Seven Drafts of 'Sect V Of the kingdoms represented in Daniel by the Ram & He-Goat & of the last horn of the Goat' (section 7.1i)
Sect V
Of the kingdoms represented in Daniel by the Ram & He-Goat. & of the last horn of the Goat.
The second & third Empires represented by the Bear & Leopard, are again represented by the Ram & He-Goat: but with this difference, that the Ram represents the kingdoms of the Medes & Persians from the beginning of the four Empires, & the Goat represents the kingdom of the Greeks to the end of them. And by this means under the type of the Ram & He-Goat the times of all the four Empires are again described. I lifted up mine eyes, saith Daniel, and saw, & behold there stood before the river [Vlai] a Ram which had two horns, & the two horns were high, but one was higher then the other, & the higher came up last. – And the Ram having two horns are the kings of Media & Persia; not two persons but two kingdoms, the kingdoms of Media & Persia; & the kingdom of Persia was the higher horn & camp up last. The kingdom of Persia rose up when Cyrus having newly conquered Babylon, revolted from Darius king of the Medes, & beat him at Pasargadæ & set up the Persians above the Medes. This was the horn which came up last. And the horn which came up first was the kingdom of the Medes from the time that Cyaxeres & Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Nineveh & shared the Empire of Assyria between them. The Empires of Media & Babylon were contemporary & rose up together by the fall of the Assyrian Empire, & the Prophesy of the four Beasts begins with one of them & that of the Ram & Goat with the other.
And as the Ram represents the kingdom of Media & Persia from the beginning of the four Empires, so the He-Goat represents the Empire of the Greeks to the end of those Monarchies. In the reign of his great horn & of his four horns which succeeded it, he represents this Empire during the reign of the Leopard: & in the reign of the little horn which stood up in the latter time of the kingdom of the four & at their fall became mighty but not by his own power, he represents it during the reign of the fourth Beast.
The rough Goat, saith Daniel, is the king of Greece, that is, the kingdom, & the great horn between his eyes is the first king; not the first Monarch but the first kingdom, that which lasted during the reign of Alexander the great & his two young sons, Alexander & Hercules. Now that horn being broken off; whereas four [horns] stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation [of the Greeks] but not in his [the first horns] power. The four horns are therefore four kingdoms, & by consequence the first great horn which they succeeded is the first great kingdom of the Greeks, that which was founded by Alexander the great An. Nabonass 441. And the four are those of Cassander, Lysimachus, Antigonus & Ptolomy, as above.
And out of one of the four came forth a little horn [a little new kingdom of the Greeks] which waxed exceeding great towards the south & towards the east & towards the pleasant land of Iudea. And therefore it arose in the northwest, & conquered eastward & southward. And such was the kingdom of Pergamus. It arose out of the kingdom of Thrace & Phrygia by the revolt of Philetærus who kept the Castel of Pergamus twenty years, & then left it to his brothers sons Eumenes and Attalus, the last of which An. Nabonass. 507 took from Callinicus king of Syria almost all Asia on this side mount Taurus, & thereupon was saluted king by his Army. And his power shall be mighty but not by his own power. His power shall be mighty by a bigger power then his own, a forreign power, a power which shall reign over him, the power which shall take away the dominion of the third Beast & reign over him, the power of the Romans. They inherited the kingdom of Pergamus by the last Will & Testament of its king Attalus the second, Ann. Nabonass. 615; & thenceforward the Senate of Rome was king of Pergamus by right of inheritance, & this kingdom by their power waxed exceeding great towards the south & toward the east & toward the pleasant land conquering all the nations southward, eastward, & southeastward which composed the body of the third Beast, & particularly Pontus Armenia, Syria, Egypt & Libya. It grew mighty towards the pleasant land, & it waxed great even to the host of heaven, & cast down some of the Host & of the starrs to the grownd & stamped upon them; conquering Iudea by the conduct of Pompey An. Nabonass. 685, & thenceforward trampling upon the Princes of the Iews. Yea he magnified himself even to the Prince of the Host, the Messiah, the King of the Iews whom he put to death An. Nabonass. 780. And by him the daily sacrifice was taken away & the place of his sanctuary was cast down: vizt in the warrs which the armies of the eastern nations under the power & conduct of the Romans made against Iudea when Nero & Vespatian were Emperours, An. Nabonass. 816, 817 & 818.
