on almost every subject; yet are they not suspected of enthusiasm. For example; some are exceedingly positive and magisterial when they speak professionally or otherwise on jurisprudence, without being deemed enthusiasts will the Author say, that it is only when it is thrown into the crucible of prophecy, that dogmatism is so volatilized as to become enthusiasm ? We thank the Author, however, for many excellent and valuable remarks contained in this chapter; and we cannot better conclude than with an extract from page 120:"The agitation which has recently taken place on the subject of prophecy, may perhaps ere long subside, and the sobrieties of opinion. And yet a different Church may again acquiesce in its old and a better result of the existing controversy seems not altogether improbable; for when enthusiasm has raved itself into exhaustion, and has received from time the refutation of its precocious hopes; and when, on the other side, prosing mediocrity has uttered all its saws, and fallen back into its own slumber of contented ignorance; then the spirit of research and of legitimate curiosity, which no doubt has been diffused among not a few intelligent students of Scripture, may bring on a calm, a learned, and a productive discussion of the many great questions that belong to the undeveloped destiny of man." Pp. 120-121. INTELLIGENCE, EXTRACTS, &c. MAHOMETAN EXPECTATION OF A PRINCE OF THE KINGS OF THE EARTH.' (Nouveau Journal Asiatique, No. 39, March, 1831.) Observations sur une formule employée dans les legendes de diverses monnaies Persanes, par M. le baron Silvestre de Sacy. M. Reinaud, dans le tome I. de sa Description des monumens Musulmans du cabinet de M. le duc de Blacas, parlant du douzième imam, Mohammed, fils de Hasan, qui disparut à l'âge de douze ans, et qui, suivant l'opinion des Musulmans, doit reparaître un jour pour rétablir la pureté de l'islamisme et assurer son triomphe, c'est exprimé en ces termes : "En attendant (qu'il reparaisse) disent ses partisans, le monde s'est trouvé sans maitre, ou plutôt ceux qui l'ont gouverné, n'ont commandé que provisoirement. Telle étoit la croyance des rois de Perse de la dynastie des Sofis. Ils ne se regardaient que commes les lieutenans et les esclaves de l'imam, et il est fait allusion à ce point dans le titre d'esclaves du roi du pays, qui se lit sur leurs sceaux et sur leurs monnaies. Aussi, dans leur palais à Ispahan, ils tenaient toujours deux chevaux enharnachés et prêts à recevoir l'imam dès qu'il lui plairait de venir exercer l'autorité qui lui appartient. L'un étoit pour l' ́imam, et l'autre pour Jésus-Christ, qui doit être son généralissime. TRANSLATION. Observations on a Formula used in the lists of various Persian coins, by M. le baron Silvestre de Sacy. M. Reinaud, in the first volume of his Description of Mahometan Antiquities, &c., from the cabinet of M. le duc de Blacas, speaking of the twelfth Imam, Mohammed, son of Hasan, who disappeared in the twelfth year of his age; and who, A new monthly periodical called THE WATCHMAN, chiefly devoted to the subject of Prophecy, has appeared at Paris. Speaking of a society of pious women still existing there, who are followers of the Jansenists, well known to hold sentiments which approximate to evangelical Protestantism, the Editor says: "But what is very remarkable in the history of this little body, consisting of about a hundred persons, is, that they have received and cherished from their ancestors an indubitable persuasion of Christ's second coming to establish his personal reign upon earth. And so evidently do they hold this doctrine to be revealed in the Scriptures, that when they heard of the Gospel being preached by a valuable and faithful Swiss Minister now in Paris, where his singleness of character has been blessed to the impression of a better stamp on the labors of other workmen in the vineyard, they declined to hear him preach, because they were informed he did not believe in the visible and personal reign of Christ upon earth. Their argument was, that if he knew the Gospel at all, he should not have been left in ignorance of that great truth, so clearly revealed in it.' On this fact the Editor has the following judicious remarks :— a "How apt are we to forget that man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven;' (John iii, 27 ;) and that even the eyes of Apostles were held, that they could not discern (until their hour was come) either their master, or what he had so recently and so explicitly declared to them! (Luke xxiv, 16, 25, 44, 45.) Moreover, when the Lord promised to send his Spirit to guide into all the truth,' (John xvi, 13,) he does not limit himself to any period within which each particular is