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Obs. 4. The rising of the beast out of the sea , is different from his rising out of the bottomless pit. — The Apocalypse often makes men- tion of the sea , often the bottomless pit ; but it never uses these two names promiscuously, and in the places respecting the beast it makes a most clear distinction : for in this passage the beast ascends out of the sea ; and ch. xi. 7, his ascent out of the bottomless pit is repre- sented in such a way, that the same is described, ch. xvii. 8, by a head as though future. This must be carefully kept in mind.
Obs. 5. The heads of the beast do not begin before his rising out of the sea , but contemporaneously with that rising itself. — What advance is made in understanding, when the beast, as the subject , is designated from Romulus, Brutus, etc., as the chief men of Rome, or at all events from Pharaoh, Jeroboam, etc., as the forerunners of Anti- christ (respecting whom the Gebhards and Lange are for the most part agreed) ? Nay, it is the things predicated of the beast that are described by a vivid representation [Hypotyposis. — Append.] of his future circumstances and actions : and this tends to instruction. Just as, after the casting of the dragon out of heaven, and after the begin- ning of the third woe, the beast arose out of the sea : Prop. 5, Obs. 4; so the feet, and the mouth, and the horns, etc., do not precede the rise of the beast, but accompany and follow it : nor ought the heads alone to be excepted, and to be thought to be prior to that rising ; for the name of blasphemy is said to be upon the heads without any exception, namely, all (just as there are crowns upon all his horns): nor are times assigned to one or two of the more recent heads, but to the beast itself which arose out of the sea ; a point which ought to be most accurately noticed, although the heads cannot subsequently be separated from the successive times. Again, the heads begin to- gether with the rising out of the sea itself ; for the beast is never without a head : and so in the very first time mention is made of one head, that is, the first, smitten with a deadly blow.
Obs. 6. The heads succeed one another. — D. Lange rightly acknow- ledges that the kings succeed each other : therefore also the heads succeed each other, for the heads are kings : Obs. 3. The succes- sion is declared in the following Observation.
Obs. 7. That space of time , which has a series of seven heads , is divided into three clauses , or into three articles. — Five (of the kings, who equally with the hills are signified by the heads of the beast) have fallen : one is : the other is not yet come ; and when he is come , he must continue a little space.
Obs. 8. The present time , in reference to ichich the angel speaks