Chap. III
On the prophesy of the Ram & He Goat.
The four monarchies predicted by the vision of the image composed of four metalls, & again by that of the four beasts, are again prædicted by that of the Ram & he Goat, the two first being represented by the Ram, & the two last by the Goat. For the Ram had two horns both which were high, & the higher horn came up last: & this Ram having two horns is said to be the kings of Media & Persia, that is, the kingdoms. The higher horn which came up last is the kingdom of Persia, & this arose at the fall of the kingdom of Babylon, & the lower horn which came up first is the preceding kingdome of the Medes & this arose at the fall of the kingdome of Assyria, & is considered from the time of the date of this prophesy. By the fall of the Empire of the Assyrians, & the division thereof between the Medes & Babylonians, the two empires of the Medes & Babylonians rose up at once under Cyaxeres & Nebuchadnezzar so as to begin to be considered in these prophesies; & they are represented by the two wings of the Lion, the first of the four Beasts Dan. VII.4. And these continued standing together till that of the Medes by the conduct of Cyrus a Medo-Persian subdued that of the Babylonians, & then the kingdom of the Medes began to fall by the revolt of Cyrus and the Persians who subdued it. The Babylonians were conquered by the Medes Anno Nabonass. 209, & the Medes by the Persians within two years after. And the revolt of the Persians from the Medes began presently after the fall of Babylon, I think in the end of the same year, so as to leave no time worth considering for the reign of the Medes after the fall of Babylon. ☉ ☉ And therefore I date the reign of the first horn of the Ram from the third year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, the year in which this prophesy was given the first of the four Beasts still reigning. I place the revolt of the Persians from the Medes in the end of the year in which Babylon was conquered by the Medes because Daniel continued only till the first year of Cyrus Dan. I.21, & yet received the prophesy of the scripture of truth in the third year of Cyrus Dan. X.1; the reign of Cyrus being dated in the first case from his conquest of the Medes, & in the second case from his revolting from the Medes & beginning to reign over the Persians.
The he Goat had a notable horn between his eyes, & smote the Ram & brake his two horns, & waxed very great: & when he was strong the great horn was broken off & for it came up four notable ones towards the four winds of heaven. And these horns represent the same kingdoms with the four wings of Daniels third Beast And this Goat is called the king of Iavan, that is the king of the people descended from Iavan the son of Iaphet, & by consequence from Elisha, Tarshish, Kittim, & Dodanim the sons of Iavan, by whom the isles of the gentiles were divided. Gen. X.5. or from some of them. The king of Iavan is usually interpreted to signify the king of Greece, & in this sense the Goat in the reign of his first horn is usually taken for the monarch of the Greeks during the reign of Alexander the great who conquered the Persians & Medes & the reign of his brother Aridæus & two sons. After their reign the governours of provinces put crowns on their own heads, & thereby divided the monarchy into smaller kingdoms, the four chief of which were the kingdoms of Macedon, Egypt, Syria, & Thrace. And these are represented by the four horns. // And in the latter time of their kingdom when the transgressors were come to the full, that is, in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes when the transgressors against the holy covenant were arrived at the height, & the four horns were ready to begin to fall; after one of them came forth a little horn which waxed exceeding great. For then the kingdom of Macedon, the principal kingdom of the four, was conquered by the Romans, & after it by that conquest came forth a new kingdom which waxed exceeding great & may fitly be represented by a new horn of the Goat. For the Romans were descended from the Greeks & thence Italy was called magna Græcia, & their ships which immediately after their