of God are manifest,-that the prophecies which are hid under symbols for a season, shall, after their kind, be as clear illustrations of the predicted events, as the literal prophecies expressly describe them, he can only solicit the reader, as a Christian duty, to put no faith in the interpretation, but freely to discredit and discard it in any instance, especially when new, if it be destitute of the simplicity and consistency of truth, and if, on comparing things spiritual with spiritual, and the things that were to be with the things that have been, it be not founded explicitly and exclusively on the authority of Scripture, and a full, regular, and entire accordance with historical facts. And he would crave the patient indulgence and perseverance of the reader, in traversing step by step the path of history, by the light of prophecy, from the sixth century before Christ, to the nineteenth of the Christian era.

The fate of the world is too serious a matter now to be looked on any longer as an amusing speculation. And it is not to pander to an idle curiosity, to foster a prurient fancy, or to raise any high imaginations higher than they are, that this treatise has been written. If it be opened for such a purpose, the reader cannot lay it too soon aside to lessen the disappointment. The Lord Jesus reproved those who sought after a sign from heaven; as well as charged them with hypocrisy and folly, for not discerning the signs that were to be seen. And if such indeed they be, the signs of the times, as seen by fulfilled predictions traced down to the present hour, are here set forth, that a timely warning may be taken, and that sight may never be lost of the great end for which all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, viz., that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. To be furnished unto all good works is

to be prepared for all events; whether the earth be convulsed with changes, or whether it be removed out of its place. And were the signs of the times to be looked at in this spirit of a holy faith, the labour of pointing to them would not be lost, if,―ere they pass away, and the tempest, which, though it be stayed for a season, together with all earthly appearances they indicate, burst fully and fearfully upon the world,—there be a single head, whether youthful or hoary, the less unprepared to meet it, by being found the more in the way of righteousness for having looked unto the judgments which have come upon the earth. Though all things at last shall be shaken, the things that cannot be shaken shall remain. He that doth the will of God abideth for ever.

CHAPTER II.

THE prophecies of Daniel contain a long and marked outline of the history of the world. No subject is more familiar to every one who is the least versant in ancient history, than the successive dominion that was exercised over great part of the earth by Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. Cyrus, Alexander the Great, and the Cæsars, are historical names universally known in boyhood. And no less familiar to every student of prophecy, so soon as they are even initiated in the subject, is the symbolical description of these very empires, as they are detailed in the Book of Daniel.

Under the double representation of a great image,

consisting of different parts, and of a succession of wild beasts (the common scriptural emblem of kingdoms,) varying in nature and form, the great successive empires were symbolized, and these symbols were also explained, in such a manner as to leave no room for any variety of opinion among commentators, and to render superfluous any reiterated explanation. The prophet gives an interpretation of both; so that the general significancy of the symbols, as denoting the kingdoms that in after ages were to arise in the earth, is happily neither left to conjecture nor exposed cavil.

to any

The golden head of the image was expressly declared to be the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, or that of Babylon. When the vision was revealed it existed in its prime. The God of heaven had given him a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwelt, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, God had given into his hand, and had made him ruler over them all. He was the head of gold. After him another kingdom was to arise, inferior to his, namely, the united kingdom of Persia and Media, represented by the breast and arms of silver. This kingdom was, in its order, to be succeeded by another third kingdom of brass, "the brass-clothed Greeks," which was to bear rule over all the earth, denoted, in the image, by the belly and the thighs of brass. Alexander, the subverter of the Persian empire, was an universal monarch, who ruled over the whole earth, till he mourned that he had no more kingdoms to subdue. The iron legs of the image represent the iron kingdom of Rome, which extended at once over the west and the east, and which was the fourth kingdom, strong as iron, forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things; and as iron, that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces andbruise.-And his feet and

12 THE FOUR GREAT SUCCESSIVE KINGDOMS.

toes, part of iron and part of clay, represent the kingdoms into which, subsequently still, the fourth kingdom was itself to be divided,-which were part of iron and part of clay, partly strong and partly broken, and remained unmixed or separated, not cleaving together, even as iron is not mixed with clay. Dan. ii. 31—43.

The great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before Nebuchadnezzar; and the form thereof was terrible. It represents only the order, extent, and glory, in a human view, of the kingdoms that were respectively and successively to arise upon the earth. The greatness of their power was designated; but no intimation was given of their duration. They were to arise and prosper and fall, according to the prefigured description and order. But all their glory was finally to vanish, and all their power to cease.

And bright and excellent and terrible as the image was, itrepresented only earthly kingdoms that would perish and decay. Not only was one to fall as another arose, but the image itself was smitten upon the feet that were of iron and clay, and broken in pieces by a stone that was cut without hands. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer thrashing-floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth, Dan. ii. 35.- In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all the kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever, Ibid. 44.-Such, in respect to power and permanency, shall be the kingdom of God, neither originating in, nor maintained by human influence or authority, in comparison with all worldly empires, which, when opposed to it, and finally smitten by it, shall be broken

DANIEL'S VISION OF THE FOUR KINGDOMS. 13

in pieces, and dissipated like dust, and pass away

like a vision.

The whole image, from the head of gold, representing Babylon in its glory, to the feet and toes, designating the several kingdoms which form the dismembered portions of the Roman empire, is historically before us. The kingdom of God has already been set up in the days of these kingdoms; the stone, finally destined to smite the feet of the image, and that shall become a great mountain and fill the whole earth, has been cut without hands; the children of that kingdom have not, in a carnal sense, to fight; the conflict will not be between man and man for the subversion of an earthly kingdom by another; but the kingdom shall be that of the God of heaven, and, by means best known to him, He shall set it up. The question is not now what empire shall next be established by man-but when and how the feet and toes, the last portion of the image of all earthly empires, shall be smitten. That is

not resolved by the present vision, but of the fact, in whatever manner interpreted, there cannot, according to the word of God, be a doubt. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. Dan. ii. 45.

The great outline being thus given, the next vision—the vision of a prophet, and not the dream of a king—is more full and definite, and not only introduces a new power, of another order, but specifies its origin and its character, and defines the period of its reign.

Daniel saw the future rise and fall of earthly kingdoms after another form than that of the great image, which