his Church whatsoever Eclipse does befall her whether by Heresies or by persecutions And that there shall alway's be Belivers in the Earth who shall worship the one only true God in Spirit and truth even as the Angels and the blessed do adore him in Heaven II. ILLUSTRATION Of the Sealed Book which no Creature could open save the Lion of the Tribe of Judah REV. CHAP. 5. v. 1. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a Book written within and without sealed with seven seals v. 2. And I saw a strong Angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the Book and to loose the Seals thereof v. 3. And no man in Heaven nor in Earth neither under the Earth was able to open the Book neither to look thereon THis Book can be nothing else but the Apocalypse which containeth every thing remarkable that was to befall either the Roman Empire or the Church of God. It is written within and without for the same reason because within it containeth the destiny of the Church and without the fate of the Roman Empire The form of this Book consisteth in seven leaves rolled after such a fashion that the second was shut up within the first and so of the rest The Seals denote the importance the Authority the stability and the obscurity of the Visions This darkness is such that no Creature how honorable soever could either open the Book or look into it That is to say who could so much as imagin the Events which it containeth v. 5. And one of the Elders saith unto me weep not behold the Lion of the Tribe of Judah the root of David hath prevailed to open the Book and to loose the Seals thereof But what no creature could do Jesus Christ hath done So St. John tells us at the very entrance in that he begun by these terms chap. 1. v. 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass Jesus Christ is here called a Lion because of his Resurrection as he is a little afterward called a Lamb by reason of the sacrifice of his death And a Lion of the Tribe of Judah because he sprung from that Tribe according to the flesh The Root of David because tho he be tru'ly Davids son according to his humane Nature he is nevertheless Davids Father as well as his Lord according to his Divinity III. ILLUSTRATION Of the Lamb with seven Horns and Seven Eyes and of his being worshipped REV. CHAP. 5. v. 6 c. V. 6. And I beheld lo in the midst of the Throne and of the four living Creatures and in the midst of the Elders stood a Lamb as it had been slain having seven Horns seven Eyes which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth THis Lamb is Jesus Christ who tho risen is here represented as dead before the Throne to give us to understand that the merit of his death is alway's present before God and that his sacrifice is of an eternal vertu ' Horns according to the prophetick stile signify glory and power Psa 75. 10. The Lamb is represented having Seven which is a Mystick number to signify that nothing can be added to his glory and that his power hath no limits The seven Eyes and seven Spirits are of the same importance And do denote an omniscient knowledg and an immense wisdom by which he is every where present and conducteth all events as the soveraign Arbiter and Disposer V. 8. And when he had taken the Book the four living Creatures and four and twenty Elders fell down before the Lamb having every one of them Harps and golden Vials full of Odours which are the Prayers of Saints V. 9. And they sung a new Song saying Thou art worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy Blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and Nation V. 10. And hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests c. Here is the same worship given to Jesus Christ by the four living Creatures and by the four and twenty Elders that in the preceding Chapter had been rendred to Him who created all things for his pleasure which shews Christs being acknowledged for the true God by the four living Creatures and by the 24. Elders The Harps which they have in their hands are for the singing the praises of God and the Vials full of odours are for the invocating of him which are the two Acts of Adoration These Odours are called the prayers of the Saints because the Incense offered by the Priests of old were a Symbole of prayers as appeareth in the 141. Ps v. 2. Let my prayer be set forth before thee as Incense Some may possibly infer from hence that the Saints who are in Heaven do pray for those on Earth and that they do present unto God the prayers of such as are here in the world But this is to suppose that the four and twenty Elders are in Heaven and that the Saints spoken of in this passage are to be understood of Souls received into Paradise or as men are used to speak in the world of the Saints that are in Heaven which is a supposition without any ground or foundation For those believers that are in Heaven are not in any part of the Bible called Saints but only stiled Blessed Nor is it said here that these 24. Elders are Blessed The Vision is so far from saying this that it declareth the contrary because the very same persons having Vials full of Odours do say v. 10. Thou hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign on Earth Which sheweth that they who offer up the prayers of the Saints that are on the Earth are themselves likewise upon the Earth and where they hope to Reign So that the four and twenty Elders do represent the Pastors and Guides of the Militant Church who are said to offer up Odours by reason of their praying publickly for all the Congregations of Believers And these Pastors are represented under the number of 24. by an allusion to rhe twelve Patriarchs of the Old Testament and the twelve Apostles of the New as they were in the Vision of the foregoing Chap. These 24. Elders and the 4. living Creatures sing a new Song saying Thou art worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals thereof for thou hast redeemed us c. Which words seem to give light to that saying of Jesus Christ in the 13. Chap. of Mark v. 32. But of that day and hour of Judgment knoweth no man no not the Angels which are in Heaven neither the Son of man but the Father Then the Son as man knew it not because he had not offered the Sacrifice of his death for the satisfying Divine Justice but now he knoweth both the day
Papal Empire is erected This Kingdom is constituted of Errors False Worship and Tyranny And according to the Language of Isaiah Tyranny is denoted by the Head and Errors and False Worship are figured out to us by the Tail. And this is that which maketh up the Mystery Iniquity Dionysius Carthusianus tells us in his Commentaries that the Tail of the Dragon is Antichrist which is a notion as solid as it is ingenious For as the Tail is the End of the Dragon's Body so Antichrist is the End and Tail of the Roman Power And after that the Viols come to be poured out there shall be no more mention neither of Pope nor of Roman Empire neither of Roman Religion nor of Rome As to that which is intended by the third part of the Stars which the Tail of the Dragon cast to the Earth we are to know that the Roman Empire contained about the third part of the World and therefore that this third part of the Stars do signify all the Rulers and Doctors of that part of the world that have been drawn away and ensnared by the Papal Superstitions IX ILLUSTRATION Of the Woman cloathed with the Sun. REV. CHAP. 12. v. 1. THIS Woman whom St. John saw cloathed with the Sun having the Moon under her Feet and upon her Head a Crown of twelve Stars can be nothing but the true Church forasmuch as this Sun is Iesus Christ who is called by Malachy chap. 4. 2. the Sun of Righteousness and whom St. Paul in the 13. chapt to the Romans v. 14. requireth Believers to put on The Moon is the Pedagogy of the Law which as it was changeable so the Church hath trampled it under her Feet This St. Paul plainly intimates in the second chapt of the Epist to the Coloss For as most of the Legal Feasts such as the Passover Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles depended upon the motion of the Moon so the whole Legal Pedagogy is very well represented by the Moon as well as all the changeable things of this world which Believers thro being Citizens of Heaven do despise The Twelve Stars with which this Woman is crowned must signify the Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles which the true Church maketh her Glory and her Crown And this in Opposition to the Antichristian Church which may be said to have the Moon upon her Head and to be crowned with her Forasmuch as by the establishment of Priests Sacrifices Altars Purifications and Moveable Feasts she may be said to have revived the Synagogue rebuilt the Tabernacle of Moses and set up again the whole Legal Oeconomy And she may also be said to have the Sun and the Twelve Stars under her Feet both through her subjecting Jesus Christ to her Priests who do Sacrifice him and the Doctrine of the Apostles to her unscriptural and invented Traditions The Churches being with Child and crying and being in pain to be delivered represents the Persecutions that She suffered during the first three Centuries The Man Child which She brought forth is not Jesus Christ as might seem at the first view because in that sense She must have been the Judaick Church and not the Christian whereas this alone is the Subject of the Revelation But it is Christ Mystical the Church formed of those that were Gentiles which St. Paul in the first to the Cor. chap. 12. v. 12. stiles Christ And this is the more evident because this Man Child is distinguished from Michael v. 7. from the Lamb v. 11. from Iesus v. 17. and is said to overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and to have the Testimony of Iesus And whereas it is said that the Dragon stood before the Woman to devour her Child as soon as it was born That is by way of Allusion to the Birth of our Saviour and the Persecution he suffered from Herod who endeavoured to destroy him So that this Woman is properly the Christian Church which being made up at first of Iews travailed and was in pain to bring forth a Church composed of Gentiles And forasmuch as it is said of this Man Child that he was to Rule all Nations with a rod of Iron the same is promised to all Believers in the Epistle directed to the Church of Thyatira Rev. 2. 26 27. And whereas it is said of this Male Child that he was caught up unto God and to his Throne this doth not hinder us from understanding it of the Christian Church composed of Gentiles Since as such it was exalted to the Throne of the Empire in the person of Constantine and his Successors and was delivered from the Persecutions of Pagan Rome It is an Allusion to the Ascension of Jesus Christ for the Holy Spirit puts that Honour upon the Church when he is speaking of her Combats and Victories as to borrow Expressions which refer to the Combates and Victories of her Divine Husband X. ILLUSTRATION Of the Combate between Michael and the Dragon REV. CHAP. 12. INterpreters are divided about who this Michael should be who fought with the Dragon Some will have it to be Michael the Archangel who disputed with Satan about the Body of Moses and who durst not bring against him a railing accusation as St. Jude tells us v. 9. The same Michael being called by Dan. chap. 10. v. 13. one of the Chief Princes of the People of God. But others will have it to be Christ himself who in his own person fights against the Dragon And this opinion seems to be the truest because the Victory obtained in this Battel is above the power of a created Angel. The defeat given to Satan and his Angels in casting them out of Heaven unto the Earth is a work that belongs properly to none save to Jesus Christ who as he is here stiled by the name of Angel because he is the Angel of the covenant the Angel of the Great Council so he is called Michael that is one who is like unto God because he is the true God the Brightness of the Fathers Glory and the lively and express Image of his Person And of whom the Michael spoken of in Daniel was a Type We have already shew'd in the foregoing Explanations that the Dragon is the ancient Roman Empire or Rome under the sixth Head which was the Emperors but called the old Serpent the Devil and Satan because the Devil was as the Soul that enlivened that Empire and was worshipped in it as a Deity under the name of Mars so that Rome was surnamed Martia the City of the Idol-God Mars This being laid down there is no difficulty in the Vision It being nothing but a Description of the Persecutions which lasted under the Emperors for about the space of three hundred years It was then that Satan had justly the name of the Accuser of the Bretheren according as he is called v. 10. For the Christians during the time of 300 years could not assemble openly but were forced to keep their Mettings in Dens or
imaginable But in truth after that I had throughly examined the vision of St. Iohn and the juncture of time where the Holy Spirit placeth the Reign of a thousand years to wit between the destruction of Babylon and all the Enemies of the Church upon the one side and the War of Gog and Magog as a fruit of the loosing of Satan after he had been imprisoned for a thousand years upon the other side I must declare that I find my self conquered and that I am forced to believe that the Church of God is to enjoy for some Ages an entire and uninterrupted peace here on the Earth I am confirmed in this opinion by a vast number of Prophesies both of the Old and New Testament which cannot be expounded without violence offered to them and are if I may so speak so many inexplicable riddles unless the Church of God be to enjoy that peace in this world of which those promises give us assurance And finding not the least danger in embracing that opinion I have closed with it without any further hesitation For what danger can it be to believe that the Church of God shall enjoy a thousand years Tranquillity here on the Earth I do see none unless it be that the believing so will give offence to the Orthodox who are of another mind and who affirm that the Cross is to be the Banner and Livery of the Church of God thro all Ages But these very Gentlemen do acknowledg that the Church had rest and peace during the Reign of Constantine And there are some who place the thousand years here spoken of under the Reign of that Emperor And do understand by them the Tranquillity that the Church enjoyed from the conversion of Constantine till the time that She became disturbed and persecuted by the Arrians So that the Orthodox Antimillenarians do confess that the Church had at least a twenty years calmness and serenity Why then should they be offended that others who are Orthodox make the peace which the Church is to enjoy to be of a greater length and duration And they cannot but own that the Cross is not essential to the Church of God. It is an accident without which the Church may very well subsist God can as well sanctify the Church in prosperity as in adversity in a calm as well as in a tempest Iob was righteous and rich in good works in the time of his affluence as well as in the time of his misery And why may it not be so in reference to the Church of God If the world be to last seven or it may be eight thousand years what danger will there be in allowing the Church of God one thousand years peace for the six or seven thousand that She is be in trouble and sufferings But let us without prejudice hearken unto what God saith to us upon this subject both by the Ministry of St. Iohn and that of the ancient Prophets Lo what St. Iohn tells us Rev 20. V. 1. I saw an Angel come down from Heaven having the Key of the bottomless Pit and a great Chain in his hand V. 2. And he laid hold on the Dragon that old Serpent which is the Devil and Satan and bound him a thousand years V. 3. And cast him into the bottomless Pit and shut him up and set a Seal upon him that he should deceive the Nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled and after that he must be loosed a little season V. 4. And I saw Thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them and I saw the Souls of them that were beheaded for the Testimony of Iesus and for the Word of God and which had not worshipped the Beast neither his Image neither had received his mark upon their Foreheads or in their right hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years V. 5. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished This is the first Resurrection V. 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be Priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years V. 7. And when the thousand years are expired Satan shall be loosed out of his prison V. 8. And shall go out to deceive the Nations which are in the four Quarters of the Earth Gog and Magog c. The Church of Jesus Christ hath a right to say as Iob did I know that my Redeemer Liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth Chap. 19. v. 25. And that not only to raise and gather together my Bones which are scattered about the Graves mouth when he cometh from Heaven with his Glorious Angels to judg the quick and the Dead at the general Resurrection but also to deliver me from the misery wherein I have been in this world and to cause me to enjoy an entire peace after the destruction of all my Enemies For Iob was as well a Type of the Church of Christ as of Jesus Christ himself who is her adorable Head. This is that peace of the Church which St. Iohn doth here represent after that he had described her sufferings For he saw her Rising after the ruin of Babylon and injoying the gracious presence of her Redeemer after the imprisonment of Satan and the conversion of the unbelieving and Idolatrous Nations If we will give credit to some Divines this is the most obscure passage in the Revelation but this obscurity does arise from themselves and from three prejudices wherewith they are possessed 1. That the world is not to last any long time because St. Peter says that the end of all things is at hand 1 Epist chap. 4. v. 7. 2. Thar the opinion of the Millenarians who conceived that Jesus Christ should come from Heaven down here upon the Earth to converse visibly with his people and to cause them enjoy all sorts of pleasures for a thousand years hath been condemned as a carnal opinion tending to sensuality 3. That the Cross is to be the Livery of Christs Disciples through all Ages because Jesus Christ hath said if any man will come after me let him take up his Cross Matth. 16. 24. and because the Apostles have declared that through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God Acts 14. 22. But we deceive our selves if we do believe the World to be fo near its end seeing before that the Jews are to be converted the Kingdoms of the world are to be brought in to Jesus Christ Babylon is to be destroyed and who knoweth how long time there is to be between the destruction of Babylon and the ruine of her King and of her Religion without reckoning what time there may be to run out from the end of the thousand years Reign to the end of the War of Gog and Magog and from thence to the
