The third point is the restoration of Israel. By becoming a Christian, St. Paul did not cease to be of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of Hebrews. May not the whole number of those that are sealed, be restored without our converting a single Jew? If, however, we expect that our preaching will convert the Jews, and that such conversion will precede the coming of our Lord, let us see what progress we have made. It was stated in 1826, that the Society for the Conversion of the Jews had expended nearly £135,000 to very little purpose. Mammon, therefore, will not be a very ef ficient agent; and if we expect something better than nominal conversions, we must use better means.

The besetting sin of the Israelites was idolatry. Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus were the instruments of their reformation; and since that time they have not been accused of a relapse. It is very probable, therefore,

a British Critic, No. iii. Article 12.

that they have learnt the meaning of the second commandment; and they might tell us, if they chose, that we are not allowed to represent, or to attempt to represent, the Being whom we worship. If we are right in worshipping Christ, we are wrong in attempting to represent Him. They might tell us also, that the images of dead men have no business in the house of the living God, and that we do but insult His omnipresence, when we repeat "O come, let us worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker," and nevertheless sit, while we offer up our prayers and thanksgivings. May not these be the real impediments to our success? Should we not begin by taking the beam out of our own eye? If the Jew reads the book of Isaiah, he must know that Tyre was to commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. We shall not, therefore, persuade the Jew, that our fancy for the images of heathen deities is nothing but a mere matter of taste, nor that a heathen figure

of victory is a proper emblem of our gratitude to Him who alone giveth victory to kings, and who has declared himself to be a jealous God. When the house of God is again made the house of prayer, we may hope that we shall convert the Jews; but before the temple is purified, its lord will be again on earth.

I may, perhaps, have succeeded in proving that the end will come suddenly, notwithstanding the doctrine of a Millennium and our skill in calculation and our notions of converting the Jews: but I have been bold enough to suppose that the historical prophecy of Daniel is at last unsealed— that the time of the end is arrived, and consequently I have taken upon myself to fix a date, and I ought in fairness to attempt to shew that this date is not at variance with the other dates, which are given in prophecy.

If I am mad, there is method in my madness; for I uniformly date from the repeal of the test act, and assuming this to be the time of the end, I reckon backward. My fixing on such a date will be

thought foolish, and bigoted, and uncharitable. But why so? A custom-house oath is proverbial for a thing of no meaning. Why then is our Saviour disobeyed, and the third commandment violated? The answer is ready; a custom-house oath is a government security. The oaths which are taken by the under-graduates at our Universities cannot be observed. Why then are they imposed? The answer is ready; they are academical securities. Such being the case, is it foolish to assert that the test act, that the union of politics with religion, was a national security? Is it bigoted and uncharitable to believe that except we eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, we have no life in us? Dating, therefore, from the repeal of the test act, and assuming that lunar years, and not solar years, should be used in our computations, I find that the 1290 days of Daniel bring me quite close enough to the time when Mahometan mosque was

a

a Perhaps there would be no great difficulty in making out an exact agreement; but who will vouch for the correctness of our chronology?

erected on the site of the temple of Solomon, and the abomination that maketh desolate stood in the holy place. In the same manner I consider the forty-two months of the Revelations as lunar months, and multiplying not by thirty, but by twenty-eight, I consider the product not as solar years, but as lunar years. 1176 lunar years, reckoned backward from the same date, bring us to the eighth century, and I consider this as the time when the great red dragon, or popery, came into full powera; when the two witnesses began to prophesy in sackcloth; and when the ten-horned beast, or Antichrist, (not popery, but Mahometanism,) manifested its true character b. As for the Millennium, is it not

a A century affords a wide range; but has any one been able to ascertain the year in which the pope began to be adored? Gregory the Second is said to have been elected in 714; Gregory the Third, in 731; and Zachary in 741; and each of these three acted an important part.

b "About two hundred years after Mahomet, they," the Christians, "were separated from their fellow subjects by a turban, or girdle, of a less honourable colour; instead of horses, or mules, they were condemned to ride on asses, in the attitude of women. Their public and private buildings