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generally been selected, not from their own com manding and paramount importance, but from their supposed connection, or apparent agreement with some other favourite hypothesis. The grant of Phocas, for instance, would never, it is probable, have been brought forward for this purpose, had it not been found that, by synchronising with the rise of the Mahometan horn, it gave countenance to the double interpretation of an eastern and a western contemporaneous antichrist. In like manner, the dating of this period from the middle of the eighth century, when the temporal power of the Papacy became more directly established, was the more readily adopted, from the circumstance of its favouring a pre-conceived notion, that the period itself would terminate about the year 2000 after Christ. It is not intended by these remarks, to cast any censure on the persons who may have respectively maintained these opinions; but merely to confirm and illustrate the present argument. They proceeded in their exposition of the prophecy on a principle, on which it was not designed that the prophecy should be interpreted. It was not till the expiration of the period should have arrived, that its commencement was to be known. This is the only principle on which, in the opinion of the writer, the true interpretation will be found; and with which the general

examples furnished by the Scriptures in similar cases, most obviously accord. No one could have conjectured the time, from which the 430 years of Israel's sojourning in a strange land was to be dated, till, at length, their Exodus out of Egypt determined the question: nor did Daniel understand that the predicted term of Judah's captivity in Babylon was completed, till the seventy years, foretold by the Prophet Jeremiah, were actually accomplished.

CHAP. VI.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINued.

It is on the principle, stated in the close of the preceding chapter, that the writer forms his con'clusion respecting the period of the 1260 years. He believes that the time of its duration is past; and, from thence, he ventures to deduce that of its commencement.

The time in which he apprehends this predicted period to have expired, was the year 1792. In the month of August, in that eventful year, the seventh trumpet, at the beginning of the French revolution, most awefully sounded. It is not possible that any image could have been selected, which would have afforded a more striking and accurate illustration of the effects produced by that tremendous explosion than the one here used. It was in the midst of profound peace, and universal tranquillity; when not a breath disturbed the political atmosphere of Europe, and scarcely a cloud was seen to rest on its horizon; that, on a sudden, the terrible blast of this appalling trumpet was heard throughout the Papal Empire, awakening and

alarming the nations. Nor did it give an uncertain sound. It was a trumpet of woe; breath

ing out devastation and war; and, through its baneful influence, for more than twenty years, deluging the kingdoms of the beast with desolation and blood.

But not to anticipate events, to which there will be occasion hereafter more fully to revert, the first object must be to trace out from this (assumed) termination of the period, the point of its commencement. From reasons already stated, it is plain, that in pursuing this investigation, it must not be expected to arrive at any event, which, from its paramount importance, might have originally attracted notice, as being evidently the point in question. The existence of such an event, while it would have defeated the object of the prophecy, by leading to a premature disclosure of the date of its commencement, is not in itself necessary for elucidating and confirming its accomplishment. All which is required is, that the event, at which, on carrying back our research, we may arrive, shall prove to be one of such a description and character as will warrant us, without putting on it any forced or unnatural construction, in ascribing to it the act of having delivered the Saints into the hand of the little horn. An event of this kind will be amply sufficient for the

purpose of fixing the commencement of this period. And it is at precisely such an event, that, on following up this enquiry in the way proposed, we do arrive. For, if beginning at the year 1792, we ascend in a numerical progress for 1260 years, we shall find our reckoning to terminate in the year 533 - the very year in which the Emperor Justinian published a remarkable edict, in which he not only denounced anathemas against certain heretical teachers and their followers, but promulgated a statement also of his own faith, as a rule for that of his subjects; while, at the same time, he accompanied the publication of this edict with an epistle to the Pope, and another to the Patriarch of Constantinople; in both of which he recog-. nizes the arrogant pretensions of the former, aș the successor of St. Peter, and acknowledges him as the Supreme Head of all the Churches. These documents, together with an answer from the Pope, in which he gives the sanction of his authority, as the recognised Head of the Church, to the religious edict of the Emperor, were all enrolled at full length, by Justinian himself, in the volume of the civil law; and thus obtained the stamp of public and legislative authority, as the laws of the Empire. By this act, then, of the supreme secular power, acknowledging the spiritual supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, re

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