I have demonstrated the Rising of the Witnesses to be in this second part of my Appendage And they that have applied the late Blessed Reformation to the second Vial as Mr. Mede and after him Peganius has done it was from this errour that they took it for granted that most of the Vials preceeded the Rising of the Witnesses And such is the humour fansifulness and partiality of many that they can hardly believe of themselves that the Witnesses are risen till Kingdomes Nations and Principalities of their own party rise into Political power namely all Episcopal all Presbyterian all Calvinists all Arminians all Socinians and so of Anabaptists Quakers and Famulists But they erre knowing not the Scriptures or the true meaning of them nor rightly considering the Records of History where they may find what was the testimony of these Witnesses who are predicted to rise in the Reformation and to be warred against before by the Beast and cruelly persecuted As there was nothing to alledge against the Apostolicalness of their faith they professing the Triunity of the Godhead and Divinity of Christ and such like Articles of the Christian belief and living accordingly whereby they became idoneous Witnesses so their plain and simple testimony against the Church of Rome was this That the Pope was that Man of sin or Antichrist and their Church Idolatrous by reason of their adoration of the Host invocation of Saints and worshipping of Images and their Religion otherwise also grosly corrupt in seeking to propitiate God by their adhering to the multifarious vain and wicked inventions of men excogitated onely for the gain of the Priest and the keeping the people in blindness and ignorance This was the tenour of the Testimony of the Witnesses both in the Pergamenian and the Thyatirian Interval of the Church which they witnessed with great favouriness and assurance in virtue of the Spirit of life and holiness in them And persons innumerable that bore the same testimony and were of the same sentiments instead of being still mournfull Witnesses in sackcloth or lying dead in a Political sense in the streets of the Mystical Prophet-murdering Jerusalem the same with Babylon or Aegypt which signify the large jurisdiction of the Pope of Rome at the Reformation had a reviving into Political Power again and ascended in several Kingdomes to the highest Honours Dignities and Employments in Church and State Which therefore as I have proved in this part of my Appendage must needs be the Rising of the Witnesses they being of the same mind and profession with those that were so grievously persecuted and kept out of all power nay burnt at the stake murdered and massacred God knows how many hundred thousands of them And at this very day our own Church of England partly in her Homilies partly in her Articles and Liturgy gives the same testimony of the Church of Rome even that she is that old painted harlot of Babylon with her cup of fornication that is of Idolatry and that the Pope is Antichrist as I have shewn in my Synopsis Prophetica Book 2. Ch. 21. Which whenas our own Church which seems most moderate does so plainly attest we may be sure the rest of the chiefest writers of the Reformation do not mince the matter at all And if there be any persons in the Reformation any where that at all recoyl from this testimony it is because the Spirit of life and holiness is decayed in them and the gross Spirit of this world has blinded their eyes and darkened their understandings and hardened their hearts against the truth they preferring worldly power pomp and riches before the purity of Gods worship Wherefore I say this is one great usefulness of my demonstrating the Vials to follow the Rising of the Witnesses in that it is thence manifest that the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses was fulfilled in the late Blessed Reformation there being thus no other Vision to predict it but this Which conclusion contains a manifold usefulness in it For first that acclamation in Heaven upon the Rising of the Witnesses That the Kingdomes of the world were become the Kingdomes of the Lord and of his Christ namely after so many Principalities Provinces and Kingdomes had cast off the Pope in the late Blessed Reformation what does this imply but that they were before in the hands of Antichrist and that were the Pope has any Dominion it is ipso facto Antichrists Kingdome and on the contrary that all the Reformed parts of Christendome are the Kingdome of Christ and indeed the fifth Monarchy begun Which ought to stop the mouths and carrears of an ignorant and Fanatical sort of men that cannot see wood for trees and seek for a fifth Monarchy in a fifth Monarchy whenas so considerable a part of it is erected before their eyes already But as I noted above such is the folly and freakishness of ignorant and conceited men that they would not willingly acknowledge the Witnesses to be risen till those of the same crotchets with themselves whole Kingdomes and Nations of them have got into power But it is very true and extremely worth our nothing that as in the times of the old Roman Paganism all those that professed Christ according to the tenour of what we call the Apostles Creed though in the mean time they had several different conceits about things that appertained to the Christian Religion were notwithstanding lookt upon as the Kingdome of Christ in opposition to the Kingdome of the red Dragon the Pagan persecutive Roman Empire so all the Reformed Churches States and Kingdomes though some Lutherans others Calvinists some of one opinion others of another yet they keeping to the old Orthodox Faith of the Triunity of the Godhead and Divinity of Christ acknowledged by the Church in the Symmetral times thereof and renouncing the Communion of the Roman Church for her gross Idolatries and wretched and intolerable Superstitions and humane inventions whereby she has so notoriously adulterated the purity and simplicity of the Christian Faith and worship all these I say are justly deemed the Kingdome of Christ in opposition to the Dominion of the Pope or Kingdome of Antichrist Whence as I was a going to say a second special use of this our demonstration that the late Blessed Reformation was the fulfilling of the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses is the undeceiving of those they call the Fifth-monarchy men who would pretend to begin the fifth Monarchy and upon that account raise commotions and tumults whenas it is so stupendiously and surprisingly by the special providence of God begun already And let a third usefulness be to reprove them that out of rashness and conceitedness or any other worse principle vilify and contemn this great work of God the late happy Reformation whether it be those that think there is too much done already they having an hankering again after the Flesh-pots of Aegypt the worldly bigness and downbearing
rather Superstition as whose very nature is to abuse that Religious inclination in humane Souls by making them swattle away their love and zeal upon false objects and to spend their obedience on the vain inventions of men by making them rely on the falsly supposed merits of Saints and to depend upon the person and Trumperies of an ignorant or deceitful Priest instead of having their sure repose in the richness of the mercy of God through Christ Iesus our Lord. To whom if we be immediately united by faith and love and shew our love by endeavouring sincerely to our power to keep His commandments this is the plain and compendious way to salvation All other Interposals of humane invention are but distractions and obstacles thereto and wicked elusions of the power and comfort of the Gospel of our Lord Iesus This seems to be the sound and savoury sense of the Homilies of the Church of England and that in opposition to that Aegyptian servitude and vile bondage that Gods people were held in under the Church of Rome And certainly it must have been a most loathsome slavery and a sight intolerable to as many as whose eyes God had opened to see the whole scope of the Gospel thus â—…luded for filthy lucre's sake by the wretched inventâ—â—ns of men besides the sordidness and foulness of 〈◊〉 intermingled therewith Which made the sâ—…ate of that Church intolerable to as many as God had visited with his saving grace and had made to understand this mystery of Iniquity by the illumination of his holy Spirit insomuch that it was more tolerable to them to quit this world and life itself than to comply with such horrid Impieties How can we then whom God long since has delivered out of this vile bondage and have sung that Triumphal Song of Moses and the Lamb return again into Sodom and Aegypt How can we desert a Religion to the Witnesses whereof God has given so ample a witness in that blessed and Apostolick Reformation in raising them from the dead after three days and an half according to prediction and calling them up into the Political Heavens and setting them to rule in high places How can we return like a dog to his vomit to a vomit cast out and lying so long time cold and sour in the dirt and mire a vomit cast out as nauseous to all that is sound or sacred in the faculties of a man Nauseous to the outward senses and inward senses Nauseous to common Reason Nauseous to the principles of Logick and all sound Philosophy so nauseous to all these was that figment of Transubstantiation forged for the gain and honour of the Priesthood but quite repugnant to all the abovesaid faculties of man and nauseous to all common honesty and modesty to obtrude such an impossible fiction upon deluded people and to make them profess it whether they will or no for fear of being cruelly and barbarously murdered which must be exceeding nauseous to all such as have but the least sense of Iustice or humanity remaining in them How shall we again incorporate with that Church whom the Spirit of God has so plainly as well as the Homilies of our Church of England declared to be the Whore of Babylon May we take the Members of Christ and make them the members of an Harlot How shall we forsake the Kingdome of Christ and make our selves subjects of the Popedome which out of St. John and the Prophet Daniel to say nothing of St. Paul three sufficient Witnesses I trow to put an end to this controversy is most evident to be the Kingdome of Antichrist If treason and rebellion against an earthly Prince be so hainous a crime as most certainly it is what a crime is rebellion and treason against him who is assuredly King of Kings and Lord of Lords even the Lord Christ Iesus And lastly How can we turn our backs of a Religion unless we will wilfully run into eternal perdition that has all the assurance of truth against that of the Church of Rome that the heart of man can wish or his curiosity require Is the vote of Primitive antiquity of any value that stands for us the Church for the first four hundred years being the very platform of our Reformation Has Sense common Reason the Rudiments of Logick the sound Principles of Philosophy any weight with them all these assuredly witness for us against the impossible figments and fond forgeries of the Church of Rome Has Morality and indispensable Principles of common Honesty which the pretence of no Religion ought in any wise to deface Has the eternal law of God and Nature implanted in our hearts any right to be appealed to we right willingly appeal to it how innocent the Form of our Religion is as to this and how foul and obnoxious will be found the Principles of the Papacy And finally has the attestation of Scripture and bloud of Martyrs some hundred thousands of innocent and holy Souls burnt and massacred by these Antichristian Persecutors have such serious Testimonies any force with them then have we even a cloud of Witnesses in the behalf of the Truth of our Reformed Religion against the impious corruptions of the Church of Rome The plain places of Scripture expresly condemn the worship of Images the praying in an unknown tongue the communicating but in one kind and the like And the Prophecies do not onely declare the Church of Rome to be the Whore of Babylon and the Pope Antichrist but those that professed the faith of the Reformed Churches to be the Witnesses to be the Martyrs of Iesus and the Saints of the most High Such a Seal is there set to the truth of the profession of the Reformed Religion against the enormous corruptions of Popery even by the bloud of infinite numbers of the serious and faithful servants of our Lord Christ that I may not say even by the bloud of Christ himself Who gave himself and shed his most precious bloud on the cross for his Church that he might sanctify it and cleanse it as with the washing of water by the word of God and the Pope keeps the word of God from the knowledge of the people that they may wallow in the black mire of ignorance and the filth of Idolatry for the gain of Holy Church Christ the true Bridegroom gave himself for his Church that he might present it to himself a glorious Church most illustriously shining forth in the fruits of the Spirit and the works of real Righteousness declared in the Gospel But the Pope blasphemously arrogating that Title of Sponsus Ecclesiae to himself has debauched the Church not presenting it a glorious Church to Christ her true Husband but in a whorish pompous dress contrary to the Christian mans very promise in Baptism to forsake the pomps and vanities of this wicked world presents it to himself a garisâ—… gorgeous Idolatrous Church for the satisfaction of his own pride and lust And whenas
Christ the true Husband gave himself for the Church that she might have neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing but be holy and without blemish the whole body of the Religion of the Roman Church so far forth as it differs from the Ioynt Profession of the Reformed Churches is nothing but an overspread leprosie of grosly false Doctrines and of foully Superstitious and Idolatrous Practices besides being smeared over and over again with the bloud of the innocent and carrying on a perpetual design and trade of eluding all the force of true Religion and piety by a multitude of humane inventions and breaking off our comfortable recumbence and dependence upon the lovely person of our Lord Iesus our faithful Saviour and Redeemer to depend upon the person of some ignorant or deceitful Wight that bewilders a deluded Soul with a world of false devices and trumperies giving her no solid rest after she has once strayed from the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ and fallen into the hands of these deceivers who are sealed and occrustated in the trade of their impieties by a false and boastful pretence of their Churches Infallibility and under the colour thereof declaring the true and faithful servants of Christ Hereticks they thereby snatch all occasions to drink and swill and make themselves drunk with the bloud of the Saints of the most High From whence it is plain that the Roman Church is an estranged Synagogue which is no Spouse of Christ but the Spouse of the Pope as he boastfully pretends to be her Husband So contrary does this Successour of St. Peter to the example of St. Paul who espoused the Church of Corinth as a chast virgin not to himself but to Christ but the Pope the Church of Rome not to Christ but to himself and not a chast virgin but all to be polluted with the filth of Idolatry which is Spiritual fornication But Reformed Christendome is the Spouse of Christ as acknowledging no Husband but him and depending immediately upon him by faith in his bloud alone and sincere obedience to his commands and not to the vain injunctions and inventions of men for her justification and salvation And for such a Church his own chast Spouse has Christ given himself and poured forth his most precious bloud and not for those that have espoused themselves to another Husband Which is also a sound Witness and may go for a most firm and authentick Seal to the saving Truth of our Reformed Religion These things I have taken the boldness to speak with all freedome out of sincere love and faithfulness to the Souls of men of what communion soever that those that are already deluded may be undeceived and they that are yet of our Communion may never so deeply sin against their own souls as to depart from it and so dislodging themselves out of the bosome of Christ run into the arms of that man of sin and son of perdition the declared Antichrist according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures and more especially of those Divine Visions of the Prophet Daniel which I have with so faithful care and diligence expounded for mens fuller satisfaction and instruction that they may return into or if they be there already continue and persist in the way of Truth and of everlasting Salvation A Plain and Continued EXPOSITION Of the several Prophecies or Divine Uisions OF THE Prophet Daniel VISION I. The Vision of the Image of the Four Metals signifying the Four Empires Babylonian Medo-Persian Greek and Roman seen first by Nebuchadnezzar and after revealed to Daniel Dan. 2. IN the second Year of his Reign which is now about 2300 Years ago did Nebuchadnezzar being sollicitous concerning the Fate of his own Empire and what would be afterwards his thoughts coming into his mind upon his Bed as it is said Ver. 29. fall into a Dream which much affected him when he was in it and therefore was earnestly desirous to recall it into his mind again but not being able he sent for his Magicians Astrologers Sorcerers and Chaldeans to try if they could divine what this Dream was For the thing was gone from him neither could he recover it into his mind But if they could have declared unto him what it was he could then have very-well remembred he had dream'd it Which forgetfulness of Nebuchadnezzar in not retaining the Dream in his mind as well as the Impression of the Dream it self is no small Argument of the Providence of God over his Church and People for whose sake these things happened viz. That Nebuchadnezzar should dream this Dream that concerned the Church of God infinitely more than himself and that he should forget it to the baffling of all his Magicians Sorcerers and Chaldeans and that Daniel a Jewish Youth and one of the people of God should by Divine Revelation have the honour of declaring the King's Dream unto him so that the King could not but acknowledge that this was the Dream By which alone it was manifest that the Spirit of the Holy God was in him And the Dream it concerning the people of God more than Nebuchadnezzar himself whether Jews or Christians there was this singular good effect thereof that they could not but be more certainly assured that it was a truly Divine Dream neither feigned by Nebuchadnezzar nor by Daniel but communicated to both by God either immediately or by the ministry of his Holy Angels And that therefore Daâ—…iel having this privilege of declaring Nebuchadnezzar's Dream had also the same supernatural privilege of rightly interpreting thereof The Declaration and Interpretation whereof is as follows which we shall expound as briefly and as clearly as we may where there is need beginning at the 31 Verse For it will be admirable to observe how the Preâ—…iguration of things in this Prophetical Dream reaches from Nebuchadnezzar's time not to our days only but even to the pouring forth of the seventh Vial whereupon all the Kingdoms of the World will become the Kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ. 31. Thou O King when thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy Bed and thou didst fall into that Dream sawest and behold a great Image or great Statue of a Colossean bigness it comprehending in its extent no less than the succession of Four Famous Empires This great Image whose brightness was excellent it representing the Splendour and Glory of those Empires it did prefigure stood before thee And the form thereof was terrible setting out thereby the great Fear and Awe these Empires viz. the Supreme Powers therein and their Ministers cast the World into by their severity violence and cruelty For which cause in another Vision they are resembled to wild Beasts for their rage and bloud-thirstiness as the true Church of God has too often found them 32. This Image's head was of fine Gold There being a Succession of Four Empires here to be prefigured by Four kind of Metals the order of dignity or pretiosity
