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much that, although the people were styled Romans, their language was denominated Latin. But, when by the arms of the northern nations the Roman empire was divided into ten kingdoms; when, by setting up a spiritual tyrant in the Church, and by lapsing into papal idolatry, it again became a beast; when Rome was governed by her bishops under the wing of a new line of Emperors; and when Greece, formerly her instructor in the arts and sciences, was now become her rival both in imperial and ecclesiastical domination: the old gentile name of Latin was revived, and has ever since been the peculiar distinguishing title of the papal Roman empire both temporal and spiritual. Such accordingly is the general appellation which the inhabitants of the West bear in the Eastern parts of the world: the particular names of Spaniards, French, and Italians, are swallowed up in the common title of Latins. Hence Mr. Gibbon, in his account of the crusades, terms, with strict propriety, the people of the western empire Latins: and gives us, under this name, the history of the five Latin Emperors of Constantinople. Hence also, though the Papists are wont absurdly to style themselves Roman catholics, the real name of their community, as contradistinguished from the Greek church, the Armenian church, or the Abyssinian church, is certainly the Latin church. Thus Thevenot, in his account of mount Sinai, speaks of two churches, one for the Greeks, and the other for the Latins: and thus Ricaut, throughout his state of the Greek and Armenian churches, discriminates the Romanists from all other professors of Christianity by the appellation of Latins. The Papists, as Dr. Henry More aptly expresses it, "latinize in every thing. Mass, prayers, hymns, litanies, canons, decretals, bulls, are conceived in Latin. The Papal councils speak in Latin. Women themselves pray in Latin. Nor is the Scripture read in any other language, under Popery, than Latin. Wherefore the council of Trent commanded the vulgar Latin to be the

* Hist. of Decline and Fall, Vol. ii. p. 243-304.

Cited by Mr. Granville Sharpe in his appendix to three tracts, p. 126. I am indebted to this gentleman for the idea, that Latinus is the name of that particular man whose appellative contains the same number as the name of the beast,

only authentic version: nor do their doctors doubt to prefer it to the Hebrew and Greek text itself, which was written by the prophets and apostles. In short, all things are Latin; the Pope having communicated his language to the people under his dominion, as the mark and character of his empire."*

Here then we have a name, which completely answers in every respect to the apocalyptic name of the beast. Luteinos is at once the name of a man, the title of an empire, and the distinguishing appellation of every individual in that empire: and, when the sum of its numerical letters is taken in the Greek language, the language in which the Apocalypse is written, and in which therefore the calculation ought evidently to be made,† it will amount precisely to 666. On these grounds then I do not hesitate to assert, that Latinus, and nothing but Latinus is the name of the beust; for, in no other word, descriptive of the revived temporal beast, or the Papal Roman empire, can such a fatal concurrence of circumstances be discovered.

With regard to the mark of the beast, I think with Sir Isaac Newton that it is the cross. This symbol has been abused by the Papists to the purposes both of the most infernal cruelties, and of the most childish superstition.§

* Mystery of Iniquity, Part 2. B. 1. Chap. 15. and Molinæi Vates, p. 500. cited by Bp. Newton. "Hoc nomine (Latinus), post imperii divisionem et decem reges in provinciis ejus exortos, neque prius, pseudo-propheta Romanus, cum reliquis Occidentis incolis, discriminis ergô appellatus est. Namque Græci et reliqui Orientales seipsos solos Romanos dici voluere; nos, cum pontifice nostro, et sub eo episcopis, regibus, dynastis, fatali quodam instinctu Latinos dixere. Et hæc distinctio Grace Lo tinaque ecclesiæ adeo insignis erat, ut in generalibus conciliis Occidentales patres sive episcopi Latini, reliqui vero Græci discriminatim appellarentur." Pol. Synop. in loc. + I cannot but wonder, that any should have thought of seeking the name of the heast in a different language from the Greek. It is scarcely probable that St. John should write in one language, and mean the calculation to be made in another.

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$ When our dissenting brethren censure us for using the sign of the cross in the baptismal ceremony, because it is used likewise by the papists, they ought to consider

The cruelties, that have been perpetrated under its sanction are notorious. I am strongly inclined to believe, that, when St. John beheld the secular beast making war upon the saints, he beheld him likewise with astonishment bearing the badge of the cross: for this was the very symbol worn by all those, who at the instigation of the Pope undertook those diabolical expeditions against pretended heretics, which were thence denominated crusades. In the time of Innocent the third, it was alledged against the unfortunate Waldenses and Albigenses, that they had cast the books of the Gospel into the common sewers in the sight of the bishops and priests. On the score of this lying accusation, the zealous pontiff, cut to the heart by such profaneness, determined to extirpate them with fire and sword. Accordingly he proclaimed a solemn crusade against them, and sent preachers into all the regions of the West, injoining both sovereign princes and other Christian people, that, for the remission of their sins, they should forthwith sign themselves with the cross, and under that holy symbol should extirpate the pest which had invaded the Church.* The secular beast,

