To find out the mystery of the seven seals the seven Trumpets we must here again bring in that observation which we a little before made in the foregoing Ch. viz. that the Revelation contains enigmatically the Epitomy of the history of the fourth Monarchy that is to say of the Roman Empire a Monarchy which according to Daniel's Prophecy must last till the coming of the Kingdom of J. Christ on the Earth i. e. to the end of the reign of Antichrist It is clear that the Holy Spirit was to insist only on this fourth Monarchy without considering the other states Empires of the world because 't is that only that Daniel spoke of after the three first Beasts whose reign was certainly past in St. John's time Moreover 't is under this fourth Monarchy in the extent of its dominions that the Christian Church hath receiv'd its seat its rule That Christianity that is found beyond the extent of the Roman Empire is almost nothing And therfore 't is that the Counsells which were assembled from the several parts of the Roman Empire are called Oecumenical as representing the Universal Church Now 't is certain that all the Prophecies have a Mediate or an immediate Relation to the Church So that they ought to insist only on those states in which the Church hath been nourisht brought up There is a third Reason why these Prophecies cannot be understood but of the Roman Empire viz. because the reign of Antichrist which is the greatest affair that happens in the Church which must happen there was to make a part a continuation of this Roman Empire For Antichristianism is the Roman Empire continued This principle which I was willing to repeat here because of its importance will serve to answer those that say to us How know you that the Prophecies of the Revelation do not refer to China or Tartary This objection doth not seem to me to be worthy of understanding persons This being supposed that the Revelation enigmatically contains the history of the Roman Empire continued The principal Catastrophes happening in the Roman Empire are istinctly noted in the Revelation it must also be necessarily supposed that principal great Changes that happened in this Empire are described in large Characters with some note of distinction in the Revelation Otherwise the H. Spirit would not act according to his profound wisdom if in making a history of an Empire he should omit to mark the great Catastrophes that are to happen therin or if he should hide them make them to pass without any character of distinction among the other less events We must therfore consider what are the principal events that have happen'd in the Roman Empire See here they are 1. The fall of Paganism when the Roman Emperours became Christians This is so great an affair that 't is impossible to suppose that the Holy Spirit should have taken no notice of it 2. The fall of the Temporal Roman Empire when 't was divided into ten Kingdoms 3. The erecting a new Roman Empire or rather the continuation of the same under the rule of Antichrist 4. The Birth of the Saracen Empire by the Arabians that come to afflict the Roman Empire in its Eastern branch i.e. the Empire of Constantinople 5. The power of the Turks that come to finish the destruction of the Greek branch of the Roman Empire to lay desolate the Latin Empire See the five great events that have changed the face of the word of the Empire Wherefore I am perswaded these must be found in the Revelation with Characters of distinction Let us suppose therefore that in all the places where there is a notable distinction there we must find one of these notable events The First distinction is found at the end of the sixth seal After the opening this seal there happens a great Earthquake the sun is eclypsed the moon becomes red as blood the stars fall Afterwards the vision of the seals is interrupted by a new vision that comes between in which an Angel marks the elect among the twelve Tribes twelve thousand of every Tribe After which the Holy Spirit returns to the seventh seal under which nothing is done besides the distribution of the seven Trumpets to seven Angells that must sound the successively 'T is clear this is an Epocha a point on which the H. Spirit would have our thoughts to dwell This first Character of distinction must to all appearance be affixed to the first distinct event that happens in the Roman Empire that is the fall of Paganism So that in the opening of the sixth seal we must find the fall of the Pagan Religion The Second very observable distinction is found at the fourth Trumpet There the third part of the sun is in like mannereclypsed the moon the stars suffer the like diminution in their light After which the process of the Trumpets is interrupted by a new Vision viz. that of an Angel that flies in the midst of heaven cries three time Wo to the inhabitants of the Earth because of the three last Trumpets which are yet to sound This is an evident distinction this second distinction must signify to us the second distinct event in the Roman Empire viz. its fall division among ten Kings which came to pass after Valentinian the 3d. in the middle of the fifth Age. The making a new Vision a new Angel crying Wo there times go before the sounding the 5th Trumpet is also a mark of distinction for that 5th Trumpet which signifies to us that 't is an event greatly distinguisht in the history of the Roman Empire And this third distinction can't be applied to any thing but the third notable event that befalls the Roman Empire viz. the Birth of the Saracen Empire by Mahomet his Successors that did so cruelly afflict the Roman Empire in the Empire of Constantinople which was the greatest the most noble part of these ten into which this Empire was divided The Empire of the Turks at the bottom is but a branch of the Arabian Saracen Empire Wherfore it doth not deserve so great a distinction as the other great events of which we have just now spoken And yet the H. Spirit is content to distinguish it by a very long description The fifth sixth Trumpet contain an entire Chapter whereas the four first Trumpets were finisht in 6. or 7. verses which signifies that this fifth and sixth Trumpet must be concerning great Affairs and Evils of a long duration As for that great Event which was to happen in the Roman Empire which wereckon'd for the third viz. the Erection of a new Roman Empire or the continuation of the same Empire under the new Name of the Pope and the Roman Church 't is so great an Affair that the Holy Spirit would not bring it into the first part of the Revelation He hath reserved it to make it the Subject
the Earth v. 11. and he had two horns like a Lamb and he spake as a Dragon The second Beast hath two hoths In the fore-going vision the Holy Spirit represented the fourth Monarchy in its two Periods and its whole extent by only one Beast We have seen more-than once that this Monarchy hath two periods very near of the same duration The first is from the birth of Rome to the ruin of the Imperial dignity and the division of the Empire into ten Kingdoms The second from the destruction of the Imperial dignity to the entire ruin of the Roman Church 'T is this second period which the Prophet here represents under the image of a second Beast 'T is another Beast because it is another name another sort of Empire an Empire hidden under the name of the Church 'T is a matter that begins again all anew As the City of Rome in its birth was little insensible a small matter in a word during two or three ages so this new Roman Empire that was to be brought forth again was to commence also from weak beginnings and to be but a very little thing for some ages As this later period of the fourth Monarch was to last as long as the other and was to have a form wholly different from it it deserved to be called another beast This second Beast ascends out the Earth and not out of the Sea. 'T is the same Beast that is spoken of in the eleventh Chapter that it ascends out of the bottomless pit that is to say from Hell. The one hinders not the other The Papism comes from Hell but not by the same means as the first beast did These two Empires come not from the same place The first Empire springs from the people and their ambition The second Empire proceeds from the Clergy and their ambition It springs from the Earth as a plant that shoots out small and becomes great insensibly without effusion of blood and without spoil He had two horns like a Lamb. The Roman Church calls her self the Spouse of the Lamb usurps his power the name of Jesus Christ is always in her mouth and if she may be believed she doth but exercise the power of Jesus Christ that hath been lawfully conferred upon her Jesus Christ hath two powers in Heaven and in Earth All power is given me in Heaven and Earth saith he The Roman Church saith the same thing of her self She ascribes to her self the temporal power and the spiritual one He speaks as a Dragon For he utters blasphemies against God and terrible threatnings against his Children And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him v. 12. The Papism hath re-establisht all the authority of the ancient Emperours The Roman Church causes her self to be served by Kings She takes away their demeauss she disposes of their Crowns she draws tribute from them and exerciseth jurisdiction in all their States The first Beast that is to say the Roman Pagan Empire did no more in the countries that were subject to it And causeth the Earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first Beast Raising up in her self the power of the ancient Empire she makes that ancient Empire be raised up again under a new name viz. that of the Roman Church be adored and served v. 13. And he doth great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on Earth in the sight of men We shall have occasion to observe and prove several times hereafter as we have already done before that in the style of the Prophets Heaven when an Estate and an Empire is treated of always signifies the soveraign region of those dignities The Sun is the Soveraign the stars are the Grandees Here an Empire a State is treated of under the name of a Beast The Soveraign region of that State is the Heaven from that State falls fire that is to say thunders It can't be doubted but this is what the Roman Church it self calls thunders and thundring Bulls 'T is those decrees and those Papal Bulls which proceed from the Court of Rome These are no other than Past-board thunders and artificial fire-works However 't is known that they have set Kingdoms is a flame a hundred and a hundred times and have may times thought to set all Europe on Fire To this are added Signs that is to say prodigies of pride ambition madness policy carnal weapons and other means by which the Beast of Rome hath used to establish its dominion and subject Kings to its self This doth not exclude the false miracles which the Papism hath used to establish it self But as it is here consider'd much more as a Kingdom than as a Religion by these signs 't is much better to understand the wicked means it hath employed to establish its tyranny than the lying miracles which it used to establish its false mysteries And deceiveth them which dwell on the Earth by the means of those miracles That is to say v. 14. he induced them by all the ways of deceit and violence to do homage to him and submit themselves to his dominion Saying to them that dwell on the Earth that they should make an image to the beast v. 15. And he had power to give life unto 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 This here is an admirable place The Roman Church is an Empire However it is but an image of an Empire an imaginary Empire founded only on the deceived imagination of men They need but say NOT to destroy this Empire The reality of an Empire consists in citadells in fortresses in armies The Roman Church hath none of all this For the little armies that the Pope might raise is not that which secures his Empire 'T is not therfore a true Empire The Convents of the Monks are his Citadels The Monks are his Souldiers and Armies The Priests are his Emissaries The Bishops and Arch-Bishops are his Lievtenanis But all these are but images Nevertheless this image of an Empire speaks acts makes decrees raises all Europe and causes all those to be killed that will not pay it the like homage which was render'd to the ancient Roman Empire And he causeth all v. 16. both small and great c. to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads And that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark or the name of the Beast The Forehead is the seat of profession Thence it came that ancient Christians signified their profession of Christianity by a sign of the Cross on the forehead The Hand is the instrument of action The inhabitants of the Earth can neither buy nor sell under the dominion of the Papism that is to say partake of its favours and its riches unless they have the Profession of a Papist
which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified V. 9. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three dayes and a half and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put into graves V. 10. And they that dwell upon the Earth shall rejoyce over them and make merry and send gifts one to another because these two Prophets tormented them that dwelt upon the Earth V. 11. And after three days and an half the spirit of life from God entred into them and they stood upon their feet and great fear fell upon them which saw them V. 12. And they heard a great voyce from heaven saying unto them Come up hither and they ascended up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies beheld them V. 13. And the same hour was there a great earthquake and the tenth part of the City fell and in the earth-quake were slain of men seven thousand and the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to God. The Witnesses who prophecy cloathed in sackcloth are the faithful who preach under the Cross As to what concerns these two witnesses i.e. what is signified by them I have not changed my opinion since I wrote the book intitled Lawfull prejudices against popery Though as to all the rest the studious attention which I have used in reading these Prophecies hath given me quite different apprehensions I do therefore still believe that these two Witnesses who must prophesy 1260 days cloathed in sackcloth are the small number of the faithfull who during the reign of Antichristianism must keep themselves from its corruption and condemn its idolatries and tyranny God calls them witnesses because these are they who bore witness to the Truth which but for them would have been forgotten They prophesy cloathed in sackcloth i. e. they preach under the Cross For we must well observe that these two Phrases one used in our language the other in that of the Holy Ghost to prophesy cloathed in sackcloth and to preach under the Cross are absolutely of the same signification He makes them onely two in number to express that those faithfull who shall preserve themselves from the corruption of Idolatry shall be but a very small number And indeed experience hath too much verified this prediction Nevertheless he makes them two in number to signify that however small the number of true Christians is it shall notwithstanding be great enough to support the Truth and keep it from falling for in the mouth of two witnesses every word shall be establisht How these witnesses have power to change water into blood and shut up heaven v. 6. God ascribes to these two witnesses power to shut Heaven that it rain not in the dayes of their prophesy and power over waters to turn them into blood and to smite the Earth with all plagues as often as they will. Joseph Mede gives a very ingenious reason of this which I believe is very solid viz. That the Holy Ghost borrows his Emblems from the histories of the Old Testament and alludes unto several Pairs of eminent witnesses which God raised up at several times as Aaron and Moses at the coming out of Egypt Joshua and Caleb at the conquering of the promised Land Elijah and Elisha at the time of the grand Schism of the ten tribes Zerubbabel and Jehoshua at the return from the captivity Among these witnesses Elijah and