Aenean ornare velit lacus, ac varius enim lorem ullamcorper dolore aliquam.
Of the Ten-horned Beast blaspheming God, and of the Two-horned Beast or False Prophet, his Founder and Hierarch.
A new scene of evils invaded the woman, as soon as she had entered the bounds of the wilderness; for she immediately encountered a double sort of beast, less formidable indeed in appearance than that of the dragon, or serpent; whose figure only she dreads, professing to be nothing but a panther, or a lamb, but being truly an agent of the dragon, who has been cast down, and in his stead prepared to bring troubles on the offspring to which she should give birth in the wilderness.
"And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and departed to make war with the rest of her seed, (viz. with those which site should produce in the wilderness) who keep the commandments of God, and hold the testimony of Jesus Christ."
"And he stood on the sand of the sea." That is, when the dragon saw that he who was now expelled from the Roman empire, that he had not succeeded in overwhelming the woman, as she was hastening into the wilderness, by the inundation of Arianism, but that she nevertheless had arrived there in safety; and besides, that he should no longer be suffered to possess the sovereignty of the Roman world, as he had formerly done, in his own name, he now attempts it in another way, by tacitly substituting a kingdom dependent on himself, and for that purpose he stood on the sea shore, that he might form a new appearance of the Roman kingdom, thence to arise, subservient to him. The History of the double beast, prepared to transact the affairs of Rome, now follows; one ten-horned, and the other two-horned, connected by the strictest necessity with each other, and both reigning at the same time, and in the same part of the world. The first of which, that is, the ten-horned beast, you may call if you will secular; the other, or two-Horned, ecclesiastical.
Of the Ten-horned Beast.
The ten-horned, or secular beast, is that university of ten kingdoms, more or less, (into which the empire of the Cesars, after the expulsion of the dragon, had settled after the Barbaric plauge) coalescing at length into one Roman republic, through the renewed impiety of the dragon.
" I saw," said he, " a beast ascending out of the sea, leaving seven heads, and ten horns, and upon his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy." The same least is here described as that which afterwards, c. xvii. carries the harlot ; the seven headed Roman beast, under the state of its last head. " I saw," says St. John, " the type of that last state of the Roman kingdom, in which, acting under its seventh head, it was divided into ten kingdoms; and yet in the same manner, as it lead done under its former heads, he blasphemed the great God Almighty by the worship of idols." For the number of seven heads is a particular mark of the Roman kingdoms, as well as the furniture of ten horns. The name of blasphemy is the mark of idolatry. The diadems, or crowns, placed on the horns, (which are on the last head only) point out that the kingdom is exhibited tinder the government of its last head, which will be amply confirmed by the remaining description of the beast.
" And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet as those of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion." That is, this kingdom, partly in respect of its regimen, and its state, partly in respect of its disposition, was so composed, that it represented the three monarchies, anciently portrayed by these beasts in Daniel, in a certain blended association. Since it was Greek in the remaining appearance of the body, it stood on feet in their march and action, like the Persian kingdom; with its mouth, like that of Babylon, it issued its edicts to be performed. For the leopard is the type of the kingdom of the Greeks, the bear of the Persians, the lion of the Babylonians. First, then, that kingdom was plainly like the Grecian in its body, for instance, a kingdom like that divided into many parts, Dan. c. vii. v. 6. and c. viii. v. 8. 22.
For the Greek was divided into four parts; this last Roman kingdom was separated into ten kingdoms, to which type is referred the bearing ten horns on the last head of the beast, which the angel afterwards interprets, c. xvii. are ten kings, or kingdoms, into which the Roman empire of the sixth head, having been dilacerated, coalesced into a new kingdom, under the seventh, for the purpose of carrying the harlot. That the ten horns were upon the last head only, that is, the seventh, and not, as commonly supposed, promiscuously on all, I thus demonstrate. While the head flourishes, the horns flourish, and when it falls, the Horns also arising from it must necessarily fall. On the first five heads, then, there could not be horns, because those five heads, as the angel says in c. xvii. were already fallen; neither could there be on the sixth, because while that was reigning in the age of John, (as the angel expressly affirms) the time of horns was not yet come, for says he, "The ten horns are ten kings, which have not yet received their kingdom." They are reserved, therefore, for the last head.
