not by literally slaying them itself. "Who can make any computation, or even frame any conception, of the numbers of pious Christians, who have fallen a sacrifice to the bigotry and cruelty of Rome? Mede hath observed from good authorities, that in the war with the Waldenses and Albigenses there perished of these poor creatures in France alone a million. From the first institution of the Jesuits to the year 1480, that is in little more than thirty years, 900,000 orthodox Christians were slain. In the Netherlands alone, the Duke of Alva boasted, that within a few years he had dispatched to the amount of 36,000 souls, and those all by the hand of the common executioner. In the space of scarce thirty years, the Inquisition destroyed, by various kinds of tortures, 150,000 Christians. Sanders himself confesses, that an innumerable multitude of Lollards and Sacramentarians were burnt throughout all Europe; who yet, he says, were not put to death by the Pope and Bishops, but by the civil magistrates: which perfectly agrees with this prophecy; for of the secular beast* it is said, that he should make war with the saints and overcome them."+

4. He exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him-Cardinals, Prelates, and Monks, were long the prime ministers of the European sovereigns: and the names of Wolsey, Ximenes, Richlieu, and Mazarine, are handed down to posterity as the most intriguing and ambitious of statesmen. The second beast indeed is properly "an ecclesiastical person, but he intermixeth himself much in civil affairs. He is the prime minister, adviser, and mover of the first beast. He holdeth imperium in imperio, an empire within an empire; claimeth a temporal authority, as well as a spiritual; hath not only the principal direction of the temporal powers, but often engageth

It is not unworthy of notice, that Bp. Newton here speaks of the first beast as being, what he really is, the secular Roman empire, as contradistinguished from the second

beast or the Roman church.

† Bp. Newton's Dissert. on Rev. xiii.

Here again the Bishop speaks of the first beast as being the secular empire. Thus does his original opinion force itself, as it were, upon him, notwithstanding all that he had subsequently said respecting the identity of the papal little born and the first

beast.

them in his service, and enforceth his canons and decrees with the sword of the civil magistrate."*

5. He causeth the earth and all that dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed— The nature of this worship of the secular beast I have already considered. It will be sufficient therefore at present to observe, that, since it is impossible for Daniel's fourth beast or the Roman empire to be literally worshipped, the adoration here spoken of must mean a devotion to those principles by which the empire was equally made a beast both under its pagan and its papal emperors, both under its sixth head and its last. Those principles consisted in the worship of images, and in the persecution of the saints: and it was the second beast, who by his influence caused the whole Roman earth once more to adopt them under Popery, as it had heretofore adopted them under Paganism; it was the second beast, who made an image for the first, and caused all men to fall down and worship it.†

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

+ I have adopted this interpretation of the worship paid to the first or secular beast, not as being free from all objections, but as that which after an attentive consideration of the subject appears to me liable to the fervest. The interpretation proposed by Bp. Newton, is to my mind very unsatisfactory. "As the first beast concurs to maintain the authority of the second, so he in return confirms and maintains the sovereignty and dominion of the first beast over his subjects; and causeth the earth, and them who dwell therein, to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He supports tyranny, as he is by tyranny supported. He inslaves the consciences, as the first beast subjugates the bodies of men." (Dissert. on Rev. xiii.) Hence it appears, that the Bishop conceives the worship, which was paid to the secular beast at the instigation of the ecclesiastical beast, to be merely civil worship so far increased as to become passive obedience. Now, bad as tyranny in the state may be, the whole criminality of it must be ascribed to the governors; not surely to the governed, to those who patiently submit themselves like the primitive Christians to every ordinance of man however tyrannical for the Lord's sake, lest by resisting they should receive damnation. Were nothing more then meant by worshipping the beast than an unresisting submission to civil tyranny, or (as Mr. Whiston cited by the Bishop styles it) “ a blind ebedience;" the worshippers of the beast would never have been censured by the prophet for yielding such submission, however severely he might have animadverted upon the two beasts for recommending and exacting it." If any man worship the beast and his image, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone ;-and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image." (Rev. xiv. 9, 10, 11.) Can we suppose, that so severe a punishment as eternal damnation " will be inflicted upon those who suffer their bodies to be subjugated by the first beast?" It is plain, that the worship of the beast is connected with the worship of bis image; and that this worship is something so offensive in the eyes of God as to incur the penalty of hell fire: can it then mean nothing more than submitting to the sovereignty and dominion of the first beast ?" It may be remarked, that Bp. Newton here again speaks of the first beast as being, not the Papacy, but the

