6 his providence will be very deftructive to the 'wicked.' Daniel adds in v. 11, I was attentive till the Beaft was flain, and its body deftroyed, and it was delivered up to the burning of fire3. To kill or flay,' fays Dr. Lancaster, is to be explained according to the nature of the fubject spoken of;' and to kill a kingdom is to destroy utterly the power it had to act as fuch.' That to burn with fire is an expreflion of fimilar import, there has before been occafion to note. In v. 12 the prophet announces, that concerning the rest of the Beasts, they had their dominion taken away. Beafts,' fays Jurieu on this paffage, do certainly denote ftates and em'pires; fo that it feems as if all fovereign power, 'i. e. Monarchical, fhould be taken away." The fymbols of the prophet are indeed interpreted for us in this very chapter, as they were apparently communicated to him in his vifion by an angelic being. I came near, fays Daniel (v. 16), unto one of them that flood by, and afked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the thing. We are accordingly informed by the angel of the vision, that the Fourth Beast, which had Ten Horns, fhall be the Fourth Kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverfe from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and fhall tread it down, and break it in pieces; and that the Ten Horns out of this Kingdom are Ten Kings that fhall 37 Agreeably to this bp. Newcome observes, in commenting on the 1ft ch, of Ezekiel, that the wheels spoken of by that prophet,' are fuppofed to 'exprefs the Revolutions of God's providence, which are regular, though 'they appear intricate.' 38 This is from Mr. Wintle's Improved Version. 39 Vol. II. p. 382. From a comparison of this paffage with p. 379, where he declares, that the millennium will not be a state of anarchy, but that there shall be fome to govern, and others to obey,' Jurieu appears to have expected, that Republics would be every where established. ་ 41 arife. And in v. 26 it is added (the angel ftill speaks), But the judgment fhall fit, and they fhall take away his dominion, to confume and to deftroy it unto the end11. But who are the rest was to be taken away? of the Beafts, whofe dominion Let Sir I. Newton inform us. In explaining this passage, he observes, that all the four 6 Beafts are still alive;' and adds, that the nations of Chaldea and Affyria are still the first Beast. • Media and Perfia are fill the second Beast. Those of * Macedon, Greece, and Thrace, Afia Minor, Syria and Egypt, are still the third. Whilft the Hebrew prophet declares, that the ten-horned Beaft was flain, he adds of thefe other emblematic Beafts (v. 12), yet THEIR lives were prolonged for a feafon and time. Does not this clause plainly enough intimate, that, after the arbitrary 43 monarchies of Europe fhall have been obliterated, the defpotic governments of Afia and of Africa, though their existence will indeed be prolonged for a 40 V. 23 and 24. 4 With respect to this verfe, cited in a former chapter, it scarcely needs be observed, that it manifeftly refers to the Ten Horns, as well as to the little Horn, of the Beaft. See Brenius, 42 Obf. on Dan. p. 31. Another interpretation, yet more extensive in its import, is noticed and explained by Mede. The expreffion, the rest of the Beafts, may, he fays (p. 255), be understood as not limited to the three first symbolic Beasts, but as comprehending the kingdoms of the world in general. Vau, rendered in our verfion, as concerning, he observes may be tranflated alfo; alfo the rest of the Beafls, &c. As for the word Beats to be ⚫ taken here for other kingdoms as well as the Four great ones, it needs 'make no fcruple. For we fhall find it fo in the next chapter, where it is faid of the Medo-Perfian Ram (verfe 4), that no Beasts might stand before kim, that is, no State or Kingdom was able to refift his power: fo here ་ may the reft of the Beasts be the States and Kingdoms contemporary with the Fourth Beast.' 43 I confefs, that if I followed the commentators, I should not restrict this deftruction of monarchies to those which are arbitrary, but should say the monarchies in general feated in that part of the world of which the prophet fpeaks. On this point the reader must judge for himself, time, yet that they also will, at length, most assuredly fall? And does not reafon herself teach us, that this will probably happen? Is it not to be expected, that political Liberty will be progreffive in its course; and that it will flourish on the continent, and among the iflands, of Europe, before it is tranfplanted into the warmer climes of the old world, which are lefs favour. able to its growth? Though North America ftands at fuch a diftance from the European continent, and confequently the