Sensuality Luxury and Affluency and to be drunk therewith to abound with worldly felicity even to an Insensibility of better things and to a besotted security and contentedness with the present enjoyments of this Life This also may be one sense of this intoxicating Cup besides what I have touched upon before Ver. V. And upon her forehead was a Name written Which Interpreters have rightly noted to allude to the custom of some impudent Harlots who had their names written upon their foreheads as appears from that in Seneca Nomen tuum pependit in fronte pretia stupri accepisti manus quae Diis datura erat sacra capturas tulit 2. Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth All which Inscription I conceive is the Name of the Whore For the Scripture often makes long Names even a whole Sentence as I shall have occasion more fully to note anon I say the very word Mystery is part of the Name And the sense of the whole is That the Name of the Whore is Mystical Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots or rather the Mother of Fornications 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so some Copies which the Vulgar Latin follows and Grotius best approves of and best fits with what follows and of the Abominations of the Earth that they may be both Abstracts And Mystical here signifies the same that Spiritual elsewhere in the Apocalyps Which is spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt as Chap. 11. v. 8. Cornelius à Lapide has also compared them and it is the Great City there too which is so called Wherefore let any one judge if Mystical or Spiritual Babylon can be understood of Rome Pagan or whether it is likely that the Spirit of God should prefix the term Mystery to an Inscription that hath no more in it then a dry Synecdoche For if Rome Pagan be understood it is no more but putting one Pagan Idolatrous and Persecutive City for another With which certainly so profound and venerable a Preface as Mystery cannot well suit 3. Wherefore it must be understood of a Christian City or Polity Idolatrizing and debauching others with Idolatry And the meaning of the Mystery must be this Even that that Hierarchy which should over-spread the Empire pretend to be the pure and unadulterate Apostolick Church and be generally believed to be so nay to be that City from Heaven the foundations of whose Walls are twelve with the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb inscribed upon them that City wherein God will wipe away all tears from the eyes of his servants where there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying nor any more pain that is to say no more bloudy Persecutions Pressures nor Tortures of the faithful Servants of Christ as Grotius well interprets it and lastly that City wherein there is no Temple that is to say no Object towards which we bow besides the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb who alone is worshipped with Religious worship I say the Mystery is this That that Occumenical Hierarchy or Body of the Clergie that boast themselves to be this pure and Apostolick City as being of an unerring judgment should indeed be the very City Babylon it self which in stead of being so chast a pattern of Purity of Worship were Sacrificers to the dead and the Adorers or Worshippers of Bel and the Propagators of the worship of the Baalim that is to say of the worship of Daemons or false Gods through the world infecting therewith even the very Jews themselves the peculiar people of God and in stead of being a Protection and Refreshment to the Servants of the true God held them in a long and sad Captivity casting them that would not bow to the Image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up into an hot fiery Furnace This is the Mystery and yet a very true one For it is over-manifest of this Pseudo-christian Hierarchy that they have debauched the professed People of God with various kinds of Idolatry and have held them captive a long time under an hard servitude and besides other tortures and persecutions have burned thousands of the faithful servants of Christ with Fire and Fagot Wherefore it is a Mystery indeed that she that so boldly professes her self the City of God and had the luck to be believed so generally to be so should in truth be found to be that bloudy and Idolatrous Babylon 4. And because she boasts her self also to be the Catholick as well as the Apostolick Church she is farther adorned with the Title of Great as well as of Babylon and is at once styled Babylon the Great the vast extent of that City which they that have made the most frugal computation reckon 360 or 380 Stadia in compass Pliny and Herodotus 480 being a fit Symbol of their pretence to Catholickness or Universality And lastly because she will pretend to be the Spouse of the Lamb and be called Our Mother the Church the Spirit of God in reproach to this false Beast has styled her the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth 5. Which style does plainly discover that this City Babylon is not Rome Heathen but a Polity Christian. For Rome Heathen was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Grotius reads it the Mother that is the Author and Dispenser of Idolatry over the face of the Earth for the Nations were Idolatrous of themselves without her and she rather a Learner and Receiver of their Idolatries which she increased as she advanced her Trophees as it may appear by that promissory Charm which Macrobius sets down used by Saturnal lib. 3. cap. 9. the Romans when they had hopes of taking a City calling out thereby the Tutelary Gods of the Place and promising them Temples and Solemnities at Rome Wherefore the Title of Mystery prefixed to the Name of the Whore or rather it being a part of it and which easily answers to that Mystery of Iniquity the Apostle speaks of jointly considered with this part of the 2 Thess. 2. 7. Name The Mother of Fornications and Abominations of the Earth does evidently agree with our Demonstration in the foregoing Chapter that proved it necessary to understand by Babylon not Rome Heathen but a State of the Church degenerating into Heathenism and Idolatry Which lying deeper then that every man can discover it at first sight as being coloured and gilded over with fair pretences of magnifying Christ and his Apostles and the rest of the Saints especially the Virgin Mary the Mother of Christ is rightly called a Mystery In which this Whore and the Two-horned Paral. 1. Agr. 5. Beast do exactly agree For his having Horns like a Lamb is that outward pretext of Succession from Christ and his Apostles and of having a power from them to rule and discipline the Church according to the mind of Christ to his Honour and for his interest which they pretend in every thing But his speaking like a Dragon bespeaks him
The meaning whereof may be nothing else but that they that are possessed of these Kingdoms may turn Saints that is Professours and Abettours of the pure and Apostolick Religion unsophisticated with the Idolatrous Inventions and Injunctions of Antichrist But however it were desirable that those that are over-ready to phansy themselves Saints if this Hypallage does not please them that at least they would imitate the modesty of the Expression of the Text and would not take Kingdoms before they be given them 5. Mr. Mede interprets this Vision of the Woman in the Wilderness in something a different sense from us paralleling the Israelites flight from Pharaoh into the Wilderness to the Woman's flight from the red Dragon and their liberty of serving Jehovah there after the Rites appointed by Moses to the liberty the Christians had to exercize their Religion their lapses also into Idolatry to the Idolatrous Apostasy of the Church of Christ in this condition and finally their 42 Journeys in the Wilderness mentioned Numb 33. to the 42 months the Woman is said to be in the Desert Which if they had been expresly set down in those termes and not onely equivalently in 1260 dayes or a time and times and half a time it had been the more pat and convincing But however his Interpretation is very plausible and handsome and may be one sense of the Type though not the onely sense For it is the property of these Prophetick Types to abound with Allusions But the state of the Church in the Wilderness being the same with that of her bondage in Aegypt as appears from Apocal. 11. in that respect I account that Interpretation I have given more passable or rather more Authentick Ver. 8. But I see no need that they should one exclude another the Reign of the Dragon being truly the Reign of Pharaoh over these new Israelites saving that this of the Dragon was more bloudy and the state of the Wilderness in which the Woman is hid being not onely a Revival of that bondage of Aegypt again but the restoring again also of the Dragon as Idolatrous in fabricating so lively an Image of him in this new Pagano-Christianism which the Apocalyptick Visions do so copiously predict 6. The third and last of these latter Synchronalls of the Book-Prophecy is the * Apocal. 14. 1. Virgin-Company the sealed Souldiers of the Lamb upon Mount Sion whose Description is admirable and mysterious For in that they are said to be 144 Chiliads or Regiments it is not the defining of their number but their nature or quality according to the use of the ancient Cabbala that describes the property of things by Numbers The Root therefore of 144 which is twelve plainly detects them to be the true disciples and successours of that Church that Christ founded in his twelve Apostles and that they had not adulterated the Christian Religion by any Idolatrous worship or unwarrantable Institutes of men but that they were faithfull to him whose name they bore on their fore-heads as the marked servants of God and of the Lamb and being bought with the price of his most precious bloud would not become the servants of men in any thing that was to the dishonour or disinterest of him that bought them That * Vers. 3. new Song also that the Harpers play upon their Harps before the Throne which none can learn but those 144 thousand what is it but the Joy of a pure Conscience before God and all his Holy ones and that ineffable pleasure of the Divine Spirit dwelling in them which none can be partakers of but the Sons of the new Birth who are redeemed from the Earth and set free in mind and affection from all the entanglements of this present World who have a simple and sincere heart and in whose mouth there is no guile but are upright and irreprehensible before the Throne of God Which is so transporting a condition and so unexpressible I mean this Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the holy Ghost that it is no wonder that it is said that none but those 144 thousand know what belongs to this Melody * Prov. 14. 10. The heart knoweth its own bitterness and a stranger does not intermeddle with its joy But this is an Excursion not so close to our present purpose 7. That which we are chiefly to observe is this That this Virgin-Company is a Synchronall that runs along in parallel Opposition to those that receive the Mark of the Beast and are professed Idolaters as this Expression of their Virginity in the sense of the Prophetick style plainly implies according to which These are they that have not defiled Apocal. 14. 4. themselves with women may fitly be understood Nor do they onely abstain from Idolatry themselves but also exhort others to make choice of a due Object of their Adoration to worship Him that made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and the Fountains of waters They denounce judgment Ver. 7 8 9. also against Babylon saying Babylon is fallen is fallen that great City because she made all Nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her Fornications And lastly a third Angel out of the same Company denounces most direfull and ever-durable torments to those that worship the Beast and his Image that is to say that submit themselves to that revived and enjoyned Idolatry which I have already so fully described Which commination I would have them seriously to consider that think it so indifferent a thing to be Papist or Protestant as if such Tragicall Menaces as these were mere Scare-crows and idle Mockeries CHAP. IX 1. Three more Prophecies predicting the Churche's Lapse into Idolatry As the Vision of the sixth Trumpet which is proved to respect the Roman Empire long after it became Christian. 2. That in this Vision the Greek and Latine Church are both apparently taxed of Idolatry and with Aggravations common to Pagans and them 3. That it appears from the same Vision of what great consequence it would be for Christendom to reform from this gross sin and that they are their best friends that plainly and freely rebuke them for it and for those other crimes reflected upon in this Vision 4. The Prophecy of Paul to Timothy proposed and the first part thereof expounded out of Epiphanius touching the Inspirers of this predicted Errour 5. As also that part that contains the Errour it self namely the worship of Daemons From whence it is plain the Prophecy concerns this notorious Lapse of the Church into Idolatry 6. As also from the Instruments of the Broaching this Errour 7. And from the mentioning of the Mystery of Godliness immediately before to which this Mystery of Iniquity is opposed 8. And lastly from the Times of the Lapse which are termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. Which is proved to be a proper Term of the Prophetick style denoting that Time and Times and half a Time which is the latter section of the continuance of
and back'd with an unexceptionable Life and conversation will be like a sharp-edged sword with the weight of running Quick-silver in the back of it whose stroke will fall with such a sway that it will even chine the enemy at one blow will divide asunder soul and spirit and pierce through the joynts and marrow as the Apostle speaks But this is more then our present Scope intended which was onely to shew that that Antichristian Opposition which is particularly made against the Kingly and Prophetick Office of Christ is prefigured in the Prophets which I hope I have sufficiently done in the Visions of the Two Witnesses of the little Horn with Eyes and in this present Vision of the Rider of the white Horse CHAP. XV. 1. That the rest of the Sacred Titles of Christ are referrible to the Prophecies we have already treated of 2. As likewise all the Oppositions to the Divine life in general saving that of turning the Church into a City of Merchandises 3. Which seems predicted in the Lamentation over the Ruines of Babylon Apoc. 18. Ver. 11. The meaning of the eleventh twelfth and thirteenth verses Ver. 14. Of the fourteenth fifteenth and sixteenth Ver. 17. Of the seventeenth eighteenth nineteenth and twentieth Ver. 21. The Exposition continued from the twentieth to the end of the Chapter 1. AS for those other Attributes of Christ's Person as where he is called The everlasting Father and styled God Light Truth The Prince of Peace the Oppositions to them are referrible to those Prophecies we have already treated of The first to those that concern the first members of Antichristianism For there is no greater enemie against the Second Birth or Holy Regeneration then that rabble of Idolatrous and Superstitious practices comprised in the two first members of Antichristianism Those Prophecies also of the Mauzzim or Daemons to be worshipped are Prophecies of the Opposition against Christ's Divinity and the Darkness of Aegypt of that against the Light of the Gospel The False-Prophet and makers of Lies against the Truth and the warring against the Saints a contradiction to the Prince of Peace These hints may suffice for those remaining Attributes of Christ's Person We shall now proceed to the Predictions of the Antichristian Oppositions to the Divine Life 2. And the first were such as opposed the Divine Life in general Which are indeed all those Oppositions hitherto gross Idolatry burthensome Superstition the Oppositions against Christ as King Priest and Prophet To which those particular Oppositions against the Divine Life in general which I noted are also referrible and therefore treated of already There is onely one thing behind which is the turning of the Church of God into a Mart or Fair by those religious Nundinations and Collations of Ecclesiastick Preferments for mere Secular Interest the turning the exercise of Christian Offices into a mere Trade of gain for the Priests of what Dignity soever This is known to be a gross miscarriage in the Church of Rome and is in my mind most lively and graphically prefigured and depainted in that Lamentation upon the Ruine of Babylon Apoc. 18. beginning at the ninth verse 3. Which I shall endeavour briefly to give some light to in my rehearsing the Prophecie 9. And the Kings of the Earth who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her shall bewail her and lament for her when they shall see the smoke of her burning 10. Standing afar off for the fear of her torment saying Alas alas that great City Babylon that mighty City for in one hour is thy judgment come That this City Babylon is not a City of brick and stone but a Polity and particularly the Roman Hierarchy I have evidently proved in my Joint-Exposition And truly it seems improbable to me that the Spirit of God should put the Apostle upon composing so long and copious a Threnodia upon her ruine and desolation if it signifi'd no more then the burning of the City of Rome in a literal sense and so slightly as did Totilas and with so little design or effect Wherefore in that sense which we have already given and do not at all doubt but is true let us hold on briefly to illustrate the Text. In these two first verses comes in the Lamentation of the Kings of the Earth such as committed fornication with her that is to say such as were of her Idolatrous profession but seeing how things went durst not assist her for fear but let her burn till the end Which again shews that Babylon's fall is not at once but by degrees as I have already noted For though her judgment be come in one hour yet the execution of it may take up a considerable time Ver. 11. And the Merchants of the Earth shall weep and mourn over her for no man buieth her Merchandise any more 12. The merchandise of gold and silver and precious stones and of pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet and all Thyine wood and all manner of vessels of Ivory and all manner of vessels of most precious stones and of brass and of iron and of marble 13. And cinnamon and odours and ointments and frankincense and wine and oil and fine flower and wheat and beasts and sheep and horses and chariots and slaves and the Souls of men The first sort of Mourners or Lamenters seem to be those of the Secular Power but by these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seem to be understood Ecclesiastick persons that traffick in the Church where all is supposed to pass or be disposed of for Mony or Earthly Interest and therefore in reproch they are called the Merchants of the Earth though otherwise their Titles and Professions point to nothing but to Christ and God and Heaven Divine Holy Sacred or Religious being the external badge of them all The varieties of the Commodities they deal in are so numerous that it were too great a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to seek a Mystery in them all when it may possibly be nothing else but an Hylasmus or dwelling upon Material Objects in a redundant manner for the adorning of the outward Cortex of the Prophecie But the ground in general of the Lamentation of these Merchants is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Fair is violently broke up or else quite unfrequented that there is no buying and selling of such Commodities in Babylon as was wont sith Babylon her self is unaccessible as lying burning and smoking in the wrath of God no sale of gold silver precious stones pearls fine linen purple silk and scarlet the rich attire of those higher parts of the Whore as you may see in the foregoing Chapter fit for Popes Cardinals and other great Personages of that Babylonish Body and their Officers no Thyine wood for the roof of their Temples or for carved Idols to whom sacrifice is done for I suspect some such allusion in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no Incense for burnt-offerings for their adored Images no Images of
