wonder at it, by considering it the most sacred empire in the world, that in which God peculiarly delights: but those that so wonder have not their names written in the book of life, but are such as prefer councils to Divine revelation, and take their religion from missals, and rituals, and legends, instead of the Sacred Oracles; hence they are corrupt and idolatrous, and no idolater hath inheritance in the kingdom of God. In the preceding part of the verse, the beast is considered in three states, as that which was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit; here a fourth is introduced, and yet is. This is added to show that, though the Latins were subjugated by the Romans, nevertheless the Romans themselves were Latins; for Romulus, the founder of their monarchy, was a Latin; consequently that denominated in St. John's days the Roman empire, was, in reality, the Latin' kingdom, for the very language of the empire was the Latin; and the Greek writers, who lived in the time of the Roman empire, expressly tell us that those formerly called Latins are now named Romans. The meaning of the whole verse is, therefore, as follows: the corrupt part of mankind shall have in great admiration the Latin empire yet in futurity, which has already been, but is now extinct, the Romans having conquered it; and yet is still in being, for though the Latin nation has been subjugated, its conquerors are themselves Latins. But it may be objected against the interpretation here given, that these phrases are spoken of the beast upon which the apostle saw the woman, or Latin church, sit; for the angel says, the beast that thou saw

est, was and is not, &c.; what reference, therefore, can the Latin empire, which supports the Latin church, have to the Latin kingdom which subsisted before St. John's time, or to the Roman empire, which might properly be so denominated? This objection has very great weight at first sight; and cannot be answered satisfactorily till the angel's explanation of the heads and horns of the beast have been examined; therefore it is added

Verse 9. Here is the mind which hath wisdom-It was said before, chap. xiii. 18. Here is wisdom; let him that hath a mind or understanding, count the number of the beast. Wisdom, therefore, here means a correct view of what is intended by the number 666; consequently, the parallel passage, Here is the mind which hath wisdom, is a declaration that the number of the beast raust first be understood, before the angel's interpretation of the vision concerning the whore and the beast can admit of a satisfactory explanation.

The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth.-This verse has been almost universally considered to allude to the seven hills upon which Rome originally stood. But it has been objected that modern Rome is not thus situated; and that, consequently, pagan Rome is intended in the prophecy. This is certainly a very formidable objection against the generally received opinion among Protestants, that papal Rome is the city meant by the woman sitting upon seven mountains. It has been already shown that the woman here mentioned is an emblem of the Latin Church in her highest state of antichristian Pros

perity; and, therefore, the city of Rome, seated upon seven mountains, is not at all designed in the prophecy. In order to understand this Scripture aright, the word mountains must be taken in a figurative and not a literal sense, as in chap. vi. 14. and xvi. 20. See also Isa. ii. 2, 14. Jer. li. 25. Dan. ii. 35, &c. In which it is unequivocally the emblem of great and mighty power. The mountains upon which the woman sitteth, must be therefore, seven great powers; and as the mountains are heads of the beast, they must be the seven greatest eminences of the Latin world. As no other power was acknowledged at the head of the Latin empire but that of Germany, how can it be said that the beast has seven heads? This question can only be solved by the feudal constitution of the late Germanic league; the history of which is briefly as follows:-At first kings alone granted fiefs. They granted them to laymen only, and to such only who were free; and the vassal had no power to alienate them. Every freeman, and particularly the feudal tenants, were subject to the obligation of military duty, and appointed to guard their sovereign's life, member, mind, and right honour. Soon after, or perhaps a little before the extinction of the Carlovingian dynasty in France, by the accession of the Capetian line, and in Germany by the accession of the house of Saxony, fiefs, which had been entirely at the disposal of the sovereign, became hereditary. Even the offices of duke, count, margrave, &c. were transmitted in the course of hereditary descent; and not long after the right of primogeniture was universally established. The crown-vassals usurped the

sovereign property of the land, with civil and military authority over the inhabitants. The possession thus usurped they granted out to their immediate tenants; and these granted them over to others, in like manner. Thus the principal vassals gradually obtained every royal prerogative: they promulgated laws, exercised the power of life and death, coined money, fixed the standard of weights and measures, granted safe-guards, entertained a military force, and imposed taxes, with every right supposed to be annexed to royalty. In their titles they styled themselves dukes, &c. Dei gratia, by the grace of God, a prerogative avowedly confined to sovereign power. It was even admitted, that, if the king refused to do the lord justice, the lord might make war upon him. The tenants, in their turn, made themselves independant of their vassal-lords, by which was introduced an ulterior state of vassallage. The king was called the sovereign lord, his immediate vassal was called the suzereign, and the tenants holding of him were called the arrere vassals. (See Butler's Revolutions of the Germanic empire, pp. 54-66.) Thus the power of the emperors of Germany, which was so very considerable in the ninth century, was gradually diminished by the means of the feudal system; and, during the anarchy of the long interregnum, occasioned by the interference of the popes in the election of the emperors (from 1256 to 1273,) the imperial power was reduced almost to nothing. Rudolph of Hapsburgh, the founder of the house of Austria, was at length elected emperor, because his territories and influence were so inconsiderable as to excite no jealousy

in the German princes, who were willing to preserve the forms of constitution, the power and vigour of which they had destroyed.-See Robertson's Introduction to his History of Charles V. Before the dissolution of the empire, in 1806, Germany "presented a complex association of principalities, more or less powerful, and more or less connected, with a nominal sovereignty in the emperor, as its supreme feudal chief.” There were about three hundred princes of the empire, each sovereign in his own country, and might enter into alliances, and pursue, by all political measures, his own private interest, as other sovereigns do; for, if even an imperial war were declared, he might remain neuter, if the safety of the empire were not at stake.

Here then was an empire of a construction, without exception, the most singular and intricate that ever appeared in the world; for the emperor was only the chief of the Germanic confederation. Germany was, therefore, speaking in the figurative language of Scripture, a country abounding in hills, or containing an immense number of distinct principalities. But the different German States, (as has been before observed,) did not each possess an equal share of power and influence; some were more eminent than others. Among them there were also a few which might, with the greatest propriety, be denominated mountains, or states possessing a very high degree of political importance. But the seven mountains on which the woman sits must have their elevations above all the other eminences in the whole Latin world; consequently, they can be no

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