* Or land, as opposed to sea. " God called the dry land, earth; and
the gathering together of the waters, called he, seas." Here, it appears
to be a particular part of the dry land; as connected with a particular
sea. If in the vision, the Dragon takes his stand on the sea-coast of the
land of Israel, and one heast is seen arising from the sea, and another
from the land, we cannot he in much doubt as to the interpretation.
ON REVELATION XIII. 195
of his power who arises from the earth. And if the sea be
the Great Sea, i. e. the Mediterranean, and the scene in all
these three chapters (xi., xii., xiii.), the land of Israel, there
can be little reason to doubt that the part of the earth here
spoken of and contrasted with the Great Sea of the Gentiles,
is the land of Israel. At any rate, it is in Jerusalem
and the East that the last idolatrous system of this evil age
will find its home, and there are many reasons that would
lead us to say that the land of Israel will be its birth-
place too.
The Greek or Eastern part of the Roman empire, where
Israel has been and will be, is a sphere in which those
modern principles of progress which have long been nurtured
in our island are finding one of the chief spheres of their
development. Multifarious systems are found in operation
there all antagonistic to each other, but none sufficiently
strong to have exclusive potency. The ecclesiastical system
of the Greeks has waned and is divided; Mahomedanism
has become enfeebled j Romanism has only a measure of in-
fluence ; Protestantism, at present, has even less. Israel
will soon appear on the scene, and then another neutralizing
element will be added. But all this facilitates the progress
of a system that is willing to ignore Truth, and seeks to con-
ciliate and patronize any thing, and every thing, for the
sake of influence and gain. England favoured Protestant
England, at present, best understands and most efficiently
uses this system. England probably will have the privilege
of teaching it to Israel, who will be acute to see, and wise to
avail themselves of, its advantages. In their hands and in
the hands of the subtle Greeks it will prosper still more, and
develop itself in those long-desolated regions of the East
which are waiting for the impress of some new vivifying
power. We may well expect, therefore, that the last and
crowning system of apostasy should appear in the regions
where these wickednesses will have been chiefly perpetrated.
The energy of this last religious system will, as I have
o g
196 THOUGHTS ON THE APOCALYPSE.
said, be centred in an individual, who will instantly supply
to the king his master, all, and more than all, that had been
lost through the head wounded seemingly unto death. " He
exerciseth all the authority of the first beast in his presence,
(WUTTIOV avrou), and he causeth the earth and those who
dwell therein to worshipr the first beast, whose deadly wound
was healed." It will be the first time in the world's history,
when the ecclesiastical Head of the religion of the earth
will act in strict concurrence with, and in subordination to,
the secular Throne. We have hitherto seen Emperors and
Kings contending with Patriarchs and Popes. We have
seen each in their turn aiming to possess themselves of the
other's seat: but we have never yet seen throughout the
Roman earth, the thoroughly harmonized combination of
civil and religious power. It will be seen, however, then ;
and thus the headstone is placed upon the mighty fabric of
Anti- Christian strength. Man is not happy without a religion ;
and he will have a religion then, adapted, doubtless, to his
taste and suited to his propensities. It will be idolatrous,
sustained by miracles, and dignified by power. Its minister,
though he will speak as a dragon, yet in appearance will be
as a lamb " he had two horns as a lamb " and will " say to
those that dwell on the earth, that they should make an
image to the beast, who hath the wound by a sword, and did
live." Miracles also will wait upon his word. He will
have power to " make fire to come down from Heaven in
the sight of men." *
This is not the first time in which the image of Antichrist
* The efficacy of such a miracle in deceiving the Jews is very obvious.
There is at this moment a controversy being carried on among them,
whether, in case they should return to Jerusalem, it would be possible
for them to offer sacrifice without fire sent down from Heaven some
holding the necessity of this, others pleading that God would permit the
use of ordinary fire. On the day when the Priests of Israel were first
consecrated, fire came down from Heaven, and consumed the sacrifice ;
and so when Elijah pleaded the cause of Jehovah against the priests
of Baal.
