10.) The "name of blasphemy" may indicate "eternal city, mistress of the
world."--Of this characteristic of the beast, other examples will be
discovered hereafter.

Daniel was solicitous to "know the truth (interpretation) of the fourth
beast, which was diverse from all the others," (ch. vii. 19.) Although
"diverse from all the others" in geographical extent and destructive
power, this fourth beast combined in one all the ravenous propensities
of the three predecessors, but in _reverse order_. The "leopard, bear
and lion of Daniel," by which Grecian, Persian and Chaldean dynasties
were symbolized, are all comprised in John's beast of the sea,--the
antichristian Roman empire. Since this beast of the sea embodies all the
voracious properties of the three persecuting powers which went before
it; this may be a suitable place briefly to review the sufferings
inflicted by them upon the saints, that we may know what the witnesses
were taught to expect at the hands of this monstrous enemy.--"Israel is
a scattered sheep, the lions have driven him away: first, the king of
Assyria hath devoured him, and last, this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
hath broken his bones.--The violence done to me and to my flesh, be upon
Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and, My blood upon the
inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say." (Jer. 1. 17; li.
35.)--"Haman, the son Hammedatha, the Agagite, the Jews' enemy,--thought
scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone."--"If it please the king, let it
be written that they (the whole people) may be destroyed; and I will pay
ten thousand talents of silver,--to bring it into the king's
treasuries."--"Behold also the gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman
had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the
house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon." (Esth. iii. 1, 9;
vii. 9.) Such were the crimes and such the punishments of the enemies of
God's people in Babylon and Persia, as already matter of inspired