ed, from its increased numbers, and wealth, and influence. The Man Child about to be born, and which the pagan dragon or imperial power stood watching to destroy immediately upon its birth, represents CONSTANTINE, (the first christian that attained to the purple,) and the dangers he providentially surmounted, from the secret and open hostility of the pagans or mystically, it is emblematical of Christ, now as it were about to be born again, by the triumph of his gospel over the devil, (ver. 9,) the real dragon, which was the instigator of all the previous persecutions by the pagan, and all the following ones instituted by the papal power, against Christ and his afflicted members. When, by this event of things, the pagan persecuting dragon was cast down from the throne of empire, the devil was also cast out of his strong holds, the temples of the gods, and was twice subdued.

But though his power was checked by this fall, his enmity was not extinguished, but rather increased by the triumph of christianity. And he soon renewed the war with

He

equal success, under the disguise of the pontifical tiara, and the pastoral crozier. could not prevent the birth of the man child, but he soon rendered it a change of no ad.vantage to the real interests of the christian faith. By his deceptive suggestions, a papal or antichristian red dragon became now the cruel tormentor of the church, instead of its And old enemy, the heathen persecutor. though "the child was caught up unto God, and to his throne," (ver. 5,) that is to say, christianity became the imperial religion, the next thing we hear of (and which soon followed,) is, that the woman herself, or the pure church of Christ, "fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand, two bunared, and three score days," which is the same term assigned to the two witnesses, and to the apostacy itself. This is therefore only another representation of the persecuted state of true religion, during the prevalence of POHere in a low condition, and in the silence of retirement, the faith of the gospel is to seek for safety, and be barely kept alive by

PERY.

providential support, until the witnesses have finished their testimony, and the final ruin of the tyrant is to be hastened on.

"The war in heaven," signifies the continuance of the struggle for power in the em-. pire, between the two religions, under the conduct of MICAEL, (the patron of the church in every age, and which means Christ himself,) on the part of the christi ans; and the DRAGON, or chief strength of paganism under JULIAN the APOSTATE and other favorers of that cause, aided by the suggestions and malice of the "OLD SERPENT,t: called the DEVIL, and SATAN, which de-, ceiveth the whole (roman) world," by se ducing them to idolatry. Christianity having thus obtained a complete victory over the heathen idolatry, and the devil, who presided over that horrible system of delusion, being at once ejected from the imperial throne and the temples of the ancient Gods, is figura

Dan. x. 13; xii. 1; Jude ix. Rev. xii. 7.
Gen. ii. 14; Rev. xx. 2; John.viii. 44.

tively represented as being cast down to the earth, and filled with increased activity and malice against mankind, "because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Of that little, however, he makes a diligent use, by

sowing his tares amongst the wheat, while men now slept" in the lap of ease and opulence, too hastily conferred upon the church by the zeal of CONSTANTINE. And the consequence was the rapid growth of the errors and superstitions of POPERY, and ere long the appearance of the man of sin himself. And now the wily DRAGON reigns again under another name, and introduces once more his "doctrines of devils," and idolatry of every description, and his “signs, and lying wonders, and all deceivableness of unrighteousness." And for these, he causes the blood of the servants of Jesus to flow again. in more copious streams than heretofore, and with an augmented inveteracy of infernal zeal. For "when the DRAGON saw that he was cast unto the earth, be persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And the

dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."

The expression here adopted, "the REMNANT of her seed," is remarkable, and intimates that the objects of his wrath were by this time reduced to a small number, of faithful witnesses to the commandments of God, and the genuine gospel of Christ. The majority of the seed of the woman, that is, the church, had fallen in with his new inventions, and contributed every one his share to the rebuilding of his kingdom of darkness.

Such being the state of things, the prophet proceeds in the xiii. chap. to describe the rise of the ANTICHRISTIAN BEAST, the successor of the PAGAN DRAGON in the ancient seat of empire.*

A beast, says bishop Newton, in the prophetic stile, is at tyrannical idolatrous empire; the kingdom of Christ is gever represented under the image of a beast.