of the Bishop of Rome under the third Trumpet The fifth discovereth unto us the growth and the accomplishment of the Mystery of Iniquity For this is the same Star which St. Iohn had called great and of which he had said that it was already fallen from Heaven The Key is a Symbole of Power and Authority When the Nations were to be brought out of Idolatry into which they were plunged as into a bottomless pit and to be introduced into the Kingdom of Heaven Iesus Christ gave to St. Peter the Keys of that Kingdom And it was that Apostle who first made use of those Keys when he preached the Gospel to Cornelius who was a Gentile But now when the same Nations are to return to Idolatry the Key of the bottomless Pit is given to the pretended Successor of St. Peter by the Dragon Rev. chap. 13. v. 2 4. The Bottomless Pit being opened with this Key which the Bishop of Rome received from the Dragon there came forth a smoke out of the Pit as out of a great Furnace and the Sun and Air were darkned The Sun is Jesus Christ The Air is Religion For Jesus Christ is the Sun of Righteousness and Religion which consisteth in Doctrines Worship and Ceremonies is with respect to Salvation what the Air is with respect to the Animal life which no longer endureth than while we suck in and breath out the Air. Nor can it be denied but that the Bishop of Rome hath darkned the Sun of Righteousness in that he hath assumed to himself all the Offiâ—es of our Saviour his Kingship his Priesthood and his dignity of Supream and infallible Teacher And in that he hath added the Sacrifice of the Mass to the Sacrifice of the Cross and humane Satisfaction to the merit of Christs Blood which is the price of our Redemption Neither can it be gainsaid but that he hath darkned the Air of Religion by a mixture of Heathen Ceremonies with those which Jesus Christ had ordained Such as Altars the different Habits of Priests Agnus Dei's Chappelets Scapularies Holy Water Abstinences and Fastings Finally he hath corrupted the Discipline and Government which fence and preserve Religion by changing it into a Monarchy like unto that of Earthly Princes contrary to the express Declaration of our Saviour to his Apostles The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship but ye shall not be so Luks 22. 25. And also contrary to the advice of St. Peter whose Vicar and Successor he vainly boasts himself to be For he enjoins Ministers to feed the Flock of God and not to carry it as being Lords over God's Heritage 1 Pet. 5. 2 3. This Change was not all made at once but by little and little The Smokt came not all out of the bottomless Pit at one and the same time but successively and by degrees answerable to the nature of the Mystery of Iniquity which hath established it self by fraud and subtility Before Gregory I. about the end of the second Century Victor upon the subject of what day Easter should be kept was so rash as to excommunicate all the Churches of Asia as if he had been the Soveraign Master of all Churches Upon which account St. Ireneus rebuked him according as he deserved Siricius condemned the Marriage of Priests abusing to that end the words of St. Paul They that are in the Flesh cannot please God as if by being in the Flesh the Apostle had understood the state of Marriage Boniface III. Successor of Gregory I. challenged the Title of Universal Bishop which Gregory had condemned in Iohn Bishop of Constantinople as the Title of the Forerunner of Antichrist Boniface IV. consecrated the Pantheon to the Holy Virgin and to all the Saints which the Pagans had dedicated before to Cibele the Mother of the Gods. And the Controversie about the Worship of Images grew so hot in the eighth Age that Pope Gregory the second excommunicated the Emperor Leo for opposing it In the ninth Age Paschasius the Monk of Corby was the first that taught the Corporal Presence but Rathramu writting against it by the command of Charles the Bold the question remained undetermined But the Truth becoming darkned by the Smoke that arose out of the bottomless Pit in the tenth Age which Baronius stiles an Age of Iron and Lead and which all Writers acknowledg to have been an Age of Ignorance and Darkness it came to be decided in the eleventh Age by Nicolas the second Who made it be prescribed to Berenger in his Retractation that believers did not only eat Christ Sacramentally but that he was really broken by their teeth In the same Age Gregory the seventh made come out of the bottomless Pit these propositions mentioned by Baronius Anno 1076. num 31. namely that the Pope of Rome alone hath Right to be called Universal That all Princes ought to kiss the Popes Feet That his name only should be mentioned to the Churches That he hath an Authority to depose Emperors That without his command no Council ought to be called General That no Book nor Chapter ought to be held for Canonical without his Authorisy That he may discharge Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance And many other such as these which Baronius calls Dictata Papae Out of the same Pit came forth the Adoration of the Holy Sacrament under Pope Houorius the second The Feast of God or of Corpus Christi under Pope Eugenius the second Auricular Confession under Pope Innocent the third The first Crusado with promise of forgiveness of all their sins under Urban the second Anno 1095 The first Jubilee with a promise annexed to it of universal pardon to all that should go to Rome and visit the Churches there was instituted by Boniface the eighth Anno 1295. Finally Eugenius the third about the year 1149. did ordain that the Decretals collected by Gratian should be read and explained in the Schools Which Decretals treat of nothing save of the Power of St. Peter and of the Pope of the excellency of a Monastick life of Celibate of Transubstantiation of the Mass and of such like Doctrines which are this Smoke arisen out of the bottomless Pit by which the Sun and the Air have been darkned XV. ILLUSTRATION Of the Locusts REV. CHAP. 9. V. 3. And there came out of the Smoke Locusts upon the Earth and unto them was given power as the Scorpions of the Earth have power V. 4. