Reign what he now hath it is as He is Jesus who was Crucified that He is made both Lord and Christ Acts 2. 36. And 't is the same thing for Him nay it may be more effectual to sit as King in his Throne in Heaven and from thence influence his Subjects by encouraging strengthning comforting and giving Success to what they undertake as if in Person He were to appear at Jerusalem and there begin his Kingdom to march at the Head of his Armies and so go on Conquering and to Conquer No his personal Reign in the Sense those who are so much for it would have it to be would be rather to lessen his Kingdom to confine the Glory of it to his Presence as Man i. e. Where he should chuse to reside on Earth for every where He could not be if He were so to Reign no we know when He was here Place and Time He was subject to which whilst He sits in Heaven at the Right-hand of his Father can be no more restrained than that Power and Majesty to which he is there admitted But I may not digress What manner of Kingdom soever it shall be that it shall be introduced with the Confusion of Antichrist that it shall bring Freedom and Deliverance to his People that it shall be ushered in with binding Satan for 1000 Years is no doubt Revel 20. 1 2 c. Happy Age of the Church when she shall be so set free from the heavy Yoak of Babylon as never to be in danger to come under it again For so likewise the Apostle assures us 2 Thess 2. 8. He shall consume him by the Spirit of his Mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming But then are there no other degrees of the fall of Babylon Is there nothing more particular whereon in the long tract of time Antichrist is to Reign and before he comes so near his Fall the true Believer may exercise his Faith and see that what is promised to be at last thus fully accomplished hath its Beginning in the mean time at least some certain Prognosticks of His final Ruin in its due Season Yes for that Reason it hath pleased Him who was found worthy to open the Book with seven Seals to give us a double Account hereof one more general the other more particular in the 14th and 16th Chapters of the Revelation And for the better satisfaction of the Author of Nubes Testium and all others who are under the same Cloud with him I shall not think it tedious to say something on both and then leave it to Them and all Mankind to judge where the charge of Novelty lies and how great their danger is on whom the Scandal rests The more general Account of this is what we read Revel 14. Where having provided for the security of true Believers by the Mark of his Father's Name written in their Foreheads vers 1. Thereby directing us to the pure Profession of the Faith maintained by them amidst the Corruptions embraced by those who worshipped the Beast and his Image and had received his Mark in their Forehead or their Hand vers 9. Exprest by their not being defiled with Women for they are Virgins by their following the Lamb whithersoever he goeth by their having no guile in their Mouth and being without Fault before the Throne of God vers 4 5. He proceeds vers 6. to shew what it was by which he would advance his Kingdom and that was the Everlasting Gospel to be Preached unto them that dwell on the Earth and to every Nation and Kindred and Tongue and People the effect whereof on Antichrist should be to declare his certain Ruin in these Words Babylon is fallen is fallen that great City because She made all Nations drink of the Wine of the Wrath or poison of her Fornication vers 8. This as the general Fate that should attend her which with respect to the several Advances towards it is farther described vers 9 10 11. By that constant Succession of God's Judgments on those who should worship the Beast and his Image and receive his Mark in their Forehead or their Hand for the smoak of their Torment was to ascend for Ever and Ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Age after another and they to have no rest Day nor Night never to be in any fixed state of Ease and Prosperity till the Divine Judgment the Hour whereof is said to be come ver 7. Shall be fully executed on them in their final Ruin And that again exprest in the two great Parts of it when He who sat on the white Cloud all things clear and serene about Him like unto the Son of Man having on his Head a golden Crown and in his Hand a sharp sickle shall first thrust in his Sickle to reap the Harvest and then to gather the Clusters of the Vine of the Earth The more particular is what we read Revel 16. And that too ushered in with the great Care God in his Providence hath for those who should have resisted the Corruptions of Antichrist who though they stand on the Sea of Glass mingled with Fire to signifie the sharp Tryals and Persecutions of the true Church yet 't was so as to be assured of Victory over the Beast and over his Image and over his Mark and over the number of his Name ch 15. 2. They had it all the time of their Sufferings as they were born up against these Corruptions should have it at last as they were to triumph over those their Enemies which had thus beset them which being presented to St. John in his Vision he is farther made to hear a great Voice out of the Temple saying to the seven Angels Go your ways and pour out the Vials of the Wrath of God upon the Earth chap. 16. 1. Which are what are now to be spoken to in their order Only before that can be done with that clearness such a Discourse as this should carry with it 't will be necessary we premise some previous Remarks CHAP. VIII Some Remarks necessary to be premised for the clearing up what will afterwards be said of the several Vials 1. THat as to the time of pouring out the Vials it cannot be till Antichrist should be so far advanced as to have made an Image to the Beast that had the wound by the Sword and did live Revel 13 14. And to have imposed his Mark though his name and number of his name were not then compleated for 't is on those who had received the Mark of his Name and worshipped his Image that the first Vial was to be poured out Rev. 16. 2. 2. That it is not necessary the Trumpets and Vials it being their several Objects and the distinct Capacities of those on whom they were to take place in which they chiefly differ should be all of them restrained to distinct times Some of the Trumpets undoubtedly had sounded before any of the Vials were to be poured
Franckford under Carolus Magnus Anno 794 wherein the aforesaid Council was condemned and the Worship of Images rejected which joined with what is above observed of the Iconoclastae i. e. the West herein as well as the East thus far at least witnessing against this so gross Corruption leaves it to be considered whether what occurrs Revel 14. 6 7. may not be referr'd to this Matter the words are And I saw another Angel fly in the midst of Heaven having the Everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the Earth and to every Nation and Kindred and Tongue and People saying with a loud Voice Fear God and give Glory to Him for the hour of his Judgment is come and Worship Him that made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and the fountains of Waters Now what will better resemble an Angel flying in the midst of Heaven than such eminent Preachers as the Emperors were What so much make against the Worship of Images as the Everlasting Gospel the Angel is here said to Preach For is not the design of this Doctrine as to fix all Worship to God alone as he is the Almighty Creator of all things So to shew what 't is that brings on the Vials of his Wrath exprest by the Hour of Judgments being come And the certainty of their Ruin who embrace any other Worship For so we read vers 8. And there followed another Angel saying Babylon is fallen is fallen When once given up to Idolatry there 's nothing can prevent her Ruin She may for a while propagate her Corruptions and Persecute those who will not drink of the Wine of the Wrath or Poison for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes rendred of her Fornication but for all that the Decree is past and the Wine of Gods Wrath too is poured out into the Cup of his Indignation vers 10. The Saints may have a time for their Patience vers 12. As it afterwards happened in the furious Persecutions of the Waldenses and Albigenses and whoever would not worship the Beast and his Image and receive his Mark in his Forehead or in his hand vers 9. But 't is a Patience that shall at last be Crowned when the Idol-monger shall be destroyed for this the One is marked with the name of God written in his Forehead ver 1. As the Other is with the name of the Beast vers 9 10 11. I come now to the Vials themselves and first of the general introduction to them Revel 16. 1. which I shall treat of in a distinct Chapter viz. CHAP. X. Of the general Introduction to the Vials Revelations 16. 1. AND I heard a great Voice out of the Temple saying to the seven Angels Go your ways and pour out the Vials of the Wrath of God upon the Earth The Voice out of the Temple speaks it to be from God and to respect the Affairs of the Church and its being said to be a great Voice shews the Terrour it brings with it and the certain Success the things it speaks are to have and that 't is a Voice that will be heard The Angels being bid to go their ways and pour out the Vials makes it evident that it is not the Church in its Purity the Temple from whence this Voice comes that is to be the Subject of these Plagues The Angels not going on this Errand till bid demonstrates as their Obedience to the Commands of their great Master so their unwillingness to be the Executioners of Vengeance till expresly sent Their being called Vials is in allusion to Vessels so called to fignifie the definite measure of Divine Judgments and the manner in which they are poured out Their being Vials of the Wrath of God shews them to be the Effects of his Justice on impenitent Sinners that Justice of his which he executes not till provoked to it but such as when executed there 's no avoiding The Vials full of the Wrath of God being given unto them by one of the four Beasts ch 15. ver 7. for this too is here to be taken in discovers the high regard God hath to his Ministers and the Prayers of his People for of those may be understood the four Beasts ch 4. 6 7 8. it being the same Beast that gives the Seven Vials unto the seven Angels which had Golden Vials full of Odours which are Prayers of Saints for of each of them is this affirmed ch 5. 8. By Earth in this Book I take generally to be signified what is opposite to Heaven so that if Heaven signifie the Church or the Ecclesiastical State Earth will signifie what is Secular and properly of this World i. e. The Earthly and Temporal Power and its Subjects as these stand in opposition to the other But something more seems to be meant by Earth in this Verse viz. as 't is taken for every thing in this Lower Material World and so not only the grosser part of this great System of Nature which we call Earth in distinction from the other parts of it but the Sea Rivers Sun it self with the Circumambient Air are by a Synecdoche of this more eminent part taken for the whole hereby to be understood This I cannot but observe here because the Seven Vials which are afterwards said to be pour'd out on these several parts of the Universe as things are here metaphorically thereby signified are all said here to be poured out upon the Earth CHAP. XI Of the first VIAL AND the first Angel went and poured out his Vial upon the Earth and there fell a noisom and grievous Sore upon the Men which had the mark of the Beast and upon them which worshipped his Image Revel 16. 2. By Earth here as is just now observed is signified what is opposite to Heaven so that if Heaven signifies the Church or Ecclesiestical State Earth will signifie what is Secular and Properly of this World and if so it will intimate this Vial to concern in the first place the whole Roman Empire the Secular Earthly and Temporal Power there in Being but so that as it follows it shall in particular fall on those of its Subjects which had the mark of the Beast and which worshipped his Image And that requires that we consider here 1. what is meant by the Beast 2. What it is we are to understand by his Mark 3. What by his Image And 1. What is meant by the Beast Now 't is evident that by the Beast is to be understood that Power which rose up in the place of what was Imperial For so 't is prophesied 2 Thess 2. 7 8. And so it was represented to St. John in his Vision Revel 13. 11. And I beheld another Beast coming up out of the Earth another in distinction from what was before but a Beast still to shew that 't is the same Power that is still continued though with respect to him who exercises it it is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Image of the former for
