used in any other place in which it is not so clearly known Rule 2 3. 3. It is against all the other known representations of the different kinds of Supreme Powers in the same Nation all over Daniel or the Revelations that they should have two distinct Figures to represent two different kinds of them even according to the Interpretation of these men themselves For all the differences of Supreme Powers in the same Nation every-where else are granted to be set out by the parts or appurtenances of whole Figures As in the 8th Chapter that which represents the Succession of the Persian after the Median Kings in the same Nation of the Medes and Persians is the Two Horns of the Ram not two different Beasts And the four divisions of the Grecian Monarchy with the Rule of the first King are set out by four Horns after one great Horn which belonged all to the one He-Goat The Ten Kings arising out of the fourth Kingdom and the One after them are represented by eleven Horns of one and the same Beast in Chap. 7. 24. And the same Ten Kings in the fourth Kingdom of the Image in the 2 d Chapter are shewn by the Ten Toes of the Feet The Seven successive Kings also of the Kingdom in the Revelations and the Ten Kings who are all at a time in that Roman Rule are represented by the Seven Heads and Ten Horns of that One Beast All which if counted up together will be found to be the odds of above Forty to Nothing against the dividing of the single Reign of Alexander from those who succeeded him in the same Nation and against the representing him by one whole Figure 4. The Third Kingdom is certainly that which succeeded the Second and the Second by all is agreed to signifie the Persian Kingdom and what a kind of Kingdom it was that succeeded the Persian the Prophet himself informs us in the 8th Chapter v. 21 22. where the King of Greece who overthrew the Persian Monarchy does signifie the whole time of the Grecian Monarchy with a first Conquering King in it and a four-fold Kingdom after him And therefore here also must this Third Kingdom that succeeded the Persian and is represented in this 7th Chapter by One Beast as that was in the Eighth be the same time of the Greek Monarchy from its Conquest of Persia to the end of it 5. The proper Character of the Kingdom of the Greeks which Alexander's Reign was but a part of is a Kingdom first under one King then divided into four and joyned together in one Figure as appears in the 8th and 11th Chapters where v. 8. v. 4. the Kingdom of the first King is said to be divided towards the four winds of Heaven in both those Chapters Wherefore since the Third Kingdom in the 7th Chapter is shown by a Leopard v. 6. with four Heads and four Wings to make sure of the number Four If that be Alexander's Kingdom it must be his Kingdom divided into four and then it is the same with the whole Graecian Monarchy setled in the four lasting Kingdoms of it mentioned as the one Kingdom in the 8th and 11th Chapters 6. Besides that the Leopard with the four Heads and four Wings must signify such a divided Kingdom appears from all the significations of Heads and Horns and all the parts of Figures signifying Dominion in any place else of this Book and of that of the Revelations As in the 8th Chapter twice in the 2d Chapter in the feet and toes the same with the fourth Beast and his Ten Horns in the 7th Chapter pag. 104 c. which also are Ten Kings in one Kingdom and the Ten Horns of the Beast in the Revelations are of the same signification Prop. 15. So that the Leopard being granted by all to be a Graecian Kingdom there is at least Five to nothing clear to the contrary that the four-headed Leopard is Alexander's Kingdom divided into four which we know to be the fourfold Monarchy of the Greeks 7. If Alexander's single Reign were the Third Kingdom shown by the Third Beast in the 7th Chapter and his Ten Captains immediately after him were a fourth Kingdom shown by the Fourth Beast with Ten Horns then that Kingdom which was represented but as One and the same in the 8th and 11th Chapters of the same Prophet would be represented as One and Three For there would be one Kingdom under Alexander alone shewn by the Third Beast chap. 7. Another under his Ten Captains shown by the Fourth Beast and a Third by the fourfold Kingdom of the four Horns of the He-Goat in the 8th Chapter And thus one Kingdom shown by one Beast only in the 8th Chapter should be two Kingdoms shown by two Beasts in the 7th Chapter and a Third Kingdom besides shown by a part only of that one Beast in the 8th Chapter which represented the whole time of them all which would suppose that the Prophet had no consistency at all with himself in his Figures but that he did set them down at all adventures in contradiction to one another And this also must be supposed of him without the least plain ground from any thing that he had said to countenance it which is a sufficient warrant to make us determine that all this is more than these Men have any ground to affirm of him and contrary to what he is every where represented viz. As a very profound wise Man and even contrary to all the experience that we have of it in all the Figures which are granted to be known wherein he is acknowledged by All to observe a constant and determinate usage of them in one only signification 8. Again when we see the Graecian Monarchy after Alexander represented as a fourfold Kingdom in known and plain terms in the 8th and 11th Chapters to make the next Kingdom after him to be a tenfold Kingdom of his Captains in the 7th Chapter is to shut ones eyes against what the Prophet had plainly said in those two Chapters And which he seems openly to refer to by the four Heads of the Leopard And what a strange contempt of a Prophesy is it to reject a Figure of a Kingdom that has just the same marks that it is set out with in two open known places which expresly name it and to take up with another in the stead of it that has such marks as that Kingdom was never before set out with by the Prophet That is to pass by the Leopard with the four Heads which yet is granted to be a part of the Kingdom of the Greeks that is mentioned in the 8th and 11th Chapters by their own confession and instead of it to chuse a Beast with Ten Horns representing ten Kingdoms for the rest of the Graecian Monarchy which had before been twice called a fourfold Kingdom but never a Kingdom with Ten Kings in it 9. The Prophecies of Daniel we see were wrote by
East where the Prophecy was given The He Goat indeed in that Chapter at the first mention of the Angel's Interpretation of him may seem to be but a single Person for he is said to be the King of Greece But v. 21 22. when we see a first King in him and then four Kingdoms after him represented by the several Horns of that Beast It is altogether unquestionable that the He Goat himself is something that belongs in common to all his Horns or Ruling Powers represented by them And that can be nothing but the Graecian Monarchy or the Ruling Time of the Greeks The beginning of which is signified by the Conquest of the Ruling Monarchy of the Persians that was before it by Alexander the Great called here the Great Horn And the establishment and the continuance of the Graecian Monarchy from that establishment of it under the four setled Kingdoms of Macedonia Syria Egypt and Thrace or Pergamus which was the same is shewn by the four Horns coming up in the place of the first Horn that was broken For though there were more Kingdoms than four soon after Alexander's death yet they were were in a perpetual change and rather a tumultuous Scuffle of his Captains than any determinate number of Kingdoms till they came to be setled in those four So that till then the whole Monarchy could not be said to have any particular form in it Besides that during the time of that scuffle or at least the greatest part of it there were some or other of Alexander's Line remaining who might well enough be looked upon as the continuance of the Reign of the first Horn. But after that the Monarchy setled in the four mentioned divisions till the Roman Conquest There is indeed a little Horn said to come out of one of the four But v. 9. by that expression it appears that it cannot well be taken for any thing else than for a part of the Ruling Time of the same Horn which it came out of and therefore is it generally judged to the single Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes By both these Figures in the 8th Chapter it appears that the Ruling Parts of a Figure do not only signify the several Governments in the Nation but also the Succession of all the particular Persons in that form of Government As the four Horns signify the Succession of all the Kings in those Kingdoms and the two Horns of the Ram all the Line of the Median and Persian Kings Of this the 11th Chapter is still a further confirmation Dan. 11. 3 4. where after the Kings of Persia there is the mention of the Realm of Greece and of a mighty King who should have a Kingdom which should be broken and divided towards the four Winds of Heaven just as in the other the four Horns are said to come up towards the four Winds of Heaven Dan. 8. 8. And a Kingdom broken and divided towards the four Winds can be nothing but a fourfold Kingdom according as it is said in the other that the great Horn being broken said to be the first King four Kingdoms should stand up in the Nations And then two of these Divisions according to the points of the Wind are the subject of the greatest part of that 11th Chapter under the Names of the King of the North and the King of the South which though they seem to signify but two single Kings yet are indeed a Succession of many Kings in each Division And at last one of this Succession is there set out as much more considerable for his Villany than any of the rest just as the Little Horn was in the 8th Chapter which is there said to come out of one of the four Horns to denote him to be a single King of that Division And that all these Expressions were very clear significations of the Graecian Monarchy and of the Changes in it till about the end of it there can be no greater evidence than that Scoff of Porphyry the Philosoper mentioned by St. Jerom who derides this part of the Prophecies of Daniel with a great assurance that it must have been wrote after the things were done because of the exact agreement of it with the particular Circumstances of the Times which it foretells From these two Chapters may it also be seen That Kings N. B. and Kingdoms are promiscuously used for any intimations of Rule whether in a Ruling Nation or in a single Person when it is said to be his Kingdom As we ordinarily use the terms of the King of France or of Spain to signify the whole Monarchy of that Nation for all the time that it continues in power and the terms of England and France for the Actions of the Kings of those Places For Example The King of France and Spain have been always at war England was the King of France's Friend There is then assurance enough of the confirmation of the General Proposition by the Examples of the 8th Chapter a THeodoret in cap. 7. Daniel Utraque Cornua Because the Medes were also called Persians Foreign Writers do also join them promiscuously together CHAP. V. Dan. II VII All Interpreters agreed That the Five Kingdoms in the 2 d and 7th Chapters are the same Kingdoms whatever they be in particular This attempted to be demonstrated from the Characters of each of them in both Chapters The Fourth and Fifth in each of those Chapters proved to be necessarily the same particular Kingdoms THere is now good ground to apprehend that the Figures in Daniel were designed to be understood And that there is an exact conformity amongst them in the general significations of the same kind of Characters in every one of them as the exact agreement of the Two figures in the 8th Chapter in the same general signification of A Monarchy and the several Changes of the Ruling Power of that Monarchy has been shown to be very plainly expressed in the words of the Prophecy it self And this is sufficient to excite ones curiosity to a more particular examination of the other Figures of that Book which thô they have no such plain determinations of their signification as the former in express words yet are there such peculiar descriptions of them in the explication that is given of them as upon the first serious reflections would make one very confident that it was no hard matter either to come to the particular knowledg of them or to find them conformable to the Rule of the present Proposition It is a considerable encouragement to our hopes of this nature That it is almost unanimously agreed upon by all the several parties of Interpreters That the other Figures in the 2d and 7th Chapters are the successions of the four famous Monarchies from the time of the Prophet Daniel himself till some universal Kingdom of Christ at the end of them Let us consider them both according to their descriptions in each Chapter In the 7th
Kingdoms these in the 2 d Chapter are For they cannot possibly be the Four Reigns of so many single Persons either in the same or in different Nations In which sense Kingdoms are sometimes taken For the Four longest single Reigns that ever were heard of in an immediate Succession to one another do not reach to half the number of years that there are from the time of Nebuchadnezzar here said v. 38. to be the first to any Kingdom of Christ These Four Kingdoms then must necessarily be such Successions of Kingly Power as include the times of a great many single Rulers in them And then They must be either so many successive Forms of the Sovereign Power in the same Nation as Chap. 8. 22. the changes of the governing Form of the same Nation are called different Kingdoms and as the Monarchy of England and the Saxon Heptarchy may be said to be two different Kingdoms Or else they must be Four Kingdoms of different Nations in succession to one another Or some of them Forms of Government in the same Nation and others the Rule of different Nations For it seems hardly possibly to find any other acceptation of Successive Kingdoms but in one of these senses 1. It is certain that they cannot be Four Successive Forms of Sovereignty in the same Nation For since the first is known to be the Babylonian Nation the end of that would then be the Dan. 2. 38. end of all the Four and the beginning of a Kingdom of Christ upon Earth 2. Neither can they be part of them Forms of Sovereignty in the same Nations For the first of them is known to be the Babylonian Nation which had no differing Forms of Sovereignty in it from the time of Nebuchadnezzar to the last end of it and therefore the first must necessarily be the Babylonian Monarchy only And the next in immediate succession to it must be the Persian Monarchy upon the same account of its continuing in the same Monarchichal Form of Sovereignty from the beginning of it under Cyrus to the last Conquest of it under Darius But about the Third Kingdom in the 2 d Chapter there may be some question For that next the Persian is represented even in this very Prophecy Chap. 8. 21 22. with two several Forms of the Sovereign Power of it succeeding one another under the name of the Kingdom of the First King and of a Fourfold Kingdom after him But the Third also does appear to be nothing but the whole Dan. II VII time of the Graecian Monarchy from its Succession to the Persian till its Conquest by the Roman For the Fourth that is next to it is already found to be the same with the Fourth Kingdom in the 7th Chapter of Daniel pag. 121. And that Fourth in the 7th Chapter is already known to be a Kingdom of the Romans by Prop. 15. The Third Kingdom therefore beginning immediately after the Second or Persian Conquest and ending but immediately before the Roman Conquest immediate Succession being common to all the Four it must necessarily be the whole continuance of the Graecian Monarchy from the Persian to the Roman because the Fourth Kingdom is already known to be the Roman Thus then do we at last find that these Four Kingdoms in the 2 d Chapter must be the Kingdoms of Four Ruling Nations immediately succeeding one another and that it is at the same time determined what Nations they are in particular From hence then it appears that the Third in the 2 d and the 7th Chapters must be the same Ruling Nation For the Third in the 2 d Chapter was immediately before that which is the same Fourth in both Chapters pag. 121. Paragr praeced And that Third in the 2 d Chapter ruled over all the Earth and v. 39. therefore included in it any other Kingdom of the Prophet's Earth that was destroyed at the beginning of the same Fourth in the 7th Chapter Now the Fourth in the 7th Chapter did break in pieces the v. 23. Third there that was before it and therefore that Third in the 7th Chapter must be the same with or be included in the Third of the 2 d Chapter Besides by the term of all the Earth must at least be understood Chap. 2. 39. Judaea in Scripture or the Prophet's Nation according to the sense of all Interpreters And all the Four Kingdoms of the v. 17. 7th Chapter are said to arise out of the Earth or to be in Rule over it and so over Judaea Wherefore the Third in the 2d and in the 7th being both over Judaea at least because both over the Earth and both destroyed by the same Fourth they can be but one and the same Kingdom in one and the same place There is no question now to be made about the sameness of the First and Second in each Chapters For since they are the First and Second to the same Third in both Chapters seg praeced And that the use of the word Kingdom is found to signify a Ruling Nation pag. 107. And since the two first in the 2 d Chapter are already determined to be the Babylonians and Persians ibid. The Prophetical use of the same words with the same things is sufficient by Rule the 3 d to satisfy any that they signify the same things in both Chapters Besides that they are all represented in the 7th Chapter to be great remarkable Kingdoms under the names of Great Beasts and in succession after one another And then The Second before the Graecian Monarchy in the 7th Chapter can be no other Kingdom but the Persian as it is in this very Prophet also shewn in the 8th Chapter 20 21. And the First of these Successive Kingdoms in the 7th Chapter before the Persian must then be the Babylonian which the Persian conquered For there were no other two great Kingdoms in those times in a successive order to one another before the Graecian Conquest called the Third pag. 107. chap. 2. 39. The whole number also of the Four Kingdoms in the 7th Chapter seem to be plainly for no other end but only to measure out the time of the last Kingdom of the Saints about which all the concern of that Prophecy is as may be seen at the 17th and 18th verses where after the Interpreting Angel had said These Great Beasts are Four Kings without mentioning any thing of them he adds But the Saints of the Most High shall take tbe Kingdom and possess it for ever Wherefore since the Three last of these Kingdoms are found to be the same with those in the 2d Chapter about the same concern pag. 123. 126. and all the Five are the same number in the whole with the number of these here for the same end and are prophesied of in the same Reign of the Babylonian Monarchy which is the first of them in the 2 d Chapter v. 38. and so could not begin before that
time There seems to be no manner of doubt but that they are all the same Four in both Chapters For otherwise there would have been a plain ground laid down for a delusion in this Chapter also about the most momentous things that can concern the Church of God as has been observed And therefore do we find an unanimous Consent amongst all sorts of CONSENT Interpreters That whatsoever these Four Kingdoms be in particular yet that they must certainly be the same Kingdoms in both Chapters Thus are we at last come to find not only that the Five Kingdoms in each Chapter are the same particular Kingdoms but also what they all are by name And thereby is it manifest that the names of The Beast in general does signify a Ruling Nation and that the parts of A Beast signifying Dominion does denote the Supream Powers of that Nation which if they be represented as existing all at a time do signify the division of that Empire into so many Sovereignties as we see in the Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter according to the Proposition at first laid down CHAP. VII Dan. II VII Objections against the making the Third Kingdom in the 2 d and 7th of Daniel the whole time of one Ruling Nation answered IT is unanimously agreed amongst the Interpreters of all Parties and Interests That the Four Kingdoms in the 2d and 7th Chapters of Daniel are the same particular Kingdoms how differing soever they are from one another in the particular applications of them It is also as generally agreed amongst them that the two first of these Kingdoms in each Chapter are the Babylonian and Persian Monarchies But about the Third Kingdom in each Chapter though acknowledged to be the Scheme of one and the same Dominion there is not the same consent for the particular application of it At the first mention of a difference one would be apt to admire what should make any one sceptical in this matter who affirms the other Two before this Third to be known Kingdoms and that all the Four do immediately succeed one another as has been observed to be acknowledged by all Parties For all that seems needful to be done for such an ones satisfaction is to desire him to enquire what Kingdom it was of the same kind and nature with the Babylonian and Persian Monarchy acknowledged to be the first and second that came immediately after the Second of these Kingdoms or the Persian Monarchy Since the Second is granted by all to be the Persian Monarchy from the time of its first great appearance in the World at its Conquest of the Babylonian who would not forthwith conclude that the Third must be that whole Monarchy which subdued the Persian and succeeded in its room that is the whole Graecian Monarchy This being the natural and obvious determination about it and according to the common Rule of reading the sense of all other places of Scripture that is from the known use of them in the Context it would be imagined that there must certainly be some very great appearing necessity that could make Grotius and some others of this last Age to judge the Third Kingdom in both Chapters to be of quite another nature than those before it were especially since it is against the sense of all the Ancients who have been found from St. Jerom to have been generally agreed in making this Third as well as all the rest to be the Successive Rule of an whole Nation The Opinion of these Innovators about the Third Kingdom is That it is the single Reign of Alexander the Great and that the Fourth Kingdom in both Chapters is the division of the Greek Monarchy amongst his Ten Captains immediately after him The Reasons that they rely upon for this new Opinion against all the seeming Absurdities that attend it are chiefly these that follow 1. Because if the Third Kingdom in the 2d and 7th of Daniel were the whole Greek Monarchy then the Fourth must be the Roman which conquered the Graecians and then the Kingdom of the Son of Man Chap. 7. which comes after the Fourth Kingdom there must not begin till after the end of all Roman Dominion upon Earth and this is supposed to give too great an advantage to the Jews to conclude that Christ Jesus at his first appearance could not be the King Messias or the Son of Man in his Kingdom For he died about the beginning of the Roman Monarchy after the compleat Conquest of the Graecian 2. This Objection will be thought to be much strengthened from the Prophecies that our Saviour and his Apostles have given out about the time of the coming of the Son of Man which seems to represent it to be the advancement of the Christian Church in the World by the destruction of the Jews its Enemies in that very Age when those Prophecies were delivered and therefore could not agree with the coming of the Son of Man in the 7th of Daniel if the Fourth Kingdom there before the Kingdom of the Son of Man were the Roman Monarchy 3. Again If the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel were the Roman Monarchy then the Little Horn in that Kingdom would be the same with the Beast in the Revelations as appears from the exact agreement of the Characters of them both compared together But it is thought impossible that the Little Horn and the Beast in the Revelations should be the same For the Little Horn was Dan. VIII not to arise till the Fourth Kingdom was broken into Ten Kingdoms Three of which it was to subdue Dan. 7. 8. Whereas the time of the Beast in the Revelations must necessarily have been soon after that that Prophecy was given which was long before any such division of the Roman Empire It is said both at the beginning and at the end of the Book That the time of those Rev. 1. 1 3. things was at hand and that they should shortly come to pass and should shortly be done And to make this unquestionable The Rev. 22. 6 7 10. Prophet is commanded at the end of the Prophecy not to seal the Saying of the Prophecy of that Book because the time was at hand 4. It is most agreeable to the Event and to the other parts of the Prophecy of Daniel to make the Fourth Kingdom to be the Graecian Monarchy in the time of Alexander's Successors For it has Ten Kings arising out of it to signify that variety of Kingdoms that his Captains did set up after his death And after these Ten is there a Little Horn represented almost every way the same in every Character of it with the Little Horn in the 8th Chapter which all agree to be Antiochus Epiphanes one of the Successors of Alexander's Captains 1. In the first of these Reasons there is nothing to force a Answer man against what is but the most probable sense of the words much less what has seemed to be the