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the Grass of the Earth neither any Green thing neither any Tree but only those men which have not the Seal of God in their Foreheads V. 5. And to them it was given that they should not kill them but that they should torment them five moneths and their Torment was as the Torment of a Scorpion when he striketh a man. V. 6. And in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it and shall desire to die and death shall flee from them V.
considered two ways First more grossly and in the bulk as it comprehendeth all the Seven Heads and in that sense it is nothing but a Regency under the seven Forms of Government which Rome hath passed throw since its Foundation and so it indefinitely and at large designs the Roman Empire Secondly As it is used precisely or strictly to denote the Beast under the seventh Head which is the Pope or Papal Power and so it is represented by the Beast with Two Horns 'T is most evident that it is Rome under the seventh Head which is the Pope that is here spoken of in that it is the Healing of the Wound which the Beast had received under the sixth Head. For he both speaks of this Wound in the third Verse and then of the Healing of it by the Beast with two Horns which is the Papacy in the 12. Verse Now that the Papal Empire is the Seventh Head or the Beast with Two Horns will be demonstratively proved by observing the conformity which is between that Beast and the Papal Kingdom 1. For whereas the Term Beast does signify a Domination and an Empire it cannot be denied but that the Romish Church is an Empire and that it may be stiled the Papal Kingdom and the Roman Empire 2. Forasmuch as Horns according as we have proved do denote Iurisdictions and Powers so the Papal Authority comprehends a twofold Power and two kinds of Domination one over that which is Temporal and another over that which is Spiritual One over this Life and another over that which is to come So that the Papal Kingdom must be that which is meant by the Beast with Two Horns 3. Whereas 't is said Rev. 13. 11. that the Two Horns of the Beast were like the Two Horns of the Lamb. All do know that Jesus Christ hath a twofold Authority or two kinds of Soveraignty One over the Soul and another over the Body One over that which is Temporal and another over that which is Spiritual And seeing the Pope boasts of this twofold Authority under pretence of being the Vicar of Jesus Christ it does therefore follow that he is the Beast with the Two Horns 4. And whereas 't is said Rev. 13. 11. that the Beast with two Horns spake as a Dragon 't is undeniable that the Pope speaks in the same manner and not only like the Devil Matth. 4. 9. assumeth to himself a Right of Disposing of all the Kingdoms of the World and of forbidding men to obey the Commandments of God but as the calumniating Spirit he reproacheth Gods Word both by accusing it of falsehood and by robbing it of its perspicuity integrity perfection sufficiency and of its Authority which he challengeth to himself 5. It being said Rev. 13. 12. that the Beast with two Horns exerciseth all the power of the first Beast whose deadly wound was healed This does perfectly agree to the Papal Power For the Roman Empire that flourished in St. Iohn's time having received a Deadly Wound it became healed thro the application of the Papal Authority as a Plaister unto it Now that Wound consisted in two things in the Subversion of the Pagan Idolatry and in the Abatement of the Glory of Rome And the Heathens were wont to observe in their Disputations against the Christians that as the ancient Religion fell from its splendor so the Glory of Rome did proportionably decay And as the Pagan Idolatry became in effect destroyed by the conversion of Constantine and the care of his Successors so Rome as to its Glory being first much darkned and almost extinguished and then being destroyed by the Goths tho it came afterwards to be restored yet it was never honored to be the Residence of the Emperors in that they fixed their abode at Ravenna and Millan These two Wounds seemed to be incurable but the Papal Soveraignty did perfectly heal them both For in the room of the God's Worshipped under Paganism there was set up the Adoration of Angels Saints the Consecrated Bread and of Relicks So that by this new Idolatry Panagism became again restored And withal Rome hath recovered a Glory not only equal unto its former but greater than what it had seeing the Pope thro having made it the Seat of his Empire appears there as the true Successor of the Heathen Emperors as the Commander of Kings and as the Supream Pontife as well as Chief Cesar who hath united the Priesthood to the Imperial Dignity In a word the Pope is the Head of a