092. Chapter VII (Revelation 13)

CHAPTER VII The exposition of the 13th chapter, in which is set forth the state of the false church under Antichrist.—What his name, and the number of his name, denotes to us.—A short account of the time which some fix for his fall. The state of the church, and her conflicts with Satan the first four hundred years, being thus described, Revelation 12, in the following chapters is set forth the state of the church from that time, during the times of Antichrist; all which time there was and is both his false antichristian church and the true church under him running along together. Now, the description of Antichrist (the Pope) and his false church, in his rise, power, greatness, and extent of his dominions, and of the company that should cleave to him, is set forth in the visions of the 13th chapter, which afterwards, in the 17th chapter, the Holy Ghost himself interprets and makes a comment on. And then the opposite company of the true church, who have the Lamb for their head, are described in the 14th chapter; and that in all these several states and conditions which during all that time they should run under, and this from the first rise of Antichrist until these very times wherein we live; with which, I take it, the visions of that 14th chapter do end.

First, for Antichrist and his church in the 13th chapter, and this set forth unto us under the vision of a twofold beast, which points at the Pope according to his double pretended claim of power and headship in the church; which is—

1. Temporal; which he claims over all kings and kingdoms, to depose and excommunicate them and their subjects at his pleasure. Unto which the ten kings and kingdoms of Europe, into which the western empire was now by the Goths reduced, did tacitly and with one consent submit themselves, and gave their power up, as you may read it interpreted, Revelation 17:12-17. And so the Pope, together with the body of these ten kingdoms joining into one, whereof he becomes the head, is that first ‘beast with ten horns,’ described in this 13th chapter, Revelation 13:1-11 : which new beast is a true image of the former Roman monarchy in the 12th chapter; which being wounded and slain in the emperor’s being deposed, is healed and restored to life again in this beast; and so the Roman monarchy comes still to continue, though under another head, namely, the Pope.

2. Besides this temporal power which he receives from the kings of these ten kingdoms, who in that respect do together with him make up one beast, he and his clergy do claim a spiritual power of binding and loosing, of pardoning sins, and of cursing men to hell, which is peculiar to Christ alone. And in that respect he, and the body of his false clergy with him, do make up another beast, having two horns like a lamb, as exercising that spiritual power of Christ, for which they and he are properly called Antichrist; and this description you have of him from Revelation 13:11 to the end of this 13th chapter. He being head of two bodies, ecclesiastical and temporal, is described under two beasts. Now this spiritual beast, the Pope and his clergy, is he who by his lying doctrines did persuade the ten kings and their subjects to subject themselves in one body under him as their head, and is said to make the ‘image of the first beast,’—namely, of that dragon mentioned in the 12th chapter,—that is, of the former heathenish empire, and the religion thereof; which is therefore said to live again. For—

(1.) Both these kingdoms becoming one under the Pope as their head, are in their very form of government the image of the empire under one emperor formerly; and so the Roman monarchy, in the joining of these ten kingdoms under one head, the Pope, may be said still to continue. But besides—

(2.) This new beast is called the image of the first beast, not simply in respect of like form of government and tyranny; but further, in a religious respect, in that the Pope and his clergy do mould the Christian religion, which now they profess, and the worship thereof, into a true likeness and conformity to the heathenish religion, which the empire before was framed unto. For all the Popish worship is but the translating of these ceremonies, wherewith those false gods, Jupiter, Apollo, &c., who were cast down under the sixth seal, were worshipped, into religious ceremonies in their worship, wherewith they worship Christ and his saints. So as, were any of the ancient heathen Romans now alive, and should come into their assemblies, and behold their priests in white, their processions, their sprinkling with holy water, their altars, tapers, images of saints departed, and their worship of them, their Pontifex Maximus, or great bishop and high priest, &c., they would cry out and say, This is just our old Roman heathenish religion; only Jupiter is turned into Christ, and the priests of the gods of old into Popish bishops; and our ancient gods, Mars, Janus, Æsculapius, &c., who were men departed, are changed for saints departed. So that the life of the old religion remains still, though there be a change of the gods worshipped. Thus, as Babel of old made an image, and put to death all that would not fall down before it, so hath mystical Babylon—for to that Babel and to that image is the allusion—set up an image of the old heathenish religion and worship, and upon the like penalty enjoins the adoration of this image, and a conformity in worship, to all the subjects of these ten kingdoms.

