Testament, and to the more recent but still remote revelations of the New, that, with all submissiveness, and child-like docility, a pious application must be made, and a patient investigation must be devoted, if by any means the ultimate consequences and final results of those existing events which agitate the world, may be ascertained with infinitely greater security and truth than belong to the daily fluctuating conjectures, which all the powers of reason, though vainly calling universal history to its aid, can deduce, as the final effect of those causes of which the partial operation is already seen.

These pages are addressed to professing Christians, and the inspiration of Scripture is here assumed as a certain and acknowledged truth. If it were doubted for a moment by any reader, we might not only refer him to the positive proofs which literal prophecies, already fulfilled, abundantly supply; but we might challenge him even now, at this late period, to the production of any such token of an insight into futurity, or any systematic view of the yet future history of the world, at all comparable to that which, of old, was unfolded by the prophets who testified of Jesus, and by the apostles who first preached the doctrine of the cross.

It is by reading and understanding what is written in the word of God, and by comparing things spiritual with spiritual, that, as the best means, scriptural truths may be known. And, while seeking carefully to avoid the darkening of counsel by words without knowledge, and the profanely mingling of any vain imagination with the oracles of the living God, the object aimed at in the following essay is to note, so far as they can as yet be traced, from a variety of historical prophecies, already fulfilled, the signs of these times.

That such is a legitimate object of inquiry, may

be inferred, from an admonition and rebuke given by the Lord Jesus Christ, to those Jews who sought of kim a sign, but who did not discern the signs of the times. If they had believed in Moses, in whom they trusted, they would have believed in Christ, of whom he testified. And except it be first clearly shown that none of the words of any of the prophets, nor of Christ, nor of his apostles, have, or can have the least possible reference to what is now passing, or may speedily be brought to pass in the world,-which it would require a fearless hardihood unmatched by that of the boldest interpreter to maintain,-it cannot of itself be an evil or unwise thing to endeavour to do what Jesus convicted the Jews of hypocrisy and folly for not doing; and if there be in the word of God any tokens of this critical era, or any indications of that to which it shall lead, it may still be asked of all-ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but can ye not discern the signs of these times? Surely, however often repeated by lips that ought never to be used to such mockery, the sneer of a blasphemer, who scoffed indiscriminately at all scripture, should never deter a believer from reverently inquiring from the written word, what is the mind of the Spirit; nor ought any man, who is not ashamed of Jesus and of his words, to quail before the scoff of the scorner, or to suffer so base a motive as that, the most contemptible of all fear, to deter him from seeking to understand "the revelation of Jesus Christ," to which these words are prefixed, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep these things that are written therein, for the time is at hand; and to which, also, these are added, And he said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold I come quickly blessed is he that keepeth the sayings.

of the prophecy of this book. What is all that man can utter in comparison of words like these?

No one who takes the most cursory, or even careless perusal of the Bible, can be ignorant that something is written there pertaining to the latter times. Not only does the Book of Daniel contain an explicit reference to that which should befall the Jews in the latter times, and repeated annunciations of the final and universal establishment of the kingdom of God; and not only does the Book of the Revelation also contain a systematic representation of "the things that shall be hereafter," but prophecy forms a large portion of the Sacred Scriptures, and, whatever part of them we peruse, we find it intermingled with the other dictates of inspiration. The Bible is full of prophecy. It contains the record of our race from the beginning to the end of time. The mystery of iniquity is there unfolded, as well as the mystery of godliness. And the inspired penmen wrote with the artless facility and freedom of those to whom it was given to reveal to all ages the workings of an overruling Providence among the nations of the earth, as well as to make known to men the will of God and the way of salvation. Shall the Lord bring evil upon any nation, and not declare it unto his servants the prophets? The earth is the Lord's; and his word vindicates his control over it. And as in the works of nature men may ever consider the operation of his hands, so from the Bible we may see his doings among the sons of men, and learn to know, that, though he permits the reign of sin for a season, he has marked its progress, limited its power, and decreed its final destruction. In the natural world" he hath placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail, though they roar, yet can they not pass over it.' And were we to con

tend that the will of man is as free and unfixed as the waters of the ocean, and though the sea that cannot rest be too faithful an emblem of the history of man, yet God hath set his word as the bound of all the tempestuous commotions of earthly kingdoms; and there is, too, a perpetual decree that they cannot pass. His word fulfils the purpose for which he sent it, as the sand is the bound of the sea. Till the event realize its truth, it cannot be traced so closely, or be defined so well, as the past fulfilment of prophecy, which already shows the termination of many a political convulsion as clearly as ever the line of a retiring wave, after the subsiding of the tempestuous ocean, was marked by the mire it left: yet the word of God, if once it can be rightly ascertained on what point of prophetic history we stand, may enable us from thence to look beyond the present appearances of things, or the events that are beginning to rise up to mortal view, and to see, by a light from the sanctuary, their ultimate issue, even as one who stands upon the shore, however the waves may toss themselves and roar, may fix the utmost limits of the highest billow, and show the spot which, when once its power shall be broken on the sand, it cannot pass over.

Warrantable and wise as we deem it to be to hear what the Lord hath spoken by the mouth of his prophets, yet the misinterpretations of prophecy, though it was given for a light, lead to delusion, even as the other Scriptures, which were all given for promoting the work of salvation, may be wrested by men to their destruction. If the sand of the sea-shore lie not compactly in its natural position, but be transformed into any other shape by the hand of man, it becomes the sport of the wind instead of the bound of the ocean, till it resume the form in which God had placed it. It is not for mortals either to add to or to take from the words of prophecy, or the book of the revelation

8

of Jesus Christ. The blessing promised to those who read and hear, ought not carelessly to be forfeited. But too high a solicitude cannot be exercised against seeking to be wise above what is written, or of placing any vain imagination in the stead of a prophetic declaration, or of thinking that we see a sign where God has shewn none. And when the event only is revealed, it is not for men to dogmatize about the mode or the means of its accomplishment; for God's ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts, and his purposes may be wrought out in a manner that we wot not.

In submitting these pages to the Christian public, it is not the intention of the writer, for it would tend to frustrate his object, to enter into an elaborate discussion on any unfulfilled predictions, or to attempt either to support or to controvert any of the various theories which have recently given rise to much discussion among the students of prophecy. The most simple exhibition of the truth, if such could be obtained, might be the best correction of any error, with whomsoever it might lie. Of some of the interpretations contained in the following pages, he would only be the more suspicious because they are new. They came unsought for, while tracing, point after point, the parallel between prophecy and history. And if they stood in need of any ingenuity to support them, for that very reason he would have accounted them untenable, and have rejected them as unsound. would rather draw analogies, or show the exact coincidences throughout the whole, between predictions and facts, than trust, in any part, to general reasonings, the distrusting of which, on such a subject, was almost his only preparation for the task. And believing, whenever the time of fully unsealing the vision shall be come-if the time be not already come, as he is inclined to believe, in which the judgments

He