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It is said of the beast at the end of the same verse that in his eighth form "he goeth into perdition." In the above double character, spiritual and secular, which conjunctly constitute the eighth form, the beast remains, until he is finally destroyed by the seven Apocalyptic vials, the consummation of which is at the battle of Armageddon. Accordingly, we find that the beast has continued to cherish the principles of antichristian idolatry even to the present period. The body of empire still adheres, at least in profession, to the abominations of the Romish Church. It still therefore is the beast that was and is not and yet is. So obstinate is the attachment of

is contrary to the words of the prophecy, xvii. 11, 12; from which I think it evident, that the ten kings receive power only with the eighth or last form of the bestial government.

I shall, before closing this note, give also my reasons for dissenting from those writers, (among whom is Mr. Faber) who think that the deadly wound of one of the heads refers to the beast's ceasing to be, or putting off the bestial character, at the conversion of Constantine; and the healing of that wound, to the lapse of the empire into Antichristianism.

1st. If the above event was the occasion of the deadly wound, then that wound was inflicted on the sixth head, or pagan imperial power. But the head that was wounded must be the one that was healed, for the rise of a new head cannot be the healing of the wound of the sixth head. Therefore, on this scheme, the empire was still under its sixth head, when it lapsed into Antichristianism in the sixth century, i. e. when it became the beast that was and is not, and yet is. But I have showu above that this is contrary to the words of the prophecy, which confine that name and character to the eighth form of government; and it follows, that the explanation of the deadly wound of the beast, which leads to this false consequence, is itself unsound.

2d. It seems to me exceeding improbable, that events, so remarkable as the fall of the western empire and its revival by Charlemagne, should be left out in the symbolical history of the beast. But unless they be signified by the deadly wound of one of the heads, and the healing of that wound, I cannot find that they are mentioned at all.

its reigning dynasties to these principles, that we have witnessed since the restoration of the Bourbons in France a renewal of the idolatrous vow of Lewis XV. placing that kingdom under the protection of the Virgin Mary; and in Spain we have seen the restoration of the Inquisition. With respect to the political form of the empire, it has until the present age subsisted under its healed imperial head with the ten regal horns. But at the era of the French revolution, when the seventh trumpet sounded, and when as I shall afterwards show the vials also began to be poured out, a series of dreadful political commotions took place, in the course of which the sovereign of Austria was compelled in the year 1806 formally to resign the imperial titles of Rome; and then for the first time since its origin in the person of Augustus, the title of emperor of the Romans became totally extinct. From that date till the abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte in the year 1814, the imperial power of the West, though without its titles, appears substantially to have rested in his person.

Since his fall to the present moment, the ten regal horns have reigned without any superior co-existing power, which can be viewed as representing the imperial dignity. Whether the title of emperor of the Romans is to be revived before the final destruction of the empire at Armageddon, can be known only by the event. But if its revival shall take place, it will probably be only of momentary duration, and will with the empire perish

for ever.

One other particular respecting the beast remains to be considered.

In the thirteenth chapter he

arises out of the sea, but in the seventeenth chapter he is said to arise out of the abyss, or bottomless pit, and hence some have supposed that there are two different ascents of the beast. There seems however to be no ground for this idea. The abyss is frequently used by the Seventy as synonymous with the sea. Now when the empire was overwhelmed with an impetuous torrent of barbarous nations, the waves of a raging sea may be said to have broken in upon and covered its territories. Out of this sea or abyss the beast rose with his ten horns crowned, when the Gothic governments assumed a settled aspect towards the end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century.†

Having thus endeavoured to shew what power the beast represents, and also the import of his seven heads and ten horns, I proceed to the consideration of the other particulars which are recorded concerning him. It is said that the dragon gave him his power, and his seat or throne, and great

* Dr. Henry More cites the following passages to show this sense of the word aßvaσos; Job xxxviii. 30. xli. 23. Ps. cvi. 9. Is. lxiii. 13. Jonah ii. 6.

+ I am aware that in the New Testament aßuroos frequently signifies the invisible receptacle of departed spirits, or hades in general, or that part of hades in particular where the wicked spirits are reserved in chains unto the judgment of the great day: see Rom. x. 7. Luke viii. 31. Rev. ix. 1. xxi. 3. This abyss is situated in the central regions of the earth, and therefore is below the sea. (See Horsley's Sermon on the Descent of our Lord into Hell.) It is there. fore not impossible, that in the ascent of the beast two different ideas might be combined. He might be described as arising out of the sea, in reference to his secular and political resurrection; and as ascending out of the abyss, or regions of condemned spirits, with relation to his spiritual revival, which was the scheme of Satan himself to recover his lost authority in the Roman state.

authority. In interpreting this language, we must recollect that it forms part of a description most highly symbolical or hieroglyphical; and when stript of its figures, it seems simply to denote, that the beast was the tool and instrument of the dragon, from whose machinations he derived his strength

and power.

The worship which is said to be paid to the dragon and to the beast, signifies that blind and implicit obedience which the inhabitants of the Roman empire should give to his will and his laws in matters of conscience and religion. "All the world," says Bishop Newton, "in submitting thus to the religion "of the beast, did in effect submit again to the religion of the dragon, it being the old idolatry "with only new names. The worshipping of "demons and idols is in effect the worshipping of "devils."

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"And there was given to him a mouth speaking "great things and blasphemies." He styled himself the "holy Roman empire," thus assuming to himself that which, in strict propriety of language, belongs to God only. And power was given to him to " continue," or rather, as Bishop Newton observes, "to practise, to prevail, and prosper forty-two "months, which being reduced to days, gives "twelve hundred and sixty prophetical days, the "identical time of the prophesying of the witnesses "in sackcloth, and the treading down of the holy "city by the Gentiles, and the abode of the woman "in the wilderness." It does not follow, therefore, as Bishop Newton rightly argues, that the beast is to continue to exist no longer; but he is to practise

against the saints and church of God precisely that time.

He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, by promoting idolatry and by the exercise of an antichristian authority over the consciences of men. He blasphemed the tabernacle (i. e. the church of God), and them that dwell in heaven, which, in the language of symbols, denotes the members of the true church, "whose names are written in "heaven,"* and who even now by faith sit together " with Christ in heavenly places."+ The beast blasphemed these saints of God, by denominating them heretics and apostates.

"And it was given him to make war with the "saints, and to overcome them; and power was

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given him over all kindreds and tongues and "nations." It is sufficiently evident that the Roman empire made war with the saints, and overcame them. Throughout the western empire, true Christians were, during the whole period of the twelve hundred and sixty years, exposed to persecution and death, if they dared openly to dissent from the religion of the state. All the persecutions which papal Rome stirred up against the saints were carried into execution by the secular Roman empire, or the civil powers. It was the secular power which waged war with the Albigenses and Waldenses in France, in which a million of men perished. It was the secular power of Spain which, under the Duke of Alva, put to death in a few years thirty-six thousand protestants in the Netherlands, besides fifty thousand which had been butchered for the same reason in the + Ephes. ii. 6. Paltos

* Luke x. 20.

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