The Two Babylons
Alexander Hislop
Chapter VII
Section III
The Beast from the Earth
This beast is presented to our notice (Rev
13:11): "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns
like a lamb, and he spake as a serpent." Though this beast is mentioned after
the beast from the sea, it does not follow that he came into existence after the
sea-beast. The work he did seems to show the very contrary; for it is by his
instrumentality that mankind are led (v 12) "to worship the first beast" after
that beast had received the deadly wound, which shows that he must have been in existence
before. The reason that he is mentioned second, is just because, as he exercises all the
powers of the first beast, and leads all men to worship him, so he could not properly be
described till that beast had first appeared on the stage. Now, in ancient Chaldea there
was the type, also, of this. That god was called in Babylon Nebo, in Egypt Nub or Num, *
and among the Romans Numa, for Numa Pompilius, the great priest-king of the Romans,
occupied precisely the position of the Babylonian Nebo.
* In Egypt, especially among the Greek-speaking
population, the Egyptian b frequently passed into an m.
Among the Etrurians, from whom the Romans derived
the most of their rites, he was called Tages, and of this Tages it is particularly
recorded, that just as John saw the beast under consideration "come up out of the
earth," so Tages was a child suddenly and miraculously born out of a furrow or hole
in the ground. In Egypt, this God was represented with the head and horns of a ram (Fig. 55). In Etruria he seems to have been
represented in a somewhat similar way; for there we find a Divine and miraculous child
exhibited wearing the ram's horns (Fig. 56).
The name Nebo, the grand distinctive name of this god, signifies "The Prophet,"
and as such, he gave oracles, practised augury, pretended to miraculous powers, and was an
adept in magic. He was the great wonder-worker, and answered exactly to the terms of the
prophecy, when it is said (v 13), "he doeth great wonders, and causeth fire to come
down from heaven in the sight of men." It was in this very character that the
Etrurian Tages was known; for it was he who was said to have taught the Romans augury, and
all the superstition and wonder-working jugglery connected therewith. As in recent times,
we hear of weeping images and winking Madonnas, and innumerable prodigies besides,
continually occurring in the Romish Church, in proof of this papal dogma or that, so was
it also in the system of Babylon. There is hardly a form of "pious fraud" or
saintly imposture practised at this day on the banks of the Tiber, that cannot be proved
to have had its counterpart on the banks of the Euphrates, or in the systems that came
from it. Has the image of the Virgin been seen to shed tears? Many a tear was shed by the
Pagan images. To these tender-hearted idols Lucan alludes, when, speaking of the prodigies
that occurred during the civil wars, he says:--
"Tears shed by gods, our
country's patrons,
And sweat from Lares, told the city's woes."
Virgil also refers to the same, when he says:--
"The weeping statues did the
wars foretell,
And holy sweat from brazen idols fell."
When in the consulship of Appius Claudius, and
Marcus Perpenna, Publius Crassus was slain in a battle with Aristonicus, Apollo's statue
at Cumae shed tears for four days without intermission. The gods had also their merry
moods, as well as their weeping fits. If Rome counts it a divine accomplishment for the
sacred image of her Madonna to "wink," it was surely not less becoming in the
sacred images of Paganism to relax their features into an occasional grin. That they did
so, we have abundant testimony. Psellus tells us that, when the priests put forth their
magic powers, "then statues laughed, and lamps were spontaneously
enkindled." When the images made merry, however, they seemed to have inspired other
feelings than those of merriment into the breasts of those who beheld them. "The
Theurgists," says Salverte, "caused the appearance of the gods in the air, in
the midst of gaseous vapour, disengaged from fire. The Theurgis Maximus undoubtedly made
use of a secret analogous to this, when, in the fumes of the incense which he burned
before the statue of Hecate, the image was seen to laugh so naturally as to fill the
spectators with terror." There were times, however, when different feelings were
inspired. Has the image of the Madonna been made to look benignantly upon a favoured
worshipper, and send him home assured that his prayer was heard? So did the statues of the
Egyptian Isis. They were so framed, that the goddess could shake the silver serpent on her
forehead, and nod assent to those who had preferred their petitions in such a way as
pleased her. We read of Romish saints that showed their miraculous powers by crossing
rivers or the sea in most unlikely conveyances. Thus, of St. Raymond it is written that he
was transported over the sea on his cloak. Paganism is not a whit behind in this matter;
for it is recorded of a Buddhist saint, Sura Acharya, that, when "he used to visit
his flocks west of the Indus, he floated himself across the stream upon his mantle."
