some of these great events, but the consideration of these we shall at present decline. There is one circumstance, however, connected with these visions which it will be proper to notice. It is the restoration of Israel. The prophet Daniel, after predicting the end of the king of the north, the Turk, (chap. xi. 44 ) adds, (chap. xii. 1.) And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust shall awake. This is to be the political resurrection of Israel; the revival of the dry bones, in the valley of vision.* Taking into consideration the connection of this prophecy, and comparing it with the events of the sixth and seventh vials, there can be no doubt entertained but that the great troubles of which Daniel speaks, are those of the seventh angel, represented under the symbols of thunder, and lightning, and hail, and a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth; and the natural conclusion is, that at this time Israel shall be restored, an event which all the enlightened believers' in Revelation are eagerly looking for, as that great event which will at once be an irresistible proof of the divinity of our religion, and the immediate prelude of a long and unclouded day, when the Lord shall be the light of his people; when the earth shall be covered with the knowledge of the Lord, and the nations learn war no more.

How natural is that question in the vision of Daniel! (chap. xii. 6.) How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?—It shall be for a time, times, and an half. The reader knows how to calculate this mystical number, which amounts to twelve hundred and sixty years. For this period the ecclesiastical monster was to practise and prosper, and wear out the saints of the Most High + But the judg ment shall sit, and they (the nations regenerated) shall take away his dominion, to consume it, and to destroy it, unto the end. But how long is this assize to last? We do not mean to pry into hidden things, which belong only unto God; but to confine ourselves to things revealed, which belong to us and our children. It shall be for a time, times, and an half. And I heard, (says Daniel,) but Į Dan. vii. Rev. xiii,

Ezek. xxxvii.

understood not: Then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? As a clear knowledge of events, at so great a distance, was not of consequence, either to the consolation of the prophet, or to the honour of God, therefore the answer of the angel, Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up, and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried: but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.-Observe what follows. It is an answer to the prophet's inquiry, What shall be the end of these things? And we may be sure that this answer was more on our account, who live at the time of the end, than on his. It was undoubtedly designed as a clue to guide us in our researches, that we might not be without consolation in the worst of times, and, above all, that God's word, when fulfilled, might be accredited; and proof afforded of its divinity. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. The loss of the liberty of Christian worship is here represented under ideas taken from the service of the Jewish church, and here are thirty mystical days, that is years, added to the above 1260, and which 1260 years, several passages in this book, and in the Apocalypse, determine to be the period of the prosperity of the ecclesiastical tyranny. These thirty days, or years, appear to mark out the time during which the judgment is to sit upon that monster which has been the destroyer of mankind; or the period of calamity from the symbolic earthquake (Rev. xi. to the conclusion of the pouring out of the seven vials of wrath, and which, if the French Revolution was that earthquake, must be about the year 1819, or if the thirty years are to be reckoned from the fall of the monarchy-1322. And what very much confirms this conclusion, is a passage which we have in Dan. viii. 13, 4. How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgress on of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? "These words, (says Dr. Lowth) may be rendered more "agreeable to the Hebrew thus: For how long a time "shall the vision last; the daily sacrifice be taken away, " and the transgression of desolation continue?" To the question respecting the continuance of the transgression of desolation, the above passage, in Dan. xii. 11. as well as what follows in this eighth chapter, may be considered

as an answer. From the time that the angel there calcu lated, (namely, from the æra when the liberty of Christian worship was taken away, and which was most completely done-as we have shewn in the first part of these inquries -by the laws of the Emperor Justinian, about the year 529, or 532) to the complete cleansing of the sanctuary there were to be twelve hundred and ninety mystical days.

The transgression of desolation, according to Dan. xii. 11. was to continue twelve hundred and ninety years, or it was to be so long before it was completely removed. The inquiry then is, whether the answer, in this eighth chapter, agrees with that? Yes, most perfectly. Ver. 14. And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days, or years, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. As the event here predicted, namely, the cleansing of the sanctuary from the abomination that maketh desolate, is the same with that in the twelfth chapter, and it seems as though they were to terminate together, from what period are we to date these two thousand three hundred years? Doubtless from the beginning of the vision, the pushing of the Medo-Persian Ram. (ver. 4, 20.) And the most memorable pushing of this great monarchy, for conquest, was about the year, before Christ, 481, when Xerxes, with his incredible multitude, invaded Greece. This brings us exactly to the same period as the above, namely, to the year 1819. The farther investigation of this subject may be seen in the First Part.*

Whether the wars and calamities of this period of thirty years, which appear to be allotted for the overthrow of tyranny and corruption, which is to be dated, we suppose,

