in a general council, he makes decrees of faith, or general precepts. They do not admit that they worship images so as to adore them, but they keep them to preserve the remembrance of the object. Nor do they allow that they worship the Virgin Mary. They say that they revere her, and they think this consistent with scripture, because it is written, Hail thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women.' Luke, ch. i. 28. and again v. 48. From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.' They make a distinction between mediator, and intercessor. They believe in one mediator concerning redemption, but that we may have many mediators for intercession. Thus they inform us that Moses was an intercessor for the Hebrews, Job for his friends; that when prayers are offered for the sick, the congregation are looked up to as intercessors, agreeably to the Apostle James, ch. v. 14.-16. 'Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed: the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.' In like manner they say, that they desire the blessed in Heaven to be their intercessors. MYSTERY OF THE NUMBER 666. Many writers have supposed that the account in Daniel, respecting the image which was set up by Nebuchadnezzer, was a type of the Papal power, and that the worship of that image referred to the worship of the Roman Catholic church. Thus they have confirmed themselves in this opinion, from the passage in the Revelation, concerning the image and worship of the beast, v. 13. '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 hundred, threescore and six.' The sacred scripture does not say that we cannot fully understand this passage, which has been considered most difficult of comprehension; on the contrary, we are commanded to gain a knowledge of it. In order, therefore, to show the fallacy of such a supposition as the above, I shall, although many have been the attempts of commentators in all ages of the Christian church to develope this great mystery, add one to the list. And were 1 not constrained, by the existing facts which had taken place in the time of John, to believe that this passage was so understood by him, I should have been silent respecting. this most abstruse and im portant text. Rev. xiii. 15-18. 'And he had power to give life to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 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 hundred, threescore and six.' Some have imagined that this mystical number relates to a king; some, to a kingdom; and others, to the pope. But the Revelation treats of the different states of the Christian churches, as appears from the second and third chapters, where the churches are particularly spoken of. For the last prepares the mind for what follows, respecting the states of all the churches of Christ; not only the churches of Asia, which were established in the time of the Evangelists, but also of the states of all the Christian churches to the end of time, viz. 'He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches.' Had these words signified the churches of Asia only, it would have been written, let him hear what the Spirit HATH SAID unto the churches. I say, as this is a book which treats concerning the different states of the Christian churches, this mystical number which is said to be the number of the beast, and the number of a man, cannot relate to kings, kingdoms, or popes. The Revelation is a book, which was always understood by the fathers of the first Christian churches to treat concerning spiritual things, or things relating to religion. And this passage plainly refers to the conquest and depopulation of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzer, when the true worship of God, the divine theocracy, with the communication by Urim and Thummim ceased in the year of the Julian period 4115, when all the holy vessels of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house, were taken away by the monarch of Babylon, who cut in pieces all the vessels of Gold, which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord; and carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor captives, even ten thousand, and all the craftsmen, aud smiths; none remained, save the poorer sort of the people of the land,' 2nd Kings, XXIV. I say that this number SIX HUNDRED THREE SCORE AND Six comprehends the interval of time from the destruction of the first temple, and the captivity by Nebuchadnezzer, when the URIM and the THUMMIM, the SHECHINAH, or divine communication CEASED, to the destruction of the second temple, by the Romans, with all the sacrificial worship, the overthrow of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the nation, which was 666 years. At the establishment of the Christian religion, all these circum 'This ten thousand, in the original, relates to the princes and all the mighty men, or the nobles, for we cannot suppose that the population of Jerusalem consisted of ten thousand only, when in the siege which took place eleven years after this period, 1,100,000 perished. Besides, it is said, when he took Jerusalem, and carried the people into captivity, with the king Jehoiakin, and the nobles, that he left none save the poorer sort of the people of the land. Joseph. de Bell, |