A Brief Exposition of the Prophecy of Daniel

To the Thirty-Fifth Verse Inclusive

Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia, namely, Ahasuerus, Smerdis, and Darius; and the fourth, or Xerxes, shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia. And Alexander the Macedonian, a mighty King, shall stand up, ruling with great dominion and doing according to his will. And when he shall stand up, having suffered no defeat, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided into four horns or kingdoms toward the four winds of heaven: and their glory and power shall fall not to his posterity, nor according to the extent of his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for other rulers besides those of his family. And the King of the South shall be strong, and shall be one of his, Alexander the Great’s, princes or generals; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion, extending over Egypt, Libya, Cyrenaica, Arabia, Palestine, Cœle-Syria, and most of the maritime provinces of Asia Minor, with the island of Cyprus, and several others in the Ægean Sea, and even some cities of Greece, as Cicyon and Corinth. Such was the dominion of Ptolemy Soter, the first Macedonian King of Egypt.

Verse 6. And in the end of 52 years from B. C. 301, they, the Kings of Egypt, and of the Assyro-Macedonian Horn of the north, shall associate themselves together; for Berenice, the king’s daughter of the south, shall come, or be conducted, to Antiochus Theos, the king of the north, to make a marriage agreement; but she shall not retain the power of the arm of her father Ptolemy Philadelphus. Neither shall he her husband Antiochus stand; for Laodice his repudiated wife, whom he shall receive again when he divorces Berenice after her father’s death, shall cause him to be poisoned. Nor shall his arm, Berenice, stand; but she shall be given up to suffer death; and they, the Egyptians also, that brought her to Syria; and he, her son, whom she brought forth, and he that strengthened her in these times, shall die; and thus leave her to the mercy of Laodice, which will be treachery and death.

Verse 7. But out of a branch of her parent roots shall Ptolemy Euergetes her brother, stand up in his estate, or kingdom, and come p. Dan. 50 with an army, and shall enter into Antioch the capital, and the fortress of the King of the north, and shall deal, or make war, against them, even against Laodice and her son Seleucus, and shall prevail: and Euergetes shall also carry captives into Egypt their gods, with their princes, and with their precious vessels of silver and gold: and he shall continue to reign nine more years than the King of the north, who shall die a prisoner in Parthia five years before the King of Egpyt. So the king of the south shall come into his kingdom, and shall return into his own land, B. C. 244.

Verse 10. But his Seleucus Callinicus’ sons, Seleucus Ceraunus and Antiochus, shall be stirred up to war; and shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and one of them, even Antiochus the Great, shall certainly come and overflow through the passes of Libanus, and pass through into Galilee, and possess himself of all that part of the country which was formerly the inheritance of the tribes Reuben and Gad, and of the half tribe of Manasseh. Then, the season being too far advanced to prolong the campaign, shall he return to Ptolemais, where he shall put his forces into winter-quarters. But early in the spring, B. C. 217, Ptolemy Philopater shall march with a large army to Raphia, by which Antiochus shall be stirred up again to war, and defeated with great slaughter, so that he shall retreat to his fortress. Thus shall the king of the south be moved with choler, and come forth and fight with the king of the north; and the King of the north shall set forth a great multitude, even 72,000 foot and 6,000 horse; but the multitude shall be given into the hand of the King of Egypt.

And when he, the King of the south had taken away the multitude by a signal defeat of Antiochus, his heart shall be lifted up, for he will desire to enter the Most Holy Place of the temple. But while he was preparing to enter, he was stricken and carried off for dead. In his victory over Antiochus, he shall cast down ten thousands, even 10,000 foot and 300 horse. But not following up his advantages, Philopater shall not be strengthened by his victory. For Antiochus the king of the north shall return and shall set forth a multitude of troops greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain, that is nineteen years after the battle of Raphia, or B. C. 198, with a great army and with much riches, and shall subjugate all the Holy and Cœle-Syria.

Verse 14. And in those times when Ptolemy Epiphanes shall reign over Egypt, many shall stand up against the infant king of the south, even the kings of Macedonia, and of Syria, and Scopas, the general of his deceased father. But the Deputies of the Breakers of thy people Judah, O Daniel, that is, of the Romans, shall interfere to establish the vision. The Romans became the guardians and protectors of Epiphanes during his minority. They appointed three deputies, who were ordered to acquaint the Kings with their resolution, and to enjoin them not to infest the dominions of their royal pupil; for that otherwise they should be forced to declare war against them. The Deputy Emilius, one of the three, after delivering the message of the Roman Senate, proceeded to Alexandria, and settled everything p. Dan. 51 to as much advantage as the state of affairs in Egypt would then admit. In this way the Romans began to mix themselves up with the affairs of Egypt, Syria, and the Holy; and in a few years established themselves as lords paramount of the East, being thus constituted a Power in Asia, which is symbolized in this relation by the Little Horn on the Northern Horn of the Grecian Goat; and in the 36th verse of this chapter, styled, “THE KING.” But, though destined to be “the Breakers of Judah,” the assurance was given to Daniel, saying, they shall fall.

So the king of the north, being checked by the Roman Deputies, shall come into the Holy, and cast up a mount against Sidon, where he shall besiege the forces of the Egyptians; and he shall take Jerusalem, the city of munitions, from the castle of which he shall expel the Egyptian garrison; and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand Antiochus. But Antiochus who cometh against Ptolemy Epiphanes shall do according to his own will in Cœle-Syria and the Holy Land, and none shall stand before him: and he shall make a permanent stand in the land of glory which by his hand shall be consumed. He shall also set his face to enter into Greece with the strength of his whole kingdom, and Israelites with him. Thus shall he do to incorporate Greece with his dominion, by which the Romans who had recently proclaimed it free, would be stirred up against him. Therefore, to secure the neutrality of their Egyptian ally he shall give Cleopatra, the daughter of women, or princess royal, to Epiphanes to wife, corrupting her to betray him by resigning to him Cœle-Syria and Palestine as her dower; but on condition that he should receive half the revenue. Thus the land of Judah was given over as a bribe to bind Cleopatra to her father’s interests, that she might influence Epiphanes either to remain neutral, or to declare against the Romans, his protectors. But she shall cleave to her husband, and not stand, neither be for him, but shall join with her husband in congratulating the Roman Senate on the victory they had gained over her father at Thermopylæ.

After this shall Antiochus, at the earnest solicitation of the Ætolians, turn his face unto the isles of Greece, and shall take many: but a chieftain, (kotzin,) L. Scipio, the Roman Consul, shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease: without his own disgrace he, Scipio, shall cause it to turn upon Antiochus, by defeating him at Mount Sipyllus, and repulsing him from every part of Asia Minor. As the condition of peace, the Romans required him to pay 15,000 talents —500 down, 2,500 on the ratification of the treaty, and the rest in twelve years at 1000 talents per annum. These terms being acceded to, he shall turn his face toward the fortress, or capitol, of his own land, being much at a loss how to raise the tribute. While in the province of Elymais, he heard of a considerable treasure in the temple of Jupiter Belus. He accordingly broke into it in the dead of night, and carried off all its riches. But he shall stumble, and fall, and not be found; for the provincials, exasperated at the robbery, p. Dan. 52 rebelled against him, and murdered him and all his attendants, B. C. 187.

