accurately, how wonderfully, does it accord with prophecy! From the past, and from the present, we may anticipate the future. Whenever the Ottoman empire falls, we shall then definitively know our place in the Apocalypse; and the strong light of almost absolute certainty will be thrown upon the third woe, and the six first vials.

Although these prophecies have already been discussed at large, so far as the principal actors in them are concerned, yet they contain some matters more immediately connected with the restoration of the Jews which have not received quite so full

an examination. These shall now be noticed in their order.

The succession of events, detailed in the joint prediction of Daniel and St. John, is as follows. At the pouring out of the sixth vial, the Ottoman empire, symbolized as under the sixth trumpet by the waters of its principal river the Euphrates, is overthrown; and prepares by its subversion a way for the kings from the east. These kings I cannot but consider as being the Jews, or perhaps to speak more accurately the ten tribes dispersed through the east and lost in the ancient Assyrian empire. Such an interpretation best accords with other parallel prophecies, which concur in representing a very considerable body of the Israelites as being brought out of the east and out of the north. The fall of the Ottoman empire however only prepares a way for them: no intimation is given,

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given, that they then set out on their expedition; which exactly accords with what we are taught respecting the period, when we may expect the return of Judah and Israel. The restoration even of Judah, which will first take place, will not commence till the 1260 years shall have expired: and the Ottoman empire falls previous to the gathering together of the confederacy to the great battle of the Lord, which will be contemporary with the restoration of Judah.

After the downfall of Turkey, the imperceptible agency of three unclean spirits will begin to assemble the Latin kings to the last war of Armageddon. We may conclude from the language of the prophet, that the confederacy itself will in some measure be already formed at this era; for the impure spirits are represented, as not so much forming the confederacy, as directing its efforts after its formation to a scheme of conquest which will terminate only in its own destruction. I have already observed, that, when we consider the point to which we now seem to be arrived in the Apocalypse, we can scarcely doubt that we behold the rudiments of this confederacy rapidly acquiring form and stability; and that, whenever the Turkish empire is overthrown, there will then be no doubt at all.

At the pouring out of the last vial the 1260 years apparently expire, and the restoration of Judah commences. To this period therefore we

must

must ascribe the expedition of the wilful king*; and at this same period the stone begins to smite

the

* There is some reason for believing, that, during the effusion of the seventh vial and the contemporaneous expedition of Antichrist into Palestine, the sins of the papal empire, then left in a manner defenceless, will be severely punished by the desolating invasion of a great northern nation. In the language of symbols, a storm of hail denotes a hostile invasion from the north, the region where the natural hail is generated. Ac-' cordingly it is used by St. John, in his description of the effects produced by the first trumpet, to typify the irruption of the northern tribes into the Roman empire. Now it is worthy of note, that another hail-storm is to be one of the plagues produced by the seventh vial; and it is equally worthy of note, that some great northern king is said by Daniel to be engaged in hostilities with Antichrist at this very period. The necessary conclusion seems to be, if I be right in supposing the northernking to be Russia, that the hail-storm of the seventh vial means some dreadful invasion of the papal Roman empire by Russia and· her northern allies during the time that Antichrist is engaged in prosecuting his conquests in Palestine and Egypt. This con-jecture is founded upon Mr. Butt's paraphrase of Rev. xvi. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21; which the reader may compare with the text.

"17. And the last minister poured out his vial upon the "spiritual power of mystical Babylon, and there came a great, "voice from the established church from the throne, saying, "The mystery of God is finished, Antichrist is crucified. 18. "And there were thanksgivings, and languages, and the thun-"der of preachers, and flashes of light; and there was a " great revolution, such as never was from the time that men were upon the earth (Comp. Dan. xii, 1.). 19. And the great nation and empire was divided into three portions, and "the communities of the Christian Gentiles were revolutionized, · "and catholic Babylon came in remembrance before God to

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the image upon his feet, and the Ancient of days to sit in judgment upon the Roman beast and his tyrannical little horn. It is observable that the stone smites the image upon his feet and his ten toes, previous to his other members being smitten. This exactly accords with what Daniel says relative to the fate of the four beasts. The Roman empire is to be first destroyed, and that in its divided form: the lives of the other three beasts are to be preserved for a season and a time. And both these prophecies equally accord with the Apocalypse. After the destruction of the Roman beast under his last head and the downfall of his false prophet or harlot-church, and after the thousand years have

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"give unto her the cup of crucifixion and extreme wrath. "20. And every little state was revolutionized, and the kingdoms "were levelled, the foundations of the great city annihilated.

21. And great northern armies are caused to descend by the "church and fall upon citizens; and the citizens blasphemed "God for the plague of the northern armies, for it was inex"pressibly heavy and dreadful." Butt's third part of notes on the Revelation, p. 24.

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I am no way singular in supposing, that the effusion of the seventh vial synchronizes with the expedition of Antichrist into Palestine and the contemporary restoration of the Jews. Commenting on Dan. xii. 1, Mr. Lowth observes, that the "Scriptures speak of the extraordinary appearances of God's "kingdom, as ushered in by great tribulations (See Isaiah “ ̧xxvi. 20, 21. Jer. xxx. 7. Matt. xxiv. 21.). This som "learned men suppose to relate to the times of the last vial (Rev. xvi. 18.), when there was a great earthquake, saith the text, such as was not since men were upon the earth.

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expired,

expired, then at length perish Gog and Magog; whose seats, together with those of their associates, are, as we find from Ezekiel, within the limits of the three first empires. I am much inclined to think, that the season and the time, during which the lives of the three beasts were to be preserved, is only another mode of expressing the thousand years mentioned by St. John. As a day' in the prophetic language is a year, so a great time or year of the Lord was thought by the Jews to comprehend a thousand years; and this great time they were wont to style the great day of judgment, shewing thereby that days, and years, and millenaries, are equal in the sight of God * At any rate the time, during which the lives of the three beasts were to be preserved, undoubtedly coincides with the thousand years; whence we are naturally led to conclude, that Daniel did not mean an indefinite time, but a time or year of some description or another! It cannot however be a time of 360 years, because it coincides with the Millen nium, therefore it must be a great time or year of 1000 years.

20 The whole war, which terminates with the battle of Armageddon, is both minutely and geographically detailed by Daniel. The confederacy under its leader the infidel king will, at the time of the

The reader will find some very curious remarks on this subject by Mr. Mede in his Works, B. v. C. 3.