Council the Colledg of Cardinals for her Castles Convents for her Armies Monks for her Governors of Provinces Bishops and Arch-Bishops for her Ambassadors Nuucio's and Legat's for her Merchants Priests for her Merchandises Dispensations and for her Revenues Annates and Benefices So that it was with good reason that Gregorius Leâ—i begun his pleasant History of Pope Sixtus the fifth after this manner That the Popedom is the most considerable Monarchy that hath been established from the Creation of the World to this day and that no Princes whether Idolatrous or Christians have reigned more absolutely than the Roman Bishops do at whose Feet the greatest Potentates have laid down their Scepters and Crowns So that it may be said this sodering together of Temporal and Spiritual power this mingling of things Secular and Religious this conjunction of the Cross with the Sword this Union of Body and Soul and in brief this Authority over Earth and Heaven which meet and center in the Popes have raised and established a Soveraignty which almost all the People and Princes of the World do reverence Withal the Church of Rome saith I am no Widow in that She boasts of having a visible Head and spouse which is the Pope And She say's I shall see no sorrow for pretending to be the only Spouse of the Son of God how can she miscarry Or how should She be so forsaken as to be able to fall seeing it is to her alone that Jesus Christ hath made that promise the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against my Church Matth. 16. 18. XV. ILLUSTRATION Of Babylon's making all Nations Drunk with the Wine of her Fornication and of her being Drunk with the Blood of Saints REV. CHAP. 14. v. 8. THese two Actions of Babylon charactarise and mark out the Roman Church Seeing it is Idolatry that is spoken of which is Spiritual Adultery and dissolveth Gods Covenant as Adultery doth the Covenant of Marriage Now the Roman Church is guilty of too gross Idolatry to be any ways able to justify her self She worshippeth not only the Holy Virgin in giving her the Titles of the Gate of Paradise the Queen of Heaven and the Fountain of Grace but in advancing her above Jesus Christ through begging of her in one of their prayers that she would jure matris imperare i. e. use the authority of a Mother in Commanding her Son. Nor doth she only Adore Images according to the Decree of the second Council of Nice which is confirmed by the Council of Trent but she also Adores the Sacrament which Jesus Christ instituted to be a memorial of his death and which therefore must be something else than Christ himself Nor can she according to her own Doctrine have any assurance either divine or human that the Bread is the Body of Christ forasmuch as she cannot be assured of the Intention of the Priest upon which the whole Consecration doth depend To which may be added her Worshipping the Cross and that with the highest kind of worship called Latria having to this purpose set apart and assigned Good Friday The Doctrine of the Roman Church that leads men to Idolatry may be justly compared to Wine and not to water and to Wine of Wrath i. e. furious Wine because they who drink it become intoxicated and deprived of their senses So that they not only furiously pursue the Objects of their Superstition as so many mad men whom none can hinder or withdraw from it but they are transported with hatred rage against all those who do not approve their false and abominable devotion And it is worth our observing what the difference is between true Doctrine and false Wholsome and true Doctrine is usually compared to Water because it rendreth such as embrace it meek gentle patient under injuries ready to teach those who are otherwise minded with mildness and filled rather with Pity and Compassion towards them than transported with hatred But in reference to the effects of false Doctrine all is otherwise For it maketh such as entertain it violent cruel quarrelsom outragious ready to assault and fall upon those that contradict them and who refuse to follow their example And therefore it is resembled to Wine and to Wine of wrath i. e. heady Wine that inflameth and distracteth men and in a word rendreth them that are possessed with it persecutors to the outmost Nor can the Church of Rome deny but that she doth after this manner persecute all those whom she calls Hereticks and for this only reason because they will not own her to be the Empress of the world and the Mother and Mistriss of Faith and acknowledg her Bishop to be the Vicar of Jesus Christ and the Center of Christian Unity The Croisado's against the Valdenses and Albigenses of whose success Bellarmin triumpheth to that degree as to say that in one only Croisado there were a hundred thousand killed the Massacres committed in England France and the Low Countries in the forego'ing Age those perpetrated in Poland the Valleys of Piedmont and in Ireland within these forty or fifty years I say all these do make it but too evidently appear that the Church of Rome is this Woman whom St. John saw drunk with the Blood of Saints Rev. 17. 6. The Holy Scripture putteth this honor upon all those that follow sound Doctrine and of whose Faith the Gospel is the only Rule as to give them the glorious Title of Saints Nor can it be gain-said but that Rome is drunk with the Blood of Saints forasmuch as all the barbarous Croisado's against the Albigenses and all the Butcheries perpetrated upon Protestants have been for no other reason but for their making the Gospel the alone Rule of their Faith. Neither were they persecuted and destroyed but because of their disclaiming Human Traditions which are the mischievous Fountain of all Errors XVI ILLUSTRATION Of the Lamb on Mount Sion and with him the 144000. having the Fathers Name written in their Foreheads REV. CHAP. XIV v. 1. HERE we have a Description of the State of the True Church and that during the time in which Babylon was drunk with the Blood of the Martyrs For whereas one might have questioned whether the Church was not wholly lost seeing all the world not only wondred after the Beast but that they who refused to receive his mark and to worship his Image were killed therefore the Holy Spirit represents a Vision to St. John in which he might clearly see that the Church did subsist in despight both of the Victories of the Beast of the extent of his Empire and of the Violence of his Persecutions I looked saith St. John and lo a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion and with him 144000. having his Fathers Name written in their Foreheads and I heard a voice from Heaven as the voice of many Waters and as the voice of a great Thunder And I heard the voice of Harpers harping with their Harps and they sung as it were
esteem that they who before had been called Arnoldians Henricians and Petrobrusians are supposed to have gotten from him the name of Valdenses Tho that is a mistake forasmuch as long before the time of Valdo they who made profession of the true Doctrine had been so stiled from the name of the Valleys of Angrogna and Piedmont where the Church of God had been harboured from the day 's of Constantin as hath been already observed These Teachers are represented crying with a loud voice Fear God because at that season Babylon alone was dreaded it being the common language of every one at that day Who is like unto the Beast who is able to make war with him as the Holy Ghost hath marked Rev. chap. 13. v. 4. They are farther represented crying Give Glory to God because then the Honor due to God was transferred to Creatures which according to St. Paul is a with-holding or a not-giving Glory to God. For that Apostle being speaking of the Pagans he accuseth them of not having glorified God by reason of their giving that honor to the Creature which belonged to none save to the Creator Rom. 1. 21 23. Moreover they are here introduced threatning the men of that Age with the Judgments of God The hour say they of his judgment is come Which Denunciation was fulfilled in the same Century For the Quarrels between the Emperor Frederick and the Pope filled all Christendom with Civil Wars and overwhelmed it with Desolation Besides the Voiage of Louis the seventh into the Holy Land proved most unhappy and then Saladin towards the end of that Age conquered the Kingdom of Jerusalem so that all the Christians became defeated and droven out of Palestine They are further introduced preaching the Gospel to every Nation and kindred and Tongue and People that is through all parts of the Papal Kingdom which in these Visions is signified by the Kingdom of the Beast Of whom it is said Chap. 13. v 7. that power was given unto him over all kindreds and Tongues and Nations and that all who dwelt upon the Earth worshipped him Which can be meant of nothing else but of the Roman Papal Empire In the fourteenth Age about the year 1360. Iohn Wicklif assaulted the Pope and both called him Archheretick Antichrist the Impostore of the Church and proved him to be so by Scripture History and his own Actions He preached likewise against the Sacrifice of the Mass against Indulgences and against the Worship of Images Relicks and Saints The voice of this Angel was so powerful and efficacious that Edward the third King of England ordained in Parliament that from thence forward Bishops should not go to Rome for confirmation but be confirmed at home by their own Metropolitans This Wicklif upon his withdrawing into Bohemia had Iohn Hus for his Disciple Which Hus by the alone power of his Doctrine drew the Kingdom of Bohemia off from obedience to Rome And thence it is that this Angel is introduced crying Babylon is falling is falling Because that was a presage of the falling away of Nations from her which should ensue in the next Age. John Hus was burnt by the Council of Constance contrary to the publick Faith and the safe Conduct that had been given him by the Emperor Sigismond And History reports of him that he should say to his Judges ye are putting a Goose to death for so Hus in the Bohemian Language signifies but a hundred years hence God will raise up a Swan whom tho ye would never so fain destroy ye shall not be able Which Prophecy was exactly fulfilled at the time For as Iohn Hus was burnt anno 1415. so Luther begun the work of the Reformation by writing against Indulgences in the year 1515. And tho the Court of Rome did all they could both to stop his mouth and to destroy him yet they could never effect it It was therefore in the 16. Century that the voice of the third Angel was heard saying loudly If any man 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 c. This Angel is Luther who writ with that strength and preached with that efficacy and with such success against the Errors Idolatry and Tyranny of the Church of Rome that near one half of the Nations and People who reverenced her as their Mother and feared her as their Queen withdrew from her Communion and look't upon her with detestation as the Mother of uncleanness and Abominations And as Rome could not behold the success of the voice of the third Angel but with despite and rage so Believers could not escape suffering a great deal from a power which saw it self so dangerously weakned by their Separation This is what the H. Spirit declareth was to be when he saith Here is the patience of the Saints here are they that keâ—p the Commaudments of God and the Faith of Iesus But the Holy Spirit in the message directed thereupon to St. Iohn do's likeway's animate and fortify them against all those evils that Babylon should be able to do unto them And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me write Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them There being no where else and express command given unto St. Iohn to write except in the first Chap. v. 19. It serves to shew the great importance of this Doctrine both in discovering the falsehood of the Romish Doctrine about the State of Dead about the Worship given unto them about Purgatory to which they are adjudged and about the Mass which is made use of for fetching them thence and also for the comfort and encouragement of those who assert the dignity of the Everlasting Gospel and who are persecuted by the Beast for defending of it XVIII ILLUSTRATION Of the Harvest and the Vintage REV. CHAP. 14. v. 14 15 c. THese two Visions do without doubt signify the Judgments of God against his Enemies and the Persecutors of his Church Accordingly Ieremiah useth the similitudes of Vintage and Harvest against Babylon of the Chaldees Chap. 51. v. 33. The Daughter of Babylon saith he is like a threshing floor it is time to thresh her yet a little while and the time of her Harvest shall come Ioel also makes use of them both Chap. 13. 3. Put in the Sicle saith he for the Harvest is ripe come get you down for the Press is full the fats overflow for their wickedness is great There are some who do think that the Harvest respecteth and threatneth the Mahometan Empire but all are agreed that the Vintage referreth unto and threatneth the Papal Kingdom As for me I think it most probable that both these Judgments do threaten the Papal Empire And that the Harvest signifies an Initial Judgment or a Decision as to some
general Councils which were constituted of the Bishops of the whole Empire these Councils contributed to the Exaltation of the Bishop of Rome So that Gregory I. spake according to his interest when he said that he had the same regard for the 4. Councils viz. of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Calcedon that he had for the four Gospels Which was a plain Blasphemy and very suteable to Antichrist 6. St. John delivereth the Explication which the Angel gave of the Vision of the 17th Chapter v. 12. in these Words The ten Horns which thou sawest are ten Kings which have received no Kingdom as yet but receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast For we are not to seek for these Kings in the Eastern Empire that continued until the Turks became Masters of it which is something more than two hundred years but we are to seek for them in the Western Empire And the reason of it is because there were not several Kingdoms formed out of the ruins of the Eastern Empire as there have according to the Terms of the Vision been formed out of the Western We are not to confine our selves positively to the number of ten seeing that number is taken indefinitely in the Revelation Thus chap. 2. v. 10. the tribulation of ten days that is spoken of is to denote a long persecution All that is essential to be remarked is that these ten Kingdoms or Soveraignties are formed out of the ruins of the Western Empire Which Daniel says positively chap. 7. v. 24. as well as St. John who from the Angels Interpretation of the Vision saith that the ten Kings receive their power in the same hour with the Beast After these observations from Scripture it will be of advantage to consider the following matters of Fact which are all expresly recorded in History It was in the fourth Age that the Fasts Abstinences of the Montemists came to be received in the Church of Rome And in that Age Pope Syricius condemned the Marriage of Priests It was in the fourth Age that Pope Mark wrote Letters to Anastasius and to the Bishops of Egypt in these words The Church of Rome hath always been without afault and through the grace of God and the protection of St. Peter for ever shall be so Which words favour both of Idolairy and of Blasphemy 'T was in the 4th Age that the 2. first Councils of Nice and Constantinople were held as those of Ephesus and Chalcedon were kept in the fifth And although as these Councils did not greatly exalt the Bishop of Rome we may truly say that they opened a way and served as a Bridg to the following Councils which have made it their business to advance the Pope to what he is at this day 'T was in the fourth Age that the Emperors embraced the Christian Religion that they were so liberal to the Bishop of Rome and that they stript themselves of the dignity of Supream Pontiff in favour to him From the time of Iulius Cesar they had always retained it that they might thereby render their persons sacred and inviolable 'T was the Emperor Gratian that surrendred it and since that time none of his Successors have claimed it 'T was in the fifth Age that the Emperors withdrew from Rome and chose Ravenna and Milan for their residence 'T was in the beginning of the fifth Age that the Western Empire was destroyed by the Barbarians and that out of the ruins of it they formed several Soveraignties in Germany Gaul Spain and Italy 'T was in the fifth Age that in order to allure the Pagans to Christianity the Church espoused many of their Ceremonies such as the Invocation of Saints the Worship of Images the Veneration of Relicks and Prayers for the dead 'T was in the beginning of the fifth Age that Pope Innocent I. defended the Right of Appeals to the Sea of Rome Finally it was in the fifth Age that the Controversy between Pope Leo 1. and other Bishops about the matter of Appeals was in the most solemn and authentick manner that the Bishop of Rome could desire ended and determined in his favour When the two Emperors Theodosius and Valentintan granted unto him and issued out an Edict in the following terms We by this perpetual Edict have ordained that no Bishop whether they be of Gaul or of any other Provinces shall contrary to the ancient customs attempt any thing hereafter without the Authority of the venerable Pope of the Eternal City But that whatsoever the Authority of the Apostolick Sea shall ordain shall be submitted to by all others as unto a Law. So that whosoever of the Bishops having appealed shall neglect to appear at the Tribunal of the Roman Bishop shall be obliged to appear before the Governor of the Province where he lives provided always that whatsoever things our Sacred Predecessors have granted to the Church of Rome shall be unchangeably and universally preserved We need go no farther in order to seek for the birth of the Antichristian Empire or to find the fatal Date where the 1260. days or the 42. Months of the continuance of the Beasts Reign doth begin For in what is already mentioned we find every thing that goes to the constitution of Antichristianism namely Error in Doctrine Idolatry in Worship and Tyranny in Government Forasmuch as we find the Roman Church at that time guilty of Forbidding Marriage and of Commanding to abstain from Meats which are the two characters of the Apostacy fore-told by St. Paul. And because we find her defiled with prayers for the dead with the Worshipping of Images with the Invocation of Saints with the veneration of Relicks and brought into a subjection to a Bishop who was by an Imperial Edict established Soveraign Judg of all other Bishops within the Circle of the Roman Empire That Edict was published anno 445. in favour of Leo I. and of his Successors It is then in that year at the soonest and at the latest also that we are to fix the fatal Epoche of the birth of the Antichristian Empire and consequently may hope to see the End of it in the year 1705. For if unto 445. which was the year of the Edict of Valentinian and Theodosius there be added 1260. the total will be 1705. And if from 1705. there be substracted 445. the Remain will be 1260. which is the time of the duration of the Beasts Reign The Historian Florus hath considered the Roman Empire passing through the different Ages and periods of human life and according to that Idea he hath marked the Birth and Infancy of that Empire under Kings its youth from Brutus and Collatinus who were the first Consuls till the time of Appius Claudius its Manhood from Appius Claudius till the time of the Emperor Augustus and its Old Age from Augustus till the time of Trajan under whose Reign that Historian lived and under which he says that the Empire tho' verging to a decrepitness bestirred it self as if it
he cometh he must continue a short space And the Beast that was and is not even he is the Eighth King and is of the seven and goeth into Perdition He of whom the Angel saith one is was the Roman Emperor who was Master of the Empire in St. Iohn's time He of whom it is said the other is not yet come is the Pope who was not in the time of St. Iohn but hath been since the fifth Century The Angel predicteth concerning the Elevation of this Bishop to his Grandure when he cometh i. e. when he shall usurp the Soveraignty and Domination that he must continue a short space The Pope became Master of Rome and Temporal Lord over it when Gregory the second excommunicated Leo the Emperor Then saith Sigonius Rome past from the Greeks by reason of their Heresie about Images into the hands of the Pope And for seventy years it remained in the same condition under the Popes that it had been formerly under the Emperors and was the subject and Slave of these new Lords But that Form of Government continued not above seventy years for so saith the Angel it must continue for a short space Afterwards the Soveraignty became divided betwixt the Pope and the City of Rome For if the Pope was Temporal Lord and Master Rome was also Lady and Mistriss And this is exactly what the Angel says to St. Iohn and the Beast that was and is not even he is the eight King. This bears no difficulty because he adds he is of the Seven For seeing the Pope is the seventh Head and the seventh King and that the Angel says that the Eighth King is of the seven it cannot otherways be but that he understandeth the Pope as exercising his Domination after two different manners The first alone in the quality of Temporal Lord of Rome and after the manner of the Emperors whose Seat with all their Rights and Soveraignty he had usurped The other in conjunction with Rome which continueth to this day and hath from the time of Pope Leo the third in whom the first sort of Domination ended 'T is in vertue of this union between the Pope and the City of Rome in their Government that upon the one hand Rome is reverenced as the Chair of St. Peter as the Mother and Mistriss of all Churches the Guardian of Faith having her Senate made up of Cardinals qualified with the Title of Cardinals of the Roman Church and by whose Counsel as Affairs are managed so it is by their votes that the Pope is chosen and it is from this upon the other hand that the Pope is worshipped as Successor of St. Peter as Vicar General of Iesus Christ the Husband of the Church as God on Earth and as Soveraign Iudge of all and who can be judged by none This is what we have represented in the 13. Chapter v. 12. where it is said That the second Beast excrciseth all the power of the first Beast and that he causeth them that dwell on the Earth to worship the first Beast For upon the one side Rome and her Senate do all they can to maintain the Soveraign Authority of the Pope and upon the other side the Pope useth his utmost endeavour to make all men Reverence the Church of Rome as the Mother of the Christian Faith and the Mistriss of all Churches Thence it comes also to pass that as the Pope is not stiled the Christian Bishop but the Roman Bishop so Rome is not called by the name of Christian Church but by the name of Roman and Apostolick which is as much as Papal Church For according to the stile of the Court of Rome Apostolick signifies the same that Papal doth so that the Popes Miter his Slipper his Mule his Habit his Bulls his Notaries and in a word all that relates to the Popes Person are called Apostolick There is not one from the highest to the lowest that belongs to him even to the Buffoons that accompany his Nuncio's and Legats but affects to be so stiled He that attended the last Legate into France said to the Dorekeeper of the Playhouse Io sono il Bouffono Apostolico Moreover these two kinds of Government that of the Pope alone and that of the Pope in conjunction with Rome are clearly marqued and recorded in History It was Gregory the second saith Sigonius that took away the Dominion of Rome from the Greeks Gregory the second saith Onuphrius being more couragious than his Predecessor Constantine took from Leo the Emperor all that he had left of the Kingdom of the Lombards in Italy which was done in the year 729. And this Domination of the Pope alone lasted to the year 798. But then saith Vignier certain Citizens being incensed against Pope Leo the third they did under pretence of restoring Rome to its ancient Freedom flirr up the people who seising upon the Pope at a procession put out one of his Eyes and threw him into prison whence being delivered by the Duke of Spoletto and brought to Charlemain that Prince carried him back to Rome the year following and reconciled him with the Romans This reconciliation being made the Popes travelled so well for the re-establishment of their lost Soveraignty that they recovered it but in conjunction with Rome having to this purpose setled there before hand the Primacy and Chair of St. Peter so that if the Pope was from thenceforth respected as the Soveraign Bishop the Head and Royal Judg of the Christian Church Rome also was honoured as the Mother of the Faith and Mistriss of all Churches So that this point cannot be rendred clearer seeing both the seventh and the eighth King appear so plainly in History and particularly in the Popish Historians Sigonius Vignier and Onuphrius do exactly marque the two ways wherein the Popes have exercised their Domination The first from Gregory the second till Leo the third who was so ill handled upon that account and the second from the re-establishment of that Pope by Charlemain upon the condition that Rome should Reign in conjunction with him VII ILLUSTRATION Who the False Prophet is THE False Prophet is spoken of in two places of the Revelation First in the pouring out of the sixth Vial Rev. 16. 13. Three unclean Spirits like Frogs came out of the Mouth of the Dragon and out of the Mouth of the Beast and out of the Mouth of the False Prophet And then in the 19. Chapter where it is said that the Beast was taken and with him the False Prophet and they were cast alive into a Lake of Fire burning with Brimstone Now this False Prophet is nothing else but the Beast with two Horns mentioned in the 13. Chapter but the seventh Head of the Beast with ten Horns and the eighth King that are spoken of in the 17. Chap. v. 11. The Beast with two Horns is the Pope with his twofold power the one over that which is Spiritual the other over that which is Temporal The
