a foresight of things communicated to him from God as to endite such a Book of Prophecies as this 3. And no man in Heaven nor in Earth neither under the Earth was able to open the Book neither to look thereon And this proclamation being made there was none found neither of the Angels in Heaven or Men upon Earth or Infernal Spirits under the Earth who are vulgarly accounted so wise and cunning and in whom Witches and Wizards so confide for the knowledge of things to come that were able to open the Book or look thereon i. e. That had so reaching a foresight as to pierce through such a large series of future things as is contained in this Book which intimates that nothing but the holy Power of God could be the Author thereof 4. And I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and to read the Book neither to look thereon That is to say I was sorely grieved that there was none found meet or worthy to have imparted to him so stupendious a faculty of foretelling things to come in such a manner as they are in this Book So useful a gift of Prophecy Where Iohn personates every good Christian that is solicitous for the affairs of the Church and thoughtfull what will become of her 5. And one of the Elders saith to me wéep not Cease to be so grieved and troubled in spirit Behold the Lyon of the Tribe of Iuda the root of David hath prevailed to open the Book and to loose the seven Seals thereof Christ hath by his courageously fulfilling the will of his Father obtained this priviledge That he may open the Book and loose the Seals thereof that is to have so wonderfull a comprehension of future things and piercing foresight by the gift of his Father as to foresee all that is contained in this Book and to communicate it to his Church 6. And I beheld and lo in the midst of the Throne and of the four Beasts and in the midst of the Elders That is betwixt God the Father and the Church stood a Lamb as it had been slain and with bleeding wounds upon him the blessed Jesus Mediator betwixt God and Man as he is here placed betwixt the Throne and the four Beasts Having seven horns which are the Emblems of Power as being he to whom All Power is given in Heaven and in Earth And seven Eyes All manner of Wisdom and Counsel and all the Angels of God at his beck to execute his Counsel and his Will which is implied in what follows which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth unto all the Earth 7. And he came and took the Book out of the right hand of him that sate upon the Throne That is it was given to him of his Father to have so vast a foresight of things to come from the beginning of the Church even to the end of the World and Power to effect what was foreknown according to the beginning of this Book of the Apocalypse The Revelation of Iesus Christ which God gave unto him c. which shews that the whole Book of the Apocalypse the Epistles to the seven Churches as well as the Visions that follow is a Prophetical Revelation of things to come 8. The consideration of which wonderful Gift and Power signified by this receiving of the Book being made so exceeding manifest in the times of the Spiritual Reign of Christ in the New Ierusalem which Times this pompous Introduction to the Prophecy of the sealed Book does typifie For the four and twenty Elders belong to that state of the Church will raise a wonderful strain of Faith and Devotion in them and admiration of the stupendious Providence of Christ over his Church as it is signified by what follows And when he had taken the Book the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders fell down before the Lamb having every one of them Harps and golden Uials full of Odours which are the praises and prayers of the Saints 9. And they sing a new Song saying And then will they sing a new Song namely they will then praise their Creator and Redeemer for that new constitution of things in the Reign of the Spirit as it is written Chap. 21. And he that sate upon the Throne said Behold I make all things new And he said straightway to Iohn It is done I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end I will give him that is a thirst of the fountain of life freely that is I will communicate unto him my Spirit here and make him partaker of Eternal Life hereafter in my heavenly Kingdom and they will say as follows Thou O Christ wert worthy to take the Book and open the seals thereof that is to have communicated unto thee so vast a comprehension of the futurity of things as is contained in this Book of Prophecies and Power to carry on things as they are predicted For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation This is but a just reward of thy endearing sufferings upon the Cross for the salvation of Mankind 10. And hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign upon Earth In this blessed Millennium which thou hast long ago shown to thy Church in that admirable Book of Prophecies which by the Ministry of an Angel thou communicatest to thy beloved Disciple Iohn 11. And to show further how holy heavenly and Angelical those Times will be and what an Union and Agreement betwixt the Church of Christ and the Angelical Hosts it is further added And I beheld and I heard the voice of many Angels round about the Throne and the Beasts and the Elders which Beasts and Elders signifie the Church of Christ consisting of men upon the Earth And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands 12. These innumerable companies of Angels joyn themselves to the Quire of the Church saying with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing as by whom the State of the Church is brought to such a blessed condition upon Earth according to the predictions of this Book of Prophecies Let all therefore be ascribed to him 13. Nay the completion of this Book of Prophecies in those Times will be such an Universal conviction of the Divinity and Sonship of Christ that he was really and in truth the foretold Messias the Beginner and Finisher of the Works of God to his Church that that will come to pass that follows And every Creature which is in Heaven and on the Earth and under the Earth and such as are in the Sea and all that are in them heard I saying Blessing Honour Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever All intelligent Beings and Spirits whether belonging
to Heaven Earth or Sea even the Infernal Spirits themselves shall in the inward powers of their minds and consciences be forced to break out and confess upon the completion of this Book of Prophecies That all Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power is due unto him that sits on the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever 14. And the four Beasts said Amen Unto this the four Beasts that is the Church of Christ here upon Earth we may be sure will say Amen that is consent to such a doxologie And the four and twenty Elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever that is All the Kings and Princes of this truly Catholick and Apostolick Church will fall down and worship him that was dead but is now alive and behold he liveth for evermore that is they will devotionally adhere to him serve him and obey him who according to the promise made to his Church has brought things at last to such an Admirable Heavenly Holy Righteous and Peaceful Constitution So Glorious an Effect will there be of the completion of the Prophecies of this Book both as to Christ and also as to his Church Which shows how detestable the ingratitude is of such either shallow and frivolous or prophane Spirits or cunning obdurate Politicians that phancying it not to sute with their worldly Interest vilifie and decry it when as indeed this Book of Prophecies will prove the most effectual instrument in the hand of Providence that may be for the rooting all Atheism and Infidelity out of the world and Converting all the Kingdoms of the Earth to the Faith and Profession of our Lord Jesus Christ. CHAPTER VI. 1. HItherto the Introduction to the Prophecies of the Sealed Book we come now to the Prophecies themselves And I saw says Iohn when the Lamb opened one of the Seals that is the first Seal And I heard as it were the noise of thunder one of the four Beasts that is the first of the four Beasts the Lion whose place is towards the East saying Come and see Where we may observe how some parts of the Introductory Representation are made use of in this following Vision as some parts of the description of him that was seen amongst the golden Candlesticks are made use of in the Prefaces of the Epistles to the Churches 2. And I saw and behold a white Horse and he that sate on him had a Bow Which Heros on horseback and on a white Horse signifies a great Commander or Emperour Righteous Prosperous and Glorious in his undertaking And in that he is said to appear upon the first Beast the Lion placed on the East side his saying Come and see it is a sign that he is an Emperour from the East part of the World and in a word it is the Lion of the Tribe of Iuda that Captain of our Salvation Jesus Christ who being ascended into Glory was yet present with his Church affording them all succours to carry on their Spiritual Warfare And these Gospel-soldiers came from Iudea in the East And in that he is said to have a Bow it denotes that he aimed at something of no mean importance And this Heros on Horseback with his Bow answers to the Ephesine succession of the Church whose name imports earnest purpose or desire but the thing aimed at or designed is specified in the following words And a Crown was given unto him to wit the right of it even the Roman Imperial Crown and this Bow-man hat the mark when the Emperour Constantine turned Christian This is also the Crown promised to the Church in the Smyrnean succession Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee the Crown of Life the Crown of security from Pagan persecution And he went forth conquering and to conquer This Heros on the white Horse went forth conquering and to conquer till he obtained this Crown under the sixth Seal 3. And when he had opened the second Seal I heard the second Beast that is the Calf or Oxe say Come and sée 4. And there went out another Horse that was red a colour significant enough of the effusion of blood as the Oxe also of the great slaughter that was to be under this Seal and what follows plainly implies so much And power was given to him that sate thereon to take peace from the Earth and that they should kill one another and there was given to him a great Sword as a token of exceeding much blood-shed on the Earth under the second Seal This Seal therefore begins with Trajan a Spaniard and therefore an Emperour from the West In his Reign and Adrian's his successor there were so great commotions in the Empire that there were slain in those Tumults and Rebellions at least fifteen hundred thousand men 5. And when he had opened the third Seal I heard the third Beast that had a face like a man and was placed on the South say Come and see And I beheld and lo a black Horse and he that sate on him had a pair of balances in his hand The black colour betokens Gravity Severity Justice which Justice also is intimated by the face of a Man this third Beast is said to have Prudence and Justice being the proper characters of a Man Which sutes well with the last part of the description the pair of Balances in the Riders hand which argues him Severe Just Frugal and Provident 6. Which accordingly is exprest by that voice in the midst of the four Beasts And I heard a voice in the midst of the four Beasts say A measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny and see thou hurt not the oyl and wine that is the Rider of the black Horse will take special care 1. That if one Choenix of wheat be sold for a penny that three of barley shall be sold for a penny 2. That men shall live by their honest labours not by theft or rapine For Choenix signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the food for a day and Denarius the wages for a days labour 3. There shall be no stealing nor robbing but buying by measure though it should prove so hard a time that their dayes labour will but find them food 4. He will provide that they shall have a Choenix for a penny viz. that the price of bread-corn and necessary victuals shall not exceed a dayes wages And so of Wine and Oyl he will take care that there be no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no fraud in buying and selling there neither nor spoil and wast by unruly Soldiers Which prediction was egregiously fulfilled in Septimius Severus an African and therefore an Emperour from the South and in Alexander the Son of Mammea both of them notorious lovers of Justice and severe punishers of Thieves and Robbers To the latter the sight of an unjust Judge was so nauseous that he was ready to vomit at him and he was famous for that Christian Motto Do as
