fcore days, clothed in fackcloth. In defcribing the tenhorned Beaft, he fays (xiii. 5), that power was given unto him to continue 42 months. In the 14th v. of the xiith ch. the true church of Chrift is represented in a forlorn and perfecuted state, under the emblem of a woman flying into the wilderness, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time; and in v. 6 is faid to continue there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

• Now all these numbers,' fays bp. Newton, you will find upon computation to be the fame, and each of them to fignify 1260 years. For-a time, all agree, fignifies a year2,--and a time, and times, and the dividing of time, or half a time, are 3 years and a half, and 3 years and a half are 42 months, and 42 months are 1260 days, and 1260 days in the prophetic ftyle are 1260 years. From all these dates and characters it may fairly be concluded, that the time of the church's great affliction, and of the reign of Antichrift, will be a → period of 1260 years3.'

That these are definite numbers, fays Mede, is unqueftionable. The fcriptures,' he obferves, use no num'bers indefinitely but fuch as the use of speech in the language of the people had made fuch.' And compound numbers are never taken indefinitely, either in 'Latin, Greek, or Hebrew: compound numbers, I ' mean those which are compounded of units, tens and hundreds, &c. those which are of heterogeneal parts; 'fuch as 42, the number of months in the apocalypfe ;

By a time, it is agreed by interpreters, is meant a year, by way of ex'cellence, as a period the most distinguished.' Wintle on Dan. vii. 25. Thus when Daniel fays of Nebuchadnezzar (iv. 16), let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beaft's heart be given unto him: and let feven times pafs over him; the feven times fignify seven years.

3 Vol. I. p. 488; vol. III. p. 380.

• 1260,

* 1260, the number of days; three times and a half, 'which is a mumber of a fraction".' Among the other circumftances, fays this diftinguished commentator, which render it evident, that days are to be taken for years, and months for months of years, is this: the events defcribed by the prophet are far too numerous, too important, and require far too long a period, to suffer us to suppose, that they can be accomplished within the narrow limits of three fingle years and a half. To prove that the substitution of a day for a year was confonant to the language of the ancient Hebrew prophets, a paffage from Ezekiel may be appealed to, where he fays, thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: and I have appointed thee each day for a year. In that other famous prophecy of Daniel, that of the 70 weeks or 490 days, they are, fays the learned Dr. Creffener', taken for fo many years by almoft the ' unanimous confent of all interpreters.' • Since we 'can,' fays the excellent Mr. Whifton, in this prophecy of the Seventy Weeks pofitively appeal to the event on our fide, and allege the exact fulfilling of the 'ancient prophecies in this fenfe of days for years;'there can remain no reasonable doubt in the cafe'.'

With respect to the time, when the 1260 years.commenced, and confequently when they fhall terminate, I venture to advance nothing of my own, nor place my confidence in the calculations of others.

4 P. 741.

5 P. 742, 743. See another reafon in p. 131.

?Dem. of the Prot. Appl. of the Apoc. 170.

But as fome

6 IV. 6.

P. 17. The way of counting by weeks of years feems,' fays bp. Chandler, (Def. of Chr. p. 112), 'to have been used by the ancients. Varro, at the time of writing his book infcribed Hebdomades, faith, he

was entered in the 12th week of (his) years, i. e. his 78th year. Aul. 'Gell. No&t. Att. iii. 104

of

of my readers will be likely to enquire, whether no dates, apparently in unifon with fact and probability, have been affigned for the commencement and for the conclufion of the 1260 years; and as I am unwilling altogether to disappoint them, and to leave those who have not before made any enquiries on the fubject totally uninformed upon it, I fhall ftate the two æras, which have been specified by Mr. Bicheno, the writer of a fenfible pamphlet before referred to; and fhall allege fome of the reasons which may be advanced in favour of them.