most eminent So that this Bishop is without doubt he of Rome who from the very beginning was lookt upon as above others by reason of the City which was the Seat of the Empire and consequently the Lady and Mistriss of all other Cities This was the ground of the precedency granted to that Bishop as appears both by the Council of Calcedon and by the second Council of Constantinople Among the Bishops of Rome Gregory the first is particularly here represented by this great Star. And that not only because he was stiled great but because he truly fell from Heaven through abandoning the care of heavenly things to pursue and cleave to those of the Earth This we may the rather believe because he gives this account of himself in the fifth Epistle of his first Book writing to Theotista the Emperors Sister Under the Colour says he of a Bishoprick I am sunk into the world and am become more enslaved to the cares of the Earth than ever I was when but a Laick person Since I was outwardly advanced I am inwardly fallen And I bewaile my own state as being thus driven from the presence of my Creator He writ the same to Anastasius Bishop of Antioch namely that he was so depressed by the load of multiplicity of affairs that he could not raise his mind to heavenly things The fall of this Gregory the Great does yet more appear in that it was he who changed the Service of the Church into that which from his name is called to this day the Gregorian 'T was he likewise who most blasphemously equalled the four first Councils to the four Gospels and who in his four Books of Dialogues brought the belief of Purgatory into the Church But we are to take care that we do not restrain our selves only to one Bishop This great Star is to be taken as representing collectively all the Bishops of Rome since they first begun to depart from the Truth and from Christian Humility And indeed before Gregory the Great Mark who was elected Pope anno 335. did so highly exalt the Rights of the Sea of Rome that he had the confidence to write to the Bishops of Egypt in these prophane words that follow The Roman Church hath forever been without a Spot and through the Grace of God and the protection of St. Peter forever shall be so For says he the Lord spake thus to the Prince of the Apostles Peter I have prayed for thee that thy Faith do not fail Julius I. took upon him by his own meer Authority to re-establish several Oriental Bishops that had been justly deposed Liberius by subscribing to the condemnation of St. Athanasius subscribed to Arianism which drew upon him the curses of St. Hilary After the death of Liberius Damasius and Ursicinus caused such an effusion of blood by their struglings for the Roman Chair that Ammianus Marcellinus a Heathen Author reports that in the Temple where the Election of Damasus was held there were 137. slain at one time The greatest persons among the Heathen coveted the grandure of the Popes so that the Pagan Pretextatus being designed Consul offered to Damasus to turn Christian upon condition that he might be made Pope Siricius who succeeded to Damasus forbid Ecclesiastical Persons to marry shamefully perverting to that purpose the words of St. Paul Rom. 8. 8. they who are in the flesh connot please God. After Gregory I. Boniface III. assumed the Title of Universal Bishop Boniface IV who succeeded to him consecrated the Pantheon to the blessed Virgin and to all the Saints having been before a Temple dedicated to Cybele and to all the Heathen Gods. And the Monastick life became so highly valued and advanced under all these Popes that they taught it to be the true Evangelick way of living and the most sure means of salvation These Doctrines together with others added by the Bishops of Rome and which they either themselves invented or else authorised and decreed made them to be this Wormwood that hath corrupted the saving Doctrine and which hath rendred all the Waters of Grace and the Fountains of Salvation bitter XIII ILLUSTRATION Of the fourth Trumpet The third part of the Sun and of the Moon and of the Stars smitten REV. CHAP. VIII V. 12. And the fourth Angel sounded and the third part of the Sun was smitten and the third part of the Moon and the third part of the Stars so as the third part of them was darkned and the day shone not for a third part of it and the night likewise THE wo denounced by this fourth Trumpet hath two Characters The one is Error and Superstition in that the Fountains of light are so strangely changed The other is Violence and Force because these Sources of light are smitten For the Term of Smiting is often used in the Scripture to signify killing and destroying As in Deut. chap. 4. v. 46. Ios chap. 8. v. 22. 1 Kings chap. 15. v. 29. and elsewhere These two characters do perfectly agree to the Religion of the Mahometans The Error in it is most palpable in that it denieth both Christs Divinity and the merit of his death and in that it promiseth such a felicity in the life to come as can be pleasing to none save unto Souls sunk into sensuality And its Violence is so well known that all who have heard of Mahomet do know that that Impostor boasted the being sent by God with a Sword to force the belief of his Religion And the event was according for within the space of 40. years after Mahomets death his four Successors Ebubeker Oâ—hmar Osman and Haly whom they stile Gods four sharp Swords planted that abominable Religion by force of Arms in Syria Palestine Egypt Mesopotamia Persia Africk Barbary and Numidia It was in the year 622. that Mahomet published his damnable Errors which is another character whereby to adjust it with the Wo or this fourth Trumpet For the Bishop of Rome was already fallen under the third These are the two Enemies of the Christian Religion the one a hidden Enemy and the other an avowed The one established himself as a Fox the other as a Lion. The one assaulted Religion in the West the other in the East The Bishop of Rome begun to fall away in the fourth Age Mahomet appeared in the seventh His abominable Religion followed the fall of the Roman Bishop as the Wo of the fourth Trumpet followeth the Wo of the third XIV ILLUSTRATION Of the fifth Trumpet The Key of the bottomless Pit given to the Star that fell from Heaven REV. CHAP. IX V. 1. And the fifth Angel sounded and I saw a Star fall from Heaven unto the Earth and to him was given the Key of the bottomless Pit. V. 2. And he opened the bottomless Pit and there arose a Smoke out of the Pit as the smoke of a great Furnace and the Sun and the Air were darkned by reason of the smoke of the Pit. WE have seen the Fall
the Heavenly Jerusalem forasmuch as he hath done it himself both in declaring that it is 144. and in discovering 12. to be the Cubical Root of it For not being satisfied to tells us Rev. 7. 5 c. that there were 12000. sealed out of every Tribe he gives us further to understand that all things relating to the Heavenly Ierusalem are to be counted by twelve Thus there are ascribed unto it 12 Foundations 12. Gates 12 Angels 12. Tribes 12000. Furlongs Rev. 21. 12 c. and 12. manner of Fruits of the Tree of life Rev. 22. 2. And because 12. times 12. make 144. he therefore expresly tells us that the Wall of the Mystical Ierusalem was 144. Cubits This the Holy Ghost hath not done in reference to the Beast for contenting himself with the having revealed his Number he doth not discover the Cubical Root of it but requireth us to search it out Let him that hath understanding says he count the Number of the Beast Let us then obey this command and search out the Cubical Root of 666. and we shall find it to be 25. Because 25. multiplied by it self makes 625. to which the Fraction of 41. being added there results the number of 666. Now it is most evident that the number 25. is Sacred in the Romish Church being to be found every where both in her Hierarchy and in her Doctrine According to Onuphrius Rome which is the Seat and Throne of the Papacy hath 25. Material Gates and as many Mystical Ones or 25. Churches wherein they do baptize According to Baronius Ciaconius Pot. Virgil Onuphrius and Platina Rome had at first but 25. Cardinals 25. Curates and 25. Parishes According to Onuphrius and Lipsius the Compass and Circumference of Rome is 25. Furlongs According to Bzovius She hath 25. Penitentiaries There are in St. Peters Church at Rome 25. Altars and the great Altar hath according to Aug. Rocca a Cross upon it that is 25. Span high And if we may believe Baronius and Onuphrius each side of that Altar is 25. Foot large There is also upon all their Altars the number of 25. imprinted in that the five Wounds Christ are graven upon them in five several places There are usually 25. Monks in their Cloisters And for some Ages they have held their Jubilee every 25. years There are 25. Articles of the Papal Faith for so many the Bull of Pope Pius the fourth containeth And the Council of Trent which gave us the last Summary and account of their Doctrine was both finished in 25. Sessions and signed by 25. Archbishops So that 25. being the Cubical Root of 666. and this number being found in the Popish Church running thro all that is Sacred and August both in their Hierarchy Doctrine and Ceremonies it doth undeniably follow that 666. is the Number of the Papacy and by consequence that the Romish Church is the Beast with two Horns And as the Number 12. thro being the Cubical Root and the Foundation of 144. which is the Number of the true Church giveth us to understand that the Church of God is founded alone upon the Doctrine of the 12. Apostles so the Number 25 which exceeds twelve by above a half being the Cubical Root and foundation of 666. which is the Number of the Beast serves to teach us that the vast multitude of Traditions which are the Basis of the Papacy should not make us take her for the true Church as the Papists groundlesly pretend but to look upon her as the Beast with two Horns and as great Babylon If the Reader should now demand why the Holy Ghost gave the Number 666. for the Mark of the Beast rather than the Number 625. seeing 25. maketh the just Square Root of 625. without a Fraction whereas to raise 666. from a multiplication of 25. there must be added a Fraction of 41. I answer that if the Holy Spirit had intended to mark out unto us only the Number of the Beast he would have satisfied himself with the Number 625. but designing to point out unto us also the Number of his Name it became his Wisdom to give us the Number 666. that so by these two delineations he might the better paint him out unto us it being evident that the Letters of the Beasts Name do contain and produce that Number And here likewise we are to attend unto and serve our selves of the advice of the Spirit who says Let him that hath understanding count the Number of the Name of the Beast for it is the Number of a Man. Now every one knows that they were men who at first invented the use of the Letters of the Alphabet in numbring and computing and who gave to every Letter its value 'T is true the Apocalypse is the only Scripture Book where the Letters are applyed to this use but that custom had obtained among the Grecians before St. John wrote The Holy Ghost himself declares that it is the Number of a Man and by imploying three Letters of the Greek Alphabet to express the Number 666. he doth by his own example teach us to search for this Number in the Name of the Beast Now the Name of the Beast as we have already shewed is the Roman Church and Papal Empire and in the Greek which is the Language wherein the Revelation was written the Name of the Roman Church is Lateinos For the Roman Church is called the Latine Church to distinguish it from the Greek and its Religious Service is thro the whole Papal Dominion performed in the Latine Tongue Nor doth the Pope emit his Bulls nor Briefs nor Dispensations nor Excommunications in any Language save the Latine Now if we take the Letters in the Name Lateinos according to their value in the Greek Alphabet we shall therein precisely find the Number 666. A 30 A 1 T 300 E 5 I 10 N 50 O 70 Σ 200  666 What can be said against this computation Was it not Ireneus one of the Holiest as well as one of the most Ancient of all the Fathers that made it One that had been the Disciple of Polycarp who had conversed with St. Iohn There may indeed be found some other Greek Names whose Letters make that Number but then the other Features of the Image of the Beast which do all agree to the Papal Church and Kingdom are not found in any of those other subjects So that we must necessarily conclude that the Papal Empire is the only thing which the Holy Spirit had a mind to represent in this description Besides the Holy Ghost hath afforded us more Representations of the Papacy than one that he might both make it the more discernable and render those inexcusable that will not know it In the 13. Chapter he describes it both under the Image of a Beast i. e. of a Power and Empire and of a Beast with two Horns i. e. that hath a twofold Iurisdiction a Spiritual and a Temporal Of which twofold Authority
all men know that the Papal Kingdom does consist Tho there be some Popish Princes that cannot bring themselves to confess it because their Ambition will not suffer them to acknowledg a Master But in the 17. chap. he sets it before us under the Portraiture of a Woman to give us to understand that this Kingdom represented by the Beast is a Church and a Religious Society For it is the stile of the Prophets as well as of the Apostles to speak of the Church as of a Spouse Nor doth the Holy Spirit describe it only to us as a Woman but as a Harlot and an Adultress to intimate her Spiritual Adultery which is Idolatry and by which she hath violated her Covenant with God. Which is enough to convince the most obstinate Papists that St. Iohn neither speaketh in the 17. Chapter nor in the 13. of a Heathen Society God having never honoured any such with the taking it into Covenant with him But upon the whole it appears to be a Christian Society which thro its Idolatry is become Antichristian Nor doth this Portraiture represent her only as a Woman that is an Adulteress but as a Woman that is the Mother of Harlots Rev. 17. 5. to declare thereby the more plainly unto us that it is the Roman Church which is meant who calls her self as well the Mother as the Mistress of all those Christian Churches that are become Idolatrous as She is Moreover the Holy Ghost represents this Woman that is the Mother of Harlots sitting upon many Waters Rev. 17. 1 15. to point out as it were with the finger unto us the Church of Rome which extendeth and exerciseth her Domination both Spiritual and Temporal over multitudes of People and Nations Finally he describes this Woman sitting upon a Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns Rev. 17. 3. that he may tell us thereby plainly and without shift or evasion that it is the Papacy and the Papal Kingdom which is meant which is risen up in the room and hath taken the place of the ancient Roman Empire According as hath been already demonstrated That we may yet better know this Papal Empire let us take a view of the Image of Gold Silver Brass and Iron which the King of Babylon beheld in his Dream and which Daniel expounded unto him These are the words of the Prophet Chap. 2. v. 20. The fourth Kingdom shall be strong as Iron for as Iron breaketh in pieces all things so shall the fourth Kingdom break in pieces and subdue all That fourth Kingdom is the Roman Empire under Consuls and Heathen Emperors But Daniel adds Whereas thou sawest the Feet and Toes part of potters Clay and part of Iron the Kingdom shall be divided but there shall be in it the strength of the Iron This Division arrived after the Death of Theodosius For then the Empire became divided into the Eastern Empire and the Western Empire Now as the Feet are united with Legs so the Papal Kingdom is united with the Western Empire For it hath both succeeded to it and is possessed of all the Soveraign Rights and Majesty of it The ten Toes of the Feet answer to the ten Horns and to the ten Kingdoms over which the Papal Empire is established and extends its Domination This Empire saith Daniel shall be strong as Iron and weak as Potters Clay Which agrees fully to the Papal Kingdom Upon the one hand there was never an Empire more formidable as it hath proved towards Kings and Emperors who have suffered themselves to be rob'd and derived of their Estates and Dominions by the meer Force of Papal Excommunications And upon the other hand there was never an Empire more feeble in that there needs no more to destroy it but not acknowledg it It s great weakness appeared in the loss and disaster which the bare Writings of Luther brought upon it The Kings who now depend upon it need do no more to be delivered from its yoak but to disclaim its Headship There is one considerable thing more which Daniel adds in reference to the Feet of the Image and which no Expositors have rightly understood The Prophet says Chap. 2. v. 43 that as Iron cannot cleave to clay so they shall not cleave to one another but they shall mingle themselves with or by means of the seed of men Those whom Daniel intends by saying they shall not join together are either the two Empires the Eastern and the Western or the ten Toes the ten Horns and the ten Kingdoms which belong to the Western Empire 'T is probable that the Spirit of God designed both but more especially and principally the latter And the event hath made it certain that the Division of the Roman Empire could never be accommodated and repaired For even while it was Christian it had two Heads one in the East at Constantinople and another in the West at Rome The difference that arose in their Creeds caused that the Greek Church could not unite with the Latine Yet these two Empires did sometimes mingle by the seed of men in that they mutually assisted each other with Forces When the Eastern Empire became Mahometan it was then impossible to unite that Empire with the Empire of the West which is the Papal Nevertheless they have mingled by the seed of men i. e. by the Greeks educated in the Roman Church with whom the Pope fills the Greek Church under the Dominion of the Turks For to this purpose there are Seminaries maintained at Rome from whence there are Missionaries sent every year into the Turkish Empire As to the ten Kingdoms represented by the ten Toes it is certain that if they minded their interest they would never unite with the Pope seeing he hindreth them from being Soveraigns through challenging to be above them and yet even they mingle and unite by the Seed of men Which Seed of men is nothing but the unwritten Word Humane Doctrines and Traditions called by the Prophet the Seed of Men in opposition to the Divine Seed the Seed of which we are born again which is the Word of God 1 Pet. 1. 23. Nor is it any thing save Bigotry in reference to human Traditions that maketh Kings to mingle and unite with the Pope as Children with their Father and causeth them to court him for obtaining his Favour and Pontifical Benediction VI. ILLUSTRATION Of the Eighth King. REV. CHAP. 17. v. 11. AFter that we have explained the Vision of the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns and that of Babylon the Great and that of the Beast with two Horns which is the seventh Head to wit the Pope it will be easie to know who this Eighth King is of whom there is mention made Chap. 17. v. 11. To this purpose let us first hearken to the Exposition of the Angel Rev. 17. v. 9 10 11. The seven Heads says he are seven Mountains and seven Kings Five are fallen one is and the other is not yet come And when
seventh head of the beast with ten Horns is the Pope as Successor of the Emperors The Eight King is also the Pope as he is the Husband of the Roman church which Rules in conjunction with him over all Churches of the Papal Communion And the False Prophet is likewise the Pope as he is a false Teacher one who seduceth the world by his false Doctrines and who hath established the most Despotical Empire that ever was in the World upon the pretence of being the Supream Teacher of the Church 'T is true that the word Prophet signifieth usually one that Fore-telleth things to come but it is also evident that in the Scripture it doth sometimes signify only a Teacher Accordingly St. Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. 14. useth the Term Prophet to signify meerly a Teacher or one that Explaineth a Doctrine And it is in this sense that the Pope is stiled a False Prophet which is as much as to say a False Teacher one that teacheth false Doctrines because that as they are not Revealed so they are contrary to all Revelation We have already proved in the fore-going Illustrations that the Pope is the Seventh Head of the Beast with ten Horns that he is the Beast with two Horns and that he is the eighth King so that he is therefore the False Prophet and consequently Anti-christ Now if it do upon the other side appear that the Pope is Antichrist it will from thence follow that he is the False Prophet the eighth King the Seventh Head of the Beast with ten Horns and the Beast with two Horns And we will endeavour to give that light to these two Truths that all who have eyes to see may easily discern them That the Pope is Antichrist appeareth from this that there is nothing said in the sacred Scriptures concerning Antichrist but what perfectly agrees to the Pope 1 St. John tells us in the 4 th Chapt. of his 1st Epistle v. 3. that he is Antichrist who denieth that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh Now the Papal Doctrine of the Real presence answereth this Character in that Iesus Christ cometh not in Flesh upon their Altars being he is there according to the doctrine of the Romish Church after the manner of a Spirit which hath neither flesh nor bones There is nothing so August and sacred in the Papal Religion as their Eucharist their Host which they call God and Christs Body but a Christ that is not like unto his Bretheren a God that is not manifested in the Flesh. 2 St. Paul speaking of the Son of Perdition who is the Anti-christ tells us in the 2 d Epist to the Thessalonians chap. 2d v. 4. that he exalteth himself above all that is called God. Now Rulers are called Gods in Scripture Psa 82. v. 6. I have said ye are Gods. And the Pope does exalt himself over Kings and Emperors not only in the quality of Spiritual Father but in that of Lord of Lords and of an absolute Soveraign who disposeth of their Crowns and giveth them to whom he pleaseth Of which and acious and lofty attempt History doth furnish many examples 3 St. Paul saith that the Son of perdition exalteth himself above all that is worshipped Now the Sacrament is worshipped in the Church of Rome and to this end it is elevated by the Priest Exposed upon their Altars born about in procession carried to such as are sick by the Priest with a Bell rung before it whereby to give notice to all that are in the streets and in their Houses that they worship the Sacrament But yet the Pope do's Exalt himself above this grand object of the Churches Adoration in that he Travelleth no where without the having it carried before him as the chief of his Guard and with less state than he is born himself Therefore Cardinal Perron stiles the Sacrament the Popes Guard of Defence so that the March of the Son of God who is concealed under the vail of the Sacrament is accomodated unto and Governed by the Popes necessities and occasions and Christs Steps are ordered according to those of his Holiness When the Pope stops the holy Sacrament must stop also which is to say that Christ whom the Angels adore must wait upon the pleasure and depend upon the caprices and humours of the Pope And thus as belongeth unto the Son of Perdition to do the Pope exalteth himself above all that is worshipped 4 St. Paul tell us that the Son of Perdition sitteth in the Temple of God which cannot be meant of the Temple of Ierusalem because there hath been no such thing for these sixteen hundred years And if that Temple were yet it would not be the Temple of God seeing ever since the rejection of the Iews it is called simply the Temple and never the Temple of God. Tho it were to be now again rebuilt and made every way what it was before the time of Vespasian yet there would be no reason why it should becalled the Temple of God forasmuch as since the abolishment of the Levitical Service God dwelleth no more in Temples made with hands Act. 7. 48. So that the Temple here meant is the Christian Church which by the holy Apostles is called the Temple of God. There it is that the Pope sitteth as is here very well expressed And there he is shewed as if he were a God. For they speak of nothing but of the Holy Chair the Chair of St. Peter and of the Roman Chair They use to say that such a one doth now sit or that such a one possesseth the Holy Chair And indeed the Pope sitteth there as a Judg giving out Decrees and Oracles as an Infallible Iudg and as the Soveraign Iudg of Coutroversies So that the Pope as the Son of Perdition sitteth in the Temple of God. 5 St. Paul says further of the Son of Perdition that he sheweth himself that he is or as if he were God. Now the Pope behaveth himself as God not only because he dispenseth with the Law of God and as if he were God requireth obedience to his own Laws under pain of damnation and because he boasteth as a God to have the Keys of Hell and Paradise but because upon the day of his Election he is carried into the great Church and there placed upon the great Altar with the Bible under his feet and worshipped both by all the Cardinals and by all the people with an Adoration that is more than a Civil one 6 St. Paul says moreover of the Son of Perdition that his coming is with all Power and Signes and lying Wonders Which Character of Anti-christ is also as discernable in the Pope as the former are in that his Authority as well as his Doctrine is founded upon Miracles Nor is there amy thing else to be met with in their Legends and in the Lives of those Saints whom the Popes have Canonised But they are Lying Wonders and whose falsity is so
