ture" the Twelve1." The Apostolicity of the Church is unimpaired. It is still built upon twelve foundations; for we read, the wall of the City has Twelve foundations, and in them the names of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb2. 5. The same mode of exposition must be applied to the Thousand years, during which Satan is bound. They who thence infer a literal Millennium seem to misconceive the spirit, and overlook the manner, of St. John. They forget that the Apocalypse is not a prose History, but an inspired Poem, and a divine Prophecy. The ancient Expositors pursued a safer course when they recognized a dogmatic truth, and not a precise quantity, in this perfect number of ten centenaries; by which, as we have already seen, they understood the entire time between the first Advent of Christ and the full revelation of Antichrist, whatever that time may be, which is known to God alone. 6. So again, with respect to the number SEVEN in the Apocalypse. It indicates an idea,-that of completion. There were many more than Seven Churches in 1 Matth. xxvi. 20. Mark xi. 11. Luke ix. 1. John vi. 71. Acts vi. 2. 1 Cor. xv. 5, et passim. 2 Rev. xx. 14. 3 Rev. xx. 2. 4 Septenarius (says Aquinas ad Rev. xi.) significat universitatem, millenarius perfectionem sive in bono, sive in malo. 5 In the Lectures "on the Doctrine of a Millennium," Lecture II. Asia when St. John wrote; but he addresses Seven Churches, because he writes in them to all the Churches of all places and all times. Similarly we read of Seven Angels, as representing all Ministers of the Gospel: seven spirits express the full effusion of the Holy Ghost: seven seals exhibit all the sufferings of the Church: seven trumpets proclaim all God's judgments on her enemies: seven vials pour out all God's wrath on the mystical Babylon: and many other septenary combinations there are, all expressive of completion; all ending in some great consummation, just as the Hexaëmeron of Creation terminated in the Sabbath of God. Similarly, in order that we may understand that the triumph of the Two Witnesses will be complete, we have a combination of the two numbers, seven and a thousand1. There were slain of men, we read, seven thousand; and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. 7. Let us now apply these observations to the period of TWELVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY DAYS. These 1260 Days are equal to forty-two Months, or to three Years and a half; and they are mentioned under all these terms in the Apocalypse. The Holy City is trodden by the Gentiles fortytwo Months. It is given to the Beast, to exercise 1 Rev. xi. 13. 2 Haymo: 66 Septenarius numerus sæpe pro universitate ponitur, atque ideo in septem millibus hominum omnes reprobi intelliguntur.” See above, Lecture IV., p. 99. 3 Rev. xi. 2. his power1 forty-two Months2. The Two Witnesses preach in sackcloth 1260 Days. The Woman is in the Wilderness 1260 Days: and she is also said to be in the Wilderness a time, times, and half a time; that is, three years and a half5. Now, if we examine the records of Scripture, we find that the period of three years and a half represents an idea; one of spiritual toil, pilgrimage, and persecution. First, it may be observed, that three and a half, being the half of seven, which is the number of completeness, represents a semi-perfect state; one of transition and probation. In illustration of this, it may be remarked here, that the body of the Two Witnesses is said to remain unburied three days and a half. The same kind of opposition to the Apostolic number Twelve exists in the half of that number, Six. It shows itself in the Sixth period, which is the time of trial,-as Christ was crucified on the Sixth day of the Week—and exhibits itself in the remarkable combination of Six Hundreds, Six Tens, and Six Units, which constitute the Number of the name of the Beast'; and which indicate a profession of, but a declension from, Catholic Unity and Perfection represented by the number Seven. Let us pass to facts connected with the period three years and a half. Three years and a half, or forty-two months, or 1260 days, are, as we have seen, the time of the pilgrimage of the Woman in the Wilderness, that is, of the Church in her trials'. This number 2 forty-two connects her with the History of the Israelitish Church in the Wilderness. Its haltings are enumerated in the Book of Numbers, and they are Forty-two. And all these things (says St. Paul) happened to them as types of us. They foreshadow the history of the Christian Church in her pilgrimage through the Wilderness of this World to the promised land of Heaven. Again: I tell you of a truth, says Our Blessed Lord, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land. And St. James says, Elias prayed it might not rain; and it rained not on the Earth by the space of three years and six months". It also pleased God to strengthen the type, if we may so speak, by assigning the same duration of three years and a half to the persecution of the Church of Israel by Antiochus Epiphanes. 1 Primasius ad loc. Numerus XLII Mansionum Christianitatis omne tempus designat. 2 By Haymo in Apoc. lib. ii. iv., and Aquinas, p. 323. 3 Num. xxxiii. 1-50. 5 Luke iv. 25. 4 1 Cor. x. 6-11. 6 James v. 17. St. John's precursor', Daniel, had named that period as the duration of that persecution. He had also identified it with the future time of the trials of the Christian Church, which are more fully described by St. John 2. Thus the very mention of three years and a half had an ominous sound to the ear of an Israelite. It was his chronological symbol of suffering. 5 3 And to us Christians there is another reason why it should be identified with a time of trial, since, as some ancient Writers assure us, and there is good reason to believe, this period of three years and a half was the duration of the earthly Ministry of Him, the great PROPHET, the Divine WITNESS -Who was a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and Who, as Daniel prophesied, caused the sacrifice of the Temple to cease in the midst of a Week-that is, at the end of three years and a halfby His own oblation on the cross'. 1 See Josephus, B. J. i. c. 1. Lowth on Dan. xii. 7. Ussher's Annals, Pt. ii. Authorities in Prideaux, Connexion, ad A.D. 168, 165. Pt. ii. B. iii. pp. 236, 237. 2 See Lowth on Dan. vii. 25. 3 Euseb. i. 10. Theodoret, on Dan. ix. 27. ii. p. 1250, ed. Hal. Cf. Melito ap. Routh. R. S. i. 136. 4 See, on Dan. ix. 27, Hengstenberg's Christology, § 754–765. 5 Some of the Fathers also supposed that this was the duration of the "flight in Egypt" of the Virgin Mother and her Divine Child. See Catena Cramer, pp. 358. 366. 6 Isa. liii. 3. 66 The forty-two 7 Dan. ix. 27.—Lightfoot Harm. N. T. ad months," "1260 days," and a "time, times, and a half time," are but |