The seven heads of the beast of hell are the seven capital sins by which
the devil draws to himself also all the world. For scarcely it befalls
that one falls not into the throat of some of the seven heads, and
therefore St. John says well that it had power against the saints. For
on earth is no man so holy that he can perfectly escape all the kinds of
sin that come of these seven heads without special privilege of grace,
as it was in the maid Mary, or in some others by special grace, which
they had of God. The ten horns of the beast betoken the offences against
the ten behests of our Lord, which the devil obtains, as much as he can,
by the seven aforesaid sins. The ten crowns above betoken the victory
that it (he) hath over all the sinful, because he causes them to sin
against the ten behests.