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"I pray you and all others concerned to receive my reproof as it was intended, and may the Holy Spirit work in you and in all repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.'

"In the situation in which Providence has placed me, I could not by silence appear a partaker in other men's sins. I feel bound through you to enter my public protest against the outrage which has been offered to the first principle of religion-namely, that there is a God, who in six days made the heaven and earth, and rested the seventh day, and blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. I have the honour to subscribe myself, Sir, your much grieved and offended humble servant, "ROBERT CASHEL.

"Waterford, July 10, 1843."

"THE NUMBER OF THE NAME" OF THE APOCALYPTIC

BEAST.

(An Extract from the famous Goodwin's Works, written about

two hundred years ago.*)

THE state of the Church, and her conflicts with Satan the first four hundred years, having been described in the 13th chapter of Revelation, in the following chapters is set forth the state of the Church from that time, during the times of Antichrist; all' which time there was, and is, both his false Antichristian Church, and the true church under him, running along together. Now the description of Antichrist (the Pope) and his false church, in his rise, power, greatness, and extent of his dominions, and of the company that should cleave to him, is set forth in the 13th chapter, under the vision of a twofold beast, which points at the Pope according to his double pretended claim of power and headship in the church.

Now take the times of Popery before the Reformation, (that is, afore the time the Protestant kingdom did first begin to cast. off the Pope,) and there were none that were suffered to have such a remiss (no, nor any lesser) kind of owning the beast, but must all (as they did) receive his mark, or his name, and be professed Papists, coming to mass, acknowledging the Pope, and worshipping his image; or they might not buy and sell, they might not live quietly as others did. Therefore these that receive the number of his name, must be some generation of men risen up since, and that also within those kingdoms (some of them) that have renounced the Pope: for within the Popish dominions (unto this day) either the Inquisition suffers none to profess less than the receiving his name at least; or in others, those that are of Papists the most moderate, yet receive the name of the beast at least, and so, more than the number of his

* This extract is a fac-simile reprint from an Exposition of the Revelation, in the vol. ii. (page 65-67,) of the works of T. Goodwin, D.D., who was first chosen to the lectureship, and afterwards presented by Charles I. to the vicarage, of Trinity Church, Cambridge; and he was appointed, under Cromwell, the President of Magdalen College, Oxford; in the common register of which university he is said to be "In scriptis in re theologicâ quam plurimis orbi notus.”

name. But this number of his name seems to be a company that proceed not so far as to receive his character, professing themselves to be priests of Rome, nor to receive his name; for they do not profess themselves to be Papists, and yet are of the number of his name; that is, do hold and bring in such doctrines and opinions, and such rites in worship, as shall make all men reckon, account, or number them among Papists in heart and affection; and so, they are of the number of name, that is, in account such, they behave themselves so as they are, and deserve to be accounted and esteemed Papists, and to aim at Popery, in the judgment of all orthodox and reformed Protestants; and that justly, for although their profession deny it, yet when their actions, and their corrupting of doctrine and worship shall speak it to all men's consciences, they cannot but judge that the Pope, and the fear of him, is before their eyes, (as David speaks of wicked men.) And as those in Titus, that profess they know God, yet in their works deny him, are justly accounted Atheists; so those that shall profess the reformed religion, yet in all their practices, and under-hand policies, depress it, and advance the Popish party, are justly to be accounted Papists, and to have received the number of his name.

The phrase (number of a name) is not only taken for a name consisting of numeral letters, and so, not only for number arithmetical, but the word (number) is in many languages put for the account, reckoning, or esteem, that is commonly had of men; as in Latin we say, He is one nullius numeri, of no number or account, and so among the Grecians, EN POLEMOO ENARITHMOS, is used by Homer, for one in great account in war, being numbered or esteemed a souldier.

It

So, then, number of a name is a common esteem, or account to be such or such an one; and so the number of the beast's name here, is the common repute or esteem to be a Papist, procured through under-hand advancing of the Popish cause. being, therefore, spoken in a distinct and lower degree from receiving his name or mark, (which note out an open expression,) doth yet necessarily import so much inclining and cleaving to him (though secretly) as shall deserve that account and repute to be so numbered, as being indeed tacitly and in heart, as truly of his company as those that receive his name. Now if in opening the meaning of the Holy Ghost in the phrase here, this description shall seem to the life to picture out a generation of such kind of Popish persons as these in any (even the most famous) of the reformed churches, certainly there will not want good ground for it; for though they, with an impudent forehead, renounce the Pope's character, and the name of Papists, and will by no means be called priests of Baal, (though priests they affect to be called,) but boast themselves to be of the Reformation, and

