Revelation 13:9,10

If any man have an ear, &c.— It was customary with our Saviour, when he would have his auditors pay a particular attention to what he had been saying, to add, He who hath ears to hear, &c. St. John, as our Lord's amanuensis, repeats the same admonition at the end of each of his seven epistles to the seven churches, ch. Revelation 2:3 : and here, in the conclusion of his description of the beast, if any man have an ear, &c. and certainly the description of the beast is deserving of the higherattention,uponmanyaccounts;andparticularly,becausetherightinterpretation of this book turns upon it, as one of its main hinges. It is added by way of consolation to the church, that these enemies of God and Christ, represented under the beast, shall suffer the law of retaliation, and be as remarkably punished and tormented themselves as they punished and tormented others, Revelation 13:10.—Here is the patience and faith of the saints. Of all the trials and persecutions of the church, this would be the most severe, and exceed those of the primitive times, both in degree and duration. See as above.