Greeks, the Lombards, the Gepidæ, and the AngloSaxons. About 552, the Lombards and Avars combined and extirpated the Gepida. The Avars then possessed their territory, and the Lombards invaded Italy, and conquered the northern part, A. D. 568. In 585, the Sueves were destroyed or swallowed up by the Visigoths. From A. D. 561 to 613, France was again divided into four kingdoms. And these, with the Visigoths and Sueves, the Greeks, Lombards, Avars, and Saxons, still complete the same number. When the Sueves were extirpated, the kingdom of Scotland, under Ardan, began to appear as a separate power. Under Pepin and Charlemagne the division became obscured, from two causes, the scourge of Saracen invasion, and the temporary reunion which was necessary for the nominal restoration of the Western empire. After the treaty of Verdun, that empire underwent a fourfold division. To these parts were added the exarchate in South Italy, Venice which had risen into a separate power in the north; the small Spanish kingdoms of Navarre and Barcelona, England, united now into a sole monarchy, and Scotland under Kenneth. The dukes, and at length the princes of Beneventum, survived the monarchy, and propagated the name of the Lombards. From Capua to Tarentum, they reigned near five hundred years over the greatest part of the present kingdom of Naples. These again will complete a tenfold division. . From this time forward the actual list of the kingdoms may be seen in the following note,* at intervals of A.D. 860. Italy, Province, Lorraine, East France, West France, Exarchate, Venice, Navarre, England, Scotland,-Total 10. A.D. 900. Germany, Burgundy, Lombardy, Exarchate, Venice, France, England, Scotland, Navarre, Oviedo.-Total 10. A. D. 950. Germany, Burgundy, Lombardy, Exarchate, Venice, France, England, Scotland, Navarre, Leon.-Total 10. A.D. 1000. Germany, Burgundy, Exarchate, Venice, France, England, Scotland, Navarre, Arragon, Normandy? Hungary?-Total 9 to 11. about half a century. In several cases a doubt may arise whether a particular state should be included in the number. There are two main sources of this uncertainty. It is sometimes doubtful whether the kingdom can claim an independent sovereignty, from the complex and varying nature of its political relations. This is eminently true of the Italian states. The second source of doubt is found in the Protestant kingdoms after the Reformation. These are broken off from the religious A.D. 1050. Germany, Exarchate, Venice, Norman Italy, France, England, Scotland, Arragon, Castile, Normandy? Hungary?-Total 9 to 11. A.D. 1100. Germany, Naples, Venice, France, England, Scotland, Arragon, Castile, Portugal, Lombardy? Hungary ?-Total 9 to 11. A.D. 1150. Germany, Naples, Venice, France, England, Scotland, Arragon, Castile, Portugal, Hungary, Lombardy?—Total 10, or perhaps 11. A.D. 1200. Germany, Naples, Venice, Lombardy, France, England, Scotland, Arragon, Castile, Portugal, Hungary.-Total 11. A.D. 1250. Germany and Naples, Venice, Lombardy, France, England, Scotland, Arragon, Castile, Portugal, Hungary.-Total 10. A.D. 1300. Germany, Naples, Venice, Lombardy, France, England and Scotland, Arragon and Sicily, Castile, Portugal, Hungary.—Total 10. A.D. 1350. Germany, Naples, Venice, Switzerland? Milan? Tuscany? France, England and Scotland, Arragon, Castile, Portugal, Hungary.Total 9 to 12. A.D. 1400. Germany, Naples, Venice, France, England, Scotland, Arragon, Castile, Portugal, Hungary, Switzerland? Milan? Tuscany?Total 10-13. A.D. 1453. Austria, Naples, Venice, France, England, Scotland, Arragon, Castile, Portugal, Hungary, Switzerland? Savoy? Milan? Tuscany? -Total 11-14. A.D. 1500. Austria, Naples, Venice, France, England, Scotland, Spain. A.D. 1552. Austria, Venice, France, England, Scotland, Spain, Naples, A.D. 1648. Austria, Venice, France, Britain? Spain and Naples, Portu- A.D. 1816. Austria, Bavaria, Wirtemberg? Naples, Tuscany, Sardinia, Lombardy? France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Britain? Switzerland?-Total 9-13. community which existed previously among the European states, and hence a strong suspicion may arise that they are not to be included in the reckoning. To decide this point would require us to anticipate the following chapters. When allowance has been made for these two sources of uncertainty, the list will exhibit a remarkable prevalence of the tenfold division, from the first age even until now. Out of twenty eras, there are six in which the number of ten kingdoms appears distinct; and at every other period, with one exception, the same number lies within the probable limits, when we include or reject those of which the claims are uncertain. The facts of history are therefore in complete accordance with the words of the vision. Amidst fluctuations so numerous and