is decided; though this be more secret, and known only to the Church. Yet it must be remembered that that by which Satan troubles the Church, while here, is that by which he holds the world. It is, then, the great characteristic fact we have here as to the beast so formed: he holds the dragon’s place.
I may add, I hold the beast to be simply and plainly the Roman empire.
The next characteristic of the beast was the destruction and healing of one[1] of the heads or forms of government. This, observe, was subsequent to, and not preceding, the dragon’s giving him his power. And there was admiration in all the earth at the beast. The Roman empire and its corporate power, became, in the earth, the object of their admiration, and laid hold on their minds. And they worshipped[2] that infidel power and hostility to God, which had given power to the beast—the form in which this shewed itself in man was the pursuit of his own will, simply casting off the
