with difficulty be shown in it, much less that of one time, as the text requires. In short, that kingdom expired much more quickly than either the fourth beast perished, or the Stone was cut out. Nothing remains, except the Roman empire, as Abbadie on Apoc. T. iv. pp. 446-537, besides others, proves on good grounds ; and Janus on the Four Monarchies. If the Roman empire had been omitted, there would have been one hiatus, and that a great one, between the beasts of Daniel and that of the Apocalypse. But both Daniel, ch. ii. and vii., and the Apocalypse, ch. xiii.-xix., from different beginnings of the kingdoms which they describe, arrive, by a continuous thread, at one and the same goal, at Christ and His universal kingdom.
Obs. 26. Tlie same beast is something continuous, from the begin- ning of the Roman monarchy until the thrones are set : and comprises in itself the beast of the Apocalypse and the woman , and many other different subjects. — It is of no great consequence what victory in par- ticular it was which gave a beginning to the Roman monarchy. Whatever that beginning was, from it even to the goal the fourth of the four monarchies is like a river, wffiich has but one channel from its fountain, but sometimes imbibes certain streams, — some- times is itself divided into several streams, and yet remains one con- tinuous river. First of all the Roman power was undivided, then certain commencements of a division arose, and the division itself into the East and West, which has had many vicissitudes. Then the kings of the Heruli, the Goths, and the Lombards, claimed to them- selves a part of the Roman power ; as did the Exarchs, the Romans themselves, the Carlovingian and German emperors, without exclud- ing other kings. Whatever power either the Pope also or the city had before Gregory VII., that the beast of Daniel directly comprises: whatever power the Papacy from Gregory VII. (who is distant a period [Chronus'] from Augustus), even under a spiritual form, exer- cises over the city, over the Patrimony of Peter, over its vassals, over kings, over peoples, that the beast of the Apocalypse represents. But again, the beast of the Apocalypse itself, and also Rome, toge- ther with its last power — and moreover that which withholdeth or letteth (2 Thess. ii. 6, 7), and he who is withheld, are comprehended under the beast of Daniel ; which, on account of the Papacy, is dif- ferent from all the former beasts : ch. vii. 7. In Daniel the series of princes is much longer than it is in the Apocalypse. The very variety of the parts, of which the fourth beast in Daniel is made up, exhibits the principal difference between it and the three former beasts : and the third beast indeed, after the death of Alexander the
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Great, comprised many different elements, and yet was one ; but the fourth has a much greater variety of parts, in such a manner, how- ever, that both conjointly they differ from the third, and, cohering with one another, they exhibit one beast.
Obs. 27. The things which Daniel saw respecting the ten horns , thus also agree with our interpretation of the Apocalypse . — In Daniel three of the ten horns are plucked up, on the coming up of the little horn ; but in the Apocalypse the ten horns in their full number join themselves to the beast, at his last time. The ten, therefore, are earlier in Daniel than in the Apocalypse. You may say that the form is different, but the material the same ; and therefore that John, with reference to Daniel, in the text makes mention of the horns be- fore all things, in ver. 1, but that afterwards he continually places them after the heads. Long ago, especially in the later ages, there were various lineaments and preparations for the denary of kings : the denary itself was not yet clearly apparent : nor the ternary of those who are represented as torn up. But the ten will arise ; and, as far as can be supposed from a comparison of the two prophecies of the ten kings, another little horn (Dan. vii. 8), a prince of no great power, will subdue three who are neighbours to himself : and he also, to the wonder of the inhabitants of the earth, having been increased with fresh malice from the bottomless pit, will himself receive the kingdom, and with him ten kings, according to a new division ; and he will also be both the eighth, and of the seven ; and the ten kings, after a reign of one hour, will bestow their power upon him. Daniel himself, ch. vii., in one verse, the 20th, with reference to the ten horns, and the three, mentions another : and afterwards, much more plainly, that horn which had eyes, and a mouth speaking great things.