death is the death of this body Wherefore it is here a seasonable monition Fear not them which kill the body but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell which is the second death infinitely worse than the former 15. And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life that is in the Book of Life of the Lamb as a faithful Soldier and true Member of his Kingdom was cast into the lake of fire and underwent the same doom with the Apostate Spirits which implies that those which were found in that Book of Life were adjudged to the enjoyment of Eternal Life to reign with Christ for ever in Heaven in the Kingdom of his Father as he promises in his Epistle to the Church of Laodicea NOTES CHAPTER XX. Vers. 4. And I saw also those that had not worshipped the Beast c. That the beheaded and these are two distinct sorts of persons methinks is plainly enough insinuated in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and those who had not worshipped c. David Pareus supposes an Ellipsis which he would supply thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so secure is he that two several sorts are meant If this be not the sense why is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been sufficient without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Text should have run And besides why is it said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they lived and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they lived again if both the Beheaded and the Not-worshippers of the Beast were of the same kind But indeed Interpreters do generally understand them to be of two sorts though otherwise they cannot hit it among themselves about the sense of this place the one sort Martyrs the other Confessours And I add surviving Confessours who with their Successours survive the Cruelty of the Beast and his Image See my Mystery of Godliness lib. 5. cap. 15. sect 6. CHAPTER XXI 1. ANd I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth One would think upon the Conflagration of this Earth immediately mentioned before But this is but the artificial embellishing of the outward Cortex of this Book of Prophecies in this place * by a Lemmatosynechia as it is called in my Synopsis Prophetica For the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away namely the former Heaven and Earth or World in the sense of the Prophetical stile according to which they denote a Polity which therefore intimates here that the Tyrannical and Idolatrous Polity of the Beast and the false Prophet which is the great Whore or great City of Babylon was now abolished as appears by Chap. 19. vers 20. And there was no more Sea no unquiet multitudes of the wicked who are like the raging waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame Tumults War and Bloodshed was under that Polity that is cast into the Lake of Fire Chap. 19. vers 20 which was the Reign of Antichrist But now the Reign of Christ is at hand who is the true Melchizedec King of Salem or Ierusalem King of Righteousness and Prince of Peace This Vision therefore goes back to the second Thunder 2. And I Iohn saw the Holy City New Ierusalem The truly Holy City not pretended Holy Church and the New Jerusalem not that Old Prophet-killing Jerusalem which is also spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt the Roman Hierarchy where Christ in his Faithful Witnesses were persecuted to death This sight therefore of the City Ierusalem is exhibited as a Polity succeeding the great City of Babylon and in opposition thereto Coming down from God out of Heaven which shows it is a Polity here upon Earth and of Divine Institution and to be setled after the utter destruction of the Whore of Babylon by a Council truly Holy and truly Oecumenical being persons of pure and upright Spirits and without all worldly interest and moreover inspired extraordinarily by the Spirit of God This is the meaning of this descent of Ierusalem from God out of Heaven all things then being to be ordered by that Wisdom which is from above when as the Constitution of the City of Babylon was from that Wisdom which is from beneath and is earthly sensual and devilish Prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband Not as a Whore to commit Fornication with the Kings of the Earth as Babylon did This Constitution of things is setled under the second Thunder after which immediately follows the Millennial Reign of Christ and is described in the following Verses 3. And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people And God himself shall be with them namely by his Spirit whose presence shall sensibly and feelingly be acknowledged by all the Inhabiters of this New Ierusalem For this is the Reign of the Spirit or the Reign of Christ in the Spirit of which the Apostles of old witnessed Know ye not that your bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost But in the City of Babylon instead of being taught and guided by the Holy Ghost they were forced to follow their blind Guides that led them into all manner of Superstition and Idolatry and gross Disobedience to the Laws of God and Christ unless they would be persecuted and barbarously murthered And be their God that is their Protector and Defender from all manner of Evil As it follows 4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes This Reign of Christ in the Millennium will be with that equity goodness and sweetness that no mans heart that is good shall need to be oppressed with grief or express his grief by his tears And there shall be no more death no more bloody massacrings of the Faithful Witnesses of Christ or burning them at the stake with fire and fagot as was done under the Tyranny of the Great Whore neither sorrow for the loss of Friends thus barbarously and inhumanely murthered nor crying no clamours against gross injustice and cruelty or crying out for the tortures that are inflicted on poor innocent men for keeping a good conscience towards God Neither shall there be any more pain by noisom and wearisom imprisonments or what other hardships they are put to for the testimony of a good conscience For the former things are passed away The bloody Whore or false Prophet with the Beast are now in the Lake of fire burning with brimstone And Babylon the Great like a milstone sunk into the bottom of the Sea never to rise again Such is the state of the blessed Millennium when it comes nor shall Gog and Magog prevail against the Holy City in the Laodicean Interval 5. And he that