Away, then, with such painters as distribute the ten horns according to their fancy, on seven beads, giving single ones to some, and two to others, out of their liberality, which, how inconsistent it is, and remote from the groundwork of the text, yea, and plainly repugnant to the interpretation of the angel, there is no one, who, having been already informed on the subject, shall seriously weigh it in his blind, that will not be induced to confess. Therefore, it is to be taken as true and certain, that the seventh head alone in the scale of heads, raising themselves one after another, towered over the rest, the highest in situation, the last in place.
Now then I proceed to explain the remaining appearance of this last beast. By the feet on which the body rests, and on which it is moved, and walks, and of which those before answer the purpose of Bands and arms to beasts, in holding, seizing, and fighting ; by the feet, I say, it alludes closely to the Persian empire ; since, as they rehed on the comicils of their Magi in the management of their affairs, so the Roman kingdom in its last state is governed by the authority of idolatrous monks and clergy, like those Magi. To which that future saying refers of the other (',llsely prophetic beast, "that it exercises all the flower of the ten-horned beast before him." For the feet are to be considered here, not as the lowest and most dishonourable parts of the body, but of the same kind as they are in beasts ; not merely the instruments of walking, but also of tigllting, and seizing their prey, in which, and in heirs especially (I speak of the fore feet), the chief strength of the body consists. Nor are the feet to be here understood as that part only which makes in impression on the ground, but that which comprehends the thighs also, and arms, as well as the smaller part commonly called the foot.
Lastly, the ten-horned beast issues edicts to be observed with a Babylonian mouth, by commanding the worship of deities and idols, with pain of death, and burning alive, denounced against those who refuse it, in the same manner as Nebuchadnezzar did to those Jews, who would not adore the golden image which he had set up, sixty cubits high, to his god Bel. Dan. c. iii. At the same time, I do not wich, by this interpretation of mine, to excite a prejudice against that of others ; namely, of those who may think that regard should be had rather to the natural disposition of those beasts, whose qualities or fierceness the ten-horned beast might express. Let every one judge for himself. " And the dragon (who had been cast down, and stood on the sea-shore) gave him his power, (that is, his strength or forces) and his throne, and great authority."
Power, Auvapts, signifies, with the Hellenists, forces or army, according to the use, as it appears to me, of the Hebrew 5'n, by which is denoted both strength and bravery, and an army likewise. The Seventy say, in Exod. c. xiv. v. 28. of the army of Pharaoh overwhelmed in the sea, " The waters covered, all the host of Pharaoh," and c. xv. v. 4, " he hath cast, his host into the sea." And so in various passages, not only in these, but in profane writers. from this notion spring those expressions, the Lord of hosts, and 11latt. c. xxiv. v. 29. the powers of the heavens, or the celestial hosts, shall be shaken. So, in the next verse, the Son of man is said to be about to come in the clouds Or he'dV(ai, I(Erit 81111111tECJe Kt11 Of)I~r 7roXX,'Ic, with power and great glory, which is explained in the following chapter, as " coming in his glory, and all the holy angels with him:' So in this place, the dragon or Satan delivered to the ten-horned beast, rilv ~Ulla'ttv aurov, that is, his forces, or his army.
But the forces of Satan are his angels or (demons, and idols, the receptacles of demons. These forces he delivered over to this last beast, to be worshipped and reverenced, together with his throne, and great authority; that is, in one word, all that power from which he had lately fallen, when conquered and overthrown by Michael, and the holy martyrs and confessors of Christ. So that, indeed, the dragon, or Satan, in this least of the last state of the empire, recovered in some measure the ancient dominion which he had exercised in the red one; but in a form so dissimilar front the former one, that the seed of the woman in the wilderness did not immediately perceive it. For the dragon did not now make his advances as before, in the form of a dragon, that is, did not profess himself to be what he was, the sworn enemy of the Christian name.
