which signify as many years, * according to the mode of interpretation already adopted in the explanation of the 1260 days of the Woman's residence in the wilderness, and of the forty-two months of the Beast's continuance. From this it follows that the vision of the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot, must continue 2300 years. If this be a correct view of the prophecy, it is, hence, evident that the commencement of the 2300 days cannot be so early as the time of the vision, as more than these years have already elapsed since the third year of the reign of Belshazzar. There is also considerable evidence in the supposition that the 2300 years did not commence before the time of Alexander the Great; for in the account of the ram with two horns there is nothing spoken respecting the daily sacrifice, or the transgression of desolation: but in the vision of the hegoat all these things are mentioned; it would, therefore, appear that the commencement of the 2300days cannot be before Alexander's reign: and as the first sight Daniel had of the he-goat was in its coming from the west to attack the ram with two horns, it is not improbable that the year in which Alexander invaded Persia was the commencement. This was about B. C. 334; * and consequently the 2300 years will end some time in the last half of the twentieth century. That the commencement of the 2300 years is to be dated in the time of Alexander may be gathered from the circumstance that Daniel saw the little horn springing up out of one of the four horns of the goat; from which it appears that the length of the vision of the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot, will comprise at least the time allotted to both the Greek and Othman empires. But as the prophecy is not yet fully accomplished, it would not be safe nor prudent to speak positively concerning the exact time of its entire fulfilment; 1, therefore, conclude with Bishop Newton, that "when these years shall be expired, then their end will clearly shew whence their beginning is to be dated."

The angel concludes his interpretation of the vision of the ram and he-goat with saying, "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." "The shutting up of the vision," as Bishop Newton very properly observes, "implies that it should not be understood of some time; and we cannot say that it was sufficiently understood so long as Antiochus Epiphanes was taken for the little horn. The vision being for many days must necessarily infer a longer term than the calamity under Antiochus of three years and a half, or even than the whole time from the first beginning of the vision in Cyrus to the cleansing of the sanctuary under Antiochus, which was not above 371 years. Such a vision could not well be called long to Daniel, who had seen so much longer before; * and especially as the time assigned for it is two thousand and three hundred days; which, since they cannot by any account be natural days, † must needs be prophetic days, or two

* See Dan. vii.

+ Bishop Newton has very ably refuted the general opinion that the 2300 days refer to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes as follows: "These two thousand and three hundred days can by no computation be accommodated to the times of Antiochus Epiphanes, even though the days be taken for natural days. Two thousand and three hundred days are six years and somewhat more than a quarter: but the profanation of the altar under Antiochus lasted but three years complete, according to the author of the first book of the Maccabees; i. 59. compared with iv. 52. and the desolation of the temple, and the taking away of thousand and three hundred years. Such a vision may properly enough' be said to be FOR MANY PAYS."

دو

the daily sacrifice by Apollonius, continued but three years and a half, according to Josephus. Mr. Mede proposeth a method to reconcile the difference, and saith that the time is 'not to be reckoned from the height of the calamity, when the daily sacrifice should be taken away, (from thence it is but three years,) but from the beginning of the transgression, which occasioned this desolation, and is described 1 Macc. i. 11, &c.' But Antiochus began to reign, according to the author of the first book of the Maccabees, i. 10. in the 137th year of the kingdom of the Greeks, or æra of the Seleucidæ; and in those days was the beginning of the transgression, which is described 1 Macc. i. 11, &c. that is ten or eleven years before the cleansing of the sanctuary, which was performed in the 148th year according to the same author, iv. 52. Or if we compute the time from Antiochus's first going up against Jerusalem, and spoiling the city and temple, these things were done, according to the same author, iv. 20. in the 143d year; so that this reckoning would fall short of the time assigned, as the other exceeds it."

CONCLUSION.

THE prophecies in the eighth chapter of Daniel, and in the 12th, 13th, and 17th chapters of the Revelation having now been considered at full length, and with very considerable detail, it is evident that they embrace the main events which have transpired in the Christian church from the giving of the prophecy to the present time. Of the state of religion in the Roman empire, that which has prevailed in the western or Latin church forms a very prominent part of the prophecies of the Apocalypse; and the predictions contained in the 13th and 17th chapters of this book are so clear and definite in their application to the Papists, that no person can well mistake their meaning. The very name of the Roman Catholic powers is given under the symbol of the number 666, which, by a most certain calculation, is proved to be no other than Η Λατίνη Βασιλεία, The Latin kingdom, a name by which the Roman Catholic monarchies were collectively known among the Greeks. No other name, independently of its number, will answer the prophetic description. The Latin kingdom is, therefore, without the least shadow of uncertainty, denominated The Beast with seven heads and ten