either exhibit the same events in different aspects, or collateral trains of events occupying the same period. The first and last judgments, with the events between them, are the sum and substance of the whole.

In calculating the chronology of this great outline, we take, for our first element, the period of the first judgment. This is an ascertained date-a fixed point on the chart of time. We know, by the explicit testimony of Christ in the twenty-fourth of Matthew, as well as by the concurrent allusions of the whole New Testament, and indeed by the announcements of the sixth chapter of the Apocalypse itself, that the first judgment immediately succeeded the destruction of Jerusalem, in A. D. 70.

The next question is,-How far is it from this fixed point to the second judgment? In the twentieth chapter of Revelations we have an undoubted account of the second jugdment, and in connection with it a statement of the events which precede it, with a general measurement of the time between the first and second judgments. We are there informed that the primitive church lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years' after their complete victory over Satan by the first judgment, and before the second judgment. This makes it certain that Christ's intermediate reign occupies at least a thousand years.

There is no good reason to doubt that the language in this case is to be taken literally. Prophetic statements of time are certainly never less than literal. If there were any doubt in the case, it would be whether we ought not to reckon days for years, and so expand the prophetic period of a thousand years into 360,000 years. This is the view of some interpreters. But there is certainly no authority or occasion for such an expansion. It is in vain to say that the announcement of the thousand years occurs in a symbolical vision, and is therefore to be understood symbolically; for, however the rules of scolastic rhetoric may condemn the mixture of symbols with literal objects, it is a fact which can be proved by numberless examples, that in the Apocalypse symbols and literal objects are mingled without scruple. In the very passage in question, while the dragon, the chain, the key, the bottomless pit, &c., are evidently symbolical, the martyrs, the Christ, the living and reigning, &c., are as evidently literal. And the announcement of the thousand years is immediately connected with these literal persons and events. There is therefore no necessity of understanding the thousand years as meaning 360,000; and, without a necessity, the very magnitude of the latter number is sufficient to exclude it.

It is further to be observed that the statement of the thousand years is not to be taken as an exact measurement of the time between the first and second judgments. The number itself in the first place indicates that it was chosen as a convenient general estimate. The martyrs lived and reigned with Christ in round numbers a thousand years, more or less. In the next place, the vision leaves a considerable margin of events before the thousand years begin, and another after they end, which are to be reckoned in making up the sum of the time between the first and second judgments. It is not stated how long it was after the second coming of Christ, before Satan was bound and the complete triumph of the primitive church commenced; nor how long it

was before the second judgment that Satan was loosed again and went forth to gather the nations to battle. These points must be ascertained by other calculations. All we can fairly gather from this vision is the general conclusion that more than a thousand years intervene between the first and second judgments.

We may make a further approximation toward exactness in this calculation, by examining the account of the second judgment with its antecedents, in the eleventh chapter. The reader will observe that the latter part of this chapter is a continuation of the vision of the trumpets, which commences in the seventh chapter. The final judgment is ushered in by the sounding of the seventh trumpet. It is evident that the account of the two witnesses in the former part of the chapter is a sort of episode interposed between the sixth and seventh trumpets, for the sake of bringing down a separate train of events, to the point of junction with the train introduced by the trumpets. The earthquake and slaughter following the resurrection of the witnesses, is coincident with the events of the second woe trumpet, and immediately precedes the third woe, which is the final scene of wrath and recompense.While the period covered by this episode thus manifestly comes down nearly to the second judment, on the other hand it certainly reaches back to the first judgment. The two witnesses commence their testimony when the Gentiles begin to tread the holy city under foot,' i. e. at the destruction of Jerusalem. The duration of their testimony is stated to be forty and two months,' or 1260 days. At the end of that period they are killed, and after three days and a half they rise, ascend to heaven, and then follows in quick succession the destruction of their enemies and the final judgment. So that the forty and two months' extend from the destruction of Jerusalem, to the neighborhood of the second judgment. Now we know by our previous calculations that more than a thousand years intervene between the destruction of Jerusalem and the second judgment. Since therefore the 'forty and two months' occupy substantially the same space with the thousand years, the conclusion is inevitable that these are not literal but symbolical months, i. e., that the days in them stand for years.

We have not in this case the same reasons for adhering to the literal meaning, as we had in the case of the thousand years. The persons who stand connected with the period specified in this case are symbolical, as they were not in the other. And the length of the time given by the expansion of 1260 days into 1260 years is more reasonable than that given by the expansion of 1000 into 360,000 years. It is in vain to insist that symbolical designations of time are inadmissible. The latitude of the Apocalypse in the use of mys tical representations in relation to other subjects, is as proper, and equally to be expected, in relation to time. The necessity of the case, as above exhibited, satisfies us that the writer of the Apocalypse put days for years in this instance, and in several others, and that he left the designation of time in the twentieth chapter in literal language for the very purpose of giving a clue to the meaning of those which are symbolical.

