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"and great glory." The description given in Saint Mark is the same. In Saint Luke, chapter xxi. ver. 24, it is said, that "Jerusalem "shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until "the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."Then follows a description similar to that in Saint Matthew: 25. "There shall be signs "in the sun, and in the moon, and in the "stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring: 26. Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things "which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. 27. And "then shall they see the Son of Man coming "in a cloud, with power, and great glory." In Joel ii. 31, the same signs are foretold: "The Sun shall be turned into darkness, and "the moon into blood, before the great and "the terrible day of the Lord come." In the Revelations of Saint John, chap. vi. ver. 12, we find that these signs immediately precede the day of the wrath of God, or the period of the destruction of the Roman Empire; and we know by their accomplishment, that they took place in the year 1792. The words of Saint Luke, that "there shall be upon the earth dis"tress of nations, with perplexity; men's "hearts failing them for fear, and for looking

"after those things which are coming upon "the earth," contain a striking description of the state of the world since that year: "the

powers of the heaven," or the different potentates of the Roman earth, have likewise "been shaken :" and many of them, within the last twenty-two years, have been cast down from their spheres. This state of the world will be continued until the next event that is mentioned, which is the coming of the Son of Man in a cloud, with power and great glory; and which there appears therefore every reason to look for at the fast approaching, but undefined, termination of the period of the Vials.

In Daniel, our Saviour is also represented as coming in the clouds of heaven, agreeably to the many descriptions which are given of his second advent; we see him in his mediatorial character as the Son of Man, receiving the kingdom from God the Father, and bestowing it upon the Saints; we see "the kingdom, and "the dominion, and the greatness of the king"dom under the whole heaven, given unto the people of the Saints of the Most High."

6.

The dominion of Christ is said to be an everlasting dominion; and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. And under the reign of Christ and his Saints, during the period of the Millennium, will be experienced

that state of peace and blessedness thus de scribed by the prophet Isaiah, chap. xi. 6-9. "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the

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leopard shall lie down with the kid; and "the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling "together; and a little child shall lead them; "and the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the "lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the

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asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand "on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the "earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

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Remarks on the Interpretations given by former Commentators of the Vision of the Four Beasts.

In referring to Mr. Faber's exposition of this prophecy, I find that we give different interpretations to the passage, where the three first Beasts are said to have had " their dominion

taken away," although "their lives were prolonged for a season and a time." The season and time here spoken of, Mr. Faber considers to be the period of the Millennium:

observing, that at the termination of the 1260 years, "the fourth Beast and his little horn "will be utterly destroyed, and given to the "burning flame, and the triumphant reign of "Christ, or the kingdom of the mountain, "will commence. But the three other Beasts,

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namely, the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, " and the Macedonian, which were all idola«trous beasts, as contradistinguished from an

apostatically idolatrous one, although their "dominion or their power of oppressing the "Church be taken away, will have their lives,

or idolatrous principles, prolonged for a sea*son and a time: that is, prolonged after the "utter destruction of the revived fourth Beast, "and his apostatical principles, and conse

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quently during the reign of the Saints; which, as we have seen, is to commence at "the death of the fourth Beast.

"The lives however of the three beasts are only to be prolonged for a season. Unre claimed by the glorious manifestations of "God in favour of his Millennian Church,

they will still persevere in their idolatry; "and, at the close of the thousand years, will “arrive at such a pitch of daring impiety, as "to make an open attack even upon the beloved city. But fire from the Lord will consume them; and the Church of Christ

"will be finally translated from earth to hea❝ven.*"

The reader will recollect, that I have already brought forward the passage in Daniel respect ing the prolongation of the lives of the three first Beasts, as a proof that the four Beasts must represent territorial divisions of the prophetic Earth. Mr. Faber, who supposes the four Beasts to represent, severally, the Babylonian Medo-Persian, Macedonian, and Ro man empires, considered each as extending to their utmost limits, must necessarily give a different interpretation from me to this prolongation of their lives. If I correctly understand him, he considers the expression of "the lives of the three first Beasts," whenever used, to be equivalent to the term Paganism (because the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and Grecian empires, were Pagan empires), and the life of the fourth Beast, or Roman empire, to mean the apostatically idolatrous" principles of Popery and Mahometanism. So when the sixth head of the fourth Beast was seen by Saint John to be wounded and healed again, he supposes the Roman empire was meant to be represented as then passing from Paganism to Popery, and as dying and reviving again †.

"

Faber's Dis. 3d ed. vol, i. p. 134 ; 4th, p. 160; 5th. p. 158. Faber's Dis, vol. i, 3d ed, p. 245; 4th, p. 973; 5th, p. 270.