the same Soveraign Power which before was in the Emperors though under another 〈◊〉 name the deadly wound i. e. the blow given by the Goths Vandals and Hunns to the Roman Empire was healed not but that there is another sense in which this may be understood of which afterwards And to shew how 't was He gain'd this it follows v. 13. And He doth great wonders so that He maketh fire to come down from Heaven on the Earth in the sight of Men which what can that relate to but to that foremention'd Excommunication thundred out against the Emperor called Fire from Heaven because 't was from the Church or under the pretence of that Spiritual Power therein lodged called Heaven in this Book this Fire proceeded and on the Emperor called Earth because of that Earthly or Secular Power committed to him it came down And having advanced so far which as I likewise have before remarkt falls in with the Year 666. it follows v. 14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the Earth i. e. the Inhabitants of the Roman Empire by the means of those Miracles which He had power to do in the sight of the Beast saying to them that dwell on the Earth that they should make an Image to the Beast which had the wound by a Sword and did live i. e. having thus prevail'd against the Beast the Roman Empire He sets up a Power like it in Himself making the People who were thus deceived by the means of those Miracles which He had power to do in the sight of the Beast those Excommunications and other Methods I mean by which He had so much lessen'd his Soverainty to assist in setting up his Image in that shew or rather real representation of Soverain Power He had transferred to Himself Whereupon 't is added v. 15. that He had power to give life unto the Beast Breath saith the Margin of the English 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Original a Spirit or Spiritual Being unto the Image of the Beast For 't is by Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Censures the Beast thus recover'd exercises his Jurisdiction that the Image of the Beast should both speak as He doth with a Witness in these Anathema's Thunderbolts of Excommunications as they are called or Fire from Heaven and cause that as many as would not Worship the Image of the Beast should be killed which de facto happen'd in the Persecutions rais'd on those who could not submit to the Novelties introduced And He causeth all both small and great rich and poor free and bond 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 or the number of his name None to hope for any Preferment in the Church no nor yet for any Temporal Advantage to be so much as permitted the benefit of common Traffick and Commerce that did not by receiving his mark either in hand or forehead by his having the name of the Beast profess himself entirely to be his For that is done by receiving name from any other or the Number of his name i. e. after such a time at least that the Beast should have attain'd such a Number wholly resign to His Will which Number is set down in the next Verse and a Note prefixt to shew that 't will concern us to know when He arriv'd at this usurpt Power which the Holy Ghost had been describing And that as I before observed must be by looking back to the taking of Rome Anno 410 and from thence reckoning to 1076 the very point when as it hath been said Fire came down from Heaven on the Earth in the sight of Men i. e. Gregory the 7th who presided in the Church or Heaven thundred out his Excommunication on the Earth or the Emperor and that in the most publick and solemn manner i. e. in the sight of men I could not well say less than I have on these Points and being by the discourse brought again to mention this great Epocha in the Reign of Antichrist I cannot but take notice that as the Holy Ghost here so manifestly directs us to it so other Writers and among them Baronius however in the dark as to this light that is here given us in it are not sparing to talk of the Power and Prevalency of Antichrist about this time The place in Baronius is Anno 1106 Quod vero pertinet ad Antichristum fuit quidem Opinio non vulgarium Virorum eum hoc fore saeculo revelandum inter alios Norberti viri temporis hujus fama Celeberrimi à quo id se audivisse testatur S. Bernardus Epistolâ ad Gausredum Carnotensem Episcopum The Report was so strong that Paschalis stopt his Journey upon it saith Baronius ibid. Paschalis Papa rogatus à Conventu Moguntino in Galliam Cisalpinam properare itineri se committens ob sparsam famam de proximo Antichristi Adventu Florentiae substitit And before Anno Christi nongentisimo Indictione tertia novum inchoatur saeculum quod sui Asperitate ac boni sterilitate ferreum malique exundantis deformitate plumbeum atque inopia Scriptorum appellari consuevit Obscurum And again 1001. Anno Christi millesimo primo quo novum saeculum inchoatum est c. 'T was the Opinion of some that Antichristus adveniret non longo post tempore Universale Judicium succederet and He saith the many Prodigies which happen'd the year before seemed to foretel it and then which I rather take notice of adds Sed ad ista credenda de Adventu Antichristi Fine mundi satis esse videbantur Romanae Ecclesiae tot saepe iterata a naufragia necnon Corruptio morum quam magnam valde in hoc tempore fuisse in hominibus praesertim Ecclesiasticis Glaber ea videns deplorat Insuper quod ferreum hoc Saeculum ob malorum excrescentiam Auctore Ditmaro diceretur revera esset quod videlicet ut ait Glaber deficeret Religiositas Pontificum marcesceret districtio regularis Abbatum simulque Monasterialis Disciplinae vigor tepesceret ac per illorum Exempla caetera plebs Mandatorum Dei praevaricatrix existeret And if not to depart from the Explication that is before given of those words in Rev. 13. 13. But only farther to illustrate the matter in hand we may understand the coming down of Fire from Heaven on the Earth in the sight of men in the sense our Lord speaks Luke 12. 49. of his coming to send fire on the Earth never was any Age in which it was so much kindled no time wherein what by the intemperate Heats between the Popes themselves as well as between them and the Emperors the World was in a greater Flame And if those of the Romish Church will give others leave to speak after them in this cause can there be any more memorable testimony than what we find to this purpose
their Territories and striking so great a Consternation into them for it is upon Euphrates in the Sense we give of it in this Vial that the Vial is poured that they every where fly and are scattered should affect to look towards Constantinople or Asia and in the success of such Wars should give that Apprehension to the Eastern and other Princes round about whereupon or for what other cause God in his wise Providence shall think fit they the Princes and Countreis might be named too for they seem to be noted in the Scripture of Truth but I forbear to be too curious in such a matter should forthwith gather together to dispossess them but with that fatal disaster to them all that in this high Project they should clash between themselves and as it is Prophesied Psalm 2. 9. Be dasht in pieces like a Potters Vessel Whereupon the Jews whose right it is and who about that time shall in all likelihood be gathering thitherward should without any the least Opposition seat themselves in their own Land according to the Prophecy given out Zechar. 4. 6. Not by Might nor by Power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts Suppose too that at or about the same time some Christian Prince leaguing with the Mahometans or otherwise weakning the Papacy by his or his Peoples falling off from Rome should be instrumental in the Downfal of Babylon or those Princes who have already deserted that great Where as she is called Rev. 17. 1. joined with the other of the ten Horns which shall likewise in due time desert her They have no other way to keep their Crowns on their Heads should all conspire to hate her and make her desolate and naked and eat her Flesh and burn her with Fire Rev. 17. 16 Not that I will exclude from hence the Concurrence of the two Witnesses themselves i. e. Those suffering Christians who were to prophecy a Thousand two Hundred and threescore days in Sackcloth as it is said Rev. 11. 3. The same time for 42 Months are made up of so many days that the Court without the Temple was to be given to the Gentiles and the Holy City to be trod under Foot ver 2. of that Chapter For as it is said of them That if any will hurt them fire proceedeth out of their Mouth and devoureth their enemies and if any Man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed v. 5 and ver 6. These have power to shut Heaven that it rain not in the days of their Prophecy And have power over Waters to turn them into Blood and to smite the Earth with all Plagues as often as they will with reference to those Judgments which for their sakes shall be brought upon the Antichristian World so when they shall have finished their Testimony have had War made against them by the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless Pit and shall be overcome and killed by him ver 7. But so that their Bodies shall not be suffered to be put in Graves ver 9. No by the Peoples and Kindreds and Tongues and Nations they shall be still kept above Ground for those three days and half as is there exprest they are to lye in the street of the great City The Spirit of Life from God is to enter into them they to stand upon their Feet and great fear to fall upon them which see them ver 11. And they to hear a great Voice from Heaven saying unto them Come up hither and to ascend up to Heaven in a Cloud and their Enemies behold them ver 12. And the same Hour to be a great Earthquake and the tenth part of the City to fall and the names of seven thousand Men to be slain and the Remnant to be affrighted and give Glory to the God of Heaven Which what it can signifie but the reinstating them in the enjoyment of their Rights and Religion for so standing upon their Feet and ascending up to Heaven may import with the great Change that shall thereon ensue in the falling off of one of the ten Kings or Kingdoms into which at the Rise of Antichrist the Roman Empire was divided for that is the tenth part of the great City or Rome as she is said afterwards ch 17 18. to Reign over the Kings of the Earth from all subjection to the Beast And the Names of seven thousand men being to be Slain many point at the overthrow of those who as to any commerce and good they bring to the World are but us the meer Names of men the Priests and Monks I mean with the other parts of their corrupt Hierarchy which in all probability must be then quite extinct slain not so much in their Natural as Politic or Religious Capacity however we shall call it which I suppose to be understood by their being said to be slain in the Earthquake and not with the Sword i. e. abolisht in that great change and Revolution there shall then be And the Remnant being affrighted and giving Glory to the God of Heaven must signifie the Conversion of that 10th part of the City the great City as 't is before v. 8. which in the Book of the Revelation signifies the Antichristian Empire i. e. Rome in the full extent of its Territories as said to Reign over the Kings of the Earth Revel 17. 18. which is said to fall fall from Rome from her Superstitions and Idolatries fall from her as she is Spiritually called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was Crucify'd as she in her Corruptions and Tyranny is what the two former were and by her Power for 't was the Roman Governour who sentenced our Lord to the Cross crucified the Lord and hath ever since been crucifying his Members But then how much of this Transaction shall belong to the Witnesses I am not capable to say that they shall have their part in it not only in being themselves restored but in striking Terror into their Enemies in dismaying and disabling them from all opposition I make not the least question The Event must shew how this shall be and things are not so far off that we should be discouraged to wait for the Completion Behold saith our Lord I come as a Thief And how will men wonder that they were so much in the dark as to the Mystery How will they be ashamed that they have no better watcht and kept their Garments That they have walk'd so naked so unprovided for such a day That though the work hath been doing they observ'd it not But if they had it would not have been said Behold I come as a Thief 'T will notwithstanding all the warnings God hath given of it all the preparations there are towards it be sudden be surprizing I repeat it again Behold I come as a Thief I said just now notwithstanding all the warnings God hath given of it i. e. of what is to happen under this Vial viz. the recalling the Jews the
the Service of Latria which is not properly due but to the only one God to him Antichrist and his Works to a poor Creature reasonable or unreasonable sensible or unsensible Reasonable as to Man to Saints of both Sexes gone out of this World and to Images to a stinking Carcass or Relicks His Works are the Sacraments especially the Sacrament of the Eucharist which he adores as God and as Jesus Christ worships things Blessed and Consecrated and forbids to worship God alone The 2d is to rob Jesus Christ of his Merit The second work of Antichrist is that he takes away and robs Christ of his Merit with all the sufficiency of Grace of Justice of Regeneration of Remission of Sins of Sanctification of Confirmation of spiritual Nourishment and imputes and attributes all to his own Authority and a form of words to his Works and Saints and their Intercession and to the Fire of Purgatory and draws away the People to these things here mentioned that they might neither seek the things of Christ nor by Christ but only by the works of their own Hands and not by a lively Faith either in God or in Christ or in the Holy Spirit but by the Will and Works of Antichrist so that he Preaches that all Salvation consists in his VVorks The 3d is a dead Faith The third work of Antichrist consists in this that he attributes the Reformation of the holy Spirit to a dead outward Faith and Baptizeth Infants in this Faith teaching that by that it is they must Baptism and Regeneration and in that he makes Priests and gives Orders and the other Sacraments and founds all Christianity in it which is indeed contrary to the Holy Spirit The 4th is the Introduction of humane traditions and Jewish and Heathenish Ceremonies The fourth work of Antichrist is this that he hath constituted and placed all Religion and Holiness of the People in the Mass and hath interwoven many Ceremonies whereof some are Jewish others Heathenish and others Christian whereby leading the Congregation and People he deprives them of their Spiritual and Sacramental food and seduces them from the true Religion and Commandments of God and draws them from the Works of Charity by his Offertory and by such a Mass makes the people to rely upon vain Hopes The 5th is Simony The fifth Work of Antichrist is this That he doth all his Works to be seen that so he may gratifie his insatiable Avarice by putting all things to Sale and doing nothing without Simony The 6th is Conniving at Vices The sixth Work of Antichrist is That he gives License to manifest Sins without any Ecclesiastick Censure and doth not Excommunicate the Impenitent The 7th the Usurpation of Temporal Authority The seventh Work of Antichrist is That he governs not nor defends his Unity by the Holy Spirit but by Secular Power and that he takes to his Aid Spiritual things The 8th the Persecution of the Faithful The eighth Work of Antichrist is That he hates and persecutes and pursues pillages and murders the Members of Christ these are the Principal of his Works which he doth against the Truth all of which can in no manner be numbred or written but it sufficeth for the present to have markt out what is most general by which this Iniquity is cover'd That Antichrist covers his Iniquity 1. by the Confession of the Christian Faith in appearance First and principally by the outward Confession of the Faith concerning which the Apostle saith That they Confess that they know God by Words but deny him in their Works 2. By Antiquity and Multitude Secondly he covers his Iniquity by the length of time and the Authority of some Wise and Religious Persons and by Virgins and by certain Widows and honest Women and he is supported by innumerable People of whom 't is said in the Revelation And power was given to him over every Tribe and Language and Nation and all that dwell upon the Earth shall Worship him 3. By the pretence of