A Brief Commentary on the Apocalypse Part 14

The coming up of another beast must symbolize the rise of another government. As the two-horned beast exercises its power before (e??p???) _i.e._ _in the presence_, of the first beast, it is a contemporary power, and must necessarily symbolize a kingdom outside of the territory of the ten-horned beast. Within that territory it would be one of the horns of that beast; but a separate beast requires a separate territory. As it arises out of the earth, while it is outside of the territory occupied by the ten kingdoms, it must exist within that occupied by the _former_ Roman empire, and commence its existence during a period of settled government.

All the forms of Roman government symbolized by the dragon, were also symbolized by the wild beast; and as the deadly wound of the former was healed in the latter, the two const.i.tute one beast. As that is called the "first beast," the rise of the kingdom symbolized by the two-horned beast must have been subsequent to the commencement of the Roman empire. And as it caused those who dwell on the earth to worship that beast after its deadly wound was healed, it must have arisen anterior to the healing of that wound; and, consequently, before the succession of the ten kingdoms to the sovereignty of Rome, with which it held an intimate relation.

The only kingdom which has arisen within the geographical locality, and at the epoch required by these conditions of the symbol, is the Eastern Roman empire; which, consequently, is the government represented by the two-horned beast.

The imperial heads of Rome date from the battle of Actium, B. C. 31; but the Eastern empire was not commenced, till A. D. 324, when Constantine removed the seat of empire from Rome to Constantinople. Rome was, previous to that removal, the undisputed queen of nations, and Constantine was without a rival. Why he should abandon Rome, the citadel and throne of the Caesars, for an obscure corner of Thrace, has never been satisfactorily explained. Says Dr. Croly: "The change of government to Constantinople still perplexes the historian. It was an act in direct repugnance to the whole course of the ancient prejudices."

The indifference with which Constantine viewed the country of the Caesars, was regarded by Gibbon as the cause of removal.

He transferred the customs and forms of the Roman government, and there exercised all the powers of the empire,-the Italians still obeying the edicts which he condescended to address from Constantinople to the Senate and people of Rome. The western division continued dependent on the eastern head, till the death of Theodosius, A. D. 395. His two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, "were saluted by the unanimous consent of mankind, as the lawful emperors of the East, and of the West,"-the European boundary being "not very different from that which separates the Germans from the Turks."-Gibbon, v. 2, p. 199. Gibbon calls this "the final and permanent division of the Roman empire." But its existence as a beast more properly dates from the removal of Constantine.

Its two horns like a lamb, must symbolize two divisions of the kingdom.

These may be contemporary, like those symbolized by the ten horns (17:12), or successive, like the two horns of the ram, Dan. 8:3, 20. From the history of the Eastern empire, the latter is the more probable; and its historical resemblance to the government symbolized by the ram, may be the reason of the comparison to "horns like a lamb." As Persia was a government outside of Media, and succeeded to its sovereignty, so did the kingdom of the Turks originate outside of the Eastern empire, and at length come in, occupy its territory, and succeed to its sovereignty, A.

D. 1253. With this view, the horns would symbolize the kings of Eastern Rome and of Turkey. See pp. 99-104.

Its dragon-like speech shows it to be a blasphemous, persecuting power, like that which persecuted the woman, 12:17. Though the Greek empire claimed to be Christian, a successor of Constantine, Julian the Apostate, renounced Christianity, endeavored to restore the Pagan service in Constantinople, and "declared himself the _implacable enemy of Christ_."

He a.s.sumed the character of Supreme Pontiff, and thus placed himself at the head of the Pagan worship. He labored incessantly to restore and propagate those dragonic rites, and even thought to disprove the predictions of Christ by rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem. "He affected to pity the unhappy Christians, as mistaken in the most important object of their lives; but his pity was degraded by contempt, his contempt was embittered by hatred; and the sentiments of Julian were expressed in a style of sarcastic wit which inflicts a deep and deadly wound whenever it issues from the mouth of a sovereign." And he intimated that they might have occasion "to dread, not only confiscation and exile, but fire and the sword."-_Gibbon._

The successors of Julian, though Christian in name, issued cruel and tyrannical edicts. Valens embraced Arianism, and bitterly persecuted the Orthodox party. Justinian established Catholicism by arms. Theodosius proscribed Paganism by the infliction of severe penalties. Marcian and Leo "enforced, with arms and edicts, the symbols of their faith," and it was declared that "the decrees of the synod of Chalcedon might be lawfully supported, even with blood." And after the accession of the Mohammedan power, religious intolerance towards dissenting creeds was still more rigidly enforced.

