B 448996

Tappan Presbyterian Association
LIBRARY.
Presented by HON. D. BETHUNE DUFFIELD.
From Library of Rev. Geo. Duffield, D.D.
DEO REIPUBLICÆ ET AMICIS,
ESTO SEMPER FIDELIS
GeoDuffield
Section
"0
BS
1556
THE
MYSTERIOUS AND PROPHETIC
HISTORY OF ESAU
CONSIDERED,
IN CONNECTION WITH THE
NUMEROUS PROPHECIES CONCERNING EDOM;
IN A SERIES OF
COLLECTIONS FROM THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT,
SHEWING THE NECESSITY OF A RETROSPECTION FROM THE
LAST TO THE FIRST, AS A
SURE KEY TO THE SCHEME OF PROPHECY.
Esau is Edom.-GEŃ, xxxvi. 8.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON,
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD,
AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL.
1837.
LONDON:
GILBERT & RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,
ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.
girt
Tappen Prest.
Ass
1-8-1932
PREFACE.
...
THE Biblical student must be allowed to lament
that the department of Prophecy has worn such a
repulsive aspect to the world, as not only to leave
it without the assistance, which literary conver-
sation, and the statement of various opinions,
usually give; but also to produce a feeling of dis-
couragement among those who are really friends
to prophetic investigation. Nevertheless, after a
research into the obscured path of Prophecy has
once been cautiously ventured upon, and a view
towards the opening prospect of conviction has
become discernible, the solitary examiner finds
that it cannot be quitted.
And what other pursuit, it may be asked, in the
whole range of human intelligence, is so worthy
A 2
iv
PREFACE.
either of the aspiring or of the self-inquiring mind,
as the endeavour to clear the way towards the
infolded meanings of our life-giving Scriptures,
the fruits of which may then become our own?
The sentiments of an able theologian upon this
subject are so favourable to the pursuit, that a
passage from his much valued work must here
be quoted.
"A like labour of the mind, with a similar
exercise of our faculties, is requisite, in order to
obtain knowledge, both human and divine: this
is the very purpose of that Being who confers the
blessing; we must seek to find, and knock to
have it opened. From discoveries hence made,
we learn what a number of latent truths are to
be found in the Scriptures; and when these, upon
examination, are observed, they afford more in-
ward satisfaction, and are more conducive to
faith, than if they were superficial and self-evident.
They likewise increase our regard for the Scrip-
tures; for the more we discover of latent design
and wisdom in an object, the greater will be our
veneration, and the stronger our faith'."
} Gray's Key to the Old Testament.
PREFACE.
V
What a still more modern writer has said, in
respect to the conviction which must follow
mathematical demonstration, may also be brought
to bear upon the conviction which we ought to
feel, when we see a remote Prophecy fulfilled
in our own days. "I need not add that, whenever
such mathematical reasoning can be applied, it
affords the only means of rendering doubt absurd,
and dissent ridiculous."
Close, L
May, 1837.
J. H.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY.
The evil spirit conspicuously portrayed in the Holy Scriptures, p. 2.—Change
effected in the moral government of the world by the fall of man, p. 2.—
Increase of worldly knowledge in the present day, calling for, and encou-
raging, a farther and deeper investigation of the Bible, p. 3.-The New
Testament throwing light upon the temporary obscurity of the Old Testament
prophecies, p. 5.-Sir Isaac Newton's opinion of prophecy, p. 5.-Instance
of this in the explanation given by subsequent revelations, of the wickedness
of the old world, and prevalent idolatry of the new, p. 7.-Opinion of St.
Chrysostom stated respecting St. Paul's especial communications to the Ephe-
sians, p. 9.—Consideration of the predestinated children, p. 10.—The wheat
and tares, p. 11.—The multiplied conception, and the sorrow consequent upon
it, p. 12.-Cain and Abei, p. 13.—The substitute, provided for murdered Abel,
requisite as a revival or perpetuation of the good seed, p. 14.-Three different
seeds in the world, p. 15.-Cain's progeny specially marked, p. 16.—The cause
why the worship of God did not preeminently succeed in the new world, traced
in the nature of the three sons of Noah, p. 17.-From their progeny arose the
predicted empire of Daniel, p. 18.-The wickedness of these nations only to
be accounted for upon the principle of Satan's ascendancy in the new world,
as well as in the old, p. 19.-Gradual but increasing spread of the good seed,
p. 20.-Their long oppression, p. 21.-Instanced in the destruction of the
Jews by the Romans, p. 22.-Roman empire prefigured in the Revelations
by the beacon colour, red, p. 22.-Extract from Burnside, on the tempta-
tions of evil spirits, p. 23.
viii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER II.
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
Probability that some particular prophecies may for a season have been mis-
taken, and applied to objects which they only partially resembled, p. 30.-
The clearer subsequent development of such prophecies of great use in giving
interest to the Scriptures, p. 31.-The Metallic Image of the book of Daniel
generally considered to be a compendium of the four empires of Babylon,
Persia, Greece and Rome, p. 31.-Strange omission of the Saracenic in this
system, p. 32.—Spirit of idolatry in ancient Babylon, p. 33.-Satanic influence
circulating in all the four great empires, p. 34.-Nebuchadnezzar's dream,
in Daniel's fourth chapter, containing an infolded prediction of the ap-
proaching fall of the empire, p. 34.-Improbability that Daniel should portray
a falling dynasty under the symbol of a rising beast, p. 35.-Though the last
beast of the series must synchronize with the last empire of the Metallic
Image, it does not follow that the first empires should have commenced at the
same time, or been duplicates of each other, p. 35.-Probable reason why the
lion should be suffered for a season to be identified with the golden head,
p. 36.-Different scales laid down for the compendiums, p. 37.—The era of
the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, the basis of Pagan chronology, p. 38.—
Seventh chapter of Daniel, p. 38.—The lion shown to tally best with the
silver emblem of the Metallic Image of the twofold state of the Medes and
Persians, p. 43.-The bear strictly applicable to Alexander as a devourer of
flesh, but not admitted to a fundamental station in the Metallic Image, in con-
sequence of the short duration of Alexander's conquests, p. 44.—The Grecian
empire raised on one side, p. 45.—The leopard and the brass empire strictly
descriptive of the Romans. The leopard's four heads described, p. 46.-
The fourth beast, and the iron and clay kingdom, identified with the Saracenic
empire, which exceeded every other in enmity towards the religion, and the
people of God: improbability that such an empire would be omitted in the
scheme of prophecy, p. 47.-The feet and toes of the Image portending by
the difference of their texture the two descriptions of people brought into
juxta position under the Saracenic dominion: the impossibility of their
union, p. 48.—Duration of this last Antichristian empire, p. 49.—Arrange-
ment of the parts of the Metallic Image, in connection with the series of the
four beasts, according to the preceding hypothesis, p. 50.-Allusion to the
two horned beast of the thirteenth chapter of the Revelations, p. 51.
CHAPTER III.
CONCERNING ESAU.
Commentators hitherto unable to reconcile the dominion, which arose in Arabia,
with the blessing pronounced either upon Ishmael or Esau, p. 53.—Situation
CONTENTS.
ix
of the descendants of the three Patriarchs of Arabia, Joctan, Ishmael and Esau,
p. 54.-Esau and his nation of importance as well as the nation of Jacob, p. 54.
Ishmael considered, p. 56.-Reason why the two predicted nations of Isaac
and Ishmael should have been kept so long distinct, p. 57.—Isaac's posterity
traced in the two separated branches of Esau and Jacob, p. 60.-Probable rea-
son of Rebekah's conduct with respect to Jacob and Esau, p. 64.-The sepa-
rate blessings of the two brothers, p. 65.-Esau's marriage with a daughter of
Ishmael, p. 70.—The Nabatheans, his descendants, p. 72.—Characters of Ish-
mael and Esau in the New Testament, p. 72.—Probability of their descendants
being actors in the predicted warfare of the Christian period, p. 73.-Esau's
name forgotten in Mount Seir and Idumæa, in the second century, but his
descendants by Ishmael's daughter spreading in the interior of Arabia, under
the name of Nabatheans, p. 74.-Ishmael's and Esau's blessings stated and
verified, p. 75.—Petra, the ancient capital of Esau's posterity, recently dis-
covered by Burkhardt, p. 75.—Improbability that Esau's posterity should be-
come extinct in all its three branches, before the last days, p. 76.—The Jewish
Rabbis trace Edom to Rome, p. 77.-Probability, from the statement of Bry-
done, that a grandson of Esau, and a colony of Chaldeans, settled in Sicily, p.
77.-The yoke of Jacob passing from the neck of Esau, during the tyranny
of Rome, and the subsequent dominion of the Saracens, p. 79.-The two
Arabian Patriarchs, Ishmael and Esau, both inimical to the true inheritors, p.
80.—The fulfilment of their persecution and hatred to be looked for in the
future deeds of their disappointed progeny, p. 80.-Verified in the prophet of
Arabia, p. 80.-Ishmael's descendants Archers.-The prophecy respecting
them in Jacob's blessing to Joseph fulfilled in the conduct of the Saracens
towards the Jews, p. 81.-The same persecuting spirit evinced to this day,
p. 81. The contrasted blessings of Esau and Jacob, the one having a sword
but no wine, the other wine but no sword, p. 82.-Corn and wine bestowed
upon Jacob's posterity in a mystic manner, p. 82.-The posterity of Jacob
commemorating their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, by the feast
of unleavened bread, and the drink offering of wine, p. 83.-The sacramental
memento of bread and wine under the Christian dispensation, p. 84.-The
Mahometan incapable of being nourished or sustained by these ordinances,
p. 85.-Isaac's blessing of corn probably includes the hidden manna promised
in the Testament to him that overcometh, p. 86.—Obadiah treats in his whole
chapter of Edom and his confederacy, p. 86.—The revelation of the man of
sin in the last days, p. 87.
CHAPTER IV.
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
The widely extended apostasy, which, in spite of the agency of Noah, succeeded
the Deluge, argues a spirit of active rebellion still existing in the world, p. 90.
-Bondage of the people of God, p. 91.-Their complaints as set forth in the
a
X
CONTENTS.
Psalms, p. 91.-Twelfth of Revelations, p. 93.-Two distinct sections visible
in this chapter, betokening either different periods, or different stations, of
the persecutions of the church, p. 95.-The first unfolds a scene which passes
in heaven, and appears to describe the resistance of Satan to the birth of
Christ, and his being cast out in consequence upon the earth, p. 95.—The se-
cond relates scenes which really pass upon earth, and the station points us to
Rome, p. 96.-Antichristian spirit there. This corroborated even by Gibbon,
p. 96.-Quotation from the Pictorial Bible showing the original Romans to
have been a colony of Edomites, p. 97.-Similar idea brought forward by
Brydone, and by the authors of the Ancient History, p. 98.-Corroborated
by Isaac's blessing to Esau, p. 98.-The red horse in the Revelations, p.
99.-Probable cause of the dragon's enmity, p. 100.-Satan's doubt of our
Lord's identity, p. 101.-Division of opinion upon that identity in different
descriptions of persons, p. 101.-Mahometanism Satan's device to lower our
Saviour after the decline of Paganism, p. 103.—Mahomet's implacability
against the Jews. Inconsistency of this with his professed design, that of
extirpating Idolatry, p. 103.-A preternatural enmity and antichristian spirit
discernible in his religion, p. 105.-The dragon gives his power and strength
to a new beast, p. 105.-The dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, dis-
tinctly named in the sixteenth of Revelations, p. 106.—The restricted power
of the antichristian party, p. 107.—The events related in the Book of Reve-
lations future to the birth of Christianity, p. 107.-The destruction of Jeru-
salem, the ten persecutions, and the violence of the Mahometan warriors, p.
108.-The last of these fulfils the woe mentioned in the 10th verse of the
third chapter, p. 108.-Antichrist, a character attributed to the Pope, but
more applicable to Mahomet, p. 109.-Quotation from Newton on the Pro-
phecies, containing a statement of the opinions of the Fathers respecting
Antichrist, p. 110.-Probable reason why this character was attributed to the
Pope, p. 113.
CHAPTER V.
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
The thirteenth of Revelations, p. 115.-An Image of the former Roman
tyranny rising in the Papistical head, p. 118.—An approaching dominion, so
extraordinary as the Saracenic, more likely to be portrayed by St. John, as
a future event, than either the past or present Roman empire, p. 119.—A
portrait of the past or present of no service in the manifestation of prescience,
p. 119. That of the Saracenic empire of infinite service, p. 119.—Appa-
rently, however, a reserved prophecy, and by what means, p. 119.-
The universal beast of this chapter, like unto a leopard, his predecessor. The
Saracenic empire spread nearly over the same ground, and possessed the
same warlike character as the Roman, p. 120.-The seven heads of the
Caliphate, p. 120.-Their blasphemous character, p. 120.-Transfer of the
CONTENTS.
xi
dragon's power to the blasphemous beast of this chapter, p. 121.—Probable
advantage gained by Satan from Adam's fall, p. 122.-Our Saviour's rejec-
tion of his proffered temptation, p. 122.-Satan's disappointed ambition
prompting him to give his power to some form of rebellion, acting particu-
larly against the Saviour, p. 122.-The Saracenic such a power, p. 122.—
The horses of Zechariah considered, p. 123.-The wounded head of the
beast verified at Rome in the year 476, by the sword of the northern
nations, and the preaching of the Gospel, p. 125.-Revives in the Papacy,
p. 126. The open enmity of the great beast of this chapter, p. 127.—Never
fulfilled by the Roman power, but accurately verified by the Mahometan,
p. 127.—The Churches of Rome and Constantinople, in spite of their
dereliction, depositaries of the truth, p. 128.-Fulfilling the symbols of
Zechariah, p. 128.-Notified also in the Apocalypse (ch. xi.), p. 129.-Men
not permitted to hurt them, p. 129.-Proofs of this from history and revela-
tion, p. 130.-Improbability that St. John would so strongly characterise the
Roman empire as blasphemous, when there was another to succeed it which
would so much more deserve the title, p. 132.-Reason of the prophetic repre-
sentation having been applied to Rome, p. 132.-The necessity that four em
pires of notoriety should be found to have arisen in chronological order, upon
the site of the Metallic Image, subsequent to the time of Daniel's vision,
p. 133.—And that the last empire should be in a state of open rebellion
against the Father and the Son, p. 133.-All this, to a certain extent, ful-
filled by the Mahometan empire, p. 133.
CHAPTER VI.
CONTINUATION OF THE THIRTEENTH OF
REVELATIONS.
A spiritual difference between the people who chose to worship the Antichris-
tian beast, and those who declined it, p. 136.—The people, who worshipped
the dragon and the beast, had no part in the Lamb's book of life, being
plainly another seed, p. 137.-Extensive prevalence of the enmity between
the seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent, p. 138.-The multiplied
conception, p. 139.-Decline or recession of the beast, exemplified in the
decline of the Roman and Saracenic empires, p. 140.-Some epoch of time to
be sought for, from which we may date the actual existence of the beast, (the
Saracenic empire,) p. 141.-Investigation of this point, especially as con-
nected with the transmission of Mahometan power and spirit into the
Turkish horn, p. 143.-More reasonable to ascribe ten horns to the living
and reigning Saracenic empire, than to advert to the ten horns of the extinct
empire of Rome, p. 145.-The beast with two horns considered, p. 146.—
The little horn of Daniel represents the Papacy. Another horn however is
probably included in his elaborate description of the fourth beast, p. 147.-
xii
CONTENTS.
The two horns of the Apocalypse, a probable illustration of these two sup-
posed horns of Daniel, p. 149.—Other distinguished powers in Europe besides
the Papacy, and such as have had a great deal to do with the Christian war-
fare, p. 151.-Examination of Daniel's apparent repetitions in his vision of
the fourth beast, p. 151.-Part of the vision applicable to the Pope, part not,
p. 153. Neither the Pope of Rome, nor the Patriarch of Constantinople,
seem equal to fulfil the character of the beast with two horns. A much
stronger exemplification of personal Antichristianity may therefore be
looked for, p. 154.-Apparent want of connection between the three sub-
jects on earth, which may be foreshown by the two-horned beast, namely,
the Pope, the Patriarch, and the Sultan, p. 154.-Consideration of the ap-
proaching Antichristian scourge described in the eighth chapter of Daniel, p.
156.-Shewn to be the Turkish horn rather than the Papal, p. 157.-He
acts not by his own power, p. 158.-The Mahometan beast still in practice,
in the Roman seat at Constantinople, by the delegation of the Sacerdotal
power to the Turks, p. 159.-The woman on the scarlet-coloured beast, full
of names of blasphemy, clearly points to the professors of the Mahometan
religion, p. 164.—Illustrated by Esau's name of Edom (red,) p. 165.—Disso-
lution of the state of Palestine by a power, springing from the serpent's root at
Babylon, and coming from the north, p. 166.-The aggregate beast will again
rise into power for a short time, p. 166. Probable necessity of this, in
order to purify the two imperially founded churches, p. 166.-The three
Antichristian spirits will, in the last conflicts, act against each other, p. 167.
The mark of the beast. Guilt of receiving that mark, p. 167.—Modern
indifference to be guarded against; but kindliness of feeling towards the
deceived party recommended, p. 168.—Intolerance and cruelty of the Papal
superstition, and its inefficiency as a corrector of the public morals, p. 169.-
The number of the beast applied to Mahomet. Conclusion, p. 171.
;
CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY.
"In the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly."
JEREMIAH, ch. xxiii. v. 20.
The evil spirit conspicuously portrayed in the Holy Scriptures, p. 2.-Change
effected in the moral government of the world by the fall of man, p.
Increase of worldly knowledge in the present day, calling for, and encoura-
ging, a farther and deeper investigation of the Bible, p. 3.—The New
Testament throwing light upon the temporary obscurity of the Old Testament
prophecies, p. 5.—Sir Isaac Newton's opinion of prophecy, p. 5.—Instance
of this in the explanation given by subsequent revelations, of the wickedness
of the old world, and prevalent idolatry of the new, p. 7.—Opinion of St.
Chrysostom stated respecting St. Paul's especial communications to the Ephe-
sians, p. 9.—Consideration of the predestinated children, p. 10.—The wheat
and tares, p. 11.-The multiplied conception, and the sorrow consequent upon
it, p. 12.-Cain and Abel, p. 13-The substitute, provided for murdered Abel,
requisite as a revival or perpetuation of the good seed, p. 14.—Three different
seeds in the world, B 15.-Cain's progeny specially marked, p. 16.-The cause
why the worship of God did not preeminently succeed in the new world, traced
in the nature of the three sons of Noah, p. 17.-From their progeny arose the
predicted empires of Daniel, p. 18.-The wickedness of these nations only to be
accounted for upon the principle of Satan's ascendancy in the new world, as
well as in the old, p. 19.-Gradual but increasing spread of the good seed,
p. 20.--Their long oppression, p. 21.-Instanced in the destruction of the
B
2
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
Jews by the Romans; p. 22.-Roman empire prefigured in the Revelations
by the beacon colour, red, p. 22.-Extract from Burnside, on the tempta-
tions of evil spirits,—p. 23.
In the history of the beginning of this world vouch-
safed to us in the Holy Scriptures, the vivifying
power and word of the Deity are indeed shown to
preside, but He is himself nowhere expressly por-
trayed. His exemplification is in his works. But
the evil spirit, which disturbed the original plan of
the new world, is rendered conspicuous, in the very
first scene of it, by the portrait of the intellectual
serpent. He is therefore meant evidently to be
the great object of visual attention, and serious
consideration. Moreover, in the continued chain.
or series of revelations in the New Testament, the
same being is farther and more fully portrayed, and
explained to be Satan and the Devil, in a state of
rebellion against God. He is described also as
having revolted angels at his command, and as
having been able by their assistance to wage war
in heaven. This seems at first a subject too high
for us to investigate; but the inspired volume pro-
pounds the subject: later revelations are promised,
and we are told to "search the Scriptures," which
will give evidence of prescience, and thereby both
sanction our belief, and reward our diligence.
The manner of the fall has been clearly related
We find that the plan of the human world
was altered by withdrawing the paradisaical state;
to us.
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
3
and that new sentences were consequently pro-
nounced by the Deity himself. These sentences
must be supposed to affect all flesh, to have been
put into immediate execution, and also to have been
in operation ever since. The New Testament in-
deed proves that the great inimical serpent, so
plainly offered to our consideration in the Holy
Scriptures, will be in action to the end of the world.
Our Saviour frequently adverts to his (Satan's)
being temporary Prince of it, and the whole con-
text of Scripture declares the same. He is con-
stantly at work in the matter of his rebellion, which
constitutes the warfare of the world so often spoken
of in the Bible.
There is at present a new, and almost unac-
countable avidity, to dispense the fruit of the tree
of knowledge, among the lower orders of the peo-
ple, including women and children. It is true that
the dispensers of wholesome and salutary books.
have also been awakened, and this defensive prin-
ciple proves the controversy, the decided, though
almost invisible enmity, now existing between two
different parties. Yet, as we have already seen
"spiritual wickedness," and patrons of infidelity,
"in high places," shall we leave the fair warnings
of Scripture concerning them unexplored, or at
least unattempted, amidst this great increase of
worldly knowledge?
"The general impression which the Scriptures
leave upon our minds is this: that God desires his
B 2
4
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
creatures to entertain a reverential love of his good-
ness, as well as a reverential awe of his justice, in
his administration of the moral government of the
world, and does not call upon us to abandon our
notions of right and wrong, or the results of that
gift of reason, which he has permitted to survive
the fall¹."
After considering, therefore, the miraculous man-
ner in which the Scriptures have been immutably
preserved and handed down to us by a people who
are themselves a standing miracle, the contempla-
tive and piously disposed mind may feel sanctioned
in proceeding, with sobriety of apprehension, to
examine some of those parts of Holy Writ, which
have hitherto been permitted to exercise the scep-
tic and amuse the witty; while the sacred volume,
in no way concerned for the cavilers, continues its
prophetic course with simple narratives, extraordi-
nary portraits, and an open acknowledgement of
mystery; yet with the information that there is a
prescribed term, after which, the mystery will be
unfolded. The prophecies are given to us as a
well-fraught mine, and the Book delivered by God's
own hand, in the fifth of Revelations, is sealed with
seven seals, which can only be opened by the
slain Lamb, that is, by the elucidations of the New
Testament, published after the atoning blood had
been shed. It is evidently the intent of prophetic
'Sumner's Apostolical Preaching, p. 69.
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
5
language, not only to veil the subject which it por-
trays till the time of fulfilment, but often long after
it, that they of an unconscious world may at a
distant time look back, and by the help of history,
and a common chronological table, ascertain with
precision, and contemplate with awe, those fulfil-
ments, which had for a long appointed time lain
unobserved.
Proceeding, therefore, upon that presumption, the
endeavour will be to shew, that the course of this
world, from the time of the fall to that of the flood,
and from thence to the present time, has been regu-
larly and incontrovertibly, though abstrusely, given
to us in the Bible; but that the development of
those parts of the Old Testament which seem ob-
scure, will depend upon our close inspection and
right apprehension of the latter revelations of the
New Testament.
According to Sir Isaac Newton, "The design of
God, when he gave the prophecies, was not to gra-
tify men's curiosities by enabling them to foreknow
things, but that, after they were fulfilled, they
might be interpreted by the event, and his own
providence, not the interpreter's, be manifested
thereby to the world."-" The event will prove the
Apocalypse, and this prophecy, thus proved and
understood, will open the old prophets; and all
together will make known the true religion and
establish it."
From the above quotations, we may conclude
6
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
that the superior mind of Sir Isaac Newton had,
in the spirit of integrity, gone over the whole of
the Apocalypse, and though unable to elicit any
thing definite from the reserved parts, had imbibed
from the matured communications as much infor-
mation as secured his entire confidence in the re-
maining divisions of the scheme; while he at the
same time foresaw, that however pregnant either
the early narratives or chronological prophecies
may be, no part of them will be allowed to become
manifest till the exactly appointed hour. And, by
the way, this restricted progress of development,
may in some degree account for the partially per-
mitted shutting up of the Scriptures¹, and the free
circulation of such contumely as is usually cast.
upon the humble readers of Revelation, but which,
under Providence, may only act, as the cold winds
do, in checking a too forward vegetation.
The promising view which Sir Isaac Newton has
given of the usefulness of collating retrospective
prophecy, is so far justified by the great probability
of its truth, and the possibility at least, if not the
feasibility, of our proving it by a diligent investiga-
tion of both Testaments, that the sober mind may
rationally attempt the task. It may hope, by such a
comparison of the apparently recondite prophecies,
and seemingly simple narratives of Scripture, to be
able eventually to discern the foredoomed cause
By the Roman Catholics.
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
7
or permission of many of those extraordinary events
and fulfilments, which have silently taken place in
the world, since the first ordinances issued by the
Deity himself, upon the great event of the fall.
For, unless we go back to that imbittered fountain-
head, and take exact account of every sentence
then pronounced, and every narrative then given,
in order to trace the after consequences from their
beginning, we should still be utterly at a loss to
account, upon any given or definite principle, for
the acknowledged corruption of the old world, and
that spirit of rebellion and" evil imaginations," which
survived the penal infliction of the flood, and began
again in the notable first empire of the New World,
Babylon. This idolatrous state having arisen among
the offspring of Noah, a man approved of by God,
a "preacher of righteousness," and who survived
for 350 years after the descent from the ark, must
of itself arrest our attention. How could such a
dereliction take place under the superintendence of
the Deity, and his chosen agent Noah? The strik-
ing anomaly of the case requires investigation;
because common sense is at a stand, when, after
the purgation of a wicked world, no visible amend-
ment succeeds. But confidence in our holy Creator
inclines us to re-consider the state of the case from
the beginning, in order to see whether the cause of
this defection is not enveloped in his own communi-
cations. Now, by the subsequent elucidations of
the New Testament, we find that the serpent of
8
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
со
the third of Genesis, so strikingly, so strongly por-
trayed to us, was the great inimical spirit, Satan, in
a state of rebellion against God. And we find that
after his ensnarement of our first parents into dis-
obedience by his extreme subtilty and power, he
gained such an advantage by their transgression
of the commandment of God, and their consequent
forfeiture of the paradisaical state, as brought them
within the sphere of his own rebellion, and appa-
rently entitled him to a temporary dominion over
their posterity. It seems indeed as if this dominion
would have been complete, had not the mercy of
God, and the compassion of the Saviour, determi-
ned to redeem them at an appointed time, by the
shedding of that blood, which should fulfil the
sentence of death passed upon them if they trans-
gressed the commandment of their Creator. This
method of salvation however was partially kept
secret until the time of its fulfilment, four thousand
years afterwards.
