This resembles the obfcurity formerly obferved in the calculation Dan. ix. ; where the character fixing its beginning, (viz. the edict for reftoring and rebuilding Jerufalem), appearing applicable to three or four, though not to many events, it would have been more difficult to determine what edict is meant, were it not for a concomitant character, restricting the prediction to the edict that should be granted about feven weeks before the rebuilding of Jerufalem's walls and streets fhould be finished *.

That the calculations in view, whatever obfcurity appears as to the precife beginning of them, extend, not only to 1200 or 1300 natural days, but to fo many prophetic days, is fo evident from what has been proved already, that it might feem fuperfluous to infift on farther proof of it, were it not that many of the church of Rome maintain the contrary; fuppofing that the oppofition to truth foretold in this and other parallel prophecies, though continuing to the time of the end, would only be of three common years and an half's ftanding; or would appear, or come to its height, only that little fpace of time before its fall; which would make it one of the moft fhort-lived and moft tranfient oppofitions to the Meffiah's kingdom, or obitacles to true religion, that ever happened.

This opinion is not only unfuitable to the prophetic ftyle, according to which days ftand for years, (as was proved from Dan. ix.), and horns, not merely for individual perfons, but fucceffions; but alfo to the extent and manifeft fcope of the feveral

It might perhaps deferve the pains of men beft fkilled in hiftory, to inquire, whether Dan. viii. 14. does not afford fome fuch adminicular character for finding out the beginning of the calculations in chapters vii & xii.; becaufe thefe ditierent paffages compared together, feem to place about ten centuries betwixt fome fingular defola tion, or other extraordinary event in the caft, to which fome of the words, Dan. viii. 13. may be applicable, and a chief step of the little horn's rife in the weft.

parallel predictions in Daniel, and particularly to the chief parts of the defcription given of the little

horn.

The prophecies in this book of Daniel which treat of any of the four great monarchies, extend from the first, or at leaft from the fecond of them, not only to the times of the divifion of the fourth of them, but to the time of the end, or of the univerfal kingdom of the Meffiah: and though what is yet future of that long duration is not known, yet what is past amounts to about twenty-two or twenty-three centuries. The chief fcope of thefe extenfive prophecies is, to defcribe the oppofition made by the most remarkable adverfaries to the Meffiah's kingdom, and his final victory over them. It is to thefe fubjects the predictions haften forward, mentioning the greatest temporal empires only in a tranfient way; and it is on thefe fubjects they chiefly infilt*. It is therefore unfuitable to the extent, and to the chief fcope of thefe predictions, to fuppofe, that they fhould pafs by all the oppofition made to the Meffiah's kingdom for fo many centuries, and infift only on an oppofition that was to continue but for a very few years. From the best rules of interpretation, we may reasonably infer, that in prophecies intended to defcribe the chief oppofition to the truth, after the divifion of the fourth empire, to the end, it must be the oppofition of the most confiderable duration, as well as extent, that must be defcribed; at leaft that it must not be one of the fhorteft, and confequently of the most inconfiderable.

Almoft every part of the prophetic defcription of the horn, affords arguments against the opinion that fuppofes its continuance to be fo inconfiderable as three and an half common years. Though he is faid to rife after the other ten horns, yet if he were not to

*This is meant chiefly of chap. ii. 7. 8.

rife till about twelve or thirteen centuries after them, he could not be fo well faid to rife among them: nor is it faid of the little weftern horn, chap. vii. that he would rife in the latter times of the ten western kingdoms, as it is faid of the wonderful destroyer, chap. viii. that he would rife in the latter times of the four eastern kingdoms there mentioned.

