SECTION III
This beast is presented to our notice (Rev. xiii. 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 serpent." Though
this beast is mentioned after the beast from the sea, it does not
follow that he came into existence after the sea-beast. The work
he did seems to show the very contrary; for it is by his
instrumentality that mankind are led (ver. 12) "to
worship the first beast" after that beast had received
the deadly wound, which shows that he must have been in existence
before. The reason that he is mentioned second, is just because,
as he exercised all the powers of the first beast, and leads all
men to worship him, so he called not properly be described till
that beast had first appeared on the stage. Now, in ancient
Chaldea there was the type, also, of this. That god was called in
Babylon Nebo, in Egypt Nub or Num, * and among the Romans Numa,
for Numa Pompilius, the great priest-king of the Romans, occupied
precisely the position of the Babylonian Nebo. Among the
Etrurians, from whom the Romans derived the most of their rites,
he was called Tages, and of this Tages it is particularly
recorded, that just as John saw the beast under consideration "come
up out of the earth," so Tages was a child suddenly and
miraculously born out of a furrow or hole in the ground. * In
Egypt, this God was represented with the head and horns of a ram
. * In Etruria he seems to have been represented in a somewhat
similar way; for there we find a Divine and miraculous child
exhibited wearing the ram's horns . * The name Nebo, the grand
distinctive name of this god, signifies "The
Prophet," and as such, he gave oracles, practised
augury, pretended to miraculous powers, and was an adept in
magic. He was the great wonder-worker, and answered exactly to
the terms of the prophecy, when it is said (ver. 13), "he
doeth great wonders, and causeth fire to come down from heaven in
the sight of men." It was in this very character that the
Etrurian Tages was known; for it was he who was said to have
taught the Romans augury, and all the superstition and
wonder-working jugglery connected therewith. * As in recent
times, we hear of weeping images and winking Madonnas, and
innumerable prodigies besides, continually occurring in the
Romish Church, in proof of this papal dogma or that, so was it
also in the system of Babylon. There is hardly a form of "pious
fraud" or saintly imposture practised at this day on
the banks of the Tiber, that cannot be proved to have had its
counterpart on the banks of the Euphrates, or in the systems that
come from it. Has the image of the Virgin been seen to shed
tears? Many a tear was shed by the pagan images. To these
tender-hearted idols Lucan alludes, when, speaking of the
prodigies that occurred during the civil wars, he says:-
"Tears shed by gods, our country's patrons,
And sweat from Lares, told the city's woes." *
Virgil also refers to the same, when he says:-
"The weeping statues did the wars foretell,
And holy sweat from brazen idols fell." *
When in the consulship of Appius Claudius, and Marcus
Perpenna, Publius Crassus was slain in a battle with Aristonicus,
Apollo's statue at Cumae shed tears for four days without
intermission. *
The gods had also their merry moods, as well as their weeping
fits. If Rome counts it a divine accomplishment for the sacred
image of her Madonna to "wink," it was surely
not less becoming in the sacred images of Paganism to relax their
features into an occasional grin. That they did so, we have
abundant testimony. Psellus tells us that, when the priests put
forth their magic powers, "then statues laughed, and
lamps were spontaneously enkindled." * When the images
made merry, however, they seemed to have inspired other feelings
than those of merriment into the breasts of those who beheld
them. "The Theurgists," says Salverte, "caused
the appearance of the gods in the air, in the midst of gaseous
vapour, disengaged from fire. The Theurgis Maximus undoubtedly
made use of a secret analogous to this, when, in the fumes of the
incense which he burned before the statue of Hecate, the image
was seen to laugh so naturally as to fill the spectators with
terror." * There were times, however, when different
feelings were inspired. Has the image of the Madonna been made to
look benignantly upon a favoured worshipper, and send him home
assured that his prayer was heard? So did the statues of the
Egyptian Isis. There were so framed, that the goddess could shake
the silver serpent on her forehead, and nod assent to those who
had preferred their petitions in such a way as pleased her. * We
read of Romish saints that showed their miraculous powers by
crossing rivers or the sea in most unlikely conveyances. Thus, of
St. Raymond it is written that he was transported over the sea on
his cloak. * Paganism is not a whit behind in this matter; for it
is recorded of a Buddhist saint, Sura Acharya, that, when "he
used to visit his flocks west of the Indus, he floated himself
across the stream upon his mantle." * Nay, the gods and
high priests of Paganism showed far more buoyancy than even this.
There is a holy man, at this day, in the Church of Rome,
somewhere on the Continent, who rejoices in the name of St.
Cubertin, who so overflows with spirituality, that when he
engages in his devotions there is no keeping his body down to the
ground, but, spite of all the laws of gravity, it rises several
feet into the air. So was it also with the renowned St. Francis
of Assisi, * Petrus a Martina, * and Francis of Macerata, * some
centuries ago. But both St. Cubertin and St. Francis and his
fellows are far from being original in this superhuman devotion.