evident as to stare us in the face Forasmuch as the tendency of them is not to support the Truth of the Gospel and to bring Glory to God but to uphold Error and to give Glory to Creatures Nor hath St. Paul pronounced any thing concerning the Son of Perdition which more fully agrees to the Pope than this doth Who can then doubt but that the Pope is the Son of Perdition and Antichrist The Iews being dazzled and confounded with the Miracles of our Saviour they cried out in the 7. of St. Iohn v. 31. when Christ cometh will he do more Miracles than these which this man hath done So I cannot but say that when I consider the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which robs the Son of God of that Flesh which he assumed in order to our Salvation and when I behold the pride of the Pope not only in exalting himself above Kings and Emperors but above the very Sacrament which they adore making himself equal to God and causing that they worship him as God I say that I cannot but declare that I am ready to cry out with a just astonishment when the Son of perdition cometh can he carry Heresy Pride Impiety and Sacriledg to a greater height than the Pope hath done Finally the most lofty as well as the most usual Title of the Pope is that of Vicar of Iesus Christ and this is what the word Antichrist exactly signifies In the 13. chap. of the Acts v. 7. Paulus Sergius is stiled in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Proconsul or the Vicar of the Consul the Term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antichrist is a word of the same form so that if one would say in Greek the Vicar of Jesus Christ he can use no other term if he would speak roundly than that of Antichristâ—s And therefore the Church of Rome by calling the Pope the Vicar of Christ doth thereby declare him to be Antichrist And she is herein like Balaams Ass which spake against and to the reproach of his Master 'T is true that St. Iohn does understand by Antichrist one that is an Adversary of Iesus Christ but it is withal true that the Pope cannot stile himself the Vicar of Iesus Christ without declaring himself to be his mortal Enemy whatsoever profession he maketh to the contrary No more than he that is a married man's Rival can stile himself his Vicar without being his deadly Enemy and without doing him a most bloody Wrong So that the Pope by calling himself the Husband of the Church and by taking to him under that Notion the Title of Vicar of Iesus Christ is the true Antichrist the Enemy and Rival of Iesut Christ That the Pope is a False Prophet and a false Teacher as well as Antichrist which we have proved we need only to observe two Prophesies one of St. Paul and another of Jesus Christ for the clearing of it St. Paul in his first Epist to Timothy 4. chap. v. 1. saith thus The Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils speaking Lies in Hypocrisie forbidding to Marry and commanding to Abstain from Meats which God created to be received with thanksgiving Now the Pope does forbid Bishops and Priests to marry and tho she alloweth both the one and the other to have Concubines yet he will not suffer either a Bishop or a Priest to be joined to a Wife by lawful Matrimony He also prohibiteth and that upon pain of Damnation the eating of Flesh in Lent and upon Fryday So that from hence he is a seducing Spirit a Teacher of Lies and a False Prophet Iesus Christ likewise says in the 24 Chapter of St. Matthew v. 24 25 26. that there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great Signs and Wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very Elect. Behold I have told you before wherefore if they shall say unto you behold he is in the Desert go not forth behold he is in the secret Chamber believe it not He must be under a supernatural blindness who doth not in this Prophesie of the Son of God see the Doctrine of the Real Presence as the Pope teacheth it by his Emissaries 'T is in vain that the Papists seek to relieve themselves from this Exposition by flying to the Testimony of the Fathers because none of them have taken notice of the Real Presence in this passage as we pretend to do For how should the Ancient Fathers observe a thing of which there had then nothing appeared in the Doctrine of the Church It being in the beginning of the ninth Age that Paschasius first brought it upon the stage and it not being received and authorised by the Pope till in the eleventh How could the Fathers then that lived in the first 800. years divine of an event for which they had no foundation towards the bottoming a Conjecture seeing from Adam down to this day there was never any thing seen like it In a word the Fathers were not Prophets and their knowledg was bounded as well as that of other men It being so we are not to wonder that the Fathers did not understand the meaning of this Prediction of our Saviour before it came to be cleared by the Accomplishment which is the only sure Interpreter of Prophesies But if we do not understand it after the help of having seen its completion we shall have no excuse to alledg for our selves For all the Characters of the Real Presence of Christ's Body do evidently appear in this Prediction This Presence as it is taught by the Pope is invisible begetteth Adoration and placeth Christ in a Box or Cupboard which the Papists stile the Pix yea in many Boxes and is founded upon Miracles And if all these Characters be found in the Prophesie of our Saviour what can we desire more towards our being convinced that Iesus Christ foretold it as a false Doctrine that should be advanced by a False Prophet Now it is apparent that all these Characters are found in the Doctrine here predicted by our Saviour 1. The Presence here spoken of is Invisible because Iesus Christ tells us that the false Prophets shall say Lo here is Christ lo he is there To what End would he say of the Presence of a true Human ' Body Behold it is here behold it is there if it were not to instruct us that this Presence shall be invisible and according to the manner of a Spirit For if it were visibly present there would be no need to be advertised of its presence Nor would Iesus Christ have said Believe it not For how would he forbid to believe a presence of his Body that should visibly appear Would he have us to contradict the Testimony of our own Eyes 2. The Advertisement Behold he is here lo he is there can be given upon no other design but to intimate
the Adoration that all men should be laid under an obligation unto 3. The Body of Christ is according to the Papal Doctrine shut up in a Ciborium or Cupboard And this the Greek word here used doth signify 4. Nor is the Body of Christ according to the Doctrine of the Romish Church shut up meerly in one Cupboard which they call a Pix but in many which the Term here being in the plural number doth also denote 5. The Real Presence is built upon Miracles This every one knows by the many stories which we have of the Hosts having appeared in the Form of an Infant and that it hath been seen all Bloody Which our Saviour also foretold in saying that they who should teach this Real Presence should shew great Signs and Wonders insomuch that if it were possible they should deceive the very Elect. Moreover our Saviour forbids us to believe this invisible Presence of his Body Behold says he I have told you before believe it not And withal he declares that the Presence of the Son of man shall be like unto Lightning which shineth from one end of Heaven unto the other And forasmuch as he declareth that they shall be false Prophets who shall teach this Doctrine it does necessarily follow that tho the Pope through putting it into the Romish Creed and entorcing it by Anathema's is that very same False Prophet of whom St. John speaks in the Apocalypse Nor is the Real Presence of Christ's Body upon their Altars and that singular Adoration which they give unto the Sacrament the only false Doctrine in the Papacy whereby to prove the Pope to be this false Prophet But there are many more which serve to give evidence unto it And particularly that of the Worshipping of Images than which there cannot be a Doctrine more notoriously false 'T is most certain that God had forbid three things in his Law the making Images of things that are in Heaven or things that are in the Earth the bowing down before them and the serving them see Exod 20 4 5. Deut. 5. 8 9. All which the Church of Rome not only practiseth but persecutes all those as Hereticks and wicked persons who do in reference to this matter both obey the Injunctions of the Law and imitate the Example of the Jews since the time they returned from the Babylonish Captivity Is it not a false and an Heretical Doctrine to apply to the Virgin Mary in order to our being saved and to invocate her as the Gate of Paradise the Fountain of Grace and the Mother of Mercy If that Doctrine which overthroweth the Foundation be a Heresie Then it cannot be denied but that this is a gross one in that the Foundation of all Salvation is Iesus Christ alone Other Foundation saith St. Paul can no man lay than that that is laid which is Iesus Christ 1 Cor. 3. 11. And St. Peter saith that there is not Salvation in any other nor any other Name given among men save that of Iesus Christ whereby we may he saved Act. 4. 12. Beside can there be a Doctrine more evidently false than that of Popery which affirmeth the Mass to be a proper Sacrifice wherein our Redeemer is every day sacrificed Seeing the Apostle tells us expresly in the Epistle to the Hebrews chap. 10. v. 10. that we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Iesus Christ once for all And he maketh this difference between the Sacrifices of the Law and that of our Saviour that they by reason of their imperfection were dayly offered whereas that of our Saviour because of its being infinitely perfect was offered but once And he addeth further in the same place v. 18. that there being under the Gospel Remission of Sins there is no more offering for Sin. So that here is enough to make it appear that the Pope who teacheth Doctrines so notoriously false and Heretical as these are can be no other than that False Prophet whom the Revelation of St. Iohn threatneth the World with VIII ILLUSTRATION Of the Dragon with Seven Heads and ten Horns REV. CHAP. 12. v. 3. IF we should take up with Appearances we should presently believe that this Dragon is the Devil and the rather seeing he is in the ninth verse called the Old Serpent the Devil and Satan who deceiveth the World. But yet the seven Heads and ten Horns which the Dragon is here said to have will not suffer us to doubt its being the same Roman Empire which is spoken of in the 13. Chap. because they are the same Heads and the same Horns of the Beast upon which the Woman sitteth in the 17. Chapter There is this only difference that the Horns of the Beast upon which the Woman sitteth are adorned with Crowns i. e. are Kings whereas the Horns of the Dragon have not these Marks of Soveraignty Which doth not prove them to be two different Beasts and two different Powers but only that the same Beast and the same Power is represented in relation to two different Times and two different Estates The ten Horns of the Beast upon which the Woman sitteth are according to the Explication given by the Angel ten Kings i. e. many Dominions formed out of the Ruins of the Roman Empire Which serveth to prove that Beast to be Rome and its Empire under the seventh Head and making profession of the Christian Religion Whereas the ten Horns of the Dragon are not adorned with Crowns because they were nothing save bare Provinces of Heathen Rome under the Emperors From whence it doth appear that the Dragon with his seven Heads and his ten Horns must necessarily represent the old Roman Empire and exactly denote Rome under the Emperors who are the sixth Head. 'T is called by the name of a Dragon which is a Beast because it is a Dominion and an Empire 'T is stiled Satan and the Devil by reason of the Devil 's being there worshipped under the name of Mars And from hence we see upon what ground Rome was called Martia and the City of Mars namely because the Devil was there as the Soul which acted that vast Body Even as he is called the Serpent in the seduction of the first Woman because he was as the Soul of the Serpent and that it was he that spake to Eva and who seduced her But the question is what is meant by the Tail of the Dragon drawing the third part of the stars of Heaven and casting them to the Earth They who understand the Scripture-stile of speaking cannot be detained a moment by this difficulty Seeing it appears in Isaiah chap. 9. v. 14 15. and chap. 19. v. 15. that whensoever the Scripture speaks of Head and Tail it does by Head intend a person of Rule and Authority and by Tail meaneth a False Prophet Therefore as the seven Heads signify the seven sorts of Rulers that have Governed Rome so the Tail signifieth the Lies False Doctrines Frauds and Impostures upon which the
Papal Empire is erected This Kingdom is constituted of Errors False Worship and Tyranny And according to the Language of Isaiah Tyranny is denoted by the Head and Errors and False Worship are figured out to us by the Tail. And this is that which maketh up the Mystery Iniquity Dionysius Carthusianus tells us in his Commentaries that the Tail of the Dragon is Antichrist which is a notion as solid as it is ingenious For as the Tail is the End of the Dragon's Body so Antichrist is the End and Tail of the Roman Power And after that the Viols come to be poured out there shall be no more mention neither of Pope nor of Roman Empire neither of Roman Religion nor of Rome As to that which is intended by the third part of the Stars which the Tail of the Dragon cast to the Earth we are to know that the Roman Empire contained about the third part of the World and therefore that this third part of the Stars do signify all the Rulers and Doctors of that part of the world that have been drawn away and ensnared by the Papal Superstitions IX ILLUSTRATION Of the Woman cloathed with the Sun. REV. CHAP. 12. v. 1. THIS Woman whom St. John saw cloathed with the Sun having the Moon under her Feet and upon her Head a Crown of twelve Stars can be nothing but the true Church forasmuch as this Sun is Iesus Christ who is called by Malachy chap. 4. 2. the Sun of Righteousness and whom St. Paul in the 13. chapt to the Romans v. 14. requireth Believers to put on The Moon is the Pedagogy of the Law which as it was changeable so the Church hath trampled it under her Feet This St. Paul plainly intimates in the second chapt of the Epist to the Coloss For as most of the Legal Feasts such as the Passover Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles depended upon the motion of the Moon so the whole Legal Pedagogy is very well represented by the Moon as well as all the changeable things of this world which Believers thro being Citizens of Heaven do despise The Twelve Stars with which this Woman is crowned must signify the Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles which the true Church maketh her Glory and her Crown And this in Opposition to the Antichristian Church which may be said to have the Moon upon her Head and to be crowned with her Forasmuch as by the establishment of Priests Sacrifices Altars Purifications and Moveable Feasts she may be said to have revived the Synagogue rebuilt the Tabernacle of Moses and set up again the whole Legal Oeconomy And she may also be said to have the Sun and the Twelve Stars under her Feet both through her subjecting Jesus Christ to her Priests who do Sacrifice him and the Doctrine of the Apostles to her unscriptural and invented Traditions The Churches being with Child and crying and being in pain to be delivered represents the Persecutions that She suffered during the first three Centuries The Man Child which She brought forth is not Jesus Christ as might seem at the first view because in that sense She must have been the Judaick Church and not the Christian whereas this alone is the Subject of the Revelation But it is Christ Mystical the Church formed of those that were Gentiles which St. Paul in the first to the Cor. chap. 12. v. 12. stiles Christ And this is the more evident because this Man Child is distinguished from Michael v. 7. from the Lamb v. 11. from Iesus v. 17. and is said to overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and to have the Testimony of Iesus And whereas it is said that the Dragon stood before the Woman to devour her Child as soon as it was born That is by way of Allusion to the Birth of our Saviour and the Persecution he suffered from Herod who endeavoured to destroy him So that this Woman is properly the Christian Church which being made up at first of Iews travailed and was in pain to bring forth a Church composed of Gentiles And forasmuch as it is said of this Man Child that he was to Rule all Nations with a rod of Iron the same is promised to all Believers in the Epistle directed to the Church of Thyatira Rev. 2. 26 27. And whereas it is said of this Male Child that he was caught up unto God and to his Throne this doth not hinder us from understanding it of the Christian Church composed of Gentiles Since as such it was exalted to the Throne of the Empire in the person of Constantine and his Successors and was delivered from the Persecutions of Pagan Rome It is an Allusion to the Ascension of Jesus Christ for the Holy Spirit puts that Honour upon the Church when he is speaking of her Combats and Victories as to borrow Expressions which refer to the Combates and Victories of her Divine Husband X. ILLUSTRATION Of the Combate between Michael and the Dragon REV. CHAP. 12. INterpreters are divided about who this Michael should be who fought with the Dragon Some will have it to be Michael the Archangel who disputed with Satan about the Body of Moses and who durst not bring against him a railing accusation as St. Jude tells us v. 9. The same Michael being called by Dan. chap. 10. v. 13. one of the Chief Princes of the People of God. But others will have it to be Christ himself who in his own person fights against the Dragon And this opinion seems to be the truest because the Victory obtained in this Battel is above the power of a created Angel. The defeat given to Satan and his Angels in casting them out of Heaven unto the Earth is a work that belongs properly to none save to Jesus Christ who as he is here stiled by the name of Angel because he is the Angel of the covenant the Angel of the Great Council so he is called Michael that is one who is like unto God because he is the true God the Brightness of the Fathers Glory and the lively and express Image of his Person And of whom the Michael spoken of in Daniel was a Type We have already shew'd in the foregoing Explanations that the Dragon is the ancient Roman Empire or Rome under the sixth Head which was the Emperors but called the old Serpent the Devil and Satan because the Devil was as the Soul that enlivened that Empire and was worshipped in it as a Deity under the name of Mars so that Rome was surnamed Martia the City of the Idol-God Mars This being laid down there is no difficulty in the Vision It being nothing but a Description of the Persecutions which lasted under the Emperors for about the space of three hundred years It was then that Satan had justly the name of the Accuser of the Bretheren according as he is called v. 10. For the Christians during the time of 300 years could not assemble openly but were forced to keep their Mettings in Dens or
by the 42. Moneths mentioned chap. 13 when we come to examin how long Antichristianism is to continue In the mean while that which is spoken v. 13. is worth the serious considering When she Dragon saith St. John saw that he was cast unto the Earth he persecuted the Woman There had been another Persecution of the Church for during the time of three hundred years She had been persecuted by the Pagans but this is a Persecution begun by Christians or by such who called themselves so The Devil being through the conversion of Rome and her Emperors dethroned and cast from Heaven unto the Earth he left the Church in Peace But it was only for a very short time for he suddenly bethought himself of assaulting her by Error and Superstition The first Persecution which was that by Pagans was open and avowed but this which is by the Antichristian Followers of the Beast is carried on more darkly XII ILLUSTRATION Of the Floud which the Serpent cast out of his Mouth and of the Help which the Earth gave unto the Woman REV. CHAP. XII v. 15. V. 15. And the Serpent cast out of his Mouth Waters as a Flood after the Woman that he might cause her to be carried away of the Floud V. 16. And the Earth helped the Woman and the Earth opened her Mouth and swallowed up the Floud which the Dragon cast out of his Mouth V. 17. And the Dragon was wroth with the Woman and went to make War with the remnant of her Seed which keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Iesus Christ NOW Doctrine being called Prov. 18. 4. Waters of the Mouth this Floud must be a Hellish and Mortal Doctrine because it is the Serpent who casts it out of his Mouth to carry away the Woman and to destroy the Church beyond recovery Yet this Doctrine can be none of the Heresies with which the Church was exercised during the first three hundred years because the Church is here treated of after the time of the casting down of the Dragon from Heaven unto the Earth that is after the conversion of Rome and her Emperors So that it must needs be some Heresie started after the Flight of the Woman forasmuch as it is here said that the Serpent cast this Floud after the Woman as being in the pursuance of her upon her Retreat into the Wilderness Now the Woman as we have shewed withdrew into the Wilderness after the Emperors were turned Christian in that the Church begun then to decay in her purity It must therefore refer to those Errors which were condemned by the first four Councils and especially to that of Arius who denied the Eternal Godhead of Christ and taught that he was meerly a Creature made before all other things 'T is true there had arisen some Hereticks before who had vented the same Heresie in the main but it is likewise true that they never made such a considerable Body as to bring the Church into an extream danger Whereas the Arian Heresie by seising and infecting almost the whole Church had near brought it to pass that there should be no more a Christian Church and that there should be no more hope of Salvation For if Jesus Christ be not a Divine Person his Death can have no more vertue than that of Martyrs It could neither have expiated Sin nor that I may say all in one word have been any ways meritorious seeing common sense tells us that a meer Creature cannot merit at the hands of the Creator who is of infinite Majesty This Heresie prevailed over the whole Eastern Church forasmuch as it was approved by five Councils by that of Tyre that of Syrmium that of Ariminium that of Seleucia and that of Antioch But at length it was condemn'd and extinguished by the last Council that was held in reference to that matter which was that of Constantinople under Theodosius the great After which the Church hath enjoyed rest on that side and Iesus Christ hath been adored as co-essential with the Father For since then there have been no Hereticks owning this Heresie that have appeared in any Body For the Socinians are no more a Body than the Atheists and Deists are The Earth then that helped the Woman and which opened her mouth and swallowed up the Floud were all those Councils that condemn'd the Arian Heresie They are stiled the Earth because they are purely a humane Mean and one which God hath not ordained For Iesus Christ hath promised an infallibility to no Assembly of men or if he have it is to two or three who shall assemble in his Name and not to all who come together If we consider the Heresie of Arius meerly upon that foot and if we put it into the list of Heresies meerly upon the account of its being condemned by several Councils and if we believe that Iesus Christ is in all things equal to God only because Councils have so determined this Faith of ours will be but a Humane Faith and not a Divine For it is not Divine but as it hath a Divine foundation and a Divine foundation is no other thing save the Soveraign Authority of God speaking in the Scriptures I do believe that Iesus Christ is every way equal to his Father not because Councils have so decreed but because the whole Scripture doth declare it even from Moses to St. Iohn and from Genesis down to the Revelation The Councils did undoubtedly determine well when they condemned the Heresie of Arius and in that they asserted the Godhead of our Saviour but in the mean time their Decree was only so far just and true as it was conformable to the Word of God. The Councils are therefore no other but a humane Mean because Infallibility doth not reside in them but in the alone Word of God that is the Rule by which they do judg And forasmuch as they are a human mean they are the Earth that helped the Woman and that swallowed up the Flood XIII ILLUSTRATION Of the War which the Dragon being full of Wrath made against the Remnant of the Seed of the Woman REV. CHAP. 12. v. 17. THE Serpent saith St. Iohn was wroth with the Woman and this was upon the finding himself disappointed of that effect which he expected from the Floud which he had cast out of his Mouth and upon his seeing that the Earth had opened her mouth and swallowed it up And being enraged with wrath he went to make War with the remnant of her Seed which keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Iesus Christ But what was not the Dragon wroth with the Woman before the Earth had swallowed up the Floud and before the condemnation of the Arian Heresie Hath he not alway's made War with those that are of the Seed of the Woman It is so nor is the contrary intended here but it is the Scripture way of speaking to express the increase of a thing as if it were
the beginning of it Thus 't is said 1 Sam. 23. 18. that David and Ionathan made a Covenant that is they renewed it for they had made it before So St. Iohn tells us in his first Epist chap 5. v. 13. that he wrote to those who believed that they might believe i. e. that they might increase in Faith. So that that which the Spirit of God would plainly say is that the wrath of the Dragon became inflamed and that he went to make a more dangerous war than he had made before But who are this Remnant of the Seed of the Woman which keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Christ Is there any difference betwixt them and the Church Is not the Church made up of such as keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ There is the same difference between the Woman and those who are her Seed as there is betwixt a Mother and a Daughter The Oriental or Greek Church that had been distressed for about 200 years by the Heresie of Arius is the Mother and the Western or Latine Church is the Daughter and the Remnant of the Seed of the Woman The Bishop of Bitonto used this Distinction in a Sermon which he made before the Council of Trent The Greek Church saith he is our Mother to whom the Latin is indebted for all that She hath And in truth the Terms Church Bishop Priest Deacon Baptism Eucharist and Christian it self are all Greek Terms and plainly shew that our Religion is derived from them from whom we have borrowed the Terms They then who are said to be the Seed of the Woman against whom the Serpent went to make War is the Latine or Western Church where the Dragon all along since that time hath been labouring to accompish the Mystery of Iniquity which was at work in St. Pauls days 2 Thes 2. 7. And this is nothing else save Antichristianism or the Papacy But since the time that a Church of God Separated it self from that which had received the Mystery of iniquity the Church that so withdrew is the remnant of the Seed of the Woman And particularly the Waldenses are this Seed and whose Separation is acknowledged both by Historians and Inquisitors of the Church of Rome who speak of the Waldenses as of Christians who have been Separated from the Roman Church from the time of Sylvester and of Constantine the great Claudius Sesselius Arch-Bishop of Turin tells us in a Book which he writ against the Waldenses that the Sect of the Waldenses took its rise from a most religious person called Leo that lived in the time of Constantine the great and who detesting the covetousness of Pope Sylvester and the immoderate bounty of Constantine chose rather to embrace poverty with the simplicity of the Christian Faith than with Sylvester to be defiled with a Fat and rich benefice and that all they who were seriously Religious joined themselves to him The famous Inquisitor Reynerus Sacco as he is quoted by the Jesuite Cretzer in his Bibliotheck of the Fathers speaks much to the same purpose Amongst all the sects sayth he that either are or have hitherto been there is none that hath been so pernicious to the Church of Rome as that of the Leonists and that for three Reasons 1 Because it is she most ancient and hath continued longest For some affirm that it begun in the time of Sylvester and others in the time of the Apostles 2 Because it hath spread it self farthest there being no place where it is not to be found 3 Because they who are of it have a great shew of piety live vertuously before men believe rightly of the Deity and observe all the Articles of the Creed The Frier Belvedoras in his Relation al consilio de propaganda fide de Extir pandis Hereticis printed at Turin anno 1636. pag. 37 being excusing himself and those Missionaries that were his companions why they could not convert so much as one of the Waldenses do's assign this reason for it namely that that Heresie is too firmly rooted there for any to be able to do good among them in that say's he le Valli d'Angrogna sempre ad in omni tempo hanno havuto Heretici i. e. they of the Valleys of Angrogna have been alway's and through all times accounted Hereticks So that this Woman is exactly the Church of the Valdenses which as Claudius Seysellius tells us did in the person of the forementioned Leo separate from the Church of Rome in the time of Pope Sylvester and of the Emperor Constantine There being two Wings of an Eagle given unto her to assist her in her flight into the Valleys of Piedmont which lye at the foot of the Alp's And from thence they were stiled Valdenses long before the time of Peter Valdo as John Leger hath sufficiently proved in his History These then are the Remnant of the Seed of the Woman who as in France they have been stiled Vaudois from the word Vaux that signifies a Valley so in the Low Countries they have been called Valons which is to say those of the Valleys XIV ILLUSTRATION Of Babylon the great the Mother of Harlots that Sitteth upon many Waters carrying upon her fore-head the name Mystery and having a Golden Cup in her hand REV. CHAP. 17. v. 1 4 5. HAving proved in our Fourth Illustration that Babylon can be nothing else but Rome as professing her self Christian we are now to consider the Description which the Holy Spirit hath given of Babylon and to see how that Picture of her doth agree to Rome There is such an affinity and so many exact Resemblances between Rome and Babylon of the Chaldees that we are not to think it strang that the Holy Spirit hath given unto Rome the name of Babylon They were both founded by persons that were Captains over Robbers and who were great Shedders of blood Babylon by Nimrod who is said to have been a mighty hunter before the Lord Gen. 10. 9. And Rome by Romulus who as another Cain murthered his Brother They were both of them the Seats of great Empires The one as well as the other have had Monarchs who have stiled themselves Kings of Kings For this Title the Pope doth no less claim than Nebuchadnezzar did Both the one and the other have been the Subject of the Visions in the Prophet Daniel As the Babylonish Empire was the first Beast and the Head of the Image so the Roman was the Fourth Beast and the Feet of the Image that were part of Clay and part Iron The one as well as the other hath kept the people of God in Bondage Babylon the Israelites and Rome the Christians The one and t' other have Killed and burnt such as would not worship their Gods. The one as well as the other have been overthrown and after their subversion have past from one Religion to another Babylon being become Mahometan and Rome Popish
