quently Rome was the seat and centre of idolatry; and in like manner by the beast the Roman empire is represented as the empire of idolatry. The colour of the beast is scarlet, v. 3, an emblem of its sanguinary disposition: and it is said to be full of names of blasphemy, or marked over with the names of the heathenish Roman gods, the greatest indignity that can be offered to the majesty of the Supreme Being. Then the angel, who promised to St. John to discover to him, v. 7. the mystery both of the woman and the beast, tells him:

V. 8. "The beast, which thou sawest, was, and is not, and shall come up out of the bottomless pit, and go into destruction: and the inhabitants on the earth (whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundations of the world) shall wonder, seeing the beast, that was, and is not."*

Behold a very mysterious explication of a mystery. But to unfold it: here is expressed the state of the beast, as it passes through different periods of time. The beast or the Roman idolatrous empire was, that is, existed for a term of time: then is not, or exists no more as the empire of idolatry, but is changed into a Christian empire; which happened when Constantine the Great became emperor, suppressed the power of idolatry, expelled Satan, and established Christianity. But it is added, “and the beast shall come up out of the bottomless pit, and go into destruction:" the Roman idolatrous empire will rise up again under Antichrist from the bottomless pit or hell, because Satan will be loosed before the end of the world, and will revive idolatry chiefly by means of that wicked man, Antichrist, who will become master of the ancient Roman dominions. And the inhabitants on the earth-shall wonder, seeing the beast, that was, and is not, and yet is; all the world will be struck with amazement, at seeing the idolatrous Roman empire re-appear, which had been so long ago destroyed. But the reign of Antichrist will soon go into destruction, as it will last no more than three years and a half. This last period of the beast will be more fully explained in its due place. -The angel proceeds in his explication:

V. 9. "And here is the understanding, that hath wisdom.† The seven heads, are seven mountains, upon which the woman sitteth, and they are seven kings.

V. 10. 66 Five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come: and when he is come, he must remain a short time.” Let the understanding, that is endowed with wisdom here

* In the Greek text is addded, "And yet is."

+In the Greek, "here the understanding that hath wisdom."

take notice: the seven heads, which are upon the beast, are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth; we have already observed that ancient Rome stood upon seven mountains. But besides, they, the seven heads, are seven kings, or seven Roman emperors who are particularly distinguished as the chief supporters of idolatry, and the most virulent persecutors of the Christian religion. These are, as we have already remarked, Nero, Domitian, Severus, Decius, Valerian, Dioclesian, and Antichrist. Five are fallen: we saw, before, the successive periods of the beast with regard to its existence; here we have the succession of its heads. Five of them are fallen or gone; namely, Nero, Domitian, Severus, Decius, and Valerian, by whom the idolatrous empire was supported for a time; one is, the sixth or last of that period, viz. Dioclesian, with whom the reign of idolatry falls: and so it happened, by the accession of Constantine to the imperial throne. Here then is interrupted the succession of the heathen and persecuting emperors for a long space of time; for the other is not yet come, the seventh Roman emperor, Antichrist, who will come only in the latter days; and when he is come, he must remain a short time, three years and a half, as we shall see in the sequel. No notice is here taken of Julian the apostate, who broke indeed the series of the Christian emperors, and attempted to re-establish idolatry, but was taken off after a short reign of less than two years-The angel continues;

66

V. 11. And the beast, which was, and is not, the same also is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into destruction."

Here is a new state of the beast, which begins at the fall of the sixth head, or Dioclesian, with whom the beast itself or the power of idolatry also fell. On this account the former simple appellation of the beast, is now changed into the beast, which was, and is not, as being now no more what it was, having lost all power, and that power being transferred into the hands of Christian emperors. In this situation the beast is said to be an eighth king, that is, the Roman idolatrous people, though left without a heathen prince at their head by the death of Dioclesian and succession of Constantine, are nevertheless to be reputed equivalent to an eighth pagan emperor, because they retain still their former attachment to paganism and their hatred to Christianity. And thus they are of the seven, as being alike in their dispositions to the seven abovementioned heathen emperors. But they go into destruction: this idolatrous people will soon disappear, as we shall see,

either by being destroyed, or by their conversion to the Christian religion.

After the account of the beast and its seven heads, the angel proceeds to explain to St. John the meaning of the ten horns of the beast.

V. 12. "And the ten horns which thou sawest, are ten kings, which have not yet received kingdom, but shall receive power as kings, one hour after the beast.*

V. 13. " These have one design: and their strength and power they shall deliver to the beast."

The ten horns denote then ten kings or ten powers, namely, the Goths, Huns, Alans, Vandals, Saxons, Burgundians, Franks, Heruli, Suevi, and Quadi, the chief of the barbarous nations that invaded the western Roman empire in the fifth century. These have not yet received kingdom or dominion, viz. at the beginning of this period of the Christian emperors, or of the beast that was and is not; but they will receive power as kings one hour with the beast, that is, they will be commanded by their own chiefs, and will engage by treaty to serve for one hour or a while as auxiliaries to the beast, that is, to the pagan Roman armies. Thus the Prophet continues to describe the succession of the changes that were to happen in the Roman empire. The above mentioned nations come all with one design of relinquishing their own barren northern countries, and settling themselves in the rich provinces of the Roman empire. But before they accomplish this design, their strength and power they shall deliver to the beast: they effectually served as auxiliaries to the Roman armies, according to agreement, and helped to defend the empire against its enemies; . as we have seen in the history above given. In this quality they served under the emperors Constantius, Valens, Theodosius, Honorius, &c.