Nay, the gods and high priests of Paganism showed far more buoyancy than even this. There
is a holy man, at this day, in the Church of Rome, somewhere on the Continent, who
rejoices in the name of St. Cubertin, who so overflows with spirituality, that when he
engages in his devotions there is no keeping his body down to the ground, but, spite of
all the laws of gravity, it rises several feet into the air. So was it also with the
renowned St. Francis of Assisi, Petrus a Martina, and Francis of Macerata, some centuries
ago. But both St. Cubertin and St. Francis and his fellows are far from being original in
this superhuman devotion. The priests and magicians in the Chaldean Mysteries anticipated
them not merely by centuries, but by thousands of years. Coelius Rhodiginus says,
"that, according to the Chaldeans, luminous rays, emanating from the soul, do
sometimes divinely penetrate the body, which is then of itself raised above the earth, and
that this was the case with Zoroaster." The disciples of Jamblichus asserted that
they had often witnessed the same miracle in the case of their master, who, when he prayed
was raised to the height of ten cubits from the earth. The greatest miracle which Rome
pretends to work, is when, by the repetition of five magic words, she professes to bring
down the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven, to make Him
really and corporeally present in the sacrament of the altar. The Chaldean priests
pretended, by their magic spells, in like manner, to bring down their divinities into
their statues, so that their "real presence" should be visibly manifested in
them. This they called "the making of gods"; and from this no doubt comes the
blasphemous saying of the Popish priests, that they have power "to create their
Creator." There is no evidence, so far as I have been able to find, that, in the
Babylonian system, the thin round cake of wafer, the "unbloody sacrifice of the
mass," was ever regarded in any other light than as a symbol, that ever it was
held to be changed into the god whom it represented. But yet the doctrine of
transubstantiation is clearly of the very essence of Magic, which pretended, on the
pronunciation of a few potent words, to change one substance into another, or by a
dexterous juggle, wholly to remove one substance, and to substitute another in its place. Further, the Pope, in the plenitude of his power, assumes the right
of wielding the lightnings of Jehovah, and of blasting by his "fulminations"
whoever offends him. Kings, and whole nations, believing in this power, have trembled and
bowed before him, through fear of being scathed by his spiritual thunders. The priests of
Paganism assumed the very same power; and, to enforce the belief of their spiritual power,
they even attempted to bring down the literal lightnings from heaven; yea, there seems
some reason to believe that they actually succeeded, and anticipated the splendid
discovery of Dr. Franklin. Numa Pompilius is said to have done so with complete success.
Tullus Hostilius, his successor, imitating his example, perished in the attempt, himself
and his whole family being struck, like Professor Reichman in recent times, with the
lightning he was endeavouring to draw down. * Such were the wonder-working powers
attributed in the Divine Word to the beast that was to come up from the earth; and by the
old Babylonian type these very powers were all pretended to be exercised.
* The means appointed for drawing down the
lightning were described in the books of the Etrurian Tages. Numa had copied from these
books, and had left commentaries behind him on the subject, which Tallus had
misunderstood, and hence the catastrophe.
Now, in remembrance of the birth of the god out
of a "hole in the earth," the Mysteries were frequently celebrated in caves
under ground. This was the case in Persia, where, just as Tages was said to be born out of
the ground, Mithra was in like manner fabled to have been produced from a cave in the
earth. *
* JUSTIN MARTYR. It is remarkable that, as Mithra
was born out of a cave, so the idolatrous nominal Christians of the East
represent our Saviour as having in like manner been born in a a cave. (See KITTO's Cyclopaedia,
"Bethlehem") There is not the least hint of such a thing in the Scripture.
