allowed it to say and do almost any thing, could not estimate high enough the seventh head, the ecclesiastical empire, that kept together, or bound by an iron chain, those very provinces, that were torn by the Northmen from the tenacious grasp of the Cæsars. The beast that appeared mortally wounded was still alive: it was found, when the confusion in the Western provinces had subsided, that an empire still had its seat of government at Rome; and though it was for the most part of a spiritual character, its authority was so ill defined, that it gradually pretended to remove and elevate kings at its will, in the character of vicar of Christ, and spiritual head over all things below for the benefit of the Church. "And it had power," &c. Nor was it an empty boast; for such was the profound veneration in which the pope and priesthood were held by the people in general during the dark ages of the Church, that in England, Germany, and elsewhere, the sentiment spoke so loudly and energetically, that kings were obliged to receive even their crowns, with every mark of insult and indignity, from the delegates of the pope. They were so jealous of liberty, whether civil or religious, and avaricious of power, that the high and low, rich and poor, were equally, when contumacious, handed over to the civil authorities for destruction. None were spared, as history abundantly shows, the meanest no more than the most influential and exalted, who denied transubstantiation, the sole authority of the pope, or even one of the doctrines of Rome. The number and name of the beast are also given as a clue to discover who he is. But the number of a person's name is the amount of those figures which the letters of his name stand for. Man is here employed, too, as king a usually is in prophetic language, for a succession of individuals, and not for a single person. Now it is remarkable that the Greek letters both for apostate and a Dan. vii. 17. 23, 24. Latinus, the first king of Rome, make together 666; and vicar-general of God upon earth, vicar of the Son of God, Paul V., God's vicar, and Silvester Secundus, in Latin, amount to the same sum. There is then great probability, that the popes of Rome are intended by this beast, who have for many centuries persecuted with unrelenting hatred and cruelty those who have denied their authority, or rejected their dogmas. CHAPTER XIV. Recapitulation of the Reformation. True church again visible. Its purity recovered, &c. - Verses 1, 2. AND I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder; and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps.' St. Paul, contrasting the Mosaic and Christian dispensations, calls the latter Mount Sion: "but ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the hea venly Jerusalem." Concluding, then, by just inference, that the Protestant or reformed Churches are here intended, our next in a Heb. xii. 22. quiry will be, at what era; but this is fixed : it will be at the re-appearance of the hundred and forty-four thousand, who under the sixth seal were sealed, or ceased to be part of the visible or outward Church. We read, that when the purpose was announced to the prophet, the seal only was shown him, not the persons who received its impression; but he now beholds the hundred and forty-four thousand assembled together in the presence of the Lamb on Mount Sion, engaged in solemn worship, and singing the praises of God for redemption. We showed, in our remarks on chapter xi., that the measurement of the visible Church, in the articles of faith drawn up by the reformers, was in effect the re-appearance of the sealed, and that the two witnesses were a part of them. This part of the vision then carries us back to the Reformation, when the Protestant Churches of Europe were constitutionally established. As the followers of the beast were stamped in their forehead, like the slaves of old, so |