changes which happen there must have a very diminished influence on this quarter of the globe; though it has gained far lefs by its revolution than almost any nation on that continent would have done, because it never bowed its neck under the yoke of defpotism, or an accumulation of taxes, and never did an expensive court annoy its provinces, to serve as a rallying point to vice and corruption, and a center from which they might copiously flow; it nevertheless powerfully encouraged the authors of the French Revolution during its commencement and profecution, and threw a ftrong ray of light on the measures they were to adopt, and the principles they were to confecrate. As foon as France then, a nation of fuch populousness, ingenuity, and diftinguished attainments, feated as it is in the very center of Europe, and poffeffing a language fo generally ftudied, fhall completely have baffled the efforts of the confederated princes; and, restored to internal order, shall begin to reap, in a feafon of tranquillity, thofe golden fruits, which are the natural growth of an equal government, representative in its construction, and founded on the rights of man; is it not to be expected, that its example will prove irresistible, and that in no long time it will be followed by the more enlightened of the European nations? The probability of events following each other in in this train statesmen and princes have not failed to difcern and to dread; and they act accordingly. That the antichriftian monarchies and ariftocracies of the world may be demolished, reason instructs us to hope, as well on account of the oppreffor as the oppreffed. To raife men to a giddy height of unjuft power and unmerited titular diftinction, is to expofe them to a feries of moral dangers, of the most serious kind, and which they cannot reasonably be expected to furmount. Perceiving that their vanity will be indulged, their wants fupplied, their defires anticipated, without exertion, without knowledge, without virtue; they commonly flide infenfibly into the ignominious lap of indolence; and, diffipating their time in the company of the profligate, and in an infipid routine of amusements, yield themselves up to the tyranny of paffions, alike injurious to fociety and to the individual. This fubject has almost always been confidered in much too narrow a point of view. That this is only the commencing stage of our existence is a truth which ought permanently to impress our minds. It ought therefore to be an anxious fubje&t of our enquiry, what is the ftate of society, and what is the fpecies of government, which is best adapted, by its influence on morals, to fit and prepare men for a future world. Now thofe exifting governments, which are founded on oppreffion, and trample on the rights of man, are fo fatally operative in the extinction of light and virtue, that they are decidedly calculated to dif qualify men for a ftate of future exiftence. Indeed when we advert to the general condition of mankind, diftributed as they are, into thofe who tyrannize, and those who are the objects of tyranny; when we reflect, that a numerous and diftin&t clafs of vices are the natural growth of each of thefe fituations; when we thence collect, that the great mass of human-kind appear, in confe quence quence of this, in a great degree to be incapacitated for the elevated employments of heaven and the purity of its pleasures, the overthrow of all fuch governments cannot but ftrike the mind, as having a degree of importance, which it is not in the power of language to express, or of the human understanding to calculate, Hence also it appears (and it is an awful confideration), that he who is inftrumental in perpetuating a corrupt and wicked go. vernment, is also instrumental in unfitting his fellowmen for the felicity of the celeftial manfions, and in perhaps occasioning them to occupy, through all the fucceffive ftages of their future existence, a lower rank than that to which they would otherwife have attained. CHAPTER XXI. ON THE NUMBERS WHICH OCCUR IN DANIEL AND ST. JOHN. IN N a work like the present it would probably be thought by many a material omiffion, were no notice to be taken of the numbers which are found in Daniel and St. John. By the former of thefe infpired writers we are told, that the little horn shall continue in power for a time, and times, and the dividing of time'. The latter, fpeaking of the Gentiles, or fpurious Chriftians, fays (xi. 2), the Holy City fhall they tread under foot 42 months; and in the following verse, that the two witmeffes fhall prophefy a thousand two hundred and three 'VII. 25. Amongst the old prophets, Daniel is most diftinct in or'der of time, and easiest to be underfood.' Sir I. Newton's Obfer. on Dan, p. 15. Score |