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incurred it. The question, he knows as well as we, is not simply, How long shall be the vision? without any restriction or qualification. The question, need we repeat it once more, is, How long shall be the vision, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? Neither is it, Until how long is the vision? for the word "until,” which Mr Irving so unwarrantably introduces here, is of his own fabrication, for the express purpose of suiting the very language of scripture to his own views of its meaning. Suppose, for example, that, in the vision of the seventh chapter of Daniel, two saints had appeared, and that one of them had asked of the other, How long shall be the vision concerning the little horn, for it to prosper and practice? and that the latter had answered, Unto one thousand two hundred and sixty days; surely Mr Irving would never have thought of dating the commencement of that period from the year when Daniel saw that vision-the year 551 B. C. The two cases are perfectly similar, except only that the 1260 years was the time of domination of the papal power over Christendom, and the 2300 evenings and mornings, or days, are the time of triumph of a future Antichristian power over one portion or nation of Christendom, that had once offered an asylum to the true religion, but had afterwards been delivered over to punishment for some transgression against it.

"If the question had been, How long shall he tread the sanctuary under foot?" continues Mr Irving, "then we should have reckoned from the time he profaned and polluted it." Now, with all submission, we refer to our readers whether this is not the very question asked, according to Mr Irving's own shewing. "The vision is, by the holy one, characterized," says Mr Irving, "not by the battle of the ram and goat, or by the four horns which sprung up, or by the little horn which waxed so great, but by that which is its true character, the captivity and spoliation of the Church's honour and glory. And the question is, How long is the vision?" Now, surely, if, according to the very words of Mr Irving here quoted, the question is, How long is the vision? and the vision is characterized by the spoliation of the church, the trampling under foot of the sanctuary and the host, then the question asked is, "How long shall he tread the sanctuary under foot?" To close this somewhat too long criticism, however, we shall merely add, that if Mr Irving will diligently inquire into the meaning of the words of the narrative of the little horn, he will find that the "sanctuary" mentioned there, translated in the French version "domicile,” and in Tremellius's Latin "domicilium," has nothing whatever to do with the temple at Jerusalem, but is merely the nation in which the " daily sacrifice," according to his own signification of those two words-that is, the true form of Christian worship—had found an asylum.

CHAPTER XI.

The next portion of scripture which concerns a future Antichristian power, is that portion of the eleventh chapter of Daniel which begins with v. 36, and ends with the chapter. This portion Luther, in his Greman translation, joins to what in our version is called the twelfth

chapter, and makes his twelfth chapter of the two together, which he designates, Of the Antichrist of the last times. “And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods." It is here said, that this king is of a resolute and wilful character, corresponding to the fierce countenance which is assigned to the little horn in Dan. viii. 23, which is, perhaps, the very same power. The rest of this passage speaks plainly enough for itself, and is precisely what is said by St Paul of his man of sin, in 2 Thessalonians, ii. 4, “ who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God." "And he shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished." This is not the indignation against the Jewish nation; for the reader will see, from our exposition of the twenty-fourth chapter of St Matthew, that the generation of the Jews, at the time of the destruction of their city and temple by the Roman arms, filled up, Matth. xxiii. 32, the measure of iniquity as well as punishment of their fathers by the rejection, and crucifixion of our Saviour, and by killing, and crucifying, and scourging in their synagogues, and persecuting from city to city, the prophets, and wise men, and scribes of the Christian covenant, as their fathers had before done those of the Mosaic; and by the destruction of their city and temple, and their banishment from the land of Judea. And the reader will also see, from quotations which we have already given from Ezekiel, and which we need not repeat here, that after their return to the Holy Land the Jews shall transgress no more. The indignation here mentioned must, therefore, be against some nation following as their religion the true mode of worship according to the Christian covenant. Accordingly we are told, Dan. xii. 7, that "when he [the man clothed in linen which was upon the waters of the river] shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished;" that is, all the events prophetically set forth in the narrative of this chapter shall have come to pass: which holy people mentioned there cannot be interpreted of the Jews, either before the destruction of their city and temple, and their banishment from the land of Judea, or during the time of their captivity among the nations, or after their return to the Holy Land; for the power of that people was scattered by the Roman arms long ago, and the Jews cannot merit the name of holy people, till, after their return to Judea, they shall have acknowledged and mourned over our Saviour as him whom they had pierced, when he shall have appeared among them in glory on his advent to this earth, Zechar. xii., after which return they shall be scattered no more. Ezekiel, xxxiv. 11-13-" For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country." Verse 22—" There

