shall come to pass in order as they are revealed and such are the Prophecies of the Revelation says he no instance can be given of any Prophecy that comes to pass before or after the order of its Revelation And therefore they shall come to pass Prophecy after Prophecy as they were revealed and presented unto Iohn in Vision 1. But to the first I answer The argument will not hold good there if at all where there are special Notes given of a new beginning of prophesying For that is as much if not more than if the Visions had been exhibited to Iohn at several distant times or days And that there are such Notes it is plain namely of a new beginning of prophesying For as the Prophecy of the Seven Churches was ushered in with a sound of a Trumpet so is the Prophecy of the Sealed Book betwixt which two Prophecies there was an intermission of Iohn's Ecstasy as you may see Chap. 4. vers 2. And then before the Prophecy of the Opened Book besides other certain indications of the beginning of a new Prophecy as I have above shewed there is again that voice like a Trumpet that talked with him at the beginning of the Sealed Book-Prophecy which is a greater assurance that there are three distinct Prophecies than if they had been revealed to him at three distinct times or days 2. To the second I answer That there is no harshness at all to conceive two Prophecies beginning at the same Epocha to be writ in the same Book one after another it being impossible according to the usual writing of Books that they should be written together no more harshness I say than to conceive that an Historian in one Volume may write the lives of all the Secular Governours and Bishops of a City from the first times thereof to his own times Is it any thing harsh or rather not necessary when he has gone through all the times of the Governours that he begin at the first Epocha to write the lives of the Bishops of the said City 3. To the third I answer That the argument proves only that the Seals and Trumpets are to be fulfilled in that order they are mentioned and the Trumpets after the six first Seals they being the parts of the seventh Seal But this does not at all hinder but that the Seven Churches in that order they are set may commence with the Seven Seals as also the measuring the Inner Court and the fight of Michael and the Dragon as is plain to any one that attends to what is said 4. And lastly to the fourth and last I answer That it is demonstrable by vertue of M r Mede's Synchronisms that there are many instances of things coming to pass not in the order they are revealed but before and after This is most evidently true if M r Mede's Synchronisms be true as most certainly they are and I have mentioned them to be so against all the pretended cavils of R. H. IV. As for his last Position all the proof it has is from the arguments of the three former which being so false and weak and this last Paradox but a Consectary of them it is manifest it falls to the ground with them if they be sufficiently confuted as they will all without question be deemed to be after I have perfected my answer to the first argument for the second paradox and shown what is the Clavis to the Apocalyptical Steganography which is such a mystical or occult way of Revelation I briefly therefore here answer Those two places R. H. himself notes viz. Rev. 1. vers 20. and Rev. 17. vers 8 9 c. are the two keys the one of the Prophecy of the Seven Churches the other of the Prophecies of the Sealed Book and Opened Book in vertue whereof we may come to a clear and certain knowledge of this Steganographical Revelation called the Apocalypse For as for the first that is the Interpretation of the Mystery of the Seven Stars and of the seven Golden Candlesticks it is a plain intimation to any one that is not stupid that there is something more meant by these Seven Churches in Asia than seven particular Churches in Asia minor at that time and that indeed the Vision of the Seven Churches represented by the seven Golden Candlesticks is a Prophecy concerning the whole Succession of the Church to the end of the world divided into seven Intervals For if it were not so what needed all the pomp of this Vision and the explication of it if concerning the seven particular Churches in Asia whenas Chap. 1. vers 4. there was mention of the seven Churches in Asia and after seven Epistles writ to them by name Wherefore he must be exceeding stupid and slow-witted or of a course perverse Spirit that cannot at least being advertised of it discern the scope of the Spirit in this Vision of the Seven Stars and Seven Golden Candlesticks and the Interpretation thereof that it is a Prophecy in so large a sense as I have shown in my Exposition and proved that it is such a Prophecy by twenty solid Arguments in the tenth Chapter thereof Such intimations suffice to the pious free and sagacious Reader But for profane Drolls carnal Politicians or prejudiced Superstitionists if seeing they see not and hearing they understand not the fault lies at their own doors Now for the Key of the other two Prophecies of the Sealed Book and of the Opened Book let us briefly observe the use thereof and how effectual it is for the purpose intended and what the clear result thereof will be Revel Chap. 17. vers 8. there begins the Interpretation of the Vision of the Whore of Babylon and the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns ridden by her The Beast that thou sawest saith the Angel was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition And here it is remarkable how the Angel does not go about to explain what a Beast is it being so well known that according to the Prophetick stile it is a Kingdom State or Empire Cruel and Idolatrous such as they were that are described in Daniel and called there by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as this Beast is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as to say a Cruel wild Beast Wherefore the Angels Interpretation plainly imports thus much That the Beast which Iohn saw denotes a Kingdom State or Empire Cruel and Idolatrous and withall whose condition is such that at some time it might be said of it truly that it was a Cruel Idolatrous Kingdom State or Empire but is not but will be again a Cruel Idolatrous Kingdom State or Empire and then afterwards quite perish at least as to its Cruelty and Idolatry that is the Bestiality of it shall perish This is the name or nature of this Beast in general And though it may already very well be
to Heaven Earth or Sea even the Infernal Spirits themselves shall in the inward powers of their minds and consciences be forced to break out and confess upon the completion of this Book of Prophecies That all Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power is due unto him that sits on the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever 14. And the four Beasts said Amen Unto this the four Beasts that is the Church of Christ here upon Earth we may be sure will say Amen that is consent to such a doxologie And the four and twenty Elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever that is All the Kings and Princes of this truly Catholick and Apostolick Church will fall down and worship him that was dead but is now alive and behold he liveth for evermore that is they will devotionally adhere to him serve him and obey him who according to the promise made to his Church has brought things at last to such an Admirable Heavenly Holy Righteous and Peaceful Constitution So Glorious an Effect will there be of the completion of the Prophecies of this Book both as to Christ and also as to his Church Which shows how detestable the ingratitude is of such either shallow and frivolous or prophane Spirits or cunning obdurate Politicians that phancying it not to sute with their worldly Interest vilifie and decry it when as indeed this Book of Prophecies will prove the most effectual instrument in the hand of Providence that may be for the rooting all Atheism and Infidelity out of the world and Converting all the Kingdoms of the Earth to the Faith and Profession of our Lord Jesus Christ. CHAPTER VI. 1. HItherto the Introduction to the Prophecies of the Sealed Book we come now to the Prophecies themselves And I saw says Iohn when the Lamb opened one of the Seals that is the first Seal And I heard as it were the noise of thunder one of the four Beasts that is the first of the four Beasts the Lion whose place is towards the East saying Come and see Where we may observe how some parts of the Introductory Representation are made use of in this following Vision as some parts of the description of him that was seen amongst the golden Candlesticks are made use of in the Prefaces of the Epistles to the Churches 2. And I saw and behold a white Horse and he that sate on him had a Bow Which Heros on horseback and on a white Horse signifies a great Commander or Emperour Righteous Prosperous and Glorious in his undertaking And in that he is said to appear upon the first Beast the Lion placed on the East side his saying Come and see it is a sign that he is an Emperour from the East part of the World and in a word it is the Lion of the Tribe of Iuda that Captain of our Salvation Jesus Christ who being ascended into Glory was yet present with his Church affording them all succours to carry on their Spiritual Warfare And these Gospel-soldiers came from Iudea in the East And in that he is said to have a Bow it denotes that he aimed at something of no mean importance And this Heros on Horseback with his Bow answers to the Ephesine succession of the Church whose name imports earnest purpose or desire but the thing aimed at or designed is specified in the following words And a Crown was given unto him to wit the right of it even the Roman Imperial Crown and this Bow-man hat the mark when the Emperour Constantine turned Christian This is also the Crown promised to the Church in the Smyrnean succession Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee the Crown of Life the Crown of security from Pagan persecution And he went forth conquering and to conquer This Heros on the white Horse went forth conquering and to conquer till he obtained this Crown under the sixth Seal 3. And when he had opened the second Seal I heard the second Beast that is the Calf or Oxe say Come and sée 4. And there went out another Horse that was red a colour significant enough of the effusion of blood as the Oxe also of the great slaughter that was to be under this Seal and what follows plainly implies so much And power was given to him that sate thereon to take peace from the Earth and that they should kill one another and there was given to him a great Sword as a token of exceeding much blood-shed on the Earth under the second Seal This Seal therefore begins with Trajan a Spaniard and therefore an Emperour from the West In his Reign and Adrian's his successor there were so great commotions in the Empire that there were slain in those Tumults and Rebellions at least fifteen hundred thousand men 5. And when he had opened the third Seal I heard the third Beast that had a face like a man and was placed on the South say Come and see And I beheld and lo a black Horse and he that sate on him had a pair of balances in his hand The black colour betokens Gravity Severity Justice which Justice also is intimated by the face of a Man this third Beast is said to have Prudence and Justice being the proper characters of a Man Which sutes well with the last part of the description the pair of Balances in the Riders hand which argues him Severe Just Frugal and Provident 6. Which accordingly is exprest by that voice in the midst of the four Beasts And I heard a voice in the midst of the four Beasts say A measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny and see thou hurt not the oyl and wine that is the Rider of the black Horse will take special care 1. That if one Choenix of wheat be sold for a penny that three of barley shall be sold for a penny 2. That men shall live by their honest labours not by theft or rapine For Choenix signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the food for a day and Denarius the wages for a days labour 3. There shall be no stealing nor robbing but buying by measure though it should prove so hard a time that their dayes labour will but find them food 4. He will provide that they shall have a Choenix for a penny viz. that the price of bread-corn and necessary victuals shall not exceed a dayes wages And so of Wine and Oyl he will take care that there be no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no fraud in buying and selling there neither nor spoil and wast by unruly Soldiers Which prediction was egregiously fulfilled in Septimius Severus an African and therefore an Emperour from the South and in Alexander the Son of Mammea both of them notorious lovers of Justice and severe punishers of Thieves and Robbers To the latter the sight of an unjust Judge was so nauseous that he was ready to vomit at him and he was famous for that Christian Motto Do as