conquest of Macedon they sent against Antiochus Epiphanes in Egypt, are called the ships of Kittim, Dan. 11.30, & Kittim was the son of Iavan: & therefore the Romans may be included in the body of the Goat, & be properly represented by his last horn. And thus the Goat will represent the two last of the four great Empires // This horn was at first but a little one comparitively to what it became afterward. It waxed exceeding great towards the south & towards the east & towards the pleasant land, the land of Iudea, by conquering Afric, Asia minor, Armenia, Syria, Iudea & Egypt. It waxed great even to the host of heaven, (the people of the Iews,) & it cast down some of the host & of the starrs to the grownd & it stamped upon them. Yea he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, the Prince of princes Iesus Christ, & by him the daily sacrifice was taken away & the place of his sanctuary (the temple) was cast down, vizt in the war which he made upon the Iews in the reign of Nero & Vespatian. And in the reign of the emperor Hadrian he built a temple to Iupiter Olympius on mount Sion where the temple of the Iews had stood, & thereby provoked the Iews to rebell under Barchochab & made war against the Iews with very great slaughter, & banished them from Iudea upon pain of death & to deterr them further from returning placed also the statue of a hog on one of the gates of the city. And the vision concerning the daily sacrifice taken away, & the transgression of desolation set up to give both the sanctuary & the host to be troden under foot, was to continue unto two thousand & three hundred (prophetic) days; & then the sanctuary was to be cleansed. And this was to be at the time of the end & at the last end of the indignation, that is, at the last end of Gods indignation against the Iews, or at the last end of the long captivity & dispersion of the Iews predicted by Moses & the prophets; which is not yet at an end. Thus the little horn grew mighty, but not by his own power; not by the power of Macedon but by that of Kittim & of the nations of Afric, Armenia, Syria, France, Spain, Helvetia, Dacia & Germany conquered by Kittim.
< insertion from f 5v >Babylon was conquered by the Medes An. Nabonass. 119 – – – – – – after the fall of Babylon.
< text from f 6r resumes >Some take this little horn to be Antiochus Epiphanes, but very injudiciously. For Daniel by horns understands not single kings but kingdoms. The ten horns of the fourth beast were ten kingdoms, & the four horns of the Goat were four kingdoms & are called kingdoms by Daniel himself, Dan. VIII.23: And therefore the first horn in the room of which the four came up was also a kingdom. Each of the four horns had many kings, & Antiochus was king of one of them: & the little horn was not one of the four but another kingdom which came up after one of the four. It was at first a little one, & grew mighty towards the south & towards the east, & up to the host of heaven. But Antiochus did not so. He made no conquests. The little horn magnified himself even to the prince of the host of heaven & cast down his sanctuary to the ground; & so did not Antiochus. He did not cast down the temple to the grownd, nor stand up against the Prince of princes. The little horn acted till the last end of the indignation, & this indignation is not yet at an end. The sanctuary continued cast down 2300 days before it was cleansed, & days in sacred prophesy are put for years, Ezek. IV.5, 6.
If the prophesy of Balaam, so far as it is recited by Moses in favour of Israel, may be regarded, he also calls the power of this last horn of the Goat by the name of Kittim. And ships, saith he, shall come from the coast of Kittim, & shall afflict Assur [i.e. Syria] & shall afflict Eber. This the He-goat did in the reign of his last horn when it grew mighty towards the east & towards the pleasant land & took away the daily sacrifice & threw down the temple & built a temple to Iupiter Olympius in its place, & after a most bloody war banished the Iews out of their own land upon pain of death, & dispersed them into all nations where they have already continued 1590 years.
Chap.
Of the prophesy of the Ram, and He Goate.
