double Apostacy set its two feet upon the East and the West in the self-same year; and thus hath it ever since continued to trample upon all true religion. At the

end however of the 1260 years, the judgments of God shall surely go forth against it, and the long polluted spiritual sanctuary shall begin to be thoroughly cleansed.

2. The false religion of Mohammed, symbolized by the little horn of the he-goat, and stigmatized by Daniel as being a desolating transgression, was a medley of corrupted Christianity furnished by an apostate monk, of Talmudical Judaism contributed by a renegado Jew, and of Arabian superstition purified of its idolatry by Mohammed himself: whence it may justly be termed, as it is represented by St. John,* an apostacy from the pure faith of revelation. Mohammed taught, that the several prophets, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Christ, and himself, rose in just gradation above" each other; and that whosoever hates or rejects any one of them is to be numbered with the infidels." For the great author of our faith especially the Mussulmans were required to entertain a high and mysterious veneration. Verily," says he, "Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, is the apostle of God, and his Word which he conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit proceeding from him: honourable in this world, and in the world to come; and one of those who approach near to the presence of God."+ Agreeably to these declarations, Mohammed acknowledged the divine authority of the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and the Gospel; but required that the Koran should be received along with them, or rather should supersede them. Such was the nature of that desolating transgression, which set itself in direct opposition to the prince of the host, and which stood up against the prince of princes.

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3. When the Arabian pseudo prophet first retired to the cave of Hera to fabricate the Koran, this being the first overt act of his imposture, we may consider that

A fallen star, when taken in a spiritual sense, is the symbol of an apostate Christ- . ian pastor. Such a star was Sergius, who opened the bottomless pit, and let out the false religion of Mohammed. Rev. ix. 1.

+ Koran. C. 3 and C. 4.

Sale's Prelim. Discourse, p. 100-Decline and Fall, Vol. ix. p. 264-266.

transgression of desolation, which afterwards caused the daily sacrifice to cease, and which gave both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot, as being then first set up. This sanctuary is the spiritual sanctuary of the Christian church, not the literal sanctuary of the Jewish temple, as will sufficiently appear from the following considerations.

According as the temple and the sanctuary are to be taken in a literal or a figurative sense when mentioned in the prophecies of Daniel and St. John, all other things connected with them must be taken in a literal or figurative sense likewise. Thus, when it is said, that the Roman arms should stand up after Antiochus, that they should pollute the sanctuary of strength, that they should take away the daily sacrifice, and that they should set up the abomination of desolation: the temple, which they polluted, being the literal temple of Jerusalem, the daily sacrifice taken away by them will of course mean the literal daily sacrifice, and the abomination of desolation set up by them will signify the literal abomination of desolation which they set up when they worshipped their standards within the precincts of the sanctuary. On the other hand, when St. John is directed by an angel to "measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein; but to leave out, and not to measure the court without the temple, inasmuch as it is given to the gentiles, who are to tread the holy city under foot forty and two months," or 1260 natural years: the temple, here mentioned, being the spiritual temple of God, or the Church; its altar, its daily sacrifice, its outer court, the holy city in which it stands, the gentiles who are to tread it under foot 1260 years, and the witnesses who are to prophesy in sackcloth during precisely the same period of time, must all be taken in a figurative sense; that is to say, they must all be referred not to the temple of Jerusalem, but to the Church of Christ. Now we have seen, that Mohammedism, or that desolating transgression connected with the he-goat's little horn which was to take away the daily sacrifice and to pollute the sanctuary, was to flourish during the very same period as the treading under foot of the apocalyptic holy city by the gentiles;

that is to say, during the space of 1260 years. Since then the Mohammedan transgression, which was destined in the course of its desolating progress to take away the daily sacrifice and to pollute the sanctuary, is to flourish 1260 years and since the outer court of the apocalyptic temple is to be trodden under foot during the same period of 1260 years: it will necessarily follow, that the sunctuary mentioned by Daniel is the same as the temple mentioned by St. John; in other words, that it is the Church of Christ. This supposition is decidedly established by the particular era when the desolating transgression of Mohammedism first made its appearance. The era in question is the year in which the Roman beast revived, or the year of our Lord 606: at this era, the literal sanctuary of the Jewish temple was no longer in existence, having been utterly destroyed by the Romans several centuries before; consequently, the Jewish temple cannot be the sanctuary which the little horn was to pollute: but, if it be not the literal Jewish temple, it can be nothing else but the Christian spiritual temple. On these grounds then I conceive, that the pollution of the sanctuary by the eastern little horn is the establishment of the Mohammedan Apostacy upon the ruins of the Greek church; and that the treading under foot of the outer court of the temple by the gentiles is the subjugation of the Latin church by the Papal Apostacy. We shall find, that the declaration of prophecy concerning these matters precisely accords with the event. The Latin church was to be trampled under foot during the whole period of the 1260 years; but the sanctuary and the host of the Greek church were not to begin to be trodden under foot till some time after the rise of the Mohammedan little horn, in short not till after it had waxed exceeding great.

