139 - DANIEL, CHAP. IX.

appears to be comprehended the close of the shadowy services of the Law, and the establishment of that everlasting system of righteousness, which it had been the business of vision, prophecy, and type, from the beginning to foretell, should take place under the New Covenant in fulfilment of the promises made to the fathers.

By "finishing transgression" and "making an end of sins" must likewise imply the establishing of that system, by means of which the finishing of transgression should be effected; and which the sacrifices offered under the Law,— together with all its rites and ceremonies,—had typified; that is, by the complete reconciliation made for sin, by the atoning sacrifice of Christ, and in virtue of. which alone, iniquity should be for ever cancelled (comp. Heb. x. 14, &c.). By " everlasting righteousness" being now brought in, should seem to be implied, the introducing of that system which should give place to no other, but should endure so long as fallen man should exist to stand in need of it, in contradistinction to the temporary system of the Law. "To seal vision and prophecy,'1'' i. e. to complete, fulfil, and finish, all that Vision and Prophecy had previously enounced : and " to anoint the most holy" i e. to consecrate that New Holy of Holies, or Church of the New Testament, by the visible appearance of the Holy Ghost,—which was given on the day of Pentecost;—just as the Tabernacle and Temple, in which stood the ancient Holy of Holies, had also been consecrated5; so that the Church should be excelled in no respect, by the system established under Moses. This, I say, appears to be the intention of this place. It contains a full enouncement at once, of the efficacy of the one great sacrifice for sin, which

5 The term Holy of Holies here used, is never applied in the Hebrew Scriptures to any person whatsoever, but only to the most sacred place of the Tabernacle or Temple. What we have before us therefore, must of necessity apply to the consecration of the Church of the New Covenant.

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was to be the antitype of all others, and the entire remission of sins by virtue of this; and hence also, of the fulfilment of all vision and prophecy given on this important subject: and lastly, of the ministration of the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier of the New Church and the Comforter of its people, even to the end of time, as a system everlastingly insuring righteousness to all "the seed."

Let us now then, endeavour to ascertain the period here spoken of: "Seventy weeks" it is said, "are determined," &c. Daniel, we are told (ver. 2), " understood by both the number of the years, whereof the word of the lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem? This perhaps suggested the number seventy in the answer of the angel; not for the purpose of implying, as it should seem, that these seventy weeks were to be considered as chronological in any sense6, but only to name an indefinite period, the events of which,—as in most similar cases,—should make all sufficiently clear: and this we shall find is really the case.

The angel continues: " Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks," &c. It is sufficiently evident here, that—whatever these weeks may be, as to the duration of each—within the first sixty-nine of these Messiah, the Prince, should come. This, I say, is certain: and it is quite sufficient for our purpose. Let the reader therefore, know and understand this here, once for all. The other particular, as to the rebuilding of the city in troublous times, need not engage our attention now, as it is of no importance to our question.

The next particular given by the angel is (ver. 26), "After threescore and two weeks"1 (i. e. together with the preceding seven already mentioned, making sixty-nine as before},

6 We have seen above, that no chronological period could have been intimated here by Daniel, respecting the times and events had in view by him. The same is true of all the prophets, otherwise it would have been sufficiently well known when Jerusalem and its temple should fall, which, as already noticed, our Lord declares was known only to the Father.

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"shall Messiah be cut off."" But " after'" must be taken here in the sense of " within," as in the case, " After three days I mil rise again" (Matth. xxvii. 63), that is, within three days: and so the chief priests understood this ; for their request was, that " the sepulchre be made sure until the third day;" not until the fourth and after the third should have passed: and it was accordingly, early on the third day that our Lord arose. Similar to this also is the place, " When eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus," &c. But this circumcision necessarily took place within the eighth day. The cutting off of the Messiah therefore, mentioned above, must take place, according to Daniel, within his sixty-ninth week, and before the seventieth had commenced: which will be evident enough from what follows, viz.—

"And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary"1:" which, according to this context, should take place after the cutting off of the Messiah, and after the sixty-ninth week of this prediction should have passed. And of this again, the next verse affords sufficient proof in saying, " And He shall confirm'''' (lit. magnify) " the

1 This, it should be observed, is said in anticipation, and generally, of -what is given more particularly in the next verse (27). In like manner, verse 24, generally anticipates what is more specifically said in all the subsequent verses. This is very commonly done by Oriental writers: the first and second chapters of Genesis will supply good examples.—The event here before us, may well be recommended to the consideration of the Jews: e. g. The Messiah was to come, and to be cut off during Daniel's sixty-ninth week: in his seventieth, the City and Sanctuary were to fall. These have fallen. The Messiah must therefore, have come, and suffered. To say, as they sometimes do, that the time has been protracted on account of their sins, is to contradict directly the declarations of another prophet, who has said: " The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end" (Heb. If J57j i. e. the end of the Theocracy, as shewn above), "it shall speak... it will surely come, it will not tarry. See also Mic. v. 7. Besides, "to suppose the appointed time and events so often foretold, would be delayed on account of the sins of an unbelieving and sinful people, is the height of absurdity; and especially when it is as obvious as the sun at noonday, that all has come to pass, even to the judgments resting upon them themselves.

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covenant with" the9 "many for one week. And" it is added, " in the midst of the week" (i. e. as iust now referred to) '' He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease," &c. Now this cessation could, and did, take place, only upon the fall of the Temple. The Jews persevered in their usual services of course, and they would have continued to do so, had not God caused these to cease in this way. It was accordingly so done, and it was done by the people of the Prince, i. e. the Romans, who should so come: and, be it observed here, this takes place in the one week, which is over and above the sixty-nine just mentioned. It was in this seventieth week of Daniel therefore, that this was to come to pass: and this again, in the midst of the said week. And the fact of the case sufficiently informs us, when this happened. It shews us too, at the same time, that one half9 of Daniel's seventieth week, must now have past, and that another half was still to come.

The angel accordingly further tells us (ver, 26), that "the end thereof shall be" (as) "with a flood." That is, the events of the end of the once holy city and sanctuary should be thus overwhelming. He adds, "And unto the end of the war10" (i. e. still farther on) "desolations are determined." The next verse informs us, after speaking of the cessation of sacrifice and oblation, that "for the overspreading of abominations He shall make it" (i. e. Jerusalem) " desolate." It is added, "Even until the consummation'1'' (i.e. complete end), " and" (until) "that determined shall be poured upon the desolate," rather " Desolator.11" We now have therefore, a fur-

8 The definite article is certainly to be understood here, as given in the combination [Heb] intended most likely to signify mankind universally.

9 Let it be remembered, all is here indefinite. No mathematical measure of time, or portion of time, is therefore to be thought of. The occurrence of the several events will supply the only measures of time, now to be had recourse to.

10 Or it may be read, And even to the end, (shall there be) war; decided (are) desolations. The term signifying the end is here yp, as in Ezekiel, Ch. vii. 6, &c. noticed above.

11 [Heb] which, from its form, should be the participle, or noun of agency: and so our translators have given it in the margin. The circumstances of the context moreover, make this absolutely necessary, in order to make this accord with the other predictions of Daniel, as we shall presently see.

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ther consummation to be effected within this seventieth week: it is a determined judgment to be executed upon the desolator himself; that is, upon the people of the prince who should come as a Desolator, and destroy the city and the sanctuary. We are also told, that even until this consummation, Jerusalem should be made desolate : which is the same thing with " Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled'' (Luke xxi. 24, Sic.). The end of this seventieth week therefore, exhibits the overthrow of this Prince, and of his power: it also places Jerusalem in a state of desolation, and brings us, of necessity, to our Lord's prediction (Luke xxi. 20), "When ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh."

We now know therefore,—and let us bear it carefully in mind—that, during these seventy weeks four great events should take place: I. The rebuilding of Jerusalem and its temple, i. e. after the Babylonian Captivity, within the first seven of these mystical weeks (ver. 25). II. Within the next succeeding sixty-two, Messiah should come, and be cut off. III. Within the last, or seventieth week, both the City and its Sanctuary should fall; and IV., that the power of this Desolator should now terminate with it. But we also know, when all these things actually took place. We are now therefore, fully in possession of the mind of the angel, as developed in the instruction here given to Daniel, as far as it can be necessary to our purpose.

It should be borne in mind, as noticed above, that if this had been given as a strictly chronological period of any sort whatsoever, then could it have been calculated with the greatest precision and ease; and it would have been known when the City and Sanctuary should fall: contrary to the declaration of our Lord himself, that not even the angels in heaven, nay, none but the Father, could know it: His words are (Matth. xxiv. SO, &c.), " But of that day and hour know-eth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."

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He accordingly gives His disciples certain signs, whereby they should know its approach, its beginning, and also its end: and, among other things, He particularly recommends to their consideration this very prophecy of Daniel. Let this be well considered, and then all the difficulty, usually experienced on this subject, will vanish.

We have here therefore, an outline as to the close of the whole scheme of vision and prophecy, with certain marks given, by which its various periods may be known. Some of these we have already pointed out, others we shall determine hereafter. It will be enough now to observe, that the period of the end is so fully determined, as to leave no reasonable doubt on the mind of any one, that an end to these things was intended to be inculcated. We shall hereafter enter more particularly on the question as to its portions, and the events of each.

If then the end of all these things was so determined, it is likely we should also find intimations of this in other places of the Scriptures. And the fact is, a very great abundance of them is found, as already shewn under the terms " the last days" " the end" and their equivalents (see p. 90, seq. above). Suffice it now to say, that all those places in which it is said, that the heritage of the heathen should be given to Christ, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession12;—that His dominion should be from sea to sea, and from the river to the world's end13; that Kings and their Queens should become the nursing fathers and nursing mothers of the Church14; and that in Abraham (as the father of many nations) all the nations of the earth should be blessed15,—necessarily intimate the full and complete end, and consummation of the Theocracy, of heathen domination, and of all prophecy: and of this we shall give abundant proof in the sequel. We may now proceed therefore, to the other predictions of this Prophet, in which the same 'things are also foretold.

DANIEL, CHAP. II. 145

Sect. II.—On the Four Great Monarchies of Daniel, as given in Ms Second Chapter.

the prediction of these we shall, for brevity's sake, give in Daniel's interpretation of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, which will be sufficient for us at present. But first,—The Prophet says in verse 28, " There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the Icing Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days." The period meant by the term " the latter days," has been shewn above. We may now remark, that the "hereafter,'' mentioned in the next verse, is equivalent to a passage in Joel16, as already noticed, and which has been shewn by St. Peter, to mean the period generally of the first preaching of the Gospel.

The Prophet's interpretation of this Vision is (verse 37, seq.) this: " Thou, 0 King, art a King of kings, for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom... And wheresoever the children of men dwell...He hath made thee ruler over them all:" that is, thy kingdom is an universal one. "Thou," adds he, " art this head of gold17. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth." We have here therefore, an interpretation of the particulars of this vision, stating, that the " breast and arms" of the image seen, were "of silver, and his belly and thighs of brass." (ver. 32.)

146 DANIEL, CHAP. II.

The Prophet proceeds (ver. 40), " And the fourth18 kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.'1'' Where we have an interpretation given, particularly suitable to the " legs of iron" (ver. 33). Then follow other intimations as to the feet (ver. 41), " And whereas," it is said, " thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter's clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; and there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken19...

According to Saadias Haggaon and Aben Ezra, the third kingdom here is that of Greece and Rome, taken as one, contrary to the obvious meaning of the prophet; the fourth, that of the Saracens (Ishmaelites, [Heb]) which they say is as strong as iron; and the fourth is that of the Messiah. Saadias tells us too, that tho stone which struck the image is the kingdom of the Messiah, the Son of David, as it is written of him (Is. xi. 4.) "He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked." He goes on to tell us, that the kingdom of Gog is, generally, that of wicked Greece, and that it shall strengthen itself with the fourth, or kingdom of Ishmael. The nature of the case however, makes these last particulars impossible.

i' Aben Ezra cannot see here, as Saadias does, how Gog and Ishmael can be the same kingdom: and, to mend the matter, he couples Greece and Rome together as one dynasty! He then cites Daniel xi. 30, "ships of Chittim," &c., and proceeds to shew, that Chittim was descended from Javan (Gen. x. 4, &c.), which is true. But, how wide is all this of the mark!

19 Saadias Haggaon tells us rather strangely here (of this fourth kingdom) that, from the times of the rule of Titus to those of Hera-clius, the kingdom was strong, and took that of the whole world; and that, with this, Ishmael also ruled; and that the kingdom of Ishmael was broken and feeble. His words are: [Heb] which, as it will appear hereafter, cannot possibly apply to any one of the visions of Daniel.

DANIEL, CHAP. II. 147

This latter part, represented by the feet and toes of the Image, exhibits a weak and corrupt state, as compared with its earlier one represented by the legs of iron, such, that weakness and disunion,—having nevertheless some remaining strength,—should be its characteristic. The Prophet adds, "And in the days of these kings,"—which must necessarily mean the latter state of this fourth kingdom, as symbolized by the toes,—" shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." Daniel continues (ver. 45), " Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain™ without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter : and," he concludes, " the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure."

We have here therefore, four great Kingdoms, i.e. systems op universal rule, which were destined to fall, and to be succeeded by a fifth, which should " stand for ever." We are then told as to the fall of these, and particularly of the fourth (ver. 35), that " Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and, the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." Where it must be as certain as language can make it, that, after these four kingdoms should have fallen, and the fifth have been raised and have filled the whole earth, there should remain no por-

20 This mountain, as Saadias tells us, was Abraham. He then cites Gen. xhx. 24 : " Thence is the Shepherd," &c. and says, the stone cut out without hands, was not by man, but by the power of our God. [Heb] He also tells us, that the stone which smote and broke the image, is the kingdom of the Messiah the Son of David. [Heb] - And he is clearly right in this last instance.

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tion whatsoever of either of these, and that its sole existence should be endless: "a kingdom which shall never be destroyed." Be this carefully remembered. And, if our fourth kingdom represents the heathen Roman Empire;—which must, of necessity, be the case;—then neither can popery, as forming a remaining part of this fourth kingdom, nor any remaining fraction whatsoever of any of the three preceding ones, continue in existence during the times of our last fifth, according to the mind of this Prophet.. This must be certain: as it also must that, in each case here, we have a perfectly finished work, and END 21. We shall shew hereafter, that Christianity did accordingly fill every place under heaven.

Again, if this fifth kingdom is, according to Daniel, to stand for ever, " the latter days" of our Prophet (ver. 28), as well as the hereafter (verr. 29, 45. Chald.) cannot refer, according to any known principles of interpretation, to any period whatsoever included within that of the full establishment of this fifth Empire: much less to that of its close, or to itself as a final and closing system ; because that which is to have no end, can, as already remarked, have within it no latter days: and to this the interpretation of Daniel affords ample confirmation; for the secrets here revealed and specified by him, refer to nothing whatever which was to take place within the times of this fifth kingdom, but only up to its erection; on the contrary, they all end with its establishment, as we shall see more particularly hereafter: while its establishment excludes, from its very terms and nature, all and every thing like a remnant of any of the preceding ones. These latter days therefore, and this hereafter, must, of necessity, happen after the times of Nebuchadnezzar, and before those of the full establishment of this our fifth kingdom.

