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and these who have rested in their views of the Scriptures, I am ready to say, as Christ to his disciples, "O fools, and slow of heart;" to believe all that the prophets have said, and be thereby blinded to that so manifestly now before the eyes of all, that the man of sin and son of perdition is now clearly revealed, who hath opposed and exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped. For that mystery of iniquity began its work in the Apostles' days, and was to be let grow until the pagan beast who opposed Christ in the reign of his prophetic office on earth, should by the force of Christianity be wounded in his seventh head, or government, making the pagan government declare itself Christian. So that the persecuting beast that was, is not, until healed into an Anti-Christian beast, to begin the opposition of Christ's reign on earth, by the persecuting all for offering unto God such sacrifices as his word requires; and by this persecuting of Christ's priestly office, the second beast began his reign, under the pretext of Christ's vice-gerent on earth, which was to continue twelve hundred and sixty days, until God's two witnesses, or laws for his two kingdoms of men, civil and ecclesiastical, shall have finished their testimony in the street of the great city where the second beast is again wounded unto death, and put down from all power in either government, and that street or kingdom declared the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, where the Mediator was to reign in his kingdom, not of this world, in all his offices of Prophet, Priest, and King; where the godly were to live in all peace, godliness, and honesty, in their inner court for worship, and their outer court for protection.
But, lo! how suddenly the second beast, as the first, ascends, and, as a third, commences his war
