Vol. 3, Ch. 13

The Laodicean State, typified by the Apocalyptic ecclesia at Laodicea, is parallel with the Seventh Seal Period from its opening to the Fall of the apocalyptic Babylon after the appearing of "THE ANCIENTOF DAYS."

From A.D. 324 to A.D. 1864-'8, or thereabout.

II. SECOND GENERAL DIVISION OF THE SEVEN SEALED SCROLL

The Seventh Seal, Seven Trumpets, and the Six Vials to the appearing of Christ "as a thief;" exhibitirig the development of the Ten Horns of Daniel's Fourth Beast in the wounding of the Sixth Head and the establishment of the Seventh; (Apoc. 8) the subversion of the Greek Catholic Dynasty of Constantinople, (Apoc. 9) the rising of Daniel's eleventh Episcopal Horn, or Eighth Head, that speaks blasphemies, and "as a Dragon;" (Apoc. 13:1-5, 11-18; 17) the war of the Saints and Witnesses with this power; their subjugation, death, resurrection, and ascension to the heaven at the ending of the Sixth Trumpet; (Apoc. 11:3-12; 12:14,16,17; 13:6-10) judgments upon their enemies, the Horns, Eighth Head, and Image; (Apoc. 16:1-11) and the preparation of their way (Apoc. 16:12-14).

TIME OF EVENTS From A.D. 324 to the Fall Seasons of A.D. 1864-'8, or thereabout.

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 13

The Apostle John, standing upon the Sand of the Sea, beholds a Beast ascending out of the sea, even that beast he alluded to in Ch. 11:7, as the destroyer of the Witnesses. Like the Dragon, it had Seven Reads and Ten Horns; and its power, throne, and great authority, it acquired from the Dragon. Thus it divided the Habitable with the Dragon; so that the inhabitants thereof worship the Dragon and the Beast. Upon the Seven Heads he saw a Name of Blasphemy, to which was given a Mouth like a Lion, with which he gave utterance to the great things and blasphemies he conceived. He sees them in continuance forty and two months, in the course of which long period they make war upon the saints and at length overcome them.

After the ascending of this beast from the sea, John beholds another beast ascending out of the earth, having Two Horns and speaking as a Dragon. After his ascent, he sees this beast in contemporaneous existence with the other; and of like constitution with the wounded head of the Ten-Horned Beast. John also sees an IMAGE of the Wounded Head, which the Two-Horned Beast caused to be set up; and to which all on the earth of every degree were subjected.

The Name of the Beast symbolically revealed.

TRANSLATION

Apoc. 13

And I stood upon the Sand of the Sea, and I saw ascending out of the Sea a Beast, having Seven Heads and Ten Horns: and upon his horns Ten Diadems, and upon his heads a NAME OF BLASPHEMY.

And the beast which I saw was like to a Leopard, and his feet as of a Bear, and his Mouth as the mouth of a Lion: and the Dragon yielded to him his power and his throne, and extensive authority.

And I saw one of his heads as if wounded to death: and the plague of his death was healed; and there was wondering in the whole earth after the beast.

And they worshipped the Dragon which yielded dominion to the Beast; and they worshipped the Beast, saying, Who is like to the Beast? Who is able to make war with him?

And there was given to him a Mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and there was granted to him license to practice. Forty-Two Months.

And he opened his mouth in blasphemy concerning the Deity, to have blasphemed his NAME, and his Tabernacle, and those who tabernacle in the heaven.

And it was given to him to make war with the Holy Ones, and to over-come them: and there was given to him dominion over every tribe and tongue and nation

And all the dwellers upon the earth shall worship him, of whom there hath not been written the names before the foundation of the world, in the book of the Life of the Lamb that hath been slain.

If any one have an ear, let him hear.

If any gathereth together a cap-tivity, into captivity he goes away; if any shall kill with the sword, it behooves that he be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and faith of the saints.

And I saw another Beast ascending out of the Earth; and he had Two Horns like to a Lamb, and he spake as a Dragon.

And all the dominion of the former beast he exerciseth in his sight: and he causeth the earth, and the dwellers therein, that they worship the former beast whose plague of his death was healed.

And he performs great signs, so that he even causeth fire to descend out of the heaven into the earth in sight of the men.

And he deceiveth the dwellers upon the earth through the signs which it was given to him to perform in the sight of the beast, commanding the dwellers upon the earth to make an IMAGE to the beast which hath the plague of the sword, and lived.

And it was given to him to give spirit to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast might both speak and practice, that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

And he causeth all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond, that there should be given to them a mark upon their right hand, or upon their foreheads;

And that no one be able to buy or to sell, but he having the mark, or the Name of the Beast, or the Number of his Name.

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath the understanding, count the Number of the Beast: for it is a Man's Number, and his number is Six Hundred and Sixty-six.

Chapter 13 THE LAODICEAN STATE

II SECOND GENERAL DIVISION OF THE SEVEN SEALED SCROLL

I. BEAST OF THE SEA

1. Preliminary Remarks

In the first year of Belshatzar, the prophet Daniel saw in a vision of the night, Four Beasts. The first resembled a Lion; the second, a Bear; the third, a Leopard; but the fourth was like nothing seen among beasts. It was diverse from all the beasts that were before it," which signifies, according to the interpretation given in Ch. 7:23, "diverse from all kingdoms."

The vision was communicated to him with special reference to this Incongruous fourth beast. It had a head, and upon his head Eleven Horns, and claws of brass, and teeth of iron. Daniel saw it arise in a stormy period out of the Great Sea; and he perceived that it continued until the Ancient of Days came, when, judgment having been given to the Holy Ones, or Saints of the Most High Ones, they destroyed it with fire and sword.

This simple statement of facts identifies the Fourth Beast of Daniel with the Scarlet-colored Beast of John in Apoc. 17:3,11. The light shed upon the subject in these texts, reveals that the head seen by Daniel was the Sixto-Octavian, or the last; and gives us to understand what was concealed from the prophet, that the nameless beast he saw had Eight Heads. John's Scarlet Beast 'goeth into perdition." Daniel saw this consummation; and John saw the perdition inflicted by the same agents -by the Lamb, and his called and chosen, and faithful companions-the Saints (Ch. 17:14).

Now, a beast with an eighth head and ten horns, contemporary with the advent of the Ancient of Days, implies its previous existence, either under seven heads coevally extant, or under seven heads successively existing. The revelator disposes of this alternative by telling John that five of the heads had fallen, that the sixth was in being in his day, and that the seventh had not then as yet come. Hence this succession of heads, and development of horns upon the imperial head, implies the subjection of the Fourth Beast to successive revolutionary changes. Daniel saw one revolution connected with its horns, in which an Eleventh Horn with Eyes and Mouth, came up upon the head after the 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 (Dan 7 8) the Papacy in power ten horns, of which it rooted up three; but in regard to the head he saw nothing.

Thus there is a great lack of particulars in Daniel's vision, which the Deity "reserved in his own power," as not important to be made known at that time. He gave Daniel a general outline of "the matter," in symbol and its description; but he deferred the details, or a more particular representation, until he sh6uld give them to "the Son of Man" in actual manifestation. When the Son had received them of the Father, he sent his messenger and signified them to John in Patmos. Among the signs exhibited were the Great Fiery-Red Dragon, the Catholic Dragon, the Beast of the Sea, the Name of Blasphemy, the Beast of the Earth, the Image of the Beast, and the Woman-Bearing Scarlet-Beast. All these apocalyptic signs are contained in Daniel's Fourth Beast. They are a symbolical analysis of this beast, which they exhibit in its chronological, geographical, and constitutional relations at different periods of its long and eventful, or its "dreadful and terrible," career.

Thus, Daniel's Fourth Beast commences its career with the Foundation of Rome, B.C. 753, and does not finish it until after the advent of Christ and the resurrection, of which long period 2,621 years are now in the past. It was predestined to "devour the whole earth, and to tread it down, and to break it in pieces" (Dan. 7:23). This is the extent of what is styled in Apoc. 16:14, "the earth and the whole habitable" - its territorial dominion in its amplest extent; and comprehending the countries represented by the dynastic sovereignties of the gold, the silver, the brass, the iron, and the clay, of Nebuchadnezzar's Image. This is the whole earth, and exhibits the reason why Britain, France, and Russia, elements of Daniel's Fourth Beast, have been so much occupied of late In China, Cochin-China, India, Mexico, Algiers, and Central Asia. These countries added to Europe, Turkey, and America, are "the whole earth" subdued to the authority of the Fourth Beast.

But, besides Daniel's Four Beasts, and their appendages, the prophet saw a class of people, for whose sake all things consist (2 Cor. 4:15). These he styles, "the Saints of the Most High Ones." They are the Seed of the Woman, against which the Fourth Beast in many centuries of his career, would have great and deadly "enmity;" for all the elements of said beast are "the Serpent" and his seed; or, in the words of Christ, ~the Devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41; Gen. 3:15). He was to make war upon them, and to prevail against them till the end of "a time, times, and the dividing of a time," when the Ancient of Days would come, and join them in the execution of judgment unto the utter and complete destruction of their enemy.

Now this, in the estimation of Deity, is an all important matter; and all worthy of ample illustration for the support and strengthening of "the faith and patience" of the sufferers in so long and sanguinary a conflict with the beast. Hence the signs apocalyptically exhibited to John. This one, especially, which he calls attention to as "the Beast ascending out of the Sea;" for, like Daniel's beast, it makes war upon them, and over-comes them; yea, and kills their allies, the witnesses (Apoc. 11:7; 13:7): but then, there is hope in their end. For, as this great sea monster "gathereth them into a captivity and killeth them with the sword" -fills his prisons with them and puts them to death; so the serpent-seed he represents are to receive measure for measure, heaped up and shaken down; or, as Daniel expresseth it, "he shall be slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame." "Here is the patience and faith of the Saints."

But the saints were not to be scattered over "the whole earth," or fourth-beast habitable in its amplest signification; but, for two distinct, and partly parallel periods of 1260 years, to be fed and nourished in the Two Wings of the Great Eagle. Because of the Serpent's relations to them in the wilderness, or Court of the Gentiles, in their long antagonism, it was deemed necessary for the illustration of the times, to exhibit the Fourth Beast analytically. And this is the analysis with reference to him in his conflicts with the saints. The Fourth Beast made war upon them from the crucifixion of the Captain of their salvation, until A.D. 324. Daniel did not see this war in his vision; but John saw it; and predicted that the saints' would come out of the conflict victorious. This victory we have seen celebrated in the twelfth chapter, tenth and eleventh verses. In this relation the fourth beast appears as "the Great Fiery-Red Dragon." While this constitution of power obtained, its jurisdiction extended over "the whole habitable," but not over "the whole earth," as when the Ancient of Days comes. Had this particular been revealed to Daniel, it might have been in these words, "And the Great Fiery-Red Dragon made war upon the Saints; but the Saints overcame him, and cast him out of the heaven." But the Spirit condescended to be more specific; and instead of this brief and summary statement, represented the stages of the conflict ultimating in that result, in the prophetic symbols of the first six seals.

But the Fourth Beast, though vanquished in this war of two hundred and ninety-one years, was not subdued: for afterwards, as we have seen, he put on a new uniform, and in all the sanctimonials of Lodiceanism, "he went away to make war with the Remnants of the Woman's Seed." He was the Fourth Beast in catholic uniform; and although he inflicted great cruelties upon the saints, he did not overcome them, nor have they as yet conquered him.

But Daniel saw the saints conquered by the Fourth Beast. That is true in part. He saw them conquered by a horn of the fourth beast, styled "a Little Horn that had eyes, like the eyes of a man, and a Mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows." This Little-Horn power subdued them, and prevails against them until the Ancient of Days come. Representative of this prevalance, we have the symbols of this thirteenth chapter. The Beast of the Sea, like the Catholic Dragon, who, since the cession of his throne, has assumed the uniform of Mohammed, is the enemy of the saints; and for the very obvious reason, that the Mouth of the Sea-Monster is the veritable Mouth of Daniel's Little Horn whose "very great things" John characterizes as "blasphemy concerning the Deity to have blasphemed his Name, and his tabernacle, and those tabernacling in the heaven." And for the same reason the Beast of the Earth is their enemy; for the Speaking Image he sets up is the embodiment of the same Mouth which commands all be killed who will not worship it. This command brings it into collision with the Saints, who worship no power but the Deity in manifestation. Hence war ensues between them and the beasts. This is the war Daniel saw; and both he and John testify that the Saints were prevailed against; while John goes further and explains the prevalence by saying their allies, the Two Witnesses, were killed.

In this thirteenth chapter, we have presented to us Daniel's Fourth Beast under the analytic symbols of the Dragon, the Beast of the Sea, the Beast of the Earth, and the Image of the Beast. The throne of the Dragon was Rome, so long as the Roman Senate existed there, and the Seven Heads of the Dragon were incomplete. But when this throne was "yielded," and the Roman Senate expired, the throne of the Dragon was confined to Constantinople exclusively. The jurisdiction the Dragon-Power was able to reserve extended over all the habitable Eastward of a line following the Rhine up to its point of nearest proximity to the source of the Danube, that is, half way between Strasburg and Basle; thence down the Danube to Belgrade; and thence southwardly to Dyrrachium, now called Durazzo, and across the Adriatic and Mediterranean to the Syrtis Major and the great Desert of Africa. All to the east-ward of this line was the Constantinopolitan Dragon, or Greek division of the Great Roman Eagle, and comprehended MCSIA, or Bosnia, Servia, and Bulgaria: THRACE, or Roumelia; Macedonia, Greece, ASIA MINOR, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt. This was a great diminution of the original Dragon dominion; still it was ample, and sovereign over rich and fertile regions.

The Beast of the Sea divided the Roman habitable with the Catholic Dragon of the East. They are the two limbs of Nebuchadnez-zar's Image. The dominion of this Sea Monster was, as John predicted, "extensive". It ruled all the habitable to the Westward of said line, including France, Spain, the Roman Africa, Italy, and the region between the Alps and the Rhine, Danube, and Save, anciently known under the names of Rhtia, Noricum, and Pannonia, but in our times as Switzerland, half Suabia, Bavaria, and Austria and the western part of Hungary. In this outline I have not included England, Scotland, and Ireland, for reasons which need not be mentioned in this place.

The beast, which John styles "another Beast," and which he says "ascended out of the earth," came up among the Horns of the Sea Beast, and after they had made their appearance (Dan. 7:8,24). The Beast of the Earth was to be "diverse" from the Beast of the Sea, and to subdue three of its horns. These three horn-territories were so much of the Dragon Fourth Beast habitable taken from the Beast of the Sea; and conferred upon it the Roman characteristic. A map of Central Europe will exhibit the Beast of the Earth with sufficient accuracy. Its acquisition of ROME conferred upon it the quality of holiness in the estimation of its worshippers; so that by them it came to be styled "THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE." It comprehended Italy, Austria, Bavaria, Hungary, and Germany to the North and Baltic seas. Its secular throne, in the beginning, was at AIX-LACHAPELLE, but afterwards at VIENNA; and its spiritual seat in ROME. The Beast of the Earth is an extension of Daniel's Fourth Beast northwards through the forests of Germany, in which the Romans of the old world could never effect a permanent settlement.

The Beast of the Sea emerged after the collapse of the western Empire in 475 A.D. It was superseded by the Holy Roman Empire, or Beast of the earth in 800. The Dragon resented the military power of eastern Rome centered in Constantinople which fell to the Turkish Power in 1453.

As, then, the moon hath her different phases, called new, half, gibbous, and full, nevertheless the same moon; so also Daniel's Fourth Beast hath his phases, which are different constitutional manifestations, yet the beast remains the same to the end of his "dreadful and terrible" career. He has nearly passed through his Sea-Beast and Earth-Beast phases; that is, in certain relations: but there yet awaits him a vast extension, and a constitutional development of thirty years duration which will be final. In this future and last phase of his existence, he will stand before the nations in his most dreadful and terrible aspect, scarlet of body with sin and blood, with his SIXTO-OCTAVIAN HEAD diademed with Ten Horns, and a Drunken Harlot sitting upon his back. Thus panoplied with the Mystery of Iniquity in Church and State, he will have consummated the mission revealed to Daniel, in the full discharge of which, he was to "devour the whole earth, and tread it down, and break, it in pieces." Having accomplished this, "he goeth into perdition," where in the popular abyss, he is bound for a thousand years (Apoc. 17:11; 20:1-3).

Daniel reclined upon his bed and dreamed but John stood upon the Sand of the Sea, and saw things bearing resemblances to what he deemed sufficiently striking to establish their identity. Daniel says that It was stormy in his vision; or, as he expresses it, "the four winds of the heaven strove." But in this thirteenth chapter John says nothing about a strife of winds; but simply "I stood." I take it therefore that there is a sense in which John's standing is equivalent to storminess of the situation. Any one who has stood upon the sea shore, especially if rocky, will know that the situation is not characterized by silence, or the absence of noise. On the contrary, the roar of the waters is incessant. If the sea were quiescent as a pond, then to stand upon its beach would be to ex perience the silence and solitude of the boundless prairie. Such a standing for observation of phenomena would be symbolical of times of tranquillity and peace. But this could not be the nature of John's standing; for no such politico-ecclesiastical organizations could ascend into a position to command, or rather, to divide the command of, the world in halcyon days undisturbed by the storms of war and conquest. His standing then upon the margin of the roaring waters was significant of the storminess of the times, when what he "saw" should ascend to dominion "in the whole earth," en hole te ge. He stood, and the roar he heard was "the multitude of many peoples, making a noise like the noise of the seas; the rushing of nations, making a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters." Such a roaring of the waters implies a tumult of the sea from the strife of words. This implication places John and Daniel side by side as spectators of the storm. Daniel saw the four winds lashing the sea into fury; east, west, north, and south winds, all blowing upon the same sea. No ship could live in such a storm. Each of Daniel's four beasts, or dominions, was brought up out of the sea by the four winds of his vision. The Fourth Beast was brought up thereby; and so was his Sea-Beast development; and John apocalyptically beheld the same four winds as he "stood upon the Sand of the Sea, and saw." This leads me to remark as to the time of his standing. He stood there while the Four Winds continued the storm. The winds producing the roar of the sea, were "the four winds of the earth," which, in their blowing, gave voice to the first four trumpets, which in my Tabular Analysis, Vol.2 p.114, are styled, "Wind Trumpets." And from this tabular exposition I would transfer the "note" in Vol.2 pg. 115, as appropriate to the place. It reads thus: "The judgments of these four winds culminate in the development of the Seventh Head, which 'continues a short space'; and of the Ten Diademed Horns of the Beast that rises out of the sea; in the 'wounding as it were to death' of its Sixth Head; and in the consequent cession by the Dragon of his power, throne and dominion over the affected Third Part, which before the blowing of those winds, was a constituent of his empire". The time of tbis stormy period is indicated on p.115 of that volume, as "from A.D. 395 to A.D. 554-'59, the epoch, or beginning, of the darkened day and night in the third of them, being equal to a period of 159-'64 years."

The reader will please compare what is written here concerning the "time of events," and correct what he finds on p.115 under this caption, by this erratum.

Now the time represented by John's standing on the sand, was all the time of the sounding of the four wind-trumpets, to the end of the darkened day and night in their third part. This was a long period; but defined by the work done as revealed in this chapter. It was a period of 405 years. This was the time of his symbolic standing upon the Sand of the Sea, beholding the development of the Fourth Beast, in its Seventh Head, Ten Horns, and Little Horn, with Man's Eyes and a Lion's Mouth. The four hundred and five years are composed of 164, from the beginning of the first trumpet to the darkening of Rome's day in the epoch of the Pragmatic Sanction, or settlement of Italian affairs, by Justinian, A.D. 554-'9. "Under the Exarchs of Ravenna," says Gibbon, "Rome was degraded to the second rank." Rome had hitherto been imperial or regal, under the Sixth and Seventh Heads of the Dragon; but she was now, as the consequence of the blowing of the four wind-trumpets, neither the one nor the other; but a city which had "reigned over the kings of the earth" (Apoc. 17:18), now degraded to a rank in which she exercised no sovereignty at all. She was therefore now in a state of eclipse both in respect of the luminaries of her day and night; for "the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise" (Apoc. 8:8,12). The reader will please connect, by reference, what I am now writing with what appears in Vol. 3pp. 68-75. The phrase "the third part of the day," and "the third part of the night," implies a whole day and a whole night, each equal to the third part three times repeated. With the Jews, a day and a night were each twelve hours long; so that "a third part of' a day would be four hours; and "a third part of' a night, also four hours; in all eight hours. Now there is a certain class of Laodicean speculators in apocalyptic mysteries, who style themselves "Literalists," and who would have us to believe that day and night signify nothing more than what is ordinarily meant by these terms!, So that they would reduce us to the absurdity of believing, that the events of the four trumpets culminated in the darkening of the natural sun, moon, stars, day and night, for the short period of only eight literal hours! But this folly is too ridiculous for an argument against it, or for a serious refutation. The "day" and the "night" must be proportional to the subject treated of. The subject is the obscuration of the luminaries of a political universe of a dominion. These are things of centuries. Their day and their night, is their day-time and their night-time of ages. Hence a time is a minor cycle contained in the aeon, or aeon, of their duration. The aeon of the Sea-Monster's Mouth is three cycles and a half, or three times and a half, or three days and a half, or 1260 years and as a cycle, or circle, is geometrically divisible into three hundred and sixty equal parts -A time or day, is a year of years, or 360 lunar years. Rome's lights which ruled her day and night times were not eclipsed for a whole day and a whole night: but only for a third of each of these times. Had she lost her rule for a whole day and a whole night, her ruling would have been suppressed for seven hundred and twenty years, or a dual of times: but as it was, her day-time and her night-time only ceased shining two hundred and forty years, which are the sum of the thirds predicted; for the third of a day-time of three hundred and sixty years is one hundred and twenty years: and the third of a night-time of three hundred and sixty' years; is also one hundred and twenty years; and these two periods of one hundred and twenty years each added together give two hundred and forty years. Now if these 240 years be added to A.D. 559, the epoch of Rome's degradation, it gives the sum A.D. 799; when, if my exposition of the symbolic time of the Fourth Trumpet be correct, history ought to testify Rome's restoration to the IMPERIAL DIGNITY from which she had been degraded by the will of the Catholic Dragon. Now John informs us, that he stood and saw the ascending of the Sea-Beast and the ascending of the Earth-Beast: this then was the period of his standing - he stood while they were ascending. The latter Beast was developed imperially, with Rome for its tempo-spiritual throne, A.D. 799. Hence John's standing upon the Sand of the Sea reaches, in its significance, to this date, or to the end of the 240 years. Add then these years to the terminal epoch of the fourth trumpet, and we have a period of 405 years - a stormy period, which changed the face of the world; and laid the foundation of a polity, which, after a lapse of more than a thousand years, is manifest in the existing constitution of MODERN EUROPE.

But John in his symbolic standing "stood upon the Sand of the Sea". There must be some meaning in this standing upon the sand. In the tenth chapter the "mighty angel" stands upon the earth and sea; and in the fifteenth, John's brethren, and John himself, therefore, are seen standing upon the transparent sea, no longer mingled with fire; evincing that they had gotten the victory over the Ten Horned Beast, and the Image of the Sixth Head of the Beast, which had ascended out of the stormy sea while John stood upon the sand thereof. But here John stands not upon the earth to view the ascent of the Beast of the Earth; nor upon the sea to behold the ascent of the Beast of the Sea; but upon the sand of the sea to see the ascent of them both.

Jeremiah says, that the Deity placed the sand for a bound oft he sea- ch. 5:22. This is true in a natural sense; when, therefore, the sand of the sea is introduced into symbolical prophetic writing, it must be taken to represent the bound, shore, or limit, of the symbolical sea. But the sand of the sea is also the similitude for a multitude of people. Thus Hosea predicts the multitude into which Israel shall be developed in the day of their glory under this figure, saying in Ch. 1:10, "the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand oft he sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered": and sand also in the sense of multitude we find used apocalyptically in chapter 20:8, where the hosts of the post-millennial Gog and Magog, or Dragon released from confinement in the abyss, are compared to the Sand of the Sea.

Now John was "a man wondered at," a man of sign, or as we say in our vernacular, a representative man; and his actions and postures, like Daniel's and Ezekiel's, were dramatic. Hence John upon the sand represented that portion of "the great multitude which no man can number" (Apoc. 7:9) existing contemporaneously with the ascending of the beasts out of the sea; and who refused to worship the Image of the Beast, and would not receive his mark, nor the number of his name (ch. 13:15; 15:2). The position they occupied in the four hundred years of the ascending of the monsters of the sea and the earth, was that of neutral observers of events; whose antipathies were against their old enemy the Catholic Dragon, who was compelled by the four wind-trumpet powers to "yield his power, throne and an extensive dominion" to the Ten Horns. The judgments of the four wind-trumpets were not sent against the servants of the Deity, sealed in their foreheads with the Father's name (chap. 7:3; 14:1) whom John represented; but upon the catholic worshippers of daimonia and idols (ch. 9:20). Hence John's multitude in the Wings, or extremities, of the Great Eagle, had the sympathy of "the barbarians" who rushed in upon the Dragon's domain to establish king-doms for themselves. The saints and witnesses being at war with the Dragon (ch. 12:17), his enemies, "the barbarians," would naturally be their friends; so that, while the Dragon and the barbarians were in tempestuous and stormy conflict, their multitude in the Roman Africa atid the Alpine regions would hear the roar of the tempest-tossed sea, standing as it were upon the shore.

In the Hebrew tongue any collection of waters is termed seas as in Gen. 1:10, "The gathering together of the waters, he called seas." The word before us in the original is thalassa, on which the lexicon says, "when Homer uses it of a particular sea, he means the Mediterranean, for he calls the outer sea Okeanos, Ocean, and holds it to be a river. Herodotus calls the Mediterranean the inside sea; and the Ocean, the outside sea; the Latins called it MARE NOSTRUM, "Our Sea" as it is geographically and apocalyptically. What Matthew in ch. 8:20, calls thalassa, Luke in ch. 8:23, terms limne, a lake, or, an inland sea.

"Many waters," says Daubuz, "upon the account of their noise, number, and disorder, and confusion of their waves, are the symbol of peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. The symbol is so explained in Rev. 17:15. And in Jer. 47:2, waters signify an army, or multitude of men. The comparison of the noise of a multitude to the noise of mighty or many waters, is used by Isaiah in ch. 17:12,13, much after the same manner as Homer compares the noise of a multitude to the noise of the waves of a sea in a storm."

"SEA, clear and serene, denotes an orderly collection of people, in a quiet and peaceable state." "Sea, troubled and tumultuous, signifies a collection of men in motion and war. Either way, the waters signifying people, and the sea being a collection of waters, the sea becomes the symbol of people, gathered into one body politic, kingdom, or jurisdiction, or united in one design."

"The resemblance between the noise of an enraged sea, and the noise of an army, or multitude in commotion is obvious, and frequently taken notice of by the prophets."

Daubuz truly remarks, that "the accomplishment of a prophecy must be considered, and consequently applied according to the signification of the terms by which it is expressed. This signification is either symbolical or literal. But it happens sometimes that there are occasions in which the event appears to be suitable to both these. The first signification, if the terms are in their nature symbolical, is the principle in the intention; the second, if joined with the other, is only concurrent. If both suit the terms, the first (or symbolical) must always have the preference, as being the more noble, and worthy of the Holy Spirit's care to foretell it; and then we may give way to the latter, where it will concur. The principal event is that which answers fully to the majesty and first intention of the symbols; in which God does, as it were, speak in His own dialect, and so is always of greater extent, and more comprehensive than any other. The secondary event of a symbolical prediction is, when such an event, being also concomitant with the other, answers more nearly to the literal signification of the terms in which the symbolical prediction is expressed; and, as it were, alters the nature of the symbols, as if they were literal characters of the things meant by them. An example will set this in a clear light. The prophet Nahum predicts the over-throw of Nineveh in these words: 'with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof (Ch. 1:8). An overrunning flood is the symbol of desolation by a victorious enemy. The accomplishment, however, showed the signification to be two-fold, that is, symbolical and also literal. Diodorus informs us, that in the third year of the Siege, the river being swollen with continual rains overflowed part of the city, and broke down the wall for twenty furlongs; and the enemy entered the breach that the waters had made, and took the city."

According to the same principles, the Sand of the Sea, and the Sea itself may be rightly viewed in the chapter before us. The events in their accomplishment show that the signification of the Sea is both symbolical and literal. Daniel's vision of the ascendency of the Horns plalnly shows, that their manifestation was in connexion with the literal LATIN SEA, the Mediterranean. His words are, "the four winds of the heaven strove upon THE GREAT SEA." This was the name given to the Mediterranean, or Sea in the midst of the earth, by the Hebrews. He describes the four beasts that came up out of it, as four dominions: and in the interpretation, the Sea is styled the Earth; and the beasts arising out of it, are termed kings (Ver. 17,3). Compare the symbol in verse 3, with the signification in verse 17: thus, "Four beasts came up from the sea (upon which the winds strove); diverse one from another;" and now read the explanation, "These great beasts which are four are four kings which shall arise out of the earth". Now the fourth king was the "dreadful and terrible" one. He came up with his body, head, and horns Out of the Great Sea, in the sense of arising out of the countries by which the sea is almost enclosed as a lake. Here is a blending of the symbolical and the literal; and so, that in the interpretation, the symbolical is anchored to the literal; by which I mean, that we must not go away to the Baltic, and Atlantic, and German Oceans, to find the fourth beast and his heads and horns; but must confine our investigations to those countries which in the days of the prophecy had outlets upon the Great Sea.

Now, what Daniel beheld arising out of the sea as the results of the storms of war upon it, John also saw in part from his Patmian stand-point ascending from the same sea and in the same sense. He saw the kingdoms and empires of Modern Europe so far as their origin was Mediterranean, ascending from this sea. He stood literally upon its Patmian Shore, in a numerous cluster of its islands, which were as but the sands of its coast; and from this, as the representative of a multitude occupying the wings of this sea-region, he saw kingdoms arise from the symbolic sea inhabiting the literal maritime earth enclosing the Latin Sea, of which he has presented us with a symbolical description in the chapter we have in hand. 28.

"The Beast that ascendeth out of the Bottomless Pit" - Ch. 11:7

In the apocalypse there are the earth, the sea, the sand of the sea, the abyss, and the pit of the abyss. All these terms have their own special signification where they occur. The sea, the sand of the sea, and the abyss styled in the Common Version, "the bottomless pit," are related to the Beast of ch. 11:7 and chapter 13:1. In the former text, it is said to ascend out of the abyss, and in the latter, out of the sea. But, though the terms expressive of the place of origin are two different ones, there are not two different beasts, but one and the same beast only. But then, why are these two different terms employed with reference to the same beast? There must be a reason for it. In elucidation of this inquiry, then, I remark in addition to what has already been written in Vol.3. p.85, that, though in the Septuagint and certain texts of the New Testament, abyss, or abussos, is identical with the sea and deep, yet symbolically and apocalyptically, sea and deep do not represent all that is intended to be conveyed by the word.

Abussos is derived from a priv. and bussos, the depth, and therefore signifies, that which is not, or has not been, fathomed; hence, in general, boundless, exhaustless. The apocalyptic terms above recited are terms of extension. The sea and the earth of this chapter are coextensive with the Mediterranean and its countries to the Rhine, and Danube; these were a deep that had been politically bounded, or fathomed: but, what of that vast unmeasured, or boundless, region beyond? That region styled in John's time, Germania, European and Asiatic Sarmatia, and Scythia, beyond the Rhine, the Danube, the Carpathian Mountains, the Dniester, the Black Sea, the Caucasian Mountains, and the Caspian Sea? This was a wild, unsubdued wilderness stretching along the northern frontier of the Great Roman Eagle, inhabited by swarms of fierce barbarians, whom the Romans were unable to fathom, or to bring within the appreciable depths of the earth and sea. They were an unorganized confused multitude an abyss of which no conqueror or legislator had been able to reach the bottom.

But how changed this country of the abyss since John stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw arise out of the Latin Sea and the Earth, the Beasts of the Sea and Earth! Since then the Abyss has been fathomed, and no longer erupts its wild barbaric hordes in destructive inundations, whereby suddenly and without warning, cities and rural districts are plundered and reduced to smoking ruins. The abyss, which was "the Northern Hive" from which swarmed forth the destroying agents of the first four trumpets, sounded against the Roman Earth and Sea, is now the area of Germany from the Rhine and Danube to the Baltic, Bohemia, Poland, the Great Russian empire, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. In the times of the ascending of the Sea Beast, these were the ultramarine, abyssal fountains of the Great Sea; which, when broken up, roared forth their floods and tempests, and developed upon the Latin Habitable the Ten-Horn Kingdoms of Modern Europe. Hence the reason why the same beast is attributed to different sources. He came latent, or hidden, as it were, being as yet undeveloped, from the outlying abyssal region, when the Barbarians of the North rushed in upon the sea, and the rivers, and the fountains of waters, belonging to the Catholic Dragon: and he came up above the waters of the sea when the invading hosts of the abyss effected settlements upon the Dragon-territory, and were developed into the Ten Diademed Horns of the Beast.

But, very different to this is the speculation culled from "Horsley's Sermon on the Descent of our Lord into Hell." He says, "the abyss is where the wicked spirits are reserved in chains unto the great day. This abyss is situated in the central regions of the earth, and therefore is below the sea. It is therefore not impossible that in the ascent of the Beast (Rev. 13:1; 17:8) two different ideas may 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 region of condemned spirits, with relation to his spiritual removal. Moreover, even if he ascended from Hades, the sea might be the medium of his ascent; and there is a peculiar fitness in its being so represented, to denote his arising out of the commotions and struggles of the nations, the symbolical sea."

"According to the Jews," says Daubuz, "the abyss was a place under the earth, in the most internal parts of it, and was thought to be a great receptacle of waters as a reservatory to furnish all the springs or rivers. And this opinion was not only held by the Egyptians, Homer, and Plato, but also by some of the modern philosophers. And Seneca seems to be of the same opinion. And in this sense, the abyss symbolically signifies a hidden multitude of confused men."

A Beast," says Daubuz, "is the symbol of a tyrannical, usurping power or monarchy, that destroys its neighbors or subjects, and preys upon all about it, and persecutes the church of God?

"The four beasts in Dan. 7:3, are explained in ver. 7, of four kings or kingdoms, as the word king is interpreted, ver. 23.

"In several other places of Scripture wild beasts are the symbol of tyrannical powers; as in Ezek. 34:28, and Jer. 12:9, where the beasts of the field are explained by the Targum, of the kings of the heathen and their armies.

"Among profane authors, the comparison of cruel governors to savage beasts, is obvious. And Horace calls the Roman People a many-headed beast - Lib. 1, Ep. 1 ver. 76. And as for the Oneiro critics, wild beasts are generally the symbols of enemies, whose malice and power is to be judged of in proportion to the nature and magnitude of the wild beasts they are represented by. 'As a roaring lion and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people"' (Prov. 28:15).

Upon the principle of this proverb the beasts of the apocalypse are symbolical of wicked rulers. They are "dreadful and terrible" to the choicest of mankind; for it is written, "the beast that ascendeth out of the abyss," said the Spirit, "will make war upon my two witnesses, and will overcome them, and kill them" (Apoc. 11:7); and the same thing is affirmed of the beast of the sea in ch. 13:7, as, "and it was given unto him to make war with the Saints, and to overcome them;" but in relation to these, which he overcomes, or treads them, as the Holy City, under foot, it does not say that he kills them as he killed the witnesses. Truly, as a roaring lion and a ranging bear," have these apocalyptic beasts been to the poor saints and witnesses over whom they have tyrannized for ages.

The general description of this symbolized dominion is, that it has seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten diadems, and upon his head the Name of Blasphemy." These are few words, but they comprehend much of an interesting and important character. I shall take them in their order, and proceed to treat therefore of The Seven Heads of the Beast.

Now, to what in our own times shall we liken the civil and ecclesiastical arrangement of things existing at the crisis of the woman's flight? The following constitution of things with which the reader is familiar, will answer the purpose of bringing vividly before his mind what was presented before John's in the dramatical exhibition of the woman in the wilderness. The British Imperial Unicorn is an element of the Serpent-power of the world. It is enthroned in all the splendor of the heaven; and sheds the rays of its glory and power upon all the constituted authorities of the state. Invested with this brightness is a Harlot, diademed with the jewels of the British crown. This woman is a daughter of "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and all the Abominations of the Earth;" and is constitutionally styled, "the Church of England and Ireland, as by law established." In the palmy days of the Tudors and the Stuarts, there was another woman, who fled from the face of the British Serpent. This was the woman of nonconformity and dissent. And to this fugitive were given the wings, or extremities, of the Great Unicorn; that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished until the coming of the Ancient of Days. These wings are now known as the United States and British America. Here the Puritan Woman exists out of the sight of the British Serpent, fed by her spirituals, and nourished by "the earth," which is remarkably inimical to everything British. But, are the sects of which this Anti-British State-Church Woman is composed, "the remnants of her seed which keep the commandments of the Deity, and hold the testimony of the anointed Jesus?' Far, very far, from it; they are as far from it as the British Harlot herself; nevertheless, there will be found within the pale of Anti-British Harlotry a remnant, styled CHRISTADELPHIANS, whose intellectual and moral characteristics are answerable to the last clause of Apoc. 12:17.

Now, the Puritan Woman, styled by her enemies and persecutors "the Donatists;" but by the children of her body, Cathari, or the Pure Ones; for the first 1260 years of her existence was Providentially settled in the wings of the Roman Eagle. Her remnants were not to be found in Persia, India, China, or America: but after the discovery and settlement of America, the persecutions and massacre of her seed by the Serpent-Powers of Europe caused her to seek refuge in the American wilderness, whereby the help of "the earth," which styles itself "the unterrified democracy," she is fed and nourished to the full.

"The Head of a beast answers to the supreme power, and that whether the supreme power be in one single person or in many. For as the power abstractly is not considered, so neither the persons abstracted from their power; but both in concreto, make up this head politic. And, therefore, if the supreme power be in many, those many are the head, and not the less one head for consisting of many persons, no more than the body is less one body for consisting of many persons." Daubuz.

The Beast of the Sea has seven heads as well as the Pago-Cathelic Dragon. They are the same heads, and identify the Dragon and the Beast as apocalyptically diverse constitutional developments of the same power. The only difference of the two series of heads symbolically viewed is, that the Dragon series is diademed, while the Beast series is not. In the latter symbol the Horns, not the Heads, are diademed; but in the case of the Dragon it was the heads and not the horns. This diversity, of course, is significative of some peculiarity, and has to be explained when we come to the further consideration of the horns.

