Emperors and their Images as well as the Pagans It is manifest that there must be something more here meant than a bare external Civil Veneration of the higher Powers as the Ordinance of God It must be something very much like the Worshipping of Nebuchadnezzar's Image and of those Babylonian Kings in such a manner as not to be allowed the exercise of the true Religion And nothing less than this can answer the Character of the man of sin 2 Thes 2. 4. who is said to exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped So that be as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God And by the consent of all Interpreters that Prophecy does certainly belong to that state of things that is represented by the Beast and his Image By this then it appears that by the Worship here mentioned must be understood the giving of Divine honours or the peculiar Prerogatives of God or Christ to the Beast or his Image that is to the Civil and Ecclesiastical Authority of the Romans after the Restauration of the Imperial Roman Government in the West The unquestionable way to effect this would be to make * Grot. Responsde Antichristo pag. 77. I detest every thing that belongs to the Spirit of Antichrist that is the imposing persecuting Spirit And that has appeared not only near the Tyber but about the Lake Lemanus and in other places the Arbitrary will and pleasure of the Supreme Authority of the Roman State or the Church to be acknowledged for the Law of God Divinely inspired or to be publickly obeyed as such by outward compliance with it This is certainly to set up ones own will for the will of God and so to stand ones self in the place of God to the World And if this be exercised with an irresistible power over the Universal Church of Christ upon Earth it is plainly the showing ones self to be a God in the Temple of God For there could nothing else be understood by the Temple of God after the Destruction of Jerusalem but the Christian Church which also has that name in several places of the same Apostle's Writings A still much higher improvement of this Worship is it if it be enjoined as necessary to Salvation to believe these Arbitrary Decrees to be the Inspirations of God and to obey them But especially if these Decrees be not only about things left indifferent by the Word of God but are also Injunctions contrary to the Will and Word of God For this is to oppose and exalt ones self above God in the Temple of God And if this be done with the shew of the Authority of God himself in it this is to oppose all that is called God shewing himself to be God For he does certainly make himself very near as absolute a Sovereign of a Nation who does unjustly exercise all the Acts of the Sovereign Power of it against the will of the undoubted Prince of it but yet under the name of his Authority as he that does it by an open Usurpation of the Title of the Sovereign Power This Power and Authority is carried on with a still greater arrogance and claim of divinity in it if it pretends to a Title of Infallibility in all that it can enjoin For as this Divine Attribute is the fundamental ground of all the highest Acts of Faith in God so is it a claim of an infinite power in men and does give b Thomas de Albiis in his Tabulae Suffragiales does the best lay open the dreadful Consequences of establishing Infallibility in any Head of the Church or any where where it really is not Tab. 20 21. This Claim in reference to the Pope he proves there to be the Mother of all Heresies and the worst of all sins because if those who claim it should err it would lead all the Church into the same without any possibility of remedy There is the same reason for that Claim in any Governing-part of the Church where that Privilege really is not Authority to all the Acts of their own Will frees them from See References all Bounds and Measures or Rules to distinguish betwixt Truth and Falshood sets them out of the reach of all humane Judicature and makes their Will and Pleasure the last Appeal for all Controversies and their Arbitrary Decisions to be the Oracles of God How inconsiderable does the Worship of Nebuchadnezzar's Image appear to be in comparison with this profound Veneration of the Soul and Conscience given to the arbitrary false and wicked Decrees of either ignorant or designing Men under the Character of the Word and Will of God And all these particulars are made good in the matter before us by the Imperial Laws and their Sanctions and Edicts to force their own Faith in indifferent things And the Errors of General Councils upon the Consciences of the whole Christian Church Catholick to be assented to as c It had been the common stile of Councils ever since the Council of Nice to publish their Decrees under the Title of Things Divinely Inspired Thus does Socrates shew lib. 1. cap. 6. Ep. That Constantine there says of the Decree of the 300 Bishops at Nice That it was to be looked upon as the Sentence of God himself And