Numa of Rome himself pretended to get all his
revelations from the Nymph Egeria, in a cave. In these caves men were first initiated in
the secret Mysteries, and by the signs and lying wonders there presented to them, they
were led back, after the death of Nimrod, to the worship of that god in its new form. This
Apocalyptic beast, then, that "comes up out of the earth," agrees in all
respects with that ancient god born from a "hole in the ground"; for no words
could more exactly describe his doing than the words of the prediction (v 13): "He
doeth great wonders, and causeth fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men,...and
he causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly
wound was healed." This wonder-working beast, called Nebo, or "The
Prophet," as the prophet of idolatry, was, of course, the "false
prophet." By comparing the passage before us with Revelation 19:20, it will be
manifest that this beast that "came up out of the earth" is expressly called by
that very name: "And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that
wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that received the mark of the
beast, and them that worshipped his image." As it was the "beast from the
earth" that "wrought miracles" before the first beast, this shows that
"the beast from the earth" is the "false prophet"; in other words, is
"Nebo."
If we examine the history of the Roman empire, we
shall find that here also there is a precise accordance between type and antitype. When
the deadly wound of Paganism was healed, and the old Pagan title of Pontiff was restored,
it was, through means of the corrupt clergy, symbolised, as is generally believed, and
justly under the image of a beast with horns, like a lamb; according to the saying of our
Lord, "Beware of false prophets, that shall come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves." The clergy, as a corporate body, consisted of two
grand divisions--the regular and secular clergy answering to the two horns or powers of
the beast, and combining also, at a very early period, both temporal and spiritual powers.
The bishops, as heads of these clergy, had large temporal powers, long before the Pope
gained his temporal crown. We have the distinct evidence of both Guizot and Gibbon to this
effect. After showing that before the fifth century, the clergy had not only become
distinct from, but independent of the people, Guizot adds: "The Christian clergy had
moreover another and very different source of influence. The bishops and priests became
the principal municipal magistrates...If you open the code, either of Theodosius or
Justinian, you will find numerous regulations which remit municipal affairs to the clergy
and the bishops." Guizot makes several quotations. The following extract from the
Justinian code is sufficient to show how ample was the civil power bestowed upon the
bishops: "With respect to the yearly affairs of cities, whether they concern the
ordinary revenues of the city, either from funds arising from the property of the city, or
from private gifts or legacies, or from any other source; whether public works, or depots
of provisions or aqueducts, or the maintenance of baths or ports, or the construction of
walls or towers, or the repairing of bridges or roads, or trials, in which the city may be
engaged in reference to public or private interests, we ordain as follows:--The very pious
bishop, and three notables, chosen from among the first men of the city, shall meet
together; they shall each year examine the works done; they shall take care that those who
conduct them, or who have conducted them, shall regulate them with precision, render their
accounts, and show that they have duly performed their engagements in the administration,
whether of the public monuments, or of the sums appointed for provisions or baths, or of
expenses in the maintenance of roads, aqueducts, or any other work." Here is a large
list of functions laid on the spiritual shoulders of "the very pious bishop,"
not one of which is even hinted at in the Divine enumeration of the duties of a bishop, as
contained in the Word of God. (See 1 Timothy 3:1-7; and Titus 1:5-9.) How did the bishops,
who were originally appointed for purely spiritual objects, contrive to grasp at such a
large amount of temporal authority? From Gibbon we get light as to the real origin of what
Guizot calls this "prodigious power." The author of the Decline and Fall
shows, that soon after Constantine's time, "the Church" [and consequently the
bishops, especially when they assumed to be a separate order from the other clergy] gained
great temporal power through the right of asylum, which had belonged to the Pagan temples,
being transferred by the Emperors to the Christian churches. His words are: "The
fugitive, and even the guilty, were permitted to implore either the justice or mercy of
the Deity and His ministers." Thus was the foundation laid of the invasion of the
rights of the civil magistrate by ecclesiastics, and thus were they encouraged to grasp at
all the powers of the State. Thus, also, as is justly observed by the authoress of Rome
in the 19th Century, speaking of the right of asylum, were "the altars perverted
into protection towards the very crimes they were raised to banish from the world."
