each, only when idolatry, persecution, and ungodliness, fix their brand more plainly on its forehead, and mark it out for judgment. Britain, for instance, there can be little doubt, was once in the number of these kingdoms. But there need be as little doubt, that for three centuries it has been withdrawn from the company of those powers which have yielded to the dominion of the Little Horn. And it may be equally true, that covetousness, national indifference to the truth, and the reviving tide of superstition, threaten to carry us into the vortex once more, and expose the nation to a second and worse apostasy; which may God, of His infinite mercy, avert from our land.

To conclude these remarks, the difficulty which has been felt in the application of the ten horns to kingdoms which have already appeared, yields, on a closer examination, fresh evidence of its truth. It shews how wisely the Divine warning has been adapted to meet the actual danger of the Church. The emblem, as appears plainly from all the examples of Scripture, does not imply unmingled and supernatural wickedness. The view of the Christian kingdoms here given to us is also a supplement to another, and a contrasted view, which plainer parts of God's word have previously supplied. The strong declarations, which are made elsewhere, of the authority and dignity of ecclesiastical teachers and civil rulers, would tend, in ages of corruption, to deaden and paralyze the conscience of the Church, if this Divine antidote had not been provided to meet and resist the evil. Thus, on the right hand and on the left, the people of Christ are fenced and guarded from the snares of the deceiver. If they are prone to indulge the license of self-will, they are met by the broad and plain lessons of reverence for God's ministers, the governors whom He has ordained, and the high privileges of the Church of Christ. If they are prone to surrender their conscience blindly to prevailing corruptions, and to renounce their personal standing as responsible to God for their own conduct, they are shielded by these special warn

ings, which reveal the corruption of Christendom and its rulers, and teach the Christian that, if he would deliver his soul, he must be a protesting witness against the worldliness and idolatry that surround him. The very uncertainty which has been felt in attempting to define exactly these ten kingdoms, fulfils a moral purpose of the highest moment. It speaks to every nation with a loud voice of warning, as Jonah to Nineveh, or St. Paul to the Romans, "Thou standest by faith; be not high-minded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee." Fear, and the pit, and the snare, it is true, may be in prospect. But faith in Christ, and allegiance to the pure gospel of grace and holiness, can rescue states as well as individuals, from impending judgment. Nay, as in the case of Levi, it has power to convert the threatening into mercy, the seeming judgment into the reality of blessing. The details of prophecy may be more or less distinct; but righteousness and equity, mingled with grace, must ever reign supreme in all the counsels of God. His message to the kingdoms of Europe is still the same as to Israel of old. "Behold, as the clay is in the hand of the potter, so are ye in my hand, saith the Lord. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck it up, and to pull down and to destroy; if that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them." The nation that receives the gospel, maintains the pure worship of God, and brings forth the fruits of holiness, is safe, though heaven itself were to pass away. But where the gospel is rejected for the inventions of man, and idols set up by the side of Jehovah, or open ungodliness tramples under foot the name of Christ,—there a seal, not of the Spirit of God, but of Satan, is stamped on the forehead, and marks out the unhappy nation as among the doomed kingdoms, and already trembling on the verge of destruction.

CHAPTER X.

THE RISE OF THE LITTLE HORN.

DAN. VII. 8.-"I CONSIDERED THE HORNS, AND, BEHOLD, THERE CAME UP AMONG THEM ANOTHER LITTLE HORN, BEFORE WHOM THREE OF THE FIRST HORNS WERE PLUCKED UP BY THE ROOTS.

19, 20. THEN WOULD I KNOW THE TRUTH OF THE FOURTH BEAST,

...

AND OF THE TEN HORNS THAT WERE IN HIS HEAD, AND OF THE OTHER
WHICH CAME UP, AND BEFORE WHOM THREE FELL.

24. " AND THE TEN HORNS OUT OF THIS KINGDOM ARE TEN KINGS THAT SHALL ARISE AND ANOTHER SHALL ARISE AFTER THEM; AND HE SHALL BE DIVERSE FROM THE FIRST, AND SHALL SUBDUE THREE KINGS.

