ledge the divinity of their missions, he set up his own as superior to theirs, and exalted himself above the Prince of princes...

Thus far the angel's interpretation has made the vision to be more readily comprehended; but there are two points upon which he has not touched, and which explained according to my apprehension will fix this vision upon the Ara'bian impostor, and on no one else; I mean the daily sacrifice being taken away, and the length of the vision.

In regard to the first, it is necessary to understand clearly what is meant by the daily sacrifice; if we are to confine it to the Jewish rite, we shall find that this was taken away or suspended at three different times, by Nebuchadnezzar, by Antiochus Epiphanes, and by the Romans. By the two first, it was only suspended for a time, and the Romans warred not against the religion of the Jews, they regarded not their superstitions (as they called them) or their ceremonies, these were every where tolerated; but their object was to break the political power of this contumacious people, to bend them to their yoke, and to quell their turbulent dispositions; and this they conceived was the more easily to be done, by destroying their city and temple, and driving them out of their country. Not so the Mahometan conquerors; they laid their

1

axe at the root of religion, they conquered only that they might convert; they gave their vanquished foe his country, but subverted his religion. But after all, what was the Jewish sacrificed? what, but a type of that purer mode of worship to be established by the Lord Jesus Christ; and it was this worship, as well as the Jewish sacrifice, against which the Mahometan arms and Mahometan craft were levelled; and, as I conceive it, this was the daily sacrifice, or the atoning sacrifice, the true worship, which was taken away and annihilated, as it were, by the Arabian prophet and his followers. The daily sacrifice of the Lamb without spot or blemish was the atonement made for the daily sins of the people, and was a type of that great atonement to be offered by the Lamb of God: this sacrificial atonement was literally taken away by the Romans in the destruction of the temple, but had virtually departed from the Jews at the crucifixion of our Lord; and was not taken away from the church of God till that church itself was overthrown by the Mahometan apostacy. I feel so convinced of this being the

Prideaux, vol. i. p. 231. Bishop Hooper, quoting from Maimonides, observes," Now the Jews also have their daily prayers in the place of their daily sacrifices." Mr. Faber expresses himself to the same purpose.

• See Exod. xxix. 38. Numb. xxviii. 3.

true exposition of the daily sacrifice, that I shall not now hesitate to proceed to the next particular, the length of the vision.

verse,

66

The question is, as it is stated in the 13th How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression "of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and "the host to be trodden under foot?" That this question embraces the vision now seen by Daniel from the first rise of Alexander to the end of the apostacy, I think is clear; for the desolation was caused by the little horn, the little horn was produced by the goat; the goat then is part of the vision of desolation, and not the ram, who had nothing to do with the little horn; upon this ground then I date the beginning of the vision of the little horn in the year 335 before Christ, when Alexander was appointed general of the Grecians against the Persians: deducting now 335 from 2300, the time of the vision, and we shall be brought to the year of our Lord 1965, when the sanctuary is to be cleansed. I would not presume to affect the prophet, but if I am right in the first date, the consequence must follow, and we shall see presently how exactly these dates correspond with others that will soon fall under our consider

f Prideaux's Connection, vol. i. p. 379.

ation. And thus we have the time precisely told us when we shall see the Eastern church returning from her apostacy, and leading in her hand her elder sister the converted daughter of Judah, and together building up a temple to the Lord of hosts, whose foundation is in Christ.

The effect which this dreadful vision had upon the prophet is very striking, for he fainted and was sick certain days; the calamities which he foresaw coming upon his country afflicted and overwhelmed his spirits. The next vision granted him was of a more cheering nature; the advent of their Messias, their Deliverer and Prince. This seems to have been given him in this place, in order to renovate and strengthen his spirits, that he might be the better able to bear the remainder, and be carried on the more easily to the end of the calamities. As this vision forms no material link in the chain which I am pursuing, I do but touch upon it here, and refer my reader to Prideaux and Wintle. We will pass on to the eleventh chapter.

DANIEL. CHAP. XI.

KING

OF THE KING OF GRECIA AND THE WILFUL

KING.

IN this eleventh chapter, the angel, resuming the prophet's subject, takes up his line of prophecy, and beginning with the king of Grecia succinctly runs through a train of circumstances till he comes again to the little horn in verse 36, which is there portrayed to the end of the chapter in a manner eminently distinguishing the grand impostor. The circumstances previously foretold in this chapter have been so clearly explained, and so accurately applied to the state of the Jews in their connection with the kings of Syria and Egypt, even so as to have been considered by some as a history written after the event, that I shall not obtrude upon my reader, what has been already so well explained by others, but refer him to Bishop Newton on the place; only observing how briefly the angel has touched upon the influence of the Roman power on the church of God, comprising the whole in five verses, and then reverting to the little horn.

But as the character of the wilful king (as he is called) has been in my apprehension much

E