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heathen, and punishment upon the people; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute upon them the judgment written. And this supreme power shall abide with them four or five years without interruption, until they have broken in pieces the fourth monarchy. "Another terrible and fearful change,

in likelihood will fall out in the year 1655, or the year after, that is, the sacking and burning of the city of Rome. After which it shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; but wild beasts of the desart lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures. And owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces, and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged. And this instrumentally shall be done by the saints of the most High, whose hearts and hands the Lord will raise up for that work. It is possible that the Pope, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, &c. may escape, as being reserved to perish afterward with the worshippers of the beast, as Balaam perished amongst the Midianites."--pp. 30, 31.

Canne was far from being singuiar in his opinions on these subjects. We have another work now before us, "Clavis Apocalyptica, or the Revelation Revealed; in which the great mysteries in the revelation of St. John and the Prophet Daniel

are

was

opened, it being made apparent, that the prophetical numbers come to an end with the year of our Lord 1655." This work published in 1651, only four years before the anticipated period of the fulfilment of these prophecies. It was translated from the German by Samuel Hartlib, the friend of Milton, and to whom the poet dedicated his Tract on Education. It has a long preface prefixed to it, by John Dury, a Scotsman, and one of the most learned and excellent ministers of the period. Both appear to have been partial to the opinions of

the writer.

Another work of that period is the "Resurrection Revealed, by Nathanael Homes, D.D." fol.

1654. With all due deference to Mr. Irving, he might have saved himself the labour of trans

lating Ben Ezra, had he examined this work. It is precisely such a book as the production of calm, acute, the Spanish Jesuit. It is learned, full of scripture

interpretation, and altogether, though we espouse not the opinions of the author, which time has proved to be on many points mistaken, an interesting volume. The following testimony of no less a man than Joseph Caryll, which is prefixed, shows the high opinion he entertained of it.

"That all the saints shall reign with Christ a thousand years on earth, in a wonderful, both visible and spiritual glorious manner, before the time of the ultimate and general resurrection, is a position, which, though not a few have hesitated about, and some opposed, yet has gained ground in the hearts and judgments of very many, both brave and godly men, who have left us divers essays, and discourses upon this subject. laborious travels of this author, I conAnd having perused the learned and ceive that the church of God hath not hitherto seen this great point so clearly stated, so largely discussed, so strongly confirmed, not only by the testimony of ancient and modern writers of all sorts, but by the Holy Scriptures throughout, as it is presented in this book. Wherein also divers other considerable points are collaterally handled, all tending to set forth the catastrophe, and result of all the troubles and hopes of such as fear God, as the preface to their eternal bliss. And whereas some have been, and still are apt to abuse this doctrine, by making it an occasion to the flesh, and of heating themselves in the expectation of a carnal liberty, and worldly glory; I find that this author hath such abuses, by showing the exceeding cautiously forelaid, and prevented all spiritualness and holiness of this state: to which, as none but the truly holy shall attain, or having attained it, they shall And walk in the height of holiness. therefore I judge this book very useful for the saints, and worthy of the publie

view."

Such were the opinions and the mistakes entertained on the subject of unfulfilled prophecy during this excited period of English history. These times passed away; and instead of the era of millennial glory following them, a very different state of things ensued, showing how utterly the parties had mistaken the whole

matter.

The French Revolution was another period of political, and also of prophetical excitement. The thrones of Antichrist then appeared to be falling, and the Pope and his abettors seemed about to be cast into the burning lake. A new and splendid day in the estimation of many then began to dawn. Many hearts throbbed with expectation, and many pens began to predict the things that were shortly to come to pass. The writings of Bicheno had a prodigious circulation, and made many converts. Bicheno was followed by Mr. Faber; he by Messrs. Cunninghame, Frere, Cooper, Irving, Drummond, and many others too numerous to mention or to characterise, though we have paid some attention to most of their productions.

The work now republished by Mr. Vint we have long known. It was the production of the Rev. J. L. Towers, and appeared without the author's or publisher's name in 1796, during the very heat of the wars of the Revolu

tion. It is said that the ministry of Mr. Pitt got the work suppressed. It is written with great freedom and great ability: discovering, on the part of the writer, vast research, and an acquaintance with works on prophecy, both ancient and modern, of the most extensive range. Many things in the work we consider well entitled to the consideration of all the

students of prophecy; and as the work could scarcely be obtained at any price, Mr. Vint has rendered a most useful service to the cause by republishing it.