THE fulfilment of these sacred visions has now been traced, from Nebuchadnezzar, through Cyrus and Alexander, Antiochus and Scipio, Pompey and Cæsar, down to the times of Valens and Augustulus. The changeful alliances of the European kingdoms, their tenfold number, and the main outlines of their character and history, carry on this prophetic narrative to the last age of the church. The events of the fifth century, and the powers which then arose in the west, have been found exactly to agree with the inspired prediction. The prophecy now reveals to us a further event, more remarkable than the former. In the latter stage of the fourth empire, while it is parting into ten kingdoms, another power is to arise by which three of these are uprooted. This power was to be distinct in kind from the rest, and of far higher pretensions. Its mouth speaks great things, and its look is more stout than that of its fellows. It claims authority over times and laws, and over the saints of God.

The course of the prophecy leaves us here scarcely

any choice in our judgment of its meaning. This unknown and mysterious Power was to arise amid the ten kingdoms of the west, soon after they appeared. It was to have a distinct seat and place in the body of the fourth empire. At the same time it was to claim a prophetic character, and to exert a direct or indirect sovereignty over all the surrounding kings. These features can be found in no power, whether past or future, but the Papacy of Rome. Let us briefly review those marks of correspondence which reveal themselves on a more general survey.

The little horn arises amidst the ten horns of the fourth beast and the Roman see is placed in the midst of the temporal states of Western Europe, which grew on the ruins of the old empire.

The little horn rises at, or just after the time when these kings appear. The spiritual claims of the papacy began just before, its temporal dominions were acquired soon after, the fall of the Western empire, and the barbarian settlements.

The horn in part resembles the others, being like them a horn of the beast. In part it differs from them, since it has eyes and a mouth. The papacy is one among many temporal states of Europe. It is the only one which claims a spiritual authority and universal dominion.

The horn is small in size. The papal dominions have always formed one of the smallest states in Europe.

The eyes and mouth of the little horn give it a close resemblance to a head of the beast. The papacy has ever claimed a supreme dominion over the whole of the western kingdoms.

The little horn has further a human and articulate voice. Its mouth speaks great things. So also, the pretensions of the Roman see are distinct in kind from those of temporal rulers. It claims a character as far superior to theirs, as man to the irrational beasts, and professes to be an infallible interpreter of the will of God.

At present, however, we are to examine one only of

these features of the little horn, the uprooting of the three kings. This has all the marks of an historical sign, by which to recognize more clearly the power that is really predicted. A few remarks will be useful, to illustrate the words of the text, and the exact force of the symbol.

And first, it is while the prophet is considering the ten horns that the eleventh is seen to arise. Either then these horns were actually germinating at the time on the head of the beast, which will account at once for this peculiar attention to them; or else, even if the emblem, like that of the image, appeared complete from the first, the Holy Spirit, by fixing the prophet's gaze on them now, and not earlier, teaches just as plainly that this was the time of their actual appearance in the history of the empre.

Again, the little horn rises in the midst of all the others. Hence it cannot be any foreign power, like that of Mahomet, out of the limits of western Rome. The words also seem naturally to imply a gradual and stealthy growth, rather than violent, external conquest. The horn is declared to be little. And since its pretensions are so haughty and vast, there seems at first a contradiction. But this paradox only adds to the exactness of the emblem. So far as it resembles the ten eyeless horns, it is small, namely in temporal power and dominions. But it has other features peculiar to itself, the eye of the seer, and the mouth of the prophet. In virtue of these, it assumes a right of control over the mute and bestial kingdoms. Its territory is small, but its spiritual pretensions almost unbounded.

The three uprooted horns belong to the fourth beast. And this proves at once the error of that early opinion, which interprets them of Lybia, Egypt, and Ethiopia. They are also uprooted to make way for the growth of the little horn, as it germinates on the head of the beast. This implies rather displacement and indirect overthrow, than open conquest.

The prophecy does not define whether the three horns