ON REVELATION XIII. 197
is spoken of in the Scripture. Both Daniel and our Lord
speak of the abomination (i. e. idol, for in Hebrew the word
is the same) of desolation, and say that its place will be the
temple of Jerusalem. It is to stand in the holy place. The
prophet of Antichrist will have power to give life, or breath
(irv^vfjia) to this, his image, " that the image should both
speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the
image of the beast should be killed. And he caused all, both
small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a
mark on their right hand, or on their forehead ; 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." The self-
will of man will be effectually, though, I suppose, willingly,
controlled then.
It is surely an awful scene ; but it will be limited both as
to time, and as to place. The time is 1260 days ; its place
the Roman world, and more especially the land of Israel.
God might have allowed, if it had so pleased Him, the whole
earth to be full of this maturity of evil. The seeds of it,
doubtless, are sown everywhere, wheresoever the mind of
man under Satan has put forth its powers ; but the merciful
providence of God has checked, and will check, their growth
in other regions; so that it is in the Ten Kingdoms only that
the full harvest will be found. There the vine of the earth
will bring forth its ripened clusters ; there Satan's deceiving
fires of heaven-like brightness will be kindled. Yet others
who dwell without the enchanted circle may be dazzled by
the blaze of glory, and rush into the toils of the great fowler;
others will be providentially restrained ; others will be wise
and understand the signs of the times. " The wicked shall
do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand;
but the understanding ones shall understand."
We who are dwelling in these western limits of the Roman
world, should of all men most peculiary beware ; for we live
in the very countries from which the principles which are
especially forwarding this mystery of iniquity are deriving
198 THOUGHTS ON THE APOCALYPSE.
their impulse and their power. Many of these principles are
fascinating in their aspect, and fruitful of prosperity in result;
they breathe of amity, and good-will, and brotherhood ; their
fruits are seen in the taste, the literature, the commerce, and
the decorated religion of the day. Education too, for the
most part, is made to foster the tendencies of the hour, for
what is there that we are ordinarily taught to admire and to
cultivate that does not fall under the symbol of the lion, the
leopard, or the bear ; so that, thus far, there will be no strange
features of hideousness in Antichrist to terrify into separation
from evil, those who refuse to be separated from it by the
Truth now.
Blessed are they who learn by the Spirit of Christ to walk
with Him, among the proud and stately scenes of Gentile
power. " Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me
from Lebanon ; look from the top of Amana, from the lions'
dens, from the mountains of the leopards." Such is the
place of the Church's present sojourn. The land of Im-
manuel, which shall by and by be the joy of all lands, is
deserted the proud mountains of Gentile glory are around
us we are in the midst of lions' and leopards' dens ; we
may see their form and hear their roar, but we shall not fear
them if in companionship with Him. They will not remain
for ever ; other scenes will quickly open, when the moun-
tains of the Gentiles shall be brought low, and " Lebanon
shall fall by a Mighty one ;" and instead thereof the Lamb
shall stand upon Zion, the mountain of God, and the new
centre of the earth's government arise that mountain of
which it shall be said, the " Lord bless thee, O habitation of
justice and mountain of holiness." This is referred to in the
succeeding chapter ; but the thirteenth chapter speaks not of
these things ; its subject is the day of the glory of man un-
der him who hears and welcomes that word, spoken though
it be by the Devil, " ALL THIS will I give thee if you
will fall down and worship ME."
KOTES ON REVELATION XIII. 199
CHAPTER XYIII.
XIII,
o
ATTENTION to the detail of prophetic description is needful,
not only for enabling us to form a correct estimate of the
future, but also for guarding against that error which has for
ages been the bane of truth, viz. the application of prophecy
to wrong objects, and thereby the assertion of its accomplish-
ment long before the real subjects of description have arisen.
This error will always be fallen into, when the specific facts
of Scripture are neglected, and we satisfy ourselves with
general resemblances merely and remote analogies.
The modern habit of referring this chapter to the Head of
the Papal system, is a memorable example of this culpable
carelessness of interpretation. I say, modern habit, because
during all the darkness of the first thirteen centuries, and even
later, we find a series of writers concurrently asserting that
this dispensation at its close is to bemaiked by the develop-
ment of a secular, despotic, and (as regards the Roman world)
universal, system of blasphemous infidelity, and that its Head
is described in the chapter before us.* But in the Protestant
conflicts with Popery all this has been forgotten, and prophetic
Scripture has been throughout interpreted as if Popery were
the one sole subject of its denunciations. That an influen-
* For quotations from writers of the first thirteen centuries, see
" Prospects of the Ten Kingdoms of the Roman Empire."
