6

the church of Rome? Hence their meagre days, and their long Lent. It is as much the law of all Monks, fays Dr. Newton, to abftain from meats as from marriage. Some never eat any flesh; others, only of certain kinds, and on certain days. Frequent fafts are the rule, the boaft ⚫ of their order; and their carnal humility is their fpiritual pride.'-Thus, as the church of Rome · has much of Gentilism, in worshipping angels and fpirits departed *; so also of Judaism, in making a diftinction of meats: and, in both these, as in every other inftance, fhe proves herself to be the great apoftate foretold in the apoftolic writings.

There

I would only observe, that this paffage agrees remarkably in one thing with the former. the man of fin is faid to come with lying wonders. Here it is written, that fome fball apoftatize from the faith. Through the hypocrify of liars, having their confcience feared with a hot iron: as our version runs, one would understand it of devils speaking lies, and having their confcience feared. But the reading we have given, is most agreeable to the original; and exhibits an awful, but a juft character of the feducers, viz. that they have their confcience feared with a hot iron. In the Roman church, there are the deceivers, and the deceived. But the former are twofold more the children of the devil than the latter.

It has been wittily obferved, that in all the fcripture, we read of no prayer made to departed faints, but one; and that was not heard, Luke xvi. 24,-31. Poor encouragement, one would think, to their worshippers.

G

That the Pope of Rome is the Enemy, proved from the Number of the Beaft, Rev. xiii. 18.

OHN the divine, having spoken of the beast,

JOH

and the number of his name, Rev. xiii. 17. concludes all with faying, Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: and his number is fix hundred fixty and fix. Here is a number given, and it is the number of a name; that is, as I apprehend, the number arifing from the numeral letters of a certain name. It was usual with the Greeks, as also with the Hebrews, to express numbers by the letters of their alphabets: and this cuflom we too have from the Romans. Thus, in the paffage quoted, 666 is not expreffed in full words, but by three letters of the Greek alphabet: from the num-· ber given, we are left to feek the name. The number 666 has nothing evil in itself; it is precisely the number of the children of Adonikim, who came up with Zerubabel to Jerufalem, Ezra ii. 13. Numbers, in themselves, are no more to be observed, than days, months, or years. Neither is the number 666 to be reckoned an abfolute, but rather a collateral evidence or mark of Antichrift. It is found in a great many proper names: fo Grotius found it, оTAПIOS, Ulpius; the bishop of Meaux, in DIOCLES AUGUSTUS. F. Feuardentius affects to find it in the name of Martin Lauter, which he fays was the original way of fpelling the name of

Luther. But what pity to fee men playing at this

rate *.

If any man's name among us had the letters I, V, X, L, C, D. they would amount precifely to 666; but what relation would this have to the fubject? Surely, none at all. For we muft argue, not from the name only, but from the name joined to other marks of the beaft; which cannot be faid of other names. For, in vain is any other name fought containing the number 666, unless it be alfo the name of the beaft. A name of that nature, joined with other characters of the beast, must strike ftrong with conviction; but separated from them it amounts to nothing: fo a cypher standing alone fignifies nothing; but fet the figure 9 before it, and it makes 90.

It was a method practifed among the ancients, 'to denote names by numbers; as the name of Thouth, or the Egyptian Mercury, was fignified by the number 1218.; the name of Jupiter, as Hapy, or the beginning of things, by the num"ber 717.; and the name of the fun, as 'nus good, by the number 608 +.'

Now, as the Spirit of God, in many other inftances, accommodates his expreffions to the customs of the feveral ages, to the olympic games, 1 Cor. ix.

With equal facility might they have found the number 666, in that blafphemous title given in the dedication of fome books to Paul V. who died Anno 1621. The title runs thus:

PAVLO V. VICE DEI.

5.50 5. 5.1.100. 500.

666.

That is, To Paul V. in place of God. Pareus on Revelation, P. 174. Picteti. Theol. Chret. vol. III.

par. i. P. 225. + Dr. Newton on Prophecy, Vol. III. p. 245.

24.; to the white ftone, given as a token of abfolution *, Rey. ii. 17.: fo it is highly probable, that in giving the number of the beaft's name, he alludes to what was in ufe among the ancients. Here the apostle gives the number; and from it we must, as well as we can, collect the name. After all the search I have been able to make; and after deliberating on what has been offered on this subject, I humbly apprehend the number of the beaft implies two things. First, Who he should be; and, Secondly, When he should appear in all his pomp.

1. I fay, it seems to point out who he fhould be. Hence the mark, and the name, and the number of the beaft's name, are mentioned as being much the fame, Rev. xiii. 17. Irenæus, who lived not long after John's time, and who was the difciple of Polycarp, the disciple of John, teftifies, That

they, who had feen John face to face, taught, that the number of the name of the beaft, according to the computation of the Greeks, by the ' letters which are in it, had fix hundred fixty and fixt.' And the fame Irenæus gives it as his judg ment, that Lateinos is that name. The name Lateinos, fays he, contains the number 666.: and it is very likely, because the laft kingdom is fo called, for they are Latins who now reign .'Lateinos is the true orthography, as the Greeks wrote the long i of the Latins; fo Antoneinos and Sabeinos, for Antoninus and Sabinus. No objection therefore can be drawn from the spelling of the

* Compare Ovid Metamorph. Lib. xv. line 42.

+ Turret, de Seceffi. Difp. vii. Sect. 33.

Dr. Newton, Turret. ubi fupra. Difp. vii. Sect. 36.

word; and the thing agrees to admiration. The thought is venerable for its antiquity, and has a ftrong appearance of truth.

Lateinos fignifies the man of Latium, the man of Rome; the Latin man, the Latin ftate, or the Latin power: fome fuch fubftantive being understood to the adjective. And we fee that Irenæus ufeth the plural: the Latins, fays he, now reign. With as much propriety may we call one a Latin as an Hebrew. It was ufual of old, when speaking of an Ifraelite, to call him an Hebrew, Exod. ii. 11. And, fays Paul, I am an Hebrew, Phil. iii. 5. So Lateinos fignifies the Latin. And is not he truly the Latin, who is in poffeffion of the remains and the antient seat of the Latin empire? who fuffers public worship to be performed in no other language but Latin? and who iffues out his mandates and his decrees in no other? In every thing do the Papifts Latinize: maffes, prayers, hymns, litanies, canons, decretals, bulls, are all conceived in Latin. Nor is the scripture read in any other language than Latin. The council of Trent commanded the Latin to be the only authentic verfion; nor do their doctors doubt to prefer it to the Hebrew and the Greek originals. Nay, the Roman church is by the Greeks called the Latin church: and this dif tinction was fo remarkable, that in the general councils, the western fathers or bishops were called the Latins, but the reft the Greeks.

Thus the name Lateinos, as to its grammatical fignification, is moft defcriptive of the church of Rome: and computing its numeral value in Greek, it amounts precisely to the number of the beaft, as