When John has given us a full historic line of the witnesses for Jesus, the Word of God, from the time it was/197/all completed and brought into one volume, down to the day when it should be restored to the Lord's people, after it had lain dead for 1260 years, and then given a historic line of the church, from the days of its standing clothed with the sun, and the moon (the earth) under its feet, he, of course, will tell us what power put down the Word of the Lord and drove the church into the wilderness, in the very next place. It could not well be otherwise. And he does it here. He just speaks of the power that is to wear out the saints, and war against the Word of the Lord; blaspheme the God of heaven, and them that dwell in his tabernacle; trample down the Church and put down the Word of the Lord.

This beast that John saw rising out of the sea, had just as many heads, and just as many horns, as the great red dragon. There is this difference, however: the dragon had the crowns on his heads, and the beast that was like a leopard, had the crowns on his horns. It is not hard, with the Bible in our hands, to understand what is meant by this beast. It means a kingdom. In the seventh chapter of Daniel is the proof that it was a kingdom: It says that beasts are kingdoms. John saw a kingdom rise up out of the sea, or the great body of the religious world, the Christian world. That sea that had become corrupt in one-third part of it, when the mountain, or great pagan government, went down. This kingdom comes up, then, out of the Church in one sense. It is like a leopard, spotted-- not all over red--when John sees it rising; there are some spots brighter than others; it is a little political and a little religious--a spotted, mixed-up kingdom. In fact, it is, by the Bible, the long tail of the old red dragon that becomes a kingdom. It is the last part of the Roman empire, the tail that drew the third part of the stars of heaven and cast them down to the earth. It is the papal power that grew up out of the seven heads of pagan Rome/198/and belongs to them; hence it has the same number of heads that pagan Rome had, for it grew out of them.

The proof of it is, the dragon gave this kingdom (beast) his power, and his seat, and great authority. We proved that the dragon was pagan Rome; and now, if we can find out what kingdom fills the place that the Caesars did, and has its seat in the city of Rome, and has been ruling there for 1260 years, we know who this spotted beast or kingdom is. There is no mistaking that. For the dragon, pagan Rome, gave this spotted beast (kingdom) his authority. All the power of the Caesars went over into the hands of this spotted beast, and not only the power of pagan Rome, but the city of Rome, the seat of the Caesars-- the "Eternal City," as it is called. And persons that are acquainted with history must know that it has been the seat of the popes from the day they declared themselves the head of the Church. There was a little quibbling once as to whether Rome or Constantinople should be the seat of the papal power; but Rome, the city of the Caesars, obtained it. Rome went down in her pagan form, in the days of Odoacer, and then the papal authority mounted the seat of the Roman Caesars, and has been ruling there ever since. That settles the matter to my mind. No other power has ever taken the seat of the Roman Caesars but the popes. They rule where old pagan Rome used to. And they have great authority. Pagan Rome gave the authority; the Lord never did. They claim to be the successors of St. Peter, but all the authority they claim, they get from pagan Rome--from that last kingdom that Daniel saw, that he said was diverse from all the others; that wore out the saints 1260 years, or time, times and a half. Here is one proof that three days and a half, named in the eleventh chapter, where the witnesses lay dead, are 1260 years of our count. This is clear in the seventh chapter of Daniel, where three times (days) and a half/199/mean three years and a half, or 1260 days ('ears). And, in the twelfth chapter, speaking of the woman's flight into the wilderness one time, he says she was in the wilderness a thousand two hundred and three-score days, and the next time he says three days and a half, meaning the same length of time in both places.

One of the heads of this spotted beast was wounded to death. They are the very same heads we were speaking of last night. The spotted beast, or papal power, grew up out of the pagan Roman power, and hence it has the very same heads that the old red dragon had; and it is only the tail of the old red dragon that caught the stars of heaven (the illustrious men of the Church), and drew them after it. One of the heads was wounded to death soon after John saw the Vision. The imperial head was wounded to death in the days of Odoacer, and then in the days of Charles the Great the deadly wound was healed, and the whole world united again in one imperial power under the popes. John sees it that way. "I saw one of his heads" (that is, his imperial head) "wounded to death." killed dead; the imperial power remained with Rome no longer than in the days of Odoacer--488, I believe--and his deadly wound was healed, "and all the world wondered after the beast." He gained imperial power to rule over all the world again. He had not this power for a while; his head was wounded to death for a while; then he regained it all, and all the world wondered after him. And they worshiped; that is, all the world worshiped the dragon, but they worshiped the dragon, or Rome, only by worshiping the spotted beast that grew out of, and was a part of, Rome. The time never has been when all the world worshiped pagan Rome since its downfall, only by worshiping that power that occupied its place. And in that way they worshiped the dragon--by worshiping that power that is on its seat; to whom it gave its seat and great authority./200/The man that serves my agent, serves me; the man that honors the Son, honors the Father; and the man that worships the papacy, worships pagan Rome, that placed it on its seat.