Apocalypsis Apocalypseos OR THE REVELATION OF S t JOHN the Divine unveiled CONTAINING A Brief but perspicuous and continued EXPOSITION From Chapter to Chapter and from Verse to Verse of the whole Book of the APOCALYPSE By HENRY MORE D. D. Ecclesiastic Chap. 39. He that giveth his mind to the Law of the most High and is occupied in the Meditation thereof will seek out the Wisdom of all the Ancient and be occupied in Prophecies Ezech. Chap. 43. vers 10. Thou Son of Man shew the House to the house of Israel that they may be ashamed of their Iniquities and let them measure the pattern LONDON Printed by I. M. for I. Martyn and W. Kettilby at the Bell and the Bishops-Head in S t Paul's Church-yard 1680. THE PREFACE TO THE READER READER THat thou mayest with better acceptance peruse my Exposition of this Book of Prophecies the Apocalypse I thought fit to say something by way of Preface First concerning the Book it self not only the Authentickness and Intelligibleness but also concerning the Excellency thereof Secondly concerning the grounds I go upon and the Truth of my Exposition And thirdly and lastly concerning the great Usefulness thereof That this Book is Canonical and of Divine Inspiration is confirmed by the Authority and Suffrage of the Church Universal both Roman and Reformed And though it had no external Confirmation the truth of Predictions in that large comprehension of things that it reacheth to and the holiness of that Spirit that breaths in it to any intelligent Reader will certainly prove it to be a Book Divinely inspired Not to add that the very Wit as I may so say and Artifice in it seems not to be Humane but Angelical It was indeed doubted of at first and the Authority thereof called into question but the occasion of questioning it was because it was in the hands of very few it being dangerous for the Christians to let this Book of the Apocalypse that does plainly predict as it might seem the burning of the City of Rome situated on seven Hills and having Rule then over the whole Earth so freely to go about as those others of the New Testament did And therefore this Book being so generally unknown when they began to determine what Books were Authentick and what not they might very well be at a loss concerning it Besides that Cerinthus and others overmuch Judaizing Christians who drew those things written of the first and second Resurrection and the New Jerusalem and the thousand years Reign of Christ to their Carnal Iudaical conceits made them more shie how they admitted this Book for Authentick Nay some as Gaius an ancient Author in Eusebius relate that Cerinthus the Chiliast was the writer of it Others who yet thought well of the Book that John the Presbyter a Disciple of the Apostle not John himself was the Author thereof The occasion of which might be as Grotius ingeniously conjectures because that John the Presbyter had the Book in his custody whence some out of mistake might deem him the Author thereof But by the Authority of the chiefest Fathers and upon a more narrow search and examination of the business it is now out of question with all Christian Churches that this Book of the Apocalypse is Authentick and Canonical and writ by John the Evangelist and Divine so called for his more plainly and peculiarly declaring the Divinity of Christ beyond any other of the Evangelists Now for the Intelligibleness of the Book Though there is a marvellous artifice of Concealment in it yet there is as sure an artifice of Revealment as I hope will appear by this our Exposition And why Prophecies should be obscurely writ and in what this obscurity consists I have sufficiently elsewhere declared The chief obscurity is in the Prophetick stile which when it is opened to a Man the sense will run clear As he that understands any other Language different from the Vulgar if the Book it is writ in be good sense he without difficulty will find it out And as it would be absurd in him that understands not that language to complain of the obscurity of the Book so it is as childish for him that will not take the pains which is not much to understand the Prophetick stile to complain of the obscurity of the Apocalypse But that it is intelligible all sorts of Christians Reformed and Unreformed have given their suffrage thereto in writing Commentaries upon it And it is no less than blasphemy against the Holy Ghost that inspired this Prophecy to say it is simply unintelligible as if Christ trifled with his Church in a thing so exceeding serious as this Book of Prophecies seems to be The Excellency whereof is notably set out if not also the necessity of reading and understanding it chap. 1. vers 3. Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this Prophecy and keep those things that are written therein which they cannot do unless they understand them And so chap. 22. vers 7. Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the Prophecy of this Book Which is chiefly performed by Faith and Constancy to the True Church of Christ against either the Dragon or Antichrist which he cannot do if these Prophecies were unintelligible nor can there any blessedness accrue to a man from reading a Book he understands not But the sayings thereof understood and kept being so effectual a way to blessedness it must needs argue the excellency of the Book But there is yet a further illustration of the Excellency thereof from what occurrs chap. 5. vers 2. which concerns the greatest part by far of this Book and that which some phansie the only Prophetical part thereof namely the Visions of the Sealed Book and of the Opened Book For what was contained in the Opened Book lay open by virtue of the breaking up of the Seals In that Chapter is the highest Encomium of this Book of Prophecies that the Wit and Rhetorick of men or Angels can invent or utter For first it is said vers 2. And I saw a strong Angel proclaiming with a loud voice Who is worthy to open the Book and to loose the Seals thereof And no man in Heaven nor in Earth neither under the Earth was able to open the Book neither to look thereon This therefore must be a most excellent and transcendent Book of Secrets and Predictions that neither Angels Men nor Infernal Spirits can reach to the knowledge of by virtue of their own faculties And then it follows And I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and read the Book and to look thereon Which further argues that it is a Book not only of rare secrets and vast comprehensive Predictions but more than ordinary desirable if not necessary to be known And lastly when the Lion of the Tribe of Judah that is Christ the Lamb under another expression and figuration was found worthy and had taken the
Grammatical Criticisme or the Rules of Rhetorick and observable Genius of the very stile of this Book of the Apocalypse it self if such an Exposition for so far as the time of Prophecies is already past be not true what Exposition of any Prophecy or of any thing else can be thought to be true And the things that are to come as the Calling of the Jews and the utter breaking in pieces of the Roman Idolatrous Hierarchy sore against their will considering the sweet relish of domineering and imposing upon the world and their obdurate pretence of Infallibility it were a Miracle indeed to think they will ever confesse themselves convinced of those enormous Errours and Crimes that are so justly laid to their charge And being they would fall of themselves did not some Secular Power support them it therefore is rational to conceive that some Remnant of the Roman Empire may stick to them to the last Vial So solid is our Exposition in that part also And concerning the Calling of the Jews I have noted already how generally the Opinion is allowed of and how often intimated in the Scriptures To which I may add that it does not seem probable that they are preserved a distinct People from the rest of the world all this time for nought And then for the flourishing of Peace and Truth and Righteousness in the times of the New Jerusalem so universally over the face of the Earth It is a thing that has been so little done already and so fully and repeatedly inculcated by the ancient Prophets as well as set down so exactly in the Apocalypse that unless a man will question the Truth of Scripture he cannot but admit it to be true From which considerations I hope it will appear that our Exposition of the Apocalypse is throughout true and that I have not rashly called it Apocalypsis Apocalypseos it being a plain and true unveiling of the Apocalypse or stripping it of all those coverings and disguisings contained in the Prophetick stile and whatever other Artifices of Concealment and laying the sense bare and open to the eyes of all that will not wilfully wink that they may not see the Truth And that there may be no distrust of the assuredness of our Interpretation by pretending that others have interpreted the Apocalypse another way I shall give notice here by the bye that I have with all care and diligence perused other Interpreters and the very best of them Grotius and Ribera for as for some Modern Buffoones rather and abusers of the Apocalypse than serious Interpreters of it no sober man will think-himself obliged to take notice of them and in those two chefest Chapters as to the Controversie betwixt the Church of Rome and us whether they are not to be proved from thence Idolaters I mean the thirteenth and seventeenth Chapters of which I have made a Joynt-Exposition in my Synopsis Prophetica I have shewed how absurd and impossible both Ribera's and Grotius his Interpretations of those Chapters are And in Grotius his Exposition of them who yet is now accounted the Chiefest Interpreter and most accommodate to baffle the true and genuine meaning of those Prophecies I have noted near fourscore such flawes as I should be loth any one should be able to find one in my whole Exposition of the Apocalypse besides his absurd mis-timing of the Visions which would show though otherwise his Expositions were more tolerable that they were nothing to the purpose And that they are mis-timed I have abundantly demonstrated in my Synopsis Prophetica Book II. Chap. 2. So that there is the greatest assurance imaginable of my Exposition of the thirteenth and