and the hour and every thing that shall befal either the Church or the World because he hath been sacrificed Which is the reason of the four and twenty Elders saying unto him Thou art worthy to open the Book and to loose the Seals thereof for thou hast redeemed us It ought here to be carefully observed that this New Song containeth the whole Mystery of Gospel worship For here we have the death of Christ which is the foundation of all we have them whom his death hath redeemed we have the fruits which believers receive by his Death namely the dignity of being Kings and Priests and we have the Glory which accrueth to Jesus Christ himself For he is thought worthy to know all the Secrets of providence and to receive the Adoration of all Creatures low middle and high Which Adoration is here set before us in a form that is most perfect and which alone is that where with God is pleased that which all the Angels with the four and twenty Elders publish aloud that worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing This is moreover what every Creature in Heaven and on Earth and under the earth and such as are in the Sea say likewise in their turn Blessing and Honor and Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever And the four living Creatures said Amen and the twenty four Elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever It is repeated again because it can never be said enough All worship that is not conformable to this pattern is unlawful and displeaseth God. Nor can we give the least worship to a Creature whatsoever degree of glory it hath arrived at without a departing from this divine model and falling into Idolatry Here we have a Sentence that condemneth the worship of the Roman Church in their addressing their Hymn's and their Prayers to Angels and to Saints IV. ILLUSTRATION Of the Opening of the first six Seals REV. CHAP. 6. AS to the Six Seals of the opening whereof the sixth Chapter treateth the four first differ from the two other in two things One is that at the opening of the four first there appear four Horsemen four living Creatures The other is that at the opening of these St. John is called upon to consider the things which are there declared to be hereafter to come There is doubtless some reason for this difference and this reason is in all probability nothing but this namely that every one of these four Seals containeth things which respect the whole course of the prophetick History both of the Roman Empire and of the Church which the two following do not This reason appeareth to be true in that in the first Vision of Zechariah chap. 1. v 8. it is said that the men which the Prophet saw riding upon red bay and white Horses were those whom the Lord sent to and fro through the Earth And in that the four living Creatures signify as we have proved the four Archangels set over the four parts of the world which marketh Universality And by consequence that the four first Seals at the opening whereof they do appear contain the things that respect the whole series of the History of the Roman Empire and of the Church Which observation if we duly attend unto we shall the more clearly understand the opening of these Seals V. 1. And when the Lamb opened one of the Seals i. e. the first I heard one of the four living Creatures that is the first saying as if it had been the voice of Thunder Come and see V. 2. And I saw and behold a white Horse and he that sat on him had a Bow and a Crown was given unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer This first living Creature is the Lion whose Roaring is the most terrible voice of all the noises of Brutes If the Lion doth Roar shall we not tremble saith one of the Prophets It is compared also to the noise of Thunder which is the thing of the world that is most frightful to men This is exactly the preaching of the Gospel They who preach it are Boanerges Sons of Thunder they carry dread along with them wheresoever they are heard Jews and Gentiles were equally frighted at the beginning and the Papal Kingdom doth dread nothing so much at this day Which is the reason that the Pope and his Clergy use all the power and industry that they are able to stiffle this voice in all places but it is in vain The Gospel hath been victorious over Iews and Gentiles and will be so over the Papal Empire This is what is promised to the man upon the white Horse going forth conquering and to conquer For this Man is Iesus Christ the Lion of the Tribe of Judah who hath overcome He established his Gospel through the whole Pagan Roman Empire The worshippers of false Gods being pierced by the Arrows of our Saviour became converted to the Faith. And he will do the same to the Papal Roman Empire V. 3. And when he had opened the second Seal I heard the second living Creature say come and see V. 4. And there went out another Horse that was red and power was given unto him that sat thereon to take peace from the Earth and that they should kill one another and there was given unto him a great Sword. This second living Creature is the Ox the Symbole of patience and of being designed for slaughter which denoteth the persecutions which believers who are the Mystical Sheep of Jesus Christ were to suffer And he that sat upon this red Horse is no other than Satan the red Dragon that Murderer from the beginning who is armed with a Sword to presage the Blood which for the sake of the Gospel and to hinder the victories of Jesus Christ he should shed through the whole extent both of the Pagan and Papal Empire V. 5. And when he had opened the third Seal I heard the third living Creature say come and see and I beheld and lo a black Horse by that sat on him had a pair of Ballances in his hand The word in the Original signifies a Yoak as well as a Ballance And that it ought to be here translated a Yoak the sequel doth demonstrate V. 6. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living Creatures say a measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny and see thou hurt not the Oyl and the Wine This undoubtedly denoteth a great plenty of all things necessary to the comfort of life Which sheweth that this Horseman carrieth a Yoak not a Ballance Here is indeed a change from white to black The first Horseman who sat upon the white Horse to wit Jesus Christ spread the light of his Gospel in order to establish a spiritual Religion
most eminent So that this Bishop is without doubt he of Rome who from the very beginning was lookt upon as above others by reason of the City which was the Seat of the Empire and consequently the Lady and Mistriss of all other Cities This was the ground of the precedency granted to that Bishop as appears both by the Council of Calcedon and by the second Council of Constantinople Among the Bishops of Rome Gregory the first is particularly here represented by this great Star. And that not only because he was stiled great but because he truly fell from Heaven through abandoning the care of heavenly things to pursue and cleave to those of the Earth This we may the rather believe because he gives this account of himself in the fifth Epistle of his first Book writing to Theotista the Emperors Sister Under the Colour says he of a Bishoprick I am sunk into the world and am become more enslaved to the cares of the Earth than ever I was when but a Laick person Since I was outwardly advanced I am inwardly fallen And I bewaile my own state as being thus driven from the presence of my Creator He writ the same to Anastasius Bishop of Antioch namely that he was so depressed by the load of multiplicity of affairs that he could not raise his mind to heavenly things The fall of this Gregory the Great does yet more appear in that it was he who changed the Service of the Church into that which from his name is called to this day the Gregorian 'T was he likewise who most blasphemously equalled the four first Councils to the four Gospels and who in his four Books of Dialogues brought the belief of Purgatory into the Church But we are to take care that we do not restrain our selves only to one Bishop This great Star is to be taken as representing collectively all the Bishops of Rome since they first begun to depart from the Truth and from Christian Humility And indeed before Gregory the Great Mark who was elected Pope anno 335. did so highly exalt the Rights of the Sea of Rome that he had the confidence to write to the Bishops of Egypt in these prophane words that follow The Roman Church hath forever been without a Spot and through the Grace of God and the protection of St. Peter forever shall be so For says he the Lord spake thus to the Prince of the Apostles Peter I have prayed for thee that thy Faith do not fail Julius I. took upon him by his own meer Authority to re-establish several Oriental Bishops that had been justly deposed Liberius by subscribing to the condemnation of St. Athanasius subscribed to Arianism which drew upon him the curses of St. Hilary After the death of Liberius Damasius and Ursicinus caused such an effusion of blood by their struglings for the Roman Chair that Ammianus Marcellinus a Heathen Author reports that in the Temple where the Election of Damasus was held there were 137. slain at one time The greatest persons among the Heathen coveted the grandure of the Popes so that the Pagan Pretextatus being designed Consul offered to Damasus to turn Christian upon condition that he might be made Pope Siricius who succeeded to Damasus forbid Ecclesiastical Persons to marry shamefully perverting to that purpose the words of St. Paul Rom. 8. 8. they who are in the flesh connot please God. After Gregory I. Boniface III. assumed the Title of Universal Bishop Boniface IV who succeeded to him consecrated the Pantheon to the blessed Virgin and to all the Saints having been before a Temple dedicated to Cybele and to all the Heathen Gods. And the Monastick life became so highly valued and advanced under all these Popes that they taught it to be the true Evangelick way of living and the most sure means of salvation These Doctrines together with others added by the Bishops of Rome and which they either themselves invented or else authorised and decreed made them to be this Wormwood that hath corrupted the saving Doctrine and which hath rendred all the Waters of Grace and the Fountains of Salvation bitter XIII ILLUSTRATION Of the fourth Trumpet The third part of the Sun and of the Moon and of the Stars smitten REV. CHAP. VIII V. 12. And the fourth Angel sounded and the third part of the Sun was smitten and the third part of the Moon and the third part of the Stars so as the third part of them was darkned and the day shone not for a third part of it and the night likewise THE wo denounced by this fourth Trumpet hath two Characters The one is Error and Superstition in that the Fountains of light are so strangely changed The other is Violence and Force because these Sources of light are smitten For the Term of Smiting is often used in the Scripture to signify killing and destroying As in Deut. chap. 4. v. 46. Ios chap. 8. v. 22. 1 Kings chap. 15. v. 29. and elsewhere These two characters do perfectly agree to the Religion of the Mahometans The Error in it is most palpable in that it denieth both Christs Divinity and the merit of his death and in that it promiseth such a felicity in the life to come as can be pleasing to none save unto Souls sunk into sensuality And its Violence is so well known that all who have heard of Mahomet do know that that Impostor boasted the being sent by God with a Sword to force the belief of his Religion And the event was according for within the space of 40. years after Mahomets death his four Successors Ebubeker Oâ—hmar Osman and Haly whom they stile Gods four sharp Swords planted that abominable Religion by force of Arms in Syria Palestine Egypt Mesopotamia Persia Africk Barbary and Numidia It was in the year 622. that Mahomet published his damnable Errors which is another character whereby to adjust it with the Wo or this fourth Trumpet For the Bishop of Rome was already fallen under the third These are the two Enemies of the Christian Religion the one a hidden Enemy and the other an avowed The one established himself as a Fox the other as a Lion. The one assaulted Religion in the West the other in the East The Bishop of Rome begun to fall away in the fourth Age Mahomet appeared in the seventh His abominable Religion followed the fall of the Roman Bishop as the Wo of the fourth Trumpet followeth the Wo of the third XIV ILLUSTRATION Of the fifth Trumpet The Key of the bottomless Pit given to the Star that fell from Heaven REV. CHAP. IX V. 1. And the fifth Angel sounded and I saw a Star fall from Heaven unto the Earth and to him was given the Key of the bottomless Pit. V. 2. And he opened the bottomless Pit and there arose a Smoke out of the Pit as the smoke of a great Furnace and the Sun and the Air were darkned by reason of the smoke of the Pit. WE have seen the Fall
his Vial upon the Seat of the Beast and his Kingdom was full of darkness and they gnawed their tongues for pain V. 11. And blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their pains and their sores and repented not of their deeds There is nothing here dark provided it be true that the Beast is the Papal Empire according as we have proved and that Rome is the Seat of this Empire as all men do see So that it is the City of Rome which is here threatned by God with an eternal and irrecoverable Ruin. Or rather this is the execution of that denunciation contained in the 18th Chap. and which we have explained in the first Part. Rome is threatned to be destroyed as Egypt as Babylon and as Sodom This fifth Vial shews us the fulfilling of all this Rome being destroyed the Beasts Kingdom becomes full of darkness Which in the Scripture signifies Sadness and Mourning 'T is easie to apprehend the dejection which the Papal Empire will be under and the afflication that they will be in who have the Mark of the Beast his Name or the Number of his Name when they see that Rome is no more 'T is said that they shall gnaw their tongues and blaspheme the God of Heaven i. e. they shall complain that God is wanting in making good his promises namely that Rome should not perish while the world stood and that she should be alway's the Lady and Mistriss of all Churches of Faith and of Religion Which is a horrid blasphemy for where hath God promised any such priviledg to the City of Rome The sixth Vial. V. 12. And the sixth Angel poured out his Vial upon the great River Euphrates and the water thereof was dried up that the way of the Kings of the East might he prepared V. 13. And I saw three unclean Spirits like Frogs come out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the mouth of the False Prophet V. 14. For they are the Spirits of Devils working miracles which go forth unto the Kings of the Earth and of the whole World to gather them to the battel of that great day of God Almighty V. 15. Behold I come as a Thief blesseth is he that watcheth and keepeth his Garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame V. 16. And they gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew Tongue Armageddon The sixth Vial destroyeth the Empire of the Turks and their Religion which the sixth Trumpet had advanced to the highest pitch of its grandure For the River Euphrates does undoubtedly signify the people of that part of the world as its being dried up denoteth the End of their Empire and of their Religion After which there will be nothing to hinder either the King 's of the East who shall be enlightned and converted or the Iews who are there dispersed in great numbers from marching into the West to help to finish the destruction of the Beast 'T is remarkable that the Prophet Isaiah doth in the place where he promiseth the conversion of the Iews stile them Kings which as it hath a reference to the Millennian Reign so it induceth to a belief that the Iews are these Kings who are here spoken of The prosperity of Mahometanism and Popery hath kept back the Iews from the Christian Religion which those two Religions have so much disfigured But when through the destruction of Rome they shall behold the Seat of the Beast overthrown and when they shall see the Kingdom of the Beast become full of darkness the great River Euphrates dried up then they will open their eyes and be converted The Conversion of the Jews is unquestionably promised in this place in that St. Iohn useth an expression like to what Isaiah useth chap. 11. v. 15. where their conversion is promised For if St. Iohn speaks of the drying up of Euphrates Isaiah sayth that God will shake his hand over the River Moreover it is plainly in favour of the Jews that St. Iohn useth the Hebrew term Armageddon And there came three unclean Spirits like frogs out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the Mouth of the false Prophet Who can doubt but that these are the spiritual Fathers of the three Orders of Monks who have made most noise and have done must hurt namely the Jacobin's the Cordeliers and the Jesuites Are not these Spiritual Fathers Do they not depend upon the Pope as upon a Deity Doth not the command of that false Prophet send them to the East-Indies to America and to all places Are they not troublesome and importunate as the Frogs are and are not the Mansions where they are Cloist'red nasty and stinking like the dirty pudles When the Pepe shall find himself threatned with a total ruin he shall send to all parts he shall hunt out these three Orders of Ghostly Fathers in order to assemble all his forces But this rendevouz is said to be in a place called Armageddon because they together with all the Enemies of the Church shall there irrecoverably perish as the Nations that were execrated and excepted from pardon for having made War against Israel Moreover what we have said concerning these three unclean Spirits doth not interfer with nor lessen the probability of the Conjecture which we made about the Monks being the Locusts For we have not said that the Monks are to be totally abolished before the effusion of the 6th Vial but all we have said was that the power which was given them to torment men five Mon'ths shall come to an End within an 150 years signified by five prophetick Mon'ths counting from October 1540. when the first Bull was emitted for the establishing the Society of Iesuites who are principally designed by the Locusts as being they who have advanced the Monastick Order to the highest pitch of their power But this doth not hinder but that both they and the other Monks and Friers shall make a last effort to uphold their own power and that of the Papacy about the time when the Sixth Vial shall come to be poured out The Seventh Vial. V. 17. 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 V. 18. 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 V. 19. 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. V. 20. And every Island sled away and the Mountains were not found V. 21. And there fell upon men a great Hail out of Heaven every stone about the Weight of a talent and men blasphemed God because
