"the holy place:" and in the third, "the temple of God." Subsequently to the destruction of the Jewish. temple, or rather the opening of the gospel dispensation, the church is represented by that figure. For example, 1 Cor. iii: 16, 17; Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."

And again, 2 Cor. vi: 16, "And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

The Apostle counsels Timothy in what manner to conduct "in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."

This may suffice to demonstrate the application of the term temple to the Church of Christ, under the present dispensation. Hence, the abomination standing in the holy place, and the man of sin sitting in the temple of God, are but one and the same event.*

* In relation to "the abomination of desolation," there is a class of Advent Brethren, who differ, in some measure, from the view we have presented; but that difference does not effect the argument on the time of Christ's appearing. They believe "the abomination of desolation " to be the "IMPERIAL ROMAN POWER;" and that the prophecy recognizes it from the time it became connected with the history of God's people, until the end of the chronological periods. They view it as ONE abomination of desolation, whether pagan or papal-that it first desolated the sanctuary, (Jewish) and secondly the host, (christian,)—that it first destroyed

Again, "the abomination that maketh desolate” is of course a persecuting power. In Dan. vii: 25, it is written of the little horn, that the saints "shall be given into his hands," and "he shall wear out the saints of the Most High;" according to Dan xi: 33, "they" (the saints) were to "fall by sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days;" according to Matt. xxiv: 21, they were to experience "great tribulation;" according to Mark, xiii: 19, "affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation ;" according to Rev. xiii: 7, the beast was to "make war with the saints;" and according to Rev. xvii, the Woman was "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." This great havoc of the saints is in consequence of the

the mighty, (Jewish,) and secondly the holy (christian,) people that it was first the "little horn," which "waxed exceeding great," (see Dan. viii,) and secondly the "little horn," "whose look was more stout than his fellows," (see Dan. vii,) — that first in its pagan state, it caused the saints to flee out of Judea, as described in Matt. 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, and secondly it caused the saints to "flee into the wilderness," in its papal form.

This class conceive " "they" took away the daily, and in the sense of the prophecy, when they suspended the privilege of christian worship in the Empire, and nationalized a corrupt (Catholic,) religion to the exclusion of all others, they "set up the abomination of desolation," and that from this time, about A.D. 519, the 1260, 1290 and 1335 days commence.

The distinction between the two views may be summarily stated thus the one regards the Roman power, in both its pagan and papal form, as "he abomination," and recognizes "the abomination as "set up" in or near A.D. 519; while the other regards the union of the civil and ecclesiastical power as constituting "the, abomination," and recognizes it as "set up "in A.D. 519.

setting up of "the abomination that maketh desolate" in the holy place, temple or church.

66

Another item. There is time connected with this event. In Dan. vii, it is expressed by "time, times, and the dividing of time;" in Dan. xi, by "many days," even to the time of the end;" in chapter xii, twelve hundred and ninety days; in Mark xiii, it reads, (leaving out the italicised word) "for those days shall be affliction ;" and in Rev. xiii, "forty and two months." This the abomination power as we learn from Dan. xii, is to be set up 1335 days (years) before the end. These leading characteristics are so clearly defined, and so easily identified, that there can be no doubt, we apprehend, in relation to the power brought to view in Matt. xxiv: 15, denominated "THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION." It refers to the papacy. Its career commenced in A.D. 519, when the Catholic Church was nationalized; * when the Woman took her seat upon the beast, and when all were anathematized who would not subscribe to the Council of Chalcedon.

"Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And wo unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." (vs. 16-20.)

In Luke xxi, Jesus uses similar language in por

See exposition of Dan. vii.

traying the destruction of the Jewish polity; and in consequence of this similarity of language, the two chapters have been regarded as descriptive of the same scenes; but upon a critical analysis of the two passages, it will appear that they are two distinct discourses, delivered on different occasions.* "Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains,” etc. It may be well to remark, that the religious world was at this time divided into five great sections, comprising the Dioceses of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem. The last of these cities had this honor conferred by the Council of Chalcedon, a.d. 451.†

It was the nationalization of the Catholic Church by the Eastern government, A.D. 519, when the faith of Chalcedon, the letters of Leo, and the requirement imposed on the bishops and clergy of the East; namely, to promise an entire submission and obedience to the constitutions of the ROMAN CHURCH, which marks the era where the persecution of heretics commenced, or where the various sects that would not submit to the dictates of the little horn power, began to suffer by the great tribulation spoken of by Daniel and Christ. The influence of the Catholic Church at this time, by virtue of the edict of Justin, extended eastward as far as Judea, that being a Province of the Eastern Empire. The Saviour, knowing this to be the point of time when the abomination would be set up, warns the Church then to "flee into the mountains," thus indicating the same events re

* See exposition of vs. 1, 2. †Kitto, p. 467.

ferred to in Rev. xii: 6-14, where the Woman is said to "flee into the wilderness, into her place," where she was to be nourished for "a thousand two hundred and three score days," (years.) It is a fact to be specially observed, that thousands of the people of God were preserved from destruction by fleeing to the mountainous regions of Asia and Europe, in which situation they remained during the dark night of persecution.

“Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house; neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes." It is objected to the view we have taken of this subject, that the same instruction is given to the disciples, in the 21st chapter of Luke, and consequently the seenes referred to in the two chapters are identical. But a similarity in the phraseology is no certain proof that the passages synchronize. The instruction communicated in verses 17, 18, was to have its application when the abomination stood in the holy place; yet expressions precisely similar are applied to the end of the world, as will be obvious to all who read the following passage.

"And, as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot: they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all: even thus shall it be in the day