch, who had not worshipped the Beast, nor its Image; and it is thought to be the Emphasis of these Words in Chapter the 14th, verse the 13th of Rev. xiv. 13. this Revelation: Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord, that is, die for him. St. Paul, in 1 Cor. at the 15th Chapter, has has a Paffage to the fame Import; The Dead in CHRIST fhall rife first. It is ftill more credible, as a Portion of this great Privilege is to fall to this Prophet, who was a Martyr, or, as the first Christians would have called him, a Confeffor; because He offered up His Life to God, though the fecond Man in that great Kingdom, rather than neglect the Duty of Prayer; and though God preferved his Life thus offered up by a Miracle. At the Expiration of these prophetic Numbers, there remain no more great Events in Daniel; and the fame may be found in the correspondent Parts of the Prophecy revealed to St. John: For after the 1260 Days are elapsed, succeeds a glorious Reft or Sabbath of the Christian World for the thousand Years preceding the Day of univerfal Judgment. Such a State of Things has all along been expected by the Christian Church: This Expectation has been built on the Number Seven, fo eminently diftinguished by peculiar Bleffings, under the Law, which is only a Figure: And therefore this Part must be fulfilled under the Gospel on the great seventh Day, and feventh Year of the World, as Burnet and Mede, on the feptenary Number have fhewn. The strange and foolish Conceptions formed by weak Christians, of the particular Happiness which was to flow, through the millennial Sabbath of all Nations brought under one THEOCRACY, funk the Expectation itself; or rather it was loft, where all spiritual Interpretation was lost, beneath the Load and Mass of those abominable Corruptions, introduced by the Superftition, Ignorance, and Impiety of the Romish Church, leading captive all Churches and Kingdoms of the western World. Lastly, It has ever been the Procedure of divine Providence, that the Prophecies fhall grow more plain, as the Events approach near their Birth, fo that They, who are most concerned to know the Signs, fhall have clearer Marks to discern them. This laft Reflection leads us to examine the third Point, whether CHRIST has not laid down fuch Marks in the Gofpel to point out to his Church the Signs of the Times appointed for the great Difplay of. his Power over all Nations, as every one acknowledges to have been given in the Law, and in his fpecial Government over one People; so that his approaching Manifeftation in the Flesh, might be not only expected, but almost feen into. First the Gospel carries on the fame Views as the Law. Thefe are the great Ruin and glorious Restoration of a whole intellectual Creation. Cocceius, though an imperfect myftic Interpreter, has caft great Light on the Law, and obferves that the Gospel interprets the distinct Branches of the Law; fo may We affirm, that as to the many Types of that Oeconomy yet unfulfilled (which Diftinction had not enough been attended to), the Gospel looks back to them, and promises their Completion in due Time. It is evident, that the MYSTERY, that is in St. Paul's Explanation, the more excellent Senfe concealed under the Veil of a Type, has not been developed, touching the feventh Day, feventh Month, and feventh Year; nor is one of these Types yet accomplifhed: Therefore they remain to come forth in their appointed Seafons. Let us then inquire, what Marks CHRIST has given out for His Church to discern the Signs of the Times, that is, of Periods ripening, or ripened for great moral Revolutions in the World. The Gospel is as much a Dispensation and Chain of Prophecy, as the Law and its Ministration was; and it is attended with those of a much more extraordinary, awful, and extenfive Nature. ་ The first Series of Prophecy in the Gofpel comprehends the Propagation of the Chriftian Religion, and the Difperfion of the Jews; the Rife and Power of the Beast, and the false Prophet; the Number of 666, with the Time, Times, and half a Time; 1260 Days and 42 Months for their Duration: These are to be conferred with the three prophetic Numbers in the last Chapter of Daniel. The fecond Order of Prophecy includes the Fall of the Beast and false Prophet, the Converfion of the Jews, and by them the great Gathering of the People