A captious disputant may, perhaps, object, that here the woman spake, and not the image, according to the literal sense of the text. The answer is, that the language is figurative, in which one thing is put to denote another. Besides, it is a maxim without a figure, « Qui per alium facit, facit per se." "That which is caused to be done by another, is done by the person or thing that caused it to be done." If a man kills another with a sword, we do not say the sword committed the murder, but the man who 'caused the sword to do it. Now the Convention, who made the "image," had certainly a right of representing it by something else, bearing its similitude. The Convention made the image, which was a symbol of their atheistical liberty; and they constituted a living atheist, and the mistress of an atheist, with much propriety, to represent it; and, in its name, to deliver an oration, such as they would have compelled it to deliver had it had life. And thus the "image" was the cause of the woman's appointment and oration; and in strict conformity to the text, when translated from its metaphorical into its literal meaning, the Convention" gave life to the image, so that it did speak."

Again, the prophet farther declares, that the beast shall cause that as many as would not worship the image, should be killed." However extraordinary this power may seem, we shall also find it manifestly fulfilled by the image for the Convention had no sooner seen

the frantic enthusiasm raised in the people, by the oration in favour of liberty, than they persuaded themselves they had obtained the great end of their frauds, by securing a number of devotees, sufficient to support their despotism. Under this presumption, they proceeded to pass many decrees, more unjust and sanguinary than ever disgraced the most barbarous tyranny. By these decrees all persons who dared to worship the true God, and did not worship and assist in maintaining the atheistical system of liberty, over which the " image" presided as its tutelary god; every person who would not sacrifice, at its altar, all the gold and silver he possessed, by delivering them into the public treasury, and receive in their stead, worthless paper; every person who would not give to the officers of the municipalities, those priests of the goddess, an account of the produce of his industry, that it might be sacrificed to the use and defence of the image; or, in other words, to support the tyranny of the Convention ery person who, being called upon by their arbitrary requisitions, refused to devote their lives and property to the propagation of the doctrines of the image, by joining their armies raised to compel mankind to embrace them; in short, all who would not, with activity and zeal, assist in promoting the atheistical liberty of the image, were adjudged to be "fanatics and moderés," enemies to the unity, indivisibility, and sovereignty of the republic. Com

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missioners were appointed to execute these sanguinary edicts, and they performed the horrid task with unprecedented barbarity, sparing neither sex nor age, and even extending their cruelty to infants unborn. And thus the Convention has evidently fulfilled the prediction, by" causing as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed."

Ver. 16." And he causeth all, both "small and great, rich and poor, free and "bond, to receive a mark on their right “hand, or on their forehead."

To distinguish their partizans from others, the French demagogues, in an early stage of their revolutionary career, devised certain marks by which they might be known; and, among others, the "bonnet rouge," or " cap of liberty," and the "tri-coloured cockade." These, the members of the Convention themselves, the executive committees, municipalities, and all the officers of the republic, children, adults, and aged, the rich and poor, the master and servant, wore upon the "forehead," and had the cockade fixt on "the right hand" (or side) of the cap, to show their attachment to the constitution.

Ver. 17. And that no man might buy "or sell, save he that had the mark or name, ઃઃ or number of his name."

We have seen the mark of the beast in the

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cap of liberty, and the tri-coloured cockade; and as the name of a thing is a more permanent designation of it than a mark, we must look for the "name, or the number of his name," in something more significative and important to a state, than a mere mark. I therefore apprehend, that the prophet here alludes to all those who bore any civil or military office, under the state of which the beast is the type: for these acted for and in the name. of the state, and therefore they are properly described by persons having its "name, or the number of its name," which is the same thing. Now it is a well-known truth, that the people in France have been obliged to enter into some public office or employment, or to wear the cap of liberty and tri-coloured cockade, in order to enjoy the right of " buying and selling,' and other common privileges of citizens; and that all persons who have refused to serve the republic, or to wear the mark, have been immediately enrolled in the list of fanatics and moderés; and suspected of treason against the state and to be suspected was to be guilty. This, during the reign of terror, as the revolutionists themselves call it, was generally the fact throughout France. Many thousands, as I have before said, have been condemned and executed without evidence of guilt, or even the form of trial; and therefore no democrate would, and no other person dared to, deal with one, who had neither the "mark nor name, nor number of the name" of the republic.

We have now seen that the policy and measures pursued by the republic, and the wonderful events produced by them, correspond with peculiar accuracy to all the preceding types of the beast, which the prophet saw "come up out of the earth." The great decisive type, seems yet to remain involved in prophetic mystery. Many great and pious men among the ancients, as well as moderns, have. sought to find out its great prototype in vain. At this we shall not be surprised, when we consider, that they had searched for it among events which had already come to pass, when, in truth, it referred to a civil power which had then never existed; nor had any power bore a resemblance to it. It was a power only known to Infinite Wisdom, and intended, by him, so to remain, until, in his own time, he should suffer it to appear in the world. Even then, the text intimates, that this great mark of the beast shall be a mystery, which shall require great wisdom to unfold; at least much more than all his other marks: and yet the prophet invites us to search for the true explanation, and to find out his prototype. Whence we must conclude, that the task is not impossible to be performed. However, let us hear the prophet.

Ver. 18." Here is wisdom! let him "that hath understanding, count the num"ber of the beast; for it is the number of