Now, the company that cleave unto this beast, and may more or less be esteemed the followers of him, are, as Mr. Brightman hath well observed upon Revelation 13:16-17, distinguished into three ranks of men in several degrees, some more, some less, acknowledging or cleaving to him, and to this his image and worship. Some receive his mark or character; others his name only; others the number of his name: but so as those who will not receive or submit to one of these, more or less, during the time that is allotted him to reign, may not ‘buy nor sell;’ that is, cannot subsist or abide in these his allotted dominions. This ‘receiving of a mark,’ &c., is a similitude drawn from the old Roman custom, which was to print on the forehead of servants the names of their masters, and on the hands of soldiers the names of their emperors or generals. So these men that do belong unto this great lord, and that are of his faction, do accordingly, more or less, receive that whereby they may be known to be his.

1. Some receive his character, as all priests and religious persons do, whether they be Jesuits or others, who are this grand seigneur’s janissaries, his sworn soldiers and Prætorian band. Their doctrine is, that a man entered into holy orders doth, by his ordination, receive an indelible character, a secret invisible stamp or impress, which can never be rased out.

2. Others receive his name; and so, though not in orders under him, yet so cleave to him and his worship, as themselves openly profess that they are his, by suffering themselves to be called by his name, which is that whereby they own him. Thus as he is called Papa, the Pope, they profess themselves Papists, or to be of the Pope as their head. And as he is called Pontifex, they are called Pontificii. And even as Christ is called the ‘high priest of our profession,’ Hebrews 3:1, and so we accordingly called Christians from the profession of him; so the Pope being their pontifex, or high priest of their profession, they, to shew so much, do hold forth the profession of him, by taking his very name, and in all things fully subjecting themselves unto him as his sols. But now—

3. What should be meant by the number of his name? That Mr. Bright-man carries rightly to a company taking part with him, by a more remote kind of subjection; but he not knowing well whom to fasten it upon, brings in the poor Grecians, that are strangers unto him, and out of the dominion of any of his ten kingdoms; who, although they renounced all acknowledgment of the Pope for their head for many hundred years, yet were at last, through sleights, and the baseness of one of their emperors, together with the conquest that the Europeans made of Constantinople for a while, brought to yield a subjection thus far, as to acknowledge him for their head, and so were called Latins, or of the profession of the Latin church, (which name I find some to this day, that are Popish Christians among the Greeks, to be called by, by way of distinction from the other;) and so received, says he, the number of his name, Λατεἶνος, Latinus: the numeral letters whereof, in the Greek tongue, make six hundred and sixty-six, the number that follows in the last verse of this chapter. But this forced subjection of the Grecians, we remote, as it might be intended, for these more ancient times, yet withal I think that it is not only or principally meant:—

First, Because these Grecian Christians are not inhabitants within the jurisdiction of those ten kingdoms of Europe, the subjects whereof are mainly intended, as being those ‘inhabiters of the earth’ that should be the worshippers of this beast, and cleavers unto him, Revelation 13:8; Revelation 13:14; and so of them, and among them, must be found this number of his name, as well as those that receive his name.

And, secondly, because the Christians in the west, who assist the pouring forth the vials, are as well said, some of them, to overcome the number of his name, as others of them do his image, or idolatrous worship, or his character of lying priests, or the beast himself; so Revelation 15:2. I take it, therefore, that this number of his name must be found in Europe, in some of these ten kingdoms where that company are that pour out the vials.

