of

* This ind ference is perfectly conífext with de alțim vorch the hunted Potefarms of Trance, who con defcape from their country, runi la the neighbouring, harca and kingiems; for whatever sympathy indivisals might feel, and all or e Chritian sertáltaly fair, and though, for the fake of heir mangafturies, pro erz, hemde of population, and in pity for their fuferings, they received ma garaizes kom, jet what nation ever aimed in their deface, or évèn moved a fazer, comparative 3, for the sclief of all the thoufands, who were ★ varmel, and then offere i the mark of the braft, or baniment, the gallies, the dorphon, the sack, and death? What Protefiant nation did any thing worth (§ 10 ZAB BZETIKO in favor of all the thousands and hundreds of theufands who were hun ed, like wild beaks, by 19pish priefts and their blood hounds; and driven from their country, or murdered,—of all the thousands and tens of thoų – fants, who, for a good confcience, were torn from their families, immured in de grana, çondemned to the gallies, or delivered over to the infolence and crupic of the dragons ?--Not one! When an opportunity offered for doing sometheof for them, at the peace of Ryfwick, in 1697, and again of Utrecht in 1713, a which time four hundred were ftill groaning on board the gallies, or perishing in dungeons, there was not one ftipulation in their favor! But the fall of that Tranny which inflicted thefe enormities, produces a fhock which is felt from one and of the earth to the other. Whence is this? What will the iffue be; and what the fate of liberty?

It never

any

fu

of the Meffiah after 70 weeks, or 490 years; yet the commencement of these periods, or the mode of calculation, is involved in obscurity, till light is thrown upon them by the event. was intended that men should know with certainty when ture event is to take place, and this for an obvious reason. The prophecies, we should remember, were defigned not to gratify our curiofity, but to confirm our faith in the truth of the divine word, by their accomplishment. And hence the neceffity that these three days and a half should have a different meaning from the common prophetic days, that thus the time might not fo easily be afcertained, till the accomplishment should lead men to their true intention. Were the prophecies fo clear that every one could precisely know the circumstances, and the time to which they refer, hindrances, if we may speak thus, would be thrown in the way of God's defigns, and, in many cafes, a check would be given to the neceffary exertions and pursuits of men. All the latter part of the last century, thinking people of all countries were expecting the accomplishment of the 1260 years, (the time of the beaft's power.) On the revocation of the edict of Nants, the whole Proteftant world, and especially the poor afflicted French, were of opinion, that the unequalled perfecutions which were then endured were the flaying of the witneffes, and they were on tip-toe looking for the end of the three days and a half. What is here laid down, particularly, that the days here fhould have a different meaning from those other days in this book, being granted, (as I think it muft) let us proceed to feek an answer to this very interefting question: What length of time is intended by these three day's and a half?

*

My answer is, that days in this 11th verfe are the fame with months in the ad verfe, or, if you please, lunar days, reckoning, as the Jews did, thirty days to a month, and, as is the method in calculating

* One of them, Peter Jurieu, fays, "I know not from what time God fhall pleafe to begin the reckoning of the three years and a half. Not but that I Arongly hope, that God intends to begin it at the time of the revocation of the edict of Nants, but this does not rise to a full affurance." No, it did not comport with the defigns of God, that any man should certainly know before the accomplishment.

+ See Bishop Newton on the Prophecies, in locum,

culating the above forty-two months, to make them agree with the 1260 days in verse the third.*

Thirty multiplied by three, adding fifteen for the half day, makes 105. When this way of reckoning firft occurred to my mind, I had no idea of the events which this number connected; for I did not recollect the year when the edict of Nants was revoked. But looking over Quick's Synodicon, I found it to be October 18, 1685, to which if 105 be added, it brings us to 1790; take off a few months (if that fhould be thought neceffary) for the event taking place before the half day is quite expired, and it brings us to 1789, when the witneffes were to be quickened. Whether this may ftrike others as it ftruck me, when I first observed the coincidence, I cannot tell; but, from this agreement of the number 105, with the time which elapfed between one of the greatest perfecutions that was ever experienced by Chriftians, and this wonderful revolution which has taken place, a thousand ideas rufhed upon my mind. Is it probable, is it poffible, that this can be the quickening of the witnesses? What! the olive trees? the candlesticks? I have always fuppofed these to be all faints! + And

can

Some have fuppofed that these three days and a half are to be reckoned as we reckon the time, and times, and half a time, (chap. xii. 14.) taking them for Jewish years (360 days) and then reckoning the days for years, i. e. 1260 years. But this is fubverfive of all that is said from the feventh verfe and on; it makes the whole duration of their prophefying the fame with their finishing it. The idea of lunar days, or months, feems a vast deal more feasible.

Originally, the Jews measured their months by the fun, and then every month confifted of thirty days. But after they came out of Egypt, they measured them by the course of the moon, and then the first was of thirty days, the next of twenty-nine, and so alternately; that which had thirty days was called a complete month, and that which had but twenty-nine an incomplete month. From change to change are 29 days, 12 hours, and 44 minutes. And it may not be amifs to recollect, that one lunar month is the length of the moon's day, for the turns round her axis exactly in the time that the goes round the earth.