If these suppositions are borne out, first by an in-
vestigation of the sentences passed in the third of
Genesis, and secondly by the corroborations of the
New Testament, we shall no longer be at a loss to
account for the avowed wickedness of the old
world, or the long night of paganism and idolatry,
which history unfolds to us in the new, down to the
time when the shedding of the Saviour's blood seal-
ed the redemption, and set up a kingdom, the vital
principle of which, though obscured, had been con-
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
9
stantly kept alive in the line of Seth, all through
the long course of the predicted empires, till the
birth of Christ, under the reign of Augustus, the
first emperor of Rome,
Having presumed that there is a line of veiled
communications, which, by a collation of the two
Testaments, may be found to give regular intima-
tions of all the great changes and ruling principles
which have been allowed to operate in the human
world ever since the fall, it may now be necessary
to bring forward, as far as ability, brevity, and other
circumstances will permit, a summary evidence in
favour of that apprehension, and turn a retrospec-
tive view upon some earthly fulfilments, which have
taken place without our having been conscious
either of the prophecy or its accomplishment.
St. Chrysostom mentions it as a received opinion
that St. Paul made especial communications to the
Ephesians it may therefore be useful to refer to
that epistle when treating upon the beginning of
the human world.
Adam and Eve were the first people of the cove-
nant or Church of God. They were of one sub-
stance, and God blessed them as one, and called
their ,name Adam. When they brake the com-
mandment of God, therefore, they fell from their
first estate as one. But we must presume that,
before the fall, their descendants were intended to
be pure and exclusive seed, as seems expressed to
the Ephesians, where it appears that a community
10
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
of celestial spirits, of the family of God, were, be-
fore the foundation of the world, predestinated unto
the adoption of children, meant for an earthly
course, in the flesh. So in Hebrews, ch. ii. ver. 14,
"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of
flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same; that through death he might
destroy him that had the power of death, that is,
the devil."
EPHESIANS, CHAP. I.
Ver. 3. "Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ;
Ver. 4. " According as he hath chosen us in him
before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love;
Ver. 5. "Having predestinated us unto the adop-
tion of children by Jesus Christ to himself, accord-
ing to the good pleasure of his will,
Ver. 6. "To the praise of the glory of his grace,
wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved,
Ver. 7. "In whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the
riches of his grace."
CHAP. III.
Ver. 9. "And to make all men see what is the
fellowship of the mystery, which from the begin-
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
11
ning of the world hath been hid in God, who
created all things by Jesus Christ.
Ver. 14. "For this cause I bow my knees unto
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Ver. 15. "Of whom the whole family in heaven
and earth is named."
Here, then, I cannot but repeat, from the Epistle
to the Hebrews, "Forasmuch then as the children
are PARTAKERS of FLESH and BLOOD, He also himself
partook of the same;" and, in the Ephesians, we
find that these predestinated children have an inhe-
ritance. They are therefore an exclusive commu-
nity; and this is apparently the communication
made by St. Paul to the Ephesians. Mr. Greswell,
an author who never could have heard of the
above deduction, speaks as follows of the radical
difference there must be between the wheat and
the tares of the parable in St. Matthew.
"The
tares (or zizans) were the children of the wicked
one, (that is of the evil one,) and the enemy who
sowed them was the devil; which being the case,
as the children, or plantation of the evil one, are
thus personally opposed to the children of the
kingdom, the plantation of the Son of Man; and
as the sower, or father of the one, is personally
opposed to the sower, or spiritual father of the
other, whatever may be farther denoted by these
zizans, in contradistinction to the wheat, thus much
will be certain-they cannot be those who are
designed for an immortal inheritance, by virtue of a
12
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
certain relation to Jesus Christ; they must be per-
sons, who are destined to be excluded from such an
inheritance "."
After the foregoing anticipation concerning dif
ferent communities of people, from the New Tes-
tament, in which there are many such notices, we
return to the early communications in the third of
Genesis. We there find that, after the ensnare-
ment of our first parents, the earth is cursed, and
Satan, the intellective serpent who deceived them,
is cursed also. But it nowhere appears that this
strong and rebellious spirit is banished from the
earth. On the contrary, God tells him that there
shall be enmity between his seed and the woman's
seed. This incidentally proclaims two different
seeds as dwellers upon the earth, and, in corrobora-
tion of the view here taken, the very next sentence
of punishment, consequent upon the fall, informs
the woman that she will be subject to a multiplied
conception. The words are, "I will greatly multi-
ply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou
shalt bring forth children." Thus sorrow precedes
the conception, and also takes place upon the birth
of children. Adam is alike doomed to sorrow "all
the days of his life," and the same word denotes the
sorrow of each. But this kind of sorrow, de-
nounced by the same word on each, cannot mean
the bodily, the exclusive pains of child-birth, be-
cause in that the man has no part. In fact, the term
1 Greswell on the Parables.
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
13
sorrow does not so properly belong to bodily pain.
as to mental suffering, and sorrow is the penalty
inflicted alike upon both. Now, what sorrow could
exceed that of Adam and Eve, if they found that,
by the multiplied conception, other and baser seed
would now be sharers in the newly organized world,
which had been originally destined solely for them-
selves and their own exclusive posterity?
The intimation of good and bad seed, with enmity
between them, is followed up in the very next
chapter with the information, that the two first-
born male children of Adam and Eve were at such
enmity, that the wicked brother slew the righteous
one. This original difference between them must be
apprehended, because God, who knew the inward
spirits of all flesh, while he was favourable to the
offering of Abel, would not accept that of Cain,
before any earthly crime was attributed to him.
The distribution of good and bad seed in the
flesh is often related in the Old Testament, and in-
controvertibly described and illustrated by our Sa-
viour himself in the thirteenth chapter of St. Mat-
thew, 25th verse. "But while men slept, his enemy
came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went
his way¹
If this plain explanation is considered,
1 "9
¹ The strength of the argument here adverted to, is contained
in our Saviour's own interpretation of the parable to his disciples
in which he expressly states that it is really himself that sows
the good seed, and that it is really Satan that sows the bad seed.
14
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
with reference to the ordination of God concerning
the multiplied conception, as set forth in the third
of Genesis, we shall then see a specific and probable
cause for the extreme sorrow of Adam and Eve,
when the multiplied conception was denounced. And
to show us that the slain brother Abel was intended
good seed from heaven, God himself, with the know-
ledge of the woman, supplied another good seed to
fill up his place. "For God, hath appointed me
another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew,"
Genesis iv. 25. If, for a series of reasons which
are yet to come, it is admitted, on the other hand,
that Cain was of bad seed, the ascendency of his
progeny in the world after the fall appears to be
foreshown by the Deity himself, when he says to
Cain, in mitigation of his avowed favour to Abel.
Genesis iv. 7. "And unto thee shall be his desire,
and thou shalt RULE over him." Still, this did not
assuage Cain's enmity, and, for more reasons than
are explained to us, he effected the murder of his
brother. And our Saviour corroboratively says, in
speaking of Satan, "he was a murderer from the
V. 36. "And his disciples came unto him saying, Declare unto
us the parable of the tares of the field.
V. 37. "He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the
good seed is the Son of Man;
V. 38. "The field is the world; the good seed are the children
of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
V. 39. "The enemy that sowed them is the DEVIL; the harvest
is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels."
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
15
BEGINNING." If God, moreover, had not supplied
another seed of the divine nature, Cain, (being the
first born,) would, after the death of Abel, have be-
come chief inheritor of this world, according to
the signification of his name " ACQUISITION." But
Adam and Eve, having acknowledged their beguile-
ment by the serpent, brought up their children to
sacrifice unto the Lord; and never manifesting any
disposition to proceed in their disobedience, evi-
dently became objects of divine mercy; and, in
proof of this, God appointed, exclusive of. Adam's
common descendants, that other good seed, Seth,
in whose line their redeeming Saviour was even-
tually to be born. This lineage, pure and espe-
cially appointed, must be considered as abhorrent
of Cain's descendants, and there must be a spiri-
tual enmity between them; while Adam's seed forms
apparently a third description of the human race.
And it is far from a strained inference to suppose,
that, when God supplied a substitute for murdered
Abel, he saw that it was requisite to be done, as a
revival or perpetuation of that good seed, which
Satan's device had sought to destroy, and put out of
the world, as an obstacle to his own pre-eminence.
Cain was "wroth" with God, and "went from
his presence" into another land, where he built a
city. Can we suppose that, under such a state of
guilt, wrath, and banishment from the presence of
the Lord, Cain would bring up his children to "call
upon his name ?” When we read, therefore, Genesis,
16
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
vi. 26. "Then began men to call upon the name of
the Lord," or to "call themselves by the name of
the Lord," or, as others translate the passage,
"then men profaned in calling themselves by the
name of the Lord," do we not at once see that the
last translation is the true one, and that Cain's
seed here receive specifically the term of men, which
when emphatically applied in Scripture, distinguishes
them from those who are termed the sons of God?
Thus there may have been three different and dis-
tinct seeds in the world, the children of Adam, the
children of Cain, and the children of Seth. There
are, however, in the sacred books only two genea-
logies. That of Adam includes Seth, and the sons
and daughters which were born to him after Seth.
No mention is made in it of Cain, and the New
Testament concurs in the exclusion. His genea-
logy stands alone in another chapter. Cain is
therefore negatively ejected, and it is naturally to
be expected that his much marked, and distinctly
separated progeny, will receive some specific term
by which they may be described in Scripture. Ac-
cordingly, in the next chapter but one, the sixth, we
come upon such complete evidence concerning two
different sorts of people dwelling upon the earth,
that it cannot be called presumptive, but positive
and incontrovertible. One community is denomi-
nated, the children of God; and the other, the
children of men. The spiritual difference also be-
tween them was so great, that God forbade inter-
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
17
marriages between them; and the disobedience of
that command introduced so much evil, enmity and
violence, that “God said, My Spirit shall not always
strive with man for that HE ALSO is flesh ¹."
Genesis, ch. vi. ver. 13. "And God said unto
Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me;
for the earth is filled with violence through them:
and behold I will destroy them with the earth."
This was effected by means of the deluge, in which
eight persons only were permitted to survive.
Among these, Noah, a preacher of righteousness,
was, while in the ark, the patriarchal conductor.
The Sacred Records, however, allow us to perceive
that, after the descent from the ark, the worship of
God did not pre-eminently succeed in the New
World. This remains to be accounted for. Shem,
indeed, is first named of Noah's sons, because in his
line it was obscurely intimated that the darkly-
promised bruiser of the serpent's head should be
born. But Ham, the irreverent Ham, is also named
before his elder brother Japhet. This, with some
other circumstances, indicates that Ham has a
certain mysterious pre-eminence. It is not, how-
ever, a holy pre-eminence, because he is twice an-
nounced as the father of Canaan, one who is cursed
without any alleged cause, and his whole race
shown to be diabolical, and objects of Divine ven-
geance. In Ham's line also began Babylon, the
¹ The multiplied conception could introduce Satan's seed into
the flesh.
C
18
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
fountain head of all the idolatry and heathenism
which deluged the following empires. We cannot
therefore suppose that Ham was good seed. He
had, nevertheless, been allowed precedence over
his elder brother Japhet, and from thence might
be prognosticated, what the ruler of the New
world would be. We may perhaps also recognize,
in the three sons of Noah, a perpetuation of the
three supposed stems which peopled the Old World,
the children of Seth, the children of Cain, and the
children of Adam. In this case, the elder would
again stand last in point of precedency, but if
such be the intended arrangement of Scripture, we
must conjecture that there are reasons for it with
which we are not yet openly made acquainted. Of
these three seeds however was the New World re-
plenished, according to God's permission; and from
their progeny arose the predicted empires of the
prophet Daniel, the ferocious emblems, and con-
demnatory descriptions of which fully show, by the
hand of the inspired penman, that they were not
with God, but were, as Cain had previously ex-
pressed it, hidden from his face.
The earth had been cursed; Satan also had been
cursed, when, by means of the transgression, he had
induced Adam to forfeit his first estate, and fall
from being sole possessor of the world. Who then
was so likely to prefer a claim, or seize on the
vacated dominion, as the tempter, a dominion too,
which he had himself achieved? We may consider
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
19
him to have received God's permission or acqui-
escence, when, in the ninth chapter of Genesis, after
blessing Noah and his sons, God addressed, it may
be, an unknown party, at the 7th verse, saying,
"And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth
abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein."
Likewise, in making a covenant with Noah and
his sons, not to destroy the earth again by a flood,
God seems covertly to make the same promise to
another party that is with them.
Ver. 9. "And I, behold, I establish my covenant
with you, and with your seed after you.
Ver. 10. "And with every living creature that is
with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every
beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of
the ark, to every beast of the earth.
Ver. 11. "And I will establish my covenant with
you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by
the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more.
be a flood to destroy the earth.
Ver. 12. "And God said, This is the token of the
covenant which I make between me and you, and
every living creature that is with you, for perpetual
generations."
Unless, indeed, we acknowledge the ascendency
of Satan in the New World, how can we account
for the idolatry of Babylon, the cruelty of the Per-
sians, the tyranny of the Romans, and the specified
rebellion and blasphemy of the Saracenic dominion?
To which must be added the corruption of the Jews
C 2
20
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
by the seduction of their intermarriages with the
forbidden nations. This transgression of the divine
command introduced the Satanic seed among them-
selves, so that the priests of Baal were at times
very numerous even in Jerusalem. But redemption
had been ordained, and, although the time appoint-
ed was long and secret, the vital course of the good
seed never ceased, till at length, after the crucifixion
had completed the atonement, the kingdom of
Christ, though small in its beginning, and opposed
by Jews, Romans, and afterwards Saracens, began
to be in its operation like the leaven which a woman
hid in three measures of meal till the whole was
leavened. And, notwithstanding all the open and
all the disguised opposition, which that kingdom
meets with, it is still on the increase, with every
prospect of final victory over the strong adversary¹,
though not till after a long pilgrimage, and severe
conflict towards the end. The prospect of this
happy consummation seems even now opening upon
us in the wide and general dispersion of the Holy
Scriptures.
1 But the multiplying brood of the ungodly shall not thrive,
nor take deep rooting from bastard slips, nor lay any fast founda-
tion. For though they flourish in branches for a time: yet,
standing not fast, they shall be shaken with the wind, and through
the force of the winds they shall be rooted out. The imperfect
branches shall be broken off, their fruit unprofitable, not ripe to
eat, yea, meet for nothing."-Wisdom of Solomon, ch. iv. 3, 4, 5.
"For horrible is the end of the unrighteous generation."—
Ibid. ch. iii. 19.
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
21
Some account of the long continued oppression
of Adam's fallen children, fallen under the domin-
ion of Satan, may be traced throughout the Psalms,
where they supplicate for divine assistance, which
is promised, if they continue their course with pa-
tience to the end. Profane history also may show
the common reader, that the four greater empires.
of Daniel were for ages devoid of any knowledge of
the revealed God. This they could not have been,
had not the first empire, Babylon, rebelliously de-
parted from the righteous preaching of their pa-
triarch Noah. Idolatry and the worship of Satan
were again, by the striving of men against God,
introduced into Babylon, and circulated throughout
all the other empires, but not without the know-
ledge and notice of Scripture, which after the fall
of Babylon thus warns the Jews of their approach-
ing fate by the hands of the Romans. Isaiah, ch.
xiv. v. 29. 66
Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, be-
cause the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for
out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cocka-
trice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.”
Ver. 31. 66
Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou,
whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come
from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in
his appointed times."
The Romans, coming from the north, utterly des-
troyed Jerusalem in the year 70 of the Christian
æra, and, according to the generality of commen-
tators, the pagan Roman empire is prefigured in
22
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
the Revelations by a red dragon or serpent. Red
or scarlet is in Scripture the beacon colour, or type,
by which people are warned of sin in an object so
characterized, and Rome has always officially adopt-
ed this colour. In the above quotation from the
Old Testament, it appears that a red or fiery flying
serpent would, after the fall of the city of Babylon,
come from the north, and destroy the polity of Pa-
lestine. History, by a common chronological table,
will show the fulfilment of this prophecy, proved by
a collation of the Old and New Testaments.
will also demonstrate, according to the corrobora-
tions which will be brought forward, the certain
prevalence, and widely extended circulation, of the
Satanic spirit, all through the predicted and pagan
empires of Daniel, till the great encounter with
Christianity, after our Lord's atoning death, and the
promulgation of the Gospel, which lowered Pa-
ganism from the seven hills of Rome.
REVELATIONS, CHAP. Xii.
It
Ver. 7. "And there was war in heaven: Michael
and his angels fought against the dragon; and the
dragon fought and his angels,
Ver. 8. "And prevailed not; neither was their
place found any more in heaven.
Ver. 9. "And the great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which
deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the
earth, and his angels were cast out with him."
1
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
23
Upon what rational and philosophical grounds
the possible existence of created beings superior to
man can be disputed, it is not easy to imagine.
To allege their invisibility as an argument against it,
would be to deny the being of a God. Is the impos-
sibility of conceiving how immaterial spirits can re-
ceive or impart ideas, pleaded in bar of their exist-
ence? It does not follow from our ignorance of the
mode that there is no mode. . ... With regard to the
Scriptures, every one must own, that in numerous
passages, both sentimental and historical, the literal
sense, at least, manifestly implies that there are angels
of different orders. . . . . He who admits that the first
human pair fell from their original state of righteous-
ness and felicity, cannot rationally doubt the possibi-
lity of so mournful a change taking place respecting
beings of a higher description in the creation, or of
its seeming right in the sight of the Divine Being to
permit such a change. It ought not then to
appear strange that the apostle Jude, notwithstand-
ing he does not state the nature of the temptation,
should describe some of the angels as not keeping
their first estate,' and as being reserved in chains
under darkness to the judgment of the great day;'
nor ought there to seem any improbability in the
declaration, as it strikes the reader at first view,
that requires a departure from the natural sense
of the statement, in order to avoid an absurdity.
6
(
"Assuming, then, that there are apostate spirits.
who have rendered themselves thus depraved and mi-
24
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
serable, it certainly will not be thought incredible that
they should be as much inclined, as the wicked of an
inferior order among men, to plunge others into simi-
lar guilt and wretchedness, or to obstruct their emer-
ging from that horrible situation..... Nothing, it is
probable, would prevent their endeavouring to rea-
lize these fell desires, except the want of power;
and whether the existence of this power be not
possible in its own nature, or the exercise of it to
a certain extent be not permitted by the Almighty,
for his own glory and the good of his creatures in
general, (and their expediency to these ends cannot
be disproved, or even disputed, without controver-
ting the propriety of suffering moral evil to exist,)
are the points that come next to be examined.
"Impossible as it seems for us to attempt to in-
fluence beings of a higher order with any rational
hope of success, the reverse does not seem in itself
equally impossible. Our ingenuity and labour are
not unfrequently employed with effect, in aiming
to render the inanimate creation, the animal world,
and even our fellow-creatures, subservient to our
views. Is it incredible, then, that created beings
who excel us in nature, should possess means, if
allowed to use them, of practising at least, whether
successfully or otherwise, upon the same subjects
as ourselves, and upon us likewise? ...
"There are some particulars recorded concern-
ing the heathen oracles of old, which, if true, can
scarcely be accounted for without admitting the in-
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
25
tervention of superior spirits; and these must have
been evil, considering the character of the persons
assisted, and the objects of that assistance. The
occasional interposition of good and friendly angels
in the affairs of men, and the fact of their some-
times exciting ideas in the human mind, are gladly
acknowledged, though the mode in this case is not
more conceivable than in the case which concerns
the agency of the apostate angels.
"The probability, then, as well as the possibility,
of temptations arising from evil spirits being in-
controvertible, there seems no reason why the
statements in Scripture on the subject should not
be understood literally, and considered both as
proofs and as illustrations of the point in question,
particularly when their number, variety, and cir-
cumstantial minuteness, are taken into view. Alle-
gory, however proper for poetry, and the senti-
mental parts of a work, seems utterly incompatible
with the nature, simplicity, and use of history, ex-
cept in the reflections which occasionally accom-
pany the narrative. . . . .
"We may easily conceive, if the different kinds
of darkness were under the control and direction
of evil spirits who acted in concert, (as the scrip-
tural expression rulers of the darkness of this
world,' seems to intimate,) what powerful engines
they might become of doing mischief. Nor is it
impossible, or even improbable, that they should
possess this power in some cases, and to a certain
26
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
extent. It is not indeed credible that such a domi-
nion either has been, or could be, committed to
men. . . He that perplexed and deceived the
human mind at first, that caused sin to enter into
the world,' and thus ensured the existence of na-
tural evil in all its forms, may reasonably be viewed
as a principal, in the local and temporary prevalence
of ignorance and delusion, of wickedness and mi-
sery. Though it be not easy to imagine that bad
men, (who chiefly propose to themselves personal
gratification and advantage, whose acquaintance
with each other, and common interest, depend
upon contingencies, whose connexion must be ex-
ceedingly limited, being liable to prevention, inter-
ruption, or termination, by means of a thousand
circumstances,) should at any time every where
unite against the cause of holiness and felicity,
much less continue that union through successive
generations; yet the same difficulties do not occur
in supposing a confederacy thus universal and du-
rable among the powers of darkness, they having
always, since their exclusion from heaven, formed one
vast society, with the same views and interests, having
a regular established government among them, to-
gether with easy means of communication, and
never being subject to death. At the same time,
though human beings that are wicked cannot be
supposed to have formed, or to be executing a plan
of general co-operation throughout the world, for
the vile purpose of introducing, continuing, or pro-
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
27
moting mental darkness, in a moral or religious
sense, though they cannot any of them be thought
capable of acting as rulers or even as prime agents
in this detestable undertaking, yet they may act
under the leaders above mentioned, incautiously or
willingly lending themselves as subordinate instru-
ments, to blind first their own minds and hearts,'
and afterwards those of others. It is certain that the
ostensible authors, abettors, and defenders of intellec-
tual and moral darkness, whether acting upon a small
or upon a large scale, whether for a few years, or for
ages, are in many instances known to have been men.
Still it is utterly improbable either that they would
have thought of it, or propagated it with so much
zeal and success, had they not been secretly taught,
excited, or assisted by invisible principals."
1 Burnside on the Temptations of Evil Spirits.
1
CHAPTER II.
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
"There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh
known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the LAT-
TER DAYS."
DANIEL, ch. ii. v. 28.
Probability that some particular prophecies may for a season have been mis-
taken, and applied to objects which they only partially resembled, p. 30.-
The clearer subsequent development of such prophecies of great use in giving
interest to the Scriptures, p. 31.-The Metallic Image of the book of Daniel
generally considered to be a compendium of the four empires of Babylon,
Persia, Greece and Rome, p. 31.-Strange omission of the Saracenic in this
system, p. 32.-Spirit of idolatry in ancient Babylon, p. 33.-Satanic influence
circulating in all the four great empires, p. 34.-Nebuchadnezzar's dream,
in Daniel's fourth chapter, containing an infolded prediction of the ap-
proaching fall of the empire, p. 34.-Improbability that Daniel should portray
a falling dynasty under the symbol of a rising beast, p. 35.-Though the last
beast of the series must synchronize with the last empire of the Metallic
Image, it does not follow that the first empires should have commenced at the
same time, or been duplicates of each other, p. 35.-Probable reason why the
lion should be suffered for a season to be identified with the golden head,
p. 36.—Different scales laid down for the compendiums, p. 37.—The æra of
the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, the basis of Pagan chronology, p. 38.-
Seventh chapter of Daniel, p. 38.-The lion shown to tally best with the
silver emblem of the Metallic Image of the twofold state of the Medes and
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
29
Persians, p. 43.-The bear strictly applicable to Alexander as a devourer of
flesh, but not admitted to a fundamental station in the Metallic Image, in con-
sequence of the short duration of Alexander's conquests, p. 44.-The Grecian
empire raised on one side, p. 45.-The leopard and the brass empire strictly
descriptive of the Romans. The leopard's four heads described, p. 46.-
The fourth beast, and the iron and clay kingdom, identified with the Saracenic
empire, which exceeded every other in enmity towards the religion and the
people of God: improbability that such an empire would be omitted in the
scheme of prophecy, p. 47.-The feet and toes of the Image portending by
the difference of their texture the two descriptions of people brought into
juxta position under the Saracenic dominion: the impossibility of their
union, p. 48.-Duration of this last Antichristian empire, p. 49.-Arrange-
ment of the parts of the Metallic Image, in connection with the series of the
four beasts, according to the preceding hypothesis, p. 50.-Allusion to the
two horned beast of the thirteenth chapter of the Revelations, p. 51.
IT
It may, before examination, be thought improbable
that any of the prophecies of Daniel, which have
passed through so many ages, and so many able
hands, without being perfectly construed, should
meet with a better fate in modern times; but a
temporarily closed book seems to have been inti-
mated to the world in the 4th verse of his last
chapter; "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words,
and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many
shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased¹.
1 To signify the Christian period, (apprehended to be two thou-
sand years,) there seem to be several terms and phrases used in
the Old Testament, such as "the latter days," "the last days,"
"the time of the end," and "the last time of the end."
Daniel wrote five hundred years before the birth of Christ, and
above two thousand before the present time. In respect to him,
therefore, the Christian period may very appropriately be called
"the time of the end." When Daniel had concluded his prophecy
30
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
We are now greatly in advance towards the time of
the end, when the shutting up of the words, may
cease, and divine knowledge be thereby increased.
And if, in our present research, an eminent portrait
in prophecy can be found, that was, by almost ge-
neral consent, attributed to a certain object, which
indeed in several features it seemed to resemble,
but that, four hundred years after the existence of
that mistaken object, another equal in importance
and magnitude arose, which much more complete-
ly corresponded with the portrait, shall we not be-
come aware of the pregnant state of early prophe-
cies, and the great use that may be derived from
and desired to know the meaning thereof, he received the following
answer, “Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and
sealed till the time of the end." After the subsequent course of
five centuries, we of the Christian period received, at the begin-
ning of that period, a Revelation from the hands of St. John,
whose fifth chapter relates that a momentous book, sealed with
seven seals, was delivered from the throne in heaven, and that it
could only be opened by the slain Lamb. This being then ac-
complished by the slain Lamb, proves the period of the opening
to be the Christian æra. We are now far advanced in this period;
the seven seals therefore of that book having been opened, the
shutting up of the words may cease, and Divine "knowledge be
increased" in this " last time of the end."
To a search after this Divine knowledge we are certainly en-
couraged by the first verse of St. John's preface, as well as by the
10th verse of his last chapter, where it is said, "Seal NOT the
sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand." The
Revelations are therefore evidently thrown open to the humble
investigator.
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
31
a studious retrospect of them from the first book
of Scripture to the last? It is, in fact, evident,
from what has been already promulgated, that we
have much yet to learn concerning the course of
this world. Allusion is often made to the dark
nations of the globe, but they still remain a mys-
tery to us. The docile mind and pious heart may
indeed be satisfied of the divinity of the Scriptures
by those internal results of content and happiness,
which always attend upon such as are guided by
their precepts. But what is to be the help of those
who, having received what is called a liberal educa-
tion, (without religion,) have no taste for the Bible?
Ought they not to be warned that " it is not want of
proof, but want of investigation, that makes the
infidel?" If therefore a fair fulfilment of an emi-
nent prophecy, but a fulfilment which has never
been observed by the world, can be brought for-
ward to their view, will it not at once relieve them
from the erroneous idea that the Scriptures are
void of interest, and at the same time prove how
redundant in prescience the ancient prophecies may
be found?
