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of this era was June 19th, 325, and the second was in the year 532, as near as can be found.

4. The 42 months are an abbreviated year, and may represent a year of 42, or 49, or 52 months, and to these the 1260 days conform. Now, 1260 days and 42 months equal 454,272 days, and from the Justinian epoch of church and state union extends to the year 1776. Forty-nine. months, or 1470 days, are equal to 529,984 days, and from the Constantine epoch, June 19th, 325, to July 4th, 1776, is exactly 529,984 days. Fifty-three months, or 1560 days, are equal to 562,432 days, and extend from the last epoch in 325 to 1865, June 15th or 16th. Now, at the rise of the United States, a part of the great body of true Christians ceased to be trodden under foot, and the rest, it appears, will cease to be in 1865. Babylon church will be destroyed before civil monarchy, and as that will transpire by 1878, this epoch of its destruction looks reasonable.

5. The witnesses to be slain were only those in one part of the great city, and not throughout the world; that is, those in the street of the city, or those in the great thoroughfare of the Roman church; the street meaning either one particular kingdom of Rome, or the whole of Roman Europe. At the rise of our country, the triumph of the witnesses began, but still they are not yet free in Europe, and will not be till the last end of the 42 months, or 1878.

SECTION III.

THE WOMAN WITH TWELVE STARS, AND HER MAN CHILD, OR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AND THE UNITED STATES.

This vision is the duplicate of the witnesses and, by consequence, aids in their explication. It has been called the crux criticorum, among expositors. It is not, in the first part, consecutively chronological; had it been, the apocalypse would have been tolerably easy to understand, for it is almost a key to it.

1. "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." These symbols are a twice doubled representation of Israel. A woman is a common symbol of the church of God, and stars are a representation of the twelve sons or tribes of Jacob, and represent the civil department of God's Israel. The moon is, also, a common symbol of the church, and the sun is always a symbol of civil power. This double set of symbols to represent one dual object, is seen also in Zechariah, where the two olive trees, and two candlesticks, which represented the dual anointed one, or Israel.

2. "And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there, a thousand two hundred and three score days." That is, the church went into obscurity; went into a mazy and dreary condition, and was mostly hidden from the world for 1260 years. These 1260 days are equal to 529,984 days, or for 454,272 days, or to 562,432 days, as we have seen already.

3. "And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and

ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads." This was the representation of Roman monarchy in Great Britain, and will hereafter be explained.

4. "And she being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered." "And the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And there was war in heaven Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the old dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto death. Therefore, rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Wo to the inhabiters of the earth, for the devil is come down. unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman. which brought forth the man child." This is a spiritual and political prophecy. It represents Christianity, in humility for 1451 years, at length striving for nationality. It represents the declaration and the confederacy; the revolutionary war and the victory over Great Britain; the formation of the Union and the banish

ment of spiritual monarchy forever from the United States; and the subsequent violence of monarchy in Europe, because it saw poor prospect for long continuance, after the rise of so great a Christian democracy. This vision is further interpreted by a repetition of its principal features.

"And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time times and a half, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood, after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman; and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." The point of trouble, with interpreters, in this vision is, the apparent want of harmony in its parts; and the reason of this difficulty lies in this, that they placed this birth of the man child before the 1260 days began; whereas, it did not occur till afterward. It is true the birth of the child is announced before the woman's probation is mentioned, but that proves nothing as to its being after the birth of the child, for, in the interpretation, the times of the woman are placed before the attack of the serpent. Again; no event in all history, prior to the end of the times of the woman, or church, coincides with the man child; so that it can not represent any thing in the early days of the church, nor for centuries in its history. With this premised we proceed.

1. "She being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered." In Isaiah lxvi. 7, the travailing

pains of Zion, and her bringing forth a man child, is interpreted by the Targum of a king or deliverer; and Paul, Rom. viii. 22, compares the earnest desire of creation for the kingdom of Christ to the pains of a travailing woman.-(Sym. Dic.) As the woman was the church, her labor pains represent the struggles of a Christian people, at the close of the three and a half times, to establish or bring forth a delivering power. As a man,

2. "She brought forth a man child." when used as a symbol, represents a civil government, so this man child must represent an infant and feeble civil government, yet of noble character, as it was to rule all nations. It was to be the offspring of the church, and, therefore, different from the church; and this difference is further expressed by the gender of the two persons, the one being female, and the other male.

3. "Who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.' This infant government was to rise above all others, and give its own law to the nations, and enforce obedience with an iron will or rod. It will be remembered that this language, in the Psalms, is applied to Christ; and that Christ, in his address to the churches, promises that this power shall be given to the Christians; for he said, "He that overcometh, to him will I give power over the nations, (and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; ast the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers,) even as I have received of my Father." This ruling over the nations with an iron rod, is fully expressive of a political power over the nations. This government was, therefore, a political fabric of a Christian people. Again; this child of the woman, or church, is identical with the man on the white horse with many crowns, that is to destroy the beast, and false prophet, and kings of the earth; for he was to "smite the nations, and rule.

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