"And they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth, speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months." Just as long as the witnesses were clothed in sackcloth; just as long as the Bible lay dead in the streets; just as long as the woman was in the wilderness,--just that long this spotted, papal beast-- the tail of the old red dragon--is wearing out the saints.

"And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in the Church"--or in heaven, it is here. He said he was above the Almighty, this power did; that he could change, as Daniel said in his prophecy, the times and laws. He went to work to change the times and seasons to suit himself; to make out his own solemn days, his own holidays, his own feast days, his own saints' days; and thus he changed the Word of the Lord, the law of the Lord, and the Sabbaths of the Lord. He blasphemed God, calling himself The Most High, Lord God our Father. He blasphemed his tabernacle, and made a wicked, worldly bauble of the Church. He blasphemed them that dwell in heaven, or the Christians that belonged truly to the lord, and persecuted them. John wrote it all out before it happened, and he wrote the history of the papal kingdom precisely that took the seat of the Caesars.

"It was given him to make war with the saints; "that was his business. It was that great battle that John described in the twelfth chapter, when the dragon fought, and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven; he fought with Michael's angels, but prevailed not. At /201/ first the dragon is put down, and then his long tail catches the stars of heaven--the illustrious men of the Church-- draws them after him, and the fight goes on. Pagan Rome, in its grosser form, is put down first in the battle, but here comes this spotted papal beast, and catches the stars, the illustrious men of the Church, and draws them in his wake; he prevailed against the saints, and made war with them, and overcome them in this way; and power was given to him over all kindreds, tongues and nations; the whole world was bound in his great and mighty river that we were talking about, his imperial power for so long a time.

John tells us what power it was that held the nations until the fighting with fire, smoke and brimstone commences, and lo! they are let loose and get away from his power; they fight as they like, and there is no mighty pope to send a prelate to whip some King John, to lash him into submission; to call the armies of France out against him; to excommunicate, and absolve all his subjects from allegiance. They could not make war or declare peace, only by the pope's permission. It is a free fight now all over the world. This spotted beast warred with the saints in the world, overcame the people of the Lord, drove the church into the wilderness, and put down the Word of the Lord 1260 years.

But there were a remnant left. "All that dwell on the earth shall worship." He had power over all, and all worshiped him except those whose names are written in the book of life of the Lamb. There were a few Christians, a few noble martyrs all the time. A few understood the Word of the Lord, and would not worship this monstrous power. They were dispersed, scattered, trampled down, but there were some noble Christians throughout all the dark ages. The Lord says so here--that this spotted papal kingdom was worshiped by all that dwelt upon the earth, whose names are not written in the book of life. of/202/the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Some did not worship him. The Lord then immediately adds:

"He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity; he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword." He has reference to the power he had just been speaking of. This spotted beast, spoken of in the singular number; this spotted kingdom that has been wearing out my saints, and killing them with the sword, shall be killed with the sword; this bloody power that has been leading my people into captivity shall go into captivity himself. "Here is the patience and the faith of the saints."

I believe it. I could not help believing it after reading the seventh chapter of Daniel. I believe that power that wore out the saints, will as certainly go down and be utterly ruined, as I read it in the Book of God a while ago. I believe that power that has been wearing out the saints 1260 years, will itself be worn out, killed with the sword. I patiently wait for it.

I want to make one remark here, and that is, that the Church that claimed to be the Lord's Church, is declared to be an abominable whore. A man said to me once, Jesus said that "Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." "Now, sir," said he, "if the Roman Catholic Church is not the true Church of Christ, then the words of Jesus have failed, for there was no other organized Church on earth than the Roman Catholic Church for 1200 years and more." Well, for 1200 years and more, the Church was in the wilderness, and if the Roman Catholic Church was all the Church there was on earth, it was in the wilderness of error. I asked that man a question--What was meant by the gates of hell? He said it simply meant the powers of the unseen world, or hades. I asked him what the powers of the unseen world were?" The gates, or powers," he said, "is death." I then asked him if he thought death had prevailed against /203/ the rock or foundation on which the Church was built. Said I, "Jesus has conquered death, and his followers will." He paused a moment, and said, "That looks like it might be the true meaning--that death never conquers a subject of the kingdom of Christ, for the King himself has conquered death." We conquer by dying. They loved not their lives unto the death, and they conquered in that way. The Christian conquers when he dies; he is not unconscious, but lives on, and enters his rest. Said he, "If that is the correct view, we are ruined;" for he was a Roman Catholic, and a priest. He had built his hopes upon the idea that the Church was and always will be triumphant here on earth; while the Lord's Word says the saints shall be worn out and overcome, while all the world are worshiping this monstrous papal kingdom-- the monster of iniquity.

