tated to sue for peace, and was obliged to submit to very dishonourable conditions; not to set foot in Europe, and to quit all Asia on this side of Mount, Taurus, to defray the whole charges of the war, &c., and to give twenty hostages for the performance of these articles; one of whom was his youngest son Antiochus, afterwards called Epiphanes. By these means, he and his successors became tributary to the Romans; so truly and effectually did they not only cause the reproach offered by him to cease; but retaliating upon him, by depriving him of part of his dominions, and imposing a disgraceful tribute upon him and his successors, they caused it to return upon himself.

Ver. 19. "Then he shall turn his face toward "the fort of his own land: but he shall stum"ble and fall, and not be found." Antiochus did not long survive this disgrace; and the latter end of his life and reign was as mean as the former part had been glorious. After the battle fought near the city of Magnesia, he fled away to Sardis, and from thence to Apamea, and the next day he came into Syria, to Antioch, "the fort of his own land." It was thence that he sent ambassadors to sue for peace; and within a few days after peace was granted, he sent part of the money demanded, and the hostages, to the Roman consul at Ephesus. He is

reported indeed to have borne his loss with great equanimity and temper, and said, he was much obliged to the Romans for easing him from a great deal of care and trouble, and for confining him within the bounds of a moderate empire. But whatever he might pretend, he lived in distress and poverty for a great king, being under the greatest difficulties how to raise the money which he had stipulated to pay to the Romans: and his necessity or his avarice prompted him at last to commit sacrilege. He marched into the eastern provinces, to collect there the arrears of tribute, and amass what treasure he could and attempting to plunder the rich temple of Jupiter Belus in Elymas, he was assaulted by the inhabitants of the country, was defeated, and himself and all his attendants were slain. Or, as otherwise reported, he was slain by some of his companions, whom in his liquor he had beaten at a banquet. However it was, his death was inglorious, he stumbled and fell, and was no more found.

We are now, in the course of the prophecy, arrived at that time when the Romans became the ruling power of the world. We find that the whole period hitherto described consists of only 347 years, reaching from A. C. 534, when the vision was seen, to A. C. 187, when Antiochus died; in which number of years is also

included an interval unnoticed of 134 years, being the period from the end of the reign of Xerxes, to the beginning of the reign of Alexander the Great: so that in fact the history of little more than 200 years has yet been given.

It is evident, therefore, that as a period of above 2300 years intervenes, between the commencement of the prophecy, and the appearance of the Infidel Power, we must expect to find that some other very considerable portion of time is unnoticed; for were the prophetic history of the remaining years to be carried on in one unbroken narrative, this prophecy would be made to exceed in length, beyond all proportion, those which relate to Popery and Mahometanism, and every other scriptural prophecy.

There is another reason, on account of which we might conclude that it would not be so continued; for a prophecy of this kind, which gives the lives of individuals of successive generations, in the form of narrative, is necessarily so minute and clear, that the interpretation of one part being discovered by its fulfilment, it would follow, were the narrative uninterrupted, that the particulars of the lives of all the other individuals subsequently spoken of in the prophecy, would be so clearly revealed, that the success or failure of every thing they under

took would be foreseen long before the event. This, however, could not be considered as suitable with what we find to be the real state of the world; where all the creatures of God, even his enemies, unknowingly contribute to bring about his designs; and it would also be inconsistent with that declaration of the Angel, that this prophecy, in its main import at least, should be sealed to the time of the end.

We have found, however, that the history has kitherto been continued in one unbroken narrative, with the single exception, that in passing from the Persian to the Grecian Empire, there is an omission of eight kings, and of a period of 134 years. We are now arrived at that point of time when we must necessarily pass from the Grecian to the Roman empire; here then, and here only, arguing from analogy, another omission must be expected to appear; and so accordingly we find it; for the prophecy passing over all the early part of the history of the Roman empire, carries us at once to that most important period, which is more particularly treated of than any other in all the scriptural prophecies; and to the history of that king, who is individually described by Esdras and Saint John, as well as by Daniel: for Louis XVI, king of France, is the STAR which it is foretold by Esdras should be smitten down to the earth

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by his own people (who were also to humble other kings, overthrow the Papal Babylon, and, by the tyrannical exercise of their power, to commence the destruction of the Roman empire *.) And he is also, as has already been shewn, described by Saint John under the symbol of the SUN, that at the end of the 1260 years was suddenly to become "black as sackcloth of hairt," or to be deprived of all splendour, power, influence, and regal dignity. The next verse of the eleventh chapter of Daniel, now under consideration, which describes this individual, is as follows:

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Ver. 20. "Then shall stand up in his estate a Raiser of Taxes, in the glory of the king"dom; but within few days he shall be de"stroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle." As in the symbolical prophecies the symbols are peculiarly appropriate to the objects they represent; so in this historical narrative we shall find a similar perfection in the terms applied to individuals, and in the manner in which they are designated. The principal event in the reign of Louis XVI, was the French Revolution, and it is this circumstance that gives its importance and propriety to the term here applied to him, "a Raiser of Taxes;" for it was

* II. Esdras, xv. 35-45; xi. 32,

† Rev, vi. 12.