of Competitors to the Kingdom and besides not owned as heads of Rome that there is no reason to account it any setled change of the Imperial Head Prop. 21. part 1. Hugo of Arles had indeed the Principality of Rome with Marozia but he was presently cast out of it again Besides that r Ibid. cap. 14. The German Writers account Conrad and Henry Auceps Emperors in succession to Ludovicus the immediate Emperor before them and then there will not be above 8 years of vacancy others reject these two because they were not anointed and crowned by the Pope But the Germans do much dispute the necessity of that the Kings of Germany with whom the Imperial Title of Rome had continued by right of Succession from Charlemaigne till that time did still retain the same right in appearance because they were neither formally disowned by the City of Rome nor had any other set up there in their place For the Kingdom of Italy was then accounted a particular Jurisdiction by it self distinct from the City of Rome And the Pope was by that time almost absolute in that City So that all that could be inferred from hence would be that the False Prophet acted for a little time without the Beast 9. And this last Observation may occasion a Scruple How the Emperors can be said to be an Head of the City of Rome when some hundreds of years they have had no more than the bare Title of it The easie Answer to this is That all that is required to make an Head of the Beast is to be Å¿ See Note the 6th on the 6th Chapter a setled Secular Authority owned for Supream at Rome And 't is no wonder that he should be called an Head of it and have so little power or influence over it For all his power was to be exercised before him by another Church-Head distinct from him It cannot be thought necessary Rev. 13. 12. for the Emperor to be particularly resident at Rome to be the Head of Rome For then the Roman Emperors ever after the making Ravenna the Imperial Seat by Honorius must have ceased to have been the Heads of Rome 10. It may then be replied That the Constantinopolitan Emperors in the time of the Gothish Kings of Italy had the Title of the Imperial Head of Rome and upon that account should seem not to have been changed from the time of the Vision But it must be remembred That it is not sufficient to have a Title only but that Title must be owned by the chief Authority of the City of Rome for the sole Secular Sovereign Power of it Whereas it has been made to appear that in the Reign of the Gothish Kings of Italy the Constantinopolitan Emperors were far from being owned for the only Sovereigns of Rome For they were no further owned to have any thing to do there than what the t All Historians give an account of the Imprisonment of Pope John the First for crowning the Emperor Justin in the East and of the absolute Sovereignty of the Gothish Kings over the City of Rome See Notes on the 4th Chapter Lib. 3. Kings of the Goths who were then in the real and actual possession of Rome did allow them as Partners with them in the Honour of the Title of that City 11. It may also be objected That the Emperors have been very often in Wars with the Popes which is contrary to the strict Confederacy that is every-where expressed to be betwixt the Beast and the False Prophet But since they have been notwithstanding at a constant agreement in the great design of their Confederacy which is persecution for false Worship their occasional differences about other things is not to be regarded at most not more than the Differences betwixt the Popes and the Ten Kings who yet give their Kingdom to the Beast 12. How also can the Ten Kings be said to have given their power to the Beast about the time of Justinian when they were many of them Arrians at the greatest distance from the Religion of Rome The Answer to this is That they were soon brought under the Authority and See of Rome France Spain and all Justinian's Conquests changed about the end of that Age. 13. If it be said That when the Roman Empire was divided into Ten Kingdoms distinct from one another there could be no one Secular Head that could deserve to be called the Beast It may be answered That the Beast is but such an Head of the Roman Empire as has a superior Right to the Authority of the chief City of the Empire while the whole body of it is divided Prop. 21. into ten Sovereignties and by that Right has a claim to a Jurisdiction paramount to them all And such is the claim of the present Emperors to u See Notes m and n on the 6th Chapter reserved Rights over all the divided Kingdoms of the Roman Empire And there is at present so great and publick an acknowledgment of the German Emperor's Superiority over over other Kings only as he is Roman Emperor That as has been observed he is suffered to have the precedence of Kings who have both a much larger Dominion than he and a much ancienter Title and who take place of him before he has the Imperial Title when he has nothing but his Hereditary Countries But that which is chiefly to be regarded for the qualifying him for this character of an Head amongst the Ten Horns is That he is properly said to be the Roman Civil Head of those Ten Kings in one common Design that they are all engaged in because he is so acknowledged to be by the False Prophet who manages them all for that end and gives Him the Title of their Head in it 14. It may be further enquired How it can be said That the Imperial Power has subdued three Kings as it is said of the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel It is answered That whatsoever is said there of the Little Horn is to be understood of the Beast in the Revelations in his joint confederacy with the False Prophet as one Thing engaged in one Design And then whatsoever is done by the False Prophet in that Design will be said to be done by the Beast so that the subduing of the three Kings may thus be either x Hierom. Rubeus Histor Ravennat pag. 145. says That Justinian built that Magnificent Temple of Sancta Sophia in memory of his Persian Vandalic and Gothick Victories Cuspinian de Casaribus pag. 139. gives an account of Belisarius's Expedition against the Persians and that he entred in a Triumph into Constantinople for that Conquest And pag. 140. says That he had a most Pompous Triumph from the Spoils of the Vandals being then Consul in ordinary And pag. 141. says That when Justinian had recovered Italy and subdued Africa and Persia he put the Glory of his Victories into his Titles Justinian's Conquests or y
And Galatinus That they reverence it almost as much as the Text it self So that this may be very well accounted the Sense of the whole Body of the Jews in those days He has not indeed any Comment upon the Book of Daniel But in his Paraphrase upon the four last Verses of the first Chapter of Zechariah the Four Horns there that scattered the Men of Judah and Jerusalem he determines to be Four Kingdoms captivating the Jews And so also on the 6th Chapter v. 5. he mentions the same four Kingdoms coming after one another What he did particularly understand by these four Kingdoms is plainly expressed in the Paraphrase upon Habakkuk 3. 17. concerning the end of the Nations that should captivate the Jews For says he the Kingdom of Babel shall not remain nor exercise Dominion in Israel the Kings of Media shall be slain and the strong Ones of Grecia shall not prosper the Romans shall be rooted out nor shall they gather Tribute at Jerusalem Now it was always agreed That whatsoever the Four Kingdoms in the 7th of Daniel were in particular yet that they were four successive Monarchies that should measure out the whole time of the Captivity of the Church of God from the Babylonian Conquest of the Jews to the time of the Kingdom of the Son of Man and that the end of this Captivity was to be at the end of the Times of the Little Horn as it is also expresly said Dan. 12. 7. When therefore Zechariah who was one of the next Prophets to Daniel in the Captivity is by the Paraphrast determined to signifie four successive Kingdoms captivating the Jews or scattering them which is Daniel's own expression for it ibid. And when the only Conquerours and Enslavers of that Nation are mentioned by the same Paraphrast to be the Babylonian Persian Grecian and Roman Monarchies it is manifest That he does thereby determine the four Kingdoms captivating the Church of God in the 7th of Daniel to be those four Monarchies only and therefore That the last of the four is the Roman Monarchy And this is sufficient to shew it to be then the general Opinion of the Jewish Church at that time That the fourth Kingdom in the 7th chapter of Daniel was the Roman Monarchy And this Opinion of the Jews in those times was made to be the Faith of Christians also in those days by our Saviour himself so far at least as to assure that fourth Kingdom not to belong to the Greek Monarchy which is all the present Concern in his Prophecies every-where about the Kingdom and Coming of the Son of Man which has been found unquestionably to be meant of the same Kingdom that in the 7th of Daniel is also called The Kingdom of the Son of Man and of the Saints as may be seen in the Proof of the 13th and 14th Propositions And then that Kingdom of the Son of Man being signified by Christ not then to be come nor to be expected till at least some while after his Death that is not till long after the end of the Greek Monarchy and yet being described in Daniel to come to the destruction of the Fourth Beast or Kingdom there does make it sure That that Fourth Beast and Kingdom could not certainly be any part of the Reign of the Greek Empire and therefore must it be that which succeeded the Reign of the Greeks or the Reign of the Romans if the Third Beast before it were the beginning of the Greek Empire as it is here by all acknowledged to be A still more particular Determination of the Fourth Beast and Kingdom in Daniel to the time of the Romans is that exact Picture of the same Kingdom in the Revelations of St. John and that also fixed to Rome as the Seat of its Empire See Propos 15. Which all the Ancients before Constantine looked upon to be so plainly set out as a Roman Domination that there was no doubt of it And this is a lasting Testimony of the Sense of the Christian Church about it in those times And when St. Paul before this describes the last Coming of Christ as the Son of Man in his Kingdom 2 Thes 2. he does it with just the same description of it and of that eminent Opposer of the Church of God just before his Coming as the Coming of the Son of Man is set out in the 7th chapter of Daniel by the Destruction of the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast which therefore could no ways belong to the Greek Monarchy that was past And then by his appeal to their knowledge of what it was that did then withhold that Enemy from appearing he plainly intimates That that Antichrist must come after the time of that Ruling Power of the Romans which was then Reigning This also does shew That it was a commonly-known thing amongst the Christians of those days that the time of the Fourth Beast or Kingdom that was next before the Second Coming of Christ was not then past as the Greek Empire was And this may suffice for the Judgment of the Apostolical times about the Fourth Beast in Daniel All these places in the New Testament are still further confirmed by the general Sense of Antiquity about them Whether the fourth Book of Esdras be of so ancient a date as the first Century or no yet that it was writ not long after may reasonably be presumed from St. Ambrose's Quotation of it in several places as a Book of ancient Tradition in his time As in Epist ad Horontian 2. ad Lucam Commentar And especially in Libro de Bono Mortis where he questions Whether that Esdras were not older than Plato And the 4th Book of Esdras doth plainly determine the Fourth Beast in Daniel to be the Roman Empire 2 Esdr 12. 11. where the Roman Eagle is called The Kingdom that was seen by Daniel and called chap. 11. 39 40. The last Remainder of the Four Beasts c. CENTURY II. It is easie now to demonstrate the Consent of almost every one of the Ecclesiastical Writers in the following Ages for the Application of the Fourth Beast in Daniel to the Roman Empire from their Agreement about the time of the Coming of the Son of Man in the 7th of Daniel For they generally understanding that of the Second Coming of Christ Jesus into the World must make the Fourth Beast or Kingdom that it is there described to destroy to continue till that time and therefore certainly not possible to be the Greek Monarchy and then since it is as manifest that the first of those four Beasts is said to be Nebuchadnezzar's Dan. 2. 44. 7. 2. Kingdom or the Babylonians the fourth from thence must at farthest be the Romans But I will only pick out those amongst them that have mentioned something relating to this Fourth Beast together with that Coming of the Son of Man Justin Martyr is the next considerable Remainder of Antiquity after the times of the Apostles In
his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew he cites the 7th chapter of Daniel to prove the Second Coming of Christ in Glory to be generally expected by all Christians after the times of that ACCVRSED One who is there set out as speaking great words against the Most High and who is there by Justin judged to be just then at hand whose time times and half a time he says Daniel had foretold By which it appears That the Opinion of Justin Martyr was That the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast did signifie some King who should appear out of the Empire in which he himself lived and so did suppose the Fourth Beast to be the Roman Empire Trypho does also acknowledge That that Prophecy did make the Jews expect one like the Son of Man who should take upon him an Eternal Kingdom that is their Messiah which did plainly exclude the Greek Empire from being any thing of the fourth Kingdom For upon the end of the Fourth Beast or Kingdom in that place of Daniel immediately succeeds the Kingdom of the Son of Man whereas the Greek Empire had then been past for near 200 years and yet there had been no appearance of their Messiah And thus have we in this Testimony both the Judgment of the Jewish Church in those days about this matter in Trypho's words and the Consent of All Christians at that time in Justin's Irenaeus not long after Justin lib. 5. cont Haeres cap. 21. does first mention Daniel's description of the end of the last of the four Kingdoms by the division of it amongst the Ten last Kings signified by the Ten Horns of the fourth Beast And then a little after But yet still much more manifestly hath John a Disciple of our Lord set out to us in the Apocalypse the last time of it and the Ten Kings who are in it amongst whom that Empire which NOW REIGNETH shall be divided declaring what were those Ten Horns that were seen by Daniel And again Daniel did diligently fore-signifie the dividing and sharing of the fourth Kingdom at the end of it by the Ten Toes of the Image And speaking of the Number of the Beast which he had before made to be a time of the fourth Beast in Daniel cap. 24. he pitches upon Latinos Because his Kingdom says he hath that Name which we know must be the Roman Monarchy And Irenaeus's Testimony may pass for the Sense of the most judicious of the Fathers at that time for he appears to have been the most diligent Searcher into the Book of Daniel and the Revelations of any of the first Ages See lib. 5. contra Haeres cap. 24. He had Lib. 3. cap. 3. enquired of those that had seen St. John face to face and of those that had given the clearest Reasons for their Expositions of the Revelations and had examined all the ancient and approved Copies of it CENTURY III. Tertullian presently after Irenaeus in his Book against the Jews after having quoted Daniel cap. 2. about the Second Coming of Christ adds Of which Second Coming the same Daniel also says And behold one like the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven which is in the 7th chapter of Daniel and must therefore by him be expected to come at the end of the Fourth Beast there of which he says in his Apology to the Emperour The Division of the Roman Empire into Ten Kings brings on Antichrist According to the description of the rising up of the 11th Horn of the 4th Beast after the Ten. And again says That that time of Antichrist was at hand which therefore must be in the time of the Roman Kingdom and so must the Fourth Beast to which that Horn did belong be the same Kingdom Hippolytus Martyr de consummatione Mundi I bring says he the testimony of a Witness worthy to be believed the Prophet Daniel cap. 2 cap. 7. where he says That the first Beast signifies the Babylonian Kingdom and the fourth signifies the Romans And then about the Ten Horns Who are these but the Empire of the Romans and the Little Horn Antichrist And a ltttle before This Prophecy will persuade all that have any judgment in them That the four Kingdoms in the 2d and 7th chapter are the same St. Cyprian lib. 2. adversus Judaeos speaking of the Stone Christ who in the last times shall become a Mountain in reference to the Kingdom of the God of Heaven Dan. 2. which was to succeed the 4th Kingdom there And ad Novatianum upon that of St. Jude ver 14. Behold the Lord cometh with Thousands of his Saints says It is just the same with the Description in Daniel cap. 7. v. 9 10. Which shows his Opinion of the Fourth Kingdom which was to come before it to be That it was not yet past and therefore not the Greek Empire and there was nothing else that it could then be but the Roman Lactantius soon after him hath a particular Application of the times of the Fourth Beast and of all the Account of it in Daniel to the Roman Empire lib. 7. cap. 16. CENTURY IV. Methodius in his Revelations upon that of St. Paul 2 Thes 2. 6. What is it then says he that shall be taken away but the Roman Empire Which refers to that Man of Sin who is there described by the Apostle as the same with the little Horn of the Fourth Beast in Daniel Athanasius in Synops de S. Scriptor Daniel also says he saw Visions of the Consummation two about the Kingdoms viz. cap. 2 7. and two more about the Coming of Christ and the Destruction of Jerusalem and about the Coming of Antichrist viz. cap. 9 cap. 11. So that by the Consummation-Visions of the Kingdoms he must understand the Prophecies of the Successions of the Four Monarchies to the end of the World and therefore that the Fourth could not be the Grecian but the Roman Eusebius Caesariensis is said by Jerom to have wrote three Volumes and Apollinarius five against Porphyry who made the Fourth Beast to be the Reign of the Greeks after Alexander against all the current of Interpreters before who had determined it to be the Roman See Jerom 's Preface before Daniel Victorinus supposed to be Afer in Apocalypsin c. 13. upon the mention of the Ten Crowned Horns chap. 13. These Ten Horns says he and Ten Crowns Daniel also did set forth before and that Antichrist should pull up Three of them After he had before interpreted that Beast and its Horns of the Roman Empire Chrysostom on 2 Thessalon 2. 6. speaking of that that did withhold the coming of the Man of Sin after he had determined it to be the Roman Empire adds For as the Babylonians and Medes were destroyed who were before the Roman Empire so shall this Empire it self be ruined by Antichrist and He by Christ And this doth Daniel deliver to us with great Evidence CENTURY V. Isidorus Pelusiota in his 218th Epistle says thus
a BIshop Andrews p. 234. Respons ad Bellarm. Apolog. speaking of Saint John in the Revelations He borrows that way of speaking from Daniel of whom he is almost every-where an Imitator And immediately after Vix enim reperias apud Joannem c. You shall scarce find a Phrase in the Revelations of St. John that is not taken out of Daniel or some other Prophet Bellarmin l. 3. de Pontif. c. 5. Jum vero Daniel c. Now Daniel in the 7th Chapter of that Prophecy does very clearly describe the same Four Kingdoms by Four Beasts that is the same with those Four in his 2d Chapter and which are the same Four Beasts that are mentioned in the Description of The Beast of the Revelations Blas Viega in cap. 13. Apoc. v. 1 2. Sciendum est Danieli cap. 7 c. It is to be considered that there was a Vision like to this shown to Daniel in the 7th Chapter of that Prophecy where the business is about Antichrist upon the Explication of which this Vision of ours here does depend See Mr. Medes Discourse Regnum quartum Danielis est Regnum Romanorum Alcasar sect 3. cap. 13. Apoc. v. 1. Marina Bestia cap. 13. Apoc. Evidenter respicit quartam Bestiam Danielis cap. 7. c. The Beast that arose out of the Sea cap. 13. Revel does evidently relate to the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel Quae etiam quatuor Regna sive Imperia sc in 7o. cap. Dan. dubium non est in statuà illâ Danielis cap. 2. 31. praefigurata fuisse Bestiam Apocalypticam continere in se tres priores Monarchias quas dicitur apud Danielem devorasse Which Four Kingdoms or Empires viz. in the 7th Chapter of Daniel are unquestionably foretold in the Statue cap. 2. 31. And The Beast in the Revalations does contain in it or is there described to be made up of these three Monarchies which it is said in Daniel to have devoured Idem in cap. 12. Apoc. v. 3. de 10. Cornibus Non aliud fundamentum c. There needs no other foundation for the Interpretation but only to look out a conformable Explication of it with that of the Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel by which it is evident that it signifies the Roman Empire See the References to the Third Chapter Lib. 2. Note a. especially Malvenda and Ribera consent of Interpreters of all Parties That the Terms of the Beast and his Heads and Horns and most of his Characters had a very unquestionable reference to the frequent use of them about the same kind of Subject in the Prophet Daniel But I was extremely surprized to find also That by the same Unanimous agreement of all the Considerable Interpreters of all Ages excepting only some few of this last Age it was granted That the Terms of Beasts and their Heads or Horns and indeed all other Figures and their parts signifying Dominion as it is here in these Visions had but one constant uniform Signification in general all over the Prophecy of Daniel and that also in great variety of Instances And withal That by the concurrent agreement of those few also that differed from the rest there needed nothing more to prove such a constant uniform Signification of these Figures but only this viz. That The Fourth Beast or Kingdom in the 7th Chapter of Daniel was the Roman Monarchy This gave me very confident hopes of fixing the same kind of mystical Terms in the Visions of the Apocalyps to setled Notions and certain Definitions and thereby of coming to some assurance about those things notwithstanding all the ambiguous and various acceptations of the Expressions in which they were conveyed which I accounted well worth all the closest application of my thoughts as a thing of the most useful importance to the World for the clear determination of the aim of this Prophecy as well as for mine own particular satisfaction and benefit I have therefore for this end endeavoured to demonstrate the constant uniform acceptation of the Schemes of A Beast and its parts all over Daniel And this requiring the certain knowledge of the Interpretation of the Fourth Beast or Kingdom in the Seventh Chapter of Daniel and the determinate application of that relying chiefly upon the determination of the undoubted signification of the Kingdom of the Son of Man that succeeds that Fourth Kingdom These make up the Demonstration of the design of the Second Book from the Intrinsick Arguments of the Prophecy of Daniel it self But the clearest proof of the signification of the Fourth Beast in Daniel is the exact agreement of it with The Beast in the Revelations And that also in some such peculiar Characters amongst the rest as are impossible to belong to more than one and the same Kingdom and to the same time of that Kingdom This therefore is added to the other Evidences that are drawn from the Prophecy of Daniel it self as a most undoubted confirmation That the Fourth Beast or Kingdom in Daniel is the Kingdom of the Romans Who indeed would not be ready to conclude with himself before ever he comes to examine the grounds that there is for it That so general an agreement of all the differing Parties of Interpreters for so many Ages as has been observed about Mystical Expressions where there is so great a scope for Fancy to expatiate in must certainly have very plain and express grounds for it in the Prophetical Writings and very obvious to common observation And this is another considerable thing to fortify the assurance that the strength of the Proof it self does offer But the Characters in which The Beast in the Revelations does so exactly agree with those of the Fourth Beast in Daniel and which are the surest Proof That that Beast in Daniel must be the Kingdom of the Romans are fetched from several distinct Shews of the Apocalyptick Beast in several Chapters And these several Shows are by some Learned Men judged to be the Shows of different Beasts whereas the proof of the exact agreement of The Beast in Daniel with that in the Revelations from the several Characters of those different Shows does suppose it to be but one and the same Beast in all those Chapters This made it necessary to settle the notion of The Beast in the 17th Chapter of the Revelations and to shew that all the mentions of that which is called The Beast in all the other Chapters are but so many Accounts of that one and the same particular state of The Beast that it is found in in the 17th Chapter And that therefore all the several Characters of The Beast in those several Chapters are but the Characters of one and the same thing And this it was requisite to prefix in the First Book before all other reasonings that are fetched from the nature of that Beast in the following Discourses After the determination of the constant and setled signification of a
Beast that was past and revived again by Corol. Prop. 5. and was the eighth after the seven and therefore must be that Head of the Beast that was last in Rule Wherefore since the eighth King is called the Beast and yet is found really to be but one Head of the Beast That term of the Beast can signify nothing but the Beast with that particular Head only And so the Head is said to be the Beast as the actions of Kings are said to be the Actions of that People or Nation where they Reign This Interpretation is confirmed by the agreement of almost all Interpreters of all differing Parties excepting one or two without any Reason for their dissent but only the upholding of a particular Opinion and amongst those is that Opinion of Bellarmin who would have the number Seven in this place to signifie collectively All the Emperours because that Seven is very usually taken in Scripture for a perfect number Lib. 3. de Pontif. c. 5. and then signifies All indefinitely but more frequently in the Revelations than any where else And yet all that know any thing of the difference betwixt the use of Seven when it is a perfect number and when it is a broken number cannot but see that Seven here must necessarily be taken for a definite determinate number by the plain distribution of it into Five One Another and an Eighth which was one of the Seven And this is so common and known a thing that there could not have been a plainer instance of the extravagancy of a Learned Man's imaginations about the most clear and known things And yet after all Bellarmin is so far of Opinion with the rest as to affirm That Antichrist or The Beast is the last King of those who shall rule the Roman Empire Lib. 3. de Pontif. c. 15. Which is an agreement with the rest in the preceding Conclusion From the former Corollary it does very immediately follow That the Beast all over the 17th Chapter of the Revelations Prop. 6. does signifie the Beast with his last Ruling Head For the Beast all over the 17th Chapter is that state of the Beast in which he was seen in the 3d verse as does thus appear After that show of him he is called all over that Chapter by the name of THE Beast in reference to his having been seen before which in common use of Speech determines him to be the same that had been there shewn and therefore by Rule 1. he must be all over the Chapter the Beast that was seen in the 3d verse Now of the Beast which was there seen the Angel says v. 8. That He was and is not And the Beast which was and is not he says at the 11th verse was the eighth King who is known to be the Beast with the last Ruling Head Coroll 2. Prop. 5. The Beast therefore does signifie nothing else all over the 17th Chap. Revel but the state of it under its last Ruling Head And tho' there were Seven Heads seen upon the Beast yet it is expresly said That all the other Heads would be past before the Reign of the Beast or eighth King v. 10. So that the sight of him with the Seven Heads was in effect the seeing him with Six dead Heads and One of the Seven only revived again which is the same with the sight of the Beast under its one last Ruling Head only See then the sum of this Proof in short The Beast all over the 17th Chapter is the Beast that was seen v. 3. The Beast that was there seen had the peculiar Character of Was and is not and the Beast that was and is not is said to be the eighth King and the eighth King has been found to signifie nothing but the Corol. 2. Prop. 5. Beast with its last Ruling Head Wherefore to tye the first part of this Chain to the last The Beast all over the 17th Chapter is the Beast with the last only of his Ruling Heads Besides since the mystical meaning of the term of the Beast is said in one place to be the eighth King that is The Beast under the last Ruling Head by Coroll 2. Prop. 5. it must have the same signification all over the Chapter by Rule 3. Babylon might as well signifie two several Cities in two different places of that Chapter as the Beast several Kings For a Testimony of the great evidence of this Proposition CONSENT we have the Unanimous Agreement of all Interpreters almost of all Ages as well as of all Parties excepting one or two of late against the Judgment of all those whose greatest Interest it seems to be to admit of their new Contrivance who yet will not venture upon it meerly for their reputation One would expect to find some very great necessity alleged for another sense against such a seeming evidence of the Text and the confirmation of it by so considerable a weight of Authority and yet we do not find from Grotius the least offer of a reason against this In cap. 17. Apoc. sense or for any other to make us think that the Beast may continue after his last Head in this Chapter as he does make it to do in the time of its Ten Horns The Light of this Proposition does offer these following Consequences The Beast in the 17th Chapter continues no longer than its last Corollar 1 Head For he lives by that Head all over that Chapter by Coroll 2. Prop. 5. and the Beast goes into perdition with that Head ver 11. The Ten Horns belong to the Beast no longer than his last Head Corollary 2 For as they give their Kingdom to the Beast v. 13. so the Beast it self continues no longer than his last Head Coroll 1. Prop. 6. The knowledge of the Woman does acquaint us with the Countrey or Kingdom of the Beast her constant Confederate and from thence it is manifest That The Beast all over the 17th Chapter is some particular Sovereign Prop. 7. Power of Rome in the time of its Idolatrous Antichristian Reign For the Beast all over the 17th Chapter is in the time of its last Ruling Head and called the eighth King Prop. 6. and therefore a particular Sovereign Power And the Woman or Babylon is represented riding upon it at that time in great Majesty and known to signifie Rome in its Idolatrous Antichristian Reign Prop. 1. And besides is described in confederacy with the Beast in that Chapter v. 16 17. The Beast is also said to be the eighth King or the last Ruling Head of the Seven which signifie the seven Hills of Rome v. 9. This does infallibly shew the Beast to be a Sovereign Power of the seven Hills The Beast then is tied to this City by his seven Heads which are the seven Hills upon which it is built and so they cannot possibly be separated without Either cutting off the Heads from the Beast and by consequence that Head by which he lives
