against the state: and to be fufpected was to be guilty. This, during the reign of terror, as the revolutionifts themfelves call it, was generally the fact throughout France. Many thousands, as I have before faid, have been condemned and executed without evidence of guilt, or even the form of trial; and therefore no democrate would, and no other person dared to, deal with one, who had neither the "mark nor name, nor number of the name" of the republic.

We have now feen that the policy and measures pursued by the republic, and the wonderful events. produced by them, correfpond with peculiar accuracy to all the preceding types of the beaft, which the prophet faw" come up out of the earth.' The great decifive type, feems yet to remain involved in prophetic myftery. Many great and pious men among the ancients, as well as moderns, have fought to find out its great prototype in vain. At this we fhall not be furprised, when we confider, that they had fearched for it among events which had already come to pass, when, in truth, it referred to a civil power which had then never exifted; nor had any Power bore a resemblance to it. It was a Power only known to Infinite Wisdom, and intended, by him, fo to remain, until, in his own time, he should fuffer it to appear in the world. Even then, the text intimates, that this great mark of the beaft fhall be a myftery, which fhall require great wisdom to unfold; at leaft, much more than all his other marks: and yet the prophet invites us to fearch for the true explanation, and to find out his prototype. Whence we muft conclude, that the task is not impoffible to be performed. However, let us hear the prophet.

Ver. 18. Here is wisdom! let him that "hath understanding, count the number of the

"beaft;

"beaft; for it is the number of a man; and his number is fix hundred three fcore and "fix."

The prophet, in the laft verfe, afferts that the beaft fhould have not only a mark and a name, but that the name fhould contain a number by which he should be known! and here he gives the exact and particular number, and expreffly informs us that it is the number of a man;" leaving us to find out by this hint a proper man, whofe name contains the number 666. But at the fame time he reminds us, that the discovery will be difficult, and require much fearch and deep confideration: for, fays he, "here is wisdom! let him that hath understanding "count the number of the beaft," Now wherein does the difficulty confift? It is, as I humbly apprehend, in this; that it is not the name of every man, that can poffibly be a diftinguifhing mark of a beaft or nation. There are fo many men in the world, whofe names contain the number, that the diftinction would be loft in the multitude. Befides, the names of men in private life, however their names might contain the number, could not bear a fimilitude or proper reference to a nation, fo as to make it a fymbol of a nation. To remove these difficulties, we muft not only find out a man, the numerical letters of whofe name contain the exact number of the beaft; but he must be a man, who, in his political character and office, reprefents a nation, and by whofe name a nation is known. It has, therefore, forcibly been impreffed on my mind, that we must fearch for the man whose name contains the number, among the kings and princes of the earth. In this opinion I am almoft alone; for many learned and pious commentators, the Proteftant more efpecially, unmindful of the hint given by the prophet, have believed that they faw all the marks

4

marks of the beaft verified in the church of Rome. Pursuing this error, and forgetting that the number must be the number or name of a man, they found two Greek and Hebrew words denoting the Latin, or Roman nation, the numerical letters of which amounted to 666, and thence conceived that the number muft refer to the church of Rome. To this circumstance they have added, that the church has "latinized in every thing," in all her ecclefiaftical forms and ceremonies; which they think conclufive.

To fhow that thefe arguments are by no means well founded, I might content myself with refuting them by the conceffion of the authors of them, and the exprefs declaration of the prophet; for they themselves freely acknowledge, that the firft beast which John "faw rife up out of the fea," is the real type of the church of Rome; and the prophet pofitively afferts, that the beast which he "faw come "up out of the earth," was "another," and not the fame which he faw rife up out of the fea; "that "this other beaft fhall exercise, all the power of the

firft beaft" (or the church of Rome), before him, and "do miracles in his fight;" and that the number of this other beaft is 666. Now if the "beaft of the fea" be the church of Rome, and the other, the "beaft of the earth," be a different beast, whofe name or number is 666, and who fhall" do "miracles in the fight of the other beaft," it is impoffible, in the nature of things, that the types of the "beaft of the earth," and particularly his number, fhould be intended by the Spirit of truth as defignations of the church of Rome,

But as this error has been continued down from Irenæus to the learned Bishop Newton, and led

* Chap. xiii. 2.

commentators

commentators into a variety of others, it cannot be improper to give the arguments, upon which it has been founded, particular confideration, the more especially as the refutation of error often leads to the discovery of truth.

1. The words which Irenæus and his followers have fixed on, the numerical letters of which amount to the number of the beaft, are "Lateinos and Romith;" the first Greek, and the other Hebrew. And they contend it must be fome Greek or Hebrew word. I confefs I fee no reafon whatever to fupport this conclufion, but many against it, and many which lead me to believe, that the number of the beaft was to be fulfilled in a Latin word. Thefe I fhall fubmit to the candid confideration of the reader.

The Grecian empire, long before the prophet wrote, had, in the course of Divine Providence, been destroyed, and its language foon after became a dead language, and the Hebrews were no longer an independent people, but scattered over the earth; and their dialect was foon to be changed from its former purity into a jargon of words profeffedly myftical, and only understood by themselves. Thefe events, we must conclude, could not be unknown to the Spirit of truth, which unfolded the mystery to the prophet; and that it would not direct him to refer to a word, by which the great and infallible mark of the beaft was to be made known to mankind, in a language which should be obfolete; or in a language, if not loft, fo changed and corrupted, as fcarcely to leave a trace of the original, and only understood by one people, and that too a people every where suppreffed, defpifed, and of lefs influence in the world than any other diftinct part of mankind; because a general manifeftation of the power "typified by the word" was one great purpose of the prophecy; and

that

that could not be well made by a word in a language either obfolete, or little known.

2. It is, befides, well known that ever fince the building of the tower of Babel, and the confequent difperfion of mankind, the dialects of nations have been almost as numerous and various as the nations themselves, continually changing, and in time loft; so that now scarcely any two understand the language of each other. Had the number of the beaft been referred to a word of any of the numerous mo→ dern languages, befides the difficulty of knowing in which to fearch for it, it would be impoffible for it to become generally known, should it ever be found. On this account it was certainly neceffary that the language, in which "the number or name" of the Power foretold was to be discovered, fhould be fo preferved, as to be generally understood by the nations, who fhould in any refpect be affected or injured by it; and particularly by the Pope and his people," before whom, and in whofe fight," it was to "work miracles." For these reasons, it feems to have been the will of ALMIGHTY GOD, that, in the courfe of his providence, the Latin language, after having been, in a manner, loft even in Italy, its parent country, upwards of a thousand years, fhould again be revived by the council of Trent, in the fixteenth century; that this Papal council fhould pass a decree, that the Latin translation of the Bible, a book intended to be read by all nations, should be the only authentic verfion: that the church of Rome fhould afterwards" latinize in every thing," as our commentators phrase it; in all her canons, decre tals, bulls, prayers, hymns, and the entire fervice of the church throughout the amazing extent of her influence; that her Jefuits, monks, priefts, and friars, fhould be fent, as they have been, among the nations of the four quarters of the globe; that, while propagating