haps among others, to prevent the curiosity of the enemies of revelation, from ascertaining precisely the times foretold in his word, before they come to pass.

However, if the Samaritan should prove the true account, and we make but reasonable allowances to reconcile apparent difficulties, the age of the world, at the birth of Christ, will be somewhat older than is generally allowed; and if we should reckon lunar years after the manner of the ancients, instead of solar years, it will add to the age of the world.

The following comes sufficiently near the different calculations, for our purpose:

Years.

The Samaritan copy, to the flood, gives to Abraham,

1307

1039

2346

The Hebrew copy makes the number of years, from the creation to the

1656

So that the world is, at least, 182 years older by the Samaritan, than the Hebrew copies, and in 1800 is 5986 years old: allowing it to be 4004 at the birth of Christ. There is besides, according to archbishop Usher, still a difficulty of ten years, that cannot be accounted for.

I do not mean to answer for these calculations, but state them on the credit of others, to show the probability that the world is something older than our common

reckoning; and that the sixth millenary may not be so far from its termination, as is generally imagined; and if so, by counting back 1260 years, it will show that our conjectures on the rise of the man of sin, are not without some good foundation. These are conclusions, from the prophetic declarations of the word of God, thrown out for the consideration of the more intelligent and accurate chronologer; but on which I would not lay great stress.*

* Before this work went to the press, a most excellent treatise on Prophesy, by the Rev. Mr. Faber, came to hand. The great superiority of this work, over any we have yet read, and the strong reasons assigned by him for a different commencement of the 1260 years, render the persisting in a contrary opinion (though with great hesitation) rather unjustifiable, without producing the reasons for it-1st. The time that the Church retained her purity free from spiritual idolatry, compared with the proportions of the temple which was to be measured by the angel, and compared with the 1260 years.-2d. The completion of the ten kingdoms into which the Roman empire was to be divided, in order to constitute the beast with seven heads and ten horns, which was about the year 500. "And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings, one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength to the beast."-" And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate (or rather forsake) the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God hath put it in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree and give their kingdoms unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled." So that the time when the ten kingdoms shall fall off from supporting the beast is about the end of the 1260 years.-3d. By the words of St. John, it appears that the beast of forty-two month's existence was to arise on the mortal wound being given to the imperial soverignty of Rome: This was done by the defeat of Augustulus and the em

† Revelations, 17th ch. 12, 13, 16, and 17th verses.

BUT IT IS TIME TO INQUIRE INTO THE IDEAS OF THE ANCIENTS, BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES, AS TO TRADITIONS ON THIS SUBJECT.

THE terms the great day of the Lord-the great day of judgment—the judgment of the great day, or the day of the great judgment, are all Jewish terms, and were very familiar to, and well understood by the inhabitants of Judea, before the coming of Christ. They were originally

pire passing to the Goths, being the time of the end of the Roman empire or government, or of him who letteth (or hindreth) being taken out of the way, and must be the beginning or rise of the Man of Sin, which is the beginning of the 1260 years-This is pointed out by St. Paul, as a certain mark of the coming of the Man of Sin-He solicits earnestly that the Thessalonians should not be troubled on this account, for he assures them, that it could not happen until a falling away of the Church should first come, for it was then only that the Man of Sin should be revealed, the son of perdition. He was not to be merely a temporal power, for he was to be one, "who should oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he, as God, should sit in the temple of God, showing himself, that he is God." And referring to more particular instructions, that he had before given them, in private, on this subject, he adds, "And now ye know what withholdeth, that he might be revealed in his time, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth (or hindereth the appearance of the Man of Sin) who was the emperor of Rome and Pontifex Maximus of that heathen Church, will (continue to) let, or hinder, until he (that is, the one who letteth or hindereth, the emperor of Rome) be taken out of the way. And then, (when he is taken out of the way) that wicked one shall be revealed, whom the Lord shall (at last) consume with the spirit

Rrr

taken from the 7th ch. of Daniel, where an account is given of the judgment of the fourth beast, when he was to be destroyed. The description of the process is taken from a session of the Sanhedrim or Consistory of the Jewish rulers, wherein the Pater Judicii and his assessores sat in a semi circular form on his right hand and on his left.

of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming."

4th. The time in which the Pope's ecclesiastical power over the Church of Christ was completed. About the year 500, Pope Anastasius excommunicated the emperor, as an adherent of Acasius. In his apology to the emperor he says, "that the successor of St. Peter is, at least, as great as an emperor. He compares the Episcopal, with the Imperial dignity, and concludes a bishop to be as much above an emperor as the heavenly things, which the bishop administers and dispenses, are above the trash of the earth, which alone the greatest among the emperors have a power to dispose of. He pretends, by the higher powers, is meant the Spiritual powers, and to them chiefly every soul ought to be subject." The year previous to this, (the year 500,) was the first time that the Pope claimed and insisted on an absolute independence of both Church and State. He was to be judged by none but God.f-5th. The prediction of Daniel, 8th ch. 7th and 14th v. of the 2300 years, beginning about 540 years before Christ, which ends in 1760.

There were many antichrists, for whatever opposed the coming or reign of Christ, is antichrist, but the antichrist, by way of emphasis, was that government foretold as arising from the bottomless pit, or abyss, about the finishing of the testimony of the witnesses.

Again, it is not the temporal power of the Pope, or his becoming universal bishop, that shows the commencement of the 1260 years; but the defection, or falling away of the Church of Christ to image worship, which is the worst kind of idolatry, and, with the worship of angels and saints, is called spiritual whoredom and idolatry.

* 2d Thess. 2d ch. 3-12 v.

† 2d Bowen's Hist. of the Popes. p. 268.

+ Ibid. p. 262.

"I beheld, says Daniel, till the thrones (or seats) were pitched (to wit, for the senators or assessores to sit upon) and the ancient of days (Pater consistorii) did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousands of thousands ministered unto him; and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened."

Most of the expressions in the New Testament relative to the day of judgment are also taken from the same source, hence they were well understood by the Jews and their proselytes to whom they were addressed by our Saviour and his apostles-But it must not be forgotten, that it was also pretty well known by the most intelligent Jews, that by the word day, applied to the last judgment, was generally meant one thousand years, as St. Peter himself explains it, when writing to the Gentiles on the subject of the day of judgment, "But beloved be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years; and a thousand years is as one day."* As if he had said, as I have mentioned the day of judgment, I would forewarn you that I do not mean a common day, but a thousand years, which it means in the language of the Holy Spirit.

Hence it will follow, that whenever the Scriptures speak of the kingdom of Christ, or of God, or of Heaven, or the time of refreshing and restitution of all things, to take place at the second coming of the Saviour in glory, or at the destruction of antichrist; it is the same

* 2d Epist. Peter, 3d ch. 8th v.