called, i. e. doctrines, which are limited neither to time nor place.*

IX. And, as the object of the Bible is, to teach and to urge true spiritual religion, we must be careful to observe to what kinds of persons its promises, and threats, are respectively addressed, whether to Jews, or Christians, who are spiritually and truly such; or to those only who bear these names.†

X. And, as we know of no authoritative exposition of the Old Testament except the New, let us be careful always to test and guide our inquiries on the former, by the declarations of the latter; and, the more extensively this is carried out, the better. Single passages in either of these we may misunderstand; but, when we avail ourselves of the light to be obtained from many, this is not likely to be the case.

It will be readily perceived by those who have eyes willing to see, and hearts to understand, that the Bible is by no means so dark and unintelligible a Book as men have, by their very clever devices, managed to make it, and particularly in this most instructive, marvellously sublime, and sure word of prophecy and this is concerned, more or less, in the just development of every other. Under the more liberal and widelyextended system of inquiry here recommended and exemplified, the interpreter will not be left, as he has been, to grope as in darkness, even in the noon-day, and to rack his brains with guessing at this or that ;§ he will now have Scripture itself,

* Nothing is more common with the popular writers of the day, than to apply these promiscuously, and hence to leave their conclusions such as can command the confidence of none.

If this distinction had been duly attended to, the question about Jewish restoration to Palestine would, long ago, have been cast to the moles and the bats for it would have been seen, that every promise made to that people has been fulfilled to the very letter.

This consideration is all important on the question of prophecy; for, it may be confidently affirmed, that quite enough is given in the New Testament to determine all that is most important to its entire and full understanding: and that this would have been seen long ago, had not the very ingenious puerilities of Mr. Mede so fully occupied the minds of men.

§ There is a very sensible paper in the "Journal of Sacred Literature" for October 1850, p. 389, seq., on the extremes of literalism exhibited in the followers of Mede and Maitland. The writer, who signs himself P. F., is certainly a person of no ordinary ability: and the system which he has recommended,

in its most rich and abundant parallelism, its diversified tropology, and its pure spirituality, to guide him safely through the otherwise difficult and unexplored length and breadth of its declarations. Neither the subtlety of Jewish exposition, nor the pretty conceits drawn from the heathen classics, the verbal parallelism of particular constructions, which is common enough to all languages,-will now be allowed to engage his whole attention, or to fritter away his strength: he will be in possession of something more substantial, natural, easy, and obvious and his results will, in the same proportion, be more satisfactory, true, and edifying.

as that which will avoid the incongruities of the schools mentioned, and quadrate Iwell with the writers of the New Testament, he will find followed out in this and my former works, to an extent which he has not perhaps expected.

E

SECT. I.

ON THE VISIONS OF DANIEL.

WE now come to the Visions of Daniel; and, as these have been considered at some length in my larger work, I shall now dwell only on what is most important as to the great events and times had in view by the Prophet, supplying such new matter as may seem necessary.

The first of these Visions is found in chapter ii.; and we are there told, that the Image seen by Nebuchadnezzar (ver. 32, seq.) represented four successive universal Empires: of these, his was the first: and, according to the Commentators, and the nature of the case, heathen Rome was the last. For the fact is, no four successive universal Empires are known to have existed, except those beginning with Babylon, and ending with heathen Rome. This last Empire was, again, to be succeeded by another, not heathen; for it was to be set up by the God of heaven, and was never to end (ver. 44, &c.): and this must of necessity be the kingdom of Christ; for no other Empire can be so described.

We are told (ver. 34, ib. seq.), that a Stone, cut out of the mountain without hands, so struck the Image on its feet which were of iron and miry clay, that the image was broken in pieces, and so utterly carried away, that not a particle of it remained that then, the stone grew into a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

But it was the feet of the image which the stone so struck and broke. Taking then the head of the image to symbolize Babylon, the feet must of necessity symbolize heathen Rome in its last times. The stone, so striking the Image, must also of necessity symbolize Christ's kingdom: for in no other sense can it be said to have filled the whole earth: it must also necessarily be the fifth kingdom or Empire, which should succeed the first four of the Prophet, and which should never end.

