will of man, but as the Lord viewed it in its will or power of evil; as a whole, identified in form with the beast (to which it gave its power, it is true), yet not the beast—and not identified with it in the specialties of its latter-day character, but the whole generic form of Satan’s power, in that which took, at a given period, that character. It had the seven heads and ten horns, but the heads were crowned, not the horns. It was Satan, acting in the form of power, in which he countervailed—not the earthly purpose amongst the Jews, or attacked Jerusalem—but the heavenly[1] purposes and glory of God by Christ in his people. Hence, too, the death of Christ, which closed his Jewish and earthly career, is not noticed here, because the Jewish associations of Christ are not the question when things are seen in the heavens—the child was caught up to God and His throne.
The tail of the serpent, his moral influence—evil moral influence—the effects of his power, and the dominant religion of the state, put down a third of the rulers of God, and made them subordinate.
- ↑ This is true, even in Antichrist; for that is association with the Jews and possession of Jerusalem, to hold it, as the centre of earthly power against the Lord, as coming from heaven. The “scornful men” that dwell at Jerusalem “have made a covenant with death and are at agreement with hell.”
