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with the very words used by Daniel, that he must have described the same identical power. He says, "that man of sin (shall) be revealed, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing that he is God.”

It is well known that the Roman emperors claimed divine honors, and that the Roman church claims, and has claimed, that the Pope is in the room of God on earth and it is certain that he has received honors as a god, and that he claims to be above every earthly priest, ruler, king, and potentate, in the world, and claims infallibility equal to God in heaven.

Third. "He shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished." This coincides with the very words spoken of the little horn that was to arise out of one of the horns of the Macedonian kingdom, or the rise of Rome in Asia. "It cast down the truth to the ground, and practised and prospered." "I will make thee to know what shall be in the last end of the indignation, for at the time appointed the end shall be."

This domination was to last, also, "even to the time of the end; for it is for a time appointed."-v. 35. As it still subsists, the last end of the indignation is not yet reached.

Fourth. "Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers." The Roman empire renounced its ancient

* The term, God of his fathers, is here so plainly a figure used to designate the religion of his fathers, as to need no illustration. It therefore follows, that the strange God he embraced, and which is spoken of antithetically to the God of his fathers, must also represent a new or strange religion which the empire was to embrace.

religion, and adopted Christianity, which it soon corrupted. As this great change was to be the great act or law of an empire, it must be a matter of vast notoriety. A change of national religion is clearly indicated by the terms used in the text, nor can they find any coincidence in the world, but in that we have noticed. The rejection of the God of his fathers, was the rejection of Roman paganism by the Roman empire.

Fifth. "Nor the desire of women." This expression indicates a disregard of marriage, or rejection of it. The desire of women is spoken of in the curse on woman: "Thy desire shall be to thy husband," or on account of a husband. Conjugal affection is a primary law of nature. The Roman power first deprived its priesthood of second marriage, and finally of any at all, at least in Europe. It also encouraged vast orders of monks and nuns, and organized them so, that the mother of harlots was naturally an appropriate name for the Roman church, over the whole empire, in three continents.

Sixth. "Nor regard any God, for he shall magnify himself above all." The history of the ecclesiastical department of the Roman power has been but a regular systematized effort to exalt itself above all other authorities, nor has it ever respected any religion, or ministers, or governors, or gods, not of its own order. It has assumed unequaled authority, has claimed supremacy over kings, and nations, and churches, and has made unceasing efforts to raise itself to a level with its claims. It has truly magnified ITSELF.

Seventh. "And the God Mahuzzim in his estate shall he honor." The septuagint reads, "He shall glorify Maodzim in his place." The word forces is properly

expressive of the meaning of Mahuzzim; it signifies munitions, bulwarks, fortresses, or, as abstracts are used by the Hebrews for concretes, it may signify protectors, defenders, and guardians.

The God of guardians, plainly signifies a consolidated power. The term God, is not only used for a prince, but plainly for one of a spiritual character; hence, the power represented is a spiritual power of guardians. Now, the worship of saints and angels was established by the secular, as well as ecclesiastical, power of Rome. The Roman church is very properly a church of monasteries and guardianships. This spiritual power was to be honored by the political; for the term "he," represents this. The honoring of the church after it became a great community of monkeries, and nunneries, and a worshiper of saints and angels, as protectors and defenders, was a peculiar and general characteristic of the civil power of the Roman empire, after church and state union. Bishop Newton has argued this point extensively.

"In his estate as a God of forces," implies his jurisdiction.

Eighth. "A God, whom his fathers know not, shall he honor with gold and silver and precious stones, and pleasant things."* We have before seen that the empire had changed its religion, and now the fact is repeated, and the character of its deportment to the new religion is designated. The church establishment has

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*Gibbon says, Constantine, while he influenced the debates, humbly professed that he was the minister, and not the judge, of the successors of the apostles, who had been established as priests, and as gods upon the earth."-Vol. I. 434.

received as gifts from the state, the greatest of riches and honors. The richest lands, the noblest buildings, the richest endowments, and the most extraordinary revenues, legacies, and gifts, have been bestowed on the church by the civil power. Nothing can equal the costly gems, or the gold and silver ornaments and treasures with which the whole empire church has been favored. Its saints of silver, and shrines of gold, and gems, and pearls, are but an index of the mighty wealth heaped upon it by the kings and princes of the empire, through: many ages. The god Mahuzzim, represented a corrupt Christianity; and thus this corrupted religion has been honored by the ruling power of Rome, in all ages since Constantine.

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Ninth. "Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory." Here is a reiteration of the change of religion, and the honors that were to be conferred upon it. The repetition is made, as in all similar cases, to emphasize the important fact, that the church was to become exceedingly rich, by political influence. The very states over which the Pope rules were a gift of the state. Tenth. "He shall cause them to rule over many. The pronoun "them," refers to the strange god, which further shows that that term was symbolic of a body of men; and this is additionally seen in the fact, that this god, or they" were to rule over many. Of course the term applies to an organized body of men. The bishops, cardinals, popes, abbots, monks, and jesuits, who together form the government of the state church, were constituted by law, the governors in ecclesiastical matters, over millions of men; and they received their

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executive authority from the state, originally, and it has been perpetuated to them by the state authority. The term, "he," shows a different power from the term "they," yet both are plainly united.

Eleventh. "And shall divide the land for gain." This division was, of course, to be extensive with their jurisdiction; it was to be made by the church in addition to its ruling power conferred on it.

Now, the whole empire of Rome was divided into dignities and benefices. "The name dignity, applies only to bishoprics, deaneries, archdeaconries, and prebends; benefices apply to all ecclesiastical preferments under these degrees, as rectories and vicarages. Benefices are also divided into regular and secular: regular benefices are those held by monks of any order, abbeys, priories, or convents; secular ones, are those held by secular cures."-(Enc. R. K.) The revenues derived to the church from these divisions have been incalculable. In addition to this, the crime of simony, or sale of benefices, has prevailed to an unlimited extent in Europe.

We have now shown a minute coincidence between the willful king and the Roman power, in all its phases, to the present time. It is very plain that the political power of Rome is here treated of as erecting and glorifying the Roman church, for it is utterly impossible, logically, to interpret it of the church alone. Now, history teaches us that the civil power of Rome was head of the church, and that the church derived its glory and authority from it; and prophecy teaches us the same things. Though the unity of the Roman empire was broken, yet prophecy does not regard this as vitiating

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