at present to examine particularly, my discourse being chiefly concerned with the historical kind of prophecies, which are of a simpler character. These are contained in the books of Daniel and John, which are nothing else than histories of the future expressed, for the most part, in a natural or emblematical, not an artificial language, that it might be more expressive and universally intelligible.-The object in view being to present much information within a small compass, and to make that information as independent as possible, on the fluctuating meaning of words, and the evanescent spirit of translations, we have the moral character of men and nations, and the dispensations of divine providence, described by the character of the best known objects in the animal and vegetable world, with which, as symbols, the Spirit of God proceeds to reveal in order to the prophet's mind, the great events which were to happen to the earth.

In the book of Daniel this is done, as it were, by four main streams, all commencing from the period at which the prophet lived, and running down to the time of the end. In the first of these are used the emblems of the four metals, combined into one image to denote a fourfold succession of empires, which should arise one out of the other, until, at length, a fifth, described by a stone cut out without hands, should destroy them all, and fill the earth, and endure for evermore. In the second, under the emblem of four beasts, are described the same four empires, not with a view of repeating the former vision, but to connect this new vision. with the same point of time, in order to give date and place to the description of a certain blasphemous power, which was to do strange things against the Most High, in the time and territory of the last of the four great empires described in the former vision. The third of these four chief streams of prophetic history connecteth itself with the former, at the struggle of the third kingdom with the second, in order that it may trace, within the territory of the third, the rise of another blasphemous power, which was also to prevail against the saints of God till the time of the end. Now the fourth (for we purposely omit the prophecy of the seventy weeks) is not symbolical, being the history of men, not of things, and also connects itself with the time of Daniel, by the mention of certain kings immediately thereafter, which

end of connexion having secured, it makes large leaps, in order to reach the description of a third blasphemous and ungodly power, which was to arise in the form of an individual man, not of an institution, close to the time of the end, which time of the end is described in the first, second, and last history, by different emblems suited each to the system in which it stands. So that the first vision lays down the theatre of earthly sovereignties, upon which three blasphemous and anti-christian powers were to arise. And the three following visions give severally the particulars of the rise, continuance, and destruction of them, by the coming of Christ in the time of the end. These three powers, being the papal, the mahomedan, and the infidel, which all arise within the bounds of the four kingdoms, which we shall call, for the sake of distinctness, the prophetic earth. Now there can be no more doubt, that these prophecies of Daniel are chronologically written, than that the other prophecies are not so written, because, besides that they are so interpreted by the interpreting angels, they contain dates and correspondencies which are not to be mistaken. But farther into the construction of these visions, or of the Apocalypse, we seek not at present, seeing that our discourse. is particularly taken up with the chief matters thereof, which will present themselves in order.

Now, of these two kinds of prophecies, the historical are for the wise, the discursive for the unwise; those for the learned, these for the unlearned of the children of God: the former written upon a system, arranged according to time, and expressed in a natural or emblematical language, which it requireth care to interpret, and exactness to apply; the latter written largely for the eye of him that runneth, and loosely to take, as it were, at a venture, the various dispositions and diverse conditions of the spiritual man. The rich disorder of the latter being as wise and profitable as the exact order of the former, for as much as the spiritual men be few in number, who have faculties and leisure for the exact and diligent culling of truth, needing to have it scattered profusely, and growing plentifully along the highways and beaten tracts of the mind. To which end are given the greater part of the prophecies, as in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the minor prophets; which are rich and odoriferous fields of spiritual prophecy, extend

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ing over all time and events, whence every spirit of hope and gladness comes to the faithful soul, more fresh and fra grant than the gales which blow upon the mariner from Arabia the blessed. But the book of Daniel carries us as upon a voyage of discovery, down the stream of time, noting the various powers which should have the ascendant, and the duration of their times, until the time of the end, when the saints shall possess the kingdom. So that it doth serve as a key to the other prophetic books of the Old Testament, to let us know the times, and seasons, and powers, to which their raptures of joy and burdens of wo are to be applied. The same use, in a still higher degree, serveth the Revelation of John to the Christian church, and to the worldly powers, in the midst of which it was appointed to have its sorrowful lot; being the hour-circle, upon which you are to determine the order and succession, the fulfilment or non-fulfilment, the accomplishment partial or complete, of the greater part of the predictions of the Old Testament, and of all the predictions of the New. It is also certain parts of the book of Daniel writ large, to which, therefore, it serveth the same use which the book of Daniel doth to the other part of scripture. And between these two key-books, and the treasure-books, which they unlock, there are certain notes of correspondence, which the wise can understand, and which, being understood, give to the whole volume of prophecy something of the exactness which appertains to the volume of history.