and Antichristian Each of them had its Vicar Babylon her Caliph who calls himself the Vicar of God and of Mahomet and Rome her Pope who stiles himself the Vicar of Iesus Christ and of St. Peter Finally Heathen Babylon was a Type of Rome Papal and Antichristian as the Redemption of the Iews from the Babylonish Captivity was a figure of the Departure of the Reformed from the Communion of Rome So that we are not to be surprised that the Holy Ghost should under the name of Babylon intend Rome But we must examin all the Lineaments of this Portraiture that so if it thereby appear that all of them do agree to Rome we may no longer doubt but that it is Rome which is here signified by Babylon In the first place St. Iohn says that he saw a Woman Now as the Church of God is represented under the Idea of a Woman being the Spouse and Wife of the Lamb so Rome is also a Church but She is the Spouse of the Pope whom we have proved to be Antichrist 2. The Woman which St. Iohn saw sat upon a Scarlet-coloured Beast full of the Names of Blasphemy having seven Heads and ten Horns Rev. 17. 3. And we have already proved that this Beast is the Roman Empire Which as it is represented under a Scarlet Colour because both its Senators and Emperors chose to wear that colour so the Beast is said to be full of Names of Blasphemy because the Empire was stiled Eternal Rome a Goddess and the Emperors Gods. The Church of Rome sitteth also upon this Beast because she hath succeeded unto and is possessed of the Majesty of the Roman Empire and hath revived all its Blasphemies through calling her self Eternal and Infallible 3. St. Iohn stiles Babylon a Harlot and the mother of Harlots which is as much as Idolatrous and the Mother of Idolaters Now Rome calleth her self the Mother of all Churches and as she stands convicted of being Idolatrous by the adoration that she giveth to Bread and the accidents of it in the Eucharist and the Worship which she rendreth to the Cross to the holy Virgin to Images and to the Pope himself so all Churches within her Communion are Idolatrous as she is Which proves her to be the Harlot and the Mother of Harlots which St. John describeth 4. He further adds that this Woman sitteth upon many Waters Which Waters the Angel explaineth to be Nations the Waters says he which thou sawest where the Whore sitteth are peoples Nations and Tongues Rev. 17. 15. Now all do know that Rome pretendeth to have a Right of jurisdiction over the whole World and in truth She was heretofore reverenced by all Europe as the Seat of the everlasting Kingdom of the Son of God. 5. Babylon carrieth in her fore-head a Name Written MYSTERY Nor can any deny but that this agreeth to the Church of Rome For the Pope carried heretofore the Name Mystery upon the Brim of his Myter which exactly answered to the forehead Julius the second was he who took it away out of his and since then it hath been no more used nor seen And King James the first of great Brittain having affirmed that persons who were worthy of credit had seen the Name Mystery upon the Miter of the Popes that were before Julius the second the Jesuite Lessius contenteth himself with bare answering that we are not to seek for a Mystery in a Mystery Which is an acknowledgment of the matter of Fact and a confession that it used to be there In a word there is no one thing in the Papal Church but what is Mysterious The Habit 's of the Popes of the Cardinals of the Arch-Bishops of the Bishops of the Priests and of the Monks are all full of Mysteries that are wholly unintelligible to the people Nor doth the Priest use the least Gesture nor the least Motion at the Altar or in any part of their Divine Service which is not Mysterious and hid from the understanding of the Vulgar 6. Of what other but of Rome can that be understood which is said of Babylon namely that she hath a Golden Cup in her hand full of Abominations and Filthiness of her Fornication The Scripture doth elsewhere compare Doctrines to Drink or to diet that is fit to nourish so that these Abominations which are in the Golden Cup are abominable Doctrines such as the Forbidding Priests to Marry and the commanding to abstain from meatâ— The Church of Rome findeth it to be more to her purpose that a Priest should keep a Harlot rather than that he should have a lawful Wife which is an Abomination She imposeth a greater Punishment on them that shall eat Flesh in Lent upon Friday than upon those who commit Adultery and Murther which is an Abomination She taketh away the Cup in the Sacrament both against the express command of the Son of God who sayth drink ye all of it Matth. 26. 27. and contrary to the practice of the Apostles and of the whole Church for the first five Centuries as themselves do aknowledg Which is an Abomination She teacheth that Christ is not really present in the Eucharist unless it be the Priests pleasure to have it so and keth the Presence of the Son of God to depend upon the Intention of a wretched creature which is an Abominable Doctrine She every day Sacrificeth the Lord of Glory and offereth him up to the Honor of Saints which is an Abomination In brief all the Doctrines of the Papacy and all their Worship are an Abomination because they all tend to the Worship of the Creature But the Golden Cup by means of which she makes the people receive and swallow them is her Infallibility It is with this that She Guilds over her false Doctrines and her Superstitious Worship They do ingenuously acknowledg that neither Transubstantiation nor the Sacrifice of the Mass nor the Adoration of the Host nor the Worship of Images nor any of their other Doctrines and Errors are founded on the Scripture but the Church of Rome having decreed and enjoined them and She being Infallible we are to receive them implicitely and without examination or otherway's we are to be eternally damned By means of this glistering Cup all is submissively received by the deluded people This serveth to make them swallow down the greatest Abominations such as the prohibition of reading the Scripture and of serving God in a language which they understand and the doctrines of Worshipping the Host the Cross the Pope the with-holding the Cup and a thousand other Superstitions 7 Moreover it is said of Babylon chap. 18. v. 7. that She saith in her heart I sit a Queen am no Widow and shall see no sorrow Which is the very language of the Church of Rome She stiles her self the Soveraign Lady and Mistris of all Christians not only of inferior people but of Princes Kings and Emperors And indeed She is an Empire having for her Monarch the Pope for her
a new Song before the Throne and before the four living Creatures and the 24. Elders and no man could learn that Song but the 144000. There is nothing difficult in this Vision The Lamb is Jesus Christ Sion is a Mountain separated from Jerusalem and is a Figure of the True Church The 144000. who have the Fathers Name written in their Foreheads are Believers who compose the True Church and who by keeping themselves separated from the Romish Church have this comfort that they do enjoy the gracious presence of their Saviour as Sacrificed for them and they will hearken to no other Saviour but him He then who would know the True Church in order to join himself into Communion with it needs no more but to consider this Portraiture which the Holy Spirit hath vouchsav'd us and wherein he hath given us six Characters of her that so we may not be deceived First 't is said that they were redeemed from among them or from among those of the Earth Now it had been said in the 13. Chap. that all the Earth went or wondered after the Beast 'T is then from this Earth that is from among the Followers of the Beast that they who constitute the True Church are redeemed and separated In the second place they are those who are not defiled with Women for they are Virgins Which words cannot be understood of the Romish Ecclesiasticks without a manifest injury to the Text. Forasmuch as the term Virgin agreeth only to Females nor is the word in the Original used of any but of those of that Sex. We are not then to take the Phrase in a Literal sense but in a Mystical for he speaketh of a Chastity and of a Virginity that is Mystical of a purity of Soul that abhorreth Idolatry as spiritual Adultery For they who are Virgins and who are not defiled with women are set in opposition to those whom the Woman hath made drunk with the Wine of the Wrath of her Fornication that is with Idolatry whereof the Papal Church is manifestly guilty 3. 'T is said that they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth Which is as much as that the Members of the True Church are united to Jesus Christ by indissoluble Bonds and that they follow him on Mount Calvary as well as Mount Tabor in a Wilderness as well as in a Land that flows with Milk and Honey on the raging Sea as well as upon firm ground and as S. Paul says through honor and dishonor through evil report and good report 2 Cor. 6. 8. 4 They are those in whose mouth there is found no Guile for they are without fault before the Throne of God. Which is the language wherein St. Paul speaketh of the Church Eph. Chap. 5. v. 25 26 27. Christ says he loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the Word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish So that it is not true that worldly and wicked persons do constitute the true Church 5. They are those who could learn the new Song that is sung by the 24. Elders and by the four living Creatures What Song can this be which they of the Earth could not learn Forasmuch as that we do not learn Songs but in order to sing them there must be some Mystery contained under this new Song We learn not but in order to practise and they who do not practise do not know nor have they learned So that in a word this new Song is the Mystery of denying our selves and or resolving to bear the Cross Worldlings might learn the Mysteries of Religion if they would The Theory doth not exceed their capacity But to be obliged to deny themselves and to take up the Cross is unintelligible to them or at least that which they will not submit unto and practise Finally they are those who are built upon the Doctrine of the twelve Apostles Therefore they are said to be of the number of the hundred and forty four thousand because twelve thousand multiplied twelve times makes up the number of 144000. Besides it is a definite number put for an indefinite to shew both that God knoweth all those who are his and that they cannot be diminished notwithstanding all the attempts that the Dragon makes against them XVII ILLUSTRATION Of the three Angels of the Everlasting Gospel and of the Denunciation against Babylon and her Followers REV. CHAP. 14. v. 6 7 8 9. GOD hath not only alway's preserved a number of true Believers who as we have already shew'd never worshipped the Beast nor his Image but he hath moreover raised up Teachers who have both openly condemned the Idolatry of the Romish Church and have exhorted the People to withdraw from her Communion And that is this which is here represented in the Vision of the three Angels Forasmuch as the Pastors of the seven Churches are in the second and third Chapters of the Revelation stiled by the name of Angels These Angels are represented in the person of him who appeared the first of the three with the Everlasting Gospel because there is no other Rule whereby to Reform the Church when she is corrupted nor to restore the purity of Gods Worship when it is degenerated into Superstition So that the Eternal Gospel is the same with the Reed wherewith the Temple was measured in the 11. Chap. The Followers of the Beast have alway's used to accuse those of Novelty that have condemned their Errors But the Gospel which they preach in its purity doth fully vindicate them against this accusation because it is the same Gospel which was written and preached by the Apostles and which shall be preached to the consummation of all Ages and is therefore called the Everlasting Gospel There are Three Angels spoken of to intimate Three different Times wherein God raised up Teachers who declared against the Errors and Idolatries of the Romish Church Now these three different Times were the twelfth the 14 th and the 16 th Centuries In the twelfth Age about the year 1126. there arose Peter du Bruit and soon after him in the year 1147. there appeared one Henry of Tholoss whose Disciples were cried down for Hereticks under the name of Petrobrusians and Henricians Tho' they taught nothing but the Everlasting Gospel thro preaching against the Sacrifice of the Mass Transubstantiation Prayers and Offerings for the Dead Invocation of Saints the Adoration of Images the Celibate of Priests and against other Errors and Superstitions of the Roman Church In the same Age there arose also Arnoldus de Bress who upon going into Italy to preach against those Errors was by the command of the Emperor Frederick Barberossa apprehended and to gratify the Pope whose Friendship he sought burnt in the year 1155. In which year Valdo appeared who was had in so great
one or more particulars and that this Iudgment was executed by means of the Reformation which begun in the last Age thro the Ministry of Luther and Zuinglius But that the Vintage signifies a definitive Judgment which shall ruin the Papal Empire beyond recovery thro a general Reformation that shall take place in the beginning of the next Age when the 42. Months and 1260. days will be accomplished These two Reformations seem to be promised by that repetition of the voice from Heaven Bayblon is fallen is fallen However they may be solidly established upon the History of the ancient People of God the Iews The Children of Israel had a twofold coming out of Babylon of the Chaldees One in vertue of the Edict of Cyrus under Zerubbabel and Iehosuah a second in the virtu of the Edict of Artaxerxes and Nehemiah and Ezra Now that the Antitype may correspond with the Type there must be two remarkable Reformations of the Christian Church to answer the two deliverances out of the Captivity of old Babylon The one was about 160. years ago and was effected by the Ministry of Zwinglius and Luther The other is to be when God comes to execute his decree against Rome and to make her drink the Cup of his fury Upon the first return of the Israelites out of Captivity all they did was to erect the Altar and rebuild the temple but upon that which was the second they built the Walls of Ierusalem which made the re-establishment of the Church of Israel entire and perfect 'T is to be much after the same manner in the two Reformations In the first the worship of God was restored which was like the building of the Altar and the rearing up of the Temple But the walls of Ierusalem are not yet restored that is the Church of God is not setled in peace and safety Nor will that be till the next coming out of Babylon thro a general second Reformation In a word the Reformation of the Church is at present very imperfect It hath neither the extent nor that perfection which it ought to have Not the Extent in that it reacheth only towards the west and towards the North. Not the perfection because the Reformed are much divided and there are many Sects which disfigure the Reformation But the last Reformation shall be perfect both in its Latitude and in its purity In its extension in that it shall reach into the South and into the East and to all parts In its purity because there shall be no more Sects no more fondness for parties no more Quarrels no more disputes The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb the Lion and the Ox shall feed together and a little Child shall lead them They shall not hurt nor destroy in all the holy mountain of the Lord. For the Earth shall be full of the knowledg of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea Isa 11. 6 7 8 9. Then shall this prophecy of Isaiah be fulfilled when the Vials of Gods wrath are fully poured out and when the Lord shall have executed his last judgment against Babylon which is here expressed by the Vintage This judg'ment is denounced in Terms that are certainly Hyperbolical But yet we have a hyperbole parallel to it both in the 8 chap. of Isaiah v. 7. and in the 30. chap. v. 27 28. The words of St. Iohn are these and blood came out of the Wine-press even unto the horse-bridles by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs The meaning of which is this that there hath not hitherto been so terrible a judgment as God will bring upon Rome the Seat of the Papal Empire And if the Observation of a certain Learned English man be true that the Ecclesiastical State which is called Romania and which extends it self from Rome to Ancona and to the Ponds of Verona be in length two hundred Italian miles we need not doubt but that this is the place here intended seeing 200 Italian Miles make just 1600 furlongs He who is said here to appear like unto the Son of Man sitting upon a white Clowd and having on his head a Golden Crown is Jesus Christ as is evident by comparing the 14. v. of this chap. with v. 13. of the 1. Chap. and with v. 2. of the 19 ch The Angel that is represented coming out of the Temple saying to him that sate upon the Cloud thrust in thy sickle is the Church calling for vengeance As in Luke chap. 18. v. 7. where it is said shall not God avenge his own Elect which cry night and day unto him Now the delaying to thrust in the sickle till called upon and commanded contains an allusion to the custom of the Iews who were not to put the Sickle into the corn till the High Priest who was in the Temple had given order for it Moreover this is the very same judgment with that which is described chap. 19. where the Wine Press of Gods wrath is also spoken of And the same likewise with that denounced in the Effusion of the Vials only with this difference that what the Vintage expresseth in general the Vials declare in particular XIX ILLUSTRATION Of the Sea of Glass mingled with Fire REV. CHAP. 15. v. 2. IT being the Scripture Stile of speaking to compare people to waters and a great multitude of people to the Sea we need not doubt but that it is the Church of God that is intended by the Sea here spoken of Now the Church of God is stiled a Sea because she is an Assembly of people And she is called a Sea of Glass in opposition to other Societies of the world which are tempestuous and muddy whereas the Society of Belivers is clean and peaceable being justified thro the blood of Jesus Christ and Sanctified by the Spirit of Regeneration Fire is mingled with this Sea because of the afflictions and persecutions which the Church hath suffered from Babylon As for those who had gotten the Victory over the Beast and over his Image and over his mark over the number of his Name and who stand upon this Sea of Glass with the harps of God in their hands and who sing the song of Moses of the Lamb. They can be no other than the Confessors and Martyr's who died in the faith of the Lord victorious over all the persecutions of Babylon And who are here compared to the Israelites that sung a song to the honor of God upon their having passed through the red Sea and seen the entire destruction of their Enemies And whereas 't is said of these conquerors over the Beast that they stood upon a Sea of Glass he meaneth no more than their being upon the shore For it is certain that this phrase upon the Sea doth else where signify the being meerly upon the Seashore 1 Kings 4. 20. where the sand by the Sea shore is spoken of as being upon the Sea. For these blessed Martyrs may be said to be
of the Militant Church forasmuch as the Church Militant and Triumphant are but one and the same Mystical Body Tho in the mean time they be not in the Church Militant but retired and withdrawn For they are not any more upon the Sea but they are gotten upon the Shore XX. ILLUSTRATION Of the opening of the Temple and of the Smoak where-with it was filled REV. CHAP. 15. v. 5 10. THe whole House built upon Mount Moriah is called the Temple and yet only that Appartment called the Holy of Holies where the Ark stood was properly the Temple and which is otherway's stiled the Tabernacle of Witness The opening of the Temple which is here spoken of is an allusion to the Church of the Iews For under the Reign and Idolatry of Ahaz the Temple was shut up but under Hezekiâ— the Reformer it was again opened So that this is as if St. John should say I saw the time of the Reformation when the Idolatry and Superstition of Rome were condemned and the Truth of the Gospel was publickly preached From thence these three things are to be gathered 1 That the Vials which are mentioned in this 15 chapter and poured out in the following do belong to this state of the Church wherein Antichrist is made manifest and wherein there shineth a measure of light in the Church 2 That the Vials are all contained under the seventh Trompet seeing we have the same fact that is here mentioned repeated under that Rev. chap. 11. v. 19. And 3 the Temple is not here Represented open in order to give a passage to the seven Angels that pour out the Vials but to give way for all Nations to enter in according as it is said v. 4. that all Nation shall come and worship before God. And this may be collected from v. 8. where it is said that no man could enter into the Temple till the seven plagues of the seven Angels were fulfilled Which plainly shews that the Temple is therefore opened that there may be a way made for men to enter into it against whom it had been so long shut The Smoak that filled the Temple answereth to the Cloud that covered the Tabernacle of Moses and to the Divine Glory which so filled the Tent of the Congregation that Moses himself was not able to enter into it Exod. chap. 40. v. 34. which thing is also reported of the Temple of Solomon 1 Kings chap. 8. v. 10 11 Now as the Cloud was a Symbol ' of Gods gracious presence in the midst of Israel so the Smoak here spoken of is a presage of the Lords Return again into his Temple which he had for so song time abandoned to the Gentiles i. e. to the followers of the Beast and to the Citizens of Babylon chap. 11. v. 2. 'T is added that this Smoak caused that no man was able to enter into the Temple till the seven plagues of the seven Angels were fulfilled Which intimateth that tho the time of the destruction of the Churches Enemies draweth near and the time wherein the Gospel shall shine bright in the world yet that the Gospel will not be universally received and followed of all Nations till after the Subversion of Babylon which will not be until the Vials have been poured out XXI ILLUSTRATION Of the fall of Babylon and the Time when REV. CHAP. 18. THe Destruction of Babylon is described at length in the 18th Chapter But whereas Babylon may be taken either for the City of Rome or for her Empire which is the Papacy or Popery the Destruction described in the 18th chap. do's respect her only in the first sense to wit as She is the Seat of the Beast According as She is intended in the effusion of the fifth Vial that is as She is the Seat of the Papal Kingdom For after that the Angel had said that her plagues shall come in one day death and mourning and famine and that she shall be utterly burnt with fire because strong is the Lord God who judgeth her he then addeth that the Kings of the Earth who have committed fornication and lived diliciously with her shall bewaile her and lament for her when they shall see the smoak of her burning that the merchants also shall mourn over her because none buyeth her Merchandise any more and that every Ship-master and all Sailers in Ships shall cast dust on their heads when they shall see the smoak of her burning Now who are these Kings these Merchants these Shipmasters and these Sailors that do thus mourn and lament upon the seeing the subversion of Rome and the total ruin of her that was both the mother of their Faith and of all Churches The Kings are partly the Cardinals who do esteem themselves equal to Princes and partly Kings themselves and Soveraign's that are Secular The Masters of Ships are Archbishops and Bishops The Sailers are the inferior Clergy The Merchants are the Friers that sell the dispensations the Indulgences the Relicks the Agnus Dei's c. and who do vend those Triffles as the most precious of all commodities making people believe that the peace of their consciences and the salvation of their Soul 's pend upon them So that there shall be papists and Roman Catholicks subsisting after that Rome is destroyed and who shall worship that Idol tho reduced into ashes Thus 't is said in the 16th chap. v. 10. that the fifth Angel poured out his Vial upon the Seat of the Beast and his Kingdom became full of darkness The Seat of the Beast is the City Rome which is now the Seat of the Papal Kingdom as it was heretofore of the Roman Empire But this Kingdom shall subsist for a while after that Rome it self is destroyed Forasmuch as it is said that after the pouring out of the fifth Vial the Kingdom of the Beast became full of darkness i. e. sorrowful dejected full of affliction and mourning without that pomp and splendor which it had enjoyed before the effusion of that Vial. Yea St. Iohn tells us in the 19. chap. v. 19. that he saw the Beast and the Kings of the Earth and their Armies gathered together to make war against him that sat upon the white Horse and against his Army And that the Beast was taken and with him the false Prophet that wrought miracles before him with which be deceived them that had received the mark of the Beast and them that worshipped his Image and that these two were cast alive into a Lake of fire burning with brimstone So that it shall be after the destruction of the City of Rome ere the Papal Hierarchy and the Pope come to be entirely abolished The Time that is to run out between the one and the other is not expresly marked by the H. Spirit no more than the Time wherein Rome is to be destroyed But in all probability this destruction can not be far off For of the two signs which are to precede it we do already see one
