pieces the whole Earth stamped the residue with the feet of it For it mortifyed all its neighbours whom it did not Subdue The 6th Ch. of the Revel belongs to this first part of the Prophecy of Daniel The 8th Ch. of the Revelation addeth to the Prophecy of Daniel for it shews the degrees wherby the Roman Empire was brought to its division into ten Kingdoms 8. It had ten horns I considered the horns behold there came up among them another little horn before whom three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots behold in this horn were Eyes like the Eyes of a Man a mouth speaking great things 24. The Angel explaining this place saith The ten horns out of the Kingdom are ten Kings that shall arise another shall arise after them he shall be diverse from the first shall subdue three Kings 25. And he shall speak great words against the Most High shall wear out the saints of the Most High think to change Times laws they shall be given into his hand untill a time times the dividing of time See the division of the fourth Monarchy into ten others which was made after the year 450. We shall see afterwards which are these ten Kingdoms From the midst of these ten comes up a little horn a Monarch that appears as nothing a Priest that insensibly encreases his power over these ten Kings so far as to take away the third part of their Demains Jurisdiction Power This is what hath been exactly accomplisht in the Papacy which hath taken away from the Western Kings more than a third part of their Estate which is become Church Lands dependant on the Church more than a third of their jurisdiction by the Tribunals of Bishops Officials who drew almost all causes to them under the pretence that there was something mingled with them that respected the Church the Sacraments or the Conscience Lastly more than a third part of their Power by the Usurpations of the Popes who have made Kings their Vassals a hundred ways Besides this the Popes have particularly overthrown these three Kingdoms that of the Greeks in Italy that of the Lombards that of Germany which they have made dependant on the Roman Church This little horn speaks words of blasphemy against God exalts it self above all that is called God against the Kings of the Earth It destroys the saints of the most high That is to say it persecutes them even to blood It thinks to change the Times the Law it makes attempts against the divine laws it destroys Gods Commands dispenseth with them It commands the adoration of images Creatures which God forbids It permits crimes which God abominates against which he hath made severe laws This also is the true description of the Pope the Papacy To this horn is given a time times the dividing or the half of a time one year two years half a year three years half in all 360. prophetical days to a year that is to say 1260. years See the text on which the 11th 13th 17. Ch. of the Revel are a comment I beheld till the Thrones were cast down v. 9. the Ancient of days did sit whose garment was white as snow the hair of his head like the pure wool his throne was like the fiery flame his wheels as burning fire A fiery stream issued came forth from before him v. 10. thousand thousands ministred to him ten thousand times ten thousands stood before him the judgment was set the books were open'd I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake v. 11 I beheld even till the beast was slain his body destroyed given to the burning flame In the explication which the Angel gives Daniel we read But the judgment shall sit v. 26 they shall take away his dominion to consume to destroy it unto the end And the Kingdom do minion v. 27. the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom all dominions shall serve obey him The judgment here spoken of is not the last judgment God appears sitting on a magnificent throne not to judg the whole world but to judg the Empire of the Beast the fourth Monarchy in its Antichristian Period to deal forth the various punishments that befall this Monarchy for 7 or 8 hundred years to bring it to its end This Fire these Flames these Wheels burning like fire on which the throne moves represent the greatness of those punishments And behold the Text of the 9th Ch. in which St. John presents to our view the Saracens the Turks that make desolate the Roman Antichristan Empire of the 14th 15th 16th 18th 19th where God in divers visions represents the different steps of the ruin of the Roman Antichristian Empire As for what is said here of the Kingdom given to the Saints 't is the matter Text of the end of the 11th Ch. of the 20 21 22. throughout So it will appear in following the path which we are entred into that the whole Revelation is a commentary on ten or twelve verses of the 7th Ch. of Daniel CHAP. IV. The systems of the seven seals the seven Trumpets that denote the great events bring the world to its end IN the 4th Ch. the H. Spirit open'd the scene the 5th is a preludium for the vision of the seven seals which is contained in the 6. Ch. The first book is sealed with seven seals that is to say 't is very obscure Indeed it is so to that degree that never will any thing be said on this first part of the Revelation that goes beyond conjecture probability Wheras as for the second I hold that one may attain to the true sense of it certainly know that one hath found it See what in my judgment may best be said on the seven seals How far the seven seals teach The seven seals certainly reach to the end of the world but not in that manner as the greatest part of our Interpreters have imagin'd in dividing the duration of the World from J. Christ to its end into seven Periods almost equal The six First seals do not go beyond 300. years But the seventh seal is subdivided into seven Trumpets doth produce them Now these seven Trumpets bring the events even to the last judgment the first not beginning till after the 6th seal So that these seven seals are as six branches that shoot forth from the body of a Tree with a seventh great branch which it self becomes a great arm shoots forth seven other branches As for this it cannot be doubted by any that read the beginning of the 7th Ch. with any attention
all the Protestant States of Europe did concern themselves to obtain from the Duke a Peace for those poor people A persecution began in Poland a while after and the Reformed were involved in the same ruin with the Hereticks Socinians and Antitrinitarians they were driven out of that Kingdom and were scattered in Transilvania Hungary and Germany At the same time a persecution begun in France immediately after the Pyrenaean peace the project of the ruin of the Protestants was laid at Court and hath been prosecuted till it hath been executed as we see at this day In the year 1671. began the persecution of the Churches of Silesia Moravia Hungary the consequents of which are the almost utter extinction of the true Religion in the Territories of the Emperor The two witnesses will in a little time be dead through the total extinction of the profession of Religion The Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them This Beast is the papacy where ever it is for 't is not only in Rome that the Beast is found but 't is in the whole extent of the jurisdiction of the ten Kings 'T is not therefore necessary that a persecution should be exactly rais'd by the Bishop of Rome that so it may be ascribed to the Beast 't is enough that it be raised in the extent of the popish Kingdom And their bodies shall lye in the street of the great City 'T is evident from these words that this last persecution must be rais'd only within the circumference of the great City i. e. the Babylonian and popish Kingdom in the Countries where it reigns On this account probably those Kingdoms Countries and States who are out of the jurisdiction of the Popedom and whose Soveraigns are Protestants must have no share in it Further the Prophecy saith that the war must be made against the two witnesses that prophesy cloathed in sackcloth which is the same with what we call preaching under the Cross this therefore only concerns the faithful who preach and are under the Cross so that the persecution must onely be rais'd within the bounds of the City i. e. the Babylonian Kingdom and against those who preach under the Cross Holland Sweden Denmark and all other States which have Reformed Princes and where the Reformation is the ruling Religion shall not feel it And we have ground to hope that the torch of the Reformation shall not be extinguisht And though at present the King of England is of the Romish Religion I dare notwithstanding perswade my self that his Kingdom cannot be reckoned as one of the streets of the great City seeing popery is not the ruling Religion there though it be the Religion of him that rules Therefore I do not believe that we must understand the prophesy of Vsher in the letter or strictest sense who says that the persecution must be general over all the Churches of Europe for we may understand it of all those where popery does rule 'T is true he fore-tells a massacre in England but besides that those who wrote this prophesy from his mouth might be mistaken 't is also possible that this holy man through the violence of his sorrow went further than the Spirit did carry him Notwithstanding the English ought to remember the massacre in Ireland circumstances then were not near so favourable to popery as they are now Men must not trust to this that the King of England will never consent to so barbarous an action I believe he will not but the Papists do not trouble themselves about the pleasure of their Soveraigns when they see any prospect of advancing their cause by any kind of Methods Therefore if the Protestants be wise they will not put weapons into the hands of their enemies The bodies of the two witnesses shall lye in the street of the great City 'T is to be observed that in the Text 't is not in the streets in the plural as the French translation reads 't is in the street in the singular And I cannot hinder my self from believing that this hath a particular regard to France which at this day is certainly the most eminent Countrey which belongs to the popish Kingdom Her King is called the eldest Son of the Church the most Christian King i. e. the most popish according to the dialect of Rome The Kings of France have by their liberalities made the Popes great at this day it is the most flourishing State of Europe It is in the middle of the popish Empire betwixt Italy Spain Germany England exactly as a street or place of concourse is in the middle of a City 'T is also foursquare as such a place i. e. almost as long as broad In a word 't is the place or street of the great City And I believe that 't is particularly in France that the witnesses must remain dead i.e. that the profession of the true Religion must be utterly abolisht This is already done by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and by the enormous cruclties of the Souldiers who have bin let loose upon the Protestants of whatsoever sex quality and condition If any stand firm they must either leave the Kingdom or be destroyed Thus within a little while the external profession of the Reformed Religion will be wholly abolisht there And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and Nations shall see their dead bodies and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put into graves i.e. The Truth shall be slain but it shall not be buried Burial is a degree beyond death and is always joyn'd with a total corruption and destruction And so 't is not an office of charity which is denyed to these two witnesses but a degree of ruin from which they are exempted The witnesses shall not be buried i.e. the Truth shall not be destroy'd And observe who they are who hinder their burial they are not the same with those who killed them Those who killed them are the Inhabitants of the street of the great City i. e. those who dwell in the most eminent part of the popish Kingdom which at this day is France Those who hinder their burial are the Tribes Languages People and Nations i.e. several neighbour nations yea 't is to be observed that the Propheey saith not simply The Tribes Languages and Nations but they of the Languages Tribes and Nations i. e. some chosen and elected out of the Nations the faithfull scattered in all the Nations of Europe shall hinder the burial and total destruction of the Reformation in France Nevertheless this does not wholly exclude those among the Tribes Languages and Nations who are not Elect. For 't is probable that all Europe shall contribute to hinder France from executing her design of extirpating the Truth But this signifies that the Reformed and the true Christians shall awaken Europe as well that part which is Roman Catholick as that which is Protestant to oblige it to look to
throughout the whole 18. Chap. The frequent repetition of the same thing is to note the certainty of it The three following Chapters viz. the 20 21 and 22. contain the History of the third last general Period of the duration of Christianity It is the reign of J. Christ upon Earth The matters contained in the 20 Chapter are so remarkable that they deserve a particular attention But seeing that hereafter we shall have occasion carefully to examin them it is not necessary to stay about them at present So much suffices for a general Idea both of the Chronology of the History of the twelve last Chapters of the Revelation which contain the destinies of the Church CHAP. XI Several things that all are agreed on in reference to Antichrist which will serve to clear up those wherin we are not agreed WE seek First the Character of the Babylonish Empire 2dly the time of its duration 3dly Its Establishment end 4thly What must happen after its ruin The two first points respect what is past or present shall be the subject of the first part of this work About the first of these four things there is no controversy among the Orthodox But there is a great dispute about it between the Papists the true Church However we have one great advantage for the determining this controversy viz. there are some certain principles in which both sides do agree In controversies where men are agreed in nothing but where every thing must be proved it is very hard to determin any thing But where men are agreed in many things ordinarily those things which they are agreed in serve for the clearing up of those things wherin they are not agreed I think it best therfore before we enter upon the Characters of the Babylonish Empire to consider those things wherin the Papists as to this matter do agree with the true Catholicks All agree that the little horn in the 7th of Dan. is Antichrist 1st We are agreed about almost ll the places whence we are to draw the pourtraiture of Antichrist and his Empire 'T is confessed that the Little horn in the 7th Chap. of Daniel is Antichrist that 't is of him that the Prophet speaks I considered the horns Dan. 7.8 and behold there came up among them another little horn before whom three of the first horns were pluckt up by the roots and behold in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things v. 24 25. The ten Horns out of this Kingdom are ten Kings that shall arise and another shall rise after them and he shall be diverse from the first and he shall subdue three Kings And 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 they shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time We are agreed that the First Beast in the 13th of the Revel is the same with the fourth Beast in the 7th Chapt. of Daniel The two Beasts of Rev. 13. are Antichrist and that both the one and the other signify the Roman Empire 'T is acknowledged that the ten Kings that must be born of this Beast which are represented by the ten Horns of the fourth Beast in Daniel and of the first Beast in the 13th of the Revelation are the ten Kings which in the time of Antichrist are to divide the Roman Empire among them and give their power to Antichrist 'T is confest that the little Horn i.e. Antichrist must be grafted on the Roman Empire enter into its place and the last that shall possess the Roman Empire Antichrist saith Bellarmin Bellarm. part 1. c. 3. sect 15. Respondeo priorem c. shall be the last head of the wicked and the last King that shall possess the Roman Empire but yet without the name of a Roman Emperour The same Author in the very same place confesses that the head of the first Beast which received the deadly wound in the 13th Ch. of the Revelation is Antichrist This miracle of a feigned Resurrection saith he must be attributed to Antichrist in the opinion of Primasius Beda and Haymo and many others whom he names We are agreed that the two Beasts of the 13th of the Revelation do both of them signify the Antichristian Empire Bellarm. ubi Supra According to the opinion of Rupert The second Beast in the Revelation signifies the very same Antichrist For Antichrist is represented by two Beasts by the one his royal power and tyranny by which he will offer violence to men is represented And by the other his magical power and crafty tricks by which he will seduce them But according to Richard and Anselm and many others the second beast signifies the Preachers of Antichrist Thus it agrees to the Babylonish Empire to be the seventh head of the Roman Empire however without bearing the name of a Roman Emperour to be a head wounded unto death and raised up again to have ten Horns on its Head ten Kings for its subjects to have a false Prophet with two Horns like those of a Lamb which causes the image of the Beast to be worshipped whose name contains the Number 666 and who makes all those that he causeth to submit to hi Empire to bear his mark in their foreheads We are agreed that a time times and half a time the 42 Months the 1260. days do denote the time of the duration of the Antichristian Empire and that all that while the Church must be afflicted beaten down obscured as it were hidden swallowed up by persecution 'T is acknowledged that the great Whore in the 17th of the Revel and the city with seven Mountains is Rome Some would have it be Rome Pagan The Papists are forced to confess that Babylon in the Revel is Rome but others shewing either more knowledg or more sincerity do confess that Rome in the 14th and the 17th Ch. of the Revelation is not Rome Pagan but of Christian become Antichristian Estius and some others go a little further and are forced to acknowledg that Rome must be the seat of Antichrist Others as Ribera Viega Cornelius a Lapide retaining the common hypothesis among the Papists viz. that Jerusalem must be the seat of Antichrist are however forced to confess that Babylon in the Revelation is the city of Rome wherat the end of the times an Idolatrous Empire persecutor of the Church and Enemy of God must arise who say they shall join himself to the Empire of Antichrist when he shall be come Cornelius a Lapide confesses that the Waters on which the great Whore sits signify all the Nations and people which Rome shall command over who shall agree together in their subjection and in the vanity and idolatry of Rome as their lady and the mistress of the universe i.e. Rome become Idolatrous after having been