The Eastern empire exercised all the power of the Western. The original organization of its government was the same, and it had the same t.i.tles and prerogatives. Gibbon says of Julian: "The spirit of his administration, and his regard for the place of his nativity, induced him to confer on the senate of Constantinople the same honors, privileges, and authority which were still enjoyed by the senate of ancient Rome."

It caused worship to be bestowed on the first beast, by extending to the Latin rulers that aid which enabled them to perpetuate their system of tyranny, to legislate over the laws and subjects of Jehovah, and to claim the obedience which only G.o.d can demand. The arms of Justinian, both in the East and West, caused the Roman name to be respected, and its favor sought for.

The wonders to be performed by it, may be as yet involved in some obscurity. But by these it is identified as the power which afterwards became the seat of the False Prophet. When the "beast" is taken, "the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image,"

is cast with him "into a lake of fire burning with brimstone," 19:20. This identifies the two-horned beast as the Mohammedan kingdom. It also proves that the Romanic Turkish government will continue till the Second Advent.

Among the wonders it would perform, making fire come down from heaven is specified. John does not intimate that he saw, in vision, fire thus descend. The fact is spoken of; and therefore it is not necessarily symbolic, but may refer to literal fire. Gibbon, in speaking of "the novelty, the terrors, and the real efficacy of the _Greek fire_," for which the Eastern empire was so famous, says:

"The important secret of compounding and directing this artificial flame was imparted by Callinicus, a native of Heliopolis, in Syria, who deserted from the service of the caliph to that of the emperor. The skill of a chemist and engineer was equivalent to the succor of fleets and armies; and this discovery or improvement of the military art was fortunately reserved for the distressful period, when the degenerate Romans of the East were incapable of contending with the warlike enthusiasm and youthful vigor of the Saracens. The historian who presumes to a.n.a.lyze this extraordinary composition, should suspect his own ignorance and that of his Byzantine guides, so p.r.o.ne to the marvellous, so careless, and, in this instance, so jealous of the truth. From their obscure, and perhaps fallacious hints, it should seem that the princ.i.p.al ingredient of the Greek fire was the _naphtha_, or liquid bitumen, a light, tenacious, and inflammable oil, which springs from the earth, and catches fire as soon as it comes in contact with the air. The naphtha was mingled, I know not by what methods, or in what proportions, with sulphur, and with the pitch that is extracted from evergreen firs. From this mixture, which produced a thick smoke and a loud explosion, proceeded a fierce and obstinate flame, which not only rose in perpendicular ascent, but likewise burned with equal vehemence in descent or lateral progress; instead of being extinguished, it was nourished and quickened by the element of water; and sand, urine, or vinegar, were the only remedies that could damp the fury of this powerful agent, which was justly denominated by the Greeks, the _liquid_, or _maritime_ fire. For the annoyance of the enemy, it was employed with equal effect by sea and land, in battles or in sieges. It was either poured from the rampart in large boilers, or launched in red-hot b.a.l.l.s of stone and iron, or darted in arrows and javelins, twisted round with flax and tow, which had deeply imbibed the inflammable oil; sometimes it was deposited in fire-ships, the victims and instruments of a more ample revenge, and was most commonly blown through long tubes of copper, which were planted on the prow of a galley, and fancifully shaped into the mouths of savage monsters, that seemed to vomit a stream of liquid and consuming fire. This important art was preserved at Constantinople, as the palladium of the state; the galleys and _artillery_ might occasionally be lent to the allies of Rome; but the composition on the Greek fire was concealed with the most jealous scruple, and the terror of the enemies was increased and prolonged by their ignorance and surprise. In the treatise of the administration of the empire, the royal author suggests the answers and excuses that might best elude the indiscreet curiosity and importunate demands of the barbarians. They should be told that the mystery of the Greek fire had been revealed by an angel to the first and greatest of the Constantines, with a sacred injunction, that this gift of _heaven_, this peculiar blessing of the Romans should never be communicated to any foreign nation; that the prince and subject were alike bound to religious silence under the temporal and spiritual penalties of treason and sacrilege; and that the impious attempt would provoke the sudden and supernatural vengeance of the G.o.d of the Christians. By these precautions the secret was confined, above four hundred years, to the Romans of the East; and at the end of the eleventh century, the Pisans, to whom every sea and every art were familiar, suffered the effects, without understanding the composition, of the Greek fire. It was at length either discovered or stolen by the Mohammedans; and, in the holy wars of Syria and Egypt, they retorted an invention, contrived against themselves, on the heads of the Christians. A knight, who despised the swords and lances of the Saracens, relates, with heartfelt sincerity, his own fears and those of his companions, at the sight and sound of the mischievous engine that discharged a torrent of the Greek fire, the _feu Gregeois_, as it is styled by the more early of the French writers. It came flying through the air, says Joinville, like a winged long-tailed dragon, about the thickness of a hogshead, with the report of thunder, and the velocity of lightning; and the darkness of night was _dispelled by this deadly illumination_."-_Hist. Rome_, vol.

