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and govern'd by the mere Will of a fingle perfon, it is plain the Fourth Monarchy was not to be fo. And how well this Character agrees with the Roman Empire, and the various Forms of its Government, I need not fay. But then the Kingdom of the Seleucide was certainly a Monarchy, like that of the three foregoing; and in no remarkable things, that I know of, at all differing from them; and therefore not in the least anfwering to this Character of the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel.

4. Not one of the Diftinguishing Characters of the Fourth Kingdom does intirely agree with that of the Seleucida. And certainly 'tis ftrange, if the Prophet fhould defcribe a Kingdom by a great many particular Characters, and not one of them appear in Hiftory to agree to it. The Kingdom of the Seleucida was far from being as ftrong as Iron, and from breaking to pieces and fubduing all things. Its feet, or lowest Ages, were no way made up part of Iron, and part of Clay; i. e. of two different conftituent Branches, the one ftrong and hardy, and the other weak and brittle: It had not at its conclufion ten Toes, or ten Horns, i. e. Ten diftinct Kingdoms: Nor is it poffible therefore that it fhould have fuch a little Horn as arofe among them, or after them, and which fhould deprefs three of them, and should have eyes and a mouth to speak very great things. Nor did any remarkable Duration of Antiochus's Profanation, include a time, times, and a divifion, or part, of time, i. e. juft three Chaldean Years and a Month, or 1110 Days. All which, from the two foregoing Prophecies of Daniel, appear to be the certain Characteristicks of this Fourth Kingdom, and, as we shall fee hereafter, do exactly agree with the Roman Empire. So that in truth, to speak freely, that extravagant Liberty of Fancy, and of Interpretation, which can fuit thefe Characters to the Kingdom of the Seleucida, might almost as well fuit them to that of England or France, or indeed to any Kingdom in the World.

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5. The Kingdom or Church of our Saviour Chrift was to be firft fet up, during the Continuance of thefe Four Kingdoms: But it was not fet up, till long after the Conclufion of the Kingdom of the Seleucide: 'Tis therefore impoffible that that Kingdom fhould be the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel.

In the Days of these Kings, fays the Prophet, fhall the God of Dan.ij. 44. Heaven fet up a Kingdom which (hall never be destroy'd. And again, the Stone which was cut out without hands, that is, our Ver. 45. Saviour and his Kingdom, brake in pieces and destroy'd all those Four Kingdoms. Now fure 'tis not poffible that the Stone fhould break the Kingdoms to pieces, unless it was cut out of the Mountain, and in being, during their continuance. And yet 'tis certain from Hiftory, that the Kingdom of the Seleucide was at an end a long time before our Saviour was born. Nay, Antiochus Epiphanes is by this Prophet, on another occafion, faid to be in the latter time of that Kingdom; who yet Dan. viij. 23. dy'd about 190 Years before the beginning of our Saviour's Miniftry; and fo about 160 Years before his Birth. The leaft of which Spaces of Time is yet greater than the whole Duration of that Kingdom of the Seleucida, at the time of his Profanation of the Temple; as the very Dates thereof in the Books of the Maccabees do abundantly teftify. So that 'tis perfectly vain, and wholly inconfiftent with this moft eminent Character that our Saviour's Kingdom was to be fet up in the days of thefe Four Kingdoms,] to make the Kingdom of the Seleucida, which ended fo long before, the Fourth of thofe Kingdoms.

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6. As the Fourth Kingdom was to be in being before the first fetting up of our Saviour's Kingdom, fo was it also to continue in being until his fecond coming to fet up his own Kingdom, which can no way agree to the Kingdom of the Seleucide, nor indeed to any but the Roman Empire. The Words are exprefs; I beheld, and the Little Horn (which grew Dan.vij. 21, 22. up among the Ten Horns of the Fourth Kingdom) made War with the Saints, and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of days came, and Judgment was given to the Saints of the most High; and the time came that the Saints poffefs'd the Kingdom. And more clearly elfewhere: I beheld then, because of the voice of the great ver. 11. words which the Horn fpake, I beheld even till the beast was flain, and his body deftroy'd, and given to the burning flame. And if we would know when this was that the Fourth Beaft or Kingdom, with its Little Horn, was to be utterly deftroy'd, the ver.. to words foregoing will put it paft doubt, that it was to be at the

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Day of Judgment. Nay, this Argument is fo decretory, that if we should allow the Coming of Chrift to be his first Coming in the Flesh, or his Coming to deftroy Jerufalem by Titus, yet is it abfolutely impoffible to belong to Antiochus Epiphanes, as others would have it. For this Little Horn continued till the +Mede, p.875881.& p.919. Coming of the Ancient of Days in the exprefs words of Daniel: 925. Dr. More Whereas Antiochus had been dead long before either of thofe Appendix to times, as we have already feen: and fo he cannot poffibly be that Dan. P. 245 Little Horn of the 4th Kingdom there fpoken of. If this be not &c. & Synopf. Prophet. 1. 2. Demonstration, I know not what is to be fo esteem'd in these c.13. Creffener matters. They who defire to fee this Propofition more largely Demonft. 1. 2. infifted on, and prov'd to be not only true in it felf, but alc.8. & Append. Dr. Allix de moft univerfally own'd to be fo both by the Jewish and ChriDuplici Meffiæ ftian Church in all Ages, need only confult the + Authors quoAdventu, p. 5 ted in the Margin, and they will find abundantly enough for c. Mr. Ste their fatisfaction; and thofe who will not take fo much pains phens of the Number of the as to confult them, may receive fome content by the fhort AtBeaft, chap. 5. teftations tranfcrib'd from fome of them, and hereunto anat large. Vid. nexed; it being a Point which the Papifts, tho' forely against & Petri Moli- their intereft, are forc'd to confent to as much, if not more næi Vatem.1.4. than the Proteftants themselves.

c. 19, &c.