The reader will please to turn to what has been written concerning the heads of the Dragon in the previous chapter. What is found there is equally applicable to the heads of the Sea Beast, and need not, therefore, be repeated here. Leaving the heads, then, for the present, I proceed to a further exposition of the horns.

"Horns are the symbols of power, exerted by strength of arms because such beasts as have horns make use of them as their arms."As the symbol of strength they are used in Psa 18:2. They are also used to denote the regal power; and when they are distinguished by number, they signify so many monarchies. Thus horn signifies a monarchy in Jer. 48:25; and in Zech. 1:18, the Four Horns are the four great monarchies which had each of them subdued the Jews. See also Dan. 8:20-22."The Horn of David in Psa. 132:18, is explained by the Targum of a glorious king to arise out of the house of David.It appears from Valerius Maximus, that the ancient Romans understood horns as the symbol of regal government; and the images of the gods, kings and heroes, among the heathen, were adorned with horns as a mark of their royalty and power."Horns upon a wild beast are not only expressive of powers, but also of such powers as are tyrannical, ravenous and at enmity with God and his saints, as in Dan. 8" Daubuz.

The Horns of the Sea Monster represent Ten Kingdoms established by the Barbarians of the Abyss upon all that Mediterranean territory conquered by them from the Roman Dragon. This appears from the testimony that "the Dragon yielded to him his power, and his throne, and an extensive jurisdiction" - ver. 2. In relinquishing it to the beast, he yielded them to his appendages, the horns and mouth as well.

In ch. 17:12, John was informed that the ten horns were symbolical of kingdoms: "the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdoms as yet;" that is, they had received no kingdom at the time the interpreter was talking with John. Daniel gives the same record in ch. 7:23. He had said that he wished to know the truth represented by the ten horns upon the fourth beast's head; upon which it was stated to him that "the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise;" and those in ver. 9, are styled "the thrones" which are to be "cast down" when the Ancient bf Days comes to sit in judgment upon them. And this judgment John indicates in the words: "These (Ten Horns) shall make war upon the Lamb, and the Lamb shall over-come them; for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him (the Saints of the Holy City) are called chosen and faithful" (Apoc. 17:14).

The geographical extent of the Roman Habitable upon which the barbaric tribes of the abyss established themselves with Feudal Sovereignty, was the Mediterranean West. They have to be enumerated by the names they bore in the period when, they were engaged in the work of establishing themselves upon that territory. The symbol, as we shall see, requires at least eleven abyssal tribes - ten for the horns, and one or more for the Seventh Head. The following is the list that seems to me authorized by history: 1. Huns; 2. Vandals; 3. Visigoths; 4. Burgun-dians; 5. Gepidoe; 6. Lombards; 7. Franks; 8. Suevi; 9. Alans; 10. Bava-rians. These were the founders of the Horn-Kingdoms of the Beast. This divided form of Mediterranean Europe has continued for ages, even to the present time; though the number of its divisions has not always, nor is it now, ten. The prophecy does not require that the number of the kingdoms should be invariable. They were ten in the period of their foundation, and from this fact have acquired the symbolic designation of the Ten Horns. So that though their number might be reduced one-half, the power that might be established over the territory they originally occupied would, to that extent, be represented as the Ten Horns.

"The emergence of the wild beast of the sea," says Mr. Lord, "is not to be regarded as having been accomplished in a moment, or a brief space, but as having occupied such a period as would naturally be required for the invasion of the empire (of the Catholic Dragon) by many separate tribes migrating from vast distances, engaging in numerous wars, and, finally, after victory, establishing new and independent governments. Nor are the chiefs who rule them after the conquest of parts of the empire, to be considered as having assumed that relation in which they are symbolized by the horns while they remained, as in France for a long period, in subordination to Rome. They emerged from the sea as dynasties, when, by concession or victory, they became rulers of portions of the empire in independence of that power. The institutions of the horns, therefore, took place at different periods, and they were those that subsisted when the conquest of the (Western) empire was completed and the imperial power extinguished" A.D. 476.

On the conquest of Italy and termination of imperial authority by the deposition of Augustulus by Odoacer, the Herulian Goth, A D. 475, the barbarians of the apocalyptic abyss held possession of the whole western division of the Latin Sea, with the exception of a part of Gaul, and were distributed under ten kingly governments

1. The Huns, erupting from the Scythian region of the Alps, crossed the Volga, the Don, the Dnieper, the Dniester, and planted themselves in the vicinity of the Danube, and, therefore, styled Hungary, A.D. 370. Under Attila, A.D. 451, they descended into Thrace, about thirty miles from Constantinople; then turning westward into Macedonia, he wheeled north into Pannonia, a part of Hungary; and thence, passing through Noricum, a part of Austria and Bavaria, crossed the Danube and the Rhine near their sources, and pursued his march through Belgium almost to the English Channel. He then crossed the Seine, and descended to the Loire, whence he turned eastward, recrossing the Seine, the Rhine and the Danube near their sources; thence he descended into Lombardy, from which, repassing through Noricum and Pannonia, he again crossed the Danube, where he died at his seat of government. This was the course of the Great Blazing Star of the third wind-trumpet, the remains of whose dominion exists in the Horn-Kingdom of Hungary.

2. The VANDALS descended from the Swedish section of the abyss, and entered Gaul, A.D. 406. They soon passed into Spain, and after occupying a part of that Mediterranean province nearly twenty years, A.D. 427, crossed into Roman Mrica, wrested it from the Catholic Dragon, set up an independent kingdom under GENSERIC, and ruled it until A.D. 533. The kingdom was founded under the sounding of the second wind-trumpet, when a Great Mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea.

3. The VISIGOTHS, or Western Goths came originally from Sweden with the Ostrogoths, or Eastern Goths. The Visigoths, as the "hail and fire mingled with blood" of the first trumpet, after their separation from the Ostrogoths, who encamped between the Dnieper and the Dniester, descended upon Greece under the leadership of ALARIC, and after-wards, having ravaged Illyria, Lombardy and Italy, laid siege to Rome. In A. D. 408, they passed from Italy into the south of France, and maintained a kingdom there till A.D. 506, when, being driven by the Franks into Spain, they wrested a part of it, Gallicia, from the Suevi, and in A.D. 585, extended their sway over the whole peninsula.

4. The BURGUNDIANS issued from the Germania region of the abyss east of the Vistula. They established themselves in Belgic Gaul A.D. 407. After a few years they obtained possession of Savoy, and sub-sequently of Gaul on the Rhone, and maintained a separate kingdom till A.D. 524, when they were conquered by the Franks. On the division of the Frank kingdom, it again became a separate state, and continued such most of the time for several centuries.

5. The GEPIDÆ migrated from the Scandinavian country west of the Baltic, now called Sweden. They crossed the sea and proceeded southeasterly across the Dnieper, and encamped between that river and the Don. From thence they passed westward into Hungary and thence radiated to Illyria, now styled Dalmatia, in which they established them-selves on the Adriatic Bay of the Mediterranean, after the death of Attila in A.D. 453. Ardaric, the king of the Gepidae, erected his throne in the palace of Attila, whence he exercised royal authority over the old country of Dacia, from the Carpathian hills to the Black Sea. The kingdom of the Gepidae continued until A.D. 566, when it was destroyed by the Lombards.

6. The LOMARDS migrated originally from Scandinavia, ascending thence nearly due south to the Danube. On the dissolution of the empire of Attila, A.D. 455, whose standard they followed, they took possession of a portion of Pannonia, a part of Hungary. Subsequently to the conquest of the Gepidae, they extended their possessions as far as Bavaria, A.D. 568; they invaded and conquered Italy, where they maintained themselves till near the close of the eighth century, when they were "plucked up by the roots" (Dan. 7:8).

7. The FRANKS is a name assumed by a confederacy of German tribes, inhabiting that section of the abyss lying between the Lower Rhine and the Weser. It signifies the Freemen. In Gibbon's day, their original territory was in part enclosed within the Circle of Westphalia, the Landgravate of Hesse, and the Duchies of Brunswick and Lunenburg, now absorbed by the Prussians in their transitory confederation of Northern Germany. In their inaccessible morasses, redolent of mud, water, and frogs, they used to shake defiance at the Roman arms. When the time arrived for the ascending of the Diademed Horns out of the sea, they instinctively obeyed the summons of the First Trumpet, and in A.D. 407, entered Gaul, and within a few years established a kingdom upon the Rhine, which they continued to maintain and advance, until in the sixth century it extended over the whole territory embraced in modern France.

8. The SUEVI filled the interior Germanian countries of the abyss from the banks of the Oder to those of the Danube. A short time before the sounding of the first trumpet, they united with the Alemanni. They passed through Gaul, conquered Gallicia in Spain, and maintained themselves there as a Diademed Horn of the Sea till A.D. 585, a space of one hundred and seventy-seven years.

9. The ALANS migrated from the Asiatic Sarmatia, lying between the Black and Caspian Seas. They passed from this section of the abyss into Germania, being joined on their march by the Vandals, who had previously descended from Scandinavia, and had halted in European Sarmatia, between the Dnieper and the Don. In Germany their forces were still further increased by the accession of the Suevi. Thus strengthened, the Alans, who did not remain in Gaul with the Vandals and Sueves, crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, where they divided; the Suevi settling in Gallicia, the Alans in Portugal, and the Vandals in Vandalitia. After sustaining a separate government eight or nine years, they were incorporated by conquest with the Vandals and Sueves, and passed with the Vandals under Genseric into Africa. Another body of Alans had settled between the Rhine, the Seine, and the Loire. They repulsed Attila from Orleans, their capital, on his invasion of Gaul, A.D. 451, and were stationed in the centre of the army by which he was defeated at the great battle of Chalons. On his invasion of their territory, A.D. 453, they were supported by the Goths, and gained another victory. A.D. 464, they invaded Italy, and laid Liguria, the southern part of Sardinia, waste. Clovis, king of the Franks, extended his conquests over their territory as far as the Loire, A.D. 485, but they continued to subsist as a separate people till A.D. 507, or thereabouts, when they were conquered by the Franks.

10. The BAVARIANS. The present Bavaria in the time of the Romans formed part of the Dragon empire, known as Vindelicia and Noncum. Besides South Bavaria, Vindelicia also embraced the south-eastern part of the kingdom of Wurtemberg; while Noricum comprehended the Archduchy of Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and part of Carniola. The Jesuit Gordon in his Opus Chronologicum, referring to A.D. 511 says "Theodon, the first king of Bavaria, dies." We are not informed how long he had reigned; but Mr. Elliot thinks we may date it as before A.D.493. The Bavarian Horn is noticed by Gibbon as forming one of the boundaries of the Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy under Theodoric: "He reduced," says he, "the unprofitable countries Rhoetia (the Tyrol), Noricum, Dalmatia, and Pannonia, from the source of the Danube and the territory of the Bavarians." And again he says, "the Lombard kingdom extended east, north, and west, as far as the confines of the Avars, the Bavarians, and the Franks of Austrasia and Burgundy;" and Muller:"the Bavarians had now (that is, about the end of the sixth century) given name to Noricum."

Such, then, is my list of the ten notable abyssal horns of the sea. Though separate dynasties, they are very properly united in a single symbol, and exhibited as one great combination of tyrannical states, from the identity of their origin in the abyss, the oneness of their policy (ch. 17:13), and the similarity of these rulers. This European Common-wealth was composed of monarchies that were all feudatories of the Dragon; for Gibbon shows, that they all adopted, in a great degree, the laws of the ancient empire as their common law. They all came at length to submit themselves to the Papal Yoke; a power which was rising with them out of the sea, whose system of falsehood they cooperated in imposing upon their subjects at all hazards. They may truly be styled the Papal Horns; for their history has proved them to have been, in all their past career, the blind instruments of "THE NAME OF BLASPHEMY" that sits upon the Seven Heads.

In the foregoing enumeration of the horns of the sea, I have made no mention of the Saxons and Danes, who issued forth from the Scandinavian and Germanian abyss against the Dragon province'of Britannia. In all the lists of the horns I have seen, the Saxons have been made to figure as one; and, consequently, the Anglo-Saxons of Britain, now styled England, have been set down as one of the horns of the Beast. But this classification of England with the horns cannot be admitted. It is true that the Saxons and Angles issuing from Holstein and Schleswig, A.D. 449, conquered Britannia. But, instead of constituting themselves one horn, they founded seven kingdoms, styled Kent, Essex~Sussex, Wessex, East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumberland. These were called the Saxon Heptarchy; and were as distinct and independent kingdoms as any of their ten contemporaries upon the Continent(*).

Another objection to England being numbered with the ten, is that she is not a country of the Great-Sea world. The ten horns were to ascend out of the Mediterranean upon which Daniel saw the tempest raging. Gaul, Spain, Italy, Illyria, Africa, and Dacia, are political sections of a torrene, whose waters, directly or indirectly mostly discharge themselves into the Mediterranean. But the British Isles afar off have no relation to it at all. As Origen says in Horn. 6, A.D. 230, "The Britons are divided from our world." They are no part of the Sea Monster's interior maritime territory. Even in modern times they are three kingdoms, not a single horn only; and those three horns, the horn of England, the horn of Scotland, and the horn of Ireland, are more imperial than regal, and more Oriental than European.Another objection to Britain being numbered among the ten horns is, that though, indeed, she is ruled ecclesiastically by a name of blasphemy, her constitution is, in word and deed, opposed to "the Name of Blasphemy" upon the heads of the Beast. The ten horns all worship this Name, and recognize it as their Holy Father; and maintain ambassadors at his court; and exercise their infitience to uphold him in glory and power, that his supposed relations with the heavenly world may, by his favor and blessing, be caused to redound to their spiritual and temporal prosperity. He is their Mouth in all spiritual utterances, "speaking great things and blasphemies concerning the Deity, his Name, his Tabernacle, and them that dwell in the heaven" (ch. 13:5,6). But, blasphemous as Britain is in her constitutional ecclesiasticism, she protests against, and repudiates, the Chief Blasphemer of the world. She does not belong to the politico-ecclesiastical system, or body politic, of which he is the Mouth. She sends no ambassador to the Court of Rome; and though there may be spiritual imbeciles who have real, and crafty politi-cians who have feigned, reverence for the Roman God and the mummery of his superstition, the heart of the British peoples is hardened against them with the impenetrability of adamant. This hostility is known and understood at Rome, where the will, but not the power, has always existed to reduce Britain to subjection to the so-called "Holy See." In witness of this, there is the Spanish Armada equipped and sent against England in the days of Elizabeth, at the instigation of the Court of Rome, that by the thumb-screw arguments of the Inquisition, the British nation might be brought within the pale of the Mediterranean Sea Monster, beyond which no heretical soul can be saved!

No, the United Kingdom of England, Scotland and Ireland was never one of the ten horns . The taint of imperiality, as it were , was indelibly infixed in British soil by the Dragon. The Saxons and Angles from the abyss did not expel him. The Dragon withdrew, and told the Britons to defend themselves. Invaded by the Picts and Scots, they invited the Saxons and Angles to come over and help them. The Celts were repelled; but when the war was over, the Saxons refused to leave, and made the heptarchial settlement for themselves. Nearly fourteen centuries have passed since these events; and the Dragons carved in relief upon the interior of the House of Lords, are now the appropriate symbol of British power. The real ruler at Constantinople, the throne of the Dragon, is Britain, who claims "the Sick Man" there, as her "ancient and faithftil ally." Her interests are intimately associated with the destiny of the Turkish empire, more especially with that part of it termed Syria and Egypt. If the British power in any way be an element of the beast, it can only be in connexion with its body, which is like unto a Leopard." As the power indicated by the words, "Sheba and Dedan, and the Merchants of Tarshish and the young lions thereof," in Ezek. 38:13, she becomes identified with Daniel's third beast, the four-winged and four-headed Leopard, which is to have its dominion taken away when the Ancient of Days comes; but which, before it loses its dominion thus, is to come into collision wlth "the feet of the Bear."

[*Britain not included among the ten horns of the beast. This important fact of prophecy is outlined by the Author of Eureka above, but is frequently ignored by others who attempt to interpret The Apocalypse in accordance with current events. Though Bntain once formed part of the Roman Empire, by the year 449, on the eve of the termination of the Western Empire in 475 when the horns received their independence (indicated by them being crowned as described in Rev. 13:1), Britain was invaded by the Jutes, Angles, Saxon and Danes, and being divided into the seven kingdoms mentioned in the text of Eureka, never did form part of the "beast of the sea" the political order of Western Europe following the fall of the Western Empire in A.D. 475) nor the "twohorned beast" (the so-called Holy Roman Empire that superceded the "beast of the sea" in the year 800). Therefore, the present affiliation of Britain with the European Common Market must be only temporary, and before the "beast of the sea" is again formed in its latter-day manifestation as required by the prophecy of Rev. 17:8, she must withdraw or be excluded therefrom. The map on p. 200 depicts Europe about A.D. 449 — Publishers.]

"And upon his Horns ten Diadems."

The Horns on the Dragon had no diadems upon them; because the nations of the abyss had not then issued forth to erect kingdoms upon the Roman Habitable. But in the chapter before us, the Dragon-Horns of the sea are exhibited with diadems upon them, indicating that they were not Republics; but States, whose chief magistrates were enthroned, and diademed, and who would figure in the unmeasured Court of the Gentiles (ch. 11:2) as "the Crowned Heads of Europe."

The diadems upon the ten horns is a symbolical rebuke of the foolish prediction of republican politicians and prophets, who deceive their worshippers with the conceit, that the kingdoms of Europe are to become republics after the type of the "MODEL REPUBLIC" of this western world! A horn with a diadem upon it is nowhere to be found, in sacred or profane heraldry, as the symbol of a republic. It always represents a kingly power, or dominion. The Gothic nations of the Abyss acquiesced in the military leaders who had led them to victory, and founded States upon the Roman territory, being recognized as kings, and decorated with diadems, by the Dragon-power. Hence they were kingdoms in their beginning; and will continue kingdoms until the Ancient of Days shall come, and by their overthrow, transfer the many diadems of these horns of the sea to his own glorious and snowy head (Apoc. 19:12; 1:14; 11:15). The very reverse of these republican prophecies is the real truth of the matter. Instead of the kingdoms of the world becoming republics, all the republics of the world will become kingdoms. This will be a great blessing to mankind, who have proved themselves incompetent for self-government upon wise and righteous principles, under any form of rule they may devise. It is the Divine purpose to bless mankind in Abraham and his seed. This is the great gospel prophecy of the word (Gal. 3:8,9): and when the nations rejoice in peace and security under their own vines and fig-trees, they will be interested in nobler themes than the crude, unprofitable and lying vanities of those who now deceive them. Their political interests will be supervised by kings, who will then reign "by the grace of God". It will be theirs to command of their own sovereign will and pleasure; and for all nations simply to obey without question or dispute; for then, "judgment will be given to the Saints;" who will take the kingdom and the dominion under the whole heaven, and possess them for a thousand years and more (Dan. 7:22,27,18; Apoc. 20:4,6). Then the universal world will be "ruled in righteousness," and truly "blessed in Abraham and his seed."

A few last words may be added in reference to the diadems, which I find collected by the industry of Mr. Elliott, from Gibbon, and other writers with whom the reader will never probably become acquainted. What follows, he says, he has borrowed from Lelewel's great work ('n the coinage of the Middle Age. "It is well known," says Elliott, "that the barbarian Gothic or German kings, after their first conquests, were almost all anxious to receive appointment from the Roman emperor as Masters-General or Patricians of the empire" of the Dragon; "the appointment being equivalent to that of Viceroy; and most useful above all

Page. 203

in order to legitimize their government in the eyes of their Roman subjects, who in respect of number immensely exceeded the barbarian population that had conquered them. In the negotiations and treaties on which matter, it was usually stipulated by the Roman emperors, and agreed to by the barbaric kings, that the Diademed Bust and names of the emperors should be stamped upon the barbarian coinage (at least on their gold coins) not the Gothic princes' own. Hence there was a semi-Roman state of the Gothic coinage, as Lelewel calls it, for a century more or less, from about A . D .450 to 550; the Vandals of Africa forming however an exception apparently, and acting more or less independently in this respect. At length Clovis the Frank, at the opening of the sixth century, had the plenary sovereignty of Gaul awarded to him by the Byzantine emperor, with the title of Consul and Augustus, and the Diadem of Pearls as its badge and token: a grant renewed in A.D. 532 to Clovis' children, by Justinian, with full power over the coinage; and engagement that his purely Frank money should have the privilege of currency assured to it throughout the whole Roman empire. In the course of the sixth century, the example of Clovis was followed by others of the princes; the Lombards coming last about A.D. 600.

"On the whole, it appears that at the opening of the sixth century, not only did the several Gothic princes exercise in their respective dominions the prerogatives of supreme sovereignty, but also had begun to appropriate to themselves the Roman Diademic Badge of such sovereignty; and that at the close of the century their assumption of the diadem, in sign of it ,had become universal."

In connection with these remarks he gives an engraving illustrating the reservation of the diadem to the Dragon, which was not assumed by the horns in their beginning. I conceive that the apocalyptic reason of this is found in the Dragon symbol of ch. 12. In this all the Seven Heads are diademed or sovereign; but the horns not. The idea then is this, that the horns were not to be diademed in their own absolute right, until the Seventh head had passed away; when the Romano-Gothic Sea Monster would stand before the world with Seven undiademed Heads and Ten Diademed Horns.

The first coin .of the engraving is Burgundian On one face is the diademed bust of the Dragon-emperor, Anastasius, and on the other, Sigismund, king and consul. The second, is a coin of the Suevi, with the bust, diademed, of the emperor Honorius on one side; and on the other, Richiarius, king. This was issued by the Suevi twenty-seven years after the death of Honorius, and his name stamped upon it out of regard to Roman imperial authority. A third coin is Ostrogothic. It was issued during the reign of the Seventh Head, while Theodoric was king of Italy,

Page 204 and Justinian was emperor. On one face is the diademed bust of the Dragon-emperor; and on the other, a wreath with the monogram of the king in the centre . There is another Ostrogothic coin about the size of a quarter dollar, with the diademed bust of Justinian on the one side; and the name and office of the ruler, king Witiges, on the other.

I would remark here, that these two last-mentioned coins are evidence that the Ostrogothic kings of the Seventh Head, who reigned in Rome, did not consider the emperors of the Sixth Head as abolished from all influence in the affairs of Italy; but only "wounded as it were to death;" for here is evidence of the Sixth and Seventh Heads of the Dragon uniting in the coinage of the realm, which only mutually recognized governments and dynasties are free to do . Gibbon, writing of the first two kings of the Seventh Head, Odoacer and Theodoric, says of the former, that "he abstained, during his whole reign from the use of the purple and diadem;" and of the latter, he says, that "from a tender regard to the expiring prejudices of Rome, he declined the name, purple, and diadem of the emperors;" though "he assumed the whole substance and plenitude of imperial prerogative". This was the simple difference between the Imperial Sixth, and the Regal Seventh, heads of the Dragon and the Beast. Had Odoacer and Theodoric assumed "the name, purple and diadem of the emperors" when they reigned in Rome sovereigns of Italy, their government would have been a mere continuation of the Sixth Head. The substance and plenitude of sovereign prerogative remained, only the form of its constitutional administration

Page 205 was changed. This change in the form of the supreme power, with its exclusion from Mrica, Sicily , Corsica , Sardinia , Majorca , and Minorca , then possessed by the Vandalic Horn , established a marked dissimilarity between the Sixth and Seventh Heads.

The fifth coin of the engraving I regard as a very remarkable one . It is a coin of the Vandals, about the size of an English shilling. Upon one side is the front figure of a man, standing upon an altar. From each shoulder projects a wing with four little circles in each, as if he were an angel, or were identified with an angelic mission. From his waist to his ankles is a four-square in which are inserted four rows of precious stones, three in a row, or twelve in all, and strikingly resembling the Jewish High Priest's breastplate of righteousness on which were engraved the names of the twelve tribes. In his extended right hand he holds a globe surmounted with a cross; and in his extended left, a rude representation of a trumpet. On the other side, is the legend GenserAu-gustus, and underneath, a star of considerable magnitude. The age of this coin is over fourteen hundred years.

Genseric was an Arian catholic, and the ally of the Circunicellions against the Dragon persecutor of the Donatists . Hence , when he conquered Africa and the islands of the Mediterranean from the Dragon, he proclaimed himself the Augustus of the Catholic world, as the word "Augustus" after his name, and the globe and cross in his right hand, upon the coin, evince. Having delivered the Donatists from the bloody persecutions of the Catholics, they, doubtless, gave him to understand, that they hailed him as one of the Angels of the Four Trumpets and the deliverer of the true church. Hence, the wings on his shoulders with four little circles upon them; and the four-square plate of Twelve Stones . All that Mr. Elliott has to say upon this interesting coin, is to correct Lelewel's reading of the name from Jensoe to Genser; but, to my mind it is a striking indication that the Donatists of Africa, contemporary with the sounding of the Four Trumpets, were sufficiently advanced in apocalyptical exposition, to discern the true character of the times in which they lived, and their own' ecclesiastical relations to them. The "terrible Genseric" and his Donatists clients, were neither Preterists, Futurists , nor Literalists; but rational interpreters of the Apocalypse as a symbolic prophecy of events concurrent with the conflict of the Saints with the powers that be, to be explained in the light of history. In this, Vandal barbarians of the fifth century far transcended the intelligence of the "ripest" and brightest scholars of our age!

Page 206 Besides these he gives two other coins, one of the Franks, and the other of the Visigoths, to show that the diadem came at length to be Page 206

adopted by the Gothic kingdoms, without regard to the Diadem Bust of the emperors. This was after the fall of the Seventh Head.

"And upon his Heads a Name of Blasphemy. "

The name of a person or thing, according to the Hebrew style, frequently imports the quality or state thereof. Thus in Ruth 1:20, "and she said unto them, call me not Naomi," that is, pleasant, "but call me Mara," that is bitter; "for Yahweh hath dealt very bitterly with me." And thus, when it is said in Isaiah 7:14, "she shall call his name Immanuel," the meaning is, that the Son of the Virgin there spoken of should be "AlL," or Eternal Power, "with us," Israel, dwelling in their midst. And so in Luke 1:32, "He shall be called the Son of the Highest," is, He shall be the Son of the Highest.

Names of men are sometimes taken for the men themselves. Thus in Acts 1:15, "the number of the names," that is, the number of the men. And thus in Virgil, Sylvius, "Albanum Nomen," an Alban Name, is Sylvius, a man of Albania.

Isaiah 30:27, it is said "The NAME of Yahweh cometh from far, HIS anger burning, and the burden thereof heavy; HIS lips are full ofindignation, and HIS tongue as a devouring fire." Here name obviously denotes a person, an individual of great power, developing great anger and fiery indignation. It is the name styled by Moses in Deut. 28:58, "the glorious and fearful Name, YAHWEH Elohim:" for the repudiation and blasphemy of which Judah and Benjamin, with a multitijde of Levi, have been banished from their country, and tormented among the Nations for nearly eighteen hundred years.

Name also is equivalent to power. This appears from Acts 4:7, where the rulers demanded of the apostles, saying to them, "by what power, or name, have ye done this?" - and in ver. 30, they pray that "wonders may be done by the name of Jesus," that is, by his power. Hence, the Jesus Name is a name of glory and power, as well as a name of holiness and truth, and is styled by Paul "a Name above every name; that at the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow" (Phil. 2:9,1Q).

But name not only denotes the existence, quality, or state of a person, power, or other thing, singly considered; it also' denotes these things in multitudinous manifestation. Thus, in Jer. 13:11, Yahweh caused "the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah" to cleave unto Him, "that they might be to me, saith he,. for a people, and for a name, for a praise, and for a glory." Here is a name inclusive of the whole nation. There are numerous instances in the prophetic writings where name is representative of many , too numerous to be quoted here . The gods of the nations were so many names, whether idols or founders of sects. In this sense, name denotes an object of worship, invocation, or reverence. Thus, in Mic. 4:5, "all people walk, every one in the name of his God; we will walk in the name of our God." To walk in the name of any one is, first, to have said name constitutionally placed upon the walker; and, secondly, to shape the course of life according to the precepts and institutions of such name. Every one that does this is in said name; and, therefore, denominationally a part, or element, of that name. Thus, the NOMEN LATINUM, or Latin Name, the Nomen Anglicanum, or Anglican Name, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, and a host of others, are all names of Gods in which the peoples walk. They are specially related to the Romano-Gothic Beast of the Abyss, which John testified would be gemon onomaton blasphemias, full of Names of Blasphemy (Ch. 17:3). All the peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues, constituting the body politic of the fourth-beast system of nations, "walk every one in the name of his god," glorying in the Latin Name of Blasphemy upon the Seven Heads; the Anglican Name of Blasphemy in Canterbury, York, and Dublin; and in all the other blasphemies, to which the names of Luther, Calvin, Wesley, and others too numerous to mention, are attached.

But, while all the people walk every one in the precepts of these "worshipful names" of the unmeasured Court of the Gentiles, "the remnant of the woman's seed, who keep the commandments of the Deity, and have the testimony of the anointed Jesus," will walk in the name of their God alone. First, believing "the truth as it is in Jesus," the Name of the Deity has been constitutionally placed upon them according to the command that all such believers be "immersed into THE NAME of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:15,16; Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38; 8:12,16): and secondly, being taught to observe the all things the apostles were commanded to teach (Matt. 28:20), they walk in the name of the Deity as constituents of that name; having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness; but, as the grace of Deity which brings salvation teacheth, they "deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and live soberly, righteously, and godly, in the present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the appearing of the glory of the great Deity, and of their Saviour, the anointed Jesus" (Tit. 2:12). This is the Name which, in Ch. 13:6, is styled His Name the name of the Deity, blasphemed by the Name of Blasphemy upon the Seven Heads, and by all the other names which fill up the body politic of the Beast.

The Name of Blasphemy is a power; and like the Beast over which it presides is, or rather has been, in centuries of its career, a "dreadful and terrible" power. It is an EPISCOPAL NAME, because it is the embodiment of those audacious "Eyes" Daniel was so observant of in his vision. He saw a Little Horn come up among, and after, the ten. It was not like the other horns. These had no eyes in them; nor had they any mouth . If they had possessed these, there would have been twenty eyes and ten mouths . But a different constitution of the evil was predete-mined. One pair of Eyes and one Mouth were to suffice for the Little Horn and all its ten associate horns. Had there been eleven pairs of eyes instead of one pair, there would have been eleven names of blasphemy upon the sea-monster's heads, which would have been incongruous, and a cause of inextricable confusion .

The eyes Daniel saw were "like the eyes of a man." And not only so, but they were representative of a man; for, speaking of the glare, or fierce piercing look, of the eyes, he says, in Ch. 7:20, "whose look was more stout that His fellows." They represented a human power, whose function was preeminently that of supervision over certain styled "his fellows." His official state, therefore, was that of an episkokos, or a BISHOP. His look being "more stout" than his fellows of the episcopal order , he would , therefore, claim superiority over all spirituals; and to be entitled above all to the veneration and homage of mankind . Such an OVERSEEING NAME as this would be, within the sphere of his jurisdiction, a Bishop of bishops, such as Constantine claimed to be when he assumed headship over all the catholic churches of the Dragon empire.

But this Nomen Latinum, or Latin Name upon the Seven Heads, was not only a Supreme Bishop, but it was also a Name of Blasphemy. It was itself a blasphemy, and an utterer of blasphemy. A power claiming to be what it is not, is a blasphemy. Thus, certain of the synagogue of Satan in the ecciesia at Smyrna claimed to be Jews, when they really were not. This false claim is styled "their blasphemy" (Apoc. 2:9): because, being false, it injured the fair fame and reputation of those in Christ who were Israelites indeed.

BLASPHEMY is a thing but little understood by those who most glibly use the word in their denunciation of what they term heresy. In the Court of the Gentiles, in which the truth is trodden under foot by "the Spirituals of wickedness in high places" - THE CLERGY - everything is blasphemy, which, however Scriptural it may be, exposes their word-nullifying traditions to the well-merited contempt of mankind . Against this exposition they rend their garments instead of their hearts, put dust upon their heads, and with eyes and hands upturned to heaven, cry out blasphemy! But this is all theatrical. Mere sound has no terrors for the friends of truth. The clerical orders, whose apocalyptic chief is this Name of Blasphemy, are like him, essentially a blasphemy; because they arrogate to themselves the prerogatives of Christ and his Brethren, to which they have not the remotest or slightest Scriptural pretension. Being of the world, and speaking under the impression of the world, as proved by the world hearing and hiring them, their alleged identity with the members of the Divine Family, injures the reputation thereof, which is the import of the word blaspheme. For an order of men to claim to be "Vicars of Jesus Christ upon earth," that is, his official substitutes, by Divine appointment; or to be his ambassadors and plenipotentiaries to the nations, by the same authority; and for them to be notoriously deficient of the least proof substantiatory of their high pretensions , is to convict themselves of falsehood; and when self-convicted liars and hypocrites claim to be the brethren and intimates of honest and righteous men, on the principle of a man being known by the company he keeps, the reputation of those excellent, people is injured or in other words blasphemed, in the estimation of the Deity, and of those "who hold the testimony of the anointed Jesus." Thus, the Albigenses(*) among whom the faithful may be found, in the twelfth century testified to their generation, saying, "We must not obey the Pope and Bishops, because they be wolves to the ecciesia of Christ" - quja sini lupi ecclesiut' Christi. They repudiated the Name of Blasphemy and the clerical ministers of his name, as the transformed ministers of the Satan, who pretended to be ministers of righteousness, but were really nothing more than wolves in sheep's clothing of the most ravenous and ferocious description . They protested against them as the orders of that DREADFUL AND TERRIBLE NAME OF BLASPHEMY, enthroned upon the Seven Heads of the Fourth Beast. This name they denounced as the Antichrist, the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition - the Antichrist, because he set himself up as the VICAR OF CHRIST; that is, the Divinely deputed substitute of Christ, as indicated by the word Antichristos, from anti, in the place of, christos, the Anointed One, or Christ: they denounced this Name as the Man of sin in maturity, or full manifestation. They did not regard the Man of Sin substitute for Christ as an individual man, but as an order of ecclesiastical rulers, a Name, or Body, with its Eyes, Mouth, and subordinate members. Being an imperial spiritual human power, its chief ruler would be a man, the supreme representative for the period of his reign, of the power that created him for adoration, as "the god of the earth" - quem creant adorant, whom they create they worship. And thirdly, they denounced this Man of Sin name of Blasphemy, as the Son of Perdition; because the power, in the Scarlet-Beast phase of it, is foredoomed, "and goeth into perdition" (Apoc. 17:11): and because Paul, in writing of the same power, whom he styles ho anomos, the Lawless One, as well as the Man of Sin, terms him likewise the Son of Perdition, "whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his presence" (2 Thess. 2:8).

It may not be uninteresting to the reader to peruse, in their own words, the views entertained by the witnesses of Jesus concerning this Name of Blasphemy upon the Seven Heads, over seven hundred years ago. The following is from a remarkable tract written by one of them, in A.D. 1120, for the express purpose of vindicating himself and friends for separating from communion with this name. It professes to be an answer to the question, "WHAT IS ANTICHRIST?" which it thus proceeds to answer:

"Antichrist is a falsehood or deceit varnished over with the semblance of truth, and of the righteousness of Christ and his Spouse, yet in opposition to the way of truth, righteousness, faith, hope, love, as well as moral life . It does not respect any one particular person ordained to any degree,-or office, or ministry; but it is a SYSTEM OF FALSEHOOD (Name of Blasphemy) opposing itself to the truth, covering and adorning itself with a shew of beauty and piety, yet very unsuitable to the ecciesia of Christ, as, by the names and offices, the Scriptures and the sacraments and various other things may appear. The system of iniquity thus perfected, with its officiating ministers, great and small, supported by those who are induced to follow it with an evil heart and blindfold -this is the congregation or composition of things (the Name, or Body) which, taken together, comprises what is called Antichrist, or Babylon, the Fourth Beast, the Harlot, the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition, all of which are titles given to it in the Holy Scriptures. His ministers are called false prophets, lying teachers, the ministers of darkness, the spirit of error, the Apocalyptic Harlot, the Mother of Fornication, clouds without water, trees without leaves, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, wandering stars, Balaamites, and Egyptians.

"He is termed Antichrist, because being disguised under the semblance of Christ and his ecciesia, he oppugns or opposes the salvation purchased by Christ, and truly administered in his (Christ's) own ecclesia, which salvation the faithful are made partakers of by faith, hope, and love. Thus he counteracts the truth by the wisdom of this world, by false religion, by feigned holiness, by ecclesiastical power, secular tyranny, riches, honors, dignities, and the pleasures and allurements of this world.

"It is notorious, therefore, that Antichrist never has been brought forth without a concurrence of all the things now mentioned, so as to form a system of hypocrisy and falsehood (or Blasphemy); that is to say, there must be a concurrence of the wise of this world, ecclesiastical orders, pharisees, ministers, and doctors; the secular power and the people of the world, all mixed up together: all these combined make up the Man of Sin, and that Wicked One complete. For, though Antichrist was conceived so long since as the times of the apostles (see 1 John 2:18,22; 4:3; 2 John 7) he was then only in his infancy (in embryo) wanting members both inward and outward. Consequently, he was the more easily detected, destroyed, and cast out of the ecclesias, being then unshapen and wanting utterance. As yet, he was destitute of that plausible, imposing, judicial or determinative wisdom which he afterwards attained; he wanted those hypocritical ministers (the clergy), and human appointments, and the outward show of those religious orders which were necessary to give him perfection. As he was destitute of those riches and endowments necessary to allure persons to his service, and enable him to multiply, protect, and defend his adherents, so he also needed the Secular Power to compel men to forsake the truth, and embrace a system of falsehood. Wanting these requisites, his deceitful practices had not their full effect - he was young and tender, and with difficulty got a footing in the ecclesias. But growing up in his members, that is, in his blind and dissembling ministers (the clergy) and in worldly subjects, he gradually arrived at maturity when men whose hearts were set upon this world, but blind in the faith, multiplied in the ecclesias, and BY THE UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE (in the time of Constantine), got the power of both into their own hands."

After describing the wickedness of this Name of Blasphemy which arrogated Divine honor, the writer adds, "Christ never had an enemy to be compared with this; one so able to pervert the way of truth into false-hood; insomuch that the true ecclesia, with her children, is trodden under foot by it (Apoc. 11:2). The worship that pertains to God alone is transferred to Antichrist; to the creature, male and female, deceased-to images, to carcasses, and relics. The sacrament of the eucharist (the Lord's Supper), is converted into an object of adoration, and the worshipping of God alone is prohibited. The Saviour is robbed of his merits, and the sufficiency of his grace in justification, regeneration, the pardon of sins, sanctification, establishment in the faith, and spiritual nourishment - ascribing all these things to his own authority - to a mere form of words - to the intercession of saints and to the fire of purgatory. Thus people are seduced from Christ, their minds are drawn off from Seeking those blessings in him, by a lively faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching his followers to expect them by the will and pleasure and works of Antichrist.

