"And a mouth was given to him speaking great things and blasphemies" - verse 5.

The Mouth given to the Beast of the Sea was like a lion's mouth; and he delighted to compare himself thereto. His official utterances, or the things affirmed of him, by those who created and worshipped him, far transcended the utterances of the proud and impious rulers of the old Babylonian Lion. The last of these, styled by Isaiah, "Lucifer, son of the morning," the Belshatzar of history, said, "I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of AlL. . . ; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High" - ch. 14:13,14; and on the eve of his being brought down to Sheol, he lifted himself up against the Lord of heaven, and praised the images of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know (Dan. 5:23). These were the speakings of the Mouth of the old Lion of Babylion; but proud and impious as they were, they fell short of the "great things and blasphemies" which roared from the throat, or by the sanction, of the Universal Bishop of the Ten-Horned Monster of the Sea. This Babylonian Mouth, which has come down to us from the darkest ages of the clerical apostasy, when it opens its iron-teethed jaws, can give expression to nothing but great things of vanity and falsehood, and things defamatory of the Deity and the Saints. "He opened his mouth unto blasphemy concerning the Deity, to blaspheme his Name, and his Tabernacle, and the dwellers in the heaven." Jesus Christ, the apostle Peter taught, was the only name given among men whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12). This name was the Father, whom no man hath seen, nor can see, by His power manifested in the flesh, crucified, and afterwards justified or perfected. This crucified and glorified Name, in the very nature of things, can have no substitute or vicar. The substitute or vicar of such a Name, must be all in reality that is affirmed of the Origi-nal, who must be set aside necessarily to make room for the Vicar. For a man to be a genuine Vicar of Christ, he must be what Jesus was as the Father's Vicar, or Mediator: sin must have been condemned in his flesh, and he himself a character "without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." Compare this necessity with what the popes really are, who affirm that they are the Only Name in the World, unicum nomen in mundo, and the enormity of their blasphemy of the Deity's Name will readily be seen.

"Great things" are affirmed of the Mouth, which it sanctions ex officio. A celebrated monk of the time of Hildebrand puts these lying words into the mouth of Jesus Christ, as addressing the pope, and given in the original Latin text by Elliott. "I have delivered into thy hands the keys of my whole universal church, and have placed thee over it as VICAR for me; and, if these be few things, I have also delivered to thee the kingdoms. Yea, the king (or emperor) being removed from the midst, I have granted to thee the right of the whole vacant Roman empire." The orator of the tenth Session of the fifth Lateran Council thus speaks of Constantine's removal of his imperial throne to Byzantium, afterwards named Constantinople: "Constantine, breathed upon by divine grace from above, fully ceded the sceptre of the empire of the world and city to the true and proper Lord - to the Deity, and to the man in his own Roman seat, Sylvester, the Pontifex Maximus, in the primeval and natural right of Christ, the eternal priest; and he sought another throne by Apostolical concession, and erected it in Byzantium under the obedience of the Apostolic throne." It is true that the Dragon granted the Mouth his throne in old Rome, but it was not at the time alleged; the orator, doubtless, referred to "the Decretals of Constantine (*)," proved to have been forged by the popes.

In the reported Decree of Pius the First, he says, "The people may not accuse a bishop; bishops are to be judged by the Deity, who has chosen them as EYES to himself." Speaking of the Episcopacy in general, Boniface I., styles it "the watchtower of Episcopacy;" and the Greek emperor, in writing to the Roman Synod, A.D. 681, says, "we show that the priests are the Eyes of the Church." So Boniface I. speaks of the pope under the name of Peter, saying, "The most blessed apostle Peter looks upon thee as HIS OWN EYES, in what way soever thou shalt use the office of Chief Ruler. Neither can it not be most suitable for thee, who art constituted perpetual Shepherd of the Lord's sheep." Also, Innocent IV., A.D. 1245, in his sentence against the Emperor Frederick, says, "We ought to perceive, in regard to the height of apostolic dignity, that it is for THE EYE of most intimate considering of the faults of all christians." Hence, the Universal Bishop is well represented by the "Eyes like the eyes of a man," in Daniel's Little Horn.