seventeeth Chapters of the Apocalypse as you may be fully satisfied by the reading of my Joynt-Exposition of them Synops. Prophet Book I. Chap. 12 13 14 15. And if this Bulwark of my Joynt-Exposition stand impregnable as most certainly it will none that perceives the force thereof but will easily admit of the rest of our Interpretations as solid and true And thus much briefly of the Truth of our Exposition of the Apocalypse Now the usefulness thereof which I proposed in the third and last place it is exceeding considerable First against Atheists and those that believe neither Angel nor Spirit for there being a deduction of things foretold from the beginning of the Church to the end of all so natural so solid and so true and every way unexceptionable to any Rational Man this is the greatest Evidence desirable to evince a Divine Providence over the Church and the Affairs of Mankind and consequently the existence of a God as also of Angels the Ministers of his Providence which is all along inculcated in this Book of the Apocalypse And particularly it is asserted in the beginning of the Book that this Revelation was made to S t John by the Ministry of an Angel And that this can be no imagination of S t John 's as the prophane Hobbians and Spinozians would be ready to suggest out of the Principles of their stupid and incredulous minds but a real thing the Book it self is an ample Testimony and plain demonstration it being out of the reach of any man by his own natural wit or fore-sight to write a Book of such comprehensive Prophecies and so continuedly true to say nothing of the manner of writing it the very Wit and Artifice thereof which seems to imply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Stile and Wit is not the Stile and Wit of a Man but certainly of an Angel Nor does the Apocalypse only support the truth of Natural Religion which is the belief of the Existence of a God and of Spirits or Angels good and bad and of a Blessed Immortality after this life but it is a most special and extraordinary confirmation of the truth of the Revealed Religion of Christianity and the most assured Argument and most lasting and satisfactory of the Apotheosis of Christ that the Wit of Man can excogitate or his heart desire For reading this Book and comparing it with the History of the Affairs of the Church and of the Nations so far forth as they have had any thing to do with the Church or the Church with them he may as it were see with his own eyes and feel with his hands the Truth of our Religion in the veracity of our Great Prophet and Saviour and in the exact completion of the Predictions he has communicated to his Church as hitherto Which standing Miracle is of as much weight with the Intelligent for the confirmation of their Faith in Christ if not more than if they lived in our Saviours time to see his Miracles or conferr with the eye-witnesses of them And it is an extraordinary glorious priviledge of the Christian Church to have such a Book of Prophecies as these and peculiar to her above all Religions else in the world that ever was and so easie and naturally applicable to the events predicted And
the Church in the state of the New Jerusalem of which it is said There shall be no night there and they need no candle nor the light of the Sun For the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign for ever and ever 17. And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead as being exceedingly afraid that this fight might portend some great evil to the people of God And he laid his right hand upon me saying unto me Fear not I am the First and the Last And though there may be some great Afflictions and Tryals of my Church represented to thee in what thou seest yet thou must remember nothing shall come to pass without my Providence who am the First and the Last and will carry you through all Persecutions and Deaths and make you at length more than Conquerours 18. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the Keys of Hell and of Death as if he should say For I am now alive though I was my self dead once and crucified but behold I am alive for Ever Amen This is most certainly true of him whom this Vision represents and that he has the Keys of Hell and Death And therefore no man need fear to undergo martyrdom for his Cause who will certainly make him partaker of a Blessed Immortality and plunge his barbarous persecutors into everlasting perdition Wherefore after this encouragement to Iohn he sayes 19. Write the things which thou hast seen and the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter that is write the things which thou hast seen and known already as being past and the things that are present and the things that are to come after viz. The affairs of the first succession of the Church which is the Ephesine succession the affairs of the present succession of the Church in which S t Iohn wrote these Visions which is the Smyrnean and of the rest of the successions of the Church which are to come afterwards 20. Which affairs thus distributed into seven successions or intervals are indeed the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks For the seven stars are the Angels of the seven Churches that is the seven successions of Bishops and Pastors that are to shine forth in the brightness and purity of their Life and Doctrine in the seven successions of the Churches And the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven successions of the Apostolick Church here called seven Churches NOTES CHAPTER I. Vers. 1. Manifestly shewn already by him or that are past c. This is spoken in reference to the absurd Interpretations of Grotius in the first six Seals and the first six Trumpets who fixes the Scene of all those Visions in Judea and ends them with the sacking of the City which was before S t John wrote the Apocalypse for he wrote it in Domitian's time But what will not prejudiced Wits imagine rather than stoop to the Truth See my Mystery of Godliness Book 5. chap. 16. And Synops. Prophetic Book 2. chap. 2. sect 4 5 c. Vers. 4. Truly Catholick and Apostolick Church c. This I conceive to be comprehended in the name Asia in allusion to the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Asia signifying Fundamentum as if he should say To all the Churches that keep the Apostolical Foundation in Doctrine and Practice that keep in it and swerve not from it by admitting any thing contrary thereto And dispersed on the face of the earth c. This also is comprised in the word Asia by allusion to another Hebrew word of a like nearness of sound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Asia again and is the lowest of those four Worlds notoriously known amongst the Cabbalists Aziluth Briah Jetzirah Asia of which last the lowest part is this Earth we tread upon So evidently is the allusion to the nearness of sound in words made use of in this Book of the Apocalypse See another reason from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my Exposition of the seven Churches Vers. 19. The affairs of the first succession of the Church which is the Ephesine succession the affairs of the present c. That the affairs of the Ephesine succession were past when S t John received those Visions in Patmos is plain from hence because he received them about the end of Domitians Reign But the beginning of the Smyrnean succession is in the tenth of Nero or not long before which is about thirty years before S t John received the Visions in Patmos Besides that the Ephesine succession is described amongst other characters as not yet being stained with the doctrine and deeds of the Nicolaitans But the Nicolaitans appeared in the twelfth year of Nero as you may see in Spandanus the Epitomizer of Baronius Therefore the Ephesine succession was to expire before that time So plain is it that it was past when S t John was in Patmos But hence emerges a difficulty that well may stumble some viz. Being the Ephesine succession was then past why should there be an Epistle directed to it which is as if one should write to the deceased To which I answer That this Book of Prophecies being designed a Representation of the State of the Church or of the Empire in reference to the Church from the very beginning of the Church that the Representation might be the more compleat by not leaving out that little Time that was then past to the end of the world in that way I say it is comprized whether Epistolar or other it is to be begun and continued throughout And therefore in the Prophetical Vision of the Seals as the first Seal is rather an History than a Prophecy though disguised under Prophetick Iconismes For the time of the thing signified there by the Rider of the White Horse which the whole stream of Interpreters understand of Christ guiding and assisting the Apostles and his Church in the Apostolick times was in a manner quite expired when John wrote the Apocalypse So this Epistle to the Ephesine succession of the Church is to be conceived an Historical Description of that State of the Church rather than an Epistle though for conformity-sake it is put into this Epistolar disguise And since it is not so proper to write Epistles to any but those who are in present Being surely they who are satisfied there is no absurdity in writing in this Epistolar way to the successions of the Church not yet come ought to think the using this Epistolar form to a succession already past the more tolerable But supposing the Apocalypse a designed Representation as I hinted above of the affairs or state of the Church set out by a triple Prophecy this of the Seven Churches the second of the Sealed Book and the last of the Opened Book and that the Prophecy of the Sealed Book and of the Opened Book each
Iuda were sealed twelve thousand Of the Tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand Of the Tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand The order is much inverted and confounded in this numbring of the twelve Tribes besides that Dan is left out and Ephraims name is suppressed because those two Tribes were the ring-leaders to Idolatry Iudges chap. 17.18 But Iuda is here put before Reuben because Christ was of the Tribe of Iuda but Reuben keeps the second place as by birthright it being fit he should yield to no other especially his courage having been so notable in battles for the Lord Numb 33. and Ios. 4. Gads valour also has purchased him the next place besides that Elias and Iehu the destroyers of Baal and his worship were of the Tribe of Gad. 6. And of the Tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand This Tribe also is notable for the woman of Sarepta that entertained Elias that great Champion against the Baalitish Idolatry and for Anna the Prophetess that gave testimony to Christ when he was presented in the Temple And these are the first four Sons of Leah Of the Tribe of Nephthali were sealed twelve thousand Of the Tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand Nephthali is here placed and Manasses before their Seniours Simeon Levi Issachar and Zabulon the former because that Tribe is so much ennobled by the story of Barac the Conquerour of Sisera and for Capernaum that See as it were of that great Bishop of Souls Jesus Christ whose residence was so much at Capernaum a City of Galilee that belongs to Nephthali insomuch that he was called a Galilean And the later for the feats of Gideon the destroyer of the Altar of Baal who was of the Tribe of Manasses as was also Elisha upon whom the Spirit of Elias rested and who was sent to anoint Iehu King that sore executioner of Iezebel 7. Of the Tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand Of the Tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand Of the Tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand 8. Of the Tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand These four last Sons of Leah were ranked according to their birth there being nothing eximious in them or if there was it being blotted again by some contrary miscarriages so that there was no extraordinary merit to break the order of their birth Of the Tribe of Ioseph were sealed twelve thousand Of the Tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand Which two Tribes nominated from the other two Sons of Rachel as the Tribe of Nephthali and Manasses before from her other two are thrust down into this lowest place and the Tribe of Ioseph here put for the Tribe of Ephraim whose name is here suppressed because of the foul faults of that Tribe of Ephraim in Micha Ieroboam and Ahab all Ephraimites And Benjamin juniour of all is rightly placed last But upon the account of the whole we see the ranking and ordering of the names of the Tribes is so fitted as to represent a company zealous for Christ and as zealous against Antichrist as being that very Virgin Company with the Lamb on Mount Sion Chap. 14. and against Spiritual Whoredom which is Idolatry This pure Apostolick Church did Christ seal and keep safe even during all that dangerous time under the sounding of the first six Trumpets 9. After this I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lamb Namely before that Throne above described in Heaven For Iohn is supposed to see all these Visions in Heaven though they concern things here on Earth Clothed in white robes and palms in their hands This part of the Vision therefore shoots beyond the Pergamenian and Thyatirian Interval of the Church and begins with the Sardian Which enjoyes that promise to him that overcomes that he shall have power over the Nations that is whole Nations Tongues and People are now become open professors of the pure Apostolick Faith this is the effect of their victory and the sign thereof the Palm-branches in their hands They are the same with them that have got the victory over the Beast his Image and his Mark and the number of his Name and sing the Song of Moses and of the Lamb Chap. 15. Which is the commencement also of the Sardian succession which signifies a Song of Joy 10. And it is here said And they cryed with a loud voice saying Salvation unto our God which sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb Namely because he has thus delivered his Israel from the Antichristian bondage and persecution they were under in the Pergamenian and Thyatirian successions 11. And all the Angels stood round about the Throne and about the Elders and four Beasts and fell before the Throne with their fates and worshipped God This may seem to strike further into those Ages of the Church that come near to or are in the Blessed Millennium to those of the Philadelphian Interval which are as it were the Succession and Off-spring of the Apostolick Church that held out in the most persecuting times of Antichrist and are all held as one continued Church but growing and spreading further In which Angelical Times the consent and harmony of Heaven and Earth will be more full and more perfectly united and accorded So that it is no wonder it is said that the Angels joyntly with the Elders and four Beasts did fall before the Throne on their faces and worship God 12. Saying Amen Blessing and glory and wisdome and thanksgiving and honour and power and might by which these happy and heavenly Times are brought upon Earth be unto God for ever and ever Amen 13. And one of the Elders answered saying unto me What are these that are arayed in white Robes and whence came they that is to say how come the true Apostolick Church in these dayes that are here foreseen to be so prosperous and successfull and victorious For to be clothed in white signifies so in the Prophetick stile 14. And I said unto him Sir thou knowest And he said to me These are they which come out of great tribulation and have washed their Robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb that is these times of the Church that are thus prosperous as well as holy it is in vertue of the great tribulation and affliction their predecessors endured under the cruel and bloody persecutions of Antichrist So that they have washed their Robes as it were and made them white in the blood of the Lamb that is the sufferings of Christ in his true and living members under Antichrist were the Instrumental Cause of the splendid and prosperous condition of the blessed Times that are here prefigured in or near the Millennium as the blood of the Lamb in the usual sense is justly deemed the meritorious cause thereof 15. Therefore are they before the Throne of God and serve him day
and night in his Temple ever thankfully mindfull of the Evil they are delivered from and the great good they enjoy In vertue of the former sufferings of the true Apostolick Church under the Antichristian Tyranny shall the Church in these dayes here described enjoy peaceably their Religion and make their addresses to God continually in safety in his Holy Church which is his Temple And he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them For these are the times of Iehovah Shammah Of the Tabernacle of God amongst Men the times of the New Ierusalem 16. They shall hunger no more nor thirst any more They shall not be false-fed nor hunger-starved by deceitful Teachers that cannot impart to them the bread of Life nor raise the Spirit of Life in them by their Ministry as being devoid of it themselves whereby their thirst may be satisfied Neither wall any Sun light on them nor any heat There shall no Political Power whatsoever tyrannize over their consciences and by their persecution force them as was usuall under Antichrist to a sapless senseless heartless nay grosly Superstitious and Idolatrous Religion against their own judgement and inward sense of things 17. For the Lamb that is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters that is Christ himself by his Spirit and by true Spiritual Guides and Governours to whom he has communicated his Spirit shall feed them that is guide and govern them and shall lead them unto Living Fountains of waters shall conduct them into and guide them in the Dispensation of Life the renovation of their inward Man into the Living Image of God And God shall wipe all tears from their eyes They shall be no more calamitous by the wrongs and persecutions of bloody Tyrants whether Spiritual or Temporal For the true Apostolick Church shall then be an impregnable City or Polity of it self the New Ierusalem as it is described in the 21 Chapter of the Apocalypse This is the sense of this transition from the six first Seals to the opening of the last and reaches from the beginning of the corrupt part of the Pergamenian Interval to the end of the Laodicean NOTES CHAPTER VII Vers. 2. One of whose Titles is the East This is D r Hammonds sense upon the place and it is I think not only ingenious but true For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the East is with the Cabbalists the Eternal Wisdom of God that is the Eternal Word which is Christ. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the very word in the Text the same that occurrs Luke 1. vers 78. whereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day-spring from on high has visited us which is there understood of Christ as also Zachar. 3.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and chap. 6.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecce vir Oriens nomen ejus And Jerem. 23.5 he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also chap. 33.14 All which places not only the Christians but the Iews understood of the Messias So plain is it that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Oriens the East or Day-spring is a Name or Title of Christ. And though in those places of the Old Testament it is translated Germen a Branch as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most ordinarily signifies yet being it may also signifie light or shining and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in what sense soever is a Title of Christ and yet does usually signifie the East that the word here may be allusively used to signifie Christ is to me abundantly rational See Doctor Hammond upon Luk. 1. v. 78. CHAPTER VIII 1. ANd when he had opened the seventh Seal there was silence in Heaven about the space of half an hour This is spoken in allusion to the custome in the service of the Temple where though in the former part of their Service while the Sacrifices were offered the Temple rang again with their loud Musick yet in the time of Incense all were silent and in their tacit devotions 2. And I saw seven Angels which stood before God and to them were given seven Trumpets This he saw during this silence or at the beginning thereof 3. And another Angel came and stood at the Altar having a golden Censer and there was given unto him much Incense that he should offer it with the prayers of the Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the Throne Things thus represented in Heaven prefigure things here on Earth and these Ceremonies of the Temple the Devotions of the Christians whose prayers are here represented as coming up in remembrance before God Which is expressed in this Judaical way or Ceremony of the Temple by the giving to this Angel as to a Priest much Incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the Throne answering to the Altar of Incense overlaid with Gold that stood before the Sanctum Sanctorum 4. And the smoke of the Incense which came with the prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand that is the desire of the true Church who are of one mind with God ascended up before God as Incense out of a Priests hand and was known and accepted with him Their prayers in all likelihood were in general for the preservation of the Church and suppression of both the old and new growing abominations of the Empire 5. And to the end that you may know what the will of God was in order hereunto it is further added And the Angel took the Censer and filled it with the fire of the Altar and cast it into the Earth and there were voices and thundrings and lightnings and an earthquake Which things betoken the wrath of God to be poured upon the bloody persecuting Roman Empire against whom the souls of the slain under the Altar had called for vengeance chap. 6.10 The great tempests and commotions that should befall it are thus expressed in the general and as an effect of the foregoing groans and cryes of his aggrieved people 6. And the seven Angels that had the seven Trumpets prepared themselves to sound And therefore those Tempests and Calamities will now more particularly be described in the several soundings of those Angels that have the seven Trumpets 7. So the first Angel sounded and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood that is a thundring hail-storm with fire whereby is signified the furious Invasion of the Barbarians into the Empire And the mention of blood seems on purpose to be added that there may be no mistake as if this storm was to be upon trees and grass and not upon men though it follows And they were cast upon the earth and the third part of trees was burnt up and all green grass was burnt up Which the mention of blood shows not to be understood of earth trees and grass that bleed not but of the men of the