their Felicity and whence they same 159 8 Of the Silence in Heaven for half an hour 162 9 Of the seven Angels with the seven Trumpets and of the Angel who cast the Censer into the Earth 163 10 Of the first Trumpet and of the Hail Fire and Blood. 165 11 Of the second Trumpet a Mountain burning cast in the Sea and a third part of it became Blood. 167 12 Of the third Trumpet A great Star fall from Heaven 169 13 Of the fourth Trumpet the third part of the Sun and of the Moon and of the Stars smitten 172 14 Of the fifth Trumpet the Key of the bottomless Pit given to the Star that fell from Heaven 174 15 Of the Locusts 179 16 Of the sixth Trumpet the loosing of the four Angels in the River Euphrates 194 17 Of the Angel with the Book open 201 18 Of the Voice of the Angel that had his right Foot upon the Sea and his left upon the Earth and of the seven Thunders 203 19 Of the Angels Oath and of the finishing the Mystery of God. 205 20 Of the Angels giving the Book to S. John to be eaten and of the effects which ensue thereupon Pag. 207 21 Of the measuring of the Temple and of the outward Court to be trodden under foot of the Gentiles 209 22 Of the two Witnesses their Sackcloth State the time of their Prophecying and their Dignity 212 23 Of the Witnesses being overcome and slain and left unburied 216 24 Of the rising of the Witnesses their Ascending into Heaven and of what follows upon their triumph 227 25 Of the seventh Trumpet The Ark opened in Heaven the Kingdoms of this world become the Lords 240 26 Of the pouring out of the Vials 245 27 Of the time that the Beasts Reign is to continue 265 28 Of the time when the Beasts Reign or the Papal Empire began 269 29 Of the Destruction of Gog and Magog 278 30 Of S. Johns Offence in falling at the Angels feet to worship him 280 31 Of Christs directing his Epistles and his Revelation to the seven Churches and why 284 ◠Defence of the Illustrations upon the Apocalypse concerning the Effusion of the Vials Page 1 Reasons for the Non-Effusion of the Vials 27 A NEW SYSTEME OF THE APOCALYPSE OR A Plain and Methodical Explanation of all the Visions of the REVELATION of St. JOHN The FIRST Part. I. ILLUSTRATION What we are to understand by the BEAST SAint John having in the 17. Chapter v. 1 2 3. told us how he was carried into the Wilderness by one of the Seven Angels that had the seven Viols and how he there saw a Woman sitting upon a Scarlet Beast full of Names of Blasphemy having seven Heads and ten Horns and having in the Vision related in the 13. Chapter described this Beast unto us we are therefore in the first place to inquire what is meant by this Beast with Seven Heads and Ten Horns that we may be able thereby to know with the more certainty and with the greater plainness who this Woman is that is called Babylon the Great whom the Beast carries Nor will it be difficult to understand the meaning and import of this Term Beast it having been explained in the Visions of Daniel For that Prophet having in the 7 th Chap. v. 3 4 5 6 7. declared how that he beheld Four Beasts rising out of the Sea the first whereof resembled a Lion the second a Bear the third a Leopard and the fourth different from the three former He adds that having asked one of the Angels that stood before the Ancient of Day 's what the meaning of that Vision might be it was answered him v. 17. that these four Beasts were four Kings which should arise upon the Earth So that this Explication vouchsav'd by the Angel unto Daniel concerning the Vision of the four Beasts do's fully inform us that this Term Beast in the Revelations of St. John signifies a Power à n Empire a Succession of Kings and Rulers as the four in Daniel's Visions represented the four Empires the Assyrian Persian Grecian and Roman with which the Church of God was concerned and which four Empires had been before represented by the Image that appeared to Nebuchadnezzar in his Dream Dan. 2. 31 c. The word Beast being then used in the Visions of Daniel to denote an Empire or a Succession of Soveraign Rulers it can have no other signification affixed unto it in the Visions of St. John forasmuch as one Spirit inspired both the Apostle and the Prophet And this is the more evident in that Daniel's fourth Beast is the same with that in St. Johns Visions as do's plainly appear by the universal and perfect Agreement that is between the one and the other 1. Whereas Daniel tells us c. 7. v. 7. that the Fourth Beast which is the Roman Empire and to which he gave no Name was different from the three former from the Lion the Bear and the Leopard so St. Iohn represents the Beast upon which the Woman sitteth not only as diverse from those three but as that which there is none that bears any resemblance unto and which as he says Rev. 13. 2. had the Body of a Leopard and whose Feet were as the Feet of a Bear and his Mouth as the Mouth of a Lion. 2. Whereas Daniel Chap. 7. 7. says of the fourth Beast that he had ten Horns St. Iohn says the same of the Beast that carried the Woman Rev. 17. 12. 3. And as Daniel informs us Chap. 7. 24. that the ten Horns of the fourth Beast were ten Kings that should arise out of that Kingdom St. Iohn likewise assures us Rev. 17. 12 that the ten Horns of the Beast upon which the Woman sitteth are ten Kings which had not then received any Kingdom 4. Whereas Daniel says Chap. 7. v. 8. 25. that the little Horn of the fourth Beast had a Mouth speaking great things and uttering words against the Most High. St. Iohn also say's of the Beast that carried the Woman Rev. 13. 5 6. that there was given unto him a Mouth speaking great things and that he opened his Mouth in Blasphemies against God. 5. Forasmuch as Daniel tells us Chap. 7. v. 21. concerning the little Horn of the fourth Beast that he made war with the Saints and prevailed against them St. John say's the same of the fourth Beast upon which the Woman sitteth Rev. 13. 7. namely that it was given unto him to make war with the Saints and to overcome them 6. And whereas Daniel declares Chap. 7. v. 25. that the Saints shall be given into the hands of the fourth Beast a time times and the dividing of time St. John declares also of the Beast upon which the Woman sitteth Rev. 13. 7. that Power was given unto him to continue forty and two moneths which make just three Prophetical years and a half 7. Lastly Forasmuch as Daniel says of the fourth Beast chap. 7. v. 11. that he was
the Adoration that all men should be laid under an obligation unto 3. The Body of Christ is according to the Papal Doctrine shut up in a Ciborium or Cupboard And this the Greek word here used doth signify 4. Nor is the Body of Christ according to the Doctrine of the Romish Church shut up meerly in one Cupboard which they call a Pix but in many which the Term here being in the plural number doth also denote 5. The Real Presence is built upon Miracles This every one knows by the many stories which we have of the Hosts having appeared in the Form of an Infant and that it hath been seen all Bloody Which our Saviour also foretold in saying that they who should teach this Real Presence should shew great Signs and Wonders insomuch that if it were possible they should deceive the very Elect. Moreover our Saviour forbids us to believe this invisible Presence of his Body Behold says he I have told you before believe it not And withal he declares that the Presence of the Son of man shall be like unto Lightning which shineth from one end of Heaven unto the other And forasmuch as he declareth that they shall be false Prophets who shall teach this Doctrine it does necessarily follow that tho the Pope through putting it into the Romish Creed and entorcing it by Anathema's is that very same False Prophet of whom St. John speaks in the Apocalypse Nor is the Real Presence of Christ's Body upon their Altars and that singular Adoration which they give unto the Sacrament the only false Doctrine in the Papacy whereby to prove the Pope to be this false Prophet But there are many more which serve to give evidence unto it And particularly that of the Worshipping of Images than which there cannot be a Doctrine more notoriously false 'T is most certain that God had forbid three things in his Law the making Images of things that are in Heaven or things that are in the Earth the bowing down before them and the serving them see Exod 20 4 5. Deut. 5. 8 9. All which the Church of Rome not only practiseth but persecutes all those as Hereticks and wicked persons who do in reference to this matter both obey the Injunctions of the Law and imitate the Example of the Jews since the time they returned from the Babylonish Captivity Is it not a false and an Heretical Doctrine to apply to the Virgin Mary in order to our being saved and to invocate her as the Gate of Paradise the Fountain of Grace and the Mother of Mercy If that Doctrine which overthroweth the Foundation be a Heresie Then it cannot be denied but that this is a gross one in that the Foundation of all Salvation is Iesus Christ alone Other Foundation saith St. Paul can no man lay than that that is laid which is Iesus Christ 1 Cor. 3. 11. And St. Peter saith that there is not Salvation in any other nor any other Name given among men save that of Iesus Christ whereby we may he saved Act. 4. 12. Beside can there be a Doctrine more evidently false than that of Popery which affirmeth the Mass to be a proper Sacrifice wherein our Redeemer is every day sacrificed Seeing the Apostle tells us expresly in the Epistle to the Hebrews chap. 10. v. 10. that we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Iesus Christ once for all And he maketh this difference between the Sacrifices of the Law and that of our Saviour that they by reason of their imperfection were dayly offered whereas that of our Saviour because of its being infinitely perfect was offered but once And he addeth further in the same place v. 18. that there being under the Gospel Remission of Sins there is no more offering for Sin. So that here is enough to make it appear that the Pope who teacheth Doctrines so notoriously false and Heretical as these are can be no other than that False Prophet whom the Revelation of St. Iohn threatneth the World with VIII ILLUSTRATION Of the Dragon with Seven Heads and ten Horns REV. CHAP. 12. v. 3. IF we should take up with Appearances we should presently believe that this Dragon is the Devil and the rather seeing he is in the ninth verse called the Old Serpent the Devil and Satan who deceiveth the World. But yet the seven Heads and ten Horns which the Dragon is here said to have will not suffer us to doubt its being the same Roman Empire which is spoken of in the 13. Chap. because they are the same Heads and the same Horns of the Beast upon which the Woman sitteth in the 17. Chapter There is this only difference that the Horns of the Beast upon which the Woman sitteth are adorned with Crowns i. e. are Kings whereas the Horns of the Dragon have not these Marks of Soveraignty Which doth not prove them to be two different Beasts and two different Powers but only that the same Beast and the same Power is represented in relation to two different Times and two different Estates The ten Horns of the Beast upon which the Woman sitteth are according to the Explication given by the Angel ten Kings i. e. many Dominions formed out of the Ruins of the Roman Empire Which serveth to prove that Beast to be Rome and its Empire under the seventh Head and making profession of the Christian Religion Whereas the ten Horns of the Dragon are not adorned with Crowns because they were nothing save bare Provinces of Heathen Rome under the Emperors From whence it doth appear that the Dragon with his seven Heads and his ten Horns must necessarily represent the old Roman Empire and exactly denote Rome under the Emperors who are the sixth Head. 'T is called by the name of a Dragon which is a Beast because it is a Dominion and an Empire 'T is stiled Satan and the Devil by reason of the Devil 's being there worshipped under the name of Mars And from hence we see upon what ground Rome was called Martia and the City of Mars namely because the Devil was there as the Soul which acted that vast Body Even as he is called the Serpent in the seduction of the first Woman because he was as the Soul of the Serpent and that it was he that spake to Eva and who seduced her But the question is what is meant by the Tail of the Dragon drawing the third part of the stars of Heaven and casting them to the Earth They who understand the Scripture-stile of speaking cannot be detained a moment by this difficulty Seeing it appears in Isaiah chap. 9. v. 14 15. and chap. 19. v. 15. that whensoever the Scripture speaks of Head and Tail it does by Head intend a person of Rule and Authority and by Tail meaneth a False Prophet Therefore as the seven Heads signify the seven sorts of Rulers that have Governed Rome so the Tail signifieth the Lies False Doctrines Frauds and Impostures upon which the
in Woods or in Holes of Rocks and were accused of committing there execrable Crimes and Murders and of being guilty of Conspiracies against the Government and of Uncleannesses and incestuous Converses as doth appear by the Apologies of Tertullian and other Writers of that time And whereas it is said that the Dragon was cast out of Heaven unto the Earth and that there was no place found any more for him in Heaven nor for his Angels this was verified by the conversion of Rome and her Emperors because Paganism being then destroyed both in Rome and through the whole Empire and the Devil being neither any more Worshipped under the name of Mars nor his Angels which are they that were his persecuting Emissaries respected and dreaded as they had been before there was no place found any more for him in heaven ` For in Rome he had no more a Temple where he was worshipped nor were there throughout the whole Roman Empire any more Pagans who did adore him so that he is thenceforth accounted of as fallen from Heaven to Earth according to the Prediction of the Son of God Luc. 10. 18. I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven And forasmuch as St. John farther says I heard a loud voice saying in heaven now is come salvation and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the Accuser of our Brethren is cast down This is a description of the joy that was among believers when they saw Iesus Christ victorious and triumphant over the Dragon the subversion of Idols the down fall of paganism and the Church come out of Caves Woods and the Holes of Rocks and to assemble openly in the very Temples where the Dragon had been worshipped and there to worship the true God Creator and Redeemer So that if it be asked who those Angels of the Dragon are that fought for him I answer that they are the Philosophers the Orators the Priests of the Idols Gods and Magistrates who made use of all sort of Tricks Frauds Outrages of blind Zeal Violence Fines Banishments Imprisonments and Executions As upon the other hand Michaels Angels are the Pastors and Teachers who made use of no other Weapons nor Defence but that of the Sword of the Word of God of Faith of a holy Life and of Patience As it is said v. 11. that they overcame the Dragon by the Blood of the Lamb and by the word of their Testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death XI ILLUSTRATION Of the Flight of the Woman REV. CHAP. 12. v. 14. THis Flight of the Woman had been mentioned v. 6. where it is said that after the Man child was caught up unto God and to his Throne the Woman fled into the Wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore Days But it appeareth by the 14 verse that this was spoken there by way of Anticipation and that the Flight of the Woman fell out after the fall of the Dragon that is after the destruction of Heathenism and the conversion of the Emperors Which gives us to understand that the Birth of Atichristianism followed soon after the deliverance from the Persecutions of the Pagan Emperors For ever since the Church decayed in her Purity the prosperity which She enjoyed under the Christian Emperors having suddenly and insensibly corrupted her And Platina tells us that a voice was then heard Hodie venenum funditur in Ecclesiam i. e. Poison is now poured forth upon the Church Nevertheless this Flight of the Church did not lye in a change of Place but in a change of her external State. In a word it was an Eclipse rather than a proper Flight a Darkness rather than a Retreat and discovered it in the pride Covetousness Luxury and Dissoluteness of the Churches Guides and in the Doctrines Worship and Ceremonies which She borrowed from the Pagans The Place which God had prepared for her was a little Corner of that Temple which is spoken of Rev. 11. 1. when the outward Court was trodden under foot by the Gentiles that is by those who had adopted and brought in Human Traditions and Heathenish Rites and Ceremonies into the Christian Religion The Two Wings given unto the Woman to forward her Flight and to render it the more expeditious and safe do denote the same thing that the measuring of the Temple doth in the eleventh chap. For he speaketh here of the same persons to wit the Church and of the same Time namely that which succeeded soon after the End of the Churches Persecution by the Heathen Emperors and of the same Design which is the Preservation of Believers against the Calamities threatned by the Trumpets The Wilderness into which She fled Intimateth unto us the Churches Obscurity Poverty and Distress of which there were different degrees For at some seasons the Church was not so much as visible no more than the seven thousand of the ten Tribes were under Ahab and Iesabel that were unknown to the Prophet Elias She fled into the Wilderness with the Wings of an Eagle as the Church of Israel is said to have been carried upon Eagles Wings Exod. 19. 4 which both shews the speediness and the safety of her Flight and that She should remain and be entertained within the Bounds of the Roman Empire And as the Eagle's being the Arms of the Roman Empire putteth this out of all doubt so the Two Wings of the Eagle do denote the Empire of the East and that of the West where the Church of God hath been kept hidden and had been fed during the time of her Poverty and great Distress And She hath been Fed not with the unsavoury and poisonous Food of Human Traditions and Ceremonies or Doctrines drawn from the Pagan Religion but with the sound and wholsom Food of the Word of God. Nor can She be fed with any other Nourishment so that this is the same thing with that which is said in the 11. chap. v. 2 3. viz. that while the Holy City should be trodden under foot by the Gentiles the Lord should cause his two Witnesses to prophesie a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes cloathed in Sack-cloth For this Prophecy of the two Witnesses is nothing else save the Bread and Food of the Church which he speaketh of here From which it necessarily followeth that this Flight of the Woman into the Wilderness is of the same Date with the treading down of the City by the Gentiles which is mentioned chap. 11. v. 2. The Time that the Church was to be nourished in the Wilderness is expressed by Time Times and half a Time. Which amounts to the 1260. dayes of the sixth verse Nor can this be gainsaid in that no man can deny but that the Flight spoken of v. 6 is the same with the Flight that is discoursed of v. 14. Now we shall see elsewhere what is meant both by the 1260. Dayes and
