성경 주석서

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

And I stood — Where I might best see the beast that came out of the sea.

I saw a beast — The Church, flying into the wilderness from the dragon, falls upon this beast, which is nothing better than the dragon under a better shape. Sic aliud ex alio malum. This beast is that Antichrist of Rome.

Rise up — Not all at once, but by degrees.

Out of the sea — Out of the bottomless pit,Revelation 11:7; Revelation 11:7 ; 2 Thessalonians 2:9 .

Having seven heads — To plot.

And ten horns — To push. Craft and cruelty go always together in the Church’s enemies. The asp never wanders alone; and those birds of prey go not without their mates, Isaiah 34:16 .

And upon his horns — The kings that are the pope’s vassals. See Revelation 17:11 . These are the props of his power.

The name of blasphemy — This is his true name; his pretensed name is mystery.

return to '

And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

Like unto a leopard — Which is the female among the panthers, the property whereof is, as Pliny telleth us, with her sweet smell to allure the beasts unto her, hiding her terrible head, till she hath them within her reach, and then teareth them in pieces. Just so dealeth Rome with her unhappy proselytes. The Papacy is an alluring, tempting, bewitching religion. No sin past, but the pope can pardon it; none to come, but he can dispense with it, Etiamsi per impossibile, matrem Dei quis vitiasset, said Tecelius.

As the feet of a bear — Which stands firm on her hinder feet, and fights with her fore feet; so doth the Papacy with its canons, decrees, traditions, …

As the mouth of a lion — Wide, ravenous, roaring, and insatiable.

And the dragon gave him his power — This bargain was offered to Christ,Matthew 4:8-10; Matthew 4:8-10 , but he would none of it. The bramble in Jotham’s parable thought it a goodly thing to reign; so did not the vine and fig tree.

return to '

And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

One of his heads as it were wounded — Either by the invasion of the Goths; or by that fatal schism in the Church of Rome, A.D. 1378, when there sat three popes at once for 40 years together: or by the falling away of the Protestants from the Popedom, from the days of Wycliffe, John Huss, the Waldenses, Luther, to this present. Bellarmine bewails the business, that ever since we began to count and call the pope Antichrist, his kingdom hath greatly decreased. (Lib. iii. de Papa Rom. cap. 21.) And Cotton the Jesuit confesses, that the authority of the pope is incomparably less than it was; and that now the Christian Church is but adminutive.

And his deadly wound was healed — By that false prophet,Revelation 13:11; Revelation 13:11 , that is, by the Sorbonists, Jesuits, Trent fathers, and other Popish surgeons. The Jesuits give out that the devil sent out Luther, and God raised up them to resist him; but great is the truth, and will prevail, when all falsehood shall fall to the ground. It is but a palliate cure we here read of.

And all the world — sc. Of Roman Catholics.

Wondered — Or had wondered till the beast was wounded.

return to '

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

And they worshipped — Admiration bred adoration. Idolatrous Papists are worshippers of the devil; whom though in word they defy, yet in deed they deify.

Who is like unto the beast? — Papa potest omnia, quae Christus potest, saith Hostiensis; The pope can do whatsoever Christ can do; yea, and more too, it should seem by these wise wonderers: for who is like unto the beast? say they. Papa est plus quam Deus, saith Francis Zabarel; The pope is more than a God. And why? for of wrong he can make right, of vice, virtue, of nothing, something, saith Bellarmine. (De Pap. Rom. lib. iv.) Mosconius cannot be content to derive papa from papae, the interjection of admiring, because he is stupor mundi, the world’s wonderment (that ye may know him to be the beast here mentioned), but he must style him the King of kings and Lord of lords, having ruledom over all rational creatures, Dulia adorandus. (De Majestat. Militant. Ecclesiastes 1:1 )

return to '

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.

And there was given unto him — As once was to Antiochus, that little antichrist,Daniel 7:25; Daniel 7:25 . What cracks the pope makes of his unlimited power and prerogatives; who knows not? what blasphemies he belcheth out of the fable of Christ, of eating his pork, Al despito di Die, in despite of God; of suffering himself to be styled "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world," as Pope Martin IV did; of drinking a health to the devil, as another of them did, who hath not heard? Baronius, in the year 964, reckoning up certain of the popes, calleth them monsters, an abomination of desolation in God’s temple, … Cardinal Benno saith of Pope Hildebrand, that he was a blasphemer, a murderer, a whore master, a necromancer, a heretic, and all that is naught. The Church of Rome (saith another of their own writers) had deserved now for a long time no better of God than to be ruled by reprobates. Marcellus II, pope of Rome, said, that he could not see how any pope could be saved. (Jac. Revius, p. 275.)

Forty and two months — Here Mr Brightman calculates and pitches the ruin of Antichrist upon the year 1686, or thereabouts.

return to '

And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

In blasphemy against God — As when Pope Leo I and (after him) Nicholas III affirmed, that Peter their predecessor was taken into fellowship with the blessed Trinity, as one with them. SeeRevelation 13:5; Revelation 13:5 .

And his tabernacle — Christ’s humanity, John 1:14 ; John 2:19 this he blasphemeth, by transubstantiating a crust into Christ. Or, the Church of Christ, which he counteth and calleth the synagogue of Satan.

And them that dwelt in heaven — The glorified saints, whom either he despiteth with obtruded honours, such as they acknowledge not; or else barks and rails at incessantly as arch-devils, detestable heretics, common pests, …, as Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, whose very name he hath commanded to be razed out of all books, wheresoever any man meets with it, Ubicunque invenitur nomen Calvini, deleatur. (Ind. Expur.)

return to '

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

To make war with the saints — As he did with the Albigenses, publishing his Crusades against them, as if they had been Saracens, and destroying ten hundred thousand of them in France only, if Perionias may be believed. Not to speak of the many thousands since slain in battle by the pope’s champions in Germany, France, Ireland, and now also in England; besides those many more that have died for religion by the bloody Inquisition, by the hands of the hangman, 3600 in the Low Countries by the command of the Duke of Alva, 800 here in Queen Mary’s days, … The beast hath even made himself drunk with the blood of the saints.

And to overcome them — So it seemed, but so it was not. See Revelation 12:11 . The saints never more prevail and triumph than when it seems otherwise. Of them the enemies may say, as the Persians did once of the Athenians at the field of Marathon (Stobaeus),

Βαλλομεν, ου πιπτουσι, τιτρωσκομεν, ου φοβεονται .

We fell them, yet they fall not; thrust them through,

They feel no mischief, but are well enough.

Over all kindreds and tongues — Here the Holy Ghost points to the Popish Catholicism. The Jesuits will still needsly have the Roman Church to be the Catholic Church, though so many kindreds, tongues, and nations have utterly disclaimed it. Herein they are like that mad fellow Thrasilaus in Horace, who laid claim to all the ships that came into the harbour at Athens, though he had no right to the least boat there.

return to '

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Whose names are not written — He then that lives and dies a Papist cannot be saved.

Slain from the foundation — sc. 1. In God’s purpose; 2. In his promise; 3. In the faith of his people; 4. In the sacrifices; 5. In the martyrs; the first that ever died, died for religion. Christ undertook to pay our debt in the fulness of time; and hence we were enlarged. A man may let a prisoner loose, upon a promise to pay the debt a year after.

return to '