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
Settlement to the end of the world This they all agree in for the matter and scope of the whole Book tho' they infinitely differ about the Explication of the several parts of it And there cannot be a greater invitation to engage the curiosity of any that are concerned for Useful and Important Truths than that Consideration The great variety of the apprehensions of Interpreters about these things ought not to discourage mens hopes of a clear Interpretation more than the same differences amongst them about almost every other Book of Scripture For it will be found that they do almost as generally agree about the first Grounds of the Interpretation of these Visions as about other Books of Scripture that seem to be less mystical The Language of Prophecy already explained by accomplishments is in these things as sure a Rule of Interpretation as the more common Language of Scripture is for the other Books of it that are more plain And those that seem the most impartial in these things Mr. Mede B p. Usher Dr. More are very confident that there are plain grounds upon that foundation to build a demonstrative Evidence of the Sense of the chief design of these Visions upon With this encouragement it will be first enquired What sure grounds there are for the certainty of the Apostolical Authority of this Book as the only foundation of all satisfaction that can possibly be had from the clearest Interpretation of it There are two ways by which the Authority of any Book of Scripture is secured to us The First An Universal Tradition concerning it in the first Times of the Church soon after the writing of it And the Other The Determination of the Universal Church concerning it after some doubts and scruples concerning it And by both these ways of assurance is the Authority of the Apocalypse secured Two of the first Writers after the writing of the Apocalypse were Justin Martyr and Irenaeus Justin Martyr was contemporary with those who knew the Apostle whose Name it bears Anno 160. and that conversed with him and He in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew pag. 308. quotes the Apostle St. John about the Thousand Years under the Name of A certain man amongst them who was one of the twelve Apostles of Christ speaking of that matter in the Revelation which was given him which all know to be the Subject of the 20th Chapter of the Apocalypse And accordingly does Eusebius l. 4. c. 18. Eccl. Hist quote Justin Martyr as attributing the Apocalypse to the Apostle St. John But Irenaeus does the most satisfactorily put an end to all Controversie about this in his time and Irenaeus was contemporary with Justin Martyr And to assure us of the truth of what he affirms he says he had it from Polycarp whose diligent Auditor Lib. 3. contra Haeres cap. 3. he was and Polycarp was a Disciple of St. John himself and died a Martyr and so secures the truth of his Testimony But Irenaeus his Testimony concerning the Apocalypse is most full in his fifth book contra Haeres sect ult where speaking of the Number of Antichrist he says That that Number was in all the ancient and approved Copies and that he had it also confirmed to him by those who had seen St. John face to face There can hardly be given a more unquestionable or more particular Testimony concerning the true Author of a Book at any distance from the time that it was wrote in than this is Here is a particular search after all the Copies of it soon after the writing of it with the concurrent Testimony of those who knew the Author himself And further to shew the utter unlikelihood of any falsification of the Name of the Author of it a little after speaking of the Name of Antichrist Knowing this says he that if his Name Lib. 5. sect ult were to have been openly known at this present time it would certainly have been expressed by him who saw the Revelation for it is not long ago since he saw it but almost in this present Age at the latter-end of the Reign of Domitian The little distance betwixt the time of Irenaeus and the time of the writing this Book together with the care that he took to look into all the various Copies of it and the Traditions of the Ear-witnesses of the Apostle about it and the confirmation of his own Testimony in all this by dying a Martyr himself does silence all scruples about the Apostolical Authority of this Book But yet about 100 years after the time of Irenaeus Dionysius of Lib. 2. Alexandria in his Disputes against the Millenaries of his time does affirm That many of his Predecessors did reject this Book But then he says It was because they saw it obscure and full of too gross ignorance about the Millenarian state not from any new knowledge they had got of the forgery of it And their grounds were so small for it that tho' he was the chief Head of the Anti-millinarian Party yet he says he believed it to be divinely inspired Tho' from the difference of the Style of it from that of the Gospel and Epistles of John the Evangelist he judged it to be wrote by some other John contemporary with him And yet there are some expressions in the Revelations so peculiar to the Gospel and Epistles of John the Evangelist and used by no other Apostle that it must be either He himself or a very near Friend of his that must be the Author of them such as are The Lamb The Word The bearing record or witness of the Word They that pierced him shall see him The Testimony of Jesus Christ He that overcometh As I received of my Father c. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely and Let him that is athirst come And whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely Which are all expressions peculiar to the Gospel and Epistles of St. John St. Jerem indeed says That the Greek Church rejected the Authority of it But as Baronius well observes about it An. 96. St. Jerom must necessarily mean that only of the meaner and lower part of the Greek Church For as he there shews almost every one of the Greek Fathers does quote it under the Name of St. John the Apostle And Eusebius who relates the dissent of some of the Ancients about it and was the most eminent Antiquary of the Greek Church does name Justin Martyr Irenaeus Melito of Sardis Theophilus Antiochenus Origen Dionysius Alexandrinus the chief Writers of the Greek Church before him as Asserters of the Apostolical Authority of this Book If we go to the Judgment of after-Ages we have the Universal Consent of the Christian Church for the Canonical Authority of the Apocalypse after it had been scrupled by some which is the other way of assuring the right Tradition of a Canonical Book The third Council
was necessary to enquire upon what general Suppositions it did rely to make it useful for a foundation for further advances according to the best method of finding out unknown Truths where the Resolution of one Problem discovers many General Theorems at the end of it very useful for farther improvements as it is also the most easie sure and natural order of Science from particular Instances to draw forth the General Rule supposed in them for all like Cases And this great advantage have we from the certainty of this particular Instance That it determines both what kind or degree of Evidence is sufficient to make a man sure of any other Conclusion in these matters and also what would be sufficient grounds to secure any that there was that degree of Evidence in it For whatever it is that makes this single Truth appear to be so unquestionable must be acknowledged to be sufficient to secure the certainty of any other Proposition that has the same grounds in it And this I conceived to be of the greatest importance in all further search into these Obscurities To have such a Criterion or Standard of the true value of every thing that should offer it self First then for the KIND of EVIDENCE that from hence appears sufficient for ones assurance of any thing hereafter it need be no greater than that which makes men sure of the meaning of any plain words of Scripture of unexceptionable Authority For of that kind is the certainty of this Instance It is not an Evidence grounded upon the necessary connexion betwixt the thing and its essential properties as Mathematical Demonstrations are or such as it may be proved to be absolutely impossible to be otherwise in the nature of the thing It would be hard to prove it absolutely impossible from the nature of God's Veracity that he should have a further mysterious meaning in expressions that seem very plain to us for some great good ends unknown to us But yet this is so contrary to his ordinary way of revealing his mind and so seemingly inconsistent with the perfection of his Veracity that we cannot but be confident that he means always as plainly as he speaks unless he gives clear intimations to the contrary to assure us that he has an hidden meaning either by its contradiction to some Truths far more clearly known or by the inconsistency of the plain sense of the words with that wherewith it is joined or the like From hence therefore it will be expected that whatever extravagant Metaphysical Reasons a man may have to doubt of it one ought not to scruple the certainty of any thing that has the same grounds to make us sure of it that the several parts of this Proposition rely upon for that would be of equal force against the sense of the plainest Expressions of Scripture And besides it would have the testimony of the unanimous Judgment of all the differing kinds of Parties and Interests in the World against it whom we find to be all agreed about some of the parts of this Proposition only from the plainness of the Expressions about them notwithstanding all the wild Possibilities only of their being otherwise meant Wherefore it would be thought very reasonable that one should look upon the several grounds of this present Instance as so many General Rules to assure us of the certainty of every