the Sardian Church to repent of and to stand upon their watch lest the judgement of God suddenly surprize them before they be aware Apoc. 3.3 A fifth Usefulness of our Exposition is in reference to the Jews for the facilitating their before in Jesus the true Messias For that perverse Objection of theirs against the Messias having been already come above sixteen hundred years ago seeing such gross Idolatry and bloody persecution has been so long a time in the Church against those men that have had the most Conscience touching the Purity of Gods Worship and the greatest Zeal against Idolatry This Objection I say is easily answered out of our Exposition of the Apocalypse that these things are no otherwise than the True Messias has predicted they would be whence the Argument is retorted against themselves that it is the greater Demonstration that Jesus is the True Messias and not only this but moreover which is the chiefest of all That all things predicted in the Apocalypse from the beginning of the Church to this day have exactly come to pass which is a pledge of Christs veracity touching the future state of the Church that is That this bloody and Idolatrous Hierarchy will be put an end to and that both Jew and Gentile will become One Fold under One Shepherd Jesus the True Messias namely at the descending of the New Jerusalem out of Heaven from God in which will be accomplished al the Glorious Promises of God touching his Church predicted by the mouths of his Holy Prophets Which cannot but be a full Answer to this Objection of the Jews The sixth is a particular Usefulness for the undeceiving the Fifth-Monarchy-Men as they are called and any others that are inclinable to such Opinions as they are of viz. That upon the Rising of the Witnesses a Fifth Monarchy must be erected in which Jesus Christ is personally to Reign with the revived Martyrs in the Millennium here upon Earth and that the way to these Times is to be made by the Sword For according to our Exposition the Witnesses are already risen in the late Reformation and the Time of the One thousand two hundred and sixty dayes expired that no watch-word may be taken to any Tumults from any such indication of Time But the most certain sign of the downfall of Antichrist will be the raising again in the Reformed Churches a sincere and fervent Zeal after Truth and Holiness hearty Love and Amity amongst themselves and a Conversation unspotted and unexceptionable and such as will convince their very Adversaries that they are in good earnest Christians and demonstrate their faith by their works and that they have not shaken off the Yoke of the Pope to serve themselves or to turn Slaves to their own Lusts but to be the Faithful Servants of him that redeemed them out of that House of Bondage If this were seriously minded in the Reformed Churches and due discipline kept up to that purpose the Papacy would melt away like a bank of snow in the summer-sun or consume as the fat of Lambs as the Psalmist speaks yea even as the smoak would they consume away And as for any Fifth Monarchy in which Jesus Christ shall visibly and personally Reign as the Monarch thereof or any one else as an Universal Monarch over all those many and large Kingdoms that shall then be Christian that the Fifth-Monarchy-men may not substitute this instead of the other our Exposition is not at all favourable to any such conceit as neither to that of the Reign of the revived Martyrs upon Earth in the blessed Millennium And I am so far from countenancing the Opinion that these Times are to be brought in by the Sword unless it be by the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God that that most dismal Prophecy Chap. 14. vers 20. where it is said that blood came out of the Wine-press even unto the horse bridles by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs and that Prophecy of the battel of that Great Day of God Almighty Chap. 16. and the other of the rider of the white horse Chap. 19. where the Fowles of the Air are called unto the Supper of the great God to eat the flesh of Kings of Captains and of Mighty Men c. that I interpret I say all these not litterally but mystically not of slaying of bodies but of converting and saving of souls And I hope the Reader will be convinced when he considers the places that my interpretation is true The seventh and last Usefulness of my Exposition redounds to the Pontifician party themselves as many as are predisposed to hear plain and evident truth For according to our Exposition which how true it is I have above made good and it will approve it self true to any Intelligent and unprejudiced Reader those that stay in the Communion of the Roman Church when as they should be the faithful Members of Christ they are ipso facto the Members of an Harlot that is of an Idolatrous Church which the stile of the Apocalypse calls the