Imatges de pàgina
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the whole preceding discussion rests upon a false principle, the year 604 is the true date of the latter three times and a half.

IV. As the previously known loose date of the seven times conducted us to the loose date of its second moiety: so, the precise date of its second moiety being once ascertained, we may thence mechanically determine the precise date of the seven times.

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Now, by as strong evidence as the case will admit, the year after Christ 604 has been found to be the precise date of the second moiety of the seven times or of the latter three times and a half. Hence the precise date of the seven times, or the year in which Nebuchadnezzar the golden head of the image was born, must be the year before Christ 657; a year, included between the years 658 and 646, or included within the period during which Nebuchadnezzar must have been born. In this year 657, therefore, commence those times of the Gentiles, which constitute the grand sacred calendar of prophecy for, upon this palmary period of seven times, as upon a surface, all the smaller numbers, except those which respect the subsequent period of blessedness, will be found to spread themselves.

CHAPTER VII.

RESPECTING THE PROPER CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE LATTER TIMES, THE LAST TIME OR THE LAST DAYS, AND THE TIME OF THE END.

THE circumstance of the great period of seven times being employed as the sacred calendar of prophecy will lead us to the proper chronological arrangement of three minor periods; which are severally denominated the latter times', the last time2 or the last days3, and the time of the end".

We have seen, that the seven times or the times of the Gentiles (for so this period is styled by our Lord, as comprehending the appointed times of the four great gentile Empires, reckoned from the birth of Nebuchadnezzar the declared golden head of the image) are divided into two moieties, each consisting of three times and a half. Hence these two moieties may properly be called the former moiety and the latter moiety: and such a mode of speech will obviously cause the times, included

· Gr. Ὑστέροι καιροι. 1 Tim. iv. 1.

' Gr. 'Eoxáros Xpóvos. Jude 18.

3 Gr. Ἐσχάται ἡμέραι or Εσχάτον τῶν ἡμερῶν. 2 Tim. iii. 1. 2 Pet. iii. 3.

Heb. Yp лy. Dan. xi. 40.

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within these two moieties, to be severally denominated the former times and the latter times. But the latter times, though latter with respect to the former times, constitute a period of very considerable length, no less indeed than 1260 years. So ample a period, therefore, will, readily admit of a yet further subdivision. Hence the concluding portion of the latter times, if it be marked by any peculiarities which require it to be distinguished from the preceding portions of those same latter times, may justly be styled the last time or the last days, as being the final portion of that latter moiety of the seven times which contradistinctively is called the latter times.

Such phraseology as this, relating as it does to that term of seven times which constitutes the sacred calendar of prophecy, can only be expected to be used in prophetic writings. As for those writings which are not prophetic, a more loose mode of speech will be found to prevail in them; or rather a mode of speech founded upon a totally different principle. Thus both St. John and St. Peter and St. Paul speak of themselves, as actually living in the last season or in the last times or in the last days in other words, they describe themselves as living in a period, when (we may be positively sure) the latter moiety of the seven prophetic times had not commenced. What, then, do they mean by

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Gr. Ἐσχάτη ὥρα, 1 John ii. 18.

• Gr. Καίρος ἐσχάτος and Ἐσχάτοι χρόνοι. 1 Peter i. 5, 20. 3 Gr. Ἐσχάται ἡμέραι. Heb. i. 2

such phraseology? Doubtless they allude to those three successive seasons or dispensations, under which the counsels of God have been revealed to mankind. First came the Patriarchal Dispensation: next, the Levitical: and, last of all, the Christian. In writings, therefore, which are not prophetic, and which consequently have no relation to the seven times employed as the sacred calendar of prophecy, the last season or the last times or the last days plainly enough denote the period of the Christian Dispensation; which Dispensation is last in point of time, when contradistinguished from the two preceding Dispensations Patriarchal and Levitical. But, in writings which are prophetic and which therefore chronologically relate to the sacred calendar of prophecy, all such phrases are of a much more limited import: for, in that case, even the latter times do not commence until the commencement of the latter three times and half; much more, therefore, the last time or the last days, which are no other than the concluding portion of the latter times.

I. The only inspired prophetic writer, who by name speaks of the latter times, is the Apostle St. Paul: but the characteristic marks, which he ascribes to the period thus denominated, leave us no room to doubt, that the period in question is that of the latter three times and a half or that of the reign of the man of sin'. In the Apocalypse,

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I speak of St. Paul, as being the only inspired prophetic writer who mentions by name the latter times; because, though

however, (as we shall hereafter see proved at large), the period of the latter times or the period of the

the apparently similar phrase of the latter days often occurs in our common English translation of the Old Testament, no such phrase is to be found in the original Hebrew.

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The expression, employed by the writers of the ancient Scriptures, is Aarith Hajomim (N); which our translators have variously rendered, sometimes comparatively and sometimes superlatively, as if they had met with two distinct phrases, the latter days and the last days.

Of this expression the literal translation is the futurity of days; a Hebraism, which is equivalent to the English phrase future days. Accordingly, Bp. Newton very truly remarks, that it primarily signifies any time yet to come; adding, however, that it denotes more particularly the times of Christianity: nor does it relate always, in his lordship's judgment, to the whole period of the Christian Dispensation in general; but it sometimes relates likewise to the latter or last days of the latter or last times in particular. See Dissert, iv. xxiii. 3. See also Mede's Apost. of the latter times, part i. chap. 2.

I cannot but think, that such observations, so far as they respect the Hebrew phrase itself, involve much useless and superfluous refinement.

Doubtless, the expression will often designate the period of the Christian Dispensation; and I may add, that it will often also designate that concluding period of the Christian Dispensation upon earth which is usually called the Millenium. But what then? The expression itself bears, in truth, no such sense, as if there were something mystical and peculiar and exclusive in the occasional use of it. All, that it intimates, is this: that hereafter, with reference to the time when any particular prophecy was delivered, the Christian Dispensation, under such or such an aspect, should be prevalent in the world. The phrase itself has; intrinsically and inherently, no more reference to the Christian Dispensation than to any other future

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