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dreams; and on my servants and on mine handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: and I will show wonders in heaven above and signs on the earth beneath; blood and fire and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Joel continues," for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant, whom the Lord shall call."

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This prophecy received an accomplishment on the day of Pentecost, as it has done also upon other 'occasions, but it is plain that it has not as yet been universally fulfilled. Finally, to conclude, I shall observe that, the overthrow of Jerusulem as concerning the law without any deliverance,-in common with the overthrow of Babylon itself,—all were fulfilments, all were for examples, and all were for figures and signs.

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CONCERNING THE FOUR GREAT KINGDOMS;

UNDER WHICH HEADS,

ALL MANKIND, FROM THE FLOOD, ARE SHOWN
TO BE COMPREHENDED.

DAN. ii. 44." And in the days of these kings* shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter."

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THIS is much the same as to say,-(and it should be observed, that the prophecy was towards the close of the Assyrian and Babylonian monarchy)—that it shall come to pass hereafter, in the days of the four

That kings here answer also to kingdoms, is pointed out in the same verse; beside, in the 39th verse it is written, "And after Thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all

great kingdoms, answering to the Assyrian and Babylonian, the Medes and Persians, the Macedonian and the Roman empires, that the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom, composed out of these four kingdoms, in other words, (out of all nations*,) which shall break in pieces and consume those four kingdoms.

Meantime, that the kingdom which is prepared from the beginning, has been, and is gathering in, or setting up, (to consider the partial accomplishment of prophecy,) according to that which is said to the thief on the cross, "This night shalt thou be with me in paradise," we cannot have the most distant doubt. Nevertheless when Daniel says, "that the great God makes known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter, in what he calls the days of the four great kingdoms; then, in accordance with what I perceive of all prophecy, I see at once the reference to ulterior things,-to "the days of the restitution of all things,"—when these kingdoms shall be revived and brought back again, and, as Esdras saith, "many things renewed

* This will be understood presently.

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therein:" for God is able to call back that which is past, as it is written of him, "who calleth the generations from the beginning;" at what time, as I understand the scriptures, the heel of the woman, or remnant of God's heritage, shall be reclaimed: for the kingdom of God cannot be said to be set up, until it is completed,—until the seed is wholly in the barn, or that the body is made up of all its members. It is on account of this member that the prophets utter lamentations in the person of the Daughter of Zion. "Woe is me! (saith Micah) for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desireth the first ripe fruit. The good man is perished out of the earth*: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net, &c. Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall I shall arise," &c.

Now, if we compare the above-mentioned chapter, and also the seventh† chapter of Daniel, with the

* See Isaiah lvii. 1, and xxvi. 20.

+ This chapter, it may be seen, contains the sum of Daniel's

thirteenth of Revelations, and with the eleventh and twelfth of 2nd Esdras, we may get at an understanding of the prophecy concerning the four great kingdoms, and perceive its application to things which must come to pass hereafter.

My explanation of the matter shall be as follows: The spiritual kingdom of Antichrist, answering, as I shall show, to" principalities and powers, and spiritual evil in high places," signified, because not yet openly revealed, by the little horn of Daniel, and in Esdras by the voice which came from the eagle's body, is represented by Daniel to be incorporated, as it were, in the fourth kingdom or beast, which is said to pluck up the three former kingdoms. By which we may understand to consider, in the first place, the partial accomplishment of prophecy, that this spirit of evil has swayed or borne rule, first, in the Assyrian or Chaldean empire, spreading the world from thence: secondly, in the Medes and Persian empires, &c.; thirdly, in the Grecian or Macedonian empire, &c.; and fourthly and lastly, in the Roman empire; where, by plucking up the three former kingdoms, it reigns, having its ramifi

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