200 THOUGHTS ON THE APOCALYPSE.
tial worldly system, like Popery, will have many principles
of evil in common with another influential system like Anti-
christianism, is certain ; especially when the first has been
for ages acting on, and morally forming, some of the leading
countries out of which Antichristianism is to arise. Popery
is no doubt a chief channel towards Antichrist. But this is
no more than can be said of many other worldly systems that
are cast in a different mould from Popery, and are in many
things antagonistic to it, such as Mahomedanism ; the Greek
Churches of the East ; Socinian, Neologian, and other forms
of Nominal Protestantism ; and Judaism.
Attention to one simple fact is sufficient to prove the
futurity of this chapter. It describes the whole Roman
world, throughout all its extent, as brought completely under
one resistless despotism. Now inasmuch as neither the
whole, nor a half, nor a third, nor a tenth, of the Roman
world is at present under the sole control of any one individual,
or any one system, (for it is emphatically an hour of the
division of power,) it follows that this tyrannic system of
successful despotism must yet be future. That it cannot
have appeared and waned, or passed away, is manifest from
this that the power of the Beast and of the ten kingdoms
who are to be with him, never wane ; but, when once they
have appeared, will continue in the full vigour and pleni-
tude of power, until they shall suddenly be swept into de-
struction by the glory of the coming of the King of kings,
and Lord of lords. See Rev. xvii. 12, &c.
Again, one of the most remarkable and characteristic
features of this chapter is, that it marks the SECULAR as
taking precedence of the ECCLESIASTICAL power. The
second Beast, who is to direct the worship of all over whom
Antichrist will rule, takes the secondary place in the presence
of (SVWTTMW) the mighty secular monarch on whom the ten
diadems rest. Subordination to the crown, which Popery
hates, will be the very principle in which the False Prophet
who ministers in the presence of Antichrist will glory.
NOTES ON REVELATION XIII. 201
Indeed if we examine the specific descriptions of this
chapter we shall find that Popery answers to none.
I. The Beast with ten horns is distinctively a secular power :
Popery is distinctively ecclesiastical.
II. The Beast from the moment of his appearance in this
chapter on to the end of his course has his ten horns crowned
with diadems ; but Popery has never worn the diadems of
the Roman world. Even ecclesiastically it has never reigned
continuously over the Western division of the Eoman em-
pire ; much less over the East and West together.
III. The Beast had seven heads. When did all the ruling
systems, commercial, educational, religious, military, political,
&c., throughout the whole prophetic earth, fall under the
exclusive control of Popery, or of any other system or indi-
vidual, that yet has been ?
IV. The Beast when it first is seen in this chapter, has
all its horns crowned. How could this be said of Popery ?
Y. The Beast when it first appeared has one of its heads
already wounded. How could this be interpreted of
Popery ?
VI. The Beast was like a leopard. The leopard was the
Grecian Beast. Has not Popery been distinctively Latin,
and not Greek, both in origin, territory, character, and every-
thing else that can, under this head, be mentioned as a point
of contrast? The influence of Popery has been remarkably
obstructed in the Eastern part of the Eoman empire, where
Antichrist will be chiefly dominant.
VII. The whole prophetic earth is not only subject to, but
wonders after and worships the beast. When has the Pope
been thus worshipped ?
VIII. The Beast continues forty and two months. Is
this the limit of the duration of Popery ?
IX. Another, and he distinctly a minister of religious
power, exercises the power of the ten horned Beast in his
presence. When has the Pope ever had such a minister ?
X. All, except those whose names are written in the
THOUGHTS ON THE APOCALYPSE.
Lamb's book of life, consent to worship the Beast. In other
words, every servant of Satan throughout the whole Roman
world will unite himself to Antichrist. Have there never
been any wicked men who have stood aloof from Popery ?
XI. An image of the Beast is made, endued with life,
caused to speak, and to command that whosoever would not
worship it, should neither buy, nor sell, but be put to death,
and this throughout the whole extent of the Roman world.