Whore of Babylon And how assured a man can be of his Salvation in such a state I 'le leave to himself to judge Or rather let him hear what the Angel sayes Chap. 18. vers 4. Come out of her my People lest ye partake of her sins and of her plagues As also what another Angels sayes chap. 14. vers 9 10. If any one worship the Beast and his Image and receive his Mark in his forehead or in his hand the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his Indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and the smoak of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever This is the doom of those that forsake not the Communion of the Church of Rome but obey the Two-hundred Idolatrous Beast that has the horns of a Lamb but the voice of a Dragon decreeing gross Idolatries and bloody Persecutions This plain therefore and evident Exposition of the Apocalypse I hope may be an Instrument to bring off those that are any thing well disposed out of those gross and damnable Errours into the way of Saving Truth and keep those more stedfast that are in it For though there will be those and they not a few that will remain obstinate and unconvinced especially of the Roman Hierarchy it self even until the effusion of the last Vial yet there may be many particular gleanings and some larger harvests in the mean time to which so sound and faithful a sense of the Apocalypse as our Exposition exhibits to the Reader may be effectually subservient And truly this one usefulness thereof may very well seem a sufficient compensation for my labours to any sincere lover of the Souls of Men. Wherefore to come to a Conclusion
in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon both which words signifie a Destroyer which is a fit title he being a Captain of such numerous Troops that destroyed so many mens bodies by war and their souls by bringing a false Religion along with him contrary to Christianity reproaching it as if it maintained the worship of more Gods than One Which malicious pretense seems also to be glanced at in both the name of Abaddon and also of Apollyon Abaddon alluding to Adad as if it were Ab-Addon and Apollyon to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apollo both which names according to this allusion signifie ONE As if this Angel of the Abysse and his Locusts stood up for the worship of one God and that the Christians worshipped many because they worship the holy Trinity which nothing but their ignorance of the Mystery and their malice could make them conclude to be inconsistent with the Unity of the Deity Which passage therefore of the Vision is no small countenance to the Doctrine of the Trinity of the Godhead 12. One wo is past and behold there come two woes more hereafter namely under the sounding of the next two Trumpets which therefore as the former may well be called Wo-Trumpets 13. And the sixth Angel sounded and I heard voice from the four horns of the golden Altar which is before God For Iohn rapt thus into Heaven the Temple and the Throne of God was as it were continually represented to him and so the golden Altar which is the Altar of Incense And Incense is the Symbol of the prayers and breathing of the pure Apostolick Church oppressed and afflicted under that Antichristian or Pseudochristian and Idolatrous Constitution of things established by the second Nicene Council 14. Saying unto the sixth Angel that had the Trumpet Loose the four Angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates That is let loose the Turks upon the Idolatrous Empire For that Angels signifie Men under their conduct is a frequent Apocalyptical Figure And that the Turks are here meant is plain from those more notable four * Turkish Sultanies or Tetrarchies on that and this side of Euphrates that of Bagdad that of Caesarea Cappadocie or Iconii that of Aleppo and that of Damascus 15. And the four Angels were loosed which were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year for to slay the third part of men Which term of time is another indication that the Turks are meant here For Togrulbec Prince of the Turks the City Bagdad being taken by him had his Imperial Robes put upon him and was inaugurated Emperour of the Turks by the Caliph Chaiim Biamrilla in the year 1057. From this time was the Turk invested in the Saracenical Empire And from this year to the year 1453 when Constantinople was taken and the remainder of the Roman Empire in the East utterly lost is a Prophetical day and a month and a year that is 396 years So notable an Indication is this that the Turks are here meant and the sense is this That these Turks were prepared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against a determined appointed time even to the expiration of 396 years for to slay the third part of men that is that about that time they might not vex only as the Saracens did but put an end to the Eastern Roman Empire For third is a character of the Roman Empire as I have already noted Which accordingly came to pass at the taking of Constantinople and swallowing thereupon the whole Roman Empire in the East 16. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand and I heard the number of them whereby I understood how exceeding numerous they were which is another note of their being Turks it being well known what vast Armies they bring into the field And this number does not signifie Arithmetically that is precisely that number but figuratively is put for a vast number in general and so vast that it could not be discovered by the eye so well as signified by speech And that there is no mention of Foot may be an allusion to their known name in Greek Historians who usually call them Persians which name signifies Horsemen which is another note of their being Turks 17. And thus I saw the Horses in vision and them that sate on them having breast-plates of fire and Iacinth of Iacinth that is of a blue colour and of Brimstone by reason that when they shot off the air betwixt them and the sight of the beholder seemed fiery at the flashing of the powder and then coloured with a blue smoke and after filled his nostrils with the scent of sulphur which shows that this Vision * belongs to the times since the Invention of Gunpowder And the heads of the horses were as the heads of Lions not for their shapes but for the roaring noise that seems to come from them at the riders discharging their Carbines or Pistols as what follows plainly intimates And out of their mouths issued fire smoke and brimstone 18. By these three was the third part of men killed that is the Roman Empire in the East was not only vexed and annoied but utterly subdued vanquished and destroyed by these Centaures as I may so call them the Turks who are called Persae in the Greek Historians from the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paras which signifies a man on horseback including both the shapes in one Appellation as if that Country bred such Monsters which are usually called Centaures Which Centaures here are set out still more monstrously as killing men by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone which issued out of their mouths as it may seem at a distance when they let off their Fireguns and Pistols 19. For their power is in their mouth and in their tails As in the Scorpio-Locusts before a monster made up of a Locust and of a Scorpion to signifie the Saracens so here is a Monster made up of a Horse and a Man a Centaure as it were to signifie the Turks and have tails whereby they are said to hurt men signifying the same venome or mischief of Mahometism The power of these Centaures is in their mouths and in their tails the Turks playing two parts viz. of a Warriour in the field discharging fire and shot against the Enemy and of a Religionist after the victory all their War according to their Alchoran being a kind of Holy War to propagate Mahometisme and Paradise is promised to them that dye in the Cause and therefore it is said For their tails were like unto Serpents and had heads and mouths too I warrant you to speak and tempt the vanquished as the Old Serpent did Eve from their obedience to God and his Christ and so with them they do hurt not only upon that false pretense as if we Christians were guilty of Polytheisme or of worshipping more gods than one because we profess the Trinity of the Godhead but
belongeth the first Resurrection accordingly as here followeth 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power Namely the Lake of Fire vers 14. into which Hades or the whole Region of Mortality is cast the Earth being all on fire But they that have obtained their glorified body as the Martyrs do in the first Resurrection they are sped already and are safe from this fate But they shall be Priests of God and of Christ that is Holy and Divine Souls cloathed in glorified bodies serving God in his Heavenly Temple And shall reign with him viz. with Christ in the Kingdom of his Father not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the thousand years of the Millennium but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thousand years symbolically understood which being the Cube of Ten which comprehends all number signifies a steady permanent Reign even to all Eternity 7. But when the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the thousand years of the Millennium are expired that is at the expiration of the Philadelphian Interval and the beginning of the Laodicean Satan shall be loosed out of his prison that is to say the ancient zeal of the Philadelphian Church and strictness of Discipline will be much relaxated and wickedness will get head again namely under the fourth Thunder 8. And he shall go out to deceive the Nations which are in the four quarters of the Earth Gog and Magog that is the whole rabble of men that are disposed to wickedness and have an enmity against the Holy and Just which are the true Israelites indeed in whom there is no guile And Gog and Magog are those notorious enemies of the People of Israel Ezech. Cap. 38. and 39. who therefore here typifie the enemies of the Holy Christian and Apostolick Church of which Israel was a type To gather them together to battel to fight against Israel the true Church of Christ The number of whom is as the sand of the sea So much had wickedness increased by the not still endeavouring with that wonted vigour the amplification of Christs Kingdom and by relaxation of Discipline in the Laodicean State of the Church though purity of external worship was still retained among them neither had they contaminated themselves with course Superstitions and Idolatries 9. And they went up on the breadth of the Earth which indicates the swarming and the spreading of their Forces and compassed the Camp of the Saints about The Camp wherein there were many Saints and right Philadelphian Spirits but all Saints as to the purity of external worship And the beloved City The mystical Ierusalem or pure Church of Christ and beloved of him for the reasons even now intimated Here is an attempt of bringing again the Righteous under the Power and Tyranny of the wicked which attempts are made toward the latter end of the Laodicean Interval under the fifth Thunder But before they could effect their wicked enterprise the Day of judgement overtakes them And fire came down from God out of Heaven and devoured them 10. And the Devil that deceived