while he is speaking of the reestablishment of the Church Because their death was in this like unto that of Jesus Christ that they were killed and extinguished by Roman Souldiers even as our Lord was For this is a Fact as remarkable as it is notorious that they are the Prelates who have let loose the Kings Troops against the Reformed Churches and that they are the Curates who have removed them from such of the Reformed as have come to begg it under promise of abjuring their Religion So that the Death of the Witnesses bearing so great a resemblance to the death of Jesus Christ their Resurrection shall also resemble his All that is here said concerning the reestablishment of the Protestant Churches is to be considered with attention 1 'T is said that the Spirit of life from God entred into the Witnesses This Spirit of Life is certainly set in opposition to that Spirit of Death which killed them Now what was that which killed them It was the fear of men the dread of misery apprehension that they should never see an End of their torments and the Violence they were under from the Soldiers It was that fallacious and ensnaring Reasoning which they every day heard from the Mouths of their persecutors Stand out as long as you please When we have devoured you to the bone you must at last obey Flatter not your selves with hope of any ease the King will not suffer himself to be contradicted He who could take Cambray and Luxemburgh will he be withstood by a Hugonot Dog Nor shall ye be suffered to depart the Kingdom What fools are ye to suffer your selves to be devoured ye may be eased of the Dragoons by the bare saying of one word Say only I do obey the King and for the rest you may believe as you will. Do you think that the King would have you damned He purposeth to reform the Church of France as soon as he hath reduced and united all his Subjects Do ye not know what he hath done already against the Court of Rome You will suddenly see other matters Will you be they after all who shall alone make head against the King and rob him of the Title of Conqueror and of Victorious Do you not see that all do submit that young and old poor and rich Noble and Ignoble Learned and Ignorant throughout the whole Kingdom do comply This was that Spirit of Death that entred into the Witnesses It was this blast or tempestuous Wind that hath scattered and overthrown all the Protestant Churches of France And in probability the Spirit of life from God that shall enter into the Witnesses will be a way of Reasoning that is contrary to this For example what have we done unhappy creatures that we are How great is our crime We are gone over to a Religion that cannot be good forasmuch as its Ministers Bishops and Priests have let loose the Kings Troops upon us and that it is they who are the Authors of all the robberies violences blasphemies and impieties which the Souldiers have committed in order to pervert us And seeing the Bishops and Priests will have forced Consciences they cannot be the Ministers of God who requireth the heart and a willing people Nor can they be the Ministers of Christ because they have taken from us the only means of Instruction by depriving us of the Holy Scriptures together with all Books tending to piety What can that Religion be worth which reduceth the whole of Religion to the Mass where we understand nothing and where our Eyes are filled with certain ceremonies of which we comprehend nothing save that they worship an object in which we see nothing that is Adorable and where they commit that affront against the Son of God as to hale him from his throne of glory to put him into the hands of wicked persons and into the Mouths of blasphemers Can that Religion be good where we hear not a Sermon wherein they do not demand the assistance of the Holy Spirit but by the intercession of the blessed Virgin which is both a plain Idolatry and expresly condemned by those words of our Saviour I will pray the Father and he shall send you the comforter and no man cometh to the Father save by me Besides they do perform nothing of what they promised us We are not suffered to believe as we would They have not Reformed one abuse They give us no rest neither as to our bodies nor as to our Consciences They joined fraud to violence which are the two Characters of Antichrist whereby to seduce us Come let us give glory to God. Let us depart out of Babylon God will bless our Endeavours and either deliver us out of our captivity or give us strength to glorify him by our sufferings This in all likelyhood is the Spirit of life from God that after three years and a half will enter into the Witnesses 2 'T is said that the Witnesses stood upon their feet This is as much as to say that they shall come to acknowledg their crime shall forbear to go to the Mass that they shall take courage that their zeal shall revive that they shall Serve God according to his Word that they shall assemble first in secret then publickly without fearing any more either the Bishops or the Curates or the Souldiers or the Dragoons or Misery or death 3 'T is said that great fear fell upon them which saw them We are not to doubt but that the Holy Spirit do's by them that saw them understand the Authors and