dan Hierarchy in the East, and partly by the arts, frauds, intrigues, and bloody persecutions of the Papal in the West, the Christian world has known no respite from scenes of War and human Slaughter down to the present times. Now to one of the two intervals I have described, in which the nations of the Earth were to be at peace, the Prophet must allude by the calm state of the Sea, when the beast was to rise out of it; for we read of no other; but which of them is the question. It could not be in the former, for there was no Beast, no strong and cruel idolatrous power, which rose in the world between the conversion of Constantine, and the death of Theodosius. We must then look for the rise of the Beast in the second, and here we find from historical testimony, that the Corner Stone and foundation of the Papal Edifice, were laid by Phocas the Roman Emperor, in the year 606, during the interval of peace between the Expulsion of the Ortrogoths in the middle of the sixth century, and the Saracen Wars which commenced about the thirtieth year of the seventh. It was in the year 606 this Emperor granted to Boniface, then only bishop of Rome, the commission of supreme head of all the Christian churches, to hold to him and his successors for ever. Under the cloke of this authority he and his successors, Popes of the Church of Rome, have ever since dictated her will, established her idolatry, and with it her enormous power over the Kings and Nations of the Western part of the civili zed World. Thus she became the exact Prototype of a beast, or a strong and most cruel power arising out of the Sea, when calm, or out of the Nations when they were at peace; and tyrannizing over not only the Bodies, but over the reason, Consciences, and the Souls of mankind, either by seducing or compelling them to obey her wicked and blasphemous will. Ver. 1, continued. Having Seven Heads, and Ten Horns, and upon his Horns, Ten Crowns. INTERPRETATION AND COMPLETION. There is an exact symbolical resemblance to the Head of a Beast in the supreme legislative authority of civil societies, whatever be their different forms. In the Head of a Beast its supreme will and power are supposed to reside, and thence to direct and enforce all the motions and actions: of every member, and part of its body; so in every nation or civil society the supreme will and power reside in its legislative authority, by which it directs, regulates, and inforces all the motions and actions of all the members of the body politic. And this Beast was to have Seven Headsor seven different Legislative Authorities. Now this is exactly the case of Rome, which has been the seat of the Government of the Roman State under its various revolutions, from the time it was built by Romulus more than 2500 years past, down to the Rule of the Popes in the Church of VOL. ii. U 2 Rome. It has had seven different Heads or forms of legislative authority, namely, Kings, Consuls, Dictators, Decemvirs, Military Tribunes, Emperors and Popes. And A Horn of a beast is a firm, pointed, callous substance growing out of its Head; it is the means by which it provides for and protects its body from harm; and conquers or destroys its enemies. It is therefore an accurate symbol to typify the Executive Power of a state, which as it were grows out of, is appointed by, and acts. under the direction and laws of the Legislative Head, in providing for, protecting and defending, the body politic or nation, and conquering its enemies. And these ten Executive Powers were to have "Ten Crowns:" a Crown is any ornamental mark of dignity worn on the Head, usually applied to Kings, possessing both the Legislative and Executive Powers, yet it is equally applicable to subordinate Princes, or to any supreme executive Magistrate who wears such like marks; as the Doge of Venice, the Stadtholder, &c. now the evident meaning of these figures is, that the Power foretold shall have "ten horns," or the executive powers of Ten several civil societies, arising out of their Legislative Heads, obedient to his supreme will. Now does not Rome under the Pope, and no other Power hitherto known in the World, answer to those two descriptive and symbolical marks? Had she not before the Reformation "Ten Horns," or Ten. Executive Powers over the different states of the Western part of the Roman Empire, namely, of England, France, Holland, Germany, Prussia, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, and Naples, during the course of several Centuries converted to her Idolatrous superstition, and subject to her. powerful and despotic Will? "And upon his Ver. 1, further continued. INTERPRETATION AND COMPLETION. We have seen that the head of a Beast is a symbol of the supreme legislative authority of a civil society; that Rome has had seven, and that upon those Heads there was "the name of Blasphemy,' to denote that under all of them Blasphemy against the true God of some kind should be taught and prevail; and such was literally the fact. For under all her different forms of Goveinment, from the Reign of Tarquinius Priscus, down to the Ecclesiastical Dominion of the Popes inclusive, some kind of blasphemous idolatry has been propagated and prevailed as the ruling Religion of the Roman nation; except during the prevalence of the Gospel of Christ in the latter part of her imperial authority, and it is difficult to determine, under which of her seven Heads her blasphemy has been the most inconsistent with the attributes of God. Ver. 2. "And the Beast which I saw was like "unto a Leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a Bear, and his mouth as the mouth "of a Lion; and the Dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great Authority.” INTERPRETATION AND COMPLETION. "And the Beast which I saw was like unto a Leopard;"-A spotted Beast, to denote its Apostacy (not from the pure truths of the Gospel of Christ, for the Bishop of Rome departed from them into a variety of errors and false doctrines before he was Pope, which was the state of the Christian Churches generally in the sixth Century,) but from her erroneous and schismatic state into Pagan Idolatry and blasphemy. Hence the power is not compared to the Onca or Ounce, which is a beast of a grey colour, the ground of which is pure white, but obscured and darkened by spots of a deep and jetty black. This would have been a proper symbol to denote a power which had fallen immediately from the pure white, or the immaculate truths of the Gospel of Christ into the blasphemy of Papal Idolatry. And therefore the Prophet compares the power he saw to a Leopard, the ground of whose skin is of a light yellow colour, a shade darker than pure white, mixed also with spots black as jet, to represent a power which had already faded or fallen from the pure truths of the gospel into errors; and was from that state to fall into the black blasphemy of heathen idolatry. By this beautiful figure not only the schismatic state of the Church of Rome, in the beginning of the seventh century, but her apostate and idolatrous state, which was to suc |