"A third work of Antichrist consists of this, that he attributes the regeneration of the Holy Spirit unto the mere external rite, baptizing infants in that faith, teaching that thereby baptism and regeneration must be had, on which principle he confers and bestows orders (Apoc. 13:16,17) and, indeed, grounds all his christianity, which is contrary to the mind of the Holy Spirit. He places all his religion and holiness in going to mass (as his Protestant relations now do in 'going to church') in which he has mingled together all kinds of ceremonies, Jewish, Heathen, and Christian; and by means thereof, the people are deprived of spiritual food , seduced from the true religion , and the precepts of God, and bolstered up with vain and presumptuous hopes. All his works are done to be seen of men, that he may glut himself with insatiable avarice; and to accomplish this, every thing is set to sale . He allows of open sins without ecclesiastical censure , and even the impenitent are not excommunicated. He does not rule or maintain his unity by the Sword of the Spirit, but by means of the SECULAR POWER the Horn in which the Eyes are set) using that to effect spiritual ends (ch. 13:12,15). He hates and persecutes , and searches after , and plunders , and destroys the members of Christ (ch. 13:7,15). These are Some of the principal of the works of Antichrist against the truth, but the whole are past numbering or recording. These are the most prominent features of that monstrous power.

"On the other hand, he makes use of an outward confession of the faith, and therein are verified the words of the apostle - 'they profess in words that they know God, but in works they deny him.' He covers his iniquity by pleading the length of his duration, and the multitude of his followers; concerning which it is said in the Apocalypse, that 'power is given him over every tribe, language, and nation; and all that dwell upon the earth should worship him' (ch. 13:7,8). He covers his iniquity by pleading the spiritual authority of the apostles , though the apostle expressly says, 'we can do nothing against the truth; and, 'there is no power given us for destruction'. He boasts of numerous miracles, even as the apostle foretold - 'whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all miracles and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness' (2 Thess. 2:9,10; Rev. 13:13,14), also. He has an outward show of holiness, consisting in prayers, fastings, watchings, and alms deeds; of which the apostle testified, when he said, 'Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.'

"Thus it is that Antichrist covers his lying wickedness as with a cloak or garment, that he may not be rejected as a pagan or infidel, and under which disguise he can go on practicing his villainies boldly like a harlot. But it is plain both from the Old and New Testaments, that Christians are bound by express command to separate themselves from Antichrist .

"In the New Testament we read that the Lord is come and hath suffered death, that he might gather together IN ONE the children of God (John 12); and in the book of Revelation, he warns by his voice, and charges his people to go out of Babylon, saying, 'Come out of her, my people, and be not partakers of her sins, that ye receive not of her plagues; for her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquity' (Rev. 18:4,5). The apostle Paul says the same 'Have no fellowship with unbelievers - come out from among them, and be ye separate' (2 Cor. 6:16).

"From what has been said, we may learn wherein consists the wickedness and perverseness of Antichrist, and that God commands his people to separate from him, and join themselves to THE HOLY CITY, Jerusalem (Apoc. 11:2). And since it hath pleased God to make known these things to us by his servants, believing it to be his holy will according to the Scriptures, and admonished thereto by the command of the Lord, we do inwardly and outwardly depart from Antichrist. We hold communion and maintain unity one with another, freely and uprightly, having no other motive thereto but to please the Lord, and seek the salvation of our souls. Thus, as the Lord is pleased to enable us, and so far as our understandings are enlightened into the path of duty, we attach ourselves unto the truth of Christ, and his ecclesia, how mean soever she may appear in the eyes of men.

"We, therefore, have thought it good to make this declaration of our reasons for departing from Antichrist, as well as to make known what kind of fellowship we have, to the end that, if the Lord be pleased to impart the knowledge of the same truth to others, those that receive it may love it together with us . It is our wish also, that if others are not sufficiently enlightened they may receive assistance from this service, the Lord succeeding it by his blessing. While, on the other hand, if any have received more abundantly from him, and in a higher measure, we desire with all humility to be taught and better instructed, that so we may rectify whatever is amiss."

Such is a specimen of the testimony of the two prophet-witnesses, who, as lights, "stood before the god of the Earth," the Name of Blasphemy, the pretended Vicar of Jesus Christ, the Eyes of the Antichrist; and which "tormented them who dwelt upon the earth" (Apoc. 11:4,10). This testimony was delivered in the darkest period of the day of blasphemy, when men avowed their convictions in the face of ruin, captivity, torments, and death. But they were valiant for the truth; and though power was on the side of the oppressor, a power that roared from the "Mouth of a Lion," and made nations tremble, and kings upon their thrones; yet were they undaunted in its presence in their earnest contention for the faith once for all delivered to the Saints. The secret of their energy was "the power of the Deity," "the testimony of the anointed Jesus" which they held, "the word of the Deity which is living and powerful," understood and lovingly and heartily believed. Their enlightened testimony filled the clerical orders of Antichrist with madness; and caused them to roar forth blasphemies against them, with terrible threatenings and slaughters. But in all the onslaught of the enemy, the Name of Yahweh in which they were entrenched, was their strong tower. THE NAME OF YAHWEH, and the NAME OF BLASPHEMY, were the two great rival names of the situation. Between them there can be no peace or compromise. The Name of Blasphemy on the Seven Heads has learned this by grievous experience; and discovering that the strength of the Eternal Name in the great conflict resided in "THE WORD," he strove mightily to suppress it. But the greater his efforts in this direction, the more strenuous and determined were the witnesses to keep the Scriptures before the people. They learned the Bible by heart - Bib ha edis-cunt memoriter; and as we have seen by quotations in their declaration, they did not neglect to study the Apocalypse, by which they were enabled to discern the times in which they lived. This the contemporaries of Constantine were enabled to do; and a hundred years afterwards, the Donatists also, as evinced by the device of the Vandal coin; the Albigenses likewise of this twelfth century; and Peter Jurieu, who discerned in his own day, A.D. 1687, the death of the witnesses, and interpreted the fall of "the Tenth of the Great City" of France, a hundred years before it came to pass; and Bicheno, a century later, who discerned their resurrection in his own times; to say nothing of the author, about seventy years later still, lest he should seem to boast of things beyond his measure. But all these, and how many more who can tell, by the help of the Apocalypse were enabled to answer the question, "Watchman, what of the Night?" and to discern things in the Body Politic of Romano-Gothic society in their true relations to the Divine Name, which would otherwise have been inscrutable.

But this Name of Blasphemy was not only essentially and constitutionally a blasphemy, but it was an utterer of blasphemies also. To blaspheme required something more than "EYES, like the eyes of a man." These were necessary to constitute it an EPISCOPAL NAME; but that this Overseeing Name, or Power, might give utterance to its purely fleshly thinkings, it was indispensable that it be furnished with a MOUTH. Therefore it was, that Daniel in his vision, in considering the Little Horn that came up after and among the ten, saw that it had a Mouth as well as Eyes. He does not inform us what the mouth looked like; whether it were like the mouth of a man, a bear, a lamb, or other animal. John the apostle was appointed to supply this information in the chapter in hand. It is very certain, however, that the mouth of a lamb would have been a very unfit symbol to represent it by, even upon Daniel's showing; for he testifies, that it was "a Mouth speaking very great things against the Most High" (ch. 7:8,20,25); or, as John expresses it, "great things and blasphemies" (ver. 5). Between, the gentle, timid, voice of a lamb, and roaring blasphemies, there is no resemblance; but, on the contrary, from the nature of the thing spoken, we would expect that the organ of utterance would be symbolized by something ferocious and terrible; and because, likewise, all pertaining to the Fourth Beast "is dreadful and terrible."

The NAME OF BLASPHEMY, then, is the embodiment of the Eyes and Mouth of Daniel's Little Horn, in their episcopal relation to the ten horns. It is the LATIN SEE, without which there was no point of union between them. When it came to be enthroned, and they came to acknowledge its authority in all their kingdoms, it became their "HOLY FATHER" and they sons in his "holy keeping," of whom, the first of the ten that recognized "HIS HOLINESS," is surnamed "the Eldest Son of the Church."

But commentators and "recent editors," who have undertaken to mend the Greek text, are greatly puzzled to determine whether the reading should be onoma blasphemias, a Name of Blasphemy, or onomata blasphemias, Names of Blasphemy. Griesbach has adopted the latter reading; which, a note to the "Revised Version" says, "is received by all the recent editors except Bengel. Heinrichs also mentions it as the superior reading. But Ewald, Zullig, and De Wette, disapprove it, the last considering it as an accommodation to ch. 17:3; and Hengstenburg regards the question as one of difficult decision. "I recommend," says the Annotator, "the the marginal note of the English Version be retained: "or, names." In other words, he was at a loss to say which it should be, therefore, they might split the difference between, the margin and the text. Mr. Elliott bows reverently to the authority of the "recent editors," and speculates upon it accordingly. Lord also falls into the same line; and speaks of "the names of blasphemy on the heads of the Dragon!" This is certainly a newly found apocalyptic item not revealed to John; who affirms nothing about names of blasphemy on the heads of the Dragon. But, Mr. Lord falls into this error from the assumption, that the correct reading is names; and from the fact that the heads of the Dragon, and the heads of the Beast, are the same heads; and hence, the latter having names upon them, these names must have been on the Dragon likewise!

But, it is refreshing to find four discerning men in such a crowd of the kind-Bengel, Ewald, Zullig and De Wette. These affirm the truth. It ought to read name, not names; and doubtless, De Wette has given a true reason of the difficulty among their recencies, namely, "an accommodation to ch. 17:3." But this is not the principal reason. It is this. They could not see how One Name could rest upon Seven Heads. If it had said , and one and the same name upon each of the seven heads, they might have interpreted it of one and the same inscription upon each; and there would have been no trouble with the text; but simply as it now reads , with the understanding that "the heads are Seven Kings," how One Name of Blasphemy was to be on these, sent them all adrift in doubt and speculation.

But, the solution of the difficulty is easy and apparent when under-stood. The key to the matter is in the signification of the Seven Heads, which requires another sort of wisdom than that by which the "recent editors" are inspired, to discern. Said the angel to John, "Here is the mind that hath wisdom. The Seven Heads are Seven Mountains on which the Woman (or Name of Blasphemy) sitteth. And there are Seven Kings: five are fallen , and one is and the other is not yet come; and when he (the Seventh Head) cometh, he must continue a short space" - ch. 17:9,10. In other words, the seven heads of the Beast and the Dragon, which are the same , have a two-fold signification; they represented the Seven Ruling Headships of the Fourth Beast, which down to the fall of the seventh, has existed in the Seven-Hilled City, ROME, as the capital of the dominion. The Name of Blasphemy came to be enthroned tliere; not contemporarily with the Seven Ruling Headships, or Forms of Government; but after they had passed away; and when it had Rome to itself without the rival presence of the ancient Senate, or Roman emperors, as at the date of this writing Feb. 3, A.D. 1867. Hence, the Name of Blasphemy was not, as Mr. Lord intimates, an arrogation of the prerogatives of the Deity, assented to by these several pagan and catholic forms of Government, obtaining in Rome from the foundation of the city; but a distinct and independent head, or Form of Government, the Germano-Roman with its own audacious Eyes, and "exceeding dreadful" Mouth, with "iron teeth" (Dan. 7:19). It sat upon the seven mountains as the spiritual overseer of the Secular Powers of Europe, who "gave their power and strength to it," that it might rule "until the words of the Deity shall be fulfilled" (Apoc. 17:13,17); it became to them a bond of union the Eyes, Mouth and Brain of the Romano-Gothic Body Politic, symbolized by this Seven Headed and Ten-Horned Monster of the Sea.

"And the Beast which I saw was like unto a Leopard, and his Feet were as of a Bear" - (Verse 2).

The Leopard and the Bear elements of the Ten-Horned Monster of the Sea, indicate its identity with two others than the fourth, of the four beasts of Daniel's vision. The second beast-dominion he saw ascend out of the Mediterranean Earth, symbolized by the Great Sea (ch. 8:3,17), was "like to a Bear", which was appointed to "devour much flesh"; and the third beast was "like to a Leopard"; and "dominion was given to it." The Bear in this vision answers to the "Breast and the Arms of Silver"; and the Leopard to the "Belly and Thighs of Brass" - of the image-representation exhibited to Nebuchadnezzar, of WHAT SHALL BE IN THE LAST OF THE DAYS beacharith yomaiyah. In the interpretation he was told that the silver section of the image was a kingdom that would be inferior to the Babylonian, which was his; and that the brass kingdom, the third section thereof, should "bear rule over all the earth." This was equivalent to saying, that the Leopard is symbolical of a kingdom bearing rule over the whole earth.

Now history, that is Daniel himself, informs us, that the kingdom which arose after Nebuchadnezzar's was the Two-Armed, or Two-Horned, Silver bear, or ram, kingdom of the Medes and the Persians: and that the third kingdom, reckoning that of Babylon as the first, was the goat-kingdom of Grecia. The Medo-Persian empire comprehended one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, stretching from India to Ethiopia (Esther 1:1). These were distributed into "three ribs, "or presidencies, of which Daniel's jurisdiction was the first. The three ribs in the Mouth of the Bear are symbolical of these political divisions. Among the provinces of the Bear were Egypt, Armenia, Syria, and Asia Minor to the Bosphorus. These all came in due time to be annexed to the Dragon empire, or Daniel's Fourth Beast; so that the Bear became a constituent of the Dragon, and its four paws, armed with claws of brass, became the Sea-Monster's apocalyptic ' with which it is yet in our future, "the last of the days," to "break in pieces, and to stamp the residue" (Dan. 7:19).

But the Leopard had a more extensive dominion than the Bear. This Greek kingdom was to "bear rule over all the earth." It commenced its predicted career about B.C. 330, under its "first king," Alexander surnamed "the Great." It extended from Macedonia into what is now a part of British India and styled the Punjaub: but notwithstanding it exceeded the dominion of the Bear it fell far short of "bearing rule over all the earth" - the earth, as defined by the symbol of the Great Sea.

Now, Daniel was given to understand that the four beasts he saw rising out of the Mediterranean Earth, would all coexist at the coming of the Ancient of days (ch. 7:12): and that, at that extraordinary time of trouble, the fourth beast body politic shall be abolished; but that the Lion, the Bear and the Leopard shall remain, only without dominion, and that for "a season and a time; or, as John expresses it, for a thousand years This was equivalent to saying that the Bear and the Leopard, and, consequently, the Lion, national organizations, or bodies politic, should be extant at the coming of Christ "as a thief," in the Sixth Vial period. In order, therefore, to represent this truth, the Leopard, and the Bear, and the Lion, symbols are constituted elements of the Ten-Horned Sea Monster, which is to continue in political life till the advent, as appears from the testimony that "the ten horns shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them" (ch. 17:14).

In Daniel's four beasts, each succeeding beast absorbed the dominion of its predecessor; so that the Bear may be said to have devoured the Lion; and the Leopard to have swallowed the Bear; and the Ten-Horned Fourth Beast to have eaten up the Leopard; so that in the Fourth Beast would be contained the Lion, the Bear, and the Leopard, in addition to appendages peculiar to itself. This is shown by John in his Sea Monster, who shows the Leopard he had gorged in "his body," and the Bear he had devoured in "his feet".

But it is customary to style Daniel's Fourth Beast "the Roman Empire," by which is meant the dominion exercised by Rome and Constantinople, until the latter city came to be possessed by the Turks, A.D. 1453, when it fell, or passed away. It is true, it does symbolize said Roman Empire, but it also symbolizes a vast deal more. The Roman Empire, of which Gibbon wrote the decline and fall, has never yet embraced within its jurisdiction the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the Medo-Persian Bear, which it is necessary it should have done that its Leopard-Body might "bear rule over all the earth," and that it might stand upon its Bear-Feet, and with these feet "break in pieces and stamp THE RESIDUE." John's Sea Monster with the Bear-Feet and Leopard-Body, represents Daniel's Fourth Beast in its amplest development of the last of the days (*). It answers to Nebuchadnezzar's Image at the crisis of its demolition by THE STONE. When John's Beast of the Sea comes, in fact, to stand upon its four brazen-clawed Bear-Feet, its dominion will consist of the Russian Empire, Continental and Mediterranean Europe, Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Togarmah, Egypt and Syria. When the throne of the Russian Autocrat is transferred to Constantinople, the Apocalyptic Bear-Feet, armed with Brazen or Greek Claws, will also be enthroned there, and be prepared for the work that remains of "stamping the residue". This residue that yet remains to be stamped, are the "many countries" to be "overthrown," inclusive of Turkey, Egypt and part of the Glorious Land. Edom, Moab and part of Ammon, will evade the stamping process. These three countries will be "the front" of the forces of "Sheba, and Dedan, and the Merchants of Tarshish and the Young Lions thereof" - the Anglo-Indian Leopard empire of the latter days (Ezek. 38:1-6,13; 11:40-44). The part which Britain has to enact in "the time of the end," when "the Eastern Question" is to be Scripturally resolved, clearly indicates that she is not one of the ten horns. She is not of their world, but the Oriental section of the Sea Monster's Leopard Body- a world peculiar to herself, and as distinct from them as Canada and the United States. In the approaching scramble for the effects of the expiring Sick Man of Ottomania, she will most likely secure for herself, or at least take possession of, Egypt and Syria. But Daniel shows that whatever power may primarily become seized of these countries, will not be able to prevent their being stamped by the Feet of the Bear. "The land of Egypt shall not escape" the power of the King of the North; "but he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt." From this conquest he will proceed into the Holy Land. The war between the belligerents will then be transferred to this country, upon which the Oriental Power must necessarily retire. The conflict waged will be furious; for the Northern Power, symbolized by John's Scarlet-colored Beast, will "go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall pitch the tents of his entrenched camp between the seas unto the mountain of the glory of the holy." This brings him to Jerusalem, which he besieges and captures (Zech. 14:2). Upon this the Oriental Leopard falls back upon Edom, Moab and Ammon, beyond the Jordan and the Dead Sea. At this crisis the face of Yahweh is flushed with fury, and he goes forth against the invader (Ezek. 38:18; Zech. 14:3). As the Stone-Power, he smites the Image upon the feet, and shatters it into fragments. The Bear, the Lion and Leopard, inclusive of the British section of the last, lose their dominion; but as Assyria and Egypt are annexed to Israel (Isa. 19:23-25) and the tide of war is rolled back from Syria, north and west, upon the countries of the Ten Hoins, and of the Two-Horned beasts, over which the Name of Blasphemy presides as their prophet, priest and king. This solution of the Eastern Question ushers in the solution of the Roman Question, neither of which can be finally disposed of until the Ancient of day's, that is, Jesus Christ, come; and he give authority and power to his brethren, the Saints, to execute the judgment written in ch. 13:10; which is, as David expressed it, to slay the beast (the Fourth Beast in Apocalyptic manifestation) , destroy his body in the burning flame, and take away the dominion of the Lion, the Bear and the Leopard (ch. 7:11,12). The slaying of the beast is the utter extermination of the Greek and Latin Catholic governments by the power of the sword; and the taking away of the dominion of the Lion, the Bear, the Leopard, or that of the Asiatic Powers, is the binding of the Dragon, casting him into the abyss, shutting him up, and Setting a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more for "a season and a time," or "a thousand years."

From these premises, then, it will be seen that this Apocalyptic Sea-Monster is not exclusively the Romano-Gothic Ten-Horn constitution of Papal Mediterranean Europe, but symbolical likewise of the Byzantine, or Greek Empire, as indicated by the Leopard-Body and Bear-Feet; for, that the Bear is Greek as well as the Leopard, Daniel shows by testifying that the Fourth Beast "had Nails of Brass" (ch. 7:19); and in his prophecy brass is the symbol of the dominion of "the brazen-coated Greeks." Because, therefore, this Beast of the Sea symbolized the dominions of the whole eastern and western Mediterranean world, all the "kindreds, and tongues, and nations," styled Apocalyptically "the whole earth," in subjection to them, are said to have "wandered after the beast," and to have "worshipped" both the Dragon and the Beast-Vers. 3,4. The populations inhabiting Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Greece, "worshipped" the imperial power enthroned in Constantinople, and that only; while the populations of Italy, Africa, Spain, Gaul, "worshipped" the Constantinopolitan and the new Gothic powers as well. This two-fold worship of the subjects of the Franks, Burgundians, Lombards, Visigoths, Suevi, and so forth, may be familiarly illustrated by numerous modern instances. Thus, Egypt is a part of the Turkish empire, and at the same time a quasi independent kingdom under its own hereditary king, who acknowledges the suzerainty of the Sultan; so that the Egyptians may be said to worship the king, and also to worship the Sultan, and to say in their ignorance, "Who is like unto the Sultan? Who is able to make war with him?" The question is very appropriate with regard to the Beast, if not to the Sultan; for, as the Beast is the symbol of power bearing rule over all the Mediterranean Earth, where is the power able to make war with it? Men know of none , because they know not the purpose of Yahweh. But, in the tenth verse of this thirteenth chapter, He has in effect declared that there is a power able to make war with the Beast, and to bind and slay him; for as he has made war with the Saints and Witnesses, bound them in captive chains, and conquered and killed them, so he is to be bound and killed with the sword, when judgment shall be executed upon him, by the very victims of his "exceeding dreadful and terrible" tyranny, after they shall have been raised from among the dead, and strengthened for the war.

"2. And his Mouth as the Mouth of a Lion. 5. And there was given unto him (the Beast of the Sea) a Mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. 6. And he opened his Mouth in blasphemy concerning the Deity, to have blasphemed his Name, and his Tabernacle, and those who tabernacle in the heaven."

Every living, and many inanimate, things, have their mouth in a literal or figurative sense. In man, it is the hollow between the jaws, Shut or opened by the lips, which are, therefore styled "the doors of the mouth." In him, it is the outlet of that which defiles, or of wisdom, graciousness, and blessing. It is that which proceedeth out of the mouth by which the character of the inward man is in a great degree determined. A man whose mouth speaks the wisdom of the Deity, gracious words, and blessing, and whose conduct is in conformity with what he speaks, is one whose heart is right with the Deity, and from which no blasphemy can find utterance: "the heart of the wise teacheth his mouth," therefore, "the mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment" (Prov. 16:23; Psa. 37:30).

But the Mouth of the Beast evidently doth not belong to mouths of this class; for it "speaks blasphemies concerning the Deity." Hence, the heart of the Beast must be desperately wicked; for "out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh." The character of the inward Beast, therefore, or of that system of things spiritual and temporal, doctrinal, practical and political, hidden in the symbols before us, must be essentially "the Mystery of Iniquity in all the deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish" (2 Thess. 2:7,10). The Mouth of the Beast is the mouth of the wicked in their politico-religious organization. It is a mouth which "speaketh vanity," and "poureth out evil things:" the words thereof "are smoother than butter, but war is in their heart; their words are softer than oil, yet are they drawn swords." With this Mouth "the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom Yahweh abhorreth: Through the pride of his countenance he will not seek, the Deity is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous; thy judgments, 0 Yahweh! are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved; for I shall never be in adversity. His Mouth is full of cursing, and deceit, and fraud; under his tongue is mischief and vanity. He sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent; his eyes are privily set against the poor. He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den; he lieth in wait to catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net. He croucheth and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones. He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: He hideth his face; he will never see it" (Psa. 10:3-11). If John had written this as descriptive of the Lion-Mouth of the Beast, nothing could have more accurately recorded what have been the facts developed in the many centuries of its wickedness and blasphemies. The words proceeding out of it have been "softer than oil" towards its wor-hippers; but they have been "drawn swords" against the poor saints and witnesses of the anointed Jesus. He has puffed at his enemies; for, though but feeble in arms, he has set the most powerful of his enemies at defiance; and by his spiritual thunders reduced them to the most abject submission. The Name of Blasphemy speaking by his Lion-Mouth, de-clares the eternity of his rule; and that he shall "see no sorrow" from which he shall not ultimately be delivered: "He saith in his heart, I shall not be moved; for I shall never be in adversity" (Apoc. 18:7); and, as for cursing, deceit, fraud, mischief and vanity, his mouth is indeed full; for in the atmosphere of these he lives, and moves, and has his being. The judgments of the Deity are indeed "out of his sight" far above him. He discerns them not. This is highly characteristic of him at the present time. Even his worshippers are hating him, and making him desolate and naked, as it has long since been predicted they would (Apoc. 17:16); yet so blind are his eyes with which he surveys the world, and so infatuate and unteachable his obdurate and beastly heart from his long surfeit and intoxication of blood (verse 6), that he can see nothing; so that, persisting in his obstinacy, the fate of the blind when they undertake to lead the blind, will come upon him in an hour when he thinks only of future glory, and he will suddenly "go into perdition," and there will be none to help.

When a man becomes a spokesman for another he is regarded as a mouth to him. This was the case with Aaron. He was appointed for a mouth to Moses, who was slow of speech, and of a slow tongue; and Moses was to be to him in the place of God (Exod. 4:16). Hence, Aaron was Moses' prophet, who spoke as he was moved by Moses. So of all in old time who spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit; they became mouths to Him who moved them to speak; and therefore, it is written, "the Deity spake to the fathers by the prophets." There were such mouths of the Deity in the ecclesia at Corinth. They were styled prophets, and their utterances, prophesyings; or, speaking unto men to "edification, and exhortation, and comfort" (1 Cor. 14:3). And so also in relation to the worshippers of the Beast. They needed A PROPHET to teach and build them up in their superstition, and to be for them a bond of union in all things pertaining to it. As they designated their superstition "the Holy Catholic Apostolic," they required a Prophet, who should be the Mouth of that system; and would expound and defend it against the Holy Scriptures, Deity Himself, and all who claimed to be His witnesses. The utterances of this Mouth would be his prophesyings; and by no means to be despised by those who should enjoy the favor of the Beast; or, of that Name of Blasphemy upon his heads. The requirements of the worshippers were provided for by the Dragon, who gave them "a Mouth speaking great things and blasphemies"; and to the Mouth himself, he "gave authority over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations;" so that "all that dwell upon the (Mediterranean) earth should worship him, whose names are not written, from the foundation of the world, in the book of the life of the Lamb slain." To these millions of worshippers, upon whom the Deity sent "a strong delusion that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" - the Mouth given became the spokesman of Anti-christendom - "the Mouth of the False Prophet," or Name of Blasphemy - (Apoc. 16:13; 19:30). He is styled a false prophet, because his utterances, or prophesyings, are mere fraud, deceit, and vanity; because the signs, and lying wonders wrought in the presence of the Beast-authorities by him, are an imposture, and his preaching, allocutions, decrees, and so forth, the falsehoods of a lying oracle, by which they are deceived who have received the mark of the beast, and who worship his image (Apoc. 19:20). His end is perdition by being "cast alive into the Lake of Fire burning with brimstone."

When the fiftieth day after the crucifixion had fully come, the apostles were all with one accord in one place, NOT IN ROME, but in Jerusalem. In obedience to the Lord's command, they were tarrying in this city until they should be endued with power from on high to execute the mission entrusted to them. Nor had they long to wait; for about nine in the morning of that day, they were all visibly and audibly filled with the Holy Spirit, and proceeded to speak as they were moved by the Spirit.

This extraordinary inflation of the apostles with Spirit when noised abroad, caused a multitude of people to assemble to behold this marvelous exhibition of the supernatural. Among these were "STRANGERS OF ROME, Jews and proselytes," who had come from the Capital of the empire to celebrate the Passover, the Wave Offering of the Sheaf, and the Feast of First Fruits, according to the Mosaic Law. Being devout Jews and proselytes, they were zealous for the law, and earnestly intent upon all the sacrificial observances it prescribed. They were acquainted with Jews of Nazareth; and with the miracles, and wonders, and signs, with which the Deity had attested his claims to the Messiahship; and had witnessed also his ignominious execution by the wicked hands of his enemies. For anything they knew, he was still in death, and securely confined within its gates; so that, whatever they might have thought of him, while living, they had doubtless settled it in their minds, that, though a man of excellent deportment, and of gracious and benevolent disposition, he was self-deceived. Was he not dead? And could a dead man be the Christ of God for the redemption of his people?

With these convictions, these devout Roman strangers stood before PETER and the rest of the apostles. They saw upon their heads Spirit, blazing in cloven-tongues of flame, the symbol of many languages in which they were declaring the wonderful works of the Deity. Astonished at the sublime eloquence outfiowing from these illiterate Galilatan fishermen, they said one to another, "What meaneth this?" They had seen nothing like it in Rome, nor yet in Jerusalem, before; and there were none that could expound it, save the Eternal Spirit before whom they stood. Moved by this Divine Power, PETER standing up with

Page 229 the Eleven, replied to their inquiry, by saying, "Hearken ye unto my words." Why did not James, or John, "the beloved disciple," or some other apostle, rather than Peter, who, they afterwards learned, had thrice denied his Lord, stand up and invite them to hearken to his words? This inquiry would certainly be mooted before their return to Rome. They perceived that Peter was, on this Pentecostian occasion, the Mouth of the Apostolic Body; nor was he a Babylonian Mouth, nor a Roman Mouth, but the Mouth of Deity, in the sense of the Deity speaking by him. Why was this? To this question it would be replied, that the Spirit had given the Keys of the Kingdom of the Heavens to Peter according to a previous promise through Jesus Christ, who had said, "I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon the earth, shall be bound in the heavens; and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon the earth, shall be loosed in the heavens" (Matt. 16:19). What they saw and heard was in fulfillment of this promise, and of what had been spoken by the prophet Joel. Their attention being gained by this, they were furthermore informed by Peter, the Holder of the Keys, that all that had recently been transacted in Jerusalem connected with the crucifixion, was "by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of the Deity." He charged them directly with the murder of Jesus, saying, "him ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." They had demanded his life, and imprecated the curse of his blood upon them and their children. But, continued Peter, the Deity hath delivered him from death, and placed him at the right hand of power in the heaven, there to remain until the time shall come for Deity to give him the throne of his father David; in proof of which, he shed forth the Spirit which they saw upon the heads of the apostles, and heard in all the languages of the empire.

The result of this discourse of the Spirit by the mouth of Peter, was the conviction, that the same Jesus they had crucified was alive again, and by the Deity made both Lord and Christ. These devout Jews and proselytes of Rome were pricked in their heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, What shall we do?" They perceived that they were involved in the greatest of crimes from which they knew not how they could be loosed. The import of their question was therefore, What must we do to be loosed from the consequences of our iniquity? Again it was Peter who took up the question put to all the apostles; for "Peter said unto them, Repent, and be immersed every one of you for the Name of Jesus Christ, epi to onomati, unto remission of sins," eis aphesin hamartion. This command of the Spirit was new doctrine in-deed to these Roman strangers from the Capital; but their conviction of its truth, "caused them to cease sacrificing and offering" (Dan. 9:27) ac-

Page 230 cording to the law; and gladly receiving Peter's word, to be immersed for the Name. They were now immersed believers of the things concerning the kingdom of the Deity and the Name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38; 8:12). Peter by the use of his Key had opened the door of the prison in which they were bound, and gave them liberty in loosing them from their sins: and what he had done upon earth was ratified in the heavens, according to the words of Jesus.

Having thus become CHRISTADELPHIANS, or Brethren of the Christ they had crucified and slain, they had placed themselves in such a position, that, on their arrival in Rome, they would be regarded as apostates from Judaism; and no longer worthy of fellowship in the Synagogue of the Jews. It can easily be conceived what an excitement would be created in the Jewish community of Rome. They would, of course, tell the story of what they had seen, heard, and done; but, from the temper of the Jews in those days, we may know that, if they had no other evidence than their own assertion, they would be accused of falsehood and blasphemy; and accounted as worthy of a like fate with the Nazarene. But, the Spirit in Jerusalem had provided for such an eventuality in Rome and elsewhere. He knew that "the Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven," after the feasts were over, would have to return to their several countries and friends; and he knew also, that such extraordinary facts and doctrines as he had prepared for mankind, required no less than the attestation of Deity in his cooperation with his witnesses. Hence, he not only moved Peter to specify the condition upon which believers of the Gospel of the Kingdom might be loosed from all past sins; but he moved him also to promise the baptized "the gift of the Holy Spirit." Filled sufficiently with this, they would be prepared for any emergency that might arise.

What, then, was necessary to equip these new converts for the work of introducing the gospel of Jesus Christ among the Jews of Rome? It was necessary that all things they had heard from the apostles should be brought to their remembrance; and that they should be guided into all the truth (John 14:8-14). This was as needful for them in Rome as for the apostles in Jerusalem. But more was required than this. It was necessary that what they affirmed as truth of Deity issuing from their mouth, should be acknowledged by Him as such; that their hearers might be-lieve for the work's sake. In this case, their faith would "stand not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of the Deity." In short, it was necessary, that they should have all "the diversities of gifts" constituting "the Manifestation of the Spirit;" such as the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith as it were, to remove mountains, gifts of healing, the working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, diverse kinds of

Page 231 tongues, and the interpretation of tongues (1 Cor. 12:4-10). Now, these gifts they would no doubt receive by the imposition of the hands of Peter, after the manner recorded of him, when the apostles sent him and John down to Samaria for a like purpose; who, when they arrived, "prayed for them that they might receive holy spirit: then laid they hands upon them and they received holy spirit" (Acts 8:15-17). In this way the gifts were imparted when apostolically and evangelistically bestowed.

Thus equipped, these "strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes," would be transformed into a company of "prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers;" or saints perfected for the work of the ministry, for the formation in Rome of the Body of Christ, and its edification; until it should attain to perfect manhood in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of the Deity - "to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that thenceforth it be no more composed of babes, tossed to-and-fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to de-ceive." All among these circumcised strangers from Rome, having the moral qualifications specified by Paul in his letters to Timothy and Titus, would be, doubtless, thus spiritually equipped through the instrumentality of Peter, who, with the rest of the apostles, would request them, as Brethren of Christ, to devote themselves with all earnestness to "speaking the truth in love" to the Brethren in Moses; not in Rome only, but in all Italy, as opportunity might serve: not forgetting, of course, this necessary principle of action, that they be faithful to the original elements of the doctrine delivered to them; and that they so build upon the foundation, that the converts they might make might "grow up into him in all things who is THE HEAD," and therefore both Eyes and Mouth of the Body; or, as Peter styles him, "the Chief Shepherd and Bishop (epis-copos) of their souls." "From whom the whole Body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working of the Spirit in the measure of every part (whether a prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher) maketh increase of the Body unto the edifying of itself in love" (Eph. 4:9-16). These instructions would be endorsed by all the apostles, among whom John would tell them, that he and the rest had declared unto them what they had seen and heard, that they might have fellowship with them; "and truly," said he, "our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, in whom is no darkness at all;" so that, if they walked in the light, they would have "fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ would cleanse them from all sin" (1 John 1:3-7).

On their arrival in Rome, they would be, whether many or few

Page 232 would matter not, the Body of Christ in that city - the Holy Apostolic Ecciesia on the Seven Heads. They were a company of Christadelphians, Christou adelphoi, or Brethren of Christ, who believed into him through the word of Peter and the Eleven (John 17:20). This was the day of small things, which they did not despise. They had no temple, cathedral, or synagogue in which they could meet on their return, A.D. 33. Even seventeen years after they met in the house of Priscilla and Aquila, two Jews, who made tents for a living, Acts 18:2; Rom. 16:5. In this place, Paul mentions twenty-six by name, and alludes to others connected with them. Some of them, doubtless, were the original "strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes"; but there is nothing extant to distinguish them from the rest. When Paul wrote to the ecciesia in Rome, he speaks of Tryphena and Tryphosa "who labor in the Lord." These may have been two of them, but there is no certainty. Whatever their names may have been, matters not now; they are no doubt on record in the heavens. They were apostolically "in the Lord," and were prepared to state "the truth as it is in Jesus," and to illustrate it, and to prove it, infallibly, or without making mistakes. This infallibility resided not in a Pope or a single bishop. There was no Bishop or Pope of Rome at that early day besides Tiberius Catsar, who was the Pontifex Maximus of the whole empire. There were bishops of the ecclesia in Rome; for these prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers," newly arrived from Jerusalem, were the presbyters, or elders, and overseers, or episcopoi, of their wonderful, though little, community, whose mission it was, first, to separate a people for the name of Christ; and secondly, to subvert the superstition of the capital. These saints, as the Star-Angel of the Ecclesia in Rome (Apoc. 1:20) were infallible teachers and rulers, whose infallibility was not of themselves, but of Holy Spirit ministered to them by Peter and the Eleven. This guided them into all the truth, and brought all things to their remembrance; so that thus they acquired a mouth and wisdom from Christ, which all their adversaries were not able to gainsay or successfully to resist (Luke 21:15).

At this early date, A.D. 33, all that were in Rome called saints, were "the beloved of the Deity." It was not then necessary to go to Rome to be "canonized" by a pope. They had been made saints at Jerusalem by the word, which called them to that holiness without which no man can see the Lord (John 17:17; Rom. 1:7). These spiritually-endowed saints were the Mouth of the Deity; first, to the Jews; and some years afterwards, to the Gentiles, of Rome. For a few years, they preached the gospel to none but Jews; so that for that space, the ecclesia in that city was composed solely of the circumcised. It is not surprising, therefore, that the pagans should make no distinction between the

Page 233 Ecclesia and the Synagogue. They regarded them all as Jews; so that, when Claudius commanded all Jews to depart from Rome, Aquila and Priscilla, though Christians, had to leave. But, before the publication of this edict, Peter had opened the door of faith to Gentiles, as recorded in Acts 10 and 11. The of this soon reached Rome, and the Mouth of Deity was opened there to the same effect. Pagans were invited to "the obedience of faith for His name," that they might become "the tabernacle of the Deity, and dwellers in the heaven," together with the saints already separated from the Synagogue. But for this extension of the Ecclesia, the edict of Claudius would have left none of the saints in Rome. It expelled all natural Jews, without regard to their belief; so that, in this crisis, the Ecclesia there would become in appearance entirely Gentile. But, when the edict became obsolete, the Jewish members would many of them return; nevertheless, the Jewish influence in the Ecclesia would predominate no more.

From this sketch of the origin of things in Rome, the reader will easily perceive how Peter, the apostle of the Circumcision, and the Two Keys, came in after times to occupy so prominent a position in the capital. When the strangers of Rome returned from Jerusalem, they would unquestionably speak more about Peter than the rest, because he was chief speaker. From this fact, he would acquire the title "Prince of the Apostles" and Holder of the Keys: and though there is no reliable evidence that he ever was in Rome (and, if he ever had been there, the account of it would hardly have been omitted from the Acts), the part he enacted was so conspicuous, that his relation to Rome in the introduction of the gospel there, would seem almost like his personal presence. In process of time, this would be affirmed, like many other imaginary things, to be a fact; and then, when popes came into fashion, they would seek to sanctify the imposition by styling Peter "the first pope!"