that the use of it is either innocent or not innocent, exactly according as it is religious or not religious. It was only by a vain and cruel abuse of the sign of the cross, that it became the mark of the beast: had a circle, or a square, been thought by the papists more convenient for their purpose, either of those figures would in that case have been as much the mark of the beast as a cross. If indeed the church of England either proclaimed a crusade against the dissenters, or laid any mysterious weight upon the use of the cross in baptism, she certainly would not in these respects have purified herself from the corruptions of the papal beast; but, concerning all her ceremonies, and therefore the use of the cross in baptism among the rest, nothing can be more moderate and rational than the language which she uses. "In these our doings we condemn no other nations, nor prescribe any thing but to our own people only: for we think it convenient, that every country should use such ceremonies as they shall think best to the setting forth of God's honour and glory, and to the reducing of the people to a most perfect and godly living, without error or superstition." Hence it appears, that she only wishes "all things to be done decently and in order ;" and that, if other protestant churches dislike the sign of the cross in baptism, she would by no means impose upon them the use of it, as an indispensable term of spiritual communion in a common Lord. She disapproves indeed of the endless cruciform evolutions of the Papists; but she can discover no reason, why their vain mummeries should make it sinful or superstitious in ber ministers to sign a newly baptized child" with the sign of the cross, in token that bereafter be shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified." Hence, " to take away all scruple concerning the sign of the cross in baptism," she refers us for the true explication thereof, and the just reasons for the retaining of it, to the 30th Canon.

"Papa Innocentius, his auditis," (namely the false accusations preferred against the Waldenses) "non mediocriter condoluit. Qui,missis prædicatoribus ad omnesregiones occidentis, principibus aliisque populis Christianis, in serum remissionem pecea

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faithful to the commands of his colleague, immediately assumed this badge and ere long, throughout France alone, there were slain of the Reformed, according to Vitringa, ten hundred thousand men.

The childish superstition, to which the sign of the cross has been prostituted, is scarcely less notorious. On this the Rubric of the Roman Missal will be the best commentary. In consecrating the baptismal water, the priest is directed to divide it, in the form of a cross, with his extended hand, which he is immediately to wipe with a cloth. Afterwards he is again to touch the water with his hand next he is to make three crosses upon the font: and then he is to divide the water with his hand, pouring it out, cross-wise, to the four parts of the world. Having duly gone through this process, muttering all the while in such a manner as not to be heard by the byestanders, he is to change his voice, and recite a short prayer in the tone of reading. The prayer being ended, he breathes three times upon the water in the form of a cross; and then, resuming the low muttering tone of his former incantation, he drops a little wax into the water. Thrice he drops this wax into the water, and thrice he takes it out; blowing, at its last immersion, three times upon the water in the cruciform figure of the Greek letter Psi. Lastly, he mixes oil and cream with the water, moving his hand to and fro in the shape of a cross, and the consecrated commixtio, as it is termed, is thought to be then duly prepared for the administration of the sacrament of baptism. Nor is the cross used in this absurdly superstitious manner throughout the initiatory rite of Christianity alone. Holy eggs and holy candles, holy salt and holy water, go through a somewhat similar ceremony; and are marked, in a similar manner, with the sign of the cross. Nay, even when not immediately engaged in performing the rites of his multifarious adoration, let a Papist be assailed either by natural or supernatural terrors, and he will forthwith almost mechanicaltorum injunxit, ut se cruce signarent ad hanc pestem extirpandum." (Matt. Paris. Hist. Mag. Angl. p. 241. cited by Mr. Sharpe.) This same badge of the cross will probably be again assumed in the last koly war, undertaken by the beast and the false prophet, seemingly against the protestants and the Ferus. (Rev. xix. 19, 20.) Of this war more will be said hereafter.

ly commence the operation of crossing himself in various. parts of his body.

Such is the wonderful accuracy of the whole prophecy respecting both the name and the mark of the beastThough the ancient Romans called themselves Latins, yet they were better known by the appellation of Romans. When the Empire was divided, both the eastern and the western members of it still denominated themselves Romans; but, for the sake of distinction, its western branch was henceforth styled the Latin empire, and its eastern branch the Greek empire. The revived beast however, "that was, and is not, and yet is," is in a special manner, under his last head, the Latin empire: and it is the ресиliar name of this identical revived beast, which (the proNow the phet tells us) comprehends the number 666. peculiar name of that beast is Latinus: and Latinus exCan we doubt then of actly contains the number 666. Latinus being the name intended by St. John?—As for the mark of the beast, which I conceive to be the cross, this mark, no less than the name Latinus, is peculiar to the beast that is, or the papal Roman empire, as contradistinguished from the beast that was, or the pagan man empire. The ancient Roman beust despised the cross : but the revived Roman or Latin beast made it his peculiar badge not only in religious but civil matters, introducing it into his standards, blazoning it in the armorial bearings of many of his great men,† and displaying it upon the crowns of all his ten horns; insomuch that the crescent is not more the mark of Turkey, or the dragon of

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Missal. Roman. edit. Plantin. p. 273-285. Cited by Mr. Sharpe. Mrs. Bowdler thinks, that the name of blasphecy, which she supposes to mean apostacy, and which St. John beheld written upon the beads of the beast, is the mark in question. I am far from disliking her idea; and many may very probably prefer it to that, which I have adopted from Sir Isaac Newton. According to this interpretation, none are permitted to buy or sell except those who are implicated in the predicted blasphemy or apostacy with which the man of sin has tainted the Latin empire. Practical Observ. on the Rev. p. 35.

"That, which made this ordinary so considerable, and so frequently used in heraldry, was the ancient expeditions into the Holy land, and the holy war: for the pilgrims, after their pilgrimage, took the cross for their cognizance, and the ensign of that war was the cross; and therefore these expeditions were called Croissades. In these wars, the Scots carried St. Andrew's cross; the French, a cross argent; the English a cross or; the Germans, sable; the Italians, azure; the Spaniards, gules." Guillim's Heraldry, p. 51.

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