and put kingdoms under the ban, and has exalted himself above all, as will afterwards be fully shown-has spoken great words against the Most High, claiming infallibility as its own, and setting its commandments beside those of God, or rather substituting its own in their stead, maintaining itself by persecution to such a degree and to such an excess of cruelty, that burning at the stake was openly and avowedly and literally an act of faith," (auto da fe,) by which, and by inquisitions, racks, tortures, and dungeons, it sought and tried to wear out the saints of the Most High, thought to change times and laws by instituting fasts, sacraments, and manifold ordinances and rites, which are unheard of in Scripture, and form no part or portion of that kingdom which God has set up.; and which has prevailed for a long course of ages, and exercised a dominion diverse from every other. The exarchate of Ravenna, the kingdom of the Lombards, and the state of Rome, were subjected to the secular dominion of the church of Rome, and mainly form to this hour "the states of the church," over which the pope, as a temporal prince, exercises sovereignty, while his words and looks were so great, that he assumed an unchallenged right of supreme spiritual authority, to himself or to his church, over all the kingdoms into which the Roman empire was divided. Such is the first announcement in Scripture of papal or Roman Catholic domination. Its history will be more fully entered on in the sequel; but here it may be said that the more arrogant that are the pretensions of the church of Rome, the clearer is the proof against it; and the more that it boasts of the long continuance of its authority, the nearer is its domination to a close.

They shall be given into his hands for a time, times, and the dividing of time, or half a time.

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cording to the common mode of the computation of prophetic time in Scripture, each day is reckoned for a year. On this principle, the seventy weeks of Daniel, (chap. ix.) are, by universal agreement, computed. And this mode of computation was familiar among the Jews. Every seventh year was the Sabbatical year, on the conclusion of a week of years; and seven of these brought round the jubilee. A striking illustration of the adoption of this method of reckoning, in prophecy, is given in the command to Ezekiel (iv. 4-6,) when there was laid on him" the years of the iniquity of the house of Israel, according to the number of the days,—EACH DAY FOR A YEAR. time, times, and half a time, or three years and a half, comprise the space of one thousand two hundred and sixty years. The two witnesses, in the Revelation (xi. 3,) were, in like manner, to prophesy a thousand, two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. And the woman (Rev. xii. 6— 14) who had on her head a crown of twelve stars, and whose seed kept the commandments of God, and had the testimony of Jesus Christ, fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared of God that they should feed her there, a thousand two hundred and threescore days; and, identifying the periods, it is said, she was nourished in the wilderness for a time, and times, and half a time. See Table.

The times and seasons the Father hath in his own

power. But whatever be the period of the commencement of the spiritual dominion of the Church

of Rome, we see the limits of the course that it was to run, before the judgment upon it should sit.

“I beheld,” says Daniel," till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld then, because of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. I saw in the nightvisions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.' Dan. vii. 9-14. This is the interpretation-" But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him."-Ver. 26, 27.

The second vision, comprising the same period, and descriptive, though more fully, of the same kingdoms as the first, terminates in the same glorious consummation. The papal power was to domineer for a long

but limited period; but his dominion was to be taken away, to be consumed, and to be destroyed to the end-implying, as other prophecies more explicitly unfold, that, instead of being cut off in a moment, after being partially diminished or impaired, it was fated to meet a gradual but awful and sure destruction.

The rest of the beasts had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time, ver. 12. The pachalic of Bagdad still subsists, but the lion, barely retaining a protracted existence, is no longer king of the beasts. The Persian monarchy retains its name, but has lost its power. The bear has not now one rib between its teeth, or one kingdom subject to its dominion; and after having in its youth, and vigour, and ferocity, devoured much flesh, it is now at last as if its life were not to be much longer prolonged-tearing its own, and has lately been greatly distracted not only by external wars but by civil commotions.

The Grecian states, ages having passed since their dominion was taken away, have recently risen, as it were, into life again. The leopard, bereaved alike of its wings and of its horns, instead of flying and ruling over kingdoms as of old, has with difficulty, and not without aid, raised itself again; and, although it has scarcely power to stand, shows that life is still left. The name of Greece has revived. The season seems to be past, and the time at hand. More minute and copious predictions are reserved to fill up the outline. The last shadow of the glory of earthly kingdoms-the life without the dominionmay be looked on before it too shall pass away, as the pattern or the symptom of the decline of all earthly power, and as the sign that the time may be approaching, when the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven,

shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. Hitherto is the end of the matter. And in contemplating that end, after an historical retrospect of all the vision but the end, it may be meet, before entering on the more full development of all these events from other prophecies, to use the words, and to cherish the feelings of the prophet, when the vision alone-the representation of what we have seen in great part, and may see realized and completed,―passed in his view,-As for me, Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and countenance changed in me : but I hid the matter in my heart. Ver. 28.

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CHAPTER III.

VISION OF THE RAM AND THE HE-GOAT.

THE visions of the great image, consisting of four parts, and of the four beasts, were expressly interpreted as representing the four great successive kingdoms that would arise upon the earth, till the kingdom of God, first arising in the midst of these kingdoms, would finally be established, and be set up on their ruins, to stand for ever. In the second vision the spiritual domination that was long exercised over the ten kingdoms which sprung up, as from the broken stock of a parent tree, from the dismemberment of the Roman empire, is specially defined, and no blank is left in the great outline of the history of the west. And another vision still more distinctly interpreted than the former, as referring chiefly to