Verse. 20.—Then shall stand up in Antiochus’ estate or kingdom, his son Seleucus Philopater, one who causeth an exactor to pass over the glory of the kingdom; the business of his reign being to raise the tribute for the Romans. But within few days, that is twelve years, he shall be destroyed, neither in anger nor in battle, being poisoned by Heliodorus, his prime minister, having reigned long enough to pay the last installment to the Romans.

Verse 21.—And in his, Seleucus Philopater’s, place shall stand up Heliodorus, a vile person, being both a poisoner and usurper, to whom they, the authorities of the nation, shall not give the honor of the kingdom: but Antiochus Epiphanes shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries bestowed on the adherents of Heliodorus.

Verse 22. And with the arms of a flood, by which they shall be formidably invaded, shall they, the Egyptians, be overflown from before Antiochus, whom they excite to war, by demanding the restitution of Cœle-Syria and Palestine. And they shall be broken, or subdued; yea, also, Onias, the High Priest, or Prince of the Mosaic Covenant, shall be murdered, as it came to pass B. C. 172. And after the league made with Ptolemy Philometer, Antiochus shall work deceitfully after his second invasion of Egypt, B. C. 170; for he shall come up to Alexandria, and he shall become strong with a small people, or army. By his deceit, he shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province to which he reduces Egypt; and he, Antiochus, shall do that which his fathers, or predecessors on the throne, have not done, nor his fathers’ fathers; namely, he shall scatter among his followers the prey, and spoils, and riches: yea, he shall forecast his devices against the strongholds of Egypt, even for a time. And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army, but he shall not stand: for the Alexandrians seeing him in the hands of Antiochus, and lost to them, shall forecast devices against him, and place the crown of Egypt on the head of his brother, Euergetes II. Yea, they that feed of the portion of Philometer’s meat, even his courtiers, shall separate, or renounce, him; and his Antiochus’ army shall overflow Egypt; and many of the Egyptians shall fall down slain. And the hearts of both these kings shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table, but shall not prosper; for the end is still at the time appointed.

Then shall Antiochus return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against the Covenant of the Holy; and he shall do terrible things against Jerusalem, taking it by storm, butchering 80,000 men, makiug 40,000 prisoners, and causing a like number to be sold for slaves. And then shall he return to his own land, laden with the spoils of the Temple, amounting to 1,800 talants, or £270,000, about $1,315,000

At the time appointed, under pretence of restoring Philometer to the throne, he shall return and come towards the south, against Alexandria p. Dan. 53 to besiege it. But it, this fourth invasion, shall not be as the former, or as the latter. He raised the siege and marched towards Memphis, where he installed Philometer as king. As soon, however, as he had departed, Philometer came to an understanding with Euergetes, and they agreed to a joint reign over Egypt. This coming to the ears of Antiochus, he led a powerful army against Memphis, for the purpose of subduing the country. Having nearly accomplished his project, he marched against Alexandria, which was the only obstacle to his becoming absolute master of Egypt. But the Roman Embassy, sent at the request of the Ptolemies, met him about a mile from the city. They had left Rome with the utmost diligence. When they arrived at Delos they found a fleet of Macedonian, or Greek, ships, on board of which they embarked for Alexandria, where they arrived at the crisis of his approach: Popilius delivered to Antiochus the decree of the Senate, and demanded an immediate answer. Sorely against his will he agreed to obey its mandate, and draw off his army from Egypt. Thus, his invasion terminated very differently from the former and the latter; for the ships of Chittim shall come against him, and prevent him from incorporating Egypt into his Assyrian dominion of the north. Thus, the prophecy of Balaam, that “ships from the coast of Chittim shall come and afflict Asshur,” began to show itself; a more complete fulfillment remains for the latter days, when “Asshur shall perish forever.”

All Antiochus’ wrath was kindled at this interference; therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the Covenant of the Holy; for in his return-march, through Palestine, he detached 20,000 men under Apollonius with orders to destroy Jerusalem, B. C. 168. So shall he do; he shall even return and have intelligence with them that forsake the Covenant of the Holy.

Verse 31.—And arms shall stand on his part under Apollonius; and they, the Assyro-Macedonian troops, shall penetrate the temple, המקדש, ham-mikdosh, the stronghold, and they shall remove the Daily, and they shall place a statue of the Olympian Jupiter in the temple, and a strong garrison in the castle to command it, as the abomination making desolate its courts, and overawing the nation.

As soon as Antiochus Epiphanes was returned to Antioch, he published a decree by which all his subjects were required to conform to the religion of the State. This was aimed chiefly at the Jews, whose religion and nation he was resolved to extirpate. Atheneus, a man advanced in years, and extremely well versed in all the ceremonies of Grecian idolatry, was commissioned to carry the edict into effect in Judea and Samaria. As soon as he arrived at Jerusalem he began by suppressing the Daily, or evening-morning sacrifice, and all the observances of the Mosaic Law. He caused the sabbaths and other festivals to be profaned; forbade the circumcision of children; carried off and burned all copies of the Law and the Prophets wherever they could be found; and put to death whoever acted contrary to the decree of the king. To establish it the sooner in every part of p. Dan. 54 the nation, altars and chapels filled with idols were erected in every city, and sacred groves were planted. Officers were appointed over these, who caused the people generally to offer sacrifice in them every month, on the day of the month on which the king was born, who made them eat swine’s flesh and other unclean animals sacrificed there. The temple in Jerusalem was dedicated to Jupiter Olympius, whose statue was placed in it. Thus he did in his great indignation against the Covenant of the Holy Nation and its Land.

Verse 32. And such of the Jews as do wickedly against the covenant shall Antiochus, by flatteries, cause to dissemble. These not only “forsook the covenant of the holy,” but “had intelligence” with the king, and aided him all they could in the desolation with which he was overspreading their country. But the Maccabees and their adherents, people who do know their God, shall be strong, and do valiantly in war. And they, even Mattathias and his five sons, and others with them, that understand among the people, shall instruct and encourage many; yet they, of the Maccabean party, shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, evils incident to the war, for days, that is, seven years from the ninth of Antiochus, the Era of the Asmoneans, to the third of Demetrius Soter, B.C. 161.

