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the consideration of it, as one who treadeth upon firm ground, under the conduct of a sure guide, who, with a few words of his mouth, hath already conducted us through several thousand years of future time.

Now as hath been remarked, the object of this vision of the four beasts, is not to reveal any thing concerning the four empires, which had been already revealed in the former vision, but to make known the rise and continuance of a certain power, which should make way amongst the kingdoms of the Roman empire, when that empire should fall asunder into ten several parts. This is signified by a little horn which came up amongst the others, but was not one of the ten. Of this little horn it is said that it arose amongst the other ten, of which three were plucked up before it by the roots, that it had eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. These are characters, which by themselves fix it down to be the PAPAL POWER, which arose at the time that the Roman empire split into ten kingdoms, and before which fell three of them, Rome, Ravenna, and Lombardy, whereof it got the possession, and ever after maintained the rule. The way in which it shot up with "eyes like man and a mouth speaking great things, declares exactly how it grew in the attributes of the seer, and of the prophet; through which, not through strength or power, it prevailed with Justinian, Charles Martel, and Pepin, and Charlemagne, to give it that temporal power which it exercised. These features in themselves would suffice to give a more exact determination to this, than to the other parts of the vision, concerning which there is no dispute. But Daniel was curious concerning this horn, and when an interpretation had been rendered to him of the whole vision, he desired to know more particularly concerning the little horn, whose look was more stout than his fellows; and received from the angel these further particulars concerning him-" He shall speak great words. against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand, until a time and times, and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the

people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." In these words of the angel, the little horn is not only determined to be the papacy, by his blasphemy against God, and persecution of God's people, and endeavour to arrogate to himself the disposal of divine providence and power; but which is of great importance, the period of his endurance is fixed for a "time and times, and the dividing of time." And it is further declared, that after that period, forthwith at the end of it, the judgment shall sit upon him until he be utterly consumed, and thereafter without an interval, the kingdom of the saints shall be set up. Our first care, therefore, must be to ascertain, how long a period is signified by "time and times, and the dividing of time;" when that period began, and when it ended: all of which can be fixed and determined with a precision which defies contradiction, I had almost said, defies doubt itself. These being ascertained, we shall know where we at present stand in the prophetic history. Our second object must be to observe from that time downwards, what judg ments have been inflicted on this blasphemous power, and what still remain to be inflicted before it be "consumed to the end." Whereby we shall know how the papal nations now stand in the dispensations of God. Which two points being settled, it will come as a matter of course, to know how far we are from the time when the saints shall possess the power, and become the fifth kingdom of the vision, which is as surely to come, as the other four have come, and passed away.

PART. II.

Which fixeth the beginning and the ending of the Papal period, of" time, times, and the dividing of time.'

THERE is no occupation of the human faculties so lofty in itself, or profitable to personal advancement, and the common weal, as to foretell future events, which is the chief end of all philosophy and science, the proper object of all discovery. Also the researches of the historian and

the antiquary, regarding the past, have their chief value, as they tend to direct the present, and to throw light upon the future. And even the common every-day travail of men in trade and handicrafts, in merchandise and adventure of every kind, is prompted and extended beyond the bounds of bodily necessities, chiefly, if not wholly, by the wish to forecast and secure the uncertain future from want and trouble, and bring it before their present thoughts in the light of enjoyment, and the assurance of great blessedness. So that to me this seemeth the great strain of man's thoughts and labours, under the sun,-to prophesy, in one form or another, the events which are to happen. It is not. to be wondered, therefore, seeing God hath given to his church numerous predictions, for the assurance of her faith, and the consolation of her trials; that her ministers, whose travail is in the word, should have great pleasure and delight in occupying this universal faculty and propensity of the human mind, by endeavouring what in them lies, to understand those times and seasons which it hath pleased the Lord to reveal:-a pious occupation, which the Lord himself hath, in a most remarkable way, stamped with his approval, by sending his angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel, while occupied with divination upon the prophecies, that he might reveal to him the exact term that had to run before the accomplishment of all his desires in the advent of Messiah the Prince.

Now, for as much as these periods of time are like the other revelations of God, given in the form of a mystery, to exercise the faith and patience, and other spiritual faculties, of those to whom they come, it is not to be wondered if many, relying upon their own sagacity, and driven on by the restless desire of foretelling, should fall into great mistakes, and trouble with disappointment, both themselves and those who lean to them. But the haste and rashness of men doth not render the truth of God's predictions false or uncertain; in which, doubtless, there is a system consistent with itself, which all moral events are obeying, even as there is a system in nature which all natural events are obeying; there being a mystery in the one sufficient to exercise all our spiritual faculties, as there is in the other a mystery sufficient to exercise all our natural faculties. And the mistakes which have been fallen into in the resolution

of the former, should no more discourage or shut up pious and faithful research, than those which for so long a time were fallen into, in the resolution of the latter, until the time that our great and pious philosopher demonstrated in his Principia the true principles thereof, which have since been applied by his successors to the explanation and anticipation of every change which takes place in the system of the heavens.

For, that God did intend certain times and seasons to be thought of and anticipated by his people, is most manifest by his having given, from the first constitution of the church down through all its trials, till the time of the perfection of its blessedness, not random dates which occur here and there in prophecy, with no fixed beginnings, or determinable endings, but a complete system of prophetic chronology, from the time of Abraham, when the warfare of the people began, to the time of the millennium, when it shall be accomplished. To Abraham first of all, when the promise was given unto him with sacrifice, it was revealed, not only that his children should possess the land in which he was a stranger, but the exact number of years was determined, during which they should be wanderers and captives, before being brought into their rest. "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation which they shall serve will I judge; and afterward shall they come out with great substance." When the church was settled in the land of promise, and the time drew nigh, that for its backslidings it was to be again brought into bondage, the Lord, by the mouth of his servant Jeremiah, foretold not only the doleful event, but also the term of its duration, in these words: "And this whole land shall be a desolation and astonishment: and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations." When this was well nigh accom plished, the Lord having seen his servant Daniel a faithful and inquisitive spirit, did reward his study of this very prophecy, with a revelation of Messiah's coming, wherein the

date was given, but in terms, which though more mysterious, are incomprehensible only to the indolent and the unbelieving, certainly well understood by the pious and studious among the Jews, who expected his coming, and among the heathen also, if we may judge from the strain of many of their writings. "Know, therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city, and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week and in the midst or the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." Which prophecy, as is well verified in the writings of Mede, Prideaux, More, and others, brings us by date down to the death of Messiah, and carries expectation onward to the overthrow of the Jewish state and city, by the armies of Rome. To this last event our Lord had a continual reference in his predictions, and though he saw it not good to lay down the date of it by exact years, he made it known, that it should happen within the lifetime of some of those who heard him. This generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled." "There be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." Thus have we the continuance of the captivity in Egypt, and of the captivity in Babylon, predicted by exact dates, and the deliverance from them, set down to a very year; and the duration of the legal bondage of Moses, also fixed to a week of years, and the deliverance from it into Christian liberty, fixed to the middle of a week, or to a very year; and the destruction of the state and city of Jerusalem foretold, as not to pass beyond the very lifetime of that generation, to which the prophecy was given, which was perhaps the most significant form of any.

Now, if it was so mercifully dealt by God unto his church

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