The Metallic Image of the book of Daniel is
generally looked upon as a compendium of the four
empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome,
which rose in succession upon that part of the
earth which is evidently marked out as the site of
prophetic representations from the given station,
Ancient Babylon. And, in point of time, the
32
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
scheme reaches to the end of the world, when the
God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall
never be destroyed. Now, this looks like consum-
mation; but in this system, the Roman empire is
considered to be the last, and this conclusion was
very natural to those commentators who did not
live to see the fall of the Roman empire, and the
rise of another upon the same predicted space,
which, from its duration, extent, strength, and uni-
versality, appears to have greater claims to the title
of empire than some of those to which it has been
awarded. Alexander the Great reigned but ten or
twelve years, and his swift career of conquest, over
nations which he did not live to cement together,
is so accurately described in a subsequent vision in
the eighth chapter, that his identity there cannot
be doubted. Moreover it is added that, when
he became strong, his great horn was broken.
Now, is it probable that one short reign, transient
conquests, and an immediately broken horn, would
be symbolized as one of the fundamental empires
of the Metallic Image, to the exclusion of the Sa-
racenic dominion, which, including the caliphates,
was of the continuance of eight hundred years?
In addition to this improbability, if Alexander's
brief conquests were symbolized as one of the great
empires of the Image, there would be three dis-
tinct and distinguished portraits of his one broken
horn, the first in the second chapter of Daniel, the
second in his seventh chapter, and the third in his
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
33
eighth chapter. This is certainly not probable, be-
cause it involves the supposition, that this compre-
hensive prophet leaves at the same time the great
Saracenic empire without one, in his compendiums.
In his eighth chapter, the "king of Grecia" is ac-
curately and individually described, both as to his
beginning and ending. Can the great Antichrist
Mahomet then be left without notice? The com-
pendiums given, and the events related, in the book
of Daniel, show that his chapters, and the visions
contained in them, are in general chronologically
placed; and a well-known land mark, ancient Ba-
bylon, is given as the station from which the pro-
phetic scheme at first sets out.
Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the Metallic Image
is the first instance given, and although, by means
of Daniel's interpretation, it made the king of Ba-
bylon sensible of the almighty power of the God
of Israel, it appears in the third chapter that he
soon after set up a golden image, which, by procla-
mation, was to be worshipped by all the public
functionaries, as well as by all the indiscriminate
multitude, of his dominions. This elaborate re-
cord exhibits the unconquerable spirit of idolatry
which ever reigned at Babylon, the first named
city of the New World after the flood. And the
first distinguished monarch of that city was Nim-
rod, whose name signified REBELLION. We find
also in the fifth of Zechariah, which appears to be
a prototype chapter, that wickedness was trans-
D
34
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
ported to, and settled in, the land of Shinar. This
chain of hints in the Old Testament appears to be
afforded for latter observations, when, by retrospect,
we may be enabled to take up a clew from the be-
ginning, which, if well followed through the pur-
posely obscured paths of prophecy, and compared
with history, may lead us to the knowledge of that
Satanic influence, which circulated in all the four
great empires of the predicted part of the earth,
and was destined to encounter Christianity towards
the end.
In less than a century after Nebuchadnezzar's
dream, the Babylonian empire fell before the Per-
sians, and of that fall Nebuchadnezzar himself seems
to have seen a type in his second dream in the
fourth chapter, where the great tree was to be hewn
down by command of the Holy Ones. From the
solemnity with which that second dream is ushered
into the world, addressed to all people, nations, and
languages, that dwell in all the earth, it is but rea-
sonable to infer that it contained the infolded pre-
diction of the approaching fall of the empire, which
took place in the reign of Belshazzar his son, and
while Daniel was yet alive. Let it be remembered,
however, that, even after the Persian empire had
risen to eminence, Babylon was still the capital
city, the original point from which the prophetic
scheme was marked to take its course.
The sys-
tem of the Metallic Image, therefore, suffers no
interruption or deprivation by taking the lion, the
7
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
35
first of Daniel's four beasts, for the Persian empire.
The handwriting which came forth, and warned
Belshazzar that God had numbered his kingdom
and brought it to an end, was in the last year of
his reign. Was it then probable that Daniel, who
lived to witness the fulfilment, would, in a dynasty,
which was so very near its close, portray the sinking
empire as a rising beast? Besides which, the 17th
verse expressly declares all the four beasts to be
future. These great beasts which are four, are
four kings which SHALL arise out of the earth." After
the above verse, will it not be more consistent with
the intent of prophecy, and more according to the
order of succession, to apprehend that Daniel would
rather give the first beast of the series as an emblem
of the coming conqueror, than mean it to be a
retrograde duplicate of the old and falling golden
head?
There is besides no necessity that, because the
last beast of the series must synchronise with the
last empire of the Metallic Image, they must there-
fore all have commenced at the same time, or the
first empires have been duplicates of each other.
The golden head had served to show the station
from which the prophetic scheme set out, but that
plain and necessary information having been af-
forded, prophecy, according to its known and ac-
knowledged nature, becomes devious, being con-
structed only for future developments. And per-
haps it was requisite in the court of Babylon to
D 2
36
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
guard against any perception of a conqueror in the
lion, by allowing that beast to be construed as
synonymous with the golden head.
This was an
error which nothing but prescience could at that
time detect; and thus might the Babylonians re-
main unconscious that Daniel had in the lion
prefigured their approaching conquest by the Per-
sians, for Daniel told the vision and published the
matter.
Cyrus, having by marriage united the two king-
doms of the Medes and Persians, then subdued
Babylon, and formed that empire, which the modern
historian would naturally suppose to be represented
by the first of Daniel's four beasts, because he has
lived to see that there did arise, future to Daniel's
prophecy of four great empires, the Persian, the
Grecian, the Roman, and the SARACENIC, which last
momentous empire, if not reckoned in the scale,
to which by succession it so evidently belongs, will
remain without a portrait as a beast; for although
the ninth chapter of the Revelations is looked upon
as prefiguring the irruption of the Saracens, it by no
means gives them the adequate portrait of an em-
pire. Thus it will plainly appear that if the Baby-
lonian empire, notwithstanding its fall, is still to be
brought forward as the first of Daniel's series of
four beasts, they will stand as follows, to the exclu-
sion of the Saracenic empire from the evident
compendiums.
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
37
1. Babylonian Empire. 1. Lion.
2. Persian.
3. Grecian.
4. Roman.
5. Saracenic.
2. Bear.
3. Leopard.
4. Fourth Beast.
But if the Babylonian empire is considered as
falling, and thus not taken as the first of the rising
empires, the scale will run as follows
Babylonian Empire falling.
1. Persian.
1. Lion, including the
2. Grecian.
3. Roman.
4. Saracenic.
city of Babylon.
2. Bear.
3. Leopard.
4. Fourth Beast.
According to the first scale, the Saracenic is an
unaccountable fifth empire, and in contradiction to
the expounding angel at the 17th and 23rd verses
of the seventh chapter, which, after these premises,
will come fairly under consideration. It will then
be seen that, from the striving of the winds upon
the great sea, Daniel saw four great beasts or
empires arise. This statement of itself indicated
that it was a prophecy of that which was yet to come
when Daniel beheld the vision; and in corrobora-
tion of this view of the subject, we may take into
the account that, in Mr. Davison's lecture, founded
by Bishop Warburton, it is shown that, from the
beginning of the Persian empire by the conquest of
Cyrus, a new epoch of chronology was begun.
38
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
"And this I may remark, that, as the æra of the
conquest of Babylon by Cyrus is the basis of Pagan
chronology', the point from which it begins to be
clear and consistent; so the extraneous proof of the
truth and prescience of prophecy takes its propor-
tionate force and clearness from the same æra.
The greater regularity and completeness of the
Pagan narrative supplies a fuller comment upon
the scheme of things delineated in the Scripture
oracles."
It now seems proper to take a more minute sur-
vey of the seventh chapter of Daniel, in which the
vision of the Metallic Image is contained; and in
order that the subject may be placed more clearly
before the reader's eyes, the whole of the chapter
will be previously transcribed.
DANIEL, CHAP. vii.
Ver. 1. "In the first year of Belshazzar king
of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his
head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and
told the sum of the matters.
Ver. 2. “Daniel spake and said, I saw in my
vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the
heaven strove upon the great sea.
"Primus hic Cyri annus non solum solutæ captivitatis sed
etiam totius vetustioris Chronologic basis est; et res Ebraicas
cum extraneis connectit.”—Marsham, Canon. Chron. Sæc. 18. p.
630. Ed. Francq.
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
39
Ver. 3." And four great beasts came up from the
sea, diverse from one another.
Ver. 4. "The first was like a lion, and had
eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were
plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and
made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's
heart was given to it.
Ver. 5. "And behold another beast, a second,
like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side,
and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between
the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise,
devour much flesh.
Ver. 6. "After this, I beheld, and lo another,
like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four
wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads;
and dominion was given to it.
Ver. 7. "After this I saw in the night visions,
and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible,
and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron
teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped
the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse
from all the beasts that were before it; and it had
ten horns.
Ver. 8. "I considered the horns, and, behold,
there came up among them another little horn,
before whom there were three of the first horns
plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn
were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth
speaking great things.
Ver. 9. "I beheld till the thrones were cast
40
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose gar-
ment was white as snow, and the hair of his head
like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery
flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
Ver. 10. "A fiery stream issued and came forth
from before him: thousand thousands ministered
unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand
stood before him: the judgment was set, and the
books were opened.
Ver. 11. "I beheld then because of the voice of
the great words which the horn spake: I beheld
even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed,
and given to the burning flame.
Ver. 12. "As concerning the rest of the beasts,
they had their dominion taken away: yet their
lives were prolonged for a season and time.
Ver. 13. "I saw in the night visions, and, behold,
one like the Son of man came with the clouds of
heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they
brought him near before him.
Ver. 14. "And there was given him dominion,
and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations,
and languages, should serve him his dominion is
shall not pass
an everlasting dominion, which
away, and his kingdom that which shall not be
destroyed.
Ver. 15. "I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in
the midst of my body, and the visions of
troubled me.
f my head
Ver. 16. “ I came near unto one of them that
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
41
stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So
he told me, and made me know the interpretation
of the things.
Ver. 17. "These great beasts, which are four,
are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.
Ver. 18. "But the saints of the Most High shall
take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for
ever, even for ever and ever.
Ver. 19. "Then I would know the truth of the
fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others,
exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and
his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces,
and stamped the residue with his feet;
Ver. 20." And of the ten horns that were in his
head, and of the other which came up, and before
whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes,
and a mouth that spake very great things, whose
look was more stout than his fellows.
Ver. 21. "I beheld, and the same horn made
war with the saints, and prevailed against them;
Ver. 22. "Until the Ancient of days came, and
judgment was given to the saints of the Most High;
and the time came that the saints possessed the
kingdom.
Ver. 23. "Thus he said, The fourth beast shall
be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be
diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the
whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it
in pieces.
Ver. 24. "And the ten horns out of this kingdom
42
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall
rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the
first, and he shall subdue three kings.
Ver. 25. "And he shall speak great words against
the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the
Most High, and think to change times and laws:
and they shall be given into his hand until a time
and times and the dividing of time.
Ver. 26. "But the judgment shall sit, and they
shall take away his dominion, to consume and to
destroy it unto the end.
Ver. 27. “And the kingdom and dominion, and
the greatness of the kingdom under the whole
heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of
the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey
him.
Ver. 28. "Hitherto is the end of the matter. As
for me Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me,
and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the
matter in my heart."
Recollecting how little we know of the remote
annals of the Assyrian and Babylonish empires, and
bearing in mind that the æra of the conquest of
Babylon by Cyrus is considered by historians as
"the basis of Pagan chronology," which from his
time "begins to be clear and consistent," we may
surely venture to proceed so far upon that conclu-
sion, as to compare, in search of agreement, the
four beasts of Daniel, with the four empires, which
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
43
did arise in succession from that time, and upon the
predicted part of the earth. We may also compare
the last of each of those two series with the last em-
blem of the Metallic Image, the iron mixed with clay,
because the last beast, the last empire, and the last
metal must be found to be contemporaneous, and to
tally in their signification, if the compendiums are to
be satisfactorily fulfilled. But how can the fulfilment
be admitted as satisfactory if a great and celebrated
empire which is known to have exceeded the other
empires in point of time, is looked upon as without
the pale of the compendiums, although on the same
predicted ground, and although the compendiums
are marked to include the last scenes of this world.
A lion couchant is at present the arms or ensign
armorial of the Persian kingdom, but the lion of
this series of beasts, in order to prove its title to
represent the Persian state, must be found to tally
better both with the silver emblem of the Metallic
Image, and with the two-fold state of the united
Persians and Medes, than it ever did with the
golden head or empire of Babylon. Now this lion
has upon his back two wings, which Daniel beheld
till they were plucked. Nothing has ever been
alleged as a fulfilment of this in the Babylonian
empire, but, by the union of the Medes and Per-
sians, their two separate governments or wings
were, after being united, plucked, or dispossessed of
their separate official functions, by the absorption
of the one supreme head. The two wings, never-
44
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
theless, answer to the two arms of the collateral
silver emblem. The junction of the Medes and
Persians together with the conquest of the Babylo-
nian empire raised the Persians to a height which
they had never attained before. Thus of the lion
it is said, "It was lifted up from the earth, and
made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's
heart was given to it." We must here recollect
that, in the apparent type of the fall of Nebu-
chadnezzar (or the Babylonian empire), a beast's
heart was given to him during his term of degra-
dation, and the root of his fallen tree was also
bound down for a season in the earth by a band of
iron and brass; but the lion is lifted up, and a man's
heart is given to him. The breast (the silver
breast), is the region of the heart, and the heart is
the source of life and action to the frame. Now
the Persian kingdom appears to have enjoyed the
vital state of dominion to this day, but not one of
these attributes seems applicable to the golden
head, which is still bound down in the grass of the
earth, though apparently promised to revive again
hereafter.
The next beast, before which the Persian empire
suddenly fell, is called a bear, and characterised
chiefly as a devourer of much flesh. This intima-
tion of great carnage seems to have been fulfilled
more evidently by Alexander the Great, than by
any other conqueror in the same space of time.
With thirty thousand men he destroyed the
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
45
army of Darius amounting to three hundred thou-
sand. Some authors even compute that he des-
troyed six hundred thousand. This, together with
the brief intervention of his other conquests, from
the great consumption of human life with which
they were accompanied, may seem worthy of record
among the warlike beasts, although, from the short
space of their duration, and from their uncertain
limits, they are not admitted to a fundamental sta-
tion in the Metallic Image. And this absence may
perhaps be accounted for, when in the eighth chap-
ter we read, that the individual king of Grecia
touched not the ground, but, having a notable horn
between his eyes, waxed very great, and that, as
soon as he was strong, the great horn was broken.
All this appears to be fulfilled by Alexander the
Great. Nevertheless, the eighth chapter apparently
refers also to events which are still future, but our
present venturous research must be confined to the
seventh chapter. Alexander's early and sudden
death left his kingdom broken, subject to division,
and eventually exposed to the approaching power
of the more permanent Romans, after whose long
dominion over it, the Grecian empire may be said
to have raised itself up on one side, when upon the
rising of the Greeks in 1261, the last Roman
emperor, Baldwin the second, and all his adherents,
fled, and never returned. The voice of history
repeats that the Greeks then recovered their king-
dom, but it was only on one side of Alexander's
46
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
extensive conquests. Mr. Gibbon, among other
historians, says, "The recovery of Constantinople
was celebrated as the æra of a new empire. The con-
queror, Palæologus, alone, and by the right of the
sword, renewed his coronation in the Church of St.
Sophia."-Gibbon, vol. ii. p. 325.
Even at this present time, the Greeks, although
again subjected to a foreign conqueror, the Otto-
man, are still acknowledged as a people, and may
again be said to be raised up on one side. But no
dominion is ascribed to the bear by Daniel, the
great horn of Grecia having been broken as soon as
the individual king became strong, and his kingdom
being divided into four parts, as is described in the
following chapter, the eighth.
But the next beast, the leopard, has dominion
given to it, and therefore tallies with the brass em-
pire, which bare rule over all the earth. And, in
fact, the Romans did for centuries bear pre-eminent
rule over all the predicted part of the earth, within
the outline of the Metallic Image. The Roman
empire also, like the Leopard, had four eminent
heads, the two imperial heads of Rome, and Con-
stantinople, and the two episcopal thrones of the
Pope and the Patriarch of the eastern department
of the empire. The above seeming to be as fair
an adaptation of the leopard to the description of
the brass empire and to the corresponding charac-
teristics of the Roman empire, as can be expected
from such concise emblems, I will for the present
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
47
imagine the likeness to be admitted, because in the
Metallic Image no correspondence is found with the
bear.
The fourth beast without a name will then be
contemporaneous with the iron and clay kingdom.
And let us mark their peculiar attribute. They
are both strong exceedingly. Now strength is one
of the constant characteristic marks of the Anti-
christian party, from the predictions in Genesis
concerning Esau, WHO IS EDOM, down to the time
when all the greater prophets show that Edom
comes into action in the last days. The Metallic
Image and the four beasts are considered as com-
pendiums, but a compendium will not allow us to
exclude, from a station so clearly indicated by pro-
phecy as the site of the Metallic Image, an ex-
tensive and perfectly Antichristian empire, which
arose within its precincts, and succeeded the Roman
but far exceeded that empire in enmity towards the
religion, and the people, of the revealed God. It
was much more inimical to the Christian church,
and therefore peculiarly an object for prophetic
notice, but most especially for the Christian prophet
St. John, whose long neglected illustrations may
possibly at last be discovered in the Apocalypse.
In corroboration of this idea, we know from his-
tory that the latter course of human affairs has
been quite as much subject to changes and great
events, since the fall of the Roman empire as
before. The people of Christendom, therefore,
48
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
are not likely to be abandoned from that time, and
thenceforth remain shorn of all prophetic represen-
tations.
The feet and toes of the Metallic Image are
composed of two substances so dissimilar, that,
although proximate, they cannot cleave the one to
the other. The iron substance is strong, one of
the Antichristian attributes, but the other being of
potter's clay, which is of a superior kind, is brittle.
These different substances, which mingle together
but are not allowed to cleave one to another, appa-
rently represent two manner of people latterly
forming the population of the iron empire, one of
them being shown to be of that division, which in
other parts of Scripture is emphatically termed men.
Daniel ii. 43. "And whereas thou sawest iron
mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves
with the seed of MEN: but they SHALL not cleave one
to another even as iron is not mixed with clay. In
the same manner, a Christian and a Mahometan
cannot accord; and in the irreconcileable state of
enmity, which ever has existed, and ever must exist
between them, have we not a clear fulfilment of
the above statement of Daniel, corroborated also
by our own knowledge of the general and cala-
mitous mingling of Mahometans with the con-
quered Christians, during the prevalence of the last
great empire, the Saracenic. For we must remem-
ber that this empire continues, in the Ottoman do-
minion, up to this day, confirming the idea that, in
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
49
the system of the fourth beast, there is still an An- -
tichristian horn acting against a people distin-
guished by the name of saints. Now it is certain
that the entrance of the Saviour into the world,
and the propagation of the Gospel, called forth into
notice a new manner of people, not strong indeed,
for that quality belonged to their oppressors, nor
were the Jews or the Christians in general able to
stand against the military strength either of the
Romans or the Saracens, but they were God's
people, and therefore deserving of prophetic dis-
tinction in the compendiums.
The fourth beast and his horns appear to proceed
on to the day of Judgment, but how can the
Roman empire, the long vanished Roman empire,
be portrayed as proceeding on to that day, when
we know that the Saracenic empire, or beast,
terrible and strong, overran, brake in pieces, and
stamped upon, not only that empire, but the resi-
due of the others which it contained? And as
chronology carries on the great Saracenic empire
centuries beyond the existence of the Roman em-
pire, and upon the same part of the earth, how
can we consistently refuse to allow it a station in
Daniel's compendiums which reach to the end of the
world? It came fairly in succession to the Roman
empire, and was the most important and decided
enemy that Christianity ever encountered, and,
exactly as is described both in the Old and New
Testaments, made war upon the people of God. The
E
50
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
remains also, the image of it, still survive in the
Mahometan horns of Turkey, Persia, India, and
parts of Africa. These continuing professors of
Mahometanism, these living remains of the Sara-
cenic empire, may reach on to the day of Judg-
ment, in the sight of the world.
Having therefore sought in vain for any reason
which can make it necessary to place the lion as
in point of time collateral with the golden head of
Nebuchadnezzar, I shall venture to change that
juxtaposition, and arrange the scale as follows, be-
cause the remains, the Image, or the horns, of the
Moslem Empire, being still in existence, may pro-
ceed on to the day of Judgment, and fulfil the
compendiums so as to evidence the truth of pro-
phecy, while the other, the Roman Empire, having
long vanished, can be of no service in this respect.
Metallic Image.
Golden Head falling.
Silver arms, Persia.
Brass, Roman with dominion.
Iron and clay, Saracen, with ten
toes. Of this kingdom it is
said at the 41st verse of the
second chapter, that it shall
be divided.
Seventh chapter, describing
Daniel's four beasts which
WERE to arise.
Lion with two wings, Persia.
Bear, ten year's duration, no
dominion.
Leopard, Roman with domi-
nion.
Fourth beast, Saracen with
ten horns, and a little
horn so often described
that two may be included.
It does not seem out of place to hint here, by
THE METALLIC IMAGE.
51
way of anticipation, that the universal empire, men-
tioned in the thirteenth chapter of the Revelations,
is succeeded by a beast with two horns. Now as
the Apocalypse is generally looked upon as an
elucidation of preceding prophecies, we are war-
ranted in evpecting to find in the Old Testament
some prototype of St. John's two horned beast.
Indeed without such a prototype we have no sanc-
tion whatever for the two horned beast, which ne-
vertheless exercises all the power of the former
beast, and on that account cannot be given up as
irrelative in the system. We must therefore seek
in the seventh chapter of Daniel for some intima-
tion concerning him, when we reach the thirteenth
chapter of St. John, in the Apocalypse.
E 2
CHAPTER III.
CONCERNING ESAU.
Commentators hitherto unable to reconcile the dominion, which arose in Arabia,
with the blessing pronounced either upon Ishmael or Esau, p. 53.—Situation
of the descendants of the three Patriarchs of Arabia, Joctan, Ishmael, and Esau,
p. 54.-Esau and his nation of importance as well as the nation of Jacob, p. 54.
-Ishmael considered, p. 56.--Reason why the two predicted nations of Isaac
and Ishmael should have been kept so long distinct, p. 57.-Isaac's posterity
traced in the two separated branches of Esau and Jacob, p. 60.-Probable rea-
son of Rebekah's conduct with respect to Jacob and Esau, p. 64.-The sepa-
rate blessings of the two brothers, p. 65.-Esau's marriage with a daughter of
Ishmael, p. 70.—The Nabatheans, his descendants, p. 72.-Characters of Ish-
mael and Esau in the New Testament, p. 72.-Probability of their descendants
being actors in the predicted warfare of the Christian period, p. 73.—Esau's
name forgotten in Mount Seir and Idumæa, in the second century, but his
descendants by Ishmael's daughter spreading in the interior of Arabia, under
the name of Nabatheans, p. 74.-Ishmael's and Esau's blessings stated and
verified, p. 75.-Petra, the ancient capital of Esau's posterity, recently dis-
covered by Burkhardt, p. 75.—Improbability that Esau's posterity should be-
come extinct in all its three branches, before the last days, p. 76.—The Jewish
Rabbis trace Edom to Rome, p. 77.-Probability, from the statement of Bry-
done, that a grandson of Esau, and a colony of Chaldeans, settled in Sicily, p.
77.—The yoke of Jacob passing from the neck of Esau, during the tyranny
of Rome, and the subsequent dominion of the Saracens, p. 79.—The two
CONCERNING ESAU.
53
Arabian Patriarchs, Ishmael and Esau, both inimical to the true inheritors, p.
80. The fulfilment of their persecution and hatred to be looked for in the
future deeds of their disappointed progeny, p. 80.-Verified in the prophet of
Arabia, p. 80.-Ishmael's descendants Archers.-The prophecy respecting
them in Jacob's blessing to Joseph fulfilled in the conduct of the Saracens
towards the Jews, p. 81.-The same persecuting spirit evinced to this day,
p. 81. The contrasted blessings of Esau and Jacob, the one having a sword
but no wine, the other wine but no sword, p. 82.-Corn and wine bestowed
upon Jacob's posterity in a mystic manner, p. 82.-The posterity of Jacob
commemorating their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, by the feast
of unleavened bread, and the drink offering of wine, p. 83.—The sacramental
memento of bread and wine under the Christian dispensation, p. 84.-The
Mahometan incapable of being nourished or sustained by these ordinances,
p. 85.-Isaac's blessing of corn probably includes the hidden manna promised
in the Testament to him that overcometh, p. 86.-Obadiah treats in his whole
chapter of Edom and his confederacy, p. 86.-The revelation of the man of
sin in the last days, p. 87.
BEFORE we proceed to the consideration of such
portions of the Apocalypse, as appear to sanction
the system of prophetic interpretation adopted in
these pages, we shall dwell a little upon the charac-
ter and circumstances of Esau and his descendants,
with a view to the same system. It is certain that
commentators have hitherto sought in vain for the
fulfilment of Esau's blessing, in the events which
originated in Arabia, inasmuch as it has never been
considered that he was virtually in that country;
while, on the other hand, they have not been able
to find, in the blessing pronounced upon Ishmael,
any thing that could portend the great dominion
which manifestly spread from Arabia. Now if it
can be shown, that, by his connection with Ishmael's
daughter, Esau was a dweller in Arabia, through
54
CONCERNING ESAU.
}
the medium of his descendants, the blessing attached
to him may thus appear to have been undeniably
realized, and the dominion promised to him fulfilled.
In order to show this, it will be necessary to examine
some transactions connected with Abraham, Isaac,
Ishmael, Esau, and Jacob, whose characters and
circumstances are more particularly dwelt upon,
than we can suppose the concise method of Scrip-
ture narration would authorise, unless they were
each the fountain head of an important lineage, the
progressive state of which was meant to be kept in
view, till time, and the explanations of the New
Testament, should prove how fraught they origin-
ally were with intimations of some of the great
events which have since happened in the world.
The descendants of the three Patriarchs of
Arabia, appear in Scripture to have been situated
as follows:-The sons of Joctan in Arabia Felix,
the sons of Ishmael in Arabia Deserta, and the sons
of Esau in Arabia Petræa. In this latter country
the ancient capital of Esau has lately been brought
to light, and this resurrection from oblivion is an
encouragement to make further researches into
his mysterious, and therefore long neglected, his-
tory.
The nation of Jacob has been the chief subject
of prophecy, and has been placed under the obser-
vation of all civilized people for some thousand
years; but to show that Esau and his nation are
also of importance, and to be held in especial
CONCERNING ESAU.
55
remembrance, we are warned, no less than five
times in one chapter, that Esau is Edom, and the
father of the Edomites.
GENESIS, CHAP. xxxvi.
Ver. 1. "Now these are all the generations of
Esau, who is Edom."
