horn was limited, of which he and the commentators of his time, had no expectation for many years yet to come, (42) notwithstand

And that the Roman empire was the only horn that arose during the subsistence of the four Greek kingdoms; and that the words "four kingdoms shall stand up (instead of the one that was broken,) out of the nation," Dan. viii. 22, imply that the kingdom of the little horn should be not of the nation; and that the kingdom of Antiochus Epiphanes was of the same nation, and was not a new kingdom, but a continuation of one of the four.

(42) This misapprehension of this sealed prophecy of the time, times, and dividing of time, common to both Daniel and St. John,and by both applied to the same character and objects, was owing to the mistake in fixing upon a wrong time for the commencement of it. The principal movements and chief charac ters in it were distinguished under the seal very distinctly; but with respect to the times when the 1260 years began and ended, it was not unsealed till the time was fully expired, and facts spoke for themselves.

By my exposition of the vial of darkness, vol. ii. p. 78 &c. it will be seen that I there understood the reign of the Pope, as the little born of Daniel, to be compleatly at an end, together with the nominal remainder of the Roman bestial empire; both of them dissolved by an imperial decree of another totally new dynasty of beasts; and that I had also with the formalities due, received his holiness as the pseudoprophetes or false prophet, “which was for to come," after the former monstrous shapes of ecclesiastical tyranny had been withdrawn into the shade.

But it remained for Mr Sharp to pronounce with a

ing the visible decline of the papal power, foreboding the time of its dissolution to be at no great distance. We are now, therefore, living in a new prophetical period, and under the seventh trumpet, which hath recently begun to sound the alarm for great revolutions at hand. And by the great light reflected upon the former darkness of the other prophetical periods, by this circumstance, we may, perhaps, be enabled to give some, though an imperfect, account of those which remain sealed; but we cannot pretend to absolute certainty, either as to the facts by which they will be respectively distinguished, or even the precise times when they will certainly expire.

tone of decisive authority and ex cathedra, upon these very im portant points, by his substitution of his axxo Ongov or "other beast," to all those which had before impertinently and uselessly, (except to mislead poor wandering expositors,) occu. pied his important office, He has hereby done an essential service to all who may hereafter attempt to explore these misty regions of futurity, and has given us a fixed point whereon to set up the expositorial telescope, towards the two remain. ing periods in Daniel; which by his judicious alteration of the focus to the decree of Justinian in 548, not only brings the first period into the field of vision, but reflects many scattered rays of light upon both the others yet unsealed.

Solution of the first objection-Second objection, the doubtful meaning of the phrase "the abomination of desolation"-In the seventy weeks it refers to the Roman Eagles.-In the prophecies of the little born it refers to his idolatry.-Circumstances that confirm my hypothesis.-Chronological sketch of the prophetical times.-From Nebuchadnezzar to the Millennium.-Knowledge of the prophetical times, does not lead to the discovery of the time of the day of judgment.

THE long period of 2300 days, not consisting with the profanation of the temple by Antiochus, we must necessarily look out for some other exposition of it, which may consist with the character of the little horn, to whose exploits the greater part of it relates; and which may also agree with the termina

tion of all these wonders, and the cleansing of the sanctuary; both events fixed to the last period of 1335 days. (43) If from this time we count backward 2300 years, it will bring us up to the year before Christ 417 for the date of this prophecy; which was about the latter end of the lives of the prophets Nehemiah and Malachi, and therefore before the ceasing of the prophetic spirit, and at a time when the Persian monarchy was in its full vigour, agreeably to the circumstances the prophet mentions, as distinguishing marks of the commencement of the vision. Ver. 4, "I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward, so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but

(43) It would be a strange confusion to suppose any other termination of it, if it cannot be applied to Antiochus ; which besides the disagreement of the two thousand three hundred days, (or six and a half years) with his three years tyranny, seems otherwise improbable. The prophecies of Daniel are all of a prodigious extent; which is also particularly expressed of this, ver. 26. "And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true,-wherefore shut thou up the vision, for it shall be FOR MANY DAYS." It were absurd to apply this to a period of six years.

he did according to his will, and became great." (44)

This solution of the question, bow long the vision shall last? including all the particulars named in it, the ceasing of the daily sacrifice of slain beasts, by the offering of the sacrifice of Christ,—and the destruction of the temple by the Romans,-and the desolation of Judea, and dispersion of that people,—and the treading down of the sanctuary, or true church and host of heaven, by the papal gentiles, and the cleansing of the sanctuary at last, by the conversion and restoration of the Jews, and opening of the millennium in the New Jerusalem; this solution shews it in a light so far from being really any objection to my proposed scheme of prophetical chronology, that it is a strong confirmation of it. Every one of the prophetical numbers thus appearing not only in perfect consistency

(44) To the prophetical number 1335 the cleansing of the sanctuary, add the date of its commencement when the spiritual polluting of it began by Justinian's setting up the Pope in 548, and 417 years more before Christ, and it amounts to the prophetical number 2300.