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Dead, yet the Living Princes of the World had generally the fame Honours paid them.

Dan. II.

4.

The Addrefs which the Wife Men made to Nebuchadnezzar of, O King, live for ever! was wishing him that Everlasting Dominion which IV. 34himself afterwards confeffes, belonged only to the Moft High.

The Petition of the Princes to Darius, to whom they also faid, King Darius, live for ever, was to make a firm Decree, That whofiever shall ask a Petition of any God or Man for Thirty Days, fave of thee, O King, shall be caft into the Den of Lyons.

Which placed him in the ftead of the Gods for that Time, and fhews, that it was the Practice of the Perfians to treat their Princes as Gods, while they were alive. In like manner, Alexander made himself be Worshipped as the Son of Jupiter Ammon, and the Roman Emperours, Auguftus and Domitian, while alive, were called Divi or Gods; And it grew a Custom after the Antonines, to adore the Emperours Pictures, which were fixed on the Standards of H

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the Army. So that the Idolizing of Princes in their Life Times, was practised under all the four Monarchies.

And thus it appears, that the Great Idol in Daniel, was very properly ufed as a Reprefentation of the Grand Imposture under living Princes, who were Worshipped as Gods, which was to continue to deceive the whole World from Daniel's Time forward, and which St. John Expreffes in another Figure, Representing only what was to come after his Time, by

A Red Fragen having Seven Heads and Ten Xil. 3. Horns: of which he afterwards fays, And the 9. great Dragon was cast out, that Old Serpent, called, the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole World.

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By which it appears, that the like Delufion had commenced. long before the Period, of the great Image in Daniel, even from the first Time, that at the Instigation of the Serpent, that is, the Spirit of Ambition, and the love of Abfolute Gen. III. Power, Man would be as Gods, knowing good and evil: When he withdrew himfelf from his Obedience

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Obedience to God who had created him for good only: And by Cain's flaying his Brother Abel, we may obferve, how early a Man affumed that Right over anothers Life, which belongs to God only, and which is the firft Eminent inftance of Arbitrary and Cruel Power.

The Like Crime is Recorded of Lamech. And foon after, the Earth was filled with Violence, for which Reason it appeared Corrupt before God, who fent a Deluge to Destroy all, except Noah and his Family.

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I 31.

IV. 8.

23.

VI, 1.

XI. 4.

It was not long after the Deluge, when among the Defcendants of Ham, there arofe Nimrod, who began to be a Mighty One in the Earth, and X. 8, 10, whofe Kingdom was at Babel (which is the fame word in the Original that is elsewhere rendred Babylon) where they attempted to Build a and a Tower, whofe Top might reach to Heaven, and to make them a Name, left they should be Scattered abroad over the Face of the whole Earth. And this defign was directly in Oppofition to Gods Command: Replenish the Earth: But that they fet afide, and would have nothing Refreined X1. 6. from

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from them, which they had imagined to do.

And we find the fame Ambitious Arbitrary Power afterwards Remarkably exercised by the Pharaohs, and in procefs of Time, fometimes Egypt, and fometimes Affyria had the greatest part of the World under them, till the Kingdom of Babylon was fet up, which made the Golden Head in the great Image. And thus by a fhort View of Ancient Hiftory, we fee what had been all along the Idolatry that had deceived the Dan. II. whole World: Which Daniel and St. John allude to in the great Image, and the Old Serpent.

Rev.

Xil. 9.

31.

II. 34

35.

II. It must be Obferved in the Second place, That the Image is fuppofed to remain entire in all its parts, "Till that a Stone was cut out "without Hands, which fmote the Image upon "his Feet, that were of Iron and Clay, and "brake them to Pieces.

"Then was the Iron, the Clay, the Brafs, "the Silver and the Gold broken to pieces together, and became like the Chaff of the "Summer Threshing Floors, and the Wind

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"carried them away, that no place was found " for them. "

The defign of this is plainly to fhew, that the diftinguishing Characters of the feveral Monarchies fhould Continue during the whole Period; and in this, it agrees with the description of the Beaft in St. John, That rifes up out of the Sea: which will be found to be the Fourth Beaft or Empire in its last Period, but it is defcribed, Like unto a Leopard, with Feet like a Bear, and a Mouth like a Lyon.

Which will appear to be the Beasts that Represented the Three Firft Monarchies in the fame manner as the Brafs, Silver and Gold of the Image had done.

Rev.

XIII. i

2.

Now this fhews, how properly there ought to have been, (as there really has) a Babylon in the last Period of the great Image, which should notoriously assume the divine Honours formerly paid to Heathen Princes, and which the Chriftian Emperours were too Religious and Modeft to accept: But the Man of Sin in his Babylon, 211. 3.14. fitteth in the Temple of God, as God, without being afhamed.

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