and Tyrannical Principles and Practices will over-spread the whole World in a manner the Kingdoms of this world as it is predicted in the Apoâ—…alypse becoming the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ. This State of the Church may be termed Regnum Montis the Kingdom of the Mountain as Mr. Mede has well noted as the State before this may be called Regnum Lapidis the Kingdom of the Stone 36. This is the Dream Which miraculously and by the mere inspiration of the Spirit of the most High was communicated unto me and which the King cannot deny but to have been the Dream which he was so desirous to recover into his mind And we will tell the Interpretation thereof before the King Which he may be sure is true and Divinely inspired it being impossible any man should know the thoughts of another man especially so strange and operose as these unless he were inspired Whence my declaring the Dream ought to be look'd upon as a certain assurance of the truth of my Interpretation which is this 37. Thou O King art a King of Kings that is The greatest King on Earth For the God of Heaven hath given thée a Kingdom Power and Strength and Glory Thou hast a Strong Potent and Glorious Kingdom and it is the gift of God unto thee and therefore thou shouldst remember to govern as his Vice-gerent 38. And wheresoever the Children of men dwell viz. the cultivated places of his Kingdom The Beasts of the Field The desart places of Arabia and Africk says Grotins And the Fowls of the Heaven Invious and inaccessible Rocks where only the Fowls of Heaven can nest Hath he given into thy hand and hath made thée Ruler over them all All these diversities of the vast places of thy Kingdom art thou Lord over And God having given thee so large an Empire so prosperous and glorious I declare unto thee Thou art this Head of Gold Which is briefly and figuratively spoken by a Synecdoche or Metonymie for Thou art the Head of this Golden Kingdom of Babylon or Thou art the Lord and Owner of it From whence we may be assured that the Head of Gold signifies the Babylonian Kingdom Nebuchadnezzar being then King of Babylon and Cyaxares the Made conjoyn'd in aâ—â—inity and confederacy with Nabopolassar the Father of Nebuchadnezzar having subverted Nineve the Metropolis of the Assyrian Empire together with the Empire it self some Four years before and near an Hundred and twenty years after Salmanasser had taken Samaria and carried the Ten Tribes away captive 39. And after thée shall arise another Kingdom inferiour to thée The first Empire comprised in this Image being thus evidently the Babylonian it does naturally follow that the Second must be the Medo-Persian begun in Cyrus Who first having taken Babylon and Belshazzar the last King being slain by the Medes and Persians he brought along with him though he delivered the Empire to his Uncle Darius the Mede yet he being aged and dying within a year or two he presently succeeded him and became Monarch of the Medes as well as Persians himself also being a Medo-Persian by extraction on the Mother's side a Mede and on the Father's side a Persian Whence he was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Mule as Grotius notes But that the coalescency of these Two Nations into One Kingdom or Empire is signified by the Silver part of the Image which is the Breast from which the Two Arms come has been noted above The hardest scruple is how this Medo Persian Empire should be said to be less than that of Nebuchadnezzar's the Babylonian there being the accession of Persia and all the Acquists of Cyrus added thereto Grotius his answer is Quia Cyrus successores ejus Africam non tenuerunt Gasper Sanctius That there was not that pacateness nor tranquillity in the Medo-Persian Empire that there was in the Babylonian or so continued prosperity and success Calvin makes one Empire inferiour to another as the Metals are from Gold to Iron in Morality Temperance Justice Faithfulness c. according to that vulgar opinion expressed in Horace Carm. lib. 3. od 6. Aetas parentum pejor avis tulit Nos nequiores mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem Whence sprung that Poetical description of the World 's degenerating according to the Four Ages thereof from Gold to Silver from Silver to Brass and from Brass to Iron Which in all likelihood was more particularly occasioned from Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of this Image of those Four Metals Antiquity not understanding the true sense thereof But it is possible that forasmuch as it is read And after thee shall arise another Kingdom inferiour to thee that to thee is here on purpose put for to thine that the first Head of this following Kingdom might be understood to be more especially compared with him in which there seems apparent odds For Cyrus the first Head of the Medo-Persian Monarchy or Empire reigned not past Two or Three years in that inlarged Empire and not passing Thirty in his Kingdom of Persia whenas Nebuchadnezzar in his Babylonian Empire reigned Three and forty years most splendidly and prosperously insomuch that the excess of his prosperity cast him into that Septennial delirancy out of which he was recovered and gave praise to the God of Heaven But Cyrus as he reigned but a small time in the Medo-Persian Empire so he was vanquished ingloriously by the hand of a Woman Tomyris a Scythian Queen who cut off his Head and cast it into a Vessel of bloud saying Satia te Cyre sanguine quem â—…itisti But whether this way or that way please best to make the easiest sense of the Text it is unavoidably plain that this second Monarchy is the Medo-Persian nor does any Interpreter doubt of it And another third Kingdom of Brass This shews plainly that the Golden Silver and Brass parts of the Image signifie Three distinct Kingdoms But now it is evident in History that as the Medo-Persian Empire succeeded the Babylonian so the Macedonick or Grecian succeeded the Medo-Persian For Alexander Macedo after he had vanquished Darius Codomannus in his last Battle at Arbela Darius being slain some Six months after by Bessus one of the Peers of his own Empire and Babylon taken translated the Monarchy from the Medes and Persians to the Greeks about the third year of the 112 Olympiad And that the Greek Empire was not unfitly set out by the Two Thighs of Brass by reason of those Two most eminent parts of it into which after Alexander's death it was divided and stood so divided for a long time namely the Two Kingdoms of the Lagidae and Seleucidae I have noted above And it may not be altogether impertinent to Note also what Iustin writes Lib. 12. Eâdie quâ natus est Alexander duae Aquilae totâ die praepetes super culmen domû patris ejus sederunt omen duplicis imperii Europae Asiaeque praeferentes Which shall bear rule over all the
seed of men The Septuagâ—…nt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By this Interpreters usually understand * alliance by Marriages whereby one Kingdom may be more surely obliged to keep peace and amity with another But dominandi cupido cunâ—â—is affectibus flagrantior est as the Historian observes And if this may go for a good sense as to the sodering of the Ten Kings one to another the Iron to the Iron yet we are to consdier that the Text here speaks of the Iron being mixt with Clay and how they come to unite They shall mingle one with another faith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It might as well be rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in sementi hominum that is by placing of men in Seminaries where they shall be so brought up informed and instructed suppose in Covents Monasteries and other such like places that they shall be made notable instruments so to insinuate into the Secular Powers and also into the People as to ingage their affections to his Holiness the great Ecclesiastick Sovereign and to all the Rites Institutes and Doctrines that are fittest to support that Papal Greatness The Propagation and Dissemination of such instruments as these I conceive to be alluded to as if he should say They shall mingle one with another agree or unite together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie by the sowing or planting of men in the Seminaries abovesaid fitting them for the foresaid purpose the more brisk cunning and gentile attacking Princes and great Men and other Monks Priests and Friers hanging fast on the people and clarting upon them and keeping warm in them all the modes of Idolatry and Superstition and all the Principles and Practices that may be gainfull to the Papal Hierarchy Thus the Clay sticks to the Iron as well as it can But they shall not cleave so very firmly one to another even as Iron is not mixed with Clay And what Bickerings and Clashings there have been betwixt these Two Powers the Secular and Ecclesiastick in particular Kingdoms the Chronicles of each Kingdom will declare As also what combates there have been betwixt the Pope and the Emperours both Greek and German is notoriously known to all I will only cite one passage out of The Defence of the Right of Kings written by King Iames of blessed Memory Let Histories be searched saith he Let just accounts be taken and beside many Sieges laid to Cities it will appear by true computation that Henry the Fourth and Frederick the First fought above Threescore Battles in defence of their own Right against the enemies of the Empire stirred up to Arms by the Popes of Rome And indeed the dealings and usurpations of that Hierarchy grew so intolerable that many Kingdoms at last shook them off and would admit the Papal Authority and Religion no longer Whereby was manifestly fulfilled which is here predicted by Daniel That they shall not cleave one to another even as Iron is not mixed with Clay It is an unnatural and heterogeneal union and therefore not durable and permanent This passage therefore in Daniel seems to answer to that in the Apocalypse Ch. 17. v. 16. And the ten Horns which thou sawest upon the Beast they shall hate the Whore and make her desolate and naked c. Which was performed in some measure in the happy Reformation begun in Luther's days and when there will be a farther accomplishment of it lies wholly in the pleasure of the Almighty 44. And in the days of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed After Daniel in his Interpretation has gone through all the Empires comprised in that Image which Nebuchadnezzar saw from head to foot now he begins to explain the mystery of the Stone cut out without hands whereby is understood Christ with his truly pure Apostolick Church Wherefore by in the days of these Kings must be understood in the days of the Fourth viz. in the time of the Roman Empire For Christ was born and his Gospel divulged and his Church first gathered in that time as every body must acknowledge And the Seventy weeks plainly carry to that time also But now this pure Church of Christ being called the Kingdom which the God of Heaven shall set up we may observe from hence how in our Saviour Christ's preaching and mentioning the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God that it had a respect to this Prophecy And the use of those Phrases with him does further ratifie our interpreting it thus of the appearance of Christ with his true Church Which is rightly called the Kingdom of Heaven or of God because the raising of it was by the special miraculous power of the God of Heaven And the administration of this his true Church is by his Spirit from above in the hearts of his true Believers God does truly rule there by his Spirit whence it is rightly called the Kingdom of God Which shall never be destroyed The Gates of Hell shall never prevail against it The true and living Church which the Spirit of Christ actuates this shall never fail And the Kingdom shall not be left to other people The Persians succeeded the Babylonians the Greeks the Persians and the Romans the Greeks but no Empire shall succeed nor any People the true Christian Church which is the Kingdom of God which either as Regnum Lapidis or else as Regnum Montis will last to the end of the World But it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms that is When it has become Regnum montis it will have overspread and will possess and keep in rule all the Countries that the Four great Monarchies signified by the Statue had occupied And the Three former Kingdoms being as it were incorporated into the Fourth or because the Four Kingdoms are in this Image exhibited at once the Kingdom of the Mountain for the embellishing the cortex of the Vision is said to break in pieces and consume all the other Kingdoms together striking the Image on the Toes as I noted above And it shall stand for ever According as it is said Apoc II. 16. The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and he shall reign for ever and ever 45. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the Stone was cut out of the Mountain without hands that is Forasmuch as the State of the true Church of Christ is the absolute work of God carried on by his special Providence not by humane arts or policies and that it was thus begun and that he is with his Church to the end of the World And that it broke in pieces the Iron the Brass the Clay and the Silver and the Gold Forasmuch as thou sawest the Stone cut out of the Mountain without hands to do this Which signifies the true Church of Christ thus supernaturally begun and as supernaturally emerging to this glorious issue at last
presented him as a Candidate for the designed Kingdom 14. And there was given him Dominion and Glory and a Kingdom that all People and Nations and Languages should serve him that is That some of all People should serve him in the pure Apostolick way of Doctrine and Worship and indeed the whole Roman Empire in a manner did so for a while after Constantine's time till the Apostasie came in Which small Interval of time in this Vision is not taken notice of as being inconsiderable But in the mean time it may be here seasonable to note that this Right of the Kingdom being given to the Son of man answers to the first Vision of the Seals the Vision of the Heros on the white Horse with a bow in his hand and who had a Crown given unto him Apoc. 6. 