The symbol of a Lion's Mouth speaking great things is eulogistically ascribed by Pope Nicolas I., in the ninth century, to Pope Leo, styled "the Great," the earliest founder of the temporal dominion of the Universal Bishop. He says, "save only the imitator namely of that Lion of whom it is written, 'the Lion of the Tribe of Judah hath conquered,' divinely exalted, opening the mouth, makes the whole world, and also the emperors themselves to tremble; as well it calls the mind to piety, it might entirely overthrow the catholic religion." And so Hincmar, speaking of the same Leo, says, "Leo the Great by the greatest roaring from the city Roma, being the capital namely of the globe, thunders loudly through the whole world." In the words of Shakespeare's King John:

"Here's a large mouth indeed,

That spits forth death and mountains, rocks and seas."

In the time of Charlemagne; A.D. 799, a Roman council enacted precisely the same part as that convened by Theodoric. The Pope having been accused, the Council declined to hear his accusers; declaring that he who was judge of all men, was above being judged by any other than himself; and on his coming in, and asserting his innocence, he was considered as acquitted. Thus Urban II., A.D. 1090, "that the divine right of judging concerning every church is of the pope alone; and that he himself is subject to the judgment of none." Afterwards in the Canon Law, collected and published in the eleventh century, it was said: "It is certain that the Supreme Pontiff was called God by the pious prince Constantine; it is manifest that Deity cannot be judged by men." Daubuz who quotes this, styles the Canon Law and Decretals the Pope's Oracle; "the Decretal Epistles are enumerated with the canonical scriptures." They are the true expression of the papal mind.

This claim that he was irresponsible to any laws, human or Divine, by which he identified himself with the anomos or Lawless One of Paul, continued to be urged in the fifteenth century. So A.D. 1463, on Paul II dismissing Platina from office after his election, and Platina's threatening to bring the case before the judges of the Rota. Paul fiercely replied, "Thou wilt call us to account before the judges! As if thou wert ignorant that all laws are placed in the coffer of our breast! I am Supreme Pontiff; and I can at the pleasure of my soul both rescind and approve the acts of others." And again the Roman Council, A.D. 877, declared that "Christ himself willed that the pope be the head of us all, in his stead upon earth."

No one upon earth called a god, or worshipful individual, could plead exemption from subjection to the power of the keys in the hand of the Universal Bishop. Thus, Gregory the Seventh on excommunicating the emperor Henry IV., said, "I cannot find, that when the Lord confided to Peter the power of the keys, he made any exception in favor of kings." One of his dictates was "that all princes shall kiss the feet of the Pope alone." Raynald relates an exemplification which occurred A. D. 1515. The arrangement made by Paris, bishop of Pisaurum, Master of Ceremonies to the Pope, who was present on the occasion, was that the French king should kneel thrice on approaching the enthroned Pope; and first kiss his feet, ere he kissed his hand and face.

Among the "great things" of this Mouth is the dogma that all kingdoms are held of the pope. In support of this, Ducange, from Glaber Rodulphus, A.D. 900, quotes the popes "optimum decretum" following: "No prince shall impudently desire to bear the sceptre of the Roman Empire, or be called Emperor, or wish to be, except he whom by probity of manners the Pope of the Roman See shall convey as fit for the Republic, and to him he will commit the imperial badge." It has been said, says Elliott, that pope Constantine, A.D. 708, was the first pope that claimed the right of confirming temporal princes in their kingdoms (**). His successors claimed to make kings and depose them. An au-theistic account of the deposition of the race of Clovis by Pope Zachary in the eighth century, affords an instance of this: also, at a subsequent period, the disposal of the emperorship of the Two-Horned Beast of the Earth, as a fief of St. Peter, by Gregory VII; who deposed Henry, emperor of Germany, and conferred the diadem on Roduiphus in the words:

Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rodulpho.