them that do these miraculous feats when any are done so that the sense is easie enough either way Not to add that by a just reproach to their worshipping of Saints and Angels they are said to worship Devils For who but a Devil would receive Religious Worship or at least to worship false Objects according to that of Psalm 98. v. 5. All the Gods of the Heathen are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the very word here in this verse And the Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no gods but vain objects of worship called in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there being no true objects of worship but he that made the Heavens See my Synopsis Prophetica Book 2. cap. 10. And M r Mede 's Apostasie of the latter Times ch 3 and 4 CHAPTER X. THe Euphratean Horsemen having over-run and destroyed and fully seized on the Eastern part of the Roman Empire natural method will prompt us to expect that what follows in this Prophecy of the sealed Book should refer to the Western parts of the Empire and concern the highest Dominion there to wit the Bloody Idolatrous Papal Hierarchy that Antichrist that exalts himself above all that is called God or worshipped the Prophet Balaam Lord of the People and who had made the Secular Power a Balak an empty cypher or an Ahab that is wholly guided or directed by the Prophetess Iezebel So that this Papal Hierarchy in the West being in reality the Highest Power by Usurpation and the Antichrist exalting himself against Christ and above him we may rationally expect that the last Wo-trumpet which contains the residue of the Sealed-Book-Prophecy carries in it such things or alterations as tend to the downfall of Antichrist and restoring and enlarging the Kingdom of Christ in these parts of the Roman Empire and over the whole Earth And therefore accordingly it is said 1. And I saw another mighty Angel come down from Heaven one distinct from the seven Trumpet-Angels cloathed with a cloud that is clouds and darkness were round about him a thick cloud charged with thunder And a Rain-bow was on his head which betokens he came in the Glory of the Divinity even in the Glory of God the Father for the Rainbow in the Vision of Ezechiel so signifies And therefore this mighty and victorious Angel must be Christ and a further intimation hereof is from what follows And his face was as it were the Sun For so he appeared to Saul when he cryed out to him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and such was his description when he appeared in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks And his feet as Pillars of fire as it were coming out of the cloud and reaching to the Earth which are tokens of the great wrath of the Son of God or Christ and his coming to judge and take vengeance of his Enemies His feet was as fine Brass in the Thyatirian Interval here they are like a Pillar of fire 2. And he had in his hand a little book open which contains all the Visions of the Prophecy of the opened Book as we at first noted And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the earth standing in that Majestick manner and laying claim to or seizing himself as it were on his right by Sea and Land See ch 12.9 ch 13.11 3. And cryed with a loud voice as when a Lion roareth which is another intimation that it is Christ the Lion of the Tribe of Iudah And who in this majestick posture and terrible roaring could so well be said to set himself against Antichrist or the Papal Hierarchy as Christ The Roman Empire Eastern and Western too was sorely vext and scourged by the Scorpio-Locusts the Saracens and Eastern quite destroyed after by those Euphratean Centaures the Turks But the Papal Empire or Hierarchy here in the West Christ himself with his Apostolical Legions of Reformed Christians will utterly demolish and destroy as it is elsewhere said of the Ten Horns or Kings that at last they shall hate the Whore make her desolate eat her flesh and burn her with fire This loud roaring therefore of this Lion of the Tribe of Iudah sets off in general the anger and victorious terrour of Christ in assaulting and overcoming the Kingdom of Antichrist or the Papal Hierarchy and glorious Erection of his own Kingdom These in general are the affairs of this last space of the Sealed-Book-Prophecy And whereas it is said when he cryed or while he cryed seven thunders uttered their voices This is a distribution of the aforesaid space into seven parts which will be very serviceable for the orderly disposing of the Visions of the Opened-Book-Prophecy These seven Thunders may be seven Bath-Cols that is seven Oracles or Voices delivered in the midst of a Thunder and the last Thunder which betokens the turning of the Earth into a Lake of Fire by thundering and Lightning might happily send out some such voice as this Go ye accursed into everlasting fire This is the doom of them that adhere to the bloody imposturous and Idolatrous Papal Hierarchy 4. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices I was about to write namely what they said And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Seal up those things that the seven thunders uttered with an allusion to this Sealed Book of Prophecies as if he should say Though the seventh Seal be opened yet as to this part thereof let it be as sealed again for it is needless here so particularly to declare things touching the destruction of the Papal Hierarchy which agrees very well with what follows according to the reading of the Biblia Regia Andreas and others And thou shalt write them hereafter not And write them not namely in the Opened-Book-Prophecies where these affairs of the destruction of Antichrist and of the advancement of Christs Kingdom shall be more fully and particularly delivered which is a marvellous manner of transition from the Sealed-Book-Prophecy to the Opened-Book-Prophecy and sutable to the usual majestickness of this Book of the Apocalypse 5. And the Angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven as using that usual Ceremony of posture in swearing 6. And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever who created heaven and the things that therein are and the earth and the things that therein are and the sea and the things that are therein This is a mighty and vehement asseveration but it is concerning a thing that sunk flesh and blood are too too incredulous of which makes Christ in his Epistle to the Church of the Laodicean Interval which includes his coming to judgment and his putting an end to the Scene of things here on Earth use as vehement asseveration as might be by calling himself the Amen the faithful and true Witness
belongeth the first Resurrection accordingly as here followeth 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power Namely the Lake of Fire vers 14. into which Hades or the whole Region of Mortality is cast the Earth being all on fire But they that have obtained their glorified body as the Martyrs do in the first Resurrection they are sped already and are safe from this fate But they shall be Priests of God and of Christ that is Holy and Divine Souls cloathed in glorified bodies serving God in his Heavenly Temple And shall reign with him viz. with Christ in the Kingdom of his Father not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the thousand years of the Millennium but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thousand years symbolically understood which being the Cube of Ten which comprehends all number signifies a steady permanent Reign even to all Eternity 7. But when the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the thousand years of the Millennium are expired that is at the expiration of the Philadelphian Interval and the beginning of the Laodicean Satan shall be loosed out of his prison that is to say the ancient zeal of the Philadelphian Church and strictness of Discipline will be much relaxated and wickedness will get head again namely under the fourth Thunder 8. And he shall go out to deceive the Nations which are in the four quarters of the Earth Gog and Magog that is the whole rabble of men that are disposed to wickedness and have an enmity against the Holy and Just which are the true Israelites indeed in whom there is no guile And Gog and Magog are those notorious enemies of the People of Israel Ezech. Cap. 38. and 39. who therefore here typifie the enemies of the Holy Christian and Apostolick Church of which Israel was a type To gather them together to battel to fight against Israel the true Church of Christ The number of whom is as the sand of the sea So much had wickedness increased by the not still endeavouring with that wonted vigour the amplification of Christs Kingdom and by relaxation of Discipline in the Laodicean State of the Church though purity of external worship was still retained among them neither had they contaminated themselves with course Superstitions and Idolatries 9. And they went up on the breadth of the Earth which indicates the swarming and the spreading of their Forces and compassed the Camp of the Saints about The Camp wherein there were many Saints and right Philadelphian Spirits but all Saints as to the purity of external worship And the beloved City The mystical Ierusalem or pure Church of Christ and beloved of him for the reasons even now intimated Here is an attempt of bringing again the Righteous under the Power and Tyranny of the wicked which attempts are made toward the latter end of the Laodicean Interval under the fifth Thunder But before they could effect their wicked enterprise the Day of judgement overtakes them And fire came down from God out of Heaven and devoured them 10. And the Devil that deceived them was cast together with them into the lake of fire and brimstone even that Lake which is afterwards called the second death where the Beast and the false Prophet the whole Antichristian Rabble shall be and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever 11. For I saw a great white Throne for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And does ordinarily signifie for as the sense may require and him that sate on it namely Christ coming to judgement at the end of the Laodicean Interval in the sixth Thunder from whence the Church of Laodicea also has its name From whose face the Earth and the Heaven fled away and there was found no place for them that is the Glory of his Majesty was so great that Heaven and Earth seemed to vanish before him the eyes of the spectators at first being so wholly filled with the brightness of the presence of his Glory 12. And I saw the dead small and great good and bad stand before God This is the General Resurrection which is not till the thousand years of the Millennium be expired but a good while after it though but a little time compared with the thousand years in the latitude of the sense thereof And the Books were opened the Rolls and Records of their actions this is spoken in allusion to Law-proceedings in Courts of Judicature amongst men And another Book was opened which is the Book of Life An auspicious Title signifying that they whose names were found there should be sentenced worthy of Eternal Life and escape the second death And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their Works As is done in Righteous Courts of Judicature where the Judge gives Sentence according to what is alledged and proved And so it is in this General Assizes none shall be condemned for what he is not guilty of but be judged according to his works 13. And the Sea gave up the dead which were in it The Souls here appear of them that were drown'd in the Sea as being not extinct thereby as some fondly imagine and actuate their bodies And death or pestilence all manner of death by diseases is intimated by it and briefly Hell that is Hades the whole Region of deceased Souls or this sphere of Mortality into which they are congregated at this General Assizes delivered up the dead that were in them that is exhibited them to the view of all And they were judged every man according to their works The Divine Nemesis proportioned punishments or rewards to every one according to their doings Hitherto are the transactions of this General Assizes and the passing of judgement on those that were called to the Bar which takes up the sixth Thunder But in the seventh there is Thundering and Lightening properly so called as is intimated vers 9. And fire came down from God out of Heaven and devoured them So here 14. And Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire that is this whole Region of Mortality above which the Spirits of Devils and damned Souls cannot emerge but are chained and confined to this caliginous Atmosphere will be set on fire at the last Thunder which together with eruptions from beneath will cause a dreadful Conflagration and turn the Earth as it were into one great lake of fire This is the sense of these words And Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire Which is a very figurative expression First by a Prosopopoeia making Death and Hell as it were two persons as in Chap. 6. vers 8. and then by an Hypallage casting them into the fire when as the fire is rather cast into them it occupying all this Region of Mortality and putting an end to dying by consuming all the species of mortal Creatures and giving a stop to their propagation This is the second Death As the first
