LIBRA

OF THE

RY

UNIVERSITY

CALIFORNIA

PRELIMINARY CHAPTER TO THE VISIONS OF

DANIEL.

BEFORE I enter upon the particular parts of the prophecies of Daniel, I wish to place before my reader a short, simple, and clear statement of what appears to me to be the history contained in them. I would have him always bear in mind, that it is the history of God's church, under the Jewish dispensation, expanding to the call of both Jews and Gentiles into the Christian covenant, and uniting both in one fold under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

But as Daniel himself was a Jew, and consequently more deeply concerned in the interests of his countrymen, he more particularly addresses himself to them, and foretells the fortunes of them, their city, and their country; and his subject leading him to speak of the Christian dispensation, which he does in general terms, up to the division of the Roman empire, yet he then reverts to his brethren in the East, and their country, till he brings the whole together at the great consummation.

Accordingly he begins by telling them that there were four great monarchies, with which they were or would be particularly connected,

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and describes them so as that they may easily be understood by future generations to inean the Babylonian, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman. He again produces the same monarchies, under a different similitude, and gives a description of their manners and tyrannical conduct he then drops the first as one that is passing, or almost passed away; (for he prophesied toward the end of the Babylonian captivity, when Babylon herself was about to sipk for ever.) The fourth kingdom also he mentions no more as a whole; but traces the Eastern empire and church to the second and third, the Persian and Grecian kingdoms, which are again introduced under another figure. Here he shews, that the kingdom of Persia shall be invaded and overcome by the King of Grecia; Persia is then dropped, and he continues the history of the church through the kingdom of Grecia.

Alexander the Great having established his kingdom of Greece, it was immediately after, according to the prophecy, broken into four; and then the prophet goes on to inform us, that out of one of them should arise another power, who should extend his tyranny, his ecclesiastical tyranny, over God's church established in the pleasant land: by which I understand, and 1 trust that I shall make it appear, that this power must be the Mahometan.

The progress of the history here stops; and, as if the prophet intended to comfort his people under the sense of this impending calamity, and to strengthen their spirits to bear a further developement, he returns to their deliverance from the Babylonian captivity, and foretells the time of the coming of the Messiah; he cheers them with the account of the rebuilding of their city, and is particular in the time of the Messiah's appearance: he then touches upon their dispersion, and brings them to the consummation.

Having now set before them the glorious advent of the Messiah for their comfort, he reverts in the 11th chapter to the king of Grecia, and more minutely enters into the subject of his power, the breaking of that power, and its division into four parts; drops two of those parts, as having no connection with the Jews, and pursues the history through the other two, Syria and Egypt, (between which the Holy Land being situated, was alternately oppressed by each,) till the power of the Romans is brought in view. Their transactions and the state of the church are then succinctly related, and Antichrist is again brought forward, in both his parts, the Roman as well as the Mahometan, in the plenitude of his power, his struggles, and his destruction. The times of his continuance, his predominancy, and his end, are then fixed and

determined; and thus the whole is summed up in the second advent of our Lord.

In this outline, I am aware that I have given something which has much the appearance of a system; but this, I trust, will not be condemned, when it shall appear to arise from the explication of the subject, and not the explication forced to maintain the system. I do not mean to enter into any critical discussion upon the book of Daniel. It falls neither within the scope of my plan nor the compass of my powers; nor is there any need, it has been done by others fully competent to the task in abilities and learning, more especially by that excellent critic Mr. Wintle. But my object is, to address myself more particularly to the plain English reader with his Bible open before him; and I trust that I shall furnish him with such a key, as may, with God's assistance, enable him to unlock the mysterious and important treasures. of this obscure book of prophecy.

To begin then with the dream of Nebuchad

nezzar.