The Argument of Mr Faber to prove that the Advent of Mes- siah predicted in the nineteenth chapter of Revelation and other parallel passages, is not Literal, but Figurative, exam- A CRITICAL EXAMINATION, &c. CHAP. I. THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF MR FABER'S CHRONOLOGY OF THE SEVEN PROPHETIC TIMES, OR TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS, MEASURING THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES, EXAMINED. ON opening the recent work of Mr Faber, entitled the Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, I find that the scheme of prophetic chronology which the learned author endeavours to establish, rests upon the following principles : 1st, That the three times and a half, or 1260 years, of Daniel and St John, being an imperfect and broken number, which confessedly begins to run long after the downfal of the three first empires, does not singly contain the great calendar of prophecy, because it does not singly comprehend those times of the Gentiles which are the times of all the four empires. * 2d, That the great calendar of prophecy is a pro * Sacr. Cal. vol. I. p. 61. B phetic chronology measured by the succession of Daniel's four kingdoms; or, in other words, by the allegorical life of the great image of Daniel. * 3d, That since the individual, Nebuchadnezzar himself, is declared to be the golden head, therefore the great almanack of prophecy commences at the birth of that prince. † 4th, That the three times and a half, or 1260 years, the latter portion of the sacred calendar, are evidently a broken or imperfect number, (the moiety as it may reasonably be presumed) of an unbroken or perfect number. "If then,” adds the learned author, "the three times and a half are to be considered, not as an insulated or independent number, but as the designed moiety of a larger number, which comprehends the perfect number of seven times, we are instantaneously and almost irresistibly led to conclude, that seven times is the measure of the great almanack of prophecy."-And these seven times, being interpreted on the same principle as is universally admitted respecting the 1260 years, are made by Mr Faber to constitute the period of 2520 years, which he considers as the true measure of the duration of the whole prophetic period called the times of the Gentiles. + On the foundation of these principles Mr Faber proceeds to build the whole superstructure of his prophetic chronology respecting the seven times; although, in applying certain other prophetic num * Sacr. Cal. vol. I. p. 62. † Ibid. p. 63. ‡ Ibid. vol. I. p. 41, 62—64. ; vol. II. p. 39. bers, for example, the 2300 days of the vision of the ram and he-goat, and the 1335 days of Daniel xii. and also in expounding the vision of the four beasts in Dan. vii., he introduces deviations and anomalies of no small moment, which have the effect, on the one hand, of carrying back the sacred calendar to the remote period of the year A. C. 2325, and on the other, of carrying it downwards to the year of our Lord 3200. Thus, although at first sight it might appear that the learned writer limits the sacred calendar of prophecy to the period of seven prophetic times, or 2520 years, yet it is discovered, that in reality he covers in the interpretation of the prophecies of Daniel and St John the space of 5525 years, or fifteen complete prophetic times, and one hundred and twenty-five days: and further, that from his supposed commencement of the earliest in date of the revealed prophetic numbers, viz. the 2300 days, in the year A. C. 784, to the year P. C. 3200, he covers with the revealed chronology of the different sacred numbers a period of 3984 years, or eleven prophetic times and twenty-four days. * It is not my intention to controvert the first or the second of Mr Faber's principles,―That the 1260 years do not contain the complete calendar of prophecy; i. e. that they do not measure the chronology of the whole four empires, but only of a part of the last of them, is a prophetic truism. And that the great calendar of prophecy comprehends within its limits * See Table of Chronology at the end of Mr Faber's book, vol. III. p. 487. the times of the whole of Daniel's four kingdoms, has been acknowledged by every interpreter of note since the days of Mede. On the other hand, I deem the third principle of Mr Faber that the great calendar of prophecy commences at the birth of Nebuchadnezzar, to be altogether erroneous, and opposed to the whole analogy of prophecy. It is indeed undeniable that Daniel informs Nebuchadnezzar that he is the head of gold of the image; but then it is sufficiently evident that he is the head simply as wielding in his own person all the energy and power of the first empire. In other words, the first kingdom is, as it were, personified in the reigning monarch. To suppose that the head of the image denotes the individual Nebuchadnezzar, and that as soon as he was born, the head was formed, is in flat contradiction to the words of the prophet:-" Thou, O king, art a king of kings: FOR THE GOD OF HEAVEN HATH GIVEN THEE A KINGDOM, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven, hath he given into thine hand, and made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold." Now, if language have any certain meaning, it is evident from these words, that Nebuchadnezzar was the head simply as being in possession of the kingdom. Thou, O king, not thou the individual Nebuchadnezzar, art this head of gold. There is not only no intimation that his headship is to be dated earlier, but the very expressions of the prophet contradict such an idea. The God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom. Thou art this head of gold. |