Ver. 8. “Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir. Esau
is Edom.
Ver. 9. "And these are the generations of Esau,
the father of the Edomites, in Mount Seir."
Ver. 19. "These are the sons of Esau, who is
Edom, and these are the dukes."
Ver. 43. "Duke Magdiel, duke Iram: these be
the dukes of Edom according to their habitations
in the land of their possessions: he is Esau, the
father of the Edomites.".
This reduplication was necessary, as several of
the prophets did not begin to prophesy concerning
Esau's posterity, till above a thousand years after
his personal appearance upon earth; so that, with-
out this remarkable repetition and strict evidence,
the identity of Esau's descendants might have been
disputed in the prototypes of the prophecies rela-
ting to the latter times; and the more especially as
it will appear that his posterity, power, or nation,
will at times be obscured from the observation of
the world.
56
CONCERNING ESAU.
MALACHI, CHAP. i.
Ver. 2. "Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith
the Lord yet I loved Jacob,
Ver. 3. "And I hated Esau, and laid his moun-
tains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the
wilderness.
Ver. 4. "Whereas Edom saith, We are impove-
rished, but we will return and build the desolate
places; thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall
build, but I will throw down; and they shall call
them, The border of wickedness, and, The people
against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever.
Ver. 5. "And your eyes shall see, and
ye shall
say, The Lord will be magnified from the border of
Israel."
The eyes of all may now see the ancient dwelling
of Esau in Arabia Petræa, where the nature of the
climate has preserved some of the sculpture of the
long uninhabited city in perfection.
But Ishmael preceded Esau; he therefore must
be first considered.
GENESIS, CHap. xxi.
Ver. 9. "And Sarah saw the son of Agar the
Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham,
mocking.
Ver. 10." Wherefore she said unto Abraham,
Cast out this bond-woman and her son: for the son
CONCERNING ESAU.
57
of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son,
even with Isaac.
Ver. 11. "And the thing was very grievous in
Abraham's sight, because of his son.
Ver. 12. "And God said unto Abraham, Let it
not be grievous in thy sight, because of the lad, and
because of thy bond-woman; in all that Sarah hath
said unto thee, hearken unto her voice: for in
Isaac shall thy seed be called.
Ver. 13. "And also of the son of the bond-
woman will I make a nation, because he is thy
seed."
Moses has shown that Noah was perfect in his
generations, and from Noah's approved son, Shem,
Abraham's descent is carefully given; his promised
son, Isaac, therefore, by a free woman, must be
considered as one of the sons of God: but Ishmael
his brother, although he received a blessing from
God, is clearly marked as of an inferior nature to
Isaac, even in the Old Testament.-First, by his
descent on his mother's side; secondly, by his own
marriage with an Egyptian, which still keeps his
posterity in the line of Ham; and thirdly, by the
declaration of Sarah, that he should not inherit
with her son; which declaration must be looked
upon as prophetical in respect to his posterity,
because it is immediately approved of by the Lord,
and the subject resumed with confirmation in the
New Testament more than a thousand years after-
wards.
58
CONCERNING ESAU.
GALATIANS, CHAP. iv.
Ver. 22. "For it is written, that Abraham had
two sons; the one by a bond-maid, the other by a
free woman.
Ver. 23. "But he who was of the bond-woman,
was born after the flesh but he of the free woman
was by promise. That is, he was promised seed."
Ver. 28. "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are
the children of promise.
Ver. 29. "But as then he that was born after
the flesh persecuted him that was born after the
spirit, even so it is now."
This appears to be positive information con-
cerning enmity; and, at the 23rd verse, all that
has been conjectured concerning a radical dif-
ference of origin seems confirmed; Ishmael is
declared to be born after the flesh, while the Jews,
the sons of God, are recognized as the children of
the promise.
Ver. 30. "Nevertheless, what saith the Scrip-
ture? Cast out the bond-woman and her son:
for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir
with the son of the freewoman.
If Sarah's declaration that Ishmael should not
inherit with Isaac had only appeared in the Old
Testament, it might have passed as an instance of
the selfishness of a mother; but when it is thus
resumed in the New Testament, it assumes a more
serious aspect, and demands our attention; for
7
CONCERNING ESAU.
59
what was in the Old Testament called the word of
Sarah, is here stated to be the word of Scripture.
Moreover, the posterity of the two brothers being
distinct in the world at this day, the fulfilment of
Sarah's prophetic declaration concerning them may
be distinctly judged of. The Jews, we see, are
still, notwithstanding their degradation, in full pos-
session of the covenant of their forefathers, while
Ishmael's posterity, the Arabians, are more devoid
of the power to inherit with them than ever, by
their assumption of the Mahometan religion. And
thus are Sarah's prophetic words completed, and
the son of the bond-woman is not heir with the son
of the free woman.
And that these two predicted nations should
have been so long kept distinct from other nations,
the one under dispersion, and the other nearly con-
tinuing in its primordial station, must have been
for the purpose of finally manifesting the foreknow-
ledge of Scripture by the fulfilment of the prophe-
cies concerning them in the latter days.
All travellers, both ancient and modern, attest
that the characteristic of the Arab is his propensity
to robbery. The characteristic of Esau remains to
be developed by the spirit of his blessing. Quit-
ting, therefore, for the present, the predatory course
of Ishmael's posterity seated in Arabia Deserta,
we must follow that of Isaac in the two separated
branches of Esau and Jacob.
60
CONCERNING ESAU.
GENESIS, CHAP. XXV.
Ver. 19. "And these are the generations of
Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham begat Isaac.
Ver. 20. "And Isaac was forty years old when
he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel
the Syrian of Padan-aram, the sister to Laban the
Syrian.
Ver. 21." And Isaac intreated the Lord for his
wife because she was barren: and the Lord was
intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
Ver. 22. "And the children struggled together
within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I
thus? and she went to inquire of the Lord.
Ver. 23. "And the Lord said unto her, Two
nations are in thy womb, and two manner of peo-
ple shall be separated from thy bowels; and the
one people shall be stronger than the other people;
and the elder shall serve the younger."
It must be kept in mind that this answer from
the Lord himself was given after the struggle, the
extraordinary struggle, had taken place.
Two nations and two manner of people, that is,
two nations totally distinct, and, as we shall find,
totally separated for ever.
Ver. 24. "And when her days to be delivered
were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
Ver. 25. "And the first came out red, all over like
an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.
Ver. 26. "And after that came his brother out,
and his hand took hold on Esau's heel: and his
CONCERNING ESAU.
61
name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore
years old when she bare him.”
The posterity of Jacob and Esau became, ac-
cording to prophecy, distinct from the first. After
an absence of four hundred years, the nation of
Jacob returned into Arabia, but found no brothers
in the Edomites, the sons of Esau, who kept them-
selves so distinct from the Israelites, that they re-
fused to let them even pass through their highways,
and they wandered forty years in the wilderness of
Arabia, without any reciprocity which could be an
infringement of the prophetic declaration, that they
would be two nations and two manner of people.
"And the elder shall serve the younger." This is
a very remarkable prophecy, because the birth-right
would then be in the hands of the one that was to
serve. As yet it is inexplicable, because in those
days the birth-right was considered "as an holy
thing, not only because the priesthood was annexed
to it, but also because it was a privilege leading to
Christ, and a type of his title to the heavenly inhe-
ritance." It was therefore an object of great con-
sequence; and from the recorded struggle in the
womb, and the subsequent circumstance of Jacob's
laying hold of Esau's heel in the birth, we may
conceive that Jacob then laid claim to the primoge-
nial state from which the predicted STRENGTH of Esau
had, in the struggle in the womb, displaced him.
Esau was born red, a colour never characteristic of
innocence in the Scriptures, but, on the contrary,
62
CONCERNING ESAU.
emblematic of the deepest sin; and this colour is
farther attached to him by different means, as will
appear.
In Isaac the promised seed was to be called; and
it surely has appeared, that both bad and good seed
are in the world; discrimination is therefore ne-
cessary upon this important occasion. The cir-
cumstances, also, which preceded the birth of Esau
and Jacob, are of so extraordinary a nature, and
so laid out for observation, that our attention is
immediately awakened. We certainly cannot sup-
pose that the current of Scripture information
would be arrested in its course to notice the move-
ments of these children in the womb, unless from
the movement (or displacing) some alteration in the
primogenitureship would ensue, an alteration of
vital importance, inasmuch as, in those days, the
eldership and birthright conferred some mystic or
spiritual benefits. We may therefore rest assured,
that God would eventually bestow them where they
were originally meant to be given, notwithstanding
the most cunning devices of Satan, in the struggle
to displace the promised seed.
Ver. 27. "And the boys grew and Esau was a
cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob
was a plain man, dwelling in tents.
Ver. 28. "And Isaac loved Esau, because he
did eat of his venison; but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Ver. 29. "And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau
came from the field, and he was faint.
CONCERNING ESAU.
63
Ver. 30. "And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I
pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am
faint therefore was his name called Edom (that
is, red).
Ver. 31. "And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy
birth-right."
There is great probability that Rebekah (who
had received an answer from the Lord concerning
the struggle in her womb,) would inform Jacob
that he had been dispossessed of his birth-right by
that struggle; and thus will all the unexplained
methods of Providence be gradually revealed to
man.
Ver. 32. "And Esau said, Behold, I am at the
point to die; and what profit shall this birth-right
do to me?
Ver. 33. "And Jacob said, Swear to me this
day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his
birth-right unto Jacob.
Ver. 34. "Then Jacob gave Esau bread and
pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and
rose up, and went his way. Thus Esau despised
his birth-right."
In this manner did Esau acquire the branding
name of Edom or red, by eating that same red
pottage for which he sold his birth-right, confirm-
ing it with an oath; and thus Jacob either gained,
or regained, the birth-right. But, independently
of all inference, Jacob evidently prized the birth-
right, and Esau, according to Scripture mention,
64
CONCERNING ESAU.
despised it; that which led to Christ was despised
by him; and the New Testament corroborates this
by calling him the profane Esau. Nor do we hear
of any instance of his piety: on the contrary,
when he sold his birth-right, we are told that he
did eat, and drink, and got up, and went his way,
without expressing any regret at having parted
with it; and, at the thirty-fourth verse of the
twenty-sixth chapter, it will be found that he took
two wives from the forbidden race, "which were a
grief of mind unto Isaac, and to Rebekah," ver. 35.
We know not the extent of Rebekah's informa-
tion when she went to inquire of the Lord, nor the
result of her own reflections upon the extraordinary
struggle in the womb, and the peculiar circum-
stances attending the birth of these children; but
by her subsequent conduct in resolutely excluding
Esau from his father's prime blessing, and saying
fearlessly to Jacob, when he remonstrated, "Upon
me be the curse (which you apprehend) my son,
only obey my voice," did she not prove that she
knew Esau was not eligible to receive that blessing?
For we cannot suppose that a woman of an ap-
proved race, and so far pointed out as the destined
wife of Isaac, by Divine interference, that the
sworn servant of Abraham, when he saw it, bowed
his head and worshipped the Lord-we cannot
surely suppose that such a woman, and one also
who had received an answer from the Lord con-
cerning these children, would practise duplicity in
CONCERNING ESAU.
65
!
order to divert the prime blessing from the person,
to whom, in the usual course of things, it would
have belonged.
With respect to Isaac's dereliction, it must be
recollected that he was old and could not see; he
therefore from the infirmities of age, forgetfulness,
or undue partiality, or even from ignorance of the
existing circumstances, might err in his choice
of the person on whom to bestow the blessing ;
but, in the fortieth verse, it is shown that upon
consideration, he chose to confirm what he had
done.
GENESIS, CHAP. xxvii.
Ver. 14. "And he went, and fetched, and
brought them to his mother: and his mother made
savoury meat such as his father loved.'
Ver. 25. "And he said, Bring it near to me,
and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul
may bless thee. And he brought it near to him,
and he did eat: and he brought him wine, and he
drank.
Ver. 26. "And his father Isaac said unto him,
Come near now, and kiss me, my son.
Ver. 27. "And he came near, and kissed him:
and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and
blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is
as the smell of a field which the Lord hath
blessed.
F
笋
​66
CONCERNING ESAU.
Ver. 28. "Therefore God give thee of the dew
of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty
of corn and wine:
Ver. 29. "Let people serve thee, and nations
bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and
let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be
every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that
blesseth thee.
Ver. 30. "And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac
had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was
yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his
father, that Esau his brother came in from his
hunting.
Ver. 31. "And he also had made savoury meat,
and brought it unto his father, and said unto his
father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son's
venison, that thy soul may bless me.
Ver. 32. "And Isaac his father said unto him,
Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy
first-born, Esau.
Ver. 33. "And Isaac trembled very exceedingly,
and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison,
and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before
thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he
shall be blessed.
Ver. 34. "And when Esau heard the words of
his father, he cried with a great and exceeding
bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even
me also, O my father."
We are at first inclined to pity Esau, when we
CONCERNING ESAU.
67
read of his exceeding bitter cry; but, when we
consider the context, we perceive that it could only
have been excited by sorrow for the loss of pre-
eminence which the blessing might have given
him.
Ver. 37. "And Isaac answered and said unto
Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all
his brethren have I given to him for servants; and
with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what
shall I do now unto thee, my son?
Ver. 38. "And Esau said unto his father, Hast
thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even
me also, O my father. And Esau lifted
And Esau lifted up his voice,
and wept.
Ver. 39. "And Isaac his father answered, and
said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the
fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven
from above;
Ver. 40. "And by thy sword shalt thou live,
and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to
pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou
shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.
Ver. 41. "And Esau hated Jacob because of the
blessing wherewith his father blessed him and
Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for
my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother
Jacob ¹.
Ver. 42. “And these words of Esau her elder
1
Cain, the bad seed, slew Abel the good seed.
F 2
68
CONCERNING ESAU.
"
son were told to Rebekah and she sent and called
Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold,
thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort
himself, purposing to kill thee.
Ver. 43. "Now therefore, my son, obey my
voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother
to Haran;
Ver. 44. "And tarry with him a few days, until
thy brother's fury turn away;
:
Ver. 45. "Until thy brother's anger turn away
from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done
to him then I will send and fetch thee from
thence. Why should I be deprived also of you
both in one day?
Ver. 46. "And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am
weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth:
if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth,
such as these which are of the daughters of the
land, what good shall my life do me?"
These
daughters of the land, it must be remembered,
were descended from Canaan, who lay under the
curse, and into whose line Esau had disobediently
married to the grief of his father and mother.
In some respects, the separate blessings bestowed
upon the two brothers resemble each other. The
fatness of the earth, and the dew of heaven, are
alike afforded to each; but the exceeding trembling
of Isaac, when he knew not to whom he might
have given the first blessing, proved that he consi-
dered it as of great importance. Corn and wine do
CONCERNING ESAU.
69
not seem things of any particular consequence in
Jacob's blessing. Yet when Isaac recapitulates the
blessing to Esau, he does not omit them, as if they
were of minor consideration, but says, "With corn
and wine have I sustained him, and what shall I do
now unto thee, my son ?" The corn and wine,
therefore, must be held in remembrance; and the
more especially as Jacob, in the future blessing
which he gives to his son Judah, adverts to wine as
a part of his portion; and our Saviour and the
Jewish nation are in several parts of Scripture pre-
figured by the vine. We must observe also, that,
when the harvest of the earth is reaped, in the
fourteenth chapter of Revelations, the reaping of
the earth, and gathering of the vine of the earth,
are each performed by a different angel: and as
these two in-gatherings are distinct, so, we must
infer, are the people to whom they relate.
GENESIS, CHAP. XXViii.
Ver. 1. "And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed
him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou
shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.
Ver. 2. "Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house
of Bethuel thy mother's father; and take thee a
a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban, thy
mother's brother.
Ver. 3. "And God Almighty bless thee, and
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CONCERNING ESAU.
make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou
mayest be a multitude of people;
Ver. 4. "And give thee the blessing of Abra-
ham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that
thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a
stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.
Ver. 5. "And Isaac sent away Jacob and
he went to Padan-aram, unto Laban, son of Be-
thuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's
and Esau's mother.
Ver. 6. “ When Esau saw
Esau saw that Isaac had
blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padan-aram,
to take him a wife from thence; and that, as he
blessed him, he gave him a charge, saying,
Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of
Canaan ;
Ver. 7. "And that Jacob obeyed his father and
his mother, and was gone to Padan-aram ;
Ver. 8. "And Esau seeing that the daugh-
ters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father;
Ver. 9. "Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and
took unto the wives which he had, Mahalath the
daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of
Nebajoth, to be his wife."
Thus Esau is shown to be incorporated with
Ishmael, who, though blessed of God as a great
nation, has been carefully noted as born after the
flesh, and who married in the line of Ham. Ish-
mael's country also is much marked, both in Scrip-
CONCERNING ESAU.
71
ture and in profane history: while the mountains of
Seir, bordering upon his territories, remain such
immoveable monuments of Esau's early station,
and one of his last appellations Edom, that no diffi-
culty can arise upon that subject. Great care
also is taken to mark to us the different principles
upon which the two brothers contracted their very
different alliances. Jacob acted from pure obedi-
ence, and Esau, in the two first instances, from
grievous disobedience. Afterwards, indeed, when
he saw that Jacob was approved of by his parents,
because he took not of the Canaanitish women, he
also, in order to obtain some share of approbation,
took another wife, but even she was not within the
line of the heavenly inheritance; from which we
may infer that there was a positive bar against the
connection.
This third wife was Mahalath the daughter of
Ishmael, of whom Sarah had declared that he
should not inherit with Isaac. All Esau's wives
are thus shown to be without the pale of the hea-
venly inheritance; and upon what account can we
suppose that Scripture would be so particular in
mentioning who Esau's three wives were, unless it
was at the same time to denote in what line his
posterity was to be considered?
This daughter of Ishmael is also twice mentioned
as the sister of Nebaioth, Ishmael's eldest son;
which peculiarity of twice adverting to her brother's
name, may be a leading intimation of what is most
7
72
CONCERNING ESAU.
probable, that Esau's descendants by her might, by
way of distinguishing them from his descendants
by his other wives, be termed Nabatheans, or Ara-
bians. The mountains of Seir traversed a part of
Arabia, and from thence might Esau's descendants.
by Nebaioth's sister have spread into the interior
of that country, under the name of Nabatheans.
These were a distinguished people in Arabia, of
whom the Universal History gives the following
account :-" Among the ancient Greeks and
Romans, the inhabitants of Arabia Petræa and
Arabia Deserta, at least the bulk of them, for many
ages went by the names of Arabes and Nabatai.
They extended themselves, according to St. Jerome,
from the Red Sea to the Euphrates, and all the
tract they inhabited was from them denominated
Nabatana. In after ages, the names of all the
nations here touched upon, were absorbed in that
of Saracens, which continued famous for several
centuries over the eastern and western parts of the
world'."
As far back as profane history reaches, the
Arabians, that is the Edomites and the Ishmaelites,
have been known as Pagans and idolaters. In the
New Testament, Ishmael is strongly marked as
born after the flesh, and a persecutor; and Esau is
described as the profane Esau, and Edom, against
whom the Lord hath indignation for ever.
1
¹ History of the Arabs, p. 248.
On
CONCERNING ESAU.
73
what account then can we conceive that the junc-
tion of two such families as those of Ishmael and
Esau, should be so minutely recorded in the early
prophecies of Scripture, unless it was for the espe-
cial purpose of exciting our attention, and warning
us that the coalescence was of a portentous nature,
and virtually pregnant with future consequences to
the world? And as the New Testament resumes
the subject with elucidations, it is natural to con-
clude that their descendants are actors in the pre-
dicted warfare of the Christian period. Ishmael's
descendants have been obvious in Arabia to this
day; and the chief¹ of the prophets show, that
Esau or Edom will reach down to, and be in action
during, the last times.
But, in taking up the course of Esau from the
beginning, it will be necessary to examine his
blessing, to see whether, from the intimations given
there, we cannot find some corresponding traces of
him in the world, both before and after he became
obscured under that veil, which is acknowledged to
exist when it is said, "How are the things of Esau
searched out; how are his hidden things sought
up." And in Jeremiah xlix. 10. "But I have
made Esau bare. I have uncovered his secret
places, and he shall not be able to hide himself."
Before the second century Esau's name
forgotten in Mount Seir and Idumæa, and in the
1 ¹ Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, and Malachi.
74
CONCERNING ESAU.
thirty-eighth Psalm he is classed with the Ishmael-
ites, with whom he had intermarried. Now, as the
lapse of many centuries had given time to his des-
cendants by Ishmael's daughter to pervade the in-
terior of Arabia under the name of Nabatheans',
may it not be useful to observe upon Ishmael's
blessing as well as upon Esau's, in order to see
whether, in the leading features of each, we may
not find prototypes of some of the great events
which originated in Arabia? These, we have
stated in the beginning of this chapter, have never
hitherto been recognised as fulfilments of the inti-
mations in Esau's blessing, because it was never
considered that he was virtually in that country,
while in vain did commentators search in Ishmael's
blessing for hints of the great dominion, which,
under the Saracens, so notoriously spread from
Arabia.
"The Saracens, or Nabatheans, possessed that part of Arabia
Felix bordering upon Arabia Petræa and Arabia Deserta; but
what was the extent of this territory we are not informed."
Universal History, vol. xvi. p. 255.
"The Cophtonim and Khorites, occupying the hilly district
about Mount Seir, though very ancient, never made any consider-
able figure. The posterity of Edom, who, after their excision,
seized upon the tract they inhabited, in process of time intermix-
ing with the proper Arabs, formed one people with them; but
neither do the present Arabs esteem Esau or Edom as one of the
real founders of their nation." Universal Hist. vol. xvi. p. 266.
It is elsewhere observed that the Arraceni and Saraceni of the
ancients were the same people.
CONCERNING ESAU.
75
Ishmael's blessing denotes him to be an archer,
a robber, a wild man; and it intimates that his
descendants will become a great nation. His
twelve princes, however, indicate only petty chiefs;
and such a sort of government (exclusive of the
great dominion of the Saracens,) has always pre-
vailed in Arabia. This brings us to examine Esau's
blessing, he being another Patriarch of the same
country. "By thy SWORD shalt thou live." In the
first instance Esau acquired the mountains of Seir
by the sword; and his descendants, as Idumæans,
were decidedly of a military character, and served
the Israelites as auxiliary troops. So far, however,
were they, in their character of Idumæans, from
breaking Jacob's yoke from off their necks, that, in
the time of David, king of Israel; "He put garri-
sons in Edom: throughout all Edom put he gar-
risons and all they of Edom became David's
servants." (2 Sam. viii. 14.) This was certainly
a fulfilment of the prophecy that Esau should serve
his brother, but, in the course of time, the posterity
of Esau ceased to be the mark of observation, and
their very name, as before mentioned from Bishop
Newton, was forgotten in the second century.
Even the site of their ancient capital, Petra, was
not known for some hundred years, till that long
deserted scene of rocks and sepulchres was disco-
vered by Burkhardt, in his travels through Syria, a
few years since. But, although thus forgotten by
76
CONCERNING ESAU.
the world, we must not for one moment conceive
that the posterity of such a subject of prophetic
delineation as Esau, described so remarkably in the
thirty-sixth chapter of Genesis, can really become
extinct in all his three branches before the last
days. In his blessing also he is at some period to
have a dominion. This must be a dominion of
notoriety, or it would not have been predicted. It
is true that involvement in other tribes, migration,
or change of denomination, may have obscured the
three departments of his race, but dominion having
been promised to him, it must rise up somewhere
in his lineage.
The Jewish Rabbis trace Edom to Rome, and
ancient history shows that a colony of Itureans
came from the earliest times, and settled in Italy.
The greater prophets have shown that red Edom
is to be in action in the last days. And, as the
three marked branches of red Esau's descendants
can (according to the permission which the red
horses of Zechariah obtained,) "walk to and fro
through the earth 1", we may still look for some
"And the bay went forth, and sought to go that they might
walk to and fro through the earth: and he said, Get you hence,
walk to and fro through the earth. So they walked to and fro
through the earth. Chap. vi. 7.
In the book of Job, and in a scene certainly passing upon
the earth, Satan appears before the Lord, and, upon being
questioned, answers, "that he had been walking to and fro in th
earth."
CONCERNING ESAU.
77
further discovery of their occasionally different
positions upon earth, according to the promise that
"Esau shall be made so bare that he shall not be
able to hide himself." Having stated that the
learned Jewish Rabbis have expressed their belief
that there is a mystic connection between Rome and
Edom, it may be added that some human probabili-
ties are to be found in Brydone', that a grandson of
"Next to Chamaseno, Palermo is generally supposed to be the
most ancient city in Sicily. Indeed there still remain some monu-
ments that carry its origin to the times of the most remote anti-
quity. A bishop of Lucera has wrote on this subject. He is
clearly of opinion that Palermo was founded in the days of the
first patriarchs. You will laugh at this ;-so do I:-but the
bishop does not go to work upon conjecture only : he supports his
opinion with such proofs as I own to you staggered me a good
deal. A Chaldean inscription was discovered about six hundred
years ago on a block of white marble. It was in the reign of
William II., who ordered it to be translated into Latin and
Italian. The bishop says there are many fragments in Palermo,
with broken inscriptions in this language, and seems to think it
beyond a doubt that the city was founded by the Chaldeans in
the very early ages of the world. This is the literal transla-
tion:- During the time that Isaac, the son of Abraham,
reigned in the valley of Damascus, and Esau, the son of Isaac, in
Idumea, a great number of Hebrews, accompanied by many of
the people of Damascus, and many Phoenicians, coming into this
triangular island, took up their habitation in this most beautiful
place, to which they gave the name of Panormus."" Brydone,
vol. ii. p. 263.
"The bishop translated another Chaldean inscription, which is
indeed a great curiosity. It is still preserved, though not with
that care that so valuable a monument of antiquity deserves. It
78
CONCERNING ESAU.
Esau and a colony of Chaldeans did settle in
Sicily. Our first pursuit, however, must be after
that division, which appeared to spring up in
Arabia, under the name of Saracens. For no
is placed over one of the old gates of the city, and when that gate
falls to ruin, it will probably be for ever lost. The translation is
in Latin, but I shall give it you in English :-'There is no other
God but one God. There is no other power but this same God.
There is no other conqueror but this God whom we adore. The
commander of this Tower is Saphu, the son of Eliphaz, son of
Esau, brother of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham. The
name of the tower is Baych, and the name of the neighbouring
tower is Pharat.'
"These two inscriptions seem to reflect a mutual light upon
each other. Fazzelo has preserved them both, and remarks upon
this last that it appears evidently from it, that the tower of Baych
was built antecedent, to the time of Saphu, (or as he translates it,
Zephu), who is only mentioned as commander of the Tower, but
not as its founder. Part of the ruins of this tower still remain
and many Chaldean inscriptions have been found among them....
