proves him to have been walking, not at a distance from God, but in close communion with Him. This, however, does not alter the question; because, in the two above actions, we see Abraham personally, as a saint, of course not losing his standing as such, and still having access to God. It is the dispensation I speak of; and that this was, through Abraham's failure, invaded, it is vain to deny.

Then there is another thing. It was for some time a question with me whether I was warranted thus to view the dispensational life-time, or history of God's ancient people, as opening at the birth, rather than at the call of Abraham. But now, for the following reasons, I feel that such is the true view of the question. The Church of God, as we know, was called into being when the Holy Ghost, on the day of Pentecost, descended on the saints in Jerusalem. This was, if we may so speak, the birth-day of the Church, as a body. And so now with each individual saint; the day when the Spirit first opens his eyes to see the value of Jesus is his birth-day; and his natural birth-day, in one sense, is taken no account of at all in his history. The fact is, our calling being heavenly, this, with every thing else that connects us with the earth, is unrecognized in this dispensation. But of old it was otherwise; each Jew, the moment he entered the world, was numbered among the people of God, and, as such, on the eighth day he was circumcised. And this was according to the calling and standing of Israel. The dispensation was earthly and carnal, and therefore all was in keeping with this. And so too it was with Abraham himself; the time of his birth is recorded, because, in one sense, his life under the eye of the Lord may be dated from thence. Besides, his birth, we may say, was the birth of the whole Jewish nation, which in embryo lay hid in the loins of their first father from the very beginning; for which last reason, especially, I feel free to go back to this point, and to date the opening of our Cycle from thence.

The above statement as to the 505 years, with the 15 years deducted from thence, so as to make the 490 years, is, for the sake of greater perspicuity, illustrated by the annexed DIAGRAM:

The argument proved

SEVENTY WEEKS, SHOWN TO BE A UNIVERSAL CYCLICAL
PERIOD.

(See Plate 2, Figure 7.)

HAVING, as I trust, succeeded in showing that Seventy weeks was a great dispensational period, a climacteric, in other words, in connection with Israel, I now proceed, taking a wider view of our subject, to prove that it was so with regard NOT TO ISRAEL ONLY, but also with regard to MAN UNIVERSALLY; and that, as shown in plate 2, figure 7, which expresses the whole age of the world, no less than fourteen of this kind of cycles may be reckoned from Adam down to the end. And this may be shown, I believe, by two distinct methods.

First-Be it remembered that the past annals of Israel formed by analogy. a part, the most important and prominent part too, of this world's history, as given in scripture. What were they indeed but the annals of God's elect nation, the only people on earth ever called by his name? Hence we are constrained I believe to regard them in this light; and let us also remember, what we already have seen, how the whole period from Moses to Christ was broken into three distinct sections, each marked at the close by an offer of blessing, on the part of the Lord, to his people; and next, in connection with this, let us consider the ages before Moses, as well as those after Christ; and does it not seem to be quite according to the usual ways of the Lord, which ever exhibit the most beautiful order, the most perfect consistency, that the arrangement of time both previous and subsequent to the existence of Israel as a nation, must have been divided by him, when in his own secret counsels he ordered the ages, according to the very same principle. The three periods above named what were they indeed but THREE LINKS IN THE GREAT CHAIN OF TIME: And though only these three, as it were, meet our eye, may we not from analogy, judge that THE REST OF THE CHAIN, though kept out of sight, IS EXACTLY THE SAME AS THAT PART WHICH IS VISIBLE? True it is, before Moses no law was enacted such as we find in Leviticus xxv. as to the division of time, neither is there any such law in existence at present; but still, for the simple reasons here given, one is led to believe that Seventy weeks must have been from the outset, and must still be (in secret of course)

as much a dispensational cycle with God in his dealings with mankind at large, as it was during the days of Israel's history. Surely this reasoning is simple; and to a mind apprehensive of the oneness of purpose in all the Lord's ways, will, I think, recommend itself strongly.

lee.

And now, secondly, as to the other method of proving this fact, The same thing proved if I can show that our cycle of Seventy weeks, which actually by referring comprises only FOUR HUNDRED AND NINETY YEARS, may also be to the Jubiviewed as containing FIVE HUNDRED YEARS, or the half of a millenary, then my position is established. And here, as the whole thing rests on the peculiar manner in which the YEAR OF JUBILEE, the great type, as we know, of the restitution of all things, was formed, and connected with the Mosaic order of time, let us turn to Leviticus xxv. There it is spoken of thus: "And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof," &c., Leviticus xxv. 8-10. Thus the year of Jubilee was a year altogether peculiar, beginning in the midst or in the seventh month of every sabbatic, or forty-ninth year; it was (as shown in plate 2, figures 4 and 6) made up of the LAST HALF

OF ONE SACRED YEAR AND THE FIRST HALF OF THE FOLLOWING.