Compare Rev. xi. 2. with Dan. viii. 9-12. It might at first be thought indeed from Dan. xii. 11, that the daily sacrifice should begin to be taken away so soon as the abomination of desolation should be set up: but the preceding context of Dan. viii. 9-12. sufficiently shews, that those 1290 days are to be computed, not from the taking away of the daily sacrifice, but from the setting up of the desolating abomination, which in the course of its triumphant progress should take away that daily sacrifice and pollute the sanctuary. The Mohammedan little born was to wax exceeding great : and, in the course of its thus waxing great, not at its first rise, it was to cause the sanctuary to be polluted. Such is the order of events in the prophecy, and exactly such has been their order in the completion of it. At the time when the desolating

Accordingly the Latin church was subjugated by the papal horn in the year 606: but, although Mohammedism arose in the same year, it did not immediately begin to trample upon the Greek church, nor did it finally complete the pollution of the eastern sanctuary till the crescent triumphed over the cross in the very midst of Constantinople.

That

Here we cannot but observe the strict accuracy of expression used both by Daniel and St. John. desolating transgression, the religion of Mohammed is represented as putting an end to the daily sacrifice of spiritual praise and thanksgiving, and as treading the sanctuary itself under foot. But the tyrannical superstition of Popery is described as only treading under foot the outer court of the Gentiles and the holy city; being unable to injure "the temple or sanctuary of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein." Such accordingly has been the event. Although the skeleton of the Greek church has been suffered to exist, yet we hear not of any spiritual worshippers that it has produced since the establishment of Mohammedism. Its sanctuary has been trodden under foot, no less than its outer court; and its altar has ceased to send up any grateful incense to the God of heaven. Plunged in the same superstitious observances as the Latin church, though resolutely denying its supremacy, it has not, like the Latin church, retained within its bosom a hidden seed, a chosen generation, who, in the midst of its corruptions should still continue to worship in the spiritual temple, and to serve at the spiritual altar. In the western world we have never ceased to behold the witnesses prophesying in sackcloth; and we of this kingdom have especially to bless their pious labours for that pure and apostolical branch of the Church established among us: but in vain do we inquire for any reformation in the eastern world; no witnesses there have raised their warning voice; the sanctuary itself is polluted, and will continue in that deplorable state to the very end of the 1260 years. Still,

transgression was first set up; the pollution of the sanctuary was only in an incipient state: for the first only of that series of events had then taken place which afterwards led to its complete pollution.

at the expiration of twelve centuries, are the Greek churches overwhelmed with the same vanities of superstition and idolatry that pulled down the wrath of God upon them. They made no effort to purify themselves; whence they have, more or less, during the greatest part of that long period, been harassed and oppressed by the iron rod of Mohammedan despotism.

II. "The he-goat waxed very great: and, when he was strong, the great horn was broken and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land."

The angel interprets this passage as follows. "The rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn, that is between his eyes, is the first king. Now, that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power. And, at the end of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and teaching dark sentences, shall stand up."

1. The king, or kingdom, symbolized by the little horn, was to stand up at the end of the four Greek kingdoms, and out of one of them-We may here note the different

manner in which the two little horns are introduced. The papal horn was to arise among the ten horns of the· Roman beast, and to be contemporary with them the Mohammedan horn was to come out of the ruins of one of the four Greek horns of the Macedonian beast as they four had arisen out of the ruins of the one great imperial horn, and not to be contemporary with any of them, for it was to stand up at the end of their kingdom. Such accordingly was the event. When all the four Greek kingdoms had come to their end, the religion of Mohammed made its appearance, agreeably to the prediction, in the year 606, at the beginning of the 1260 years during which it was to flourish contemporaneously with the Papacy. Mecca was the first theatre of its actions but, in a very short period of time after its rise, it invaded Syria, and thus accomplished its prophetic