The four monarchies predicted by the vision of the image composed of four metalls, & again by the four beasts, are again predicted by that of the Ram & he Goat; the two first being represented by the Ram, & the two last by the Goat. For the ram had two horns both which were high, & the higher horn came up last, & this Ram having two horns is said to be the kings of Media & Persia, that is, the kingdoms. The higher horn which came up last is the kingdom of Persia, & this arose at the fall of the kingdom of Babylon; & the lower horn which came up first is the preceding kingdome of the Medes, & this arose at the fall of the kingdom of Assyria, & is here considered from the time of the date of this prophesy which was in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar. By the fall of the empire of the Assyrians & the division thereof between the Medes & Babylonians the two empires of the Medes & Babylonians arose together under Cyaxeres & Nebuchadnezzar, & they are represented by the two wings of the Lyon, Dan. VII.4. And these continued standing together till that of the Medes by the conduct of Cyrus a Medo-Persian subdued that of the Babylonians, & then began it self to fall by the revolt of Cyrus & the Persians. For upon the conquest of Babylon by the Medes Cyrus & the Persians revolted from the Medes, I think before the end of the year, & beat them in battel the next year, & the King of the Medes raised a new army & was again beaten the year following & lost his kingdom to Cyrus who by that victory set the Persians above the Medes. Now in the history of the life of Daniel (Dan. I.21) its said that he continued even untill the first year of Cyrus, that is, untill the first year of his reign over Media: & afterwards (Dan. X.1) its said that he received the prophesy of the scripture of truth in the third year of Cyrus, that is, in the third year of his reign over Persia. And therefore the Persians revolted two years before he conquered the Medes. He conquered Babylon Ann. Nabonass. 209 & died An. Nabonass. 218 according to the canon of Ptolomy, & reigned seven years after his conquest of the Medes according to Xenophon, & therefore conquered them An. Nabonass. 211. The horn therefore which rose up first represents the kingdom of the Medes from the time of the fall of the Assyrian Empire, or at the least from the time of third year of Beltshazzar, the year in which this prophesy was given; & the second horn represents the kingdom of the Persians which began to rise up Anno Nabonass. 209 & within two years after overcame the kingdom of the Medes.
The He-Goat had a notable horn between his eyes, & smote the Ram & brake his two horns, & waxed very great: & when he was strong the great horn was broken off, & for it came up four notable ones towards the four winds of heaven. And these horns represent the same kingdoms with the four wings of Daniels third Beast. This Goat is called the king of Iavan, that is the king of the people descended from Iavan the son of Iaphet, & is usually interpreted to signify the king of Greece, that is, the kingdom, & in the reign of his first horn to signify the kingdom of Alexander the great & his brother Aridæus & two sons. After their reign the governours of Provinces put crowns on their own heads, & thereby divided the monarchy into smaller kingdoms the four chief of which were the kingdoms of Macedon Egypt Syria & Thrace. And these are represented by the four horns. And in the latter time of their kingdom when the transgressors are come to the full, that is, in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes when the transgressors against the holy covenant are arrived at the height; not before, but in his reign, after one of them [after the kingdom of Macedon] came forth a little horn which waxed exceeding great. For in the eighth year of Antiochus, when they had spoiled the Temple, prohibited the daily worship, burnt the sacred books, & set up the religion of the heathens, the kingdom of Macedon, the principal horn of the four, was conquered by the Romans, & the ships which the Romans immediately after this conquest sent with an embassy against Antiochus Epiphanes then in Egypt, are called the ships of Kittim, Dan. XI.30: which is all one as to tell us that the Romans are descended from Kittim the son of Iavan & so belong to the body of the Goat. And if we may regard the prophesy of Balaam so far as it is recited by Moses in favour of Israel, the Romans are there also called Kittim. And ships, saith he, shall come from Kittim, & shall afflict Assur & shall afflict Eber. Assur is here put for Syria & Eber for Iudea. Italy was so far peopled from Greece as to be called magna Græcia, & it might be peopled originally from Kittim, tho we want the history thereof. But its sufficient to make the Romans a horn of the Goat that they are called Kittim in the prophesies of Daniel.
