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testimony in a most remarkable manner, each proving and corroborating the statement of the others. All agree in predicting a season of unprecedented trouble, during which, according to two of them, the redemption of Israel shall be accomplished; and to the third, Babylon, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth,” shall be destroyed; whose destruction, according to the typical analogy of the literal Babylon, and to the general tenor of prophecy, is to precede and subserve the deliverance of the Jews. While the commencement of this season of trouble will take place according to one of these witnesses, during a period subsequent to that in which Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles, i. e. not till after the 1260 years shall be expired.* According to another, when by the exhausted state of the Euphrates, and the agency of the three unclean

* Compare Luke, xxi. 24, 25., with Rev. xi. 2.

spirits, the way of the kings of the east, and the gathering of the kings of the (papal) earth to the battle of Armageddon, shall be prepared. According to the third, when "the predicted King" having come to his helpless end, Michael the prince shall be standing up for the Jewish people. osemutvá

What, then, is the conclusion which these testimonies warrant us to draw? According to Christ, the 1260 years are expired; and, consequently, the period, during which "the distress of nations. with perplexity" was to occur, is arrived. According to St. John, the vial of preparation is pouring out; and, therefore, "the great earthquake" may be antici-. pated as fast approaching. According to Daniel," the King" having come to his end, Michael has stood up; and, consequently," the time of trouble, such as never was," is at hand.

This is the second result following from the interpretation established.

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CHAP. XV.

OBJECTIONS TO THE FOREGOING RESULTS CONSIDERED.

Ir may possibly be objected to the statements in the preceding chapters, that they "assume a too direct and immediate application of prophecy; and intimate that we possess a clearer insight into those predictions of Scriptures, which are fulfilling in our own days, than from the experience of past ages we can reasonably claim to ourselves; and in fact that they partake of the error into which modern interpreters are so apt to fall, of applying the declarations of prophecy to the passing events of the times in which they themselves are living." This objection consists of two parts.

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With respect to the first part it may be remarked, that if we are living in the very times in which it has been one object of this discussion to prove that we are sliving, then we may reasonably be supposed to possess a clearer insight into the predictions of Scripture than past agess enjoyed because it is expressly foretokl that such would be one of the prominent and distinguishing features of those times.miDaniel, as we have already seen, was assured by the angel, that

the words were to be shut, cand the book to be sealed to the time of the end;" an assurance which intimated that when that period should arrive, the seal should be taken off, and the book opened. The vail of prophecy should be withdrawn; and a far clearer insight vouchsafed into the mysterious but predicted counsels of the Almighty, than had been previously granted to the church.asw quib90

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Strikingly coincident with this intimation is that conveyed by another and

almost a parallel passage in the tenth chapter of the Revelation of St. John; who, when he was about to write what the voices of the seven thunders had

uttered, heard a voice from heaven, saying unto him, Seal up those things which the seven thunders have suttered, and write them not. And the angel, whom he saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and ssware by Him that liveth

for ever ander, that there should be

time no longer" i. e. that no further delay should take place, that no longer space should intervene; " but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as He hath declared to his servants the prophets." Now the sounding of the seventh angel, izes the seventh trumpet, or the third woe-trumpet, was to commence when the 1260 years were expired, and comprehends the period of judgment, which, as