thing else in these Visions that was established upon them For this end it may be observed in the first place that the chief ground for concluding Babylon to be Rome in the Angel's explication of it and its Reign to be an Antichristian Tyranny against the Church of Christ before the explication of it at the 6th verse is the common usage of the Expressions in such a determinate known signification especially when compared with the Angel's promise to explain the Mystery with an intention to have it understood It may therefore from hence be established That whatsoever is delivered in the 17th Chapter of the Revelations Rule 1 in expressions of a known signification ought to be taken a COrnel à Lapide Prolegomen in Apocalyps De Canonibus Interpretandi of the Rules of Interpreting Augustinus Lib. 3. de Doctrinâ Christianâ cap. 1. The Apocalypse and all other Scripture is to be taken according to the letter as it does ordinarily signify as much as may be that is unless that sense be found to be absurd or contrary to sound Faith or good Manners Ribera in cap. 6. Apoc. Numer 51. The propriety of the words or their proper literal signification is to be kept to when there is no clear reason against it And in cap. 7. numer 1. Because as it has been said we must not depart from the proper literal sense of the words unless some plain reason forces us to it Thomas de Albiis Tab. suffrag cap. 17. pag. 230 231. THE BASIS of all other Interpretations is the literal sense and only that which can be clear from the words that is which only can force the Understanding to an assent And before The Arguments which are to convince ones Faith can only be fetched from the literal sense of the Holy Scripture The other Senses since they proceed only from the Wit of the Interpreter it is clear that they have the Authority of the Interpreter but not of the Scripture divinely inspired as it is generally used to be understood in the World with the like construction unless it be inconsistent with something more clearly known And next the certainty That it is here an Idolatrous state of Rome that it is described in is grounded upon the necessity of a mystical sense of the terms of Harlot and Whore here given to Babylon and upon the known use of those terms amongst the Prophets to signify the Idolatry and Apostacy of a Nation or City From hence then it may reasonably be required to be granted That where there is a necessity for a Mystical Sense that Sense is Rule 2 to be taken which is the most generally made use of by the Prophets if not inconsistent with something more clearly known After which might very reasonably be urged That since the Angel's Explication of the Mystery is in the midst of a very frequent use of the same peculiar and proper Mystical Expressions in this Prophecy that it cannot be doubted but That the same peculiar and proper Expressions do signify all over the Prophecy the same things which they are said to signify in the 17th Chapter of the Revelations unless there be something more clearly known against it And this being an unquestionable assurance that the Angel's Explication was given to afford light to the rest of the Prophecy It does seem as clearly to assure us That the same Expressions all over the Prophecy explained unexplained Rule 3 and commonly known d o signify the same things unless there be plain grounds against it These Rules seem indeed to be the immediate and necessary Consequences of the
People into Civil and Ecclesiastical Persons the King and the High-Priest especially where the Church of God is which is the present Case As this does go along with all well-ordered Societies so it is exemplified in two of the Instances here referred to out of the Old Testament Or 2. The Church may here be represented by Two upon the account of the known peculiar Character of the Christian Church in distinction to that of the Jews all over the New Testament where it is every-where represented as one Church made up of Jews and Gentiles one Common Society with those two great constituent Parts in it upon the account of which it was originally called the Catholick Church Thus do we find †St. Paul almost continually insisting upon this Two-fold distinction in the Church and the chief ground of Rom. 3. 30. 4. 16. 9. 24. 10. 12. 11. 17. 15. 8 9. 1 Cor. 1. 24. 7. 18 19. Gal. 27. 8. 4. 22 24. 6. 15 16. Ephes 3. 6 9. all his earnest Motives to Unity and Mutual Communion for the making the Christian Church but one thing is that all the World both Jews and Gentiles are but one Church of Christ As Ephes 2. 14 15 16 17 18. and Chap. 3. 6. and Chap. 4. 1 2 3 4 5 6. And this is every-where represented by him as the great Mystery of God in the bringing the Gentiles to be one Church with the Jews Ephes 1. 9. 3. 3 9. Colos 1. 26 27. This Book of the Apocalypse does also generally run upon that distinction As Chap. 5. 5. The number of the Jewish Elders gathered out of all Nations And Chap. 7. 