It has the mouth of a Lyon the feet of a Bear and the body of a Leopard Chap. 13. v. 2. which is enough to distinguish him from all the Beasts in the World It would much surprise any one at the first to meet with so uncouth an appearance of a thing that has three such strange and unusual Characters which cannot be supposed to be mentioned by chance and yet have no kind of Interpretation given them as many of the Characters of that Beast have in the 17th Chapter But it thereby appears that this Beast is plainly drawn from another Original Copy viz. That Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel And there it appears that that Beast had devoured three other Dan. 7. 7 19. Beasts which where like to a Lyon a Bear and a Leopard So that this Fourth Beast in Daniel with the other three before it in the 7th Chapter being interpreted afterwards to signify so many Kingdoms His devouring them there can be nothing but v. 17 23. the conquering them and upon that conquest the having them added to himself And so the Kingdom signified by him comes to be made up of those three together with that which was properly his own Dominion before All the difference then betwixt them is that the one is said to have devoured those three and the other is shown with them digested into his own Body 2. The parts in which the Beast in the 13th Chapter of the Revelations are said to be like those three Beasts are just like the same parts of the Fourth Beast in Daniel For the mouth which is said to be like that of a Lyon in the 13th of the Revelations and to be a mouth speaking great things and that was opened in Blasphemy v. 5. against God is just like the mouth belonging to the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel which spake great words against v. 8. the Most High The Feet which in that 13th Chapter of the Revelations are v. 2. said to be the feet of a Bear whose strength we know lies in his Paws were just like the Feet of the other in Daniel the Nails of v. 19. which were of brass and brake all in pieces and stampt upon the residue with his Feet The whole Body of that in the Revelations that was like a Leopard or like the Third Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel which being the same thing with the Third Kingdom in the 2d Chapter did bear rule over all the Earth v. 39. is just the same with that of the Fourth Beast in Daniel which devoured the whole Earth ch 7. 23. and so had a Body of the same likeness with the Leopard 3. The Beast in the Revelations had Ten Horns upon it just as that Fourth in Daniel had and the Ten Horns of both of them are said to signify Ten Kings Rev. 17. 12. Dan. 7. 24. But here indeed is the difference betwixt them that the one had Seven Heads and Ten Horns and the other nothing but the Ten Horns and the Little Horn. But 4. Since all the Heads of the Beast in the Revelations were past and gone excepting the last Prop. 6. and so that Beast is nothing but the Beast under the Last Head all the difference then betwixt that in the Revelations and that in the 7th of Daniel is but this That the one besides the Ten Horns had an Head and the other an Eleventh Horn and if this be all the difference betwixt them the fashion of their Figures signifies nothing we are only to regard what they are both interpreted to represent Since therefore the Little Horn is said to represent a remarkable bustling King and the last Head of the Beast signifies nothing but the last King of Seven very formidable and turbulent we have no reason at all to fear any difference betwixt them 5. Consider then what this Eleventh Horn was and the Characters Dan. 7. 8. 21. of it It had Eyes like the Eyes of a Man and a Mouth speaking great things and a Look that was stouter than that of its Fellows Surely an Horn that has a Look or Face and Eyes and a Mouth can be nothing in the World but an Head in the fashion of a Horn an ill-shap'd Head For it had also Brains and a Soul in it by what it was able to speak and to act and by ruling and commanding the whole Body So that the whole Beast was slain and burnt for the Crimes of that Horn v. 11. This Horn then was in reality an Head for it had all the Properties and Offices that an Head is known by And therefore see next how the Characters of it agree with those in the last Head of the other Beast 6. The Mouth of the one and the other we have found to Dan. 7. 7. Rev. 13. 3 5. be the same by their speech and both of these Beasts wondred at for their dreadfulness 7. The one had power given him to make war with the Saints Rev. 13. 7. and to overcome them The other was to wear out the Saints of the Most High Dan. 7. 25. 8. The one had power given him over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations and the other was the King of a Kingdom that had devoured Rev. 13. 7. the whole Earth and trod it down Dan. 7. 23. 9. Both the one and the other had Ten Kings at the same time with them in the same Kingdom 10. The one ariseth out of a Kingdom divided amongst Ten Rev. 13. 1. Kings the other ariseth up out of the Sea and Waters signify Multitudes and Tongues and Nations Rev. 17. It ariseth Dan. 7. 24. also with Ten Kings ready Crowned which we cannot think could be all at the same moment that it arose and so it must arise in a Kingdom divided amongst those Ten Revel 13. 1. 11. They both end with the Beast to whom they belong and Dan. 7. 11. Coroll 2. Prop. 6. Coroll 1. Prop. 12. Dan. 7. 25. are both destroyed at the beginning of Christ's Second coming in glory at the beginning of his Universal Reign over all the World which concludes with the judging of the Dead 12. The time of the continuance of both is exactly the same The one a Time Times and half a Time which by many Examples in Daniel and one Instance in the Revelations is known to Rev. 13. 5. be three years and an half and the other continues forty two Months 13. They both rule over the same place over the whole Earth Rev. 13. 7. Dan. 7. 23. over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations 14. And The Beast it self in both is said to rise out of the Rev. 13. 1. Dan. 7. 3. Sea From all these put together Though it could not be prov'd to be absolutely impossible from their Characters for the two Kingdoms represented by these two Beasts to be otherwise than one and the same Kingdom yet how could a man
of the most wary and cautious judgment withhold from concluding That it would be a very strange thing if two Descriptions agreeing together in such multitudes of most peculiar Characters never attributed to any Figures before should not really mean one and the same thing To hear of the Pictures of two Beasts described thus exactly like one another in such a strange make of all their Parts and Furniture with the same Qualities and Actions belonging to them the same manner of rise the same time of continuance and agreeing in the same peculiar way and circumstances of their Ruine and both these Figures interpreted to signify the same things in all their Characters that are interpreted And then to see the things wherein they seem to differ in words and expressions to be found to be in reality and substance the same sure this would make any man forth with resolve with himself that these two must be the Pictures of the very self-same Beast And since they both are said to signify Kingdoms that they must represent but one and the same Kingdom And if it should not be so he would conclude that they were on purpose contriv'd by the Relator of them to deceive men into wrong Apprehensions of them if he had given no plain intimation that they could not possibly be the same For to mention a Property or two in one which was not in the mention of the other would signify little to make him think them of different kinds where there were such strange Agreements unless the Relator had given such a property to the one as could not be in the other from the plain description of it which is not the present Case But after all this from the three last Characters of each of these Beasts it will appear to be absolutely impossible that they should be any thing but one and the same time of the same Kingdom They are both said to be destroyed just before the Universal and Eternal Kingdom of Christ that ruled over all the Earth and that for ever So that the description of that in those two places cannot possibly signify more than one determinate Kingdom over all the Earth and when they were destroyed are said at that time both of them to rule over the same place THE whole Earth and for the same continuance of time before their destruction But it is absolutely impossible that they should be two different Kingdoms over the same place at the same time both destroyed by a Third that succeeds in their place The beginning of the Universal Reign of Christ with his Saints when each of them were to be destroyed was the same time and their Rule over the whole Earth at that time was over the same place And besides they had continued the same length of time over the same place before their destruction and were both destroyed after the very same and that a most peculiar and unusual manner that is by fire Dan. 7. 11. Rev. 19. 20. It is therefore unquestionable that the Fourth Beast in Daniel is the same with the Beast in the Revelations and especially in the time of the Reign of the Little Horn From hence it appears That The Last Head of the Beast in the Revelations is b Malvenda de Antichristo p. 224. Fixum stabile omnium quoque Consensu firmatum c. It is sure and certain and confirmed also by the Consent of All that Daniel did understand by the Little Horn and as it were point at with his Finger nothing else but Antichrist that was to come Idem pag. 253. It is the agreeing Opinion of the Fathers and Interpreters that Antichrist is called the Little Horn. the same with Corollar 1 the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel And therefore That The Term of the Beast in the Revelations signifies the same particular Corollar 2 Roman Rule with the Beast in the 7th of Daniel in the time of the Little Horn. For the Term of the Beast in the Revelations signifies the Beast with the Last Head by Prop. 6. And the Last Head is the same with the Little Horn by Coroll praeced And the Rule of the Last Head is a Roman Rule Prop. 7. As also That The time of the Beast in the Revelations did not begin till after the Roman Corollar 3 Empire was divided into Ten Kingdoms For the Little Horn of the 4th Beast which is the same with that in the Revelations by Coroll praeced did not arise till after the Ten Kings were up and besides did subdue three of those Ten Dan. 7. 8 24. And from hence still is it further confirmed That the Kingdom of the Son of Man Dan. 7. and the Reign of Christ over Coroll Prop. 11. Prop. 14. the Kingdoms of this World Rev. 11. are the same time of Christ's Second coming in glory For they begin at the same time at the destruction of the same Beast and are universal from the beginning of them Thus does this last Proposition about the Fourth Kingdom and the former about the coming of the Son of Man much more strengthen the proof of one another and yet have evidence enough for them in themselves without any necessary dependance upon one another so that either of them might have been set alone by themselves but they are still more abundantly cleared and strengthned by the help of one another's Light It is therefore now manifest That The Reign of the Beast in the Revelations is not yet past Corollar 4 For the Reign of the Beast in the Revelations is the same with the Reign of the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel Corollar 2. Prop. 15. and is therefore to continue till the Second Coming of Christ Prop. 14. and Corol. 1. Prop. 12. This is acknowledged by most of the Romish Interpreters who according to the general Opinion of the Fathers do expect the coming of Antichrist at the end of the World or just CONSENT before the Second Coming of Christ It must be acknowledged that both this Proposition and the former and their Consectaries are denied by Grotius and others but upon what small grounds for it and against how great an evidence to the contrary may be seen Cap. ult Lib. 1. and cap. 2 3 15. Lib. 2. And lest the Authority of great Names should have still too much weight in it to hinder ones full assent to these present Conclusions I would in the mean while have any one but reflect upon one of the Tenets of the Grotian way to which they are forced to maintain their Singularity in the present Case and that is their Opinion of the Kingdom of the Son of Man in the 7th Chapter of Daniel For that is sufficient to make one very much unconcerned at any thing that is built upon it The modern Jews are justly admired for denying that by the Son of Man in the 7th of Daniel is meant the Messiah But it is much more monstrous in these men
names of Beasts and Horns are often mentioned amonst the other Prophets for that purpose But that which takes away all the fear of the unintelligibleness of these Figures is the explication that is given by name of the Beasts and their Horns in the 8th Chapter which is by all acknowledged to be very manifestly determined and is a clear instance of the general signification of those mystical Terms in all other parts of the Prophecy besides From hence it was that there has been so unanimous an agreement amongst the Interpreters of all former Ages concerning the particular Kingdoms that are signified by Daniel's Figures which in all reason ought therefore to determine all Interpreters to the search of the constant signification of Beast and their parts in all those places to fix the notion of the Beast and its Heads and Horns in the Revelations For the Book of Daniel is without any controversie owned by all to be the place to which those uncouth Figures in the Revelations do refer and from whence most of the peculiar Phrases for such things are transcribed And from an attentive consideration of all the Figures of Beasts and their parts in Daniel one may observe the constant uniform signification of them to be according to this following Proposition In all the Figures of Beasts in the Prophecy of Daniel Prop. 16. 1. By the Beast in general as the common subject of its Heads or Horns is signified a Ruling Nation or People 2. By the Horns and Heads of a Beast the several kinds of Supream Government in that Nation 3. And if they be described to come after one another they signify so many successive kinds of setled Government over the same Kingdom 4. But if they be described to be in Rule all at the same time they signify so many distinct Sovereignties or Kingdoms of one and the same Ruling People 5. And in both these kinds do the several Heads or Horns signify the setled continuance of that Successive Government or divided Kingdom to their last end To make the proof of this the more full and to shew how Dan. VIII uniform and constant to it self this Prophecy is in all its Figures and that it may appear that there is one constant and determinate signification in the use of them I will prove by an induction of all the particular Instances That this is a property in common to all the Prophetical Figures of this Book which signify Kingdoms as The Beasts every-where do That by every such Figure in general as the common subject of its parts is to be understood the Rule of some particular Nation or People and by the parts and divisions of the same kind in it that are said to denote Dominion is meant the Supreme Government of that Kingdom And if they be said to come after one another they do denote the Successions of them in the same state But if they be said to be all in Rule at the same time they signify so many divided Kingdoms in that Nation or People This general proof from the uniform signification of all Figures and their parts will give us the more assurance of the common use of all these Prophetical Schemes and so does make the Conclusions about any of the particular Instances contained under it so much the stronger and the more undoubted Now there are Ten whole Figures in Daniel which are interpreted to signify Kingdoms there and they all confirm that general Observation As may be seen by the particular Instances The Two Figures in the 8th Chapter concerning the Ram Daniel VIII and the He Goat are of the most known signification of any because of the particular Interpretation that is there given of them and therefore it will be the most convenient to begin with them The Ram with its two Horns is said to be the Kings of Media v. 20. and Persia which does very plainly determine it to signify a multitude in the notion of it The Kings of Media and Persia cannot possibly signify one single person only or only the person of Darius conquered by Alexander though that Conquest seems to be the main thing there described The Ram therefore said with his two Horns to be the Kings of Media and Persia must signify a succession of Ruling Powers in that Dominion since there was but one King of that Dominion at one time And then the two Horns being joined with the single mention of the Ram and there being mentioned but just two sorts of Kings viz. of Media and Persia that are said to be signified by the Ram with his two Horns what can be plainer than that the Ram under each of these two Horns does signify each of those two sorts of Kings For an Horn does very commonly signify in Scripture the Ruling or Commanding Power of the thing with which it is joined And the Ram being the same common subject of both the Horns since the two Horns are found to be the two kinds of Kings the Ram of which they are the Horns must be the Kingdom of Media and Persia of which they are the Kings or which is the same the Ram must be the common Ruling Nation of the Medes and Persians of which the Horns are the Kings For since the Ram with them is said in the whole to be the Kings of Media and Persia and since his Horns are now found to be the Kings in that expression the remaining signification for the Ram as the common subject of both of them must be that which remains of what the whole is said to signify and that is Media and Persia or the Ruling Nation of the Medes and Persians And though there were two different Lines of Kings in that Dominion first the Median Line and then the Persian as they are represented by two different Horns yet was the Dominion always counted one and the same common Kingdom and both the Nations were always joined together as one united People Thus in the time of the Median Rule the Laws of that common Kingdom are called the Laws of the Medes and Persians thrice in one Chapter Dan. 6. And again in the time of the Persian Rule all over the Book of Esther is that one Kingdom called Persia and Media But then to shew the Successions of the two different sorts of Ruling Powers in this one Kingdom the two Horns of the Ram are mentioned with this Remark That which came up last was v. 3. the highest which shews that they succeeded after one another And the last of the two Horns being the last of the two Kings that they are both said to be must be that which is last mentioned in the Interpretation or the King of the Persian Line which might well be represented by an higher Horn than the Median Line just before it because of the encrease of the Conquests of the Persian Monarchy from the time of Cyrus so as to have the Title of the Great King all over the
Chapter there are Five Kingdoms represented by four Beasts and a Majestical appearance of the Kingdom of the Saints And in the 2d Chapter there are Five Kingdoms represented distinct from one another by the Four several qualities of the parts of a Statue and a Stone made a Mountain If we can find these Five Kingdoms in each to be the very Chap. 2. 36. same Kingdoms in reality as they seem at the first view of them to be from their being exactly the same number of Kingdoms and from the extraordinary likeness of the fifth of them in each it will be easy from thence to conclude what is the signification of any Figure in general as distinct from the several parts of it that are represented with it in Rule and Power which is the first part of the Proposition And here is this further encouragement to ground our hopes of it upon That it is unanimously agreed by all Interpreters of CONSENT all Ages that are considerable That they are the same Five Kingdoms in each of those Chapters thô there be a different apprehension in some few of them from the rest about the particular names of these Kingdoms But because they have not distinctly proved the certainty of those Grounds upon which they build this common agreement It may be useful for a constant assured satisfaction of this point once for all to reflect upon the evidence that there is for it and to put it into a close and distinct order to make it unquestionable Consider then first That the 5th Kingdom in the 7th Chapter v. 13 14. must be some Kingdom of Christ For it was a Kingdom given to one like the Son of Man by the Ancient of days who had v. 9 10. Hosts of Angels Ministring unto him which cannot possibly be any thing but God himself And the name of the Son of Man is so peculiarly owned by Christ himself all over the Gospels That he cannot be more plainly known by the name of Christ or of Jesus than by that And 't is observed by a very accurate Mr. Mede Critick That there is no other place in the Old Testament that he could fetch this name of the Son of Man from as a name of the Messias but from this very place of Daniel The Circumstances of which our Saviour doth also expresly add to that name in his Prophecy about the Coming of the Son of Man in the Clouds of Heaven with great glory which we find in all the three Gospels and is the same with what is said here Of the coming of the Son of Man in the Clouds of Heaven to the Ancient of days with an infinite multitude of Angels about his Throne and a very glorious appearance Consider next That this Kingdom of the Son of Man in the 7th Chapter is said to be both Eternal and Vniversal or over all the Earth There could not well be more care taken to signifie this than there seems to have been by the fullness of the expressions for both of these For The Eternity of it in such words as these an Everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away v. 14. and a kingdom that shall not be destroyed and a kingdom for ever even for ever and ever as if it had been on purpose to stop all suspicions of ambiguity in the use of the word everlasting and for ever And then to assure the real universality of it It is called A Kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him And the greatness of the kingdom under the whole Heaven And All Dominions shall obey him And it did succeed in v. 27. v. 23. the place of a Fourth Kingdom upon Earth which had devoured the whole earth and trod it down If now we look into the 5th Kingdom in the second Chapter we shall find just the same Characters of it from the 44th Verse It was to be set up by the God of Heaven It was never to be destroyed nor to be left to other people but was to stand for ever which secures the Eternity of it from any successions after it And the Vniversality of it appears from its breaking in pieces and consuming all other kingdoms which had Ruled over all the Earth especially the Fourth Kingdom which before it had subdued all things even a third Kingdom which bare Rule over all the v. 39 40. earth Here then are Two Kingdoms Both without End Both over all the Earth and therefore Both in the same place Let the Earth signify what it will since it must signify in both places at least the Prophets Countrey as all agree this makes it appear That the latter time of both is most undoubtedly the same because they are both at a time or eternal in the same place which no two distinct Kingdoms can properly be that are of the same kind as these are described to be Both the Kingdoms of the God of Heaven and such as began to be set up in the days of the other Kings Besides they both began the Universality of their Reign at the Ruin of a Power which had devoured the whole earth and Ch. 2. 39 40. Ch. 7. 23 26. which had broken in pieces and consumed all other Kingdoms and did themselves Rule over all the earth in the room of the former so that they both then continue at the same time in the same place and the continuance of them both is to all eternity And then they begin their Reign in that same place together Or else that which should come after the other would put an end to it which is a contradiction to the Eternity of either of them It seems then to be absolutely impossible That the Fifth Kingdom in each of those Chapters should not be one and the same Kingdom of Christ Eternal and Vniversal and which began at the ruin of another universal dominion before it Now if the Fifth Kingdom in each of these Chapters be the same the Fourth also in each of them before it must be the same For the Fourth Kingdom in each of those Chapters was the only Ruling power over all the earth when it was destroyed by the last For by the destruction of it the Fifth got its dominion over all the earth And so the Fourth could not possibly be more than one and the same Kingdom in each of the Chapters because the whole earth in each must as has been observed signify at least the same place and there could be but one Kingdom in the same place at the same time that each of them in those Chapters is said to be destroyed by the last For they are both destroyed by the same Fifth Kingdom as has been shown at the same time That is at the beginning of the Universal Reign of that Kingdom in each Chapter Two different Kingdoms cannot be destroyed by a Third in the same place and at the same time And the Fourth Kingdom in each is one Ruling
