John flood on the fand of the fea, and saw this beaft rise up out of the fea, not out of the earth, like another beast defcribed in verfe 11th. This kingdom therefore was to rife out of a fluctuating and diffolved ftate of civil fociety, and when the greateft violence of that unfettled ftate of fociety had abated confiderably. -Accordingly, it was after the Roman empire had been overrun, violently agitated, and even entirely diffolved by the Goths and Vandals, and other northern barbarous nations; it was after the violence of thefe convulfions had in a good measure fubfided; it was after the city of Rome for a confiderable time had ceased to be the feat of government, that in the year 756 the Pope was vefted with a temporal dominion in Rome by Pepin king of France, as the very first temporal prince there after the diffolution of the empire. That temporal dominion in that feat of government he and his fucceffors have held to this day.

This beaft had feven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blafphemy. In chap. xvii. 9, 10. it is faid, "The feven heads are feven mountains, on which "the woman fitteth, and there are feven kings.' From which, as fhall be fully fhewn in that place, the feven heads fignify that the feat of this tempo. ral kingdom fhall be in a city which is built upon feven hills, and that there fhall be feven different forms of civil government in fucceffion, which fhall

all

all have that city for their feat. This defcription exactly agrees to the Roman empire, and to no other empire which has ever been in the world. For the city of Rome is built upon seven hills, and the prefent or Papal form of government which did not commence for about 600 years after John wrote this prophecy, is the feventh which hath been eftablished in Rome. These hills and these forms of government have been all named in the commentary on chap. vi, 3. In that place, the Roman empire was represented by a beaft with seven heads and ten horns, and feven crowns upon his heads: but here it is represented by a beaft with the fame feven heads and ten horns, with this difference, that there are ten crowns upon his ten horns, and upon his heads a name of blafphemy. The former reprefents imperial Rome, when the different kingdoms of the world, fuch as England, France, and others, were not independent kingdoms, but conquered provinces of the empire; not only tributary to Rome, but also ruled by Roman governors, for these ten horns had no crowns at that time; and when Rome herself was the only independent and ruling ftate in the whole empire, and the city of Rome the only feat of government, for the feven crowns were upon the feven heads. But the latter reprefents Papal Rome, at a time when thefe different kingdoms had become independent, and were governed by laws and kings of their own; E 2

for,

for upon the horns, there were now ten crowns; and when the Roman prince who had his feat of government in the city of Rome was not crowned like a temporal king, did not take a title ever borne by any king, but affumed a blafphemous titie; for upon his heads was the name of blafphemy.

We are not to fuppofe, that the word blafphemy was infcribed on his heads as his name. The import of this part of the hieroglyphic, though dark in our tranflation, is perfectly clear in the original language. The particle to which the correfponds, is not in the original. There it is fimply ὄνομα βλασφημίας, which ought to have been tranflated a name of blafphemy, which fignifies, that at this time the prince who should have the city of Rome for his feat of government should asfume a blafphemous title. Is not his Holiness a blafphemous title, fince God only is holy? But though these ten kingdoms fhould be independent, bis Holines, like their head, fhould turn them whatever way he pleafed, but always by the cords of blafphemous fuperftition, and by arrogating to himself thofe abfolving powers which it is blafphemy for any man to claim, by which he kept all these kings in awe.

Now to what ftate and period of the Roman empire does this last description agree? Is it not to the Papal ftate? Did not the various independent kingdoms which rofe within the bounds of

the western empire, arise at the very time the Papal government began in Rome in its temporal character? Did not the Pope affume to himself, and does he not ftill retain, the blafphemous title of bis Holiness? Did he not still govern these independent kingdoins by the fceptre of superstition? Though in every other respect they were independent kingdoms, were they not as much under the controul of his Holiness of Rome, by the ties of fuperftition, as if they had ftill been conquered provinces. It was then that Rome was (chap. xvii. 18.)" that great city which reigneth over the "kings of the earth." The apostle Paul in his 2d epiftle to the Theffalonians, chap. ii. 4. many hundred years before the event, foretells in the moft pointed language the names of blafphemy which should be upon the Papal head of Rome, when he faid of him, "who oppofeth and exalteth "himself above all that is called God, or that is "worshipped; fo that he as God fitteth in the "temple of God, fhewing himself that he is God," This description not only exactly agrees to the Papal state of Rome, but it agrees to no other empirę and to no other ftate of that empire.

This beaft was partly like a leopard, partly like a bear, partly like a lion. Daniel in chap. vii. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. foretold the four great, and as they are commonly called, univerfal monarchies which were to arife in the earth in fucceffion before that glo

rious

rious period fhould come, when in the language of fcripture, and even of that chapter, "The kingdom "of Chrift fhould come, and all people, nations, "and languages should serve him." He fays, the firft of thefe was like a lion, the fecond like a bear, the third like a leopard, and he does not name any particular beaft to which the fourth was like, because it was a monster; but only fays, verfe vii. "After this I faw in the night vifion, and behold "a fourth beaft dreadful and terrible, and ftrong

66

exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth, it de"voured and brake in pieces, and ftamped the "refidue with the feet of it, and it was divers from "all the beafts which were before it, and it had "ten horns." Interpreters are all agreed, that the first of these beafts is the fymbol of the Affyrian, the second of the Perfian, the third of the Grecian, and the fourth of the Roman empire, which in fact have all arifen in fucceflion to each other juft as Daniel predicted, who lived an illuftrious fubject of the first of them in the court of one of its kings, in Babylon. He gives us no other particular description of this fourth beast or Roman empire but that it was very fierce and terrible, that it rofe after the other three, and had ten horns. When the beaft which John faw, not only rofe after the other three monarchies were diffolved, not only was very fierce and terrible, not

only

1