to the establishment of the Roman, which consolidated the remains of the Grecian, viz. Egypt, Syria, and more particularly Judea, into one great empire, was exactly 720 years i.

I shall now turn my attention to what may appear in the form of a difficulty: I am not aware of having seen it noticed by any one, and shall therefore without hesitation offer my own. solution.

In the 3d verse of this chapter the Prophet sees four beasts coming up from the sea; in the 17th verse he interprets these four beasts to be four kings which shall arise out of the earth. Literally taken, this is impossible; what then is the metaphor, and how is the metaphor to be reconciled with the symbol? That the sea is a symbol representing the Gentile world is, I think, clearly to be understood from many passages of Scripture, but I shall refer my reader to what Dean Woodhouse has advanced upon this subject. If then the sea represents the Gentile world, the earth may be considered as the symbol of that part which is within the pale

The precise period, however, when Nebuchadnezzar began to reign in Babylon is of the highest importance to be known, since Ptolemy, and all succeeding astronomers, calculate their years from their commencement of that era, which is generally fixed for the 747th year before Christ. Vid. Maurice's App. to Ruins of Babylon, p. 38.

k Woodhouse, Ap. p. 213.

of God's church; for this also I have the authorities of Woodhouse, Haminond " and Lardner". Here then are four monarchies coming from among the Gentiles, and rising, or extending their dominion, over the people of God: they are of a twofold nature, they are Gentile monarchies, but connected with the church; had they not been connected with the Jews, they would have been nothing more than other kings of the world, who are overlooked by the Prophet: had they arisen only in Israel, they would have been unnoticed with the other idolatrous kings of the Jews; but arising in the Gentile world, and assuming dominion over the people and church of God, they formed that sort of civil and ecclesiastical compound of idolatrous tyranny, which constitutes the character of a prophetical beast".

1 Woodhouse, Ap. p. 211.

n

Lardner, vol. i. p. 241.

m

Hammond, Luke vii.

• It has been suggested to me, that the earth in this place is not symbolical, because the angel is here giving Daniel an explanation of the former symbols. It may be so, then the earth stands in the common acceptation of the word for the whole terraqueous globe, and the difficulty immediately vanishes. But as the angel is found in other places to give explanations in language almost as obscure as the text itself, insomuch as that Daniel himself confesses that " he heard "but understood not," (chap. xii. 8.) we may have a reasonable suspicion that the earth in this place is also symbolical, and then the explanation which I have given must stand.

The fourth beast of Daniel I wish to have well understood, because I think that he has been too much confounded with the Apocalyptic beasts, and I feel satisfied, that a right exposition of this symbol will throw much light upon what follows, and clear our way for much of our future structure.

This beast has been considered by all our commentators as symbolic of the Roman empire; and rightly so: it follows from what I have already advanced. He is a counterpart to the fourth monarchy of the image, and his iron teeth indicate the Roman constitution; but I am afraid that his peculiar traits have been forcibly bent to elucidate some preconceived opinion, or to support some favourite hypothesis. Let us consider him without prejudice.

The prophecy in Daniel is this: "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold "a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron "teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and

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stamped the residue with the feet of it and it "was diverse from all the beasts that were be"fore it; and it had ten horns.

"I considered the horns, and, behold, there "came up among them another little horn, before "whom there were three of the first horns

plucked up by the roots and behold in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a "mouth speaking great things."

a

The first thing which I would observe in the description of this symbolical beast is his diversity from the others. We are told in the 3d verse, that the four beasts were diverse from each other; and in this 7th verse, that the fourth beast was diverse from all the beasts that were before it. This repetition of diversity is a strong mark of notation, that in this beast it was very great. Now the prophet most assuredly did not single out these empires from the other great kingdoms of the world, but as they were particularly connected with the church of God; he did not mean particularly to distinguish the political constitution of each, for this did not bear upon his point, but their mode of religious worship, which eventually did bear on it; and in this there was a remarkable diversity, both general from each other, and particular in this beast from all. This difference was as follows. b The Chaldæans were followers of the Sabian superstition, and were worshippers of the sun and planetary system as mediators between

& "And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh "twice, it is because the thing is established by God, and "God will shortly bring it to pass," Gen. xli. 32.

Prideaux's Connection, vol. i. p. 139.

God and man: this was only one step, though a great deviation from true religion. The Persians were Magians, and not only were worshippers of the sun, but also supporters of the two principles of good and evil: this was a greater corruption, and a total departure from the worship of one only God. The Greeks were Polytheists, and worshipped departed men under the name of heroes; they however were averse to the introduction of foreign gods into the catalogue of their divinities. The Romans were not only Polytheists, but picked up gods wherever they could find them: they worshipped all or any, and crowded their Pantheon with the deities of all their conquered nations. This then was the diversity seen among the four beasts, and this also was the inferiority portrayed by the different metals in Nebuchadnezzar's dream but still the great diversity in the

• And so jealous were the Greeks of their worship when once established, that the Athenians had a law, which made it death to introduce any new deities. Potter's Ant. b. i. chap. 19, 26. Upon this law St. Paul was arraigned, and Socrates condemned.

d Speaking of the Christians, Tacitus says, Auctor nominis ejus Christus, Tiberio imperitante, per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectus erat. Repressaque in præsens exitiabilis superstitio rursus erumpebat, non modo per Judæam originem ejus mali, sed per urbem etiam, quo cuncta undique atrocia aut pudenda confluunt, celebranturque. Tac. Ann. lib. xv. 44.