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SECTION XXXII.

Daniel's brief sketch of the Roman empire under the emblem of the legs of a great image, in chap. second, illustrated by himself in three following visions.— In chap. seventh, by the fourth beast and his little born.-In chap eighth by the king of fierce countenance.-In chap eleventh by the king the great defender of Mabuzzim.-The substance of these four representations given collectively by St. John in his two beasts and their image.-The false miracle of commanding fire to come down from heaven, compared with a true one of the witnesses.The character of the same antichristian chief, as drawn by David, conformably to the prophecies which followed after, and to bistorical truth.

THE vision of the great image, revealed in a prophetic dream to a heathen king, from the time of whose reign the days of its wonderful and great revolutions take their commencement, could not be expounded to him from

the customary resources of art and delusion, because the communications necessary for the diviners to work upon were with-held: an irresistible restraint having been laid upon the powers of darkness, by the strong hand of Omnipotence. The interpretation was therefore given in such a manner, as to shew clearly from whence the information was derived, and that it was ultimately designed for the comfort and instruction of the servants of God in all ages to come. The prophet of the true God alone was able to restore the evanescent traces of the image originally impressed, and to give the interpretation, in which the fates of the church in the LATTER DAYS were to be unfolded. This is done in a concise and rapid sketch of the prophetic history, which like the first outline of an historical painting passes over the whole design with a few masterly touches, leaving the intermediate objects to be filled in at leisure, and the parts too faintly drawn in this first design to be brought forward by successive additions, a bolder projection of the light and shade, and a suitable disposition of the colouring tints.

To see the beauty and full perfection of this design in true perspective, we must therefore step aside a little, and look at it from a fresh station in the 7th chapter of Daniel; where we shall find this prophetical painter retouching his work, and introducing those additional lights and shades which were wanting to give the requisite character and expression to the piece. In this chapter the same four universal monarchies are described under the type of four beasts, of which (as in the exposition of the image,) the last represents the ROMAN EMPIRE, and has again, for the same reasons, engaged the greater share of the prophet's attention.

"After this I saw in the visions of the night, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stampt the residue with the feet of it. And it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it." The three former empires (as is observed by Bishop Newton) had all been such as some specific symbol drawn

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from real nature, in some sort, was found whereunto to compare them. But the empire of ROME, which was here to be described in all its states as Pagan, then Christian, and at last Antichristian, was so extraordinary and monstrous a production, that nothing in the whole storehouse of nature could be found of sufficient variety to represent it by; and a production of the imagination is made up on purpose to be an adequate emblem of it. The empire of Rome was tremendous in war, and oppressive in peace. It made more prodigal waste of human blood by conquests in the time of the rising greatness of Rome, and by barbarous and bloody persecutions of both the Jews and Christians afterwards, than all the former empires had done. The Romans are always distinguished in the prophecies by epithets which denote great strength, ferocious cruelty, and the universal terror inspired by their very name, to which all history bears witness. In the former vision Daniel has represented their prodigious strength* by

*Calmet derives the name of ROME from Cour, strength. A HORN is a well known symbol of strength in the Psalms,

"LEGS OF IRON," as here he shews the use they made of their power by the great “iron teeth," and hoofs of brass with which the beast tore in pieces, and destroyed its prey.

"And it had TEN HORNS. And I considered the horns, and behold there came up among them another little horn, before whom three of the first borns were plucked up by the roots. And behold in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things in ver. 24th. these horns are ex

*

pounded, and signify ten kingdoms, that were in due time to arise out of the body of the empire in its decline; and are the same which St.John describes in a similar manner, and as being still future in his time t. "The ten borns

(cxxxii. 17.-cxlviii. 14.) And in other prophetic parts of scripture. (See also 2 Kings xxii. 11, &c.)-The ten horns are afterwards expounded of ten kingdoms, answerable to the ten toes of the image.

*How well he hath earned a title to this character, by his insolence to man and blasphemy to God, is shewn Sect. ix. p. 246, &c.

+ Rev, xvii. 12,

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