both a temporal and spiritual prince, and has claimed the right of dominion over all Christian sovereigns.

He causes the people of the Latin empire to submit to and reverence the civil, imperial power, which was overthrown and afterward revived in the person of Charlemagne. Here we see the first and second beast exercising dominion together over the same earth or territory; one is the secular, the other the spiritual power, clearly showing, that these are the two horns. These being on the head of the second beast, exhibits the fact, that the spiritual power became supreme; or rather, that both were exercised by the hierarchy. This is done before the first beast, i.e., in his presence.

13. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.— These wonders or proofs of the great power and sanctity of the papal church, are numberless fictitious miracles, which have been, and still are exhibited by the priests; the claim to the power of forgiving sins, granting indulgences, sending to purgatory, or releasing from it; and those successful methods of making people believe the most absurd legends, and naked falsehoods, even that the wafer is changed into the real body of Christ.

He maketh fire come down from heaven, i.e., from the civil government on the people of the land, who dare to resist his authority and reject his false doctrines. Fire is often used in scripture to signify the anger or indignation of God or men, which destroys those who are the subjects of it. Here it means church censures, bulls of excommunication, and damnatory sentences. The ecclesiastical courts try the cases of alleged heresy, and pass sentence, but the civil magistrates must execute it. He makes the consuming fire come down from heaven, by compelling the civil

authority to put to death those whom he condemns. This is done in the sight of men ; i.e., these censures, excommunications, and sentences are read in all the churches, and the greatest publicity given to the whole matter.

14. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the 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 to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.-The first beast represents the civil authority or ruling power of the Latin empire. To make an image of him is to invest another with that power. The people were persuaded to confer that power on the pope, to invest him with imperial authority. The pope was made a temporal prince,—he exercises the power of an emperor,-levies taxes, raises armies, makes war, negotiates treaties, and does all other acts of a civil ruler. The deceived people have thus been induced to make an image of the secular beast, or to consent to the doing of it.

15. 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. The papacy had power to give life to this image of imperial authority, that is, to impart life and efficiency to it, so that it should actually exert civil authority, and not be a dumb and lifeless image, incapable of doing anything. It should speak,—give forth proclamations, interdicts, and commands; and also cause all who would not submit to and reverence this usurped authority to be put to death. In the thirteenth century, says Dr. Mosheim, “the popes inculcated that pernicious maxim, that the bishop of Rome is the supreme lord of the universe; and that neither princes nor bishops, civil governors nor ecclesiastical rulers,

have any lawful power in church or state but what they derive from him." He has dethroned sovereigns, disposed of crowns, absolved subjects from obedience due, and laid kingdoms under interdicts. Indeed the tyranny of the papal hierarchy has been fully equal to that of its imperial prototype.

16 and 17. And he caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads; and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.—In the fourteenth chapter we are informed that this mark is the mark of his name, the name of the beast. "That name is the Latin empire ;—the mark of his name must then be the Latin worship; for this reason, that it is the two-horned beast, the papacy, which causes all descriptions of persons to receive it.' The Latin worship is the universal badge of distinction of the Latin. church from all other churches on the face of the earth;' and is therefore an infallible mark by which a genuine papist can be distinguished from all the rest of mankind.

This mark is received in the right hand or on the forehead. The right hand is a phrase used in the sacred scriptures to signify physical strength or power. To receive the mark of the beast in the right hand, means then, that the persons, who receive it, are under obligations to employ all their mental and physical powers to uphold and extend the Latin worship,-in other words, the Latin church.-The mark on the forehead signifies an open profession of the Latin faith and worship. Some may make such a profession, who do not devote themselves actively to promote the papal cause, hence the propriety of the expression, receiving the mark in the right hand or on the forehead.'

In papal countries without this mark of fidelity to the

papal church, a man is not allowed to buy or sell, or have the common privileges of a citizen. "So the canon of the council of Lateran, made against the Waldenses and Albigenses, enjoins upon pain of anathema, that no man presume to entertain or cherish them in his house or land, or exercise traffic with them." The Synod of Tours in France made a similar enactment. "In the tenth and eleventh centuries, the severity against the excommunicated was carried to such a pitch, that nobody might come near them, not even their wives, children, or servants; they forfeited all their legal rights and privileges, and were excluded from all kinds of offices."

A critical writer, quoted by Dr. Clarke, has shown, that the name of the beast is "The Latin Kingdom," and that this is applied in this place to the secular power. The number of his name is also "The Latin Kingdom," and is intended here for the papacy itself or the spiritual power.

18. Here is wisdom. "Let him who hath a mind for investigations of this kind find out a kingdom which contains precisely the number 666; for this must be infallibly the name of the beast." Before figures were invented, numbers were written with the letters of the alphabet. Now the Greek letters which form the words, E Latině Basileia, The Latin Kingdom, make just the number 666. Letters and figures may be combined to a great extent; but no other name of a kingdom can be found, that contains in the aggregate of its numerical letters, the number 666.

THE prediction concerning the papal civil power and the papal ecclesiastical power in the former chapter, is followed with a prophetic announcement of the Reformation and the fall of that hierarchy.

1. 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.—In continuation of the visionary representation, John saw a Lamb, the emblem of Christ, standing on Mount Zion, an eminence in Jerusalem, captured and fortified by David, indicating here, that the church was to take an elevated