judged worthy of death. All are
required by the second beast to receive the mark of the first or civil
beast. The penalty in this case is privation of civil and political
privileges,--to "buy or sell." It is to be noticed here that the "mark"
is imposed by the authority of the _ecclesiastical_ power, the
two-horned beast. As there is liability to mistake as to which of the
two beasts the "mark" refers, and as this mistake is in fact generally
made by expositors, the apostle John has been directed, as in the case
of the image, to be peculiarly explicit, that all may know it to be the
mark of the _first_ beast. (See chs. xv. 2; xix. 20; xx. 4.) But it will
be asked,--What are we to understand by the "mark?" This question is
easily answered from history. The heathen idolater gloried in his
devotion to his imaginary god; as the ivy leaf was the token of the
worshippers of Bacchus: soldiers bore the initials of the names of their
commanders; and slaves, of their masters. These _characters_ were
impressed on the foreheads or other part of the persons of individuals.
The general idea suggested by the "mark" was subjection or _property_.
In short, the mark of the beast signifies open and avowed allegiance to
antichristian or immoral _civil_ power, when in the "forehead;" and
active co-operation with the same, when in the "hand." It is at once a
pitiable and culpable error, to suppose, as many preposterously do, that
this "mark of the beast" is _popery_! And as the "mark" is the
recognised badge of loyalty to civil rule, of course the prohibition to
"buy or sell," must signify civil disabilities,--_disfranchisement_. Men
who suffer, necessarily feel. Christ's witnesses, as they only have the
_scriptural_ conception of the rights of man, have long been familiar
with the deprivation of their rights, both civil and ecclesiastical. The
moral evils incorporated in the constitutions of church and state,
throughout all the streets of mystic Babylon, have effectually excluded
the two witnesses, and left them in the "wilderness." Here is their
destined "place," and here they are to be "nourished from the face of
the serpent" for 1260 years. Christ's promise,--"I will not leave you
comfortless," (orphans,) is all along verified in their soul-satisfying
experience.--This will appear in the next chapter.

18. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of
the beast; for it is the number of a man; and his number is six