"And I beheld another beast"--another kingdom-- "coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon." It looked Christian-like, but talked infidel-like. "And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him;"--or of the spotted beast--"and he causeth the earth and them which dwell therein" (his subjects, for he came out of the earth, not out of the Church; he grew up a political power, this kingdom; he causeth his subjects, the earth and them that dwell in his dominions,) "to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed;" the old spotted beast that was ruling over all the kingdoms of the earth. Then he was a subject of that power himself.

"And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men." This two horned beast, or kingdom, made all his subjects worship the spotted beast, and then had power to cause fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men.

"And he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the /204/ means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live." To the spotted beast, or papal power, or Roman Catholic kingdom.

"And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast, should be killed. And he caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."

Some of our wise men, some of our learned men, and some of our very talented men, have concluded that this two-horned beast was the kingdom of Italy, under the papacy; that the first beast spoken of--the spotted one--was the imperial power, and the second beast was the same imperial papal power under another phase; and then the image was another imperial papal power,--and they can not get an inch away from the papal beast. They make the spotted beast, and the two-horned beast, and the image of the beast, all the same thing. I can not understand such talk. This spotted beast is as clearly proved to be the Roman Catholic power, as language can prove anything; for it occupies Rome, the seat of the Caesars, and has been wearing out the saints for 1260 years. It has been blaspheming the name of God, his Church, and his worshipers. No other power than the papal power has been doing that.

But another beast rises up and makes all its subjects worship the spotted one. Can we see another kingdom that is doing that''--that rises up after this spotted beast has been causing the world to worship it so long? If we look across to Great Britain, we will see the complete ful-/205/fillment of this vision. That grew up a political power; from the days of William the Conqueror, it was purely a political kingdom. It had two horns, two crowns under the general rule; it was made up at last of England and Scotland--the kingdom of Great Britain; it grew up a political power, and looked lamb-like. And it caused all its subjects, from the days of the Conqueror William, on down, for century after century, to worship the spotted beast--the papal power. It was one of the most loyal portions of the papal power, and it continued so until the days of Luther, and King Henry VIII, and then it was called a defender of the papal faith. King Henry wrote a long piece in vindication of the papal power and against Luther, and made all his subjects worship the spotted beast that had had one of his heads healed of a deadly wound--worship that imperial power, or the pope that held it. This continued until Henry became angry with the pope, because he would not grant him a divorce, and just turned away from him with his whole kingdom, and told his subjects to make a Church of their own.

But, bless you, he told them to make it just like the old spotted beast; an image complete, in every particular, of the old papal Church--the Church of England, the Episcopal Church. There is one kingdom making an image of another kingdom in that Church that he formed; for the papacy was a religious kingdom, and he made the Church of England just like it; himself being instead of the pope--though he claimed not, as the pope did, to be infallible--who was the head of the Church. And then he had all the arch-bishops, all the arch-deacons, and all the offices in the Church of England that there were in the Church of Rome; and he was strong enough, after causing them to make an image of the old Roman Catholic Church, to give life to it; and he made it so alive that all must worship it, and all who refused to do so must die. /206/ Men were persecuted to death for not worshiping that image of the old Roman Catholic Church.

"And he had power to bring fire down from heaven." One might say, "I don't believe it." You don't? The Word of the Lord is called fire, and the kingdom of Great Britain has given us the translation that lies on the stand before me--this very translation of the Bible. Not under King Henry's reign; but I am speaking of the whole kingdom under all its monarchs. And it not only brought fire down from heaven in the sight of men, or gave to them the Word of the Lord, but it worked wonders. It became very pious and very devotional, and all our religious miracles started there--where the image started, and brought fire down and gave to the people. All our shouting and swooning, and jerking and barking, and fainting and dying off at our big camp-meetings, took their start there. All these miracles, that deceive men so, started there, in their wildest form. Right there, all these things, that so much deceive and delude the people, had their rise; and John says that he deceived the nations in that way. No fire will ever literally come down from heaven; no miracle has ever been worked by any king only in this way.