them was cast together with them into the lake of fire and brimstone even that Lake which is afterwards called the second death where the Beast and the false Prophet the whole Antichristian Rabble shall be and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever 11. For I saw a great white Throne for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And does ordinarily signifie for as the sense may require and him that sate on it namely Christ coming to judgement at the end of the Laodicean Interval in the sixth Thunder from whence the Church of Laodicea also has its name From whose face the Earth and the Heaven fled away and there was found no place for them that is the Glory of his Majesty was so great that Heaven and Earth seemed to vanish before him the eyes of the spectators at first being so wholly filled with the brightness of the presence of his Glory 12. And I saw the dead small and great good and bad stand before God This is the General Resurrection which is not till the thousand years of the Millennium be expired but a good while after it though but a little time compared with the thousand years in the latitude of the sense thereof And the Books were opened the Rolls and Records of their actions this is spoken in allusion to Law-proceedings in Courts of Judicature amongst men And another Book was opened which is the Book of Life An auspicious Title signifying that they whose names were found there should be sentenced worthy of Eternal Life and escape the second death And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their Works As is done in Righteous Courts of Judicature where the Judge gives Sentence according to what is alledged and proved And so it is in this General Assizes none shall be condemned for what he is not guilty of but be judged according to his works 13. And the Sea gave up the dead which were in it The Souls here appear of them that were drown'd in the Sea as being not extinct thereby as some fondly imagine and actuate their bodies And death or pestilence all manner of death by diseases is intimated by it and briefly Hell that is Hades the whole Region of deceased Souls or this sphere of Mortality into which they are congregated at this General Assizes delivered up the dead that were in them that is exhibited them to the view of all And they were judged every man according to their works The Divine Nemesis proportioned punishments or rewards to every one according to their doings Hitherto are the transactions of this General Assizes and the passing of judgement on those that were called to the Bar which takes up the sixth Thunder But in the seventh there is Thundering and Lightening properly so called as is intimated vers 9. And fire came down from God out of Heaven and devoured them So here 14. And Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire that is this whole Region of Mortality above which the Spirits of Devils and damned Souls cannot emerge but are chained and confined to this caliginous Atmosphere will be set on fire at the last Thunder which together with eruptions from beneath will cause a dreadful Conflagration and turn the Earth as it were into one great lake of fire This is the sense of these words And Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire Which is a very figurative expression First by a Prosopopoeia making Death and Hell as it were two persons as in Chap. 6. vers 8. and then by an Hypallage casting them into the fire when as the fire is rather cast into them it occupying all this Region of Mortality and putting an end to dying by consuming all the species of mortal Creatures and giving a stop to their propagation This is the second Death As the first
things of the greatest importance makes men careless and remiss and destroyes all order and discipline weakens the health of the body and makes the soul incapable of the holy influences of the Spirit of God So necessary a stone therefore for the safety of the City is this Amethyst to be placed in the wall thereof 21. And the twelve Gates were twelve pearls every several Gate was of one pearl which shows plainly the thing cannot be literally understood unless there were Oisters or other Conchae bigger than one of these Gates or Porches But in that the Gates viz. Inletts into the City are said to be Pearles that Gemm sets out the condition of them that are fitted to enter into the City For the colour of the Pearle shows the mild innocent child-like meekness of them that are fit to enter as our Saviour has declared Vnless you be converted and become as one of these Children you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God The Notation of the word also intimates what is requisite to Baptism viz. Repentance For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnio from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived alludes to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mixture of bitterness which denotes the wholesome cup of Repentance But the whiteness of the Pearles may insinuate also the washing away of the guilt and stain of Sin in the Sacrament of Baptism which Interpreters make these Gates to be a symbol of And the street of the City was pure gold as it were transparent glass The street that is Forum Vrbis as Grotius notes the publick place where they meet and transact businesses It is said to be pure gold like to transparent glass because they converse one with another bonâ fide in pure love and sincerity as if they were transparent to one another and could see one anothers hearts and thoughts 22. And I saw no Temple there No such Temple as was amongst the Jews which together with the Divine Residence supposed in it as being deemed the house of God is properly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such a Temple as this there was none in the New Ierusalem For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it The eternal Deity is the object of their worship and the Lamb the body of Christ the Holy Catholick Church is the house wherein he resides the same with the City it self which from his presence there is called Iehovah Shammah Ezech. 