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Writings carefully preferved and tranfmitted to Pofterity, is no more than reasonable to fuppofe. The Character, which the Prophet Ezekiel gives him, is his fingular Prevalence with God in Prayer; and, whoever looks into the Book, that goes under his Name, will find its Author verifying this Character, and f his Success in this particular exemplified in several Inftances. His Deliverance out of the Den of the Lions, and of his three Companions out of the fiery Furnace, Facts that are recorded 8 in the prefent Book, are expressly mentioned in the Prayer of old Eleazar, in the Days of Ptolemy Philopator, and by Mattathias, the Father of the Maccabees, fome Years before the Death of Antiochus; and their Examples, among other Scripture Inftances, are propofed as Motives to Confidence in God, and Conftancy in their Religion: So that the Jews, in those times, took this Book to be written by Daniel himself, and accordingly made use of it. Nay, long before those times, we find Nehemiah beginning his folemn Prayer to God in Daniel's own Words, k almoft with no Variation: O Lord, the great and

h

Ezek. xiv. 14, &c. Vid. Ch. ii. 6, 9. Vid. Ch. vi. & 3. 1 3 Maccab. vi. 6, 7. 1 Maccab. Compare Neh, i. 5. with Dan. ix. 4.

ii. 59.

and dreadful God, keeping the Covenant and Mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his Commandments; which is a plain Proof, not only that he look'd upon this Book of Daniel's as true and authentick, but that he efteemed his manner of praying not unworthy' his Imitation.

Jofephus, we know, was a Prieft, well Particu verfed in the Law, and in the facred larly that of FofeWritings, whofe Authority he profeffes plus to follow through all his Antiquities; and yet he seems to prefer Daniel above other Writers of that kind, and to give us a more particular Account of his, than of all the other Prophefies of the Old Teftament put together; for he affures us, 1"That Daniel, not only fore"told future Things, which was com"mon to him with other Prophets, but "that he fet the time likewife for their "coming to pafs; that his Book there"fore m was held among the Sacred "Writings, and " read in publick Af"femblies (which is the peculiar Privi"ledge of Canonical Books) in his Days, "because the Completion of the E

vents, he foretold, gained him Be"lief with all Mankind". Nay, if we will give Credit to this fame Josephus

120

'Antiq. xii. 11. ¤ Antiq. x. 11. Antiq. x.

And the

who li

ved in

our's

time.

phus (and why he should not, in a Café of this Nature, be credited, I cannot fee) this Book of Daniel's was looked upon as genuine and of divine Authority, even in the Days of Alexander the Great; otherwife the High-Priest had put a Banter upon him, when, at his coming to Jerufalem, and going into the Temple, he fhewed him a Paffage in it, wherein it was foretold, P under the Emblem of an He-Goat with one Horn, over-coming a Ram with two, that a certain King of Greece fhould conquer the Perfians; which Alexander took to himself, and perhaps, upon that very Account, might treat the Jewish Nation with more Clemency, than he did their Neighbours.

But however this be, 'tis certain, that People, in, and before the times of our bleffed Saviour, the Jews received the Book of our Savi- Daniel as authentick Scripture, without any Sufpicion to the contrary. For, whereas the Name of the Meffias and of the Son of God, which they applied to the Deliverer whom they expected; the Title of the Kingdom of God, and of Heaven, ufed for the State of Things under that Deliverer; his coming in the Clouds of Heaven, his taking all Judg

ment

Antiq. ix. 8. Dan. viii. 5, &c. Bishop Chandler's Vindication.

ment to himself, and the Refurrection of the Dead, purfuant upon that his coming, are Expreffions manifeftly borrowed from Daniel; thefe Expreffions were, at that time, the current Language of the Jews, infomuch that we find none of them furprized, when they heard the Baptift telling them, that the Kingdom of God was at Hand, or our Saviour calling himself fo frequently the Son of Man, and citing Daniel the Prophet by Name; which they certainly would have been, and thereupon made no small Clamour, had they perceived that he was obtruding a spurious Book upon them for Canonical: and therefore we may conclude, that, fince there confeffedly was fuch a Person as Daniel, whofe Character in the Prophet Ezekiel agrees with what we find in our prefent Daniel, fince this Book of his has the Testimony of Jofephus, (no incompetent Judge in a Matter of this Nature,) was commonly cited in the Times of our Saviour, was referred to before the Times of the Maccabees, was thought genuine in the Times of Alexander, and has received no fmall Confirmation from the Ufe and Application, Nehemiah makes of it; either we must suppose, that all thefe Perfons, in their different

Matt. iii. 2.

I

Towhich

fome

• Names

different Generations, were miftaken, or elfe we must allow, that our prefent Book of Daniel is no fictitious Piece of a later Date, but the work of the Prophet, whose Name it bears, and who lived in the Age, which the facred Records have affigned him.

He lived indeed in great Prosperity, his ufing and in the Capacity of a Prime Minifter, under fome of the Affyrian Modifferent narchs; and therefore, if, through IgGreek Hi- norance he has miftaken their Names, ftorians. or recorded any thing of them, that is

from the

not true, this, we allow, will have a fufpicious Afpect upon the Authority of his Book: But, when it is confidered, how common a thing it was for Princes of the Eaft, upon one Occafion or other, to multiply their Names, and, not only by Foreigners, but even by their own People to be called fometimes by one Name, and fometimes by another : How ufual it was for them to continue the Titles of Honour, which were conferred for those great Exploits, whereby the Dignity of their Family was originally raised, and to adopt them into the Number of their own: How cuftomary it was, upon their Acceffion to the Kingdom, for them to change their Names, and yet the firft and private Name be still retained by most other

People,