Again, when it is said, "In the days of these kings"

21 It is not meant to be affirmed here, that no part, parcel, or person, whatever, of these prior monarchies should remain; but only, that they should not as monarchies, or as Powers, such, as to affect in any way the universal rule and power of the fifth and last.

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(ver. 44), " shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom?*" &c., the "latter days'" of our Prophet must have been meant. For, if we are to suppose,—which I think we must,— that by these kings is meant what is represented in the vision by the toes of the image (see ver. 42); then, by " these kings" will be meant,—for the reasons stated above,—the series of Rule, generally, of the lower Roman Empire, commencing perhaps with Augustus, when the iron, and unyielding, character of this people appears to have first received its mixture of miry clay in the effeminacy, weakness, and disunion, which then appeared among them. Some time after this, the Baptist declared, that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. Its sun had now begun to arise upon the world; and, during the times of this declining Roman Rule, the beams of its light spread far and wide; and again, upon the fall of this power, as we shall presently see, Christianity was so established over the whole earth, that Kings actually became its nursing fathers, and their Queens its nursing mothers.

We now come to the concluding and main part of this vision: viz. ver. 34, "A stone was cut out without hands, which smote the Image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces." In verse 45 it is said, " that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands," sec. i.e. by Divine Power. And again, ver. 35, " The stone that smote the Image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." That is, it fully, wholly, and exclusively, occupied the entire place of our fourth universal Kingdom. Let us now endeavour to ascertain what is meant by the Mountain, out of which this stone was so cut.

Some,—both Jews and Christian writers,—hold that Abraham is meant by this term. Jerome, with others, sup-

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poses that the Virgin Mary is. The former take Isaiah Li. 1 as a parallel place, where Abraham is said to be the rock out of which the Israelites had been hewn. (Heb.) Chald. Dan. ii. 45, which may be taken as the same word, and as implying the same thing.) The latter suppose the miraculous conception of our blessed Lord to be meant: and indeed, either of these acceptations of the place will afford a tolerably good sense. I cannot help thinking nevertheless, that both fall beneath its intention.

Abraham may be considered as a rock, from the immoveable character of his faith; and, as the father (under God) of an invincible nation, he may be viewed as the quarry out of which the Jews had been hewn, or, to use the figure of St. Peter, had, as stones, been built up into a spiritual house. But then, all this must be ultimately referred to God as the Author, the Rock, and the Mountain23. In our context moreover, this stone becomes a great mountain (Chald.), and it fills, as a reigning and invincible Power, the whole earth. It cannot be said of Abraham, that either he, or any of his natural offspring, ever filled such a situation as this. The mountain moreover (Chald.), in the first place, and the great mountain in the second, ought probably to be considered as signifying the same thing: it having been an integral part of " the mountain;" and in the second, sustaining its station and dignity.

23 And so Saadias Haggaon understands the place.

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(Rom. viii. 17), yet all this was to be in a subordinate and inferior sense; while Christ was, in the highest acceptation, —as opposed to these other four earthly kingdoms,—to rule and reign for ever, in His own proper power and person.

I believe therefore, that we are to understand by the mountain (Heb) here, in the first instance, the Godhead, considered in the abstract: or, as in the language of the Old Testament, " The Ancient of days'" (Dan. vii. 13, 22) : and in that of the New, " The Father." (Comp. Matth. iii. 17, and its parallels, with Ps. ii. 7—12 inclus.) By "the Rock," and Stone moreover, God is often meant in the Old Testament, as is also Christ. The Divinity of Christ must therefore, be here had in view.

For the same reasons, the Virgin Mary cannot be primarily meant. But, if the miraculous conception is,—which I would not dispute,—then, I think, must this be understood of the operation of the Holy Ghost, as recorded by the Evangelists (Matth. i. 20; Luke i. 35), in order to fulfil the promises made to the Fathers. The stone too, we are told, was cut out without hands: so also (chap. viii. 25) the king of fierce countenance was to be broken without hand: i. e. not by human hand, but by God. The operation of God appears therefore, to be had in view in both these places; which is indeed necessary, in order to preserve unity in the whole.

That the kingdom of Christ is meant by the Stone's filling the whole earth, I shall shew more particularly under the remaining Visions of this Prophet. I will only remark now, that if this has actually taken place,—which I shall also shew is the fact,—it will be difficult to say where we are to look for the earthly Canaan, of which,—as many are tempted to believe,—the Jews are, as a peculiar people, to be again the possessors. The truth appears to be, this Stone will no more admit of a joint Jewish occupation, than it will of a heathenish one.

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Sect. III.—On the Seventh and Eighth Chapters of Daniel, and particularly on the Little Horn, as predicted by him.

we now come to the seventh Chapter of this Prophet, where we are told (ver. 2, seq.) that " the four winds™ of the heaven strove upon the great Sea, and four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion...and," it is added, "behold another beast, a second, like to a bear."..." After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard...the beast had also four heads ; and dominion was given to it. After this 1 saw in the night-visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron 25 teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten HORNS 26. I considered the

M. Rashi tells us here (w. 8. seq.) that these ten kings represent Rome, prior to the times of Vespasian who destroyed the Temple, and that this little horn which spake great things was Titus, who reproached, blasphemed, and entered it. His words are, [Heb] Jerome shews here, that Porphyry was wrong in supposing that this little horn meant Antiochus Epiphanes: he himself tells us, that all the Ecclesiastical writers make this the Antichrist, who shall at the end of the world destroy the Roman Empire. He then favours us with a few of the very wild notions then prevailing on the person of Antichrist. That both he, and they, were generally right in referring this to Antichrist, there can, I think, be no doubt; and that the same is St. Paul's " man of sin." In like manner, Rashi would have been correct in making this little horn that part of the Roman Empire generally, which should succeed the ten Kings so mentioned; and in saying that this little horn, or power, should destroy the Temple: but, in the particulars, neither of them is hero to be relied on.

25 Intended to imply its strength, no doubt, and so to identify it with the legs of iron in our first vision.

26 As remarked above, when speaking of the toes of the image, although the identically same portion of this power is not meant here, as we shall presently see: and, in each case, no particle whatsoever can remain.

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horns" continues the Prophet, "and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots" (i. e. so that neither root nor branch of them remained): " and, behold, in this Horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things...I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake : I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame" 27." " I saw in the night visions," it is added, " and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."

It should seem that,—as in the particulars of our first vision,—four Empires are here also had in view; and these were, in like manner, to succeed each other; the last, or fifth, of which was likewise to be both universal and perpetual. This the Prophet virtually affirms by saying (verr. 17, 18), " These great beasts, which are four, are four kings' 28, which shall arise out of the earth" i. e. they shall be entirely earthly in character. " But," it is added, " the

27 Observing the order here, with regard to the first vision, this Little Horn comes in the place of the toes, which were partly of iron, and partly of miry clay. And if these toes, or kings, represented in that vision the lower Roman Empire, so also must this Little Horn here. We are further told, that it was because of the great words spoken by this Little Horn, that the body of the beast which bore it was given to the burning flame. This brings us, as before, to the lower Roman Empire, and to which the fifth, or Messiah's, Kingdom should succeed. It will also follow, that the times of this Little Horn must also be those of Daniel's last days, as noted above: they were the last, both of the Jewish polity, and of this heathenish domination throughout the world.

28 We have here " kings" corresponding to the "kingdoms" of the first vision. From the nature of the case there, Icings merely as persons could not be meant; the same is true here. It is a series of kings; each series constituting an universal empire for the time being.

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saints 29 of the Most High" (i. e. a people of a totally different character) "shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever."

In our first vision, the stone cut out of the mountain, and filling the whole earth, upon the fall of Daniel's fourth kingdom, is thus interpreted (chap. ii. verr. 44, 45), " In the days of these kings" (i. e. as represented by the toes, for we have no other antecedent here) " shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed,.,it shall break in PIECES 30 and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." In our second vision, it is said (ver. 9, seq.), that " the thrones were cast down31" (i. e. of these four preceding kingdoms), " and the Ancient of days did sit,...and the books" (i.e. containing, as it should seem, God's decrees as revealed by His prophets) " were opened;" and that now (verr. 13, 14) an universal and everlasting kingdom was given to one like the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven. This last, or fifth kingdom, must there-

29 This title has now passed away from the Jewish people generally : the saints henceforward are another people; even those whom St. Peter terms, "a holy priesthood," and "nation," 1 Pet. ii. 5, 9.

30 This, according to Saadias Haggaon, is the Messiah, our Righteousness. Is it not written, adds he, of the Messiah, that he is meek and riding upon an ass!  Shall he not come in meekness? For he shall not come upon horses in pomp. And, as to what is written (viz.) " with the clouds of heaven,". . . these are the angels of the heavenly host. This, adds the Rabbi, is that great multitude which the Creator shall give to the Messiah: even as it is written, " with the clouds of heaven," then is he to be great in rule. " To the Ancient of days," as it is written, " it is the saying of Jehovah to my Lord, Sit on my right hand" &c. (Ps. ex. 1). He then cites Ps. ii. 6 and 1 Sam. ii. 10, as applying to the Messiah, and tells us, that no kingdom is to succeed that of Ishmael, as it is written, "In the days of those kings," &c. implying that then Israel is to be delivered from his troubles. Where we have some truth, with much that is weak and extremely puerile: the term Israel too, is misapplied, as constantly done by Jews and Judaizers.

31 In Haggai, chap. ii. 22, we have this in the words, " And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms:" i. e. the throne of the universal rule then prevailing. The context shews us, that this must take place after the erection of the second Temple, and as a consequence of the coming of the Messiah.

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fore, be in each of these cases the same, whether it be said to be possessed by the saints of the Most High, by one like the Son of man, or that it should break in pieces and consume all these others. In each case it must stand, and rule alone, and this it must do universally, and for ever. The same Rule must therefore, be had in view in each of these cases.

For the like reasons, the fourth Kingdom, or Empire, must be the same in each of these visions; and it must, as such, in each case wholly disappear, even as the chaff of the summer threshingfloors, or, which amounts to the same thing, as given to the burning flame to be wholly consumed. And if so, it is probable that these will, in other respects also, afford similar analogies: let us inquire.—

32 As in verr. 7, 8, ib.

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of man 34" and should prevail for a time, until the period should arrive, in which the saints, in other words, " the Son of Man," should possess the kingdom under the whole heavens. As therefore, the legs of iron in the first vision, symbolized the strength of the earlier period of this fourth Empire, and the feet and toes, part of iron and part of clay, its last and weaker one: so also here, the Ten horns, the iron teeth, and brazen nails, seen by the Prophet, will likewise symbolize its earlier and more vigorous state: the Little Horn, its last, dissolute, and weaker one.

Let us now approach the other particulars respecting this fourth Empire, as given here by our Prophet. He proceeds (ver. 23), " The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall arise after them" (i. e. in succession); " and he shall be diverse" (i. e. sustaining a different character, as in the toes, part iron, part clay) "from the first" (i. e. the first rule represented by these ten), " and he shall subdue three kings." It is added, " He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High'" (i. e. of the son op man mentioned above), " and think to change times and laws 35; and they shall be given into his hand, until a time and times and the dividing of time. But? the Prophet goes on, " the judgment shall sit, and they shall

34 We have here moreover, "the Son of Man" so connected with the saints as to shew, that he was to be considered as their King: for (ver. 14) the fifth and everlasting empire is given to this Son of Man, so that all nations should serve him: but, in ver. 27, this kingdom is "given to the people of the Saints of the Most High." And it must be to Him alone, that all nations should so render their service; and to none, except Jehovah, is it said again and again, as already remarked, does the kingdom and the glory appertain. How then, is this Son of Man to be considered generally as a Being different from Him? These saints are therefore, the saints and servants of this Son of Man, as they also are of the Most High.

35 That is, he shall assume to himself the powers of Deity, see chap. ii. 21.

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take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And," then it is said, as before, " the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the Saints of the most high, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve Him." "Hitherto" adds the Prophet, "is the END OF THE MATTER."

We have here some further particulars; I. as to the period during which this Little Horn should prevail. It is said to be during " a time and times and the dividing of time." That is, If we suppose the term " times," to signify twice the amount of the preceding one time, and the dividing of time, to stand for one half of this; we shall then have a period, designated by three times and a half, given as the amount of that, during which this Little Horn should wear out the Saints of the Most High. We shall see presently, to what particular period this must of necessity belong. We learn secondly, from this place, that the dominion of this fourth beast should, upon the judgment's having sat, be taken away by consumption (utter wasting away) and destruction, and that these should continue to waste it until the time, or period, should have arrived which is here named " the end." And thirdly, that then both the whole matter should be concluded, and henceforth, and for ever, all people, nations, and languages, should be subject to the dominion of the Saints of the Most High; in other words, of the son of man, their King.

We have one remarkable particular more here, given in these words: " / considered the horns," says the Prophet (ver. 8), " and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things." And again (ver. 24), " The ten horns out of this" (fourth) " kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall arise after them : and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings."

It has been observed, that by these ten horns might well be symbolized the earlier period of the Roman people, just as by the legs of iron, in the first vision; and that, so also

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might by this Little Horn, its latter period under the Emperors. Let us now endeavour to ascertain what is meant by the Little Horn's coming up among these ten, and by the three kings which should fall before it. If then, in the first place, this Little Horn was to grow up among these ten, it should seem, that he was to be one growing up, in some sense, as part of the same dynasty or people; otherwise he could hardly have been said to grow up among them. And again, if he was to be after them in point of time, which is expressly affirmed here, it could not be any three of these ten horns, or kings, that should so fall before him, or be subdued by him, no more than the feet and toes could, in the first vision, be at all instrumental in affecting the legs of iron. We must therefore, look elsewhere for the solution of this. We have seen however^ so far, what power generally this "Little Horn" represents.

It should be observed before we quit this Chapter, that an important addition is made at the close of it in the terms, " Hitherto is the end of the matter." We have already seen, that Daniel's seventy weeks also bring us to a period termed the end, and this at the commencement of another, which shall never end; and that this necessarily comprehended the sealing or fulfilling of vision, and prophecy generally, together with the finished establishment of a system of everlasting righteousness. The nature of the case required this. The Prophet here however, tells us, that upon the consumption by flame of the Power symbolized by the Little Horn, and the delivering up of the kingdom to the Son of Man, "the matter" at issue is at its end. This end too, presents us with the establishment of the Kingdom of the Son of Man: and, of no other end or conclusion have the Scriptures of the Prophets so much as a word of intimation. This end must therefore, be identical with Daniel's end, or consummation, as we find it at the close of his seventieth week; and of this we shall have abundant proof.

We are here taught moreover, that the series of rule represented by this Little Horn, should so eradicate some preceding one, termed three Kings,—i. e. systems of Rule as before,—that not a fragment of them should remain: and further, that he should so far assume the character of Deity,

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as to magnify himself even against the person of the Most High, and, for a certain period, destroy His saints and servants. We have also seen, that this horn, or power, must necessarily be distinguished from the Ten, which should precede it, as it also must from some other three, who should fall before it. Let us now endeavour to ascertain who these three Kings, Horns, or Powers are.