by the 42. Moneths mentioned chap. 13 when we come to examin how long Antichristianism is to continue In the mean while that which is spoken v. 13. is worth the serious considering When she Dragon saith St. John saw that he was cast unto the Earth he persecuted the Woman There had been another Persecution of the Church for during the time of three hundred years She had been persecuted by the Pagans but this is a Persecution begun by Christians or by such who called themselves so The Devil being through the conversion of Rome and her Emperors dethroned and cast from Heaven unto the Earth he left the Church in Peace But it was only for a very short time for he suddenly bethought himself of assaulting her by Error and Superstition The first Persecution which was that by Pagans was open and avowed but this which is by the Antichristian Followers of the Beast is carried on more darkly XII ILLUSTRATION Of the Floud which the Serpent cast out of his Mouth and of the Help which the Earth gave unto the Woman REV. CHAP. XII v. 15. V. 15. And the Serpent cast out of his Mouth Waters as a Flood after the Woman that he might cause her to be carried away of the Floud V. 16. And the Earth helped the Woman and the Earth opened her Mouth and swallowed up the Floud which the Dragon cast out of his Mouth V. 17. And the Dragon was wroth with the Woman and went to make War with the remnant of her Seed which keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Iesus Christ NOW Doctrine being called Prov. 18. 4. Waters of the Mouth this Floud must be a Hellish and Mortal Doctrine because it is the Serpent who casts it out of his Mouth to carry away the Woman and to destroy the Church beyond recovery Yet this Doctrine can be none of the Heresies with which the Church was exercised during the first three hundred years because the Church is here treated of after the time of the casting down of the Dragon from Heaven unto the Earth that is after the conversion of Rome and her Emperors So that it must needs be some Heresie started after the Flight of the Woman forasmuch as it is here said that the Serpent cast this Floud after the Woman as being in the pursuance of her upon her Retreat into the Wilderness Now the Woman as we have shewed withdrew into the Wilderness after the Emperors were turned Christian in that the Church begun then to decay in her purity It must therefore refer to those Errors which were condemned by the first four Councils and especially to that of Arius who denied the Eternal Godhead of Christ and taught that he was meerly a Creature made before all other things 'T is true there had arisen some Hereticks before who had vented the same Heresie in the main but it is likewise true that they never made such a considerable Body as to bring the Church into an extream danger Whereas the Arian Heresie by seising and infecting almost the whole Church had near brought it to pass that there should be no more a Christian Church and that there should be no more hope of Salvation For if Jesus Christ be not a Divine Person his Death can have no more vertue than that of Martyrs It could neither have expiated Sin nor that I may say all in one word have been any ways meritorious seeing common sense tells us that a meer Creature cannot merit at the hands of the Creator who is of infinite Majesty This Heresie prevailed over the whole Eastern Church forasmuch as it was approved by five Councils by that of Tyre that of Syrmium that of Ariminium that of Seleucia and that of Antioch But at length it was condemn'd and extinguished by the last Council that was held in reference to that matter which was that of Constantinople under Theodosius the great After which the Church hath enjoyed rest on that side and Iesus Christ hath been adored as co-essential with the Father For since then there have been no Hereticks owning this Heresie that have appeared in any Body For the Socinians are no more a Body than the Atheists and Deists are The Earth then that helped the Woman and which opened her mouth and swallowed up the Floud were all those Councils that condemn'd the Arian Heresie They are stiled the Earth because they are purely a humane Mean and one which God hath not ordained For Iesus Christ hath promised an infallibility to no Assembly of men or if he have it is to two or three who shall assemble in his Name and not to all who come together If we consider the Heresie of Arius meerly upon that foot and if we put it into the list of Heresies meerly upon the account of its being condemned by several Councils and if we believe that Iesus Christ is in all things equal to God only because Councils have so determined this Faith of ours will be but a Humane Faith and not a Divine For it is not Divine but as it hath a Divine foundation and a Divine foundation is no other thing save the Soveraign Authority of God speaking in the Scriptures I do believe that Iesus Christ is every way equal to his Father not because Councils have so decreed but because the whole Scripture doth declare it even from Moses to St. Iohn and from Genesis down to the Revelation The Councils did undoubtedly determine well when they condemned the Heresie of Arius and in that they asserted the Godhead of our Saviour but in the mean time their Decree was only so far just and true as it was conformable to the Word of God. The Councils are therefore no other but a humane Mean because Infallibility doth not reside in them but in the alone Word of God that is the Rule by which they do judg And forasmuch as they are a human mean they are the Earth that helped the Woman and that swallowed up the Flood XIII ILLUSTRATION Of the War which the Dragon being full of Wrath made against the Remnant of the Seed of the Woman REV. CHAP. 12. v. 17. THE Serpent saith St. Iohn was wroth with the Woman and this was upon the finding himself disappointed of that effect which he expected from the Floud which he had cast out of his Mouth and upon his seeing that the Earth had opened her mouth and swallowed it up And being enraged with wrath he went to make War with the remnant of her Seed which keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Iesus Christ But what was not the Dragon wroth with the Woman before the Earth had swallowed up the Floud and before the condemnation of the Arian Heresie Hath he not alway's made War with those that are of the Seed of the Woman It is so nor is the contrary intended here but it is the Scripture way of speaking to express the increase of a thing as if it were
Council the Colledg of Cardinals for her Castles Convents for her Armies Monks for her Governors of Provinces Bishops and Arch-Bishops for her Ambassadors Nuucio's and Legat's for her Merchants Priests for her Merchandises Dispensations and for her Revenues Annates and Benefices So that it was with good reason that Gregorius Leâ—i begun his pleasant History of Pope Sixtus the fifth after this manner That the Popedom is the most considerable Monarchy that hath been established from the Creation of the World to this day and that no Princes whether Idolatrous or Christians have reigned more absolutely than the Roman Bishops do at whose Feet the greatest Potentates have laid down their Scepters and Crowns So that it may be said this sodering together of Temporal and Spiritual power this mingling of things Secular and Religious this conjunction of the Cross with the Sword this Union of Body and Soul and in brief this Authority over Earth and Heaven which meet and center in the Popes have raised and established a Soveraignty which almost all the People and Princes of the World do reverence Withal the Church of Rome saith I am no Widow in that She boasts of having a visible Head and spouse which is the Pope And She say's I shall see no sorrow for pretending to be the only Spouse of the Son of God how can she miscarry Or how should She be so forsaken as to be able to fall seeing it is to her alone that Jesus Christ hath made that promise the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against my Church Matth. 16. 18. XV. ILLUSTRATION Of Babylon's making all Nations Drunk with the Wine of her Fornication and of her being Drunk with the Blood of Saints REV. CHAP. 14. v. 8. THese two Actions of Babylon charactarise and mark out the Roman Church Seeing it is Idolatry that is spoken of which is Spiritual Adultery and dissolveth Gods Covenant as Adultery doth the Covenant of Marriage Now the Roman Church is guilty of too gross Idolatry to be any ways able to justify her self She worshippeth not only the Holy Virgin in giving her the Titles of the Gate of Paradise the Queen of Heaven and the Fountain of Grace but in advancing her above Jesus Christ through begging of her in one of their prayers that she would jure matris imperare i. e. use the authority of a Mother in Commanding her Son. Nor doth she only Adore Images according to the Decree of the second Council of Nice which is confirmed by the Council of Trent but she also Adores the Sacrament which Jesus Christ instituted to be a memorial of his death and which therefore must be something else than Christ himself Nor can she according to her own Doctrine have any assurance either divine or human that the Bread is the Body of Christ forasmuch as she cannot be assured of the Intention of the Priest upon which the whole Consecration doth depend To which may be added her Worshipping the Cross and that with the highest kind of worship called Latria having to this purpose set apart and assigned Good Friday The Doctrine of the Roman Church that leads men to Idolatry may be justly compared to Wine and not to water and to Wine of Wrath i. e. furious Wine because they who drink it become intoxicated and deprived of their senses So that they not only furiously pursue the Objects of their Superstition as so many mad men whom none can hinder or withdraw from it but they are transported with hatred rage against all those who do not approve their false and abominable devotion And it is worth our observing what the difference is between true Doctrine and false Wholsome and true Doctrine is usually compared to Water because it rendreth such as embrace it meek gentle patient under injuries ready to teach those who are otherwise minded with mildness and filled rather with Pity and Compassion towards them than transported with hatred But in reference to the effects of false Doctrine all is otherwise For it maketh such as entertain it violent cruel quarrelsom outragious ready to assault and fall upon those that contradict them and who refuse to follow their example And therefore it is resembled to Wine and to Wine of wrath i. e. heady Wine that inflameth and distracteth men and in a word rendreth them that are possessed with it persecutors to the outmost Nor can the Church of Rome deny but that she doth after this manner persecute all those whom she calls Hereticks and for this only reason because they will not own her to be the Empress of the world and the Mother and Mistriss of Faith and acknowledg her Bishop to be the Vicar of Jesus Christ and the Center of Christian Unity The Croisado's against the Valdenses and Albigenses of whose success Bellarmin triumpheth to that degree as to say that in one only Croisado there were a hundred thousand killed the Massacres committed in England France and the Low Countries in the forego'ing Age those perpetrated in Poland the Valleys of Piedmont and in Ireland within these forty or fifty years I say all these do make it but too evidently appear that the Church of Rome is this Woman whom St. John saw drunk with the Blood of Saints Rev. 17. 6. The Holy Scripture putteth this honor upon all those that follow sound Doctrine and of whose Faith the Gospel is the only Rule as to give them the glorious Title of Saints Nor can it be gain-said but that Rome is drunk with the Blood of Saints forasmuch as all the barbarous Croisado's against the Albigenses and all the Butcheries perpetrated upon Protestants have been for no other reason but for their making the Gospel the alone Rule of their Faith. Neither were they persecuted and destroyed but because of their disclaiming Human Traditions which are the mischievous Fountain of all Errors XVI ILLUSTRATION Of the Lamb on Mount Sion and with him the 144000. having the Fathers Name written in their Foreheads REV. CHAP. XIV v. 1. HERE we have a Description of the State of the True Church and that during the time in which Babylon was drunk with the Blood of the Martyrs For whereas one might have questioned whether the Church was not wholly lost seeing all the world not only wondred after the Beast but that they who refused to receive his mark and to worship his Image were killed therefore the Holy Spirit represents a Vision to St. John in which he might clearly see that the Church did subsist in despight both of the Victories of the Beast of the extent of his Empire and of the Violence of his Persecutions I looked saith St. John and lo a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion and with him 144000. having his Fathers Name written in their Foreheads and I heard a voice from Heaven as the voice of many Waters and as the voice of a great Thunder And I heard the voice of Harpers harping with their Harps and they sung as it were
before the last day So that it is the same that St. Iohn meaneth by the first Resurrection and by Reigning with Iesus Christ a thousand years The same Daniel says in the seventh Chap. v. 27. that after the destruction of the Roman Empire represented by the fourth Beast that the Kingdom and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven were given unto the people of the Saints of the most High and that all Dominions shall serve and obey him This cannot be after the general Resurrection because then there will be no Dominions nor hath it hitherto been accomplished so that it must refer to the 1000 years whereof St. Iohn doth here speak But what can we desire more plain than that Prophesie of Isaiah chap. 65. v. 17. c. where God speaketh in these Terms Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into mind But be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I create For behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy And the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her nor the voice of crying There shall be no more thence an Infant of day's nor an old man that hath not fulfilled his day's for the Child shall die a hundred year old And they shall build houses and inhabit them and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them They shall not labour in vain nor bring forth Children for trouble For they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord and their offsprings with them And it shall come to pass that before they call I will answer and while they are yet speaking I will hear There are many things in this passage of Isaiah that there can be no room for in the life to come yea not in an allegorical sense Nor have they been fulfilled from the time of the Prophet till our day's so that they are to be accomplished after the first Resurrection i. e. after the deliverance of the Church from all her Enemies and during the thousand years in which she shall enjoy a perfect peace We can give no sense to these words whereby to adjust them to the state of the glorified There will not be from thence an Infant of day's nor an old man that hath not accomplished his day's Shall it be in Heaven that these words are to be fulfilled the Child shall die an hundred years old Or are the following words to receive their completion in the state of Glory They shall build houses and inhabite them they shall plant vine yards and eat the fruit of them They shall not labour in vain nor bring forth for trouble for they are the blessed of the Lord and their off spring with them And it shall come to pass that before they call I will answer If we take these words in a literal sense as they may without any difficulty it is then certain that they are not hitherto accomplished nor hath any thing like unto this been ever seen on the earth Nor can we affix unto them such a Mystical sense whereby to shew that they have been fulfilled in a state of grace from the establishment of the Gospel till this time and much less can such a sense be proved in reference to a state of Glory Nor can we avoid the fastning the like Exposition upon that other Prophesie of Isaiah chap. 11. v. 1 c. And there shall come forth a rod out of the Stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him In righteousness shall he judg the poor and reprove the meek with equity He shall smite the Earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall be stay the wicked The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid the Cow and the Bear shall feed together and the Lion shall eat straw like the Ox and a little Child shall lead them They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain for the Earth shall be full of the knowledg of the Lord as the waters cover the Seas I dare maintain against the warmest Antimillenarians that this Prophesie is not yet fulfilled and that it shall be accomplished on the Earth after the destruction of Antichrist The fourth verse does plainly guide to this sense he shall smite the Earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked And it evident that St. Paul had these words of Isaiah in his thoughts when he wrote the 2d chap of the 2d Ep. to the Thessalonians For after that he had described Antichrist by his principal Characters he adds v. 8. the Lord shall destroy this wicked one by the breath of his mouth and shall destroy him by the brightness of his coming Of what coming of the Lord doth St. Paul speak It cannot be of the last It must be a coming that may accord what is said by the Apostle with what is predicted by Isaiah And whensoever the Iews come to be brought home and all Nations converted it will then appear so clearly that Iesus Christ is come into the world that if he should descend from heaven unto the Earth we could not be more convinced This coming of the Lord will be magnificent and glorious forasmuch as it will make the Church from that time forward to appear as an Army glorious in holiness and victorious over all her Enemies There are three things promised in this Oracle The first is a perfect union of the Iews with all Nations This is promised under the Embleme of wild beasts dwelling and feeding peaceably with the Lamb and with the Ox. When was it that this was seen In the times of the Apostles when the Iews and Gentiles were converted by St. Peter and his fellow Apostles I do affirm that there was nothing then seen save a small pattern of the accomplishment of this prophecy Nor was that the time of the conversion of the Iews but rather of their rejection And the peace which appeared then in the Church made up of Jews and Gentiles was of too short a continuance to express all the Force and the whole extent of this Union and of this harmony of agreement which the Prophecy before us of Isaiah gives ground to hope for The 2d is an abundance and large diffusion of the knowledg of the true God. This is expresly promised in these words the whole Earth shall be full of the knowledg of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea. From the time of the Apostles till our day's there hath been nothing seen that may answer the greatness of this promise The darkness of Paganism prevailed in the Roman Empire till Constantine That of Arianism-followed soon after that of Heathenism And that of Antichristianism hath reigned for above these twelve hundred years and is not yet dissipated
