and two times, and a half; and, when he shall have finished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these wonders shall be finished. And I heard, but I understood not. Then said I: O my lord, what are these future things? And he said: Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand; for, from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away by even setting up the abomination that maketh desolate, there shall be computed a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he, that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. But go thou thy way, till the end shall be: for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot, at the end of the days?.

II. These four predictions, recorded in the book of Daniel, extend, either wholly or partially, through the great term of seven prophetic times: some of them (in point of chronological arrangement) commencing before the days of the inspired 'writer, and others commencing either from or shortly after the time when they were recorded; but all of them extending to one and the same epoch, the beginning of the time of the end or the

Heb. What is the futurity of these things?

2 Dan. xi. xii.

expiration of those 1260 natural years which constitute the latter moiety of the seven times and the period allotted to the dominance of the little Roman horn.

1. The vision of the metallic image gives only the secular history of that large portion of the world, which was the basis of the cumulative Roman Empire in its widest geographical extent, and which thence is made the platform of all the prophecies both of Daniel and St. John: but, at its close, it brings us down to the victories of the stone, which are succeeded by the triumphant reign of the mountain.

These victories, by which the great image is dissolved, commence shortly before the termination of those three times and a half which are the second moiety of the complete period of seven times and the complete period of seven times, which is employed as the grand calendar of prophecy, is the exact measure of the great image viewed as chronologically progressive through four successive Empires'.

2. The vision of the four wild-beasts gives the same secular history of that portion of the globe, which comes under the special cognizance of prophecy but it gives it through the medium of a different set of distinct symbols. Like the vision' of the metallic image, it terminates with the erection of Messiah's kingdom upon the ruins of the

'Sce above book i. chap. 3. in init. and below book iii. chap. 1.

last and greatest of the four Empires: but, under the denomination of a little horn, it introduces a new Power not hitherto mentioned.

With this Power it connects the famous period of three times and a half, which is the latter moiety of the seven times: for it teaches us, that the times and the laws and the saints of the Most High are to be delivered into the hand of the little horn during the space of three times and a half, and that at the end of that period the fourth beast is to be destroyed and the long-depressed saints are to obtain the kingdom'.

3. The vision of the ram and the he-goat is still limited to the same geographical platform, and is still for the most part spread upon the same grand prophetic calendar of seven times: but, as the preceding vision of the four wild-beasts, during its latter term, was chiefly confined to the western part of the platform; so the present vision of the ram and the he-goat is chiefly confined, during its parallel latter term, to the eastern part of the plat form. In the West, a little horn of the fourth wild-beast is conspicuously to play the tyrant during the period of three prophetic times and a half: in the East, another little horn, attached to the he goat, is synchronically to appear in a character not essentially dissimilar. For the eastern little horn, like the western, perishes at the time of the end or at the close of the latter three times and a half:

1 See below book iii. chap. 2. § IV. 2. 4.

and, as the reign of the western little horn begins with the completion of a great apostasy from the faith; so its eastern fellow stands up when the apostates are come to the full, and the symbolical stars or ecclesiastical pastors are given up to its tyranny as a punishment for the widely-diffused apostasy in question.

...The present vision of the ram and the he-goat, like the preceding vision of the four beasts, sets forth a chronological number: and this number is for the most part spread over the grand calendarian period of seven prophetic times, though not quite exactly comprehended within it. While the entire vision of the ram and the he-goat is specifically de fined, as reaching, from its commencement, to the very time of the end, or to the close of the latter three times and a half; we are taught, that that part of it, which brings us from its commencement to the incipient cleansing of the sanctuary, will comprehend a period of 2300 prophetic days or 2300 natural years 1.

4. The vision of the things noted in the Scrip ture of truth differs from all its three predecessors in the mode of its construction: for they predict future events, through the medium of symbols or hieroglyphics; but it predicts them, in the ordinary unfigured language of history. Yet the same geographical platform is retained: and, save that the now extinct Babylonian Empire is excluded, the

See below book iii. chap. iii. § III. 2.

same succession of Empires and the same grand éhronological calendar are employed to bring us, in regular order, to certain events of the last time, which hitherto, for the sake of distinctness, have been left unnoticed.

On this principle, as the vision of the four beasts conducted us, in strict chronological succession to the tyranny of the western little horn, the gradual rise of which is limited to the period during which the fourth Empire should be divided into ten kingdoms; and as the vision of the ram and the he-goat similarly conducted us, in strict chronological succession, to the tyranny of the eastern little horn, the standing up of which is fixed to the time when the apostates should be come to the full so the vision of the things noted in the Scripture of truth, the date of which is the third year of Cyrus, begins with the then-existing Medo-Persian Empire; passes next to the Grecian Empire, under the Macedonian Alexander; then proceeds to give the history of his most eminent successors, the two lines of the Hellenico-Syrian and the Hellenico-Egyptian kings; afterward introduces the Romans upon the stage, predicting the destruction of Jerusalem, the persecutions endured by the primitive Christians, the conversion of the Empire under Constantine, the declension of real piety, and the second persecutions endured by those who protested against the great Apostasy that was mainly upheld by the Bishops of Rome; and lastly, when it has foretold all these particulars in regular chronological order, delineates a third unholy Power