Chap. 7. v. 27. Power over all the Earth at the time that the greatness of the Kingdom of the Fifth under the whole Heaven began by the Conquest of it CHAP. VI. Dan. II VII The Five Kingdoms in the 2 d Chapter of Daniel immediatly successive to one another This agreed on by Interpreters and particularly evinced upon several grounds The nature of these Kingdoms shewn from their immediate Succession to one another Not successive forms of Government in the same Nation nor part of them of that kind From hece necessary that they must be the Four Monarchies And therefore must the Third in the 2 d and the 7th Chapter be the same Kingdom The First and Second also in both Chapters proved to be the same THE surest way to demonstrate the rest of these five Kingdoms to be the same is to find that those in the Second Chapter are immediately successive to one another For since the first of the Kingdoms in the Second Chapter is known to be the Dominion of Nebuchadnezzar and the last of them to be some Kingdom of Christ pag. praeced If they be all in an immediate v. 38. succession from the first to the last that will shew what kind of Kingdoms they must needs be to be able to fill up the distance of time betwixt those two Kingdoms by immediate Succession and thereby will make it appear from History what Kingdoms also they must be in particular and this will give light enough to find them to be the same with those in the 7th Chapter That the Five Kingdoms in the 2 d Chapter are successive to one Dan. II. another is undoubted For of the Second it is said And after thee shall arise another Kingdom And of the Third That it should bear Rule over all the Earth and so could it not be at the same time with any other that was different from it in the Earth at least where the Prophet lived And it is agreed by all that the Prophet's Countrey did belong to this Third Kingdom And then of the Fourth that it should break in pieces and consume all Kingdoms that had been before mentioned and so must come after them And then That these in the 2 d Chapter are all immediately successive Dan. II. to one another it is unanimously agreed amongst all kinds of Interpreters Jews and Christians of all Ages that are any CONSENT thing considerable which shews it to be here so plainly intimated if not expressed in words That the common sense of all considering Persons would judge it to be so from the usual acceptation of such words as it is signified by For how otherwise could those who differ from one another in almost every thing else be supposed to be so willing to agree together in this where there may be a great disadvantage given against the Party which they embrace by allowing it but no manner of advantage gained by it The Jews would be much surer of a defence for their deferring the coming of the Messias if the first Four Kingdoms were not determined to be the Four Monarchies immediately succeeding one another And it would not appear that Antichrist went along with the Kingdom of the Romans if the whole four were not found to be necessarily successive Empires that came immediately after one another from the times of Nebuchadnezzar The grounds of this agreement about the immediate Succession of these Kingdoms from the Text may be these 1. The mention of the number of them from the time of Nebuchadnezzar to the Kingdom of Christ seems to be plainly expressed to be to foreshew the determinate time of that Kingdom For there is nothing mentioned in any of the rest excepting that Tyranny in the last times of the Fourth Kingdom which ushers in the Kingdom of Christ about any Religious concern or any Action of God which yet is ordinarily the business of every Divine Prophecy Daniel does expresly tell Nebuchadnezzar that the end of his Dream was to make known to him from God what should be in the latter days And by the latter days must be there understood at least the latter days of those Kingdoms which are the subject of the Dream and therefore must they include the days of the last of those Five Kingdoms or the time of the Kingdom of Christ therein mentioned The whole number then seems to be wholly for this end to shew how many Successions of Empire there should be betwixt the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar's Kingdom and the Kingdom of Christ For who would not assuredly conclude it to be for that end only when there is nothing considerable spoken of the rest of the number And when the gloriousest state of things that ever was mentioned is set forth in that last Kingdom with this Introduction to the Interpretation of them all that the whole shew was to make known what should be in the latter days And how could that be possibly shewn by such an orderly number unless there had been no other Kingdoms betwixt them This therefore does make it manifest that the Succession of these Kingdoms was immediate to measure out the exact time of the coming of Christ in glory 2. An orderly number when joined with Successive Reigns as it is here under the names of a Third and a Fourth Kingdom v. 39 40. is generally used in speech to signify an immediate orderly Succession And who would ever call those a Third or a Fourth Kingdom from the First which had two or three more coming in betwixt them and the First 3. And then the last of the Five is known to be immediately Chap. 2. 44. Chap. 7. 26. successive to the Fourth pag. 120. which is an instance to shew the manner of the Succession of all the rest unless there were any thing clearer against it which is not by any pretended 4. The parts also of the Statue which represents these Kingdoms are immediatly joined to one another which must denote a property in the things represented some way answerable to it and that in Successive Kingdoms can be nothing else but the immediate Succession of them Upon these grounds it may safely be concluded That these Four Kingdoms in the 2 d Chapter do immediatly succeed one another especially when there is nothing offered against it but on the contrary as has been observed it has the unanimous Consent of all the differing Parties of Interpreters And by that it appears that in the Judgment of all that have considered these things it is so plainly suggested from the Text That unless it be really so there is occasion given for an unavoidable delusion about such things of moment as the great Tyranny of the last King of the Fourth Kingdom over the Church of God and the Universal Eternal Kingdom of Christ succeeding it and which the whole Prophecy was designed wholly to make known as is expressed v. 28. Chap. 2. It may therefore now be determined what kind of
destroying the fourth Beast And therefore seemed it very useful for them to make the fourth Beast to be not the Roman but a part of the Grecian Monarchy It is also against the whole current of all the Learned Christian Fathers at least till St. Jerom's time near a thousand years after the Prophecy was given and above four hundred years after Christ a HIeronyme in c. 7. Daniel Let us therefore say what All Ecclesiastical Writers have delivered That in the end of the World when the Kingdom of the Romans is to be destroyed there shall be Ten Kings who shall divide the Roman World among themselves and that there shall be an Eleventh littleKing that shall arise and overcome three of those Ten Kings c. Ergo dicamus says he quod omnes scriptores Ecclesiastici In cap. 7. Dan. tradiderunt Which is almost as much as to say That it was an Universal Tradition or a Tradition of all the considerable persons of the Catholick Church to his time That the fourth Beast was the Roman Monarchy and so that the third Beast must be the whole time of the Grecian Monarchy from its succession to the Persian which is by all granted to be the second Is not this sufficient to make any man confident That the Prophecy does of its own accord offer this Interpretation to the common sense of men when it thus appears to be the impartial Judgment of all the Learned World b Malvenda de Antichristo p. 222. For All both Jews and Christians look upon it as unquestionable That the Third and Fourth Beasts are plainly distinct from one another so that he must have lost his wits that can think otherwise Maldonal in c. 7. Dan. The fourth Kingdom is the Kingdom of the Romans and so all take it to be Calovius in c. 7. Dan. All agree That the Fourth Kingdom is the Kingdom of the Romans as well the Ancients and the Jewish Church both before and after Christ and the Christian-Church for the first Four hundred years as the Moderns both Jews and See References Christians before there was any particular Interests to be served by it It has also been and is still the Judgment of even c Pererius in c. 7. Dan. This Fourth Beast according as all interpret it to be and as the matter it self does shew it did represent the Figure of the Roman Empire Malvenda in c. 7. Dan. p. 222. That the Fourth Beast is the Roman Empire is certain and agreed upon by all that profess the name of Christ The Reader then is thus to be set in the Right Road and the King's High-way Ibid. S. Hierom and others do very clearly show that Porphyry's Opinion is a perfect madness Alcasar Sect. 5. in c. 13. Apoc. It cannot be denied but that there is a plain allusion in the Ten Horns of this Beast to the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel which does very plainly appear to be the Figure of the Roman Empire Item Sect. 3. in v. 1. The Beast out of the Sea does evidently allude to the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel and 't is most clear and evident That that Fourth Beast of Daniel is the Figure of the Roman Empire in an Idolatrous State the most Eminent of the Church of Rome tho' it be more for their Interest than any others that the fourth Kingdom were any thing rather than the Roman which does sufficiently shew that they are forced to allow it For they can have no manner of advantage from that concession and therefore must it be the impartial sense of their minds but it would save them a great deal of trouble to deny it if they fairly could and that shews the evidence for it to be too clear And this gives as strong a presumption against the possibility of any other sense as can almost be given from Authority It is therefore well worth the enquiry What might be the grounds of so universal and impartial an Agreement amongst all the differing Parties of all sorts about this third and fourth Kingdom The first Reason that may be observed for it d Theodoret in c. 7. Daniel Some would have the Fourth Kingdom to be the Rule of Alexander's Successors But they should have remembred that the Golden-Head was the Babylonians and that the second Kingdom was the Persians the third then must be the Graecians and the fourth the Romans Ibid. But at present I cannot but admire that there should be some pious Men who should take the Fourth Beast to be the Macedonian Kingdom For they should have considered that the Third Beast has four Heads which does openly show the fourfold division of the Greek Empire after Alexander's Death And then that the Fourth Beast has Ten Horns And that they were but Four and not Ten that continued the Reign of the Greek Monarchy after Alexander Ibid. That ought to be observed that the Prophet saw the Third Beast with Four Heads upon him And the He-Goat Chap. 8. after the first Horn was broken to have had Four in the room of it to make it clear and unquestionable That the He-Goat and the Third Beast were but one and the same thing is the plain intimations in the Prophecy That the third Kingdom is the Dan. 7. whole time of the Greeks from the Persians to the Romans 1. As first in the Text it self the third Kingdom has the same name of A Kingdom that hinders all the rest from being possible to be understood of single Kings or of different Sovereignties in the same Empire pag. 106. There is the same ground then against the parting the Reign of Alexander and his Captains into a third and fourth Kingdom which in reality are but one and the same Kingdom of the Greeks 2. It is against all the significations of Kingdoms besides that are represented by any whole Figures in this Book of Daniel and the common usage of Prophetical Terms especially in the same Book is the best Rule to determine their signification by Rule 2. Now by the confession of these men themselves and the unanimous consent of all Interpreters every whole Figure that is said to signifie a Kingdom does signifie the whole time of a Ruling Nation or People In that one constant acceptation we find it in no less than Ten distinct Figures not counting in this third Kingdom There are eight mentioned besides the third in the 2d and 7th Chapters and two in the 8th for the Kingdom of the Stone and of the Son of Man are two of those Schemes So that there is at least Ten to nothing against it That the third Kingdom is the whole time of the Monarchy of the Greeks after the Persians And that which appears to be the constant use of expressions in so wise and judicious a Writer as the Prophet Daniel was may be very securely relied upon as an unquestionable ground to determine his meaning whenever the same expression is
being any part of the Graecian Monarchy that it is most certainly the Roman For as nothing can be understood by a Fourth Kingdom from Nebuchadnezzar's Kingdom agreed by all to be the Babylonian Monarchy but the Reign of some Ruling Nation which was a Fourth from the Babylonian which is known there to be the First so hath it the individual Characters of the Beast in the Revelations which has been already shown to be a Roman Dominion as may be seen Prop. 15. CHAP. IX Dan. VII The Recapitulation of the Demonstration of the Sixteenth Proposition And from thence shown that Heads and Horns are indifferently used for the same thing And that the distinction of one Successive Head or Horn from that before it is A new name of the Governing Power after a setled continuance of it FRom the Conclusion in the foregoing Chapter that the Fourth Kingdom in the 7th of Danel is certainly the Roman Monarchy and not any part of the Graecian It does now appear what is the undoubted and known signification of all the Figures of Rule and Dominion in Daniel which is the proof of the Proposition at first laid down For it now appears That the four first whole Figures in the 2d and 7th of Daniel are the Babylonian Persian Graecian and Roman Monarchies And that the last Kingdom in each signified by the Stone and the Figure of the Appearance of the Son of Man is the Rule of God's Church or of the People of God and then the two Figures in the 8th Chapter are known to be the Persian and Graecian Monarchies And thus we find the first part of the Proposition abundantly assured That not only the Figure of a Beast but any other Observ 1 whole Figure all over the Prophecy of Daniel does signify a Ruling Nation or Monarchy That for the rest of the Proposition about the parts of the Figures Observ 2 we find that the two Horns of the Ram and the first and four Horns of the He Goat do signify so many Supream Powers in those Ruling Nations And in the first of them or the Persian those Supream Powers appear to be successive Governments of the Medes and Persians because 't is said of the two Horns of the Ram that the highest of them came up last where the difference betwixt the Successive Horns is the Title of Media or Persia And in the Graecian Monarchy it appears also that the divers Supream Powers in it signified by the Horns are in a Succession over the same Nation of the Greeks in respect of the first Horn and the other four For it is said that the first was Dan. 8. broken and in the place of â—â— came up four others that is they came up after him But the four Horns in respect of one another signify only the division of that Monarchy into four Kingdoms because they are said to come up all together in the room of the first Horn. Which is exactly according to the Rule for their signification in this Proposition And then a single particular King in one of the Divisions of this Monarchy is set out by v. 9. a little Horn coming out of one of those Horns as a part only of the time of the whole Horn. The four Wings also and the four Heads of the Leopard in the 7th Chapter shew us the fourfold Kingdom of the Greeks in that Monarchy The ten Horns of the Fourth Beast do represent the division of the Roman Monarchy into Ten Kingdoms for they are represented as being all up at the same time with the Little Horn. The ten Toes of the Image do also represent the same thing It appears also from the four Heads of the Leopard and the Observ 3 four Horns of the He Goat which signify the same thing that an Head and an Horn have the same general signification of the Supream Power of a Nation and are indifferently used to signify the same particular Supream Power in the same Nation It may also be observed that the distinguishing Character of a Observ 4 new Succession of the Ruling Power in the same Kingdom that is set out by a new Head or Horn coming after another is a new name of the Ruling Power publickly owned For though the Persian Rule was in the same Nation of the Medes and Persians with that of the King of Media yet because he had the name of the King of Persia instead of the King of Media he is represented by a new Horn of the same Beast Many other differences were there in the Persian Line as different Families different behaviour to the Church of God c. but all these made no change of that Horn for any other and the same may be observed by the Horns of the He Goat in the Graecian Monarchy where though there were many other accidental Differences amongst the single Persons comprehended under the same Horn yet they continue notwithstanding but one and the same Horn. It is also apparent from the Figure of the Greek Monarchy that it is the continuing Settlement of a Form of Government which Observ 5 makes it an Head or Horn or a change of the Government of the body of a Nation Thus we see it was in the four Horns of the Leopard and He Goat which did signify the Greek Monarchy when it came to a setled appearance of four Kingdoms whereas there was nothing to represent the continued Scuffles of Alexander's Captains before that setled Form of the Monarchy And further That these parts of Figures do also represent those Observ 6 several Supream Governments for the whole time of their duration Ribera in cap. 17. Apoc. numer 15 16. under all the single Persons that are in the possession of them after one another is certain from the continuance of the several Horns and the Little Horn on the Fourth Beast till the time of the last coming of the Son of Man And also from the time of the Little Horn in the 8th Chapter which is said to be in the latter time of the Kingdom of the four Horns For before the time of that v. 25. Little Horn there had been many Successions of single Persons in each of the four Kingdoms that is in the Ruling time of each of the Horns Wherefore we may now most certainly conclude That the Prophecy of Daniel is every-where constant to it self in the signification of every one of its Figures and that there is but one uniform signification of the Prophetical Figures of the same kind throughout the whole Book and therefore may one thereupon conclude with still more assurance That By a Beast as the common Subject of its Heads or Horns is signified a Ruling Nation or People By the Horns and Heads of a Beast the several kinds of Supream setled Government in it And that either in succession to one another over the same place if those Heads and Horns be described to come after one another Or so many distinct Sovereignties
or Kingdoms of one and the same Ruling People if they be described to be in Rule all at the same time And in both these kinds do the several Heads or Horns signify the continuance of that Government or divided Kingdom to their last End To this whole Discourse about the Sixteenth Proposition do the generality of the Roman Interpreters agree which all must CONSENT necessarily do who grant as they do that the Fourth Kingdom in the 7th of Daniel is the Roman Monarchy The only difference of some of them from the rest is that the Ten Kings and the 11th after them shall be after the whole Roman Monarchy is ruined and has lost the name a GRotius de jure B. P. L. 2. c. 9. Art 3. Populus est ex eo corporum genere quod ex distantibus constat c. The people are a Body of the kind of those which are made up of things distant from one another Item Art 8. It matters not which way they are Governed either by Monarchs or by many or by the multitude For it is the same Roman people under Kings Consuls and Emperors The Third BOOK THE Particular Signification OF THE BEAST And its Heads and Horns In the REVELATIONS CHAP. I. The Interpretation of The Beast in the Revelations and Rev. XVII of its Heads and Horns in the 17th Proposition Three Objections answered The inconsistency of the Roman Interpreters with themselves Bellarmin more Ingenuous but forced thereby to give up the Cause Grotius to mend the matter runs into greater Absurdities than any of them Conjectures about the first Five Heads AFTER the knowledge of the Constant Vniform Signification of a Beast and of the Heads or Horns of a Beast all over the Prophecy of Daniel any one would be ready to conclude with himself That it was no hard matter now to determine the signification of the Heads and Horns and of the Beast it self which is the Subject of all the latter part of the Revelations since it has been already found that all those peculiar Figures of Empire and Sovereignty and the particular Phrases and Style belonging to them in the Revelations are just the same with those of the like kind in Daniel and are not so distinctly to be found in any other of the Prophets besides But the undoubted confirmation of this is the assurance that we have of the 15th Proposition For by that it appears That the Beast in the Revelations is the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel and that it has the same and that a very great many most peculiar Characters and Expressions attributed to it by which that Beast in Daniel is described Wherefore according to all the Examples that are to be found in that Prophecy from whence it appears that these Figures in the Revelations and the most peculiar Expressions about them are taken it is unquestionable That The Beast in the Revelations in its general notion as the common Prop. 17. subject of its Heads and Horns does signify the Rule of the Romans in general The Seven Heads of it successive Changes of the Sovereign Power of that Nation The Ten Horns the division of that Empire into so many distinct Sovereignties There need no more be said for the proof of this than that the Seven Heads are said to succeed in this order Five one another c. to shew them to be successive Revel 17. and that the Ten Kings are described as acting all together with the Beast For according to the signification of a Beast and its Heads and Horns with these Characters in Daniel they must signify so many successive Sovereign Powers and so many divided distinct Kingdoms of one and the same Nation by Prop. 16. And the Prophecy of Daniel is the chief Example of the mystical use of Beasts and their Parts and to which all the Expressions about the Beast in the Revelations are found to refer Proposition 15. And the Beast in the Revelations is certainly some Roman Rule by Prop. 6. Therefore by Rule the 2 d The Beast its Heads and Horns do signify the Rule of the Romans under so many successive Changes of the Sovereign Power and divided into so many distinct Sovereignties as are represented by its Seven Heads and Ten Horns But it may possibly be pretended that there are clear grounds in the Revelations against the making the Prophecy of Daniel a Rule of Interpretation for the Figures in the Revelations For the Figures in the Revelations have a different use from those in Daniel For example 1. There are three several shows of one and the same Roman Monarchy and following immediately one after another from the 12th to the 18th Chapter of the Revelations which according to the use of such succession of Figures in Daniel must signify three several Ruling Nations Prop. 16. Besides that one of these three Beasts is expresly described in succession to the other Chap. 13. 2. But it must be remembred That it is according to the use of the Figures in Daniel to represent the same Kingdoms by different Figures in different Visions as in the 2d and 7th Chapters And in the 8th Chapter two of those same Kingdoms by two new Beasts and it is certain that the two Shows in the 13th and 17th Chapters are in two several Visions and that they are one and the same particular state of the Beast by Coroll 2. Prop. 10. And though the Beast in the 13th Chapter be described to be in succession to that in the 12th Chapter yet 1. it is described as a new Vision of a Beast with the same proper marks upon it which the other had before it viz. the Seven Heads and Ten Horns And next it must be considered That though they be two different Beasts yet it is plainly said That the one is Satan Chap. 12. 9. or the Devil and so does signify only a spiritual Rule of the Devil in the Roman Empire and no different Temporal Empire from the other and then it signifies no more to the making two different Monarchies than Nebuchadnezzar's Image to the constituting of a new Monarchy of the Babylonians distinct from that which was represented by the Head of the other Image Chap. 2. 2. It will be further urged that in the 13th Chapter There are Two Beasts represented as rising up after one another which according to Prop. 16. Part. 1. must signify in Daniel's way two different Ruling Nations This would signify very much by Rule the 2 d if the Text did not make it appear that they were not successive to one another But it is expresly said That the Second Beast did exercise all the power of the First Beast before him and that all Chap. 13. 12. for his Service as appears v. 12. The Text does therefore expresly affirm that the power of them both is but one and the same power or Ruling Nation And yet to show that the signification of a Beast in Daniel
