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Confular magistracy. It is in harmony with the Prophet's explanation to fuppofe the iron legs to denote alfo the ftrength with which this Empire fupported the vaft weight, which it obtained by conqueft over the three former kingdoms.

"The feet of iron mixed with clay," I fuppofe to mean the eastern and western Roman Empires; for the Empire was certainly immediately weakened when it was thus divided" it became partly broken, or brittle.”

"The ten toes" were ten kingdoms which arofe afterwards, all within the bounds of the antient Roman Empire-" The iron was mixed with miry clay," to denote, as fome think, a peculiar degree of defilement during thefe periods of its existence, or "the mixture of barbarous nations with which the Roman people was defiled." But the latter fuppofition is not, I think, at all probable. The Jews interpret," and they fhall mingle with the feed of men," as alluding to the mixture of Jews (emphatically termed men) with all these nations, which yet remain dif tinct from them-" do not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay."

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Supposing the feet to be the divided Empire, the ten toes must belong to both parts of it; we are not therefore confined to the western Empire for the ten kingdoms.

We muft, I think, conclude, that the description of this image contains the history of the Roman Empire in all its ftates; but nothing is faid to Nebuchadnezzar of an eleventh kingdom. Information concerning this kingdom, which was to be of a different kind, that is, partly of a fpiritual nature-and the power of which was to be exerted within the Empire, and while it fubfifted in its laft form of ten kingdoms -was referved to be given to the Prophet. →→→ The fate however of this fourth Empire is imparted to the monarch: as that of the three former Empires had been.

"Aftone cut out without hands, fmote the image upon his feet, that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces."

"Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the filver; and the gold, broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the fummer threshing-floor, and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them; and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole

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earth. In the days of these kings (that is, of the four great kingdoms, for the three former had not been deftroyed; their fove reignty was gone, but "their lives were pro longed for a season and a timey") shall the God of heaven fet up a kingdom, which fhall never be destroyed; and the kingdom fhall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and confume all these kingdoms, and it fhall ftand for ever. Forafmuch as thou faweft the ftone that was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the filver and the gold?."

As the fourth or Roman Empire is de fcribed in its feveral ftates; fo is the fifth kingdom, or the kingdom of the Meffiah, defcribed in its two ftates. Mr. Mede dif tinguishes these by the name of regnum lapidis, the kingdom of the ftone, and regnum montis, the kingdom of the mountain.

This kingdom was fet up by the God of heaven," when Chrift came into the world" He was "the ftone cut out of the mountain" without human means, while the Ro

y See Sir I. Newton.

& Dan, ii. 35, &c.

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man Empire was ftrong as iron; but it did not fmite the image till a later period, when it had "feet of iron mixed with clay ;" and then the power of the feet was foon broken into ten parts, or toes, in which state, it yet exifts. The Empire was divided before the wifible conqueft of Chrift over the dragon," or the power of Pagan Rome, by the eftablishment of Christianity in the Empire.

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"The powers of darkness were then fhaken," but (as we fhall find when we confider the little horn in the vifion of Daniel) they a are fuffered to remain in a weakened state till the ftone fhall become the mountain, and fill the whole earth," when" the kingdoms of the world fhall become the kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Christ.

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The kingdom of the mountain is then to be confidered as yet entirely future...

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Second Fifion.-The FOUR BEASTS, and the LITTLE HORN of Antichrift.

The four Empires which were exhibited to Nebuchadnezzar in the form of á great and terrible image, were represented to Daniel in the shape of great wild animals,fuch em blems and hieroglyphics being ufual among the eastern nations. This vifion is much more particular in its descriptions-mentions many circumstances relating to each kingdom, and points out an extraordinary power, not even named in the dream of the image, which was to arise during the last state of the fourth or laft kingdom-was to continue

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until a time, and times, and the dividing of time," (that is, 1260 years according to the common interpretation) but not beyond the duration of these kingdoms of " iron mixed with miry clay;" because the kingdom of the mountain is to destroy every adverse power, and is itself to reign over the whole earth: and we have seen that it was to strike the whole image down to the ground, when in this laft period of its power, and to establish itself in its room.

• Daniel vii. 2, &c.

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