shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days.' Although this detached passage of the prophecy is left more obscure than the rest, having received no explanation from Gabriel, we yet clearly perceive it intimates, that the sanctuary, to be cast down in accordance with another part of the prophecy,-shall, at some future period, be cleansed; and, for this, we have elsewhere the words of highest authority. Christ himself intimates that Jerusalem, after being destroyed by the Romans, in fulfilment of his own prediction, should not remain trodden down continually, but "until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."+ The Apostle Paul also informs us, "blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." The vision of the evenings and mornings points out a definite space of time that shall run, before the sanctuary shall be cleansed ; but, as it indicates no certain era, from which the time is to be reckoned onwards,— -as the era of the communication of the vision to Daniel himself, —or the era of the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, from which the time of the prophecy of the seventy weeks is to be reckoned,—or the era of the setting up of the abomination of desolation, from which that in the vision of the things noted in the scripture of truth is to be reckoned,-we have no means of

*Daniel viii, 26.

+ Luke xxi. 24.

Romans xi. 25-27.

ascertaining when it will expire.

The time predicted we know to be already long, in fulfilment of Gabriel's words, "that it should be for many days;" and it is not yet expired, for the Jewish sanctuary of Jerusalem is yet trodden under foot of the Gentiles, and the Jewish host is scattered abroad. All that we are entitled to pronounce in the matter, then, is, that, in fulfilment of this part of the prophecy, the sanctuary shall as certainly be cleansed, as, in fulfilment of another part, it was cast down; while of the precise time and manner, we have yet no means of judging.

We have been thus particular in referring to the nature and conditions of this part of the vision of the ram and he-goat, to shew that we do not include it, when we say that the three last prophecies of Daniel have all one and the same subject, and throw a mutual light upon each other. The prophecy of the 2300 evenings and mornings stands alone. It is carefully separated from the other parts of the vision in which it occurs, and is announced by the mouth of saints, heard by Daniel conversing with each other. While the other parts of the vision are explained, in detail, by Gabriel, it receives from him no explanation. It is only declared by him to be true; and Daniel is desired by him to shut it up, while every thing else in the vision is opened up. There is nothing like it in "the prophecy of the seventy weeks," or in "that of the things noted in the scripture of truth." Neither of these contains any reference whatever to any cleansing of the sanctuary.* The

* Although nothing, in the two visions of the seventy weeks and of the things noted in the scripture of truth, corresponds with the prediction of the 2300 days, yet the issue of a chronological period, marked in another

former concludes with an announcement of the destruction of the city and sanctuary,-the ceasing of the daily sacrifice, and the making of a complete desolation; the latter, with an announcement of a time of unexampled trouble, after Michael shall stand up for the children of Daniel's people,—of a complete scattering abroad of the power of the holy people,-and of the setting up the abomination of desolation, and taking away the daily sacrifice.

We proceed now to shew that, in the prophecy of things noted in the scripture of truth, there are certain clear and express terms, in the body of the prophecy itself, which limit and circumscribe the time within which all the events foretold in it were to take place. We shall find, from these terms, that all the events predicted in it were to have emerged, and become matters of history, at the era of the destruction of Jerusalem, and dispersion of the Jewish nation by the Romans. The terms are in the seventh verse of the twelfth chapter, in the answer of the man clothed in linen to the question, "How long shall be the

vision of Daniel, namely, that of the four monarchies, contained in his seventh chapter, may seem to correspond with its issue or conclusion. In the vision of the four monarchies, the little horn, who shall rise after the first ten horns "shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand nntil a time, times, and the dividing of time." (Daniel vii. 25.) At the expiry of this time, "the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High." (Verse 27.) This may seem to correspond with the cleansing of the sanctuary. We shall have occasion afterwards to make some remarks on this chronological period, in the vision of the four monarchies, when we shall shew that this part of it is not yet altogether fulfilled, and that we do not know the era from whence the time commences. With respect to the time, then, this prediction is yet shut up also.

G

end of these wonders?" In answering this, " he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever, that it shall be for a time, times, and a part; and when, in the finishing, the power of the holy people is scattered abroad, all these things shall be finished."

It is true, that Bishop Newton and others have taken the last clause of this answer to refer to the period when the dispersion of the Jews, which took place at the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, shall be ended ; and when they shall be again gathered from among the nations, according to the predictions of Christ and the Apostle Paul. Looking at the matter in this light, Bishop Newton says, "In reality it (this last prophecy of Daniel) comprehends many signal events after that time (the time of Antiochus Epiphanes) to the end of the world;"* and, as we have already briefly stated, he refers many of the details of the latter part of the prophecy to events long subsequent to the destruction of Jerusalem.

It must be allowed that, taking part of the answer of the man clothed in linen as it stands in our common translation, "when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people," where one of the verbs is rendered erroneously in a future subjunctive sense, the interpretation of it by Bishop Newton might be admitted; although even then with some remaining uncertainty on the point. But the verb translated in the future subjunctive sense, which signifies to finish, to complete, is in the infinitive,

*Dissert. xvi.

and does not at all admit of that sense, but is, as we have seen, agreeably to the usage of the language, to be rendered by our verbal noun in ing. The verb, rendered scatter, as little admits any future subjunctive sense. We have offered what, from various considerations, appears to be the correct sense of the clause, “when, in the finishing, the power of the holy people is scattered abroad." But this does not express the conclusion of any period of time, during which the scattering abroad shall have subsisted, but the time at which it is fully effected, the time at which a complete dispersion takes place, without any reference to any future time, when the dispersion may cease, by a gathering together of the dispersed. The words of the man clothed in linen then imply, that all things foretold in this prophecy would be fulfilled at the period when the power of the holy people was completely scattered abroad; and that that power would be completely scattered abroad had been already made known to Daniel in two former visions. In the vision of the ram and he-goat, he had been informed that a king of fierce countenance would destroy the mighty and the holy people; and, in that of the seventy weeks, that the people of the prince that would come would destroy the city Jerusalem, and the sanctuary, and effect a complete desolation. The fulfilment of these predictions in these two former visions, it has been well shewn by commentators, took place when the Roman armies, under Titus, took and demolished Jerusalem, and dispersed the Jews among all nations, where they have since remained scattered abroad. Is it not to be fully admitted, then, that the words of the man clothed in linen clearly intimate, that all the things foreshewn to Daniel in