"vading influence. Can the Christian contemplate "all this, and not be compelled to exclaim, 'This "is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our CC eyes!'"'*

I have chosen to give the above quotation at full length, as it contains the testimony of an able and impartial writer, who occupies an hill of observation, a watch-tower on the walls of Jerusalem; and as this testimony is not given with a view to any particular interpretation of prophecy, it is on this account more valuable than any observations which I might offer, since these might be supposed to receive a tinge from the hypothesis which I support. If the above passage contains a faithful picture of the present state of things in the church, there can be no doubt that a new era has commenced; and as the slaughter, resurrection, and ascension of the witnesses, belong to the period of the reformation, the prophetical era into which we have now entered, can be no other than the putting off the sackcloth of the witnesses, and the return of the woman from the wilderness; because no intervening event of consequence is marked in the Apocalyptic prophecies. In effect, the woman, the true spiritual church, is now again discerned by men, in the union of Christians of all denominations, for evangelizing the world; and thus it is, that the members of the mystic woman are distinguishable from the nominal worshippers of the outer court. As the beast has his mark, so has the mystic woman; and her mark is that love of Christ, which constraineth his disciples

* Christian Observer for 1811, Preface.

to spare no labour or cost in sending forth messengers, bearing the glad tidings of salvation, to the most distant parts of the earth.

Since then it is proved, by the events of the present time, that the witnesses have put off their sackcloth, and that the woman has emerged from the wilderness; it follows as a necessary consequence, that the twelve hundred and sixty years are elapsed.

The exact Apocalyptic period at which the woman begins to return from the wilderness, seems to be when the temple of God is opened in heaven, and the ark of his testament is seen.* This happens, as we have before seen, at the sounding of the seventh trumpet.+

* Rev. xi, 19.

+ During the four years which have elapsed since the original publication of this work, the whole course of things in the church of Christ has more and more justified my reasoning under these two propositions. The stream of divine light has continued to flow with gradually increasing power. The zeal for the salvation of mankind, among every denomination of Christians, grows in strength from year to year, and manifests itself by the progressive increase of the funds of missionary institutions, even in times of general misfortune and distress. We have witnessed the strange spectacles, of the Mahomedan sovereign of Persia giving his sanction to a translation of the New Testament made by a Clergyman of the Church of England; the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople authenticating, by a formal declaration, the accuracy of an edition of the Modern Greek Testament, printed in England by the British and Foreign Bible Society; and the Metropolitans of the Greek, Catholic, Armenian, and Georgian Churches within the Russian empire, sitting together in their sacerdotal garments, at the first anniversary of the Russian Bible Society. (See Eleventh Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society.) Surely these, and many other facts of a similar nature, loudly proclaim that the Church is no longer in the wilderness.

PROPOSITION FIFTH.

The twelve hundred and sixty years end at the sounding of the seventh trumpet.

In the tenth chapter of this work, I have already given those reasons which lead me to coincide in the opinion of Mr. Faber and Mr. Bicheno, that the seventh trumpet sounded in the year 1792, either at the fall of the French monarchy on the 10th of August in that year, or a few months earlier, when the war commenced between France and Austria. Upon this point, new light will probably break in upon us as we advance. Since, therefore, the seventh trumpet sounded in the year 1792, it follows that the twelve hundred and sixty years also elapsed in that year, which agrees with, and confirms the historical inferences drawn from the whole of the preceding propositions.*

PROPOSITION SIXTH.

The times of the Gentiles (i.`e. the twelve hundred and sixty years) end when the signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and the distress of nations, mentioned by our Lord in Luke xxi. 25, begin.

It is generally allowed, that our Lord's discourse upon the destruction of Jerusalem, is one of the most difficult parts of the prophetical scriptures ; and there is hardly any passage which has more perplexed interpreters.

This remarkable prophecy of Christ is given by

Bishop Newton, Mede, Whiston, and Dr. More, all concur in thinking that the twelve hundred and sixty years terminate at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, or at the end of the sixth.

three of the evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The two first of these sacred writers relate the discourse very nearly in the same language and order, St. Luke omits some things mentioned by Matthew and Mark, and considerably varies the forms of expression used by them; he also furnishes us with a chronological link, connecting the latter with the first part of the prophecy, and shewing us when the signs in the heavens which are mentioned in it are to To arrive at the true meaning of our Lord's discourse, it is therefore necessary to compare the different evangelists with each other, particularly Matthew and Luke. I shall endeavour to do this, in what I am about to offer on this subject.

commence.

The whole prophecy was delivered in answer to certain questions put to our Saviour in a private manner, not by all the apostles, but by Peter, James, John, and Andrew ;* the three first of whom seem on two other occasions to have been favoured in a peculiar manner above the rest of the apostles, in being the witnesses of their divine master's transfiguration, and of his agony in Gethsemane.

Before we consider the questions of the disciples, it may be proper to inquire what were at that time the opinions which they entertained respecting the kingdom of our Lord, as this is calculated to throw much light on the subject of our investigation. It is well known, that at the period of the appearance of our Saviour, the whole Jewish nation were in earnest expectation of the promised Messiah. But they had very erroneous notions concerning the nature of his mission and kingdom. This arose

* Mark xiii. 3.

from their ignorance of the meaning and end of the typical institutions of Moses, and their paying no attention to those prophecies which expressly foretold the humiliation and passion of Christ. Overlooking all these things, which were to be accomplished at the first advent, they most intently fixed their eyes upon the predictions which related to the second advent of Messiah, and the prosperity of their nation in the latter days, under his glorious reign. Hence their expectation, that Messiah was about to appear to deliver them from the Roman yoke, and advance them to glory and empire; hence their desire on one occasion to make Jesus a king.* This also throws much light upon the demand made by the mother of Zebedee's children,† and the consequent indignation of the other ten apostles, and upon the disputes which sometimes arose among the apostles, which of them should be greatest.

Our blessed Lord, knowing the weakness of our nature, and its inaptitude to receive the sublime doctrines of his religion too suddenly, did not at once shock the prejudices which the disciples had imbibed in common with the rest of the nation. With inimitable tenderness and condescension, he gradually opened their minds to the perception of spiritual truths, and thus in some measure prepared them for receiving the humble and mortifying doctrines of the cross. At length, having fully established the apostles in the belief of himself, as the promised Messiah, he from that time forth began to instruct them more explicitly respecting the nature of his kingdom, and to show that its very

* John vi. 15.

+ Matt. xx. 21.

Matt. xvi. 21.