years were only to be confidered as a part of it. They muft, therefore, moft obviously, relate to the beginning of thofe events, which was to be almost directly after the Prophecy was given. And the primary meaning of this verfe, most apparent to common fenfe, feems to be:

Blessed is he that readeth, (or rightly apprehendeth,) and they that hear the words of the Prophecy, and that (mark and) obferve the things written in it. For the time is at hand: the time of the beginning of the events described is at hand, now immediately. And the Prophecy is not to be confidered as relating merely to future ages; but, in every fucceffive age and period, the time is at hand to every attentive and intelligent reader; becaufe ftill fome one of the fucceffive events herein defcribed is coming immediately to pass, and that continually, till the final end of all things. And, even the great confummation of all, confidering the juft comparison of the du ration of this world with the ages of eternity, is at Band wife.

SECTION X.

CONCERNING

THE SARACEN,

AND

TURKISH POWERS;

As understood to have been Emblematically

Prophefied of,

BY

THE PROPHET DANIEL.

VOL. II.

SECTION X.

AFTER having made the preceding Re- 463.

marks on the various æras, and marvellous fucceffion of events, defcribed and foretold in fuch a wonderful and fublime manner in the Book of the Revelations; it may not be an useless investigation to bestow a little further attention upon that very fingular Prophecy, which we find in the Book of Daniel, concerning the Little Horn of the He-Goat: and the rather, because it seems as if (from the fimilarity of the image) this part of prophecy had hitherto been improperly con founded with that concerning the little horn of the fourth beast, the dragon*: the setting of which matter right may now lead us to perceive, that the purport of the vifions vouchfafed to the holy prophet Daniel, was 464. even of still greater, and more wide extent, than has hitherto been conceived.

*Daniel, ch. vii. ver. 8.