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general sink of all the abominations of paganism, was now restored, though under a different name, to its original destination. The mediatory demons of corrupted Christianity occupied the vacant places of the mediatory demons of the Gentiles; and, instead of Jupiter and his kindred deities, the virgin mother of Christ and all his martyred saints received the blind adoration of the revived ten horned beast. The holy city was now trodden under foot by a new race of Gentiles, differing from their pagan predecessors in name rather than in nature; and the witnesses began to prophecy in sackcloth during the long period of 1260 years, the same period in short as that during which the saints were given into the hand of the little

horn.

"Not but that the Apostacy, as I have already observed, had long since individually commenced. The forbidding to marry, the abstaining from meats, the excessive veneration of supposed mediatory saints and angels, began to creep into the church even in the fourth century: but no date can be affixed to individual criminality. In the strictly chronological prophecies of Daniel and St. John, periods of years are always computed from some specific and definite action either of a community or of the head of a community; not from the unauthorized deeds of individuals, the commission of the first of which deeds can only be known with absolute certainty by God himself. Hence we find, that in the unchronological prophecy of St. Paul,some of the leading features of the Apostacy are marked out in general terms, the prophecy itself affecting every individual to whom the description applies: while, in the chronological prophecies of Daniel and St. John, relative to the same Apostacy, since the divine wisdom thought proper to specify a certain term of years for the tyrannical reign of the man of sin, it was necessary to date those years not from general acts of individual criminality, but from some overt and conspicuous act of the head of a community, of the man of sin himself. This act is determined

to be the delivering of the saints of God into the hand of the little horn, the commencement of the treading of the holy city or the cnure under foot by the new Gentile members of the revived beast, and the beginning of the faithful witnesses to prophesy in sackcloth. Now it will be difficult to pitch upon any era for the date of this sufficiently conspicuous act, except the year 606: for in this and in the following year, the saints were formally given into the hand of the little horn; and the Apos/acy of individuals became the embodied and established Apostcy of a spiritual Catholic empire, over which the man of sin presided.

"When a spiritual universal tyrant then was set up in the church, and when idolatry was (immediately upon his being thus set up) openly authorized and established by him, the afflicted woman, the true church, seems to have fled into the wilderness from the pollution of the holy city, by the new gentilism of Popery, and the witnesses appear to have begun to prophesy in sackcloth. Not that an incessant persecution was to be carried on against them throughout the whole term of the 1260 years: but that they should continue so long to prophesy in sackcloth, or, in other words, to profess the fundamental truths of the gospel in a depressed and afflicted state. Accordingly, as Bishop Newton well observes, and afterwards satisfactorily proves, "there have constantly been such witnesses from the seventh century" (the century in which the Apostacy, considered as the open act of a community, under its proper head, commenced) "down to the Reformation, during the most flourishing period of Popery."

Thus it appears, that the tyrannical reign of the fourth beast's little horn, and consequently the prophetic period of 1260 days, are most probably to be dated from the year 606, and will therefore, upon such a supposition, terminate in the year 1866.

Let

us next turn towards the East, and see whether we cannot discover, in this same year 606, any marks of the rise of that transgression of desolation, which is

so closely connected with the little horn of the he-goat, and which is to continue during the same period of 1260 days.

"In the East, the year 606 beheld the crafty impostor Mohammed retire to the cave of Hera, to consult the spirit of fraud and enthusiasm, and to fabricate that false religion, which soon after darkened the whole oriental world. Having fully digested his plan in the solitude of the desert, he began at first only privately to preach his heterogeneous system of theology about the year 608 or 609. Mecca was the theatre of his first labours; and his earliest converts were his wife, his servant, his pupil, and his friend. At length, by the persuasion of Abubeker, ten of the most respectable citizens of Mecca were introduced to the private lessons of the Islam; the prophet persevered ten years in the now more public exercise of his mission; and the religion, which has since overspread so large a portion of the globe, advanced with a slow and painful progress within the walls of his native town."