To the republication, he has annexed Five Dissertations of his own, in which, at considerable length, and with great ingenuity, he has stated some views which appear to possess strong claims to originality, and which, without pledging ourselves either to their adoption or defence, we consider entitled to a very full and dispassionate examination before they are rejected. Our pages do not afford room for the full discussion of these, or, indeed, any other views of prophecy. We can do little more than point out certain positions, and state general principles or opinions, leaving it to the writers on these subjects to follow out the details, and to our readers to examine the works themselves. If Mr. Vint's interpretation of the first part of the twentieth chapter of the Revelations be correct, the whole doctrine of the millennium, as held by both parties, is exploded. invite the writers on prophecy to examine, on critical and grammatical principles, the following passage, which particularly claims their attention.

We

"The Greek of the fourth verse in

the preceding passage may be literally rendered thus:

"I saw thrones, and they sat upon them; and I saw the souls of those that them, and judgment was given unto had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and whoever worshipped not the beast nor his image, and took not the mark on their reigned with Christ a thousand years.' forehead or on their hand, and lived and

"The following is a free translation :"And in the space of a thousand years, I saw thrones, and those who given; and I saw the souls of those that sat on them, to whom judgment was had been beheaded for the testimony of

Jesus, and for the word of God; and I saw those who worshipped not the beast, nor his image, and who received not his mark on their foreheads, or on their hands; and I saw those who lived and reigned with Christ.'

The original Greek of this passage has had a singular fortune under the hands of translators. After the word uxas, souls, there is a participle in the perfect or pluperfect tense, which is followed by four verbs, all aorists. The participle is in our common version rendered by a verb in the imperfect tense, which ought to have been in the pluperfect; and of the verbs, the two former have been converted into the pluperfect, and the two latter have been left in the imperfect tense: but still worse than all this, the grammatical construction or government has been completely changed. I will not assert, that the translators have done this capriciously, arbitrarily, or at random; but I am disposed to think, that if their minds had not been pre-occupied by a Jewish tradition, they would not have rendered the passage in the manner they have."-pp. 351–352.

"Our common translation, and indeed every translation which I have seen,

envelops with obscurity the verse which has occasioned the foregoing observations, by failing to mark distinctly the series or succession of objects presented to the Apostle's view, as it respects time. And

there is another cause of obscurity: it is difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the meaning which the translators intended to convey, relative to the principal objects of the vision, whether their version has a reference to souls or persons or to both, and if to both, what should be restricted to the one and what to the other."- pp. 355, 356.

"The space of a thousand years occupied by the scene of the vision under review, may be divided into three periods: the first, extending from the confinement of the symbolic dragon in 828 to the year 1123, when at the first general council of the Lateran, the papal power seems to have been completely established by the right of Investiture being, after a long conflict, conceded to the popes of Rome. The second, reaching from that era to the Reformation. And the third, from the Reformation to the present time.”—p. 358.

We can do nothing more, at present, than to direct attention to the subject. It is a question of grammatical structure, on which N. S. No. 49.

we should like to see a good critical argument. For, after all, any hypothesis must give place to the literal meaning of Scripture, established by principles of interpretation, applicable to the Word of God as well as to the words of men.

We have gone into some detail in this article for the purpose of showing that there is nothing novel in the attempt to prove that Antichrist is just about to be destroyed, the Millennium just going to commence, and Christ's personal reign about to be established.

We think the evidence of palpable misapprehension respecting" the times and the seasons which the Father hath reserved in his own power," into which our references show that holy, learned, and acute men have fallen, ought to teach those who are treading in their steps as interpreters of prophecy, to speak with moderation, and should induce those who are ready to receive the dogmatical assertions of uninspired men on these subjects to act with caution. In times of excitement, there have been always some crying, 66 Lo here is Christ, and lo there”—We would remind our readers of the solemn warning of the Redeemer, "Believe it not." For ourselves, we are neither afraid nor jealous of the study of prophecy, if it is prosecuted in a christian manner, and upon correct and properly ascertained principles. We have no interests to support but those of truth and righteousness, and feel ourselves debtors to any man who throws light upon the word of God, or contributes to fix a deeper impression upon our minds of its important truths. We wish on these subjects, which have been so much discussed of late, to be neither "rash nor diffident." We will seek the truth, and, we trust,

