Now, with these observations premised, remembering that the instrument employed on these several occasions to interpret Daniel's visions, or to communicate new prophetical revelations of the same kind, was in all probability one and the same, the angel Gabriel; that Daniel's visions were only three in number; that the dates of these three, respectively, coincided with the first of Belshazzar, the third of Belshazzar, and the third of Cyrus; that there was no vision like either of the preceding, between the third of Belshazzar and the third of Cyrus, that is, between B. C. 559 and B. C. 534, an interval of twenty-five years: we shall not be surprised to find the renewal of these prophetical visions and disclosures, in the third of Cyrus, ushered in by a specific reference to the visions and their interpretations, which had preceded in the first or in the third of Belshazzar. In my own opinion, we have that reference from x. 10, to xi. 2: and of the two visions previous to the present-that in the first of Belshazzar, cap. vii. and that in the third, cap. viii-in my opinion also the reference is rather to the second, than to the first.

For first, I cannot help being of opinion, that when the Angel tells Daniel, at x. 12, that " from the first day that he set his heart to understand, and to chasten himself before his God, his words were heard, and he came for his words;" he means by this understanding, the understanding of his visions more particularly; to have been permitted to see which, without being enabled to comprehend them also, would have been no

ful, Counsellor, applied to Immanuel or God Incarnate, Isaiah ix. 6. I cannot help being of their opinion, who consider it to be applied to the same person here; and the same person who

is afterwards represented in the Apocalypse, under the figure of the Lamb, as opening the seals of the sealed book, and revealing the secrets of futurity to the end of time.

great privilege or distinction vouchsafed to the prophet himself; and to interpret or make known which intelligibly to his comprehension, was the actual object of the mission of the Angel to him. Now all this is literally applicable to the description at viii. 15, which represents Daniel as anxiously "seeking for the vision," that is, for the meaning of the vision, which he had just seen, and to viii. 16-19, which represents Gabriel as expressly commanded to "make him to understand the vision," and as "coming near to him" for that purpose accordingly. I cannot consider it so applicable to vii. 15, 16, also; though that may describe Daniel as actuated by an equal, if not by a stronger anxiety to know the meaning of what he had there too seen; for he is there described as asking for information of his own accord, and not as receiving it from a messenger sent on purpose to give it: and though the saint from whom he receives it might peradventure be Gabriel, yet he did not give it him in discharge of an actual commission to that effect.

Again, it seems to me a reasonable inference from x. 13, compared with x. 12, that if the Angel who came because of the words of Daniel, and who, when he came, was opposed by the Prince of Persia, and having so come, and being so opposed by the Prince of Persia, "had remained there with the kings of Persia;" it seems, I say, a just and reasonable inference from this description, that Daniel, and he, were both in Persia, when he first came because of his words; and wherever Daniel might subsequently be, that the Angel remained in Persia. Now it is a remarkable coincidence, that at the time of the vision, recorded viii. 2, &c. Daniel was either bodily, or (pro tanto, and so far as regarded the purposes of the vision) in spirit, in Persia; for Shusan, in the province of Elam, where he was, or

where he believed himself to be, was Susa, in the province of Persis; and the river Ulai, twice alluded to, 2 and 16, was a river that flowed by Susa, called Eulæus, and under that name described by Strabo, Pliny, Marcion of Heraclea*, and others. It is another coincidence that at the time of this vision in the third of Cyrus, Daniel was actually somewhere on the banks of the Hiddekel or Tigris, x. 1, 4; the same river which is again mentioned xii. 5, 6: and wheresoever this might be, it could not be any where in the neighbourhood of Susa, in particular; for Susa was not situated upon the Tigris, though the Tigris might skirt the province of Susiana, and fall into the Sinus Persicus. It is another coincidence, that the Angel having been left in Persia, as we collected by implication from viii. 2, 16 and as is plainly declared at x. 13: speaks at x. 20, of returning to Persia, after this vision, and its interpretation, which clearly implies that he had come thence in order to it. It is another coincidence that at xi. 1, which ought to have made a part of the continuation of the tenth chapter, he speaks of the first of Darius, and of something which he did in that year, viz. strengthen and confirm Darius; implying, as we may presume, that he had been engaged in doing something of the same kind in general, though possibly different in particular, for the time before that; which something is consistently explained, if we suppose him to mean that he was employed for the interval between the third of Belshazzar, and the first of Darius, in contending with the Prince of Persia; and in that year itself, in strengthening and confirming Darius; but both for the same purpose, viz. the seconding and maturing the counsels of God for the benefit of the

* Strabo, xv, 3. §. 4. 201: §. 22. 235 Pliny, vi. 31: Geo

graphi Minores, i. Susianæ Periplus, p. 18.

people of Daniel, and the people of Michael, their Prince the sole aider and abettor in these things, of Gabriel himself, his fellow-labourer and fellow-champion in the same behalf.

These reasons appear to me competent to prove that in the tenth chapter of Daniel there is a special reference to the circumstances of the second of his visions, and the last which he had had before that which is now recorded; a reference nothing extraordinary, after an intermission of twenty-five years in the series of these visions themselves. It is an historical chapter, then, throughout, and serves both as a resumption of the series of former prophetical disclosures, and as the introduction to a new revelation, which both continues and consummates the former. I cannot but think that our English version has not done justice to it in this respect; nor so preserved the language of the original throughout, as to shew this reference in it to the past: which yet might easily have been done. Under this impression, I shall take the liberty of laying before the reader a slightly altered version of so much of it at least as relates to the words of the angel Gabriel; beginning at verse 12.

12. And he said to me: Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou settedst (gavest) thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I came for (in) thy words.

13. And the Prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me one and twenty days; and behold Michael, one of the Princes, the first ones, came to help me: and I remained there with the kings of Persia.

14. And I am come to make thee understand that which shall come to pass unto thy people, in the end of the days for yet is it vision for days.......

20. And he said; Hast thou known wherefore I

am come unto thee? and now shall I return to war with the Prince of Persia: and I was going forth, and behold, the Prince of Javan came.

21. But I will declare to thee the thing which is noted in scripture of truth. And not one, that is strengthening himself with me, upon these things, except Michael your Prince.

xi. 1. And I, in the first year of Darius the Mede, was standing my standing to strengthen and to confirm him.

2. And now will I shew thee truth.

We observed before that some things in this address required to be understood parenthetically, which the Bible version had not distinguished accordingly. This is particularly the case with verses x. 20, 21. and xi. 1, 2. It seems to me that the sense of these passages would be best expressed, if we stated them as follows:

And he said; Hast thou known wherefore I am come unto thee? And I was going forth, and behold, the Prince of Javan came. But I will declare to thee

the thing which is noted in scripture of truth.

And now shall I return to war with the Prince of Persia: and not one, that is strengthening himself with me, upon these things, except Michael your Prince. And I, in the first year of Darius, was standing my standing to strengthen and to confirm him. And now will I shew thee truth.

The Angel had explained to Daniel the reason of his coming; partly in verses 11, 12, and partly in verse 14 and therefore might well ask him, in verse 20, Hast thou known wherefore I am come unto thee? a reason so important, as far as Daniel at least was concerned, and so personally interesting to him, that though the angel Gabriel's proper place was with the