lennium will come.

The prophecies respecting that

time, are contained in the second, seventh and eighth. chapters of this book. I shall examine them in their order, in reference to this subject; but shall omit, for the sake of brevity, the very interesting history of the incapacity of the wise men of Babylon to interpret the extraordinary dream of their monarch, Nebuchadnezzar; but shall commence with the dream as unfolded to the king by Daniel. See book of Daniel, chap. 2, verse 31 to 35 inclusive. Thou, O king, sawest and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them in pieccs. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

But before we treat upon the subject of the stone becoming a great mountain and filling the whole earth, we shall attend to the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream as given by Daniel.

It appears this great image, seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream, signified four great monarchies, of which the Babylonish empire was the first and greatest. This

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was the first monarchy imposed on man after the flood, and was commenced by Nimrod, he who once became a mighty hunter before the Lord-(See Gen. 10, 8,)of whom we have the following account from the ancient Jewish writings, given by Dr. Clark. We learn from verse 10 of chap. 10, that this Nimrod founded several cities in his time, which were called Babel, Erech, Achad, and Calen, in the land of Shinar. He was thought a bad man, which his very name seems to signify. Nimrod comes from the word marad, which signifies, he rebelled; and the Targum on 1 Chron. 1, 10, say Nimrod began to be a mighty man in sin, a murderer of innocent men, and a rebel before the Lord. He was mighty in hunting, or in prey, and in sin before God, for he was a hunter of the children of men, and said to them, depart from the religion of Shem, and cleave to the institutes of Nimrod. The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel says, "From the foundation of the world, none was ever found like Nimrod, powerful in hunting, (wild beasts of the age, which then unquestionably abounded) and in rebellions against the Lord." The Septuagint calls him a surly giant before the Lord; upon which Dr. Clark remarks, "that Nimrod having acquired power, used it in tyranny and oppression; and by rapine and violence, founded that domination, which was the first distinguished by the name of kingdom on the face of the earth." This kingdom, commenced by Nimrod in the year of the world 1771, was ended with the death of Belshazzar, in the year of the world 3466; and in the "time ot Nebuchadnezzar it extended over Chaldea, Assyria,

Arabia, Syria, and Palestine. He was the head of gold."

The second great monarchy, represented by a breast.. and arms of silver, "was the Medo Persian empire, which properly began under Darius the Mede, allowing him to be the same with Cyaxares, son of Astyages, and uncle to Cyrus the great, son of Cambyses. He first fought under his uncle Cyaxares, defeated NerigAssar king of the Assyrians, and Croesus king of the Lydians; and by the capture of Babylon, B. C. 538, he terminated the Chaldean empire." "On the death of his father Cambyses, and his uncle Cyaxares, B. C. 536, he became sole governor of the Medes and Persians, and thus established a potent empire on the ruins of that of the Chaldeans."

The third great empire, represented by a belly and thighs of brass, was "the Macedonian or Greek empire, founded by Alexander the Great. He subdued Greece, penetrated into Asia, took Tyre, reduced Egypt, overthrew Darius Codomanus at Arabela, Oct. 2, in the year of the world 3673, and thus terminated the Persian monarchy. He crossed the Caucasus, subdued Hyrcania, and penetrated India as far as the Ganges; and having conquered all the countries that lay between the Adriatic sea and this river, the Ganges, he died A M. 3681, and after his death, his empire became divided among his generals, Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus. Cassander had Macedon and Greece; Lysimachus had Thrace, and those parts of Asia which lay on the Hellespont and Bosphorus; Ptolemy had Egypt, Lybia, Arabia, Pa

S

lestine, Persia, Assyria, Bactria, Hyrcania, and all other provinces, even to the Ganges. Thus this empire, founded on the ruin of that of the Persian, had rule over all the earth."

"The fourth great empire, represented by legs of iron, and feet part iron and part clay, was the Roman government, the same mixed with the barbaric nations, and divided into ten kingdoms." "I think (says Dr. Clark) this means, in the first place, the kingdom of Lagidae, in Egypt, and the kingdom of the Seleucidae, in Syria. And secondly, the Roman empire, which was properly composed of them.

"First-Ptolemy Lagus, one of Alexander's generals, began the new kingdom of Egypt A. M. 3692, which was continued through a long race of sovereigns till A. M. 3974, when Octavius Cæsar took Alexan dria, having in the preceding year defeated Anthony and Cleopatra at the battle of Actium, and so Egypt became a Roman province. Thus ended the kingdom of the Lagidae, after it had lasted two hundred and eighty years.

"Second-Seleucus Nicator, another of Alexander's generals, began the new kingdom of Syria A. M. 3692, which continued through a long race of sovereigns till A. M. 3939, when Pompey dethroned Antiochus Asiaticus; and Syria become a Roman province after it had lasted two hundred and forty-seven years.

"That the two legs of iron meant the kingdom of Lagidae and that of the Seleucidae, seems strongly intimated by the character given in the text. And the

Forasmuch

fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron. as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things; and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. Verse 40. "First, the iron here not only marks the strength of these kingdoms, but also their violence and cruelty towards the people of God. History is full of the miseries which the kings of Egypt and Syria inflicted on the Jews. Second-it is said that these legs should break in pieces and bruise. How many generals and princes were destroyed by Seleucus Nicator, and by Ptolemy, son of Lagus? Seleucus particularly, could not consider himself secure on his throne till he had destroyed Antigonus, Nicanor, and Demedrius; and Ptolemy endeavoured to secure himself by the ruin of Perdiccos, and the rest of his enemies. Thirdly-the dividing of the kingdom, the iron and clayey mixture of the feet, point out the continual divisions which prevailed in those empires, and the mixture of the good and evil qualities which appeared in the successors of Seleucus and Ptolemy: none of them possessing the good qualities of the founders of those monarchies; neither their valour, wisdom, ner prudence. Fourth-the efforts which these princes made to strengthen their respective governments by alliances, which all proved not only useless but injurious, are here pointed out by their mingling themselves with the seed of men. But they shall not cleave one to another. Verse 43. Antiochus Theos, king of Syria, married both Laodice and Bernice, daughters of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt. Antiochus Magnus, king of Syria, gave his daughter Cleopatra toʻ