Senate attired in Purple and challengeth a Right of Deposing Kings and of disposing Crowns and who receives Tribute from all People and makes himself to be adored not only with a Civil but with a Religious Adoration as the Emperors of old used to be Both Blondus and Steuchus Bishop of Egubium do ingenuously describe without being aware of it how the Wound which Rome had received is again healed thro means of the Soveraignty that is come to be vested in the Pope The first says That the Majesty of Rome is now greater than ever it was because the Princes of the Earth do now worship the Successor of St. Peter as perpetual Dictator that is as Soveraign Pontife and as Vicar of the High Priest Jesus Christ And the other tells us That if after the Subversion of the Roman Empire God had not raised up the Papacy in which the ancient Majesty of Rome is revived that City had been a Habitation of Brute Beasts whereas by the establishment of the Papacy it hath recovered a grandure very little different from that which it had in the time of the old Empire seeing all Nations do now no less Reverence the Bishop of Rome than heretofore they obeyed the Roman Emperors So that by this it appears that the Beast with Two Horns is nothing but the Papacy forasmuch as the Papal Power hath healed Rome of the Wound she had received under the Emperors and rendred her again both Idolatrous and Mistriss of the World as she was heretofore 6. Whereas 't is said of the Beast with Two Horns Rev. 13. 12. That he causeth the Earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first Beast this agrees also to the Papacy which causeth that Rome being healed of its Wound is as much if not more reverenced than ever it had been upon an alledged pretence of having been the Chair and Seat of St. Peter As the Pagans made a Goddess of Rome Heathen by consecrating a Temple and dedicating a Feast unto her which they called Septimontium so Christians do no less make a Goddess of Rome Christian both by stiling her the Mistriss of the World and thro attributing to her the Priviledg of Infallibility that does belong to none save unto God. 7. 'T is further said Rev. 13. 13. That the Beast with two Horns doth great Signs and Wonders so that he maketh Fire come down from Heaven Now all men do not only know that the Romish Legends are full
of the Miracles pretended to be done in the Papal Kingdoms but that the Excommunications which flow from the Papal Jurisdiction are as much dreaded by Princes who stand in aw ' of that Authority as Fire and Lightning from Heaven History affords us many Examples of Princes who have been ruined by Papal Excommunications To this day they forbear not to proclaim the Miracles which are constantly wrought in the Papal Kingdom and the Partisans for the Pope vaunt themselves upon them as marks of the true Church But this is peculiar to those Miracles that they are no where done but in the Papal Empire and that out of the view of Hereticks Nor are they profitable unto any save unto those who do esteem them Neither is there any of their Wonder-mongers that have Raised the Dead They are such Miracles as do become the Beast with two Horns that speaketh as a Dragon 8. 'T is said Rev. 13. 14 15. That the Beast with two Horns commandeth them that dwell on the Earth that they should make an Image unto the Beast which had the Wound and that it was granted to the Beast to give Life unto this Image that it should speak Now this Image of the Beast is nothing but the Soveraign Power of the Pope as appears from the 14. Chapter v. 9 and 11. where the Description of the Beast is the same with this of his Image Which would not be if the Beast with two Horns were other than the Pope And the being an Image that speaks shews plainly that it does not differ from the Original or from that whose Image it is We use to say of a Picture that is done naturally and to the life that it wants nothing but that it cannot speak and that if it could speak it would be another Original None to whom the Papal Authority is known can be ignorant that the Pope has the same Power which the Emperors had the same Throne the same Soveraign Pontifical Dignity and that he is worshipped with the same Adoration and hath as stately a Senate and as magnificent a Court. Now the Pope is stiled an Image and not the thing it self both because he is arisen to his greatness under a pretence of Religion and under the Title of being the Vicar of Jesus Christ and of St. Peter and because he is also the Vicar of the Emperor and the Successor of Cesar And as he is in that Quality an Image of Cesar so being an Image that speaks he is cloathed with all the Majesty of the Emperors and possessed of their whole Authority Accordingly he will have his Feet kissed as the Feet of the Emperors were and will have Kings kneel before him as they did before the Cesars For as the Historian notes of the Emperor Caligula that he had his Feet kissed so the Poet Horace speaking in one of his Epistles of a Prince that kneeled before Augustus says that he appeared before him Genibus minor 9. 'T is said Rev. 13. 15. The Beast with two Horns causeth that as many as will not worship the Image of the Beast should be killed And this is what we have seen for above these 600. years fulfilled in the Papal Church thro her delivering those over to the Secular Power to be destroyed that would not obey her Commands and in her causing extirpate them by Croisados 10. 