iron Teeth, and devoured, and brake in pieces, and ftamp'd the Refidue with its Feet; and fuch was the Roman Empire: it was larger, fronger, and more formidable and lafting than any of the former; by its Conqueft it became great and terrible; it continued in its greatnefs till the Reign of Theodofius the Great, and then brake into ten Kingdoms, represented by the ten Horns of the Beaft. Daniel fays, that the Beasts had their Dominion taken away, yet their Lives were prolonged for a feafon and a time: hence our Author infers, that all the four Beafts are ftill alive, tho' the Dominion of the three firft be taken away. The Nations of Chaldea and Affyria are ftill the firft Beaft; thofe of Media and Perfia are ftill the fecond Beaft; thofe of Macedon, Greece, Thrace, Afra-Minor, Syria, and Egypt, the third; and thofe of Europe on this fide Greece, the fourth. Seeing therefore the body of the third Beaft is confined to the Nations on this fide the River Euphrates, and the body of the fourth Beaft is confined to the Nations on this fide Greece, we are to look for all the four Heads of the third Beaft among the Nations on this fide of the River Euphrates, and for all the eleven Horns of the fourth Beast among the Nations on this fide of Greece; and therefore at the breaking of the Greek Empire into four Kingdoms, we include no part of the Chaldeans, Medes, and Perfians in thofe Kingdoms, because they belong'd to the bodies of the two first Beafts: nor do we reckon the Greek Empire feated at Conftantinople among the Horns of the fourth Beaft, because it beJonged to the body of the firft. Thus far our Author: And here we'll beg leave to obferve, that

d Ch. vii. 12.

that there is little or no difpute about what is reprefented by the three firft Beafts: but as to what is fignified by the fourth, Commentators don't agree. The common Opinion indeed is that very fame, which our Author maintains; but the famous Grotius thought, that by the Legs of Iron, and. Feet part of Iron and part of Clay, in Nebuchadnezzar's Dream, and by the fourth Beaft in Daniel's Vifion, must be underftood the Kingdom of the Seleucida and Lagidæ, or Ptolemaida. In the Dream, the fourth Kingdom is reprefented as exceedingly oppreffive; as one Kingdom, but divided, as having fometimes one of his Parts and fometimes another prevailing, and as making Intermarriages between the two Families thereof, and yet like Iron and Clay not cleaving to one another, but at perpetual Wars within itfelf: all which feems a natural Defcription of theKingdom of the Seleucide and Lagide, and fcarce a Circumstance can be applied to the Romans; and especially if it be confidered, that the Jews had chiefly to do with the Seleucide and Lagide, who, by turns, oppreffed them to the laft degree; that when these declined before the Romans, the Romans entered into strict Alliance with the Jews, and were their Protectors against thofe Powers. And as to the fourth Beast, it feems alfo to reprefent that fame Kingdom of the Seleucida and Lagida. It is faid, that Kingdom fhall devour the whole Earth; now it is well known, that the whole Eorth fignifies often in the Scripture, the Land of Judea only. That Kingdom is reprefented as exceedingly oppreffive; as having ten Kings; and as having one King who should fubdue three Kings, fhould fpeak great Words againft

against the Moft High, wear out the Saints of the Moft High; think to change Times and Laws, and fucceed for a time; all which feems to agree to the Kingdom of the Seleucide and Lagida; which greatly oppreffed the Jews, which had the ten following Kings, as Grotius enumerates them, Ptolemy Lagus, Seleucus Nicanor, Ptolemy Eupator, Ptolemy Euergetes, Seleucus Callinicus, Antiochus Magnus, Ptolemy Philopator, Ptolemy Epiphanes, Seleucus Philopator, and Antiochus Epiphanes, and which had one King, viz. Antiochus Epiphanes; who plucked up by the Roots three Kings, [whose Names Grotius gives us ] who raged with the greatest Violence against the Jews, or the Saints of the Moft High, and who attempted to make their Laws and Worfhip ceafe, and did fo for a time, till he was stopped and checked by the fuperior Power of the Romans. Thus we have laid before the Reader the Opinion of Grotius, very different from that of Sir Ifaac Newton; it is fomewhat ftrange, that our celebrated Author fhould take no notice of Grotius's Explication; of which, learned as he was, he could not be ignorant: This would make one fufpect, that Sir Ifaac wrote his Obfervations for his own ufe, and perhaps with an Intention to examine them more ftrictly afterwards, but that he never defigned them for the Prefs, at least as they appear at prefent: and that the Reader may judge how far this is true, we'll go on with an exact and impartial Account of his Book; expreffing his Thoughts moftly in his own Words.