They are deceiving yet, and keep on deceiving, and the Lord only knows when we will get over the deception, and stop making images. Image-making started, then, in the Episcopal Church; and since that time men have been trying it all over the land; and if they could not make an image of the old spotted beast, they would make an image of an image; and if they had an image of an image, try to make an image of that. And they have made them so often that they have almost lost the likeness of the old first beast, of which they commenced making images. But they will quit this image-making after a while. They are certain to.

There is another peculiarity about the beast that had /207/ two horns like a lamb, and that made the image of the spotted one. The peculiarity is, that no man, in all his dominions, should buy or sell, only those that had the mark of the beast or the number of his name, either in their foreheads or in their hands. That no man should buy or sell, or take stock or trade in the common things of this world? O, no! It was that no man should barter religiously, as he is talking on that subject. They should have no living as religious men; no preacher should be paid, unless he was either doing the work of the old spotted beast, or conforming to its usages under the image that had been made. No man that did not belong to the Church of England could have a living as a preacher or as a teacher. There were some few dissenters, after a while, but they had to beg for their bread, or work for it, in that kingdom. There was no provision made by law for their living--they had no salary;--John was right in that.

But who is the spotted beast of whom the image was made? I have proven already; but for fear some one might doubt it, the Lord has made it so plain that no one can be mistaken that is a wise man. He says: "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast:" (that had the image made to it) "for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred three score and six," or six hundred and sixty-six. For fear scholars and wise men might not get down so low, and would be looking up too high, he said, let scholars count, and they will know who the beast is. Illiterate men can not do it, but he that hath understanding--that is, he that is a scholar--let him count the number of the beast, the spotted one. It is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred and sixty-six. What does it mean? In the English alphabet we have numeral letters. I stands/208/for one, and V stands for five, X stands for ten, and C stands for one hundred, D for five hundred, and M for one thousand. All our letters are not numerals, but some of them are; but in the alphabet in which the New Testament was written, and in which the Bible was written--the Hebrew and Greek--all letters are numerals; each letter stands for a number; hence the propriety of saying let the scholar count what the number of these letters are that spell the name of the beast, for it is the number of a man. In the Greek language, the Latin kingdom, when spelled out, and the numbers for which each letter stands placed in a line and added up, is six hundred and sixty-six. Lateinos was the first king of that kingdom; and when the letters that spell his name are placed in a line, and the numbers for which they stand are added together, it is sex hundred and sixty-six. But the strangest of all is, that the word Rome, in the Hebrew, when the numbers for which the letters stand are added together, is six hundred and sixty-six. These three could hardly meet accidentally; the chances are against it. It is the Latin kingdom, the number of the beast, six hundred and sixty-six. It is Rome, the number of the beast, six hundred and sixty-six. Scholars have to settle that matter, but it is plain without that. The Latin kingdom took the place of old pagan Rome, and has been wearing out the saints; for 1260 years it drove the Church of Christ into the wilderness, kept his Word down, and blasphemed the name of the Lord, and God has told its fearful doom; down it must go. I do not say that there are no good persons among them. I am speaking of the usurpation of that power, not the people.

John has, in the eleventh chapter, given us a history of the Word of the Lord through the whole Christian dispensation, and in the twelfth he gives US a history of the Church of Christ as it was at first, and of its going off into the wilderness, on down to the days in which we live through- /209/ out the whole period of the dark ages; and then he gives us a history of that mighty power that wore out the saints and drove the Lord's people into the wilderness, into an unmeasured or disorganized state. He has placed us, to use a figure of speech, in prison bounds, from the time that he touches that point of time--the present, when the measuring reed is in the hands of the people again, and the people are fighting with fire, smoke and brimstone. Ile never goes back behind that time, only to tell the condition of things to which he has alluded up to that time. Having spoken of the coming to life of the witnesses, he necessarily has to tell of the time they had been lying dead. And, having spoken of the measuring reed--the Word of God being again used for the measuring of the Church, its worship and the worshipers--he necessarily has to tell of the time it had been unused. When he tells of the Church that is measured in the days of the sounding of the sixth angel's trumpet, he necessarily tells of the period of time when it was not measured, and was not, in the true sense, the Church--but the outer court. And having spoken of the trampling down of the Church, and the killing of the witnesses, the Word of the Lord, he necessarily has to tell of the power that did this. And thus he brings all these lines of history down to the present time.