Book what acclamations in Heaven were there thereupon For the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders fell down before the Lamb having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours which are the prayers of the Saints And they sung a new Song saying Thou art worthy to take the Book and open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood As if this priviledge of obtaining such a wonderful power of predicting things to come and communicating such a Book as this of the Apocalypse unto his Church were one special fruit of his Passion and the shedding his most precious blood upon the Cross. And therefore let them take heed that despise this Book of the Apocalypse so much and all endeavours to understand it aright that they be not found in the number of them that tread under-foot the Son of God even in those things for which he is the most highly admired and extolled by the blessed Saints and Angels which is the greatest slight and affront of him imaginable and count his precious blood shed upon the Cross whereby he procured this transcendent priviledge to himself and them of fore-knowing things that concern all Ages of his Church an unholy thing and do despite to the Spirit of Prophecy In the mean time this may at least excuse them that seriously and soberly endeavour rightly to understand the Visions of this Book from being reputed men less judicious or else very unfortunate to spend their time and labour on so mean and obscure an argument as this Book of the Apocalypse as some for want of judgement or good will have perstringed that excellently learned and pious person M r Joseph Mede But what a vast difference is there betwixt the Spirit of the holy Evangelist John and the great Spirits or Wits as they would be accounted of this Age He wept out of an eager desire of understanding the Prophecies of this Book they laugh at any one for a fool that pretends the endeavouring to understand them or thinks they are to be understood But I hope that will be found true that Solomon sayes Prov. chap. 14. vers 6. A scorner seeketh wisdom and findeth it not but knowledge is easie to him that understandeth Which I distrust not but will be made good in any intelligent Reader of my Exposition of this Book It will prove easie to him upon his taking notice of the meaning of the Prophetick stile and supposing the grounds I go upon which are but few and allowed generally by all Protestant Churches that I know of viz. That the Church of Rome is Idolatrous which will imply that the Greek Church also was so as is plain from the second Nicene Council which the Romanists alledge That the said Church is murderous as having put to death many and many thousands of innocent Souls because their consciences would not allow them to joyn with this Church in their Idolatrous Worship And lastly that she is Imposturous in pretending to many miraculous Acts that exceed the power of Nature or the faculties of any ordinary men As changing the Elements as they call it of Bread into real Flesh and of Wine into real Blood by saying certain words over it In exorcising or enchanting of Statues or Images and of Water Oyl and other things by certain words into a power of keeping off Enemies repelling Diseases ceasing Thunder and Lightening and driving away the Devil nay in pretending to a Power of thunder-striking men down into hell which is only in the hand of God Almighty to do at his pleasure and not for men to do at their pleasures because others will not joyn with them in their gross Doctrines and Idolatrous Worship This if it were true were a stupendious Miracle indeed thus to bring fire from heaven to thunder-strike innocent men into the pit of hell But such pretended feats as these this Book elegantly expresses by the phrase of Sorcery or Magick as it may be called as being an imitation of the pretences of Magicians thus to act above Nature by words and charms These are the main things that are supposed concerning the Church of Rome which if they be admitted the sense of the Apocalypse will run as glib as may be upon a little knowledge of the Prophetick stile And I shall wonder at any one that is satisfied concerning these that shall stick at the truth of our Interpretation which as touching this part is so throughly demonstrated in my Joynt-Exposition or rather in the eight last Chapters of the first Book of my Synopsis Prophetica that I cannot tell what can be more fully evidenced to the reason of a man namely That the Beast that was and is not and yet is is the Roman Empire and the Woman that rides him the Roman Hierarchy after the times of the seventh King that was to stay but a little while which are the pure Christian Caesars Wherefore the Roman Hierarchy after that time being set out by the symbol of a Whore for so that Woman is called viz. the Whore of Babylon and the Beast she rides on said to be full of Names of Blasphemy it is manifest that both the Empire and Hierarchy are become Idolatrous Besides that if the Apocalypse were silent in this matter of their being Idolatrous the Writers of the Protestants have over and over again demonstrated them to be so and for them that are so perswaded not to acknowledge their condition to be predicted in the Apocalypse but to conceit it silent therein is to envy God and Christ the Glory of foretelling things to come and the Church the priviledge of having them foretold her and the advantage of confounding her enemies thereby And now for the state of the Reformed Church that it will be at last so well Reformed and so largely amplified that Peace Truth and Righteousness shall at last over-spread as it were the face of the earth and that herewith the Iews will be called and make one part of the Catholick Church this is a thing both believed and hoped for by all good men and expresly pointed at in several places of Scripture as well as in the Apocalypse And lastly for the first Resurrection the proper priviledge of the Martyrs at the entrance of the Millennial Reign of Christ upon Earth that this was the general Opinion of the Primitive Church is made out notably by M r J. Mede in sundry places of his Writings And that way that I have explained it here in my Exposition it cannot have the least scandal or offence the Martyrs according to my Explication not living upon Earth but being revivificated into their Glorious Bodies reign with Christ in Heaven Wherefore the things that I suppose being so certain or unexceptionable and my Exposition consequential to these and perpetually made out according to the known meaning of the Prophetick stile and agreeably to the truth of History without any violence done to either
also upon a pretense then too lamentably true because they had so wretchedly corrupted the Ancient Apostolick Christianity with many intolerable Superstitions and gross Idolatries adding the persecution of all those that would not submit to them and their wicked Inventions For which gross degeneracy of the Church this scourge of the Turks especially was sent in upon them as is plainly implyed in what follows 20. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues that is of the Scorpio-Locusts and Euphratean Centaures as I may so speak but were only vexed with them by which is plainly meant the Western part of the Roman Empire which the Turk could never possess himself of yet as he has of the Eastern Yet for all this sad Example of Gods severity for the like crimes this Western part of the Empire repented not of the works of their hands their wicked and impious Inventions whereby they corrupted the Ancient Apostolick Christianity That they should not worship Devils * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Original has it that is Demons or middle invisible Powers betwixt God and Men whether Angels or Souls of men departed And in reference to these Idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and of wood which neither can see nor hear nor walk and yet they lift up their eyes and hands to them and pray before them as if they could see their posture hear what they said and were able to go and bestir themselves to accomplish their requests But in that the mode of their Idolatry here is by Statues not by Pictures this is another insinuation that the Western Church is here understood 21. Neither repented they of their murthers that is of their murtherous persecution of innocent Souls for not submitting to their Idolatrous Rites and Customs nor of their sorceries their imposturous exorcismes and enchantments of several things to holy pretended uses nor of their fornication their unnatural uncleannesses of all sorts upon an Hypocritical profession of a single life nor of their thefts their cunning tricks of cheating the people of their money by setting up Images for them to bring Oblations to their merchandises of hallowed Crosses Beads Medals and the like trumperies and deceits For such like wickednesses as these was the wrath of God poured down upon the Eastern part of the Empire by letting loose the Euphratean Horsemen upon them so as to quite over-run them and vanquish them and yet the Western Church the more the pity did not lay it at all to heart while those Judgments were thundring against the Eastern and these Euphratean Horsemen were let loose upon them Which happened a little before the year 1300 after the Caliphate of Bagdad with which the first Wo expired had in the year 1258 been abolished by the Tartars and the Remainder of the Turks who had Reigned in Persia on the other side of Euphrates were cast out as out of a sling into the parts of the Roman Empire on this side Euphrates by the said Tartars namely in the year 1289 who winning Syria and Palestine and dividing amongst themselves the greater part of Asia minor at last joyning in one Othoman Empire broke also into Europe nor ceased till they took Constantinople and quite abolished the Constantinopolitan Empire and made themselves fully Masters thereof But as for the close of this second Wo-trumpet the most natural extent I discern thereof is the Universal Impenitency of the Western parts of the Roman Empire till some Country or Kingdom appeared converted from such Crimes as the Eastern Empire was destroyed for by these Euphratean Horsemen And so we shall clearly observe with what succession of the Churches this sixth Trumpet or second Wo-Trumpet expires namely it ends with the Thyatirian succession The six Trumpets added to the six Seals reach just so far and no further So that the seventh Trumpet must be contemporary with the Sardian Philadelphian and Laodicean successions and equalize the succession of them all which is worth the remembring for the better understanding what follows NOTES CHAPTER IX Vers. 1. Fallen from Heaven to the Earth c. The Original has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which though our English Translation renders I saw a Star fall from Heaven as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then falling yet I have made bold to translate it according to Grammatical truth fallen from Heaven But I understand it of a fallen Angel according to the warrantable sense of the Cabbalists See my Synopsis Prophetica Book 1. ch 8. sect 14. Vers. 5. The nature of the Scorpion perpetually to attempt to sting c. Semper cauda in ictu est nulloque momento meditari cessat ne quando desit occasioni Plin. Histor. Natur. lib. 11. c. 25. Her taile is alwayes a striking nor ceases she any one moment to endeavour to sting that she may be sure to miss no opportunity Vers. 14. Four Turkish Sultanies or Tetrarchies c. These four Sultanies their number is learnedly and ingeniously made out by M r J. Mede on this Text But besides this if they were not just four and the business is not their Number but their Office what they are to do and when yet by a Prophetick Diorisme they might be called four Four standing for a note of Vniversality in the Cabbalistick Mysteries And D r Hammond on this place would have Four not to signifie just four but indefinitely to be put for the number of the Angels concerned in this affair Which he might the better have adventured on if he had been acquainted with the Cabbalistick stile Vers. 17. Belongs to the times since the Invention of Gunpowder and the use of Guns in War Which Berchtoldus Niger a Franciscan Monk and Alchymist is said first to have divulged to the world about the year 1380 which was after the plague of the Saracens upon the Empire And shews also how vain the attempts of those are who would draw back these Visions to the times of Titus and the besieging of Jerusalem by the Roman Armies Vers. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Original has it c. And this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has the same signification that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Spirits whether the Souls of Men or Angels and that either good or bad This is certainly the sense of the word in the Greek Language And therefore it is not so justifiably and fitly translated here Devils which none amongst the Pagans themselves are said to worship unless Witches and Magicians and therefore it had been more safe to have retained the Greek word which also the Latines use and called them Demons which signifies as well goods Angels and the souls of good men departed this life as bad Angels or bad Souls or if you will Devils which in all Idolatrous worship are in all likelihood busie Assistants and several times make a show of Miracles and so attract the worship of Idolaters to themselves they worshipping
and the beginning of the Creation of God and therefore he who could also put an end to it And so here there is the like vehement asseveration that the stage of the Earth must have an end at the last Thunder which will bring upon it the Conflagration For so he saith That there should be time no longer that is That there shall be here no more time upon Earth 7. Saving in the dayes of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall sound and the mystery of God be finished as he has declared to his servants the Prophets that is Those predictions be fulfilled which in such a mystical and symbolical stile God hath foretold by his Prophets Isaiah Daniel and Ezechiel and others which reach to the very end of the world or of the stage of things on this Earth And this is the first part of this marvellous Transition from the Prophecy of the Sealed Book to that of the Opened Book 8. And the voice which I heard from Heaven namely at the beginning of the Sealed-Book-Prophecy spake unto me again in the tone of a Trumpet suppose as it did before And said Go and take the little Book which is open in the hand of the Angel which standeth upon the Sea and upon the Earth Namely in the hand of Christ now in the form of an Angel as before in the form of a Lamb but the same person still under another form as it is the same Book though opened now when sealed before But this new change in both denotes a new series of Prophecies from the beginning of the Church to the end of the world as those of the Sealed Book were 9. And I went unto the Angel and said unto him Give me the little Book And he said unto me Take it and eat it up and it shall make thy belly bitter but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey that is Though the knowledge of future things may be pleasant and tempting to the curious Reader of this Book yet when he shall throughly digest it or understand it it will be bitter by reason of the several sad and bitter things contained in it As the sad persecution of the Primitive Christians in the Smyrnean succession of the Church and the foul Apostasie of the Church into gross Idolatry under the Reign of Antichrist or the Whore of Babylon and the most barbarous persecutions of them that will not submit to her wicked and Idolatrous Tyranny And there is bitterness enough for her too at the last which makes her paramours so loth to understand this Book of Prophecies aright 10. And I took the little Book out of the Angels hand and ate it up and it was in my mouth sweet as honey and as soon as I had eaten it my belly was bitter that is my stomach was bitter which is a prefiguration of the condition of those that shall read this Book and rightly digest it that is truly understand it Though there be pleasure in the understanding it yet when these sad things touching the Church were to come it could not but be bitterness to them that is the Book is of that nature that it would so affect a Christian. 11. And he said unto me Thou must prophecy again that is Thou must run over again from the same Epocha of time this race of prophecying that is foretell as before the fate or state of the Empire so now the fate or state of the Christian Church from the beginning thereof to the end of the world Before many Peoples and Nations and Tongues and Kings that is to their faces so that they may all understand how they are concerned in this Prophecy of the opened Book And thus is the Transition from the Sealed-Book-Prophecy to the Opened-Book-Prophecy in both the parts thereof fully finished Now follow the Visions themselves of the Opened-Book-Prophecy and that in a sufficiently natural and rational order those Visions that reach from the beginning of the Church being placed first NOTES Chapter X. Vers. 7. Saving in the dayes of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall sound c. Instead of But in the dayes I have rendered it Saving in the dayes the sense of this verse in the Original being exceeding imperfect and ungrammatical unless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be supposed to be put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saving or except And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies so sometimes is abundantly plain out of several instances in the New Testament Mat. 20.22 But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except to those for whom it is prepared of my Father And Mat. 7.8 compared with Mark 9.8 where the former has it And when they lift up their eyes they saw no man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 save Jesus only the latter has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is plainly put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and our English Translation renders it save Jesus only These and other such like places has Grotius himself noted to our hand which makes it manifest that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifies as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except or saving And being the sense is maimed in this place of the Apocalypse unless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be so rendred it is plain that it is the sense of this particle here And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have rendred when he shall sound not when he shall begin to sound as if it were restrained to the beginning of the sounding because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies no such thing See my Ratio Synchronistica cap. 2. sect 3. Wherefore it is plain that the Angel swears there shall be no more Time on Earth saving in the space of the seventh Trumpet and that therefore there will be an end of this terrestrial Scene of things contrary to the confident conceit of those scoffing Atheists 2 Peter 3.3 And moreover that since we are at the end of all in this seventh Verse that there is a beginning of a new series of Prophecies from the first Epocha afterwards CHAPTER XI 1. ANd there was given to me a réed like unto a Rod and the Angel stood saying Rise and measure the Temple of God and the Altar and those that worship therein That is all that space that is contained within the inward Court. In the first part whereof is the Temple which consists of the Sanctum and Sanctum Sanctorum and in the latter part thereof stands the Altar of Holocausts which whole space therefore is Thysiasterion or the place of sacrificing and was not to be rendred Altar but the place where the Altar stands For the Priests did not worship in the Altar but in the place where the Altar was erected Which place the Greek Text calls Thysiasterion And in that it is said Measure them that worship therein it
are equal to the forty two months wherein they are said to have trod it down So that the residue of this Vision runs up into the Sardian succession of the Church into the time of the seven Vials And already I think it is manifest in this Opened-Book-Prophecy that this Lion of the Tribe of Iudah did not roar in vain he having rescued so considerable a prey out of the jaws of Antichrist in the last notable Reformation And behold the third Wo cometh quickly which is the pouring forth of the Vials The first whereof is that intoxicating cup of envy rage and exulceration of spirit against the risen Witnesses by which their enemies being dementated it would make them impotently attempt such things as would render them execrable odious or despicable to all the world Which wrath of theirs and malice so naturally flowing from the prosperity of the Witnesses it is no wonder it is said That the third Wo cometh quickly 15. And the seventh Angel sounded and there were great voices in Heaven namely where S t Iohn was wrapt up in Spirit Saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ that is several Kingdoms and Principalities as pledges of the rest are recovered already by Christ out of the hands of the Tyrannical Antichrist by the late blessed Reformation And he shall reign for ever and ever that is whatever chastisements may come upon the Church of Sardis for her neglects and imperfections this Kingdom of Christ which has begun shall for certain take place and he shall reign to the end of the world through the Sardian Philadelphian and Laodicean successions 16. And the four and twenty Elders which sate before God on their seats fell upon their faces and worshipped God These Princes in Heaven are said thus to do betokening what those Princes and Potentates on Earth that were our Noble Reformers would do or how devoutly they would be affected for so blessed a Reformation which God by his gracious Providence had brought to pass for they were in a manner slaves to the Pope before 17. Saying We give the thanks O Lord God Almighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned that is given so glorious a specimen of thy power and that thou rulest in the Kingdoms of men and hast thus happily begun the reign of thy Christ for the subduing utterly at last the Kingdom of Antichrist The beginning of the seventh Trumpet is the beginning of the Sardian succession of the Church and of the seven Vials and the commencement of them all are with praises and acclamations for this first auspicious victory of Christ over the Papal Hierarchy or Antichrist For the word Sardis signifies a Song of Ioy and here is the thanksgiving of the Elders and at the beginning of the Vials there is sung the Song of Moses and of the Lamb. What follows here are some scatterings and obscure hints of the affairs under the seven Vials and plainly ends with the seventh 18. And the Nations were angry that is the Gentiles that had trodden down the outward Court and defiled it by a new kind of Idolatrous Gentilism the minds of these were exasperated and exulcerated with wrath and envy at this sudden resurrection of the Witnesses which is a short glance at the first Vial. And thy wrath