But, both the legs and feet together represent this fourth Empire: the feet its latter period. The legs of iron* must, there

* In verse 40 here, this empire is said to be strong as iron: it was in its latter days only, that miry clay became mixed up with it.

fore, represent its former more healthy and vigorous one. It is represented, therefore, as existing of two essentially different parts, or characters; one strong, the other weak. But, the weaker part was stricken, and then the whole was so carried away, that not a particle remained: intimating, as it should seem, that nothing should intervene between the fall of this power, and the establishment of the fifth Empire, or kingdom of Christ, to which none other should succeed. But we know when this power fell; as we also do that, upon its fall, the kingdom of heaven, or Christ, was immediately established. Papal Rome cannot, therefore, possibly be any prolongation of Daniel's fourth empire: this is clearly impossible.

We have also another particular here, which we must notice viz. (verse 44), "In the days of THESE KINGS shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed. But these kings" necessarily occupy the place of the feet and toes, which we are told were of iron and miry clay. It is to the destruction of these, again, that the growth of the stone immediately succeeds, and fills the whole earth. It must be, therefore, also to the kings mentioned here,— represented apparently by the toes, that this increase of the stone, i.e. of Christ's kingdom, should succeed, should continue, and never end. These kings may therefore be supposed, in a mystical sense to be, as the digits ten, a round number, and signifying a whole series.

We have seen too above (p. iv.), that the Desolator, upon whom destruction was to be poured at the close of Daniel's seventieth week, must be the lower Roman empire for it was that which desolated Jerusalem. But, the power brought before us here in chap. ii. must also be the lower Roman empire for no other universal empire did then exist; and on its fall, under Constantine the Great, the empire of Christ was erected (de facto) throughout the whole world.* In the former case, this was to be at the end of Daniel's seventieth week; the established kingdom, therefore, in the latter, must have taken place, also at the end of this week. And consequently, the times and events before us, in each case, are identically the

same.

If we now pass on to the next vision of Daniel (chap. vii.),

* Of which more presently

we shall find the same things predicted under imagery altogether different, but equally precise and explicit. We have here (verr. 3-7) four great beasts rising out of the sea, which correspond to the four great monarchies of the first vision; and of this, the explanations given supply sufficient proof.

"These great beasts," it is said (ver. 17), " which are four, are four great kings" (rather, Rules or Kingdoms), "which shall arise out of the earth:" i. e. shall be earthly and heathenish. It is added, "But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever" i. e. the kingdom, or rule, which had been held by "these kings," as universal Empires: and if so, the four preceding kings or dominions must, as before, be our former successive ones: which is evident from the consideration, that the fifth or last succeeding Empire is, as before, an universal, eternal, and heavenly one, or the kingdom of Christ. (See also verr. 22, 27, seq.)

As to the fall of the fourth Kingdom here, we are told (ver. 26), that "the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume, and to destroy it unto THE END.” But this judgment must, from the character here given of it, be divinely inflicted (see ver. 26), and the same that should strike the feet and toes of the Image of our first vision; and the time of the end, must, of necessity, be that of its fall. But this is, as we have seen above, that of the end of Daniel's seventieth week, for at this was the Desolator of Jerusalem to fall: i. e. the lower Roman empire. The events and times in all these cases cannot, therefore, but be the same.

But the fourth beast here, is the most important to the purposes of the Prophet; and he adds (ver. 19), "Then I would know the truth (i. e. real character) of the fourth beast,... whose teeth were of iron... which devoured, brake in pieces and stamped the residue with his feet," &c., which, to some extent, identifies it with the iron and fierce character of the last Rule, represented by the Image of our first vision. The sequel sufficiently establishes this: for we are told, that, before the ancient of days should judge it, it should make war with the saints of the Most High, and prevail against them: and that, upon this judgment's being inflicted, the kingdom under the whole heaven, and this an everlasting one, should be given to