Elisha had power to shut Heaven to hinder rain for three years and to make fire come down from Heaven Moses and Aaron turn'd the waters of Egypt into blood Joshua and Caleb brought the people of Israel into the Land of Canaan and smote the ancient Inhabitants with a sore plague To this the Holy Ghost alludes But we must further add that God ascribes to these witnesses 1. The shutting of Heaven that rain no in the days of their prophecy to signify that during the 1260 years of their Prophecy and of the reign of Antichrist there should be a great drought of grace and a barreness of virtues and gifts in the Church 2. The turning of waters into blood and the smiting of the Earth with all plagues Because all the heavy judgements of God that during the course of these 1260 years came upon the Antichristian Church were sent on the account of these two witnesses and to punish oppression under which it held both the Truth and those who were willing to profess it Here is fore-told a last persecution that must happen before the end of Antichrists reign The seven verses which we even now have read concerning the persecution which these two witnesses must suffer and the consequent of that persecution contain a grand event which must come to pass before the last fall of the Antichristian Kingdom And 't is one of the principal circumstances of this fall First we must observe the circumstance of time and when they shall have finish their testimony Mark this testimony must last a thousand two hundred and sixty days My two witnesses shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days cloathed in sackcloth Now these thousand two hundred sixty days of the prophesying of the witnesses are the forty two moneths of the Antichristian reign for forty two moneths make exactly 1260 days All the World is agreed that these are the three years and a half of the reign of Antichrist and that Antichrist and these two witnesses are absolutely and exactly contempories 'T is therefore the very same as if the Holy Ghost had said And when the Beast or the man of sin shall have finisht his reign of 1260 years it shall make war against the two witnesses This is therefore a persecution of Antichrist against the faithfull and a persecution that must happen before the end of Antichrists reign These words when they shall have finisht must not be understood as if the Holy Ghost would say when the 1260 years shall be finisht For after the 1260 years are finisht there can be no persecution seeing the Beast shall have lost his power So that this persecution must begin and end within the 1260 years but yet at the end of them 't is the ordinary custome not only of Scripture but of all men to say that something comes to pass when this or that is finisht because it happens when that things is finishing and very near its end This is therefore the last persecution of Antichrist against the Church This persecution hath its Characters 1. It must continue a long time Characters of the last persecution for 't is compared to a war The Beast that comes up out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them 2. This war or persecution must end in a victory over the two witnesses and shall overcome them and kill them Mark that God does not reckon the death and martyrdom which the faithfull suffer for the Truth as a victory that the Devil gains over them on the
Abraham it began to assume a new form she had then Sacraments and the distinction of People began By Moses the Church took another form quite different from the Preceding By Christ she became incomparably more perfect By the rise and growth of Antichrist the Church was intirely changed By Antichrist's being at the Height the Corruption was also at the Highest and at length by the fall of Antichrist she must put on another face This being supposed that the seven Periods answer to the seven days we must observe in every of those Periods such Events and such things as answer to the several works of the Creation done on every day so that what was made on the first day may resemble that which happened in the first Period of the Church and that which was done on the second day be the image of what happened in the second Period and so of the following If we find a perfect correspondence between the Copies and the Original between the Types and the things which we pretend were represented by them we shal have reason to believe that 't is some what more than a sport of wit or the effect of Fancy and Imagination which is the next thing we are to consider CHAP. XXI The Explication of the Mysteries signified by the Chaos by the Creation of Light by the separation of the Waters and by the Creation of the Plants The first days of the Creation and the three first Periods of the Church I Intend not to stay long upon what is well known and hath been said already and therefore shall speak but little of the Chaos We see plainly that this confused Mass without form and void which was properly nothing but a vast Abyss covered with darkness was the image of that sad estate to which sin had reduced the World. It was without form spoiled and defaced by sin for it had nothing at all of beauty It way confused for every thing there was in disorder that which should have been above was below God was blasphemed instead of being worshipt and self-love had placed the Creature on the Throne of God. It was empty and void for nothing that was good could be found in the World. It was covered with darkness for a stupid ignorance might be observed to reign there This was the state of the World out of which the Church was to be drawn as a new World God was doubtless the Creator of unshapen Mass and I doubt not but we have an account of its Creation in the first Verse In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth 'T is not as is commonly thought an abridgment of what is more amply and by particulars related afterwards 'T is the Creation of the Chaos called Heaven and Earth because it possessed that place which the Heaven and the Earth now do possess and because it contained the matter of them This is plain enough by the second Verse and the Earth was without form and void c. 'T is the description exactly of that Earth which he was speaking of in the first Verse Why 't is not said expresly that God created the Chaos Nevertheless though God created the Chaos 't is but implicitly said so for Moses saith not that God made the Earth without form and void Which may import that though God do govern that which we call the wicked World and that enormous Mass is not formed without his Providence nevertheless he will not be acknowledged the Author of it because he is not the Author of Evil. God appoints no certain day to this Chaos which is the Image of the corrupted World. 1. Because this Chaos hath its reign and extention during the whole six days of the spiritual Creation VVhy the Chaos hath no assigned day for 't is the perpetual fund whence God draws all the parts of the intelligible World which is his Church as the Chaos was the fund from whence by little and little God drew all the parts of the Vniverse 2. God assigns it no particular day because 't is the Empire or darkness into which the Light and the day cannot enter He produced not the Chaos by a Fiat saying let there be a Chaos as he created the Light because the Word of God doth not make the wicked World by its efficacy this World produceth it self by its own corruption Lastly he gives it not his Approbation he says not and God saw that it was good he blesseth it not as he did the works of the six days because God seeth nothing good in the carnal World instead of blessing it it is under his curse VVaters in all the Type of the Creation signify People In the mean time the Spirit of God moved upon the waters Waters in the Language of the Prophets and of the Types do signify People This we have observed before and is too well know to need to be proved This we must remember that Waters signify People in all the Type of the Creation The Spirit of God moved on the waters of the Chaos to prepare that matter to bruise and reduce it into little parts and to introduce the dispositions to receive that form which he intended to give it God intending to draw his Church out of the World and from among the Nations hath presided over them by a wise providence What is signified by the Spirits moving on the Waters If he had intirely abandon'd the World to it self after the entrance of sin it had been impossible to draw thence the intelligible World. It would have fallen into a total deprivation of Light Equity and Goodness and into that Spirit which the Scripture calls a spirit of slumber past feeling and a reprobate sense But the Spirit of God hath presided over these Waters he hath preserved and kept up in the World some fragments and remainders of Light Conviction Conscience the knowledge of God the distinction of right and wrong and the apprehension of future rewards and punishments We may see every where this motion this action of the Spirit of God on the Waters that is the People of the World even to the approach of the fourth Period which is that of our Lord Iesus Christ God was then about to give a Form to the Church to this intelligible World which properly speaking it never yet had Then he caused in the World such things as would dispose to this great work he prepared his matter by the study of Philosophy which drew men from that stupidity that before rendred them uncapable of receiving the Light of Truth He dispersed the Iews who carried every where the knowledge of the true God and made an infinite number of Proselites He caused the Bible to be turned into the Greek Tongue which then spread and prevailed in the World and guided the Heathen insensibly to a dislike of their Idols and their Religion This is the Mystery of the Chaos The Mysteries of â—he first day of the Creation In
prove our notion of the Reign of Christ for a thousand years and the Triumphant state of the Church upon Earth before its final glorious Triumph in Heaven we might be furnisht from these last Chapters For they are not as is commonly supposed a description of the Church in Heaven The Prophecy of the nine last Chapters of Ezekiel is the same with that of the last Chapt. of the Apocalypse They exactly answer to the nine last Chapters of the Prophecy of Ezekiel That Prophet in those nine last Chapters sets forth in a figurative manner the condition of the Church of Israel after its restoration their glorious Kingdom and the wonderful Peace they should injoy after their return which return or recalling was to be after the fall of Antichrist St. John gives an account what the Church shall be after with relation to that Fall after it shall have bin accomplisht so that both these Prophets describe the Church as to the same Period and the same condition This will easily appear if we briefly run over that which remains of the Apocalypse It cannot be questioned but that our Prophet concludes the 20th Chapter with a description of the last day of Judgement The war of Gog and Magog follows upon the reign of a thousand years to the revolt of Gog and Magog succeeds their defeat after their defeat there is nothing but the last day which shall come and surprize the World in the twinkling of an eye This is signified by those words V. 11. Chap. 20. Then I saw a great white Throne and him that sat on it from whose face the Earth and Heaven fled way and there was found no place for them White as well as Purple is a Royal colour and withal a Priestly for the Priests were clothed in white The Holy Priest's garments on the day of Expiation according to the tradition of the Iews were called Bigdei Lavan white garments In like manner he that sat upon the Throne is our King and Priest The Earth and the Heaven fled from his face for they shall be burnt that they may be renewed V. 12. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God c. 'T is a description of the last Judgement to the end of the Chapter all this is plain The 21. v. 1. Chapter begins with these words And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away The first Vision of 21 Chapt. to the 9th V. respects that which follows the end of the world These words do evidently allude to what he had said just before and the Heaven and the Earth fled away As that was interpreted of what should happen at the last day of Judgement it is clear that these new Heavens and this new Earth must be understood in a literal and not a figurative sense for the new World after it hath been refined by fire And so the description we read of here even to the ninth Verse is that of eternal Rewards and Punishments 'T is true that which is spoken of the H. City v. 3 4. of the new Ierusalem coming down from Heaven prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband of the Tabernacle of God with men of his dwelling with them and they with him and that God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and that there shall be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain All this I say might very well be applied to the Church as victorious upon Earth but this description is determin'd by what precedes and by what follows to Eternal Glory by that which precedes which is the description of the last day of Judgement and by that which follows which is the description of everlasting Punishment but the fearful and unbelieving c. v. 8. shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death The 9th v. begins a new Vision The ninth Verse begins a new Vision and a more perticular description of the blessed Reign of Christ upon Earth In the same manner as the H. Spirit after he had in the 13th Chapter given an enigmatical and general description of the Antichristian Empire under the image of the two Beasts gives a more ample account of it in the 17th Chapt. So having in the 20th Chapt. described the reign of Christ though in few words he set forth that reign more at length afterwards that state of the delivered Church under the image of a great City called Ierusalem as after having set out the Antichristian Church under the image of a Beast and of an Empire he represents it under the Emblem of a great City called Babylon V. 9. And there came unto me one of the seven Angels which had the seven Viols full of the seven last plagues and talked with me saying come hither I will show thee the Bride the Lambs wife 'T is in all likelyhood the last of those seven Angels who had poured out the Viols and the same who show'd unto the Prophet the great City the mother of Fornications Cha. 17.1 Then came one of the seven Angels unto me which had the seven Viols and talked with me saying Come hither I will show thee the Judgement of the great Whore that sitteth on many Waters As it was this seventh and last Angel who had the Viols by whom the ruin of Antichrist was effected it doth most properly belong to him to show Babylon faln and Ierusalem rebuilt V. 10. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high Mountain and showed me that great City the Holy Jerusalem descending out of Heaven from God. This is somewhat like what the Devil did unto Jesus Christ when he carried him up into an high Mountain and shows him all the Kingdoms of the world what the Devil makes appear by illusion St. Iohn sees by vision That he was carried or seemed to be carried up into an high Mountain makes it plain that the Ierusalem he was to be made see from thence was here upon Earth and not the Triumphant Church in Heaven though it be called the Holy Jerusalem descending out of Heaven from God. She shall be descended from Heaven because she shall abound in Graces which come from thence she is called the great City and 't is the first time she is so called 'T is a detestable name which in all the preceding Prophecy is given only to Spiritual Babylon But 't is on this account that then the Church shall possess the multitude of the Nations as Antichristianism doth at present V. 11. Having the Glory of God and her Light wus like unto a stone most precious even like a Iasper stone clear as Cristal V. 12. And had a Wall great and high and had twelve Gates and at the Gates twelve Angels and names written thereon which are the names of the twelve Tribes of the children of Israel V. 13.