Now, take the times of Popery before the Reformation,—that is, before the time that Protestant kingdoms did first begin to cast off the Pope,—and there were none that were suffered to have such a remiss, no, nor any lesser kind of owning the beast, but must all, as they did, receive his mark, or his name, and be professed Papists, coming to mass, acknowledging the Pope, and worshipping his image; or they might not buy and sell, they might not live quietly as others did. Therefore these that receive the number of his name must be some generation of men risen up since, and that also within those kingdoms, some of them, that have renounced the Pope. For within the Popish dominions, unto this day, either the Inquisition suffers none to profess less than the receiving his name at least; or in others, those that are of Papists the most moderate yet receive the name of the beast at least, and so more than the number of his name. But this number of his name seems to be a company that proceed not so far as to receive his character, professing themselves to be priests of Rome; nor to receive his name, for they do not profess themselves to be Papists; and yet are of the number of his name—that is, do hold and bring in such doctrines and opinions, and such rites in worship, as shall make all men reckon, account, or number them among Papists in heart and affection. And so they are of the number of his name; that is, in account such. They behave themselves so as they are, and deserve to be, accounted and esteemed Papists, and to aim at Popery, in the judgment of all orthodox and reformed Protestants, and that justly. For although their profession deny it, yet when their actions, and their corrupting of doctrine and worship shall speak it to all men’s consciences, they cannot but judge that the Pope, and the fear of him, is before their eyes, as David speaks of wicked men. And as those in Titus, that profess they know God, yet in their works deny him, are justly accounted atheists; so those that shall profess the reformed religion, yet in all their practices and underhand policies depress it, and advance the Popish party, are justly to be accounted Papists, and to have received the number of his name. The phrase, ‘number of a name,’ is not only taken for a name consisting of numeral letters, and so not only for number arithmetical; but the word ‘number’ is in many languages put for the account, reckoning, or esteem that is commonly had of men: as in Latin we say, he is one nullius numeri, of no number or account; and so among the Grecians, ἐν πολέμω ἐναρίθμιος is used by Homer for one in great account in war, being numbered or esteemed a soldier. So then, number of a name is a common esteem or account to be such or such a one; and so the number of the beast’s name here is the common repute or esteem to be a Papist, procured through underhand advancing of the Popish cause. It being therefore spoken in a distinct and lower degree from receiving his name or his mark, which note out an open profession, doth yet necessarily import so much inclining and cleaving to him, though secretly, as shall deserve that account and repute to be so numbered, as being indeed, tacitly and in heart, as truly of his company as those that receive his name. Now if in opening the meaning of the Holy Ghost in the phrase here, this description shall seem to the life to picture out a generation of such kind of Popish persons as these in any, even the most famous of the reformed churches, certainly there will not want good ground for it. For though they, with an impudent forehead, renounce the Pope’s character and the name of Papists, and will by no means be called ‘priests of Baal,’ though priests they affect to be called, but boast themselves to be of the Reformation, and opposites to the Papal faction; yet with as much impudence do they bring in an image of Popish worship and ceremonies, adding to some old limbs, never cast out, other substantial parts, of altars, crucifixes, second service and the like, so to make up a full likeness in the public service to that of the Popish