SECTION IV
Not merely does the beast from the earth lead the world to
worship the first beast, but (ver. 14) he prevails on them that
dwell on the earth to make "an IMAGE to the beast, which
had the wound by a sword, and did live." In meditating
for many years on what might be implied in "the image of
the beast," I could never find the least satisfaction
in all the theories that had ever been propounded, till I fell in
with an unpretending but valuable work, which I have noticed
already, entitled An Original Interpretation of the Apocalypse.
That work, evidently the production of the penetrating mind
deeply read in the history of the Papacy, furnished at once the
solution of the difficulty. There the image of the beast is
pronounced to be the Virgin Mother, or the Madonna. * This at
first sight may appear a very unlikely solution; but when it is
brought into comparison with the religious history of Chaldea,
the unlikelihood entirely disappears. In the old Babylonian
Paganism, there was an image of the Beast from the sea; and when
it is known what that image was, the question will, I think, be
fairly decided. When Dagon was first set up to be worshipped,
while he was represented in many different ways, and exhibited in
many different characters, the favourite form in which he was
worshipped, as the reader well knows, was that of a child in his
mother's arms. In the natural course of events, the mother came
to be worshipped along with the child, yea, to be the favourite
object of worship. To justify this worship, as we have already
seen, that mother, of course, must be raised to divinity, and
divine powers and prerogatives ascribed to her. Whatever dignity,
therefore, the son was believed to possess a like dignity was
ascribed to her. Whatever name of honour he bore, a similar name
was bestowed upon her. He was called Belus, "the
Lord;" she, Beltis, "My Lady." * He
was called Dagon, * "the Merman;" she,
Derketo, * "the Mermaid." He, as the
World-king, wore the bull's horns; * she, as we have already
seen, on the authority of Sanchuniathon, put on her own head a
bull's head, as the ensign of royalty. * He, as the Sun-god, was
called Beel-samen, "Lord of heaven;" * she, as
the Moon-goddess, Melkat-ashemin, "Queen of
heaven." * He was worshipped in Egypt as the "Revealer
of goodness and truth;" * she, in Babylon, under the
symbol of the Dove, as the goddess of gentleness and mercy, * the
"Mother of gracious acceptance," * "merciful
and benignant to men." * He, under the name of Mithra,
was worshipped as Mesities, * or "The Mediator;" she,
as Aphrodite, or the "Wrath-subduer," was
called Mylitta, "the Mediatrix." * He was
represented as crushing the great serpent under his heel; * she,
as bruising the serpent's head in her hand. * He, under the name
Janus, bore a key, as the opener and shutter of the gates of the
invisible world. * She, under the name of Cybele, was invested
with a like key, as an emblem of the same power. * He, as the
cleanser from sin, was called the "Unpolluted god;"
* she, too, had the power to wash away sin, and, though the
mother of the seed, was called the "Virgin, pure and
undefiled." * He was represented as "Judge of
the dead;" she was represented as standing by his side,
at the judgment-seat, in the unseen world. * He, after being
killed by the sword, was fabled to have risen again, * and
ascended up to heaven. * She, too, though history makes her to
have been killed with the sword by one of her own sons, * was
nevertheless, in the myth, said to have been carried by her son
bodily to heaven, * and to have been made Pambasileia,
"Queen of the universe." * Finally, to clench the
whole, the name by which she was now known was Semele, which, in
the Babylonian language, signifies "THE IMAGE." *
Thus, in every respect, to the very least jot and tittle, she
became the express image of the Babylonian "beast that
had the wound by a sword, and did live."
After what the reader has already seen in a previous part of
this work, it is hardly necessary to say that it is this very
goddess that is now worshipped in the Church of Rome under the
name of Mary. Though that goddess is called by the name of the
mother of our Lord, all the attributes given to her are derived
simply from the Babylonian Madonna, and not from the Virgin
Mother of Christ. *
There is not one line or one letter in all the Bible to
countenance the idea that Mary should be worshipped, that she is
the "refuge of sinners," that she was "immaculate,"
that she made atonement for sin when standing by the cross, and
when, according to Simeon, "a sword pierced through her
own soul also;" or that, after her death, she was
raised from the dead and carried in glory to heaven. But in the
Babylonian system all this was found; and all this is now
incorporated in the system of Rome. The "sacred heart of
Mary" is exhibited as pierced through with a sword, in
token, as the apostate Church teaches, that her anguish at the
crucifixion was as true an atonement as the death of Christ;--for
we read in the Devotional office or Service-book, adopted by the "Sodality
of the sacred heart," such blasphemous words as these, "Go,
then, devout client! go to the heart of Jesus, but let your way
be through the heart of Mary; the sword of grief which pierced
her soul opens you a passage; enter by the wound which love has
made;" * --again we hear one expounder of the new
faith, like M. Genoude in France, say that "Mary was the
repairer of the guilt of Eve, as our Lord was the repairer of the
guilt of Adam;" * and another--Professor Oswald of
Paderbon--affirm that Mary was not a human creature like us, that
she is "the Woman, as Christ is the Man," that
"Mary is co-present in the Eucharist, and that it is
indisputable that, according to the Eucharistic doctrine of the
Church, this presence of Mary in the Eucharist is true and real,
not merely ideal or figurative;" * and, further, we
read in the Pope's decree of the Immaculate Conception, that that
same Madonna, for this purpose "wounded with the
sword," rose from the dead, and being assumed up on
high, became Queen of Heaven. If all this be so, who can fail to
see that in the apostate community is to be found what precisely
answers to the making and setting up in the heart of Christendom,
of an "Image to the beast that had the wound by a sword
and did live"?