speak against these ungodly tradings and hast slain the Witnesses of the Truth Wherefore thou shalt sit no longer on Seven-hilled Rome which is holy for the profession of the name of my Son Christ but I will bring thee down who pretendest to be universal Oracle and High Priest over Christendom and strip thee out of thy Sacerdotal Raiments that glister with precious Stones like Fire and thus I will destroy thee 17. Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty thou hast corrupted thy wisedom by reason of thy brightness I will cast thee to the ground I will lay thee before Kings that they may behold thee 18. Thou hast defiled thy Sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities by the iniquity of thy traffick therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee it shall devour thee and I will bring thee to ashes upon the Earth in the sight of all them that beheld thee The summe hereof is this The greatness and splendour of the See of Rome the pursuit and affectation thereof in her and proportionally in the rest of the Grandees of that Clergy made them corrupt their Policy with wicked Principles so that they defiled their Sanctuaries that is to say the Christian Churches with such Idolatrous and Superstitious worship as made most for their own gain I mean with such like iniquity of their traffick as I have already intimated in the Vision of Babylon Mass-money Oblations to Saints and their Images and the like Wherefore this King of Tyre is as the Whore of Babylon which is a Type of the same thing condemned to be burnt to ashes by a fire which shall break forth from the midst of him as it is said of the Whore that the ten Horns which were Principalities of her own Jurisdiction should hate her and eat her flesh and burn her with fire 4. The Vision is so naturally applicable to the same that the Whore of Babylon is and so hardly applicable in some passages to the King of Tyre that it is no small assurance but that the chief Scope of the Prophecy respects rather the Bishop of Rome then the Tyrian Prince Of which we may be farther assured by that other Prophecy to the same sense in * Esay 23. Esay where Forerius conceives not onely Rome Pagan to be spoken of as Alcazar but says expresly that John seems to understand Civitatem Antichristianorum by this City of Tyre in Apocal. 18. though he names not the City ver 19. Alas alas that great City wherein were made rich all that had ships in the Sea And with Forerius and Alcazar joyn'd together I conceive by Tyre to be understood Rome become Antichristian the Antichristian Hierarchy thereof being pointed at as it is in Babylon For S. John as I have above intimated has plainly directed us to this sense by transplanting the very self-same phrases into the Vision of Babylon As appears besides what we have already noted from the eighth verse of this Chapter Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre the Crowning City whose Merchants are Princes whose Traffickers are the Honourable of the Earth I omit to take notice how patly the Crowning City fits that Polity that in ordine ad spiritualia pretends to a right of taking off and putting on the Crowns of Kings and Emperours and have done it with the greatest insultation imaginable I onely note that the rest answers exactly to Apocal. 18. 23. Thy Merchants are the great men of the Earth as here Princes and the Honourable of the Earth How well these terms agree to the grandeur of the Pope and Cardinals and such great persons of that Church is obvious to every one to conceive But there is something more pleasant that follows and of a good Omen Verse 15. And it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years according to the days of one King after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an Harlot Here is both good news and bad news in this verse For by Tyre is here meant as has been already suggested Idolatrous Rome who must be forgotten seventy years according to the days of One King which say I is one of the eight Kings in the Apocalyps Chap. 17. And by the Cabbalistical sense of the number 70 it is easily discovered who he is namely the Seventh King which is the Succession of the Christian Caesars as I have there noted the space of whose reign is not here intimated but their property by multiplying 10 into 7. Of which the Cabbalistical meaning is That during the whole reign of those Caesars for Ten is a Symbol of Totality Tyre should be forgotten that is the Polity of Rome should not be professedly Idolatrous but after this term then Tyre shall again sing as an Harlot as it follows Verse 16. Take an harp goe about the City thou Harlot that hast been forgotten make sweet melody sing many songs that thou mayest be remembred That is to say That the Roman Hierarchy after that time of the abrogation of Idolatry expired by fair pretences and bewitching speeches accommodating their harangues and exhortations with much harmony and agreeableness to the corrupt inclinations of the people shall by these plausible persuasions and other meretricious Ceremonies and sense-striking Invitations bring Idolatrous worship again into the Empire the will of God so far as I see being that it should be so as it follows Verse 17. And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years that the Lord will visit Tyre and she shall turn to her hire and shall commit fornication with all the Kings of the Earth And it shall come to pass The more determinate sense is For it shall come to pass otherwise it looks like a Tautologie Her Apostasy into Idolatry is here described like that of the Whore of Babylon with whom the Kings of the Earth are said to commit Fornication And whereas it is said For the Lord will visit Tyre that is answerable to that Apocal. 17. 17. For God has put in their hearts to fulfill his will Which Apostasy also begins as here after seventy years so there in the Apocalyps after the Seventh King But that which follows is most welcome Ver. 18. And her Merchandise and her hire shall be Holiness to the Lord it shall not be treasured nor laid up for her Merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord to eat sufficiently and for durable clothing Here the Scene of things is again changed and that for the best For Interpreters generally agree that here is a Conversion to Christ. But S. Jerom and some of the Hebrew Writers understand it of the Conversion of the City Tyrus herself Alcazar of Rome Pagan But I conceive this Conversion to be of Rome Pagano-Christian to the ancient pure and Apostolick Christianity which the fitness of things as well in this Vision of Esay as those of Ezekiel seems sufficiently to assure us of
yet is Agreement VI. Both the Beasts are said to rise out of the Sea Agreement VII They are both ordained to destruction as not being that Kingdome of the Saints that is to last for ever and ever Agreement VIII Of both these restored Beasts it is said that they whose Names are not written in the Book of Life shall worship them and wonder after them Agreement IX The Seven Heads in each Beast are Idolatrous Heads Agreement X. The Beasts are slain or exterminated out of Being in the Sixth Head restored or revived in the Seventh Agreement XI The ten Horns in neither Beast did actually reign in S. John's time Agreement XII The ten Horns in each Beast begin their reign with the Beast Agreement XIII The ten Horns in each Beast give their strength to the Beast Agreement XIV The Beasts in each Vision make warre with the Saints Agreement XV. The Saints in each Vision overcome the Beast at last Agreement XVI The Faith and Constancy of the Saints is exercised by both the Beasts Agreement XVII The time of each Beast is said to be determined by God and to be predicted by his holy Prophets Agreement XVIII The Seat of this Seven-headed Beast is not set down but left free in either Vision though the Seat of the Whore and the Two-horned Beast be determined which has an admirable correspondence with the Event 5. These be the two Parallelisms of Agreements concerning the latter whereof I dare affirm that it is so exact and adequate that the Parallels betwixt the Seven-headed Beast in the Thirteenth Chapter and the Seven-headed Beast in the Seventeenth exhaust all in each Chapter concerning that Beast The former Parallelism is not so accurate the Original of the Two-horned Beast being parallel to nothing in the Whore and the Destruction of the Whore parallel to nothing in the Two-horned Beast as he is there described Wherefore there is that peculiar in the Vision of the 17. Chapter that it treats also of the judgement of the two-horned Beast or the Whore according to the very title of the Vision I will shew thee the judgement of the great Whore But this is no argument at all against the Identity of their persons especially the Two-horned Beast being also to be destroyed and at the same time with the Whore as it is easie to be made out by the Apocalyptick Synchronisms And as for the omission of the Original of the Whore to parallel the Original of the Two-horned Beast that is no argument against their Identity neither Indeed if there had been an Original assigned to the Whore different from that of the Two-horned Beast it had been something but this bare omission signifies nothing but the art and accuracy of the very out-side of these Visions which keep a Decorum in all things And therefore because it was not so seemly nor sutable to say a Woman rose out of the Earth though Brutes did so Gen. 1. 24. the mention of her Original was fairly declined 6. But whenas a lesser number of Agreements in each Parallelism provided there were nothing contrary could not but have been a strong presumption of the Identity of the Subjects of the Visions in each Chapter I mean That the Two-horned Beast and the Whore are one and the Seven-headed Beast in each Chapter the same how fully assured must we needs be of these Identities the Agreements of these two Parallelisms those passages onely excepted of which I have given so fair an account perfectly exhausting the whole substance of each Chapter Which that it may be more plainly discerned I shall expose to your eies the whole XVII Chapter and to every Verse in order subjoin what is parallel to it in the XIII For we shall see it will imbibe the whole Chapter Apoc. Chap. 17. 1. And there came one of the seven Angels which had the seven Vials and talked with me saying unto me Come hither I will shew unto thee the judgement of the great Whore that sitteth upon many Waters Chap. 13. Most of this first verse of this Seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalyps is but Introductory to the Vision no part of the Vision it self and therefore there needs no Parallel to it in this Thirteenth Chapter But how the Whore's being placed upon many waters may seem to comply with one of our Parallels I shall note in its due place when I come to give a Joint-Exposition of these two Chapters Chap. 17. 2. With whom the Kings of the Earth have committed a fornication and the Inhabitants of the Earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication Chap. 13. 11. And he spake as a a Parallelism 1. Agreement 1. Dragon 12. And causeth the Earth and them that dwell therein to worship the a first Beast whose deadly wound was healed 14. Saying to them that dwell on the Earth that they should make an a Image to the Beast who had the wound by the sword and did live Chap. 17. 3. So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness and I saw a Woman * sit upon a a scarlet-coloured beast full of names of b blasphemie having c seven heads and ten horns Chap. 13. 15. * Par. 1. Agr. 2. And he had power to give life to the Image of the Beast that the Image of the Beast should speak 2. And the Beast that I saw was like unto a a Paral. 2. Agr. 2. Leopard and his feet were as the feet of a Bear and his mouth as the mouth of a Lion 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and b Paral. 2. Agr. 2. Blasphemies 6. And he opened his mouth in b blasphemy against God to blaspheme his Name and his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven 1. And I saw a Beast having c Parall 2. Agr. 1. seven heads and ten horns Chap. 17. 4. And the Woman was arraied in a purple and scarlet and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls having a golden b cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication Chap. 13. 12. And he exercizeth a Par. 1. Agr. 3. all the power of the first Beast before him 13. And he doth great b Par. 1. Agr. 4. wonders so that he maketh fire to come down from Heaven on the Earth in the sight of men 14. And deceiveth them that dwell on the Earth by those b miracles which he had power to doe in the sight of the Beast Chap. 17. 5. And upon her forehead was a name written a Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth Chap. 13. 11. And I beheld another Beast coming out of the Earth and he had two horns like a a Par. 1. Agr. 5. Lamb and he spake like a Dragon Chap. 17. 6. And I saw the Woman drunken with the a bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus and when I saw her I wondred
and Lust. But these Intimations shall suffice concerning this second Opposition to the Divine Life in the branches thereof 9. The third and last is that which is so conspicuously opposite to that last and best of the three Christian Graces Divine Love or Charity and that is the bloudy Antichristian Cruelty against the sincere Servants of Christ. Which is noted in several of those Visions we have already explained and therefore we need onely produce them As first that concerning the King of Babylon who was a Type of the Pope The reason of his Ruine in that Vision is declared to be his barbarous and Antichristian Cruelty Esay 14. Because thou hast destroyed thy Land and slain thy People that is to say the people of Christendom the Land over which thou challengest an Ecclesiastick Sovereignty as being the Vicar of Christ and yet dost most bloudily murther and martyr his truest and most faithfull Servants Again Dan. 7. The little Horn there which is a Figure of the same Pontifician Power is said to make war with and to wear out the Saints of the most High that is to consume them and destroy them with perpetual persecutions 10. A third Presignification is Apocal. 11. concerning the Witnesses The Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pâ—… shall make war against them and shall evercome them and kill them And their dead bodies 〈◊〉 lie in the street of the great City which is spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt where also our Lord was crucified Which is a description of perpetuall Opposition and Persecution taking away from the true Servants of God either their Honours Offices Goods or Lives So that the real and sincere Church of Christ which is his Body lieth during the treading under foot the Outward Court like a dead corps without Political life or power and also dreadfully wounded all over gore bloud by the cruel Murthers Martyrdoms and Massacres of the faithfull Members thereof Fourthly Apocal. 13. the Two-horned Beast is said to animate the Ten-horned when he had revived into the ancient Idolatrous form of Paganism to destroy as many as would not yield obedience to him even in his Idolatrous Commands And he had power to give life to the Image of the Beast that the Image of the Beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast should be killed And that no man might buy nor sell save he that had the Mark or the Name of the Beast or the Number of his Name that is As many as would not profess themselves Roman Catholicks and thereby Paganize in Christianity should be famished and starved and not suffered to live So great is the Charity of this Tyramical and Antichristian Power towards the true members of Christ. But blessed are the dead that die in the Lord as it is said in the following Chapter concerning the Martyrdom of those that are murthered by this Pontifician Power 11. Fifthly That also is a Record of the Antichristian Roman Cruelty for the Vials are poured upon the Beast the Aegyptian Plagues upon the Antichristian Aegypt Revel 16. where the Angel of the third Vial which turns the Rivers into bloud speaks thus Thou art righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because thou hast judged thus For they have shed the bloud of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them bloud to drink for they are worthy Sixthly As the Ruine of the King of Babylon in Esay so the Ruine of the Whore of Babylon in S. John is imputed to this salvage and barbarous Antichristian Cruelty the murthering of the Saints of God The voice of Harpers and Musicians is heard no more in her no Crafts-man of any Craft is found any more in hâ—… the light of a Candle shines no more in her but she is left to utter darkness and desolation because in her was found the bloud of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth Murtherers also are particularly noted in both those Catalogues of them that are without the Holy City 12. Seventhly and lastly In the description of the Whore of Babylon which I have above plainly shew'd to signify the Church the Roman especially apostatized into Idolatry there is express and significant mention made of this odious branch of Antichristianism this bloudy Persecution of the true members of Christ. And the woman was arâ—…ied in purple and scarlet and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls having a golden cap in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her Forâ—… And upon her forehead was a Name written Mystery Babylon the great the mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth And I saw the 〈◊〉 drunâ—…n with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and when I saw her I wondred with great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the gorgeous Pomp of the Pope and his Ecclesiastick 〈◊〉 the Cardinals and other great men as also on the coâ—…ly and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their 〈◊〉 Altars and Temples how this Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Ornaments Carpets and Laces of Aegypt how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfumâ—…d her bed with Myrrh Aloes and Cinnamon with Incense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 odours if he have any skill in the Prophetick style he cannot say but this Prefiguration of the state of the Roman Church is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 and richness of it For thus is Idolatry begun to the world in this golden Cup and costly outside of things But this is not the only miscarrlage of this Church she is also drunk with the bloud of the 〈◊〉 and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus Grotius his gloss upon this part of the Text is very expressive and significant 〈◊〉 â—…am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 despum aâ—…te evomente sanguinem ut ebrii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saw the 〈◊〉 or enraged Woman foming at mouth with stained froth and vomiting bloud as drunk drâ—…s do wine Which must needs be a wonder to all her Spectatours that a woman so richly and so gloriously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be oâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…erine and salvage a nature Which admiration certainly â—…ust be â—…doubled upon them while they consider how this illustrious Queen professes herself to be the Catholick Church of Christ and Mother of Christendom and yet thus to froth at the mouth nay to foul her raiment by impotently easing of her stomack over-charged with the bloud of her own children But by being thus lavish of the life of her Infants she demonstrates herself not to be that Catholick Mother but a bloudy and treacherous Harlot accordingly as the Holy Ghost has inscribed upon her Forehead The Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth 13. Thus have we seen every member of Antichristianism comprised in our Idea as they are easily found in the Church of Rome so likewise expresly prefigured in the Writings of the holy Prophets as appertaining to her and that there is no eludng oâ—… evacuating so clear and perspicuous Testimonies by any
they bear the world in hand in the mean time that they are doing the work of God and promoting the Interest of the Kingdom of his Son Jesus This I say in general is the very Nature and Essence of Antichristianism And where this poison is imbibed into publick Authority that either one Person or Body politick or jointly both of them together if they be the first beginners or continuers of this Mystery of Iniquity in a due latitude thereof are assuredly that Antichrist there is such a noise of in the Christian world And for others that have it not in such a measure yet so far forth as they are Teachers Abetters or Obtruders of such Practices or Principles upon pretence of Religion as naturally frustrate the End of the coming of Christ they are so far also Antichristian 4. Wherefore he that has duly considered and satisfied himself what is the great Scope of the Gospel of Christ and finds but out which he cannot easily miss what things are contrary thereto if he but colour them over with plausible pretences of promoting the Interest of Christ he has ipso facto drawn the true Image or Idea of Antichrist whereby he may surely know him whereever he is Now that great Scope and those main concernments that the Gospel of Christ aims at are plainly these namely The extirpation of Idolatry out of the world as also A releasement of God's people from the improfitable burthen of Judaical Ceremonies which we may call the Privative End of the Gospel and The exaltation of the Divine life whose Root is Faith in God and of a world to come and the Branches Humility Charity and Purity as I have more at large discoursed in my Explanation of the Mystery of Godliness And in this is comprized the Positive End of Christ's coming into this world CHAP. II. 1. The rooting out of Idolatry by the Messias prophesied of by Jeremy That all the Gods that made not Heaven and Earth should perish 2. An explication of that Prophecy and an assertion of our Saviour's right of being worshipped for ever as the Eternal Logos who made Heaven and Earth 3. Proofs out of the Psalms that the Messias was to root out Idolatry 4. Several places in the New Testament witnessing against Idolatry and Image-worship 5. That the Spirituality of Christian Religion indigitated by our Saviour does abundantly evidence the unlawfulness of Image-worship or of what Idolatry else soever 1. THat God intended the rooting out of Idolatry by sending Christ into the World appears as well by those Prophecies of the Old Testament that foretel that all Idolatry shall be rooted out for by whom should it be done but by the Messias in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed as by several passages in the New Of the first sort is that in Jeremie chap. 10. where the Prophet puts this prophecy in the mouths of the Jews that were carried captive into Babylon Thus shall ye say unto them saith he The Gods that made not the Heavens and the Earth they shall perish from the Earth and from under the Heavens But the preceding context is so lively and magnificent and so close to our purpose that it ought not to have been omitted At the seventh verse therefore Who would not fear thee O King of Nations for to thee doth it appertain Forasmuch as among all the wise men of the Nations and in all their Kingdoms there is none like unto thee But they are altogether brutish and foolish the stock is a Doctrine of vanities Silver spred into plates is brought from Tarshish and Gold from Uphas the work of the workman and of the hands of the Founder Blue and purple is their cloathing they are all the work of cunning men But the Lord is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King At his wrath the earth shall tremble and the Nations shall not be able to abide his indignation And then follows this Prophetick denunciation against every undue object of Divine worship Thus shall ye say unto them The Gods that made not the Heavens and the Earth they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens 2. Things are exceeding clear in this Prophecy saving in that comparison of the King of Nations with the wise men of the Nations betwixt whom there is that infinite disparity that the collation seems hugely improper if the pure Deity be here conceived to be compared with any wise men whatsoever Grotius therefore ingeniously hinteth that it is meant of some of the wise men of the Nations that had been translated into the number of their Gods as Taautes for example which a little helps out one terme of the comparison these wise men being supposed to have been advanced to Divine honours after their death and to have been reckoned amongst the Gods But I must confess even that in the 86 Psalm Among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord there is none that can doe as thou doest has often puzzel'd me that the Prophet should vouchsafe to compare the Gods of the Nations which were but Deified Mortals or at best but particular Angels or Daemons in that higher sense with the pure infinite and omnipotent Deity which has made me often suspect that such passages as these are to be understood of the Messias who was also to be incarnated and to become the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thereupon after his sufferings to be declared King of Nations and the Worship of the whole Earth according as it follows in that Psalm All Nations whom thou hast made shall come Rev. 25. 3 4. and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy Name And you know he was the Logos or Word which was in the beginning without which nothing was made that was made As the Authour to the Hebrews also witnesseth Thou Lord in the beginning layedst the Foundations of Psalm 102. 25. the Earth and the Heavens are the work of thy hands Which is spoke of the Messias his time being there so plainly decyphered as appears in the 22 verse When the people are gathered together and the Kingdoms to serve the Lord. Whence that is also plain that Christ shall be ever the same and that his years shall have no end and that this Prophetick denunciation The Gods that made not Heaven and Earth shall perish from Vers. 27. the Earth and from under these Heavens cannot reach him But the worship of any thing else that is not the pure Deity is to be cast away according to the meaning of that Prophecy 3. That also in the 97 Psalm plainly shews that Idolatry is to goe down at the coming of Christ. Confounded be all they that serve graven Images that boast themselves of Idols worship him all ye Gods which the Author to the Hebrews does expresly interpret of Christ whereby he proves his Divinity and doth therewith disapprove of giving any Religious worship to