ibid. Ep. 4. To the Churches he says of all Councils That whatsoever is decreed in the Holy Councils of Bishops the same is to be attributed to the will of God Cardinal Julian's Harangue to the Deputies of the Bohemians in the Council of Basil tells them That the Decrees of Councils are not less to be believed than the Gospel because it is THEY that give AUTHORITY to the Scriptures Divine Truth See References and many times as necessary to Salvation and the giving of the Secular Arm to execute the like Injunctions of the Roman Church Of this kind also are the unwarrantable Acts of Councils and the unlawful Canons of the Roman Church inforced by the d By vertue of such Orders from that Power as these Determinations in the Decretals and Glosses do authorize viz. That the Pope of Rome is by the Order of God set over the Nations and Kingdoms That it belongs to the Pope to depose the Emperour and all other Kings and States and to assign them Deputies That the Pope is to be esteemed the Vicar of Jesus Christ for all things here upon Earth in Heaven and Hell That he can make that which is square to be round Injustice to be Justice that which is nothing to be something That he has an Absolute Power of Judging and that justly Against the Law of Nature Nations and of particular Countreys Human and Divine above and against Right against all Decrees and Orders of Council That he can dispense with the Injunctions of the Apostles And these Glosses the Popes do recommend to the Publick as AUTHENTICK See Jus Canonic Gregor 13. Aventin lib. 6. Histor Boior
the great difficulty here is to get any Readers at all and to prevent the being sentenc'd without a Tryal That which does so affright the World from these things is the usual fancifulness and looseness of Discourses of this nature and their great Confidence and Assurance with little or no care to make sure of their foundation I do therefore think it requisite to assure all those that look upon this That the whole aim of my Endeavours here is to restrain all kind of Liberty of Imagination and to force an Assent by close and clear proof instead of surprizing it by an Ingenious Scheme and by the tempting agreements and lucky likenesses of Characters My great fear indeed is that the dry strictness of the Reasonings in it will turn away more from perusing it than the strength and cautiousness of it will please But that will still the more clear my Attempt from the common Prejudice It may be some motive to the belief of this That the only end of this Vndertaking was to find out a more satisfactory foundation for what the Excellent Mr. Mede has endeavoured to demonstrate in this way Whose known Reputation for his impartial and cautious Judgment in the interpretation of other parts of Scripture is sufficient to silence all inconsiderate Prejudices against his Performances of this kind There have indeed been some very great Names of late Grotius Dr. Hammond c. amongst our selves who have excused the Church of Rome from any concern in the Judgments of this Prophecy and that only by laying down another Scheme of Interpretation without any tolerable proof of it But it is a sufficient prejudice against their Authority that they are forced to such shifts for their foundation as the most Judicious and the most skilful of the Romish Interpreters themselves do cry See the Preface to my former Treatise out against as things that none but Men out of their Wits would own and such as they affirm to be contrary to the general sense of all kinds of Interpreters Jews and Christians Ancient and Modern And when they come to speak of the like kind of Phrases do declare that sense of them which these New Men account monstrous in the Interpretations of their Brethren to be so clear that all but those that are blind may easily see it Or such as is agreeable both to the usage of common Speech and to the usage of Scripture Or such as must necessarily be allowed Which is a sufficient Vindication of those Learned Interpreters of our own who have brought the same Charge against these Ingenious Innovators It would at the first much surprize any man to see these Learned Protestants so busie to ease the Church of Rome of this trouble from their Brethren when all the thanks that they can get for it from the most Judicious of those whose Cause they oblige by it is to be called Madmen and fools for their pains But in this they themselves do satisfy us They acknowledge that they came to the Interpretation of the Revelations with a design to serve by it It was more to answer Objections against some singular Notions than to unfold the Mystery of that Prophecy They came to force their way through the Difficulties that the plain and obvious sense of the Visions did lay in their way And nothing is more ordinary than to see men wrest any part of Scripture that will not comply with their fancy for some particular Opinions Their Expedient for Catholick Vnion of all Christian Churches by the