For if he had done this, the seed of the woman would leave known him immediately, and been upon his guard against him, as his deadhest foe, from that innate antipathy which God lead denounced from the beginning of the world should subsist between them. "I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed." But, in truth, when he had assumed the form of another beast, having no affinity with the serpent, it was not so difficult for him to impose upon the seed of the woman, that is, the Christian Church, rejoicing in its late victory, and now secure from the dragon, and to allure it to adopt his customs. Which, indeed, the arch impostor so covertly and deceitfully did, under the mask of a beast not friendly to him, that the Church did not acknowledge till late, that aloe lead been deceived by her ancient enemy, and led to venerate the dragon under this mask.
For who would have suspected that the dragon lay hid under the figure of a leopard, or (what is the same) of a panther*, that is, under the appearance of an animal, which, while other beasts, attracted either by the beauty of his skin, or the sweetness of his smell, love to approach and behold, the dragon almie is said to abhor and avoid ? Or, to explain the matter a little more clearly, who would have supposed, that under the empire of the Christian religion, the destroyer of idols assuming worship for herself, heinous idolatry, and long since exploded heathenism, would be restored with the utmost labour, and promoted by laws and edicts'!
*Isadore says he is called :llccl TI c~rM omnis fern, because he is friendly to all animals except the dragon.
"And I saw one of its heads, (namely, the sixth) as it were, wounded to death, (which was done in the battle with Michael and the holy martyrs *) and his deadly wound was healed," lay the medicine of this vicarious, power. That this seven headed dragon, (or the Roman empire, possessed by the ancient serpent, that is, the heathen empire) was the beast with the sixth head, may be shown by what is afterwards said of these heads. Five in the age of John lead fallen, one (which is the sixth) then ruled the Roman states, and chiefly because this beast of the last dynasty immediately succeeded the fifth, on the same throne. The dragon, I assert, is here said to lave given up his throne to the least of the last dynasty, or the seventh head. Therefore he was the immediate successor, or the beast of the list head. Nor let any one be disturbed, that during the continuance of the sixth head, it appears seven headed in the vision. For though the heads performed their parts, not at the same time, but in order, and successively, yet the beast is exhibited with all its apparatus of heads and horns, under every state, that it may every where designate the same Roman kingdom, though under different successions of dynasties.
*Query? R.B.C.
But to return to the text, in which, in the Complutensian edition, according to the testimony of Irenaeus, Aretas, the Syrian paraplirast lately published, and among the Latin authors, Primasius does not acknowledge the words " I saw," but joins the words, " one of the heads," with the word "gave," as in this sentence, "The dragon delivered unto him his power and throne and great authority, and one of its heads mortally wounded, that it might he cured." I suspect also that the Latin Vulgate read it so formerly, on account of the words "de capitibus suis," instead of - "ejus." But whether this reading is to be preferred to the other, I will not hastily affirm, but only that it appears to be very ancient, so that I wonder it was not noticed by R. Stephen. But whichever it may be, the received reading, if rightly interpreted, and as the subject actually requires we should interpret it, evidently gives the same sense. "I saw (says he) one of the heads, as it had been wounded to death;" namely, not at the time the apostle saw it, but before it emerged in this form from the sea, or in the preter-pluperfect tense, as in ch. v. ver. 6, he had said, he " saw in the midst of the elders and of the animals a Lamb standing, as if it had been slain," not slain at the time he saw it.
What is added, however, about the healing of the wound, that he saw done, either while the beast was just emerging from the sea, or as soon as it had arisen from thence ? For that healing was not, (as is still beheved by many) some subsequent fate, but the very nativity of the last beast. From each of the remaining heads, it had passed to the turn of the successor without a wound; but in the transition from the sixth to the last, the beast sunk under a deadly wound; from the cure of which I say, and not before or sooner, the ten Horned beast, or that of the last state, took its beginning, and did not deduce its origin any higher.
