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ment-day commences, before the close of the latter three times and a half, and with the sounding of the seventh apocalyptic trumpet which we have good reason to believe began to sound for the introduction of the third great woe in the year 1789.

(3.) The true commencement of this figurative judgment-day having been established, agreeably to the arrangement of Daniel and St. John, we shall now be able to point out that portion of our Lord's prophecy, with which it must be viewed as synchronising.

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We have seen, that Daniel and our Lord and St. John all agree in placing the coming of the Son of man at the close of the latter three times and a half or at the close of the seven times of the Gentiles. Hence, whatever one of these three great prophets places immediately before the coming of the Son of man, that circumstance must undoubtedly synchronise with the parallel event or events which the two others also place immediately before that coming.

Now the event, or rather the continuity of action, which Daniel and St. John place immediately before the coming of the Son of man, is the figurative judgment of the Roman beast and his little horn, which is opened (according to Daniel) by the Ancient of days or (according to St. John) by the Lord God Almighty.

Therefore, the continuity of action, which our Lord places immediately before the coming of the Son of man, must also be the figurative judgment

of the Roman beast and his little horn, in whatever diversity of language it may be described odi

The continuity of action, however, which our Lord places immediately before the coming of the Son of man, are those signs in the symbolical sun and moon and stars with that violent agitation of the allegorical sea, which, as his discourse is variously reported by Matthew and Mark, occur, partly in the days of the Jewish tribulation, and partly immediately after the close of that tribulation; or, in other words, since the Jewish tribulation terminates with the latter three times and a half, partly before the close of those three times and a half, and partly immediately after their close for he makes the dreadful political convulsions thus symbolised to be the token or harbinger of the coming of the Son of man, just as the budding of a fruit-tree is the token or harbinger of approaching

summer.

Consequently, the signs in the heavenly bodies and the agitation of the sea, or (in unfigured language) the political convulsions thus symbolised, occupy the same chronological place relatively to the coming of Christ in our Lord's discourse, that the commencement and progress of this figurative day of judgment occupy in the predictions of Daniel and St. John: for they alike occur immediately before that coming.

Hence we may be certain, that the political reyolutions, which in our Lord's discourse precede and usher in the coming of the Son of man, are

the same as the figurative judgment of the Roman beast and his little horn, which similarly commences before the coming of Christ in the predictions of Daniel and St. John.

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But this figurative judgment-day commences with the sounding of the seventh apocalyptic trumpet, which introduces the third great woe: and the seventh apocalyptic trumpet, as we have sufficient reason to believe, began to sound in the year 1789.

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Therefore, those earlier political revolutions, which our Lord foretells as occurring in the days of the Jewish tribulation or before the end of the latter three times and a half, and which he describes under the usual prophetic imagery of the darkening of the sun and moon and the falling of the stars from heaven and the distress of nations upon the earth and the roaring of the sea and the waves: those earlier political revolutions began to take place in the year 1789, from which epoch, as we all are witnesses, the Roman world has been convulsed to its very centre.

of The revolutions, which occur in the days of the Jewish tribulation or before the end of the latter three times and a half, will be followed by others, which our Lord places immediately after the close of the Jewish tribulation or immediately after the end of the latter three times and a half. These later revolutions occur, therefore, at what Daniel calls the time of the end; a brief period apparently of a single year, which synchronises with

the seventh apocalyptic vial: and the two series, namely the revolutions IN the days of the Jewish tribulation and the revolutions IMMEDIATELY AFTER the close of the Jewish tribulation, jointly constitute the prophetic judgment of the Roman beast

and the little horn.

All these awful signs, as we are assured by Christ, are the tokens and harbingers of his speedy coming at the end of the seven times of the Gentiles or at the end of the latter three times and a half: and, accordingly, in the very midst of the second series of revolutions, as we learn from Daniel and St. John, when the antichristian faction is in the height of its triumph, the great prince Michael will stand up for the dispersed remnant of Judah, and the Son of man will figuratively come to the judicial destruction of the Roman wild-beast and his Latin confederates 1.

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This declaration of our Lord perfectly agrees with the chronological arrangement, which facts have led me to adopt. The revolutions, which mark this figurative day of judgment and which Christ declares to be the tokens of his speedy coming, commenced with the sounding of the seventh apocalyptic trumpet in the year 1789: and his figurative coming itself will take place, in the midst of some yet future revolutions, at the end of the seven times of the Gentiles or at the end of the latter three times and a half; both which periods,

Dan. xi. 40. xii. 1. Rev. xix. 11-21.

as we have much reason to believe, expire alike in the year 1864.5.

III. The way having been thus prepared by this preliminary discussion, through which the prophecy of our Lord has been synchronically harmonised with the prophecies of Daniel and St. John, and in which the import of the question put to Christ by his disciples has been fully considered; we may now proceed, with some hope of success, to interpret and apply the prophecy itself.

1. Here, the first particular, which offers itself to our notice, is the enumeration of the signs, that were to precede and announce the now rapidly approaching destruction of Jerusalem; agreeably to the question asked by the disciples, as to the time when the temple should be subverted.

These signs may be enumerated in the following order: the appearance of false prophets, who should assume the name of Christ, and who should deceive the Jews by loudly proclaiming that the time of their deliverance from the Roman yoke was near; wars and rumours of wars; the rising up of nation against nation; great earthquakes in diverse places; famines and pestilences; fearful sights and great signs from heaven; and a general persecution of Christianity, which, though it should continue long after the subversion of the temple, should in point of commencement precede all the above-specified indications.

(1.) In the period, then, immediately before the destruction of Jerusalem, there were to be impos

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