are but as the impurities, and the filth of which the church must be purged and cleansed. This is particularly applicable to the present state of many churches, in which persecution of the truth has ceased; but by means of false teachers, they have by degrees been prevailed upon to give up that faith, for which their fathers so earnestly contended; and though, as it were by destiny, the public and avowed profession remains the same, to be a testimony against their unfaithfulness; there are found but very few, and they hated and despised, who hold the doctrines of their own churches in purity and sincerity. Thus it is to be even to the end; because it is yet for a time appointed. Compare the fifty-eighth and fifty-ninth chapters of Isaiah.

36." And the king shall do according to his will."

No small diversity of opinion is found among expositors on this and the following verses. All, however, are pretty well agreed, that by " the king," in this place, "must be understood the Roman state, under what kind of government soever.' That government, in its last form, was symbolized in the former visions by the "feet and toes" of an image, " part of iron, and part of clay;" and again by ten horns, after which came up another little horn. These symbols have already been deciphered of the present sovereignties of Europe, together with the papacy and it is very clear, that we are to look for no other remarkable opponent of God and his church distinct from these powers. For it is on the feet of the image, which are "part of iron, and part of clay," and that will not cleave together, that the stone strikes. "In the days

* Mede.

of those kings, the God of heaven sets up a kingdom :" and whatever mystery veils the particular judgment of the "little horn," as distinguished from that of " the fourth beast,” in general, the words, which the horn spake, it should seem, are considered in the sitting of that judgment, which gives the body of the beast to the burning fire. So that, I think, we may safely say, that the sovereignties of Roman Catholic Europe, by whatever power or influence combined to act together, or however they divide the actual authority of the Roman state between them, are "THE KING" here spoken of." He shall do according to his will." This has been understood to denote the lawless character of the king; hence the "wilful king" of Mr. Faber. But as the same expressions are found in a former verse, respecting the successful progress of the Macedonian Alexander, no more may be meant than the unchecked and uncontrolled prosperity of the empire in its conflicts with other nations, or against the cause and people of God.

-"And he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every God; and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished, for," or "when-that which is determined shall be done."

Mr. Mede, Sir Isaac, Bishop Newton, and many others, interpret this of the abominations of the papacy; and consider the passage as parallel with the description of the little horn of the former vision, "having a mouth speaking great things," which is explained," he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change times and laws," &c. Mr. Faber, and more recent expositors, are of opinion, that we have here exhibited the

new character, which the fourth, or Roman empire, assumes towards the last, when, bursting the bands of its superstitious devotion to the papacy, it stands forth in the avowed character of Antichrist.

It is with me a mystery how far the superstitions of the Roman Catholic religion do give place, in the fourth empire, to that more avowed opposition to all religion of infidel philosophy. I think it is a fact, that it does do so to a considerable extent; and it is respecting this alteration of character, that Mr. Faber and others, by the help of the very recent history of Europe, have thrown great light upon prophecy. But he and most others acknowledge, that we find popery and infidelity strangely blended together till the very last judgments. I have no doubt, however, that the "magnifying himself above every god," in this place, especially from a comparison of Daniel, vii. 25; and 2 Thess. ii. 4, should be considered as describing, not modern infidelity, but the high presumption, and blasphemous claims, of the Roman Catholic powers, in their perversion of the true doctrines of the Gospel; and in the substitution of the abominations of the papacy, instead of the ordinances of primitive Christianity.

Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women; nor regard any god, for he shall magnify himself above all."

Mr. Faber has applied this with considerable show of argument to modern infidelity, as distinguished from the papistical idolatry; and though the application be generally wrong, must, I conceive, have been successful in his interpretation of " the Desire of women," as an epithet of the Redeemer, rather than as an obscure intimation of the

Roman Catholic doctrine of the merit of celibacy, and of the policy of the papacy in enjoining it upon the clergy, according to the more ancient interpreters. How the epithet of "the Desire of women" should apply to our incarnate Jehovah, every reader of Scripture will be ready to explain and as it is mentioned here among objects of worship, I have no doubt Mr. Faber is right in applying it to "the woman's Seed;" but I still think the passage has in view the Roman Catholic apostacy, without considering it as yet merged in modern infidelity. The Roman Catholic has shown a total disregard to God, that God which his fathers, the primitive Christians, worshipped, and has bestowed consideration1 neither on God nor on his Christ. "The true God and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent," were then disregarded, when he thought" and successfully devised "to change times and laws." He did not, indeed, bestow that consideration which he withdrew from the true God and his only Son upon another God; but he assumed the attributes of God to himself, and perverted all to his own temporal interest, and yet, as we shall see in the sequel, has not "kept himself from idols," in a secondary sense. Such strikes me as being the true explanation of this verse.

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38. "But in his estate he shall honour the God of forces, and a God whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones."

"But in his estate," when he has established himself, he shall honour" for God," or " with God," or "before God," Mahuzzim, Maozim, or Mozim. I retain the

original word. This word has but two significations in Scripture it signifies a fortress or strong place, or an object of religious trust-the supplier and resource of strength. As Psalm xxvii. 1, "God is the STRENGTH of my life;" Prov. x. 29, "The way of the Lord is STRENGTH to the upright;" and Isaiah, xxx. 3, "Therefore shall the STRENGTH of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion." There can be no doubt that we are to understand in this place Mahuzzim as the objects of religious trust, the supposed suppliers of strength and protection: and history shows the application clear "to the canonized saints which popery has enshrined with the true God," and to bestow honour on whom he has disregarded God and his Son, as is notorious. 1

"And a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour."

I am strongly inclined to be of their opinion who conceive that this is fulfilled in the adoration which the Papists pay to the host, or consecrated wafer. It is a god, or object of worship, unknown, even by report, to their Christian forefathers: and the term applied to this object of worship in the following verse, "a strange. god," always denotes, in the Hebrew language, some object of idolatrous worship; and such is certainly the "breaden god" of the Romanists. How this object of the idolatrous superstition of Rome, with the canonized saints, have been honoured with gold, and silver, and precious stones, and desirable things, forms a most glaring feature in the history, through many ages, and in the present display of the Roman Catholic worship.