proved. Now, to this charge I in part plead guilty. I have taken for granted certain first principles, but they are not of that nature that at this time of day I ought to be required to enter upon the proof of them. I suppose that no one can now be reasonably expected in any prophetic discussion to prove that the four monarchies of Daniel are the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman. That the last of these was to exist in two different states, first as an undivided empire, and next as divided into ten kingdoms, among which was to arise an ecclesiastical power, (viz. the Popes of Rome,)'symbolized, Dan. vii. S, by a little horn with eyes, and described also in St. Paul's prophecy of the man of sin, 2 Thess. ii. And further, that at the destruction of the Roman empire, secular and spiritual, in its last state, the Millennial kingdom of Messiah is to be established, signified in Rev. xi. 15, by the kingdoms of this world becoming the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ. In the next place, no writer on prophecy can now be justly expected to enter upon the proof of the future and certain restoration of the Jews to the land of their fathers, and that this event is also to precede the Millennium. If then any of my readers shall feel disposed to quarrel with me, and to impugn my reasoning, because I have not proved these points, I must content myself with telling him, that among the students of prophecy, they are one and all considered as of the nature of prophetic rudiments finally settled and set at rest-no less so than the principles of gravitation and first elements of mechanics and chemistry are in the schools of human science.* Should the reader, therefore, require further information on these points, I shall refer him to the elementary treatises on prophecy, such as the works of Bishops Newton and Hurd; and I shall also just mention a small volume by the Rev. Alexander Keith, "The Evidences of the Truth of the Christian Religion, derived from the fulfilment of Prophecy," which will be found replete with useful and interesting information.

In sending forth the following Tract, I am rather actuated by a hope that it may excite to inquiry, than by an expectation that it will at once convince. I indeed feel that its reasoning is of that nature as not even to be understood by the careless and superficial, or without serious mental exertion and application. It also appears to me, that the species of conviction which is the result of an indolent and almost passive acquies

Since this was written some of these first prophetic principles have been called in question by Mr. Maitland, of Gloucester. To Mr. Maitland I have replied in my "Strictures on the Rev. S. R. Maitland's Four Pamphlets on Prophecy, and In Vindication of the Protestant Principles of Prophetic Interpretation."

cence in the arguments of another, is of little value. In order to a profitable acquaintance with truth, she must become the inmate of our understandings, and this she will not condescend to be, unless we importunately woo her approach by such an intimate converse as to show that we justly appreciate her friendship. Now, no branch of theological truth is in itself more worthy of being cultivated by those who have believed the Gospel, and are walking in its glorious light, than that which relates to the times and seasons of the Lord's second advent. This is indeed the great event, to which the expectations of the church are uniformly directed in the Apostolic writings. The church of our own times, generally refers her disciples to the period of death, as that of the consummation of their felicity. This is forcibly and justly expressed by Mr. Stewart, in his discourses on the Advent:-"If," says Mr. S. "we visit a Christian suffering under acute disease, how do we address him? Be patient, my afflicted brother; death will soon come, as a welcome visitor, and release you from all your pains.' So if called to sympathise with the widow or orphan, we say, .Dry up your tears; in a little moment you will follow him;pursue but his steps, and death will come and take you to the land whither your friend is gone." " Not so the Apostles of the Lord. Under affliction they referred believers to the glory to be revealed-under sorrow for the loss of friends, they comforted them with the promise of that day, "When the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." When suffering from unjust oppression, they consoled them by the promise, that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. So intently fixed were their minds upon that great event, that it forms the subject of their earnest enquiries, even before their Lord and Master was taken from them by his death upon the cross; and it is the subject of the concluding prayer of the Church of God in the volume of the Scriptures, "Even so come, Lord Jesus!"

It is manifest also, that the times and the seasons of the first advent were not hid from the Levitical church,-else whence that universal expectation of the coming of the Messiah, which even Heathen historians testify to have filled the minds of the whole eastern world in the age of our Lord's appearance, and which the Gospel history no less clearly shows to have pervaded the whole body of the Jewish people. It was this knowledge of the times and the seasons, derived from the prophecies of Jacob and Daniel, that prepared the minds of Simeon and of Anna, of Nathanael, and all who looked for redemption in Je

* Matth. xxiv. 3.

rusalem, to expect his appearance, and to welcome and receive him when he was manifested. Where then, we may well ask, is the unreasonableness of the supposition, that a similar knowledge shall be vouchsafed to the waiting saints of the New Testament church, to prepare their minds in like manner for the second revelation of their Lord and Master from heaven, and to prevent them from being taken by surprise when he shall come? "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief."*

It is the object of the following tract to prove from the Scriptures that such knowledge is actually conveyed to us; and that as the first advent of Messiah was according to Jacob's prophecy, when the sceptre was just departing from Judah, so his second advent is to take place when the sceptre is finally departing from the last of the four Gentile monarchies. But as it was with respect to the first advent, that while its times and seasons were so clearly revealed, that not only individuals, but nations were eagerly waiting for it, yet the precise year or day were hid under an impenetrable veil of mystery, till at length it was revealed to Simeon, just and devout, that he should not. see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah; so is it with regard to the second advent, that while there are marks whereby we may assuredly know its near approach, yet of that year, or day, or hour, knoweth no man, no, not the angels in heaven. And if we, who have watched every sign in the spiritual horizon for a long series of years, were now asked, "Is any sign of his coming yet unaccomplished?" we should be constrained to answer, "To our feeble view not one sign remains unaccomplished." If we were further asked, "Shall he come this year?" Our answer would be, "We know not." "Shall he

* 1 Thess. v. 4.