the number and circumstances of his sins So little pretence can there be from hence of this Injunction But if he profess his sorrow and resolution of amendment and by reason of some weakness or melancholy cannot lay such fast hold upon the Promise of remission upon unfeigned Repentance without this visible and palpable seal set thereto of Sacerdotal Absolution I do not see but a Priest anointed with the Spirit of Christ and full of holy compassion to a penitent member of his Church may rightfully and profitably by that Authority which was derived upon the Apostles and their Successours and by that divine power that assists the sincere exercise of his Ministery seal to him the Remission of his sins by pronouncing his Absolution and so restore to peace his disquieted Mind his sins being as certainly pardoned as if Christ himself in person had absolved him he in such a case as this assuredly ratifying in Heaven whatever is here transacted upon Earth Which I suppose Grotius himself will not deny nor conceive at all clashing with his interpretation of S. John he not pretending those he mentions the only occasions of remitting or retaining of sins but the most notable 7. And as this Voluntary Confession in general to the Priest in order to the Penitent's Absolution is usefull and commendable so likewise a Voluntary unbosoming a mans self in a more particular way to such an one as he could trust and can presume fit and able for his office to the end that he may have a more perfect understanding of the state of his Soul and thereby administer more sutable and effectual counsel is a thing questionless of very good consequence 8. But to extort from every Believer every year or oftener a punctuall enumeration of all his transgressions in thought word and deed with all their circumstances were but a vile and disingenuous pretence of insinuating into all mens bosoms for the getting out their secrets of which the Priest may make his private advantage or communicate to the Churchpoliticians such matters as will tend to the strengthening of their distinct Interest which is The conserving or promoting that Honour Wealth and Power which they affect in the World And truely by this means the secrets not of this man or that woman but of whole Families and Cities nay of whole Provinces and Kingdoms and of all Christendom may flow together into that common Cistern or if you will Sea of Ecclesiastick Intelligence which is the very Eye of Action and the Soul of Conduct in all affairs 9. But though this would be a sweet morsel to this Pseudo-Clergy we are now describing it would be sour sauce to the Laiety not only in that it is a foul badge of an inevitable bondage upon them to be constrained upon pain of Damnation at least once by the year to cast themselves down upon the ground before them that are so many fathom sunk into the Earth themselves and to reproach themselves by ripping up their own faults accurately and punctually before such as they have no assurance of either their Candour Judgment or Friendship and for a man to balk his own Priest in this case would be to brand him and so make one of his chiefest neighbours his greatest enemy I say besides the external slavery of the business and the doing of a Ceremonie which may goe so much against the hair even with good and ingenuous spirits a man may be obnoxious to very great dangers and mischiefs For he that has the office of hearing men thus accurately and necessarily accusing themselves once a year at least has a greater opportunity of injustly defaming them by some tacit insinuations or somewhat expresser notices then is fit to be put into the hand of any man that is not a Saint upon Earth of which sort we suppose in this Polity we speak of extremely few 10. Interrogatories also from such Confessours may in greatest likelihood prove to young men and women Lessons of sin and lust and the knowing of the secrets of Families the seeds of infinite contentions betwixt Neighbours and also betwixt those of the same Families For it will be a hard thing for those that by this Shriving of persons know much of their Interest or disinterest to hold their itching fingers from acting or intermedling in their affairs or their other prurient parts from the soliciting the Chastity of such parties as they find hopefull and coming or not to be officious Intelligencers or Game-finders for such as pursue the pleasures of Venus Besides that the vainness of their Penances which yet must needs look like the right value of the Sin may harden men into a conceit that there is no great hurt in sinning and teach them to esteem the transgressing of the Law of God as a thing slight cheap and trivial Whereas if the only Penance of sin were the pain of forsaking it urged upon them from the certain expectation of that most direfull Judgment to come though no other condition but that were annexed to Absolution it would make men more sensibly feel the weight of sin and make them make the greater speed to get from under the burthen of it But to draw to an end 11. That also will pinch very hard especially upon the more Intellectual or Rational complexions namely To be bound in their Conscience upon pain of Damnation to hold whatsoever the Church professes to be true while she in the mean time obtrudes such things upon mens belief as have no ground neither in Reason nor Scripture For even in things that are disputable either way it is the fate of some men notwithstanding to be in a manner invincibly inclined to conceive this part to be true rather then the other What struggling and conflicting therefore must he undergoe to hold to the Authority of the Church against such strong and fatal sentiments of his own Mind But if the Church should be thus Dogmatical not only in things that may according to the sense of the generality of men be either way but conclude and require the belief of such things as are point-blank against either Scripture or Reason and are impossible according to the Faculties of all men who are unprejudiced to be true as That one and the same Body may be wholy and entirely in a thousand places at once and at a thousand miles distance betwixt all those places That we may worship a graven Image and the like how unevenly must these conditions of Salvation sit upon the spirit of him that is not a mere sot What reciprocations of belief and misbelief of hope and despair of Salvation must such an one be tortured with that holds that his share in eternall bliss depends upon the hearty belief of the truth of the Church in all things when what she propounds according to all his Faculties is not only unlikely but impossible to be true CHAP. XXII 1. The dreadfull Figment of Purgatory 2. That by this affrightfull Fable
Sacerdotum praeparatur exercitus Which is a sign that in Gregory's judgment Antichrist was not to be born of the Tribe of Dan but of the Tribe of Levi whom we will further suppose to lay about him for the obtaining of this Levitical Sovereignty and for the advancement of his Episcopal Chair successively in some such manner as follows 3. First he will pretend that it is unfit that the visible Catholick Church being One should not be united under One visible Head Which reasoning yet though it make a pretty show at first sight being closely lookt into will vanish into smoke For this is but a quaint concinnity urged in the behalf of an impossibility For the erecting such an Office for one man which no one man in the world is able to perform implies that to be possible which is indeed impossible Whence it is plain that the Head will be too little for the Body which therefore will be a piece of mischievous Asymmetry or Inconcinnity also No one Mortal can be a competent Head for that Church which has a right to be Catholick and to over-spread the face of the whole Earth There can be no such Head but Christ who is not mere Man but God invested in Humane nature and therefore is present with every part of his Church and every member thereof at what distances soever But to set some one Bishop over the whole Church were to suppose that great Bishop of our Souls absent from it who has promised he will be with her to the end of the World and you may be sure not an idle Spectatour but a carefull Feeder and Governour of their Souls who do really believe in him and unfeignedly obey him 4. Nor does the Church Catholick on Earth lose her Unity hereby for she is under One common Head of the whole Church as well Triumphant as Militant which to come nearer to the Objection is a Visible Head of his Church to those that can approach his Court in that glorious Metropolis in Heaven where undoubtedly he is to be seen sitting on his Sapphire Throne in great Majesty and Glory and where his true Subjects in a small space of time may either see him themselves or at least converse with them that have frequent recourse unto him and wait in his presence And no man I think will say that any large Empire has an Invisible Head because the Emperour himself has placed his Palace in the chiefest Province of his Empire and never comes within the view of some parts of his Dominion and multitudes of men never see him as never having the opportunity of visiting those parts where the Emperour's Court is Whereas Jesus Christ the Head of his Church was seen here on Earth for a good space as also visibly to travel hence into the higher Regions of his Kingdom and in due time will visibly return hither again to take account of the Administratours of his Affairs in these lower Provinces Wherefore Christ is a more visible Head in his large Empire then any Emperour in his So evident is it that there wants no One Visible Head of the Church besides Christ himself 5. But yet notwithstanding all this this ambitious Patriarch I describe will bear the world in hand that it is very fit there should be One visible Head of the Church Universal which should succeed Christ or rather some one whom he would pretend to be Prince of the Apostles and that his Seat is that Apostolical Seat and that there is a necessity for Unity in the Church and for slaking all controversies there should be some one such though the Plea to any indifferent man cannot but seem very weak and frivolous For â—…as I have already intimated the Church will be sufficiently One by being under that One Head Christ Jesus and under One Law which is the Word of God which has been already proved sufficiently plain in all things necessary to Life and Salvation But for other things whether Ceremonies or Conceits they do not at all break the Unity of Christ's Kingdom but it will be truly and conspicuously his so long as it professes the Faith of his Apostles let them otherwise use what difference of Rites they will or differ as much as they can in unnecessary Opinions provided always that none of these Rites or Opinions be really and plainly against the Apostolical Doctrines which are the universal and irreversible Law of Christ's Empire upon Earth For thus the Church-Catholick being in this sort variegated in Externals will yet be visibly the Spouse of Christ though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though cloathed with a Vestment of various flower-work and colours 6. But for this high-flown Patriarch to pretend that his Seat is this Infallible and All-decisive Apostolical Seat is a Plea that can have nothing solid at the bottom For if there had been any such Prelation of some one of the Apostles over the rest it were of that great Moment if ending of Controversies in all succeeding Ages be of that Moment that it would have been recorded in the Scripture and would have ended or prevented all disceptations amongst the Apostles themselves or any others concerning them But quite contrary S. Paul declares that he is in nothing inferiour to the chiefest Apostles which plainly implies an Equality 2 Cor. 12. amongst them all Besides if it were so that some one Apostle had an Authority or Headship over the rest and had once his Residence in such a particular See it does not follow that he that succeeds him in that See should succeed him in that Headship or at all in his Apostleship but onely in his Bishoprick Nor is it credible that if this Prime and Oecumenical Apostle had designed his immediate Successour to the same latitude of Jurisdiction that the claim should not be made and acknowledged by the Universal Church in those more innocent and morigerous times Of so little weight are such pretences as these 7. But if such pretty Sophisms will not serve the turn since Ambition has inflamed the Patriarch's spirits he will leave no stone unmoved to accomplish his desire and what Sophistry cannot doe must be effected though by the coursest methods of either Worldly or Infernal policy That they may therefore obtain this absolute Ecclesiastick Sovereignty the Successours in this pretended prime Apostolical See we will suppose to stick at nothing But that they will forge or counterfeit Canons of Authentick Councils and make them speak for the Supremacy of their Patriarchate that they will countenance abet or allow Treasons and Murthers though upon Emperours and Emperesses Kings and Queens and their whole Posterity by some intrusted Instrument of State whose ambition instigated him thus bloudily to assassinate his Liege Sovereign that he might succeed him in his Kingdom or Empire Whereupon notwithstanding by parasitical fawning conniving or allowing nay by congratulating the success of so beastly an enterprize these eager Candidates for the Ecclesiastick Empire will not stick to
they seek the praise and admiration of men by setting a badge of special Sanctity on themselves by their peculiar Habiliments and extravagant method of living I confess it were a miracle to me if this self-chosen Sanctity of theirs consisting in meats and drinks and abstaining from marriage and the like did not so puff them up in their carnal conceits that they may deservedly be look'd upon as the most genuine Subjects of this King of Pride 5. Besides that the very pretence to this By-course of Life may be very impudently turgent to the modest sense of any sober and truly-sanctified Christian who cannot but esteem it presumptuous to stand upon their own merits and plead their right to Heaven upon what they could any way doe here on Earth for so inestimable and ineffable a Reward What an high Luciferian Rant then were it in these Spiritual undertakers to pretend that they can doe not onely their own task but the tasks of others also In which pretence there is comprised two of the most hatefull Specimens of Pride that can be excogitated namely the vilifying of the all-sufficient Merits of Christ as if they were defectuous and not able to supply the wants of all men to whom God would be propitious but they must be eeked and patched out by the Supplements of such self-weening wretches and then an over-estimation and ridiculously-heightned conceit they have of their own Power Strength and Sanctimony that they can doe more and that by way of Merit then will serve their own turns or then God requires at their hands Whenas we are expressely taught by the Holy Scripture to say That when we have done all we can we are unprofitable Luke 17. 10. Eph 2. 9. servants and that Salvation is by Faith not by Works that no man may boast 6. Wherefore we will look upon this High-Priest and Universal Head of this Pseudo-christian Clergie together with all the several Religious Ranks and Orders under it and by devout acknowledgement sodered and cemented to it and influenced by it all plumped up with one common spirit of Pride and sense of Ruling and Domineering over the persons and consciences of the Laiety and highly conceited of themselves by reason of these carnal and external shews of Sanctity and Supereminency above the rest of the world which consists onely in Anointings in Habits in Abstinence from meat and the like which are poor and beggerly Elements but yet bloating and swelling with a secret poison those that relish them and esteem them and are interessed in the observation of them I say we will look upon all these from the highest to the lowest as one Body of one Head and altogether as one Man of sin who having one spirit and mind against the Law of God and Christ do exalt themselves against and above both though some in one manner others in another But they having one mind and will and joint consent are all accessory to all and are such a Draught and Representation of Antichristian Pride as nothing can be more or more absolute This is he that * Job 41. 3â—… beholdeth all high things and is the King of the children of Pride the highest and most notorious example of a proud and elated Polity as ever yet appeared in the World 7. And I think the Text it self may not be misapplied there being that great affinity betwixt Antichrist and the Devil And it may be greater betwixt him and some expressions of the Text describing the Leviathan then betwixt the said expressions and his corrival for the honour of being typified therein * Verse 15 16 17. His Scales are his Pride shut up together as with a close seal One is so near another that no aire can come betwixt them They are joyned one to another they stick together that they cannot be sundred Which we will suppose to be the very boast of this Pseudo-Christian Polity That they are as it were all of one piece firmly joyned each part to another though not by any tie of Ingenuity and Love but riveted and nailed together by the iron hand of Necessity and Tyrannicall Force Fear of extremity Joynt-Interest and Oaths of absolute Obedience to an Infallible Power holding them as close together as these brazen shields or sealed scales of the Leviathan And now if we consider the Head of this monster His Eyes are said to be * Verse 18. like the Eye-lids of the morning that is very lofty and supercilious splendid and glorious as we have already described the Pomp of this Superlative Head to be But * Verse 19 20 21. out of his mouth goe burning Lamps and sparks of fire leap out Out of his nostrills goeth smoak as out of a seething pot or caldron His breath kindleth coals and a flame goeth out of his mouth That is to say He sets all the world on Fire in his Pride and Wrath by his wicked Incendiaries and Emissaries that run like lightning at his command into all quarters of the Empire Or in a pretended Religious Rage against the opposers of his Sovereign Holiness he thunders out Excommunications against Princes and so kindles war and discord and involves all in flames and bloud And lastly to set out the obstinate Immutableness of this Polity in their Dogmatisms and their remorseless Martyring and torturing them that submit not to them it is said that * Verse 24. his heart is as firm as stone and as hard as the neather mil-stone But as it is said of Pharaoh King of Aegypt in the Psalms Thou brakest the Heads of Leviathan in pieces and gavest him to be Psalm 74. 14. meat to thy people in the wilderness namely to the Israelites to whom all things fell out in Types and Figures So * Chap. 26. 21. Esay has foretold that the time will come when the Earth shall disclose her bloud and shall no more cover her slain In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong Sword Chap. 27. 1. even with that sharp Sword that goeth out of his Mouth shall punish Leviathan the piercing Serpent even Leviathan that crooked Serpent and shall meet him in all his fraudulent windings and obliquities and shall slay the Dragon that is in the Sea that is to say that dwells betwixt the two Seas as Grotius interprets the watry Leviathan in the Psalms of Pharaoh King of Aegypt because his Dominion was extended betwixt two Seas In that day sing ye unto her A Vineyard of red wine I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment lest any hurt it I will Verse 2 3 keep it night and day He will cause them of Jacob to take root Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit But this was Verse 6. an Excursion more then I intended CHAP. XII 1. An Antichristian Frame opposite to the Divine Grace of Purity described in general 2. That the Numerousness of
