here ten kings are ten kingdoms according to the ufual phraseology of fcripture. And this is a farther argument, that the kingdoms of the Lagidæ and of the Seleucidæ cannot poffibly be the fourth kingdom, because they were never divided into fo many parts. The Macedonian empire was divided a few years after the death of Alexander into four kingdoms, whereof Egypt and Syria were two; but thefe two were never again fubdivided into ten leffer kingdoms. Porphyry therefore, who made two separate kingdoms of the kingdom of Alexander and his fucceffors, contrary to the received interpretation of kings for kingdoms, reckons down to Antiochus Epiphanes, whom he fuppofeth to be the little horn, ten kings, who were moft cruel; but thefe kings, as (5) Jerome obferves, were not all of one kingdom, of Macedonia for inftance, or Syria, or Afia, or Egypt; but the lift was made up out of the different kingdoms. Grotius (6) indeed, and Collins after him, form their catalogue of the ten kings, who were very oppreffive and cruel to the Jews, out of the kings of Egypt and Syria; and they thus enumerate them, five out of one kingdon), and five out of the other, Ptolemy the fon of Lagus, Seleucus Nicator, Ptolemy Eupator [I fuppofe they meant Ptolemy Philadelphus, for he reigned next after Ptolemy the fon of Lagus, and next before Ptolemy Euergetes, being the fon of the former, and the father of the latter] Ptolemy Euergetes, Seleucus Callinicus, Antiochus the Great, Ptolemy Philopator, Ptolemy Epiphanes, Seleucus Philopator, and Antiochus Epiplanes. But it happens, that fome of thefe kings did not perfecute the Jews at all, as Seleucus Callinicus. Others were fo far from perfecuting them, that they were their patrons and protectors. Such were Ptolemy the fon of Lagus, Seleucus Nicator, Ptolemy Philadel phus, Ptolemy Euergetes, and Antiochus the Great; (5) -et deinde ufque ad Antiochum cognomento Epiphanen, deim reges enumerat, qui fuerunt avillimi: ipfofque reges non unius pojit regni verbi gratia, Macedonia, Sri Afi, et Egypti; fed de di yerfis regnis unum efficit regum ordis pem. Hieron. Comment. Vol. 3. p. 1130. Edit. Benedict. (3) Grotius in locum. Scheme of litteral prophecy, &c. p. 162. and and fuch they are reckoned by (7) Jofephus himself. So that out of the ten kings only four were perfecutors and oppreffors of the Jews. The ten horns too are reprefented as exifting all at once; they fhoot out and appear upon the head of the beaft all together: but these kings were not all contemporaries, many of them were fucceffive, and one fell before another arofe. So forced and arbitrary is this expofition, and fo contrary to the truth of hiftory. We must therefore look for the ten kings or kingdonis, where only they can be found, amid the broken pieces of the Roman empire. The Roman empire, as the (8) Romanifts themfelves allow, was by means of the incurfions of the northern nations, difmembered into ten kingdoms: and (9) Machiavel, little thinking what he was doing, (as Bishop Chandler obferves) hath given us their names; 1. the Oftrogoths in Mofia, 2. the Vifigoths, in Panonia, 3. the Sueves and Alans in Gascoigne and Spain, 4. the Vandals in Africa, 5. the Franks in France, 6. the Burgundians in Burgundy, 7. the Heruli and Turingi in Italy, 8. the Saxons and Angles, in Britain, 9. the Huns in Hungary, 10. The Lombards, at firft upon the Danube, afterwards in Italy. 1 Mr. Mede, whom (1) a certain writer efteemed as a man divinely inspired for the interpretation of the prophecies, (2) reckons up the ten kingdoms thus in the year 456,. the year after Rome was facked by Genferic king of the Vandals: 1. the Britons, 2. the Saxons in Britain, 3. the Franks, 4. the Burgundians in France, 5. the Wifigoths in the fouth of France and part of Spain, 6. the Sueves and Alans in Gallicia and Portugal, 7. the Vandals in Afric, 8. the Alemanes in Germany, 9. the Oftrogoths whom the Longobards fucceeded, in Pannonia, and afterwards in Italy, 10. the Greeks in the refidue of the empire. (7) Vide Antiq. Lib. 12. Cap. 1, 2, 3. Contra Apion. Lib. 2. Sect. et 5. p. 1365. Edit. Hudfon. (8) Calmet upon Rev. XIII. 1. and he refers likewife to Berengaud, Boffuet, and Du Pin. (9) Machiavel. Hift. Flor. Lib. 1. Bishop Chandler's Vindication, &c. (1) Monf. Jurieu, in the Preface to his Accomplishment of the Scripture Prophecies. (2) Mede's Works. B. 3. p. 661. That That excellent chronologer Bishop Lloyd exhibits the following (3) lift of the ten kingdoms with the time of their rife: 1. Huns about A. D. 356. 2. Oftrogoths 377. 3. Wifigoths 378. 4. Franks 407. 5. Vandals, 407. 6. Sueves and Alans 407. 7. Burgundians 407. 8. Herules and Rugians 476. 9. Saxons 476. 