Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/200

 from Daniel (x. 21), it would involve its upholder in the most ridiculous and illogical contradictions. If the angel that appeared on the banks of the Tigris was Christ, who was Michael? and if Michael was Christ, what will the Protestant objector say to the mighty assumptions of power claimed by the other angel?—at least they could not both be Christ, and one of them, at all events, must prove fatal to the Protestant objection.

But to return from this digression to the prophecy. It is the opinion of the learned Protestant interpreter of prophecy, the great Sir Isaac Newton, that the eleventh and twelfth chapters of Daniel are a kind of commentary on his eighth chapter; and in this opinion many very learned Catholic interpreters concur with him. A work of great ability, published at Paris in 1840, and dedicated to Pope Gregory XVI., entitled, "La Fin des Temps," coincides with this view; and although we must confess that it is impossible to read the eleventh chapter of Daniel and not to see that the interpretation of it is involved in many difficulties and great obscurity, still there are parts of it which most evidently supply a commentary on the prophecy of the Little Horn, as given in the eighth chapter.

In discussing the bearings of this eleventh