hence Let us then consider the Importance of this Voice and it is plainly the Separation of the People of God and so of every Person among us if we are of his People from any Communion with that City or Community concerning which we shall by the Light of this Prophecy duly weigh'd and consider'd be convinc'd that It is the City symboliz'd or set out by this Mystical Woman And our Separation must be proportionable to the danger of being tainted or struck with the Contagion of its Sins or Apprehended and Reach'd by the Thunder-shaft of its Plagues For so is the Charge Come out of her my People And so is the Enforcement Lest ye be partaker of her Sins and lest ye Receive of her Plagues Now that we may do this It is highly Expedient at least to use the utmost Enquiry into this Prophecy that we may know by the Characters of it What and what manner of City the Spirit of God in it doth signifie and what or what manner of Time also It hath denoted or else we cannot so well judge what is 1 Pet. 1. 11. our Duty or what our Danger For though I would allow with as much Largeness of mind as can be desir'd that by the General Rules of Universal Scripture we may without the particular Understanding of this Prophecy be secur'd from both the Impurities and from the Judgments of this City by Adhering to the Truth and Purity and Mercy of the Christian Religion in Doctrine Discipline Worship and Practise according to the just measures of the Word of God yet we cannot do it with those particular Evidences of that Divine Reason nor with those vigorous Emotions of Zeal against such an unclean Communion as this Prophecy rightly apprehended would arm us with For certainly The Pen of this Divine Scribe was not made in vain I will therefore use the highest Diligence of Research and close Enquiry into the Prophecy concerning the City and the Times appointed to it and then concerning the Comming out of it and enforce the Charge here given to come out of it and all this as peculiarly deriv'd from this Holy Oracle in comparison of which all the Streams deriv'd from Antiquity are Low and Flat in shewing the Great Abominations of that City But Blessed is he that Readeth and They who Hear the Words of this Prophecy for now the Time is more at hand as to what we are now to Treat of than when the Oracle was first given although each part of this Prophecy was in its own Time and Order at Hand according to the Line wherein each Thing was to come to pass and which Line began in the Things that were first to come to pass and did come to pass from the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ which are but one Time in the Account of Prophecy as we say in Law The whole of each Term is but one Day and from thence the Revelation is dated as from its Epoch or Beginning-Point First therefore concerning the City there are such Characters as undeniably assure us This City can be no other than the City Rome that is here thus describ'd The City resembled by a Woman a not only Imperious but Charact. 1 Imperial whorish Woman is plainly Expounded by the Angel to be a City And it is usual in Prophecy to Figure Cities by that Embleme of a Woman and not only Cities but Churches as Revel c. 17. c. 18. Zion by a Woman grieved in Spirit the True Church in this Prophecy is often Typ'd by a Woman the New Jerusalem by the Bride the Lambs Wife And Adulterous Churches by Adulterous Women as Aholiab and Aholibah are the Pictures of Samaria Ezek. 23. and Jerusalem both as Adulterous Cities and Churches But this Woman this Imperial and Imperious whorish Woman is affirm'd to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all the Emphasis and Force of Expression that can be The City The Great That hath now saith the Apostle John that I am in writing it at this very present Time the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth Now a City that had then the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth undeniably imported a Capital City the Seat of an Vniversal Monarchy at that Time. For as a Monarch hath in the very nature of a Monarch all subordinate Magistrates under him and accountable to Him so an Universal Monarchy hath States and Kingdoms under it that however in their particular Kingdoms They may be over and above all others yet still their Power is Limitable and accountable to and may be Appealed from to the Universal Monarchy and Power When therefore This City is said to be The City The Great Having at that Time a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth It is to say the City spoken of was at the Time when the Revelation was given the Seat of an Vniversal Monarchy and that some Supreme Power had its Imperial Residence there took its Title from that City exercis'd its Power under that Title and as the then present Head of that City bore up the City by such Title so that it is said to have a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth because such a Power so related to it had a Kingdom over all other Kingdoms far and near or had sueh an Universal Monarchy or Kingdom Now what City that was that had then a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth in the sense now declared besides the Notices of Universal History in that matter it is most evident from Scripture that it must be even that very City Rome for Augustus at that time the Emperour of Rome when our Lord was Born made a Decree that All the World viz. the World of the Roman Empire which Aspir'd as it were to equal the very Habitable Earth in Extent should come under a particular Census Luc. 2. 