church. They bring in the carcase first, which may afterwards be inspired with the same opinions. And all this, not as Popery, or with the annexion of Popish idolatrous opinions, but upon such grounds only as upon which Protestants themselves have continued some other ceremonies. And as in worship, so in doctrine, they seek to bring in a presence in the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, beyond that which is spiritual to faith, which yet is not Popish transubstantiation; a power in priests to forgive sins, beyond that which is declarative, yet not that which mass-priests arrogate; justification by works, yet not so grossly as in the way of Popish merit, but as a condition of the gospel as well as faith; and many the like to these: thus truly setting up an image of old Popery in a Protestant reformed way, even as Popery is an image of heathenish worship in a Christian way. Say these men what they will, that they hold not of the Pope, nor any way intend him, or the introducing of his religion into these churches, yet their actions do, and cannot but, make all men number them as such; and therefore we say, they have gained that esteem at home and abroad in all the churches. And it is no more than what the Holy Ghost prophesied of, who hath fitted them with a description so characteristical, as nothing is more like them than this of these here who are said to receive ‘the number of his name.’ And they doing this in a way of apostasy from their former profession and religion is which they were trained up, and in a church so full of spiritual light, where God hath more witnesses than in all the rest of the churches, and with an intention and conspiracy in the end to make way for the beast,—this going before, as the twilight doth serve to usher in darkness,—therefore the Holy Ghost thought them worthy of this character in this prophecy, and of a discovery of them unto whom they do belong, especially seeing they would so professedly deny it. And though haply but in one of the ten kingdoms,—although the Lutherans elsewhere look very like this description also,—yet seeing they were to grow so potent a faction as to have power to hinder the ‘buying and selling,’ quiet living of others amongst them, who will not receive this worship and doctrine, which is a new refined Popery, and with it the number of his name; that is, those opinions and practices which do deserve that esteem; and further, because they were to be the Pope’s last champions before his fall, whom those that are the true saints (of whom the greatest number in the last age before the Pope’s ruin is in, or belonging to that one kingdom) are to encounter and overcome before the ruin of Rome; therefore the Holy Ghost thought not fit to leave such a company out of the beast’s number and followers: and that also although they were to continue but a short time. For the doom of these men we have in another prophecy, as their description also, 2 Timothy 3:1-10 : the prophecy there being of a generation of men to arise in the last days,—the Papists’ rising is attributed to the latter days in 1 Timothy 4, but the rise of these to the last of the last days,—who shall set themselves principally against the power and spirit of true worship, and set up a form or image instead of it, Revelation 13:5; but their doom is, Revelation 13:9, ‘These shall proceed no further,’ they shall have a stop; and their folly, and madness, and hypocrisy, to attempt to bring in Popery with denying it, and when it is going down, then to build this Babel again, shall appear to all men; and being discovered, will be their overthrow. But notwithstanding, they must ‘proceed further’ than as yet they have done, even to the ‘killing of the witnesses’ in that kingdom, or tenth part of the city, as Revelation 11 will shew, when in its due order it shall be opened. And because these last champions of the beast, and healers of the wound given him, should come in the last days of all, they are therefore last named, and are said to be last overcome by the witnesses and pourers forth of the vials, as Revelation 15:2.