Spiritual and Apostolick Authority In the third place he covers his Iniquity with the Spiritual Authority of the Apostles contrary to what the Apostle speaks We can do nothing against the Truth and Power is not given us to Destruction 4. By Miracles In the fourth place by many Miracles on this and the other hand of which thing the Apostle speaks Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all Power and Signs and lying Wonders and with all deceivableness of Unrighteousness In the fifth place by outward Holiness by Prayers by Fasts by Vigils and Alms against which the Apostle speaks having the Form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof In the sixth place he covers his Iniquity by certain Words of Christ by the Writings of the Ancients and by the Councils which they observe so far as they destroy not their wicked life and pleasure In the seventh place by the Administration of the Sacraments by which they belch out the chief of their Errors In the eighth place by Reproving and Preaching in their Words against Vice For they say but don't do it In the ninth place by the Vertuous life of certain who live in dissimulation and of others who do it in earnest For the Elect of God who love and practice what is good are detained there as in Babylon and are as 't were Gold with which the wicked Antichrist covers his Vanity not suffering them to Worship God alone nor that they should place their hope on Christ alone nor that they should understand the true Religion These and many other such things are as 't were the Cloak and Garments of Antichrist with which he covers his lying malice that so he may not be rejected as a Heathen and under which he walks shamelessly and as a Whore The Necessity from seperating from Anti-Christ From whence it is plain both by the Old and New Testament that the Christian is obliged by the Commandment which is therein delivered to him to separate himself from Antichrist for God says in the 52 of Isaiah Depart ye depart ye go ye out from thence touch no unclean thing go ye out of the midst of her be ye clean that bear the Vessels of the Lord for ye shall not go out with haste nor go by flight c. And Jeremiah 50. Remove out of the midst of Babylon and go forth out of the Land of the Chaldeans and be as the He-Goats before the Flocks for loe I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great Nations jrom the North Country and they shall set themselves in array against her from thence she shall be taken Again Numbers 16. Separate your selves too among this congregation that I may consume them in a moment and afterwards depart from the Tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of them lest ye be consumed in all their sins Levit. I am the Lord your God who have separated you from other people wherefore ye
to the executing any grievous Sentence for whom is it all this Drudgery is but for her who like that great Abaddon or Destroyer under whom she Acts Prides herself in the Cruelty For her who if she be as she is the Woman arrayed in Purple and Scarlet-colour it is the Blood of the Saints that hath thus dyed her Robes Rev. 17. 4. And what is the Honour what the part in all this she gives you but to be only the Executioners of so great Impiety and Injustice But let me for methinks it is due to your Majesties to be better treated though who can dissemble the Insolences of that Sorceress towards you retract the Imputation for sure it cannot be with your Royal Consent that such Barbarities are acted No it is the Design of those who menage such Villanies that what they do may be in the Dark For who shall say to a King Thou art Wicked and to Princes Ye arâ—Vngodly Iob 33. 18. Indeed it is not fit this should be in the least surmised therefore they who promote such mischievous Purposes must colour all with Zeal and Piety it is the Cause of God and the Church must countenance the Practice But oh still greater Impiety to interest God himself in the Barbarities they are carrying on And let it not be admired the wicked Wretches so boldly crowd about your Thrones when they are so hardy towards God himself as to make his the Habitation of their Injustice to intitle the most High and Holy One to all the villanies of Hell it self But cannot God but be Iealous against these things Imitate then Royal Sirs your Prince recover his and your Honour from such vile Parasites be pleased to believe that that cannot be of God or Christ which is so contrary to that Clemency which is the radiant Diadem in Heavens Crown let not her being decked with Gold and precious Stones and Pearls let not the Golden Cup in her hand all are but what she hath spoiled you or your Subjects of tempt you any longer to the Abominations and filthiness of Fornication the Kings of the Earth are said to have committed with her Revel 18. 3. Rather as it there follows take not mine but the Admonition of God Himself come out of her that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her Plagues v. 4. But are there yet any among you who are still more dangerously ensnared and out of very Conscience unhappy Conscience to be thus misguided countenance the Romish Interest who think they do God good Service I will not say in Persecuting his Church but in Propagating that mistaken Faith which hath so long done it 'T is I confess a glorious Principle to be for Liberty of Conscience worthy the most Royal Heart to declare that none shall be Prosecuted for meer Religion and may this Charity cover all other Miscarriages But what recompence can that Church make them who thus Sacrifice all to it If at the same time what is Zeal and Piety in those who thus sincerely act in her Cause be but colour cheat and the same design of Cruelty carrying on by Her as when with open violence she invades the Peace and Consciences of Mankind And Oh that my Voice or Pen might reach such Royal Personages as are most concerned herein That they would amongst that hurry and distraction a tottering Cause for such Rome's must be the sentence is gone out against Her she is faln is faln and cannot long stand gives them retire a little within themselves and consider what can be the end of Her who hath so long had it written on her Forehead MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH I would not it becomes me in my duty not to press hard on any Prince but least of all on such whom the World may be apt to think what 's last said more nearly concerns but neither dare I upon this occasion so far to temporize with any as not freely to premonish of the danger especially where it is the only Interest such can have either with God or Man to desert that Communion which hath already betrayed to such irreparable mischiefs And I most humbly ask leave to offer to such a Prince whether to say no more for I may not here enter upon long Argument and Conviction that Religion which bests Consults the Honour of God the Interest of his Vicegerents the Security of the People the Quiet and Peace of Conscience that Religion which in its Precepts is most agreeable to the Principles of Reason and the common notions Mankind hath of Good and Evil whether I say such a Religion or what teaches and acts contrary to all these be the Religion he would choose the Religion fit for Prince or People For my part I would speak to such an one as I would answer it at the great day when Prince and People must all stand naked before God Were I not as well assured that the Romish Church in the Bulk it now stands and hath for these several hundred years stood were that BABYLON spoken of in the Revelation that MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH as I am that 't was Gods Holy Spirit that dictated that and all other Scripture Were I not assured that the Romish Church were chiefly concerned in those seven last plagues or Vials of the Wrath of God mention'd Revel 15. and 16. Chapters Were I not assured that most of those Vials have been already poured out on her and that there is very little behind to compleat her full Doom Were I not assured that those who come not out of her must perish with her and that their and her Fall is near at hand I should not dare as I have here done to appeal to you O Soveraign Princes and thus freely to call you down from your Thrones to consider what is offer'd by one who is the meanest of your Subjects But is it I then or the Truth that calls upon you Is it so mean a Subject that presses upon your Royal State or is it your own Royal State it self your greatest Interest that of your Heavenly as well as Temporal Crown that here bespeaks you In Compassion in Compassion to your Royal selves be jealous at length of that corrupt Communion which can preserve you neither in this nor another World Think not Great Sirs that the Dream of Purgatory an Invention to make men less careful of their Salvation while the day is in which only we can work will then relieve you Think too how cruel their Mercies are who have no better State for their Votaries than what themselves tell you that is Think not the highest Saints will be able to defend you then who when they have done all they can are themselves but unprofitable Servants Luke 17. 10. and can have done no more than was their duty to do Much less think that Images Relicks Crucifixes or whatever other Merchandize
quo tempore quippe ut praedixerat Apostolus amoto illo qui obstitit Homo peccati filius perditionis coepit revelari atque a revelatione illius numera 666 quem Spiritus Sanctus dicit esse numerum Hominis aeque ac animalis sive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quo summa imperia a Daniele pridem designabantur devenies in annum quartum Hildebrandi sive Gregorii VII Christi scilicet 1076 quo ille primus Imperatorem excommunicavit potestatem Imperatoris constituendi sibi arrogavit En numerum Hominis hoc est illius qui astu sapientiâ humanâ huc se succesioresque suos provexit En numerum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive bestiae i. e. Illius qui Imperium summum per Bestiam quartam scilicet denotatum jam ad se successoresque suos plene transtulerat Vide hic nascentem Antichristum vide ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assurgentem vide quoque potentiam dantem primae Bestiae Quippe per Papam quam postea Imperator exercuit obtinuit Potestatem Apocal. 13. 12. Sed vide tantum imaginem potestatis ipsi restitutam v. 14. Nec enim ab illo tempore recuperavit unquam Imperator plenum absolutum Imperium vel vide Imaginem Imperii ad Papas translatam i. e. Eos in similitudinem Imperatorum pleno frui Imperio sibique arrogare quae habentur v. 15 16 17 c. quod autem additur v. 18. Hic est sapientia annon iterum observare jubemur aliquid magnum prae caeteris egregium Quid autem tale nisi in quo totus Apocalypseos cardo vertitur in quo autem magis quam in exploratione declaratione magni illius Antichristi verti ille judicetur Vis iterum recognoscere unde ortus Antichristi sive Bestiae in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suâ numero 666 designatae sumendus Respice Apocal. 12. ubi Draconis i. e. Romani Imperii Paganici immicitia adversus Christum ejus Religionem Bellum exitus describuntur cui tamen sub sinem dicitur Terra i. e. Terrestris potestas opem tulisse Contigit hoc quum Imperatores Decretis suis rescindebant Haereses fluvium illum quem serpens projecerat ex ore suo post foeminam sugientem in desertum quibus polluere Ecclesiam voluerat quod nescio annon satis commode reseratur ad Constantini tempora qui Ecclesiae pacem primus restituit vel ad generalia Concilia Imperatorum potestate indicta quibus Haereses istae tam enormes damnabantur quod tempus si excedat tempus captae Romae adeoque non concurrat penitus cum ortu Antichristi id ex eo contigisse observandum quòd ad fugam Faeminae quae Regno Antichristi contemporanea est extendere se debeat I am afraid lest this most learned Man in this whole Chapter hath suffered himself to be drawn away by Conjectures that are too uncertain and therefore without replying any thing thereto I leave it to be enquired whether the whole Matter may not rather be referred to Hildebrand or Gregory the seventh in whom seems to be fulfilled whatever Paul in his Epistle to the Thessalonians 2. 2. 3. c. hath foretold of the Man of Sin or the Son of Perdition and that we no way doubt but that he is there designed the Holy-Ghost as it were points with the Finger at it Rev. 13. 10. He that leadeth into Captivity shall go into Captivity he that killeth with the Sword must be killed with the Sword Here is the Patience and the Faith of the Saints which he likewise thus prefaces v. 9. If any Man have an Ear let him hear And why all this unless it were some great thing he thereby pointed at But what great thing but the leading him into Captivity who led into Captivity But who was it who led into Captivity but the Roman Emperor who himself at the taking of Rome which happened in the Year of Christ 410 Honorius then being Emperor in the West may be understood to be led into Captivity Then it was Alaricus King of the Goths took Rome after which time the Roman Empire began to be so lessened that nothing thereof besides the Name and Shadow was left remaining since which time as the Apostle had foretold he being taken away who hindred the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition began to be revealed Now from the Revealing of him reckon 666 which the Holy-Ghost saith is the number of a Man as well as of the Beast whereby the chief Empires were long ago designed by Daniel and you will come upon the fourth Year of Hildebrand or Gregory the Seventh viz. of Christ 1076 in which he first Excommunicated the Emperor and arrogated to himself the Power of constituting the Emperors See the number of a Man i. e. of him who by humane Craft and Wisdom did thus advance himself and his Successors See the number of the Beast i. e. of him who had transferred to himself and his Successors the chief Empire held out by the fourth Beast See here the Birth of Antichrist see him rising up to his full Maturity see him also giving Power to the first Beast For now it was the Emperor obtained that Power from the Pope which he ever after exercised Rev. 13. 12. But see only the Image of Power restored to him ver 14. for from that time the Emperor recovered a full and absolute Empire or see the Image of the Empire transferred to the Popes i. e. them after the likeness of the Emperors enjoying full Empire and arrogating what we read ver 15 16 17. c. whereas it is added ver 18. Here is Wisdom Are we not again bid to observe some great and eminent thing And what is it is so but that on which the Hinge of the whole Apocalypse turns And in what can this be more than in the searching out and declaring that great Antichrist Would you again know whence the Rise of Antichrist designed in its Maturity by the number of 666 is to be taken turn to Rev. 12. where the Enmity of the Dragon i. e. the Roman Pagan Empire against Christ and his Religion his War and its Issue are described which a little before the end of the Chapter the Earth i. e. The Earthly Power is said to have helped Now this happened when the Emperors by their decrees abolished Heresies i. e. That River which the Serpent is said to have cast out of his Mouth after the Woman flying into the Wilderness with which he would have corrupted the Church which I cannot tell whether it may not be well applied to the times of Constantine who first restored Peace to the Church or else to the General Councils summoned by the Power of the Emperors whereby those so enormous Heresies were Condemned which time if it exceeds the time of the taking of Rome and so doth nâ—… altogether agree with the Rise of Antichrist it is to be observed that that happened hence
