passing between him and the Pope of Rome, registered in his own code, which expressly constitute and claim for the see of Rome the title of Universal Head of all the Churches, Eastern as well as Westera. Mr. Faber, on the other hand, in fixing A. D. 606 for the commencement of the 1260 years, refers to the more famous grant of the infamous Phocas, actually and finally settling the aforesaid title upon the Pope of Rome, in contradistinction to the Patriarch of Constantinople, who, it seemed, still reserved a claim to it. "Much learned dust involves the combatants" in the support of each hypothesis, in their respective works, on which it is impossible we should enter.-2. Mr. Cuninghame, in calculating 1260 years downwards to 1792, proceeds ou the supposition of current time as usually adopted by the Jews. Mr. Faber prefers the complete mode of reckoning time, which would bring Mr. Cuninghame's period to its close in 1793. -3. Mr. Cuninghame, in making this period close in 1792, independently of any consideration arising from its commencement, is induced so to do by supposing it to close when the seventh trumpet sounds. This Mr. Faber himself makes to sound in 1792, but denies that its sound gives notice of the termination of the period. On the contrary, he combats the assertion of Mede to that effect, to which, in conjunction with Bishop Newton, Whiston, and Dr. More, Mr. Cu. ninghame confidently appeals, as authority for saying that the closing of the 1260 years and the sounding of the seventh trumpet are contemporaneous.-4. Mr. Cuninghame is further induced to make the 1260 years to terminate in 1792, because from that era he conceives the witnesses have ceased to prophesy clothed in sackcloth; and the woman, that is, the true church, has begun to emerge from the wilderness: both events taking place at the close of the 1260 years; and the

arrival of both, he conceives, being strongly indicated by the new toleration gained to the Protestants at the French Revolution; and by the novel exertions made in this new "era of light" for the dispersion of the Gospel through the world. Ou the other hand, Mr. Faber thinks these events by no means strong enough as yet to indicate the reiga of the saints, which was to succeed the close of the aforesaid prophetic period.-5. Mr. Cuninghame comes to the same conclusion, from finding that the Ancient of Days is to sit in judgment on the little horn," to consume it to the end," that is, totally, at the termination of the 1260 years. The judgment of Popery. in other words, the little horn," took place, he conceives, in the French Revolution; therefore then, namely, in 1792, he concludes the 1260 years came to their close. Mr. Faber,against this,contends strongly for the continued sitting of the judg ment on the little horn until the time of the end; and does not imagine that the judgment beginning` to sit affords any proof that the consummation, to which it is prepara tory, is therefore arrived.-6. Mr. Cuninghame further adduces, in support of his hypothesis, an inge nious criticism and comment on Luke xxi. 25, and the corresponding prophecies of our Lord, recorded by Matthew and Mark, which describe" the signs in the sun, moon, and stars, &c." as contemporary with the fulfilment of "the times of the Gentiles," or the close of the 1260 years.

The question, in explaining this difficult passage, had been the meaning of the expression" till all these things be fulfilled," of which the Greek word is yerra. This, with very great shew of reason and much ingenuity, is asserted to mean, be a course of fulfilment, or, begin to be fulfilled: and by this gloss the whole difficulty is removed, which arose from the declaration of our Lord, that "this generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled;"

and the words are made to signify no more than that this new dispensation is to commence, and all its various events and signs be put in a course of accomplishment, from this time forward, even to the actual fulfilment of times of the Gentiles*. The use Mr. Cuninghame makes of this comment, is to establish, with cumulative evidence, his position as to the completion of the 1260 years in 1792. These "signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, &c." Mr. Cuninghame sees evidently in the catastrophe of the French Revolution: they were immediately to precede, or rather to accompany, the fulfilment of the times of the Gentiles: therefore he makes no difficulty in inscribing the Q. E. D. on his proposition as to the termination of these last, that is to say, of the 1260 years, in 1792.

Having given, though most imperfectly we fear, an outline of Mr. Cuninghame's arguments on this 'new, and, if true, most important position, we feel we have done our duty. Our own opinion, we, as before, on principle withhold,-save only that we feel a strong disposition to quote from our own pages the candid avowal of Mr. Faber in discussing this very point, and to adopt his feeling on the occasion as our own. Having alluded to the present scattered state of the Jewish nation as incompatible with any present fulfilment of the times of the Gentiles, he proceeds," After all, so little do I wish to dogmatize, that if the Jews should begin to be restored in the course of a few years, and if their restoration should be consummated, and Antichrist be

* This valuable criticism, Mr. Cuninghame, with much ingenuousness, attributes in substance to " A plain honest Alan," whose communication on the subject will be found in our fifth volume, p. 145; whilst Mr. Faber, who has fully drawn it out in our tenth volume, p. 211, has, we think, on account of a minute variation in the mode of applying the criticism, spoken of its real author in a manner which is liable to objection.

overthrown in Palestine, in the year 1822, or 30 years after the year 1792, I will then acknowledge myself to be wholly mistaken; I will own that the 1260 days ought to be computed from the era of Justinian; that they expired in the midst of the French Revolution; and that Dan, xii. 6,7, does not imply that the Jews should begin to be restored precisely at the expiration of that period." Christian Observer, vol. vii. p. 283.We reserve any further observations on the subject to the close of this article.

