will be used by him in all other parallel or kindred passages: unless, as in the case of the apocalyptic 1000 years, congruity itself requires a departure from the established rule'. Hence, if any one of the numerical prophecies of Daniel and St. John has already been accomplished; such an accomplishment will serve as a clue for ascertaining the proper method of computing the numbers mentioned in their other numerical prophecies.

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Now we find, that Daniel's famous prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, whatever particular difficulties there may be in the explanation of it, has been proved, by the event of our Lord's advent, to speak, not of weeks of literal days, but of weeks of mystical days; that is to say, of weeks of years, either (as some maintain) natural, or (as others imagine) artificial and we likewise find, that the

1 If the apocalyptic 1000 years be estimated as a 1000 prophetic years, they will amount to the enormous sum of 360,000 solar years. In fact, the circumstance of their coincidence with the first 1000 days of Daniel's 1335 days does itself fully demonstrate how they ought to be reckoned.

2 See my Dissert. on Daniel's Seventy Weeks, chap. v. Some have objected, that no proof can be legitimately drawn from the case of Daniel's Seventy Weeks: because, from the etymology of the Hebrew word rendered weeks, it imports, in reality, nothing more than septenaries, however those septenaries may be chronologically constituted.

But this objection is well answered by Mede, who remarks: that The question lies not in the etymology, but in the use; wherein y always signifies sevens of days, and never sevens of years. Wheresoever it is ABSOLUTELY put, it means of

apocalyptic ten days persecution of the Church of Smyrna has been similarly proved, by the event, to mean, not a persecution of ten literal days, but a persecution of ten mystical days; that is to say, the persecution of ten years which is recorded by Eusebius and Lactantius and Orosius 1.

Such being the case, if the 70 weeks of Daniel and the 10 days of St. John are respectively 490 years and 10 years; we are bound, by analogical homogeneity, to conclude, both that the latter 1260 days and that the various other numbers of these two prophets are to be computed in the same manner, each day being uniformly estimated as a

year.

days it is no where thus used of years. Mede's Works, book iii. chap. 9. p. 599. Compare Gen. xxix. 27, 28. Levit. xii. 5. Numb. xxviii. 26. Deut. xvi. 9, 10, 16. 2 Chron. viii. 13. Jer. v. 24.

Such, therefore, being the case, inasmuch as the word is put ABSOLUTELY in the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, the Seventy Weeks of Daniel are assuredly 490 days; just as much, as if he had expressed the term by 490 days, and not by 70 weeks. But the event has shewn, that these 490 days are 490 mystical days or 490 natural years. Consequently, it having been thus established that such a mode of computation is used by Daniel in one instance, homogeneity requires, that he should equally be understood to use it in all other parallel instances. Whence it will follow, since the three times and a half of Daniel are undoubtedly identical with the three times and a half of St. John, that St. John also, in the several cases of his numbers, uses the same mode of computation.

Rev. ii. 10. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. viii. c. 15, 16. Lactant. de mort. persec. c. 48. Oros. lib. vii. c. 25.

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2. In this mode of reckoning we are supported

by the express verbal warrant of Scripture itself.

When we assert that a prophetic day is a literal year, we assert not, for the mere purpose of serving a turn, any strange and unheard of matter: we simply adopt a method of computation, which has been formally recognised both by Moses and by Ezekiel1.

3. That the latter 1260 days must be equivalent to 1260 years, either natural or artificial, is further evident from the very nature of the circumstances which are said to take place in the course of their evolution.

During the lapse of this famous period, the little horn of Daniel's fourth wild-beast acquires and exercises an unlimited dominion of some kind or other within the precincts of the Western Roman Empire after it has been partitioned by the ten Gothic nations; wears out the saints of the Most High by incessant persecution; and changes times and laws, according to its own arbitrary humour2. During the lapse of the same period, the apocalyptic ten-horned wild-beast, which is plainly identical with Daniel's fourth wild-beast when viewed as having absorbed its three predecessors, makes war with the saints and overcomes them; power being given to him over all the kindreds and tongues and

'See Numb. xiv. 33, 34. Ezek. iv. 4-6. See also Isaiah xx. 3. in Bp. Lowth's translation and annotation.

2 Dan. vii, 8, 24, 25.

nations, which establish themselves upon the geographical platform of the Western Roman Empire. During the lapse still of the same period, the apocalyptic two-horned wild-beast, the contemporary and coadjutor of the ten-horned wild-beast, causes the inhabitants of the earth to make an image for the first wild-beast, compels all men under pain of death to worship this image, and obtains such a degree of power as to lay every person under an interdict who should refuse to comply with his blasphemous terms of communion". And lastly, during the lapse of this very same period, the apocalyptic harlot, who rides the tenhorned wild-beast, extends her influence over peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues, commits fornication with the kings of the earth, in→ toxicates their subjects with the wine of her forni→ cation, and herself becomes drunken with the blood of the saints and martyrs 3. Now it is impossible, that all these things should be done in the short space of three natural years and a half. Therefore the years in question must be estimated as prophetic or mystical years.

This will appear yet more evidently, if we attend to the subdivisions of the period.

Toward the close of the latter 1260 days, the ten-horned wild-beast from the abyss slays the two

1 Rev. xiii. I—7.

2 Rev. xiii. 11-17.

3 Rev. xvii.

witnesses and their dead bodies lie unburied in the broad and great city for the space of three days and a half, after which they are suddenly restored to life. Meanwhile, in the course of these three days and a half, the inhabitants of the earth rejoice over them, and make merry, and send gifts to each other 1. Such transactions, however, most assuredly can never be accomplished in the very short space of only three natural days and a half. Hence we are obliged to conclude, that three natural days and a half are not the period intended. But, if the period do not denote three natural days and a half, it can only denote three years and a half.

So again: immediately before the destruction of the wild-beast, and therefore immediately before. the termination of the latter 1260 days, three unclean spirits go forth to gather together the kings of the whole Roman world to the battle of the great day of God Almighty, which (we are assured) will be fought in the land of Palestine. The kings are, accordingly, assembled at Megiddo for the purpose of being destroyed: and there they are afterward completely routed". Now, if the whole formation of this great confederacy is to take place immediately before the close of the latter 1260 days, and if those 1260 days be only 1260 natural days; it is plain, that a very few natural days, perhaps some twenty or thirty such days,

1 Rev. xi. 7-11.

2 Rev. xvi. 12-16. Rev. xix. 11-21. Dan, xi. 40-45. Joel iii. Zechar. xii-xiv.