So that it was, as I said, a year of its own kind, independent
entirely of the Jewish order of time, which rolled on in due
course as though such a year had no existence whatever. And
now in connection with this let us turn to the period of Seventy
weeks as illustrated in plate 2, figure 5. Within the compass of
this we find there were just TEN YEARS OF JUBILEE, which, if
time be regarded in the usual way, according to the Levitical
reckoning, are made no account of, as forming an integral part
of the 490 years.
But if, on the other hand, we view it in a
mystical light, as I feel assured that in the present instance we
may, taking these ten years into account, then what is
ACTUALLY ONLY FOUR HUNDRED AND NINETY
YEARS, becomes MYSTICALLY FIVE HUNDRED YEARS. The
Jubilee, observe, is termed in scripture "the fiftieth year," which

to me seems a clear intimation that the Lord would have us consider the whole cycle of which the space from one Jubilee to another is but the tenth part, as five hundred years, inasmuch as fifty multiplied by ten, amounts to five hundred. And now what is five hundred years? It is the half of a millenary-And into how many millenaries do we all by common consent believe the whole course of time to be divided? Into seven, all will allow, as foreshown by the week of creation, as also by all the septenary divisions of time under the law, as expressed in these charts. What then do we deduce from all this? Simply that the Lord from the outset has divided the whole course of time in two ways; first, into SEVEN MILLENARIES-secondly, into DOUBLE THAT NUMBER OF SEPTENARY CYCLES-FOURTEEN PERIODS OF SEVENTY WEEKS, as I have said, the cycle in the way I have shown being the half of a millenary. All this will be found expressed in plate 2, figure 7, where on the one side of the column the MILLENNIAL, and on the other the SEPTENARY order of time is presented.

The following is a view of the great leading divisions of time from the creation down to the end.

With regard to the above distribution there is one very interesting point with regard to the second and third divisions, which, in passing along, I would just notice; namely, that the time of the dealings of God with his people the Jews, and that of their present

dispersion, correspond with each other. There were, for instance,
four cycles trom Abraham's birth to Christ's death, and from that
on to the Lord's second coming, we find the same number of
cycles in both cases the PERIOD IS FOURFOLD.
Thus the mercy
and judgment of God are displayed in equal degrees-his mercy in
calling Abraham nigh to himself, and then in afterwards bearing
with him and his seed, the husbandmen shown in the parable, for
so many generations, and never casting them off till they had
rejected his Son, the heir of the vineyard—his judgment in hiding
his face from his people for the same time exactly that they had
been unfaithful to him.

But to return to the main subject, though indeed as to this I have little further to add, saving that by two distinct paths we have reached the same point, and find SEVENTY WEEKS to be connected NOT ALONE WITH THE JEWS, but also with the Gentiles or rather with MAN UNIVERSALLY.

Then there is another thing-the seven weeks or forty-nine years between every Jubilee, as I have shown, points to the greater period of Seventy weeks, or 490 years, of which it forms an integral part, indeed we may say, is a brief expression or miniature sample thereof. So Seventy weeks, in like manner, I believe bears the same relation exactly to a still greater period, namely, the 4900 years which manifestly, in a dispensational sense, is all that is linked with man upon earth. But it will be asked, how is this?-does not this disagree with the foregoing statement? Having just before spoken of the ages in the way I have done, surely the full dispensational age of the world, reckoning by weeks, must be 6860, the product of 490 multiplied by 14? Why therefore now thus lessen the period? To this I answer, I do it by deducting the four cycles between the first and last advent of Christ from the fourteen above named, so as to reduce the period to 4900 years. My reasons for thus treating this space as a blank I shall presently show; but first let me refer to four periods all expressed in plate 2, which are I believe connected one with another, and ascend in the following order: 49 days-49 years-490 years-4900 years.

See figure 3.

Seven weeks of days-the yearly harvest time in Israel-
This period comprises 49 days.

1 day-the day of Pentecost.

50 days.

The 49 days, 49 years, 490

years, and 4900, all compared with

each other.