in the obstacle which restrained the Revelation of the Lawless one; and they taught that, on the dissolution of the Empire, represented here by the removal of the Mountain, and the casting of it into the Sea, the Lawless one would be revealed. The seven Heads represent the seven forms of civil Government to which Rome was subject before the Papacy arose. One of these heads is described as wounded and healed*; and we know (to cite the words of Bishop Andrewes †) that the Imperial power, which was broken by the Goths and Vandals, revived with all its former strength in the Papal. The Beast is said to have been, and not to be ‡, although he is §: that is, the Papal power pre-existed, in its secular greatness, in the Imperial; although in another, spiritual, sense it had not yet arisen; and the Beast is said to be from the seven heads, and to be himself the eighth, that is, to be a form of Government, which will succeed on the disappearance of the seventh Head. That is, the Roman mountain *Rev. xiii. 3. + Bp. Andrewes, c. Bellarmin. p. 287. "Romæ Imperium, quod graviter afflictum a Gothis et Vandalis, curatâ tamen plagâ ejus vires pene pristinas post recepit, cum exurgeret de novo et grandesceret in serie Paparum Romanus Antichristus. Ibi caput, ibi plaga capitis, plaga lethalis, ibi plagæ cura." Chapters 9, 10, 11, and 12 of Bp. Andrewes' work are very full, on this subject. See Appendix I. to Vol. ii. of this Work. † καίπερ ἐστίν· where καὶ πάρεσται, and he will appear, is the reading of many MSS., and is received by Scholz. The sense of this is obvious. § Rev. xvii. 8. must first be cast into the Sea; and then the Beast will rise from the Waves. An important remark arises here. Your attention has been already called to the catchwords which connect one part of the Apocalypse with another *. This observation must be extended further. The Apocalypse itself is connected, by like catchwords, with the Prophecies of the Old Testament; especially as read in the Greek Septuagint Version. A remarkable one occurs in the passage before us. The Beast, we read, makes war with the Saints, and has a mouth speaking great things †, TOMA ΛΑΛΟΥΝ ΜΕΓΑΛΑ. Refer now to Daniel's Prophecy, concerning the horn which riseth in the midst of the ten horns of the fourth monarchy or Roman empire. This horn, we read, makes war with the Saints, and has a mouth speaking great things, ΣΤΟΜΑ ΛΑΛΟΥΝ ΜΕΓΑΛΑ †. Thus St. John knits on his Apocalypse to the book of Daniel; and identifies the Beast of the one with the little Horn of the other. A SECOND BEAST is next described by St. John, which has two horns like a Lamb §, and speaks as a * See above, Lecture VI. p. 187. 190. + Rev. xiii. 5. Such are the words in Dan. vii. 8, in the LXX; and also in the Version of Theodotion. § Haymo ad cap. xiii. Agnus, Christus est, de quo Joannes dixit, Ecce Agnus Dei. Duo ejus cornua sunt innocentia et vita pura, doctrina et miracula; ista simulabunt se habere ministri Antichristi. Dragon. The word LAMB occurs twenty-nine times in the Apocalypse, and is always applied to CHRIST. This Second Beast, therefore, with its horns like a Lamb, combines an outward semblance of CHRIST with the fierce spirit of the EVIL ONE. This Beast then cannot be a heathen or infidel power, but represents some form of Christianity. How, it may be asked, does this Beast differ from the former, which has been just described? The former Beast, we reply, is the depository of Power; and the latter labours for the aggrandizement of that Power*. Hence it is that the words "it was given t" are repeatedly applied by St. John to the former Beast, and that the expression "he works ‡ * St. Irenæus, v. 28, commenting on this passage, well describes the second Beast as the Υπερασπιστής, or Armour-bearer of the first Beast. + xiii. 2. ἔδωκεν αὐτῷ ὁ δράκων. 4 ἔδωκεν ἐξουσίαν τῷ θηρίῳ. 5 ἐδόθη αὐτῷ στόμα λαλοῦν μεγάλα. 