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in the state are indicated by the terms " iron and clay." The want of harmony between the iron and clay, shows a want of political harmony in the state. Again the text says, "there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay." Here strength of national power is represented by iron, and comparative feebleness by the clay.

3. This division in the fourth empire was not to occur until the empire had stood for some time as an iron kingdom only; after a season this division was to begin and to continue through that period of the history of the empire represented by the toes. The division begins in the feet, and continues till the feet are smitten by the

stone.

4. There were to be two classes of men, in the fourth empire, between whom the political power was to be divided. The class represented by the iron certainly possessed civil authority, and the other class possessed it to a certain extent. The term, "seed of men," coincides with the term iron, and the term iron coincides with civil power or nationality, represented by the iron legs; hence the term "clay," which is synonymous with the term "they," which is here a pronoun of multitude, must represent also a great class of men associated in the general government with that class designated by "iron" or "seed of men."

5. Again; the term "they," is antithetic to the term "seed of men," and is therefore expressive of a class of people antithetic in character to those represented by iron. The term "they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men," conveys, with great clearness, the idea of the degradation of a superior class of persons by the

mingling with the seed of men in national affairs. It is very similar to a passage in Genesis, which speaks of the corruption of the sons of God, by uniting with the daughters of men. The "mingling with the seed of men," by this superior class, also conveys plainly the notion of a spiritual people uniting with a political power. Indeed, as no two classes of men can be found in the world, corresponding to the two in the text, except spiritual and carnal people, the union of these two classes in the fourth empire, must represent church and state union in it; and as in the Roman, or fourth great empire, such a union did exist, the case is a very clear one, that the mingled clay represented the church of Christ, corrupted by union with the civil power of Rome, represented by the iron.

6. This political union of civil and ecclesiastical polity, was to be perpetual. This is manifested by the symbols and interpretations. The clay continued during that portion of Roman history represented by the feet, during which time, Rome was still a territorial unit; after the breaking up of this territorial unity, it continued to exist in the toes or various nations of Europe represented by them; and finally, when the feet are broken, the clay is found existing in them, and shares the fate of the iron.

CLAUSE II.

Fall of Rome or its broken State." And the toes of the feet, part of iron, and part of clay-the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken." The words, as, were, and so, which are found in the common text, were supplied by translators, and are not in the original. This text shows, that the breaking up of the iron and clay was to take place; and the term "broken," differs

materially from the term "division" in signification. In this text, the feet are not mentioned, the toes only are treated of, and, of course, the interpretation is of the toes only; the clay and iron are mentioned to show that in the broken state, the divisions, or fragmentary nations, would still retain the double political organization of church and state union. The legs, for the time being, represented the Roman empire; and, in like manner, the toes represented it, also. Now, mark this point with attention: historians, in speaking of the Roman empire, always now speak of it as having ceased to exist; but the prophetic historian regards its broken state as still continuing to be the fourth empire; the former do not anticipate a reorganization, but the latter predict a reunion of the fragments into a great empire. The number of toes in the feet of the image being ten, each toe would naturally signify a kingdom itself. That there might be more than ten, during the long period of the broken state, is neither affirmed nor contradicted, but we can look for no more than ten at the time when the breaking up of the unity of government was to take place. In a succeeding vision of Daniel, coinciding with this, ten ist distinctly stated as the number into which Rome in Europe was to be divided. The text before us, however, simply affirms, that the ten toes indicate the disruption or fall of Rome. The Roman empire in Europe was broken up, and there soon appeared ten coeval kingdoms. In the Apocalypse it is said, that just prior to the organization of the empire again, that there shall be ten kingdoms. Isaac says, that whatever was their subsequent number, all of them are called ten, from their original number. The whole of the disorganized period

of the empire will, therefore, be properly represented by ten toes or ten horns, no matter what number may coexist in any age after the first, in which the original ten appeared.

The breaking of the empire began about 396, and the empire still exists in that state, the prophecy recognizing the broken state as continuing to be the fourth empire, and history looking upon it as ended.

Paragraph III.

Third Period. Reorganization of the Fourth Empire.-But few prophetic expositors have looked far enough to see the whole truth of the fourth empire. It is clear that the fourth empire is to be reorganized. By this we mean, that a large portion of the empire represented by the ten toes in Europe, and by the broken state in Asia and Africa, will combine again; that is, the reorganized empire will embrace a portion of three continents.

The facts by which the third territorial form is proved, are few, but conclusive.

1. It is said the stone struck the image upon his feet, which were of iron and clay, and destroyed it. Now, as the image is strictly chronological in its symbols, it is evident that the toes represented a later period of time. than the feet, just as the fall of Rome was later than the beginning of church and state union.

It is also as evident, as the sun at mid-day, that the smiting of the feet, and the instant fall of the great image of monarchy, was a later time than that of the ten toes, or broken state of the empire. If this last were not true, then the broken state, represented by the toes, could never have existed; for the feet, aside from

the toes, represented the empire as a unit, divided into civil and ecclesiastical government, and the toes represented a later period than the feet. As, therefore, the state of the empire represented by the feet, was obliged to exist before that represented by the toes could exist, and as both could not simultaneously exist, and, as the image was smitten on the consolidated and broken state represented by both feet and toes, it is obvious that the empire to be smitten thus, must assume a form of unity, such as was represented by the feet. The symbols being expressive of territorial form as well as of chronology, make this understanding of them reasonable, and indeed imperative.

2. When the feet of the image were smitten by the stone, THEN it broke in pieces the iron, gold, clay, brass, and silver, altogether. Now, as the gold represented the Assyrian government, and the silver the Persian, and the brass the Grecian, it is evident that an empire in which these existed, together with the iron and clay, must have been smitten by the stone, or they could not have been broken together by a single stroke.

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3. The time when they were broken was not to be a long period, but a short one. The whole image fell, the moment it was smitten. It was struck with violence, and, the vision says, "then" the image was broken. The term "then" has but one brief signification; it means at that time," and not at some other time, nor during a long period of time, At the very time, then, that the image was struck, it fell to atoms; it did not wait and fall some other time; its metals all perished then; they did not wait to be worn away by any slow moral process of decomposition.

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