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if there be added to it the parallelism of the 42 months, the length of the first and second woes, which is analogous to these, the inter- vals after the first and the second woe, the union of the beast and the woman, must persuade even those who depend on 'pontifical authority, of the true interpretation of the whole prophecy.
We return to the subject itself. The ellipsis of a u year” is of frequent occurrence. Xenophon, o/ Sha dfi v\$r\c, who are passing the tenth year from their puberty. Plato, lib. vi. de legib., xar kvtuv- rov Ss i Jvcti zai /my} /xazponpov %pri rqv iipufflivYiv i zdffroj. in Si /uij iXarrov i^rjxovrcc tifi/v lir} yiyovug 6 yiXkm zatf iipovg vopovg <xipi ra OiTa, izavug dyiffnvuv. Polybius, bzTwzaibizu yiyovug, of eighteen years. But Dio Cass, appropriately to this passage, ro<r a yeyom , as though he should say, this is my number , that is, of years. The two last in- stances are contained in the Greek ellipses of Bos : and, from all the instances which he has collected of substantives that are usually omitted, you may perceive that nothing but irog is suitable to this passage. In Daniel mention is made of lxx. weeks, the word, yearly times , being understood. Therefore 6 dpi^hbg rov Oripiou is equivalent to 6 a ptQfJsbg ruv iruv rob Oripiov, just as dpi&fihg yivr\[j,druv is equivalent to dpiQfiog iv/avruv yivri/jjuruv, Lev. xxv. 15, 16.
This ellipsis of years is not without advantage. If they had been expressly mentioned by name, the reader would have been liable to confound together times strictly and figuratively denoted, with an error which would create many disturbances ; whereas now ordi- nary years conceal their own title, in sight of the prophetic months. So much the less ought the human times to cause us any difficulty in this book, since they are so sparingly and providently attempered with so many prophetical times, and so therefore without any danger of their being confounded with one another. For we do not pass by a leap, but we are gradually led from the prophetic times to the ordinary years which are here indicated by the ellipsis, and then in succession to the ordinary years, which are expressly mentioned as such in ch. xx. But the ellipsis even contributes to the season- ableness of the enigma, not only with reference to the beast, to whom, in the same mysterious manner as to the king of Babylon of old, the number and consummation of his kingdom is written before his eyes, Dan. v. 26, but also with reference to the saints, who would have been disheartened by the long duration of those most sorrowful times, if they had known it, both on their own account and on account of their friends ; for they did not imagine that so many years remained, even to the world itself. But it is evident