Compliance of the Roman Their Assurace of the necessity of the conveyance of a Right Succession and Ordination by a Church that was not formally Idolatrous c. were altogether inconsistent with the Protestant sense of the Apocalypse It is as evident on the other side from the closeness and cautiousness of Mr. Mede's Explications and the impartiality of his Judgment upon all other Occasions that his whole aim was to make sure of the clear and certain sense of these Mysteries He bad no private Opinion that he came to advance by it or to make it a drudge to And his way of life and the wariness and the Ingenuity of his Spirit in all his other Expositions of Scripture did sufficiently secure him that Character of himself which his Modesty would only own viz. his freedom from studium partium But the present Age is so generally prepossessed with the Interpretations of these Learned Men That it is further necessary to remind those that look upon them as a great service to the Church of England That they are great Novelties See Dr. Bernard 's Discourses p. 139 to 160. in its Doctrine and if continued in will but expose it to the rest of the Reformed Churches for departing from them and from its own first Faith only to uphold some Prerogatives of its own Reformation to the undervaluing and undermining of the grounds of theirs It is manifest * Third Part of the Sermon against Idolatry p. 69. And 6th Part of the Sermon against Rebellion p. 316. by the Homilies approved of in our Articles as the faith of our Church That the Charge of Babylon upon the Church of Rome is the standing Profession of the Church of England And it continued to be the †Bishop Jewell p. 373. Bishop Abbot Antichristi Demonstratio Archbishop Whitgift Tract 8. p. 349. Bishop Andrews Tortura Torti Bishop Bilson p. 527. Bishop Morton Mr. R. Hooker 's Treatise of Justification sect 10 57. currant Judgment of all the best Learned Members of it till the end of the Reign of King James the First It was really believed in his time to be so clear and important a part of their Faith That both the Church and the Court did applaud the King in his publick defence of it though he did thereby plainly endanger the honour of his Character and the Interest of his Kingdom amongst all Roman-Catholick Princes As appears by Lessius's Epistle Monitory to them After that time This Doctrine of the Homilies came to be more out of fashion either to be civil to the Marriages of the succeeding Reigns or to take away all the advantage that the Serapatists might have from hence against the necessity of an uninterrupted Succession and Ordination in every Lawfully-constituted Church Which might also shew them the necessity of uniting with the Church of England It is certain that the extravagant Heats of those times were enough to make Learned Men run into unnecessary Extremes But the common Danger of late has now revived the Ancient Doctrine of the Church again which these Novelties did contradict All the best Learned in the Church have been engaged in charging the Church of Rome with formal Idolatry in exposing all Expedients for Vnion with it in demonstrating the necessity of a Separation from them whatever becomes of the Succession in disowning of all kind of Right of Supremacy there c. If therefore the Authority of
destroying the fourth Beast And therefore seemed it very useful for them to make the fourth Beast to be not the Roman but a part of the Grecian Monarchy It is also against the whole current of all the Learned Christian Fathers at least till St. Jerom's time near a thousand years after the Prophecy was given and above four hundred years after Christ a HIeronyme in c. 7. Daniel Let us therefore say what All Ecclesiastical Writers have delivered That in the end of the World when the Kingdom of the Romans is to be destroyed there shall be Ten Kings who shall divide the Roman World among themselves and that there shall be an Eleventh littleKing that shall arise and overcome three of those Ten Kings c. Ergo dicamus says he quod omnes scriptores Ecclesiastici In cap. 7. Dan. tradiderunt Which is almost as much as to say That it was an Universal Tradition or a Tradition of all the considerable persons of the Catholick Church to his time That the fourth Beast was the Roman Monarchy and so that the third Beast must be the whole time of the Grecian Monarchy from its succession to the Persian which is by all granted to be the second Is not this sufficient to make any man confident That the Prophecy does of its own accord offer this Interpretation to the common sense of men when it thus appears to be the impartial Judgment of all the Learned World b Malvenda de Antichristo p. 222. For All both Jews and Christians look upon it as unquestionable That the Third and Fourth Beasts are plainly distinct from one another so that he must have lost his wits that can think otherwise Maldonal in c. 7. Dan. The fourth Kingdom is the Kingdom of the Romans and so all take