Thoughts on the Book of Daniel.
CHAPTER VIII. (CONTINUED.)
Verse 8. Therefore the goat waxed very great; and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. The conqueror is greater than the conquered. The ram, Medo-Persia, became great; the goat, Grecia, became very great. And when he was strong, the great horn was broken. Human foresight and speculation would have said, When he becomes weak, racked by intestine commotions, or paralyzed by luxury, then the horn will be broken and the kingdom shattered. But Daniel saw it broken in the very prime of its strength, and the height of its power, when every beholder would have exclaimed, Surely the kingdom is established, and nothing can overthrow it. Thus it is often with the wicked: The horn of their strength is broken when they think they stand firm; but the righteous, even when they think themselves ready to perish, often find that, through the sustaining power of God, the bruised reed is not broken, and the smoking flax is not quenched. The kingdom was strong. It was not broken by external foes. No opposing power could touch it. It was broken by the suicidal debauch of the king. Alexander fell in the prime of life. See on verse 39 of chapter 2. After his death there arose much confusion among his followers respecting the succession. It was finally agreed, after seven days’ contest, that his natural brother, Philip Aridæus, should be declared king. By him and Alexander’s sons, Alexander Ægus and Hercules, the name and show of the Macedonian empire was for a time kept up; but these were all soon murdered; and the regal family being then extinct, the chief commanders of the army who had gone into different parts of the empire as governors of the provinces, assumed the title of kings. They thereupon fell to leaguing and warring with each other, to such a degree that within the short space of fifteen years from Alexander’s death, the number was reduced to—how many? Five? No. Three? No. Two? No. But four; just the number specified in the prophecy; for four notable horns were to come up toward the four winds of heaven, in place of the great horn that was broken. These were, 1. Seleucus, who had Syria and Babylon, and from whom came the line of kings known as the Seleucidæ, so famous in history. 2. Lysimachus, who had Asia Minor. 3. Ptolemy, son of Lagus, from whom sprang the Lagidæ; and 4. Cassander who had Greece and the neighboring countries. These held dominion toward the four winds of heaven. Cassander had the western parts, Lysimachus had the northern regions, Ptolemy possessed the southern countries, and Seleucus had the eastern portions of the empire. These four horns may therefore be named Macedonia, Thrace (which then included Asia Minor, and those parts lying on the Hellespont and Bosphorus), Syria and Egypt. Verse 9. And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. 10. And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. 11. Yea he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. 12. And a host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered. A third power is here introduced into the prophecy. In the explanation which the angel gave to Daniel of these symbols, this one is not described in language so definite as that of Medo-Persia and Grecia. Hence a flood of wild conjecture is at once let loose. Had not the angel positively, and in language which cannot be misunderstood, stated that Medo-Persia and Grecia were denoted by the ram and the he-goat, it is impossible to tell what application men would have given us of those symbols. Probably they would have applied them to anything and everything but the right objects. Leave men a moment to their own judgment in the interpretation of prophecy, and we immediately have the most sublime exhibitions of human folly. There are two leading applications of the symbol now under consideration, which are all that need be noticed in these brief thoughts. The first is that the little horn here introduced denotes Antiochus Epiphanes; the second is, that it denotes the Roman power. It seems to us an easy matter to test the claims of these two positions. Does it mean Antiochus? If so, this king must fulfill the specifications of the prophecy. If he does not fulfill them, the application cannot be made to him. The little horn came out of one of the four horns of the goat. It was then a separate power, existing independently of, and distinct from, any of the horns of the goat. Was Antiochus such a power? 1. Who was Antiochus? From the time that Seleucus made himself king over the Syrian portion of Alexander’s empire, thus constituting the Syrian horn of the goat, until that country was conquered by the Romans, twenty-six kings ruled in succession over that territory. The eighth of these, in order, was Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus, then, was simply one of the twenty-six kings which constituted the Syrian horn of the goat. He was for the time being that horn. Hence he could not be at the same time a separate and independent power, or another and remarkable horn, as the little horn was. 2. If it were proper to apply the little horn to any one of these twenty-six Syrian kings, it should certainly be applied to the most powerful and illustrious of them all; but Antiochus Epiphanes did not by any means sustain this character. Although he took the name Epiphanes, that is, The Illustrious, he was illustrious only in name; for nothing, says Prideaux, on the authority of Polybius, Livy, and Diodorus Siculus, could be more alien to his true character. For on account of his vile and extravagant folly, some thinking him a fool and others a madman, they changed the name of Epiphanes, The Illustrious into Epimanes, The Madman. 3. Antiochus the Great, the father of Epiphanes, being terribly defeated in a war with the Romans, was enabled to procure a peace only by the payment of a prodigious sum of money, and a surrender of a portion of his territory; and as a pledge that he would faithfully adhere to the terms of the treaty, he was obliged to give hostages, among whom was this very Epiphanes, his son, who was carried to Rome. The Romans ever after maintained this ascendancy. 