mark, Poland, Hungary, and Portugal, * as these were the ten grand divisions of the Latin world, which included in them every monarchy, and almost all the other minor states of the Romish communion, and were consequently those which gave their power and strength to the Beast.

* Trapp, in his Commentary ad loc. enumerates the following as the ten kingdoms of the Beast; Naples, Spain, Portugal, France, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, Denmark, Sweden, and England. But Vitringa, in his Apocalypsis Joannis Exposita et Illustrata, pp. 1044, 1045, has given the following list, which is very near the truth: "Regna Galliarum sive Franciæ, Hispaniarum, Germaniæ, Angliæ, Scotia, Daniæ, Sueciæ, Hungariæ, Bohemiæ, et Poloniæ." The kingdoms of Gaul or France, Spain, Germany, England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland. The error in this scheme consists in enumerating the monarchies in the interest of the Latin church as they stood in the eleventh century, before the rise of the kingdom of Portugal; and in denominating Bohemia a horn, which was only a fief of The Empire.—It is remarkable that the kingdoms of the Latin world have been precisely ten at particular times before the complete formation of the ten grand monarchies. Gibbon has taken notice of one instance, when speaking of Roger, the first king of Sicily, who ascended the throne A. D. 1130. He says, "the chiefs of the nations, who attended his coronation at Palermo, might doubtless pronounce under what name he should reign over them; but the example of a Greek tyrant or a Saracen emir were insufficient to justify his regal character; and the nine kings of the Latin world* might justly disclaim their new associate, unless he were consecrated by the authority of the supreme pontiff." See his Decline and Fall, chap. 56.

These were the kings of France, England, Scotland, Castile, Arragon, Navarre, Sweden, Denmark, and Hungary.

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For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled." Let no one imagine that these ten Latin kingdoms, because they support an idolatrous worship, have been raised up by the power of man, or the chances of war. No kingdom or state can exist without the will of God; therefore let the inhabitants of the earth tremble, when they see a wicked monarchy rise to power; and let them consider that it is raised. up by the Lord in order to execute his vengeance upon the idolatries and profligacies of the times. It is said of the kings in communion with the church of Rome, that "God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will." How is this Divine will accomplished? In the most awful and afflictive manner! In causing ten Latin kings to unite their dominions into one mighty empire for the defence of the Latin church. Here is a dreadful dispensation of Jehovah; but it is such as the nations have most righteously deserved, because when they had the truth they lived not according to its most holy requisitions, but loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Therefore hath "the Lord sent them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they might all be damned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness." But this deplorable state of the world is not perpetual; it can only continue till every word of God is fulfilled upon his enemies; and when this time arrives, (which will be that of

Christ's second advent,) then shall the Son of God slay that Wicked" with the spirit of his mouth, and shall consume him with the brightness of his coming."

"And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” It has already been shewn that the Woman sitting upon the seven-headed Beast is the representation of the Latin church; here we have the greatest assurance that it is so; because the Woman is called a city, which is a much plainer emblem of a church, as this word is used unequivocally in this sense in so many parts of Scripture that we cannot mistake its meaning. In Rev. iii. 12. we read" of the city of God, the New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from God:" This no person can think literally means a city; but must allow that the whole church of God on earth is intended. In Rev. xxi. 10. we read of " that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven' from God." In Rev. xi. 2. we read that "the holy city' shall be trodden under foot by the Gentiles." In Rev. xxii. 19. it is written, that "if any man shall' take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city." Psal. xlvi. 4. "There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God." Psal. lxxxvii. 3. “Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God." Heb. xii. 22." But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly

Jerusalem." In the above quotations from the Sacred Oracles, city of Jerusalem, holy city, &c. evidently mean the church of God; for in no other sense can these symbols be properly understood. The Woman, therefore, must be the Latin church; and as St. John saw her sitting upon the Beast; this must signify that she "reigneth over the kings of the earth," that is, over the kings of the Latin world, for that this is the meaning of earth has been already shewn in a preceding part of this work. She is also called a great city, to denote the very great extent of her jurisdiction; for she has comprehended within her walls the subjects of the mighty dominations of France, Spain, England, Scotland, The Empire, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, and Portugal. What an extensive city was this! Surely such as to justify the prophetic denomination "that great city.”

Having now gone through the whole of the angel's interpretation of St. John's vision of a Woman sitting upon the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast; it will be essentially necessary, for reasons already given, to examine a little more attentively the following words of the angel: "The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell upon the earth shall wonder (whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world,) when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is." It has already been shewn that the phrases was, is not, shall

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ascend out of the bottomless pit, and yet is, refer to the Latin kingdom which existed before the building of Rome; to the Roman empire in the time of St. John; and to the Latin empire which was in futurity in the apostolic age. But as the words was, is not, &c. are spoken of the Beast upon which St. John saw the Woman or Latin church sit; how can it be said that this Beast had an existence before the date of the Apocalypse, when the Woman, whom it carried, was not in being till long after this period? And what connection has the Latin empire of the middle ages with that which derived its name from Latinus, king of the Aborigines, and was subjugated by the ancient Romans; or even with that which existed in the time of the apostle ? The answer is as follows: St. John saw the Beast upon which the Woman sat with all his seven heads and ten horns. Consequently, as the angel expressly says, that five of these seven heads had already fallen in the time of the vision, it therefore necessarily follows, that the apostle must have seen that part of the Latin empire represented by the seven-headed Beast, which had already been under the emblem of five heads. Therefore, the Woman sat upon the Beast that was. But it is plain from the angel's interpretation that the whole of the seven heads fell before the Beast, upon which the Woman sat, arose; and yet the Woman is represented as sitting upon the seven-headed Beast, to denote, as has already been shewn, that it is the Latin kingdom in its last estate, or under one of