This man rule in a province to which God alone has rightful claim
(for indeed it exercises the prerogative of God when it presumes
to direct God's work and people) has characterized all Protestant
sectism just as it did Roman Catholicism, only in milder aspect.
Man rule is represented in prophetic symbols by beastly character,
whether it applies to political or ecclesiastical government. Thus
in the 7th chapter of Daniel we have the symbols of four great
beasts, representing in their respective order four universal
kingdoms, as follows: Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. These
were temporal powers that ruled the world. When a mere temporal
power is indicated the prophetic symbol used is a dumb beast. If
a beast or any part of such symbol is represented as speaking or
exercising human propensities, then the thing indicated is also
an ecclesiastical power. Thus the fourth beast in Daniel 7, which
represents the Roman Empire, exercises first as a dumb animal; but
directly a particular horn appears among the horns of this beast,
and is given eyes to see and a mouth to speak great things, which
indicates ecclesiastical exercise, so that we have here Rome first
as a heathen power, and then as a so-called Christian power speaking
great things, making war against the saints, etc.
In Revelation 13 we find this same Roman Catholic power represented
by a beast to whom was given "a mouth speaking great things and
blasphemies" and power "to make war with the saints and to overcome
them." These anthropomorphic qualities given to a beast indicate man
rule in ecclesiastical matters, a thing which is at once blasphemy in
God's sight, utterly obnoxious and foreign to him.