He shall speak great words— Symmachus reads, He shall speak great words, as the Most High; setting up himself above all laws divine and human; arrogating to himself godlike attributes, and titles of holiness and infallibility. Exacting obedience to his ordinances and decrees, in preference to, and in open violation of reason and Scripture; insulting men and blaspheming God. In Gratian's Decretals, the pope has the title of god given to him!
And shall wear out the saints— By wars, and massacres, and inquisitions, persecuting and destroying the faithful servants of Jesus, and the true worshippers of God, who protest against his innovations, and refuse to comply with the idolatry practised in the court of Rome. Instead of, wear out, Houbigant reads, lie in wait for, or form schemes of deceit against. He shall think to change times and laws;—appointing fasts and feasts, canonizing saints, granting pardons and indulgences for sins, instituting new modes of worship, imposing new articles of faith, enjoining new rules of practice, and reversing at pleasure the laws of God and man.
And they shall be given, &c.— A time, all agree, signifies a year, and a time and times, and the dividing of time, or half a time, are three years and a half: the ancient Jewish year consisting of twelve months, and each month of thirty days; a time, and times, and half a time, are reckoned in Revelation 11:2-3; Revelation 6:14 as equivalent to forty-two months, or a thousand two hundred and threescore days: and a day, in the style of the prophets, is a year. This is expressly asserted, Ezekiel 4:6 and it is confessed, that the seventy weeks, in chap. 9: of this book, are weeks of years, and consequently one thousand two hundred and sixty days are one thousand two hundred and sixty years. So long antichrist, or the little horn, will continue; but from what point of time the commencement of these twelve hundred and sixty years is to be dated, is not so easy to determine. It should seem that they are to be computed from the full establishment of the power of the pope; and no less is implied in the expression given into his hand.