ADVERTISEMENT.

THE causes which led to the following publication, and to some others referred to in it, have been, the many, various, contradictory, and fanciful, interpretations of prophecy put forth during the last twenty or thirty years, tending, as it has appeared to the author, to render the once more sure word of prophecy matter of aversion, rather than of respect; the evidence to the truth of Christianity, deducible therefrom, null and void; and the efficiency of Christianity itself, a thing of doubtful disputation. To these must be added, the purely assumptive manner in which this question has been treated, the Judaïzing doctrines inculcated, with the secular results urged: and to these again, the plausible system of prediction not less commanding and precise than that of Almanackmaking: all of which, so far as experiment has been made, has utterly failed! And here, again, the least evil has not been, the very shallow and inconclusive system of reasoningif such it may be called-set up and recommended: which cannot fail, if persevered in, to bring the Word of God into contempt, and hence necessarily to lead either to Romanism, or to pure infidelity. The times we live in, and the means we possess, call for, and should produce, better things. And such, the Author believes, a natural, easy, and judicious, exposition of Holy Scripture will abundantly give. How far he may have succeeded in eliciting these, it will be for the Reader to judge.

INTRODUCTION.

PART I.-On Prophetical Interpretation generally, and particularly on the system of it adopted in this work.

THE object of the following pages is, to determine by a system of inductive reasoning the Events and Times of the visions of the Prophet Daniel and St. John, assuming that what must be true of this portion of prophetical inquiry, cannot but be true of it all.

In a work published by me a short time ago,* this whole question was considered, as far at least as it then seemed to me necessary; but, as that work enters into much detail, of which readers in general feel no need, I have been advised to undertake and put forth the following outline, together with such further matter as has since occurred to me, which is neither a little nor unimportant. This work will therefore present to the Reader the determining particulars of the great events of Prophecy.

As to the system of interpretation adopted, it is that which,as it appears to me,—the nature of the case requires. It has been usual, as every one knows, to guess at the meaning of a prophetical declaration or symbol, from its apparent resemblance to some event, person, &c., as the case may be, and then to cast about for reasons in order to recommend it for adoption. For example :

We have in Daniel a Persecutor foretold under the symbol of a Little horn. This, every respectable Commentator has seen, must mean the heathen Roman Empire. But, as it has not been also seen, that all so foretold took place under that Empire, it has been imagined that PAPAL ROME must be meant, i. e. heathen Rome, drawn out as it were and continued in Papal Rome. The Persecutions carried on from time to time by that heathenish Church, have then been considered coincident events, too obvious to have been accidental: and thence it has been determined, without further inquiry, that the Pope of Rome-or, a series of Popes-must of neces

* Seeleys, London, 1849.

B

sity be the persecuting Little horn of Daniel and so positive have the propounders of this system been on the goodness of their conclusion, that they have not hesitated to lay it down as a maxim, that any inquiry, not taking this as a postulate, ought not to be noticed. Such a system must, as every one cannot but perceive, be of a character so pliant that any extraordinary man may, at any time, be converted into the Antichrist: and the fact is, no age of the Church has under this system been without one, and some have produced more than one. The same has been the case with innumerable other considerations connected with this question. Nothing has been determined beyond what the taste of one individual or other required; and the consequence has been, every candidate for fame in this way has been compelled to give way to some more fortunate one: which must of necessity continue so long, as nothing better than conjecture is had re

course to.

To this have been added, as subordinate means, certain propositions-termed by some eternal truths*-for the purpose of guiding the Interpreter in his otherwise perplexing course: but which, true as they may be in other respects,—are utterly inapplicable to this question. Surely it must strike every one, in the least degree conversant with questions of criticism, that, what has been assumed in so inconsiderate a manner, should first have been proved to be good and worthy of acceptation, as the practice has been in all similar inquiries.

To these, again, have been superadded some of the most puerile and frivolous expedients of Judaïsm: and the result has been, such a carrying out into futurity of the events of prophecy, as to render the Apostolic determinations of these useless; a partial revival of the old and superannuated covenant in a restoration of the Jews, a millennium, a premillennial and visible advent and reign of Christ, and a state of things on earth, at once incompatible with its character, and opposed to the united voice of prophecy as interpreted by

*Nothing can be more interesting than to see how exactly Lord Bacon has described the two methods of inquiry here had in view, which he terms those of anticipation and interpretation. "Each of these two ways," says he (Nov. Org. Aphor. 22. Ed. 1831), " begins from the senses and particulars, and ends in the greatest generalities. . . the one from the very outset lays down some abstract and useless generalities, the other gradually rises to those principles which are really the most common in nature."

the Apostles, and, in the same degree, to the positive requirements of the everlasting covenant in Christ Jesus.

But this is not all, nor indeed the worst part of this plausible and deceptive system. Its advocates can also, by the adoption of an apparently harmless part of the Jewish Cabbala,* tell, and foretell, the year, the month, the day, and even the hour, should it be called for,-when all this mighty revolution shall take place! Some few mistakes have indeed been made in this attempt, but then, these have only had the effect of stimulating the unsuccessful prophet to try his hand again; and here he has never failed to discover that he had made some slight mistake in his calculations; but, from the accuracy now so happily arrived at, nothing of that sort can possibly occur again. And thus the ball kept up, the false expectations so created, frustrated and renewed, infidelity supplied with one of the most effective weapons of its warfare, have deprived our holy faith of its best evidences and powers.

But What have I to propose in lieu of all this? My general answer is, that which the nature of the case obviously requires : i.e. to make the sacred writers as far as possible their own interpreters: e.g. Daniel's seventy weeks, certainly one of the most important portions of holy writ,-I take simply thus: After seven and sixty-two weeks,‡-of this seventy,—the Messiah was to be cut off, i. e. within the sixty-ninth week.

But I know when this event took place; and therefore I also know, when this sixty-ninth week should be in existence.

We are next told that, then should the People of the Prince who should come, destroy both the city and the sanctuary. I now know therefore, that, some time after the cutting off of the Messiah, Jerusalem should fall. But I know when this took place and, therefore, that it happened within Daniel's seventieth week, as I also do, that this event cannot take place again. We have now done with this sixty-ninth

week.

*This is a very ancient expedient, as the Reader may see by referring to Grabe's Irenæus on the number 666 of St. John (p. 449. Ed. 1702), or to Le Clerc's edition of the Apostolic Fathers, after Cotelerius, Tom. I. p. 45, seq., where he will find this cabbalistic folly carried out usque ad nauseam.

† As by Mr. Mede himself, and some of the most successful and popular of his followers.

Dan. ix. 24-27. But after, in such usage, means within; e. g. after three days I shall rise again, i. e. within three days: and, after eight days were accomplished, they came to circumcise the child; but this was within the eighth day.