This horn was at first but a little one comparatively to what it became afterwards. It waxed exceeding great towards the south by conquering Afric Libya & Egypt, & towards the east by conquering Asia minor Armenia & Syria, & towards the plesant land by conquering Iudea. It waxed great even to the host of heaven (the people of the Iews,) & it cast down some of the host & of the starrs to the grownd & it stamped upon them. Yea he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, the Prince of Princes (Iesus Christ whom he put to death) & by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, & the place of his sanctuary (the Temple) was cast down, vizt in the war which he made upon the Iews in the reign of Nero & Vespasian. And the host was given over to him by the transgression against the daily sacrifice, & it cast down the truth to the grownd, & it practised & prospered. For in the reign of the Emperour Hadrian the Romans built a temple to Iupiter Olympius on mount Sion where the temple of the Iews had stood, & provoked them to rebell, & made war against them with very great slaughter, & banished them from Iudea upon pain of death, & placed the carved statue of a hog on one of the gates of the city. Then, saith Daniel, I heard one saint speaking, & another saint said unto that certain saint that spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice & the transgression that maketh desolate, to give both the sanctuary & the host to be troden under foot? And he said unto me, Vnto two thousand & three hundred (prophetic) days. Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. – For at the time of the end shall be the vision – – even at the last end of the indignation: that is, at the last end of Gods indignation against the Iews, or at the last end of the long captivity & dispersion of the Iews predicted by Moses & the prophets, which is not yet at an end. Thus the power of this last horn of the Goat became mighty but not by his own power; not by the power of Kittim or Iavan, but by that of the nations of Afric, Armenia, Syria, France, Spain, Helvetia, Dacia & Germany conquered by Kittim.
Some take this little horn to be Antiochus Epiphanes: as if Antiochus was a little horn growing out of another horn, & the Goat had five horns standing up at once. But Daniel by the horns of a beast understands not single kings but kingdoms. The ten horns of the fourth beast were ten kingdoms, & the four horns of the Goat were four kingdoms, & are called kingdoms by Daniel himself Dan. VIII.23. And the first horn, the great horn in the room of which the four came up, was of the same kind with the four. The horn after which the little horn came up was one of the four: & Antiochus & his kingdom were not two horns. Each of the four horns had many kings, & Antiochus was only one of these many kings. It was at first a little one & grew mighty towards the south & towards the east & up to the host of heaven. But Antiochus did not so. He made no conquests. The little horn magnified himself even to the prince of the host of heaven, & cast down his sanctuary to the grownd: & so did not Antiochus. He did not cast down the temple to the grownd, nor stand up against the prince of princes. The little horn acted till the last end of the indignation, & this indignation is not yet at an end. The sanctuary continued cast down 2300 days before it was cleansed, & days in sacred prophesy are put for years. Ezek. IV.5, 6.
Chap. III.
On the prophesy of the Ram & He Goat.
The four Empires predicted by the vision of the image composed of four metalls, & again by that of the four beasts, are again predicted by that of the Ram & He-goat, the two first being represented by the Ram, & the two last by the Goat. For the Ram had two horns both which were high, & the higher horn came up last. And this Ram having two horns is said to be the kings of Media & Persia, that is, the kingdoms. The higher horn which came up last is the kingdom of Persia, & this arose at the fall of the kingdom of Babylon. And the lower horn which came up first is the preceding kingdom of the Medes, & this arose at the fall of the kingdom of Assyria, & is considered here from the time of the date of this prophesy. By the fall of the Empire of the Assyrians, & the division thereof between the Medes & Babylonians, the two Empires of the Medes & Babylonians rose up at once under Cyaxeres & Nebuchadnezzar, so as to begin to be considered in these prophesies: & they are represented by the two wings of the Lion, the first of the four beasts, Dan. VII.4. And these continue standing together till that of the Medes, by the conduct of Cyrus a Medo-Persian, subdued that of the Babylonians. And then the kingdom of the Medes began to fall by the revolt of the Persians who subdued it. Babylon was conquered by the Medes Anno Nabonass. 209, & the Medes by the Persians within two years after, Anno Nabonass 211. But the Persians began to revolt from the Medes presently after the fall of Babylon, I think in the end of the same year, so as to leave no room worth considering for the reign of the empire of the Medes after the fall of Babylon. The Medes were beaten by the Persians in two battels, & in the first battel by the fraud of Harpagus lost their army. Darius got up a new army but was beaten again by the Persians & taken prisoner & lost all the remainder of his kingdom to Cyrus. This second battel was at Pasargadæ Anno Nabonass. 211, & therefore the first battel was in the year of Nabonassar 210, & the revolt of Cyrus & the Persians was in the end of the year before. In the life of Daniel its said that Daniel continued only till the first yeare of Cyrus, Dan. I.21; & in his prophesies that he received the prophesy of the scripture of truth in the third year of Cyrus, Dan. X.1: the reign of Cyrus being dated in the first case from his conquest of the Medes, & in the second case from his revolting from the Medes & beginning to reign over the Persians. So then the Ram reigned in his first horn all the time of the first Empire; & then the second horn began to rise up & rose up above the first, & continued the higher horn all the time of the second Empire. And therefore the Ram comprehends the times of the two first of the four empires.
