are found to contain no such meaning,-or, if they sometimes contain just so much as to raise a question on the point, the question is never stated, but his own decision of it is given instead, as the positive language of inspiration,-while the passages which seem to contradict his views are never so much as alluded to; but demanding the literal acceptation of one passage, he takes no notice of others which render such a sense incompatible, intimating too, in various places, that those who differ from him are characterised by an unwillingness to receive the word of God, and while their opinion, like his own, is drawn from the context of Scripture, assigning some trivial reason for it, which he would hardly find any one to acknowledge.

CHAPTER II.

Statement of the Question.

I AM able, by an extract from the concluding chapter of Mr. Pym's book, to present side by side, in a prominence himself has given them, the two assertions, which, though treated but as holding place in a series of subordinate propositions, are those which it is the main object of the book to make out; as they are the only ones that bear upon the question of time, excepting one other respecting the cleansing of the sanctuary, which, whether rightly or not, he has rather assumed as an inference, than stated as

a distinct proposition. As the passage is likewise an express challenge to examination, it is particularly applicable to the purpose. "From all these I turn to the statement, which has been made [see chap. iii.] and the plain calculation which accompanied it. We ask you to examine it closely, to search it." "Should the conclusion be favourable, and should it be found that the calculation is correct, then search diligently and satisfy yourself upon that other doctrine-that the national conversion of Israel and Judah is to be brought about only by the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Should this also prove correct, then be honest enough to confess 'that we have not followed cunningly devised fables."-(P. 66.) That statement and that calculation referred to, as in chap. iii. is the point in which I first and chiefly purpose to place myself at issue with the author. What that is, and of how much importance to the writer's purpose, will appear in the following passages, taken from the fore-mentioned chapter.

"Then how do you reply to it, [the saying of our Saviour, that of that day and hour knoweth no man,] it may be asked? Reader, were any man to tell you that at some future day, which he did not name, you should be in possession of an inheritance which he had to bestow; but that after you were in possession of it, some particular event with which he was acquainted would follow as a necessary consequence, and that this event would happen in the year 1847 what would you conclude respecting the time of entering upon your inheritance? You will tell me, that though ignorant of the day and hour

in which you would enter upon it, it must be before the year 1847. And just the same conclusion the Church may draw respecting the coming of her Lord to bring her into the enjoyment of the purchased possession. This, by God's grace, it shall now be my endeavour to show."-P. 30.

Happily in this case one date may be ascertained correctly; and by means of this one correct date we are enabled to ascertain the year in which the restoration of the seed of Abraham shall be accomplished; and by that the time before which the second advent of the Lord must have taken place.”—P. 36.

"But if the seventy weeks begin 453 years before the incarnation of Christ, the 2300 beginning at the same time, we ascertain their termination merely by deducting the years before the incarnation, which leaves A.D. 1847 as the time when the sanctuary shall be cleansed, and the vision be accomplished: the last end of the indignation. And this last end shall be the consequence of the second coming of Christ, as we have already seen; therefore before the end, i. e. A.D. 1847, Christ shall have come."-P. 41.

"From the data furnished entirely by this prophecy, we have ascertained that the year of our Lord 1847 is the time appointed by Jehovah for the restoration and re-establishment of the seed of Abraham in the land, which he sware unto their fathers. From various passages of holy writ, the next advent of the Lord must precede that restoration; from which it follows, that the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ must have taken place before the year 1847."-P. 42.

I have extracted these passages, as so many repeated assertions, that the next personal coming of the Lord must have taken place before the year 1847. They contain also some of the other positions, which make out the argument. As thus— the year 1847 is foretold as the time when the sanctuary shall be cleansed. The cleansing of the sanctuary, according to the passage p. 30, implies the previous restoration. According to the passages p. 36, and p. 42, it is either one and the same, or necessarily coincident with the restoration and reestablishment of the seed of Abraham in the land of their fathers. According to the passage p. 41, the cleansing of the sanctuary, which is supposed to be the same with the restoration of the Jews, is also coincident with the last end of the indignation; and this last end is stated to be the consequence of the second coming of the Lord.

Thus the argument for the time is made out; and upon the examination of this I shall enter first, as first in the order of consequence, being that from which all the other doctrines of the book derive their immediate pressure. I think we shall find that Mr. Pym has erected his theory upon such a connexion and joint-construction of separate passages of Scripture as is neither authentic nor reasonable.

CHAPTER III.

The Question respecting the Interpretation of the Passages in the eighth and ninth chapters of Daniel, which Mr. Pym has made authority for the assertion contained in the third chapter of his Book.

I. THE seventh chapter of Daniel relates a vision which was shown to the prophet in the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon. This is the famous vision of the four empires symbolized in the four beasts, and respecting the interpretation of which there is no difference of opinion, I believe, without the confines of the Romish Church.

In the eighth chapter is related a second vision, which appeared to the prophet two years after, in the third year of king Belshazzar, (he is very express in the points of time and place,) at Shushan, in the province of Elam, by the side of the river Ulai. This is the vision of the ram and he-goat, representing the empires of Persia and Grecia. "There stood before the river a ram which had two horns-and behold a he-goat came from the west; and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes; and he smote the ram, and brake his two horns. Therefore the he-goat waxed great and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones, towards the four winds of heaven." Vers. 3-8.

Respecting the interpretation of this vision also, thus far there is neither difference of opinion, nor any room for it. Gabriel appears to the prophet and