His mouth speaking great things, and his power to continue forty-two months... He blasphemed God and his tabernacle It was given to him to make war with the saints.. All shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life.. ...... 173 174 ib. 175 The solemn warning given, with respect to the end of the beast, has reference to his destruction at the great day of the Lord.. ib. The faith and patience of the saints shall then be peculiarly exercised. 176 CHAPTER XIII. THE TWO HORNED BEAST OF THE EARTH, AND THE IMAGE. The Apocalyptic description of these objects ... 177 is afterwards called the false prophet... 178 This beast is the papacy ib. ib. ib. 179 He grows up out of the earth silently and unheeded He exerciseth the spiritual power of the first beast before him- He causeth the earth to worship the first beast He maketh fire to come down from heaven-This denotes the fire of persecution, which comes down from the symbolical heaven... He causeth the inhabitants of the earth, to form an image to the first beast Under this hieroglyphic is described the degeneracy of the visible professing church of Christ, once the chaste spouse of Christ, but now so corrupted, as to become an image of the beast.... How this image was formed.... The image is both an image of the beast, and an image to the beast ib. 180 ib. ib. 181 ib. The image is a symbol of the same corrupt church, afterwards exhibited to us as a woman, the harlot Babylon the Great.... 182 Why two different symbols are employed to denote the same object ...... Passage quoted from a writer in the British Review, illustrative What is meant by the beast causing men to receive a mark, that letters of the name Latinus-Passage quoted from Mr. Faber on this point.. This part of the prophetic description, was fulfilled by the decrees of different councils, forbidding men from holding communion with the Albigenses and Waldenses in buying and selling.... 186 187 CHAPTER XIV. ON THE PROPHETICAL PERIOD OF TWELVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY In chapters xi. xii. and xiii. of the Apocalypse, there is frequent .... Two other texts wherein the same period is alluded to.. A time, times, and half a time, forty-two months, and twelve hundred and sixty days, are different forms of expressing one and the same number, and that number is twelve hundred and sixty days ... Protestant writers on prophecy, almost universally agree that these days stand for years, and that the true prophetical number is 1260 years Three arguments stated to prove this... The scriptures attach a very solemn degree of importance to this prophetical period A careful inquiry into its commencement and termination, is therefore necessary for elucidating the prophecies of Daniel and St. John 192 ib. 193 ib. 149 ib. 195 ib. The mode in which it is proposed to proceed in this inquiry stated 196 Six scriptural propositions laid down, comprehending the various internal scriptural marks, of the commencement and termination of the foregoing period.. PROPOSITION FIRST CONSIDERED. ib. The commencement of the 1260 years is to be marked, by giving the saints, and times, and laws, into the hand of the little horn 197 That the little horn is the papacy, has been proved by former writers on prophecy.... ib. The giving of the saints into the hand of the papacy, must be by some formal act of the secular power 200 Such an act was accordingly issued, in the reign of Justinian, whereby the Roman Pontiff was solemnly acknowledged to be the head of the church That emperor promulgated a severe edict against heretics at an early period of his reign 200 ib. A second edict of the same nature was issued in March 533, and on this occasion, he formerly addressed the pope as the acknowledged head of the church, for his approbation of his acts 201 The answer of the pope was also published with the other docu ments, and it shows that he understood the reference to him as a formal recognition of the supremacy of Rome .... ... ib. From the date of Justinian's epistle, in March 533, the saints were formally delivered into the hand of the papacy, and this consequently is the true era of the 1260 years........ ib. ib. No other recorded act of the secular power exists, conferring a greater authority on the pope............... ..... The supposed grant by Phocas of the title of universal Bishop rests on no evidence. ib. The year 533 being the true era of the 1260 years, it is requisite next to determine on what principle their termination is to be computed Two modes of computing time have obtained, the one by complete or past, the other by current time; the last is used in Asia, and in the scriptures Reasons for adopting the last mode, in computing prophetical time..... 203 206 ... 209 Following this mode of reckoning, if the 1260 years commenced ib. ib. PROPOSITION SECOND. At the termination of the 1260 years, the Ancient of Days comes, and the judgment sits to take away the dominion of the little horn, to consume and destroy it unto the end 210 Till the French revolution, the papal power continued to hold the saints in subjection-Until then, therefore, the judgment. had not began to sit.... At the fall of the French monarchy, in 1792, a series of events began, which have shaken to its foundation the spiritual power of the papacy Inference thence deduced, that the judgment began, and the 1260 .... years elapsed at that period Remarks on the course of things, since the overthrow of Bona ib. ib. 212 parte, in reference to the apparent recovery of the papál ascen dancy ...... And on the extensive efforts for the circulation of the Scriptures, ....... 213 214 215 PROPOSITIONS THIRD AND FOURTH. ........ When the witnesses put off their sackcloth, the 1260 years are ended ib. When the woman, the church, begins to emerge from the wilderness, that period is elapsed ib. ib. ...... ...... The time when the witnesses put off their sackcloth, must be There have been three eras of light in the church; the third is 216 ib. A short view of the late events in the church which justify this inference 217 The conclusion from the whole view is, that the 1260 years are expired... 221 The exact apocalyptic period, when the woman begins to return from the wilderness, is at the opening of the temple, at the sounding of the seventh trumpet.... PROPOSITION FIFTH. ib. The 1260 years end at the sounding of the seventh trumpet..... 222 That event took place in the year 1792, therefore the 1260 years then elapsed..... PROPOSITION SIXTH. ... ........ The times of the Gentiles, or 1260 years end, when the signs in ........ Remarks on the opinions entertained by the disciples, respecting the kingdom of our Lord. The Jewish nation then expected the Messiah as a temporal deliverer ........ 223 224 Our Lord did not at once shock the prejudices of the disciples, on this point, but gradually prepared them to receive the doctrines of the cross... Still they clung to the expectation of a temporal kingdom..... 225 When the apostles asked the questions recorded in Matt. xxiv. 3, they alluded to the coming of our Lord, mentioned in Daniel, to establish his kingdom and redeem Israel..... Remarks on the Greek word, rendered." World," and its corresponding Hebrew word The questions of the disciples more particularly considered-they were three in number.. The first part of the discourse is introductory to the rest, and was The next part of the discourse declares the sign which shall im- ib. 226 227 228 229 ib. The third division of the discourse contains the signs which shall precede the second advent 230 The signs predicted by our Lord, are in the symbolical, and not state ..... 231 232 The awful events which have taken place in Europe, since the beginning of the French Revolution, are the fulfilment of these signs ib. Passage from the charge of Bishop Porteus, in the year 1794, containing remarks on these events ib. Character of these events, as drawn by a writer of the present day 234 Further description of the events which have fulfilled the signs in the symbolical heavens 235 St. Luke tells us, that these signs shall be attended with distress .... 237 ih. ....... 238 d |