If the inspired terms be consulted, it will be seen that this
was to be done by some public general act of apostate
Christendom; (ver. 14), "Saying to them that dwell on
the earth, that they should make an image to the beast;" and
they made it. Now, here is the important fact to be observed,
that this never was done, and this never could have been done,
till eight years ago; for this plain reason, that till then the
Madonna of Rome was never recognised as combining all the
characters that belonged to the Babylonian "IMAGE of the
beast." Till then it was not admitted even in Rome,
though this evil leaven had been long working, and that strongly,
and Mary was truly immaculate, and consequently she could not be
the perfect counterpart of the Babylonian Image. What, however,
had never been done before, was done in December, 1854. Then
bishops from all parts of Christendom, and representatives from
the ends of the earth, met in Rome; and with only four
dissentient voices, it was decreed that Mary, the mother of God,
who died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, should
henceforth be worshipped as the Immaculate Virgin, "conceived
and born without sin." This was the formal setting up
of the Image of the beast, and that by the general consent of "the
men that dwell upon the earth." Now, this beast being
set up, it is said, that the beast from the earth gives life and
speech to the Image, implying, first, that it has neither life
nor voice in itself; but that, nevertheless, through means of the
beast from the earth, it is to have both life and voice, and to
be an effective agent of the Papal clergy, who will make it speak
exactly as they please. Since the Image has been set up, its
voice has been everywhere heard throughout the Papacy. Formerly
decrees ran less or more in the name of Christ. Now all things
are pre-eminently done in the name of the Immaculate Virgin. Her
voice is everywhere heard--her voice is supreme. But, be it
observed, when that voice is heard, it is not the voice of mercy
and love, it is the voice of cruelty and terror. The decrees that
come forth under the name of the Image, are to this effect (ver.
17), that "no man might be or sell, save he that had the
mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name," No
sooner is the image set up than we see this very thing begun to
be carried out. What was the Concordat in Austria, that so
speedily followed, but this very thing? That concordat, through
the force of unexpected events that have arisen, has not yet been
carried into effect; but if it were, the results would just be
what is predicted--that no man in the Austrian dominions should "by
or sell" without the mark in some shape or other. And
the very fact of such an intolerant concordat coming so speedily
on the back of the Decree of the Immaculate Conception, should
what is the natural fruit of that decree. The events that soon
thereafter took place in Spain showed the powerful working of the
same persecuting spirit there also, During the last few years,
the tide of spiritual despotism might have seemed to be
effectually arrested; and many, no doubt, have indulged the
persuasion that, crippled as the temporal sovereignty of the
Papacy is, and tottering as it seems to be, that power, or its
subordinates, could never persecute more. But there is an amazing
vitality in the Mystery of Iniquity; and no one can ever tell
beforehand what apparent impossibilities it may accomplish in the
way of arresting the progress of truth and liberty, however
promising the aspect of things may be. Whatever may become of the
temporal sovereignty of the Roman states, it is by no means so
evident this day, as to many it seemed only a short while ago,
that the overthrow of the spiritual power of the Papacy is
imminent, and that its power to persecute is finally gone. I
doubt not but that many, constrained by the love and mercy of
God, will yet obey the heavenly voice, and flee out of the domed
communion, before the vials of Divine wrath descend upon it. But
if I have been right in the interpretation of this passage, then
it follows that it must yet become more persecuting than ever it
has been, and that that intolerance, which, immediately after the
setting up of the Image, began to display itself in Austria and
Spain, shall yet spread over all Europe; for it is not said that
the Image of the beast should merely decree, but should "cause
that as many as would not worship the Image of the best should be
killed" (ver. 15). When this takes place, that
evidently is the time when the language of verse 8 is fulfilled,
"And all that dwell on the book of life of the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world." It is impossible to get
quit of this by saying, "This refers to the Dark Ages;
this was fulfilled before Luther." I ask, had the men
who dwelt on the earth set up the Image of the beast before
Luther's days? Plainly not. The decree of the Immaculate
Conception was the deed of yesterday. The prophecy, then, refers
to our own times--to the period on which the Church is now
entering. In other words, the slaying of the witnesses, the grand
trial of the saints, IS STILL TO COME. *
[ Back ] [ Up ] [ Next ]
|