17. nor with Babylon chap. 18. The Fathers who lived near the Apostles time it may be heard some discourse of this and that probably gave occasion to the mistake This is the most that can be said with any pretence of reason to excuse St. Irenaeus and those of the Ancients who followed him in the description of Antichrist Gog and Magog are names borrowed from Ezekiel which in my opinion do not signify the same People in both places Here it denotes in general the Enemies of the Church Nevertheless I know nothing concerning it with any great certainty CHAP. XXV An Answer to the reasons of the Anti-millinaries against the Reign of a thousand years ACcording to the Method of a Regular Disputation I come now to answer the Reasons of the Anti-millinaries But most of them are so weak that they hardly deserve to be considered but that the mention of 'em will serve as a further proof to confirm the truth of our seventh Period For 't is a very good Argument for any opinion to be supported on the one hand by powerfull and weighty Reasons and to be opposed on the other by weak and slender ones Those Gentlemen have the plurality of voices on their side and are doubtless men of worth and learning 'T is nevertheless true that they have suffered themselves to be born down with the stream without much minding it First Objection Christ not to come but at the day of jugdment 1. First they say that the Scripture speaking of Christ's second coming never speaks of any other than that when he shall appear in the Clouds of Heaven attended with Angels and Archangels to raise mankind and judge the quick and dead Whereas we suppose a kind of a clandestine coming of Christ to settle a Kingdom upon Earth which the Scripture knows nothing of for it speaks of no future Kingdom of Christ that is yet to be save that which he shall have in Heaven after the distribution of Eternal Rewards and Punishments I answer 1. These men suppose by this Argument a Kingdom of Christ in Heaven after the last judgement but there is no such Kingdom neither shall there ever be any on the contrary St. Paul doth expresly tell us that he shall then cease to reign and give up the Kingdom into the hands of his Father 1 Cor. 17. So that since we are assured from Scripture of Christs coming to reign it must be before the end of the World for the Kingdom of Christ the Mediator shall then be finisht 2. 'T is supposed in this objection that the Scripture speaks of no more than one coming of Christ which shall be accompanied with the voice of the Arch-angel to summon the Dead to judgement This is plainly to suppose the thing in Question and those who have read the fore-going Chapters with attention and without prejudice will still believe that there is a first coming of Christ and it may be a first Resurrection 3. Lastly who can be certain that this coming of Christ to establish his Kingdom upon Earth shall not be in that manner with the voice of an Arch-angel and in great magnificence and Glory Who can prove that at that first coming of Christ he shall not raise some of the dead as St. Iohn seems expresly to have fore-told all the little reasons pretended from Conveniency and Inconveniency which are here alledged will have much ado to resist the evidence of so express a Text and of that Matth. 19. Verily I say unto you that in the Regeneration when the Son of man shall be sat on the Throne of his Glory you shall also sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel 2. Object Christ is to remain in Heaven till the end of the world 2. The next thing alledged is that the Heavens are to contain Jesus Christ till the restitution of all things The restitution of all things that they say is the End of the World and so Jesus Christ must be confined to Heaven till the end of the world and consequently shall not come to settle a Kingdom upon Earth for a thousand years If this were true that Christ must stay in Heaven till the end of the World might he not destroy his Enemies give Peace to his Church and govern it in Peace by his Prophets and Servants without coming in Person from Heaven Moreover in case our Lord should for a short space come down from Heaven to establish a Kingdom for a thousand years and to give his seal to the Conversion of all Nations by some glorious Apparition returning back to Heaven immediately after might it not be said notwithstanding this that the Heavens shall contain him till the end of Time So small an interruption of his abode in Heaven could not hinder but that the heavens may still be reckon'd the place of his abode Lastly how will they prove that by the Restitution of all Things the end of the World is to be understood on the contrary that end is represented as the Overturning and not the Restitution of all things The Heavens the Stars the Elements shall be burnt up and destroyed by fire 'T is true after this there shall be new Heavens and a new Earth but the Scripture doth more frequently describe the end of the world by an universal confusion and Overturning than by the new Heavens which shall follow And the new Heavens in most places of Scripture signify the Renovation of the Church in its last Period of a thousand years So that I hardly make any doubt but that by the Restitution of all things Chap. 8. Acts we are to understand the Establishment of the Church before the end of the World. 3. Argum. Peace and Prosperity are not to be the Lot of the Church 3. The third Argument of the Anti-millenaries is this that such a state of Peace and tranquillity as we promise to the Church doth not at all agree with what the H. Scripture speaks of the Persecution and afflictions that the Church and the Faithfull are always to meet with in this World. 1. Ought not this to be mutually granted that the whole is to be denominated from the major part for six thousand years the Church was to be persecuted and in a low Condition and in a seventh Period she shall have Rest And shall we count it strange that the Holy Ghost doth for the most part speaking of the state of the Church here below as a low and miserable condition and that he saith very little of her state of Glory since the difference between the first and second state is as six to one 2. I answer that they suppose that which is not true viz. that the Scripture speaks of the Church as being alway in a state of suffering On the contrary more places can be brought wherein her Prosperity and Peace are promised than of those where she is threatned with calamity and persecution We may see the truth of this
said we must find the fall of Paganism Indeed a little time after Dioclesian Constantine ascended the Throne of the Emperours made the Christian Religion reign He his Successors ruin'd Paganism This fall of the Pagan Religion is thus represented to us And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal lo there was a great Earth-quake v. 12. the Sun became black as sack-cloth of hair the Moon became red as blood And the Stars of Heaven fell to the Earth even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs v. 13. when she is shaken of a mighty Wind. And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together v. 14. every mountain island were moved out of their places And the Kings of the Earth v. 15. the great men the rich men the chief captains the mighty men every bond-man every free-man his themselves in the dens in the rocks of the mountains And said to the mountains rocks v. 16. fall on us hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come v. 17. who shall be able to stand The fixth Trumpet contains the fall of Faganism All these images are borrowed from the last judgment wherfore they are usually applied to it Because indeed this fall of Paganism is the most terrible judgment that yet ever fell since the beginning of the World on the Devil's Empire We must know that in the whole Revelation we see these three heads reigning the Dragon the Beast the false Prophet The Dragon is the Devil the Beast is the Roman Empire the false Prophet is the Pope The Dragon hath two Empires the First is pure Paganism purely Pagan The second is Antichristian Paganism mingled with Christianity See here the fall of the first Empire that is the purely Pagan Empire of the Dragon 1. There is a great Earth-quake In the style of the Prophets particularly of St. John an Earth-quake always signifies a Change of the face of affairs in the world because Earth-quakes overturn the Earth make it Change its face Now what change of the face of affairs in the world can be imagin'd greater than that which happen'd under Constantine his successors The Church had been beat down massacred it was bathed in its own blood all on a sudden behold 't is the Mistress of the world It is become rich powerfull it builds stately Temples it overturns the Temples of Idols 2. The sun becomes black as sack-cloth We must hold it for certain that the Sun the Moon the Stars in the Revelation always signify the Sovereign the Dignities Powers of the Empire treated of We shall afterwards see this every where Here the Empire treated of is that of the Red Dragon viz. The Devil So that the Sun is the Soveraign of that Empire who is the Devil himself The Moon is the Pagan Religion which borrowed all its power from the Devil as the Moon takes all its lights from the Sun. The Stars are the Pontifexes Priests of Paganism All these powers suffer'd an Eclypse were destroyed by the Christian Emperours tumbled to the ground like Figs by a great wind 3. Every mountain Every Isle were removed out of their places i. e. the Temples the Idols the Cities the places peculiarly consecrated to the devotion of certain Pagan divinities were changed superstition therin was abolisht The hand of God fell heavily on the Gods of the Romans as formerly it did on the Gods of the Egyptians 4. Lastly The King all men of every age condition are exceedingly terrified run up down flee hide themselves endeavour to escape the judgment the wrath of God. One might have seen above a hundred times more than what the Prophet here saith if one could have seen the commotions that then happen'd the terrors the distresses the frights that the invisible Empire of Demons suffer'd at the fall of Paganism All that the Devil suffer'd at the coming of J. Christ into the world was nothing in comparison of this He reigned notwithstanding he was master of Empires Crowns Temples Altars But all on a sudden at that very time when he thought he had entirely ruin'd the Empire of J. Christ by the persecution of Dioclesian behold him himself cast down on the Earth 'T is easy to judg that the Horrours Commotions of the evil Spirits were unconceivable And moreover who can doubt but that this great body of Pontifexes Priests Pagan Ministers felt a prodigious commotion when Constantine turn'd Christian his successors beat down run'd all the Temples of the Idols History tells us enough of this tho it said nothing it would be very easy to apprehend that the images here made use of are not too lively to represent the commotions of the Heathens of Paganism This Period brings us to Theodosius the great under whom Paganism expired but after whom also the glory quiet of the Empire was quite lost as we shall see hereafter The greatness of the Roman Empire Paganism fell at the same time This was a great matter of triumph to the Pagans who said The Gods had abandon'd the Empire since their Altars had been beaten down But God was providing for great events it was necessary the temporal Empire should fall to make way for the Spiritual Empire of Antichrist CHAP. VI. An explication of the four first Trumpets which are the five degrees of the Fall of the Roman Empire or the Soveraignty of Rome The 7th Ch. is a vision that interrupts the course of the seven seals The mystery of the 144 thousand sealed persons in the 7th Ch. Here God causes his Elect to be sealed their number amounts to 144 thousand We shall see in the process of this discourse that 144 is a sacred number appointed to signify the Church a number that arises from twelve multiplied by it self For the present it is sufficient to observe that God takes the time between the sixth seal the first Trumpet to cause his elect to be sealed because more unhappy sad much more fatall times were at hand than the foregoing ones In the ages of the Heathen Emperours under the Seals there were cruell persecutions men had suffer'd much in their bodies But under the Trumpets must come the dark Kingdom of Antichrist wherin the souls of the Christian-Church must be attack'd with Spiritual Temptations be swallowed up in Superstition Idolatry that in such a manner that the number of the faithfull should be almost as nothing The 144 thousand signify the Church the pure Church under Antichrists reign Now 144 thousand are almost nothing in comparison of that innumerable multitude that is in the reign of Antichrist This little number therfore was to be sealed to the end
Therfore the three Last Trumpets are preceded by an Angel that cries Wo Wo Wo they are the three last blows of the Fall of the Roman Empire After this Cry follows the fifth Trumpet Ch. 9. And the fifth Angel sounded v. 1. I saw a star fall from Heaven to the Earth to him was given the Key of the Bottomless pit And he open'd the Bottomless-pit v. 2. there arose a Smoke out of the Pit as the smoke of a great Furnace the Sum the Air were Darkned by reason of the Smoke of the Pit. v. 3. And there came out of the smoke Locusts on the Earth And the sequel of the history the Characters of this Prophecy perswade me that by the Locusts we must understand the Arabians and Saracens for after the fall of the Imperial dignity in Italy the greatest event that happen'd with reference to the fourth Monarchy and Religion is the Empire of the Arabians The imperial dignity falls in the fifth Age. In the sixth Age the Arabians are raised up to weary and torment the Roman Empire divided into ten Kingdoms but above all for the punishment of the Empire of Constantinople the most remarkable part of the tâ—n We shall see that the words of the Prophecy agree very well with this discovery of those modern people The falling star in the fifth Trumpet is noâ— a grandee or a Prophet A star falls from heaven 'T is a presage of some great event By this star we must not understand a great Lord or a false Prophet as some have imagin'd For this star doth nothing appears no more in this fifth Trumpet 'T is very improperly that De Launay many others apply to this Star these words to him was given the Key of the Bottomless-pit as if a star could carry a Key use it and open a door The Prophecies are continued Metaphors and Allegories Now according to good Rhetorick Actions in Metaphors must be attributed to Subjects according to the nature of those subjects Here an Angel a star are spoken of 'T is the Angel that opens the Bottomless-pit and not the star 'T is the proper office of Angells in the Apocalyptical Visions to open and shut and bring in on the stage So in the 20th Ch. of the Revelation 't is an Angel that closes the Bottomless-pit on the Dragon This star therfore doth nothing else here but only presage a great insurrection against God that was to happen under the fifth Trumpet The bottomless-pit being open'd The Religion of Mahomet meant by the black smoak there comes out a Smoke black and thick like that of a Furnace and the Sun was darkned therby 'T is the unhappy Religion of Mahomet that fills the world with his thick darkness of Error there arose out of the smoke of the bottomless pit Locusts on the Earth And this unhappy and detestable doctrine formed an Empire and united the Arabians together under the detestable Mahomet By the Locusts the Saracens are meant One can't better represent the Arabians than by Locusts First because of their innumerable multitude So 't was the Author of the book of Judges called them many ages before St. John. And the Midianites the Amalekites all the Children of the East were in the valley as Locusts for number 2. 'T is from Arabia that these inundations of locusts come that often cover both Egypt and Ethiopia and the other neighbouring places round about 3. The prodigious swiftness of the Conquests of the Saracens is most admirably represented by Clouds of Locusts that fall on the fields in one night and almost in a moment 4. One can't better represent the hideous desolations which the Saracens made every where than by the hideous condition that the meadows and fields are in when the Locusts come on them It is commanded these Locusts â— 4. not to hurt the Grass of the Earth nor any green thing but only those men which have not the seal of God in their forheads This is to express that these Locusts are men that are sent against other men wheras true Locusts fasten on the green things And to them it was given not that they should kill men but torment them five months We must know always remember the foundation we have laid that the whole Revelation is a history of the Roman Empire that all the events refer to that Empire So that the sense is the Saracens by the permission of God should have a great power to torment harrass the Roman Empire divided into ten Kingdoms but not to destroy it Indeed the Saracens tormented both Greeks Latins most cruelly But both the Empire of Constantinople the other parts of the Roman Empire defended themselves against their assaults What the five mouths of the reign of the Locusts signify The duration of these Locusts is limited to five months these make 150 days But these days do not signify an 150 years a day for a year according to the prophetick style Joseph Mede that follows this hypothesis assigns 150 years to the time during which the Saracens particularly afflicted Italy from the year 830 to the year 980. But 't is not so We must observe that the reign of the Locusts is in the five months of the summer May June July August September that is their longest reign For oftentimes they last not so long because sometimes in the midst of summer a great wind carries them away or a long rain makes them burst So that the Prophet means that the Sarazens shall fulfill their reign in its greatest extent that God will not abate any thing of it in favour of the men that are the subjects of the Roman Empire The description of these Locusts is notable Their shape was like unto horses prepared to the battle 'T is to signify the wars fights wherby the Saracens were to establish their government On their heads were as it were crowns like gold All the Empires that at this day take up the East came from them that of the Turks that of the Persians that of the great Mogull that of the Tartars Their faces were as the faces of men they had hair as the hair of women their teeth were as the teeth of Lions the sound of their wings was as the sound of Chariots That is to say they are as great women with their hair dishevelled a hideous countenance wings on their shoulders I question not but the Prophet had respect to the description which the Poets make of the Harpyes Tristius haud illis monstrum Aeneid 3. nec saevior ulla Pestis ira Deûm Stygiis sese extulit undis Virginei volucrum vultus faedissima ventris Ingluvies Vncaeque manus pallida semper Orafame VVhence comes the name and fable of the Harpyes Where 't is very observable that the name of Harpyes comes from the Hebrew word Arbim or Arpim which