Mr. Faber further remarks, after having said considerable respecting 2300 days mentioned by Daniel viii. 14, at the expiration of which time the sanctuary is to be cleansed, in the course of his observations, shewing that this 2300 days of Daniel will expire with John's 1260 days; that

"The sum of what has been said respecting the date of the 1260 years amounts then to this: Since the desolating transgression of Mohammedism is to flourish 1260 years, since the saints are to be delivered into the hand of the papal little horn for the space of 1260 years, since the Roman beast is to practise prosperously in his revived state during the same space of 42 prophetic months, and since the two horns and the beast are all to perish together at the time of the end, which commences at the termination of the 1260 years; it seems necessarily to follow that the date of those years can only be an era marked by the following triple coincidence: the rise of the desolating trans

F

gression of Mohammedism; the commencement of the papal little horn's spiritual universal empire; and the revival of the Roman beast by conferring upon his little horn that spiritual universal empire, or, in the language of prophesy, by giving the saints into his hand. If therefore we pitch upon any era not marked by this triple coincidence, we shall have reason to suspect that it cannot be the true date of the 1260 years; because, since the 1260 years of Mohammedism, the 1260 years of the papal horn, and the 1260 years of the revived Roman beast, all apparently terminate together at the time of the end, they must in that case all necessarily begin together.

"This however is not the only test which the prophet has given us to ascertain the true date of the 1260 years. He has checked (if I may use the expression) this period by another larger period, which comprehends it, and which terminates along with it. This larger period is stated by three different readings to be 2200, 2300, or 2400 years.

"Thus it appears, that, after we have discovered an era for the date of the 1260 years marked by the triple coincidence of the rise of Mohammedism, the giving up of the saints into the hand of the papal little horn, and the revival of the Roman beast by thus giving up the saints: we must next examine, whether a computation deduced from this era will make the larger period of 2200, 2300, or 2400 years, and the smaller period of 1260 years, rightly correspond together. This must be done by first computing forwards 1260 years from the date which we have pitched upon, and afterwards by computing backwards 2200, 2500, and 2400 years from the era to which the first computation brought us down: for, since this era is equally the supposed termination of both the periods, it is evident, that, if we compute backwards from it the number of years which compose the larger period, we shall arrive at the beginning of that period. Three different numbers of years however are assigned by three different readings to the larger period. If then the

second computation backwards from the era, to which the first computation forwards brought us down, bring us, through the medium of any one of the three numbers mentioned by the three different readings, to an era from which the vision of the ram and the he-goat may be reasonably dated, we shall have attained to a very high degree of probability, both that that reading is the true one, and that we have pitched upon the right date of the 1260 years, because the two periods, larger and smaller, are found upon trial exactly to check each other. But if, on the contrary, the second computation backwards from the era, to which the first computation forwards brought us down, does not bring us, through the medium of any one of the three numbers mentioned by the three different readings, to an era from which the vision of the ram and the he-goat may be reasonably dated; we may then be morally certain, that we have not pitched upon the right date of the 1260 years, because the two periods, larger and smaller, are not found upon trial to check each other.

"Now I am strongly inclined to believe, that the year of our Lord 606 is the only era which answers to both these tests. It was in this year that the Mohammedan abomination of desolation was set up; and it was in this year that the Roman beast revived by giving the saints into the hand of the little papal horn.Moreover, if we first compute forwards from this era 1260 years, we shall arrive at the year 1866, the supposed termination both of the larger and the smaller period; and, if we next compute backwards 2200 years from the year 1866, in order to arrive at the commencement of the larger period, the computation will bring us to the year A. C. 334, which is one of the most probable dates that could have been assigned even a priori to the larger period, for it was in this very year that the he-goat began to smite the ram as he was standing upon the bank of his river.

"The propriety of fixing upon the year 606 as the date of the 1260 years will be yet further manifest, if

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