unto CHRIST: These are the moft illuftrious and leading Predictions recorded in the Writings of the new Covenant. Now Now the Signs to difcern the Advent of thefe important Revolutions (for the other are in a great Measure fulfilled) feem to be given out under four Characters. The first is the Number of the Beaft Six Hundred Sixty-fix, with the Time of its Power expreffed by three Numbers, which concur in one Period of 1260 Years. The Second is the particular Kind of Infidelity, which never exifted before in the Christian Church of denying Chrift mentioned by St. Peter. The Third confifts of those terrible Judgments of God marked out, as going forth against the Thrones of the Beaft, and of the falfe Prophet; with other direful Vifitations by Wars, Peftilences, Famines and Earthquakes in divers Places. The last is the seventh Day and seventh Year of the Law, yet unfulfilled, as to its inward and glorious Import. Under the Law and its Prophets, divine Wisdom fet up two confpicuous Marks of the MESSIAH, as the Time of his Appearance drew near. These were the seventy Weeks of Daniel, and the Continuance of the fecond TEMPLE. Should the first Mark be questionable, from a Difficulty in the Year of commencing the Calculation, the fecond would foon put it beyond Dispute. 2 Pet. ii. 1. Under the Gospel, there are more Marks for difcerning the fpiritual Advent of CHRIST, to take away the Vail from the Hearts of the Jews, which is the fecond great EPIPHANY of the MESSIAH, expected by his Church, and exprefsly limited Dan. x. 14. to the latter Days, and the End of the Days: By which Ex- Hof. iii. 4. preffions we may understand, not only the Conclufion of the prophetic Numbers, but also the Age or Ages of the Gospel, or as St. Paul calls them the Ends of the Ages. The fignal Judgments by Earthquakes in many Places; most cruel and lafting Wars, of Nation against Nation, with the feven Thunders, and feven laft Vials full of the Wrath of God, will proclaim the Signs of the Times. These last Thunders and Vials are to be poured out in a more terrible Manner against the Thrones or Kingdoms of the Beaft, and of the falfe Prophet, as we find to have happened to Callao, in 1746. And to Lisbon, another Heb. i. 2. and xi. 3. 1 Cor. x. 11. Rev. viii. Throne on which the Beast fits, in 1755; and to more Thrones One Thing deserves our Notice, that the Judgments of the feven Thunders, and feven Vials, have no Bounds fet to them, of a third Part only, which Whiston obferved to have been fixed to four of the feven Trumpets: They run in general Terms, and will be poured out, not only upon the fpiritual Babylons of false Religion, but against the whole degenerate Chriftian World. The Defolations, indeed, from the avenging Hand of God, upon Babylon, Rome, and Mahomet, holding the Church in Captivity, will be double and Fore-runners of his Arm to be lifted up against all the reformed Kingdoms. These will be greatly afflicted for want of Reformation, both in their Interpretation of the Gospel, as well as in Morals. Earthquakes and the Edomites of the Church of Rome, will be Thorns and Scourges. Britain, Holland, and Switzerland, will foon feel fevere Strokes: France, Spain, and Germany will receive their Cup of Affliction double; and all of them will be shaken chiefly in their Capital and Commercial Towns and Cities. On this Account Babylon bears a double Character in St. John, which cannot be applied to the spiritual Antichrift 1 John ii. 15, alone, but gives a Picture of the Christian World following after the Pride of Life. The Luft of the Eyes and the Luft of the Flesh, which this Prophet more than any other Writer of the New Testament faith; they are not of the Father, but of the World, which. is Babylon the Great. Rev. xviii. 16. N. B. The This Sentiment is more confirmed by the happy Scene of Things fucceeding the Fall of Babylon compared with the divine Blessings on the feventh Day and Year of the LAW. For upon the Suppofition that the feventh Thousand Year be the Commencement of the millennial Kingdom of St. John, the Benediction of Heaven in that univerfal THEOCRACY of the MESSIAH Over all the feventy, or seventy and two Nations dispersed at Babel, will be as it was typified under the Law, open, and common to all. And of what Ufe then can trading Cities be, full of Canaanites or Merchants as the |