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"times: one kingdom falling, and another "rising, and scarce any subsisting for a long "while together;" from which representation of the unsettled state of the Western Roman empire, at the time the ten kingdoms are supposed to have been formed, it appears evident, that if we consider them, according to the usual interpretation, as falling upon any successful invasion by a foreign power, it cannot be decided with any certainty which are the ten kingdoms referred to by the prophet.

We seem therefore, in the very outset of our examination, to have arrived at the conclusion, that if we would name with any certainty the ten kingdoms of Daniel, they must be considered as formed on the principle of a territorial division of the Western Roman empire, when they will be supposed still to continue to exist, through all their changes, as long as their territories are kept distinct from each other, and remain the seats of separate governments.

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It will be observed also, that I shall name the ten kingdoms, with reference to a later period than other commentators have done, for I do not consider the second period of the Ro man Empire (i. e., its completely divided and. weak state) to have commenced till the beginning of the seventh century; when the Roman

emperors, who had recovered Italy on the expul sion of the Ostrogoths from it, had again lost the supreme authority in that country from the invasion of the Lombards; and it was, as is well known, divided into several Dukedoms: the Greek Emperor possessing the Exarchate of Ravenna..

But we will now examine whether any of these lists are satisfactory, by inquiring first whether the various kingdoms named in them can be considered as of sufficient importance to fill so prominent.a place in prophetic history, as that occupied by the ten horns of the fourth Beast of Daniel; and secondly, how far their histories actually correspond with all the particulars which are mentioned of these ten horns, either by Daniel or Saint John.

If we examine the first list (or that most generally adopted) with regard to the importance of the kingdoms therein named, we shall find it to be very unsatisfactory in this respect, for the kingdom of the Heruli was overthrown after having been established in Italy only seventeen years.

The kingdom of the Visigoths in Spain, is considered also to have ended in the year 714, when Spain was conquered by the Saracensand in short, with the exception of France (which fell in the year 1792), the period of Da

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niel's prophecy, as far as relates to the ten kingdoms, has, according to the usual interpretations of it, been long passed by.

Thus, Mr. Faber observes, in reference to his list of the ten kingdoms, that the "Franks or "French are the only people of Europe who

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can deduce a perpetual succession from the conquerors of the Western Empire*,” and remarks again, that "the original kingdom of the Angles cannot be considered as being at "present in existence, the line of succession

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having been broken both by the Danish and "Norman conquests:" and in another place he observes, that "as for specifying what powers "are now the ten horns, he cannot but consider "it as absurd to attempt it."

The Burgundians, the Huns, the Saxons, the Vandals, the Sueves, and the Visigoths, existed also at a comparatively unimportant period of the Roman empire; and their histories are connected in a very inferior degree with the history of the Church.

On the other hand we shall find that Rome, which is a kingdom of the first importance, as being the seat of that great enemy of the Church, who is the principal object of Daniel's vision of the four Beasts, is itself overlooked in the inter

* Faber's Dissert, vol. i. 3d ed. p. 150, 4th ed. p. 176.

pretations usually given of that prophecy, for it is not considered by Mr. Faber and others as one of the ten kingdoms represented by the ten horns.

If we should ask where is Britain mentioned in prophecy, that has so long been the principal seat of the true Church, and the great upholder of the Protestant cause; and which is the nation to whom, above all others, peculiar mercy has been shewn: we are told that it has no place in the prophecy of Daniel; that the kingdom of the Saxons in Britain was one of the ten kingdoms, but that it perished at the time of the Norman conquest, and that Britain never therefore had a place in prophetic history, as one of these kingdoms, but when it was a barbarous nation, and of no political importance.

As the vision of the Great Image, and of the four Beasts of Daniel, reach however to the time of the end, we must naturally suppose that they refer to the present long established kingdoms of the Western Roman empire; and that the transcendently important events of the present day, in which they are concerned, are above all others likely to be the subjects of these prophecies. It can hardly therefore be thought that any one of these lists, containing the names chiefly of barbarous nations, which are at this

time nearly forgotten, is a true list of the ten kingdoms of Daniel. This will more clearly appear if we now proceed, in the second place, to consider how far the histories of these nations correspond with those particulars which are related of the ten Horns in the prophecies of Daniel and Saint John.

In the vision of the four Beasts it is said, that three of the ten horns should be “plucked up

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by the roots before" the little papal horn: should "fall before it :" and should" be sub"dued by it:" implying, when correctly interpreted, that three of the ten kingdoms should be taken possession of by the Papacy. Accordingly Mr. Mede, Bishop Newton, and Sir Isaac, equally understand the acquisition of temporal sovereignty by the Papacy to be the particular subject of this prophecy, and refer it to the Pope's obtaining possession of Ravenna, Lombardy, and Rome, which have for more than a thousand years formed the papal territories; they are however much puzzled to make this interpretation accord with their lists of the ten kingdoms. Mr. Mede tries to effect it by calling Ravenna "the kingdom of the Greeks;" by considering Lombardy as a continuation of "the kingdom of the Ostrogoths;" and by calling Rome "the kingdom of the Franks, "continued in the empire of Germany:"

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