The prolongation of the lives of the three first Beasts is therefore supposed to imply, if I do not mistake Mr. Faber's meaning, that the principles of Paganism will be continued during the Millennium, though the Papal and Mahometan Apostacies will be destroyed; and no particular reference is made by him to the three separate kingdoms, which I consider to be represented by the three first Beasts, they being supposed by Mr. Faber to be successively included and lost (when their dominion terminated) in the bodies of the following Beasts or Empires.

Such an interpretation, however, I could by no means admit, for when the lives of three Beasts are said to be prolonged during the dominion, as I suppose, or (as Mr. Faber supposes) after the death of a fourth, I conceive that it necessarily must imply that four distinct and separate beasts, or temporal kingdoms, existed together, and that the prolongation of their lives must simply mean the prolongation of such existence.

It appears also to me, that if the object was merely to express that the principles of Pa-ganism would still continue to exist during the Millennium in some parts of the world, that it would be a strange way of intimating this to say, that the lives of the three first Beasts

would be prolonged; when, according to Mr. Faber, the three first Beasts have been long ago swallowed up in a fourth; and their Pa ganism, which is considered as being peculiarly their life, has also terminated, for it has been changed for the Mahometan Apostacy.

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If however, which is not improbable, I have mistaken Mr. Faber, and he means to give a more precise and definite, and therefore a more correct, interpretation of the passage, and in saying that "the three Beasts will still persevere in their idolatry," admits a reference to those countries which were peculiarly the seats of the three first Empires, I must consider it as an admission of the principle that the four Beasts represent territorial divisions of the prophetic Earth; and I should then only object to his referring the prolongation of their lives to the future period of the Millennium; and should have to observe, that Judea itself formed part of the Macedonian empire, or of the body of the third Beast; and that therefore it seems inconsistent with those prophecies which speak of the Jews as the instruments of converting the whole world, to suppose that the life of the third Beast will be thus prolonged, or that for a thousand years the people immediately surrounding the church at Jerusalem will still

persevere in their idolatry, unreclaimed by

"the glorious manifestations of God in favour "of of his Millennian Church." The idea of the prevalence of idolatry during the Millenium, in the countries which were the seats. of the three first Empires, appears also entirely incompatible with the declaration, that "the "earth shall then be full of the knowledge of "the Lord, as the waters cover the sea:" and with what is said in Revelations, that Satan, the great promoter of idolatry, should be bound during that period, "that he should deceive "the nations no more till the thousand years "should be fulfilled." So the last attempt of Satan upon the Church is not represented in Scripture as being the consequence of the nations persevering in their idolatry, and at length "arriving at such a daring pitch of impiety, "as to make an open attack upon the Church;" but as owing to the influence of Satan being again exerted for a little season after it had, during the period of the Millennium, been completely restrained*.

But perhaps the most satisfactory proof that what is said of the prolongation of the lives of the three first Beasts, does not refer to a period subsequent to the destruction of the fourth, may be obtained by a reference to the vision of the Great Image; where we find that the Iron, the

* Rev. xx. 3, 7-9.

Clay, the Silver, the Brass, and the Gold, are "broken to pieces together." The four Beasts, representing the same objects, are therefore also unquestionably destroyed together, and the lives of the three first are prolonged until, but not after, the destruction of the fourth.

On referring to the work of Sir Isaac Newton I find, that he interprets the prolongation of the lives of the three first Beasts in the same way as I have done; namely, as implying a continuance of their existence until the destruction of the fourth. For after quoting the text he observes, "Therefore all the four Beasts are "still alive, though the dominion of the three "first be taken away." He elsewhere observes, that he places the body of the fourth Beast on " this side Greece; because the three "first of the four Beasts had their lives prolonged after their dominion was taken away, "and therefore belong not to the body of the "fourth. "feet."

He only stamped them with his

The reign of Christ having hitherto been considered as consisting only of one great period, called the Millennium; I have no support from any other commentator for that part of my system, in which I divide it into the three periods of its Commencement, Progress, and

Perfection; consisting severally of thirty, forty-five, and one thousand years. But I think that for want of this theory, the interpretations of preceding commentators are in some parts unsatisfactory, and deficient in clearness. This will appear, if we read the 7th chapter of Daniel, ver. 9-14: for we shall there find that the Sitting of the Ancient of days in judgment (which I suppose takes place at the commencement of the thirty years) is spoken of in verses 9 and 10, before the burning of the body of the Beast, which is mentioned, in verse 11, as the consequence of that judgment. After that, the Coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of Heaven is described, in verse 13, which I refer to the second period of the Temporal Kingdom of Christ, or to the commencement of the fortyfive years. Mr. Mede and Bishop Newton however understand the Sitting of the Ancient of days and the Coming of the Son of Man both as taking place at the commencement of the same period of the Millennium, and consequently do not keep these events sufficiently distinguished from each other; though the description of the Sitting of the Ancient of days, mentioned in the 9th verse, is separated from that of the Coming of the Son of Man, mentioned in the 13th verse, by the preface" I saw in the night