There is but one seeming objection or difficulty in this interpretation; and that is, that in the next verse the number of the beast is made six hundred and sixty-six. But the answer and solution is, that the ‘number of his name’ in this verse is one thing, and the ‘number of the beast’ in the last verse is another. It is not said that the number of his name is six hundred and sixty-six, but the number of the beast, which betokeneth another thing, as we shall presently see. Only the Holy Ghost, by a wise transition, passeth from the mention of one unto the other, as agreeing in phrase of speech, yet differing in sense; which is frequent in Scripture, and particularly in this book; as, Revelation 22:17, ‘The Spirit and the bride say, Come,’ as speaking unto Christ to come to judgment quickly, as Revelation 22:20; but in the following words, ‘Let him that is athirst come,’ there the word come is spoken of the coming of a soul unto Christ, by believing, as unto the waters of life. Even so the number of the beast, and the number of his name, are here mentioned, the one upon occasion of the other, because of the affinity of the phrase in speech, yet to a differing sense.

Now the number of the beast in the last verse is the time or term of his ending; which is spoken in reference to the time allotted him for his reigning, Revelation 13:5, which is to be, as there, forty-two months; which counting thirty days. to a month, according to the Egyptian account, which is the account of this spiritual Egypt, is twelve hundred and sixty years from his first rising, being the same space that the church hath to lie hid in the wilderness, Revelation 12:6; which though she began to hasten into from Constantine’s time, yet she first began to enter into her desolate condition, wherein she still remains, but then when the Pope’s power began to rise. And during the same space of twelve hundred and sixty years, the witnesses are said to prophesy in sackcloth, Revelation 11:3; that in, is a mourning and mean condition; for the eminent professors of the truth, and opposers of the beast, who with their prophecy do feed the church in the wilderness all that while, as Revelation 12:6, these are the two witnesses, Revelation 11:3. Which dates of time, both of the witnesses’ casting off their sackcloth, the woman’s coming out of the wilderness, and the beast’s dejection from his kingdom and seat, (Rome,) will all expire about the same time; which some think will be about the year 1650, or 1656,—which if not the Pope’s ruin, yet the Jews’ call, as they say it to be,—or, at the furthest, in 1666; to which latter some incline, as thinking it probable that it may be the meaning of that account mentioned in the last verse of this 13th chapter, which doth cast up the number of the beast; that is, the date and period of his time and power, which was given him to continue forty-two months, as Revelation 13:5 : which days shall then be numbered, that is, finished, as the phrase is of old Babylon’s ending, Daniel 5:26, ‘God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it;’ and this his number the Holy Ghost hath computed to be in the year that, according to man’s computation, shall be called six hundred and sixty six. And for the confirmation of this interpretation, the word number is often put to express time; the very definition which the philosopher makes of time is, numerus motus secundum prius et posterius; it is the number of motion. And therefore Johannes Viterbiensis, in his gloss upon this place, plainly renders it thus: numerus est illius tempus,—‘this his number is his time.’ Therefore some have made this number to design out the year of the beast’s beginning, or confirmation in his kingdom, in the year after Christ 666. But number, when it is put to signify time, doth not so properly signify the beginning of it, as the ending of it, when the number is finished and made complete, and cast up, as I may so speak; for then his time is numbered, and the account of it summed, and not before. And therefore Daniel, whose phrase, as whose visions, this vision in this 13th chapter exactly follows, useth this phrase to note out the ending of the time of a kingdom, and not the beginning; ‘thy days are numbered.’ And, which is strange, Irenæus himself, who was the first that interpreted this six hundred and sixty-six to contain the numeral letters of Λατεῖνος, as the name of this Latin kingdom, does withal seem to think that the end of the times of the beast should in a mystery be hiddenly contained, (Adver. Hœreses, lib. v., towards the end of the book:) refert hunc numerum 666, ad sexies millenos annos mundi in quibus (ait) diabolica malitia consummabitur. He mistakes indeed, referring it to the six thousandth year of the world, according to the old tradition of the Rabbins, commonly received among the fathers; but yet in this he agrees, that it should signify the time of the consummation and ending of the beast’s reign and the devil’s malice, as that which is to determine with the end of the world. And I observe the Holy Ghost puts an especial wisdom on it, to reckon this number; which if it had lain in numeral letters only, had been no great point of wisdom to have such an emphasis put upon it; the like whereof is used but once more in this book, and that in Revelation 17:9, when the beast, and the time of his rising with the ten kings, is set forth, as there, from the 9th to the 12th verse (Revelation 17:9-12); and so now here, when his ending is spoken of: for this wisdom indeed lay in reckoning the time of his beginning with the ten kings, and so the time of his ending, by computing the whole time of his reign twelve hundred and sixty years. The vulgar computation of years kept now in the world is, as we all know, from the year of Christ’s birth, by an account from which we difference one year from another. And that is the style of the whole Christian world, to say, such a year of our Lord, reckoning from Christ. And this computation is called the ‘number of a man,’ for it is the ordinary vulgar way of reckoning years, and the measure of time used by men; and therefore so called, in that man doth use so to number the years. Even as the measure of the wall of the city, Revelation 21:17, is said to be a hundred and forty-four cubits, ‘according to the measure of a man,’—that is, the ordinary cubits in use with men, or taken from the proportion of the measure of man’s stature: so here, say they, the beast’s year of ending, when his number shall be complete, will be in the year which, according to man’s computation of the years from Christ, shall be ordinarily termed 666. Now the number of the thousand is not mentioned, as in vulgar phrase among the Greeks and Hebrews it seldom was, neither among other nations is it ordinarily used to this day; we using to say, in ’88, for 1588. And here especially it was needless; for if his number was to end in a year which, according to man’s account, should be called 666, it could be no other, according to them, but that of 1666 after Christ; for the year 666 after Christ, which is past, it could not be, there being not two hundred of his years allowed him to continue, as then run out; and in the year 2666, to come, the years allotted him would have been well-nigh doubly run out, his years from his first rising to this his ending being to be but twelve hundred and sixty years.

