"The NAME of the beast"-" IS THE NUMBER of a MAN; and HIS NUMBER IS 666."-Rev. xiii. 17, 18.

CHAPTER I.

THE SUBJECT PROPOSED.

SINCE the time of IRENEUS, who was a contemporary with POLYCARP, the disciple of St. JOHN, the true investigation of the secret name but given number of THE MAN which the Apostle has propounded for our solution by the means of "wisdom" and "understanding," has always been a subject deeply interesting, though perplexing, to the minds of the most learned and pious Commentators of Divine Revelation, as the numerous works extant on this particular point will clearly demonstrate. St. JOHN, however, Let him that hath

says plainly '—" Here is wisdom.

1 Rev. xiii. 18.

B

understanding cOUNT THE NUMBER of the beast: for it is the NUMBER of a MAN; and HIS NUMBER is SIX HUNDRED THREE SCORE and SIX," or "666.” Thus from the Apostle's exhortation "Let him that hath understanding," and his expression, "Here is the mind which hath wisdom," (as well as from the examples of IRENEUS, HIPPOLYTUS MArtyr, and others,) we know that a sober attempt to solve this scriptural enigma is perfectly justifiable. As "the Number of a MAN" must necessarily (according to the ancient mode of Greek calculations and of St. John's expression) imply the NAME of a MAN; the Apostle has made them coincident.2 Τὸ ΟΝΟΜΑ τῷ θηρία ἤ τὸν ΑΡΙΘΜΟΝ τῷ ΟΝΟΜΑΤΟΣ ΑΥΤΟΥ. The NAME of the Beast, or THE NUMBER of HIS NAME: '—and this NAME and NUMBER of the Beast he declares to be "the NUMBER of a MAN." 3 ΑΡΙΘΜΟΣ . . . . ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΥ ἐστὶ “ It is the NUMBER of a ΜΑΝ.” Καὶ ὁ ΑΡΙΘΜΟΣ ΑΥΤΟΥ χξς'. " And HIS NUMBER" [or the Number of Him]" 666." That is to say, "The Number of a Man," is, by a proper ellipsis, put for the Number of the Name of a Man,' according to the opinion of Irenæus. Therefore, it will be absolutely necessary to abide by THIS APOSTOLIC RULE in the investigation of the NAME of the MAN, the alphabetical LETTERS of which, when taken separately, (according to the mode of Greek computation), must contain the given arithmetical Number of the Beast in the strictest possible manner, in order that a stop may be put to the multiplicity of vague

1 Rev. xvii. 9.

2 Rev. xiii. 17.

3 Ibid. 18.

incorrect.

speculations, which have gone forth into the world during the present age of the Church, through the fertile imaginations of various learned writers on Prophecy. And such is my purpose, with the firm hope of supplanting, by the means of scriptural truth, by sound argument, by classical and ancient Arithmetical Authorities, all those Words, Names, Epithets, Titles and Sentences, (excepting Aarêtvos) which have hitherto been produced in favour of the Number 666; but which are as foreign to the "Wisdom" and Understanding" of which ST. JOHN speaks, as they are orthographically, hypothetically, and otherwise For at the outset it is evident, not only from the words of ST. JOHN, that the characteristic 'MARK'... of the Beast must be the PROPER NAME of some "MAN, (implied in HIS enigmatical Number, 666); but St. Paul also speaks in an especial manner of "the MAN of SIN "-"the SON of PERDITION," to "be revealed in his time." ὁ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ὁ ΥΙΟΣ τῆς ἀπωλείας ; which character most fully portrayed the Person of the POPE of ROME. Thus as CHRIST is the Name of A MAN 2 (XPITO), so also similarly the Appellative of his great Opponent is that of a MAN, as we know from the masculine prefix of the definite Articles ¿ ANTIXPIETOΣ, and, therefore, if we can find the proper name of a MAN, which is answerable also in an Appellative sense, to the descriptive MARK, NAME, and NUMBER X§s', or 666; as also characteristic of

....

2 "The Man Christ Jesus," 1 Tim. ii. 5; Rom. v. 15.

"the MAN of SIN"-" the SON of PERDITION;" and Kat' ¿oxy, the ANTICHRIST ;' then, let us not doubt of full success: as we may be assumed to have the “Wisdom” and “Understanding” requisite for discovering as decisively as possible, the secret name of that scriptural enigma, which is brought to light in the Proper Name Aarvo, LATEINOS; for it contains the true NUMBER, x§s', or 666—is the NAME of a MAN, and exhibits the indelible MARK of the Beast, which is LATIN.

I. I purpose to commence this subject, or Treatise, by some critical Remarks on the opinion of the Rev. George Stanley Faber, relative to the Number xs', or 666, the enigmatical Name of which he imagines he has discovered, to a moral certainty, in the Greek word Amans [APOSTATÈS,] as he writes. I am much inclined to think, that, even independently of other objections, the very phraseology of the Apostle shuts out every Name which has been adduced as the Name of the Beast, save ONLY the single Name APOSTATÈS.' But Mr. Faber knew well, at the very time he was recording this opinion for publication, that the Word (not Name') APOSTATES, would, most clearly and unequivocally produce the far greater (and much more legitimate) Number 1160, which completely destroys the certainty of the lesser Number 666, the former being by 494 above the Number mentioned by St. John and it is most evident that APOSTATÈS cannot by any possible

:

1 Faber's Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, Vol. iii. Book V. Chap. iv. Page 237.

means be converted into the Proper Name of a MAN. It is, moreover, monstrous to suppose that AposTATES can be limited to contain the true Number 666, and also extended to the much greater Number 1160, at the same moment, and, therefore, the word APOSTATÈS lies open to a twofold objection.

1st. That APOSTATÈS is not the PROPER NAME of a MAN, but a word of the most indefinite signification, and therefore cannot contain the Number of a MAN, or be the proper Appellative of the Numbered Beast, because such a word might be rendered applicable to every Apostate or Apostacy.

2ndly. That APOSTATÈS does produce LETTER BY LETTER, the true and undoubted Number 1160, and is, therefore, plainly irreducible to the far inferior Number 666; because things which are equal to the same, are equal to one another.' This word Atosaτns, therefore, must be as remote from conclusiveness, upon a point so long the subject of Theological Controversy, as the Number 1160 is, from the Number 666.

1

II. I intend to prove that the opinion of the learned Dr. Adam Clarke, who supposes that he has fully deciphered the Proper Name of the numbered Beast, or MAN, in the words or sentence, n Aation Baciλeia,1 THE LATIN KINGDOM;' (which words or sentence, by computation of the LETTERS of the Greek Alphabet, Letter by Letter, will produce the exact number x§s', or 666; but NOT the Proper Name of a MAN,) must be rejected, as NOT being answerable to the "wisdom'

1 Dr. Adam Clarke's Commentary on Rev. xiii. 18.