*

manifested over Jerusalem. According to the united testimony of many of the prophets, Israel, after his restoration, will be sown among the Gentiles; and will thus be made, in a wonderful manner, from first to last, the seed of the Church. This preaching of the Gospel by the converted Israelites, unlike the preaching of it by that first handful only of seed the Hebrew Apostles of our Lord, will, I apprehend, be totally unattended by persecution or opposition for all trials of that nature would be incompatible with the predicted peace and blessedness of the Millennian Church. God will incline the hearts of the Gentiles to receive the word gladly. Great shall be the day of Jezrael. For, if the fall of the Jews be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches, of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? Nay, instead of opposing or slighting the truth, so eager shall the heathens be to receive it, that out of all the languages of the nations ten men shall lay hold of the skirt of only one Jew, declaring, with a holy vehemence, their full determination to go with him, inasmuch as they have heard that God is with him of a truth. In short, the whole world shall press eagerly to Jerusalem to behold the glory of the Lord, and to receive instruction from the lips of his servants. All nations shall flow, like a mighty torrent to his holy mountain, assured that he will teach them of his ways, and cause them to walk in his paths; that the law shall go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

It is not impossible, that some may feel a curiosity to know what nation is intended by the great maritime power destined to take so conspicuous a part in the conversion and restoration of Judah. On this point their curiosity cannot be gratified; at least, not with any degree precision. Yet, although we presume not to say, that this or that particular modern nation is intended; we may, by comparing prophecy with prophecy ascertain both the region in which that nation is to be sought, and the religious character of that nation. The result of such a comparison is briefly as follows: that the maritime power must not only be sought for generally in the

:

West, but particularly in the isles of the Gentiles or Europe; and, not only generally in the isles of the Gentiles or Europe, but particularly in the believing isles of the Gentiles or protestant Europe.* Further than this I cannot find that we have any authority to advance, and therefore I shall not attempt to advance further but I shall content myself with resting in the conclusion, that the maritime power will be that state of protestant Europe which shall possess a decided naval superiority at the time when the 1260 years shall expire. This mighty maritime power, and other smaller protestant maritime powers its allies, described by the prophet under the general name of the isles of the Gentiles,† will clearly be the agents in converting and restoring those Jews who are not under the influence of Antichrist.

From what has been said concerning the events which are to take place at the close of the 1260 years, the following positions may, I think, be collected.

1. The Jews most certainly will be restored. 2. They will as certainly be converted to Christianity. 3. They will begin to be restored as soon as the 1260 years shall have expired. 4. They will be restored in two great divisions. 5. The first of these divisions will be restored in a converted state by the prevailing protestant maritime power of the day. 6. The second will be restored in an unconverted state, and in opposition to the views of the maritime power, by a confederacy consisting of the Roman beast under his last head, the false prophet, and the vassal kings of the earth or Latin empire. 7. The

* This comparison is drawn out at length in my unpublished Work on the restoration of Israel, and the overthrow of Antichrist.

† Isaiah Ix. 9. That part of the isles of the Gentiles is of course here spoken of, which is not subject to the control of Antichrist.

Since Daniel declares, that the Jews will begin to be restored at the end of the 1260 years, and since our Lord no less expressly predicts that " Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled;" it is manifest, that those times will begin to be fulfilled, so soon as the 1260 years shall have expired, and that they will be completely fulfilled, when the Antichristian confederacy is broken and when the Jews are wholly restored. Thus wonderfully do both these prophecies harmonize with St. John's description of the final battle of Armageddon and the vintage; as well as with the parallel predictions of Joel, Zechariah, and others of the ancient prophets. The fulness of the Gentiles, mentioned by St. Paul as the era of the restoration of the Jews, must therefore mean their attaining to that height of wickedness which should mark the period when their times should be fulfilled. Rom. xi. 25.

confederacy, one member of which is certainly the atheistico-papal king, having sanctified their war by proclamation, will successfully invade Palestine by land, will occupy Egypt, will return and sack Jerusalem, and will plant the curtains of their pavilions between the seas in the glorious holy mountain. 8. Their triumph however after this last exploit will be but short. Assembling themselves together at Megiddo, they will suddenly be overthrown by the divine Word of God, and will be agitated by such a preternatural confusion as to draw every man his sword against his fellow so that the bulk of this mighty northern army shall miserably perish between the seas of Palestine; and the infidel tyrant himself come to his end, none being able to help him. 9. The Latin city will be divided by an earthquake into three parts at the first effusion of the seventh vial; the earthquake, the expedition of Antichrist, and the rout at Armageddon, being equally comprehended under the same vial. 10. Two out of three parts of the bestial confederacy will be destroyed at Megiddo. 11. The power of the beast and the false prophet will be for ever broken by their last decisive overthrow in the valley of the Lord's judgment. 12. The third part of the bestial confederacy will be spared, and converted. 13. This third part will be scattered among the nations, and will be instrumental in preparing the way for the restoration and conversion of the ten tribes. 14. The ten tribes will be restored and will be for ever united with the tribe of Judah, so as to form with it only one nation. 15. At the end of 75 years, after the termination of the 1260 years, the season of millennian rest will commence.*