dismembred pieces of the ancient Roman Empire as well as the other Kingdoms of Europe It retains the name of the Roman Empire its head is called the King of the Romans What of all this Is it necessary only to retain names and vain titles to be in possession to the thing and to exercise the rights belonging to it The Jews retain the name of the people of God of the chosen people of the Lords inheritance by way of exclusion of all the nations of the Earth but doth it follow that they are what they once were and what to this day they call themselves We therfore may justly say the Roman Empire is destroyed and was abolisht when the Goths the Vandals and the Huns rent it in pieces and divided it into so many parts took away the rule from the City of Rome and made it the chief City only of a part of that ancient Empire And indeed 't is then that the Antichristian Empire was born or at least began to be Revealed that is to say to become sensible and this was in the fifth Age. But this doth not agree with the other Prophecies for according to St. John and Daniel the fourth Monarchy which is that of the Romans must continue till the Kingdom be given to the Saints and all the Nations of the World be reduced to the obedience of Jesus Christ The Roman Empire according to the Prophecy of St. John and Daniel is not yet ended v. 17 18. This is in the seventh of Daniel There he makes four Beasts i. e. four Monarchies or four Empires These four Beasts are four Kings that shall arise out of the Earth But the Saints of the most high shall take the Kingdom and possess the Kingdom for ever even for ever and ever He places nothing at all between the end of the fourth Beast or the fourth Empire and the Kingdom given to the Saints Now if the fourth Monarchy did cease in the fifth Century then the fifth Monarchy which is the Kingdom of J. Christ being not begun there would be the space of 12. or 13. hundred Years between the fourth Monarchy and the reign of J. Christ upon the Earth One can't conceive why the H. Spirit should leave so wide a gap of time in the Prophecy This is yet more evident by what follows The Angell that explains the vision to Daniel saith to him v. 23. The fourth Beast shall be the fourth Kingdom upon Earth which shall be diverse from all Kingdoms and shall devour the whole Earth and shall tread it down v. 24. and break it in pieces And the ten horns out of this Kingdom are ten Kings that shall arise and another shall arise after them and he shall be diverse from the first and he shall subdue three Kings v. 25. And 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 untill a time v. 26. and times and the dividing of time But the judgment shall sit and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end 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 c. He had said before on occasion of the fourth Beast and his little Horn I behold them v. 11. because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake I beheld even till the beast was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame 'T is clear that the ten Horns or the ten Kingdoms together with the little Horn that subdues three Kings are a continuation of the fourth Beast and make but one Monarchy together with it which Monarchy must endure till the Kingdom be given to the people of God. The same thing plainly appears in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar Chap. 2. and the explication which Daniel gives of it Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream a great Statue whose head was of Gold his shoulders and his arms of Silver v. 32. his belly of Brass his legs of Iron v. 33. and his feet divided into ten Toes were partly of Earth and partly of Iron v. 34. A Stone cut out of the mountain without hands breaks this statue in pieces mingles the Gold the Silver the Iron and the Brass and reduces them all to dust Daniel explaining this dream declares that the head signifies the Monarchy of the Assyrians of which Babylon was then the capital city since the ruin of Nineveh and Nebuchadnezzar the head That the shoulders of Silver signify a second Monarchy and the belly of Brass a third v. 40. And the fourth Kingdom shall be like Iron for as much as Iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things All the World is agreed that this is the Roman Monarchy After which follows not the destruction but the division of that Empire among ten Kings And wheras thou sawest the feet and toes v. 41. part of potters clay and part of iron the Kingdom shall be divided viz. into ten other Kingdoms as the feet into ten toes For the ten toes of the statue and the ten horns of the Beast are the same thing which all Interpreters have acknowledged Among these ten Kings must he come that must subdue three i. e. Antichrist As therefore the ten Toes make a part of the Statue and the ten horns a part of the Beast 't is plain that the ten Kings that must arise from the division of the Roman Empire and the reign of Antichrist that must establish himself by the ruin of three of those Kings are the continuation of the Roman Empire and the Roman Empire it self Now immediately after and without any thing happening between comes the reign of Jesus Christ and of the Holy people signified by the little stone cut without hands out of the mountain And in the days of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom v. 44. which shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever The same thing is evident by the Revelations of Saint John. The first Beast in the 13th of the Revelation in certainly the same with the fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel 't is the Roman Empire We have seen before that 't is agreed that the second Beast in the same Chapt. which had but two horns is the same with the fore-going Beast that had ten Now the foregoing Beast is the Roman Empire the second Beast is the Empire of Antichrist Whence it is plain that the reign of Antichrist must be the continuation of the Roman Empire Saint Iohn after having described the Roman Empire continued under Antichrist in the 13th Chap. carries on this continuation in the 14th Chap. to the total ruin of
Let them inform us a little where are and who are the ten Kings that shall reign the same time with Rome Pagan who in Saint Iohns time had not begun to reign and who yet were to begin their reign at the same time with the Roman Emperours Is it not plain that these are ten Kings that must receive their birth from the ruin of the Roman Pagan Empire and compose an Antichristian Roman Empire under the rule of the prostitute and adulterous Woman i. e. the revolted Church and Spouse of Jesus Christ Sixthly v. 13. How can these words agree to Rome Pagan these i. e. these ten Kings have one mind and shall give their power and strength to the beast Did those Kings whose Kingdoms were conquer'd by the Roman Pagan Empire voluntarily give their power to the Beast Did not Rome Pagan by meer violence ravish away those great Estates of which she formed her Empire Can it be said that the Kings that were conquer'd and subdued had one mind Did they reign together with Rome Pagan were they not destroyed and their Kingdoms reduced into Roman Provinces This therefore can in no wise agree to the Pagan Period of Rome but doth very well to the Antichristian and Papal one For it is true that the ten Kings compose this Ecclesiastical Empire and submit themselves unto it It is true that they have one mind and that they have given their power unto the Beast For it was not by Force of Arms that Rome hath acquired this second Empire but by perswasion by illusion by the false religion by the communion of idolatry and by the Chimaera of an Empire of Jesus Christ on the Earth This is the only thing to be met with which the popish Interpreters have to oppose to prove that Antichrist must not sit at Rome and that Rome in this Chap. is Rome Pagan say they the ten Kings shall hate the Whore How the ten Kings shall destroy Antichristian Rome after they have built it C. 17. v. 8 16. De Rom. Pontif. l 3. cap. 13. sect 2. and make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire 'T is the Argument of Bellarmin which all the rest have adopted St. Iohn saith he predicts that the ten Kings that shall divide the Roman Empire and under the reign of whom Antichrist shall come shall hate the whore clothed in purple i. e. Rome and shall make her desolate and burn her with fire How then shall she be the Seat of Antichrist if in that very time she must be overthrown and burnt A mighty riddle hard to be solved We need but read on Saint Iohn immediately adds v. 17. For God shall put it into their hearts to fulfill his Will and to agree and give their Kingdom to the beast untill the Word of God shall be fulfilled Who doth not see that these are two distinct times In one of them the ten Kings shall give their power to the Beast by the cheat of a false piety and in the other being better instructed and recover'd foolish fondness they shall spoil that Empire which they shall have formed by their complaisance Men must be hardly prest upon that have recourse to such vain evasions as these The foolish self-contradiction of the Papists But observe their foolish self-contradiction Here Bellarmin and his adherents say that the ten Kings which shall divide the Roman Empire shall come in Antichrists time and that these are the same that shall make the Whore desolate i. e. that shall destroy the City of Rome viz. Rome that is here spoken of and which Bellarmin himself defines by the Whore clothed in purple that is to say Rome Now how will the ten Kings that must not come till the end of the World according to them be able to make desolate and burn Rome Pagan which hath no longer been in being for above 1300. years The ten Kings associated with Antichrist only three years and a half before the end of the World will be able to make desolate no other Rome than what will then be in being Now Pagan Rome will be no more it will be Rome Christian whose Empire he supposes must subsist to the end of the World and to the reign of Antichrist Men must have lost their understanding and be given up to a reprobate sense so to contradict both themselves and the Truth with so much dishonesty Lastly it is clear by the following Chapter which is the 18th that the great City which reigneth over the kings of the earth cannot be Rome Pagan but Rome Antichristian In the 18th Chap. he calls her Babylon whom just before he called the great city and even the popish Interpreters agree also that that Babylon is Rome Now he describes the fall of that Babylon i. e. of Rome in such a manner as cannot agree to any other but Rome Antichristian First He saith v. 3. that all Nations have drank of the wine of the wrath of her fornication We have already seen that this signifies that Idolatry to which Babylon hath drawn the Nations by her Charms and Enchantments which doth not agree to Rome Pagan Secondly v. 4. He saith come out of Babylon my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues 'T is plain this cannot be understood of any thing but of an Idolatrous Church whence God would draw forth his Elect. God never commanded his faithful Servants to go out of Rome Pagan they always remained in it Thirdly and lastly the manner in which the ruin of this Babylon is described can by no means agree to Rome Pagan The Holy Spirit represents it as a City burnt and entirely reduced to ashes the Merchants whereof and they that gained by her behold her desolation and her burning afar off And to conclude he signifies that it must be such a fall from which she shall never rise again And a mighty Angel took up a stone like a great Mill-stone and cast it into the sea saying Thus with violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down c. 18. v. 21. and shall be found no more at all Now this is not yet happened to Rome she hath been taken and retaken and pillaged several times but yet she subsists still so that this can't be understood but of the last ruin that must happen to Rome Antichristian And thus you have the proofs that shew that that Rome which all the popish Interpreters as well as we do find in the 17th and 18th Chap. of the Revelation cannot be Rome Pagan proofs which I call a demonstration for I maintain there is no man that can resist the force of them The confession of the modern Papists that Rome must be the seat of Antichrist Ribera Viega Cornelius à Lapide And the modern popish Interpreters have felt the force of them At this day they do confess that it is not Rome Pagan But
certain that the corruption was greatly encreased Lastly if we take the last account and reckon from the year 94 in which Saint John composed his Prophecy the 360 years will end about the year 454 and 't is about that time that Theodoret wrote in whose words we have seen that the false worship of the Saints and the Doctrine of secondary intercessors were so well formed Which of the four points we must chuse If we place the birth of Antichristianism in the 360 year of our Lord when men began to render a religious worship to Reliques this Antichristian Empire being to last 1260 years 't is clear that they should have ended in the year 1620. i. e. 65 years ago If we began it according to the second computation in the year 393 or 394 it should have ended in the year 1653 or 1654. If we began it according to the third calculation at the year 430 it should end in the year 1690 about four or five years hence Lastly if following the last computation we begin it about the 450 or 454th year it must end in the year 1710 or one of the following years to 1714. 'T is clear by the event that we must not begin the 1260 years neither from the year 360 nor that of 393. For the Antichristian Empire did not fall in the years 1620 and 1653 as it should have done according to these calculations In those times in the year 360 and the year 393 superstition was yet but in its birth the worship of the creatures was not yet establisht in the publick service Great cautions also were used not to confound the service of God with the service of the creatures which was just ready to receive its birth Moreover the pride of the Bishops of Rome was moderate and their tyranny did not yet extend it self very far Men reckon the years of the life of a man from the time of his birth not from that of his conception Idolatry and tyranny were as yet but like a faetus's that were forming and perfecting but were not yet perfected The principal reason why God will not have the 1260 years of the reign of Antichrist begin but in the 4th Age. Rev. 17.12 But the principal reason why God would not have us count the birth of Antichristianism from the years 360 and 393 is because there was a fourth Character of the birth of that Antichristian Empire that had not yet happen'd that is the ten Kings that were to take their power together with the Beast These ten Kings are ten Kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was to be subdivided And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten Kings which have received no Kingdom as yet but receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast These words are admirable to me they appear express and I am astonisht that it hath not been observed that they precisely mark the time wherein we must begin to reckon the reign of the Beast Especially if we consider them with the words of St. Paul he who now letteth or possesseth will let or possess untill he be taken out of the way then shall that wicked one be revealed That is to say till the time that the head of the Roman Emperors be destroyed These two passages signify expresly from what time we must compute the 1260 years 'T is from the time that the Goths Vandals c. after having a long time harrassed and rent the Roman Empire at last divided it into ten pieces Moreover the falsification of the translation of the Port-Royal that render it thus the ten Kings shall take power for a little time with the Beast would not destroy the evidence of the Oracle though we should suffer the ill translation of these Gentlemen to pass For if we must translate it for a little time by that little time we must understand the three years and a half of Antichrist's duration And seeing we have invincibly proved that these three years and a half consist of 1260 Prophetical days i. e. 1260. years 't is clear we must understand that little time in a prophetical and compendious sense for three years and a half That which is essential here and which the rashness of men hath not been able to take away is that the ten Kings were to receive their power together with the Beast that is to say at the same time Whethey it be for a short or a long one 't is still certain that this Oracle plainly teaches us that we must seek for the birth of the Antichristian Empire in the time when we find ten Kingdoms arise from the dismembred Roman Empire We must therefore see when that was thus dismembred The greatest part of men make the Roman Empire to subsist till the year 475 under certain petty Kings that retained the name of Roman Emperors because they did yet possess the City of Rome from Valentinian the third to Augustulus But the truth of it is that the Roman Empire was parcelled out and rent in pieces and entirely destroyed immediately after the death of this Valentinian who was killed by Maximus Genseric King of the Vandals comes from Africk being called in by the Empress Eudoxia to revenge the death of her husband He takes Rome carries away all the riches precious things and rarities of it They spent fifteen whole days in spoiling it of its treasures Genseric transported them into Africa together with the Empress her daughters and the principal men of Rome Just in the same manner as Nebuchadnezzar carried away the vessels of the Temple and led the flower of the people into captivity 'T is assuredly from this very time that we must compute the entire ruin of the Empire of the City of Rome though it had still a shadow of a Kingdom under the images of Emperours that lasted about twenty years Jeremy reckons 70 years for the captivity of Babylon Yet it is certain the from the last ruin of Jerusalem till the return there were not sixty years But the Prophet counts upon Jerusalem as destroyed and its Kingdom as entirely ruined from Jehojakim's time under whom in truth was the first transportation of the people And since whose time the Kingdom of Judah under Zedekiah was but a shadow of that of his Predecessors because he was the Chaldaeans vassal On this account I say God reckons it for nothing By the like reason we must reckon for nothing those petty Kings of Rome who having as it were nothing more than the City of that name retained however the name of Roman Emperors to Augustulus's time We must reckon the dismembring of the Roman Empire into ten Kingdoms from the death of Valentinian the third Then therefore from the wrecks of the Roman Empire were formed 1. The Kingdom of the Britains in Britanny 2. Of the Saxons 3. Of the Franks 4. Of the Burgundians in the Gauls 5. Of the Visigoths in the South of Gaul and in Spain 6. Of the Sueves in Gallicia
the Revelation sets forth the Dragon as broken loose giving his power to the Beast and devouring the whole world Once again this is a blindness which I cannot conceive If there was no other argument against these two Hypotheses this alone would be enough to convince me of their falsity namely the terrible confusion into which these Authors do put the Visions of the Revelation To any one who hath studyed them it is evident that the Prophet hath observed the Order of History at least in the gross of events He had several visions concerning the same thing and in the order of these vision the order of all their circumstances does not alwayes in every thing agree with the order of events and this we have observed and cleared But I say it again the gross is alwayes according to the order of history this order is observed in the Revelation that the birth and progresses of Antichrists Kingdom are laid down before its fall Now the Authors we have spoken do make St Iohn guilty of a Parachronisme of two thousand years After he had finisht the narrative of the ruin of Antichrist and gone through a Period of 1260 years which if we add to them the space from the Incarnation of Christ unto the revelation of the son of perdition make almost two thousand years After this I say they make him on a sudden to go back as far as the beginning of the Christian Church Is there any other instance of such confusion in this book Let them shew it What mean those words After this so the French version which begin the 20 Chapter and denote always not only the succession of visions but of times This work is already large than I intended to make it but notwithstanding I cannot forbear to lay down a few of our arguments there are so many that one might crush the contrary opinion with number but I shall only urge the principal ones I shall open as it were four springs of arguments Four springs of arguments that demonstrate the trath of Christs reign upon earth which I shall leave every man liberty to sound and dive into contenting my self with producing them and drawing from them the principal evidences which clearly discover this future reign of our Lord Iesus Christ The firs spring is the fifth Monarchy promised to the Saints My first spring or source of arguments will be in the Prophecies that speak of a fifth Monarchy reserved for the Saints 'T is impossible to find a rational sense in them without supposing this thousand years reign There are two remarkable ones in the book of Daniel In the 2. Chapter Nebuchadnesar sees a statue whose head was of gold the shoulders of silver the belly of brass the leggs of iron the feet and toes partly of iron and partly of earth The Prophet interprets to him these four metals of the statue that they are four great Monarchies The iron leggs by consent of all signifie the fourth Monarchy which is the Roman The feet and the ten toes partly of iron and partly of earth signifie the ten kings or Kingdoms which were to divide the Roman Empire and weaken it at the same time And wheras thou sawest the feet and the toes Dan. 2. v. 41 42. part of potters clay and part of iron the kingdom shall be divided but there shall be in it of the strength of iron forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixt with miery clay And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken These ten toes are the ten Kings which were to make up the Kingdom of Antichrist and reign together with him in the last Period of the Roman Empire during the 1260 years marked in the Revelation Now hat happens at the end of the reign of these ten Kings and of the fourth Monarchy v. 44. And in the dayes of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever Behold a fifth Monarchy different from the ten Kings The Monarchy promised to Christ cannot be placed in the Ages by past which must break them in pieces and must continue after them for ever i.e. untill the end of the world 'T is granted that this Kingdom that shall never be destroyed is that of Iesus Christ But is it not as clear as the day that this Kingdom must not appear untill after that the ten Kings and the ten Kingdoms shall have been broken ' in pieces by this fifth Monarchy I confess I have nothing to say to them who are incapable of beholding this evidence and I do not conceive how it can be said that we must go back beyond the ten Kings that we may place the Monarchy of Iesus Christ before them when the Prophet so plainly placeth it after the ten Kings Is it not expresly said that his fifth Monarchy must break in pieces and destroy these ten Kingdoms How therefore can it go before them or have its duration parallel to theirs In the seventh Chapter of the same Prophecy we have the same four Monarchies under the Images of four Beasts 'T is confessed that the fourth Beast that had ten horns is the Roman Empire all our writers grant that these ten horns that signifie ten Kings are the ten Kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was divided after the time of Valentinian the third and that those ten horns reign together with the little horn which is Antichrist When the Prophet had seen both the fourth Beast and the three first wholly destroyed and their bodies burnt with fire he adds And I saw in the might-visions Chap. 7. v. 13. and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came unto the Ancient of dayes and they brought him near before him and there was given him dominion and a glory and a Kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed And to the same purpose in the explication of the vision v. 24.25 And the tend horns out of this Kingdom are then Kings that shall arise and another shall arise after them and he shall be diverse from the first c. And 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 lawes and they shall be given into his hand untill a time and times and the dividing of times c. All are agreed that Antichrist is here intended and all Protestants grant that this is the Papacy and that its reign is to last 1260 years Now what is to happen after this time and times and a dividing or half