Now, when they shall fall by these seven years’ calamities, they shall be holpen with a little help; for while Antiochus was amusing himself in celebrating games at Daphne, Judas Maccabæus had raised the standard of independence, and was helping his countrymen in Judea. He levied a small army, fortified the cities, rebuilt the fortresses, threw strong garrisons into them, and thereby awed the whole country. He defeated and killed Apollonius, and made great slaughter of the troops. With 3000 men he defeated Lysias with 47,000; and another army of 20,000 under Timotheus and Bacchides; and in the year before Christ 170, he gave Lysias a second defeat at Bethsura, by which he dispersed 65,000 of the enemy. The “little help” they received at this crisis was mingled with the supernatural, which will account for the extraordinary victories of the Jews over such powerful armies of Greeks with such unequal forces. In the battle with Timotheus near Jerusalem, it is related, that, “When it waxed strong there appeared in sight of the enemy, from heaven, five comely men upon horses with bridles of gold, and two of them led the Jews, and took Maccabæus betwixt them, and covered him on every side with their weapons, and kept him safe, but shot arrows and lightnings against the enemies; so that being confounded with blindness, and full of trouble, they were killed.”^a Also, in the battle against Lysias, near Bethsura, with his 80,000 Greeks, Maccabæus and the Jews prayed that Yahweh would send a good angel to deliver Israel. In answer to this, as they were marching from Jerusalem, “there appeared before them, on horseback, one in white clothing, shaking his armor of gold. Thus they marched forward in their armor, ready not only to fight with men, but with most p. Dan. 55 cruel beasts, and to pierce through walls of iron, having an helper from heaven: for Yahweh was merciful to them. And giving a charge upon their enemies like lions, they slew 11,000 footmen, and 1,600 horsemen, and put all the others to flight.”^a Thus were “they holpen with a little help” from heaven, and their struggle for independence crowned with success. Yet, in that struggle many did cleave to them with flatteries: trial was, therefore, necessary that the approved might be manifested to the Deity. Hence, it was determined that the party of the wise shall be weak, to try them, and to purify, and make them white FOR THE TIME OF THE END; for then their services will be needed to assist in overthrowing the Kingdom of Babylon, and in taking the kingdom under the whole heaven, as shown to Daniel in the first year of Belshatzar. The Era of the Asmoneans was not that end; for, having particularized the events of the era, the revelator added, it is still for a time appointed.

We have now arrived at the end of the thirty-fifth verse, the events of which bring us down to the conclusion of 430 years from the destruction of the city and temple in the 19th of Nebuchadnezzar. There is here a change of topic in the prophecy. No more is said about Judah’s warfare with the Greek Powers of the north or south. History, but not the prophecy, informs us that Judah became a kingdom, under princes of the Asmonean family, until it passed under the sceptre of Herod the Idumean, in the 39th year of whose reign JESUS CHRIST was born KING OF THE JEWS.” Not long after this event the sceptre of Judah was transferred to the Romans, whose emperor became the reigning king—Jno xix. 15. But the sceptre was only temporarily departed; and its return is earnestly desired and expected by all who believe the gospel of the Kingdom of God. When 26 years old, the things revealed by Gabriel,^b in relation to the seventieth heptade, began to be accomplished. During that seven years Judah’s heart was stirred up from its lowest depths. John the Baptist and Jesus, the greatest personages of the time, turned all minds to that great kingdom, which, in the hands of the Prince Royal and the Saints, is to rule over all. But even then, “the end was still for a time appointed.” About 1835 years have passed since the expiration of the seventieth heptade. Judah has been broken, but their “breakers” have not been “ground to powder” by the Stone. The time, however, fast approaches; and the nearer it arrives, the more important do all questions become bearing upon Judah’s land, and Zion, the city of their king.

About 95 years after the end of the 430 years previously indicated, the Asiatic kingdom of the north, which had so terribly afflicted Judah, was annexed by Pompey to the empire of the Romans, which, by the absorption of Greece, had now become Romano, or Latino-Greek; and in about thirty-five years after that, Egypt experienced the same fate. The kingdom of the Jews still survived. Two powers alone existed. The Four Horns of the Goat p. Dan. 56 had disappeared; and nothing of the symbol remained but that which answered to the Romano-Greek Asiatic Power, waxing exceeding great toward the east, and looking with a fierce and threatening countenance upon the little kingdom of Judea. What shall this power be called? Gabriel styled it “a Little Horn” budding forth out of one of the four horns of the Goat—“little” in its Asiatic beginning, but “exceeding great” when it had ceased to grow. In relation to the Holy Land it appeared as a power, first in the north. History therefore shows, that the horn of the north was the one of the four upon which Daniel beheld it. But it did not content itself with merely looking fiercely at Judah. It fought against Judea and conquered; and so firmly had it established itself in the Holy, that when Jesus was arraigned before it, Judah clamored for his death, crying, “We have no king but Cæsar!”

From the annexation of the Holy Land to the Roman empire by Pompey until the present time, it has been mainly subject to Rome and Constantinople—to Rome until the throne of the empire was transferred by Constantine the Great to the city called by his name. Because, therefore, the Holy Land and city have been in the main possessed by the Romano-Constantinopolitan power; and because that power crucified the King of the Jews, and destroyed the holy soon after the seventieth heptade; and because it is the same (though administered by a different race and generation, that is, the Moslem) that will stand up against heaven’s Commander in Chief in the approaching consummation—the power is represented by one and the same symbol, which is styled “the Little Horn” of the Grecian Goat, or nation.

But before dismissing the interpretation of the first section of the revelator’s discourse, I would add some further remarks concerning the

17. End of the Maccabean Heptade

This epoch is particularly interesting as the end of Ezekiel’s 430 years.^a The house of Israel and the house of Judah had been great transgressors of the Covenant of the Holy, from the foundation of the temple, in the fourth year of Solomon, to the sack of the city and temple in the 19th of Nebuchadnezzar.^b This was a period of 430 years, which was divided into two unequal periods; namely, one of forty years, from the foundation of the temple to the apostasy of Rehoboam and Judah; the other of three hundred and ninety from this apostasy to the destruction of the temple. The God of Israel determined that this long national transgression should be punished by as long a retribution. He, therefore, gave Israel “a sign” of what was coming upon them. This sign consisted in Ezekiel’s lying on his left side 390 days, and then upon his right for 40 days more. By p. Dan. 57 this was represented the prostrate condition of Judah and his companions from the other tribes, for 430 years. The 430 years of transgression had not quite ended when the sign was appointed, in the fifth of Jehoiachin’s captivity. The thing signified began to take effect in the sacking of Jerusalem. Judah then began to “eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles;” so that the 430 years would end B. C. 160. These four centuries of punishment were a very calamitous period of Judah’s history. They endured a captivity in Babylon for 70 years; for several years longer their times were “troublous;” they were vassals to the Ram dynasty of the kingdom of Babylon till it was superseded by Alexander the Great, the Notable Horn of the Macedonian Goat: afterwards, as we have seen, they were alternately subject to the Greek kings of Egypt and Assyria, and “the holy” became a field of battle for the hosts of these contending powers, who defiled the temple, and finally converted it into a house for the worship of the Olympian Jupiter. At length, and after all these terrible vicissitudes, and about seven years before the 430 years were about to expire, Judas Maccabeus, as the chieftain of a weak, but patriotic, intelligent, and devout, party of his countrymen, having a zeal for the Deity and his holy law, commenced a war against Antiochus Epiphanes, illustrious for his zeal for Gentilism, his warlike propensities, and his cruel and bitter hatred of the Jews. The war ended in the deliverance of Jerusalem from his desolating abomination, the purification of the temple from the insignia of idolatry, its rededication to Yahweh, and the conversion of the Commonwealth into an independent kingdom, under the Levitical family of Asmoneus, in which the sovereignty continued for 129 years, till it was transferred to Herod the Idumean by the Romans, B. C. 39.

