him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads wounded as it were to death; and his deadly wound was healed: And all the world [" the earth” in the above-mentioned MSS.] wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints."

The various conflicting interpretations that have been affixed by learned commentators to these and the remaining verses of the thirteenth chapter might incline us to despair of finding the true signification of the text before us if we were not encouraged by our experience of the reliability of our historic guide. Having confidence however that we shall be corrected by the event if we err in our analysis, the only effect we need give to the above-mentioned interpretations is to strictly confine ourselves to the prophetic terms, and to exercise the utmost care not to adopt a conclusion for historic confirmation which those terms do not of themselves clearly enforce. It may be remarked however that this increased care is due to the opinions of the writers referred to rather than to any ambiguity or apprehension of difficulty in the prophecy, the terms of which present themselves as more general in character than any we have previously examined, and therefore appear to demand a less specific historic illustration. Indeed, so little do we find

beyond that which is necessary to the identification of the agency or agencies represented by the beast, that if it were stated generally that a very composite barbaric unchristian power arose after the death of Theodosius, and as an adherent of the dragon exercised dominion over the Roman empire, the general force and import of the prophecy might be considered to be almost exhausted, but this we must await the result of our analysis to determine.

Adopting the reading of the manuscripts before referred to, the first terms we have to consider are, "And he [the dragon] stood upon the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy." It will be remembered that we were shown by the last verse of the twelfth chapter that "the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ;" and our text now gives us the dramatic representation of the dragon or Satanic embodiment of heathenism standing on the boundary of the Roman empire, or Apocalyptic earth, and calling up from amongst the barbarians, or Apocalyptic sea surounding the earth, instruments to assist him in effecting his designs upon the woman's seed.

The conclusion enforced, therefore, if we give the above interpretation to the Apocalyptic sea, which is the same as we have previously affixed and found to be ratified by history on several occasions, is that the beast seen to rise up out of the sea was not Roman or of Roman origin, but essentially barbaric, and at the time of his rising-the sea being within its proper bounds as indicated by the sand of the sea having been visible to the Evangelist-was unconnected with the Roman empire.

The prophecy having thus authoritatively informed us on this point, calls on us to observe the gradual development embraced by the terms "rise up out of;" and then commences the beast's identifying characteristics with "Having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy."

Interpreting the numbers seven and ten as symbolic and not literal, it will be seen that the seven heads having the name of blasphemy determine the religion of the beast to be perfect in its combination of the various phases of infidel and idolatrous worship, or in a word that the beast was UNCHRISTIAN; whilst the "ten horns and on his horns ten crowns" invest him with the political power of idolatrous kingdomsthe political and national qualification being imparted by his horns; the regal qualification by the crowns on those horns; and the idolatrous qualification by the number ten, the force of which as a symbolic numeral possessing that signification, we recognised in our last lecture, by its agreement with the number of the tribes of the children of Israel which were rent from Solomon's kingdom (1 Kings xi. 33.) "because they worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcolm the god of the children of Ammon." And here the interesting question arisesMay not the force of the symbolic number "ten" be carried further, and be deemed to refer to the living descendants of those tribes? But as the revealed purposes of the Almighty in regard to them have not yet been sufficiently developed, or if so, the development has not been sufficiently recognised, to admit, if answered in the affirmative, of historic proof such as our design requires, we must not pursue the subject further than to observe on the authority of Scripture -the Israelites were, are to be, and therefore are; and consequently, though in accordance with prophecy, not known either by themselves or others as Israelites, might, under another name, whilst fulfilling their foretold destiny, have given their power to the barbaric beast. Indeed in the 17th chapter we are told as much, if not positively, sufficiently inferentially to afford strong evidence in favour of the assumption. In verse 17 we read, "For God hath put in their hearts [the ten horns] to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled." This, it must be observed, is after the christianisation of those horns foreshown in verse 14 of the same chapter. After saying in verse 13, "These [the ten horns] have one mind and shall give their

power and strength unto the beast," the prophetic declaration of verse 14 is, "These shall make war with the Lamb [which they do whilst attached to the barbaric beast], and the Lamb shall overcome them." The ten horns thus fall under the dominion of the Lamb, "and [verse 16] shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire." It will be seen, therefore, that although we cannot now carry the subject further, we may take with us the interesting possibility of one or more of the nations which history is about to introduce to us as component parts of the barbaric beast, being the representatives of the Israelites commonly known as the ten lost tribes of Israel.

Before proceeding with the beast's further characteristics, it may be perhaps proper to observe in reply to the opinion, if held, that the numbers seven and ten should be interpreted literally, that "ten horns and on his horns ten crowns would be historically satisfied by ten kingdoms being shown to have been intimately connected with the beast, and to have been formidable elements of his power: and as Gibbon divides the barbarians of the East and North into ten distinct races, as enumerated in our last lecture, and those races will be presently exhibited to us as component parts of and elements of power to the beast, politically, nationally, regally, and idolatrously qualified to meet the exigency of "ten" as a symbolic number, so also do they equally satisfy its demand as a literal number. Neither is the interpretation attached to "seven " as a symbolic number changed in effect by its being treated literally. The only obligation enforced would be that seven distinct heathen systems should be enumerated, all of which might be recognised as elements of the beast's religion; and as the then existing great religious systems may be classed under the titles of Brahmanism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, the systems of Confucius and Laotse, Fire-worshippers, and Paganism, it will be seen that their enumeration brings us to the same result, viz:-That the beast's religion was perfect in its combination of the different phases of infidel and idolatrous worship, or, in a word, was UNCHRISTIAN. And if the

further opinion be held that the beast's heads have a national and not a religious reference, and should be so interpreted, the reply is-The prophecy gives no authority for such a proposition, and without such authority, to adopt it would be to insult the sufficiency of the prophetic

terms.

The beast's next characteristics are, "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." The most remarkable feature in the appearance of a leopard is its spotted skin, so that "like unto a leopard" may be very properly held to indicate an agglomeration of distinct races united by uniformity of purpose and action. If habits and disposition are also embraced by this symbol, these races are already shown to have been very fitting instruments to do the dragon's will, for their purpose and action should be found to have been remarkable for cunning, perseverance, strength, fierceness, swiftness, and rapidity of attack, for which qualities the leopard is famous, and as such is often alluded to in Scripture. Daniel takes the leopard as a type of the sudden sweep of the conquering Alexander of Macedon, and Habakkuk, of an onslaught of Chaldean cavalry. The writers of Natural History do not assign any particular locality to the leopard sufficiently distinctive to enable us unhesitatingly to affix a geographical reference to the symbol, but it may be stated that at the time of the Apocalyptic vision being seen, the leopard was common in Syria, Persia, Palestine, and the countries generally east of the Jordan, and that the face of the dragon was eastward as he stood with the Roman empire behind him calling up the contemplated executants of his purposes.

In the next characteristic, "And his feet were as the feet of a bear," may be readily recognised the indication that races inhabiting the frozen regions of the north and as remarkable as the bear for cruelty furnished support and motive power to the beast; whilst "And his mouth as the mouth of a lion" not only gives him a power of command such as in the animal kingdom is attached to the roar of the lion-the king of beasts, but also perhaps identifies his