the battle of Armageddon, Rev. xvi. 14; xix. 19, where the armies of Satan and Anti-Christ are to be vanquished by the Lamb and his followers. Or of the discomfiture of Satan's army, mentioned Rev. xx. 8, 9, which shall be destroyed by fire from heaven. The Scriptures do in general declare that there shall be a great destruction of Christ's enemies here upon earth, before the general judgment, or consummation of all things. Compare with the context here chap. xxxiv. and chap. Lxiii. 1-6; Psal. cx. 5, 6; Jer. L. Li. (a great part of which chapters certainly relate to the latter times); Ezek. xxxviii. xxxix; Joel iii. 11-14; Micah v. 8, &c.; Zech. xii. 2; xiv. 1-13; Rev. xiv. 20; xvi. 14; xix. 9. But," he justly observes, we must not be too positive in assigning the particular place, time, or manner, how these prophecies shall be fulfilled; because the events are secrets, whose causes still lie in the depths of Providence. And the very great obscurity of the prophecies, which are supposed to relate to these matters, is a convincing argument that they are not yet fulfilled." In connection with these prophecies may be considered that which is contained in Deut. xxxii. 38-43, which appears evidently to have a reference to the latter times.

NOTE C. p. 50.

LINE 21. SECT. 3. The same mode of reasoning is adopted by Mr Habershon, in his Dissertation on the Prophetic Scriptures. But it had been long ago applied by Mede to the same subject. See his Remains on some passages in the Apocalypse, Chap. x. Works, p. 744; where, in one of his learned letters, he observes, "I waved not the question of the ending of the forty-two months more than that of their beginning; for as I designed their beginning in a latitude, so by consequent I do their ending. If they begin between the years 365 and 455, they must end between the years 1625 and 1715. Only I refused precisely to determine the year of their ending, which for some reasons I supposed should not certainly be known till the event should make it manifest: according as was not the precise beginning of the seventy years of the Babylonish captivity, till the event discovered it by their ending," &c.

NOTE D. p. 115.

LINE 29. The interpretation, which is affixed by the prophet himself in the fifth verse to the meaning of the chariots exhibited in this vision, appears, as has been observed, effectually to exclude the idea of four kingdoms. Indeed this is the view which is taken by Mr W. Lowth in his note on ver. 5. "These are the four spirits, &c. The angels which preside over these monarchies; who receive their commissions from the supreme Lord of all, to govern the affairs of these empires according to their direction. See chap. iv. 14, and the note on Dan. x. 13; 1 Kings xxii. 19." Lowth on Zech. vi. 5. The same view is taken by Bishop Hall, Paraphrase ad locum. This appears to contradict the opinion, which is advanced by Lowth in the Preface to his Commentary on this chapter, that the four chariots denote four Empires.

NOTE D. pp. 193-203.

With this section compare Part v. Sect. Ix. pp. 248—265, and notes H and I in the Appendix.

The same view is taken of the meaning of the vision of the two-horned beast by Dr Pearson, in his Warburtonian Lec

tures.

NOTE F. p. 218.

NOTE 1. The termination of the period of 1260 years is fixed by Mr Faber to A. D. 1868; by Dr Hales to A.D. 1880; by Mr Habershon to A. D. 1843. (See Faber, Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, Vol. 11. p. 145. Hales, Analysis of Chronology, Vol. II. p. 517. Dissertation on the Prophetic Scriptures, Mr Habershon, p. 293.) A learned writer (Archdeacon Browne, in his Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of

Ely, entitled The Time of the End, p. 78,) is of opinion, that "it seems probable that the termination will not be earlier than the time assigned by Mr Habershon, and morally certain that it will not be later than that which is specified by Dr Hales." This is a valuable observation: for although, from considering the gradual rise of the two great apostasies, we may probably conclude that their decline will be also gradual, yet it seems probable, from considering the signs of the times, and the different prophetical periods, as they are laid down by Daniel in his prophecy, and by St John in the Apocalypse, that before the conclusion of the present century we may look for great and awful changes in the moral and religious condition of the world, even if we are not justified in expecting the entire accomplishment of these prophecies. Compare the observations which have been made on this subject, pp. 247, 8.

NOTE G. p. 255.

NOTE 2. Bishop Hurd has justly observed from Mede, that "the seven heads of the beast are a DOUBLE TYPE: first, they signify the seven hills, on which the city is placed; and then, the seven kings, or governments, to which it had been subject; but still on those seven hills, for which reason the type is made to signify both."-Lectures on Prophecy, Serm. x1. p. 152. Mede's Works, p. 653.

