Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John · Isaac Newton
CHAP. XII.
The _Egyptians_ of _Alexandria_ seeing _Philometor_ first educated in luxury by the Eunuch _Eulæus_, and now in the hands of _Antiochus_, gave the kingdom to _Euergetes_, the younger brother of _Philometor_. Whereupon _Antiochus_ pretending to restore _Philometor_, made war upon _Euergetes_; beat him at sea, and besieged him and his sister _Cleopatra_ in _Alexandria_: while the besieged Princes sent to _Rome_ to implore the assistance of the Senate. _Antiochus_ finding himself unable to take the city that year, returned into _Syria_, leaving _Philometor_ at _Memphis_ to govern _Egypt_ in his absence. But _Philometor_ made friendship with his brother that winter; and _Antiochus_, returning the next spring _An. Nabonass._ 580, to besiege both the brothers in _Alexandria_, was met in the way by the _Roman_ Ambassadors, _Popilius Læna_, _C. Decimius_, and _C. Hostilius_: he offered them his hand to kiss, but _Popilius_ delivering to him the tables wherein the message of the Senate was written, bad him read those first. When he had read them, he replied he would consider with his friends what was fit to be done; but _Popilius_ drawing a circle about him, bad him answer before he went out of it: _Antiochus_, astonished at this blunt and unusual imperiousness, made answer he would do what the _Romans_ demanded; and then _Popilius_ gave the King his hand to kiss, and he returned out of _Egypt_. The same year, _An. Nabonass._ 580, his captains by his order spoiled and slaughtered the _Jews_, profaned the Temple, set up the worship of the heathen Gods in all _Judea_, and began to persecute and make war upon those who would not worship them: which actions are thus described by _Daniel_. [10] _At the time appointed he shall come_ again _towards the _South_, but the latter shall not be as the former. For the ships of _Chittim_ shall come_, with an embassy from _Rome_, _against him. Therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant. So shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant._
In the same year that _Antiochus_ by the command of the _Romans_ retired out of _Egypt_, and set up the worship of the _Greeks_ in _Judea_; the _Romans_ conquered the kingdom of _Macedon_, the fundamental kingdom of the Empire of the _Greeks_, and reduced it into a _Roman_ Province; and thereby began to put an end to the reign of _Daniel_'s third Beast. This is thus exprest by _Daniel_. _And after him Arms_, that is the _Romans_, _shall stand up_. As [Hebrew: MMLK] signifies _after the King_, Dan. xi. 8; so [Hebrew: MMNW] may signify _after him_. _Arms_ are every where in this Prophecy of _Daniel_ put for the military power of a kingdom: and they stand up when they conquer and grow powerful. Hitherto _Daniel_ described the actions of the Kings of the _North_ and _South_; but upon the conquest of _Macedon_ by the _Romans_, he left off describing the actions of the _Greeks_, and began to describe those of the _Romans_ in _Greece_.
They conquered _Macedon_, _Illyricum_ and _Epirus_, in the year of _Nabonassar_ 580. 35 years after, by the last will and testament of _Attalus_ the last King of _Pergamus_, they inherited that rich and flourishing kingdom, that is, all _Asia_ westward of mount _Taurus_; 69 years after they conquered the kingdom of _Syria_, and reduced it into a Province, and 34 years after they did the like to _Egypt_. By all these steps the _Roman_ Arms stood up over the _Greeks_: and after 95 years more, by making war upon the _Jews_, _they polluted the sanctuary of strength, and took away the daily sacrifice, and then placed the abomination of desolation_. For this abomination was placed after the days of _Christ_, _Math._ xxiv. 15. In the 16th year of the Emperor _Adrian_, A.C. 132, they placed this abomination by building a Temple to _Jupiter Capitolinus_, where the Temple of God in _Jerusalem_ had stood. Thereupon the _Jews_ under the conduct of _Barchochab_ rose up in arms against the _Romans_, and in the war had 50 cities demolished, 985 of their best towns destroyed, and 580000 men slain by the sword; and in the end of the war, A.C. 136, were banished _Judea_ upon pain of death, and thenceforward the land remained desolate of its old inhabitants.
In the beginning of the _Jewish_ war in _Nero_'s reign, the Apostles fled out of _Judea_ with their flocks; some beyond _Jordan_ to _Pella_ and other places, some into _Egypt_, _Syria_, _Mesopotamia_, _Asia minor_, and elsewhere. _Peter_ and _John_ came into _Asia_, and _Peter_ went thence by _Corinth_ to _Rome_; but _John_ staying in _Asia_, was banished by the _Romans_ into _Patmos_, as the head of a party of the _Jews_, whose nation was in war with the _Romans_. By this dispersion of the _Christian Jews_, the _Christian_ religion, which was already propagated westward as far as _Rome_, spred fast into all the _Roman_ Empire, and suffered many persecutions under it till the days of _Constantine_ the great and his sons: all which is thus described by _Daniel_. [11] _And such as do wickedly against the covenant, shall he_, who places the abomination, _cause to dissemble_, and worship the heathen Gods; _but the people_ among them _who do know their God, shall be strong and act. And they that understand among the people, shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, and by captivity, and by spoil many days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help, viz._ in the reign of _Constantine_ the great; _and_ at that time by reason of their prosperity, _many shall_ come over to them from among the heathen, and _cleave to them with dissimulation. But of those of understanding there shall_ still _fall to try_ God's people _by them and to purge_ them from the dissemblers, _and to make them white even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed._
Hitherto the _Roman_ Empire continued entire; and under this dominion, the little horn of the He-Goat continued _mighty, but not by his own power_. But now, by the building of _Constantinople_, and endowing it with a Senate and other like privileges with _Rome_; and by the division of the _Roman_ Empire into the two Empires of the _Greeks_ and _Latins_, headed by those two cities; a new scene of things commences, in which which [12] _a King_, the Empire of the _Greeks_, _doth according to his will, and_, by setting his own laws above the laws of God, _exalts and magnifies himself above every God, and speaks marvellous things against the God of Gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished.--Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the_ lawful _desire of women_ in matrimony, _nor any God, but shall magnify himself above all. And in his seat he shall honour _Mahuzzims__, that is, strong guardians, the souls of the dead; _even with a God whom his fathers knew not shall he honour them_, in their Temples, _with gold and silver, and with precious stones and valuable things_.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.