: in the glorious holy mountain: yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered." Here let us pause, and ask, At what time? The expression at that time can only refer, either to the time of the end, or to the period when the power which had occupied the holy mountain is destroyed. To the one, or the other, it must refer. I believe it myself to refer to the time of the end; because I believe the time of the end to commence, when the 1260 years terminate. To the present argument however this is immaterial: and, since Mr. Mede and Bp. Newton of course will not refer it to the time of the end, they must refer it to the time when the power in question perishes.* This power they suppose to be the king of the North, who according to their idea is the Ottoman empire. Therefore the Ottoman empire will perish at the time when Michael stands up, and when the people of Daniel or the Jews begin to be delivered. The Jews however, as Daniel afterwards informs us, will cease to be scattered when all the wonders of the 1260 days shall be finished: but all those wonders, he says, will be finished at the end of the three times and a half: therefore the Jews will cease to be scattered, or begin to be restored, at the same time. But we had already arrived at the conclusion, that the fall of the Ottoman empire and the restoration of the Jews were to be contemporary. Therefore the full of the Ottoman empire, if the principles of Mr. Mede and Bp. Newton be just, which I deny, must take place at the end of the three times and a half or the 1260 years. And how does this accord with St. John? He teaches us, that the confederacy of the beast the false prophet, and the kings of the earth, * So accordingly Mr. Mede does refer it. See the last citation from him. Bp. Newton does the same. "Between the seas in the glorious holy mountain must denote some part of the holy land. There the Turk shall encamp with all his power, yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. The same times and the same events seem to be presignified in this prophecy, as in that of Ezekiel concerning Gog of the land of Magog He shall come up against the people of Israel in the latter days after their return from captivity-He shall also fall upon the mountains of IsFael." Dissert. XVII, in loc. .......... shall be broken at Armageddon, in Palestine, or the land which extends 1600 furlongs, under the seventh vial, which plainly begins to be poured out at the end of the 1260 years. And he likewise teaches us, Mr. Mede himself being the interpreter, that the waters of the Euphrates shall be dried up, or that the Ottoman empire shall be overthrown under the sixth vial, at some indefinite period, before the confederacy begins to be even gathered together to Armageddon, and consequently much more at some indefinite period before that confederacy is destroyed at Armageddon. According to the scheme then which I am opposing, St. John tells us, that the Ottoman empire, under the name of the Euphrates will be subverted at some indefinite period before the expiration of the 1260 years, and consequently before the commencement of the restoration of the Jews, but a period long enough to allow of the gathering together of the bestial confederacy and their subsequent expedition into Palestine: while Daniel tells us, that the Ottoman empire, under the name of a king of the North, will be destroyed in Palestine after the expiration of the 1260 years, because contemporaneously with the restoration of the Jews. Thus does the scheme, which makes the king of the North to be the Turk, set Daniel and St. John at direct variance and hence, even supposing that the king of the North, and not the wilful king, is to perish in Palestine at the end of the 1260 years, it is plain that the power which perishes after the expiration of that period cannot be the Ottoman empire * Such is the opinion of Mr. Mede. He supposes the first blast of the seventh trumpet and the first effusion of the sevent! vial, which he justly calls the vial of consummation, exactly to synchronize; and he maintains, that at this era the three times and a balf terminate. Though, as I have already observed, I prefer Bp. Newton's arrangement of the seventh trumpet, I think Mr. Mede's opinion indisputable that the 1260 days expire when the vial of consummation is poured out, because the contents of that vial plainly shew that it relates to the time of God's great controversy with the nations. But this great controversy, this period of unexampled trouble, synchronize, according to the unanimous testimony of all the prophets who treat of the subject, with the restoration of the Jews, which restoration commences, according to Daniel, at the close of the three times and a half: therefore the contemporary period of unexampled trouble must commence at the close of the three times and a half; and consequently the effusion of the seventh vial, which treats of that period, must likewise commence at the close of the three times and a balf: in other words, the seventh vial must begin to be poured out, so soon as the three times and a half or the 1260 days expire; which was the point asserted. Compare Mede's Clav. Apoc. Par. Alt. Synch. 4, 5-Comment. Apoc. in Tub. vii. et Phial. vii.-and the plate at the end of his Glavis. which (according to St. John) will be subverted before the expiration of it. Yet even this is not all. Two expeditions into the very same country, attended with exactly the same circumstances, can scarcely be contemporary. But we have abundant reason to believe, as will be stated at large hereafter, that the Roman confederacy of the beast, the fulse prophet, and the kings of the earth, will undertake such an expedition into Palestine, as is here described by Daniel, at the close of the 1260 years. How then can the Turk undertake exactly such another, and exactly at the same time? Perhaps it may be said, the two expeditions will form only one allied expedition. How then can this allied expedition have two commanders in chief? In the Apocalypse the beast under his last head, which most commentators, though I think very erroneously, have supposed to be the Papacy, is the commander in chief ;* and not a hint is given of any co-operation on the part of the Turk as indeed how should there, when St. John had told us, that the Ottoman empire, or the mystic