The he Goat had a notable horn between his eyes & smote the Ram & brake his two horns, & waxed very great. And when he was strong the great horn was broken off, & for it came up four notable ones towards the four winds of heaven. And these horns represent the same kingdoms with the four wings of Daniels third Beast. And this Goat is called the king of Iavan, that is, the king of the people descended from Iavan the son of Iaphet, & by consequence from Elisha, Tarshish, Kittim & Dodanim the sons of Iavan, by whom the isles of the Gentiles were divided (Gen. X.5) or from some of them. The king of Iavan is usually interpreted to signify the king of Greece, & in this sense the Goat in the reign of his first horn is usually taken for the monarchy of the Greeks during the reign of Alexander the great who by conquering the Persians & Medes brake the two horns of the Ram, & further during the reign of his brother Aridæus & two sons. For so long the monarchy continued entire. But after their reign the governours of provinces put crowns on their own heads, & thereby divided the Monarchy into smaller kingdoms, the four chief of which were the kingdoms of Macedon, Egypt, Syria & Thrace. And these are represented by the four horns of the Goat.
<10r>And in the latter time of their kingdom when the transgressors were come to the full; that is, in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes when the transgressors against the holy covenant were arrived at the height, & the four horns were beginning to fall; after one of them came forth a little horn which waxed exceeding great. For then the kingdom of Macedon, the principal kingdom of the four, was conquered by the Romans; & after it by that conquest came forth a new kingdom which waxed exceeding great, & may fitly be represented by a new horn of the Goat. For the Romans were descended from the Greeks; & thence Italy was called Magna Græcia, & their ships which upon their conquest of Macedon they sent against Antiochus Epiphanes in Egypt are called the ships of Kittim Dan. XI.30, & Kittim was the son of Iavan: & therefore the Romans may be included in the body of the Goat, & be properly represented by his last horn. And thus the Goat will represent the two last of the four great empires.
If the prophesy of Balaam so far as it is recited by Moses in favour of Israel, may be regarded, he also calls the power of this last horn of the Goat by the name of Kittim. And ships, saith he, shall come from the coast of Kittim, & shall afflict Assur & shall afflict Eber. Assur & Eber are Syria & Iudea & the ships that afflicted them were those of the Romans.
The last horn of the Goat was at first but a little one comparatively to what it became afterwards. It waxed exceeding great towards the south & towards the east [Syria] & towards the pleasant land [Iudea,] by conquering Afric, Asia minor, Armenia, Syria, Iudea & Egypt. It waxed great even to the host of heaven (the people of the Iews) & it cast down some of the host & of the stars to the grownd, & it stamped upon them. Yea he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, the Prince of princes, Iesus Christ, & by him the daily sacrifice was taken away & the place of his sanctuary was cast down, vizt the temple in the war which he made upon the Iews in the reign of Nero & Vespatian. And in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian he built a temple to Iupiter Olympius on mount Sion where the temple of the Iews had stood, & thereby provoked the Iews to rebel under Barchochab, & made war against them with great slaughter, & banished them from Iudea upon pain of death, & to deter them further from returning placed also the statue of a hog on one of the gates of the city. And the vision concerning the daily sacrifice taken away, & the transgression of desolation set up, to give both the sanctuary & the host to be troden under foot, was to continue unto two thousand & three hundred (prophetic) days; & then the sanctuary was to be cleansed. And this was to be at the time of the end, & at the last end of the indignation, that is, at the last end of Gods indignation against the Iews, or at the last end of the long captivity & dispersion of the Iews predicted by Moses & the prophets, which is not yet at an end, & in respect of which the transgression set up in Iudea during the exile of the Iews is called the transgression of desolation & the abomination which maketh desolate. And this abomination was to be set up after the death of Christ, Matth XXIV.15. Thus the little horn grew mighty but not by his own power, not by the power of Macedon, but by that of Kittim, & of the nations of Afric, Armenia, Syria, France, Spain, Helvetia Dacia & Germany conquered by Kittim.