Conversing on this subject the other night with a gentleman who
is well versed in the antiquities of this place, he assured me, in
respect to the original name given to Palermo, that Pan-ormus
or something very nearly of the same sound, signified in the
Chaldean language, and likewise in the Hebrew, a paradise, or
delicious garden. He added too, that Panormus was likewise an
Arabic word, and signified this water; which probably was the
reason that the Saracens did not change its name, as they have
done that of almost every thing else; as this is as applicable, and
as expressive of the situation of Palermo, as any of the other ety-
mologies; it being surrounded on all sides with beautiful fountains
of the purest water, the natural consequence of the vicinity of the
mountains."-Brydone, vol. ii. p. 264.
EL
CONCERNING ESAU.
79
sooner had Esau's descendants ceased to be noted
by their own name in Idumæa, than there was seen
rising in the adjoining land, (a country marked out
by Scripture, as the original station of Ishmael's
and Esau's posterity), a religious power at once
warlike, profane, and persecuting, the three brand-
ing marks of Ishmael and Esau. And this power
became a great dominion, the very fulfilment we
have been taught to look for in Esau's blessing.
Still it must eventually be a transitory dominion,
because the prime blessing of Isaac had made
Jacob lord over him; and the words, as they run,
denote that the dominion was an adventitious cir-
cumstance. "It shall come to pass, that WHEN thou
shalt have the dominion, his yoke shall pass from off
thy neck.'
It is well known to history, that, du-
ring the destructive tyranny of the Romans in the
first century, and the subsequent dominion of the
Saracens in the seventh, there was no yoke of the
Jews left upon any of the inhabitants of Idumæa or
Arabia. King David's people no longer had gar-
risons throughout all Edom. The yoke had passed
away.
But, to return to Ishmael and Esau. They had
both been excluded from the heavenly inheritance,
the one by Sarah's approved denunciation, and the
other by the sale of his birthright, and also by the
loss of his blessing on the authority of his mother,
Rebekah, an authority certainly sanctioned to our
80
CONCERNING ESAU.
These
apprehension by the example of Sarah's approved
authority over the succession of her son.
two Arabian patriarchs, Ishmael and Esau, were
therefore both inimical to the true inheritors.
Ishmael was shown to be mocking from the first,
and is in the New Testament said to be a per-
secutor of those born of the promise. (Galatians,
iv. 29.)
And Esau (Genesis xxvii. 41.) hated his brother
Jacob, and purposed in his heart to slay him at
some distant period. But as neither Ishmael nor
Esau appear to have hurt either Isaac or Jacob,
during the term of their own natural lives, it is in
the future deeds of their disappointed progeny that
we must look for the fulfilment of their persecution
and hatred. Accordingly, in the sixth century, by
means of the forgeries of the self-constituted
prophet of Arabia, "the tabernacles of Edom, and
the Ishmaelites" (Psalm lxxxiii.) were enabled,
sword in hand, to deny, in part, the authenticity of
God's ancient covenant with his chosen people the
Jews; and also, in part, that of the new covenant
of his Son with the Christians. Assuming to them-
selves the superiority, and thus claiming to be the
true heritors, they endeavoured to set aside both
the Old and the New Testament of God, and the
blessings of Abraham and Isaac, their natural
fathers, and enforced their pretensions with the
sword and persecution from the very beginning.
CONCERNING ESAU.
81
Gibbon speaks of the implacable hatred of Mahomet
against the Jews, and of the consequent persecution
which he instituted against them; and it is surely
remarkable that this talented but sceptical historian
should have used, upon this occasion, the very term
by which the New Testament designates the con-
duct of Ishmael, in the epistle to the Galatians,-
"But as then he that was born after the flesh,
PERSECUTED him that was born after the spirit, even
so it is now."
In the Old Testament, Ishmael's descendants
are marked as archers, and, in Jacob's blessing to
Joseph, he says, at the 23rd verse, "The ARCHERS
have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and
hated him." The records of history show how
truly this was fulfilled by the Saracens upon the
Jews. But if we only consider one terrific instance,
mentioned by Gibbon, which will be more fully
stated hereafter, of seven hundred true Israelites
having been burnt alive by Mahomet, because they
would not desert their fathers' covenant, are we
not, according to the purpose of remote fulfilments,
unavoidably reminded of the old hatred, and the
purpose of Esau to slay Jacob when his father
should be dead? In fact, did not Esau's continued
hatred break out when his progeny got the domin-
ion hinted at in his blessing? Was not that bles-
sing apparently fulfilled by the Saracen's dominion?
And is not the persecuting spirit evinced to this day,
G
82
CONCERNING ESAU.
in the disdainful behaviour of every Mahometan to
both Jews and Christians? The common term for
the latter is Christian dog.
If, upon research, it is found to be probable, that
the martial spirit of Esau, operating in the Naba-
thæan division of his descendants, was the spring of
that warlike disposition which suddenly arose in
Arabia, and produced the Saracenic conquests in
the seventh and eighth centuries, shall we not see
the fulfilment of the sword, and the dominion, given
to Esau in Isaac's blessing, some thousand years.
before? For by contrasting the two blessings, we
find that Esau has a sword but no wine, and Jacob
has wine but no sword; in accordance with which,
at this day, the Israelites have decidedly no sword,
and the Mahometans have no wine, being by funda-
mental law prohibited from using it. And, surely,
that remarkable prohibition of wine in the Mahom-
etan code, if we proceed under the apprehension,
that Esau was incorporated in Arabia, will clearly
show his necessary obedience to the original man-
date of Isaac; who, after telling him that he had
made Jacob lord over him, proceeds to say, that he
had also sustained Jacob with corn and wine; and
as if this comprised all that was most essential,
adds pathetically, " And what can I do now unto
thee, my son?" The corn and wine therefore,
as far as concerns the mode in whtch Isaac meant
to confer them, are really given away from Esau ;
CONCERNING ESAU.
83
and we must conclude that his posterity cannot be
sustained by them in the same especial manner in
which Jacob's posterity can'; and that corn and
wine were bestowed upon Jacob's posterity, in an
especial, or mystic manner, is evident from the
certainty, that the dew of heaven, and the fatness of
the earth, which Isaac had conferred upon both the
brothers alike, would in a common way afford it to
each.
We have then to seek, among the remote fulfil-
ments, for some statements which may show, that
Isaac's blessing did eventually confer the corn and
wine in an especial, or exclusive manner, úpon
Jacob's posterity.
It is distinctly shown in Scripture, that Ishmael
was born of the flesh; and as distinctly that Esau
was obnoxious to God. He, therefore, could not
be the promised seed, which was to be born of
Isaac. Jacob then must either be the promised
seed himself, or one spiritually born, from whom
the promised seed might descend; and one born of
the Spirit can be spiritually sustained as well as
bodily.
When, therefore we find, that, upon the miracu-
lous deliverance of the posterity of Jacob from
the bondage of Egypt, they were instructed and
enjoined, by the Divine word, to commemorate for
"Thou hast put joy and gladness in my heart, since the
time that their corn, and wine, and oil increased."-Psalm iv. 8.
G 2
84
CONCERNING ESAU.
ever their escape, by the feast of unleavened bread
and the drink offering of wine; do we not perceive
in that ordinance a remote fulfilment of the mystic
blessing of Isaac, when he exclusively endowed
Jacob's posterity with what he termed the suste-
nance of corn and wine? In fact, the ceremony of
taking them at the appointed times, has ever since
cemented that people together, and distinguished
them from all other nations, and no doubt mystically
sustains them. "Thus saith the Lord God; Al-
though I have cast them far off among the heathen,
and although I have scattered them among the
countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary
in the countries where they shall come." (Ezekiel
xi. 16) And, as if in continuation of that Divine
ordinance, when our Saviour, who was descended
in perfect generations from Isaac, dispensed a some-
what new covenant from the bosom of the old-he,
as if in lineal succession, ordained likewise a sacra-
mental memento like unto it, of bread and wine;
by which we of the new covenant might also for
ever commemorate his glorious death, and our
deliverance thereby from the bondage of Satan. It
is true, that the new covenant is as yet more gene-
rally accepted by Gentiles than by Jews, but it
still holds the purport of Isaac's blessing to Jacob,
in the elements of bread and wine. When the
fulness of the Gentiles is come in, and the blindness.
of the Jews removed, they will, upon accepting the
new covenant, and taking the Lord's supper, per-
CONCERNING ESAU.
85
ceive that it is but a slightly varied continuation of
their own feast of unleavened bread, and the drink
offering of wine; in which, by the way, there is
probably that hidden manna promised to him that
overcometh, that is, to him that receiveth worthily.
But THIS bread and wine the Mahometan cannot
taste, or be sustained by, having renounced all
allegiance to either of the covenants of the revealed
God of Abraham. The Mahometan, therefore,
cannot be nourished, or sustained, by those ordi-
nances which conferred the predicted corn and wine
upon Jacob. And thus do the posterities of Ish-
mael and Esau remain beyond the pale of the
inheritance, which Sarah originally declared that
Ishmael should do, and which inheritance Rebekah
afterwards prevented Esau from obtaining: while
we of the new covenant, instructed by our Lord
himself, pray daily for bread, according to the
information given to us in St. John, chap. vi.
Ver. 32. "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that
bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the
true bread from heaven.
Ver. 33. "For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the
world.
Ver. 34. "Then said they unto him, Lord,
evermore give us this bread."
It has been already suggested, that, in Isaac's
much prized blessing of corn, we may perhaps
86
CONCERNING ESAU.
include the hidden manna more openly promised
in the New Testament to him that overcometh.
The overcoming of evil is a task proposed to us,
for our benefit, from the beginning of Scripture to
the end; nothing, therefore, but gross self-decep-
tion, can keep us either ignorant, or slothful, or
indifferent to the blessed victory, which we may
obtain if we choose to strive for it.
The whole chapter of Obadiah treats upon the
subject of Edom and his confederacy, describing
it apparently in the different stages of its course.
First, in the 2nd verse, as thus: "Behold, I
have made thee small among the heathen; thou
art greatly despised." Then, in the 3rd verse,
giving intimations of a dominion, which, "the
Lord will bring down;" adding, at the 6th verse,
the following corroboration of Jeremiah's informa-
tion, concerning the future discoveries to be made
with respect to Esau, "How are the things of
Esau searched out! how are his hidden things
sought up!" And the last verse of this explicit
chapter says, “And saviours shall come up on
Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the
kingdom shall be the Lord's!"
•
The 14th verse of the thirty-fifth chapter of
Ezekiel, also, when addressing Mount Seir, appa-
rently alludes to the end of the world, as thus:
"When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make
thee desolate." There are many other passages
in the Old Testament to the same purport; and
CONCERNING ESAU.
87
the New Testament declares in confirmation that
a man of sin will be revealed in the last days.
"Let no man deceive you by any means; for that
day shall not come, except there come a falling
away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the
son of perdition."
This revealing seems to answer to the previous
declaration in the Old Testament, where it is said,
that Esau shall be made so bare, that he shall not be
able to hide himself. And all doubt of his identity
as Edom is, as before mentioned, provided against
in the thirty-sixth chapter of Genesis.
1 2 Thess. ii. 3.
CHAPTER IV.
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
"I always read the Scriptures," said an aged and pious divine,
as if they were a new book, and I had never read them in my
life before,—as a book by which I am one day to be tried."
The widely extended apostasy, which, in spite of the agency of Noah, succeeded
the Deluge, argues a spirit of active rebellion still existing in the world, p. 90.
-Bondage of the people of God. p. 91.-Their complaints as set forth in the
Psalms, p. 91.-Twelfth of Revelations, p. 93.-Two distinct sections visible
in this chapter, betokening either different periods, or different stations, of
the persecutions of the church, p. 95.-The first unfolds a scene which passes
in heaven, and appears to describe the resistance of Satan to the birth of
Christ, and his being cast out in consequence upon the earth, p. 95.—The se-
cond relates scenes which really pass upon earth, and the station points us to
Rome, p. 96.-Antichristian spirit there. This corroborated even by Gibbon,
p. 96.-Quotation from the Pictorial Bible showing the original Romans to
have been a colony of Edomites, p. 97.—Similar idea brought forward by
Brydone, and by the authors of the Ancient History, p. 98.-Corroborated
by Isaac's blessing to Esau, p. 98.-The red horse in the Revelations, p.
99.—Probable cause of the dragon's enmity, p. 100.-Satan's doubt of our
Lord's identity, p. 101.-Division of opinion upon that identity in different
descriptions of persons, p. 101.-Mahometanism Satan's device to lower our
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
89
Saviour after the decline of Paganism, p. 103.-Mahomet's implacability
against the Jews. Inconsistency of this with his professed design, that of
extirpating Idolatry, p. 103.-A preternatural enmity and antichristian spirit
discernible in his religion, p. 105.-The dragon gives his power and strength
to a new beast, p. 105.-The dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, dis-
tinctly named in the sixteenth of Revelations, p. 106.-The restricted power
of the antichristian party, p. 107.-The events related in the Book of Reve-
lations future to the birth of Christianity, p. 107.-The destruction of Jeru-
salem, the ten persecutions, and the violence of the Mahometan warriors, p.
108.—The last of these fulfils the woe mentioned in the 10th verse of the
third chapter, p. 108.—Antichrist, a character attributed to the Pope, but
more applicable to Mahomet, p. 109.-Quotation from Newton on the Pro-
phecies, containing a statement of the opinions of the Fathers respecting
Antichrist, p. 110.-Probable reason why this character was attributed to the
Pope, p. 113.
IT has already been remarked, in a note at the
commencement of the chapter on the Metallic
Image, that the Revelation of St. John appears to
relate the subjects of a prophetic book, which was
opened in the fifth chapter, while, at the 10th
verse of the last chapter, St. John is informed that
the sayings of the prophecy of this book were not
to be sealed, because the time was at hand. We
have seen, on the contrary, that when Daniel wrote
five hundred years before St. John's time, he was
expressly told that his prophecies were shut up and
sealed till the time of the end. Now we are at pre-
sent entering upon a series of prophecy written in
the year of our Lord 96; and his atoning death is
often adverted to as having taken place. We are
therefore clearly in the Christian period, or time of
the end, when the words of Daniel may begin to be
90
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
unclosed.
Commentators, indeed, have already
observed, that, upon the opening of the seals, there
issues from some of them a chronological series of
events reaching from the beginning of the Christian
æra to the end of the world. The venturous en-
deavour therefore must still be, to see how far
their abstruse relations synchronize with, or in any
degree illustrate, those latter parts of the more
concise prophecies of the Old Testament, which
appear to be prototypes.
The brief remarks, which were made in the
second chapter, upon the dark and heathen times
of Daniel's predicted empires, joined to the corro-
borations of profane history, cannot fail to convince
us that those empires were, from the first com-
mencement of the new world till the dawn of
Christianity, without any authorized knowledge of
God. Now, when we remember that Noah, a
preacher of righteousness, was God's agent to con-
duct the selected remnant of the human race from
the ark, the widely extended apostasy, which suc-
ceeded the Deluge, argues of itself that there must
have been active rebellion, and that the spirit of
men, specifically so called, still strove against God.
It is true that Shem, of the blessed God, was
among them; but Satan reigned for his permitted
and avowed term, and Shem either could not, or
was not intended to, be distinguished under such a
cloud.
The first city that was founded was by Nimrod,
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
91
whose name signifies rebellion. In the mean time,
the whole Israel of God were in bondage. None
of these things however are unnoted by Scripture.
Thus in Isaiah lx. 2, we read,-" For behold the
darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness
the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and
his glory shall be seen upon thee." The complaints
of the long-suffering community of God's people
are abundantly perceptible in the Psalms; and the
eighty-ninth Psalm appears to relate the terms of
the covenant originally made by the Deity with his
servant David (figuring the Messiah) concerning
his community of people or children; and appa-
rently the surname of Israel was given to Jacob,
that the general community of Christ's people
might occasionally be alluded to under that appel-
lation, in contradistinction to the deceived adherents
of Satan, who are often alluded to as men. The
exclusive sons of Adam, oppressed by Satan's long
predominance, may be found to utter their peni-
tence, their supplications, their overwhelming sor-
rows, and their abhorrence of the enemies of God,
in some of the following Psalms; and many more
might be adduced. "O God, how long shall the
adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme
thy name for ever?" Psalm lxxiv. 10. Why
withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand?
pluck it out of thy bosom." 11th verse.
11th verse. (In the
translation in the Book of Common Prayer, "why
pluckest thou not thy right hand out of thy bosom to
(C
92
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
consume the enemy ?") In the 1st verse of the
fifty-seventh Psalm, "Be merciful unto me, O God,
be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee:
yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make
my refuge, until these calamities be overpast"
("until this tyranny be overpast;" Prayer Book
Translation). In Psalm xviii. 27, 28. "For thou
wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down
high looks" ("the high looks of the proud:"
Common Prayer). "For thou wilt light my candle,
the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness"
("make my darkness to be light" Common Prayer.)
This was the foreseen light of the Gospel. So
Isaiah, in the 1st and 2nd verses of his fortieth
chapter, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith
your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned." And again, in the
1st verse of the sixtieth chapter, "Arise, shine, for
thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is
risen upon thee.” And once more, in the 9th
verse of the twenty-fifth chapter, "And it shall
be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have
waited for him, and he will save us this is the
Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and
rejoice in his salvation.”
We may therefore now resort to the New Tes-
tament for some elucidations concerning the be-
ginning of this promised emancipation.
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
93
REVELATIONS, CHAP. Xii.
Ver. 1. "And there appeared a great wonder in
heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the
moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown
of twelve stars:
Ver. 2. "And she, being with child, cried, tra-
vailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Ver. 3. "And there appeared another wonder
in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having
seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon
his heads.
Ver. 4. "And his tail drew the third part of
the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the
earth and the dragon stood before the woman
which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her
child as soon as it was born.
Ver. 5." And she brought forth a man child,
who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron:
and her child was caught up unto God, and to his
throne.
Ver. 6. "And the woman fled into the wilder-
ness, where she hath a place prepared of God,
that they should feed her there a thousand, two
hundred and threescore days.
Ver. 7. "And there was war in heaven: Mi-
chael and his angels fought against the dragon;
and the dragon fought and his angels,
Ver. 8. "And prevailed not; neither was their
place found any more in heaven.
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TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
Ver. 9. "And the great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out
into the earth, and his angels were cast out with
him.
Ver. 10. "And I heard a loud voice saying in
heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and
the kingdom of our God, and the power of his
Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast.
down, which accused them before our God day
and night.
Ver. 11. "And they overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their
testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the
death.
Ver. 12. "Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye
that dwell in them, Woe to the inhabiters of the
earth, and of the sea! for the devil is come down
unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth
that he hath but a short time.
Ver. 13. "And when the dragon saw that he
was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman
which brought forth the man child.
Ver. 14. "And to the woman were given two
wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the
wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished
for a time, and times, and half a time, from the
face of the serpent.
Ver. 15. "And the serpent cast out of his
mouth water as a flood after the woman, that
8
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
95
he might cause her to be carried away of the
flood.
Ver. 16. "And the earth helped the woman,
and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed
up the flood which the dragon cast out of his
mouth.
Ver. 17. "And 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."
This chapter is evidently the beginning of a
subject, and it was written in the first century of
the Christian æra. It may therefore appropriately
narrate and symbolize the birth of Christianity,
with the well-known perils and flight of the mother
church, to whose tribulations an epoch is thus
given. There being, however, two sections in this
chapter, the first relating a scene passing in heaven
and the second one passing upon the earth, we
must be aware that either different periods or dif-
ferent stations may be meant. In the first, we
have, as was seen in the beginning of the world, a
manifest and terrific portrait of an evil spirit, which
is known to be the old serpent of the third of Ge-
nesis, by his continued enmity to the woman, and
her seed, the church. The subject of this chapter
is therefore evidently a link of the same chain
which began with the history of the fall. And as
this scene is marked as passing in heaven, it may
be an allegorical representation of that dissent,
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TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
and consequent war, described in the 7th verse,
which we may suppose consecutively to have taken
place, when Satan foresaw that the birth of Christ
upon earth would be the means of promulgating
that efficient religion, which was calculated to des-
troy his works, and the dominion which he claimed
in the world, and which he had enjoyed all through
the preceding empires from the time of Babylon.
He and his angels would therefore certainly oppose
such a birth; and, being vanquished, were cast
out into the earth, where, it is added in the 12th
verse, great woe will be the consequence to the in-
habiters of the earth.
The second section, beginning at the 13th
verse, appears to relate scenes which really pass
upon the earth, but, the chief actor having been
designated in heaven by certain attributes, we
know the station from which he acted in the
world. The great woe, foretold at the 12th
verse, must be looked upon as fulfilled upon the
Christian Church, by the persecutions emanating
from the seven hills of Rome, that is, from the
power of the dragon.
of the dragon. We cannot indeed account
for those inhuman persecutions upon any other
principle, because the Roman government was leni-
ent to every other form of religion. This of itself
indicates that there was an antichristian spirit
within it. Even the acute Mr. Gibbon is at a loss
to account upon common principles for the great
and sanguinary violence of the Roman government
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
97
against the primitive Christians, to the purity and
sufferings of whom he bears ample testimony.
And when, in the second chapter of the Revelations,
and at the 10th verse, the church is warned of
its troubles for ten days, (the ten persecutions,)
can we fail to perceive the prescience of that
statement, written as it was in the first century of
the Christian æra?
We shall here transcribe a passage from the
notes of the Pictorial Bible, on the thirty-sixth
chapter of Genesis, 9th verse. The subject has
been already alluded to in the chapter concerning
Esau, but it seems desirable to state it more fully
here.
"Perhaps we ought not to conclude this article,
without noticing the belief entertained by the
Jews and Mohammedans, that the original Romans
were a colony of Edomites. Their accounts some-
what differ as to times and persons, but they agree
in substance; and are all doubtless derived from
the same source-the teaching of the Rabbins.
Hence the Jews apply to Rome whatever the
prophets say of the destruction of Edom in the
latter times. The Talmud calls Italy and Rome
'the cruel empire of Edom.' The Mohammedans
consider that both the Greeks and Latins are
descended from Roum, the son of Esau; but it
does not appear from the chapter before us, that
Esau had any such son."
H
98
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1
There is in Brydone an account of an inscrip-
tion upon a marble block, dug up among the ruins
of a fort in Messina, stating that Eliphaz, son of
Esau, Jacob's brother, commanded that fort. Ac-
cording to Brydone, an Italian Bishop has written
a pamphlet upon the subject. It is found likewise
in the Ancient History, vol. ii. p. 242, that the Um-
brians were one of those early colonies which first
came to Italy out of Asia; and, at page 252, that
the language used in Umbria and Etruria,
savoured of the remotest antiquity, most of the
Tuscan words being of oriental extraction. Now,
it has been shown, in the preceding chapter, that
Esau is as strongly marked in prophecy as Jacob.
He is four times marked to be Edom, as we have
seen, in one chapter, the thirty-sixth of Genesis.
Now, red Edom is, from the first book of the Old
Testament to the last, a beacon name for a
division of the Antichristian power, which is to
pervade this world to the end of it. We have seen
it recorded that Esau married three wives, but
all of them were without the pale of the chosen
race, and of his posterity the most inwrapt pro-
phecies were delivered a thousand years after his
personal appearance upon earth. Isaac's pregnant
blessing to him was, "By thy sword thou shalt
live." If then, in Italy, one of red Esau's three
branches did take root, it would naturally follow
1
¹ See the note in the preceding chapter, p. 77.
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
99
that they would rise up swordsmen. The mystery
of Esau's important history, having been already
considered, need not be introduced here, but the
learned Jewish Rabbins, having perceived that there
is a secret connection between Rome and Edom,
we cannot but be greatly struck by the portrait of
the dragon, here characteristically marked by the
red colour, and the seven hills of Rome, in a book of
prophecy which the Jews never read.
To the rider of the red horse in the second seal,
(Rev. vi. 4.) a great sword was given, and it was
allowed him to take peace from the earth. This
corresponds with the great woe foretold at the
twelfth verse, and still keeps in view the mystic
colour and the warlike disposition of Esau's
progeny. It may therefore here be useful to
advert to the symbolic horses of Zechariah, which
will be more fully treated of in future. It is found,
in the 7th verse of the sixth chapter, that the
bay (or red) horses sought, and had reluctant leave,
to walk to and fro through the earth, so that
their power was not to be stationary; and accord-
ing to this liberty given to the red horses, we shall
find that the red dragon gives his power, and his
seat, unto a beast like unto a leopard in the next
chapter.
Ver. 17. "And 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."
H 2
100
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
The dragon therefore will make war, both upon
those who keep the commandments of God, the
Jews; and also upon those who have the testimony
of Jesus Christ, that is, the Christians. According
to this prediction, the Roman power first destroyed
Jerusalem in the year 70, and then proceeded with
the endeavour to extirpate the "bleeding remnant" of
the Christian Church. And, for the enmity of such
a device, we may see a further cause in the New
Testament. In the fourth chapter of Luke we
find that our Lord was tempted of Satan, and our
excellent Bishop Porteus has, in his lectures, given
it as his opinion, that the transaction passed lite-
rally upon this earth, as we know that our Lord
was literally upon it at the time, “And the Devil
said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, com-
mand this stone that it be made bread." (Ver. 3.)—
"And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him
on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If
thou be the son of God, cast thyself down from
hence." (Ver. 9.)—Now, although it would not per-
haps be justifiable to deduce from these two verses
that Satan was not quite certain of the identity of
Christ, yet the supposition of the fact would har-
monize with several other parts of Scripture, where
secrecy is enjoined, and mystery acknowledged to
exist, till after the crucifixion, by which our re-
demption was ensured, had taken place. Our
Saviour frequently desires secrecy; and admitting
that there were two communities of people in
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
101
Jerusalem, the one being perfect in their genera-
tions, and the other contaminated by their inter-
mixture with the forbidden Canaanitish nations,
we must see the reason for a discriminating disclo-
sure concerning the mission and person of Christ.
The intimation of his Advent upon earth had been
so deeply inwrapt in the Old Testament, and
further so closely inshrined by the long course of
four thousand years, that Satan himself might have
been kept in doubt about the exact time of his
appearance; and this might have been ordered by
the wise counsels of God, lest he, whose extreme
subtilty had effected the fall of man, should again
interfere to obstruct his redemption. Thus St.
Paul says, (1 Cor. ii. 7, 8.) "We speak the
wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden
wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto
our glory which none of the princes of this world
knew: for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory.'
Caiaphas the high priest was so anxious about
the identity of our Saviour, that he says, (Mat.
xxvi. 63.) "I adjure thee by the living God, that
thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son
of God." In harmony with the view here taken,
we find that the answer to questioners was some-
times clear, and at other times perfectly evasive.
The division of the people also, in point of opinion,
concerning the identity of our Lord, is often men-
tioned in the Gospels. Still Jesus Christ had said
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"My sheep know my voice," and this was sufficient
for the purpose of calling those to whom he chose
to disclose himself. His humble station in life
indicates that he meant only to be partially known
till the crucifixion had taken place.
(Luke iv. 8.) "And Jesus answered and said
unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is
written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and him only shalt thou serve."