is come and the time of the dead that is of those that this Tyrannical Roman Hierarchy had so often and in such multitudes so barbarously murthered for their witnessing to the Truth the time is now come that Christ is to judge and revenge their Cause which seems to allude to the third Vial where it is said Thou art righteous O Lord which art and wast and shall be because thou hast judged thus For they have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them blood to drink for they are worthy which is an easie comment upon what follows That they should be judged and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy Servants the Prophets and to thy Saints and them that fear thy Name small and great The meanest that have died Martyrs and been murdered for the profession of the Truth that thou shouldest judge their Cause though they were despised by this Proud Imperious Iezebel And shouldest destroy them that destroy the Earth that is the men upon the Earth for of this Iezebel or Whore of Babylon it is said And in her was found the blood of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth into such an Akeldama has that lofty Prelate the Pope ever and anon turned Christendom by his restless ambition and tyranny 19. And the Temple of God was opened in Heaven Out of which the seven Angels having the seven last plagues are seen to come Chap. 15. And there was seen in his Temple the Ark of the Testament Which answers to the great voice out of the Temple of Heaven from the Throne Chap. 16.17 under the seventh Vial So that this time reaches to the very Sanctum sanctorum or Holy of holies betokening a most powerfull pure and Apostolick State of the Church as if we were come into the first Apostolick Times again in the beginning of the Church as the outward Court is an emblem of the latter Apostated Times thereof By which is notified the beginning of the Philadelphian succession which commences with the seventh Vial. To which what follows seems to allude And there were lightnings and voices and thunderings and an earthquake and great hail which is plainly a description of the seventh Vial. So that this whole Vision in this Chapter begins with the first Epocha of the Church and endeth with the seventh Vial or first Thunder Which is also the very space of the Sett of Visions comprized in the three following Chapters which are a more ample description of the same state of things in the same time and we shall note what parts answer each other NOTES Chapter XI Vers. 6. By a Prophetical Metalepsis or Zoopoeia c. Metalepsis is a Figure whereby an effect or event is translated or communicated to some Person or Thing because the Place and Time is coincident with them That there is such a Figure and that it is made use of in the Apocalypse I have proved in my Synopsis Prophetica lib. 1. cap. 4. sect 10. But a Zoopoeia of the second kind is when free Actions are attributed to free Agents of which notwithstanding they may be no more the cause than if they were inanimate Beings or not in Being at all This figure also I have proved to be made use of in the Apocalypse as well as in other Authors lib. 1. cap. 3. sect 10. See my Synopsis in the places cited For particular occasions answer in Analogy to particular acts of will c. And the Analogie is very exact the Figure being but once admitted which I have
is they were quite vanquished neither was their place found any more in Heaven 9. And the great Dragon was cast out that old Serpent with whom Christ had had no small combating long before called the Devil and Satan the reproacher and opposer of the Kingdom of Christ in all places and ages which deceiveth the whole world and seduceth them into false and idolatrous worship He was cast out into the earth and his Angels were cast out with him This appearance thus in Heaven signified the destruction of the Empire as Draconick and Idolatrous that none of that foul stamp should be in high places of the Empire but such as were professed Christians 10. And I heard a loud voice saying in Heaven Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. This is contemporary to the affairs of the sixth Seal or rather with the close thereof and the commencement of the Pergamenian Interval For the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before God day and night What the Devil is said to do concerning Iob accuse him before God the Pagans are here understood to do before the Emperour and other Magistrates of the Empire to raise most wicked calumnies concerning the Christians objecting against them Thyaestean Suppers Incests Adultery promiscuous Lusts Murders Conspiracies against Princes Plagues Famine Mischiefs by Fire or what other calamity happened in the Empire 11. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb through the merits of Christ crucified on the Cross and by the word of their Testimony and spending their own blood also in way of Martyrdom For it is said And they loved not their lives unto the death This Verse makes it plain that the Battel that is said to be in Heaven denotes a Battel here on Earth betwixt the Christians and their Persecutors 12. Therefore rejoyce ye Heavens and ye that dwell in them Ye Angels and Holy Martyrs not without an intimation also to the Political Heaven in the Roman Empire to those in high Places and Offices under the Christian Emperour Wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth and of the Sea that is to the lower multitude For the Devil is come down unto you having great wrath and will stickle to do as much mischief as he can amongst you while he may because he knoweth that he hath but a short time For though the Great Ones of the Empire were turned Christians yet many of the Common People were still Pagans wherefore the Devil will find out a fetch to strengthen those in their Paganism and dissettle the other in their Christian Profession 13. And when the Dragon saw that he was cast unto the Earth and reduced to such a low base condition He persecuted the Woman which brought forth the Man-child An envious revengefull persecuting temper rose in him against her 14. And to the Woman were given two wings of a great Eagle that is by reason of the Roman Empire becoming Christian and now divided into two parts Eastern and Western and that the Eagle is the Ensign of the Roman Empire is notorious enough which these wings might represent she was in such a state that by a Prophetick Hypallage it might be said of her That she might fly into the Wilderness into her place that is the wilderness condition of the Church would come shortly upon her wherein she should by Divine Providence be ever safe from the red Pagan persecuting Dragon as it follows where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the face of the Serpent That is for three Prophetick years and an half which is seven Prophetical half years or semitimes which are the measures intended as seems to be insinuated by expressing the one thousand two hundred and sixty days vers 6. by a Time and Times and half a Time 15. But before the commencement of the Time as if he had a mind to overwhelm her before she could reach the appointed place it is said And the Serpent cast out of his mouth water as a stood after the Woman that is the water of Heresie and Contention that sore division of the Church by reason of that Heresie of Arianisme That he might cause her to be carried a way of the Flood That the Church which stood out the hottest persecutions with invincible valour against the red Dragon may now perish by the over-speading of Heresie and Intestine Division this furious controversie hardening the hearts of the unconverted people and staggering the converted in their Faith and Profession 16. And the Earth helped the Woman and the Earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the Dragon cast out of his mouth that is the Church was delivered from this overflowing Heresie and Dissension by the Decree of an Oecumenical Council viz. the first Nicene Council their opening their mouth in a Decree against Arianisme and condemning it for an Heresie was like the opening of the mouth of the Earth to a flood that presently sinks and never is seen any more Partly this real Analogie is alluded to and partly there may be an allusion to the title Oecumenical which is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implies in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Earth For such gentle touches and glances at the signification of words are not unusual in the Prophetick stile 17. And the Dragon was wroth with the Woman and went to make war with the remnant of her Séed which kéep the Commandments of God The former wicked project failing the wrath of the Dragon was again incensed against the Woman viz. the Woman with the Crown of twelve Stars on her head and the Moon under her feet the pure Apostolick Church and went to make war with the remnant of her Seed those namely that she was to bring forth while she abides in the Wilderness which will approve themselves her genuine Off-spring by keeping the Commandments of God who forbids us making any graven Image to bow down to it or worship it and bids us worship serve and pray to himself alone And have the Testimony of Iesus Christ. For the Testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy in which sense the two Witnesses are said to prophecy as well as to witness The Testimony therefore of Jesus is to witness to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ not from mere custom or education because others have told us it is true but because we are assured of the truth thereof from the spirit of God and in virtue of the spirit of life in the new birth From this living Principle do these faithful Servants of Christ bear witness of the truth of his Word revealed in the Gospel and witness against the wicked inventions of an Apostatized Church and loath them and detest them For they are not dead vessels that will receive wholesome liquor and poyson alike but the Living Creation of God and therefore have an antipathy against all the
ordine ad spiritualia whenas the Pagan Emperours were Pontifices maximi as well as Caesars But that this other Beast is said to come out of the Earth and not out of the Sea implies its more still and quiet growth as of Plants out of the ground or its baser extraction the chiefest in the Sacerdotal Hierarchy being more usually of meaner Parentage Or lastly Earth may signifie here as it does Chap. 12. vers 16. where Oecumenical Councils are glanced at which though laudable in themselves yet this two-horned Beast grew out of them by the abuse of that power of determining Controversies of Religion when once they had got the custom not to mind what was true and Christian but what was for the Interest of Holy Church though never so Worldly and Secular And he had two horns like a Lamb That Apostate Sacerdotal Hierarchy or Prelacy pretend their Power from the Lamb Christ of binding and loosing It may allude also to the Bishops two-horned Mitre which the two-horned Beast wears though it so ill beseems him as also signifie the distribution of the Apostatized Church then into two parts as the Empire was Eastern and Western and betoken the two chief summities of this Sacerdotal Hierarchy the two Patriarchates of Rome and Constantinople And he spake as the Dragon namely in that he made Decrees for Idolatrous practises and for the persecuting of such as would not submit to them This was the voice of the Old Dragon 12. And he exerciseth all the power of the first Beast before him that is his whole power he hath in Religion For the power of approving things in Religion and passing it into a Law is in the Secular Supreme Magistrate not in the Clergy But this Sacerdotal Hierarchy claimed all this Power and exercised it accordingly in the behalf of the former Beast as he succeeded the Dragon in his Dragon-like power and properties And under pretense of this power in sacris in matters of Religion he causeth the Earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first Beast whose deadly wound was healed that is represented so as to have been healed or recovered into its former Paganical or Dragon-like condition but by the Authority of this Sacerdotal Hierarchy which was so prevalent with the people as to effect it and how he effected it now follows 13. And he doth great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from Heaven on the Earth which is a proverbial expression of the notoriousness of a wonder alluding to Elias his bringing fire from Heaven upon those fifties But it is as childish to understand this literally here as it would have been to understand the fire proceeding out of the mouth of the Witnesses and their turning the waters into blood and the like literally Fire from Heaven therefore here is the thundering excommunications of this Sacerdotal Hierarchy whereby those that did not obey the voice of this Beast though it was the voice of the Dragon appointing Idolatrous worship * were rent off from the Church and made obnoxious to eternal fire What is a greater wonder-working-power than this And yet this great wonder this two-horned Beast does In the sight of men that is they are such fools as to believe he does it especially when a Pope thunders against a Prince and his Nation for their Heresie viz. the relinquishing the Superstition Idolatry and Tyranny of the Roman Church And Gregory the seventh when he had excommunicated the Emperour Henry the fourth said he was fulmine afflatus thunder-struck by him These things I confess are rather a show of Miracles than Miracles but Antichrist was to come with Lying and feigned Miracles And if there might be any thing extraordinary it is imputable to the forces of the Dragon the Evil Spirits that were bequeathed by the Dragon to the Apostatizing Empire 14. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those Miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the Beast that is In the sight of the Lay or Secular Empire before whom he made a show as if he did these Miracles And whatever was in truth extraordinary they are to be imputed to the two-horned Beast For he claiming and accepting the Power of ordering the Empire in matters of Religion the Forces of the Dragon bequeathed to the ten-horned Beast fell naturally to his share And by these assistances are done whatever looks really like something extraordinary or miraculous for the promoting Idolatry and Superstition miraculous Cures and Visions exorcising Spirits and a deal of such stuff whether feigned or true these are justly imputed to the two-horned Beast as they conferr to the bringing the Empire again into a more perfect Pagan-like or Dragon-like condition For by reason of these he was listened to when he made his harangue to the people Saying to them that dwell on the Earth that they should make an Image to the Beast which had the wound by the sword namely in the fight with Michael and the Martyrs who overcame this Beast viz. the Dragon and his pure Paganism But this two-horned Beast revives his Image again by the means abovesaid by the obtruding of the belief of such Miracles on the people And he lived that is the Old Dragon or Pagan Superstition and Idolatry was very lively reintroduced in this Image the two-horned Beast made by making the Empire thus Idolatrous 15. And this Image was no spiritless Image sluggish and harmless like an inanimate Statue For the two-horned Beast had a way to transfuse Spirit and Life into it as it follows And he had power to give Life unto the Image of the Beast that the Image of the Beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast that is would not obey himself the Secular Idolatrous Power of the Empire should be killed Which Power of so commanding to kill which is the Spirit of the Image of the Beast is derived from the two-horned Beast or Sacerdotal Hierarchy the Image of the Beast having no Power to kill any one for matters of Religion but whom the Sacerdotal Hierarchy has declared Heretick then is he delivered up to the Secular Power the Ten-horned Beast For the two-horned Beast kills none himself but delivers up to the Secular Magistrate according to this very Prophecy 16. And he this Image of the Beast causeth all both small and great rich and poor free and bond that is all sorts and degrees of men to receive a mark in their right-hand or in their foreheads as Soldiers or Servants do the name of their General or Master that is they must make open and express profession to whom they belong 17. And that no man may buy or sell save he that had the mark or name of the Beast or the number of his Name viz. of the two-horned Beast the very Antichrist who will have his marked Soldiers as well as Christ hath his that is no man
they who are only led by his Word and Spirit not by a blind and implicite Faith in a Church not only fallible but fallacious or deceitful most of their corruptions both in Doctrine and Worship being upheld for their own worldly interest These were redeemed from among men were rescued from being carried away with the stream of the rest of the Superstitious and Idolatrous Rabble hood-winked and captivated by the false showes and subtil enticements of the most cunning Polity in the world Being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb namely the first pure Apostolick Christians after the Apostasie and but an handful in comparison of those multitudes that will appear after the dissolution of the Papal Tyranny 5. And in their mouth was found no guile that is there was no hypocrisie nor dissembling in them but they professed the Truth from their hearts and concealed it not For they are without fault before the Throne of God that is in the judgment of God they are holy and upright men though at the Tribunal of Antichrist they are condemned for Hereticks and deemed men not worthy to live or dye an ordinary death Nay besides what they call Heresie in them though according to that they do worship in purity the God of their Fathers as S t Paul speaks even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ they add a multitude of abominable lies to make them odious to the people but the God of Heaven knows they are guiltless whence it is said They are without fault before the Throne of God 6. And I saw another Angel distinct from that Quire of Angels taken notice of before fly in the midst of Heaven that he may be seen and heard over all the Christian world as well the Western as Eastern Empire as is intimated in what follows Having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the Earth and to every Nation and Kindred and Tongue and People that is to preach the Everlasting Righteousness Law or Religion that Christ according to Daniel was to bring in Which is the pure and Apostolick Doctrine unsophisticated with the Superstitions and Idolatries of either Greek or Roman Church which hay and stubble is to be burnt up but that Apostolick Gospel to be Eternal never to fail and to spread over all 7. Saying with a loud voice Fear God and give Glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come And worship him that made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and the fountains of waters And therefore none but God the Father and the Son with the Spirit who Created all things is to be worshipped The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth they shall perish from the Earth and from under the Heavens as the Prophet Ieremiah foretells This is a plain declaration against giving any Religious Worship to any but God alone And therefore a commination against all Saint-worshippers and Image-worshippers or whatever other Idolatry in the Greek or Roman Church That this voice of the Angel respects the Edicts and Degrees of those Greek Emperours that protested so zealously against Saint-worship and Image-worship namely the Decrees of Leo Isaurus Constantinus Iconomaches Leo Armenius Michael Balbus and Theophilus I do not deny but this Angelical Monition was the most loudly and earnestly urged upon the Christian World at the dreadfull siege and storming of Constantinople and the subduing the whole Eastern Church and Empire to the Turk This was a plain manifestation that the hour of his judgement was come against such gross Idolaters And yet though his judgements flew so high and sounded so loud as to give notice to all Christendome yet the Western Church would take no notice thereof as it is predicted Chap. 9. vers 20. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues from the Euphratean Horsemen which are the Turks yet repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship Demons and Idols of Gold and Silver c. And therefore if we hear news of the hand of God upon the Western Church also I mean upon the Idolatrous Hierarchy thereof which is more particularly stiled Babylon we need not be much surprized And thus we read in the next verse 8. And there followed another Angel saying Babylon is fallen is fallen that great City or Polity bicause she made all Nations the Eastern as well as the Western Church as may be observed in the Popes activity at the second Nicene Council and in excommunicating the Iconoclast Emperours drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication of the Philter she had mingled for them the Love-poison or Love-potion of her fornication by which is plainly understood Idolatry To the voice of this Angel belongs the Reformation when so many Provinces and Principalities fell off from the Church of Rome and was a pledge of her further ruine Here therefore ends the Thyatirian Interval and that of Sardis begins in which is contained the effusion of the Vials all but the last 9. And the third Angel followed them saying with a loud voice If any man worship the Beast and his Image that is give obedience to the Secular and Spiritual Power in such things as are Idolatrous and are the very strokes and lineament of the Image of the Beast and receive his the Beasts mark in his forehead or in his hand that is make profession of or promote and countenance the Romish Idolatrous Religion 10. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation He shall drink of the cup of bitterness and malediction from the Lord. And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever that is all they shall be condemned to those infernal and eternal flames who under the voice of this third Angel shall persist in the gross Idolatries and other foul corruptions of the Church of Rome For under the voice of this Angel the abominations of that Church will be so fully discovered and convincingly that the adherers thereto will be generally deemed uncapable of salvation with any that have any remainders of judgment and conscience in them And they have no rest day nor night who worship the Beast and his Image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his Name Truth against the Church of Rome will be then so dear that no man that has any Conscience can be of that Religion and Profession but it will lye exceeding unevenly in his mind it will put him in restless and unsatisfied condition it appearing so manifestly against all sense all reason all honesty and loyalty and against all those sound and sacred Principles that God hath implanted in the nature of man Wherefore in those dayes no honest-hearted man can endure to submit to the Church
