greatly incenfed prefently ordered all the magicians and wife-men of Babylon to be deftroyed; (ver. 12.) For this caufe the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wife-men of Babylon.

Daniel and his fellows would have been involved in the fame fate as the reft; but by their joint and earnest prayers to the God of heaven, the fecret was revealed unto Daniel in a night-vision; (ver. 19.) and Daniel bleffed the God of heaven. Daniel thus inftructed was defirous to fave the lives of the wife-men of Babylon, who were unjuftly condemned, as well as his own; and he went unto Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, whom the king had ordered to destroy the wife men of Babylon: he went (ver. 24.) and faid thus unto him, Deftroy not the wife-men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation. The captain of the guard immediately introduced him to the king, and faid (ver. 25.) I have found a man of the captives of Judah that will make known unto the king the interpretation. I have found a man said he, though Daniel had voluntarily offered himfelf; where Jerome remarks the manner of courtiers, qui quum bona nunciant, fua videri colunt, who when they relate good things, are willing to have them thought their own, and to have the merit afcribed to themfelves. But Daniel was far from afcribing any merit to himself, and faid very modeftly, that this fecret (ver. 27.) which the wife-men, aftrologers, magicians, and foothfayers could not how unto the king, was not revealed to him (ver. 30.) for any wifdom that he had more than others; but there is a God in heaven (ver. 28.) that revealeth fecrets and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar, what shall be in the latter days: or what shall come to pass hereafter, as it is ex preffed (ver. 29 & 45) twice afterwards. The impious king, as (4) Jerome juftly obferves, had a prophetic

dream, that the Saint interpreting it, God might be glorified, and the captives and thofe who ferved God in captivity might receive great confolation. We read the fame thing of Pharaoh, not that Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar deserved to fee fuch things, but that Jofeph and Daniel by interpreting them might be preferred to all others. And as St. Jerome farther obferves, that Nebuchadnezzar might admire the grace of divine infpiration. Daniel not only told him what he faw in his dream, but also what he thought within himself before his dream. (ver. 29.) As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind, upon thy bed, what should come to pafs hereafter and he that revealeth fecrets, maketh known unto thee what shall come to pass.

Nebuchadnezzar's dream was of a great image. This great image, (ver. 31.) whofe brightness was excellent, flood before him, and the form thereof was terrible. It appears from ancient coins and medals, that cities and people were often reprefented by figures of men and women. A great terrible human figure was therefore not an improper emblem of human power and dominion; and the various metals of which it was compofed, not unfitly typify the various kingdoms which thould arife. It confifted of four different metals, gold and filver and brass and iron mixed with clay; and these four metals according to Daniel's own interpretation, mean fo many kingdoms: and the order of their fucceffion is clearly denoted by the order of the parts, the (5) head and higher parts fignifying the earlier times, and the lower the parts, the later the times. From hence, (6) as Calvin conceives, the poets drew their fables of the four ages of the world, the golden, the filver, the brazen, and the iron age; by which declenfion in this place it is fignified, that the world always degenerates, and manners grow worse and worfe. But Hefiod, who lived about 200 years before Daniel, mentioned the four ages of the world; fo that

(5) Pars ftatue quò fuperior, eò priora, quò inferior, eò feriora tempora fignificat. Grot, in loc.

(6) Ex hoc Danielis loco haufeFunt poetæ fabulas fuas de quatuor

fæculis, aureo, argenteo, neo, ferreo; qua declinatione h. 1. fignificatur, mundum femper decidere, et mores prolabi in deterius. Calvin apud Poli Synopf.

this vifion was formed agreeably to the common received notion, and the common received notion was not firft propagated from hence. Whether this notion of the world's degenerating and growing worfe and worfe be true or not, thefe different kingdoms will naturally conftitute the different heads of our difcourfe. And we fhall follow the best commentators from Jofephus down to Sir Ifaac Newton, but we shall regard no commenta tor fo much as the truth of hiftory, the evidence of reafon, and the analogy of fcripture.

I. This image's head was of fine gold, (ver. 32.) which Daniel interprets (ver. 38.) Thou art this head of gold, thou, and thy family, and thy reprefentatives. The Babylonian therefore was the firft of these kingdoms; and it was fitly represented by the head of fine gold, on account of its great riches; and Babylon for the fame reafon was called by Ifaiah (XIV. 4.) the golden city. The Affyrian is ufually faid to be the firft of the four great empires; and the name may be allowed to pafs, if it be not taken too ftrictly. For the Affyrian empire properly fo called was diffolved before this time; the Babylonian was erected in its ftead; but the Babylonians are fometimes called Affyrians in the best claffic authors, Herodotus, Xenophon, Strabo, and others, as well as in the holy fcriptures. Daniel addreffeth Nebuchadnezzar, as if he was a very powerful king, and his empire very large and extenfive (ver. 37.) Thou, O king, art a king of kings. He perhaps might think, like fome of his predeceffors, that his conquefts were owing to his own fortitude and prudence ; - (Îf. X. 13.) By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am prudent; and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treafures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant But the prophet affures him that his fuccefs muft be primarily imputed to the God of heaven; (ver. 37 and 38.) For the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and ftrength, and glory: And wherefoever the children of men dwell, the beafts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all.

man.

