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from the vision, by the connection which is seen be tween the 8th and 9th chapters of Daniel.

The vision of Dan. viii. is all explained to him, but the little horn, and lime, that is called 2300 days, and then, he is told, "the sanctuary shall be cleansed."

Now there is nothing in this chapter to indicate, before the fulfilment of a part of the vision, whether these three powers would arise and come to an end in 2300 days, or whether those days were a figure of years. Daniel, therefore, says he, was astonished at the vision, but none understood it." Why? his ignorance respecting the time, must be the only

reason.

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It appears however from the commencement of the 9th chapter, that fifteen years after this vision, he had supposed they were literal days, and had been then all fulfilled; for, he says, he understood by books-the 25th chapter of Jeremiah-that the seventy years that God would accomplish in the desolations of Jerusalem, were then accomplished. Jeremiah was told that at the end of the seventy years, God would punish the king of Babylon, and that nation. This was accomplished in that night when Belshazzar was slain, and Darius the Median took the kingdom, Dan. v. 30, 31. That being done, Daniel evidently thought the 2300 days were also expired, for at the end of those days the Sanctuary was to be cleansed, and we find that he immediately set his "face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer, and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes ;" and he prayed for what? why, for the very thing that God said he would do at the end of the

2300 days-the cleansing of the sanctuary. He said (verse 17) "Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy SANCTUARY that is desolate, for the Lord's sake."

God saw that he had misapplied the days, and therefore at the beginning of his supplication, an angel was sent swiftly, to set him right—even the angel Gabriel, that he says he had seen IN THE VISION, at the beginning. He informed Daniel, and talked with him, and told him that he had Now come forth to give him skill and UNDERSTANDING; and he says "I am come to SHOW thee, for thou art greatly beloved; therefore, understand the matter and consider THE VISION. The information that he then gave Daniel, could not but convince him that he had been laboring under a mistake as to the time, and that the vision could not be fulfilled in 2300 literal days; for said he "seventy sevens are cut off" (for so our best Hebrew scholars admit the original reads, and there is nothing from which to cut the seventy sevens, but the 2300 days) "upon thy people" &c. " and to anoint the Most Holy." All admit that these seventy sevens reach down to A. D. 33-the year that Christ was crucified; and as they were cut off from the 2300 days, they must be sevens of just such periods of time as those days symbolized. If therefore those sevens were sevens of years, as they are proved by the result, and are admitted to be, then the days from which they were cut off, were symbols of years, and must end in 1843.

After the angel had informed Daniel what was to

be done in the seventy weeks which were cut off, he then glances over the remaining days which were not cut off; and informs him that Jerusalem is to be destroyed, and that "for the overspreading of abominations, he " (the little horn) shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined," (see Jer. xxv. that Daniel had been considering) "shall be poured upon the desolate." In the 25th of Jeremiah, the chapter which Daniel was considering when he saw that the seventy years that his nation were to serve the kings of Babylon, had been fulfilled, is also a prediction that all nations, beginning with Jerusalem, and extending to "all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth," shall take the wine cup of God's fury at his hand, and drink of it, so that they should be drunken, "and fall to rise no more, because of the sword," which the Lord would send among them. The Lord adds, "For lo I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished; for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore prophecy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, he

will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried. " This prediction, Daniel is informed in the explanation of the vision, by Gabriel, is all to be fulfilled after the end of the seventy sevens, which were determined upon his people and the holy city, to finish the transgression and to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy." After that event, the Jews were first to drink of the wine cup of God's fury, for he is told "the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city, and the sanctuary," "and for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate," when all the nations on the earth will also be obliged to drink of the same cup of God's fury; and the slain of the Lord will be "from one end of the earth even unto the other end of it." As the SANCTUARY is to be cast down till that time, it cannot be previously cleansed; and therefore Daniel would naturally infer that the 2300 days, which were to reach to the cleansing of the sanctuary, were not literal days, and did not end with the seventy years, when

the king of Babylon was punished, but must be such period of time as the seventy sevens, which all admit to be years, and that they would extend to the time when the Lord would call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, and they should fall to rise no more; and that then the sanctuary would be cleansed.

It is always painful to differ in opinion from those we respect and love, but this evidence is so conclusive that I could not feel justified at the bar of God and my own conscience, and remain silent in reference to this great and all-important question.

We are not disposed to follow out the argument, as the sermon under review has not gone into the question, but has only just touched upon those points as was necessary in so limited a space. Mr. Daggett has not brought out these points to prove that Christ will not come shortly, but only to show, that "minute and confident predictions" are not warranted, and that the prophecy of Daniel does not "authorize us to believe that God intended we should know the precise time of the end,” p. 274. We ought certainly to be modest in all our opinions, we ought to believe nothing without good reason; nor should we reject any belief without good reason. Now we find these prophecies and periods in the book of Daniel: God, in placing them there, could only intend to convey information to the mind of man. If we come to the conclusion that the prophecies cannot be understood, then no purpose can be gained by such communications. If they cannot be understood until fulfilled, they do not foretell future

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