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The Roman Empire to be the fourth Kingdom of Daniel, was believed by the Church of Ifrael, both before and in our Saviour's time; received by the Dif ciples of the Apofiles, and the whole Chriftian Church for the first 400 years, without any known contradiction. And, I confess, having fo goed ground in Scripture, it is with me tantum non Articulus Fidei, Little less than an Axticle of Faith. Mede p. 899,900.

Hæc tria Vos Judæi fatemini (1.) Deum Nebuchadnezari eam feriem regnorum exhibuiffe cum quibus Judæis aliquid negotii interceffit: Scilicet Chaldæorum, Medo-Perfarum, Græcorum, & Romanorum. Id veftri Scriptores à 1600 annis uno ore fatentur: nec, præter unum aut alium inter Christianos Interpretes scripturæ novi qui id in dubium revocet. &c. Allix De duplici Meffiæ Adventu. p. 5.

All agree that the fourth Kingdom, is the Kingdom of the Romans; as well the Ancients, and the Jewish Church, both before and after Chrift, and the Chriftian Church, for the first 400 years; as the Moderns. Calovius in c. 7.

Daniel.

That the fourth Beaft, is the Roman Empire is certain, and agreed upon by all that profefs the name of Chrif. Malvenda, Ibid.

The Beaft out of the Sea, in the Apocalypfe, does evidently allude to the fourth

Beaft

Beaft in the 7th Chapter of Daniel; and 'tis moft clear and evident, that that fourth Beaft of Daniel is the Figure of the Roman Empire in an Idolatrous State. Alcalar. in Apocalypf. Sect. 3. v. 1. Chap. 13.

The fourth Kingdom is the Kingdom of the Romans; and fo all take it to be. Maldonate in c. 7. Daniel.

This fourth Beaft, according as all interpret it to be, and as the matter it felf does fhew it, did reprefent the figure of the Roman Empire. Pererius in c. 7. Daniel.

Some would have the fourth Kingdom to be the Rule of Alexander's Succeffors: But they should have remembred that the Golden Head was the Babylonians, and the Second Kingdom was the Perfians, the Third then must be the Grecians, and the Fourth the Romans.But at prefent I cannot but admire, that there should be fome pious Men, who should take the fourth Beaft to be the Macedonian Kingdom. For they should have confider'd, that the third Beaft has four Heads, which does openly few the fourfold Division of the Greek Empire after Alexander's Death.- And then that the fourth Beaft

has Ten Horns.

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And that they were but Four, and not Ten that continued the Reign of the Greek Monarchy after Alexander. Theodoret. in c. 7. Daniel. Ergo dicamus quod omnes Ecclefiaftici Scriptores tradiderunt, in confummatione Mundi, quando regnum deftruendum eft Romanum, decem futuros Reges qui orbem Romanum inter fe dividant; & undecimum furrecturum effe Regem Parvulum, qui tres Reges de decem Regibus fuperaturus fit.c. Hieron. in Daniel 7.

Scholium 1. It may not be here improper to take notice of that almost unobferv d, but moft eminent Prophecy of the Four Monarchies, particularly of the laft, or the Roman Empire, which we find in the first half of the Book of Joel. Where under the notion of four fmall Beafts, or Animals, as in Daniel and the Revelation, under that of four Great ones, the four famous Monarchies are to be understood; and by the Fourth, (which here, as well as in Daniel and the Revelation is moft largely infifted on,) we are to understand the Roman Empire. And I cannot but think any other Interpretation to be groundlefs, and without any Foundation in Hiftory. Hear fome of the Words of that remarkable Book. The Word of Joel i. & ij. the Lord that came to Joel, the Son of Pethuel. Hear this, ye Old Men, and give ear all ye inhabitants of the Earth. the Earth. this been in your days, or even in the days of your Fathers? Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. That which the Palmerworm hath left, hath the Locust eaten; and that which the Locust

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Hath

hath

hath left, hath the Canker-worm eaten; and that which the Canker-worm hath left, hath the Catter-pillar eaten.For a Nation is come up upon my land strong, and without number; whose teeth are the teeth of a Lion, and he hath the check-teeth of a great Lion. He hath laid my Vine wafte, and barked my Fig-tree; he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion, and found an alarm in my boly Mountain: Let all the inhabitants of the Land tremble; for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at band. A day of darkness, and of gloominess; a day of clouds, and of thick darkness; as the morning Spread upon the Mountains; a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither fhall be any more after it, even to the years of generation and generation.

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A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a defolate Wilderness, yea, and nothing fhall efcape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and as horsemen, So fhall they run. Like the noife of chariots on the tops of mountains fall they leap, like the noife of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people fet in battel aray. Before their face the people fall be much pained, all faces shall gather blackness. They fball run like mighty men, they shall climb the wall like men of war, they fhall march every one on his ways, and they hall not break their ranks. The earth fhall quake before them, the heavens ball tremble, the fun and the moon shall be dark, and the ftars fhall withdraw their fhining; and the Lord fhall utter his voice before his army, for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great, and very terrible, and who can abide it? Therefore also now, faith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fafting, and with weeping, and with mourning and rent your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, flow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord your God? Blow the Trumpet in Zion, fanctify a Faft, call a folemn Assembly. Gather the people,

Sanctify

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