Some take this little horn to be Antiochus Epiphanes, but very injudiciously. For Daniel by horns understands not single kings but kingdoms. The ten horns of the fourth beast were ten kingdoms, & the four horns of the Goat were four kingdoms, & are called kingdoms by Daniel himself, Dan. VIII.23. And therefore the first horn in the room of which the four came up was also a kingdom. Each of the four horns had many kings, & Antiochus was one of them: & the little horn was not one of the four but another kingdom which came up after one of the four. It was at first a little one, & grew mighty towards the south & towards the east & up to the host of heaven. But Antiochus did not so. He made no conquests. The little horn magnified himself even to the prince of the host of heaven, & cast down his sanctuary to the grownd, & so did not Antiochus. He did not cast down the temple to the grownd, nor stand up against the Princes. The little horn acted till the last end of the indignation, & this indignation is not yet at an end. The sanctuary continued cast down 2300 days before it was cleansed & days in sacred prophesy are put for years. Ezek. IV.5, 6.
Chap. IV
Of the second & third Monarchy represented by the Ram & He Goat.
As the three first Beasts have their lives prolonged after their dominions are taken away & continue together with the fourth till all their Kingdoms the Gold & the Silver & the Brass & Iron & Clay be broken & blown away together: so we are to understand that the Ram & He Goat continue together till the end of the four Monarchies. The Goat breaks the Rams horns & stamps upon him but does not kill him. These two beasts therefore comprehend the times of all the four Monarchies. For the Kingdome of the Medes which is the Rams first horn grew up before the reign of Nebuchadnezzar & in the beginning of his reign grew great by taking Nineve & conquering the Kingdom of Assyria. And the vision of the Goat continues till the time of the end & till the last end of the indignation. By the time of the end understand the last time of the four Monarchies that is the time of the reign of the feet of Nebuchadnezzars Image & more particularly that of the little horn, of the fourth Beast: & by the indignation the captivity & dispersion of God's people. For in this sense the Prophets use the word anger and indignation as you may see in Deut. 29.24, 27, 28 & ch. 31.29. Ios. 23.16 Psal 85. Isa. 26.20. Ier. 23.20. Ezek. 5.13. Mica 7.9, 18. & other places
As the prophesy of Nebuchadnezzars Image & that of Daniels four Beasts concern the same things & were given to explain one another so the Prophesy of the Ram & Goat & that of the Scripture of truth set down in the three last chapters of Daniel answer to one another & must be compared by him that will understand them. For that of the scripture of truth is nothing else but a commentary upon that of the Ram & Goat. First the Angel describes the Kings of the Ram down to the invasion of Greece by Xerxes, Behold, saith he, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia & the fourth shall be far richer then they all & by his strength through his riches he shall stirr up all against the realm of Greece. Then he proceeds to describe the Kings of the Goat, putting first the king of the great horn & then describing the division of his kingdom into four principall kingdoms to the four winds of heaven represented by the next four horns & into others of less note besides the four, & then enumerating distinctly the kings of the northern & southern horns in order down to the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. Then he proceeds to the little horn saying how arms shall stand up out of the King of the north. & take away the daily sacrifice & weare out the saints & waxing great, shall do according to his will & magnify himself above every God & prosper till the indignation be accomplished. For the little horn like these arms reigned till the last end of the indignation Dan. 8.19. Both the prophesies that of the Ram & Goat & that of the scripture of truth are said to be for many days & to continue till the end of the indignation & till the time of the end & therefore they are synchronall from first to last.
