Part 14 (1/2)
”1. The little horn was a blasphemous power: 'He shall speak great words against the Most High.' Dan. 7:25. The leopard beast of Rev. 13:6 does the same: 'He opened his mouth in blasphemy against G.o.d.'
”2. The little horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them. Dan. 7:21. This beast also, Rev. 13:7, makes war with the saints, and overcomes them.
”3. The little horn had a mouth speaking great things. Dan. 7:8, 20. And of this beast we read, Rev. 13:5: 'And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies.'
”4. The little horn rose on the cessation of the Pagan form of the Roman empire. This beast rises at the same time; for the dragon, Pagan Rome, gives him his power, his seat, and great authority.
”5. Power was given to the little horn to continue for a time, times, and the dividing of time, or twelve hundred and sixty years. Dan. 7:25.
To this beast also power was given for forty and two months, or twelve hundred and sixty years. Rev. 13:5.
”6. At the end of the twelve hundred and sixty years the universal dominion of the little horn was to begin to decline, being consumed and destroyed unto the end. Dan. 7:26. This beast, also, Rev. 13:10, was to be led into captivity and 'killed with the sword.'”
These points prove ident.i.ty. To quote the words of a certain expositor: ”When we have in prophecy two symbols ... representing powers that come upon the stage of action at the _same time_, occupy the _same territory_, maintain the _same character_, do the _same work_, exist the _same length of time_, and meet the same _fate_, those symbols represent the same _identical power_.” To this all must agree. Hence we have in the vision before us a description of Papal Rome in her two-fold character as a temporal and a religious power. The wounding and healing of the head of the beast will be explained in chapter XVII.
How the same heads and horns can serve both the dragon and the leopard beast will be better understood later. For the present it will be sufficient to state that it is because they are the same beast in reality, being clothed, in its later form, in a Christian garb, instead of the worn-out garments of infidelity or heathenism possessed by the former. This transfer is expressed in the following words: ”And the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.” Verse 2.
This beast, then, succeeded to the dominion held by the dragon. It was like an old, established firm retiring and giving its standing and credit and well-earned reputation to a new partners.h.i.+p, to conduct a similar business.
While this beast, as before observed, represents the developed religious and political power of the Papacy combined, still the actions ascribed to it show plainly that it is in its character as an _ecclesiastical_ beast that its terrible features are here delineated. No one would suppose that a mere political power would set itself up as an object to be wors.h.i.+ped, exalting itself above the G.o.d of heaven, and then single out and slaughter the saints for not complying therewith. As far as rendering obedience to civil governments is concerned, the Christians of all ages have been the most peaceful and obedient servants of all. So we shall hereafter refer always to the _beast_ as an ecclesiastical power, unless otherwise stated.
This beast all the world admired. ”And they wors.h.i.+ped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they wors.h.i.+ped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” The people wors.h.i.+ped the established hierarchy, and they also wors.h.i.+ped the dragon from which the beast obtained so much of his power. The expression ”_wors.h.i.+ped_ the dragon” shows plainly that it is the dragon as a religious system that is referred to, and not the old civil empire. How, then, could the old heathen wors.h.i.+p be perpetuated in the church of Rome and form a part of her religious services? By adopting rites and ceremonies purely Pagan in their origin. Since I have already stated that the beast and the dragon as temporal powers were about the same in reality, except the change of sovereignty from the heads to the horns, it will now be necessary to show the remarkable similarity in spirit that existed between them as religious powers, the one being the successor of the other.
1. The high-priest of the Pagan religions was called Pontifex Maximus, and he claimed spiritual and temporal authority over the affairs of men.
The Pope of Rome possesses the same t.i.tle and makes the same claims, and he is clad in the same attire as the Pagan Pontiff.
2. The heathen were accustomed to wear scapulars, medals, and images to s.h.i.+eld them from the common ills and dangers of life. Romanists wear the same and for the same purpose.
3. The Pagans, by an official process called _deification_, frequently exalted men who had lived among them to a position worthy of special honor and wors.h.i.+p. Papists, by a similar process called _canonisation_, raise their former men of prominence to the dignity of _saints_ and then offer up prayers to them.
The foregoing practises are derived from Paganism; also from Judaism or Paganism came their practise of burning incense in public wors.h.i.+p, the use of holy water, burning wax candles in the daytime, and votive gifts and offerings. Other heathen principles are:
4. Adoration of idols and images, a practise expressly forbidden by the Mosaic law and unsanctioned by primitive Christianity;
5. Road G.o.ds and saints (in Catholic countries);
6. Processions of wors.h.i.+pers and self-whippers (especially in Catholic countries);
7. Religious orders of monks and nuns. One who has read of the vestal virgins of old will recognize at once where monkery originated.
In the city of Rome there still stands an old heathen temple built by Marcus Agrippa and dedicated in the year B.C. 27 to _all the G.o.ds_. In the year A.D. 610 it was reconsecrated by Pope Boniface IV. to ”the blessed Virgin and all the saints.” From that time until the present day Romanists in the same temple have prostrated themselves before _the very same images_ and have devoutly emplored them by the same forms of prayer and for the very same purposes as did the heathen of old. The only difference is, that instead of calling this idol Jupiter, they call it Paul; instead of denominating that one Venus, they call it Mary, etc.
Well has Bowling said: ”The scholar, familiar as he is with the cla.s.sic descriptions of ancient mythology, when he directs his attention to the ceremonies of Papal wors.h.i.+p, can not avoid recognizing their close resemblance, if not their absolute ident.i.ty. The temples of Jupiter, Diana, Venus or Apollo, their 'altars smoking with incense,' their boys in sacred habits, holding the incense box, and attending upon the priests, their holy water at the entrance of the temples, with their _aspergilla_, or sprinkling-brushes, their thuribula, or vessels of incense, their ever-burning lamps before the statues of their deities, are irresistibly brought before his mind, whenever he visits a Roman Catholic place of wors.h.i.+p, and witnesses precisely the same things.”
