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people, by those arts of deception which they would employ, and those fictitious miracles which they would perform. Now every man, converfant in ecclefiaftical history, knows, that the period, when the facerdotal body firft arrived at great opulence and power, was fertile in false miracles, and that in a variety of ways they deceived the people, in order to fwell that opulence, and to extend that power.

The prophet having informed us, that the two-horned Beaft would be fuccefsful in the delufions which he would practise, and in his endeavours to arrive at great influence; next proceeds to ftate what would be the use, which he would make of that influence when acquired. He fays to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the Beast, which had the wound by a fword and did live. That the fuggeftions of the antichristian priesthood would be liftened to, and their wishes carried into execution, the prophet foretells in the following verfe. And he HAD power to give life unto the image of the Beast, that the image of the Beaft fhould both Speak, and caufe that as many as would not worship the image of the Beast should be killed. What this image of the Beast is, an extract from Mr. Evanson will fhew. ་ The apoftate ecclefiaftics, by their in'trigues and influence, procured an image of the Civil 'Power to be fet up, and were able to give it such an

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active energy, that it could utter decrees and ordi'nances, and caufed thofe, who refused to worship, that 'is, to pay implicit obedience to it in all religious con

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cerns, to be put to death.—Such an image of temporal 'power, contrary to every principle, not of Chriftianity only, but even of found policy, did the Latin emperors erect, and all the fucceeding princes of Europe uphold, when they established the Hierarchy and its courts of ' fpiritual

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fpiritual jurifdiction. The authority of ecclefiaftics, with respect both to this world and the next, is alto'gether groundless and imaginary. Yet the Hierarchy once formed, with much artifice and by degrees, ac

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quired to itself the power of inflicting the severest penalties on those it deemed delinquents, and even of 'condemning them to the moft barbarous deaths"." The image of the Beast, fays a learned apocalyptical writer of the last century, is an Ecclefiaftical Power, ' equal to the Secular Power for the univerfality of its 'jurisdiction. Indeed what kind of power within the 'fame bounds and territories can it possibly be, but ecclefiaftical, that can be a living image of the Secular, ex'ercifing fupreme authority at the fame time with it, and in the fame places, as this is described ?' Thus prior to the diffolution of the Roman empire, 'the patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops, had their ranks and places ' every where according to the divifions of the provinces ' of the state; and the name of the ecclefiaftical diocefes did arife from the diftinction of the feveral civil diocefes of the empire by Constantine. And it is established by the canons of two fynods, that if any city ⚫ were newly raised by the emperor, the ecclefiaftical 'dignities there fhould be conformed to it. So that the church and ftate did run parallel to one another 'through the whole body of the Roman empire, just like the arteries and veins in the body of man, and

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obferved the fame proportion every where to one ' another18.' 'When Christianity,' fays Sir Michael Fofter, became the established religion of the empire, and church and ftate became one body, confidered

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17 Let. to bp. Hurd, p. 57.

18 Creffener's Dem. of the Pr. Appl. of the Apoc. p. 246.

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only in different views and under different relations; the ecclefiaftical and civil laws of the empire flowed ⚫ from one and the fame fource, Imperial refcripts 19.'

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And he caufed all, both fmall and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hands, or in their foreheads. We must understand,' fays bp. Newton, that it was cuftomary among the ancients, for fervants to receive the mark of their master, and foldiers of their general, and those who were ' devoted to any particular deity, of the particular deity to 'whom they were devoted.' Hence, fays Dr. Lancaster, fuch marks became marks of fervitude. Now the hand,' fays he, is the fymbol of action and hard la-, 'bour: the forehead fignifies the public profeffion. The 'whole fhews, that it is required that all men give affiftance to pursue the defigns of the Beast and its falfe • Prophet, or at least to make a public profession of fer'vitude.' And that no man might buy or fell, fave he that had the mark, or the name of the Beast, or the number of his name. 'That which does the best open the mystery of thefe expreffions,' fays Dr. Creffener, is 'that obfervation of Grotius upon this place, that it was a common fashion in St. John's time for every Hea⚫ then God to have a particular fociety, or fraternity belonging to him; and the way of admitting any into 'these fraternities was, 1. By giving them some hiero'glyphic mark in their hands or forehead, which was ⚫ accounted facred to that particular God; as that of an ivy-leaf to own themselves of the fraternity of Bac'chus. 2. By fealing them with the letters of the name of 'that God. And 3. with that number, which the Greek ' letters of their name did make up; for the numeral cy