not contemporary with 'em the seven seals carry the Prophecy almost as far as the fall of Paganism unto Constantine the first Christian Emperor The seven Trumpets divide the rest of the Time between Constantine and his Christian Successors to the end of the World. And the seventh Trumpet that sounds here is the beginning of the last Period which comprehends the fall of the Empires of the World and particularly that of the Antichristian Kingdom or the Papacy The seventh Angel sounded and there were great voices These are voices of Acclamation and joy That Thunders and Lightnings are joyned to those voices signifies the preaching of the Gospel And the four and twenty Elders who sat before God on their seats fell upon their faces and worshipped God saying we give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty c. 'T is the Song and subject matter of thanksgiving wherewith the Holy People should praise God during the reign of a thousand years when God shall have subdued all their Enemies Observe here that the four and twenty Elders appear alone and begin the Song whereas in the first Vision the living Creatures begun the Song and the Elders followed ' em 'T is not to exclude the living Creatures and the Ministry in the last Period of the Church but to signify that then the People shall be so filled with the Divine Spirit that they shall not need to wait the inspiration and assistance of the Holy Ministry to ingage them to praise God and perform holy duties The Nations were angry and thy wrath in come i. e. the Nations of the Antichristian People have executed their malice and fury and thou hast avenged it by destroying their Empire And the Time of the dead that they should be judged and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy Servants the Prophets and to the Saints and them that fear thy name small and great This doth not signify the last judgement or the last Resurrection 'T is the first Resurrection the Deliverance of the Church her coming to the expected Kingdom This is set forth after the same manner in the 20th Chapter of the Apocalyps as hath been already seen The Time of the Dead to be judged he saith not the Living and the Dead or all the Dead but speaks of the Church which lay as dead during the reign of Antichrist and shall rise again when that Kingdom is destroyed The Dead shall be judged And how 't is God will reward the faithfull and the Church by giving them Peace and a Kingdom 'T is a judgement of Grace and of Beneficence He speaks not of eternal Rewards as appears by what follows and to destroy those who destroyed the Earth Which is not a proper term to signify eternal punishments wherein nothing is destroyed men continue under them for ever so that the ruin of the Antichristian Empire must be here meant V. 19. Chap. 11. And the Temple of God was opened in Heaven and there was seen in his Temple the Ark of his Testament The Ark is the sign of God's Covenant with the Iews so this Prophecy of the Ark in the Temple of God signifies the recalling of the Iews The Temple of God was open The Church shall be open to all Nations all People shall resort to it and among others we shall see that People who derive their Glory from the Ark of the Covenant CHAP. XXIV The Characters of the Kingdom of the Church Eight are certain and five doubtfull What shall happen after this Kingdom What is meant by Gog and Magog There shall probably be a lesser kind of Antichrist a little before the end of the World. HAving confirmed the Truth of this Reign of Christ upon Earth we ought now to consider the Nature and Characters of it they may be divided into two Classes some that are doubtful and others certain It is fit that we begin with the certain We are not to reckon among the Characters of this Reign either the fall of the Babylonish Empire or the conversion of the Iews or the conversion of the remaining Gentiles For these three things are to go before it They can never be brought about but with confusion and Tumult The Popish Empire cannot fall but it must cost blood and make a mighty noise The conversion of the Iews must needs be attended with great Commotions among the People and it may be violent contradictions 'T is likewise impossible to conceive that the Conversion of the Gentiles can be brought about without the utmost endeavours of the Devil to hinder it he will raise all his forces every where to hinder the last establishment of this Kingdom of Christ as he did in the first Ages of the Christian Church So that we cannot doubt but he will cause great opposition not only by words but it may be blows Now this cannot belong to the Kingdom of Christ whereof the principal Character is Soveraign Peace Insomuch that we thus conceive of it 1. The Papal Empire shall fall 2. After that some years will be necessary to abolish Sects and Parties and compose the differences among Christians 3. That after this many Heathen Nations and the Iews shall be converted for it cannot be thought that they should be converted while Christians are so much at variance among themselves and seeking the destruction of one another 4. After the Conversion of the Iews the remainder of the most remote Nations shall also be converted Now for all this there must be time for should we think that God will act in a more miraculous manner in this than in the establishment of the first Christian Church Wherefore as the Christian Church was near an hundred years in its first setling no less will be necessary perfectly to resettle it and then shall that blessed Kingdom come which we expect not but that there is some probability that God may begin to compute the thousand years from the fall of Antichrist even before the Conversion of the Iews and Gentiles and so the fall of the Antichristian Kingdom and the Conversion of the Nations may in some sort be comprehended within the Reign of Christ for a thousand years But when we speak here of the Kingdom of Christ we speak of it as in its perfection which will not be till after these things are come to pass An extraordinary effusion of the Spirit the first certain Character Chap. 2.28 29. The first certain Character of this reign of Christ is the plentifull effusion of the Spirit of God upon men The Prophecy of Ioel to this purpose is one of those which is but in part accomplisht hitherto I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophecy your old Men shall dream dreams and your young Men see visions also on the servants and the hand-maid in those days will I pour out my Spirit That lesser effusion of the Spirit which the first Christians experienc't is not enough to fill up the
necessary to premise in the first place an Observation which I call the Key of the Revelation 'T is that this whole Book is nothing but a Paraphrase on what Daniel saith in the seventh Ch. of his revelations touching the fourth Beast Certainly this fourth Beast is the Roman Empire the fourth Monarchy And if some great strange events be found therin 't is always with respect to the Roman Empire that must endure to the coming of the Kingdom of J. Christ on the Earth VVhy God hath nor taken notice of other States in the Revelation The reason why God taking no notice of so many great events that happen without the bounds of the Roman Empire of the great Empires that are establisht the nations that are overturned the bloody Wars that are every where insists only on the fourth Monarchy or the Roman Empire is because god reveals not future events but with respect to the Church which he loveth which he conducts which he will instruct concerning his will. Now the Church was to be enclosed in or very near within the bounds of the Roman Empire I know that there were Christian-Churches in Persia it may be some in the Indies But all this was but a small matter Euphrates was the bounds of Christianity it spread it self but a little beyond it The Church therfore had no need to know that which should happen on the other side Euphrates nor to understand the foundation of the Empires of the Tartars the Kings of Persia the Mogulls the Chinois for all this had no respect to her Wherfore the Revelation saith not one word of them The Spirit of God also had no intention to instruct us in the adventures of the Empire of the Saracens that of the Turks but with reference to the fourth Monarchy Therfore we shall not see these two Empires that of the Saracens that of the Tarcks but only by the by in the fifth sixth Trumpets we shall not see them there but as the Scourges of God that fall on the fourth monarchy to vex to destroy it This observation is the Key of the Revelation For first it removes that difficulty which many make so great a stir about viz. that the Revelation as t is usually explained doth not at all touch on or if it doth 't is but by the by the greatest Revolutions of the World that happen'd in the East since 1200 years Yet once more it was not the work of him who would speak of nothing but the Church those Events that have in immediate reference to the Church Secondly This observation will teach us rightly to divide the times of the Revelation properly to apply the visions to each time to discover the events that are signified by those Visions We must know therefore that the fourth monarchy without comparison the greatest The division of the fourth Monarchy into two Periods most distinguished in the Prophecies is divided into two great periods The first is from the birth of Rome ab urbe conditâ which was the great Epocha of the Romans to the division of the Roman Empire into ten Kingdoms which was after the death of Valentinian the third about the year 455. For then the Empire was torn in pieces between the Greeks the Vandals the Goths the Burgundians c. it was I say divided into ten principal parts The second period of the fourth monarchy is since the division of the Empire among ten Kings the reunion of those ten Kings under one sole head that calls himself the universal Bishop to the end of this monarchy the coming of the fifth which is that of J. Christ on the Earth These two periods are very near of the same length viz. 1200 years or a little more The Lord J. Christ came into the world Anno V. C. 754. or 752. as Dionysius the lesser pretends The Empire was divided into ten Kingdomes about the year of J. Christ 455. i. e. in the year 1209 or 1207 of the city of Rome since that time under the Roman Gothish Kings the counting ab urbe conditâ was continued till the time of Dionysius the lesser a Roman Abbot a Scythian by nation who died in the year 540 according to Baronius who made his Paschal cycle in the year 527. T is about the year 530 that the Christian Aera began to be in use the counting by the years of J. Christ Then men left off counting ab urbe conditâ after they had used this Epocha about 1280 years However that be the period from the building of Rome to the division of the Roman Empire among ten Kings is more than 1200 years The second period of the fourth monarchy since its division among ten Kings to the end must be also above 1200 years The Prophecy makes it 1260 prophetical days i.e. 1260 years Now we must observe that in the time of St. Iohn i. e. in the time when he wrote the Revelation there was above two thirds of the first period of the fourth monarchy past gone For the wrote about the year 850 after the building of the city There remain'd therfore but a little more than 350 years of this first period But he had before him the whole entire second period of 1260 years Wherfore t is not very strange that he enlargeth himself much more on this later part than on the former So that we shall not find properly more than two chapters the sixth the eighth that respect this first period of the fourth monarchy and all the rest from the ninth ch inclusively to the 20th exclusively contains the events that belong to the period of the 1260 Years which is the second of the fourth Monarchy To render this truth more plain that the Prophecy of Daniel touching the fourth Monarchy is the Text on which the H. Spirit treats in the Revelation we must here view the Prophecy of Daniel apply it to divers parts of that of St. John. After this I saw in the night visions Dan. 7.7 behold a fourth beast dreadful terrible strong exceedingly it had great iron teeth It devoured brake in pieces stamped the residue with the feet of it it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it it had ten horns Daniel having asked the explication of this vision the Angel saith to him hereupon The fourth beast shall be the fourth Kingdom on the Earth v. 23. which shall be diverse from all Kingdoms shall devour the whole Earth tread it down break it in pieces This refers to the establishment of this Empire its conquests that were begun under the Consuls Dictators were finisht under the Emperours of which St. John. had seen a part some followed after him under whom also the Empire was always enlarged or at least preserved in its greatness even to the children of Theodosius It broke in
duo certissima there are two things most certain of which this is one Have not the Jews already received a very great Number of false Messiah's Did they not follow their famous Barchocheva in the reign of Adrian by whose orders more than a million of Jews that revolted from all parts under the conduct of this false Messiah were Massacred Why must he of whom Iesus Christ speaks be Antichrist Antichrist is not to have his seat at Jerusalem IV. But Antichrist must have his seat at Ierusalem Therfore he must be accounted by the Iews for the Messiah Another Chimaera If the Messiah must have his seat at Ierusalem why do they make him to come forth from among the ten Horns i. e. from among the ten Kings that must divide the Roman Empire at this day viz. Germany For that only at this day doth subsist under the name of the Roman Empire What connection what coherence can a Iew sitting in Ierusalem have with the ten Horns and the ten Kingdoms of Germany Why did they acknowledg a little before that Antichrist must be the last King that shall possess the Roman Empire What is there in common between the Roman Empire and the Empire of a Iew that must reign at Ierusalem Is it perhaps because Antichrist shall reign in Germany By the same reason the Persian Empire must have been the same with the Assyrian because the Persians did extend their dominion in all places where the Assyrians once did reign This dream is founded on what St. Paul saith that Antichrist must sit in the Temple of God and on what the H. Ghost saith that the two Witnesses whom Antichrist should slay should lie dead on the place of the great City where J. Christ was crucified now he was crucified at Ierusalem As to the first we say that the Temple of God can by no means signify the Temple at Ierusalem which was no longer the Temple of God since God caused this voice to be heard there Let us depart hence since God hath entirely abollisht the Mosaical service since the Law was abrogated and the Gospel Establisht The Temple of God is the very Christian Church wherin the throne of Antichristianism is raised up And as for that city in the Revelation where Jesus Christ was crucified 't is the Roman Empire in which the Saviour of the World was crucified 't is also the Empire of Antichrist who hath crucified Jesus Christ in crucifying his subjects Jerusalem is never called the great City without the addition of the Holy City V. Antichrist must hate Idols and not be an Idolater Why then is Babylon called the mother of whoredoms Who doth not know Antichrist is not to be an hater of Idols Dan. 11.38 that in a spiritual sense Whoredom signifies Idolatry Why do they confess that we must understand that place in Daniel concerning him that he shall worship Mahuzims These Mahuzims whatever they be are they not Idols He must not deny the coming of Christ in the flesh VI. He must deny the coming of Christ in the flesh St. John doth not say so He saith indeed that he that denies that Iesus Christ is come into the World and who doth not acknowledg an incarnate God is Antichrist in the sense wherin the same Apostle saith there are many Antichrists and in that sense wherin they that overthrow the foundations of the Christian Religion are Antichrists He is not to abolish the Mass VII He shall abolish the sacrifice of the Mass and shall make men renounce their Baptism This is not said in any place It is true 't is said of Antiochus that he shall cause the daily sacrifice to cease which he also did It is true also that in so doing he was a Type of Antichrist who hath caused the true sacrifices to cease which are prayers to God to substitute in their place the worship of Mahuzims and Demi-Gods How Antichrist is to overthrow three Kings VIII He is to overcome three Kings viz. those of Lybia Ethiopia and Egypt It is true also that this is expresly spoken concerning Antiochus and that it agrees to Antichrist as to the person of whom Antiochus was the Type And it is very certain this hath been accomplisht in the Roman Antichristian Empire in what sense soever we understand it For the Court of Rome hath destroyed three Kingdoms in Italy that of the Lombards that of the Goths and before these that of the Greeks These are the three Kingdoms which the Pope hath ruin'd to usurp his Temporalities He hath overthrown the King of Naples him of Sicily and him of Germany to make them his vassals He hath overcome the third part of those Kingdomes that have submitted to him because he hath usurped more than a third part of their Riches their Lands and their Iurisdiction How Antichrist causeth fire to come down from Heaven XII He is to cause fire to come down from Heaven It is enough to make fire come down from heaven to hurl Anathema's and lightnings on the heads of men to damn them if it were possible for him to do it and effectually to kill them For these are the lightnings tho painted ones that have set the Christian World on fire He is not to conquer by arms XIII He must conquer all the World by arms How can this be true seeing the H. Spirit saith expresly that the ten Kings which you your selves confess are co-temporary with Antichrist his friends and subjects shall freely give their power to him There will be no need therfore to conquer them by arms Moreover the Pope hath not been wanting to make use of carnal weapons to strengthen and encrease his Soveraignty Enoch and Elias must not return nor be killed XIV Enoch and Elias must come again in the time of Antichrist he must kill them and they must rise again These are ridiculous visions Jewish fables or tales made in imitation of them who always expect their Elias as well as their Messiah As for us we keep close to what the Lord J. Christ hath told us that Elias hath already come and that that Elias was Iohn Baptist who had the power and Spirit of Elias As for Enoch and his return it is a vision that hath not the least foundation in History or in Prophecy 'T is true Enoch was translated into Heaven but there is not one word whence we can hope for his return These are fables upon fables That Enoch and that Elias those two witnesses that must appear again in the time of Antichrist are hidden as they say in a retired place in the Earthly Paradise that subsists to this very day and which is invisible to all men Antichrist is not to style himself the only God. XV. Antichrist is to style himself God and the only God. How absurd is this How doth this agree with what you say that Antichrist must be received by the Iews as their Messiah that he is