III., pp. 465-467.

Its use is thus described by the same author, when the Greeks turned its power against the Saracens, at the siege of Constantinople, A. D. 718:

"The Greeks would gladly have ransomed their religion and empire, by a fine or a.s.sessment of a piece of gold on the head of each inhabitant of the city; but the liberal offer was rejected with disdain, and the presumption of Moslemah was exalted by the speedy approach and invincible force of the natives of Egypt and Syria. They are said to have amounted to eighteen hundred ships: the number betrays their inconsiderable size; and of the twenty stout and capacious vessels, whose magnitude impeded their progress, each was manned with no more than one hundred heavy-armed soldiers. This huge armada proceeded on a smooth sea and with a gentle gale, towards the mouth of the Bosphorus; the surface of the strait was over-shadowed, in the language of the Greeks, with a moving forest, and the same fatal night had been fixed by the Saracen chief for a general a.s.sault by sea and land. To allure the confidence of the enemy, the emperor had thrown aside the chain that usually guarded the entrance of the harbor: but while they hesitated whether they should seize the opportunity or apprehend the snare, the ministers of destruction were at hand. The fireships of the Greeks were launched against them: the Arabs, their arms and vessels, were involved in the same flames, the disorderly fugitives were dashed against each other, or overwhelmed in the waves; and I no longer find a vestige of the fleet, that had threatened to extirpate the Roman name."-_Ib._, p. 464.

It deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by its miracles. This deception resulted in the creation of:

The Image of the Beast.

"And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the wild beast, that the image of the wild beast should even speak, and to cause, that as many as would not worship the image of the wild beast, should be killed. And he causeth all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond, to receive a mark on their right hand, or on their forehead. And that no one might buy or sell, but he, who had the mark, the name of the wild beast, or the number of his name."-Rev. 13:15-18.

This new creation is not another beast, but the image of one. An image is only the _likeness_ of something. As the beast symbolizes a political power, its image must symbolize some a.n.a.logous power of a different nature; and this likeness can only be found in a religious government.

1. The beast which received its death-wound (v. 14), was the form of government to which the image was made, _i.e._, the imperial. Of this the Roman hierarchy was a perfect counterpart. It was an ecclesiastical government, coextensive in its authority with the political power of the empire. And, like the officers of the civil, there was a regular gradation of rank in the subordinates of the religious government. The head of the former was an emperor, chosen by an electoral college,-the senators of Rome.(3) The head of the latter was a Pope, chosen in a similar manner by the college of Cardinals,-the ecclesiastical senators of the religious empire. Each of those bodies const.i.tuted the highest deliberative and legislative body in its respective government. The empire had its governors of provinces, appointed by the imperial head; and the spiritual rule of the church was, in like manner, sustained by diocesan bishops who, in their respective provinces, were governors in spiritual matters and creatures of the Pope. Subordinate offices in the state and church, also, singularly corresponded.