NOTE 1. Compare Rev. xvii. 7-12, with Dan. vii. 7—24; Rev. xiii. 1. The comparison of these different passages together, at the same time that it confirms the application of these passages to Papal Rome, will exhibit the varied and increasing light which is thrown upon the subject by each successive revelation. The vision of Daniel, under the imagery of four beasts, represents the four great Empires of the ancient world, the Chaldean; the Medo-Persian; the Macedonico-Grecian; and the Roman, in the first place, in its Pagan state, and afterwards, when it became divided into ten different kingdoms, after the Imperial government was destroyed. For as the fourth beast represented the

fourth kingdom, so do the ten horns represent the ten kingdoms, which should arise out of it. (Compare verses 23, 24). In Rev. xiii. 1, St John sees the beast rising out of the sea, with seven heads and ten horns; and on comparing the head which arose after the head which was wounded to death, we have found it to be the same with the little horn of Daniel, mentioned Dan. vii. 8, 24, 25. (pp. 196-199.) But this wild beast of St John we have shewn, by a comparison with the 11th and 12th chapters, and by other arguments, to represent Papal Rome. (See the exposition of the eleventh and twelfth chapters, and pp. 199-202.) We have again the vision contained in the 17th and 18th chapters, which we have shewn can be applied only to Papal Rome. A diligent comparison and examination of these different passages will prove the application of the prophecy to Papal Rome, and at the same time shew the additional light, which is thrown upon it by each succeeding revelation.

With regard to these ten kingdoms, Mr Lowman observes, that "ten, in prophetic language, does not always mean a precise number, but is used as a certain number for an uncertain, to express in general several or many; so that there seems no necessity of finding a precise number of ten different kingdoms erected on the ruins of the Roman Empire. Still several interpreters have reckoned up precisely the number ten. The following have been enumerated by the illustrious Sir Isaac Newton. 1. The kingdom of the Vandals and Alans in Spain and Africa. 2. Of the Suevians in Spain. 3. Of the Visigoths. 4. Of the Alans in Gaul. 5. Of the Burgundians, 6. Of the Franks. 7. Of the kingdom of Britain. 8. Of the Huns. 9. Of the Lombards. 10. The kingdom of Ravenna.” With respect to these kingdoms, Dean Woodhouse has observed, that "though much varied in respect to the people of which they were composed, yet their number has been nearly the same; so that if an average were to be taken in the long course of fourteen hundred years, reaching to our times, the number ten would be found to predominate.....These nations have been at times seduced by the harlot and her intoxicating cup; they have imbibed her doctrines and executed her bloody decrees. But a time is also promised, and has already dawned, when the kings or rulers of nations shall open their eyes to the false pretensions of their deceiver, and perform their appointed part respecting her downfall and disgrace."—Annot. pp. 366, 7.

This prophecy has been already fulfilled with respect to some of these kingdoms, which have been the great leaders in the Reformation: we may therefore look forward to a fulfilment of it with respect to the remainder, when they, in their turn, shall hate the whore and destroy her power: and the signs of the times appear to point to such a fulfilment. But it is important to add a valuable observation of Mr Davison with respect to these ten kingdoms. "Such," he observes, "was the divided state of the Western Empire, when, in the middle ages, the Papal dominion rose, and rode upon the back of the civil power, existing in the separate kingdoms, into which that kingdom was disparted. But no rational account can be given of this symbol of the vision, if the harlot be ancient Pagan Rome; for her empire, if that be the beast, did not, in its Pagan form, admit of, or co-exist with, a civil sovereignty in such a diversity of kingdoms. In this point, as in others, the application of the prophetic symbols recoils from the Heathen upon the Christian power."-Discourses on Prophecy, pp. 470, 1.

There is one remark it is important to make with reference to that part of the vision of the image described in Dan. ii. relating to the ten toes of the image, which has been supposed by some to relate to that period of the Roman Empire, when the government was divided into ten kingdoms, which is the subject of Dan. vii. and of these prophecies of the Apocalypse. It however relates to that period of the Roman Empire, when the Christian religion first appeared in the world, as is clearly shewn by Bishop Newton, Diss. XIII.; and D'Oyly and Mant's Bible ad locum.

NOTE 1. The arguments of Vitringa may be abundantly and conclusively confirmed by the authorities, which have been referred to by Bishop Newton in his Dissertation on this chapter, and by the account which has been given by Mr Gibbon of the capture of Rome at these different periods. The siege and capture of Rome by Alaric took place A.D. 410. Notwithstanding the ravages which were committed by the barbarian troops, there appears to have been little to distinguish it from ordinary sieges; and in some respects considerable