†There are doubtlefs many characters among the French reformers who feem not to deferve the honorable title of witneffes; but was there ever a cause, however good, which agitated a nation, in which fome bad characters did not mingle with the excellent? A mixture of good and evil feems infeparable from the present state of things. And let it be recollected, that as God in his providence may employ even bad man in a good work, efpeciaily if, to effect the good, it should be neceffary to use them as inftruments to inflict the divine judgments, as is to be the case when papal tyrannies perif; fo alfo, for the part which they

tan that zeal which hath fired Frenchmen to combat for civil and religious liberty, be the fpirit of life from God? Is this refurrection, in the vifion, the rising to this civil and religious liberty, previous to better days?-I will do all that I can to difcover the truth.

But it may poffibly be afked, Are days ufed in this fense in any other place of the holy fcriptures? If not, this is a reason for rejecting this mode of calculation. Could we adduce a paffage directly to the point, it would certainly ftrengthen the hypothefis very much; but though we may not be able to do this, all that can be argued from the failure is, that it weakens, but not that it deftroys the whole probability of the truth of the conjecture.* All allow, that the language of thefe kinds of prophecies is very enigmatical, and that days, in fcripture, are often of a very indeterminate fignification. But let us imagine à fimilar cafe. Suppofe on the appearance of our Saviour a Jew had faid to his neighbour, "I think that by the feventy weeks of Daniel (chap. ix. 24-27.) we are to understand seventy weeks of years, (seventy times feven) or four hundred and ninety years, and that they are how about to be accomplished; and hence it deferves inquiry whether this Jefus be not the Meffiah." It might have been objected, “But where, in our facred scriptures, does a week (Var) intend feven years ?"" No where. But though this be the cafe, yet as this manner of reckoning feems to be quite confiftent with the enigmatical language of prophecy, the hypothefis deserves at-It is true that the etymology of the Hebrew word

tention."

1

aft as the inftruments of God, and not on account of their moral character, they may be diftinguished by an honorable title, like this of witnesses. Thus the idolatrous and cruel Medes and Perfians, who had no pity, are denominated God's fanctified ones, (İsa. xiii. 3.) and Gyrus, their leader, is adorned even with that title which is one of the chief diftinctions of the Son of God.-his Meffiah, his Chrift or Anointed. (Ifa. xlv. 1.) The great and leading principles for which the French reformers have borne witness, the principles of civil and religious liberty, are no novel noftrums of philofophers, but fuch as were coeval with human nature, and which have been long recognized in this country, and what makes our ha, py conftitution the boast of Englishmen, and which, it is to be hoped, they will never ceafe to cherish.

* 1 find that I am hot the first who has fuppofed that a day, in the figurative language of the prophets, may mean a month, as well as a year. See Poli Synop. Dan. viii. 14. "Per dies 2300 intelligit menfes totidem, qui conftituunt 180 annos á Principio Regni Græcorum ufque ad Antiochum." Saad, in Willetus,

is applicable to feven of years, as well as to feven of days; but, as the venerable Mede fays, (p. 599 of his works) "The question lies not in the etymology, but the ufe, where ya always fignifies feven of days, and never seven of years; wherefoever it is abfolutely put, it means of days, is no where used of years. Gen. xxix. 27. The week which Laban would have Jacob fulfil before he gave him Rachel, was not the feven years fervice, but the feven days of Leah's wedding feast, as the Targum tranflates, and the Vulgar, Imple hebdomadam dierum hujus copula, nor can it be otherwife, by the age of Rachel's children."

Many have taken it for granted, that that general expectation of the Meffiah's speedy coming, which prevailed among the Jews, about the time of our Lord's appearance, originated from their interpretation of these weeks of Daniel. But this appears to be taken for granted without proof. It is more likely that their expectation arofe from a tradition of a prophecy of Elias, which is well known to have been generally received among them, viz. that the world was to ftand feven thousand years, two thousand without the law, two thoufand under the law, two thousand under the Melliah, and that then was to follow the fabbatical thoufand; as alfo from the vifit of the wife men from the eaft; the teftimonies of Simeon and Anna, and the miniftry of John the Baptist, whom all the people took for a prophet. I can no where find that the Jews ever reckoned these weeks as feven of years. The objection then would have been as valid in the fuppofed cafe, as it is here refpecting lunar days. But whatever the reader's opinion may be refpecting thefe days, or the two witnefes and the time of their being flain, I hope he will remember that this does not at all affect our main argument refpecting the fecond beast being the tyranny of the Lewises, and the French revolution being the pretude to the ushering in of the third woe, the calamities which are to bring to an end all the tyrannies of the world, both civil and ecclefiaftical.

We have long been praying, thy kingdom come, and is there any probability that the preludes to it are arrived, the earthquakes which hake the kingdoms of the world, the signs in heaven above,

and

* Every one that is acquainted with prophetic language knows that these are #gurative reprefentations of commotions in mrations, and of the fall of princes and great men, as has already been obferved.