fourth beast was to follow, which so particularly regarded the church, and had so much influence upon it; and that was, the conversion of the Roman empire to Christianity. In this did the fourth beast so widely differ from all the others; in this consisted his great diversity.

The next remarkable appearance in this beast is, his ten horns. Here all the commentators have been extremely at a loss, and yet all have agreed that they denote ten kingdoms, into which the Roman empire should be divided at its dissolution: they all take for granted, that it was divided into ten, but they do not agree which were the ten, or which three of the tenwere rooted up by the little horn. Much of this difficulty would vanish, if we were to consider the number ten as a round indefinite number; and that it may be so considered, we have the high, the great, and respectable authority of Bishop Hurd, Dr. Lardnerf, and Dean Woodhouse; and history will bear us out in the fact, that Rome was for the most part under the government of several ruling powers at one and the same time. Under its republican form we find its governors were consuls, and tribunes,

e

Hurd, Warb. Lect. vol. ii. p. 193.
Woodhouse, Apoc. p. 316.

p. 337.

'Lardner, vol. viii.

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decemvirs, and triumvirs: it became a sole empire indeed under the Cæsars, with some exceptions, till the time of Dioclesian, when it was divided by him under several masters, so that, as Gibbon tells ush, there were six emperors reigning at one and the same time;" and if we except a few years at the latter part of the reign of Constantine, it has remained divided from that time to this. The Roman empire then has been remarkable for its many masters, and we may perhaps apply the symbol of the ten horns indefinitely to those masters.

I was once much inclined to adopt this interpretation, but I found that it did not come close enough to the point. There is a remarkable and designed parallelism between this beast and the fourth kingdom of the image, and the ten horns symbolize the same things as the toes. As therefore I have shewn that the toes were kings or emperors at the latter end of the pagan monarchy, it follows that the horns were kings at the same time; and as three of them were to be rooted up by a power rising among them, it carries upon the face of it a strong appearance of definiteness, at least in this place : if then we can find exactly ten emperors coexisting at or near the same time within a particular period,

h Vol. i. p. 414. 4to. vol. ii. p. 200. 8vo.

immediately before the conversion of the Roman empire, we have our ten pagan horns, and the number ten is definite.

Mr. Gibbon, in his 13th chapter, gives us an account of a very particular period of the Roman empire, included between the exaltation of Dioclesian to the purple in the year 248, and the sole dominion of Constantine in 324. Dioclesian on his accession to the empire made many changes in its constitution, and amongst others, one, which strongly bears upon the point before us. He divided the power under four emperors, reserving the first place, that of Augustus, to himself and Maximian, and creating two inferiors, Galerius and Constantius, under the title Cæsar: it so happened, that by the turbulence of some, and the impatience and policy of others, the numbers were unduly increased, and we find sometimes five, sometimes six emperors reigning at one and the same time; but what is remarkable, the number of emperors constitutionally appointed and reigning within this period is exactly ten. They are as follows, Dioclesian, Maximian, Galerius, Constantius, Carausius, Constantine, Severus, Maximin, Maxentius, and Licinius. Most of these emperors were coexistent, and Constantine himself was co-emperor, with six of the others. He immediately succeeded his father Constantius,

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was elevated to the purple within fifteen months after the abdication of Dioclesian, during his life time, and within twelve years after the death of Carausius: be it also observed, that eight of these were not only heathens, but persecuting tyrants; that Constantius who put a stop to persecution in his provinces, and was a nursing father to the Christians, never affected to be a Christian himself; and even Constantine throughout his life was as much a heathen as a Christian, and did not submit to the rite of baptism till a little before his death. Well may then these ten be considered as the ten pagan emperors of Rome, symbolized by the toes of the image and the ten horns of the beast.

I trust I have made it sufficiently apparent, that this beast is not only the Roman, but the Roman pagan beast, at least as far as his ten horns are concerned: I have pointed out the

i Another idea has taken place in the minds of those who adhere to Newton's hypothesis of the ten kingdoms, into which Rome was supposed to be divided at its fall; that these are indefinite as to number, and are in existence from the fall, to the second advent; but if I have proved my point, that this image is the symbol of idolatry, it must in that case be made to comprehend more than the four kingdoms, contrary to Daniel's interpretation; for the idolatry then to be destroyed is the idolatry of the whole world, wheresoever it may exist. Roman paganism was crushed in the days of Constantine. Upon the right understanding of

distinctive qualities of Rome, in his iron teeth, I have shewn the parallel between the toes of the image and the ten horns of the beast, proving that they were the ten last emperors of pagan Rome, and have explained the first gradation of diversity between this beast and the others. But his most notable diversity is still to arise, viz. his conversion to Christianity; and for this we must look to the little horn: he has hitherto been considered as pagan only, the little horn, I presume, makes him Christian.

But I shall not here fully discuss the little horn; he will come before us in another place, where it will be necessary, and more appropriate, to enter into a minute investigation of him. I shall now only point out those characteristics which may bring him into comparison with the little horn of the he goat, to which Daniel is now about to lead us. Who or what he is

the nature of the image, every thing depends, and I do not fear to rest my cause upon the foundation which I have laid.

* The stone cut out of the rock without hands is Christianity; the stone, viz. Christianity, destroys the ten toes, with the other parts of the image. The little horn which rises amongst the ten destroys three of the ten; now if the toes of the image and horns of the beast symbolize the same things, of which no commentator has yet had a doubt, the little horn and the stone must be connected, the little horn must be Christian.