And when the seven Thunders had uttered their Voices v. 4. I was about to write A sealed vision is an obscure vision I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me seal up those things which the seven Thunders uttered write them not A Sealed Book a Writing a Word sealed according to the Style of the Scripture is a word that is not understood 1s 29.11 The Vision of all is saith Esay as a book that is sealed that is to say you shall not understand it God saith to Daniel seal up the vision Dan. 8.26 for it shall be for many Days And in another place O Daniel shut up the words Dan 12.4 seal the book even to the time of the end many shall run to fro knowledg shall be encreased That is to say God will not have the Prophecies be understood till a certain time In like manner the Prophecy that respected Antichrist was Sealed up till an appointed time For above ten whole ages nothing of It was understood or so little that 't is to be reckon'd as nothing And write them not that is to say do not express them in such terms that in them the events may be read at least not very soon V. 5. And the Angel which I saw standing upon the Sea and upon the Earth lifted up his Hand to Heaven V. 6. And sware by him that liveth forever and ever who created Heaven and the things that therein are and the Earth and the things that therein are and the Sea and the things which are therein That there should be Time no longer V. 7 But in the days of the Voice of the seventh Angle when he shall begin to sound the Mystery of God should be finisht as he hath declared to his Servants the Prophets VVhen the last Trumper must sound The Voice of the seventh Trumpet is that which must sound at the moment of the last Fall of the Antichristian Empire when Popery shall be destroyed Then all the Nations shall turn unto God to make up the Kingdom of Jesus Christ that is yet to come as appears by these words The seventh Angel sounded Ch. 11.15 and there were great Voices in Heaven saying The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever Here our Angel swears that in that time that is to say when the Kingdoms shall be reduced to Jesus Christ Time shall be no longer Time in this place is not opposed to Eternity as if the Angel would say that then the World shall end and Eternity begin but his meaning is that the times afforded to Antichrist shall be ended shall be no more It must be remembred that the Holy Spirit as well by the mouth of Daniel as by that of St. John assigns to Antichrist a time times half a time This shall be no more There shall not be neither time nor times nor half a time for Antichrist Time shall be no more for his reign it shall be the time of his total destruction Then the mystery of God shall be finisht as he hath declared to his servants the Prophets viz. The mystery of this glorious reign of Jesus Christ on the Earth which hath been foretold by all the Prophets in so magnificent a manner as we shall shew in the process of this work which Daniel saw so clearly as to mark the time circumstances of it And the voice which I heard from heaven v. 8 spake to me again said Go take the little book which is open in the hand of the Angel which standeth upon the sea upon the Earth And I went unto the Angel v. 9 said unto him give me the little book And he said unto me take it eat it up it shall make thy belly bitter but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as Honey The voice which he heard from Heaven is the same as spoke to him in the beginning of the book I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day heard behind me a great voice as of a Trumpet saying I am Alpha Omega the First the Last And this also shews that this here is a new prophecy not the continuation of the first For the same voice of God the Father that began the First Revelation returns begins the second as the same Jesus Christ also appears again a second time Saint John receives the book from the hand of the Angel that is to say of Jesus Christ because 't is he that sends the Prophets that inspires them by his Spirit This little book is Saveet in Saint John's Mouth because the Spirit of prophecy the glory of being the mouth of God from heaven pleases the inclination of men that love honour But this little book Made his belly bitter because that after having reflected on the events which he was about to fore-tell after having digested consider'd them in his own breast he found them so dreadful that they filled his soul with sorrow And he said unto me v. 11. thou must prophecy again before many people nations tongues Kings These words do no longer leave any cause of doubting whether this be a new prophecy not a continuation of the First Thou must make a Second Prophecy to Kings People Nations wheras what thou hast prophecied to them respected their Temporal state for the future that which thou shalt foretell them respects their Spiritual state the things of Religion CHAP. IX A short System of all the Events of the Church which are noted in the Apocalypse first of all an Epitome of the Chronology The history of the Church is not to be found but in the last eleven Chapters of the Apocalypse WE must not seek for the History of the Church in the First Nine chapters of the Apocalypse Joseph Mede is the first that hath discover'd that the Apocalypse consists of two bodies of Revelations meant by two Books the first of which we find in the beginning of the fifth Chapter v. 1. And I saw in the right hand of him that sate on the throne a book written within on the back side sealed with seven seals The other we find in the 10. Chap. v. 2. And he had in his hand a little book open he set his right foot upon the sea his left foot on the Earth It is plain that these two Books are two bodies of Revelations perfect in their kind different each from the other that both the one the other run through all reach to all the times from the beginning of the Revelation of St. John even to the end of the World. One cannot imagine any thing more reasonable than this that the First Book contains the destinies of the World the Empire the Church also in respect to her Temporal as far as she is
five things are co-temporary in the third Period Five things cotemporary in the Period of the reign of the thousand years I. The reign of the Saints for a 1000 Years Rev. 20.4 II. The Dragon that is bound whose power is broken Rev. 20.2 3. III. The New Jerusalem the description wherof we have Rev. 21. 22. Chapters IV. The company of Saints that are clothed in white garments who carry Palms in their hands singing this song Salvation to our God that sits upon the throne Rev. 7.10 Rev. 7.17 unto the Lamb and of whom it is said they shall hunger no more neither thirst any more neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat the Lamb shall feed them shall lead them unto living fountains of waters For these are not the 144 thousand Sealed persons spoken of in the beginning â—f the 7th Chap. St. John saith expressely After this v. 9. i. e. after these 144 thousand sealed persons I beheld lo a great multitude which no man could number of all nations kindreds people tongues stood before the throne before the Lamb c. This plainly shews that these are not the persons that were Sealed For they might easily be numbred because they were not above 144 thousand wheras these here spoken of are innumerable In truth these are the same that are spoken of in the 20th of the Revel who are there called the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Iesus for the word of God here they are called they which came out of great tribulation C. 7.14 have washed their robes made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They are therfore co-temporary with the reign of Christ for a 1000 Years as the 144 thousand that were sealed are co-temporary with the reign of Babylon for 1260 Days V. The fifth and last thing co-temporary is the duration of the seventh Trumpet And the seventh Angel sounded with a Trumpet there were great voices in heaven Rev. 11.15 saying the Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord. For at the sound of the Last Trumpet the last blow must be given to the Babylonish Empire at the same time shall begin the reign of Iesus Christ to which is assign'd a Period of 1000 Years And the influence of this seventh and last Trumpet must reach even to the end of the World. Thus you have the Chronology of the twelve last Chapters of the Revelation We proceed to consider the History CHAP. X. A short System of the Events foretold in the Revelation concerning the Church as to the Historical part A short explanation of the 11th Chap. IN the 11th Ch. where the Destinies of the Church do begin the H. Ghost in the first place gives us an abridgment of these Destinies Events nothing is more methodical than that First to give a general Idea of those things that are afterwards more particularly to be explained So this Chapter from the 2d. v. to the end contains a short History of the 1260 Years of Antichrist's reign of the 1000 Years of Christ's reign as in the first verse he had described the first Period of 360 Years as we just now observed in the foregoing Chapter This reign of Antichrist is here described by this Paganism that was to tread under foot the Holy City for 42 Months v. 2. The afflictions of the Church its perpetuall subsistence in the midst of those afflictions during this reign of Antichrist are signified by the two Witnesses clothed in sack-cloth A great persecution that must befall the Church at the end of these 1260 Years of Antichrist's reign v. 3. is there also predicted The total suppression of the profession of the truth by that persecution is signified by the death of these two Witnesses v. 7. who must remain dead in the territories of Babylon the great for three prophetical days and a half i. e. three Years a half We shall see afterwards what that means where we must place this great event At the end of three years a half these two Witnesses i. e. the publique profession of the truth shall rise again and be gloriously reestablisht For the H. Ghost saith that the two Witnesses shall ascend again up into Heaven i. e. shall be exalted glorified upon the Earth In the same time the tenth part of the City shall fall v. 13. i. e. one of those ten Kings that gave their power to the Beast shall revolt from him And a little after the seventh Trumpet shall sound which will give the last blow to the Babylonish Empire v. 15. After which the Reign of the Saints shall commence which shall continue to the end of the World. This is the Epitome of the whole History of the Church the sense of the 11th Chapter After this general idea of the History of the Church Ch. 12. its explication the Prophet enters upon the particulars In the 12th Ch. God shews him the vision of the Woman that was with child deliver'd of a Son persecuted by the Red Dragon who fain would devour the Child of the Woman Afterwards there is a battle fought by Michael his Angells against the Dragon The Dragon is overcome and cast to the Earth but as much overcome as he was he ceaseth not to persecute the Woman She is forced to escape into the Wilderness where she is nourisht 1260 Days The Dragon not being able to reach her vomited out a flood after her but the Earth open'd swallow'd up the flood saved the Woman This Woman is the Apostolical Church this Child of which she is deliver'd is pure holy Christianity The Dragon is the Devil who by the authority of the Roman Empire would devour extinguish Christianity in its birth Michael his Angells are Jesus Christ his Ministers celestial as well as terrestrial The combat of the Red Dragon Michael is the combat of 300 Years that was between God the Devil during the ten persecutions of the Roman Heathen Emperours The Devil endeavouring on one hand to destroy the Christian Church by the cruelty of the Emperours God on the other hand defending it by his Martyrs Teachers The victory gotten over the Red Dragon is the casting down of Heathenism which falls to the Earth is cast from Heaven i. e. 't is tumbled down from the throne by Constantine his successors to the reign of Theodosius The great flood which the Red Dragon casts after the Woman when he was thrown down on the Earth is those inundations of Heresies that Arrianism that cover'd the Christian World immediatly after the fall of Heathenism under Constantine The Earth swallowed up this flood in favour of the Woman these Heresies were destroyed swallowed up as in a moment the Church remained deliver'd from them by a kind of
'T was there that was the most famous Temple of the most infamous of all the Heathen Divinities viz. Venus the Goddess of prostitutions And 't is plain that by way of allusion to this infamous Goddess Spiritual Babylon is represented in the 17th of the Revelation as a whore sitting on a beast and offering her self from on high to every comer For Women did expose and prostitute themselves in the most visible places of the Temple of the Venus of Babylon These three things Tyranny Idolatry and corruption of manners we meet with in all the descriptions of Antichrist So then these are the three Characters by which the Antichristian Empire is represented to us in those places that speak of it In the second Chapter of the second Epistle to the Thessalonians the head of this Empire is called the man of sin and the son of perdition i. e. utterly lost and plunged into a mighty sink of corruption Behold Sodom 'T is said that he should exalt himself above all that is called God that he should sit in the Temple of God behaving himself as though he were God Behold Egypt pride and tyranny His Religion is called a mystery of iniquity and he is to establish it by signs and lying wonders behold Idolatry and behold Babylon All the Heathens called their Religion and their Ceremonies by the name of Mysteries Ceres had her mysteries Bacchus had his and Venus of Babylon had hers also but these Mysteries were abominable and idolatrous In the eleventh of the Revelation this Empire is called a Gentilism a Paganism The outward Court is left to the Gentiles for them to tread under foot for 42. months Behold Babylon behold Idolatry By the prophaning of the outward Court is also meant the corruption of manners because the Heathens were wont to make the Temples of their Idols the place of their most filthy debauches v. 7. In the same Chapter it is said that the beast which comes out of the bottomless pit shall make war with the Saints and overcome them and kill them There is the tyranny and cruelty of Egypt In the two Visions of the 13th Chapter of the Revelation this Antichristian Empire is represented as a Beast In the first as a beast compounded of a Leopard a Bear and a Lion three cruel Beasts This is to set forth its cruelty and tyranny It is given to him to make war with the Saints and to overcome them Here again is Egypt that oppresses the children of God and makes a cruel war upon them Men worship this Beast and the Dragon that gave him his power And they worshipped the Dragon which gave power to the Beast and they worshipped the Beast Behold Babylon where a Dragon was worshipped to which it may be the Holy Ghost alludes Lastly to this Beast was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies against God his Name his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven There is pride and idolatry The second Beast works great signs to seduce men Rev. 13.14 And deceiveth them that dwell upon the Earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do in sight of the beast 'T is therefore a false Prophet that works false Miracles to cause his false Gods to be worshipped 'T is a Prophet of Babylon and of Idols He causes all them to be killed that do not worship the image of the beast It s cruelty and tyranny makes this Empire a true Egypt In the 14th Chapter 't is said of this Babylon that she made all nations drunk with the wine of the wrath of her fornications They are her Idolatries that are so called And in the 17th Chap. she is more largely described as a prostitute woman arrayed in purple and scarlet colour and decked with gold and precious Stones and Pearls having a golden Cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication And upon her fore-head was a name written MYSTERY i. e. Religion and for the explication of this word Mystery 't is added the mother of fornications or idolatries this is Babylon She is also the mother of the abominations of the Earth This is Sodom whose corruption spreads it self even to the end of the World. She makes her self drunk with the blood of the Saints this is Egypt 't is cruelty and tyranny Wheresoever these three Characters are found there is Antichristianism It is not confined only to the Empire of the Pape One cannot question whether these be the Characters of the Babylonish Empire But we must carefully observe that in all places of Christendom where these Characters are found the pride and tyranny of Egypt the filth and abominations of Sodom and the Idolatries of Babylon there is the Antichristian Empire in whole or in part And hereupon we must conclude that this Empire is not confined to what we call the Papism the Places subject to the Pope the Latin Church In the Greek Church there is Idolatry there is Babylon The Greek Church makes a part of Babylon for there they invocate Saints and worship Images and Relicks There is Sodom for the corruption of manners there is great and this corruption when the Eastern Church was not under the Turkish Cross appeared much more than it doth at this day Lastly There is Egypt for there were tyranny and pride in that Church The Patriarchs and Prelates of the East in their time and in their prosperity carried themselves like Masters and Tyrants though in that respect they did not go so high as the Bishop of Rome The Greek Church did not separate from the Latin before the tenth Century when the Latin Church was already become Sodom by the horrible corruption of her manners Egypt by her Tyranny and Pride Babylon by her Idolatries These two Churches made but one Body and one Babel And we must not imagine that the Greek Church by her separation became a Jerusalem seeing she retained the corruption of Babel But this doth not hinder but that we may look for the capital of this Anti-christian Empire in Rome Yet Rome ceaseth not to be the head of the Babylonish Empire and find the man of sin the head of the Babylonish Empire in the Pope The Greek Churches and those of the Eastern Communion do no longer obey him They are revolted Provinces over which he pretends a right and who indeed ought to obey him seeing they have taken his mark and sign which is Idolatry The Pope always keeps his Titles and as he pretends he keeps his ancient rights over these separate Churches calling himself the universal Bishop Besides we must consider all the Churches that have revolted from their obedience to God as united under one spiritual head which is Satan just in the same manner as Churches of different communions remain united under one spiritual head which is Iesus Christ if they hold the fundamental Doctrines In like manner the corrupt Societies are united under one spiritual head which