That this is the case, the whole series of the following narration evinces. For whatever evil the beast is related to have perpetrated, whatever worship and adoration was paid to him by the inhabitants of the earth, all is said to leave been done after the cure of his wound. I saw (says he) one of his heads as if it had been wounded to death, and the wound of death, or the deadly wound, was healed, and all the world followed, wondering after the beast, "namely, that just healed" and they worshipped the dragon," &c. "Then likewise was given to him a mouth speaking great things, and blasphemies," &c. And " he opened his mouth against God," &c. All those things were done after his cure; but before that, no evil deeds are predicated of the beast, no mentiion of subjection or honour paid to'him by the nations. Whatever is commemorated before, partly relates to the form of the beast, partly to the occasion and manner of his rise. And why, I beseech you, should we represent to ourselves an antichristian beast, of whom for some time, no facts are related, no persecution recorded? Nay, if we follow the reacting of Irenaeus and the Complutensian version, by expunging "I saw," there will be no longer a place for such an interpretation. "And all the earth wondered after the beast;" that is, with the utmost approbatlon and consent, they went over to the party of the beast. "And they worshipped the dragon, which gave power to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him ?"
That is, they did not simply worship the beast as a beast, but also as a vicegerent of the dragon. Therefore they did not venerate the beast alone, but the dragon himself likewise, under the mask of the beast. For to worship the beast, unless so far as idolatry discharged the functions of the dragon, in the sense in which it is here used, would not have been more impious than to obey any kind of mundane power.
The beast, in truth, denotes a kingdom. To adore the beast, then, according to the usage of the Hebrew and Oriental languages, is the same thing as to he subject to him, which the explanation subjoined to the word worship, not ob scurely points out. "They adored (says he) the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is capable of contending with him ?" As if he lead said, They devoted themselves willingly to the obedience of the beast, as to one who so far excelled others in power, that there was no one that would resist or make war with him. In which also, ver. 12, the earth itself, not merely its inhabitants, is said to have worshipped the beast; that is, to have yielded to his dominion. "And he caused (says he) the earth, and those that dwell therein, to worship," &c. So in. the benediction of Jacob), Gen. c. xxvll. v. 2S), "Let the people serve thee, and nations worship (or bow down to thee. Be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee." For this meaning of the words 7oU 7poaxv>>E(>>, vide Gen. c. xxxvii. v. 7, and c. xlix. v. 8, in the benediction of Judah; so also Isa. c. xlv. v. 14. But to be subject to the beast according to his religions constitution, as it refers to the seven- headed dragon, is blasphemous, and impious towards God. Whence, they who so adore the beast, are said to adore the dragon in adoring the beast.
"And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and there was given him power to continue forty-two months."
Hitherto of the constitution and state of the beast. It is afterwards explained iii what things he exercised the power committed to him by the dragon; viz. in two, in blasphemy towards God, and the persecution of the saints. The whole description is taken from the prophecy of Daniel, ch. vii. where he treats of the same subject, as Here, that is, the Roman beast ill the last state. But the circumstances which are there related to Daniel by the angel, rather succinctly, are here more difusively laid open, as in an interjected explanation.
"There was given to him (says he) a mouth speaking great things." The mouth speaking great things is Daniel's; but here the great words are explained by " blasphemies;" under which name, it will presently be asserted, idolatrous worship was designated, as a platter of the highest affront to God.
Moreover, he says, that the beast should so blaspheme for forty-two months; that is, of years, throughout the same space of time, as the Gentiles should trample down the outer court of the temple, or the holy city. And not undeservedly, since that profanation of the Gentiles runs in a parallel line with the same impiety as this blasphemy of the beast, and both point out a subject of the power of darkness and of night, and therefore to he measured, slot by years or days, but months, according to that of the moon, which presides over the night. And, indeed, unless the Holy Spirit lead intended the designation of time to be referred to the blasphemy, why has he inserted it in this place, immediately after the mention of blasphemy ? The months are not to be reckoned from the beginning of his cruelty, or warfare with the saints, but of his blasphemy. As if the word 7rotilaat signified some certain act, or state of the rower of the beast, (of which kind some suppose that to be, which is here called the power of acting or doilig) it must then altogether be referred to the act of blasphemy. But ro' rot;ltttlt seems rather to be apphed in the senses of lasting or remaining, as it is elsewhere used with words of time. For thus, Acts, cll. xv. v. 33, "when he had spent some time ;" and ch. xx. v. 3, " and there abode three months." 2 Cor. cll. xi. v. 25, " a night and a day I have been in the deep." Add James, ch. iv. 13, " today or tomorrow we will go into such a city," "and continue there a year." Drusills remarks that ; tw is thus used, Eccles. ch. vi. v. 13, and " facere" in Latin, Seneca, Epist. lxvii. ,, Quamvis paucissimos uila fecerimus dies." "Though we have passed very few days together." In the marble tablet, culn qua fecit annos ix." " Where, when he lead continued nine days." In Alfenus, i. e. Is servus fugerat et antmnt in fttga fecerat." " That slave had fled, and passed a year in flight ;" that is, spent, continued, finished, transacted.