It would occupy a time as long, we fear, as we have spent on the foregoing chapter, were we to attempt the most succinct account of the following one, chap. xv., in which Mr. Cuninghame endeavours to make good the same position by another argument derived from Dan. viii. The vision of the ram contained in that prophecy of Daniel, was to continue 2300 days; and this it is necessary should synchronize in its close with the 1260 years. Accordingly, Mr. Cuninghame dates the commencement of the vision of the ram in 508 A. C. and thereby brings its close exactly to the period required in 1792. It is needless to observe, what Mr. Cu ninghame himself acknowledges, and this must be more or less the principle of all prophetic commentators, that his conjectures are often collected a posteriori: that is, that, having assigned the date to which the close of the period in question ought to adapt itself, he then looks back into the page of history to discover, if possible, at the proper time some mark for its commencement. pears to have been the principle by which Mr. Cuninghame settles the commencement of the vision of the ram. And should our readers have any desire to enter further into the question, or to find a specimen of the most keen and animated controversy, but conducted in the most exemplary spirit, and with great strength and probability of reasoning on both sides, we must refer

Such ap

them once more with Mr. Cuninghame to our own pages, in "various papers on this subject by Mr. Fa. ber in the Christian Observer for 1808, 1809, 1810, and 1811; and also others, under the signature of Talib, in the Christian Observer for 1807, 1808, 1809, and 1811." Note, p. 287.·

5. We hasten to a fifth and the Jast novelty we shall notice of Mr. Cuninghame's; under which head we intend to range his three penultimate chapters, all of which may be considered as representing, according to his plan, synchronical events, and events immediately subsequent to his alleged termination of the 1260 years. In chap. xvi., which explains Rev. xiv., he is "reluctantly compelled to differ from most commentators," in refer ring that portion of the Apocalypse to the prosperous state of the Church subsequent to her depression and banishment into the wilderness, It will be recollected, in considering the six first seals, which were made by Mr. Cuninghame an epitome of the whole affairs of the Church from the beginning to the close of the period of prophecy, that the sixth seal itself was allotted to the closing period, and was attended with an earthquake, a subversion of the earth, and a jubilee in the Church, which Mr. Cuninghame considered as indicative of the last times. Now the period of this sixth seal he considers as again reverted to in Rev. xiv. And by an application of Mr. Frazer's rule for finding the connect ing loops of distantly placed, but consecutive or parallel, periods of prophecy, he finds in the jubilee recorded in the present chapter, the counterpart of that recorded under the sixth seal. He considers them, in fact, as identical: and the allusions of the sixth seal, being here again taken up, are, according to his view of things, carried forward through the whole of the chapter, in a continuous history of the Church, subsequent to the 1200 years, even to the end of time. Being for the CHRIST. OBSERY, No. 147.

most part future in his estimation, Mr. Cuninghame of course does not descend to many particulars in his explanation of this prophecy.

The angel flying through the midst of heaven with the everlasting Gospel," which has been by most commentators applied to the times of the Reformation, or to a period still earlier, he considers as more appropriately referable to the now existing and daily increasing extension of the Gospel. The two following angels, announcing the fall of Babylon and the torment of the worshippers of the beast; the accompanying words of consolation to the saints; the appearance of the Son of man; the harvest, which Mr. C. considers as the gatheringin of the elect; the vintage, which is the destruction of the ungodly ;all these he regards as yet thrown into the mists of futurity, and as only to be unfolded in their season, prior to, or contemporaneously with," the battle of that great day of God Almighty at Armageddon."

But synchronically with these events in the Church, taking place during the sixth seal,→i. e. as we have seen, the seventh trumpet,-are the events to take place in the Roman earth, or the world at large. These events are signalized and represented by the seven vials of wrath, which, at the blast of the seventh trumpet, seven angels proceed out of the temple (now opened for the first time) bearing in their hands to pour upon the earth. Our readers, we fear, will think there is something ominous in the word, as it respects Mr. Cuninghame's views of prophecy, when they are told that here again he synchronizes events; and actually considers the whole seven vials of wrath as synchronical plagues, poured out upon the earth by the seven angels at the same moment of time. He considers them as already in operation, having being poured out at the blast of the seventh rumpet in 1792; and his last chapter, “ on the effusion of the vials," is most in

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