The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Ver. 8. Was and is not] Was before the time of this revelation in the Roman government, which was afterwards usurped by the pope. A thing that the first bishops of Rome dreamed not of. And yet Tertullian (Lib. de Pudicitia) taxes the rising ambition of the popes in his time, thus: I hear, saith he, that there is an edict set forth, and that very peremptory, in these terms, Pontifex, scilicet maximus, Episcopus Episcoporum dicit, Thus saith the high priest, the bishop of bishops. (Baron. Annul. tom. 4.) Odi fastum illius Ecclesiae, I hate the pride of the Church of Rome, saith Basil.
Go into perdition] Go, not run; by degrees, not all at once. He now takes long strides toward the bottomless pit; which is but a little before him, and even gapes for him. There stands a cold sweat on all his limbs already.
Shall wonder] Admiration bred superstition; and illumination draws men off it. Julius Palmer, martyr, was a most obstinate Papist all King Edward's days; and yet afterwards, in Queen Mary's time, suffered most cruel death at the Papists' hands at Newbury, for the most ready and zealous profession of the truth. His words to one Bullingham, walking in Paul's after his conversion, were these; Oh that God had revealed these matters unto me in time past! I would have bequeathed this Romish religion, or rather irreligion, to the devil of hell, from whence it came. Believe them not, Bullingham, I will rather have these knees pared off than I will kneel to yonder jackanapes a (meaning the rood). a
And yet is] In regard of that imperial power then extant, which the pope should afterwards take to himself.
a Applied contemptuously to a crucifix. Obs. ŒD
b The cross upon which Christ suffered; the cross as the symbol of the Christian faith. Now only arch. ŒD