rest That The Three last Kings of the Eight in the 17th Chapter are Three Proposit 18. Changes of Roman Government coming after one another in an immediate successive Order a CUspinian in Sextum Rufum pag. 6. Cuspinian p. 95. in Cassiodori Chronicon shews that Military Tribunes with Consulary Power differed only in name from Consuls Consuls were chosen by the People of Rome at first that after the expulsion of the Kings the Power of the Kings might remain with them ut penes illos Regia esset potestas Pancirollus in notit Imperii Oriental pag. 155. Appian says in his Syrian History that the Romans sent Praetors to the Army which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is six Axes because the Consuls did use to have twelve Axes and as many bundles of Rods carried before them after the manner of the Kings See in the Margent First That they are Three Changes of the Supream Government of the Romans appears from their being every one represented by an Head of the Beast which signifies a Rule of the Romans Prop. 17. and from their being said to Reign one after another v. 10 11. For Heads or Horns of a Beast said to come one after another do all over Daniel signify the successive Changes of the Supream Government of a Nation by Prop. 16. And Daniel is the only Example of the use of such Prophetical Schemes wherefore by Rule the 2 d they can signify nothing else here but three successive Changes of the Soveraign Power of the Romans b Thomas de Albiis Tabulae suffragiales p. 247. And under the name of King it self there are almost as many different sorts of Soveraign Power as there are Kingdoms in the World for there is not any Power of two different Kings that is altogether the same And next That they do reign in an immediate successive Order does appear from the Number of the Last which is said to be the Eighth Whereas if there had been any more than Two betwixt the Five that were then said to be past and this which is called the Eighth this Last would have been more than an Eighth according to the number of those that had come in betwixt the Five and the Last besides those Two that are mentioned This is further confirmed by the use of Numbers in Daniel which denote the Succession of Ruling Powers As in the four Kingdoms represented by the four Metals in the Statue Ch. 2. and signified to succeed one another every Kingdom does immediatly succeed that before it So also do the four Kingdoms in the 7th Chapter of Daniel follow one another in an immediate Chap. 15. lib. 2. order The Two Horns of the Ram in the 8th Chapter one of which is said to come up after the other are known to represent the immediate Succession of the Persian Government to that under the Median Kings The fourth King of Persia after Cyrus in the 11th Chapter v. 2. is known to be Xerxes in an immediate Succession from Cyrus The Succession of the first King and of the four after him signified by the Horns of the He-Goat in the 8th Chapter may indeed seem to be an exception to the rest because the quadripartite Division of the Graecian Monarchy did not immediately succeed the Reign of Alexander But then neither is there any number there used to denote an immediate Succession There is no mention of a first and a second King but only of a first and four Kings after him which does not exclude the intervening of others betwixt them as the name of a first or second would do And yet if it be well considered The Quadripartite Division of the Graecian Monarchy was so much the immediate next form of the Supream Rule of it to the Heirs of Alexander that there was no other setled Division of that Monarchy that came in between them and that one would esteem to be ground enough to call it the next immediate successive form of the Graecian Monarchy when there was no other setled form betwixt the Reign of Alexander's Heirs and the fourfold Division of the Empire Again The Beast is never without one of his Heads even in the time of his Ten Horns to his last ruine by Coroll 1. Prop. 6. Wherefore upon the falling of one of his Heads the next in order must immediately arise or else the Beast would be without an Head and so without any life in it For the Ten Horns from whence alone it could be supposed to have any life besides are all in the time of the Last Head by Coroll 2. Prop. 6. But still further it may easily be perceived That the three last Kings are set down in order by the Angel for no other end but to shew the time of the rise of the Eighth called the Beast and which is the only Subject-matter of all the Visions To confirm this it is plain That there is none of the whole number of these Kings but only the Eighth who have any thing more mentioned of them than barely the number that they are known by and the order in which they lie from that present time when these things were spoken to the time of the Reign of the Eighth The Sixth is therefore only said to be the King that was at that present time the Soveraign of the Romans that it might be thereby known how many Successions of the Ruling Power of that Monarchy there was to be from the time of the Vision to the Reign of the Beast Now if the order of these Successions had not been immediate to one another this number would really have signified nothing for that Design but would on the contrary have been a most certain means of deluding men into a mistake upon very clear and warrantable grounds for it especially since there is no intimation in the least to incline a man to understand it otherwise Wherefore by Rule the first it may be relied upon that the Succession of the three last Kings of the Eighth in the 17th Chapter was immediate And so plainly does this appear to be intimated from the CONSENT Text that it has the almost unanimous Consent of all the differing Parties of Interpreters Bellarmin indeed has a very singular fancy in this point he would have the Seven Heads or Kings to signify here all the Emperours because the Number Seven is generally so used in the Revelations Whereas nothing is more commonly known than that when Seven or Ten are divided into broken numbers as the number Seven is here into Five One another c. they are never used for a perfect number or to signify All. And the mention of the Eighth which was one of the Seven does plainly assure them to be just Seven and no more What more remarkable Instance can we have how extravagantly singular a man of good sense in other respects may be upon no manner of tolerable grounds for it If the three last Kings do
immediatly succeed one another then it is certain that The Eighth King is one of the first Six returned into Rule again Corollary For the Eighth King is one of the Seven that were past before returned into Rule again Coroll Prop. 4. And it cannot be the Seventh because the three last Kings and therefore the Seventh and Eighth do immediatly succeed one another Prop. 18. so that if the Eighth were the Seventh and with the Seventh King it would be but the Seventh continued in being and therefore not an Eighth The Eighth King must therefore be one of the Six that were past before it It cannot therefore now be doubted but that The Sixth King of the Eight in the 17th Chapter of the Revelations Proposit 19. was the Imperial Government of Rome at the time of the Vision For the Sixth King is the Sixth Head of the Beast Prop. 5. And an Head or Horn of a Beast does in Prophecy signify a form of Supream Power in a Nation And the continuance of that Form under all the single Persons that reign in it till it be changed by another Prop. 16. Now there was no other Government over Rome when the Sixth King is said to be in Rule there but only that of the Roman Emperours The Sixth King then must be the Government of the Roman Emperours till that was cut off by a Form of Government of another name Observ 4. Prop. 16. If it should be objected That by the Sixth Head or King may be meant but one part of the Imperial Government or those only that were of the same Line or Family or of the same Countrey or of the same Religion or the like It may be replied that there is no warrant for any other signification of a new Successive Head or Horn in the same Jurisdiction than that of a new name of the Governing Power There were many other differences in the Successions of the several Kings of the Persian and Graecian Monarchies viz. several Lines and Families several different Countries but yet they were all comprehended under one and the same Horn. The only plain Example that we have of the change of a single Horn in the same Beast which is the same with the change of an Head Observ 3. Prop. 16. is that of the Two Horns of the Ram Dan. 8. where all the difference betwixt the latter Horn and the first is that the Last was known by the name of the King of Persia whereas the other was called the King of Media in the same one Kingdom of the Medes and Persians There is therefore no warrant for making the Sixth King any thing else but the whole time of the Imperial Government till it was changed for a Roman Government of another name There is no kind of scruple to be made against this upon the account of the name of King which is common to all the Eight Kings For that is known to be very dubiously used in Scripture but especially in Prophecy to signify either a Kingdom or a Government in a Nation of another kind than the Kingly Government The most certain Example of it is this present use of the word King where it must at least signify an Emperour which is a Government of another denomination and so different from that of Kings that the Romans which permitted the one are said to have †Hieron Balbus de Coronatione c. 13. Julius Caesar c. Julius Caesar who when he had engrossed the Dictatorian and Regal Power to himself because he knew that the name of King was hated by the Romans and even execrable to them to decline the envy of it instead of King chose rather to be called Emperour When Mark Anthony the Consul offered him the Diadem he cried out aloud that he was Caesar and not a King and threw away the Diadem an hatred for the other Grotius's Answer to this is That an Emperour had really the same power that a King had But if that be sufficient to qualify a Supream Power for the Name or Title of King Then all the several different Rulers of the Roman State might as well have See References that name and so be comprehended under the Five first Kings here mentioned For the Consuls are said to have succeeded into all the Power and the Authority of the Kings that were before them And all the other kinds of Government had the same Authority And though there should be some small difference in the degree of their Authority yet that is no more than is to be found betwixt c Ribera in cap. 17. Apoc. v. 10. numer 15. But if any one should think it hard and forced that many Kings should be signified by the name of one King and should think that these seven are but seven single Kings let him know in the first place that all Expositors have understood that in every one of these seven are comprehended a great many and that never did any take them to be seven single persons only but Victorinus whose Opinion all do deservedly cry out against And then next let him understand that it is not unusual in Scripture by one King to signify many of the like sort and as it were of one and the same Body which is especially to be observed So in Daniel 8. The Ram with the two Horns does signify all the Kings of Persia succeeding one another in order and making as it were but one body who are therefore accounted but as one King So that in Jeremiah chap. 25. And they shall serve the King of Babylon 70 years which it is impossible to understand of one single King different sorts of Kings As for the Plea that the Name of a King denotes a single Person almost d Ribera in cap. 1. Apocal. v. 3. numer 5. citat We may say that which is begun is now done or doing Wherefore since those things were shortly to begin he might well say the things which shall shortly be done although they were not shortly to be ended This is the common use of speech and the use of Scripture all the Examples in Daniel of that name do show See References that it does signify a Succession of many single Persons in a Kingdom Prop. 16. Part the Last This Grotius takes no notice of but thinks it argument sufficient against it to call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and quis unquam ita loquitur To which Ribera does best answer on cap. 17. Apoc. pag. 528. That all Expositors have said so and never any but Victorinus said otherwise But in the 7th of Daniel it is evident That by the Four Beasts called Four Kings is meant four Kingdoms and by the Fourth of these Kings the Roman Commonwealth For it is described in that state in which it conquered the Graecian Monarchy which was in the state of its Commonwealth And Deut. 33. 5. and Judges 9. 16 18. chap. 17. 6. ch 18. 1. ch 19. 1. ch 21. 25. the
at Rome For besides that it has been demonstrated that the essential Character of an Head of the Beast is the Government owned at Rome by Prop. 21. It appears also by almost all the known examples besides of the changes of Government in a Monarchy either in Daniel or the Revelations That the continuance of the former Government together with a new face of the Soveraign Power is made to be a New Succession of the Sovereign Power of that Nation The most plain instance of it is in the Figure of the Graecian Monarchy in the 8th Chapter of Daniel where after the end of the first form of Government under the first King there succeeds a fourfold Kingdom notwithstanding that the Macedonian Sovereignty which was the first King continued still in being for it was one of those four Kingdoms So also in the figure of the Persian Monarchy just before it the successive changes of the Sovereignty are represented by the Two Horns coming after one another thô the first of them That is The King of Media was still in being when the latter was in Rule because the King of Persia was also King of Media and his Realm at that time called the Kingdom of the Medes and Persians This also is confirmed from the Succession of this very same Imperial Head which was a new head notwithstanding that the x Onuphr Panuvinus lib. Fastor p. 61. But the Consulary Dignity continued at Rome to the time of Justinian Joh. Fersius Silesius protonotarius de p. Praet Justinian Novell 105. calls the Consulship a Dignity that goes alway with the Imperial Power so that the Consulary Power seems to be so interwoven with the Sovereignty that it follows it of its own accord and is tacitly included in it as soon as the Scepter of the Empire is taken L. 6. Cod. Theodos The Emperors Decree That all other Dignities shall give place to that of Consul Prattica dell Medagglie de Carlo Pattin Pag. 67. The greatest part of the Money which the Emperors Julius Caesar and Augustus caused to be stamped was called Consular Money for the respect that they bore to that Supream Dignity Consulary Government continued with it thô in subordination to the Imperial much more must this Government be a new Head when that which was only Imperial is turned into a Regal form at Rome There is therefore no longer any question to be made whether the Imperial Government which was the Sixth Head at the time of the Vision be yet at an end CHAP. V. Rev. XVII The 23 d Proposition The Beast some Present Sovereign of Rome The 24th The 42 Months of the Beast at least 1260 years The 1260 Days of the Witnesses the same particular time The Two Witnesses the Representatives of the whole Church enslav'd by the Beast SInce it has been made unquestionable from the preceding Proposition That the Sixth King or Head has been past for some hundreds of years From thence it may as assuredly be concluded That The Beast called the Eighth King is a Sovereign Roman Proposit 23. Power that is owned for Supream by the Authority of the City of Rome at this present For the Sixth King in being at the time of the Vision was certainly at an end after the ruine of the Western Empire by the Heruli and Goths Prop. 22. And the Seventh King does immediately succeed the Sixth by Prop. the 18th And the Seventh King was to continue but a short space chap. 17. 10. Whereas the number of years from the Ruine of the Western Empire to this present is three times longer than the whole time of the sixth Head from the date of the Vision and as long as the whole time of the other six Heads before Wherefore the Seventh King must needs have been long since past and the Eighth King called the Beast have entred upon his Reign For the Eighth King did immediately succeed the Seventh by Prop. 18. And the Eighth King or the Beast is to continue till the Second coming of Christ by Corollar 1. Prop. 12. And therefore must the time of the Beast be both begun already and not yet past that is must be at present in being Upon the same grounds it appears That The forty two Months of the Reign of the Beast Revel 13. 5. are at least 1260 Years Prop. 24. For the Beast is in being at this present by Prop. 23. And he began his Reign soon after the fall of the sixth Head because the Seventh King was to continue but a short space Rev. 17. 10. And the sixth Head was at latest ended at the fall of the Western Empire in Augustulus by Prop. 22. which was above 1200 Years since It is therefore impossible that the forty two Months of the Reign of the Beast should have a literal signification in this place They must then of necessity be understood in a Mystical Signification by Rule 2. and in such a Mystical Signification also as must make them contain in them above 1200 Years Now there is no Example in Prophecy of any such Mystical Signification of Time as will make these forty two Months reach to 1200 Years and make them less exceed that number of Years than the Mystical use of Weeks and Days in some of the Prophecies Weeks are by almost the Vnanimous Consent of all Interpreters taken for so many Years as they have days in them in that famous Prophecy about the first coming of the Messias into the World in the 9th Chapter of Daniel v. 24. under the name of the seventy Weeks This is an unexceptionable Instance of the mystical use of days for years So also is the Year of Jubilee after 49 years called the end of seven Sabbaths or weeks of years Levit. 25. 8. Days also are made use of to signify Years in Ezekiel twice in one Chapter Ezek. 4. 4 6. and in the same manner in the Book of Numbers 14. 34. Against these two last Examples it is pretended That Days do not absolutely signify Years but are only made the Types of Years But this is no material Objection against this usage of Days For though in those two places they be used but as Types yet it is easie to observe that Types of things are ordinarily used in the New Testament for the things themselves after the Type is fulfilled in them and in that use of them they signify the things absolutely and not Typically for a typical signification of any thing is the signification of it before it is come to pass which cannot be when the Type is used for the real thing it self then in being And therefore in such a use of the typical word it must signify the thing absolutely only Thus do we find the names of Temple Altar the Holiest of Holies the Vail the Passeover-Lamb used to signify the Christian Church the Communion Heaven this Earthly state Christ Jesus after these Types were accomplished and so after their typical time was past
powers of it are acknowledged by the Authority of Rome to belong to them f Ludovic à Bebenburg tho on the German or Caesarian side de juribus Regni Imp. Rom. pag. 5. The Reason why he that is elected is called King of the Romans is both in reverence to the Most Holy Roman Church and in honour of the City of Rome whose People had formerly the Monarchy of the Empire M. Freherus in Commentario Hence that proud Voice of Rome at the Coronation of the Emperor Henry the VIIth I confirm unto the Prince the Sovereign Power with the Crown of Crowns and give him command over the Cities and Nations of the World Let the Eagles defend my Glory And in the Seal of Charles the IVth with which the Golden Bull the Instrument for the present manner of the Imperial Elections is sealed and other publick Instruments The City of Rome is in the stamp of it with this Motto Roma caput Mundi regit Orbis fraena rotundi Goldast Politic. Imperial pars 5. p. 349. Sed postquam Christiana Orthodoxa Religio c. But after that the Christian and Orthodox Religion prevailed so as to make a noise all over the World And that by this means the High-Priests at Rome came to be adored by Princes Kings and Emperors with the greatest humility and a singular kind of devotion it came to pass that by the common Consent of all Christian People that of the two several States of the Christian World The one should be govern'd by the Popes the other by the Emperors But yet so that the Emperors should acknowledg both their Imperial Dignity and Power to proceed from the Popes of Rome as the true Mediators and Intercessors for them But this is further confirmed by the Civil Law which suffers not the Imperial Majesty to be subject to any human Laws but on the contrary does openly declare it to be above all human Privileges and Laws Bellarmin shews Lib. 3. de Translat Imp. Roman in Germanos That the present way of electing the Emperor was setled by Pope Gregory the VIIth in the Golden Bull to confer the Power and Authority of Emperor of Rome upon the Person elected by them and chap. 12. lib. 1. says That all kind of Christian Princes whatsoever have acknowledged the Roman Empire to have been amongst the Germans ever since the Year 800. Goldastus in his Politic. Imperial part 1. p. 76. sets down the particular form of the Oath that the Electors take before their choice to this effect I. N. by the help of God will chuse a Temporal or Secular Head for all Christian People that is a King of the Romans to be advanced to be Emperor And it is the Order of the Golden Bull That they should not depart from the City of Francfort till the major part of them have elected a Temporal Head for all Christian People that is A King of the Romans to be created Emperor Aventin l. 6. Histor Boior Pope Adrian in his Letter to the German Princes tells them That the Roman Empire was translated from the Greeks to the Almaines so as that their King was not called Roman Emperor till he was crowned by the Pope Before his Consecration he was but King after his Consecration he became Emperor From whence then says he had he the Empire but from Us And afterwards gives this reason for it For Rome is our Seat The Seat of the Empire is Aix in the Forest of Ardenne Radevicus l. 1. c. 16. Frederic the Emperour who had denied all Subjection to Pope Adrian yet in his very defence of himself for it says thus The first Voice in our Election we owe to the Archbishop of Mentz and then to the other Electors in their Order Our Regal Unction to the Bishop of Cologn and the last which is the Imperial Unction only we have from the Pope Ibidem And Pope Adrian presently after in his Subjection to the Emperour minds him That his Magnificence had acknowledged That it was the Pope that set the Imperial Crown upon his Head Cornelius à Lapide upon the 10th v. of the 17th chap. Apoc. To confute that Opinion that would have the seventh King succeeding the Emperours to be the Pope The seventh says he is here said should continue but a little while whereas the Pope and the Emperour have continued a long while together The Pope therefore did not succeed the Emperours in the Roman Empire but continues there together with Them as we see now the most Serene Ferdinand to be the Emperour of the Roman Empire and our most Holy Lord Paul V. to be the High-Priest or the Pope of the Roman Church Grotius in Respons de Antichristo The German Princes chuse the Emperour but their Choice must have the Approbation of the City of Rome which has conferred their Right and Power upon the Pope from that Approbation has the Emperour the Title of ROMAN EMPEROUR and many things in Italy which belonged to the ancient Roman Empire from whence comes the Homage that is done him for the Dutchies of Milan Montferrat Mantua and many other Privileges there besides Nor can it be said upon this account That the Emperour is made by the Pope for the Authority of the Roman Empire was always the same even when the Emperours were some Thracians some of Illyricum and some of Hungary And so was it afterwards with Charlemaigne and now with the Princes of Germany See Grot. c. 9. lib. 2. de Jure Belli Pacis and in the Commentary of it in Prop. 21. Lud. à Bebenburg cap. 5. It is apparent from History That Germany even after the Division of the Empire of the Franks was accounted a Kingdom by it self that is distinct from the Title of the Roman Empire M. Freherus in his Comment upon this Our Emperours at this time observe this in their Title Emperour of the Romans King of Hungary Bohemia Dalmatia c. Ludovicus the Emperour the Son of Pius was called King of Germany which was almost from the first times of the division of the Territories of Charlemaigne He does also in the next Chapter shew That the seven Electors chuse the Emperour as a College or as the Representatives of all the Princes and People that are subject to the Roman Empire which Authority is conferred upon them from the City of Rome by the Golden Bull of Charles IV. If it shall be objected That the Constantinopolitan Emperours were the only true Roman Emperours and were unjustly deprived of their Western Dominions by the Pope it is to be remembred That the Constantinopolitan Emperours themselves confirmed the Title of the Western Emperours Lud. à Bebenburg cap. 5. and M. Freherus in his Comment there proves that Transaction betwixt the Eastern and Western Emperours by the Authority of Ado Rhegino Philip of Bergamo Platina Voluterranus Egnatius especially that of the Eastern Emperour Michael which was published in St. Peter's Church at Rome and confirmed
by which he is every-where owned for the Chief Head of all Christian Princes For this reason is it That m Bellarmin l. 1. c. 5. de Translat Imp. Rom. proves That the Western Emperours Title to that part of the Roman Empire was acknowledged by all Princes and particularly by the Emperour of Constantinople after the confirming that Title upon Charlemagne And chap. 12. shews the same to have been owned to the German Emperours by all Christian Princes ever since the year 800. And cap. 5. lib. 3. de Pontifice gives this proof of it That for this cause the German Emperour has the precedence of all other Kings tho far more considerable and powerful than himself And next That he has the Consent of the Representatives of the People of Rome for it Ludovic à Bebenburg de Jurib Reg. Imp. cap. 11. does first shew That the Imperial Coronation must certainly give the Emperours more than a Name and that therefore it does give them a Title of Superiority over all the Territories that were under the Jurisdiction of the Roman Empire tho they be not now de facto or actually under the Emperour's Power as that he can legitimate Bastards in them in order to Inheritance restore those that have been publickly disgraced to their Reputation again make Laws and such-like things which of right are only reserved to the Imperial Power to do And unless the King of the Romans got something which he had not before by being made Emperour he could not be said to be advanced to the Imperial Dignity which is the word in the Election Rex Romanorum in Caesarem promovendus Imperator futurus and then the Law would be for words only and not for things contrary to C. Communia de Leg. 2. extr de elect C. Commissa and the difference of the Names would intimate no difference betwixt the Things contrary to Jura 21. distinct C. Clerus c. de Codicel l. si idem he and his Ambassadors have the precedence given them in all publick Appearances And upon this account also is he in n See Ludovic à Bebenburg Not. praecedent Idem cap. 15. shews how the Emperour has the mediate Power in all Kingdoms under the Jurisdiction of the Roman Empire and the Kings the immediate Power To the same purpose is that p. 191 200. S. Rom. Imp. Jus Publicum The Emperour alone has the Power of Legitimating of Bastards of restoring the Disgraced and prescription beyond the Memory of Man against Imperial Rights is of no validity An Order of the Imperial Chamber is an Universal Jurisdiction over all the Subjects of the Roman Empire as well those that are its immediate as those that are it s more remote Subjects the exercise of some Right reserved to him over the Subjects of other Princes in case of the denial of Justice to them or of the neglect of it and in cases of Appeal though not with any power over the persons of Princes Whether this be fit and allowable I will not dispute It is certain that these Rights he has a long time been in actual possession of which usually confirms a Right and are acknowledged to be his due by the Authority of the City of Rome at this present and not allowed to any other Prince beside So that there is none else that has the least appearance of being the one Secular Head of Rome in the midst of Ten Horns or the division of the Roman Empire into Ten Kings If it should be further urged That those dreadful Acts of Antichristian Tyranny over the whole World which are attributed to the Beast do very little suit with the Power of the Imperial Government at present It must be considered That there is a plain description of two different States of the Power of the Beast in the Prophecy it self The first before the Rise of the Second Beast or False Prophet and there he is described as acting upon his own bottom and it is said that all the World did worship him and that he had power over all Tongues and Nations c. And that Rev. 13. 8. does very well answer any time of the Imperial enforcement of the Roman Religion by their Laws and their Execution of the Acts of Councils before the Popes had got the whole Superiority into their Hands For then the Imperial Power was the only Roman Power that was worshipped or whose Will and Law about Religion was set up for the Laws of God to the World But then there is another State of the Power of the Beast after the Rise of the Second Beast or False Prophet where all his v. 12. Power is exercised before his face by another and in that state the charge of Anti-christian Tyranny over the whole World does belong to the Beast as he is confederated with those who act all these things and it is attributed to the Beast only upon the account of his continuing still the Secular Head of that Confederacy As any Cruelty done by the Officers of any Army against the Enemy is said to be all done by the General But to shew us that all this mischief was chiefly chargeable upon his Confederates and Instruments only We see all that Tragical part acted by the Image of the Beast which was inspired by the False Prophet who is described as the principal Actor in all the Bloodshed and Murther of those who would not worship the Beast or his Image And that this Image is a thing quite distinct v. 15 16 17. from the Beast will be made afterwards to appear as also how both the Beast and his Image are the Objects of the false Worship enjoined But yet after all It cannot but be acknowledged that it is every way more certain and unquestionable that the present Papal Power must be the False Prophet how dubious soever his real distinction from that which is called the Beast may seem to be For the Character of the False Prophet cannot possibly fit any other Church-Head of Rome at this time in being but o See Note the first upon the fifth Chapter only that Power And the False Prophet must necessarily be now in being because the Beast his individual Companion whoever he is to the last end of them both is certainly now in being Rev. 19. Propos 23. CHAP. VII Rev. XIII The first Query Whether at Justinian 's Recovery of Italy from the Goths there had not been Two Changes of Roman Government since the time of the Vision THus far there seems to be a general agreement amongst almost all kind of considerable Interpreters who make The Beast to be a Roman Power in being at this present time and this seems sufficient for the main use that is to be made of this kind of knowledg But because Mens minds are usually very uneasy under such a general assurance of the main foundation without a more particular determination of the first rise of
