These different passages all describe the same circumstance: consequently, whatever is the import of the one, must likewise be the import of both the others.

With respect to the vision, the appearance, which presented itself to Daniel, seems to have been this. While the prophet was contemplating the ten horns of the beast, he beheld an eleventh little horn gradually, and as it were by stealth, springing up among them.* As this little horn was slowly arising, three of the first ten horns, which were "before it" or in its immediate vicinity, so as by their position to obstruct its growth, were successively eradicated, and fell prostrate at its feet. Every obstacle being thus removed, the little horn attained its full growth; and occupied the place, which had been before occupied by the three eradicated horns.

Such apparently was the action of the symbols; upon which the interpreting angel observes, that an eleventh kingdom should arise behind the first ten kingdoms, and should depress three of them. Now, since it is said, in one passage, that the three horns were plucked up before the little horn; in another, that they fell before the little horn; and in a third, that the power represented by the little horn should depress the powers represented by the three horns: a question arises, which can only be determined by the event: namely, whether this smaller power should depress three of the first powers immediately or mediately, by his own proper exertions or by the instrumentality of others? History is ever the best interpreter of prophecy; and by its decisions we may always safely abide. Daniel specially informs us, that three of the first ten kingdoms, into which the empire should be divided, were to be plucked up before the little horn. Hence it is evident, that we must look for the completion of the prophecy among the ten first kingdoms, and among those only. Now we do not find, as it shall be presently shewn from history, that any three of the ten original

* He seems to have overlooked the little born at first, owing to its diminutive size, and to its springing up behind the other horns; and to have fixed his attention entirely upon the ten horns: till it was diverted from them by the increasing size of the little born.

kingdoms were ever literally depressed by the immediate exertions of an eleventh smaller kingdom: but we do find, that precisely three of them were eradicated by the instrumentality of each other, of the Greeks, and of the Franks, before an eleventh little horn, which had been gradually rising in the midst of troublesome times, and which at length occupied the place of its three depressed predecessors. Thus does history at once interpret the prophecy, and undeniably point out to us the power intended by the little horn.

2. As the three horns are to be sought for among the ten first horns, we must obviously learn what those ten first horns are, before we can inquire with any prospect of success for the three which were to be eradicated before the little horn. The historian Machiavel, whom I connot but consider as the best, because the most unprejudiced, judge of the manner in which the Roman empire was divided, very undesignedly, and (as Bp. Chandler remarks) little thinking what he was doing, reckons up the ten primary kingdoms as follows: 1. The Ostrogoths in Mesia; 2. The Visigoths in Pannonia ; 3. The Sueves and Alans in Gasgoigne and Spain; 4. The Vandals in Africa; 5. The Franks in France; 6. The Burgundians in Burgundy; 7. The Heruli and Turingi in Italy; 8. The Saxons and Angles in Britain; 9. The Huns in Hungary; and 10. The Lombards, at first upon the Danube, afterwards in Italy.† The self-same catalogue is exhibited by that excellent chronologer Bp. Lloyd, who adds the dates when these ten kingdoms arose : 1. The Huns about A. D. 356; 2. The Ostrogoths, 377; 3. The Visigoths, 378; 4. The Franks, 407; 5. The Vandals, 407; 6. The Sueves and Alans, 407; 7. The Burgundians, 407; 8. The Heruli and Rugii, 476; 9. The Saxons, 476; 10. The Longobards in the north of Germany, 483; in Hungary, 526.‡

These then, upon the concurring testimony of an historian and a chronologer, are the ten kimgdoms into which

* In fact, we do not find that any three kingdoms were subdued by the immediate force of the Papacy. The Pope himself neither subdued the kingdom of the Lombards, the state of Rome, nor the Exarchate.

the Roman empire was originally divided, and conse quently they are the ten first horns of which we are in quest. Hence, if ever three kingdoms were plucked up before a little kingdom which arose imperceptibly among the ten primary kingdoms, they must be three, the names of which occur in the preceding list of Machiavel and Bp. Lloyd. Accordingly we shall find, that the kingdom of the Heruli, the kingdom of the Ostrogoths, and the kingdom of the Lombards, were successively eradicated before the little papal horn, which at length became a temporal no less than a spiritual power at the expence of these three depressed primary states.

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1. In the year 476, Odoacer king of the Heruli* put an end to the western empire, and caused himself to be proclaimed king of Italy. By this conquest he stood before," or in the way of, the papal horn; whence it was necessary, that his regal horn should be plucked up in order to make room for the future aggrandisement of the spiritual kingdom of the Pope. This was effected, in the year 493, by Theodoric king of the Ostrogoths. Leading his hardy troops from their original settlement in Mesia and the neighbourhood of Constantinople, he descended from the Julian Alps, and displayed his banners on the confines of Italy. Victory crowned his enterprize; from the Alps to the extremity of Calabria Theodoric reigned by right of conquest; and he was accepted as the deliverer of Rome by the Senate and the people.

2. This second of the three horns however, standing equally in the way of papal aggrandizement, was destined, like its immediate predecessor, to fall before the little

* Disputes have arisen respecting the proper name of Odoacer's subjects, but they are disputes which are of little consequence to the completion of the prophecy. Machiavel styles his kingdom, that of the Heruli and Turingi; Bp. Lloyd, that of the Heruli and Rugii; and Mr. Gibbon asserts, that his immediate and hereditary subjects were the tribe of the Scyrri, while the Italian kingdom which he founded was composed of various clans of Gothic mercenaries, among which the names of the Heruli, the Scyrri, the Alani, the Turcilingi, and the Rugians, appear to have predominated. Be this as it may, the kingdom, which he did found, was one of the ten primary kingdoms; whence, if its history correspond with the prophecy, it is certainly capable, in its capacity of a primary kingdom, of being reckoned one of the three borns. The accurate particularising of the tribes which composed it cannot make it either more or less a primary kingdom. All possibility of dispute might be avoided, if, in the catalogue of the ten kingdoms, it were styled, the kingdom of Odoacer in Italy, instead of the kingdom of the Heruli and Turingi in Italy or the kingdom of the Heruli and Rugii in Italy.