We are told (chap. vii. 6) that the third beast seen had four heads. As this third beast must necessarily represent the rule of Alexander the Great,—which indeed all allow,—these four heads will signify either his universal rule extending to the four winds of heaven, or his four Generals,—of whom more presently,—among whom his Empire was divided at his death. If this latter be taken, then we shall have just what we have in Chap. viii. 8, where it is said, " For it," i. e. instead of the great Horn, or Power, of Alexander, " came up four notable ones," i. e. Horns, " toward the four winds of heaven." These four horns will therefore, now represent the four heads just mentioned: which may also be termed Horns, i. e. Powers. These then, must necessarily be in existence before our fourth Beast could be vested with universal Rule. They succeeded immediately to the power of Alexander; and it was to their rule that the fourth Beast, i. e. imperial Rome, did succeed.

We have seen, that the Little Horn here grows up among, and after, the ten others mentioned : i. e. its growth was to be among them, i. e. in their locality, but after them in point of time. In chap. viii. 9, A little horn,—which from the circumstances of the case must be the same,—comes forth out of one of the four, which succeeded to the Rule, or Horn, of Alexander. This vision, be it observed from its date (ver. 1 compared with ver. 1, chap, vii.), comes some time after the preceding one. It accordingly places this Little Horn, i. e. some time after,—as the case indeed was,—in the locality of one of those who should succeed Alexander. It is now therefore, to all intents and purposes, one of these; for, out of one of them it became so situated. In the next place (ver. 9), it is made to wax exceeding great toward the South, the East, and the pleasant land. It has now therefore, become great, having located itself in the

160 DANIEL, CHAP. VIII.

territories of some three others: that is, of the other three Horns, or Powers, which succeeded to that of Alexander. These therefore, must of necessity be the three Horns, which should be plucked up before it, as also the three Kings, or Powers, which should fall before it (vii. 8, 24). The precision of this place is truly marvellous, and cannot possibly be made to suit any one Power, but that of heathen Rome in the period of its decline.

Our context here, omits some things found in that which precedes it, because perhaps, sufficiently well known; while it adds others, the object of which evidently is, to supply a still greater certainty to the events connected with the last Rule, spoken of in the previous visions. But, in order to shorten our inquiry as much as we conveniently may, we will, first of all, come to the explanations given by the Angel, and then, secondly, proceed to the particulars themselves so explained.

It is said then, at verse 19 here, " Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall BE 36." Whence .we may infer, that the end of these visions was intended to form a very important consideration here ; that is to say, in the events which should take place whenever that period of time should arrive: and we are here assured, that this had been "appointed" Our first Vision has, as we have seen, particular reference to " the latter days" (chap. ii. 28, 44, 45): and here " the last end of the indignation''' to be poured out, cannot but strike us as of paramount importance, and as intended to mark distinctly the time of the End, and of these latter, or last, days of both Judaism and Heathenism, as defined in Daniel ix. 27.

36 The last end here, must, of necessity, mean the same event as " the end of the matter" just noticed, as also of our Prophet's seventy weeks, and must be the close of the period generally named the end, ends of the world, latter day, or days, &c. as noticed above, Chap. ii. Sect. 1, seq. It is truly extraordinary that, notwithstanding the almost endless repetition of the enouncement of this appointed and determined end, it should never have received the notice that it deserved. Let this be recommended particularly to the Jews.

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From what has been said on the Ninth Chapter of this Prophet, it should seem that the seventieth week there developed, must constitute this period generally. It was then that the indignation was to be poured out, even to the time of the consummation, and upon the Desolator. The stone cut out of the mountain, and striking the great Image on the feet, dispersing its fragments to the winds, and then filling the whole earth, must necessarily have in view the same period, as also must the body of the beast given to the burning flame, and the Son of Man taking possession of the Kingdom under the whole heaven. We have in all these cases, clear intimations of a mighty indignation to be poured out at the end of the then existing state of things, and at the commencement of another which should never end. Of all this there can indeed be no doubt; nor can there, that all this actually took place within the period had in view :— of which more hereafter.

We need not dwell on the Kings, or rather Rule, of the Persians and Medes (ver. 20), nor on that of Grecia, which can, from the nature of the case, be none but that of Alexander the Great. We come now therefore, to the four kingdoms, which should stand up out of his (Alexander's) nation, but not of his power: that is, out of the Greek nation, arid by no influence, will, or command of his, but under the superior ordinance of God Himself. These then, were Aridoeus the brother of Alexander in Macedon, or the West, Seleucus Nicator in the East, Lysimachus 37 in the North, and Ptolemy the son of Lagus in the South. It is not affirmed here, that the empire of Alexander did not supply more kingdoms than these; it certainly did, and of this we shall take some notice when we come to consider the eleventh chapter of this book. The four here mentioned, be it observed, arose out of the Greek nation ; and, what is quite to our purpose, they are intimately connected with the events which concern us; which cannot be said of those others. That four such kingdoms existed, is too well known to admit of doubt: and this is sufficient for us at present.

37 Jerome however, places Antigonus here, erroneously as I think, because neither Antigonus, nor his descendants, ever obtained a firm footing in this locality.

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The angel proceeds (ver. 23), "In the latter time of their'1'' (i. e. Alexander's successors) " kingdom,'' or Rule, " when the transgressors" (i. e. among the Jews) " are come to the full 39, a King," or Rule, " of fierce countenance*9," or aspect, " and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And," continues he, " his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and holy people."" That is to say, the people now to be so called, for they shall be given into his hands, (chap. vii. 25) for a certain period. This was therefore,, by the power of the Almighty, not by his. It is added, " And through hi» policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace 40 shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand."

39 It is remarkable enough, that Moses, foretelling the power that should destroy Jerusalem (Deut. xxviii. 50) uses an expression very nearly identical with this: viz. "a nation of fierce countenance."  [Heb.] Herein Dan.  [Heb.] i-e. "king," or "Rule," of fierce countenance:" intending, no doubt, to intimate the same Rule or Dynasty, as indeed the context of both Testaments absolutely requires.

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week i nor of any other Desolator, or Power, except that which should make war upon the saints, destroy the City and the Sanctuary, and upon whom judgment should thus be finally passed. He was moreover, to succeed in his rule to that generally of Alexander, and particularly to that of his successors. He was then to prosper and practise within the period, in which the Transgressors (i. e. among the Jews, camp. Deut. xxxii. to ver. 30) should have filled up the measure of their iniquity, and this he was to do until the Divine Power should consume and destroy him. We have therefore here, as before, that part of the latter Roman Rule which should destroy both the City and Sanctuary of the Jews.

It is now said (ver. 8), " The he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn" (explained below to signify Grecia's  first universal king, i. e. Alexander) " was broken; and for it" (lit. in its place) " came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven." Let be it here borne in mind, that by these Horns is more particularly meant—as before — the Powers or Dynasties, situate in these several localities. It is true indeed, that in the case of Alexander (ver. 21), both the Goat and the great Horn are said to be the King, and the first King, of Grecia. But, in each of these cases, Rule, Kingdom, or the like, is all that is meant. Alexander was not the first king of Grecia. It was in his time, and through his exploits, that Grecia; first became an universal Empire: and this is evidently what is here had in view. It is this fact that identifies the person of Alexander, and not the term king, or Rule, in this place. In his death too, this great Power, or Horn, was broken; and, in its place, four others started up. It is therefore, with the series of these Powers, or Dynasties, that we are now principally concerned, not so much with the persons of those who held them.

We can now conceive these four Dynasties to continue until the period termed above (ver. 23), " the latter times of their kingdom 41,'''' or Rule; and, until the fourth Beast

41 I. e. immediately preceding the period termed " the last days," and the like: and here, "the latter time of their kingdom," must mean the period, which should close their domination and rule in their several localities.

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of our Prophet should be called into action, for the purpose of erecting its dominion and executing the will of the Most High. We are then told (ver. 9), that " out of one of them " (i.e. these four) "came forth a Little Horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land." That is, out of one of these Powers, situate somewhere in the west, arose a little Horn, or Power, and waxed exceeding great, i. e. so grew as to become a great Horn, such as Alexander's rule had been, and was vested like it with universal Empire. This growth too, took its course in the directions of the East, the Pleasant land, and the South. Come we therefore to the latter times of these Dynasties, and What Power do we now find occupying this western division of the Rule of Grecia's first king? History tells us, that it was the Roman42: and, although this Power may fairly be allowed, even at this time, to be a great Horn in consideration of its great western possessions, yet with regard to the preceding universal Empires of Daniel, and their localities, it could be considered but as little; and especially until it came in contact with Daniel's Holy City and people. Be it what it might, in other respects, it could have no claim as great to his notice, until it had come to this.

There is also another consideration of great importance to this question: it is this. We are told that this Little Horn extended itself into the territories of three others: viz. those of the East, the North, and the South,

42 The Romans took possession of the kingdom of Macedon, and added it to the Empire, about 160 years before our era. This power would be now therefore, so situated as to have Egypt to the south, and Judaea, Babylon and its dependencies generally, to the East. But, as Asia Minor was more exactly to the East of Greece, this seems here to be meant by " the East" together with its dependencies to the northward. By " the pleasant land" will then be meant Canaan, Syria, Babylonia, and its more Eastern and Northern kingdoms: all of which fell to the share of Seleucus. By the South, must be meant Egypt, with its dependencies, Lybia, &c. As to the periods when these several places became provinces of the empire, Macedon we have mentioned; Pontus, and the East, were so attached in the times of Pompey; Egypt, in those of Augustus. Thus Rome waxed great, and thus also three of the horns, in the successors of Alexander, were actually plucked up from the very root before it.

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as noticed above. These, as we have seen, had been assigned to Seleucus, Lysimachus, and Ptolemy. We have seen top, that the Little Horn, i. e. the latter Rule of the Roman power, grew up among, and in point of time after, Rome's first series of Rule; that it was to subdue three kings, or Dynasties; and that hence, these could not be any belonging to the earlier Roman series: the circumstances of the case make this impossible. By the three former kings, or kingdoms, there named, must therefore, necessarily be meant the three just now mentioned, and which existed as Horns, or Powers, before Rome became one of them, and hence they are termed, three of the first Horns (chap. vii. 8); and again, by its thus growing great towards these quarters, it must have become a legitimate successor to the universal Empires which, according to Daniel in his two first visions, should precede it. This Little Horn must therefore, be identical with the Little Horn of Daniel's seventh chapter : and, what must put this out of all doubt, is the consideration, that to it is assigned here, what is everywhere else assigned to the Rule of the lower Roman Empire: for "By him," it is said, " the daily sacrifice was'''' (to be) " taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was" (to be) " cast down." " And " (that) " an army was" (to be) " given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression" (i. e. because the transgressors had now come to the full 43): " and," it is added, " it cast the truth to the ground; and it practised and prospered." It is then asked (ver. 13), "How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and

43 This expression is important here. For it cannot be said with any propriety, that "transgressors" had, among the Jews, come to the full in the days of Antiochus. The Jewish nation was perhaps never in a more virtuous condition than in those times. In the days of our Lord the case is quite different. He says to them (Mat. xxiii. 32.) " Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers... that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth ... Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation." Transgressors had now therefore, come to the full: and, upon them the judgments so often denounced by Him, and by all His prophets, did come to the uttermost. See also Lev. xviii. 28, where this is indirectly .denounced against the Jews, in their ejection from Canaan, upon their transgressing as the Canaanites had before them.

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the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?" The answer is, " Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."

Now, whatever be the extent of this period, it cannot, with any show of authority, exceed that of Daniel's seventieth week. The wording of the Hebrew is peculiar here, and highly deserving of remark. It stands literally thus: Until (the) evening (and) morning, or, it may be, Until the evening of (the) morning, two thousand and three hundred, and the sanctuary (lit. holiness) shall be sanctified. Evening and morning, 1 take here to be a mere periphrasis for a day; and so our Translators have taken it; as in the form, " the evening and the morning were the first day" (Gen. i. 5). If then, we substitute day for this, and supply the same term {day} to the numerals, we shall have, Until (the) day, (shall be) two thousand and three hundred days; and the sanctuary shall be sanctified: i. e. made holy, or consecrated. And if this may be so taken, then have we but an echo of Daniel's, " to anoint the most Holy;" more literally, "the Holy of holies;" i. e. the sanctuary, as shewn above (chap. ix. 24): and accordingly, the day here had in view, must mark the period of Daniel's seventieth week, which is occasionally styled that day, the day of the Lord, the great and dreadful day of the loud, and the like. And, if this be the case, the numbers given above must be understood indefinitely, and as intended to designate a considerable length of time; extending, as it should seem, from the time in which this vision was seen, to the day so designated.

In verse 26 here we have a reference to this, which we shall now notice ; it is thus given : " And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true : wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days.'' Which is perhaps, the best interpretation that can be given of the " two thousand and three hundred days," just noticed: that is, it is an indefinite period of considerable length, and it extends to the day of the Lord. It should be observed moreover, that, as Daniel's seventieth week is divided into two parts by the point of time assigned for the fall of the City and Sanctuary, so also is this into " the evening and morning;" of which the evening is the beginning of

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the first half, the morning, of the second. And again, when this period is given under the term of a year, it is divided into "summer and winter," as in the following prediction :—

In Zechariah (chap. xiv. 1—11), it is said: "Behold, the day of the lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee;" i. e. The great day in which Jerusalem should fall, as the next verse abundantly testifies: while, be it observed, the Residue, i. e. the holy Remnant, " shall not be cut off from the city." A little lower down we have, " And the lord thy God shall come, and all the saints with thee." (Comp. Jude 14, Sec., as noticed above, p. 115.) The Prophet adds, " It shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark 44: but it shall be one day which shall be known to the lord, not day nor night" (i. e. not a mere natural day or night) : " but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem...in summer and in winter shall it be. And the lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name shall be one" (or, as St. Paul has paraphrased it, " One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all," &c. Eph. iv. 5, 6). There can be no doubt, surely, as to what day is meant here. The " Evening time" should seem, from the context following, to mark the close of this period; the evening., of necessity, closing one day when it commences another. The Lord's being King over all the earth, implies the same thing in the victory won: which brings us necessarily to the Empire of the Son of man under the whole heavens, as already noticed. St. Peter's day of the Lord as a thousand years, must imply the same period of necessity, as it also does an indefinite period of duration (2 Ep. iii. 8), as already shewn.

44 See my Heb. Lex. under [Heb.] P- 533.
 

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times of the Gentiles be fulfilled:" i. e. until this great day of the Lord should have come to its close. But, what is to be the fate of Jerusalem after this, we are nowhere told. It has now lost its peculiarity, and is no longer the subject of prophecy. We have seen already, that this treading down of Jerusalem was to be effected by the Roman Power, and by that part of it termed in Scripture the Little Horn; for by him both the sanctuary and the host should be, and was literally, trodden under foot; by him too, was the daily sacrifice to be taken away, and the place of His sanctuary to be cast down: and this also has been fulfilled to the very letter. This consummation could not be effected by Antiochus Epiphanes; nor was it, because he lived not within the period to which it had been assigned: nor did he, in fact, do any such thing. He only suspended the service of the Temple for about three years and a half. No other Power waxed great as this Little Horn did, either in any prior, or past, time : nor did any so practise and prosper even to the time of the end: nor, lastly, to the Rule of any other did the universal Empire of the Son of Man succeed. To this it did succeed. By every consideration therefore, it is evident that the Little Horn of Daniel's seventh and eighth chapters, is identically the same, and that this symbolized that system of Roman Rule, which ruined Jerusalem, and then made war upon the sainted servants and followers of the Son of Man; and in this he prospered and practised, until he in his turn fell, as did his predecessors, to rise no more at all.

