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Now if we compare a and d together, they will be found to relate the same history; therefore the periods contained under I. and II. appear to be the same. Again compare b with f; they are the same history: therefore I and III. are the same periods. But I. which thus appears to be the same with III., has been seen also to be the same with II.; therefore all three periods are the same. Thus these three 'prophetic periods are of the same length or duration: they measure the same quantity of time. But another question will arise; whether they measure the same identical period: for, although allowed to measure the same quantity of time, they may possibly succeed each other; or if they be cotemporary in some parts, yet it may not appear that they quadrate and agree in all: their beginnings and their endings may not be at the same points. Now it will not be difficult to shew that all these periods, I. {%, 11.{2, III. II.

Sa

III. {

have some

common coincidence; they are all contained under the sixth Trumpet. a and d exhibit the same history, told by different prophets, viz. that of the antichris

tian oppressor expected to arise out of the Roman empire, after its division into ten kingdoms. bandf contain the same history, -the nourishment of the woman in the wilderness, which, for a particular reason, is repeated*. But the beast, represented in a and d, receives his power from the dragon †, who is certainly described as cotemporary with the woman; and makes war against her seed, the seed of the woman in the wilderness, the saints. Therefore a and d, and b and ƒ, contain histories, some parts of which at least are of the same period. Again; any one, who reads ch. xi. 2, 3, with attention, must perceive that c and are purposely brought together, in order to shew that they contain the same period, but e, in some of its parts, is certainly cotemporary with a and d; with the times of the beast. For the beast of a and d slays the witnesses of e. And thus all of them appear to cotemporize in some parts of their course. But, that they agree and coincide in all their points; that they synchronize, as Mede expresses it, in every part of their periods, so as to have the same beginning, middle, and end, will not be so easily admitted.

But, to render this examination less difficult, we may begin with reducing the six periods to four. For, (1.) a and d may safely be pronounced to be the selfsame period; viz. the time during which the antichristian oppressor is permitted to act against the saints. The history is the same, but given in different expression, yet amounting to the same duration, by two dif ferent prophets. (2.) b and ƒ evidently set forth the same history and time; viz. the nourishment of the * See note, ch. xii. 14. + Ch. xiii. 2, 5.

The forty-two months of Saint John are exactly equal to three years and an half, the time, and times, and half a time, of Daniel. See note, ch. xi, 2. xii. 14.

woman

woman in the wilderness.

We are therefore enabled to

reduce the six periods to four:-1. the period of the continuance of the beast; a and d:-2. that of the continuance of the woman in the wilderness; b and ƒ:-—3. that of the Gentiles continuing to tread the holy city; c:-4. that of the witnesses continuing to prophesy in sackcloth; e.

This is what Joseph Mede has intitled, nobilis iste quaternio vaticiniorum, æqualibus temporum intervallis insignium; whose periods he has endeavoured to exhibit as synchronizing in all their parts. His first attempt is to shew the synchronism of the time of the beast, (a, b,) with that of the woman in the wilderness, (b, f,) upon this ground, that their times begin together, and consequently must run together throughout. But the proof of their beginning together does not appear free from objection. They begin together, says he, from one and the same point of time; namely, when the dragon is overcome and cast down to the earth. Now, if this be the point of time, from which the sojournment of the woman in the wilderness is to be dated, yet it can scarcely be that of the commencement of the beast's reign. For there is an interval, full of action, between the fall of the dragon and the rise of the beast; namely, that in which the dragon pursues the woman, casting after her torrents of water: and it is not till after he has in vain tried this method of destroying her, that, enraged at his disappointment, he raises up the beast to war against the rest of her offspring t. That the beast and the woman are cotemporary in some parts of their periods, is very probable; and it is probable likewise, that their beginnings are not far distant

Clav. Apoc. p. 419.

+ See ch. xii. 13-17; and ch. xiii. 1. from

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from each other, so that from what has hitherto ap peared, they may be the same:-but this has not yet seemed to admit of complete demonstration.

The synchronism of the beast with the prophecy of the witnesses seems likewise defective in proof. These, says Mede, are both brought down to the same period of consummation, at the end of the sixth Trumpet. But, if the period of the witnesses be allowed to end with the sixth Trumpet, it is otherwise with the period of the beast, whose warfare against the Church is particularly described under the seventh Trumpet; when, together with the false prophet, he is taken and slain *. Besides, nothing is more manifest, than that the beast does not come to his end at the same time with the witnesses; for the witnesses are slain by him; and when they are slain, they finish their prophetical office; as is expressly declared in ch. xi. 7. Add to this, that the earthquake and fall of one tenth of the city, which concludes the prophecy of the witnesses, and also the sixth Trumpet †, cannot be the same with the great slaughter and total victory under the seventh Trumpet; when the beast is destroyed. The synchronism therefore is defective of proof §.

Ch. xix. 19.

+ Cho xi.

Ch. xix.

The

§ This attempt of the ingenious author of the Clavis Apocalyptica to synchronize these periods, seems to me conclusive in very few stages of it. He appears to approach near to the truth, in many instances; but the proofs are not positive and satisfactory. The prophecies do not seem to supply the means of that strict demonstration, which he has attempted: and, one proof failing (as we have seen in these first propositions), that which is built upon it must fail also. There is one passage in this able divine's commentary, from which it may be collected that he did not always conclude the termination of the beast's career to be exactly synchronal with the termination of the prophecy of the witnesses. He plainly asserts the one to belong to the sixth, the other to the seventh Trumpet. (See his Works, pages 490, 491.) And his

method

And

The four grand apocalyptic periods are involved very much together, and before the final completion of them all has taken place, it may not be in the power of man to settle the times when each of them had its commencement. But, for the reasons above assigned, I am inclined to conjecture that the period of the beast may be found to derive its beginning somewhat later than that of the woman in the wilderness; and to receive its termination somewhat later than that of the witnesses. His times seem rather later than either of theirs. it may perhaps be found, that those of the woman and of the witnesses are the same; with which the other remaining period, that of the Gentiles treading the holy city, seems also to accord. Commentators seem to have been too adventurous in fixing the exact commencement of these periods, which appear to be involved in a purposed obscurity, which the event only can clear. But it may be probable, that the 1260 years of the Gentiles; of the woman in the wilderness, and of the witnesses; will come to their conclusion, before the antichristian reign of the beast is seen finally to And this is all that I dare advance concerning prophecies which are yet fulfilling.

cease.

Verses 5, 6, 7. And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; &c.] It will be useful to observe, that in Daniel vii. 8. 20. 25, the fourth, or Roman beast, does not obtain "his mouth

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speaking great things," (they are the very same words used by both prophets,) nor open his mouth for blasphemy, until he has produced the little horn, that is, after he has produced the ten kings. So in the Apo

method of solving this difficulty, must be thought defective: for, surely, the end of the beast is his final confinement in the lake of fire, ch. xix, 20, and not his imagined expulsion from the city of Rome.

calypse,

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