All

All the ancient eaftern hiftories almoft are loft: but there are fome fragments even of heathen hiftorians yet preferved, which fpeak of this mighty conqueror and his extended empire. Berofus in Jofephus (7) faith, that he held in fubjection Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia, Arabia, and by his exploits furpaffed all the Chaldeans and Babylonians who reigned before him. Jofephus (8) fubjoins, that in the archives of the Phoenicians there are written things confonant to thofe which are faid by Berofus concerning this king of the Babylonians, that he fubdued Syria and all Phoenicia: With thefe likewife agrees Philoftratus in his hiftory, and Megafthenes in the fourth book of his Indian hiftory, throughout which he attempts to how, that the forementioned king of the Babylonians exceeded Hercules in fortitude and greatnefs of exploits; for he affirms that he fubdued the greatest part of Lybia and Spain. Strabo likewife from the fame Megafthenes (9) afferts, that this king among the Chaldæans was more celebrated than Hercules, and that he proceeded as far as to the pillars of Hercules, and led his army out of Spain into Thrace and Pontus.

(7) Κράλησαν δε φησε τον ΒαβυANTION, Alfure, Euplas, polviens, Αραβίας, παντας δὲ ὑπερβαλλόμενον ταις πράξεσι τις προ αυτό Χαλδαίων και Βαβυλωνιων Βεβασιλευκοίας. Di. cit in fuper quod Babylonius tenuerit Ægyptum, Syriam, Phoeniciam, Arabians; quodque priores Chaldæorum, et Babyloniorum reges univerfos rebus a fe præclare geftis fuperarit. Apud Jofeph. Contra Apion. Lib. 1. Sect. 19. p. 1342. Edit. Hudfon.

(8) EN 2015 apparois Twy o νικων σύμφωνα τοις υπο Βηρώστε λεγομένοις αναΓεΓραπίαι, περί τε των Βαβυλωνιων Βασιλεως, ότι και την Συρίαν και την Φοινίκην άπασαν εκεί μας καλες ρεψάλου περί τείων τον συμΦωνει και Φιλοςράλος εν ταις ίσος και Με ασθενης εν τη τεpicers, ταρτη των Ινδικών, δι' ἧς αποφαίνειν πειράται τον προειρεμένων Βασιλέα TWY Βαβυλώνιον, Ηρακλεως ανδρεια και μεγέθει πραξεων διενηνοχέναι. παλατρέψασθαι γαρ αυτόν φησί και Διενής την πολλην και θηριαν

But his empire, though of great extent, was yet of no long duration; for it (1) ended in his grandson Belshazzar, not 70 years after the delivery of this prophecy, nor above 23 years after the death of Nebuchadnezzar ; which may be the reafon of Daniel's fpeaking of him as the only king, thou art this head of gold, and after thee Jhall arife, &c. the reft being to be confidered as nothing; nor do we read of any thing good or great that was performed by them.

II. His breaft and his arms of filver, (ver. 32.) which Daniel interprets (ver. 39.) And after thee fhall arife another kingdom inferior to thee. It is very well known, that the kingdom which arofe after the Babylonian, was the Medo-Perfian. The two hands and the fhoulders, faith (2) Jofephus, fignify that the empire of the Babylonians fhould be diffolved by two kings. The two kings were the kings of the Medes and Perfians, whofe powers were united under Cyrus, who was fon of one of the kings and fon-in-law of the other, and who befieged and took Babylon, put an end to that empire, and on its ruins erected the Medo-Perfian, or the Perfian as it is more ufually called, the Perfians having foon gained the afcendency over the Medes. This empire is faid to be inferior as being less than the former, minus te as the Vulgar Latin tranflates it, becaufe neither Cyrus nor any of his fucceffors ever carried their arms into Africa or Spain fo far as Nebuchadnezzar is reported to have done or rather inferior as being worse than the former, deterius te as Caftalio tranflates it, for (3) Dr. Prideaux afferts, and I believe he may affert very truly, that the kings of Perfia were "the worst race of men that ever

governed an empire." This empire from its first eftablishment by Cyrus to the death of the laft king Darius Codomannus lafted not much above 200 years. Thus far all critics and commentators are agreed, that