CHAPTER II.

ON DANIEL'S FOURTH VISION, AS GIVEN IN CHAPTERS X. XI. XII. OF HIS BOOK.

Sect. I.—On the Successors of Alexander the Great, Antiochus, Ptolemy, &c.

WE have to premise here, as elsewhere, that it is not our intention to enter upon all the details of this Vision, but only upon so much of it as concerns the fourth and fifth, or last Empires of this Prophet as before; and particularly, as others have, generally discussed these details (Sufficiently well. Where we differ from them in matters connected with our particular enquiry, we shall shew with our reasons for so doing.

Commencing then, with Chap. x. 1, it is said, that the thing so revealed " was true, but the time appointed'''' i. e. until the end, " was long;" and again (ver. 14), " / am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days : for yet the vision is for many days."" We are informed so far as before, that, from the revelation of this vision until its fulfilment, the time should be long, i. e. many days ; and, that within the period termed the latter days, (comp. chap. ii. 28), it should develop the events which should concern Daniel's people. The time appointed therefore for these events, is identical with that of those of our former visions ; namely, the latter days, i. e. that great and notable day of the Lord, as are the events themselves: of this we shall presently have proof. And accordingly, this vision is but a repetition of the preceding ones; with this difference, that it is much more particular in its details.— As to the Person making this Revelation (verr. 5—7), He is evidently the same with Him, who gives the Revelation to St. John, chap. i. 14. 15, viz. God Himself, in the Person of the Son, as we shall see hereafter

We may now proceed to chap. xi. as nothing more |,hat is necessary to our question, occurs in the tenth. We may observe here then, that no mention of Babylon,—

170 DANIEL, CHAP. XI.

Daniel's first empire in the former series,—is made. We commence with that of Persia, and then pass on to those of Greece and Rome, as before. It is said then, (ver. 2), " Now will I shew thee the truth ; Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be richer than than they all:...and...he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia." This was,—as the case required, and indeed as the Commentators hold,—that Xerxes who invaded Greece, but suffered a most signal defeat.

We next come to Alexander (ver. 3 seq.), " And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven" (so ch. viii. 8) ; " and not to hit posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled; for his Kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others besides those1." We have the counterpart to this (ch. viii. 21. seq), viz. " The rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king." That is, the great or universal Rule of Grecia: which can be no other than that of Alexander the Great. It is added: " Now, that" (horn) " being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the" (Greek) " nation, but not m his" (Alexander's) '"power." We have here therefore, of necessity, the fall of Alexander, and the rise of his four generals,—as shewn above,—who divided his empire among themselves. This division fell not accordingly, to his posterity ; nor was it according to the dominion with which he ruled. We have therefore, as in chap, viii., the quadripartite Rule, which should immediately precede that of the Little

1 Jerome's Comment on this place is: "Praeter regna quatuor Macedonia, Asiae, Syrise, AEgypti, etiam in alios obscuriores et minores reges Macedonum regnuin laceratum est. Signiflcat autem Perdicam et Crateron, et Lysimachum. Nam Cappadocia, et Armenia, et Bithynia, et Heraclia, Bosphorusque, et aliae provincise de potestate Macedonum recedentes, diversos sibi reges constituerunt." All these however, were but small states; they had moreover, no influence whatever on the great question before us. They may be considered therefore as unimportant, on the principle of the Orientals, viz. What is rare, is as nothing. [Arab.] although the prophet has, for the sake of precision, noticed them.

DANIEL, CHAP. XI. 171

Horn (ver. 9), or " King of a fierce countenance (ver. 23). See also chap. vii. 6, 24, &c.

We may now pass over all that is said on the wars between Egypt and Antioch, as not bearing immediately on our question : but, as this may create a considerable chasm here, I will insert some notes, given by the authors of The Universal History, sufficiently explanatory of the text of our Prophet. Those who desire a more extended inquiry into these matters, may consult the work of Sir Isaac Newton on the Books of Daniel and the Revelation, with the Commentators generally on this place.

Our authors then, say, (Vol. ix. p. 197. Ed. 1747), " The particulars of the marriage of Antiochus with the daughter of Ptolemy" (Dan. xi. 6), and the fatal consequences that attended it, with the greatest events in the history we are now writing, were evidently foretold by the Prophet Daniel. The words of the Prophet are" (ver. 2. seq.) ; ' And now I will shew thee the truth; Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia,1 viz. Cyrus, who was then upon the throne; his son Camlyses, and Darius the son of Ilystaspes; ' and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece.' The monarch here mentioned was Xerxes, who invaded Greece with a formidable army. ' And a mighty Icing shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided towards the four winds of heaven, and not to his posterity, nor according to Ms dominion which he ruled; for his kingdom shall be plucked up for others besides these.''

"This part of the prophecy," continue our authors, " evidently alludes to Alexander the Great, whose vast kingdom we have already seen broken by his death, and parcelled out into four great kingdoms, and, besides these, divided into a great many petty kingdoms, namely, Cappadocia, Armenia, Bithynia, &c. The Prophet then proceeds to the treaty of peace and the marriage...'And the King of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes, and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion. And in the end of years they shall join themselves together; for the king's

172 DANIEL, CHAP. XI.

" We must observe," continue our authors, " that Daniel, in this passage, and through all the remaining part of the chapter before us, confines himself to the kings of Egypt and Syria, these being the only princes who engaged in wars against the people of God."—But here our authors are wrong, as we shall presently see. Rome also engaged itself in wars against this people, and an account of this is found in this very chapter. But of this, more presently.—-"The King of the South shall be strong. This King of the South," continue our historians, " was Ptolemy the son of Lagus, the first who reigned in Egypt after Alexander: and that he was strong all historians testify, for he was master of Egypt, Lybia, Cyrene, Arabia, Palestine, Coele-Syria, and most of the maritime provinces of Asia Minor, together with the island of Cyprus, with several isles of the AEgean sea; and even possessed the cities of Sicyon and Corinth in Greece. The King of the North was Seleucus Nicator, of whom the Prophet says, that he shall be more powerful than, the King of the South, and his dominion more extensive; for such is the import of the Prophet's expression; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion. And that he had a more extensive dominion, is plain from the large territories he possessed; for he had under him all the countries of the East, from mount Taurus to the river Indus, several provinces of Asia Minor between mount Taurus and the AEgean sea, and a little before his death the kingdoms of Thrace and Macedon.

"The Prophet, in the next place, tells us of the coming of the daughter of the King of the South, and the agreement, or treaty of peace, which should thereon be made between these two kings. This," our historians add, " plainly points out the marriage of Berenice the daughter of Ptolemy king of Egypt, with Antiochus Theus king of Syria, and the peace which, in consequence of that marriage, was made between them; every particular of which was exactly fulfilled, according to the holy Prophet's prediction.

DANIEL, CHAP. XI. 173

"Daniel," it is added, " afterwards informs us of the fatal consequences attending this marriage ; that is, neither he, viz. Antiochus king of the north, nor she, that is, Berenice daughter of Ptolemy king of the South, should continue in their power; but that he, viz. king Antiochus, should fall, and that she, viz. Berenice, being deprived of him that strengthened her, that is, of her father, who died a little before, should be given up with those that brought her, that is, who came with her out of Egypt, to be cut off and destroyed; and so it happened to her and her attendants who came with her out of Egypt, as we have related. The King of Egypt is called by the Prophet, King of the South, and the King of Syria styled the King of the North, which must be understood with respect to Judea, that country having Syria to the North, and Egypt to the South."

On verses 7—9 here, our authors say, " All this was likewise accomplished exactly as the Prophet Daniel had foretold it. For in the prophecy he tells us, that, after the daughter of the King of the South should, with her attendants, be cut off, and he that strengthened her in those times (that is, her father, who was her chief support) should be dead, there shall one arise out of a branch of her roots in his estate, that is, Ptolemy Euergetes, who springing from the same root with her, as being her brother, did stand up in the room or estate of Ptolemy Philadelphus his father, "whom he succeeded in his kingdom. And he shall come with an army, continues the Prophet, and shall enter into the fortress of the King of the North (who was Seleucus Callinicus), and shall deal against them, and shall prevail; and shall also carry captives into Egypt their gods, with their princes, and with their precious vessels of silver and gold; and he shall continue more years than the King of the North. So the King of the South shall come into his kingdom, and shall return into his own land. How exactly all this was fulfilled, what we have related above" (i. e. in the text of the history) " sufficiently shews. As to the last part, viz. that the King of the South, on his return into his kingdom, should continue more years than the King of the North, this likewise happened as foretold by the Prophet, for Ptolemy Euergetes outlived Seleucus Callinicus four years."

174 DANIEL, CHAP. XI.

Our authors too, give as good, and perhaps as short, an exposition of some of the remaining parts of this chapter, as can be had. It is as follows (Univer. Hist. Vol. ix. p. 271, seq. note) : " The prophecies of Daniel, from the tenth verse of the llth chapter to the nineteenth inclusive, relate to the actions of this prince" (Antidchus the Great), " and were all fully accomplished. But his sons, says the Prophet, speaking of the King of Syria, or the King of the North, shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces; and one (Antiochus the Great) shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass through: then shall he return, and be stirred up, even to his fortress,

"This King of the North was Seleucus Callinicus, who left behind him two sons, Seleucus Ceraunus and Antiochus, afterwards surnamed the Great. The former reigned but three years, and was succeeded by Antiochus his brother. The latter, after having quelled the troubles of his kingdom, waged war with Ptolemy Philopator king of the South, that is, of -Egypt, dispossessed him of Coele-Syria, which was delivered to him by Theodotus, governor of that province, defeated Ptolemy's generals in the narrow passes near Serytus, and won part of Phoenicia, advancing as far as the fortress, or, as we read in the Hebrew, as far as the fortresses, that is, to the frontiers of Egypt.

" The victory gained by Ptolemy over Antiochus is plainly pointed out in the following lines: And the king of the South shall be moved with choler, and shall come forth and fight with him, even with the king of the North; and he shall set forth a great multitude, but the multitude shall be given into his hand. Ptolemy Philopator was an indolent, effeminate prince; his subjects were forced to drag him, as it were, into the field, to repulse the enemy who was marching into his country. At last, he put himself at the head of the army, and, by the valour and conduct of his generals, gained a signal victory over Antiochus at Raphia. There a great multitude, that is, the great army which Antiochus led into the field, was given into his hands, and Ptolemy did cast down, that is, slew many thousands of them, and put the rest to flight.

DANIEL, CHAP. XI. 175

Antiochus," continue our authors, " lost upwards of ten thousand foot, and three hundred horse, and four thousand of his men were taken prisoners, Philopator, after this victory, hastened back into Egypt, and there gave himself up to sloth and idleness, without taking the advantages which it gave him; and therefore was not strengthened by it. For the king of the North shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come, after certain years, with a great army, and with much riches.

"Antiochus," continue our historians, "having ended the war which he had waged with the nations beyond the Euphrates, raised a mighty army in those provinces, and fourteen years after the ending of the former war, returned against Egypt, during the minority of Ptolemy Epiphanes, defeated Scopas near Paneas, and regained the whole coun^ try, which Philopator had reduced after the victory gained at Raphia."

"And" (ver. 14) "in those times there shall many stand up against the King of the South. This prophecy," say our authors, " was fulfilled by the league made by the kings of Syria and Macedon against the infant king of Egypt, by the conspiracy of Agathocles and Agathoclea for the regency, and by that of Scopas, who wanted to dispossess him of his dominions, and seize them for himself. " Also the robbers of the people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision, but they shall fall. Several apostate Jews, to ingratiate themselves with the king of Egypt, complied with every thing he required of them, in opposition to the sacred ordinances of the law. But they fell; for when Antiochus got again possession of Judea and Jerusalem, he either cut off, or drove out of the country, all the partisans of Ptolemy.

"Antiochus, after having defeated the Egyptian army at Paneas, besieged and took, first Sidon, then Gaza, and

176 DANIEL, CHAP. XI.

afterwards all the cities of those provinces, notwithstanding the opposition made by the chosen troops, which the king of Egypt sent against him, under the command of his best generals. He did according to his own will in Coele-Syria and Palestine, and pursuing his conquests, entered Judaea, that glorious land, and there established his authority, by driving out of the castle of Jerusalem the garrison which Scopas had left there; but that garrison having made such resistance, as obliged Antiochus to send for the rest of his army to reduce it; and the siege continuing some time, the country was destroyed and consumed by the stay the army was forced to make in it; and the city of Jerusalem suffered greatly, as appears from the decree which Antiochus afterwards enacted in favour of the Jews, granting them leave to repair their demolished city, and raise it from the ruinous condition to which it was reduced. This decree was directed to one Ptolemy, who seems to have been governor of those provinces at that time, and is still extant in Josephus (Antiq. 1. xn. c. iii).

"He" (ver. 17) "shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do, and he shall give him the daughter of women corrupting her; but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him. St. Jerome tells us (in c. xL Danielis), that Antiochus gave his daughter in marriage to Ptolemy, corrupting her with bad principles, and instructing her how she should betray her husband, and put him in possession of the kingdom; but he was not successful in his design, for she was no sooner married to Ptolemy, but she forsook her father's interest, and engaged in that of her husband; and hence it is, that we find her joined with him in an embassy, which was sent from Egypt to Rome, congratulating the Romans on the victory which Acilius had gained over her father at Thermopylae.

"After this" (ver. 18) "he shall turn his face to the isles, and shall take many ; but a, prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach, which" Antiochus " had offered him, to cease; without his own reproach he shall cause it to turn upon him. For after having put an end to the war, in Coele-Syria and Palestine, he sent his two sons with his army, by land, to Sardis, while he himself, with a great

DANIEL, CHAP. XI. 177

fleet, sailed to the AEgean sea, where he reduced several islands, and extended his empire on that side: but the prince of the people, to whom he had offered reproach by that invasion, that is, Lucius Scipio the Roman Consul, made the reproach turn upon him, by defeating him in the battle of Magnesia, and driving him out of all Asia Minor."

"Then" (ver. 19) "he shall turn his face towards the fort of his own land ; but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found. Antiochus, after his defeat, returned to the fort of his own land, that is, to Antioch, the capital of his kingdom, and strongest place in it. From thence going into the eastern provinces to levy money, wherewithal to pay the Romans, he was slain ; so that he returned not into Syria, nor was afterwards found there. These are, as it were, the outlines of Antiochus a picture, and as they resemble none but him, we cannot imagine that they were drawn undesignedly, or at random."

