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Of the Events that take place from the Deftruction of Rome to the Battle of Armageddon, or Seventh Vial.

SECTION I.

The Papal Power is erected in Judea.

N order to trace the progrefs of events far

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ther, a question must be resolved, which will readily occur here. Seeing Rome is destroyed, and rendered uninhabitable by the fifth vial, and the beast and false prophet are destroyed only by the feventh vial, Where fhall the refidence of the beaft be during the period that elapfes betwixt the fifth and seventh vials?

I answer, In the land of Judea, in the city of Jerufalem. I embrace this opinion, not from any preconceived prejudice, but upon the teftimony of the truth. It never once entered into my mind, until a careful perufal of the prophecies firft fuggefted, and then con

firmed

firmed it with convincing evidence. Because this circumstance is closely interwoven with the events that follow after, and that a knowledge of it is neceffary to understand their connection, I fhall briefly ftate the evidence on which it refts.

I. It appears to me to be afferted in the most explicit manner, by the prophet Daniel, chap. xi. 41. and 45. "He fhall enter alfo into the glori "ous land. And he shall plant the tabernacles "of his palace betwixt the feas in the glorious "holy mountain." The prophet having fhewn in the 40th verse a successful attack made on the blasphemous king, by his European neighbours, (as I have already explained it), pursues the fequel of his ftory; he fhews, that in confequence of this attack, being forcibly expelled from his former refidence, he (the blafphemous king) should enter the glorious land, or land of Judea, (fo termed, ver. 16. of this chapter, and chap. viii. 9.) and that his entrance fhould not be for a tranfient vifit, but for a stated refidence in the city of Jerufalem, fituated betwixt the dead fea to the eaft, and the Mediterranean to the weft; "He fhall plant the taber"nacles of his palace betwixt the seas in the

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glorious holy mountain." I may appeal to every unprejudiced perfon, whether this be not

the

the most obvious, natural, and unconftrained meaning of the paffage. But in regard a perfon of fo great authority in interpreting fcripture prophecy, as Jofeph Mede, gives a different turn to this paffage, it will be neceffary to examine his opinion. He fuppofes the pronoun he, in the beginning of verfe 41ft, and downward, to refer to the king of the north, and not to the blasphemous king, which alters wholly the fenfe of the paffage. It is true, that the king of the north is the person last spoken of in the preceding verfe; but it is likewise true, that the transition from one person to another in the prophecies is very fudden, and in no paffage of the prophecies more fo than in this chapter; fo that the ftrict rules of grammar, which require the pronoun to refer to the perfon last spoken of, in a difcourfe like the prophet's, is but a flender foundation to build on, without other corroborating circumstances. For instance, it is said, ver. 6. “ The king's daugh"ter of the south fhall come to the king of the "north to make an agreement: but he shall "not retain the power of the arm; neither shall "he ftand, nor his arm. " Here the pronoun he, ought in ftrict propriety to refer to the king of the north, as the perfon last spoken of; but the following claufe corrects that application, and fhews that the king of the fouth is intend

ed.

ed. "But she shall be given up, and they that "brought her, and he that begat her." She was daughter to the king of the fouth, he was the perfon that begat her, and who was given up, confequently the perfon whofe arm did not ftand.

As the foundation on which Mede builds his interpretation is untenable, fo an observation. will readily occur to the common fenfe of the attentive reader, which fixes the application of the paffage to the blafphemous king. The defign of the prophet, in this paffage is to give a history of the blafphemous king. The king of the north is introduced merely on account of his making war with him; and that he overflowed the territories of the blafphemous king, does not imply that he deftroyed his existence, as appears from the frequent ufe of the term in the preceding part of the chapter. Are we to fuppose, then, that the prophet would stop short in the history of the blafphemous king, of which he profeffedly treats, before he had brought it to a conclufion, and carry on that of the king of the north, introduced accidentally? Put the cafe, that a perfon profeffedly writes the Hiftory of England; that he introduces France as at war with England; that he ftops fhort in the History of England, and carries on that of France; would not the historian be charged

with great impropriety? But with that impropriety the spirit of prophecy is chargeable, by Mede's interpretation. I cannot therefore hefitate in rejecting it.

I am aware that another objection may be made to the interpretation I have now given; namely, "That the glorious holy mountain" may be taken, in a figurative sense, to fignify the church; fo we understand the Apostle, when he fays of the man of fin, That he "fitteth in "the temple of God," 2 Theff. ii. 4. In an fwer, I would obferve, That there are several circumftances in the narrative, which cannot accord with a figurative interpretation. As, first, The time when he took up his refidence in the holy mountain, it is said to be " at the time "of the end," about the close of his reign; whereas he had his refidence in the church from the beginning of it.-Secondly, The manner of his coming to refide there, in confequence of a forcible expulfion from his former place of refidence; whereas he attained his empire in the church gradually and imperceptibly.—Thirdly, The glorious land, in a figurative fense, fignifies Heaven, Heb. xi.; to which the blafphemous king cannot be supposed to have access. It must be taken in a literal fenfe; fo ought also the glorious holy mountain, when conjoined with the glorious land, in the fame narrative.

Fourthly,

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