God is incommunicable to any one besides J. Christ and being at his right hand to present our requests unto him This is evidently that which makes the connection of this Text of Saint Paul now the Spirit saith expresly there shall be a departing from the faith with the foregoing one God manifest in the flesh c. received up into glory Naturally received up into glory should follow after justified in the Spirit and come before seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles believed on in the World. But he would place the words received up into glory at the end of the mystery of Godliness and immediately before the prediction of the Apostacy to signify that that Apostacy should principally aim at the ruin of that Article For in truth it seems The Papism pulls down the Lord from his glory that the mystery of iniquity did principally design to draw down Jesus Christ from the Heavens and tumble him again into a low estate It encloses him in a bit of bread it makes him descend into unclean entrails it sends him to the draught it causes him to be eat by Mice and Rats It takes away from him his arms legs head life and leaves him without any action or defence It sets up rivals to him in all his offices and divides his honour to wood and stone All this well consider'd deserves the name of abomination and apostacy 'T is an abomination to invocate any creature before Gods face That this may be more plain with respect to the invocation of Saints and to take off the veil under which they hide the horrours of that worship we must observe that that sitting of Jesus Christ at the right hand of his Father imports a very near presence of the Son who assists perpetually before his Father and who is perpetually before his face environn'd and as I may so say buried by the rays of that glorious face of God. Thou shalt not have other Gods before my face This face of God is a lively spring of light that swallows up whatsoever there is of brightness in the most excellent creatures in such a manner that they are as nothing in the presence of God. There is but one creature that is not swallowed up by these rays and that is the humane nature of the Son of God. That is upheld by the glory of the second Person to which it is supernaturally united By reason of this the Son may be invocated before the face and in the presence of the Father because the glory of the Son is not swallowed up and annihilated by the glory of the Father But it is a true abomination to go and worship and invocate a simple creature before the face of God and at the foot of his Throne This consideration doth utterly destroy that vain pretence which so many take for a good reason One may pray the Saints which are on Earth to pray to God for us because being far from the face of God they are not swallowed up by his beams We lawfully pray the Saints on Earth to pray to God for us say they what greater harm is there to invocate them in the heavens The difference is plain the Saints that are upon Earth are conceived as far from God their rays are not swallowed up by the infinite brightness of the Divinity we may give them some homage But to go and serve them before the face of God to give them a religious worship in Heaven 't is insolently to violate the Majesty of God. And under what pretence soever it may be done 't is a bold attempt that is not pardonable A Subject that is highly preferred when he is alone and far from his Prince may receive great honours from those that are beneath him But both the smallest and the greatest when they are in the Soveraign's presence are equal It would be a piece of high Treason to render homage to a Subject before the Soveraign's face The Sun swallows up all the Stars The glory of God in his Throne annihilates all glory 'T is therefore an odious crime to go and render homage to the Saints at the foot of the Throne of God. If I honour the Saints here below by my praises and my imitation of them this doth not reach to the Throne of God 't is to men that I speak but my prayers reach Heaven There is but one Subject that doth invocate in the behalf of others in the Heavens and but one Object that may be invocated This is what St. Paul means There is but one God and one Mediator between God and men There is but one God that may be prayed to in the Heavens and only one Jesus that prayeth for men So that I conclude that the invocation of the Saints is an abomination and an apostacy because it highly affronts Jesus Christ in that double manner as we have said both because it snatches away from him the priviledge of assisting alone at the right hand of the Father and because it violates the Majesty of God in whose presence all grandeur disappears So far are the Saints from being more worthy of adoration because of their glorification that on the contrary the more they are glorified and the nearer they are to God the more are they as nothing and invisible Add to this that J. Christ hath reserv'd it to himself as an incommunicable piece of his glory that we should call on the Father in his name The Papism calls on him in the name of Saints for it invocates him by the merit and intercession of the Saints This is another abomination As to the adoration of Images 't is so plain an abomination and apostacy that it cannot at this day any longer be defended but by denying it and saying God forbid that we should adore or serve Images we only make use of them as a means to ascend to their originals The Idolatry of the Jews was never carried so far as that of the Heathens The second difficulty is that the Holy Spirit speaks of the Antichristian Idolatry in more odious terms than it doth of the heathen Idolatry Which is very strange But none will any longer wonder at it when he considers in what manner God under the Old Testament spake of the Idolatry of the Israelites One thing is as certain as it can be viz. that the Israelites in their Idolatries did never totally abandon the true God. They worshipped a golden Calf in the wilderness but they pretended it was an Emblem of that great God that had brought them out of Egypt They served Baalim the Gods of strangers 't is true but this was in associating them with the true God whose worship they never did reject If ever there was a time of corruption it was that of Ahab who to the sin of Jeroboam added all the abominations of the Tyrians which his wife Iezabel taught him Nevertheless at that very time Elias confesses that the nation halted between two worshipped
The 8th Argument spiritual Babel is represented as a City en riched by a long commerce Eighthly Moreover doth a City become rich in three years and a half What kind of commerce then must that of this Antichristian Empire be that shall make the fortunes of her merchants in so little a time The H. Spirit borrows these figures from what is done and seen inhumane life 'T is seen therein that Cities become rich and powerful by long commerce But never were any of them seen to attain to a surprizing greatness by two or three years commerce Lastly A City and an Empire that are raised and destroyed in three years and a half have not time to gather together voluptuous things The 9th Argument spiritual Babylon is represented as having enjoyed a long peace and to enjoy them It must always fight to conquer to grow greater or to defend it self If the Antichristian Empire lasts but three years and a half this is not too much to establish its greatness by sword and by fire and to repell that force that must destroy it Of necessity Antichrist and his adherents must always be in violent motion in trouble and in war. Whereas the description of spiritual Babylon imports the possession of a long peace during which she must heap together both all the riches and all the pleasures of the World. The 10th Argument the ruin of the Babylonish Empire according to its description in the 19th Ch. cannot be wrought in three years and a half The 19th Chapt. is the last where in the ruin of this Empire is described to us We there see him who is called the faithful and the true and the Word of God i. e. J. Christ that prepares himself for the combat that causes the armies of Heaven to follow him that calls all the birds of Heaven and all the beasts of the Earth to the slaughter that gives battels that obtains the victory that casts the beast and the false Prophet into the lake of fire and brimstone For this alone more is necessary than three years and a half For an Empire so vast so large and so strong as that of Antichrist must be is not destroyed in a few days CHAP. II. The last Argument against the Chimaera of three years and half taken from the time during which the Temple was prophan'd by Antiochus Four quite different times set down for that in Daniels Prophecies An explication and a reconciling of those four times An application of these four times to the Kingdom of Antichrist and the ruin of that Kingdom I Draw my last Argument against this chimerical duration of three years and a half from the most famous of all the types of Antichrist viz. Antiochus Epiphanes 'T is he that persecuted the Church that oppressed it that defiled the Temple that caused the daily sacrifice to cease for the space of three natural years and a half Wherein it is evident that God hath set him as a type of Antichrist who during the space of three prophetical years and a half was in like manner to seize on the Church to fill the Temple of God with Idols and make the pure service of God the continual sacrifices of praises and prayers which God hath reserved for himself alone to cease Now we must remember this maxime which we have already advanced in the fore-going Chapter viz. that types are oenigmatical and short pictures of great events great in their extent as well as in their qualities Types are short pictures in a little This maxime is evident it hath no need of proofs And according to this principle seeing the times must be short as well as the other strokes it is clear that contracted years cannot be better represented than by days not by months for a month is the revolution of the Moon and consequently it can't be proper to represent the revolution of the Sun which is a quite different Star. But the day and the year are the revolutions of the Sun the year is the great revolution the day the little one If one would represent in short the great revolution of the Sun one can't do it better than by the small revolution of the same Star. And thence I conclude that the oppression of the Church by Antiochus who was the type having lasted 1260 little revolutions of the Sun they must represent so many of the great revolutions of the same Star. I spend a Chapter on this last proof because in the duration of the oppression of the Jewish Church by Antiochus Epiphanes there are considerable difficulties which spring from the differences of the Prophecies of Daniel and the events such as the first book of the Macchabees represents them to us I hope that the clearing these difficulties about the duration of the persecution of Antiochus will give us such light into the duration of the Kingdom of Antichrist as will please the curious Four times noted by Daniel for the duration of Antiochus's persecution We must therefore observe that the Prophet Daniel describes the time of the duration of the persecution that was to befall his nation in four different manners First of all he saith in the eighth Chap. after having spoken of Antiochus Epiphanes under the embleme of the little horn C. 8. v. 13. Then I heard one Saint speaking and another Saint said unto that certain Saint that spake How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot And he said unto me unto 2300 days then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed v. 14. Daniel reassuming the affair of Antiochus in the eleventh Chapter and continuing it in the twelfth observes three time Cap. 12. v. 6 7. And one said to the man clothed in linnen which was upon the waters of the river How long shall it be to the end of these wonders And I heard the man clothed in linnen which was on the waters of the river when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven and swore by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time times and a half It is plain this signifies one year two years and half a year three years and a half So then you see the second time The third is observed in the same Chapt. C. 12. v. 11. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up there shall be 1290 days Lastly The fourth time is found in the following verse Blessed is he that waiteth v. 12 and cometh to the 1335 days See then four different numbers Two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings 2300. A time times and half a time 1260. that make three years and a half and days One thousand two hundred fourscore and ten days 1290. And lastly 1335. one thousand three hundred and thirty
with blood even to the tops of the mountains The mountains shall be melted with their blood saith Isaiah 34.3 there must be rivers of blood to do this v. 5. And I heard the Angel of the waters say Thou art righteous O Lord which art and wast and shall be because thou hast judged thus v. 6. For they have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them blood to drink for they are worthy There will not want some who from these words will object and say that untill this time there had been no persecution on the account of Religion and that the Popedom had in no wise shed the blood of Saints of Prophets To this I answer First 'T is not true that during the time of the Croisades Why God chargeth Antichristian Rome with the blood which she had not yet shed no blood had been shed on the account of Religion for it was exactly in the middle of the Croisades that that horrible barbarity was used against the Waldenses and Albingenses Innocent III. publisht the fifth Croisade at the end of the twelfth Century and at the same time gave sentence of death against the poor Albigenses But that which is especially to be observed in this matter is this that those who make this objection must make a stronger against those words of Jesus Christ Luc. 11.50 51. That the blood of all the Prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation From the blood of Abel c. verily I say it shall be required of this generation What reason to require of the Jews who lived in the times of Christ the blood of Abel and other holy men who were slain before the Flood what reason to require of them the righteous blood shed before Abraham Nay what reason to require of them the blood of the Prophets slain by their fathers since they disapproved the deeds of their fathers Why this is the reason God when he executes judgement ought to hear the cries of all the righteous blood that is shed for these cryes make up but one voyce and the race of murtherers makes up but one people on which God will charge that blood It matters not that it was shed by the Parents or the Children before the one were born or after the death of the others this makes no difference God looking upon this murthering race all in one body will charge the whole upon the whole in the lump Which evidently appears from that which God here speaks of this generation of Antichrist they have shed the blood of Prophets he saith not of Apostles he goes back as far as the Prophets and inflicts the punishment of the blood of the Prophets slain so many ages before upon the Antichristian Empire Rome hath always been a murthering City the holy Apostles Martyrs Doctors Confessors of the first ages of Christianity were slain by its orders and in its Dominions Modern Rome within the circuit of its Jurisdiction hath shed an infinite quantity of holy and faithfull blood The old and new Rome in the account of God and in the executing of his judgements make up but one body because God beholds the whole in one instant or point He looks upon her as one murthering tyrant as one race of manslayers It matters not that as to some particular persons and some particular ages she is not guilty of the blood of the Prophets she is guilty as to her whole in her beginning and her end now the beginning and the end do involve the middle But it will be objected Had not Rome Pagan been sufficiently punisht for the blood of Apostles and Maryrs which she had shed So many sackings and desolations as she had felt did not they suffice Must Antichristian Rome pay once more for that blood I will object on the same grounds Had not Jerusalem the mutherer of the Prophets suffer'd enough for her murthers by that dismal desolation made by the Chaldeans by the captivity of all her Inhabitants by the fire which consumed her Palaces Must God chastise her by the Romans for those crimes which had been punisht by the Babylonians Thus was it necessary that God should punish Rome Antichristian for the crimes committed by Rome Pagan or for the sins which were not committed till the following ages of this Antichristian Rome 'T is to this objection that the other Angel answers who speaks at V. 7. And I heard another out of the Altar say even so Lord God Almighty true and righteous are thy judgements That is though it seem unjust to give blood to drink unto new Rome on the account of the blood that was shed by old Rome or of that which shall be afterward shed by the new notwithstanding thy judgements are righteous and true Behold the three plagues which bring us down unto the thirteenth Age. The last Croisade was the second expedition of St. Lewis who carried out and lost 60000 men at Thunis in the year 1269. CHAP. VIII The fourth plague the encrease of the heat of the Sun denoting the encrease of the Papal Authority which had almost utterly ruin'd the World and the Church The fifth plague is the desolation of ROME when the Pope retreated to Avignon and the diminution of the papal Authority by the grand Schisme of the West v. 8. ANd the fourth Angel pour'd out his viol upon the Sun and power was given to him to scorchmen with fire v. 9. And men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God who hath power over those plagues and they repented not to give him glory This is the fourth plague in which we see the Sun. 