--- title: "John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible" author: "John Wesley" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 241 of 398 url: https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/241/ cite: "John Wesley, John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible, section 241. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/241/" --- # John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible *John Wesley* Wesley's short, plain notes on the Old and New Testaments, verse by verse. ## 241. Daniel · 3 of 4 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/241/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/241/#p-N [¶0] Of the matter - Of the vision, and the angel's interpretation. [¶1] After that - In the other vision he speaks o[ all the four monarchies; here only of the three first; this vision being a comment upon the first. [¶2] The river of Ulai - Which ran round the city. [¶3] Two horns - The kingdom of Media and Persia. And the higher - The kingdom of Persia which rose last, in Cyrus, became more eminent than that of the Medes. [¶4] West - ward - Toward Babylon, Syria, Cappadocia, Asia the less, and Greece, all westward from Media and Persia. North - ward - Against the Armenians, Iberians, Lydians, Colchi Caspians. South - ward - Against Ethiopia, Arabia, Egypt. [¶5] An he - goat - The Grecian empire. The whole earth - The whole Persian empire. Touched not the ground - Went with incredible swiftness. A horn - This was Alexander the great. [¶6] The ram - The king of Media and Persia. [¶7] Was broken - When Alexander was greatest, then was he broken, and that to pieces, for he, his mother, son, brother, and all his kindred were destroyed. The four winds Antipater got Greece. Asia was possessed by Antigonus. Ptolemy got Egypt. Seleucus had Babylon and Syria. All these were variously situated; to the east, Babylon and Syria; to the south, Egypt; to the north, Asia the less; to the west, Greece. [¶8] A little horn - This little horn was Antiochus Epiphanes. The south - Egypt where he besieged and took many places. The east - In Syria, Babylon, Armenia. The pleasant land - Judea, so called because of the temple and people of God in it, and the fruitfulness of it. [¶9] The host of heaven - The church of God militant, who worship the God of heaven, who are citizens of heaven, whose names are written in heaven; and among these the priests, and champions, who were as stars shining above the rest; these he profaned and slew cruelly. [¶10] The prince - Not only against the high - priest, but against God himself. Was cast down - He took away the use of the temple as to the holy service and sacrifices. [¶11] By reason of transgression - Both the transgression of the priests, and of the people. [¶12] One saint - That is, one holy angel. How long - How long shall Antiochus continue his vexations against the people and prevent the worship of God? This is, the treading down of the sanctuary, and the host. [¶13] He - That angel. Then - Just so long it was, from the defection of the people, procured by Menelaus, the high - priest, to the cleansing of the sanctuary, and the re - establishment of religion among them. [¶14] The meaning - A more clear discovery of those things. The appearance of a man - Probably Gabriel. [¶15] A man's voice - Of him before mentioned, namely, Christ. [¶16] He came near - That he might speak more familiarly to him, yet Daniel could not bear the glory of it. How much less can we bear the glory of God, and how graciously hath the Lord dealt with us, to teach us by men, and not by angels? O son of man - He calls him son of man, to make him mind his frailty, and not to be lifted up with this great condescension of heaven. At the time - In God's appointed time, in the latter day, but not now in thy life - time. [¶17] Toward the ground - Being terrified with the splendor and grandeur both of the messenger and message. Set me upright - By one touch only. The power of spirits is incomparably greater than that of the strongest of men. [¶18] The indignation - God will raise up Antiochus to execute his wrath against the Jews for their sins, yet there shall be an end of that indignation. [¶19] In the latter time - When they were come to the height, and beginning to decline. When the transgressors - When the Jews were grown to an excess of wickedness, then God suffered Antiochus to persecute them. Dark sentences - Full of subtilty: such all histories declare Antiochus to be. [¶20] Not by his own power - Not by any heroick deeds, but by making use of the Jewish factions, through the divine commission to punish a backsliding nation; and by means of Eumenes and Attalus, by whose help he got up to this height. Shall destroy - He shall by force, craft, and cruelty, destroy many of God's people. [¶21] By peace - Under colour of kindness. Against the prince of princes - He fought against God, affronting God's laws, profaning God's worship, and temple, and setting up the image and worship of Jupiter there. Without hand - By a disease whereof he died, 1Macc 6:8. [¶22] Shut thou up - Lay it up in thy heart. For many days - Three hundred years after this; long after Daniel's days. [¶23] Was sick - Being overwhelmed by a sense of the calamity that should befall the people of God. Did the king's business - Having recovered strength, he minded his place, duty and trust, and concealed the whole, that