in reality, conquered and dethroned by ALEXANDER the GREAT. This event took place in the 331st year before the Christian era; but there is so much uncertainty with regard to the Persian annals in these early times, arising from an unwarrantable affectation of antiquity, that the average length of the reigns of these princes can be fairly estimated only, according to the average length of the reigns of those in other countries, where there has been long a settled government, and a regular succession. Forming a judgment according to this principle, scarcely less than twenty-two years, or more than twenty-four, can be admitted for this average. On the former supposition, dating backward the twenty reigns in question from the year 331 just mentioned, the reckoning will end in the 771st year before Christ: on the latter supposition, in the 811th year before the same era. These, then, are the limits, within which, it is reasonable to suppose, the kingdom of the Persians was first established. But the REFORMATION, under Luther, in Germany, had its beginning in the year of our Lord 1517: if, therefore, we count the 2300 years, recorded in the text of our authorized version, backward, from this year, we shall arrive at the year 783 before the Christian era, for the foundation of the Persian monarchy, a date which evidently falls within the limits just deduced. And the consequence will be, that the time which will elapse, between the Ram being seen first to stand before the river Ulai, and that appointed for the beginning of the cleansing of the

Sanctuary, will be the 2300 years noted in the prophecy.

Such, in effect, is the exposition given in the learned and ingenious work which I have just mentioned '; but it may, perhaps, be considered, that, as the main subjects of the Vision are expressly declared to be, "the daily sacrifice," "the transgres"sion of desolation," "the giving both the Sanc"tuary and the host to be trodden under foot," and "the cleansing of the Sanctuary,"-it is unnecessary, for the solution of the proposed problem, to go so far back as to the foundation of the Persian monarchy; and will be better to confine the attention to epochs more immediately connected with these subjects, and which there can be no difficulty in ascertaining.

There are, then, two such dates, which offer themselves at once to our notice; and each of these will respectively answer the desired purpose, according as the reading of the chronological number in the prophecy be two thousand four hundred, or two thousand two hundred, days; and assuming, likewise, that, at the expiration of each of these periods, as the prophecy itself implies," the sanctuary will be "cleansed "!

SECONDLY, then, let the longer of the two periods be selected :

At the time that Daniel saw this vision, which was "in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar,"

1 Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, Vol. II. p. 174–181.

1

the Jewish nation was without a sanctuary, and a temple: but it was one principal part of the very purpose, for which Cyrus was divinely raised up to be the head of the Medo-Persian Empire, that, to use the words of Isaiah, he might "say to Jerusa"lem, thou shalt be built; and to the temple, thy foundation shall be laid 1." Now Babylon was taken in the year 538 before the Christian era 2; and it was not till about two years after the taking of that city, that Cyrus, in consequence of the death of his uncle Cyaxares, or " Darius the Mede," became the sole master of that extensive empire. Nor was it till the second year of the reign of this monarch, that is to say, in the 534th year before the same era, that "the foundation of the temple was laid" at Jerusalem *. If then the 2400 years, the portion of time assigned in the version of the LXX,-be numbered downward from this epoch, the reckoning will terminate in the year of our Lord 1866; or at the close of the 1260 years, when, indeed, "the Sanctuary will be cleansed."

66

THIRDLY, with respect to the shorter period.

As the Apostate Power, which was to be the means of suspending "the daily "the daily sacrifice" in the East, and of diffusing "the transgression of desolation," over that part of the world, was, in fact, "the "little Horn," or the spiritual dominion founded by

3

1 Isaiah xliv. 28.

2 Ancient Universal History, Vol. IV.

Anc. Univ. Hist. Vol. V. p. 188.

p. 420-426. edit. 1747.

Ezra iii. 8. compared with ver. 1. of the same chapter.

MAHOMET; and as this came forth from the dominions of the Egyptian kingdom, which was one of the "four notable horns," or kingdoms, which came up instead of "the great Horn", of the He-goat, which had been broken in the plenitude of his strength, that is, instead of the Macedonian Empire which had been founded by ALEXANDER, and had subverted the Medo-Persian;-therefore the vision, which relates, in an especial manner, to this desolating apostasy, may very properly be regarded as dating its principal subject, from the beginning of those achievements of ALEXANDER, by which, according to the decrees of Divine Providence, the Empire of the world became transferred to him. But it was in the 334th year before the Christian era, that this illustrious prince passed the Granicus, and commenced his lofty and unparalleled successes against the Persian monarch'. If, then, we date the 2200 years, specified, in some other copies mentioned by Jerome, for the duration of this vision, from this epoch, they will come to a close in the year of our Lord 1866; when, as was before observed, the 1260 years of apostasy, and persecution will have terminated, and "the Sanctuary will be "cleansed."

V.

Intimately connected, likewise, with the same period of the 1260 years, as almost immediately succeeding it, is the MILLENNIUM,—that long season

of blessedness, which is also, in its turn, to be succeeded by an interval, during which "SATAN is to be loosed out of his prison," and is to be permitted again" to go forth to deceive the nations," and will succeed in seducing many to their destruction. The close of this interval of seduction, and extensive depravation of principles and manners, will usher in the general JUDGMENT, and the RETRIBUTION Of the future STATE.... Such is declared to be the order of succession of these great events1 and we may, accordingly, perceive, that a very particular revelation of the whole period, which will be occupied by these events, was made to Daniel by the prophetic Angel, saying to him,—

"Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to "the THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED and FIVE-AND66 THIRTY DAYS.

"But go thou thy way till the end be: for "thou shalt rest, and stand IN THY LOT, at the "end of THE DAYS 2."

This is a period of prophetical days, or natural years, which, as it succeeds the " time, times, and a half," or the 1260 years of persecution and affliction, and, after a certain interval, succeeds also the 1290 years, which was the space that should 1 Rev. xx. In this instance I have again gratefully to acknowledge my obligation to the ability and penetration of Mr. Faber; from whose ingenious and learned, (though, in some respects, too hypothetical) work, I have derived the first notice relative to this view of the subject.-Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, Vol. I. p. 319-325.

2 Dan. xii. 12, 13.

E