History of Romanism, pp. 109, 110.
Having failed in his direct attacks against the Christian church, with the accession of Constantine, who established Christianity as the State religion, the dragon soon clothed his pernicious principles in a Christian garb and made war against the remnant of the woman's seed that kept the commandments of G.o.d, through the rising hierarchy, under the name of Christianity; but his heads and horns being visible, and he being unable to control his tongue, his real sentiments crop out, and he is easily identified. It is not to be supposed, however, that the beast would appear suddenly in full possession of the immense power ascribed to him in this chapter. On the contrary, Daniel represents it as a _little_ horn at first, whose look finally became ”more stout than his fellows.” Dan. 7:8, 20. Such ecclesiastical power was attained only by the process of gradual development. According to the vision his universal power was limited to ”forty and two months,” or twelve hundred and sixty years. Since this has reference to the beast as an ecclesiastal power, which according to Daniel grew up by degrees, the time should be calculated the same as in chapter 11:2, 3--dated from the time when the external, visible church was wholly in the hands of the profane mult.i.tude of Gentiles and the true church crowded into the wilderness. The nationalized hierarchy, however, continued to advance to greater degrees of power over the nations, until it reached its zenith under the pontificate of Gregory VII., A.D. 1073-1080.
The great things and blasphemies spoken by this beast are doubtless fulfilled by the prerogatives and rights belonging to G.o.d alone which this apostate church, especially through her regularly const.i.tuted head, claims. In fact, the Pope is the real mouth of this beast, the one who dictates her laws with great authority. He claims to be the vicar of Christ on earth and supreme head of the church, even, as in the case of Pope Innocent, denominating himself the one before whom every knee must bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth. He claims power over the souls of all men on earth and even after their departure from earth. If this is not blasphemy against G.o.d, his tabernacle, or church, and ”them that dwell in heaven,” then I am wholly unable to imagine what would fulfil the prediction. Among the blasphemous t.i.tles a.s.sumed are these: Lord G.o.d the Pope, King of the World, Holy Father, King of kings, and Lord of lords, Vicegerent of the Son of G.o.d. He claims infallibility (which was backed up by the Ec.u.menical council of 1870) and has for ages. Further, he claims power to dispense with G.o.d's laws, to forgive sins, to release from purgatory, to d.a.m.n, and to save.
All the inhabitants of the earth were to wors.h.i.+p him, except those whose names were in the book of life. Thank G.o.d that even during the dark age of Romanism a people existed who were owned by the Lord and who refused to render idolatrous wors.h.i.+p to this tyrannical beast. For further information regarding these medieval Christians, see remarks on chapter 11:3. But these saints who opposed the Papal a.s.sumptions were made the object of fearful persecutions, until Rome glutted herself upon the blood of millions of G.o.d's holy saints. This will be more fully described in chapter 17, where this apostate church appears under another symbol, ”drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” In all their severe trials, however, they were comforted with the knowledge that Justice would not always sleep, but that a time would come when her retributive hand would be stretched forth to lead into captivity their persecuting enemies and break their world-wide reign of tyranny and usurpation. ”Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” To a number of people G.o.d gave special foresight of the coming reformation of the sixteenth century, in which the universal spiritual supremacy of the Papacy ended. A few of the many examples will be profitable.
Says D'Aubigne: ”John Huss preached in Bohemia a century before Luther preached in Saxony. He seems to have penetrated deeper than his predecessors into the essence of Christian truth. He prayed to Christ for grace to glory only in his cross, and in the inestimable humiliation of his sufferings.... He was, if we may be allowed the expression, the John Baptist of the reformation. The flames of his pile kindled a fire in the church that cast a brilliant light into the surrounding darkness, and whose glimmerings were not to be so readily extinguished. John Huss did more: prophetic words issued from the depths of his dungeon. He foresaw that a real reformation of the church was at hand. When driven out of Prague and compelled to wander through the fields of Bohemia, where an immense crowd followed his steps and hung upon his words, he had cried out: 'The wicked have begun by preparing a treacherous snare for a goose. But if even the goose, which is only a domestic bird, a peaceful animal, and whose flight is not very far in the air, has nevertheless broken through their toils, other birds, soaring more boldly towards the sky, will break through them with still greater force. Instead of a feeble goose, the truth will send forth eagles and keen-eyed vultures.' This prediction was fulfilled by the reformers.
”When the venerable priest had been summoned by Sigismund's order before the Council of Constance, and had been thrown into prison, the chapel of Bethlehem, in which he had proclaimed the gospel and the future triumphs of Christ, occupied his mind much more than his own defence. One night the holy martyr saw in imagination, from the depths of his dungeon, the pictures of Christ which he had painted on the walls of his oratory, effaced by the Pope and his bishops. This vision distressed him; but on the next day he saw many painters occupied in restoring these figures in greater number and in brighter colors. As soon as the task was ended, the painters, who were surrounded by an immense crowd, exclaimed, 'Now let the popes and bishops come! they shall never efface them more!' And many people rejoiced in Bethlehem, and I with them, adds John Huss.
'Busy yourself with your defence rather than with your dreams,' said his faithful friend, the Knight of Chlum, to whom he had communicated this vision. 'I am no dreamer,' replied Huss, 'but I maintain this for certain, that the image of Christ will never be effaced. They have wished to destroy it, but it shall be painted afresh in all hearts by much better preachers than myself. The nation that loves Christ will rejoice at this. And I, awaking from the dead, and rising so to speak, from my grave, shall leap with great joy.'” History of the Reformation, Book I, Chap. 6.