Christ shall Reign after an eminent manner upon the Earth for a thousand years 'T is this second Marriage which is spoken of here in the 19. chap. Which Chapter may be called an Epithalamium or a Wedding Song because St. Iohn say's that he heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thunders saying Alleluja for the Lord God omnipotent Reigneth Let us be glad rejoice give honor to him for the Marriage of the Lamb is come his Wife hath made her self ready to her was granted that they should be arayed in fine linnen which is the Righteousness of the Saints The Spouse of this Marriage is the Christian Church being filled up with the fulness of Iews and Gentiles The Iews refused to come to the Marriage of the Son of God Matth. 22. 2. c. but they are here represented coming with joy And that is doubtless the reason why the Term Allelujah is four times used in this chapter as a Term familiar unto the Iews and ordinarily used by them in their Synagogues This Marriage is stiled a Supper blessed are they who are called unto the Marriage Supper of the Lamb v. 9. Because it is to be celebrated in the evening of the worlds duration The Marriage to which the Iews were first invited by their Lord is called a Dinner Matth. chap. 22. v. 4. but here at this second Marriage they are called to a Supper as being the last Invitation The Iews rejected the first Invitation because Christ left the Roman Empire in the state he found it whereas the Iews had strongly hop'd that the Messiah would have delivered them from its domination And now the same Roman Empire become Papal doth as much and more keep them off from Christianity because they cannot imagine that Idolaters can be the people of the Messiah and they have reason for it But when the Papal Empire shall come to be destroyed as it assuredly shall upon the Effusion of the Vials and when the Beast and the False Prophet shall be cast into the bottomless pit in a word when the Papacy shall be abolished with all its Idols then the Iews will be no longer deaf to Gods call but will come to the Supper of the Marriage of the Lamb shall unite with Christians to worship together the God of Abraham and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ The Church of Rome boasteth herself to be the Church of God but her vanity therein doth appear after such a manner that she might blush if she were capable being so vastly different from the Church which Jesus Christ acknowledgeth for his Spouse and which is called here the Spouse of the Lamb. There is as great a difference between the Church of Rome and the Church of Iesus Christ as there is between Babylon and Jerusalem between a Harlot and the Spouse of the Lamb. She discovereth herself by her gaud'ries and costly habit 's which serve for nothing but to gratify the sight and please the senses The Church of Christ manifesteth her self by another kind of Dress which is nothing but Righteousness and holiness For to her was granted that she should be arayed not in purpl ' and scarlet as Babylon but in fine linnen which is the Righteousness of the Saints XXIV ILLUSTRATION Of the holy Jerusalem REV. CHAP. 21. v. 10. ALL Interpreters do agree that this Ierusalem described Chap. 21 is the Church of God but they differ in this that some do believe it to be the Church of God glorified in Heaven whereas others do take it to be the Church Militant on Earth but victorious over all her Enemies and enjoying an universal peace during the 1000 years which have been spoken of This last opinion is the truest 1 Because the Angel entreth upon this description of the Church of God as he had entred upon the description of Babylon chap. 17. 'T is there said v. 1. One of the seven Angels which had the seven Vials talked with me saying I will shew thee the whore and her judgment The same is said here One of the seven Angels which had the seven Vials talked with me saying come hither and I will shew thee the Bride the Lambs Wife After the same manner that the glory of Babylon is represented there is the glory of the Church of God described here but such as she shall have afier the destruction of her Enemy 'T is in the prospect and hope of this that the Church do's rejoice Mica 7 8. c. Rejoice not against me O mine Enemy tho I be fallen I shall arise tho I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause then she that is my Enemy shall be covered with shame and mine eyes shall behold her troden down as the mire of the streets 2 The Church of God is here called the great City a Title which had been given to Babylon in the 16 17 and 18 Chapters Because the whole Earth went after Babylon while the Church of God did hardly appear being brought into a narrow compass and to a small number but now Babylon hath abandon'd the field and appeareth no more and now the Jews are brought again in and the fulness of the Gentiles is entred into the Tents of Jerusalem which being forced to stretch out her curtains by reason of the conversion of all nations is therefore called that great City This is exactly the little Stone in the Prophesie of Daniel which was to become a great Mountain And this Prophecy is to be fulfilled on the Earth before the day of judgment 3 'T is said in the 24 th verse that the Nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it and the Kings of the Earth do bring their glory and their honor into it Which can no way's be applied to the Church triumphant in heaven but agrees unto her as she is victorious on the Earth over the fury of the Beast and as she is in the enjoyment of her Millennian tranquillity It will be then that the Prophecy of Isaiah will be fulfilled chap. 49. v. 22 23. Behold I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles and set up my standard to the people And they shall bring thy Sons in their arms and thy Daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders And Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and their Queens thy nursing Mothers they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the Earth and lick up the dust of thy feet Moreover the Church of God as she shall be glorified in heaven having been described in the beginning of the Chapter as well as the frightful state of the damned is in the 8th verse it is evident that in the 9. verse and forward the Angel describeth a glory of the Church different from that of heaven which
can be no other save that of the Reign of the 1000 years Nor is there any doubt but that this Ierusalem which St. John describes is the very same with that whereof the Prophet Ezekiel hath given a description together with that of the Temple and that there are very many things in that description which cannot be perfectly understood till after the conversion of the Iews A NEW SYSTEME OF THE APOCALYPSE OR An Explanation of all the Visions Of the REVELATION of St. JOHN The SECOND Part. I. ILLUSTRATION Of the Throne the 24. Elders the Sea of Glass and the 4 living Creatures REV. CHAP. 4. THe most difficult part would be yet to do if the ten last Chapters of the Revelation were not as I have supposed an explanation of the Visions contained in the eleven first So that we must have recourse to the Explications given in the first part of this work if we would clearly see into the meaning of the Visions that remain to be explained in the second v. 2. Behold I saw a Throne set in heaven and one sate on the Throne v. 3. And he that sat was to look upon like a Iasper and a Sardine stone and there was a Rainbow about the throne This is a lofty description of the Majesty of God. And his not being named is an advancement of his Glory For God said to Manoah Iudg chap. 13. v. 18. why askest thou after my name seeing it is secret or wonderful The Iasper Stone represents the unchangeablness and eternity of his Essence The fiery Sardine represents his inaccessible Majesty And the Rainbow in heaven signifies the unalterableness of his Covenant v. 4. And round about the Throne were 24 Seats and upon the Seats I saw 24 Elders sitting cloathed in white rayment and they had on their heads Crowns of gold These are the Pastors and Guides of the Church militant under the name of the twelve Patriarchs of the Church of Israel and of the twelve Apostles of the Christian Church because it was in favour of the Church Militant that God revealed his Glory and Majesty to St. Iohn The Title of Elder is a Title of dignity whereof also the whiteness of their Garments and their Crowns of Gold are marks and indications And this gives us ground to hope that they who are Israelites after the Spirit and who through a true faith follow the doctrine of the Apostles shall one day come to be advanced to a glory like unto this v. 5. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thundrings and voices and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne which are the seven spirits of God. This is a terrible threatning against the Enemies of Gods Church The Seven Spirits are the Spirit himself expressed by the number seven which is a Mystical number and which represents the variety the unexpressible number and the perfection of his Graces v. 6. And before the throne there was a Sea of Glass like unto Chrystall In the Scripture Waters signify people And the Sea is a heap of waters So that this is the Church composed of multitudes of people But to distinguish her from other Societies of the world that are Muddy filthy she is compared to Crystal which is as well pure as it is Solid and transparent She is said to be before the throne because She is ever under the eye and care of her Creator who carries her as the Scripture elsewhere speaketh engraven upon the palms of his hands Isa 49. 16. And round about the throne were four living Creatures full of eyes before and behind v. 7. And the first living creature was like a Lion and the 2d like a Calf and the 3d had the face of a wan and the 4th was like a flying Eagle v. 8. And the four living Creatures had each of them six wings and they were full of eyes within and they rest not day nor night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come These four living Creatures are beyond all exception the same with those in the Vision of the Prophet Ezekiel chap. 1. For that Prophet stiles them in his 10 chap. v. 5. Cherubims which signify Angels These are then four chief Angels as they are called in the 10 chap. of Daniel v. 13. and they are elsewhere called Archangels as having Angels under them And thence it is said Rev. 15. 7. that one of the four living Creatures gave unto the seven Angels seven Vials full of the wrath of God who liveth for ever ever Which cannot agree but to Archangels These Archangels are represented by the number four either with respect to the four parts of the world according to which the four gates of the new Ierusalem are disposed which was represented by the Mystical Temple of Ezekiel or else with respect to the four Empires under which the Church of God hath been in subjection and afflicted In Ezekiel these living Creatures are represented each of them having the four resemblances of a Lion of an Ox of a Man and of an Eagle but here each is represented as having but one because St. Iohn saw them in a posture of standing whereas Ezekiel saw them in a posture of motion together with their wheels The Lion is an Emblem of invincible courage The Ox is a Symbole of strenth and patience The Man of meekness And the Eagle of promptitude swiftness All which serve to declare the qualities of these Angels in their Execution of divine Orders As their being full of eyes expresseth the knowledg and wisdom wherewith they execute them V. 9. And when these four living Creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne who liveth for ever and ever V. 10. The four and twenty Elders fall down before him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth for ever and ever and cast their Crowns before the Throne saying V. 11. Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Here we have the exact form of true Religion and of lawful worship The Mystical living Creatures do adore none but God the 24 Elders do worship none besides the Lord it is before him that they do alone bow and it is only at his feet that they cast down their Crowns 'T is to him alone that they ascribe honor and glory and they themselves assign the reason of it For say they thou hast created all things Whence is it that the Holy Virgin is not here named if She be also the object of Religion and of worship And why ought we not to be content with that form of Adoration which the Angels of Heaven practice especially seeing we every day say thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Moreover the Scope of this Vision is to assure Christians that God will be alway's in the midst of
had expressed the sufferings that were past For the Martyrs having demanded how long Lord ere thou avenge our Blood It was answered unto them that they should yet rest for a little season until their fellow Servants also and their Bretheren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled So that as the complaint of the Martyrs expresseth the persecutions of the Church under the Pagan Emperors the answer is a prediction of the sufferings which the Church was to undergo under the Papal Antichristian Kingdom Moreover we may here observe who it is that is a true Martyr They are those who are slain for the Word of God. So that this Title cannot be denyed to Protestants because it is only out of hatred to their Religion that they are killed Nor are they put to death for any other cause but for the Word of God and for the holding that their Religion is certain supported by a Soveraign and Divine Authority full and sufficient for Salvation And is not the maintaining the rights and perfections of Gods Word a maintaining of Gods cause Is it not to die for Jesus Christ to suffer death because they will not consent to the injuries which the Papists do to his Gospel V. 12. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth Seal and lo there was a great Earth-quake and the Sun became black as sackcloth of Hair and the Moon became as Blood. V. 13. And the Stars of Heaven fell unto the Earth even as a Fig tree casteth her untimely Figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind V. 14. And the Heaven departed as a Scrowl when it is rolled together and every Mountain and Island were moved out of their places V. 15. And the Kings of the Earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief Captains and the mighty men and every Bondman and every Freeman hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the Mountains V. 16. And said to the Mountains and Rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. V. 17. For the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand There appeareth not here any Horseman nor any living Creature no more than there did at the opening of the fifth Seal and the reason is because what is concealed under this Seal extendeth not through the whole course of the History of the Roman Empire and of the Church of God. Seeing that which is comprehended under this Seal is only one of the Revolutions that was to befall the Roman Empire There were three changes to overtake it By the first it was to pass from Paganism to pure and uncorrupted Christianity By the second it was to pass from pure and simple Christianity to a Christianity mixed and corrupted which is no other thing but Antichristianism or Popery And by the third it is to pass and return from Christianity corrupted and from Popery to a Christianity that is pure and freed from all the Errors and Superstitions of Antichrist This last change will be under and upon the effusion of the Vials and the Reformation that was made the last Age is a sample and earnest of it The Second was to appear under the Trumpets And the first was that which came to pass under this sixth Seal In all the changes there is spoken of the Heaven of the Sun of the Moon of the Stars of the Sea of Earthquakes of the removing of Mountains because it is the stile of the Prophets to express Revolutions which fall out in the world with reference to Religion in terms that agree to a change in the whole Universe Thus the Apostle St. Peter Act. 2. 14. c. applyeth the Prophecy of Ioel to the establishment which God begun to give unto the Christian Religion by the pouring forth of the Holy Ghost In that day I will pour out of my Spirit upon all Flesh and on my Servants and on my Handmaidens and they shall prophesy and I will shew wonders in Heaven above and signs in the Earth beneath Blood and Fire and Vapours of Smoak the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into Blood. 'T is not probable that the Holy Spirit should omit that memorable change which befel the Empire when the Emperors were no more Heathen Persecutors but Christian Favourers of the Gospel which if it be not comprehended under this Seal there is not the Footstep or mention of it in the whole Revelation And withal that Event doth accord the best of the World with this Vision For if the Enemies of Christs name appear here astonished desperate hiding themselves in the Mountains and crying to the Rocks fall on us and hide us from the Wrath of the Lamb all this accordeth admirably with the Event For History recounts unto us how the Judgments of God fell after a terrible manner upon the five last Heathen Emperors who had persecuted the Christians with an unbridled rage Diocletian and Maximian voluntarily laid down the Imperial Dignity being pressed to it by the sole remorse of their Consciences which gave them no quiet Maxentius was thrown headlong from the Milvian Bridg into the Tyber and in that very place where he had laid an Ambush for Constantin Maximin who had pulled out the Eyes of Christians lost his own Eyes by a disease that was as loathsome as it was painful and Lieinius was murthered by the Garrison of Thessalonica After that Constantin was arrived at the Empire all the Edicts against the Christians were repealed the Christian Religion was established by publick Authority the Idolatrous Temples were either pulled down or consecrated to the service of the true God their Altars were overthrown and the Heathens being stript of all Honors were sent into the Villages from whence they came to be stiled Pagans that is Inhabitants of the Villages a Title by which the Christians had been denominated before V. ILLUSTRATION Of the four Angels that withheld the four Winds and of the Angel that had the Seal of the living God. REV. CHAP. 7. V. 1. After these things I saw four Angels standing on the four corners of the Earth holding the four Winds of the Earth that the Wind should not blow on the Earth nor on the Sea nor on any Tree V. 2. And I saw another Angel ascending from the East having the Seal of the living God and he cried with a loud voice to the four Angels to whom it was given to hurt the Earth and the Sea. V. 3. Hurt not the Earth neither the Sea nor the Trees till we have sealed the Servants of our God in their foreheads IF those four Angels be good Angels then the withholding the four Winds must be something likewise that is good And that they are good Angels appeareth from thence because the Angel that had the Seal of the living God spake unto them as Angels of God. Hurt not says