2. the right of the Imperial Crown So that this part of Daniel's Vision here commences with the Epocha of the Apocalypse or the beginning of Christianity For there seems Four Sentences to have been represented in this Iudicial Session of the Ancient of Days besides that touching the Three Beasts Ver. 12. one assigning the Kingdom in general to the Son of man the other the Judgment of the little Horn the third the giving of the more inlarged Kingdom to the Son of man upon the destruction of the little Horn and the fourth the final Doom of all at the day of Judgment properly so called But the first and the last there is only a slight perstriction or brief intimation of them but that of the little Horn is insisted on the abolishing of his power and the giving the great enlargement of the Kingdom the Regnum Montis to the Saints of the most High His Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed The true Church which is the genuine Kingdom of Christ and of which he alone is the Head as being Universal never yet from the beginning thereof has failed nor ever will fail to the end of the World 15. I Daniel was grieved in my Spirit in the midst of my body and the Uisions of my head upon my Bed troubled me that is I was very anxious to know what the meaning of this Vision might be And methought 16. I came near to one of them that stood by to one of the Assistant Angels in this great Session not to those that were placed on Thrones And asked him the truth of all this that is The plain meaning of this Prophetick Parable So he told me and made me know the Interpretation of things namely as follows and first in general 17. These great Beasts which are Four are Four Kings with their Kingdoms or Empires viz. the Babylonian Medo-Persian Greek and Roman which shall arise out of the Earth And therefore be but Earthly Kingdoms minding Earthly Things here below 18. But the Saints of the most High of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the most High God or of Christ who is called in the Apocalypse King of Kings and Lord of Lords Shall take the Kingdom of the Stone Regnum Lapidis from the first planting of the Gospel but Regnum Montis the Kingdom of the Mountain upon the destruction of the little Horn. And possess the Kingdom for ever even for ever and ever that is The true Church of Christ shall never fail till the end of the World as was intimated above And thus far in general touching the Vision but he holds on 19. Then I would know the truth the true meaning of the Fourth Beast which was divers from all others And in what regard we have above declared as also why so Excéeding â—â—â—adfull whose 〈◊〉 were of Iron and his Nails of Brass which 〈◊〉 brake in pieces and stamped the residue with his 〈◊〉 that also we have above explained 20. And of the Ten Horns that were in his Head And of the other especially which came up For the Interpretation is spent most in describing it Ver. 24 25. And before whom 〈◊〉 fell those three I above named Even of that Horn that had Eyes and would admit no other Horn to have Eyes besides it self especially in Spirituals And a Mouth that spoke 〈◊〉 great things both against the Law of God which this Horn the Papal Power pretends to have a right to dispense with and act contrary to and against the right of Kings and Emperours whom he pretends a Power of excommunicating and deposing and absolving their Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance if they submit not to the Decrees of his infallible Mouth which will be sure to pronounce nothing that is not agreeable to the worldly Interest of Holy Church For this Horn has the eyes of a man merely and directs all by the measure of humane Policy let him pretend never so much to inspired Infallibility Whose look was more stout than his 〈◊〉 That is that has a bold assured look affecting the greatest Grandeur imaginable as pretending to be Lord of the whole World in whose presence his Fellow Horns did but sneak as whose stirrop they are â—…ain to hold even Emperours themselves as well as Kings and other Princes when this little Horn is to ride on Horseback and to bear on their Shoulders his Chair when he will be carried in State to hold the Bason and Towel when he washes his hands and in publick Assemblies to sit at his Feet and if they will not be dutifull enough to be trod upon by his Feet as Frederick Barbarossa was served by Pope Alexander the Third who treading upon his Neck in conspectu populi with a bigg look and loud voice abused that of the Psalmist to his barbarous insulting over the Emperour Super aspidem leonem ambulabis c. Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and Adder c. These hints are enough to shew how fully this part of the Prophecy is accomplished whose look was more stout than his Fellows 21. I beheld and the same Horn namely the little Horn made war with the Saints and prevailed against them that is The Papal Power by using the forces of the Ten Horns or Secular Power makes war against the Saints the true Apostolick Church that stand out and cannot admit the gross corruptions and Idolatrous usages of the little Horn. This answers to that of the Apocalypse Ch. 13. v. 7. And it was given unto him to make war with the Saints and to overcome them It is spoken there of the Ten-horned Beast as the Executioner of the War but in Daniel of the little Horn as the Instigator or Authorizer of the War But this in the mean time is no small indication that the times of the little Horn belong to the times of the Ten-horned Beast healed which are the times of the Apostasie of the Church 22. Until the Ancient of Days came viz. Till he proceeded to that part of the Doom that pronounced Sentence against the little Horn. And Iudgment was given to the
call it All Superstitions never so Idolatrous All Doctrines never so monstrous shall pass into a Law and Decree if they serve this end For the Papal Omnipotency has a power to make what Laws and Institutes he pleases all Edicts and Decrees lodge in the Cabinet of his own Breast Whence he may produce what he pleases if you will believe his Canonists And they shall be given into his hand for a time and times and the dividing of a time or half a time i.e. And they shall be established authorized and inforced by the Secular Power of the Ten hornâ—…d Beast as was observed above To whom Apoc. 13. 5. power was given to continue Forty and two months which is just the same time with Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time in the literal sense each of the Sums amounting to Three years and a half a piece or 1260 days But in the Prophetical style they signifie so many years And that they are Prophetical â—â—ys not vulgar I have invincibly proved in my 〈◊〉 Prophetica Book 2. Ch. 5. See also my Mystery of Godliness Book 5. Ch. 15. Wherefore it is highly rational to conceive the times of the little Horn to synchronize with all the middle Synchronals of the Apâ—…calypse So that we may know plainly where we are 26. But the â—…udgment shall sit namely To judge the little Horn or Papal Hierarchy which is the Two-horned Beast in the Apocalypse or the Whore of Babylon To this alludes that saying of the Angel Apoc. 17. And there came one of the Seven Angels which had the Seven Vials and talked with me saying unto me I will shew unto thee the Iudgment of the great Whâ—…re that sitteth upon many waters with whom the Kings of the Earth have committed fornication And part of this judgment is menaced against her in the Epistle to the Church in Thyatira Apoc. 2. 20. under the name of Iezebel who calleth her self a Prophetess but seduces Christ's Servants to commit Fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto Idols Which Prophetess so called by her self is the Papal Hierarchy who boast themselves infallible but judgment is menaced against them Ver. 22. Behold I will cast her into a Bed and them that commit Adultery with her into great tribulation if they do not repent of their deeds Which Judgment fell upon her in the happy Reformation when so many Kingdoms and Countries deserted the Pope And likewise in the Song of the risen Witnesses Ch. 15. v. 4. Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name for thou only art Holy for all Nations shall come and worship before thee For thy Iudgments are made manifest And this is the former part of the execution of the Sentence against the little Horn or great Whore But the Execution goes on in the Seven Vials And they shall take away his Dominion to consume and destroy it unto the end that is By that time all the Vials be poured out upon the Two-horned Beast the little Horn with Eyes or the False Prophet his Dominion shall be quite destroyed and consumed which is the Second part of the Doom of the little Horn and will be compleated under the seventh Vial with which the Vision of that Divine Heros on the white Horse with a Sword coming out of his mouth doth contemporize Which Sword out of his mouth answers to the fiery stream out of the mouth of the Ancient of Days and both to that of S. Paul 2 Thess. 2. where he says that the Lord shall consume the Man of Sin by the Spirit of his mouth and destroy him with the brightness of his coming as I have noted above Now as the little Horn is doomed to destruction from whence the man of Sin is called the Son of perdition 2 Thess. 2. by this Divine Consistory which is one part of their Act in this Session so that ample and everlasting Kingdom that succeeds the destruction of the little Horn is adjudged to the truly Apostolick Catholick Church of whom Christ alone is Head Which is the other part of the Act of this Session and which alone is taken notice of Apoc. 20. 4. the other part having been taken notice of Ch. 17. and 18. 27. And the Kingdom and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High This is that other part of the Sentence pronounced by that Divine Sanhedrim in the behalf of the true Church that had been afflicted and oppressed so long under the Tyranny of the little Horn. The true Church then consisting of Iew and Gentile will overspread all This is to be accomplished under the second and third Thunders And I think no body can doubt but that the people of the Saints of the most High are the truly Catholick and Apostolick Church if he consider the description of the New Ierusalem in the Apocalypse And the most High is Christ who there is termed King of Kings and Lord of Lords and the Messias will be acknowledged in those days to be such both by Iew and Gentile This answers to that of Apoc. 20. 4. And I saw Thrones and they sate upon them and Iudgment was given unto them and the result was They that had not worshipped the Beast neither his Image c. they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years acknowledging him the only universal Head of the Church This will be the truly Holy Catholick Church of Christ as they are here called the people of the Saints of the most High Whos 's Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom not to end upon Earth till the last Thunder or Conflagration according to the tenour of the Apocalypse And all Dominions shall serve and obey him All Nations and Kingdoms shall willingly submit themselves to and injoy themselves in this mightily extended and overspreading Kingdom of the Son of man which the Ancient of Days had assigned to him Which well may be called the Kingdom of the Son of man in counterdistinction to those other Four Kingdoms that are set out by â—…ruel ravening Beasts â—…earing and trampling all under their Feet and forcing men to blind obedience with salvage violence as was usual in the Kingdom of Antichrist or little Horn with Eyes that would let no body see but himself Whenas the true Church of Kingdom of the Son of man as the Four Beasts or rather Wights in the Apocalypse are all full of Eyes within and without And certainly the Kingdom of the Son of man will be a Kingdom of unaffected Prudence defecate Reason and holy Love For this is the true Man the rest in us is but common to us with the brutes And therefore of such shall consist the Kingdom of Christ the Son of man as he perpetually calls himself after the abolition of the Kingdom of Antichrist 28. Hitherto is the end of the matter namely the matter the Angel communicated to him by way of Interpretation
the Persians says he under Darius the Son of Hystaspis and Xerxes made war upon Greece towards the North the said Darius made war against the Scythians toward the South Cambyses invaded Aegypt and Aethiopia as I noted above So evident is it that the whole succession is understood of the Kings of Media and Persia by the Ram together with their Kingdom Whence it is reasonable that by the Goat the whole succession of the Kings of the Greek Empire should be understood in like manner 21. And the rough Goat is the King of Grecia Hic Rex pro regno ponitur Hebraicâ locutione quae talia permiscet says Grotius And I say the rough Goat is the Kings of Graecia together with their Kingdom or Empire that is The whole succession of their Kings with their Kingdom or Empire But now for the rough Goat as he is here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hirsute or long-haired Goat and consequently long-bearded which above was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Interpreters make to be a young Goat and refer it to the youngness of Alexander when he undertook this expedition against Darius to win the Eastern Monarchy I do not see but this long-bearded Goat as he is here described may have reference to Alexander's Army it consisting of old Soldiers as Iustin describes them the Leaders especially Ordines quoque nemo nisi sexagenarius duxit ut si principia castrorum cerneres Senatum te alicujus priscae reipublicae videre diceres None says Iustin led the Files unless he was Threescore years old so that if you viewed the Fore-part of the Army you would take them to be the Senate of some ancient Common-wealth These long-bearded Sexagenarii appeared in the Fore part of the Army as the Goat's Beard goes before the rest of his Body But at least the condition of Alexander's Army consisting so much of old Soldiers may very well be prefigured by this long-haired or long-bearded Goat And the great Horn that is betwéen his Eyes is the first King This first King is most manifestly Alexander the Great a thing that no man ever denied and he is the first Horn of the Goat or first King of the Greek Empire From whence it necessarily follows that there must be other Horns and other Kings to succeed in this Body of the Goat or Greek Empire This is so plain that Grotius himself does allow it upon Ver. 8. that the Four Horns of the Leopard as he calls them he had better said Heads belong to the Greek Empire that is to the third Empire and consequently the Four Horns of the Goat Thus much Grotius whether he will or no is forced to allow though upon Chap. 2. he seems to endeavour to avoid it 22. Now that being broken whereas Four stood up for it Four Kingdoms shall stand up out of the Nation namely out of the Greek Nation These Four Kingdoms into which Alexander's Empire was divided Grotius is forced to confess as to the first Kings of them or Heads of them that they belong to the Leopard or Goat the third Monarchy Now what a miserable and unnatural divulsion is there that the Successours of Antigonus suppose of Ptolemaeus Lagi of Cassander and Lysimachus should be torn off as it were from their Predecessors in their Four Kingdoms respective to make a distinct Empire from the Greek which is as mad and extravagant as to cut off the Leopards and Goats Heads with their Horns to make Two Goats and Two Leopards of them And yet this valiant exploit Grotius aims at that he might excuse the Roman Empire from being the Fourth Beast and the Papal Power the little Horn amongst the other Ten. What Aegyptian darkness and blindness will Prejudice and Interest cast men into that can entertain such impossible conceits as these Here is but one Goat and one great Horn and Four lesser Horns which lesser Horns imply so many successions of the Four first Kings be they longer or shorter Which therefore according to the Prophetick style and common sense can make no more than one Greek Empire first entire under one King and then divided under Four with their Successours But not in his power that is they were neither so valiant as he in their own Persons nor was their Kingdom so strong by reason of the Wars among themselves they squabling one with another about the prey 23. And in the later time of their Kingdom when transgressions are come to the full that is When the Sins of the Iews shall be very much increased A King of fierce countenance understanding dark Sentences shall stand up This no man doubts but is understood of Antiochus Epiphanes but withall most of the Ancient and Modern look upon Epiphanes as a lively Type or Image of Antichrist But in that it is said in the later time of their Kingdom in the singular number that fairly offers to us this truth that in Prophetical account the four Kingdoms named before are looked upon as one Kingdom though they be divided into Four parts and have Four Kings some of longer and some of shorter succession But in that it is said in the later time of their Kingdom viz. of the Four Kings as they were at first this does so manifestly tye the first Four Kings to their succession even to Antiochus Epiphanes his times as many of them as reached so far that it is a plain demonstration that the Kingdom of the Four Horns doth extend it self into the times of Antiochus Epiphanes and that therefore the third Monarchy which is the Greek reaches at least so far Whereby Grotius his fond conceit of making the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae the fourth Empire and the fourth Beast is quite blown away And it is hence evident that the fourth Beast or Empire is the Roman Now that Epiphanes is said to be a King of a fierce countenance the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may as well signifie vultu duro obfirmato of an hard bold and shameless countenance The vulgar Latin renders it Rex impudens facie and Gasper Sanctius records one Specimen of his impudence out of S. Ierom Luxuriosus says he fuisse dicitur in tantum dedecus per stupra corruptelas venisse Regiae dignitatis ut Mimis quoque Scortis publicè jungeretur libidinem suam populo praesente compleret Which publick Fornication and Adultery of his whether it be a sign of greater shamelesness than the spiritual Fornication I mean the Idolatry of Antichrist his Antitype not only practised by himself in publick but also injoyned by him for others so to practise I leave the unprejudiced to consider and whether Antiochus his setting the Idol of Iupiter Olympius in the Temple be a greater piece of boldness than Aâ—…tichrist's setting himself in the Temple of God upon the Holy Altar which is the throne of Christ or God to receive publick adoration from men there shewing himself as if he were God
