Scriptural and Hieroglyphic Observations which were Foretold in the Years of 1750 & 1792
9781465620101
208 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
The Spirit of God is now performing great wonders in all nations, in order to bring about the great work of reformation; and that it is the opinion of many good Christians, that the call of the Jews will be in this age, and that too very suddenly; and that it is very probable, from a numerous train of deductions, that in this very year, 1750, we may expect some more than ordinary appearances and motions in most parts of the world, especially in the Northern and Eastern parts thereof, tending to the overthrow and destruction of Antichrist. “Tidings out of the East and out of the North shall trouble him, (says Daniel, chap, xi.) yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.” That the time of the Jews’ restoration and commencement of the Millennium is near at hand, is certain; whether so near as the time above mentioned, is as yet uncertain. But this uncertainty arises from the many historical, and chronological difficulties to be found among historians; some authors making the time of the same event sooner, others later. Archbishop Usher, and other chronologers since his time, place the birth of Christ just four thousand years from the creation.—Scaliger, Petavius, and some others, not so much; but the Septuagint and Josephus much more; the like difference in accounts is to be found amongst them in many other historical facts. There is a tradition among the Jews, that the world shall continue six thousand years; (viz.) two thousand years void, two thousand years under the law, and two thousand years under the Messias; and at the end of this six thousand years will commence the Millennium, or one thousand years of rest for the people of God, and particularly for his chosen people the Jews.—Lactantius says wherefore,—because all the works of God were completed in six days, it is necessary that the world continue in this state six thousand years; which six thousand years, Cyprian says, are already almost complete since the devil attacked mankind. Mr. Whiston observes, that this notion of a Millennium is universal; and it is derived from the earliest tradition, both among the old heathen Philosophers, the ancient Jews, the Apostles, and the primitive Fathers of the Church, and is an undeniable and most important portion of Divine Revelation. In his Sacred History, lately published, Vol. II. p. 343, he says, that by the exactest chronology, the first six thousand years from the creation end about A.D. 1766; that is for certain supposed the beginning of the Millennium, when the Jews will be restored to their own country, and rebuild their temple, upon the sounding of the Seventh Trumpet. A trumpet is the symbol of war; and in the Revelations we find that all the seven trumpets were to be attended with woes and lamentations; six of which are already past; and the seventh, which is yet to come, denounceth the third and last woe. Under it, the seven vials of God’s wrath are to be poured out, both upon the Eastern and Western Antichrist; that is, the Turk and Pope. It is said, Revelations, chap. viii. verse 13, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, by reason of the trumpets that are yet to sound;” and chap. xv. verse 8, it is said, “No man was able to enter into the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled;” which intimateth that the holy city and temple cannot be prepared to receive the righteous part of mankind, till the power of the Turk and Pope are both destroyed, or that the seven vials are poured out.