Church They are in their Hearts sealed of the Spirit but outwardly they have no other Mark save that of the profession of the pure Doctrine of the Apostles By the Mark that is in their Hearts they are known of God and by that in their Foreheads they are known of men VII ILLUSTRATION Of the Multitude which no man could number that Stood before the Lamb with Palms of their felicity and whence they came REV. CHAP. 7. V. 9. After this I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all Nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white Robes and Palms in their hands V. 10. And they cried with a loud voice saying Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb. V. 11. And all the Angels c. V. 12. Saying Amen Blessing and Glory and Wisdom and Thanksgiving Honor and Power Might be unto our God for Ever and Ever Amen V. 13. And one of the Elders answered saying unto me what are these which are arayed in white Robes and whence are they V. 14. And I said unto him Sir thou knowest And he said to me these are they which came out of great Tribulation and have washed their Robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. V. 15. Therefore are they before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them V. 16. They shall hunger no more neither thirst any more neither shall the Sun light on them nor any heat V. 17. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their Eyes THis multitude that could not be numbred are the companions of those Souls who cried under the fifth Seal How long O Lord before thou avenge our blood and white Robes were given unto them and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season untill their fellow servants also and their bretheren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled chap. 6. v. 10 11. These Martyrs are represented innumerable and there are two reasons intimated for it First because they were of all Nations kindreds people and Tongues 2ly because they were come out of great Tribulation And this great Tribulation is so called from the long duration of it Nor could it be otherway's for that it was to continue as long as the Papal Kingdom namely two and fourty months or a 1260 day 's which are 1260 years as we shall afterwards see They are represented clothed in white Robes as they under the fifth Seal were to intimate both their dignity and their Joy. But besides this they are represented standing before the Throne and before the Lamb with Palms in their hands whereas they under the fifth Seal were represented under the Altar and without Palms The reason of that difference is this because under the fifth Seal the Enemies of the Martyrs had the upper hand of them and persecuted their memories to that degree as to dig their bodies out of the ground and to throw their ashes into the wind as accounting them an abominable crew whereas in the place of that these here their great Tribulation's being finished and the 1260 years expired and the Beast and the false Prophet being cast into the bottomless pit are represented standing before the Throne of God and with Palms in their hands as conquerors over all their Enemies They shall be acknowledged blessed in Heaven and such who after the End of this Tribulation shall be found on the Earth walking in their faith shall Reign with Christ a thousand years So that the Holy Spirit doth by way of Anticipation describe here the felicity of the Church of God on the Earth whereof we have spoken upon the Subject of the first Resurrection that the terrible calamity which is to be represented under the Trumpets might not discourage believers being strengthened and fortified before hand by a promise of the victory which the Church shall at last obtain over her Enemies The Prophet Isaiah hath promised the same happiness to the Church of Israel For he hath said chap. 25. v. 8. that God will wipe away tears from off all faces And he hath said chap. 41. v. 10. that they shall not hunger not thirst neither shall the heat nor Sun smite them 'T is likewise to the Church made up of Iews and Gentiles that the Holy Spirit doth here promise the same felicity The Terms used by Isaiah do equally agree with the happiness in Heaven for the Souls of the Martyr's and with the happiness on Earth for those who shall have part in the first Resurrection and who shall Reign a thousand years VIII ILLUSTRATION Of the Silence in Heaven for half an hour REV. CHAP. 8. V. 1. And when he had opened the Seventh Seal there was silence in Heaven about the space of half an hour V. 2. And I saw the Seven Angels which stood before God and to them were given seven Trumpets AFter that the Idolatry of the Roman Empire was overthrown and after that the Christian Religion was established by publick Authority and that an end was put to persecution St. Iohn saw heresies and superstitions breaking in upon the Church But this did not come to pass immediately there was a space before that had the face of a peace or truce In a word there was a a short intervall That is it which had been already represented by the holding back of the four winds whereof we have spoken in the fifth Illustration And it is the same which is represented by the silence mentioned here at the opening of the 7 th Seal For when no wind blows there is a general calm And a great silence in the Air which is called Heaven in Scripture But in this place Heaven signifies the Church and Silence denoteth the peace that was established under the Reign of Constantin Called a Silence for half an hour because that peace continued only for a few years So that if the holding the winds from blowing signifies a general peace the Silence for half an hour marks the short while that it lasted IX ILLUSTRATION Of the seven Angels with the seven Trumpets and of the Angel who cast the Censer into the Earth REV. CHAP. 8. V. 2. And I saw the seven Angels which stood before God and to them were given seven Trumpets V. 3. And another Angel came and stood at the Altar having a golden Censer and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the Throne V. 4. And the Smoke of the Incense which came with the prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand V. 5. And the Angel took the
well as most powerful Buttress of the Papal Empire Luther called them in this sense ultimus Diaboli crepitus Besides seeing of all the Fraternities that of the Iesuites hath had the greatest power to do hurt and have done the greatest damage to the Christian Religion we are not to doubt but that they are principally intended in this Prophecy concerning the Locusts Which nevertheless is so to be understood that the ruin of the Jesuites will draw along with it that of all the other Monks and Fryers For that measure of Evil which the whole Body of the Monks and Fryers hath done being consummated by those mischiefs which the Iesuites have added thereunto partly as Politicans in States whose councils they have animated partly in the Church under the quality of Doctors and Directors through corrupting the Consciences of men and infecting the Air of Religion by their damnable Morality it must needs be that the whole Monastick Body perish at one and the same time in respect of their power XVI ILLUSTRATION Of the sixth Trumpet The loosing of the four Angels in the River Euphrates REV. CHAP. 9. V. 13. And the sixth Angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden Altar which is before God. V. 14. Saying to the sixth Angel which had the Trumpet loose the four Angels which are bound in the great River Euphrates V. 15. And the four Angels were loosed which were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year for to stay the third part of men V. 16. And the number of the Army of the Horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand and I heard the number of them V. 17. And thus I saw the Horses in the Vision and them that sat on them having Breast-plates of fire and of â—acinct and brimstone and the heads of the Horses were as the heads of Lions and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone V. 18. By these three was the third part of men killed by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone which issued out of their mouths V. 19. For their power is in their mouth and in their Tails for their Tails were like unto Serpents and had heads and with them they do hurt V. 20. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship Devils and Idols of Gold and Silver and Brass and Stone and of Wood which neither can see nor hear nor walk V. 21. Neither repented they of their Murders nor of their Sorceries nor of their Fornication nor of their Thefis WE do here see the growth and progress of the Mahometan Religion which begun under the fourth Trumpet as we have seen under the fifth Trumpet the growth of Popery that begun under the third The River Euphrates the four Angels that are loosed the dreadful number of Horsemen the Breast-plates the Fire the Smoke the Brimstone the Heads the Tails the Progress the Murders and in a word all the particularities which appear under this sixth Trumpet do evidently shew that it is the Mahometan Religion and the Eastern Empire invaded by the Turks that are here intended And the reason also which is here assigned why that Empire fell into the hands of the Turks doth further confirm it 1. The Turks being setled in Persia they must cross Euphrates before they could make any conquests on this side or render themselves Masters of that of the Roman Empire whereof Constantinople was the Seat. 2. Their Armies appear here to be made up of none but of Horse Thus the name Perse signifies a Horse To which the Holy Spirit did doubtless allude As in the Visions of Daniel the King of Grecia is stiled a Goat because the Grecians were called Aegiades which is to say Wild Goats 'T is certain that the Holy Spirit does often make allusions to the names of persons and of people And in truth the Turks have often come into the Field with Armies of two or three hundred thousand Horse 3 The number of four is Mystical in the Mahometan Religion as the number seven is in the Revelation When the Turks had past Euphrates they established four Sultanies That of Cesarea in Cappadocia that of Aleppo that of Damascus and that of Antioch Mahomet boasted that he had four Councellors two from Heaven viz. Michael and Gabriel and two from the Earth namely Ebubeker and Othmar There were four false Teachers concurred to the making of the Alkoran Iohn of Antioch an Arian Barra of Persia a Iacobite Sergius a Nestorian Monk and Solam a Iew who was an Astroleger Mahomet left behind him four Successors whom he called the four cutting Swords of God to wit Ebubeker otherways called Abdalla Osman Othmar and Haly. Which four Successors begot four Sects in the Mahometan Religion There are four Religious Orders among the followers of that false Prophet the Gemaliers the Dervis the Calenders and the Torlaquis In a word the number four is to be found in their Fasts in their Ceremonies in their Testaments in their Marriages and almost in every thing Which so plainly answering to the four Angels loosed in the Euphrates leaves us no room to doubt but that the Holy Spirit had a design in this place to represent the Mahometan Religion and the Turkish Empire as possessing the place of the Oriental Roman Empire And forasmuch as both the name of fourth and that of Mahomet meet in the present Grand Seignior I do not know but that this Mystical number of his Religion may presage his Empire to be near an end and that he shall be the last Turkish Emperor The Breast-plates of Fire of Jacinct and of Brimstone denote the gross darkness and the loathsome silthiness of the Turkish Religion A Religion that can relish with none save such as are sunk into all sensuality and which could be invented by none but by those that were prophane and wicked The Tails like unto Serpents which had heads represent the Mahometan Teachers clothed with the power of being Judges In the 9. Chap. of Isaiah v. 15. the Head signifies a man of Authority and the Tail signifies a false Treacher Now the Turkish Doctors or Priests are the Supream Judges in all causes as well civil as Religious 'T is said Their power is in their mouth the better to discover these to be the Mahometans in that their power when they have to do with carnal and sensual Christians consists in the seducing vertu of their carnal Doctrine The Fire the Brimstone and the Smoke do questionless relate to Powder used in guns which the Turks made both use of sooner and after a more terrible manner than Christians generally did For a German Monk having invented it and it was an invention becoming the Cloister he discovered it to the Venetians and they communicated it to the Turks And the Turks being greedy to extend their Conquests made
uttered their voices I was about to write and I heard a voices from heaven saying unto me Seal up those things which the seven Thunders uttered write them not ACcording to the Stile that the Scripture useth to speak in the Earth signifies the East and the Sea signifies the West that is the Isles and countreys that ly near unto the Sea. The Roman Empire was divided into that of the East and into that of the West So that when it is said that Jesus Christ being come down from heaven Set his feet the one upon the Sea and the other upon the Earth the meaning is that he took hold of these two Empires in order to make the light of his word shine there and to establish in them the purity of his worship Moreover according to the Scripture stile whensoever the Earth and Sea are spoken of the Earth is named before the Sea but here the stile is changed and the Sea is both mentioned first and Iesus Christ sets his right foot upon the Sea. Which is as if he would assuredly tell us that he will make the light of the Gospel break out in the West sooner than in the East and that he will begin the work of Reformation in reference to Popery sooner than in reference to Mahometanism This the Event will clear And what we shall see fall out in the West in relation to Popery will be an Earnest of what we may expect will come to pass in the East in relation to Mahometanism The great Cry of the Angel as when a Lion roareth doth threaten all the Enemies of the Gospel alike and the seven Thunders do presage their total ruin The great cry was heard in the work of the Reformation but the entire destruction of the Enemies of the Gospel is put off till another time namely until under the Effusion of the Vials And this is the reason why St. Iohn is forbid to write the things declared by the seven Thunders because there was a considerable space of time to elapse between the cry of the Angel that was heard at the Reformation and the time of pouring out of the Vials For that the Seven Thunders are the same with the seven Vials of the 16th Chap. appeareth evidently from this in that the Thunders do necessarily signify the Judgments of God by which his Enemies are to be overwhelmed and in that the seven Vials do denote the same thing According as it is said chap. 15. v. 1. that the seven Vials are the seven last plagues by which the wrath of God is consummated XIX ILLUSTRATION Of the Angels Oath and of the finishing the Mystery of God. REV. CHAP. 10. V. 5. And the Angel which I saw stand upon the Sea and upon the Earth lifted up his hand to heaven V. 6. And sware by him that liveth forever and ever who created heaven and the things that therein are and the Earth and the things that therein are and the Sea and the things which are therein that there should be Time no longer V. 7. But in the day 's of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall begin to sound the Mystery of God shall be finished as he hath declareth to his Servants the Prophets IT must needs be that what is treated of under the 7 th Trumpet is both great against all appearances to the contrary and a thing hard to be believed because it is nor only called a Mystery and a Secret but because to render it credible the Lord would give assurance of it by an Oath But this withall do's give us to understand that it is not the last Resurrection nor that Trumpet of the Arch-Angel which is here spoken of to be done under the sound of the Seventh Trumpet is to be understood It must then be the 1000 years Reign as hath been already shewn and that which consisteth in the destruction of Babylon in the calling of the Iews in the reuniting of Iews and Gentiles and in that renowned State on Earth which the Prophet Isaiah hath promised to the Church in his 62 Chap. that these great things which seem to be above all Belief above all Imagination are here meant intended For indeed who of the Papists can imagine that Rome and her Religion are to be destroyed how few Protestants can believe that the Jews are to be united with the Gentiles and that the Church of God shall have an intire peace on the Earth for many ages Nevertheless this is that Mystery which the Angel hath promised with an Oath shall be fulfilled soon after the sounding of the seventh Trumpet And this is the Reason why he declared that there shall be time no longer that is there shall be no more a deferring and a delay but that the seventh Angel shall have no sooner finished to sound the seventh Trumpet than that we shall see the consummation of the Mystery of God. XX. ILLUSTRATION Of the Angel's giving the Book to St. John to be Eaten and of the Effects which Ensue thereupon REV. CHAP. 10. V. 8. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again and said Go and take the little Book which is open in the hand of the Angel which standeth upon the Sea and upon the Earth V. 9. And I went unto the Angel and said unto him Give me the little Book And he said unto me Take it and eat it up and it shall make thy belly bitter but it shall be in thy Mouth Sweet as honey V. 10. And I took the little Book out of the Angels hand and ate it up and it was in my mouth sweet as honey and as soon as I had eaten it my belly was bitter V. 11. And he said unto me thou must prophesie again before many people and Nations and Tongues and Kings ST Johns taking the little Book from the Angel representeth those whom the Lord shall raise up to re-establish the purity of divine worship through preaching of the Gospel 'T is for this that St. Iohn took the Book out of the hand of the Lord because it is the Lord who gives Ministers theiâ— Mission nor are they to go till they have received it from him according as he himself told the Apostles go teach all Nations teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you Matth. 28. 19 20. It was also for this that he not only took the Book but that he eat it up because no one is properly a holy Minister if he be not full of the Word of God and if he be not possessed of all Truths through having well meditated upon them This Book meditated upon and well understood produceth necessarily two effects One is a consolation that ravisheth the Soul through the knowledg of the Mysteries of salvation and the hope of an happy eternal life The other is the mortification of the flesh by that Law which God hath prescribed of denying our selves and of dayly taking up the cross St.
