opinion with Dr. Creffener and other writers, that in this calculation 18 years are to be deducted from the 12605, fince 1260 apocalyptic years, each confisting only of 360 days, amount to no more than 1242 folar or Julian years1o.

Some quotations fhall now be added, which may ferve to illuftrate the opinion, that St. John by no means meant to intimate, that the conclufion of the 1260 years would be the epoch of the complete overthrow of civil or of spiritual tyranny. During the 1260 years, says bp. Newton, the holy city, the true church of Chrift, was 'to be trodden under foot, which is the lowest state of subjection; the two witnesses were not only to prophefy, 'but to prophesy in fackcloth, that is in mourning and affliction; the woman, the church, was to abide in the wilderness, that is in a forlorn and defolate condition; and power was given to the Beast momσas1, not merely to continue, as it is translated, but to practise, and prosper, and to do according to his will18.-It doth not there'fore follow, that the Beaft is to continue, to exift, for

'been computed that 100,000 Roman subjects were extirpated in the Sa'maritan war, which converted the once-fruitful province into a defolate ' and smoaking wilderness. But, in the creed of Juftinian, the guilt of 'murder could not be applied to the flaughter of unbelievers; and he piously laboured to establish with fire and fword the unity of the Chrif⚫tian faith.' Decl. and Fall of the Rom. Emp. vol. VIII. p. 320, 323, 324. On Mr. Gibbon's inaccurate use of the word pious (as it is an inaccuracy of which he is fond) I might here expatiate, were this a work adapted for fuch a difcuffion.

16 See Creffener ut fupra, p. 238, 239; and Fleming's Difcourfe on the Rife and Fall of the Papacy, p. 24-26.

17 XIII. 5.

18 See the word explained in the fame way by Vitringa.

no longer a time".' Though the power of princes and of priests over the perfons and the consciences of men was to decline at the termination of the 1260 years, and was fpeedily to fall into a weak and fhattered ftate; it is not therefore to be concluded, that at this epoch their authority was all at once to be overthrown, and their oppreffions were to ceafe in all the streets of the fymbolic city. Nothing,' fays the bp. of Worcester, has ⚫ been more cenfured in protestant divines, than their temerity in fixing the fall of Antichrift; though there are certain data in the prophecies, from which very 'probable conclufions on that fubject may be drawn. Experience, it is faid, contradicts this calculation. But it is not confidered, that the fall of Antichrift is not a fingle event, to happen all once; but a fate of things, 'to continue through a long tract of time, and to be gradually accomplished.-Suppofe the ruin of the Wes'tern empire had been the subject of a prediction, and fome had collected beforehand from the terms of the 'prophecy, that it would happen at a particular time; 'when yet nothing more, in fact, came to pass, than the firft irruption of the barbarous nations; would it be certain that this collection was groundless and ill made, ⚫ because the empire fubfifted in a good degree of vigour ⚫ for fome centuries after? Might it not be faid, that the empire was falling from that æra, or perhaps before; ' though, in the event, it fell not, till its fovereignty was fhaken by the rude hands of Attila, or rather, till it was laid flat by the well-directed force of Theodoric 2° ?'

་

At

19 Vol. III. p. 214, 382. See fimilar obfervations in the Evid. of Nat. and Rev. Rel. by Dr. Clarke, p. 432.

10 Vol. II. p. 71. And though nothing more came to pafs in the year 1789 than the French Revolution; would it be certain that the fall of Antichrift might not be dated from that year, and that such an inference was

ground

At the close of the 1260 years, fays the author of an Effay on the Numbers of Daniel and John, the Beast was to meet with a visible check to his power". The Beaft will not be deftroyed, fays Durham, at the expiration of the 1260 years; but, to use this early commentator's own words, his power will be clipped, and his authority fhaken 22. The feventh trumpet, fays Mr. Whifton, which has the vials for its contents, is not to commence till after the 1260 years are expired; so that the 1260 years bring to a conclufion only the Prevailing Tyranny of the Beaft.-But the end or deftruction of the Beast himself' will not take place till the end of the fame trumpet, or the conclufion of the vials"." To the fame purpose speaks Dr. More. That the reign of the Beast does not end with the fixth trumpet' is, fays this learned writer, a thing I do eafily grant; but yet in the mean time, I contend that the fulfilling of his