this saith he Daniel delivers with the greatest clearness 't is Dan. 7. in his Vision of the four Beasts where he tells us v. 8. that among the Ten Horns of the fourth Beast there was to come up another little Horn which is generally agreed to be understood of Antichrist before whom there were three of the first Horns pluckt up by the Roots and behold in this Horne were eyes like the eyes of a Man and a Mouth speaking great things see v. 24 25 ibid. I shall not heap up other Testimonies in this matter the Fathers generally concurring in this opinion of Antichrist's being to succeed to the destruction of the Roman Empire And Cornelius à Lapide in their names makes it the common sense they had of this place that Nero and the Roman Emperours were to with-hold and when they were taken out of the way tunc revelabitur ille iniquus Antichristus then should be revealed that wicked Antichrist on 2 Thessal 2. 6. Now that we may come a little closer to the Matter in hand When was that when was it the Roman Emperors were taken out of the way For if that be made out especially so as to point any thing near the time he mentions I suppose the Author will no longer look upon those 10 Centuries of Sleep and Corruption in the Church as he phrases it Pref. p. 5. to be no more than a Dream of the Reporters but both He and every serious Reader will be awaken'd to see thorow his Nubes Testium at least to own that there was such a Cloudy time such an Eclipse as his own Metaphor is Pref. p. 4. The Church was to suffer I do not say with him for 1000 Years neither more nor less but for a Period in which He and Those for whom He writes will be equally concern'd to free themselves from the charge of many Novelties When I say was it the Roman Emperors were taken out of the way And methinks it should not be difficult to answer the Query especially the Holy Ghost himself having in a manner herein expresly directed us 't is in the 13th of the Revelations v. 10. He that leadeth into Captivity shall go into Captivity He that killeth with the Sword shall be killed with the Sword And to make it the more remarkable he calls up our Attention with that Eminent Saying of our Lord so often made use of by Him in the Gospel when He had some great and notable Lesson to recommend to his Auditors If any man have an Ear let him hear v. 9 and closes it with no less a note of Attention in the following words Here is the Patience and the Faith of the Saints Now who was it who led into Captivity Was it not the Roman Empire that had enslaved the Nations round about Was it not the Roman Empire which had so insolently triumpht over the Christians and made them its Vassals Who was it was the great red Dragon having seven Heads and ten Horns which stood before the Woman cloathed with the Sun which was ready to be deliver'd for to devour her Child as soon as it was born Rev. 12. 1. 5. Was it not the Roman Empire whilst Heathen which by its furious Persecutions endeavour'd to root out Christianity So that 't is not to be doubted who is here to be understood by Him that leadeth into Captivity But then How is it He was led into Captivity Consult their own Annals and you have the Answer For Was not Rome taken first by Alaricus the Goth in the 410 th year after Christ and again in the year 455 by Gensericus Or If not the taking of Rome but the Captivity of the Empire it self be to be understood hereby when could this be better verlfied than when the Empire was torn in pieces and divided into several Kingdoms those ten Horns of which both Daniel and St. John speak by the Goths Vandals and Hunns And when happen'd that but in or about the same Period of 455 or 456 Now then if in either of these Periods viz. of 410 or 455 or thereabout we grant to be the time when He that led was taken out of the way it will unquestionably follow that 'T was then that wicked lawless One was revealed Then was the Birth of Antichrist i. e. of Him who was more eminently to be so Then the time from whence in such a Latitude may be dated that great Eclipse which the Church was to suffer And beginning with either of these we fall upon what in the Event will extremely well answer the Prediction For if we reckon from 410 then will 666 bring us to the Year 1076 which was the Fourth of Hildebrand or Gregory the Seventh who as 't is Rev. 13. 13. made fire to come down from Heaven on the Earth in the sight of Men i. e. as we shall afterwards shew it to be the sense of that Phrase so openly and solemnly Excommunicated the Emperor which if considered in all its Circumstances will be but too plain a Description of that Man of Sin and Son of Perdition who was to oppose and exalt Himself above all that is called God or that is worshipt so that He as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that He is God 2 Thessal 2. 3 4. For what is it to exalt Himself above all that is called God and that is worship but to assume to Himself an Authority over those Higher Powers which God hath ordained those Gods as Princes are stiled in Scripture Psal 82. 1. Joh. 10. 34 35 What as God to sit in the Temple of God shewing Himself that He is God but to take to Himself the Power of Saving or Damning men as He shall think fit to say that he cannot Err which is the Incommunicable Attribute of the divine Nature and arrogate the setting up one and pulling down another which can belong only to the Supreme Governour of the Universe where not to take notice of any thing done by Him before he was Pope by which as I may say He seemed but to be preparing himself for the great Service he was to do the Chruch when advanced to the Pontifical See his carriage in the difference between the Emperor and the Saxons is what I shall first pitch on wherein the Bishops revolting from the Emperor fly to Hildebrand present their Complaints against the Emperor the Pope greedily embraces the Quarrel and so far pursues it as to cite the Emperor to appear at Rome and in case of his refusal threatens Him Excommunication The Emperor terrified herewith sends his Ambassadors to divert Him from his resolution But contrary to the Law of Nations however Baronius labours to contradict this He Imprisons his Ambassadors and having almost destroyed them with Hunger Thirst and Cold sends them out of Rome with the greatest disgrace Upon this the Emperor calls a Council at Wormes and in return hereof cites Hildebrand to appear imagining the Pope to have been thereby
refuse to restore both their Ecclesiastical and Civil Rights He might by Execrations or Censures and Arms be compelled to his Duty Being assisted by this Opportunity some Bishops and Princes of Germany who had been long aggrieved by this wild Beast into the place of Henry who by his great wickedness and forseited the Kingdom chose Duke Rodulphus who with that modesty and integrity which becomes a King forthwith sent Messengers to me by whom I might understand that He was forced to undertake the Government of the Kingdom but however that He was not so desirous of Reigning but that he had rather obey us than those who had promised the Kingdom that He would be always in the Power of God and us and that we might believe that He will do this hath promised to give his Sons Hostages At this Henry began to be incens'd and to beseech us at first that by * * Banning Cursings we would hinder Rudolphus from seizing the Kingdom I said I would see to whom the Right belonged and for that Reason would send Messengers who should take Cognizance of the whole Affair and would judge thereupon whether of them had the better Cause Henry forbad that our Messengers should declare him King and slew many of the Clergy and Laity Robbed and Profaned several Churches and by this means bound himself the faster with the Bonds of an Anathema or Excommunication denounced against him Wherefore trusting in the Judgment and Mercy of God and the Patronage of the Blessed Virgin and supported also with your Authority Henry himself and his Abettors do I bind with the Bonds of an Anathema and the second time deprive him of Royal Authority and forbid all Christians absolved of that Oath whereby Fealty is used to be Sworn to Kings in any thing to obey Henry and that they accept Rudolphus for King whom many of the Princes of the Province or Empire rejecting Henry have chosen to be their good King For 't is fit that as Henry for his Pride and contumacy is deprived of all his Privileges so Rudolphus who is acceptable to all should for his Piety and Religion be endowed with Royal Dignity and Power Go to now therefore ye most most Holy Princes of the Apostles and what I have said interpose your Authority to confirm that all men at length may understand whether you can bind and loose in Heaven and also on Earth are not able to take away or give Empires Kingdoms Principalities or whatever else mortal Men can enjoy For it ye can judge those things which belong to God what are we to think of inferiour and profane things It it belongs to you to judge the Angels who rule over proud Princes what doth it become you to do to their Servants Let Kings and all the Princes of the World now learn by the Example of this Henry what your Power is in Heaven and how great you are with God and let them hereafter dread to contemn the Commands of Holy Church And this Sentence forthwith execute ye on Henry that all may know that 't is not by mere chance but through your Assistance that the Son of Iniquity hath fallen from the Kingdom Only this I would request from you that being led to Repentance He may through your intercession obtain Grace in the Day of Judgment And now And now Whether this be not to have a Mouth speaking great things and Blasphemies Whether this be not to speak as a Dragon let the World judge Nay I was going to say the World hath already judged it For so Aventinus tells us l. 5. p. 352. Annal. Boior that upon this and the great outrages thereon committed by Rudolphus and his Adherents most Men openly as well as privately began to cry out against so great a Villany in publick to curse Gregory and wish all Mischief to this Hildebrand publishing that 't was out of Malice and an intemperate lusting after Rule that he was thus hurried on Headlong and declaring him to be Antichrist Nay farther yet He hath herein judged Himself For was it not hereupon that He undertook to foretel that before the Feast of St. Peter and he did all He could to verifie what he had foretold by tampering with Assassines to murder him Henry should die or lose his Kingdom this He did publickly in a Sermon to the people ascending the Pulpit of St. Peter's and in his Pontifical Habit adding that He would no longer be accounted Pope if this Prophecy should fail as Benno is cited to attest it Histor Magd. Cent. 11. cap. 8. p. 435. Shew any thing like this in any other History whether Civil or Ecclesiastical besides that of Rome and we will give up the Cause and allow any to be Antichrist besides Him whom this concerns we will strike Hildebrand out of the List and He shall not be so much as thought of neither He nor any of his Proud Successors in the day when Babylon is to come into remembrance Rev. 16. 19. It may seem a long Digression what we have here run but it being of so high import towards the clearing up so great a part of the Book of the Revelation as what relates to Antichrist in his Rise Progress and full Growth is I could not well pass by what is here said of Hildebrand especially considering How at the same time that we erre no longer in the Person 't is decreed by the third Roman Council under Him Ut Papae nomen Unicum esset in Universo orbe Christiano nec liceret alicui seipsum vel alium eo nomine appellare that there should be but one who should have the Name of POPE in the whole Christian World and that it should not be lawful for any other to call himself or any one else by that Name so then here 's the mark of the Beast the Name and Number of his Name all concurring in One Anno 1076. For then it was viz. in the same Council in which Hildebrand and depos'd the Emperor that this Name was thus appropriated to the Bishop of Rome As Longus à Coriolano relates p. 317. And 't is very observable what we meet with to this purpose in Aventinus Annal. Boior l. 7. p. 420 421. where the Covetousness Luxury Strife Hatred Envy Ambition c. of the Romish Chair is most highly inveighed against in opposition to the Humility Meekness Patience Charity which the great Shepherd of our Souls gave as the Rules of his Religion and was Himself the great Pattern of them And in particular this Hildebrand of whom we have been speaking is pitcht upon as most guilty of the contrary Vices and that under the express stile of Antichrist the Person who there charges Him is the Chief Priest of Juvavia his words are Hildebrandus ante annos centum atque septuaginta primus specie Religionis Antichristi imperii fundamenta jecit Hoc bellum nefandum speaking of what opposition the Emperors had constantly found from the Popes after
