Before we proceed to the consideration of the prophecy of the Eastern little horn, in its detail, I would desire the special attention of the reader to this broad view of the subject: for the present subject is one, to which the enlarged and comprehensive grasp of Christian philosophy can alone render competent justice.

By the philosophical interpreter of prophecy, we may add, these two first principles will never be lost sight of: 1. that parallel predictions indicate and require strictly parallel fulfilments : and, 2. that the laws of prophecy, and the ways of Providence, so harmonize together, that predictions and events mutually verify one another. *

* In the interpretation of the prophetic Scriptures, much confusion might have been avoided, much curious theory and cumbrous erudition spared, had commentators only regulated their researches by this fundamental rule, that Prophecy and Providence are reciprocal interpreters : and that the relative moment and magnitude of events, estimated, not by contemporary standards, but by comparison with the whole annals of time, afford the best criterion, and only certain guarantee, of their having a place in prophecy. This remark particularly applies to those modern writers on prophecy, who, forsaking "the old ways," marked by the footsteps of our Medes and Newtons, can discern its fulfilments only in recent and passing events; events which, however important in their day and generation, may, for aught we can tell, be pregnant with no great results; and which must appear as nothing, when confronted with those amazing occurrences, which have filled the world with their consequences, through the lapse of eighteen hundred, or of twelve hundred years.

In the providential history of the world, prospective results are frequently in the inverse proportion of present appearances. How insignificant, for example, in the eyes of contemporaries, must have appeared the

The vision of Daniel, concerning the little horn of the he-goat, or the Macedonian empire, with its accompanying interpretation, has been variously applied, by writers on prophecy, to Antiochus Epiphanes, to the Romans, and to Mahomet or Mahometanism. Not to incumber or interrupt the main subject, I shall reserve the examination of this question for a separate discussion* ; and shall, at present, limit myself to pointing out, in the prophecy itself, the internal marks which seem to justify its application to Mahometanism.

While the eye is aided, the sense of this context may be cleared, by simply disposing the prophecy, and its interpretation, in parallel

first rise of the Ottoman power: how tremendous, on the contrary, the overwhelming inundation of the Moguls. In the counsels of Providence, however, the Ottoman was destined to become "the scourge and terror of Christendom :" while the Tartar deluge receded without injury to the church of Christ, and has left scarcely a trace behind.

* See Appendix, No. III.

Daniel viii.

(THE VISION.)

13. Then I heard one saint speaking; and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision,

concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?

14. And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

The theatre of this

Daniel xii.

(THE INTERPRETATION.) 6. And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? 7. And I heard the man - and he sware by him that liveth for ever, that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accom. plished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.

11. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand, two hundred, and ninety days.

12. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand, three hundred, and five and thirty days.

prophecy is the Macedonian empire; from one of the four dismembered kingdoms of which, the little horn of the vision was to spring up. In the vision, the prophet saw the first great horn of the he-goat, or the kingdom of Alexander, "broken: " an expres

sion plainly indicating, that the kingdom of Alexander was to have no further place as a kingdom, in the eye of prophecy. Not so the four notable horns, which arose in place of the first these, in the prophet's eye, appear to survive unbroken, their lives being prolonged, after their kingdoms had passed away *; "and out (not for, or in place,) of one of them, came forth a little horn." The four notable horns, therefore, or the four great subdivisions of the Macedonian empire, may rightly be considered, as retaining their prophetic existence, after their political independence had passed away; that is, as still continuing horns of the he-goat, until "out of one of them came forth a little horn."

From these preliminary remarks on the wording of the prophecy at large, we may proceed at once to examine the claim of Mahometanism to be the power here prefigured under the type of a little horn.

* Compare Dan. vii. 12. From the prolonged existence of three of the four beasts, in this prophecy, after "they had their dominion taken away," we may legitimately infer the parallel continuance of the four notable horns. An inference which wholly removes the supposed difficulty arising from the chronological chasm which intervenes, between the political downfal of the four kingdoms of the Macedonian empire, and the rise of Mahometanism.

The he-goat, Dan. viii. 8., is the same power with the leopard, Dan. vii. 6. (See Sir Isaac Newton on Daniel, p. 119.) But the four heads of the leopard certainly continued to exist: and, therefore, so also did the four horns of the he-goat.