In the earliest years of the ecclesia in Rome, its faith was spoken of throughout all the empire. Its members presented their bodies a living sacrifice, and were not conformed to the world; but were transformed by the renewing of their mind; which was characterized by unanimity, a disregard of high things, and association with men of low estate. The Star-Angel that ruled them was neither "Bishop of Rome," "Universal Bishop," nor "Pope;" but a presbytery, or eldership, of inspired men of low degree in society, whose only ambition it was to be "glorified together with Jesus Christ." They would have rejected with indignation and contempt the idea of being united with the State, or any state, as "the Church by law established." Their mission was to convert sinners from the error of their way, not to form alliances with them; for they

Page 234 well knew that the friend of the world is the enemy of God (James 4:4; 1 John 2:15).

But this state of ecclesiastical affairs, so highly commendable, did not continue very long undisturbed by "unlearned questions and strifes of words," which do not edify. Peter's use of the SECOND KEY entrusted to him, and to him only, to the exclusion of all successors in Catsarea and elsewhere, aroused all the latent prejudices of the Jewish mind, whether identified with the Synagogue or the Ecclesia. The Jewish element of the Body of Christ soon found themselves in the minority; and that the uncircumcised were rejoicing in things which Peter said nothing about, when, by the use of the FIRST KEY, he opened the door of faith to them. Some of them were Judaistically disposed, while others who had been added from the Synagogue were but partially enlightened, and developed themselves as "false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily (or with a secret purpose) to spy out the liberty which the Gentile party had in Christ Jesus, that they might bring it into bondage." These false brethren stood up in all the ecclesias of Christ, and became the occasion of much trouble and anxiety to Paul, who was "preacher, apostle, and teacher of the Gentiles" (2 Tim. 1:11). Thus, Paul being especially the apostle of the uncircumcision, and Peter the apostle of the circumcision, in Corinth the Judaizers said they were of Cephas, or Peter; while their Opponents, who advocated liberty from Mosaic bondage, said they were of Paul. The same condition of things manifested itself in Rome. The false brethren there were zealous for Peter, in whom they boasted as the Prince of the Apostles and Holder of the Keys. Their dogma was, that "it was needful to circumcise the Gentile converts to Christ, and to command them to keep the law of Moses, or they would not be saved" (Acts 15:1,5): and, although this was contradicted by all the apostles as well as Paul, they continued to teach it; and with so much success, that the leaders of the faction and their disciples through-out Asia Minor, all turned away from Paul (2 Tim. 1:15); whom they did not hesitate to speak of evilly and with disrespect.

The false brethren in Rome were not behind their brethren in the provinces in zeal for the propagation of their traditions. By their fruits they were proved to be "grievous wolves, not sparing the flock; and speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them." Their party was in secret alliance with the Synagogue; and their purpose seems to have been to Judaize Christianity, and then to use it in this corrupt form to turn the idolators from Jupiter to Moses, and subordinately, to Christ. In this way they would draw disciples after them, and thus acquire importance and influence in the world, which they clearly perceived were not to be obtained by devotion to the unadulterated Word.

Page 235 The interests of Christ's flock they measured by their own selfishness, which was promoted by the assumption of clerical lordship over the multitude of them that believed. Paul alludes to these "grievous wolves," overlaid with wool, styled by Christ Jesus, "false prophets who come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves," in his letter to the saints in Rome, ch. 16:17, saying, "I beseech you, brethren, mark them who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine you have learned; and AVOID THEM. For they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." They caused divisions and offences, which, when viewed in the light of the apostolic teaching, and that of the Star-Angel which presided over them, were clearly seen to be such.

Now, it was from this Judaizing Faction in the Ecclesia at Rome all those evils sprung, which afterwards attained maturity as "THE CHURCH OF ROME." The false brethren of this anti-apostolic faction were the out-ward expression of that "Mystery of Iniquity" which Paul said "doth already work." In the beginning, it worked cautiously until it gained sufficient hold to make it careless of appearances. It aimed at the establishment of a HIERARCHY, or Sacred Order of Rulers, whose authority should be supreme over all. This Order is styled by Paul "the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition." So long as primitive apostolic equality was maintained among the presbyters, or overseers, of the ecclesia, there was no scope for the exhibition of such a tendency. The apostles were not lords over the faith of their brethren in Christ, but helpers of their joy. All the ecclesias were classed into rulers and ruled; but the rulers were no less governed by the authority of Christ in all their administrations, than the ruled were in all their religious practices. They were subject one to another, and clothed with humility. But, when a zeal for the doctrines and commandments of men, and a striving for power and dominion over one another took the place of the simplicity which is in Christ, the Mystery of Iniquity began to crop out, first, in the separation of the elders into a distinct order; and afterwards, in one particular presbytery usurping supremacy over the rest.

Originally the distinction of clergy and laity did not exist. The professors of Christianity were all brethren in Christ; and their several ecclesias, the clergies, kleroi, or heritages, of the Deity. The elders, or the episcopal presbyters, were exhorted by Peter to "feed the flock of the Deity, episcopizing it willingly; but not as lording over the heritages." The ecclesial heritages, or clergies, composed the flock, which the elders were to episcopize, or oversee, not for their own sordid interests, but for the benefit of the flock itself.

But soon after the breaking up of the Mosaic Commonwealth by

Page 236 the Romans, A.D. 70, the Judaizers changed the relations of things. They argued, that now the Levitical Order was removed, the Elderships of the ecclesias should take its place; and as the tribe of Levi was Yahweh's clergy, lot, or heritage under the law, so the Elderships should now be regarded as his clergy under the gospel; not forgetting to put in a claim for Levi's tithes and other perquisites. Whatever might have been thought of the claim, and the argument to enforce it, matters not; the Judaizing Presbyters and Deacons became the "priest and Levites" of the growing apostasy; and soon after ripened into a Hierachy, or "Holy Order," called "The Clergy," in contradistinction to the multitude, whom they styled ho laos, the Laity, or common people.

Having successfully usurped the birthright of Christ's brethren, andimposed themselves upon the Deity as his charge, or lot, an element of "the blasphemy of them who say they are Jews, and are not, but the synagogue of the Satan" (Apoc. 2:9), they were prepared to push onwards for the Satan's throne. About the middle of the second century, a very important change occurred promotive of this unhallowed ambition. The innovation then taking place, was a marked distinction between the Bishop and the Elder; in consequence of which a third kind of office was created; so that, instead of Episcopal Elders, or bishops and deacons, we come to read in ecclesiastical authors of bishops, presbyters and deacons. In a collection of epistles attributed to Ignatius, this novel and unscriptural distinction frequently and officially obtrudes upon the reader. This novelty soon came to be generally admitted, and paved the way for pernicious results. The adoption of the idea laid the foundation for the dominion of a Clerical King, or Pontiff, with clerical officials; a kingdom which, having originated in the Mystery of Iniquity, could not possibly ultimate in any other manifestation than that which has filled the habitable with hypocrisy and crime for sixteen hundred years. The passage alluded to in Ignatius is in a letter from him to Polycarp: "Attend to the Bishop," says he, "that God may attend to you. I pledge my soul for theirs, who are subject to the Bishop, presbyters, and deacons. Let my part in God be with them." No man guided by the Spirit into all the truth could write in such a style as this. Again, in his epistle to the Ephesians, ch. 6, it is said, "the more silent a man finds the bishop, he ought to reverence him the more": on which Dr. Campbell remarks, that "one would be tempted to think this has originated with some opulent ecclesiastic, who was far too great a man for preaching; at least, we may say, it seems an oblique apology for those who have no objection to anything implied in a bishopric, except the discharge of its duties. No one whose notion of the duties of a bishop correspond with the prophet Isaiah's idea of a watchman, ch. 56:10, would have thought taciturnity a

Page 237 recommendation." The passage must have been an interpolation, or if Ignatius really wrote it, he must have been in league with the Judaizers. Surely he could not have been ignorant that Paul required a bishop to be "able by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convince the gainsayers; for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision; whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake." A silent bishop would be of no use in such a diocese. To talk down vain talkers who had made such a progress as this, would require an amount of words that would effectually destroy the reputation of any bishop for a taciturn, and therefore worshipful official.

The writers in the interest of the Latin Name of Blasphemy have fabricated a list of what they style "Bishops of Rome." The first fifty-six they have named "Saints," in their sense of the word, which signifies one decreed to be holy by an official act of the pope! This sounds infinitely ridiculous in the ears of an enlightened believer, who knows that all true Christians, without distinction of class or order, are made saints by "the obedience of faith," independently of the acts and decrees of popes, bishops, presbyters, or councils. The memory of the faithful and humble presbyters who ruled the Ecclesia in Rome, is insulted and blasphemed by papal canonization. Though men of low degree, and despised by the wise and prudent of their day, they were men of whom Rome, the common sewer of nations, has never been worthy; but of all blasphemies ever uttered to their disparagement, that of being declared "saints," in the Romish sense of the word, is the greatest of all.

Of the said fifty-six, the catholic bishop Sylvester, who flourished in apostasy in the reign of Constantine, is reckoned the thirty-fourth saint from the apostle Peter, to whom they lyingly assign a reign of twenty-four years in Rome, as the first pope! The only reign of Peter in Rome was after the manner of his reign in America or Britain at this day, where his doctrine may be believed and obeyed. Where this reigns, Peter reigns; nay, more, Christ and the Father reign; for, said the Lord

Jesus to his apostles, "he that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth Him that sent me" (Luke 10:16). This saying constitutes the Father, Christ, and the Apostles, as one authority; and the only authority to which obedience should be rendered in spiritual affairs. Where this authority rules, everything works to the self-edification of the body in love. Had its members continued faithful to this supremacy, there would have been no scope for sovereign bishops and popes. But the Divine authority fell into disuse. It was no longer, what saith the Scripture? but, what saith

Page 238 the Bishop? And in later times, what saith the Bishop of Rome, or the Pope? An incredible number of volumes have been written to propagate and defend the old wife's fable of Peter's popeship, with Mark, Barnabas, and all others, as his subordinate clergy. Having planted him upon the Seven Heads, with these for his college of Cardinal Princes, they have, as a consequence, claimed Rome as the throne of spiritual dominion, and the Bishop there as the only true undoubted Christian Pontiff! And thus, by such a lying conceit, Peter, Mark, Barnabas, and their company, are, in effect, made the inception of the Name of Blasphemy upon the Seven Hills!

Ecclesiastical writers refer to the third century as the time when the doctrine, order, and worship, instituted by the apostles, under went a memorable and manifest change. The theology of the Judaizers had, to a great extent, drawn off the attention of professors from "the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus," and fixed it on a Hierarchy, particularly in Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, and Carthage, which, by this time, had become numerous, and ranked among their adherents many wealthy citizens. Professors of Christianity were now very numerous, and therefore, of no little consequence in the estimation of the government, which favored or repressed them as reasons of State dictated.

In this century, a system of ecclesiastical management was introduced, aptly styled by some, the Episcopal System of Church Law. It got rid of the trouble of consulting the laity, or common people, on the affairs of their respective ecclesias; it introduced sacerdotal or priestly authority; it set up as many principalities as there were bishoprics; it acknowledged the Bishop in Rome as the first in order, but nothing more; and to consummate the whole, it eventually deprived the so-call-ed laity of all right to be consulted about their own affairs. This state of things, when compared with that exhibited in the Acts of the Apostles, indicates a notable falling away; of which, the following quotation from Mosheim will give the reader some idea:

"The most respectable writers of that age," says he, "have put it out of the power of an historian to spread a veil over the enormities of ecclesiastical rulers. For, though several yet continued to exhibit to the world illustrious examples of primitive piety and christian virtue (these were the "few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments," and the "little strength" of Philadelphia that had "kept the word, and had not denied the name of Christ" -Author) yet many were sunk in luxury and voluptuousness; puffed up with vanity, arrogance, and ambition; possessed with a spirit of contention and discord, and addicted to many other vices that cast an undeserved reproach upon the holy religion of which they were the unworthy professors and ministers.

Page 239 And in many places the bishops assumed a princely authority, particularly those who had the greatest number of churches under their inspection, and who presided over the most opulent assemblies. They appropriated to their evangelical functions the splendid ensigns of temporal majesty. A throne, surrounded with ministers, exalted above his equals the servant of the meek and lowly Jesus; and sumptuous garments dazzled the eyes and minds of the multitude into an ignorant veneration for their arrogated authority. Presbyters followed their example, neglected their duties, and abandoned themselves to the indolence and delicacy of an effeminate and luxurious life. Deacons imitated their superiors, and the effects of a corrupt ambition were spread through every rank of the Sacred Order."

In treating of the progress of episcopal authority he remarks that "the prelates of the third century imperceptibly changed the language of exhortation into that of command, scattered the seeds of future usurpations, and supplied, by scripture allegories and declamatory rhetoric, their deficiency of force and of reason. They exalted the unity and power of the church, as it was represented in the episcopal office, of which every bishop enjoyed an equal and undivided portion. Princes and magistrates, it was often repeated, might boast an earthly claim to a transitory dominion; it was the episcopal authority alone which was derived from the Deity, and extended itself over this and over another world. The Bishops (it was said) were the Vicegerents of Christ, the successors of the Apostles, and the Mystic Substitutes of the High Priest of the Mosaic law. Their exclusive privilege of conferring the sacerdotal character, invaded the freedom both of clerical and popular elections; and if, in the administration of the church, they still consulted the judgment of the presbyters (or elders), or the inclination of the people, they most carefully inculcated the merit of such a voluntary condescension. The bishops acknowledged the supreme authority which resided in the assembly of their brethren (of the episcopal order); but in the government of his peculiar diocese, each of them exacted from his flock the same implicit obedience as if that favorite metaphor had been literally just, and as if the shepherd had been of a more exalted nature than that of his sheep. This obedience, however, was not imposed without some efforts on one side, and some resistance on the other. The democratical part of the constitution was, in many places, very warmly supported by the zealous or interested opposition of the inferior clergy. But their patriotism received the ignominious epithets of faction and schism; and the episcopal cause was indebted for its rapid progress to the labors of many active prelates who, like Cyprian of Carthage, could reconcile the arts of the most ambitious statesman with the christian virtues which seem

Page 240 adapted to the character of a saint and martyr.

"The same causes," he continues, "which at first had destroyed the equality of the presbyters, introduced among the bishops a preeminence of rank, and from thence a superiority of jurisdiction. As often as in the spring and autumn they met in provincial synod, the difference of personal merit and reputation was very sensibly felt among the members of the assembly, and the multitude was governed by the wisdom and eloquence of the few. But the order of public proceedings required a more regular and less invidious distinction; the office of perpetual presidents in the Councils of each province was conferred on the bishops of the principal city, and these aspiring prelates, who soon acquired the lofty titles of Metropolitans and Primates, secretly prepared themselves to usurp over their episcopal brethren the same authority which the bishops had so lately assumed above the college of presbyters. Nor was it long before an emulation of preeminence and power prevailed among the metropolitans themselves, each of them affecting to display, in the most pompous terms, the temporal honors and advantages of the city over which he presided; the numbers and opulence of the christians, who were subject to their pastoral care; saints and martyrs who had arisen among them, and the purity with which they had preserved the tradition of the faith, as it had been transmitted through a series of orthodox bishops from the apostle, or the apostolic disciple, to whom the foundation of their church was ascribed. From every cause, either of a civil or of an ecclesiastical nature, it was easy to foresee that ROME must enjoy the respect, and would soon claim the obedience, of the provinces. The society of the faithful bore a just proportion to the capital of the empire; and the Roman church was the greatest, the most numerous, and, in regard to the West, the most ancient of all the christian establishments, many of which had received their religion from the pious labors of her missionaries. Instead of one apostolic founder, the utmost boast of Antioch, of Ephesus, or of Corinth, the banks of the Tyber were supposed to have been honored with the preaching and martyrdom of the two most eminent among the apostles; and the Bishops of Rome very prudently claimed the inheritance of whatever prerogatives were attributed, either to the person, or to the office, of St. Peter. The bishops of Italy and of the provinces were disposed to allow them a primacy of order and association (such was their very accurate expression) in the christian aristocracy. But (in the third century) the power of a monarch was rejected with abhorrence, and the aspiring genius of Rome experienced, from the nations of Asia and Africa, a more vigorous resistance to her spiritual, than she had formerly done to her temporal, dominion. The patriotic Cyprian who ruled with the most absolute sway the church of Carthage and the provincial synods, opposed with resolution and success the ambition of the Roman Bishop, artfully connected his own cause with that of the eastern bishops, and, like Hannibal, sought out new allies in the heart of Asia. If this Punic war was carried on without any effusion of blood, it was owing much less to the moderation than to the weakness of the contending prelates. Invectives and excommunications were their only weapons; and these, during the progress of the whole controversy, they hurled against each other with equal fury and devotion.

"From the imperious declamations of Cyprian, we should naturally conclude that the doctrines of excommunication and penance formed the most essential part of religion, and that it was much less dangerous for the disciples of Christ to neglect the observance of the moral duties, than to despise the censures and authority of their bishops. Sometimes we might imagine that we were listening to the voice of Moses, when he commanded the earth to open, and to swallow up, in consuming flames, the rebellious race which refused obedience to the priesthood of Aardn; and we should sometimes suppose that we heard a Roman Consul asserting the majesty of the republic, and declaring his inflexible resolution to enforce the rigor of the laws. 'If such irregularities are suffered with impunity (it is thus that the Bishop of Carthage chides the lenity of his colleague) if such irregularities are suffered, there is an end of episcopal vigor, an end of the sublime and divine power of governing the church, an end of christianity itself.' Cyprian had renounced those temporal honors which it is probable he would never have obtained; but the acquisition of such absolute command over the conscience and understanding of a congregation, however obscure or despised by the world, is more truly grateful to the pride of the human heart than the possession of the most despotic power, imposed by arms and conquest on a reluctant people.

"A perpetual stream of strangers and provincials flowed into the capacious bosom of Rome. Whatever was strange or odious whoever was guilty or suspected might hope, in the obscurity of that immense capital, to elude the vigilance of the law. In such a various conflux of nations, every teacher, either of truth or of falsehood, every founder, whether of a virtuous or criminal association, might easily multiply his disciples or accomplices. The christians of Rome, at the time of the persecution of Nero, A.D. 61, in which Paul suffered death, are represented by Tacitus as amounting to a very great multitude. The church in Rome was undoubtedly the first and most populous in the empire" - not first in order of beginning, but in that of influence; "and we are possessed of an authentic record which attests the state of religion in

Page 243 List of the first 26 "popes" or bishops of Rome not shown as written in Latin

Page 244 that city about the middle of the third century, and after a peace of thirty-eight years. The clergy at that time consisted of ONE BISHOP, (named CORNELIUS, and of the Babylonian Mouth Order,) forty-six presbyters, seven deacons, as many subdeacons, forty-two acolytes, and fifty readers, exorcists, and porters. The number of widows, of the infirm and of the poor, who were maintained by the oblations of the faithful, amounted to fifteen hundred. From reason, it may be estimated that the Christians in Rome were about fifty thousand. The populousness of that great capital will not surely have been less than a million of inhabit-ants, of whom christians might constitute at the most a twentieth part."

In the middle of the third century, this Cornelius figures as the Roman Mouth of that section of professors who now assumed to themselves the title of "the Holy Catholic Church." The spirit of the Lion fully possessed him; and he spoke with all the loftiness and inflation of his prototype in Babylon. A council was convened in Rome while he was in office, which decreed the propriety of excommunicating the founder of the Novatians, who could no longer tolerate the episcopal arrogance and corruption of the times. In writing to Fabius, bishop of Antioch, on the decrees of the council, he undertakes to delineate the character of Novatus, who, judged by an enemy, would appear a very disreputable person. The extracts given by Eusebius (himself also an enemy to Novatus) from the letters of Cornelius, show the latter to have been truly a wolf in sheep's clothing. He speaks of Novatus "aspiring to the episcopate" which he styles a "precipitate ambition," and a folly. He speaks of "the artifice and duplicity," "the periuries and falsehoods, the dissocial and savage character," "the devices and wickedness," of "that artful and malicious beast." The crime of Novatus consisted in maintaining that the Christian ecciesia was a society where virtue and innocence should reign; and whose members, from their entrance into it, were undefiled by any enormous crime. This most Scriptural position, consequently, caused him to regard every society which readmitted heinous offenders to communion, after the custom in Rome, as unworthy the title of a Christian ecclesia. This gave Cornelius and his adherents mortal offence, which was greatly'aggravated by the Novatians obliging such as came over to them from the Catholics to be reimmersed, as a necessary preparation for entering their society. By the maintaining of this impregnable position, the nominally Christian body in Rome and elsewhere was rent in twain. There was now a large minority who repudiated the system of things described in the above citations from Gibbon and Mosheim; and who, in so doing, renounced all allegiance to the episcopate of the Apocalyptic "Synagogue of the Satan." The Novatian minority regarded Cornelius as the prince of this synagogue in Rome,

Page. 245

denied the Christianity of what he called "the Holy Ecelesia," and claimed that the true apostolic faith and discipline was with the Novatians or Puritans, and with them alone.

This being the issue between Cornelius and Novatus, and knowing, on credible testimony, the awful corruption of morals that prevailed, we are at no loss to perceive the bitterness and malignity that inspired the epithets of Cornelius. A man who was contending earnestly for purity would be careful, for the sake of consistency, if for no other reason, to avoid such offenses against morality as Cornelius accuses him of. "We have seen," says he to Fabius, "within a short time, an extraordinary conversion and change in Novatus. For this most illustrious man, and he who affirmed with the most dreadful oaths, that he never aspired to the Episcopate, has suddenly appeared a bishop, as thrown among us by some machine!" Novatus, doubtless, affirmed the truth, that he did not aspire to the Roman Episcopate, as constituted by the novel episcopal system of church law; but had no objection to act as bishop, presbyter, or elder, with others, upon a pure and Scriptural foundation. The means by which he was appointed such, the jealous Cornelius likens to "some machine" projecting him into their midst. The appearance of Novatus, claiming to be Bishop of the Only True Ecclesia in Rome, ordained an elder by three sympathizing elders from an Italian province, would create quite a sensation; especially when his presence there was hailed, and his ordination endorsed, by a large minority of the original community. We can imagine how Bishop Cornelius felt by supposing what would be the feeling of Pius IX, the present successor of Cornelius, if a second Novatus were now to appear in Rome, endorsed by nearly half the Catholics of St. Peter's alleged patrimony, as the only true successor of the apostle! Bishop Pius would no doubt be in a foaming rage, and open his lion-mouth in the most orthodox Babylonian style. He would defame and curse his rival in the fashion and phraseology peculiar to Roman Holiness, which claims universal and absolute authority over all. Cornelius though neither universal nor absolute, yet spoke as an episcopal lion's whelp who felt the spirit of future greatness moving within, and said, "this dogmatist, this pretended champion of ecclesiastical discipline, when he attempted to seize and usurp the episcopate not given him from above (whence Cornelius claimed to have received it) selected two desperate characters as his associates, to send them to some small, and that the smallest, parts of Italy, and from thence, by some fictitious plea, to impose upon three bishops there, men altogether ignorant and simple, affirming and declaring, that it was necessary for them to come to Rome in all haste, that all the dissension that had there arisen might be removed through their mediation in conjune-

Page 246 tion with the other bishops. When these men had come, being, as before observed, but simple and inexperienced in discerning the artifice and villany of the wicked, they were shut up with men of the same stamp with himself, and at the tenth hour, heated with wine and surfeiting, they forced them, by a kind of shadowy and empty imposition of hands, to confer the episcopate (pertaining to the ecciesia in Rome) upon him; which, though by no means suited to him, he claims by fraud and treachery. This was the roaring of the Lion-like Mouth, A.D. 251. The epithets sounded out against poor Novatus and his brethren, who were doing the best in their power to organize a Scriptural association, by which the original Apostolic faith and discipline introduced by the converted "Jews and proselytes" from Jerusalem, and strengthened after-wards by Paul's personal ministration for two whole years, might be maintained and perpetuated in Rome; and the Apostasy then so advanced there might be broken up, or restrained: the epithets which denounced this holy enterprise, and the unproved and reckless assertions accompanying them, are in themselves a justification of it. Cornelius claimed to be in possession of Holy Spirit; and therefore, when voted into office by his copresbyters, to have received "the episcopate from above;" all his sanguinary and blasphemous successors claim the same things; but his fruits and theirs clearly evince that the only spirit that has worked in them all is the spirit peculiar to "the children of disobedience." We know, by experience, how readily "fellows of the baser sort," pretending to great conscientiousness, and zeal for religion, busy themselves, for the promotion of their own wicked purposes, in defaming and bearing false witness against men whose lives are devoted to the propagation and defense of the truth. These were evidently the weapons of Cornelius wielded against the company of brethren convened in Rome. The wine and surfeiting story was most likely trumped up for the occasion. The author has been vilified, by so-called "elders," after the same fashion. The same sort of accusation was circulated against the Lord himself; so that we can endorse the truth and justice of an observation of Dr. Jortin, that "we should not trust too much to the representations which christians, after the apostolic age, have given of the heretics of their times. Proper abatements must be made for credulity, zeal, resentment, mistake and exaggeration."

It is easy to perceive how deeply Cornelius' episcopal pride was wounded, from the following words: "This asserter of the gospel then," says he, "did not know that there should be BUT ONE BISHOP in a catholic ecclesia - en katholike ecclesia. Novatius and Novatus both knew that, whatever there should be in a catholic church, there ought to be in a Scriptural ecclesia, more than one. If the original episcopal plurality had

Page 247 not been departed from, there would have been no place found for an Episcopal Monarch in Rome. Cornelius was such a king in embryo. The "shadowy and empty imposition of hands," which he attributes to Novatus, had made him such; and it is the same sort of imposition, by which all bishops according to "church law," are imposed upon credulous and deceived communities. Sixteen bishops ordained Cornelius, and three ordained Novatus; the whole nineteen claiming to possess the Spirit. Which was the bishop from above? Cornelius was ordained first. True; and Saul was ordained before David. Priority therefore, determines nothing. The anointing of David was the repudiation of Saul. And so it proved with reference to the Five Episcopal Bodies in Rome. The organization of the NEW ECCLESIA in the capital of the empire was, Providentially, the first step to the spuing of the Catholic Synagogue of the Satan out of the Spirit's Mouth (Apoc. 3:16); and to the leaving it upon the Seven Heads, "a wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," carcass; then after to be galvanized by imperial power and authority into a political existence, the judicial termination of which is waiting at the door. It seems that Cornelius avenged his wounded dignity, in true papal fashion, upon the bishops who ordained Novatus; for he says, "one of these, not long after, returned to his church, mourning and confessing his error, with whom also we communed as a layman, as all the people present interceded for him, and we sent successors to the other bishops, ordaining them in the place where they were." The successors sent were probably to rule catholic churches formed by the divisions endorsing the corrupt practices and lay discipline of the Cornelian church in Rome. The following extract from a writer on ecclesiastical affairs will finish what we have to offer in regard to the development of the Name of Blasphemy previous to the reign of Constantine.

"Novatianus was an elder or presbyter in the church at Rome about the A.D. 251, at which time Cyprian flourished at Carthage. He was a man of extensive learning, and the author of several publications in defence of the doctrine of the Trinity and other subjects. His address is said to have been eloquent and insinuating, while his morals were irreproachable. He beheld with just indignation the depravity of the church in his day, and sighed over its abominations. Within the space of a few years, Christians had been caressed by one emperor, and persecuted by another. In the day of prosperity many persons rushed into the church who had never seriously counted the cost; and, like the stony-ground hearers in our Lord's parable of the sower, when persecution overtook them, they denied the faith, and reverted to idolatry. When the storm had subsided, they returned again to the church; and the bishops, who were much more concerned about the number and respectability of their con-

Page 248 gregations, than they were for the purity of communion and the free circulation of brotherly love among the members, encouraged all this, to the disgust of Novatian and all considerate persons. On the death of Fabian, who had sustained the character of bishop, one Cornelius, copresbyter with Novatian, who was a vehement partisan for taking in the multitude, was put in nomination for the bishopric. Novatianus opposed him, but ineffectually; and seeing no prospect of reformation in the church, but, on the contrary, a tide of immorality prevailing, he withdrew, and was joined by a number of the friends of reform. The consequence was, that Cornelius, irritated, it is said, by Cyprian, who was similarly situated, through the remonstrances of virtuous men at Carthage, and who was exasperated beyond measure with one of his elders, whose name was Novatus, and who had quitted Carthage and gone to Rome to espouse the cause of Novatianus, called a council, and got a sentence of excommunication against the latter. In a little time the friends of Novatianus formed themselves, or, at any rate, were formed into a church, which invested him with the pastoral office. The example was followed in various places, and Puritan churches were formed all over the empire, and flourished during the succeeding two hundred years. Afterwards, when penal laws (enacted by catholic emperors) obliged them to lurk in corners, and worship God in private, they became distinguished by various names, and a succession of them continued to the Lutheran reformation.

"It has been truly said," continues the same writer, "that it is next to impossible to avoid being misled in perusing histories of heretics. They are all written by interested ecclesiastics, who study to blacken the character of those whom they describe, in the most bitter terms that malice can invent. Novatianus is held up by these writers as the first ANTIPOPE, because he withdrew from the communion of a corrupt church. The stigma of Antipope is ridiculous; for, at that time, there was no pope in the true sense of the word; nor for jubilees of years after his day. They call Novatianus(*) the author of the heresy of Puritanism; whereas Puritanism, or the object for which the puritans, or CATHARI, as they were styled, contended, was a virtue, and not a heresy. In contend-

Page 249 ing for purity of fellowship they were sustained by the concurrent voice of prophets and apostles. Novatianus was by no means singular in that respect even in the age in which he lived. Tertullian had quitted the church fifty years before, for the very same reason; and Privatus, who was an old man in the time of Novatianus, had, with several more, repeatedly remonstrated against the departures which had taken place from apostolic institution, and as they could get no redress, had withdrawn, and formed separate congregations, or worshipped God in private. These ecclesiastical writers attribute to Novatian what they regard as the crime of originating innumerable congregations in every part of the Roman empire; and yet he had no other influence over them than what his example gave him. The real friends of Christ and his cause everywhere saw the same ground of complaint, and sighed for relief; and when the standard of return to first principles was once lifted up, thousands gathered themselves around it; they saw the propriety of a remedy for a crying evil, and applied it to their own relief. In truth, so far are the charges of heresy and schism brought against Novatian from being well founded, that his memory ought to be embalmed in the recollection of the faithful for his zealous adherence to the cause of truth and virtue."

In tracing the development of the Name of Blasphemy, we now advance to the era of Constantine. Sixty years after the death of Cornelius, who died in exile at Civita Vecchia, A.D. 252, "the Catholic and Apostolic Church, Mother of the Faithful," was invested with the sunshine of imperialism, and constituted the religion of the State. The bishop of the Anti-novatian association in Rome now became "the Bishop of Rome," and a spiritual prince of the empire. Before this change of fortune, he had but a bare precedency in respect of rank which had been tacitly yielded to him as bishop of the church in the metropolis of the empire. As to authority, Irenaeus, bishop in Lyons, on account of his personal character, was of ten times more authority even in the West than Victor, bishop in Rome; and Cyprian of Carthage, than Stephen of Rome, who excommunicated him. "But," says Dr. G. Campbell, "matters under-went a very great change after christianity had received the sanction of a legal establishment. Then, indeed, the difference between one see and another, both in riches and in power, soon became enormous. And this could not fail to produce, in the sentiments of mankind, the usual consequences. Such is the constant progress in all human politics whatever. In the most simple state of society, personal merit, of some kind or other, makes the only noticeable distinction between man and man. In politics purely republican, it is still (many years ago when these words were penned) the chief distinction. But the further ye recede from

Page 250 these, and the nearer ye approach the monarchical model, the more does this natural distinction give place to those artificial distinctions created by riches, office, and rank.

"When Rome was become immensely superior, both in splendor and in opulence, to every western See, she would with great facility, and as it were naturally, (if nothing very unusual or alarming was attempted,) dictate to the other Sees in the west; the people there having had, for several ages, very little of the disputatious dogmatizing humor of their brethren in the east. It no doubt contributed to the same effect, that Rome was the only See of very great note which concurred with several of them in language; Latin being the predominant tongue among the western churches, as Greek was among the eastern. It was natural for the former, therefore, to consider themselves as more closely connected with the Roman Patriarch than with the Constantinopolitan, or any of the other oriental patriarchs. A similar reason, when not counteracted by other causes, operated among the Greeks, to make them prefer a Grecian patriarch before a Latin one.

Sylvester(*) was the catholic saint, whom Constantine recognized as the Bishop of Rome and Patriarch of the West. The papists reckon him as the thirty-fourth pope. But, we know from history, that popes had not yet come into fashion. The spirit of a pope, however, wrought in him mightily; and when he opened his mouth, his utterances showed what he would do when power should be given to him by the Dragon. Take the following as an illustration: The Nicene Creed having been subscribed, Constantine, the Man-Child of Sin, who presided at the council, transmitted its canons and decrees to Sylvester, who, in the thirteenth council that had been held in Rome, at which were present two hundred and seventy-five bishops, ratified them in the following Babylonian style: 'We confirm with our mouth that which has been decreed at Nice, a city of Bithynia, by the three hundred and eighteen holy bishops, for the good of the catholic and apostolic church, Mother of the faithful. We anathematize all those who shall dare to contradict the decrees of the Great and Holy Council which was assembled at Nice (A. D. 325), in the presence of that most pious and venerable prince, the emperor Constantine.' And to this all the bishops answered, 'We consent to it.' Nebuchadnezzar himself could not have spoken more loftily and lion-like. He that dared to call in question their utterances was deemed unworthy of all blessings human and Divine; for, if Constantine be worthy of the belief, their voice was not the voice of men, but of 'the successors of the apostles, who had been established as priests and gods

upon earth' "-Vit. Const. 50.3.100.6.21.

This recognition of the Catholic clergy by the unbaptized and imperial president of their church, as "priests and gods upon earth, "was very flattering to their vanity and pride of life. They had instructed their imperial patron that this was their Scriptural relation to the sons of men. In their case, however, it was a mere assumption of Divine honors, and undeserved. In the days of the apostles, that which was spoken to Israel, might be truly applied to them, and to those who believed into Jesus through their word, saying, "I said, Ye are gods." The Lord Jesus explained in what sense this saying was applicable to Israel, but not to mankind at large. Thus, "if He (the Spirit) called them gods, unto whom the word of the Deity came, and the Scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of the Deity?" The Jews considered this as "making himself equal with God" (John 5:18; 10:33-36). The gospel teaches, that a people to whom the Word of the Deity is sent, and who receive it, become Sons of God; and are, in this sense, gods. This Word was first sent to Israel, and then to the Gentiles. And who obeyed it in the love of it, became Sons of God by adoption through Jesus Christ. This is the Scriptural status of all true Christadelphians, or Brethren of Christ. This is a great honor, and an extraordinary manifestation of love on the part of the Father, the contemplation of which caused John to exclaim, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the Sons of God;" and lest any should say, that this sonship pertained exclusively to a future state of existence, he adds concerning the faithful, "beloved, we are Now the Sons of God;" which was equivalent to saying, "we are now gods upon the earth;" and he continued, "it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him AS HE IS " (1 John 3:1-3).

But, though it be true that such men are "gods upon earth," and also "priests," it is a mere blasphemy in the mouth of the Man-Child of Sin, when applied to the corrupt and arrogant clergy of the Laodicean Apostasy. The gifts of the Spirit had been withdrawn; and State-Church Catholics were left to their own delusions. The Spirit had raised up a testimony against them, by which He "spued them out of his mouth," as "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:" for He only recognizes them as "priests and gods upon earth," in the Scriptural sense, who, having believed the things concerning the kingdom of the Deity and the Name of Jesus Christ, have been immersed, and walk in purity, "even as He is pure;" a condition of things that could not possibly

Page 252 be affirmed of Constantine and the professional ecclesiastics whom he delighted to honor.

Such, however, was the blasphemous assumption of the Catholic clergy, both Greek and Latin. Though utterly unworthy, by ignorance of the truth, by perversion of Apostolic institutions, and impurity of life, they claimed to be "priests and gods upon earth." But, though nothing but the spued-out ejecta of the Spirit's mouth, they were, in a certain relation of things, "priests and gods upon earth." They were the "priests and gods upon earth" pertaining to the Laodicean Apostasy; and acknowledged by the Man-Child of Sin "in his estate." According to Gibbon's authorities, there were eighteen hundred of these gods upon the Roman earth; of whom one thousand were enthroned in the Greek, and eight hundred in the Latin provinces of the empire. Episcopal thrones were closely planted along the banks of the Nile, on the sea coast of Africa, in the proconsular Asia, and through the southern provinces of Italy. The episcopal gods of Gaul and Spain, of Thrace and Pontus, reigned over an ample territory, and delegated their rural suffragans to execute the subordinate duties of the pastoral office. A god's diocese might be spread over a province, or reduced to a village; but all the gods possessed an equal and indelible character; they all blasphemously claimed to derive the same powers and privileges from the Apostles, from the people, and from the laws. The whole body of these priests and gods of Antichrist, was exempted by Sin's imperial Man-Child, from all service, private or public, all municipal offices, and all personal taxes and contributions, which pressed upon the laity with intolerable weight; and the duties of their clerical profession, deemed holy by the strongly deluded, was accepted as a full discharge of their obligations to the republic.

The gods of the Catholic heaven were regularly assembled in the spring and autumn of each year; and these synods diffused the spirit of ecclesiastical discipline and regulation through the hundred and twenty provinces of the Roman world. The Archdeity, or metropolitan bishop, was empowered, by the laws, to summon the suifragan demons of his province; to revise their conduct, to vindicate their rights, to declare their faith, and to examine the merit of the candidates who were elected by the clergy and people to supply the vacancies of the episcopal college. The chief gods, or primates, of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage, and afterwards of Constantinople, who exercised a more ample jurisdiction, convened the numerous assemblies of their dependent gods. But the convocation of great and extraordinary synods was the sole prerogative of the god who filled the imperial Dragon throne. Whenever the emergencies of the spiritual department of his estate required this

Page. 253

decisive measure, the emperor dispatched a peremptory summons to the episcopal deities, or the deputies of each province, with an order for the use of post-horses and a competent allowance for the expenses of their journey. The Council of Nice was convened by this authority, A.D. 325. It was assembled by "the Mother's" imperial protector and proselyte, to extinguish, by their final sentence, the subtle disputes which had arisen in Egypt on the subject of the Trinity. Three hundred and eighteen gods obeyed the summons of their imperial creator whom Gibbon styles "their indulgent master." The inferior gods or demons, of every rank and denomination, have been computed at two thousand and forty-eight; the Greeks appeared in person: and the consent of the Latins was expressed by the legates of the Archdeity of Rome. The session, which lasted about two months, was frequently decorated by the presence of the imperial Man-Child, who claimed to be God of gods upon earth, as expressed in the title, BISHOP of bishops. Leaving his guards at the door, he seated himself (with the permission of the divine council) on a low stool in the middle of the hall, an eminent illustration of Satan's "darling sin," which is said to be

"Pride that apes humility."

