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CONJECTURES

ON THE

APOCALYPSE OF St. JOHN.

A

S our reflections on the book of Daniel closed

with an opinion, that his prophecies of the events which were to befall the Roman empire, reached down to the reign of Juftinian.-For instance:

I. Eastern Rome, or ;-The Afiatic Dominions:

II. Western Rome, or;-The rifing of the Beaft out of the Earth:

We fhall now confider the Revelation as a continuation of the prophecies of Daniel, because it relates to the toes of Nebuchadnezzar's image, on which Daniel is filent.

And

And as we conceive the 3d and 12th verfes in chap. xvi. Rev. immediately apply to the first subject we shall treat of, and have a reference to the dates, 1260, and 1335, given us by Daniel, we shall begin with commenting on thefe verfes, and then proceed with our obfervations on the different chapters: For which purpose we fhall take our date from A. D. 535, and shall endeavour to trace down, in regular fucceffion, the remarkable events which happened in Afia, to the capture of Conftantinople by the Turks, A. D. 1453: and fhall conclude with conjectures on the period when the predictions are to be fulfilled.

CHAP. XVI.

We confider the first three vials to refer to the pouring out the judgments on three different parts of the Roman empire:

And the three laft to allude to the rifing of the beaft out of the bottomless pit, in three ftates, to which the firft three vials apply; but we fuppofe there will be a lapse of three years and an half, before the first three respectively shall finish. And we are confirmed in this conjecture by chap. XI. v. 7 and 8, re

specting

fpecting the killing of the witneffes. "The beast that afcendeth out of the bottomlefs pit fhall kill them, and their dead bodies fhall lie in the street three and a half years". Under this idea we have mentioned ver. 3 and 12, as applying to Roman Asia.

Verse 3. "And the fecond angel poured out his vial upon the fea; and it became as the blood of a dead man and every living foul died in the sea.”

"Between the

DANIEL, CHAP. 11. Verse 45. feas on the glorious holy mountain." This we understand to defcribe a particular spot or city; we therefore infer "fea" to apply to the extent of the country between those feas, and particularly to the Roman dominions in Afia.

The fecond part of this verse, may, perhaps, allude to the general deftruction of Mahometans and Christians, and to the fubverfion of the Christian religion, by the establishment of Mahometifm, (the work of a mortal.)

Verse 12.

vial upon

"And the fixth angel poured his the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the Kings of the Eaft might be prepared."

This verfe can

apply to no other than Roman Afia, because the

Kings

Kings of the East must pass that river to fulfil the prophecy. Therefore if our hypothesis be true, the Beast will arise out of the bottomlefs pit, between A. D. 1867 and 1871.

CHAP. II & III,

ARE on the feven churches in Afia, which we conceive are intended to represent the state of Christianity with the different fchifms, heretical opinions, and introduction of images, which at that early period had crept into it; and at the fame time to admonish the followers of Chrift to return to their duty, with a promise that those who did repent should have mercy fhewn them, and with an intimation that those who did not, fhould fuffer the wrath of God.

As the prophecies begin with the provinces of the Roman empire in Afia, in Chapter VIII and IX we conjecture that they foretel the conqueft of the Eastern Empire by the Afiatic powers, for fo they appear to do by their emblematical and figurative expreffions; and we fhall make our remarks upon, them before we animadvert on the different chapters.

We

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We find that Juftin, the nephew of Juftinian, fucceeded his father, Nov. 15, A. D. 565*, that he took upon himself the Confulship † Jan. 1, A, D. 566, which had been extinguished by Juftinian, A. D. 541, that Rome was at peace with Perfia, and that the provinces in Afia, with the fortifications of Dara, &c. were in the poffeffion of the Romans:

The first great event that occurred was the war between the Perfians under Chofroes II. and the Romans, which began by the former taking Dara, Merdin, and the fortifications, and by the conquest of Syria, and capture of Antioch, A. D. 611‡; and afterwards Palestine, Egypt, and Afia Minor; by which the Sovereigns of Perfia accomplished their hopes of re-establishing the kingdom of Cyrus, after a contest of about 800 years.

As Daniel finishes his eleventh chapter with "Yet he fhall come to his end," we confider this event as the fulfilling of the prophecy under the 2d vial, by the lofs of the Eastern provinces, which were never after recovered by the Romans, or only partially; and by which the churches in Afia found a new mafter under a Perfian Sovereign, profeffing the Magian Religion. This event we *Gib. Vol. VII. p. 114. + Gib. Vol. VIII. p. 219. Gib. Vol. VIII. p. 172.

there

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