THE SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER OF REVEFULFILLED IN THE LATION NOT HISTORIES OF IMPERIAL OR PAPAL WE cannot read the seventeenth chapter of the Revelation without feeling that there is a peculiar solemnity in its testimony. It speaks of the existence of a system so attractive that, to say the least, all kingdoms of the Roman world bow before its seductiveness. Joy, not terror, is to be its instrument-its efficient instrument in reaching the hearts of men : a joy designated by the fearful words, "wine of wrath." It is to be sustained by one so glorious, that all the world wonders after him-so wicked, that he is represented by a beast full of names of blasphemy-so daring as at last to defy openly the King of kings and Lord of lords, even when He is revealed in His glory, and the armies of heaven follow Him. In reading such a prophecy, we almost instinctively ask, Is it fulfilled? Who would not be glad to think, if it were God's will, that this hour of great deceivableness had passed. But so far from having passed, it has not even come. * A proof of this is found in the simple fact that the nations of the Roman earth have, during the past year, been well nigh thoroughly disorganised; and at the present moment they are not under the control of any sovereign system, nor any sovereign individual. When he who is denominated the Beast appears, he appears as the undisputed master of the whole Roman earth, for all the ten horns are to be on his head, and he never again quits the scene until destroyed by the King of kings at His appearing. On this argument, which has been frequently used in the preceding pages, I chiefly rest. Many others might be added; but it is seldom desirable to multiply reasons when one is conclusive-grounded as this argument is on a present fact, and capable of being easily apprehended by all. I do not, therefore, consider it necessary to add one word in disproof of the various theories which have assigned to past ages the history of the Harlot and the Beast. Nevertheless, lest any should be dissatisfied if no attempt were made to examine those theories, it may be desirable briefly to state some of the reasons which prove that the Harlot and the Beast do not represent that which they have been supposed to represent in past ages. Some have imagined that the Beast mentioned in the seventeenth and thirteenth chapters of the ApoThe first Edition of this work was pub * A.D. 1848. lished in 1849. calypse is intended to symbolize Imperial Rome as it existed in the days of the Apostle. But this is impossible, inasmuch as the chapter itself describes the Beast as the eighth of that line of kings, under the sixth of which line the Apostle was living. "One is, the other is not yet come. .. the Beast is th eighth." The chapter itself therefore marks the chronology of the vision as future in respect of the time when it was given. Moreover, Rome whilst under the Cæsars never could be said to receive its power from ten kings (xvii. 13); nor to have its image made and worshipped (xiii. 14); nor to be itself worshipped (xiii. 8); nor to continue forty and two months (xiii. 5); nor to have an appointed mark, without which no man should buy or sell; nor to be taken with the false prophet when in open confederation against the Lord, and cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone (xix. 20). Imperial Rome neither had, nor could have had, its history marked by any circumstances such as these. Nor can the Beast represent the Pope of Rome, because neither the ten kings of the Roman earth, nor any other ten kings, have received power at the same moment as the Pope, and then concurred to give that power to the Pope (xvii. 12); nor have they, in order to raise the Pope into plenitude of power, destroyed any thing that could answer to the symbol of the harlot; nor have such ten kings ever yet existed throughout the whole compass of the Roman earth; nor would it be possible for any one elevated by them to be dispossessed of the power so given, till the Lord shall come; nor has the Pope ever worn the ten diadems of the Roman earth (xiii. 1); nor had an ecclesiastical minister who ministered in his presence(EVOTIOV AVTov, xiii. 12); nor has an image been made of him and worshipped; nor have all worshipped him whose names are not in the book of life. (xiii. 8.) Nor can the woman of the seventeenth chapter represent either Rome Pagan or the system of Rome Pagan. For in that case, what could it mean, that Rome Pagan is first sustained by the Beast, and afterwards destroyed by him and the ten kings that concur in giving their power to him? We have already seen that the Beast cannot represent Imperial Rome. But suppose it did. In what sense could Imperial Rome be said not to receive power until it destroyed Rome Pagan 2 In that case Imperial Rome ought not to have existed in the completeness of its power until it had received that power from its ten finally component parts, at which same moment Rome Pagan should have been destroyed, and Imperial Rome for the first time have arisen into plenitude of power, never to be taken away from it till the Lord shall come. We have seen also that the Beast cannot represent the Pope. But suppose it did. How could |