Executioners of the persecution For the other Papists have scarce medled in it It hath been only the Clergy and the Bigots of the Court and of the Parliaments who interested themselves in persecuting the Churches while they stood and who do now make merry upon their dissipation And they are the persons upon whom fear will fall when they shall come to see the scattered congregations gather again Nor shall they recover from that dread because the Court will be no more inclined to hearken to them but on the contrary all that will be done there shall tend to the mortifying of them and to the re-establishing the Churches 4 'T is said that the Witnesses heard a great voice from heaven saying come up hither and that they ascended in a cloud I am much deceived if this doth not signify that God who is the Master of hearts shall change the heart of the King and of his Council and that we shall see a Revolution in France of a contrary nature to what hath been seen in England As in the year 1685 we saw Popery mount into the Throne of great Brittain so after the three years and a half of the Witnesses lying dead we shall see the Reformed Religion get upon the Throne in France We have not been much surprised to see the re-establishment of Popery in England because it is long since it was known what judgment the Duke of York was of
of the Iesuites who are justly esteemed for great Masters in hypocrisy 11 'T is said of these infernal Locusts that they had a King over them which is the Angel of the bottomless pit whose name in the Hebrew is Abaddon but in the Greek Appollyon The Iesuites have also a King whom they vow to obey implicitely in all things This King is the Pope The Holy Spirit clearly expresseth him by the Term Abaddon For this Abba signifieth Father as well as that of Pope doth But the Holy Spirit makes him an Abaddon an Appollyon which signifieth destroyer This King of the Locusts is an Idol who will destroy all that worship him And this is to worship him to believe him Infallible and to render him a blind obedience and which knows no limits 12 Finally it is said of these Locusts of the bottomless pit that their power was to hurt men five moneths If the Holy Ghost had mentioned this only once we might have thought that it was only a bare allusion to natural Locusts which do neither make a noise nor do appear save from May till September But the Holy Spirit not being satisfied with the mentioning of it at the beginning of this description of the Locusts v. 5. but repeating it again at the end v. 10. he do's thereby inform us that he intendeth more than a bare Allusion and that he would hereby mark out unto us the time allotted and prescribed to the Iesuites for them to exercise their power in and in which they are to be so formidable every where in the world This Time is designed by five Moneths which are without doubt of the same nature with the fourty and two mon'ths which make up the duration of the Beasts Kingdom and which shall be proved to be prophetick mon'ths whereof each amounteth to thirty years According to which exposition five mon'ths signisie one hundred and fifty years forasmuch as five times thirty make 150. 'T is already more than 150 years since the Iesuites have been in the world But it is not the duration of that Society from its first Institution to its End that is here treated of That alone which is here intended is the Time that their power should continue And if you ask what power I say that to torment men Now they received this power but from the Pope The Pope did not give it unto them otherway's than by the Bull by which he confirmed their Society Nor was this Bull granted till the year 1540 that Pope Paul III. Emitted it in the mon'th of October 'T is in the vertu ' of this Bull that the Iesuites have had esteem and that they have authority to do all the mischief that they have done within the bounds of the Papal Kingdom From whence it may follow that they shall not be in a condition to torment men for above three years from this time For being now in the year 1687. there are 147 years run out since the date of the Bull of Pope Paul III So that there seem to remain but three years until their having accomplished their five prophetical Mon'ths and until their having exercised their power of Tormenting men for 150 years But if any in order to lessen the probability which is in this conjecture shall object that there have been at least 23. Bulls published in favour of the Iesuites from the year 1540 until the year 1598 and that by five Popes namely Paul III. Iulius III. Pius IV. Pius V. and Gregory XIII and that the power to Torment was not given unto the Iesuites at once but successively aud by degrees each Bull advancing their priviledges And that therefore we cannot define the precise time when this power begun so as to be able to determine from thence when it shall end I answer that none of the following Bulls having derogated in any one priviledg from the first Bull it is but reasonable that we should fix and take up at the first which was granted in the mon'th of October 1540 forasmnch as it was that which established the Society and which is the foundation of all the other Bulls It seems impossible either to destroy