2. The religious customs of the empire, as well as its political, were likewise imitated by the papacy. Rome deified her heroes; the papacy canonized her saints. The ghosts of the departed were the G.o.ds of the heathen; and the papists supplicate the dead. The Pagans burned incense to their G.o.ds; the Papists burn incense in their religious ceremonies. The ancient heathen sprinkled themselves with "holy water;" the Papists use the same material in a similar manner. Lactantius says of the Pagans, they "light up candles to G.o.d as if he lived in the dark; and do they not deserve to pa.s.s for madmen who offer lamps to the author and giver of light?" This custom is imitated by the Papists in the use of wax candles on their altars.

The ancient Romans prostrated themselves before images of wood and stone; and Jerome tells us that "by idols were to be understood the images of the dead." In Catholic Rome, worshippers prostrated themselves before images of departed saints. The old Roman Pantheon, which was dedicated by Agrippa "to Jove, _and all the G.o.ds_," was re-consecrated by Pope Boniface IV., about A. D. 610, "_to the blessed Virgin and all the saints_." As in the old pagan temple, any stranger could find the G.o.d of his own country; so in its re-consecrated state, each country could find its patron saint.

Other temples were changed and re-consecrated in the same manner. The ancient statue of Jupiter stands now as the statue of St. Peter. The pagans had their vestal virgins; the Papists their nuns.

Dr. Middleton, who visited Rome in 1729, says:

"Nothing, I found, concurred so much with my original intention of conversing with the ancients; or so much helped my imagination, to find myself wandering about in old heathen Rome, as to observe and attend to their religious worship; all whose ceremonies appear plainly to have been copied from the rituals of primitive Paganism: as if handed down by an uninterrupted succession from the priests of old, to the priests of new Rome, whilst each of them readily explained, and called to mind some pa.s.sages of a cla.s.sic author, where the same ceremony was described, as transacted in the same form and manner, and in the same place where I now saw it executed before my eyes."-_Dowl. Hist. of Rom._, p. 114.

Says Mr. Lord:

"After a struggle of more than four centuries, the ecclesiastics of all the hierarchies in the empire were united in one vast organization, with the pontiff as their supreme legislative and judicial head, and a single ecclesiastical government was established over the whole Roman church, after the model of the civil government of the ancient empire under Constantine and his successors. It is, accordingly, denominated by Catholics themselves a monarchy. 'All Catholic doctors agree in this, that the ecclesiastical government committed to men by G.o.d is a monarchy.'-_Bellarmini de Rom. Pont._, lib. i., c. v. Bellarmine devotes his first book 'of the Pontiff' to prove that such is and ought to be its government. 'If the monarchical is the best form of government, as we have shown, and it is certain that the church of G.o.d inst.i.tuted by Christ its head, who is supremely wise, ought to be governed in the best manner, who can deny that its rule ought to be monarchical?'-_Ib._, i., c. ix., p.

527.

"The canonists are accustomed, accordingly, to denominate the Pope a king.

"The pontiffs were as absolutely the legislative and judicial head of this ecclesiastical kingdom, as the emperors from Constantine to Augustulus were of the civil empire, and imposed whatever laws they pleased on subordinate ecclesiastics and on the church by decrees, in the same manner as those emperors enacted laws by edicts. The decrees, bulls of canonization, sentences, charters, and other legislative and judicial acts of the pontiffs, from Gregory VII., in 1073, to Benedict XIV., in 1757, collected in the Bullarium Magnum, fill nineteen folios. Many others are contained in the decretals and councils.

"They appointed to all ecclesiastical offices throughout the empire, as the Christian emperors appointed to all civil and military offices in their dominions.

"They exacted oaths of fidelity from all whom they advanced to important offices; as the emperors exacted engagements of fidelity from their civil magistrates.

"They established courts in which all violations of their laws were tried, and a tribunal at the capital for the decision of appeals. There were gradations of rank in the hierarchy, like those of the magistrates of the civil empire. The hierarchies, as nationalized by Constantine, were formed in each patriarchate, after the model of the civil government in the provinces. The hierarchy of the western kingdoms, under the Pope, was formed after that pattern; having archbishops or metropolitans at the head of the clergy of each nation, or large district, and bishops, abbots, and a long catalogue of subordinate ranks, under each metropolitan.

"They levied taxes for their support on ecclesiastics and laics.