"He listened with patience," says Gibbon, "and spoke with modesty; and while he influenced the debates, Constantine humbly professed that he was the minister, not the judge, of the successors of the apostles, who had been established as priests and as gods upon earth."

Of all these gods of the apostasy, those of Antioch, Alexandria, Carthage, Constantinople and Rome, were the chief. They were, however, not only the chief of many, but they were rival gods, whose principle it was rather to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. Lust of power and love of contention were the ruling characteristics of them all; at least such is the testimony of a contemporary of those turbulent times. "If I must speak the truth," says Gregory Nazianzen, "this is my resolution to avoid all councils of the bishops; for I have seen no good end answered by any synod whatever; for their love of contention and their lust of power are too great even for words to express."

In the reign of Constantine's son and successor, Rome had become a most seducing object of sacerdotal ambition. In the episcopal order, the Bishop of Rome was the first in rank among the gods, and distinguished by a sort of preeminence over all the others. He surpassed all his companion deities in the magnificence and splendor of the temple over which he presided, in the extent of his revenues and possessions, in the number and variety of his ministers, in his influence over the deluded people, and in his sumptuous and splendid manner of living. Ammiamus Marcellinus, a Roman historian, who lived in the reign of Con-

Page 254 stantius, referring to this subject, says: "It was no wonder to see those who were ambitious of human greatness contending with so much heat and animosity for that dignity; because, when they obtained it, they were sure to be enriched by the offerings of the matrons, of appearing abroad in great splendor, of being admired in their costly coaches, sumptuous in their feasts, outdoing sovereign princes in the expenses of their table." No wonder that Pretextatus, the pagan Prefect of the city, should say, "Make me Bishop of Rome, and I'll be a Christian, too!"

As a further illustration of the pass at which the Mystery of Iniquity had arrived in Rome, it may be added that Liberius, the bishop, died A.D. 366, and that a violent contest arose respecting his successor in the throne of blasphemy. The Catholics were divided into two factions, one of which elected Damasus to that dignity, while the other chose Ursicinus, a deacon. The party of Damasus prevailed, and obtained his ordination of the godship. The other party, enraged at its failure, set up separate meetings, and eventually had their favorite ordained also. This occasioned great disputes among the pious laity, as to which of them should possess the episcopal dignity; and to such an extremity was the dispute carried, that great numbers on either side were killed in the quarrel; no fewer than a hundred and thirty-seven persons having been put to death in the very "temple of the God" itself! "How much more rationally," remarks Ammianus, "would those pontiffs consult their true happiness, if, instead of alleging the greatness of the city as an excuse for their manners, they would imitate the exemplary life of some provincial bishops, whose temperance and sobriety, whose mean apparel and downcast looks, recommended their pure and modest virtue to the Deity, and his true worshippers." This lively picture drawn by Ammianus of the wealth and luxury of the gods in the fourth century, "becomes the more curious," says Gibbon, "as it represents the inter-mediate degree between the humble poverty of the apostolic fishermen and the royal state of a temporal prince, whose dominions extend from the confines of Naples to the banks of the Po."

Damasus was contemporary with "Theodosius the Great," who, on his advancement to the imperial office, evinced a fervid zeal for Trinitarianism. He addressed a letter to the divided Catholics of Con-stantinople, and told them that "it was his pleasure that all his subjects should be of the same profession as Damasus, Bishop of Rome, and Peter, bishop of Alexandria; that their church alone should be denominated 'Catholic' who worshipped the divine Trinity as equal in honor, and that those who were of another opinion should be deemed heretics, be regarded as infamous, and subject to other punishments. This was an imperial constitution of the Trinitarian gods of Rome and Alexandria as

Page 255 Page 255 the standards of orthodoxy. This was an advance upon their rivals of Antioch, Carthage and Constantinople; still it was a divided glory which did not satisfy the ambition of the god upon earth residing in Rome

We are now, then, arrived at a great crisis in the development of the "Name of Blasphemy upon the Heads;" that is, at a period in which the second stage of its growth was nearly consummated a period which may be expressed by the epochal years A.D. 380-410. The beginning of this period is illustrated by the exaltation of Theodosius to the imperial office, and is marked by the sack of Rome by the tribes of Germany and Scythia, under the command of Alaric, who visited the sanguinary intolerance, blasphemy, corruption and crimes of the Catholics and their God in Rome, with the "hail and fire mingled with blood" of the First Wind-Trumpet. Theodosius was one of the most intolerant and perse-cuting of the Catholic emperors of the Sixth Head of the Dragon. We have seen how he set up his will and pleasure as the rule of his subjects' faith and conscience. This is further illustrated by his expulsion of all from Constantinople who would not subscribe the Nicene confession of faith. In A.D. 383, he issued two edicts against "heretics;" the first, prohibiting them from holding any assemblies; and the second, forbidding them to meet in fields or villages. These edicts would be especially oppressive to "the Angel having the Seal of the living God," engaged in sealing His servants in their foreheads (Apoc. 7:2,3): and, as though this were not enough, he followed it up by a law in which he forbade heretics to worship, or to preach, to ordain bishops, or presbyters, commanding some to be banished and others rendered infamous and deprived of the common privileges of citizens. This intolerant and wicked oppressor is surnamed "the Great," and by scribes of the same superstition declared to be "very dear to the Catholic Church." It was not to be supposed, however, that the Lord Jesus at the right hand of Power, to whom his brethren and servants are infinitely dearer, would permit these oppressions to pass away unavenged. He, therefore, let loose the four winds against the "earth, the sea and the trees" of the empire, by which it was extinguished in its western third, and the "god upon earth," not yet be-come "the god of the earth" in Rome, was reduced almost to a nonentity.

The six days pillage and slaughter of the inhabitants of the Queen City, was a terrible but richly-deserved calamity, and, at the same time, a blow that prostrated her dignity and honor in the dust. A city which, with the strength of iron, had broken in pieces and subdued all things; and had boasted of her reign over the kings of the earth, was now trampled under foot of barbarians, and insolently compelled to become a sport, and to sue for peace. This was a great discouragement and check to the ambition of the Bishop of Rome. Hitherto, he had based his claim to the first rank among "all called god, or an object of worship," upon the greatness of the city in which he officiated. A canon of the Council of Chalcedon expressly declares this principle of primacy in voting equal privileges to the Bishop of R6me and the Bishop of Constantinople, because the last, then called New Rome, was also the Royal City. Leo, of Old Rome, however, indignantly rejected this coequality in primacy, he would be first. But the time had now arrived to pour out the Divine wrath upon her which had been accumulating against her for over eleven hundred and sixty years. Her imperial and metropolitan dignity was doomed to suffer a total eclipse; so that, when it had departed, it would be necessary for the man who had "become a god," to invent some new theory whereby his dignity might be prevented from taking its departure likewise. The proud and luxurious bishop was hurled into the lowest depths of misery. Had Ammianus Marcellinus beheld him after being spoiled by Alaric, he would have seen a blasphemer smitten of the God of heaven for his sins, and there would be nothing, at this crisis, Proetextatus would desire less than to be Bishop of Fallen Rome. The following extract from a letter of Pelagius, an eye-witness of the pillage, will give the reader some idea of the change of fortune that had come over the bishop since the days of Ammianus and Proetextatus, when princely magnificence and luxury were the rule of episcopal life: "This dismal calamity," says he, "but just over, and you yourself are a witness how Rome, that commanded the world, was astonished at the alarm of the Gothic trumpet, when that barbarous and victorious nation stormed her walls and made her way through the breach. Where were then the privileges of birth and the distinctions of quality? Were not all ranks and degrees leveled at that time, and promiscuously huddled together? Every house there was a scene of misery, and equally filled with grief and confusion. The slave and the man of quality were in the same circumstance, and everywhere the terror of death and slaughter were the same, unless we may say the fright made the greatest impression on those who had the greatest interest in living."

Thus, then, the glory of the city having departed, the glory of the bishop built upon it had departed also. A god located in a city of inferior rank, with no other prestige, could not expect to command the world. As the city faded into insignificance and contempt among barbarians, so would he unless he "changed his base," and commenced to operate upon their ignorance and credulity from a new position. In a hundred and thirty-six years from its sack by Alaric, Rome was to be left a dreary solitude, without man or beast within its walls for forty days and more. It was time, therefore, that some pretension should be set up that would so awe the world, that a Divine supremacy should be accorded to its bishop altogether independent of the former plea. The pretension that seemed to meet the urgency of the situation, was that of the Bishop of Rome being the lineal successor of the apostle Peter; and that by virtue of this successorship, he possessed the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and had Divinely intrusted to him the power of binding and loosing. The clergy were all assumed to be the successors of the apostles; but the Bishop of Rome claimed to be successor of "the Prince of Apostles," and that, therefore, he was the Prince-god of all clerical "gods upon earth."

But, upon what could this pretension be based so as to give it plausibility? It is true that Christ promised to give the keys to Peter, whom he pronounced "blessed;" it is also true that he fulfilled the promise; and furthermore, lt lS true that when Peter declared his conviction, in common with the rest of the apostles, that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord said to him, that upon this rock He would build His ecclesia, against which the gates of the unseen should not prevail (Matt. 16:15-19). But, in all this there was not a word, no, not a hint, of any one else than Peter; much less of such an ignorant, corrupt, and de-graded blasphemer as the bishop of Rome. How, then, could what was promised and fulfilled to Peter, a Jewish fisherman of Galilee, be made applicable, even plausibly so, to a proud and luxurious man of fashion in Rome? This was a work and great labor to be done! A labor which only craft and falsehood, operating upon the grossest ignorance and superstition, could finish with success.

Paul testifies in Gal. 2:7,8, that the gospel of the circumcision was intrusted to Peter, the ministration of which constituted his apostleship

Page 259 of the circumcision. Hence, as "the strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes" received the gospel in Jerusalem from the Spirit through him, a relationship was established between him and them, which two hundred and~twenty years after came to be styled by Cyprian, "Petri cathedram, atque ecclesiam principalem, unde unitas sacerdotalis exorta est" - that is, the Chair of Peter, and the principal ecclesia whence priestly unity proceeds. But is it not ridiculous to style a little company of disciples of the Spirit in Rome, Peter's Chair, because they heard the truth from his mouth? The "strangers of Rome" were only a small portion of his audience on the day of Pentecost. Besides them, there were "devout Jews" from every nation under the Roman heaven. When they returned, they would plant ecclesias in their homes, every one of which upon the same principle would be a Chair of Peter! But, craft, which deceives the ignorant and the simple, has no use for reason. Assertion without proof is all that it requires. The crafty ecclesiastics of the apostasy affirmed it; and it suited the policy of the aspiring bishops of the imperial city to adopt it. If it were conceded that the Church in Rome was Peter's Chair, would not the man that occupied it as chief bishop of the church be Peter's successor; and if Peter's successor in office, must he not officially inherit all that is predicable of Peter? He would be "Vicar of the Blessed Peter" -Peter in every respect, save in personal identity.

This was the position assumed by "the Name of Blasphemy upon the Heads of the Beast;" and ultimately conceded by the Horns, which the judgments of the first four trumpets upon the Catholic West developed, when they gave in their adhesion to that Name; in evidence whereof the following gleanings of Mr. Elliott from divers sources will amply show:

He styles it, "the mighty fact" first privately spoken out by Boniface I., A.D. 419-22, to the Thessalian and Illyrian bishops. "The Blessed Peter," says he, "to whom the height of priesthood was conceded by the word of Jesus Christ;" "on whom, we read, was placed the foundation of the universal ecclesi a:" "on whom its government and supreme power rested:" "this, therefore, by ecclesias spread over the whole world, is established to be as the Head of its own members; from which whosoever cuts himself off, becomes exiled from the Christian religion."

After this the Legate of Celestine, the bishop of Rome, A.D. 431, in the Council of Ephesus before all Antichristendom, said, "It is a thing undoubted, that the holy and most blessed Peter, the Exarch and Head of the apostles, the pillar of the faith, the foundation of the catholic church, received the keys of the kingdom; and to him was given the power of binding and loosing sin; which Peter still lives and exercises judgment in his successors, even to this day and always." In the same style, bishop Leo's deputies, some twenty years later, in the Council of Chalcedon, proclaimed him "Head of All Churches;" and this evidently because, as the Council itself said, "Peter spoke in Leo!" On similar grounds the headship of the Antichristian Body and the world was claimed by Leo himself, in his letters and orations. In a sermon of St. Peter's day, he thus expressed himself before his Roman audience:

"There are those, O Rome, who advance thee to this glory as a holy nation, an elect people, a sacerdotal and royal city complete through the Holy Seat of the Blessed Peter, head of the World; thou hast a wider rule by the divine religion than by earthly domination." In these words he evidently applies 1 Pet 2:5, to the Roman See and people in communion with it. This is a specimen of the blasphemy of the Name, which perverts what the apostle says to the saints concerning their spiritual status, and applies it to the basest of mankind. Leo said that he, as Bishop of Rome, was officially "both the guardian of the catholic faith, and of the tradi-tions of the fathers."

Leo's immediate successor was Hilary. The spirit of Leo had passed with the office to him, so that what Leo had affirmed, he readily accepted as his rightful prerogative. In the estimation of these men, "whoever disputed the primacy and authority of the Roman See, as being that rock on which by Christ's own ordinance Christ's universal church was built, was none other than the Devil or Antichrist." Hence, the incense of the Tarragonese bishop's reference to him as officially the "Vicar of Peter; unto whom, forthwith from after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the keys of the kingdom belong, for the illumination of all," was an odor of a sweet smell. From A.D. 492 to 496, Gelasius figured as Bishop of Rome, which was then the throne of the Seventh Head, the Gothic Kings of Italy. But though subject to Theodoric, he strenuously asserted his Divine supremacy over all kings and emperors. In a letter to Faustus, he wrote: "Things divine are to be learned by the secular potentates (the Horns of the Beast) from bishops, above all from the Vicar of the Blessed Peter"; and in a letter to the emperor in Constantinople, whom he excommunicated, A.D. 494, he writes: "There are two authorities by which the world is governed, the Pontifical and the Royal; the sacerdotal order being that which has charge of the sacraments of life, and from which thou must seek the causal of thy salvation. Hence, in divine things, it becomes Kings to bow the neck to Priests; specially to the Head of Priests, whom Christ's own voice has set over the universal church." But, to be Vicar of Peter was to be only the Vicar of a Vicar. There was a step still higher on the ladder of episcopal ambition, which the Blasphemer of Rome was ready to mount when opportunity presented. Two consecutive councils at Rome, held A.D. 494 and 495, rec-

-ognized and accepted his words as those of the VICAR OF CHRIST: "The Holy Roman Church," says he, "is preferred to other ecclesias by no synodical canons; but it obtains the primacy by the evangelical voice of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, saying, Thou art Peter. The Roman Church is therefore the chief seat of the apostle Peter, not having spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing;" "having authority over the whole church for its general superintendence and government." This same Gelasius, as if determined indelibly to affix the character of blasphemy to the Name he represented, styles the apostle, "our Saviour the Blessed Peter," because of the words spoken to him, "whatsoever thou shalt bind, etc.; so that none living are excepted from the church's authority of the keys; but only the dead." But, in after times, not even the dead were excepted. At the close of the Council in A.D. 495, when Gelasius had finished, the assembled bishops shouted, six times repeated, "We see that thou art the VICAR OF CHRIST."

There was more in the significance of the words of those episcopal shouts than they intended. VICARIUM CHRISTI te videm us! was in effect saying, "We see that thou art ho Antichristos, the Antichrist!" Vicarius answers to the word anti, that is, instead, or supplies the place of another; hence, as a substantive, a deputy, a substitute, a vicegerent, locum tenens, vicar. "We see that thou art a substitute for Christ!" and a substitute for Peter! And that thou art above every thing called god or is worshipped! Anti- Christos is the Greek for Vicarius Christi. This "was blaspheming those who dwell in the heaven;" it was injuring greatly the reputation of the Father and the Son among men, for an ignorant and profane Gentile, who proclaimed in council the words noster Salvator Beatissimus Petrus, "our saviour the most blessed Peter," to announce himself as their substitute and all-powerful representative upon earth. A Vicar-Christ is Anti-Christ; and though they did not mean to make that application, yet in shouting what they did, they for once proclaimed the truth to the world from the Seven Hills.

This same Gelasius at the Council of A.D. 494, had authoritatively drawn up a list of the Scriptures to be received as Canonical and Divine. The first list is headed, "The Order of the Books of the Old Testament, which the Holy and Catholic Roman Church receives and venerates; digested by the Blessed Father Gelasius, with seventy bishops." This includes the Apocryphal Books of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Tobit, Esdras, Judith, and 1 Maccabees. The second list gives the books of the New Testament as still received. In a fourth list the writings of "the Fathers;" as Cyprian, Gregory Nazianzen, Basil, &c: and ending, "the rest, which are composed by heretics or schismatics, the Catholic and Roman Church by no means receives." A list of about one hundred of the Apocryphal writings, not to be received, is then subjoined; among which are the Opuscula of Tertullian and Lactantius, and of the Apocalyptic Commentators, Victorinus and Tychonius. All these, with their authors, the concluding clause consigns to eternal damnation: "with their authors and the admirers of the authors we declare to be damned to an indissoluble bond in eternity." Thus, like his predecessor Leo, he set himself up as the supreme arbiter and judge in all matters of faith!

At the opening of the sixth century, Symmachus was the official Antichrist and Antipeter. The Bishop of Rome was called PAPA, or En-glish, Pope. "He was declared," says Gibbon, "in a numerous synod to be pure from all sin, and exempt from all judgment." Nevertheless, this self-deceiver and liar, as John styles all such, 1 John 1:8, was a subject of Theodoric, King of Italy. Though he claimed an ample dominion in heaven and earth, he had not yet been able to exalt his Trinitarian Holiness above an Arian King. He was a turbulent and unruly subject, and made himself obnoxious to his royal master. Theodoric in consequence, summoned a council to meet at Rome, A.D. 501, to judge of certain charges against him. But, when convened, the Council demurred to entering on the matter, on the ground of incompetency; considering that the party accused was supreme above all ecclesiastical jurisdiction. And a little after, as the climax of blasphemy, another Roman Synod, with Symmachus himself presiding and consenting, in the most solemn manner, adopted a book written by Ennodius in defense of the resolutions of the former synod; in which it was asserted, "that the Pontiff is judge in the place of Deity, and can be judged by no mortal."

Assuredly there can be no mistake that we have before us an Order of Men, or a Name, answerable to Daniel's "god of guardians, exalting himself, and magnifying himself above every god, and speaking marvelous things against the God of Gods;" to Paul's Man of Sin, Son of Perdition, and Lawless One;" and John's "Name of Blasphemy, and Mouth like the mouth of a lion, speaking great things blasphemies." No person, or succession of persons, could be more like Lucifer of Babylon, more arrogant, more proud, more blasphemous, or more lawless. The reader will doubtless have perceived, that the falsehood lying at the bottom of all these blasphemous assumptions, is, that the clergy, as they style themselves, are the successors of the apostles and ambas-sadors of Jesus Christ; and that, consequently, all that is affirmed of the apostles, the true ambassadors of Christ, is truly affirmable also of them! Ignatius spoke of bishops as eis topon Theou, in the place of God; and Cyprian says, that every bishop within his own diocese, is a priest of God, and a judge appointed in the place of Christ. But there were professors of Christianity in the apostles' days, who, in effect, claimed the same things. The Spirit speaks of these as men "who say they are apostles (sent ones) and are not, but are liars (Apoc. 2:2); and Paul styles them, "False apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ - the ministers of Satan, transforming themselves as ministers of righteousness, after the example of their master." Whoever says he is a successor of the apostles, in so saying affirms that he is an apostle; which signifies "one called and sent of God as Aaron was." Hence, Jesus styled himself the Deity's apostle: and all who say that he called and sent them to preach the gospel affirm the same thing.

But where did the clergy, so-called, get their dogma of Apostolic succession from? The answer is, from tradition and Scripture falsely interpreted. So long as the Star-Angel Presbytery shone in an ecclesia, the Spirit shined in its midst. That ecclesia was the dioikesis, jurisdiction, or diocese, of the presbytery; which was in the stead of the apostles, who could not be everywhere at once. It was the gift of the Spirit that made the Star-Angel Eldership what it was. It was concerning this spiritually-endowed order in each ecclesia that Paul wrote in saying, "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable to you." The Star-Angel consisted of many bishops in an ecclesia, not of one only. It was in the place of the Deity, as Moses was instead of God to Aaron. It was the Vicar of God, and the Vicar of Christ, in the particular ecclesia that rejoiced in its presence; and it was this, because of the Spirit being in the elders to guide them into all the truth. But the Star-Angels, which had power to abuse, as well as to use, the spiritual gifts, did not continue to be faithful stewards of the mystery of Christ; they fell away from the faith as apostolically delivered; and having become apostate, the Spirit was with-drawn, and nothing remained of the Star-Angels but presbyteries of vain and self-conceited ecclesiastics, each presbytery being ruled by an ignorant bishop, whose wisdom shone brightest when he spoke the least. But though "the Spirit had spued them out of his mouth," they claimed the same relation to God, to Christ, and to men - a claim, which being no longer endorsed by Deity, became mere arrogance, falsehood, and blasphemy. Thus, they claimed to be traditionally with-out the Spirit, what they were with it - apostles, ambassadors, and vicars, of Christ and of God.

But, evil men, when left to their own resources, always wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. They flourish in deception. Being sensual, not having the Spirit, as the clergy have ever been even to this day, when they appealed to Scripture in support of their impious pretensions, they wrested it to their own destruction. They refer to the

Page 264 words of Jesus to the eleven, which they ridiculously enough apply to themselves. He said to the apostles, say they, "Lo, lam with you alway, even to the end of the world." Now, they continue, this must refer to us, as well as to the apostles; for they did not live to the end of the world, which has not even yet come. It must, therefore, mean, "I will be with you, and your successors, to the end of time." But, some of these clergy are very learned, if not very wise and candid, men; and they know, that the English version of Matt. 28:20, is not a correct transcript of the original, idou ego meth' humon eimipasas tas humeras, heos tes sun teleias tou aiovos. This, they know, ought not to be rendered, "lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world;" but, "Behold, I am with you all the days, until the end of the age." There is nothing about "successors" in this. We are expressly told that Jesus Christ spoke these words to "the eleven disciples." The promise was to them, and it was strictly and literally fulfilled; for we are informed in Mark 16:20, that "they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them;" and he tells us also, how the Lord worked with them; it was by "confirming the word" they preached, "by the signs following thereupon" - epakolouthounton. In this way, he was with the eleven apostles, and also with the twelfth, Matthias, and with Paul, and their co-laborers, "all the days" of the Mosaic Dispensation, from the Day of Pentecost first after his resurrection, "till the end of the age," when it was abolished in the subversion of Judah's Commonwealth by the Roman power; a period of about thirty-seven years. But, as to the clergy, Apostolic successors, and ambassadors of Christ, as they style themselves, the application of the text to their Satanic Order, is a gross imposition upon the ignorance and credulity of their strongly-deluded worshippers. The Scripture, and the facts in their case, are against them. The Lord's promise was to co-work with eleven men preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and Name; he did not promise to co-work with an impious order of impostors, who are ignorant of its first principles, and therefore could not make an intelligible statement of that Gospel to save their lives. Christ Jesus never promised to confirm, or bear witness to the truth of any teaching or preaching, by signs, and wonders,' and divers miracles, and distributions of Holy Spirit (Heb. 2:4), other than the preaching of "The Word." It was the preaching of this alone that he confirmed and attested; not the blasphemous and contradictory foolishness enunciated by the ecclesiastical mountebanks, and martexts, of "the times of the Gentiles," among whom they have substituted their own traditions, which they style "divinity," for the Word, which they have nullified, and made contemptible thereby. The clergy do not preach the Word the apostles preached, and which it was the function of the apostleship to do. No men can there-fore be their successors in apostleship who do not preach the same things. Faithful men, who have learned the things Paul preached, and are also able to teach them to others, are the only Apostolic succession possible (2 Tim. 2:2). These faithful men, men full of faith, cannot be found in any of "the Names and Denominations," Apocalyptically styled "Abominations" (ch. 17:5), of the excluded and unmeasured Court of the Gentiles (ch. 11:2). They are only to be found in "the House of Deity;" which is not a clerical bazaar, or temple, dedicated to fictitious entities canonized by the Apostasy; but "the ecclesia of Deity;" which Paul says, "is the Pillar and base of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15). This is neither the Catholic nor Protestant organizations; but a company of Scripturally-enlightened and obedient believers, who have accepted the Deity's invitation to His kingdom and glory; of which they are all, without distinction of class or order, both the heirs and heritage, or clergy, of the Lord (James 2:5; Rom. 8:17).

Apostolic succession, then, as contended for by all ranks, orders, and degrees of the Antichristian clergy, is a mere fiction of the carnal mind. The only succession coeval in its origin with the Apostolic age they can truthfully claim to be partakers of, is, as successors of those troublers in God's Israel, who, "by good words and fair speeches, deceived the hearts of the simple." As successors of Satan's apostles, they have built upon his foundation a superstructure which crowned itself with the TIARA upon the Seven Heads. This enormous blasphemy could not have been developed apart from the Satanic dogma of Apostolic succession, any more than the worship of Mary, as Queen of Heaven, and the Saints, as intercessors and mediators, could have been invented apart from the mythological dogma of the "immortal soul" in mortal flesh, separately existing after death. The one is as vain an imagination as the other. But vain and fallacious as it is, it has been a very profitable fiction to them all, from the Mouth of Blasphemy on the Seven Hills, to the most recent imitation thereof in the Mormon settlements of Utah.

Page 267 In this section of the thirteenth chapter, I have traced the development of the Name to the reign of the Seventh Head in the time of Theodoric, the Arian King' of Italy, and his Trinitarian subject, Symmachus, the Bishop of Rome, who was now all ready to avail himself of anything that might present, whereby he could improve his fortune; and, instead of being a servant of heretical rulers, he could assume sovereignty for himself. But of this hereafter. I proceed now to consider the subject of the third verse of the chapter in hand. Page 267

"And I saw one of his heads as if it had been wounded unto death" - verse 3.

John saw one of the heads, which were common to the Dragon and the Beast, "as if it had been wounded unto death." This is as much as to say, that when he saw it lying prostrate, its death was only in appearance; it was not like the five heads that had preceded it. They were killed outright, never to recover sovereignty on the Seven Hills. But not so this Sixth Headship; for, though it seemed to be politically dead to all future sovereignty in Rome, where its supremacy no longer existed, yet the time would arrive when a like form of government would be located within its walls; and IMPERIAL HEADSHIP, as an Eighth Sovereignty, once more elevate "the Eternal City" to the command of the world - in the words of Leo III., to "a wider rule through divine religion, than by the power of earthly domination;" or more correctly, "through the working of the Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all the deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish." The head had received a severe wound, but not a fatal one; for, says John, "the plague of its death was healed."

The apostle informs us that he saw "one of the heads" in this severely wounded condition; but he does not tell us which one of the seven it was. This he leaves us to find out for ourselves. Is the mystery, then, impenetrable? I think not. Let us see. In Ch. 17:10, the Revelator tells him, in speaking of the Seven Heads, "they are seven sovereign powers; five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh he must continue a short space." One is; that is, at the time he was speaking to John in Patmos. The Heads being attached to the Seven Mounts upon which Rome sits, we have only to ascertain what form of Sovereign Power obtained there while John was residing in Patmos. This is well known to have been the Imperial; which is a sovereignty headed up in one or more emperors, uniting in themselves the supreme, civil, spiritual, and military authority of the state. As five sovereign powers had fallen, this must have been the sixth, and only the sixth, because "the other," or seventh, had not then as yet come.

Now, when the sovereign powers of a state fall, they are prostrated by wounding to death. This was the case in the fall, or removal of the five, especially the fifth, to make way for the sixth, which continued a long Space in Rome, or over five hundred years; the Imperial Senate residing on the Seven Hills, and the Imperial Court of the West in Ravenna, and the Imperial Court of the East in Constantinople. This Imperial Sixth Head ruled all the Thirds of the Roman habitable; but, at the end of these centuries, the imperial authority was to be suppressed in Rome, and over the Third Part attached to the jurisdiction of that city. This was to be effected by wounding as if to death. The blowing of the fourth wind-trumpet inflicted the wound by which it was prostrated; so that when John saw it, it had the appearance of a dead head. This death state of the head was a necessary condition for the development of its successor in sovereign power. So long as the sixth flourished in political life on the Seven Hills, a successor could not exist in Rome. The death of the Sixth was indispensable to the manifestation of the Seventh. And it may be noted here that there is nothing more said about the seventh head in this chapter than that the beast had seven heads. It does not seem to perform any important part in the prophecy; nevertheless, as a seventh potentate, coming in between the sixth and the eighth, its presence upon the arena was highly important to the preparation of the way of the full grown Man of Sin. In John's time, "the other," or the seventh, "had not yet come; and when he cometh he must continue a short space." This "short space" was a period of great events. In the course of it, and during the nine decades that ushered it in, the Ten-Horn Sovereignties established themselves upon the western imperial third of the Roman Orb; Rome's imperial dominion was abolished, and, in place thereof, a regal sovereignty was developed upon the seven mountains known in history as the GOTHIC KINGDOM OF ITALY. This was the Seventh Head, which was only to continue "a short space," or sixty years. This passing away of the Sixth Head from Old Rome at the time of its successor, the Seventh Head's inauguration, is thus symbolized in Apoc. 8:12, "and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened." The other two thirds were still unsmitten and left to shine in their proper spheres - two thirds of the sun, two thirds of the moon, and two thirds of the stars: that is, the imperial Sixth Head retained its position in Constantinople, from whence it continued to exercise rule and authority, in all matters, civil and ecclesiastical, over the other unsubdued two thirds of the Roman world.

Under the rule of the Gothic Arian Seventh Head, there was no scope for the development of the imperial tendencies of the Trinitarian Bishop of Rome. However, he might long for Universal Headship over all spiritual concerns of the Roman habitable, his subordination to an Arian kingship was an insuperable obstacle. So long as Arianism was king in Rome, he could not include Italy and that city in his universality. Hence, the policy of Symmachus and his successors would be to procure the ruin of the Seventh Head, and to prevent the return of the Sixth; so that Rome, being freed from the presence of both king and emperor, opportunity would be afforded for their own development into an Image of the Sixth Head upon the Seven Hills.

But of the wounding of the Imperial Sixth, and the establishment of the Regal Seventh, Heads, I need not treat in this place. It will be sufficient here to refer the reader to pages 71,75, Vol.3, for the historical exposition thereof, with this explanatory remark, that the obscuration of Rome's imperial "day and night" would not cease with the fall of the Seventh Head but with the inauguration of the Eighth Head, or Image of the Sixth upon the Seven Hills

"And the plague of his death was healed" - Verse 3

"His deadly wound," as it reads in the English version, is he plege tou thanatou autou, in the original, which I have rendered, the plague of his death. The word plege, rendered wound, occurs fifteen times in the apocalypse . In five other places it is very properly rendered stripes; and sixth, Luke 10:30, it would have been better translated, laid on stripes, than "wounded" -plegas epithentes. The judgments of the fifth and sixth trumpets, in the aggregate, are styled "plagues" Ch. 9:20; and the judgments the two prophets were able to inflict, are also styled "plagues" (Ch. 11:6). The judgments of the Seven Vials are thrice termed the seven plagues in Ch. 15; and the hail-storm that descends out of the heaven upon men, under the last vial is called a plague in Ch. 16:21. The plague of death that afflicted the Sixth Head, was a smiting plague; for, as the result of it, the sun, moon, and stars of the Roman heaven are said to have been "smitten". Hence, also, in Ch. 13:13, it is referred to as he plege tes machairas, the plague of the sword. The war-like operations of Odoacer, king of the Heruli, against Romulus Angustulus; and those of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, against Odoacer, who, on the deposition of Augustulus, had become, by the title conferred upon him by Zeno, emperor of the Eastern Third, the Patrician Representative of the Sixth Head. These judgments by the sword, ultimating in the establishing of Theodoric in Rome as king of Italy, A.D. 493, made up the plague of the seeming death of the Sixth Head.

And, in this place, it will be right to state the reason why I have not reckoned the Heruli and the Ostrogoths as two of the ten horns. No barbarians, the throne of whose dominion was on the seven mountains, could be horns. Rome is the throne of the Heads, not of the Horns. Hence, there must be reckoned ten horns and one head contemporary with the continuance of the "short space" of Seventh Head Ascendancy in Rome. Neither can the Exarchate of Ravenna nor the Dukedom of Rome, as Sir Isaac Newton and others suppose, be horns; for the former was the representative of the Sixth Head in Italy, and the latter, together with the Exarchate, are defective in this material attribute, that they were destitute of diadems; all the horns have diadems, but they had none.

"It was healed," says John. The plague of the death by the sword was healed. To heal a death plague is to cause to live that which was smitten. This is the interpretation put upon the phrase in the fourteenth verse in the words, "the beast which had the plague of the sword, and did live." To heal is to institute a process of recovery. Healing is often a slow process, and always requires time; and the severer the injury to the constitution of the patient, the longer the time required for the recovery of health and strength. It is the same whether the patient be a sick man, or an enfeebled power. Time is demanded for a cure. It was so in the matter of restoring imperial dominion to Rome. There could, however, be no healing of "the plague of the sword," that IMPERIALISM might live and flourish again in the Seven-Hilled City, so long as the REGAL Seventh Head exercised sovereignty therein. While this reigned in conjunction with the Ten Horns, Rome's wounded imperialism was un-healed. The worship of "the peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues," or "many waters" of the Roman Habitable, upon which the woman sits, was an epluribus unum. It was no longer a worship, or political homage and allegiance, rendered to a Sole Emperor reigning in Constantinople; but it was a worship in which "they wondered after the beast in all the earth," or empire; so that "they worshipped the Dragon which yielded authority to the Beast;" for the Seventh Head belonged both to the Dragon and the Beast; and the Ten horns, as we have seen by their coinage, acknowledged the supremacy of the Emperor in Constantinople, whose Vice-Kings they claimed to be: while, at the same time, they recognized the Seventh Head as a legitimate sovereignty. The constitution of things was analogous to the United States system of powers, in which citizens owe a divided allegiance to their native state and to the general government - they worship the American Eagle, which gives authority to the State-Feathers of its wings and they worship the Feathers. This is well understood. There is, however, this difference in the similitude, that where as a Visigoth and a Frank, first worshipped their respective Horn-States; and secondly, the general government in Constantinople. Now, a Marylander or a Virginian first worships at Washington, and afterwards subordinately at Richmond or Annapolis. The comparison, however, is sufficiently close for illustration of the saying "they worshipped the Dragon which yielded authority to the Beast; and they worshipped the Beast, saying, Who is like to the Beast? Who is able to make war with him?" - Ver. 4. None. No beast-dominion can stand before him; for, as Daniel says of the SYSTEM OF Powers represented by the Dragon and the Beast, it is "dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the brazen clawed feet of it" (Ch. 7:7,19). The history of Modern Europe amply shows the truth of the Beast's invincibility. It is the predominant dominion upon the earth; and rules the so-called civilized nations of Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australia.

But oceans of blood have been shed in the past 1,335 years of its existence, in attaining to a dominion so extended. This sanguinary and all-conquering career commenced with war between the imperial and regal potentates of Rome and Constantinople, which, after twenty years' continuance with various fortune to the combatants, ultimated in the removal and final death of the Seventh Head, which marked the termination of the "short space" of its reign. As, then, the removal of the Seventh Head was an indispensable prerequisite to the healing, or causing imperialism to live again in Rome, I shall now proceed to an historical sketch of its suppression, and then return to the exhibition of the heal- ing of "the plague of the death," which had been inflicted upon its predecessor by the sword; which will afford scope, also, for accompanying the Name of Blasphemy in further development, until we find it seated imperially upon the seven heads.

The Roman Empire of the West was extinguished A.D. 476-479, by the conquering sword of the king of the Heruli, Odoacer. This ruler reigned in Rome about fourteen years, when he was succeeded by the renowned Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, the Arian king of Italy. This prince was born in the neighborhood of Vienna, and educated at Constantinople with care and tenderness. On his father's death he had succeeded to the hereditary throne of the Amali, who were subsidized as defenders of the frontier by the government of Constantinople. His people murmured at this arrangement, until he found it necessary to withdraw from the service of the emperor, and to lead them to some enterprise by which their fortunes would be improved. Having determined on this course he wrote to the emperor Zeno in the following words:

"Although your servant is maintained in affluence by your liberality, graciously listen to the wishes of my heart! Italy, the inheritance of your predecessors, and Rome itself, the Heart and Mistress of the world, now fluctuate under the violence of Odoacer, the Mercenary. Direct me, with my national troops, to march against the tyrant. If I fall, you will be relieved from an expensive and troublesome friend; if, with the divine permission, I succeed; I shall govern in your name, and to your glory, the Roman Senate, and the part of the republic delivered from slavery by my victorious arms." Theodoric's proposal was accepted by the Byzantine Court. He marched against the tyrant in the depth of a rigorous winter, and after many obscure and bloody battles, he descended from the Julian Alps and displayed his invincible banners on the confines of Italy. The conflict between Odoacer and Theodoric was severe; but at length the former capitulated, and, being removed by death, the royalty of Theodoric was proclaimed by the Ostrogoths, "with the tardy, reluctant, ambiguous consent of the Emperor of the East."