it out upon the Earth supposing the Western Empire in the sense we gave of Earth as applied in this Book to signifie the Secular or Earthly Power to be first restored before it could be the Subject of the said Vial as also the Subjects of it to have received the Mark of the Beast and to have worshipped his Image which with respect to the first could not be besore the year 800 for it was then the Empire was restored with respect to the second not well before the aforementioned second Council of Nice For however Image-Worship had before gained too great Footing and the Mark began to be set yet it could not be well said to be settled till then the Consequence whereof must be this that there or from thence forward we are to look for the pouring out the first Vial and nothing if considered as in the Reason that moved the Saracens to invade them so in the Mischiefs they were the Authors of can more naturally answer the Metaphon of a noisom and grievous Sore And therefore till any thing else be offered that may better explain this I shall not doubt to rest herein for the Explication of the first Vial. Only I do not so restrain this to the Western Empire as not to see the same Vial though in a less Degree poured on some parts of the Eastern Empire but that I take rather to be a Merciful Warning to them who should afterwards suffer more deeply under their Violence when the the three Woes foretold Revel 8. 13. were to take place CHAP. XII Of the second Vial Rev. 16. ver 3. AND the second Angel poured out his Vial upon the Sea and it became as the Blood of a dead Man and every living Soul died in the Sea The Sea is the great Confluence of Waters and Waters we know the Angel interpreting it to St. John Rev. 17. 15. signifie Peoples Multitudes Nations and Tongues which being said to become as the Blood of a dead Man and every Soul dying in it may import very great Saughters and universal Bloodshed among those who are to be the Subjects of this Vial. Now what can better interpret this than the Crusado's or Holy Wars wherein so much Blood was spilt And to this the Series of History naturally leads us for if in the pouring out of the former Vial the Saracens invade the Western Empire and those therein for 't is observable indeed it could not be otherwise it being commanded them that they should not hurt any but only those who have not the Seal of God in their Foreheads Rev. 9. 4. That in all the Invasions and Wars the Saracens or Turks have made that they have never bent their Force against those who disclaimed the Idolatries of Antichrist those they were against whom neither then nor in later times they seem to have had their Commission that had the mark of the Beast and worshipped his Image 't is but in a way of Retaliation that those who had the Mark of the Beast and worshipped his Image should carry back the War into the Territories of the Saracens to revenge their former Incursions to recover Palestine with Jerusalem and the Temple of the Sepulcher out of the hands of the Infidels Accordingly Urban the Second in pursuit of what he knew to have been often attempted by his Predecessor Gregory the Seventh but wherein he was hindred by the Factions of Schismaticks and several Wars so Baronius tells us Anno 1090 and at the instance of Alexius the Emperor of Constantinople whose Letters had been lately read in the Council of Placentia declares the first Expedition in the Council of Claremont called chiefly for this work the second Canon whereof was this Quicunque prosolâ devotione non pro Honoris vel lucri adeptione ad liberandam Ecclesiam Dei Jerusalem profectus fuerit iter illud pro omni poenitentiâ reputetur Whosoever out of meer Devotion and not for the getting of Honour or Gain shall go to Jerusalem to deliver the Church of God let that Journey be accounted in the stead of all Repentance whatever and for the farther encouragement of those who should undertake the Expedition in one of the Speeches he makes on this occasion as Malmsburiensis relates it 't is decreed by him omnia bona eorum qui Hierosolymas pergunt semper ubique esse salva in pace treuga quousque redierint That all the Goods of those who go to Jerusalem should always and every where be safe in Peace and Truce till they shall return And now what hastening is there to this Holy War in which they should thus merit the Pardon of all their Sins and be secure that all their Goods and Possessions should be kept in safety for them such saith Baronius were the Crouds of those who listed their Names that 't was necessary to dehort them from going whose Age and Health were not fit for military Service Very great indeed were their numbers Malmsburiensis thinks that if the several Armies had been entred in one Muster-Roll they would have made sixty hundred thousand He that shall consider this with the great Recruits that were afterwards made in the continuance of those Wars and the small number of those who ever returned to give an account of their great Exploits there will not at all wonder that the Holy-Ghost should please to express it by a Sea of Blood Indeed Urban as well as his Predecessor Gregory the seventh who first designed the Expedition though he could never bring it to any effect and those of his Successors who were herein concerned were well advised in the Policy of the Design For what could be more for the advantage of that exorbitant Power at which they aimed than to give this diversion to those neighbouring Princes which they had reason to fear would stand in their way Though neither could they do that so effectually as not at the same to be necessitated to Wars at Home what with other Antipopes as they were set up sometimes by the Emperor sometimes be Faction among themselves sometimes by other Princes what with the Emperor and those other Princes which abetted the Faction or for other reasons were at Enmity with the Pope nothing but Blood was the effect of this Vial Blood like that of a dead Man and every living Soul died in the Sea i. e. Not every individual Person but some of all sorts and in all places throughout the whole Sea in the Sense we have above given of it perished in these Slaughters so universal as well as fatal was this Plague to those who had the mark of the Beast and worshipped his Image And herein we place the Business of the second Vial in distinction from what the third holds forth to us which being to be poured out upon the Rivers and Fountains of Waters as the other was upon the Sea seems to denote that Vial to be of the same nature with the former but more restrained as to its
given to the divine Justice even so Lord God Almighty true and righteous are thy Judgments To the Souls under the Altar in the sixth Chapter it was said that they should rest yet for a little Season until their Fellow-Servants also and their Brethren which should be killed as they were should be fulfilled and here the Judgments and Vengeance those concerned in the Viass may be lookt upon to have called for fall on their Murtherers exprest by a grievous and noisom Sore falling upon the Men which had the Mark of the Beast and upon them which worshipped his Image by the irruptions of the Saracens in the first Vial. By the Seas becoming Blood in the vast effusion of it whereof the People Multitudes Nations and Tongues were made the Subjects in the expedition to the Holy Land under the second Vial And then By the Rivers and Fountains of Waters becoming likewise Blood in what the Princes and People jointly felt though not so generally as under the former under the following Crusade with the particular reference to the Contest for so 't is too in the third and fourth Trumpet which carry something paralled to what we here observe which not only in the third but in all the three first Vials there was between the Bishop of Rome and Soveraign Priuces for the Supremacy All which being heavy Judgments on the Roman Empire whether in the whole or in its Parts are animadverted on as the result of that Cruelty they in any Capacity had exercised on the Saints before indeed by the Irrnptions of the Goths and Vandals and Hunns he that had led into Captivity was led into Captivity Rome taken and the Calamities which attend a Captive state thereon ensuing here he is followed with farther Vengeance and the reflection the Holy Ghost makes thereon is to comfort the Saints whose Patience and Faith is said to be here ch 10. 10. and to assure them that their Blood is not so spilt on the Ground but that the Cry ef it shall be heard in its just time against the enraged and bloody Persecutor This was the state of the Empire both in its Civil and Ecclesiastical Capacity under the three first Vials and the reason of it as before is mentioned was For they have shed the Blood of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them Blood to drink for they are worthy But then it will be said what is this to Antichrist To the Beast For all this is but to aggrandize him to set him upon the Throne and make the Princes of the World to submit their Scepters to his Pastoral Staff But be it so For thus he is got into the Chair yet if it be nothing to the Beast if all be so much for his temporal Grandeur however certainly they were Plagues upon the Men who had the Mark of the Beast and upon them which worshipped his Image chap. 16. 2. Plagues too upon the Beast himself whilst he is permitted to go on from one Degree of Wickedness to another it is not his prospering in his Mischief makes it the lesser but the greater Judgement as it is the certain tcken of utter ruin that shall attend him when as 't is said of the Ammonites Gen. 15. 16. His Iniquity shall be full Only it will be demanded because I here make the Reflection on the 5 6 and 7th verses of the 16th Chapter to be as it were a second answer to the Cry of the Souls under the Altar to whom it was said that they should rest for a little Season until their Fellow-servants also and their Brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled it will I say be demanded 1. Who of their Fellow-Servants and Brethren had been killed in that Season Or 2. Whether they were then fulfilled As to the first Who of their Fellow-Servants and Brethren had been killed in that Season 'T is manifest it was in that Season the Albigenses and Waldenses were so barbarously Murthered for it was then Innocent the 3d published the taking up of the Cross against them about the year 1211. In the managing whereof Simon Montford was General and above a hundred thousand of them then slain but in the whole Prosecution of the War infinite numbers are said to perish such was the slaughter of them that in France alone unhappy France to have been so early and so long the scene of so great Barbarity But happy France too which hath brought forth so many faithful Witnesses who cannot be so overcome and killed but that they are to revive their Cause and Interest at least to be so set up as to strike Fear Terror and Amazement to all that make War against them Revel 11. 7 11. If Historians rightly recount it no fewer than ten hundred thousand were destroyed And As to the second it is not necessary to the making good our Observation that all should be fulfilled when it pleased the Holy-Ghost to make this Reflection 't is sufficient that it is what might very well serve to confirm the Faith of suffering Christians at present for as for the others to whose Cry the reply is made t is manifest they have their Reward and are placed in a state of Triumph by the white Robes which are said to be given to every one of them Rev. 6. 11. that they might see that God makes Inquisition for their Blood that though there be a final day of reckoning when the Enemies of the Church shall drink of the full Cup of Vengeance yet all is not deferred to that day but that in the mean time it shall be known by the Judgments that are executed on the Earth that as it is Psal 116. 15. precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints CHAP. XIV Of the fourth Vial Revel 16. 8. AND the fourth Angel poured out his Vial upon the Sun and power was given unto him to scorch Men with Fire And Men were scorcht with great Heat and blasphemed the Name of God which hath Power over these Plagues and they repented not to give him Glory By the Sun I am apt to think can be meant nothing but Antichrist in his highest Glory such is what he arrived at when as hath been shewed in the preceeding Vials he had so far gained the Ascendant of those in Soveraign Power as to make them like the Moon and Stars to shine only with the borrowed Light they had from him i. e. No farther to exercise those relieks of Soveraignty which still remained in them than He thought fit to give way to it And if so then the Vial poured upon the Sun and Power thereby given him to scorch Men with Fire will be very well interpreted by the continuance of that high Usurpation and Tyranny over the secular Powers and their Subjects for so Men may not unfitly be construed but then these Usurpations and Tyranny being exprest by scorching with Fire will direct to something that will answer that Allusion
and if it be certain that a great deal of what is said there cannot be applied to the taking of Babylon by Cyrus and the return of the Jews upon his Proclamation or any thing that hath since happened to that Land of graven Images ch 50. 38. It is as certain that there is a Day still to come when what is lacking shall be fulfilled upon her and upon all those who like her are mad upon their Idols ibid. A Day too wherein no one Title of what God hath promised to the Jews to Israel and Judah as they are ch 50. 4. and 51. 5. distinctly mentioned shall fall to the Ground This as to the drying up the Water of the River Euphrates with the end why 't is to be dried up viz. That the Way of the Kings of the East might be prepared Only one thing I shall farther offer and that is if by Euphrates and the Water thereof we understand those who were the Borderers on it the Inhabitants near or about the River of whom more by and by it will not be necessary that we precisely tye them up to that Place for the whole time of the Vial no more than it will be necessary that for the ascertaining the River it self we suppose the same Waters to be always there No we know very well the Waters that run in Rivers are still in Flux that which passes the Channel to Day is gone from thence to Morrow and yet it is by all esteemed the same River still People and Nations are as much in Flux as Waters can be those that live in one Country in one Age in another Age may live in another Country but yet sure they are the same People still at least if they change their Seats and remove their Habitation they leave still their Country behind them that abides the same whatever becomes of its flitting Inhabitants The use I make of this is that if Euphrates be taken for the People that bordered on it when the Holy-Ghost first speaks of them then wherever this People shall be in the whole time of this Vial the drying up the Water of Euphrates may be applied to them So that if now the People the Turks are that People as we shall presently shew be removed any of them from the Banks of Euphrates 't is but what its own Waters often do wherever they are for so might the Waters that run out of Euphrates if they could in all their wandrings be distinguished from other Waters be still called the Waters of Euphrates they may still be expressed under the same stile And if so then there will be still a farther notion we may have of the drying up the Water of the great River Euphrates as it may be enlarged to hold out to us the overthrow of the whole Mahometan Empire the removing that Tyrannical Kingdom which hath so long usurpt upon the World and opprest the Jews in particular hath so far extended its Territories and all to the Ruin of the true Religion that Religion which under the last Vial is to be in its Triumph and under this to have its way prepared for it I pass on to the third Enquiry viz. 3. What is to be meant by the three unclean Spirits like Frogs coming out of the Mouth of the Dragon and out of the Mouth of the Beast and out of the Mouth of the false Prophet And this will be divided again into these several Questions viz. 1. What we are to understand by the Dragon Beast and false Prophet 2. What by the three unclean Spirits 3. Why they are compared to Frogs 4. Why said to come out of the Mouth of the Dragon Beast and false Prophet 5. VVhat it is with reference to the Business for which they come that stirs them up more particularly to come out as they do under this Vial 1. VVhat we are to understand by the Dragon Beast and false Prophet The Dragon in this Book of the Revelation is taken either for that old Serpent called the Devil or Satan Rev. 12. 