all. And if it find any of them resisting God's ordinance, it takes more severe vengeance of them, casting them down from their thrones, though never so powerful, and tumbling them down to the lowest parts of the earth, as the ministers of aspiring Lucifer.' The Pope then deprives them and their posterity of their dominions and kingdoms for ever: he absolves their subjects from their oaths of allegiance, and forbids any obedience to be paid to them.'

What a wonderful comment have we in these bulls of the Popes on the truth of Scripture! There has been indeed given to the Beast"a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies." The blasphemies of the Papacy will be noticed more particularly in a following chapter.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE POPE IS TO PRACTISE TWELVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY YEARS.

(( AND POWER WAS GIVEN UNTO HIM TO CONTINUE [PRACTISE] FORTY AND TWO MONTHS."-Verse 5.

IN prophetical language a day stands for a year. "I have appointed thee each day for a year," said God to the prophet Ezekiel. And we know that the seventy weeks of Daniel were seventy weeks of years, or four hundred and ninety years. The same Daniel, who foretold the first coming of Christ with such wonderful accuracy, has fixed the period for his Millennial appearing. The saints are to be given into the hands of the Pope "for a time, times, and the dividing of a time," i. e. for three prophetical years and a half. (Chap. vii. 25.) But then "the judgment shall sit and they shall take away" the Pope's

dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.” (See also chap. xii. 7.) The prophecies of St. John agree with those of Daniel. For "power was given unto the Beast to continue forty and two months.”

And forty and two prophetical months are equivalent to three prophetical years and a half, and (reckoning thirty days to a month) they are 1260 prophetical days, or 1260 years.

For this period, then, the Papacy is to practise,' as the word monoa denotes. The observation of Bishop Newton is of great force :-' It appears to be a very great mistake of some very learned men in dating the commencement of this period too early. This is the capital error of Mr. Mede's scheme; what hath led him and others who have followed his example into subsequent errors; and what the event hath plainly refuted.' Mr. Mede dated from the year 456, which requires that the Papacy should have come to an end in the year 1716. Bishop Newton dates from the year 727, when the Pope and people of Rome revolted from the exarch of Ravenna, and shook off their allegiance to the Greek emperor.' The words of Sigonius are, Ita Roma, Romanus et Ducatus a Græcis ad Romanum Pontificem pervenit:' 'Thus Rome and the dukedom of Rome came from the Greeks to the Roman Pontiff.' Hereby,' observes the bishop,' he became in some measure a horn or temporal prince, though his power was not fully established till some years afterwards: and before he was a horn at all, he could not answer the character of the little horn.' And this remark may be extended to the Beast. "The Beast is the eighth."

'

But before the year 727 the seventh head had not disappeared. And the seven heads must have disappeared, as consecutive heads, before the Beast could

be said to be "the eighth." In the year 727 the Pope became a horn. In the year 755 he plucked up the first horn by the roots, namely, the exarchate of Ravenna. We cannot date before 727, because the Pope was not a horn, nor was he the eighth till then. We cannot date the commencement of the 1260 years after 755, because the Pope then most certainly practised" and " did exploits." These two dates will bring us down to the years 1987 and 2015 respectively. And it is remarkable that if we take the mean between these two dates, we shall commence with the year 741, and, if we add 1260 to this, it will bring us down to the year 2001. This is very remarkable, since it coincides with a very early tradition of Jews, Christians, and even heathens, that at the end of the 6000th year from the Creation, a wonderful change may be expected to take place, both in the natural and in the moral world.

As the earth was six days in forming, and then on the seventh day God "rested from all his work which he had created and made:" so the world, having seen six thousand years of turmoil and sin, will have a Millennial Sabbath of peace and holiness.

The Papacy is therefore rapidly hastening to its fall. The conclusion of the next century will witness the destruction of the Pope. He will not be able to stand before the appearance of Christ, though he pretends to be his vicar. "The Lord shall consume" him "with the breath of his mouth, and shall destroy" him" with the brightness of his coming." (2 Thess. ii. 8.)

"I beheld," says the prophet Daniel, "till the

thrones were cast down and the ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him ; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set and the books were opened. I beheld then, because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake; I beheld even till the Beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame.” (vii. 9, 10, 11.)

St. John gives an awful account of the destruction which awaits the Pope. The Beast is to be "cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." (Rev. xix. 20.)

· Power has been given' to the Papacy to practise forty and two months,' or 1260 years. This is the period allotted to the Beast. The end is rapidly approaching. Eleven hundred and ten years have rolled away, since "the Dragon gave the Pope his power, and his seat, and great authority." One hundren and fifty remain. If we go back 149 years, we come to the glorious Revolution, when these islands were freed from Popish tyranny. If we go forward 149 years we arrive at the year 1986, which is nearly 1260 years from the time that the Pope first became 'the Eighth.' A more glorious revolution than that of William the Third will be then at hand. Not only will the Papacy be verging to its fall, but the Millennium will be drawing nigh, when "the Dragon,