therefore, shewn by history itself, agreeably to antecedent probability, to be equivalent to 396 natural years and 3 months: commenc- ing June 9, 1301, when the four angels were BOOK III. AN EXPOSITION OF THE FOUR PROPHECIES RECORDED BY DANIEL, WHICH RELATE TO THE PERIOD OF THE SEVEN TIMES. CHAPTER I. THE VISION OF THE GREAT METALLIC IMAGE. THROUGHOUT the whole region of the East, and the same remark applies to the Thebais of Egypt, the humour has prevailed of constructing and worshipping enormous colossal images. These, under some one of his many appellations, were usually dedicated to the great universal Father of pagan mythology, who was venerated in conjunction with the Sun. Of such worship we have a striking instance recorded in the book of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar, strongly attached to the dominant superstition of his country, is said to have erected in the plain of Dura a gigantic image, the height of which was about ninety feet, while its breadth was nine feet. These proportions intimate, that the image stood upon a pillar or pedestal; so that ninety feet was the height, not simply of the statue, but of the whole mass conjointly. It was doubtless a colossal representation of Mithras or Sacya or the solar divinity: and those, who refused to worship it, were forthwith consigned to the sacred fire which blazed before it. Statues of scarcely inferior dimensions. may still be seen both in Asia and in Egypt; some |