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of a puritan, and was a certain obstacle to preferment, for any man to preach that the pope was Antichrist38,"

That the despotism of princes, as well as of priests, is represented by Daniel and by John, in various parts of their respective prophecies, will, I believe, be satisfactorily evinced in the following chapters. But though the exercise of civil tyranny is foretold, and with clearness, it was not necessary for the prophet to be so minute as in his predictions of ecclesiastical cruelty and usurpation. The former had been practised in almost every region of the world; and there needed no supernatural foresight to point out, that it would in future prevail. But the universal prevalence of ecclesiastical tyranny was an event altogether unprecedented and improbable. Such a prediction, if verified, must be confessed to bear on it the marks of having been divinely communicated. In the first century, when the world was heathen, and the religion of Jesus produced its proper effects, what penetration, merely human, could have discovered, that the time would come, when the kings of the earth would give their power and strength to a proud and profligate priesthood, professing Christianity; and that under the pretext of serving a religion, thus mild and pacific, mankind would be slaughtered, and enslaved, and plunged in crimes?

CHAPTER V.

ON THE TEN-HORNED BEAST.

SO often are the two-horned and the ten-horned Beasts mentioned in the Apocalypse, and so much depends on the forming of correct ideas respecting them; that, before I proceed to the examination of any other part of that

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sacred book, it will be proper to give some account of these emblematic personages. The description of them is principally contained in the xiiith chapter. That Horns denote not single kings but kingdoms is now agreed by all the commentators; and it is universally admitted by them, however unwillingly it may often be admitted, that the Ten Kingdoms, mentioned by Daniel and by John, are the modern dynasties of the European world which now subsist.

By Daniel Four Beasts, or oppressive empires, are described. The last of them, having Ten Horns, belongs to the Roman empire, as governed first by the emperors, and afterwards by the Ten Kings, among whom the western empire was partitioned: and it is this emblematic Beast, in its last state, as existing in the time of these monarchies, which St. John represents in his visions. It is for the convenience of the prophetic calculations,' that the Roman western empire is considered as subsisting, though in a new form, under the Ten Kings, among whom it was to be divided'.' The indentity of these two Beasts, that of Daniel and that of John, Romanists and Protestants alike admit. 'The Beast that arose out of the sea (Rev. ch. xiii.),' says that learned Jesuit Alcasar, evidently relates to the fourth Beast in Daniel, ch. vii. That the whole description of it is borrowed from the viith chapter of the prophecy of Daniel3,' is the declaration of Joseph Mede. It is,' says Dr. Cressener, 'unquestionable, that the Fourth Beast in Daniel is the same with the beast in the Revelations, and especially in the time of the little Horn+,'

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'We are to look,' says Sir Isaac Newton, for all the eleven horns of the fourth beast, among the nations on this şide Greece.' With respect to the Greek empire seated at Constantinople,' we are not to reckon it, adds this great author, among the Horns of the fourth Beast, because it belonged to the body of the third.'

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These Ten Horns,'

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says bishop Hallifax, are the Ten Kingdoms of the Latin or western empire'.' 'We must look,' says bishop Newton, for the Ten Kings or Kingdoms, where only they can be found, amid the broken pieces of the Roman empire. The Roman empire, as the Romanists themselves allow, was, by means of the incursions of the northern nations, dismembered into Ten Kingdoms'.' 'Procopius,' says Dr. Worthington, who was half Heathen and half Christian, and who therefore could have but little regard for scripture-prophecies,-reckons up these several nations and they prove to be in number exactly Ten, according to his recital.' 'As if that number of Ten,' says Daubuz, 'had been fatal in the Roman dominions, it hath been taken notice of upon particular occasions. As about A. 1240 by Eberhard, bishop of Saltsburg in the diet at Ratisbon. At the time of the reformation-they were also Ten'.' As the number of the kingdoms,' says Mr. Whiston, into which the Roman empire in Europe, agreeably to the ancient prophecies, was originally divided, A. D. 456, was exactly Ten:-so is it also very nearly returned again to the same condition; and at present is divided into Ten grand or principal kingdoms or states." However, we need not,' as Daubuz observes, to heed much the after-divisions.-The Holy Ghost only takes notice of that number in the origin of the Beast.' We must know,' says Jurieu (speaking of the Ten Horns) 'that things retain the names which they bore in their original, without regarding the alterations which time does bring along". To the same purpose Sir I. Newton. After enumerating the Ten Kingdoms into which the western empire was divided, he observes, some of these kingdoms at length fell, and new ones arose: but whatever was their number afterwards, they are still called the Ten Kings from their first number12.'

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To ch. xiii. of the Apocalypse the most attentive consideration is due. Whilst the Beast with Ten Horns, the representative of the Ten Kings, and the emblem of Civil Tyranny, is pourtrayed in the first ten verses of the chapter; the seven that follow contain an account of another emblematic Beast, having two horns like a lamb, and speaking as a dragon, who is an ecclesiastical personage, and denotes the Antichristian Priesthood and Ecclesiastical Tyranny. That the ten-horned Beast is a personage altogether distinct from the antichristian priesthood, is abundantly evident from a perusal of the xiiith chapter; nor is this less clearly to be deduced from an inspection of the prophetic scenery of the xviith; where the antichristian priesthood are emblematised by a woman sumptuously attired, and this woman is represented as being seated upon the ten-horned Beast.

The account given by St. John of the first Beast is as follows. And I saw a Beast rise up out of the sea, has ing seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the Beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads, as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the Beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the Beast: and they worshipped the Beast, saying, who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the

book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world's.

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This Beast, says Daubuz, is the representative of the 'Ten Monarchies,' which arose out of the ruins of the Roman empire1." 'He represents,' says Mr. Pyle, 'the Civil Powers of the Roman empire,' meaning that empire in its present state, as divided into a number of independent governments. In contradistinction to the other, it is denominated by bishop Newton 'the Secular Beast;' and his lordship correctly says, that whilst the other Beast' enslaves the consciences,' this 'subjugates the bodies of men.' 'St. John,' says the prelate saw this Beast rising out of the sea, but the Roman empire was risen and established long before St. John's time, and therefore this must be the Roman empire, not in its then present, but in some future shape and form; and it arose in another shape and form, after it was broken to pieces by the incursions of the northern nations. And the sovereignty, which before was exercised by Rome alone, was now transferred and divided among Ten Kingdoms". In correspondence with this, Mr. Pyle says, 'you have the same Beast in a new shape. -It is no longer a pagan empire; but it is the same dominion under Ten weak Tyrants.' Those Ten Kingdoms of the Roman empire,' says Mr. Whiston", which arose in the fifth century, are that great Beast with seven heads1s and ten horns.' But important as the subject is, I

13 The last clause Mr. Wakefield renders somewhat differently. Whose names are not written from the foundation of the world, in the book of life of the lamb that was slaughtered.

14 See p. 618.

16 P. 101.

15 Vol. III. p. 207.

17 P. 115. This empire under its Ten Kings,' Mr. Whiston else. where says, became very large, and proud, and blasphemous, and idolatrous.' P. 218.

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18 The mention of the seven heads serves an important purpose. First, it ascertains with precision in what part of the world the Ten Monarchies, signified by the Ten Horns, were to be erected. For it denotes, that they were to be reared in the countries at that time belonging to the Roman emperors, since, as bishop Newton remarks, the seven heads are the well

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