of them One of the signes is the increase and thickning of darkness Nor is it without a Mystery that Babylon is threatned with plagues in the plural number Rev. 18. 4. It being evident that the Holy Ghost doth therein allude to the Plagues of Egypt For it is said of Babylon chap. 11. v. 8. that she is Spiritually called Sodom and Egypt Now as she is stiled Sodom both because she hath committed the crime of Sodom and is to be destroyed by fire as Sodom was Rev. 18. 8. So she is called Egypt both from her having afflicted the people of God as Egypt did and because she is to be punished as Egypt was And as the last plague wherewith the Lord smote Egypt was that of the death of their first-born so the last save one was that of darkness Of which 't is said Exod. ch 10. v. 22 23. that it was so thick that they could not see one another 'T is a long time since the darkness of ignorance and impiety had over-spread the whole Romish Church Baronius and a hundred other Popish writers do acknowledg the thickness of it in the tenth age to a measure and degree that is astonishing But it was never so gross and palpable as it is at present nor is it possible that it should be greater What ignorance can be more infamous or what Impiety can be more enormous than that which appeareth in the whole conduct of the Roman Clergy against the Reformed in France They compel them to go to Mass they compel them to confess they compel them to Communicate they compel them to adore the Host and to eat what they have worshipped tho they know that the Protestants do not adore it All which is as much as to say that Rome will have her God served by hypocrites and that she doth believe such a service to be acceptable to him Yea it importeth Romes obliging her pretended Converts to prophane the most august and Sacred thing in their Religion which is the heighth of impiety and which can proceed from nothing but an ignorance as gross and palpable as the Egyptian darkness was For tho the Gentiles have prophaned the Mysteries of the Jews and tho the Pagans have Prophaned the Mysteries of the Christians and tho the Mahometans and the Protestants have Prophaned the Mysteries of the Papists yet nothing of all this is to be wondred at seeing every one acteth therein according to his principles and sutably to that hatred which all men bear to a Religion that they believe to be false But for either Christians or Jews or Mahometans or Pagans and especially the publick Ministers of those Religions to compel their Enemies to prophane the Mysteries of their own Religion and to expose the object of their Adoration to the contempt of their Adversaries is a thing that was never heretofore done 'T is possible that it might be done by some particular men that were Libertines had no Religion but that Ministers themselves should do it is a fact whereof we have no example in History But on the contrary we find all men to have punished the contempt offered to the Mysteries of their Religion in the most terrible manner that they could 'T is only the Popish teachers the Emissaries Bishops Priests and Friers of Rome that are sunk into this excess of impiety and become guilty of this prodigious profanation as to make people through force to worship and eat that which they know in their hearts that they do not worship but despise and abhor And as it is only the Roman Clergy that is sunk into this excess of wickedness so it is but of late and this may be said to be the first time that they have been given up to so horrid a profanation They were wont alway's heretofore to murther those whom they stiled Hereticks and they counted it both honorable and meritorious to kill them 'T is but within these few years that they have altered the method of their procedure and that they have cast their pearls before those whom they themselves esteem for swine in order to make converts at the cost of what is most sacred and holy in their Religion This Impiety must undoubtedly flow from a Darkness answerable to that of Egypt which hindreth Rome from discerning and distinguishing between its own Mysteries and those of its Enemies And by consequence the last plague which is that of the death of the first-born must suddenly follow Now the death of the first-born with respect to Rome will be the loss which she will sustain by the falling off of Kings and Princes who are the first-born of the Earth Rome will then lose Kings when they come to throw off her yoak 'T is said Rev. chap. 17. v. 16. that Kings shall hate the whore and eat her flesh The Flesh of Babylon is the vast riches of Rome the Treasures which she sucks out of Kingdoms as a kind of Tribute the Revenues and Benefices of her Clergy which Kings shall seise into their own hands and grow weary of being any longer Tributaries to her All know that the King of France is distinguished from all other Monarchs by the Title of Eldest Son of the Church and it is probable that he will not be the last in throwing off the yoak And it belongs to the most Christian King to set such an example rather than to follow it Having said that Rome shall perish after the manner of Sodom and Egypt I do further add that she shall also perish after the manner of Babylon and that this is one of the reasons why she is called by that name When she comes to see herself stript by Kings she will endeavour to reduce them to her obedience by the thunders of the Vatican and by Papal Excommunications But they upon the being thus treated shall make war against her to punish her insolence And shall so besiege and shut her up that she shall come to feel all the scourages of divine vengeance If it shall be objected that this is contrary to what St. Iohn saith of Kings namely that upon the beholding the smoak of her burning they shall mourn over her I answer that when Rome comes to be besieged fire from heaven will fall upon her as it did upon Sodom and that the Kings who had besieged her will lament and mourn to find that the immediate hand of God should ravish them of so fine a prey and so rich a spoil as that would have been XXII ILLUSTRATION Of the binding of Satan for a thousand Years and of the Millenary Reign REV. CHAP. 20. I Do ingenuously confess that I have been as much prejudiced against the modern Millenarians as against the ancient Tho there seemeth to me to be as great difference between the Ancient and the Modern as between those who carry a matter too far and who observe no bounds and those who are extreamly moderate and sober and who use all the discretion and softnings
imaginable But in truth after that I had throughly examined the vision of St. Iohn and the juncture of time where the Holy Spirit placeth the Reign of a thousand years to wit between the destruction of Babylon and all the Enemies of the Church upon the one side and the War of Gog and Magog as a fruit of the loosing of Satan after he had been imprisoned for a thousand years upon the other side I must declare that I find my self conquered and that I am forced to believe that the Church of God is to enjoy for some Ages an entire and uninterrupted peace here on the Earth I am confirmed in this opinion by a vast number of Prophesies both of the Old and New Testament which cannot be expounded without violence offered to them and are if I may so speak so many inexplicable riddles unless the Church of God be to enjoy that peace in this world of which those promises give us assurance And finding not the least danger in embracing that opinion I have closed with it without any further hesitation For what danger can it be to believe that the Church of God shall enjoy a thousand years Tranquillity here on the Earth I do see none unless it be that the believing so will give offence to the Orthodox who are of another mind and who affirm that the Cross is to be the Banner and Livery of the Church of God thro all Ages But these very Gentlemen do acknowledg that the Church had rest and peace during the Reign of Constantine And there are some who place the thousand years here spoken of under the Reign of that Emperor And do understand by them the Tranquillity that the Church enjoyed from the conversion of Constantine till the time that She became disturbed and persecuted by the Arrians So that the Orthodox Antimillenarians do confess that the Church had at least a twenty years calmness and serenity Why then should they be offended that others who are Orthodox make the peace which the Church is to enjoy to be of a greater length and duration And they cannot but own that the Cross is not essential to the Church of God. It is an accident without which the Church may very well subsist God can as well sanctify the Church in prosperity as in adversity in a calm as well as in a tempest Iob was righteous and rich in good works in the time of his affluence as well as in the time of his misery And why may it not be so in reference to the Church of God If the world be to last seven or it may be eight thousand years what danger will there be in allowing the Church of God one thousand years peace for the six or seven thousand that She is be in trouble and sufferings But let us without prejudice hearken unto what God saith to us upon this subject both by the Ministry of St. Iohn and that of the ancient Prophets Lo what St. Iohn tells us Rev 20. V. 1. I saw an Angel come down from Heaven having the Key of the bottomless Pit and a great Chain in his hand V. 2. And he laid hold on the Dragon that old Serpent which is the Devil and Satan and bound him a thousand years V. 3. And cast him into the bottomless Pit and shut him up and set a Seal upon him that he should deceive the Nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled and after that he must be loosed a little season V. 4. And I saw Thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them and I saw the Souls of them that were beheaded for the Testimony of Iesus and for the Word of God and which had not worshipped the Beast neither his Image neither had received his mark upon their Foreheads or in their right hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years V. 5. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished This is the first Resurrection V. 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be Priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years V. 7. And when the thousand years are expired Satan shall be loosed out of his prison V. 8. And shall go out to deceive the Nations which are in the four Quarters of the Earth Gog and Magog c. The Church of Jesus Christ hath a right to say as Iob did I know that my Redeemer Liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth Chap. 19. v. 25. And that not only to raise and gather together my Bones which are scattered about the Graves mouth when he cometh from Heaven with his Glorious Angels to judg the quick and the Dead at the general Resurrection but also to deliver me from the misery wherein I have been in this world and to cause me to enjoy an entire peace after the destruction of all my Enemies For Iob was as well a Type of the Church of Christ as of Jesus Christ himself who is her adorable Head. This is that peace of the Church which St. Iohn doth here represent after that he had described her sufferings For he saw her Rising after the ruin of Babylon and injoying the gracious presence of her Redeemer after the imprisonment of Satan and the conversion of the unbelieving and Idolatrous Nations If we will give credit to some Divines this is the most obscure passage in the Revelation but this obscurity does arise from themselves and from three prejudices wherewith they are possessed 1. That the world is not to last any long time because St. Peter says that the end of all things is at hand 1 Epist chap. 4. v. 7. 2. Thar the opinion of the Millenarians who conceived that Jesus Christ should come from Heaven down here upon the Earth to converse visibly with his people and to cause them enjoy all sorts of pleasures for a thousand years hath been condemned as a carnal opinion tending to sensuality 3. That the Cross is to be the Livery of Christs Disciples through all Ages because Jesus Christ hath said if any man will come after me let him take up his Cross Matth. 16. 24. and because the Apostles have declared that through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God Acts 14. 22. But we deceive our selves if we do believe the World to be fo near its end seeing before that the Jews are to be converted the Kingdoms of the world are to be brought in to Jesus Christ Babylon is to be destroyed and who knoweth how long time there is to be between the destruction of Babylon and the ruine of her King and of her Religion without reckoning what time there may be to run out from the end of the thousand years Reign to the end of the War of Gog and Magog and from thence to the
consummation of all Ages They have reason to disclaim the opinion of the ancient Millenarians as carnal and absurd But there is no cause of counting it a carnal opinion to believe that the Church shall enjoy Tranquillity and Peace for a thousand years during which time she shall have no visible Enemies by whom to be oppressed Antichrist being totally destroyed and all the Nations of the world enlightned with the knowledg of the Truth In a word to believe as is the common opinion now that the thousand years Reign shall be spiritual and that it will consist in this that the number of true Christians shall be greater than ever it hath been their knowledg more large their Assemblies more holy their Love more strong their Zeal more ardent and that there shall be a most perfect peace both inward and outward Neither hath Jesus Christ nor have his Apostles said that the Cross and Tribulations shall be the Livery of Christians and the path to Paradise to the end of the world nor have they any where declared that the Church is never to enjoy any long peace here on the Earth For both St. Iohn and the Prophets give us ground to hope for such a calm and Tranquillity As for St. Iohn it was not possible for him to speak of it in a more express manner than he hath here done For after he had foretold the destruction of Babylon of the Beast and of the false Prophet whose rage had wearied the Church with so many persecutions and for so many Ages he doth now represent Satan's being cast into prison that he might not deceive the Nations for the space of a thousand years How can the Church be persecuted during this whole time wherein Satan shall be bound and the Nations no more deceived the Papacy being either wholly abolished or so weakned that it cannot lift up its head This peace of the Church is then a natural and an infallible consequence of Satan's being cast into Prison St. Iohn further added I saws say's he the Souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Iesus and which had not worshipped the Beast and they reigned with Christ a thousand years this is the first Resurrection This Reign can be nothing but a State of Tranquillity and of a profound Peace of the Church because it is set in opposition to her state of Bondage Trouble and Oppression during the cruel and bloody Reign of Antichrist As to this first Resurrection it cannot be meant of that from the Grave of Sin which is the Souls Conversion and Sanctification For St. Iohn designs it by the Relative This because of its reference to what he had said Now he had not spoken one word of the Resurrection from Sin but had discoursed only of living and Reigning with Christ a thousand years and of Thrones that were given whereon to judg i. e. to reign which expresseth a flourishing condition of the Christian Church and that she is to have sway and Authority over all the world for a thousand years But it can no way 's agree to that Resurrection which consisteth in Sanctification Is it then to be thus that the Martyrs are to be raised and to live on the Earth a thousand years with Jesus Christ It is certain that this opinion containeth nothing that interferes either with Reason or with Faith. For this being the only place of the Bible wherein this particular Resurrection of the Martyrs is spoken of and that in all other places the general Resurrection is mentioned 't is most safe and most agreeable to the Analogy of Faith as well as most conformable to the Stile of the Prophets to understand by this Resurrection the deliverance of the Church from all her Enemies and her State of peace and Tranquillity For Afflictions being called a Death Ezek. 37. 2 3. Isaiah 26. 14 19. and 2 Cor. 1. 9 10. by consequence Deliverance from Afflictions may be called both a Resurrection and a first Resurrection not only because it goes before the general but because it is a pledg and a forerunner of it They whom Babylon had condemned to death as Hereticks were esteemed by her Followers to be damned and to undergo the second Death But when the Church shall come to be delivered from her Enemies her Martyrs shall then be fully justified And when she comes to Reign a thousand years her Martyrs shall then be acknowledged to be happy and to be Reigning with Christ Thus it is clear that they shall be blessed who have part in this first Resurrection And herein the Martyrs will have a part because their Honor shall be established and their Memory universally blessed But it may be said that this seems to import that all who shall live in the Communion of the Christian Church during the time of the 1000. years Reign shall be saved and that all they who have part in this first Resurrection shall be delivered from the power of the second Death If one should believe so it would be no Heresie nor can the will of God concerning this be known by any nor how far he will extend the effusion of his Grace It may be that he will then pour out his Spirit upon all Flesh and that all Christians then shall be really and in truth a willing People in the beauties of Holiness a Holy Nation and a Royal Priesthood And it would seem as if St. John favoured this opinion in that he saith not meerly blessed is he but Blessed and Holy is he who hath part in the first Resurrection At the least we may truly say that whereas hitherto Worldlings and Hypocrites have exceeded the number of sincere Christians the thousand years Reign will shew us the contrary and that more than a third part of the seed of the word shall then fall into good and honest Hearts and shall bring forth eighty and a hundred for one Nor is there any thing carnal in this Millenarian opinion but all doth become the magnificency of the Prophecies and all is suteable to the wisdom of God and to the infinite riches of his Grace Nor is it St. Iohn alone who hath promised this Reign of a thousand years but Daniel and Isaiah have also promised it tho' less clearly than this Apostle as there was reason Daniel says in his second Chap. v. 35 44 45. that the Image which appeared to the King of Babylon in his Dream was broken in pieces by a little stone cut out of a Mountain and that this little Stone cut out without a hand became a great Mountain and filled the whole Earth This little Stone is the Christian Church the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which is to out-live the destruction and ruin of the Papal Roman Empire represented by the Feet of the Image and that after the subversion of all Empires which are contrary to this of the Son of God it is to spread it self throw all Nations This is not yet fulfilled but it must be
Christ shall Reign after an eminent manner upon the Earth for a thousand years 'T is this second Marriage which is spoken of here in the 19. chap. Which Chapter may be called an Epithalamium or a Wedding Song because St. Iohn say's that he heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thunders saying Alleluja for the Lord God omnipotent Reigneth Let us be glad rejoice give honor to him for the Marriage of the Lamb is come his Wife hath made her self ready to her was granted that they should be arayed in fine linnen which is the Righteousness of the Saints The Spouse of this Marriage is the Christian Church being filled up with the fulness of Iews and Gentiles The Iews refused to come to the Marriage of the Son of God Matth. 22. 2. c. but they are here represented coming with joy And that is doubtless the reason why the Term Allelujah is four times used in this chapter as a Term familiar unto the Iews and ordinarily used by them in their Synagogues This Marriage is stiled a Supper blessed are they who are called unto the Marriage Supper of the Lamb v. 9. Because it is to be celebrated in the evening of the worlds duration The Marriage to which the Iews were first invited by their Lord is called a Dinner Matth. chap. 22. v. 4. but here at this second Marriage they are called to a Supper as being the last Invitation The Iews rejected the first Invitation because Christ left the Roman Empire in the state he found it whereas the Iews had strongly hop'd that the Messiah would have delivered them from its domination And now the same Roman Empire become Papal doth as much and more keep them off from Christianity because they cannot imagine that Idolaters can be the people of the Messiah and they have reason for it But when the Papal Empire shall come to be destroyed as it assuredly shall upon the Effusion of the Vials and when the Beast and the False Prophet shall be cast into the bottomless pit in a word when the Papacy shall be abolished with all its Idols then the Iews will be no longer deaf to Gods call but will come to the Supper of the Marriage of the Lamb shall unite with Christians to worship together the God of Abraham and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ The Church of Rome boasteth herself to be the Church of God but her vanity therein doth appear after such a manner that she might blush if she were capable being so vastly different from the Church which Jesus Christ acknowledgeth for his Spouse and which is called here the Spouse of the Lamb. There is as great a difference between the Church of Rome and the Church of Iesus Christ as there is between Babylon and Jerusalem between a Harlot and the Spouse of the Lamb. She discovereth herself by her gaud'ries and costly habit 's which serve for nothing but to gratify the sight and please the senses The Church of Christ manifesteth her self by another kind of Dress which is nothing but Righteousness and holiness For to her was granted that she should be arayed not in purpl ' and scarlet as Babylon but in fine linnen which is the Righteousness of the Saints XXIV ILLUSTRATION Of the holy Jerusalem REV. CHAP. 21. v. 10. ALL Interpreters do agree that this Ierusalem described Chap. 21 is the Church of God but they differ in this that some do believe it to be the Church of God glorified in Heaven whereas others do take it to be the Church Militant on Earth but victorious over all her Enemies and enjoying an universal peace during the 1000 years which have been spoken of This last opinion is the truest 1 Because the Angel entreth upon this description of the Church of God as he had entred upon the description of Babylon chap. 17. 'T is there said v. 1. One of the seven Angels which had the seven Vials talked with me saying I will shew thee the whore and her judgment The same is said here One of the seven Angels which had the seven Vials talked with me saying come hither and I will shew thee the Bride the Lambs Wife After the same manner that the glory of Babylon is represented there is the glory of the Church of God described here but such as she shall have afier the destruction of her Enemy 'T is in the prospect and hope of this that the Church do's rejoice Mica 7 8. c. Rejoice not against me O mine Enemy tho I be fallen I shall arise tho I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause then she that is my Enemy shall be covered with shame and mine eyes shall behold her troden down as the mire of the streets 2 The Church of God is here called the great City a Title which had been given to Babylon in the 16 17 and 18 Chapters Because the whole Earth went after Babylon while the Church of God did hardly appear being brought into a narrow compass and to a small number but now Babylon hath abandon'd the field and appeareth no more and now the Jews are brought again in and the fulness of the Gentiles is entred into the Tents of Jerusalem which being forced to stretch out her curtains by reason of the conversion of all nations is therefore called that great City This is exactly the little Stone in the Prophesie of Daniel which was to become a great Mountain And this Prophecy is to be fulfilled on the Earth before the day of judgment 3 'T is said in the 24 th verse that the Nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it and the Kings of the Earth do bring their glory and their honor into it Which can no way's be applied to the Church triumphant in heaven but agrees unto her as she is victorious on the Earth over the fury of the Beast and as she is in the enjoyment of her Millennian tranquillity It will be then that the Prophecy of Isaiah will be fulfilled chap. 49. v. 22 23. Behold I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles and set up my standard to the people And they shall bring thy Sons in their arms and thy Daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders And Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and their Queens thy nursing Mothers they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the Earth and lick up the dust of thy feet Moreover the Church of God as she shall be glorified in heaven having been described in the beginning of the Chapter as well as the frightful state of the damned is in the 8th verse it is evident that in the 9. verse and forward the Angel describeth a glory of the Church different from that of heaven which