the time of the continuance and the last period of so formidable a power as that of the Beast and the False Prophet is described to be I will now proceed to propound my apprehensions about those particular circumstances which is so much the more necessary because almost all the applications of the many Characters and Properties of the Beast do seem to depend upon such a particular determination And because I know it will be difficult to prevail with any who have framed to themselves an Hypothesis of their own about these things to see any convincing proof for the way that I make choice of To be civil to the Understandings and Assurances of others I will now propound my own particular Application under the name of Queries instead of Propositions thô to my self they may appear to be of much the same strength I would therefore first have it considered Whether at the time of Justinian 's Conquest of the Italian Query 1 Goths there had not been at least Two such Changes of the Secular Soveraign Power of Rome since the time of the Visions about the Beast as might be called Two different Heads of the Beast For the Secular Soveraign Power of Rome at the time of the Vision was the Imperial Government and Sixth Head by Prop. 19. and 5. And the Imperial Government as the Sixth Head was changed at latest upon the ruin of the Western Empire by the Heruli and Goths by Prop. the 22. There remains then nothing more to be done for the determining of this question than to show That the Succession of the Heruli and Goths to the Government of Rome and Italy did make a new Head of the Beast For then it will not be questioned but that the Conquest of the Goths by Justinian did also make the other Head that was to be revived That the Succession of those Barbarous Kings at Rome did make a new Head of the Beast appears from the definition of an Head of the Beast Prop. the 21st For upon the ruin of the Western Empire by these Kings and their Reign over Rome and Italy The Supream Secular Power of Rome was changed and another owned there in the place of it Thô the one part of the Imperial Head remained still sound at Constantinople yet by the change of the other part of it which did more immediately preside over the City of Rome the Soveraign power of the Romans came to be divided betwixt a King and an Emperor And so that which was a form of Government purely Imperial before came to be a mixture of Kingly and Imperial Government For that the new Kings of Italy and the Eastern Emperours made still but one Supream form of Roman Government thô divided in the Seats of their Empire appears from the state of the Imperial Government before the ruin of the Western Empire by these Barbarous Kings The Eastern and Western Emperor were then but one and the same Imperial Head Thô they had Two different Kingdoms they had both of them their Authority Chap. xvii pag. 157 158. from the a SEe Note the second on Chap. 3. Grotius de Jure Bell. Pac. lib. 2. c. 9. Art 11. and in the Annotat. Onuphrius Panvinius lib. Fastor does frequently make mention of the Constantinopolitan and Roman Consuls and shews them to have been indifferently chosen from either of those Cities See Pancirollus in Note 2. Chap. 4. same people and Senate of Rome and therefore were there half the Senate and one of the Consuls ordinarily residing at Constantinople The Laws also of the Empire were joyntly subscribed by both and do now in the Code bear the names of both the Emperors and it is the Subject of a great part of Pancirollus's Explication of the Notitia Imperii to show that the Military Ensigns and the Arms of the chief Dignities of the Empire were almost every one of them Figures on purpose contrived by the Emperors and given by their Authority to represent the Vnity of the Roman Empire all over the World under the divided shares of the Two Imperial Heads of it as has Ch. 17. been before observed page 148. And thus were the Two Empires but like the Two Provinces of the Two Consuls of Rome which nevertheless were but one Vnited Supream Government of the Romans Now all the change of this Imperial Partnership in the Government by the change of the Western Empire was the introducing the Kingly power into that share of the Empire For in every thing else The new Kings observed b Sigonius de Occident Imper. lib. 15. Odoacer did humble the Authority of the Senate and Consuls but in every thing else he retained the Old Constitutions of the Commonwealth and the Rights and Names of the Magistrates gave the Bishops and Churches their due respect And speaking of Theodorick after him lib. 16. He retained the Roman Magistrates and because he reigned by the Emperour's Favour and the Consent of the Senate he laid aside his own Country Habit and wore the Purple and the Royal Robes He set up a Kingdom every way like the ancient Western Empire Joan. Fersius Silesius de Praefectura Praetor Theodoric retained still the Roman Laws and Customs and the very same Magistrates so that the Citizens of Rome were ashamed to create them themselves Cassiodor lib. 3. Variar Ep. 43. Theodoric says We delight in governing according to the Laws of the Romans whom we desire to maintain by our Arms. And all over that Book nothing is more frequent than the mention of the Roman Commonwealth for the Kingdom of the Goths in Italy And the whole business of it is The Kings or Governours Letters for the administration of the Civil Government after the same manner and by the same kinds of Magistrates that the Western Empire had been govern'd by before Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat pag. 867. speaking of the Gothish Government in Italy But altho they changed not any Roman Constitutions as the Senate the Praefects the Comites the Curators and the like yet they did ordinarily model them after their own fashion but yet all in imitation of the Roman Laws and Dignities And pag. 128. Then began Italy to breathe and flourish again and Theodoric when he saw the Romans whom he had an affection for very much bent upon their ancient Liberties he commanded all things should be administred by Roman Magistrates He committed the whole Government of the City to the Senate and People of Rome but so as that he himself chose the Praefect of the City the old form See References of Government which they found in use at their coming to the Crown as appears from all the History of their Government They changed no Roman Custom says Rubeus And it may H. Rubeus Histor Raven p. 128 167. more particularly be seen in Cassiodorus's Variarum That they retained all the same Magistrates by which the Government of the Western Empire was administred Besides the fall of
the Western Empire was in the time of Zeno Emperor of the East and Zeno could not be less a part of the Supream Government of Rome after the fall of the Western Empire than he was before the fall of it because he had his part of the Senate of Rome and the choice of one of the Consuls still continued to him all the the time of Odoacer the Conqueror's Reign and c Jornandes who was the Gothish Bishop of Ravenna in the time of the Reign of the Goths in Italy gives this account of King Theodoric in his Book De Rebus Geticis sect 86. Zeno upon the report that he heard of Theodoric then chosen King of the Goths invites him into the City and receiving him with Honour placed him amongst the Nobles of his Palace And after that to shew him greater Honour he adopts him his Son for the Wars and gave a Triumph in the City at his own Costs then made him Consul in Ordinary which is the highest Honour in the Empire But Theodoric weary of living idle begs of Zeno that he would give him leave to try his Fortunes for the recovery of Italy which had been a part of the Roman Empire and contained in it that City which was Head and Lady of the World For it is better says he that I who am your Son should possess that Kingdom by your Gift than one that tyrannizes over your Senate and Commonwealth for if I be Conquerour I shall hold it as your Gift and Favour Which Zeno hearing did yield to his desire and sent him away with Honour recommending the Senate and People of Rome to his Care Blondus Decad. l. 3. pag. 32. speaking of Theodoric 's Petition to Zeno When Zeno had reported this to the Senate they voted That it was not only very reasonable but that it ought freely to be offered him of their own motion wherefore Zeno when he had honoured Theodoric with a consecrated Veil which was then the surest Confirmation of the Emperour's Grant for any thing sent him away with a recommendation of Italy and the Senate and People of Rome to his Care Carolus Sigonius de Occid Imp. lib. 15. concerning this Grant to Theodoric Zeno thereupon gives him a Grant of Italy by a publick Instrument per Pragmaticum putting a consecrated Veil upon his Head De Translat Imp. Rom. in German Amongst the rest of the proofs that he gives of the Translation of the Western Empire upon Odoacer and the Goths brings this for one That Theodorick had the Grant of it by the Consent of the whole Imperial Senate for which he quotes Sigebert Abbas Urspergensis c. And that he was the Emperour's adopted Son and made Consul which was next in Dignity to the Emperour and had a consecrated Veil from him which he says was the Imperial Purple And that Pope Symmachus was subject to him and that he governed all the Bishops of Italy Ibid. As for the Name of King he proves from Baldus Examp. Col. fin de probat in lib. penultim C. de donat inter Vir. Uxor That a King in his Kingdom is the same with an Emperour the Emperours ordinarily called themselves Kings as well as Caesars Augusti Emperours by his own Authority did Zeno first make Theodorick who Conquered Odoacer one of the Roman Consuls Adopted him for his Son like a new Caesar then gave him a formal Commission for the Government of Rome and Italy as the Emperor used to See References create another Emperor to share with him in the Government and from that time was there much the same Union in the Publick Acts of the Government betwixt the Gothish Kings and the Eastern Emperors that there had been before betwixt the Eastern and Western Emperors Accordingly do we find the dates of the Decretals of the Popes of those days to have the mention of the years of the Gothish Kings as well as those of the Eastern Emperors As for their occasional differences That was no more than what used to be sometimes betwixt the two Emperors and must necessarily be sometimes betwixt the most united Soveraigns as it is expresly intimated by Sigonius as the Case between Zeno and Odoacer Lib. 15. de Imperio Occid Zeno says he took Odoacer's Invasion of Italy so ill that he would have no Society of the Empire with him which shows by the way That the Agreement of the Emperors with the following Kings of Italy was the same kind of sociable Government of the Roman Empire that had been before used amongst the Eastern and Western Emperors Thus was Theodorick d See Not. praeced And Sigonius de Occid Imp. l. 16. says of Theodoric That he conformed himself to the Purple of the Roman Princes and laid away the Habit of his own Country because he was made King of Italy by the Roman Emperour and Senate And Blondus says pag. 37. Decad. l. 3. That Theodoric was received at Rome with the applause of the Senate and all the people Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat pag. 122. says That Zeno and the Senate conducted Theodoric out of the City in his Robes of State chosen King of Italy and of Rome by Zeno and the whole Senate and with pomp accompanied by them out of the City in his Robes of State He is received at Rome for their King with the Applauses and Acclamations of the People and the Honours of the Senate After a small difference with Anastasius the next Emperor in e Cassiodor Variar l. 1. Ep. 1. Theodoric to Anastasius wherein those mentioned expressions are found and amongst them an Acknowledgment of frequent Messages from Anastasius To love the Senate To observe the Roman Laws To take care of all the Members of Italy which shews how much the Western Empire was still accounted by the Eastern Emperours to be a part of the Roman State as it had been before in Union with the Eastern the beginning of his Reign Theodoric begs Peace of him with an acknowledgment of his Superiority over all the World and moves him to it by this consideration That these two Common-wealths of the East and West were always one body under the former Princes And there ought to be but one Will and one Judgment in the Kingdom of the Romans And Onuphrius Pauvinius observes Fastor pag. 308. That Theodoric enjoyed the Government of Italy by the consent of Anastasius and the very difference betwixt them at the beginning of Anastasius his Reign does show what opinion Theodoric had of his being the Emperor's partner in the Government of the West For upon Anastasius's conferring the honour of Consul and Augustus upon Chlodoreus King of the Franks Theodoric is Pomponius Laetus said to have declared War against him for the Provinces of the Western Empire A manifest instance does he give of his owning the same conjunction with the Eastern Empire that the Western Emperors before him did testify by their joynt Suffrages in chusing of each
Mr. Mede supposes the rooting out of the Goths and Lombards and the Power of the Greek Emperors out of Italy may answer this Character the Pope's Excommunications and deprivations of some See References three remarkable Sovereign Powers 15. A great objection against this Opinion about the time of the Rise of the Beast is this following esteemed to be viz. That the Rise of the Beast was at the same time with that of the Ten Kings For Rev. 17. 12. it is said That those Ten Kings should receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast And that the term of one hour does signify in the Original at the same time Now it is known that the Roman Empire was divided into Ten setled Kingdoms at the fall of the Western Empire the Beast therefore must arise about the same time and this was almost a whole Age before the Conquest of Justinian 1. There is no clear grounds for any necessity of such a signification of the word in the Original that is rendred one hour On the contrary To render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the same time is at best but a very rare and unusual acceptation of it if it should be ever found to be used at all in that signification which is much to be questioned And therefore is it that we find not this Interpretation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have been thought on till this present Age And even now the greatest number of Translations have nothing of this sense in them The proper signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Accusative Case is as it is rendered for one hours space which in a Prophetical Style signifies a short space of time And then it may be easily understood to signify that those Kings should Reign like Kings with the Beast for a little time but as it follows that they should give their Kingdoms to the Beast after it and so appear to be like the Slaves of the Beast for his use and service 2. Or if it should signify about the same time yet it might be understood only of the Reigns of these Kings together with the Beast at any the same time of both For to receive power as Kings at the same time with the Beast may be understood of any time of their Reign together in conjunction with the Beast and not necessarily of their beginning to reign at the same time with it On the contrary it is certain by the consent of all that most of these Ten Kings had begun to receive power as Kings long before others and so could not possibly be said to begin their power all together at the same time with the Beast If the Rise of the Beast should be counted from the first appearance of Ten Kingdoms in the Roman Empire the Reign of the Beast must be already past For it will be found that there were Ten Kingdoms erected there before the Year 420. As 1. The Almans who had been long a Roman Province had a King in Julian's time and after the conquest of him z Cuspinian de Casar pag. 102. mentions Julian's League with the Almains and p. 112. the Huns invading Epirus in Valens's Reign Julian See References made a League with that People aa Petav. Ration Temp. Part. I. lib 6. cap. 10. does particularly reckon up the chief Divisions of these Invasions of the Barbarians 2. The Ostro-Goths 3. The West Goths 4. The Hunns who were all three up about the Year 378. 5. The Suevi 6. The Allans 7. The Vandalls 8. The Burgundians 9. The Franks and besides these were the Vandals in Africa and Silingii another sort of Vandals in that part of Spain that is called Baetica besides other Divisions of Principalities amongst these People 3. Again In the signification of at the same time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might denote the Reign of these Ten Kings bb Alcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 3. For what I pray does one hour signify but that these Kings do Reign all together at one and the same time Theodoret. in cap. 7. Dan. de 10. Regibus It is therefore manifest that there shall Ten Kings arise up all together altogether at See References the same time with one another which the order of the words does make far more natural For whereas it had been just before said that they had not any of them any Kingdom as yet it here follows in this order in the Original but power as Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they receive with the Beast where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more naturally joined with the Kings than with the Beast And then it signifies That nevertheless these Kings should all reign together At the same time in the Reign of the Beast to denote the strange Division of the Roman Empire at that time And this was very proper and convenient to be signified because the Seven Kings just before had been described to succeed or to come after one another to distinguish which from these Ten Kings it might be on purpose made their Character that these did reign all together But this is only upon the supposition of this signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for which after all there is no necessity 4. But however That it cannot signify the rise of these Ten Kings at the same time witb the first appearance of the Beast is determined by the description of the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel which is said there should arise cc Blasius Viega in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 2. shews That it was the Opinion of all the Ancients according to St. Jerom that Antichrist the Little Horn should arise after the Division of the Roman Empire amongst Ten Kings Theodoret. in cap. 7. Dan. It is therefore says he manifest that the Prophet does here foretell that about the end Ten Kings shall arise up all together And that Antichrist should be the last after them So Irenaeus l. 5. contra Haer. c. 24. Aretas in c. 13. Apoc. Ausburtus in cap. 17. after the Ten Kings And v. 24. the Beast in the Revelations and the Little Horn are unquestionably the same particular Roman Rule Coroll 2. Prop. 15. and therefore has it been already concluded that the Beast cannot arise till after the Ten Kings Coroll 3. Prop. 15. 16. But it will be then demanded How Justinian's restauration of the Imperial Head can be the next Change but one of the Roman Sovereignty after the time of the Vision For the Division of the Empire into Ten Sovereignties before him would be accounted at least one Change of the Sovereign Power of that Empire as the four Horns of the He Goat in the 8th of Daniel was a new state of the Graecian Monarchy If so then the fall of the Western Empire must unquestionably be another Change of the Roman Rule and thus would there have been an 8th King from the Sixth that ruled in St. John's time before
Justinian To resolve this Scruple it must be considered That there are two different kinds of Sovereign Power represented in the Beast the one by his Heads and the other by his Horns And the next Change of Sovereignty but one to that which ruled in St. John's time which constitutes the 8th King or the Beast is a succession of an Head of the Beast by Prop. 20 21. And that Head is called the Beast as a thing distinct from the Ten Horns for the Ten Horns are said to give their Kingdom to the Beast who before had been said to be the Eighth King and is one of the Seven Heads by Prop. 5. Coroll It matters not therefore at what time the Ten Horns arose For they were but so many Sovereignties in the Roman Empire distinct from that Eighth King which is the Beast or an Head of the Beast and who were confederated with him And to know the time of that Confederacy it must be enquired first what was the next successive Head but one to the Imperial that was up at the time of the Vision For besides the Ten Kings there was to be an Head amongst them whom they should all join with And the Ten Kings were but so many different Horns which signify a division of the Empire and not a single successive Head of it superior to them all which is here enquired after according to the mark that has already been given to know an Head by 17. This would also be another difficulty against deferring the appearance of the Beast till the Reign of Justinian viz. That the Reign of the Beast and the time of the Woman in the Wilderness do begin and end together and the Woman is said to fly into the Wilderness presently after her delivery of the Man-child that is presently after the Conversion of the Imperial Throne 200 years before Justinian's time But it is by almost all agreed that that first mention of the Woman's flying into the Wilderness is an anticipation because after several great Actions intervening it is repeated again at the 14th verse and there represented but as a preparation to rest in the Wilderness and then the Dragon cast out a flood after her whilst she was flying so that she was not at rest then till after that flood was swallowed up by the Earth which was just before the rising of the Beast out of the Sea chap. 13. 18. In the last place it may be objected That from the fall of the Western Empire in Augustulus to the time of Justinian was no new Roman Government in the West because the Barbarous Kings and their People were not Romans and therefore must if any thing be a new Beast and not a new Head of the Roman Beast and then all the time of their Reign will be but an Interregnum of the Roman Government and Justinian's return there will be but the continuance of the Sixth Head But it is sufficient answer to this that the ten Barbarous Kings which are made to be the Ten Horns of the Beast are thereby represented as Members of the Roman Empire as has been just now observed And moreover it does appear that the Goths who succeeded in the room of the Western Emperors had been long before made the Confederates and Members of the Roman Empire See Note y on Chap. 4. CHAP. IX Rev. XIII A short Account of the several Opinions of Interpreters that differ from the Propositions before demonstrated Their inconsistency with the Analogy of Prophecy The Shifts that they are forced to flye to to maintain them BY the same Light which has cleared up mine own Applications of the Prophecy it may be seen upon what grounds I depart from the Apprehensions of others about it 1. It is much to be admired That there ever should have been any at all much more any of the Ancients that had been conversant Andreas Caesar Aretas Primatius Beda c. in this Study that should apprehend it possible for the whole business of Babylon and the Beast in the Revelations to be nothing but a Mystical and Spiritual state of the Christian Church in relation to the whole World of the Wicked in general and not to any particular Empire of the World more than other For the Angel in the 17th Chapter does so expresly signifie Prop. 1. his design there to be to unfold the Mystery of Babylon and the Beast that had been before mentioned and does thereupon determine the meaning of them to the Roman Empire by such generally known and peculiar marks that the Romanists themselves whose only interest and considerable concern it is to divert the scene of these Visions from the City of Rome do yet almost unanimously in this latter age acknowledg to their Adversaries That there is nothing more certain and unquestionable than That some particular state of the Domination of See Consent of Antiquity c. Rome must be meant by them The ground of this paradoxical Fancy of the Ancients will be afterwards enquired into 2. It is in the next place very near as extravagant to grant That some particular state of Roman Rule must be the great object of these Visions and yet to make the Figure of the Beast in general to signifie the World and the Heads of the Ribera c. Beast either so many successive Ages or so many distinct successive Empires in it For by all the Examples of Beasts and their Ruling parts all Prop. 16. over the Prophecy of Daniel which is generally agreed to be the original pattern of the Prophecy of the Revelations it is acknowledged by these very persons themselves That a Beast does constantly signifie the Rule or Empire of one particular Nation only and therefore must the Heads also signifie so many Supreme Powers in that Nation only But the most inexcusable thing in this opinion is That the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel is granted by these same persons to be nothing but the particular Nation of the Romans which yet is the exact picture Prop. 15. of this Beast in the Revelations But then to grant 3dly That the Beast and his Heads do signifie nothing but Roman Power and after that to make the Seven Heads not to be so many distinct Powers but to be taken Bellarm. c. collectively for All the Rulers of one kind or for All the Emperors is to out-face the plain expressions of the Text which divide the number Seven into Five One Another and an Eighth that is one of the Seven and it is well known that when the number Seven is so expresly divided into parts it is never used collectively or for an indefinite multitude 4. As contrary to the known use of those Mystical Expressions is it to make the Seven Heads of the Beast to be so many single persons only of Rulers Grotius c. For it is evident all over the Book of Daniel That Heads and Horns of Beasts do signify all