6. He doeth great wonders, in order that he may make fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men- Miracles, visions, and revelations, are the mighty boast of the church of Rome, the contrivances of an artful cunning clergy to impose upon an ignorant laity." These wonders the beast did partly in order that he might make fire come down from heaven upon earth; and partly, as we shall hereafter see, with a view so to deceive mankind as to induce them to set up an image and worship it. Heaven is a symbol of the church, and the earth of the Roman empire. The darting therefore fire out of the church upon the secular empire must mean solemn interdicts and excommunications pronounced against those who dared to oppose the authority of the beast. History furnishes many memorable examples of such ecclesiastical censures. The whole kingdom of England was laid under an interdict in the reign of king John and numerous are the other European sovereigns, against whom the Popes have pronounced sentence of excommunication and deposition.* The submission of

the people to this exorbitant stretch of power was founded upon their implicit belief in the sanctity, authority, and infallibility, of the Roman bishop and his hierarchy: and this belief was kept up by pretended miracles, which (it was asserted) none but members of the holy catholic church could perform hence it is said, that the beast did great wonders, in order that he might bring down fire

secular Roman empire: and it may further be remarked, that his present interpretation of the worship paid to the beast by no means accords with that which he had previously given, and which I believe to be the true one. "All the world wondered after the beast, and they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying; Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with bim? No kingdom or empire was like that of the beast, it had not a parallel upon earth, and it was in vain for any to resist or oppose it, it prevailed and triumphed over all; and all the world, in submitting thus to the religion of the beast, did in effect submit again to the religion of the dragon, it being the old idolatry with new names. The worshipping of demons and idols is in effect the worshipping of devils." (Dissert. on Rev. xiii.) Here we see a plain reason why the worship of the beast is threatened with eternal damnation; it consists in embracing those principles, which constituted alike the bestiality of the pagan and papal Roman empires; not in paying civil bomage to the beast.

* Brightman has the following curious remark on this part of the prophecy. « Hildebrandus, in epistola ad Germanos, Henricum quartum excommunicatione sua percussum, afflatum fulmine dixit: nec temerè, Spiritu procul dubio gubernante linguam, ut olim Caiphæ, quo mundus intelligeret, qui bestia faceret ignem de cœlo descendere." Apoc. Apoc. Fol. 215.

"

from heaven upon earth; or, in other words, that none might dispute his right and power of excommunication. I know not any better comment upon this part of the prophecy than the use which was made of the miracles said to have been wrought at the shrine of Archbishop Becket. During the schism in the church of Rome, that turbulent prelate had espoused the cause of Pope Alexander against his competitor; and after his death he became a wonder-working saint. Such being the case, the litigated point was soon decided. "Whereas many," says John of Salisbury, "doubted whether Alexander was the true Pope or not, the miracles of Becket decided that question in his favour, as they could not have been done by one engaged in a schism." Thus was Alexander confirmed by miracles in his full right and title to anathematize his rival, and to hurl the thunder-bolts of the church at all his opponents. Nor has this claim to supernatural gifts been made solely during the thick darkness of the middle ages: an anonymous Popish writer even of the last century, cited by Mr. Whitaker, insists upon the miraculous powers of the church of Rome down to the then present time, and enumerates many miracles which he avers to have been performed since the era of the Reformation. At the conclusion of his catalogue of saints endowed with such powers, he observes, that "all the persons so conspicuous for these supernatural gifts were zealous members of the catholic church;† meaning doubtless to intimate, that, if the catholic church (so the Papists think proper to denominate the 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

* Whitaker's Comment. p. 391, 392.

Ibid. p. 395-399,

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, that the image of the beast should both speak, and 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 effigies of the beast, or the image, which belongs to the beast. Thus the image of Cesur 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 god. 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