"Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it."-
HAB. ii. 2.

"Despise not prophesyings."-1 THESS. v. 20.

"The way to profit by reading Scripture, is to apply to ourselves that which is spoken
generally to all: this truth, this command, this threat, this promise, this intimation, is
to me."-BISHOP WILSON.

EDINBURGH:

JOHNSTONE AND HUNTER.

LONDON: ROBERT THEOBALD.

M. DCCC. LII.

101. c. 36.37

N.B.-Our work is twofold: The Sketch, and the several Introduc-
tions to each chapter, and App. A. and B., are intended for consecutive
perusal; the Notes forming the body of each chapter are for reference.
The former give the full outline of the subject; the latter supply all
minute details. We solicit the reader's first attention to the former; its
perusal may be accomplished in a few hours. Having thereby obtained
a full outline of our scheme, he can, at will, refer to the notes for detail.
Attention to this will, we trust, remove all intricacy from the subject.
Disregard of it will greatly confuse.

For the sake of easy reference, we have numbered the paragraphs
of our Sketch, of the Introduction of each chapter, and of the General
Remarks made at the close of certain chapters. Hence-Ske. 6. signi-
fies the sixth paragraph of the Sketch. Intro. i. 4, the fourth para-
graph of the Introduction to chapter i. Gen. Rem. vi. 2, the second
paragraph of the General Remarks on chapter vi.

PREFACE.

THE accompanying Sketch forms the introduction to a work which the author has prepared, and purposed to publish in two volumes.

But the public ear is at present wellnigh closed to prophecy, and this divine subject is one of the least popular1 of the day. Many have written thereon, but no two writers agree, and no two readers

1 We have letters from the most experienced publishers showing the utter unpopularity of the subject. "Scarcely one of the numerous works on Prophecy published in the last two years, has paid its own expenses-nearly all have been losing concerns. On the other hand, we read in the Bloomsbury Lectures, that "the Weekly Despatch and the Northern Star, two blasphemous and revolutionary newspapers, have attained the enormous circulation of 150,000 weekly.. These, however, are exceeded in atrocity by one hundred and sixty-three different unstamped newspapers." "In Paris, during the seven years ending 1824, upwards of two millions of volumes of the works of Voltaire and Rousseau were printed. In Germany, a work appeared some time ago by H. Haire, a writer of great reputation, which the Quarterly Review informs us has created an extraordinary sensation in France and Germany. Its doctrine is, that there is no divinity but man, and that all men are gods." The Apocalypse not only explains this and all kindred mysteries, but carries with it the best and truest antidote.

The Edinburgh Review for July 1850 states, "The total annual issue