According to these examples, why should not " 7ro6Qm jt;l,,as 42," signify lived so long, remained, continued blaspheming ? The force of which expression, those who did not understand, seem to lave inserted in the text the word "roafltov war," which is extant in some of the copies. Now, as I said before, that by the Maine of blasphemy in this place, was designated, as lay way of eminence, idolatry, or spiritual fornication, play be evinced by a twofold, or even a threefold argument. First, because Babylon, the metropolis of this beast, ntcans the mother of harlots, and with lter the kings and inhabitants of the earth are said to commit whoredom. But the beast of which we treat, is nothing else than the community of those kings and inhabitants. Secondly, it must be a blasphemy of the same kind, which should suit with the state of the head, immediately preceding; nay, of all the other heads ; for on all " were written the name of blasphemy," ver. 1. Add that this beast of the last state, was born and composed from the renewal of the impiety of his predecessor of the sixth head. But what blasphemy could be ascribed except idolatry alone as common to them all, alone! Assuredly none.*
*This argument seems convincing, and how strong a proof it is, that we can look only in a certain quarter for the power here described.-R. B. C.
The use of Scripture adds force to these observations, by expressing the idolatry of God's ancient people by this name. To understand which it must be known that there are three words in Hebrew, translated by the Greek interpreters and the Latin Vulgate in the acceptation of blasphemy, Y~, and lDn, in none of which you may not discover the sign of idolatry. In the word 17x, hzek. c. xx. v. 27, " Yet in this your fathers leave blasphelned me. When I had brought them into the land, for which I lifted tip my land to give it them, then they saw every lligll hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered their sacrifices," &c. In the word h~n, Isa. c.1xv. v. 7, " Which have burned incense on the mountains, and blasphemed me on the hills." And certainly hen miswers precisely to the Greek (3a"Qfij- 'uiv, for both signify to treat with contumely, or to reproach. Whence, 2 Kings, c. xix. v. 22, "Whom least thou reproached and blasphemed ?'' it is joined with TP, as synonymous; as also I's. xliv. v.l G. The Seventy are in the Habit of rendering both by O'vEL&4w, r"poUvco, and the Chaldee also by its own D7rT. Moreover, let the told this likewise, that it was usual with the Jews, not only of the age of Isaiah, but also of a lower age, to understand the worship of idols by the nomenclature of reproach or blasphemy. This inay even be collected from the paraphrases of the Ilagiographists,where, Ps. lxix. v. 10, instead of the words, "The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me," the Challdee has, "'1'llc rebukes of the impious who rebtilce thee, while they make their idols partakers of thy glory, are fallen upon me."
With respect to the word Y~?, which is another of the two, to which /3aaqnjtfiv answers, accord ing to the Seventy; in Forster it is, to attack with contumacy, reproaches, and reviling words. Jerome always translates it ill the Psalms, as often as it occurs, (and it occurs five times) according to the true interpretation of tiie I lebreNv, blasphemare. With others it is, to despise, or to irritate by contempt, so that the most accurate signification of it seems to be, to provoke to anger by reproaches and contutnehes. By this expression, I say it may be shown from Duet. c. xxxi. v. 20, that idolatry is designated, as well as by the former. "When they shall leave eaten and filled themselves, they will turn to other gods, and will serve them `~13t?", and will provoke them." So, indeed, the Vulgate uses the sense of blaspheming, though not the word. For what else is Deo detrahere, to detract from God, than to blaspheme him? But in other places it does express the word, as Jer. c. xxiii. v. 15-17.