1. or be describ'd that so an Account of the large Bounds of the Dominion the Numerousness Strength and Riches of the Subjects might be render'd to Him. We read in the History of the Acts of the Apostles how great the Honour was for any City to be accounted a Member of that City that its Natives might be the Free-Born of that City It made such a City no mean City The Immunity of being so Free-born was so great that many purchas'd it at an exceeding Rate who had it not by Birth We find the Apostle Paul though he was a Jew and immediately subject to the Jewish Law yet as it were directed by an Impulse of Providence Appeals to Caesar's Tribunal as the Highest upon Earth These and Acts 22 28 many other Expressions assure us what City it was that at that Time Reigned over the Kings of the Earth And it was very necessary the Scripture that loves most in all weighty matters to be serv'd by its own Records should take this great Notice of the Roman Empire Because as the Fourth Monarchy it was of the Four the most Remarkable For
That which General Argum. 1 gives us the distinguishing States and Times of this City according to this Prophecy and according to the General Reason of Things must be the distinguishing of the Times and States of its Seven Heads and Eight Kings Even as in all States Kingdoms and Cities their Times are given by the Reigns of the Princes and by the Governments over them If then by the computing the Times of these it shall appear the present Rome is this Woman or City the Demonstration will be secure Now Thus is the whole Prophetick Frame This City sits on a Beast of Seven Heads for those Seven Mountain-Heads are by the By and only to give the presumptive Knowledge of this City so fam'd for its Seven Mountains the certain and more accomplish'd assurance even to Plerophory of which is its having at that Time a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth yet this of the Mountains joyn'd with it establishes it in the Evidence of Two most undoubted Testimonies of it Yet still it is to be consider'd the Woman sits on the Mountains only as a City is describ'd by its Scituation and this City by its Scituation on Seven Mountains which is a very Grand Character of it But the Woman sits on the Beast of Seven Heads as a Man or Woman are carried aloft on the Beast that bears them or on which they Ride so this Woman sits as a City fast seated on Seven Mountains and as an Imperial Woman Riding in State on the Beast that bears as the Prophecy expresly styles it or carries her and offering her Golden cup of Fornications to the Kings of the Earth intoxicated with the Grandeur and Riches as also with the Sensuality of her Lusts and Adulteries Encircled therefore with these Seven and Seven of Heads for Assuring the City and for the greater flourish of the Type The Woman sits on high and the Two Sevens of Heads are expounded by the Angel to be Seven Hills or Mountains unmoveable Heads And They viz. the Heads not There as the English Translation too Low are Seven Kings who are the moving living Heads of the Beast on which she sits and by the Flitting or Remove of the Principality from one Head to another the Times of the Woman or of the City as we shall see are to be dated for though the Heads are always united to the Beast as all one Animal or Bestial living Creature however monstrous it may seem yet the Kingship of the Heads was in a Succession till it came to the last King under which it now is and hath been so long Now among these Seven Heads that were Kings there was a Seventh King cast in that was of another kind as being no Head which is of very great consideration in this prophetical Portraicture as we shall find and He comming in makes the Seventh Head the Eighth King. That we may be therefore guided by this whole Type to the certain knowledge of the present State of this City I will lay down these four Propositions with the proof of each These Seven Heads and Eight Kings are not together Kings or Propos 1 in the Exercise of Sovereignty at one and the same Time but are in a Succession or after one another This is most undeniable for Five had been before the Prophecy given to the Apostle and were Fallen viz. from their Principality or Exercise of Sovereignty else they were not Fallen for they are still represented on the Beast and never part from it as in the Prophetick Image but pertain to the Integrity of the Beast or Roman Imperialism from first to last which always consists of all its Parts They were Fallen then in regard of Principality or Exercise of Sovereignty which they had in their proper Time or Season Their union therefore to the Beast preserves them still their place as Heads in the prophetick Sculpture but not as Kings still in Being Now these Five Fallen Heads are given as in One or as in a Knot and Clamp together the Prophecy being little concern'd in their exact Distinction or Succession it being enough to it that there were before the Prophecy Five Supreme Roman Governments which as we shall see It calls Kings Whether they were just in an