fall here; the troubles of England also coincide with the fall of Babylon; the reaping of the earth, by the man on the cloud; and the reaping of the vine, by the angel from the temple, coincide with the taking of the beast and false prophet, by the man on the white horse. Keep these points in view. We now turn to the description of the great subjects of destruction, and their destroyers; they are as follows: Babylon and its destroyers; the ten kingdoms and Russia; the beast; and the man on the white horse.

CLAUSE II.

Second View. Babylon and the Beast, or the State Church, and Russia and Europe.-"And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore which sitteth upon many waters." This declares that he will show the destruction in a clear light. "With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away into the wilderness; and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads, and ten horns, &c., &c. And upon her forehead was a name written: Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and Abominations of the Earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." After this description, an interpretation, or another view is given of four particulars. "I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath seven heads and ten horns.'

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1. The beast.-"The beast thou sawest was, and is not." A beast, we know, represents an empire; and

the seven-headed beast with a wounded head, and the seven-headed dragon coincide, in their great features. with this beast from the pit; but as the seven-headed beast, with the wounded head, was the Roman universal church, it here coincides with the harlot Babylon; and this beast from the pit must coincide with the dragon: and, therefore, it represents the Romish empire. This empire, says the text, "was and is not." The symbol is constructed so as to take in the whole history of the empire, from the day the harlot was seated upon it, or the church was united to it: it "was and is not," shows that the empire, as originally formed, had ceased to exist at this time. The time of the seeing of this vision was in the seventh trumpet period, and in the last vial period of it; for so the text states, and, of course, the condition of the Roman empire in that period, is the one in which the apostle stood, looking backward to the past, and forward to the future.

"And shall ascend out of the bottomless pit." This we have seen coincides with Asia, or barbarism. The empire of Rome is, therefore, to arise again, and the origin of this last formation is to be in Asia, or, perhap more properly, among endless swarms of barbarians With this description, Russia exactly coincides. "I began in 1462, with Ivan, of the family of Ruric; and up to this time, the different parts of those vast regions had been ruled by many petty chiefs."-(Taylor.)

"And go into perdition." That is, the empire shal be reformed in its original dimensions, and then be de stroyed. "And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder," (whose names were not written in the book of lif from the fall of the world). That is, all, but true Christians, shall wonder at the domination of Russia ove Europe.

"When they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is." That is, when they shall see the empire, now broken but still existing, arising to its original extent. From this it is clear that the empire, in its broken condition, is still regarded as the Roman empire; this will be further evident from what follows.

"And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth." A mountain always signifies a superior and great empire or kingdom : the woman, therefore, or Romạn church, was to rest upon seven great governments. To make these mountains coincide with the seven little hills of the city of Rome, is the lowest depths of absurdity.

"And there are seven kings." This is but a repetition, or double declaration, of the fact that the Roman church would rest upon seven great heads of empire. These seven mountains, and seven kings, coincide with the seven heads, for the text says so; and, as the heads represented the great successive forms in which the empire would exist, the mountains and seven kings do the same.

"Five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come." This at once shows that these heads, or governments, were to succeed each other chronologically. Five were fallen; that is, had ceased to be "lords of the ascendent." The sixth was dominant at the time of this vision, and must have been the British empire. Another supreme aristocracy was to arise before the destruction of Babylon. "And when he cometh he must continue a short space." The last head will continue as an empire but a very little time.

"And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven." That is, the old empire which was broken, and is now broken, shall be united

in one head or government, which shall constitute the eighth form in which the empire shall appear. As it was to be of the seven, and yet was the eighth, and as the eighth was to be as the first empire in magnitude and power, it follows that it thus would be the seventh empire in one sense, and the eighth in another. Now, the Roman empire before it was divided was represented by a beast with a single head; but as it was to be existent in seven other forms, the seventh of these divisions would be the eighth, counting in the original head or universal consolidated empire. And as the last head of the seven was to coincide with the first beast, (verse 8,) which is not reckoned among the divided seven heads, it follows that the seventh autocracy of the heads would really be the eighth as well as the seventh. Each head of the beast represents, for the time being, the whole empire, but the seventh head alone coincides with the original empire. The original empire existed in three continents, and the last, or seventh head, was also to extend to three. The first head was the empire during church and state union, and before the breaking of the empire. The vision only goes back to the union of church and state, for it does not exhibit anything anterior to the time when the harlot Babylon sat upon the beast.

The whole meaning of the beast, therefore, amounts to this: the Roman empire existed as a unit in three continents, and the church was then united to it; after this it was broken up, and was represented by seven successive empires, which were not as great as the original one; but the seventh after its rise, was to extend to three continents, as did ancient Rome. These heads were also to exist in Europe, but the last was to be of Asiatic or barbarous origin. Hence, the terms, "was and is not and yet is," represent the original Roman empire, and

its broken state, in which the original monarchy was represented by lesser heads or empires, in the old territory of Rome. The seven we have seen were, the Western empire, Charlemagne's empire, the papal empire, the empire of Charles V., the British empire, the French empire, and the Russian from Asia, and, counting the original empire, we have eight heads upon the beast. We also learn from this, that Russia will equal in extent the old empire of Rome, and will possess Africa, as well as Asia and Europe. This confederacy is further on expressly stated.

As the seven-headed dragon coincides with this beast, we learn that each head of the dragon represented, for the time, the whole dragon, or each smaller empire of the seven represented, for the time, the whole empire of monarchy. Hence, Britain, as one of these seven heads, represented the whole dragon, or all monarchy, in its attack upon America in the revolutionary war.

2. The Ten Horns.-" And the ten horns which thou sawest, are ten kings (kingdoms) which have received no kingdom as yet." That is, ten kingdoms in Europe will receive strength from Russia. The next clause explains the term kingdom to be power or stability. "But receive power as kings one hour with the beast." That is, according to the analogy of the symbol, about twentyone years, or sixteen years, or less. The term, "ten kings," relates to ten kingdoms in the last stage of the history of monarchy. Now, according to Daniel, ten were to begin at the breaking up of the empire. It is possible that there have been seven periods in which ten kingdoms have been found, in Europe, coeval with each other.

"These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast." That is, they shall unite their