"They inflicted ecclesiastical penalties on the violators of their laws; exclusion from communion, suspension from office, deposition, excommunication, and a sentence of eternal death."-_Exp. of Apoc._, pp.

429-432.

These, with many other striking resemblances, demonstrate that the Roman hierarchy, in all its great features, was a counterpart to imperial Rome-an image of, and belonging to, the seven-headed, ten-horned monster, whose deadly wound was healed.

Life was to be given to this image by the two-horned beast. The papal hierarchy is created when its supremacy over other churches is declared and _sustained_; and the power by which this is done, is that which gives life to it. This was done, according to the following history, by the Eastern empire.

The power of the papacy, symbolized by the image, had been predicted in Daniel under the symbol of "a Little Horn," that came up among the previous "ten horns," before whom "there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things," Dan. 7:8. These horns were thus explained to Daniel: "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall arise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." _Ib._ vs. 23-27.

When Paul spoke of the second coming of Christ, in his first epistle to the Thessalonians, they understood that it was an event then imminent. The apostle, in his second epistle, corrects this impression, by referring to the foregoing prediction in Daniel, which must be previously fulfilled. He a.s.sures them that "the day of Christ" "shall not come, except there be" an apostasy, or "a falling away first, and that Man of Sin," or the lawless one, "be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called G.o.d, or that is worshipped; so that he, as G.o.d, sitteth in the temple of G.o.d, showing himself that he is G.o.d. Remember ye not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming," 2 Thess. 2:2-8.

The uniform application of these predictions to the Papacy, by Protestant writers, renders it unnecessary to argue this point. That power began early to be manifested, but its full development was "let," _i.e._, hindered, by the continuance of the Western empire, which had to be taken out of its way. Tertullian, near the close of the second century, in expounding those words, says: "Who can this be but the Roman state, the division of which into ten kingdoms will bring on Antichrist?" And he gives as a reason why the Christians of his time prayed for the Roman empire: that _the greatest calamity hanging over the world was r.e.t.a.r.ded by the continuance of it_. Cyril of Jerusalem in the fourth century applied the pa.s.sage in the same manner, and says:

"Thus the predicted Antichrist will come when the times of the Roman empire shall be fulfilled, and the consummation of the world shall approach. Ten kings of the Romans shall arise together, in different places indeed, but they shall reign at the same time. Among these the eleventh is Antichrist, who, by magical and wicked artifice, shall seize the Roman power." A large number of the ancient fathers interpreted this text in the same manner.

In A. D. 257, 1260 years before the time of Luther, Stephen, Bishop of Rome, began to act the pope in good earnest,-excommunicating those who dissented from the doctrines of Rome.

In 312, 1260 years before the ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572, Constantine became Emperor of Rome, embraced Christianity, and terminated the last and bloodiest of the Pagan persecutions-that of Diocletian, which had continued ten years. Constantine undertook to remodel the church, in conformity to the government of the state, and the unhallowed union of the two resulted in the dignities of patriarchs, exarchs, archbishops, canons, prebendaries, &c., which he endowed with wealth and worldly honors.

While paganism was superseded by Christianity under Constantine, its ceremonies were not suppressed. The senate was still pagan; and "the t.i.tle, the ensigns, and the prerogatives of Sovereign Pontiff, which had been inst.i.tuted by Numa, and a.s.sumed by Augustus, were accepted, without hesitation, by seven Christian emperors."-_Gibbon_, v. 2, p. 183. Gratian became emperor, A. D. 376, and was the first who refused the pontifical robe. In 378, he invested Theodosius with the Empire of the East; under their rule paganism was "wholly extirpated," and the senate was suddenly converted.-_Ib._ That which hindered was thus taken out of the way. In 378, also, Gratian refusing the office, Damasus, the Bishop of Rome, was "declared Pontifix Maximus,"(4) and made "the sole judge in religious matters." All who would not adhere to the religion "professed by the Pontiff Damasus, and by Peter, Bishop of Alexandria," were declared heretics.-_Gibbon_, v. 2, p. 156. Damasus, by virtue of his power, introduced the worship of the saints, and of Mary, "the mother of G.o.d,"-excommunicating those who dissented. Thus the apostasy, by adopting the G.o.ds of the heathen, and the name of the heathen pontiff, began to be set up, and the excommunicated church disappeared in the wilderness.