II. The cause of this perturbation of mind and spirit was from the visions of his head : " The visions of his head troubled him."
He calls them " visions of the head," because that is the seat of the internal senses and fantasy, whereby visions are received. So he calls them " a dream," verse 1, " and visions of his head upon his bed." Yet such visions, such a dream it was, as, being immediately from God, and containmg a no less certain discovery of his will and mind than if the things mentioned in them had been spoken face to face, he writes them by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, verse 2, for the use of the church.
I shall not take the advantage of going forth unto any discourse of dreams, visions, oracles, and those other divers ways and mannei-s (Heb. i. 1) of revealing his mind and will, which God was pleased to use with his prophets of old. Numb. xii. 6-8. My aim lies another way; — it sufficcth only to take notice, that God gave him in his sleep a representation of the things here expressed, which he was to give over for the use of the church in following ages. The matter of these visions, which did so much trouble him, falls more directly under our consideration. Now, —
1. The subject of these perplexing visions is a representation of the
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four great empires of tlie world, wliicli had, and were to have, domi- nion in and over the places of the church's greatest concernments, and were all to receive their period and destruction by the Lord Christ and his revenmncj hand.
And these three things he mentions of them therein: — (1.) Their rise; (2.) Nature; (3.) Destruction.
(1.) In verse 2 he describes their rise and original: it was " from the strivings of the four winds of the heavens upon the great sea;" he compares them to the most violent, imcontroUable, and tumultu- ating things in the whole creation. Winds and seas ! — what waves, what horrible storms, what mixing of heaven and earth, what confu- sion and destruction must needs ensue the fierce contest of all con- trary winds upon the gi'eat sea ! Such are the springs of empires and governments for the most part amongst men,- — svich their entrances and advancements. In particular, such were the beginnings of the four empires here spoken of. Wars, tumults, confusions, blood, destnic- tion, desolation, were the seeds of their greatness: " Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem adpellant," Galgac. apud Tacit. [AgT., 30.] Seas and great waters do, in the Scripture, represent people and nations. Rev. xvii. 15, " The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." As " waters," they are unstable, fierce, restless, tumultuating ; and when God mingleth his judgments amongst them, they are as " a sea of glass mingled with fire," — brittle, uncertain, devouring, and implacable. It is a demonstration of the sovereignty of God, that he is above them, Ps. xciii. 3, 4, " The floods have lifted up, 0 Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." Now, from these, tossed with the winds of commotions, seditions, oppressions, passions, do flow the governments of the world, the Spirit of God moving upon the face of those waters, to bring forth those forms and frames of rule which he will make use of
(2.) Unto verse 9 he describes them in order as to their nature and kind; — one of them being then ready to be destroyed, and the other to succeed, until the utter desolation of them all, and all power rising in their spirit and principle.
I shall not jDass through their particular description, nor stay to prove that the fourth beast, without name or special fonn, is the Roman emj)ire; which I have elsewhere^ demonstrated, and it is something else which at this time I aim at. This is that which troubles and giieves the spirit of Daniel m the midst of his body. He saw what worldly powers should arise, — by what honible tumults, shakings, confusions, and violence they should spring up, — with what
' Sermon on Heb. xii. 27. VOL. YIII, 24
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fieicenesSj cruelty, and persecution, they sliould rule in the world, and stamp all under their feet.
(3.) Their end and destruction is revealed unto hiin, from verse 10 unto verses 12, 13; and this by the appearance of " the Ancient of days" (the eternal God) in judgment against them; which he sets out with that solemnity and glory, as if it were the great judg- ment of the last day; — God, indeed, thereby giving a pledge unto the world of that universal judgiiient he will one day exercise towards all, " by the man whom he hath ordained," Acts xvii. 31. And this increaseth the terror of the vision, to have such a repre- sentation of the glory of God as no creature is able to bear. God also manifests hereby his immediate actings in the setting up and pulling down the powers of this world ; which he doth as fully and effectually as if he sat upon a throne of judgment, calling them all by name to appear in his presence, and, upon the evidence of their ways, cruelties, and oppression, pronouncing sentence against them. " Be wise, therefore, 0 ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling," Ps. ii. 11, 12. " He changeth the times and seasons," Dan. ii. 21. " He naleth in the kingdom of men, and setteth over it whom he pleaseth," chap. V. 21.