5 ἐδόθη αὐτῷ ποιῆσαι μῆνας τεσσαράκοντα δύο. 7 ἐδόθη αὐτῷ πόλεμον ποιῆσαι μετὰ τῶν ἁγίων καὶ νικῆσαι αὐτούς. 7 ἐδόθη αὐτῷ ἐξουσία ἐπὶ πᾶσαν φυλήν. xiii. 12 τὴν ἐξουσίαν τοῦ πρώτου θηρίου πᾶσαν ποιεῖ ἐν ώπιον αὐτοῦ. 12 ποιεῖ τὴν γῆν καὶ τοὺς προσκυνοῦντας ἐν αὐτῇ ἵνα προσκυνήσωσι τὸ θηρίον. 13 ποιεῖ σημεῖα μεγάλα. 13 ἵνα καὶ πῦρ ποιῇ καταβαίνειν. 14 σημεία ποιῆσαι ἐνώπιον τοῦ θηρίου. 14 λέγει ποιῆσαι εἰκόνα τῷ θηρίῳ. [15 ποιήσῃ characterizes the latter. The second Beast works for the former Beast, to whom the power is given. This Second Beast is described as compelling all to worship the former Beast, and to receive his mark, and not allowing any to buy or sell, who have not the mark or the name of the former Beast. In Scripture, a Prophet is a Preacher; and this Second Beast, which has the semblance of a Lamb*, 15 ποιήσῃ ὅσοι ἂν μὴ προσκυνήσωσι . . . ἵνα ἀποκτανθῶσι. 16 ποιεῖ πάντας ἵνα δῶσιν αὐτοῖς χάραγμα ἐπὶ τῆς χειρὸς αὐτῶν τῆς δεξιᾶς, ἢ ἐπὶ τῶν μέτωπων. 17 καὶ ἵνα μή τις δύνηται ἀγοράσαι κ.τ.λ. The comment of Primasius (Bishop of Adrumetum, in Africa, in the middle of the sixth century,) on this passage is very observable, as showing that, even before their fulfilment, these prophecies were supposed to point-not to an infidel or heathen power, but to a form of Christianity. "Hæc bestia duo cornua Agni similia, duo Testamenta, Vero Agno competentia, sibi usurpare tentavit. Ut draco tamen loqui dicitur, quia in hypocrisi, id est, in simulatione Veritatis decipit. Agnum fingit, ut Agnum invadat, id est, CHRISTI Corpus. .. Potestatem prioris bestia faciebat. . . Astante enim populo faciunt Præpositi, quod diaboli voluntati proficiat, sub velamento hypocrisis Ecclesiæ. . . . Claret utramque bestiam unum corpus esse, et unius nequitiæ cultum exercere, ut sequentis bestiæ hypocrisis priori bestiæ militare dicatur . . . illa bestia sibi simulatè Agni nomen usurpat. Hæc simulatio eousque prævaluit ut terreniseducti propter signa bestiæ, ipsi bestiæ miserabili assensu faventes, mutua se devotione cohortentur bestiæ imaginem fabricare, sicut qui jam non æstiment dubitandum quod vere ipse sit Christus, cum sit in Antichristo diabolus. . . cui (Antichristo) ut Deo honorem æstimant deferendum." A wonderful Exposition! is called by St. John the FALSE PROPHET, that is, the Teacher or Preacher of false doctrines *. He is a Wolf in Sheep's clothing↑. Observe also; these two Beasts live and die together. They have the same doom at the same time ‡. When all these things are considered, it will, I am persuaded, be thought reasonable to concur with those Expositors who see in the Second Beast || a personification of the Papacy acting by those particular Orders, calling themselves Religious Orders, and so wearing the semblance of the Lamb, and denominated Preaching or Prophetic Orders-I mean the Dominican and Franciscan, and after them the Jesuits-which have laboured with all their might and ability to advance the Papal claims to Omnipotence and Infallibility **. *Rev. xvi. 13. xix. 20. xx. 10. + Rev. xix. 20. This they have + Matth. vii. 15. Limborch. Histor. Inquisitionis, p. 39. Circa A. D. 1200 Papa (Innocent III.) instituit Ordines Dominicanorum et Franciscanorum qui contra hæreses prædicarent.-The Franciscan Order, A. D. 1207, sanctioned by Pope Innocent III.; A.D. 1209, the Dominican, also under Innocent III. Pope Honorius, in his bull to Dominic, speaks of the Dominicans as "pugiles fidei." Cp. Vitringa, p. 613, 614.-These Orders were called "fulcra et sustentacula Ecclesiæ Pontificia." See Ussher de Succ. Eccl. cap. ix. § ix. ** Paul IV. (says Onuphrius in vit.) said that " the authority of the Papacy leant on the Inquisition" (hoc uno niti sedis Apostolicæ authoritatem). Cp. Corn. Agripp. de Vanit. Scient. c. 96, and Heidegger. Myster. Babyl. ii. 283; who calls them Religious Orders, the "adminicula et munimenta" of the Papacy. |