was establisht with a terrible havock such as a hideous monster that should rise out of the sea and of an enormous greatness would cause making the waves to foam blowing the water with his nostrills and sending out terrible bellowings 'T is the emblem of the manner wherby the Roman Empire was establisht This Beast hath seven Heads The Spirit explains this of so many Kings and so many mountains The seven heads are seven Kings and seven Mountains See here the Character of Rome together with its Empire It sits on seven Heads that is to say on seven Mountains and it had seven Kings that is to say seven forms of Soveraign Governments We have already reckon'd them up in the foregoing Chapter 1. Kings 2. Consuls 3. Decemvires 4. Tribunes of the people 5. Perpetual Dictators 6. Emperours 7. Popes He hath ten Horns The Prophet doth not say how these Horns were distributed on the Heads But however it is certain The ten Horns are only on the seventh head that they were all on the seventh Head that is to say on the Head of the Popes For 't is under the Papal Dominion that the Roman Empire is divided among ten Horns that is to say among ten Kings Europe that obeyeth the Pope is divided into ten Principal Kingdoms 1. Germany 2. Hungary 3. Poland 4. Suedeland 5. France 6. Spain 7. Italy 8. England 9. Portugal 10. Scotland The other Kingdomes and States were dependencies on these From the first division of the Roman Empire that happened in the fifth Age the partition was made among ten Kings also as we shall observe afterwards Horns always signify power in the Scripture this is known So that these ten Horns must be powers But no signify that these Powers are Soveraign ones and not subordinate the Spirit gives them Diadems They are Soveraigns in name but in truth they are dependents on the seventh head which is the Pope and the Papism For the Papism subjects all Kings to the Pope On the heads there is a name of blasphemy This is not on one of the heads but on all of them And the name of blasphemy is that of the Queen of the universe which she vvould always bear since she attained to her greatness Terrarum Dea Gentiumque Roma 'T is the title of Rome eternal as Saint Ierome hath observed Ad Algas quaeft 11. The Roman Emperours made themselves be called your Divinity They built Temples to them they burnt incense to their Genius they sacrificed to them The seventh head hath also its names of blasphemy The Pope is called his Holiness Vice-God God on Earth Vicar of Jesus Christ Rome under his Dominion is called infallible Rome eternal Rome The Dragon give him his power 'T is the Devil which gives to the Roman Empire the false Religion the idolatries and heresies by which it makes war against God the ambition the cruelty and the covetousness by which it makes war against men And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death 1.3 and his deadly wound was healed and all the world wondered after the Beast The Prophet doth not say what head was wounded but it can't be doubted but that it was the last save one For that which comes in the place of that which is wounded lasts to the end Therefore the head wounded to death must be the sixth and the resurrection of this head must make the seventh head or the seventh Government The sixth head is that of the Emperours 'T is wounded by the Goths and the Vandals The Roman Empire is destroyed But it rises again under another head and a new kind of government viz. that of the Popes De Donat Constant In the power of the Papacy is brought forth again if not the grandure of the ancient Empire yet at least a form of government that is not very much different from that by which all the nations once obeyed the Emperours 'T is the confession of Steuchus Bishop of Agobio All the World wondered after the beast The Earth being astonisht to see the Roman Empire establisht under the new name of the Roman Church follows this new Beast submits to this Church being ravisht with this dignity that appeared to list up Christianity to the height of grandeur it submitted to this Chimoera of the spiritual and temporal Principality of the Church of Rome And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies After this v. 5â— 't is only the seventh head that is treated of which is called the Beast simply because 't is the longest duration of the fourth Monarchy 'T is therefore this seventh head the Pope and the Papism that brings forth these great things Can there be any thing greater than that which the Roman Church saith of it self that she is the Spouse of Christ the Queen of all the Churches the infallible Judge of all controversies the Ark out of which there is no salvation the Divinity to which all nations must pay homage the common mother of all Christians the Soveraign of the Kings of the Earth that can depose them transfer their Crowns and give them to whom she thinks fit see the great things and these great things are blasphemies This is clear For to attribute that to her self which belongs only to God is to blaspheme And power was given to him to continue forty and two months 'T is still the seventh head that is treated of 'T is to it that the period of forty and two months of twelve hundred and sixty days that is to say of twelve hundred and sixty years is assigned 'T is clear that these forty two months do not respect the entire Beast that is to say the seven heads or the seven Governments for after the third verse 't is only the seventh head that is spoken of Moreover the seventh Monarchy in its whole extent hath lasted almost twice forty two prophetical months as we have before observed 'T is therefore the duration of the Antichristian Empire or of the second period of the fourth Monarchy that must be extended to 1260. years He opened his mouth in blasphemy against God. â— 6. 'T is to blaspheme God to attribute to it self his power as the Roman Church doth against his name that is to say against his glory The Papism ravishes away the glory from God to give it to the creatures Against his Tabernacle that is to say against his Temple and his Church in calling the true Children of God which are his house heretiques and schismaticks Against them that dwell in Heaven These are the Saints and Angels of whom the Papism makes idols and whom by consequence it greatly injureth And it was given to him to make war with the Saints v. 7. and to overcome them 'T is well enough known how the Papism hath employed Anathemaes thunders fire and sword to extinguish the truth and to destroy the faithful And I beheld another beast coming out of
into perdition See here an eighth King that belongs to the Roman Empire And this eighth King is of the seven he is of the number of the seven Governments It must necessarily be that this eighth King must come from hence that one of the seven is divided into two And 't is the Head of the Roman Emperours divided into two For the Roman Emperours are either Pagans or Christians The conversion of the Emperours made so great a change that the Christian Emperours deserved to be reckon'd for an eighth head However because they last but a short space and because in respect of their Temporal they were perfectly like the fore-going Emperours the Holy Spirit ranks them under the seventh head And when he cometh he must continue a short space That is to say when the second part of the Head of the Emperours shall become viz. the Christian Emperours it shall not continue long Indeed the Christian Emperours did not possess the Empire but from the conversion of Constantine to Valentinian the third about 130 or 135. years Besides the transposition of the words which I have supposed doth not make any difficulty here for if I made a commentary I could easily bring examples much more harsh in the writings only of the N. Testament And the ten Horns which thou sawest v. 12. are ten Kings which have received no Kingdom as yet but receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast These are the ten Kings or the ten Kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was rent when the Imperial power was destroyed in the West And the same time that the ten Kings were made the Beast that is to say the second Beast of the 13th Chapter the Beast with two Horns the Roman Church began to form its Empire This is one of the most remarkable places of the Prophecies to find the point of the birth of the Antichristian Empire Therfore it deserves a larger reflection which shall be found afterwards in its proper place v. 13. These have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the Beast These ten Kings or these ten Kingdoms shall voluntarily submit themselves to the yoke of the Roman Church For she shall not obtain her dominion by the way of Conquest but by the way of illusion of seduction and perswasion She shall perswade the Kings of the Earth to give her their power In truth this did so happen The Princes doating on this Idol of St. Peter's Chair the Apostolical See raised this throne so high that it was like afterwards to have swallowed them up These shall make war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them v. 14. They shall lend their arms and their power to the Roman Church to smother the truth But the truth of Jesus Christ shall surmount them shall enlighten them and get such a victory over them as shall be happy for those that are overcome England Sweden Denmark and many other States have been already overcome in this manner And he saith unto me v. 15. the waters which thou sawest where the whore sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues This Woman this corrupted Church shall have the multitude for her she shall ascribe great honour to her self from thence and make use of that as an argument that she is the true Spouse of Jesus Christ And the ten Horns which thou sawst upon the Beast these shall hate the whore v. 16. and make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire c. We shall have occasion afterwards more than once to reflect on these words Therfore we shall say nothing of them at present The woman which thou sawest is that great City v. 1◠which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth The great City is not precisely the City of Rome 't is the Roman Church that hath its seat at Rome on the seven Mountains This is an important truth that the great City in the Revelation signifies not Rome precisely but Rome conjunctly with its Ecclesiastical Empire It should be proved but we must reserve the proofs for another place where it will be very material for us to fix this what the City signifies CHAP. XVII Babylon in the 17th and 18th Chapters of the Revelation is Rome Antichristian and Papal and not Rome Pagan THe 17th Chapter is one of those wherin the description of the Antichristian Empire is certainly contained We have applied it to the See of Rome with the same success as we have done the foregoing Prophecies But we have some considerations to add to prove that that City spoken of in that Chapter is Rome together with its Empire of Christian become Antichristian That Rome Christian and not Pagan is Spiritual Babylon the seat of Antichrist 'T is a place where the Papists find themselves reduced to mighty straits They have confessed that the 11th and 13th Chap. of the Revelation spoke concerning Antichrist But because in the 11th Chap. the seat of Antichrist is called the City where I. Christ was crucified they will not acknowledg it to be Rome And because in the 13th Chap. Rome is not named they will by no means have it to be found there But in this 17th Chap. they are forced to see Rome in the city on seven Mountains and in that great city that reigned over the kings of the Earth This brings them to the last extremity and we need but see what they say on this point to convince them that their Holy Roman See is the seat of the Antichristian Empire 1st They say that Rome in this 17th Chap. is Rome Pagan and not Rome Christian Bellarm. l. 3. de Pontif Rom. c. 13. The falsness of this supposition is evident First it is clear that the Beast which carries the woman The first Beast of the 13th Ch. and that of the 17th are the same is the same with that Beast that ariseth out of the Sea in the 13th Ch. This had seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten Crowns and upon his heads the name of blasphemy The Beast in the 17th Ch. is described after the same manner The Woman sate upon a scarlet-coloured Beast full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and ten Horns Secondly the Beast of the 13th Ch. ariseth out of the Sea. C. 13.1 C. 17.3 And I saw à Beast rise up out of the Sea. That of the 17th Ch. ascends out of the bottomless pit or the deep Chap. 17.8 The Beast that thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit or the deep Now the deep and the sea in the visions are the same thing Thirdly Chap. 13.3 'T is said of the first Beast that all the World wonders after the Beast That all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him v. 8. whose names are not written in the book of Life 'T is said also of that in the
to the time of the end many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increas'd 5. Then I Daniel looked and behold there stood other two the one on this side of the bank of the river and the other on that side of the bank of the river 6. And one said to the man clothed in linnen which was upon the waters of the river How long shall it be to the end of these wonders 7. And I heard the man clothed in linnen which was upon the waters of the river when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time times and a half and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people all these things shall be finished 8. And I heard but I understood not Then said I O my Lord what shall be the end of these things 9. And he said Go thy way Daniel for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end 10. Many shall be purified and made white and tried but the wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand 11. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up there shall be 1290. days 12. Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days 13. But go thou thy way till the end be for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days As Interpreters agree that these Prophecies in the literal meaning of them are concerning Antiochus Epiphanes the great persecutor of the Jews and the true Religion so almost all agree also that this mystically referrs to Antichrist And 't is a truth I do not at all doubt of Antiochus was a type of Antichrist we shall see such clear proofs of it that it will not be possible to doubt of it As the principle is commonly perceived I will suppose it and will not give my self the trouble to prove it any otherwise than in applying all that to Antichrist that is said of Antiochus I will only make some remarks to confirm this truth I. Both good and bad under the N. Testament have had their types under the Old. We must observe that all the things that were to happen under the New Testament had their types under the Old. It is not only Jesus Christ that had types for his person for his offices for his good works his enemies also have had their types The actions of the Saints have been typical the victories of Sampson over the Philistins those of David over Goliah were types of the victories of Jesus Christ All the world believes it and no one doubts it It must be acknowledged also that the criminal actions of eminent persons have been typical likewise If on one hand there have been persons and actions typical of the good there have been also persons and actions typical of the evil Cain was a type of the enemies of Jesus Christ coming of the seed of the woman he was a type of the seed of the Serpent and his action against his brother was a typical sin that representeth the persecution which the Devil was to bring upon Jesus Christ and his Church The sin of Esau that despised the right of primogeniture and sold it for a mess of broth was a type of those prophane ones that renounce the benefits of the World to come for the vanities of this present World. Lots wife that looked towards Sodom and the Israelites that turn'd their eyes towards Egypt after they were gone forth from it are types of those miserable persons who after they have been drawn from sin by the grace of Jesus Christ are eager after the World from which they were departed and return to it again As therefore Jesus Christ hath had his types Antichrist haâ—â— had his types as well as J. Christ without doubt Antichrist had his too and that in great number Cain Goliah Pharaoh Nebuchadnezzar and the other oppressors of the truth and the faithful have been types of Antichrist Among these types there was not any one more noted and more pâ—ain than Antiochus who made the continual sacrifice cease for three years and a half who made the Church desolate who made almost the whole Nation fall into Apostacy who prophaned the Temple and cruelly persecuted those that persevered in the true Religion So that as in the types of Jesus Christ we seek for and find his Characters in like manner in Antiochus and that which the Prophecies say of him we may find the Characters of Antichrist But we must observe there are two sort of Prophecies one that directly respect the principal subject the other that respect it only mediately and indirectly and by the means of some type to which the literal sense of the Prophâ—cy doth belong For example the Prophecy of the 53. Chap. of Esai respects J. Christ immediately and without the intervention of any type There are Prophecies wherein the things agree partly to the type partly to the person signified by the type But the 45th Psal and the second respect Jesus Christ but mediately and by the intervention of the type In the second Psal the type is David to whom belongs the literal sense of the Psalm In the 45th Psal the type is Solomon and 't is him the literal sense of the Text respects These two sorts of Prophecies ought to be handled differently Those of the first rank i. e. those that refer only and immediately to Jesus Christ must be applied only and uniformly to Jesus Christ in all their parts But those of the second rank are much harder to be disintricated For there are some things that belong only to the person that is the type Others that belong only to the person that is represented by the type and lastly others that belong both to the one and the other For example in the 45th Psal these words Thy throne O God is for ever and ever the scepter of thy Kingdom is a scepter of Righteousness c. O God thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above all thy fellows These words I say cannot without great violence be applied to Solomon For Solomon is not a God and it can't be to him that the H. Spirit saith Thy throne O God c. There are other words in the same Psalm which certainly respect Solomon as a type and J. Christ as the person represented by the type For example Thou art fairer than any of the children of men v. 3. Grace is poured into thy lips because God hath blessed thee for ever Lastly I am certain there are other words that agree only to Solomen and that it is not at all necessary to refer them to Iesus Christ For example these words v. 10. Daughters of Kings are among thy
honourable women upon thy right hand did stand the Queen in gold of Ophir v. 14. c. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needle-work the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee Supposing the Spouse to be the Church it will be very difficult to tell what these daughters signify that are introduced to Jesus Christ different from the Church I know well indeed one may easily imagine something thereupon but I do not believe that it would be solid 'T is the fault which they fall into that do explain the types they stretch the parallels and fain would have the pictures in every thing resemble the original Whereas we must not search after the resemblance but in the principal subject All the rest is but as the leaves that do adorn the picture 'T is according to these principles that we must explain the Prophecies of the eighth eleventh and twelfth of Daniel As to the latter 't is the history of Antiochus This Antiochus having been the most considerable type of Antichrist as David was the most glorious type of Iesus Christ 't is not to be doubted but that there are in the Prophecies that respect Antiochus many things that must have a mystical reference to Antichrist But 't is not necessary that all that is said of Antiochus in the literal sense must be applied to Antichrist in a mystical sense In some places Antichrist is there with Antiochus in some other places Antiochus is there alone and it may be there are some places where Antichrist is alone Let us briefly review them From one of the four hsrns of the he-goat Ch. 8. v. 9. Why Antiochus is called a litle horn which signified the Empire of the Greeks came forth another little horn toward the South and toward the East and toward the pleasant Land. 'T is certain this little Horns is Antiochus He is described by a little Horn because he climbed the throne not by the lawful right of succession publickly and with full right but by subtilty he ravisht the Kingdom from Demetrius the son of his brother Seleucus Therefore the H. Spirit explaining the Prophecy in the following part of the 8th Ch. saith and at the end of their Kingdom v. 23. a King of a fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences shall stand up And in the 11th Ch. where the History of Antiochus is more large it is said v. 21. And in his estate shall stand up a vile person to whom they shall not give the honour of the Kingdom but he shall come in peaceably and obtain the Kingdom by flatteries It was because Antiochus was an hostage at Rome that he was reputed as a stranger and that he had no right to the crown of Asia having an elder Brother who left a Son a lawful heir of his Estate Antiochus being returned from Italy applies himself to be liberal to the people He was affable and familier he bathed in the publick baths and by these means he got away the Kingdom from his Nephew This agrees well enough to the head of the Antichristian Empire who is also called a little Horn in the 7th Ch. This is plainly that which hath deceived two of our Interpreters who would have the little Horn in the 17th Ch. also to be Antiochus The little Horn in the 17th Ch. is not Antiochus A strange oversight of some Interpreters Which I call a mighty great oversight and utterly unworthy of great men For for this we must metamorphose the 4th Beast and wheras by the consent of all Interpreters it signifies the Empire of the Romans it must be made the Empire of the Greeks in despight of as great evidence as can be found in the Prophecies For one must be blind not to see the Roman Empire the 4th Monarchy in this 4th Beast The Pope is mystically the little Horn. The Empire of Antichrist therfore is a little Horn despicable in appearance that raiseth it self up from a low place and from a beginning that seemed to promise nothing that was great is mounted to that grandeur that hath given it both the form and the power of an Empire The head of this Empire is of understanding in dark sentences c. it is by subtilty that he made himself master of the Western Empire The little Horn of the 8th Ch. which signifies Antiochus The Pope exalts himself against God. waxed great even to the host of Heaven cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground and stamped upon them Yea he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host These words agree to Antiochus and to Antichrist To Antiochus because he insolently exalted himself against God the head of the heavenly armies and of the Church made a great part of the nation and even some of the Priestly race fall into Apostacy To Antichrist and the Papism because he hath exalted himself against J. Christ and engaged the whole Church in his revolt The Pope makes the daily Sacrifice to cease Antiochus makes the daily sacrifice to cease by reason of transgression and casteth down the truth to the ground and prospers The history of the Macchabees informs us that this was accomplisht according to the literal sense of it And the same thing hath been accomplisht by the Antichristian Empire that hath abolisht the continual service because it hath destroyed the true service of God and the sacrifices of pure prayers in mingling with them the worship of creatures the invocation of he and she saints the adoration of Images and their reliques and in establishing a new continual sacrifice in the room of the true one It hath prosper'd for its successes have been prodigious for 8 or ten Ages In the 11th Ch. the Prophet begins from the 21th verse to speak of Antiochus But we must not look for Antichrist therein till the 34. v. The ten first verses are a description of the victories which Antiochus obtain'd over his neighbours and of his quarrels with the Kings of Egypt quarrels which in my opinion had nothing Typical in them And the reason of it is clear because Antiochus was not a Type but in what he did against the Church For the strange nations had no reference to the Church nothing that the Tyrants did against them is mysticall At the 31. v. begin the violences which this persecuting Prince was to offer to the Church of Israel Arms shall stand on his part and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength and shall take away the daily sacrifice This is what was already said in the 8th Ch. and what we have applied to the Papism and its head The Prophet adds v. 32.33 And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatterier and they that understand among the people shall instruct many He continues to the 36th v. to describe the ways full of fraud and violence The Papism was established by