hast to put it into practice which succeeded to them according to their desires Calcondyla reports that Mahomet II. being besieging Constantinople caused Canon to be cast of so extraordinary a bigness that there needed seventy couple of Oxen and two thousand men to draw one of them 7. The Third part of men killed intimateth the Progress and Spreading both of the Turkish Empire and of their Religion which reunited all their different principalities in the person of Tangrolipix To him succeeded Asan in the year 1059. just about the time that Pope Gregory VII raised the Papacy to the highest top of grandure And it was this Asan that rendred himself Master of all the Countries from the City of Laodicea in Syria even to the Hellespont of Antiochia of Cappadocia of Bithynia of Lycia of Pesidia of Lycaonia of Paphlagonia of Galatia of both the Celicia's of Pontus and of Anatolia And from that time the Sultans have alway's advanced their conquests and have destroyed the Roman Empire in the East having made Constantinople which was formerly the Imperial Seat of it to be that of the Turkish and Mahometan Empire 8. It was upon the Christians that the Turks made all their Conquests and of this the Holy Spirit gives such a reason as might serve to open the eyes of the Papists because it convinceth them of being guilty of Idolatry This accusation the Papists do account the most sensible injury that can be done them but it is a condemnation that they must bear For saith the Holy Spirit The rest of the men that were not killed by these plagues 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 At whose cost was it that the Mahometans erected their Empire Against whom were they the Scourges of God for the punishment of their Idolatry It was not against the Heathens for there were none such within the whole extent of the Eastern Roman Empire It was at the expence of Christians that the Turks extended both their Empire and their Religion And therefore seeing the Holy Ghost declareth that the punishing the Idolatry of Christians was the reason of loosing of the four Angels in the River Euphrates to commit so many Murders it is from thence evident that the Christians who were subdued were Idolaters and also apparent wherein their Idolatry consisted Namely in this that they worshipped Devils and Idols of Gold of Silver of Brass of Stone and of Wood. Nor can it be denied but that the Roman Church is guilty of the same crime If it shall be said that the Roman Church doth not worship Devils as those mentioned in the Text are said to have done I answer first that the word in the Original is Demons which signifieth properly inferior and lower Gods Gods who are Mediators between men and the Supream God which is a Title liberally given to the Saints in the Church of Rome And in which sense the Word used in this place ought necessarily to be expounded seeing there were never any Christians that made profession of worshipping Devils neither could the very Heathens be said to do that forasmuch as Devils were wholly unknown among Pagans I answer secondly that all Religious worship given to a Creature is judged by the Scripture to be rendred to Devils This appeareth fully Ps 106. v. 37. where it is said that they sacrificed their Sons and Daughters unto Devils The Roman Church does believe that She worshippeth God in worshipping Images of Gold of Silver of Brass of Stone and of Wood but the Prophets do instruct us by the example of the Israelites that this Worship is given to Devils They sottishly flatter and deceive themselves in distinguishing betwixt an Idol and an Image foraâ— much as the Greek Term Idol signifieth the same that the word Image doth in our vulgar languages Moreover they who were killed by the Turks worshipped not Devils They only did as the Roman Church doth towards her Images of Gold and Silver c. Yea She doth worse than those Oriental Idolatrous Christians did For she worshippeth as God the Sacrament which must therefore necessarily be a Creature because it is a Sacrament and which cannot be Jesus Christ because it is Instituted by him For that which is Instituted must necessarily be something different from him that Ordains it XVII ILLUSTRATION Of the Angel with the Book Open. REV. CHAP. 10. V. 1. And I saw another mighty Angel come down from Heaven clothed with a Clowd and a Rain-bow was upon his Head and his Face was as it were the Sun and his Feet as Pillars of Fire V. 2. And he had in his hand a Little Book Open and he set his right foot upon the Sea and his left foot on the Earth THe Rain-bow which appeared upon the Angels Head doth place Him out of the rank of created Angels and gives us to understand that this is the Angel of the Covenant the Angel who is the Creator of whom there is mention at the opening of the Seventh Seal namely Iesus Christ And whereas it is added that his Face was as the Sun and his Feet as Pillars of Brass that is a demonstration that he is the same with him who revealed himself to St. Iohn in the first Chap. to wit the Son of God. He appeareth having in his hand a Book open Which Book is not that of the Apocalypse but that of the Holy Scripture in general For the Six Trompets having represented the spoil which popery had done in the Western Church and Mahometanism in the Eastern this Vision doth foretell how this ravage shall be repaired by the preaching of the Gospel For this is an open Book to all such as do in sincerity seek to be instructed in what it revealeth and who seek for nothing besides what is there If our Gospel be hid saith St. Paul it is hid to them that are lost whom the God of this world hath blinded 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. Mahometanism and Popery have shut this Book by exacting a blind Obedience by forbidding the examination of their Doctrine and by interdicting people from reading of the word of God. But the time will come that this divine Book shall be opened and when all men shall be allowed to read it in order to the Reforming those abuses which through the impudence of Mahometanism in the East and the craft of the Papacy in the West have abounded in the Church XVIII ILLUSTRATION Of the Voice of the Angel that had his Right Foot upon the Sea and his left upon the Earth and of the seven Thunders REV. CHAP. 10. V. 2. And he set his right Foot upon the Sea and his left foot upon the Earth V. 3. And cried with a loud Voice as when a Lion roareth and when he had cried Seven Thunders uttered their voices V. 4. And when the Seven thunders had
uttered their voices I was about to write and I heard a voices from heaven saying unto me Seal up those things which the seven Thunders uttered write them not ACcording to the Stile that the Scripture useth to speak in the Earth signifies the East and the Sea signifies the West that is the Isles and countreys that ly near unto the Sea. The Roman Empire was divided into that of the East and into that of the West So that when it is said that Jesus Christ being come down from heaven Set his feet the one upon the Sea and the other upon the Earth the meaning is that he took hold of these two Empires in order to make the light of his word shine there and to establish in them the purity of his worship Moreover according to the Scripture stile whensoever the Earth and Sea are spoken of the Earth is named before the Sea but here the stile is changed and the Sea is both mentioned first and Iesus Christ sets his right foot upon the Sea. Which is as if he would assuredly tell us that he will make the light of the Gospel break out in the West sooner than in the East and that he will begin the work of Reformation in reference to Popery sooner than in reference to Mahometanism This the Event will clear And what we shall see fall out in the West in relation to Popery will be an Earnest of what we may expect will come to pass in the East in relation to Mahometanism The great Cry of the Angel as when a Lion roareth doth threaten all the Enemies of the Gospel alike and the seven Thunders do presage their total ruin The great cry was heard in the work of the Reformation but the entire destruction of the Enemies of the Gospel is put off till another time namely until under the Effusion of the Vials And this is the reason why St. Iohn is forbid to write the things declared by the seven Thunders because there was a considerable space of time to elapse between the cry of the Angel that was heard at the Reformation and the time of pouring out of the Vials For that the Seven Thunders are the same with the seven Vials of the 16th Chap. appeareth evidently from this in that the Thunders do necessarily signify the Judgments of God by which his Enemies are to be overwhelmed and in that the seven Vials do denote the same thing According as it is said chap. 15. v. 1. that the seven Vials are the seven last plagues by which the wrath of God is consummated XIX ILLUSTRATION Of the Angels Oath and of the finishing the Mystery of God. REV. CHAP. 10. V. 5. And the Angel which I saw stand upon the Sea and upon the Earth lifted up his hand to heaven V. 6. And sware by him that liveth forever and ever who created heaven and the things that therein are and the Earth and the things that therein are and the Sea and the things which are therein that there should be Time no longer V. 7. But in the day 's of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall begin to sound the Mystery of God shall be finished as he hath declareth to his Servants the Prophets IT must needs be that what is treated of under the 7 th Trumpet is both great against all appearances to the contrary and a thing hard to be believed because it is nor only called a Mystery and a Secret but because to render it credible the Lord would give assurance of it by an Oath But this withall do's give us to understand that it is not the last Resurrection nor that Trumpet of the Arch-Angel which is here spoken of to be done under the sound of the Seventh Trumpet is to be understood It must then be the 1000 years Reign as hath been already shewn and that which consisteth in the destruction of Babylon in the calling of the Iews in the reuniting of Iews and Gentiles and in that renowned State on Earth which the Prophet Isaiah hath promised to the Church in his 62 Chap. that these great things which seem to be above all Belief above all Imagination are here meant intended For indeed who of the Papists can imagine that Rome and her Religion are to be destroyed how few Protestants can believe that the Jews are to be united with the Gentiles and that the Church of God shall have an intire peace on the Earth for many ages Nevertheless this is that Mystery which the Angel hath promised with an Oath shall be fulfilled soon after the sounding of the seventh Trumpet And this is the Reason why he declared that there shall be time no longer that is there shall be no more a deferring and a delay but that the seventh Angel shall have no sooner finished to sound the seventh Trumpet than that we shall see the consummation of the Mystery of God. XX. ILLUSTRATION Of the Angel's giving the Book to St. John to be Eaten and of the Effects which Ensue thereupon REV. CHAP. 10. V. 8. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again and said Go and take the little Book which is open in the hand of the Angel which standeth upon the Sea and upon the Earth V. 9. And I went unto the Angel and said unto him Give me the little Book And he said unto me Take it and eat it up and it shall make thy belly bitter but it shall be in thy Mouth Sweet as honey V. 10. And I took the little Book out of the Angels hand and ate it up and it was in my mouth sweet as honey and as soon as I had eaten it my belly was bitter V. 11. And he said unto me thou must prophesie again before many people and Nations and Tongues and Kings ST Johns taking the little Book from the Angel representeth those whom the Lord shall raise up to re-establish the purity of divine worship through preaching of the Gospel 'T is for this that St. Iohn took the Book out of the hand of the Lord because it is the Lord who gives Ministers theiâ— Mission nor are they to go till they have received it from him according as he himself told the Apostles go teach all Nations teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you Matth. 28. 19 20. It was also for this that he not only took the Book but that he eat it up because no one is properly a holy Minister if he be not full of the Word of God and if he be not possessed of all Truths through having well meditated upon them This Book meditated upon and well understood produceth necessarily two effects One is a consolation that ravisheth the Soul through the knowledg of the Mysteries of salvation and the hope of an happy eternal life The other is the mortification of the flesh by that Law which God hath prescribed of denying our selves and of dayly taking up the cross St.
Iohn expresseth these two effects when he saith that he found the Book sweet in his mouth as honey and that it made his belly bitter Therefore Luther and all those others who have travelled in the work of the Reformation have executed the order which the Angel gave here to St. Iohn Thou must Prophesie again before many peoples and Nations and Tongues and Kings The Term to prophesie signifies not only the foretelling things to come as if this order had respected only St. Iohn but it signifies likewise to Instruct to teach to preach the Gospel in which sense the word to prophesie is applied in the 1 Cor. chap. 14. v. 24. c. XXI ILLUSTRATION Of the Measuring of the Temple and of the Outward Court to be trodden under foot of the Gentiles REV. CHAP. II. V. 1. And there was given me a Reed like unto a Rod the Angel stood saying Rise measure the Tewple of God the Altar them that worship therein V. 2. But the Court which is without the Temple leave out and measure it not for it is given unto the Gentiles and the Holy City shall they tread under foot forty and two Months HEre we have represented unto us the Reformation of the Church For this is the execution of the Order which St. Iohn had received Thou must prophesie i. e. thou must preach the Gospel afresh to many peoples Nations Tongues and Kings And St. Iohn as hath been observed represents therein all those whom God was to imploy in that great work For the Execution of this commission there is given unto St. Iohn a Reed like unto a Rod and there is an Angel saying unto him Rise and measure the Temple of God and the Altar and them that worship therein This Reed is the Word of God called a Rod or a Scepter Ps 45. v. 6. and a Rule Gal. 6. 16. Because neither errors nor manners can be otherway's reformed than by the application of the word of God which condemneth both Errors and vices and lay's before us what we ought to believe and what we ought to practice As often as the Church of Israel was Reformed it was done by the application of no other Rule Iosiah and Hezekiah made use of no other no more did Ezra and Nehemiah There is here an Allusion to the 40. chap. of Ezekiel v. 5. c. where the prophet received Order to measure the Temple to assure him of the deliverance from the Babylonish Captivity And Iews as well as Christians are agreed that the Temple described by Ezekiel is not the Material Temple of Jerusalem but that of the Messiah which neither is nor can be any other than his Church which St. Paul calls the Temple of the Lord 2 Cor. 6. 16. And consequently this is the Temple which is to be re-established by the destruction of Antichristian Babylon that so there may be a correspondence between St. Iohn and Ezekiel He is commanded to measure both the Temple aud the Altar because there is nothing in the Church but what stands in need of being Reformed Since all Nations have been made drunk with the Wine of Babylon both Religion and manners Faith and Worship Head and Members in a word every thing ought to be measured every thing stands in need of Reformation The Court without the Temple trodden under foot by the Gentiles is the Christian Church but become Antichristian by its Idolatry The Gentiles that is to say the Pagans are represented treading that is frequenting the outward Court of the Temple because almost all the Ceremonies of the Roman Church are borrowed from the Heathen And for this cause also it is called the Court without which was no part of the Temple For the Roman Church is not properly the Temple and Church of our Lord it is but the outward Court where the Gentiles have liberty to come Whereas it is given in command to leave the outward Court out it is as much as the enjoyning all those who are measured and Ruled by the Word of God and who are elsewhere called the Sealed of God to withdraw and actually separate from the Church of Rome and to make a Society apart in order to their worshipping God according to his word So that is the very same command with that given Rev. 18. 4. Come out of Babylon my People Babylon ought to subsist 42. Months after that the outward Court of the Temple is given to the Gentiles that they may tread the holy City under foot so long but of that time we shall speak in another place XXII ILLUSTRATION Of the two Witnesses their Sackcloth State the Time of their Prophecying and their Dignity REV. CHAP. 11. V. 3. And I will give power unto my two Witnesses and they shall prophesie 1260 day 's cloathed in sackcloth V. 4. These are the two Olive Trees and the two Candlesticks standing before the God of all the Earth V. 5. And if any man will hurt them fire proceedeth out of their Mouth and devoureth their Enemies and if any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed V. 6. These have power to shut Heaven that it rain not in the days of their Prophecy and have power over waters to turn them into blood and to smite the Earth with all plagues as often as they will. THEY who by the two Witnesses do understand the old Testament and the New have not hit the meaning of this place They have not come home to the sense but they have touched a little on the side of it The word of God is the Testimony for it is frequently so called Psa 119. So St. Paul stiles also the Gospel 1 Cor. chap. 2. v. 1. But they who profess the Truth and are the defenders of it are properly the Witnesses here spoken of They who since the birth of Antichristianism have cried against its Errors and Idolatry And we must observe that these Witnesses are stiled also Candlesticks which is the Title given by Jesus Christ to the seven Churches is the Epistle which he writ to them Rev. 1 20. Nor is it strange that he speaks only of two Witnesses altho he be speaking of a numerous Society seeing in all language both divine and humane great Bodies of men do make but one Mystical person Thus the Israelites are considered in Hosea as one Woman Thus likewise all sincere Christians are stiled in the Revelation the Lambs Wife and all false Christians are called the great Harlot And the Historian Florus represents the whole Roman people as a man that had past through the different Stages of human life These Witnesses are precisely two neither more nor less They are not fewer that their Testimony may be sufficient they are not more through an Allusion to the History of the ancient people of God whose conduct had been committed two to Moses Aaron to Iosuah and Caleb to Elijah and Elisha to Zerobabel and Jehashua to Ezra and Nehemiah to Haggai and
Zechariah And they are withal said to be two in Allusion to their Testimony the old Testament which beareth witness of Christ to come and the new Testament which testisieth of Christ as come They are moreover stiled two because the Christian Church which had subsisted in the Valleys of Angrogna and Piedmont from the time of Sylvester and Constantin became at last divided into two Branches that are called Protestants as if you would say Attestants and Witnesses against the usurpation of the Church of Rome and these two are the Calvinists and Lutherans who together make up one and the same Body with those that were stiled the Waldenses and the Albigenses The Sackcloth in which these two Witnesses prophesied for 1260 days which is the same time with that designed by 42 Months signifieth the contempt and persecution which the Defenders of the Truth underwent all that time from and by the Antichristian party Nor was there any kind of injuries and vexations which was not put in practice to weary them and to stop their Mouths They were called Berengarians Stercorists Waldenses Albigenses Leonists Petrobrusians Henricians Wicliffists Lollards c. as they are now stiled Lutherans Zuinglians Calvinists Sacramentarians Hugonots Hereticks Schismaticks c. And to these reproaches there were added Fines Confiscations Imprisonments Banishments and Condemnations to death But if they were treated with that contempt and rage by the Antichristian Church the Angel of the Covenant who hath given them in command to Measure the Temple and to leave the outward Court of the Temple out will both advance their honor and avenge the outrages that they have suffered when he comes to pour forth the plagues of his wrath upon their persecutors The Holy Spirit do's ascribe unto these two Witnesses the vertue and power of Moses and Elijab of turning waters into bliod and of shutting heaven The Heathens used to accuse the primitive Christians of being the Cause of all the Calamities that befell the Empire And in one sense they had reason for it seeing the motive to Gods inflicting Civil wars Famine and Pestilence upon them was to punish the Empire for the miseries that they made the Church to suffer The case is the same in reference to these two Witnesses to whom God says as he did to Jeremiah chap. 5. v. 14. I will make my words in thy mouth fire and this people wood and it shall devour them Finally whereas these two Witnesses are called two Olive Trees and two Candlesticks standing before the God of the Earth it is an Allusion to the 4th Chapter of Zechariah where it is said that he saw a golden Candlestick standing between two Olive Trees which distilled down oyl into the Candlesticks The Candlestick there represents the Church and the two Olive Trees represent Zerobabel and Iehoshua by whom the Church of Israel was then conducted So that Ministers who Teach the pure word of God are the Olive Trees of Zechariah and the Flocks that hearken unto and obey them are the Candlesticks XXIII ILLUSTRATION Of the Witnesses being overcome and Slain and left unburied REV. CHAP. XI V. 7. And when they shall have finished their Testimony the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them V. 8. And their dead Bodies shall lie in the street of the great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified V. 9. And they of the People and Kindreds and Tongues and Nations shall see their dead Bodies three day's and an half and shall not suffer their dead Bodies to be put in graves V. 10. And they that dwell upon the Earth shall rejoice over them and make merry and shall send gifts one to another because these two Prophets tormented them that dwelt on the Earth THis Beast is the same with that which arose out of the bottomless pit having two horns described Rev. chap. 13. v. 11. c. It is said also of the first Beast that arose out of the Sea and which is described Rev. chap. 13. v. 1. that he should make war with the Saints and overcome them but not that he should kill them as it is of the Beast mentioned here of whom it is said that he shall slay the Witnesses But whereas 't is said that the Beast shall kill the Witnesses when they have finished their Testimony this is not to be understood absolutely as if they were not to be overcome and slain till after the 42 Months or the 1260 days which the Reign of the Beast is to continue But when they are about to finish their Sachcloath Testimony and when the Beast beginneth to fall and when the Witnesses appear in some degree of honor through the Reformation's being supported by publick Authority then the Beast growing inraged and transported with fury shall make war with them overcome them and kill them So that this War is different from that which had been during the time of the Witnesses prophesying cloathed in Sackcloth That is said to have been made against them as cloathed in sackcloth because there was no Sovereign Prince who did then protect them or gave them liberty to bear their Testimony But this War is made against them after they have put off their Sackcloth and while they are countenanced in their Profession of the Gospel by the Edicts of Soveraign Rulers In that their Enemies made use of Massacres and Gibbets and put the Witnesses actually to death in this they neither use Massacres nor Gibbets but suffer them to live only they put them to a civil Spiritual death as hath been done to the Protestant Churches in France Savoy c. I call that a Civil Death in those Churches that they have no more Pastors that they can no more assemble neither publickly nor privately neither in secret nor apart that they can no more sing Psalms nor read the Word of God that they dare neither stile themselves Protestants nor Reformed nor Hugenots For when a witnesses mouth is shut that he can no more plead for the Truth that is such a kind of death as may be termed a Civil Death I call that a Spiritual Death in those Churches to be forced by the violence of armed Troops and by Dragoons sent forth as Missionaries by the great Dragon compelled to abjure the Reformed Religion to enter into the communion of the Roman Church and to practise their Worship The present State of the Churches in France c. is then a Captivity which the Holy Spirit representeth to us under the Image and Emblem of a Death So the Prophet Hosea stiled the Babylonish Captivity in that he says chap. 6. v. 1 2. Come let us return unto the Lord he will revive us and we shall live in his sight And the Church being in that Captivity is introduced speaking in the same manner Psal 85. 6. Wilt thou not O Lord revive us again that thy people may
rejoice in thee In a word the Valley which Ezekiel saw chap. 37. v. 1 c. covered with bones was nothing save an Image of the Jews being captive in Babylon And in truth the death of the Churches in France c. is of a nature answerable to the Resurrection that is here promised to the Witnesses and which signifies no other thing but their re-establishment Which is the reason why 't is said that their Bodies lie unburied For that is as much as to say that the Beast was not able to put them into Graves because the Favourers of the Reformation hindred it and that they remain unburied that they may the more readily be restored The change of the Expression in the Text doth both favour and strongly support this Exposition For when the Holy Ghost is speaking of their Enemies he saith that the Inhabitants of the Earth shall rejoice over the Witnesses that are overcome and slain but when he speaketh of those that favour and uphold them he saith that they of the people kindreds and tongues and Nations who shall see their dead bodies shall not suffer them to be put into Graves But what is that to say will not suffer them to be put into Graves For the better understanding of it we are to observe all that the Beast was to do against the Witnesses 1. It is said that the Beast shall make war with them That is the Church of Rome or the Papacy shall make war against the Protestants This the Event hath made evident 'T is five or six and twenty years since this war begun As soon as the peace of the Pyrenees was concluded the Romish Clergy and the Iesuites took the field and begun with the Church of Montauban whose Colledg and Senate they put down In a few years after all the Churches in the Kingdom saw themselves besieged and threatned to be destroyed by a terrible battery of Edicts and Declarations But that they might not make too much noise they fell upon them by degrees and attack'd them one after another The first assault was against Ministers Habits the next against Annexes after that against the Bells in their Temples then against their Buryings next against Children that had attained to the age of seven years then against Midwives It would make a large Volumn to recount all the Edicts and Declarations But their main Engin was the matter of Summons by which they compelled them to produce the Titles by vertu of which they enjoyed the publick exercise of their Religion in their respective places This was a proclaimed War. The Table of Commissioners for execution of the Edict of Nantes the Magistrates of Justice the Parliaments and the Council were the Field of Battel where the Beast appeared fighting against the Witnesses 2. 'T is said that the Beast overcame the Witnesses This hath been seen litterally accomplished when the Churches were deprived of the Liberty of their Worship either by the Judgment of the Commissioners or by the Sentence of the Magistrates or by Arrests of Parliament if so be that any fled to the Council at last all without exception were condemned by the Edict of Fontainbleau which repealed that of Nantes 3. 'T is said that the Beast shall kill the Witnesses We have declared already that the death here intended is a Civil and Spiritual death Which consisteth in this that the Reformed Congregations are suffered no more to assemble neither publickly nor privatly and that they are not permitted to read the Word of God nor any Book of the Reformed Religion And in this that all they of that Religion are compelled by the Violence of Souldiers to abjure their belief and to promise to enter into fellowship with the Church of Rome except it be such that were able to make their escape out of the Kingdom and some Prisoners who hitherto stand it out 4 Whereas it is said that the dead bodies of the Witnesses were not buried because the kindreds Tongues People and Nations would not suffer it this must be some mercy and blessing that is promised unto them in order to comfort them under their state of death There is not one thing which they who are dead would more desire provided they could speak than to be put into graves as esteeming it a favour and an honor And thence it is that by the Laws of Nations Traitors and horrid Malefactors are deprived of the honor of burial and of rest in a grave The Spirit of God threatned one of the Kings of Israel that he should be buried with the burial of an Ass Ierem. 22. 19. which is as much as to say that he should not have the honor of a grave And if the Holy Spirit had said that they who had slain the Witnesses would not suffer them to be buried there would have been no cause to doubt but that the denial of Sepulture by those murderers were to be expounded as a continuance of their fury and to be interpreted for an addition of punishment and for something accounted worse than death But seeing they are not those who had killed them and who are designed by Inhabitants of the Earth that would not suffer their bodies to be buried but they are the Kindreds Tongues Peoples and Nations it is evident that it must be some great benefit that is procured for them by these Kindreds Tongues Peoples and Nations which is obtained in despight and to the great regret of those Inhabitants of the Earth who had killed them But how is this that the not being buried is a benefit and advantage to the Witnesses whom the Beast had killed and for the Protestant Flocks whom the Romish Church hath scattered I dare say that before the Publication of the Edict of Fontainbleau for Repealing the Edict of Nantes we could not have conceived nor have in the least comprehended this State of the Witnesses lying dead without being put into Graves But that Transaction which hath astonished all Europe hath reflected so much light upon this Article that I am perswaded that as the death of the Witnesses is fulfilled in the extinction of all the Protestant Churches in France c. so the State wherein these extinguished Churches do now continue giveth us to see the accomplishement of this that is here said concerning the Bodies of the Witnesses lying in the street of the great City without being put into Graves There are three sorts of Catholicks among the new Converts Some go willingly to the Mass These are such as have not tasted the good Word of God Children of this world Lovers of Earthly things Ready to become Turks by the same way that they are become Papists There are others who go not at all to Mass but abhor it as a prophanation of the holy Supper of our Lord. There are a third sort who do indeed go but at the same time they testify that they do it through being forced and pray heartily to God being resolved to depart the Kingdom
