servient to the spiritual, and they who had not the badge of popery were victims of the most relentless persecution.

And he caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand and in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six.— Wherever the papal authority was disowned, or the creed of the church of Rome rejected, or its infallibility brought into question, nations were laid under an interdict, kings excommunicated, and the secluded heretic was searched out. Wherever the fearful anathema of the church fell, all interchange of kindly or common offices of duty, friendship, or charity were prohibited; the great had no longer authority over the small, nor did the small pay any deference to the great; the rich had no longer any pity on the poor, nor would the poor take a bribe from the hands of the rich; the free could no longer command the personal duties of the bond; and the bondsman heard unheeded the mandate or entreaty of his master. The brand of the church was as the spot of a leper; and the father of a family was as a stranger, or an enemy, in his household; and a king was as an alien in his kingdom. Whenever the inquisitor's coach was at the door, and so soon as the name of the denounced was uttered, the menials turned their master from his house, or the husband led forth the wife of his bosom, or the parent gave up the hope of his family or the child of his love, to be carried to the dungeon where no eye could see them, or unto the stake where none could save. With those on whom the sentence of excommunication was passed, all

communication was interdicted, and, as even a sentence against a king of England shews, all were ordered to avoid them, on pain of excommunication. The very term implies the cessation of all friendly intercourse; all ties were broken, and all distinctions lost in the overwhelming sensation, under the dominion of dark superstition, of a sentence pronounced by an infallible judge, and involving eternal reprobation. No doctrine was more rife throughout Europe than this, that out of the church there is no salvation. The words were those of the man of sin, who himself goeth into perdition; the earthly power that dealt out damnation, must itself de destroyed: but such for ages was the supremacy of its dominion, that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

The connexion and union between imperial and papal Rome form the subject of the vision, and they are not divided at its close. Letters being equivalent to figures, Romiith, the Roman, (agreeing with either beast, or kingdom,) Lateinos, the Latin, (the number of a man,) and Apostates, apostate,-the Roman kingdom, the Latin apostate-contain each the precise number six hundred sixty and six*—the name, the number, and the mark of the beast.

Such, in past history, is the Roman empire and papal power-giving, we apprehend, no vague or ambiguous commentary to the words of the prophet. The significancy, at least, of the first and second beast, may not be held doubtful. But the whole of their history may not yet be told, nor the whole of the prophecy be developed. The great red dragon, the symbol of the Roman empire as the enemy of the church, reappears at the close of the preceding

* See Evidence of Prophecy, Appen. iii.

vision. The witnesses have also to be killed.

And in the judgment against the papacy, (chap. xvii.) its character and power, as well as fate, together with those of the empire, are yet more fully defined; the ten-horned beast, rising at last out of the bottomless pit and going into perdition, is again upon the scene. And things noted in scripture, and, perhaps, not to be expounded yet, may possibly be reserved as the signs of other times. And therefore it may remain for that time to disclose an infinitely clearer illustration of the last form of government of imperial Rome, (though now, it is not,) than all human ingenuity can devise.

Having thus glanced respectively, in brief review, at those separate visions which John saw, when, after having delineated the political history of the world down to the close of the seven thunders, it was told him by the angel that he must prophesy again, and when, in the renewed prophesying, he was commanded to measure the temple of God and the altar and them that worship therein, we may here, before entering on the consideration of a new series of predictions, give heed to the time which, in these visions, is measured and thrice repeated by the prophet, in precise accordance with the same prophetic period, which is also twice announced by Daniel.

There are other periods, not yet expired, connected with that of the twelve hundred and sixty years, during which the various kingdoms into which the Roman empire was subdivided, was given into the hands of the papacy. And it is not, perhaps, yet possible to determine, with absolute precision, the commencement or termination of that period. But in respect to the time when religious persecution (if so sacrilegious a term may be used)

was sanctioned and established in the church by civil authority, when he that letted had been taken out of the way, and the pope's authority was submissively deferred to, by the Roman emperor then reigning at Constantinople, as that of the Head of the Church, no era in history seems to be more marked, than that of the age of Justinian, whether we look into the pages of the ecclesiastical or civil historian.

"The emperor Justinian," says Dupin, may be justly ranked among ecclesiastical writers, for NEVER prince did meddle so much with what concerns the affairs of the church, nor make so many constitutions and laws upon this subject. He was persuaded that it was the duty of an emperor, and for the good of the state, to have a particular care of the church, to defend its faith, to regulate external discipline, and to employ the civil laws and the temporal power to preserve in it order and peace. Upon this account he did not only make a collection of the laws made by the princes, his predecessors, about ecclesiastical discipline, but he added many to them."*

"Justinian," says Gibbon, in summing up his character and reign, "has been already seen in the various lights of a prince, a conqueror, and a lawgiver: the theologian still remains, and it affords an unfavourable prejudice, that his theology should form a very prominent feature of his portrait. The sovereign sympathized with his subjects in their superstitious reverence for living and departed saints; his code, and more especially his novels, confirm, and enlarge the privileges of the clergy; and in every dispute between the monk and the layman, the partial judge was inclined to pronounce, that truth, and innocence, and justice are always on the side of the church. In his public and private devotions, the emperor was assiduous and exemplary; his prayers, vigils, and fasts displayed the austere penance of a monk, his fancy was amused by the hope, or belief, of personal inspiration; he had secured the patronage of the virgin, and St. Michael the archangel; and his recovery from a dangerous disease was ascribed to the miraculous succour of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian. The capital and the provinces of the East were decorated with the monuments of his religion; and, though the far greater part of these costly structures may be attributed to his taste or ostentation, the zeal of the royal architect was probably quickened by a genuine sense of love and gratitude towards his invisible benefactors. Among the titles of imperial greatness, the name of Pious was most pleasing to his ear; to promote the temporal and spiritual interest of the church, was the serious business of his life; and the

* Cent. vi. vol. v. p. 37.

duty of father of his country was often sacrificed to that of defender of the faith. While the barbarians invaded the provinces, while the victorious legions marched under the banners of Bellisarius and Narses, the successor of Trajan, unknown to the camp, was content to vanquish at the head of a synod.

"Toleration was not the virtue of the times, and indulgence to rebels has seldom been the virtue of princes. But when the prince descends to the narrow and peevish character of a disputant, he is easily provoked to supply the defect of argument by the plenitude of power, and to chastise without mercy the perverse blindness of those who wilfully shut their eyes against the light of demonstration. The reign of Justinian was an uniform yet various scene of PERSECUTION; aud he appears to have surpassed his indolent predecessors, both in the contrivance of his laws and rigour of their EXECUTION. The insufficient term of three months was assigned for the conversion or exile of all heretics; and if he still connived at their precarious stay, they were deprived, under his iron yoke, not only of the benefits of society, but of the common birthright of men and Christians."*

From this evidence, it appears that never did prince meddle so much with the affairs of the church as did the Emperor Justinian; that he esteemed it a duty to defend the faith of the church, and to employ the civil laws and temporal power; that he confirmed and enlarged the privileges of the clergy ; and that his reign was an uniform yet various scene of persecution, &c.

Such was the man who, perhaps more than any other, may be said to have given the church into the hands of the pope. Though more ambitious of vanquishing at the head of a synod than at the head of an army, he owned and maintained the supremacy of the pope, expressed his devotion to the Roman see, and subjected and united to his holiness all the priests of the whole east. But the supremacy of the pope was not then confined to the east. Under the same date in the age of Justinian, it is recorded by Gibbon,

"The perseverance of the popes insensibly transferred to their

* Gibbon's Hist. vol. viii. pp. 321-324.