From the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. "They say 'yN)t)5 unto those that blaspheme me, (the discourse is abort idolaters) the Lord bath spoken, "here shall he peace to you, and to every one who walketh after the imagination of his heart," &c.
To these quotations may be added, if you please, by way of illustration, that the profanations of Antiochus, by which he polluted the temple of God, and his sacrifices, are called blasphemies, 1 Macc. c. ii. v. 6, and 2 Macc. c. vii. v. 4. Also, that Kimchias interprets that of Gen. c. iv. v. 26, "Then was the name of the Lord profaned by invocation*." Then men turned away after idols, and the invocation of the divine naine was polluted and profaned. Whether he has translated rightly or not I do not inquire, but so he has rendered and understood it. Hence according to the scholastic doctors there are three species of blasphemy; one, when something is attributed to God which does not belong to Him ; another, where something is taken from Him which does belong to him; a third, when what is appropriated to God, is attributed to a creature, as in idolatry. For as yin adulterous wife brings a, reproach upon her husband, so the Church, prostituting herself to idols, does upon God ; since idolatry is spiritual adultery.
* Surely this is a perversion of the text.-R. B. C.
"And he opened his mouth in blasphemes against God, to blaspheme his naine, and his tabernacle, and those that dwell in Heaven."
What he had before said generally about blasphemy, he here pursues in detail, and distinguishes a, triple idolatry of the beast: For first, he blasphemes the name of God ; that is, in the worship of images. "By giving the inconimunicable name to stocks and stones." Wisdom, c.liv. v. 21. Or the name of God means the person of God, (may we be permitted thus to speak) which is then blasphemed, when any thing besides God is worshipped with divine honour. Secondly, his " tabernacle ;" that is, the liumaii nature of Christ, in which the Deity hypostatically dwells. O yaP loyoc ffa(),, eyevsro, KaL eaKrlvc0aev EP 7ifur, John, c. i. v. 14. And according to the same Evangelist, c. ii. v. 19, " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. But he spake of the temple of his body." Has not that passage in the Hebrews, c. ix. v. 11, a reference to this ? " In a greater or more perfect tabernacle." This tabernacle, I say, the beast blasphenics, when he beheves the body of Christ to be made every day out of bread, by the transubstantiation of the mass, and therefore worships the bread instead of Christ, the tabernacle of God ; nay, looks up to the propitiatory sacrifice otlered for the living, anti the dead, as crucifying Christ anew. He blasphemies the celestial inhabitants likewise, that is, the angels and saints, who dwell in heaven, whilst in thier names he invokes the demons and idols which he worships *.
*Or when he offers worship to them-R. B. C.
What a reproach is this to the blessed spirits! nay, an affront to Christ their Lord: In derogation of whose prerogative and glory they are constituted, even against their will, mediators and intercessors with God, patrons and presidents of mortals in the, manner of the heathen. See what we leave already said, at the end of the sixth trumpet, out of the theology of the Gentiles on demons and their offices. And the beast, not content with this alone, degrades the blessed spirits besides, with his disgraceful and wicked fables and miracles; so that you may doubt whether he offends more by the worship which he wishes to display, as addressed to them, or by the injurious nature of his fables.
Thus far of blasphemy, then follows the other part of the impiety of the beast, by which he exhibited himself as the vicegerent of the red dragon, the persecution of the saints. For in addition, " it was given to him to make war upon the saints, and to overcome them." So Daniel, "He made war with the saints, and prevailed against them." With the saints, that is, with the seed which proceeded from the woman in the wilderness. Now, though the whole domination of the beast may be a kind of warfare against the saints, (according to what was said at the begining, "that the dragon went away enraged," under the mask of this beast, "to make war with the rest of the woman's seed, who keep the commandments of God, and retain. the testimony of Jesus Christ,") yet a war of another kind is here to be understood, as appears from v. 10, where something is said of retaliation to be at some future tinge rendered to the beast. " If any one lead into captivity," &c., and "If an one kill with the sword, he must be killed with the sword:' The war, therefore, is one which is waged with slaughter and blood. Add that we are at present engaged in the description, not of the ecclesiastical, but of the secular beast, with which war of any kind can scarcely agree.