it to be Calovius in c. 7. Dan. All agree That the Fourth Kingdom is the Kingdom of the Romans as well the Ancients and the Jewish Church both before and after Christ and the Christian-Church for the first Four hundred years as the Moderns both Jews and See References Christians before there was any particular Interests to be served by it It has also been and is still the Judgment of even c Pererius in c. 7. Dan. This Fourth Beast according as all interpret it to be and as the matter it self does shew it did represent the Figure of the Roman Empire Malvenda in c. 7. Dan. p. 222. That the Fourth Beast is the Roman Empire is certain and agreed upon by all that profess the name of Christ The Reader then is thus to be set in the Right Road and the King's High-way Ibid. S. Hierom and others do very clearly show that Porphyry's Opinion is a perfect madness Alcasar Sect. 5. in c. 13. Apoc. It cannot be denied but that there is a plain allusion in the Ten Horns of this Beast to the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel which does very plainly appear to be the Figure of the Roman Empire Item Sect. 3. in v. 1. The Beast out of the Sea does evidently allude to the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel and 't is most clear and evident That that Fourth Beast of Daniel is the Figure of the Roman Empire in an Idolatrous State the most Eminent of the Church of Rome tho' it be more for their Interest than any others that the fourth Kingdom were any thing rather than the Roman which does sufficiently shew that they are forced to allow it For they can have no manner of advantage from that concession and therefore must it be the impartial sense of their minds but it would save them a great deal of trouble to deny it if they fairly could and that shews the evidence for it to be too clear And this gives as strong a presumption against the possibility of any other sense as can almost be given from Authority It is therefore well worth the enquiry What might be the grounds of so universal and impartial an Agreement amongst all the differing Parties of all sorts about this third and fourth Kingdom The first Reason that may be observed for it d Theodoret in c. 7. Daniel Some would have the Fourth Kingdom to be the Rule of Alexander's Successors But they should have remembred that the Golden-Head was the Babylonians and that the second Kingdom was the Persians the third then must be the Graecians and the fourth the Romans Ibid. But at present I cannot but admire that there should be some pious Men who should take the Fourth Beast to be the Macedonian Kingdom For they should have considered that the Third Beast has four Heads which does openly show the fourfold division of the Greek Empire after Alexander's Death And then that the Fourth Beast has Ten Horns And that they were but Four and not Ten that continued the Reign of the Greek Monarchy after Alexander Ibid. That ought to be observed that the Prophet saw the Third Beast with Four Heads upon him And the He-Goat Chap. 8. after the first Horn was broken to have had Four in the room of it to make it clear and unquestionable That the He-Goat and the Third Beast were but one and the same thing is the plain intimations in the Prophecy That the third Kingdom is the Dan. 7. whole time of the Greeks from the Persians to the Romans 1. As first in the Text it self the third Kingdom has the same name of A Kingdom that hinders all the rest from being possible to be understood of single Kings or of different Sovereignties in the same Empire pag. 106. There is the same ground then against the parting the Reign of Alexander and his Captains into a third and fourth Kingdom which in reality are but one and the same Kingdom of the Greeks 2. It is against all the significations of Kingdoms besides that are represented by any whole Figures in this Book of Daniel and the common usage of Prophetical Terms especially in the same Book is the best Rule to determine their signification by Rule 2. Now by the confession of these men themselves and the unanimous consent of all Interpreters every whole Figure that is said to signifie a Kingdom does signifie the whole time of a Ruling Nation or People In that one constant acceptation we find it in no less than Ten distinct Figures not counting in this third Kingdom There are eight mentioned besides the third in the 2d and 7th Chapters and two in the 8th for the Kingdom of the Stone and of the Son of Man are two of those Schemes So that there is at least Ten to nothing against it That the third Kingdom is the whole time of the Monarchy of the Greeks after the Persians And that which appears to be the constant use of expressions in so wise and judicious a Writer as the Prophet Daniel was may be very securely relied upon as an unquestionable ground to determine his meaning whenever the same expression is
