not be overlooked. Let us apply it in the same manner as the former number 1562 1688 104 1792 Beginning of the great Revolution. The former pointed to the end of it. Moreover— 1603 Union of Scotland and England. 104 1707 Union of the two Parliaments. 1833 First Reform Parliament. "Again, the tithing of the great number of 2300 will show you the beginning and end of the 70th or great week in the following beautiful manner. This number specially refers to the cleansing of the sanctuary, or a war of opinion. The Articles of the English Church are dated 1562; those of the Scotch Church, 1646-7, when the Westminster divines drew up the celebrated Confession of Faith, which is the standard of the Scotch Church. These two numbers, 1792 and 1876, are merely the old numbers which we found by a different process when taking a bird's-eye view of mundane history. “The beginning and the end of this week of judgment, when all the nations are shaken, kings deposed, governments subverted, laws changed, opinions confounded, faiths overthrown, and old principles eradicated, may also be discovered in the following manner. Take the number of days in the great Therian period of 1260 years, equal to 460,205 days, reduce the number by tithing to 46, i.e. a thousand times tithed; you find 46, a most apocryphal number, being the number of days in Lent, the number of years in the wilderness; i.e., till possession of the land in the 47th year, and double the great period of 2300. It was at the end of 40 centuries that Christ came and introduced the Christian dispensation. At the end of 46 centuries, Mahomet, the second Moses, appeared with the sword and took possession of the land enlarged. This number reduced is 4.6. Multiply the Therian period by it in the three following modes :: 1260 × 4.666 5879.160 4004 1876. Our old numbers again, with an intermediate date, well known to students of prophecy, but which I must pass over at present. "One more formula, and I have done. Take sacred years of 360 days, and common years of 3651, and treat them as follows: The same numbers once more, being the beginning and the end of the great week of judgment. "I do not pretend to prophesy from these numbers, or to specify what is going to take place, for I really do not know, nor do I even wish to know. I would rather remain in ignorance of futurity, for it is much better for us all. But there are general views of futurity, such as distinguish wisdom from folly, which it is better to have than not to have. It seems clear to my mind that some important crisis for the nations is at hand, that the gradual overthrow of old-established opinions and institutions is preparing the human mind for a new era of greater light and greater Catholicity than has ever yet appeared in the world. The olden times were times of prejudice and separation of nations, provinces, sects, and parties, by means of seas, mountains, lakes, rivers, languages, faiths, and interests. These obstacles to social union are now rapidly disappearing, mountains are being levelled, seas and oceans are becoming the great highways of nations, bigoted creeds are dissolving even before a vague and indefinite philosophy, which, though altogether unsatisfactory, is yet more consonant with human feelings than the bigotry and intolerance of the dark ages, either of Christianism, Jewism, or Paganism. And the natural conclusion from these well-known facts is simply this, that we are approaching a universal era, in which breadth of mind, largeness of idea, capaciousness of faith and sympathy will distinguish the new generation of men from that which preceded it. This era is the fifth great act of the Divine drama, vulgarly known amongst our fanatical forefathers as the Fifth Monarchy, which some sanguinary fools attempted to commence before the fulness of time by means of swords and guns and other monstrous weapons, and still more monstrous passions, but which can only be introduced at the appointed time by the gentlest of all means, the most delicate but efficacious of all expedients. It will cause the greatest revolution which has ever taken place, but with so little stir, uproar, noise, or bustle, that none but the intelligent will be able to perceive that any change is taking place at all. Dogs and horses will not perceive it as they perceived the French Revolution. Children and women will not be afraid of it, for it will take place within us, in the invisible world where the kingdoms of heaven and hell are both to be found, and where evil must first be thoroughly subdued before good can be realised in the world without. "I have only one more remark to make, and that respects our Queen, her Church, and her Parliament. In this country, the Parliament is a sanctuary. It establishes the Church; and Christianity is 'part and parcel,' as the legislators irreverently express themselves, of the law of the land.' Now the numbers of destiny point to two critical events for each, a climax which befals every imperfect system in one way or other. The Jews, whose bigotry was intense, used strong language, or had it given. them to suit the times, in reference to their climacteric. They called it the abomination of desolation; that is, the Gentiles in their sanctuary. Ours is just the opposite.. The Jews in our sanctuary is the climax; we can go no farther. It is no longer the sanctuary that it once was. A great revolution is impending. . As Christians, the Jews are our extreme opposites. As Protestants, the Catholics. are our extreme opposites. The Catholics in the Church are, therefore, the corresponding climax to the Jews in the State; for the Jews are a temporal, the Catholics a spiritual, people, and they both antagonize our two-fold Church and State. When these two parties are both found standing in the sanctuary, then the end is approaching. 'Let them that are in Judæa flee to the mountains,' that, is the higher doctrines of the Church; 'and let him who is on the housetop not come down,' for the end is at hand. "It is impossible that Protestantism can stand with two such ideas in its bosom. Indeed, it is no longer the Protestantism or Christianity of our fathers. I think it better, a change for the better and not for the worse, but still it is a crisis that puts an end to an old system. The desolation of Jerusalem was good for the world. It put an end to the old pagan system of sacrifice, first in the Jewish Temple, to be afterwards consummated in the empire; and the termination of a mere national system of Protestantism, founded upon very narrow principles, and nourishing intense bigotry and hatred in those who cling most devotedly to it, is a good for society at large, to be followed by the termination of other narrow and exclusive systems, such as those of Romanism, Jewism, Dissenterism, and Infidelity, which are all barbarous, tending to alienate man from man, to cherish intolerant and tyrannical habits, to destroy the religious and spiritual character of humanity, and to create and to justify uncharitable feelings, language, and behaviour, attempting to satisfy the soul of man either with a cruel and ferocious or uncharitable religion, based upon material meanings of spiritual words, or with none at all. |