required. Nothing in all history is more certain than that for a long period, certainly exceeding 1000 years, the saints of God were subjected to the most cruel persecutions, in whatever part of Europe they could be found. Under a variety of names—and bearing in every age the stigma of "heresy,"-they suffered, century after century, every kind of torment and misery, which the malice of "the old serpent" could devise. And throughout the whole long series of centuries, their great visible persecutor was one and the same, the Papacy,-the little horn, the "woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." All this is open to any schoolboy, in any middle-age history he chooses to take up. The fulfilment of several predictions (Dan. vii. 21, xi. 33; Rev. xi. 3, xii. 17, xiii. 15, xviii. 24,) is plain and clear to the most ordinary understanding, as any fact can be. That the whole period of this war against the saints,this wearing them out,--was answerable to the prediction of 1260 years, is also very clear;—but when called upon to name the day or the year of its commencement, or of its close, we decline to dogmatize in matters of detail; denying, however, that a degree of uncertainty as to this point, ought to weigh for one moment, with a candid enquirer, against the plain and palpable fact, of a period of persecution having existed, answering, in all its main outlines, to the terms of the prediction.

Mr. Burgh himself, in maintaining that "all the chronological prophecies in the Bible which have undoubtedly been fulfilled, have been fulfilled literally,"-names among the rest "the 400 years sojourning of the Israelites, Gen. xv. 13." Now this very instance, had he given to it due consideration, might have shown him how hazardous would be the attempt to dogmatize prematurely on unfulfilled prophecy.

The Lord appeared to Abraham, and forewarned him, saying, "Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not their's, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years." A hasty interpreter of this passage would have required for its fulfilment that the bondage of the children of Israel in Egypt should have endured just the predicted 400 years. But we learn from Exodus xii. 40, and Gal. iii. 17, that the whole term is reckoned from Abraham's covenant, to the Exodus, and that it extends to four hundred and thirty years. And the chronology of that period and of that transaction, informs us, that Abraham's call was in B.c. 1921, and the Exodus of the Israelites in B.C. 1491, exactly 430 years after, but that the going down of Jacob and his family into Egypt did not take place until B.c. 1706; which makes their stay only 215 years. Hence, had even Moses

himself, unaided by Divine inspiration, endeavoured to expound this prediction to his brethren, before its full and final accomplishment, he must in all probability have fallen into error.

We attempt not, therefore, to give with positiveness and due attention to the minor details, any scheme of our own for the interpretation of the 1260 years. We prefer the course usually taken by the chronologists, even in dealing with prophecies which have unquestionably been fulfilled. Concerning such, they say"B.C. 606"-" from this year, the principal computation of the seventy years' captivity begins." "B.C. 598"-"this is another epoch of the seventy years' captivity."

In like manner we maintain, that the division of the Western empire into ten kingdoms, and the giving of the saints, for many hundred years, into the power of the Papal little horn, are facts which stand out so prominently in the page of history, that any man who cannot see them there, gives clear evidence of a mind pre-occupied by some favorite theory. But, as in the case of the 70 years, and also of the 490 years, we can discern several remarkable events in history, either of which might furnish a yery rational starting-point.

From what has been termed "the first manifestation of the Papal pretensions," by Stephen, bishop of Rome, in A.D. 256, to the era of the Reformation, A.D. 1517, is just 1260 years. From the first Ecumenical Council, at Nice, A.D. 325, to the last, at Trent, A.D. 1563, very nearly covers a period of 1260 years; and it is certainly a remarkable circumstance, that, as there is not a single synod, before A.D. 325, which lays the least claim to the title of a General Council,-so, after A.D. 1563, all idea of ever calling another seems to have been abandoned. The period of open, avowed, legal persecution of Scriptural Christians as such, very nearly runs parallel with that of the councils. Priscillian was put to death in A.D. 384; and it was not until the appearance of the edict of Nantes, in A.D. 1598, that a legal and national toleration of the truth was known within the precincts of the old Roman empire.

These various circumstances seem to indicate that the saints escaped from their position of actual thraldom to the Little Horn, at the period of the Reformation. Some arguments, however, may be adduced in favour of a later date. The full manifestation of the Man of Sin,-the fall of three of the horns before the Little Horn, cannot be placed earlier than the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries. Then, looking forward,-it must be admitted that the French Revolution, which made that realm one vast charnel-house, answers very closely to the description of some of

the judgments which are to be looked for at the close of the 1260 years ;-to which must be added, that it occurred exactly 1260 years after the edict of Justinian, which subjected the whole visible Church to the Pope.

We desire not, then, to decide peremptorily between these various hypotheses; but we deny that our hesitation is any proof,as Mr. Burgh would regard it,-of the groundlessness of the whole interpretation. We have already shewn that a similar kind and degree of doubt rests upon even unquestionably-fulfilled prophecies, such as those of the 70 years. Yet no one would think of arguing, with respect to the latter cases, that if we could not speak with entire decision as to the year, we must relinquish all idea of a fulfilment at all. The fact that "Messiah was cut off, but not for himself," remains beyond dispute; and equally certain is it, that his appearance in about five centuries was revealed to Daniel more than five centuries before. Had a greater degree of certainty, as to the date of events, been vouchsafed, what would have been the state of the Jewish nation in the days of Augustus and Tiberius ?-or what would shortly be the state of the Christian world, in the year preceding the final fall of great Babylon? To such reasoners as Messrs. Burgh and Maitland our Lord's language strictly applies-"Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of;" "it is not for you to know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power."