fore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey;" v. 25— "And I will make with them a covenant of peace." See also chaps. xxxvi. and xxxvii., which are too long to be quoted here. The holy people mentioned in Dan. xii. 7, must, therefore, be some Christian nation following the true mode of Christian worship according to the Christian covenant; and as we have already determined the inhabitauts of Great Britain to be the host of heaven, set apart by God from the errors of popery, so we must conclude that they are the holy people mentioned in Dan. xii. 7, whose power is to be scattered at the close of the events in profane history fulfilling those in the prophetical narrative of this chapter; and, therefore, that the period of domination (2300 days) of the little horn above this elect nation—this sanctuary in which the daily, the "jugis cultus," had found an asylum, should close with the events in profane history fulfilling the last act of the prophetical narrative of this chapter: always considering the little horn in chap. viii. to be the same power with the wilful king, whose prophetic narrative begins at v. 36. Now if, by the invasion of Great Britain, the sanctuary or asylum of the true religion—the daily, the "jugis cultus"—the little horn of chap. viii., or wilful king of chap. xi., takes that away from its inhabitants, then the taking away of the daily, and the setting up of the abomination that maketh desolate, cannot be synchronous events, seeing that the former of these events must take place within, at furthest, 2300 days, or six years and 140 days, before the close of the career of the latter. But neither can the taking away of the daily, the "jugis cultus," and the setting up of the abomination that maketh desolate, be synchronous events, if we consider the former to have been effected by the Emperor Justinian establishing the supremacy of the pope at Rome in the year 546, as we have determined the date of that act; for that act is already past, whereas the setting up of the abomination that maketh desolate is still future. If, then, as we have made out, the taking away of the daily, the "jugis cultus," and the setting up of the abomination that maketh desolate, be not synchronous events, the period of 1290 years of Dan. xii. 11, must necessarily lie between them. Even if this were the case, however, we cannot see how the date of the close of the 1290 years can be determined, unless we begin them from the year 546; in which case they would end in the year 1836, which would be the year in which, according to Daniel, xii. 11, the abomination that maketh desolate would be set up.

Towards the determination of the points of time between which the periods of 1290 and 1335 years lie, two different questions present themselves, the resolution of which may be of very great service-viz. 1st, Is the human understanding inhibited by the decree of God from finding out the dates when either of these periods commence, till after they have transpired? 2d, How many Antichristian powers are there altogether to appear in the world?— As regards the first of these questions, Daniel, after he had heard the man clothed in linen which was upon the waters of the river declare the formula of time in Dan. xii. 7, tells us that he heard, but he understood not: but that he then

