His

on the Revelation of Antichrist, with special reference to Daniel's numbers, chap. xii. 11, 12. These were the works that caused his name to spread abroad as the "Joseph" who "Zaphnath-paaneah," a revealer of secrets! view of the Synchronisms* of the Apocalypse was that specially which engaged the attention of many, and originated a correspondence between him and several learned friends.

was a

We cannot find space to analyse his work on the Apocalypse at present. One of its first-fruits was a diatribe by Lawenus, entitled "Danielis Laweni stricturæ in Clavem Apocalypticam," which drew forth a " Josephi Medi responsio." Then Mr Hayn, of Christ Church parish, London, propounded to him queries and difficulties regarding his scheme; and Ludovicus de Dieu transmitted to him a Latin epistle containing his "Animadversions." A friend, Mr Wood, drew from him an exposition and defence of other points; so that he had plenty of work in hand. But how kindly in his style! his pen is not dipt in gall, even when opposed. And thus he writes:

"Retegat Deus oculos utriusque nostrúm, ut intueamur mirabilia ejus! Mr Wood, I received your last, doubt not but with like acceptance as I did the former; which I not only keep, but use to read over five or six times at least. And although I always assent not, yet I am always bettered by them, either to strengthen what I found weaker than I took it to be, or to learn to express myself with more caution and perspicuity."

Such was his candour, his impartial search, his freedom from prejudice, and his simple desire to arrive at the truth, and not to support a theory. He is characterised by a slowness of thought, or rather by a thoughtfulness that is never hurried in its conclusions. It was in this calm, candid spirit of investigation that he came to adopt the millenarian views, even while aware that the "Chiliasts" (i. e. those who maintain the reign of the xixa ern to be literal) were held in no honour. But once convinced of the truth of this view, he was not slow to defend it, though so far from contemplating this object in his "Key to the Apocalypse," that he tells in the preface he had published it wholly, at the first, for his friends' use and at his own expense. He shewed that it was the orthodox opinion in the ages following that of the apostles;

* It is interesting to peruse Durham's critical analysis of the Synchronisms of "learned Mede," at the end of his first lecture on chap. vi., "Expos. of Revelation," when the "Clavis" had been about twenty years before the public.

One of his correspondents gives an expressive title to Daniel's little horn that spoke great things-" The ruffling horn" (p. 737). Mede uses the good old English word " wight" for the (wa, living beings, of the Book of Revelation-far better than our "beasts." Some old commentators speak of them as "the four rare wights."

and though such men as the Anabaptists may have added no credit to it, "yet" (as a friend of his wrote) "methinks the consent of so many great and worthy lights of the ancient primitive Church doth more honour and countenance the opinion than it can be disgraced or obscured by these late blind abettors." Mede adverted to the Jewish belief, and remarked, that "this smoke of tradition must have arisen from some fire of truth." He shewed that the second advent of Christ was properly neither before nor after the day of judgment (" dies judicii magni"), but was itself the day, "ipsa dies judicii (Epist. 20). How simple, yet how significant is his remark on those who spiritualise Daniel xii. 1: It is not safe to deprive the Church of those texts wherein her faith of the resurrection is builded" (Epist. 98). Archbishop Ussher commends his prophetic writings, and is no way startled at these views (Epist. 3). To his friend Twisse he remarks that there might have been a providence in allowing the Reign of the saints in the First Resurrection to be cried down in Antichrist's time, inasmuch as the idea of such reward and glory given to the saints would have been grasped at as another argument for making them mediators (Epist. 14). And Twisse, on his part, sees a providence in letting this view fall into neglect, "to take men off from fixing their thoughts too much on those days, the accomplishment of which was so far removed, while it was His purpose to revive it in a more seasonable time, when Antichrist's kingdom should draw near its end” (Epist. 13).

But let us pass to a close. Book IV. is perhaps the most interesting book of "the works of the pious and profoundly learned Joseph Mede." It is a collection of ninety-eight Letters that passed between him and his friends. Some of these contain very important matter; e. g. Epist. 8, to Mr Hayn, wherein he shews that the prophecy in Daniel of the Four Kingdoms is the A B C of prophecy.* Occasionally is intermixed some notices of passing events, as when writing to Archbishop Ussher he says, "I am exceedingly sorry for the death of Buxtorf and Amama, especially the latter, as being but new in flore, and one that had a natural genius to enlighten the text of Scripture." Another, a Mr Osbourn, proposes certain Quare's," which he is at pains to answer. De Dieu writes him in Latin. Sir William Boswell, at the Hague (1633), tells the opinions entertained of his works by the learned there, highly commendatory-" if you forbear your millenarian

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* It is usual to say that Daniel called the kingdoms "beasts," as if they were monsters, not men. Mede, in Epist. 12, corrects this idea by shewing that is simply animal, as in Apoc. iv. (@a.

fancy"--so that then, as in our day, the prejudice was strong against Chiliasm in any form. An aged gentleman of Salisbury, Mr Haydock, communicates a scheme, with an engraving. Mr Francis Potter, who wrote a book on “The Number of the Beast," sends his thoughts; and Mr Hartlet sends the comments of a learned man at Leyden, named Duncus, and several times transmits valuable suggestions and inquiries. All throughout, this Book of Letters is most valuable, shewing transparent candour, and frankness, and good temper, along with real learning and thought. But they must be read to be rightly appreciated. We give only one further extract from them, and it is Mede's reply to Mr Eastwick of Warkton, who proposed a difficulty as to How such things could be, and seemed to hang his belief of the doctrine on the possibility of understanding the manner. Mede enters on some explanation, but at the same time justly says:" You would bring me to express myself de modo before you were persuaded de re. But soft you there! I like not that method." And yet is not this method of Mr Eastwick's the very way to this hour in which many are prevented coming to a decided opinion as to the time of Christ's Second Advent? They must first know how to explain all the details ere they will admit the fact of its being premillennial. "Soft you there! I like not this method," would be Mede's most reasonable reply.