order or whether traversing one another it is all one as to the Prophecies Concern in them The Caution therefore in the Prophecy in this matter is very observable knowing what objection might be made concerning the Succession of the Kingly Consular Dictatorian Tribunitial and Decemviral Power the so well known several Governments of the Roman States It gives them in a Heap of Five together Signifying It intended no more than to mark by them the Beasts Heads before the Prophecy as past or Fallen and only Remarks the Succession of the One that then was and that It was not while the Five were and that they had been and were Fallen before the Prophecy was given which sufficiently demonstrates the Suceession betwixt the Five and the One then in Being which is all the Prophecy aims at and troubles not it self with the order of the Five among themselves any farther than that Five such were and that they drew along the Times of the City to the Succession of the One then in Being The Seventh was plainly to be a King but was not yet come but was to come and to continue but a short space when He came which farther assures the Succession For seeing He was not come He could not be together with the Sixth King who then was nor could He be at the same Time with the succeeding Eighth in whom the City was to be destroy'd for He was to continue but a short space And then after Him the Eighth King follows the Eighth viz. in strict Order because the short-liv'd Seventh came between Him and the Sixth But the Eighth was of the Seven viz. of the Seven Kings who were also the Seven Heads there must be therefore a Succession between the Seventh short-liv'd and the Eighth because the Seventh and Eighth imply so much the Seventh is to continue a short space The Eighth therefore necessarily is suppos'd not to be so curtailed in Time Both Kings and so not together and the Other Seventh no Head for the Eighth was of the Seven Kings that were Heads From all which it is most impossible but that a Succession must appear most manifestly There is no Appearance of the least of an Hiatus or Gap Propos 2 there is no Interreign no vacuum or empty space in the Succession betwixt the Sixth King then in Being the Seventh and the Eighth in which onely the Prophetick Time is concern'd but all the Caution against it that can be for why was this Seventh King who was no Head put in but that he might stand as an Embolimean or double Seventh King like our Embolimean or double Twenty fourth of February in every Embolimean or Intercalar or as we usually speak Leap-year that there might be no
Sun. Those Months being time of the Moon given by Prophecy must be taken and applyed to time of the Sun given by the same prophecy that they may be rated and known what time They contain According to the exactest Computation that can be made Fourty two Months apply'd to Twelve hundred sixty Days for Years must be Twelve hundred twenty two Days for Years that is Twelve hundred twenty two Years The Epoch or Beginning then of these Months fixed at the Cessation of the Christian Emperour the prophetical Seventh King which was in the Year of our Lord 475 must needs reach to the Year 1697. The Twelve hundred sixty Days or Years both of the Witnesses and of the Woman ending necessarily at the same time for the one cannot out-last the other must begin thirty eight Years before the Months viz. 437. But because the Witnesses could not be supposed to put on their Sackcloth without just Occasion given the Gentiles under the other Beast Treading the Holy Court must have begun their Fourty two Months when the Twelve hundred sixty Days of the Witnesses Sackcloth and the Womans Wilderness State began also viz. 437. It is no matter what became of the Gentiles Fourty two Months after the Beast first Risen and grown up to his Image and Power to enforce the Worship of it and the receiving his Mark Name or of the Number of his Name viz. at 725 his Famous 666. For then the Beasts Months support the Seventh Headship and the Roman City or Apostate Church and the Gentiles Months Merge or are drowned in them The Months and Days being given under the Character of Time Times and Half a Time and three Days and a half when they arrived to the Beginning of the half Time and Days such a partial Rising of the Witnesses and Retrenchment of the Bestian Kingdom such a Fall of some of the Ten Kings from the Beast as was seen at the Reformation was allowable by Prophecy after the manner of our Lord 's three Days and Nights in the Heart of the Earth and was a Pledge of the complete Fall of the Beast and of the City's Fall from their whole Ten Mark those Kings who bewayl Babylon c. 18. 