as nakedness before God or they will be stript of it and made naked Whence it follows Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame that is who is so watchful over his ways and intent on the work of real Regeneration which will appear also in his outward Conversation that he becomes cloathed in such a garment as shall not be taken from him in this time when God will pluck off the covering from all Nations and the veil of Hypocrisie from off the People as Esay somewhere foretells Which is a plain intimation that this Battel is not Carnal but Spiritual 16. And he gathered them together into one place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon that is by the over-ruling Providence of God they were brought into this place which in the Hebrew tongue signifies the destruction of their Armies but there is nothing yet done toward their discomfiture for the seventh Vial is not yet poured out * And therefore by a Commutation of Iconismes the event of this Congress is set out in another form this huge Camp of all the Armies of both sides being turned into one mighty City which is called the Great City consisting of the Universality of Cities considered as one as it follows in the Prophecie 17. And the seventh Angel poured out his Uial into the Air namely over this great Company and there came a great voice out of the Temple of Heaven from the Throne saying It is done This is a firm Decree from him that sits on the Throne and a full assurance by his Spirit universally in the hearts of his Servants the Evangelical Party that their Ministry shall succeed And as to the utter overthrow of Antichrist and the enlargement of the Kingdom of Christ by the conversion of the Gentiles the mystery of God shall be consummate under this seventh Vial The thing is as sure as it were done already 18. And there were voices and thunders and lightenings and there was a great earthquake such as was not since men were upon Earth so mighty an earthquake and so great that is there was such a strange Commutation of Affairs in the world as was never known or recorded in any History of former Times Of such mighty efficacy was the preaching of the Gospel in the power of the Spirit by the speaking party of the Army of Christ against the Forces of the Infidels and Antichrist For this is the meaning of those Voices and Thunders and Lightenings that it was the promulgation by these Boanergers's of the Law of the Son of God which is like unto fire as is related in Esdras 19. And the great City was divided into three parts as there were three parts in the great Camp before The Antichristian party the Infidel or purely Heathen party and the pure Evangelical party But this Tripartition is named immediately after this great Earthquake as if it were the effect of it for the more handsom embellishing the outward Cortex of the Prophecy * And the Cities of the Nations fell that is the Heathenish or Infidel party were thunder-struck by these Boanerges's and converted to the Faith of the Gospel of Christ in the simplicity and purity thereof And great Babylon came in remembrance before God that is the Antichristian Hierarchy with her adherents the Whore of Babylon as she is called in the following Chapter To give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath viz. of the wrath of God that is to be arraigned and judged that condign punishment and vengeance may be taken of her 20. And every Island fled away and the Mountains were not found Their Temples and other consecrated places were taken from them and they were deprived of their Dignities or of the Assistances of the great Ones of the Earth 21. And there fell upon men a great hail out of Heaven every stone about the weight of a Talent namely upon Babylon or the Antichristian party So that all her goodly trees were spoiled and stript of their both leaves and fruit their boughs broke down and their stocks beaten bare even to the inmost bark And men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail for the plague thereof was exceeding great that is the hearts of this Antichristian party were still hardened even in this last Aegyptian plague inflicted on them and their rage and impatience under their calamity made them speak evil of the ways of God which yet are altogether righteousness and truth Or if in these miseries they took themselves to their devotions * their very prayers were blasphemy in the stile of the Apocalypse they being so mingled with various sorts of Idolatry NOTES CHAPTER XVI Vers. 16. And therefore by a Commutation of Iconismes c. This is called Iconismorum Metallaxis in my Synopsis Prophetica And it is a Prophetick Figure whereby the Image or Representation that is begun with is not continued but changed and yet the same matter still pursued See Synops. Prophet lib. 1. cap. 4. sect 15. But in the mean time the letting go the first Iconisme in this place which is of a Camp and not persuing it to the event of the Battel is here done with great consideration and prospection because this Battel is fully afterwards described and the Commander also or General which is here omitted in the 19 th Chapter vers 11. Which is one of the main pieces of the artifice of concealment intended in this admirable Book of Prophecies Vers. 19. And the Cities of the Nations fell c. There is mention at first but of one great City and yet here besides Babylon there is mention of many Cities viz. of the Nations Which seems to be a destined Key whereby we might understand that by that great City is meant the Vniversality of a number of Cities considered as one in which Babylon it self was also comprized according as we have expounded it Vers. 21. Their very prayers were blasphemy c. This is the sense which that Learned and Pious Author Peganius gives in this place which I thought worth the taking notice of if it may effectually force any one to make a more serious reflexion on the hainousness and horridness of the Romish Religion CHAPTER XVII IN the nineteenth Verse of the foregoing Chapter there was a short glance at the Arraignment Accusation and Condemnation of the Whore of Babylon But the destruction of this Babylon being the main scope of all the Vials this Argument may well seem to deserve a more full and copious prosecution I mean the Arraignment Accusation and Condemnation of the great Whore contained in these two next Chapters namely the 17 th and 18 th And therefore it follows 1. And there came one of the seven Angels which had the seven Uials and talked with me saying unto me Come hither I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great Whore that is the Arraignment Accusation and
death is the death of this body Wherefore it is here a seasonable monition Fear not them which kill the body but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell which is the second death infinitely worse than the former 15. And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life that is in the Book of Life of the Lamb as a faithful Soldier and true Member of his Kingdom was cast into the lake of fire and underwent the same doom with the Apostate Spirits which implies that those which were found in that Book of Life were adjudged to the enjoyment of Eternal Life to reign with Christ for ever in Heaven in the Kingdom of his Father as he promises in his Epistle to the Church of Laodicea NOTES CHAPTER XX. Vers. 4. And I saw also those that had not worshipped the Beast c. That the beheaded and these are two distinct sorts of persons methinks is plainly enough insinuated in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and those who had not worshipped c. David Pareus supposes an Ellipsis which he would supply thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so secure is he that two several sorts are meant If this be not the sense why is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been sufficient without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Text should have run And besides why is it said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they lived and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they lived again if both the Beheaded and the Not-worshippers of the Beast were of the same kind But indeed Interpreters do generally understand them to be of two sorts though otherwise they cannot hit it among themselves about the sense of this place the one sort Martyrs the other Confessours And I add surviving Confessours who with their Successours survive the Cruelty of the Beast and his Image See my Mystery of Godliness lib. 5. cap. 15. sect 6. CHAPTER XXI 1. ANd I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth One would think upon the Conflagration of this Earth immediately mentioned before But this is but the artificial embellishing of the outward Cortex of this Book of Prophecies in this place * by a Lemmatosynechia as it is called in my Synopsis Prophetica For the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away namely the former Heaven and Earth or World in the sense of the Prophetical stile according to which they denote a Polity which therefore intimates here that the Tyrannical and Idolatrous Polity of the Beast and the false Prophet which is the great Whore or great City of Babylon was now abolished as appears by Chap. 19. vers 20. And there was no more Sea no unquiet multitudes of the wicked who are like the raging waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame Tumults War and Bloodshed was under that Polity that is cast into the Lake of Fire Chap. 19. vers 20 which was the Reign of Antichrist But now the Reign of Christ is at hand who is the true Melchizedec King of Salem or Ierusalem King of Righteousness and Prince of Peace This Vision therefore goes back to the second Thunder 2. And I Iohn saw the Holy City New Ierusalem The truly Holy City not pretended Holy Church and the New Jerusalem not that Old Prophet-killing Jerusalem which is also spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt the Roman Hierarchy where Christ in his Faithful Witnesses were persecuted to death This sight therefore of the City Ierusalem is exhibited as a Polity succeeding the great City of Babylon and in opposition thereto Coming down from God out of Heaven which shows it is a Polity here upon Earth and of Divine Institution and to be setled after the utter destruction of the Whore of Babylon by a Council truly Holy and truly Oecumenical being persons of pure and upright Spirits and without all worldly interest and moreover inspired extraordinarily by the Spirit of God This is the meaning of this descent of Ierusalem from God out of Heaven all things then being to be ordered by that Wisdom which is from above when as the Constitution of the City of Babylon was from that Wisdom which is from beneath and is earthly sensual and devilish Prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband Not as a Whore to commit Fornication with the Kings of the Earth as Babylon did This Constitution of things is setled under the second Thunder after which immediately follows the Millennial Reign of Christ and is described in the following Verses 3. And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people And God himself shall be with them namely by his Spirit whose presence shall sensibly and feelingly be acknowledged by all the Inhabiters of this New Ierusalem For this is the Reign of the Spirit or the Reign of Christ in the Spirit of which the Apostles of old witnessed Know ye not that your bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost But in the City of Babylon instead of being taught and guided by the Holy Ghost they were forced to follow their blind Guides that led them into all manner of Superstition and Idolatry and gross Disobedience to the Laws of God and Christ unless they would be persecuted and barbarously murthered And be their God that is their Protector and Defender from all manner of Evil As it follows 4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes This Reign of Christ in the Millennium will be with that equity goodness and sweetness that no mans heart that is good shall need to be oppressed with grief or express his grief by his tears And there shall be no more death no more bloody massacrings of the Faithful Witnesses of Christ or burning them at the stake with fire and fagot as was done under the Tyranny of the Great Whore neither sorrow for the loss of Friends thus barbarously and inhumanely murthered nor crying no clamours against gross injustice and cruelty or crying out for the tortures that are inflicted on poor innocent men for keeping a good conscience towards God Neither shall there be any more pain by noisom and wearisom imprisonments or what other hardships they are put to for the testimony of a good conscience For the former things are passed away The bloody Whore or false Prophet with the Beast are now in the Lake of fire burning with brimstone And Babylon the Great like a milstone sunk into the bottom of the Sea never to rise again Such is the state of the blessed Millennium when it comes nor shall Gog and Magog prevail against the Holy City in the Laodicean Interval 5. And he that