'T is known and confess'd by all who know any thing of prophecies dreams and visions that the Heavens What is the Sun of the Antichristian Empire the Sun the constellations and the Stars are emblems of dignities and grandeurs on earth and the image does bear a lively resemblance for the Heavens are the superior region of the World from whence good and bad Influences do come and supream Authority is the heaven of the lower World from whence both good and evil proceed great dignities are like constellations in Societies The Sun always signifies the Soveraign and the Stars inferior Magistrates Before in the sixth Chapter the fall of the Empire of Rome Pagan and of the imperial dignity is represented to us by the same images Chap. 6 12 13. And the Sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the Moon became as blood and the Stars of heaven fell unto the earth This is a thing which admits not any dispute The Sun of the Antichristian Kingdom is the Pope That the Antichristian Kingdom is treated of here is generally agreed to therefore it cannot be doubted that the Sun is the Soveraign of this Kingdom The heat and beams are the instruments by which the Sun operates 'T is by his beams that he quickens warms
persons that they might be taken notice of will yet affirm that not so much as one of these seven plagues is hitherto come to pass This singularity is neither too edifying nor too comfortable I earnestly entreat them to lay aside the desire of contradicting and to consider without prejudice these two things First that in the whole explication of this 16th Chapter there is not the least forced application the Emblems which the Prophet makes use of do exactly resemble the events set down in History The second that in the application of these seven plagues unto the events every thing does hang together no part of this System contradicts another This being supposed I entreat them to consider if chance can do this and hath ever done it chance may hit right in some points but never does so in all I say again that we are at the end of the seventh period for it ought to be well observed that there is not one viol which distinct and seperated from others lasts 200 years the greatest part does not come near that number This hath already lasted 170 years it cannot last much longer 'T is true the papal authority whose beams so scorched men under the fourth viol lasted above 200 years but this was because it was inlayd or jointed in those that preceded and those that followed And its particular strict period must be reckon'd to be onely 108 years which begun at the year 1270 when the Croisades ended and continued untill the grand Schisme which happen'd in the year 1378. for then began the diminishing of the papal authority and the darkning of the Kingdom of the Beast The seventh viol hath already lasted longer then any of the rest and 't is probable that it must last about 200 years which none of the others hath done but we shall see the reason of this in the next Chapter where we shall shew that this seventh period is it self divided into three other periods the harvest the vintage and the time that is betwixt the harvest and the vintage The harvest is already past the time betwixt the harvest and the vintage is almost expired we are approaching to the vintage and at this day ought to say Come Lord Jesus come but within a little while we shall say He is come he is come CHAP. XI The explication of the 14th Chapter The vision of the harvest and the vintage the harvest of the Reformation made in the age last past the vintage is the Reformation which shall be made this present age THe fourteenth Chapter is the second of those wherein we find the circumstances of the fall of the Babylonian Kingdom In the beginning of the Chapter we find the 140 thousand marked ones who are the same with the two witnesses whom we shall discourse of hereafter the small number of faithful ones whom God preserved in spiritual Babylon and who did not partake of her Idolatries We find them I say who sing a song which none was able to learn but they i. e. they tast peculiar joyes and pleasures which the Antichristian Christians were notable to taste In the following verses an Angelappears flying in the midst of heaven Chap. 14.6 having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people This is the preparative unto that preaching of the Gospel which must be made to all Nations when the Antichristian Kingdom shall be ablosht This preaching is said to be of the everlasting Gospel because it shall last untill the end of the world All Nations shall be converted and their purity shall suffer no alteration as long as the world shall last And to signify that the Kingdom of Antichrist shall fall through the preaching of this everlasting Gospel immediately after another Angel cryes Babylon is fallen is fallen that great City Which proves that in the vision that follows the harvest and the vintage are the two parts of the fall of the Babylonian Kingdom The persecution of the Waldenses Albigenses foretold in the 14th Chap. vers 9.10 11. In the third place we have in this Chapter an Angle who denounces the terrible judgments of God that must fall on those who worship the Beast and his image and receive his mark in their foreheads or in their hands And at the same time by these words here is the patience of the Saints is signified a sore persecution that must go before the fall of Antichrist not that persecution which we suffer at this day and which must be the last but that which the Church endured in the Waldenses the Albigenses the Bohemians c. For this is the persecution which happen'd before the Reformation of the last age because the fall of Babylon which is spoken of in this Chapter begins by the Reformation made in the last age Therefore the persecution here spoken of must be that which went before our Reformation but there is no other besides that against the poor Waldenses which lasted a full 100 years before the preaching of Luther All these things are onely a preparative unto the last vision of this Chapter which contains a new prediction of the fall of Antichrist with new circumstances and 't is this V. 14. And I lookt and behold a white could and upon the cloud one sate like unto the son of man having on his head a golden crown and in his hand a sharp sickle V. 15. And another Angel came out of the Temple crying with a loud voyce to him that sate on the cloud Thrust in thy sickle and reap for the time is come for thee to reap for the harvest of the earth is ripe V. 16. And he that sate on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth and the earth was reaped V. 17. And another Angel came out of the Temple which is in Heaven he also having a sharp sickle V. 18. And another Angel came out from the Altar which had power over fire and cryed with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle saying Thrust in thy sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth for her grapes are fully ripe V. 19. And the Angel thrust in his sickle into the earth and gather'd the vine of the earth and cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of God. V. 20. And the wine-press was trodden without the city and blood came out of the wine-press even unto the horse bridles by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs A distinction of circumstances and substance in this vision In this vision there are circumstances and substance the circumstances are these the Angel who sits on a white cloud and his cloathing another Angel who bids him thrust in his sickle another Angel who appears likewise having asickle the ripeness of the corn and grapes the wine-press of the wrath of God the blood that flows out by the space of 1600 furlongs These I
Among the considerations laid down by me in the Preface which induce me to believe that this persecution is the last I mention'd the singularities of it I named several such Behold one which in my judgement deserves to be added to the rest 'T is the horrible Edict which commands that the new Converts being sick shall communicate after the popish way This is the worst effect that ever was produced by the spirit of rage and reprobation And 't is not conceivable how a Clergy that will be called Christian can do such horrible actions The Edict ordains that they who will not communicate shall be sent to the Galleys if they recover There is none who is so mortally sick that is sure that he shall dye and fearing to recover he will also fear to go to the Gallies and this affrighting object is able to induce a sick man to communicate without faith and to worship that which he judgeth to be a piece of bread that is to say to commit a horrible sacriledge and an act of Idolatry and consequently to damn himself certainly So that properly this Edict is a trick of the Clergy to procure the damnation of all the new Converts This is perfectly to imitate that Italian who that he might take a compleat vengeance having his enemy in his power promis'd him his life on condition that he would deny God which having done he murther'd both his body and soul Will men never open their eyes to behold such objects as these The Reformation is foretold by three figures signifying three Methods And the spirit of life from God entred into them These words teach us how the Reformation shall be re-establisht in France for in these Prophecies I find three ways by which the Truth is establisht or re-establisht The first is by lightnings voyces and thunders thus after the seventh viol was pour'd on the air the Reformation in the last Age was made by lightnings voyces and thunders i. e. by the preaching of the Divine Oracles And the seventh Angel pour'd out his viol into the air and there were voyces and lightnings and thunders In this Prophecy thunders always signify the Divine Oracles The seven thunders that uttered their voyces in the tenth Chapter are the Oracles of God which ought to be uttered in the sequel Thus the Reformation was made in the last Age in a most sensible manner by the preaching of the word The Reformation shall come into France by way of internal grace But behold a second way of reforming A Spirit of life from God enters again into the dead Witnesses i. e. those who are at this day under oppression shall suddenly rise up again by a secret operation of grace and an extraordinary motion not by the means of preaching the word not by the ministry of some new Preachers but by a heavenly operation that shall open the eyes of them who are as yet in darkness and strengthen again the hearts of those who at this day have fallen through weakness At that time in all appearance the yoke of the Persecutor shall be broken a time of ease shall come and all those who at this day groan under the Captivity of Babylon shall lift up their heads and shall improve that season of calm to repair that which they are now forced to do by violence 'T is these words signify a Spirit of life from God not from any man nor by the ministry of any man but from God entred into them and their zeal was enlivened again But things shall not stay there God is preparing other wonders There is a third Reformation which shall be set on foot by way of Authority by the Royal power and this is expressed in the words that follow And the Witnesses heard a great voyce from heaven saying unto them Come up hither and they ascended up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies beheld them What heaven and lifting up to heaven signify in the Prophecies In the style of the Prophets heaven and lifted up to heaven is the Throne and to be exalted to dignity greatness and power even in the language of heathen Prophets for Apomasar in his Apostelismata insomniorum saith If a King dreams that he sits upon the clouds and is carried where ever he pleaseth this signifies that his enemies shall serve him But if he fancieth that he is carried up to heaven where the stars are this presages that he shall be lift up above all Kings The Prophets of God do also make use of these representations to signify the same thing Isa 14.13 Isaiah describes the exaltation of the King of Babylon by an ascending up into heaven I will ascend into heaven I will exalt my Throne above the stars And Jesus Christ saith of Capernaum that she had been lift up unto heaven but should be brought down unto hell 'T is therefore evident that God does here signify that some time after these three years and a half of death the Reformation shall be lifted up to a great glory but not every where 't is only in that place which is called the street of the great City and is after called the tenth part of the City for the total destruction of the Antichristian Kingdom must not happen untill some years afterward There will shortly be a Reformation in France by the Royal Authority And after These words signify that when the Reformation shall be establisht again in France by way of Divine immediate operation by which the zeal of the Apostates and of others who know the truth but with-hold it in unrighteousness shall be quickned again some space of time shall pass probably some years before France shall wholly throw off the yoke of popery That Kingdom shall not be entirely Reformed by way of Authority immedately after out Reformation shall be again set on foot by way of inspiration and recovering of zeal For and after signifies an interval of time but whether it shall be short or long is not expressed notwithstanding I see no likelihood that it shall be very long nor do I believe so They heard a great voyce from heaven Yet once again Heaven is the Throne 't is the Soveraign dignity which in a State is exactly the same that Heaven is to the Earth in light in lustre in good or bad influences in scituation and in elevation From Heaven i.e. from Authority and the Prince who reigns they heard a voyce they received an order not a small clandestinsilent voyce but a great voyce i.e. a publick command a solemn Edict and this voyce said to them Come up hither Then the Truth shall get up into the Throne and as God hath contrary to all probability given a popish Prince to England so God will give a Protestant Prince to France in spight of all oppositions of the Papists And the ascended up to heaven in a cloud i.e. Their elevation and that of the Reformed Religion shall be made publickly as the
