far from their border.

Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the Lord hath spoken it. Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: Sanctify* war, wake up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears : let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye na、 tions, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe come, get you down, for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of concision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know, that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion my holy mountain then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more."

Such are the four most remarkable prophecies, which treat of the events that are to take place at the close of the 1260 years. Those of Daniel and St. John are strictly chronological ones, and are therefore in some measure their own interpreters: and, as for those of Zechariah and Joel, although they be not marked by the chronolog

dispersion of the Jews extends nearly to the whole world: and so widely, in old times, gid the worship of the Ionab also extend. I have already considered the subject in Dissertation on the Mysteries of the Cabiri.

So the word is properly rendered in the margin of our translation of the Bible.

+ Joel ii. iii.

To discuss all the prophecies relative to those events would occupy too large a portion of a Work like the present, which professes to treat peculiarly of the events comprehended within the 1260 years. The restoration of Israel and the overthrow of Antichrist, which are here very briefly noticed, are considered at large in my unpub lished Work, which is professedly dedicated to that purpoșe.

ical numbers and the long-continued and connected series of events which form so striking a feature of the other predictions, yet they contain within them facts which are amply sufficient to shew at what era they will be accomplished. They both foretell the restoration of the Jews consequently all the matters, of which they speak as connected with that restoration, must be the same matters as those of which Daniel speaks as being similarly connected with it. Hence it will follow, that the destruction of the nations in the vicinity of Jerusalem, predicted by Zechariah as contemporary with the restoration of the Jews, must be the same as the overthrow of the infidel king in Palestine, predicted by Daniel as likewise contemporary with the restoration of the Jews. Hence

also it will follow, that the fierce people symbolized by a flight of locusts, so accurately described at the beginning of the prediction of Joel, as spreading desolation wherever they come, as wonderfully succeeding in all their enterprizes, as running to and fro in the great city, as scaling the walls of fenced cities with open violence, as entering insidiously in at the windows like a thiet, as causing tremendous revolutions in the political heavens; that this fierce people can be no other than the people of Daniel's infidel king, who are to commence their reign of havock and plunder under the third woe-trumpet, during the comparatively short time which the devil hath before the termination of the 1260 years, before the commencement of the restoration of the Jews. It will likewise follow, that the invasion of Palestine by the northern army, or the army of Antichrist entering it by way of the north, is the same as the similar expedition of the infidel king and that the destruction of this northern army with its face to the eastern sea, and its hinder part toward the utmost sea, is the same event as the destruction of the infidel king, after he has planted the curtains of his pavilions between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; for

Since the first edition of this work was published, I have read Chandler's Paraphrase of Joel, and am more convinced than ever I was, that this locust-army cannot mean a flight of mere literal locusts as he supposes, but must denote, like the parailel prophecy in Rev. ix. a flight of symbolical locusts; which symbolical focusts the whole context of the prediction teaches us must mean the desolating armies of Antichrist. This point is fully discussed in my unpublished Work on the Restoration of Isra·!.

in both cases, the scene is equally laid in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem between the eastern or dead sea, and the western or mediterranean sea. It will lastly follow, that the great battle of the nations, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, is the same as the great battle of the beast, the false prophet, and the kings, at Armageddon; and as the conclusion of the time of unexampled trouble, during which Daniel, like Joel, predicts that the restoration of the Jews will take place.

It appears then from these concurring prophecies, that the final war of the beast and the false prophet against the Gospel, though probably first raging with great violence in Europe, during the earthquake by which the Latin city is divided into three parts, and by which the islands and mountains or smaller states of the empire are swallowed up in some grand scheme of iniquitous partition or, in the language of Joel, during the time that wonders are shewn in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke: the final war will manifestly be decided in Pulestine between the two seas.*

The corresponding and joint declaration of Daniel, Zechariah, and Joel, relative to the country which is ultimately to be the seat of this last war, is confirmed in a very remarkable manner by St. John. In his brief ac

count of the vintage, under which Popery and Infidelity are for ever destroyed, he informs us, that the wine-press, meaning the wine-press of Armageddon, should be trodden without the city, and that blood should come out of it, even to the horses' bridles, by the space of 1600 furlongs. Both these descriptive marks perfectly correspond with the land of Palestine; the land, in which by the unanimous testimony of the prophets the last great controversy of the Lord will be carried on. In one sense, that country is within the great city; and, in another sense, without it. It is within it, if the whole Koman empire be considered, as including both its proper seat in the West, and its Eastern conquests from the third or Macedonian beast.

* "I have an unfashionable partiality," says Bp. Horsley, "for the opinions of antiquity. I think there is ground in the prophecies for the notion of the early fathers, that Palestine is the stage, on which Antichrist, in the height of his impiety, will perish." Letter on the 18th chap. of Isaiah.