is plain that the measuring belongs to the men not to the place This space therefore of ground answers to that space of time which is comprehended in the Ephesine and Smyrnean succession of the Church And the correspondence is admirable betwixt the Smyrnean succession and the Thysiasterion when so many Martyrs as so many Holocausts were sacrificed in testimony of the Truth of the Christian Religion the space where the Altar of Holocausts stands falling in with the space of Time of the Smyrnean persecutions 2. But the Court which is without the Temple leave out and measure it not For it is not commensurable to the Rule of Gods Word and the Apostolick Faith and Practice but contrary or repugnant namely that time of the Church which is comprised in far the greatest part of the Pergamenian succession and all the Thyatirian in which they are said to offer things sacrificed to Idols and were in some kind or other become Idolatrous never go about therefore to measure them for they are incommensurate to the Rule and point-blank contrary thereto such is the outward Court. For it is given unto the Gentiles and the holy City shall they tread under foot forty and two months that is a kind of Paganochristianity instead of pure Christianity shall visibly domineer for forty and two months of years that is 1260 years which is the same proportion of Time to the commensurate Time of the Church under the Ephesine and Smyrnean succession and a little further that the proportion of the outward Court has to the inward Court which proportion is as 1260 to 360 that is the outward Court contained the inward three times and an half in quantity 3. And I will give power unto my two Witnesses and they shall prophecy a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes cloathed in sackcloth The works of darkness were numbred by months the Moon being Ruler of the night but the works of Righteousness by dayes of which the Sun is moderator But by dayes are understood Prophetick dayes here that is years a thing known and usual in Prophecies By these Two Witnesses are understood all that bore witness against the Idolatries and disorders of this time of Apostasie and they are said to be cloathed in sackcloth to denote both the sadness of heart they are in to see such times and also to signifie the low and mean condition of such Holy and Apostolick men in this wicked time of Apostasie But all these mournful Witnesses are said to be two though never so many partly by reason of the Types in the Old Testament to which they allude Moses and Aaron Elias and Elisha Zorobabel and Ieshuah who show'd their Zeal for the purity of Gods Worship against the Idolatry in the Wilderness in the Baalitish Idolatry and in the Captivity of Babylon There may be also an allusion to things in this Division into two viz. to Magistracy and Ministry to the Old Testament and the New or else to the People of the Iews such as are kept out from our Religion by the gross Adulterations of it and to the Virgin Company of Christians 4. Those are the two Olive Trées and the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the Earth A description of the two Witnesses in the sense above declared with a particular allusion to that in Zachary chap. 4.11 where by the two Olive Trees upon the right side of the Candlestick and the left is understood Zorobabel and Ieshuah those faithful Servants in the Babylonish Captivity and the time of the mournfull Witnesses is the very time of the Whore of Babylon 5. And if any man will hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their Enemies The allusion is to Moses and Elias who did really bring down fire upon their Enemies but here it is to be understood Mystically of the fire of the Spirit Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts It was the Word of the Lord to Zorobabel who was a Type of these Witnesses and an helper of Gods People in the Babylonish Captivity And it is said of the Man in Esdras coming out of the Sea And he shall destroy them without labour by the Law which is like unto fire In which sense I would understand that which followes And if any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed by the power of the Spirit in conviction and prayer these are the weapons of their warfare 6. These have power to shut heaven that it rain not in the dayes of their Prophecies namely in the dayes of their mournful Prophecy their prophecying in sackcloth This is figuratively spoken by a Prophetical Metalepsis or Zoopoeia of the second kind attributing that to their activity or it may be oral denunciation which is only a consequence of their condition they being put out of power and place in Church and State The allusion is to Elias his hindering it from raining three years and six months in Ahab's time which time exactly answers to 1260 dayes the time of these mournfull Witnesses But the rain that is here hindred is the sound Apostolick Doctrine and Heavenly influence thereof which hinderance is a consequence of these mournfull Witnesses being put out of power and place And have power over waters to turn them to blood because their Apostolick preaching of the Gospel of meekness and peace does not take place And to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will that is as often as occasions offer themselves * For particular occasions answer in analogie to particular acts of will in this Prophetick Zoopoeia and indeed all the ten plagues of Aegypt came upon the Roman Empire because these Witnesses to the Apostolick Truth are not heard it having become a Land of Aegypt to the true Israelites the pure and Apostolick Christians How the plague of Frogs of Lice of swarms of Gnats and Flyes murrain of Beasts Boyles and Ulcers Hail and Locusts in a mystical sense interpreted fell upon this mystical Aegypt as it is called in this Book of Prophecies as a necessary consequence of these Witnesses disgrace affliction and deprivation of power and office were easie here to show if it were not too long for this short Explication we are upon 7. And when they shall be * a finishing their Testimony that is performing their witnessing to the Truth against all the Impostures and Idolatries of this Spiritual Aegypt The Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit that is either out of a pit of the Earth or the abysse of the Sea and so it will signifie either the two-horned or the ten-horned Beast shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them shall oppose them and overcome as to the power of this world and kill them so that they shall be politically dead all of them and some as it happened to the Waldenses and Albigenses and others be slain in a natural sense
are equal to the forty two months wherein they are said to have trod it down So that the residue of this Vision runs up into the Sardian succession of the Church into the time of the seven Vials And already I think it is manifest in this Opened-Book-Prophecy that this Lion of the Tribe of Iudah did not roar in vain he having rescued so considerable a prey out of the jaws of Antichrist in the last notable Reformation And behold the third Wo cometh quickly which is the pouring forth of the Vials The first whereof is that intoxicating cup of envy rage and exulceration of spirit against the risen Witnesses by which their enemies being dementated it would make them impotently attempt such things as would render them execrable odious or despicable to all the world Which wrath of theirs and malice so naturally flowing from the prosperity of the Witnesses it is no wonder it is said That the third Wo cometh quickly 15. And the seventh Angel sounded and there were great voices in Heaven namely where S t Iohn was wrapt up in Spirit Saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ that is several Kingdoms and Principalities as pledges of the rest are recovered already by Christ out of the hands of the Tyrannical Antichrist by the late blessed Reformation And he shall reign for ever and ever that is whatever chastisements may come upon the Church of Sardis for her neglects and imperfections this Kingdom of Christ which has begun shall for certain take place and he shall reign to the end of the world through the Sardian Philadelphian and Laodicean successions 16. And the four and twenty Elders which sate before God on their seats fell upon their faces and worshipped God These Princes in Heaven are said thus to do betokening what those Princes and Potentates on Earth that were our Noble Reformers would do or how devoutly they would be affected for so blessed a Reformation which God by his gracious Providence had brought to pass for they were in a manner slaves to the Pope before 17. Saying We give the thanks O Lord God Almighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned that is given so glorious a specimen of thy power and that thou rulest in the Kingdoms of men and hast thus happily begun the reign of thy Christ for the subduing utterly at last the Kingdom of Antichrist The beginning of the seventh Trumpet is the beginning of the Sardian succession of the Church and of the seven Vials and the commencement of them all are with praises and acclamations for this first auspicious victory of Christ over the Papal Hierarchy or Antichrist For the word Sardis signifies a Song of Ioy and here is the thanksgiving of the Elders and at the beginning of the Vials there is sung the Song of Moses and of the Lamb. What follows here are some scatterings and obscure hints of the affairs under the seven Vials and plainly ends with the seventh 18. And the Nations were angry that is the Gentiles that had trodden down the outward Court and defiled it by a new kind of Idolatrous Gentilism the minds of these were exasperated and exulcerated with wrath and envy at this sudden resurrection of the Witnesses which is a short glance at the first Vial. And thy wrath is come and the time of the dead that is of those that this Tyrannical Roman Hierarchy had so often and in such multitudes so barbarously murthered for their witnessing to the Truth the time is now come that Christ is to judge and revenge their Cause which seems to allude to the third Vial where it is said Thou art righteous O Lord which art and wast and shall be because thou hast judged thus For they have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them blood to drink for they are worthy which is an easie comment upon what follows That they should be judged and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy Servants the Prophets and to thy Saints and them that fear thy Name small and great The meanest that have died Martyrs and been murdered for the profession of the Truth that thou shouldest judge their Cause though they were despised by this Proud Imperious Iezebel And shouldest destroy them that destroy the Earth that is the men upon the Earth for of this Iezebel or Whore of Babylon it is said And in her was found the blood of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth into such an Akeldama has that lofty Prelate the Pope ever and anon turned Christendom by his restless ambition and tyranny 19. And the Temple of God was opened in Heaven Out of which the seven Angels having the seven last plagues are seen to come Chap. 15. And there was seen in his Temple the Ark of the Testament Which answers to the great voice out of the Temple of Heaven from the Throne Chap. 16.17 under the seventh Vial So that this time reaches to the very Sanctum sanctorum or Holy of holies betokening a most powerfull pure and Apostolick State of the Church as if we were come into the first Apostolick Times again in the beginning of the Church as the outward Court is an emblem of the latter Apostated Times thereof By which is notified the beginning of the Philadelphian succession which commences with the seventh Vial. To which what follows seems to allude And there were lightnings and voices and thunderings and an earthquake and great hail which is plainly a description of the seventh Vial. So that this whole Vision in this Chapter begins with the first Epocha of the Church and endeth with the seventh Vial or first Thunder Which is also the very space of the Sett of Visions comprized in the three following Chapters which are a more ample description of the same state of things in the same time and we shall note what parts answer each other NOTES Chapter XI Vers. 6. By a Prophetical Metalepsis or Zoopoeia c. Metalepsis is a Figure whereby an effect or event is translated or communicated to some Person or Thing because the Place and Time is coincident with them That there is such a Figure and that it is made use of in the Apocalypse I have proved in my Synopsis Prophetica lib. 1. cap. 4. sect 10. But a Zoopoeia of the second kind is when free Actions are attributed to free Agents of which notwithstanding they may be no more the cause than if they were inanimate Beings or not in Being at all This figure also I have proved to be made use of in the Apocalypse as well as in other Authors lib. 1. cap. 3. sect 10. See my Synopsis in the places cited For particular occasions answer in Analogy to particular acts of will c. And the Analogie is very exact the Figure being but once admitted which I have
