: resting upon it (which has been noted), shows that it was something besides, and subsequent to popery, and the grand imposture of Mohammed. These had before been predicted, as well as the great eastern monarchies; but now some new and subsequent event of the last days was to be given, to close his book; and this was to be sealed up till it was fulfilled. No hint was given that the time, before the antecedent event predicted in Daniel, should be long but this new thing to be at last predicted, must be attended with this notice, that "a thing (clearly implying a new thing) was revealed to Daniel; and the thing was true; but the time appointed was long!" And he shows it to have been a thing connected with the battle of the great day of God, and the restoration of the Jews; as chap. x. 14, and xii. 1, where the event was to befall the people of Daniel; and was to be the occasion of Christ's standing up for them, and bringing a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation. With these things in view, we will proceed to examine the thing which was thus revealed to Daniel. The whole of Dan. x. is taken up in preparation for predicting this then far future event; as is also chap. xi. to verse 35. A line of kings is given in order to introduce Antiochus Epiphanes, a noted tyrannical and persecuting king of Syria, as a type of the infidel power to be predicted. This type, thus introduced, occupies from verse 21 to verse 35. And then, as is common in predictions of type and antitype, the writer slides, with no formal notice, from the former to the latter, and gives the event which was designed. Dan. xi. 36, "And the king shall do according to his will." By a king, in such prophecies, is meant not any individual man, but a power, whether an empire, or kingdom, or republic. That a new subject is in this 36th verse introduced, is evident from what has been said; and from this, that the power described before this verse was clearly Antiochus, who lived centuries before the Christian era; but the being introduced in the 36th verse is a power of the last days, and which falls in the battle of the great day of God, at the close of the noted 1260 years, as is shown in the following passages in Daniel. A great power should arise, wilful in violent outrage of all law! It follows," and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself 99 above every god." By a god here is meant king, or civil ruler. 66 I said ye are gods." He shall magnify himself above every civil ruler; or, a war with kings, shall be one of his characteristics. His atheism follows: "and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods." He will, in his early existence, deny the God of heaven. Verse 37: "Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers" or, the power so long venerated by his ancestors as a god,—the pope, he shall at first contemptuously reject and put down, however he may afterward, —from views merely secular,—in a degree, establish him again :-"nor the desire of women,' it there follows. With all his outrageous licentiousness and lusts, he shall wage war with the female sex; as though all the tender regard for them which God has implanted in the human breast had become extinct. Most fully did the French fulfil all this. The latter they fulfilled when they in wanton barbarity beheaded the innocent queen of their own nation, and followed up the event with the outrageous execution of 250,000 of their own innocent females; as was attested and well known at that day. They also abolished the institution of marriage, declaring it to be an insufferable monopoly; and thus subjected their females to promiscuous brutal lusts! Well might such a trait of character as this be hinted of this infidel power of the last days, by its not regarding the desire of women!" gives the same trait of the same character, thus: "without natural affection;" when describing, in 2 Tim. iii. 1–4, this power of infidelity in the last days; which see. The most fit "natural affection" of man for our female race, would be thus perverted; even that virtuous tender affection for the dear and dependent "helpmeet" of man, destined to be the virtuous mother of his offspring! this affection, implanted by the Creator in the breast of man, should be by this power of iniquity, attempted to be torn up! This stroke has been supposed by some to be the same with that in 1 Tim. iv. 3, " forbidding to marry;" which the papal see fulfilled in relation to its clergy. But it clearly belongs to another and subsequent system of infidelity. See and compare 1 Tim iv. 1, with 2 Tim. iii. 1, and you will see the latter is an advance from the former. And never did popery so fully take to itself the N 66 Paul character of not regarding the desire of women, as did the infidel power that burst forth in France in 1789. Daniel proceeds, verse 38; "But in his estate shall he honour the god of forces:" or, when this licentious power shall come into operation, as having gained an existence, he shall "honour the god of forces:" shall honour mahuzzim* (in the original); fortresses, military munitions. The word in the singular, mahoz, imports, a tower, fortress, strength. In the plural then, and connected with a huge military force, it must mean its dependence on fortresses, or military munitions,-on generals, and the arts of war. This was the case indeed with the French. If they had denounced all subordination, all authority and rule; yet were their own eyes necessarily turned to a subordination to their own generals, leaders, and the arts of war. And