the true servants of God who will never suffer them to be tempted above what they can bear which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are Temporal but the things that are not seen are Eternal Even to the time of the end that is To the time of their ending For God had set his time wherein these afflictions of his Church should end as bounding all human affairs by his Power and Providence so that there may be a respiration to his people from these extremities of affliction And therefore there is put an end to this affliction of his Church because it was foreseen that another would begin as it is intimated to us by what follows according to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because it is yet for a time appointed The vulgar Latin has it Quia adhuc aliud tempus erit Because there will be yet another time namely of persecution of the Church of God viz. under the Roman Empire Pagan and Pagano-Christian Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an Elliptical speech as was observed above v. 27. Which verbatim is thus to be rendred Because yet-again at the time appointed subaudi There will be a persecution of my People or Church viz. under the Roman Empire whose succession begins in the next verse For hitherto is described from vers 21. the Reign and feats of Antiochus Epiphanes But that now the times of the Roman Empire succeed both the mention of A Time and Times and half a time Ch. 12. 7. and those other numbers there vers 11. that point to them and that vast gap that would be betwixt Antiochus his time and the Resurrection of the dead mentioned v. 2. may sufficiently assure us To which you may add that the Passage here from the Greek Empire to the Roman in the next verse is as distinct and plain as from the Persian to the Greek vers 3. and the like great success and Prosperity expressed in both in that of both Kings it is said And he shall do according to his will * Which therefore cannot be understood of Antiochus Whence they that would drag what follows of the Prophecy to that scope are fain to run back and apply the same things that were predicted before and so make the Prophecy to tautologize Besides many things are most wretchedly distorted and very weakly and faintly accommodated to the person of Antiochus Which Calvin being sensible of applies all to the Roman Empire from the times of the Roman Empire after Antiochus his death to the coming of Christ. In which besides that many things are dilute or forced he leaves a vast gap as well as those others viz. from the beginning of the Gospel to the Resurrection Which makes the Prophecy less worthy of that Pompous Preface to it viz. the Prefatory vision Ch. 10. as I noted above Wherefore there can be no doubt with them that consider the matter but that this Prophecy of the Scripture of Truth does not only here pass from the Greek Empire to the Roman upon the death of Antiochus and the vanquishing of Perseus the last King of Macedonia by Aemylius Paulus and turning his Kingdom into a Roman Province but that the Prophecy continuedly goes on though in general strokes through the whole series of times of the Roman Empire to the end of the world or general Resurrection And that as there has hitherto been predictions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Literally or Historically to be understood of the affairs of the Persian and Greek Kingdome and more particularly of those two parts thereof the Kingdoms of Syria and Aegypt where the real gests of Antiochus Epiphanes are foretold and are but onely as other Historical parts of Scripture drawn to a Typical sense so whatever follows touching the affairs of the Roman Empire has a plain Historical meaning and is so to be understood till its utter dissolution So that there will be no room left for such a Chimerical Antichrist as some of the Fathers have fancied and others have been either themselves such children or would have others to be such as to believe them Wherefore bidding adieu to Hugo Grotius and laying aside all the fancifull and Chimerical Crotchets of mistaken Antiquity I shall clear the sense of the remaining part of this Prophecy of the Scripture of Truth as follows 36. And the King shall do according to his will and shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every God This may be understood of the Roman Empire at large and the words be rendred thus Then shall a King do according to his will shall have all things go prosperously according to his desire by King understanding here as it is elsewhere in Daniel a State or Kingdome which is here the Roman upon the expiration of the Greek Empire Macedonia being conquered by the Romans of which Perseus was the last King contemporary to Antiochus whom Daniel foretels to reign Ch. 8. in the latter time of the Greek Kingdome And therefore the Roman is very fitly here supposed to succeed it after Antiochus Epiphanes the rest of his Successours being taken no notice of for the same reasons that all but one after Xerxes are past by in the Persian Empire And this Roman King or Kingdome is said to magnify himself above every God in that the Romans by sacred charms called out the Gods of those Cities they conquered and so as it were led them captive to Rome See my Synops. Prophet Book 2. Ch. 10. And shall speak marvelous things that is blasphemous against the God of Gods that is The officers of this Roman Power shall do so namely against Christ Jesus himself who was truly God as well as man and therefore the God of Gods and yet was he in word and deed most despightfully used by them and crucified And how the God of of Gods viz. the God of Israel was despised by the Romans a man may collect from that greatest Wit of the Roman Empire Marcus Cicero and one of the best men of them who yet speaks but contemptibly of the Religion of the Iews as unworthy of the greatness of the Roman name and Empire and insults over their Nation as less befriended by the Gods because they were vanquished and subjected to the Romans If a person of his quality went so far in reproach to the God of Israel what would others of less sagacity and morality blurt out See his oration pro Flacco And shall prosper till the Indignation be accâ—…mplished for that that is determined shall be done And yet they shall prosper notwithstanding this their villany towards Christ and bloudy persecution of his members wherein he was again reproached and blasphemed till the determined time of this rage ran out and that the Empire became Christian which was certainly determined to be
Dominion of a tyrannical Clergy over an affrighted and besotted Laity who are made to believe or at least out of fear to profess any thing that makes for the worldly Interest the Gain or Revering of the Priest for who without astonishment and affright can look upon such a Priest as professes himself and is believed to be a Creatour of his Creatour and by a few words to be able to change a piece of bread into the very person of Christ who is to be worshipped with Latria as being God Blessed for ever or it be those that have private phansies or freaks of their own and think never enough is done till Reformation come up to the measure of their conceit nor will suffer the Witnesses to rise or acknowledg them risen till things ascend to the pitch of that peculiar Idea which they have formed in their private imagination Whenas God be thanked things are in so good a frame for example in our English Church that nothing hinders but that a man may be a most perfect and accomplished Christian holding Communion with her The fruits of the Spirit are Love Joy Peace Longâ—…suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance Which of these fruits or priviledges of the Spirit I beseech you may you not injoy if it be not long of your self holding Communion with the Church of England And as for the works of the Flesh Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchraft Hatred Variance Emulation Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders Drunkenness Revellings are these any of them any conditions of the Communion of the English Church as some of them are of the Church of Rome as particularly that of Idolatry to say nothing of Heresy of Murder and Bloud of which that Church stands so deeply guilty which yet she justifies herself in and they in a manner subscribe to it that joyn in Communion with her But as our Church engages none in the guilt of such detestable wickednesses so it apertly declares against all the rest of the vices of this black roll and has a pure and unexceptionable form of the worship of God devoid of all Idolatry and Superstition Whence those people that so slight and vilify the Reformation which Gods providence has brought to pass amongst us their Ingratitude is monstrous and horrid and I pray God it may be never laid to their charge They will be reforming the Reformed Churches in things indifferent why do they not reform themselves from their own vices and corruptions which are not indifferent they having so full and fair opportunity by the free enjoyment of the Gospel and no man requiring unlawful things of them as they were required in that deplorable condition under the Church of Rome Wherefore fourthly All Magistrates supreme and subordinate in Reformed Christendome being in truth the established Powers whether spiritual or temporal of the Kingdome of Christ in opposition to the Kingdome of Antichrist this ought to be a rousing motive I trow to all in the Reformed Churches to give due Reverence and Honour to them as the appointed Ministers of the Kingdome of Christ and be obedient in all things lawful to the powers both Ecclesiastical and Civil and make no Schisms in the Church much less behave themselves rudely and malapertly as the custome of some has been as if they forsooth were the only children of the Kingdome when nothing but fanatical pride or mistake or the perfidious suggestions of foreign Emissaries or the envy of Satan has driven them to such misdemeanours to slur and disgrace the Reformation as much as he can But it being thus apparent that the Reformed Magistrates are the Risen Witnesses ruling in the Kingdome of Christ in opposition to the Kingdome of Antichrist or Dominion of the Pope whom the Reformed Princes have justly cast off as it appears out of the fulfilling of the Vision not onely â—…hose of the Reformed Persuasion are to come in to the Church and leave their Schism but those also that yet continue Romanists it is not onely lawfull for them the Dominion of the Pope being thus by Divine sentence abrogated and made null in England and in the rest of the Reformed Countries but their indispensable duty to renounce their Communion with the Church of Rome and communicate here with our English Church as elsewhere with other Reformed Churches and so become both good Christians and good Subjects at once But for those of the Protestant Persuasion to divide and subdivide which is but to doe that which all the activity of the Emissâ—…ries of Antichrist is chiefly employed about surely is a strange fruit of the Spirit which yet the most factious amongst them most of all boast of If it be not the Spirit of Pride and Hypocrisie it is yet certainly the Spirit of Giddiness Imprudence and Indiscretion Fifthly The Impletion of this Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses in the Reformation justifies all the Reformed Princes in Christendome in their casting off the Pope from all shew of injustice or Heresy which the Papal party would charge them with and demonstrates a Right in all the rest of the Princes of Christendome to doe the like it being but the recovery by degrees of the Kingdome of Christ out of the hands of Antichrist and delivering themselves and their people like so many good Moses's from that salvage Idolatrous and impious Dominion and worse than Aegyptian servitude of that mystical Pharaoh the Pope of Rome who has so notoriously and prodigiously defiled Christendome with Idolatry and bloud Sixthly it being so manifest that the Kingdomes and Principalities recovered out of the hands of the Pope that signal Antichrist predicted by Daniel John and Paul are indeed the Kingdomes of the Lord and of his Christ and that the supreme and subordinate Magistrates both temporal and spiritual set over them are set over them as the Vicegerents and Ministers of Christ in opposition to the Kingdome of Antichrist the duty of all such is so to discharge their offices as remembring they must one day give an account to Christ how well they have defended or enlarged his Kingdome or protected his loyal subjects in it nor given any advantages to those of the Kingdome of Antichrist to incroach upon or get foot-hold against the faithful Subjects of Christs Kingdome But that any Magistrate spiritual or temporal should be so disloyal to Christ as to betray any part of Christs Kingdome into the hands of Antichrist that is a thing that none can think on without unspeakable astonishment and horrour Certainly they must have a deep Melancholy and darksome jealous mind that can so much as fansie it possible to come into any ones breast so to doe that remembers he is intrusted with such a charge from our Saviour Iesus Christ who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and has the keys of Hell and Death Which consideration touches also private persons in proportion as well as publick Magistrates as many
Earth So it is said of him I Maccab. I. He made many Wars and won many strong holds and slew the Kings of the Earth and went through to the ends of the Earth And so Iustin Lib. 12. From the utmost Coasts of the Ocean were Embassies sent to him returning to Babylon both of the Carthaginians and other Cities of Africk yea of Spain Sicily France Sardinia And some also from Italy expected his return to Babyloâ—…ia Adeo universum tâ—…rrarum orbem nominis ejus terror invaserat ut cunctae gentes veluti destinato sibi Regi adularentur Which is enough to shew how well this prediction sutes with the event 40. And the fourth Kingdom shall be as strong as Iron That this fourth Kingdom is the Roman is manifest from hence that it succeeds the Greek Empire which it may seem most properly first to seise upon when Aemylius Paulus the Roman Consul had vanquished Perseus the last King of Macedonia But about an Age after the Kingdoms of the Lagidae and Seleucidae those Two eminent Parts or Thighs rather of the Macedonick or Greek Empire were subdued also by the Romans The last of the Seleucidae or Kings of Syria Tigranes â—… as vanquished by Pompey and Syria reduced into a Province as also Aegypt by Augustus when he had vanquished Antâ—…nius the Husband of Cleopatra Daughter of Ptolemaeus Auletes the last but one of the Lagidae or Kings of Aegypt Whence it is plain that the Roman succeeds the Greek Empire as the Greek the Medo Persian and that therefore this is the Fourth Kingdom prefigured by the Image of Four several Metals And the Genius of the Roman Empire the former days of it especially sutes well with this Metal they being not only full of courage and valour but also hardy rigid severe and indeed cruel They that are any thing versed in History will easily acknowledge this a fitting Character To which you may add what is intimated in the Text namely that as Iron can cut and form and subdue all those Three first Metals Gold Silver and Brass so the Roman Empire could vanquish and subdue all those Regions wherein the Babylonian Medo-Persian and Grecian Empire was spread Which feat not being done by the Kingdoms of the Lagidae and Seleucidae it is impossible they should be the Fourth Kingdom of Daniel And besides this we may be infallibly sure that the Fourth Kingdom is the Roman in that the Stone cut out without hands happened during the Roman Empire and it must happen in some of the Four Kingdoms according to the Vision and not during the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae Forasmuch as Iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things and as Iron breaketh all these viz. all these Metals of Gold Silver and Brass shall it this Roman Kingdom or Empire break in pieces and bruise the Countries and People which the Babylonian Medo-Persian and Grecian Empires had ruled over 41. And whereas thou sawest the Féet and Coes. Here is mention made of Toes with the Feet which justifies our exposition above Ver. 33. But now we are come hither we must remember we are come unto that period of the Roman Empire when it was divided into Ten Kingdoms which are intimated by the Ten Toes of the Statue Which Ten Toes answer to the Ten Horns of the Beast actually crowned Which is the time that the Two horned Beast rises out of the Earth so it is said Apoc. 13. And why not out of a white Clayie clammy Earth such as Potters make use of as well as out of any other Earth beside And no man I think while he considers that the Iron here signified men a body Politick of them can stick to admit that this Clay does signifie so likewise But there being so palpable a difference betwixt Iron and Clay it is manifest that there must be as great a difference betwixt these Two bodies Politick the one signified by the Iron the other by the Clay the former suppose the Secular Power the latter the Ecclesiastical as it is said of the Papal Hierarchy which is the little Horn Chap. 7. 24. that that Horn or King shall be diverse from the rest which diversification here betwixt the Secular and Ecclesiastical Power signified by the Iron and the Clay need not be expressed in words the Symbols themselves being so apparently different Part of â—…otters Clay and part of Iron that is partly of such clammy white Clay as Potters make use of and partly of Iron which implies that by that time the Empire was divided into Ten Kingdoms the Summa Pâ—…tâ—…stas began to be neither in the Secular Power absolutely nor in the Hierarchical but they were so mingled together that it was not compleat or full without both concurrent the Ecclesiastick Power getting such a hank upon the Secular in ordine ad Spiritualia the effects whereof within no long time appeared with a witness The Kingdom â—â—all be 〈◊〉 that is The Power will be divided or shared betwixt the Papal or Sacerdotal Hierarchy and the Secular Orders of Emperours and Kings For the Iron and Clay cannot stand for the division of the Empire into Ten Kingdoms for that the Ten Toes prefigure but the sharing the Summa Potestas betwixt the Secular Magistrate and Papal or Sacerdotal Hierarchy But there shall be in it of the strength of the Iron forasmuch as thou sawest the Iron mixed with the miry Clay that is to say The Sword-men or Secular Power of the Ten Kings was so assured to the maintaining the Power and the Institutes of the Papal Hierarchy though never so foul or Idolatrous so they made for the Sacerdotal worldly Interest that the Papal Empire or the Empire framed according to that pattern and scope was as it were strengthned with Iron Which is that which is intimated Apoc. 17. 13. where the Ten Kings are said to give their Strength and Power to the Beast that was and is not and yet is Which is the Empire refashioned again into a Pagan-like Idolatrous Form for the worldly advantage of the Papal Hierarchy Thus was the Iron mixed with the miry Clay the Ten Kings cleaving so close to the interest of the Papal Idolatrous Clergy 42. And as the Toes of the Féet were part of Iron and part of Clay that is And as every one of those Ten Kingdoms consisted of Temporal power and Ecclesiastical the Papal Hierarchy being branched through all the Ten Kingdoms till the Reformation So the Kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken that is The Roman Empire divided into these Ten Kingdoms shall be partly strong and partly brittle the Papal Power weakening the absolute Power of each Kingdom and occasioning many breaches and jars in Christendom 43. And whereas thou sawest Iron mâ—…xt with miry Clay I shall tell thee the reason of it by what means it came to pass in that measure it did They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men so our English renders it With the
