manner, the business of this ecclesiastical assembly was opened by a discourse from the pulpit, which is soon to be published; and having taken into their serious consideration the obligations they were laid under to provide," as far as they were able, for the preservation of truth, unity and concord, in that small portion of the Church of Christ committed to their charge, they were unanimously of opinion, that, for this purpose, it would be highly expedient to give a solemn declaration of their assent to what are usually called the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, and to do so in the form of words of the subscription required by the act of the 32d of his present Majesty, intitled, " An Act for granting Relief to Pastors, Ministers, and Lay-persons of the Episcopal Communion in Scotland." The resolution entered into on this solemn occasion, was in the following terms: "Resolved therefore, as we now are, by the Grace of Almighty God, to adopt these Articles as the public test or standard of the religious principles of our Church,-We, whose names are underwritten, the Bishops and Pastors of congregations of persons in the Episcopal Communion in Scotland, meeting for Divine Worship, at the several places annexed to our respective names, do willingly and ex amino subscribe to the book of articles of religion agreed upon by the Archbishops and Bishops of both provinces of the realm of England, and the whole clergy thereof, in the convocation holden at London in the year of our Lord 1562, and we do acknowledge all, and every the articles therein contained, being in number thirty-nine, besides the ratification, to be agreeable to the Word of God."-And we the subscribing Bishops have also resolved in future to require from all candidates for Holy Orders in our Church, previous to their being ordained, a similar subseription." This account, Sir, you may depend on as genuine, from

Nov. 20, 1804.

A SCOTCH EPISCOPALIAN.

Fol. VII. Churchm. Mag. Nov. 1804. Z z SACRED

SACRED CRITICISM, No. XXI.

APPENDIX.

The following Article came too late for insertion in the place hitherts. allotted to these valuable disquisitions.]

FURTHER ILLUSTRATIONS OF DANIEL'S 1290, AND 1335 DAYS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

IN

SIR,

MAGAZINE.

Na foregoing communication last December, Vol. v, p. 345-347, I detailed a connected chain of historical evidence, supporting the conjectures, that Daniels periods of 1290, and 1335 days, expired A.D. 1360, and A.D. 1405, respectively; the identical years in which, Wickliff began to preach against the Papal Antichrist in ENGLAND; and Huss, in GERMANY.

1

In addition to the early testimonies there cited from Whiston, I am now happy to adduce another, still earlier; that of Walter Brute, an Englishman, and contemporary of Wickliff; who in 1390, wrote a treatise on the Revelation of Antichrist in Britain, in answer to the Bishop of Hereford; and seems from the extracts furnished by Fox, in his monuments for the year 1391, ununder Richard H. to have entertained surprizingly just and accurate notions of the principal points controverted between Papists and Protestants, in that age: The following extract is given by Fox, vol. 1. p. 441.

-

"Yet is she [the Church of Rome] ignorant, that within a little while, shall come the day of her destruction. by the testimony of the Apoc. xvii. Because, that from the time that the continual sacrifice was taken away, and the abomination of desolation placed," there be passed 1290 days; by the testimony of Daniel: And the Chronicles added do agree to the same." [viz. A.D. 70+ 1290=A.D. 1360.]

I was fortunately led to the discovery of this prime testimony of Walter Brute, crowning all the rest, by an incidental reference thereto, I lately noticed in Mede's works, p. 721, last edit. who slightly passes it over, with

this disparaging remark: "Sed epocham statuit in excidio Hierosolymitano, [A. D. 70.], ut ita exitum, suo et Wictiffi avo accommodaret."-Thus was this satisfactory and decisive testimony unwittingly rejected by that sagacious, but not unprejudiced interpreter; who, yielding too much to the authority of Josephus, misapplied the Roman "abomination of desolation, here spoken of by Daniel the prophet, "[Matt. 24. 15.] to the profanation of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes, B. C. 167; whence he idly imagined, that Daniel's 1290, and 1335 days, expired respectively, A.D. 1123, and A.D. 1168. See the error of Josephus and his followers, Mede, &c. fully refuted, in a subsequent communication, last February, vol. vi. p. 77. "This is the capital error of Mr. Mede's scheme."-Bp. Newton, Proph. iii. p. 397.

