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. 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, 1 Dan. xi, 40. xii. 1 Rey. xix. 11-21. as we have much reason to believe, expire alike in the year 1864. 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 tors, who should assume the name of the Messiah, and who should seek to avail themselves of the cat bar ལམ hopes and expectations of the Jews. Accordingly, we have Simon Magus and Dositheus the Samaritan; each of whom claimed to be a manifestation of the Christ or of the great Filial Power of God: we have likewise Theudas; who, in the reign of Claudius, drew many after him by the promise that he would divide Jordan as in the days of old and, in the reign of Nero, we find similar impostors starting up in such numbers, that they were even daily apprehended and put to death 1. (2.) During the same period, there were to be wars and rumours of wars. Agreeably to this part of the prediction, there was a long series of bloody wars, before the final destruction of Jerusalem, between the Jews and the Romans and, even when a short-lived peace prevailed, its permanence was interrupted, as in the time of Caligula who ordered his statue to be set up in the temple, by the apprehension of a speedy renewal of hostilities 2. (3.) Nation also was to rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. As these signs were for the information of the disciples, we must obviously look for their oceurrence in the immediate neighbourhood of Jeru 1 Bp. Newton's Dissert. on the Proph. vol. ii. p. 216, 217. salem. In strict accordance with this natural opinion, we find tetrarchy rising up against tetrarchy and the most violent feuds taking place between the Jews and their neighbours the Syrians. The consequence of such a state, when (as Josephus forcibly expresses it) every city was divided into two armies, was; that vast multitudes perished, and that the whole land was polluted with incessant slaughter. ¡¡.. (4.) Synchronically with these calamities were to occur numerous earthquakes, not only in the region of Judea, but (as our Lord specially predicts) in diverse places. Accordingly, as we learn from the historians of the times, such concussions happened in Crete, Smyrna, Miletus, Chios, Samos, Rome, Laodicèa, Hierapolis, Colosse, Campania, and Judèa 2. (5.) There were likewise to be dreadful famines and pestilences. Thus there was the famine in the days of Claudius, which is mentioned by Suetonius and other historians, and which is said in the Acts to have been foretold by Agabus: and thus there were the concomitant pestilences, which famine never fails to bring in its train 3. (6.). Fearful sights and great signs from heaven are also enumerated by our Lord among the indications of approaching vengeance. 1 Bp. Newton's Dissert, on the Proph. vol. ii. p. 219-221. * Ibid. P. 222-224. These are mentioned, not only by Josephus, but likewise by the Pagan historian Tacitus. A comet or meteor, in form resembling a sword, hung over Jerusalem for a whole year: a great light shone, during the space of half an hour, round the altar and the temple, when the people were assembled to celebrate the feast of unleavened bread: a cow brought forth a lamb in the midst of the temple: the massy eastern gate of the sacred edifice, which twenty men could scarcely shut and which was fastened by strong bars and bolts, was in the night time seen to open spontaneously: before the setting of the sun, chariots and armies, fighting and besieging cities, appeared in the clouds over the whole country and, at the feast of Pentecost, as the priests were going into the inner temple by night to perform the wonted service, they heard, first a motion and a noise, and then the voice as of a multitude exclaiming Let us depart hence1. (7.) Previous, however, to all these matters, the Christians were to begin to be persecuted for the sake of their religion, to be brought before rulers and councils, and to be imprisoned and slain. ogoł These trials, accordingly, commenced immediately after the miraculous communication of the Holy Ghost, when Peter and John were brought before the Sanhedrim, when the Apostles were cast into the common prison, when Stephen and James were murdered, and when the fires of persecution raged successively under the guidance of Paul and 1 Bp. Newton's Dissert. on the Proph. vol. ii. p. 224–228. |