Essays on the Recollections; Which Are to Subsist Between Earthly Friends Reunited in the World to Come, and on Other Subjects Connected with Religion (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1822 Excerpt: ... ESSAY VII. ON THE SEVENTH HEAD OF THE ROMAN WILD BEAST OF THE APOCALYPSE; AND ON THE EIGHTH KING, OR FORM OF GOVERNMENT. Every accession of insightinto the meaning of any detached portion of prophecy, possesses a value beyond the simple amount of the knowledge attained. For it is also a step which facilitates the general comprehension of the prophetic Scriptures. The importance of that portion of prophecy on which the present essay professes to treat, is universally acknowledged; and may justly excite additional endeavours to investigate the purport of the prediction. The opinions which, with the grounds on which they rest, will now be submitterl to the enquirer into the prophecies, will be stated in the form of successive propositions. Their validity, and their mutual connexion, will thus be brought before him in the most distinct manner for consideration. Proposition I. The seven-headed wild beast (Sypiov), whose exploits and final destruction are recorded in Chap. xi. xiii. xvi. xvii. and xix. of the Apocalypse, is the Western Roman Empire. For he is ten-horned, and is closely and permanently connected both with Rome, the city of seven hills, which had no connection with the Eastern Empire after the accession of Charlemagne; and also is equally united with the two-horned or ecclesiastical wild beast, with whom the Eastern Empire was perpetually and radically at variance. And St. John, before he enters on the subject of the sevenheaded wild beast, has previously disposed of the history of the Eastern Empire; and has included the total extinction of Rev. ix. that empire. And farther, the account of the extinction of the idolatrous Eastern empire having been closed by a reference to " the rest of the men," obviously the remaining part, namely, the Wester...