9. Or for the supreme Secular or temporal Power as acting under him Prosecuting the same Mischief envenomed with the same Malice against all that is good as this Serpent or Dragon himself is and the Name under which such act is that of the Beast the name of Antichristian Power whilst both in Heathen and Papal Rome as is evident by comparing the first and eleventh verses of the 13th Chapter of this Book VVhere we have two Beasts one rising up out of the Sea and the other coming up out of the Earth the one said to have seven Heads and ten Horns ver 1. The same that is expresly said of the Dragon chap. 12 13. The other to rise only with two Horns like a Lamb to the first the Dragon is said to have given his Power and Seat and great Authority of the other 't is said He spake as the Dragon both under some relation to him but so that the first as I shall offer the Reason for it presently hath his Name here given him of the Dragon the other that of the Beast and the Subject of their Power is Antichristian Rome in its largest Extent bloody and cruel as a Dragon For that seems to be the reason why Rev. 12. 3. He is called Red as if dyed with the Blood of the Saints Cruelty indeed hath been the Character of Rome ever since it had its Being Romulus first Tinctured its VValls with the Blood of his Brother and all the Increases of it have been by Spoil and Ruin The Bloody Sword hath in a manner always been drawn amongst them and the time can scarce be named wherein they have not been Engaged either in intestine or foreign Wars Blood hath always coloured this Dragon but his deepest Dye hath been in the Blood of the Christians It was the ruin of Christianity he laboured for in its very Birth as is described Rev. 13. 1 2 3 4. and hath not been wanting ever since to attempt upon it in all the Methods and Degrees of that native Cruelty which is ascribed to the Dragon But then the difference is that whereas the Beast as applicable both to Imperial and Papal Rome is said to have ten Horns and upon his Horns ten Crowns Rev. 13. 1. The Dragon is said to have but seven Crowns and those on his seven Heads The Reason whereof I take to be this That the Power of the Dragon looks backward and forward viz. to the whole duration of the Roman Power under its seven Heads or seven forms of Government viz. Under Kings Consuls Tribunes Decemvirs Dictators Emperors Popes That of the Beast is limited to the time of the ten Kings which were afterwards to rise up upon the division of the Empire at which time that other Beast for so the Holy-Ghost speaks distinctly of them in that forementioned Chapter viz. Rev. 13. 1st and 11 Verses was to rise and that too to hold of the Dragon for
if it be said of the first of these Beasts that the Dragon gave him his Power and his Seat and great Authority verse 2. as we just now observed 't is said of the other Beast that he spake as the Dragon But that the name of Dragon for so I suppose it to be in this Vial is here given to the one and not to the other I am apt to think may be from the different Grounds on which they act the former Beast i. e. The Emperor standing upon the same Foundation and exercising the same sort of Power that the former Emperors or whatever other his Predecessors did i. e. what is properly Civil The other Beast pretending his title from Religion the title he holds under Christ as his immediate Vicar on Earth said therefore to have two Horns like a Lamb And therefore where they come to be distinctly spoken of as I presume them to be in this Vial the Name of Dragon the common Emblem of the whole Roman Power is given to the one that of Beast for the Dragon he cannot be properly speaking because at the most he is but one of his seven Heads aâ—d that under another Capacity than the others are as pretending to hold from Christ for other ends and purposes than the other Heads received their Power to the Other The first is the Beast too ver 1. But the Beast that was to be as it were wounded to Death and ever after not to live but in that Image this other Beast should give him ver 15. And therefore more eminently may this Beast which gave the other that Life it hath be stiled the Beast as 't is in the following part of this whole Book of the Revelation Distinct indeed they are in all their Actings and therefore may very well be distinctly spoken of the first Beast i. e. The Emperor in the Exercise of Civil Power as he now enjoins it for his distinguishing Character be very well remitted to what the Holy-Ghost makes the common Stile of all the seven Heads or forms of Government in the whole time of the Roman Power i. e. The stile of Dragon the other Beast i. e. the Pope for his Usurpations over the Civil Powers with that Jurisdiction he exercises over them as well as others and that dependance they have on him more eminently and solitarily be said to be the Beast So then by this time it will not be difficult to apprehend whom we are to understand by the Dragon and the Beast Not so much the Old Serpent the Devil or Satan himself as those who act under him The one the more directly under the Relation of a Dragon as to him he the Dragon so expresly is said to give his Power the other under the stile of Beast as it is more particularly ascribed to him that came up out of the Earth i. e. As is before shewed at large as he was to usurp upon the former and come up upon the Ruins of the Empire And this as a Lamb though in the Event he should shew himself to act as a Dragon Which being granted the only difficulty will be whom we are to understand by the false Prophet Whether the deluding Spirit by which these Acted those false Teachers and Seducers which act with or under them or some other Person or state of Men distinct from both And for my part I am inclined to think it must be some third Person or State distinct from the two other For I cannot be of their Opinion who make the Dragon and Beast and false Prophet to be the same no more than I can the three unclean Spirits which come out of their Mouths to be one which being in it self a Contradiction I hope it will not be accounted one to distinguish them But who then shall be this false Prophet Who indeed but he who hath falsly arrogated it to himself Mahomet I mean who is known to have assumed it and it is always given him by his Followers and that in preference to Christ himself the great Prophet of his Church and he who was promised under that Name Deuter. 18. 18. Besides it is a Stile the Dragon and Beast Emperor and Pope let me now call them never assumed And I cannot see why this should not be admitted here if we observe either where the Vial is said to be poured out viz. on Euphrates in which the Turks or Mahometans are so much concerned as is at large shewed in this Chapter and what the work assigned to the three unclean Spirits is viz. To go forth unto the Kings of the Earth and of the whole World a larger district than is any where given to the Roman Empire alone to gather them to the Battle of that great Day of God Almighty 'T is true indeed that the false Prophet afterwards viz. Revel 19. 20. and Revel 20. 10. is a stile under which Antichrist is expressed but then 't is to distinguish him from the Beast not to make him the same with him as also to shew how it was the Beast or Roman Empire was deceived by him as he was a false Prophet in the Doctrines he taught and the Miracles whereby he pretended to confirm the same and what was the consequence thereof that the Deceiver and deceived were to perish together Indeed I can scarce forbear to conjecture at least that this Vial looks farther than is yet exprest for when we have given the utmost Extent we can to the Roman and Mahometan Empires they will come very much short of what is set down here I mean the Kings of the Earth and the whole World which is of too wide a compass to be contained in either of the former Only the Dragon the old Serpent or Satan who is called the God of this World and is most properly so in those places where their Jurisdictions do not reach for it is there to this day the Devil is professedly Worshipped at least he is so in some parts of the Pagan VVorld in the extent of his Territories will take in the whole And I would be willing to hope that the Day is coming when there shall be an end put to such his Usurpations I would hope at the end of this Vial to see the Jews in their Return and the fulness of the Gentiles coming in I would hope to see it is an Event methinks but agreeable to the Battle of that great Day of God Almighty our Lord taking to himself his great Power and Reigning Rev. 11. 17. Or as it is Psal 2. 8. 9. Asserting to himself the Heathen for his Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his Possession breaking them with a Rod of Iron and dashing them in pieces like a Potters Vessel And that such a time seems to be at hand will appear by that time we shall have gone though this Vial. This as to the first of these Questions viz. VVhat we are to understand by the Dragon Beast and false Prophet The
bringing in the fulness of the Gentiles the final fall of Babylon notwithstanding too all the preparations towards it Towards the first the recalling of the Jews there cannot be much preparation for their return is to be as life from the dead Rom. 11. 15. as the Resurrection of dry bones Ezek. 37. by bringing them out of their Graves v. 13. only as 't is Ezek. 36. 37. Thus saith the Lord I will yet for this be enquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them but 't is what he will do first for them in pouring upon them the Spirit of Grace and Supplication Zach. 11. 10. And it may be there never was a greater longing in that people for their return than now is never a fairer disposition towards Christianity But in that God will have his own way But as for the Mahometans that they seem to be preparing for it their entertaining several of the Christian Tenets and Principles as may be seen in Rycaut's History of the present state of the Ottoman Empire p. 231 and otherwhere may informus As With respect to the Fall of Babylon there is nothing can more speak that to be drawing on than the Irreverence with which even those who still retain the same Profession with her do almost every where Treat her witness the Wits of France and Italy it self who either run into direct Atheism or have private Opinions and Sentiments of their own with which they qualifie those Absurdities in that Religion which they have not yet found a way intirely to reject I shall not need on this occasion to mention the Quietists or any other sort of Scepticks in that Communion but shall conclude this with that of our Saviour Mark 3. 24. If a Kingdom be divided against it self that Kingdom cannot stand But to return supposing the sense of the Vial to be as we have assigned it it will still remain upon as to shew what in likelihood is the time when this Vial shall begin when to end Now for this can we have a better Guide than the Holy Ghost himself Let us see therefore what he hath said in this matter We have it Rev. 9. 13 14. And I heard a Voice from the four Horns of the Golden Altar which is before God saying to the sixth Angel which had the Trumpet loose the four Angels which are bound in the great River Euphrates What was the binding of the Angels But that stop Providence was pleased for the time appointed to put to their Acting what before they were loose or free to What their being loosed but the same Providences permitting them to Prosecute their former designs the taking off that check and restraint the same wise Providence had laid on them Now when was it they were thus bound when was it they were to be thus loosed But to this we must premise another Question viz. Who these four Angels were To this the Context must give us Light and that it will if we consider of whom the Holy Ghost had been speaking Now those the Holy-Ghost had been speaking of are generally agreed to be the Saracens or Turks For they were those Locusts as they are called ver 3. which came up out of the Smoak to whom was given Power as the Scorpions of the Earth have Power and who are said ver 11. To have a King over them which is the Angel of the bottomless pit whose name in the Hebrew Tongue is Abaddon but in the Greek Tongue hath his name A polly on i. e. A Destroyer I may say too in the Arabick for both Saracen and Turk in their Original are derived from Verbs which among other significations have that of to spoil or destroy according to which John Baptist a Egnatius speaking of the Origin of the Turks saith Vagi dispalatique quove cuique sors affuit latrocinantes magis quam belligerantes pro vincias vastarunt Wandring and straggling about as every ones chance was they wasted Countries more like Robbers than Warriors Indeed both these Names are but the same and by an usual change in the Oriental Languages of Shin into Tau they seem to have but one Original but this by the by They might be said to come up out of the Smoak as it was by their Alcoran and the gross Errors therein broached the Mists and Vapours exhaled out of the bottomless Pit i. e. Derived from Hell it self that the Sun and the Air were darkned such the Cloud hereby cast upon the true Religion the Light of the Gospel and its Professors That they are said to be Locusts may be as for their Numbers and the Country from whence Mahomet sprang viz. Arabia where these most abound so from what they resemble the Locusts in as they waste and destroy all where they come That they are commanded not to hurt the Grass of the Earth neither any green thing neither any Tree but only those Men which have not the Seal of God in their Foreheads shew that they are not natural Locusts but such who liko Locusts shall make spoil and havock of those who are hereby signified That they are said to have power given to them as the Scorpions of the Earth have Power must relate to the manner in which by their first coming into Europe they plagued those against whom they had their Commission which was not to Kill but only torment for the time there assigned i. e. for five Months the time which Locusts usually make their stay or 150 Years signified by those 5 Months as a day in the Prophetic stile is taken for a Year and de facto it happened and hath been already toucht on in our Chapter of the first Vial. That they are said to have a King over them which is the Angel of the bottomless pit whose name in the Hebrew Tongue is Abaddon but in the Greek Tongue hath his name Apollyon ver 11. Is a manifest Declaration as under whom he acts i. e. Him whose place of Residence is the bottomless pit or Hell 't is his Message and Errand he is sent on though by the Permission of the divine Providence so what the Message is for which this Angel or Messenger is dispatched thence viz. 'T is to destroy and waste those persons and Countries to whom he is sent Be it Hebrew or Greek in which he hath his Name this is his Business this his profession to be a Destroyer He pretends to be descended from Abraham and Sarah and claims the promise of all Kingdoms for his Followers as being the only true Believers to Mustliman imports and avows the prosecuting all with War who observe not the Rules of his Religion Elmachin Histor Sarac p. 3. So then granting the Saracens or Turks to be those the Holy Ghost there points to how come they to be called the four Angels seeing they were all of the same Original and Religion Now this will be cleared by considering what time the Holy Ghost may here be supposed to aim at
