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/54

 length the prophecy of Daniel in reference to Mahomet and the Mahometan apostacy. The same view is also maintained in a learned work, published at Paris in 1844, and dedicated to the late Pope Gregory XVI., entitled, "La Fin des Temps." The same is upheld in another most admirable treatise, entitled, "Preuves Incontestables de la Vérité de l'Eglise Catholique déduites de l'Apocalypse." In the prophecy, therefore, which we are now considering, "Unto evening and morning, two thousand three hundred days, and the sanctuary shall be cleansed," we understand that from the date symbolized by the word evening, to that symbolized by the word morning, a period of two thousand three hundred years was to elapse; at the end of which the event signified by the cleansing of the sanctuary will take place.

And here we must observe a very important remark made by the great St. Jerome; he tells us that in some versions of the Book of Daniel, the words are not written "two thousand three hundred," but "two thousand two hundred days." "Quidam pro duobus millibus trecentis, duo millia ducentos legunt." (Hieron. in Dan. tom. v. p. 589.) And this we apprehend to be the truer reading, because it seems to us to agree better with the prophecy of the