language: "We rejoice that the benignity of _your piety_(!) has reached
the pinnacle of imperial power. Let the heavens he glad and the earth
rejoice."--Now let us hear the character of Phocas from the pen of an
infidel:--"Ignorant of letters, of laws, and even of arms, he indulged
in the supreme rank a more ample privilege of lust and drunkenness.--The
punishment of the victims of his tyranny was imbittered by the
refinements of cruelty: their eyes were pierced, their tongues were torn
from the root, their hands and feet were amputated: some expired under
the lash, others in the flames, others again were transfixed with
arrows: and a simple speedy death was mercy which they could rarely
obtain."[5] Thus the dragon's power was in his mouth, issuing bloody
edicts to "slay the innocent;" while "his tail drew the third part of
the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth." They prostituted
their ministry to sustain the policy of the beast. "The ancient and
honorable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the
tail." (Is. ix. 15.) Thus it is that pastors, fond of show and ambitious
of worldly distinction, attach themselves to the train of earthly
thrones and dignities, and so constitute and perpetuate the
antichristian confederacy against the "woman"--the true church. During
the first six hundred years of the Christian era the woman had been
"travailing" to bring forth a holy progeny. All this time the dragon's
"eyes are privily set against the poor." (Ps. x. 8.) The allusion is
here to the cruel edict of Pharaoh (Exod. i. 16; Acts vii. 19.) The
great city where the witnesses are slain is "spiritually called Egypt."
(ch. xi. 8.) By a like form of speech, Pharaoh is called "the great
dragon," (Ezek. xxix. 3; Is. li. 9.) It should be noted, that the Roman
empire, the beast, in all its heads and horns is actuated by the
devil,--before as well as after its dismemberment, from the time of
Romulus its founder, till its overthrow by the third woe. At the time
referred to in the text, when the empire has "assumed the livery of