Daniel, that he was criminal in accepting with fo much readiness the honours conferred upon him at Babylon. But there is no ground,' fays the excellent Lardner, for fuch a cenfure: Daniel was guilty of no mean com'pliances: he ascribed all his wisdom to God; and upon every occasion preserved his integrity without blemish, and openly professed his zeal for true religion, and the worship of God according to the directions of the law ' of Mofes. It was not decent for him to refuse the ⚫ honours beflowed by a great king, when no finful compliances were exacted; and when he might, in the high ftation to which he was advanced, both promote the 'interest of true religion, and the welfare of his people in a frange country. Daniel does not appear to have 'been fond of worldly honours. When Belshazzar made him great promifes, he answered: Let thy gifts be to thyfelf, and give thy rewards to another"?

T

6

A learned anonymous writer, in his obfervations on the book of Daniel, fays, I think it no inconfiderable argu'ment, that it has not been foifted in upon the world by 'Chriftian or Jewish zealots, that parts of it have continued 'fo long in obfcurity, and now, in this age, are gradually explained. Had any impofition been defigned, these 'pretended oracles would have been underflood at the 'first moment of their publication, as well as now; and 'would not have waited for elucidation till this time, fo long after the views of a falfe prophet must have been at an end'.'

Our bleed Saviour,' fays Dr. Apthorp, ' has so af'ferted the authority of the prophecies of Daniel, as to reft his own veracity on their truth; and it is of

Dan. v. 17. Lardner's Works, vol. VIII, p. 203.

7 Commentaries and Essays, vol. I. fignature Synergus, p. 508.

$ Vol. I. p. 237.

Daniel that Sir I. Newton fays, to reject his prophecies, is to reject the Chriftian religion. For this religion is * founded upon his prophecy concerning the Meffiah'.' I conceive Daniel,' fays Mede, to be Apocalypfis Contracta, and the apocalypfe Daniel Explicate, in that ' where both treat about the same subject; namely what was revealed to Daniel concerning the Fourth Kingdom, but fummatim and in the grofs, is fhewed to St. John particulatim, with the diftinction and order of the feveral fates and circumftances 10, The apoca' lypfe of John,' says Sir I. Newton, is written in the ⚫ same style and language with the prophecies of Daniel, and hath the fame relation to them, which they have to ' one another, so that all of them together make up but one complete prophecy11.'

Of the predictions in ch. ii. and ch. vii. of Daniel fuch is the precifenefs, that they admit not of two interpretations 12. That they refer to a remote period, the prophet has himself declared, telling us in the former of those chapters (v. 28), that they related to what shall be in the LATTER days.

In chapter ii. it is predicted, that the great Image, fymbolical of the monarchies of the world, fhall be overthrown and deftroyed; and (v. 34 and 42) that its Ten Toes fhall be shattered to atoms. The great idol of Daniel was,' fays a valuable writer, very properly ufed as a representation of the grand imposture under

9 P. 25.

10 P. 964.

11 P. 254. With respect to Sir I. Newton's character as a critic and a theologian, the testimony of an adversary may be cited. 'The first of 'philofophers,' fays Mr. Gibbon, was deeply skilled in critical and theo'logical studies.' Decl. and Fall of the Rom. Emp. vol. VIII. p. 272.

12 Dr. Sykes, fpeaking of chapters ii. and vii. of Daniel, fays, the 'prophetic style is plain and eafy; and the terms fuch as will admit of very little, if any debate. Eff. on the Tr. of the Chr. Rel. p. 12.

'living

'living princes, who were worshipped as Gods, which 'was to continue to deceive the whole world from 'Daniel's time forward.' And speaking of St. John's prediction, that men fhall worship the ten-horned Beast, he fays, worshipping, as I have already fhewed, rightly expreffes that unreasonable idolatrous refpect, which mankind have in all ages fhewn to abfolute princes, by 'treating them as Gods13.' And it is obferved by bp. Chandler, that human figures, in early times, were, as the remains in ancient coins ftill fhew, the ufual fym'bols, whereby cities and people were known. And 'the metal they were made of, and the colours that ' adorned them (of which the herald's art preserves yet fome traces), were farther marks to distinguish them 'from each other 14."