unceasing as almost to defy an exact numeration, the prophetic description remains prominent, and a tenfold division of the Western Empire reappears from time to time. The correspondence with the prediction is thus accurate and complete. For it must be borne in mind that two opposite features had equally to be fulfilled. The tenfold number was to exist; but there was also to be a frequent intermingling with the seed of men. In the actual outline of European history, both of these predicted features are alike conspicuous. A tenfold division, such as some have looked for, mathematical and unvaried, would frustrate one-half of the prediction; and would deprive the rest of all its freedom and moral grandeur. But now every part is alike accomplished. At the same time, by these partial changes in the list of the doomed kingdoms, the reproach of a stern fatalism, which otherwise would cloud the equity of Divine Providence, is rolled away. It becomes clear that, whatever may have been the guilt of a nation in former days, the way of repentance and life is still open; and that the strokes of Divine vengeance will fall upon no state, which has not first, by its iniquity and rebellion, bared its own neck to receive the predicted judgment. CHAPTER IX. ON THE MORAL ASPECT OF THE TEN KINGS. THE interpretation of the Four Empires and of the Ten Kings which has now been given, results unavoidably from the connexion and order of the sacred prophecy. No other application can be maintained, without violently distorting both the visions, and rejecting every maxim of interpretation supplied by those parts which are manifestly fulfilled. The actual history of the world bears witness, at every step, to the accuracy of the prediction, and the truth of the fulfilment. From Belshazzar and Cyrus to Alexander, from the Macedonian and Syrian kings to their Roman conquerors, from Cæsar to Augustulus; and thence through the floods of barbarian invaders down to the alliances of modern days, the prophecy faithfully sets before us, in unbroken course, the grand and majestic outlines of Divine Providence. The objections which have been urged against this application, seem to arise chiefly, if not entirely, from the haste which is satisfied with first impressions, and is not careful to analyze, with caution and exactness, the prophetic language. Hence the vehement assertion that the ten horns must denote individual persons; when the emblem itself, and every instance, without one real exception, which the symbolic visions supply, proves alike that the word kings has here an official, and not a personal signification. Hence again the assertion that the divided state of the iron kingdom must conti nue for a few years only; when the express words of the vision require a space of two generations at least, and the law of proportion denotes a period of still longer duration. Hence the further assumption, that the time, times, and dividing of a time, must denote only three natural years and six months; when apart from the events, there is an overwhelming amount of internal evidence that the prophetic times are to be interpreted on a far wider scale. In short, there is no one test of truth, separately taken, which does not concur to establish the past rise of these ten horns, and their application to the kingdoms of Western Europe. But there is one serious difficulty, of a moral kind, which has still to be removed; one which has perhaps been the least noticed by expositors, and yet has led, more than any other, to doubt and hesitation among serious Christians. The nations, then, of Western Europe, it may be objected, have constituted for ages the main part of the visible church. They have been linked together by a common profession 'of the true faith. Baptized with a holy baptism, they have been admitted into a share of all the high privileges of the Christian covenant. They are thus become, in the sight of God, a holy people; and invested with a more honourable character than were even the Jews of old. In the bosom of these nations the saints of God, in countless numbers, have been reared for their eternal inheritance. Most of them bear, in their very constitution, deep traces of the victory of our faith, and profess to be founded on the word of the living God. How then can these kingdoms, honoured so highly, and incorporated into the Church of Christ, be described by an emblem so hateful as the horns of a devouring wild beast? Especially how can their character be reconciled with that later description in another prophecy, which denounces them as abettors of Antichristian wickedness, and confederate against the Lamb? Is not this view opposed to all moral propriety and truth? In times when contempt of dignities abounds so fearfully, does it not lend a handle to wickedness, and |