'T is said Rev. 13. 17. That no man might Buy or Sell save he that had the Mark of the Beast As Dtocletian debarred those from all sort of Commerce who would not Sacrifice to the Heathen Gods so we have the like Prohibition in that Bull which Pope Martin the fifth published against Wicklif And at this day they will suffer none to live in France who does not bring a Note under the Curat 's hand of his going to Mess So that the Romish Church is this second Beast with two Horns the speaking Image of the first Beast in that she lays the same Prohibitions upon men that the Roman Emperor did 11. Whereas it is said Rev. 13. 17. That the Beast with two Horns hath three sorts of Subjects or Followers One that bears his Mark another that carry's his Name and a third that hath the Number of his Name The Pope hath also three sorts of Adherents one that beareth his Mark which is the Ecclesiasticks that are tyed to him by an Oath and who boast of an indelible Character Another that carrieth his Name which is those that do stile themselves Papists and who do glory in it as Bellarmin did The Third sort bear the Number of his Name and these are they who are ashamed to be called Papists and account it for an Injury to be so stiled as the most part do in France But they call themselves Catholicks which is a word that hath reference to number Catholick signifying Universal and this causeth that the Pope does acknowledg them for his 12. There remains the Number of the Beast which is 666. and in order to our being convinced that this is the Number of the Papacy we are to observe that he treats not of the Number of the Beast alone Rev. 13 18. but also of the Number of his Name because it comes to be spoken of those who have the Number of the Name of the Beast The Holy Ghost doth acquaint those who shall read that this Name is not kept so hidden in reference to where it is to be found but that they who have wisdom may be able to discover it For by telling us that it is the Number of a Man we are to count according to the manner that men use to do Here is Wisdom saith the Text let him that hath understanding count the number of the Beast for it is the Number of a Man and his Number is six hundred threescore and six In order then to find in the Papacy the number 666. we are after the manner of computation among men to extract the Cubical Root of that number For as 144. is in the Book of the Apocalypse the Number of the Heavenly Ierusalem so 666. is made there the Number of the Beast And as 12. is the Cubical Root of 144. so if we can but find in the Papacy a number that is the Cubical Root of 666. we need not in the least doubt but that 666. is the Number of the Papal Church They call that in Arithmetick the Cubical Root of any specified number which being multiplied by it self does constitute that Number whether it be with a Fraction remaining or without one Thus 10. is the Cubical Root of a 100. because 10 being multiplied by it self makes a 100. But if we would seek for the Cubical Root of 55. we can assign no other than 7. and because 7. multiplied by it self makes but 49 there must to the making up 55. be 6. added which Arithmeticians stile a Fraction And it is worthy of Observation that the Holy Ghost doth not require us to count the Number of
well as most powerful Buttress of the Papal Empire Luther called them in this sense ultimus Diaboli crepitus Besides seeing of all the Fraternities that of the Iesuites hath had the greatest power to do hurt and have done the greatest damage to the Christian Religion we are not to doubt but that they are principally intended in this Prophecy concerning the Locusts Which nevertheless is so to be understood that the ruin of the Jesuites will draw along with it that of all the other Monks and Fryers For that measure of Evil which the whole Body of the Monks and Fryers hath done being consummated by those mischiefs which the Iesuites have added thereunto partly as Politicans in States whose councils they have animated partly in the Church under the quality of Doctors and Directors through corrupting the Consciences of men and infecting the Air of Religion by their damnable Morality it must needs be that the whole Monastick Body perish at one and the same time in respect of their power XVI ILLUSTRATION Of the sixth Trumpet The loosing of the four Angels in the River Euphrates REV. CHAP. 9. V. 13. And the sixth Angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden Altar which is before God. V. 14. Saying to the sixth Angel which had the Trumpet loose the four Angels which are bound in the great River Euphrates V. 15. And the four Angels were loosed which were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year for to stay the third part of men V. 16. And the number of the Army of the Horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand and I heard the number of them V. 17. And thus I saw the Horses in the Vision and them that sat on them having Breast-plates of fire and of â—acinct and brimstone and the heads of the Horses were as the heads of Lions and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone V. 18. By these three was the third part of men killed by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone which issued out of their mouths V. 19. For their power is in their mouth and in their Tails for their Tails were like unto Serpents and had heads and with them they do hurt V. 20. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship Devils and Idols of Gold and Silver and Brass and Stone and of Wood which neither can see nor hear nor walk V. 21. Neither repented they of their Murders nor of their Sorceries nor of their Fornication nor of their Thefis WE do here see the growth and progress of the Mahometan Religion which begun under the fourth Trumpet as we have seen under the fifth Trumpet the growth of Popery that begun under the third The River Euphrates the four Angels that are loosed the dreadful number of Horsemen the Breast-plates the Fire the Smoke the Brimstone the Heads the Tails the Progress the Murders and in a word all the particularities which appear under this sixth Trumpet do evidently shew that it is the Mahometan Religion and the Eastern Empire invaded by the Turks that are here intended And the reason also which is here assigned why that Empire fell into the hands of the Turks doth further confirm it 1. The Turks being setled in Persia they must cross Euphrates before they could make any conquests on this side or render themselves Masters of that of the Roman Empire whereof Constantinople was the Seat. 2. Their Armies appear here to be made up of none but of Horse Thus the name Perse signifies a Horse To which the Holy Spirit did doubtless allude As in the Visions of Daniel the King of Grecia is stiled a Goat because the Grecians were called Aegiades which is to say Wild Goats 'T is certain that the Holy Spirit does often make allusions to the names of persons and of people And in truth the Turks have often come into the Field with Armies of two or three hundred thousand Horse 3 The number of four is Mystical in the Mahometan Religion as the number seven is in the Revelation When the Turks had past Euphrates they established four Sultanies That of Cesarea in Cappadocia that of Aleppo that of Damascus and that of Antioch Mahomet boasted that he had four Councellors two from Heaven viz. Michael and Gabriel and two from the Earth namely Ebubeker and Othmar There were four false Teachers concurred to the making of the Alkoran Iohn of Antioch an Arian Barra of Persia a Iacobite Sergius a Nestorian Monk and Solam a Iew who was an Astroleger Mahomet left behind him four Successors whom he called the four cutting Swords of God to wit Ebubeker otherways called Abdalla Osman Othmar and Haly. Which four Successors begot four Sects in the Mahometan Religion There are four Religious Orders among the followers of that false Prophet the Gemaliers the Dervis the Calenders and the Torlaquis In a word the number four is to be found in their Fasts in their Ceremonies in their Testaments in their Marriages and almost in every thing Which so plainly answering to the four Angels loosed in the Euphrates leaves us no room to doubt but that the Holy Spirit had a design in this place to represent the Mahometan Religion and the Turkish Empire as possessing the place of the Oriental Roman Empire And forasmuch as both the name of fourth and that of Mahomet meet in the present Grand Seignior I do not know but that this Mystical number of his Religion may presage his Empire to be near an end and that he shall be the last Turkish Emperor The Breast-plates of Fire of Jacinct and of Brimstone denote the gross darkness and the loathsome silthiness of the Turkish Religion A Religion that can relish with none save such as are sunk into all sensuality and which could be invented by none but by those that were prophane and wicked The Tails like unto Serpents which had heads represent the Mahometan Teachers clothed with the power of being Judges In the 9. Chap. of Isaiah v. 15. the Head signifies a man of Authority and the Tail signifies a false Treacher Now the Turkish Doctors or Priests are the Supream Judges in all causes as well civil as Religious 'T is said Their power is in their mouth the better to discover these to be the Mahometans in that their power when they have to do with carnal and sensual Christians consists in the seducing vertu of their carnal Doctrine The Fire the Brimstone and the Smoke do questionless relate to Powder used in guns which the Turks made both use of sooner and after a more terrible manner than Christians generally did For a German Monk having invented it and it was an invention becoming the Cloister he discovered it to the Venetians and they communicated it to the Turks And the Turks being greedy to extend their Conquests made
but we shall be extreamly surprised at the re-establishment of the Reformed Churches in France because we know the King to be of opposite Sentiments to them But as it is the King of France who contributeth most to the Glory of the Papacy So it shall be the King of France that shall contribute most to its ruin It was a Louis XII who in the last age threatned to destroy the Romish Church perdam Babylonis nomen And it shall be a Louis who will execute the threatning of that generous King. The God of heaven and Earth the King of Kings who has the hearts of Kings and of people in his hand raiseth in us this hope because it is further added in the Prophecy 5 That the same hour there was a great Earthquake and the tenth part of the City fell It may be doubted whether this Earthquake may come to pass according to the letter But it is most certain that Earthquakes in scripture signify great alterations that fall out in States And to bring no other example save one that relates nearly to this matter Whosoever remembers that Earthquake