to see a person of so considerable Parts and Learning to fall into such a delirancy But what we here adventure on is sober enough viz. the supposing that the Babylonian Empire even from its beginning is here represented by the First Beast there being the like liberty taken in the Apocalypse And this being supposed the Exposition will run smoothly and unexceptionably 1. In the first year of Belshazzar the Son of Evil-Merodac who was the Son of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon namely the last King of Babylon who was slain by the Medes and Persians the City Babylon being taken by Cyrus in the Eighteenth year of Belshazzar's Reign according to Thomas Lydiat Daniel had a Dream and Uision of his head upon his bed He had a Divine Vision communicated to him in his sleep For Prophetical Visions are communicated to the Prophets either way either sleeping or waking and they are either way truly Divine Then he wrote the Dream and told the sum of the matters that is to say He declared the sum of the matters in writing 2. Daniel Spake and said viz. he declared thus touching himself I saw says he in my Vision by night and behold the four â—…inds of the heaven strove upon the great Sea By the great-Sea in the Prophetick language is understood vast multitudes of People that overspread the face of the Earth as the Waters of the Sea doe By the Winds is understood that invisible Principle of motion from whence comes that â—…icissitude of mutations amongst the Nations of the Earth who are driven this way and that way according as the active part whatever it is that answers here to the Winds doth move them Whether they be Angelical Powers which superintend the affairs of Nations or what-ever else And it is said in the Psalms Who maketh his Angels Spirits his Ministers a flaming Fire On which Grotius learnedly and ingeniously glosses thus Psal. 104. 4. Sunt Angelorum alii Aerei alii Ignei and a little after Esse Angelis corpora sed subtilissima non Pythagorae tantùm Platonis Schola sensit sed Iudaei veteres veteres Christiani The activity therefore of the Aerial Genii or Angels may be understood by these Winds or the Commotions they bring in by Divine Providence in the Production of new Empires and demolition of the old From the subtility of their bodies but it may be chiefly from their activity in the Innovations and Commutations of the affairs of mankind in pulling down and building up Kingdoms and Empires these Angelical orders are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 venti And there is a quadripartition of them Zach. 6. a distribution of them into Four Chariots with various coloured Horses Where to the Prophet asking what are these my Lord it is answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isti sunt quatuor venti Coeli where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the very same word that is in Psal. 104. 4. These are the Four Winds of Heaven The Quaternio of the Angelical Ministers of Divine Providence Something like that Apoc. 7. where there is mention of the Four Angels at the Four Corners of the Earth holding the Four Winds of the Earth that they should not blow on the Earth nor on the Sea And that the great things in the vicissitude of Kingdoms and Empires are done by the Angels is an Hypothesis that both Daniel and the Apocalypse plainly supposes the latter indeed inculcates to awaken this dull Sadducean Age. This I don't doubt but is one sense of this passage in Daniel but if any one think it too sublime and remote from the vulgar capacity he may substitute for these Angelical Powers here denoted by the Winds the ambitious and unquiet minds of great Princes and Politicians and their Officers and those blusters they make in the World by their impetuous activity to begin or increase their Dominion and to inlarge it into a more absolute Empire But the more sober may take in both Senses according to the Genius of the Prophetick style that by the same Symbol exhibits frequently more things than one at once But that these Winds are said to be Four it may be partly in allusion to the Four Quarters of the World partly to the mystical meaning of the number Four in setting out the Angelical Kingdom or Ministry and partly to the Four Beasts that were to arise in succession one after another out of the Sea by the striving thereon not all together but one after another For expressing the thing so as if they all coâ—â—â—cted one with another at the same time is but for the embellishing the Cortex of the Vision of which no more is to be taken in than is agreeable to History and Reason But this in the mean time is very remarkable that being the very Priâ—…ordia here of them all is premised is necessarily follows that the Visâ—…ion reaches the very beginning of each Empire the Babylonian as well as the rest or because it reaches the very beginning of the first of these Empires that that Empire must be the Babylonian as we shall see in the procedure 3. And four great Beasts came up from the Sea Which as I said shews that the Vision reaches the very rise or first beginning of each of them But here we are again to Note that though all Four are here mentioned together yet the rising out of the Sea was one after another But their coming thus out of the Sea together strikes the phancy more strong which is the peculiar scope of the Cortex of the Prophecies both here and in the Apocalypse Diversone from another viz. in shape and condition But in the mean time they are all Beasts The Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wild Beasts And Grotius upon the place Ideo Bestiae saith he quia Idololatrica erant Imperia ut not at hic Jacchiades Their Idolatry indeed shews their brutishness being accustomed to no higher a dispensation of Religion than adoration of visible Objects as the Elephant is said to worship the Moon But cruelty is another ingredient to make them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wild Beasts such salvage Cruelty and gross and stupid Idolatry being exquisitely opposite to the Kingdom of the Son of Man who came to erect the Empire of Love and Charity and of pure Religion the worshipping the Father in Spirit and in truth 4. The First was like a Lion a Beast of a fulvid or Golden colour as the Poets describe him and the head of all Beasts which is the Babylonian Empire signified also by the Golden head of the Image or Statue The Prophet Ieremy likewise describes Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon by this Animal Ch. 4. 7. The Lion is come up from his thicket and the Destroyer of the Nations is on his way And had 〈…〉 which betoken the quickness of his dispatch in his expeditions and conquests And accordingly the same Prophet speaking of Nebuchadnezzar his coming against the Iews Ch. 4. 13. Behold
days are not symbols of so many years as elsewhere which Calvin also observes but are to be taken in the literal sense as was above declared though the other part of the interpretation touching Antiochus Epiphaâ—…es may have also a further meaning touching Antichrist But it is here to be noted that the Angels giving notice to Daniel that the Vision of the 2300 days is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a plain truth no aenigma but that the days signifie days in a literal sense does imply that unless there be some such notice to the contrary that they signifie aenigmatically and stand for years as in Dan. 12. 11 12. Wherefore shut up the Uision that is to say Having exactly writ this Vision with the explication lock it up safely that the Original may be kept to compare with the Event So Grotius as well as Cornelius à Lapide and Calvin For it shall be for many days The time from the Prophecy to the Event will be a long time betwixt Three and Four hundred years For from Belshazzar's Reign to Antiochus Epiphanes is about 380 years 27. And I Daniel fainted and was sick certain days namely By reason of my converse with and consternation of mind from the hearing and seeing of those Angelical Powers so much removed above the condition of us Mortals and also out of sadness for the prophanation of the Sanctuary and great calamities of my Nation which were foretold me Afterwards I rose up and did the King's business that is After I had grown well again I went about the business the King sent me for into Susiana where I was when I saw this Vision And I was astonished at the Uision that is I lookt with an astonished or forlorn look by reason of the Vision I had seen that portended so much ill to my people But none understood it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 None understood what the matter was with me that I lookt so sadly and ghastly on it Quà m diligentissime poteram dissimulabam dolorem meum To that sense Grotius interprets the place and before him Theodoret Maldonat and Gasper Sanctius NOTES Upon VISION III. Ver. 5. That strange exploit of his literally taken c. His climbing up with his Soldiers a steep Rock as natural Goats are said to do The Story is in Iustin lib. 12. cap. 7. Peragrata India cùm ad Saxum mirae asperitatis altitudinis in quod multi populi confugerant pervenisset cognoscit Herculem ab expugnatione ejusdem Saxi terrae-motu prohibitum Itaque cupidine Herculis acta superare cum summo labore ac periculo potitus Saxo omnes ejus loci gentes in deditionem accipit Ver. 8. Ptolemaeus the Son of Lagus Sovereign of Aegypt c. The Authentickness of this distribution to be applied to the Four Horns that is the notable ones as the Four chief Successours of Alexander appears from Diodorus Siculus lib. 19. p. 727. Where upon Cassander Ptolemaeus and Lysimachus their making peace with Antigonus the Sum of the form of Agreement was this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say That Cassander should be chief Commander of Europe till Alexander the Son of Roxana came to Age and Zysimachus should be Lord of Thracia and Ptolemaeus of Aegypt with the Cities conterminous in Africk and Arabia And Antigonus should be Prefect of all Asia And the Greeks live after their own Laws And thus they continued but advanced in title For upon Demetrius his Naval victory over Ptolemy and notice given thereof to his Father Antigonus Antigonus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 puffed up at the greatness of the success put upon himself a royal Crown and took to himself the title of King Which out of emulation and to shew himself not at all discouraged by that late defeat Ptolemy did also and in imitation of him Lysâ—…machus and Cassander Which things Iustin also witnesses lib. 15. cap. 2. And Seleucus a supernumerary to the Four notable Horns who did rise up after Ptolemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lately having acquired the Satrapies of Syria superior to adjoyn to his former Prefecture crowned himself King also Diodor. lib. 20. p. 761. But that the above-named Four Horns still continued tight till Seleucus routed Antigonus and his Son and so succeeded in their place is plain from Diodorus For there is mention how Cassander Lysimachus Seleucus and Ptolemaeus by common consent made war against Antigonus lib. 20. p. 787. his ambition threatening to swallow up all And wheâ—…as some leave out Lysimachus out of the number of the Four first notable Horns it is without reason and against the testimony of this excellent Historian Diâ—…dorus Siculus who reckons them together and gives us to understand that Seleucus came on afterwards as a supernumerary helpt to this his power which afterward proved so considerable by the favour of Ptolemy as part of the very Title of the Nineteenth Book of Diodorus gives us to understand which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. How Seleucus receiving a small Army from Ptolemy made himself Master of Babylon and recovered his former Satrapy and Prefecture again And that Lysimachus may not be thought unworthy of the rank of those Four notable Horns consider what Iustin says of him Erat hic Lysimachus illustri quidem Maoedoniae loco natus sed virtutis experimentis omni nobilitate clarior quae tanta in illo fuit ut â—…nimi magnitudiâ—…e Philosophiâ ipsâ viriumque gloriâ omnes per quos Oriens domitus est vicerit So little 〈◊〉 is there but that according to Thomas Lydiat out of Diodorus he should be reckoned one of the Four notable Horns after the breaking of that first great one Ver. 9. But of the Kingdom of the Seleucidâ—…e c. The truth of what is said here will be the more easily acknowledged from what we have produced upon the foregoing Verse out of Diodorus and Iustin. But I cannot here but take notice of the well grounded confidence of Thomas Lydiat who in his Emendatio Temporum Anno Mundi 3693. writes thus Videtur verò nobis pace omâ—…inum ipsum 〈◊〉 Imperium hoc tempore Babylone institutum aliquaâ—…to post caetera illa quatuor Successorum Alexandri â—…uisse parvum illud Cornu juxta Danielem Prophetaâ—â— ab uno eorum exoriens quandoquidem Selâ—â—cus 〈…〉 initium Ptolemaeo acceptâ—â— retulerit ac 〈◊〉 sâ—…pra ipsum evectus fit The reasons are manifest from the foregoing Note on the Eighth Verse And of these Two main Kingdoms of the Lagidae and Seleucidae he adds this observation that the Epocha of the Anni Seleucidâ—…rum is at this very day by the Arabians Saracens and Mahoâ—…etans called Dhilcarâ—…aâ—â—â— from these Two Horns so remarkable in History and the Prophecy of Daniel Which is the Genius of the Prophetick style to give as it were Two strokes at once c. viz. A more general stroke and a more particular touch and that in the series of the same words The former whereof for
the Passion of Christ according to Funccius and others But our Country-man Thomas Lydiat has adjusted the Chronology of Times so that from this Epocha of the Twentieth of Artaxerxes the Passion will fall in the middle of the last Week which is exquisitely according to the prediction of the Prophecy as we shall hear anon Unto Messiah the Prince that is Unto the manifestation of that Person that is so well known and so much expected by the Iews under the name of their Messiah the word never being used absolutely but concerning him To the initiation therefore of him into his Ministry he being first baptized by Iohn and so shewing himself after in preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and doing Miracles for the confirmation thereof in the sight of all the people To this manifestation of the Messiah Shall be seven Wéeks and threescore and two Wéeks that is Sixty nine Weeks there being no mystery in the paâ—…ting of these Numbers saving an Hebrew Idiom to be understood from Ezekiel Ch. 45. v. 12. and Gen. 5. often in that Chapter as also Ch. 8. v. 3. as Grotius comments upon the place In the last day of the Sixty ninth Week that is in the Four hundred eighty third year from the Twentieth of Artaxerxes Longimanus did Iesus the Messiah manifest himself according to Thomas Lydiat's Chronology whom I conceive to have hit the nail on the head in this business The stréet shall be built again and the wall This seems to be added on purpose to give light to Interpreters that the Decree here mentioned from whence the Weeks do commence is the Decree granted in the Twentieth year of Artaxerxes because that was expresly for the City and the Wall the other Three that preceeded for the Temple The sense is That not only the Area of Ierusalem shall again be replenished with Houses but the Wall shall also be built again Even in troublesome times As it appears out of Nehemiah Ch. 4. For the Builders were fain to have their Swords in readiness as well as their Trowels 26. And after thréescore and two Wéeks shall Messiah be cut off namely After the Sixty two Weeks which succeed immediately the Seven Weeks that is to say after Sixty nine Weeks shall Messiah be cut off viz. The above-named Messiah the Prince For that must needs be the natural meaning thereof and as I said before Messiah is never put thus absolutely but here whence doubtlesly the Iews gave him whom they expected for their Redeemer the name of Messiah And now for cut off if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original it might signifie transfixus or affixus as Funccius would have it but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to cut off not only from life but as Mr. Mede says from reigning as a King And in respect of the Iews he was cut off in both these senses For he was the Messias their Prince whom his own people rejected and cut off from life and thereby from themselves that they should be no more his people nor he their King But not for himself The Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and most easily and naturally is translated And they shall be none of his viz. They that cut him off or crucified him the People of the Iews shall no longer be his People This sense generally Interpreters run upon and it is most congruous and coherent The Messiah shall be cut off by the hands of the people of the Iews and that 〈…〉 none of his And the people of the 〈…〉 shall come i.e. But the people designed 〈…〉 people of Messiah the Prince hereafter For 〈…〉 â—…ede interprets the place excellently well in 〈…〉 rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Populus 〈…〉 understanding thereby the Romans in 〈◊〉 Empire Christ was chiefly to have his Church 〈◊〉 Kingdom And it is most natural that as Messiah before was the same with Messiah the Prince so the Prince here should be the same with the Messiah the sense not only fitting exceeding well but being more closely knit and compact Shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary For this hainous Parricidium of the Iews namely for their murthering of their Messiah the Prince shall the Romans destroy their City and their Sanctuary which was effected by Titus the Son of Vespasian And the end thereof shall be with a 〈◊〉 that is After the destruction of the City the Roman Army shall overflow Iudea And to the end of the war desolations are determined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grotius here interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for not to and renders it Pro fine belli erit definita desolatio Deus hunc exitum bello isti praefinivit terrae vastitatem God has determined that issue of the War the devastation of the Land 27. Aâ—…d he shall confirm the Covenant with many for one Wéek Mr. Mede renders it Nevertheless he shall For indeed the conjunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has the force in a manner of any conjunction and may be rendred according as the sense directeth And the most genuine sense seems that which Mr. Mede has given That though Israel was cast off yet a Remnant according to the election of Grace should be won off to Christ by the preaching of the Gospel of his Kingdom which should be done before and after his Passion by himself and his Apostles This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or New Covenant which adorns the very Title page of the New Testament And the Seventy turn it in this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall confirm the Covenant that is The Covenant of the Gospel See Funccius on the place And that with many i.e. with several For so the word signifies frequently though it be true also that many of the Iews were converted and entred the Covenant within the space of this one Week which is the Seventieth or last Week some being converted before Christ's Passion others afterwards But the main Body of the Iews remained obstinate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and were none of his pleople And in the midâ—â— of the Wéek he shall cause the sâ—…crâ—…fice and oblation to cease This implies the death of the Mâ—…ssiah as well as that in the foregoing Verse And after Threescore and two Weeks the Messiah shall be cut off but the time there is less definitive So be it be but afâ—…er the Threescore and second Week or rather the Sixty ninth and before the Seventieth expire that part of the Prophecy as to time would be fulfilled if there were no more accurate determination intimated as there seems to be here and that he is to be cut off in the midst of the last Week suppose in the fourth year thereof Whis is the scope that Thomas Lydiat has aimed at and as I conceive hit the mark Which makes me now less adhering to that laxe sense of in the midst which I set down in my Mystery of Godliness on this Verse Wherefore about the fourth year