If, befides this, we confider the work afcribed to this horn, warring with the faints, and prevailing against them until the time of the end, thinking to wear them out, changing times and laws, with what was formerly proved about the nature and extent of his authority, and the manner in which it behoved to be acquired, by one little horn over io many greater ones; the uncommon folemnity of the defcription of his fall, chap. vii. and of the oath concerning the time of his continuance, chap. xii. 7.; the general fcope of the long defcription given of his power, implying, that it would not be fo fhort-lived an obstacle, but one of the moft confiderable obstacles to the univerfality of the divine kingdom; the peculiar manner in which what relates to him in the vifion chap. vii. awakens the prophet's attention, y 11. & 20. and excites his inquiry after interpretation: all these things afford confiderable arguments against the fuppofition in view; which would make that horn lefs confiderable as to duration, than perhaps any other adverfary of Meffiah's kingdom, that makes a figure either in prophecy or history; especially when we confider, that the prophecies in Daniel, extending from the time of the moft ancient empires to the time of the end, either pafs over, or at least do not mention fo exprefsly the oppofition made by Heathen Rome during the first three centuries of Chriftianity; not to infift, that the defenders of the prefent fpiritual authority of Rome mult in reafon own, that, according to their fcheme, the oppofition made to Bb 2

that

that power by fo many nations for more than two hundred years laft paft, is a thing probably far more confiderable than any ftruggle that fhall continue lefs than the fiftieth part of that time.

If all thefe reafons could be fuppofed infufficient to decide the queftion, Whether the calculations in view are to be understood of natural or of prophetic years? the event gives a clear decifion; and it is proved elsewhere, how reafonable it is to explain prophecy, as well as hiftory, by the events to which they have a fingular and peculiar conformity.

IV. A fummary view of feveral of the chief diftinguifhing characters of the little horn fo much infifted on, will pave the way for fome ufeful remarks on the properties of the evidence refulting from · Daniel's predictions on that extraordinary feducing power. Some of the chief characters are thofe that relate to the following heads: 1. The place and time of his appearance and reign. 2. The nature and extent of his power. 3. The means of acquiring and maintaining it. 4. His oppofition to true religion. 5. His duration, and the period of it, viz. the time of the end.

1. Concerning the first of thefe, it is foretold, that his feat would be in the fourth or Roman empire, and in the western part of it; for when the body of the fourth empire is faid to be flain, it is exprefsly diftinguished from the body of the three preceding univerfal empires, and confequently from that of the Grecian. As to the time of his appearance and reign, it is faid, that it fhould be about the time of the downfall and divifion of the Roman empire, but fomewhat pofterior to that revolution, feeing he is both faid to rife among, and after, the ten principal kingdoms, whofe recovering their fovereignties occafioned that grand event. This is a character of the time of his rife, that throws a

* See Newton on chap. viii.

great

great deal of light on the prophetic defcriptions of him, feeing it relates to fo great and extraordinary an event as the downfall of fuch an empire, than which perhaps few things appear more ftriking in the hiftory of revolutions relating to the mere temporal interests of mankind. But there is another character that relates to another very great revolution as to interests of a higher kind, the converfion of the empire from Heathenifm to Chriftianity, which Daniel's prediction feems plainly to intimate would precede the rife of a feducing power, whofe crime is reprefented to confift very much in promoting an extenfive and durable apoftafy, by a change, a very great change to the worse, of laws relating to religion, as was obferved in the above remarks on Dan.

vii. 25.

2. As to the nature and extent of his power, it has been proved, that though it would be but little as to mere temporalities, yet his authority as to religious matters, or what is called fpiritual power, would extend to the body of the divided western empire, fo as to be indeed the chief fource of all the oppofition to truth that they fhould be involved in.

3. The means of acquiring and maintaining fuch authority has been proved to be, not by coercive force or conqueft of the ten kingdoms, but by policy, bringing them voluntarily to give their power to him; fee Rev. xyii.

4. His crime is, that he was to be the ringleader in apoftafy, perfecution, and other oppofition to the truth, by fuch a change of laws relating to religion as above mentioned.

5. His duration extends through a confiderable number of centuries, down towards the univerfal eftablishment of the kingdom of the Meffiah.

These characters, efpecially when taken complexly, make up a circumftantial description that has the general properties formerly mentioned as fufficient