whose number 't is not easie to define and which the Holy Ghost denotes by the number seven which is the number of perfection to signify that the orders of Monks and Nuns shall perish for ever This is an Institution so degenerated from its first Original that 't is become the arm of Antichrist These orders cannot perish one without another If any will have it that these seven thousand slain signifie that there shall be bloodshed it shall not be great for the number seven put for an indifinite number never signifies a great one De Launay is very much mistaken when he sayes that the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal â— King. 19.18 signified a great multitude on the contrary the signified a very small number indeed the number was so small that Elijah did not know of them he sayd I am left alone The Kings of France at this day do lift their authority so high that nothing can resist it 'T is therefore probable The authority of the Kings of Francs shall prevail over the ruling Religion that every thing will bend under the yoke of their Will when they shall resolve to break with Rome and it seems as if the Providence of God was preparing the way unto this thing by the Clergies Declaration confirmed by that of the King viz. that Kings depend on none in any thing which concerns Temporals and that 't is never lawful to deny obedience to them upon a pretext of Religion For if this be once fixed when ever it shall please the Kings of France to forsake the Communion of Rome by this Principle of the present Bishops it cannot be allowed that the People should rebell against them I look on that which is happened in England as another preparation unto this Event A King of a Religion contrary to that of the State reigns peaceably the reason is that Providence will accustome the subjects to pay subjection to Princes who are enemies of the Ruling Religion And the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven This is the total conversion and reformation of the tenth part of the City i.e. of the Kingdom of France that shall quickly follow after the Kings of France shall have broken with the Bishop of Rome V. 14. The second Wo is past and behold she third Wo cometh quickly namely the second of the three Woes which had been denounced after the sound of the fourth Trumpet Chap. 8.13 And I heard an Angel flying through the midst of Heaven crying with a loud voyce Wo wo wo to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voyces of the Trumpet which are yet to sound The first of these three woes was the Grashoppers Saracens denoted by Grashoppers who came up out of the bottomless pit with their Head Apollyon and in Hebrew Ahaddon These Grashoppers are plainly the Saracens Chap. 14. Arabians with their Head Mahomet The second Wo is the domination of the Turks who passed from the other side of Euphrates at the sound of the sixth Trumpet And the third Wo is the fall of the Antichristan Empire These three great events deserve to be distinguisht from all others for they have changed or shall change the whole face of the world And the seventh Angel sounded c. this which follows concerns the Kingdom or reign of Iesus Christ and the Church and consequently must be reserved to another place CHAP. XIV Observations upon the 17 18 19. Chapters of the Revelation concerning the fall of Antichrist's Kingdom A brief Methodizing of the events which the Holy Ghost had displaced in the Visions THe seventeenth Chapter contains something that relates to the destruction of Antichrists Kingdom V. 16. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast these shall hate the whore and make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire V. 17. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and give their Kingdom unto the beast untill the words of God shall be fulfilled There 's nothing in this passage that hath not been opened or is obscure 'T is clear that these Kings who through ignorance or weakness suffer'd their power to be usurped by the Empire of the papacy shall take it again they shall eat her flesh i.e. shall enrich themselves with her benefices revenues and burn her with fire i.e. shall abolish the the memory of this Romish Empire so that nothing but ashes shall remain of it The 18th Chapter is a long description of the ruin of the Antichristian and Babylonian Empire I have no need to enter into this Chap. because I find nothing in it of that which I principally seek which is those certain characters which can inform us of the time of this fall namely whether it be night at hand or afar off There is nothing there concerning it except that which is general As to this Chapter I will say only First We must remember the remarque which hath been often made by us that Babylon here does not signify strictly the City of Rome as most have imagined 'T is the whole Babylonian Empire as appears from these words Come out of Babylon my people I do not think that any great number of Gods people hath come out of the City of Rome hitherto we have not seen it My second remarque is we must not as is usually done over much press the mystical sense of divers merchandises which are reckon'd up and were sold it that City I do not believe VVe must not over much seelt mysteries in the particular merchandises of Babylon that there is any other mystery in this thing than that this Babylonian Empire being set forth under the Emblem of a great City it was necessary to represent it as a City of great commerce for that is inseperable from great Cities Not but that these merchandises and the many instruments of Luxury and pleasures which are said to have been in this City do not very fitly signify and according to the design of the Holy Ghost both the Simony and debaucheries of this corrupted Church in the general But I believe not that 't is necessary to enquire particularly what is meant for example by the silk the precious stones the fine linnen c. The burning of Babylon must not be understood literally My Third Observation upon this 18th Chapter is we must not interpret literally the Metaphors of burning fire blood and slaughter which the Holy Ghost set before us Certainly these are not the Methods which God makes use of to establish his Kingdom I think indeed as I have already said that God will suffer Rome to be sackt as he suffer'd Jerusalem to be I further believe that this great change in Religion will not be made without blood shed as it hapned in the last age But seeing the City in this Chapter and generally in the Revelation take in
14 15 16 c. Thus saith the Lord the labour of Egypt and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans men of stature shall come over unto thee and they shall be thin they shall come after thee in chains they shall come over and they shall fall down unto thee they shall make supplication unto thee saying Surely God is in thee there is none else c. v. 23 25. I have sworn by my self the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto me every knee shall bow every tongue shall swear In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and glory In the 49. Chapter throughout and especially from the thirteenth Verse Sing O Heaven and be joyfull O Earth and break forth into singing O mountains for God hath comforted his people and will have mercy upon his afflicted But Sion hath said the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me Can a woman forget her sucking child c. Thy children shall make haste and thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee Lift up thine eyes round about and behold all these gather themselves together and come to thee as I live saith the Lord thou shalt surely cloath thee with them all as with an ornament and bind them on thee as a Bride doth c. Then shalt thou say in thy heart who hath begotten me these seeing I have lost my children and am desolate a captive and removing to and fro and who hath brought up these Behold I was left alone these where had they been c. And Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and Queens thy nursing mothers and they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth and lick up the dust of thy feet and thou shalt know that I am the Lord for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me One might transcribe the whole Prophet for he is filled with these great promises Read the 54 the 61 the 65 the 66 and above all the 60 Chapter where he speaks to Ierusalem Arise shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee For behold the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people but the Lord shall arise upon thee his glory shall be seen upon thee And the Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising Lift up thine eyes round about and see all they gather themselves together they come to thee thy sons shall come from far and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side Then thou shalt see and flow together and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged because the abundance of the Sea shall be converted unto thee and the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee c. And the sons of the strangers shall build up thy walls and their Kings shall minister unto thee for in my wrath I smote thee but in my favour have I had mercy on thee All the rest of the Chapter hath the same strength and the same sense These Oracles can't be applyed to the resettling of this people after the Babylonian captivity We ask when these Oracles have been fulfilled was it when this people was brought back out of the Babylonian captivity But how can any man speak at this rate what extravagant figures would these be Because this people rebuilt the City of Ierusalem and the Temple and formed a petty State in Syria under the Maccabees could any one say that their Empire should be as large as the whole world that all the Kings of the earth should pay them homage that their children should be without number c Besides have not all these Oracles a Character of spirituality which shews us that God promiseth to give the Iews light knowledge holiness righteousness Thy people also shall be all righteous saith the Prophet But 't is well known the government of the Maccabees was not of this nature 'T is therefore certain yea 't is owned by all that are able to pierce into the spirit of the Prophets that all these blessings have relation unto the times of the Messiah Let any one tell us what blessings the Nation of the Iews hath received by the Messiah These Oracles have not been accomplisht since the coming of the Messiah For almost two thousand years this miserable Nation is scatter'd throughout the Earth it is the excrement the curse off-scouring of all it sighs under a long and cruel captivity Matters shall they then go off thus the end of the World will come the Iews shall perish in their miseries If this be so certainly all these Prophecies are cheats the Holy Spirit hath deceived this Nation all their Oracles are false and God hath born them up with vain hopes for this is trifling with God and men to say that these promises were accomplisht in that small number of Iews who were converted to Christianity When those Iewish Christians were so bad Christians that they only served to found a cursed heresy and sect which hath born the name of Ebionates and Nazarens 'T will without doubt be said that the Iews shall have the fulfilling the these great promises through their return and calling which will be at the end of the World. Indeed 't is a Position in true Christianity that the Iews shall be called again A thousand Oracles some of which we have cited promise this The Miracle by which God doth preserve this Nation proveth it as I think most irresistably For lastly 't is a thing that hath no example and cannot be imagined that God should for two thousand years preserve this people scatter'd among other Nations yet without mixing it self with them or learning their manners their Religions their fashions which all other dispersed Nations do This plainly speaks that God preserves them for some great work Now this being supposed that the Iews shall be converted if presently after the World shall end and if neither the present Iews nor their posterity do enjoy the glorious advantages that are promised to them how shall they see the effects and accomplishment of so many Oracles Here are infinite millions of souls of Iews which perish for seventeen hundred years together only a small number of this people shall be saved in the last years of the World. Is this enough to answer those great Idea's raised by the magnificent promises made to this Nation The Messiah was promised to the Jews and hitherto he hath only brought evil upon them Besides we must observe that the Messiah belongs to the Iews he was promised to the Iews this Nation from its very original hath been fed with the hopes of the Mesiah's coming as of such a good which was too great to be described At last he comes and this people instead of seeing those great promises accomplisht sees their Temple burnt their capital City razed their Service abolisht their
first Subject They say 't is the Kingdom of the Father we pray for i. e. of the Heavenly Paradise the Eternal Kingdom But we need only read what follows in the Lords prayer to be assured that it must be understood of a Kingdom upon earth Thy Name be hallowed Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven That clause on Earth as in Heaven is common to all three Petitions Thy Kingdom come upon Earth as it is already come in Heaven 'T is reasonable to think that God hath reserv'd a time for the Kingdom of grace which hath not yet 12-ken place So great a difficulty have these Gentlemen the Antimillenaries to conceive a Kingdom of God upon earth and for my own part I find as great a one not to conceive it How can we reconcile it to the wisdom and goodness of God to have abandon'd and forsaken the World thorowout all the duration of it without preserving a certain time in that duration for himself and his own Kingdom Now when was it that God did reign in the world by his Kingdom of grace It was not in the first World before the Flood where wickedness prevailed to that degree that obliged him to destroy it by the Deluge It was not in the Time from Noah to Moses for in those Ages Idolatry sprung up increas't and multiplied Much less in those Ages from Moses to Iesus Christ for the Devil reigned every where oftentimes not excepting that little corner of the Earth which God had reserved to himself It is not from the Appearance of Christ to that of Antichrist for saving about one hundred years since the Emperors were Christians Paganism hath always been uppermost and the prevailing Religion It cannot be since the birth of Antichrist for the 1260 years of his reign are the Empire of the Beast and of the Dragon and this will lead us even to the end of the World according to these Gentlemen And the course of the World will be finisht and God and his Kingdom of Grace have found no place in it I confess that in all ages God hath saved some persons but that is not to Reign for Truth and Grace have never yet ruled and been uppermost They never had the Empire the number and the multitude of their side The number of wicked and worldly men hath always carried it How much more reasonable then is it to conceive that God after having abandon'd six periods to the World and the Dragon hath at least reserved one seventh to himself wherein Truth and Grace shall rule and prevail whereas in the other preceding they have been supprest The conversion of the nations and of the Iews shall form the Kingdom of Christ I find nothing more odd and singular than the Hypothesis of these Gentlemen They acknowledge that all the Nations hitherto under Infidelity shall be converted St. Paul hath expresly said it in the eleventh Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans according to them also the Iews are to be converted Behold the fairest Empire of Grace which can be imagined why should we make it fall assoon as it is raised and make the World it self to end soon after Is it not more reasonable to conceive that God will preserve the Church in that glorious state for several ages to injoy as it were the fruit of his Labours and see the Intelligible World compleated and brought to its perfection Since the Iews the fullness of the Gentiles are to be brought in to J. Christ as all the World grants is it not reasonable that in that period of the re-union of all People that they who have been an holy People to whom we owe the Patriarchs and the sacred Oracles for observe it there is no one book of the N. Testament any more then of the Old but was made by a Iew is it not just I say that that Nation should then have the Pre-eminence above all other Nations There is then in my opinion a Kingdom of God to be expected and this Kingdom is that of the Messiah the Kingdom of the Iews The Reign of the Messiah which is not yet come for to speak properly we cannot say that Christ hath hitherto reigned upon Earth His party as yet hath been in no place or part of the World the prevailing ruling Party the wheat hath been always buried in the Tares The Kingdom of the Iews promised by the Prophets so often and in so many different manners And these two Kingdoms that of the Messiah and that of the Iews are to take place at the same time 'T is true we may compute the beginning of Christ's Kingdom from the fall of the Kingdom of Antichrist and 't is manifest that from that point God will reckon the thousand years Nevertheless the Kingdom of Christ cannnot be well said to be come till all Nations shall be converted now the Iews are not to be converted till the last of all People J. Christ hath not yet reigned upon earth in a proper sense Ioseph Mede hath a reflection thereupon which I confess I am pleased with 'T is but a Conjecture but I find it to be very well framed 'T is this that the Conversion of St. Paul a zealous and bigotted Iew in the highest degree is the Type of the future conversion of the whole Nation 1. He was a great zealot for the Law and a furious Persecutor of Christianity The Iews are also very zealous for Moses and irreconcileable enemies to Iesus Christ 2. Paul was converted not as other men The conversion of S. Pauls a type of that of the Iewish nation by the bare preaching of the Gospel and the sight of Miracles but by the glorious appearing of Christ to him from Heaven 'T is likewise very probable that the Conversion of the Iews will not be in an ordinary way as by preaching for the Hearts of that People are under an invincible obduracy So that 't is likely that Christ will convert them by some glorious and surprizing apparition and will appear clothed with those Characters the Prophets have given him that they may no longer be able to disown and refuse him 3. Those who accompanied St. Paul saw indeed the Light but Christ did not appear to them the Gentiles and Christians who shall then be may have some part in that glorious Apparition but it may be shall not see it all 4. Paul was instructed by way of inspiration in all Mysteries assoon as Iesus Christ had appear'd to him The Iews shall have their minds inlightned and the vail which is now on their hearts shall be taken away and on a sudden shall see clearly into the Oracles of their Law and Prophets 5. St. Paul was the last of the Apostles who was converted the Iews will be called the last of all People 6. Paul after Conversion was the most zealous of any the Iews when converted shall be the most affectionate and zealous of all Christians 7. St. Paul