10. Longobards began to reign in Hungary Anno Dom. 526. and were feated in the northern parts of Germany about the year 483. Sir Ifaac Newton enumerates them (4) thus, 1. the kingdom of the Vandals and Alans in Spain and Africa, 2. the kingdom of the Suevians in Spain, 3. the kingdom of the Vifigoths, 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, 8. the kingdom of the Huns, 9. the kingdom of the Lombards, 10. the kingdom of Ravenna. The few variations in these accounts must be afcribed to the great diforder and confufion of the times, one kingdom falling, and another rifing, and scarce any fubfifting for a long while together. As a learned (5) writer remarks, "all these kingdoms were variously "divided either by conqueft or inheritance. However, " as if that number of ten had been fatal in the Roman "dominions, it hath been taken notice of upon parti"cular occafions. As about A. 1240 by Eberard bishop of Saltsburg in the diet at Ratifbon. At the "time of the Reformation they were alfo ten. So that "the Roman empire was divided into ten in a manner, "firft and laft." Mr. Whifton, who publifhed his effay on the Revelation of St. John in the year 1706, farther (6) obferves, "that as the number of the kingdoms, into which the Roman empire in Europe, agreeably "to the ancient prophecies, was originally divided "A. D. 456, was exactly ten: fo it is alfo very nearly "returned again to the fame condition; and at prefent is divided into ten grand or principal kingdoms or (3) Addenda to Lowth's Comment. P. 524. (4) Sir If. Newton's Obferv. on Daniel. Chap. 6. p. 47. (5) Daubuz on Rev. XIII. 1. p. 559. (6) Effay on the Rev. Part 3. Vision 4. "ftates." "ftates. For tho' there are many more great kingdoms "and dominions in Europe befides, yet are they out of "the bounds of the old Roman empire, and fo not so "directly within our prefent inquiry." We would, for reafons which will hereafter appear to the attentive reader, fix thefe ten kingdoms at a different æra from any of the foregoing; and let us fee how they stood in the eighth century. The principal states and governments then were 1. of the fenate of Rome, who revolted from the Greek emperors, and claimed and exerted the privilege of choosing a new western emperor; 2. of the Greeks in Ravenna; 3, of the Lombards in Lombardy; 4. of the Huns in Hungary; 5. of the Alemanes in Germany; 6. of the Franks in France; 7. of the Burgundians in Burgundy; 8. of the Goths in Spain; 9. of the Britons; 10. of the Saxons in Britain. Not that there were conftantly ten kingdoms; they were fometimes more, and fometimes fewer: but, as (7) Sir Ifaac Newton fays, "whatever was their "number afterwards, they are still called the ten kings "from their first number. 3. Befides thefe ten horns or kingdoms of the fourth empire, there was to fpring up among them another little horn. I confidered the horns, faith Daniel, (ver. 8.) and behold there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the firft horns pluckt up by the roots. Daniel was eager to know (ver. 20.) as of the ten horns, so likewise of the other which came up, and before whom three fell. And he was informed by the angel, (ver. 24.) that as the ten horns out of this kingdom were ten kings or kingdoms that should arife, fo likewife that another fhall rife after them, and he shall subdue three kings or kingdoms. One abfurdity generally produceth another and (8) Grotius, in confequence of his former fuppofition that the fourth kingdom was the kingdoms of the Scleucida and the Lagidæ, fuppofeth alfo, that the little horn was Antiochus Epiphanes, and that the three horns which were pluckt up before him were his elder (7) Sir Ifaac Newton's Obferv. on Daniel. Chap. 6. p. 73. (8) Grotius and Collins ibid. brother J brother Seleucus, and Demetrius the fon of Seleucus, and Ptolemy Philopator king of Egypt: and Collins adopts the fame notion after Grotius, for Collins was only a retailer of fcraps, and could not advance any thing of this kind of his own. But furely it is very arbitrary to reckon Antiochus Epiphanes as one of the ten horns, and at the fame time as the little horn, when the prophet hath plainly made the little horn an eleventh horn, diftinct from the former ten. There were three of the first horns to be pluckt up by the roots before the little horn; but the three kings mentioned by Grotius are not all in his firft catalogue of ten kings, neither Ptolemy Philometor (if Philometor be meant) nor Demetrius being of the number. Neither were they pluckt up by the roots by Antiochus, or by his order. Seleucus was (9) poifoned by his treafurer Heliodorus, whofe aim it was to ufurp the crown to himfelf, before Antiochus returned from Rome, where he had been detained a hoftage feveral years. Demetrius (1) lived to dethrone and murder the fon of Antiochus, and fucceeded him in the kingdom of Syria. Ptolemy Philopator (2) died king of Egypt almoft thirty years before Antiochus came to the throne of Syria: or if Ptolemy Philometor (as is moft probable) was meant by Grotius, Philometor, though he fuffered much in his wars with Antiochus, yet furvived him (3) about eighteen years, and died in poffeffion of the crown of Egypt, after the family of Antiochus had been fet afide from the fucceffion to the crown of Syria. Neither doth Antiochus Epiphanes anfwer to the character of the little horn in other refpects, and particularly in this. The little horn continues (ver. 21, 22, 26.) to reign till the fecond coming of Chrift in glory; but Antiochus Epiphanes died about 164 years before his firft coming in the flesh. Thefe are all (9) Appian in Syriac. p. 116. Edit. Steph. p. 187. Edit. Tollii. (1) Appian ibid. p. 117. Edit. Steph. p. 188. Edit. Tollii. Juftin. Lib. 34. Cap. 3. Jofeph. Antiq. Lib. 12. Cap. 10. Sect. 1. p. 548. Edit. Hudfon. (2) Ptolemy Philopator died Anno 204, Antiochus became king Anno 175 before Chrift. See Ufher, Prideaux, &c. (3) Antiochus Epiphanes died Anno 164, Ptolemy Philometor Anno 146 before Chrift. See Ufher, Prid. &c. farther |