Our authors proceed (on ver. 20), " Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of Daniel, who, speaking of the death of Antiochus the Great, Then shall stand up, says he, in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the Kingdom ; but within few years he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle. These words," continue our historians, " evidently denote the short and obscure reign of Seleucus, and the kind of death which befel him ; for he reigned only eleven years, and his death was neither in anger nor in battle ; that is, neither in war abroad, nor in rebellion at home, but by the treachery of one of his own friends. The Prophet calls him a raiser of taxes, or, as we read in the Hebrew, a collector of taxes ; and such he was during the whole time of his reign, being obliged to pay the Romans, agreeable to the articles of peace between them and his father, a thousand talents annually ; and the last of these twelve years was the last of his life He is said to have once raised a considerable army, with a design to assist Pharnaces, King of Pontus, agaiust Eumenes ; but when he was ready to pass Mount Taurus, dreading the vengeance of the Roman people, he returned home, and disbanded his troops."

" Josephus tells us (Antiq. 1. xn. c. 4, 5), that he employed Hyrcanus the son of Joseph, and nephew to Tobias,

178 DANIEL, CHAP. XL .

to gather the taxes on the east side of the Jordan, where Hyrcanus on that occasion built a strong castle of white marble, not far from the land of Heshbon. The same author adds, that Seleucus appointed him governor of all that country, which he held the last seven years of that prince's reign, living all the time in- war with the Arabians, and gaining signal victories over them."

Our authors proceed, on verse 21 (ib. p. 276), "As this king," i. e. Antiochus Epiphanes, " proved a cruel persecutor of the Jews, the Prophet Daniel foretold every thing that was to befal him. He expresses himself with relation to his accession to the crown in the following words: And in his (Seleucus's) estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom; but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. It is said here, That to him they shall not give the honour of the kingdom; and truly he did not come to the crown either by right of birth, since his brother Seleucus had left behind him a son, who was his lawful heir, or by the election of the people; but by the powerful assistance of AEumenes and Attalus, whom he gained by flattering speeches, and great promises." (From this place, i. e. p. 276 to 286, our authors give, in their text, a very good account of the events had in view by Daniel, from ver. 25 to 30, and to this the reader is referred).

Sect. II.—On the interference of the Roman Power with the successors of Alexander; its destruction of the Theocracy: its own fall.

here then, the exploits of Antiochus generally end: for the following reasons. First, because he did not " take away the daily sacrifice," as already remarked: all he did was, to suspend it for a time, at the end of which it was restored. Secondly, he did not "place the abomination that maketh desolate :" that was to be done even after the time of our Lord, as He himself expressly teaches us, Matth. xxiv. 15, 16, where He says: "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth, let him understand), Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains." (Comp. Mark xiii. 14.) We have too, in

DANIEL, CHAP. XI. 179

Daniel (chap. xii. 11), "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;" which must of necessity refer to the period limited by our Lord. If this may be relied on, Antiochus Epiphanes could not be meant in either of these places. Thirdly, Those that understood among the people (ver. 33), could not be said to have instructed many (lit. the many, so also chap. xii. 4); nor could it, that "some of them of understanding should fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end :" for, with this time of the end, Antiochus had nothing whatever to do, much less could his doings extend to its close. And, for the same reason, it could not be said that at the time of the end should the King of the south push at him (ver. 40). Nor, fourthly, could it, that " at that time" (i. e. of Antiochus, chap. xii. 1) " there should be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even unto that same time." For no such times were those of Antiochus; besides, our blessed Lord Himself restricted this prediction to the times which were to succeed His ministry, when he said (Matth. xxiv. 21), "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." Antiochus could not therefore, be meant here. This is impossible.

The same must hold good, as to the similar matter found in the seventh Chapter, where it is said (ver. 20, seq.), "Even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows," and that " the same horn" should make " war with the Saints, and "prevail" against them...until the time" (should) " come that the saints possessed the kingdom," for Antiochus had ceased to exist long before this took place. (See also verr. 24—28.) It must be clear therefore, that Antiochus could not be meant here, for all his impieties and cruelties had ceased with himself, long before this period had arrived. Again (chap. viii. 11, seq.), it is said, that he magnified himself " even to the prince of the host," and that " by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of His (i. e. this Prince's) sanctuary cast down," neither of which is true of Antiochus, as already shewn: and, as the

180 DANIEL, CHAP. XI.

latter of these is a fact, of which no possible doubt can be entertained, the same must necessarily be the case with the former: namely, that neither of these things can apply to him. In none of these places therefore, could Antiochus have been meant by the sacred writer. Let us now return to Chapter xi. 30, and endeavour to ascertain who the person, or rather what the power, is, that is there brought before us by the Prophet.

"The ships of Chittim," it is said, " shall come against him," &c. i. e. here, against Antiochus. It is added (ver. 31), "And arms shall stand" (up) " on his part, and they shall pollute the Sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and shall place the abomination that maketh desolate." More literally, "And arms (i. e. powers) out of him shall stand up (firmly), and they shall pollute the Sanctuary, the place of strength (or, of refuge), and they shall cause the daily (sacrifice) to pass away, and they shall give (out) the abomination making desolation.'''' Our question will now be, Who is meant when it is said, "Arms shall stand on his part," or, out of him, it having been already shewn that Antiochus Epiphanes could not be meant? If it be answered, that the immediately preceding context must supply the antecedent; my reply will be, We certainly have two antecedents in this place; and the question is, Which of these must be taken I If it be said, The nearest; that is, the part which refers to Antiochus, I answer, If our original were English this might hold good, but it is not; it is Hebrew: and, in the Hebrew, it is not the nearest antecedent that is always to be taken, but rather that which enounces the principal subject of the discourse*.

2 See my Hebrew Grammar, Art. 216, 10 seq. It should be observed, that the transition from one subject (of discourse) to another is often very abrupt, and can be understood only from a careful consideration of the context: e.g. 2 Sam. xi. 13. "And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him; and he" (i. e. David) " made him drunk: and at even he" (Uriah) " went out to lie on his bed," &c. A little consideration however, will enable any one to see, that the leading terms of every larger sentence here, refer to the primary subject, David. Thus: David called him, and accordingly he (Uriah) ate, &c.: and he, David (commencing another member) made him drunk, and accordingly he, (i. e. so made drunk) wont out, &c.: the principal subject thus keeping the lead; and the subordinate one continuing to follow it in order. The same is precisely the case with the subject contained in "the ships of Chittim," above: the "him," and "he," following, belong to the subordinate subject. Verse 31 recurs to the primary one.

 DANIEL, CHAP. XI. 181

And here, the power represented by the ships of Chittim, will supply this. It is not moreover, the mere coming of these ships that should cause Antiochus to be grieved, so as to return and have indignation, and the like; it is the Power represented by these : and this is the Roman. The context here, exhibits what is termed a " constructio ad sensum;" i. e. it is governed by the sense of the place, not by the position, nor by the form of the vocables used.

This coming of the ships of Chittim too, be it observed, is not predicted here for the first time. In Numbers xxiv. 24, we also have it; "And ships," it is said, "shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict" (rather humble) "Asshur, and shall afflict" (humble) "Eber; and he also" (that is, this Power) "shall perish for ever." Where this "he also," must necessarily be referred to the Power navigating these ships. The fall of this is here therefore, clearly predicted. Let it be observed in the next place, "Asshur"" (i. e. Assyria) is at this time in the hands of Antiochus Epiphanes. It was to humble him therefore, that they were so to come; and, for this purpose, they actually did come.

"The ambassadors came up with him (Antiochus)," say the authors of The Universal History (Vol. ix. p. 286), "at Eleusina, a village but four miles from Alexandria, and Popilius accosted him with an air of gravity proper to gain himself respect. As the King was intimately acquainted with Popilius, arid had contracted great familiarity with him while he was an hostage at Rome, as he drew near him, he offered him his hand, which was an uncommon mark of familiarity and distinction from so great a prince. But Popilius, disdaining this kind reception, told him, that the public interest of his country must take place of private friendship, and that he would not join hands with him, till he had first read to him the decree of the Senate, with which he was sent. ' I shall judge,1 said he, ' by your submission" (humiliation), "or refusal, whether you ought to be

182 DANIEL, CHAP. XI.

treated as a friend or an enemy. If you obey, I shall receive all marks of your friendship with joy.'...Antiochus," it is said, " took the decree which Popilius offered him, and after having read it, told him that he would advise with his council about it, and return an answer in a short time. But the proud republican," add our authors, " insisting on an immediate answer, drew a circle round him in the sand with a rod, which he held in his hand, and raising his voice, ' You shall not go out of this circle, said he, till you either accept or reject the proposal I have made to you. I expect you will pay me the respect that is due to the authority of the Roman people and Senate.' The King," we are then told, " struck with this strange and peremptory way of proceeding, hesitated a moment, and then gave this answer, which would better have become a slave, than a great king. ' Then I must satisfy you, Popilius. I will do what your republic expects from me.'"—It may be remarked here, if this was not to humble the Asshur of that day, it is difficult to imagine what was.

"Therefore,'" says our Prophet (ver. 30), "he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant; so shall he do," Sic. Our historians go on (ib. p. 288), "Antiochus on his return from Egypt, being highly provoked to see himself thus obliged to quit a kingdom, which he looked upon as his own, vented his rage upon the unhappy city of Jerusalem, which had no ways offended him. But the desolations he caused in Judaea, the cruel persecution he stirred up against the true believers, and the bloody war which he carried on against the people of God, with the generous resistance made first by Mattathias, and afterwards by his son, the brave Judas Maccabceus, we shall describe at length in the history of the Jews."—To this I refer the reader (Vol. x. 181, seq.), with the memento already urged, that, whatever were the cruelties of Antiochus, he did not either cause the sacrifice to cease, in the true and full meaning of those terms, nor did he destroy the Sanctuary.

Our Prophet proceeds, "Arms shall stand up on his part, or from, or out of him, and they shall pollute the Sanctuary...and shall take away the daily sacrifice," &c.

 DANIEL, CHAP. XI. 183

This, some Jews 3, both ancient and modern, have very justly referred to the Roman Power, which actually did destroy the Sanctuary, and take away, or caused for ever to pass away, the daily sacrifice; and this, as already shewn, an extended view of the context positively requires.

We have seen then, the Roman Rule brought into a situation powerfully to affect one, at least, of the Horns, or Kings, among whom the Empire of Alexander had been divided. Some time before this indeed, it had reduced Macedon to a Roman province, as remarked above4: and thus had succeeded in constituting itself one of these four Horns, or Powers. In this situation too, it presents another of these, viz. Antiochus very much at the disposal of Rome:— and, into this, in the times of Pompey, it finally merged. In those of Julius Caesar moreover, Pontus and Asia became a province of the Empire; and again, in those of Octavianus, i. e. Augustus, Egypt, with its dependencies, shared the same fate. And, with these, first or last, the other minor states were reduced, and added to it; and accordingly, it eventually became the greatest, and most

3 Lit. "Arms," i.e. powers, "of him," or "out of him, shall stand firmly," &c. (Heb.) Arms, or hands, is often put in the Shemitic languages, to signify strength or power. This place might mean therefore, either that some among the Jews should set themselves up on his behalf, or, that now, combining in his own person the universal dominion, symbolized in Daniel's first vision, he was in circumstances, such as prophecy required, to destroy the Jewish polity.

4 Jerome says on this place: "Judsei autem hoc nee de Antiocho Epiphane, nee de Antichristo, sed de Romania intelligi volunt, de quibus supra dictum est: Et venient Trieres sive Itali atque Romani, et humiliabititr (i. e. ver. 30). Post multa, inquit, tempora de ipsis Bomanis, qui Ptolemseo yenere auxilio, et Antiocho comminati sunt, consurget rex Vespasianus : surgent brachia ejiis, et semina, Titus filius cum exercitu, et polluent Sanctuarium : auferentque juge sacrificium, et Templum tradent seternse solitudini. [Heb.] quos .nos Trieres et Romanos interpretati sumus, Hebrsei Italos volunt intelligi atque Romanos." See the notes on Chap, vii and viii. By " arms standing up," here therefore, Jerome understands as referring to the Romans, not to Antiochus Epiphanes ; and, in this, he is right: but, both "he and the Jews are wrong, in supposing that it does not also belong to the Antichrist, as we shall see hereafter.

184 DANIEL, CHAP. XI. [bk. II. CH. II.

powerful, Empire that had ever existed. In this respect, it was certainly diverse from those which had preceded it. Now too, had the seeds of its dissolution been effectually sown. It was in the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, that Rome began to lose its legs of iron. The miry clay now entered into its constitution, in the luxury, effeminacy, venality, and want of good faith, which the wealth of the world, and of the East in particular, poured into it; and this became its confirmed character in the times of Augustus.—But to proceed with our Prophet.

"And they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate." This, as already remarked, is cited by our Lord (Matth. xxiv. 15. Mark xiii. 14), as to take place after His death. It could not therefore, as shewn already, refer to the times of Antiochus: and hence, the " Arms standing on his part," must necessarily be referred to the power here implied in " the ships of Chittim." That Antiochus did set up some such abomination of desolation, is certain from 1 Maccab. i. 50, and 2 Maccab. vi. 2 : as it also is, that the author of the books of the Maccabees has referred his history of this, to our place in Daniel as its fulfilment: and hence it is, that it has been so generally misunderstood and misapplied. If then, our blessed Lord has set us right here, —and He certainly has,—-let us now inquire what was meant by this " abomination of desolation."

Hammond with some others thinks, that, in the New Testament, this refers to the Roman army besieging Jerusalem ; because some similar expressions are used when speaking of armies, and because the parallel place in St. Luke (chap. xxi. 20) speaks of this army only. I cannot help thinking nevertheless, that something more than this army is meant. St. Luke might indeed, have named the army, when he meant more particularly some adjunct of it, just as the ships of Chittim are spoken of above. Nothing is more common than such usage in Holy Scripture. If we turn to 1 Maccab. i. 41—52, as referred to by Hammond, and carefully consider the context there, it will appear that Idolatry, and its appointments, are particularly had in view in this expression : and here we have the thing generally,—— if not the very words,—of the New Testament. The same is the case in that of 2 Maccab. vi. 2, seq., as is also the

DANIEL, CHAP. XI. 185

usage of the Septuagint Greek generally in the Old Testament, as may be seen by a reference, either to Trommius in his Concordance, or to Schleusner in his Lexicon. The usage therefore, requires that something more than the Roman army be meant, otherwise the term abomination would be without meaning.

I am disposed to adopt the interpretation of Grotius on this place (which may be found in Poole's Synopsis'), it is this: " Ego re considerata," says he, " non dubito [Grk.] vocari signa Romanorum militaria, de quibus ita Tertul. Religio Romanorum tota castrensis signa veneratur, signa jurat, signa omnibus diis prceponit, omnes illi imaginum suggestus insignes monilia crucium sunt."...uln iis" (i.e. suggestibus, here said to be the heaping of shields one upon another),...." erant imagines, i. e. Trpo Toimal, ut Josephus loquitur, Caesarum; eorum scilicet qui in Divos erant relati."... " Suetonius, Artabanus transgressus Euphratem aquilas et signa Romana Ccesarumque imagines adoravit. Ideo Tacito Numina legionum et bellorum dii vocantur...1a\ia, signa," adds Grotius, " Titus conspicua in castris suis posuit, quasi Templo Hierosolymitano contrarium. Nam et Tacitus alibi ita loquitur, Fulgentibus aquilis signisque et simulacris deum in modum Templi5. Et Josephus, dXw'creeos 3, 8, quas ajueuas dixerat, mox to. iepd vocat. Ut et Herodianus, 1. 4. Ad talia signa circa Urbem posita, ut ad Templum confugeret, Josepho Herodis Procuratori suadet Alexander, in Jo. Antiq. 15." Grotius concludes, " [Grk.] igitur eprf juftjcrews, aut  [Grk.]  ut habet Hebraea locutio, cur vocen-tur, obscurum non est; quia scilicet epnu-iav (vastationem) minabantur non tantum cultui Judaico (quod fecerat et illud idolum ab Antiocho allatum) sed et Templo Urbique. Ex-pansio autein  [Grk.]  dicitur (Dan. ix. 276) quia in

5 We see here, that even the Romans could consider such things as constituting a Temple of the Gods. We shall hereafter see this carried still farther out in our Prophet. In this acceptation the place is full of point.

