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thousandth years, as though the thousand years mentioned in ch. xx. had elapsed, the ancients expected the kingdom of the beast (as it is plainly seen from Andreas, for the name BENEAIKTOS, as it appears, furnished some ingenious reader of his with the number 666) : nor has the fame of that Benedict the support of such authorities at the present day, as that of Silvester. We have, as I think, bestowed sufficient labour upon the consideration of the opinions of the ancients. Scherzer, above others, in Syst., p. 865, has thought it worth while to recount even more recent inventions, or rather trifles; and Wolf., in vol. iv. Curar., p. 545. Therefore we may pass them by : that however may be added, which Chris- topher Seebach, in his Germ. Key to Ap., p. 309, s^appyigidffaro : but the name LUDoVICVs has been certainly less forced [to yield the 666], which a treatise, published in Belgic and German, with the title, The Faith and Patience of the Saints, ch. 23, has applied, to this, although even that disastrous persecution of the Reformers in the kingdom of the Gauls did not attain to the great force im- plied in this number ; and evidently the name to which this number is given ought to be found, if anywhere, in the series of the Popes. Some, with Vitringa, who, on Ap. p. 629, quotes that writer who is in other places unnamed, and his book, question the numeral power of the Latin letters : but Baudius, Ep. 79, cent. 1, proves that they all have that power, except D ; Scaliger, following Priscian, in his book respecting causes, L. L., ch. xli., proves that they all without exception have it. We think that these subtleties may be omitted. The number, even of the name of the beast, has, as we have seen, another meaning.