In all questions, therefore, which respect time and place, and the regular succession of events, we must look for our information to the prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse, which are constructed upon that principle; and it is not lawful for this end to make an appeal to the other prophecies which are not thereto designed in the economy of divine revelation. But having ascertained these matters, and by the sure and certan notes of correspondency, obtained the point of contact and application, we are then fully empowered to have recourse to the discursive prophecies, for the richness of illustration, for the extent and particulars of the judgment or deliverance, for the cause of it, and the principles of the divine economy out of which it proceedeth, and for all other things which connect it with the counsels of God; for these are contained in the discursive

prophecies, to which the books of Daniel, and the Apocalypse, serve the important purpose of a chronological table. In observance of these principles, therefore, we must proceed in this discourse, which treats of the time and place, of the first and last antichristian power, by examining the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelations, and never seeking information elsewhere, till we have made sure of our ground therein. And that we might preserve ourselves from rambling in so large a field, and preserve an exact method in our discourse, we have chosen for the. text, and as it were the meridian line of events, the prophecy of the four beasts, which carries us clear through to the time of the end, and is intended simply for tracing the rise and fall of the papacy, with the glorious things which are to follow its downfal.

Of all the prophecies of Daniel, this vision of the four beasts, which is the subject of the following discourse, is the most comprehensive and exact: recapitulating, with still greater minuteness, every thing which had been revealed to Nebuchadnezzar in the vision of the great image, and introducing the particulars of a certain blasphemous power, which should arise to blaspheme the Most High, and make war against his saints for a determined time, after which he should be judged and consumed unto the end, when the saints should come to possess the kingdom under the whole heaven. Connecting itself in its commencement with the former vision of the fourfold image, with which it runneth parallel, it thence derives, as we shall see, much illustration: while by its middle and its ending it connects itself with the Revelation of John, which runs parallel with it, explains and confirms it, and with plentifulness of detail, fills it up to the end. Therefore it becomes a fit text for that task to which we have addressed ourselves, of showing the church the place to which she is come in the prophetic history, and the things which she is speedily to expect upon the heads of all her enemies.

No interpreter hath ever doubted that the four beasts of this vision represent, in a most distinct and exact manner, the four empires, which, one after another, possessed the sovereignty of that part of the earth, with which prophecy hath to do, namely, the Babylonian, the Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman, whose succession and character are

set forth in the former vision, by the four metals of gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, combined into one image; which, in the end, a little stone smote, brake, and scattered into powder before the winds of heaven. The Babylonian, pictured by a lion with eagle's wings, which were plucked till it became manlike, and human-hearted, to denote the gradual softening and relenting of its strong and arrogant power, before it was overthrown by that which followed after. This was the bear raised upon one side with three ribs in its mouth, to denote the two-sided, but at first unequal empire of the Medes and Persians, with its three conquests of Lydia, Armenia, and Babylon. The leopard, with four wings as a fowl, and four heads, denoteth the unparalleled fleetness of the Macedonian kingdom, which divided as rapidly into four parts, governed by separate heads. Then cometh last, more terrible than the others, a nondescript and monstrous beast, "dreadful, and terrible, and strong exceedingly, with iron teeth, which brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it, having ten horns;" by which emblem is represented the novely of the fourth great empire of Rome, its haughty stride upon the earth, its destructive treading down, and crushing of all remaining power, within the bounds of the prophetic earth, and its final separation into ten kingdoms; which came to pass after it received the hordes of the northern nations into its mighty hold. For it is to be noted, that in the prophecy it continues to be contemplated as the empire of Rome, though thereafter it acted not in one, but separate parts, there being still a nominal emperor over it, and a principle binding it in one; which, though not the principle of power, was still a principle giving it a unity in the mind, and counsels, and determinations of God, as complete as that in which he regardeth Persia, though two-fold, or Macedon, though fourfold, or Rome, while it acted in three, or when it came to act in two parts.

This universal consent which prevails amongst all students and interpreters of prophecy, as to the wonderful and exact fulfilment of the former part of this vision, relating to these four earthly empires, entitles us to conclude, that the latter part of it, relating to the kingdom of the saints of the Most High, will receive the same exact and literal fulfilment which the former hath received; and we, therefore, pass to