Paragraph II.

SECOND PERIOD-TEN HORNS AND LITTLE HORN, OR CHURCH AND STATE UNION, AND THE BROKEN STATE OR FALL OF ROME.

*

Vision.-"I considered the horns, and behold there came up behind them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots; and behold in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things."

Interrogation. Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other horn which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.

Interpretation."Thus he said ** the ten horns out of this kingdom, are ten kings (or kingdoms) that shall arise; and another shall arise behind them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws, and they shall be given into his hand, until a time, and tines, and the dividing of a time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it unto the end."

The period embraced by these passages, is naturally divided into two characteristic parts; the first describing the ten horns, and the second, the little horn. We shall, therefore, consider them separately.

*Mede, Faber, and others.

CLAUSE I.

The Ten Horns.-The vision before us, is plainly a chronological one; and the body of the fourth beast represents the fourth kingdom in a united state; the horns represent a later and divided state of the kingdom, and, coming out of the head of the empire, they plainly indicate, that the divisions were to occur in that part of the kingdom represented by the head. The horns, it is said, were to represent ten kings. The term king, is metonymically put for a kingdom, or, the term rendered king, may be literally translated kingdom. The ten toes in the image, are said to represent the broken state of the fourth kingdom; and, as they coincide with the ten horns, the ten horns must also represent the broken state of the kingdom generally, as well as specifically, and its being broken into ten parts. Sir Isaac Newton remarks, that "whatever was their number afterward, they are still called the ten kingdoms from their first number."

With this general division into various kingdoms, and also into ten specifically, the Roman empire corresponds, for it has been broken into various kingdoms in Asia, Africa, and Europe. Europe was the head of the Roman empire; and as out of the head of the fourth beast, or kingdom, the ten horns or ten kingdoms grew, so, out of Roman Europe, grew up the specific number of ten kingdoms, immediately after the days of Theodosius. Bishop Newton says, that "Eberhard, bishop of Saltzburg, noticed it in the diet of Ratisbon, in 1240. At the Reformation it was also ten." Mr. Whiston says, that in 456, the number of kingdoms was exactly ten; and, that in 1706, it had nearly returned to that

10 Kings

number again. Sir Isaac Newton enumerated ten; and Bishop Lloyd and Machiavel, also enumerated ten; and Dr. Thomas enumerates ten, now existing in the bounds of the old Roman empire in Europe. But in Europe, there are now just ten great ethnological, or compound and simple nationalities, corresponding to "people, nations, and tongues." We now give the kingdoms as enumerated by the historian Machiavel, who "is considered the best, because the most unprejudiced judge of the manner in which the Roman empire was originally divided. He very undesignedly, and (as Bishop Chandler remarks) little thinking what he was doing, reckons up the ten primary kingdoms, as follows: 1st, the Ostrogoths in Misia, 377; 2d, the Visigoths in Pannonia, 378; 3d, the Suaves and Alans in Gasgoigne and Spain, 407; 4th, the Vandals in Africa, 407; 5th, the Franks in France, 407; 6th, the Burgundians in Burgundy, 407; 7th, the Heruli and Turingi in Italy, 476; 8th, the Saxons and Angles in Britain, 476; 9th, the Huns in Hungary, 356; 10th, the Lombards upon the Danube, afterward in Italy, 483 and 526. The dates are given by Bishop Lloyd, an excellent chronologer."(Faber and Newton.)

As the ten horns were to be found in the head of the beast, of course, they were all to be in Europe; and, as we find the kingdom of the Vandals was in Africa, we must look for another kingdom in Europe, not mentioned in the above catalogue. It will be perceived, that Machiavel gives only the new kingdoms, established in the empire by foreigners. Now, during this same period of the erection of new kingdoms in Europe, the kingdom of Rome, or that of the western empire, still existed in

Italy, and just completes the number of the ten kingdoms in Europe. The two Newtons, Mede, and Faber, all agree, and for reasons differing from each other and our own, that these ten kingdoms were to be in Europe, and all the reasons are valid. Some persons have ccntended for the rise of ten Gothic kingdoms in Europe; but we think it nonsense to talk so, unless all the folks in Europe are to be called Goths. The kingdoms were composed of Huns, Goths, Germans, Vandals, and Romans.

CLAUSE II.

The Little Horn.-In the divided state of Rome, and among the ten kingdoms, another horn, of a different and remarkable character, was to arise. The points in its character are very important, and clearly delineated, and we shall carefully distinguish them.

The text

We have

1. We consider, first, the time of its rise. says, “another horn shall rise behind them." here adopted the rendering of the text given by Mr. Mede, and highly approved by Mr. Faber. The text says, also, "the other which came up; "there came up among them another little horn." As the prophecy is altogether chronological, events in it which are said to be before any others, are, of course, later in time, and, those which are behind, or after such event, are anterior, or before it, in point of time, and farther back than the other events. Mr. Faber and Mr. Mede both agree, and say, that, "in reality, the little horn did not spring up posterior, in point of time, to the other horns." How much farther back the little horn arose, is not here stated, but its influence in the state seems not to have been very great at first, as it was called a "little horn,"

though afterward it became greater than all the other horns, or kingdoms, or "stouter than its fellows." It seems plainly to coincide with that power in the fourth kingdom of the image, designated as the clay, in the feet and toes, and which we have shown was called a kingdom.

2. Three of the first kingdoms were to be removed before it. The text says, "before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots;" "before whom three fell;" "he shall subdue three kings.” The term, before, plainly applied to a future state in the history of the little horn, as the term "after, or behind," applied to a previous or anterior event, or to the rise of the little horn anterior to the ten. The three kingdoms that were to be plucked up were to be of the first horns. This may mean, as Newton thinks, three of the other, or first and differing class of kingdoms; or, as Mr. Faber thinks, three of the original kingdoms among the ten. They were to be totally extirpated, or plucked up by the roots.

3. The little horn was to differ in political nature from the other horns. "He shall be diverse from the first."

4. The little horn was to be a spiritual power, as well as political. "Behold in this horn were eyes, like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things." "That horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows." "He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws, and they shall be given into his hand."