I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn - little at first, but afterward waxing greater than all others. He must be sought "among them" - namely, the ten horns. The Roman empire did not represent itself as a continuation of Alexander's; but the Germanic empire calls itself 'the holy Roman empire.' Napoleon's attempted universal monarchy was avowedly Roman: his son was called King of Rome. The czar (Caesar) also professes to represent the eastern half of the Roman empire. The Roman civilization, church, language, and law, are the chief elements in Germanic civilization. But the Romanic element seeks universal empire, while the Germanic seeks individualization. Hence, the universal monarchies attempted by the Papacy, Charlemagne, Charles V, and Napoleon, have failed, the iron not amalgamating with the clay. In the king symbolized by "the little horn," the God-opposing, haughty spirit of the world, represented by the fourth monarchy, finds its intensest development. "The man of sin," "the son of perdition," (2 Thessalonians 2:1-17.) "Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son, and confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh" (1 John 2:18; 1 John 2:22; 1 John 4:3). It is the complete evolution of the evil principle introduced by the fall.
Before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots. The three horns plucked up are, the exarchate of Ravenna, the kingdom of the Lombards, and the state of Rome, which constituted the pope's dominions at the first; obtained by Pope Zachary and Stephen II in return for acknowledging the usurper Pepin lawful king of France (Newton). See Tregelles' objections, Daniel 7:7, "ten horns," note. The "little horn," in his view, is to be Antichrist rising three and a half years before Christ's second advent, having first overthrown three of the ten contemporaneous kingdoms, into which the fourth monarchy, under which we live, shall be finally divided. Popery seems to be a fulfillment of the prophecy in many particulars, the pope claiming to be God on earth, and above all earthly dominions; but "the spirit of antichrist" (1 John 4:3), prefigured by Popery, will probably culminate in ONE individual, to be destroyed by Christ's coming. He will be the product of the political world-powers, which were always beastlike, not human (Revelation 13:1-18); whereas Popery, which prepares His way, is a church become worldly-the faithful woman degenerated into the spiritual harlot (Revelation 12:1-2; Revelation 12:5-6; Revelation 12:13; Revelation 12:17): contrast her degenerate state as "Babylon the great, the mother of harlots," (Revelation 17:1-7; Revelation 17:15-16; Revelation 17:18; Revelation 18:1-24.)
And, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man. Eyes express intelligence (Ezekiel 1:18); so (Genesis 3:5) the serpent's promise was, man's "eyes should be opened," if he would but rebel against God. Antichrist shall consummate the self-apotheosis, begun at the fall, he and his adherents, and the spirit of his age, having high intellectual culture, independent of God. The metals representing Babylon and Medo-Persia, gold and silver, are more precious than brass and iron, representing Greece and Rome; but the latter metals are more useful to civilization (Genesis 4:22, "Tubal-Cain (in the line of ungodly Cain), an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron"). The clay, representing the Germanic element, is the most pliable material. Thus, there is a progress in culture; but this is not a progress necessarily in man's truest dignity-namely, union and likeness to God. Nay, it has led him further from God, to self-reliance and world-love. The beginnings of civilization-the building of cities, the origination of Nomad tent-life and tending of cattle, the invention of the harp and organ, and the working of metals, brass and iron-were among the children of Cain (Genesis 4:17-24; Luke 16:8).
Antiochus Epiphanes, the first Antichrist, came from civilized Greece, and loved art. As Hellenic civilization produced the first, so modern civilization under the fourth monarchy will produce the last Antichrist. The "mouth" and "eyes" are those of a man, while the symbol is otherwise brutish - i:e., it will assume man's true dignity-namely, wear the guise of the kingdom of God (which comes as the "Son of man" from above), while it is really bestial-namely, severed from God. Antichrist promises the same things as Christ, but in an opposite way. A caricature of Christ, offering a regenerated world without the cross, Babylon and Persia in their religion had more reverence for things divine than Greece and Rome in the imperial stages of their history. Nebuchadnezzar's human heart, given him (Daniel 4:16; Daniel 4:36) on his repentance, contrasts with the seemingly-human eyes of Antichrist, the pseudoson of man-namely, intellectual culture, while heart and mouth blaspheme God. The deterioration politically corresponds: the first kingdom an organic unity; the second divided into Median and Persian; the third branches off into four; the fourth into ten. The two Eastern kingdoms are marked by nobler metals; the two Western by baser: individualization and division appear in the latter, and it is they which produce the two Antichrists.