From all this we are permitted to see plainly
that Satan was in an active state of rebellion
against God; and desirous to gain the acquiescence
of our Lord in his pretensions, as well as to induce
him to fall down and worship him. We are not
indeed given to understand the previous circum-
stances of the case, but when Satan asserts that
the dominion of this world had been delivered to
him, and when our Lord does not deny the state-
ment, but afterwards styles him Prince of this
world, we certainly receive positive information of
that fact, and it is in accordance with many other
passages in Scripture. Jesus, however, having
utterly rejected the proffered temptation, it is
obvious, that the dominion remained in Satan's
possession. Having therefore such power and
strength in his hands, it was to be expected that a
disappointed spirit, rebellious, subtile, and ambi-
tious, would resort to some device, some mighty
scheme, by which to lower our Saviour, and still to
arrogate worship to himself. In the seventh cen-
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
103
tury, consequently, when Paganism began to fail
before the Gospel, the wonderful project of Ma-
hometanism arose, and was evidently calculated,
first to degrade the Saviour, and then to extermi-
nate Christianity. The pretence indeed was to
abolish idolatry, but, had that been the really pious
intent, the religion of the Jews would have been all
sufficient; but they also were required to adulterate
their ancient covenant with the revealed God,
which proves that the author of the system in
question was Satan, in a state of rebellion against
him. Thus the opening of the bottomless pit, in
the ninth of Revelations, under the first woe
trumpet, appears to describe that disgorgement of
Satanic agents, which commentators generally
recognise as the prefiguration of the Saracenic
irruptions in the seventh century, when the blas-
phemy of the Mahometan forgery was enforced
at the point of the sword. And this still fulfils
the great woe foretold
foretold at the 12th verse of
this chapter, as all history can testify, while the
self-styled scourgers of idolatry were flourishing in
the glory of a great empire. The fact is that no
extensive scheme of deception can gain credit
sufficient to establish itself, without the plausible
assumption of some virtue to assist it. Mahomet's
personal inplacability against the Jews proved that
idolatry was not his real aim. If retrospect may
be here allowed, it was much more like Esau's long
previous intention to slay his brother Jacob, the
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TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS
promised seed, when opportunity should occur,
for there was no idolatry to act against in the Jews.
And, in stating the probability that enmity was the
cause of Mahomet's hatred against them, we would
refer to the preceding chapter, in which the cir-
cumstance has been stated of Esau's having mar-
ried a daughter of Ishmael, and thereby spreading
a division of his descendants into Arabia.
Of the hatred of the Mahometans against the
Jews, there is ample proof in history. Mr. Gibbon,
having mentioned the refusal of the Jews to become
Mahometans, adds,-" Their obstinacy converted
his (Mahomet's) friendship into implacable hatred,
with which he pursued that unfortunate people to
the last moment of his life: and, in the double
character of an apostle and a conqueror, his per-
secution was extended to both worlds." Among
various instances of that persecution, Gibbon gives
the following:-"Seven hundred Jews were drag-
ged in chains to the market-place of the city;
where they descended alive into the grave prepared
for their execution and burial; and Mahomet
beheld with an inflexible eye the slaughter of his
hapless enemies'."
Had Mahomet been merely a well-meaning
enthusiast acting against idolatry, he would have
honoured the Jews, because they acknowledge
God alone. But surely the very reverse of this is
the case, and a preternatural strength, enmity, and
'Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 304.
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
105
antichristian spirit, is discernible in the whole
procedure and success of such a plain forgery as
the Mahometan religion exhibits, and particularly
when considered with reference to Mahomet's dis-
position to slaughter the Jews.
Some of the chapters of this book (the Revela-
tions) are evidently marked by a system of chrono-
logical order, and, as they draw towards the end,
relate in succession, (although sometimes inter-
spersed with other chapters,) the latter events of
the world; but, as in this twelfth chapter there may
be two successive stages of the Christian church
related, so in the following thirteenth chapter there
may be the portrait of a new power, which arose
during the second stage of it, and which was also
subsequent to the antichristian exertions of the
Pagan Roman Empire, the Dragon, against the mo-
ther church. But the Dragon, it will be found,
gives his power, and his strength, and great autho-
rity, to the new beast, of the next chapter; for if
it is not a new beast, to whom did the dragon
(always supposed to represent the Pagan Roman
Empire) give his power and his strength? Did he
give them to himself? No: that is contravened
by the declining strength of the western empire,
which entirely ceased in 476. But the empire of
the Saracens arose in the next century, and the
attributes of those two empires, when depicted in
their universal states, are so much alike, that the
one may be taken for the other, till history, chro-
106
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
nology, and Scripture, united, shall decide upon the
claim, which one of them certainly has, to fulfil
the portrait of the fourth and last beast of Daniel's
seventh chapter.
The Dragon, the Beast, and the false Prophet,
are distinctly named in the sixteenth chapter, and
that which comes from their mouths is said to be
the spirits of devils; and from circumstances,
which are related, we may infer that these three
antichristian powers sometimes act in conjunction
and sometimes separately. Nor is that supposition
incompatible with the event of their occasionally
acting against each other, whenever the special
controul of an over-ruling Providence shall become
necessary, as indeed is most clearly related in the
seventeenth chapter. That account, however, be-
ing given by one of the angels which pour out the
last plagues, it must only be looked upon here as
an anticipation, useful indeed to the present argu-
ment, but merely showing a future vision of the
beast in his latter revived state, when the conflicts
of the last times are to take place. It gives us the
consolation of seeing that, notwithstanding the ac-
knowledged strength of the antichristian party, the
balance which is finally to be turned against them
is ever in the hand of God. In fact, the like in-
formation concerning the restricted power of the
antichristian party, during the process of our re-
demption under the great captain of our salvation,
is discernible from the first chapter of Genesis to
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
107
the last of the Revelations.-(Revelations xii. 17.)
"And 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."
The Jews keep the commandments of God, and
the Christians have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
It is therefore only a natural inference, that the
blasphemous beast of the next (thirteenth) chapter
is the mighty engine of war, which the deposed
dragon (Satan) went in his power to raise against
them, during his limited term of causing woe upon
the earth, according to the 12th verse of this
chapter.
REVELATIONS, CHAP. i.
Ver. 1. "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which
God gave unto him, to show unto his servants
things which must shortly come to pass; and he
sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant
John:
Ver. 2. "Who bare record of the word of God,
and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all
things that he saw.
Ver. 3. "Blessed is he that readeth, and they
that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep
those things which are written therein for the
time is at hand.”
"For the time is at hand." This surely indicates
that the events to be related in this book are future
108
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
events, that is future to the birth of Christianity.
The destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70, and the
ten persecutions, were the first sufferings of the Chris-
tian æra; and in the seventh century, the Mahometan
warriors entered upon the scene, with a rebellious
doctrine, enforced either at the point of the sword
or by crafty dealings. This again fulfils the great
woe; and apparently continues the type of the man
riding a red horse, to whom a great sword had
been given, with power to take peace from the
earth. The crafty dealings were those terms of
apostacy, offered to the vanquished party, by which
they were compelled either to adopt the Maho-
metan religion or to pay grievous taxes, an inflic-
tion to which Christians are still subjected wherever
the Mahometan power has the ascendancy. This
woe, according to the information given in the
10th verse of the third chapter, was to "come upon
all the world." Now, the Mahometan temptation,
which did come in the seventh century, and was
spread over all the predicted part of the earth, is
well known to modern history. But an immature
prophecy is always liable to be mistaken for the
first object that happens to resemble it, and pre-
cedes the one really portrayed. This appears to
have been the case, when the Fathers of the
second and third centuries looked for the coming
of Antichrist as soon as the Roman Empire should
be taken out of the way, according to a very na-
tural apprehension founded upon the second chap-
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
109
ter of the second epistle to the Thessalonians.
Accordingly, after the fall of the western Roman
Empire, the Pope became such an object of notice
that, when a complete Antichrist subsequently arose
in the person of Mahomet, he was comparatively
little thought of as such. Yet no human creature
ever so palpably, so openly, so undeniably, and so
successfully, opposed himself to the revealed God
and the Saviour, as Mahomet. And it will in due
time appear that he is individually and plainly
pointed out in prophecy. But the Scriptures were
in part locked up, and the Apocalypse quite laid
aside, so that, at the very time when some of the
predictions contained in it were fulfilled, the world
remained entirely ignorant of them. It ought
perhaps here to be adverted to, that when, in the
tenth chapter of that "little book," seven thunders
uttered their voices, St. John was ordered to
"seal up those things which they uttered." Yet, he
is next informed, that, "in the days when the
seventh angel shall begin to sound, the mystery of
God should be finished." Moreover, after St. John
had "eaten up the little book," which he received
from the angel's hand, he was told that he must
"prophesy again¹ before many peoples and nations
1 Does not this clearly denote the latter elucidations of the
Apocalypse? In the eleventh chapter of the Revelations, 1st
and 2nd verses, we read as follows:-" And the angel stood,
saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and
110
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
and tongues." That "again" may therefore mean
the latter elucidations and developments of the
Apocalypse, which ignorance, intolerance, and the
floating wit of the world, had hitherto concurred
in keeping back. But, in the seventeenth century,
the intrepid mind of Sir Isaac Newton pronounced
that, when the Apocalypse should be rightly under-
stood, it would prove a key to all the Ancient
Scriptures.
Of those Scriptures the greatest mystery is the
often mentioned Antichrist.
"The tyrannical power, described by Daniel and
St. Paul, and afterwards by St. John, is, both by
ancients and moderns, generally denominated Anti-
christ. The name began to prevail in St. John's
time. (1 Epist. ii. 18. 22.) As ye have heard
that Antichrist shall come, even now are there
many Antichrists;
Who is a liar but he
•
that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?
He is Anti-
christ, that denieth the Father and the Son.'
(Is
not this a plain description of Mahomet, and quite
inapplicable to the Pope ?)
them that worship therein. But the court which is without the
temple, leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the
Gentiles and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and
two months." Does not this, being a Christian prophecy, appa-
rently describe that department of people, who worshipped the
revealed God, and that department of people, who we know, did,
and do, to this day, trample upon Jerusalem and the holy city of
Christ's church,-the Mahometans?
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
111
6
"Afterwards, (2 Epist. 7, 8.) he styleth him em-
phatically the deceiver and the Antichrist,' and
warneth the Christians to look to themselves.'
"The Fathers too speak of Antichrist, and of
the man of sin, as one and the same person; and
give much the same interpretation that hath here
been given of the whole passage: only it is not to
be supposed that they, who wrote before the events,
could be so very exact in the application of each
particular, as those who have the advantage of
writing after the events.
Justin Martyr, who flourished before the middle
of the second century, considers the man of sin,
or, as he elsewhere calleth him, the man of blas-
phemy, as altogether the same with the little horn
of Daniel. Tertullian, who became famous at the
latter end of the same century, expounding those
words only," he who now letteth will let until he be
taken out of the way," says, who can this be but the
Roman state? ..... And, in his apology, he as-
signs it as a particular reason why the Christians
prayed for the Roman Empire, because they knew
that the greatest calamity hanging over the world
was retarded by the continuance of it.
66
Cyril of Jerusalem, in the same century, alleges
this passage of St. Paul, together with other pro-
phecies concerning Antichrist, and says that This
the predicted Antichrist will come when the times
of the Roman Empire shall be fulfilled.' The
comment upon St. Paul's epistle, which passeth
S
112
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
under the name of St. Ambrose, proposeth much
the same interpretation, and affirms that after the
failing of, or decay of, the Roman Empire, Anti-
christ shall appear.
6
"St. Chrysostom, in one of his homilies upon
this passage, speaking of what hindered the revela-
tion of Antichrist, asserts that when the Roman
Empire shall be taken out of the way, then he
shall come and it is very likely: for, as long as
the dread of this Empire shall remain, no one will
be quickly substituted; but, when this shall be
dissolved, he shall seize on the vacant Empire, and
shall endeavour to assume the power both of God
and man."
"In this manner," continues Bishop Newton,
"these ancient and venerable Fathers expound this
passage; and in all probability, they had learned
by tradition from the Apostles, or from the Church
of the Thessalonians, that what retarded the reve-
lation of Antichrist was the Pagan Roman Em-
pire '."
1
If then we allow the Fathers, just quoted, to have
obtained a certain and accurate perception of the
great and mischievous power which was coming upon
all the world, we must at the same time acknow-
ledge that the Pope, who never denied Christ,
could not so fully complete the character of the
expected great Antichrist, as the Founder of the
1
Bishop Newton on the Prophecies, vol. ii. p. 117.
TWELFTH OF REVELATIONS.
113
Mahometan empire did in the seventh century.
The fathers, however, had then ceased to exist,
and the tyranny of the Pope having already shown
itself at variance with the mild precepts of Christ-
ianity, he was by human opinion denominated
the Antichrist. It is certain that two such mo-
mentous objects of prophetical announcement
having been really manifested in the world, it
will be necessary to keep our minds clear from
confounding the two separate lines of prophecy
which depict them; and whenever this discrimi-
nating attention fails, whether through indolence
or misapprehension, we must remain with a more
obscured view of the case, than the two representa-
tions, when fairly examined and accurately com-
pared, would undoubtedly afford.
St. Paul's "man of sin" is a very direct prophecy,
and he is not to be expected till after a falling
away. Now, the most notable instance of falling
away seems to have happened when the Eastern
Empire pealed away from the Western, which so
far weakened Rome, as to leave her subject to all
the calamities which afterwards befel her, and
made way, first, for an image of her former power
in the Papal Supremacy, and secondly, for the
Western conquests of the Saracens.
I
CHAPTER V.
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
The thirteenth of Revelations, p. 115.-An Image of the former Roman
tyranny rising in the Papistical head, p. 118.-An approaching dominion, so
extraordinary as the Saracenic, more likely to be portrayed by St. John, as
a future event, than either the past or present Roman empire, p. 119.—A
portrait of the past or present of no service in the manifestation of prescience,
p. 119. That of the Saracenic empire of infinite service, p. 119.-Appa-
rently, however, a reserved prophecy, and by what means, p. 119.-
The universal beast of this chapter, like unto a leopard, his predecessor. The
Saracenic empire spread nearly over the same ground, and possessed the
same warlike character as the Roman, p. 120.-The seven heads of the
Caliphate, p. 120.-Their blasphemous character, p. 120.-Transfer of the
dragon's power to the blasphemous beast of this chapter, p. 121.-Probable
advantage gained by Satan from Adam's fall, p. 122.-Our Saviour's rejec-
tion of his proffered temptation, p. 122.-Satan's disappointed ambition
prompting him to give his power to some form of rebellion, acting particu-
larly against the Saviour, p. 122.—The Saracenic such a power, p. 122.—
The horses of Zechariah considered, p. 123.-The wounded head of the
beast verified at Rome in the year 476, by the sword of the northern
nations, and the preaching of the Gospel, p. 125.-Revives in the Papacy,
p. 126.—The open enmity of the great beast of this chapter, p. 127.—Never
fulfilled by the Roman power, but accurately verified by the Mahometan,
p. 127. The Churches of Rome and Constantinople, in spite of their
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
115
dereliction, depositaries of the truth, p. 128.-Fulfilling the symbols of
Zechariah, p. 128.-Notified also in the Apocalypse (ch. xi.), p. 129.—Men
not permitted to hurt them, p. 129.-Proofs of this from history and revela-
tion, p. 130.-Improbability that St. John would so strongly characterise the
Roman empire as blasphemous, when there was another to succeed it which
would so much more deserve the title, p. 132.-Reason of the prophetic repre-
sentation having been applied to Rome, p. 132.-The necessity that four em-
pires of notoriety should be found to have arisen in chronological order, upon
the site of the Metallic Image, subsequent to the time of Daniel's vision,
p. 133. And that the last empire should be in a state of open rebellion
against the Father and the Son, p. 133.-All this, to a certain extent, ful-
filled by the Mahometan empire, p. 133.
WE come now to the thirteenth chapter of the
Revelations, which we shall transcribe entire for
the convenience of the reader, preparatory to the
observations which we are about to make upon
its contents.
REVELATIONS, CHAP. xiii.
Ver. 1. “And I stood upon the sand of the sea,
and 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 blas-
phemy.
Ver. 2. "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 and
the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and
great authority.
12
116
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
Ver. 3. " And I saw one of his heads as it were
wounded to death; and his deadly wound was
healed and all the world wondered after the
beast.
Ver. 4. "And they worshipped the dragon
which gave power unto the beast: and they wor-
shipped the beast: saying, Who is like unto the
beast? who is able to make war with him?
Ver. 5. "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.
Ver. 6. "And he opened his mouth in blas-
phemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and
his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
Ver. 7. "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.
Ver. 8. "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 founda-
tion of the world.
Ver. 9. "If any man have an ear, let him
hear.
Ver. 10. "He that leadeth into captivity shall
go into captivity he that killeth with the sword
must be killed with the sword.
tience and the faith of the saints.
Here is the pa-
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
117
Ver. 11. "And I beheld another beast coming
up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a
lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Ver. 12. "And he exerciseth all the power of
the first beast before him, and causeth the earth
and them which dwell therein to worship the first
beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Ver. 13. "And he doeth great wonders, so that
he maketh fire come down from heaven on the
earth in the sight of men,
Ver. 14. "And deceiveth them that dwell on
the earth by the means of those miracles which
he had power to do in the sight of the beast;
saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they
should make an image to the beast, which had the
wound by a sword, and did live.
Ver. 15. "And he had power to give life unto
the image of the beast, that the image of the beast
should both speak, and cause that as many as
would not worship the image of the beast should
be killed.
Ver. 16. "And he caused all, both small and
great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a
mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads.
Ver. 17. "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.
Ver. 18. "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath
understanding count the number of the beast: for
118
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
it is the number of a man; and his number is six
hundred, threescore and six."
Not only at the opening of the Revelations, but,
at the 1st verse of the fourth chapter, it is again
said to St. John, "I will shew thee things which
must be HEREAFTER.
At the time of St. John's beholding this vision,
the Roman Empire was in a state of maturity, and
the imperial rank allowed a crown to surmount the
seven hills of Rome, nor did that mark of royalty
cease till the Western Empire subsequently fell in
476. But this rising beast has seven heads without
crowns, and one of them has a deadly wound by a
sword, which proves to demonstration, that it is
not one of the hills of Rome. If farther confirma-
tion is necessary, this head is proved to be a proper
beast's head, by the 14th verse of the chapter
which we are now considering, which mentions.
"an image" raised "to the beast, which had the
wound by a sword, and did live." And, after the
fall of the Western Empire, and when the Latin
tongue had become a dead language, there did
arise in the papistical head an image of the
former Roman tyranny as will be clearly shown.
In the meantime, however, we must first
remark upon an exceedingly blasphemous empire,
which, after the Western Empire fell (or was taken
out of the way) began to arise in the seventh
century, and spread all over the site of the Metallic
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
119
Image, and thereby became as competent to afford
ten horns as the previous empire had been. Is it
not then more reasonable to apprehend, that an
approaching dominion, so extraordinary as the
Saracenic turned out to be, would, according to the
exordium of this book, be revealed or portrayed to
St. John, as a future event, than that a useless
portrait, either of the past or present Roman Em-
pire, should be exhibited in the first century. A
portrait of the past or present could be of no
service in the manifestation of prescience; whereas
a true portrait given of the well known and en-
tirely blasphemous empire of the Saracens, five
hundred years before it appeared in the world,
must be of infinite service to every one that could
attain to a perception of its accuracy, by convincing
them of the inspiration of Scripture. Apparently,
however, it was a reserved prophecy, as many
circumstances concurred to throw it into the
shade. First, it so far resembled the Roman
Empire, in those characteristics which were por-
trayed, as to be mistaken for it. Secondly, the
Apocalypse itself, being immature, was, (and no
doubt but by permission) laid aside for several
centuries, as too abstruse and figurative to be
understood.
Ver. 2. "And the beast which I saw was like unto
a leopard."I have presumed that the Roman
Empire was represented by a leopard in the seventh
chapter of Daniel, and if that conjecture is right,
120
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
and if the dragon in the twelfth of the Apocalypse
represents the Pagan Roman Empire, it would
follow most naturally that the succeeding universal
beast of this chapter, which received the dragon's
dethroned power, and spread nearly all over the
same ground, should be in his body like unto a
leopard, his predecessor. Likewise, having re-
ceived the power and strength of the dragon, we
may consistently look for some of his attributes in
this beast, such as his ten horns; and the warlike
acquirements of the Saracenic Empire soon justified
such an expectation.
This beast has seven animated heads without
crowns, (the dragon was crowned,) and upon each
head the name of blasphemy. After the rise of
the Saracenic Empire, which was founded in blas-
phemy, it was in 936 divided into seven heads or
kingdoms, as the chronological tables show. And,
as long after as the eleventh century, when the
66
Caliph Cayem appointed Togrol his temporal
vicegerent over the domains of Islamism, he was
presented with seven slaves, the natives of the
seven countries of the Empire of the Caliphs '."
The above mentioned seven heads, or official
portions of the dominion of the Saracens, were
surely as worthy of being recorded by prophecy
for their perfect blasphemy, as the seven hills of
Rome were, to characterise the station of the dragon.
1 Mill's History of Mahommedanism, p. 288.
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
121
Ver. 2. "And the dragon gave him his power,
and his seat, and great authority."
This must in part be mystical, but we know that
in general the Saracenic Empire, not only suc-
ceeded to the Roman, but occupied its territories.
According to the early writers, both Jews and
Christians, it has always been supposed that there
was a Satanic Spirit in Rome; and the world has
long since had visible and extensive proofs of it.
Such are, first, the early persecution of the primi-
tive Christians; secondly, the forcible introduction
of images into their pure worship; thirdly, the
strong and lasting endeavour to keep the Scriptures
as secret as possible; and fourthly, the most cruel
sacrifice of MILLIONS, who chose to understand those
Scriptures plainly, and follow them in an obedient
manner. This subject may, nevertheless, at first
seem abstruse; yet, when we are told, in plain
language, that the dragon gave his power to the
combined, the Antichristian beast of this chapter,
ought we to persist in being so far wise above what
is written, as to doubt whether such a spiritual
transfer can be made, and thereby forfeit the clew
held forth for our information and guidance ?
Rather let our confidence in Scripture language
lead us on in such a course of patient investigation,
as may allow us to discern that it really was made
by delegation.
The dragon was, in the twelfth chapter, shown
to be cast upon the earth, and is without a doubt
122
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
Satan. In the fourth of Luke he offers the glory
and the power of this world, (in which he appears
to have reigned ever since the time of Babylon,)
to our Saviour. Jesus Christ does not disallow
that he had it to dispose of: and this tacit admis-
sion permits us to draw the conclusion, that Satan,
although an evil, a vanquished, and a subordinate
power, had gained some advantage in the rebellious
war related in the twelfth chapter. And, if that
advantage arose from Adam's fall, it was probably
the temporary dominion of this world, which then,
by right of conquest, fell into Satan's hands, and
was, according to St. Luke, offered to our Lord as
a temptation to gain his worship. Now, that offer
being rejected, can we hesitate to believe, that
Satan's disappointed ambition would prompt him
to give that same power, and dominion, to some
form of antichristian rebellion which might act
particularly against the Saviour? In accordance
with this, the Saracenic dominion subsequently
shone out in great glory, and in undisguised en-
mity to our Lord Jesus Christ, apparently in strict
agreement with the mention that the dragon gave
his power, and his seat, to the antichristian beast
of this chapter. There does also seem to be an-
other remote fulfilment, in the circumstance of the
head quarters of Mahometanism being now esta-
blished in Constantinople, the last seat of the
Roman emperors.
Before we enter more fully upon the subject
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
123
which now claims our attention, we ought perhaps
to refer to the sixth of Zechariah, to which the
attention of the reader has already been directed
as a prototype chapter. It gives us information
concerning four differently coloured horses. Now
horses of a specific colour, with riders upon them,
are one of the most important types of prophecy;
and the angel, in this chapter of Zechariah, in-
structs us that the four horses here represent the
four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from
standing before the Lord of all the earth. The
colour of Red, and that of White, Scripture has
sufficiently notified as emblematic respectively of
good and evil. The Black Horse in the sixth of
the Apocalypse seems to denote the course of
justice; while the Grisled and Bay of Zechariah,
and the Pale Horse of the sixth of the Apocalypse
appear to denote a latter commixture of the Red
and the White previous to the great conflict of the
last days. But our present inquiry is concerning
the early going forth, and the local movements of
Zechariah's specified horses. The bay, or red,
sought to go, that they might walk to and fro
through the earth, and had indignant leave.
ZECHARIAH, CHAP. Vi. ¹
1
Ver. 1. "And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes,
¹ Job i. 6, 7. "Now there was a day when the sons of God
came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also
124
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
and looked, and, behold, there came four chariots
out from between two mountains; and the moun-
tains were mountains of brass.
Ver. 2. "In the first chariot were red horses;
and in the second chariot black horses;
Ver. 3. "And in the third chariot white horses;
and in the fourth chariot grisled and bay horses.
Ver. 4. "Then I answered and said unto the
angel that talked with me, What are these, my
lord?
Ver. 5. "And the angel answered and said unto
me, These are the four spirits of the heavens,
which go forth from standing before the Lord of all
the earth.
Ver. 6. "The black horses which are therein go
forth into the north country; and the white go
forth after them; and the grisled go forth toward
the south country.
Ver. 7. "And the bay went forth, and sought to
go that they might walk to and fro through the
earth and he said, Get you hence, walk to and
fro through the earth. So they walked to and fro
through the earth.
:
Ver. 8. "Then cried he upon me, and spake
unto me, saying, Behold, these that go toward the
north country have quieted my spirit in the north
country.'
among them.
And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest
thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to
and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it."
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
125
The spirit of the Gospel has been more freely
received, and better retained, in the northern coun-
tries than in any of the southern; we may there-
fore conjecture that some of the Aborigines of the
North were the descendants of one of the approved
sons of Noah, (according to geographers, Japhet,)
and that, after the long season of gross darkness
described by Isaiah in his sixtieth chapter, and
fulfilled during the reign of Satan, these northern
aborigines might be both more eligible, and more
inclined, to receive the Gospel, than the southern
descendants of Ham and Ishmael. From Shem, in
a midway station, the promulgation of the Gospel
had been given; and the reception of it by Japhet's
posterity, and the rejection of it by that of Ham,
must be left to the tracings of history. In the
mean time, however, this transient allusion to the
subject may not be thought inapplicable to our
present purpose.
In the chapter of the Apocalypse, which we are
now considering, we are told that one of the seven
heads of the beast was wounded almost to death,
but recovered and did live.
The Deity himself has foredoomed that enmity
shall prevail, between the seed of the intellectual
serpent, and the seed of the woman. This incidental
information, given at the time of the fall, shows that
there would henceforth be different seeds upon the
earth; and that, owing to the ordained enmity,
there would be continual warfare between them,
126
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
and a mutual bruising on each part, to the end of
the world. We therefore naturally look among the
chronological prophecies for some farther notice of
this preordained bruising; and upon some of the
well known events of the world for its probable
earthly fulfilment. Now here, in the New Testa-
ment, the elucidator of antecedent prophecy, we
have the portrait of an eminent, and remarkably
bruised head. It is represented as having been
wounded by a sword; and, though it afterwards
recovered, the wound nevertheless appears to con-
stitute a bruise as much as the previous piercing of
our Lord's heel did.
