through an excessive veneration of the Virgin Mary and the defunct saints and martyrs, which ultimately revived under a new and specious form the ancient demonolatry of Paganism; the division of the Western or proper Roman Empire by ten distinct Gothic nations; and the gradual rise of the Papal Power in the midst of the kingdoms founded upon the Western or Latin platform by those ten Gothic nations. Such are the events, which occurred during the first moiety of the seven times. Whatever use may be made of them in the applicatory interpretation of prophecy, the naked events themselves. most assuredly stand recorded in history. II. The second moiety of the seven times must of course commence, where the first moiety terminates. But the first moiety terminates at some point between the years 603 and 615 after the Christian era. Therefore, at that same point, the second moiety will commence. Such being its commencement, it will terminate at some point between the years 1863 and 1875 after the Christian Hence, as the period in question has very nearly run out, the actors and events, comprehended within by far the greatest part of it, are no less a subject of history, than the actors and events comprehended within the first moiety of the seven times. era. 1. Daniel and St. John agree in allotting the second moiety of the seven times, or the latter three times and a half, to the tyranny of a Power; which is described, as acquiring at the commencement of that term an unlimited dominion over the saints of the Most High within the precincts of its own peculium, as wearing them out by incessant persecution, as springing up synchronically with and in the midst of the ten kingdoms which were formed out of the Western Roman Empire between the years 406 and 568 inclusive, and as influencing in a wonderful manner the actions of the collective though divided Empire. This Power is represented by Daniel under the symbol of a little horn, which springs up from the fourth or Roman wild-beast in the midst of ten other larger horns: while St. John exhibits it, sometimes under the image of a distinct wild-beast denominated the false prophet, and sometimes under the hieroglyphic of a harlot drunken with the blood of the saints; for the Power, shadowed out by the false prophet or the persecuting harlot of the Apocalypse, performs the very same actions and holds the very same relation to the ten-horned wild-beast or the secular Roman Empire, as the little horn which makes so conspicuous a figure in Daniel's vision of the four great beasts. Hence, whatever Power may be intended by these several hieroglyphics, all our best commentators, whether popish or protestant, are fully agreed, that they each represent one and the same Power. Such, likewise, was the judgment of the early Fathers. Living as they did before the commencement of the latter three times and a half, they formed, indeed, many wild conjectures relative to the nature of the Power: but they never doubted, that the {་ self-same Power was symbolised alike, by the false prophet, and the harlot, and the little horn of the fourth or Roman wild-beast. Since, then, the latter three times and a half must have commenced at some point between the years 603 and 615 after the Christian era, and since the tyranny of this extraordinary Power is limited to those three times and a half; it is manifest, that the Power in question, whatever it may be, must have been in action more than twelve centuries. But its exploits are at once of so definite and so public and so extensive a nature, while the stage upon which it performs them is so distinctly marked out to be the Western Roman Empire subsequent to its division by the ten Gothic nations; that, if ever any Power achieved such exploits on such a stage and during such a period, authentic history cannot possibly be silent on the subject. Nor is it silent on this important topic. Whether, with the Protestants, we apply the hieroglyphics in question to the Papacy; or whether, with the Romanists, we deny the propriety of such an application in either case, the testimony of impartial history cannot be suppressed. Let the Papacy be or be not the subject of vituperative prophecy, still, in either case, the voice of history alike declares, that that extraordinary Power, which was originally a mere bishopric or at the most a pro vincial archbishopric, gradually rose to eminence during the period in which the Western Empire was partitioned by ten Gothic nations; that, in the year 604, the then existing representatives of all the ten kingdoms, founded by those ten nations, had acknowledged its ecclesiastical supremacy, and had become its spiritual subjects; that, by this submission of the Western Empire to the yoke of the Papacy, an already existing Apostasy from the simple worship of the primitive Church, which Apostasy consisted in an excessive and idolatrous veneration of dead saints and their images and their relics, was completed by its acquisition of a powerful and authoritative and acknowledged head; that, from the epoch of such submission on the part of the ten Gothic kingdoms of the Western Empire, the Papacy set itself above all times and laws; and that it incessantly wore out with fire and sword those pious and courageous men, who dared to protest against its doctrines and practices, employing, as the blind agents of its ferocious persecution, the several kingdoms, into which the Western Empire was originally divided in the course of the fifth and sixth centuries. All these facts are assuredly recorded by history, whether they be or be not alluded to in prophecy. Whatever may be intended by the remarkable Power, which is foretold by Daniel and St. John; most certain it is, that the Papacy has grown up at the identical time, and has performed the identical deeds upon the identical stage and during the identical period, which are severally predicated of the extraordinary Power in question. Hence, with some few trifling exceptions, protestant com mentators have been unanimous in applying to the Papacy the character of that apostate and persecuting Power, which is variously described asɔ a false prophet and as a harlot and as a little horn springing from the fourth or Roman wild-beast during the period that he is protruding ten larger horns: nor do I see, how it is possible to avoid the force of the application, unless we burn his tory and dislocate geography and obliterate chro nology. 42. When the apostates are come to the full, or when the great demonolatrous Apostasy is completed, Daniel tells us, that a scarcely less remark able Power, which he exhibits under the kindred symbol of a second little horn attached to an hieroglyphic that is explicitly declared to represents the Greek or Macedonian Empire, is destined to stand up and to perform many wonderful exploits in the East!. This chronological note fixes the second tyrannical Power, as well as the first, to the term of the latter three times and a half: for the demonolatrous Apostasy was completed in the year 604; and the latter three times and a half commence at some point between the years 603 and 615. But the exploits of the second Power, like the exploits of 1 Dan. viii. 9-12, 23-25, f |