Matthew Poole and continuators on Daniel 2:45

45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountains without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and the gold , the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter : and the dream is certain , and the interpretation thereof sure .

1. This notes the small beginning of Christ Kingdom visibly. 2. The different rise of Christs from all other; His Conception by the Holy Ghost, like as Melchizedeck, without Father and Mother, respectively as to his two Natures; Isa. 9.6. who shall declare his Generation; his name shall be called wonderful. 3. This stone as a heavy Rock, tumbling down from the Mountain, brake the image in pieces, which could not be said any other did so. 4. Christ is a stone that grinds to powder those it falls on. He is the pretious foundation and chief corner stone of his Church for ever. 5. He is a growing stone even to a Mountain, and therefore will fill the Earth, 1 Cor. 15.24.

i. e. The great God hath shewn all this, who is above all the Kings of the Earth, and only knows, and decrees, and effects future things, who only doth great and wondrous things.

i. e. This dream is no ordinary dream, but an Oracle of God; it is sent from Heaven, and gives a perfect scheme and Prophetical History of things to come, about the special Providence of God, in changing Governors and Governments, with particular regard to his Church under them, and above all, about the Kingdom of Christ, and the growth of it, maugre all the enterprizes of Pagan and Antichristian Rome.

It is not a conjectural guess of the Magicians, and wise men of Babylon, who use to prepare lying words, because they have no knowledge of the true God, and therefore are wholly unacquainted with his secrets, which he revealeth to his Prophets by the Spirit of Prophesie, which he hath now signally imparted to me, which I have faithfully made known unto thee O King.

Marginal references: Isa. 2[illegible: 1 letter].[illegible: 2 letters]; Or, [illegible: 1 word] was [illegible: 1 span]; Chald. [illegible: 1 word] this.