Miracles and Kainish Persecutors had they but Power and in the mean time gross Idolaters and either lovers of lying Legends or Inventours of them These unclean Birds are kept out of the New Ierusalem but have their dismal haunts in the rubbish and ruines of the demolished Babylon as has been observed above 16. I Iesus have sent my Angel to testifie unto you these things in the Churches alluding to the Churches in Asia which signifie the whole succession of the truly Catholick and Apostolick Church to the end of the world The Churches therefore for whose use this Book was written are the Churches in Smyrna Pergamus Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea The whole Book of the Apocalypse is as it were an Epistle to them all as they are concerned in their several Successions Which passage is a farther confirmation of the Prophetical sense of the Epistles to the seven Churches in Asia I am the Root and the Off-spring of David * Which may denote his Divinity and Humanity as also his being the Off-spring or Son of David the true Messias his Right to the Kingdoms of the Earth as it is foretold in the second Psalm Ask of me and I will give thee the Nations for thine Inheritance and the utmost parts of the Earth for thy possession And therefore because of the greatness and glory of his Kingdom it follows And the bright Morning-Star In the Sardian Interval he was onely the Morning-Star here the bright Morning-Star which is a sign this saying glances at the Philadelphian Interval in the commencement thereof under the last Vial which sutes with the saying of S t Iohn in the next Verse 17. And the Spirit and the Bride say Come The Spirit because this is the commencement of those Times that are properly called the Reign of the Spirit by the Cabbalists And the voice of the Bride is added as a Testimony of the Churches desire of the settlement of things into the Glorious Condition of the New Ierusalem upon the destruction of the blood-drunken Idolatrous Babylon And let him that heareth say Come that is Let him pray for the acceleration of so glorious a settlement of things And then our Saviour speaks for this latter part of the Chapter from vers 10. to the end is a kind of Dialogue as both Peganius and Grotius have observed And let him that is athirst come that is He that sincerely hungers and thirsts after Righteousness And whosoever will that is whosoever has a Will and Desire let him take the waters of Life freely Let him enjoy the happy priviledge of this Living City of God and so grow up in all true Holiness and Godliness in Communion of the Spirit This priviledge shall he enjoy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gratis or freely without money as the Prophet speaks 18. For I testifie unto every man that heareth the words of the Prophecy of this Book If any one shall add unto these things Interpreters and not without reason take this to be a commination to terrifie men from being so negligent as to let any Errata slip into the Copies of this Book of Prophecies where every word was so curiously weighed by the Pen-man thereof or from being so bold as on purpose to alter any thing therein by adding or taking away * But I conceive also there is besides this a 〈◊〉 sense and that it is a prohibition from bringing in their carnal Inventions to add inconsistently with the pure Apostolick Doctrines and Institutes of this City Whosoever would do any such thing God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this Book whether they concern this Life or that which is to come the sulphurous lake of fire which is the second Death 19. And if any man will take from the words of the Book of this Prophecy and be faint-hearted or of little or no Faith and contend there never will be such an Excellent State of the Church upon Earth God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life and out of the Holy City and from the things that are written in this Book He shall never be able to enter into the blessed New Ierusalem state by reason of his unbelief 20. He that testifieth these things saith Surely I come quickly that is for the fulfilling of the Visions of the first six Seals and what contemporizeth with them to assist his Church and support them in their Smyrnean Affliction and to defeat the Enemy under the sixth Seal To which Saint Iohn answers Amen Even so Come Lord Iesus This was seasonable for Saint Iohn to say in his time in reference to Christs Coming to subvert the Power of the old Dragon and abolish Paganical Idolatry and Tyranny As it was also in the Pergamenian and Thyatirian Intervals for the oppressed and afflicted Church to say in respect of his coming to judge the Great Whore the Pagano-christian Hierarchy who had been drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus And in the Sardian that he would consummate the Judgement begun to be executed on the false Prophet who is perfectly to be consumed under the seventh Vial. And lastly in the Laodicean Interval it will be again very seasonable by reason of the inclining of things again to worse to pray Come Lord Iesus come quickly to that general judgement when Death shall be swallowed up into Victory and all the Saints shall be translated into the incorruptible state of heavenly Bliss and Glory And this whole Book of Prophecies being as it were one entire Epistle Monitory to the Church of God throughout all Ages of the world as there is mention Vers. 16. of witnessing these things to the Churches in Asia no doubt that is over the face of the whole Earth and successively through all Ages or Intervals from Saint Iohn's time to the end of the world Smyrnean Pergamenian Thyatirian Sardian Philadelphian and Laodicean This whole Book I say being such a general Monitory Epistle it is but sutable that he conclude with that usual form of valediction in the Epistles of the Apostles 21. The Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ be with you all Amen NOTES CHAPTER XXII Vers. 16. Which may denote his Divinity and Humanity c. This any one that firmly believes the Divinity of Christ and that he is the Eternal Logos united with the Humane Nature will easily admit to be suggested here though Grotius is content to understand no more by Radix Davidis than Surculus Davidis and I must confess that according to the use of the Hebrew word Radix is sometimes the same with Surculus But being that Root ordinarily signifies that from which another grows not that which grows from another and that this sense here is both true and more ample and sublime and therefore more sutable to the Genius of the Apocalypse I thought it was more probable to be meant here as also in the fifth Chapter And generally the Ancients go
that way Ambrosius Aretas Andreas Caesareensis and others See Ribera on the place Vers. 18. But I conceive also there is besides this a further sense and the truth is that other sense does very hardly agree with the beginning of the Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For I testifie In so much that Ribera is fain to acknowledge that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is only an expletive Particle and signifies nothing at all And adds further how several MSS. are without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Grotius follows those Copies But if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the force thereof be retained and we read For I testifie unto every man it involves a reason why every man should close with this free Invitation made before implying that this excellent state of things is really intended by Christ a state so pure and so perfect and that all other things condemned in this Book are to be rejected And therefore he that would either admit or foist in any of those rejectaneous things or hypocritically diminish the Faith or Belief of so great perfection of the Church as there is set out by the description of the New Jerusalem the Commination is to him And this threatened punishment is also an argument of the truth and seriousness of Christs proposal which I would have them seriously to consider that make it their business to decry all hope of those good Times when Peace and Truth and Righteousness shall Reign upon Earth to lull themselves and others asleep in their sins And farther to confirm this sense of ours D r Hammond upon this and the following Verse Whosoever sayes he shall go about to infuse any other expectations into men than what are agreeable to these Visions God shall bring on him the Judgments that are denounced against Gods greatest Enemies And whosoever shall derogate any thing from the Authority of this Prophecy or occasion mens not receiving the admonitions of Christ he might have added also or their not believing his promises contained here in every part thereof of which that of the State of the New Jerusalem is one of the chief God shall cast him off and account him uncapable of all the blessings which are here promised to the faithful Christians Which Paraphrase of this Learned and Pious Doctor of our Church on these two Verses is not much unlike ours which is no small Argument for the naturalness of the Interpretation in that though we disagree in other things we both agree in this THE EPILOGUE I Have now Reader I hope made good the promise of my Title Page and exhibited to thy view and judgment as well a plain and perspicuous as continued Exposition of the Apocalypse from the beginning to the end Which whole Exposition though it be intirely of one piece yet that more be not attributed to my performance than I deserve the invention of every part thereof is not from one man but whatever I have drawn in from others it is like well concocted food made a congruous and congenerous part of the whole body of my Exposition I admitting nothing but what I first carefully considered and if need was rectified polished illustrated and amplified And he that I am most of all beholden to is that incomparably Pious and Learned person M r Ioseph Mede once one of the Fellows of our Colledge in whose steps where he treads right I thought I was bound to insist as also in any others so far as they are in a true path For I account it a juvenile piece of pride and wantonness in any one to innovate where things