18. “The King,” or Constantinopolitan Autocracy

The second section of the revelator’s discourse, which commences at the thirty-sixth verse and ends at the thirty-ninth inclusive, is a more amplified description of the Little Horn power than that previously given in the eighth chapter. The following is a corrected translation of the testimony:

“And out of one of them (one of the horns) came forth a Little Horn, which waxed exceeding great against the south, and against the east, and against the glory (of the land). And it waxed great above the host of the heavens; and of the host and the stars it cast down to the ground, and stamped upon them. And against the Commander of the host it magnified, and by it the evening-morning sacrifice was taken away, and the foundation of its holy place scattered. And a host was given against the daily sacrifice because of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it wrought and prospered.^a

p. Dan. 58 “And in the latter time of their kingdom, (the dominion of the four horns,) so as to cause the transgressors to fill up their measure, there shall stand up a king of fierce countenance, and understanding an intricate language. And his power shall be mighty, but not in his own virility; and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and work; and shall destroy multitudes, and the people of the holy ones. And through his policy, also, he shall cause falsehood to prosper by his power; and because of his heart he shall do proudly, and in prosperity he shall destroy many; he shall also stand up against the Commander of chieftains; but he shall be broken without help.^a

“And the king shall work according to his pleasure, and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself against every mighty one, and he shall utter marvellous things concerning the Mightiest of the mighty, and he shall cause to prosper till the indignation be accomplished; for that that is determined shall be done. But to the gods of his predecessors he shall give no heed, nor to the delight of women, nor to any god shall he attend; for he shall become great above all.

“But he shall do honor to a god of guardians in his realm; even to a god whom his predecessors knew not, shall he do honor with gold and silver, and with costly gems and precious things. Thus shall he do to the Bazaars of the Guardians pertaining to a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge (and) exalt (with) riches; and shall cause them to rule over many; and he shall divide the land for a price.”^b

Here is a power which is to “prosper till the indignation” against Judah “be accomplished.” The present condition of the Jews makes it evident to all that divine indignation against them still exists: hence the conclusion is necessary, that the Little Horn power is one of the powers that be.

The prophecy concerning “the King” in the eighth chapter is evidently descriptive of the Latino-Greek power in its pagan constitution, known in history as the destroyer of Jerusalem, and Judah “the people of the holy ones;” but with a hint also of its future ecclesiastical peculiarity, as appears from the testimony that “through his policy he shall cause falsehood to prosper by his power.” These few words are descriptive of the character, or nature of the power since Constantine the Great set up its throne in Constantinople to the present hour; and will be so preëminently, when its administration shall pass from the Sultan to the Autocrat of all the Russias. As the head of a confederacy of the adherents of the Greek and Latin churches, it will be his policy to cause their priesthoods to be respected as useful co-operators in the subjection of Europe to his will.

This ecclesiastical policy of the Constantinopolitan Autocracy is enlarged upon in the description of it set forth in the eleventh chapter, where it is more particularly regarded in its catholic constitution without taking into the account the division of the Babylonian superstition into Greek and Latin catholic churches. Whatever may p. Dan. 59 be the individual prejudices existing between individuals of the two schisms matters not; their ecclesiastics, whose spiritual authority is death-stricken by infidelity, on the principle of self-preservation will have to place themselves under the shadow of the Autocrat, as Greeks and Latins have already done in the present dominions of the Czar.

In studying the nature of the Little Horn power it must not be regarded as a purely civil and military, or as an ecclesiastical power per se. It is both; but in describing it two classes of administrators are personified, the one as “the king,” and the other, as “a god of guardians, whom his (pagan) predecessors knew not,” and therefore “a strange god.” The power is said to give “no heed to the delight of women.” But under its pagan constitution, the emperors who were Pontifices Maximi, or High Priests, as well as the civil and military chiefs of the state, and their subordinates in the priesthood, did give heed to the delight of women; that is, it was their pleasure to marry: but when this pagan constitution of the power was superseded by the Catholics as the consequence of the Constantinian revolution of the fourth century, the High Priesthood disappeared until its revival in the Bishop of Rome; so that he in Rome, and the Emperor in Constantinople, became the representative incarnations of the civil and spiritual elements of the Latino-Greek Babylonian power. The imperial head still gave heed to “the delight of women,” or, as some render it, “the desire of wives;” while the sacerdotal constituent of the power “forbids to marry, and commands to abstain from meats.”^a

Till the foundation of “the Holy Roman” dominion by Charlemagne and Leo, the bishop of Rome’s imperial associate was the emperor at Constantinople; but when he could no longer afford him protection against the Longbeards he formed an alliance with the French emperor A. D. 800, which has politically obtained in the imperial line to this day. He is, however, at present in a peculiar and exceptional situation, which cannot become permanent. A pope and two emperors of the west is representative of two antagonist policies acting upon the same ecclesiastical centre which must result in collision,^b and terminate in the suppression of one of the emperors, that the normal constitution of things may be restored.

But the time is not far off, when the Latin Bishop may have to seek again to the Constantinopolitan Imperial Autocracy for protection. Daniel’s prophecy of “the king” requires this; for he is to “cause to prosper till the indignation be accomplished.” The pope and one of the emperors sustained “by the power of the king” will place the Latino-Greek king “above all” the mighty who shall be his contemporaries in “the time of the end.”

p. Dan. 60 But, for this manifestation to appear, the Ottoman dynasty must of course be driven out of Europe. The occupation of the Dragon’s throne by a non-catholic royalty is clearly exceptional. The Ottoman has never, as a matter of fact, “magnified himself above all;” nor has he honored the Latin Bishop as a god in his dominion, or shown himself at all a gracious patron of his saints and their temples. The power causing falsehood, or False-Prophetism, to prosper, must hold Jerusalem at the crisis of the accomplishment of the indignation. By False-Prophetism, I mean, papalism. Hence, the Sultan must be ejected, that a dynasty patronizing a High Priest who forbids to marry, may come in. When, therefore, the Czar gets possession of Constantinople^a he will not be hostile to the pope. On the contrary, he will honor and acknowledge him, and be the enemy of the Holy Land.

As to the Ottoman, his existence in Constantinople is exceptional. His mission was to punish the Greek catholics, and the Latins also to some extent, for their excessive superstition and idolatory, with the loss of their sovereignty over “a third part” of the Latino-Greek Babylonian empire; and not to extinguish temporarily or finally the Little Horn Power. As far as the Greeks were concerned, their sovereignty was abolished A. D. 1453. The Greek dynasty of the power gave place to the Turkish, while the horn itself remained. The destruction of the horn is reserved for Michael the great Commander of Judah, after it shall have come under the sovereignty of the king of the north. This existence of the Ottoman régime in the Kingdom of Babylon, may be regarded by way of illustration, as a splint upon a broken leg. It remains therefore the support of the limb until the fractured ends shall be reunited by callus, after which it is removed as useless. The brass and iron eastern limb of Nebuchadnezzar’s Image received a fracture at the juncture of the two metals. The sovereignty of the kingdom of Babylon was no longer Greek and Latin; but, as at the present time, Latin and Ottoman. In “the time of the end,” however, when the Image stands complete upon its Feet of Iron and Clay, sound constitutional limbs are indispensable. The time is now about come, when the Ottoman splint may be removed, and the Latino-Greek Leg of the Image repaired by Russian callus be permitted to stand under a régime more in consonance with the catholic constitution of the kingdom of Babylon. The unbinding of the splint is the current mission of “the Powers.” It is obvious to all that the Turk is a useless excrescence upon society, occupying a position in the heaven of Churchdom for which he is not at all qualified by faith, civilization, or sympathy with contemporary despotisms. The Babylonians are all willing that he should be deposed from his sovereignty over the catholic populations; p. Dan. 61 but they are not willing that the Byzantine empire should be revived under the Autocrat of All the Russias. Their antagonisms, however, for the prevention of this may be the providential means to bring it about. Every step they take in the Eastern Question only makes this result more probable. The end, untoward enough for them, is decreed; and the Deity has blinded them, ahitophelizing all their counsel, that it may come to pass.

