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demption can no longer proceed, 1 Cor. 15: 24-28. These facts being thus plainly established, it follows that a place (so to speak) entirely new, fitted for the residence of beings with "spiritual bodies," (as Paul calls them 1 Cor. 15: 44), is absolutely necessary. The apprehension that the present material world is to be so improved and modified, as to become the future residence of the blessed, agrees neither with the future state and condition of the blessed, nor with the declarations of the Scriptures, nor with the most ardent hopes of spiritual Christians. No; all true believers 6.6 are to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall they ever be with the Lord,” 1 Thess. 4: 17*.

But, allured by the delightful prospects of the church which are unfolded in the Apocalypse, I am wandering from my theme. Let us return, and briefly conclude the present discussion, in which mere hints have been aimed at and suggested, by a simple recapitulation of what has been done, and the grounds on which it stands.

§ 5. CONCLUDING Remarks.

There must be, there are, some principles applicable to the interpretation of language, which all men are bound to acknowledge and observe. If this be not true, then there is an end to all certainty in the results of interpretation, and we never can tell what the Scriptures do mean, or what they may not mean.

The reason why I have endeavored to show that the double or occult sense of Scripture is inadmissible, is, that if we admit it, then we must give up all hope of ever fixing with certainty upon the original meaning of many portions of Scripture, and specially of the prophecies. If a

* See the Appendix, where this subject is further examined.

part of what Daniel predicts, for example, must be applied first to Antiochus Epiphanes (which is certain), and then may be applied, as to its occult meaning, to Antichrist, to the Pope, to Mohammed, or to all of these, then there is an end to all certainty in exegesis, because there is no tribunal before which the occult sense can be brought and by which it may be tried. It is because the prophecies have been so extensively interpreted in this way, specially in the English and American churches, that I have thought it important to say so much on this subject. He, who understands the lengths to which this principle of interpretation has been carried, will not accuse me of having overrated the importance of the subject.

It has also been a very common thing, even among the better class of interpreters in some cases, to speak of some of the prophecies, and to treat them, as having been unintelligible at the time when they were uttered, and as coming to be understood only after they are fulfilled. Such a supposition of course throws to the winds some of the leading principles of hermeneutics; for if the language ever had a meaning, it must have been discoverable by the aid of those principles; and if a meaning is ever assigned to it, it must be in accordance with these, or else it can be of no solid worth. An arbitrary application of language to particular events, without support from grammar and exegesis, is conjecture, not exposition. Besides all this, such a prophecy was at most no prediction surely, no revelation; for, by the very supposition, it meant nothing intelligible before the events took place to which it relates, and therefore could make and did make no revelation at all.

It is time for the Christian church to have done with such problems as these. On such a ground, the Bible is no "light shining in a dark place," as Peter affirms it to be. It only adds another deepening shade to the gloom al

ready spread around. Why then should not such a principle, so dishonorable to divine teachers, and to that word which is " a light to our feet and a lamp to our path," be held up to view, and its deformities exposed?

As to that portion of this little work which has respect to the times designated in the Apocalypse and in the book of Daniel, the disputes of the present day sufficiently show the necessity of such inquiries. I have endeavored to walk in a straight and simple path. My first great position has been, that the Bible means what it says. When it designates times and seasons, therefore, the simple and obvious sense of the words is always to be followed, unless there is some special reason for departing from it. That reason can be only one, viz., when the context gives us information that such a departure is to be made. This is done in Ezek. 4: 5, 6, and in Num. 14: 34. The passage in Dan. 9: 24 plainly, as we have shown pp. 82 seq., does not belong to this category. Other cases than these, I am not aware of. In all others, therefore, where no such departure from the obvious sense is intimated, it follows of course that we are not at liberty to depart from it. If this be not a principle plain and certain, I know of none in the so called science of hermeneutics.

at rest.

My second aim in respect to this matter has been, to prove that history has preserved to us such a knowledge of facts, as will serve to show that the prophecies in question have been fulfilled, in their plain and obvious sense. If this effort has been successful, then the whole subject is The controversies of the present day, about the Pope, and Mohammed, and the French Revolution, and the infidel corps of Illuminati, and all like matters or persons, are things which have no specific ground or basis in the book of Daniel or of John. What John declared would take place shortly, happened according to his prediction ;

and if so, the dispute whether it is all to happen over again, after so many centuries, cannot be a dispute of much interest or importance. One fulfilment is enough.

Even if we should concede that 1260 days mean so many years, and that Romanism is the object of John's predictions, yet I do not see how we can ascertain where to begin this period. The Romish church was three or four centuries in coming into being; or rather, one might even say with truth, that it was not consummated until the Council of Trent. Where then is the terminus a quo? I am aware of the usual periods to which so many refer the beginnings of this apostacy. But they are not at all of a nature sufficiently definitive or decisive to be entitled to such a bad pre-eminence. It must be mere conjecture which fixes upon the beginning of such a period for such reasons; and of course the end must be indefinite, where the beginning cannot be traced out with any definiteness. The truth is, that heathen-idolatry, and that only, is characterized in Rev. XIII. seq.; and all efforts to make out any thing different from this, must be revolting to the simple reader, who seeks merely to understand what the wri

ter meant.

Plain as all this seems to my mind, yet I see many, and some very sensible persons too, greatly agitated about the end of the world, which, as many predict at the present day, is to come in the Spring of 1843. I do not say, it will not ; for I do not know this. But I do say, that it would be well for the public to call to mind the many predictions of the like nature which have already been wrecked, and which were maintained with as much learning, and as much confidence too, as present theories are. Specially would they do well to call to mind the notable case of John Albert Bengel, a Prelate of Würtemberg, one of the best Greek scholars and sacred expositors of the last age, and the ed

itor of the famous critical edition of the New Testament which bears his name. His piety and talents are beyond fair question; and sobriety, on all other subjects except the Apocalypse, was a prominent trait of his character. He spent the flower of his life in pursuit of the secret meanings of the Revelation. He came to a full persuasion, at last, that he had discovered them. He announced them to the world; and in so doing, he says, with much modesty, that the only reason he has to doubt the disclosure of these secrets is, that it was made to so unworthy a person as himself. Yet, in the full confidence that the occult matters of the Apocalypse had actually been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, he published his book. Most devoutly does he thank God for the wonderful disclosures which it is designed to make. The grand period as to all the leading parts of the great drama, according to his book, was to be consummated in A. D. 1836. If the face of the world should not be entirely changed at that period, then the church, as he concedes, must believe that he has been mistaken. But that the change expected would take place, he entertained not a shadow of doubt.

And we we have

So far, this great and good man. lived to see 1836, and the world is still moving round the sun, and its busy inhabitants going on much as in days of yore. We never once thought, at that period, of the Bengelian revelations ; and cannot now discover the record of them on the page of history.

Many a confident prediction, uttered by other romancers in prophecy, has met with the same fate, and been wrecked on the rocks whither the mighty stream of time hath borne them. Such is doubtless to be the destiny of many others also; and yet, all this does not seem to diminish the confidence of those who write theological romances! Be it so.

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