Rome, and thus the second horn was plucked up by the roots before the Papacy. Subsequently to this, about the year 774*, the Pope having, by his intrigues, excited the displeasure of Desiderius, King of Lombardy, Desiderius seized several towns belonging to the Church, and prepared to besiege Ravenna; upon which the then Pope applied to Charlemagne for his assistance, who, marching an army into Lombardy, after a siege of ten months, took Pavia, its capital, and put an end to the kingdom of the Lombards, which had existed in Italy above two hundred years. Thus was the third kingdom subdued before the Papacy, which obtained from Charlemagne a considerable portion of the conquered territories.

The Prophecy next represents the Pope, or the Papacy, as "making war with the Saints;" the true Church of Christ; the professors of the unadulterated religion of the Bible. He is said to "wear them out," destroying them, and lessening their numbers by continual persecution. He is said also to "think to change "times and laws;" for shutting up the word of God as unfit for the perusal of the simple and unlearned, he substitutes in its place the corrupt traditions of the self-called Church;

Echard's Rom. Hist, in loc.

being lifted up with such extreme arrogance as to think that he had supreme authority, and that all events, or the "times," which God "hath put in his own power," and the " laws” of God revealed in his Holy Word, were to bend to him, and be at his disposal: and for a long season it was permitted that he should prevail against the saints, so as nearly to banish true religion from the whole of the Western Roman empire: the laws of God were abrogated, his word concealed, and the times apparently left to the disposal of the great Apostate for a certain period, called "a time, times, "and the dividing of time."

A Time may be considered as naturally expressive of the longest time or fixed period we are in the habit of calculating by; or a year. The expression Times implies two of these periods; and the Dividing of Time, elsewhere called a half time, one half of that period; making a total amount of three Times and a half, or three prophetic years and a half.

That this is the correct meaning of the words will be evident on a reference to the parallel prophecies of Saint John, where the same period is described as being 42 prophetic months, and also 1260 prophetic days, each year being considered as composed of 12 months, and each month of 30 days. Now in prophecy, a day is

frequently used to represent a natural year; as, for instance, Ezekiel*, in prophesying the length of time the Jews should suffer for their iniquity, was commanded to lie forty days on one side, eating bread by weight, and drinking water by measure; thus representing the distress the Jews should suffer in their captivity; and every day he so lay down represented a natural year; as it is said, "Lo, I "have appointed thee each day for a year."

There are other instances where a day is used to typify a year, so that we may conclude with certainty, that the period here spoken of as "a time, and times, and the dividing of time," equals 1260 years.

A precise period being named for the dominance of the Papacy, we must infer, that the commencement of this period will be accurately marked; for it would be in vain that the years were numbered, if the point of time from which the period commenced, was not distinguishable. Mr. Faber and Mr. Cuninghame have well observed, that it would only be by some authoritative act of the secular power of the empire, that the saints could originally be given into the hands of the papal horn; the Papacy being a spiritual power which could

* Ezek, chap. iv.

only at first exercise such authority as was permitted by the temporal power. Mr. Cuninghame further observes, that in looking for a commencement of the period, marked by such an authoritative act of the state, we shall find, that, in the month of March, 533, the Emperor Justinian issued an edict against heretics; and when writing to the Pope for his approbation of what he had done, addresses him as the acknowledged head of all the holy churches, and all the holy priests of God. The letter, in which this acknowledgment is contained, as well as the edict to which it related, were inserted in the volume of the civil law of the Empire, and are still to be found there. From the date of this imperial epistle of Justinian to Pope John, the saints, and times, and laws of the Church, may therefore be considered to have been formally delivered into the hands of the Papacy; and this consequently gives the precise date for the commencement of the period of the 1260 years.

The period being reckoned in years, we may expect to find the accomplishment of the prophecy agree as to the number of years; but greater accuracy than this we are not warranted to expect. Now, according to the scriptural mode of reckoning by incomplete time; which method is said to prevail universally in the

East, any length of time between 1259 and 1260 years would be denominated by the greater number. The period then having begun in the month of March, 533, its termination may have been at any point of time from March, 1792, to March, 1793. The principal explosion of the French Revolution on the 10th August, 1792, happened therefore at the expiration of the period; on that day the French Monarchy was overthrown, and the Republic established in its stead. This was an event of an importance wonderfully adapted to mark the expiration of the long period of 1260 years, during which it had pleased God, with much forbearance and long suffering, to permit the triumph of the enemies of his truth, the sufferings and depression of his church, and the concealment of his Gospel: the French Revolution marked the termination of this order of things; it came to the astonishment of those that dwell upon the earth; it ushered in the period of the destruction of the Roman empire, and of the Papacy (through the instrumentality of the Infidel power), a period which is called in the Revelations, the day of the wrath of God; and in Isaiah, the year of his redeemed,

"

In the 25th verse, after the period of the time, times, and half, had been mentioned, during which the Saints should be given into the hands