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9 Examinat. of Bp. Gibson's Codex. p. 122.

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phers of the Greeks were the letters of the alphabet 20.' Those who have the Mark of the Beast,' I am again quoting from Dr. Lancaster, may be fuch whose conftant purpose it is to defend the worship of the Beast, being active and vigorous therein. Those who have the Name of the Beast are fuch who are known to be 'flaves or followers by his name being called upon them; the impofing of a name betokening the subjection of the party named to the impofer. And therefore 'flaves were new named by their mafters, and marked, anciently, with their mafters names, that it might be publicly known whofe flaves they were. Those who have the Number of the Name of the Beaft may be fuch as are his worshippers in a private manner, and discover themselves to be fo by fome private mark.-To pro*hibit persons from buying and felling is to banish them 'from public fociety, and to exclude them from the benefit or protection of the laws. And this has been done by the falfe Prophet against those who would not ' embrace his religion, or submit to his authority.'

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'If,' fays Mr. Evanson, we understand the prophet's buying and felling in the literal fenfe, the excommuni'cation of heretics, that is, of those who profess not the theological tenets by law established, affords us the moft convincing proof of the full completion of this 'part of the prophetic vifion. But it is to be observed, that the language of this prophecy is almost every where figurative. And, fince the apoftate church is called the city Babylon, and, in the eighteenth chapter, 'is represented as carrying on a most extensive and

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* Dem. of the Pr. Appl. of the Apoc. p. 274. Thus the name of 'Thouth or the Egyptian Mercury was fignified by the number 1218; the ' name of Jupiter, as H′ apyn or the beginning of things, by the number 717; and the name of the Sun, as nus good, or 'ves the author of rain, by 'the number 608.' Bp. Newton,

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'gainful traffic, and her teachers are defcribed as merchants: the causing that no man might buy or fell who wore not the badge of fervitude to the religion of the ' civil magistrate, may, with great reason, be interpreted 'to fignify the prohibiting all persons from giving or

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receiving any religious inftructions, but what were 'conformable to that standard of belief, which, the ruling powers, for the time being, decreed to be truly or'thodox 21.'

That the influence of the two-horned Beaft, the representative of the antichriftian priesthood, has for centuries been diminishing, that his power is now greatly decayed, and that the exifting circumftances of the world threaten the downfal of every remnant of fpiritual ufurpation, are circumftances which may be reflected on with no fmall degree of pleafure, by the friend of liberty, by the advocate of free inquiry, and the genuine lover of the gospel.

After the two-horned and the ten-horned Beafts have been fo diffufely illuftrated, the symbol of the Dragon ought not to be paffed over altogether in filence; and the rather, because the paffage cited from bp. Hurd, wherein he afferts it to be the fymbol of the Old Roman Government in its Pagan ftate, ftands in need of explication.

With respect to the Dragon, that is mentioned in feveral parts of ch. xii. and xiii. what the prelate afferts is perfectly true; for there its meaning is manifeftly reftricted; being defcribed with the emblems of the Roman Empire, as having feven heads and ten horns, and Jeven crowns upon his heads 22. But it follows not

21 Let. to bp. Hurd, p. 59.

22 XII. 3.

Wolfius upon this verse (in his Cura Philologica) thinks it worthy of remark, that, in the time of St. John, the Dragon began to be represented on the military standards of the Roman emperors.

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