point between the years 603 and 615 after the Christian era. In other words, at some point between the years 603 and 615 after the Christian era, the first moiety of the seven times, or the first smaller term of three times and a half, will expire; and the second moiety of the seven times, or the second smaller term of three times and a half, which is allotted to the exercise of an extraordinary tyranny over the saints of the Most High, will com

mence.

: Such a conclusion exactly quadrates with the account given by Daniel of the rise of that Power, by which the tyranny in question is to be exercised. He does not indeed chronologically define the commencement of the latter three times and a half; for he marks it only circumstantially, by the fact of God's saints, together with the times and the laws, being given into the hand of the tyrannical Power: but he describes the Power itself, which should acquire this uncontrouled supremacy, as gradually springing up during the period of the division of the fourth or Roman Empire into ten kingdoms. Hence it is natural to suppose, both from the very reason of the thing and from the length of the term during which the saints are to be subjected to a lawless tyranny, that the arrogant and encroaching Power, which springs up during the division of the Roman Empire, would acquire

its predicted domination over the saints not very long after that division had been completed. Now the division was completed in the year 568 after the Christian era when the tenth or last Gothic kingdom upon the western or proper Roman platform, the kingdom of the Lombards in Italy, was founded by Alboin. It is only reasonable, therefore, to conclude, that the predicted domination over the saints would be acquired not long after the year 568: a conclusion, which excellently agrees with the epoch to which we had already been brought for the chronological bisection of the seven times and therefore for the chronological commencement of the latter three times and a half; namely, a point between the years 603 and 615 after the Christian era.

These matters being laid down, it will not be very difficult to specify the principal events and actors comprehended within those seven times, which are denominated by our Lord THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES, which jointly constitute the age of the great metallic image, which thence are made the measure of THE SACRED PROPHETIC CALENDAR, and which are divided into two smaller periods each containing three times and a half.

I. The persons and events, comprehended within the first moiety of the seven times, are marked out ready to our hand by faithful history: for, since that moiety commenced with the birth of the golden head Nebuchadnezzar at some point between the years 658 and 646 before the Christian era, and

since consequently it terminated at some point between the years 603 and 615 after the Christian era; nothing more is requisite than to consult history, as to the Gentile Powers connected with the Church of God, whether Levitical or Evangelical, during the period thus distinctly marked out.

History, then, teaches us, in perfect accordance with prophecy, that the actors during this period were the four Pagan Empires of Babylon and Persia and Greece and Rome, and that the ecclesiastical events comprehended within it were the various trials which successively affected the Levitical and the Christian Churches. These events were the captivity of the Jews by the Babylonian Empire; the restoration of the Jews by the MedoPersian Empire; the persecution of the Jews by the Greek Empire, using as its organ the Macedonian kingdom of Syria; the advent and crucifixion of the Messiah, which last event occurred precisely at the end of the seventy prophetic weeks; the destruction of Jerusalem with its temple, and the complete scattering of the Jews, by the Roman Empire; the successful preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles and their successors, after the Christian Church had been first founded in Judea by the long-expected Saviour of mankind; the violent and continued persecution of the faithful by the pagan Roman Empire; the conversion of that Empire to the religion of Christ; the gradual corruption of Christianity

'See my Dissert, on Daniel's Seventy Weeks, chap. vi. § I.

through an excessive veneration of the Virgin Mary and the defunct saints and martyrs, which ultimately revived under a new and specious form the ancient demonolatry of Paganism; the division of the Western or proper Roman Empire by ten distinct Gothic nations; and the gradual rise of the Papal Power in the midst of the kingdoms founded upon the Western or Latin platform by those ten Gothic nations.

Such are the events, which occurred during the first moiety of the seven times. Whatever use may be made of them in the applicatory interpretation of prophecy, the naked events themselves most assuredly stand recorded in history.

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II. The second moiety of the seven times must of course commence, where the first moiety terminates. But the first moiety terminates at some point between the years 603 and 615 after the Christian era. Therefore, at that same point, the second moiety will commence. Such being its commencement, it will terminate at some point between the years 1863 and 1875, after the Christian era. Hence, as the period in question has very nearly run out, the actors and events, comprehended within by far the greatest part of it, are no less, a subject of history, than the actors and events comprehended within the first moiety of the seven times.

1. Daniel and St. John agree in allotting the second moiety of the seven times, or the latter three times and a half, to the tyranny of a Power; which

is described, as acquiring at the commencement of that term an unlimited dominion over the saints of the Most High within the precincts of its own peculium, as wearing them out by incessant persecution, as springing up synchronically with and in the midst of the ten kingdoms which were formed out of the Western Roman Empire between the years 406 and 568 inclusive, and as influencing in a wonderful manner the actions of the collective though divided Empire.

This Power is represented by Daniel under the symbol of a little horn, which springs up from the fourth or Roman wild-beast in the midst of ten other larger horns: while St. John exhibits it, sometimes under the image of a distinct wild-beast denominated the false prophet, and sometimes under the hieroglyphic of a harlot drunken with the blood of the saints; for the Power, shadowed out by the false prophet or the persecuting harlot of the Apocalypse, performs the very same actions and holds the very same relation to the ten-horned wild-beast or the secular Roman Empire, as the little horn which makes so conspicuous a figure in Daniel's vision of the four great beasts. Hence, whatever Power may be intended by these several hieroglyphics, all our best commentators, whether popish or protestant, are fully agreed, that they each represent one and the same Power. Such, likewise, was the judgment of the early Fathers. Living as they did before the commencement of the latter three times and a half, they formed,