*

6

To prepare the reader for what follows, a fhort quotation from Mr. Whifton fhall, however, be previously given. At the expiration of the 1260 years there is to 'be a Great Earthquake (Apoc. xi. 13); the ro dexalor of the City is to fall; in that Earthquake 7000 names of 'men are to be flain :-and foon after the feventh, angel is to found the great trumpet, for the restoration of the Jews, and for pouring out of the feven vials or laft 'plagues upon the Beaft's kingdom, in order to its utter ' ruin and deftruction for ever'.' In agreement with this statement, Mr. Bicheno supposes, that the conclufion of the 1260 years and the symbolic earthquake in the Tenth Part of the city are contemporaneous; and confequently, fince the fymbolic earthquake, or French revolution, predicted by St. John in ch. xi. did actually take place in the year 1789, that the 1260 years terminated at that memorable epoch. It cannot be denied, that it is a circumftance in favour of this method of calculating them, that the period specified corresponds with the idea, which learned men had previously formed of the 1260 years. Many have fuppofed, that this is the period during which antichriftian tyranny over the perfons and the confciences of men was deftined efpecially to prevail, and to

9 P. 271.

remain almoft unchecked. It was not immediately upon the expiration of these years, that its overthrow was to be accomplished. But as it was exerted to a confiderable extent, antecedently to the commencement of that period, fo likewise for fome time subsequent to it, this antichriftian fyftem of oppreffion was to fubfift, but without its wonted firmness, its pristine stability, and that fervility of acquiefcence, with which its measures had been heretofore submitted to throughout the countries of Europe. At the conclufion of this period it was to receive fome mighty shock. And do not the events of the French revolution, and the effects it has already produced, admirably correfpond with thefe pre-conceived notions? Have not the interefts of the papacy and of ecclefiaftical tyranny, as well as of civil defpotifm, in confequence of that revolution, received fuch a fatal wound as will never be healed?

But if the year 1789, the era of the French revolution, be thought to be an epoch fingularly fuitable for the conclufion of the 1260 years: the next enquiry is, whether on the year, and about the time, when that period commenced, means were adopted to promote, confirm, and extend the tyranny of princes and of priefts over the faith and confciences of men. I now tranfcribe a part of what Mr. Bicheno has urged to prove, that in the year 529 this did actually happen; and the reader with a glance of his eye will perceive, that there elapfed from the year 529 to 1789 exactly 1260 years. In the year 589, the Juftinian Code was first published 10, by * which those powers, privileges, and immunities were 'fecured to the clergy; that union perfected between

10 The following are the words of cardinal Baronius, in his account of the year 529, hoc eodem anno idem Juftinianus Imperator, quem dederat collienaum emendandumque codicem fuo nomine Justinianeum appellatum, abfolutum confirmavit, vulgavitque.

things civil and ecclefiaftical, and those laws impofed on the church, which have proved so injurious to Chrif'tianity, and fo calamitous to mankind. And which

code, through the zeal of the clergy, has been received, 'more or lefs, as the foundation of the jurifprudence of 'almost every state in Chriftendom; and that not only in things civil, but ecclefiaftical.' It was alfo in the year 529, that a new order of monks, which in a manner * abforbed all the others established in the Weft, was in⚫stituted by Benedict of Nurfia.This and other monaf*tic orders (finks of ignorance, indolence, and vice!), I 'were the fountains, from whence iffued all forts of 'abominations, and the rivers which carried fuperftition,

oppreffion, and violence to all parts of the earth".' Of the corrupt opinions and antichriftian practices, which prevailed at this period, ample memorials may be found in Mofheim; who obferves with refpect to the Benedic tines, that they laboured moft ardently to fwell the arrogance, by enlarging the power and authority, of the Roman pontiff1.' How highly favourable the founding of the Benedictine order was to the aggrandisement of the priesthood and pontificate, fome idea may be formed from an observation of the lofty language and the exulting tone, with which Baronius has fpoken of it in his account of the

6

year 529. On the code of Juftinian, and on the conduct of the emperor who promulgated it, I fhall not harrafs the attention of the reader by the multiplication of extracts. One paffage, however, and that a fufficiently long one, fhall on this fubject be cited from a writer of the last century, who was accurately acquainted with ec

18 Eccl. Hift. vol. I. p. 448. It was also in the year 529, that the prelates who met in the fecond council of Vafio endeavoured to augment the authority of the Holy See, commanding that the name of the Roman Pontiff should be recited in their respective churches.

clefiaftical