kingdoms into which the Roman empire was divided after the Gothic invasions; and if one and the same power was not intended to be represented, it is not conceivable that there should be such a resemblance between them. Besides, it is plain from the Prophecies of Daniel, that the Roman empire is the last kingdom which is to rise up against the church of Christ; either then we must suppose the Apocalyptic beast to be the Roman empire, or we shall be driven to the supposition, that Daniel and St. John contradict each other, which is impossible. We must therefore arrive at the conclusion already mentioned.

After the division of the Roman empire into ten kingdoms by the Gothic conquests, all the conquerors embraced the religion of Rome, and submitted to her laws, and thus became intimately connected with one another, so that the different states composing the body of the empire have, down to the present period, formed a species of federal republic, like ancient Greece; which may fitly be represented by the complex symbol seen by the Apostle John.*

That the Roman empire of the west was actually divided into ten different kingdoms, has been shown by different writers on Prophecy: but as some of the kingdoms have at one time fallen, and at another, new states have started into existence, it cannot be

* The perpetual correspondence of the Latin clergy, the frequent pilgrimages to Rome and Jerusalem, and the growing authority of the popes, cemented the union of the Christian republic, and gradually produced the similar manners and common jurisprudence which have distinguished from the rest of mankind the independent and even hostile nations of modern Europe. Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. xxxvii.

expected that the same number should always have continued. About the period of the fall of the western empire, or shortly afterwards, the following tribes seem to have been established in its territories: 1st, the Visigoths in Gaul and Spain; 2d, the Suevi in Spain; 3d, the Heruli in Italy; 4th, the Franks in Belgium; 5th, the Burgundians in Burgundy; 6th, the Saxons in Britain; 7th, the Huns in Hungary; 8th, the Ostrogoths in Moesia; 9th, the Lombards in Pannonia; 10th, the Vandals in Africa. These may be considered as the ten primitive horns of the beast; and though the number of kingdoms has varied from time to time, yet it has been remarked by Daubuz: "As if the number "ten had been fatal in the Roman dominions, it has "been taken notice of on particular occasions; as "about 1240, by Eberhard, Bishop of Saltzburg, "in the Diet at Ratisbon. At the time of the "reformation they were also ten."* "As the "number of 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." It is remarkable, that at the present period also, the number of regal governments within the limits of the western Roman empire is exactly ten. They are as follows: 1. Austria, 2. Bavaria, 3. England, 4. France, 5. Naples, 6. Netherlands, 7. Portugal, 8. Sardinia, 9. Spain, 10. Wirtemberg.

* Illustrations of Prophecy, p. 52. + Ibid.

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Viz. the year 1817.

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I shall now proceed to consider another feature of this beast. He had seven heads.-In the seventeenth chapter, he is introduced a second time in union with the harlot Babylon the Great, and a more particular account is there given of his origin, and the meaning of the seven heads. "The beast that thou sawest,

was, and is not: and shall ascend out of the bot"tomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that "dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names 66 were not written in the book of life, from the "foundation of the world, when they behold the "beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And here " is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. "And there are seven kings, five are fallen, and one "is, and the other is not yet come, and when he "cometh he must continue a short space. And the "beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, "and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. "And the ten horns which thou sawest, are ten

kings, which have received no kingdom as yet: "but receive power as kings, one hour with the "beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall

"make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall "overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and "King of kings: and they that are with him, are 66 called, and chosen, and faithful.”*

The seven kings, which in the above passage are designated by the seven heads of the beast, have by the general consent of interpreters been understood to signify the forms of government, under

* Rev. xvii. 8-14.

which the Roman kingdom was successively to subsist. With respect to the first six of these forms, no difference of opinion appears to obtain among writers of authority. It is agreed that the five, which in verse 10 are declared to be fallen, were, 1. kings, 2. consuls, 3. dictators, 4. decemvirs, 5. military tribunes with consular authority, and that the sixth, which was in existence at the time of the apostle, was the imperial government of the Cæsars.

There is, however, a great diversity of sentiment with respect to the seventh form of government, and likewise the eighth, which is emphatically declared to be the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. In the first edition of this work, I supposed the French imperial government of Napoleon Bonaparte to be the seventh form, and that the eighth was still future. I now believe that interpretation to have been totally erroneous; and after carefully considering what has been said on the subject by the best writers, I at length rest in the following, as being the true solution of the point in question. It is the same in substance, as that offered by Dr. Henry More.

I conceive the sixth head of the beast to have represented the heathen imperial government of the Cæsars, till the accession of Constantine, and the consequent establishment of Christianity, as the religion of the empire:-and that upon the defeat and dethronement of Licinius, the last of the heathen emperors, the sixth head fell to rise no more, no notice being taken of the ephemeral reign of Julian.*

* It is objected to this interpretation, that the heathen imperial and the Christian imperial powers, being one and the same in form

The seventh head appears to denote the Christian imperial power from Constantine to Augustulus,

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and name, could not be signified by distinct heads. I myself was of this opinion formerly, but more mature consideration led me to abandon it. Dr. Henry More's observations on this point are well worthy of consideration. He says: "Nor is there the least ground "of any cavil against our last subdivision, which is of emperors into "Pagan, purely Christian, and Pagano-Christian, as if there were not a cause fundamental enough of this last distribution; whereas, on "the contrary, there is such a strong opposition betwixt the two first "members thereof that one outs the other, the seventh king being "the wounder and killer of the sixth head. And forasmuch as when a religion is made the religion of a kingdom or empire, it is in a sort "the law of that empire; it may be rationally conceived that there "is even a political difference betwixt a Christian and a Pagan emperor. And lastly, be that how it will, it is plain to all men, "that there is a very eminent and notorious difference betwixt a "Christian and a Pagan emperor, and of more concernment to the "church of God, than any political distinction of government. And "that which most concerns his church, we may be assured God takes "most notice of, and therefore would be as likely to distinguish the "succession of supreme governors by this difference as by any.

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“Nay, I think I may safely add, that it is likely that when once "the angel had come to the division of the heads, or rather kings, "into Christian and Pagano-Christian, he did wholly neglect the "consideration of the political differences of forms of government "in the empire, that notion being now impertinent, to his design, and " contented himself with the distinction of them from the account of religion only. But till this be numbered according to the distinc"tion of political form, they all of them till now agreeing in pure paganism. So that the sense of " the beast that was and is not, his "head is the eighth king," seems to be this: that supreme power, be "the political frame or title of it what it will, which is over the "beast revived, that is, over the empire, idolatrizing again, all that "succession, pitch upon it where you will, be it pope, be it emperor, " is looked upon as the eighth king, or last head of More's Works, p. 586. London, 1708.

of the beast."

In the above quotation, by Pagano-Christian the reader will understand, that the state of the empire, when it relapses into idolatry under the name of Christianity, is designed. The passage is one of peculiar value, though I am not sure that I can completely acquiesce in all the observations which it contains. api muita a odt ber