payed Tribute And his being Hostage at Rome many years going to render Homage to this God even in his own seat makes the servitude and the homage principally fall on him and they may be justly attributed to him Thirdly Though the servitude began in the time of his father nevertheless the Prophecy particularly fixes it on the Son because of that pride which was peculiar to him As if the Holy Spirit would have said the Kingdom of Asia shall feel the force of the Romans for the mortification of this proud Antiochus who shall endeavour to exalt himself above all the Kings of the Earth This is an accident that to me seems marvellous that this prophecy found its accomplishment in Rome and in the Romans as well in the temporal as in the spiritual sense I said above that Antiochus was not a type of Antichrist but in the things he did against the Jewish Nation Because the strange Nations having no reference to the Church nothing that Tyrants do against the Nations is mystical Therefore we must not seek after a mystery in that which the Prophecy fore-tells that Antiochus should do against the Egyptians against Ptolomee and in reference to other people But 't is reasonable to except the Romans from this rule Though they then were a nation estranged from the Church yet however they had a reference to the Church For Rome was to be the head of the Antichristian Church And already in the Prophecies Rome Pagan that then was made but one beast i. e. one Empire with Rome Christian and Antichristian so that it was proper to the genius of the Prophecy that the type of the Roman Antichrist should be a type in what he did with respect to the Romans Besides it can't be thought strange that the same prophecy should have two prospects and consequently two accomplishments For so it is always in those Prophecies that turn on a typical subject That which may make some difficulty is that the temporal adventures of the type have usually their figurative respect to the spiritual adventures of the thing represented by the type Which doth not appear here for the homages which Antiochus rendred to the Romans do not appear to have any typical reference to the homages which the new Romans give to their Demi-gods They have however and it is certain that the homage which the new subjects of the Roman Empire do render at Rome to its head to its Saints and Idols have respect of a figure and the thing figured to the homage which the people of the world did render to ancient Rome whose Citizenship they did under-hand labour for and whose Eagles and other military Ensigns they worshipt Religio Romanorum tota castrensis Tertul Apolog. c. 1â— Signa veneratur signa jurat Signa omnibus Diis praeponit St. Peter and St. Paul and the H. Virgin at this day are in the banners of Rome just as the Eagles were heretofore and all the world gives homage to these banners and to that which is represented by them just as during the Empire of ancient Rome men did prostrate themselves before the Eagles I hold that the twelfth and last Chapter of Daniel The 12th Chapt. of Daniel respects also Antiochus Epiphanes doth also refer to Antiochus and Antichrist And at that time shall Michael stand up the great Prince that standeth for the children of thy people and there shall be a time of trouble such as nevey was since there was a nation even unto that same time and at that time thy people shall be delivered every one that shall be found written in the book of life This Prophecy literally respects Antiochus's last persecution of the Jews that was terrible and cruel but ended by the victories of the Macchabees This Michael is the Son of God himself who always watched for the preservation of his Church Spiritually and mystically this agrees to Antichrist and respects the last persecution that he must cause the Church to suffer after which he himself is to be ruin'd and the people of the Saints deliver'd 'T is the same victory as is described to us in the 19th Chapter of the Revel The words that follow make it very plain that this Prophecy must be understood of that victory that J. Christ must obtain over Antichrist at the end of the Antichristian Empire Daniel brings in the resurrection here to shew that he speaks of the victories of J. Christ over Antichrist And many of them that sleep in the dust of the Earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame and contempt And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the stars for ever and ever What I pray should the resurrection do here in the middle of the Chap. in which the adventures only of Antiochus Epiphanes are spoken of 'T is plain that this is perfectly the same Prophecy as that of St. John in the 20th Chapt. of the Revel where the Apostle predicts the deliverance of the Church and the coming of the Kingdom of Christ by a resurrection They that were beheaded for the Name of Jesus must be raised up and reign with him a 1000. years This is what Daniel saith here that they that have turn'd many to Righteousness by their Doctrine and by their Martyrdom shall be as shining and ruling Stars in the Kingdom of J. Christ The Prophecy of Daniel joins together the two resurrections the first the second though they are distant each from the Other a 1000 years 'T is not the last resurrection nor the last coming of Jesus Christ that St. Iohn speaks of no more than Daniel 'T is of that coming that St. Paul speaks of when he saith that Jesus Christ shall destroy Antichrist by the brightness of his coming when he shall come to establish his Kingdom of a 1000 years on the Earth 'T is that resurrection which the Revelation calls the first resurrection And therefore Daniel doth not say And ALL those that sleep in the dust shall awake but he only saith MANY of those that sleep in the dust even as St. Iohn saith so expresly that then all the dead shall not arise 'T is true that Daniel also joins the resurrection of the wicked and some shall awake to shame and everlasting contempt But we must not conclude that this resurrection of the wicked must be at the same time one Prophecy must be explained by the other The resurrection of the wicked which Daniel joins here with the first resurrection is distant from it at least a 1000 years But he speaks of it as of two things joined together because he who speaks is God before whom a 1000 years are but as one day Besides this when our eyes look on things very far off always those things that are far from one another seem to be near The Stars seem to us to be near the Moon and yet
they are at a prodigious distance from it So the Prophet looking on these two resurrections the first and the last it is not strange that beholding them at so great distance he looked on them as joined together though they are a 1000 years distant from each other Moreover the H. Spirit from this first resurrection in which the Church must be deliver'd and which it may be is but a figurative resurrection would raise us up to the contemplation of the last and general resurrection because this first resurrection that must be before the 1000 years of the reign of Jesus Christ must be but an Embleme of the great deliverance of the Church when it shall be in one body translated from earth to heaven by the last resurrection 'T is usual with the Prophets to have holy sallies that from temporal things do transport them to spiritual and eternal ones Isaiah speaking of a sign that God would give to Ahaz and which he refused passes over many ages leaves there Ahaz and his sign Esai 7. and saith the Lord God shall give you a sign behold a Virgin shall bear a son The rest of the twelfth Chapter is not less profound but as it respects the duration of the persecution of Antiochus literally and mystically the time of the duration of the Kingdom of Antichrist we shall reserve it for that Chap. where we must speak of the duration of his Kingdom CHAP. XXIV In which are gather'd together 35. Characters of Antichrist that perfectly agree to the Papism and cannot agree to any but it A short portraiture of Antichrifi and his fearures AFter sounding all the fountains whence the pourtaiture of Antichrist is drawn I believe it will not be unuseful to gather together here all the strokes that we may see them all with one view and that we may discern the perfect conformity that is between that Antichrist and the Papism 1. It must be an Empire Rev. 13.1 for it is called a beast now in the Prophetick style a beast always signifies an Empire when Kings are treated of The Papism is an Empire in all the forms of worldly Empires ancient and modern We have proved it with the greatest evidence in our prejudices 2. It must also be a Religion 2 Thes 2. for it is called a mystery and it must be a false Religion for it is called a mystery of Iniquity and an apostacy There is only the Papism in which an Empire and a Religion are found both together 1 Tim. 4.1 8. 'T is true Mahomet made an Empire and a Religion at the same time But in Mahometanism the Religion is not the Empire nor the Empire the Religion and the Priests are not Soveraign Lords under the pretext of Religion Mahometanism is divided into many Aempires and yet there is but one Religion a proof that the Religion and the Empire are not the same thing The Papism is the only Religion that boasts of a Prophet always living Rev. 19.20 3. Antichrist must have a Prophet i. e. a man that saith he is infallible and that pretends to pronounce Oracles as well as the ancient Prophets For with the beast is joined the false Prophet The beast was taken and together with him the false Prophet that wrought signs before him There is no Religion in the World but the Papism that pretends to have an infallible head always pronouncing Oracles when it is necessary always speaking and always living This is a very peculiar Character and which should make us well discern him 4. The corruption of the Religion of Antichrist must principally consist in Idolatry 1 Tim. 4. 2 Thes 2. Rev. 17. for it is called apostacy a Doctrine of Daemons spiritual whoredom The Papism is a Religion in which Idols are re-establisht under new names We have also clearly proved it The Idolatry of Antichrist must be an idolatry of Christians Rev. 17. 5. This Antichristian Idolatry must be an idolatry of Christians which must be exercised in the Church and not without by the Spouse of Jesus Christ and not by a stranger For this idolatry is called adultery and conjugal unfaithfulness The Papism with its Idolatry retains the foundation of the Church and preserves Christianity 6. The chief City of this Empire and of this Religion must be a City seated on seven Mountaïns Rev. 17.9.18 and the great City which in the time of Saint John ruled over the Kingdoms of the Earth that is to say Rome The Papism hath for the capital of its Empire and Religion new Rome built where the ancient one was 7. This Empire was to form it self not by force but by craft by seduction and by the consent of the Kings of the West Rev. 13.13 that were to give their power to the beast The power of the Papism and the Bishop of Rome come by illusion rather than by the violence that both Kings and people have suffer'd 8. This Antichristian Empire must be a continuation of the fourth Monarchy which is that of the Romans Dan. 2.7 Rev. 13. as hath been shewn by the vision of Daniel's Statue by that of the four beasts and by the beast of the 13th of the Revel The Papism is a true continuation of the Roman Empire having the very same seat and very hear the same Provinces 9. This Empire must be only an Image of an Empire an Image of the Roman Empire Rev. 13.14 15. Yet this Image must speak and must be worshipped in all the Earth The Papism hath no arms nor citadels that really make an Empire it hath nothing but superstition and foolish fondness for all its arms however it speaks it threatens it promiseth it teacheth it seduceth and by this means it reigns 10. The Empire of Antichrist must have ten horns Rev. 13. end 17. that is to say ten Kings vassals and subjects props and upholders of its throne The Papism hath always had under it ten principal Kings that have worshipt and maintain'd its power 11. Antichrist must speak great things in his own behalf Rev. 13.5 but against God for they must be blasphemies The Papism saith of it self and its capital great and mighty things saying that Rome is eternal that she is infallible that the Pope is Superiour to all the Kings of the Earth the Spouse of the Church the Vicar of J. Christ God upon Earth his Holiness and most holy Lord. And these arrogant pretensions are true blasphemies against God against J. Christ and against the true Church the Spouse of J. Christ 12. Antichrist must raise wars and cruel persecutions on the account of Religion Rev. 13.7 For 't is given to him to make war against the Saints and to overcome them The Papism hath bathed it self in humane and Christian blood for six or seven hundred years 13. The Empire of Antichrist must be an Empire raised up again Rev. 13.3 an head mortally wounded but healed again The Empire of
Simon the Grammarian that not long since hath set up for an Interpreter of the Revelations His new lights do well deserve a particular Chapter by themselves But for the present we must follow on our way and shew that if the 1260 days be 1260 years then all that the Papists say of Antichrist is false and all that we say of him is true It being proved that the 1260 days are 1260 years the Papists Antichrist is a Chimaera If it be false that this Empire must last but 1260 natural days it is true that it must last 1260 years for I have proved there is no middle way to be taken And if it be true that Antichrist must reign 1260 years he can no longer be only one single man nor a revolted Jew nor a salse Messiah nor a man of the Tribe of Dan nor a Tyrant that must re-establish the Mosaical worship and rebuild Jerusalem to cause the Iews to reign there For it would be absurd to suppose that one man should live 1260 years that the reign of the Law of Moses should return for 12 Ages and that Iudaism for so long a time should oppress the Christian Religion If the Empire of Antichrist must last 1260 years it must necessarily be already come If his duration be 1260 years Antichrist is come For 't is to go against the general opinion of all men to suppose that before the reign of Jesus Christ comes we must yet expect a tyrannical Monarchy of 1200 years If the Antichristian Empire be come it must be either Mahometanism or the Papism Antichristianism can't be found among the Arri-ans for they have been extinct a long time and their reign did not come to near 1260 years We can't find him among the Athigenses who never reign'd who appear'd but for a little time and who were always oppressed He cant ' be found neither among the Lutherans nor Calvinists for none of the Characters of Antichristianism do agree to them and the Papists would not acknowledge that our reign should be for 1200 years There 's nothing remains but Mahometanism on which one can cast ones yes Mahometanism hath not the Characters of Antichristianism to seek out Antichristianism 't is indeed an Antichristian Sect because 't is an enemy to Jesus Christ and hath already subsisted above a 1000 years But we can't find therein the Characters of Antichristianism so as 't is described in the Prophets First Antichristianism must be an Apostacy and a revolt of men that formerly were obedient to the faith The Saracens Arabians and Turks the founders and preservers of this Sect never were Christians and are not Apostates Mahomet and the Arabians were Heathens Secondly Antichristianism must be an Idolatry for it is called a Whoredom and must teach the Doctrine of Daemons and mediatory spirits Now the Mahometans are not idolaters on the contrary they abhor the adoration of Images and 't is this that greatly scandalizeth them against the Christian Religion Thirdly In the name of Antichrist we must find the number 666. In the name of Mahomet and Mahometan Arabians and Saracens in any language this number is not found Fourthly Anchristianism was to have its seat in the great City which in St. Iohns time ruled over the Kings of the Earth That is Rome as all Interpreters unanimously acknowledge Mahomet and his Partizans never did possess the City of Rome and do not possess it Fifthly The Empire of Antichrist must be the Roman Empire continued the Empire of the Arabians is so far from being the continuation of the Roman Empire that it hath been the destruction of it in the East Sixthly Antichrist must sit in the Temple of God i. e. in the Church Mahomet and his Successors are out of the Church and do not belong to Christendom Seventhly Ten Kings must voluntarily give their power to Antichrist But the Arabians and Saracens have conquer'd all Kingdoms by meer violence none did voluntarily submit to them Eighthly Antichrist must be the seventh head of the Beast in the Revelation i. e. Of the Roman Empire Mahomet hath nothing in common with the Roman Empire Ninethly The Empire of Antichrist must be properly nothing else but the image of an Empire which yet however must be worship and obedience be given to it The Empire of the Mahometans is not an image but rather the most despotical and arbitrary Empire that ever was in the World. Tenthly The Antichristian Empire must have under it ten horns i. e. ten Kings Ten horns every one having his crown and his Royal power So far is the Empire of the Mahometans from suffering any vassal Kings to subsist that it hath destroyed all the great Lords In India in Persia in Turky every one of these Mahometan Empires hath but one only Lord. Eleventhly The Empire of Antichrist must be but one it must not be divided For the Kings that are to submit to him shall acknowledge him for their only head But the Empire of Mahomet is divided into many Empires The Empire of the Tartars the Empire of the Turks the Empire of the Persians the Empire of the Mogulls and these four Empires are not only different but always opposite and almost always enemies Twelfthly Antichrist must have two horns i. e. two powers like to the Lamb. 'T is notorious the Mahometans have nothing in common with Iesus Christ with his Religion and with his power Thirteenth Antichrist must excommunicate persecute take away liberty of commerce from all those that will not take on them his name and his mark in their fore-heads i. e. that will not follow his Religion The Mahometans suffer all sorts of Religions Heathens and Christians Fourteenth The Antichristian Empire must be a head i. e. a Kingdom hurt with a deadly wound and revive again This can by no means agree to Mahometanism which is a Religion wholly new and which hath formed Empires wholly new It was necessary to make these observations against those that greatly desiring to take Antichrist from Rome would fain place him among the Mahometans CHAP. IV. Some Principles to discover when the Antichristian Empire began and when it must end Three Characters of that Empire Idolatry Pride and corruption That these three Characters began to appear in the fourth Age and did infinitely encrease in the fifth HItherto we have discoursed on what is past now we proceed to treat of what is future or at least of those things that are believed so to be For we shall see that many things that are looked upon as future are already past 'T is the ruin of Antichrist and his Empire that we are now about to speak of And the first question that is asked thereupon is this When shall that Empire be destroyed A great question and which hath hitherto been looked upon as a thing that none could penetrate into 'T is certainly very difficult to be penetrated into but yet however I do not think 't is impossible to find