Iohn expresseth these two effects when he saith that he found the Book sweet in his mouth as honey and that it made his belly bitter Therefore Luther and all those others who have travelled in the work of the Reformation have executed the order which the Angel gave here to St. Iohn Thou must Prophesie again before many peoples and Nations and Tongues and Kings The Term to prophesie signifies not only the foretelling things to come as if this order had respected only St. Iohn but it signifies likewise to Instruct to teach to preach the Gospel in which sense the word to prophesie is applied in the 1 Cor. chap. 14. v. 24. c. XXI ILLUSTRATION Of the Measuring of the Temple and of the Outward Court to be trodden under foot of the Gentiles REV. CHAP. II. V. 1. And there was given me a Reed like unto a Rod the Angel stood saying Rise measure the Tewple of God the Altar them that worship therein V. 2. But the Court which is without the Temple leave out and measure it not for it is given unto the Gentiles and the Holy City shall they tread under foot forty and two Months HEre we have represented unto us the Reformation of the Church For this is the execution of the Order which St. Iohn had received Thou must prophesie i. e. thou must preach the Gospel afresh to many peoples Nations Tongues and Kings And St. Iohn as hath been observed represents therein all those whom God was to imploy in that great work For the Execution of this commission there is given unto St. Iohn a Reed like unto a Rod and there is an Angel saying unto him Rise and measure the Temple of God and the Altar and them that worship therein This Reed is the Word of God called a Rod or a Scepter Ps 45. v. 6. and a Rule Gal. 6. 16. Because neither errors nor manners can be otherway's reformed than by the application of the word of God which condemneth both Errors and vices and lay's before us what we ought to believe and what we ought to practice As often as the Church of Israel was Reformed it was done by the application of no other Rule Iosiah and Hezekiah made use of no other no more did Ezra and Nehemiah There is here an Allusion to the 40. chap. of Ezekiel v. 5. c. where the prophet received Order to measure the Temple to assure him of the deliverance from the Babylonish Captivity And Iews as well as Christians are agreed that the Temple described by Ezekiel is not the Material Temple of Jerusalem but that of the Messiah which neither is nor can be any other than his Church which St. Paul calls the Temple of the Lord 2 Cor. 6. 16. And consequently this is the Temple which is to be re-established by the destruction of Antichristian Babylon that so there may be a correspondence between St. Iohn and Ezekiel He is commanded to measure both the Temple aud the Altar because there is nothing in the Church but what stands in need of being Reformed Since all Nations have been made drunk with the Wine of Babylon both Religion and manners Faith and Worship Head and Members in a word every thing ought to be measured every thing stands in need of Reformation The Court without the Temple trodden under foot by the Gentiles is the Christian Church but become Antichristian by its Idolatry The Gentiles that is to say the Pagans are represented treading that is frequenting the outward Court of the Temple because almost all the Ceremonies of the Roman Church are borrowed from the Heathen And for this cause also it is called the Court without which was no part of the Temple For the Roman Church is not properly the Temple and Church of our Lord it is but the outward Court where the Gentiles have liberty to come Whereas it is given in command to leave the outward Court out it is as much as the enjoyning all those who are measured and Ruled by the Word of God and who are elsewhere called the Sealed of God to withdraw and actually separate from the Church of Rome and to make a Society apart in order to their worshipping God according to his word So that is the very same command with that given Rev. 18. 4. Come out of Babylon my People Babylon ought to subsist 42. Months after that the outward Court of the Temple is given to the Gentiles that they may tread the holy City under foot so long but of that time we shall speak in another place XXII ILLUSTRATION Of the two Witnesses their Sackcloth State the Time of their Prophecying and their Dignity REV. CHAP. 11. V. 3. And I will give power unto my two Witnesses and they shall prophesie 1260 day 's cloathed in sackcloth V. 4. These are the two Olive Trees and the two Candlesticks standing before the God of all the Earth V. 5. And if any man 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. 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. THEY who by the two Witnesses do understand the old Testament and the New have not hit the meaning of this place They have not come home to the sense but they have touched a little on the side of it The word of God is the Testimony for it is frequently so called Psa 119. So St. Paul stiles also the Gospel 1 Cor. chap. 2. v. 1. But they who profess the Truth and are the defenders of it are properly the Witnesses here spoken of They who since the birth of Antichristianism have cried against its Errors and Idolatry And we must observe that these Witnesses are stiled also Candlesticks which is the Title given by Jesus Christ to the seven Churches is the Epistle which he writ to them Rev. 1 20. Nor is it strange that he speaks only of two Witnesses altho he be speaking of a numerous Society seeing in all language both divine and humane great Bodies of men do make but one Mystical person Thus the Israelites are considered in Hosea as one Woman Thus likewise all sincere Christians are stiled in the Revelation the Lambs Wife and all false Christians are called the great Harlot And the Historian Florus represents the whole Roman people as a man that had past through the different Stages of human life These Witnesses are precisely two neither more nor less They are not fewer that their Testimony may be sufficient they are not more through an Allusion to the History of the ancient people of God whose conduct had been committed two to Moses Aaron to Iosuah and Caleb to Elijah and Elisha to Zerobabel and Jehashua to Ezra and Nehemiah to Haggai and
but we shall be extreamly surprised at the re-establishment of the Reformed Churches in France because we know the King to be of opposite Sentiments to them But as it is the King of France who contributeth most to the Glory of the Papacy So it shall be the King of France that shall contribute most to its ruin It was a Louis XII who in the last age threatned to destroy the Romish Church perdam Babylonis nomen And it shall be a Louis who will execute the threatning of that generous King. The God of heaven and Earth the King of Kings who has the hearts of Kings and of people in his hand raiseth in us this hope because it is further added in the Prophecy 5 That the same hour there was a great Earthquake and the tenth part of the City fell It may be doubted whether this Earthquake may come to pass according to the letter But it is most certain that Earthquakes in scripture signify great alterations that fall out in States And to bring no other example save one that relates nearly to this matter Whosoever remembers that Earthquake which was in France when the King returned from the Pyrenees after the Treaty of Peace and the consummation of his Marriage and considers the great alterations which have since fallen out in that Kingdom not only in reference to Religion as well Popish as Reformed but in reference to Justice to Policy to the Finances and to War will no longer question but that the Earthquake which is to be after the Witnesses have lyen three days and a half dead doth promise as surprising a change in France as to all those regards and an alteration wherewith all the world will be contented except it be the Clergy the Monks and the Jesuites Some will doubless ask what reason I have to understand France rather than any other Kingdom by this tenth part of the City which is to fall after the Eartquake My reasons are these 1 I presuppose that the City here spoken of is Babylon or the Papal Empire or the Romish Church which is the Empire of Antichrist This Truth we have already proved 2 I presuppose that France is One of the ten Horns of the Beast One of the ten Kingdoms that were to be formed out of the ruins of the Roman Empire according to Daniel and which was to begin at the same time with the Beast according to St. John that is to begin with the Papal Empire This is evident in History 3 I presuppose France is one Street and one part of the City i. e. of the Papal Kingdom Nor can any deny but that the Gallican Church or the Church of France stiles it self by the Title of the Catholick Apostolick Roman Church that the Pope Reigns there over what is called Spiritual that he hath there his Ministers and Agents that he receiveth Annates from thence and that there is no Arch-Bishop or Bishop in France but who receives his Mission and Authority from the Pope 4 I suppose that France is the most beautiful and glorious Kingdom of all those Kingdoms which are Tributary to the Pope They do so account it by calling the King of France the most Christian King and the eldest Son of the Church And it is worthy of remark that even in St. Johns time France was by way of excellency stiled the Province because of all the Provinces of the Roman Empire France which was then called Gaul was the best and the most powerful This is so certain that the name do's yet remain and is attributed to the Southern part of France which is stiled Province from the latin Provincia It being therefore said in the Text that the tenth part of the City fell the Holy Spirit did questionless intend by that expression the most excellent part of all So that it is from thence very natural to understand France by the tenth part of the City Lastly we have already observed that it is not said that the two Witnesses were killed and that they lay unburied in the places or Streets in the plural number but in the Street of the great City in the singular which is as much as to say a Popish Kingdom marked out by way of excellency And therefore seeing the Holy Spirit had the most excellent of all the Popish Kingdoms in his Eye and seeing we have seen the death which in so surprising a manner hath befallen the Witnesses in France we may without any difficulty conclude that it is France which is this tenth part of the City that is to fall 6 'T is said that the tenth part of the City shall fall This may at the first view appear a dreadful prediction against France But yet it is not so For we must observe that this threatning is not as it would at first seem denounced against the tenth part of the City but against the City it self Because as that is the alone cause of the death of the two Witnesses so that is also the object of Gods vengeance 'T is then the City the Papal Kingdom which is to receive a terrible loss by the falling away of France Whereas France it self will increase both its strength and Glory by that falling off and withdrawing So that upon the whole I do not doubt but that it is the conversion of that beautiful Kingdom which is promised in this place And that which confirmeth me the more in this conjecture is what followeth namely that there i. e. in the tenth part of the City which was to fall by an Earthquake there shall be slain of men seven thousand and that the remnant shall be affrighted and give glory to God. In which words we have two Events represented unto us whereof the one is very different from the other both of them worthy of observation The one is an effect of the vengeance of God the other an effect of his Mercy The first event is the death of seven thousand names of men Which is a figure where seven thousand names of men are put for seven thousand men of name that is of quality reputation and dignity These Men of Name are doubtless either the Doctors who make a great deal of noise in France in the Sorbone in the Society of the Oratory in the Society of the Jesuites and among the Clergy or else persons of quality who are distinguished from others by their birth and by their honor The Number of seven thousand denotes an indefinite number but very considerable And the death of these men will be a death parallel to the Death of the Witnesses that so like may be returned unto them for like For that the same shall be rendred unto Babylon which She rendred unto Sion is both threatned in the Prophesies of Isaiah and in the Revelations of St. John Isa 14. 6. Rev. 18. 6. Not that these seven thousand men shall be compelled by the fury of Missionary Dragoons to abjure Popery and to embrace the Reformed Religion For
plagues and that by them the wrath of God is consummated Now against whom is it consummated Without doubt it is against Babylon against Rome and the Papacy against the Kingdom of Antichrist And the wrath of God cannot be said to be consummated until that prophecy chap. 18. v. 20. be fulfilled Rejoice over her thou Heaven and ye Holy Apostles and Prophets for God hath avenged you on her And a mighty Angel took up a stone like a great milstone and cast it into the Sea saying thus with violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all This Oracle is not yet fulfilled Babylon is yet standing The Kingdom of Antichrist doth yet continue From whence it does at the least follow that the last Vial is still to be poured out and as I may say that there is not one drop of it yet fallen But the same do's appear as evidently in reference to the sour first as it do's in relation to the three last For besides that it is said of them all in general that they are the last plagues and the consummation of the wrath of God against Babylon St. John further tells us ch 8. v. 13. that he heard an Angel flying thorow the midst of Heaven saying with a loud voice Wo wo wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth by reason of the Trumpets that are yet to sound And chap. 9. v. 12. after the sounding of the fifth Trumpet St. John adds one Wo is past and behold there come two Woes more hereafter One of these two Woes fell undoubtedly out under the sixth Trumpet under which Mahometanism and the Turkish Armies destroyed the whole East And therefore the third Wo must come to pass under the seventh and the last Trumpet St. Iohn accordingly declareth expresly chap. 11. v. 14. that the second Wo is past and behold the third Wo cometh quickly And after that he immediately subjoins that the seventh Angel sounded and that there were great voices in heaven saying the Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall Reign for ever and ever This is a wo for the Papacy but it is a happiness for the Church of God. For it is exactly the general Reformation which shall comprehend in it the conversion of the Jews of the Mahometans of the Pagans and of the Papists and the uniting of all Sects of Christians into one belief and into one Worship together with the final End of the Papal Kingdom Whence it uncontroably follows that all the Vials being contained under this third Wo they are yet to be poured out Forasmuch as we are this year 1687. still under the sixth Trumpet and are groaning under the pressures of the second Wo. Which over and aboye all the Massacres that were seen in the former ages hath made us to see in this age the two Sackcloth Witnesses overcome and killed by the Beast So that here we have a new proof that all the Vials from the first to the last are yet to be poured out forasmuch as the Vials are no other thing but the seven Thunders which are spoken of Chap. 10. And indeed the Thunders are seven in number as well as the Vials are And as the Thunders do signify the judgments of God against the Enemies of the Church so the Vials do signify the same in that by them the Wrath of God is to be consummated Moreover the things threatned by the Thunders are delayed from being executed until the sounding of the Seventh Trumpet For St. Iohn tells us Chap. 10. v. 4. that being about to write he heard a voice from Heaven saying Seal up those things