| 610 Hungary A. D. 526; and were seated in the northern parts of Germany about the year 483.
Sir Isaac Newton enumerates them thus: First, the kingdom of the Vandals and Alans in Spain and Africa; second, the kingdom of the Suevians in Spain; third, the kingdom of the Visigoths; fourth, the kingdom of the Alans in Gallia; fifth, the kingdom of the Burgundians; sixth, the kingdom of the Franks; seventh, the kingdom ef [of] the Britons; eighth, the kingdom of the Huns; ninth, the kingdom of the Lombards; tenth, the kingdom of Ravenna.
Bishop Newton reckons up these kingdoms thus: "First, the senate of Rome, who revolted from the Greek emperors, and claimed and exerted the privilege of choosing a new western emperor; second, of the Greeks in Ravenna; third, of the Lombards in Lombardy; fourth, the Huns in Hungary; fifth, of the Alemanes in Germany; sixth, of the Franks in France; seventh, of the Burgundians in Burgundy; eighth, of the Goths in Spain; ninth, of the Britons; tenth, of the Saxons in Britain."
The few variations in these accounts must be ascribed to the great disorder of the times, one kingdom falling and another rising. And as a learned writer remarks, "all these kingdoms were variously divided either by conquest or by inheritance. However, as if that number of ten had been fatal in the Roman dominions, it hath been taken notice of upon particular occasions. As about A. D. 1240, by Eberard, bishop of Saltsburgh, in the diet at Ratisbon. At the time of the Reformation they were also ten. So that the Roman empire was divided into ten in a manner first and last." Although names and forms of government have been changed, yet it is evident that the remains of the most of these ten kingdoms, if not all, are now in existence.
Daniel in the first year of the reign of Belshazzar king of Babylon, saw in a vision the same in amount that Nebuchadnezzar saw, viz., the four empires represented by four different beasts. First, the Babylonian by a lion having eagle's wings; second, the Medo-Persian by a bear having three ribs in its mouth; third, the Macedonian by a leopard which had upon its back four wings; fourth, the Roman: "After this I saw in the night vision, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns." (see Dan. vii.) "And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise," or in other words ten kingdoms. Single individuals are not the subjects of this prophecy; but kingdoms.
St. John in his Apocalypse is very plain upon this subject: "And I saw a beast rise up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns."-Rev. xiii. 1. The angel interprets this in another place: "The seven heads are seven mountains;" perhaps this alludes to the various elevated parts upon which the city of Rome was built. "The ten horns are ten kings," or kingdoms: and the following shows that they were in the main to last till, or near the time of the second coming of Christ: "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is the Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful."-Rev. xvii. 14. But enough is already said upon this part of the subject,-for something of more inportance [importance] is still ahead.
"And in the days of these kings (or kingdoms) shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof sure." But few dispute but what this alludes to the ecclesiastical kingdom of God; but the time when it was to commence is the point at issue. It will be remembered that the stone was to smite the image's toes or feet first. Commentators, and the divines have generally set down the time of its commencement at the commencement of the Christian era; but in
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