The demolition of the metallic image is reprefented under a well-known figure, that of a stone, which, being cut out without hands, fmote the image on his feet, and brake them to pieces; which prophecy conveys a fimilar meaning to a paffage in the apocalypse already expatiated upon, that the Lamb fhall overcome the Ten Kings. 'The Ten Toes of the image,' fays Mr. Lowth, when speaking of the Roman empire, ' fignify the Ten Kings, who were in after-times to divide this kingdom among 'themselves denoted by the Ten Horns of this fourth Beaft, mentioned in ch. vii. 7, compared with Rev. xvii. 12. By the ftone being a fpecies of mineral altogether different from that of which the image was composed, it was, fays bp. Chandler, ' implied, that this

13 An Eff. on Script. Proph. and particularly on the Three Periods of Daniel, 1724, p. 58, 84. This writer expreffes his expectation, that the year 1790 would be a memorable epocha, distinguished by great and momentous events; but his expectation was grounded on an erroneous computation of the periods of Daniel. See p. 158.

Def. of Chr. p. 95.

'new kingdom fhould be not only different in number,

or a diftinct empire, but of another nature from that of *the image. Like an unshapen ftone, alike deftitute of polish and of magnitude, the dispensation of Jesus was to be principally propagated by men of the plainest manners, unadorned by learning, and undignified by rank; and, at its first rise, it was to make a small and comparatively inconfiderable progrefs. The ftone cut out

6

་

' without hands,' fays Mat. Henry, represented the kingdom of Jefus Chrift.' It is faid to be cut out of 'the mountain without hands, for it fhould be neither raised, nor supported by human power or policy; no 'vifible hand should act in the fetting it up, but it should ⚫ be done invisibly by the Spirit of the Lord of Hofts: 'this was the Stone which the builders refufed, because it, was not cut out by their hands, but it is now become the Head Stone of the corner. Mat. Henry alfo obferves, that Chrift himself declares (Mat. xxi. 44), with a reference to this prophecy16, that on whomfoever this Stone fhall fall, it will grind him to powder. And to whom does the prophecy of Daniel relate? Unqueftionably to the Ten antichriftian Monarchies, which are eftablished, fomewhere or other, in the European quarter of the globe. Let tyrants read this affeveration of our Saviour, and tremble.

In v. 32 and 33 it is declared, that this image's head was of fine gold, his breaft and his arms of filver, his belly and his thighs of brafs, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Now the commentatorsprove at large, that the golden part of the monarchical

15 Def. of Chr. p. 97.

16 That our Saviour in his difcourfes had thefe prophecies of Daniel very frequently in view, Dr. Sykes has proved in his Eff. on the Chr. Rel.

P. 30, 79.

image represented the empire of the Affyrians, the filvet that of the Persians, the brass that of the Greeks, and the iron and the clay that of the princes of the Roman empire. It was on account of its great strength, as the prophet himself informs us, that the fourth empire was compared to the last of these metals. And the fourth kingdam fhall be ftrong as iron; forafmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and fubdueth all things; and as iron that breaketh all thefe, fhall it break in pieces and bruife1.

'Daniel's own interpretation is,' fays bp. Chandler, so plain, that no unbiassed person can easily mistake in 'the empires he prophefies of. He is exprefs in the 'number. There shall be four kingdoms; and he counts 'the Babylonian, then in being, for the first". Hiftory 'tells us, the Medo-Perfian broke, and fucceeded the Babylonian. The Greek empire came into the place ' of the Persian by conqueft, and is therefore the third. 'No historian ever confined the Greek empire to Alex'ander's perfon, or made a distinct empire of the four kingdoms, that arose upon his death. The Greek was ' destroyed in its two latest branches, that of the Seleu'cides and Ptolemies by the Roman, which is confequently the fourth kingdom, and answers in every ' refpect to its iron character")

Since it is faid in v. 34, that the ftone fmote the image; and in v. 35, that then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the filver, and the gold, broken to pieces TOGETHER", and became like the chaff of the fummer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was

16 V. 40.

17 V. 38.

18 Def. of Chr. p. 99. 19 In v. 45 it is again faid, that the fione, which was cut out of the mounzain without hands, brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the filver, and

the gold.