The United States in the Light of Prophecy: Or, an Exposition of Rev. 13:11-17Smith, Uriah
Religion
The United States in the Light of Prophecy: Or, an Exposition of Rev. 13:11-17
Smith, Uriah
Bible. Revelation XIII, 11-17 -- Prophecies
The ten kingdoms which arose out of the old Roman Empire are enumerated
as follows by Machiavel, indorsed by Bp. Newton, Faber, and Dr. Hales:
1. The Huns. 2. The Ostrogoths. 3. The Visigoths. 4. The Franks. 5. The
Vandals. 6. The Suevi. 7. The Burgundians. 8. The Heruli. 9. The
Anglo-Saxons, and 10. The Lombards. These kingdoms have since been
known, says Scott, as the "ten kingdoms of the western empire," and they
are distinguishable at the present day, some of them even by their
modern names, as Hungary from the Huns, Lombardy, from the Lombards,
France from the Franks, and England from the Anglo-Saxons. These ten
kingdoms being denoted by the ten horns of the leopard beast, it is
evident that all the territory included in these ten kingdoms is to be
considered as belonging to that beast. England is one of these ten
kingdoms; France is another. If therefore we say that either of these is
the one represented by the two-horned beast, we make one of the horns of
the leopard beast constitute the two-horned beast. But this the prophecy
forbids; for while John sees the leopard beast fully developed, with his
horns all complete and distinct, he beholds the two-horned beast coming
up, and calls it "another beast." We are therefore to look for the
government which this beast symbolizes, in some country outside the
territory occupied by the four beasts and the ten horns already referred
to. But these, as we have seen, cover all the available portions of the
eastern continent.
Another consideration pointing to the locality of this power is drawn
from the fact that John saw it arising from the earth. If the sea from
which the leopard beast arose, Rev. 13:1, denotes peoples, nations, and
multitudes, Rev. 17:15, the earth would suggest, by contrast, a new and
previously-unoccupied territory.
Being thus excluded from the eastern continent, and impressed with the
idea of looking to territory not previously known to civilization, we
turn of necessity to the western hemisphere. And this is in full harmony
with the ideas already quoted, and more which might be presented, that
the progress of empire is with the sun around the earth from east to
west. Commencing in Asia, the cradle of the race, it would end on this
continent, which completes the circuit. Bishop Berkley, in his
celebrated poem on America, written more than one hundred years ago, in
the following forcible lines, pointed out the then future position of
America, and its connection with preceding empires.
"Westward the course of empire takes its way;
The four first acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day;
Time's noblest offspring is the last."
By the "four first acts already past," the bishop had undoubted
reference to the four universal kingdoms of Daniel's prophecy. A fifth
great power, the noblest and the last, was, according to his poem, to
arise this side the Atlantic, and here close the drama of time, as the
day here ends its circuit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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