V. 14. "These shall fight with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: because he is the Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they that are with him, are called, and elect, and faithful."

All those different people, signified by the ten horns, were either pagans or heretics. Being therefore bitter enemies to the Catholic Christians, they in their irruptions wreaked their malice and rancour upon them: they plundered their towns and country, and destroyed them with fire and sword. (See the history above given.) And thus these barbarous people fought against the Lamb, or Christ, but the Lamb will over* In the Greek, "with the beast," and so read St. Iræneus and others.

come them, in turning their hearts, and converting them into his votaries. And in effect, some time after they had settled themselves in the Roman provinces, a part of them were destroyed in the wars that ensued, and the rest gradually abjured their idolatry and errors, the pagans becoming Christians, and the Arians and other heretics going over to the Catholics. Among other writers, thus speaks Orosius, an historian of that age: "Who knows but Providence thus permitted the barbarians to become masters of the Roman provinces, with a view to effect their salvation? Do not we see that the churches of Christ, both in the eastern and western parts, are filled with Huns, with Suevi, with Vandals, with Burgundians, and with divers other people, who have been converted to the faith." Such was the victory of the Lamb; for Christ is Lord of lords, and King of kings: he is a Sovereign over all kingdoms and states: he is Master of the human mind, and he can call to the faith whom he pleases. To work the conversion of those people, he employed his servants, the ministers of his Church, whom he called to that function, elected them or culled them out of the whole body of his people for that pose, and they approved themselves faithful to their charge. Incredible indeed was the zeal exerted by the church in those times for the conversion of the above-mentioned pagans and heretics. To mention only a few instances: St. Remigius and others converted the Gauls in the fifth and sixth centuries. The Arian Visigoths in Spain were brought over to the Catholic faith about the year 600, in the reign of their king Reccared. About the same time the Saxons in Britain received the Christian doctrine from St. Austin and his companions. St. Willibrod carried the faith into Friseland; and St. Rupert and St. Boniface with his associates converted many nations of Germany in the seventh and eight centuries.

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V. 16. And the ten horns, which thou sawest on the beast," continues the angel: "these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate, and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her with fire."

Here we see the general disposition of the above-mentioned northern nations, denoted by the ten horns. They will hate the harlot, Rome, the great capital of the empire, because she has shown herself a universal domineering tyrant, and has in particular ill requited them for the important help they had lent her against her enemies. Thus stimulated with rancour and resentment, they will make her desolate, that is, they will invest her walls, they will preclude all succours both of men

and provisions from her, and reduce her to the utmost state of distress. They will make her naked, by stripping her of her shining ornaments, her gaudy palaces, Egyptian obelisks, magnificent temples, theatres, triumphal arches, &c. and all her ostentatious pageantry. They will eat her flesh, by plundering her of her wealth and riches, with which she had fed herself by plundering the rest of the world. And lastly, they will burn her with fire. All which was done, as we have seen in the history above given.*-Thus was foretold by the angel, before it happened, the fate of that heathen imperial city, under the emblem of a woman, prostituted to vice and admitting no control, because she is the empress of the world. But her jealous enemies will not rest, till they have found means to humble her pride, and to effect her ruin. They will first deprive her of every human succour and comfort, they will then strip her naked, devour her flesh, and when thus reduced to a skeleton, they will consume her by fire.

That the greatest power on earth should be thus reduced and crushed by foreign barbarians, whom it had before held in contempt and neglect, may seem strange to our understanding, and not according to the standard by which we generally measure human events. But this extraordinary fact is not to be ranked in the class of common human transactions: it was conducted by another hand.

V. 17. "For God hath given into their hearts, to do that which pleaseth him: that they give their kingdom to the beast, till the words of God be fulfilled."

Under the divine direction, therefore, those barbarians acted in the demolition of Rome and its empire; and thus they executed what pleased him, or what he had designed. According to the decrees of his infinite wisdom and justice, the Almighty sent Nebuchodonosor to punish the guilty Jews, and Cyrus to do the same to the Babylonians. In like manner the northern nations became the instrument of his vengeance upon the Roman state for the guilt of its idolatry and persecutions. These agents had indeed no other view in what they did, than to gratify their hatred, their avarice, and other passions; and this the Almighty permitted them to compass, but for other purposes which they did not see into. But besides; in that latter period when, agreeable to the perdiction in ver. 12, they had received kingdom, that is, when they had possessed themselves of the Roman provinces, and erected them into so many * Whoever has been upon the place, has seen sufficient proof of the same, in the miserable shattered ruins of old Rome.