But the beast did not carry on this war immediately from his commencement; but after he had arrived at his acme, during the twelfth age front the birth of Christ. His first expedition threatened the Albigenses and Waldenses, and by whatever other name the true worshippers of Christ were called; of whom so great a destruction was made, that throughout France alone, if P.Perronius, in his history of the war, has made a right calculation, there were slain about a million of men. For not only was this war carried out by burnings alive, by the loss of goods, by exile, and other kinds of punishment, but that nothing might be wanting to the true appellation of war, in such an inhuman persecution, whole armies were raised against them, and those crusading expeditions, first undertaken against the Saracens, being slow turned against the Christ- ians, of that chaste and pure religion which refused to adore the beast, it raged cruelly for about seventy years, with incredible fury and inhumanity.
The histories of this butchery are to be met with, to which I refer the reader. I choose to subjoin the words of Thuanus, a most illustrious historian, but of the opposite party. He says, in the Preface to the History of his own Time, "Since exquisite punishments were of little avail against the Waldenses, and what was unseasonably applied as a remedy aggravated the evil, and their number every day increased, a regular army was at length raised, and a war of no less magnitude than that which our people lead formerly waged against the Saracens, was resolved lipoll against them; of which the issue was, that they were brought to their senses, rattler by being slain, routed, every where despoiled of their goods and dignities, and dispersed on every side, than by being convinced of their error. Therefore, they who lead defended themselves in the beginning by arms, being at last conquered by arms, fled into Provence, and the Alps bordering on the French domain, and there found retreats for their life and doctrine. Some departed .into Calabria, and remained there for at long tinge, and even to the pontificate of Pius the Fourth; part passed over into Germany and fixed their habitations among the Bohemians, in Poland and Livonia ; others turning to the West, found refuge in Britain."
Now in this war the memorable fitct happened, that those Albigenses who were conquered at 1\,Iorell with a great slaughter fly Simon Alontfort, the leader of those who were signed with the cross, seem to have seized on this prophecy of the saints conquered fly the beast, as all argument for consolation and constancy.* For when the Bishop of Toulouse, interposing to prevent the slaughter, admonished the remnant, who remained in tents, by sending to them a religious person, that, convicted by such a scourge, of God's being angry with, and pronouncing a judgement upon them, they might at length, (having laid by their hard-heartedness) be converted to the fatith which they call Catholic; but they, on the contrary, retorting that the conquered were the people of Christ, by this kind of shield frustrated the attack of temptation, and all to a man fell bravely, being slain by a band of soldiers rustling in upon them.
* From a Letter of the French Prelates who followed the camp of those who were signed with the cross, at tire end of the continuation of the sacred war. Ed. Basil, atm. 15(;0, r. 24 ti.
After this war against the Waldenses and the Albigenses, there was a cruel conflict carried out in various ways against different portions of their remains in different places, as well as.against other associates of the same pure religion in every part of the world, until at length, notwith- standing all this, after the year 1500, whole kingdoms, principalities, and republics, with their reformed churches, seceded from the donminion of the beast to the party of the saints ; against whom war was afterwards carried out, and continues to this day, nor will it finish until the beast shall come to an end.
Now if any one would diligently measure in his mind the whole series of this butchery, comprehended in little more than 450 years, and would refer the number of the slain to calculation, I am either deceived, or it will appear marvellous, that the persecution of the beast not only equalled, but surpassed the ten heathen persecutions.
