Romish church, make two mistakes,--the one, that _ecclesiastical_ power is here intended, whereas we have already shown that the power is _civil_; the other, that the word "heaven" is to be taken in a literal sense, contrary to the symbolic structure of the whole context. All history, so far as authentic, teaches that the civil powers throughout Christendom, attempt to coerce by penal inflictions the consciences of all who refuse obedience to their commands, no less than the church of Rome. Even _constitutional guarantees of liberty_ of _conscience_ have never secured the witnesses from the savage rage of the beast or any of his infuriated horns. Witness the history of the bloody house of the Stuarts of Britain. In vain did the victims of papal and prelatic cruelty plead, in their just defence in the seventeenth century, the constitution and laws of their native land! Those who have done violence to the law of God, will always disregard human enactments which stand in the way of their ambitious schemes. Their own laws will be treated as ropes of sand, as Samson's withs, and the blood of saints as water. Such is persecution.--The seventh verse, expressing the beast's victory over the saints and the extent of his power, is explanatory of ch. xi. 7, 9; and the time of his continuance, (v. 5,) is the same as the treading under foot of the city; (ch. xi. 2:) so that we are assured of the agreement in time between the events here and those of the first part of the eleventh chapter. Also, the parties here presented are the same as in the two preceding chapters, only they are exhibited in different aspects by appropriate symbols.--The worshippers of the beast include all under his dominion except those "whose names were written in the book of life."--This book is different both from the sealed book, (ch. 5;) and also from the open book, (ch. 10.) It is the register, as it were, of the names of all whom the Father gave to the Son, to be by him brought to glory. (John xvii. 2; Heb. ii. 10; Rev. xx. 12, 15.) During the whole reign of the beast, these are preserved, having been "sealed unto the day of redemption." In the seventh chapter we had the angels employed in holding the four winds of the earth, till these servants of God were sealed in their foreheads, before the first alarm should be given by the trumpets. The book of life contained their names from the foundation,--before the foundation of the world. (Eph. i. 4.) They were in time "sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise," so that it was impossible to deceive them, either by lying wonders or the serpent's sophistry. (Eph. i. 13; Matt. xxiv. 24.)--The Lamb may be said to be "slain from the foundation of the world" in the purpose of God, (2 Tim. i. 9;) in sacrifice, (Gen. iv. 4;) in the ceremonial law and prophecy. (Matt. xi. 13;) and in the efficacy of his satisfaction rendered to divine justice, for which the Father gave him credit from the fall of man. (Rom. iii.