The four beasts

With reference to Daniel 7:11—But the vindication, or avengement, of the Holy Land (Dan. viii. 14 -- we-nitzdaik kodesh) and the conquest and regeneration of Egypt and Assyria, do not consummate the work of the Rainbowed Angel; they only serve to "place his right foot upon the sea;" and to prepare him for setting "his left upon the earth." He has conquered the lion, the bear, and leopard: he has taken away their dominion, and placed them under his own: but there still remains that "dreadful, and terrible, and exceedingly strong fourth beast," which came up out of the same sea as the others. This is not simply to lose his dominion, and yet continue as a body politic to exist like the others "for a season and a time." The contrary of this, would be the continuance of the European commonwealth as now constituted in church and state, but without human government, for a thousand years. This however, can never be. The decree of heaven has long been on record for its utter and total destruction. The decree is this: "Because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake; I beheld till the beast was slain and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame" (Dan. vii. 11). This is the grand catastrophe of the apocalypse -- the slaying of the Latin Catholic Beast, and the destroying of its body politic by the Rainbowed Angel -- by the Spirit manifested in the saints. His "pillars of fire" march through the countries of Europe with the destruction of a "burning flame;" the result of which is "judging among the nations, filling their countries with dead bodies, and the bruising of the Head over an extensive region" (Psa. cx. 6).