head of gold represented the Babylonion empire (32.); the breast 66 to SECT. 3. An account of the miraculous preservation of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who, having refused to worship a golden image that had been set up by Nebuchadnezzar, were cast into a fiery furnace. (iii.) SECT. 4. Nebuchadnezzar having been punished, on account of his pride, with the loss of his reason, and driven from the conversation of men, is restored to reason and to his throne; and by a public instrument proclaims to the world Daniel's interpretation of his dream, and extols the God of heaven. (iv.) SECT. 5. While Belshazzar is rioting in his palace, and profaning the sacred vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem, he is suddenly terrified with the figure of a hand inscribing certain words on the wall which Daniel interprets. Belshazzar is slain, and the Babylonian empire is transferred to the Medes and Persians. (v.) SECT. 6. Daniel being promoted to the highest office in the empire under Darius, a conspiracy is formed against him. The prophet, being in consequence cast into a den of lions, is miraculously preserved; and Darius publishes a decree that all men should glorify the God of Daniel. (vi.) PART II. comprises various prophecies and visions of things future, until the advent and death of the Messiah, and the ultimate conversion of the Jews and Gentiles to the faith of the Gospel, in four sections. (ch. vi.-xii.) SECT. 1. The vision of the four beasts concerning the four great monarchies of the world: it was delivered about forty-eight years after Nebuchadnezzar's dream related in ch. ii. but with some different circumstances. The first beast (4.) represented the Babylonian empire: the second (5.) the Medo-Persian empire; the third (6.), the Macedo-Grecian empire; and the fourth (7.), the Roman empire. The ten horns of this beast denote ten kingdoms or principalities which arose out of it, and were signified by the ten toes of the image. (ii. 41, 42.) These ten kingdoms or principalities are variously enumerated by different writers, who have supported their respective hypotheses with great learning and ingenuity, for which we must refer the reader to their works. The following table however will exhibit the result of their elaborate researches. 3 In Lowth's Commentary on the Prophets, pp. 381, 382. 6 Dissertations on the Prophecies, vol. i. p. 267. The number of these kingdoms was not constantly ten, there being sometimes more and sometimes fewer; but Sir Isaac Newton observes, whatever was their number afterwards, they are still called the ten kings from their first number. Besides these ten horns or kingdoms, there was to spring up another little horn (vii. 8. 24.) which Grotius and others have erroneously applied to Antiochus Epiphanes: but which is generally conceived to denote the pope of Rome, whose power as a horn or temporal prince was established in the eighth century. All the kingdoms above described, will be succeeded by the kingdom of Messiah. (9-13. 27.) SECT. 2. In Daniel's vision of the ram and the he-goat is foretold the destruction of the Medo-Persian empire (typified by the ram, which was the armorial ensign of the Persian empire,) by the Greeks or Macedonians under Alexander, represented by the hegoat because the Macedonians, at first, about two hundred years before Daniel, were denominated Ægeada, or the goat's people, as their first seat was called Ægeæ or Ege, or goat's town, a goat being their ensign. (viii. 1-7. 20-22.) The four "notable" horns, that sprang up on the fracture of the great horn (8.23.) denote the four kingdoms of Greece, Thrace, Syria, and Egypt, erected by Cassander, Lysimachus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy. The little horn which is described as arising among the four horns of the Grecian empire (9-12. 23, 24.), is by many Jewish and Christian commentators understood to mean Antioehus Epiphanes, to which hypothesis Mr. Wintle inclines; but Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop Newton, and Dr. Hales, have clearly shown that the Roman temporal power, and no other, is intended for, although some of the particulars may agree very well with that king, yet others can by no means be reconciled to him; while all of them agree and correspond exactly with the Romans, and with no other power whatever it was the Roman power that destroyed the polity and temple of the Jews, and left the nation and holy city in that desolate state in which they are to remain to the end of two thousand three hundred prophetic days, that is, years. (13, 14. 24, 25, 26.) The distress of Daniel (17. 27.) on learning the great and lasting calamities that were to befal his nation, represents him in a very amiable light both as a patriot and as a prophet, and gives an additional lustre to his glory and exalted character. SECT. 3. While Daniel, understanding from the prophecies of Jeremiah (compare Jer. xxv. 11, 12. xxix. 10.) that the seventy years' captivity was now drawing to a close (Dan. ix. 1, 2.), was engaged in fasting and prayer for the restoration of Jerusalem (3—19.), the angel Gabriel is sent to him. (20-23.) He announces to the prophet that the holy city should be rebuilt and peopled, and should continue so for seventy (prophetic) weeks, or four hundred and ninety years; at the expiration of which it should be utterly destroyed for putting the Messiah to death. (25. 27.) The commencement of this period is fixed (25.) to the time when the order was issued for rebuilding the temple in the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes. (Ezra vii. 11.) Seven weeks, or forty-nine years, was the temple in building (Dan. ix. 25.); sixty-two weeks, or four hundred and thirty-four years more, bring us to the public manifestation of the Messiah, at the beginning of John the Baptist's preaching; and one prophetic week or seven years, added to this, will bring us to the time of our Saviour's passion, or the thirty-third year of the Christian æra, — in all four hundred and ninety years, according to the prophecy. The latter part of the prediction (27.) relates to the subversion of the Jewish temple and polity, and the second coming of the Messiah.1 SECT. 4. contains Daniel's fourth and last prophetic vision, in the third year of the reign of Cyrus, in which he is informed of various particulars concerning the Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires, and the kingdom of the Messiah. (x.