صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

The seven-headed and ten-horned apocalyptic beast then is the same as the fourth and ten-horned beast of Daniel: in other words, he is the Roman empire; which, according to the sure declaration of prophecy, is the last universal empire with which the Church shall be concerned. Daniel does not mention the seven heads of this beast, nor does he specially define his form; he only observes, that he was dreadful, terrible, and strong, and that he was diverse from all the beasts that were before him but St. John amply supplies this deficiency, by informing us, that he had not only the ten horns noticed

by the horn of a beast and by the very identical beast to whom that horn is attached.

Mr. Bicheno adopts and states the commonly received interpretation in such a manner as to make it plainly confute itself. "What is here (Dan. vii. 8.) represented under the "emblem of a horn of the fourth beast is the same tyranny "which is shewn to John (Rev. xiii. 1-10.) as a beast. "In this all our best commentators are agreed. Nor let it

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

seem strange, that what is here prefigured by a horn of the fourth beast, the Roman dominion, should be represented "in another vision as a beast with seven heads and ten horns" (Signs of the Times. Part. i. p. 13.). To me, I must confess, such a mode of exposition appears very strange. The tenhorned beast of Daniel is manifestly the ten-horned beast of St. John: how then can the little horn, which sprung up long after the rise of the beast, be the beast himself; and how can the apocalyptic beast, six of whose heads, according to Mr. Bicheno's own plan are secular heads, symbolize nothing except the ecclesiastical Roman power?

Mr. Bicheno, in his reply to me, gives up the idea that the little horn of Daniel's fourth beast is altogether the same as

noticed by Daniel, but likewise seven heads; and · that his shape was compounded of all the three beasts which preceded him, the Babylonian lion, the Medo-Persian bear, and the Macedonian leopard.

I. This general position being established with the full original consent even of Bp. Newton himself, the first point to be considered is, in what sense St. John could be said prophetically to behold the rise of the Roman empire, when it had already been in existence many ages before he was born, and even when he himself unequivocally declares such to be the case*.

The Apostle affords us two distinct solutions of this important question: first by teaching us that the beast, after his rise from the sea, should have power given him to practise prosperously forty two months or 1260 days, the very period

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

66

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

during

the first apocalyptic beast. He now maintains, that "the first apocalyptic beast is, in a certain sense, the same as the little horn, yet not precisely so. It is a new symbol, in which the characters of both the beast of Daniel and its little horn are blended. It is the same tyranný as the horn, communicating its spirit and character, so to speak, to all the “anti-christian kingdoms, and so uniting itself with all their governments, as to identity itself with them; and by which union they become politico-ecclesiastical, and participate "in all its blasphemies, corruptions, and persecuting enor"mities." This definition seems to me so extremely perplexed, and so replete with a kind of contradictory confusion,. that it works no conviction in my mind. It is however considered at large in my answer to Mr. Bicheno.

[ocr errors]

* See Rev, xvii. 10.

during which his little horn was to carry on its persecutions against the saints* ; and afterwards by telling us, that this same beast "was, and is not, and yet is." Hence it appears, that, in some sense or another, the Roman beast was to possess a wonderful peculiarity which should most essentially distinguish him from his three predecessors in universal empire: he was first to exist; afterwards he was to cease to exist; and lastly he was again to come into existence.

"The mystery of the woman, and of the beast "that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads "and ten horns. The beast, that thou sawest,

[ocr errors]

was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the "bottomless pit, and go into perdition and "they, that dwell on the earth, shall wonder, "whose names were not written in the book of "life from the foundation of the world, when they "behold the beast, that was, and is not, and yet " is."

From comparing this passage with St. John's assertion, that he saw the beast arise out of the sea, and that having thus arisen he was to possess power forty two months; it will be manifest, that the second period of the beast's existence begins with, terminates with, and is therefore exactly

The Roman beast revived, and began to practise, when he delivered the saints into the hand of his little horn: consequently the period of his practising, and the reign of his little horn, are necessarily commensurate. See Bp. Newton's Dissert. on Rev. xiii,

com

commensurate with, the 1260 years of the great Apostasy: consequently, that it precisely coincides with the tyrannical reign of his own little horn during a time, times, and half a time; with the treading of the holy city under foot during forty two months; with the prophesying of the two witnesses during 1260 days; and with the. flight of the woman into the wilderness, from the face of the dragon during the same period*.

The near alliance of the Apostasy and the beast will lead us to the right understanding of what is meant by his existence, his non-existence, and his renewed existencet. "A beast," as Bp. Newton most truly observes, and as I have already very fully stated in a preceding chapter, "A beast, in "the prophetic style, is a tyrannical idolatrous

[ocr errors]

empire: the kingdom of God and of Christ is "never represented under the image of a beast." This being the case, an empire, is said to continue in existence as a beast, so long as it is a tyrannically idolatrous empire: when it puts away its idolatry and tyranny, and turns to the God of heaven, the beast, or those qualities whereby the empire was a beast, ceases to exist, though the em

[ocr errors]

* See the preceding 5th chapter of this work. This coincidence of times seems to have been the principal reason why the ten-horned beast has been so frequently confounded with his own little horn or the Papacy: each was to continue in power 1260 days.

"the beast that was, and is not, and yet is." The Complutensian edition reads "was, and is not, and yet "shall be."

[blocks in formation]

pire itself may still remain: and, when it resumes its idolatry and tyranny, though they may not per haps bear precisely the same names as its old idolatry and tyranny, it then recommences its existence in its original character of a beast. So singular a circumstance as this never happened either to the Babylonian beast, the Medo-Persian beast, or the Macedonian beast. Whatever may have been the sentiments of Nebuchadnezzar, Darius the Mede, and his nephew Cyrus; whatever decrees they may have promulged in favour of true religion throughout their widely extended 'dominions; whatever privileges they may have granted to the ancient people of God: the voice of history bears ample testimony, that their subjects, as a body, never ceased to be idolaters*. But this singular circumstance has happened to the Roman beast, and to the Roman beast alone. That empire was originally a beast, by its profession of paganism, and by its persecution of the first set of men of understanding mentioned by Danielt it ceased to be a beast under Constantine the great, when it embraced Christianity, and became the protector of the Church: and it

Though the Persians, in the time of Xerxes's famous expedition, were professed iconoclasts; yet, notwithstanding Dr. Hyde's laborious attempt to prove the contrary, I cannot but think it sufficiently evident, that they worshipped, possibly not altogether excluding the true God, the Sun, the Moon, and the Host of Heaven, in conjunction with their diluvian

ancestors.

+ Dan. xi. 33.

« السابقةمتابعة »