The Little Horn of the Goat is brother to the Little Horn of the fourth beast with its Eyes and Mouth. Their fraternity is consequent upon the Latin element entering into the constitution of them both. Old Rome is the throne of the Little Horn with Eyes and Mouth; while New Rome, or Constantinople, is the throne of the Little Horn of the Goat. The former power is the New Roman Empire of the West founded by Charlemagne, which has never been as yet united to the Greek element of the kingdom of Babylon. It is styled “the Holy Roman” dominion, because their Holinesses the Popes are its High Priests. Hence, it is the Latin kingdom of heaven, beyond the pale of which, they say, there is no salvation! The Little Horn of the Goat represents the undivided power of the Kingdom of Babylon from the annexation of the northern kingdom to Rome, B. C. 65: to the loss of Italy, and the West; and of the same power minus Italy and the West from the eighth century to the present time. But when the Autocrat gains Constantinople, and Russianizes Italy and the West; and having superseded the Ottoman régime in Asia, comes as Gog to invade the Holy Land and to besiege Jerusalem, the Little Horn of the Goat will again represent the power of the whole dominion briefly united under one chief, and he the proudest that ever exalted and magnified himself above all the rulers upon earth. In that near future the Little Horn of the Goat will be “exceeding great,” overshadowing all the sovereignties represented by the Two-Horned, and Ten-Horned, Beasts, and the Pseudoprophet of the Beast. But when it is “broken in pieces without help”—ובאפס יד ישבר uvĕëphes yahd yishsahvair—it appears no more as a symbol upon the prophetic page. Its mission in the Holy Land and against Judah ends with its own Pharaoh-like destruction; and the East delivered, future events reöpen in the West, where only a Beast, the False Prophet, and the Ten Horns, their Russian Constantinopolitan confederacy being dissolved, remain to be ground to powder, and destroyed by fire and sword.

The “policy” of the Little Horn king in his Constantinian successorship to A. D. 1453 was, and will hereafter be, characterized by zeal for the baptized paganism known in history as the catholic religion. Justinian of all its crowned heads affords the most striking illustration of Daniel’s description of it. His policy was truly ecclesiastical. “Never prince,” says Dupin, “did meddle so much with what concerns the affairs of the Church, nor make so many constitutions and laws upon this subject. He was persuaded that it was the duty of an emperor, and for the good of the state, to have a particular care of the Church, to defend its faith, to regulate external discipline, and p. Dan. 62 to employ the civil laws and the temporal power to preserve it in order and peace.”

“Justinian,” says Gibbon, “sympathized with his subjects in their superstitious reverence for living and departed saints; his Code, more especially his Novels, confirm and enlarge the privileges of the clergy; and in every dispute between the monk and the layman, the partial judge was inclined to pronounce, that truth and innocence are always on the side of the Church. In his public and private devotions, he was assiduous and exemplary; his prayers, vigils, and fasts, displayed the austere penance of a monk; his fancy was amused by the hope, or belief, of personal inspiration; he had secured the patronage of the Virgin, and St Michael, the archangel; and his recovery from a dangerous disease was ascribed to the miraculous succor of the holy martyrs, Cosmos and Damian. Among the titles of imperial greatness, the name of Pious was the most pleasing to his ear; to promote the temporal and spiritual interest of the Church was the serious business of his life; and the duty of father of his country was often sacrificed to that of Defender of the Faith. While the barbarians invaded the provinces, while the victorious legions marshaled under the banners of Belisarius and Narses, the successor of Trajan, unknown to the camp, was content to vanquish at the head of a synod.”

Enmity to Judah and the disciples of Christ, whom it designates as heretics and schismatics, has been characteristic of the kingdom of Babylon under all its administrations. This feature of it is indicated in the saying, that “In prosperity he shall destroy many.” The Constantinopolitan Little Horn as well as its imperial brother of the West, has abundantly vindicated its claim to this destructiveness. Justinian was no individual exception to this general character of the power. “His reign,” says Gibbon, “was an uniform, yet various scene of persecution; and he appears to have surpassed his indolent predecessors both in the contrivance of his laws, and rigor of their execution. The insufficient term of three months was assigned for the conversion or exile of all heretics; and if he still connived at the precarious stay, they were deprived, under his iron yoke, not only of the benefits of society, but of the common birthright of men and Christians.”

The high exaltation of the Constantinopolitan Autocracy in “the time of the end,” previously to its standing up to “be broken without help” by Judah’s Commander in Chief, is predicted in the words, “He shall become great above all.” Impious and cruel as Antiochus Epiphanes, and superstitious and fanatical as Justinian, with the arrogance, ambition, and profanity of the Latin Prophet in his palmiest days, this Sin-power administered by a Russian régime, will be wanting in none of the arrogance that has been predicated of Paul’s “MAN OF SIN and Son of Perdition, whose spiritual element opposeth and exalteth himself above every one called a god, or an object of regard; so that in the temple of the god he sits as a god exhibiting himself because he is a god.” The apostle then informs us of his destruction p. Dan. 63 by Michael the great commander, saying, “That Lawless One shall the Lord consume with the Spirit of his mouth, (represented in the Apocalypse by a sword going out of his mouth,) and bring to an end with the manifestation of his presence: the coming of whom is according to the working of the adversary in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish.”^a This is not exclusively applicable to the Latin False Prophet; but to the power comprehensive of the civil, military, and spiritual elements as described by Daniel, and designated by Isaiah as “The King for whom Tophet is ordained of old.”^b When the sceptre falls from the feeble hands of the Sultan, the world will behold in his Muscovite successor a potentate not surpassed in presumption and impiety by any of his predecessors, not excepting Pharaoh of the olden time.

19. A God of Guardians, or, the Latin Prophet of the West

“To a god of guardians in his estate he shall do honor.” The original is אלוה מעזים eloah mauzzim, “a god of guardians:” and styled in the same connection, אלוה נכר eloah naikhār, “a strange god:”—a god appearing from among the Jewish sect of the Nazarenes, and therefore a foreign god. Eloah is a passive participial noun, and applied to Christ in the phrase, משיח אלוה למנו māshiach eloah limmenu, “the Anointed One cursed for us;” that is, by the Law, which says: “Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree.” The connection in which eloah is found determines whether it should be taken in a good or in a bad sense. In the passage before us it is used in any other than in a good sense. The god is therefore an accursed one of guardians, who is honored in the realm of the Little Horn of the Goat. From this it will be seen that Christ and Antichrist are both denominated “eloah,” but on different grounds; Christ, because he became a curse for his people by hanging on a tree as an expiation for their sins; and Antichrist, he that sets himself up in Christ’s place, and finally against him, because of his blasphemy against the Mightiest of all.

Mahuzzim is the plural of מעוז mahōz, a fortress. It is used tropically in Psalm lx. 9: “Ephraim is the fortress of my head,” i. e. my helmet: and in Prov. x. 29, “a fortress to the upright is the way of God,” i. e. God’s truth: Protectors, defenders, guardians are as fortresses to those who trust in them; hence the phrase, “Yahweh is my fortress,” i. e., he is my guardian, etc.