After this manner the Seventh Head was developed and established upon the Seven Hills; the Dragon tardily, reluctantly and ambiguously ceding to it "his power, and his throne, and extensive jurisdiction (ch. 13:2). Theodoric reigned thirty-three years, from A.D. 493 to A.D. 526. Among the barbarian Horns of the West the victory of Theodoric had spread a general alarm. But as soon as it appeared that he was satiated with conquest and desired peace, terror was changed into respect, and they submitted to a powerful mediation, which was uniformly employed for the best purposes of reconciling their quarrels and civilizing their manners. A wife, two daughters, a sister and a niece, united the family of Theodoric with the kings of the Franks, the Burgundians, the Visigoths, the Vandals and the Thuringians, and contributed to maintain the harmony, or at least the balance, of the great western Republic of the horns. He reduced, under a strong and regular government, the unprofitable countries of Rhcetia, Noricum, Dalmatia and Pannonia, from the source of the Danube and the territory of the Bavarians, to the kingdom erected by the Gepidae on the ruins of Sirmium. His greatness awakened the jealousy of Anastasius, the emperor of the east, who ravaged the sea-coast of Calabria and Apulia, but the activity and moderation of Theodoric were soon rewarded by a solid and honorable peace. He maintained with a powerful hand the balance of the Horn-Powers of the west, till it was at length overthrown by the ambition of Clovis, king of the Franks, whose progress he checked in the midst of their victorious career. By the Visigoths he was revered as a national protector and guardian of their infant prince. Under this respectable character, the king of Italy restored the praetorian prefecture of the Gauls, reformed some abuses in the civil government of Spain, and accepted the annual tribute and apparent submission of its military governor. The sovereignty of the Seventh Head was established from Sicily to the Danube, and from Belgrade to the Atlantic ocean, and the Greeks themselves have acknowledged that Theodoric reigned over the fairest portion of the western empire.

"From a tender regard to the expiring prejudices of Rome," says the historian, "the barbarian declined the name, the purple and the diadem of the emperors; but he assumed, under the hereditary title of king, the whole substance and plenitude of imperial prerogative. His addresses to the eastern throne were respectful and ambiguous; he celebrated in pompous style the harmony of The Two Republics, applauded his own government as the perfect similitude of a sole and undivided empire (or Head), and claimed above the kings of the earth (the Diademed Horns) the same pre-eminence which he modestly allowed to the person or rank of Anastasius." "They worshipped the Dragon, and they worshipped the Beast," which is further illustrated by Gibbon, who continues: "the alliance of the East and West was annually declared by the unanimous choice of two consuls; but it should seem that the Italian candidate, who was named by Theodoric, accepted a formal confirmation from the sovereign at Constantinople." The fifteen regions of Italy were governed according to the principles and even the forms of Roman jurisprudence. The civil administration, with its honors and emoluments, was confined to the Italians, for whom were reserved the arts of peace, and the Goths were used for the service of war and public defense. These barbarians held their lands and benefices as a military stipend; at the sound of the trumpet they were prepared to march under the conduct of their provincial officers, and the whole extent of Italy was distributed into the several quarters of a well-regulated camp.

With the protection, Theodoric assumed the legal supremacy of the Catholic Church. He was not ignorant of the dignity and importance of the Bishop of Rome, to whom was now appropriated the name of POPE. When "the chair of St. Peter" was disputed by Symmachus and Lawrence, they appeared at his summons before the tribunal of an Arian king, and he confirmed the election of the one he most approved. At the end of his life, in a moment of jealousy and resentment, he prevented the choice of the Romans, by nominating a pope in the palace of Ravenna. This produced great excitement, which he controlled, and the last decree of the Senate was enacted to extinguish, if it were possible, "the scandalous venality of the papal elections."

The reign of Theodoric was mild, tolerant and promotive of the prosperity, security and happiness of the people. But his ungrateful subjects could never be cordially reconciled to the origin, the religion, or even the virtues of the Gothic conqueror; past calamities were forgotten, and the sense or suspicion of injuries was rendered still more exquisite by the present felicity of the times. The religious toleration which Theodoric had the glory of introducing into the Catholic world, was painful and offensive to the Trinitarian zeal of the Italians. They dared not disturb the armed heresy of the Goths; therefore, they sought to vent their pious and cowardly rage by falling upon the rich and defenceless Jews. Their persons were insulted, their effects were pillaged, and their synagogues were burnt by the mad populace of Rome and Ravenna, inflamed by the most frivolous or extravagant pretences. A legal inquiry was instantly directed by the king; who, as the authors of the tumult had escaped, condemned the whole community to repair the damage; and the obstinate bigots who refused their contributions, were whipped through the streets by the hand of the executioner. This simple act of justice exasperated the discontent of the Trinitarians, who applauded the merit and patience of these so-called "holy confessors;" and from three hundred pulpits deplored the persecution of the church. "At the close of a glorious life," says Gibbon, "the king of Italy discovered he had excited the hatred of a people whose happiness he had labored so assiduously to promote; and his mind was soured by indignation, jealousy and the bitterness of unrequited love." Thus were embittered the relations between the Gothic Head and the Trinitarian Italians, who were devoted to the traditions of the Council of Nice, whom Theodoric suspected of a secret and treasonable correspondence with the Byzantine representative of the Head smitten by the sword. The powers of this government were then in the hands of JUSTINIAN, who already meditated the extirpation of heresy, and the reconquest of Italy and Africa; in other words, the healing of the plague of the sword, with which imperialism had been smitten in these countries, as it were, to death. A rigorous law which was published at Constantinople to reduce the Arians by the dread of punishment within the pale of the Catholic orthodoxy, awakened the just resentment of Theodoric, who claimed for his distressed brethren of the East the same indulgence which he had so long granted to the Trinitarian Catholics of his dominions. At his stern command, the Bishop of Rome, with four illustrious senators, embarked on an embassy. The singular veneration shown to the Bishop, who was the first pope that had visited Constantinople, was punished by Theodoric as a crime; and a mandate was prepared in Italy to prohibit, after a stated day, the exercise of the Catholic worship. "by the bigot of his subjects and enemies," says Gibbon, "the most tolerant of prince was driven to the brink of persecution." The celebrated Boethius, "Roman senator, philosopher and minister of state, his father-in-law the patrician Symmachus, and Albinus, also a senator, were accused of treason for "hoping the liberty of Rome," and actually inviting the Emperor Justinian to deliver Italy from the Goths; in other words, to under take the healing of the wounded head that it might live. The suspicion of Theodoric were probably not groundless, and could only be appeased by their blood. They were executed, and the treason charged assumed a terrible reality in succeeding reigns.

On the death of Theodoric, August 30, A.D. 526, the throne of the Seventh Head was occupied by his grandson, Athalaric, aged ten years, with his mother Amalasuntha as guardian and regent of the kingdom of Italy. She ruled the country about eight years, during which a spirit of discord and disaffection prevailed, and the Goths supported with reluctance the indignity of a female reign. Her son Athalaric dying, she caused it to be announced to the Senate of Rome and the Emperor of Constantinople, that she and Theodatus, her cousin, had jointly ascended the throne of Italy. But this regal partnership was soon dissolved by Theodatus, by whose orders she was first imprisoned, and then strangled in the bath, A.D. 535.

The emperor Justinian, who had recently "plucked up by the roots" the Vandal Horn in Africa, beheld with joy the dissensions of the Goths in Italy, who were feebly and unworthily governed by Theodatus. He considered the opportunity as favorable for the healing of his wounded authority over Italy. He demanded therefore the abdication of the Gothic king, and the surrender of the ancient provinces of the empire. Though agreed to by the weakness and imbecility of Theodatus, its execution was prevented by his assassination, and the elevation of Vitiges to the throne. Justinian, however, was not to be thwarted in this way. He ordered BELISARIUS to invade Italy with the forces of the empire, and to wrest it from the Goths. The invasion was easy, but the expulsion of two hundred thousand warlike barbarians in arms, proved to be a work of great difficulty.

Having recovered Sicily, the general of Justinian landed his forces in Italy, A. D. 536. From the capture of Naples he proceeded against Rome, which had been left to a feeble garrison, and the fidelity of its citizens. "But", says Gibbon, "a momentary enthusiasm of religion and patriotism was kindled in their minds. They furiously exclaimed, that THE APOSTOLIC THRONE should no longer be profaned by the triumph or toleration of Arianism; that the tombs of the Caesars should no longer be trampled by the savages of the north; and, without reflecting, that Italy must sink into a province of Constantinople, they fondly hailed the restoration of the Roman emperor as a new era of freedom and prosperity. The deputies of the pope and clergy, of the Senate and people, invited the lieutenant of Justinian to accept their voluntary allegiance, and to enter the city whose gates would be thrown open for his reception." He readily accepted their allegiance, and made his entrance at the Asinarian gate, while the Gothic garrison departed without molestation along the Flaminian way; and the city after sixty years' servitude, was delivered from the yoke of the barbarians. The keys of Rome were sent to the throne of the emperor Justinian, to whom they were delivered by the Gothic commander of the garrison, who refused to accompany his troops in their retreat.

But Vitiges was not idle. During the winter season he collected an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men. With these forces he besieged Belisarius in Rome for more than a year. The city was greatly distressed. The general pitied the sufferings of the people, whose loyalty to the emperor had notably decayed, while their discontents proportionately increased. "Adversity," says Gibbon, "had awakened the Romans from the dreams of grandeur and freedom, and taught them the humiliating lesson, that it was of small moment to their real happiness, whether the name of their master was derived from the Gothic or the Latin language." Among the disaffected was Sylverius, the incumbent of the recently erected "Apostolic Throne." A letter subscribed by him was intercepted, which assured the king of the Goths, that the Asinarian gate, adjoining to the Lateran church, should be secretly opened to his troops. On this proof of treason, he was summoned to attend at the headquarters of Belisarius, and there to give an account of himself. The ecclesiastics who followed the pope, were detained in an anteroom, and he alone was admitted into the presence of the general. Belisarius was silent, but the voice of reproach and menace issued from the mouth of Antonina, his imperious wife. Being convicted of the treason, the pretended successor of St. Peter was despoiled of his pontifical ornaments, clad in the mean habit of a monk, and embarked without delay for a distant exile in the east, and was afterwards either slain or murdered upon a desolate island. At the emperor's command, the clergy of Rome proceeded to the choice of a new bishop; they therefore elected a deacon Vigilius, who had purchased the papal throne by a bribe of two hundred pounds of gold. From these circumstances the reader will perceive the relation in which the bishop of Rome stood to the imperial power in the first half of the sixth century. He was still subject to the civil authority though spiritual "Head of all the Churches" of the empire. The imperial authority was now in Rome again in power, or maintained by force of arms. Had this been permanent the pope would never have become a temporal sovereign; but would have lived and died the servant of the emperors. Hence, the removal of this pressure was necessary to the setting up of an imperial episcopal image upon the seven hills. The decollation of the Seventh Head, and the reduction of Rome to a subordinate rank among cities, would accomplish this; and therefore the calamities of the times as developed in this Gothic war.

Succors arriving from Constantinople, Rome was delivered from the Goths, who raised the siege, and fell back upon Ravenna. This well fortified city was at length captured by Belisarius, who also obtained possession of Vitiges the Gothic king, whom he sent prisoner to Constantinople, A.D. 539. By these reverses they lost their king, an inconsiderable loss truly, their capital, their treasures, the provinces from Sicily to the Alps, and the military force of two hundred thousand barbarians magnificently equipped with horses and arms. Yet all was not lost. Totila the nephew of the captive king was chosen to succeed him; and, at the head of five thousand soldiers, generously undertook the restoration of the kingdom of Italy.

Having routed twenty thousand Romans near Faenza, he crossed the Po, and traversing the Apennine, laid siege to Naples, which he reduced; and then retracing his steps, laid siege to Rome, whose Senate and people he calmly exhorted to compare the tyranny of the Greeks with the blessings of the Gothic reign.

Totila was chaste and temperate; and none were deceived who depended on his faith or his clemency. By his virtues in contrast with the vices of the officials, who served the interests of imperialism, a new people, under the appellation of Goths, was insensibly formed in his camp. The situation of the imperialists had already become desperate; and the return of Belisarius to save the country he had subdued in the first war, was pressed with equal vehemence by his friends and enemies. He reluctantly accepted the painful task of supporting his own reputation, and retrieving the faults of his successors. The sea being open to the Romans, he entered the port of Ravenna. From thence he addressed both the Goths and Italians in the name of Justinian, his gracious master, who, he said, was inclined to pardon and reward. But not a man was tempted to desert the standard of the Gothic king. Belisarius soon discovered that he had been sent by Justinian to remain the idle and impotent spectator of the glory of the young barbarian Totila. This he by no means approved; and, in an epistle to the emperor, exhibited a lively picture of the crisis, which caused him great distress. "Most excellent prince," says he, "we are arrived in Italy, destitute of all the necessary implements of war, men, horses, arms, and money. In our late circuit through the villages of Thrace and Illyricum, we have collected with extreme difficulty, about four thousand recruits, naked, and unskilled in the use of weapons and the exercises of the camp. The soldiers already stationed in the province are discontented, fearful and dismayed; at the sound of an enemy, they dismiss their horses, and cast their arms on the ground. No taxes can be raised, since Italy is in the hands of the barbarians; the failure of payment has deprived us of the right of command, or even of admonition. Be assured, Dread Sir, that the greater part of your troops have already deserted to the Goths. If the war could be achieved by the presence of Belisarius alone, your wishes are satisfied; Belisarius is in the midst of Italy. But, if you desire to conquer, far other preparations are requisite: without a military force, the title of general is an empty name. It would be expedient to restore to my service my own veterans and domestic guards. Before I can take the field, I must receive an adequate supply of light and heavy armed troops; and it is only with ready money that you can procure the indispensable aid of a powerful body of the cavalry of the Huns."

In the meantime, the siege of Rome was closely pressed by Totila, A.D. 546. The inhabitants were gradually reduced to feed on dead horses, dogs, cats, and mice, and eagerly to snatch the grass, and even the nettles, which grew among the ruins of the city. The failure of Belisarius to throw supplies into the place, left Rome without protection to the mercy or indignation of Totila; by whose instrumentality the Deity was inflicting plagues upon the Trinitarian adherents of the Name of Blasphemy upon the Seven Hills. The continuance of hostilities had embittered the national hatred; the Arian clergy were ignominiously driven from Rome; Pelagius, the archdeacon, returned without success from an embassy to the Gothic camp; and a Sicilian bishop, the envoy or nuncio of pope Vigilius, was deprived of both his hands for daring to utter falsehoods in the service of the Trinitanan church and state

At length on Dec.17 the Goths were treacherously admitted into the city. As soon as daylight had displayed the entire victory of the Goths, Totila devoutly visited the so-called tomb of St. Peter; but while he prayed at the altar, twenty-five soldiers and sixty citizens, were put to the sword in the vestibule of the temple. The archdeacon Pelagius stood before him with "the gospel" in his hand, and exclaimed, "0 Lord, be merciful to your servant." "Pelagius," said Totila, with an insulting smile, "your pride now condescends to become a suppliant." "I am a suppliant," he prudently replied, "God has now made us your subjects, and as your subjects we are entitled to your clemency." At his humble prayer the lives of the Romans were spared, and the passions of the hungry soldiers restrained. But they were rewarded with the freedom of pillage. The next day he pronounced two orations, to congratulate and admonish the victorious Goths, and to reproach the Senate, as the vilest of slaves, with their perjury, folly, and ingratitude. Yet he consented to forgive their revolt. Against the city he appeared inexorable; and the world was astonished at the fatal decree, that Rome should be changed into a pasture for cattle. The firm and temperate remonstrance of Belisarius suspended the execution; and Totila was at length persuaded to preserve Rome as the ornament of his kingdom. Having demolished one third of the walls in different parts, and stationed an army about fifteen miles from the city to observe the motions of Belisarius, he marched with the remainder of his forces into Lucania and Apulia. The Senators were dragged in his train, and afterwards confined in the fortress of Campania; the citizens with their wives and children, and the pope and his clergy of all ranks and degrees, were dispersed in exile; and during forty days and more Rome was abandoned to desolate and dreary solitude.

And here it would be well for the reader to pause, and reflect upon this chasm of forty days in the life of "THE Mistress OF THE WORLD" -"the Woman, that Great City," which in the apostles' day, and ecclesiastically in ours, "reigneth over the regal powers of the earth" (ch. 17:18). If the foundation of Rome be correctly stated at 753 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, the "Eternal City," so called, became a vacant space twelve hundred and ninety-nine years after. This chasm of forty days is nearly the central epoch of the city's existence. Twelve hundred and sixty years afterwards, Totila was represented by Napoleon, crowned emperor and king of Italy by the Pope. Totila was not unlike his modern representative in some respects. He had but little respect for Rome or its bishop. He filled Rome with darkness, so that no political lights, civil or ecclesiastical, shone in it for forty days; so also, Napoleon, as the executive of the Fifth Vial, poured vengeance upon Rome; and filled the kingdom, of which it is the seat or throne, with darkness.

When Totila consented not to reduce it to a pasture for cattle, but to leave it a vacant and standing monument of the wrath of heaven, he carried off the pope with him into captivity; and 1260 years after, Napoleon degraded the city to a subordinate rank, and transferred the pope from a throne to captivity at Fontainbleau. Thirteen hundred and twenty years (1320) have now elapsed since this notable forty days of solitude; and it is exceedingly probable that but few more years will elapse ere this renowned centre of crime, blasphemy, and everything unclean and hateful, finds itself submerged in the unfathomable depths of a solitude, whose silence will never again be broken by the trumpet, or its darkness dispelled by a glimmering of light (ch. 18:22,23).

After this forty days of solitude the city was reoccupied by Belisarius, who sent its keys (for there were then no "St. Peter's keys" to send) a second time to Justinian. But the imperialists were unable to hold it. In A.D. 549, the Goths laid siege to it again, and took it. Totila no longer desired to destroy the edifices of Rome, which he now respected as the throne of the Gothic kingdom; the Senate and people were now restored, and the means of subsistence were liberally provided. He reduced the cities of Rhegium and Tarentum; and annexed Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. At every step of his victories, he repeated to Justinian his desire of peace, applauded the concord of their predecessors, and offered to employ the Gothic arms in the service of the Dragon-empire.

But, Justinian, true to the character of "the king who" should "do according to his will" (Dan. 11:35), was deaf to the voice of peace; but he neglected, through indolence, the prosecution of the war. From this slumber he was aroused by Vigilius, "the Head of all the churches" of his estate, and the patrician Cethagus, who appeared before his throne, and adjured him in the name of the Deity and the people, to resume the conquest and deliverance of Italy. An army was assembled, and under the command of Narses, was ordered to march against the Goths. Totila, conscious that the clergy and people of Italy aspired to a second revolution, resolved to risk the Gothic kingdom on the chance of a day, in which the valiant would be animated by instant danger, and the disaffected might be awed by mutual ignorance. The decisive battle was fought at Taginas, about ninety-five miles from Rome, in July, A.D. 552. The Goths were defeated, and Totila was slain. Narses, having paid his devotions to "the blessed Virgin," his imaginary goddess, and peculiar patroness, whose inspiration he professed had revealed to him the day, and the word of battle, advanced towards Rome, which did not long delay his progress. The keys of the city were for the third time sent to Justinian, under whose reign it had been five times taken and recovered. "But the deliverance of Rome," says Gibbon, "was the last calamity of the Roman people." Three hundred youths of the noble' families, who were hostages in the hands of the Goths, were slain by Teias, the successor of Totila. "The fate of the Senate suggests an awful lesson of the vicissitude of human affairs. All the fortresses of Campani were stained with patrician blood. After a period of thirteen centuries the institution of Romulus expired; and if the nobles of Rome still assumed the title of senators, few subsequent traces can be discovered of public council, or constitutional order. Ascend six hundred years, an contemplate the kings of the earth soliciting an audience, as the slaves or freemen of the ROMAN SENATE!"

In the following March, A.D. 553, was fought the battle of the Draco, in which the new king was slain. While exchanging his buckle his uncovered side was pierced with a mortal dart. "He fell, and his head exalted upon a spear, proclaimed to the nations that the Gothic kingdom was no more."

Thus, after a reign of sixty years, the Seventh Head of the Drago and the Beast was destroyed from the Seven Hills. The Roman Senate and the Gothic kingdom became extinct together. Their place was filled by the Exarchs of Ravenna, who were the representatives in peace ant war of the Constantinopolitan Dragon. But, though this power, after the agitation of a long tempest, had regained possession of Italy, the wounded Sixth Head was not yet "healed;" neither indeed could it be until Rome again became the throne of an imperial dominion. Instead of this, on the fall of the Seventh Head, whose "short space" had passed away with the death of Teias, the former Mistress of the World was de throned. The civil state of Italy was fixed, A.D. 554, by a pragmatic sanction of twenty-seven articles, which the emperor Justinian promulgated at the request of the pope, who was still a subject, ruled by the emperor's lieutenant resident in Ravenna. Justinian introduced his own jurisprudence into the schools and tribunals of the west; and ratified the acts of Theodoric and his immediate successors. Under the Exarchs of Ravenna, ROME was degraded to the second rank among the cities of the empire. The regulation of weights and measures was delegated to the pope and municipal senate. But, however benevolent their edicts, the power of rulers is most effectual to destroy; and twenty years of the Gothic war had consummated the distress and depopulation of Italy; so that "a strict interpretation of the evidence of Procopius," says Gibboi "would swell the loss of Italy above the total sum of her present inhabitants."

The Sixth and the Seventh Heads which hindered the manifestation of the Name of Blasphemy upon the Seven Hills being taken out of the way, scope was now afforded for its development into the EIGHTH HEAD of the Beast. From the epoch of the settlement of Italy A. D. 554-559, and during the ensuing two hundred and forty years of Rome's eclipse, the greatest, or most influential subject in the degraded city, was the pope. There was no constitutional superior therein to over-awe or keep him down. In the times of the Seventh Head, which was Arian, he was in great trouble, and especially during the Gothic war. Indeed, he has always fallen upon troublous times when he has had for ruler or neighbor, an independent king of Italy. It is so at this day. A king of Italy naturally enough claims Rome for the capital of his kingdom which is incompatible with the sovereignty and independence of the Name of Blasphemy upon the Seven Hills.

Having, then, put the reader in possession of so much of history as will enable him to identify the Seventh Head and having brought him down to the epoch of its decollation or destruction which was necessary for the subsequent "healing" of the wounded Sixth Head of Rome's imperialism; it behooves us to pause in our exposition, that we may bring up arrears in regard to the development of the Name of Blasphemy upon the heads. When this is sufficiently advanced we shall have brought the ecclesiastical into line with the civil; and be prepared to carry them on together until the healing process is completed in their expansion into the Eighth Head upon the Seven Hills, as symbolized in this thirteenth chapter by the Beast of the Earth with Two Horns like a lamb, and speaking as a Dragon.

[*Decollation : beheading]

The Name of Blasphemy is the Eye and Mouth, or ecclesiastic element of the Eighth Head. As we have seen, this ecclesiastical constituent of the Beast was working upwards towards enthronization over all, anterior to the establishment of the Ten Gothic Horns upon the Roman Habitable. When the citizens and clergy of Rome were seize with a spirit of patriotism and superstitious zeal, A.D. 536, "they furiously exclaimed," says Gibbon, "that THE APOSTOLIC THRONE should no longer be profaned by the triumph or toleration of Arianism." Belisarius was then at the gates, and the Gothic king in possession of the city. Hence, the people of that day evidently recognized two thrones contemporary existence within the walls - the Secular Throne of the king of Italy; and the Ecclesiastical Throne of the Archbishop and Patriarch of Rome. In Italy, the "Apostolic Throne" was overshadowed by the Secular; and as the Patriarch of Constantinople was in domestic slavery under the eye of his master, the Greek emperor, as he is at this day under the Sultan; so the Patriarch of Rome, occupying a distant an dangerous station amidst the Barbarians of the West, was the enthrone slave of his master, the king of Italy; who, while he professed great reverence for the throne of St. Peter, did not hesitate to chastise his pretended successor when convinced of disloyalty to the Gothic throne.

But as to this Apostolic throne. Whence its origin; by what authority was it established? John was informed that "the Dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and an extensive jurisdiction." This was the constitutional source of all the Bishop of Rome's preeminence. He obtained no honors, privileges, and immunities from the kings of the Seventh Head. He derived all he possessed from the emperors of the East and of the West; who were the great and powerful patrons by whom he was acknowledged as a god of gods upon earth.

His development, however, into an enthroned god was gradual and progressive. In the Canons of the Council of Chalcedon, A.D. 450, the Bishop of Rome is styled, "Beatissimus Papa urbis Rome, qui est capu omnium ecclesiarum," i.e. the most blessed Pope of Rome, who is "THE HEAD OF ALL CHURCHES." About five years before this the western emperor, Valentinian III., and the eastern emperor, Theodosius II., unitedly published an imperial edict, or law, in which the Bishop of Rome is styled, "DIRECTOR OF UNIVERSAL CHRISTENDOM." In this edict, the presumptuousness of resistance to the Holy See was sharply rebuked, the whole body of bishops bidden to do nothing without his approbation and the universal clergy to obey him as their ruler. "From this time (A.D. 445) says Ranke, "the power of the Roman Bishops grew up under protection of the Roman Emperor himself." He was their especial patron, and predicted as such, as we have already seen in what is testified concerning the Dragon in the second verse of this chapter.

We come now to that remarkable epoch of four years, extending from A.D. 529 to 533. This belongs to the earliest years of Justinian, who began to reign in Constantinople, A.D. 527. The Catholics of Italy, then subject to the Arian kings of the Seventh Head, were greatly attached to him as "worshippers of the Dragon and the Beast," because as Gibbon says, "he trod the narrow path of inflexible and intolerant orthodoxy. After a schism of thirty-four years, he reconciled the proud and angry spirit of the Roman Pontiff, and spread among the Latins a favorable report of his pious respect for the Apostolic See. The thrones of the East were filled with (Trinitarian) Catholic bishops devoted to his interests, the clergy and monks were gained by his liberality, and the people were taught to pray for their sovereign as the hope and pillar of the true religion."

In this epoch of his reign, and by his care, the Roman Civil Jurisprudence was digested in what Gibbon styles," the immortal works of the Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes." These, "the public reason of the Romans, have been silently or studiously transfused into the domestic institutions of Europe; and the laws of Justinian still command the respect or obedience of independent nations." "The Code, Pandects, and Institutes were declared to be the legitimate system of civil jurisprudence; they alone were admitted in the tribunals, and they alone were taught in the academies of Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus. Justin-ian addressed to the Senate and provinces his Eternal Oracles; and his pride, under the mask of piety, ascribed the consummation of this great design to the support and inspiration of the Deity."

In the theological character drawn of him by Gibbon, he says, that he sympathized with his subjects in their superstitious reverence for living and departed saints: his Code, and more especially his Novels, confirm and enlarge the privileges of the clergy; and in every dispute between a monk and a layman he was inclined to pronounce that truth, and innocence, and justice were always on the side of the church. His fancy was amused by the hope or belief of personal inspiration; and that he had secured the patronage of the Virgin, and St. Michael the archangel. Among the titles of imperial greatness, the name of Pious was most pleasing to his ear; to promote the temporal and spiritual interest of the Catholic church was the serious business of his life; and the duty of father of his country was often sacrificed to that of defender of the Catholic faith. Justinian was a bigoted tyrant; and his reign a uniform yet various scene of persecution. He surpassed his indolent predecessors, both in the contrivance of his laws against heretics and the rigor of their execution. He assigned three months for the conversion or exile of all such; and if he still connived at their precarious stay, they were deprived, under his iron yoke, not only of the benefits of society, but of the common birthright of men and religionists. The residue of pagans, Jews, and Samaritans were equally obnoxious to his theological ire. The last were exterminated with fire and sword; and the once fruitful province of Samaria was converted into a desolate and smoking wilderness. It has been computed that one hundred thousand Roman subjects were extirpated in this Samaritan war. "But in the creed of Justinian," says the historian, "the guilt of murder could not be applied to the slaughter of unbelievers: and he piously labored to establish with fire and sword the unity of the Catholic faith."

Such was Justinian, the diademed representative of the Dragon from A.D. 527 to A.D. 565; and of Daniel's Little Horn King, who worked according to his will; to whom the Patriarch of Rome was greatly indebted in the establishment of his self-exaltation "over all called god or sebasma" - an object of veneration. His "policy" was that of an ecclesiastical ruler of the class typified by Constantine the great." "Never prince," says Dupin, "did meddle so much with what concerns the affairs of the Church, nor make so many constitutions and laws upon the subject. He was persuaded that it was the duty of an emperor, and for the good of the State, to have a particular care of the church, to defend its faith, to regulate external discipline, and to employ the civil laws and the temporal power to preserve it in order and peace."

Although the Bishop of Rome had himself claimed supremacy over all other bishops of the Roman earth, including the Patriarch of Constantinople, this claim had not been imperially, or Dragonically, recognized, until the publication of a Decretal Epistle from Justinian to the Pope, dated March, A.D. 533. "It is hence evident," says Gothofred, the editor of the Justinian Code, cited by Cunninghame, "that they who suppose Phocas to have been the first who gave imperial recognition to the primacy of the Roman See over that of Constantinople are in error: Justinian having acknowledged it before."

"And the King (the Dragon-Power of the Apocalypse) shall do according to his own will. . . And in his estate (or empire) he shall honor the god of guardians (the Bishop of Rome): even a god whom his (pagan) fathers knew not shall he honor with gold and silver, and precious stones and things desired. Thus shall he do in the Bazaars of the Guardians (temples dedicated to fictitious saints and angels) with a foreign god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory" (Dan.11:36-39). The form of this acknowledgment is found in the aforesaid Decretal Epistle; from the Latin copy of which, as given in Elliot's Notes, I have translated the following extracts for the information of the English reader.

"Justinian the Victorious, the Pious, &c., always August, to John the Most Holy Archbishop of the Sacred City Rome, and Patriarch.

Rendering honor to the Apostolic Throne and to your Holiness... we hasten to bring to the knowledge of your Holiness all things which pertain to the state of the churches: because we have always a great desire to preserve the unity of your Apostolic Throne, and the state of the holy churches of God which hitherto obtains, and unchangeably continues, nothing to the contrary intervening. Therefore we have hastened both to subject and to unite to the Throne of your Holiness all the priests of the whole eastern region. . . For we neither suffer anything that pertains to the state of the churches, although what is agitated may be man-ifest and indubitable, that may not be known also to your Holiness, who is the Head of All the Holy Churches. For through all, as it is said, we hasten to increase the honor and authority of your throne."

After this follows a statement of certain heresies then existing in regard to the person of Christ; also of Justinian's own belief, and its orthodox agreement with the dogmas of the four preceding General Councils of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon, in conformity with the creed of the Roman See - "Accordingly," says he, "all priests, following the doctrine of your Apostolic Throne, so believe and confess and preach." The epistle then proceeds.

"Whence we have hastened to bring this to the knowledge of your Holiness by the Most Blessed Bishops HYPATIUS and DEMETRIUS, that the things be not concealed from your Holiness which are wickedly and judaically denied by some few monks according to the falsehood of Nestorius. We intreat therefore your paternal affection, as by your letters addressed to us and to the Most Holy Bishop of this Sacred City (of Constantine) and your brother Patriarch (and because he has written by the same (bishops), hastening in all things to follow the Apostolic Throne of your Blessedness) made manifest to us that your Holiness may acknowledge all who rightly confess the things aforesaid, and may condemn the falsehood of those who may dare judaically to deny the right faith. For so both the love of all increases more towards you, and the authority of your throne: and the unity of the holy churches which is to you will be maintained undisturbed: when through you all the most blessed bishops of those which pertain to you shall have learned the pure doctrine of your Holiness."

This letter was written to the Bishop of Rome then subject to the king of Italy, while Justinian was meditating the reconquest of the country. Three years after, Rome was besieged by Belisarius. The letter was exceedingly flattering to the Bishop's pride and ambition, in that he found himself authoritatively seated upon the Seven Hills as enthroned head over all ecclesiastical affairs of the Roman world. But the Seventh Head, which was Arian, did not coincide with Justinian in the acknowledgment of the Pope as the Head of all churches. The Arian Catholic churches repudiated his headship; they were therefore, being heretics, the natural enemies of Justinian and his Universal Bishop, whose policy could not be established until the Seventh Head was abolished, and the Arians suppressed. Hence, the invasion of Italy; the sympathy of the Trinitarians in Rome with the invader; and the persecution of heretics of every variety of belief; and the location of the Dragon's Viceroy in Ravenna, instead of Rome. The settlement of Italy by Justinian according to the Pragmatic Sanction, granted at the Pope's request, A.D. 554, by reducing Rome to the second rank, left the Apostolic Throne therein free from the overshadowing and blighting presence of a sovereign temporal authority; and thus "the Dragon gave to him his power and his throne and an extensive jurisdiction," saying in the 131st of the Novels, we ordain that the Most Holy Pope of the Elder Rome be the first of all priests" even in that Rome, which in the 9th of the Novels he styles, "the native country of the laws, the fountain of the priesthood."

The Seventh Head being destroyed, and the Bishop of Rome acknowledged by the Catholic Dragon of the East, as the Pontiff of the empire, the next desideratum was that he should be acknowledged by all the Horns of the West. This implied their conversion from paganism and Arianism to what Justinian styles "the right faith," and the "pure doctrine of his Holiness." These Horns belong to the times of Imperialism, which was worshipped by them in the Western Emperor while there was one, and afterwards in the Eastern. They were the Diademed Viceroys of Rome, and Constantinople, being Masters-General and Patricians of the empire - a political relation to Imperialism which legitimized their governments in the estimation of their Roman subjects, who greatly exceeded the number of their barbarian conquerors. The beginning and the ending of this political relationship, with but slight recognition of them in the long interval of 1335 years, are the subject of Apocalyptic symbolization. The beginning was the seed or elements of things in the period of politico-ecclesiastical organization; the ending, the ripe harvest and vintage (Apoc. 14) in the period of analysis or dissolution: so as that in some sort, the beginning was typical of the ending.

The rude-Horn Governments holding this relation to Imperialism, with the Lawyers and Clergy of their kingdoms practitioners and professors of Roman law and Roman Theology, easily accepted the legislation of Justinian in favor of the Pope and their own interests legal and ecclesiastical. A clergy the great majority of whom were Trinitarian, and Viceregal administrations, partly pagan and partly Arian, were the constitutional elements of the situation in the sixth century. The clergy of the kingdoms recognized and sympathized with the Pope and his patrons the Emperor of the East: and operated upon the barbarian kings and governments as imperial and papal missionaries for their conversion to "the right faith," and "the pure doctrine of his Holiness," in other words, to the Roman Catholic Trinitarian Superstition.

Here, then, in this beginning were the Little Horn of the East (Dan. 8:9,12,23-25), the Catholic Dragon of Constantinople; and the Papal Eyes and Mouth, occupying the so-called Apostolic Throne upon the Seven Mountains, the Name of Blasphemy; and the Gothic Horns. Of these, the Vandal Horn, which was Arian, and defiant both of the Pope and the Emperor, had been "plucked up by the roots" by the forces of Justinian under Belisarius. The horn of the Gepidae was transferred to the Chagan of the Avars, the representative for two hundred and thirty years of the modern kingdom of Hungary. These were hostile to the Apostolic Throne. The opposition of the rest was gradually overcome. Clovis(*) king of the Franks, on occasion of a victory, embraced the faith of Rome, A.D. 496; and so being the first, received the title, which has been handed down through more than thirteen centuries, to his successors the kings of France, of Eldest Son of the Church. In the sixth century the rest of the Horns gave in their adhesion to the Papal Faith. Recared was the first papal king of Spain. He reigned from A.D. 586 to A.D. 589. "The royal proselyte," says Gibbon, "immediately saluted and consulted Pope Gregory, surnamed the Great, a learned and holy prelate, whose reign was distinguished by the conversion of heretics and infidels. The ambassadors of Recared respectfully offered upon the threshold of the Vatican his rich presents of gold and gems; they accepted, as a lucrative exchange, the hairs of St. John the Baptist, a cross which enclosed a piece of the true wood, and a key that contained some particles of iron, which had been scraped from the chains of St. Peter."

The Lombard Horn was the last of the ten to renounce Arianism, for "the pure doctrine of his Holiness" of Rome. This occurred A.D. 600, through the instigation of Gregory the Great, who encouraged his co-religionist, Theodelinda, the Queen of the Lombards, to propogate the Nicene faith among her victorious savages(*). "Her devout labors," says Gibbon, "still left room for the industry and success of future missionaries; and many cities of Italy were still disputed by hostile bishops. But the cause of Arianism was gradually suppressed by the weight of interest and example, and the controversy, which Egypt had derived from the Platonic school, was terminated, after a war of three hundred years, by the final conversion of the Lombards of Italy."

Thus was the Bishop of Rome developed into "the Mouth" of the great VICEREGAL REPUBLIC OF THE WEST; and after this manner was fulfilled the oracle, saying, "And there was given to him (the Beast of the Sea) a Mouth." It was a mouth like the mouth of the symbol of Babylon, "the mouth of a lion." When it spoke it roared forth thunderings and blasphemies, far more hideous than ever defiled the ears of pagan or Mohammedan - a Mouth that still gives utterance to "blasphemies against the Deity to blaspheme his Name and his Tabernacle, and them that dwelleth in the heaven."

But, notwithstanding Justinian's Decretal Epistle, and the professed desire of his servant, the Patriarch of Constantinople, "in all things to follow the Apostolic Throne" of Rome's Blessed One (!), the emperors and patriarchs, their immediate successors, did not partake of this desire. As the political stability and ecclesiastical organization of the West increased and progressed, the influence of the Oriental Catholic Power, enfeebled and almost extinguished by the victorious Persians and Avars, was greatly impaired; and had become in Italy little more than an ancient name, venerable chiefly for its antiquity and past renown. This emboldened the Pope in his schemes of absolute independence, and generated a spirit of rivalry and hostility between Rome and Constantinople. The patriarchs of Constantinople, who were scarcely less arrogant and ambitious than the popes, perceiving the advantages accruing from universal ecclesiastical supremacy, refused to acknowledge the Headship of "the Most Holy Archbishop of the Sacred City of Rome," and claimed it for themselves. These equal pretensions of the rival episcopal thrones of the East and West involved them in continual strifes, which were very considerably augmented by the course of John "the Faster(*)," who, in a council held in the sixth year of the reign of the Emperor Maurice, A.D. 588, assumed the title of UNIVERSAL BISHOP, which was confirmed to him by the council. This assumption was equivalent to a claim of spiritual lordship over the pope and over all the Gothic Horns, as well as over the countries now embraced in the Ottoman empire. This had been decreed by Justinian to the Bishop of Rome fifty years before, and was now a part of the constitution of the empire, which a council had neither the power nor the right to reverse. This invasion of his rights, Pelagius II., then pope, vehemently opposed as an execrable, profane and diabolical procedure. Though Rome was no longer an imperial city, and "Mistress of the World," she was supposed to be the Throne of St. Peter, which Pelagius regarded as a better foundation for the seat of an universal bishopric than the enfeebled and tottering imperiality of Constantinople; but his invectives and arguments were equally despised, and his indignation was soon after quieted in death. He was succeeded in the A.D. 590, by Gregory the First, surnamed "the Great," a voluminous writer, and, though superstitious in the extreme, not entirely untalented. His works are still extant, and in great repute with the worshippers of the Beast. The following artful epistle, written by him to his imperial master, Maurice, at Constantinople, in consequence of John the Faster assuming the title of Universal Bishop, casts considerable light upon the history of the times, and may, therefore, with advantage to the reader be inserted here, illustrative also of the deceitful and lying utterances of the Babylonian Mouth.

