It is just the same in Rev. xvii. There you meet with the old beast, the ten-horned beast of Daniel; and ten horns still representing ten kings; and when we reach the close of the chapter we find these ten kings all turned against the woman: so that, instead of being ridden and governed by her, as they were when she was riding on the beast, they are now turned against her, and agree in consuming her. ‘The ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.’ (Verse 16.) Without stopping to look into the detail, which it is impossible to do in a short lecture, it appears clear that all these passages agree in predicting a period during which the Papacy will be consumed before its final fall. This will be brought about partly by the power of truth, and partly by the change of mind in the kings. But whatever be the agency, the result is the same. ‘They will take away his dominion, to consume, and to destroy unto the end.’ And this you mark is the last great process before the coming of our Blessed Saviour, for the final destruction will be by the brightness of His coming. And now comes the question, Has this consuming process begun? Is it, or is it not, in progress? I know that some fainthearted people will say, ‘Oh, no! Rome is making dreadful progress, and must soon triumph.’ But surely that opinion is contrary to fact. Surely it may be proved, from the great facts of European history, not merely that the consumption has begun but that it has been going on during the last few years with peculiar and unexampled speed. Let us look at a few great European facts, not at little things that happen to fall within our own observation, but at great facts that are conspicuous before the world. Rome has always claimed, as she does still, dominion over all the kingdoms of the world, and she used to exercise it over all those of Western Christendom. Her claim even went so far that, by the common consent and advice of his barons, the King of England once ‘resigned England and Ireland to God, to St. Peter and St. Paul, to Pope Innocent, and his successors in the Apostolic chair: and agreed to hold these dominions as feudatory of the Church of Rome, by the annual payment of one thousand marks.’ {26} Imagine any one standing up amongst the barons of England, and making such a proposal now! That dominion of the Papacy is taken away, and taken away, as I believe, for ever.