Alcasar Grotius Dr. Hammond Two hundred Years after the Empire was turned Christian and was then burnt in the possession of a Christian King by a Christian Emperor Or To make it to be Rome a little before the end of the World grown prodigiously rich by Foreign Traffick Rev. 18 19. and having brought the Kings of the earth under her Subjection v. 3. in the space of Three Years and an Ribera c. half Or To make it to be both Rome Heathen and Rome at the end of the world which should cry I sit as a Queen and shall see no sorrow v. 7. and which should not have the Pagan Power of it abated or ended for above a Thousand Years after it began to be Rome Christian all which are such monstrous Inconsistencies as to make any conclude them to be impossible Those that own Babylon to be Rome and the last Ruling Head of the Beast to be Antichrist about the end of the World and that the whole Seven Heads are so many immediate Successions of Ruling Powers to make the Sixth Head continue from Ribera c. Most Papists Rev. 17 10. the time of St. John when it is by the Text signified to be in Rule to the time of the Seventh King that is in their opinion to a short space before the end of the World they are forced to make the Sixth King to be of a much longer Continuance than the Imperial Government at Rome that was the King in being at the time of the Vision For they own that the Imperial Government was long since at an end at Rome and therefore are they forced to make their Sixth King to be all those persecuting Powers of the World that reach from the time of the Vision to about the end of the World in consequence of which it is necessary for them to make the Beast in general to be the whole World and the rest of the Heads so many Successions of either persecuting Ages or Monarchies of it and this is so contrary to the known acceptation of a Beast and its Heads or Horns for one Ruling Nation only all over the Prophecy of Daniel as it is by these very persons acknowledged that nothing could make it appear to what a forced shift they were fain to flye to avoid the bringing in of Antichrist into the Roman Church many Ages ago if they should have granted the Sixth Head at the time of the Vision to have been the then Ruling Imperial Power of Rome only But a much more apparent shift is it in those who think themselves forced to own the Beast to be but one single Nation only or the Roman Empire and the last ruling Head to be Antichrist Bellarm. c. about the end of the World and the Head in Rule at the time of the Vision to be the Imperial Government but after all this for fear of bringing in Antichrist into the Roman Church too soon to make the Seven Heads to signifie collectively all the Roman Emperors either at Rome or Constantinople or at Vienna whereas the number Seven is apparently here divided into broken numbers which does as certainly determine the Heads to that definite number in an immediate Succession to one another And nothing could have made it appear how so well a versed understanding in the Critical use of words as Bellarmine's was resolved to outface his own Knowledg to avoid a dangerous Consequence for if he had allowed the Seven Heads to have been just so many Successive Changes of the Rule of the Romans he must certainly have made the Sixth Head end at the Succession of the Kingly Government of Rome upon the fall of the Western Empire tho the Imperial Government at Constantinople had been part of the Sixth Head For the change of the other part of it at Rome did make a new Change of the whole Government that is from Imperial to the mixt Form of Kingly and Imperial together as the Tribunes with the Consulary Power were a Change of the Consulary Head of the Government But of all the forced shifts that we meet with the most Paradoxical and absurd are those of the Grotian way they grant Grot. Dr. Hammond the Beast to be the Idolatrous Roman Empire and the Heads to be Successive Changes of Roman Rulers and the time of the Beast to continue at least to the Reign of Justinian and yet make the last Ruling Head of the Beast to be at an end with the Reign of Domitian which is Contrary to all the Representations of the Beast in the 17th chapter as ending with his last Head Prop. 6. Corol. ibid. they do also by this make the Ten Horns to be a long time after the last Head which are said expresly to give their Kingdom to the Eighth King or the Beast under the last Ruling Head They do also make the Seven Heads of the Beast to be but so many single Persons contrary to the known signification of the Heads and Horns of Beasts all over Daniel They do also make the different Shows of the same Beast in the 11th 13th and 17th Chapters to be really distinct Beasts from one another without any ground for it but the different Shows of them contrary to what the exact resemblance of their Characters to one another would make any judg them to be and contrary to the First Book plain demonstration of their being but one and the same thing from the Characters of them and contrary to the sense of almost all kind of Interpreters especially those of the Roman Party who cry out against the main foundations of this Opinion as nothing but the extravagancies of men without any Preface to my former Treatise The Judgments of God c. sense in them tho the whole business of all the pains that is taken by these Contrivances is to remove the charge of Idolatry from the Church of Rome Those that own the Fourth Beast in the Seventh of Daniel and the Beast in the Revelations to be the particular Nation of the Romans and yet will make the little Horn of the one and the last Head or Eighth King in the other to come after the destruction of the Beasts to which they belong Most of the Romanists show that they value not Contradictions to keep off Antichrist from appearing in the Roman Church And those that own the last time of the Beast to be about the end of the world and yet will make Babylon that accompanies the Beast to the last to be Rome Pagan must have much the same contempt The same of the plain intimations of the Prophecy and those also that can think That Babylon is not the same thing but several vastly distant States of Roman Rule in the several mentions of it or both Rome Pagan and Rome near the end of the World Prop. 2 3. Those of the Protestants that make the Change of Religion in the Imperial Head to be a new
10. Restauration of the Imperial Rule after the Reign of the Goths in Italy For their whole time was not above seventy years which Isa 23. 15. is but the Age of one Man and is by the Prophet Isaiah called the days of one King and is a very short space of time in comparison with those Kings betwixt whom it stands and to whose time of Reign the reference is made For those seventy years were as nothing in comparison of either the Imperial Rule before it which had continued for above five hundred years or of that after it which has already continued above a thousand years And besides it is a shorter space of time than is attributed to the Seventh King by almost all others who do not make him to be a single Emperor The changing of Times and Laws attributed to the Little Horn in Daniel may signify no more than appearing like a new Lawgiver in the Church But if it be desired to see this more particularly verified of the Reign of Justinian Is it not sufficient for that purpose that His Code was then made the standing Law of the Roman Empire and has ever since continued to be so And that the Epocha that Dionysius Exiguus did then bring in of the Year of our Lord against the old Epocha ab urbe conditâ has ever since been observed But I rather stick to his Settlement of the Laws of the Roman Church There is no manner of difficulty about the Ten Kings which Rev. 17. 12. are said to Reign with the Beast either one hour or at the same time For the number Ten is usually taken in Scripture for an uncertain multitude of those things of which it is said to be the number and in such a long succession and change of Kingdoms as it is here joined with and where there is no other circumstance to shew it to be a definite number it ought in all reason to be taken in that sense that is for an uncertain multitude of Kingdoms that were to be set up with the Beast in the bounds of the Roman Empire according as they are represented by Horns of that Beast which is agreed to be the particular Roman Monarchy Prop. 16. For it is unimaginable That ever that definite number of Ten Kingdoms should be found to have been constant under all those Changes of Masters that the Divisions of the Roman Empire have have been successively ruled by I am sure in the time of the Saxon Heptarchy in England it could not be so And many other Instances of the like nature might be produced against it But however it is not questioned by those who maintain the definite number but that these Ten Kings were up in Rule at the same time with Justinian That they should have their first Rise with him at one and the same time is not at all necessary from the Text though the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be granted to be at the same time See pag. 216. But indeed the common and unforced signification of that Expression is one hour that is a small time as has been observed And then all that could be made of it would be That those Ten Kings which are said to have received no Kingdom in St. John's time yet should receive power as Kings or as free Independent Sovereigns for a small time with the Beast and that only till as it is said they should give their power and strength and Kingdoms to the Beast that is Till they should submit themselves and their Kingdoms to that Roman Usurpation which the Imperial Authority should set up and be the Secular Head of which will be better understood when it is explained what the worship of the Beast and of his Image is For that end it will be now requisite to enquire what the Image of the Beast can be determined to be It seems at first to Chap. 13 14. be a figurative Expression and so capable of variety of Interpretations but there will be peculiar marks enough found of it in the Text to determine it to one certain thing But before we enter upon that it is to be premised That the mention of the Beast and his Image is a very manifest allusion to the b Panciroll de Notitia Imp. Orient pag. 46. gives the examples of raising the Emperour's Image and carrying it about to denote his Exaltation to the Empire And pag. 47. gives the examples of breaking the Emperour's Images or the throwing them down to signifie the end of his Reign or his being Deposed common custome of the Romans at that time to raise the Emperors Image in all publick places at his election to that Dignity and to continue the adoration of it during the time of his Reign and to pull down and break those Images at the end of every respective Reign The Emperor's Image and the worship given to it was the publick signification of his being in power And that they might have the fairer Title to Adoration c Panciroll pag. 47. Notit Imp. Orient shews the way of consecrating the Images of the Emperours and the unlawfulness of selling them after it no less than Crimen laesae Majestatis or High-Treason they were consecrated with a form of words as the Idols that were dedicated to the honour of the Gods And so sacred were they after that accounted to be that it was High-treason for any to sell them after Consecration The Beast then and his Image are here joined together with a reference to the worship of the Emperors and their Images The False Prophet who is the contriver of this Image has been already found to be a Church-Head with Supream Authority over the Roman Empire and that he is really distinguished from the Beast who is the Secular Head of it Prop. 24. And this False Prophet is determined to be in particular the Papal Authority Coroll 3. Prop. 25. The Characters of this Image in the Text are to be next considered It is said to be the Image of the first Beast which had the deadly Chap. 13. wound and was healed again It was then the Image of the Imperial Roman Rule restored again by Justinian Coroll 1. Prop. 5. Query 2. Now an Image of any thing is something made after the likeness of the thing of which it is the Image And particularly in this Case it must have as great a likeness to its Original as the Images of the Emperors used to have to the Emperors themselves But then this Image is different from all Carved Images of the Emperors For it is said to have life put into it and therefore must it be a living likeness to its Original That which it represents is the Imperial Roman State which is said to have power over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations This Image then must also be a living Supream Power over all tbe same Jurisdiction for otherwise it cannot be a living likeness of the
former A Carved Image is indeed but the dead likeness of some single Person But an Image of a Publick State that is alive as this is must be some Ruling Power in the same State that has a very lively resemblance to it for it is in being at the same time with it the Beast and his Image are ordinarily described to be together And the Image is made in honour of the Beast and so must like the Images of the Emperors be within the bounds of the Authority of the Beast And besides is made by a False Prophet in the exercise of the Power of the Beast This living Image then must necessarily be an Universal Rule of the World like to that of the Imperial Roman State And accordingly we find it speaking and commanding all the World to worship it chap. 13. 15. forcing all men to receive the mark of it and to take the name of it v. 16. which shows the extent of its Power to be as large as that of the Imperial Power its Original It had also power of life and death in it v. 15. which is the peculiar Prerogative of Supream Power Now this was all for nothing else but the enforcing of False Worship which it was inspired with life by a false Prophet to effect And one of the Punishments was Excommunication v. 14. v. 17. That men might not buy or sell which was an usual punishment d Selden de Synod l. 1. cap. 7. De effectibus Excommunicationis He that was excommunicated with either greater or lesser Excommunication was said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the effects of them were Separation from Converse from the Synagogue from the publick Assemblies from all the People and Commonwealth of the Jews And he that was accursed with Cherem was not to have any Commerce with any but just so much as to get Victuals of the Elders of the Synagogues amongst the Jews All which denotes it to be an Ecclesiastical Power equal to the Secular Power for the universality of its Jurisdiction Indeed what kind of Power within the same Bounds and Territories can it possibly be but Ecclesiastical that can be a living Image of the Secular Exercising Supream Authority at the same time with it and in the same places as this is described This Image therefore must be a Church-Rule equal to that of the State And since the Jurisdiction of it is Universal or Catholick and also Roman can it be any thing else but the Roman-Catholick-Church And since all the life that it has is inspired into it by the False Prophet who is already known to be the Papal Power Corol. 3. Prop. 25. what plainer description could we have had of the Roman-Catholick-Church under the Pope Or what can there be that is a e Leo Sermo 1. de Natali Apos Rome has a larger Jurisdiction in its Spiritual Reign than it had formerly in its Worldly Empire Bellarm. l. 5. de Pontif. c. 6. From whence it appears That the Pope is greater than the Emperour c. Stenelius Eugubinus lib. 1. de Donat. Constant By the Exaltation of the Papacy Rome has recovered a Greatness very little different from that of the Ancient Empires since all Nations from the East to the West reverence the Pope of Rome in the same manner as they formerly did the Emperours See the expressions of Pope Gregory VII of his own Authority Greg. 7. Epist 37. The Roman Ceremonial l. 1. c. 2. shews this to be the manner of investing the Pope with his Authority I invest Thee with the Authority of Pope that Thou maist Rule over the City and the World Urbi Orbi more exact living Image of the Roman State under the Imperial Power For the Head of it has a Jurisdiction equal to the Head of the State Both Pope and Emperor have long since had the Title of The Lords of the World They have both a Triple Crown tho for different Jurisdictions They are both called King of Kings The body of the Image is just the same with that of the Beast The Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions are parted out exactly according to the divisions of the Civil Government of the Empire The Patriarchs Archbishops and Bishops had their Ranks and Places every-where according to the Divisions of the Provinces of the State and the name of the Ecclesiastical Diocesses did arise from the distinction of the several Civil Diocesses of the Empire by Constantine And it is established by the Canons of f Concil 6º in Trullo Can. 37. The Canon which was made by the Fathers we do also observe which says thus If any City be or shall be new raised by the Royal Power the Ecclesiastical Dignity shall follow the Publick and Civil state of it two Synods That if any City were newly raised by the Emperor the Ecclesiastical Dignities there should be conformed to it So that the Church and State did run parallel to one another through the whole Body of the Roman Empire just like the Arteries and Veins in the Body of Man and observed the same proportion every-where to one another a MAlvenda de Antichristo pag. 234. de 10 Cornibus The number Ten is very often in Scripture used indefinitely for a great many CHAP. III. Rev. XIII Wherein the Worship of the Beast and of his Image doth consist BY the process of the former Chapter we have all the Confederates in the design of the Beast discovered to us There is the Imperial Roman State for the Beast with his last Head The Image and false Prophet for the Roman Catholick Church and the Pope The ten Kings giving their Kingdoms to the Beast for those Roman Catholick Kings who force their Subjects to submit to the Roman Religion enjoyned by the Papal Power or Imperial Authority And now it is to be examined what is meant by Worshiping the Beast and his Image It is certain in the first place That the words here used to express the Worship of the Beast and his Image are the same with those which were in use at the time of the Vision to signifie the Adoration given to the Emperors and their Images publickly set up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and adorare were the terms in common use amongst the Greeks and Latines of those times to express that profound Reverence which was paid to the Emperor and his Image And then there seems to be nothing more required to make Application of this Phrase but only to show what obedience was given to the Secular and Ecclesiastical Authority of Rome by all the World from the time of Justinian But because we find that the a GRotius in Decal Nor did the first Christians think it contrary to their Religion to fall down before the Emperours Images But when they afterwards joined the Images of false Gods with their own they chose to endure any thing rather than to worship them first Christians did pay that Reverence before-mentioned to the
Emperors and their Images as well as the Pagans It is manifest that there must be something more here meant than a bare external Civil Veneration of the higher Powers as the Ordinance of God It must be something very much like the Worshipping of Nebuchadnezzar's Image and of those Babylonian Kings in such a manner as not to be allowed the exercise of the true Religion And nothing less than this can answer the Character of the man of sin 2 Thes 2. 4. who is said to exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped So that be as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God And by the consent of all Interpreters that Prophecy does certainly belong to that state of things that is represented by the Beast and his Image By this then it appears that by the Worship here mentioned must be understood the giving of Divine honours or the peculiar Prerogatives of God or Christ to the Beast or his Image that is to the Civil and Ecclesiastical Authority of the Romans after the Restauration of the Imperial Roman Government in the West The unquestionable way to effect this would be to make * Grot. Responsde Antichristo pag. 77. I detest every thing that belongs to the Spirit of Antichrist that is the imposing persecuting Spirit And that has appeared not only near the Tyber but about the Lake Lemanus and in other places the Arbitrary will and pleasure of the Supreme Authority of the Roman State or the Church to be acknowledged for the Law of God Divinely inspired or to be publickly obeyed as such by outward compliance with it This is certainly to set up ones own will for the will of God and so to stand ones self in the place of God to the World And if this be exercised with an irresistible power over the Universal Church of Christ upon Earth it is plainly the showing ones self to be a God in the Temple of God For there could nothing else be understood by the Temple of God after the Destruction of Jerusalem but the Christian Church which also has that name in several places of the same Apostle's Writings A still much higher improvement of this Worship is it if it be enjoined as necessary to Salvation to believe these Arbitrary Decrees to be the Inspirations of God and to obey them But especially if these Decrees be not only about things left indifferent by the Word of God but are also Injunctions contrary to the Will and Word of God For this is to oppose and exalt ones self above God in the Temple of God And if this be done with the shew of the Authority of God himself in it this is to oppose all that is called God shewing himself to be God For he does certainly make himself very near as absolute a Sovereign of a Nation who does unjustly exercise all the Acts of the Sovereign Power of it against the will of the undoubted Prince of it but yet under the name of his Authority as he that does it by an open Usurpation of the Title of the Sovereign Power This Power and Authority is carried on with a still greater arrogance and claim of divinity in it if it pretends to a Title of Infallibility in all that it can enjoin For as this Divine Attribute is the fundamental ground of all the highest Acts of Faith in God so is it a claim of an infinite power in men and does give b Thomas de Albiis in his Tabulae Suffragiales does the best lay open the dreadful Consequences of establishing Infallibility in any Head of the Church or any where where it really is not Tab. 20 21. This Claim in reference to the Pope he proves there to be the Mother of all Heresies and the worst of all sins because if those who claim it should err it would lead all the Church into the same without any possibility of remedy There is the same reason for that Claim in any Governing-part of the Church where that Privilege really is not Authority to all the Acts of their own Will frees them from See References all Bounds and Measures or Rules to distinguish betwixt Truth and Falshood sets them out of the reach of all humane Judicature and makes their Will and Pleasure the last Appeal for all Controversies and their Arbitrary Decisions to be the Oracles of God How inconsiderable does the Worship of Nebuchadnezzar's Image appear to be in comparison with this profound Veneration of the Soul and Conscience given to the arbitrary false and wicked Decrees of either ignorant or designing Men under the Character of the Word and Will of God And all these particulars are made good in the matter before us by the Imperial Laws and their Sanctions and Edicts to force their own Faith in indifferent things And the Errors of General Councils upon the Consciences of the whole Christian Church Catholick to be assented to as c It had been the common stile of Councils ever since the Council of Nice to publish their Decrees under the Title of Things Divinely Inspired Thus does Socrates shew lib. 1. cap. 6. Ep. That Constantine there says of the Decree of the 300 Bishops at Nice That it was to be looked upon as the Sentence of God himself And ibid. Ep. 4. To the Churches he says of all Councils That whatsoever is decreed in the Holy Councils of Bishops the same is to be attributed to the will of God Cardinal Julian's Harangue to the Deputies of the Bohemians in the Council of Basil tells them That the Decrees of Councils are not less to be believed than the Gospel because it is THEY that give AUTHORITY to the Scriptures Divine Truth See References and many times as necessary to Salvation and the giving of the Secular Arm to execute the like Injunctions of the Roman Church Of this kind also are the unwarrantable Acts of Councils and the unlawful Canons of the Roman Church inforced by the d By vertue of such Orders from that Power as these Determinations in the Decretals and Glosses do authorize viz. That the Pope of Rome is by the Order of God set over the Nations and Kingdoms That it belongs to the Pope to depose the Emperour and all other Kings and States and to assign them Deputies That the Pope is to be esteemed the Vicar of Jesus Christ for all things here upon Earth in Heaven and Hell That he can make that which is square to be round Injustice to be Justice that which is nothing to be something That he has an Absolute Power of Judging and that justly Against the Law of Nature Nations and of particular Countreys Human and Divine above and against Right against all Decrees and Orders of Council That he can dispense with the Injunctions of the Apostles And these Glosses the Popes do recommend to the Publick as AUTHENTICK See Jus Canonic Gregor 13. Aventin lib. 6. Histor Boior