CHAP. V. Of the Kingdoms represented by the Feet of the Image compofed of Iron and

Clay.

Clay. This Chapter contains a fhort Account of thofe Nations, that revolted from the Roman Empire about the middle and latter end of thefourth Century, and the beginning of the fifth. 'Tis impoffible to abridge this Chapter. We will only obferve, that having faid in his third Chapter, that in the Image which Nebuchadnezzar faw in his Dream, the Legs of Iron reprefented the Romans, who grew into a mighty Empire, and reigned with great power till the Days of Theodofius the Great; when by the Incurfions of many Northern Nations, they brake into many fmaller Kingdoms, which are reprefented by the Feet and Toes of the Image, compofed part of Iron and part of Clay; he ́enters here into Particulars, and fhews at what time and how thefe Kingdoms fhaked off the Roman Toke: and in

CHAP. VI. Which treats of the ten Kingdoms reprefented by the ten Horns of the fourth Beaft, the Author gives us the Catalogue of thofe Kingdoms, which are, f. the Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans, in Spain and Africa. 2. The Kingdom of the Suevians, in Spain. 3. The Kingdom of the Visigoths. 4. The Kingdom of the Alans, in Gallia. 5. The Kingdom of the Burgundians. 6. The Kingdom of the Franks. 7. The Kingdom of the Britons. The Kingdom of the Hunns. 9. The Kingdom of the Lombards, 10. The Kingdom of Ravenna. Sir Ifaac gives us afterwards a fhort Account of the Rife of thefe feveral Kingdoms but this must be read in the Book itself, for it would take up too much place in an Abstract FISSURE IS t

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THE two next Chapters are more entertaining; the feventh treats of the eleventh Horn of Daniel's fourth Beaft. Daniel confidered the Horns, and behold there came up among them another little Horn, before whom there were three of the first Horns plucked up by the Roots, and bebold in this Horn were Eyes like the Eyes of a Man, and a Mouth Speaking great things: This, fays our Author, was a Kingdom of a different kind from the other ten, having a Life or Soul peculiar to itfelf, with Eyes, and a Mouth. By its Eyes it was a Seer, and by its Mouth Speaking great things, and changing Times and Laws, it was a Prophet as well as a King and fuch a Seer, a Prophet, and a King, is the Church of Rome. A Seer, EXOTOS, Επίσκοπος, is a Bifhop in the litteral Senfe; and this Church claims the univerfal Bifhoprick: With his Mouth he gives Laws to Kings and Nations as an Oracle he pretends to Infallibility, and that his Dictates are binding to the whole World; which is to be a Prophet in the higheft Degree. In the eighth Century, by rooting up and fubduing the Exarchate of Ravenna, the Kingdom of the Lombards, and the Senate and Dukedom of Rome, he acquir'd Peter's Patrimony out of their ominions, and thereby rofe up as a temporal Prince or King, or Horn of the fourth Beaft. Thefe Particulars a further lluftrated here from Hiftory; and our Author Thews by what Steps the Pope arrived at last to the great Power and Authority, he enjoys, The Emperor Leo Ifaurius, being willing to Lea put a stop to the Worship of Images, that had gradually been introduced in the fourth, fifth,

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* Dan. vii. 8.

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