66 France stood armed on the one side, Europe on the other, and victory constantly followed the tricoloured standard. Holland is conquered, and England trembles; 23 regular sieges terminated; 6 pitched battles gained; 2,000 cannon taken; 2,000 towns submitted; such is the glorious result of the last campaign; the next promises, if possi ble, more surprising success!" The loss of men in the armies of France from 1789 to 1796, slain, was said to be 1,200,000, besides the huge hosts of slaughtered citizens, men, women, and children, who were said to amount to 2,000,000. General Denican, a French officer, declared that 3,000,000 of the French perished within five years of the revolution in 1789. The " Terrible Republic" (a name they assumed before they became an empire) having by public authority denied God and the Christian religion, were prepared to patronize any and every enormity; the burning of the Bible in a public place; the parading of the sacramental vessels through the streets on an ass, in contempt; posting in their places of burial, "Death is an eternal sleep!" abolishing the Sabbath, and shutting up the houses of God; declaring Christ an impostor; the gospel a forgery; and swearing to extirpate Christianity from the world; assuring the public as follows,-"Man, when free, wants no other divinity than himself,-reason dethrones both the kings of the earth and the king of heaven,-no monarchy above, if we wish to preserve our republic below, every other than a republic of atheists is a chimera, -if you admit the existence of a heavenly sovereign, you introduce the wooden horse; what you adore by day, will be your ruin by night." A comedian, as a priest of Illuminism, publicly attacked God thus: "No, thou dost not exist! If thou hast power over the thunderbolts, grasp, and aim them at the man who dares to set thee at defiance in the face of thine altars. But no!-I blaspheme thee, and yet I live! No; thou dost not exist!" Well is this beast from the bottomless pit said to be "full of the names of blasphemy," as verse 3 of our context. Soon did they receive their emperor,-military despot; and soon he led them to form the "Confederation of the Rhine." But Bonaparte was not the beast from the bottomless pit, any more than was each of the twenty emperors who in turn reigned in the first existence of the imperial head of this beast in early times,-that sixth G g "part head of the Roman beast. It depends on no one man, but is an enormous system of infidelity, which was to be sometimes "strong," and sometimes "broken"of iron and part of clay." Let one or twenty of its dynasties fail; the beast is the same till he goes into perdition under the seventh vial. Rev. xix. 19; Dan. vii. 11.* To be convinced that the beast from the bottomless pit, in this chapter, and the healed head in chap. xiii., are the same power of the last days, please to compare the passages, chap. xiii. 1-10, with chap. xvii. 7-14. One had a deadly wound, but is now whole; the other, after long absence, arises from hell, a little before the battle of the great day. To the one is given "a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies:" the other is "full of the names of blasphemy." To the one it is given to make war with the saints; the other makes war with the Lamb. One has power over all kindreds, tongues, and nations of the other it is said, God hath put in their (the nations') hearts to agree and give their kingdom unto the beast, till his word is fulfilled. All the world wonders after the one, whose names are not in the book of life: of the other, : * In Isaiah xiv. relative to Babylon, we have a prediction, which Scott conceives is to have its ultimate fulfilment in the last days: we read, "Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina (papal Philistines), because the rod of him that smote thee is broken. For out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent." Here one had smitten them; but his rod was broken, upon which they rejoiced; but Heaven says, Rejoice not, and tells the reason why; and then adds, "for there shall come forth from the north a smoke."-"Thou, whole Palestina, dissolved!" (i. e. shall be dissolved.) And the verse following tells the time, and the "What shall one then answer the messengers of the consequence, nation? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it." We have here the Millennium,-and also events which just precede it. And the breaking of this rod of the oppressor explains what precedes in this chapter, verse 5-20, which please to read. We have here one who has smitten the nations, and is then broken,-falls, as Lucifer,-the day-star falling from heaven; and is thus addressed, "Is this the man that did make the earth to tremble; and did shake the kingdoms?" And he is noted as cast out of his grave, or the stately sepulchres of kings," an abominable branch,”—and in burial separated from all of his imperial character; going down to the stones of the pit, or to a stony grave, separate and unhonoured! But the people whom he has smitten are assured that greater evils are before them. From his roots (or in some way from the same system), shall come a cockatrice and a fiery flying serpent. What is wanting to they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names are not written in the book of life. constitute them one and the same. secular Roman beast of seven heads and ten horns, and distinct from popery. The imperial head of the Roman beast, then, or a military despotism, is noted as having two distinct and distant reigns. Under the one, Christ was crucified, and his followers persecuted under the other, war with Christ is the object, and his witnesses are to be sorely depressed for a time. The one received a wound and died, in the revolution under Constantine, under the figures Rev. vi. 12, to end the other is to go into perdition in the battle of the great day of God. Ver. 12. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet: but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. The old Roman beast had ten horns; and the new beast from the bottomless pit is noted as having ten horns. Some have imagined the horns of the former to have been the fragments into which the old empire was finally divided; but this seems unnatural. Horns are emblems of power; but these fragments into which the empire dwindled, were fatal effects of its weakness. And these fragments came into existence long after the beast was wounded to death by the revolution under Constantine, and died. I shall, then, consider these horns of the first beast as the kingdoms which actually constituted the strength of the empire in its glory. These were its horns indeed; and they were many, if not precisely ten. find, at once, under the dominion of Cæsar,-Italy, Greece, Macedon, Syria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Carthage, Spain, Gaul, and Britain. Who can tell why these were not the ten horns of that beast? Daniel seems to decide that they were thus, when he says, Dan. ii. 44; "In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom." What kings?-the ten toes of the great image, which had just been noted; which were the same with the ten horns of the beast under consideration. This text had its prímary fulfilment in the setting up of Christ's kingdom, in We the first century of the Christian era: and is to have an ultimate one in the coming of the Millennium. The former took place in the days of those kings denoted by the ten toes of the image; the latter is to take place after the fall of the beast from the bottomless pit. These horns, verse 16 informs us, hate, burn, and destroy the papal harlot. Says Mr. Pool; "I am much inclined to think the prophecy (of these ten horns) to concern some kings near the end of the antichristian reign." This must indeed be the case. In Dan xi. this same wilful kingdom of the last days is found subduing the nations, and dividing their territories for his gain. What is this but the forming of his horns? Should ten such horns be found at any one time to exist, it would be sufficient to fix this his character,* even should they continue, as our text assures they will, but one prophetic hour. They "have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power, as kings, one hour with the beast." Each has a semblance of a kingdom, a shadow of it without the substance; and even this but for an hour. The ancient horns of the beast had their kingdoms, and this for long periods. But the horns of the beast from the bottomless pit seem to obtain no real kingdom, but the name only. Its leader gives no real kingdom, but empty titles. So manifestly are the two sets of horns distinct from each other. * After the French empire arose, we find the "Confederation of the Rhine." And the following creation of kings was agreed upon by Napoleon and the emperor of Austria (the former being the Emperor of France, and the king of the Romans; and the latter, copartner of the Confederation of the Rhine). 1. Archduke Charles, king of Spain, and of the Indies. 3. Ferdinand IV. king of the Two Sicilies. 4. Joachim, king of Poland. 5. Eugene, king of Macedonia. 6. Louis Napoleon, king of Bavaria. 7. The hereditary prince of Bavaria, king of Holland. 8. Jerome Bonaparte, king of Wirtemberg. 9. The king of Wirtemberg, to be king of Westphalia. 10. The grand duke of Baden, to be king of Switzerland. Whether these were the ten horns of this beast, or whether other nations where this system of infidelity is planted, who may agree and give their kingdom unto the beast, will yet form them, time will decide. Ver. 13. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. We have here recognised, in the kingdoms that compose these ten horns, a signal yielding to the influence of the beast, in which the governing Providence of God is clearly confessed, for the fulfilment of his word in judgments upon his enemies, and trial of his friends. We must believe that things are still pending which will give an ultimate fulfilment of this passage, as it will be fulfilled when the unclean spirits like frogs shall gather the nations and assemble the kingdoms to the battle of that great day of God, Rev. xvi. 13, 14, and xix. 19, where the kingdoms of the world under the beast are drawn up in battle array against Christ. Ver. 14. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is the Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. 66 We have here the great object of the beast of the last days, war with the Lamb," -war with the saints. Here is the rage of Satan in his last efforts, when he knoweth that his time is short. But though he may seem to prevail for a short time (say three years and a half), Christ will thenceforth prevail, and make his cause triumphant over the world. "For he is Lord of lords, and king of kings ;" and his followers are "called, and chosen, and faithful.” Ver. 15. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. 16. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. 17. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. 18. And the woman which thou sawest is that |