which the seven Thunders uttered and write them not Why was this Because they were not to be executed until the Mystery of God should be finished which is not to be till under the Seventh Trumpet For the Mystery of God is the bringing in of all Kingdoms to Jesus Christ the conversion of all Nations and the uniting of all Christians from whence that peace of the Church shall arise which is to continue during the thousand years that Satan is to be bound And if there be any difference betwixt the Vials and the Thunders it consisteth only in this that the Thunders are the denunciation of the Judgments of God and that the Vials are the execution of them For tho the Thunders were heard by St. Iohn under the Sixth Trumpet yet they were not to be executed till under the Seventh under which it is that all the Vials shall be poured out I do know that there are famous Writers who pretend to demonstrate the effusion of most of the Vials as already past by that conformity which they observe in Events with the Terms that exptess the Evils which each Vial doth contain But that conformity doth not necessarily prove that they are all poured forth nor indeed that any part of them is what hath been now said proves the contrary in a manner that comes near to demonstration All that agreement does only prove that they shall be poured out in their proper times and that of this we are not to doubt seeing what is already come to pass is an assurance of what is to ensue So that what fell out in the time of Luther tho' conformable to the prediction about the ruin of Babylon does not serve to prove that Babylon is entirely fallen but is as it were an Earnest put into our hand whereby the total fall of it is promised unto us and which is to be a pledg of the full payment of all that is promised us in reference thereunto Forasmuch then as it is certain that not so much as one of the Vials is yet poured forth it becometh us in point of Wisdom to affirm nothing dogmatically in the expounding of them That which may be affirmed as certain and indubitable is first that as the Trumpets declared the manifestation of Antichrist and his advances in the establishment of his Empire together with the rise of the Mahometan Religion and the growth of the Turkish Empire so the Vials shew the fall and ruin of these two Enemies of the Christian Religion Secondly That when the Vials come to be poured out there shall be no long distance between the pouring nut of one of them and the effusion of the rest Because it is said in the 10th Chapter v. 6. that the Angel sware that there should be time no longer That is to say that there should be no more delay that the Judgments of God shall overtake the Beast without any respit betwixt one and another and that the seven Thunders shall break forth and fall as it were close and near together And consequently that the Vials which are nothing but the seven Thunders shall be so poured out that before the pouring forth of the first be ended the second shall begin and so the rest Thirdly That there shall be scarce any distance
of the plague of the Hail for the plague thereof was exceeding great We have already observed in the Explication of the fifth Trumpet that the Air signifies Religion But there it signified Religion darkned by the Smoke which came out of the bottomless pit whereas here it signifieth Religion it self which was begotten by that Smoke namely the Papal and Antichristian Religion For it shall be drove away as Smoke by this last Vial. Then there was the Voice of the Angel heard saying it is done that is the Mystery whereof there was mention chap. 10. v. 7. namely the Mystery of the total ruin of the Papacy of the Conversion of the Jews of the reduction of all the Kingdoms of this world to Jesus Christ and of the universal peace of the Church As this will be the greatest and the most happy Change that ever was seen in the world therefore it is not only said that there shall be Lightnings and Thunders but that there shall likewise be a great Earthquake such as was not since men were upon the Earth For Earthquakes as we have already taken notice signify always in Scripture a change that shall fall out in the world in reference to Religion And therefore there was both an Earthquake at the gioing of the Law and at the publication of the Gospel because by that the Iudaick Religion was established and by this the Christian So that we are not to be surprised to find in this prediction a greater Earthquake than ever had been before seen from the beginning of the world because the Iews are now to be recalled the Mahometans are to be converted all Nations are to be Enlightned with the splendor of the Gospel and the Papacy is irrecoverably to be destroyed The Division of the City into three parts threatneth the Papacy which is this great City with three plagues of the Wrath of God. It hath been already observed that Rome which is the Seat of the Papal Empire shall be destroyed by three different Judgments of God to wit as Sodom as Egypt and as Babylon And the same shall befall the Papacy which shall be subverted by three means which we do not yet know The Prophet Daniel says that after the fourth Beast which representeth the Romam Empire shall be slain and after that his body shall be given to the burning flame that then the Dominion shall be also taken away from the other Beasts and that after the Image by which the Empire of the world are represented shall be broken into pieces the other Beasts shall have domination no more chap. 7. v. 12. chap. 2. v. 44. That is the very same which St. Iohn fore-tells in this place and every Island Fled away and the Mountains were not found For by Islands are understood Commonwealths Kingdoms are meant by Mountains All which is as if he should have said that there shall be no more any State neither Republick nor a Kingdom but what shall be governed by the holy Laws of the Gospel and which shall be a Theocracy as the State of Israel was under the Government of the Judges So that this here is not the last and Universal Iudgment no more than that chap. 11. v. 18. but it is the particular Judgment of Babylon that is the Antichristian Empire which the peace of the Church shall follow The Hail of an extraordinary bigness that shall fall at the effusion of this last Vial ' can no way 's agree to the last judgment forasmuch as that being the day of the Resurrection of the Dead no Hail shall fall to kill men Whereas it is here said that the Hail fell upon men that unquestionably signifieth the overwhelming them by reason of their obduration For it will come to pass that some men upon their seeing the vengeance of God against Babylon and against its Empire will instead of being converted break forth into blasphemies These hardned men are such as have no sense of Religion but are tied to Babylon by the bonds of gain and by the alone chains of interest There are at this time a great number of these who savour nothing of the word of God who have no more knowledg than Babel of the Christian Religion and yet they pass in the Church of Rome for great Devoto's They are the men of this complexion that shall be overwhelmed by the Hail of the seventh and last Vial. This Hail may be very well said to threaten the rich and innumerable Benefices of the Roman Clergy For the vast riches of the Prelates and of the other Ecclesiasticks being the strong Buttresses of the Papacy the loss of their Revenues may very well be one of the Means which God in his providence will make use of to destroy and abolish them For this is the property of Hail to destroy Revenues and the Papacy being adhered unto only for its riches when it comes to be stript the whole world will abandon it which will cause its ruin XXVII ILLUSTRATION Of the Time that the Beast's Reign is to continue THE Holy Spirit marketh the duration of the Reign of the Beast in five several places In the 11. Chap. v. 2. 't is said that the Gentiles shall tread the Holy City under foot forty and two Mon'ths And in the 3d verse of the same chapter 't is said that the two Witnesses shall prophesie a thousand two hundred and threescore days clothed in sackcloth And in the 12 Chap. v. 6. 't is said that the Woman fled into the Wilderness where she had a place prepared of God to be fed there 1260 days And in the 14th verse of that Chapter She is said to be there fed for a Time Times and half a Time. And chap. 13. v. 5. 't is said power is given unto the Beast to continue forty and two Mon'ths From all which we are to observe 1 That the 42 Mon'ths and 1260 Day 's are one and the same thing Because according to the Greeks whose language the Revelation was written in every Mon'th contained thirty day's and 42 times thirty make 1260. 2 That one Time Times and half a Time are one year two years and half a year which making three years and a half amounteth just to sorty and two Months and to 1260 Day 's 3 That whereas it is expresly said that power was given unto the Beast to continue 42 Months this declareth his Duration during the Time that the Gentiles shall tread the holy City under foot and during the Time that the Woman shall be in the Wilderness where she is to be fed while that the Witnesses prophesie clothed in Sackcloth 4 That the 1260 Days are not to be taken literally for common Days but Mystically for so many years This we cannot doubt of when we have considered that Days are applied so in the Books of the Prophets In the 4th Chap. of Amos v. 4. the Prophet bids them bring their Sacrifices and Tyths after three Days i. e. after three years as
five speaketh of nothing save of War against the Church of God. So long as it lasts Antichrist abates nothing of his fury but constantly makes the same efforts for the oppressing of the Truth and such as do profess it and while it endureth all things go ' on at the same rate against the Church of God. But as soon as the seventh Trumpet comes to be sounded by the seventh Angel the case will quite alter the wrath of God will break forth and the Vials empty themselves And this is the true Reason why the Vials are called the last plagues by which the wrath of God is fulfilled So that all which Mr. Jurieu hath said upon the Term last tho in it self very good and very ingenious yet it is altogether impertinent His curious remarks and comparisons which amount to the fourth part of his Apology are very incongruously placed For all he saith is founded upon a principle that is false namely that the seven Vials are contemporary with the seven Trumpets Whereof as the falsehood is already demonstrated so it will farther appear in what is hereafter â—o be said The 3d Argument which the Anonymous Author made use of was this that St. Iohn Rev. chap. 8. v. 13. declareth how he heard an Angel flying thorow the midst of heaven saying with a loud voice Wo wo wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth by reason of the Trumpets that are yet to sound and that he adds chap. 9. v. 12. after the sounding of the fifth Trumpet one Wo is past and behold there come two Woes more hereafter For as one of these two last woes did undoubtedly arrive under the sixth Trumpet under which Mahometism and the Arms of the Turks subverted Christianity in the East so it must needs be that the third Wo is to arrive under the seventh Trumpet This also St. Iohn expresly declares chap. 11. v. 14. the second Wo say's he is past and behold the third cometh quickly after which he immediately subjoins the seventh Angel sounded and there were great voices in heaven saying the Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall Reign forever This is a Wo for the Papacy and for Mahometism but a great happiness here in this life for the Church of God. For 't is plainly the general Reformation which shall comprehend the conversion of all Nations by giving them to see the total destruction of the Papal Empire From whence it clearly followeth that all the Vials are contained under the third Wo and consequently that they are yet all to be poured out forasmuch as we are still under the sixth Trumpet groaning under the pressures of the second Wo. Mr. Jurieu say's he doth not apprehend how these can be stiled invincible Proofs and he do's withal add that it is not true that the third Wo is confined to the seventh Trumpet To which I answer that it is as clear that the third Wo is contained under the seventh Trumpet as 't is evident that the second Wo is comprehended under the sixth and the first Wo under the fifth But by what doth it appear that the first Wo is contained under the fifth Trumpet and the second Wo under the sixth This appeareth by its being said that after the sound of the fourth Trumpet the Angel cried Wo wo wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth by reason of the Trumpets of the three Angels which are yet to sound It likewise appears in that after the sounding of the sixth Trumpet St. Iohn declares chap. 11. v. 14. the second Wo is past and behold the third cometh quickly And that we may know when it is to come St. John adds and the seventh Angel sounded and the Kingdoms of this world became the Lords and his Christs Now can the Kingdoms of this world be made subject to Christ before the destruction of Mahometism and of Popery 'T is then evident that the 3d Wo is comprehended under the seventh Trumpet as the 2d is under the sixth and the 1st under the fifth which renders the Argument of the Anonymous Author unanswerable The weakness of this proof saith Mr. Jurieu which is given us for invincible is that it supposeth a thing which is not true and which the Anonymous Author cannot evince by any sort of reason viz. that the plagues and the Vials are all comprehended under the third Wo. To whom that Author Answereth that he hath proved the third Wo to be contained under the seventh Trumpet as the 2d is comprehended in the sixth and the first in the fifth And forasmuch as the seventh Trumpet comprehendeth all the Vials because they are not poured out till after it hath sounded it invincibly follows that the third Wo is comprehended in the seven Vials and that the seven Vials do execute the third Wo. Nor is it to be helped if Mr. Jurieu will not see what St. Iohn so plainly declareth unto him To demonstrate saith Mr. Jurieu that the seven Vials are not comprehended in the 3d Wo 't is sufficient to prove as we have done that the seven Vials are seven Periods of time which run along as water runneth out of an hour-glass This principle of Mr. Iurieu that the Vials are seven Periods of time we have fully refuted have made it appear that both his principle and the reasons by which he endeavours to maintain it are worth nothing So that if he hath nothing else to alledg whereby to make it appear that the Third Wo is not contained in the Seventh Trumpet the Anonymous Author's argument may be still called invincible Moreover Mr. Iurieu's supposition that the sixth Trumpet under which we are hath been exerting its Influences for almost eight hundred years and that it s subdivided into seven Vials is a most false principle and unto which we have opposed that which is uncontrolable Namely that all the 1st 6 Trumpets do sound before the effusion of any Vial because according to St. Iohn there is not one of them poured out till under the seventh Trumpet which hath not yet begun to sound For as none of the Trumpets sound till after the opening of the seventh Seal so none of the Vials are to be poured forth till under the sounding of the seventh Trumpet Mr. Jurieu confesseth that the H. Spirit hath not evidently declared that the sixth Trumpet is subdivided into 7 Vials but he say's it may be inferred from this that whereas the seventh Trumpet was sounding when the Turks invaded the Grecian Empire which was about the tenth Century and that we find the first Vial to have fallen about that time upon the Empire of the Beast and that therefore the course of the Vials must be contained under the sixth Trumpet To which I answer that nothing of all this ariseth from the words of the Prophesie unless in the vertu ' of his principle that the Vials are periods of times and hour-glasses which run along with the sixth