which must be that wherein they are said to be bound for loosing them can have no relation but to their being bound and That seems to be about the end of the eleventh Century when they were driven back by the Romans towards Euphrates the place where they were said to be bound Paulus Jovius relates it to have happened under Soliman their Captain in the time of Godfrey of Bulloign about which time they divided into four Tetrarchies Dynasties or Governments viz. Of Lesser Asia of Aleppo Damascus and Antioch or rather Bagdat for that of Antioch continued but fourteen Years the three first on this side the last beyond Euphrates 'T is true indeed that this division of Sultanies or distinct Governments lasted not till the time they are said to be let loose but that no way hinders why they being the same People under whatever Government they should be called back again to serve the Purposes of Divine Povidence should be called by the same Names or notified under the same distinction that was then amongst them when they were first said to be bound in the great River Euphrates They who were to be loosed and prepared for it for an Hour and a Day and a Month and a Year Rev. 9. 15. are the same with those who before were bound and therefore but reasonable they should have the same Appellation whatever changes or vicissitudes had otherwise happened to them in that long tract of time no less than 396 Years with some other fractions of time intervening for so much a Year viz. 365 Days a Month 30 a Day 1. a Day being taken for a Year and an Hour will contain between the time of this Division if we date it from the erecting the Dynasty or Government of Bagdat which was 1057 for then 't was Tognulbecus General of the Turks was by the Caliph Cajim Biamrilla invested with Royal Robes and inaugurated in the Royal City of Bagdat which falls in with the 449th year of the Turkish Hegira in which Elmachinus the Arabian Historian p. 272 relates it to have been thus performed Now add to 1057 the aforsaid 396 it produces 1453 when the Turks took Constantinople abolished the Eastern Empire and made their Irruptions again into Europe with that success as scarce to find any thing to withstand them What their Progress then was the narrow limits of the present Empire and the Mediterranean Isles sufficiently declare and where it will end only be that commanded them to be loosed can foretel And by this time we are able in some measure to judge when this Vial was to begin viz. When the four Angels whom I have shewed to be meant of the Turks that were bound in the River Euphrates were loosed which we have placed Anno 1453. As to the time when this Vial shall end that must be judged as by the Events here foretold so by what is to succed in the next Vial. CHAP. XVII Of the seventh Vial Rev. 16. ver 17 18 19 20 21. AND the seventh Angel poured out his Vial into the Air and there came a great Voice out of the Temple of Heaven from the Throne saying it is done And there were Voices and Thunders and Lightnings and there was a great Earthquake such as was not since Men were upon the Earth so mighty an Earthquake and so great And the great City was divided into three parts and the Cities of the Nations fell and Great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto her the Cup of the Wine of the fierceness of his Wrath. And every Island fled away and the Mountains were not found And there fell upon Men a great Hail out of Heaven every Stone about the Weight of a Talent and Men blasphemed God because of the Plague of the Hail for the plague thereof was exceeding great This Vial as by the Air into which it is said to be poured we understand the vast Circumference of the great System of the World to the more eminent parts whereof viz. the Earth the Sea the Rivers and Fountains of Waters the Sun c. the other Vials refer seems to be the most general of all the Seven and as the Air is common to all that wherein all good and bad breathe and live so will the Events of this Vial respectively affect them For if with respect to the One i. e. the Bed or Enemies of Christ it be said it is done all that was to be executed on them being now fulfilled the same seems applicable to the others i. e. the Good with respect to the end that is now to be put to their Sufferings and the Glory of the Gospel which is thereon to succeed and the manner of expressing it viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is done seems to speak as the full Completion of all so the suddenness of these Events upon the Angel's pouring out this Vial as we use to say dictum factum no sooner said than done Every thing before was prepared as for the Ruin of the Enemies of our Lord so for the advancement of his Church He who is said to come as a Thief in the former Vial for the sudden and surprizing manner of his coming hath no farther delay to make in this for the Angel doth but pour out his Vial into the Air and a great Voice comes out of the Temple of Heaven from the Throne saying it is done Which I take the more notice of that if the expiring of the 1260 Years for the Reign of Antichrist should appear to be at or near the end of the sixth Vial the seventh being still to be poured out should not put us to a long expectation of having it fulfilled Christ comes as a Thief to gather them together viz. all his Enemies into a Place called in the Hebrew Tongue Armageddon being there what should hinder but that like the executing the Sentence upon the Conviction and Judgment given on the Offender the utter excision of them should forthwith Succeed And the seventh Trumpet with which I take this Vial to syncronize seems to speak the same For if with respect to that it is said that the Mystery of God should be finished which he had graciously declared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had declared it as the very good Tydings of the Gospel it self for so what concerns the Ruin of their Enemies must be it is here said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is done all is fulfilled that was there declared And that these syncronize i. e. fall in together and are to be fulfilled at the same time will not the manner in which they are exprest farther instruct us Thus if in this Vial it is said There came a great Voice out of the Temple of Heaven from the Throne it is said in the other the Temple of God was opened in Heaven and there was seen in his Temple the Ark of his Covenant both as to signifie from whence they came for it is added in the one And there were
Lightnings and Voices and Thunderings and an Earthquake and great Hail in the other And there were Voices and Thunderings and Lightnings and there was a great Earthquake c. And there fell upon Men a great Hail c. So that it is the same thing they in the main aim at the chief difference there seems to be is that in the one it is said the Temple of God was opened in Heaven which in the other is exprest only by a great Voice coming thence without restraining its opening to the time of the Vial but then is not that supplied by what weread Rev. 15. 8. where 't is said And the Temple was filled with Smoak from the Glory of God and from his Power and no Man was able to enter into the Temple till the seven Plagues of the seven Angels were fulfilled If none were able to enter in till then then certainly it was not open till then i. e. Opened it was in neither in the Sense I give of it as relating to the free publication of the Gospel i. e. The Word of God or his Testament which in the times of Antichrist was lockt up but now to be seen and perused of all And to this Opening of the Temple seems to agree what we have Rev. 11. 1. Where St. Iohn is bid to rise and measure the Temple of God but to leave out the Court which is without the Temple and measure it not for it is given unto the Gentiles who should tread down the holy City for forty two Months Measuring is the setting certain bounds to any thing accordingly what Iohn is bid to do may be understood of definite and certain Bounds set to the Church in its Purity so that it was not to appear as such again till the Interval that was to Intervene should expire viz. the 42 Months there spoken of that being expired the Limits and Boundaries so set are again removed i. e. The Temple is again opened Religion in its purity professed the Ark of the Testament seen in the Temple the Law which was deposited there so it was commanded Exod. 25. 16. 21. published and to be obeyed by all And its being poured into the Air methinks very plainly speaks this to us for what is the Air but the whole Medium or Vehicle of Light and so may denote all who are capable of being enlightned by the Truth to be the subjects of that clearer or more universal Revelation which is now to be made of it Before which I take to be at the first breaking forth as it were of this Light whether at the Reformation or whatever other time that be applied to 't is said Rev. 14. 6. I saw another Angel fly in the midst of Heaven having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the Earth c. To signifie that it was but a part of the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transparent Orb was then enlightned it was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the middle part or half of Heaven but now it is the whole Orb is made lucid the Gospel every where so shining in its Purity that they must be very much in Love with darkness who shall not now receive the Light the Air will be full of it and it s being so with respect to its Enemies who are to be destroyed by the brightness of our Lord 's coming 2 Thes 2. 8. is sufficient to denominate it one of the Vials of Gods Wrath on them 't is but opening the Eye and all will be clear and transparent no Clouds now to interpose no Storms to divert the Beholders And this possibly is what we are farther directed to by the Voices Thunders and Lightnings in allusion to what was done at the first publishing of the Law Exod. 19. 16. to declare that now the Gospel should be the Law of the World published as by the Voice of God he appearing in the defence of his Truth so by that of his Ministers which may be the reason why it is Voices in the Plural carried on with that Power and Evidence so clear so irresistible in all its Truths that like Thunder and Lightning there should be no stopping the Ears no shutting the Eyes against it no opposing it but at the peril of falling under the immediate stroke of Heaven The Thunder doth not so loudly proclaim the Gospel but that it will as loudly revenge if neglected the Lightning can as well blast the Gainsayers as discover the Truths they ought to receive such will be the Terror and Conviction that will now go along with the Gospel And is it any wonder when this shall be that a great Earthquake should follow saith the Text it shall be such as was not since Men were upon the Earth so mighty an Earthquake and so great An Earthquake we know shakes and unsettles all Houses Villages Towns Cities Hills Valleys Forrests whole Countries with the Inhabitants have felt the Effects thereof This is to be such an Earthquake so mighty and so great as was not since Men were upon Earth I will not say it is to be a meer natural Earthquake though such often have been observed to forerun or accompany great Iudgments and I am apt to think this sort of Earthquakes may usher in or accompany this Vial there have great and extraordinary things of that nature happened in our own times But to such prodigious Events only I do not imagine this to be confined but rather I believe it to direct to something like what God speaks by his Prophet Haggai 2. 6 7. Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and dry Land and I will shake all Nations which St. Paul thus refers to Heb. 12. 26 27. whose Voice then shook the Earth he speaks of the Earthquake that accompanied the giving of the Law of Moses but now he hath promised saying Yet once more I shall shake not the Earth only but also Heaven and this Word yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken The business of this Earthquake will be utterly to remove what in the times of Antichrist prevailed quite to change the whole Face of things and bring in that Evangelical State which to follow the Apostles Expression in the next verse will be a Kingdom which cannot be moved Would we see what were to be the effects of this Earthquake It follows v. 19 20. And the great City was divided into three parts and the Cities of the Nations fell and great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto her the Cup of the Wine of the fierceness of his Wrath. And every Island fled away and the Mountains were not found The great City what it is is sufficiently described in the next Chapter ver 18. where it is said and the Woman which thou sawest is the great City which Reigneth over the Kings of the Earth 'T is Rome that in that Chapter is 1.