"Our Most Religious Lord," says he, "whom the Deity hath placed over us, among other weighty cares belonging to the Empire, labors, according to the just rule of the sacred writings, to preserve peace and charity among the Clergy. He truly and piously considers that no man can well govern temporal matters, unless he manages with propriety things divine also; and the peace and tranquillity of the commonwealth depend upon the quiet of the universal church. For, Most Gracious Sovereign, what human power or strength would presume to lift up irreligious hands against your Most Christian Majesty, if the clergy, being at unity among themselves, would seriously pray to our Saviour Christ to preserve you who have merited so highly from us? Or what nation is there so barbarous as to exercise such cruelty against the faithful, unless the lives of us who are called priests, but in truth are not such, were most wicked and depraved? But whilst we leave those things which more immediately concern us, and embrace those things for which we are wholly unfit, we excite the barbarians against us, and our offences sharpen the swords of our enemies, by which means the commonwealth is weakened. For what can we say for ourselves, if the people of God, over whom, however unworthily, we (the pope) are placed, be oppressed by the multitude of our offenses? - if our example destroy that which our preaching should build, and our actions, as it were, give the lie to our doctrine? Our bones are worn with fasting, but our minds are puffed up!" This is a hit at John the Faster. "Our bodies are covered with mean attire, but in our hearts we are quite elated! We lie groveling in the ashes, yet we aim at things exceedingly high! We are teachers of humility, but patterns of pride, hiding the teeth of wolves under a sheep's countenance! The end of all is to make a fair appearance before men, but God knoweth the truth!

"Therefore, our Most Pious Sovereign hath been prudently careful to place the church at unity, that he might the better compose the tumults of war and join their hearts together. This verily is my wish also, and for my own part I yield due obedience to your sovereign commands" - the pope still a subject, and without temporal power. "However, since it is not my cause, but the Deity's it is not myself only but the whole church that is troubled, because religious laws, venerable synods, and the very precepts of our Lord Jesus Christ are disobeyed by the invention of a proud and pompous speech" - alluding to John the Faster's title of Universal Bishop. "My desire is, that our most religious sovereign would lance this sore, and that he would bind with the cords of his imperial authority the party affected, in case he (John) makes any resistance. By restraining him the commonwealth will be eased; and by the paring away of such excrescences the empire is enlarged. Every man that has read the gospel knows that, even by the words of our Lord, the care of the whole church is committed to St. Peter, the apostle - the Prince of all the apostles." Then follows the quotation of John 21:15-17; and Matt. 16:18,19. "Behold! He hath the keys of the kingdom, and the power of binding and loosing is committed to him. The care and principality of the whole church is committed to him; and yet he is not called 'Universal Apostle' - though this holy man, John my fellow-priest, labors to be called 'Universal Bishop!' I am compelled to cry out" -from jealousy, envy and vexation, doubtless - "0 the corruption of times and manners! Behold the barbarians (the Gothic Horns) are become lords of all Europe; cities are destroyed, castles are beaten down, provinces depopulated, there is no husbandman to till the ground, idolators rage and domineer over christians; and yet, priests, who ought to lie weeping upon the pavement in sackcloth and ashes, covet names of vanity, and glory in new names and titles. Do I, Most Religious Sovereign, in this plead my own cause?" - doubtless nobody else's. "Do I vindicate a wrong done to myself, and not maintain the cause of Almighty God and of the church universal? Who is he who presumes to usurp this new name against both the law of the gospel and of the canons? I would to God there might be one called UNIVERSAL without doing injustice to others!" - that is, the Bishop of Rome. We know that many priests of the church of Constantinople have been not only heretics, but even the chief leaders of them. Out of that school proceeded Nestorius, who, thinking it impossible that God should be made man, believed that Jesus Christ, the Mediator between God and man, was two persons, and went as far in infidelity as the Jews themselves. Thence came Macedonius, who denied the Holy Ghost, consubstantial to the Father and the Son, to be God. If, then, every one in that church assumed the name by which he makes himself the Head of all good men, the Catholic Church, which God forbid should ever be the case, must needs be over-thrown when he falls who is called UNIVERSAL. But, far from christians be this BLASPHEMOUS NAME, by which all honor is taken from all other priests, while it is foolishly arrogated by one. It was offered to the Bishop of Rome by the reverend council of Chalcedon, in honor of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles; but none of them either assumed or consented to use it, lest, while this privilege should be given to one, all others should be deprived of that honor which is due unto them. Why should 'we refuse this title when it was offered, and another assume it without any offer at all? This man (John the Faster) contemning obedience to the Canons, should be humbled by the commands of our Most Pious Sovereign. He should be chastised who does an injury to the Holy Catholic Church; whose heart is puffed up, who seeks to please himself by a name of singularity, by which he would elevate himself above the emperor! We are all scandalized at this. Let the author of this scandal reform himself, and all differences in the church will cease. I am the servant of all priests, so long as they live like themselves; but if any shall set up his bristles (bristles belong to swine; so that by implication the Clergy are admitted by Gregory to be a swinish multitude) contrary to God Almighty and the Canons of the Fathers, I hope in God that he will never succeed in bringing my neck under his yoke - not even by force of arms. The things that have happened in this city in consequence of this new title, I have particularly declared to Sabinianus, the deacon, my agent. Let, therefore, my religious sovereigns (Maurice and Theodosius), think of me, their servant, whom they have always cherished and upheld more than others, as one who desired to yield them obedience, and yet am afraid to be found guilty of negligence in my duty at the last awful day of judgment. Let our most pious sovereign either vouchsafe to determine the affair, according to the petition of the aforesaid Sabinianus, the deacon, or cause the man, so often mentioned, to renounce his claim. In case he submits to your just sentence or your favorable admonitions, we will give thanks to Almighty God, and rejoice for the peace of the church procured by your clemency. But if he persist in this contention, we shall hold the saying to be most true. 'Everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased.' And again it is written, 'Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.' In obedience to my sovereign, I have written to my brother priest both gently and humbly, urging him to desist from this vain glory. If he give ear unto me, he hath a brother devoted unto him; but, if he continue in his pride, I foresee what will befall him - he will make himself His enemy of whom it is written, 'God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble'."

This artful epistle, so replete with the finesse of the politician, and the envy of the priest, does not appear to have produced the desired effect. John the Faster, whose fasting had worn his bones and puffed up his mind, soon afterward vacated his "blasphemous name" by death; but this did not relieve Gregory of his distress; for Cynacus, who succeeded him as Patriarch of Constantinople, adopted the same superimperial and pompous title as his predecessor. Having had occasion to dispatch some agents to Rome, in the letter which he wrote to Gregory, he so much displeased him by assuming the title of "Universal Bishop," that the pope withheld from the agents somewhat of the courtesy to which they considered themselves entitled, and, of course, complaint was made to the emperor Maurice of the neglect which had been shown them. This caused the emperor to write to Gregory, advising him to treat them in future in a more friendly manner and not to insist so far on punctilios of style, as to create a scandal about a title and to fall out about a few syllables. To this Gregory replied, "that the innovation in the style did not consist much in the quantity and alphabet; but the bulk of the iniquity was weighty enough to sink and destroy all. And therefore I am bold to say," says this pontifical representative of infallibility, "that whoever adopts or affects the title of 'Universal Bishop,' has the pride and character of Antichrist, and is in some manner his forerunner in this haughty quality of elevating himself above the rest of his order. And indeed both the one and the other seem to split upon the same rock; for, as pride makes Antichrist strain his pretensions up to godhead, so whoever is ambitious to be called the only, or Universal Prelate, arrogates to himself a distinguished superiority, and rises, as it were, upon the ruins of the rest."

But, notwithstanding the good words and fair speeches of his former letter, Gregory's heart was full of venom and bitterness against Maurice and his family. Neither of these epistles caused the obnoxious title to be suppressed; and if Maurice had not been moved out of the way by a revolution, the "blasphemous name" would have adhered to Constantinople as the Apostolic Throne. But the heart of Gregory, the last of the "sainted popes," was made glad by the murder of Maurice, his wife and nine children, by a rebel and orthodox usurper named PHOCAS, who was peaceably acknowledged in the provinces of the east and west. Gibbon describes him as a monster, of diminutive and deformed person, grossly ignorant and steeped in lust, drunkenness and brutality. Such was the abandoned villain of the baser sort, who occupied the throne of the Catholic Dragon about eight years from A.D. 602 to A.D. 610. "As a subject and a christian," says Gibbon, "it was the duty of Gregory to acquiesce in the established government; but the joyful applause with which he salutes the fortune of the assassin has sullied, with indelible disgrace, the character of the saint. The successor of the apostles might have inculcated with decent firmness the guilt of blood and the necessity of repentance: he is content to celebrate the deliverance of the people and the fall of the oppressor; to rejoice that the piety and benignity of Phocas have been raised by Providence to the imperial throne; to pray that his hands may be strengthened against all his enemies; and to express a wish, perhaps a prophecy, that, after a long and triumphant reign, he may be transferred from a temporal to an everlasting kingdom." In his epistle to Phocas he says, "We are glad that the benignity of your piety hath arrived at the imperial dignity. Let the heavens rejoice, and the earth exult, and the people of the universal republic until now vehemently afflicted become hilarious on account of your benignant deeds." This base flattery, doubtless, predisposed the sanguinary tyrant to favor and promote the ambitious views of the pope, at the expense of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Such a biophthoros drakon, life-destroying Dragon, as he was styled, the worthy rival of the Caligulas and Domitians of the first age of the empire, was a very fit and proper patron to legislate the Bishop of Rome into the Universal Bishop of the world, the All-Overseeing Eye of the Apostasy.

"In A.D. 604, just before the death of Gregory," Dr. Barton says, "Phocas wrote to him, proposing an orthodox confession of faith, acknowledged the supremacy of the Roman See, was very liberal to the Roman churches, and allowed the Pantheon to be converted to christian purposes: all which must have been extremely gratifying to a pope in the seventh century." But Gregory did not long rejoice in "the benignity of Phocas' piety," being removed by death this year. He was succeeded by Boniface III, who had no scruple about adopting the proud and "blasphemous name." His election was confirmed by Phocas (an imperial privilege which was formally abandoned A.D. 684) whom he importuned to bestow upon him the exalted title of Universal Bishop, with the privilege also of transmitting it to all his successors. "The profligate emperor," says Jones, "to gratify the inordinate ambition of this court sycophant, deprived the bishop of Constantinople of the title which he had hitherto borne, and conferred it upon Boniface, at the same time declaring the Church of Rome to be Head of all other churches." Thus Phocas confirmed what Justinian had ordained seventy-five years before. Justinian had given the pope his power, throne and jurisdiction; Phocas confirmed the same with the original and additional gift of the imperial title, UNIVERSAL OVERSEER; by which he attained a rank ecclesiastically superior to the emperor; and at the prospect of which Gregory professed to be greatly scandalized.

The authorities for this are Paul the Deacon, who says of Phocas, "Being entreated by Pope Boniface, he ordained that the throne of the Roman and apostolic church be the Head of All Churches; because the Constantinopolitan church declared that it was first of all churches"; and Anastasius who in his Ecclesiastical History on the A.D. 606 observes, "This (Boniface) obtained from Phocas the Prince, that the Apostolic Throne of the Blessed Apostle Peter should be the Head of all churches; because the Constantinopolitan church declared that she her self was the first of all churches."

Gordon and Baronius make the date of the edict, A.D. 606; Muratori, A.D. 607.

In addition to Paul and Anastasius, Ado in his Chronikon, repeats their testimony, and adds, "Phocas, being entreated by Boniface the Roman Pontiff elsewhere, the rabble of idolatry in the old temple which was called the Pantheon being removed, ordered that it be dedicated a church of the Blessed Mary always a Virgin, and of All the Martyrs: that, where at one time the worship not of the Gods but of the Demons was performed, there continually the memory of all the saints might be preserved."

The "Annals of Italy" assign the decree of Phocas to the A.D. 607; upon which as a Note, Gieseler adds the following curious versified notice of Phocas' grant by Godfrey of Viterbo, in his Pantheon, about A.D. 1186.

Tertius est Papa Bonifacius ille benignus Qui petit a Phocamunus per secula dignum, Ut sedes Petri prima sit. Ille dedit Prima prius fiterat Constantopolitana: Est modo Romana, meliori dogmate clara.

The following version is Close enough to give the mere English reader the sense;

Pope Boniface the third is he benign Who sought fit gift of Phocas for all time, That Peter's Chair the first may be. He gave't The First of rank Byzantine was before; 'Tis Roman now, more fam'd by doctrine pure.

This title, or name of spiritual power, was regarded by the popes as a splendid gift. It was, as Gregory the Seventh remarked, "unicum nomen in mundo, the only name in the world. There was no other name like it, distinguishing one son of pride from another. Father and Universal Bishop exalted the Bishop of Rome to the rank of "God of the earth," a title always coveted by those who filled the imperial office of the Seven Hills. Until the tide of successful villainy turned, the pope adored the Piety of the execrable monster; and a pillar was erected cal-ed "the Pillar of Phocas, " to commemorate his "innumerable benefits," conferred upon his Italian subjects; in other words, upon the Pope and his clergy. It was a Corinthian fluted column of Greek marble, standing upon a pyramid of seven steps. "In 1813, the Duchess of Devonshire having made an excavation around it, an inscription," says Elliott, 'was discovered on the base, stating that a gilt statue had been placed on the top of it to the emperor Phocas, by the then Exarch of Italy, in the A.D. 608." Dr. Burton in his book on Rome, gives the inscription at full. The date is thus defined. "Die Prima Mensis August. Indict. Und. ac Pietatis ejus Anno Quinto;" the 11th of the Indiction, and the 5th of the reign of Phocas. Now of that indiction the first was the year 598; the eleventh, the year 608: and as Phocas began his reign A.D. 602 or 603, its fifth year comes also to A.D. 608. The occasion of the honor is stated to be, "Pro innumerabilibus Pietatis ejus Beneficus, et pro Quiete procurata Italiae, ac conservata Libertate" - For the innumerable benefits of his Piety, and for the Repose procured for Italy, and Liberty preserved. Dr. Burton justly refers this to his concessions to the Pope. Thus the four years from A.D. 604 to A.D. 608, are notable in the history of Phocas' aggrandizement of the Papal See: and from A.D. 529 to A.D. 604, are seventy five years; and from A.D. 533 to A.D. 608, are also seventy five years:" or the difference between Daniel's 1335 of ch. 12:12, and "the time, times, and the dividing of a time," of his ch. 7:25, and 12:7.

Papists and Protestants seem to agree in assigning the constitutional beginning of the Papacy to this epoch of the reign of Phocas. Luther, in his Table Talk, says, 'the Pope and Turk both began almost at one time under the emperor Phocas." Osiander dated from the same, "a Foca Imperatore, qui Papatum, seu Primatum, publico edicto stabilivit" - by the emperor Phocas, who established the Papacy, or Primacy, by a public decree. And Bullinger, an early protestant, speaks of the Papacy having been established by Gregory I, and the Decree of Phocas. In fact, an imperial decree was indispensable to its establishment. The Bishops of Rome had made pretensions of a high and lofty character before the times of Justinian and Phocas; but their claims to supremacy, however approved by clerical adherents and canons, were of no account in a legal or constitutional point of view. Their pretensions to supremacy over all, only demonstrated the pride of their hearts, and the spirit of Antichrist therein, which, as Gregory truly said, would make him who was possessed of it "strain his pretensions up to Godhead". But an Italian or Roman subject of the empire, lay or clerical, might have strained to bursting after godhead, they could never have attained it without the sanction of an imperial edict which had the force of law. The reader will perceive this readily, aided by the illustrative supposition, that Pope Brigham Young of Utah, as respectable a pretender to godhead as Boniface the third, or any other blasphemer before or after him should proclaim himself Universal Overseer and Father of this consolidated despotism, the United States; his proclamation would only be the subject of ridicule and contempt with all the names and denominations of the day; but, if the factions in Congress, with the idea that in some way their interests would be promoted, were to pass a bill constituting said Brigham, Father of all men and Universal Overseer, with the approval of the President, the case would be wonderfully altered! The power and authority of Brigham would be enthroned in every family; he would be ex officio Judge of the Faith, and Head of all the churches of "The Union." This would be no matter of ridicule; but a subject of great fear and trembling to all not of his church; for all "the names and denominations" in relation to Mormonism being heretical, the bill or decree constituting him Pope and Universal Bishop, would place them all at his disposal. All this we can comprehend, feel, and appreciate; and would be thoroughly convinced that there was more in the name than "punctilio of style and a few syllables". If such a decree were promulgated in this country, it would convulse society from one end of it to the other. We should feel that our liberty had taken to itself wings and fled. This was the unrest and the apprehension of the Italians and citizens of Rome, when the emperor Maurice tacitly permitted the Byzantine Brigham, John the Faster, to proclaim himself, with the aid and consent of a council of Constantinople, Universal Bishop. The murder of Maurice by Phocas was therefore regarded as a joyful and auspicious event; especially when it was discovered, that he could be used in putting down Byzantine arrogance, and in transferring the "Blasphemous Name," as Gregory styled it, to the city of Rome. This gave repose to Italy, and restored liberty to the adherents of THE ANTICHRIST in Rome.

And who else, even upon Romish principles and upon Papal authority, could the Bishops of Rome from Boniface downwards be than the Antichrist Name? Gregory the First, whom Papists surname "the Great," the last Bishop of Rome they have decreed to be "a saint," and with them a great authority, says, as already quoted, "I am bold to say, that whoever adopts, or affects the title of 'Universal Bishop' has the pride and character of Antichrist, and is in some manner his forerunner in his haughty quality of elevating himself above the rest of his order." John the Faster adopted the title and held on to it, and Cynacus, his successor, also. They were therefore either the Antichrist, or his Forerunner; they could not have been the Antichrist however much like him; be-cause Paul, who styles him ho Anomos, the Lawless One, teaches that he will be in supremacy till the reappearance of Christ to destroy him; and their supremacy fell under the dagger of Phocas: they must, therefore, have been his Forerunner; and he who obtained the coveted title, Boniface the Third, the first Bishop of Rome who wore it, and their successor in it, and all of whose successors adopt it and glory in it, must be, according to Gregory, an incarnation of papal infallibility, the first of the order and name termed in Scripture, "THE ANTICHRIST." And doubtless Gregory was correct; and, like Caiaphas the High Priest, prophesied the truth without believing or knowing it. The Man-of-Sin Power, born of the Woman about two hundred and ninety five years previous, was now transferred by this Decree of Phocas from the successors of Constantine to the Universal Bishop upon the Seven Hills. This "Only Name in the World" was now the Eyes and Mouth of the Man of Sin. So long as Italy remained a province of the Greek empire it was politically allied with the Eastern Roman Horn of Dan. 8:9; but, as the power of this receded, that of the Universal Bishop advanced; until, Constantinople losing all dominion in Italy, the Bishop became the Eyes and Mouth of the Little Western Horn of Dan. 7:8; when, in its after-growth, it reached the fullness of the stature of the Man-of-Sin Power, as we shall hereafter see.

The Antichrist who in A.D. 312, was a babe of sin, was now, in A.D. 604-'8, a young man, and still in his growth. He was not yet of full age; nor would he be, until the Two Horned Beast should rise up out of the earth among the already existing ten horns. The development of this Lamb-Horned Beast and the Image of the Wounded Head, would consummate the healing of that head. We have not yet quite arrived at that point in the vision. I must therefore pause again in tracing the development of "the Name of Blasphemy upon the Heads," and proceed to consider the period allotted to the Mouth, during which it is Divinely permitted to "speak great things and blasphemies; and to open in blasphemy concerning the Deity (!,ros ton Theon) to blaspheme his Name and his Tabernacle, and the dwellers in the heaven."

"And authority was given unto him to practice forty and two months" - Verse 5.

The first question here is, What is the thing for which the personal pronoun "him" stands in the text? The answer is, It is the Beast; or that Politico-ecclesiastical constitution symbolized by the monster of the sea: as, "Who is like unto THE BEAST? Who is able to war with HIM? And there was given unto HIM a mouth, &c.; and authority was given unto HIM to practice forty and two months."

The next question is, By whom was the authority given to the Beast to practice for that period? The answer is, that it was given by Him who alone knew how long the practicing was to continue. That is to say, the authority was given by the Deity, Who ordains all things, and Who foreshowed the period in the text before us. "The powers that be are ordained of the Deity" (Rom. 13:1): "He hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of the habitation of all nations of men" (Acts 17:26). No nation can permanently extend its bounds, or perpetuate any system of government, beyond the limitation of His predetermined, and prearranged, times. The forty and two months are the Divinely authorized period of the Beast's practicing; at the end of which, the European Commonwealth which it symbolizes for that period, will pass into the phase predetermined for it in Apoc. 17.

The third question is, What is to be understood by the indefinite expression "to practice"? Authority was given unto the Beast of the Sea to practice -poiesai. In the seventh verse the word polemon is prefixed to poiesai; as, "It was given unto him to make war polemon poiesai, with the saints." Hence the fifth verse, I take it, is elliptical, and expounded by the seventh. But, was he to practice against the saints successfully or otherwise? The use of the word in Daniel when treating of the same subject, shows that "practise" implies prevailing and prospering in what it might undertake against them. Speaking of the Little Roman Horn that "waxed exceeding great" and "cast the truth to the ground," it is said, "it practiced and prospered;" and of the same power, it is said in another verse, "he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and practice, and shall destroy the mighty ones and the people of the Holy Ones. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify in his heart, and by prosperity shall destroy many (Dan. 8:24,25, and 12). Now this shows, that the practicing of the power was mischievous and destructive; and that it prospered by policy, craft, and all belligerent operations; and, as the prophecy has more especial reference to "the people of the Holy Ones," who, in Daniel and John's revelations, are the most important community, for whose sake are all things (2 Cor. 4:15), the prosperous practicing is especially equivalent to the treading of the Holy City under foot of the Gentiles forty and two months (ch. 11:2): to the making war, overcoming, and killing of the two witnessing prophetic bodies, by which, as by two lamps standing before the deified Name of Blasphemy, the light of the truth and liberty was caused to shine (ch. 11:7,3,10,4); to the leading of the saints into captivity, and killing them with the sword (ch. 13:10); equivalent also, to the saints being given into the hand of the Little Episcopal Horn-power which prevails against them until the expiration of a time and times and a dividing of a time (Dan. 7:21,25). The fulfillment of these testimonies converges in the practicing of the Beast of the Sea, the Papal Body Politic, which the Deity, for the developing of his own wise purposes, authorized so to do, as indicated in the text. And as this practising of mischief of which the saints are the victims, is for forty and two months, it follows that the periods similarly indicated inch. 11:2 and ch. 13:5, are the same period; and consequently begin and end at the same epochs; that is, the forty and two months are the period of the prosperous and destructive practicing of the papalized ten horns, and of the down-treading of the Holy-City body politic by them: and as this practicing continues in all this period, we may accept the Common Version, power was given unto him to continue forty and two months," as correct by implication.

The fourth question is, What duration, or length of time, is signified by forty and two months? Is this period long or short? Is it forty-two months of days, or forty and two months of years? In other words, is it 1260 days or 1260 years? Is it a literal period, or is it symbolical of the real time? By what rule can the truth of the matter be ascertained? My answer is, that the truth is determined by the rule of facts, which are stubborn things. This rule, however, cannot be generally used. It is of no use to the blind who are unworthy to read the opened book, and to look upon it (ch. 5:3,4,5). It is a rule for the blessed who read, and under-stand the words of this apocalyptic prophecy (ch. 1:3). Such are not blind. They can see, or discern, the facts; for they are discernible by the light of the Spirit's testimony, which "is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this aeon hath blinded the minds of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the Image of the Deity, should shine into them" (2 Cor. 4:3,4).

The facts are predicable of two irreconcilably hostile parties, represented in the former section of this thirteenth chapter by the Beast of the Sea; or, the Ten Kingly Governments of Modern Europe subject to the spiritual authority of their Universal Bishop, of the one part; and by the Deity's Name, Tabernacle, Dwellers in the heavens, or saints, of the other part. Now one who cannot Scripturally define the Deity's Name, or distinguish a saint from a sinner, cannot define the facts developed in the history of the saints and witnesses, in their antagonism to popery in all the kingdoms of the Papacy, by which the period in question is deter-mined. Many of that exceedingly dark body, styled "the clergy," not knowing what a saint is, and who say that The Apocalypse is all in the future, declare that the forty and two months belong to the future likewise; and are to be understood of 1260 days, or three and a half literal years; in which a personal, or individual Antichrist will be manifested, and severely persecute the saints; by which they mean the pious of their several "names of blasphemy," of which the scarlet-colored beast is full; but which they term collectively "the Church of God!" Others of these professional leaders of the blind into the ditch, tell their unfortunate victims that The Apocalypse is all long ago fulfilled; and, consequently, that the forty and two months are buried in the oblivion of a remote antiquity! The real saints are ignored by both these parties of extremists. The conflict of the past twelve centuries between the Papal Powers of Western Europe and the Saints and Witnesses, they regard as simply a conflict between the Powers, and heretics and revolutionists inimical to law and order. The oceans of righteous blood shed by the Papal Powers, inspired by their Universal Bishop, go for nothing. What were they but the turbulent riffraff of society; were not the saints God's "hidden ones," the pious and orthodox professors of the ages, who passed current as good Catholics in churches and monasteries, but in their hearts silently repudiated the blasphemies of their church? These never imagined that the Universal Bishop was the Antichrist; and if he had been that substitute for Christ, would not they, as the saints, have known it? Against these "saints" of the church of Rome there was no warfare for forty and two months of days, or years; therefore, say these futurists, the period in question is in the future, and will be short.

But this is mere clerical ignorance and folly. The Deity has no saints in the Church of Rome, nor in the Protestant churches of Antichristendom. He has a people therein, even as he had among the idolators of Corinth (Acts 18:10), who become saints by believing the gospel of the kingdom and name, coming out from among the unclean, and being immersed into Jesus as the Christ. Such, cease to be Pagans, Catholics, and Protestants, and become "the sanctified in Christ Jesus;" the Brethren of Christ, the Seed of the Woman, "who keep the commandments of the Deity, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."

Now, it is a fact, that there was a separate and distinct community of such saints, who existed in all the twelve hundred and sixty years succeeding the Donatist trials in the reign of Constantine, which transpired in the epoch A.D. 312-316. It is also a fact, that during all that long period they were denounced as heretics, and persecuted as such, by the constituted authorities of the state; first, by the emperors for nearly three hundred years; and then by the Ten Horns, inspired by their Universal Bishop, to whose spiritual authority and Eyeship the last of them was converted, A.D. 600, and into whose hands the witnesses and saints were delivered by Justinian and Phocas; and who ceased not to make war upon them during many more centuries, until they silenced their testimony against Romish superstition and the Name of Blasphemy upon the seven hills. This was the Beast's practicing and prospering against the saints - the practicing of the Mouth and Horns for forty and two months. Not forty and two literal days or literal months only; for such a supposition would be contrary to historic facts; but for forty and two months of literal years, extending over twelve long and tedious centuries and sixty years beside.

This, then, is the literal time symbolized by forty and two months in ch. 11:2, and ch. 13:5. The periods indicated in these two texts are parallel. The beginning of the one is the beginning of the other; consequently, they both end together. These identical periods do not have, as some suppose, a double commencement and a double termination, each seventy-five years apart. They have only one common beginning, and one ending in common, the one with the other. For this period the Holy City was to be trodden down; and for the same period, the Horns and the Mouth, and the Name of Blasphemy upon the Seven Hills, were to continue, or practise with one mind; and to agree, and give their power and authority, or kingdom, unto the Beast, until the words of the Deity shall be fulfilled (ch. 17:13,17). But, at the end of this forty and two months' period, or 1260 years, a change is to come over the spirit of their dream, and they are to hate what for that number of years they have been in love with: for, speaking of the Horns in relation to Rome's sovereignty, the Spirit said to John, "These (Horns) shall hate the Harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire" (ch. 17:16). This hostility of the governments (*,) which have been the willing instruments of the Universal Bishop for nearly thirteen centuries, indicates a change in their relations to Rome; and, consequently, a new political combination of the Powers of our Modern World. This is indicated by the Scarlet-colored Beast of chapter seventeen - "the peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues,"ecclesiastically subject to Rome, under the EIGHTH HEAD in the eve of the crisis of its destruction by the sword and "the burning flame."

This 1260 is a very remarkable prophetic cipher. It is founded on the number of the generations from the birth of Abraham to that of Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:17); though the generations of the cipher do not average so many years each as those of the post-Abrahamic. These generations averaged fifty years and a fraction each; but the generations, or months, of the cipher, not more than thirty years each; but in the number forty and two they agree. Thus 30 x 42 = 1260, or three years and a half of years.

This cipher is variously stated in prophecy. In Dan. 8:25 and 12:7; and in Apoc. 12:14, it is written "a time, and times, and the dividing of, or half, a time;" in Apoc. 12:6; 11:3, it is written, "a thousand two hundred and sixty days;" and inch. 11:2 and ch. 13:5, it is written forty and two months. The aforesaid times in Daniel, together with his 1335, which is 75 years more than 1260; and the forty and two months of Apoc. 11:2 and 13:5, all terminate at the same crisis (*); at that, namely, of "the time of the dead." But the "thousand two hundred and threescore days" of sackcloth witnessing (ch. 11:3) and of woman feeding (ch. 12:6,14) do not end at that time; their ending being in the epoch of A.D. 1572-'6, marked by the Papal Massacre of Bartholomew's Day, which was 1260 years after the Donatist Trials, or flight of the woman towards the wilderness; the ending of their testimony in the presence of the god of the Roman earth; and the beginning of the first war by which the Ten Horns crushed them in all their kingdoms, A.D. 1685. For three lunar days and a half, which are equal to three months and a half of years, that is, to 105 years; for this period the witnesses lay politically defunct in the Great City; but, after the end of it, in the epoch A.D. 1789-'93, they rose again to political life, and ascended to power. This was 1260 years from the notable epoch of the Dragon-Emperor Justinian's acknowledgment of the Bishop of Rome as the Head of all the churches of the empire; and of the promulgation of a system of law adapted to the circumstances of the times, created by the establishment of Catholicism upon the ruin of paganism; and adopted by all the Horns as the public reason of their courts of law; an epoch of four years from A.D. 529 to A.D. 533, from which, I doubt not, are to be reckoned the 1335 and 1290 of Dan. 12:11,12; the latter being thirty, and the former seventy-five, years in excess of the forty and two months; the epochal termination of the 1290 being A.D. 1819-'23; and that of the 1335, A.D. 1864-'68.

The only question, then, that remains under this head is, Admitting that the forty and two months are 1260 years, when did this long period begin? The answer is, that it commences at the epoch when the Dragon Power of Constantinople, then in possession of Rome and Italy, gave to the Roman Patriarch, as the Greatest Pontiff of the East and West, the ecclesiastical power the emperors had hitherto themselves exercised after the example of Constantine, and his throne of the Seven Hills; and an universal jurisdiction, as it is written in the second verse of this chapter, saying, "and the Dragon ceded to him his power, and his throne, and extensive jurisdiction." This important transfer of supreme spiritual authority was legally executed by Phocas, when he proclaimed Boniface the Third the Universal Bishop, with the right of transmitting the title, and the jurisdiction it represents, to his successors, "per secula," for ages. It is by virtue of this decree of Phocas that Pius IX. and all his predecessors are constitutionally "PONTIFEX MAXIMUS" of Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sardinia, Lombardy, Venetia, Hungary, and Bavaria - modern names representative of the original Ten Horns converted to the Nicene Trinitarianism of the Bishop of Rome. When he exalted the Pope to this lofty position, in which he was above all possible episcopal rivalry and confirmed Justinian's acknowledgment of him, as "Head of all the churches," and consequently Judge of the Faith; in so doing, he gave the saints into the hand, or power, of the Universal Bishop, or Eyes and Mouth of Daniel's Little Horn (ch. 7:25): for all reputed "heretics" were turned over to him as their judge. All who were not Trinitarian Catholics were heretics with Justinian, Phocas, and the Bishop of Rome. They recognized none as saints who did not belong to their "Holy Apostolic Catholic Church." They were as ignorant in this matter as "the clergy" of our own day. Had ten thousand saints been arrayed before them with "the Father's Name written in their foreheads" (ch. 14:1), they would have condemned them all for pestilent and contumacious heretics, with whom no faith should be kept, and who ought not to be permitted to live. The truth relatively to the spiritual and temporal powers that be, styled by Paul, "the spirituals of wickedness in the heavenlies," has always been heretical and pestilent; because, in the mouth of the saints, it testifies against them and their traditions. It was to be expected, therefore, that, when the pope's claims of being Christ's substitute on earth, and arbiter of all doctrinal affairs, should be legally established, the saints would find themselves in the hand of a roaring lion ready to devour. He now claimed to be the constitutional and lawful shepherd and bishop of their souls; but the saints disputed this blasphemous pretension, and refused to accept him in any such capacity. They denounced him as the Antichrist, and lawless usurper of the titles and honors which belong to Christ alone, and declared that they would die rather than be numbered among his flock, or submit to his usurpation. Thus, the issue was formed between them: and there was but one alternative for them, submission or death. Hence, the power of the Universal Bishop was more "dreadful and terrible" than that of the Saracen Apollyon, who offered all catholic idolators, conversion, tribute, or the sword. But, tribute would not redeem the life of a saint; the ravening lion of the Seven Hills must have absolute and abject submission to his pontifical supremacy, or he would mercilessly drink their blood, and destroy all that belonged to them with fire and sword.

Such was the practical import of the phrase in Dan. 7:25, "the saints shall be given into his hand." It mattered not what country of the Horns the saints might reside in, the Lion-Mouth upon the Seven Hills, with his chasm' odonton, his gaping jaws of iron teeth (Dan. 7:7,19) could seize and devour them on the spot; for the catholic priests and secular orders of the states, the hyenas of his kingdom, were jealous in executing his ferocious mandates, to revel with him in the blood of the slain. Thus, the Catholic Woman became "drunken with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the Witnesses of Jesus" (ch. 17:6).

Now, the legal beginning of this murderous administration of irresponsible ecclesiastical power, was made, as the reader may see, the beginning of the forty and two months. "The saints shall be given into his hand during (ad) a time, and times, and the dividing of time." Hence, they must have been given into his power at the beginning of the period specified, or they could not have been subject to him during the period. The delivering of the saints into his hand at the first must be taken as the starting point in the calculation. There is no clue in Daniel to the epoch of this delivery. John, however, in showing whence the Eyes and the Mouth of the Beast derived their power, and the use they would make of it against the saints with the historical description of the Dragon's grant, enables us to Say, with considerable assurance, that the forty and two months began in the epoch of A.D. 604-608. In all the subsequent 1260 years, the Papal Powers have practised prosperously against the Saints and Witnesses for the supremacy of Jesus against that of the Universal Bishop, unicum nomen in mundo. They have trodden them under foot, made successful war upon them, and killed them in all the streets of the Great City - the Witnesses for 1260 years after the Justinian epoch; the Saints for 1260 years after the Phocean epoch. This is the testimony of authentic history, and cannot be gainsaid by any one intelligent therein, who knows what saints and witnesses for Jesus are. Of course, this Phocean quadrenmal epoch being accepted as the time when the saints were given by the Dragon into the power of the Little Horn, Eyes and Mouth, "the time, and times, and half a time," or forty and two months, must now be in the quadrennial epoch of termination, which is from A.D. 1864 to A.D. 1868*. We who have lived in this epoch have witnessed great events, indicating a breaking up of the politico-ecclesiastical constitution of the Papal Kosmos, or Order of Things. Naples, Sardinia, Lombardy, Venetia, and the Italian Duchies, are merged in the Kingdom of Italy; the military element of the Little Horn, Austria, has been excluded from the Holy Land of the Romish Satan; and the Universal Bishop of the Horn Governments is smitten with the paralysis of death. Every thing in the Western Third of the Roman Earth is in a transition state. Nothing is settled, neither can be. The present lull is only preparatory to the tripartite division of the Great City under the Seventh and Last Vial; when the Beast under the Eighth Head, in the last stage of its existence, will be prepared for perdition at the hand of "the King of kings and Lord of lords" - the kings and lords, who are "the called, and chosen, and faithful," who follow him whithersoever he goes, in all his judicial enterprises of war and conquest - Apoc. 17:14; 14:4. 309

Because there is little hostility shown to the Papacy by European Powers today, readers may fail to comprehend the important point made by the Author of Eureka. In 1848, Karl Marx published his Manifrsto of the Communist Party. The booklet had widespread influence through Europe and the world. It stimulated a revolutionary spirit of Liberalism, Communism and anti-Papalism that swept the Continent, as mentioned in Elpis Israel:

"The hopes of the democracy throughout Europe were inflamed; and 'the earth' began to tremble until in 1848 every throne was shaken to its foundation. The events of this wonderful year are too recent to require to be chronicled in this place. It will be enough to say that the democracy broke loose, and commenced a movement (i.e. Communism- Publishers), which, though it has been restrained to prevent its progressing too rapidly, cannot be suppressed until the little horn, or two-horned beast and his prophet, be destroyed to the end, and the dominion of the ten-horned beast be taken away. The events of February 1848 have originated the 'great earthquake' of the seventh vial." (p.373).

(*)That observation is true to the present. for the spirit of Socialism and Communism then Stimulated are developing the antagonism that will erupt in Armageddon. Meanwhile, as a result of the agitation generated in 1848, the revolutionary Garibaldi, in 1860 onwards, united Italy, and terminated the temporal power of the Papacy in 1870; all of which is illustrative of the hostility to which Eureka refers, and which is predicted in Rev. 17:15. But at the epoch of its judgment at the hands of Messiah, the Papacy is depicted in triumph as riding the ten-horned beast of Europe (Rev. 17:3). Today the hostility of the last century towards the political influence of the Papacy has largely disappeared, and it is rapidly growing in international influence and power. This commenced by the signing of the concordat by Mussolini in favour of the Papacy in 1929. By this means the Vatican became a Papal State, and the Pope was given political independence (taken from the Papacy in 1870). With the Vatican an independent State. the Pope was represented in politics as head of a political power as well as an ecclesiastical system, since then papal influence in international politics has dramatically increased - Publishers

It was the Author's intense "love of the Lord's appearing" that caused him to thus compute these time periods. Circumstances have revealed his conclusions to be incorrect. See comment Vol. 2p. 10 - Publishers.

"And a mouth was given to him speaking great things and blasphemies" - verse 5.

