And the ordinary explanation of the prophecy of these kingdoms, which makes the clash of the stone upon the image, no blow at all, but a gentle abrasion and wearing away of the image, in which it is impossible to tell, with all reverence, and burning shame, which gets the most rubbed, the STONE, or the iron;—the interpretation, which makes the blow in the iron legs of the image, instead of the iron and clay feet; and the common interpretation, which allows the image to stand strong yet eighteen hundred years after it was smitten; and which expects it still to remain firm on its feet, a good thousand years, while all its heterogeneous materials are moulded and leavened into one heavenly and uniform substance; contrary to that word of the prophet, which declares, that all shall be blown away utterly, so that no place shall be found for them this commonly received interpretation is by no means formed out of the study of the prophet Daniel; but it is evidently the interpretation necessary to sustain the doctrine of the kingdom of heaven already come.

Men lost their patience in waiting for the promised king. dom, and they became willing to accept of the use of Origen's ladder, to reach it. Having from age to age to the full end of ten centuries, wearied themselves with looking for it, and deceived themselves grossly with the calculation of the precise time of its coming; they began in the full end of ten centuries generally to conclude, that somehow it had come already; and they searched the scriptures to substantiate a doctrine which they had learned of their own impatience, and not of the word of God. And from them we have received it..

THE FOUR BEASTS OF THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL.

If any shadow of doubt could remain, as to the name, and to the successive order of the four empires, symbolised in the image, and as to their utter destruction at the coming of the last and heavenly kingdom, it will clear away, on examining the prophecy of the same things, under the symbol of four beasts, followed by the kingdom of the saints, related in the seventh chapter of Daniel. And here I will notice the period of time allotted in chronoligical order to the empires which have passed; and to the different phases of the fourth, under whose sway we live.

The Babylonian power yielded to the arms of Cyrus in the year 538 before Christ. This terminated the reign of the LION, and golden head of the image, after 209 years, from Nabonassar to Belteshazzar.

The Medo-Persian BEAR, which is the silver breast and arms of the image, continued from Cyrus to Alexander the Great, a period of 207 years. And that you are not called upon to believe fables, the school boys may know; for they know the name of Alexander the Great; and that he is the first, who ruled all nations; as Daniel foretold 200 years before Alexander's reign.

The Macedonian LEOPARD, which is the brass of the image, had four heads given it. That of Greece proper fell before Paulus Emilius, B. C. 167, in the kingdom of Macedon, and before Mummius, in the Achean League, B. C. 146. Pompey reduced another head to the obedience of Rome in the subjugation of Mithridates, making his kingdom a Roman province, from the Euxine to the Euphrates, and also Syria, from Egypt to Persia, B. C. 70 to 63. The Egyptian head was last reduced to a province by Augustus Cesar : B. C. 30. Some authors count the years of the Leopard from Alexander to the capture of Corinth; others from Al

exander to the subjugation of Egypt to be a province of Rome, terminating the empire of Egypt. This last date gives the Leopard a period of 300 years from the conquest of Persia by Alexander, B. C. 330, to the reduction of Egypt B. C. 30. The battle of Actium B. C. 31. I follow Tytler,

in dates.

Then, the indescribable dominion of Rome took imperial form, and ruled all nations. This is the iron of the image, and the fourth of the beasts: fierce, powerful, and peculiar.

It was "dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth and it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts before it, and it had ten horns." (Dan. 7: 7.)

This is the iron of the image, and the iron and clay; and the ten horns accord with the ten toes. Under the dominion of this imperial power had the world been sixty years, when the Lord Jesus Christ began to preach the coming of the next kingdom: exhorting all men to bethink themselves. and prepare, for the everlasting kingdom of Messiah had already come near: Repent; for the kingdom of heaven. is at hand!"

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From the beginning of the fourth empire, under Augustus Cesar, to the era of Constantine, is the length of the iron legs of the image, a period of 350 years: reckoning to the period when Constantine overthrew Licinius, and established himself sole emperor, with important changes in the administration of the government, giving temporal power to spiritual guides, A. D. 320.

From this admixture of the miry clay with the iron, in the feet of the image, to their division into toes, was about 150 years: the final dissolution of the empire having occurred A. D. 476. But the dismemberment was taking effect, in some parts of the Eastern empire 100 years earlier and 50 to 75 years earlier in the West. It was 507 years from

:

the battle of Actium to the extinction of the Western empire which was the consummation of the dismemberment of the empire.

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Now the horns proceeded from the head of the beast, and the toes from the feet of the image: and it is apparent, that, to the existing form of the fourth empire, a surprising duration has been allotted already; for "the days of these kings" number 1362 years at this moment: a startling sum, when we consider how this fourth empire is to terminate.

THE TEN HORNS.

Horns are the last features formed on the head of a beast; and these ten are the last form of the fourth and existing empire. The number is monstrous, and so is the beast from whose head they come. Their state is not uniform from first to last; they had a beginning, and will come with the world to an end. Daniel notices this peculiar one among them :

"I considered the horns, and behold there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots and behold, in the horn were eyes, like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit-his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. The judgment was set, and the books were opened." (Dan. 7: 8, 9, 10.)

I shall barely state the impression this makes on my own mind. Daniel, having seen the beast, and at length the ten horns, is contemplating them with marked attention, when he observes the eleventh pushing up among them, before which three of the ten fell out by the roots, (this leaves the whole number eight.) This last horn is a wonder,

"Behold, in this horn were eyes, like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. I beheld till the thrones were cast down." Daniel seems to gaze with wonder on this last horn, till the day of judgment.

No man can fail, I think, to perceive the order of events, although the wisest cannot fix the time, allotted to the future event in its order. The four empires have successively followed each other, and the fourth is to be followed by the day of judgment, and the endless reign of Messiah.

This is the order of events; and only the last and endless kingdom remains to come, to complete the series; whether followed in the line of the metallic image, or of the four beasts.

But we are not left to the general order alone, for our guidance. Under the figure of the horns of the fourth empire, certain events are set forth, not to be mistaken in the annals of this empire, which are plainly accomplished down to the very last; and yet we are slow to understand that the last will come, as all the rest have come, in the order foretold; but we are prompt and eager to look for a temporal and carnal millennium of spiritual felicity, amidst the good things in abundance of "this present evil world." Therefore, "when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18: 8.)

The changes of the fourth and existing empire are represented to the prophet by various symbols. The admixture of the clay and iron in the feet of the image, symbolizes the union of church and state: and the division into ten kingdoms, is signified by the ten horns: and the supplanting horn, which rises after the others, is known by its eyes, which search the hearts of all its subjects, as well as by its mouth, which speaks for the Most High.

No horn of power, or dominion of earth, ever attempted to speak with the mouth, or to search all hearts with the eyes of the Son of Man, save only one, which arose after the ten,