* The reader will recollect what has already been said on this subject. Although both the number 2300 and the number 1290, are to terminate with the cleansing of the sanctuary, yet it is possible, for all that appears in the two prophecies, that the former may refer to the commencement of that cleansing, and the latter to the completion of it; and if so, then the 2300 prophetic days (allowing my general hypothesis about the French revolution to be right) must end about the year 1789, when the fatal attack began, which is to end in the dissolution of the union between church and state, and in the freedom of the former from the abomination which maketh desolate; and consequently, they must be calculated from the pushing of the Medo-Persian empire for conquest under Darius Hystaspis, which some may think to agree more exactly with the vision of Daniel than the wars of Xerxes. But take which ever of the two periods of the Medo-Persian history we may, the result is inuch the same, as has been shewn. 3d Ed.

from the year eighty-nine, or ninety-two, will be without cessation, is not, I apprehend, for any one to say. The flames may be stopped in this place, and burst out in that; or the storm may, perhaps, now and then, seem as if clearing off, and give us some hope, but only to rage with renewed violence. If it be that wrath against persecutors and oppressors, as we suppose, which is to turn the earth upside down, and punish the host of the high ones that are on high, then we may expect great national events to be constantly turning up, and unusual changes perpetually taking place, and moving on to the ultimate issue, the ruin of Antichrist and his party. And amidst the various turns, and vicissitudes, by which the friends and supporters of the beast will be drawn on to their ruin, a great balance is to be expected in favour of the witnesses for liberty, and of those whom God in his providence employs in their cause to avenge their wrongs and restore them to their rights; for though, like God's sanctified ones, the Medes and Persians (Isaiah, xiii. 3.) they may not know it, yet they are his mighty ones for his anger, to execute his wrath, till every island flees away, and the mountains are not found, and a new order of things is produced, both in the moral and political world.

But, by what means may we hope to be saved from those awful calamities which are destined against wicked and corrupt governments, churches, and nations? All may be summed up in a few words, namely, by instant repentance and reformation, moral and political. To talk of, and lament, the enormous and abounding vices of the day, may be thought a trite and worn-out theme; and, it may be said, men of all ages have been as wicked as those of this. No matter, for, though God is long-suffering, he will not always bear. But it is at least doubtful whether some of the vices, which now prevail, were ever so general, or ever carried to so great a height; and those, the very vices which have always been the forerunners, and the more immediate causes, of the decline and ruin of empires. Was corruption ever so general, systematic, and barefaced? And as to public virtue, it is become a jest. Every thing is sacrificed for gold, for vain honours, and low pleasures; yea, the meanest considerations of obliga tion and interest are enough to outweigh the most important interests of the public.

But whether our fathers were better or worse than their

sons, is a question of little importance; men and nations were, doubtless, always wicked; but there is a time when the iniquity of nations is full;. and a ne plus ultra to na tional, as well as to personal, vices. We seem to have already arrived at this point. We must recede or perish. We must repent and reform, or abide the consequences., Yes, some great change must take place amongst us, before we can entertain any well-grounded hope of escaping from the ruins of that dreadful tempest, which howls around us, and in the conflicts of which the majority of the nation, being deceived, have chosen to mingle; or before there can be any rational prospect of our situation becoming permanently better.

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Nor is it individual piety (if I may be allowed the expression) which can now snatch us from the yawning gulph. We have thousands who cry to God day and night for our guilty Sodom; and for their sakes the divine. anger has been stayed so long.-What shall I say? Whose repentance is it that can save us? Theirs, who will never hear my feeble voice. What reformation is it which might benefit us in this awful crisis? Alas! in our extremity we turn our eyes to those who were once our confidence; but all is despair. If the whole head be sick, and the whole heart faint, what hope can be entertained for the inferior members till these vital parts be healed? We must be radically, and generally, reformed, or nothing can save us; nor will seas, or fleets, (our strongest confidence,) or armies, be able to protect us for an hour.

Let the nation then awake to a sense of its danger, and its duty. There is not one moment to lose. The laws still allow us to approach, our rulers with our supplications. The door is not yet quite shut. Let us snatch the moment, and besiege every part of the Legislature with our prayers and remonstrances. Let us act like men who are sensible of the danger into which we are precipitated; as men who love peace; and who wish to preserve our constitution and liberties, and avoid the horrors of their ruin.

I am sure, that those who will read these pages, are not the men that need to be told that riot and insubordination are not the means which are worthy of the Christian, or proper for the attainment of the desired end. There are legal means, adequate, I hope, if steadily pursued, to the purpose.

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