not measure the time to the flood; for, says the objector, there could have been but one hundred years between the time when Noah was five hundred years old, and the flood, when he was six hundred years old. To this we reply: If the hundred and twenty years were not given before Noah was five hundred years old because in the previous chapter he is said to have been of that age before he begat his three sons — by parity of reasoning, we should understand, that Lamech died (v. 31,) before Shem was born, because the subject of his death is introduced before there is any thing recorded of the children of Noah. Such however was not the fact; for he lived nearly a century after the birth of Noah's eldest son.

To make this subject more evident, we remark: in verse 30 Lamech is said to have been 777 years old; and in verse 31 we are told he died; then in verse 32 it is said "" Noah was five hundred years old; and Noah begat Shem, Ham and Japheth." Does it therefore follow that Lamech died before the sons of Noah were born, because his death was previously recorded? Certainly not; for he lived almost a hundred years after the eldest one's birth.

The same principle may be seen in Gen. vii: 7-10: "And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives, with him into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. And it came to pass, after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.”

Here he carries us down to the time when the waters of the flood were upon the earth, and then, (vs. 13-16,) relates the same history again; but it does not follow, because he speaks of the family of Noah, together with the beasts entering into the ark, (vs. 7–10,) and then introduces the same subject again, after having spoken of the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, that therefore this was a second entering into the ark, or that they entered in after the deluge commenced. But we return to the fifth chapter, and remark that the design of this chapter is, to present the geneology of man from Adam to Noah, bringing us down to the very year of the flood; for the death of Methuseleh, which is herein recorded, occurred on the same year in which the flood commenced. He then returns, takes up the history of Lamech, and brings us down to within five years of the flood, when Lamech died. He then passes back to the five hundredth year of Noah, and comes down to the time when he begat three sons.

The next chapter, instead of being a continued history, from the time that Noah was five hundred years old, goes back to the time when men began to multiply upon the earth," and continues down to the birth of Noah's sons. It is as follows:

"And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh : yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children unto them; the same became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man upon the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth; both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God: and Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth," (Gen. vi: 1-10).

It must, we think, be apparent to every unprejudiced mind, that the one hundred and twenty years (v. 3,) was given to bound the existence of that generation. In other words, it was given just one hundred and twenty years before the flood. The question to be settled is not, When did Noah begin to build the ark? or, When did he begin to preach? but, Did the Lord limit the life of that generation to one hundred and twenty years? We say, without hesitation, He did. And we conceive no other interpretation would ever have been put upon the passage, were not men disposed to cavil at the truth, and find some subterfuge for believing that the time when our adorable Redeemer shall make

15*

His second and glorious appearance, can never be understood till it comes.

On this subject Josephus says: "Now God loved this man (Noah) for his righteousness, yet He not only condemned those other men (giants) for their wickedness, but determined to destroy the whole race of mankind, and to make another race, that should be free from wickedness, and cutting short their lives, and genera tion then living) "not so many as they formerly lived, but one hundred and twenty. He turned the dry land into sea."*

making their years" (that is, the years of the

B. B. Edwards, Adam Clark, Bishop Usher, and a host of other commentators and chronologists, present the same view on this point. From an investigation of this subject, we are fully convinced, that the year of the flood, (Chap. vi: 3,) and the day, (Chap. vii: 4) were revealed.

We trust the reader will pardon us for being so minute on this part of the subject. We now proceed to investigate the remaining portion of Daniel xii. "The wise shall understand.” But what particularly shall they understand? Evidently the subject that absorbed the attention of the Prophet at this time, namely, the events of the vision, together with the time of their fulfilment,

v. 11. "

And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh

desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days."

"The daily sacrifice shall be taken away' - that is, the true worship removed. "And the abomination that maketh desolate set up." This refers to the same power that is brought to view in Chap. vii: 24, 25, Chap. xi: 31, and Matt. xxiv: 15, namely the papal power. This power was established in the sense of the prophecy in A.D. 519.* It was then that the Catholic Church was nationalized, and the mode of faith held by that body adopted as the religion of the Empire. There is not the least intimation of a space of time intervening between the taking away of the daily, and the establishment of the abomination. When the one is taken away, the other is placed, or set up. The act of placing the man of sin" in the temple of God, displaces the genuine worship of God. When that power, denoted by "the abomination that maketh desolate," commences its reign, the true worship is suppressed, and the saints, or Church, driven into the wilderness; so that the two events must be synchronous, dating from one and the same point.

"There shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days." This measurement must commence at the point from which the two events named date. This time we regard as symbolical, a day standing as the representative of a year. For this mode of reckoning we find a precedent established in scripture:

"After the number of the days in which ye searched

*See Exposition of Daniel, ch. vii: and Matt. xxiv.