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horn. After the kingdom of the Ostrogoths had subsisted in Italy its allotted time, it was attacked by Bellisarius; and at length was utterly eradicated by Narses the lieutenant of the Eastern emperor, and his auxiliaries the Lombards.

3. Italy now became a province of the Constantinopolitan empire, and was governed by an imperial officer, who bore the title of Exarch of Ravenna. Scarcely however was the Exarchate established,* when the Lombards, who had lent their assistance to Narses in his attack upon the kingdom of the Ostrogoths, began to meditate the conquest of Italy for themselves. Narses was engaged in the settlement of that country under the government of the Constantinopolitan emperors from the year 554 to the year 568; and it was in the year 567, that Alboin, king of the Lombards, undertook the subjugation of it. Descending from the same Julian Alps that his Gothic predecessor Theodoric had done, he became, without a battle or a siege, master of Italy from the Trentine hills to the gates of Ravenna and Rome.

The exarchate of Ravenna still feebly subsisted, but it was at length completely subdued by the Lombardic monarch Aistulphus about the year 752. This conquest however was only the prelude to the utter eradication of the third and last horn, which interfered with the aggrandisement of the Papacy, and which was therefore to be plucked up by the roots before it. Alarmed at the growing power of Aistulphus, the Pope applied for assistance to Pipin king of France; who, in the course of two successive expeditions into Italy, wrested from that prince the whole district of the Exarchate, and bestowed it in perpetual sovereignty upon the Bishop of Rome. "After this double chastisement, the Lombards languished about twenty years in a state of languor and de

* "The destruction of a mighty kingdom established the fame of Alboin-But his ambition was yet unsatisfied; and the conqueror of the Gepidæ turned his eyes from the Danube to the richer banks of the Po and the Tiber. Fifteen years had not elapsed, since his subjects, the confederates of Narses, had visited the pleasant climate of Italy: the mountains, the rivers, the high-ways, were familiar to their memory: the report of their success, perhaps the view of their spoils, had kindled in the rising generation the flame of emulation and enterprise. Their hopes were encouraged by the spirit and eloquence of Alboin." Hist. of Decline and Fall, Vol. viii. p. 122, 123.

cay. But their minds were not yet humbled to their condition; and, instead of affecting the pacific virtues of the feeble, they peevishly harassed the Romans with a repetition of claims, evasions, and inroads, which they undertook without reflection, and terminated without glory." Charlemagne had now succeeded his father Pipin, and like him assumed the character of the champion of the Church. At the request of the Pope he formally undertook his cause; entered Italy at the head of a large army; completely eradicated the horn of Lombardy; and bestowed great part of its dominions upon the successors of St. Peter.

Thus were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots before an eleventh little horn, which silently arose among them, till it had supplanted the three horns, that stood in its way and prevented its full expansion.†

* Mr. Sharpe briefly observes, that the three horns, eradicated before the little born, were "the three Gothic kingdoms," or "the three distinct national governments of Gothic kings, seated successively in Rome itself:" and he adds, that these three kingdoms constituted the short-lived seventh head of the beast mentioned in the Apocalypse; that the last of them was wounded to death by the sword of Justinian in the hand of Bellisarius; and that the whole period of their joint dominion amounted not to more than 70 years. (See Append. to three Tracts, p. 43-An Inquiry into the description of Babylon, p. 8, 9---and Append. to Inquiry, p. 2, 3, 4, 5.) What three Gothic kingdoms Mr. Sharpe alludes to, I cannot imagine from his chronological and circumstantial description of them. I am only aware of the three following Gothic kingdoms having been ever seated in Italy: that of the Heruli; that of the the Ostrogoths; and that of the Lombards. Of these Justinian only subverted that of the Ostrogoths: as for that of the Lombards, it continued many years after the termination of his reign; and, after overturning the government of the Greek Emperors in Italy, it was in its turn destroyed by Charlemagne. So again Mr. Sharpe speaks of three Gothic kingdoms seated in Italy previous to the reign of Justinian, and jointly continuing about 70 years. Upon adverting to history, we shall find, that the two Gothic kingdoms of the Heruli and the Ostrogoths continued something more than 70 years; and that the last of them was subdued by Justinian; but it will prove a vain labour to look for a third, the duration of which jointly with that of the other two shall amount to about 70 years. The whole duration of the three kingdoms of the Heruli, the Ostrogoths, and the Lombards, comprehends a space, not merely of 70 years, but of little less than three centuries: for the kingdom of the Heruli was erected in the year 476, and the kingdom of the Lombards was subverted by Charlemagne in the year 774. As for these three kingdoms, they cannot be at once both three horns and the seventh bead of the self same beast at the self-same time and in the self-same capacity: both because such an opinion is a palpable contradiction, confounding together in a strange manner the different members of the beast; and because 298 years, the period of their joint duration, can scarcely be called so very short a time, compared with the duration of any of the other heads. It is to be wished, that Mr. Sharpe had explicitly said what three Gothic kingdoms he intended.

Bp. Newton's Dissert. on Rev. xiii. and xvii.- Hist. of Decline and Fall, Vol. vi. p. 226-237-Ibid. Vol. vii. p. 11-15, 214-257, 353 -398-Ibid. Vol. viii. p. 122, 126, 127, 145, 147—Ibid. Vol. ix. p. 145–150, 156-159-Bp. Newton's Dissert, XIV,