presently upon the defeat and death of Antonius cum collega M. Agrippa The third a little before his own death cum Tiâ—…erio Collega The middle Tax was that which was begun by his appointment in the year of P. Vinitius and P. Alfinius Varus but finished Aelius Catus and Sentius Saturninus being Consuls as Thomas Lydiat makes good out of History And that it is that middle Tax of Augustus that the Evangelist Luke points at is plain in that the first and last are too far removed to pretend to be the Tax at what time Christ was born And besides the year before the beginning of this Tax Caius Caesar and Aemylius Paulus being Consuls the Gates of Ianus Quirinius were the third time shut up by Augustus and it is a tradition of the antient Fathers that Christ was born in such a time of Peace Moreover in the beginning of the Consulship of Vinitius and Alfinius was the twenty eighth of Augustus his obtaining that Title together with that supream and Sacrosanct Tribunitial power and Clemens Alexandrinus expresly says that Augustus his Tax and our Saviour's Birth was in the Twenty eighth year of Augustus his Reign And lastly Epiphanius farther to confirm the other says our Saviour was born in the twenty ninth year after the Iews were perfectly joyned with the Romans and Iudaea fully reduced under Tribute so that they had paid Tribute to the Romans these nine and twenty years commencing after the fourth year of Herod his being constituted King by Augustus Forasmuch as so many entire years says Thomas Lydiat intervene from the first Tax of Augustus peracted himself the sixth time and Agrippa the second time being Consuls to his second Tax instituted Vinitius and Alfinius being Consuls To this purpose does Thomas Lydiat argue to prove that our Saviour was born in the time of the second Tax of Augustus which was begun Vinitius and Alfinius and ended Aelius Catus and Sentius Saturninus being Consuls But not content with this he further proves that Christ was born in the very middle year of this Tax L. Aelius Lamia and M. Servilius Geminus being Consuls and P. Sulpitius Quirinius or Cyrenius being then Governour of Syria and that the first Tax that he medled in as the Greek Luke 2. v. 2. will very well bear it expunging the Comma betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the year of these Consuls Aelius Lamia and Servilius Geminus is the 41 year of the Reign of Augustus to be computed from the Consulship of Pulcher and Flaccus which is the Aera Hispanica in Tomis Conciliorum as Helvicus notes but in this 41 year of Augustus was Christ born according to the testimony of Irenaeus and Tertullian and others which is no mean argument in a matter of this nature Again P. Quirinius was sent Rectour or Tutour by Augustus to Caius Caesar after he had gotten Armenia For M. Lollius the former Tutor of Caius being dead a little before Tiberius his return out of Rhodes which was when Vinitius and Alfinius were Consuls and Caius after his renewing his confederacy with the Parthians and gone again into Armenia being in an heedless conference treacherously wounded and thereby disinabled as well in mind as body to attend publick affairs from hence there can be no doubt since Luke affirms this Tax to be carried on Quirinius or Cyrenius being Governour of Syria or guiding the affairs there and that Caius was thus unhinged who indeed died within a year after that disaster there can be no doubt I say but that Augustus by this same P. Quirinius at this time Aelius Lamia and Servilius Geminus being Consuls carried on the Tax at what time Christ was born in Bethlehem his Parents coming up thither to be taxed And that it is not for nothing called the first Tax of Quirinius to distinguish it from that other which he afterwards was imployed in when the Kingdom was taken from Archelaus Thirdly Whereas Suslyga and Kepler make that Tax under which Christ our Lord was born depending or interrupted Suslyga for four years from the Consulate of Censorinus and Asinius and Kepler six whole years from the year after the Consulate of Quirinius to the twelfth Consulate of Augustus with Sylla as reaching to Saturninus President of Syria under whom Tertullian with all confidence affirms the said Tax to be finished I appeal says Thomas Lydiat to Kepler's Conscience and Ingenuity whether my account which reducing the Tax within the space of three years divides it by years and half years betwixt Quirinius and Sentius allotting a year and an half to each so that Quirinius together with his prefecture of Syria began to carry it on in Iudaea in the beginning of the Consulate of Alfinius and Vinitius but Sentius succeeding him and Caius in the midst of the summer the usual time of changing the Presidents of Provinces next following the Nativity of Christ Servilius and Lamia being Consuls that Sentius I say finished it in the Consulship of Aelius Catus and Sentius Saturninus his Son in all probability I appeal saith he to Kepler whether this account be not far more rational and congruous than that of Suslyga or his own Fourthly and lastly for it were too prolix to take in all It appears out of Velleius Suetonius and Dion that Augustus adopted Tiberius and Agrippas Pâ—…sthumus in the midst of the Consulate of Aelius Catus and Sentius Satâ—…rninâ—…s the junior But Eusebius in his Chronicon places the Nativity of Christ in the year immediatly preceeding that adoption which therefore is the year of Aelius Lamia and Servilius Geminus Consuls These reasons with others which for brevities sake I have omitted being considered and how stoutly and dextrously T. L. has removed all blocks and rubbish which either Scaliger Kepler or Suslyga have cast in his way it may convince any unprejudiced man that reads him that he is in the truth touching the time of the Nativity of our blessed Saviour Now for his Baptism whereas they usually refer it to the fifteenth year of Tiberius he places it in the beginning of the nineteenth which makes about four years difference again And indeed considering that Iohn the Baptist began but his Function which was to prepare the way to the Messias on the fifteenth of Tiberius as it appears Luke 3. and that Province being of so great moment and consequence to wit Iohn his approving of himself so to all the People that he might be an idoneous Witness to our Saviour that was to come after him it was requisite that he should exercise his proper Ministry some competent time before our Saviour appeared upon the Stage And who can say that the space of about four years is more than competent or superfluous But let us hear Thomas Lydiat's own Reasons And the first is to that purpose we have already intimated only he adds that Iohn doing no Miracles and yet having by the exemplarity of his Life and the Efficacy of
of Esther will assure us thereof which says he reigned from India even to Aethiopia over an hundred and seven and twenty Provinces And Iustin Lib. 2. notes of the riches of Xerxes that though his Army was so numerous that they drunk up rivers yet his riches were so great that the expence of so vast an Army nor any other occasions could exhaust them So hugely is it verified of this fourth King that he was far richer than they all and that therefore there is no doubt but that it is Xerxes Which yet is further confirmed from what follows And by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the Realm of Grecia The expedition of Xerxes against the Greeks is so vulgarly known and copiously set down in Iustin Diodorus Siculus and Herodotus that to remind the Reader of it is sufficient And that he did stir up all against the Realm of Grecia is I think very plain if we consider the numerousness of his Army as it is described in Herodotus Lib. 7. Cap. 186. where he reckons up no less than twenty six hundred thousand and forty one thousand six hundred and ten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fighting men to which he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Attendants of the Army that were to minister to them and others that came along with them All which put together says he made a number at least as big as that of the fighting men So that there was in all at least two and fifty hundred thousand and eighty three thousand two hundred and twenty And this says he is the number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the whole Army which he brought as far as to the Thermopylae But for the number of the women to dress their meat and of Courtizans and Eunuchs of Wagon-horses and other beasts of burthen and of Indian Dogs it was not to be told they were so many Whence says he I less wonder that it is reported that some Rivers were drunk up by them which also Diodorus relates and likewise the number of his Ships that they were about one thousand two hundred So that Xerxes by this account may well be said to have stirred up all against the Realm of Grecia And he must needs be rich that could set out such a Fleet and maintain such an Armie as I noted above Thus notably is this Prophecy of Daniel fulfilled concerning this fourth King of Persia. Who came against the Realm of Grecia with an Army to quite overflow them and swallow them up at once Of which Xerxes confiding in the numerousness of his Army made himself sure in a manner as we may understand by that discourse betwixt him and Demaratus that had been King of Sparta See Herodot Lib. 7. Cap. 101 102 c. For we have already produced enough to shew how fully the prediction is accomplished But why there are no more than four of the Persian Kings mentioned in this Prophecy and why four I conceive the reason is because the scope of this Prophecy is mainly to forewarn the People of God of the evils that would come upon them or what mutations there would be in which they were concerned whether Iews or Christians and therefore the catalogue of the Kings of Persia is so short but yet brought down to Xerxes who would have swallowed up all Greece as a fit transition to the expedition of Alexander against the Persians which intimates the reasonableness of the success which was given him by Providence as follows 3. And a mighty King shall stand up namely Alexander the great That shall rule with great dominion and do according to his will that is All things shall succeed according to his mind And it is Curtius his character of him Lib. 10. Fatendum est tamen cùm plurimum virtuti debuerit plus debuisse Fortunae quam solus omnium mortalium in potestate habuit He had the world in a string as our English Proverbial Phrase is So fitly is this Prophecy fulfilled in Alexander But we will only take notice by the by how like this is which is a Transition from the Persian Empire to the Grecian how like it is I say to that Transition from the Grecian to the Roman Vers. 36. And a King shall do according to his will In both which the transition is so little pompous and discriminative that if the matter it self did not discover there was a Transition from one Empire to another the Form of Transition would scarcely assure us of it But being no man doubts but that here is a Transition though the form be so slender and obscure from the Persian to the Grecian Empire so the slenderness and obscureness of the Form of the Transition v. 36. from the Greek Empire to the Roman ought to be no prejudice to the reality thereof 4. And when he shall stand up his Kingdom shall be broken and shall be divided toward the four winds of Heaven namely into four Kingdoms lying North West East and South Which are the Kingdoms of Thracia Macedonia Asia and Aegypt which belonged to Lysimachus Cassander Antigonus and Ptolemaeus See what has been said above Ch. 8. And not to his posterity For within sixteen years space after Alexander's death not only Aridaeus the brother of Alexander together with his mother Olympias were put to death but also Alexander the Son of Alexander the Great and Roxana and Hercules the other Son of Alexander by Barsine was killed and Cleopatra the sister of Alexander So fully is this passage accomplished And not to his Posterity Nor according to his dominion which he ruled As not having that strenuity and greatness of parts nor that strength his entire Empire being thus divided into four Kingdoms which therefore was a weakening to it and made it subject to dissenâ—…ons amongst themselves besides that there were several other Satrapies which other commanders of Alexander were possest of distinct from those four Kingdoms which was a further weakening thereof as it follows For his Kingdom shall be plucked up even for others besides those The Hebrew word which our English translation renders shall be plucked up is rendred by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by the Vulgar lacerabitur from the Septuagints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Quisquiliae Whence is intimated into what a many little shreds this great Empire would be discerped after his death which is most fitly understood of those lesser portions they had who are related to here besides those four namely Lysimachus Cassander Antigonus and Ptelomaeus For Eumenes Philotas Menander Leonatus Seleucus and others had their portions distinct from those four whereby the main body of Alexanders Kingdom possest by them was the more weakened 5. And the King of the South shall be strong that is Ptolemaeus the Son of Lagus King of Aegypt He speaks onely of the Kings of the South and of the North that is of the Kings of Aegypt and of
Seleucus brought away with him fourty thousand Talents of silver and two thousand five hundred Images of their Gods amongst which were those that Cambyses when he took Aegypt carried away with him into Persia. For which feat of bringing back again their Images that were violently taken from them so many years agoe the Aegyptians being a very superstitious people he obtained the name of Euergetes amongst them as if he had been so great a benefactour to them in recovering their Images Thus St. Ierome out of writers which he had the use of but since have perished And he shall continue more years than the King of the North. Ptolemaeus Euergetes his Reign was six years longer than the Reign of Seleucus Callinicus the Son of Antiochus Theos by Leodice his Reign was almost by one third part longer than his And the Kingdom of Syria was made a Province by the Romans betwixt thirty and fourty years before Aegypt was if that may be also insinuated But the former is more material it implying that Callinicus durst not bouge against Aegypt all the days of his life Ptolemaeus Euergetes who got so full a victory over him which would naturally daunt his spirits being still living 9. So the King of the South Ptolemaeus Euergets shall come into his Kingdom and shall return into his own land Which intimates his power and success to have been so great and with so little loss to his Armie and with that ease as if he had been Lord of Syria and had free ingress and egress at his pleasure 10. But his Sons shall be stirred up Though that shamefull overthrow he had received cowed the Spirit of Seleucus Callinicus yet his two sons Seleucus Ceraunus and Antiochus Magnus after his death and indeed after the death of Ptolemaeus Euergetes which was a further incouragement to them bestirred themselves to recover what their father had lost and to that end gathered a great Armie as it follows And shall assemble a multitude of great Forces See Polyb. lib. 2. and lib. 5. And they were the more encouraged thereto Ptolemaeus Euergetes not onely being dead but a person little beloved a killer of his father mother and brother and therefore in derision called Philopator succeeding him And he shall certainly come and overflow and pass through Though he began with the two sons yet he changes the number plural here into the singular because Seleucus Ceraunus died in the beginning of the enterprise reigning scarce three years Wherefore Antiochus Magnus is here meant by him that shall certainly come and overflow c. For he did overflow Iudea and Coele Syria by the treachery of Theodotus Ptolemaeus Philopator his Governour of that Province Then shall he return and be stirred up even to his fortress And after this no peace being concluded he shall again renew the war and taking many Towns he shall at last come to Raphia an exceeding well fortified Town in the confines of Aegypt See Polybius lib. 5. 