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of the Beast must compose the kingdom of Antichrist, for they make war with the Lamb, who is Christ Jesus. This is perfectly true of all Popish states; for they have constantly opposed, as long as they have had any power, the progress of pure Christianity. They make war with the Lamb by persecuting his followers; but the Lamb shall in due time overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings; all lords have their authority from him; and no king can rule without him; therefore the ten Latin kings are God's ministers to exécute his vengeance upon the idolatrous nations. But when these Antichristian monarchies have executed the Divine purpose, those that are with the Lamb, the called, the chosen, and the faithful, those who have kept the truth in the love of it, shall, must, prevail against all their adversaries, because their battles are fought by the Lamb, who is their God and deliverer.

"And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." "So many words," Bishop Newton observes, "in the plural number fitly denote the great extensiveness of her power and jurisdiction:-She herself glories in the title of the Catholic church, and exults in the number of her votaries as a certain proof of the true religion. Cardinal Bellarmin's first note of the true church is the very name of the Catholic church: and his fourth note is amplitude, or multitude and variety of believers; for the truly catholic church, says

he, ought not only to comprehend all ages, but likewise all places, all nations, all kinds of men." *

"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." Here is a clue to lead us to the right interpretation of the horns of the Beast; and I totally dissent from Bishop Newton, who thinks that the ten horns are here put by a common figure, of the whole, for a part. It is said the ten horns shall hate the whore, by which is evidently meant, when connected with what follows, that the whole of the ten kingdoms in the interest of the Latin church, shall finally despise her doctrines, be reformed from Popery, assist in depriving her of all influence, and in exposing her follies; and in the end consign her to utter destruction. From this it follows that no Roman Catholic power which did not exist as late as the Reformation can be numbered among the horns of the Beast; the ten horns must, therefore, be found among the great states of Europe at the commencement of the Reformation. These were exactly ten, viz. France, Spain, England, Scotland, The Empire, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, and Portugal. In these were comprehended most of the minor states, not styled monarchies; and which, from their first rise to the period of the Reformation, had been subdued by one or more of the ten grand Roman Catholic

*See his Dissertat. on the Prophecies, in loc.

powers already named. Consequently these ten constituted the power and strength of the Beast ; and each minor state is considered a part of that monarchy under the authority of which it was finally reduced previously to the Reformation.

THE KINGDOM OF FRANCE, the first monarchy in the interest of the Latin church, had the powerful duchy of Normandy annexed to it in 1204, and the kingdom of Navarre in 1512. The first Roman Catholic monarch of the Franks was Clovis, who was baptized, in 496.

THE KINGDOM OF SPAIN was originally divided into a great number of states. The principal nation in this peninsula was that of the Visigoths who embraced Arianism at the time of the dismemberment of the Western Roman Empire. In this creed they continued above 123 years till the reign of their king Reccared or Recared I. surnamed The Catholic. The conversion of this monarch to the Romish religion had been early brought about by Leander, metropolitan of Seville; but the declaring himself a Catholic publicly, was considered a very delicate point. At length, after a great victory which he obtained over the Franks, it was resolved that the king should propose, to the grandees and prelates about his person, introducing the Catholic religion throughout his dominions, which he accordingly did, in October, A. D. 586; and in 589 King Reccared, being very desirous to settle the affairs of the church on so firm a basis that it should never be shaken, summoned for that purpose a council

at Toledo where five metropolitans and sixty-two bishops assembled, and made several canons, which were signed by the king, the metropolitans, and the prelates; and thus the conversion of the Goths be-came a national act. * The Gothic monarchy in Spain was completely subverted by the Moors on Nov. 11, 711 or 712, after it had subsisted nearly 350 years. Don Pelayo restored the Spanish monarchy in the Asturias, Sept. A. D. 718, whose descendants governed it under the name of the kingdom of Oviedo and Leon for almost 320 years, when it was united by marriage to the kingdom of Castile on July 22, 1037. A considerable part of Spain was subdued by Sancho III. called The Great. He divided his dominions among his children; in consequence of which three principal Spanish monarchies in the interest of the Latin church were founded in 1035, viz. the kingdoms of Navarre, Castile, and Arragon. The Moors had also estabFished a powerful monarchy in Spain called the kingdom of Granada; but the Moors received repeated overthrows till about the year 1492, when all the kingdoms in Spain were united by the mar riage of Ferdinand, king of Arragon, and Isabella the heiress, and afterwards queen, of Castile, who took Granada, and expelled out of Spain the Moors and Jews, who would not be converts to the Roman Catholic faith, to the number of 170,000 fa

.

* See 'Modern Universal History, Vol. XIX. pp. 31, 396. Edit. 8vo.

milies. The kingdom of Naples and Sicily passed under different masters. The Normans conquered it, and Roger was named king of Sicily by the Pope, in 1130. The Norman line continued till their kingdom was subdued by Henry VI. emperor of Germany. After internal contests Charles of Anjou became king of Sicily 1266: after the Sicilian vespers, 1282, Sicily was seized by a fleet sent by the kings of Arragon; but Naples continued to acknowledge the line of Anjou, which expired in the year 1389. René of Anjou, king of Naples 1435, was the father of Margaret, wife of Henry VI. of England: but the French line failed in 1481, in Charles count de Maine, who named Louis XI. king of France his heir, whence the pretension of France to the kingdom of Naples. The last revolution it underwent, before the period of the Reformation, was its annexation to the crown of Spain in 1504. From this it appears that the kingdom of Naples and Sicily cannot be considered one of the ten horns of the Beast, as its independent power was totally extinguished many years previously to the Reformation.

THE KINGDOM OF ENGLAND was increased by the addition of the Irish heptarchy in 1172, and of the Welsh dominions in 1285. The Roman Catholic

* See Guthrie's Geographical Grammar; from which the his story of some of the other kingdoms in the interest of the Latin church, has been partly collected..

+ See Pinkerton's Geography, in loc.

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