or to weaken the power of these Locusts in that they have so strongly established themselves in the Courts of all Princes Nor is there any appearance that Monarchs should attempt it seeing they imploy them in their affairs of State as well as in those which relate to their Consciences But nothing is impossible to God who is the Protector of Kings and who holds their hearts in his hand He hath marked out unto the Iesuites the duration of their power And it shall not exceed five mon'ths continuance which is the same with that of 150 years It is withal extreamly probable that God will make use of Kings for destroying the power of the Locusts as he will serve himself of them for the subverting of Babylon and as he had imploy'd them for the ruin of the Templers who were not near so much hated as the Iesuites are and whose vast Revenues was the greatest reason that Princes had to rid themselves of them and to seise their Estates The Crimes whereof they were accused were but in truth a pretence It may yet be objected against this exposition that the Locusts arose out of the bottomless pit under the fifth Trumpet and that it is more than five prophetical Mon'ths more than 150 years from the sounding of the fifth Trumpet to the Sounding of the sixth under which we now are And by consequence that the Iesuites are not the Locusts seeing they did not appear till under the sixth Trumpet So that the five Mon'ths of the duration of the power of the Locusts must be ill apprehended and ill explained I answer that if the two and forty Mon'ths of the continuance of the Beasts Kingdom amount each of them to thirty years as shall be demonstrated in its place we are not to question but that these five prophetick Mon'ths being indisputably such as they are must constitute 150 years 'T is true that there is a great deal more than an hundred and fifty years to be allowed for the course of the fifth Trumpet to the sixth under which we live and under which the Iesuites came into the world But we laid this down as a foundation at first that all Monks and Fryers are represented by the Locusts as there is no part of the Character of the Locusts but which agrees to them all And tho' the Iesuites be risen above 300. years after the Cordeliers and the Iacobins yet it doth not follow that they ought not to be ranked with those Orders that sprung up before seeing they all make but one Body of Regulars and are all equally both the Creatures and the Supporters of the Pope And the reason why the Holy Spirit had the Jesuites chiefly in his aim is because they are the accomplishment of this new Pharisaism the top of the Mystery of Iniquity and the last as
the Heavenly Jerusalem forasmuch as he hath done it himself both in declaring that it is 144. and in discovering 12. to be the Cubical Root of it For not being satisfied to tells us Rev. 7. 5 c. that there were 12000. sealed out of every Tribe he gives us further to understand that all things relating to the Heavenly Ierusalem are to be counted by twelve Thus there are ascribed unto it 12 Foundations 12. Gates 12 Angels 12. Tribes 12000. Furlongs Rev. 21. 12 c. and 12. manner of Fruits of the Tree of life Rev. 22. 2. And because 12. times 12. make 144. he therefore expresly tells us that the Wall of the Mystical Ierusalem was 144. Cubits This the Holy Ghost hath not done in reference to the Beast for contenting himself with the having revealed his Number he doth not discover the Cubical Root of it but requireth us to search it out Let him that hath understanding says he count the Number of the Beast Let us then obey this command and search out the Cubical Root of 666. and we shall find it to be 25. Because 25. multiplied by it self makes 625. to which the Fraction of 41. being added there results the number of 666. Now it is most evident that the number 25. is Sacred in the Romish Church being to be found every where both in her Hierarchy and in her Doctrine According to Onuphrius Rome which is the Seat and Throne of the Papacy hath 25. Material Gates and as many Mystical Ones or 25. Churches wherein they do baptize According to Baronius Ciaconius Pot. Virgil Onuphrius and Platina Rome had at first but 25. Cardinals 25. Curates and 25. Parishes According to Onuphrius and Lipsius the Compass and Circumference of Rome is 25. Furlongs According to Bzovius She hath 25. Penitentiaries There are in St. Peters Church at Rome 25. Altars and the great Altar hath according to Aug. Rocca a Cross upon it that is 25. Span high And if we may believe Baronius and Onuphrius each side of that Altar is 25. Foot large There is also upon all their Altars the number of 25. imprinted in that the five Wounds Christ are graven upon them in five several places There are usually 25. Monks in their Cloisters And for some Ages they have held their Jubilee every 25. years There are 25. Articles of the Papal Faith for so many the Bull of Pope Pius the fourth containeth And the Council of Trent which gave us the last Summary and account of their Doctrine was both finished in 25. Sessions and signed by 25. Archbishops So that 25. being the Cubical Root of 666. and this number being found in the Popish Church running thro all that is Sacred and August both