seem right already unless he bring that which is plainly truer For this affectation of bringing of something new in interpreting Scripture does but dissettle the minds of those that are to be informed and makes the Holy Writt to lose its scope and efficacy and to seem more uncertain and obscure than indeed it is And therefore Enthusiasts that attempt any Expositions of this Book without carefully consulting the most likely Interpreters before them it is no inspiration of the Spirit in them but a blind puff of pride and vanity of mind a blast of self-conceitedness that drives them upon such rash and dangerous enterprises out of a bold presumption that others have not attempted these things as much in the fear of God and with as good assistances of his Spirit as they can pretend to Such men as these seek not the interest of the true Apostolick Church but do sacrifice to their own pride and seek to be accounted somebody amongst men or to make a confusion of all But for my own part I can call God and my own Conscience to witness and I think the circumstances of the times we are in may assure any one of my integrity in this protestation that nothing but the mere service of the truly Catholick and Apostolick Church has invited me to publish this my Exposition of the Apocalypse as being full perswaded of the truth and manifold usefulness thereof which I have showed in my Preface to the Reader and that especially amongst the rest that it does so plainly demonstrate both the Protestants freeness from the guilt of Schism as to the Church of Rome and the Church of Rome's guiltiness of that hainous and intolerable crime of Idolatry which is a further confirmation of the Protestants freeness from the guilt of Schism I confess that our Writers by sound and irrefutable Reason have proved the Church of Rome guilty of this crime But by reason of the hardness of the hearts or foreheads of our Adversaries God himself has set his hand again and again in the Apocalypse to this Accusation or rather as a truly infallible Moderator has decided the Controversy on the Protestants side expressly and repeatedly against the Church of Rome I will hint some few examples as in the Prophecy of the Seven Churches my Exposition whereof is so confirmed in the tenth Chapter of it to omit other arguments that I think it is impossible for any man that is not prodigiously laden with prejudice not to be convinced there in the Epistle to the Church in Pergamus and again in the Epistle to the Church in Thyatira both which successions of the Church succeed the Smyrnean which are those ages of the Church in which the Church suffered bitter Persecutions from the Pagans doth the Spirit of God complain of their eating Idolothyta which is turning the Lords Supper which is a Feast upon a Sacrifice into an Idolatrous Solemnity like the eating of things Sacrificed unto Idols In which the Idolatry of their Mass is plainly perstringed And this is evidently in the successions of the Church after she had got the victory over crude Paganism Again in the Sealed-Book-Prophecie where such an Exposition we have given out of M r Mede of the six first Seals as against which neither Papist nor Protestant can justly except and whence the six Trumpets must needs shoot into the Pergamenian
Apocalypse are so absurd that as he boasts himself the sole Inventor of them so he is like to prove the sole Assertor to them yet that he has said something material against M r Mede's Synchronisms which how little it is we shall now see but with all possible briefness alledging only the main stress of M r Medes Arguments and taking notice only of the main stress of R. H. his Answers unto them THE FIRST PART Synchronism I. The Woman remaining in the Wilderness The seven-headed Beast restored The outward Court troden underfoot by the Gentiles The two Witnesses in the mean time Prophesying in Sackcloth THat the two latter of these do Contemporize or Synchronize he grants but denyes that the two first begin at the same time the Woman in the Wilderness and the seven-headed Beast restored For he saith 1. The Woman got into the Wilderness before the Dragon cast the flood of water after her to drive her out from thence Chap. 12. vers 14 15. And then 2. That the Earth opens her mouth and swallows up the flood of water Vers. 16. And 3. That the Dragon seeing that leaves the Woman in the Wilderness and goes and makes war with the remnant of her Seed which were not fled into the Wilderness Vers. 17. This he thinks is so true a sense and order of the Prophecy that he wonders that any man should set his wit against it And I wonder on the contrary that any man should have so little wit or so little to do as to bring such weak stuff to obscure the clear reasoning of M r Mede in this Synchronism For if what is alledged have any strength it is this That the Dragon and his activity against the Church in his own person was so long after the time of the Womans getting into the Wilderness that the time of the restored Beast and the Womans entring into the Wilderness cannot commence together But the premises are said only not proved at all Nay the Scriptures alledged for his conceit are plainly against him For Vers. 14. the sense of that verse plainly is That two wings of an Eagle were given unto her to fly into the Wilderness that she might there be nourished for a time and times and half a time c. And the Copy that Grotius follows has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that she may be nourished there And though we retain the ordinary reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being a Prophecy will be future For it is nonsense to say Wings were given her to fly into a place into which she had gotten already And therefore Vers. 15. the Serpent casts out the flood of waters whilst she was in her flight that she might be drowned before she got into the Wilderness where she was to be entertained and nourished And Vers. 16. the Earth opened her mouth and drunk up the flood that she might pass safe into the Wilderness and consequently all this is before she gets into the Wilderness and this casting out the flood by the Serpent is his personal persecution of her mentioned Vers. 13. But that the Dragon Vers. 17. went to wage War with a party of the Womans Seed that had not gone into the Wilderness is a meer figment of R. H. There is no such thing in the Text and it is contrary to the plain sense thereof For no man can doubt but that Woman is the whole Catholick Church whom to phansie not to have fled whole into the Wilderness is as absurd as to phansie a Woman to fly into the Wilderness but to leave some limbs of her behind her and the Seed of the Woman is part of the Woman her self The Woman is Ecclesia tota semen ejus singuli qui ad ecclesiam pertinent as Grotius notes upon the place And therefore if the Woman be in the Wilderness her Seed must be in the Wilderness and this Seed distinguished from her Seed before she came into the Wilderness Whence the sense is clear That as the Dragon persecuted the Womans Seed before she got into the Wilderness so being he could not hinder her going into the Wilderness by his spuing out of that flood he maliciously meditated some mischief and hostility against her seed in the Wilderness which he presently did by raising the Healed Beast against them in the Chapter immediately following Thus solidly has M r Mede evinced that the time of the healed Beast and of the Womans remaining in the Wilderness do commence together and it plainly appears that it is even nothing that R. H. has alledged against it M r Mede's other proof of this Synchronism namely from the ending of the times of the Beast with the sixth Trumpet Revel 11.14 15 17. to this R. H. speaks more materially than to the former But for brevity sake I will only note this That there is nothing of moment alledged that reaches any further than to prove that the Reign of the Beast does not end with the sixth Trumpet Which is a thing I do easily grant but yet in the mean time I contend that the fulfilling of his fourty two months is at the exitus of the sixth Trumpet which respects the duration of his Kingdom in the Entireness thereof Which Entireness was broken at the Rising of the Witnesses and therefore the Entireness of his Kingdom is Synchronal to the two Witnesses Prophesying in Sackcloth they being both Isochronal or of equal time as all those four Synchronals are expressly noted to be in the very Text And hence by these two Arguments of M r Mede's demonstrated to be Synchronal namely the Womans abode in the Wilderness and the restored Beasts Reign for forty two months beginning together and being Isochronal are Synchronal And the restored Beasts Reign for forty two months ending with the Witnesses Prophesying in Sackcloth and being Isochronal are also Synchronal Therefore the Womans being in the Wilderness and the Prophesying of the Witnesses in Sackcloth are Synchronal And R. H. himself cannot deny but the treading under foot the outward Court and the Witnesses prophesying in sackcloth are Synchronal whence it is manifest that they all four Synchronize one with another His evasion by asserting the Beast Chap. 11. vers 7. and the Beast Chap. 13. vers 1. not to be the same is very sleight For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if the Translators had been pleased to translate it accordingly rising out of the Sea there had been no doubt of his sameness there being nothing repugnant in him to the description of the other and it is the genius of the Apocalypse to give an obscurer hint at first of what it speaks more fully and clearly afterwards Synchronism II. The two-horned Beast or false Prophet The ten-horned healed Beast or image of the Beast Here R. H. acknowledges that the healed Beast Synchronizes with the two-horned Beast from the time of his healing
yet lapsed into those gross Superstitions and Pagan-like Idolatries And lastly for the first six Seals though the Sealed Book-Prophecy respects the Fate and Affairs of the Empire rather than of the Church yet the first Vision viz. of the first Seal namely the Heros on the White Horse I doubt not but it is Christ more particularly guiding and assisting the Apostles and other Agents for the enlarging of his Kingdom in those Times by sending of the Holy Ghost and enabling them to do True Miracles one of the greatest whereof is this Apocalypse written by S t Iohn and the mention of a Bow and a Crown of which the Right was given him denotes him aiming at the possession of the Imperial Crown the making the whole Roman Empire his Church or Kingdom which causing such great mutations in the Empire the fate of the Empire may very well be conceived to be concerned therein The three next Seals how exquisitely they fit with those Times of the Riders of the Red Black and Pale Horses the Exposition makes good and they are in a manner merely touching the Affairs of the Empire though useful also to the Church to know where or in what Times they were and what to expect next But the fifth Seal exhibiting the Souls of the slain under the Altar martyred or sacrificed for their bearing Witness to the Christian Truth is hugely congenerous with the sharp throes of the Womans Child-bearing and the Affairs of the Empire are here also concerned great Calamities being to come upon it for the effusion of this Innocent Blood And lastly that great Earthquake under the sixth Seal which brought the confusion and subversion of the Old Pagan Religion as the Fate of the Empire could not but be concerned therein so also it doth fitly fall in with the Victory of Michael over the Dragon and his casting him down unto