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"tation,) to the second position of the author of "The Christian's Survey, viz. that there is no "such period revealed in Prophecy as that of 1260

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years; that this period is at best hypothetical " and equivocal in its nature, and always arbitrary "in its application; that it is no where mentioned "in the Scriptures; that it is only conjecturally "inferred from a comparison of three figurative "and mysterious passages, which in different ages "have been differently expounded." The author of "The Dissertation" is much moved, because I have here affirmed, that a period of 1260 years is no where mentioned in the Scriptures. I must, nevertheless, renew the assertion; and ask him to show me, where it is mentioned? He tells me, that mention is made of " a time, times, and the dividing "of a time," or three years and a half; of forty months; and, of 1260 days. I have also said the same: and he is offended that I have confined myself, for the sake of brevity, to three texts, in which those three several computations are expressed, and

that I have not produced four other texts, in which the same identical numbers are only repeated, with out any thing added to afford illustration of their meaning. But he does not attempt to show me any one text in which 1260 years are mentioned; and yet, to that point alone my assertion was confined.

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"But," says he," three years and a half contain

forty months, and forty months contain 1260 days; "and these days are to be interpreted as years." But how does this affect my assertion? By his own show. ing, years are not mentioned, they are only to be inferred. This question of inference, I do not take upon myself either to affirm, or to deny ; but his impatient zeal at the suspense of my judgment upon this article, has hurried him into an intemperance ill according with Christian, or indeed any other equity. He says, that my remarks "include in "them, as a necessary consequence, the monstrous

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supposition that a prophetical number, which is

expressly mentioned seven times in those Scrip

"tures which are given by the Holy Ghost; and "the second annunciation of which is accompani"ed with an oath, in the awful name of HIM THAT "LIVETH FOR EVER AND EVER, is altogether

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hypothetical and equivocal in its nature; or, in "other words, absolutely unintelligible; than which

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supposition I know not any that can be more "affronting to the Scriptures of truth, or more 66 agreeable to infidels, who deride every attempt to "expound the Prophecies, especially those of "Daniel and St. John."

I shall strive to subdue the feelings which arise naturally at this perversion of my plain and obvious meaning, whose humble reverence to the Scriptures of truth is, I hope, as plainly manifested as his own. It needed but little of common candour, or calm reason, to know and to testify, that I can have pronounced the prophetical measure of 1260 days to be hypothetical and equivocal only with relation to the darkness and wantonness of human invention; and not absolutely,

in itself, or with relation to the Omniscient Mind. But, as this writer confounded the prescriptive belief of the ancient churches with the modern surmises of the Protestant churches, in explaining the Vision of Daniel; so here he fails to discriminate, between the power of a mystical number in his own mind, and in that of the Prophetic Spirit. For he thinks, that to pronounce any part of the Scriptures unintelligible (that is, not actually intelligible) to man, is a judgment bearing equally against divine and human wisdom; and as implying equal defect, in the communication of the one, as in the apprehension of the other. And yet, my own individual experience assures me, that there are a multitude of passages in the Scriptures as yet" absolutely unintelligible" to the author of "The Dissertation;" without any irreverence or "affront" to the Divine Spirit who dictated them.

In the writings, even the latest, of pious but incautious men, that mystical period is altogether

uncertain, hypothetical, and equivocal; and I desire the reader to pronounce, whether a stronger evidence in proof of this assertion could be imagined than that which the author of "The Dissertation" has himself furnished, in the acknow ledgment with which he begins his Preface. "I "was," says he, "for some years engaged in a con"troversy with Mr. Faber, upon the subject of the

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commencement and end; of the 1260 years." The two latest writers of note, upon this subject, when they had to establish, for the foundation-stone of a scheme of interpretation, the commencement of this assumed period of 1260 years; which was also to determine the time of its end; were engaged in a controversy" concerning it, and that “for many

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years;" and the controversy ended with each differing from the other, and abiding by his own separate opinion; the one adopting the year 533, the other the year 606, for the epocha of the com mencement of the period. And can any stronger testimony than this be conceived, to prove that this

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