which reigneth over the kings of the earth (xvii.). The main questions connected with the interpretation of this chapter are, What are we to understand by the beast spoken of, and what by Babylon? The Seer is summoned by one of the angels that had the seven Bowls to behold a spectacle which fills him with _a great marvelling_. Thus summoned, he obeys; and he is immediately carried away into a wilderness, where he sees _a woman sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns_. 1. What is this beast, and what in particular is his relation to the beast of chap. xiii.? At first sight the points of difference appear to be neither few nor unimportant. The order of the heads and of the horns is different, the horns taking precedence of the heads in the earlier, the heads of the horns in the later, of the two.[444] The first is said to have had upon "his heads" names of blasphemy; the second is "full of" such names.[445] There are diadems on the horns of the former, but not of the latter.[446] Of the first we are told that he comes up "out of the sea," of the second that he is about to come up "out of the abyss."[447] In addition to these particulars, it will be observed that several traits of the first beast are not mentioned in connexion with the second. These last points of difference may be easily set aside. They create no inconsistency between the descriptions given; and we have already had occasion for the remark, that it is the manner of the Seer to enlarge in one part of his book his account of an object also referred to in another part. His readers are expected to combine the different particulars in order to form a complete conception of the object.