6 And for the overspreading of abominations," &c. [Heb.] lit. " And upon the wing of abominations (is) a destroyer." By [Heb.] seems once (Is. viii. 8) to be meant, the wing of an army: which would seem to suit this place extremely well. But, if we take wing in the sense of spreading out, as of a bird ; or, as implying a skirt, as of the garment of a man, and apply this to an army, the general sense will be much the same. The Greek of Theodotion has here , which is translated, "et post hcec in templo abominatio desolationis." (Edit Bom. 1772). The common Editors properly omit [Grk.], and they translate the rest as here given. This translation, however, is erroneous. "Em, with an accusative case after it, does not signify in, as if used with a Latin ablative, but as with an accusative. The translation ought, therefore, to be in templum, or contra templum, i. e. [Grk.], Rom. iv. 3, 5, &c. ; and so I think, 2 Thess. ii 4, els tov vabv tov Geou : — but more on this hereafter. But, if we take eirl here in the sense of contra, then this abomination will be opposed to the temple, in the sense of Grotius, as given above. The LXX. (Rom. 1772) has, with endless interpolations, the same reading, and is in like manner mistranslated. In the Commentary of Hippolytus the Martyr, in the same volume, p. 110, this abomination of desolation is to present itself, until Antichrist (come) announcing desolation to the world, which, as before, has also been erroneously translated by its Editor.

186 DANIEL, CHAP. XI.

loco aperto maximeque conspicuo signa constitui solebant. Tacitus de Tito, Castris ante mcenia Hierosolymorum positis instructas legiones ostentavit." Which, I think, meets sufficiently well every particular of this case.

"And" (ver. 32) " such as do wickedly against the covenant," more lit. the condemners 7 of the covenant, " he shall corrupt by flatteries:" lit. he shall heathenize by smooth things 8. This may signify generally, all such as may be then ready to further the purposes of this Power; but more particularly those who should apostatize, as the heretics did, from the true religion. We have a similar place in chap. viii. 25, where it is said, " by peace" (he) " shall destroy many:" which is not very obvious: if however, we render it by dissoluteness, laxness 9, effeminacy, or

7 [Heb.]  The authorised version seems to me to be too general here. The heretics, to whom allusion appears to be made, pronounced the Old Testament an abomination ; and this it was that contained the Covenant. See Iren. Edit. Orabe, Lib. in. c. xii. p. 131, seq.,&c.

8 [Heb.]  See the root pjJlf, in my Heb. Lex.

9 [Heb.]  should be observed, that is by no means synonymous with Blb^i as our authorized version seems to make it. The Syrian cessatio, intermissio; and the Chald., tranquillitas,Sbrei its true cognate terms; and these maybe taken either in a good, or bad, sense. So the Heb. See my Lexicon, p. 599. And a bad sense the context here manifestly requires. This suits the place well, as it does the times to which I refer it, as already noticed.

DANIEL, CHAP. XI. 187

the like, all our difficulty will vanish. And this is, no doubt, just what is intended here, in order to mark the dissolute, earthly, and base, character of the latter portion of the Roman Power. "Policy" and "craft'''' (ib.) constituted now its only wisdom, just as weakness and cruelty marked its progress. To this heathenizing by smooth things, our Lord probably alluded when he said (Matth. xxiv. 10, 11), "And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets'' (i. e. heathenish teachers) " shall arise, and shall deceive many.'' St. Peter, speaking of the same, says (2 Ep. ii. 1, seq.), "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who shall privily bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them 10...and many" (comp. Dan. viii. 25, above) " shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of 11. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now...lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not 12." Compare verr. 10, 15, 18, 19, where the means of temptation, .used by such, are quite of a piece with those predicted of this heathen

11 So Dan. viii. 12, "It (i. e. his host) cast down the truth to the ground," not by ruining Judaism, but by persecuting the saints in the Christian Church.

12 The judgment to be executed by " a fiery stream," (Dan. vii. 10), and to which the body of the beast is given (ib. ver. 11). "As natural brute beasts," says St. Peter (ib. ver. 12) " made to be taken and destroyed . .. shall utterly perish in their own corruption." In the next chapter (iii. 3) this is limited to the period termed the last days. In ver. 10, our Lord's prediction of these, and of their end is cited: and all this He limited in its rise to that generation. In ver. 6, 7,12, this judgment is referred to, as are its consequences (ver. 13); and all this is ascribed to the teaching of the false prophets (ver. 2); and (ver. 13) to God's judgments.—Butj more on this elsewhere.

188 DANIEL, CHAP. XI. 

Power, who should make war upon the Saints, and corrupt many by dissoluteness; or, as here, by covetousness, and smooth things, through the false teachers. This mystery of iniquity, according to both St. Peter and St. Paul, was even then at work. The apostacy mentioned by the latter Apostle (2 Thess. ii. 3), had begun to shew itself in " them that then walked after the flesh" (St. Pet. ib. ver. 10) ; and who, covetous like Balaam (ver. 15), " loved the wages of unrighteousness;" all which this enemy was, in his emissaries, ready to administer, and actually did administer, as we shall see hereafter.

The Prophet adds, " But the people that do know their God, shall be strong, and do exploits." Such indeed, were the Apostles of our Lord and their coadjutors, and such were all those who carried on this warfare to the end. They did what all the philosophy of Greece, and all the civilization of Rome, never could do. They made even rustics at the plough discourse more wisely on the nature of God, of their own souls and immortal destinies, than even Plato 13, with the whole host of philosophers, ever did; and to live more consistently as rational beings, and better subjects, than Rome in all its glories ever saw among its own adherents. But this was not all:—

"And they," continues Daniel, " that understand among the people shall instruct many" (lit. the many, Heb., as before, chap. ix. 27, where the same thing is meant, comp. chap. xii. 3, 4). That is, it should be their peculiar province to do so, and thus, declaring the name of the Lord among the Gentiles, so to call them in, as to make them to rejoice with his people, and to become partakers in the great and everlasting covenant. It is added, " Yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and spoil, many days." And again (ver. 35), "And some of them of understanding" (i.e. as just mentioned) "shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white," &c. (Comp. chap, xii. 10). Which is only a repetition of what we have (chap. vii. 21), " I beheld, and the same horn made war with the Saints" (here, them of understanding], " and pre-

13 See the first fire Chapters of the Preparatio Evangelica of Eusebius, and the beginning of the Church History.

 DANIEL, CHAP. XI. 189

Vailed," &c. And (ib. ver. 25) "He shall...wear out the saints of the Most High...and they shall be given into his hand until a time," &c. And (chap. viii. 24), "And" (he) " shall destroy the mighty and the holy people" i. e. those whom St. Peter, before this point of time, declared were "a holy nation, and a peculiar people:" not the Jews ; holiness was no longer their badge or character. We are here told moreover, that this warfare was allowed by God Himself, for the purpose of trying this new and holy people, and of purging from among them the dross and tin, otherwise inseparable from all such bodies. The same was the case with the Jewish Church in the wilderness: and how many fell, and lamentably so, in this trial! Far better indeed, was the result here. It was when these trials ceased, that the dross and tin so prominently appeared, and then ate as doth a canker.

We are told however (ver. 34), that "Now when they fall, they shall be holpen with a little help." It is quite certain, as attested by Lactantius, as cited below1*, that many of the milder Emperors not only abstained from every thing like persecution, but tacitly aided Christianity; in one case, we actually have a Christian Emperor 15: and hence, it made its way into every village in the Empire ; that is, it generally so spread under these circumstances. In such a case, " many" would be found, no doubt, ready enough " to cleave to them with flatteries." In other words, when the principal in this persecution (Satan) was withholden from shedding their blood, he would ply his softer arts, through his ministers, for the purpose of sapping their faith by those smoother things, which are so often found to succeed, where the fiercer ones fail.

Again (verr. 33, 35, 36, 45), "They shall fall...many

15 Paulus Orosius (Hist. Lib. vn. c. 20) gives us this information in these words: "Anno ab urbe condita dcoccxcvii, Philippus, vige-simus quartus ab Augusto, Imperator creatus... Hie primus Imperatorum omnium Christianus fuit. .. Nee dubium est," adds Orosius, " quin Philippus hujus tantse devotionis gratiam et honorom ad Christum et Ecclesiam rcportarit, quando vel adscensum fuisse in Capito-lium, immolatasque ex more hostias nullus auctor ostendit." Edit. Havercampi, 1738.

190 DANIEL, CHAP. XI.

days"..." even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed".. .^ till the indignation be accomplished.''... " Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help Mm." There can perhaps be no doubt, that the indignation here to be accomplished, when this persecuting Power should fall, must be the same with that to be poured upon the Desolator (chap. ix. 27); for in every case, this is the thing determined (ver. 36 here, and chap. ix. 27 ; and ver. 35 here, "a time appointed,'''' as elsewhere). And if so, this end must be that of Daniel's seventieth week: and, as this Power does not come into action till the fall of Jerusalem,—which was to take place in the midst of this week,—the whole period assigned for his desolating purposes, must be the last half of this week (speaking indefinitely) ; and must also constitute the " time, times, and dividing of time" of chap. vii. 25, and the " time, times, and a half" of chap. xii. 7: that is, in each case, three and a half, i. e. the latter half of Daniel's seventieth week of seven days. We shall see more on this, when we come to its place in the Revelation of St. John.

But the "many days" mentioned above, are (chap. xii. 11) given in the number 1290 days: while, as we shall see hereafter (Rev. xi. 9,11), this latter half of Daniel's week is said to be 3 1/2 days, and also 1260 days: i.e. three years and a half, supposing this week to be a week of years (Ezek. xxxix. 9). We have here therefore, an excess of thirty days, above that number. How is this to be accounted for ? I answer, Beyond the time of "the end" here we cannot possibly go: this is manifestly an immoveable point. But, some time before the Temple and City fell,—and it is from its fall that our 1260 mystical days are counted,—the abomination of desolation must have been set up: and if this consisted, as Grotius tells us above, in an exhibition of the Roman idolatrous ensigns in the face of the Temple, and in contempt of it; this setting up must have taken place some considerable time before the Temple and City fell: and, to fill up this space, these additional thirty days may have been given: and this I think is the case. We need not therefore, disturb ourselves further on this point. During this space then, and up to its close, those who should understand, should be tried, purged, and made white: and, up to

DANIEL, CHAP. XI. 191

this point, they were so tried; many fell, and many were made white and also clean.

We have other intimations of this trying of God's people both in the Old and New Testament. In Amos ix. 9, it is said, " I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.'1'' (Comp. Zech. xiii. 9 with its parallels). By which must necessarily be meant, " the wise and understanding" among the Jews: those who, according to Isaiah (chap. lxvi. 19), should escape Jerusalem's judgments, and declare the name of the Lord among the nations: in other words, should magnify the Covenant, instruct the many, and, by whose running to and fro, knowledge should be increased. And it is certain, not only that the Apostles and their successors expected this kind of sifting, but also that some of them experienced it; and this within the very period here had in view. Our blessed Lord thus addresses Peter on this subject (Luke xxii. 31), "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.'1'1 And this command Peter faithfully observed. "Beloved," says he (1 Pet. iv. 12, seq.), " think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which, is to try you, as though some strange" (i. e. unexpected) " thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may lie glad also with exceeding joy." ..."For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God," &c. And again (chap. v. 8, seq.), " The devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour 16: whom resist

16 If it be objected here, that my theory requires Satan to be bound at this time, I answer: This promise of binding Satan was given as, an extraordinary privilege to the Apostles, and to their converts (Luke x. 19, 20). "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.. . rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you," See. Comp. Mark xvi. 15—19: Acts xxviii. 5. Our Lord accordingly says (Luke x. 18), " /beheld Satan as lightning Jailing from heaven;" i. e. I have now viewed him as cast out of the Church. See Rev. xii. 9,13. Hence Peter says, " Whom resist stedfast (i. e. by stedfastness) in the faith." After this, and during the great persecutions, the caseas in some respects different: they were given into his hands for " a time, times, and the dividing of time." It is true, Paul, James, and Stephen, fell before this period, as did probably all the Apostles except John : but this was extraordinary; and in some cases, as in Paul and Peter, they were previously admonished of the end that awaited them. It was in the great persecutions only, that Satan was unbound, and his power was general: after these it became limited, as before, and subject to the power of faith.

192 DANIEL, CHAP. XI.

stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world." (See also the next verse.) Many other instances to the same effect might be adduced, were it necessary, but it is not.

To return to our Prophet. " The king? we are told (ver. 36), "-shall do according to his (own) will: and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god" &e. Which, as we have seen, is little more than an echo of what we have considered in Chapters vii. and viii. here. The same Power must therefore, be meant in all. It is added (ver. 38), " But in his estate he shall honour the god of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and with pleasant things." This was, no doubt, intended particularly to mark the character of this persecuting and murderous Power.' Let us see how far this is the case. We learn from Lactantius, a writer who lived at the close of the persecutions, that Nero was the first of this series; but, the truth is, as we shall see, Domitian was the first Emperor who generally persecuted, and who, during his lifetime, assumed the title of the Lord God, and insisted upon being worshipped as a deity. He allowed moreover, no statues, unless of gold or silver, and these again of a certain weight, to be made of himself and placed in the Capitol17. Which was surely, to honour a god whom his fathers knew not: and, indeed, to magnify himself above them all. In chap. viii. 23, seq.,

17 But more on this, when we come to this persecutor in the character of Antichrist, and in the Revelation.

DANIEL, CHAP. XI. 193

we are told, that "when the transgressors are come to the full, a king," or Rule, "of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up...and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people," which last must, of necessity, apply to the commencement of the Persecutions.

If we now turn to Deut. xxviii. 49, 50, seq., we shall find this same Power similarly described, and a prediction made, shewing that it should destroy the city and sanctuary of Jerusalem. " The lord," it is said, " shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as tlie eagle flieth"..." a nation" (or community) "of fierce countenance 1S, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young."..." And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates" sec. Daniel has adopted the terms of Moses here, evidently for the purpose of directing us to this prediction: —which extends however, no farther than the people of the Jews: and does not reach the times of Domitian. Still the Power is the same : and the siege here predicted took place within the general period now before us. Our Rule of fierce aspect is therefore, the same; and it is that of the lower Roman Empire, which eventually did make war against the Saints of the Most High, such as neither time nor place had hitherto seen: and such also, as none other shall hereafter.