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said to that same personage, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? or, as Bishop Newton has it, What or how long shall be these latter times, or latter wonders? In answer to which question the man clothed in linen said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed and sealed till the time of the end (temps marque, tempus determinatum.) Now, the reader will be careful to observe, that in the prophetical narrative of this chapter there are two times of the end two temps marqués" mentioned, the one at v. 35, the other at v. 40, of the English and French versions respectively; in the latter of which verses, however, Tremellius has "sub tempus constitutum,” instead of his corresponding expression, "tempus determinatum." Now, whether it be to the former or the latter of these times of the end that the angel refers the prophet as the date at which the question the latter asks will be resolved, it is difficult to tell. If it be to the former of them, then that date, as we have shewn, having transpired, no obstacle is now interposed to the finding out of the date of the close of the 1335 years. Yet how to find out the close of that period, unless we date its commencement, as well as that of 1290 years, from the year 546, or begin the 1335 years from the close of the 1290 years, and commence this again at the year 546, we cannot tell. But we cannot think that the two periods, 1290 and 1335, have a synchronous beginning at the year 546, for that would bring the date of the first resurrection as early as the year 1881, 75 years onwards from the 1806; year and we shall see reason to believe, in our exposition of Rev. xi. from the beginning of v. 3, that another Antichristian power is yet to arise in the world, whose period shall be as long as the papal of 1260 years. If, again, it be to the latter of these dates called time of the end at v. 40, that the angel refers the prophet as to a time when his question may be resolved, then the beginning of the 1290 and 1335 years cannot be determined till some event or events marking their close shall have come to pass, when the date of this, as well as that of their beginning, shall be determined. We should be inclined to think, however, from the passage from v. 35 being abruptly introduced immediately after the angel referring the prophet to the time of the endthe " tempus determinatum" in chap. xii. 9, as to a time when his question concerning the end of the events in the narrative after the date marked out by the formula could be resolved, that it was to the former time of the end in v..35 he alluded, when he told Daniel that the words were closed up and sealed till the time of the end. We shall enter at present no further upon the discussion of the first question we proposed to ourself, but wait to see whether any event occurring in the year 1836 may lead us to believe that the daily was taken away by the establishment of the supremacy of the pope in the year 546, the beginning of the papal period, in which case the abomination that maketh desolate should be set up in the former of these years, But if nothing of this kind happen, then the taking away of the daily, or "jugis cultus," must needs be future; and, consequently, no future dates can be predicted. If, then, in the year 1836 we see a person arise enforcing idolatrous worship, and that person is supported by

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arms, or human power or force standing in Syria, then we may be sure that the taking away of the daily or "jugis cultus," mentioned in chap. xii. 11, took place in the year 546.

We must next speak in regard to the second of these questions, viz. how many Antichristian powers are yet future,—or, whether the little horn or king of fierce countenance, in Dan. viii.; the wilful king, whose narrative begins at v. 36, and ends with the present chapter; the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, in chap. xii. 11; St Paul's man of sin, 2 Thessalonians, ii. 3; the beast with the horns like a lamb that cometh up out of the earth, and whose narrative begins with v. 11, and closes with the end of Rev. xiii.; and the scarlet-coloured beast full of names of blasphemy of Rev. xvii.-be each the same Antichristian power: for each of them is yet to appear in the world, as will be abundantly evident from what we say of them in the exposition of those portions of scripture which prophetically narrate their histories. Now, from the title written upon the forehead of the woman of Rev. xvii., who is typical, Rev. xvii. 18, of the city of Rome, we are disposed to think that there are only two Antichristian powers yet future. -the word "harlots" being applicable to the papal apostacy; for we find in Rev. xiv., that the idolatry of the papal power is characterised by whoredom for it is said of the nation that was set apart from the errors of popery, as we have seen, "that they were not defiled with the love of women, but are virgins;" and the power which is to stand in the holy place Jerusalem, at that time of great trouble immediately before the next advent of our Saviour, receives the name of the abomination of desolation from our Saviour. Moreover, too, we must consider, 1st, That in the narrative of chap. xi. which ends with the wilful king establishing his palaces between the (Mediterranean and Dead?) seas on the glorious holy mountain of Jerusalem, there is but one and the same power, the wilful king, taken notice of after the close of the narrative of the papal power at v. 35. 2d, That, in Rev. xi., only two periods, each of the equal duration of 1260 days or years, are noticed,—the former, the papal, under the distinguishing form of "forty and two months;" the latter, that of the beast that arises out of the bottomless pit, whose narrative begins at v. 3, and ends with v. 13 of that chapter, immediately upon the time when the temple was opened in heaven, Rev. xi. 19 - that is, about the time when the vials of wrath were poured out, Rev. xv. 5, and xvi. 1, which is most probably that time of great trouble which is immediately to precede the delivery of the Jews from their captivity, Dan. xii. 1, and the advent of our Saviour, Matthew, xxiv. 3d, That the papal beast, with its sixth head healed, which was wounded as it were to death, or slain, by Bonaparte in the year 1806, shall live along with the beast with two horns like a lamb, the latter of which powers shall enforce the worship of the image of the former, and work miracles before him, which beast with the two horns can be none other than St Paul's man of sin. If, then, there should be only one Antichristian power yet to appear in the world, as we have shewn to be probable, one would think that the periods 1290 and 1335 years cannot

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