pass then look up and lift up your Heads for your Redemption draweth nigh the Epocha of it is set and it is but three days and an half i. e. So many Years and an half and Deliverance will come the People and Kindreds and Tongues and Nations shall see their dead Bodies three days and an half and shall not suffer their dead Bodies to be put in Graves ver 9. And therefore which I note by the by that last Persecution is not to be Universal for if it were where would be the People and Kindreds and Tongues and Nations which should not suffer them to be buried No as it is ver 11. the Spirit of Life from God shall enter into them and they shall stand on their Feet and great Fear shall fall on them which see them So that were there no other prediction of the End of Antichrist's Reign in this whole Book than this alone whenever this comes to pass it is easy to see how short his time is and being so we cannot wonder as it is Rev. 12. 12. He should have great Wrath. Again As to the time of the Womans Flight who is cloathed with the Sun and hath the Moon under her Feet and upon her Head a Crown of twelve stars into the Wilderness where it be proper to date the beginning of it but after the Serpents casting out of his Mouth Water as a Flood that might cause her to be carried away of the Flood i. e. When after the ceasing of the ten persecutions the Devil endeavoured to fill the Church with Heresies those are the Flood cast out of his Mouth and when he could no longer Prosecute his Rage with open Violence to try what could be done by making her persecute herself i. e. As it is in the Parable by those Tares he sowed in the Field destroy the good Seed and this seems to look to that Deluge of Arianism which came in upon her in its full Torrent but against which the Earth the secular powers pious Emperors Constantine Theodosius Junior c. came into her Aid and helped her as by their interposing for her present Rescue so taking Care for her future safety herein in particular by calling the four first general Councils by their Authority to condemn that and the other Heresies which grew up under it the last of which was Anno 451 and from this time or thereabouts till I find reason to change this opinion I scruple not to reckon the Woman in the Wilderness whither that she might Fly were given to her two Wings of a great Eagle i e. of the Eastern and Western Empire both which belonged to the Romans whose Standard that is This I say seems to be that date of the Churches Wilderness-Condition in which she was to be nourished for a time and times and half a time the same measure with that of 1260 Days from the Face of the Serpent and it is observable if I may so speak that the Eagle it self flew along with her into his Wilderness it being not long after that Rome was taken the second time and but twenty four Years when Augustulus was forced by Odoacer to renounce the Empire but of this by the by Once more As to the time of the Beast's rising to make War against the Saints Rev. 13. 7. That Beast which as as it is ver 12. exercised the Power of the first Beast before him Where can that be more probably fixt than where the Holy-Ghost hath as I have already observed with so many Remarks fixed it viz. After the taking of Rome Rev. 13. 4. 10. And the gradual expiring of its Soveraignty that being then taken away which was to let as the Apostle to the Thessalonians expresses it till removed And that however the taking of Rome were so notable a Period we may not just fasten it to the point of Time the Holy-Ghost gives us another note which will bring this nearer to the time where it is to be fixed and that is by making the rise of the Beast and of the ten Kings to be at the same time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at one and the same hour 't is Rev. 17. 12. the Chapter in which he expresly Interprets this Mystery 10 St. John ver 7. c. And when that was History will easily resolve We have already observed it 't was in or about the 455th Year of Christ Nor will the account be different if we take it in the Words of the Angel Dan. 12. 7. Holding up his Right-hand and his Left hand unto Heaven and swearing by Him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time and times and an half i. e. That till then the Power of the Holy People should be scattered but then an end was to be put to it by Michael the great Prince which stands saith the Angel speaking to Daniel for the Children of thy People i. e. For the Jews who were then to be on their Restauration but so as I have before offered it in this Treatise that some time is to succeed for their full coming in possibly that Interval which is afterward notified ver 11. where it is said that from the time of the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the Abomination that maketh desolate shall be set up there shall be a Thousand two hundred and ninety Days and whereas it is added Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the Thousand three Hundred and five and thirty Days I am apt to think that is the Perâ—od that will fully accomplish the Calling of the Jews and fulness of the Gentiles till the end of which Daniel is told that he shall rest and stand in his Lot at the end of the Days Which end if the Abomination that maketh desolate be the same with Idolatry brought into the Church in that degree which we have observed about the Year 455 will be about the Year 1715 to which adding for those other two Periods mentioned by the Angel i. e. what makes 1260 to be 1290 i. e. 30 Years then we shall have for the Yeas there signified 1745 or what advances the said 1260 to 1335 i. e. 75 the whole will be 1790 and as the Angel so say I Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to that time for it will be a Blessed time for the Church of God and the Glory of the Gospel One Remark more I have to add to this before I leave it that the several Periods we have been mentioning for the ending the Reign of Antichrist fall in likewise with what we read Dan. 8. 14. 'T is the Answer is there given to the Question put by one Angel to another asking 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 down but returned to Daniel in these Words And he said unto me Unto two Thousand and three Hundred Days then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed For consider
patience of the Saints may be accordingly as I may say working with Providence and preparing them for what in his Wise Councils an Allseeing God hath so suited to that variety there is in humane affairs and therefore not without a latitude for their beginning or ending And so the Rule is Habakkuk 2. 3. For the Vision is for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lie though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry But then if Antichrist were come before the 500 th year of Christ what was there did then appear in the World which could in any sort answer the black Character the Apostle gives of him 2 Thess 2. v. 4 8 9 10 To this I answer That as the Apostle tells them to whom he there writes That the Mystery of Iniquity already works there is no doubt but that he was born This Mystery had not been so long conceiving to bring forth Nothing however he had not then attain'd the mature age of this Man of Sin and Son of Perdition And there will be little reason to think otherwise if we consider that agreeable to the three Names by which the Holy Ghost sets out the Reign of Antichrist I mean of Sodom Revel 11. 4. of Egypt Revel 11. 8. and of Babylon Revel 17. 5. the first to signifie that Corruption of Manners the second that Tyranny the third that Superstition and Idolatry which was then to obtain there was something of all these to make out that Apostasie or falling away which was to precede his coming And here not to lead the Author beyond his own Collection of Primitive Fathers I could shew him St. Augustin St. Hierome St. Chrysostome with many others giving Testimony in this matter in their several Invectives against those Enormities which were so predominant among the Clergy with those many burdensom Rites and Ceremonies which were introduced with the Adoration and Intercession of Saints and the like sufficient to discredit the Purity of the Church and at least Evidence that Antichrist was at hand I could shew where St. Hierome gives Rome no other Name than that of Babylon and reproves her for the sins of Sodom viz. Pride Fullness of Bread and abundance of Idleness and a refusing to strengthen the hand of the poor and needy Ezek. 16. 49. and some degree at least of an Egyptian Tyranny what hath been already observ'd of Leo Magnus will go a great way in the proof hereof in that high hand with which she began then to carry things in the Church How far they were gone in Superstition and Idolatry Theodoret whom the Author so often appeals to in his Collection will sufficiently inform us in his eighth book de Graec. Affect Curat where 't is his profest business to invite the Heathens to change the worship of their Pagan Heroes and Deified Persons into that of the Martyrs To this I might add the Testimony of Lactantius Antonius Eremita Hilarius and Epiphanius with Salvian and many others For 't is no difficulty to make good the Charge Only the advantage the Author hopes for from it is That it being so early may justifie him in urging this it self as matter of Antiquity the Use we make of it is to satisfie Him that these Errors and Enormities did so soon obtain not that because they so soon obtain'd they were therefore the more justifiable So then there 's no question but Antichrist was then born though not arrived to the adult and mature age of the Man of Sin For that as we before observ'd was to be reckon'd from another Epocha viz. That of the first taking of Rome Anno 410. And but reasonable it should be so He who let being to be taken out of the way 2 Thess 2. 7. before the other Beast as He is stiled Revel 13. 10. could come up out of the Earth For 't was the Anarchy as St. Chrysostom expresses it that should make way for his Usurpation as de facto it did the Bishop of Rome still holding his own and indeed gaining by the common Calamity Nor is there any thing which the Holy Ghost himself hath more clearly pointed out then this very Epocha For what are those reflections I took notice of before viz. If any man have an Ear let him hear Revel 13. 9. and in the close of the tenth verse Here is the Patience and the Faith of the Saints which sets the Period to the Roman Empire and the Sufferings of the Christians under it but to quicken our attention as to what is thereby immediately usher'd in so to lead us on to a more strict Observation of what follows which being the Description of Antichrist that other Beast which was to grow up upon the Ruins of the Roman Empire and being in effect the same with what is foretold of him in that foremention'd 2 Thess 2. 7 8. cannot especially the Holy Ghost again pointing to it v. 18. in these words Here is Wisdom but guide us to some notable Epocha of his Reign to be calculated from thence And what was that but the very time when He should as St. Paul had foretold and I have before taken notice of exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshipt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very stile of the Roman Emperors so that He as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing Himself that He is God which how eminently He did it Anno 1076. hath been already shew'd But 't is his Birth not his mature Age we are now speaking of And there 's another note of Direction the Holy Ghost hath supplied us with Revel 17. 12. which in a manner confines it to the very Period of 455. or the second taking of Rome 't is that of the ten Horns or ten Kings which when St. John wrote had receiv'd no Kingdom but were to receive their Power one hour with the Beast They and He to commence their Reign at the same time and to have the same continuance and Duration with one another And now to settle the Synchronism when was it they who where thus to be contemporary with the Beast receiv'd their Kingdom Was it not in or about 455 or 456 which immediarely succeeded the second taking of Rome by Gensericus that the Division of the Empire was made into so many several Kingdoms And whereas these ten Horns or ten Kings are said Rev. 17. 13. to have one mind and to give their Power and strength unto the Beast What is that but a Confirmation of the means whereby Antichrist should arrive at the heighth of his Usurpation exercising as 't is Revel 13. 12. all the Power of the first Beast before Him and causing the Earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first Beast whose deadly wound was healed i. e. Princes and People to pay their Homage which was due to the first Beast viz. the Emperor to Himself in whom as to the continuing