distinct intimation is here given that the individuals or nations who shall trample upon, or "tread under foot," the " holy city," are "Gentiles"—or in other words Pagans: those who had relapsed from the simplicity of the Gospel into a religion resembling the ancient idolatry of the heathen. And this at once identifies them as Papists; for even Gibbon could say (vol. ix. p. 261)" that the Christians of the seventh century had insensibly relapsed into a semblance of Paganism. Their public and private vows were addressed to relics and images," &c. These Gentiles, or Paganizing Christians, are permitted to occupy the court that is without the temple. They are the characters that were to form the visible professing church of Christ throughout the Western Roman empire; and are those who were to "tread under foot," and otherwise cast every species of ignominy upon, all that is lovely and excellent in the Christian name: whilst those who are said to be measured, sealed, or taken an account of, were the mystical Israelites-those who worship God within the temple, and who form the true spiritual church; but who were, during the tyranny of the Papal nations, to be in a great measure hid from the view of the world. The third and last remark necessary to make here is, that these "Gentiles" are further identified as the Papal nations by the length of time they are predicted to form the professing church, being the same as that of the Popish apostasy" forty and two months," or 1260 years. The above remarks on the "first prophecy" of this Second Aspect under which Popery appears, afford a correct clue to the interpretation of the " second prophecy," and enable us, with a considerable degree of certainty, to apply the particular description there given, of a ten-horned beast of the sea, to the "Gentiles" above noticed, and consequently to the Papal nations. And that such an application fully accords with every characteristic of the ten kingdoms of the Western Roman Empire, will appear from the following considerations. 1. From this beast being described as rising up out of the sea-that is, out of the agitated state of the empire occasioned by the devastations, ravages, and overthrows of the Goths and Vandals: it could therefore be no other than the kingdoms of the divided Roman empire. 2. From the number of its heads and horns being the same as those in which the Roman empire was described in the vision of the former chapter-namely, "seven heads and ten horns: it must therefore signify the same empire. 3. From the ten horns in this hieroglyphic being crowned, which must therefore have a reference to ten kingdoms, or the Roman empire in its now divided state. 4. From the qualities here given to this beast agreeing with those assigned to "the fourth beast" in Daniel's vision; and which fourth beast signified the Roman empire (see Daniel vii. 7). It has been well observed, that, after representing the three kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, and Greece, under the symbols of a lion, and a bear, and a leopard, the Roman empire is described in Daniel's vision as a nondescript, no one animal being found sufficiently monstrous to represent its dreadful and terrible nature. And this idea of its unprecedented savageness is strictly kept up in this vision, by uniting the compound qualities of all the three former empires into one; and representing it under the similitude of a leopard, with the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion! 5. From these ten kingdoms being here said to possess the "power, seat, and great authority" of the Roman empire in its Pagan and undivided state. 6. From one of its heads being "as it were wounded to death :" which is the state of the Western Roman world at this moment. When Augustulus was deposed, in the year 476, and the Western empire became extinct for above three hundred years, the Eastern empire, as a then integral part of the Roman territory, was in existence under its sixth or imperial head. It was the fall of the Emperor Napoleon, in 1815, which left the empire, for the first time, without a head. It is here said, however, that "his deadly wound was healed: " which is another proof that one of the seven" heads will revive, as has been already enlarged upon in considering Daniel's last vision. 7. From this symbolical beast having been the wonder and dread of the world. Perhaps the combined strength and magnificence of these ten kingdoms was never more strikingly displayed than in the repeated Crusades that were, in the very zenith of Popery, made against the Mohammedan power in the Holy Land and there was no event that ever more completely identified them as belonging to the Papal apostasy. And during the whole period of their existence, which is now nearly 1260 years, they have stood in the most elevated position of any empire in the world. 8. It is another proof that this "beast" is symbolical of the Papal nations, from its blasphemies being described in similar language to that which is used by Daniel in speaking of the "little horn" that was to spring up among the ten horns of the Roman empire. (See Dan. vii. 8, 11, 20, 25, compared with Rev. xiii. 5, 6.) 9. The chronological term here used, and which I have already so fully noticed, while it limits the existence of this ten-horned beast to 1260 years, furnishes at the same time one of the clearest proofs of its identification with the Papal nations. And this fact, that the exist ence of these ten nations, as forming the ten toes of Daniel's great image, is thus limited; and which limit, according to the evidence I have been able to bring forward, appears to have so short a time before it will be run out; while it countenances the important conclusions I have come to in the general interpretation of unfulfilled prophecy, is of itself, independent of any other prophecy, calculated to excite the deepest alarm in the minds of all those who have any reverence for the word of God. For when it comes to this, that God is pleased, in addition to the many other prophecies that bear upon the subject, expressly to mention this date as the date of the actual existence of the Western empire, we shall find we have need of other sources of dependence than any arm of flesh-any systems of human policy—or than the most powerful and best-disciplined fleets and armies. When God's right arm is bared for war, |