ther, the second to Calvin and the reformed continental churches, and the third to the Church of England. But here we are compelled, by many substantial reasons, as we consider them, to dissent from this celebrated author, to whom in many respects the Christian world is so much indebted for his work on the Prophecies. If the first angel is rightly interpreted from the Apocalypse itself (i. 20.) to denote a Christian minister, surely the other two angels should typify individual ministers also, and not churches. Whatever might be the merits of the Swiss reformer in denouncing and confuting the errors of popery, when the incalculable mischief and impiety of his decretum horribile are laid in the other scale, we cannot easily be persuaded, that John Calvin would be singled out and predicted as an "angel" in the volume of infallible truth and holiness. Besides, Calvin was contemporary with Luther; and therefore cannot be supposed to be the second angel, " following" the other, whom he did not survive more than the space of about eight years. We cannot therefore but accede to the opinion of the incomparable Dr. Hales, that the earlier arrangement, which he suggests, making the three angels to be Wickliffe, Huss, and Luther, who followed each other in three successive centuries, is far preferable. Nor is it a little striking, that of Daniel's two numbers, 1290 days and 1335 days, counting forwards from what seems to be the time of their commencement, the destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70, when" the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up," the first leads us exactly to A. D. 1860, the precise year determined as the commencement of Wickliffe's testimony by so many independent authorities, which renders the circumstance, Dr. Hales observes, "really remarkable;" and the larger number 1335, similarly reckoned, brings us ou, with equal accuracy, to A. D. 1405; in which year, as various other early aus thors have noted, John Huss began to preach against the cor ruptions of the church of Rome. There is no prophetic num ber directing us in like manner to the other great champion of the reformation; but in the third angel, as Dr. Hales observes, the sagacity of Mede first descried the faithful representative of Luther, who in the next century, A. D. 1517, followed the other two; and warned the votaries of the beast, of the dreadful danger that impended over them, if they still persisted in following him. Mede's Works, p. 518. ed. 1672. The determination of the several prophetic periods in Daniel is a question of high importance, but withal extremely arduous; which will not perhaps be settled with complete satisfaction, in every instance, before the time of the end. Solutions have been offered, which have something plausible to recommend them; them; but, at the sanie time, all or most of them are liable to strong objections. The termination of each period will, no doubt, usher in some remarkable event or revolution; but the nature of the events, in one or two instances, not being foretold, in that case even the arrival of the time may not unfold the prophecy, till the consistency and agreement of the whole series shall illustrate and confirm the several separate members. Dr. Hales having observed, that there is no number in the Bible whose genumeness is better ascertained than the 2300 days, in order to come at the beginning of the days, counts back 70 weeks (or 490 years) from the destruction of Jerusalem, foretold in a subsequent vision (c. ix.) and thus the beginning of the period (420 A. C.) being known, the end of the period is known also, A. D. 1880; for 420 + 1880 = 2300. * This is very ingenious, and leads us to a safe period which is not yet arrived. But it seems altogether improbable, that a vision, the meaning of which the holy prophet immediately sought for, and which, in consequence, his heavenly instructor bade Gabriel cause him to understand, should depend for its mode of interpretation on a vision which was not seen till some years afterwards; nor is there, it is believed, another instance to be found in Scripture of thus counting back, in order to reckon forwards. The commencement of the time must, in all appearance, be taken either from the predicted desolation, (which, whether that of Autiochus or of the Romans be intended, extends to a period so much out of the range of prophecy, that we cannot suppose it to be the time intended) or else "from the time when the prophet wrote," (or rather when the vision was seen) which Mr. Frere takes to be the true cemmencement of "all the historical prophecies." It would seem therefore we must adopt the reading of the Septuagint, 2400; from which if we deduct the date of the vision, B. C. 553, we come to 1847, the time when "the sanctuary shall be cleansed," the true import of which the time will shew. This then is Mr. Frere's calculation, p. 247. Mr. Faber and Mr. Frere agree in supposing the space of 75 years, divided into distinct portions of 30 years and 45 years, will intervene between the end of the three times and a half (or 1260 years) and the Millennium. This idea is founded on the supposition that the three periods mentioned in the last chapter of Daniel, namely, three times and a half (or 1260 years) and * Antiochus Epiphanes, A. C. 170, which deducted from 2300, gives A. D. 2130. But if we calculate from the Destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70, we are carried to A. D. 2370. 1290 days 1290 days and 1335 days, have one and the same commencement, au opinion which seems neither sufficiently proved nor probable. For when a specific date is assigned to the second of these numbers, (belonging in appearance and as is generally believed to the third also) this affords a strong presumption that the date does not belong to the first of the three. Now the time intended is marked by these two circumstances, the taking away of the daily sacrifice and the setting up of the abomination of desolation; a description which in appearance must be understood either of the profanation of the temple by Antiochus, to which Mr. Mede applies it, or of the destruction of the city and temple by Titus, to which, as we have seen, Dr. Hales with greater probability applies it. As for the period of 1260 years, so often mentioned under different modes of corresponding numeration, and therefore infallibly fixed, we cannot but think the date of its commencement in the year 606, which Mr. Faber and others have assigned, when the saints were delivered into the hand of the little horn by the Emperor Phocas, constituting Boniface the third Universal Bishop and Supreme Head of the Church, far more probable than the earlier date of 533, which Mr. Frere and Mr. Cuninghame have chosen ; but which any other sober man must think is irrefragably refuted by the events. "The