for the precedence of the Cities to which they did belong And Baronius himself does openly acknowledg this An. 39. 10. The Ancients says he observed no other Rule in instituting the Ecclesiastical Sees than the division of Provinces And the Prerogatives before established by the Romans But the Authority of the Councel of Chalcedon in the particular Case of the Bishop of Rome is an unanswerable evidence for it was the biggest of all the first four famous General Councels which Pope Gregory did reverence as the four Gospels And this was there carried f See the contest betwixt the Pope's Legats and the Councel about this Affair Concil Chalcedon Action 16. where it was in fine determined against the Legats by the Judges and Council Bellarmin acknowledges this in his Preface to his Book de Pontifice The Greeks says he opposed this That is the Universal Supremacy of the Pope in the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451. against the will of the Bishop of Rome thô then at the greatest height that he ever had been which does manifest the sense of the Councel to be contrary to the tenure that the Pope claimed to hold by And further That this was the true aim of the Councel does appear not only from Pope Leo's Exception against this Decree but also by the opposition that there was ever after betwixt the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Bishop of Rome about the precedence till the time of Boniface who got the Title of Universal Bishop but yet not without much opposition from the Greeks upon the account of the change of the Seat of the Empire to Constantinople By this then it appears that the Imperial Power was the principal object of the Worship that was given to the Roman Church because it was given to that Church only in veneration of that Power For that for whose sake a thing is honoured is the principal object of that honour And g Platina in Bonifacio tertio He obtained of the Emperor Phocas That the Seat of St. Peter should be called and esteemed to be the Head of all Churches but yet not without great contention about it many affirming that there ought to be the nrst and chief See of the Church where the Head of the Empire was Anastasius Bibliothecarius in Bonifacio 3. He obtained of Phocas That the Apostolick See of St. Peter should be the Head of all Churches whereas the Church of Constantinople did write it self the chief of all Churches Caranza Concil Summa p. 369. Bonefacius 3. He obtained c. That the See of St. Peter should be accounted the Head of all Churches which Title the Church of Constantinople did challenge to it self evil Princes favouring it and affirming that the chief See of the Church ought to be there where the Head of the Empire was that is at Constantinople Gregor M. just before Boniface is full of the mention of the Patriarch of Constantinople's claim to the Title of Universal Bishop in his 4th 6th and 7th Book of his Epistles Boniface the Third notwithstanding all his good services to Phocas could not get the Title of Universal Bishop without much opposition from the Greeks upon the account of the change of the Seat of the Empire to Constantinople 3. The chief Head and Life of the Roman Church is the Papal Authority 'T is that which is the contriver of that Image and is also the evil spirit of it that instigates it to all the mischief that it does Now the Popes of Rome were nothing but h Edictum sive Decretal Pap. Hilarii Ep. 11. About the Year 476. when the Western Empire fell into the hands of the Barbarians and so the Pope seemed to be the sole Head of the Church of Rome It has also been decreed by the Laws of Christian Princes That whatsoever the Bishop of the Apostolick See should upon examination pronounce concerning Churches and their Governours should with reverence be received and strictly observed Dr. Barrow 's Pope's Supremacy p. 244. speaking of the Episcopal Sees before the time of Constantine so stood the Order of Church-Dignities till it was confirmed by the Council of Nice backed with Imperial Authority What before was but custom by so August a Sanction became Universal Law and with such veneration as by some was accounted immutably and everlastingly obligatory as appears in Pope Leo's Maxims This does best appear from the ground of the Supremacy of the Pope which was because they were the Bishops of the Emperor 's chief Seat And also from the Authority by which they came by it which was by the Imperial Laws by whom their Primacy was established See Not. preced And they were set up and deposed by the Emperors at pleasure and were created by them the Emperours Creatures No Election of the Bishop of Rome was valid till after the i Caranza Concil summa in Severino Ann. Dom. 634. Severinus was set up in the room of Pope Honorius by Isaacius the Emperor's Exarch or Deputy in Italy For in those days the Election of the Clergy and People was not accounted valid unless the Emperors or their Exarchs did confirm it After he had before observed in Pelagius the Second Ann. Dom. 580. That Pelagius was created Pope without