of another, perhaps of the seven-headed dragon, or of the state in which he flourished before his wound, in resemblance of whom he blasphemes God anew, and wages war against the Saints,) but an image, of whose restoration that twohorned and dragon-speaking beast was the author, and whom he claimed as his own; the genitive denoting the agent and possessor, as, in the same passage, the mark of the beast is not a mark impressed on the beast itself, but one with which the beast brands his worshippers.

And that what I have said is the right interpretation of the image of the beast, the first proof I would bring is, that it is said, c. xiii. v. 15, that the very image of the beast, which the false prophet had just animated, caused that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be slain; nay, in other places, (that you may acknowledge the beast,) it is generally subjoined to a word expressive of worship, or as something to which worship is suited. Since, therefore, the Apocalypse describes two beasts only, and not more, this wicked majesty, with an equal power of commanding or compelling, cannot but belong to one or the other of them. Moreover, when the beast is present at the same time as the false prophet, the image of the beast does not occur in the same sentence, as if then, in fact, the appellation of beast supplied its place.

Lastly, it is said to be the image of the beast, of which there is a number and a name; but the name and number of no other beast seem to be mentioned than that of the two-horned. Of the same, then, (as of a maker and lord,) he is justly said to be the image. But this image, whether it be or not the ten-horned beast, is of no consequence to our system; for the synchronism of the beasts does not rest on this hypothesis.

SYNCHRONISM III.

Of the great Harlot, or Mystic Babylon, with the same Seven-headed and Ten-horned Beast.

1. The time of the beast is the time of the wilderness. (Syn. i. s. 1.) Now, the harlot is seen by John in the wilderness; but this description is not of much force.

2. The ten-horned beast carries the harlot or adulteress, and the harlot sits on the beast: therefore, both exist at one and the same time.

3. The ten horns of the beast (which, in truth, spring from its highest and last head,) and under whose dominion alone the harlot manages the beast, and the beast carries the harlot, (the times of the other heads having been previously completed after it revived as from a deadly wound); these ten horns, I say, " are ten kings

which receive their authority as kings for one hour with the beast;" viz. with the reinstated beast, which carries the adulteress, and is now ten-horned; that is, exercising the office of the last head. These, when the time has been fulfilled, during which " they were to deliver up their power to the beast;" that is, when the connexion with the beast is just ready to be dissolved," will hate the harlot, render her desolate and naked, and at length burn her with fire." So then the beast, which in its ten-horned state (the only state in which it is prophetically contemplated by John) first commenced with the harlot or adulteress, will not survive her, nor will the harlot survive the beast. The harlot and beast, therefore, universally and exactly synchronize, which was the object to be proved.

SYNCHRONISM IV.

Of the Hundred and Forty-four Thousand Sealed, who were Virgins, with the Babylonian Harlot and the Beast.

1. In the first place, they are called virgins, and are praised on that account, because they had not defiled themselves with meretricious embraces. They coincide, therefore, with the meretricious times of the Babylonian harlot,

"with whom the kings and inhabitants of the earth committed fornication."

2. Out of this virgin choir proceed those who denounce the ruin of Babylon, and who deter men from all communion with the beast, his image, and mark. Therefore, the virgin assembly is contemporary with Babylon and the beast.

3. These, lastly, are those that are called the chosen and faithful attendants on the Lamb, accompanied by whom, he wages war with the kings, or horns, of the Babylonian beast, and who, under his auspices, (as King of kings and Lord of lords,) will at length obtain the victory. For those words, relative to the Lord of lords and King of kings, ought, I think, to be read in a parenthesis, where the angel says, "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, (for he is Lord of lords and King of kings,) and they who are with him, are called, and chosen, and faithful;" that is, the Lamb, and those who are with him, called, and elect, and faithful, shall overcome the Babylonish kings.

4. But these observations are not sufficient for the firm establishment of a complete contemporary agreement; for all these things may be consistent with partial contemporation. I therefore proceed, in the following manner, to demonstrate that the

assembly of the sealed attendants on the Lamb are universally and exactly contemporary with the beast. That assembly of the scaled ones is an AVTIOTOIXOV, or opposite state, coeval with the beast, or the whole company of the followers of the beast; that is, the forces of those holy soldiers remaining still in the faith of the Lamb, when the other inhabitants of the world, as deserters and rebels, have received the mark of the beast. This is obvious from the text: whence, as formerly, by ancient custom, slaves and soldiers were wont to be distinguished by the mark, and inscribed by the name of him to whom they had pledged their faith, so these are said to bear "the name of the Lamb and his Father on their foreheads." Since this is the case, it follows that the duration of the one is commensurate with that of the other, and agrees with it altogether, during the same interval of time: for the mode of this sort of opposition requires that the assembly of the sealed followers of the Lamb, as far as it is pointed out by the vision, should be understood in a manner wholly opposite to that of the beast; beyond which opposition, agreeably to the intention of the vision, it has no meaning, and therefore it begins where that begins, and ends where that ends.

5. Moreover, with respect to the close of the contemporary period, that may be proved from