—xii.) An introductory narrative states the occasion of the vision, viz. Daniel's fasting and supplication (probably on account of the obstruction of the building of the temple) and describes the glorious person who appeared to the prophet. (Dan. x. 1-21. xi. 1.) The prediction then describes the fate of the Persian empire (xi. 2.), whose fourth king, Xerxes, was attacked, and his empire destroyed, by Alexander (3.); the partition of his vast dominions into four kingdoms (4.); and the wars between the kingdoms of Egypt (which lay to the north of Judæa) and of Syria (which lay to the south of the Holy Land) are then foretold, together with the conquest of Macedon by the Romans. (5-36.) The prophecy then declares the tyranny of the papal Antichrist, which was to spring up under the Roman empire (36 -39.), and the invasion of the Saracens (from the south) and of the Turks (from the north) in the time of the end, or latter days of the Roman monarchy (40-45.) This prophetic vision concludes with foretelling the general resurrection (xii. 1—4.), and with announcing the time when all these great events were to have their final consummation, when the Jews were to be restored, Antichrist destroyed, the fulness of the Gentiles brought in, and the millennium, or reign of saints, was to begin. (5—13.) But the exact period, until PROVIDENCE shall open more of the seals,3 cannot be fully ascertained. Upon the whole, we may observe with Bishop Newton, what an amazing prophecy is this, comprehending so many various events, and extending through so many successive ages, from the first establishment of the Persian empire, upwards of 530 years before Christ, to the general resurrection! What a proof of a Divine Providence, and of a Divine Revelation! for who could thus declare the things that shall be with their times and seasons, but He only who hath 1 Of this illustrious prophecy, which Sir Isaac Newton has justly pronounced to be the foundation of the Christian religion, Dr. Hales has given some chronological computations, slightly differing from the above. See his Analysis, vol ii. p. 559. et seq. 2 See Ezra iv. 4, 5. 3 The reader who is desirous of studying what has been written on this subject, is referred to the writings of Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop Newton, Mr. Faber, Mr. Frere, and Dr. Hales, who have collected a great variety of important information on the fulfilment of Daniel's prophecies. 4 Dissertations on Prophecy, vol. i. pp. 413, 414. them in his power: whose dominion is over all, and whose kingdom endureth from generation to generation! III. Of all the old prophets Daniel is the most distinct in the order of time, and easiest to be understood; and on this account, Sir Isaac Newton observes,' in those events which concern the last times, he must be the interpreter of the rest. All his predictions relate to each other, as if they were several parts of one general prophecy. The first is the easiest to be understood, and every succeeding prophecy adds something to the former. Though his style is not so lofty and figurative as that of the other prophets, it is more suitable to his subject, being clear and concise; his narratives and descriptions are simple and natural; and, in short, he writes more like an historian than a prophet. Of the genuineness and authenticity of the book of Daniel we have every possible evidence, both external and internal. 1. With regard to the external evidence, we have not only the general testimony of the whole Jewish church and nation, which have constantly received this book as canonical; but we have the particular testimony of Josephus, who (we have seen) commends Daniel as the greatest of prophets; of the Jewish Targums and Talmuds, which frequently quote and appeal to his authority; of JESUS CHRIST himself, who has cited his words, and has styled him "Daniel the prophet" (compare Dan. ix. 26, 27. with Matt. xxiv, 15. and Mark xiii. 14.); and likewise of the apostle Paul, who has frequently quoted or alluded to him (compare Dan. iii. 23-25. and vii. 22. with Heb. xi. 33, 34. and Dan. xi. 36. with 2 Thess. ii. 4.), as also of St. John, whose Revelation derives great light from being compared with the predictions of Daniel. To these testimonies we may add that of Ezekiel, a contemporary writer, who greatly extols his exemplary piety and singular wisdom (Ezek. xiv. 14. 20. xxviii. 3.), and also the testimony of antient profane historians, who relate many of the same transactions.2 2. The internal evidence is not less convincing: for the language, style, and manner of writing, are all perfectly agreeable to that age, and prove that it was written about the time of the Babylonish captivity. Part of the book, viz. from the fourth verse of the second chapter to the end of the seventh chapter, was originally written in the Chaldee language, because that portion treats of the Chaldæan or Babylonish affairs: the rest of the book is pure Hebrew. But the most satisfactory evidence is the exact accomplishment of Daniel's prophecies, as well those which have been already fulfilled as those which are now fulfilling in the world. So clear and explicit indeed are his predictions concerning the advent of the Messiah, and other important events, of times far remote from those in which he lived, that Porphyry, a learned adversary of the Christian faith in the 1 On Daniel, p. 15. 2 The most important of these testimonies are collected by the writers referred to in the preceding page. 3 Porphyry seems to have been the first who impugned the genuineness and 25 VOL. IV. |