Daniel tells us moreover, that this king should understand dark sentences, and should destroy the mighty and the holy people 19: which, must refer to the persecutions, not to the fall of Jerusalem. First, because Jerusalem was not now holy, but quite the reverse, as were the people who fell with it. And secondly, because the Christians were to be now, according to Holy Scripture, the Holy People. So Isaiah (chap. Lxii. 12), speaking, as already noticed, of believers under the New Covenant: " They shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord," &c. And (ib. ver. 2), " The Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and they shalt be called by a new name" &c. And St. Peter (1 Ep. ii. 9), in strict conformity with this : " Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people," Sic.: and accordingly, he gives to the New Church the titles

18 As remarked above, p. 162.
19 See ib. L. 13

194 DANIEL, CHAP. XI.

and honours which Moses had to the Old (Exod. xix. 6). We have here therefore, the events before us that we have when it is said, that this Power should make war against the Saints of the Most High, and prevail for a season.

Of the Persecutors too, it may be said generally, that they were artful, cunning, sly, insidious, false, and faithless. Of the first,—and which, it should seem, is a true description of them all, for " they all had one mind"—the heathen Roman. writers themselves say precisely the same things, as we shall see hereafter, when we come to the proper place, and to the Revelation of St. John, where he figures.

Daniel proceeds (xi. 40, seq.), " And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and " (even?)" the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships : and shall enter into the countries, and shall'" (as a mighty flood) " overflow and pass over.""..." Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.'' By which I understand, that the fall of this persecuting Power should be thus finally effected: which brings us, of necessity, to the extreme limit and end of Daniel's seventieth week. If then, we now turn to the history of these times, we shall find that, upon the fall of Maximinus, Licinius succeeded to the entire Rule of the East; but, not being satisfied with this, Constantine—now the only remaining Emperor with him—allowed him also to have Egypt, and its dependencies, Libya, &c. But these he held for so short a time, that he could scarcely be said to be their king, although he certainly laid his hands upon them, and upon their precious things (ver. 38).

In this case then, and up to the period of this very short tenure, as also after it, Constantine would justly be styled King, both of the South, and of the North. Verse 40 above will not therefore, imply the existence of two separate kings here. By the North is meant, not Babylon and the East, as held by Licinius; but, as before, all the parts northward of Greece and Asia Minor. And it is the fact, that upon Licinius's evincing dissatisfaction, and collecting forces for the purpose of diminishing, if not of ruining, the fortunes of Constantine, he (Constantine) came upon him from these very parts of the north,—where he was then engaged in his wars with the Goths,—with such rapidity and fury, that he

DANIEL, CHAP. XI. 195

routed his forces, and compelled him to seek safety in an ignominious flight. Constantine was however, after this reconciled to Licinius through the entreaties of his sister Constantia, whom Licinius had married ; which was but of short duration. For, assembling another army, he again determined to dispute the power and authority of Constantine. Upon this occasion Constantine, as before, got together his forces with all speed, and hastened to meet his opponent in the neighbourhood of Byzantium, whither Licinius had betaken himself. He likewise summoned his son Crispus, who had a large fleet in the Pirasum 20, to come to his assistance, and to engage that of Licinius, which was also large and powerful. Crispus, it is said, came up with the fleet of Licinius in the straits of Callipoli, where an obstinate and bloody battle took place ; the result of which was, the entire overthrow of the fleet of Licinius. Constantine now continued to pursue Licinius, who, despairing of every thing like success, submitted himself to him, and was sent by him to Thessalonica; but finding, as it should seem, that he was still disposed to act treacherously, he gave orders for his execution21, which took place accordingly. It does not appear indeed, that Licinius was a very active persecutor ,• while all afSrm that he was perfectly of a mind with his persecuting predecessors. Want of opportunity was, probably, the cause of his inactivity in this respect. And hence it is perhaps, that Lactantius has not numbered him with those who persecuted the Church. This portion of our Prophet therefore, was fulfilled to the very letter.

Again (ver. 42), "He" (i. e. Licinius) "shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries" (i. e. with the view of adding

20 So Zosimus. This is a port in Attica. This sea-fight noticed by Daniel is the more remarkable, because matters of this sort are very rarely mentioned in the Bible.

21 " Zonaras writes that, upon the complaints brought against Licinius by the soldiery, Constantine referred the whole affair to the Senate, who sentenced him to death. Socrates says in express terms, that Licinius began privately to make new preparations for war, and to invite the Barbarians to his assistance; which Constantine no sooner knew, than he ordered him to be put to death, and by that means prevented a new civil war." Universal History, Vol. xv. p. 684. note.

196 DANIEL, CHAP. XI. 

them to his rule): "and the land of Egypt" it is added, "shall not escape." That is, he shall in this particular instance succeed: these parts shall be ceded to him. It is added, quite in unison with this (ver. 43): " He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over the precious things of Egypt 22 : and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps:" that is, as his subjects, and ready to administer to his aid: all which also took place, even to the letter. "But" it is added (ver. 44, seq.), "tidings out of the East, and out of the North 23 shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and he shall plant the tabernacles of his palaces between the seas in the glorious holy mountain." The last portion of which would be more literal thus: between the seas fob (i. e. to be) the mount of the beauty of holiness, i. e. Gr. eis opos, as in eis tov vaov, &c., 2 Thess. ii. 4, as we shall see hereafter. And in this way the Septua-

22 And we find accordingly, that, when Licinius perceived that he must again face Constantine, he sent, according to Zosimus, (Lib. II. 1. p. mihi 59) to the nations under his control, commanding them to supply him with both ships and men. The Egyptians on this occasion sent eighty vessels with three banks of rowers : the Phenicians the same number . . . The Libyans fifty,   It was before this time, and immediately after the battle of Mardia in Thrace, that Egypt, Libya, and some other places, came into the hands of Licinius. Univ. Hist. Ib. p. 575. It certainly is extraordinary that •an event such as Licinius's getting possession of Egypt and Libya, and which he could have held but a very short time, should have been mentioned by Daniel. It is a particular so minute, arid happening so extraordinarily at this juncture, and hence supplying the means of calling into action the fleet of Constantine, that it must have been intended to afford irrefragable testimony to the fact, that this was the time of the End in the mind of Daniel. It may be difficult to account for the oifence taken by Licinius, at Constantine's pursuing the Goths into his dominions. The probability is strong I think, that Licinius wished to count these Goths among his friends and allies, and hence to avail himself of their assistance against Constantine. If so, it would be anything but pleasing to Licinius to see them pursued and slaughtered within his dominions. This appears to me to be the real ground of the displeasure of Licinius against Constantine.

23 These tidings evidently caused the rupture with Constantine: that is, Constantine's routing the forces of the Goths, and pursuing them into some northern province belonging to Licinius,

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gint takes it:  for, or to (be) a holy mount Sabaim: taking perhaps the Heb., as if it were a plural in the state of construction, but giving it the absolute form, as in the Greek, i. e. which was perhaps intended to mean to, or for, a holy mountain of hosts; or, taking 132*, in construction with the word following, for a mount of the hosts of holiness: i. e. of the holy hosts: which will bring us to what is elsewhere said, viz. .that he should (in this series) magnify himself even to the prince of the host; i. e. to occupy the place of these Deity-assuming Persecutors, if not to be worshipped himself.

As to the tidings coming out of the East, it is probable that these brought him the very unwelcome news of the victories of Constantine over the Goths, and of his pursuing them into his own territories, as noticed above: and hence perhaps, the preparations which he was induced, in the last place, to make against Constantine, and probably from among these very barbarians.

"He shall enter also into the glorious land" (ver. 41); that is, apparently, for the purpose of persecuting the Church there; for Sozomen declares, that he had determined to use fire and sword for this purpose 24. The escape of Edom, Moab, and chief (rather, the first-fruits) of the children of Ammon, is probably to be taken mystically, and as implying that all these, as first-fruits to God and the Lamb, were preserved from his fury as a Persecutor, by the troubles into which his treachery and rage had precipitated him, and in which his fall was consummated. But here, as noted on other occasions, these several states may have been mentioned for the purpose of shadowing out the whole of the Christian Church, which was now under the powerful protection of Constantine.

24 Univ. Hist. Vol. xv. p. 582. the Note.

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time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book 25" If we now turn to Matth. xxiv. 21, seq., we shall find matter which will throw sufficient light upon this: the words are, " Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." And again, a little lower down (ver. 34), " Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be:" i. e. in progress: or (as ver. 8), "All these things are the beginning of sorrows." And again (ver. 15), we are directed to " the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the Prophet" and to the fall of Jerusalem, in which one stone should not be left upon another. The Disciples are then instructed (ver. 16) to "flee into the mountains." Our Lord therefore, dates the beginning of these sorrows, and of this unheard-of time of tribulation, to the period in which Jerusalem should fall, under the power of the people of the Prince who should, according to Daniel, come for the purpose of effecting this. But, according to our Prophet here, every one of his people, found written in the book, should then be delivered. Daniel's people here therefore, were not the Jews, for they were not delivered. No ; these were the true children of his people, the holy seed and Remnant that should escape, and carry the tidings of salvation, even to the ends of the earth. They did so escape, and they did so carry these tidings, under the power and guidance of their Lord, even to every region, and " every creature under heaven." And this is said again, indirectly (ver. 2), in the terms, "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake" i. e. in a first resurrection with Christ (Rom. vi. 3—6); and "some to shame and everlasting contempt" i. e. awakened to hear, through the preaching of the Gospel, the judgments denounced against unbelief, and to feel this, in a general overthrow. So likewise St.

25 So Josephus literally (Preface to his Jewish Wars, p. 552, Ed. 1839), " It appears to me," says this writer, " that the misfortunes of all men, from the beginning of the world, if they be compared to these of the Jews, are not so considerable as they were," &c.

26 In " The Lamb's Book of life," necessarily: these could not therefore, have been Jews.

27 Col .i. 23. So also ver. 6 :" in all the world." Rom. x. 18 : xvi. 26.

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Luke (chap. ii. 34), " Behold this Child is set for the fall, and rising again (anastasis, resurrection) of many in Israel."

We next have the glories of those whose privilege it should be to preach this Gospel (ver. 3); and (ver. 4) the vision is consigned to the closing up and sealing of the whole, even to the time of the end; when, as we shall see hereafter, its seals are broken by Him who is mystically styled, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

Our next question is (ver. 6), "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" i. e. to the final close, and fulfilment, of the predictions of these unheard-of sorrows. The answer is (ver. 7), "for a time, times, and an half." Which must, of necessity, signify the time that should elapse from the fall of Jerusalem, to the end of DanieFs seventieth week : for, according to the prediction enouncing this, the Temple and the City were to fall in the midst of this week,—as we have shewn above:—and then, even to the end, judgments should be executed,, and finally upon the Desolater himself. By " a time, times, and an half" therefore, i. e. a period that may be numbered by three days and a half, in a mystical sense (as shewn already), we must necessarily understand the last half—i. e. in an indefinite sense,—of Daniel's last week.

The angel adds, "And when He shall have accomplished to scatter abroad the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished." That is, when the Son of Man shall, in His saints, have taken possession (de facto) of the kingdom under the whole heaven; or, in the terms of Isaiah, when Kings and their Queens shall have become the nursing-fathers, and nursing-mothers, of the Church ; when the spiritual seed of Abraham shall have, in fact, constituted him the spiritual heir of the world; when the Gospel shall have been so preached in all the world, for a testimony to God's truth, that it shall have been acknowledged, received, experienced, and enjoyed; then shall all these things have been fulfilled wholly and entirely : in other words, this shall be the (full) end of the whole matter. And blessed shall he be (ver. 12) who shall outlive this period, shall witness and enjoy it. Daniel is therefore, clear, precise, simple, and consistent: the same we shall sec, hereafter, is the case with St. John, in his " Revelation" of this 28.

28 See on Matt. xxiv.; Luke xxi. &c. above p. 121 seq.

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Upon the fall of this Power then, the Empire of the Son of Man was, de facto, established throughout the whole world, just as all prophecy declares it should be, and as all history, together with the facts of the case still existing, conspire most abundantly to shew. The question may now be asked, viz. If testimony to Jesus is indeed the spirit of all prophecy, What further has the Church of Christ to expect from its declarations ? Daniel has informed us in terms the most direct and positive, that, when the Empire under the whole heaven should be given to the Son of Man (i. e. de facto), "hitherto" i. e. up to this point of circumstance, was " the end of the matter 29 and again, that when He, i. e. God, should have accomplished to spread abroad the power of the Holy People, all these things should be finished 30.

And, let it be observed, these things, and this universal spread of power, has respect to the kingdom of Christ, and to nothing else: they are the things primarily, necessarily, and exclusively, belonging to the kingdom of Christ, which is not (scripturally speaking) of this world, as brought to their consummation in the precise time and manner, which prophecy had declared they should be. How then the fall of Popery, of the Ottoman Empire; how a Millennium to take place hereafter, and a restoration of Jews as such, are to be extracted from the same declarations, it is quite out of my power to see, as it also is, how any of these can in any way concern the interests of the Church, which is, under the New Covenant, a purely spiritual system. But, if indeed all has thus come to pass, then have we a series of Evidence so great and convincing of the truth of Divine Revelation, and of the faithfulness of our God, as must effectually silence all objection, and annihilate every possible pretence for unbelief: while the Church has, in the ministration of the Holy Ghost, and the power vested in the Word, and the Mediation of the Redeemer, all that reason can require, and all that fallen man can want: truth adequate to the full information of his mind, and confirmation of his faith, with a power supplied by Divine aid so afforded, equal to the task of making him more than a conqueror.

29 Dan. vii. 28.

30 Dan. xii. 7.

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having then ascertainted generally, from the Visions of Daniel, and from other parts of Holy Scripture, Who, and What, that Power should be, that should make war upon the Saints of the Most High, should prevail against them for a time, and then fall to rise no more, and that this must be that of heathen Rome, limited to the latter period of its rule; we may now inquire more particularly, which of its latter Rulers it was, of whom the Prophets spoke when they foretold these things; and we will commence our inquiry with one of the most remarkable, and perhaps difficult, places of the New Testament, viz. 2 Thess. ii. 1, seq., where we have,—

" We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ... That ye be not soon shaken in mind... as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God...And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time...He who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, ivith all power and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." We have here clearly, a judgment soon to take place upon earth.

But, as this version of the place stands in need of some alterations, we shall first offer such, and then proceed to its interpretation. In the first place, we should have the apostacy, instead of " a falling away" (ver. 3): the original having diroaraaia, that is, the apostacy, most likely as foretold by our Lord (Matth, xxiv. 10. seq.), " Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one

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another...and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold:" i. e. they shall fall away, shall apostatize from the faith, and become the betrayers of one another. (Comp. 2 Pet. ii. 1. Matth. x. 22. Luke xxi. 16, 17. 1 John iv. 1. 2 John ver. 7.)