11. And the King of the South shall be moved with choler and shall come forth and fight with him even with the King of the North viz. Philopator with Antiochus Magnus For though Philopator was but a sluggish voluptuous person and given to his ease and pleasure yet when his proper Kingdom was in such imminent danger he was inraged and thought it was time to bestir himself for fear he should not only lose Syria but Aegypt too And he shall set forth a great multitude Seventy thousand Foot and five thousand Horse and seventy three Elephants And a multitude shall be given into his hand that is He shall take many prisoners of the Armie of Antiochus Magnus Which is the thing that the Author of the third Book of Maccabees expresly sets down and that the success was from the passionate importunity of Arsinoe Philopators sister who ran up and down from one part of the Armie to the other with her hair disheveled and hanging about her shoulders and by promises and earnest intreatings driving the soldiery to fight with more than ordinary resolution and courage whereby they won the day and took many Prisoners Grotius out of Polybius names four thousand and the rest were killed or routed and put to flight 12. And when he hath taken away the multitude that is When he hath partly taken captive partly killed and so taken them out of the way and partly put to flight and scattered the multitude of Antiochus his Armie and thereby driven them away from his Territories His heart shall be listed up His heart that was oppressed and depressed with fear and anxiety before will be now more lightsome and exalted and give it self the swing to satisfie its own lusts in this security by his unclean conversation with Agathoclea the singing wench and Agathocles her brother and will rudely and prophanely at Iudea not onely come into the Temple but rush into the Holy of Holies against the advice and persuasion of all either pious or prudent By-standers See the third Book of Maccabees Ch. 1. And he shall cast down many ten thousands but he shall not be strengthned by it The sense is for of this latitude is the signification of the particle â—… And though he shall cast down many thousands for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signify an indefinite great number and not exactly Myriads as all Interpreters agree Yet shall he not be strengthened by it Though that great Armie of Antiochus Magnus was quite vanquished by him yet Antiochus himself escaping he will appear again in the field and undoe all that hath been done after he has espied an opportunity for his purpose The Idleness Luxury and Sottishness of Philopator made this great advantage he had got against Antiochus to signify nothing 13. For the King of the North shall return and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former He shall again gather an Army and that greater than the former And shall certainly come after certain years that is These things were a brewing for a certain time while he observed the luxury and dissoluteness of Philopator and his mindlesness of his affairs which encouraged him to meditate this other War against Egypt made him sure to come and gave him hope of Success With a great Army and much riches With a great Army and well appointed Which Armies sometimes are not by reason of the want of money or whatever necessaries are requisite for the good appointment of an Army For the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies any Acquist from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acquisivit whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Post-horse or Mule has its name wherefore by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I conceive is meant all the plentifull supply of necessaries and fit accommodations for an Army such as Beasts of burthen Wagons and Draught-horses with the things they carry c. Which the Latins call Impedimenta in English they are called the Carriage of the Army Bag and Baggage
Moses there was sent to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an old man of Athens a venerable Sophist I warrant you to give them to understand that this Image which they were so affrighted with was but the Image of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iupiter Olympius that is of the God of Heaven Olympus signifying Heaven with them and Zeus that God which according to the notation of his name is the living God and gives life and motion to all things and that their very Law or Scripture calls their God the God of Heaven also so that they will worship but the same God still and thus the whole Kingdom of Antiochus will be of one Catholick Religion the Iews joyning with the rest in the same worship Which will be much for the honour safety and peace of Antiochus his Kingdome And as for the worshiping of the Image would that reverend Sophist say that we directing our intention aright the worship of the Type passes to the Prototype and that we do not give divine worship to the Image but such as it is capable of nor to the rest of the Inferiour Gods whose Altars might be set in other parts of Iudea but such is meant to them as they are capable of and no more At which grave Harangue of this old Greek the Apostate party might find themselves much edified and it may be others drawn in but the sounder sort it 's likely would cry out To the Law and to the Testimony and that those that spoke not according to that word there was no light in them And certainly it is most safe to hold to the plain and obvious sense of that Doctrine which is delivered by Inspiration And the like just and safe appeal there is of the reformed Churches to Scripture given by Divine Revelation in the plain and apert sense thereof against the Church of Rome But by the Sophistry of that old Athenian if they will listen to his deceitfull speeches they may be seduced to worship not onely Iupiter Olympius but Pluto also and all the Fiends of Hell with their most deformed and affrightfull Images such as the Indians Idols are in reference to that great and terrible God as he is in judgment as well as infinitely sweet and alluring in mercy under pretence of their being the ministers of his wrath and that we intend no higher worship to them than is due Wherefore the worship of God is the most safely bounded by his own inspired word not by the humour some or fraudulent and self-interessed prescripts of men or by their subtile and perverse Interpretations of Holy Writ which is abundantly plain in any thing of moment touching Divine worship But now for this Idol of Iupiter Olympius its proving an Abomination of desolation it was so in that it caused the Temple to be left desolate and deserted of all good men driving them into secret places wheresoever they could fly for shelter and it is said 1 Macc. 4. 37. How the Sanctuary was desolate and shrubbs grew in the Courts as in a Forrest or one of the mountains 32. And such as do wickedly against the Covenant shall he corrupt with flatteries Eos qui sacerdotium sayes Grotius contra legem nundinati sunt blandimentis eò perducet ut ad Idololatriam conniveant Those that had merchandized and given money for the High Priesthood contrary to the law by fair insinuations and flatteries he would further persuade to comply with his Idolatrous designs Where we may observe Earthly-mindedness Covetousness and Ambition in the Priesthood what an occasion it is of and what a prop to Idolatry and the corrupting the worship of God But the people that do know their God Calvin well upon this place says Cognitio autem hîc non tantundem valet ac frigida Imaginatio sed accipitur pro fide quae radicem vivam egit in cordibus This knowledge says he of God is no frigid Imagination but is Faith that has a living root in the heart which implies a purity there from whence all firm assurance of knowledg in Divine matters doth arise And that is pitifull knowledg indeed that has not firm assurance For how can we be said to know what we are not assured of that it is true It is vain Imagination and conceit but not knowledg such as a man will adventure any thing upon And hence it is that men crumple so in persecution in that they do not know God with any assurance their hearts being not purified sufficiently for such a kind of knowledg and real sense of God as it were according to that saying of our Saviour Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and act always as in his sight and presence which will give them invincible courage and fortitude whiles they are assured that He looks on in whom they trust and for whom they suffer and who will plenteously reward their fidelity to him Shall be strong and doe exploits that is by the strength and power of God and by Faith in his assistance they will not be forced through the threats of mortal men be they never so great and potent to forsake the law of God or to relinquish their loyalty to him who brings these persecutions on his people on purpose to try them Wherefore if they prove faithless and disloyal to him the note of condemnation is branded upon their own consciences whereby it shall be either enraged with everlasting disquietness or hardened into eternal deadness and stupidity Which is a sad thing and worth our serious consideration But as for the fullfilling of this Prophecy touching the exploits they doe that truly know God and are not mere sons of talk and Imagination besides both the Books of the Maccabees Iosephus also witnesses to it lib. 12. cap. 7. where he says though many of the Iews partly of their own accord and partly to avoid the punishment threatned by King Antiochus to them that disobeyed his command which command was to disobey Moses and embrace Gentilism they submitted to what he decreed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are here the people that knew God they listened not to him but had more regard to the Law of God than to the threats of King Antiochus against those that Disobeyed his Decree and accordingly they endured murders and tortures rather than they would forsake the law of God Which is a lively Type of the sufferings of Gods people under Antichrist for adhering closely to the law and will of Christ and avoiding that Pagan-like worship of Idols that Antichrist has introduced into the Church of God 33. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many These that understand among the people are those that before were said to know their God from such a principle of life in their heart and not in dry Imaginative opinion These therefore being assured of the truth whether Priests or Lay-men instructed many For so Gasper Sanctius says Hi vero non sunt
haec atque horribilis Bellua Romanum Imperium neque necesse est quenquam nomiâ—…are cùm nemo non dicat 3. Secondly that it cannot be the Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae as Grotius would bear us in hand in which odd conceit of his he forsakes the judgment of the whole Church of Christ to follow Porphyrius his who was a sworn Enemy to the Christian Religion appears from what is said Daniel 7. 23. The Fourth Beast shall be the Fourth Kingdome upon Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quâ—…d majus erit omnibus regniâ—… Which shall be greater than all Kingdomes so the Vulgar Latine and Vatablus The Seventy also render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it agrees best with what follows and shall devour the whole Earth which must be understood in such a sense as Earth was before and shall tread it down and break it in pieces Which it could not be said to do unless it were so great a Kingdome as is here intimated Now it is manifest that the Kingdome of the Seleucidae and Lagidae * was neither greater more excellent nor a more victorious Kingdome than any of the three preceeding namely the Babylonian Persian and that of Alexander the Great from whose Kingdome they would make this of the Lagidae and Seleucidae distinct Wherefore their Kingdome cannot be this Fourth This Inference is so plain to Gasper Sanctius that he does though but justly yet very severely chastise Porphyrius for this Errour which Grotius has so unluckily taken up For he breaks out into these words upon this Text Vide Porphyrii stuporem oscitantiam in cujus mentem venire potuit â—…ut existimaverit regnum eorum qui Alexandro successere omnium esse maximum quodque omnem terram sibi subjecerit conculcaveritque cùm reliquis regnis longè fuerit infirmius ab omnibus concisum out malè vexatum Nay the very Prophecy it self makes the Kingdom of the Successours of Alexander less than his in power and greatness Dan. 8. 22. where it is said that Four Kingdoms shall stand up but not in the power of Alexander Which is they shall be inâ—…eriour to him Which questionless is meant of them joyntly it being a needless intimation of them single 4. Thirdly The Kingdom of the Iron legs and toes and of the Ten horned Beast with Iron teeth are one and the same Kingdom according to Grotius his own acknowledgment which he makes that of the Seleucidoe and Lagidae Now it is said that a Stone cut out of a Mountain without hands should break in pieces these legs and toes nay the whole Image oâ—… Iron Brass Silver and Gold and so succeed this Kingdom of the Seleucidae according to his sense oâ—… the Vision And Ch. 7. One like the Son of man in the Clouds of Heaven comes to receive a Kingdom namely upon the destruction of Antiochus Epiphanâ—…s that little Horn amongst the ten in this fourth Kingdom of Grotius his framing of whom it is said at the 21 verse I beheld and the same Horn made war with the Saints and prevailed against them until the Antient of days came and judgment was given to the Saints of the most High Which is the same with the Son of Man his coming in the Clouds of Heaven to receive the Kingdom of the Antient of days vers 13. And both agree with the Stone cut out without hands to shew it is not the work of man but of the Antieâ—â— of days God himself and that this is indeed the very Kingdom of Christ as Interpreters ever have expounded it Which is a perfect contradiction to Grotius his Dream That the fourth Beast with Iron Teeth and the Iron legs of the Image denote the Kingdom of the Lagidoe and Seleucidae and tâ—…at Antiochus is this little Horn. * For Antiochus Epiphanes was dead almost two hundred years before Christ so much as preached the Doctrine of the Kingdome or had any Disciples to follow him and yet it is said Dan. 2. 44. And in tâ—…e days of these Kingdoms shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed From which passage I doubt not but that phrase The Kingdome of God as also from that above The Kingdom of Heaven does so often occur in the Gospel as also that Title which Christ so often gives himself of the Son of man And Grotius himself upon Matthew 8. 20. acknowledgeth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of man mentioned Dan. 7. 13. is to be understood of the Messias Wherefore it is impossible that the Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae should be the fourth Kingdom 5. But here Grotius contrary to his judgment when he wrote upon Matthew has found a device which is scarce to be uttered without horrour and astonishment So that I am infinitely amazed that a man otherwise so learned and laudable as he speaks of Porphyrius should be mis-led into so bad an adventure The Son of man coming in the Clouds of Heaven according to him is Populus Romanus nullum intra se habens Regem When our Saviour Christ intimated to the High Priest that he was that Son of man that should come in the Clouds of Heaven it seem'd so high an Arrogation that he rent his clothes and said he had spoken Blasphemy And truly I think that neither Jew nor Christian can well acquit Grotius of that crime who attributes that which is the peculiar character of the Messias to a Prophane and Pagan people and that forsooth because they had no King as if they were ever the better for that But they had Kings at first and both in the Infancy of their Empire and afterwards they had a Supreme Power so great and Imperial as may excuse them from the least shew of contempt They had always over them a Sovereignty so that they could not be deemed the Son of man for any such private condition For the Summa Potestas is the Summa Potestas under what name or form soever and of the same real grandeur Besides that they were a most glorious and victorious people before Antiochus his time So that it is a very dilute and sapless conceit of Grotius to apply the Phrase of the Son of man to them for any inconsiderableness in them or obscurity For they were not so in the times of Antiochus 6. Again The Kingdom of the Son of man and the Stone cut out without hands are all one both in truth and according to Grotius his own concession But this Stone is Christ and his Kingdome as being Heavenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing erected not by human power but by the power and Spirit of God That this is the meaning of without hands is the general vote of Interpreters S. Ierom Irenaeus Iustin Epiphanius S. Augustin Theodoret and several others Where think you does Grotius take shelter now Why This Figure which is so appropriate to Christ and mentioned of him so often in the New Testament This Stone