+ It may be asked by some, What these signs are? To this I answer, that there are many signs. First, The shaking of all the nations, and every throne in Christendom to their foundations; which, with the exception of our own happy country [Britain], has been effected within the last forty years. These convulsions seem to have been the fulfilment of the prophecy of signs in the sun, moon, and stars, predicted in Luke xxi. 25. Second, The tumults of the nations have been succeeded by a period of peace and worldliness, corresponding to our Lord's description of the condition of the world when he shall appear, Matth. xxiv. 37-39. Third, A preaching of the Gospel of unequalled magnitude and extent, among all nations, apparently corresponding in character with that announced by our Lord in Matth. xxiv. 14, as immediately preceding the end. Fourth, Such movement among the Jews as indicate the pe

This exception no longer exists. It has pleased God in mercy to spare us the evils of bloodshed and civil war, but the great revolution effected in this country during the last seven years, and in the midst of which we still are, leaves what yet remain of our ancient institutions, and the monarchy itself, like the scattered and trembling pillars of an edifice partially overthrown by an earthquake.

come within the next twenty, or fifty, or one hundred years?" Our answer would still be, "We know not; but this much we know and believe, that he is at hand." All our knowledge, therefore, brings us just to that state of expectation and uncertainty which filled the minds of the waiting saints at Jerusalem, in the age of our Lord's appearance.

Now, whatever may be thought of the conclusiveness of the reasoning employed in the following pages to prove the nearness of the advent, there ought, I should think, to be no dif ference of opinion upon the reasonableness of at least giving to the argument a fair hearing. And did the heart as well as the lips of the church in our days re-echo the words of John, "Even so [or verily indeed] come Lord Jesus!" there would be little necessity for this pleading for a patient hearing of the evidence of his approaching advent, the very sound of which would be sweeter in her ears than the harps of cherubim and seraphim. But it cannot be denied that our doctrine is unpalatable to a considerable part even of the evangelical world. They will scarcely listen to us when we ask by what analogy of Apostolic declaration or expectation they support this cold repulsive annunciation of a thousand years delay, which but ill responds to the come quickly of the longing Bride, and as ill corresponds with every promise and every warning to the servants of God, and every denunciation of coming wrath and impending judgment to an unbelieving world.

We object to this common doctrine in limine, that it supposes the church in our days to be gifted with knowledge above the Apostles of our Lord. We challenge our opponents in argument, to produce one passage from the Apostolic Epistles, to

riod of their conversion to be near at hand. Fifth, The downfall of the Ottoman empire, which all the interpreters of prophecy connect with the events of the last times. Sixth, The going forth of three unclean spirits; 1st, the spirit of infidelity and atheism out of the mouth of the Dragon; 2d, the spirit of anarchy and despotism* out of the mouth of the Beast, or secular Roman empire; 3d, the spirit of Popery out of the mouth of the False Prophet, which, as is discernible to all spiritual persons, are now, according to Rev. xvi. 13, 14, actually at work preparing the kings and people for the war of Armageddon;+ just before which war, Rev. xvi. 15, the note of the advent is given. Seventh, The concurring testimony of the greater number of writers on prophecy in the present day, that the prophetic period of 1260 years ended in the year 1792; and, consequently, that we are far advanced towards the completion of Daniel's 1335 days, at the end of which the Millennium is supposed to commence.

* Anarchy and Despotism are the same principle, viz. the lust of lawless power, the one working in the multitude and the other in kings.

All the modern interpreters of prophecy seem to concur in the opinion, that the sixth vial is poured out on the empire of the Turks or Ottomans; and it is apparent that the war of Armageddon is in some way or other connected with the affairs of Turkey, as the preparations for it are mentioned under the sixth vial.

X

prove that the holy Apostles knew the coming of the Lord to be even a thousand years distant from their days; and if they knew not that which has since turned out to be true, but were kept in a state of uncertainty as to the period of the advent, where is the probability of supposing that a negative revelation should be given to us, which has, so far as believed, a direct tendency to neutralize all those indefinite assurances of the nearness of that day, and the consequent exhortations to watchfulness which are interspersed through the Apostolic writings. Leaving, however, these arguments from analogy to have their own legitimate weight, I remark in the next place, that if the direct Scriptural evidence and reasoning presented to the reader in the following Tract be false or unsound, they must admit of an answer from the Scriptures. I therefore invite my opponents to the amicable refutation of these views by Scriptural arguments.

If, on the other hand, as I am firmly persuaded is the case, the doctrine itself be so entirely in harmony with the Scriptures, as that the argument in its favour possesses the most irrefragable strength, and is wholly unanswerable, then how unspeakably important are the consequences which flow from it! for if the advent of the Lord be before the Millennium, then it may be so near at hand that some, nay many, and for aught we know, a great proportion of the generation now alive upon earth may actually witness his appearing. And shall we be told that such a persuasion as this would produce no effect in awakening the secure, in alarming and filling with terror such of the ministers of Christ as have been either slumbering or sleeping at their posts, or have been minding earthly things rather than heavenly? Are there then none such in our own days? Are there no ministers of the churches established by law, or of the various bodies of dissenters, who are feeding themselves and not the flock? Are there none even who have among men the reputation of preaching the doctrines of orthodox and evangelical truth, who yet, having learned these doctrines not by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, but in the schools and systems of men, are contented with setting before their hearers a form of the truth destitute of life, and power, and unction; and who knowing not the power of godliness, but resting satisfied with a lifeless morality and decency, are manifestly far removed from that deep humility and self-denial,-that heavenly spirit, that mortification to the things of time,—that ardent and divine charity which well become the servants of Him who upon the cross expiated the guilt of a lost world! Now, if this inquiring into the times of the Lord's second advent should be instrumental in arousing from sleep, and transforming into an