DANIEL, the fourth of the greater prophets, was born in Judæa of the tribe of Judah, about the 25th year of the reign of Josiah. He was led captive to Babylon, with other young Hebrew lords, after the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, who took them into his service. That prince gave them masters to instruct them in the language and sciences of the Chaldeans, and ordered them to be fed with the most delicate viands; but they, fearing that they should eat meat forbidden by the law of Moses, desired the king's officers to allow them only pulse. The wisdom and conduct of Daniel pleasing Nebuchadnezzar, that prince gave him several posts of honour. It is commonly believed, that this prophet, when but 12 years of age, made known the innocence of the chaste Susannah; but the learned are not agreed, that the young Daniel, who confounded the old men, was the same with this prophet. However, he explained Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the mysterious statue, which foretold the four great monarchies; on which account he was made prefect of the province of Babylon. In the reign of Darius the king of the Medes, he refused to adore the golden statue of the king, and was cast into the lions den, when those beasts, tho' pinched with hunger, did him no manner of hurt. And he explained the characters written on the wall of the room where Belshazzar was feasting.
It is believed that Daniel died in Chaldæa, and that he did not take advantage of the permission granted by Cyrus to the Jews of returning to their own country. St Epiphanius says he died at Babylon; and herein he is followed by the generality of historians. The first six chapters of the book of Daniel are an history of the kings of Babylon, and what befel the captive Jews under their government. In the six last he is altogether prophetical, foretelling not only what should happen
to his own church and nation, but events in which foreign princes were concerned; particularly the rise and downfall of the four secular monarchies of the world, and the establishment of the fifth, or spiritual kingdom of the Messiah. "Amongst the old prophets (says the great Sir Isaac Newton), Daniel is the most distinct in the order of time, and easiest to be understood; and therefore, in those things which relate to the last times, he must be made key to the rest.—His prophecies are all of them related to one another, as if they were but several parts of one general prophecy. The first is the easiest to be understood, and every following prophecy adds something to the former."