while he is speaking of the reestablishment of the Church Because their death was in this like unto that of Jesus Christ that they were killed and extinguished by Roman Souldiers even as our Lord was For this is a Fact as remarkable as it is notorious that they are the Prelates who have let loose the Kings Troops against the Reformed Churches and that they are the Curates who have removed them from such of the Reformed as have come to begg it under promise of abjuring their Religion So that the Death of the Witnesses bearing so great a resemblance to the death of Jesus Christ their Resurrection shall also resemble his All that is here said concerning the reestablishment of the Protestant Churches is to be considered with attention 1 'T is said that the Spirit of life from God entred into the Witnesses This Spirit of Life is certainly set in opposition to that Spirit of Death which killed them Now what was that which killed them It was the fear of men the dread of misery apprehension that they should never see an End of their torments and the Violence they were under from the Soldiers It was that fallacious and ensnaring Reasoning which they every day heard from the Mouths of their persecutors Stand out as long as you please When we have devoured you to the bone you must at last obey Flatter not your selves with hope of any ease the King will not suffer himself to be contradicted He who could take Cambray and Luxemburgh will he be withstood by a Hugonot Dog Nor shall ye be suffered to depart the Kingdom What fools are ye to suffer your selves to be devoured ye may be eased of the Dragoons by the bare saying of one word Say only I do obey the King and for the rest you may believe as you will. Do you think that the King would have you damned He purposeth to reform the Church of France as soon as he hath reduced and united all his Subjects Do ye not know what he hath done already against the Court of Rome You will suddenly see other matters Will you be they after all who shall alone make head against the King and rob him of the Title of Conqueror and of Victorious Do you not see that all do submit that young and old poor and rich Noble and Ignoble Learned and Ignorant throughout the whole Kingdom do comply This was that Spirit of Death that entred into the Witnesses It was this blast or tempestuous Wind that hath scattered and overthrown all the Protestant Churches of France And in probability the Spirit of life from God that shall enter into the Witnesses will be a way of Reasoning that is contrary to this For example what have we done unhappy creatures that we are How great is our crime We are gone over to a Religion that cannot be good forasmuch as its Ministers Bishops and Priests have let loose the Kings Troops upon us and that it is they who are the Authors of all the robberies violences blasphemies and impieties which the Souldiers have committed in order to pervert us And seeing the Bishops and Priests will have forced Consciences they cannot be the Ministers of God who requireth the heart and a willing people Nor can they be the Ministers of Christ because they have taken from us the only means of Instruction by depriving us of the Holy Scriptures together with all Books tending to piety What can that Religion be worth which reduceth the whole of Religion to the Mass where we understand nothing and where our Eyes are filled with certain ceremonies of which we comprehend nothing save that they worship an object in which we see nothing that is Adorable and where they commit that affront against the Son of God as to hale him from his throne of glory to put him into the hands of wicked persons and into the Mouths of blasphemers Can that Religion be good where we hear not a Sermon wherein they do not demand the assistance of the Holy Spirit but by the intercession of the blessed Virgin which is both a plain Idolatry and expresly condemned by those words of our Saviour I will pray the Father and he shall send you the comforter and no man cometh to the Father save by me Besides they do perform nothing of what they promised us We are not suffered to believe as we would They have not Reformed one abuse They give us no rest neither as to our bodies nor as to our Consciences They joined fraud to violence which are the two Characters of Antichrist whereby to seduce us Come let us give glory to God. Let us depart out of Babylon God will bless our Endeavours and either deliver us out of our captivity or give us strength to glorify him by our sufferings This in all likelyhood is the Spirit of life from God that after three years and a half will enter into the Witnesses 2 'T is said that the Witnesses stood upon their feet This is as much as to say that they shall come to acknowledg their crime shall forbear to go to the Mass that they shall take courage that their zeal shall revive that they shall Serve God according to his Word that they shall assemble first in secret then publickly without fearing any more either the Bishops or the Curates or the Souldiers or the Dragoons or Misery or death 3 'T is said that great fear fell upon them which saw them We are not to doubt but that the Holy Spirit do's by them that saw them understand the Authors and Executioners of the persecution For the other Papists have scarce medled in it It hath been only the Clergy and the Bigots of the Court and of the Parliaments who interested themselves in persecuting the Churches while they stood and who do now make merry upon their dissipation And they are the persons upon whom fear will fall when they shall come to see the scattered congregations gather again Nor shall they recover from that dread because the Court will be no more inclined to hearken to them but on the contrary all that will be done there shall tend to the mortifying of them and to the re-establishing the Churches 4 'T is said that the Witnesses heard a great voice from heaven saying come up hither and that they ascended in a cloud I am much deceived if this doth not signify that God who is the Master of hearts shall change the heart of the King and of his Council and that we shall see a Revolution in France of a contrary nature to what hath been seen in England As in the year 1685 we saw Popery mount into the Throne of great Brittain so after the three years and a half of the Witnesses lying dead we shall see the Reformed Religion get upon the Throne in France We have not been much surprised to see the re-establishment of Popery in England because it is long since it was known what judgment the Duke of York was of
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
of time betwixt the sounding of the sixth Trumpet and the sounding of the seventh Seeing 't is said chap. 11. v. 14. The second Wo is past and behold the third Wo cometh quickly For we are to observe that this is not said in the prediction of the two first Wo's under the fifth and sixth Trumpets All that is there said is only that they shall come but this quickly is not added save in the prediction of the third Wo. Whence we may conclude that the seventh Trumpet shall immediately follow the Resurrection of the two Witnesses Whose Death as it fell out in 1685. so their Resurrection shall ensue within three years and a half from that time because the three days and a half wherein they are to lie dead being prophetick days are equivalent unto so many years And then in a short time after the Resurrection of the Witnesses whom the Beast hath killed we shall see the arrival of the third Wo that is to avenge the Lambs Wife for all the evils which the Mother of Harlots hath made her to suffer Nor ought we to forget that the Term in the Original which signifieth a Vial signifieth also a Cup in which sense the Term is undoubtedly here used For besides that it is the Judgments of God which are here treated of and which are expressed in the Scripture by the word Cup as appeareth both Ps 75. v. 8. and by the prayer of our Saviour in his Agony Let this Cup pass from me Matth. 26. v. 39. I say besides this it is evident that the vengeance wherewith Babylon is threatned is expressed by the same Term Rev. chap. 18. v. 6. Reward her even as she rewarded you and double unto her double according to her works in the CUP which she hath filled fill to her double So that the Cups of God's Wrath are set in opposition to the golden Cup with which Babylon made drunk the Nations of the Earth Babylon's Cup is full of the furious Wine of her fornications Rev 17. 2. These Cups which are to be poured out are full of the wrath of Almighty God by which he will make her desolate I will again repeat that seeing these Vials or Cups contain Judgments yet to come and which cannot be explained from the Events as hath been done in expounding of the Visions of the Trumpets that therefore I design not to speak otherway's than by way of Conjecture This is a deference which should be pay'd to the Author of Prophesies Howsoever we shall see what may be best alledged and what carrieth the greatest probability by having our eye upon remembring the Explanations that have been already given The first Vial. V. 2 And the first Angel went and poured out his Vial upon the Earth and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the Beast and upon them which worshipped his Image The Earth upon which the first Vial fell is the Antichristian Church the Christian Church become Earthly which is no longer constituted of those that are Citizens of Heaven as the true Church of Jesus Christ is but is made up of worldly persons who have nothing else in their aim but to satisfy their ambition avarice and carnal desires These will be fretted and grieved to see the loss of their Church Revenues and to be deprived of the means of gratifying their Iusts This vexation and sorrow which is the noisome and grievous sore upon them will increase their rage against the Church of God. They who have the mark of the Beast represent the Clergy the Prelates and the Priests who are not only distinguished by their Habits and shaving their Crowns but who likewise boast of an indelible Character that is to say of a mark which nothing can efface These who worship the Image of the Beast signifie the false zealots who are intoxicated with the belief of the Infallibility of the Romish Church as the ancient Romans were with the Eternity of Rome which they stiled the Eternal City These are the Bigots who are transported with a blind zeal the Ignorants who are swallowed up in Superstition and who yield a greater and a more submissive obedience to their Guides than that which God requireth of his People For God doth not require a blind Obedience which is that which they do render to their Clergy The second Vial. V. 3. And the second Angel poured out his Vial upon the Sea and it became as the Blood of a dead man and every living Soul died in the Sea. The Sea is the Papal Kingdom in its utmost extent not only the countrey whereof the Pope is Soveraign but likewise all those Princes who acknowledg him for their Spiritual Head and Father This Empire shall become as the Blood of a dead Man so that every Soul which liveth in it shall die That is the Government of Popish Princes shall grow so intolerable that their people shall not be able to endure their Yoke As the Fish cannot live in waters which are turned into Blood. The third Vial. V. 4. And the third Angel poured out his Vial upon the Rivers and Fountains of Waters and they became Blood. V. 5. And I heard the Angel of the Waters say thou art righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because thou hast judged thus V. 6. For they have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them blood to drink for they are worthy The Rivers and the Fountains are beyond all peradventure the Doctrines wherewith they nourish Souls The Doctrine of the Romish Church is a Doctrine of Blood against all those whom they account Hereticks And it is very probable that the same Doctrine shall prove bloody against themselves And that their Maxims such as that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks that men are to be compelled to go to Mass because it is written compel them to come in and that it is lawful to do evil that good may come of it together with others of that kind shall one day serve to make their members arm against and tear one another And by that means like shall be returned unto them for like The fourth Vial. V. 8. And the fourth Angel poured out his Vial upon the Sun and power was givrn unto him to shorch men with fire V. 9. And men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the Name of God which hath power over these plagues and they repented not to give him glory This Sun is in all likelyhoood the Ottoman Emperor who is the Sun of the Eastern Empire For as the fourth Trumpet raised and established him so the fourth Vial shall shake him and pull him down The Subjects of that Empire shall be mortally afflicted but instead of being thereby converted they shall blaspheme the Name of God through not acknowledging his providence as the Supreme and righteous cause of their Judgments The fifth Vial. V. 10. And the fifth Angel poured out
his Vial upon the Seat of the Beast and his Kingdom was full of darkness and they gnawed their tongues for pain V. 11. And blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their pains and their sores and repented not of their deeds There is nothing here dark provided it be true that the Beast is the Papal Empire according as we have proved and that Rome is the Seat of this Empire as all men do see So that it is the City of Rome which is here threatned by God with an eternal and irrecoverable Ruin. Or rather this is the execution of that denunciation contained in the 18th Chap. and which we have explained in the first Part. Rome is threatned to be destroyed as Egypt as Babylon and as Sodom This fifth Vial shews us the fulfilling of all this Rome being destroyed the Beasts Kingdom becomes full of darkness Which in the Scripture signifies Sadness and Mourning 'T is easie to apprehend the dejection which the Papal Empire will be under and the afflication that they will be in who have the Mark of the Beast his Name or the Number of his Name when they see that Rome is no more 'T is said that they shall gnaw their tongues and blaspheme the God of Heaven i. e. they shall complain that God is wanting in making good his promises namely that Rome should not perish while the world stood and that she should be alway's the Lady and Mistriss of all Churches of Faith and of Religion Which is a horrid blasphemy for where hath God promised any such priviledg to the City of Rome The sixth Vial. V. 12. And the sixth Angel poured out his Vial upon the great River Euphrates and the water thereof was dried up that the way of the Kings of the East might he prepared V. 13. And I saw three unclean Spirits like Frogs come out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the mouth of the False Prophet V. 14. For they are the Spirits of Devils working miracles which go forth unto the Kings of the Earth and of the whole World to gather them to the battel of that great day of God Almighty V. 15. Behold I come as a Thief blesseth is he that watcheth and keepeth his Garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame V. 16. And they gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew Tongue Armageddon The sixth Vial destroyeth the Empire of the Turks and their Religion which the sixth Trumpet had advanced to the highest pitch of its grandure For the River Euphrates does undoubtedly signify the people of that part of the world as its being dried up denoteth the End of their Empire and of their Religion After which there will be nothing to hinder either the King 's of the East who shall be enlightned and converted or the Iews who are there dispersed in great numbers from marching into the West to help to finish the destruction of the Beast 'T is remarkable that the Prophet Isaiah doth in the place where he promiseth the conversion of the Iews stile them Kings which as it hath a reference to the Millennian Reign so it induceth to a belief that the Iews are these Kings who are here spoken of The prosperity of Mahometanism and Popery hath kept back the Iews from the Christian Religion which those two Religions have so much disfigured But when through the destruction of Rome they shall behold the Seat of the Beast overthrown and when they shall see the Kingdom of the Beast become full of darkness the great River Euphrates dried up then they will open their eyes and be converted The Conversion of the Jews is unquestionably promised in this place in that St. Iohn useth an expression like to what Isaiah useth chap. 11. v. 15. where their conversion is promised For if St. Iohn speaks of the drying up of Euphrates Isaiah sayth that God will shake his hand over the River Moreover it is plainly in favour of the Jews that St. Iohn useth the Hebrew term Armageddon And there came three unclean Spirits like frogs out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the Mouth of the false Prophet Who can doubt but that these are the spiritual Fathers of the three Orders of Monks who have made most noise and have done must hurt namely the Jacobin's the Cordeliers and the Jesuites Are not these Spiritual Fathers Do they not depend upon the Pope as upon a Deity Doth not the command of that false Prophet send them to the East-Indies to America and to all places Are they not troublesome and importunate as the Frogs are and are not the Mansions where they are Cloist'red nasty and stinking like the dirty pudles When the Pepe shall find himself threatned with a total ruin he shall send to all parts he shall hunt out these three Orders of Ghostly Fathers in order to assemble all his forces But this rendevouz is said to be in a place called Armageddon because they together with all the Enemies of the Church shall there irrecoverably perish as the Nations that were execrated and excepted from pardon for having made War against Israel Moreover what we have said concerning these three unclean Spirits doth not interfer with nor lessen the probability of the Conjecture which we made about the Monks being the Locusts For we have not said that the Monks are to be totally abolished before the effusion of the 6th Vial but all we have said was that the power which was given them to torment men five Mon'ths shall come to an End within an 150 years signified by five prophetick Mon'ths counting from October 1540. when the first Bull was emitted for the establishing the Society of Iesuites who are principally designed by the Locusts as being they who have advanced the Monastick Order to the highest pitch of their power But this doth not hinder but that both they and the other Monks and Friers shall make a last effort to uphold their own power and that of the Papacy about the time when the Sixth Vial shall come to be poured out The Seventh Vial. V. 17. And the seventh Angel poured out his Vial into the Air and there came a great voice out of the Temple of Heaven from the Throne saying It is done V. 18. And there were Voices and Thunders and Lightnings and there was a great Earthquake such as was not since Men were upon the Earth so mighty an Earthquake and so great V. 19. And the great City was divided into three parts and the Cities of the Nations fell and great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto her the Cup of the Wine of the fierceness of his Wrath. V. 20. And every Island sled away and the Mountains were not found V. 21. And there fell upon men a great Hail out of Heaven every stone about the Weight of a talent and men blasphemed God because
of the plague of the Hail for the plague thereof was exceeding great We have already observed in the Explication of the fifth Trumpet that the Air signifies Religion But there it signified Religion darkned by the Smoke which came out of the bottomless pit whereas here it signifieth Religion it self which was begotten by that Smoke namely the Papal and Antichristian Religion For it shall be drove away as Smoke by this last Vial. Then there was the Voice of the Angel heard saying it is done that is the Mystery whereof there was mention chap. 10. v. 7. namely the Mystery of the total ruin of the Papacy of the Conversion of the Jews of the reduction of all the Kingdoms of this world to Jesus Christ and of the universal peace of the Church As this will be the greatest and the most happy Change that ever was seen in the world therefore it is not only said that there shall be Lightnings and Thunders but that there shall likewise be a great Earthquake such as was not since men were upon the Earth For Earthquakes as we have already taken notice signify always in Scripture a change that shall fall out in the world in reference to Religion And therefore there was both an Earthquake at the gioing of the Law and at the publication of the Gospel because by that the Iudaick Religion was established and by this the Christian So that we are not to be surprised to find in this prediction a greater Earthquake than ever had been before seen from the beginning of the world because the Iews are now to be recalled the Mahometans are to be converted all Nations are to be Enlightned with the splendor of the Gospel and the Papacy is irrecoverably to be destroyed The Division of the City into three parts threatneth the Papacy which is this great City with three plagues of the Wrath of God. It hath been already observed that Rome which is the Seat of the Papal Empire shall be destroyed by three different Judgments of God to wit as Sodom as Egypt and as Babylon And the same shall befall the Papacy which shall be subverted by three means which we do not yet know The Prophet Daniel says that after the fourth Beast which representeth the Romam Empire shall be slain and after that his body shall be given to the burning flame that then the Dominion shall be also taken away from the other Beasts and that after the Image by which the Empire of the world are represented shall be broken into pieces the other Beasts shall have domination no more chap. 7. v. 12. chap. 2. v. 44. That is the very same which St. Iohn fore-tells in this place and every Island Fled away and the Mountains were not found For by Islands are understood Commonwealths Kingdoms are meant by Mountains All which is as if he should have said that there shall be no more any State neither Republick nor a Kingdom but what shall be governed by the holy Laws of the Gospel and which shall be a Theocracy as the State of Israel was under the Government of the Judges So that this here is not the last and Universal Iudgment no more than that chap. 11. v. 18. but it is the particular Judgment of Babylon that is the Antichristian Empire which the peace of the Church shall follow The Hail of an extraordinary bigness that shall fall at the effusion of this last Vial ' can no way 's agree to the last judgment forasmuch as that being the day of the Resurrection of the Dead no Hail shall fall to kill men Whereas it is here said that the Hail fell upon men that unquestionably signifieth the overwhelming them by reason of their obduration For it will come to pass that some men upon their seeing the vengeance of God against Babylon and against its Empire will instead of being converted break forth into blasphemies These hardned men are such as have no sense of Religion but are tied to Babylon by the bonds of gain and by the alone chains of interest There are at this time a great number of these who savour nothing of the word of God who have no more knowledg than Babel of the Christian Religion and yet they pass in the Church of Rome for great Devoto's They are the men of this complexion that shall be overwhelmed by the Hail of the seventh and last Vial. This Hail may be very well said to threaten the rich and innumerable Benefices of the Roman Clergy For the vast riches of the Prelates and of the other Ecclesiasticks being the strong Buttresses of the Papacy the loss of their Revenues may very well be one of the Means which God in his providence will make use of to destroy and abolish them For this is the property of Hail to destroy Revenues and the Papacy being adhered unto only for its riches when it comes to be stript the whole world will abandon it which will cause its ruin XXVII ILLUSTRATION Of the Time that the Beast's Reign is to continue THE Holy Spirit marketh the duration of the Reign of the Beast in five several places In the 11. Chap. v. 2. 't is said that the Gentiles shall tread the Holy City under foot forty and two Mon'ths And in the 3d verse of the same chapter 't is said that the two Witnesses shall prophesie a thousand two hundred and threescore days clothed in sackcloth And in the 12 Chap. v. 6. 't is said that the Woman fled into the Wilderness where she had a place prepared of God to be fed there 1260 days And in the 14th verse of that Chapter She is said to be there fed for a Time Times and half a Time. And chap. 13. v. 5. 't is said power is given unto the Beast to continue forty and two Mon'ths From all which we are to observe 1 That the 42 Mon'ths and 1260 Day 's are one and the same thing Because according to the Greeks whose language the Revelation was written in every Mon'th contained thirty day's and 42 times thirty make 1260. 2 That one Time Times and half a Time are one year two years and half a year which making three years and a half amounteth just to sorty and two Months and to 1260 Day 's 3 That whereas it is expresly said that power was given unto the Beast to continue 42 Months this declareth his Duration during the Time that the Gentiles shall tread the holy City under foot and during the Time that the Woman shall be in the Wilderness where she is to be fed while that the Witnesses prophesie clothed in Sackcloth 4 That the 1260 Days are not to be taken literally for common Days but Mystically for so many years This we cannot doubt of when we have considered that Days are applied so in the Books of the Prophets In the 4th Chap. of Amos v. 4. the Prophet bids them bring their Sacrifices and Tyths after three Days i. e. after three years as