In this, Gregory styles the apostle, Petra; and the pope, Petrus: the plain English of which is, Peter gave the German Empire to the Pope; and the Pope gave its crown to Roduiphus; though the apostle did not know that such an empire would ever exist! But, no lying blasphemy is too absurd to issue forth from the Draco-Lion Mouth of the Beast. In A.D. 1303, we have another illustration of this sort of blasphemy in the case of Boniface, who, in his confirmation of Albrecht in the Emperorship, declared that it was by Papal authority, as Christ's Vicar, or personal and official substitute, that the Imperial Diadem had been transferred from the Greek Empire to Charlemagne and his successors, at the crisis, namely, when the healing of the Sixth Head was commenced. "And the Germans attend here," said Boniface, "because, just as the empire was transferred from others to themselves, so Christ's Vicar, the successor of Peter, has the power of transferring the empire from the Germans to any others soever, if he will; and this without injury of right" - a declaration humbly submitted to and confessed by Albrecht.

France was declared by Gregory VII., to be tributary to Rome; and England, as also Spain, Saxony, etc., and Naples. The subjection of John of England, and after his deposition, the redonation to him by Innocent III., of the kingdom as a Papal fief; also his disposal of the German Emperorship in the case of Philip and Otho, are notorious. And Daubuz states from the letters of Pius II., that he proposed to the Turkish Sultan to give him a legal title to the Greek empire he already possessed by right of conquest, if he would assist him against his rebellious children.

There was no blasphemy too gross for papal acceptance. Whatever of this kind was offered to them, they accepted as their due. They claimed sovereignty over the land and sea, known or undiscovered; and the claim was recognized by the Horn Governments. This was exemplified in the Papal grants of the Indies to Spain and Portugal. After the conquest of the latter in the Far East, the king of Portugal sent an embassy to Rome, which arrived there and had an audience of Pope Leo, on March 25, 1514, and acknowledged his right to them. The oration, which was highly commended by the pope himself, is given in full by Roscoe, and quoted by Elliott in these words: "Listen to the orator of the embassy. For a moment he hesitates, as overcome by a sense of the majesty of him he is addressing." "Fear and trembling," he exclaims, "have come over me, and a horrible darkness overwhelmed me." Then, reassured by the Pope's serene aspect towards him - "that divine countenance, which shining," he says, "as the sun, had dispersed the mists of his mind" - he proceeds to the objects of his mission: narrates the eastern conquests of the Portuguese arms; addresses the pope as the Supreme Lord of all; and speaks of these conquests as the incipient fulfillment of God's sure promises. "Thou shalt rule from sea to sea, and from the Tyber River to the world's end;" "the kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts to thee; yea, all princes shall worship thee, all nations shall serve thee;" and under thy auspices, "there shall be one fold and one Shepherd." That is, he explains the promised universal latter-day subjection of the world to Christ, as meant of its subjection to the Pope and the Portuguese discoveries and victories over the heathen, as signs that, that consummation was at hand. And he concludes by a solemn act of adoration to the Pope, as his king's Lord and Master: "Thee, as the true Vicar of Christ and God, the Ruler of the whole Christian Republic, we recognize, confess, profess obedience to, and adore: in thy name adoring Christ, whose representative thou art." A letter from the king of Portugal accompanied this oration, and was addressed, "To Our Father and Lord Leo X."

On the ground, then, that the uttermost parts of the earth were given to the Pope for a possession, as Christ's Vicar, the king of Portugal prayed the pope to confer on the crown of Portugal a right to all countries inhabited by infidels the Portuguese might hereafter discover; the promise being added that he would spread the Catholic religion in them, establish the authority of the Pope, and so augment the flock of the Universal Bishop. This was too good an Opportunity to be lost of grandly exercising his alleged prerogative of giving nations and countries to whom he pleased. A bull was forthwith issued granting to the Portuguese all they might discover from Cape Non to India.