4 9. The 144000 out of the Jewish Tribes but figuratively taken and the Great Multitude of all Nations So also Chap. 14. 1 6. The 144000 and all Nations and Kindreds and Tongues and People And Chap. 19. 4 6. The 24 Elders represent the Jewish part and the Voice of the Great Multitude the Gentiles though both figuratively And the Church is every-where set forth as the Jewish Temple or Synagogue set open to all people This also we find every-where foretold in the Old Testament as the peculiar distinction of the Church of the Messiah from that of the Jews That it should be the Church of both Jews and Gentiles And this does our Saviour also make the distinguishing Badge of his Church For this reason did he make choice of Baptism to be the Initial Rite of all Nations into his Church which by the Jews had always before been made the distinguishing Rite Matth. 8. 11. 21. 43. 22. 9. 24. 14. John 11. 52. betwixt themselves and the Gentile Proselites He also upon the same account ordered the Memorial of his own Death to be the Communion-Feast or the common Union of Jews and Gentiles in his Church or the Communion of Saints of all kinds instead of the Paschal Lamb which was the distinguishing Ceremony of the Religion of the Jews from all the rest of the World besides And thus also does he himself signify his Church to be One Fold made up of two sorts of Sheep John 10. 16. But this does most eminently appear in the History of the Actions of the Apostles after Jesus had committed the sole management of his Church to them The chief Subject of the Book of their Acts is to set forth this new appearance of the Christian Church with these Two different kinds of Members in it Indeed this twofold distinction of the Members of the Christian Church had its foundation in the known division of the whole World into those two general Parts of it Jews and Gentiles both always before and at the time of the writing this Prophecy And this distinction was always preserved in memory by the frame of the Jewish Temple and its distinction of the two Courts of the Jews and Gentiles and so seems to be the most likely to be here referred to because the most obvious and commonly known division of the Church of God into Two But what strength soever this Account of their being called Two may seem to have yet the demonstration of their real nature in general before given does not at all depend upon it This is intended only for a probable illustration of that Character And since by the discovery of their Nature they must represent the whole Christian Church for many Ages there must be some reference in this Character of it to some twofold division of the Christian Church which must distinguish it from the Jewish and none was better known for such than that which has been here pitched upon not that of the Old and New Testament nor that of the Churches of the Waldenses and Albigenses which some would have that number to refer to a THUS does Ribera interpret the three days and an half in Chap. 11. v. 9. that they signify that the Tyranny of Anti-christ shall not be continued above three years and an half according to that of Ezek. 4. I have given thee a day for a year Though afterwards upon the 20th Chapter of the Apocalypse he does in express terms contradict this very Interpretation When ever says he did Lyranus see a day taken for a year And though in Ezekiel God said I have given thee a day for a year yet what ground is this to take a day for a year in Scripture Alcasar also upon the 2 d verse Chap. 11. Apocalypse does determine That the 42 months and the 1260 days must necessarily be taken in a mystical and not in a literal sense Notatione quarta in vers 2. And they both agree with Bellarmin l. 3. de Pont. c. 8. that the 42 months and three years and an half must be understood according to the Caldaick Account CHAP. VI. Rev. XIII The 25th Proposition The Second Beast Rev. 13. an Vniversal Church-Head distinct from the First The 26th Proposition The Beast A Secular Head confederated with an Vniversal Church-Head but distinct from Him The Second Beast a succession of many single Persons The Beast and the False Prophet are the present Secular and Ecclesiastical Roman Heads or the Imperial and Papal Power Objections answered THere have been sufficient grounds of Assurance given that the Beast is really in being at this present time It is in the next place necessary to enquire after those Characters of him that do distinguish him from all other Sovereign Powers upon Earth The greatest difficulty in this Affair arises from the great resemblance that there seems to be betwixt the First and the Second v. 1 11. Beast in the 13th Chapter of the Revelations For they are described as two distinct Sovereign Powers in one and the same Roman Dominion The Second Beast is said to exercise all the power v. 12. of the First Beast before him And therefore do we find these two Beasts confounded together by many of the best esteemed Interpreters It may then be