their own mis-practices lie more easy upon their minds by finding others like themselves must acknowledge his Authority and stand to his courtesy in a business wherein I have already described him very civil and humane We will therefore suppose the generality of the Clergie of this false Church foul and impure in actions words and behaviour and that nothing may be wanting to the heightning of this Idea of Antichristianism in this point we are upon and you may if you will suppose the same in others the High-priest himself as ill if not worse then any of the rest for Whoredoms Adulteries and Incests Which things certainly must have a wicked influence for the debauching all that part of Christendom that can have any respect for or owe any homage to this Sacerdotal Sovereignty 13. Finally that there may be nothing wanting to fill up the measure of this Antichristian Pollution or Impurity we do describe we will further suppose those Regions and Principalities that border nearest to the See of this Supreme Priest to be a second Pentapolis for the most hainous of all Uncleannesses I mean Sodomie it self Nay that the High-priests themselves shall be ordinarily so unholy that they shall be accounted tolerable if not praise-worthy provided they content themselves with what ever illicit pleasures they can enjoy from Women Masculine Venerie being so frequent even in the Heads of this Apostatized Church and That to be Pathicks were the next step to the highest Ecclesiastical Preferments or at least no stop at all thereto That this foul sin of Gomorrah is grown so much in request that Ecclesiastick Princes pride themselves in shewing their wit and eloquence in setting forth the pleasures of that Vice and precellency of it above any enjoyments from the Female sex and publish such beastly discourses with security and impunity from the Head of this unholy and unwholesome Synagogue who notwithstanding would thunder against the breach of a Monastick Vow or any Doctrine tending thereto with fire and lightning and it may be suppress any honest Satyr made to disparage the hainousness of that fulsom crime of Sodomie nay dispense with whole Families upon small pretences in so execrable a trade of Wickedness 14. And lastly That partly by the emboldening examples of this high Praesul's Court and partly by the strong temptations and importunities of a Monastick life Idleness and ineffectual forms of Devotion leaving the Body utterly unmortified nay more foul and lustful then in ordinary Secular men and their secluseness from women permitting them no other way to discharge their filthy burthens then by abusing themselves with Mankind we will further suppose that this noisom poison has spred it self generally in this false Christendom and that sundry Monasteries would abound with this sin of Gomorrah this impure heat piercing from that mouth of Hell the High-priest's Palace to the more cold and Northern climes of his Antichristian Dominion 15. Wherefore the very frame and constitution of this Pseudo-christian Polity being such as of its own nature is prone to bring forth so foul and poisonous fruits as these even the fruits of Sodom and the apples of Gomorrah and we supposing that it does actually bring forth such fruits even the uncleanest works of the Flesh Fornication Adultery Incest and Sodomy it self in so plentiful a manner how can we doubt but that this is a considerable Limb of Antichristianism or of Antichrist himself where they are found I mean this gross impurity so conspicuously opposite to the second Branch of the Divine Life and that this Polity thus infected if that may be said to be infection which is but the natural flower or fruit of the intrinsecal constitution of a thing with these several kinds of Uncleanness is that very City Antichristian in the highest measure which is mystically called Sodom as well as Aegypt and whose inhabitants Rev. 〈◊〉 are excluded out of the Holy City the New Jerusalem as perfectly opposite thereto and whose portion is the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second Death In which black list of the damned there are reckoned up amongst others * Rev. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whores and Whore-mongers be it simple Fornication Adultery or Incest as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Grotius interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abusers of themselves with Mankind and Pathicks to which answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dogs in the other Catalogue chap. 22. The fury of the lustfulness and obscoenity of Dogs making them promiscuously attempt one another without discrimination of Sex And this may serve briefly for a Description of that Limb of Antichristianism that opposes that Branch of the Divine Life which is Christian Purity CHAP. XIII 1. The excellency of Charity and that it is the very Life and Soul of the Polity of Christ. 2. A Description of the nature of Christ's Kingdom out of Scripture 3. A Collection of the Properties of his Government out of the fore-cited Predictions and that they are all the Effects of Charity 4. To which the Kingdom of Antichrist is opposite 5. The Oppression of the poor and needy by this Antichristian Polity 6. The defrauding men of their Estates upon a false pretence of Heresie 7. The imposition of barbarous Penances 8. Their unparallel'd Pride 9. Their raising of vile Calumnies against the professors of the Truth as the Pagans did against the Primitive Christians 10. Several Instances of these Antichristian Calumnies 1. THE last Branch of the Divine Life is Charity which is the Summity the Top-branch the Flower nay the very Quintessence of Christianity and the Life and Soul of that amiable and comfortable Polity and Kingdom of Christ which was predicted in the Holy Scriptures and should most immediately be seated in Ecclesiastick persons the Gravity Meekness and Exemplarity of whose Conversations and the influence of their powerful Doctrine and comfortable and equitable Discipline reaching to a more exquisite emendation of mens manners then the Civil Laws do ordinarily aim at that is to say to the making men more sober and more pure in their converse more fair and tolerable in their exactions more liberal and compassionate toward the poor more faithful and sincere more favourable and candid one to another then Political Laws can effect should erect that Kingdom of Christ upon Earth which would really prove the great Joy and Happiness of all the Nations of the World according to their desire and expectation For there is indeed nothing more desirable then Christ's Kingdom which we pray every day that it may come according to those descriptions thereof in the Prophets and Psalms 2. He shall judge the poor of the people he shall save the children of the Psal. 7â—… needy and shall break in pieces the oppressor He shall come down like the rain upon the mowen grass as showers that water the earth In his days shall the righteous flourish and abundance of peace
or justice and that is the so freely nick-naming them by the style of Hereticks and Schismaticks Which yet in their own judgment I suppose not to bear so little weight with it whenas their real estimate is discoverable by their proceedings they deeming an Heretick so odious or contemptible that he is not worthy of the common privileges of mankind and of that protection that the Laws of humane Society do afford men that he shall not have the security of a Promise though confirmed by Oath Faith not being to be kept with Hereticks Not to mention here that they have made the penalties of Heresie capital Which how justly though a man were an Heretick in the matters of Belief provided it were not out of Pride and conceitedness but out of invincible Ignorance I will not here discuss 2. It will be of greater use to consider what is real Heresie or Schism that the sincere and knowing Christian may not be reproached nor the less skilful affrighted with these Bug-bears Those that make so great a cry against the hainousness of these sins their Zeal and Rhetorick would be more usefully placed if they would be so faithful as to give us a right Notion of them otherwise while they pretend to be so industriously desirous of Peace and Unity in the Church they may but give greater occasion of Dissensions and Animosities For to make more things Heresies and Schisms then are is to create more quarrels then there need be I will acknowledge as soon as any that Heresie and Schism are very grievous crimes even of the deepest dye but then it must be truly Heresie or Schism not what-ever the peevishness or interest or prejudice of a domineering party will be pleased to call so under the pretence that they are that One Catholick Church from whose Doctrine be it never so false or corrupt for one to dissent must be Heresie and to separate from their communion be their practices never so Idolatrous Schism No certainly those high sins of Heresie and Schism are not against this or that particular Synagogue be they never so numerous but against that ancient and truly Catholick and Apostolick Church and he that sins against her Unity sins against his Creed which has taught us to say I believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church Which words because they may be abused to the making of the Church look less Catholick and One then it is I shall offer an easie resolution of the sense of them 3. I conceive therefore that the Object of our Belief in this Clause of the Creed are these three Propositions First That the Church of God wherein eternal Salvation is to be had is but One that is to say That a man cannot be saved in any Religion as some wantonly conceit but that there is one onely way of Salvation which is revealed to God's true Church under which all must come before they can be saved Secondly That this Church of God is now a Catholick Church not Topical or National as in the Commonwealth of the Jews but a Church that is by right to spread over the face of the whole Earth and is designed so to doe by Providence as is expressed in several passages of the Prophets From the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same my name shall be great amongst the Gentiles c. as * Chap. 1. Malachie has fore-told And David in the second Psalm Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Thirdly and lastly That this One Catholick Church is neither to be stretched so wide as to be acknowledged there where the Apostolical Doctrine the Faith and Practice delivered and commanded by Christ or his Apostles is oppugned and contradicted and quite contrary Doctrines and Practices brought in nor to be made so narrow as that such companies of men should not be allowed to be part of this Catholick Church amongst whom notwithstanding the Apostolical Doctrines do obtain and Primitive Practices of the Church set on foot by the Apostles or Christ himself are in use That is to say The adequate Character of this One Catholick Church is that it rejects nothing of the Apostolical Doctrines and imitable Usages which were commanded by Christ or by his Apostles to the Church nor teaches or institutes any thing that is point-blank opposite thereto or to the Word of God to which Christ and his Apostles give testimony That therefore is the true Catholick Church in the whole and in every particular company of it which has for its visible Laws and Usages whereby it self becomes also visible the Laws and Usages of Christ and his Apostles and nothing contradictorious thereunto This I hope will be acknowledged by all men the most easie and genuine sense of this Article of the Christian Creed that the words are capable of 4. And hence I think a man may easily discover what that Heresie is that is justly to be deemed so hainous a sin namely That it is A Dissent from the Catholick Church even in those things that are in it Apostolical For by them alone they being entire and uncontradicted in her does she discover her self to be that One and onely Catholick Church of Christ. And this would be an hainous sin indeed against that Authority she has to instruct and imbue the world with this saving truth I say to dissent from any part of this Apostolick Doctrine out of a spirit of contradiction and self-conceitedness would be Heresie in the most loathsom circumstances that can be imagined And the next degree to this would be the dissenting from the Catholick Church in such things as they generally agree in though they be not expressly any part of the Apostolick Doctrine but in the mean time not plainly dissonant to the Word of God nor to the immutable Notions of humane Understanding And the third and last degree is to dissent from the determinations of a mans own particular National Church in the like circumstances with the former These seem to have something an over-near affinity with what we have defined most properly primarily to be Heresie But considering that even Oecumenical Councils themselves may erre and that Scripture in things necessary to Salvation is sufficiently plain and the Affairs and the Genius of particular Nations exceeding different and changeable and General Councils very hardly and slowly to be congregated I must not be over-hasty to call a Dissent here no not from an Oecumenical Doctrine or Usage by so harsh a denomination as Heretical there being no entrenchment made thereby upon the Apostolical Laws and Doctrines But to dissent from or not to subscribe to the determinations of what Church soever that are plainly repugnant to the Doctrines Apostolical were not onely not Heretical but Heroical especially if the Dissent is likely to beattended with any personal inconveniences to the Dissenter 5. And now for Schism there is much-what
are such as these Apoc. 8. The third part of the Trees was burnt up The third part of the Ships was destroyed The third part of the Sea became bloud and ch 12. The third part of the Sun was smitten and the third part of the Moon c. where Third does not signify the proportion of that which was smitten to that which did escape but the Empire at large which was smitten is indigitated by this Number Which has a smack of the Cabbalistick Genius who use Numbers for the Symbols of things as I have already noted So the Tenth part of the City is not the Tenth of the City that then was but of a City whose extent bore but the proportion of a Tenth part to what it had been as Mr. Mede has carefully computed To this head you may also refer that Apoc. 18. Double unto her double according to her works and Fill unto her double Which is so definitively spoken as if she should be repay'd with as much more as she had injured others but the sense is onely that she should be pay'd home for all her injurious dealings 10. Examples of Specifical Diorisms are such as usual Synecdoches are that put the Species for the Genus which being a more determinate Object strikes the Phancy stronglier and with fuller gratification Thus is the Imagination more loudly alarm'd by being informed that such a Thing or Person shall be burnt or consumed with fire then if it were only said they should perish or be consumed and not specify the manner So to make warre is more determinate and specifick then to oppose and to be beheaded then simply to die or be killed and to be slain more specifick then to be destroyed and lastly King is a more specifick term and more fully strikes upon the phancy then Supreme Magistrate or whatever other appellation that is more general and consequently more dilute Which Examples of this third kind of Diorismus occurre up and down in the Apocalyps and indeed every where in the Prophets CHAP. III. 1. Hylasmus what it is with the kinds thereof 2. Eximious Examples of each kind 3. What the first and chiefest kind of Henopoeia 4. That one single Beast signifies a Body Politick demonstrated out of Daniel 5. That a Succession of Individuals is represented by one Individual 6. That one individual Beast represents a Kingdom or Body Politick from its rise to its fall 7. That one single Man or Woman does also represent a Body Politick in the Prophetick style 8. The second kind of Henopoeia what it is 9. What Zoopoeia with examples thereof 10. A second kind of Zoopoeia proved and illustrated from Examples 1. HYlasmus is a Prophetick Scheme bearing strongly upon the Phancy by exhibiting crass and palpable Objects such as in Logick would bear the Notion of Subject or Matter The first kind is coincident with Metonymia Subjecti as when a City is put for the Inhabitants or a Temple for them that worship therein Examples of this kind are frequent every where To the second kind I would refer such Representations as are from Buildings Pavements and the like which are compact of crass and palpable Materials but are Mystical or Spiritual Symbols of quite another thing Examples of this kind are the Inward and Outward Court of the Temple the one Symmetral the other Asymmetral which signifies the Christian Church one while in her Purity another while in her Apostasie to Idols So the Holy City troden down by the Gentiles signifies the Christian Church over-run with Gentilism So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this case is an Emblem of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Body Politick as Temple may be of the living Church of Christ. 2. An eximious Example of this kind of Hylasmus is the Description of Jerusalem Apoc. 21. with its high wall and twelve gates and by a Prophetick Diorism the measure of the City is concluded twelve thousand furlongs and the wall an hundred fourty four cubits and the Materials are Gold and Pearls and precious Stone And yet this City so Hylastically set out has a most Spiritual meaning and signifies nothing else but the Church of Christ reduced again to Apostolical Purity But the most notable Instance of a Prophetick Hylasmus is the Description of the Temple by Ezekiel to which I cannot say but this of S. John alludes in several passages And that it is an Hylasmus and not a literal Description I think any one will easily grant that does but peruse the 47 Chapter Lastly The destruction of the City Babylon in the Apocalyps is also a remarkable Example of this Scheme but though in the general it appertain to this second kind of Hylasmus yet things are there set out very much by the former kind which is a Metonymia Subjecti not continentis as before but occupantis the Objects of their Spiritual Negotiations being so crassly discovered and described 3. The next Prophetick Scheme is Henopoeia and the most graceful but withall as much obscuring as any And the first and chiefest kind thereof is this The collection of a multitude of Individuals into the show of one Individual as also of a Succession of Individuals or Multitudes into the show of one standing Individual This is an ancient method of delivering Mysteries as any one will discern if he throughly perpend the nature and truth of the ancient Cabbala Which that both Daniel and S. John I may adde S. Paul too have imitated in their Prophecies I think is easily to be evinced 4. Touching the collection of a Multitude into the show or representation of one Individual it is plain in Daniel for one individual Lion there denotes the whole Kingdom of the Babylonians one Bear the Kingdom Dan. 7. of the Medo-Persians one Leopard the Kingdom of the Greeks and the fourth Beast the Roman Kingdom It is true it is said The four Beasts are four Kings but the vulgar Latin has it four Kingdoms as also Theodotion and the Text says expresly that the fourth Beast is the fourth Kingdom upon earth So the Ram and the Goat in the eighth Chapter according to Grotius his own Interpretation out of the Hebrew Idiom though they be said to be Kings are Kingdoms And whereas it is written And the rough Goat is the King of Graecia and the great Horn that is betwixt his eyes is the first King unless this Goat either signifie a Succession of Kings or a Kingdom it is not sense yea though Succession yet it will be very harsh sense to make the great Horn the first King and the Body the rest Wherefore unless we would distort things beyond all measure the Body of the Goat must signifie the Kingdom of Graecia as the Horns the Supreme Power consonantly to what Grotius has written and I doubt not but his Interpretation is true And I think that scarce any one can be so weak but upon the reading of Daniel he will be assured that in Prophetick
The like significancy is also acknowledged in the Onirocriticks Artemidor lib. 2. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The like he saith also c. 41. which have some similitude with that in Daniel But to come nearer to the point concerning Hail Achmetes out of the Indian Persian and Aegyptian Onirocritical Solutions c. 191. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But yet more particularly of Hail and more to our present purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one dream that Hail falls on a place he may expect a through and sudden incursion of the enemie And further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if he dream that the Hail hurt the stemms or stalks of the Corn accordingly as they are broken in the same proportion will the slaughter of men be upon the place 3. Harvest That cutting down Corn is significative of the death of men appears by that Apparition of twelve men seeming to mow the Corn-fields with sithes in Merchia upon which a pestilence followed But that mortality that is by war is still more fitly expressed thereby Achmetes out of the Indian Onirocriticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a King dream he sees harvest reaped in his own Countrey he will suddenly hear of the slaughter of his people This similitude is also used in Scripture Jer. 15. 33. The daughter of Babylon is like a thrashing-floor it is time to thrash her yet a little while and the time of her Harvest shall come But Harvest sometimes has a more auspicious sense as in that of our Saviour John 4. 35. Behold I say unto you Lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to Harvest And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit to life eternal that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together 4. Head That the Head of a Beast in these Prophetick Figures signifies that Person or those Persons in whom the Supreme Power resides is as infallibly to be concluded as the fourth Proportional in Arithmetick three Numbers being given For we have three terms of the Analogie here also viz. a Kingdom and the Sovereignty thereof and a Beast which is the Prophetick figure of a Kingdom Wherefore we cannot miss to say As a Kingdom is to the Sovereign Power thereof so is this Prophetick or figurative Beast to the Head thereof and alternately As the Kingdom to the Beast so the Sovereign Power of the Kingdom to the Head of the Beast Whence we see plainly that the Head of a Beast answers to the Supreme Power and that whether the Supreme Power be in one single Person or in many For as the Power abstractedly is not considered so neither the Persons abstracted from their Power but both in concreto make up this Head Politick And therefore if the Supreme be not but in many those many are the Head and not the less one Head for consisting of many persons no more then the Body is less one Body for consisting of many persons Nay if a man should follow the Symmetry of his Phancy rather then his Reason a Head of many persons to a Body of a vast multitude of persons would look more elegantly and proportionably then one single person As if a Beast were made of little wax bullets sticking together a head of one bullet put to it would not look so conformably as an head of many bullets such as the whole body consisted of 5. Heaven and Earth By Heaven and Earth is understood the Universe as Grotius has rightly noted upon Genesis and abundantly proved upon 2 Pet. 3. 13. But that by Heaven and Earth the Prophets sometime understand a Political Universe that is a Kingdom or Polity there needs no further proof thereof then what is found in Esay ch 51. 15. I am the Lord thy God that divided the Sea whose waves roared the Lord of Hoasts is my Name And I have put my words in thy mouth and have covered thee in the shadow of my hand that I might plant the Heavens and lay the foundations of the Earth and say unto Sion Thou art my people that is to say to make them that were but scattered persons and slaves in Aegypt before a Kingdom or Polity to be governed by their own Laws and Magistrates Again chap. 65. 17. For behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into minde But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that I create for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy Upon which Text Forerius Decrevi enim novum Orbem condere by which he means the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth that is his Church According to which sense also he interprets For as the new Heavens and the new Earth which I shall make shall remain before me so shall your Esay 66. 22. seed and your name remain Quam diu duraret novus Orbis i. e. Regnum Dei Ecclesiae c. And Grotius also though he look a-scue and is very shie himself best knows the reason at these places that have been mentioned yet he cannot abstain from interpreting the new Heaven and the new Earth Apocal. 21. of the state of the Church upon Earth And Dr. Hammond upon 2 Pet. 3. doth expresly acknowledge the new Heaven and the new Earth there mentioned to have a Political sense Which notion was worth the clearing because this general Analogie will make us the better understand what the parts of the Universe figuratively signify as to be called up into Heaven or cast down to the Earth and the like 6. Horn. Horn also signifies the Supreme Power of a Body Politick which is resembled to a Beast it being the highest part of the Beast and the Defender of his body It is the interpretation of the Angel in Daniel The great Horn is the first King And the ten Horns are interpreted ten Kings by the Angel in the Apocalyps For they were the height and summity of their respective Kingdoms though in some sort subordinate to the seventh Head of the Beast 7. Horse There is no express interpretation of that Animal in Scripture But a generous Horse with his Rider does naturally emblematize Rule and Command Which may seem also hinted to us from that of Psalm 45. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Prosper and ride which the Seventy turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prosper and reign But an Horse signifies also any success or fortune of him that rides on him So Achmetes out of the Indian Interpretations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If one dreams that he rides on Pharas which is a generous Steed which goes orderly and obediently he shall obtain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honour and renown proportionable to the Beast he rides on And so after he descants on the largeness thickness and length of the tail declaring that his power and train shall be answerable but if bob-tailed or thin of hair it signifies defect of power The halting of