in their Hierarchy Doctrine and Ceremonies it doth undeniably follow that 666. is the Number of the Papacy and by consequence that the Romish Church is the Beast with two Horns And as the Number 12. thro being the Cubical Root and the Foundation of 144. which is the Number of the true Church giveth us to understand that the Church of God is founded alone upon the Doctrine of the 12. Apostles so the Number 25 which exceeds twelve by above a half being the Cubical Root and foundation of 666. which is the Number of the Beast serves to teach us that the vast multitude of Traditions which are the Basis of the Papacy should not make us take her for the true Church as the Papists groundlesly pretend but to look upon her as the Beast with two Horns and as great Babylon If the Reader should now demand why the Holy Ghost gave the Number 666. for the Mark of the Beast rather than the Number 625. seeing 25. maketh the just Square Root of 625. without a Fraction whereas to raise 666. from a multiplication of 25. there must be added a Fraction of 41. I answer that if the Holy Spirit had intended to mark out unto us only the Number of the Beast he would have satisfied himself with the Number 625. but designing to point out unto us also the Number of his Name it became his Wisdom to give us the Number 666. that so by these two delineations he might the better paint him out unto us it being evident that the Letters of the Beasts Name do contain and produce that Number And here likewise we are to attend unto and serve our selves of the advice of the Spirit who says Let him that hath understanding count the Number of the Name of the Beast for it is the Number of a Man. Now every one knows that they were men who at first invented the use of the Letters of the Alphabet in numbring and computing and who gave to every Letter its value 'T is true the Apocalypse is the only Scripture Book where the Letters are applyed to this use but that custom had obtained among the Grecians before St. John wrote The Holy Ghost himself declares that it is the Number of a Man and by imploying three Letters of the Greek Alphabet to express the Number 666. he doth by his own example teach us to search for this Number in the Name of the Beast Now the Name of the Beast as we have already shewed is the Roman Church and Papal Empire and in the Greek which is the Language wherein the Revelation was written the Name of the Roman Church is Lateinos For the Roman Church is called the Latine Church to distinguish it from the Greek and its Religious Service is thro the whole Papal Dominion performed in the Latine Tongue Nor doth the Pope emit his Bulls nor Briefs nor Dispensations nor Excommunications in any Language save the Latine Now if we take the Letters in the Name Lateinos according to their value in the Greek Alphabet we shall therein precisely find the Number 666. A 30 A 1 T 300 E 5 I 10 N 50 O 70 Σ 200  666 What can be said against this computation Was it not Ireneus one of the Holiest as well as one of the most Ancient of all the Fathers that made it One that had been the Disciple of Polycarp who had conversed with St. Iohn There may indeed be found some other Greek Names whose Letters make that Number but then the other Features of the Image of the Beast which do all agree to the Papal Church and Kingdom are not found in any of those other subjects So that we must necessarily conclude that the Papal Empire is the only thing which the Holy Spirit had a mind to represent in this description Besides the Holy Ghost hath afforded us more Representations of the Papacy than one that he might both make it the more discernable and render those inexcusable that will not know it In the 13. Chapter he describes it both under the Image of a Beast i. e. of a Power and Empire and of a Beast with two Horns i. e. that hath a twofold Iurisdiction a Spiritual and a Temporal Of which twofold Authority
7. And the Shapes of the Locusts were like unto Horses prepared unto battel and on their Heads were as it were crowns like gold and their faces were as the faces of men V. 8. And they had hair as the hair of women and their Teeth were as the Teeth of Lions V. 9. And they had breast-plates as it were breast-plates of Iron and the sound of their wings was the sound of Charots of many Horses running together V. 10. And they had Tails like unto Scorpions and there were stings in their Tails and their power was to hurt men five montht V. 11. And they had a King over them which is the Angel of the bottomlese Pit which name in the Hebrew Tongue is Abaddon but in the Greek Tongue hath his name Appollyon THE Locusts which St. John describes in this Chapter do represent in general all Monks Fryers and that both for their number and for their uselesness For we observe at the first sight these two qualities in Locusts first that they are in great number secondly that they are unprofitable and do more hurt than good Which agreeth perfectly to all the Orders of Monks and Fryers But the Holy Spirit had principally in his view the Society of Jesuites as the most exquisite and the most powerful and that which maketh greatest noise in the world Naturalists do observe that Locusts contain in them the properties or at least the figure and something of the shape of ten chief Animals 1 The Face of a Horse 2. The Eyes of an Elephant 3. The neck of a Bull. 4. The Horns of a Hart. 5. The Breast of a Lyon. 6. The Belly of a Scorpion 7. The Wings of an Eagle 8. The Thighs of a Camel. 