But those who glory in the Eyes and Mouth of the Little Horn of the West, or in the God of Guardians, whom the Little Horn of the Goat delights to honor, (for the Eyes, Mouth, and god are one and the same power,) seek for refuge in other fortresses than Yahweh. Chrysostom, in his homily on the martyrs of Egypt, says: “The bodies of those saints fortify the city more effectually for us than impregnable p. Dan. 64 walls of adamant; and like towering rocks placed around on every side, repel not only the assaults of enemies that are visible, but the insidious stratagems also of invisible demons, and counteract and defeat every artifice of the devil as easily as a strong man overturns the toys of children.” The Greeks and Latins made the most of these wonderful martyrs. Believing in ghosts, or disembodied human spirits, they proclaimed the translation of their shades to heaven to act as mediators and intercessors with the Virgin and her Son; but kept their bones and dust in church-shrines to protect, defend, or guard them from all enemies, demons, and other evils to which the flesh is subject. Speaking of these times of intense superstition, Gibbon says: “The Christians of the seventh century had relapsed into a semblance of paganism; their public and private vows were addressed to the relics and images that disgraced the temples of the East; the throne of the Almighty was darkened by a cloud of martyrs, saints, and angels, the objects of popular veneration; and the Collyridian heretics, who flourished in the fruitful soil of Arabia, invested the Virgin Mary with the name and honors of a goddess.” It was to punish the East for these abominations, that the four prepared angels confining upon the Euphrates—the Seljuks, Zinghis Khan’s Moguls, Tamerlane’s hosts, and the Ottoman Turks—were loosed until they should come to be bounded by the Danube, which defines the political geography appointed to exist between themselves and “the Rest of the Men (the Holy Roman Empire) which were not killed”—whose sovereignty was not overthrown—“by these plagues,” inflicted by the four messenger, or angel, powers; “yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demonials (the imaginary ghosts of martyrs and saints) and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood; which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, (the especial vice of the priests who are forbidden to marry,) nor of their thefts.”^a

The bodies and ghosts of Romish saints and martyrs erected into guardian demons by “the church,” were a cheap fortification for a city, temple, or country, requiring no rations; and if “the eloquent Chrysostom” be credited, a more impregnable defence than a whole host of embodied warriors armed to the very teeth! What chance, then, has the unlucky Turk who has no other mahuzzim than the Dardanelles and fortresses of like construction? Fortunately for him, St. Patrick of Ireland, St. George of England, St. Andrew of Scotland, and St. Denis of France, it may be supposed were on his side in the Crimean war; but how these orthodox guardians could become impregnable fortresses for “the common hereditary foe and tyrannical bloodhound, the Turk,” as Czar Johann styled him in 1557, is not very easy to conceive, seeing that his battle-cry is “Down with the Giaours,” which must be particularly offensive to their brethren, the cloud of guardian demons on the other side.

p. Dan. 65 The chief or prince of the ecclesiastical element of the Kingdom of Babylon is god, or chief pontiff of these guardians. He is in the Little Horn of the Goat’s estate, which is coëxtensive with the territory of that dominion, when he stands up against the Sar of Israel. Justinian, whom I have indicated as the fittest representative of the civil element of the Power that has yet appeared in Constantinople in its dealings with the god, delighted to honor him. In a celebrated letter written by him to the Bishop of Rome, dated March, 533, and which thenceforth became part and parcel of the civil law, he is recognized, or “acknowledged,” as the legal head of all the churches of the eastern and western provinces of the empire. “We suffer not,” says the imperial writer, “anything that belongs to the state of the churches to be done without submitting it to your holiness, who art head of all the churches.” In this way “the king who does according to his will,” acknowledged this “strange god” as of supreme spiritual authority over all “the Bazaars of the Guardians,” which became his.

“To a god whom his predecessors knew not—to a strange god—shall he do honor.” Previous to the reign of Constantine this “god of guardians” was unacknowledged by the emperors and constituted authorities of the Little Horn Power. They are therefore said not to have known him. There was then no Bishop of Rome, though there was a principal bishop of the anti-Novatian or Catholic Church, called Christian, in Rome. Constantine made this chief of a corrupt majority chief magistrate of Rome for life, or Lord Mayor, in 313. His jurisdiction was confined to the city. But in 378, the emperor, who resided in Constantinople, extended his spiritual authority over all the churches of Italy and Gaul. His supremacy, however, was not limited to these. It continued to grow, until, in a hundred and fifty-five years after, Justinian could say to him, “thou ART head of ALL the churches,” that is, of the Kingdom of Babylon. But while this was the fact, the Roman Bishop bore no title that indicated it. He shared with the bishops of Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Constantinople, the honorary title of Patriarch, or Chief Father, These patriarchs had all equal power, and differed only in respect of rank and precedency; the Bishop of Rome being considered the first in rank, and this out of respect to the city in which he presided. A bishop of the name of Leo was the first that claimed jurisdiction over other churches on the ground of his being the successor of St. Peter; and when it was decreed at the Council of Chalcedon that the See of Constantinople should be second to that of Rome with respect to rank, assigning as a reason for it the preëminence of the city, this Patriarch was quite dissatisfied because his preëminence was not founded on something more stable than the diginity of the city, and wished to have it rest on the authority of Peter as the founder of the See.^a From this time this foundation for the preëminence of the See of Rome was urged with the greatest p. Dan. 66 confidence; and though the gronud on which it is assumed has slender claims to credibility, it does not appear to have been much disputed.

But the increasing pride, ambition, and vanity of the rising god were not long content to bear a title common to others whom he regarded as his inferiors in every respect. He desired a title expressive of the universality of his acknowledged headship over ecclesiastical affairs in the Kingdom of Babylon. But the Patriarch of Constantinople, scarcely less arrogant and ambitious than himself, in a council held at that city in 588, assumed the title of Universal Bishop, which was confirmed to him by the council. This aroused the indignation of the contemporary bishop of Rome, with whom it was a principle to endure no écclesiastical superior in the Little Horn dominion. He styled it, “an execrable, profane, and diabolical procedure.” In 590, Gregory I, usually termed “the Great” by ecclesiastics, was the representative of the strange-god power. He wrote a letter to Maurice, who occupied the Dragon-throne, in which he styles the title “a Blasphemous Name by which all honor is taken from all other priests, while it is foolishly arrogated by one.” He says, it was offered to the Bishops of Rome by the Council of Chalcedon, but refused; “why,” then says he, “should we refuse this title when it was offered, and another assume it without any offer at all?” He calls upon Maurice to humble and chastise the presumptuous patriarch, who, by taking upon himself the title would elevate himself above the emperor. The letter, however, does not appear to have produced any effect; for the pompous title continued to be borne by the patriarchs of Constantinople.