Euphrates had been previously destroyed? In Daniel, the king of the North (still arguing according to Mr. Mede's and Bp. Newton's reference of the expedition against Palestine to the king of the North and not to the wilful king,) whom they suppose to be the Turk, is the commander in chief; and not a hint is given of any co-operation on the part of the beast: when yet, according to St. John, that very Turk was no longer in existence. * The reader will perhaps be inclined to think from the present aspect of affairs, that the probability of the Pope being commander in chief of a vast expedition against Palestine is much on a par with the probability of the Turk being commander in chief of a contemporaneous expedition against the same country. Yet does this expectation necessarily result from the belief that the ten-horned apocalyptic beast is the Papacy: for that beast is plainly represented, as not merely taking an inferior part in the confederacy of the Latin kings, but as animating and beading it. According to the light in which I view that yet unaccomplished prophecy, the Pope and bis hierarchy, or the false prophet who is the same as the second apocalyptic beast, will be more or less indeed concerned and interested in this expedition against the land that extends 1600 furlongs: nay, with Mr. Whitaker, I even think it not improbable, that Jerusalem may finally be the seat of the apostate man of sin but the power, that will form the confederacy of vassal kings and bead the expedition into Palestine, namely the Roman beast under his last head, I certainly believe to be a very different power from the Papacy. But this matter will be discussed at large hereafter, when I consider the character of the two apocalaptic beasts. ........... Since then the king of the North plainly cannot be the Turk, and since consequently the actions, which Mr. Mede and Bp. Newton ascribe to the king of the North, cannot have been performed by the Turk; since moreover, as I will venture to affirm, if the actions ascribed to the king of the North were not performed by the Turk, they were never performed by any king of the North, and if not by any king of the North certainly not by any power which may be deemed the antitype of the wilful king it will follow, that all these actions, whether performed by the wilful king as I suppose, or by the king of the North as Mr. Mede and Bp. Newton suppose, are still future; which will bring me back to the point whence I set out, namely that the period to which they are ascribed is future likewise; in other words that the time of the end denotes some future period, which (as I have already attempted to shew) there is reason to think commences when the 1260 years terminate. In fact, the only expedition undertaken against Palestine at the close of the 1260 years and contemporaneously with the restoration of the Jews, an expedition noticed by almost every prophet that treats of the restoration of the Jews,* is plainly the expedition undertaken by the Roman confederacy of the beast the false prophet and the kings of the Latin earth. Hence, since Daniel predicts an expedition undertaken against the same country and at the same time either by the infidel king, or by the king of the North, this expedition must be the same as that mentioned in the Apocalypse: consequently it must be undertaken by that king who may be considered as the dominant Roman power. But the king of the North, unless I greatly mistake, is not a Roman power: whereas the wilful king, according to my interpretation of his character, is the greatest of the Roman powers. For these various reasons, deduced from a general survey of * This point is fully considered in my unpublished work on the restoration of Israel and the destruction of Antichrist. The Jewish Rabbies themselves have collected from their own prophets, that the restoration of their countrymen will synchronize with the destruction of the Roman power in its last form; and they scruple not to maintain, that the Edom, whose overthrow is represented as being contemporary with the return of the chosen people, denotes that pozver. (See Isaiah lxii. Ixiii.) I believe them to be perfectly right in their opinion. the context of this and other prophecies, I conclude, that the expedition, certainly will be undertaken, not by the king of the North, but by the infidel king: and I apprehend it was from some such general survey of the different prophecies, which treat at once of the restoration of the Jews and the contemporaneous destruction of some great enemy of God in Palestine, that the ancient fathers believed that Antichrist was destined to perish in that country; an opinion, which Bp. Horsley, and I think very rightly, judges to be well founded.* But it may be said, if I maintain, that the infidel king is atheistical France, that the predicted expedition into Palestine will be undertaken by the infidel king, and that this predicted expedition about to be undertaken by the infidel king is the same as the contemporary expedition about to be undertaken into the land that extends 1600 furlongs by a confederacy of the beast under his last head the false prophet and the kings of the earth: if I maintain these various connected positions, it will necessarily follow, that, at the time of the expedition, the infidel king must have become the same as the beast under his last head. Such appears undoubtedly to be the consequence of this train of comparative reasoning. I must at present however decline saying any thing more on the subject, as I purpose to resume it after I have discussed the character of the seven-headed apocalyptic beast, and when I treat of the events foretold under the last vial. It may not be amiss to remark, that, whenever the mystic Euphratèan waters are exhausted under the sixth apocalyptic vial, or in other words whenever the Ottoman empire is overthrown, it will greatly assist us in explaining both the present prophecy of Daniel, and another of Ezekiel which many, though I believe erroneously, have thought to be parallel to it. Both Mr. Mede and Bp. Newton suppose, that the events predicted in Dan. xi. 44, 45, which they refer to the king of the North, are the same as those predicted in Ezek. xxxviii, xxxix; and they both equally suppose, that those two prophecies will be accomplished in some yet future expedition of |
