ning of the rise of the little horn in the year 292, when Constantine first departed for the army, and Constantius began to nurse the church. This imperial ecclesiastical tyranny symbolized by the little horn, thus arising and being thus established in Constantine, it only remains to shew that it retained its power over the saints exactly 1260 years, and this appears to be the case by the corresponding date of the beginning of the Reformation, for the horn's rise took place in 292, and the protestant religion was first recognized by the treaty of Passau in 15521.

Now since we have made out who and what the little horn of Daniel is, it becomes full time to turn our attention to the beast of St. John, always bearing in mind, that as Daniel saw the Roman beast in his Pagan state, the religious characteristic mark of the little horn savours more of Paganism than Christianity: and as St. John, on the other hand, saw his beast in his Christian state, his corresponding mark bears relation to the true religion rather than to the false; and what may be human wisdom in the

It is remarkable, that Mr. Gibbon considers the fall of the Roman empire to be completed in the sixteenth century; for he brings his history of its decline and fall down to the pontificate of Sixtus V. that is, into the year 1585; thus making an exact period of 1260 years between its end and the council of Nice.

one, may be corruption in the other: thus the little horn of Daniel was marked with the eyes like the eyes of a man: and the beast of St. John with blasphemy.

The eyes portray the understanding, as it is often expressed in Scripture"; but they are the eyes of a man, that is, human understanding, or human learning and philosophy, which very plainly accords with my explanation of the first woe. Daniel says of the little horn of his fourth beast, " And he shall speak great words against "the Most High, and shall wear out the saints " 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." These are almost the same words which St. John afterwards uses in the description of his first beast; "° And there was given " unto him a mouth speaking great things, and " blasphemies;" here blasphemy is added; " and power was given unto him to continue " forty and two months. And he opened his "mouth in blasphemy against God, to blas" pheme his name, and them that dwell in hea"ven. And it was given unto him to make " war with the saints, and to overcome them: " and power was given him over all kindreds, " and tongues, and nations." Can we then doubt that this beast and the little horn are one and the same? As I have already shewn who the little horn was, I will leave it to the sense of my reader to observe the close connection, and determine for this beast also. The consolidation and establishment of ecclesiastical and imperial tyranny under Constantine over the saints remained in force till the completion of the Reformation, a period of 1260 years P; this also was the period of the beast. If St. John has entered more fully into the description of this beast than Daniel did into that of the little horn, it was for this reason; Daniel said what was sufficient for his own purpose, and to give a connection with St. John's; St. John on the other hand shews his connection with Daniel by the woman in the wilderness, and takes up the little horn as the grand feature

P" In the long period of 1200 years, which elapsed between "the reign of Constantine and the Reformation of Luther, "the worship of saints and relics corrupted the pure and "perfect simplicity of the Christian model; and some " symptoms of degeneracy may be observed even in the first "generations, which adopted and cherished this pernicious " innovation." Gibbon, vol. iii. p. 96. 4to.

"The religion of Constantine achieved in less than a century, this final conquest of the Roman empire: but the "victors themselves were insensibly subdued by the arts of "their vanquished rivals." Gibbon, vol. iii. p. 103. 4to.

N

in his own prophecy, remaining in the western road which Daniel had quitted for the eastern: at the same time combining what he had before said of the horses, trumpets, woes, measuring of the temple, and witnesses, into one grand whole.

Since then this beast is, as it were, the centrepiece of the whole apocalyptic vision, the keystone of the arch, which unites the component parts, and bears the pressure of the whole fabric, it is the more important to ascertain with precision his credentials, his bearings, and his character: I trust there will remain no doubt in my reader's mind that he is the little horn of Daniel's beast; and that the little horn is the ecclesiastical imperial tyranny established by and in the great Constantine: so far I feel secure. But there are other marks and characters upon this beast, which did not appear in the little horn; for a solution of which we must consider the relative designs of the different prophets. Their principal object, as I have before stated, was to foretell the fortunes of the church, Daniel in the east, St. John in the west; but as the division into east and west did not take place till after the conversion of the empire, Daniel was obliged to introduce Constantine to complete his line of prophecy; and having introduced him, and given him such marks as were sufficient for his purpose, he leaves him to be amplified, and extended, and enlarged upon by his brother Prophet, who should symbolize and prefigure the circumstances which were to take place in the western church.

Three ingredients, I presume, are necessary to form a prophetical beast; tyranny, idolatry or corruption, and connection with the church; now it is remarkable, that Daniel, in the description of his beasts, dwells chiefly upon their tyranny, and for this reason, as I conceive; their connection with the church was well known and acknowledged; their idolatry was to themselves, for the church was never idolatrous after the Babylonian captivity, but it was their tyrannical oppression which was so much felt and deprecated by the Jewish nation: even in the little horn, when corruptions were in the church, tyranny was most his theme, as he well knew that its corruptions would be the subject of a future prophet, and that the history of the eastern church was to be followed in another line. But St. John, whose object it was to dwell on the corruptions of the western church, is diffuse in the religious character of his beast, and traces him to the father of lies himself. He begins with the rise of Christianity springing from the Jewish church; shews us the persecution which