The priests and magicians in the Chaldean Mysteries anticipated
them not merely by centuries, but by thousands of years. Coelius
Rhodiginus says, "that, according to the Chaldeans,
luminous rays, emanating from the soul, do sometimes divinely
penetrate the body, which is then of itself raised above the
earth, and that this was the case with Zoroaster." *
The disciples of Jamblichus asserted that they had often
witnessed the same miracle in the case of their master, who, when
he prayed was raised to the height of ten cubits from the earth.
* The greatest miracle which Rome pretends to work, is when, by
the repetition of five magic words, she professes to bring down
the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ from
heaven, to make Him really and corporeally present in the
sacrament of the altar. The Chaldean priests pretended, by their
magic spells, in like manner, to bring down their divinities into
their statues, so that their "real presence"
should be visible manifested in them. This they called "the
making of gods;" * and from this no doubt comes the
blasphemous saying of the Popish priests, that they have power "to
create their Creator." There is no evidence, so far as
I have been able to find, that, in the Babylonian system, the
thin round cake of wafer, the "unbloody sacrifice of the
mass," was ever regarded in any other light than as a
symbol, that ever it was held to be changed into the god whom it
represented. But yet the doctrine of transubstantiation is
clearly of the very essence of Magic, which pretended, on the
pronunciation of a few potent words, to change one substance into
another, or by a dexterous juggle, wholly to remove one
substance, and to substitute another in its place. Further, the
Pope, in the plenitude of his power, assumes the right of
wielding the lightnings of Jehovah, and of blasting by his "fulminations"
whoever offends him. Kings, and whole nations, believing in this
power, have trembled and bowed before him, through fear of being
scathed by his spiritual thunders. The priests of Paganism
assumed the very same power; and, to enforce the belief of their
spiritual power, they even attempted to bring down the literal
lightnings from heaven; yea, there seems some reason to believe
that they actually succeeded, and anticipated the splendid
discovery of Dr. Franklin. * Numa Pompilius is said to have done
so with complete success. Tullus Hostilius, his successor,
imitating his example, perished in the attempt, himself and his
whole family being struck, like Professor Reichman in recent
times, with the lightning he was endeavouring to draw down. *
Such were the wonder-working powers attributed in the Divine Word
to the beast that was to come up from the earth; and by the old
Babylonian type these very powers were all pretended to be
exercised.
Now, in remembrance of the birth of the god out of a "hole
in the earth," the Mysteries were frequently celebrated
in caves under ground. This was the case in Persia, where, just
as Tages was said to be born out of the ground, Mithra was in
like manner fabled to have been produced from a cave in the
earth. * Numa of Rome himself pretended to get all his
revelations from the Nymph Egeria, in a cave. * In these caves
men were first initiated in the secret Mysteries, and by the
signs and lying wonders there presented to them, they were led
back, after the death of Nimrod, to the worship of that god in
its new form. This Apocalyptic beast, then, that "comes
up out of the earth," agrees in all respects with that
ancient god born from a "hole in the ground:"
for no words could more exactly describe his doing than the words
of the prediction (ver. 13): "He doeth great wonders,
and causeth fire to come down from heaven in the sight of
men,....and he causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to
worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." This
wonder-working beast, called Nebo, or "the
Prophet," as the prophet of idolatry, was, of course,
the "false prophet." By comparing the passage
before us with Rev. xix. 20, it will be manifest that this beast
that "came up out of the earth" is expressly
called by that very name: "And the beast was taken, and
with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with
which he deceived them that received the mark of the beast, and
them that worshipped his image." As it was the "beast
from the earth" that "wrought miracles"
before the first beast, this shows that "the beast from
the earth" is the "false prophet;"
in other words, is "Nebo."
If we examine the history of the Roman empire, we shall find
that here also there is a precise accordance between type and
antitype. When the deadly wound of Paganism was healed, and the
old Pagan title of Pontiff was restored, it was, through means of
the corrupt clergy, symbolised, as is generally believed, and
justly under the image of a beast with horns, like a lamb;
according to the saying of our Lord, "Beware of false
prophets, that shall come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves." The clergy, as a
corporate body, consisted of two grand divisions--the regular and
secular clergy answering to the two horns or powers of the beast,
and combining also, at a very early period, both temporal and
spiritual powers. The bishops, as heads of these clergy, had
large temporal powers, long before the Pope gained his temporal
crown. We have the distinct evidence of both Guizot and Gibbon to
this effect. After showing that before the fifth century, and
clergy had not only become distinct from, but independent of the
people, Guizot adds: "The Christian clergy had moreover
another and very different source of influence. The bishops and
priests became the principal municipal magistrates....If you open
the code, either of Theodosius or Justinian, you will find
numerous regulations which remit municipal affairs to the clergy
and the bishops." Guizot makes several quotations. The
following extract from the Justinian code is sufficient to show
how ample was the civil power bestowed upon the bishops: "With
respect to the yearly affairs of cities, whether they concern the
ordinary revenues of the city, either from funds arising from the
property of the city, or from private gifts or legacies, or from
any other source; whether public works, or depots of provisions
