and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the 23 covenant and after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully. So he shall come

up, and shall become strong with a small people. 24 He shall enter into the peaceable and fat places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches; yea, and he shall forecast his devices 25 against the strong holds 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 they shall forecast devices against 26 him. Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall ruin him, and his army shall be over27 flown; and many shall fall down slain. And both

these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper for yet the end shall be at the time 28 appointed. Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits and 29 return to his own land. At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south: but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter. 30 For the ships of Chittim shall come against him; therefore he shall be grieved, and return. And he shall have indignation against the holy cove

nant; so shall he do: he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy

covenant.

The Romans who become the Northern power by the conquest of Syria, B.C. 66, after destroying Jerusalem, and subverting the civil and ecclesiastical polity of the Jews by their armies, A.D. 70, complete the ruin of the Jewish institutions by ingrafting their own idolatry upon the simple religion of their Prince Jesus; so that within 490 years from the preaching of John the Baptist, the Pagan superstition forms so prominent a part of the rites and ceremonies of the Christo-Judaic Church, that only the name of Christian remains to it. Justinian the Greek Emperor subdues the Latin Empire, A.D. 553, from which the 1260 and 1290 years commence; removes the only check upon the papal authority, viz. the government of the Ostrogothic kings, and fully establishes the ChristoPagan Roman Pontiff, the Pope, in his autocracy. The Church is henceforward polluted with the worship of saints and angels, and desolated by the regal decemvirate of the Cæsars of the Romans; to whom and the Mahuzzim, the daily sacrifice of the heart is offered instead of to God and his Christ.

31 And armies from him shall stand up, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.

The Roman apostates are prevented from adopting the necessary reformation by reason of the honour and profit they derive from the splendid establishment accorded them by the Romano-Greek power; but the Waldenses and Albigenses, and other saints, who see through their priestcraft, multiply, notwithstanding the Pharaoh-like persecution they undergo.

32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant

shall he corrupt by flatteries; but the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.

The doctrines of the primitive gospel make rapid ground within the jurisdiction of the Pope, but the saints are thrown into dungeons, perish by sword and flame many days; of whom in the Netherlands alone, and in the time of Charles the Fifth, one hundred thousand fall by the hands of the executioner.

33 And they that understand among the people shall

instruct many; yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days.

The reformation by Luther, A.D. 1518, at length gives the Reformers a legal establishment in the Roman Empire by the treaty of Passau, 1552, and partly delivers them from the sword of Rome and the terrors of the Inquisition; but by the alliance of church and state the same corruptions occur to them as to the Papal churches.

34 Now when they shall fall they shall be holpen with a little help but many shall cleave to them with flatteries.

The true church prophesies in sackcloth to the last, that it may be purified of its intolerance and uncharitableness; of which 2000 are ejected even from the established Protestant church of England in the reign of Charles II. A.D. 1662, because they could not declare their assent and consent to every thing contained in the Book of Common Prayer.

35 And some of them of understanding shall fall, to

try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the last; because it is yet for a time appointed.

For those Romano-Greek Emperors of the Romans, who cast down the sanctuary, mighty by the Popes, Emperors, and regal decemvirate of the West, act according to their pleasure in the affairs of the church, setting their own authority above the word of God, and imposing their dogmas on the church by the power of the sword. And though indeed they may profess to know the true God, yet in works they disregard Him, as they do also all other gods, which their ancestors worshipped, as Jupiter, Venus or Astarte, and the like: which, as was generally the case, it might be presumed they would have honoured, when they rejected the true God. But no, rather than do either, they introduce a new and unheard-of superstition, the worship of those whom they know to be dead men, guardian-saints, and also angels; and the strenuous supporters of this novel idolatry, the Romish clergy, they reward with enormous grants of lands.

36 For that king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that 37 is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the god of his fathers, nor the Desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall mag38 nify himself above all. But for a god, guardians shall he honour instead, and for a god, whom his fathers knew not, shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and with pleasant 39 things. Thus shall he do: to the supporters of

the guardians, the people who shall strenuously uphold the god, he will multiply honour, and cause them to rule over many, and divide the land for their reward.

But at last the Saracens from the South or Arabia, at the same time that they despoil these heads of the Romano-Greek Empire of Syria and Egypt, A.D. 638, Africa, A.D. 709, and Spain, A.D. 713, attack them in their capital, Constantinople, A.D. 668-675, 716–718, and 781-805. The Ottoman Turks also from the North, becoming possessed of the Asiatic provinces, pass over into Europe, A.D. 1341, lay siege to Constantinople with an immense force, A.D. 1453, and take it. They become possessed also of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, A.D. 1517; though the countries bordering upon Palestine escape from under their yoke. The Cushites also, or the inhabitants of Arabia Felix, become subject to them under Soliman II. 1534, and the Libyans or Africans, 1545.

40 But at last the king of the south shall push at him; and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots and with horsemen, and with many ships; and shall enter into the countries, and overflow and pass 41 over and shall enter into the glorious land, and

many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. 42 Yea, he shall stretch forth his hand upon the countries; and the land of Egypt shall not But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and Cushites shall be at his steps.

43 escape.