the ten persecutions of which that of Diocletian was the last That of Pergamus hath a reference to the time when Antichrist sitteth in the Temple of God and when the Church of God is hardly visible through her dwelling as the Church of Pergamus did where Satan had his Throne That of Thyatira hath a great conformity to the condition of the Church when Antichrist both begun to fall and begun to raise himself again According to the Testimony given by our Saviour to that of Thyatira Thou hast not the Doctrine of Jezebel and thou hast not known the depths of Satan That of Sardis hath a resemblance to the Reformed Church degenerating and falling into corruption of manners Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead Yet thou hast a few names which have not defiled their Garments That of Philadelphia is a protrature of that of the Church when She shall be perfectly Reformed when Sion shall be perfectly re-established when the alone Key of David shall open and shut when the voice of Iesus Christ shall be perfectly followed and that both with respect unto manners and to faith This is the State wherein the Church will be during the time of the Millennian Reign whereof we have before spoken Lastly that of Laodicea is a Mirour wherein we may behold the State of the Church towards the End of the world When zeal shall have become cold Charity scarce to be found and corruption shall abound and be universal and thereby draw upon the world that Deluge of Fire which shall give a renovation unto it These Reflections do shew us the reason why the Lord directed the seven Epistles and all the Visions of the Apocalypse of St. Iohn precisely to the Seven Churches But it is matter of surprise that Iesus Christ hath made no mention nor spoken one word of the Church of Rome nor of the Pope How comes it to pass that he forgets his Vicar and the Mother of all Churches which either have been or are to be to the end of the world How comes he to be unmindful of the Apostolick Sea of the Seat of Infallibility of the alone Fountain of all lawful Vocation and Mission and of the Centre of Religion For seeing the Lord the Son of God is not man that he should lye or the Son of man that he should repent it is the more remarkable that he should have forgot in a Book purposely writen to mark out the destiny of the Church and to distinguish her from Babylon points which according to the Roman Catholicks are fundamental and such as men cannot be ignorant of without hazarding Salvation So that now it is not possible that the Church of Rome should be what She pretends O that God the Father of Mercy and Light would remove from the hearts of men the vail of prejudices and passions that all Christians may come to see the danger of maintaining Communion with the Romish Church the necessity of Reformation and the Conformiry of the Worship which Protestants render unto God with the sacred and inviolable Rule of the Gospel FINIS A DEFENCE OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS Upon the Apocalypse of St. Iohn Concerning the EFFUSION of the VIALS In Answer to Mr. Jurieu ' s Apology for the Accomplishment of the Scripture-Prophesies Printed in the Year 1688. The PREFACE 'TWere to be wished that all who publish their Meditations upon the Revelation were found to agree in their Explication of that Divine Book as much as they do in their Exposition of the other Sacred Writings But how desirable soever this be it hath not hither to come to pass And an uniformity of Opinions about the sense of Prophesies whose Accomplishment is yet to come is no less impossible to Interpreters that are not divinely inspired than the knowledg of those future things is which they do predict So that it is not strange that Mr. Jurieu in his Accomplishment of Prophesies and the Anonymous Author in his Illustrations upon the Apocalypse do not universally accord and that in their Exposition of the 16. Chap. they are found to contradict one another Nay it would be a kind of miracle should they upon the many various subjects of the Revelations of St. John be found in all things to have the same sentiments But possibly some will be surprised that two Reformed Divines should write against one another And probably some may not only be surprised but scandaled throw their seeing two Brethren differ and throw an apprehension that the Papists may draw some advantage from their disagreement And it must be acknowledged that if mens surprise at their difference should have that effect it had been a thousand times better that both those Authors had forever concealed their thoughts than to give the least matter of scandal to their Brethren by publishing of them The design therefore of this Preface is to obviate these two difficulties and to justify not only those two Antagonists but all others who may embark in this quarrel by espousing the one side or the other As to the first difficulty I do affirm that if any are offended at the seeing two Reformed Divines write against each other in the Exposition of the 16. Chap. about the Effusion of the Vials the Offence is taken and not given And I do withal maintain that 't is lawful for every one in his Exposition of Prophesies to pursue that way which seems best unto him If in his Explication he contradict any Article of Faith necessary to Salvation I do confess that in this case all men have reason to be offended with him who shall by his Interpretations overthrow any of those Articles and they have cause to treat that Expositor as an Innovator and to disclaim his Exposition as a Heresie But which Article of Faith is subverted or so much as opposed or any ways injured by the either saying that the Vials are poured out or that they are not poured out Mr. Jurieu apply's all the Events since the tenth Century to the Vials as if they had been all this while pouring forth and the Anonymous Author of the Illustrations applieth them to the Trumpets which have sounded and not to the Vials which he believes to be still to be poured forth Now what Article of Faith is either gain-said or wronged by these two different Expositions But one may say that it will at least beget a Dispute about the Explication of a Book which all Christians ought to pay a deference unto as a Divine Book and a Dispute which being begun at such a conjuncture as that wherein we are may in all probability not have a good issue Whereas on the contrary this Dispute will stirr up the Curiosity of divers Adversaries who by coming to read these two Works will from thence learn very important Truths which they are yet ignorant of They will thereby understand that the Pope whom they worship as a Deity is the Original Picture of the Son of perdition who is
Antichrist that the Papal Empire is the Portraiture of the Beast with two Horns that the Romish Church is the Picture of Babylon the Great that the spirit of persecution that reigneth in the Papacy is that of the Dragon and of Satan and that suffering has been the character of the true Christian Church for above these 1500. years Moreover this Dispute will influence many to Read and Study the Revelation who usually read no more of it but the three first Chapters being afraid to look into the rest Finally this Dispute will beget Emulation and give occasion for new discoveries and for the making of new Systemes I am not ignorant what the Illustrious Moros heretofore said in his Eloquent Panegyrick upon Calvin namely that that great man had Expounded all the Books of the Scripture except the Revelation which his not doing of was an excellent Commentary This is a piece of wit where we may see an ingenïous draught of the Eloquence of that admirable Orator but the Theologues of our time ought not to be discouraged by the Example of the incomparable Calvin We know that Doctor who had written so many other learned Commentaries was capable to have explained the Revelation as well as he had done other Prophesies And if he did it not 't was either because he thought he could employ his time better or because he had designed to do it before he should die which his dying so soon hindred the Execution of which hapned when he was but â—5 years old or a few day 's over 'T is to be hop'd that this Dispute will cause many through Emulation to lay out their labours upon this Divine Book For tho they who have preceded have for the most part been incomparable men both by reason of the profoundness of their Learning and the greatness of their wit except the Author of the Illustrations who is and will alway be unworthy to be named yet there is ground to hope that they who come after will see a great deal farther than the former have done as a Pygmee mounted on the shoulders of a Giant is able to see farther than the Giant himself And is not all this of more considerable advantage than all the Scandal can be of prejudice that some curious Spirits have taken at the Dispute between Mr. Jurieu and the Anonymous Author And as to the advantage which some sear this Dispute will afford the Papists both the Catholicks that expect benefit by it and the Reformed that fear it will find it to be only chymerical and not real Therefore I must again repeat that it is not about an Article of Faith that these disagreeing Authors contend To say the Vials Are poured out or that they are Not poured out do's equally leave the Reformed Doctrine in its perfection and integrity And how Learned soever he may be and how much soever conversant in the Art of Sophistry that attacks the Reformation from thence he will not be able to make the least breach upon it Would it not be extreamly pleasant to see a Doctor carrying the Mark of the Beast libellously triumphing by reason of this Dispute betwixt two Protestants and in the mean time taking no Notice of all those Sections where both these Author's do unanimously and demonstratively prove that the Church of Rome is Babylon the great that the Papal Empire is the Beast with two horns that the Pope is the Son of Perdition the False Prophet and the seventh Head of the Dragon and that the City of Rome is the Seat of the Beast Herein both the Authors have just matter of glorying and as for that little difference between them concerning the Effusion of the Vials they have ground enough for Reprisals and a large field for recrimination upon the account of the difference betwixt the Jansenists and the Molinists and between the Theologues of Italy and of other places upon the one hand and those of France upon the other who have made a Sacrifice to Louis the great of the Infallibility of the Pope of his Supremacy over Councils and of his power over that Soveraigns Person Temporal Rights That I may not speak of an infinite number of differences amongst Papists in reference to other Subjects And these are all fundamental points in the Romish Religion and in reference to which they cannot differ without one side 's falling into Heresie But whether a Reformed Divine believe the Vials to be already poured out or believe that none of them are yet poured out he is in both cases equally Orthodox and the Reformed Religion is by reason of none of them lyable to be impeached So that I may conclude that this Dispute if it be rightly apprehended can do no prejudice and that it is of advantage upon many accounts that the Anonymous Author should defend his opinion about the Non-Effusion of the Vials which Mr. Jurieu hath attack'd in his Apology And this he intends to do as becomes a Reformed Divine and as a Lover of peace so that all who read his Defence shall have cause to be satisfied except it be such whom Interest and a false Zeal keep united to the Papal Religion He were neither an honest nor a Wise man who maintaining the Non-Effusion of the Vials should from thence take occasion to vent his passion against a Writer whose labours are of wonderful Edification to the whole Protestant Party So that if there occur any Expressions which may seem somewhat rude as 't is not true it is false and a few more of that Kind he doth declare that they are only intended against the matters in debate and that he would not have used them were they not customary Terms in all Polemical writings and did not the common usuage render them necessary and in a manner inevitable Mr. Beverly in his Scripture-Line of Time in Quarto printed at London 1684. speaking of the Vials page 187. says BUt that we may know they are not yet begun whenever they begin they move with so swift a Course that it is impossible there should be any delay in them after they are begun or that any of them should be enter'd and not all of them in their Order Swiftly pour'd out A DEFENCE OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS Upon the APOCALYPSE Of St. JOHN concerning the Effusion of the Vials MR. Iurieu having in his Accomplishment of the Scripture-Prophesies asserted the first Six Vials to be already poured out and that the seventh hath been pouring forth all along since Luther's Reformation he could not indure that the Anonymous Author of the Illustrations upon the Revelation should endeavour to prove that all the Vials are still full of the wrath of God and that all of them remain yet to be poured out tho he had therein no design of contradicting Mr. Iurieu more than he had several other Divines that before him had been of the same opinion However Mr. Iurieu thought fit to attacque that Author in his Apology in which he attempts two
things 1st He studies to prove that the Vials have for a long time been pouring forth that the effusion of the six first is already past and that the seventh having been a pouring out for these hundred and sixty years will be suddenly empty and issue in the total ruin of the Papal Empire 2ly He endeavours to refute the reasons by which the Anonymous Author pretends to have proved that there is not so much as one of the Vials yet poured out and that they shall not be untill under the sounding of the 7th Trumpet The foundation upon which Mr. Jurieu hath built his Commentary on the 16th Chapter of the Revelation consists in this that he considers the Seven Vials as Seven Periods of Time. Which Periods he makes to begin in the tenth Century so that according to him the first of the seven plagues which produced the Noisome Sore fell upon the tenth Age and this first period lasted above 150 years and extended a great way into the eleventh Century The Second and Third plagues which fell upon the Sea and upon the Rivers and converted them into Blood and which he will have to be nothing else save the Croisado's reached from the Eleventh Age to the thirteenth The fourth plague that fell upon the Sun and which scorched men with fire is that which according to him befell the Pope upon the increase of his Authority when he became a Tyrant over the World whereas before he had been a Tyrant only over the Church And this Period he say's continued from the year 1074. until the End of the fourteenth Age. The fifth which is that which fell upon the Seat of the Beast he will have to be the translation of the Papal Seat and Court to Avignon that rendred the Papal Kingdom full of darkness and which lasted from 1305. until 1440. The sixth Vial which was poured forth upon the River Euphrates dried up its water and made way for the Kings of the East is according to him the irruption of the Turks upon the Eastern Roman Empire and this 6th period signified by the sixth Vial he affirms to have continued from the year 1420 till the time of Luther which was about a hundred and five and twenty years at which time the seventh Vial begun to be poured forth and will end in the destruction of the Papal Empire This is the great principle that Mr. Iurieu go's upon the seven Vials say's he are certainly seven Periods of time And from this principle he draws three Conclusions 1 That there is a difference between the seven Vials and the seven plagues That the seven plagues are the judgments of God and that the seven Vials denote the seven Periods of time wherein those Judgments are to fall upon the Papal Empire 2 That all the Plagues are designed against the Papal Kingdom and not so much as one of them against the Empire of the Turks 'T is certain say's he that the seven plagues are entirely intended against the Empire of the Beast 3 That there are in all thirteen plagues whereof the 6 first have destroyed the Roman Empire as Civil and that these six plagues fell under the five first Trumpets that the sixt Trumpet which is subdivided into seven Vials shall destroy the same Empire as Ecclesiastical and Papal and that the Vials have been pouring out since the tenth Century that the seventh is not yet wholly poured forth but that it begun at the time of Luthers Reformation where he placeth the Harvest and will end at the general Reformation which is represented by the Vintage I have heard it alway's said that whatsoever is stiled a principle in any Science ought to be clear and of such an evidence as to set it beyond contradiction Whereas Mr. Iurieu's principle that the Seven Vials are certainly seven Periods of time hath not this character being neither certain nor clear to those that are versed in the reading of the Prophets in which there is not so much as one footstep of it to be found 'T is evident and certain says Mr. I. because the Term Vial signifies an hour-Glass and not a Cup. For a Cup is of another form than a Vial in that this hath a large belly and a narrow Mouth But it is not about the form of a Vial that we treat but about the signification of the Term. Nor is there any Greek Author that ascribeth to the word Vial the signification of an hourglass Neither is there one example to that purpose either in Henry Stevens Thesauras or in Favorinus or in Suidas or in Hesychius or in the Glossary But by all Dictionaries it do's appear that the Term Vial signifies a Cup a Chalice in a word a Vessel designed to drink in or any thing rather than a Glass for the measuring of Time. So that Mr. Iurieu's great principle is more than doubtful but then the use to which St. Iohn applyes this Term Vial do's make us plainly see its falshood In the 5th chap. of the Revelation v. 8. the four and twenty Elders fall down before the Throne having Golden Vials full of odours which are the prayers of the Saints Now can Vials there signify hour-glasses Were Hour-glasses used to offer incense in and to scatter perfumes in the places of worship as well as to measure and design time Surely Mr. Iurieu will grant that Vials in the 5th chap. of the Revelation are not hourglasses but Cups the odours whereof they are said to be full determine their signification to be Cups rather than hourglasses We may also affirm that the Term Vial chap. 16. can have no other signification but this in that the Wrath of God whereof they are said to be full adjudgeth the meaning of them to Bowls or Cups out of which the Enemies of Gods Church are made to drink rather than to hour-glasses for the measuring and defining of time It may be likewise told him that it being said chap. 18. v. 3. that Babylon shall drink of the Wrath of God tho the word Vial be not in the original yet it determins the signification of Vials chap. 16. to be cups because they are the judgments of God which are spoken of in the one place as well as in the other It may be farther said unto him that chap. 16. speaketh not simply of Vials but of golden Vials and thereupon he may be asked whether hour-glasses were anciently made of gold so that thereby the Spirit of God might allude unto them It may also be demanded of him whether an hour-glass of gold would be proper to measure time by Was Gold anciently transparent that men could see throw it how the Water run out as we now see throw glass how the sand drains away But Mr. Iurieu objects that the Vials are poured forth upon the Earth upon the Sea upon Fountains and Rivers upon the Sun upon the Seat of the Beast upon Euphrates and into the Air which cannot be said of drink or of
Censer and filled it with fire of the Altar and cast it into the Earth and there were voyces and thundrings and lighnings and an Earthquake TRumpets were used under the Law for two uses One was for War and to encourage the people to fight The other was for peace and to stir up the people to a holy rejoicing Those spoken of here are of the first sort The Seven Angels are the denouncers of those Evils which God was to pour out upon the Church to punish her decay in zeal and Charity The other Angel who stood before the Golden Altar with a Golden Censer is Jesus Christ that appeared in the 7. Chap. with the Seal of God and appeareth now as a Priest with a Censer that is to say as an Intercessor And his Intercession appeareth here with two different effects one for his people in obtaining their prayers to be accepted and his giving value to them is figured by incense The other against false Christians upon whom he scattereth fire from off the Altar This is the fire of division whereof Christ speaks Luke 12. 49 51. I am come to send fire on the earth Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on Earth I tell you nay but rather division 'T is said that this fire was taken off the Altar because it was to be kindled in a Church destitute of zeal and charity and because this fire of division was to be about Religion as the subject of it and by reason that Jesus Câ—rist was to be the cause of it or at least the pretence The voices thundrings lightnings and Earthquake that ensued upon the Scattering of this fire do plainly represent the strifes quarrels and troubles which under the Reign of Constantin and his Successors broke out among the Bishops and Pastors Who being given up to covetousness luxury and ambition raised such troubles as shook the Christian Religion and opened a door to Antichristianism which did appear under the Trumpets X. ILLUSTRATION Of the first Trumpet and of the Hail Fire and Blood. REV. CHAP. 8. V. 1. And the seven Angels which had the Seven Trumpets prepared themselves to sound V. 7. And the first Angel sounded and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood and they were cast upon the Earth and the third part of the Trees was burnt up and all green Grass was burnt up WE find not in History any change that befell the Church so near to the withholding the winds and to the Silence for half an hour i. e. so near to the peaceable Reign of Constantin which either more opened a door to Antichristianism or which better correspondeth to this Hail to this fire and to this blood caused by this first Trumpet than that so much noted Heresie of Arius 1 Arianism begun to lift up its head under the Reign of Constantin The Church had no sooner peace than the Devil let loose this Heretick to trouble her 2 This Heresie infected the whole Empire The world saith St. Ierom trembleth and is amased to see it self become Arian It lasted near three hundred years Many Councils were assembled to stop its course And it was in these Councils that the Bishop of Rome laid the foundation of that Supremacy which made him afterward to be considered and feared as the Head the judg and the absolute Monarch both of the world and of the Church 3 The hail the fire and the blood do admirably agree to that Heresie 'T is called Hail by reason both of its violence and of the noise which it made and because of the barrenness and coldness which it begot in mens hearts out of which it drove away godliness and charity 'T is stiled Fire because of the contentions which it kindled And it is called Blood by reason of the bloody persecutions which it raised And whereas she third part of the Trees and every green Herb are said to have been burnt up it is because more than one half of the Pastors who are designed by Trees and the generality of the people signified by all green Grass were infected with it XI ILLUSTRATION Of the second Trumpet A Mountain Burning cast into the Sea and a third part of it became Blood. REV. CHAP. 8. V. 8. And the second Angel sounded and as it were a great Mountain burning with fire was cast into the Sea and the third part of the Sea became blood V. 9. And the third part of the Creatures which were in the Sea and had life died and the third part of the Ships were destroyed 'T Is certain that Mountains do in the language of the Prophets signify the Kingdoms of the Earth Thus Mount Sion signifieth the Church which is the Kingdom of God. And thus 't is said Isaiah chap. 2. v. 14. that the day of the Lord shall be against all the high Mountains that is against all Nations tho' never so fierce and against all Kingdoms how powerful soever So that this burning Mountain thrown into the Sea cannot be better explained than of the Nations of the Goths Visigoths Ostrogoths Vandal's and Gepid's that under the Reign of Valens about the year 378. broke in like an inundation upon the Roman Empire destroyed Rome and who abolished the very Name of the Roman Empire in the West about the year 547. These Nations are stiled a burning Mountain because of their violence and of their swiftness This Mountain was cast into the Sea because it was an effect of the wrath of God that these Nations broke in upon the Roman Empire which was a great Sea a heap of many peoples which the Scripture useth to express by waters Now this burning Mountain is not said to dry up the Sea tho that be the proper effect of fire but it is said to have caused the third part of the Sea to become blood the H. Spirit having a respect to what is here signified by this Mountain namely the fierce and bloody humour of these Nations who drowned a part of the Roman Empire in blood infected the people of this Empire with Errors and destroyed a part of its Cities designed here by Ships XII ILLUSTRATION Of the third Trumpet A great Star fell from Heaven REV. CHAP. VIII V. 10. And the third Angel sounded and there fell a great Star from heaven burning as it were a Lamp and it fell upon the third part of the Rivers and upon the Fountains of Waters V. II. And the Name of the Star is called Worm-wood and the third part of the waters became Worm-wood and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter SEeing Jesus Christ hath in the first chap. v. 20. expounded the seven Stars which he had in his right hand to represent Pastors it must necessarily be that by the Star spoken of here some Bishop or Pastor should be intended And forasmuch as it is a great Star it must be a great Bishop that is designed and the Pastor of some Church which men esteem'd to be the