9. The Feet of an Ostridg 10. The Tail of a Serpent The like may be said of the Iesuites that they comprehend in their Order all the qualities of other Fraternities 1. They take the vow of Chastity 2. The vow of Poverty 3. The vow of Obedience 4. The vow of going to the Turks and Indians in the nature of Apostles 5. They are Doctors 6. They are Preachers 7. They are Confessors 8. They are Priests 9 They are Missionaries 10. They are Casuists 'T is true that they do not oblige themselves to any particular abstinence as other Orders do but in recompence for this whatsoever there is among other Orders it is found in the Society of Jesuites in a more eminent degree which makes them to be distinguished from all others For example they do so take the vow of poverty that there is scarcely any Prince in Europe who hath so much money as they Which makes them so powerful in the Councils of all Potentates not only Papists but also Protestants They do so vow Chastity that there are many of them married in England and elsewhere in order the better to compass their Ends. They do so vow Obedience that they may forsake the Society after the first Vow and this Right they have by the funadmental Law of their Order Whosoever considereth the great priviledges of the Jesuites will not question but that it is their Society which is the principal Scope of this Vision For by the Bulls of Pope Pius V. and of Gregory XIII they enjoy all the priviledges granted to the four Mendicant Orders By another Bull of Gregory XIII they do enjoy all the Rights and grants wouchsav'd to all other Religious Orders By a Bull of Paul III. they have power to give Absolution from all sins even without excepting those that are reserved to the holy See. By another Bull of Gregory XIII they have power to sing Mass both before day after it is noon By another Bull of Paul III it is allowed them to have portative Altars when they travel that they may celebrate Mass in all places even in such as are interdicted by the holy See. By another Bull of Paul III. they have Authority to pardon all Sins to such as shall one whole day in a year pay their devotions in the Churches of the Society tho they say but one Pater Noster and one Ave Mary By another Bull of Gregory XIII they are permitted to practise physick And which is much more singular the General of the Jesuites is another Pope being stiled by the Society the Vicar of Jesus Christ as well as the Pope himself And upon the day of his Election he is Adored as well as the Pope both by all the Jesuites who are present at the Election and by all other persons who are there assisting to whom he Vouchsaveth his hand to be kised So that all this sheweth that if the H. Spirit hath by the Locusts represented the Monks as is extreamly probable yet he more especially intended the Jesuites as being the Order that is most priviledged of all and which hath furthest advanced the Monastick power But we must exactly consider all that St. Iohn hath said of these Locusts of the bottomless Pit that we may thereby see whether it may be reasonably applied to the Iesuites For if that can be there will be no room to doubt but that the Iejuites are the Locusts here designed 1 'T is said of the Locusts that they came out of the bottomless pit that is to say from Hell and this doth immediately raise in our minds thoughts of the Society whose Theology can have no other Author save him who reigneth in the infernal Pit. It appeareth by their licentious Morality that the Name of Iesuite is a prophanation of that Iesus For they have given the world sufficiently to understand that there are these abominable Maxims taught in their Society and in their Schools whereby it is rendred lawful to commit the most horrid crimes Besides they maintain a more particular devotion for the holy Virgin than others do and are the most zealous defenders of the Idolatrous worship that is given her in the Romish Church The Monks in general are great avouchers of this false devotion but the Jesuites distinguish themselves from all others by the excesses which they practise in this unlawful Worship they have for their Mother Jesus Maria which is a solemn declaration of their making that holy and blessed Creature copartner with the eternal Son of God in divine honors And when it was thought needful a few years ago ' to check the Superstition of the people by-a Book Intituled wholsome Advices to the Indiscreet Worshippers of the Holy Virgin it was a Iesuite that immediately stept up to rebuke those who would have reformed that abuse Father Cresset of the Society hath signalised the Devotion of the Order by his Book written upon that occasion 2 'T is said of these infernal Locusts that they were like unto horses prepared for battel The Horse is a warlick Creature And the Jesuite Orlandinus who hath written the History of the Society tells us that it is composed of Hero's of such as are the flower of Chivalry the braves of war and who are born