the Roman Prince's Authority against the usual custom For in those days nothing was done by the Clergy in the Election of the Pope without the Emperor's Approbation But there was no conveniency at that time of sending to the Emperor at Constantinople because Rome was then besieged by the Lombards But he afterwards begged pardon for it by his Legat Gregory But in Adrian the Third he does thus more remarkably confirm this Custom This Pope Ann. Dom. 888. was so stout as in the beginning of his Pontificate to bring in this Law to the Senate and People That the Authority of the Emperor should not be waited for before the Creation of the Pope This was so commonly acknowledged that it appears that the Popes used to pay a sum of money to the Emperors for their Confirmation Canon Agath 21. Can. distinct 63. See Note 1 on Chapter the Fourth Onuphrius Panvinius gives an account of the first Rise of this Custom at Justinian's Conquest of Italy In Pelag. 2. The Goths says he being beaten out of Italy by Narses and Italy together with the City of Rome being made a part of the Eastern Empire under Justinian the Emperor by the Authority of Pope Vigilius there was a New Custom brought up in the Assemblies for the Elections of the Popes which was that upon the death of the Pope there should forthwith be an Election made by the Clergy the Senate and the People after the manner of the Right of Majors But the new elected Pope could not be consecrated or ordained before his Election was confirmed by the Emperor at Constantinople nor before he had the Emperor's Letters-Patents for his Consecration in order to enter upon the Papal Jurisdiction For
would be but the taking of the word Latinos after the Ancient way of the Latins The False Prophet's punishment of those who had not the mark or name of the Beast is just the same with z The effect of the Papal Excommunications for this purpose does appear from the Bull of Pope Martin the 5th in confirmation of the Council of Constance and to be found at the end of it Which commands all Emperours Princes Lords and all Civil Magistrates as well as Ecclesiastical to expell all Hereticks out of their Territories not to suffer them to make Contracts or to exercise any kind of Merchandize amongst them the Papal-Excommunications For the hindering them from the Market or from buying and selling was one of the effects of the Excommunications of the Jews CHAP. VI. Rev. XIII Vnder the name of the Beast is comprehended all his under-Agents in the same design How the ten Kings give their Kingdoms to the Beast How the Character of speaking like the Dragon can agree with a Christian Bishop It cannot be any thing else THE particular instances explained in the former Chapter do clearly show that the exercise of the Power of the false Prophet does in all the parts of it regard the Beast as the principal concern of his design The Worship that he promotes is the Worship of the Beast The Image that he causes to be made is an Image made in honour of the Beast it self And the Worship that is given to it is because of its being the Image of that Beast that was deadly wounded and was healed again And the mark name and number of the name is the name of the Beast by which all Men were to own themselves the peculiar slaves of the Beast And this is no more than what the Character of that Power which the false Prophet did exercise in all these ways does plainly intimate to us for it is said to be the Power of the Beast it self exercised hefore him And therefore must the exercise of it be only upon his account and those that were employed in it were therefore but his Ministers and Instruments in it All which does signifie to us That the Supremacy of the Pope the Infallibility of the Church of Rome the blind Submission and Veneration that is paid to it the taking the name of a Roman Catholick the confining of all the publick Offices of Religion and Devotion to God and of the lively Oracles of God to the old Roman Language That all these things are done in honour of the Universal Imperial Power of the Romans or of the Empire of the City of Rome and that in the time of the Imperial Authority over Rome restored by Justinian And therefore are all these things signified to be the Worship of the Beast under the last Ruling Head because it is not a Civil honour that is given to this Empire and the Head of it But the giving them the Prerogative of Almighty God the Power of setting up a Spiritual Authority which shall give Law to the Consciences of Men according to their own will and pleasure and shall have the Spirit of God confined to their Arbitrary proceedings and the Curses of God to dispose of at their will against all that dissent from them The Beast therefore is the final Object of all the Worship N. B. and Honour that is given and therefore does generally comprehend in it all the under-Actors and Instruments in this Design where he is mentioned alone Thus ln the 17th Chapter of the Revelations