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense of all which is in brief that in the interpretation of Visions or Dreams the Sun immutably represents the King the Moon the next in power to him the Planet Venus the Queen and the rest of the bigger Stars the Princes or Nobles of the Kingdom 13. Which is not so superstitiously to be understood but that if there were no Queen any third in dignity might be represented thereby For this Venus is also Lucifer which the Hebrews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under which the mighty King of Babylon is represented Esay 14. 12. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer son of the Morning how art thou cut down to the ground that didst weaken the Nations Which seems to be against the analogie of the Onirocriticks which say the Sun signifies the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But they do not say a Star may not signifie him especially when he is not compared with his own Nobles and Princes but with other Kings For a plurality of Suns is unnatural Wherefore in that case the Parable is to be made from the Stars onely and the chiefest King is the greatest and most glorious Star Whence when the Roman Empire had two Caesars unsubordinate to one another they could not well be called Suns but Stars though glorious ones Which agrees well with Mr. Mede's interpreting of that great Star that fell at the sound of the third Trumpet of the expiring of the Western Caesareate 14. But that there is a more Mystical sense of Stars also may appear in that Promise of Christ * Revel 2. 28. I will give him the Morning-star But where Christ saith * Chap. 22. 16. I am the root of David and the bright Morning-star I know not but that may be understood in a Political sense for all Kingdoms had not then nor have yet submitted unto him But where Stars signifie Angels that is more Cabbalistical Apocal. 1. 20. The seven Stars are the seven Angels of the seven Churches According as they signifie also in Job 38. 7. When the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy As many of which as kept not their station but fell into this terrestrial pollution may well be called Fallen Stars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stars fallen from Heaven to the Earth According to which that Apocal. 9. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is nothing but a Periphrasis of some one fallen Angel or Devil who afterwards is called the Angel of the Abyss a great Officer in the Kingdom of darkness That this is the sense is plain in that it is said not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the preterperfect Tense It may not be impertinent also to adde what * Lib. 2. Hieroglyph 1. Horus Apollo says of this Hieroglyphick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. IX 1. Tail Temple 2. Throes Throne of God 3. Thunder an Iconism of Divine assistence for the discomfiting of the Enemies 4. Other more mystical meanings thereof 5. Time Hours Days That Day signifying a Year is an Icasmus 6. The appropriation of Months and Days to the story of the Wicked and Righteous with an inference from the latter of a latitude of compute in the 1260 days in the Apocalyps 7. Trees Vintage Water 8. White-clothing Wilderness Winds 9. Whore and Whoredom 10. The exquisite Analogie Idolatry bears thereunto 11. Wine-press 12. That it signifies also spiritual Destruction and slaughter 13. Woman and Women 14. Worship World 15. That the Prophetick style is so determinately intelligible that the endeavour of understanding Prophecies is most unjustly reproached for any insuperable difficulties therein 16. Certain Rules to try Interpretations of Prophecies by which are more warrantable and genuine which less 1. TAil The Tail of a Beast is that part that follows or comes behind to which therefore the Train of a great Prince or Potentate will correspond in Analogie But me-thinks the Analogie is most exact in Serpents of a great length who therefore have a long train following them But it is significant enough in other Animals also as the Onirocriticks have taken notice Achmet c. 152. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any one dream he rides on a generous Steed such as the Persians called Pharas having a large Tail thick of hair and long he shall have a Retinue or Train of Men or Officers answerable to the fulness and length of the Tail This Analogie will hold good from Nobles to Princes and Emperours or any Sovereign Power over a State or Kingdom In which case their Forces and People are their Train or Tail Temple To omit those more Mystical or Moral meanings of Temple it signifies sometimes in the Prophetick style a People consecrated to God by an outward profession of him and so set apart from other Nations as consecrated Places are from other buildings or plats of ground 1 Tim. 3. 15. That thou maiest know how to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church And Rev. 3. 12. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God which both Grotius and Dr. Hammond interpret of the Church Visible Grotius of the Sardian Dr. Hammond of the Church Catholick 2. Throes of Child-birth The Throes of Child-birth are a Figure or Image of great endeavours to bring something to pass not without much difficulty pain and danger And the compassing their end is a delivery of what they were big with and a deliverance from the pain and danger they laboured under There are several examples of this Iconism in the Prophets Jer. 30. 6 7. Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins as a woman in travail and all faces are turned into paleness Alas for that day is great so that none is like it it is even the day of Jacob's trouble but he shall be saved out of it Also Esa. 66. 7. Before she travailed she brought forth before her pain came she was delivered of a man-child which Interpreters usually understand of the sudden Birth of the Church I mean of the sudden Conversion of the Gentiles to it Grotius of the deliverance of Judaea by Maccabaeus Throne of God The Throne of God signifies a great Throne a magnificent Throne according to that usual Hebraism where Nouns joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acquire a sense of excellency vehemency or greatness So the Trees of God the Cedars of God the Mountains of God are great and high Trees Cedars and Mountains the Fire of God a vehement Fire and the like According to which the Throne of God is an high and exalted Throne a Royal or Imperial Seat from whence the Political World is ruled as God from Heaven rules the whole Universe 3. Thunder Thunder and Lightning signifies the disjection and dissipation of the forces of War Esa. 29. 6. Thou shalt be visited of
Constantinople dividing in a manner the Empire thus betwixt them as the Eastern and Western Caesars did But all the whole Clergie of the Empire I mean the Idolatrizing Clergie are the Body of this Whore or Beast of which these two Imperial Patriarchates are the Horns 3. Nor have I found any thing yet in the Interpreters that can according to the Prophetick style be interpreted Horns unless some such Concrete Power as this may have place also in the Type But by a secondary Henopoeia it being once admitted that these two Patriarchates are two real Concrete Powers and Dignities for I understand the two Patriarchs themselves thus empower'd it may be the two Horns of the Episcopal Mitre may be also glanced at as the seven Heads signifie as well seven Hills as seven Kings And Josephus Acosta in his Treatise of the Last times speaking of this Two-horned Beast Duo cornua saith he Episcopalis De Temp. Noviss lib. 2. c. 17. dignitatis putà Mitrae sive Infulae haec enim est Bicornis insigne sunt Videtur ergò quòd hic Pseudopropheta erit Episcopus quispiam Apostata simulator Religionis Which Interpretation of the two Horns of the Beast Cornelius à Lapide seems also inclinable to and does rightly conceive that the Interpretation is no more a reproach to Episcopacy then that they are Agni cornua is a reproach to Christ but rather an argument of the Excellency of that Degree and Function this great Apostate endeavouring to recommend himself to the world under that Habit and Dignity Nor need we exclude Mr. Mede's Interpretation who understands by these two Horns the power of Binding and Loosing which this Pseudo-prophetick Beast pretends to be derived upon him from the Lamb Christ Jesus For these two significations and more if there were more as fit and convenient may by an Henopoeia be couched under this one Type provided first as I have already said that the Type have one signification plainly allowable according to the Prophetick style which every-where in Daniel and the Apocalyps understands by Horns some Persons or other in high place and dignity not abstract Powers or Virtues as if one should make an Emperor to have two Horns because he had the power of Life and Death This is not warrantable in the Prophetick style nor would that sense alone support so substantial an Emblem as this 4. Wherefore these two Horns implying the Pseudo-prophetick Beast Paral. 1. Agr. 7. to be spread as well over the Oriental as Occidental part of the Empire and the Whore's riding the Beast with seven Heads denoting also what a hank she had upon the whole Empire it appears that the seventh Agreement of our first Parallelism is not without grounds in these Visions To which you may superadde a farther and fuller Confirmation from what we have said upon the first verse in the preceding Chapter in the second and third Sections 5. Which has the seven Heads and ten Horns The same description of Paral. 2. Agr. 1. the Beast as to this point is in the Thirteenth Chapter verse 2. And we have already noted that it makes good the first Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. VIII The Beast that thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into utter destruction or into final perdition for the circumstance does plainly imply that sense For in that it is said before this last course that he was not which imports that he was destroyed it naturally follows that this last is a more signal destruction and final as well as last and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be taken in such a sense as in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of perdition who is so called because he is utterly to be blasted and consumed by the brightness of Christ's appearing And therefore this Perdition is the very same that is spoken of in Daniel I beheld till the Beast was slain and he speaks there of the Ten-horned Beast and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame which was to be utterly consumed But the understanding of this eighth Verse being of so great importance I shall something more largely paraphrase thereon that we may the more fully understand the scope thereof which I conceive is to this sense 2. The Beast which thou sawest and which thou didst see in the two former Visions is the same Beast as may appear from the chief Character thereof seven Heads and ten Horns and is one and the same Idolatrous Kingdom or Empire as is evident in the Serpentine body thereof in the first Vision from the names of Blasphemy on each Head in the second and from the body full of names of Blasphemy in this third and last But the chief drift of this last Vision though it have a reflexion upon the former part of the Succession of this Idolatrous Empire as it is of a-fresh represented in that part of the whole Succession which is next after that intervall wherein for a time it ceased to be I say the chief drift of this Vision is to represent determinately this Idolatrous Empire and adequately under that succession of time which commenced upon the expiration of that season wherein the Empire was purely Christian and as yet untainted with Idolatrous Superstitions even unto that very time wherein Idolatry having taken its course once more is quite to be exterminated out of the Empire never to return thither again 3. Wherefore the Angel counting as it were upon his fingers the order of things and then more particularly pointing at this succession of time The Beast which thou sawest saith he to John his name is for the Ecstatical style of Prophecy may easily admit of such an Ellipsis Was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition Which is a name of fewer syllables then Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of fornications and abominations of the Earth But such long names are not unusual in Scripture as appears in Maher-shalal-hash-baz which in English Esa. 8. 1. is In making speed to the spoil he hasteneth the prey 4. But now the meaning of the Beast's Title or Name is this That this Idolatrous Empire is represented onely under that succession of time according to the main scope of this present Vision under which it being considered it will be sometime opportune to say That it is the Beast that was and is not but will ascend again out of the bottomless pit and then goe into perdition that is to say be finally destroyed never to revive again Of that time or state of the Empire under which considered it is sometime seasonable to pronounce thus is this present Vision of the Beast to be understood and of no other and therefore was thereby especially recommended to the Church of Christ for that season when the Empire ceased to be
reason Grotius has to exile S. John into Patmos in Claudius his time for Claudius his expelling the Jews from Rome falls short of banishing John into Patmos by many degrees For first Grotius was to prove that by Jews are meant Christians in that place For there are no contemptible reasons to induce one to believe that the Jews not the Christians are meant there First Because the Christians sought a Kingdom above not on the Earth but the Jews ran mad after such a Christ or Messias as would make them Masters of the World and therefore they onely could seem dangerous in Rome as whose Tumults tended to an Earthly Booty Secondly In the Acts this Edict of Claudius is mentioned as touching the Jews onely and Aquila and Priscilla as being Jews for there is not the least intimation of their being Christians are said to depart from Rome to Corinth Thirdly The fresh remembrance of Tiberius his Edict against the Accusers of Christians might have still that influence upon the mind of his Successors that so suddenly no such harsh Sentence should pass against them especially they being a people as I said whose thoughts were on Heaven did not lie at catch for things on Earth And lastly None of the Ancients ever taxed Claudius for any injury done to the Christians whenas if they had been banished and S. John himself confined to Patmos which had been a very severe punishment and to flesh and bloud little less tolerable then death undoubtedly the Infamie of so great a Cruelty would have been transmitted to Posterity by the Church and Claudius not escaped the brand of a Persecutor Nor do those words of Suetonius prove the Edict to belong to the Christians Claudius Judaeos impulsore Chresto tumultuantes Româ expulit but onely that there was an Edict against the Jews For who can believe any weight in his asserting that they tumultuated impulsore Chresto whenas Christ was not then alive on Earth much less at Rome to incense the Jews into Tumults unless it was that the Jews were occasionally vext at the Christians in Rome and made a great deal a-doe at their acknowledging such a Messias as was crucifi'd and therefore of whom there was no hope of serving their turn for the regaining of their liberty and making them great men in this world Wherefore there being such a stir with the Jews concerning their Chrestus or Messias against the Christians uncertain Fame might make Suetonius phrase it so as he has but this Inspection into the Genius of the Jews might cause Claudius to expel them out of the City it may be in favour of the Christians as well as for his own security This passage in Suetonius is so far from determining this Edict to the Christians that Orosius gives this judgment of it Utrùm Oros. lib. 7. cap. 6. contra Christum tumultuantes Judaeos coërceri comprimi jusserit an etiam Christianos simul velut cognatae religionis homines voluerit expelli nequaquam discernitur So little assurance is there that Claudius did any evil at all to the Christians by that Edict mentioned in Suetonius 6. But suppose that Decree reached the Christians also at Rome it is but an arbitrarious surmise to think it reached to other parts of the Empire and if to other parts of the Empire it is not a Confinement as I have above hinted but a Banishment at large from some one certain place and then onely of such it is most likely as were in Tumults or at least from such Towns where they might have caused Tumults which was most unlikely in the place where S. John resided the sweetness and peaceableness of whose spirit would tempt any discreet Governour to retain him for the better keeping things in peace And yet so extravagant is this supposition that he is the onely man that is thus sharply dealt with nor can they produce an example of any one else thus banished in Claudius his time and yet all the Apostles certainly were busie enough in doing their duties to propagate Christianity in the Empire 7. I but you will say this Record of Claudius his expelling the Jews from Rome being seconded with the Testimony of Epiphanius who affirms him banished into Patmos under the same Emperour is such a double cord as will not easily be broken Which I would the easilier grant if they had any strength at all single as I have shew'd the first has none and shall doe the like for the second There are two places alledged out of Epiphanius The one Haeres 51. Sect. 33. where speaking of S. John he writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But these words are not spoken definitively of S. John's being in Patmos in Claudius Caesar's reign but onely that he was in Patmos and did prophesie there but for the time he says it was at the farthest in Claudius his reign for that is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was the soonest that he could be thought to prophesie in Patmos as an Exul there but he does not say absolutely he prophesied then So that it is a more lax and conjectural Affirmation concerning the time and onely says that it is the utmost distance within which he may be thought to have prophesied not denying but that the time of his Prophesying might be later suppose in Domitian's time Of which Petavius is so confident that he writes over against Imperante Claudio in the Text this short Marginal Note Mendosè pro Domitiano he taking it for granted that Epiphanius speaks more definitively then I think he does And I believe both Grotius and others that cite the place to the same purpose with him were aware of such a sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I have hinted which made them leave it out of their Citation as weakening the force thereof Nor is it any Argument that Epiphanius does dogmatically define that S. John prophesied in Claudius his time because if he was not perswaded of that opinion he would have followed the ordinary one as being fitter to use against the Montanists that would derogate from the truth of the Apocalyps by reason of the Epistle to the Church of Thyatira which they pretend to be wrote before there was any Church there for then the later written the better But supposing the Father uncertain which was true and not assured but that the Montanists would prove that there was no Church as yet at Thyatira in Domitian's time neither were there any likelihood that â—…e would peremptorily pitch upon Domitian's reign rather then of the other or rather not decline both and betake himself to some other Answer as indeed he does For he seems to be in love with the Objection thus circumstantiated he gaining so much as he conceives upon the Objectors as by their own Supposition to make them acknowledge S. John or the Author of this Book of Visions to be really endued with the Spirit of Prophecie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Concretes in the same kind but a handsom Repository for different matters signifiable by one Type as is easie to be understood from what is declared concerning that Scheme Eighthly If Domitian be the Beast and the Whore the Roman Power then the Roman Power rides on Domitian's back as if Domitian were not the Head but the Body of the Empire or if you will metamorphoz'd by this marvellous Interpretation into Apuleius his Ass for the Roman Power to ride on But then again Domitian being chief of the Roman Power himself he must by this account ride also upon himself and make a wonderful Centaure such as the deepest-witted Poets never so much as dream'd of 7. Ninthly If the Whore be the Roman Pagan Power how can she be said to be the Mother of Fornications and out of her Cup to intoxicate the Kings of the Earth with that kind of wickedness whenas all the Earth before the Empire was Christian were Idolaters of themselves and stored Rome her self with multifarious kinds of Idolatry Which Objection neither Grotius nor any one else with all the fetches they have will be ever able to assoil Tenthly This Inscription on the Whore of Babylon Babylon the Great Apoc. 17. 〈◊〉 the Mother of Fornications cannot be understood of Rome Heathen as Grotius would have it because there is prefixed Mystery before it which would be a sorry Mystery indeed if it were onely a bare Synecdoche and should intimate no more then that Rome Pagan was another Babylon that is to say an Idolatrous City O the depth of the Mystery In the eleventh place Those ten Kingdomes which Grotius would insinuate to be the ten Horns were not Kingdoms intra fines Imperii Romani as he speaks before the Conversion of the Empire to Christianity nay indeed before the subversion of it or discerption into many Kingdoms how then could these Kings give their Power to the Beast I mean not Apocal. 17. 13. onely to Domitian who is farther removed from them but to the Roman Pagan Idolatry which by this time of Discerption had ceased to be the Religion of the Empire Or how can they be said to eat the flesh of the Whore and burn her with fire whenas the City of Rome had ceased to be Vers. 16. the Pagan Whore before these Kings were in being much more before she was assaulted and sacked by Totilas which was Anno 547. whenas Gentilism was cast out and the Temples of their Idols demolished all over the Empire about the year 399. the very next to that wherein according to the Devil's mistake upon his survey of the proportion betwixt the Inward and Outward Court of the Temple Christianity was expected by the Heathens to expire And again in the twelfth place How can those Ten Kings which Grotius assigns be said to fight against the Lamb in his sense that is against Christianity Apoc. 17. 