hand until a time, and times, and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end."

From this passage we learn the character of the little horn.

1. He was to be a blasphemous power. "Speak great words against the Most High." Such has Popery always been. To go back no farther than Sept., 1840, we shall find sufficient evidence of his arrogancy and blasphemy in his Encyllical letter. Title of the letter: "ENCYLLICAL LETTER OF OUR MOST HOLY LORD, Gregory XVI., by Divine Providence Pope." No being but Deity can claim and appropriate to himself such titles, or permit them to be applied to him by others, unreproved, without robbing God of the glory he has declared he will not give to another, and incurring the charge of blasphemy. His arrogancy is also manifest in the same letter:"Hence it is easy to conceive the state of anguish into which our soul is plunged day and night, as we, being charged with the superintendence of the whole fold of Jesus Christ, and the care of all the churches," &c. There is no title which Jehovah has ever claimed, or prerogative he has professed to exercise, but what the Roman pontiff has, at one time or other, professed to bear and exercise. "Sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God."

2. He was to be a persecuting power. And how fully this trait has been exemplified in the popes of Rome, church history must tell. More than fifty millions of innocent, unoffending Christians, it is estimated, have suffered martyrdom

at the hands of that bloody power, during its dark reign. Thus were the saints worn out.

3. He was to think to change times and laws. He shall assume to dictate laws to the world. This will be illustrated too by some extracts from the letters and bulls of the popes. Pope Innocent III. writes, "So hath Christ established the kingdom and the priesthood in the church, that the kingdom is sacerdotal, and the priesthood is kingly. He hath set one man over the world, him whom he hath appointed his vicar on earth; and as to Christ is bent every knee in heaven, in earth and under the earth, so shall obedience and service be paid to his vicar by all, that there may be one fold and one shepherd." [Croley on the Apocalypse, p. 153.]

But the authority of the popes over kings is still more strongly asserted by Pope Gregory VII. in his epistles. The Roman Pontiff alone is by right universal. In him alone is the right of making laws. Let all kings kiss the feet of the Pope. His name alone shall be heard in the churches. It is the ONLY NAME IN THE WORLD. It is his right to depose kings. His word is not to be repealed by any one. It is to be repealed by himself alone. He is to be judged by none. The church of Rome has never erred; and the Scriptures testify, it never shall err." [Croley, p. 154.]

Again, the bull of Pope Pius, against Queen Elizabeth, reads, "This one he hath constituted PRINCE over all nations, and all kingdoms, that he might pluck up, destroy, dissipate, overturn, plant and build." [Ibid.]

4. He was to have dominion over the saints, or

church, a time, times, and dividing of time. This period, it is generally agreed, is three and a half years, of three hundred and sixty days each; each day standing for a year: the whole being twelve hundred and sixty years. The difficulty is to determine with certainty that it is so; and if so, when the period was to begin. The only certain means by which we may know that the period means twelve hundred and sixty years, is its accomplishment. But to determine whether it is accomplished, we must understand what was to precede, fill up, and immediately follow the time. The date of the last of the events which were to precede the period, will mark its commencement; and the date of the first event which was to follow or close the period, will mark its end.

Events which were to precede the period.

1. There were four great kingdoms successively to arise in the earth, and fill up all the time from Daniel to the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven. All this has taken place, and the last now exists, and awaits the coming of Christ.

2. Out of the fourth and last of those kingdoms, ten kingdoms were to rise. They did so.

3. Another, a blasphemous, persecuting power was to rise after the ten kingdoms, and wear out the saints. Such a power, Popery, did so

arise.

4. The saints were to be given into his hand. In A. D. 533, Justinian, the Greek emperor, passed an edict constituting the Bishop of Rome the head of all the churches; thus giving the saints over into his hand.

Mr. Croley, speaking of the acts of Justinian, says that he, in "the fullest and most unequivocal form, declared the Bishop of Rome the Chief of the whole ecclesiastical body of the empire." "His letter (of A. D. 533) was couched in these terms :”

666

Justinian, pious, fortunate, renowned, triumphant, emperor, consul, &c., to John, the most holy Archbishop of our city of Rome, and patriarch. Rendering honor to the apostolic see, and to your holiness, (as always was and is our desire,) and, as it becomes us, honoring your Blessedness as a father, we have laid without delay before the notice of your holiness, all things pertaining to the state of the church. Since it has always been our earnest study to preserve the unity of your holy see, and the state of the holy churches of God, which has hitherto obtained, and will remain, without any interfering opposition. Therefore we hasten to SUBJECT and to unite to your holiness, all the priests of the whole East. As to the matters which are presently agitated, although clear and undoubted, and, according to the doc trine of your apostolic see, held assuredly resolved and decided by all priests, we have yet deemed it necessary to lay them before your holiness. Nor do we suffer anything which belongs to the state of the church, however manifest and undoubted, that is agitated, to pass without the knowledge of your holiness, who are the head of all the holy churches. For in all things (as had been said or resolved) we are prompt to increase the honor and authority of your see.""

If the pope was not here entitled the head of all the holy churches, then he never can be.

This title was confirmed and acknowledged by Justinian in his epistle to Epiphanius, bishop of Constantinople, of date 25th March, 533. He acknowledges his epistle to the Roman pontiff, and maintains that he is the head of all bishops, and that "by decisions and right judgment of his venerable see, heretics are corrected."

The same power, Justinian, in his Novella, gives to Rome the supremacy of the pontificate, and gave to the pope the precedence of all the priesthood:

"The authenticity of the title," says Mr. Croley, "receives unanswerable proof from the edicts of the Novella' of the Justinian code. The preamble of the 9th states, that as the elder Rome was the founder of the laws; so was it not to be questioned, that in her was the supremacy of the pontificate.' The 131st, on the Ecclesiastical Titles and Privileges, chapter ii., states: 'We therefore decree that the most holy pope of the elder Rome is the first of all the priesthood, and that the most blessed archbishop of Constantinople, the new Rome, shall hold the second rank, after the holy apostolic chair of the elder Rome.""[Croley, pp. 114, 115.]

5. Three of the first horns, or kingdoms, were to be plucked up by the roots before him. (1.) In A. D. 493, ten years from the time of the establishment of the last of the ten kings, the Heruli, in Rome and Italy, were subverted by the Ostrogoths. (2.) In 534, the Vandals, another of the ten kingdoms, were conquered by the Greeks, for the purpose of establishing the supremacy of the Catholics. (3.) In 538, in the month of March, the Greeks conquered the Ostrogoths,