This is a very striking thing, as showing how the temporal power of the Papacy, in its
very first beginnings, was founded on "lawlessness," and is an additional proof
to the many that might be alleged, that the Head of the Roman system, to whom all bishops
are subject is indeed "The Lawless One" (2 Thess 2:8), predicted in Scripture as
the recognised Head of the "Mystery of Iniquity." All this temporal power came
into the hands of men, who, while professing to be ministers of Christ, and followers of
the Lamb, were seeking simply their own aggrandisement, and, to secure that
aggrandisement, did not hesitate to betray the cause which they professed to serve. The
spiritual power which they wielded over the souls of men, and the secular power which they
gained in the affairs of the world, were both alike used in opposition to the cause of
pure religion and undefiled. At first these false prophets, in leading men astray, and
seeking to unite Paganism and Christianity, wrought under-ground, mining like the
mole in the dark, and secretly perverting the simple, according to the saying of Paul,
"The Mystery of Iniquity doth already work." But by-and-by, towards the
end of the fourth century, when the minds of men had been pretty well prepared, and the
aspects of things seemed to be favourable for it, the wolves in sheep's clothing appeared
above ground, brought their secret doctrines and practices, by little and little, into the
light of day, and century after century, as their power increased, by means of all
"deceivableness of unrighteousness," and "signs and lying wonders,"
deluded the minds of the worldly Christians, made them believe that their anathema was
equivalent to the curse of God; in other words, that they could "bring down fire from
heaven," and thus "caused the earth, and them that dwelt therein, to worship the
beast whose deadly wound was healed." *
* Though the Pope be the great Jupiter Tonans of
the Papacy, and "fulminates" from the Vatican, as his predecessor was formerly
believed to do from the Capitol, yet it is not he in reality that brings down the
fire from heaven, but his clergy. But for the influence of the clergy in everywhere
blinding the minds of the people, the Papal thunders would be but "bruta
fulmina" after all. The symbol, therefore, is most exact, when it attributes the
"bringing down of the fire from heaven," to the beast from the earth, rather
than to the beast from the sea.
When "the deadly wound" of the Pagan
beast was healed, and the beast from the sea appeared, it is said that this beast from the
earth became the recognised, accredited executor of the will of the great sea beast (v
12), "And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him," literally
"in his presence"--under his inspection. Considering who the first beast is,
there is great force in this expression "in his presence." The beast that comes
up from the sea, is "the little horn," that "has eyes like the eyes of
man" (Dan 7:8); it is Janus Tuens, "All-seeing Janus," in other words, the
Universal Bishop or "Universal Overseer," who, from his throne on the seven
hills, by means of the organised system of the confessional, sees and knows
all that is done, to be the utmost bounds of his wide dominion. Now,
it was just exactly about the time that the Pope became universal bishop, that the custom
began of systematically investing the chief bishops of the Western empire with the Papal
livery, the pallium, "for the purpose," says Gieseler, "of symbolising and
strengthening their connection with the Church of Rome." *
* GIESELER. From Gieseler we learn that so early
as 501, the Bishop of Rome had laid the foundation of the corporation of
bishops by the bestowal of the pallium; but, at the same time, he expressly states that it
was only about 602, at the `63 ascent of Phocas to the imperial throne--that Phocas that
made the Pope Universal Bishop--that the Popes began to bestow the pallium, that is, of
course, systematically, and on a large scale.
That pallium, worn on the shoulders of the
bishops, while on the one hand it was the livery of the Pope, and bound those who received
it to act as the functionaries of Rome, deriving all their authority from him, and
exercising it under his superintendence, as the "Bishop of bishops," on the
other hand, was in reality the visible investiture of these wolves with the sheep's
clothing. For what was the pallium of the Papal bishop? It was a dress made of wool,
blessed by the Pope, taken from the holy lambs kept by the nuns of St. Agnes, and woven by
their sacred hands, that it might be bestowed on those whom the Popes delighted to honour,
for the purpose, as one of themselves expressed it, of "joining them to our society
in the one pastoral sheepfold." *
* GIESELER, "Papacy"). The reader who
peruses the early letters of the Popes in bestowing the pallium, will not fail to observe
the wide difference of meaning between "the one pastoral sheepfold" above
referred to, and "the one sheepfold" of our Lord. The former really means a
sheepfold consisting of pastors or shepherds. The papal letters unequivocally imply the
organisation of the bishops, as a distinct corporation, altogether independent of the
Church, and dependent only on the Papacy, which seems remarkably to agree with the terms
of the prediction in regard to the beast from the earth.
Thus commissioned, thus ordained by the universal
Bishop, they did their work effectually, and brought the earth and them that dwelt in it,
"to worship the beast that received the wound by a sword and did live." This was
a part of this beast's predicted work. But there was another, and not less
important, which remains for consideration.