48.35 God therefore immediately residing by his Spirit in the hearts of his people the Citizens of this New Ierusalem this is instead of the Temple of the Ancient Jews And according to the Prophetick stile Lamb will more naturally though it does not so usually signifie the body of Christ his Church than Christ himself 23. And the City had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it This may allude to Isai. 60.19 The Sun shall be no more thy light by day c. But the more peculiar sense of the place I conceive according to the Prophetick stile which makes the Sun the highest Power in any Polity and the Moon next to it as an Emperour and an Emperess in an Empire or an Vniversal Patriarch and Emperour as the Popish Interpreters expound the two great Lights the Sun and the Moon the one of the Pope the other of the Emperour the Ecclesiastick Power being the Sun the Secular the Moon the sense I say is this That no man imagine any necessity in those dayes when the Kingdoms of the World shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ that there should be any such Oecumenical Patriarch Pope or Bishop over the Church of Christ or any Vniversal Monarch or Emperour over his whole Empire it is expresly said that the City had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it no need of any one Vniversal Prelate and Vniversal Monarch as some would fancy the Pope and the Emperour to have been For the Glory of God did lighten it that is the Spirit of God which is compared to the Iasper-stone vers 11. which is said to be the Luminary thereof this is the Sun or Supreme Power thereof which is to hold all together And the Lamb is the light thereof namely by shedding the promised efficacy of his Spirit into it The Kings therefore of those many Kingdoms that in those dayes become the Kingdom of Christ shall have no other Supreme Head over them but Christ himself but be as the four and twenty Crowned Elders before the Throne of the Lamb and have no other Superiour neither Patriarch nor Monarch but he Of those times is said that of Isai. chap. 24.23 Then the Moon shall be confounded and the Sun ashamed all that have born themselves as Universal Monarchs in Church or State hitherto when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Sion and Ierusalem namely in this New Ierusalem and before his Ancients gloriously those Ancients described Chap. 4. as cloathed with white rayment and sitting upon Thrones with golden Crowns on their Heads which signifie the Kings of those Times when Jew and Gentile shall make one Fold and the Church be reduced to her Apostolick purity in the blessed Millennium over whom there will be no Head but God and Christ nor will they have need to be held together in one Universal Kingdom of Christ by any other Tye than his Laws and the Union of his Holy Spirit which will be so abundantly shed forth in their hearts in those days namely in the Philadelphian Succession 24. And the Nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it Extra Ecclesiam nulla est salus is a maxime amongst the Pontificians confining Salvation to a blind implicit Faith in the Infallibility of their Pope and Church But the Iasper-stone the influence of the Holy Spirit which is the Light of this City is that by whose guidance the Nations now walk in the wayes of Salvation And the Kings of the Earth do bring their Glory and Honour into it that is turn Converts to this dispensation of the Spirit where the Word and the Spirit is the Rule not the blind Decrees of both a fallacious and fallible Polity of men that adulterate Doctrine for their worldly interest 25. And the Gates of it shall not be shut at all by day Their prosperity and great knowledge and illumination will not make them proud disdainful or careless of others happiness and salvation but they will be ever ready to embrace and admit by Baptisme all Converts from all quarters of the World upon their sincere Repentance and Conversion For there shall be no night there no Adversity nor Ignorance in this Philadelphian Interval while the Eternal Spirit of Love shines upon them And therefore they will be alwayes ready at every one of their twelve Gates standing open to all the four quarters of the world to admit all single-hearted and sincere Proselytes 26. And they shall
and Thyatiran Successions of the Church it is manifest that Saracens and Turks under the fifth and sixth Trumpets invade the Empire as a Scourge for their Idolatry as plainly appears from Ch. 9. v. 20. where the rest of the men that were not killed by these Plagues are said not to repent them of their worshipping 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daemons and Idols of Silver and Idols of Gold c. Where Daemons according to the Greek idiom signify either Angels or the Souls of men any Spirits out of Terrestrial bodies the Souls of Saints and Spirits of Angels And lastly in the Opened-Book-Prophecy Chap. II. what is the treading under-foot the outward Court by the Gentiles for fourty two months but the over-running the Empire again with Idolatry and Persecution of which Gentilism or Paganism consists for so many months or Semitimes of months of years And what the 7000. names of men vers 13. but Idolatrous Titles or men of those Titles that