this soon prepared the way for what follows. "And a god whom their fathers knew not, shall they honour with gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pleasant things." An emperor, unknown to their fathers, shall they soon receive at the head of this military despotism, with the greatest magnificence. This now is all plain history. Bonaparte was this new god, unknown to their fathers. Verse 39: "Thus shall he (this new power of atheism) do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge, and shall increase with glory. And he (this new emperor) shall cause them (his people) to rule over many; and shall divide the land for gain." The armies of the new empire, with their foreign god at their head, shall overrun the strongholds of surrounding nations, whom he will subdue; and he will divide out the conquered nations among favourites for his own aggrandizement. The prophecy proceeds, verse 40, to give a temporary prostration of this wilful empire, by a furious combination of nations from the north, like a whirlwind; composed of armies of cavalry, infantry, and a navy, or a naval power ("with chariots, and horsemen, and many ships"). This * In the margin of many great bibles, this word mahuzzim, is rendered “god's protectors." But this is a phrase, and not a correct rendering. And it is thus phrased, to accommodate it, mistakingly, to popery, as though it related to their tutelar saints. But it does not thus. 66 whirlwind from the north, for a time prostrates his forests (armies), and drives him into his characteristic non-existence; "who was, and is not, and yet is!" who had a wound by the sword and did live!" whose feet and toes are part of iron, and part of clay; partly strong, and partly broken!" Yet he again appears in this prophecy of Daniel, and does wonders, till he goes into perdition at the battle of the great day, when (Daniel informs us at the close of the chapter) "he comes to his end, and none shall help him!" Most perfectly is this picture, drawn to the prostration in verse 40, thus far fulfilled in events in France, and in her history of modern days. And most clear is the light thus reflected on the descent of Christ, and the seven thunders, in Rev. x. This tenth of Revelation is thus but an inspired comment on Daniel's prediction of the rise of that wilful power of the last days. Ver. 5. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, 6. And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer : 7. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. We must here again have recourse to the parent texts in Daniel's last chapter. After he had seen the things just noted, he beholds the Angel of the Covenant (Christ) standing upon the waters; and heard him interrogated, "how long it should be to the end of those wonders?" Or, when shall the wilful power (here just described) go into perdition?-not when one dynasty of it shall be prostrated, and its power of iniquity be for a time checked: for the beast that was, and is not, and yet is, may have a succession of powerful leaders, as had the Roman empire in the first reign of its imperial head, in early days. Those feet and toes of the image, formed of iron and clay, may break before its final fall, and its parts "not cleave one to another," as Daniel' assures shall be the case, Dan. ii. 40-45. This beast from the bottomless pit will know full well the arts of hidings in his midnight caverns, and of there healing his wounds! But the question here asked of Christ was, When shall that deep and fatal system end?-that system which nothing will utterly destroy but the exterminating fire of the great and notable day of the Lord!-when shall this exterminating event take place. Upon the question, the angel (the same with that in our text), lifts up his hand to heaven, and swears by him that liveth for ever and ever, "that it should be for a time, times, and a half time! And when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all those things shall be fulfilled." The battle of the great day then, in which this impious system goes into perdition, we here learn, is at the close of the notable 1260 years! All agree that a time is a year; times, two years; and half a time, half a year; each day in the account standing for a year; and each year being reckoned of 360 days, from the views of the ancients. This time then, is 1260 years;—the noted time in prophecy for the residence of the church in the wilderness! The probable commencement of this noted period will be shown in the lecture on the papal beast, in Rev. xiii. 11, to end. The thing decided by the oath of the Angel of the covenant here, is, that this power shall be destroyed at the close of the 1260 years-that the time of its duration, after it arose, was from the time of that rise, till the close of the 1260 years. And that oath of the angel, in Daniel, gives the exact sense of the oath of Christ, in our text, which is but a comment upon it. In the latter, his words are, "chronos ouk estai eti !”rendered in our translations, "there should be time no longer". Granting the Greek words are capable of giving this sense; they are no less capable of giving the following -"the time shall not be yet" (but clearly meaning that it shall not be long deferred). The parent text, in Daniel, shows that the latter is the correct rendering here-as also does the following verse in our text: "But in the days of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets;" alluding, no doubt, peculiarly to this parent text in Daniel. We hence learn that the seventh |