And I beheld another beast
The same with the first, only in another form; the same for being
and person, but under a different consideration; the same
antichrist, but appearing in another light and view: the first
beast is the pope of Rome, at the head of the ten kingdoms, of
which the Roman empire consisted; this other beast is the same
pope of Rome, with his clergy, cardinals, archbishops, bishops,
priests before he is described as a temporal monarch, now as a
spiritual lord; there he is represented in his secular character,
as having the seat, power, and authority of the dragon, of Rome
Pagan, engaging the attention and wonder of the whole world, and
striking terror into them, and as making war with the saints, and
ruling over all nations and tongues; here in his ecclesiastic
character, pretending great humility and holiness, showing signs
and lying wonders, obliging to idolatry, and exercising tyranny
and cruelty on all that will not profess his religion: that this
is the same beast with the first in substance, though not in
show, appears from his exercising the same power, causing all to
worship the first beast, or himself as a temporal lord, by which
he is supported in his spiritual dignity; and by mention being
made only of one beast, at the close of this account, and of his
mark, name, and number being but one; nor is there any other but
one hereafter spoken, of in this book, either as ruling, or as
conquered, and as taken, and as going into perdition, and as cast
into the lake: this beast is described by his original,
coming up out of the earth;
either from under it, out of the bottomless pit, from hell; or
out of, a low condition, a poor crawling earthworm; the extracts
of many of the popes, cardinals, and religious orders, have been
very mean: or this may represent the secret and private manner,
and slow degrees by which this monster of iniquity rose; as
things gradually rise up out of the earth unobserved; this man of
sin was springing up in the apostles' time, and by degrees rose
up to the power and authority he is here said to have: or rather,
as this beast, in his other form, rose up out of the sea, out of
the commotions raised in the empire by the barbarous nations, by
whom he was lifted up to his imperial dignity; so he is described
in this form, and is represented as rising up out of the earth,
out of the earthly part of the church, or out of the apostasy
which the visible church was sunk into, through the outward
riches and honours bestowed on it by the Christian emperors,
which made way for the rising of this beast; and this shows the
nature of his kingdom, which is worldly and earthly, and so truly
antichristian, being diametrically opposite to the kingdom of
Christ, which is not of this world:
and he had two horns like a lamb;
or "like to the Lamb"; the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God;
though he has seven horns, denoting fulness of power, this but
two; he stands on Mount Zion, with the 144,000, having his
Father's name on their foreheads, this upon the earth, with his
followers, having his own mark and name upon them. The Ethiopic
version renders it, "and he had two horns, and he seemed as a
lamb"; he affected a lamb like disposition, pretended to great
humility and meekness, calling himself "servus servorum", the
servant of servants, to cover his pride, ambition, and tyranny;
and would be thought to be a lamb without spot and blemish,
ascribing to himself infallibility, and suffering himself to be
called his Holiness, when he is the man of sin, and mystery of
iniquity: by his "two horns" some understand his two fold power,
secular and ecclesiastic; but as these are separately represented
by two beasts, rather these two horns intend the two parts of the
empire, eastern and western, into which it was divided, when this
beast arose, and by which the Papacy was raised to its power, had
supported in it; and the two supreme pontiffs, the bishop of
Rome, and the bishop of Constantinople; or else the beast's power
of binding and loosing, of dispensing with the laws of God, and
of imposing his own laws on the consciences of men.
And he spake as a dragon;
like the devil himself, affirming as he did, ( Luke 4:6 ) ; that the
power of disposing of the kingdoms of this world, and the glory
of them, was delivered to him, and he could give it to whom he
would: he spake arrogantly, as if he was above all that is called
God, and as if he was God himself; and he spake like a dragon
cruelly, like the great red dragon, like the devil, who was a
murderer from the beginning, breathing out slaughter, and
threatenings against the saints, as Rome Pagan; and he spake lies
in hypocrisy, blasphemies, idolatries, and doctrines of devils.