We cannot but think that the most remarkable quality of Mede's writings is their suggestiveness. It is not that they decide or exhaust a subject; it is rather that they cause the reader to think, and give him aids to reflection. We doubt if another instance can be found of a man, equally learned, so free from dogmatism, so little anxious to press his own views, who yet has had such extensive influence on others. He was a man of prayer; and this may be one reason for his influence over others. He was prayed for by his friends, and the Hearer of prayer has used Writings for which prayer was offered. It is singular to find one so honoured who, in true modesty and humility, could say, "There are few men living who are less troubled to see others differ in opinion from them than I am whether it be a vice or virtue, I know not;” and who could declare, in the simplicity of his heart, "I never found myself prone to change my hearty affections to any one for

*

* "I shall heartily desire God to bless your labours" (Epist. 13), writes a friend. "If this one thing be my talent, though but a single one, I have sufficient wherefore continually to thank the Almighty, and to beseech Him that my husbanding thereof may be, by His gracious instinct, such as may be some occasion of further light to others" (Epist. 14): so wrote he of himself.

mere difference in opinion. It is sufficient for a man to propound his opinion with the strongest evidence and arguments he can, and so leave it. Truth will be justified of her children." In this spirit he wrote, and He, for whose glory he wrote, owned His servant.

Mede has been a singularly honoured writer; and yet, as we have said already, it is as much the suggestiveness of his discussions as his success in bringing out the conclusions he aims at, that has had such effect on his readers. He opens new veins of ore in the rock; points them out, and excites us to work them; and many have become rich in this gold, who owe all they won to the sagacity, the calm researches, and the stimulating example of Joseph Mede.

ART. II. THE PROPHECY OF THE LORD JESUS.

FOURTH ARTICLE.

ALMOST all who have attempted to explain the Lord's prophecy in Matt. xxiii., xxiv., and xxv., have found difficulties, or, at least, have not succeeded in making the whole subject altogether clear to others. I am not so sanguine as to hope to make everything plain, and deeply feel that I need more light into this and other parts of prophetic truth. Still, I think, there is one fact, in connexion with this subject, which, rightly considered, will tend to illustrate our Lord's prediction, and to deliver the mind from contracted and bewildering views of this important Scripture. The point to which I refer is, that, at the time when our Lord uttered His prophecy on Olivet, there were predictions of two distinct sieges of Jerusalem, each laden with sorrow for the Jewish people, to be fulfilled. The first of these sieges occurred within forty years after the ascension of the Saviour, according to Luke xix. 41-44, Matt. xxii. 7; and the second will occur just before His glorious personal appearing, Zech. xiv. 1-7.

Here it will be necessary to observe, that when the disciples asked their Lord, "When shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the age?" we suppose they had no idea there would be two distinct sieges of Jerusalem, with a long period between them, even nearly the whole of the present dispensation, during which "the Gentiles should tread Jerusalem under foot," and "God would gather

from them a people for His name." These inquiring disciples might learn, from such prophecies as Zech. xii. and xiv., Joel ii., Dan. ix. 25-27, Isa. x. and xxix., and many others, that there was yet to be a terrible crisis in Jerusalem's history; but in all these passages they also found statements concerning a national deliverance, the coming of Messiah, and a new state of things, to follow this last bitter trial of Jerusalem and its people. They would therefore expect this final deliverance, and a new age, to follow very soon after the desolation of the temple, of which the Lord spake in Matt. xxiii. 38, and xxiv. 2. In other words, "their question was shaped according to their own thoughts of the prophecies, rather than according to what the Lord had said just before. The Lord had not said, in the passages above referred to, that then the temple should be visited by the desolation predicted at His coming, or that then would be the end of the age; but they, remembering that He had just before spoken of His coming, in His last words to Jerusalem (Matt. xxiii. 39), and knowing that all the prophets had declared that the advent of the Messiah in glory should take place on the day of destructive visitation to Jerusalem, very naturally inferred (though He had not said it) that the destruction of the temple predicted (Matt. xxiii. 38) would be coincident with His coming, and the end of the age. Their thoughts, though defective, were not untrue; they were expecting what was true, but they were not expecting all that was true, or not according to God's order."

The wisdom and kindness of the Saviour are wondrously manifested in this prophecy. While he unfolds the future, and shews the order of coming events, he corrects the wrong estimate formed by the disciples, and teaches them the most important practical lessons. Notice, among others, the following things in Matt. xxiv.:-1. He checks the fleshly admiration of the disciples, who admired that over which he wept (ver. 2). 2. He excited inquiry as to the nature of coming events, His own coming, and the end of the age (ver. 3). 3. He shewed them some things which they would have to do and suffer before His predictions concerning the coming desolations of Jerusalem should be fulfilled (ver. 5-9). 4. He describes the course of the dispensation which was soon to be introduced; tracing various delusions and persecutions; shewing that apostasy would triumph in the majority, while some would continue faithful; and that before the end an universal testimony should be borne (ver. 9-14). 5. He foretells that the state of the nations during this period would be that of war with each other, and rebellion against God, the very opposite of Isa. ii. 4; and