102 lines
6.8 KiB
XML
102 lines
6.8 KiB
XML
<div2 id="Dan.i" n="i" next="Dan.ii" prev="Dan" progress="67.39%" title="Introduction">
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<h2 id="Dan.i-p0.1">Daniel</h2>
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<hr/>
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<pb id="Dan.i-Page_1016" n="1016"/>
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<div class="Center" id="Dan.i-p0.3">
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<p id="Dan.i-p1" shownumber="no"><b>AN</b></p>
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<h3 id="Dan.i-p1.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
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<h4 id="Dan.i-p1.2">W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E
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R V A T I O N S,</h4>
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<h5 id="Dan.i-p1.3">OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET</h5>
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<h2 id="Dan.i-p1.4">D A N I E L.</h2>
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<hr style="width:2in"/>
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</div>
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<p class="indent" id="Dan.i-p2" shownumber="no"><span class="smallcaps" id="Dan.i-p2.1">The</span> book of
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Ezekiel left the affairs of Jerusalem under a doleful aspect, all
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in ruins, but with a joyful prospect of all in glory again. This of
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Daniel fitly follows. Ezekiel told us what was seen, and what was
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foreseen, by him in the former years of the captivity: Daniel tells
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us what was seen, and foreseen, in the latter years of the
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captivity. When God employs different hands, yet it is about the
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same work. And it was a comfort to the poor captives that they had
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first one prophet among them and then another, to show them <i>how
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long,</i> and a sign that God had not quite cast them off. Let us
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enquire, I. Concerning this prophet His Hebrew name was
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<i>Daniel,</i> which signifies the <i>judgment of God;</i> his
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Chaldean name was <i>Belteshazzar.</i> He was of the tribe of
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Judah, and, as it should seem, of the royal family. He was betimes
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eminent for wisdom and piety. Ezekiel, his contemporary, but much
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his senior, speaks of him as an oracle when thus he upbraids the
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king of Tyre with his conceitedness of himself: <i>Thou art wiser
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then Daniel,</i> <scripRef id="Dan.i-p2.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.38.3" parsed="|Ezek|38|3|0|0" passage="Eze 38:3">Ezek. xxxviii.
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3</scripRef>. He is likewise there celebrated for success in
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prayer, when Noah, Daniel, and Job are reckoned as three men that
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had the greatest interest in heaven of any, <scripRef id="Dan.i-p2.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.14.14" parsed="|Ezek|14|14|0|0" passage="Eze 14:14">Ezek. xiv. 14</scripRef>. He began betimes to be
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famous, and continued long so. Some of the Jewish rabbin are loth
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to acknowledge him to be a prophet of the higher form, and
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therefore rank his book among the <i>Hagiographa,</i> not among the
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prophecies, and would not have their disciples pay much regard to
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it. One reason they pretend is because he did not live such a mean
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mortified life as Jeremiah and some other of the prophets did, but
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lived like a prince, and was a prime-minister of state; whereas we
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find him persecuted as other prophets were (<scripRef id="Dan.i-p2.4" osisRef="Bible:Dan.6.1-Dan.6.28" parsed="|Dan|6|1|6|28" passage="Da 6:1-28"><i>ch.</i> vi.</scripRef>), and mortifying himself as
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other prophets did, when he <i>ate no pleasant bread</i> (<scripRef id="Dan.i-p2.5" osisRef="Bible:Dan.10.3" parsed="|Dan|10|3|0|0" passage="Da 10:3"><i>ch.</i> x. 3</scripRef>), and fainting sick
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when he was under the power of the Spirit of prophecy, <scripRef id="Dan.i-p2.6" osisRef="Bible:Dan.8.27" parsed="|Dan|8|27|0|0" passage="Da 8:27"><i>ch.</i> viii. 27</scripRef>. Another reason
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they pretend is because he wrote his book in a heathen country, and
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<i>there</i> had his visions, and not in the land of Israel; but,
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for the same reason, Ezekiel also must be expunged out of the roll
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of prophets. But the true reason is that he speaks so plainly of
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the time of the Messiah's coming that the Jews cannot avoid the
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conviction of it and therefore do not care to hear of it. But
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Josephus calls him one of the <i>greatest</i> of <i>the
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prophets,</i> nay, the angel Gabriel calls him a <i>man greatly
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beloved.</i> He lived long an active life in the courts and
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councils of some of the greatest monarchs the world ever had,
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Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Darius; for we mistake if we confine the
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privilege of an intercourse with heaven to speculative men, or
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those that spend their time in contemplation; no, who was more
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intimately acquainted with the mind of God than Daniel, a courtier,
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a statesman, and a man of business? The Spirit, as the wind, blows
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where it lists. And, if those that have much to do in the world
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plead that as an excuse for the infrequency and slightness of their
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converse with God, Daniel will condemn them. Some have thought that
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he returned to Jerusalem, and was one of the masters of the Greek
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synagogue; but nothing of that appears in scripture; it is
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therefore generally concluded that he died in Persia at Susan,
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where he lived to be very old. II. Concerning this book. The first
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six chapters of it are historical, and are plain and easy; the last
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six are prophetical, and in them are many things dark, and hard to
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be understood, which yet would be more intelligible if we had a
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more complete history of the nations, and especially the Jewish
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nation, from Daniel's time to the coming of the Messiah. Our
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Saviour intimates the difficulty of apprehending the sense of
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Daniel's prophecies when, speaking of them, he says, <i>Let him
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that readeth understand,</i> <scripRef id="Dan.i-p2.7" osisRef="Bible:Matt.24.15" parsed="|Matt|24|15|0|0" passage="Mt 24:15">Matt.
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xxiv. 15</scripRef>. The first chapter, and the first three verses
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of the second chapter, are in Hebrew; thence to the eighth chapter
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is in the Chaldee dialect; and thence to the end is in Hebrew. Mr.
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Broughton observes that, as the Chaldeans were kind to Daniel, and
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gave cups of cold water to him when he requested it, rather than
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the king's wine, God would not have them lose their reward, but
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made that language which they taught him to have honour in his
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writings through all the world, unto this day. Daniel, according to
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his computation, continues the holy story from the first surprising
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of Jerusalem by the Chaldean Babel, when he himself was carried
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away captive, until the last destruction of it by Rome, the
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mystical Babel, for so far forward his predictions look, <scripRef id="Dan.i-p2.8" osisRef="Bible:Dan.9.27" parsed="|Dan|9|27|0|0" passage="Da 9:27"><i>ch.</i> ix. 27</scripRef>. The fables of
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Susannah, and of Bel and the Dragon, in both which Daniel is made a
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party, are apocryphal stories, which we think we have no reason to
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give any credit to, they being never found in the Hebrew or
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Chaldee, but only in the Greek, nor ever admitted by the Jewish
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church. There are some both of the histories and of the prophecies
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of this book that bear date in the latter end of the Chaldean
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monarchy, and others of both that are dated in the beginning of the
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Persian monarchy. But both Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which Daniel
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interpreted, and his own visions, point at the Grecian and Roman
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monarchies, and very particularly at the Jews' troubles under
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Antiochus, which it would be of great use to them to prepare for;
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as his fixing the very time for the coming of the Messiah was of
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use to all those that waited for the consolation of Israel, and is
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to us, for the confirming of our belief, That this is he who should
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come, and we are to look for no other.</p>
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</div2> |