by lying wonders or the serpent’s sophistry. (Eph. i. 13; Matt. xxiv. 24.)—­The Lamb may be said to be “slain from the foundation of the world” in the purpose of God, (2 Tim. i. 9;) in sacrifice, (Gen. iv. 4;) in the ceremonial law and prophecy.  (Matt. xi. 13;) and in the efficacy of his satisfaction rendered to divine justice, for which the Father gave him credit from the fall of man. (Rom. iii. 25.)—­So many erroneous views have been taken, and false interpretations given of this chapter in particular, as of the Apocalypse in general, that the Divine Spirit calls special attention here to the rise, reign and ruin of the beast of the sea.  The prophetic description of this beast in an especial manner is of such importance to instruct, and thereby sustain and comfort, the suffering disciples of Christ, that he causes his servant John to pause, as it were, and allow the reader to reflect.  Indeed, wherever a note of attention is thus given, we may be sure that something “hid from the wise and prudent” is intended.  Accordingly, it were endless to follow the vagaries of even learned men dealing out their “private interpretations” of this chapter.  Yet the understanding of its general outlines was at the bottom of the Reformation by Luther, his colleagues and successors.  Elsewhere, however, we may take occasion to notice how vague, and inadequate, and bold, were some of their conceptions; all going to show the seasonableness of the solemn admonition,—­“If any man have an ear, let him hear.”—­The beast is to be treated as he dealt with the victims of his cruelty.  He is justly doomed to captivity and death.  “The beast was taken and—­cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone,” (ch. xix. 20.) “Tophet is ordained of old.”  It was used by the prophets as a figure of hell. (Is. xxx. 33.) To this place, whence there is no redemption, this monstrous beast was to be consigned, as predicted by the prophet Daniel, (vii. 11,)—­“The beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.”—­In the protracted contest of 1260 years with this imperial power, “the patience and the faith of the saints” were exemplified.  Faith and patience would be more severely tried in this case than in any other; as the period of persecution was to be of much longer continuance than any that had preceded since the beginning of the world. (Heb. vi. 12.)

11.  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

V. 11.—­John “beheld another beast,”—­therefore not the same, as many expositors strangely suppose.  No one can have an intelligent understanding of this chapter unless he views the beast of the sea and the beast of the earth as perfectly distinct.  As the former arose out of a revolutionary state of society, and was consequently more clearly marked in history, so the latter grew “up out of the earth” more quietly and gradually, like a spear of grass,—­we “know not how.”