The head, we learn from the 14th verse of this
chapter, was a proper beast's head, and upon this
head was the name of blasphemy. It has already
been observed that, either by tradition, or by the
labour of commentators, Rome has always been
considered as animated by Satan, the serpent; while
that opinion has been confirmed by the violent
operations of its spirit, first, against the people of
the revealed God, and secondly, against the pure
mode of worshipping him. It was likewise under
the jurisdiction of that Pagan city, and a corrupt
division of the Jews, that our Lord's heel was
bruised; and, as if in retribution, the sword of the
northern nations, and the preaching of the Gospel,
subsequently brought Rome to be only a wounded
or bruised head, in the year 476. But it revived in
the papacy, and lives to this day.
And this seems
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
127
to be the earthly fulfilment; because the dragon,
although a deposed power, is said in the 4th verse,
still to have worship, and so has the Papacy even
up to the present time.
But we must return to the more open enmity of
the great beast of this chapter.
Ver. 6. “And he opened his mouth in blasphemy
against God, to blaspheme his name, and his taber-
nacle, and them that dwell in heaven."
In the preceding chapter, "the man child," who
was to "rule all nations with a rod of iron," was
66
caught up unto God and to his throne." He
therefore" dwells in heaven." This then. is a mani-
fest representation of our Saviour, and we know
that he is ever marked as the chief aim of Satan's
enmity. But this species of enmity and blasphemy
against the Saviour, the Roman power never did or
could fulfil in the same degree that the Mahometan
power did. The Roman empire arose before the
birth of Christ, and subsequently became Christian,
its heads therefore, of whatever they might have
been formed, could not so decidedly be charac-
terised by blasphemy, as the seven heads or divi-
sions of the Mahometan kingdom. These last
were all founded, and upheld, in active blasphemy
against God and his Christ; whereas, notwith-
standing the early Paganism of Rome, the succeed-
ing persecution of the Christians, and the latter
corruption of the Papal hierarchy, the sacerdotal
department never officially denied Christ, or at-
128
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
tempted insidiously to degrade his holy name
beneath that of any human creature. On the con-
trary, the Church of Rome, as well as that of
Constantinople, however subsequently clothed in
sackcloth by human dereliction, are, and ever were,
as depositaries of the Gospel, faithful and true
descendants from the primitive Mother Church.
That of Rome was founded by the Apostles, and
that of Constantinople was a lateral delegation from
it. The primitive Mother Church was first assisted
by the emperor Antoninus Pius in 152, but may be
said to have been borne to her place of refuge on
eagle's wings, when Constantine the Great, em-
peror of the two wings of the Roman kingdom, in
314 put a stop to the ten persecutions, and by
edict sanctioned the Christian Church in both
departments of his empire. From this time of
legal and imperial foundation, the Eastern and
Western Churches appear to have been so pre-
dominant in Christendom, and so permanent, as to
fulfil the two symbols in the fourth of Zechariah,
where two olive trees, standing on each side of a
candlestick, (which, on the authority of our Saviour,
is the representative of a Church,) are said to be
"the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the
whole earth," and pour "the golden oil out of
themselves." And in fact, the Churches which
have spread abroad upon the earth, and which
form the state of Christendom, have emanated
chiefly from those two imperially appointed churches
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
129
of the Western and Eastern departments of the
Roman empire. They are also AGAIN notified, in the
eleventh of Revelations, as the "two witnesses, the
two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before
the God of the earth." This information, supplied
both by the Old and New Testament, makes the
statement indelible. No subsequent and fortuitous
introduction of images, and other extrinsical cor-
ruptions, can at all bring those two ancient Chris-
tian trunks upon a level with the blasphemy, which
was visible upon every military or sacerdotal head,
that reared itself in the Moslem empire.
The eleventh chapter of Revelations appears
thus to announce the two pre-eminent churches.
Ver. 3. "And I will give power unto my two
witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two
hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Ver. 4. "These are the two olive trees, and
the candlesticks standing before the God of the
earth.
Ver. 5. "And if any man will hurt them, fire
proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their
enemies : and if any man will hurt them, he must in
this manner be killed."
The term men, when specifically applied, is often
used in Scripture to designate the Antichristian
party, and it may with the greatest degree of pro-
bability be looked upon as so meant in the above
5th verse. Now the men of Mahomet's blasphe-
mous religion conquered the chief provinces of
K
130
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
both the Eastern and Western departments of the
Roman empire, and were once in Rome. Still,
with all their active animosity against the Christian
religion, they were never able to hurt either of
these two divinely appointed Churches, which are
ordained in the eleventh chapter to preach 1260
years. The Mahometan arms have for centuries
surrounded the Christian Church of Constantinople,
but it continues; and these two pillars of Scripture
truth, mentioned in both the Old Testament and
the New, remain as yet standing miracles in
Europe, to demonstrate to the readers of both the
Old Testament and the New, that is both Jew and
Christian, the truth and exactitude of prophecy,
till the time "when they shall have finished their
testimony'
CC
199
Bishop Newton, speaking of the Saracens, says,
They might greatly harass and torment both the
Greek and Latin Churches, but they should not
utterly extirpate the one or the other. They
besieged Constantinople, and even plundered Rome,
but they could not make themselves masters of
either of those capital cities. The Greek empire
suffered most from them. They dismembered it
of Syria, and Egypt, and some other of its best
and richest provinces; but they were never able to
subdue and conquer the whole. As often as they
besieged Constantinople they were repulsed and
1 Rev. xi. 7.
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
131
defeated. They attempted in the reign of Con-
stantine Pogonatus, A. D. 672, but their men and
ships were miserably destroyed by the sea-fire
invented by Calinicus; and after seven years
fruitless pains, they were compelled to raise the
siege, and to conclude a peace. They attempted
it again in the reign of Leo Isauricus, A. D. 718;
but they were forced to desist by famine and pesti-
lence, and losses of various kinds¹."
Thus we find that the locusts, or Saracens,
issuing from the bottomless pit, were under several
restrictions. "And it was commanded them that
they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither
any green thing, neither any tree; but only those
men which have not the seal of God in their fore-
heads." (Rev. ix. 4.) This limited command shows
us that there were very different sorts of people
dwelling upon the earth, who would be quite
differently affected by the malignant efforts of the
enemies of God. And it is a command which does
not stand alone, for we shall find it again repeated.
The prohibition not to hurt any tree seems also
covertly to include the preservation of the two
olive trees of Zechariah, and the two olive trees, and
the two faithful witnesses of the eleventh chapter
of Revelations. These churches are not to be
hurt till the second woe, whereas the locusts rise
from the bottomless pit under the first. Apparently
¹ Bp. Newton, vol. ii. p. 212.
K 2
132
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
the locusts are only allowed to hurt, that is proba-
bly proselyte, a certain party of men, God having
promised to keep his true servants "from the hour
of temptation which shall come upon the world."
(Rev. iii. 10.)
Ver. 5. "And there was given unto him a
mouth speaking great things and blasphemies."
Would St. John have so strongly characterised
the Roman empire as blasphemous, when there
was another empire to succeed it, which would so
much more deserve the title? This the Moslem
empire certainly did, and a perpetually blasphemous
mouth was given to it by the enforced doctrines of
the Koran. But the Romans had no direct or
specific mouth of blasphemy. Nevertheless, the
sufferings of the Christians, under the growing
usurpations of Rome, drove them to seek in the
Scriptures for some type, or symbolical account,
of the power which afflicted them. Accordingly,
having found several satanic portraits there, they,
not having a prophetic view into futurity, naturally
attributed them all to the existing powers, either of
Rome or the Roman Empire. And the great
beast of this chapter was adopted, among the
rest, as a portrait of the universal empire of Rome,
which it certainly not only resembled, but was
perhaps intended so to do, that the real great
antichrist might not be altogether revealed or
understood till an appointed time. According to
St. Paul, however, "When that which is perfect
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
133
is come, then that which is in part shall be done
away."
When we take into our view the acknowledged
consistency of prophecy, we shall see the absolute
necessity that four empires of notoriety shall be
found to have arisen in chronological order upon
the site of the Metallic Image, subsequent to the
time of Daniel's vision in his seventh chapter, dated
as it is in the reign of Belshazzar; we ought to find
that these four empires, can, by their attributes and
characteristics, answer to the general description
given of Daniel's four beasts, reckoning from the
Lion (for reasons already given). The last em-
pire also ought to be found capable, either of itself
or by means of its horns, to reach on to the day of
judgment; because the last emblem of the iron and
clay kingdom, and the last (fourth) beast, are shown,
by the inspired explanations concerning them, to
proceed on to that time, which completes the com-
pendiums of the Metallic Image, and of the four
beasts. Moreover, the last empire educed must
be found to be, in its collective capacity, in a direct
state of open rebellion against the Father and the
Son of our Scriptures, because the coetaneous ex-
planations of the two last symbols describe them to
be so; and they must be eminently Antichristian.
All this, to a certain extent, the Mahometan empire
fulfilled; and the remains of its antichristian profes-
sors are alive to this day, and practising in Turkey,
Persia, India, and parts of Africa, while the Roman
134
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
empire has been extinct above a thousand years.
It is therefore, according to Sir Isaac Newton's
recommendation, to the opening views which an
examination of retrospective prophecies can give,
that we must resort for the unfolding of those
parts, which can fill up the void space left in the
compendiums, that is the void (usually left by com-
mentators) between the extinction of the Roman
empire and the day of Judgment; and this vacuum
is occasioned by not allowing the Saracenic empire
to take its place in succession to the Roman, which
we know it chronologically did.
CHAPTER VI.
CONTINUATION OF THE THIRTEENTH OF
REVELATIONS.
A spiritual difference between the people who chose to worship the Antichris-
tian beast, and those who declined it, p. 136.—The people, who worshipped
the dragon and the beast, had no part in the Lamb's book of life, being
plainly another seed, p. 138.-Extensive prevalence of the enmity between
the seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent, p. 138.-The multiplied
conception, p. 139.—Decline or recession of the beast, exemplified in the
decline of the Roman and Saracenic empires, p. 140.-Some epoch of time to
be sought for, from which we may date the actual existence of the beast, (the
Saracenic empire,) p. 141.—Investigation of this point, especially as con-
nected with the transmission of Mahometan power and spirit into the
Turkish horn, p. 143.—More reasonable to ascribe ten horns to the living
and reigning Saracenic empire, than to advert to the ten horns of the extinct
empire of Rome, p. 145.-The beast with two horns considered, p. 146.—
The little horn of Daniel represents the Papacy. Another horn however is
probably included in his elaborate description of the fourth beast, p. 147.—
The two horns of the Apocalypse, a probable illustration of these two suppo-
sed horns of Daniel. p. 149.-Other distinguished powers in Europe besides
the Papacy, and such as have had a great deal to do with the Christian war-
fare, p. 151.-Examination of Daniel's apparent repetitions in his vision of
the fourth beast, p. 151.-Part of the vision applicable to the Pope, part not,
p. 153. Neither the Pope of Rome, nor the Patriarch of Constantinople,
seem equal to fulfil the character of the beast with two horns. A much
stronger exemplification of personal Antichristianity may therefore be
looked for, p. 154.-Apparent want of connection between the three sub-
jects on earth, which may be foreshown by the two-horned beast, namely,
136
CONTINUATION OF THE
the Pope, the Patriarch, and the Sultan, p. 154.-Consideration of the ap-
proaching Antichristian scourge described in the eighth chapter of Daniel, p.
156.-Shown to be the Turkish horn rather than the papal, p. 157.—He
acts not by his own power, p. 158.-The Mahometan beast still in practice,
in the Roman seat at Constantinople, by the delegation of the Sacerdotal
power to the Turks, p. 159.-The woman on the scarlet-coloured beast, full
of names of blasphemy, clearly points to the professors of the Mahometan
religion, p. 164.-Illustrated by Esau's name of Edom (red), p. 165.—Dissolu-
tion of the state of Palestine by a power, springing from the serpent's root at
Babylon, and coming from the north, p. 166.—The aggregate beast will again
rise into power for a short time, p. 166.-Probable necessity of this, in
order to purify the two imperially founded churches, p. 166.—The three
Antichristian spirits will, in the last conflicts, act against each other, p. 167.
-The mark of the beast. Guilt of receiving that mark, p. 167.-Modern
indifference to be guarded against; but kindliness of feeling towards the
deceived party recommended, p. 168.-Intolerance and cruelty of the Papal
superstition, and its inefficiency as a corrector of the public morals, p. 169—
The number of the beast applied to Mahomet. Conclusion, p. 171.
THE beast, animated by the dragon's power, receives
worship from all those, "whose names were not
written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world." (Rev. xiii. 8.)
The discrimination here made between those peo-
ple whose names were written in the Lamb's book
of life, and those whose names were not written
there, discloses, incidentally indeed, but in direct,
plain, and undeniable words, that there was, ac-
cording to the knowledge of Heaven, a spiritual
difference between the people who chose to wor-
ship the Antichristian beast, and those who declined
it. This momentous information of Scripture has
been authoritatively given before, and will appear
again, and we dare not contradict it; but, with
respect to the adoption of the Mahometan religion,
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
137
(that is, the worship of the beast,) there is an
admission, in the subsequent nineteenth chapter,
that many were deceived, and our reliance upon the
goodness of God teaches us to hope and believe
that such will ultimately be objects of his mercy.
This beast has power "to make war with the
saints," a term apparently adopted to distinguish
the loyal adherents of the revealed God, who had
received either the old or the new covenant, pro-
mulgated by him, from the worshippers of the
beast, who is in open rebellion against the revealed
God, from first to last. It is clear that such gene-
ral rebellion as this, the people of the Roman
empire never collectively fulfilled, but the people of
the Mahometan empire did most completely. Ac-
cording to the mention made in the 10th verse,
this was a time to exercise "the patience and the
faith of the saints;" and great must have been the
firmness, and the power of resistance, with which
those Jews and Christians were endued, who refused
and yet survived, the military and sacerdotal
enforcements of the Koran, during the tyrannical
and predominant course of the Saracenic empire.
It had indeed been previously declared to the
faithful Christian :" Because thou hast kept the word
of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of
temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to
try them that dwell upon the earth."
This prophetic warning and promise, delivered
by the dictation of Christ himself to St. John, some
138
CONTINUATION OF THE
hundred years before the rise of Mahometanism,
must ever convince us of his superintendance over
that community of people, whose "names were writ-
ten in his book of life." These are the people men-
tioned in the Ephesians, as having "obtained an
inheritance." (Chap. i. 11.) This information, so
expressly given, is indelible; and it is openly
confirmed, not by the parable, but by our Saviour's
own explanation of the parable, of the wheat and
the tares (Matt. xiii. 37-39); where he declares the
good seed to be sown by himself, and the bad seed
by Satan. Such positive passages as these, and
many others of the same import, make it absolutely
necessary for us to keep in mind the information,
which we have clearly received, that the people,
who worshipped the dragon and the beast, had no
part in "the Lamb's book of life." They were
plainly another seed. Satan had required worship
from our Saviour; he is therefore evidently ambi-
tious of worship, and would induce or command it
whenever he could; and his community of people
afforded that worship, which the community of the
revealed God and his Christ refused.
The enmity, foredoomed to exist between the
seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent,
must prevail extensively, and it forms apparently
great part of the warfare and trials of this world;
upon which account, it is necessary to resort to
that original mandate, whenever the liquidation of
this subject of prophecy is our object. Indeed,
8
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
139
without the above information, how can we account
for the great strength of wickedness which we see
in the world, and the extensive adherence there is
to so plain a forgery as the religion of Mahomet
exhibits? Original sin cannot satisfactorily account
for it, because original sin was not partial; and
Scripture most plainly informs us that there were
a people, whose names were not written in the
Lamb's (that is our Saviour's) book of life, from
the foundation of the world. Moreover, we are
now reading a symbolical account of a direct and
palpable rebellion against him, which was visible
and well known, to all the enlightened part of the
earth, and one which must ever remain a strong
feature in the history of the world, the prophetic
types of which we are by retrospect endeavouring
to trace.
One of the earliest denunciations from the mouth
of the Deity was, that the woman, after the fall,
should be subject to a multiplied conception. This
new ordination permitted the introduction of that
seed, or of those spirits, whose names had never
been written in the Lamb's book of life. And the
incarnation of such is plainly exemplified in the
instances of Cain and Abel, Esau and Jacob.
Jacob was promised seed from heaven, while Esau
was the father of a nation against whom the Lord
had indignation for ever; and Scripture confirms
the fact that they were two manner of people,
born at the same time from the same womb.
140
CONTINUATION OF THE
Was not this a given proof of the multiplied
conception?
At the 10th verse of this chapter, the beast
appears to decline or recede, but without under-
going death, and we know that the Saracenic
empire did decline, by diminution, till it was
chiefly represented by the two pre-eminent Cali-
phates, which were latterly regarded more as
sacerdotal than temporal powers. Indeed the last
descendants of the Prophet were reduced to hire
foreign troops for their immediate defence, their
own armies having vanished from the face of the
earth.
In the preceding twelfth chapter, it was shown
that a flood (or multitudes) was poured from the
scarlet dragon's mouth after the woman (the
Christian Church), but that the earth helped the
woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and
swallowed up the flood that the dragon cast out
of his mouth. It is said that, "when figurative
language is so plain in its designation that it cannot
be mistaken, it may be received as literal." Now
the earth swallowing up the flood, which the
serpent cast out of his mouth, is plainly figurative
of the yawning graves, which certainly did receive
both the persecuting Romans and the invading
Saracens. The Romans and their language dis-
appeared first, and finally the Saracens were no
more seen in any of their western conquests,
where countless numbers must have fallen in war.
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
141
Knowing them, therefore, to be constituted and
persecuting enemies of the Christian Church (the
woman), we may surely apprehend the above
language, which so closely describes the cause of
their declining empire, to be literal. In harmony
with that supposition, we know that the Saracenic
dominion vanished first from Europe, the site upon
which the two anointed churches stood, which
were not to be hurt by men, (specifically so called)
till the appointed time. (Rev. xi. 4,
5.)
REVELATIONS, CHAP. Xiii.
Ver. 9. "If any man hath an ear to hear, let
him hear.
Ver. 10. "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.”
Although the above verses indicate retaliation,
they do not pronounce a final doom upon the
beast. Retribution, however, being intimated, and
that by the sword, may not this beast, (as the
Saracenic empire certainly did) recede in a mutila-
ted, a divided, and a wounded state? But power
had been given to this ten horned beast to continue
forty and two months. (Rev. xiii. 5.) It may be
necessary therefore to seek for some epoch of time,
from which the above beast's actual existence may
in some degree be dated (always supposing him to
142
CONTINUATION OF THE
mean the Saracenic empire). Now, he is described
as bearing among his seven heads one that was
wounded. If this wounded head therefore repre-
sents, as according to most interpreters it does, the
head of the fallen western empire of Rome, which
recovered in the Papacy, it clearly gives to the
beast a date subsequent to the fall of Rome in 476.
Now history relates that the Saracenic dominion
did not begin to rise till above a century after the
fall of Rome, and we are therefore proceeding with
a strict attention to chronology.
The term of months allowed to the beast is
always understood to mean 1260 years, because
in prophetical language by days we must generally
understand years, and because no great empire
ever continued only for the space of forty and two
literal months. But the one reigning body of the
Saracenic empire did not appear to fulfil the term
of 1260 years; and the seeming deficiency in the
predicted space of duration may have been the
cause, which deterred some expositors from pro-
ceeding in the endeavour to find any further
correspondence between the beast of this chapter
and the empire in question. But the strict words
which describe his term, are that he shall continue
to practise 1260 years. At what time the Saracenic
power may be considered as deserving the name of
a beast, or empire, we may not be able exactly to
determine, but Mahomet himself was active as a
leader in the seventh century. In the same cen-
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
143
tury he died, leaving two branches of his race,
which became the Caliphs of Persia and of Egypt.
Each of these caliphs was esteemed divine by his
own subjects, and each devolved his mysterious
title, and whatever dignity and privilege belonged
to it, formally into the hands of the Turkish power.
The caliph of Persia, first, invested Togral Beg,
or Tangrolipix, with the dignity of temporal vice-
gerent over the Moslem world, A. D. 1057. It
now remains to be shown, from the impartial state-
ments of history, that an especially endowed com-
mission was also formally transmitted into the
hands of the Turks, by one of the last descendants
of Mahomet in the line of the caliphs of Egypt.
"One of the descendants of the caliphs of Bagdad,
(Mohammed II.) on the ruin of that capital by the
Moguls, had fled to Egypt; and, being the last of
his sacred race, his family were treated with all
the respect due to the successor of the successors
of the prophet. A scion of this fallen trunk of the
Abassides was found by Selim at Cairo, 1517, and
conducted to Constantinople, where he maintained
him at his own expense, and at his demise received
from him the formal renunciation of the Caliphate.
In this empty title the Turkish sovereign obtained
a distinction, which secured to him and his des-
cendants the veneration of all Mussulmans of the
Sonnee sect. The posterity of this last of the
Caliphs have sunk to the level of subjects; but the
spiritual influence and supremacy, derived from this
144
CONTINUATION OF THE
investiture, is by no means a barren privilege, even
to the present occupant of the Turkish throne'."
Thus it appears that there was a formal devolve-
ment of Mahometan spirit into the Turkish horn,
seated at Constantinople, once the seat of the
Roman emperors. Whether then we look upon
the foregoing official renunciation, and the formal
putting into commission of the vital spirit of the
receding Saracenic empire, as a real delegation of
Antichristian power or not, we must still recognize
the two devolvements into two departments of the
Turkish government, just recited, as a licensed
measure, which can, and really does, enable them
to continue and prolong the essential practice of
the lately conspicuous, but now unseen, Mahometan
empire, so that it can virtually fulfil its allotted
term of 1260 years. In fact, we know that the
authorized successors of that power, the Turks, do,
as far as they can without diminishing their taxes,
compel all people within their jurisdiction to be-
come Mahometans, they being bound to enforce
Mahometanism by the religion itself. Now Ma-
hometanism is the true worship of the beast, and it
is in full practice in Turkey, Persia, part of the
East Indies, and part of Africa. All this existing
and extensive rebellion against God and his Christ
being evidently within the cognizance of Scripture,
we may still look forward in St. John, and other
'Crichton's Arabia, vol. ii. p. 130.
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
145
prophetical writers, for more instructions concern-
ing it, down to the latest times of the Christian
æra.
Both the ten horns of the great beast of this
chapter, and the two horns of the beast which
succeeds him, appear to require a more particular
investigation than they have hitherto received.
While the Saracenic empire was dominant, and
reaching from Spain to Persia, including part of
the late Western empire, it must have compre-
hended so many different states and nations, that it
was as capable of affording ten horns as the pre-
vious Western empire had ever been. Is it not
then more reasonable to ascribe ten horns to the
living, the reigning, Saracenic empire, than to
retrograde and advert to the ten horns of an
extinct empire, whose wounded head, Rome, alone
survived the bruising of the Northern nations.
This wounded head, according to fair inference,
represents the head of the Dragon, who gave his
power and his strength to the beast, whereby he
becomes incorporated with him, and hence may
arise the great likeness between the emblems of the
Roman and the Saracenic empires. In agreement
with this, we shall find that the two-horned beast,
which succeeds the combined beast and exercises
"causeth the earth, and them which
dwell therein, to worship the first beast, whose
deadly wound was healed."
his power,
L
146
CONTINUATION OF THE
The beast with two horns.
REV. CHAP. xiii.
Ver. 11. "And I beheld another beast coming
up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a
lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Ver. 12. "And he exerciseth all the power of
the first beast before him, and causeth the earth
and them which dwell therein, to worship the first
beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Ver. 13. "And he doeth great wonders, so that
he maketh fire come down from heaven on the
earth in the sight of men.
Ver. 14. "And deceiveth them that dwell on
the earth by the means of those miracles which he
had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying
to them that dwell on the earth, that they should
make an image to the beast, which had the wound
by a sword, and did live.
Ver. 15. "And he had power to give life unto
the image of the beast, that the image of the beast
should both speak, and cause that as many as
would not worship the image of the beast should
be killed.
Ver. 16. "And he caused all, both small and
great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive
a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads."
The ten-horned beast of this thirteenth chapter
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
147
is always looked upon as the latter illustration of
Daniel's fourth beast, but this two-horned beast
has no acknowledged type in the Old Testament,
nor has it either name or date; we are therefore
without guide or sanction concerning him, further
than that he is evidently of the confederacy of the
ten-horned beast, because he exercises all his
power, and speaks like a dragon. A beast having
two horns must consist of three several depart-
ments, those of his two horns, and that of his own
personal state. The conjunction of the above
three is certain, yet any discrimination concerning
them is most difficult, as we do not know the
nature of the mystic connexion which subsists
between them. According to the eleventh and
seventeenth chapters, the ten-horned beast will
reascend to dominion for a short time in the latter
days; a first and second sense, therefore, may
exist in this chapter. If that is the case, the
imperfect sense being the first, we must be con-
tent with the mere shadowing out which it will
afford.
The little but important horn springing up among
the ten horns of the fourth beast, so remarkably
portrayed by Daniel, has long been a subject of
investigation, and it is interpreted as a representa-
tion of the Papacy. Apparently that little horn
exceeds the active term of the fourth beast him-
self, and is of so momentous a nature in his warfare
with the saints, (God's servants) that we cannot
L 2
148
CONTINUATION OF THE
but expect, when St. John, a Christian prophet, is
here illustrating Daniel's ten-horned beast at large,
that he will likewise include the little horn, which
so evidently belonged to the system of the beast,
and was included by Daniel in his compendious
chapter. And here it is worthy of observation
that Daniel, in describing his four beasts, employs
only one verse each for his three first, while the
fourth beast with his horns takes up twenty-one
verses. After such elaboration as this, we certainly
ought to prepare ourselves to meet with still
greater in the elucidations of the Apocalypse, and
indeed most necessarily so, because, if this beast or
his horns are to reach on to the end of the world,
we have reason to hope that the method by which
they will thus proceed, (however little foreseen by
us) will be portrayed in prophecies which are gra-
dually to unfold as we advance in time. We look
therefore earnestly here for some notice of the
little horn, described by Daniel, and more especi-
ally as there has really been a little horn in the
guise of Christianity, which has grievously and ex-
tensively afflicted the primitive worshippers of the
true God, by enforcing idolatry upon the pure reli-
gion of Jesus Christ, and exacting odious conditions
from those who professed it.
Notwithstanding all these reasons, incumbent as
they manifestly appear, we now meet with the
apparent cessation, or eclipse, of the great beast,
without any mention of the little horn so much
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
149
dwelt upon by Daniel, and which was evidently
meant to proceed on to the day of Judgment. We
are consequently lost in disappointment, till
awakened to the consideration of a beast rising
with two horns like those of a lamb, but speaking
like a dragon, which immediately indicates his
descent from, or fraternity with, the foregoing
beast, which had received the dragon's power,
strength, and seal. This renders it probable that in
that part of Daniel's seventh chapter, where he
gives an elaborare account of the fourth beast and
his horns, there was included, in the disguise of
various and unaccountable repetitions, not only a
prophecy of the successive stages of the beast
during his long course, (confirmed by Revelation,)
but also emblems of two little horns, or one little
and one peculiar horn, which would arise in dif-
ferent stations within the precincts of the beast.
