MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,* as if it were in a peculiar sense the MASTERPIECE OF SATAN, the great enemy of man. It were easy to amplify these re

marks, but I must hasten to a close.

I observe then in the next place, that when, in answer to the Angelic question in Dan. xii. 6, the prophet hears it announced, that the end of the wonders was to continue for three times and a half, and a certain supplementary but indefinite season, allotted for the accomplishing to scatter the power of the holy people, he, as it were, in an agony of deep and intense anxiety, asks for further explanation of the end of these wonders; and, in answer to this question, he receives the two supplementary numbers of 1290 and 1335 days, the first of which was to commence from the setting up of the abomination which maketh desolate. Now, this abomination refers, as we have seen, in its highest sense, to the establishment of the Romish apostasy in the Christian church, in its threefold aspect of the worship of demons, and the erection of the Papal power, and delivery of the saints into its hands, which events are, by Mr Faber himself, made the specific marks of the commencement of the three times and a half. And seeing that the 1290 days are thus announced as an answer to Daniel's request for further information respecting the three times and a half, with regard to which he tells us that he heard it and understood not, we are compelled, by every principle of just interpretation, to suppose that the two numbers, and also the third

* Rev. xvii. 5.

one of 1335 days, are all mutually and closely connected, and, not as the learned writer supposes, that they relate to periods and events utterly dissimilar.

But Mr Faber affirms, that the words in Dan. xii. 12, Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days, are not capable of the interpretation generally adopted, as this interpretation does not harmonize with the natural import of Daniel's phraseology. The prophet, adds Mr Faber, does not say, Blessed is he that cometh TO THE END of the 1335 days; but he says, Blessed is he that cometh To the 1335 days; and hence Mr Faber infers, that not the end, but the beginning of the 1335 days is here marked as the period of blessedness; and, consequently, that the 1335 days begin when the 1260 days end.*

I shall reply to this argument, by calling the attention of the reader to the words of the Patriarch Jacob, when brought by his son Joseph into the presence of Pharaoh :-Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and HAVE NOT ATTAINED unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their pilgrimage. † Now, Now, I ask Mr Faber himself, what is here Jacob's meaning? Does he intend that he had not attained to the beginning of the days of the years of his father, or that he had not reached the full measure of the years of his fathers? The former, as Mr Faber knows, would be nonsense, and therefore the last must be his meaning. Now, the idiom of the two passages is very similar in Gen.

:

* Sacr. Cal. vol. I. p. 321, 2.

+ Gen. xlvii. 9.

xlvii. 9, the verb used is in the Hiphil form, and in Dan. xii. 12, it is at in the same Hiphil form; and these two verbs seem nearly synonymous, as the same English and same Greek verbs ‡ are used in different passages to express their meaning.

It is indeed possible to suppose an annunciation such as Mr Faber mentions, Blessed is he that cometh to THE THOUSAND Apocalyptic years of Christ's reign, which might relate to the beginning and not the end of the period mentioned; but, to be capable of such a meaning, the idiom of Dan. xii. 12. must have been different, as well as its relation to the context. Mr Faber's hypothetical annunciation of blessedness refers to THE thousand years of Christ's reign, evidently describing it by the definite article THE, as a period previously known; whereas, in Dan. xii. 12, though our translators have chosen to insert the article, it has no existence in the Hebrew: so that the phrase, if literally rendered, ought to be, Blessed is he that waiteth and reacheth unto days a thousand, three hundred, and thirty-five; and I believe this expression, particularly when compared with the context, to be entirely incapable of the meaning which Mr Faber attaches to it, and on which he builds so large a chronological superstructure.

* In Hiphil to reach unto, befal. Gesenius.

+ To touch, reach, befal. Gesenius.

The Greek verb axvoμa is used to translate both verbs, compare Gen. xlvii. 9, with xxvii. 12.

APPENDIX, No. I.

SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT

FOR THE

SECOND ADVENT OF MESSIAH

BEFORE THE MILLENNIUM.

In replying to the queries of D. D. in your Number for July, it will become necessary to embrace a wide field of Scriptural research.

I feel no hesitation in acknowledging that wherever a future advent or presence, Tagovσia, of our Lord is foretold in Scripture, we who believe in his personal advent and reign do understand one and the same advent to be uniformly intended; and that we ground this conclusion upon the careful comparison of Scripture with Scripture, according to the rule so clearly established and illustrated by Bishop Horsley, in his sermon upon the words of Peter, "No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation." *

Before entering into the consideration of the Scriptural evidence in support of the above conclusion, I shall place before the reader the following luminous passage from the works of Joseph Mede, wherein he lays down the great leading principle which is to conduct us through all our inquiries into the chronology of prophecy-wishing it to be clearly understood, at the same time, that I do not bring forward this passage as the foundation of my reasoning, but simply as illustrative of its principles. "For the true account of Times

* 2 Pet. i. 20, 21.

in Scripture we must have recourse to that SACRED KALENDAR and GREAT ALMANACK OF PROPHECY, the four kingdoms of Daniel, which are a prophetic chronology of times measured by the succession of four principal kingdoms, from the beginning of the captivity of Israel, until the mystery of God should be finished. A course of time during which the church and nation of the Jews, together with those whom, by reason of their unbelief in Christ, God should surrogate in their rooms, was to remain under the bondage of the Gentiles and oppression of Gentilism; but these kingdoms once finished, all the kingdoms of this world should become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ-and to this Great Kalendar of Times, together with that other but lesser Kalendar of Seventy weeks, (Dan. ix.) all mention of times in Scripture seem to have reference." *

The first text in the chronological prophecies wherein we find the second advent clearly predicted is Dan. vii. 13, 14. After beholding in the preceding context the judgment executed by the Ancient of Days on the body of the fourth beast, or the Roman empire, in its last state, the prophet adds, “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."

If it be asked, to what period in the general chronology of prophecy this vision belongs, the answer must be, that it clearly and indisputably is to be referred to that season when, the seventh Apocalyptic trumpet having sounded, great voices are heard in heaven, that "the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever."+ In other

* Mede's Apostasy of the Latter Times, chap. xii.

+ Rev. xi. 15.