or aqueducts, or the maintenance of baths or ports, or the
construction of walls or towers, or the repairing of bridges or
roads, or trials, in which the city may be engaged in reference
to public or private interests, we ordain as follows:--The very
pious bishop, and three notables, chosen from among the first men
of the city, shall meet together; they shall each year examine
the works done; they shall take care that those who conduct them,
or who have conducted them, shall regulate them with precision,
render their accounts, and show that they have duly performed
their engagements in the administration, whether of the public
monuments, or of the sums appointed for provisions or baths, or
of expenses in the maintenance of roads, aqueducts, or any other
work." * Here is a large list of functions laid on the
spiritual shoulders of "the very pious bishop,"
not one of which is even hinted at in the Divine enumeration of
the duties of a bishop, as contained in the Word of God. (See 1
Tim. iii. 1-7; and Tit. 1. 5-9.) How did the bishops, who were
originally appointed for purely spiritual objects, contrive to
grasp at such a large amount of temporal authority? From Gibbon
we get light as to the real origin of what Guizot calls this
"prodigious power." The author of the Decline and
Fall shows, that soon after Constantine's time, "the
Church" [and consequently the bishops, especially when they
assumed to be a separate order from the other clergy] gained
great temporal power through the right of asylum, which had
belonged to the Pagan temples, being transferred by the Emperors
to the Christian churches. His words are: "The fugitive,
and even the guilty, were permitted to implore either the justice
or mercy of the Deity and His ministers." * Thus was
the foundation laid of the invasion of the rights of the civil
magistrate by ecclesiastics, and thus were they encouraged to
grasp at all the powers of the State. Thus, also, as a justly
observed by the authoress of Rome in the 19th Century, speaking
of the right of asylum, were "the altars perverted into
protection towards the very crimes they were raised to banish
from the world." * This is a very striking thing, as
showing how the temporal power of the Papacy, in its very first
beginnings, was founded on "lawlessness," and
is an additional proof to the many that might be alleged. that
the Head of the Roman system, to whom all bishops are subject, is
indeed ho anomos, "The Lawless One" (2 Thess.
ii. 8), predicted in Scripture as the recognised Head of the "Mystery
of Iniquity." All this temporal power came into the
hands of men, who, while professing to be ministers of Christ,
and followers of the Lamb, were seeking simply their own aggrandisement, and, to secure that
aggrandisement, did not
hesitate to betray the cause which they professed to serve. The
spiritual power which they wielded over the souls of men, and the
secular power which they gained in the affairs of the world, were
both alike used in opposition to the cause of pure religion and
undefiled. At first these false prophets, in leading men astray,
and seeking to unite Paganism and Christianity, wrought
under-ground, mining like the mole in the dark, and secretly
perverting the simple, according to the saying of Paul, "The
Mystery of Iniquity doth already work." But by-and-by,
towards the end of the forth century, when the minds of men had
been pretty well prepared, and the aspect of things seemed to be
favourable for it, the wolves in sheep's clothing appeared above
ground, brought their secret doctrines and practices, by little
and little, into the light of day, and century after century, as
their power increased, by means of all "deceivableness
of unrighteousness," and "signs and lying
wonders," deluded the minds of the worldly Christians,
made them believe that their anathema was equivalent to the curse
of God; in other words, that they could "bring down fire
from heaven," and thus "caused the earth, and
them that dwelt therein, to worship the beast whose deadly wound
was healed." * When "the deadly wound" of
the Pagan beast was healed, and the beast from the sea appeared,
it is said that this beast from the earth became the recognised,
accredited executor of the will of the great sea beast (v. 12), "And
he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him," literally
"in his presence"--under his inspection.
Considering who the first beast is, there is great force in this
expression "in his presence." The beast that
comes up from the sea, is "the little horn,"
that "has eyes like the eyes of man" (Dan.
vii. 8); it is Janus Tuens, "All-seeing Janus," in
other words, the Universal Bishop or "Universal
Overseer," who, from his throne on the seven hills, by
means of the organised system of the confessional, sees and knows
all that is done, to the utmost bounds of his wide dominion. Now,
it was just exactly about the time that the Pope became universal
bishop, that the custom began of systematically investing the
chief bishops of the Western empire with the Papal livery, the pallium, "for the purpose," says
Gieseler, "of
symbolising and strengthening their connection with the Church of
Rome." * That pallium, worn on the shoulders of the
bishops, while on the one hand it was the livery of the Pope, and
bound those who received it to act as the functionaries of Rome,
deriving all their authority from him, and exercising it under
his superintendence, as the "Bishop of bishops,"
on the other hand, was in reality the visible investiture of
these wolves with the sheep's clothing. For what was the pallium
of the Papal bishop? It was a dress made of wool, blessed by the
Pope, taken from the holy lambs kept by the nuns of St. Agnes,
and woven by their sacred hands, * that it might be bestowed on
those whom the Popes delighted to honour, for the purpose, as one
of themselves expressed it, of "joining them to our
society in the one pastoral sheepfold." * Thus
commissioned, thus ordained by the universal Bishop, they did
their work effectually, and brought the earth and them that dwelt
in it, "to worship the beast that received the wound by
a sword and did live." This was a part of this beast's
predicted work. But there was another, and not less important,
which remains for consideration.
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