4. The little horn waxed exceeding great; but this Antiochus did not enlarge his dominion except by some temporary conquests in Egypt, which he immediately relinquished when the Romans took the part of Ptolemy, and commanded him to desist from his designs in that quarter. The rage of his disappointed ambition he vented upon the unoffending Jews. 5. The little horn, in comparison with the powers that preceded it, was exceeding great. Persia is simply called great, though it reigned over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces. Esth. 1:1. Grecia being more extensive still, is called very great. Now the little horn which waxed exceeding great, must surpass them both. How absurd then to apply this to Antiochus who was obliged to abandon Egypt at the dictation of the Romans, and to whom he paid enormous sums of money as tribute. The Religious Encyclopedia gives us this item of his history: “Finding his resources exhausted he resolved to go into Persia to levy tribute, and collect large sums which he had agreed to pay to the Romans.” It cannot take long for any one to decide the question which was the greater power, the one which evacuated Egypt, or the one which commanded that evacuation; the one that exacted tribute, or the one which was compelled to pay it. 6. The little horn was to stand up against the Prince of princes. The Prince of princes, here means, beyond controversy, Jesus Christ. Dan. 9:25; Acts 3:15; Rev. 1:5. But Antiochus died one hundred and sixty-four before our Lord was born. The prophecy cannot therefore apply to him; for he does not fulfill the specifications in one single particular. The question may then be asked how any one has ever come to apply it to him. We answer, Romanists take that view, to avoid the application of the prophecy to themselves; and many Protestants follow them, in order to oppose the doctrine of the second advent. It has been an easy matter to show that the little horn does not denote Antiochus. It will be just as easy to show that it does denote Rome. 1. The field of vision here is substantially the same as that covered by Nebuchadnezzar’s image, of chapter 2, and Daniel’s vision of chapter 7. And in both those prophetic delineations we found that the power which succeeded Grecia, as the fourth great power, was Rome. The only natural inference would be that the little horn, the power which in this vision succeeds to Grecia, as an exceeding great power, is also Rome. 2. It comes forth from one of the horns of the goat. How, it may be asked, can this be true of Rome? It is unnecessary to remind the reader that earthly governments are not introduced into prophecy till they become in some way connected with the people of God. Rome became connected with the Jews, the people of God at that time, by the famous Jewish League B. C. 161. 1 Maccabees 8; Josephus’ Antiq. B. 12, chap. 10, sec. 6; Prideaux, vol. 2, p. 166. But seven years before this, in B. C. 168, Rome had conquered Macedon, and made it a part of itself. It is therefore introduced into prophecy just as, from the conquered Macedonian horn of the goat, it is preparing to go forth to new conquests in other directions. It therefore appeared to the prophet, or may be properly spoken of in prophecy, as coming forth from one of the horns of the goat. 3. It waxed great toward the south. Egypt was made a province of the Roman empire, and continued such for some centuries. 4. Toward the east. Rome conquered Syria, and made it a province. 5. Toward the pleasant land. Judea is so called in many scriptures. The Romans finally made this a province, and eventually destroyed the city and the temple, and scattered the Jews over the face of the whole earth. 6. It waxed great even to the host of heaven. The host of heaven when used in a symbolic sense in reference to events transpiring here upon earth, must denote persons of illustrious character, or exalted position. The great red dragon, Rev. 12:4, is said to have cast down a third part of the stars of heaven to the ground. The dragon was there interpreted to symbolize Pagan Rome, and the stars it cast to the ground were Jewish rulers. We think it is the same power and the same work that is here brought to view. 7. He magnified himself even to the prince of the host. In the interpretation, verse 25, this is called standing up against the Prince of princes. How clear an allusion to the crucifixion of our Lord, under the jurisdiction of the Romans. 8. By him the daily sacrifice was taken away. We understand that the little horn symbolizes Rome in its entire history including the two phases of pagan and papal. These two phases are elsewhere spoken of as the “daily” (sacrifice is a supplied word) and the “transgression of desolation;” the daily [desolation] signifying the pagan form, and the transgression of desolation, the papal. In the actions ascribed to this power, sometimes one form is spoken of, sometimes the other. “By him,” the papal form, the daily, the pagan form, was taken away. Pagan Rome gave place to papal Rome. And the place of his sanctuary, or worship, the city of Rome, was cast down. The seat of government was removed to Constantinople. The same transaction is brought to view in Revelation 13:2, where it says that the dragon, pagan Rome, gave to the beast, papal Rome, his seat, the city of Rome, and power and great authority, the whole influence of the empire. 9. A host was given him against the daily. The13barbarians that subverted the Roman empire, in the changes, attritions and transformations of those times, became converts to the Catholic faith, and the instruments of the dethronement of their former religion. From being the conquerors of Rome, they became the perpetuators of the same empire in another phase. And this was brought about by reason of transgression, by the working of the mystery of iniquity. The papacy is the most God-dishonoring system of iniquity ever devised, because in his name it commits its abominations, and practices its orgies of hell in the garb, and under the pretense, of pure and undefiled religion. 10. It cast the truth to the ground and practiced and prospered. This describes, in few words, the work and career of the papacy. The truth is by it hideously caricatured; it is loaded with traditions; it is turned into mummery and superstition; it is cast down and obscured. And this antichristian power has practiced—practiced its deceptions upon the people, practiced its schemes of cunning to carry its own ends, and aggrandize its own power. And it has prospered. It has made war with the saints and prevailed against them. It has run its allotted career, and now is about to be broken without hand, to be given to the burning flame, and perish in the consuming glories of the second appearing of our Lord. Rome meets all the specifications of the prophecy. No other power does. Hence Rome, and no other, is the power in question. And the word of God, describing the character and history of this monstrous system, has been most strikingly and accurately fulfilled.