14. in the behalf of the Roman Pagan Idolatry whenas the Empire had then become Christian and was not that Pagan Beast to whom they should lend their aid and power against the preaching of the Gospel Was it a likely thing that such ten Kings that were foes to Christianity should as Grotius speaks intra fines Imperii Romani Romanis ipsis concedentibus regnare So impossible is Grotius his Interpretation concerning the ten Horns every way 8. In the thirteenth place This destruction of Babylon is a perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full and final destruction set out by the casting a Milstone into the midst of the Sea But none of Grotius his Ten Kings ever destroyed Rome in such a manner In the fourteenth That exhortation to the People of God to goe out of Apoc. 18. 4. Babylon lest they partake of her sins can make no good sense in Totilas his time For would the Angel have all the Christians leave the City of Rome in the year 546. and for several years upwards toward Constantine's time because there might be some Pagan Idolaters still amongst them and not rather keep the City for the better suppressing Idolatry and quite extinguishing it and not let it spread more by the receding of the hearty Christians out of it Truly this gloss of Grotius is very ridiculous and incredible that makes the Angel utter such an irrational Exhortation Fifteenthly If Come out of her my people lest ye partake of her sins be as Grotius interprets Tu popule mi ubi apparuerit Totilae exercitus exite ad Basilicas Apostolorum extra Urbem it will follow that to have returned again into the City after Totilas was gone had been to return into Babylon and partake of her sins again Which is a very vain and fond conceit 9. Lastly His interpreting that Instigation Reward her as she has rewarded you to be made to Totilas and the Goths is harsh and groundless For what injury had Rome done to the Goths but rather the Empire was injured by them And therefore Grotius is sensible of the ill service that Pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does his Interpretation and upon that account applauds a certain Manuscript that has left it out but not very loudly it being so generally contradicted by other Copies Sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abest in MS. non malé CHAP. IV. 1. That this Mis-timing of Visions must needs cast Grotius into the like Absurdities in interpreting the Thirteenth Chapter and that his Exposition of the first verse thereof is guilty of at least nine or ten 2. Four gross Contradictions in the second 3. As many Incongruities or Weaknesses in the third 4. As also in the fourth and fifth 5. Two Absurdities in the sixth and seventh 6. As many in the eighth 7. Three Difficulties in the exposition of the tenth verse 8. Five Incongruities in the eleventh 9. His gross Interpretation of the twelfth verse 10. Four Absurdities in the thirteenth 11. Eight Incongruities or Weaknesses in his expositions on the fourteenth verse 12. Three in the fifteenth 13. Three or four more in the sixteenth and seventeenth 14. And nine more in the eighteenth verse 15. The astonishing consideration of the Absurdness of Grotius his Expositions compared with his Parts and Learning 16. An useful Illation from this weak performance of his That all the Expositions of the Romanists upon these two Chapters are superlatively frivolous and incredible 1. THus many Incongruities and Inconsistencies that I may not say Impossibilities and Contradictions are there in 〈◊〉 Exposition of this Seventeenth Chapter Let us now see how successful he is in the Thirteenth where he taking the same liberty of applying the Prophecy to times it was never meant of it will be a wonder if we finde not the Interpretation alike harsh and incongruous Let us pass therefore through the whole Chapter from verse to verse Where In the first he makes the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns to be the Roman Idolatry whose Heads are seven Hills and whose Horns are ten Kings namely
and the punishments thereof Consect XI That the Authority of neither Fathers nor Councils after 400 years from Christ or thereabout is of any validity to determine Controversies against the Protestant Churches touching those things which the Church of Rome and they disagree in 10. This naturally follows from the Epocha of Antichristianism falling about that time we mention After which the Church being supposed in some measure lapsed into that great Apostasy neither the Fathers Doctrines nor her Councils can have right to decide the Controversies betwixt the Papists and us so as authoritatively to testifie against us But it is observable that their Testimony will hold good against the Papists in such Points as they contradict them in because they are in that witnesses of the successive minde of the Church as yet unaltered by this growing Corruption or at least testify matter of fact against the false Pretences of the Popish Traditions Consect XII That all Visions that are Synchronal to this of the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns which is said to continue fourty two moneths have necessarily the extent of one thousand two hundred and sixty years 11. To be Synchronal is as much as to begin continue and end together Whence it is plain that that which is Synchronal to what continueth 1260 years must it self continue so many years But the 42 moneths of the Beast are 1260 years by the first Consectary Which is a plain Demonstration of the truth of this last The use of which Consectary is of very great moment for the detection of the falshood of such petty Expositions as some put upon those Visions which are Synchronal to this of the restored Beast For extend them but upon this measure of time and they will all crack and break into fitters and thereby which I would have thus timely taken notice of excuse me from any farther Confutation of them Wherefore it will be worth the while to take notice of all those Visions that are Synchronal to this of the restored Beast it being so necessary a Method to be assured of the right sense of them and to discern more certainly in what Prophecies of the Apocalyps those Lineaments of Antichristianism which I have noted in my foregoing Treatise are prefigured 12. In the mean time I need not I think re-minde my Reader that the Visions of these two Chapters which I have thus carefully interpreted do plainly foretel that grand part of Antichristianism which consists in Idolatrous worship how it should over-run the Empire by the seduction and activity of an Imposturous Clergy figured out in the Type of the Beast with two Lamb-like Horns but that would speak like the Dragon and re-introduce the Image of old Paganism again under the colour of a more heightned Devotion and Affection toward Christ the Blessed Virgin and the rest of the Saints and Martyrs As also in the Type of the Whore of Babylon who is called the Mother of Fornications and Abominations of the Earth that is of Idolatry and Pagan-like Worship who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Kings of the Earth and all the Inhabitants thereof with the Cup of the filthiness of her Fornications that is seduces them to Idolatry Hoc enim est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idololatriae calicem as Grotius himself has interpreted it Wherefore these are two notable Predictions of the Apostasy of the Church into Heathenish and Idolatrous worship But I shall also produce others out of the same Book after I have prepared the way by making good certain Synchronisms thereunto appertaining CHAP. VI. 1. The Synchronism of the Whore the Two-horned Beast the restored Beast or the Beast that was and is not and yet is demonstrated out of our Joint-Exposition 2. To which the False-Prophet is also proved Synchronal the Virgin-Company the Two Witnesses the Woman in the Wilderness and the Outward Court as being either the fame Antistoechal or necessarily connected all along with them 3. Again in a more abstract way That the restored Beast the Woman in the Wilderness the Outward Court the Two Witnesses are of equal time 4. That the Woman in the Wilderness and the restored Beast begin together and therefore are Synchronal 5. That the restored Beast and Two Witnesses are Synchronal as ending together 6. That the Two Witnesses and Outward Court are Synchronal as both beginning and ending together And all these four Synchronal to the Whore and Two-horned Beast because the Two-horned Beast and the Whore are Synchronal to the restored Beast to which the other three are Synchronal 7. That the Virgin-Company and the Sealed out of the twelve Tribes are all one Company and therefore both Synchronal to the Whore by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently with the rest of the fix with whom She is Synchronal 8. That the said Sealed Virgin-Company is Synchronal to the Series of the first six Trumpets as being sealed immediately before the blast of the first Trumpet and as being Synchronal to the Mourning of the Witnesses which ceases at the end of the sixth Trumpet 9. The six first Seals the Fight of Michael and the Dragon and the Inward Court proved Synchronal 10. That the Vision of * Apocal. 11. measuring the Temple begins from the first Epocha indicated from the quality of the Person that holds in his hand the opened Book 11. From his supplying the place of the seventh Angel and the space of the seventh Trumpet with seven Thunders 12. From the suspending of the sound of the seventh Trumpet to make a Regression 13. From the newness or new condition of the Book in the Angel's hand 14. From the voice communing or talking with John from Heaven as in the beginning of the Prophecies of the Seals 15. From the bitterness of the Book in his belly From his being bid again to prophesy and that before many Kings and Peoples and Nations 16. From the Epocha of the Vision of the * Apocal. 12. ensuing Chapter 17. The Synchronism of the first six Seals with the Inward Court of weighty concernment 18. The Millennial Empire of Christ the Palm-bearing Company the New Jerusalem and the Ligation of Satan that they are all in some sense Synchronal to the Seventh Trumpet 1. THat the Beast with seven Heads in the Thirteenth Chapter is Synchronal with the Beast that carries the Whore in the Seventeenth is plain in that they are the very self-same Beast in every Respect as appears out of my Joint-Exposition That the Whore of Babylon also and the Two-horned Beast are the self-same Thing is made evident in the same Exposition and therefore they must be Synchronal unless one and the same thing can begin to be after it has continued in Being and continue after it ceases to be That the Whore or the Two-horned Beast is Synchronal to the Seven-headed with ten Horns in these two Chapters is evident in that the Two-horned Beast is the Reviver and Healer of this Seven-headed Beast or Restorer
years 17. Wherefore assuredly as the Outward Court troden down by the Gentiles is Synchronal to the first six Trumpets in the seventh Seal so the Inward Court is Synchronal to the first six Seals which was the thing to be demonstrated and which is a Conclusion of excellent use and weighty consideration as may appear in its due place 18. Finally as our Middle Synchronals have thus necessarily detected those that precede so they will with like facility and certainty discover them that succeed For the Thousand years wherein the Saints reign Satan is bound the Palmiferous Company triumphs and the Heavenly Jerusalem is seen upon Earth all these must in some sense plainly Synchronize with the seventh Trumpet And the seventh Angel sounded and Apoc. 11. 15. there were great voices in Heaven saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever So that it is plain that the Millennial Empire of Christ and of his Saints is under the seventh Trumpet The Palmiferous Company Apoc. 7. 9. also immediately succeed the 144 Virgin Regiments which are Synchronal to the first six Trumpets whence necessarily this company of Palm-bearers are under the seventh The Fall of Babylon also conterminates with the sixth Trumpet and therefore the New Jerusalem which succeeds it must needs be found in the seventh And lastly Satan who fought with Michael all along the first six Seals and bore such sway in the Kingdom of Antichrist in the first six Trumpets cannot be said to be bound cast into the bottomless Pit and sealed up there for a thousand years till the Millennial Empire of Christ till the glory and brightness of the Heavenly Jerusalem upon Earth till the Victory and Triumph of the Palm-bearing Company that is till the sounding of the last Trumpet not onely the Series of the Synchronals but the very nature of the things themselves forcing the Ligation of Satan into this last Period of times This is very easie and plain But if any one be unsatisfi'd he may reade Mr. Mede Part 2. Synchronism 4 5 6 7. where he shall have a more full and copious demonstration of these Synchronals contemporizing with the seventh Trumpet But how this contemporizing is to be understood will better appear out of this following Chapter CHAP. VII 1. Mr. Mede's Account of placing the first six Vials within the sixth Trumpet 2. That the truth of this Account depends upon an unlikely sense of the Expiration of the Reign of the Beast as if immediately after 42 months it should entirely and universally expire 3. A caution touching the Interpreting of the Prophetick style 4. That the Expiration of the Reign of the Beast upon the Exit of the sixth Trumpet is but partial or speciminal argued from the seventh Trumpet 's being also called a Woe-Trumpet 5. As likewise from the seven Thunders 6. Two more Arguments to the same purpose 7. Lastly from the fixed Epocha's of the Middle Synchronals compared with the affairs of Europe 8. That it follows hence that all the seven Vials are naturally to take their places in the seventh Trumpet as being the seven last Plagues 9. The same further proved from the Song of the Harpers upon their victory over the Beast 10. And from the order of the Vision of the Vials as also from the appearing of the Temple out of which the Angels come after the sixth Trumpet and before any of the Vials be poured out 11. In what sense the Middle Synchronals are to be fulfilled at the Exit of the sixth Trumpet 12. A larger Declaration how all the Middle Synchronals expire together in what sense or degree soever they do expire 13. Of the commencing of the last Synchronals and what the time of the Millennium more eminently so styled 14. The serviceableness of the premising these orderly Synchronisms for his further search into the Prophecies that foretell the Lapse of the Church into Antichristianism 1. I Had almost omitted the placing of the Vials the first six whereof Mr. Mede ranges within the sixth Trumpet briefly upon this account Because they being the seven last Plagues of the Beast they are to begin with the inclining of the Beast to ruine But it was proved above that the 42 months of the Beast's domineering over the Saints and overcoming them expired with the last breath of the sixth Trumpet as all those middle Synchronals do And it is as true that the Throne of the Beast does not wax dark before the fifth Vial. Wherefore he concludes that at the least five Vials if not six precede the seventh Trumpet 2. Which Ratiocination of Mr. Mede's were very firm if we could be sure that the meaning of the Continuance of the Beast for 42 months were such as he supposes it namely That this Duration or Reign of his is to be understood absolutely That he shall reign so long and no longer and not comparatively That after 42 months he shall not reign with that full power and victory over the Saints so keeping them under that they cannot appear a distinct Polity able to defend themselves from his Tyrannies and Cruelties Which latter may be a warrantable meaning of the Prophecie as well as the other namely That as soon as there appears a Kingdom or Polity of truly Evangelical or Apostolical Christians not Superstitious nor Idolatrous nor Persecutive and Bloudy but such as joyn heartily with one another in the plain Points of Christian Religion and make no other Fundamentals then the undoubted meaning of the Word of God requires and leave men free in the rest That as soon I say as such a Polity as this is in being the 42 months of the Beast may be said to expire as to the entireness of his Reign and also for that there is that set on foot which will certainly be his ruine and therefore in the Prophetick style he is accounted as ruined already According to which tenour Mr. Mede has interpreted that of Esay * Chap. 21. 9. Babylon is fallen is fallen whenas in the time of Esay there was onely the first Ground-work laid for her ruine by the Medes who casting off the Assyrian yoke and rescuing themselves into liberty and building Ecbatana under their new King Deioces laid the foundations of a Kingdom fatal to the City of Babylon Nor can we well understand that in the Apocalyps upon the sounding of the seventh Trumpet to that height it seems to be spoken The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ. Chap. 11. 15. Of which I must confess I cannot but surmise the most sober meaning to be something parallel to that saying of our Saviour Now is the judgment of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast out and yet he kept Joh. 12. 31. possession till Constantine's time But in such a sense as the Kingdoms of the world at the beginning of
and upon the left side thereof And then ver 14. These are the two Anointed ones that stood by the Lord of the whole Earth Which Interpreters universally understand of Zerobabel and Jesua Ver. V. And if any one will hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies and if any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed It is an Allusion to the story of Moses and Elias their bringing down fire upon their Opposers But here it is to be understood more Mystically of the Fire of the Spirit or of the Law of God proceeding out of their mouths whereby they convince the world Jer. 23. Is not my word like as fire saith the Lord and like an hammer that breaks a rock in pieces Ver. 19 Like that of the man out of the Sea 2 Esdras 13. whose voice whensoever it went out of his mouth all they burnt that heard it And again in Ver. 4. the same Chapter And lo as he saw the violence of the multitude that Ver. 9 c. came he neither lift up his hand nor held sword nor any instrument of war But onely I saw that he sent out of his mouth as it had been a blast of fire and out of his lips a flaming breath and out of his tongue he cast out sparks and tempests And they were all mixt together the blast of fire the flaming breath and the great tempest and fell with violence on the great multitude which was prepared to fight and burnt them up every one so that of a sudden of an innumerable multitude nothing was to be perceived but onely dust and smell of smoke Which is afterwards interpreted ver 38. And he shall destroy them without labour by the Law which is like unto Fire By this we may know what is meant by If any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed And it was the word of the Lord to Zerobabel who is alluded to in these Witnesses Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts So plain is it that the weapons Zechar. 4. 6. of the Two Witnesses in the time of their mournful Prophecy are onely Spiritual Which is a thing worthy the noting and seriously considering Ver. VI. These have power to shut Heaven that it rain not in the daies of their Prophecy and have power over waters to turn them into bloud and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they please In the days of their Prophecy that is to say of their mournfull Prophecy or in the days of their prophesying in sackcloth as is plainly to be understood out of the third verse It is a manifest Allusion to Elias his hindering it from raining in Ahab's time for three years and six months which is exactly the time of the Prophecy of these Witnesses namely 1260 days But the meaning must needs be more mysticall these days signifying years Wherefore by Rain is meant the distilling of that pure refreshing Doctrine of the Gospel unadulterated by the false Glosses of men which Heavenly drops descend not during the mournfull Prophecy of the Witnesses But this shutting up Heaven thus is ascribed to them not that they positively hinder the descent of this celestial dew but by a Metalepsis such as I have already observed in the Rider of the red Horse to whom power is said to be given to take peace from the Earth and that Apocal. 6. 4. there was given unto him a great sword whenas yet there is no more understood by it then that in his time there would be much killing one another So that the Effect is put upon the Sign when such a thing should be as in that vulgar verse Pallida Luna pluit rubicunda flat alba serenat 2. This is one warrantable sense and yet there is still a better If this shutting up of Heaven be attributed unto these two mournfull Witnesses not by a bare Metalepsis onely but by a Zoopoeia of the second sort such as I have above described wherein though the party to whom the Effects be attributed does not use any activity to produce them yet in some sense he has a causal Influence upon them as the absent Sun may be said to be the cause of Night and of all the Villainies committed under her shelter So the suppression and putting out of place these Witnesses is the cause of the shutting up of Heaven and of the scarcity of the pure Word amongst the people but cannot be attributed to the Witnesses themselves but onely by a Metalepsis or rather a Zoopoeia 3. According to which the turning water into bloud and the smiting the Earth with all plagues as often as they please is attributed to them namely by a Zoopoeia though they have no positive activity therein no more then the Sun in all the Murthers and Adulteries that are committed by his absence in the covert and concealment of the shady Night And therefore whereas it is added as often as they will it is but the height and sublimity of this Scheme and signifies no more then as often as opportunities are offered for such effects upon which the mournfull condition of these Witnesses have a consequentiall Influence though not an active And Will is attributed to them with as much reason and elegancy as the Activity it self and indeed according to necessary Analogie those occasional Consequences answering exactly to the occasional exertions of the Acts of the Will in him that is said properly to act and not by a Zoopoeia The Allusion is to Moses his smiting the Land of Aegypt with those ten Plagues The inflicting of which in a Mystery is ascribed to these two Witnesses while they are in this debased and dejected plight The sense therefore in brief is this That the Roman Empire in which is this Spiritual Aegypt that holds the people of God in bondage whether the Waters thereof be turned into Bloud by intestine warrs and broils or whether it no somely abound with Frogs that is with slimy salacious and venereous persons or be full of lazy and Lousy beggars a sordid and squalid poverty over-running the generality of men by reason of either the Oppression or ill Discipline of them that are in Power or men be infested and disquieted with the importunate Incursions of swarms of Gnats and Flies that is to say with the Numerosity of Superstitious Scrupulosities and vexatious Controversies of Polemical Theologie that sting and bite and disturb the minds and consciences of men to no purpose but for affliction and inquietude or the Beasts which the Platonists call our Bodies be plagued with Murrain that is be charged with foulness and corruption and with the noisom poison of the deadly sins or that the Multitude be unquiet as if enraged with angry Boils and Ulcers or the barbarous Nations from the North invade the Empire like a violent storm of Hail-stones or the Turk and Saracen from