and Portugal 7. Of the Vandals first in Spain and then in Africa 8. Of the Allemans in Germany 9. Of the Ostrogoths in Pannonia 10. Of the Greeks in the East They took their power with the Beast that is to say with Antichristianism therefore Antichristianism received its birth and power with the ten Kings That is its Epocha or Date According to which we shall place the future fall of the Antichristian Empire in the beginning of the 18th Age. I believe it would be very difficult to set down precisely the very year For God doth not so exactly observe Chronology in his Prophecies A few years more or less signify nothing However one may say that according to all appearance it must happen between 1710 and 1715. The concourse of four Characters make the Epocha of the birth of the Antichristian Empire 'T is I say the concourse of these four Characters that must conduct us to find out the beginning of the 1260 years of Antichristianism 1. The birth of Idolatry 2. The birth of Pride and Tyranny 3. The progress of corruption of manners 4. The division of the Roman Empire into ten parts Till these four Characters meet together we cannot begin the computation of the 1260 years Therefore I do not reckon them from the year 430 though that be an Epocha that is notable enough having its original in the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem According to which the accomplishment of the 1260 years would fall on the year 1690 four years hence I reckon them not from thence I say because in the year 430 the Roman Empire was not yet entirely dismembred Withal it appears not that then things were ripe for so great an event We must not imagine that the Empire of Antichrist and of Idolatry will fall and be destroy'd in four or five years He will have some partisans remaining a long time before he shall be entirely brought to nought Antichristianism was born by degrees it also falls by degrees See one thing that must be well observed 'T is this that though we do not begin the 360 years of the Churches purity at the first year of I. Christ as we might have done to end them in the 60th year of the fourth age according to which the Empire of Pride and Idolatry should have ended in the year 1620 65 years ago nevertheless as superstition and tyranny began to be establisht in the middle of the fourth Age a hundred years or thereabouts before the point which God marks out for the birth of Antichristianism in like manner a hundred years before the entire destruction of this Antichristianism the tyranny and superstition of the Papism sensibly grow less and less and are visibly falling Antichristianism is tending to its last ruin since the year 1620. Counting the first original of superstition from the year of our Lord 360 and reckoning after this the 1260 years of its reign it falls as we have seen on the year 1620. At which time Idolatry and tyranny must begin to fall as they did begin to appear in the 360th year of our Lord. And indeed it is certain that since that time Images and Saints have extremely lost their credit And since the year 1620 we shall find more persons among the Papists themselves that have discredited these false worships than we shall find in all the fore-going Ages From that very time the power of the Pope is visibly diminisht in France The Tyranny of the Pope also since that time hath suffer'd a visible decay In the past age the Popes had pretty well recover'd that blow which the Council of Constance and the reformation of Luther and Zwinglius had given them Iulius the second and Leo the tenth assembled the last Lateran Council which abrogated all that had been done against their Authority The Council of Trent indeed did not pronounce the superiority of Popes above Councils and the Temporality of Kings but it left them in a full and entire possession of their pretended Rites without so much as touching of them Yea it did confirm them if not by its decrees at least by its practice in submitting all its Canons to the Pope in declaring they had no design to diminish the authority of the Holy See and demanding from thence the confirmation of their decrees In truth the Popes remained in possession of that superiority and of that power as well over Councils as Kings The deposed since the Council of Trent the Kings Henry the third and Henry the fourth of France They caused these two Henries to be assassinated and also during the minority of Lewis the XIII the Pulpits and assemblies rung with nothing but the Soveraign power of the Pope over Soveraigns and the power they have to depose them In the States in the year 1616. The Clergy of France had the insolence to maintain this Doctrine so prejudicial to the authority of Kings by the mouth of Cardinal Perron Edm. Richer a Doctor of the Sorbon in the year 1611. made a Book with this title De Ecclesiasticâ Politicâ Potestate which was the Epitomy of that which we have at this day under the title of Apologia pro Johanne Gersono Therein he proved the superiority of the Council above the Pope and the independance of Kings The Author was deprived of the dignity of Syndic of the Sorbon and of his benefices His Book was censured by two Provincial Councils held in the year 1612 one at Paris the other at Aix and was confuted by D. du Val. But since the year 1620 Richer is advanced again to the throne the power of the Pope hath been always diminisht And at this day 't is in so great a declension that it will never more rise up So that Antichristianism falls precisely by the same degrees by which it rose It was a hundred years a budding before it was blown it shall be a hundred years declining before it shall be entirely overthrown It had its first beginnings in the year 360. It s great declension began precisely 1260 years after It was born about the year 450. It shall dye about the year 1710 just 1260 years after its birth This may happen sooner for the Roman Empire even under Valentinian whom I reckon for the last of the Roman Emperors was very much dismembred But I do not see that it can go much further unless it may be to 1714 reckoning the 1260 years after the death of Valentinian This I profess doth not seem to me to be altogether a simple conjecture by reason of two passages so express He that doth let or possess will let or possess till he be taken out of the way and then shall that wicked one be revealed Yhe ten horns are ten Kings which have received no Kingdome as yet but receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast But that which I shall now add is a conjecture to which men may give such entertainment as they please 'T is
encrease of the papal Tyranny 'T is known this papal Tyranny had its degrees since Leo the first that sate in that See in the year 450 to Gregory the Great the Bishops of Rome endeavoured to arrogate to themselves a superiority over the Universal Church but yet however without desiring to be called Oecumenical Bishops After Gregory the first to Gregory the seventh the Popes called themselves Vniversal Bishops but without styling themselves Soveraigns and Masters of Kings and Kingdoms This Gregory was the first that endeavoured to depose Emperors and Kings This is Antichrist perfected Those also that did not know him when he was yet in his first periods did know him when he arrived to this We have many testimonies of the German Bishops of that time who profess that this Gregory the seventh and his successors were Antichrist CHAP. VI. The circumstances of the fall of Antichrist re-establisht in their order An explication of the fifteenth Chapter Principles for the right understanding the sixteenth Chapter Divers interpretations given of it and their visible faults AFter having seen the time in which the fall and last ruin of the Antichristian Empire must happen 't is time to see the circumstances of that fall and I am very well satisfied that therein we shall find what will confirm that which we have affirmed touching the approaching end of Antichristianism I pretend to improve my conjecture to a kind of demonstration by the full agreement there is between my hypotheses and the Prophecies The circumstances of the fall of the Antichristian Empire are to be found in the 11 14 15 16 17 18 and 19th Chapters 'T is certainly that part of the Revelation that hath been least understood I mean as to what respects the circumstances of the ruin of the Antichristian Empire For as for the Characters of that Empire which are also contain'd in those Chapters they have been well enough apprehended But as to the fall of that Empire the time and progress of that fall God would not let men hitherto be so happy in their conjectures I hope that in what I shall now say something shall be met with that shall much more bear upon it the Characters of truth Divers circumstances of the fall of Antichrist which the H. Spirit hath not pleased to put into one vision The H. Spirit 's so often repeating the prophecy of the fall of Babylon and the ruin of its Empire is not only to give us a perfect certainty of the event 't is principally to mark out unto us that fall by divers circumstances But it hath not pleased God to give us all these circumstances in one vision that so the Prophecy might not be too plain For it is not at all the intention of God to inform us clearly of things to come with respect to their circumstances But only as to the substance of the thing The fall of the Antichristian Empire is the substance that which is necessary to support the hopes of the Church Hence it is that there is no obsecurity in the prophecy with respect to this no more then there was in the Prophecies concerning the Messiah with respect to the substance of it and the certainty of his coming but there was much as to the circumstances of that coming Therefore God hath misplaced the circumstances in the visions that they might be obscure because God was willing that the circumstances of the fall of the Kingdom of Antichrist should be obscure he hath for this reason divided them into several visions And for the same reason that is that he might put a venerable veyle upon that which he was not willing that we should know before the time He hath not placed the circumstances exactly according to the order of their coming to pass The vision which marches fore-most contains things which ought not to come to pass till afterward and the visions which follow contain things which ought to come to pass before Therefore that we may place these adorable obscurities in such a Light as is necessary to pierce into them we must bring things into their natural order and explain the visions according to the order of those events which they fore-tell In doing this we will begin with the 16th Chapter of the Revelation which contains the admirable vision of the seven viols which are the seven periods through which the Antichristian Empire ought to pass to come to its fall God does ordinarily prepare for greater visions by lesser The fifteenth Chapter is nothing but a preparation for the vision of the sixteenth Where are the seven last plagues as the twelve first verses of the 14th are nothing but a preparation unto the vision of the harvest and vintage which is very evident from the beginning of the 15th Chapter which is And I saw another sign in Heaven great and marvellous seven Angels having the seven last plagues As a preparation unto the vision of these seven last plagues God does make the Prophet see a sea of glass or of chrystal mingled with fire that is a sea where ice and fire are mingled and them that had gotten the victory over the beast and over his Image that is them that had escaped his corruption and idolatry stand upon the sea of glass or of ice and they sung the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb Great and marvellous are thy works It is clear A lively Image of those who escape the corruption of Popery its persecutions that the Prophet does make an allusion unto the passage through the red Sea and unto the Children of Israel who being got upon the shore of that Sea sung the song which Moses composed for them The Sea of glass mingled with fire answers to the red sea they who had gotten the victory over the Beast answer to the Israelites who had overcome the Egyptians Egypt out of which the Israelites marcht answers to this Antichristian Empire out of which the Elect do escape Therefore as the red sea and its waves were the danger out of which the Israelites coming out of Egypt were deliver'd so this sea of glass mingled with fire represents the evils which the Faithful who leave Babylon do escape These evils are called a sea on the account of their greatness and bitterness my breach is great like the sea said Jeremy they are called a sea of glass or a sea of ice because of their hardness 'T is more easy to escape out of a sea of water because the liquidity of waters does make it possible to swim through them but if a sea was glass or ice it would be impossible to get out of it There is also fire mingled with glass to represent the burning and extream dolours of those evils Fire and Ice are two extreams in evil yet they are joyn'd in the description of the calamities of the Church though they seem inconsistent if it be a sea of ice there cannot be fire there and if
the hand of God to inflict the plagues Thus in the second and third plagues which are the Croisades the Pope is not the sufferer 't is he who makes others suffer 't is he who sends many millions of his subjects to be murther'd and slain yea this very thing proved a great augmentation of his power In the same manner this fourth plague falls upon the Antichristian people and therefore in the following plague the Spirit saith that the viol was pour'd on the seat of the Beast to signify that the people or subjects of the Beast should not be the chief sufferers by it The abuse of the papal Authority did tend to its ruin I answer in the second place that the prodigious advancement of the papal Authority which in truth brought Antichristianism unto its perfection yet not withstanding was one step to its ruin If the Popes had kept within the bounds which they did in the preceding ages if they had not medled with secular affairs to dispose absolutely concerning them perhaps the See of Rome had not been thought to be Antichrist but then it was that this truth became so sensible that every one perceiv'd it The abuse of the Ecclesiastical power in the ninth age made some perceive that Rome was the mystical Babylon Thus Gontier Bishop of Colen and Thetgaut Arch-bishop of Triers nam'd it in the ninth Age. But after the eleventh Age this truth was so demonstrated that we of this Age do not speak it more plainly and confidently We may judge by that excellent passage of Eberard Bishop of Saltsburg See Aventin Annal. Boior lib. 4 pag. 330. which we cited out of Aventin in the tenth Chapter of the first Part of our Prejudg After that time there never wanted those who asserted the same thing Thus the dismal abuse of the papal Authority was and is still a sore plague to that See for 't is one of the strong Arguments by which we prove that it is Antichrist Men were scorcht but they repented not to give glory to God. The Germans cryed out very much against Babylon and Antichrist but they did not forsake them or renounce their Idolatry on the contary they blasphemed the name of God who had power over these plagues for those Ages were exceeding wicked and corrupt v. 10. And the fifth Angel pour'd out his viol upon the seat of the Beast and his Kingdom was sull of darkness and they gnawed their tongues for pain v. 11. And blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their pains and their sores and repented not of their deeds This is the fifth plague I ask not any favour for my conceptions about it let them be examined with the utmost rigour if they are not liked let them be disregarded but for my part I cannot abandon them untill the times and events do undeceive me but those events shall never be seen Who can doubt that by the seat of the Beast is meant Rome and when was it that the viol of the wrath of God fell upon this seat i.e. Rome It was when it lost its Sun the Sun which is spoken of in the preceding plague i.e. its Pope the papal Court that like a gulf or whirle pool drew to it all the riches of the Kingdoms of Europe A prophecy of what fell out when the Popes left Rome to go to Avignon In the year 1305 Clement V. left Rome to go and dwell at Avignon The City that was mistress of the World became desolate a very desert and a shadow of its self during those 74 years when its Masters kept their Seat at Avignon The viol fell upon the Seat of the Beast and his Kingdom was full of darkness 'T is not only said that his Seat was darkned but his Kingdom And indeed till that time the Kingdom of the Beast the Authority of the Pope the Glory of the Holy See as'tis call'd had never suffer'd such a strange and terrible an eclipse This removal of the papal Seat unto Avignon was the cause of a Schism At the end of 74 years Gregory XI compelled by the complaints of the Romans brought back the Seat to their City But after his death the Cardinals who were â—lmost all French resolved to have a Pope of their own Nation the Citizens of Rome fearing lest a French Pope should return into France forced the Colledge of Cardinals to chuse an Italian to be Pope who call'd himself Vurban VI. The Cardinals incensed at the force which was used in the election contrived to revolt which they did and chose another Pope who call'd himself Clement VII he held his Seat at Avignon and his Successors for 40 years in the mean while Vrban VI. and his Successors at Rome had one part of the Church of Rome under their obedience At that time the Sun of the Antichristian World was divided into two The great Schism of the West was a terrible plague to the Antichristian Empire as it happens to the Sun and the Moon when they are eclipsed it was eclipsed and darkned The Church of Rome suffer'd the greatest reproach imaginable Jesus Christ had no less then three or four Spouses at one time This is a piece of History which confounds popery even at this day which destroys its foolish pretences unto an uninterrupted succession an undivided unity and infallibility from hence we draw a conclusion against it which cannot be avoided Then the Kingdom of the Beast was darkned Princes despised the Popes and made themselves their Judges whereas formerly Popes had judged Kings They made them be deposed they call'd by their own Authority the Council of Constance where Popes were subjected to Councils and accounted deposable as in effect there were three who were there actually deposed Till that time Censures and Excommunications had been the strongest beams of the Antichristian Sun the most efficacious methods of his domination But then men began to despise them There was nothing but excommunicating of one another the Western Church was divided into two Obediences that which obeyed one Pope was excommunicated by the other and by this means all Europe lay under excommunication which made it contemptible and the people who once respected the Censures with incredible trembling began to discern that these thunderbolts were vain and empty things And this brought a considerable darkness upon the seat of the Beast and the papal power for all Europe groaning under the slavery of the Popes every one began to think of recovering their liberty Germany refused to submit to Reservations and Expectations means which the Court of Rome make use of to make her self Mistress of all Benefices France not only rejected Reservations and Expectations but annull'd Annats Provisions and all other exactions of the Court of Rome Then were laid the foundations of the pragmatick Sanction which gave the Popes so much trouble because it cut off all the simonaical tricks which the Court of Rome used to enrich her self even Italy it self during