So then the little horn rises up out of the northern horn of the four & is not Antiochus Epiphanes but the arms which stand up out of him. Daniel puts arms for an army & an army is a horn. For a mans arm is his fighting member as a horn is a Beasts, & therefore has the same signification. The king of the north shall take the most fenced cities & the arms of the south shall not withstand neither his chosen people, Dan. 11.15. With the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him & be broken, that is with armies as with a flood. Dan 11.22. Shee shall not retain the power of the arm neither shall he stand nor his arm, but shall be given up Dan 11.6. By all these instances you may see that Daniel constantly uses arms for an army. Now Daniel does not say that the king of the north or his arms shall take away the daily sacrifice but arms shall stand up out of him, that is an army out of his kingdom, arms different from his own arms, a new military power shall stand up or be erected out of the northern Kingdom, & they shall take it away. And such a power answers exactly to the little horn rising up out of one of the four. Antiochus was not a new horn; for horns (as was shewed) are never put by Daniel for single persons but always rise & fall with kingdoms. Daniel does not say that one of the four horns was broken off (like the great one) to make room for a successor but a little horn came out if it, so that both were in being together, & therefore they signify two kingdoms existing at the same time one of which came out of the other. A new horn is constantly used by Daniel for a new kingdom & therefore if we will interpret the prophesy without violence we must find out a new kingdom rising up out of the northern horn,
Now such a kingdom was that of Pergamus. It came forth out of the kingdom of Asia acknowledged by all interpreters to be one of the four horns It was little at first & rising in a north west corner of the Greek empire waxed great towards the east & towards the south, It became mighty even above the former horns, but not in its own power, For after it had stood an hundred & fifty years it descended to the Romans by right of inheritance & grew mighty under their government. It took away the daily sacrifice, & destroyed the holy people & prospered till the end of the indignation & in all things answers to the character of the little horn. The history of its rise was as follows.
First Philetærus revolting from Lysimachus – – – – – – – – – – – when those two heads became united. And its very remarkable that these two heads, after they had been for some time united became divided again into the Greek & Latine Empires, & even during their union were distinguished by the names of Greeks & Latines.
Now whilst Daniel represents the nations of the Greek Monarchy by the Leopard not only during the reign of Alexander the great & his successors but {a}lso d{u}ring the reign of the fourth Beast or Roman {E}mpire unto the very end of the four Monarchies & the He {Goa}t is all one with the Leopard & therefore continues also to the end & since his {la}st & most notable & potent reign is in the little horn growing exceeding {gre}at: & the last & most notable & potent reign of the Greek Empir{e} in the Kingdom of Pergamus prop{agated} down through the Roman Empire: it cannot otherwise be but that this little horn must answer to this Kingdom. For if the Kingdom of the Medes after it was conquered by the Persians continued one of the Rams horns distinct from the horn which conquered it: much more did the kingdom of Pergamus after it was descended to the Romans by right of inheritance as to its lawfull Lord & Protector, continue a distinct horn of the Goat. The Romans did not break this horn. but as friends inherited & advanced its crown, Its power shall be great For if the Kingdom of the Medes did not cease to be a horn by the conquest of Cyrus, but they & the Persians though under one common King were represented by two distinct horns of the Ram untill they were both together broken by the Goat: much less did the kingdom of Pergamus by its union with the Roman dominions cease to be a horn seing the Romans were adopted into this Kingdom as legal heirs & successors of its Kings to protect it & promote its dominion. They did not break this horn by violence but as friends received it into protection. And this Daniel predicted. His power, saith he, shall be mighty but not by his own power. For this is as much as to say that after the Goat or third Monarchy, had reigned by the power of the first great horn & by that of the four which succeed it, he should reign no longer by the power of his own horns; but yet by the power which was to rise up after him that is by the power of the fourth Monarchy he should reign in a new horn with great dominion. In the latter time of the Kingdom of the four horns, saith Daniel, that is, in the end of all that reign of the third Monarchy which preceded the fourth a king of fierce countenance shall stand up & his power shall be mighty but not by his own powe{r}. {illeg} {illeg}
And tho this horn ☉