42 months is at the exitus of the fixth trumpet, which respects the duration of the entireness thereof; which ⚫ entirenefs was broken at the rifing of the witnesses.Unless the affairs of Europe fhould break of a sudden, as, Olaus fays, the Frozen ocean does, and then imme

diately finks (which is a miracle above belief), I see no probability at all of any other sense of the stinting the reign of the Beast to 42 months than I have already ' declared 24.'

groundless and ill made, because the antichristian empire fubfifted in a good degree of vigour for fome years after? Might it not be faid, that the empire was falling from that æra, or perhaps before; though, in the event, it fell not, till its fovereignty was fhaken by

➖➖➖, or rather, till it was laid flat by

-

-? Here are chasms in the sentence, which our ignorance of futu rity renders necessary, and which must be filled up at a future time. 21 Burton's Eff. on the Numbers of Dan, and John, 1766, p. 263.

24 On the Apoc. p. 263; and Myft. of Iniq. p. 380,

Now fome probably may be of opinion, that the affairs of Europe have fuddenly broken, and taken a new direction; and that a mighty change will be effected in the circumftances of mankind by means of the revolution of France, by the fpread of its principles and the progress of its arms. They may also not unreasonably conclude, that, in this quarter of the world, the wheels of the existing fabrics of government, complex as they are in their original construction, injured by the ruft of age, often impeded by the collifion of jarring interefts, and every where clogged by the interference of fuperfluous weights, will in a fhort time be flopped by the obftructions which will be thrown in their way; and that thofe, who have. hitherto regulated their movements, will ceafe to direct them, or to put in motion thofe engines of oppreffion, in the management of which they now difcover fo much. expertnefs, as they will be driven from their pofts, covered with difgrace, and depressed by disappointment.' The People, they may expect, will hereafter be the great First Moving Caufe that fhall actuate the machine of government; and the agents, whom they fhall appoint, will determine on the specific mode on which it shall be conftructed, and adjust and fuperintend its feveral operations, however numerous or complicated.

The change in the political world, already accomplished in France, fome perhaps may conceive, is equal in point of greatnefs, in point of rapidity, in point of benefit, to the most striking change which the natural world can produce. With respect also to some of thofe lofty edifices of power, which are fcattered over the furface of the European continent, it will perhaps be thought, that the rapidity with which these unwieldy fabrics, though they have fubfifted during the revolution of centuries, and to the fuperficial obferver appeared poffeffed of ftrength which nothing could overpower or shatter, fhall fink and break in pieces, in con

fequence

sequence of that alteration of sentiment which fhall prevail, and that ardor of patriotifm which fhall be kindled, may not unaptly be compared to the fuddennefs, with which a vast sea of ice, that before exhibited a prospect the most dreary and comfortlefs, is fubdued by thaw, and all its different compartments, on the change of weather and the kindly approach of fummer, melt and disappear; notwithstanding that fea has been fo frozen by .a northern winter, as to have lafted a long fucceffion of weeks, and notwithstanding it appeared to the eye of the uninformed, too firm to be broken, and too hard to be diffolved.

I now proceed to take fome notice of the numbers which occur in the xiith ch, of Daniel; and as this concluding chapter of the Hebrew prophet is fhort and a very remarkable one, I fhall embrace this opportunity of quoting the greater part of it, and of introducing a few extracts in illuftration of it. The prophecies of Daniel,' fays Sir I. Newton, are all of them related to one another, as if they were but feveral parts of one general prophecy, given at feveral times 25. In agreement with this remark, it has been concluded, that his predictions in ch. xii. have a relation to what he has elsewhere foretold with refpect to the expiring of persecution, the destruction of the antichriftian monarchies, and the subsequent reign of genuine Chriftianity in the world.

In v. 4 it is faid, but thou, O Daniel, fhut up the words, and feal the book, even to the time of the end: many fhall run to and fro, and knowledge fhall be increased. • To shut up a book,' fays Mr. Lowth, and to feal it, is the fame with concealing the sense of it,'as hath been observed upon ch. viii. 25. And the same