One of these whose name was Cynacus in a letter to Gregory subscribed himself “Universal Bishop.” Gregory was greatly displeased, and in consequence treated the bearers of it uncourteously. These complained to the emperor, who wrote to Gregory, and advised him to be more friendly in future, and not to insist so far on punctilios of style as to create a scandal about a title, and to fall out about a few syllables. Gregory replied to this, “that the innovation in the style did not consist much in the quantity and alphabet; but the bulk of the iniquity was weighty enough to sink and destroy all. And therefore I am bold to say,” says he, “that whoever adopts or affects the title of UNIVERSAL BISHOP has the pride and character of Antichrist, and is in some manner his forerunner in this haughty quality of elevating himself above the rest of his order. And indeed both the one and the other seem to split upon the same rock; for, as pride makes Antichrist strain his pretension up to GODHEAD, so whoever is ambitious to be called the only or Universal Prelate, arrogates to himself a distinguished superiority, and rises, as it were, upon the ruins of the rest.”

Which of the two should bear the title of Universal Bishop and transmit it to his successors, the Patriarch of Constantinople or the Patriarch of Rome, was the great politico-ecclesiastical question of the day. Had the dynasty of Maurice continued to occupy the p. Dan. 67 Dragon-throne of the Little Horn, it is probable that the Bishop of Rome would have been excluded from the Babylonian Godship. But it was ordained otherwise. Phocas, a centurion, headed a rebellion of the troops against the emperor, whom he murdered with all his family, and then settled himself on the throne. This was A. D. 602. Gregory joyfully saluted the fortune of the assassin, celebrated the deliverance of the people, and the fall of Maurice, whom he styled, the oppressor. In 604 Gregory died, and was succeeded by Boniface III., who without scruple adopted the proud title in dispute. He had importunately begged it of Phocas, with the privilege also of transmitting it to all his successors. The profligate emperor, to gratify the inordinate ambition of this court sycophant, deprived the patriarch of Constantinople of the title he had hitherto borne, and conferred it upon Boniface, A. D. 607, at the same time declaring the Church of Rome to be the head of all other churches. He was very liberal to the bazaars of the guardians pertaining to the god, commonly called “churches,” and allowed the Pantheon, a temple dedicated to All the Gods by his predecessors, to be turned into a bazaar or church devoted to All the Saints. Phocas was a diminutive, ill-favored monster in crime, and therefore the better qualified for a patron of the Roman bishop, who hailed him as the pious avenger of the church. One year after the promulgation of the decree, a pillar with a gilt statue on the top of it, was erected in Rome to the honor of Phocas, with the following inscription—Pro innumerabilibus Pietatis ejus beneficiis, et pro quiete procurata, ac conservata libertate. Thus was memorialized the fulfillment of the sure word of prophecy, saying, “To a god of guardians in his estate, even to a god whom his predecessors knew not, a strange god, shall he acknowledge and exalt with riches.” He strained up his pretensions to godhead, and as a god was recognized by the secular element of the Little Horn.

20. Guardians’ Bazaars or Temples Dedicated to Saints

“To a god of guardians shall he do honor with gold and silver, and with costly gems, and precious things. Thus shall he do to the Bazaars of the Guardians pertaining to the strange god.”—The honor done to the Pontiff of the Mysteries of the worship of Guardian Saints by the emperor, was expressed not in mere decrees, but in the more substantial forms of all kinds of riches. They were given to him in being bestowed upon the Bazaars dedicated to guardian saints, all of which throughout the empire were subordinated to him. Justinian’s is a remarkable illustration of imperial liberality to the Roman god in the bestowal of riches upon his “churches,” or bazaars of spiritual merchandise. Besides the magnificent temple of St. Sophia, which with 10,000 workmen he finished in five years, eleven months, and ten days from the first foundation, he dedicated twenty-five others in Constantinople and its suburbs to the honor of the p. Dan. 68 Virgin and the saints of the catholic calendar. Most of these edifices were decorated with marble and gold. His munificence was diffused over the Holy Land; throughout which monasteries for both sexes were amply diffused. Almost every saint in the calendar acquired the honor of a bazaar; and the liberality with which he honored them was boundless. No wood except the doors was admitted into the construction of St. Sophia. Paul Silentiarius, who beheld its primitive lustre, enumerates the colors, the shades, and the spots of ten or twelve marbles, jaspers, and porphyries, which nature had profusely diversified, and which were blended and contrasted as it were by a skillful painter. “The triumph of Antichrist was adorned with the last spoils of paganism, but the greater part of these costly stones was extracted from the quarries of Asia Minor, the isles and continent of Greece, Egypt, Africa, and Gaul. A variety of ornaments and figures was curiously expressed in Mosaic; and the images of Christ, of the Virgin, of the Saints and of Angels, were exposed to the superstition of the Greeks. According to the sanctity of each object, the precious metals were distributed in thin leaves, or in solid masses. The spectator was dazzled by the glittering aspect of the cupola; the sanctuary contained forty thousand pounds weight of silver; and the holy vases and vestments of the altar were of the purest gold, enriched with inestimable gems.” Such are the words of Gibbon—a literal, though inadvertent interpretation of the testimony with which this paragraph begins.

The Bazaars of the Guardians—מבצרי מעזּים, mivtzahrai mahuzzim. The noun mivtzahrai is derived from the root בצר, bahtzar, which, among other meanings, signifies, to enclose with a wall. As a noun, בּצר bĕtzĕr signifies ore of gold and silver, precious metals, store, or treasure so secured. Parkhurst has the following upon the word: “Derivative, Bazaar, a kind of covered market-place among the eastern nations, somewhat like our Exeter ’Change in London, but frequently much more extensive. Latin, or rather Punic, Byrsa, the Burse at Carthage:” equivalent to the French Bourse. In the English version the phrase is rendered, “the most strong holds,” with which those who compiled the marginal references and readings were not satisfied; and therefore they have tried to improve it by the the words “fortresses of munitions.” But if the reader can extract any sense out of these renderings, it is more than I can. Moses Stuart renders it “fenced strong holds;” and the strange god he styles, “the god of strong holds, that is, the god who has power over them.” He confesses, however, that verse 39 is “a difficult verse, which has occasioned many discrepant interpretations.” He refers to Lengerke, who, he remarks, “makes the fenced strong holds to mean temples, and the sentiment to be, that the tyrant will do for temples and their foreign gods the same thing that v. 38 says he will do in respect to the god of strong holds, i. e., he will bestow many liberal presents upon them.” As neither Lengerke nor Moses Stuart seem to see any thing in Daniel (the last chapter perhaps excepted) beyond the times of Antiochus, some hundred and sixty years, or so, p. Dan. 69 before the birth of Jesus Christ, their temples and “strong holds” have relation to “fortified strong holds of foreigners” attacked by Antiochus, and temples of idols. Lengerke has almost fallen upon the correct meaning. Had he referred the ’bĕtzar, heëmantively written mivtzahr, to the temples of guardian saints instead of to those of the pagan Greeks, he would have hit the mark exactly: but then how could he be so uncharitable as to turn the pious father of “Christendom” into a strange god, and all the ecclesiastical buildings of that dominion dedicated to saints and angels, into Bazaars, or places of traffic in spiritual merchandise and the bodies and souls of men!