It is unnecessary for us to proceed further with Mr. Burgh. As we have already said, his whole "system" depends on the question of the year-day interpretation. If the reasons we have assigned, for considering that it is impossible to understand the words, "day," "month," and "year," in the symbolical pro"in phecies, literally, be valid, then is Mr. Burgh's Exposition utterly valueless, and without sense or meaning. We trust that this may be the case; for we admit a strong aversion,-irrespective of the argument,-towards all theories which tend to deprive Scripture of a practical drift and meaning, and to cast it into the obscure of some far-distant and dubious fulfilment. Great, indeed, is the injury of this kind which Mr. Burgh would inflict on the Apocalypse. We meet, at its very outset, with the direct assurance, that it was given "to show unto Christ's servants things which must shortly come to pass." After two chapters of introductory instruction, we come to a series of symbolical and predictive histories, in which we naturally seek for these events thus represented as near at hand. And the actual history appears the very counterpart of the prediction. First, the conquering rider on the white horse: answering to which we find the golden and victorious

period of the empire, extending from the apostles' time down to A.D. 180. Then the red horse of intestine warfare; fulfilling which we have a period of constant conspiracy, bloodshed, and civil war; a constant change of emperors in the years between A.D. 180-378. Next, the black horse of foreign invasion and famine; to answer which, we find the calamitous period of Valens and his successors, from A.D. 378 to 410. Fourthly, the pale horse, with death and hell; prefiguring Attila," the destroyer," A.D. 410-456. Then, the heathen persecutions having come to a close, the waiting souls of the martyrs cry out for their expected retribution. They are told that another race of martyrs is yet to arise, until the completion of which they are to rest in patience. The empire, the whole fabric of old Rome's mighty dominion, is then dissolved; and the first portion of the prophecy closes.

Another series of seven events follows, in which "the third part of men" is concerned. This seems to apply to Asia, one of the three great divisions of the former empire. Rome, the first third part, had already received her sentence. Africa, another third part, had no independent existence. But the Eastern empire yet remained, a broad and tangible mark for the arrows of prophecy. Accordingly, we have first the judgment of hail and fire: fulfilled by the Huns, A.D. 539. Then the burning mountain cast into the sea; fulfilled by the Avars, A.D. 594. Then the star Wormwood, and the obscuration of the heavenly bodies, A.D. 585606. After which we have the Saracenic and the Turkish powers, according to the unanimous sense of every eminent interpreter of prophecy during the last two hundred years.

Not, however, to proceed further, we are enabled thus to find, in the Apocalypse, without difficulty, those things which the apostle was told, "should shortly come to pass." Instead of which, what does Mr. Burgh, with his love of "the literal sense," offer us?

A blank. That is, as a prophecy,-which is set forth, at its very commencement, as the purport of the book,-he reduces it to an entire blank. The very first event, out of a long chain, is not only, according to his view, still in the far distant future, but it is so distant that no living creature can have the least hope of beholding it. Then what is the main body of the prophecy? Nothing, to ourselves and our children, but a blank!

We deprecate this, not merely as a novelty, quite unsupported by valid argument, but as plainly opposed to the mind of the Spirit, as distinctly declared to us at the opening of the Revelation. The revelation, the revealing, or making known. While, according to Mr. Burgh's view, the book does not, in fact, reveal or make known, to us, anything whatever!

801

SHORT NOTICES.

AN HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE BOOK OF PSALMS. By the late JOHN MASON GOOD, M.D., F.R.S. London: W. H. Dalton. 1842.

THE author of this work is well known to the Church by several writings of a similar kind, especially by his versions of the Book of Job and of Canticles; and his reputation for critical skill as a Hebrew scholar is of no mean order. The present volume is an attempt to ascertain, from internal evidence, the historical occasion on which each of the Psalms was written, and thus to throw a reflected light on their meaning. The subject is plainly one of considerable interest. At the same time, the materials for a certain decision are in many cases so imperfect as to detract greatly from the practical worth of the enquiry. It would be wrong to undervalue any labours connected with the elucidation of the sacred text; but still, when the field of accessible and certain truth is so wide and endless, conjectural inquiries of this kind must always be of quite a secondary importance. There is even danger of being led astray by some uncertain hypothesis, from the proper meaning of the inspired writer, and of that Holy Spirit by whose inspiration every part of the Scripture was given. No one can be more remote than the excellent author of this work, from any intentional disparagement of the prophetic and spiritual meaning of the Psalms; and yet, we think that from viewing them so much in the uncertain glass of historical conjectures, he sometimes departs from a correct interpretation. For instance, Mr. Good supposes the second Psalm to have been written after the conflict, 2 Samuel v. 22-25, and to relate to the establishment of David's kingdom at that time; while its reference to the Messiah is called its secondary and esoteric meaning. But a careful student of Scripture can scarcely fail to discover, first, that it was written after the promise, 2 Sam. vii. 12-17, and in express allusion to the terms in which that message was conveyed; and next, that its proper and exclusive reference is not to David himself, but to the son of David who was "all his salvation and all his desire." In fact, the closing verses of the Psalm seem quite conclusive against any proper application to David himself; "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry :-Blessed are all they that trust in him." Surely these words would be false and even blasphemous, if the Psalmist were describing himself under that honourable title of the Son of God. A similar error, in our judgment, appears in the exposition of Psalm xvi., which, if the