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is overthrown; and prepares by its subversion a way for the kings from the east. These kings I cannot but consider as being the Jews, or perhaps to speak more accurately the ten tribes dispersed through the east and lost in the ancient Assyrian empire. Such an interpretation best accords with other parallel prophecies, which concur in representing a very considerable body of the Israelites as being brought out of the east and out of the north. The fall of the Ottoman empire however only prepares a way for them: no intimation is given, that they then set out on their expedition; which exactly accords with what we are taught respecting the period, when we may expect the return of Judah and Israel. The restoration even of Judah, which will first take place, will not commence till the 1260 years shall have expired: and the Ottoman empire falls previous to the gathering together of the confederacy to the great battle of the Lord, which will be contemporary with the restoration of Judah.

After the downfall of Turkey, the imperceptible agency of three unclean spirits will begin to assemble the Latin kings to the last war of Armageddon. We may conclude from the language of the prophet, that the confederacy itself will in some measure be already formed at this era: for the impure spirits are represented, as not so much forming the confederacy, as directing its efforts after its formation to a scheme of conquest which will

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terminate only in its own destruction. I have already observed, that, when we consider the point to which we now seem to be arrived in the Apocalypse, we can scarcely doubt that we behold the rudiments of this confederacy rapidly acquiring form and stability; and that, whenever the Turkish empire is overthrown, there will then be no doubt

at all.

At the pouring out of the last vial the 1260 years apparently expire, and the restoration of Judah commences. To this period therefore we must ascribe the expedition of the wilful king; and at this same period the stone begins to smite the image upon his feet, and the Ancient of days to sit in judgment upon the Roman beast and his tyrannical little horn. It is observable that the stone smites the image upon his feet and his ten toes, previous to his other members being smitten. This exactly accords with what Daniel says relative to the fate of the four beasts. The Roman empire is to be first destroyed, and that in its divided form: the lives of the other three beasts are to be preserved for a season and a time. And both these prophecies equally accord with the Apocalypse. After the destruction of the Roman beast under his last head and the downfall of his false prophet or harlot-church, and after the thousand years have expired, then at length perish Gog and Magog; whose seats, together with those of their associates, are, as we find from Ezekiel, within the limits of

the

the three first empires. I am much inclined to think, that the season and the time, during which the lives of the three beasts were to be preserved, is only another mode of expressing the thousand years mentioned by St. John. As a day in the prophetic language is a year, so a great time or year of the Lord was thought by the Jews to comprehend a thousand years; and this great time they were wont to style the great day of judgment, shewing thereby that days, and years, and millenaries, are equal in the sight of God *. At any rate the time, during which the lives of the three beasts were to be preserved, undoubtedly coincides with the thousand years; whence we are naturally led to conclude, that Daniel did not mean an indefinite time, but a time or year of some description or another. It cannot however be a time of 360 years, because it coincides with the Millennium; therefore it must be a great time or year of 1000 years.

The whole war, which terminates with the battle of Armageddon, is both minutely and geographically detailed by Daniel. The confederacy under its leader the infidel king will, at the time of the end or the close of the 1260 years, be opposed by a king of the north and a king of the south; yet, in spite of their efforts, it will succeed in overflowing many countries, and in conquering Pales

* The reader will find some very curious remarks on this subject by Mr. Mede in his Works. B. v. C. 3.

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tine, Egypt, Libya, and the land of Cush. In the midst of these victories its chief will be disturbed by some untoward tidings out of the east and out of the north tidings probably of the arrival in Palestine of the navy of the great maritime power with the converted of Judah, and of an invasion of the papal Roman empire by the king of the North*; which therefore,

* There is some reason for believing, that, during the effusion of the seventh vial and the contemporaneous expedition of Antichrist into Palestine, the sins of the papal empire, then left in a manner defenceless, will be severely punished by the desolating invasion of a great northern nation. In the language of symbols, a storm of hail denotes a hostile invasion from the north, the region where the natural hail is generated. Accordingly it is used by St. John, in his description of the effects produced by the first trumpet, to typify the irruption of the northern tribes into the Roman empire. Now it is worthy of note, that another hail-storm is to be one of the plagues produced by the seventh rial; and it is equally worthy of note, that some great northern king is said by Daniel to be engaged in hostilities with Antichrist at this very period. The necessary conclusion seems to be, if I be right in supposing the northern king to be Russia, that the hail-storm of the seventh vial means some dreadful invasion of the papal Roman empire by Russia and her northern allies during the time that Antichrist is engaged in prosecuting his conquests in Palestine and Egypt. This conjecture is founded upon Mr. Butt's paraphrase of Rev. xvi. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21; which the reader may compare with

the text.

"17. And the last minister poured out his vial upon the "spiritual power of mystical Babylon, and there came a great "voice from the established church from the throne, saying, "The mystery of God is finished, Antichrist is crucified. 18.

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therefore, supposing the wilful king to be then in Egypt and Libya, would reach him from the east and the north. Enraged at such ungrateful news, he will go forth in his fury to devote to utter destruction his opponents: and he will succeed in taking Jerusalem. This however will be his last victory. Advancing to Megiddo, a town near the shores of the Mediterranean, where (as we learn from St. John) the conflict will be finally decided; advancing therefore (will the conjecture be deemed too unreasonable?) against the forces of the maritime power, and such of the Jews as shall be under its protection (the apostates themselves perhaps, late the allies of Antichrist, being now of the number, and converted :) advancing, I say, against this town, he shall there unexpectedly come to his end, none being able to help him. The trium

"And there were thanksgivings, and languages, and the thun"der of preachers, and flashes of light; and there was a great "revolution, such as never was from the time that men were

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upon the earth (Comp. Dan. xii. 1.). 19. And the great "nation and empire was divided into three portions, and the "communities of the Christian Gentiles were revolutionized, "and catholic Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of crucifixion and extreme wrath. “20. And every little state was revolutionized, and the king"doms were levelled, the foundations of the great city anni"hilated. 21. And great northern armies are caused to de"scend by the church and fall upon citizens; and the citizens blasphemed God for the plague of the northern armies, for "it was inexpressibly heavy and dreadful." Butt's third part of notes on the Revelation, p. 24.

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