this Succession 12. That the little Horn does of necessity appertain to the Roman Kingdom become Ten-horned and Pagane-Christian at once 13. That it is of equal duration with the Whore and Two-horned Beast and at least coincident in time with them and the Beast restored 14. From which Equality and Coincidence he is discovered to be the Whore or Two-horned Beast 15. That the Patriarch of Rome is more especially concerned in this Type 16. The exquisite Applicability of the Characters of this Horn to the said Patriarch 17. The Application of those Characters that more particularly concern his opposing the Regal Office of Christ. 1. THat Prophecy also in Daniel of the little Horn that is said to change times and laws is an express Prediction of that Antichristian Opposition which is against the Regal Office of Christ. For that this little Horn is the same with the Two-horned Beast or the Whore in the Apocalyps I think no man will scruple that considers that this Horn is part of the Roman Kingdom which is decyphered by Ten Horns and that it belongs to that time when the Kingdom is actually Ten-horned which is not in succession but together as the Ten toes of the Statue which answer to these Ten horns do not signify the succession of Ten Kings but Ten Kings ranked in the same time as the Toes of the feet of the Image which have not properly a precedency but rather a co-ordination in Site 2. Now that the Fourth Kingdom which is prefigured by the iron leggs feet and ten toes of the Image and by the Beast with Iron teeth and ten Dan. 2. Horns is not that of the Lagidae and Seleucidae as Grotius would have it but the Kingdom of the Romans there are these weighty Reasons to convince us First It is the universal sense of all Ecclesiastick Writers That the Fourth Beast is the Roman Empire as both Cornelius à Lapide and Caspar Sanctius both of them Jesuites yet do roundly assort The words of the latter are these Est ergò omnium sententiâ innominata has atque â—…rribilis bellu a Romanum Imperium neque necesse est quonquam nominare cùm nemo non dicat 3. Secondly That it cannot be the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae as Grotius would bear us in hand in which odd conceit of his he forsakes the judgment of the whole Church of Christ to follow Porphyrius his who was a sworn Enemie to the Christian Religion appears from what is said Daniel 7. 23. The Fourth Beast shall be the Fourth Kingdom upon Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod majus erit omnibus regnis Which shall be greater then all Kingdoms so the vulgar Latine and Vatablus The Seventy also render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it agrees best with what follows and shall devour the whole Earth which must be understood in such a sense as Earth was before and shall tread it down and break it in pieces Which it could not be said to doe unless it were so great a Kingdom as is here intimated Now it is manifest that the Kingdom of the Seleucidae and Lagidae was neither greater more excellent nor a more victorious Kingdom then any of the three preceding namely the Babylonian Persian and that of Alexander the Great from whose Kingdom they would make this of the Seleucidae and Lagidae distinct Wherefore their Kingdom cannot be this Fourth This Inference is so plain to Gaspar Sanctius that he does though but justly yet very severely chastise Porphyrius for this errour which Grotius has so unluckily taken up For he breaks out into these words upon this Text Vide Porphyrii stuporem oscitantiam in cujus mentem venire potuit ut existimaverit regnum eorum qui Alexandro successere omnium esse maximum quódque omnem terram sibi subjecerit conculcaveritque cùm reliquis regnis longè fuerit infirmius ab omnibus concisum aut malè vexatum Nay the very Prophecy it self makes the Kingdom of the Successours of Alexander less then his in power and greatness Dan. 8. 22. where it is said that four Kingdoms shall stand up but not in the power of Alexander Which is they shall be inferiour to him Which questionless is meant of them joyntly it being a needless intimation of them single 4. Thirdly The Kingdom of the Iron leggs and toes and of the Ten-horned Beast with iron teeth are one and the same Kingdom according to Grotius his own acknowledgment which he makes that of the Seleucidae and Lagidae Now it is said that a Stone cut out of a Mountain without hands should break in pieces these leggs and toes Dan. 2. nay the whole Image of iron brass silver and gold and so succeed this Kingdom of the Seleucidae according to his sense of the Vision And Chap. 7. One like the Son of man in the clouds of Heaven comes to receive a Kingdom namely upon the destruction of Antiochus Epiphanes that little Horn amongst the ten in this fourth Kingdom of Grotius his framing of whom it is said at the 21. verse I beheld and the same Horn made warre with the Saints and prevailed against them untill the Ancient of days came and judgment was given to the Saints of the most High Which is the same with the Son of man his coming in the clouds of Heaven to receive the Kingdom of the Ancient of days ver 13. And both agree with the Stone cut out without hands to shew it is not the work of man but of the Ancient of days God himself and that this is indeed the very Kingdom of Christ as Interpreters ever have expounded it Which is a perfect contradiction to Grotius his dream That the Fourth Beast with iron teeth and the iron leggs of the Image denote the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae and that Antiochus is this little Horn. For Antiochus Epiphanes was dead almost two hundred years before Christ so much as preached the Doctrine of the Kingdom or had any Disciples to follow him and yet it is said Dan. 2. 44. And in the days of these Kingdoms shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed From which passage I doubt not but that phrase The Kingdom of God as also from that above The Kingdom of Heaven does so often occurre in the Gospel as also that Title which Christ so often gives himself of the Son of man And Grotius himself upon Matthew Ch. 8. 20. acknowledgeth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of man mentioned Dan. 7. 13. is to be understood of the Messias Wherefore it is impossible that the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae should be the Fourth Kingdom 5. But here Grotius contrary to his judgment when he wrote upon Matthew has found a device which is scarce to be uttered without horrour and astonishment So that I am infinitely amazed that a man otherwise so learned and laudable as he speaks of Porphyrius should be
miss-led into so bad an adventure The Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven according to him is Populus Romanus nullum intra se habens regem When our Saviour Christ intimated to the high Priest that he was that Son of man that should come in the clouds of Heaven it seem'd so high an Arrogation that he rent his clothes and said he had spoken blasphemie And truly I think that neither Jew nor Christian can well acquit Grotius of that crime who attributes that which is the peculiar character of the Messias to a Prophane and Pagan people and that forsooth because they had no King as if they were ever the better for that But they had Kings at first and both in the Infancy of their Empire and afterwards they had a Supreme Power so great and imperial as may excuse them from the least shew of Contempt They had always over them a Sovereignty so that they could not be deemed the Son of man for any such private condition For the Summa Potestas is the Summa Potestas under what name or form soever and of the same real grandeur Besides that they were a most glorious and victorious people before Antiochus his time So that it is a very dilute and sapless conceit of Grotius to apply the phrase of the Son of man to them for any inconsiderableness in them or obscurity For they were not so in the times of Antiochus 6. Again the Kingdom of the Son of man and the Stone cut out without hands are all one both in truth and according to Grotius his own Concession But this Stone is Christ and his Kingdom as being Heavenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing erected not by humane power but by the power and Spirit of God That this is the meaning of without hands is the general vote of Interpreters S. Jerom Irenaus Justin Epiphanius S. Augustin Theodoret and several others Where think you does Grotius take shelter now Why This Figure which is so appropriate to Christ and mentioned of him so often in the New Testament This Stone must be cast away as if it were neither precious nor a Corner-stone and be bestowed again on a Pagan people the Romans For so Grotius does not stick to profess Idem Lapis Filius hominis and he made the Son of man before the people of Rome But can a man believe that the Original or Success of that people was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing brought to pass by the special power and Spirit of God and not more humano according to the usual course of the World and that not of the best kind their beginnings being helped on by a rabble of Ruffians and Robbers 7. No but that is not Grotius his gloss you will say Let us therefore hear what it is Lapis abscissus de monte sine manibus according to him is Exercitus populi qui suae esset spontis nullique regi pareret cujus populi origo à monte nempe Palatino In which there is nothing sound nor solid For was this Roman Army any thing more suae spontis in that they had not a Kingly Government at Rome That Supreme Power of Consuls and Senatours was as directive and coactive as if it had been Regal So that the motion of this Army was never the more spontaneous for this Again The Stone cut from the mountain without hands implies that it was then spontaneously divided from the Mountain when it is said to be cut thence But when the Romans first issued from mount Palatine yea so soon as they were populus Romanus Regal Government was amongst them it being the first Government of this People and therefore they were not then Populus suae spontis according to Grotius his Conceit so that he cannot bring both ends together And lastly To interpret Mountain here in a literal sense is unskilfully done and not according to the analogy of the Prophetick style nor the very intimation of the present Text which says the Little stone became a great Mountain itself and filled the whole Earth Wherefore this Mountain signifying not literally but politically there is no question but the other does so too and that the Stone is in some sense homogeneall to this rocky Mountain Whence the sense is plainly this That out of the great Mountain that is the Roman Empire there should be a People raised not by humane power or policy but by the Spirit of God and the preaching of the Gospel by Jesus Christ and his Apostles which should be a peculiar people to him and become the Subjects of his Kingdom that is to say That the Church of Christ should be cut out of the Roman Empire without humane help This is a most easy and undistorted sense and against which there cannot be made the least Exception 8. Fourthly which I have already intimated above The Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast with iron teeth and the Ten toes of the iron leggs of the Statue signify the same thing Wherefore it is plain sith the Ten toes imply a Coexistence of the Ten Horns by reason of the coordination of their Site that there must be Ten Kings together in the Fourth Kingdom But in the Kingdom of the Seleucidae and Lagidae there were not Ten Kings together all at once Therefore that Kingdom is not the Fourth 9. Fifthly Antiochus Epiphanes part of this Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae is said to rise up in the latter time of the Kingdom of the Successours of Alexander Dan. 8. 22 23. Wherefore this Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae has expired near two thousand years ago But the Kingdom of the Fourth Beast reaches even to the Day of Judgment Dan. 7. 9 10. And I beheld till the thrones were cast down and the ancient of days did sit His throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as burning fire A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the Judgment was set and the Books were opened c. That this is the Description of the Day of Judgment is the general Opinion of both Christians and Jews and answers exactly to the Lake of fire and the opening of the Books Apocal. 20. which Grotius himself does interpret of the Last Day Whence we may safely conclude that the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae is not the Fourth Kingdom as having ceased so long before that time though we understood the Day of Judgment in the sense of the Rabbins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to which the meaning of I beheld till the thrones were set and the Books were opened is this That the Prophet Daniel had a prospect even to the utmost end of that great Day But he begins more particularly at the beginning of that Day in the eleventh verse But this I have onely noted by the bye 10. Sixthly and lastly Alexander's Kingdom and that of his Successours
And do they not make the Will of the Pope a Law Supremum Numen in terris at whose beck and nod all things are to be done right or wrong nay they cannot be wrong if he will have them Which is to make him have an heart like God indeed not onely an irresistible but infallible one Thus high has he clombe in the confidence of his own subtilty and policy But the terrible of the Nations shall draw their swords against the beauty of his wisdom and they shall defile his brightness saith the Prophet Which what it is in the literal sense is easy to understand and accordingly is applicable to the King of Tyre and may ex accidenti be also applicable to the destruction of Rome But it may also have a more Mystical sense And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they render robustos gentium may signify nothing else but the zealous and resolute Assertours and Abettours of Truth then which nothing is more robustious and strong Great is Truth and mighty above all things Esdras 4. These stout Champions therefore shall draw their swords against the beauty of his wisedom that is to say They shall use the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God even that Sword that comes out of his mouth that rides on the white Horse which is unsophisticated Reason and Scripture against the finely-wrought subtilties whether Scholastick or Politick and all the plausible and goodly fair pretences of the Pontifician wisedom and the Glory of the Gospel shall darken the Seat of the Beast as the Sun-shine obscures or puts out the light of every artificial Fire Thus shall the Pontifician Power perish from the midst of the Nations 6. And then as for that more then Imperial Majesty and Splendour in the Pope's Habiliments it is said of this King of Tyre Every precious stone was thy Covering the Sardius the Topaz and the Diamond so as it is said of the Whore of Babylon that she was decked with gold and precious stones and pearles Which Pontifician Power though it be prefigured by the image of a Woman in the Apocalyps the better to set out the Meretricious Mysteries of that Church yet the Haughtiness thereof and more particularly that of the Pope seems also to be typified in the King of Babylon For is it possible that any one should doubt but that Babylon being such an acknowledged Type of the Antichristian Church the Head of this Antichristian Church is likewise typified in the King of Babylon 7. Let us hear therefore what Esay saith of this exalted Potentate in the fourteenth Chapter Verse 12. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer son of the Morning how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the Nations 13. For thou hast said in thy heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North. How every Nation is weakened by the power of the Pope we have adumbrated in our Idea of Antichristianism His ascending into Heaven stylo Prophetico and his exalting himself above the Stars of God which is the Stars of the greatest magnitude in this Heaven is as much as his clambering into Imperial Power and his advancing himself above all the Kings and Princes of the Roman Empire His sitting upon the Mount of the Congregation is his sitting in the Temple of God So that there seems to be a double Allusion both to the Mount of the Temple of God at Jerusalem and to the Mountains or if you will some one peculiar Mountain at Rome which is the chief City of the Church of Christ. This sitting upon this Mount of the Congregation or the Church of God is marvellously coincident with that Prophecy of his sitting in the Temple of God Nor is In the sides of the North put in for nothing though a thing of little moment in the letter for it seems to foretell that the Dominion of the Pope was to spread more notoriously Northward and we know he could never make any great business of the Southern Churches the African ever resisting him very stoutly Besides other considerations which for brevity I omit Ver. 14. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will be like the most High That is to say I will be above all Rule and Dominion I will be absolute uncontrollable infallible as God 15. Yet thou shalt be brought down to Hell to the sides of the pit 16. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee saying Is this the man that made the Earth to tremble that did shake the Kingdoms The meaning is Is this the man that did terrifie the world with his dreadful Thunder-claps of Excommunication and by the great Interest he had in the Princes of the Empire and by the power of his Clergy could unhindge and dissettle Principalities and Kingdoms by reason of the blindness and Superstition of the People 17. That made the world as a Wilderness and destroyed the Cities thereof that opened not the house of his Prisoners That is to say That filled the Empire with intestine Warres by his wicked Incendiaries and so brought great depopulations and destructions upon Cities rather then he would let goe those that he held captive in this Babylonish or Aegyptian Slavery Many of whom were most barbarously abused in the close Prisons of the Inquisition and treated with such Cruelty as exceeds all the Tragick stories of the bloudy and persecutive Infidels 18. All the Kings of the Nations even all of them lie in glory every one in his own house That is The Dynasties or Polities of the Nations the Secular Kingdomes and Powers have and shall expire with glory in comparison of thee and have an honourable Burial and Memorial 19. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch as a carkass troden under foot The meaning is That the Pontifician Power shall not expire with any honour at all but the very Memorial thereof shall be abominable and execrable it shall not have that Kingly Burial whose dead Bodies were embalmed with Aromatick odours and Sepulchres adorned with goodly and splendid Artifice but shall be as a stinking Carkass cast into the high-way that offends the eyes and nostrills of every one that passes by So unsavoury a stench shall arise from the Records of this bloudy and Idolatrous Antichristian Polity as is intimated in this last verse Ver. 20. Thou shalt not be joyned with them in Burial because thou hast destroyed thy Land and slain thy People See Homily against Rebellion part 〈◊〉 6. That is to say As thou art a Power distinct from that of the Secular Powers and Potentates of the Earth so thy Fate shall be distinct and singular for thy Memorial shall be accursed and thy Name an hissing to Posterity And the reason is also singular Because thou hast destroyed thy Land and slain