to be imparted. And the same remark is applicable to all the promises of God in this respect; so that if one find not to day that which he is in quest of, he ought not to be less sure of one day attaining to it, if he will search for truth as for hid treasures.' For then 'shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.' (Prov. ii, 4, 5.) Accordingly not only this faithful minister of the Lord, but many others whom we could enumerate around us, who spurned the doctrine when mooted a few months ago, are now firmly persuaded of its truth, and of the rapid approach of that event which it contemplates." Pp. 47, 48. The Editor further informs us, that this same Society of Females have long had in their possession a remarkable document of a prophetical character; speaking of which he says: "It set forth, that the Bourbons should be expelled from the throne of France in the course of a bloody revolution-that they should be restored-and again be expelled the kingdom for ever. That subsequently to this a king should have reigned for a short period, when the Lord Jesus should appear, as predicted in 2 Thess. i, 7-10. Meanwhile it affirmed, that Paris should be at length destroyed. Such are the terms of the prediction, reported to us first about two years ago, as we have already mentioned; at which time we laughed at the prediction of the past, and were not disposed to attach much weight to what was then future-the expulsion of Charles X. and his family from this kingdom. Whether the remaining part shall be fulfilled or not, we are faithful in our report of what has been so long ago imparted to our ears, and which, upon inquiry, has been lately repeated. Our chief aim, in addition to the entertainwith the story, is to excite an inquiry on ment of our readers in presenting them the part of those skilled in the prophecies of Scripture, tending to ascertain whether the Bible contain any intimation of those events, whereof the manuscript we refer to may have been an exposition. In a subsequent number we shall present (if we may so speak) a collateral testimony coming from a Roman Catholic source, of which however, we have not heard until very recently. We need scarcely apprize our readers, that we profess neither belief nor discredit of those predictions, as human speculations; but we conceive it may be possible, that enlightened men, before our time, were enabled to comprehend the testimony of the Divine Spirit, speaking in his Word, relative to those events. The poor women are cast down at the reflection, that want of Christian courage kept them back from openly declaring many years ago the contents of their document. They say, 'God made them first, but now they are last, because of their unfaithfulness.'"' THE NAME OF THE BEAST, AND THE NUMBER OF HIS NAME. From an Essay on the Millenium, &c. by Sayer Rudd, M.D. By way of illustrating the question of the Editor in the preceding extract ;-"How far enlightened men, before our time, were enabled to comprehend the testimony of the Divine Spirit, speaking in his Word, &c." we add the following curious extract, abridged from Dr. S. Rudd, and written a century ago, when the events which he anticipates could not have been guessed at from existing prognostics of the times. We mean not to assert, that the Doctor is correct in all his statements, nor to defend his interpretation given in the following extract; but whether the Reader apply what he therein writes to Louis XVI, or to Louis-Philip, the conjecture is worthy of remark. "As to 'the name of the beast,' as a thing must exist before it can have a name, I imagine it is designed to suggest the existence of the beast as an antichristian state; and so, that it points out, not only the time when, but the particular kingdom in which the beast was really completed. It may very significantly intend the state wherein the Roman empire, in its last period, took the form, character, and power of the persecuting commonwealth described in chapter xiii. In this view it will have a peculiar reference to the kingdom of the Franks, which rose last of the ten, and consequently finished or made up the beast. The number of the name' will signify the time during which this power and sovereignty is to remain with the beast; which unavoidably directs us to the downfal of the kingdom before mentioned: for as its name began there, so the number of its name, or term of years for which it is is to continue, is most likely to conclude there also. And whereas it is said, 'that the number of the beast is the number of a man,' I apprehend it intimates the person governing in that state, in whom this number is completed; and includes in it the name of some man. Wherefore, as the name LVDOVICVS (and I think it ought to be a Latin name, if any) contains the numeral letters of 666, according to the ancient Roman way of counting ;* and so agrees in the strictest sense with the text; it seems probable to me, that the number of the beast's name is fixed here: I mean, that as the beast received his name-his full complement, denomination, and power-in the rise of that kingdom; so a period will be put to the reign of the beast, strictly taken, by a *L 50, V 5, D 500, 0, V 5, From the same source (The Watchman) we learn, that a Society is formed in Paris for the Investigation of Prophecy, which meets every week, for the purpose of prosecuting its object, at the house of an English Minister officiating in Paris. The investigation has a revolution in France, and that under a Louis. Further, it will not be improper to put the Reader in mind, that the primitive antichristian beast nowhere exists but in the kingdom of the Franks; that being the only kingdom out of the ten, that has not been yet conquered. And, likewise, that the downfal of the tenth part of the city (which tenth part can mean nothing else but France-that being, in order of its rise, as well as interest, the Tò dÉKATOV of the papal hierarchy) is made the immediate forerunner, or leading event, to the universal spread of Christ's kingdom, chap. vi, 13, 15. So that we cannot expect either the destruction of Turk or Pope, till that be accomplished, as the second woe. P. 281. I 1, C 100, V 5, S-; = 666. special reference to the bearings of prophecy on the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ; and the persons invited to attend the deliberations are Christians known to experience a lively interest in the signs of the present times relative to that event. THE INFLUENCE OF PROPHETICAL TRUTH ON MISSIONARY EXERTIONS. We cannot conceal from ourselves the painful fact, that Christians, who have been distinguished by their zeal and energy in behalf of the various evangelical societies instituted of late years, have no sooner received those views of truth denominated millennarian, than their ardor in the missionary cause has apparently abated, and in some instances become quite extinguished. Having experienced, from the view opened out to us of our Lord's personal advent and kingdom, a contrary influence ourselves, we were at first disposed to conclude, that there must be something wrong in the opinions of those, in whom we have perceived this growing indifference: but we have hesitated to rest in this conclusion; first, from the consciousness that there is a tendency in us all to an overweening conceit of the correctness of our own opinions; and secondly, because we have observed a similar diminution of missionary zeal in many, who cannot for a moment be suspected of prophetical enthusiasm: and though we are equally disposed to conclude, in regard to these, that there must be something wrong; yet are we compelled also to infer, that that something, whatsoever it may prove, has a different connexion with prophecy from what many probably imagine. In submitting a few observations to our Readers on this important subject, we shall be obliged to differ in some respects both from those who are ardent in the pursuit of prophetical studies, and from those who would dissuade us from them; but we can assure them all, that we advance our opinions in a spirit of deference and love; with with a sincere desire to arrive at a proper apprehension of divine truth, and to further the cause of the Gospel. I. In the first place we notice, by way of accounting for the indifference deplored, that the expectations of the Church of God were, at the commencement of the work now in hand, unduly excited by the public advocates of missionary institutions.* Misapplying, as we conceive, those passages of Scripture, which speak of a future universal prevalence of truth on earth, they led their hearers to look forward to the general conversion of the nations to Christ, as the ultimate result of their exertions and offerings; and language was continually held forth calculated to produce the impression, that nothing prevented such a result but larger funds and more preachers, with the ordinary blessing of God upon the means employed. Such are the expectations even now entertained by numbers of professing christians;-expectations, which, if they be not based upon a correct view of divine *By missionary institutions we intend, at present, not only those Societies whose immediate object is to send out Preachers; but all institutions whose agents are labouring to promote the prevalence of christian principles, whether by the diffusion of Bibles, Tracts, Instruction, or otherwise. INVESTIGATOR, No. V. Q December, 1831. |