ticularly that which names prophetical periods always being intimately "connected with the affairs of the church, and never exclusively belonging to the kingdoms of this world." Such has eminently been the case with all that have yet been considered. It is therefore absolutely required, not only that the commencement now sought for should be marked by an important event, forming an era in history, but that this event should have an immediate connection with the church. An adherence to this rule will bring us, at one glance of the Jewish history, to those four decrees or edicts of the kings of Persia, which have been noticed in the Third and Fourth Periods; and I know of no particular event besides, happening within a century of the dates of these edicts, that can be said to form an epoch of their history, or a remarkable Divine interference in their favour. As these edicts settled them and left them, so they continued, without any material alteration, as a state and people, until the time of Christ, and the destruction of the kingdom by the Romans. It appears to me, therefore, that it is from one of these edicts (three of which confessedly form important eras in the church, in consequence of having been already used to mark the terminations and commencement of prophetical periods) that the commencement of U the one now under consideration ought to be reckoned. The time at which they were issued stands thus: Edict of Cyrus......... B.C. 536 Edict of Darius Hystaspes............518 Edict of the 20th of ditto ............444 From Two thousand three hundred years, calculated from each of these dates, will respectively bring us to A.D. 1764, 1782, 1843, and 1856. these calculations it will be perceived that the two former have already past; and the accomplishment of the prophecy not having yet taken place, our inquiry will therefore be limited to the last two; viz. the two edicts given by Artaxerxes, the one to Ezra and the other to Nehemiah. By referring to the "Fourth Period” it will be perceived that the former of these two edicts of Artaxerxes has a very great importance attached to it; that it is the point of time that marks the commencement of the "seventy weeks," the prophecy relating to the first coming and death of Christ; and consequently to the first cleansing of the sanctuary, which He effected in his own person, when he drove the buyers and sellers out of the temple, and publicly ministered within its walls. It will be perceived also, from the copy that is there given of it, as well as from the observations made upon it, that it was in virtue of this edict that the Jewish church and polity were fixed upon a settled basis, and fully restored from the disorders and confusion of the Babylonish captivity; that the Temple-service, and all that related to the worship of the sanctuary, was regulated; and that Ezra, like Abraham, Moses, and David, stood at the head of one of the four great divisions of the Jewish history. On the contrary, although Nehemiah was a holy and good man, and rendered a great service to the nation by rebuilding the walls and city of Jerusalem, "the place of his fathers' sepulchres," yet no such importance is attached to the edict which is given to him. The account which is recorded of it is very brief: there is no copy of it, as in the case of Ezra; and, in fact, it is only named as a letter, or letters. The history of it is as follows, as found in Nehem. ii. 1-8. "And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, and said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the king. place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it. And the king said unto me (the queen also sitting by him), For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me, and I set him a time. Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over, till I come into Judah; and a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me." As the intrinsic importance of the work which Nehemiah performed in consequence of this favour from Artaxerxes, appears rather for the greater perfecting of Ezra's commission, which was to "restore and build the walls of Jerusalem," than for any original or new privileges which it conferred-as well as from the consideration of the date of the latter haying already been employed in a similar way in a chronological period relating to the same sanctuary; and also from being connected with the memorable preservation of the Jews under Esther and Mordecai-I have no hesitation in giving it the preference on this occasion; and therefore consider the edict given to Ezra, as that from which the commencement of these 2300 years ought to be dated. But this preference is sustained by other evidence, deduced alike both from the last and the succeeding Period; which is, that it brings the termination to the year 1843, the same year in which the consummations of all the prophecies relative to the deliverance both of the Jewish and Christian churches centre. The final termination of the "seven times" was proved to correspond exactly to this year-that is, 2520 years, reckoned from 677 B.C. the date of Israel's final ruin; and 2300 years, reckoned from Ezra's commission in 457 B.C., both terminate in the year 1843. As it regards the former, this termination will bear to be expressed as the end of the TIMES; or, as this term is emphatically expressed in Rev. x. 6, as the end of "TIME," for the angel sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, that there should be "TIME no longer;" alluding, I imagine (as the correspond |