period having begun in the month of March, 533, its termination," Mr. F. says, with a latitude of reckoning not very allowable, may have been at any point of time from March, 1792, to March, 1793. The principal explosion of the French RevoJution happened on the 10th August, 1792-an event of an importance wonderfully adapted to mark the expiration of the long period of 1260 years" of suffering. True, if the sufferings of the saints had then ended, and more auspicious days succeeded; but after the lapse of twenty-three years, of almost incessant warfare and havoc and devastation, since the French revolution, who can yet discern even the dawning of those blessed days, when "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Mr. F. says, and we believe truly, that "the reign of the Saints is spoken of as commencing immediately at the expiration of the 1260 years." P. 192. We can readily believe that the vials of divine wrath began to be poured out on the Beast and his followers in the porten. tous year, 1792; and that "heavy judgments" have since in quick succession "been inflicted on the Roman Catholic divisious of the Western Roman Empire," while "Britain, the Protestant kingdom, has escaped," and been delivered. But it has not been "nostra sine parte pericli." "Blood has indeed 9 been been given them to drink," blood spilled by their own hands, in successive revolutions, massacres, and anarchy. But we have been not merely spectators, but instruments in the hand of Providence; and in the arduous struggle, while we honourably stood up to rescue and defend the oppressed against their unjust aggressors, numberless are the lives of our own brave and heroic countrymen which have been sacrificed in the conflict. We cannot therefore regard these days of trouble, wherein all suffer, because all are guilty, though they do not, thank God, suffer equally, as their guilt, we trust, is not equal; we cannot regard these days of woe and suffering as the actual commencement of the Millennium, though we view them as a prelude to that fast-approaching and blessed æra, We have another strong objection to this part of Mr. Frere's work, which applies also to Mr. Faber. If the 1260 years expired in 1792, then the death and resurrection of the witnesses of truth, who prophesy in sackcloth during that long period, are already past. But we never could persuade ourselves to accede to Mr. Faber's opinion, that these things happened under the Smalcaldic League, almost three centuries ago, when the Interim was enforced in the year 1548. The interpretation, which the profoundly learned and judicious Mede, a century after the period suggested, maturely considered, and apparently on solid grounds rejected, is not likely with good auspices to be revived. If this hypothesis is adopted, then, from the assumed commencement of their testimouy, instead of prophesying 1260 years, the witnesses did not prophesy 1200, no nor even 1000 years, clothed in sackcloth. At the same time the horrid massacre at Paris in 1572, the revocation of the edict at Nantes, and successive Irish massacres, all subsequent to the supposed revival of the witnesses, are fearful monitions, that the days of mourning are not yet ended. Again; the events which took place little less than three centuries ago, cannot with propriety be regarded as what was to happen, when the witnesses "had finished," or were about to finish" their testimony. The calamity, which was confined to one corner of Germany, does not appear to be sufficiently extensive and momentous to answer the demand of the prediction in the Apocalypse: and the great earthquake, which was to be the same hour," or to synchronize with the revival of the witnesses, is prolonged, surely with inadmissible length of duration, from 1530 (before the death of the witnesses) to the year 1688, more than a century after their supposed resurrection. On the whole of this matter, we would observe, that fear, the parent of caution, is less dangerous than confidence. We dare not therefore venture to throw aside our armour, nor cease to to be on the watch, lest when we say, Peace, and all things are at rest, sudden destruction should come upon us. And in this, whether it be apprehension or circumspection, we have the concurrence of one who has recently viewed the prophecies with an intelligent eye. Dr. Hales thinks the last persecution of the witnesses, shortly before the expiration of the period (which he brings down, whether correctly or otherwise, to the year 1880) likely to take place in England, denoted by the tenth part of the city, one of the ten kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was divided, and "the street" her most popu lous region, the metropolis of the British Empire, London and her environs, that "greatest seminary of religion and virtue, as also of irreligion and vice." We hasten with pleasure to a point on which our sentiments are in unison with Mr. Frere's. In considering the ten horns or kings of the fourth beast in Daniel, he proceeds on the prin ciple of a territorial division of the Roman Empire into ten distinct sovereignties or states; on which principle he observes, "they must necessarily be considered as continuing to exist, through all their changes, as long as their territories are kept distinct from each other, and remain the seats of separate governments." He therefore gives the following list of the ten kingdoms: Ravenna, Lombardy, Rome, Naples, Tuscany, France, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Britain. And the three first named, which are known to form the Papal states, following Sir E. Newton, Bishop Newton and others, he makes to be the three horns or states, which were plucked up and subdued by the little Papal horn; by which removal of three of the ten primary horns, he became a temporal power like the rest, though" diverse from them," invested with a spiritual as well as a temporal sword. And here we would observe, that provided the numbers are made out correctly, it seems of little moment whether we enquire first for the ten or the three; but as the latter is the sinaller number and coupled with this circumstance, that the three required were plucked up by the little horn, it is reasonable to presume, that the three, so described, may be discovered with greater certainty; whereas in the larger number of ten, there is more room for doubt and uncertainty. But when it is said in the Apocalypse, that the ten horns of the beast shall hate the Papal harlot (that is the little horn under a different symbol) and " make her desolate, and naked, and burn her with fire," it is evidently implied, that they should (all or most of them) exist at the time of her downfall, and cause her destruction. Therefore the Heruli, and Ostrogoths, and Vandals, and others, which for many ages past have had no exist ence, |