Now then, according to this their account, so as to end his time in 1666, his time of rising must begin in the year 406 after Christ; and that the Pope’s rise did about that time begin, we are not altogether without the Holy Ghost’s warrant, who tells us, that the Roman empire, seated at Rome, over the west, must begin to be taken away, ere this man of sin could be revealed, or come up and appear in the world, 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8. And it was the western empire which was that which letted, whereof Rome itself was the head and seat; and therefore the Holy Ghost affixeth this empire to the city of Rome as the seat of it, which he calleth seven-headed, in respect of her seven hills, and so meaneth not that eastern empire, whereof Constantinople was the seat. Now this western empire, whose seat was Rome, began then to be taken away, and the first foundation of its ruin laid, when the Goths and Vandals, of whom you heard under the trumpets, began to break that empire into these ten kingdoms; and the beginning of the first kingdom broken off from the empire was in the year 410, the emperor by covenant allowing the Goths to set up a kingdom in France. Then was Rome also first sacked and taken by those barbarous nations, and first lost her virginity; and Honorius the emperor, to recover Rome again, and restore it to her former flourishing estate, was forced to part with one piece of the empire, namely France, which was the first of all the ten kingdoms that were broken off. And in the year 412, he was forced to grant to the Huns to do the like. And anno 415, he was forced to grant the like to the Goths in Spain.^[9] And by the year 456, all the ten were up who gave their power to the beast. And this punctually agrees with what the Holy Ghost says more expressly of the very hour of Antichrist’s rising, chap. 17:12: that the ten kings should begin to receive power as kings, one hour with the beast, and the beast one hour with them; the Holy Ghost reckoning from the beginning of the first of these ten kingdoms the rising of the beast, because therein was laid the first foundation of his empire over these ten kingdoms, for they were to set him up. And, which is strange, Jerome, who lived in the times of this first incursion of these barbarous nations, and wrote so complainingly of it, who died about the year 420, when he saw Rome taken, and the Goths obtain pieces of the western empire, said, then in those times when it was a-doing, in his Epistle ad Gerontium: Qui tenebat de medio fit, et non intelligimus antichristum appropinquare. He seeing the empire begin to break, said, Antichrist must needs be at hand.

[9] See Sigonius de Imperio Occidentali, lib. x., xi.

Some read μἐτα τὸ θηρίον, as importing the rise of these ten kingdoms, to be after the beast first risen: which, if meant of the time when these ten horns were completely grown up, is true; for in nature the horns grow up after the birth of the beast that beareth them. But whether it be after the beast, or with the beast, it was but one hour after the beast, or one hour with the beast; still implying, that both the rise of the one and of the other were near in time, and in the same age. And if the time be reckoned from the very first rise of that first kingdom in France, granted unto the Goths, anno 410, it will appear that it fell out together, or not an hour after the rise of that beast, from whose time the centurists and others have made the birth of the beast to have been, though his conception were before. And indeed it so happened, through God’s providence, who made all things concur in this one hour, that he who was as then Pope, namely Innocentius I.,—created Pope, as some say, anno 404, some 406,—began to usurp and challenge jurisdiction over all churches, (as I could out of many authorities shew, but you may see it in Simpson’s History of the Church, in English, Book ii., 5th century,) and did set on foot that famous falsification of the canons of the Nicene Council, as pretending that they gave these bishops of Rome that power; for which there is an epistle of this Innocentius among the epistles of Augustine, (Epist. 91,) where he writing to Augustine, and the rest of the African bishops assembled, challengeth power over all, ex patrum illorum institutis, from the decrees of those fathers of Nice, which his successors afterwards prosecuted: so that a copy out of the authentic records of that council, held in the time of Constantine, was sent for, by which this falsification was detected. This man also began first to arrogate a power over princes; for he excommunicated the eastern emperor, Arcadius, who yet was out of his jurisdiction, for banishing Chrysostom, which no bishop of Rome before him had ever adventured to do, and this in the year 407, the copy of whose bull of excommunication is extant to this day, given at length in Baronius. In his time also, the Emperor Honorius granted the clergy an exemption from secular power and civil tribunals; so making them a distinct body for the Pope, their head. See here the first and second beast in this chapter rising both together: first in this Pope’s proud usurping over churches and princes, and then in exempting his clergy, to make up and constitute that second beast, with him as their spiritual head; and the ten kingdoms which were to constitute the first beast, under the Pope as their head, then also beginning to arise. And thus I have given an account of their opinion who fix the time of Antichrist’s fall in 1666; together with the arguments which they urge to prove it.