their enemies, and call up to heaven,—or the re-establishment of the converted Jews in Jerusalem. This corresponds with the first resurrection, (Rev. xx. 4.) and the resurrection of dry bones in Ezekiel ch. xxxvii. Brief as is Daniel's account of this session of judgment and its consequences, yet his words divide themselves into three portions of time very evidently. The tyranny of the little born he says, prevailed-1st “until the ancient of days came,- 2. and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; 3. and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom," ver. 22. The kingdom of the millennium was the result, but not the immediate result. (272) I. The cruel persecution by the born, and the great words which he spake, having continued for "a time, times, and an half;" then (272) This division of the judgment day corresponds with Daniel's three grand prophetical periods. 1260 is the beginning of it, 1290 the middle, or giving of Judgment against the persecutors, and in favor of the plaintiffs, 1335 the end, or full execution of justice. the ancient of days came, and the tyrant was arraigned at the bar of judgment.-The pour ing out of the four first vials, which St. John relates, (Rev. xvi.) are the pleadings of heaven against the hoary adulteress, the apostate church, "drunken with the blood of the saints." The cause is decided against her, the dominion of the beast is taken away; he is slain, and the born is degraded. II," Judgment was given to the saints," that is, a decision in their favor is the next award of the court, and the preparatory measures for carrying it into effect in due time, by the wisdom and power of God in his dispensations of providence, are made so many severe judgments upon the remaining power of the bestial kingdom, which is now carried on in a new form, (but without any change of principles, or any repentance,) by a new beast; and his coadjutor the false prophet. At length after a severe struggle, victory declares in favor of oppressed truth and righteousness. III." The time came that the saints possessed the kingdom."-The BEAST of that period, and his confederate powers are overthrown, and the principals taken, and consigned to a suitable punishment, and ROME, the fountain head of all bestial iniquity, is destroyed by a divine judgment. I consider the great city dividing into three parts, to be the concluding scene of the whole mystery of iniquity. (273) This brings us to the time of the end, or great prophetical period 1335, no less than 75 years after the session of judgment first began, a space which comprehends the ending of the indignation, or the return of the figurative kings of the east, corresponding with the first resurrection, the ending of the seventh trumpet, the figurative binding of Satan, and the beginning of the millennium. In all this I cannot see any thing favoring the idea that the martyrs will rise by a first resurrection, and come from the rising of the sun, in immortal bodies, like a stream of fire, and a burning flame, to take the kingdom; or that these are the saints meant by Daniel in this chapter. But I conclude that he had the same magnificent idea of the latter state of the (273) See vol. ii. p. 163, and vol. iii. p. 28, VOL. III. Jews which all the other prophets had; and expresses by these figures the ardour of the faith and zeal with which they will be carried to Christ, and the destructive effect of their valour, like the force of fire burning up the hostile powers, which oppose their return to their appointed rest. (274) The burning flame, which has been applied to the raised martyrs, is by Daniel himself represented as being of a destructive nature.The body of the beast, says he, was destroyed, and given to the burning flame-for its destruction no doubt. This may mean a destruction by the fiery zeal and impetuosity of the converted Jews, but more probably it means a destruction of Rome itself by volcanic fire, a judgment of God's own hand, and kept back till his own time, "for strong is the Lord God which judgeth her." (Isai. xxx. 33. Rev. xviii. 8.) But that it can possibly apply to a destruction by the raised saints in the form of fire, (275) is hard to conceive. (274) Psalm xcvii. 3.—1, 3.—Isaiah x, 17.—xxxi, 9.Ixvi. 15.-Zech. ii. 5. (275) Mr Sharp applies to them Malachi. iv. 1, 2, 3. See his Jerusalem, p. 63. St. John, who himself delivers every thing in his Revelation by figures, alludes in his first resurrection (xx. 4) to this figurative session of judgment in Daniel. He says, "I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to the saints."-This exactly corresponds with Daniel-" The judgment was set, and the books were opened," ver. 10,"and judgment was given to the saints--and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom"-ver. 22. The saints are doubtless the same, in both instances, but St. John does not adopt the extraordinary image of“ a fiery stream and burning flame," to represent the persons to whom judgment or justice was decreed, (and I conceive that Daniel himself does not mean so to represent them,) but applies here the figure in Ezekiel of a resurrection; which denotes that he meant the same persons as Ezekiel did, the converted house of Israel in the last days; the "fiery stream" being only an appendage to the grandeur of the appearance of the ancient of days, like the other parts of this majestic description of him. -"His garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool, his throne |