which was in France when the King returned from the Pyrenees after the Treaty of Peace and the consummation of his Marriage and considers the great alterations which have since fallen out in that Kingdom not only in reference to Religion as well Popish as Reformed but in reference to Justice to Policy to the Finances and to War will no longer question but that the Earthquake which is to be after the Witnesses have lyen three days and a half dead doth promise as surprising a change in France as to all those regards and an alteration wherewith all the world will be contented except it be the Clergy the Monks and the Jesuites Some will doubless ask what reason I have to understand France rather than any other Kingdom by this tenth part of the City which is to fall after the Eartquake My reasons are these 1 I presuppose that the City here spoken of is Babylon or the Papal Empire or the Romish Church which is the Empire of Antichrist This Truth we have already proved 2 I presuppose that France is One of the ten Horns of the Beast One of the ten Kingdoms that were to be formed out of the ruins of the Roman Empire according to Daniel and which was to begin at the same time with the Beast according to St. John that is to begin with the Papal Empire This is evident in History 3 I presuppose France is one Street and one part of the City i. e. of the Papal Kingdom Nor can any deny but that the Gallican Church or the Church of France stiles it self by the Title of the Catholick Apostolick Roman Church that the Pope Reigns there over what is called Spiritual that he hath there his Ministers and Agents that he receiveth Annates from thence and that there is no Arch-Bishop or Bishop in France but who receives his Mission and Authority from the Pope 4 I suppose that France is the most beautiful and glorious Kingdom of all those Kingdoms which are Tributary to the Pope They do so account it by calling the King of France the most Christian King and the eldest Son of the Church And it is worthy of remark that even in St. Johns time France was by way of excellency stiled the Province because of all the Provinces of the Roman Empire France which was then called Gaul was the best and the most powerful This is so certain that the name do's yet remain and is attributed to the Southern part of France which is stiled Province from the latin Provincia It being therefore said in the Text that the tenth part of the City fell the Holy Spirit did questionless intend by that expression the most excellent part of all So that it is from thence very natural to understand France by the tenth part of the City Lastly we have already observed that it is not said that the two Witnesses were killed and that they lay unburied in the places or Streets in the plural number but in the Street of the great City in the singular which is as much as to say a Popish Kingdom marked out by way of excellency And therefore seeing the Holy Spirit had the most excellent of all the Popish Kingdoms in his Eye and seeing we have seen the death which in so surprising a manner hath befallen the Witnesses in France we may without any difficulty conclude that it is France which is this tenth part of the City that is to fall 6 'T is said that the tenth part of the City shall fall This may at the first view appear a dreadful prediction against France But yet it is not so For we must observe that this threatning is not as it would at first seem denounced against the tenth part of the City but against the City it self Because as that is the alone cause of the death of the two Witnesses so that is also the object of Gods vengeance 'T is then the City the Papal Kingdom which is to receive a terrible loss by the falling away of France Whereas France it self will increase both its strength and Glory by that falling off and withdrawing So that upon the whole I do not doubt but that it is the conversion of that beautiful Kingdom which is promised in this place And that which confirmeth me the more in this conjecture is what followeth namely that there i. e. in the tenth part of the City which was to fall by an Earthquake there shall be slain of men seven thousand and that the remnant shall be affrighted and give glory to God. In which words we have two Events represented unto us whereof the one is very different from the other both of them worthy of observation The one is an effect of the vengeance of God the other an effect of his Mercy The first event is the death of seven thousand names of men Which is a figure where seven thousand names of men are put for seven thousand men of name that is of quality reputation and dignity These Men of Name are doubtless either the Doctors who make a great deal of noise in France in the Sorbone in the Society of the Oratory in the Society of the Jesuites and among the Clergy or else persons of quality who are distinguished from others by their birth and by their honor The Number of seven thousand denotes an indefinite number but very considerable And the death of these men will be a death parallel to the Death of the Witnesses that so like may be returned unto them for like For that the same shall be rendred unto Babylon which She rendred unto Sion is both threatned in the Prophesies of Isaiah and in the Revelations of St. John Isa 14. 6. Rev. 18. 6. Not that these seven thousand men shall be compelled by the fury of Missionary Dragoons to abjure Popery and to embrace the Reformed Religion For