tear out the very heart of the sacred Scriptures in the Mysteries and Divine depths therein and leave it nothing but a bare superficies Let us give but two Examples of this Maxim of the Cabalists that God hath imprinted a seal of himself and of his Mysteries which reacheth to all matters The first is that of the Trinity of Persons in a unity of essence whereof we have a lively image in the World of Spirits by the essence intelligence and will which is found in every Spirit whether separate or united with matter and another lively image of it in the three dimensions of matter longitude latitude and profundity which are three distinct dimensions and yet make but one only and most simple extension The other instance is in the mystery of the Incarnation and the personal union of the Divine uncreated nature with the humane a mystery whereof we see a lively image in the Incarnation of those souls which God unites with matter These things deserve very well to be thought of Besides that the Holy Ghost hath sufficiently declared himself concerning these Mysteries He hath shown us one part that we may imagine the rest He saith that the light of the first day is the image of that Action whereby God causeth the light to shine in the darkness of our ignorance The Scripture calls our Lord the Sun of Righteousness by allusion to the Sun in the Heavens a second Adam with reference to the Creation of the first Adam the marriage of Adam and Eve an image of Christ and his Church Heaven is called Paradise by allusion to the Earthly Paradise In a word there are an hundred things in the work of Creation whereof no natural reason can be given there must be some therefore which are mysterious Why for instance did God create a Chaos before he put in order the several parts of the world why he rank't them all in six days time no more or less why he created not the Sun but on the fourth day why the Plants were created before the Sun and why the Fishes and Brids before the Beasts of the field 2. Principle the sensible World an image of the intelligible II. Our second Principle is this that the sensible World is the image of the Intelligible and this Intelligible World is not a World of Platonic Idea's 'T is in the Church where every thing is to be met with by analogy that is found in the sensible World. There is an Heaven there is an intelligible Sun which is God there are Spirits which are the intelligible Stars there is an Earth Plants Fruits and also wild Beasts enemies of this World. The Scripture leads us by the hand in these paths by the continual use of figures borrowed from the sensible World to signify those parts of the intelligible one From this principle we may conclude that the creation of the sensible World is the image and Type of the Creation of the intelligible World. And consequently that the Creation of the World is the Image of the different degrees by which God hath made his Church to pass through to bring it to perfection 3. Principle God divided the times into several periods III. Our third Principle is this that in every System composed of Events there are several Periods to be considered This is the Spirit of the Prophets God divided the times into seven Trumpets seven Seals and seven Viols Upon this Principle it cannot be doubted but the seven days of the Creation are as many Periods of this Intelligible World through which they are to pass to arrive a perfection 4. Principle the same images ought every where to signify the same mysteries IV. My fourth Principle is this that the H. Ghost ought constantly to fix the same Mysteries to the same Images in all the parts of the Creation For Example the Waters should every where be the same thing and signify the same Mystery which is a Principle that was not at all heeded by Placaeus In one place he makes the Waters to be Sin in another to be the Passions well ordered and gathered together in Christ In a third place 't is meant of the Heart sanctified and serving God 't is a fault that is most obvious and which alone is sufficient to prove that he had no System that they were only loose thoughts which shined separately but did not mutually illustrate each other The fifth Principle the mystery must not destroy the Letter V. I will add a fifth Principle that in this Mystery we should not as some do destroy the History There is nothing more dangerous if a man gives himself the liberty to deny matters of fact and to turn all into pure allegory there then remains nothing certain in the Scripture Libertins may then doubt of the whole and we shall no longer be able to distingnish those places where the relation must be taken according to the Letter from those where the Letter shall be false and where there is nothing but mystery We must suppose the Type to be in the matters of fact if the Events prove false the Type is null These Principles being laid down I thus form my System The Creation of the sensible World being an Image of the Creation of the intelligible World we must divide the time in which God hath formed the Church into seven Periods but those seven Periods are not precisely distinguisht each of them to contain a thousand years as hath been formerly supposed from those words of St. Peter a thousand years with the Lord are as one day There is some difficulty in the division of those Periods and after having well condered it I divide them thus 1. The first Period is from Adam to Abraham which is almost two thousand years 2. The second is from Abraham to Moses which is between four and five hundred years 3. The third Period is from Moses to Iesus Christ which it between fourteen and fifteen hundred years 4. The fourth is from Iesus Christ to the rise of Antichrist that is between four and five hundred years 5. The fifth is from the rise of Antichrist to his Completion that is between five and six hundred years 6. The sixth is from Antichrist compleat to his Destruction which is between seven and eight hundred years 7. The seventh and last is from the Ruin of Antichrist to the end of the World this will be about a thousand years The great inequality that there is between these several Periods as to their duration ought not to make any difficulty We must not reckon things according to the time but compute the time according to the things The time wherein nothing is done is reckon'd for nothing The Periods of the Church must be computed by the great changes which have therein happened Now 't is exactly in these six points that the Church hath changed its face From Adam untill Abraham there was no change in the face of the Church by
superior Waters which were the family of the Patriarchs were nothing in comparison with the rest of mankind And hereby we have the reason why in that great work of the Creation God would make so much account of so small a matter as the Clouds are in nature even to assign a perticular day for their creation 'T is because they were the Image of the families of the Patriarchs who were very inconsiderable for their number but yet were to make so great a figure in the History of the Church 6. The superior Waters were little or nothing as to their extension but had this advantage above the waters which were beneath that they were near Heaven so the families of the Patriarchs little in number had this advantage to be admitted to secret and special communion with God. He conversed with the Patriarchs as a man with his intimate friend 7. The Clouds are lifted up to so high a place by the rays of the Sun and the attraction of Heaven the families of the Patriarchs were advanc't to that glory of being distinguisht from all others by the mercy of God. 8. The Clouds are the fruitfull springs whence proceed the rain the fruitfullness and blessing of the Earth God would make the Patriarchs the springs of blessing to the Church In thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed Therefore the Iews did always in their prayers make mention of the Covenant made with Abraham Isaac and Iacob 9. God put the Firmament or Expansum between the upper and lower Waters 't is that large vacuity of Misery and sin which separates the World from the Church 10. From the Clouds 't is easy to fall into the lower Waters but the Waters which are beneath rise with difficulty to the Clouds The fall is easy from the Church to the world and sin but 't is difficult to pass from the world to the Church In the third day was made a perfect separation of the waters i. e. that work of the separation of the Waters was finisht and this is the reason why God blessed not the work of the second day We must not look for a Mystery in that or imagine that on that account the waters must needs signify sin God blessed not the work which he had not yet finisht We find no Benediction in the second day but to make amends we meet with two in the third for those words and God saw that it was good are repeated twice 't is because in that third day we find two works the compleating the separation of the waters is one and the Creation of Plants another and God said Let the waters that be under the Heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry Land appear 'T is an image of a perfect separation of People into one place i. e. into the World which is a great and vast abyss full of darkness and impurity into that I say let the Waters run there let the reprobate People gather together 2. And let the dry Land appear the holy People who till now had appeared mixt with the men of the World let them appear seperate from all other People 3. The World is represented by the Sea the Church by the Earth and dry Land so since that time in the stile of the Prophets and of Preachers the Sea hath always been an image of the World. The Ark of Noah which floated on the waters of the Deluge is the Emblem of the Church beaten by the waters of this world Jesus Christ sleeping in the Ship which was tost by a Tempest is the Image of the Church where Christ seems to be asleep while she is beaten and afflicted by the World. 4. The Sea is the habitation of Monsters the world is the residence of the wicked where we may see Monsters of covetousness of Ambition of Impurity and violence The greatest Animals upon Earth are not to be compared with those which live in the waters There are disorders to be found in the Church 't is true but they are nothing in comparison with those which are in the world 5. The face of the Waters is barren and produceth nothing whereas the superficies of the Earth is fruitfull The World doth inwardly nourish Monsters and in its outside produceth no solid good or true vertue 6. The Earth is the Synagogue of the ancient Church she is incompast with waters on all sides the People and Nations of the World. 7. She is continually afflicted by them and if we regard the violence of the waves one would think she should be overwhelmed 8. Nevertheless she stands her ground and remains victorious 9. The waters of the Sea have no setled foundation they are always in motion but the Earth is fixt the People of the world are unstable always changing The Church is a Land that hath its roots in the foundation of the world in God's eternal decrees 10. The Sea makes a frightfull object especially in a Tempest but the Earth presents our eyes with an agreeable diversity of Mountains and Hills of Trees and Flowers of Fruits and Blossoms The world is a deformed spectacle by reason of its disorders and uniformity of its faults But the Church shows us an agreeable diversity of gifts greater and less of vertues of good works of good Fruits for the Plants and Fruits are to the Earth that which vertues and good works are to the Church The Plants have their roots in the bowels of the Earth they appear on the outside of it they serve for ornament and use and need the kind influences of Heaven to make them grow All this agrees well to the vertues and good works of the Church God said Let the Earth bring forth Grass as if the Earth produced Plants by its own vertues 't is because he will have us act as if our vertues proceeded from our selves as if we were the Authors of 'em that he might thence take occasion to reward us for ' em But among the Plants of the Earth which are thus good usefull there are some hurtfull ones some poisons among the good Fruits of the Church there are some wicked works 12. Lastly the nearer any Land is to the Sun the better its Fruits the nearer any Church to God the Sun of Righteousness the better its works CHAP. XXII Explication of the Mysteries of the four last days of the Creation THe fourth day answers to the fourth Period of the Church 1. In this fourth day God created the Sun the Moon and the Stars 'T is easy to take notice therein of Christ the Sun of Righteousness of the Church who derives all her Light from the Sun and the of Teachers of the Christian Church which are as the Stars of the Intelligible World. This alone should open all mens eyes and make it evident that we ought to search after the Church throughout the whole work of Creation for this is the Key of the whole Mystery This fourth Period is from Iesus
In the sixth Period near the end whereof we now are God will compleat his Church by the ruin of Antichrist and bring the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth to its perfection This should be well remembred that the Church in the Type of the Creation appears under four Emblems 1. As the Earth buried and covered under waters 2. As a dry Land above the waters and bearing fruit 3. As a Moon inlightened by the Sun. 4. And lastly as the Woman And our Lord Jesus appears there under three Emblems 1. As the Light of the first day without or before the Sun. 2. As the Sun. 3. Under the Emblem of the Man. The Church in her first state before the Law was as the Earth under water she was obscure and as it were buried among the Nations In her second state under the Law she was as a discovered Land distinguisht and known and bearing fruit but yet she was but Earth i. e. not very considerable In her third state under the Gospel she appears as a Moon a rival of the Sun imitating his Light and therein she is more glorious than the Earth This is the Apostolical Church so glorious and full of knowledge In the fourth state she appears as the woman taken out of the side of Adam closely united with him being one Body and one Flesh 'T is in the last Period that she shall be more united to Christ than before In the fourth Period she is as the Moon and notwithstanding the nearest approaches of the Sun there remain vast distances between them But towards the end of the sixth Period and throughout the seventh her union unto Christ shall be immediate and intimate as that of a Wife with her Husband therefore the Church in this seventh Period is represented as a Spouse which was to be brought to the Lamb. On the other hand Jesus Christ appears under three Emblems In the fourth Period as a Sun which scatters the darkness of Idolatry Paganism and Ignorance that covered the face of the Earth This Sun is plac't in the fourth point just in the middle of the seven to let us know that he is the Center of the Church the Sun which gives light before and behind to the preceding Ages and to those which follow him Towards the end of the sixth Period and throughout the seventh he is A man to whom God gives dominion over the Fowls of the Air the Fish of the Sea and creeping things and four-footed Beasts i. e. That Christ in this last Period shall be Lord and King who shall rule over the Birds tame the boldest and most aspiring spirits who mount even unto the Heavens he shall humble them and keep 'em within the bounds of their duty over the Fish of the Sea to deliver'em from their corruption over Creeping things to destroy the influence of their poison over wild Beasts to tame their fierceness and render them meek as Lambs In the first day Jesus Christ was figured but by a dim Light because in the first Period of the Church he vouchsaf't her but a very imperfect knowledge of himself This methinks is the Mystery of the six days which way well serve as a favourable omen in reference to the seventh day The mystery of the seventh day of the Creation because every thing therein seems to accord well what then is wanting to the World after the works of the six daye to render it perfect Holiness and Rest and these are the two Things which God added on the seventh day Holiness for he Sanctified the seventh day and thereby the rest of the World. Rest for till then God had been at work and the World in Motion Now God gave the World that Rest which it wanted in that he himself rested on the seventh day All this is an admirable Emblem of our seventh Period for the sake whereof all this explication of the Type of the Worlds Creation hath been given During the six days God made the Church to pass through several changes he will bring it to perfection at the end of the sixth by the ruin of the Antichristian Kingdom and by the Conversion of all Nations What then is wanting to it Rest and Holiness Rest for hitherto she hath always been in toyl and Travel Holiness for she hath alway been imperfect We must therefore look for a seventh Period which shall be a Kingdom of Rest and Holiness wherein the Church shall no more be persecuted either by Fire and Sword or by Heresy and Idolatry wherein also there shall be a plentiful effusion of the H. Spirit to produce a great degree of Holiness and Sanctification among men This mystery shall be accomplisht upon Earth We must not say that the accomplishment of this Type will be found in Heaven where is Rest and Holiness and that therein is the mystery of the seventh day I say again that cannot be meant because this seventh Period must be of the same kind and order with the other six We even now observed that the Sun was created on the fourth day there are three days before and three after exactly in the middle of the seven to signify that Christ the Son of Righteousness is the Center of the intelligible World. If he be the Center of the seven Periods he must certainly have an equal reference to all the points of that Circumference Now what relation can he have to the seventh day if Eternity be meant by it In that Eternal abode Christ shall have no more the relation of a Center a Sun and a King. For St. Paul tells us that then God shall be all in all and Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom again to his Father Moreover 't is certain there ought to be a proportion between the seventh Period and the six fore-going ones Now there is none between Eternity and the duration of the Church upon Earth And lastly I am bold to say that the ancient Types were not establisht by God immediately to figure Heavenly Things but only the Graces and Favors of God in this World under the Kingdom of the Messiah You cannot show me any one of the ancient Types which hath an immediate relation to the glories of the Heavenly Paradise The marriage of Adam and Eve was the immediate Type of the Vnion between Christ and his Church in the Kingdom of his Grace It did only mediately typify their Vnion in the Kingdom of Glory By consequence this seventh day which all acknowledge to be Typical must have its immediate relation not to the Sabbath of the Church in Heaven but to its State of Rest upon Earth CHAP. XXIII A farther Confirmation of the future prosperity of the Church upon Earth The 21 and 22. Chap. of the Apocalypse interpreted that in those Chapters the Church is described as victorious upon Earth and not as Triumphant in Heaven WE may not pass from the Apocalyps without saying somewhat concerning the last Chapters If we needed another Head of Arguments to