ceased to exist; the hieroglyphical wild beast is now headless: consequently, on the principles which have recently been laid down, symbolical decorum, founded as it is on the economy of nature, requires us to pronounce him dead. But St. John ascribes his final overthrow to the battle of Armageddon; at the close of which he is to be cast alive, or in his full vigour of strength and vitality, "into a lake burn"ing with brimstone*." How then can this happen at some future period, if he be already dead? Or, if it have happened, shall we not be compelled, in plain defiance of all circumstantial correspondence, to identify the predicted battle of Armageddon with the bloody fight of Waterloo; an identification, altogether impossible and intolerable? For the difficulty, which here presents itself, Scripture has provided in a manner; which, from its peculiarity, affords to my own mind an irresistible demonstration that the Apocalypse is indeed a portion of God's inspired word. When St. John describes the wild beast at his first appearance to him, complete (as an unbroken symbol must needs be complete) in all his figurative members, though in point of actual chronology some of those members may be successive to others: when he thus describes him at his first appearance, he carefully mentions, that he "saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death;" and he afterwards specifically informs us, that the mode, in which it was * Rev. xix. 20. so wounded to death, was by the violent stroke of "a sword *" This same infliction he afterwards notices in a somewhat different form, predicting it in a sort of enigmatical phraseology: for the hierophantic angel says of the wild beast, that he "was and is not," or that in the course of his allotted duration he should vitally exist and cease vitally to exist ↑. Now, on the principle of symbolical decorum which (as I have already observed) is founded upon the economy of nature, if the head receive a deadly wound, the whole animal must die in consequence : and we must not forget the important distinction, that, although the hieroglyphical wild beast necessarily appears in the vision complete with all his seven heads; yet, so far as historical matter of fact is concerned, those heads or forms of government in the literal antitypical Empire were not all synchronical, but on the contrary were successive. Hence it is manifest, on this sufficiently obvious principle, that the excision or deadly wound of any single head must prove mortal to the whole beast; unless, either previous to or at the precise time of that excision, he puts forth (like the fabled hydra) another head. But the predicted excision or deadly wound of the head was evidently to be fatal to the whole wild beast: because, in consequence of it, the entire beast was to cease from cital existence; or, in the language of the prophecy, he was first to be and *Rev. xiii. 3, 12, 14 Rev. xvii. 8, 11. then then he was not to be," the beast was and is not." Such being the case, when some one of his heads (as the prophecy sets forth the matter) receives a DEADLY wound; it is plain, that no other head immediately arises, or (in the phraseology of St. John) "cometh," to supply its place: for, if any other head did immediately arise, then the hydra-beast himself would NOT die, though one of his many heads might "fall." But the wild beast himself does die by this deadly wound of his head: because the prophet declares, that he should be characterised by passing from existence into non-existence or from life into death. Therefore, when some one of his heads receives a deadly wound by the sword, no other head immediately arises: and the consequence is, agreeably to the economy of nature, that the now headless trunk of the symbolical wild beast lies stretched out a lifeless corpse. Yet, notwithstanding he is thus slain, the prophecy goes on to inform us, that he should experience a wonderful resurrection to life. "I saw one of his "heads as it were wounded to death," says the apostle "and his deadly wound was healed t;" even the deadly wound of "the beast, which had "the wound by a sword, and did live :" for the beast both "was, and is not, and yet is §." : If then his death was produced by the deadly wound of one head or form of government, in con *Rev. xvii. 10. Rev. xiii. 3. + Rev. xiii. 14. sequence sequence of its place not being immediately supplied by another head: analogy requires us to suppose, whatever precise idea we may annex to the figurative death of the beast, that his restoration to life will be effected, either by the rise of a new head or form of government, or by the revival of a defunct head or form of government; that new or revived head beginning to exercise its vital functions, not immediately after the reception of the deadly wound by a former head, but when some indefinite period shall have expired during which the dead beast lies headless. This is that view of the matter, which analogy plainly enough requires us to take, however we may interpret the language which speaks of the wild beast's death through a violent wound by a sword inflicted upon some one of his seven heads. As for the particular head which was to receive the deadly wound, whether it was the first or the second or the third or the fourth or the fifth or the sixth or the seventh, the prophet is totally silent: to posterity he leaves the task of making the application from the event, though yet the inatter may be ascertained even by a careful comparison of the hieroglyphic with the verbal prediction. VI. In attempting to make this application, we must obviously begin with considering the purport of the phrase death itself, as used by St. John and as here spoken of the Roman wild beast. On such a topic, nothing can be more judicious and satisfactory than the definition of prophetic death, as given by the excellent Mr. Mede. "A per A "A person is said to die; who, in whatever con"dition he may be placed, whether political, or "ecclesiastical, or any other, ceases to be what he was: hence the agent, who inflicts this death upon him, is described as killing him*." But, however satisfactory the definition may be in itself, a certain ambiguity will always attend it in the application; an ambiguity unavoidable, because inherent in its very nature. The death, spoken of in any particular prophecy, may, so far as the mere term itself is concerned, be either a moral death or a political death: nor can its true import in each individual case be always certainly determined before the event. Thus the death of the apocalyptic witnesses may in the abstract denote, either their apostasy and constrained silence, which is their moral death; or their utter excision by the arm of persecution, which is their political death: for in either case, according to the definition, they cease to be what they previously were. And thus, in the present instance, the death of the Roman wild beast, by a mortal wound inflicted upon his existing head, may in the abstract similarly denote, either his conversion to sound religion, which is his moral death; or his being left a headless trunk through the violent exci * "Mori ea notione dicitur; qui in quocunque statu consti"tutus, sive politico, sive ecclesiastico, seu quovis alio, desi"nit esse quod fuit: unde et occidit, qui tali morte quemquam "afficit." Comment. Apoc. in myst. duor. test. |