Queen of virgins, Queen of all saints. "We fly to thy patronage, O Holy Mother of God! despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us from all dangers, O everglorious and blessed Virgin! "Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God! "That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ." In order to hide from the people the guilt and danger of bowing down to images, the Romish priesthood have, in some of their catechisms, as in that of the Rev. Dr. James Butler, revised, enlarged, approved, and recommended by the four Romish Archbishops of Ireland, wholly omitted the second commandment; and they endeavour to conceal this daring corruption of the divine law, by dividing the tenth commandment into two. In other catechisms, published for the use of the English Roman Catholics, the second commandment is indeed inserted; but it is blended with the first; and the tenth is divided into two, in the same manner as in the Irish catechisms. But though in the catechisms last mentioned, the second commandment is inserted as a subordinate part of the first, yet the "Thou shalt not bow down "thyself to them," which absolutely forbids every kind and degree of religious veneration to images, has in the Romish catechisms been thus translated, "Thou shalt not adore them;" and the framers of these catechisms presumptuously varnish over their open violation of the above prohibition in the following manner: לא תשתחוה להם,Hebrew phrase Q."Is it lawful to honour the images of Christ and his saints? "referred to the things they represent: so that by the images or 66 crosses which we kiss, and before which we kneel, we honour and "adore Christ himself. Q." Do catholics pray to images? A. "No, by no means: we pray before them indeed, to keep us "from distraction, but not to them; for we know they can neither see, nor hear, nor help us. 66 66 Q. “What benefit have we then by them? A. "They movingly represent to us the mysteries of our Saviour's passion, and the martyrdom of his saints.”—See Abstract of the Douay Catechism. Had the above Hebrew phrase been literally rendered, "thou shalt "not bow down thyself to them," the Romish priests could not thus have varnished over the violation of the commandment. But they first deceive the people by a translation of the passage not sufficiently literal, and then they pretend, that in honouring, kissing, and kneeling before the images, they do not adore them, though in fact they bow down to them, and thus disobey the letter of the divine law. There are without doubt many excellent persons who adhere to the communion of the church of Rome, from the prejudices of education; but it becomes all such persons to examine the scriptures for themselves, and not to put confidence in their priests: for if the Bible be the word of God, idolatry is a sin of a most heinous nature, and in those who have the scriptures in their hands it is inexcusable. 1 CHAPTER XIV. ON THE PROPHETICAL PERIOD OF TWELVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY YEARS-GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE SUBJECT-SIX SCRIPTURAL PROPOSITIONS LAID DOWN. In considering the 11th, 12th, and 13th chapters of the Apocalypse, we have seen frequent mention of a certain mysterious period, during which the enemies of the church were to triumph over her. This period is also twice mentioned in the book of Daniel, and it occurs five times in the Apocalypse. I shall recapitulate the different passages, for the sake of perspicuity. 1st, In Dan. vii. 25, we are informed that the saints, and times, and laws, are to be given into the hand of the little horn of the fourth beast, until a time, and times, and the dividing of time, i. e. three years and a half. 2d, In Dan. xii. 7. mention is again made of the same period, a time, times, and a half, as measuring the duration of certain events previously predicted. 3d, In Rev. xi. 2, it is said that the Gentiles are to tread under foot the holy city forty and two months. 4th, In xi. 3, we are told that the witnesses are to prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. 5th, In xii. 6, it is said that the woman, the church, shall be fed one thousand two hundred and threescore days in the wilderness. 6th, In xii. 14, we learn that the woman is to be nourished in her place in the wilderness, a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. 7th, In xiii. 5, power is said to have been given to the beast, to practise prosperously forty and two months. Besides these seven places of scripture, in which express mention is made of the above prophetical period, there is an allusion to it in two others. Our Lord, in Luke xxi. 24, 25, informs us, that Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Now it is the opinion of Mede, Horsley, and other eminent interpreters, that these times of the Gentiles are the latter period of the Gentile monarchies; and more particularly the time, times, and dividing of time of Daniel, at the end of which the awful convulsions of the nations are to commence, which shall immediately precede the conversion and restoration of Israel. Again, in Rev. x. 5-7. the angel lifts up his hand and swears by him that liveth for ever and ever, that there should be time no longer, but the mystery of God shall be finished when the seventh angel begins to sound. Mede understands the time here mentioned to be the time, times, and half a time of Daniel; and that these are to be finished at the sounding of the seventh trumpet.* It may not however be obvious to every person, that a time, times, and half a time, and forty-two months, and twelve hundred and sixty days, are different forms of expressing one and the same number; * Mede's Works, Book iv. epist. 8. it is proper therefore to make this plain. A time, in the style of prophecy, means a year. A time, and times, and half a time, are one year, two years, and half a year, or three years and a half. But the ordinary Jewish year, without intercalary days, consisted of three hundred and sixty days; therefore three years and a half make exactly twelve hundred and sixty days. In like manner, the Jewish month consisted of thirty days; and forty-two such months contain twelve hundred and sixty days. Thus it appears, that all of the above numbers, when reduced to their integral parts, make one and the same number of twelve hundred and sixty days. Protestant writers on prophecy are almost universally agreed in opinion, that these days stand for years, and that the real prophetical period signified by them is twelve hundred and sixty years. The following reasons may be offered in support of this interpretation. 1st, We learn from the scriptures that days are frequently taken to denote years. It is said in Numbers xiv. 33, "Your children shall wanders in the "wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, "until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched "the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years." A similar example of days being put for years, occurs in the Prophecies of Ezekiel.* In the famous prophecy of the seventy weeks in Daniel, the seventy weeks mean weeks of years, according to the una * Ezek. iv. 4-6. |