Where do we find anything in the history of Popery answering
even remotely to this ?
It would have been well if Protestants, instead of
branding the Pope only with the name of Antichrist, had
sought out the tokens of Antichristianism that are to be
found among themselves. Infidelity, (such, for example, as
that which now abounds in Germany and Switzerland,) the
willing enslavement of Protestantism in many places to the
secular power, and the necessary consequences thence result-
ing, will be found to stamp on Protestantism, in many of its
forms, marks as characteristically antichristian as any that
can be found in Popery. Besides which, Protestantism has
done what Popery has not done, denied the rise of a future
Antichrist and the consequent apostasy of the secular power
from God. Yet I doubt not this has been done by many a
Protestant in ignorance, not in wilfulness, and that it is
among the Protestants and those converted to Protes-
tantism that God is granting repentance and the acknow-
ledgment of the truth. His blessing will never be entirely
withdrawn, wherever the authority of His written word is
honestly maintained.
" And he stood on the sand of the sea."] " He stood,"
not " I stood," is the right reading "he " referring to the
Dragon. These words should properly commence the thir-
NOTES ON REVELATION XIII. 03
teenth chapter, which, is in fact the sequel of the twelfth, and
should be read with it.
All the four universal empires the Chaldaean, Persian,
Grecian, and Roman are said in Daniel to arise from te the
Great Sea," which is the name of the Mediterranean in the
Old Testament. Neither of these empires are recognised in
Scripture as established in their proper supremacy, until
they had reached the Mediterranean, and incorporated that
sea within their rule. Antichrist also will have that sea as
the basis of his dominion. The scene of the preceding
chapter is clearly the land of Israel ; and this would of itself
lead us to say that the sea spoken of is the Mediterranean.
The countries of the Roman empire over which Antichrist
will reign, if marked by any distinctive colour in a map of
the world, appear to be nothing more than the coasts of the
Mediterranean.
<f A Beast."'] This name in its Imperial meaning is de-
rived from Daniel vii., where the four successive universal
empires are denominated "Beasts"* Such is Heaven's
estimate of Kingdoms that have been by men wondered
after and adored. Hitherto (except indeed when some great
type or forerunner of Antichrist has for a moment crossed
the scene) men have been accustomed to associate thoughts
of imperial greatness with empires rather than with indivi-
duals. We hear of the Chaldaean empire, the Roman
empire, and the like. But when Antichrist arises, all
thoughts connected with imperial power and glory will be
concentrated on him. Accordingly the symbol which Scrip-
ture had before employed to denote " empires," is now
appropriated to him. He is emphatically THE Beast.
* I have already remarked on the error which, in our version of
the Revelation, has confused between wa and Srjpia, and instead of
giving to the heavenly cherubim their proper name of " living creatures,"
has ascribed to them the name of those evil empires whose characters
are at last concentrated in Antichrist.
204 THOUGHTS ON THE APOCALPYSE.
Thus Napoleon, when some one spoke to him of the power
of France, said, " France ? what is France ? /am France."
"Having ten horns."] This is the Roman characteristic, and
is the more important, because it marks the territorial extent
of the rule of Antichrist. We have only to mark out the
territorial extent of the dominions of Rome, and we have
then before us that part of the earth out of which the ten
prophetic kingdoms are to arise, and over which Antichrist
is to rule.
The Roman empire in its widest extent, during the reign
of Trajan, included the following countries :
In Western and North-western Europe.
England, and Scotland.
Spain and Portugal.
France and Savoy.
Belgium and parts of Holland west of
the Rhine.
Luxembourg.
Rhenish Prussia, west of the Rhine.
Baden, Wirtemburgh, and most of
Bavaria.
Switzerland.
In Southern and South-eastern Europe.
Italy.
Greece.
All the islands of the Mediterranean.
Turkey in Europe south of the
Danube.
Austrian Provinces north of the Alps
and south of the Danube.
NOTES ON REVELATION XIII. 05
North of the Danube ( That P art of Hungary which lies east
and answering to the] of the Roman Vallum.*
ancient Dacia. Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia,
Bessarabia.
In Asia.
The Turkish dominions, taking the Euphrates as the
south-eastern limit and the north of Arabia as the
southern ; this division including Palestine and
Asia Minor.
