Luther. But what pity to fee men playing at this rate *. If any man's name among us had the letters I, V, X, L, C, D. they would amount precisely to 666; but what relation would this have to the fubject? Surely, none at all. For we muft argue, not from the name only, but from the name joined to other marks of the beaft; which cannot be faid of other names. For, in vain is any other name fought containing the number 666, unlefs it be also the name of the beaft. A name of that nature, joined with other characters of the beaft, must strike ftrong with conviction; but separated from them it amounts to nothing: fo a cypher standing alone fignifies nothing; but fet the figure 9 before it, and it makes 90. "It was a method practised among the ancients, to denote names by numbers; as the name of • Thouth, or the Egyptian Mercury, was fignified • by the number 1218.; the name of Jupiter, as Hapy, or the beginning of things, by the number 717.; and the name of the fun, as us good, by the number 608 †.' Now, as the Spirit of God, in many other inftances, accommodates his expreffions to the customs of the several ages, to the olympic games, 1 Cor. ix. With equal facility might they have found the number 666, in that blafphemous title given in the dedication of fome books to Paul V. who died Anno 1621. The title runs thus: PAVLO V. VICE DEI. 666. 5.50 5. 5.1.100. 500. That is, To Paul V. in place of God. Pareus on Revelation, 24.; to the white ftone, given as a token of abfolution*, Rey. ii. 17.: so it is highly probable, that in giving the number of the beaft's name, he alludes to what was in ufe among the ancients. Here the apoftle gives the number; and from it we must, as well as we can, collect the name. After all the search I have been able to make; and after deliberating on what has been offered on this subject, i humbly apprehend the number of the beast implies two things. First, Who he should be; and, Secondly, When he should appear in all his pomp. . 6 1. I fay, it seems to point out who he should be. Hence the mark, and the name, and the number of the beast's name, are mentioned as being much the same, Rev. xiii. 17. Irenæus, who lived not long after John's time, and who was the difciple of Polycarp, the disciple of John, teftifies, That they, who had feen John face to face, taught, that the number of the name of the beaft, according to the computation of the Greeks, by the letters which are in it, had fix hundred fixty and fixt.' And the fame Irenæus gives it as his judg ment, that Lateinos is that name. The name Lateinos, says he, contains the number 666.: and it is very likely, because the last kingdom is so called, for they are Latins who now reign .'Lateinos is the true orthography, as the Greeks wrote the long i of the Latins; fo Antoneinos and Sabeinos, for Antoninus and Sabinus. No objection therefore can be drawn from the fpelling of the Compare Ovid Metamorph. Lib. xv. line 42. + Turret. de Secelli. Disp. vii. Sect. 33. Dr. Newton, Turret. ubi fupra. Difp. vii. Sect. 36. word; and the thing agrees to admiration. The thought is venerable for its antiquity, and has a ftrong appearance of truth. ...Lateinos fignifies the man of Latium, the man of Rome; the Latin man, the Latin state, or the Latin power: fome fuch fubftantive being understood to the adjective. And we see that Irenæus ufeth the plural: the Latins, fays he, now reign. With as much propriety may we call one a Latin as an Hebrew. It was ufual of old, when speaking of an Ifraelite, to call him an Hebrew, Exod. ii. 11. And, fays Paul, I am an Hebrew, Phil. iii. 5. So Lateinos fignifies the Latin. And is not he truly the Latin, who is in poffeffion of the remains and the antient seat of the Latin empire? who fuffers public worship to be performed in no other language but Latin? and who issues out his mandates and his decrees in no other? In every thing do the Papifts Latinize: maffes, prayers, hymns, litanies, canons, decretals, bulls, are all conceived in Latin. Nor is the scripture read in any other language than Latin. The council of Trent commanded the Latin to be the only authentic verfion; nor do their doctors doubt to prefer it to the Hebrew and the Greek originals. Nay, the Roman church is by the Greeks called the Latin church: and this diftinction was fo remarkable, that in the general councils, the western fathers or bishops were called the Latins, but the reft the Greeks. Thus the name Lateinos, as to its grammatical fignification, is moft defcriptive of the church of Rome: and computing its numeral value in Greek, it amounts precisely to the number of the beaft, as 1 exactly as I, V, X, L, C, D, does in our reckoning. For as these letters make 666, according to the Roman reckoning; fo does Lateinos when written in Greek, as is obvious even to Tyros, in that language. A ATE IN O Σ 30 1 300 5 10 50 70 200S 400 IO 10 40 י 6 200 Sum Total 666. It also merits our attention, that the Hebrew word Romiith, which fignifies the Roman beaft, or Roman kingdom*, contains the exact number 666, according to the numeral value of the Hebrew letters, n Sum total 666. As the apoftle, though writing in Greek, made fometimes ufe of Hebrew names, as Abaddon, chap. ix. 11. and Armageddon, chap. xvi. 16.: so might he likewife in this place allude to the name of the beast in the Hebrew language. These are the two languages in which God gave his oracles to his church and is it not furprizing that there fhould be fuch a fatal co-incidence in both the names, Lateinos and Romiith? that they should both contain the just and exact number of 666? One afferts, and I believe truly, that no other word, in any language whatever, can be found to express both the fame number, and the fame thing f.' But, 2. It feems to me, that as the number of the beaft's name points out who he is; fo alfo when he fhould appear. The time of his continuance is *Haijah, beast; or Mamlaca, kingdom, must be underftood. + Dr. Newton on Proph. Vol. III. p. 246,-248. Turret. Seceff. Difput. VII. Sect. 35. Pictet. Theol. Chret. lib. xiv. o. feat. 11. fignified in the fifth verfe, to be forty-two months; that is, twelve hundred and fixty days, the fame time that, the two witneffes fhould prophecy in fackcloth, chap. xi. 3. and equivalent to the time of the woman's abode in the wilderness, chap. xii. 14. But after all, it was natural for John to fay, When fhall these things be? When fhall the forty-two months, the reign of the beast commence? Add to this, that it was God's path-way, to fhew his fervants to whom he revealed his fecrets, the period when he would make bare his arm to bring deliverence: fo to Abraham he faid, Thy feed fhall be afflicted four hundred years, Gen. xv. 13. which period behoved to commence with the affliction of his feed, Ifaac. To Daniel he faid, Know, that: from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerufalem, fhall be feventy weeks, Dan. ix. 24, 25.; that is, four hundred and ninety years, taking a day for a year, according to fcripture reckoning. Having this key in our hand, we may, I think, know the time when the beast should appear. That the fecond beast mentioned, Rev. xiii. 11. is materially the fame with the first mentioned ver. 1, 2. I take for granted *. I cannot think * I cannot think with fome, that by the other beast, mentioned ver. 11. is meant Mahomet: but judge, with the current of Proteftant writers, that he is the Romish Antichrift, confidered in a different point of view, from that under which he was held forth, ver. 1. He is defcribed as exercising all the power of the first beaft, and causing the inhabitants of the earth to worship him, ver. 12.; and as hindering every man to buy, or fell, fave they who have the mark, the name, or the number of that beaft's name, ver. 17. But fuch offices, Mahomet never |