bring the Glory and Honour of the Nations into it The best Spirits and the most Noble and Considerable Persons of all Nations will flow in to them and be proselyted by them be admitted Citizens of the New Ierusalem and Members of this truly Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church of Christ. 27. But for so may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie there shall in no wise enter into it * any thing any person that defileth or is of a scandalous conversation neither whatsoever whosoever worketh abomination that is committeth Idolatry though the Whore of Babylon would admit none but such or maketh a lye No Legend-mongers nor obtruders of absurd and impossible Doctrines such as the Artificers of Babylon forged for filthy lucre-sake no such may be admitted to come into this City whose Gates are pure Pearl But they only who are written in the Lambs Book of Life as breathing after a Life sutable to his But the description of this Glorious City is not yet finished it reaches further into the five first Verses of the following Chapter NOTES CHAPTER XXI Vers. 1. By a Lemmatosynechia as it is called c. Lemmatosynechia is an Apocalyptick Scheme or Figure whereby as the word signifies the Cortex or outward Letter of the Text is held together or continued in such sort as if there were a real connexion and dependance of one part upon the other when as in the inward sense there is no such matter An elegant instance of this is to be found Chap. 16. vers 18 19. where upon the mention of the great Earthquake it is presently said And the great City was divided in three parts as if that Division had been a diruption caused by that Earthquake when as what is meant by that great City were three distinct parties before A like example of this figure is also Chap. 11. vers 7 8 9. where the two Witnesses are said to be slain as it were at the ending of their witnessing and their dead bodies to lye three dayes and an half unburied where the three dayes and an half are set at the end of the One thousand two hundred and sixty dayes as if they were the latter end of them when as they in truth commence as high as the One thousand two hundred and sixty dayes and the same time with them But the Parable runs smooth in the outward Cortex as if they were distinct and the death of the Witnesses for three dayes and an half together occasioned by their One thousand two hundred and sixty dayes prophesying See also Chap. 19. vers 5. But as eximious as any is this present example of a Lemmatosynechia the mention of a New Heaven and a New Earth being immediately made upon the burning of this Natural Earth Which therefore in the Cortex implyes that the destroying of that gave occasion of making a New Heaven and a New Earth when as they are not Natural but Political as both Grotius and Doctor Hammond acknowledge and the Text will extort it from any one that reads this twenty first Chapter considerately Vers. 27. Any thing any person c. It is usual with S t John to put the Neuter Gender for the Masculine as Joh. 6. vers 36 38 40. See Grotius upon the place CHAPTER XXII 1. AND he shewed me a pure River of Water of Life clear as crystal proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb What this River may signifie that in Amos may be a Key to Let Iudgement run down as water and Righteousnesse as a mighty stream Again touching the uttering of Divine and Holy Doctrines it is said of God Ecclesiastic 24.25 He filleth all things with his Wisdom as Phison and as Tigris in the time of the new fruits He maketh the Vnderstanding to abound like Euphrates and as Jordan in the time of Harvest c. Wherefore this River of water of Life from the Throne of God is the faithfull and effectual Administration of Justice and pouring forth Holy and Wholesom Doctrines and Monitions in the demonstration of the Spirit by them that are in highest Authority in this City of God which Authority is understood by the Throne of God and of the Lamb who in right of his Father is Supreme Governour over all and the immediate actuator of his Vicegerents 2. In the midst of the street of it that is in the midst of the Forum of the City or broad open place where their meetings were to serve God consult of their Affairs and administer Justice And of either side of the River which ran from thence through the City was there the tree of Life that is Trees of Life else how could they be in rowes on this side and that side the River By which Trees according to the Prophetick stile must be understood Men and that not of the meaner sort but Grandees in Church and State And being they are called Trees of Life it intimates a state quite contrary to that of the wicked Iud. 12. Trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead c. beside that it signifies that the Life of the Lamb is in them Which bare twelve manner of fruits and all worthy the profession of the pure Apostolick Faith and yielded her fruit every month of the year So uncessant are they in the bringing forth the fruits of true Faith which are good Works Here seems to be an allusion to the description of the Righteous Man Psalm 1. He shall be as a Tree planted by the Rivers side c. And of these happy times of the Messias in the expected Millennium is that Psalm 72.7 understood In his dayes shall the Righteous flourish like a Palm Tree as it is elsewhere said or like a Cedar in Lebanon The sense therefore is That by the free current of Justice and the countenancing pure Doctrine from the Higher Powers which the Throne of God intimates Holy and Good Men both in Church and State will be in Authority and Esteem to manage the Affairs of Christ's Kingdom obliging all unto them by their Christian Goodness and Equity which is the constant Fruit which they bear And the leaves of the Tree were for the healing of the Nations that is the People of those several Nations which are then brought under the Empire of Christ Which is an insinuation of the gentle but effectual Healing Discipline which will be in this Philadelphian Interval Those are the leaves of these Trees to heal the sores of the People by gently drawing away the corruption whatever may be remaining in them 3. And there shall be no more curse no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No more furious Papal Anathema's or Excommunications to depose Kings and Princes and to involve the Christian World in blood But the Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it that is Christ shall be in it The meek Empire of the Lamb of God shall obtain after the Tyranny of the bloody Antichrist or two-horned Beast who wore the
New Jerusalem doth not begin at the destruction of the Beast nor Synchronize with the thousand years but succeed them Which how false it is three or M r Mede's four arguments will give us to understand For the first of them though it be too hard for R. H. to answer yet I will decline as less firm For the marriage of the Lamb Chap. 19. vers 7. preceeds the seventh Vial but the marriage Chap. 21. vers 2 9. does follow the said Vial. But R. H. his answer is That the first marriage is with the Spouse in grace the second is with the Spouse in glory which is pointblank contrary to the text Chap. 21. vers 2. where the New Ierusalem is said to descend from God out of Heaven and his Tabernacle is said to be with men c. M r Mede's second argument is from Chap. 20. vers 9. Gog and Magog their besieging the beloved City at the end of the thousand years c. Here R. H. answers That this beloved City is not the New Ierusalem but that the beloved City is the Church in the state of grace the New Ierusalem the Church in the state of glory whereby he intimates were it not so they would be one and the same City But it is impossible the New Ierusalem should be any other than a state of the Church upon Earth if you consider vers 2 10 24. besides many other considerations which would be too long to mention here The third argument is from Chap. 16. vers 17. compared with Chap. 21. v. 5 6. where IT IS DONE implyes that the same time is indigitated that is the certain bringing in the New Ierusalem that holy City upon the destruction of the City of Babylon that City of Murderers and Idolaters But here R. H. harps still upon the same string that by the first IT IS DONE is meant the finishing of the last Vial and the full state of grace and by the latter IT IS DONE that the state of glory was to begin which Answer how extravagant it is I have already noted The fourth and last argument is from Chap. 21. vers 10. where the Vial-Angel as we may so call him that had shewed S. Iohn the condemnation and destruction of the Whore the City of Babylon shows him the New Ierusalem as a City that should succeed in its place To which R. H. returns this answer That the New Ierusalem does not succeed the destruction of the Beast and Babylon immediately but that there is first the thousand years then the insurrection and destruction of Gog and Magog after that the last judgment and the lake of fire for the cursed and then the New Ierusalem for the blessed For which he has no reason but that they are writ in this order which is so gross and fallible that no Interpreters rely upon it alone And these many Synchronisms of M r Mede so firm and solid are a demonstration against this dull Hypothesis and yet this is all the force of his answer But let me ask him a question or two If this New Ierusalem be a state in Heaven why is it said to come down from God out of Heaven Chap. 21. vers 2 10 And why are the Kings of the earth said to bring their glory and honour into it vers 24 And how comes it to pass that the trees on this side and that side of the River of this New Ierusalem that the leaves of them are said to be for the healing of the Nations Chap. 22. vers 2 shall there be any sores or maladies in Heaven Synchronism VII The Palm-bearing multitudes out of all Nations The seventh Trumpet or space from the destruction of the Beast This Synchronism M r Mede confirms by these two arguments First because these Palm-bearers immediately succeed the Sealed company that Synchronize with the Beast Synch 4. Part 1. Therefore the Beast expiring they must succeed the Beasts expiration partial at the beginning of the seventh Trumpet total at the beginning of the second Thunder The second argument is that these Palm-bearers are the Citizens of the New Ierusalem by comparing Chap. 7. vers 16 17. with Chap. 21. vers 3 4. And the New Ierusalem Synchronizeth with the seventh Trumpet To the first R.H. answers That these Palm-bearers immediately succeed the time of the sealing of the Virgin company not the race of the sealed Which is a wonderful weak cavil if we consider the end of their sealing viz. That they should be kept safe in all the dangers and difficulties they were to grapple withal and preserve their Virginity still against all the force solicitations and persecutions they should find under the six first Trumpets For these sealed ones are the Souldiers of the Lamb. Now compare this true and undeniable Hypothesis with vers 14. which speaking of these Palm-bearers saith These are they who came out of great tribulation c. Could these then immediately succeed the sealing and come off victoriously before the conflict What a shameful cavil was this To the second he answers That these Palm-bearers are not any men upon Earth but the Souls of Martyrs in Heaven while these Companies were sealed on Earth And that the New Ierusalem is after the general Resurrection and that therefore the Palm-bearers cannot immediately succeed the sealed company by their being Citizens of that City But as for this latter supposition how absurd it is I have shown already And as for the former he says it without any ground and against the natural tenour of the Text which compares the great and innumerable companies of the Apostolick followers of Christ after the expiration of the six first Trumpets with that smaller and more definite number of the sealed under them Besides R. H. is to consider that the Apocalypse is a Prophecy of things here upon earth not a description of what is in Heaven and also how harsh a thing it is to make such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thus abruptly to skip from Earth to Heaven in a moment And how ill these things cohere a man may observe from his Paraphrase Chap. 7. vers 9. But lest any saith he should be discouraged from suffering for the cause of Christ because they be not sealed and secured from suffering c. Which in brief is Lest any should be discouraged from suffering by their not being secured from suffering Which implyes that the encouragement they want to suffer is their being secured from suffering and consequently that they are to suffer and not to suffer at once which is very bad sence nay I may say a gross contradiction Such an unfortunate Paraphrast does R. H. prove while he thus profanely sets himself to abuse the holy Oracles of God And thus I have showed throughout how slight R. H. his allegations are against M r Mede's Synchronisms those against the Antimedial and Medial Synchronisms being of no force at all but mere whisles and for the Post-medial his objections are not such