the Earth So agreeable are the Primitive Times of the Church to all these Antemedial Synchronals And what is still more admirable we may further observe how exactly the Ephesine and Smyrnean Interval of the Church agree with those Times and with the said Antemedial Synchronals of the Sealed and Opened Book For as in the first Seal the Heros on the White Horse is brought in earnestly aiming with his Bow and Arrow at a Crown the Right of which is given to him so the first Interval of the Church viz. the Ephesine has its name from a Paronomastical Allusion to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies an earnest desire after a thing and in the Smyrnean Interval which with the Ephesine equalizes the Time of the Fight of Michael with the Dragon till his Victory over him under the sixth Seal and is the Interval of the Ten noted Persecutions of the Church it is said to the Church in that Interval Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee the Crown of Life that is the Imperial Crown Constantine turning Christian under the sixth Seal at the expiration of the Smyrnean Interval so called from the bitterness of Persecution in that succession of the Church But the great Encomiums of the Church in those two Intervalls answer handsomly to the Inner Court of the Temple and Altar which is said to be symmetral and allowed and the Altar there to the many Martyrdoms of the Primitive Christians sacrificed for the profession of the Christian Faith in the Smyrnean Interval of the Church So wonderful an harmony is there of these Antemedial Synchronals of all sorts with the History of those Primitive Times and with one another So that it must be mere stupidity or obstinate perverness that hinders any one from assenting to the Truth in this point We have seen what a fit and effectual Key the Interpretation of the Angel has been for the opening the true meaning of all the Antemedial and Medial Visions of the Apocalypse Which since they concern things past the sense of the Visions is the more assured and certain to us But the Postmedial Visions being all of them in a manner to come the sense cannot be so precise fixt and certain But thus much is manifest out of the Interpretation of the Angel that they are to succeed the Rising of the Witnesses or the expiring of the seventh Semitime of the forty two Prophetical months of the Beast which seventh Semi-time or seventh Semiday or Half-day by the Interpretation of the Angel reaching to our Times or the Times of the Reformation it is evident that the Reformation is the Rising of the Witnesses After which immediately succeeds the seventh Trumpet within which in gross or at large are contained The Millennial Reign of Christ The Ligation and Incarceration of Satan The Palm-bearing Company The time of the New Ierusalem or of the Lambs Wife And this is so firmly proved by M r Mede's Synchronisms that there can be no doubt but that those glorious and happy times of the Church upon Earth are yet to come which is the main scope of the Postmedial Visions But in our Table of Synchronisms things are delineated more distinctly and particularly and it mainly differs from that part of M r Mede's Table in that I have divided the Seventh Trumpet into Seven Thunders and placed the Seven Vials under the First Thunder For in that they are the Seven last Plagues that they should belong to the last Wo-Trumpet there is all the reason in the world And that the Vials must of necessity follow the Rising of the Witnesses I have elsewhere sufficiently demonstrated It remains only that we briefly note the Reasonableness of the order of the Postmedial Visions in my Table and the Congruity of those that are set down as Synchronizing one with another all which I have referred to the order of the Seven Thunders And that we also observe how the expiration of the time of the Beast and his destruction and so likewise of the Whore at the Rising of the Witnesses is to be understood only of the Entireness of their Kingdom or Rule And that according to that analogy all the rest of the Synchronals are to be understood namely as there is but a partial destruction of the Kingdom of the Beast and the Whore so there is but a partial and imperfect advance toward the Millennial Reign of Christ and the New Ierusalem c. This being premised we will take notice of the order of the Seven Thunders and what Visions Synchronize with them As with the first Thunder Synchronizeth the effusion of the Seven Vials as the Seven Thunders with the Seventh Trumpet and the Seven Trumpets with the Seventh Seal With the Sixth Vial synchronizeth the Harvest and also the Preparedness of the Spouse of the Lamb. Whereby the conversion of the Iews is intimated to be under the Sixth Vial as also in part at least by the Sixth Vial it self And if this be not the time of their conversion there appears none in the Apocalypse for them And R. H. himself is very
who is the Authour of the Prophecy and revealed it to John would reveal the Truth to him as if the Reader was to find it in this his new and rare Litteral way But to examine now as briefly as we may the three grand causes or grounds of his betaking himself to this new Invention never yet met with in any other Writer whatsoever as he but truly and justly boasts of himself in the beginning of his Preface Concerning the first therefore I answer That I commend Civility and fair Language so far as is consistent with Truth But if by the Interpretation of the Angel the Whore of Babylon that rides the Beast Chap. 17. is necessarily and inevitably the Roman Hierarchy debauching the Empire with Idolatry I will ask R. H. whether he takes himself to be a more wise and just Nomenclator than the Holy Ghost speaking by the voice of an Angel and whether we have not sufficient warrant to call Rome or the Roman Hierarchy the Whore of Babylon we having the Example of such an infallible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or imposer of names and whether he himself is not to take the less offence at it he expresly declaring at the end of his Book that God may permit the Turk for the punishment of Idolatry to take the City of Rome and possess himself of it To the second I answer That I dearly embrace that Christian good Nature in him and great abhorrence from War and Blood-shed especially upon account of Religion but withall I affirm that with this Christian temper my Exposition of the Apocalypse though I follow M r Medes Synchronisms for the main and interpret it Mystically better agrees than R. H. his Litteral Interpretation which seems framed in a tenderness to the worldly peace of the Church of Rome only but mine tends to a peace and cessation of Wars and Persecution in all Christendom Let R. H. read my Preface Sect. 12. and then tell me whether his Litteral sense or my Mystical sense is more abhorrent from persecution war and bloodshed and better consists with Christian peace and charity But he while he seems so solicitous for the Church of Rome in his Litteral Interpretation of the Apocalypse cares not to disarm all the Reformed Churches of that just defence which apparently they have out of the Apocalypse rightly understood for their separation from Rome whereby they can demonstrate themselves neither Schismaticks nor Hereticks nor ought to have been massacred and burnt for such to the exhausting of the lives of several hundred thousand innocent Souls that could not stoop to their Idolatries What a preposterous piece of Charity therefore is it in R. H. that in a tenderness to the peace of the Church of Rome he will despoil his own Church and all the Reformed Churches of their just and most effectual defence against that blood-thirsty Hierarchy who have drunk the blood of so many hundred thousands of innocent dissenters and if their Interest require it and opportunity give leave are it is to be feared ready to drink as much more But for my own part I am against all War upon account of Religion and all bloody Persecutions of one Party or other nor doth my Interpretation of the Apocalypse require any such thing But that they that are unjustly assaulted may defend themselves R. H. himself allows against the Papists in the Conclusion of his Book in these express words And so stands the Case betwixt Vs and Rome if they assault us we may assault them if they begin with us we may defend our selves and offend our foes until they be minded to be quiet and agree on peace upon safe terms and firm foundation And the Mystical Interpretation of the Apocalypse implyes no more against the persons of the Romanists than thus But that their Policy quatenus Idolatrous and persecutive will be confounded methinks R. H. should conceive there is no inconvenience in that unless he were a lover of Idolatry and Persecution more than of the purity of Gods Worship Goodness Equity and Truth Therefore the second cause of his adhering to a Litteral Exposition of the Apocalypse is thus quite blown away And for his third and last though the Church of England cannot but take in good part his kindness and well-meaning in her behalf against such phancy-full Sectaries as would prove her Antichristian out of the Mystical Interpretation of the Apocalypse yet the most Orthodox the most Pious and the most Learned Clergy-men of the Church of England to whom he dedicates his meaning of the Revelation will easily understand that he does our Church a great disservice by exploding all Mystical Interpretations of the Apocalypse the true Mystical Explication thereof such as I have pitched upon and such as I challenge R. H. or any man else living to show any flaw of moment therein excusing our English Church from all suspicion of that Antichristianism which is deciphered in the Apocalypse as doth appear by the second Consectary of my Ioynt-Exposition Synops. Prophet Book 2. Chap. 5. Besides what occurrs in my Preface to my Synopsis Sect. 17. of a peculiar Attestation to the Church of England from the completion of the Prophecy of the rising of the Witnesses Not to omit also that according to our mystical Interpretation Episcopacy was in the Church in the Symmetral times thereof And that there is no warrant for separation from the Church of England it being so considerable a part of the Reformed Church or the Church of Sardis So plain is it that R. H. doth disservice to our Church by decrying all Mystical Interpretations of the Apocalypse In the mean time I have abundantly shown how altogether groundless as well as how extravagant R. H. his Hypothesis is who would have the Apocalypse expounded in a litteral sense and supposeth the visions must be fulfilled in the same order they occurr in the Text And how weak his objections have proved against M r Mede's Synchronisms But as weak as they are they were the best his cause could afford him and his way more laudable thus to combate with his adversary in the open field to try if he could vanquish him than to use those small arts and petty tricks that is usual with a party of men that think any thing just that is for their Interest and stick not to report of men when they are dead that they had changed their opinions whom they being fixed upon firm grounds they could never move when they were alive And thus as I have heard has M r Mede been served His singular Learning and Piety being a great countenance to what tenents he held and therefore the most plausible as well as the most compendious confutation being his own disapproving of them upon better thoughts there has been a report raised that himself before he died was out of conceit with his own Synchronisms Which that it is a meer figment any unprejudiced man may be satisfied from these brief