In A.D. 1493, after the discovery of America by Columbus, a like application was made by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain to Pope Alexander VI; the same pleas and promises accompanying it of extending the dominion of the Pope. The Bull which decreed the grant, enacted that all westward of an imaginary line passing from pole to pole, and one hundred leagues west of the Azores, should belong to the Spaniards, all eastward to the Portuguese. In the judgment of the Horn-Governments, these pontifical grants were regarded as constituting an unimpeachable title, and a guarantee against interference and attack. Under Elizabeth of England, however, the validity of the grant was not admit-ted. For on the Spanish ambassador's reclamation against Drake, A.D. 1580, for having navigated seas which were in the dominion of Spain, the British Queen replied, that "the English did not recognize in any manner the property which the king of Spain attributed to himself, nor the pretended gift of a Pope, who had no right to dispose of countries and seas which did not belong to him."

Even in our own days, and in the time of his deep temporary humiliation under the first Napoleon, who had filled his kingdom with darkness (ch. 16:10) the same "extensive jurisdiction" was asserted. "Let them learn," said Pius VII., in his excommunication of that potentate, June 10, 1809, "that they are subjected by the laws of Jesus Christ to our throne, and to our commandment." This was truly a "great thing," and in keeping with the arrogance of Celestin III., A.D. 1191, who kicked the secular diadem from the head of Henry VI., in token of his right to assign kingdoms to whom he pleased, and to take them away. The fact is thus described by Roger of Hoveden. "But the Lord Pope sat in the political chair holding the golden imperial crown between his feet; and the emperor bowing his head received the crown, and the empress in the same manner, from the feet of the Lord Pope. But the Lord Pope instantly struck with his foot the emperor's crown, and cast it upon the ground; signifying that he had the power of deposing him from the empire, if he were undeserving of it. The Cardinals, however, lifted up the crown and placed it on the emperor's head." "He hath set me," said another pope, "even as prince over all nations, to root out, and to pull down, to destroy and to build." Indeed, there is no end to "the great things and blasphemies" to which this Papal Mouth of the Gentile Beast has given, and continues to give utterance: for as Cardinal Bellarmine says (writing under the sanction of the pope) expressly, "that every title which is in scripture given to Christ, appertains also to the Pope;" and to guard against misapprehension, he gives a copious enumeration of them. This is truly "blasphemy against the Deity, manifested in the Flesh," and called Christ; the effect of which is to blaspheme his name, and his Tabernacle, and them who tabernacle, camp, tent, or dwell in the heaven; that is to say, Jesus Christ and his brethren the saints. But to notice, or reproduce here, all the blasphemies and great swelling words of this mouth, which, all toothless as it has become, have issued from it, would be to write all the past and current history of the Papacy. Under this section head I have presented the reader with specimens whereby he may be able to identify among "the powers that be "that particular power symbolized by the Mouth and the Name of Blasphemy upon the Seven Heads. This is enough for exposition. I shall therefore pass on from the further consideration of "the great things and blasphemies" of him who in his latest manifestation as Pius IX. styles himself in his address to Mortara, "the Father of all the faithful," to the brief exposition of...

The Name and Tabernacle of Deity, and Those who Dwell in the Heaven

(*) Illustrative of the chicanery of the Church in its relation to the State, isthe so-called Donation of Constantine. This was a document advanced by mthe Church in the 8th century to support its claim to exercise temporal power with the emperor as the secular arm of the church wielding the sword on behalf of the vicar of Peter. It was claimed that Constantine, onbtransferring the civil and military authority to Constantinople, conferredbdominion over Rome on pope Sylvester I (314-35). This document was proved to be a complete forgery. No such authority was ever conferred by the Emperor, but the Church is notorious for using any means to gain power — Publishers.

(**) Pope Constantine (708-15), was also the last Pope to visit Constantinople seeking the support of the Emperor for political endorsement of his status. The Emperor reigning in Constantinople at the time wa Justinian II (A.D. 669-711). Justinian was murdered shortly after the Papal visit, and as the power of the Eastern Empire declined, the popes looked more to the West, and ultimately to Pepin and Charlemagne through whose influence the Holy Roman Empire came into existence from A.D. 800 onwards — Publishers.