Daniel 7:8
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.
In its setting the four beasts are symbols of the successive empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. Among the ten horns of the fourth beast there rises another little horn, which is the Papacy, also called the Roman Church, whose work is represented in this four-beast prophecy. That it appears as a horn shows that a church can be represented in this way even before it has civil power.
Before this horn three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots, namely the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths, which were overthrown in 493, 534, and 538 to make way for papal power. Its rise begins in 538, and its rule over the saints, times, and laws lasts 1,260 years, reckoned as 1,260 days, ending in 1798, when its dominion was taken away. That end came when French forces entered Rome and abolished the papal government: on February 10 Berthier entered and took Rome, on February 15 the pope was taken prisoner and confined in the Vatican, he was taken captive by the French army and later died in exile, and the papal power received its deadly wound. It has not regained its former power.
The mouth speaking great things is boastful, blasphemous speech with claims against God. The little horn matches the leopard-like beast in Revelation 13, which has features of all four of Daniel's beasts and receives and inherits the authority and power once held in succession by them, including that once held by pagan Rome. The prophecy is of apocalyptic beasts that arise from the union of church and state, and such powers persecute, crush, make war on, and oppress those who oppose them and God's people. In this application the Papacy exalts itself above God by establishing a spurious rest day, and Sunday observance is identified as the mark of the beast.
The verse belongs to the wonderful prophecies of Daniel 7-12, which are revelations of the mysteries of ages to come, delineating historical events fulfilled in their order and leading to the close of earth's history, with the scenes associated with the man of sin among the last features plainly revealed. Its full meaning was not understood even by Daniel himself, for like the rest of his prophetic writings it was shut up and sealed until the time of the end, relating to the closing period of this world's history, when Daniel will stand in his lot and place. The visions were given to Daniel because he honored God with firmness, self-denial, purity of motive, and unwavering trust; God put the spirit of prophetic power upon him, taught him to read the mysteries of the future, and gave him to record for coming generations in figures and symbols events covering the history of this world till the close of time.