begins at the commencement of a period of 1335 days; and since the same three times and a half are followed (according to St. John) by the 1000 years of Christ's terrestrial reign with his saints: the necessary conclusion is, that Daniel's 1335 days begin synchronically with St. John's 1000 years1.

Now it is manifest, that, before we can rightly explain the prophecies relative to the seven times and the two moieties of three times and a half each, an inquiry must be made into the proper mode of computing the chronological numbers of Daniel and St. John.

But this inquiry divides itself into two branches. For we must first examine, whether a day, in the phraseology of prophecy, be a literal day or a literal year. And, if, upon examination, we shall discover, that a prophetic day is to be reckoned as a literal year; we must, in that case, further inquire, whether each period specified by Daniel and St. John is to be estimated, as a period of so many natural solar years, or as a period of so many artificial years whereof each year contains no more than 360 natural days: that is to say, we must inquire, whether the often mentioned period of three times and a half (for instance) is equal to 1260 natural solar years, or whether it comprehends

1

1-6.

Compare Rev. xi. 2, 3. xiii. 1-5, with xix. 17-21. xx.

only 1241 natural solar years and 3242 days1; and so proportionately of all the other specified periods.

To establish the right mode of computing any one period is, in effect, to establish the right mode of computing every other specified period. Hence, as the period of the latter three times and a half is the most famous of all the prophetic periods, I shall employ it as the basis of the present investigation.

I. That the latter 1260 days are not mere natural days, but that they are years of some description or other, is sufficiently manifest from various considerations: from the ascertained usage both of Daniel and St. John; from the express scriptural decision, that, in the phraseology of the prophets, a day may be estimated as a year; from the palpable impossibility, that all the circumstances ascribed to the period of the latter three times and a half can take place within the short compass of 1260 natural days; and from the distinct specification of the time about which the latter 1260 days must have commenced.

1. Analogical homogeneity requires us to assume, that the same mode of computation, which is used by an author in one passage of his writings,

'This statement is not mathematically accurate; because I have reckoned each solar year to contain 365 days, whereas it does not really contain quite so much: but the difference is so small, that it requires not to be noticed.

will be used by him in all other parallel or kindred passages: unless, as in the case of the apocalyptic 1000 years, congruity itself requires a departure from the established rule'. Hence, if any one of the numerical prophecies of Daniel and St. John has already been accomplished; such an accomplishment will serve as a clue for ascertaining the proper method of computing the numbers mentioned in their other numerical prophecies.

Now we find, that Daniel's famous prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, whatever particular difficulties there may be in the explanation of it, has been proved, by the event of our Lord's advent, to speak, not of weeks of literal days, but of weeks of mystical days; that is to say, of weeks of years, either (as some maintain) natural, or (as others imagine) artificial and we likewise find, that the

! If the apocalyptic 1000 years be estimated as a 1000 prophetic years, they will amount to the enormous sum of 360,000 solar years. In fact, the circumstance of their coincidence with the first 1000 days of Daniel's 1335 days does itself fully demonstrate how they ought to be reckoned.

2 See my Dissert. on Daniel's Seventy Weeks, chap. v. Some have objected, that no proof can be legitimately drawn from the case of Daniel's Seventy Weeks: because, from the etymology of the Hebrew word rendered weeks, it imports, in reality, nothing more than septenaries, however those septenaries may be chronologically constituted.

.. But this objection is well answered by Mede, who remarks: that The question lies not in the etymology, but in the use; wherein y always signifies sevens of days, and never sevens Wheresoever it is ABSOLUTELY put, it means of

of years.

apocalyptic ten days persecution of the Church of Smyrna has been similarly proved, by the event, to mean, not a persecution of ten literal days, but a persecution of ten mystical days; that is to say, the persecution of ten years which is recorded by Eusebius and Lactantius and Orosius 1.

Such being the case, if the 70 weeks of Daniel and the 10 days of St. John are respectively 490 years and 10 years; we are bound, by analogical homogeneity, to conclude, both that the latter 1260 days and that the various other numbers of these two prophets are to be computed in the same manner, each day being uniformly estimated as a year.

days it is no where thus used of years. Mede's Works, book iii. chap. 9. p. 599. Compare Gen. xxix. 27, 28. Levit. xii. 5. Numb. xxviii. 26. Deut. xvi. 9, 10, 16. 2 Chron. viii. 13. Jer. v. 24.

Such, therefore, being the case, inasmuch as the word is put ABSOLUTELY in the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, the Seventy Weeks of Daniel are assuredly 490 days; just as much, as if he had expressed the term by 490 days, and not by 70 weeks. But the event has shewn, that these 490 days are 490 mystical days or 490 natural years. Consequently, it having been thus established that such a mode of computation is used by Daniel in one instance, homogeneity requires, that he should equally be understood to use it in all other parallel instances. Whence it will follow, since the three times and a half of Daniel are undoubtedly identical with the three times and a half of St. John, that St. John also, in the several cases of his numbers, uses the same mode of computation.

Rev. ii. 10. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. viii. c. 15, 16. Lac tant. de mort. persec. c. 48. Oros. lib. vii. c. 25.

2. In this mode of reckoning we are supported by the express verbal warrant of Scripture itself.

When we assert that a prophetic day is a literal year, we assert not, for the mere purpose of serving a turn, any strange and unheard of matter: we simply adopt a method of computation, which has been formally recognised both by Moses and by Ezekiel1.

3. That the latter 1260 days must be equivalent to 1260 years either natural or artificial, is further evident from the very nature of the circumstances which are said to take place in the course of their evolution.

During the lapse of this famous period, the little horn of Daniel's fourth wild-beast acquires and exercises an unlimited dominion of some kind or other within the precincts of the Western Roman Empire after it has been partitioned by the ten Gothic nations; wears out the saints of the Most High by incessant persecution; and changes times and laws, according to its own arbitrary humour. During the lapse of the same period, the apocalyptic ten-horned wild-beast, which is plainly identical with Daniel's fourth wild-beast when viewed as having absorbed its three predecessors, makes war with the saints and overcomes them; power being given to him over all the kindreds and tongues and

1 See Numb. xiv. 33, 34. Ezek. iv. 4-6. See also Isaiah xx. 3. in Bp. Lowth's translation and annotation.

2 Dan. vii. 8, 24, 25.