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blindness is to cease, when the fulness of these times of the Gentiles shall have arrived. The Jews are still scattered and still unconverted: therefore we have not as yet witnessed the expiration of the 1260 years and the completion of the times of the Gentiles, which are universally acknowledged to be synchronical-The 1260 years expire at the effusion of the seventh vial, as may be proved in the abstract almost to demonstration. The seventh vial is not yet poured out: therefore the 1260 years have not yet expired.

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Still it may be asked: has not the dashing to pieces of the ten toes commenced? has not the judgment begun to sit upon the ten-horned beast? how then can it be that the 1260 years have not expired?

2. I answer, that the ten toes have not yet begun to be dashed to pieces in the manner foretold by Daniel; neither has the final judgment begun to sit upon the ten-horned beast: therefore the 1260 years have not yet expired. Under the imagery used by the prophet, a complete sweeping away of the various bestial governments of the broken Roman empire is evidently predicted; and the kingdom of the mountain, or the saints, is represented as being set up in their room. Nothing

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of the kind has hitherto happened., Old dynasties have been removed, and new ones have occupied their places but not one government, that was heretofore popish, has at present ceased to be so; not one nation is converted to Protestantism; that country, which took the lead in these great changes, has outwardly set up again the form of Popery; and infidelity, not genuine religion, prevails over the greater part of the continent. A mere exchange of one outwardly popish dynasty for another, and the uniting of all the popish sovereignties into a formidable confederacy under one avowed head, surely bear no resemblance to the predicted complete dissipation of the ten toes and the utter destruction of the great ten-horned Roman beast.

What then are we to understand by the strange revolutions, which have been taking place in the course of the last nineteen years?

3. It is predicted, that precisely such revolutions should take place before the expiration of the 1260 years, and should usher in the figurative session of judgment and the coming of the Ancient of days in the great day of the Lord-We are told, that, although the judgment is to sit for the final destruction of the Roman beast at the close of the

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1260 years; yet they are to take away the dominion of his little horn by consuming and destroying it unto the end, consequently they must begin to take it away before the end-In a similar manner we are told by St. John, that the ten horns should hate the whore, and make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh, previous to her being finally burnt with fire at the close of the 1260 years. Accordingly we find, that, although the years have not yet expired, the kings have begun (in the prophetic language) to hate the whore, that is to say, no longer to venerate her with the same blind devotion that they formerly did; and have in a remarkable manner devoured her flesh, or deprived her of her secular authority and temporal possessions-We are further told by St. John, that, long before the effusion of the seventh vial and the commencement of the vintage which may be proved to synchronize with the expiration of the 1260 years, a tenth part of the Roman city shall be overthrown by a violent earthquake or great political revolution; a new woe shall begin to afflict the inhabitants of the earth or the papal empire, some remarkable harvest of God's wrath shall be gathered in, a noisome sore shall fall upon the adherents of the beast, the sea and the rivers shall

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shall be changed into blood, the sun shall scorch men with fire, the throne of the beast shall be shaken and his kingdom filled with darkness, the mystic river Euphrates shall be dried up, and a

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great confederacy shall be formed of the beast and his vassal kings. When all these revolutions, thus figuratively predicted, shall have taken place; then, and not till then, the seventh vial is poured out, the vintage commences, and the 1260 years, expire-Nor are Daniel and St. John the only prophets, who lead us to expect great revolutions before the termination of this period. Isaiah teaches us, that some eminent pruning of the degenerate Church may be looked for before the final expedition of Antichrist into Palestine and the restoration of the Jews at the close of the 1260 years -Zephaniah assures us, that the mystic Nineveh will not be finally destroyed until enough has previously been done to rouse her to a sense of her condition; until the nations of her communion have been cut off, until their towers have been, made desolate, until their streets have been laid waste, and until their cities have been destroyed t

Isaiah xviii. See Prophecy VI.

+ Zephan, iij. 6, 7, 8. See Prophecy XXXVI.

-Joel

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Joel informs us, that the figurative locusts of Antichrist will occasion very remarkable revolutions in the political heavens before that subsequent revolution in the heavens, by which their own destruction in the great day of the Lord, or at the end of the 1260 years, is symbolized *—And our Saviour, if it be allowable (as some commentators maintain) to apply a part of his prophecy to: the last ages, teaches us, that there will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, before the coming of the Son of man; signs, that will usher in that figurative coming in judgment, which (supposing the prophecy to be capable of such an application) must be the same as the coming of the Ancient of days in the prophet Daniel at the close of the three times and a half to judge the ten-horned beast t.

Thus I think it manifest, that the revolutions, which have been effecting in the course of the last nineteen years, instead of proving that the 1260 › years have expired, rather prove the contrary. Nevertheless, I have little doubt, that this wonderful shaking of nations is the harbinger of their

* Joel ii. 10. iii. 15. See Prophecy XXXI.

*

Matt. xxiv. 29, 30-Mark xiii. 24, 25, 26-Luke xxi. 25, 26, 27.

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