The Mouth given to the Beast of the Sea was like a lion's mouth; and he delighted to compare himself thereto. His official utterances, or the things affirmed of him, by those who created and worshipped him, far transcended the utterances of the proud and impious rulers of the old Babylonian Lion. The last of these, styled by Isaiah, "Lucifer, son of the morning," the Belshatzar of history, said, "I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of AlL. . . ; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High" - ch. 14:13,14; and on the eve of his being brought down to Sheol, he lifted himself up against the Lord of heaven, and praised the images of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know (Dan. 5:23). These were the speakings of the Mouth of the old Lion of Babylion; but proud and impious as they were, they fell short of the "great things and blasphemies" which roared from the throat, or by the sanction, of the Universal Bishop of the Ten-Horned Monster of the Sea. This Babylonian Mouth, which has come down to us from the darkest ages of the clerical apostasy, when it opens its iron-teethed jaws, can give expression to nothing but great things of vanity and falsehood, and things defamatory of the Deity and the Saints. "He opened his mouth unto blasphemy concerning the Deity, to blaspheme his Name, and his Tabernacle, and the dwellers in the heaven." Jesus Christ, the apostle Peter taught, was the only name given among men whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12). This name was the Father, whom no man hath seen, nor can see, by His power manifested in the flesh, crucified, and afterwards justified or perfected. This crucified and glorified Name, in the very nature of things, can have no substitute or vicar. The substitute or vicar of such a Name, must be all in reality that is affirmed of the Origi-nal, who must be set aside necessarily to make room for the Vicar. For a man to be a genuine Vicar of Christ, he must be what Jesus was as the Father's Vicar, or Mediator: sin must have been condemned in his flesh, and he himself a character "without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." Compare this necessity with what the popes really are, who affirm that they are the Only Name in the World, unicum nomen in mundo, and the enormity of their blasphemy of the Deity's Name will readily be seen.

"Great things" are affirmed of the Mouth, which it sanctions ex officio. A celebrated monk of the time of Hildebrand puts these lying words into the mouth of Jesus Christ, as addressing the pope, and given in the original Latin text by Elliott. "I have delivered into thy hands the keys of my whole universal church, and have placed thee over it as VICAR for me; and, if these be few things, I have also delivered to thee the kingdoms. Yea, the king (or emperor) being removed from the midst, I have granted to thee the right of the whole vacant Roman empire." The orator of the tenth Session of the fifth Lateran Council thus speaks of Constantine's removal of his imperial throne to Byzantium, afterwards named Constantinople: "Constantine, breathed upon by divine grace from above, fully ceded the sceptre of the empire of the world and city to the true and proper Lord - to the Deity, and to the man in his own Roman seat, Sylvester, the Pontifex Maximus, in the primeval and natural right of Christ, the eternal priest; and he sought another throne by Apostolical concession, and erected it in Byzantium under the obedience of the Apostolic throne." It is true that the Dragon granted the Mouth his throne in old Rome, but it was not at the time alleged; the orator, doubtless, referred to "the Decretals of Constantine (*)," proved to have been forged by the popes.

In the reported Decree of Pius the First, he says, "The people may not accuse a bishop; bishops are to be judged by the Deity, who has chosen them as EYES to himself." Speaking of the Episcopacy in general, Boniface I., styles it "the watchtower of Episcopacy;" and the Greek emperor, in writing to the Roman Synod, A.D. 681, says, "we show that the priests are the Eyes of the Church." So Boniface I. speaks of the pope under the name of Peter, saying, "The most blessed apostle Peter looks upon thee as HIS OWN EYES, in what way soever thou shalt use the office of Chief Ruler. Neither can it not be most suitable for thee, who art constituted perpetual Shepherd of the Lord's sheep." Also, Innocent IV., A.D. 1245, in his sentence against the Emperor Frederick, says, "We ought to perceive, in regard to the height of apostolic dignity, that it is for THE EYE of most intimate considering of the faults of all christians." Hence, the Universal Bishop is well represented by the "Eyes like the eyes of a man," in Daniel's Little Horn.

The symbol of a Lion's Mouth speaking great things is eulogistically ascribed by Pope Nicolas I., in the ninth century, to Pope Leo, styled "the Great," the earliest founder of the temporal dominion of the Universal Bishop. He says, "save only the imitator namely of that Lion of whom it is written, 'the Lion of the Tribe of Judah hath conquered,' divinely exalted, opening the mouth, makes the whole world, and also the emperors themselves to tremble; as well it calls the mind to piety, it might entirely overthrow the catholic religion." And so Hincmar, speaking of the same Leo, says, "Leo the Great by the greatest roaring from the city Roma, being the capital namely of the globe, thunders loudly through the whole world." In the words of Shakespeare's King John:

"Here's a large mouth indeed, That spits forth death and mountains, rocks and seas."

In the time of Charlemagne; A.D. 799, a Roman council enacted precisely the same part as that convened by Theodoric. The Pope having been accused, the Council declined to hear his accusers; declaring that he who was judge of all men, was above being judged by any other than himself; and on his coming in, and asserting his innocence, he was considered as acquitted. Thus Urban II., A.D. 1090, "that the divine right of judging concerning every church is of the pope alone; and that he himself is subject to the judgment of none." Afterwards in the Canon Law, collected and published in the eleventh century, it was said: "It is certain that the Supreme Pontiff was called God by the pious prince Constantine; it is manifest that Deity cannot be judged by men." Daubuz who quotes this, styles the Canon Law and Decretals the Pope's Oracle; "the Decretal Epistles are enumerated with the canonical scriptures." They are the true expression of the papal mind.

This claim that he was irresponsible to any laws, human or Divine, by which he identified himself with the anomos or Lawless One of Paul, continued to be urged in the fifteenth century. So A.D. 1463, on Paul II dismissing Platina from office after his election, and Platina's threatening to bring the case before the judges of the Rota. Paul fiercely replied, "Thou wilt call us to account before the judges! As if thou wert ignorant that all laws are placed in the coffer of our breast! I am Supreme Pontiff; and I can at the pleasure of my soul both rescind and approve the acts of others." And again the Roman Council, A.D. 877, declared that "Christ himself willed that the pope be the head of us all, in his stead upon earth."

No one upon earth called a god, or worshipful individual, could plead exemption from subjection to the power of the keys in the hand of the Universal Bishop. Thus, Gregory the Seventh on excommunicating the emperor Henry IV., said, "I cannot find, that when the Lord confided to Peter the power of the keys, he made any exception in favor of kings." One of his dictates was "that all princes shall kiss the feet of the Pope alone." Raynald relates an exemplification which occurred A. D. 1515. The arrangement made by Paris, bishop of Pisaurum, Master of Ceremonies to the Pope, who was present on the occasion, was that the French king should kneel thrice on approaching the enthroned Pope; and first kiss his feet, ere he kissed his hand and face.

Among the "great things" of this Mouth is the dogma that all kingdoms are held of the pope. In support of this, Ducange, from Glaber Rodulphus, A.D. 900, quotes the popes "optimum decretum" following: "No prince shall impudently desire to bear the sceptre of the Roman Empire, or be called Emperor, or wish to be, except he whom by probity of manners the Pope of the Roman See shall convey as fit for the Republic, and to him he will commit the imperial badge." It has been said, says Elliott, that pope Constantine, A.D. 708, was the first pope that claimed the right of confirming temporal princes in their kingdoms (**). His successors claimed to make kings and depose them. An au-theistic account of the deposition of the race of Clovis by Pope Zachary in the eighth century, affords an instance of this: also, at a subsequent period, the disposal of the emperorship of the Two-Horned Beast of the Earth, as a fief of St. Peter, by Gregory VII; who deposed Henry, emperor of Germany, and conferred the diadem on Roduiphus in the words:

Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rodulpho.

In this, Gregory styles the apostle, Petra; and the pope, Petrus: the plain English of which is, Peter gave the German Empire to the Pope; and the Pope gave its crown to Roduiphus; though the apostle did not know that such an empire would ever exist! But, no lying blasphemy is too absurd to issue forth from the Draco-Lion Mouth of the Beast. In A.D. 1303, we have another illustration of this sort of blasphemy in the case of Boniface, who, in his confirmation of Albrecht in the Emperorship, declared that it was by Papal authority, as Christ's Vicar, or personal and official substitute, that the Imperial Diadem had been transferred from the Greek Empire to Charlemagne and his successors, at the crisis, namely, when the healing of the Sixth Head was commenced. "And the Germans attend here," said Boniface, "because, just as the empire was transferred from others to themselves, so Christ's Vicar, the successor of Peter, has the power of transferring the empire from the Germans to any others soever, if he will; and this without injury of right" - a declaration humbly submitted to and confessed by Albrecht.

France was declared by Gregory VII., to be tributary to Rome; and England, as also Spain, Saxony, etc., and Naples. The subjection of John of England, and after his deposition, the redonation to him by Innocent III., of the kingdom as a Papal fief; also his disposal of the German Emperorship in the case of Philip and Otho, are notorious. And Daubuz states from the letters of Pius II., that he proposed to the Turkish Sultan to give him a legal title to the Greek empire he already possessed by right of conquest, if he would assist him against his rebellious children.

There was no blasphemy too gross for papal acceptance. Whatever of this kind was offered to them, they accepted as their due. They claimed sovereignty over the land and sea, known or undiscovered; and the claim was recognized by the Horn Governments. This was exemplified in the Papal grants of the Indies to Spain and Portugal. After the conquest of the latter in the Far East, the king of Portugal sent an embassy to Rome, which arrived there and had an audience of Pope Leo, on March 25, 1514, and acknowledged his right to them. The oration, which was highly commended by the pope himself, is given in full by Roscoe, and quoted by Elliott in these words: "Listen to the orator of the embassy. For a moment he hesitates, as overcome by a sense of the majesty of him he is addressing." "Fear and trembling," he exclaims, "have come over me, and a horrible darkness overwhelmed me." Then, reassured by the Pope's serene aspect towards him - "that divine countenance, which shining," he says, "as the sun, had dispersed the mists of his mind" - he proceeds to the objects of his mission: narrates the eastern conquests of the Portuguese arms; addresses the pope as the Supreme Lord of all; and speaks of these conquests as the incipient fulfillment of God's sure promises. "Thou shalt rule from sea to sea, and from the Tyber River to the world's end;" "the kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts to thee; yea, all princes shall worship thee, all nations shall serve thee;" and under thy auspices, "there shall be one fold and one Shepherd." That is, he explains the promised universal latter-day subjection of the world to Christ, as meant of its subjection to the Pope and the Portuguese discoveries and victories over the heathen, as signs that, that consummation was at hand. And he concludes by a solemn act of adoration to the Pope, as his king's Lord and Master: "Thee, as the true Vicar of Christ and God, the Ruler of the whole Christian Republic, we recognize, confess, profess obedience to, and adore: in thy name adoring Christ, whose representative thou art." A letter from the king of Portugal accompanied this oration, and was addressed, "To Our Father and Lord Leo X."

On the ground, then, that the uttermost parts of the earth were given to the Pope for a possession, as Christ's Vicar, the king of Portugal prayed the pope to confer on the crown of Portugal a right to all countries inhabited by infidels the Portuguese might hereafter discover; the promise being added that he would spread the Catholic religion in them, establish the authority of the Pope, and so augment the flock of the Universal Bishop. This was too good an Opportunity to be lost of grandly exercising his alleged prerogative of giving nations and countries to whom he pleased. A bull was forthwith issued granting to the Portuguese all they might discover from Cape Non to India.

In A.D. 1493, after the discovery of America by Columbus, a like application was made by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain to Pope Alexander VI; the same pleas and promises accompanying it of extending the dominion of the Pope. The Bull which decreed the grant, enacted that all westward of an imaginary line passing from pole to pole, and one hundred leagues west of the Azores, should belong to the Spaniards, all eastward to the Portuguese. In the judgment of the Horn-Governments, these pontifical grants were regarded as constituting an unimpeachable title, and a guarantee against interference and attack. Under Elizabeth of England, however, the validity of the grant was not admit-ted. For on the Spanish ambassador's reclamation against Drake, A.D. 1580, for having navigated seas which were in the dominion of Spain, the British Queen replied, that "the English did not recognize in any manner the property which the king of Spain attributed to himself, nor the pretended gift of a Pope, who had no right to dispose of countries and seas which did not belong to him."

Even in our own days, and in the time of his deep temporary humiliation under the first Napoleon, who had filled his kingdom with darkness (ch. 16:10) the same "extensive jurisdiction" was asserted. "Let them learn," said Pius VII., in his excommunication of that potentate, June 10, 1809, "that they are subjected by the laws of Jesus Christ to our throne, and to our commandment." This was truly a "great thing," and in keeping with the arrogance of Celestin III., A.D. 1191, who kicked the secular diadem from the head of Henry VI., in token of his right to assign kingdoms to whom he pleased, and to take them away. The fact is thus described by Roger of Hoveden. "But the Lord Pope sat in the political chair holding the golden imperial crown between his feet; and the emperor bowing his head received the crown, and the empress in the same manner, from the feet of the Lord Pope. But the Lord Pope instantly struck with his foot the emperor's crown, and cast it upon the ground; signifying that he had the power of deposing him from the empire, if he were undeserving of it. The Cardinals, however, lifted up the crown and placed it on the emperor's head." "He hath set me," said another pope, "even as prince over all nations, to root out, and to pull down, to destroy and to build." Indeed, there is no end to "the great things and blasphemies" to which this Papal Mouth of the Gentile Beast has given, and continues to give utterance: for as Cardinal Bellarmine says (writing under the sanction of the pope) expressly, "that every title which is in scripture given to Christ, appertains also to the Pope;" and to guard against misapprehension, he gives a copious enumeration of them. This is truly "blasphemy against the Deity, manifested in the Flesh," and called Christ; the effect of which is to blaspheme his name, and his Tabernacle, and them who tabernacle, camp, tent, or dwell in the heaven; that is to say, Jesus Christ and his brethren the saints. But to notice, or reproduce here, all the blasphemies and great swelling words of this mouth, which, all toothless as it has become, have issued from it, would be to write all the past and current history of the Papacy. Under this section head I have presented the reader with specimens whereby he may be able to identify among "the powers that be "that particular power symbolized by the Mouth and the Name of Blasphemy upon the Seven Heads. This is enough for exposition. I shall therefore pass on from the further consideration of "the great things and blasphemies" of him who in his latest manifestation as Pius IX. styles himself in his address to Mortara, "the Father of all the faithful," to the brief exposition of...

The Name and Tabernacle of Deity, and Those who Dwell in the Heaven

(*) Illustrative of the chicanery of the Church in its relation to the State, isthe so-called Donation of Constantine. This was a document advanced by mthe Church in the 8th century to support its claim to exercise temporal power with the emperor as the secular arm of the church wielding the sword on behalf of the vicar of Peter. It was claimed that Constantine, onbtransferring the civil and military authority to Constantinople, conferredbdominion over Rome on pope Sylvester I (314-35). This document was proved to be a complete forgery. No such authority was ever conferred by the Emperor, but the Church is notorious for using any means to gain power — Publishers.

(**) Pope Constantine (708-15), was also the last Pope to visit Constantinople seeking the support of the Emperor for political endorsement of his status. The Emperor reigning in Constantinople at the time wa Justinian II (A.D. 669-711). Justinian was murdered shortly after the Papal visit, and as the power of the Eastern Empire declined, the popes looked more to the West, and ultimately to Pepin and Charlemagne through whose influence the Holy Roman Empire came into existence from A.D. 800 onwards — Publishers.

After what I have written concerning THE NAME in Vol.1 pp.98-114; 275-383; 368-372 and 395-400, I need say very little about it in this section.

In this chapter 13, we have two Names which are antagonistic - the blaspheming name, "whose number is six hundred three score and six", the number indicative of The Man of Sin-power; and the Name he blasphemes, which is written upon the foreheads of the 144,000-ch. 14:1. In ch. 13:6, it represents Christ and his Brethren, who, in antagonism to the Papal Blasphemer, constitute the Name of Deity. The phrases "his name," "his tabernacle," and "them that dwell in the heaven," are all synonymous with the phrase in the seventh verse, "the saints," of whom Christ is "the Head." The Deity dwells in them, and therefore they are his temple, habitation, or tabernacle; as Paul writes to the saints in Corinth, "Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their Deity, and they shall be my people" (2 Cor. 7:16). They are the tabernacle "built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, the foundation cornerstone being Jesus Christ himself: in whom all the building fitly framed together increaseth for a Holy Name in the Lord: in whom ye are builded together for an habitation of the Deity in Spirit" (Eph. 2:20-22).

But Christ and the Saints are not only the Name and Tabernacle of the Deity, but they are also, "those who dwell in the heaven." The phrase "in the heaven" is Apocalyptically equivalent to "in the heavenlies in Christ" -en tois epouraniois en Christo (Eph. 1:3). Paul tells the saints in Ephesus, that he with them were "blessed with all spiritual blessings" in these heavenlies; in which they and Christ, though the latter is at the Right Hand of the Divine Majesty, and they in Ephesus and elsewhere, were regarded as sitting together (Eph. 1:20; 2:6). A heavenly is a constituted supernal state. It may be Divinely constituted, or constituted by human authority. We have these two kinds of heaven-ies in Paul's letter to the saints in Ephesus. Inch. 6:12, he alludes to the heavenlies constituted by human authority. The Common Version styles them "High Places;" but Paul used the same word to indicate them as that rendered "heavenly places" in ch. 1:3,20; 2:6. There is no reason why the translation should not be uniform after the manner of the original. I see that in the Italian Version this uniformity has been observed. In this, in all the places of the epistle where Paul uses en tois epouraniois, the phrase is represented by ne' luoghi celesti, in places celestial. The French Version is also uniform, rendering it dans les heux celestes. The German is less uniform than the English; and in ch. 6:12, excludes the things mentioned there from heaven altogether, and puts them unter dem Himmel, under the heaven.

It is, however, to be remembered that Paul so expresses himself as not to be misunderstood by the enlightened. He defines the heavenlies in which they "sit together with Christ" as being "in Christ;" but he omits the phrase "in Christ" when he speaks of the heavenlies in which "the spirituals of wickedness" are found. Hence, the two kinds of supernal states are characterized by being "in Christ" or not in Christ; which is equivalent to being out of Christ - outside, or not included in the things, of which the manifestation of Deity in the Flesh is the great and glorious centre.

But the Heavenlies in Christ are not luoghi, heux, or places, but STATES, the foundation of which is laid in Jesus Christ - Deity manifested in the Flesh. "The Man Christ Jesus" is a real man. When on earth he was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and sinless," as to character; yet imperfect as to his material nature. He is now perfect - a perfect man "justified by spirit," and therefore incorruptible and immortal - a perfect character or moral nature, developed by Divine power, or spirit, into a perfect material nature. But Christ is also an allegorical man, as Hagar and Sarah were two allegorical women; the former representing the Mosaic Covenant; the latter, the New, or Abrahamic, Covenant. From the days of Moses until the Day of Pentecost, A.D. 34, the whole twelve tribes were constitutionally in their mother Hagar, or the Jerusalem system then in existence, and in bondage with her children. But on that celebrated day a new system was initiatorily developed, the Sarah Covenant, styled "the Jerusalem above the Mother of us all." Isaac was Sarah's son, and allegorically slain, and allegorically raised. The saints are all in Isaac; for "in Isaac shall thy seed be called." This seed is Christ; not Jesus only; but that great multitude also which no man can number. This "One Body" of people headed up in Deity is the allegorical or figurative Christ. They are the children of the promise as Isaac was; the free-born sons of Sarah the free woman. This is their state, without regard to the place or country of earth or heaven, where they might be supposed to be. But, if there had been no literal or personal Christ, there could have been no such Christ-State for Jews and Gentiles. Jesus of Nazareth was allegorically "a number which no man could number." He himself taught this, saying, "he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit:" and, "Father, I pray for them who shall believe into me (eis eme) through the apostles' word: that they all may be one in us" (John 10:5; 17:20,21). Though few compared with the whole race of man, it is a great company absolutely - a people taken out from all the generations and the nations for the Divine Name. "He shall increase," said John the Immerser; "but I must decrease." Jesus increased, or grew, into a Divine and "chosen generation;" while John has dwindled down into a mere Baptist Denomination, which is either ignorant of, or opposed to "the truth as it is in Jesus."

The heavenlies in Christ are two states answering to the two places of the tabernacle of Moses. One of these states is not yet manifested on earth; the other is. Hence, one may be said to be visible, and the other invisible; yet the saints, not sinners, who are quickened with him, and raised with him, sit together in both with him, and He with them. Now the solution of this mystery turns wholly upon the meaning of the phrase "in him." What is it then, to be in him? It is to be where Paul places the saints in Thessalonica, namely, en Theo patri, kai Kuno Iesou Christo, in Deity the Father, and the Lord Jesus Anointed. The saints are all in this manifestation of Deity. Being in Jesus and the Father, they must be, in a certain sense, where Jesus and the Father are. Alluding to this fact, Paul says in Heb. 12:23, "We are come to the Deity the Judge of all, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant", and so forth. But Paul says that Jesus is at the Father's own Right Hand. True; but he also says, that "being justified by faith, we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand." In other words, we have admission to the Father in heaven by faith; and when a person is permitted access to a place, and avails himself of the permission, he is in some sense certainly there; and when there in this certain sense, he is "dwelling in the heaven" in the presence of "the Judge of all."

Now the two places of the Mosaic tabernacle were the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, which were divided the one from the other by the Vail. Even so it is with "the holies", the true tabernacle which the Lord pitches, and not man (Heb. 8:2). There are the Holy Heavenly State and the Most Holy Heavenly State, divided by the Flesh. The Holy must be entered before the Most Holy can be reached; and to pass corporeally from one into the other, the individual must put on incorruptibility and become immortal; for, so long as he is in mortal flesh he is outside, or rather, an element of the Vail which must be rent; though by faith and constitution in Christ, he is within it.

How, then, does a sinner come to "dwell in the heaven?" By being "transformed in the renewing of his mind" "by knowledge" (Rom. 12:2; Col. 3:10); that he may discern and do "that good and acceptable and Perfect will of the Deity." In other words, by believing the gospel of the Kingdom and Name; and being immersed into and upon that Name. In so doing, he enters into the Holy Heavenly State. By faith in "the truth as it is in Jesus," and obedience, he puts on Christ, and is therefore, "in Him;" and being in him, he is constitutionally holy or a saint; and sitting together with him in the Most Holy, not personally, or corporeally rather; but by faith. This is his present adoption through Jesus Christ, by which he becomes a son of Deity, of Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac, and a brother of Christ himself (Gal. 3:26-29); and a "dweller in the heaven."

But there are heavenlies beyond the pale of the Christ-Body. These are Supernal States in which Paul locates principalities, powers, world-rulers of the darkness of the times of the Gentiles, which he styles "this aeon," and the spirituals of the wickedness enthroned throughout the earth. These heavenlies are constituted providentially or instrumentally by human authority and power after "the course of this world;" and are the tabernacle of "the Prince of the power of the Air, the Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2). This Prince-power and Spirit of the Air is Sin's Flesh; whose spirit pervades all sublunary human constitutions, styled "thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers,'' which Paul specifies as ''things in the heaven" or "the Air'' (Col. 1:16). In such an unclean heaven as this, are found the Ten-Horned, and Two-Horned, Beasts, the Name of Blasphemy, the Lion-Mouth, and the Image of the Beast, or False Prophet, the God of the Earth - all things of power, in short, emanating from falsehood and superstition. The dwellers in this Air, or Heaven, are not the Saints. In their days of Apocalyptic prophecy the two witnessing prophets had power to shut this heaven that there should be no rain from it; and as often as they willed during 1260 years, to turn the popular waters into blood, and to smite the earth with all war-plagues (ch. 11:6). The dwellers in this Aerial are the civil and ecclesiastical orders of society; such as, emperors, kings, diplomatists, nobles spiritual and racial, legislators, magistrates, priests, clergymen, parsons, and all of that class, styled by the apostle "spirituals of the wickedness" which reigns in "the Court of the Gentiles without the temple." Between this heaven and "the Heavenlies in Christ" there is implacable and uncompromising hostility. No peace can be permanently established in the earth till one or other of these heavens be suppressed or subjugated: and who can doubt which of these heavens shall be shaken, be rolled up as a scroll, and be made to pass away with the great tumult of war? The heavenlies, or high places, of this world are decreed to Yahweh and his Anointed Body; who, by the thunders and lightnings issuing from the throne newly set in the heaven, shall take the dominion under the whole heaven, and possess it during the Olahm and beyond (ch. 11:15; 4:1-5; Dan. 7:18,22,27). This is the fiat of Eternal Wisdom and Power. The Seventh Vial, the last blast of the Seventh Trumpet, is to pour out its fury upon the Air, the secular and spiritual constitution of which will thereby be thoroughly and radically changed. The things now in the Air will be transferred to "them who dwell in the heaven" in Christ; who, having passed through the Vail of the Flesh which divides the Heavenlies, in the putting on of immortality, will be manifested as the Most Holy Heavenly in Christ; and the Air, filled with their glory, will become the New Heavens, in which righteousness will dwell forever. The Air will then no longer be malarious with the pestiferousness of secular and spiritual demagogues, who "with good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." The Prince of the Power of the Air will then be the Spirit that works in the children of obedience - the truth incarnated gloriously in Jesus and his Brethren; who, in the highest sense, will be those who dwell in the heaven.

It was against the Saints, who, in the times of the Gentiles, constitute the Name, the Tabernacle, and them who dwelt in the Heaven in Christ, that the Ten-Horned Beast opens his Leo-Babylonian Mouth in blasphemy; and makes war, till the end of the Forty and Two Months of Years. In blaspheming Jesus and his Brethren, he blasphemes the Deity, on the principle laid down by Christ, that what is done to, for, or against, his brethren, is done to, for, or against him. The Lion-Mouth of the Apocalyptic Babylon spoke evil of them in words of the most acrid bitterness. He denounced them as heretics, accursed, the children of the Devil, the spawn of hell - not a blasphemous epithet was there that the pope and his agents did not heap upon them. The prophetic writings, though set aside for the purposes of truth and edification, were resorted to for names of infamy by which to make them odious to those who worship the beast and his image; and the evil symbols and appellations therein employed by the Spirit to prefigure the Apostasy and its "spirituals of the wickedness," this Mouth of Blasphemy applied to the Saints. In this it blasphemed the Deity himself. This principle is well illustrated in Ezek. 35, where a statement made by Edom concerning Israel and their country is styled blasphemy against the mountains of Israel, because it was false. Edom said, as he also says to this day, "these two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it, though Yahweh were there." Now, He had promised the land to Jacob, and to him he will give it for an everlasting inheritance. Hence, every saying subversive of this purpose is blasphemy against the country, and blasphemy and boasting against the Eternal Spirit: for, if Edom's purpose of possession could possibly be established, the Deity's veracity would be destroyed, and his character for faithfulness overthrown. "Thus," in making false statements concerning the destiny of Israel, Judah, and their country, O Edom, saith Yahweh, "with your mouth ye have boasted against Me, and have multiplied your words against Me; I have heard: so that when the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate." By Edom is here represented what John symbolizes by the Beast and his Image, etc. Hence, to blaspheme or speak evil and injuriously of God's people, and promises, is regarded by Him as blasphemy against Himself.

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Eureka

AN EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE Sixth Edition, 1915 By Dr. John Thomas (first edition written 1861)

Chapter 13

Section 1 Subsection 21

21. War with the Saints

"And it was given to him to make war with the Saints, and to vanquish them" - Verse 7

This Beast that vanquishes the saints is the same that in ch. 11:7, is referred to as destined to make war against the Two Witnesses. There is, however, this difference of result observable in the Beast's war upon the Saints "who dwell in the heaven;" and his war against the Witnessing Prophets who had power to shut his heaven, that it should not rain in their days of the prophecy - he vanquishes the Saints, but does not "kill them;" but in regard to the Two Prophets, he both vanquishes and kills them. The reason is this: he could not kill the Saints as a body politic, exercising power and authority in the Court of the Gentiles; because, not being politicians and political partisans, they never possessed them: it is therefore stated simply, that they were vanquished or overcome by the war. Hence, we find nothing about the saints rising from death until "the time of the dead" when Christ appears. But, in the case of the Two Witnesses, or politico-ecclesiastical communities opposed to the Horns and their Lion Mouth, they were politically killed, and lay dead and unburied in the platea of the Great City three lunar days and a half of years, and afterwards became the subject of a political resurrection and ascension into the heaven of the Beast. The Saints who dwell in the heaven in Christ have never been there yet. A better resurrection and ascension than that of the Two Witnesses is in reserve for them. The reader is re-erred to my eleventh chapter for particulars about the Beast's war upon the Witnesses. The Saints of the Holy City shared in much of their affliction, and are still trodden under foot; and will continue so to be, until the synchronous termination of the Forty Two months and 1335 years. After what I have written in that chapter of Vol.3, it is unnecessary here to repeat the story of the war. The Saints were killed by thousands in the war because they would not worship the Beast's Image. This was the fate of multitudes who did not dwell in the heaven; for the slaughter by the Beasts was often indiscriminate, on the principle that "the Lord would know his own;" for even Catholics dwelling in witnessing communities were not exempted from massacre and flame. History is copious in the narration of the sanguinary persecutions and crusades raised against them by the Pope, who promised forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation to volunteers in his wars with the saints and witnesses, all of whom he blasphemed as "emanating from the pit of the abyss." These volunteers responded to his incentives with enthusiasm; and in reporting the execution of their mission, would say, "we have spared neither age nor sex; we have smitten every one with the edge of the sword." Besides being subject to massacre, they were at all times by the canon law deprived of all civil privileges; and it was declared "homicidas non esse qui excommunicatos trucidant," that they who butcher the excommunicated are not murderers.

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"Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints" - Verse 10

When we read in the seventh verse, that exousia, authority, rule, dominion or jurisdiction, was given to the Beast," and consequently to his Lion Mouth, over every tribe, and tongue and nation, we know that the Beast represents the system of government existing in the outcast and unmeasured Court of the Gentiles (ch. 11:2): that is, over the tribes, tongues, and nations, of those countries, in which the Holy Polity in Christ, the Saints, and the Earth, or Witnesses, helping them, have contended for 1260 years against the Papacy.

The Saints, or true believers, have always known, though sinners, and sceptical professors, their kin, have not, that although their conflict with the secular and ecclesiastical rulers of the world would be proximately disastrous; yet, that finally they would themselves be the victors, and the personal avengers of the atrocious cruelties they had endured. They have always known what the Beast is that is politically "worshipped by all that dwell upon the (Romish) earth;" and by which they have in ages past been vanquished: and being of that class that hath ears, they have heard "what the Spirit saith to the ecclesias." They have understood what the destiny of "the Powers that be," which have led them into captivity and killed them by the sword, is decreed by the Eternal Spirit to be. They know that this Beast, with all its appendages of heads, horns, mouth, feet, and Name of Blasphemy, aggregately symbolizing the governments of the nations, are themselves to be led captive, or taken violent possession of; and to be destroyed by the judicial two-edged sword in the hands of the Saints. They knew that the honor of executing vengeance upon the nations, and punishments upon the people; of binding their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; and of executing the judgment written, when the Ancient of Days should come, was, in the wisdom and justice of the Deity, assigned to them (Psa. 149:6-9; Dan. 7:22). By this knowledge, they were energized to endure for the time-being the atrocious cruelty inflicted upon them by the great iron teeth of the Lion-Mouth. They endured in hope of this honor, and waited for it in faith. It was their patience and their faith that the time would come, after the lapse of the forty two months, when they would slay Daniel's Fourth Beast, give his body politic to the burning flame, and deprive the other three Beasts of their dominion, which they would possess 1000 years (Dan. 7:11,12; Apoc. 20:4). This has never been "the patience and the faith" of the worshippers of the Beast "who dwell upon the earth." These, who constitute "the Names and Denominations of Christendom," do not believe that the power leading "heretics," so-called, into captivity, or, in the language of the Inquisition, "immuring" them, shall itself be "immured" in the binding of its kings and nobles with chains: nor that such a power having killed "heretics" by the million with the sword, shall in like manner be by them destroyed. They of whose names there has been no record (hou gegraptai) from the foundation of the world, in the book of the slain Lamb's life have no ear to hear such doctrines as this. The waiting for and belief of these things is a characteristic of the true believers, "who dwell in the heaven," though". pilgrims and sojourners upon the earth, and trodden under foot of the Gentiles; for where their treasure is, there is their heart, or affections, also.

This tenth verse of ch. 13 is parallel with ch. 14:8-12. That is, the mission of the Second and Third Angels outlined in this passage is executive of the judgment written against the Beast in ch. 13:10 - ei tis, if any, etc., rendered "he that killeth, etc.; the outline shows that the "any" refers to Babylon, the great city, and the worshippers of the Beast and his Image; and that these are to be "tormented with fire and brimstone," or "destroyed in war" (ch. 11:18) "in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb." The saints are waiting for this. It is the patience of those "who keep the commandments of the Deity and the faith of Jesus;" for so it is written inch. 14:12, to which the reader is referred. Because the Great City, or "Christendom," has shed the blood of the saints and witnesses of Jesus, blood is to be given it to drink until it shall fall to rise no more. As "a great hail out of the heavens," the saints are to descend upon Babylon, and to "reward her even as she rewarded them, and to double to her according to her works" (Ch. 16:21; 18:6). They are to execute this judgment strengthened by Omnipotence co-working with them (ch. 14:13); in the time of the end, after they shall have been raised from the dead, and been commissioned (ch. 18:20).

When this patience and faith is satisfied, the saints, living and raised, will no longer be in a waiting position. They will rejoice in victory, and "sing the song of Moses, the servant of the Deity, and the song of the Lamb" (ch. 15:3). There will then be no systems of government such as now exist. The Ten-horned Beast, the Two-horned Beast, the Image of the Beast, the Scarlet-colored Beast, and the drunken Harlot he carries, will all have been destroyed as "the destroyers of the earth." Not a trace of them will be left; for they are all to be carried away as the wind sweeps off the chaff of the summer threshing-floors. No place on the earth will be found for them; for the Power that smites them will be-come as a great Mountain filling the whole earth (Dan. 2:35,44). "Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. Here are they who keep the commandments of the Deity and the faith of Jesus;" all others are simply "the worshippers of the beast and his image," the mark of whose name is in their foreheads sealing them to death.

In the English Version, the eighth verse reads, "and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the Beast) whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." This is generally taken to mean that "the Lamb was slain from the foundation the world" - slain in the typical sacrifices of the Mosaic law. However this may be, the phrase "from the foundation of the world" in this place does not refer to the slaying of the Lamb, but to the writing of certain names in the Book of Life. This is evident from the parallel passage in ch. 17:8, "and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world." This is expository of the former on this point. The Book of Life is essentially that of the Lamb slain; for there is no book registering names for eternal life, that has not been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus. The slain Lamb's Book of Life is the Book of the Abrahamic Covenant, dedicated with the blood of Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant; and in this Book their names are not written who are ignorant of the promises, and, therefore, faithless of the Gospel preached to Abraham, and afterwards in the name of Jesus Christ. These worshippers and wonderers are "alienated from the life of the Deity through the ignorance that is in them" (Eph. 4:18). The slain Lamb's Book of Life, whose first page was written at the foundation of the world in the days of Moses, promises the incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading inheritance reserved in the heavens to those, and to such only, "who are kept by the power of Deity (the gospel of the kingdom Rom. 1:16) through faith, for the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Pet. 1:4,5); or "at the appearing (the apocalypse) of Jesus Christ-ver. 7. The promise is in thee, Abraham, and in thy Seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed;" and "all the land which thou seest to thee will I give it, and to thy Seed,for ever" (Gen. 12:3,7; 13:15). This is a promise of eternal life and of an eternal inheritance to Abraham and his Seed; for they must be made incorruptible and immortal to enable them to possess a country "for ever." Nor can any sane person be in doubt as to what country is promised to Abraham and his Seed for ever; for it is plainly and expressly stated to be the land Abraham saw with his eyes when he was seventy-five years old - the land lying between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates, at present a province of the Draco-Ottoman empire.

Now, Moses and Paul teach that the Seed connected with the father of the faithful in the promise, was to be manifested in the line of Isaac; and that the said Seed was to be the personal and mystical Christ; or the One Body, whose head is Jesus and the Father; in other words, Jesus Christ. "To Abraham and to the Christ," says Paul, "were the promises made, and confirmed 430 years before the Mosaic law was given." He then states that when "the faith came;" that is, when the truth was manifested through the slaying of the Lamb of the Deity, men and women became the children of Deity by obedience to it; for the faith was made known to all nations for obedience of faith (Rom. 16:26; 1:5). Believers became children of the Deity by this obedience; for, he says, "Ye are all children of Deity in Christ Jesus through the faith. " But, if they were not in Christ, though they might be believers, they were not His children; but mere worshippers of the Beast in the times of the Beast. Those believers only are "in Christ Jesus" who have entered into that heavenly state "through the faith;" or through the way pointed out in the one faith. This way is indicated in the words of Paul, who tells the believer of the truth by what process he may become a son of Deity; how he may get into Christ, and by consequence, be Christ's brother; and, therefore, a son of Abraham in the highest sense; an heir of the Deity, a joint-heir with Christ; and thereby entitled to the eternal life and inheritance promised to Abraham 430 years "before the foundation of the world". His words are, "As many as have been immersed into Christ have put on Christ; and if ye be Christ's, then are ye the Seed of Abraham, and Heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3:26-29; Rom. 8:17).

This is the Covenant of life in Christ confirmed by his blood, and styled Apocalyptically, "the Book of the life of the Lamb slain." Every one who can prove Scripturally that he is in Christ, and, therefore of Abraham's Seed, thereby demonstrates that his name has been written in that book from the foundation of the world. For, "known unto the Deity are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:13). If any one be a son of Deity he is one of "his works;" for says Paul to the sons of Deity in Ephesus, "we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works" (ch. 2:10). Then every one of his children was known to Him by name when he laid the foundation of the aion and kosmos (both rendered world in the English Version) in the Abrahamic Covenant. To deny it, would be to say that the Deity did not know all his works from the beginning. But he did know them; and, therefore, it is said in the verse before us of the dwellers on the earth in contrast with the dwellers in the heaven, of "whom there has not been written from the foundation of the world the names in the book of the life of the Lamb that had been slain." The sentence resting upon these is "Depart from me, ye cursed that work iniquity; I never knew you" (Matt. 7:21-23; 25:41). Such are the wonderers after the Beast of all clerical orders, and names, and denominations of blasphemy, of which his body politic is full (Apo 17:3). Thus, "whosoever is not found written in the Book of Life is cast into the Lake of Fire, in which the Beast and False-Prophet powers are to be destroyed by the all-conquering saints (ch. 19:20; 20:15; Matt. 25:41).