there is no mention of the false Prophet or of the Image but only of the Beast and of the magnificent appearance of his Empire under the name of Babylon And therefore by the Beast must there be understood all his Ministers and Instruments joyned with him according to the nature of the several Characters that he is joyned with As in the time of the Mayres of the Palace in France by the name of the King must many times be understood the will of those Mayres to the prejudice of the Royal Authority because it was the King's Power that was exercised by them And all the Honour and Obedience that they had was upon the account of their being authorized by him So also do the Actions and Honour of the false Prophet and the Image go under the name of the Beast in that Chapter tho in reality they have been much to the diminution of the Imperial Authority It is enough to qualifie them to be comprehended under the name of the Beast that they concur with the Beast in his great design of making all the World to submit to an Ecclesiastical Authority of his own Creating as the acknowledgment of the Honour of his Empire For all the Worship that is hereby promoted is The Honour shown to the Imperial Power of the Romans which is submitted to as the only ground for any hopes of Salvation And that not upon the account of its being the Catholick Church of Christ but for that which is at present a contradiction to it viz. for being the Roman-Catholick Church Wherefore when the ten Kings are said to give their Power Rev. 17. 13. and Strength and Kingdoms to the Beast it is to be understood of their concurrence to advance the Roman Religion as the Imperial Religion of the Romans which was first set up and promoted by the Imperial Authority and so still continues to be defended and protected by it and therein does the Worship of the Beast more eminently appear because of the submission of crowned Heads to it who have no Superior upon Earth but God alone For it is very difficult to understand how ten Kings can be supposed to be of one mind and to agree to give their Kingdoms to the Worship of any Power upon Earth but only in this way of an Uniformity in a common Religion which is set up by the Will and to the Honour of another And here it is to be observed how exactly the Prophecy and the Event do agree with one another in respect of the Order which is observed in the Text. The Beast is described as beginning the Scene first and setting the design on foot And the false prophet and the Image come in afterwards to perfect and accomplish it which was very punctually verified by the beginning of the Universal Monarchy of the Church of Rome under the Imperial Authority and the advancement of it into a perfect Tyranny by the Roman Hierarchy So that after a while the False-prophet seems to take the power of the Beast out of his hands and to exercise it before his face and then the Beast had little to do himself in the management of it and seemed only to give Authority to what was done by others which is also now manifest from the common course of the Roman Church in their proceedings against Hereticks They judge condemn and pronounce sentence against them and then deliver them over to the Secular
rash Conjectures Many other Agreements of the Ancients about these matters are instanced in by Bellarmine Lib. 3. de Pontifice some of which must indeed be granted But they are such as are no ground of concluding upon the sense of the place to which they refer because they themselves do often acknowledge themselves to be incapable Judges of the determinate Signification of those things upon the account of their ignorance of the Event that they referred to and by which alone they apprehended them capable of being certainly known Thus Theodoret upon the 12th Chapter of Daniel 8 9. where the Prophet professes he understood not what he heard And the Angel confirms it to be because the words were sealed up but afterwards many should understand explains it thus But when the thing shall come to pass they shall plainly understand the things that were foretold So also Andreas Caesariensis concerning the number of the name of the Beast Revel 13. The exact knowledge says he of the number and of every thing else besides that is delivered about Antichrist Time and Experience will discover to Prudent and Sober Enquirers And Irenaeus upon the same matter judges it to have been on Lib. 5. cont Haeres cap. ult purpose concealed that it might not be known till it came to be fulfilled And after Cautions put in against Conjectures 'T is therefore says he much the surer way to stop our Conjectures till the Prophecy be fulfilled And this is given as a general Rule for every thing of this nature that is not very plain and clear before the Event By which it appears That the Fathers did not think themselves in a capacity to determine the meaning of the particular Circumstances in the Prophecies about Antichrist because they were generally agreed that he was still to come And that therefore the particular Characters of his appearance did depend upon Events in after-times for the clear understanding them Now all those Opinions for which Bellarmin cites the Consent N B. of the Fathers are such as depend upon this Supposition That the Time Times and the dividing of Time which is the time assigned to the continuance of the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel Dan. 7. 