thy People that is Because whereas thou pretendest to be the Vicar of Christ the Bridegroom of the Church the Father of Christendome Universal Pastour of the Flock thou hast played the bloudy Butcher the Thief and Robber to forage in the Empire to eat and grow fat accordingly as it is written The Thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy which thou hast enormously done since thy usurpation in the House of God filling the Empire with intestine Broils Massacres Martyrdomes with Fire and Faggot with Racks and Tortures and all manner of Cruelties and this upon thine own Land and People that is to say upon Christians over whom thou pretendest to be Head nay the ghostly Father and tender Protectour of them Wherefore as thine Outrages have been singular thy Destruction shall be proportionable and thine End execrable and the stench of thy Memory shall fume up into the nostrills of all Posterities for ever and ever The reason of this dreadful End of the King of Babylon is the very same with that of the burning of the Queen of Babylon or the Whore for they are Types of one and the same thing And in her was found the bloud of Apoc. 18. 24. Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth And truly that last Clause of the Prophecy of the King of Babylon is so proper to the Papal Power that it belongs to it onely and not to the King of Babylon Which is a special pledge and assurance of this higher and more concerning sense of this Prophecy 10. The height of the Papal power above that of the Emperour is also prefigured in the Whore's riding of the Beast For certainly the Rider is superiour to the Beast that is ridden And it is expresly said of the Two-horned Beast the same with the Whore That he exerciseth all the power of the first Beast before him To these you may adde that Prediction in Daniel Ch. 7. 24. And another King shall arise after them which I have above shewed to be the Pope and he shall be diverse from the first and he shall subdue three Kings And he shall speak great words against the most High and shall wear out the Saints of the most High and think to change times and laws Which words plainly imply that extravagant Power that the Pope was to assume to himself as is easily understood out of what we have already said upon this Text. 11. And lastly It seems to me also to be very clear that this enormous Pride of the Pope is prefigured again in Daniel Ch. 11. 36 37. Of which two verses I would make this brief Paraphrase 36. After the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes that Type of Antichrist and notorious Enemy of the People of God in the Greek Empire shall there arise a Rex Sacrorum or rather a Regal Pontifex if you will who with his formed Body Politick or Ecclesiastical Power shall prove the very Antichrist indeed answering in the Roman Empire to that wicked Antiochus in the Greek that immediately preceded it Which Ecclesiastick Prince or Pontifex finding the stream of Affairs and good Fortune to carry him along shall at last exalt himself above every God that is every Supreme Magistrate the Emperour himself not excepted nay shall speak stupendious words against the Sovereignty of God himself as if he had power to abrogate or dispense with the Laws of God and Christ and were himself Supremum Numen in terris Which Impieties he will prosperously carry on for such a time as Divine Providence will permit that is to say till the time and times and half a time be expired or at the last gasp 37. But yet he shall not be a pure Pagan for all this nor regard the Gods of his Ancestors or Predecessors that is of the Supreme Magistrates of Rome who reigned there a long time before him such Deities as Mars Neptune Jupiter Venus and the like But this shall be notable in him that he shall be outwardly a strict Processor of Coelibate himself and it shall be against his Pontifical Office to marry and likewife his Clergy shall be tied to the same Laws that he might thereby the better promote the Designs of his rampant and insatiable Ambition which spirit of Pride and Worldliness shall grow so rank in him that he shall in time cast off the real and sincere sense of all Religion and care for no God at all but magnifie himself above all 12. In the two following verses there is no need of varying from Mr. Mede's Interpretation For the sense as it respects these foregoing verses is onely this That by reason of this great Impiety and Irrligiousness of him or at least of his haughtiness and presumption against the known Laws of God he will for his own advantage set up the religious worship of Demons accordingly as we have above expounded it out of Mr. Mede CHAP. XVIII 1. That the truth of the fore-going Paraphrase may be assured out of Saint Paul's Prophecy of the Man of Sin The three first verses thereof interpreted Ver. 4. Wherein this Man of Sin exalteth himself above all that is called God and what it is to shew himself to be God Ver. 5. The meaning of to be revealed in his time and what that is that withstandeth Ver. 7. The Mystery of Iniquity doth already work how to be understood and who thâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 8. What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what the meaning and manner of his destruction with an intimation of the exquisite Applicability of this Prophecy to the Papal Power and Imposture 2. A short Parallel betwixt the little Horn in Daniel and this Son of Perdition 1. THat this is one assured sense of these two verses of Daniel that Prophecy in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians will more fully evidence which has so great affinity with this that I do not doubt but it points at the same enormous power of this Roman Patriarch and his Clergy with it and is in a manner a Transcript from it 1. Now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thess 2. and by our gathering together to him which I mentioned in my * 1 Thess. 4. 17. former Epistle 2. That you be not soon shaken in minde or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as from us as if we had prophesied spoke or wrote any thing by letter no not in that former to you that could be rightly interpreted to any such sense as that the Day of Christ is at hand 3. Let no man deceive you by any means either by pretence of Inspiration or by Scripture or by mis-interpreting any Letter of mine For that day shall not come except there come a falling away first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before that eminent Apostasy come for so Alcazar interprets the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
S. Paul declare it to them they would ever be drawn to be accessary thereto by breaking off this compliance which was so strong a bank against the inundation of Gnosticism and Persecution of the Church And touching the fifth There is somewhat the like exception that was against Grotius his Exposition that seems to make any thing concealed a Mystery which is a false notion of the word For an open and plain Opposition or Renunciation of Christianity intended but concealed which is the supposed case here is no more a Mystery then hidden Murther and Adultery as I said before 6. And as for the sixth and last It seems somewhat harsh and strained to understand that execution that is done by the Spirit of the mouth of the Lord to appertain to Simon Magus at Rome and that destruction wrought by the brightness of his coming to belong to the Gnosticks involved in the destruction at Jerusalem especially if we consider that there was no Coalition of Simon Magus and the Gnosticks into one Body Politick but that they seemed rather to descend from the Nicolaitans as Baronius intimates and so have no reference one to another Besides that the Text says continuedly Whem the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming Which is nothing else but the bright flame and fiery Spirit issuing out of his mouth according to that description in Esdras and upon one and the same Object which is this Man of Sin the same with the little Horn in Daniel which is after this manner to be destroyed 7. To all which you may adde That if the History of what is here applied be true and that the coming of the Lord be to be understood of the destruction of Jerusalem and not of the last Judgment it is a wonderfull thing that the first Fathers of the Church who had a nearer prospect into those â—…ansactions of the world could not discern the Completion of the Prophecy in Simon Magus and the Gnosticks but that we that stand at the farthest distance from the events should be the quickest-sighted in discerning their Applicability to the Prophecy But I have already intimated enough to shew the improbability that this should be the main meaning of this Prediction of S. Paul But if I could believe that the condition of Simon and the Gnosticks was in some sense here perstringed as I must confess this pious and judicious Interpreter has bid very fair towards the Credibility of it I should look upon them as a preludious Type to the great Antichrist and should think that passage For the Mystery of Iniquity does already work to be understood of them as it may though the rest of the Prophecy be in many things unapplicable to Simon and belong onely to the great Antichrist indeed of whom this Magician may be onely a Type or Figure and truly not an unsignificant one For as he is a Magician so is that great Antichrist an egregious Sorcerer and the Head of a numerous Society of Sorcerers and Enchanters Again As Simon gave the name and first example of that wicked fin of Simonie so these pretended Successours of Peter both they and their Body Ecclesiastick have notoriously imitated that example of Simon in buying and selling Spiritualities Thirdly Part of Simon 's and the Gnosticks Apostasy was Judaizing while they made a show of Christianity And how much Antichrist with his Adherents do Judaize in Ceremonies and in boasting of Works and dead Formalities is conspicuous to all the world Fourthly Simon and the Gnosticks were notorious for filthiness and uncleanness And so has been the great Antichristian Synagogue Head and Members Fifthly Though Simon and the Gnosticks were thus grosly obnoxious in life and conversation yet they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extraordinary pretenders to and boasters of the certainty of their Knowledge in the Divinest matters and great esteemers thereof And is not this the special Character of the Pope and his Church that they pretend to be even infallibly wise and accurately orthodox in knowledge and opinion but are as foully negligent and as scandalonsly conniving at all debaucheries of life Sixthly Simon and the Gnosticks were opposers and persecuters of the true Church So is the Papal Hierarchy with the Instruments thereof Seventhly The Followers of Simon polluted themselves with Idols And so doe the Adherers to the Headship of Rome Eighthly and lastly Simon exalted himself above every thing that is called God and received Divine Honours in his own Person upon Earth Which is also notorious in the Roman Bishop So that while such things as these were acting in the world and by such as made some show of Christianity S. Paul might well say of that great Mystery of Iniquity That it is already on foot that it is in some sense acting already namely in Simon and his Followers as a Type and Prelude to the strange pranks of the great Antichrist and that there wants nothing but the removing of that great Obstacle at Rome the Western Caesareate and then that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself that great Antichrist indeed will shew himself of whom Simon is but the Figure See Ch. 18. Ver. 7. This Exposition is something more plausible then that there of Alcazar who understands the Mystery of Iniquity already working of pure Paganism but whether it may be the chiefest of all I leave to the judicious to consider In the mean time I think I have sufficiently cleared the truth of those main Prophecies in Scripture that concern the enormous Haughtiness and Pride of Antichrist which is so apparently opposite to the first branch of the Divine life Humility and Lowliness of Spirit 8. The next is Purity whose Opposite is Uncleanness The Predictions of the Causes that carry to that Vice I have touched already But as for the Vice it self it being so inseparable a Concomitant of Idolatry which is Spiritual Adultery or Fornication I conceive the Spirit of Prophecy for that very reason was the more sparing in particular Prefigurations or Predictions thereof But I do not doubt but that it is concerned in that description of the great City Apocal. 11. And their bodies shall lie in the street of the great City which is spiritually called Sodom c. And how unclean a City Sodom was no man can be ignorant of Again those that are excluded out of the Holy City which is so perfectly opposite to this City called Sodom they are called Dogs and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abominable by which as I have above noted out of Grotius are understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abusers of themselves with Man-kind Whoremongers also are named in the same Catalogue But of these Texts I have spoke sufficiently in my Idea of Antichristianism In that the Church is said to become a * Apocal. 12. Wilderness it may be also an Intimation of the excess of those Actions of the Animal life that proceed from Cruelty
man But there is no numbering of one Number given but by extracting of the Root 10. Wherefore as the Square-Root of 36. may rightly be conceived to detect that that famed Tetractys had a relation to the Hexameron of Moses and signified that every Day 's Creation had its Foeminine Principle as well as Masculine the First it self not excepted which is consonant to that Aphorism of the Jews Nulla virtus divina descendit sine indumento and to Moses his assimilating the First Day 's Creation to Light so the Square-Root of this Number of the Beast may also detect to whom this Vision of the Two-horned Beast doth belong And I have already shewed in my Mystery of Godliness that the Root of this Number is 25 and that Book 5. Ch. 16. Sect. 8. it does plainly agree with several substantial Observables concerning the Church of Rome and their City and that in a perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 12 which is the Root of 144 the number of the Regiments that appear with the Lamb on Mount Sion Which things being sufficiently cleared in the said Treatise and may be more copiously understood out of Mr. Potter I shall spare to speak any thing farther of them in this place but wholly remit the Reader thither for satisfaction 11. In the mean time I will not stick to conclude that it is apparent Paral. 2. Agr. 9. partly from what I have delivered there and partly from what is added in this place That the Seat as well of the Two-horned Beast as of the Whore is at last in their respective Visions determined to Old Rome as being the most permanent and conspicuous Residence of the Apostatized Priesthood and such as by being so notorious an Instance of this Wickedness becomes a Measure and Rule of comparing and judging of the greatness of the Apostasy of other Churches by their nearer accession and agreement to this Queen of Harlots And therefore by intimating the Name Number and Seat of this chief part of the Apostatized Clergy it gives us the clear knowledge and fast apprehension of the whole corrupted Body and all the parts thereof where-ever and how long soever they be found within the Boundaries of the Roman Empire But when once they are swallowed up and washed off by some extraneous Power and fall under the Jurisdiction of some other Empire I must confess though we may judge these too by this measure I do not see how they then can so well be concerned or aimed at in these two Prophecies both the Two-horned Beast and the Whore being look'd upon as Riders and Guiders of the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns and therefore supposed within the Roman Empire Which is a plain cause why these Prophecies have laid so fast hold on the Church of Rome in the conclusion of them as if she were in a manner solely concerned For it was fit so to doe by reason of her Permanency in Duration as well as Eminency in wickedness Which may be one reason also why this body of the adulterate Clergy is called the Beast with two Horns because all those Patriarchates annumerated to the Greek Church were betimes swept away a new Empire overflowing them whenas the Patriarchate of Constantinople was free from this inundation till about two hundred years ago So faithful is the Spirit of Prophecy in the Prefiguration of Events as he may easily see that pleases to consult History In the mean time as I said it is manifest enough that the Seat as well of the Whore as the Two-horned Beast in each Vision is determined to Old Rome Which is the last Agreement of our first Parallelism 12. As the last of our second is That the Seat of the Seven-headed Par. 2. Agr. 1â—… Beast is left free in either Vision and not fixt to any Metropolis Indeed the Seven Heads of the Beast being also interpreted of the Seven Hills of Rome it is apparent that the Beast has some relation to that place and must have some Title or denomination from that City else why should the Beast's Heads have any thing to doe to typifie those Seven Hills But the Prophecy as it were datâ operâ declining the fixing the Imperial Seat of the Seven-headed Beast bestows that Privilege on the Whore assigns her the Seven-Hilled seat saying The seven Heads are seven Hills where the Whore sitteth Which is admirably agreeable to the event For indeed Rome has been the constant See of the Whore but the Seat of the Seven-headed Beast has been very changeable some time at Rome then at Constantinople and lastly in Germany 13. And thus we have seen the exquisite Congruity and Coincidence of all the parts of the Visions of these Thirteenth and Seventeenth Chapters one with another which though they be so accurately correspondent yet I must confess not altogether so adequately but that the Vision of the Whore bears a more press and close respect to the Church of Rome all along and besides the plain designment of her Seat which is common to both her gorgeous attire and bloud-thirstiness or rather her being so lavishly bloud-drunk as she is described seems to appropriate the Vision more peculiarly to her then the Greek Church Which Drunkenness as well as Gorgeousness of Apparrel though it be not all along the reign of the Whore yet according to the nature of these Prophetick Figures which exhibit the whole Succession of affairs under one joint show they were without any discrimination to be represented at once Which Consideration may take off any the like scruple in these Prophetick Schemes and Representations For what was done but for a while adorns those Images as much as what is permanent there being no mention of Succession of time but all represented at once 14. And therefore though that Inscription Mysterium upon the Pope's Crown which was questionless in imitation of the Inscription on Aaron's Mitre all his vestments and ornaments being so industriously imitated in the Pontifical Habiliments be now turned into Julius Pontifex Maximus yet it is not the less probable that it was glanced at in this Description of the Whore The truth of which Story Bishop Dounham does assert with all imaginable confidence Quod autem ait in fronte Meretricis De Antichristo lib. 1. cap. 7. scriptum fuisse nomen Mysterium id in Romano Pontifice completum esse pro comperto habemus Which passage is so confessed a truth that Lessius in his Answer to King James could not deny it Wherefore as our Saviour Christ's uttering that first verse of the twenty second Psalm My God my God why hast thou forsaken me intimated to the world that the whole Psalm was a Prophecy of his Passion so this first word of the Name of the Whore of Babylon on the Papal Tiara was an indication that the whole Name or Title belonged to the Pope with his Clergy and that they are this Great Whore that has made drunk the
Inhabitants of the Earth with the cup of her Fornication This Inscription on the Pope's Crown and the chusing of a Woman-Pope who besides other feats betrai'd herself to be a Whore by falling into labour in the streets of Rome at a solemn Procession and did therein by a palpable Hieroglyphick insinuate to the world that Rome was indeed the Seat of that great Apocalyptick Strumpet are two notorious Specimens of that Jocantry and Festivity as I may so speak that is sometimes observable in Divine Providence answerable to that Ludibundness in Nature in her Gamaieu's and such like sportful and ludicrous Productions And verily this Accident of a Woman-Pope is as assured a truth as that of the Inscription if the Testimonies of above threescore Authors and that of the Romish Party may be thought sufficient to assure it All which are produced by Gabriel Powel in his Theological Disputations De Antichristo Lib. 1. cap. 28. Thes 7. But these things I was not hasty to interweave in my Exposition of these Chapters the contexture of things being abundantly clear and full and firm without them CHAP. XVI 1. What remains for the making up the fullest assurance that can be desired of the truth of our Joint-Exposition 2. That the Roman State from the beginning to the end is to be look'd upon as One Kingdom or Empire appears out of Florus 3. That there had been Five sorts of Supreme Magistrates in S. John's time in the Roman State Reges Consules Tribuni Consulares Decemviri Dictatores and that the Tribuni Plebis were no Supreme Power 4. Nor the Tribuni Militum simply so styled 5. But that the Decemviri and Tribuni Consulares were 6. As also the Dictators 7. That there had been no more then Five sorts of Supreme Governours in S. John's time and that the Interreges were not nor were at all reckoned by Historians a Supreme Government distinct from that of Kings 8. That the Triumviri Reipublicae constituendae was either a Scuffle and Confusion in the Roman State 9. Or else a formal Caesareate exercised by Augustus Lepidus and Antonius 10. That there is full and sufficient ground from Reason and History not to reckon the Triumvirate of constituting the Commonwealth a Sixth Form of Government distinct from Emperours and the Five fore-going Forms 11. That though there had been some other Forms truly distinct but yet of a near affinity with some of the other it had not been so harsh to have accounted them one with those they had that nearness with 12. But that there is a greater Exactness then this in the Application of this Vision and such as Scepticism it self can hardly doubt of 13. The Conclusion of the whole drift of the Chapter with a fuller enforcement of the truth thereof 1. I Have now finished my Joint-Exposition of these 17 th and 13 th Chapters of the Apocalyps saving that I am more fully to confirm that part concerning the Seven Heads being Seven sorts of Supreme Governours succeeding one another in the Empire as also more particularly to indigitate How exact an Image of the Beast that was slain the Revived Beast became in points of Superstition and Idolatry To which if I adde a solid confutation of Ribera's Interpretation of the Seven-headed Beast as also of Grotius his I think there will be nothing wanting to the greatest assurance of the truth of our Interpretation that any one can desire 2. In the first the Controversie is onely concerning the Six first Heads Whether from the Kings to the Pagan Emperours speaking inclusively there were Six Forms of Government and no more or if you will Whether there were just Five before the Roman Caesars That the Roman Kingdom or Empire is to be reckoned from their first Kings downwards I think no man will scruple nor that it is all along the same Beast as well as Florus considers it as one Man and distinguishes his Ages allotting the first 250 years from Romulus to the Infancy of the Roman People or Empire and then 200 years more to its Youth and then 250 years more which reached to Augustus his time to the Manly Age of the Empire but the next 200 years he calls Senectutem Imperii Which shews plainly that he looks upon the whole Succession as one and the same Empire though under several growths which yet was longer-lived a great deal then to be accounted old in Trajan's time Wherefore History it self looking upon the whole Succession of the Roman People as one Body Politick there can be no harshness at all in describing this Body by such a number of Heads as reached from the first beginning of this Succession to the last Period of the Empire 3. Five whereof had passed away in S. John's time and no more nor no fewer then Five as I come now to make good namely Kings Consuls Tribunes Decemviri and Dictators For the People of Rome had never any other Supreme Powers over them but these before their Caesars viz. Reges Consules Tribuni Consulares Decemviri Dictatores Of Kings and Consuls there is no controversy at all Now for these Tribuni Consulares they are so called to distinguish them from the Tribuni Plebis and the Tribuni Militum ordinarily so styled neither of which were the Supreme Powers of the Roman State or Empire For the Tribuni Plebis were rather Plebis then Populi Romani Magistratus And for those few years wherein they hindered the chusing of other Magistrates the City was look'd upon to have no Magistracy at all Quatuor annis sine Magistratibus Roma fuit saith Sextus Rufus of that time Which condition of the City Diodorus Siculus also calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that likewise of Marcus Varro in Gellius plainly shews that they could be no Supreme A. Gell. Noct. Attic. lib. 13. cap. 12. Power In Magistratu habent alii Vocationem alii Prensionem alii neutrum Vocationem ut Consules alii qui habent Imperium Prensionem ut Tribuni Plebis alii qui habent Viatorem Neque Vocationem neque Prensionem ut Quaestores caeteri qui neque Lictorem habent neque Viatorem Where it is plain that the Tribuni Plebis are reckoned amongst them qui non habent imperium and therefore are no Supreme Powers 4. No more are the Tribuni Militum simply so styled as appears out of that of Livy Disciplinâ enim militari miles Centurionis Centurio Liv. lib. 8. Tribuni Tribunus Legati Legatus Consulis paret imperio But the Tribuni Militum Consulari potestate are those Tribuni Consulares which I have already named Of which Fenestella Penes quem sanè Magistratum De Magistr Roman c. 16. ut ipsum nomen indicat eadem quae apud Consules potestas erat collata est nominibus tantùm immutatis ac Plebis ratione haberi â—…oeptâ 5. That the Decemviri was a Supreme Power is plain out of Livy Anno trecentesimo altero quà m condita