G

SO

we shall have the courage to fol-
low it, wherever it may lead us.
We have paid some attention to
prophecy, and likewise to its in-
terpreters, as this article must
convince the reader. We are de-
termined to give the subject more
attention in the course of this
year, than it has yet received in
our work. We feel that it is
not right to be silent when
many are disposed to be even
clamorous. We have not been
asleep, though we have only now
and then appeared to be awake.
We beg to assure the gentlemen
who have engaged so deeply in
prophetic inquiries, that we have
not been inattentive to the course
they have been pursuing, though
parts of that course we have
deeply deplored. It is our de-
sire to treat them respectfully
and fairly; though we may find
it necessary to differ, even widely,
from them. The sneers of some
of them at "the unholy periodi-
cals," and the language of af-
fected authority in which they
indulged, shall neither irritate
nor intimidate us. We could
easily talk in the same lofty and
contemptuous style. But we trust
we know better what is due to
our Master and to his cause. We
despise no man, and we judge no
man; for every man shall be
judged at the tribunal of Jesus
Christ, and not at our's. We are
willing to regard Mr. Cunning-
hame, Mr. Irving, Mr. Noel, and
Mr. Drummond as brethren, if
they will act as such; but we will
never worship them as fathers,
or submit to them as masters.
We shall listen to their reason-
ings, and receive or reject them
according to the evidence they
adduce, perfectly regardless of
their anathemas. A little time will
throw light on the difficulties and dif-
ferences which now exist-" Truth
is great, and it must prevail."

Introductory Lectures, delivered in the
University of London, by Professors Dale,
Lardner, Grant, and Hurwitz. Sold
separately. 1s. 18. 6d. and 2s. each.
Taylor, Gower Street.

WE heartily congratulate the
friends of civil and religious liber-
ty that two such events should
have marked the year that has
now closed, as the Repeal of the
Test and Corporation Acts, and
the Opening of the University of
London. Whatever sentiments
these events may have excited
in some quarters, we are per-
suaded that, by an enlightened
posterity, who shall reap the full
advantages arising out of them,
they will be regarded as occur-
rences of the most memorable in-
terest, and as fixing a sort of
epoch in the history of true re-
form and genuine improvement.

The University of London, all our readers are aware, has been destined to rear its head amidst vollies of abuse, and storms of opposition. It has been decried by petty interest; and it has been denounced by bigotry and fanaticism, as one of the signs of the times, a kind of incarnation of the infidel antichrist. This ultrapolitical calumny, and this idle thunder of millenarianism, may be permitted to vent themselves: the one savours too much of party system, and the other too little of the spirit of that Christianity it so intemperately vindicates, to gain much attention from the reflecting public: certain it is, that each of these weapons has proved unavailing-imbelle telum sine ictu; the University of London has lifted its front and begun its career notwithstanding all. These two classes of opponents, have, like most other oppositionists, aimed at too much; but they have done nothing, unless it be to attract more notice to the infant Institution, which has entered on

its operations with a body of nearly 500 students.

There is, however, a more respectable class of objectors; whose scruples, though we think them needless, deserve notice and reply, in consequence of the purity of motive from which they undoubtedly proceed. Had we believed the alarms that have been entertained by these individuals real, we should certainly have felt it our duty to abstain from recommending the project, as we have frequently done, to the attention and support of our constituents. We have repeatedly, and we may say, candidly, listened to the arguments urged against it by the class of persons we allude to; but we must own, that they have failed of producing conviction in our minds; and the manner in which the Institution has now presented itself to the public, has had the practical effect of confirming our opinion that those arguments have been founded on a partial view of the subject: and we have not the slightest doubt that if the University proceeds in the manner in which it has begun, as appears by these Introductory Lectures, it will not fail to draw the whole community of liberally-minded Christians in its train.

The graud objection to the new University, among those who alone merit a serious attempt to remove their scruples, is, that it does not bear the aspect of a religious institution. On this subject we are anxious not to be misunderstood, but we would ask the meaning of the terms: what is a religious institution? Is that a religious institution which, whatever a man believes, obliges him to subscribe to certain articles, or punishes him with exclusion? Will his subscription make him a believer? Will any obliquity of opinion be

cured by holding out a lure to hypocrisy? Are true Christians, or even orthodox opinions, to be created by Acts of Parliament or by the Statutes of a University? If so, it would be wise and benevolent in the Legislature, even to go farther, and to enact that no man should have commercial dealings with another, unless they both subscribed to certain articles! The best thing for the eternal interests of men would be to make them outlaws, unless they professed the given form of religion!

As firm believers in a Revelation from heaven, and of the fact, that this Revelation contains a restorative dispensation for mankind, who are involved in deep and mysterious ruin, we are free to confess that we should rejoice if the time were come, when every undertaking, every public scheme of usefulness, every effort to alleviate the misery, and inform the mind of man, presented itself to notice only as a practical exemplification, or an an ornamental and consistent appendage of pure Apostolic Christianity, but that time is not as yet arrived. It holds more than any age the world has yet seen, of that millennial period, which, divested of the dreams of fancy, has always been the anticipation of the church: whether this period is likely to be hastened by any forms and degrees of persecution; or by any set of men usurping the throne of God, and punishing other men for opinions, suppose however erroneous, it surely requires little argument to prove. We have no doubt that the time is coming when the progress of true religion will bring all human learning into closer combination with all divine. The works of the God of nature will be more than ever studied by those who

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