* Though I am unable to assent to the ingenious Mr. King's scheme of apocalyptic interpretation, his remarks upon Palestine, considered as the centre of the millennian empire of Christ upon earth, are highly worthy of notice. “How capable this country is of a more universal intercourse, than any other, with all parts of the earth, is most remarkable; and deserves well to be considered, when we read the numerous prophecies which speak of its future slpendour and greatness, when its people shall at length be gathered from all parts of the earth unto which they are scattered, and be restored to their own land. There is no region in the world, to which an access from all parts is so open. By means of the Black sea, and the Mediterranean, there is an easy approach from all parts of Europe, from a great part of Africa, and from America. By means of the Red sea, and the Persian gulph, and the well-known roads from thence, there is an approach from the rest of Africa, from the East Indies, and from the Isles. And lastly, by means of

All these matters are clearly predicted by the prophets. The manner, in which they will be accomplished, affords a vast field for conjecture: but their accomplishment itself is no vain speculation: in God's own good time, that must take place: how it will take place, we know not beyond what is revealed. Respecting the yet future and mysterious Millennium, the less that is said upon the subject the better. Unable myself to form the slightest conception of its specific nature, I shall weary neither my own nor my reader's patience with premature remarks upon it. That it will be a season of great blessedness is certain further than this we know nothing definitely. "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this Law."

CHAPTER XII.

Recapitulation and Conclusion.

FROM what has been said we learn, that the 1260 days are the appointed hour of the powers of darkness, the space of time allotted for the prevalence both of Popery and Mohammedism and for the short-lived triumph of Antichrist.

In the year 606, the saints seem to have been first given by the secular power of the Roman empire into the

the Caspian, the Lake or sea of Baykall, and the near communication of many great rivers, the approach is facilitated from all the northern parts of Tartary. In short, if a skilful geographer were to sit down to devise the fittest spot on the globe for universal empire; or rather, a spot, where all the great intercourses of human life should universally centre; and from whence the extended effects of universal benevolence and good-will should flow to all parts of the earth; and where universal and united homage should be paid, with one consent, to the Most High: he could not find another so well suited, in all circumstances, as that which is with emphasis called The Holy Land. These observations perhaps may not deserve great weight, but they ought not to be wholly neglected; especially when it is considered, how many passages of Scripture there are, which plainly declare, that the time shall at length come, when Zion shall be the joy of the whole earth." Note to Hymns to the Supreme Being, p. 126.

* Dent. xxix. 29.

hand of the Papal little horn; consequently from this year the 1260 days ought most probably to be computed. The desolating transgression of the Mohammedan little horn however is destined to prevail during the same space of time, that the Papal little horn is permitted to reign. Hence, in order that the two periods of 1260 years each might be made to synchronize together, it seemed necessary, that the desolating transgression of Mohammedism should first make its appearance in the very year that the saints were delivered into the hand of the Papal little horn. Accordingly we find, that it did first make its appearance in that year; for the year 606 is the most proper date of the Mohammedan imposture, because in that year Mohammed first retired to the cave of Hera.

1. The Papal horn arose, as we have seen, at the preeise time when Daniel predicted that it should arise; namely, while the Roman empire was falling asunder, and while ten independent kingdoms were springing up out of its ruins. It arose gradually and almost imperceptibly among and behind the ten horns of the fourth beast; three of which were successively eradicated before it, and by their fall gave it an opportunity of becoming a temporal no less than a spiritual power. For some time after its rise it was only an ecclesiastical kingdom: but that kingdom, though small at first, continued perpetually to increase in size; till, in the year 606, when the Pope was declared Universal Bishop and supreme head of the catholic Church, it became a mighty ecclesiastical empire. At this era, which seems to be the proper date of the 1260 years, and the epoch when the old pagan Roman beast which had been mortally wounded by the Sword of the Spirit under his sixth head revived under the same sixth head by setting up a spiritual tyrant in the Church and by relapsing into idolatry, St. John first introduces upon the stage the power which Daniel symbolizes by the little horn of the fourth beast. That power however was now become an universal empire, instead of being, what it had hitherto been, a limited ecclesiastical kingdom. Hence the Apostle, instead of representing the ten-horned beast as having likewise a little horn, describes him as attended by a second beast,