We just now observed, that the number of the Albigenses and Waldenses who were slain, was estimated at a million of men. From that time to the Reformation of the Church, no one has undertaken the calculation of those who were taken off, partly by the flames, partly by the sword, partly by other tortures, though the number is known not to leave been small. From the origin of the Jesuits to the year 1180, that is, in little more than thirty years, Baldwin on Antichrist remarks, that nearly nine hundred thousand were destroyed. In Belgium alone, and that only by the liand of the executioner, the Duke of Alva, that cruel champion of the Roman see, boasted, that under his authority about thirty-six thousand souls, by his orders, had been taken off in a few years. Vergerius testifies, who well knew the fact, that the Inquisition, as they call it, of heretical depravity, in the space of hardly thirty years, made away with a hundred and fify thousand Christians, by divers kinds of afflictions. Sanders confesses, that an infinite number of Lollards, and Sacramentarians, were delivered to the flames through the whole of Europe ; who, however, he says, were not given up to slaughter by the hope and bishops, but by political magistrates. So, indeed, in consistency with the prophecy, the fact ought to be ; for of the secular beast it is said, " that he made war with the saints, and overcame them ;" and of the tent kings, c. xvii. that " they should carry on war with the Lamb, and the elect, and faithful;" but of the ecclesiastical beast, not indeed that he himself killed with the sword, but caused that whoever would not worship the image of the beast, should (by that image) be killed with the sword," as we shall see a little below. Then follows, "and power was given him over every tribe, and tongue, and nation."
Now what was this power, but that of waging war with the saints? as if it would extend itself as widely as the Roman domain, for the subject: of discourse is not perhaps of dominion, but of tire amplitude of persecution. If any one prefer the other interpretation, the sense will be, that such was the authority of the beast, that no tribe, tongue, nor nation, resisted his impiety. But we must not understand this of individuals, (many of whom were found in every age who preserved their faith to the Lamb) but of whole tribes, tongues, and nations, that is, of the political governments of mankind. Of which it is very true, that none is to be found which the beast lead not detained for many ages in servile obedience to his impiety ; so that those who dwelt dispersed here and there, through the provinces of the beast, and were in reality Christiaus, constituted alone at that time the undefiled and virgin Church, as that which had, alas ! no state, republic, principality, nor kingdom, of its confession of faith. But here it is to be kept in mind, that the form of the beast was that impiety which supplied the place of the dragon, in whose communion those many kingdoms of the Roman dominion, as we have observed, coalesced to form one beast. Those, therefore, who embraced this are said to yield to the power of the beast, as all tribes, languages, and nations, did.
" And all they that dwell on the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain front the foundation of the world."
Now, lest any one, fascinated by so universal and Catholic an assent to the laws of the beast, should presume that it was done piously and rightly, and that the example of so many nations and people might be followed by theln without danger, or even when broken down and debilitated by the cruelty of persecution, he might violate his faith given to the Lamb, and yield to the worship of the beast ; the Holy Spirit denounces, in a declaration plainly to be feared, in what situation and number they are to be esteemed by God, who exhibit themselves as complying with this monster of impiety ; that they are not to be considered as in the roll of the Lamb who was slain, but to perish eternally as exiles from the kingdom of God. To this formidable admonition is subjoined an apostrophe, in older to excite attention. "If any one," says he, "has ears to hear, let him hear." As if he said, O pious worshippers of Christ, incline your ears, and retain in your inmost souls what is now proclaimed beforehand of the very unhappy lot of those who follow the beast; and it is not a thing of small moment, but the binge upon which your salvation turns. Those words, therefore, ought to he referred to what precedes, and not to what follows, in the same manner as it is clear, the single address is more than once to be referred in the epistles to the churches. Vide c. ii. v. ult. c. iii. v. (3. 13. 22.
If any one leadeth into captivity, he shall go into captivity; if any one killeth with the sword, he shall he killed with the sword."
A consolatory reflection for the pious, against whom the beast, when they refused to obey him, proceeded with war, imprisonment, and the most inhuman punishments. The time will come, when God, the just avenger of his people, may demand retribution for so many butcheries, such enormous cruelties, and may execute vengeance on the raging beast.
And "here," says he, "is the patience and faith of the saints." That is, let not the saints, relying on this equity of the Divine Power, and on his justice in ordering human events, be disturbed at what they are about to suffer, or faint in their minds, but courageously contending against the beast, firmly and patiently wait for the vengeance which will certainly, and in an accumulated degree, proceed from God.
Hitherto we have treated of the secular least. Now the apostle proceeds to the description of the other beast seen by him, namely, the ecclesiastical beast, or rather the false prophet, who exercises the lieutenancy of the former beast, and of his blasphemies.