9. cannot be those Ten Kings who at last Turn to hate the Whore who they are will not be known till that Burning of Babylon shall be better understood King'd Principality at the end of the half Time or 1697. At the same time when the Days of the Witnesses and the Months of the Beast End The Turkish Second Woe or Tyranny shall pass away and cannot sooner because it is the Second Woe Trumpet upon the Bestian Kingdom lasting till its Fourty two Months End Which being an Observation foreign to this Matter needs not be enlarged yet well observ'd adds strength to the whole The last Argument I shall use to perfect all that hath been said already Last Arg. shall be an Appeal to All that in any degree know the State of the World whether the Condition of Papal Rome since the time especially of the Beasts receiving the Key of the Bottomless Pit as a Fallen Star in the Days of Phocas his coming to his Number and Image in the days of Leo Conon hath not answer'd the Characters of Prophecy Ann. 725. Does the Prophecy signifie a City perpetuating Eternal Rome in a Church as False Impure and Adulterate as the Mother of Harlots Imports Which Title cannot be due in its highest degree but where True Religion is Prostituted as appears in Aholiab and Aholibah And hath not Rome been such a One as Papal in all its Idolatrys Superstitions and Sensualities Does the Prophecy Represent a Caesar in an Image and hath not the Pope's Tripple Crown elevated upon his Spirituality and Vicarship of Christ been such a One Does the Prophecy speak Rome in all the Grandeur of Scarlet Purple and precious Stones And is not the Splendor of Rome its Pope Cardinals and Hierarchy such Does the Prophecy set out an Universal Propagation of the Fornications of such an Imperious Whorish Woman prevailing upon Kings Nations Kindreds and Languages and what hath Papal Rome pretended more forcibly to than such an Vniversality of its Religion which is called Filthiness Spiritual and Bodily and All Abomination Does Prophecy set out the Idolatrys of such a City and its Prince by the Blasphemy of God of his Tabernacle of All that dwell in Heaven and this openly avow'd by a Title writ on her Forehead according to the manner of the most Infamous Prostitutes and of Babylon Mad of Graven Images and yet all under a Mystery So as to be doubted whether Idolatry is justly charged upon it by even Those who deeply suspect it And is not this and hath not this been the State of Rome most Remarkably since the Days of Leo Conon Does the prophecy Represent a Bestian War with the Saints a Causing that all who would not Worship the Image should be Kill'd and proscribing them that they should not Buy nor Sell All Great and Small Rich and poor who will not receive the Mark c a City Drunk with the Blood of Saints and what can we say but that the Excommunication of Princes deposing and Depriving them the Interdicting of Kingdoms Massacres Martyrdoms Inquisitions Ravages upon the World on the account of that Religion Falsly so call'd have answer'd the prophecy Do other prophecys of Scripture say there should be a Grand Apostasie out of which should come a Man of Sin and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one above all Law and Control as Supreme and Infallible justly styl'd a Beast One sitting in the Temple of God exalting Himself above All that is called God or is Worshipped That though the Mystery of Iniquity was then at Work for Him yet that He could not be Revealed but in his Season Do we not see such a One that hath been long in the World claiming from the Apostles whom yet the elder Ages of Christianity knew not till the Time pointed out by Prophecy was come A Lord God the Pope as hath been Blasphem'd Does that same prophecy say The Lord will Consume that Man of Sin with the Glory of his Coming and with the Brightness of his own Appearance And do we not see at this Day his Times drawn out and lengthen'd beyond parallel for such an Appearance And does not the prophecy of the Revelation say the same Thing For his utter Destruction is not till the Heavens open to Christ Revel 19. Does not another Prophecy say Some a certain Sort and Society or Community of Men shall Depart or Apostatize from the Faith giving heed to wandring Spirits as Divels are called and to their Apparitions and so to Doctrines of them as Daimons and of the Worship of them through Or Saints departed the Hypocrisie of Lyars and Legendary Priests who disguising themselves in the Garb of extraordinary Holy Persons Coyn such Stories of such Spirits appearing to them to draw others
to Worship them having in the mean time their Consciences seared with a hot Iron whose Badges by which They are to be known are Forbidding to Marry and to Abstain from Meats making these Things the Cognisances of their Orders And have we not seen this Scripture fulfilled Did not the Apostle John Foretel a Great Antichrist of which the Little Antichrists in his Days were but Forerunners and did He not Foreshew a great Idolatry coming upon the Christian World in Derogation from the One Jesus Christ who is the True God and Eternal Life on which account He makes it the Farewel of his Epistle Little Children keep your selves from Idols Amen And have we not seen that great Idolatry against the New Testament in the Invocation of Angels of Saints and above all of the Virgin Mary as a plain Violation of the One Mediator Jesus Christ Equal to the Idolatry against the One God and the Worship of Him and that in all kinds of Imagery and even in a piece of Bread These certain Matters of Fact and of daily Experiment joyn'd with the Prophecy cannot but give a Plerophory a full measure of Assurance That this present Rome is that Community City or Church out of which we are call'd if we would be the People of God. Having now so far demonstrated that the City Church and Community out of which we are commanded to come is the very present Papal Rome It remains that we enforce the