In the place then of a thousand years with an indefinite margin of time before and after it, which was the result of our former calculation, we have now 1260

years, commencing at the destruction of Jerusalem and extending to the V neighborhood of the second judgment. An indefinite margin is still left between the end of this period and the final scene. All we can fairly say, is, that at the end of 1260 years from the destruction of Jerusalem, i. e. about A. D. 1330, the dispensation of the two witnesses (who commenced their testimony among the Gentiles after the termination of Judaism) came to an end, and a new series of events directly preparatory to the final judgment, commenced. How long a period these preparatory movements are to occupy, we have thus far no means of determining. We only know that the final judgment has not taken place yet, and that we are living at a late period in the preparatory era which immediately precedes it.

If external historical tokens of the truth of our conclusions are demanded, we may mention that Popery came to its height and began to decline soon after the commencement of the 14th century; that Wiclif, the acknowl edged father of the Reformation, was born in 1324, and that during his life of 60 years the Bible was first translated, and the seeds of the religious revolutions which have since changed the face of all Christendom, were sown. It is true (whether it has any thing to do with our prophecy or not) that the dispensation of the Reformation properly dates from the period between A. D. 1330 and 1400. Since that time the religious world has been in a state of transition. We believe that it will prove to be a transition from the Gentile dispensation of legality, to the final judgment.

It must be borne in mind, however, that as we find the main fulfilment of the prophecies of the second coming, in the spiritual world, so we must look for the principal events foreshadowed in the Apocalypse, beyond the vail, Let carnal unbelief pervert predictions in order to make them match external events, or reject them because their fulfilment is not to be seen. We have learned, by the lesson of the second coming, to allow prophecy a wider field of fulfilment than this world.

41

$47. THE DISPENSATION OF THE FULNESS OF TIMES.

"He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in him: in whom we also have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will; that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ." Eph. 1: 8-12.

IT is evident that Paul refers, in the above passage, to a dispensation of the grace of Christ which was then future, from the following circumstances. 1. There was not in the dispensation committed to him, i. e., in the first and then present dispensation of the grace of Christ, any such universal gathering as he describes in these words, that he might gather &c. all things, both which are in heaven and which are on earth.' When Paul says in Heb. 2: 8-In that he hath put all in subjection under him [Christ,] he left nothing that is not put under him'--he speaks manifestly of the same purpose of God, as that referred to in the preceding passage, and immediately adds, 'but now we see not yet all things put under him.' As he plainly predicts the full subjection of this world to Christ, and as plainly connects it with the dispensation of the fulness of times,' we conclude with certainty that he had in his mind in using this expression, a dispensation which was not only then, but is now future. 2. His language concerning believers at that time, is obviously designed to distinguish them from those who should be gathered in the dispensation of the fulness of times.' In whom we also have obtained an inheritance, &c., that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.' The intimation here contained, that a special glory be longs to the subjects of the first dispensation, implies the expectation of a second future gathering. Similar intimations, tending in like manner to set a distinction between the primitive church and the subjects of the last dispensation, may be found in Rev. 14: 4, and 20: 6. 3. The single expression, fulness of times,' will be found by comparing scripture with scripture, to contain evidence that Paul spoke of a dispensation distinct from that of the primitive church, which is yet to come. Christ says in Luke 21: 24-Je

rusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. The words 'fulness' and ' fulfilled' in these passages, are more nearly identical in the original, than in our version. Using a noun instead of a verb, Christ would have said, Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, till the fulness of the Gentile times.' The two expressions then differ only in that one of them is general and the other particular. Paul speaks of the fulness or completion of all the times marked out in the pur poses and predictions of God; Christ of the completion of the times appoin ted for the Gentiles. Now as that which is general must include that which is particular, it is evident that the fulness of times' cannot come till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled;' and as the times of the Gentiles are not

fulfilled, it follows that the dispensation of the fulness of times' has not yet

come.

6

The words of the angel, (Rev. 10: 5-7,) well define the meaning of Paul's expression-And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven and earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there shall be time no longer; but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his ser vants the prophets.' In this passage we find that the fulness of times is the period when the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.' Now as the gathering of all things in heaven and earth into Christ, was declared to the prophets to be the final purpose of God, it is evident that the dispensation of the fulness of times in which this was to be accomplished, is the very same as the finishing of the mystery of God. When the angel swears that time shall be no longer,' he declares that the fulness of times' is come; and immediately connects with this era that consummation of God's purposes which Paul describes, appointing its fulfilment at the beginning of the voice of the seventh angel. From all this we ascertain, 1, That the manifestation of Christ to mankind, is divided into two parts, separated from each other by a long interval of time, and called, the dispensation of the primitive church, and the dispensation of the fulness of times. 2. That the dispensation of the fulness of times, is the appointed period of Christ's final and complete triumph over this world, the consummation of prophecy, the denouement of the drama commenced at the crea tion. 3. That it is subsequent to the times of the Gentiles. 4. That it is to come when the seventh angel shall begin to sound. All of these particu lars which we have thus gathered from scattered evidences, are presented, in a summary and consecutive form, in the eleventh chapter of Revelations. John was commanded to measure the temple; but,' said the angel, the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. During this period, the two witnesses prophesy. Their death, resurrection, ascension, the defeat and conversion of their enemies, follow. Then comes the dispensation of the fulness of times. The seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshiped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldst destroy them which destroy the earth.' Rev. 11: 15-18. If the temple of God is the church, which Paul declares, (1 Tim. 3: 15,) we are here informed that the inner portion of the church

6