For we must remember that there were other
distinguished powers in Europe besides the Papacy,
and that we are now considering a beast. There
were the Cæsars of the Eastern or Greek empire,
who gave the grant of supremacy to the Pope.
Among them the famous Greek fire, (which not
only rose in perpendicular ascent, but likewise
burnt with equal vehemence in descent,) was kept
a secret above four hundred years, and was alleged
to be a communication from heaven'. (Ver. 13.)
'There was for several hundred years a matter of notoriety and
150
CONTINUATION OF THE
There was the Patriarchate, and finally the Turkish
horn, which became a king or sultan. None of
these are comparatively beneath the notice of
wonder attached to Constantinople, which may here be produced
as deserving some observation.
It does not appear that the famous Greek fire has ever been
clearly understood, but, for the purpose of annoying and intimi-
dating their enemies, the Greeks had the ingenuity to force this
wonderful fire," through long hollow metal tubes, from the open-
ing of which it not only rose in perpendicular ascent, but likewise
burnt with equal vehemence in descent, or lateral progress: it
was nourished and quickened by the element of water."
·
Mr. Gibbon thus further speaks of it. "In the two sieges, the
deliverance of Constantinople may be chiefly ascribed to the
novelty, the terrors, and the real efficacy, of the Greek fire.
The historian who presumes to analyse this extraordinary com-
position should suspect his own ignorance, and that of his Byzan-
tine guides, so prone to the marvellous, so careless, and in this
instance so jealous of the truth.
"This important art was preserved at Constantinople, as the
palladium of the state. The composition of the Greek fire was
concealed with the most jealous scruple, and the terror of the
enemies was increased and prolonged by their ignorance and sur-
prise. . . .The secret was confined above four hundred years to
the Romans of the East."
"In the treatise of the administration of the Empire, the royal
author suggests the answers and excuses that might best elude
the indiscreet curiosity and importunate demands of the barba-
rians. They should be told that the mystery of the Greek fire
had been revealed by an Angel, to the first and greatest of the
Constantines, with a sacred injunction that this gift of heaven,
this peculiar blessing of the Romans, should never be communi-
cated to any foreign nation." Gibbon, vol. x. chap. 52.
Was not this assuming that the fire came down from heaven?
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
151
prophecy they have had much to do in the Chris-
tian warfare, and are not likely to be left unnoted
by the last Christian prophet, St. John. More
encouraged then by the hope of gaining even a
glimpse of an object worthy of deep attention, than
deterred by the fear of failure, we must again turn
to the paths of the Old Testament, where the
obscured prototypes dwell. The Old Testament
is in general remarkable for comprehensive yet
concise emblems, and pithy narratives.
We are
compelled therefore to acknowledge surprise, when
it so far departs from that usual method, as to give
in one chapter, (the seventh of Daniel,) such appa-
rently unnecessary repetitions as must awaken
expectation of something more than is apparent.
In the first account given by Daniel of his vision
of the fourth beast, in the 20th verse of his
seventh chapter, the beast's horns are said to be in
his head; and Daniel considered them, so that there
is no mis-statement to be apprehended. The ten
horns were apparently in his first estate; and there
can be scarcely a doubt that the little horn, which
begins to be described at the 8th verse, and is
continued to the 21st, means the Papacy, be-
cause the papal influence and power really did root
up three horns or states of Italy, and, under the
sanction of Pepin and Charles the Great, annexed
them to Peter's patrimony. This seems a decisive
fulfilment on the part of the Pope. And here we
must call the attention of the reader to the fact
152
CONTINUATION OF THE
that the same little horn, which we think portrays
him, is distinguished by having eyes like a man,
whatever that expression may mean; while that
distinguishing feature of him is omitted after the
20th verse.
At the 21st and 22nd verses the
subject, or at least that part of it, seems finished.
Nevertheless, at the 23rd verse, the angel un-
asked again begins an apparent repetition of that,
which had unnecessarily been related two or three
times before. Upon a closer inspection, however,
it will be found that the description is not exactly
the same.
At the 20th verse the ten horns
are said to be in the beast's head, but, in this last
relation by the angel, the ten horns are particu-
larized as ten kings that SHALL arise out of the
beast's body or empire. It is added, moreover,
in the same 24th verse, that "another, (which,
consistently with the context, must be another
king,) shall rise after them, and he shall be diverse
from the first and he shall subdue three kings."
Now the Pope is not a king, nor did he ever
subdue three kings properly so called. The
Lombards were conquered by the arms of France,
which the Pope had called into Italy to protect
and assist him; and, after the conquest of Lom-
bardy and other states, the kings of France
formally made them over to the Pope, and thus
did the uprooted horns fall before him. The
Pope, moreover, never "spake great words against
the most High;" he cannot therefore be the ori-
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
153
ginal of the eleventh horn of the 24th and
25th verses, though he may be the original of
the 8th and 20th verses, as a little horn, before
which, it is to be observed, three of the FIRST
horns were plucked up by the roots. There never
has been any settled opinion about the ten horns of
the Roman empire, and, even if there had, the
event of the ten-horned dragon, (after his fall in
476,) giving his power and strength to the newly
risen blasphemous beast of this chapter, must un-
settle them, as we know not to what extent the
dragon's gift reached.
According to Bishop Newton, the power of the
Pope as a horn, or temporal prince, was not esta-
blished till the eighth century. (Newton on the
Prophecies, vol. i. p. 282.) If that calculation of the
Bishop is correct, the power of the Papacy did not
fulfil the character of Daniel's little horn, till above
three hundred years after the fall of the Western
empire of Rome. Leo the Ninth, who lived in the
eleventh century, is mentioned as the first Pope
who maintained an army. Mr. Gibbon says that,
"Rome acquiesced under the absolute dominion of
the Popes about the same time that Constantinople
was enslaved by the Turkish arms." (Decline and
Fall, vol. xii. p. 257.) This shows how late there
was a confraternal movement in the two seven-
hilled cities of Rome and Constantinople, the two
lamb-like horns of which have formed the empire
of Christendom. Yet the Pope of the first, and
154
CONTINUATION OF THE
the Patriarch of the latter, do not of themselves
seem equal to fulfil the character of the beast with
two horns like a lamb but speaking like a dragon;
for, although the Papacy has been more stout, and
spoken greater words, and massacred millions of
Protestants, the Patriarchate has merely rivalled it
by preaching the same lamb-like religion, and yet
practising idolatry. A much stronger exemplifica-
tion of personal Antichristianity may therefore be
looked for; and leaving the Pope to the ample
description which Bishop Newton has given of the
image which he (the Pope) presents of the tyranny
and vices of the Western Roman emperors, we
must turn to the Eastern division, where there is
another prophetic land-mark of seven hills. And
here it is proper to observe, that, until we hear of
the cessation of the two-horned beast, we must
consider the first ten-horned beast as still practi-
sing by his means, because he raises " an image" to
him, which can "both speak, and cause that as
many as will not worship the beast shall be killed."
The worship of the beast with the wounded head
is equally required with authority. The three
subjects upon earth which we may imagine to be
foreshown by the two-horned beast, do not appear
to us to be connected. What indeed can be more
apparently distinct than the Papacy, the Patriar-
chate, and the Turkish sultan? Still we are
informed that there are three living powers, called
in the Apocalypse the dragon, the beast, and the
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
155
false prophet; and although we may not be able to
assign them appropriately to their earthly states,
the complex subject naturally leads us to recollect
the description, given by the Apocryphal Esdras,
of an Antichristian eagle with three heads, that for
a season ruled in the earth with much oppression,
when after a time he saw that the three heads were
joined together. (4 Esdras, ch. xi.)
an
In Daniel's last empire a division is foretold, but
we know not whether the division is a local or a
spiritual division, and therefore it is with much
apprehension of erring conclusions that we venture
on to the Eastern department of the late Roman
empire, where the people of the Patriarchate had
so far departed from the purity of the primitive
Christians as to become great transgressors. And
this brings us to the consideration of an Antichris-
tian power, which appears to approach as
appointed scourge, and is, in the repetitions of the
eighth chapter, called first at the 9th verse, "a
little horn which waxed exceeding great," and
subsequently at the 23rd verse "a king,"
which is a natural consequence after waxing great.
This will occasion the examination of one of the
four divisions of Alexander's broken kingdom, that
in which Constantinople stands, because in that
division a part of the Turkish power first arose
a little horn, but afterwards became a king or
sultan.
156
CONTINUATION OF THE
DANIEL, CHAP. viii.
Ver. 8. "Therefore the he goat waxed very
great and when he was strong, the great horn was
broken; and for it came up four notable ones
towards the four winds of heaven.
Ver. 9. "And out of one of them came forth a
little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward
the east and toward the pleasant land.
Ver. 10. "And it waxed great, even to the
host of heaven; and it cast down some of the
host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped
upon them.
Ver. 11. "Yea, he magnified himself even to
the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacri-
fice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary
was cast down.
Ver. 12. “And an host was given him against
the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and
it cast down the truth to the ground; and it
practised and prospered."
Ver. 21. "And the rough goat is the king of
Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes
is the first king.
Ver. 22. "Now that being broken, whereas four
stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of
the nation, but not in his power.
Ver. 23. "And in the latter time of their king-
dom, when the transgressors are come to the full,
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
157
a king of fierce countenance, and understanding
dark sentences, shall stand up.
Ver. 24. And his power shall be mighty, but
not by his own power: and he shall destroy won-
derfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall
destroy the mighty and the holy people.
Ver. 25. "And through his policy also he shall
cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall mag-
nify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy
many: he shall also stand up against the prince
of princes but he shall be broken without hands."
The Turkish horn, which at first arose small in
Grecia, appears by "waxing great" to have attained
from thence all the points of situation marked out.
in the above eighth chapter. It "waxed great to-
wards the South," where it subdued Egypt; and
spread "towards the East," till it reached the
Tigris, and included the foundations of ancient
Babylon, the once golden head. The next coun-
try hinted at in the prophecy is "the pleasant
land." This apparently was an intermediate coun-
try, and notable in its state; and we therefore
readily acknowledge in it the Holy Land, where
the Turks have long been proud masters. Among
these various conquests, the Turks must inevitably
have "subdued three kings," according to the
24th verse of Daniel's seventh chapter, wherein
I have presumed that there was a covert prophecy
of the Turkish king, rather than an useless, and
apparently inapplicable, repetition concerning the
158
CONTINUATION OF THE
Papal little horn that "had eyes like the eyes
of a man."
This apparent fulfilment on the part of the
Turkish king, who exists at this day, (if it be con-
sidered well founded), will perhaps incline the
reader to recognize the before mentioned three
several powers in the two-horned beast; but in no
part of the eighth chapter of Daniel does the Turkish
power seem more accurately described than in the
24th and 25th verses.
Ver. 24. "And his power shall be mighty, but
not by his own power.
In the first place, the Turks are foreigners in
Greece, where the natives still form the basis of
the kingdom.
Ver. 25. "And through his policy also he shall
cause craft to prosper in his hand."
By policy and craft the Sultan has waxed exceed-
ing great, yet great only as an extrinsical image,
the essence of whose sacerdotal power was, as
before related, devolved upon him by the formal
renunciation of the two last of the Caliphs; and
this transfer of religious power must be esteemed
as a delegated power, rather than the Sultan's
66
own power." The Turks also are chiefly pro-
tected and defended by auxiliary troops and
Janizaries, who are paid by exactions levied upon
the natives of the soil, as is thus expressed by
Guthrie. "The riches drawn from the various
provinces of this empire must be immense. The
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
159
revenues arise from the customs, and a variety of
taxes, which fall chiefly on the Christians."
In further confirmation that this horn does not
act by his "own power," it is said that the Turkish
Sultan himself trembles before the Ulemah. By
the late accounts of Sir James Porter, who resided
at the Porte in quality of Ambassador from his
Britannic Majesty, it appears that "the rigours of
that despotic government are considerably modera-
ted by the power of religion. For, though in this
empire there is no hereditary succession to property,
the rights of individuals may be rendered fixed
and secure by being annexed to the Church.
Even Jews and Christians may in this manner
secure the enjoyment of their lands to the latest
posterity; and so sacred and inviolable has this
law been held, that there is no instance of an
attempt on the side of the prince to trespass on, or
reverse it. Neither does the observance of this
institution altogether depend on the superstition of
the Sultan. He knows that any attempt to violate
it would shake the foundation of his throne, which
is solely supported by the laws of religion. Were
he to transgress these laws, he would become an
infidel, and cease to be the lawful sovereign."
But, "through his policy, he doth cause craft to
prosper in his hand." By craft, and by enforcing
their religion, the Mahometan power is still in full
practice.
160
CONTINUATION OF THE
We return to the chapter of Revelations which
we are now considering.
Ver. 15. "And he had power to give life unto
the image of the beast."
The image of an empire must be extensive, and
so is the prevalence of the Mahometan religion.
If, therefore, the delegation from the successors of
Mahomet, is looked upon as having given vitality
to the sacerdotal power of the Turks, the Maho-
metan beast may still be looked upon as in practice,
although unrecognized as an empire. If these
things are so, the remains of the beast are now
practising, according to the gift of the dragon, in
the Roman seat at Constantinople. In this un-
noted manner, although narrated and symbolized
in the Apocalypse, and described and accounted
for by our own historians, was brought about, at
different periods, that transfer of power, seat, and
authority, which was mentioned at the 2nd verse,
of this chapter, and which is the Image of Maho-
metanism, that we now see practising in the old
Roman seat of the Cæsars at Constantinople.
It has already been stated, that all the greater
prophets show that Esau, Edom, or Seir, will be in
action in the last days. Esau is recorded to have
had three wives; therefore, whether obvious or
obscured, some of his Canaanitish and pagan des-
cendants by them must reach on to that time.
His grandson by his eldest son is, in the thirty-sixth
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
161
of Genesis, 15th verse, styled Duke Omar. Now
Omar, one of the earliest Caliphs, is stated to have
been one of the most rapid conquerors by the sword,
that ever spread desolation upon the face of the
earth. In a few years he subdued Egypt, Persia,
Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Jerusalem, in
which city he built a mosque. Was this like a
son of Ishmael, the wild man of the desart; or was
it like a son of Esau, who was to "live by his
sword," and at some period to have dominion?
The name of Omar is also perpetuated in one of
the Mahometan sects. The information that Esau,
or Edom, will be active as an adversary in the last
days, gives us fair warrant to seek after some visible
proofs of the existence of that party in the present
period of the world. But where shall the search
begin? Idumea has lost even its Grecian name;
Petra and its dependant cities are depopulated;
and although the prophecy of Zechariah allows the
red horses and their rider to walk to and fro in the
earth, and the learned Jews trace Edom to Rome,
still, according to the expression of Mr. Gibbon,
"there is not a Roman left visible to the legisla-
tive eye." The dominion of the Saracens has also
vanished from the sight, but the Antichristian
engine of its spiritual power, we have seen, was
most formally transmitted by two documents,
(like an inheritance to an heir), into the hands of
the Turks. They are, we repeat, a mysterious
people of doubtful origin, unlike in their persons to
M
162
CONTINUATION OF THE
the Tartar race from which they were supposed to
have sprung. When they first emerged from the
North, they bore the title of Turcomans, or wan-
dering and banished men; but whether they had
previously borne that appellation to the North, and
afterwards returned with it, cannot now be ascer-
tained. Philip of Mornay is said to have given
good reasons for the belief that they originated in
Arabia. The immense tracts of Arabia Petræa and
Syria can allow of this; and their bearing more
resemblance to the Southern than to the Northern
inhabitants of Asia also favours the supposition.
But, wherever acquired, as soon as they became
conquerors, they discarded the name they brought
with them, and assumed that of Othmans, which
they still bear with the greatest degree of haughti-
ness. They not only oppress the Jews and Chris-
tians, from whom they draw their sustenance, with
great cruelty, but evince constant hostility and
enmity towards them. It was foretold that Esau
should live by the sword. This the Turks have
always done.
Esau was at some period to have
a dominion, and this they have acquired by the
sword. They are interpreted by our best com-
mentators to be the four angels, or Sultans, which
are said, in the ninth of the Apocalypse, to have
been "bound in," that is, within, "the great river
Euphrates," which were "prepared to slay the
third part of men;" and we know that the Sultan
characteristically bears the title of the man-slayer.
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
163
Can all this be accidental? The self-appropriated
title proves the natural taste of this people for war
and carnage.
Certain it is that the Othmans have
ever been looked upon as instruments in the hands
of Providence, and it is a striking coincidence that
their own conceptions concur with those of the
Christians in the apprehension that they are come
into Europe only for a limited time. In the fine
country, to which they have attained, they proceed
like tenants at will, who have no interest in its
ultimate prosperity. Depopulation, cruelty, and
rapine, have marked their steps ever since they
came. Mr. Dallaway, in his account of Constanti-
nople, mentions that "a a prophecy obtains among
the Turks that the imperial city will one day be
required by the Christians, and that, from this
motive, a fashion is prevalent among their men of
rank of choosing their graves at Scutari, that they
may not become subject to their enemies even in
death, for Asia is looked upon as the patrimony of
the Mahometans'."
As we are now in the nineteenth century, it is
necessary we should be aware, that the chronolo-
gical chapters of the Apocalypse, as they draw
towards the conclusion, will give only such emblems
and narratives, as can exhibit the changes which
the long course of so many hundred years have
made. Yet, in these subsequent emblems and
'Dallaway's Constantinople, p. 155.
M 2
164
CONTINUATION OF THE
narratives, however necessarily altered, we must
still expect to find such an obvious resemblance
and connexion with the foregoing portraits and
narratives, as will afford a perceptible chain of
descent from one to the other, though it will
certainly require constant attention fully to under-
stand and appreciate them.
One of these latter portraits next comes under
our consideration, and it seems to represent some
of the existing circumstances of the world, which
appear to be leading to the last scenes of the
Apocalypse. The mechanism, or fabric of that
Revelation, however, appears to be in some of its
parts as yet inscrutable to us; besides which, the
first and second sense may prevail where we are
insensible of it. We, cannot, therefore be certain
of more than a shadowing out of things, and a
resemblance of that which is more perfectly to
appear. "We know in part, and we prophesy in
part, but when that which is perfect is come, then
that which is in part shall be done away."
The vision and narrative given in the following
chapter, being delivered by one of the angels which
pour out the last plagues, marks the lateness of
the period to which it belongs, and the situation of
its symbols.
REVELATIONS, CHAP. Xvii.
Ver. 3. "So he carried me away in the spirit into
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
EVELATI
165
the wilderness and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-
coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having
seven heads and two horns.”
This being "full of the names of blasphemy,”
points more certainly at the professors of the
Mahometan religion than at any other. And, as
every mosque utters blasphemy on the seven hills
of Constantinople, to what station can we so
justly attribute the scarlet coloured beast as to the
image empire of the Mahometan Turks, who
received a formal delegation of that RED spiritual
power?
Genesis, chap. xxxvi. “Esau is Edom," that is,
according to the context of Scripture, red. Advert-
ing then to the several intimations of Genesis,
Zechariah, and the Revelations, concerning the
relation which subsists between the scarlet colour,
and the Satanic confederacy, we cannot doubt that
the scarlet beast of this latter chapter relates to
Edom. And this, in accordance with the context
of the Old and New Testament, shows that Esau,
Seir, or Edom, will be in action in the last days.
Even in the present day, the Mahometan Turk,
like the Phantom or Image of the Saracenic beast,
is seated upon the seven heads or hills of Constan-
tinople; where the woman, being apparently the
aggregate of the three Antichristian powers, is,
according to the symbolic method of Scripture,
called a city, that is, the city of congregated wick-
edness; while the term mother, added to her name
166
CONTINUATION OF THE
S
of Babylon, carries us back to the prototype fifth
chapter of Zechariah, in which it is shown that
wickedness was first settled in the land of Shinar.
Here Babylon was built soon after the flood, and
from hence, Isaiah foretold (chap. xiv. ver. 29, 31.)
that a power, originally springing from the serpent's
root at Babylon, would afterwards come from the
north, and dissolve the state of Palestine, which
the Romans did in the year 70.
It also appears, in this seventeenth chapter of
Revelations, that the aggregate beast, (the dragon,
the beast, and the false prophet,) will again rise
into power for a short time. This is the second
direct mention of that revival. The first mention
is in the eleventh chapter, in which it is said, that,
after the faithful witnesses have finished their testi-
mony, "The beast that ascendeth out of the bottom-
less pit, shall make war against them, and shall over-
come them, and kill them." A dissolution of the
hierarchy of the two imperially founded churches
of Rome and Constantinople, may be necessary in
order to separate their faithful spirits from their
corrupt bodies. This is a disjunction we know that
our own souls and bodies are to undergo, when the
spirit which God gave is to be freed by death from
our corrupt flesh, and rise fruit of the resurrection,
as it appears that the spirits of these two faithful
witnesses will do. Neither the Western nor the
Eastern Church has yet been disfranchised, so that
the period here meant must be a late one; and the
8
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
167
14th verse of the eleventh chapter confirms this
statement by adding "that the second woe is past;
and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly." The
third woe begins the consummation of the prophe-
tic scheme, and thus again, in part, dates the late-
ness of the time in which the risen beast will
re-appear.
But the most certain intelligence which we derive
concerning the future, from this seventeenth chap-
ter, is that, during the last great conflicts, the three
Antichristian spirits appear, under the Divine in-
fluence, to act against each other, fulfilling thus
our Saviour's prophetic declaration that " every
house or city divided against itself, shall not stand '.'
In the sixteenth chapter of Revelations also, at
the 19th verse, it is stated that, previous to the
fall of Babylon, "the great city was divided into
three parts."
The "mark of the beast" is no slight matter, that
may be passed over as figurative. It is again
brought forward in the fourteenth chapter, and
the reception of the "mark," which we must inter-
pret as the religion of the beast, is there stated to
be the greatest crime before God. Nor can we
imagine a greater than that a Christian should be-
come a Mahometan. Such a gulf of destruction,
however, is plausibly laid open by every preacher
of universal toleration, or rather of universal indif
1
¹ Matt. xii. 25.
168
CONTINUATION OF THE
ference. And this shows how necessary it may
soon be to warn the young and the unwary against
the adoption of such a vain, unauthorised, and
sometimes ill-intentioned opinion.
It would no doubt be more agreeable to modern
indifference, to modern benevolence, and also to a
really kind and friendly feeling towards the worthy
individuals who may be found among our Roman
Catholic brethren, to pass over every further men-
tion that can reflect upon papistical practices. But
prophecy must be viewed with reference to that
which has actually passed, and is still passing, in
the world. When therefore we see the most en-
lightened individuals of the Romish persuasion
still persisting in the retention of images, in
defiance of an explicit and strict command, can we
do otherwise than perceive, that such disobedience,
(which appears to equal that of Adam,) must pro-
ceed from delusion¹? Let us however remember
that it is such a delusion, as may easily be incul-
cated and enforced upon an unsuspecting people,
born and brought up in a situation, where the
dragon's voice speaks with parental authority in
the lamb's horn. Such subjects of the dragon's
powerful deceptions, while they remain innocent of
"He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him
aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie
in my right hand?" This describes the Roman Catholic, who
denies that he worships Images, although he will rather die than
give them up.
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
169
our blood, we must ever hope are objects of God's
mercy and care.
But the millions of martyrs sacrificed at the
shrine of an intolerant superstition, their sufferings
in the cause of pure and undefiled religion, their
widows and their orphans given up as a prey to
the demon of fanaticism, must never be forgotten,
lest we should blindly, and unwittingly, consent to
see the same undying power raised up again.
Even a child of ten years of age, if educated with
ordinary care, is indued with sufficient judgment
to see and comprehend the offence there must be
in breaking an express commandment of God. And
if, in defence of the papal usurpations, any stress
is laid upon our Saviour's casual mention of a rock
in his address to St. Peter, in the sixteenth chapter
of St. Matthew, let it be remembered, that, in the
23rd verse of the same chapter, "he turned and
said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou
art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the
things that be of God, but those that be of men.”
These words are not equivocal, but more express
than those upon which the Roman Catholics dwell
so much.
To the above may be added our certain know-
ledge that the principles of the Papacy do nothing
towards cleansing the peculiar corruption of morals
in Italy. This alone may convince us that it is
not holy. It is the part of Protestants, therefore,
to read the Scriptures carefully for themselves,
170
CONTINUATION OF THE
and silently but firmly to determine upon a strict
obedience to their discriminating declarations, as
they become gradually visible. At the same time,
they should never either hurt, or bear ill will to,
the adverse party, because they cannot know the
deluded spirit from the active agent.
Nevertheless
the iron and the clay are not to mix although they
are mingled.
REVELATIONS, Chap. xiii.
Ver. 17. "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.
Ver. 18. "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."
We are told in Scripture that no prophecy is of
private interpretation. The man here indicated,
therefore, cannot be a private man, but one of
notoriety both before Heaven and earth. The
man, who raised up the Mahometan empire in
rebellion against God and his Christ, is certainly
the most remarkable man that we know of; and
he answers to the description in the text. The
name Mahomet, when written in Greek, as the
Apocalypse was, contains the number 666. Moa-
metic ¹.
The Romanists, in explaining the Book of Revelations, in-
sist that the religion of Mahomet is pointed out by the predicted
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
171
With respect to the congeniality of the dragon,
the beast, and the false prophet, they are not only
classed together in the 13th verse of the sixteenth
chapter of Revelations, but the last verse of this
chapter may be found to apply to all three. The
number 666 has long been adjudged to the Roman
horn, but (as has been just shown) appears also
clearly to belong to the individual man Mahomet,
and may be appropriated to his image in the
eastern power at Constantinople, as an image in-
cludes the attributes of its prototype..
Finally, the image of a great empire must like
its original be extensive, and so is the prevalence
of the Moslem religion. The question therefore,
may reasonably be asked, "What other fulfilment
is there of the image of an empire, if the widely
extended remains of the worship of Mahomet do
not exhibit it?" And when we reflect upon those
Antichrist; and they have explained that mystical number 666,
which has been so variously unravelled, and is expressly said to
be the number of a man, or the number of the name of a man,
to apply to the name of Mahomet, which, when expressed in the
Greek, in which language the Apocalypse was written, is Maho-
metic, or Moametic, as Euthymius, and the Greek historian, Zo-
nares, and Cedrenus write it. The letters which compose this
word, according to the Greek numeration, are thus-
M
O
A
M
E T
5 300
I
Σ
10 200
666
40 70 1 40
Bellarmine Pastorini's (Bishop Walmesly's) History of the
Church, p. 366.
}
172
THIRTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.
remains, are we not irresistibly led to say, "It is
the image, it is the beast, which was, and is not, and
yet is ?"
It may be proper to mention that several senti-
ments of this book, though not acknowledged at
the time, have been taken from a late publication,
little known, entitled, "A New Interpretation of a
part of the third chapter of Genesis."
"
THE END.
GILBERT & RIVINGTON, Printers, St. John's Square, London.

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