Command it self to come out of it by particular Inferences from it For hence It appears how necessary It is for Christians in general Infer 1 to know and to take notice that there is such an Apostacy from Christian Religion disguised under the Name of Catholick Christianity that hath concentred it self in Rome under the name of an Vniversal Church and in such a Head of it as the Pope under the name of Head of the Church and Vicar of Christ The Apostle not only speaking Face to Face Not only when with them but by Epistle when at distance from them writing to the Thessalonians thought it a point of great Moment and of deepest Interest to inform them of it and to possess them of it and in them all Christians Learned or Unlearned And the Love of God the Father gave the Revelation to Jesus Christ to shew it to his Servants as containing this as One of the greatest Points of it viz. Concerning this Apostasie the Seat and Residence of it this Prostituted Church and City and the Beast the Prince of it It can therefore be no such mysterious or unnecessary Doctrine as It is generally suppos'd but hath its greatest and most Fundamental Uses That the true Christianity may by the Compare be more known and understood in its true Beauty and Excellency being a Pure Solid Even Supreme Extract and Cube given from the Increated Unerring Wisdom of God in the Face of Jesus Christ Divine Heavenly Spiritual Pure and Chaste Full of Mercy and of all good Fruits But Popery is an Irregular Odd Traditional Christianity made up of Idolatrous and Superstitious Rites Pomp Riches and Pleasures of Sensuality All of the present Evil World full of Rage Cruelty and Blood against All who do not swallow their monstrous Articles of Faith and submit to that slavery of their Antichristian Government To keep men therefore wholly to that Excellent Rule of the Word of God in Doctrine Worship and Practice and under that most merciful Discipline it is necessary to know the Goodness of the One by the Badness of the other That one Grand Reason of the so sad Imprevalency of so excellent a Religion as the Religion of Jesus Christ might be understood The great Eclipse of it is by so foul an Apostacy and Mystery of Iniquity casting so black a shade upon it and such a Cloud of Tares upon the Field of Wheat And this hath so universally obscured Christianity and allay'd its Supreme Excellency and turn'd it into so worldly a Religion that it neither hath nor can be Refin'd to it self till that whole Apostasie be consum'd out of the World And then but not till then there will be another Face of Christianity And this is necessary to be known to abate the Scandal That the dark Interposition between the Kingdom of Jesus Christ according to all the Prophecies of Scripture due to him at his Resurrection and the glory of it may be duely apprehended For the Mystery of Iniquity work'd early that it might arise to the taking away the true daily Sacrifice of Christian Religion and scattering the power of the Holy People for Time Times and half a Time. Now this is most necessary to be known to take off the Scandal of so many Massive Prophecies and Promises as were to ensue on the Kingdom of the Messiah both in relation to the Jews and to the whole World of Mankind not yet come to pass but we ought against it deeply to consider There was to be forty two months of the Gentiles and of the Beast running parallel to the twelve hundred sixty days Sackcloth of the Witnesses and the Wilderness-state of the Church all which was to be by the Fathers own Appointment who reserv'd Times even as that Day and Hour in his own Cognisance or Right of Dispose before the Kingdom of Christ and the glorious Accomplishment of the Prophecies such as Esay 2. 1. Zech. 14. with innumerable more which being so peculiar to that Kingdom cannot be adjourn'd to the Day of Judgment as generally understood For then Christ shall render up the Kingdom to God and the Father and God shall be All in All. There arises in the wise Ordination of God a mutual Justifieation of the Prophecy by the Separation from Rome upon the general Principles and Rules of the Word of God without close and strict and express Attendance to the Prophecy or deriving Directions from that for how is the Prophecy honour'd and vindicated in commanding to Come out of that City and Church which Holy Wise and Conscientious Christians see Reason and just Grounds from its extream Pollutions in Doctrine Worship and Practice and the Imperiousness of its Tyranny to come out from although they did not understand Prephecy so commanding them And how could Prophecy be either understood or fulfill'd if Things were not so bad upon such Fundamental Accounts How could it be verified that Prophecy were so to be interpreted if there were not so great Reasons for Coming out supposing there had been no such Prophecy On the other side How is the Separation justified by the Prophecy thus rightly expounded and interpreted For who might not scruple that so great and so long an Apostacy should grow up out of the Profession of Christianity and that the Prophecy of the New Testament should not have seen and foretold it So that it were without this Reason also hardly to be believed with that firmness and full Assurance that now it is viz. that such an Apostacy is And why