pontiffs led the way; they would not suffer any doctrines that had the smallest tendency to diminish their despotic authority; but obliged the public teachers to interpret the precepts of Christianity in such a manner as to render them subservient to Papal dominion and tyranny. This order was so much the more terrible, in that such as refused to comply with it, and to force the words of Scripture into significations totally opposite to the intention of its Divine author-such, in a word, as had the courage to place the authority of the Gospel above that of the Roman pontiffs, and to consider it as the supreme rule of their conduct, were answered with the formidable arguments of fire and sword, and received death in the most cruel forms, as the fruit of their sincerity and resolution. The priest and monks contributed, in their way, to disfigure the beautiful simplicity of religion; and, finding it their interest to keep the people in the grossest ignorance and darkness, dazzled their feeble eyes with the ludicrous pomp of a gaudy worship, and led them to place the whole of religion in vain ceremonies, bodily austerities and exercises, and particularly in a blind and stupid veneration for the clergy."* Popery, in short, may be described in its changes of times and laws, as having reversed the laws of God and man!

-as having reversed the decalogue, reversed the doctrines of our Lord and his apostles and prophets,

* Mosheim, cent. xii, ch. 3.

reversed all gospel institutions; and by having done so,made the world the counterpart of the habitation of devils. Well may the command be given to the Lord's people to come out of her, that they be not partakers of her sins, and that they receive not of her plagues.*

* Rev. xviii. 4.

CHAPTER X.

THE

VISION OF THE FOUR WILD BEASTS

(continued.)

SHEWING THE RISE AND DURATION OF THE PAPACY; ITS DESTRUCTION,

AND THE SUBSEQUENT REIGN OF CHRIST.

"But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other 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. I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saint of the Most High,

and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand, until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.”—DANIEL vii. 18—27.

230

CHAPTER X.

Popery of long duration—Its symbolical date-Its end near at hand-The true point of inquiry as to its beginning-St. Paul's man of sin-Its early appearance-Constantine-The edict of Gratian-Of Valentinian III.-- The Gothic invasions — The eastern and western portions of the Empire but one-JustinianHis Institutes—His re-conquest of Italy— His ecclesiastical interference- His putting down Arianism—His removing the seat of Empire-Phocas-The Lombard Kingdom-The Impediment to the Papal Sovereignty, the imperial authority-The removal of the Impediment—In what year-The distress of Rome-The middle point of seven times—The doom of Popery—A conflagration-Kingdom of Christ-Kingdom of the Saints-The

Millennium.

WE are now come to that part of the vision or prophecy, which to us is the most important; and that is, what remains to be fulfilled-to the future. And here we may remark, as the first thing that attracts our attention-and it is an idea that cannot but afford much consolation—that although the Papal power has existed for so many centuries, and entwined itself as a chief and prime actor in the affairs of all European nations from their earliest annals, yet that there is an assigned period, at the end of which its existence is to terminate, when it will be annihilated from the earth to which it has been so long a curse.

As a preliminary observation to our inquiries on