The churches, chapels, and cathedrals, then, are the “most strong holds” of the superstition of the kingdom of Babylon. They are the houses of business dedicated by the prospering craft to “guardian spirits.” There are the images and pictures of the saints. They are Saints’ Houses in which are deposited their shrines; silver, gold, and ivory crucifixes; old bones, and various kinds of votive trumpery. They are literally “dens of thieves” without ever having been the houses of the Father—dens, where people are robbed of their money under false pretences. They are places where pews are sold by auction, the proudest sittings being knocked down to Mammon’s greatest favorites; places where fairs of vanity and deceit are held for “pious objects;” and where spiritual empirics pretend to “cure souls” in consideration of so much per annum. In view of these facts, the scriptural epithet bestowed upon the church buildings of the Apostasy is most appropriate. They are truly Bazaars of spiritual merchandise; and the prospering craft, “the great men of the earth” made rich by trading in their wares, are the Bazaar-Men who extort all kinds of goods from their customers by putting them in fear, and comforting them with counterfeits upon some bank in the world to come. They buy and sell under license from the Ecclesiastical Power, having received its mark upon their foreheads, or on their right hands. The reader may find their catalogue of merchandise in the eighteenth of Revelation, twelfth and thirteenth verses. Among the articles of barter for spirituals are tithes, bodies,^a and souls of men. But the trade of these soul-merchants is in any thing but a satisfactory state at present. Great numbers of their customers have discovered that the profit is all upon one side; nor are they backward in proclaiming that when a favorable opportunity presents they will break up the iniquitous concern, and make the cheats disgorge their unhallowed gains. This will be a sad day, a day of universal bankruptcy for the weeping and wailing p. Dan. 70 merchants of Babylon; “for no man buyeth their merchandise any more.” When a man’s trade is thus extinguished, nothing but ruin stares the shattered tradesman in the face. This is the fate that awaits the preachers of all the gospels of the Bazaars—gospels other than Paul preached, and which leave men in ignorance and disobedience; gospels which make them partisans of human crotchets and traditions; and the apologists of any thing sincerely professed as a substitute for the truth.

It is a remarkable feature in this prophecy that the Bazaars for priestly and clerical wares are distinguished from houses or shops of fair and honorable trade, by being styled Bazaars of Mahuzzim. When jewelers, bakers, hardwaremen, etc., open stores, they emblazon their signs with their own names; but when the clergy open houses for the exercise of their profession they impose upon the ignorant public the idea that they belong to the apostles and their brethren! They say that these ancient worthies are still alive, and in heaven, and greatly interested in human affairs, especially in church-buildings and things transacted there! Hence they put their statues in niches, and on parapets, and make them presents of the churches, as is clear from the names they bear; as, St. Sophia at Constantinople, St. Peter’s at Rome, Our Lady’s at Paris, St. Paul’s at London, and so forth. The imposition, however, consists in this, that while they give these buildings to the “departed spirits” they call by these names, they will not permit the gospel the apostles preached, and the institutions they ordained, to be announced within their walls; but perversely persist in excluding it, and in making it of none effect by their vain and foolish traditions. But the whole system is a cheat, and a very profitable one for the present to those who live by it. It is ecclesiastical craft caused to prosper by the civil power; and it will prosper until Israel’s Commander shall bring it to an end, and cause the truth by his energy to prevail at last.

Having illustrated somewhat in detail the terms of this remarkable prophecy, I proceed to remark that the Little Horn of the Goat and Daniel’s Fourth Beast are both representative of “The King of Fierce Countenance” at the time when the Commander-in-Chief shall break the former in pieces; and the Saints shall take away the dominion of the latter, to consume and destroy it as the fiery flame and wheels of burning fire issuing forth from the Ancient of Days. The Goat’s Little Horn and the god he honors, are equivalent to the Beast, the Little Horn with its Eyes and Mouth, and the Ten Horns, at the time of the breaking of the Goat-Horn. This identity of representation will not have been always so; for about the conclusion of the eighth century, the Goat-Horn and its god, only represented the Constantinopolitan Civil Power, whose jurisdiction had almost entirely ceased from Italy and the West; and the Roman Ecclesiastical, which, disappearing from the East, was recognized in the Popes by all the nations of the West, who, in the words of Gregory II. to the emperor, “revere as a god upon earth, the apostle St. Peter, whose image you threaten, to destroy;” and therefore, also, so regarded “Christ’s p. Dan. 71 Vicegerent,” who claimed to be Peter’s successor in the god-ship. The Ten Horns with crowns, and the Eleventh Horn, of the Beast, have never yet been subjugated to the Goat-Horn; though the territory on which they exist as powers has before their existence: not all the territory of the Eleventh Horn, however, but so much of it as it possesses within the frontiers of the old Roman dominion.

But, though the Little Horn of the Goat, or Constantinopolitan Power, has never been Lord of the European Continental Powers represented by the Eleven Horns, the time is at hand when it as Gog, will acquire that dominion. The feeble Ottoman must be ejected from the throne to make room for a more powerful and vigorous dynasty. This dynasty will be the last occupant of the throne of the Constantinopolitan Power for a thousand years. During its enthroned existence it will be all that is affirmed of the Little Horn of the Goat and of “the King that does according to its will,” in the eighth and eleventh chapters of Daniel. At this crisis, its power will be mighty, and it will destroy wonderfully, and prosper, and practise. As Lord of Europe and Asia the continental dynasties of the West will be gathered unto it. They will acknowledge its supremacy, and seek to it as the shadow and strength of their dominions. The Constantinopolitan Little Horn Power will then be in final fourth-beast manifestation, “dreadful, and terrible, and strong exceedingly; having great iron teeth; devouring and breaking in pieces, and stamping the residue WITH THE FEET of it; and having ten horns.” It is while the post-Ottoman dynasty occupies the throne that the “stamping the residue with the feet of” the beast is accomplished. The Feet represent a power, a stamping or conquering power, which subjects “the residue” to its dominion. The claws of these feet are of brass, while the feet themselves are part of iron and part of clay; for the feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s Image, and those of the Fourth Beast, are representative of the same power. The brass, the iron, and the clay, then, are representative of the national elements constituting the power. The Greeks, and the Latins, mixed up with the heterogeneous peoples under the guardianship of the Czar, moulded into form under his imperial sceptre, are the Feet-power that stamps the residue. The residue may be discerned in the names of countries and races hereafter to be confederated under Gog as their appointed “guard.”

While the Feet are occupied in stamping upon Judah and his allies in the glorious land, the Fourth Beast Power and Little Horn of the Goat are fitly represented by the Image Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. During the reign of the Clay-Dynasty the image stands upon its Feet for the first time; having incorporated in it, not only Nimroudia and Persia, but the nation of the Greeks, or brazen goats; and “the Holy Roman Empire” and its papal kingdoms, or iron leg and toes.

But, although the Greeks and Latins are all moulded into ONE IMPERIALITY held together by the Miry Clay which gives it form, the distinctiveness of civil and ecclesiastical organization is still preserved. The Two-Horned Beast, the False Prophet, and the Kings of p. Dan. 72 the Earth, are not extinct. The French Empire being at length probably transmuted into a Bourbon-kingdom, and the Russian dynasty being on the throne of Constantinople, it becomes the Sovereign element of the two-horned symbol. When the Little Horn of the Goat is broken to pieces on the mountains of Israel, the Constantinopolitan power collapses, being seen no more in the Holy Land for a thousand years. The Two-Horned Beast, the False Prophet, and the Kings of the Earth, are no longer capable of being represented by the Assyrian Image, or Little Horn of the Goat resting upon the territory of the Northern of the Four Horns; because there they will have lost dominion, their jurisdiction after the smiting of the Image by the Stone Power being restricted to Europe, whose Romano-papal constitution these symbols represent.