whether the Antichristian Kingdom shall be destroy'd by sword fire and bloodshed I see nothing in the whole Revelation which obliges us to believe so for though in this and several other passages the ruin of popery is painted out in expressions borrowed from war slaughter and bloodshed yea in the most terrible and high expressions nevertheless this may very well be understood figuratively for the destruction of Paganisme is painted out in almost the same expressions by the Prophets though it was brought to pass without bloodshed As the Kingdom of the Beast was formed without war by the sottish complaisance of the Kings of the Earth who suffered their power to be snatcht from them or rather did voluntarily surrender it so this Antichristian Kingdom may perish without weapon by a word of two Letters The Princes of the Earth need onely say NO and the tyranny of Antichrist will fall to the ground And as for Idolatry which is the other part of Antichristianism the word and grace of God must destroy it Nevertheless I am willing to submit to the general consent of Interpreters of both Communions who unanimously hold that in the ruin of the Antichristian Kingdom there shall be a great effusion of blood and that Babylon the capital City of that Kingdom shall be laid in ashes I am willing therefore to believe that there shall be some bloodshed not for any passages in the Revelation but for these two Reasons Rome must be miserably destroyed 1. The first that 't is not probable that the Pope and his Partisans will yield without resistance they will stand out and in defending themselves will attaque in which attaque they shall perish 2. The second it seems agreeable to the Divine justice that the City of Rome that for two thousand years is the Mistress of the World the tyrant of the universe which hath shed so much blood and has bin delug'd with so many impurities should be overwhelmed and the World be avenged Ierusalem who was not guilty of such excess is ruined by a dreadful destiny 'T is not probable that God makes ready a less destruction for the City of Rome Here the last lacking of Rome is fore-told If this be so this passage without doubt is one of those that foretell this bloody Tragedy The City which is spoken of here without the City must be Rome But we have said before and shall hereafter prove that this word ought to be taken only for Rome in conjunction with her Empire Here 't is Rome alone and not her Empire 'T is true but the reason is that when she shall be laid waste in the manner that is mention'd here she shall have no more any Empire all her Provinces shall be revolted she shall be left alone of her whole party so that in this place she ought to appear all alone And the City cannot signify any more then the City of Rome because she shall have no more any dependent Provinces excepting that which is called the patrimony of St. Peter which Joseph Mede believes is meant by these thousand six hundred furlongs For he saith that the Countrey that reaches from the walls of Rome unto the river Po contains 200 Italian miles which make exactly 1600 furlongs If this conjecture be true as 't is probable this signifies that all the forces which the Pope shall be able to get together shall be wholly destroy'd without the City i. e. without Rome in that part of the Country which lyes betwixt Rome and the River Po. CHAP. XII The explication of that part of the eleventh Chapter where the last persecution made by Antichrist is fore-told which is the present persecution in France The death of the two witnesses who shall not be buried by means of the succour brought by the enemies of France THe first Chapter in the Revelation where the ruin of Antichristianism is fore-fold is the eleventh We passed over it for the reasons above mention'd We come again to it at present and place it the last that we may place it according to the order of events We have observed that there is found in it an Epitome or short draught of the whole History of the Church from the resurrection of Jesus Christ untill his coming into the World to erect his Kingdom there The pure Church of the three first ages is hid under these words measure the Temple and the Altar and those that worship therein And the corrupted Antichristian one under the Gentiles who must tread under foot the holy City forty and two months That is the outward Court but the Court that is without the Temple leave out and measure it not for it is given to the Gentiles This outward Court as Vsher hath divinely explain'd it in his Prophecy signifies Christians in appearance whose Religion consists in the performance of some external duties of Christianiâ—y without having the inward life or the true Faith which should unite them to Jesus Christ But those who worship in the Temple and before the Altar are those who sincerely worship God in spirit and truth whose souls are his Temples in which he is adored and honoured with the most inward thoughts of their hearts and who offer unto him a constant sacrifice not onely of their lusts but of their whole selves Thus this holy man speaks and I confess that I see in his words the Character of the spirit of God. These are the true worshippers whom God does measure and whom he makes account of and these are those who possessed the Church during the three or four first ages But afterward the Church became an outward Court was filled with feigned worshippers who made Christianity to consist in an appearance of piety and in external Ceremonies Then God pronounc'd concerning this Court let it be given to the Gentiles for forty and two moneths Then Paganism Idolatry the worship of subordinate Gods Mediators and a thousand heathenish Ceremonies were introduced into Christianity And this outward Court these formal outside worshippers were given up to a spirit of error and superstition to begin Antichristianism and make it continue twelve hundred and sixty years We have also in this Chapter the Church under the Cross persecuted and hid in Babylon in the two Witnesses who prophesied cloathed in sackcloth a thousand two hundred and sixty days We have in it the sound of the last Trumpet and the thousand years reign of Jesus Christ and the Church For at the sound of the seventh Trumpet the Kingdoms of the Earch become Gods and his Christs Lastly we have in it a remarkable event which must come to pass at the end of the reign of Antichristian popery and 't is expressed in these terms V. 7. And when they shall have finisht their testimony the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them V. 8. And their dead bodies shall lye in the street of the great City
elevation of Elijah and of Jesus Christ who were lift up above the clouds And their enemies beheld them Popery shall not as yet be destroy'd in France when this shall happen The Priests the Clergy and Monks shall be spectators of this great work But the end of popery in France shall come quickly after For the same hour-there was a great Earthquake mark the same hour he saith not and after as he had said to express a space of time between the resurrection of the witnesses and their ascending up even to the Throne But he saith the same hour to signisy that assoon as the Reformation shall be establisht by a solemn Edict of the Prince as by a great voyce from heaven the total destruction of popery shall happen as we are about to shew And the same hour there was a great Earthquake I will not spend time upon the signification of this representation an Earthquake For 't is known by all who are versed in the Prophets See Isa 170 13. and 24.19 20. Jer. 4.24 and 49 20. that in the Prophetick style an Earthquake signifies a great commotion of Nations that must change the face of the World because Earthquakes do overturn Cities Mountains and wholly change the face of a Countrey make Valleys where there were Mountains and Hills where there were Valleys and Lakes which were dry Land before and deserts of Countries which were inhabited so that 't is certain that according to this Prophesy in a very few years the face of the Antichristian Kingdom shall be changed but not every where It shall be only in the tenth part of the City which shall fall by this Earthquake The City signifies the Roman Antichristian Empire and not Rome alone And the tenth part of the City fell This is a passage where Interpreters have been short sighted not excepting our Joseph Mede who often hath so quick a sight To understand this we must first know what the City is Joseph Mede is mistaken together with all the rest when he understands this to mean precisely the City of Rome 'T is a truth which must be held as certain being one of the keys of the Revelation that the City the great City signifies in this book not Rome alone but Rome in conjunction with its Empire The name of this great City is Babylon Now 't is clear that Babylon is the whole Babylonian Kingdom Come out of Babylon my people 'T is not from the City of Rome that the Holy Ghost invites his Elect to come out 't is from the Church of Rome from the Babylonian Empire This passage alone together with that in this eleventh Chapter v. 8 And their dead bodies shall lye in the street of the great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was cruicified are enough to prove that the Babylonian City is not Rome alone Our Lord was not crucified in Rome and if we should here take crucifying in a figurative sense for the crucifying of the Religion of Jesus Christ this hath been sacrificed at Rome no more than in other places of the Latin Church In the 14th Chapter the Holy Ghost describes the fall of this City of Babylon Babylon is fallen is fallen that great City and in the same vision he fore-tells the ruin of the Antichristian Empire under the Metaphors of an harvest and a vintage which proves that this City is nothing else but the intire Kingdom of Babylon In the 18th Chapter the Prophet makes a long description of the desolations of this City under the Metaphors of a City of Merchandise which had a great traffick and was fill'd with pleasures and delightfull things Now 't is certain that the shamefull simony the wicked pleasures of the Papacy have not reigned less in the Provinces of the Babylonian Kingdom than in the Capital City from whence 't is again evident that the City signifies the whole Antichristian State. Lastly the constant opposition between the Holy City and the great City proves that the City includes the whole Antichristian Church even as the Holy City signifies the whole Christian Church De Launay hath confessed this in the eleventh Chapter of the Revelation and in the 16th but no exception is to be made every where the City and the great City Babylon signifies the intire Kingdom of the Papacy And the reason of this is evident old Rome made her whole Empire to be one only City by means of that right of citizenship which she bestowed on all who were of some considerable quality though they dwelt in the Provinces The citizens of Rome dwelt in all Countries now where the citizens of a City dwell there is the City this made Rutilius say Dumque offers victis proprij consortia juris Vrbem fecisti quod prius Orbis erat Thus it goes exactly in the Church of Rome which hath re-establisht the Roman Empire All those who are members of this Church are citizens of her capital City The Church of Rome is but one City Persons of all Nations are admitted into her Senate or Colledge of Cardinals The Tribunal which is called the Rota is constituted of Councellors taken out of all the Provinces which pay subjection to Rome Every Forreigner may come to be a Cardinal and every Cardinal may come to be Pope Therefore there are properly no Forreigners in that State no Papist is a Forreigner to the Church of Rome and that which they call the holy See. That which hath deceived Interpreters v. 9 1â— is the 17th Chapter where the City is called the Woman which sitteth on seven Mountains and that great City which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth This say they is the City of Rome and the Papists themselves do grant it and without doubt 't is Rome and we have above proved it but 't is Rome conjointly with her Empire Babylon signifies the whole Antichristian Empire and this Antichristian Empire is said to sit upon seven Mountains and to rule over the Kings of the Earth Rome must always be considered together with her Empire because this is true of its Capital City Nothing is more ordinary not to add that 't is constantly used than to denote a whole Kingdom by the ruling City Thus men always spoke of Rome Rome hath conquered the Nations Rome hath enlarged her Empire to the end of the World this signifies that the Roman Empire hath subdued all Nations and extended its bounds even to the utmost parts of the Earth The tenth part of the City is one of the ten Kingdoms that make up the Empire of the Papacy Chap. 17.12 13. This being supposed and proved that the City is the whole Babylonian and Antichristian Empire it must be remembred that this Empire of Antichrist is made up of ten Kingdoms and ten Kings who must give their power to the beast The ten horns which thou sawest are ten Kings These have one mind and shall give their power unto the
beast From which 't is clear that the tenth part of the City signifies here one of those ten Kingdoms under the authority of the Antichristian Kingdom A tenth part of the City fell i.e. one of these ten Kingdoms which make up the great City the Babyonian Empire shall forsake it This therefore is exactly that which must happen within a little while after the three years and a half of the total suppression of the Truth shall be exspired and a while after that the Witnesses shall be rais'd i.e. after the profession of the Truth shall be rais'd to life again in France and elsewhere And then the same hour immediately after that the Reformation shall be establisht by a Royal Edict without delay There shall be an Earthquake and a tenth part of the City shall be overturn'd Mark that the Earthquake i.e. the great alteration of affairs in the Land of the Papacy must for that time happen only in the tenth part of the City that shall fall for this shall be the effect of this Earthquake Frahte shal shortly fall not by a ruin of the Monarchy but by a ruin of Pepery Now what is this tenth part of this City which shall fall In my opinion we cannot doubt that 't is France This Kingdom is the most considerable part or piece of the ten horns or States which once made up the great Babylonian City it fell this does not signify that the French Monarchy shall be ruin'd it may be humbled but in all appearance Providence does design a great elevation for her afterward 'T is highly probable that God will not let go unpunisht the horrible outrages which it acts at this day Afterward it must build its greatness upon the ruins of the papal Empire and enrich it self with the spoils of those who shall take part with the Papacy They who at this day persecute the Protestants know not wither God is leading them this is not the way by which he will lead France to the height of glory If she comes thither 't is because she shall shortly change her road Her greatning will be no dammage to Protestant States on the contrary the Protestant States shal be enricht with the spoils of others be strengthned by the fall of Antichrists Empire This tenth part of the City shall fall with respect to the Papacy it shall break with Rome and the Roman Religion One thing is certain that the Babylonian Empire shall perish through the refusal of obedience by the ten Kings who had given their power to the Beast The thing is already come to pass in part The Kingdoms of Sweden Denmark England and several Soveraign States in Germany have withdrawn themselves from the Jurisdiction of the Pope They have spoyl'd the harlot of her riches They have eaten her flesh i.e. seiz'd on her Benefices and Revenues which she had in their Countries This must go on and be finisht as it is begun The Kings who yet remain under the Empire of Rome must break with her leave her solitary and desolate But who must begin this last revolt 'T is most probable that France shall Not Spain which as yet is plunged in superstition and is as much under the tyranny of the Clergy as ever Not the Emperor who in Temporals is subject to the Pope and permits that in his States the Archbishop of Strigonium should teach that the Pope can take away the Imperial Crown from him It cannot be any Countrey but France which a long time ago hath begun to shake off the yoke of Rome 'T is well known how solemnly and openly war hath been declared against the Pope by a Declaration of the King ratified in all the Parliaments by the decisions of the Assembly of the French Clergy by a Disputation against the Authority of the Pope managed in the Sorbon solemnly and by order of the Court. And to heighten the affront the Theses were posted up even upon the gates of his Nuntio Nothing of this kind had hitherto happened at least in a time of peace and unless the Pope had given occasion by his insolences Besides this Superstition and Idolatry lose their credit much in France There is a secret party though well enough known which greatly despiseth the popular Devotions Images worship of Saints and is convinced that these are humane institutions God is before-hand preparing for this great work To this it may be objected that for the last hundred and fifty years the Popes Empire hath not been made up of ten Kings because the Kings of England Sweden Denmark c. have thrown off his Government and consequently France is not at this day the tenth part of the Babylonian Empire for 't is more then a tenth part of it But this is no difficulty for we must know that things retain the names which they bore in their original without regarding the alterations which time does bring along Tho at this day there are not ten Kingdoms under the Babylonian Empire 't is notwithstanding certain that each Kingdom was called and ought to be called in this Prophecy the tenth part because the Prophet having described this Empire in its beginning by its ten horns or ten Kings 't is necessary for our clear understanding that every one of these ten Kings and Kingdoms should be called one of the ten Kings or of the ten Kingdoms with respect to the original constitution of the Antichristian Empire Seeing the tenth part of the City which must fall is France this gives me some hopes that the death of the two witnesses hath a particular relation to this Kingdom 'T is the street or place of this City i.e. the most fair and eminent part of it The Witnesses must remain dead upon this Street and upon it they must be raised again And as the death of the Witnesses and their Resurrection have a relation to the Kingdom of France it may well fall out that we may not be far distant from the time of the Resurrection of the witnesses seeing the three years and a lalf of their death are either begun or will begin shortly And in the earthquake were slain seven thousand in the Greek it is seven thousand names of men and not seven thousand men I confess that this seems somewhat mysterious in other places we find not this phrase names of men put simply for men Perhaps there is here a figure of Grammer called Hypallage casus so that names of men are put for men of name i.e. of raised and considerable quality be its on the account of riches or of dignity or of learning But I am more inclined to say that here these words names of men must be taken in their natural signification and doe intimate that the total Reformation of France shall not be made with bloodshed nothing shall be destroyed but names such as are the names of Monks of Carmelites of Augustines of Dominicans of Iacobins Franciscans Capucines Iesuites Minimes and an infinite company of others
whose number 't is not easie to define and which the Holy Ghost denotes by the number seven which is the number of perfection to signify that the orders of Monks and Nuns shall perish for ever This is an Institution so degenerated from its first Original that 't is become the arm of Antichrist These orders cannot perish one without another If any will have it that these seven thousand slain signifie that there shall be bloodshed it shall not be great for the number seven put for an indifinite number never signifies a great one De Launay is very much mistaken when he sayes that the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal â— King. 19.18 signified a great multitude on the contrary the signified a very small number indeed the number was so small that Elijah did not know of them he sayd I am left alone The Kings of France at this day do lift their authority so high that nothing can resist it 'T is therefore probable The authority of the Kings of Francs shall prevail over the ruling Religion that every thing will bend under the yoke of their Will when they shall resolve to break with Rome and it seems as if the Providence of God was preparing the way unto this thing by the Clergies Declaration confirmed by that of the King viz. that Kings depend on none in any thing which concerns Temporals and that 't is never lawful to deny obedience to them upon a pretext of Religion For if this be once fixed when ever it shall please the Kings of France to forsake the Communion of Rome by this Principle of the present Bishops it cannot be allowed that the People should rebell against them I look on that which is happened in England as another preparation unto this Event A King of a Religion contrary to that of the State reigns peaceably the reason is that Providence will accustome the subjects to pay subjection to Princes who are enemies of the Ruling Religion And the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven This is the total conversion and reformation of the tenth part of the City i.e. of the Kingdom of France that shall quickly follow after the Kings of France shall have broken with the Bishop of Rome V. 14. The second Wo is past and behold she third Wo cometh quickly namely the second of the three Woes which had been denounced after the sound of the fourth Trumpet Chap. 8.13 And I heard an Angel flying through the midst of Heaven crying with a loud voyce Wo wo wo to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voyces of the Trumpet which are yet to sound The first of these three woes was the Grashoppers Saracens denoted by Grashoppers who came up out of the bottomless pit with their Head Apollyon and in Hebrew Ahaddon These Grashoppers are plainly the Saracens Chap. 14. Arabians with their Head Mahomet The second Wo is the domination of the Turks who passed from the other side of Euphrates at the sound of the sixth Trumpet And the third Wo is the fall of the Antichristan Empire These three great events deserve to be distinguisht from all others for they have changed or shall change the whole face of the world And the seventh Angel sounded c. this which follows concerns the Kingdom or reign of Iesus Christ and the Church and consequently must be reserved to another place CHAP. XIV Observations upon the 17 18 19. Chapters of the Revelation concerning the fall of Antichrist's Kingdom A brief Methodizing of the events which the Holy Ghost had displaced in the Visions THe seventeenth Chapter contains something that relates to the destruction of Antichrists Kingdom V. 16. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast these shall hate the whore and make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire V. 17. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and give their Kingdom unto the beast untill the words of God shall be fulfilled There 's nothing in this passage that hath not been opened or is obscure 'T is clear that these Kings who through ignorance or weakness suffer'd their power to be usurped by the Empire of the papacy shall take it again they shall eat her flesh i.e. shall enrich themselves with her benefices revenues and burn her with fire i.e. shall abolish the the memory of this Romish Empire so that nothing but ashes shall remain of it The 18th Chapter is a long description of the ruin of the Antichristian and Babylonian Empire I have no need to enter into this Chap. because I find nothing in it of that which I principally seek which is those certain characters which can inform us of the time of this fall namely whether it be night at hand or afar off There is nothing there concerning it except that which is general As to this Chapter I will say only First We must remember the remarque which hath been often made by us that Babylon here does not signify strictly the City of Rome as most have imagined 'T is the whole Babylonian Empire as appears from these words Come out of Babylon my people I do not think that any great number of Gods people hath come out of the City of Rome hitherto we have not seen it My second remarque is we must not as is usually done over much press the mystical sense of divers merchandises which are reckon'd up and were sold it that City I do not believe VVe must not over much seelt mysteries in the particular merchandises of Babylon that there is any other mystery in this thing than that this Babylonian Empire being set forth under the Emblem of a great City it was necessary to represent it as a City of great commerce for that is inseperable from great Cities Not but that these merchandises and the many instruments of Luxury and pleasures which are said to have been in this City do not very fitly signify and according to the design of the Holy Ghost both the Simony and debaucheries of this corrupted Church in the general But I believe not that 't is necessary to enquire particularly what is meant for example by the silk the precious stones the fine linnen c. The burning of Babylon must not be understood literally My Third Observation upon this 18th Chapter is we must not interpret literally the Metaphors of burning fire blood and slaughter which the Holy Ghost set before us Certainly these are not the Methods which God makes use of to establish his Kingdom I think indeed as I have already said that God will suffer Rome to be sackt as he suffer'd Jerusalem to be I further believe that this great change in Religion will not be made without blood shed as it hapned in the last age But seeing the City in this Chapter and generally in the Revelation take in