But it is without it, if the revived or Latin empire be considered, because that empire was confined exclusively to the West. Hence we find it said, in perfect harmony with this supposition, that our Lord was crucified in the great city; because he suffered during the existence of the ancient Roman empire, which comprehended the sovereignty both of the East and of the West. And hence we moreover find it said, that the wine-press of Armageddon should be trodden without the city; because at the time when this event is to happen, the East should not form a part of the sovereignty of the revived or Latin empire and history accordingly testifies, that it never did form any part of it.† This land, without the city, where the figurative wine-press is to be trodden, is described by St. John as extending 1600 furlongs: and all the other prophets declare, that the land in question is Palestine: hence we are naturally led to expect, that Palestine should extend 1600 furlongs. Now it is highly worthy of observation, that the length of that region between the two seas which is destined to witness the fall of Antichrist and his congregated host, if a line be drawn along the sea-shore from its southern to its northern frontier, amounts exactly to 1600 Jewish Risin or Stadia.‡

Not merely the land however is pointed out, where this great battle is to be fought, but even the very place in that land. Zechariah, as we have seen, fixes in general terms the scene of action in Palestine and in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem: Joel likewise fixes the scene of

Rev. xi. 8.

The temporary prevalence of the Latins in the East, during the time of the crusades, forms a solitary exception to this general rule.

+ See D'Anville's Map of Palestine with scales of measures. This coincidence between the length of Palestine and the 1600 stadia was noticed by Jerome; and it probably was one reason why the fathers rightly believed, that Antichrist should perish in that country. Mr. Mede mentions the circumstance: but, from an idea that the city means the literal city of Rome instead of the Roman empire, he supposes, contrary to the express declarations of all the prophecies which treat of the subject, that the last great war will be decided without the walls of Rome and in the territories of the Pope; and thence observes, that the measure of Peter's patrimony, from the walls of Rome to the last mouth of the Po, is 1600 furlongs. (Comment. Apoc. in Vindemiam.) Upon this it will be sufficient to observe, that the whole length of the papal dominions is considerably more than 1600 furlongs: and, even if the coincidence had been exact, nothing would have been proved thereby, because the prophets unanimously direct our attention to quite another country, namely Palestine, which is found to be precisely 1600 furlongs in length. See Pol. Synop. in loc.

shall

action in Palestine, declaring that the northern army be destroyed between the two seas: Daniel no less explicitly affirms, that the infidel king, after having planted the curtains of his pavilions between the seus in the glorious holy mountain, shall come to his end, none being able to help him and St. John asserts, that the winepress shall be trodden in a land which extends 1600 furlongs-In addition to this general statement of the country, where these events are to happen, Joel further informs us, that the battle of the nations shall not only be fought between the two seas but in the valley of Jehoshaphat; and St. John predicts very definitely, that this same battle shall not only be fought in a land which extends 1600 furlongs, but in a certain place of that land called Armageddon-The valley of Jehoshaphat therefore and Armageddon are one and the same region-Now the word Jehoshaphat signifies the judgment of the Lord: and the valley of the battle is indifferently styled by Joel the valley of Jehoshaphat or the judgment of the Lord, and the valley of concision or destruction. It is plain therefore, that this is not the proper, but only a descriptive, name of the place; that is, of some place or other between the two seas-Here then St. John steps forward, and furnishes us with the literal proper name of the region, which is thus to be made the scene of the just judgment of the Lord. Armageddon signifies the destruction of Megiddo and Megiddo is a town situate between the two seas, in the half-tribe of Manasseth, at a small distance from the shores of the Mediterranean. In the valley of this place, Josiah lost his life in his fatal encounter with Pharaoh king of

* That Jeboshaphat is only a descriptive name of the place, is evident from the context:-" the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I (Jehovah) sit to judge the nations round about."

Arma-Mageddon, the

† Armageddon is the abbreviated compound of 17 devoting to utter destruction at Megiddo. "Hic itaque crasis est, ut in nomine 28 pro MATTEN &C." (See Pol. Synop. in loc.) I prefer this derivation of the word to that proposed by Calmet. He conceives it to be compounded of Ar and Megiddon, and thence to signify the mountain of Megiddo. Such a supposition however by no means tallies either with the ordinary language of Scripture employed in speaking of Megiddo, or with the parallel prophecy in the book of Joel. The valley of Megiddo is twice spoken of: (2 Chron. xxxv. 22. Zechar. xii. 11.) the mountain of Megiddo never: and, agreeably to this phraseology, the future stage of the great battle of Armageddon is termed by Joel the valley, not the mountain, of Jehoshaphat. Hence 1 think it scarcely probable, that Armageddon should signify the mountain of Megidde