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To the apocalypse, we are indebted, as observed by others, for the true solution of Daniels period of "a time, times and half a time;" denoting three years and a half, forty-two months," or " 1260 days;" a period, as before shewn, including the persecutions and sufferings of the Church militant, under the Papal Mahometan, and Infidel Antichrist; commencing about A.D. 620, and expiring A.D. 1880. And by a recent discovery, no less fortunate, I have been enabled, I trust, to adduce from the apocalypse also, a powerful corroboration of the foregoing application of Daniel's remaining periods of 1290 and 1335 days, to the preaching of Wickliff and Huss, the illustrious harbingers of the REFORMATION. The fourteenth chapter of the Revelation, seems to have been principally designed, to support the 66 patience" and animate" the faith of the Saints" during the whole of that disastrous period of " tribulation," for 1260 days; the vision recording, 1. the final reward, of those who should be "purified by sufferings, and made white, and tried," (Dan. 12. 10.) in a most magnificent anticipation of the "new song" or spiritual worship of the chosen 144000, "redeemed from the earth," as "the first fruits to GoD and the LAMB," who are "virgins" or undefiled with spiritual whoredom and idolatry: with which the chapter begins, verse 1--5. Compare the corresponding larger account, Rev. vii. 1-17, with St. Paul's magnificent anticipation, Heb. xii. 22-24: founded on our LORD'S, John v. 24.

2. The vision, next represents three warning Angels in the course of that disastrous period, admonishing the

world,

1

world, against the reigning corruptions of idolatry, apostacy, and superstition, and foretelling the tremendous judgment denounced against such abominations. These Angels are evidently different from those who sang "the new song," or composed the celestial choir; (Rev. vii. 11.) and strikingly represent the peculiar characters and preaching of Wickliff, and Huss, and their successor, Luther, who compleated the auspicious work for which they paved the way.

The first Angel is thus described, verse 6-7.

"And

I saw another Angel flying in the mid-heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto the dwellers upon the earth; even every nation, and tribe, and tongue and people saying with a loud voice, fear ye God, and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment is come: And worship him who made the Heaven, and the earth and sea, and water-springs,"

This account admirably corresponds to the publicity of Wickliff's preachings and writings; who, in his vernacular translation of the Bible, first made, as it were, a republication of the primitive Gospel," to the dwellers upon the earth;" which hitherto had been sealed up, in the learned languages, from the vulgar; and prohibited to the Laity in general, by the wicked policy of the See of Rome; wishing to rivet the chains of her spiritual tyranny, upon the ignorance of her superstitious votaries; while he boldly inveighed upon all occasions, against the superstitious and idolatrous worship of the creatures instead of the Creator, patronized by the Church of Rome; and threatened all her followers with God's impending judgments; which are represented by a usual anticipation, as already come, See John xii. 31.

"And

The second Angel is thus described, verse 8. another Angel followed, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city! Because she made all nations drink of the poison* of the wine of her fornication." Compare the larger account, Rev. xviii. 1-3.

This also exactly corresponds to the preaching of Huss, the disciple of Wickliff, who "followed" him in the next century, forty-five years after: and who still more plainly and explicitly predicts the fall of that Antichristian power, the mystical "Babylon," or papal Rome,

Their wine is the poison of dragons." Deut. xxxii, 33. (9vp®, Sept. Vers.) compare Rev, xviii. 23.

so denominated, (and first, by St. Peter himself, a trulyremarkable circumstance, 1 Pet. v. 13.) from that primitive" Mother of Harlots," the original cradle of apostacy and idolatry, so early as the days of Nimrod, Gen. x. 9, 10; xi. 1, 9, the Angel adopting the warning voice of the watchman, in Isa. xxi. 9. Babylon is fullen, is fallen! and all the graven images of her Gods, he hath broken unto the ground." A prophecy afterwards fulfilled by Cyrus, Dan. v. 30, 31.

66.

The third Angel is also thus described, verse 9, 11."And a third Angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, if any one worship the wild beast and his image, and receive a mark upon his forehead, or upon his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, poured out, unmixed, into the cup of his indignation: and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone, in the presence of the holy Angels, and in the presence of the LAMB.

"And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever, and they have no respite, day nor night, who worship the wild beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name."-Compare the larger account, in the 17th and 18th chapters.

This third Angel critically represents Luther, who, following" his predecessors Wickliff and Huss, in the succeeding century, began his energetic preaching against the scandalous traffic of indulgences, sanctioned by Pope Leo X. in the year 1517, which is usually reckoned the era of the REFORMATION.

For though Wickliff and Huss, and their followers, had inveighed against the errors and corruptions of Po- · pery with great zeal and boldness, and confuted them with more ingenuity and learning than could have been expected in their comparatively illiterate ages; such premature efforts and partial lights were incapable of dispelling the thick darkness which then covered Christendom; and the traces of their doctrines, were confined in a great measure, to the countries in which they taught, and were neither extensive nor considerable. But in this riper age, many powerful causes concurred with the bold, undaunted, and persevering spirit of Luther, to facilitate his progress, and widely disseminate his doctrines, which either did not exist before, or did not combine their full force. Such were first, the notorious vices, the exorbitant power, privileges, and wealth of the clergy, now calling aloud for reform and retrench