opposites to the Papal faction; yet with as much impudence do they bring in an image of Popish worship and ceremonies, added to some old limbs, never cast out, other substantial parts, of altars, crucifixes, second service, and the like, so to make up a full likeness in the public service, to that of the Popish Church: they bring in the carkass first, which may afterwards be inspired with the same opinions. All this, not as Popery, or with annexion of Popish idolatrous opinions, but upon such grounds only, as upon which Protestants themselves have continued some other ceremonies. And as in worship, so in doctrine, they seek to bring in a presence in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, beyond that which is spiritual, to faith, which yet is not Popish transubstantiation; a power in priests to forgive sins, beyond that which is declarative, yet not that which mass-priests arrogate: justification by works, yet not so grossly as in the way of Popish merit, but as a condition of the Gospel as well as faith; and many the like to these; thus truly setting up an image of old Popery in a Protestant reformed way, even as Popery is an image of heathenish worship in a Christian way. Say these men what they will, that they hold not of the Pope, nor any way intend him, or the introducing of his religion into these churches, yet their actions do (and cannot but) make all men number them as such; and therefore we say, they have gained that esteem at home and abroad in all the churches; and it is no more than what the Holy Ghost prophesied of, who hath fitted them with a description so characteristical, as nothing is more like them than this of these here, who are said to receive the number of his name. And they doing this in a way of apostasy from their former profession and religion, in which they were trained up, and in a church so full of spiritual light, where God had more witnesses than in all the rest of the churches, and with an intention and conspiracy in the end to make way for the beast, (this going before, as the twilight doth serve to usher in darkness,) therefore the Holy Ghost thought them worthy of this character, (in this prophecy,) and of a discovery of them unto whom they do belong; especially seeing they would so professedly deny it. And though haply but in one of the ten kingdoms, (although the Lutherans elsewhere look very like this, description also,) yet seeing they were to grow so potent a faction, as to have power to hinder the (buying and selling) quiet living of others amongst them, who will not receive this worship and doctrine, (which is a new refined Popery,) and with it the number of his name; that is, those opinions and practices which do deserve that esteem. And further, because they were to be the Pope's last champions before his fall, whom those that are the true saints (of whom the greatest number in the last age before the Pope's ruin, is in or belonging to that one kingdom)

are to encounter and overcome, before the ruin of Rome; therefore the Holy Ghost thought not fit to leave such a company out of the beast's number and followers; and that also, although they were to continue but a short time; for the doom of these men we have in another prophecy, (as their description also,) 2 Tim. iii. from the 1st verse to the 10th, the prophecy there being of a generation of men to arise in the last days, (the Papists' rising is attributed to the latter days, in 1 Tim. iv. ch., but the rise of these to the last of the last days,) who shall set themselves principally against the power and spirit of true worship, and set up a form or image instead of it, (verse 5,) but their doom is, (verse 9,) These shall proceed no further, they shall have a stop; and their folly, and madness, and hypocrisy (to attempt to bring in Popery with denying it; and when it is going down, then to build this Babel again) shall appear to all men; and being discovered, will be their overthrow: but notwithstanding they must proceed further than as yet they have done, even to the killing of the witnesses in that kingdom, or tenth part of the city, (as chap. xi. will shew, when in its due order it shall be opened.) And because these last champions of the beast, and healers of the wound given him, should come in the last days of all, they are therefore last named, and are said to be last overcome by the witnesses and pourers forth of the vials, as chap. xv. 2.

BISHOP NEWTON ON "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."-REV. xvii. 5.

To distinguish the woman, she has her name inscribed upon her forehead, in allusion to the practices of some notorious prostitutes, who had their names written in a label upon their foreheads, as we may collect from ancient authors. The inscription is so very particular, that we cannot easily mistake the person. Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, or rather of fornications and abominations of the earth. Her name, Mystery, can imply no less than that she dealeth in mysteries; her religion is a mystery, a mystery of iniquity; and she herself is, mystically and spiritually, Babylon the Great. But the title of Mystery is in no respect proper to ancient Rome, more than any other city; and neither is there any mystery in substituting one heathen, idolatrous, and persecuting city for another. But it is indeed a mystery that a Christian city, professing and boasting herself to be the city of God, should prove another Babylon in idolatry and cruelty to the people of God. She glories in the name of Roman catholic, and well, therefore, may she be called Babylon the Great. She affects the style and title of our holy mother, the Church, but she is in truth the mother of fornications and abomi

nations of the earth. Neither can this character, with any propriety, be applied to ancient Rome; for she was rather a barrier of foreign superstitions than the mistress of idolatry to other nations, as appears in various instances, and particularly from that solemn form of adjuration which the Romans used when they laid siege to a city, calling forth the tutelary deities of the place, and promising them temples, and sacrifices, and other solemnities at Rome. It may be concluded, therefore, that this part of the prophecy is sufficiently fulfilled, though there should be reason to question the truth of what is asserted by some writers, that the word Mystery was formerly written in letters of gold upon the forepart of the Pope's mitre. Scaliger affirms it upon the authority of the Duke de Montmorency, who received his information from a man of good credit at Rome. Francis Le Moyne and Brocardus confirm it, appealing to ocular inspection; and when King James objected this, Lessius could not deny it. If the thing be true, it is a wonderful coincidence of the event with the letter of the prophecy; but it hath been much controverted, and you may see the authors on both sides in Wolfius. It is much more certain, and none of that communion can deny it, that the ancient mitres were usually adorned with inscriptions. One particularly there is "preserved at Rome, as a precious relic of Pope Sylvester I., richly but not artfully embroidered with the figure of the Virgin Mary crowned, and holding a little Christ, and these words, in large capitals, underneath: Ave Regina Celi,― Hail, Queen of Heaven, in the front; of which Father Angelo Rocca, keeper of the Pope's sacristy, and an eminent antiquary, has given a copper-plate in the 3rd vol. p. 490, of the Works of Pope Gregory I.; and it seems more probably to have belonged to Gregory, because he is said to have first instituted at Rome the Litanies to the Virgin Mary." An inscription, this, directly contrary to that on the forepart of the high priest's mitre (Exod. xxviii. 36), “Holiness to the Lord."

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* Robert Glover, of Coventry, together with one Cornelius Bungey, of the same place, was burnt in that town, A.D. 1555.

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