belong to the seventh head of the Beast which is an Idolatrous head And Chap. 13. vers 1. the Beast there rising out of the Sea with ten Crowned Horns plainly shows it is the Empire after its division into so many Kingdoms Which therefore is under the seventh head And all the seven heads there are said to have names of Blasphemy upon them that is of Idolatry Besides this Beast is said to be the healed beast and the image of the Dragon that received the deadly wound in his fight with Michael and the Martyrs Which plainly shows that the Empire after Christanity was setled in it became again an Idolatrous persecuting Beast as the old Pagan Empire was And lastly not to number up all we might Chap. 17. the Whore of Babylon with her cup of Fornication that is of Idolatry in her hand as Grotius himself cannot but interpret it and sitting upon a Beast full of Names of Blasphemy that is of Idolatry again even according to Grotius what can this be but the City of Rome and the Roman Empire become Idolatrous But they put it off by saying it is the Pagan Empire and Rome Pagan which is a thing impossible For the Woman here sitting upon the Beast that was is not and yet is which was never true of the Roman Empire till after it had been Christian it cannot be understood of the Roman Empire Pagan And that conceit of Domitian being this Beast it is such a childish trifle or sleight whiffle that it is a wonder to me that any one that had any freeness of judgment or soundness of reason should ever fancy such a thing but having spoken of this in my Preface I will say no more of it here From these few places to omit several others it is abundantly evident that that truely infallible Moderator even the Spirit of God himself has decided the controversie concerning the Idolatry of the Church of Rome and has declared them guilty of that crime and the Protestants guiltless of any crime of Schism in leaving the Communion of that Church Which is a thing seriously to be considered by all the Potentates of Christendom that they may not listen to the voice of the blood-thirsty Iezabel when she shall solicite the Kings of the Earth to the persecution of the Servants of God and Christ because they cannot bow down to stocks and stones with her nor submit to any other of her points of Idolatry Now for any invidious cavils against this firm Protestant Exposition of the Apocalypse I hope Reader thou wilt set as little by them as I do my self For it may be it will be thought by some an high piece of Rudeness and Incivility in that this Protestant Exposition of the seven heads of the Beast makes all the Emperours since the Apostasie of the Church into Idolatry to be part of the seventh head which is one of the heads of Blasphemy though otherwise never so noble and vertuous And the like cavils may be raised touching the Popes of Rome though they be never so Learned and Pious that they will make part of the two Horned Beast that has the Horns of a Lamb but the voice of a Dragon And I must confess the same may be alledged against making those six forms of Pagan Government Kings Consuls Dictators Decemviri Triumviri and Emperours six heads of Blasphemy When amongst the Emperours it is well known what an excellent example of vertue Marcus Antoninus was and that Tully a Roman Consul for Wit Vertue and Eloquence was the glory of the Roman Empire But I can briefly answer for my self that I never since I understood Tully and Marcus Antoninus to be part of those two heads of Blasphemy had in the least the more diminishing thoughts of their Vertues and Perfections I had observed in them before For I knew before they were Pagan Idolaters and that it was the privilege of their nature to bear up so stoutly against the disadvantages of their Religion they were born under And there is the same reason of excellent Emperors and other Princes of the Pontifician Religion The profession of an Idolatrous Religion ought not to derogate from their natural or acquired perfections only all good men will heartily and solicitously wish that their souls were as safe as their personal reputation And I charitably judge of them of the Roman Church who do not stick to call all Protestant Kings and Princes be they never so great or never so good Hereticks and by the punishment they allot to those they call so any one may judge what wretches and vile persons they deem them that they intend notwithstanding no derogation thereby to their personal worth or vertue But here is the great difference that we call them nothing but what the Scripture calls them but they nickname others against all reason and Scripture adding to false and bitter words unjust and barbarous persecutions And what we have said concerning Emperours and Kings the same is to be said of the Popes of Rome No Popes personal perfections and vertues are touched but the Idolatrous and Antichristian constitution and frame of things such as every Pope is to succeed into and which make a Pope a Pope But as for my interpreting the two Horns of the Beast of the Episcopal Mitre that no Protestant Bishop take exceptions the interpretation is not mine but Iosephus Acosta's as Cornelius à Lapide cites him De Tempor Noviss Lib. 2. c. 17. Duo cornua Episcopalis putà Mitrae sive Infulae haec enim est bicornis insigne sunt Videtur ergo quòd hic Pseudopropheta erit Episcopus quispiam Apostata simulator religionis Ecclesiastici honoris proditor qui draconis venenum suis sermonibus populo propinabit So near to the mark is the Interpretation of this Romanist But in the mean time the making the two Horns of the Mitre the two Horns of the Lamb Lamb always signifying in the Apocalypse either Christ himself or his true Church it