by the Croisades The encrease of the Sun's heat in the fourth plague is the encrease of the papal authority the Ecclipse and darkning of this Sun in the fifth plague is the grand Schism between Rome and Avignon the Kings of the East who pass over Euphrates in the sixth plague are the Turks who pass over the Bosphorus to invade the remainder of the Greek Empire and a part of that of the Latins and lastly the dividing of the great city into three parts in the seventh plague is the dividing of the Latin Church into three Communions Papists Lutherans and Reformed I lay down as a principle which I cannot doubt of that I have it the mark in the explication of these plagues But this 't is said seems rash to assert so confidently that which can only be a strong conjecture Men may object what they please against this exposition but I cannot recant it And I desire the World seriously to consider only these two things 1. That my explications very well agree with the words and Metaphors of the prophecy 2. That 't is impossible that chance should produce an explication so universally lucky It must be remembred what we said concerning the Epistles to the seven Churches on the question whether they are Prophetical We granted that there are some passages that agree well with the applications which are made but we observed that these applications are far from being universally true 't is therefore chance that produced those lucky agreements But if any one comes who shall make such a measured division of times and such a just application of these times and the events in them unto the Characters with which these seven Churches are marked so that nothing is defective then I shall remain perfectly satisfyed that this last Interpreter hath exactly hit the truth it will be no longer a conjecture Let me therefore be permitted to remain perswaded that I have hit the truth as to the seven plagues seeing they so perfectly agree with tho events which are past My fifth Principle is that I have not been less happy in hitting the true sense of the harvest and vintage in the fourteenth chapter A man must be blind if he sees not that these are the two parts of the fall of Babylon Babylon is fallen is fallen that great city and immediately after this fall is divided into harvest and vintage I cannot hinder my self from seeing that this signifies the first fall of Popery by a first Reformation which certainly is come to pass and the final fall of Popery by a second Reformation which must come to pass None can I think seriously consider the perfect agreement between the representations and the Original but be will be perswaded that 't is so 6. My sixth and last Principle is that we are in the last Persecution which the Church must suffer from the Kingdom of Antichrist And this last conclusion so naturally and necessarily flowers from the foregoing ones that none can acknowledge the preceding but he must likewise own the truth of this Let us now see whither these Principles do lead us All our Principles lead us unto the eighteenth Age to find the end of Antichrists reign If the Papacy be the Antichristian Kingdom then certainly the period of 1260 prophetick dayes or 1260 years which are assigned to the duration of the Kingdom of the Beast belong to it If the principal Character of this Kingdom is Idolatry 't is clear we must begin to reckon the duration of this Kingdom from that time in which Idolatry was set up in the Church Now 't is certain that the Idolatrous worship of Reliques and of Saints was fully establisht in the fifth Age Reckon 1260 years since the fifth Age this will bring you to the beginning of the eighteenth Age. If the Empire of the Papacy be the Empire of the Beast we must begin it at the time when the Roman Empire was divided into ten Kingdoms Fore the Holy Ghost speaks so in express and clear terms Reckon 1260 years since the division of the Roman Empire into ten Kingdoms which was done in the fifth Age and this will lead you to the eighteenth Age. If the Roman-papist See is that man of sin of whom St. Paul speaks in the 2d Chap. of the Epist to the Thessalonians we must reckon the 1260 years assigned to his Empire from the time that the Imperial dignity which held at Rome ceased to hold â— 6 7. or withhold which happened in the fifth Age. Reckon again your 1260 years since that time and you will see that you fall upon the eighteenth Age. If we have hit right in explaining the seven viols and the seven plagues the last viol hath been poured out since the time of Luther and its influence is running still according to the proportion of the preceding viols it cannot be running out above two hundred years Reckon again by this rule and you will fall into the eighteenth Age. If the harvest and the vintage in the fourteenth chapter are really the first and second part of the fall of the Antichristian Papacy which must be produced by as many Reformations then the Reformation in the last Age must have been the harvest lengthen as much as you please the space of time between the harvest and vintage you cannot make it longer than two hundred years Reckon and you will fall upon the eighteenth Age the find there the vintage and the final ruin of the Papacy Lastly if all that we have said is rational 't is impossible that this should not be the last persecution for the Reformation cannot be raised again so as to fall down a second time seeing we have proved that the Period of 1260 years is about to expire therefore reckon this persecution as the last and make it to be as long as you will provided you observe the measure which God hath set to the longest persecutions that the Church hath suffered and this however will bring you unto the eighteenth Age. Observe I pray you how many things do bring you to this eighteenth Age. Admire the meeting of so many paths which do all bring you to the same point And remember this undoubted Principle that 't is impossible that false conjectures should hit right in every thing I entreat above all the Roman-Catholicks to consider seriously this Principle How can they perswade themselves that system of lyes and false suppositions should hang well together That we should find in their Roman See exactly all the Characters which are given to the man of sin to the Beast in the Revelation to spiritual Babylon to the whore clothed in scarlet that â—ve should meet with the Characters of the Papacy in its birth exactly in the time that the Prophets have markt out for the birth of the Antichristian Kingdom that we should find so exact these seven great judgments of God denoted by seven plagues that God should exactly at this time permit that F.
lye so he was their Saviour If the Jews have nothing else to look for but the conversion of some thousands of them who shall not be damned could it be said that the goodness is great that is bestowed upon the house of Israel and that God will deal with them according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses If we compare the whole Nation which for almost two thousand years was to be loft would such a conversion deserve to be counted any thing Above all we must take notice in this 63 Chapter that the six first Verses represent in a magnificent manner the bloody victory of a Conqueror Who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah this that is glorious in his apparel travelling in the greatness of his strength I that speak in righteousness mighty to save Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat I have trodden the wine-press alone and of the people there was none with me for I will tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain all my raiment For the day of vengeance is in my heart and the year of my redeemed is come And I looked and there was none to help and I wondred that there was none to uphold therefore my own arm brought salvation unto me and my fury it upheld me And I will tread down the people in my anger and make them drunk in my fury and I will bring down their strength to the earth Ordinarily this passage is interpreted of the Passion of Jesus Christ and I do not oppose that it should be apply'd to it by a pious allusion The victory over Antichrist fortold in the 63 of Isaiah and in the 19th of the Revelation But I much wonder that none hath discryed its true meaning and that none hath perceived that the same event exactly is fore-told here and in the 19th of the Revelation from the 11th verse to the end 'T is so plainly the same thing that the expressions are in a manner the same 'T is clear that the Holy Ghost alludes to this passage of Isaiah when he saith Revel 19. â—5 And he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. The figures are the same borrowed from war slaughter combats and bloodshed So that without doubt the same thing is signified in both places Namely that great victory that the Lord Jesus must gain over all the enemies of the Church before the period of the thousand years An unbloody victory and which must be gain'd by the sword of his mouth i. e. his Word But 't is represented under the figure of war according to the custome of the Holy Ghost who paints out spiritual victories with colours borrowed from temporal ones Now I would fain know for whom this victory discribed by Isaiah must be gain'd Without doubt 't is on the behalf of the people of the Iews 't is to the Jews that he speaks the year of my Redeemed is come and presently after followeth that which we have cited I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord c. which belongs to the people of the Jews and can't belong to any other 'T is therefore for the Iews and on their behalf that the great battel in the 19th of the Revelation shall be fought 't will be to get a crown for them and to raise them upon a Throne Therefore this Nation is not in so great an error as men have hitherto imagined upon the subject of the nature of the reign of their Messiah It is certain that it must advance their Nation to very great glory But they are mistaken 1. In that they have not own'd the Messiah in his state of Humiliation and will not till his glorious Appearance 2. They doubtless mistake in the nature of their Kingdom fixing thereto too much of what is Temporal whereas it shall be very Spiritual and not at all consist in commanding over Nations to assemble them for War to receive of them Tribute and Subjection It will rather consist in this that this Nation shall be the most glorious of any in the World the most zealous the most Holy which shall give Pastors and it may be Governors to all other People In this we have the true reason why in the book of Revelations there is nothing formally spoken of the Recalling of the Iews It would have been a very surprizing thing that the Holy Ghost should have omitted one of the most considerable events of the Church in a book of Prophecies containing the History of it So our Interpreters would willingly find it every where and really can find it but in very few places The reason is because 't is only to be met with in the 20th Chapter of the Revelations and in the 11th Chapter of that Book The Kingdom of the Messiah and of the Saints which is spoken of in those places is that Kingdom which is to be given to the Holy People according to the Prophecies of Daniel for in the style of the Prophets there is no other Holy People but the People of Israel So that the Iews are to be the principal part of the fifth Monarchy This is the Kingdom that was promised to Jesus Christ by the Angel who fore-told his birth to the B. Virgin. God will give him the Throne of David his Father I would feign know how that Oracle hath been accomplisht The converted Gentiles of whom Jesus Christ hath been King for sixteen hundred years are they the Kingdom of David while the Jews who are Children and Brethren of David are the avowed Enemies of this Kingdom It may well be said that Jesus Christ hath received a Kingdom whereof that of David was the figure but that doth by no means satisfy But what doth the Answer of our Lord Jesus Christ to his Apostles signify They demanded of him I. Christ promis'd his Apostles to re-establish the Kingdom of the Zews Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom again to Israel Jesus replyed by remitting them to another time 'T is not for you saith he to know the Times sand Seasons which the Father hath put in his own Power If the Kingdom should never be restored to Israel why doth not our Lord tell them so and why doth he hold them in suspence if the Kingdom of Israel be nothing else than the Calling of the Gentiles and our Christian Church why doth he refer them to a longer time saying that God hath reserved to himself the knowledge of that Time that was a thing should be effected within a few years in their own time before their eyes and by themselves Lastly why hath he commanded us to pray daily Thy Kingdom come since that Kingdom is already come for by that Kingdom cannot be understood the eternal Kingdom of Paradise where Jesus Christ so far as man is only the
Savoy and lastly that of France which at this day is driven on to extremity and is the most terrible of all that ever the Church endured The Empire of the Papism is a Sodom for corruption of manners As to corruption of manners one may be convinced that it cannot go further than it hath already gone in the Papism by reading what we have written in the sixth and ninth Prejudice In the sixth we have proved the corruption of the heads of the Papism by a short History of the abominable immoralities of the Popes And in the ninth we have given an account of an infinite number of witnesses in all Ages who do depose that all the most horrible and filthy things that can be imagined are to be met with in the carriage and manners of the Monks Priests and Laity in the Papism To perfect the description of the corruption of the Papism the eighth Prejudice may be added in which the filthy sordid simoniacal and sacrilegious covetousness of Rome and all its Agents are discover'd The Empire of the Papism is a Babylon for idolatry To be assured that Idolatry one of the principal Characters of the Antichristian Empire agrees to the Papism you may read the 33. Chap. of the last part where you will find a short description of the extravagant and abominable worship which the Church of Rome gives to the Holy Virgin and all the Saints in which worship we have plainly discovered an evident Character of reprobation and Antichristianism Lastly for the proof of the Paganism of that Church you may read the 12th of our prejudices We have there made a very exact Parallel between Popery and Paganism enough to convince any one that they both had the same spring and Author because they have the same objects distinguisht into the very same classes and very near the very same ceremonies To which may be added the History of the fables of the Papism more filthy and more numerous than those of Paganism You will find it in the sixteenth Prejudice Besides all this we have taken our second Prejudice from the perfect conformity that is between the Prophecies concerning the reign of Antichrist and the things we see in the settlement and the nature of the Kingdom of the Papism We have alledged all the Prophecies wherein 't is agreed that Antichrist and his Empire are both fore-told and described and we have justified it that all the strokes of these descriptions do agree to the Pope to his Seat to his Religion and to his Empire The Roman Religion is that falling away and that Apostacy of which St. Paul speaks in the second Chap. of the second Epist to the Thessalonians 'T is the first Text we have produced against it The Papism is an Apostacy That Religion is an Apostacy because there is in it Idolatry prophaning of holy things an introduction of new Gods and the abomination of Images set up in the Sanctuary It s head is the man of sin and the son of perdition because his throne is the throne of pride of covetousness of ambition of Simony There we find the Politiques of the World and of the spirit of darkness cheating deceit violence blood fornication sodomy brutishness magick and all manner of imaginable wickedness This head of the Papism sits in the Temple of God i. e. in the Christian Church where Jesus Christ dwelt who is the foundation He sits there as a God for he makes his feet be kiss'd by men yea even by the highest powers of the Earth He is called God the Lievtenant of God the Vicar of Jesus Christ and a Vice-God In the quality of a God and as one clothed with his power he changes the times and the Law. He dispenses with things against the Law of God Dan. 7. against the Canons of the Church against the Apostle against the Old and New Testament He lifts up himself above all that is called God for he exalts himself above all the Kings of the Earth that are the Gods of this lower World. He exalts himself also above the true God in making such laws as make void the Laws of God for instance in commanding to worship Images which God hath forbidden us to worship He exalts himself above the Saints which are his Demy-Gods For in the quality of a Judge and consequently of a Superiour he Canonises them he places them in the Heavens he causes them to be honoured with Temples and Altars or he refuseth it to them The Papism is a Mystery of Iniquity His Religion is a mystery of iniquity for all that is in it is unrighteous unjust wicked 'T is usurpations violences and Idolatries It ravishes away from men their just rights and from God that worship that belongs to him alone to appropriate it to a Tyrant or give it to subjects that do not deserve it 'T is a Mystery for it hath all the appearance of a Mystical Religion It hath ceremonies in abundance a pompous worship a mighty out-side but 't is a Mystery of iniquity This mystery was establisht by the efficacy of Santan with all power signs and lying wonders For one can't reckon up either the Diabolical illusions or the Cheats of the Priests or the lying Miracles by which this false worship and this false Religion was establisht in the World. The explication and application of that place of St. Paul to the Empire of the Papism have been already made so exactly that we shall not do it over again except only that Article in which the Apostle saith 2 Thess 2.6 7. Ye know what with-holdeth that he might be revealed in his time c. He who now letteth will let till he be taken out of the way and then shall that wicked one be revealed All the world did formerly believe and so it doth still that by him who Held and possessed or did let in St. Pauls time we must understand the Roman Empire And it hath been generally apprehended that the Apostle intended to say that the Antichristian Empire would not appear in the world before the Roman Empire was abolisht and destroyed Tho we should stick to this without any other explication our cause would be much better than that of the Church of Rome For to demonstrate that the Romish Antichrist is not yet come she is obliged to prove that the Roman Empire doth yet subsist Germany is not an Empire nor the Roman Empire doth yet subsist She finds it in the Empire of Germany But nothing is more vain than this nor more easy to be confuted The Government of Germany is neither an Empire nor a Roman Empire 'T is not an Empire There is nothing Despotical in it nor any thing that savours of an Emperour 'T is rather a Republique or an heap of many different Monarchical Aristocratical and Democratical States 'T is not the Roman Empire no more than the Kingdom of France or that of Spain For 't is one of the