church of Rome) were not the only true church, its members would not have possessed those gifts. Here then we have another instance of the manner in which the church of Rome proved itself to be the only true church by lying wonders. When that point was once established; when the strong faith of a determined Papist once admitted the reality of those miracles; and when once he drew from them the desired conclusion, that, since none but members of the true church could perform them, the church of Rome whose members did perform them must doubtless be the only true church: the rest would follow of course: no salvation can be had out of the true church; therefore the church of Rome possesses an undoubted power to anathematize and excommunicate all heretics.

7. He deceiveth them that dwell on the earth, by means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image for the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, in order that the image of the beast should even speak, and in order that he might cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed-Before the import of this passage can be determined, its literal meaning must be ascertained. The expression the image of the beast, and the expression. the beast and his image which elsewhere occurs,

are both ambiguous; inasmuch as they may signify either the image, in the sense of the effigles of the beast, or the image which belongs to the beast. Thus the image of Cesar upon the Roman coin means doubtless the effigies of Cesar* ; whereas the image of Micah, certainly means the image which belonged to Micah, the image which he had made for himself to be his godt. Had no other expressions then occurred in the Apocalypse except the image of the beast and the beast and his image, we should have been unable positively to determine what precise idea we ought to annex to this image; but all ambiguity seems to be removed by the manner in which the Apostle introduces his account of it. It is said, the second beast so deceived the inhabitants of the earth by his false miracles, that he induced them to make an image to or for the first beast. Now it is surely putting a very great force upon language to suppose that the making an image for the beast can signify the making a representation of him. The prohibition in the decalogue relative to idolatry is couched in the following terms: "Thou shalt not "make unto thee any graven image.' Here it is manifest, that the making an image to a person's self means the making an image for his own use and worship: it is only natural therefore to suppose, that the making an image to the beast means

*Matt. xxii. 19, 20, 21.

+ Exod. xx. 4•

Judges xviii. 31.

the

the making an image for the use and worship of the beast; and consequently that the image of the beast imports, not the effigies of the beast, but the image which the beast adored.

That such is the proper interpretation of the expression will yet further appear, if we consider the context of the whole passage. It was by false miracles that the ecclesiastical beast induced the inhabitants of the earth to set up this image for the secular beast. Accordingly, as we are informed by Bp. Newton, "miracles are thought so neces"sary and essential, that they are reckoned among

the notes of the catholic church; and they are ❝ alledged principally in support of purgatory, "prayers for the dead, the worship of saints, images, and relics, and the like (as they are called) catholic doctrines*."

The difficulty consists, not so much in proving this point, as in selecting some out of the many proofs which offer themselves to our attention. “The first introduction," says Mr. Gibbon," of

a symbolic worship was in the veneration of the "cross and of relics. The saints and martyrs, "whose intercession was implored, were seated "on the right hand of God; but the gracious, "and often supernatural favours, which, in the "popular belief, were showered around their tomb, "conveyed an unquestionable sanction of the devout pilgrims, who visited, and touched, and

Bp. Newton's Dissert. on Rev. xiii.

"kissed,

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"kissed, these lifeless remains, the memorials of "their merits and sufferings-The scruples of rea"son or piety were silenced by the strong evidence of visions and miracles; and the pictures, which speak, and move, and bleed, must be endowed with 46 a divine energy, and may be considered as the proper objects of religious adoration-Before the "end of the sixth century, images, made without "hands (in Greek it is a single word), were propagated in the camps and cities of the eastern empire: they were the objects of worship, and the instruments of miracles; and, in the hour of danger "or tumult, their venerable presence could revive "the hope, rekindle the courage, or repress the fury, of the Roman legions*."-One of the grand

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idols

*History of Decline and Fall, vol. ix. p. 114-120. Mr. Gibbon observes, that before the end of the sixth century images were in very general use. This may be thought to contradict what I have said relative to the proper date of the great Apostasy. I then however observed, and I may here observe again, that superstition had for some time been gradually creeping into the Church previous to the years 606 and 607; but it is. necessary to date a prophetic series of years from a fixed and determinate era when some overt act has been committed. This overt act is declared by the prophet to be the establishment f the Pope's supremacy, or the delivering up of the saints into his hind. Now it is observable, that, whatever approaches there might be to image-worship in the course of the sixth century, idolatry was not openly established by the authority of the Roman Pontiff till the year 607; the very year after that in which the saints had been delivered into the hand of the little horn, and

consequently from which the 1260 years are to be dated. Ac

cordingly

idols of the Romanists, as it is well known, is the Virgin Mary. "They beg of her," says Jurieu, "in express terms whatever is desired from God; "heaven, pardon of sin, grace, repentance, vic"tory of the devil. It is not enough to pray to ❝the virgin, you must adore her: every knee must "bow to her, adoring her as sovereign queen of "men and angels. And this adoration is not to "be mere external adoration, but internal-On "account of her holiness, men owe dulia to her;

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on account of her maternal relation, they owe "her hyperdulia; and, because she touched our Saviour, the adoration of latria is due to her. "Those, who well perform these services, though "never so negligent of their duty towards God, "though villains, robbers, debauchees; they can. "not be damned, because they have been clients "of the Virgin. This they prove by innumerable "examples of those, whom the Virgin hath by "strange miracles brought back, as it were, from

the gates of hell, because they had been her "votaries. And, as an evidence how pleasing this

cordingly Mr. Gibbon very truly observes respecting the period of which he is speaking, "as the worship of images had never "been established by any general or positive law, its progress in "the Eastern Empire had been retarded or accelerated, by the

differences of men and manners, the local degrees of re"finement, and the personal characters of the bishops" (Ibid. p. 122.). But I have already said amply sufficient respecting the difference between individual apostasy, and authorized apostasy. The one commenced many years before the other.

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