they might not see it by his countenance. [¶24] In the first year of Darius - That is, immediately after the overthrow of the kingdom of Babylon, which was the year of the Jews deliverance from captivity. Of the Medes - This Darius was not Darius the Persian, under whom the temple was built, as some have asserted, to invalidate the credibility of this book; but Darius the Mede, who lived in the time of Daniel. [¶25] By books - By the sacred books. [¶26] Judged us - Whose duty it was to govern the people, and to judge their causes; wherein if there was a failure, it was a sin, and judgment upon the people, and upon the rulers and judges themselves also. Upon Jerusalem - A place privileged many ways above all others, and punished above all others. [¶27] The Lord watched - God's watching denotes the fit ways that he always takes to punish sinners. [¶28] For the Lord's sake - For the sake of the Messiah: to whom the title Lord is frequently given in the Old Testament. [¶29] About the time - The time of the evening sacrifice was a solemn and set time of devotion. Tho' the altar was in ruins, and there was no oblation offered upon it, yet the pious Jews were daily thoughtful of the time when it should have been offered, and hoped that their prayer would be set forth before God as incense, and the lifting up of their hands, as the evening sacrifice. This was peculiarly a type of that great sacrifice, which Christ was to offer: and it was in virtue of that sacrifice, that Daniel's prayer was accepted, when he prayed for the Lord's sake. [¶30] Seventy weeks - These weeks are weeks of days, and these days are so many years. To finish the transgression - The angel discovers first the disease in three several words, which contain all sorts of sin, which the Messiah should free us from by his full redemption. He shews the cure of this disease in three words. To finish transgression. To make an end of sin. To make reconciliation: all which words are very expressive in the original, and signify to pardon, to blot out, to destroy. To bring in everlasting righteousness - To bring in justification by the free grace of God in Christ, and sanctification by his spirit: called everlasting, because Christ is eternal, and so are the acceptance and holiness purchased for us. Christ brings this in, By his merit. By his gospel declaring it. By faith applying, and sealing it by the Holy Ghost. To seal up - To abrogate the former dispensation of the law, and to ratify the gospel covenant. To anoint - This alludes to his name Messiah and Christ, both which signify anointed. Christ was anointed at his first conception, and personal union, Luke 1:35. In his baptism, Matt 3:17, to his three offices by the holy Ghost, King, Matt 2:2. Prophet, Isa 61:1. Priest, Psal 110:4. [¶31] From the going forth - From the publication of the edict, whether of Cyrus or Darius, to restore and to build it. [¶32] And after - After the seven and the sixty two that followed them. Not for himself - But for our sakes, and for our salvation. And the people - The Romans under the conduct of Titus. Determined - God hath decreed to destroy that place and people, by the miseries and desolations of war. [¶33] He shall confirm - Christ confirmed the new covenant, By the testimony of angels, of John baptist, of the wise men, of the saints then living, of Moses and Elias. By his preaching. By signs and wonders. By his holy life. By his resurrection and ascension. By his death and blood shedding. Shall cause the sacrifice to cease - All the Jewish rites, and Levitical worship. By his death he abrogated, and put an end to this laborious service, for ever. And that determined - That spirit of slumber, which God has determined to pour on the desolate nation, 'till the time draws near, when all Israel shall be saved. [¶34] Was mourning - Because he foresaw the many calamities that would befall the Jews for their sins, especially for destroying the Messiah, and rejecting his gospel. [¶35] The first month - Nisan, which is March. Hiddekel - Or Tigris. [¶36] A certain man - Very probably Christ, who appeared to Daniel in royal and priestly robes, and in so great brightness and majesty. [¶37] He - Not Christ, but Gabriel. [¶38] Withstood me - God suffered the wicked counsels of Cambyses to take place awhile; but Daniel by his prayers, and the angel by his power, overcame him at last: and this very thing laid a foundation of the ruin of the Persian monarchies. Michael - Michael here is commonly supposed to mean Christ. I remained - To counter - work their designs against the people of God. [¶39] I set my face - I prostrated myself upon the earth. And I became dumb - Thro' astonishment. [¶40] One like the sons of men - This likewise seems to have been Gabriel. I have retained no strength - Tho' he appeared to him, and spake to him as a man, yet Daniel could not bear his presence, without some dread. [¶41] To fight - To oppose his mischievous designs. [¶42] Michael - Christ alone is the protector of his church, when all the princes of the earth desert or oppose it. [¶43] He - Xerxes was more potent than all the other three, because his father Darius had gathered an incredible mass for him, which he himself increased for six years together, before he made his expedition against Greece. There were more kings of Persia besides those four, but they had no concern with the people of God. [¶44] A mighty king - Alexander the great.