must be cast away as if it were neither precious nor a Corner-stone and be bestowed again on a Pagan people the Romans For so Grotius does not stick to profess Idem Lapis Filius hominis and he made the Son of man before the people of Rome But can a man believe that the Original or success of that people was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing brought to pass by the special power and Spirit of God and not more humano according to the usual course of the World and that not of the best kind their beginnings being helped on by a rabble of Ruffians and Robbers 7. No but that is not Grotius his gloss you will â—…ay Let us therefore hear what it is Lapis abscissus de Monte sine maâ—…ibus according to him is Exercitus populi qui suae esset spontis nullique Regi pareret cujâ—…s populi origo à Monte nempe Palatino In which there is nothing sound nor solid For was this Roman Army any thing more suae spontis in that they had not a Kingly Government at Rome That supreme Power of Consuls and Senatours was as directive and coactive as if it had been Regal So that the motion of this Army was never the more spontaneous for this Again The Stone cut from the Mountain without hands implies that it was then spontaneously divided from the Mountain when it is said to be cut thence But when the Romans first issued from Mount Palatine yea so soon as they were Populus Romanus Regal Government was amongst them it being the first Government of this â—…eople and therefore they were not then Populus suae spontis according to Grotius his own conceit so that he cannot bring both ends together And lastly To interpret Mountain here in a litteral sense is unskilfully done and not according to the analogy of the Prophetick Style nor the very intimation of the present Text which says the little Stone became a great Mountain it self and filled the whole Earth Wherefore this Mountain signifying not litterally but politically there is no question but the other does so too and that the Stone is in some sense homogeneal to this rocky Mountain Whence the sense is plainly this That out of the great Mountain that is the Roman Empire there should be a people raised not by human power or policy but by the Spirit of God and the preaching of the Gospel by Iesus Christ and his Apostles which should be a peculiar people to him and becomâ—… the Subjects of his Kingdome that is to say That the Church of Christ should be cut out of the Roman Empire without human help This is a most easy and undistorted sense and against which there cannot be made the least exception 8. Fourthly which I have already intimated above The Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast with Iron Teeth and the Ten Toes of the Iron Legs of the Statue signify the same thing Wherefore it is plain sith the Ten Toes imply a Coexistence of the Ten Horns by reason of the coordination of their Site that there must be Ten Kings together in the Fourth Kingdome But in the Kingdome of the Seleucidae and Lagidae there were not Ten Kings together all at once Therefore that Kingdome is not the Fourth 9. Fifthly Antiochus Epiphanes part of this Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae is said to riâ—…e up in the latter time of the Kingdome of the successours of Alexander Dan. 8. 22 23. Wherefore this Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae has expired near two thousand years ago But the Kingdome of the Fourth Beast reaches even to the day of Judgment Dan. 7. 9 10. And I beheld till the Thrones were cast down and the Antient of days did sit His Throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as burniâ—…g fire A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him * the Iudgment was set and the Books were opened c. That this is the description of the day of Judgment is the general opinion of both Christians and Jews and answers exactly to the lake of Fire and the opening of the Books Apoc. 20. which Grotius himself does interpret of the last day Whence we may safely conclude that the Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae is not the Fourth Kingdome as having ceased so long before that time though we understood the day of Judgment in the sense of the Rabbins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to which the meaning of I beheld till the Thrones were set and the Books were opened is this that the Prophet Daniel had a prospect even to the utmost end of that great day But he begins more particularly at the beginning of that day in the eleventh verse But this I have onely noted by the by 10. Sixthly and lastly Alexander's Kingdome and that of his Successours is all one Kingdome But that of Alexander's is the third according to Grotius his own concession Now that that of his Successours of which Line are the Lagidae and Seleucidae is one Kingdome with that of Alexander's is evident out of Daniel Ch. 8. 21. The rough Goat is the King of Graecia and the great Horn that is betâ—…ixt his eyes is the first King Now that being broken whereas Four stood up for it Four Kingdomes shall stand up out of the Nation but not in his Power This is one plain proof that the Kingdome of Alexander and his Successours is all one Kingdome For he calls Alexander the first King which necessarily implies that his Successours are the second and that therefore they all belong to one and the same Kingdome Nay he says plainly that these Four Horns stand up for that great one that is in his stead What is this but to succeed in place of him as the Heads of one and the same Empire For no new Beast is said to succeed this Beast but the Horns the Horn. And then the comparing of them and saying But not in his power farther intimates a cognation and succession of one Line and that he does noâ—… speak of the Heads of two different Kingdomes Which appears farther from vers 8. Therefore the Goat waxed very great and when he was strong the great Horn was broken and foâ—… it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of Heaven But where should these come up but on that Head that had lost this great Horn which is compensated with four lesser ones * though in their kind notable For it is very incongruous and extravagant to fansy them to come up in any other And surely if they had belonged to any other Beast that Beast would not fail to have been named Wherefore they must either grow out of this Goat's Head or no where unless out of the ground which is ridiculous And therefore it is plain that Alexanders Kingdome and that of his Successors is but one Kingdome For that Goat is but one
and the same Goat under the Succession of this variety of Horns 11. And yet there is still greater evidence of this truth from Ch. 7. 6. After which I beheld and lo another like a Leopard which had upon the back of it four Wings of a fowl the beast had also four Heads and Dominiâ—…n was given unto it That the four Heads of this Beast are the four Successours of Alexander * namely Perdicca Seleucus Ptolemaeus Meleager Grotius himself does frankly confess The Wings therefore denote the four Kingdomes Alexander's Empire was divided into after his decease which is still lookt upon as one Beast notwithstanding as the Roman is with its division into ten Kingdomes noted by ten Horns or into Oriental and Occidental figured by the two Wings of an Eagle Here Grotius if he would speak out would make Alexander the Beast as he has Domitian and others in the Apocalypse against all the Laws of Prophetick Interpretation nay indeed against all rhyme and reason For he glosses thus Pardus variâ—…m Animal â—…ic Alexander moribus variis But how grosly incongruous it is let any one consider For then would Alexander be inferiour to his four chief Officers and they would be the Head of him which is a Political Absurdity nay the Head of him when he ceased to be which is an Absurdity Metaphysical Wherefore Alexaâ—…der is the first Head or great Horn of this Beast not the Body of it that he may be superiour to his four grand Officers and not be the Beast to bear these â—…our Horns or Heads when he had quite ceased to be on this stage of things For these were not Heads nor Horns before he wâ—…s dead Alexander therefore is the first of the Succession of the Heads or Horns of this Beast not the Beast it self But to come up closer to our business I say it is very manifest from thesâ—…â—…our Heads and four Wings that this Leopard is said to have that the Third Kingdome takes into it the four first Successours of Alexander Nothing can be more plain than this from the very Text. For the Leopard is described in the third place and immediately after him the Fourth Beast is mentioned and called the Fourth v. 7. Wherefore this four-headed Leopard is plainly the Third Beast But now that the Succession of these four Heads even to Antiochus Epiphanes is the Succession of one and the same Kingdome is plain from Ch. 8. 22. Now that being broken namely the great Horn whereas Four stood up for it Four Kingdomes shall stand up out of the Nation but not in his power And in the latter time of their Kingdome the Original has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Seventy render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the very same with our English and there is no doubt of the Translation a King of fierce countenance shall stand up Which Grotius and every one acknowledges to be Antiochus Epiphanes Whence it is evident that the whole Succession of Alexander's Captains from the first four inclusively even to Antiochus his time is one Succession and one Kingdome For he calls the times of Antiochus the last times of their Kingdome Wherefore it is plain seeing that the Kingdome of Alexander is one and the same with the Kingdome of the four Captains for that is the Third Kingdome and the Kingdome of the four Captains the same with their Succession even to Antiochus his time that the whole Succession from Alexander to Antiochus is one Succession and one Kingdome If this be not demonstratively true there is no demonstration in Mathematicks But if this be true the Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae are not the Fourth Kingdome but the Kingdome of the Râ—…mans according as all sober men have hitherto held 12. Which we being so firmly assured of we shall easily know where to seek for this little Horn that is said to change times and laws For where can we find it but amongst those many Horns in the Roman Kingdome or Empire not in the Greek to which Antiochus Epiphanes appertains And we have already plainly shewn * that the Apocalyptick Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns is this Roman Kingdome and that this Beast once healed or in such a condition that it may be said of him that he is the Beast that was and is not and yet is which is when he is become Pagano Christian is this Empire actually divided into ten Kingdomes and that together with this Division the Empire began to relapse gradually into Idolatry by the Agency and Guidance of the Two-horned Beast or the Whore whom I havâ—… also shewed to be Synchronal to the healed Beast or the Beast that was and is not and yet is 13. But the Beast restored or healed his duration is 42 months which is 1260 days or a Time and Times and half a Time For the abode of the Woman in the Wilderness is indifferently expressed by either of these latter and the first and the second are joyned together in the Vision of the Outward Court and the Two Witnesses Wherefore 42 months and a Time and Times and half a Time being the same with 1260 days they are the same one with another But this little Horn in Daniel we speak of his Reign is also set out by a Time and Times and half a Time Therefore it is of the same duration with the Whore or Two-horned Beast which is Synchronal to the Beast restored whose continuance is 42. months Wherefore it is a strong suspicion that there is a Coincidence at least of time if not of affairs or complication of natures if not Identity of some betwixt this little Horn in Daniel and those three Synchronals the restored Beast the Whore and the Two-horned Beast For that expression Dan. 7. 24. And another shall rise after them does not at all hinder since the Seventy translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behind them * it signifying order of situation as well as of time And this being placed behind is the most convenient posture for such an exploit as is attributed to this Horn which is said to throw down or humble three Kings which is more by treachery and craft than open force 14. Now from this equality of time it will also follow * that the duration of this little Horn is 1260 years by the last Confectary of our joynt Exposition Which again shews how impossible it is this Horn should be Antiochus Epiphanes To which you may add that it is said to be different from the rest of the Horns in the explication of them * And the ten Horns out of this Kingdome that is the Roman Kingdome as has been demonstrated are ten Kings that shall arise and another shall rise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behind them and he shall be diverse from the rest and he shall subdue three Kings Now I demand what one of the ten Kings or Kingdomes is so different from all the rest unless it be an Ecclesiastical Kingdome Wherefore
the Coincidence of time with the Paganoâ—…Christian Empire and the long continuance as also the difference of this Kingdome from the other ten is more than a strong suspicion that it is part of the succession of a Kingdome Ecclesiastick which is necessarily to run along with the Empire professing Christianity But if the question be whether this part of this Ecclesiastick Kingdome be the uncorrupted Kingdome of Christ or the Reign of Antichrist the solution is not difficult For that it is not the Kingdome of Christ is plain in that Christ is said to come to burn and consume it Whence it is manifest that the Church has not been out in their Conjecture in deeming this little Horn to be Antichrist and therefore say I the same with the two-horned Beast and the Whore who is plainly Isochronal and I doubt not but Synchronal to this little Horn and is adjudged to be burnt in the Apocalypse as this little Horn is here in Daniel 15. To speak briefly therefore This little Horn is the Idolatrizing Clergy of the Empire but more chiefly and particularly that great and notorious part thereof under the Bishop of Rome who has been a more than ordinary stickler for both the obtaining this degenerate Ecclesiastick Empire in the Roman Empire and in lapsing and keeping down the Empire in Superstition and Idolatry and therefore is rightly said to be an Horn growing out of this Beast the Symbol Beast it self according to Grotius his own Confession intimating Idolatry 16. And if exquisite fitness of Application will assure us of the right sense of a Prophecy we cannot fail in this examining every character of this little Horn. For as it is little so is the Original of the Popes mean and obscure and their Secular Principality small in comparison of those Princes they have contested with Again As this Horn had the Eyes of a man so it is well known that for politick quick-sightedness there has not been any Body of men comparable to the Roman Hierarchy insomuch that it is Proverbial to say That the Roman Religion is nothing else but a mere trick of Policy to increase and keep up the honour power and wealth of the Pope and his Clergy See Sir Edwyn Sandys his Speculum Europae and you shall find this part of the Prophecy fulfilled to admiration and that it is not for nothing that this little Horn is said to have the Eyes of a man in it which is said of no Horn in all the Prophecies besides this Thirdly As this Horn is said to have a mouth speaking great things whether you mean thereby boasting of its own Sovereignty or Blaspheming it is well known that from this Horn are uttered such words as imply the Pope greater than all Princes and Emperours nay that he is not onely said to be Infallible * but styled God and declared worthy of Divine Worship Fourthly For the humbling and subduing three Kings which this Horn is foretold to doe is it not long since performed by the Pope of Rome in his usage of Leo Isaurus in his ruining the Kingdome of the Lombards to get to himself the Exarchate of Ravenna And in tormenting and disquieting Henry the Fourth and his Successours with his Thunder-claps and mischievous Political Plots till he wrested from them all their Right and Jurisdiction in Italy 17. Fifthly and to come nearer to our purpose in hand Whereas it is said that he shall speak great words against the most High and shall wear out the Saints of the most High and think to change Times and Laws and they shall be given into his hand for a Time and Times and half a Time I say This Idolatrous Clergy has bid fair towards the fulfilling this Period of times already the Degeneracy of the Church beginning about four hundred years after Christ and which is more considerable they having received so notorious a Check in the Decursion of this Half-Time which is elsewhere called a Half-Day in which his swaggering is pretty well diminished and chastised Sixthly And for his wearing out and consuming the Saints of the most High he has done it even more bloudily and cruelly than the very Pagans on the Primitive Christians which is the most furious Opposition against the Regality of Christ that can be imagined thus to waste and destroy his true Subjects Seventhly And for his speaking great words against the most High that is against the Divine Sovereignty is it not plainly done in the Pope's pretences of having power to dispense with or lay aside the Laws and Injunctions of Christ of which we have given several Instances in our Idea of Antichristianism and such as are notoriously well known to appertain to that Church Besides that he is Reus laesae Divinae Majestatis in appointing Religious worship to his canonized Saints which is an Honour due to God alone Lastly In that he is said to change Times and Laws what innumerable Institutes are there of the Pope's injoyning of which may be truly said what our Saviour told the Scribes and Pharisees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the beginning it was not so And what is this therefore but to change Times and Laws and in many of them in a most perfect Opposition to the Laws of God and Christ as I have already noted in its place Whence we see plainly that this Antichristian Opposition against the Regal Office of Christ is very expresly foretold in this Vision of the little Hornâ—… which rose up with the ten Horns in the Roman Empire and did fabricate Imperium in Imperio as some phrase it and became a Two-horned Beast in the Ten-horned Beast erecting an Ecclesiastick Antichristian Empire within the Civil in opposition to the true Empire or Kingdome of Christ and in defeatment of his Power and Laws in the Church nay in opposition to those Immutable Laws of the Eternal Logos that enlightens every man that comes into the world NOTES Upon the Confutation Sect. 2. Was neither greater more excellent nor a more viâ—…torious Kingdome c. For they both viz. the Kingdomes of the Lagidae and Seleucidae put together were yet but part of Alexander's Kingdome And for their victories and spoils they were of one against another which was a farther weakning of this but part of the Kingdome of Alexander which still argues the less excellency of the said part Sect. 4. For Antiochus Epiphanes was dead almost two hundred years before Christ so much as c. And yet Grotius would have Antiochus Epiphanes the little Horn upon whose destruction notwithstanding the Ancient of days gives the Kingdome to the Son of man Dan. 2. 44. In the days of these Kingdomes the fourth and last of which is according to Grotius that of the. Lagidae and Seleucidae shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdome which is the Kingdome of the Gospel of Christ whenas the Kingdomes of the Lagidae and Seleucidae were both of them utterly vanquished and abolished by the Romans before