25. do not signify any longer time than Three years and an half according to the common acceptation of A Time in the Prophecy of Daniel Upon this account it is that many Fathers have agreed that Antichrist must be a single Person and consequently That the Ten Kings signified by the Ten Horns must also be so many single Kings as well as the Little Horn that denotes Antichrist It is also for this reason that they agree That the Roman Empire must be ruined at his appearance by the Ten Kings viz. because by this his Time is made to be but Three years and an half before the end of the World or the Second Coming of Christ unto which the time of the Little Horn is described to continue The Fathers indeed might easily be induced to take the Times or 1260 days of Antichrist in the literal sense because they living under the Reign of the Sixth Head of the Beast which had ruled from the time of the Vision they saw no necessity for that sense in which days and weeks are used amongst the Prophets and so were then obliged to judge according to the First Rule of all sound Interpretation Chap. 2. Book I. of this Part. But the Agreement of the Fathers in these things is not so perfectly Vnanimous as Bellarmin would make it to be Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew concerning this very place in Daniel tells him That by A Time the Jews themselves understand sometimes an 100 years according to which says he the Man of Sin must needs reign 355 years And Augustin ad Marcellin Lib. 20. cap. 19. Some says he understand by the Man of Sin not one Prince only but as it were an whole Body that is a great Multitude of Men. And Primasius speaking of the Beast and the False Prophet â—â— c. 19. Apoc. that is says he the Devil and Antichrist or his Chief Rulers and his whole Body So also do we find in the Testimonies of Irenaeus Tertullian Hippolitus Lactantius Victorinus Jerom that they made the Ten Horns of the Beast to be no more than a Division of the Roman Empire whereas Bellarmin pretends that the Fathers are agreed that they signify the utter destruction of that Empire And Andreas Caesariensis does expresly contradict him in this in his Testimony where he says That most of the Ancient Doctors did understand Ten Kings of the Roman Empire by the Ten Horns of the Beast There are many other things for which Bellarmin brings the Consent of the Fathers in which he has been found to be much mistaken particularly by Bishop Andrews Respons ad Bellarmin Now from the former Considerations about the Agreement and the differences of the Opinions of the Ancients it may be observed That their Testimonies about things that the Church has not positively defined as the present case is are of the nature of all other humane Testimony Where they all agree in a sense of which they were capable Judges in their time it is a very great presumption that it is the plain and obvious sense of that place But where they differ from one another their Authority is to be resolved into the strength of the grounds of their particular Opinions And those amongst them who in any particular circumstances speak things contradictory to what was so generally agreed on from the plain evidence of the Text may be as little our concern as the Paradoxical Opinions of some Learned Men in our own Age. They themselves we have seen do acknowledge themselves uncapable Judges of most of the things in the Prophecy of Antichrist and the absolute need there was of further time and experience of the Events to be able to speak with any likelihood of truth about them The use therefore that is to be made of these Agreements of the Ancients about the places of the Prophecy of which they were capable Judges at that time is To confirm the natural sense that is offered from the Text and not to give any a prejudice against new senses of the Prophecy about such things in this Age so many Ages since it was wrote And as strong a presumption is it against the fixing of the full accomplishment of the Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelations to any Events before or in the Grotius Dr. Hammond time of the Fathers to see them so generally to agree in their silence about any such Interpretation It would indeed be matter of astonishment to us if the things of these Prophecies should have been past before the times of these Learned Inquirers into the meaning of them And yet that they should unanimously agreee that they were not to be fulfilled till a long time after From the General Agreement of the Ancients in