In Africa.
Egypt and the whole northern coast, viz Libya, Tripolis,
Tunis, Algeria, and Fez. Salle, a little outside the
Straits of Gibraltar, was their most westerly city.
Such are the countries indicated, when we speak of the
Roman world, or prophetic earth the "Orbis Terrarum," or
riaaa 17 oiKov/uwri, of the Romans. We shall gradually see
these countries brought into closer and closer union. Simi-
lar governmental principles (viz. those of limited monarchy
indicated by the clay -iron of the image seen by Daniel) will
finally prevail throughout them all, and the rising latitudi-
narian system represented in the Revelation by the harlot of
the seventeenth chapter, will form the centre of their union.
At the time when this system shall have become fully de-
veloped, the territories above enumerated will have been
divided into ten kingdoms, answering to the ten toes of the
image of Daniel and to the ten horns of the fourth beast.
* The remains of the Roman Vallum are still visible. It left the
Danube a few miles east of Belgrade, and running by Temesvar, con-
tinued its northern course until it met the Upper Theiss, which there
runs from east to west. Dacia was retained as a Roman province for
upwards of 160 years. For further remarks on the subject, see " Pro-
spects of Ten Kingdoms of the Roman Empire, chapter ii."
206 THOUGHTS ON THE APOCALYPSE.
These after being first reigned over by the harlot, will, after
her destruction, concur to give their glory and power unto
Antichrist, <f until the words of God shall be fulfilled."
Half of the territory above described was conquered by
the Romans from the Greeks, and from the earliest period
was strongly contrasted in manners, language, and civiliza-
tion with that which they conquered in the West, where, for
the most part, barbarism reigned. The distinction, there-
fore, between the Greek and Latin divisions of the Roman
empire is not to be founded on the mere arbitrary arrange-
ments of the later emperors ; it was a distinction that
subsisted from the beginning. The distinction is still
visible ; and will become more so, as the influence of the
Greek name is revived in the East. The Greek or Eastern
division of the Roman empire answers, very nearly, to the
countries that are, or have been, under the rule of the
Turks.
"Seven heads."] This is a characteristic that attaches to no
imperial power except Antichrist. He is the first person
who will have complete control of all the influential systems
that sway society.
' ' On his heads ten diadems "~\ I have already remarked on
the difference between the monarch who holds the executive
power being subject to the legislative direction of his sub-
jects, and his being independent of such control. In the
latter case, the horn (for that symbolizes the holder of the
executive power) is crowned : in the former case the horn
is not crowned. We are now entering on a period in
which " the great interests," as they are called, will
virtually rule the monarch. Hence, in the twelfth
chapter, the diadems are on the heads, not on the horns.
In the thirteenth chapter, on the contrary, "the interests"
NOTES ON REVELATION XIII. 07
being then thoroughly subjected to the monarchs, the diadems
are transferred to the horns.
"And on his heads names of blasphemy"] This is impor-
tant, because, it shows how thoroughly society will have
become leavened by the principles of Antichrist. There
have been periods when society has resisted the impulses of
the governing power, and refused to follow it in its course of
evil; but here the very associations by which the mind of
society will be chiefly expressed will be given over to
blasphemy.
"And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard."]
The leopard is used in Daniel vii. to symbolize Greece.
Subtility as well as elegance marks the leopard. Antichrist
will not only have the moral and intellectual characteristics
of Greece, he will also arise from the Greek, not the Latin,
part of the Roman empire. This we learn from Daniel viii.
See that chapter considered in " Prospects of the Ten King-
doms of the Roman Empire."
" His feet were as the feet of a bear"] " Feet" is an em-
blem continually used in Scripture as a moral symbol. Thus
of the Lord, it is said, " His feet were as fine brass, as
though they burned in a furnace;" and the saints are ex-
horted to have their " feet shod with the preparation of the
gospel of peace."
The savage character of Antichrist is frequently referred
to in the Scripture. " Is this the man that made the earth
to tremble, that did shake kingdoms ; that made the world as
a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not
the houses of his prisoners ? " (Isaiah xiv.)
In Daniel, we find him called " a king of fierce counte-
nance who shall destroy wonderfully ;" (Dan. viii. 3), and