Our text has then (ver. 4), Geos: which may mean, So that he sitteth as God against (over against, i. e. in opposition to) the Temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. It has been shewn on Dan. xi. 31, that the abomination that maketh desolate, is to be understood rather of the Roman armies, with their heathen ensigns, stationed over against the Temple, than of any thing else. These armies exhibited their eagles, as representing the court of their deities, and to these they offered divine worship: and here, in such a situation and manner, as to seem to bid defiance to the Temple itself. And as St. Paul evidently has prophecy here before him, he would of necessity, give the sense intended by the Prophets, and in the terms as near as may be, to those used by them. Let us now see therefore, what intimations we have of this Antichrist in the Prophets, from which his times and character may be determined

No doubt will be entertained by any one, after a little consideration, that we have this very Deity-assuming power and its fall mystically foretold in Isaiah xiv. The first verse plainly brings us to the times, in which the Gentiles were to be joined with God's people: that is, in those of the Apostles, and of their immediate successors. The Roman Power necessarily had in view both in Daniel, and the place before us, occupied in the times of St. Paul the station which that of Babylon once did: and hence, in the Revelation, it is mystically styled Babylon. We have then, here in Isaiah (verr. 13, 14), " I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north...I will be like the Most High.'''' (Comp. also chap. XLvii. 8, 10. In verse 14 ib. this Power is destroyed by fire. See also Zeph. ii. 13—15 inclus.) But (Isai. xiv. verr. 24—26) the fall, predicted of it, is denounced against the Assyrian: and it is declared, that " This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole

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earth : and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations :" that is, because under this, as universal, all nations should make war against the Saints of the Most High. This contains ultimately therefore, a prediction, thus mystically made, of the assumption of Deity by this very Power, and of its fall.

Ezekiel predicts the same thing, also mystically, under his prophecy of the fall of Tyre (chap, xxviii). His words are (ver. 2), " Thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas" (i.-e. among many peoples). Again (ver. 6), " Thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God." (Ver. 14) "Thou art" (as) " the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so" (i. e. have given thee power to do so, as also said in Daniel) : " Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire."... (ver. 16) " / will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee." Again (ver. 19), "All they that know thee among the people" (nations) " shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a, terror, and never shalt thou be any more." That is,—just as it is said of Daniel's Image, and as shewn above, of the body of the Beast to be given to the burning flame,—this Power should •wholly, and for ever, fall. It is sufficiently evident moreover, from what follows (verr. 24—26 inclus.), that all this was to take place in the period usually termed the great day of the Lord, in which the controversy of Zion should be avenged. All this, I say, quadrates well with the war to be made, in the latter days, against the Saints of the Most High, and against His Temple, whether in Jewry, or out of it,—as the circumstances of the case should require,—by a Power assuming the attributes, and requiring the homage, of Deity. It is what, in fact, actually took place, as we shall shew more particularly in the sequel.

Again, that cannot signify, " in the Temple of God," must be evident for these reasons: viz I. The Christian Church cannot be intended in this place, because this is never designated in Holy Scripture by the term Temple. II. Nor can it be applied to the Temple of Jerusalem before its fall: for no such transaction ever took place within it: and after its fall, and during the period of

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the Power before us, this was impossible. Nor III., will this apply to any heathen temple, and hence mean that he should so exhibit himself in it: for no one of these can, in Scriptural language, be termed a temple of God. And, for the same reason, it cannot apply to a fallen Christian Church, such as that of Rome is : for this, being both in practice and purpose heathen, cannot be termed the Temple of God in any sense. We must therefore, look out for some other meaning: and that proposed above, will be found suitable in every point of view.

This, be it observed, is said with reference to the term in (Gr. els): because, in this acceptation neither did any such event take place, nor, from the nature of the case, could it. But, if a Temple of God was supposed to consist in the military ensigns of the Romans,—and such actually did,— then might the term Temple have been used; first, with reference to the Jewish Temple so opposed; and secondly, as to the Christian Church, which might, as succeeding to this, have been so denominated. In this case (ets) will signify towards, over against, or the like: and, I am inclined to believe, that this is its true acceptation here.

But the place is also capable of another interpretation, very far preferable, in my opinion, to that of the Authorized Version: it is this, So that he, as a god, sits for the Temple of God 31, (thus) shelving himself to be God. In this case, I take the preposition ei?, to, for, &c. to have the same force that it has in such places as (Rom. iv. 3),v. It was accounted to him for righteousness: i. e. to be considered and accepted as such. (See also verr. 5, 9, 22, &c.) This usage often occurs in the Septuaginta Greek version of the Scriptures, and is, in fact, an adoption of the Hebrew idiom. E. g. Isai. xxv. 2, Heb.. So Jer. u. 37, Heb.  LXX. . 3 Kings xiii. 34, &c. Neh. vi. 6, . LXX.. So also 1 Kings xxx. 25 ; Prov. xii. 8, &c. With  Prov. xxix. 14,  " sedes ejus in testimonium" (for a witness) " constituetur" Isai. iii. 13, eis, for judgment. Deut. xxviii.

31 So Eph. ii. 21.

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13, for the head, and not for the tail. Josh. xx. 9, ; 2 Chron. xi. 22, for a governor. 2 Kings (Heb. 2 Sam.) vi. 21, eis : for a leader. Job xxxvi. 7, He shall set (make sit) them for victory, Neh. vi. 7,  : That thou mayest sit in Jerusalem for King, or for a King. To these many similar examples may be added, were it necessary; all of which involve a very common Hebraism, which has been illustrated at length by me in the notes to my Visitation Sermon, and under the particle b, in my Hebrew Lexcon 32.

The sense of the place will now be, that such an one sits for, or to be considered as, the temple of God, i. e. as such a god usually does, shewing himself thus to be God. It is well known, that men, claiming under heathenism the worship due to Deity, were universally considered as incarnations, i. e. receptacles, or temples, of the all-pervading anima mundi, or Deity. So Nebuchadnezzar, speaking of Daniel, says (chap. iv. 9), " The spirit of the holy gods is in thee:" and (ib. chap. ii. 46) he falls down and worships him, and commands that an oblation should be offered to him. Jeremiah (chap. vii. 4) too, upbraiding his countrymen, mocks them thus, in their own diction : " The temple of the lord, the temple of the lord, the temple of the lord are these." The Arabs, in like manner, during the times of idolatry, termed their idols temples, as may be seen in Pococke's Specimen Historian Arabum 33. The same is still the case wherever idolatry exists. In Hindustan, for example, the idol is nothing until consecrated. It is then believed that the Divine Spirit occupies it. In like manner the sun, moon, and planets, were always considered by such, as temples or chapels of the Deity; and on this account they wore worshipped. Such too, were " the silver shrines of Diana" (Acts xix. 24): and the same, in all probability, were the erections  of the Old Testament, usually translated "groves." (See my Heb. Lex.). In this case therefore, we shall have a heathen man claiming the honours of Deity in the true heathen-way. And, in

32 P. 317. 3S P. 91.

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either of our interpretations here, the same will essentially be the case.

Let us now see what the Prophet Daniel says of this Power, and whether the declarations of St. Paul are to be referred to him (chap. vii. 25, &c.), "He shall speak great words against the Most 'High" says the Prophet, "and shall wear out the Saints of the Most High...and they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and the dividing of time. But," it is added, " the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dcminion, to consume and to destroy it unto the END 34." The kingdom is then given to the Saints: which (ver. 28) is declared to be " the end of the matter.'1''

Again (chap. viii. 9, seq.), this same Power is designated by a Little Horn, which waxed exceedingly great,..." even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them." By waxing great even to the heavenly host, and casting some of them down, &c. should seem to imply, that he assumed the princedom over these, and, as their superior, destroyed them. The next verse (11) confirms this: " Yea," it is said, "he magnified, himself even to" (his being or becoming) " the prince of the host". It is added, " and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of His (God's) Sanctuary was cast down." The next verse tells us (ver. 12), that " An host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression'''' (i. e. of those who daily sacrificed).

34 I have preferred repeating the citation of certain places of Scripture, to the usual practice of sending the reader back to their former places, for these reasons : They were given there for a different purpose, and, with others, also quoted for a different object. Again, as the views here proposed are necessarily any thing but familiar with many, I have deemed it right to bring together into one focus, as it were, the several places necessary to the questions at issue, in order that their full force may be seen. And, once more, it rarely happens, that readers will take the trouble to turn back, or to examine any thing, that is not brought immediately before them. I have nevertheless made frequent reference to other passages, for the advantage of those who have industry enough to examine them: which I now promise them will be well repaid.

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Again (ver. 23), this Little Horn is said to be " a king of fierce countenance" (equivalent to) nation of fierce countenance, said of the Roman Power in Deut. xxviii. 50, as already remarked. See the context there). In ver. 24, it is said, that " he shall destroy the mighty and the holy people .•'" i. e. in other words, " the Saints of the Most High:" those who should be, at this time, the true believing Church, In the next verse, as before, " He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes:" that is, the Son of Man, who was to be the King of kings, and Lord of lords. And it is said, for the purpose of fixing the period in which this should take place (ver. 19), that this should " be in the last end of the indignation:" that is, in the latter portion of Daniel's seventieth week, as already shewn. He is then to " be broken without hand" (ver. 25); that is, by God alone, who had for the same period vested him with this rule. The vision is then styled (ver. 26), that " of the Evening and Morning.'1'' The "last end" (ver. 19) must mean here therefore, the morning or latter half of this day of the Lord; in other words, the time, times, and dividing of time (=3^ times), during which the Saints were to be given into the hands of this Deity-assuming Power.

In Daniel (chap. ix. 26), the people of the prince that should come and destroy the City and Sanctuary, must be the people of that Prince, by whom the place of the Sanctuary of the Most High was to be cast down, in chap. viii. 11. And history forbids us to doubt as to what this Princely

35 It is of infinite importance to the interpreter of Scripture, to observe the allusions made. Daniel evidently alludes to this place: every circumstance of the context shews it. Isaiah has also alluded to it, which none of the Commentators have seen; and hence, they have failed to see the sense of the place; i. e. ch. xxxiii. 19. " Thou," i. e. the true inhabitant of Zion, " shalt not see a fierce people" (Heb; lit- a people that has become fierce), " a people of deeper speech," &c. Deut. 1. c. " a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand." From the whole of Isaiah's context it is evident enough, that the coming, the victories, and judgments, of Christ, are foretold, just as they are in Moses. If Lowth and some others had seen this, they would not have ventured to alter the text to

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Power was. The same must be obvious as to (ver. 13) where it is said, '"How long shall be the vision...to give both the Sanctuary, and the Host," i. e. the Temple and the glorious army of martyrs, " to be trodden under foot.?"

We have again (chap. xi. 31, seq.), " Arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the Sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice," Sic., which, of necessity, brings us back to the Little Horn of Daniel, who, as we have seen, was to do this. We have here therefore, of necessity, the same Power before us. We have, in the next place (ver. 33), the fall of the Saints of the Most High under the tyranny of this Power. It is said, " They that understand among the people shall instruct (the) many ; yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many (better, some) days."..." And" again, "some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge them, and to make them white 36, even to the time of the end," &c. (comp. Luke xxii. 31, 32, with its parallel place): i. e. under this Deity-assuming Persecutor.

We next have the assumption of Deity by this Prince (ver. 36, seq.) more fully stated than hitherto. " And the king" (better, the kingly Rule) "shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished : for," it is added, " that that is determined shall be done." This accomplished,—and so said to be determined,— indignation, can be no other than that specified in Daniel, chap. ix. 27, where it is said, "He shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease" (as in chap. viii. 11, 13), " and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined, shall be poured upon the desolate." That is, the Saints of the Most High should be given into his hand, until the time

36 So Zech. xiii. 8,9 :—a place touched upon above,—"I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them,: I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God:" i. e. It is my Election, or Elect people, according to Sts. Paul and Peter, as already observed.

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should come, in which it had been determined, that his body should " be given to the burning flame:" or, as we have it in the first vision of Daniel, until the stone cut out of the mountain without hands should strike the Image of this Power on the legs and feet, break it to pieces; and hence, it should be so carried away, that its place should be no more found. The same Power must, I say, be had in view in every one of these places, if any reliance can be placed upon words: and this Power must be that of the Roman lower Empire.

And again (chap. xi. 37—40), with other matter to be noticed hereafter, it is said, " He shall not regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all." The assumption of Divine power is here therefore, complete: the things to be done are too obvious to be misunderstood: as also is the time during which they were to take place; that is, as stated above, during the period commencing with the fall of the Temple and City of Jerusalem, and ending with that of Daniel's seventieth week, in which Kings and Queens should, according to other intimations, become the nursing-fathers and nursing-mothers of the Church, and when the kingdom under the whole heavens should be given to the Saints of the Most High, and to the governance of Him who is styled the San of Man. Let us now revert to St. Paul's description of " the Man of Sin" and see how far that will agree with this given by Daniel.

This Power is then, styled by St. Paul (2 Thess. ii. 3), " The son of perdition;" that is, a creature to be destroyed: so also Daniel says. The Apostle goes on to say, evidently echoing the words of Daniel, " Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped 31; so that he as God sitteth for," or against, i. e. in opposition to, " the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." There certainly can be no doubt, that all this is a summary of the descriptions of this Power, as given by Daniel and others, as cited above. There is no other portion of Holy Writ, to which it can possibly be referred ; nor are there any other circumstances, occurring within its declarations,

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that can be made to suit it. Besides, according to the Apostle, the time for his manifestation had not yet quite arrived. " Ye know" adds he (ver. G), " what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time." There was therefore, a time assigned for his appearance, which was not yet fully come: the apostacy foretold by our Lord, had not yet fully made its appearance: neither had this Power destroyed the City and Sanctuary: nor therefore, could the period designated by "a time, times, and the dividing of time," yet have arrived. The mystery of iniquity did indeed already work to some extent, as witnessed elsewhere by this Apostle, by St. Peter, and by St. Luke, as already noticed; but still, the period had not come for its developement, in the entire measure of its assumptions and atrocity.

This Power was moreover, according to Daniel, to be consumed by the burning flame, when it should have done its work, as determined by the Most High. So also says St. Paul (ver. 8), " And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness op His coming. Even him," it is added, " whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish," &c. St. Paul (chap. i. 3—11) speaks in terms, quite of a piece with these, of the revelation of Christ in naming fire, to take vengeance on the opposers of His Church and people, whether Jews or Gentiles : his words are, " We ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure;...seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven" (i. e. as in its clouds) " with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints...in that day."

The "flaming fire" here must, as it should seem, be " the

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burning flame" of Daniel (chap. vii. 1J), which should utterly consume the body of this beastly Power: the " mighty angels" so to accompany the Lord, are most likely the myriads represented as standing before the throne (ib. ver. 10), with the fiery stream as seen issuing from before it; and this, be it observed, is followed by the declaration, that his body should be destroyed by the burning flame. St. Jude evidently has the same judgment in view, when he says (ver. 14, seq.), " The Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed... these are murmurs," &c. This he gives as a prophecy of Enoch, which it was likely would be given in the most general terms. Jude however, identifies its objects by " these are murmurers," &c.

St. Paul says moreover, that the manifestation of this Power should be " after the working of Satan" &c. as cited above. Let us see whether this also could have been had from Daniel. This beast (chap. vii. 8) was to have " a mouth speaking great things, even against the Most High" (ver. 25), and on account of these things (ver. 11), he was to be destroyed. These great things were such therefore, as must have been according to Satan.