necessary to the Emperors for upholding their Power in the midst of the Invasions of the Barbarous Nations the Emperors were willing to enlarge their Authority to make use of it for the management of their own Affairs And after that the Divisions of the Roman Empire were setled in so many Sovereign Princes that Church-Authority which they themselves had now lost in those several Kingdoms they were not unwilling to bestow upon the Chief Bishop of their City and so by small advances he came at last to get the Title of Occumenical Bishop and Vniversal Head of the Church of Christ upon Earth But yet still did the Emperors retain their Power of the setting up of every new Bishop of Rome The Emperors m This is thus well expressed by John Wex de Antichristo p. 119. And so the Ten Kings delivered to the Beast their Kingdoms which they had got at the dissolution of the Western Empire according to Apoc. 17. 12. For after that the Western Empire was broken in pieces all the Kingdoms of the West did join again together in one body that by the bonds and tye of the Babylonish Superstition of the Bishop of Rome they might fight against the Lamb. Consent was still held necessary for the confirmation of the Election as the Chief Power upon Earth that gave him his Authority And upon this account he was set up as the Emperor's Deputy and Creature to be the Universal Head of the Roman Church in all the divided Kingdoms of the Roman Empire which now would own no other Secular Head of the Churches in them but those Sovereigns which ruled them And thus came the divided Roman Empire to be n one entire thing again and the several Kings in it to own one Roman Head again set up by the Imperial Authority Things continued not long in this mere spiritual and Ecclesiastical State The new Ecclesiastical Head used all ways to make himself universally acknowledged for such And to that end as Head of the Church he assumes a power of executing the Canons of Councils upon Sovereign Princes to the depriving them of their Kingdoms if they refused to execute the Orders of the Church upon all those that were disobedient to it and that even to the punishment of death From hence then we have a perfect Idea of the worship of the Beast and of his Image from the first Rise of the last Ruling Head or of the Imperial Power restored by Justinian The Imperial Authority was at first the sole Head of the Roman Catholick Church Afterwards the Submission of the divided States of the Empire to one Ecclesiastical Sovereign who was set up by the Emperor made this new Empire the exact Image of the first in respect of the Church-Government of it And the Manager and Contriver of this new Model is in History the Bishop of Rome and is in the Prophecy called the False Prophet CHAP. V. Rev. XIII Four Grounds for the applying of the Worship of the Beast to the Imperial Power How the False Prophet does Exercise all the Power of the First Beast causes all the World to Worship him makes them make an Image to him Gives Life to that Image and makes All receive its Mark c. BY the Observations in the preceding Discourse it is easie to see How justly the Worship of the Beast may be applied to the Imperial Authority after the degeneracy of the Christian Religion 1. For the Imperial Authority as has been observed p. 221. was 〈…〉 a long while the only commanding Head of the Roman Religion and the a SOcrates Proam in l. 5. We have therefore in the whole course of out History given an account of the Emperor's interest in it because that since they began to embrace the Christian Religion Ecclesiastical Affairs did seem very much to depend upon them so that the most eminent Councils were in times past and are at this day summoned by their consent and procurement See Notes on the third Chapter b c d e f g i k The Emperours had always the Right of Investing Church-Governours in their several jurisdictions till the Council of Worms in the year 1122. And then the Emperour Henry the 3d. wearied with the vexations occasioned him by the Popes gave up his Right of the Staff and the Ring the Ceremonies of the investiture to Pope Calixtus the 2d Aventin Histor Boior l. 6. The Abbot of Ursperg in his Chronicle gives the form of this Concordat betwixt the Emperour and the Pope And the Pope in return agrees for the future That the Elections of the Bishops and Abbots c. should be performed in his presence c. And that He that was Elected should receive the Regalia of the Emperour by the Scepter And this was called the Uniting of the Royal Power with the Priesthood and long endeavoured after under that Name Cardinal Cusan Concordia Catholic c. 6 7 8 9. Affirms That every Emperour and Prince in their several Jurisdictions are of God alone and that it belongs to the Emperours to summon General Councils and to regulate the Procedures in them and to every Prince to do the same in his respective Territory for National and Provincial Councils And that if the Pope be negligent in these things the Emperour ought to make use of his Authority in all such Cases That the Emperour always presided in the Councils assisted with fifteen or twenty of the Nobles of his Court whom he made to take place before all And He and his Legats propounded the matters that were to be considered Pererius in Apoc. Disp 5. de Constantino Then came the Imperial Majesty first into the Church which was then Armed with both the Swords c. For though from the first The Church had that Sword viz. the Secular Sword yet then first began the facility and conveniency of exercising it against whomsoever it pleased only Soveraign Authority upon Earth that was acknowledged in all Ecclesiastical Affairs so that all obedience given to the erroneous Acts of those Councels was really an obedience to the Emperors will only For those things had no obliging power in them to overrule the Conscience upon the account of the Councels Authority And therefore since it had been long before that time received as a maxime by those who owned that Councel That all was there done by the b Socrates l. 1. c. 6. Ep. 4. Constantine unto the Churches He there tells them That whatsoever is decreed in the Holy Councils of Bishops is to be attributed to the Will of God And of the Sentence of the Council of Nice in particular Ibid. Ep. 2. to the Church of Alexandria For that which has been agreed upon by the 300 Bishops is to be taken for nothing but the determination of God himself The Holy Ghost residing in the minds of such worthy persons and inspiring them with the Divine Will of God himself Concil Constantinop Universal 6. Action 17. sub finem The
Ordain That all usurped jurisdiction of any Bishops over another's Province shall be ipso facto void And that lest the fear of any Mans power should creep in under a shew of an Holy Function and so we should lose that Liberty insensibly and unawares which our Lord Jesus Christ did purchase with his own Blood the Ephesine Council not long after the time of Theodosius had made an excellent provision against any incroachment of any one part of the Christian Church over the rest so that though there might be some irregular exercise of the Imperial Authority yet whenever any considerable Diocese should have stood up for their Liberty though against the Roman Church they had a right to plead for it from that Council In this estate did things continue till the fall of the Western Empire and then the Arrian Goths being the Masters of Rome and the West there was a composition betwixt them and the Eastern Emperors for a f It appears from Cassiodor Variar L. 10. Ep. 26. That the Gothish Kings did not press any in Italy to their way Theodate to Justinian says there Since the Deity suffers many Religions to be we dare not enjoyn one alone to be followed For we remember it is said That Men must sacrifice willingly to the Lord not at the command of any one to force them to it With good reason therefore does your Piety invite us to that which the Commands of God do require And in the time of Justin before Thedoric forced him to leave off persecuting the Arrians in the East And Zeno and Anastasius before Justin are represented as Lovers of Peace and Union rather than a strict Conformity of which Zeno's Henoticon is an example Petavius says of the Emperour Anastasius That he gave every Man liberty to profess what Sect he pleased Rationar Temp. Part 1. l 7. c. 3. Theodoric to all the Jews lib. 2. ep 27. Gassiodor Variar We cannot says Command Religion because none is to be compelled to believe against his Will mutual Tolleration of Orthodoxy and Arrianism in their respective Jurisdictions And before that had the Emperors Zeno and Anastasius contrived a form of Faith for a Comprehension and Union and did connive at a general Liberty of Conscience But the Emperor Justin after them begins the Project of an Vniversal Conformity to the Roman Religion At the sollicitations of Pope Hormisda he makes g See Petav. Rationar Temp. Part. 1. l. 7. c. 3. Item Anastasius Bibliothecar in Hormisdâ an Union betwixt the Greek and the Latin Church which had been in a Schism against one another near forty years After that in Pope John's time sets out several Edicts against h Petav. ibidem Item Blondus de Inclinat Rom. Imp. in Occidente Pag. 37. Pope John in whose time the Emperour Justin being wholly set upon rooting out all the Heresies throughout the Eastern parts deprived all the Bishops of that Sect of their Places and put their Ministers out of their Churches And a little after not only the Eutichyan Heresy but all kind of different Parties were suppressed throughout all the East Anastasius Bibliothecar to the same purpose in Joanne 1. the Hereticks and heavily persecutes them so as even to suppress all kind of Heresie throughout the Eastern Empire But he was forced by i Anastasius Bibliothec. in Joanne 1. gives an account of Theodoric's sending Pope John in an Embassy to Justin to acquaint him That he would ruine all the Catholicks in Italy if he did not restore the Arrians in the East to their Dignities and Churches And that Justin did thereupon comply with him Theodorick king of Italy to desist and so his Design came to nothing But however there was so good a Correspondence by this means setled betwixt the Emperor and the Bishop of Rome for that common Interest that the Emperor submits to be crowned by the Pope which was the k Petav. Rationa Temp. Part 1. l. 7. c. 3. The Emperour received the Pope with all honour and was the first that received the Imperial Crown at the Popes Hands Anastas Bibliothec. in Joanne 1. first Example of that kind and got the name of Justin l Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat pag. 141. Item Anastas Bibliothec. in Joanne 1. the Orthodox for his Piety to the Church This good Correspondence betwixt the Secular and Ecclesiastical Power of Rome was the only means to carry on an Vniversal Vniformity in the Roman Religion For the Imperial Authority was now confined to a very small Jurisdiction and the rest of the Empire was divided into several Kingdoms which had no other Secular Sovereign to command them but their own particular Kings There was therefore no other way of reducing them all to one Religion but by the advancement of a Spiritual Roman Authority to be the principle of Vnity amongst them whose business it should be to overawe the Conscience with the Curses of the Church for the enforcing the execution of the Imperial Penalties For as the Imperial Laws were for every thing else the standing Laws of these divided Kingdoms so the only way to make their Edicts and Sanctions of Councils about Church-matters to take place amongst them was to have them confirmed and enforced by the Authority of an Universal Head of the Church And though the Church Head seems by this to be the principal in all this Affair yet the Temporal Penalties of the Laws being the only certain means to effect an Universal Conformity and this Sovereign Head of the Church himself being also a Creature of the Imperial Power to carry on his design of Uniformity in the Roman Religion as has been observed all the Obedience that Chap. 22. is given by other Princes and their Subjects is really nothing but the Worship of the Beast or of the Imperial Religion and they give their Kingdoms to the Beast when they force their Subjects to submit to that Religion There was nothing that could make it look more like the worshipping of that Roman Authority than this Submission of the Ten Kings who were absolute in their Kingdoms and had as much right to appoint the Laws of Religion to their Subjects as the Roman Emperor had in his own Territories But by this conformity to the Romans they did seem to lay down their N. B. Crowns at the feet of that Nation and to adore them as the great Dictators and Oracles of the Will of God There is indeed not the least appearance of so general an Uniformity at the end of the Reign of the Emperor Justin who as has been observed was not able so much as to bring it about within the bounds of his own Territories But Justinian immediately after him appears in this Design like a new Blazing-star in the East whom all the World began to be afraid of One would indeed from a cursory view of his History be apt to entertain no other Idea of him than as a very eminent Conqueror
manifest enough from tbe confirmation of this Fifth Council by almost all the Roman Councils after And now came those Laws about Hereticks and Apostates in fashion which were always found to do the greatest service to Vniformity in the Roman Religion and those were such as had a sufficient Penalty in them to oblige all to obey them such as these t Lib. 5. Cod. de Haereticis It is a good observation of Du Plessis Mornay in his Mystery of Iniquity page 100. That Pelagius the first in Justinian's days who confirmed the 5th Council and desired the aid of Justinian against the Bishops of Milan and Aquileia was the first Pope that made a Decree to employ the Secular Arm against those who should be condemned of Schism or Heresie that Hereticks were not to continue within the bounds of the Roman Empire And Hereticks were defined by Justinian's Law to be all such who did not communicate in the Church although they did call themselves Christians But those who were of the Church were enjoined by u See Note d on this Chapter another Law to be called Catholicks Of the same kind is that x Cod. Justinian de Apostatis other Law against Apostates that their Estates should be exposed to sale and another That y Lib. 19. Cod. de Haereticis none but the Children of Orthodox Parents should be capable of the right of succession to the Estates of their Parents And Petavius is sufficient Authority to make any believe that he did by an innumerable Petav. Ration Temp. part 1. l. 7. c. 5. company of Edicts press the Faith and Discipline of the Roman Church And of what nature those Edicts were to force Conformity may be apprehended from the Character of him which Petavius does immediately add to it viz. That in the whole course of his life he was eminent for z See Note m on this Chapter Vitiges to Chosroes Procopius Tribonianus his great Counsellour in the making his Laws c. is set out by Historians as a contemner of all Religions Cuspinian de Caesaribus pag. 141. Oppression Covetousness and Perfidiousness Ibidem If we put all these things together and consider that all the Imperial Edicts were generally published with the Stile of aa See Note p on this Chapter and Novell Justiniani 126. in particular A manifest constitution of our Deity Nostri numinis And Novell 114. Jussionis Divinae And Panirollus observes That Justinian gave the usual Character of the Emperours Subscriptions A. M. D. the name of a Divine Mark Divinam subnotationem Constantine the Father of Justinianus junior Anno. Dom. 683. orders the Archbishop of Ravenna to go to Rome to be Consecrated Divali jussione by his Divine or Sacred Command Lib. Pontifical Our Divinity Our God-head and that Justinian does in particular turn bb See Onuphtius Panvinius's Observation in Pelagio 1. in Note i on the 4th Chapter all the Erroneous Canons of the Church into Imperial Law And that he was the first that made the cc Novell 45. de Episcop Cler. We Decree that those things that are defined by the Holy Canons have as much force amongst them as if they were written in Civil Laws Bishop of Rome's Creation to depend upon the Emperor's Confirmation And that dd Novell 131. And therefore we decree according to their the Council's Determinations that the most Holy Pope of Old Rome be the first of all Bishops the most blessed Bishop of Constantinople which is New Rome to have the next place after the Holy Apostolick See of Old Rome he Novel 45. was the first that made the Primacy of the Pope a Law of the Empire It will not be thought to be an hard Censure of him to think that the Character of sitting in the Temple of God and shewing himself there as God may be fitly enough applied to him as the first appearance of that Anti-Christian Supremacy in the Christian Church after the division of the Empire amongst so many Sovereign Absolute Princes It is certain That by his Conquests of the Western Empire and his suppression of Arrianism in all the parts of it and by the conversion of the Arrian Kingdoms in France and Spain about the same time to the Roman Faith There was a very fair Appearance of a General Submission to the Roman Religion for which the Ten Kings are said to give their Kingdoms to the Beast and to be of one mind and to agree together in it 'T is certain that his ee Justinian's Example was upon all occasions quoted afterwards for the Imperial absoluteness in Church-Affairs and for his Obligations upon the Church of Rome See Sigonius in Note n on this Chapter ceu fecit Justinianus So for all Commemorations of Donations to the Church he is ordinarily put in with Constantine and Charlemaigne as the three remarkable Raisers of that Church Cardinal Zabarella de Schismate about the Year 1406. contends that it belongs to the Emperor to summon the Council as Justinian and Charlemaigne did Example was so taking that the design of an Vniversal Conformity was ever after prosecuted with great success Gregory the Great the best Bishop that they ever had after those times did ff See Baronius Ann. 591. Bolerus Rel. Univer part 2. lib. 4. for these Exploits of Gregory the First not long after clear Egypt of the Agnoitae Africa of the Donatists and Arrians and by Gennadius the Emperor's Exarch converted the Arrian Goths and banished the rest out of Italy The Successors of Justinian continued also to be acknowledged the Supream Governours of the Roman Church and were so acknowledged gg See Note the 23d on the 21st Chapter especially that of Guicciardin there Benedict the Second obtained of the Emperor by Letters-Patents That he that should be chosen Bishop of Rome by the common Agreement in full Assembly should be owned for Bishop without expecting either the Emperor's or the Exarch's Consent which was never known since the time of Justinian the First Mornay Mystere d'inquite pag. 128 Justin Junior to Pope Constantine he sent him sacram his Letter to command him to come to Constantinople and the Pope is said to have obeyed the Imperial Commands in it Anastas Biblioth Constantius Guicciardin shows that the Popes always dated their Bulls according to the year of their Lord the Emperor's Reign Imperante N. Domino nostro Anno 1046. Gregory the Sixth is deposed by a Council held in Lombardy by the Emperor's Order The words of the Council are That he was deposed by a Canonical and Imperial Censure Sigebert in Chronic. Anno 1160. Frederick upon a Schism betwixt two Popes Victor the Fourth and Alexander the Third summons a Council at Pavie according to the Custom of the Ancient Emperors And thus summons the Bishops to meet Having understood by the Decrees of the Popes and the Decrees of the Church that when there happens a Schism in the Roman Church
that the Roman Church has set up for the Orthodox way of interpreting Scripture in the second Session of the Council of Trent Can. 3. viz. That none should presume to interpret Scripture against the unanimous Consent of the Fathers By which we have the Approbation of the chief Adversary in our present Case for the soundness of any thing that has this Authority for it and the mouths of all its Members are hereby stopped from opposing that which is so confirmed For a clearer satisfaction in this I will give the Tradition of it from the several Writers in every Century of the first Ages after Christ But for those that may account that either tedious or uncertain it will be sufficient to hear what the Modern Authors of all Parties have delivered as the common Consent of the Ancients As for the Judgment of the most Learned of the Roman Church it has been particularly shewn in the Preface to my Judgments of God upon the Roman Church Second Part That their best Commentators Malvenda Viega Alcasar Pererius do with a great deal of Heat and Zeal affirm That All find it unquestionable both Jews and Christians That it is commonly agreed upon by all that profess the Name of Christ That it is the common Road and the King's High-way That it is the common Opinion of the Learned That all do interpret it so viz. That the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel is the Roman Empire and look upon it as a perfect madness and to shew ones felf void of sense to think otherwise Gaspar Sanctius gives a remarkable reason to this purpose why it is needless to name any of the Ancients of this Opinion and that is Because there is no Body that says otherwise And this Testimony of the Romanists is so much the more unquestionable because they can make no advantage of it by affirming it but on the contrary do thereby grant the main Foundation of their Adversaries Applications of the Revelations to their Church which makes their Judgment about the Consent of the Ancients in this appear to be clear and impartial Mr. Mede may be more reasonably suspected of partiality because of his particular engagements in the Interpretations of the Apocalypse but yet never do we find his Integrity questioned for misrepresenting the Opinions of the Authors that he quotes And thus does he speak of the Application of the Fourth Kingdom in the 7th of Daniel pag. 964. This has been the constant Tradition of the Church since the Apostles days to this last saeculum and was of the Church of the Jews before and at our Saviour's time viz. That it was the Roman Empire Rabbi Abarbenel's Testimony is sufficient for the Consent of the Comment in Dan. Pag. 42. Col. 1. Jewish Writers being known to be one of the most Learned of their Nation Our Masters says he are right in THEIR TRADITION That the Fourth Beast does signifie the Roman Emperours whereby it appears to have been the common Tradition of the Learned Jews Here then have we the most impartial Judgment of the Learned Moderns of All Parties Jews and Christians That both the Ancient Fathers and the Ancient Rabbi's are all unanimous in this Interpretation of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel But the most authentick Testimony of the Consent of the Ancients in this is that of St. Jerom who is known to have been the most curious and diligent in his search into the Writings of the Learned in his time as appears from his Book De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis In his Explication of the 7th Chapter of Daniel after he had animadverted upon Porphyry's Opinion as a perfect madness who would have the Fourth Beast to be a part of the Grecian Monarchy he concludes thus Let us therefore affirm that which ALL ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS have delivered to us That about the end of the World when the Kingdom of the Romans is to be destroyed there shall be Ten Kings who shall divide the Roman Empire amongst themselves and there shall arise after them an eleventh small King c. Where we see plainly that by the Beast its self was universally understood the Roman Empire This he affirms to have been an Universal Tradition of Church-writers before him And what is there almost in the whole Body of our Religion that has a more Authentick Testimony of being an unquestionable Tradition of the Vniversal Church And this is further confirmed by the general Custom of the Christians in the first Ages to pray for the Safety of the Roman Empire lest the Ruin of that should bring on the times of Antichrist and the end of the world as Tertullian does affirm of them in that known place of his Apology and Lactantius Theophylact St. Jerome and Oecumenius are cited by Bellarmin in confirmation Lib. 3. De Pontif. Cap. 5. of the same general Custom of the Church in After-times And it is apparent from all the mentions of Antichrist amongst the Fathers That they make him to be the same with the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel which shews that they made the Fourth Beast to be certainly after the time of the Greek Monarchy because the end of it with the Little Horn was to bring on the end of the World Therefore does Erasmus in his Comment upon cap. 29. lib. 20. Augustin ad Marcellin reckon up Lactantius with St. Jerom to affirm That all Writers had agreed in that Opinion That the times of Antichrist was to be after the division of the Roman Empire as it is set out by the Ten Kings and Little Horn of the Fourth Beast These Testimonies about the general Sense of the Ancients of all Churches about this Point may seem to be a sufficient proof of their Judgments about it But because some of late very * eminent for Learning and Ingenuity have fancied another Interpretation of the Fourth Beast and especially because one of them †as much famed for an Antiquary as any of them has positively affirmed it to be the general Judgment of the Ancients That the Fourth Beast is quite another thing than the Romans it may be more satisfactory to set down here the Tradition of every Century of the Christian Church concerning this almost ever since the Romans came to be that Fourth Beast at their Conquest of the Greek Monarchy CHAP. II. The particular Tradition of the Consent of the Ancients in every Century since the time of Christ in their Application of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel to the Reign of the Romans FIRST CENTURY THE Chaldee Paraphrast on the Prophets is the most ancient Evidence but Scripture what was the current Opinion of the times near our Saviour about the Four Monarchies of Daniel for he both lived about those times and his Exposition was always reverenced by the Jews as of so unquestionable Authority that none ever dared to contradict it says Lyranus in Comment on cap. 8. Isai
of the Vision of the Four Beasts in the 7th of Daniel That Vision of the Divine Daniel so generally known and talked of in all places does compare the Monarchies of the Assyrians the Medes and Macedonians to a Lion a Bear and a Leopard But the Fourth Beast sets forth the Roman Empire And Sulpicius Severus Sacr. Histor lib. 2. has the same Four Kingdoms specified as foretold by Daniel in the four Metals of the Statue in the 2d Chapter which have the same Characters with those in the 7th Jerom is so much of this Opinion himself in his Comment upon Daniel that almost all his design in it is to expose Porphyry the Philosopher for interpreting the Fourth Beast and the Little Horn of it to be the Greek Empire and Antiochus Epiphanes in it And to shew the Paradoxicalness of that Interpretation he says upon the latter-end of the 11th Chapter That all Ecclesiastical Writers did understand the Fourth Beast and the Ten Horns and Eleventh little One in it of the Roman Empire and the dividing it among Ten Kings and of Antichrist that should subdue Three of them And when he heard that Rome was taken by the Barbarous Nations he concluded that the Man of Sin was just at hand in relation to the Ten Kings and the Little Horn. Epist ad Gaudentium Theodoret after him is so clear in this all over his Comment upon Daniel that it must be transcribed to take all that he says about it He Wonders how any Men of Learning could make the Fourth Beast to be the Macedonian Kingdom when the Greek Empire was so expresly represented in the 8th Chapter by the He-Goat with the Four Horns and applied to it by the Angel and when the Third Beast in the 7th Chapter had four Heads to set out the same thing Comment in cap 7. Daniel But what can our Modern Interpreters answer to that of his against the Jews in his time who were much of the same Opinion in their Application of the Fourth Beast and the Little Horn to the Greek Empire and that of the Kingdom of the Son of Man to the return of the persecuted Jews Very properly says he may that be applied to these Jews that which the Prophet hath long since said of them And thou hast put on an Whores forhead and refusest to be ashamed Jeremiah 3. 3. Ibidem Cyril Hierosolymitanus and Ambrose upon the 2 Thessalon 2. 6 7. speaking of the time that the Man of Sin was to be revealed When the times of the Roman Empire shall be fulfilled says one and the other That he should appear after the falling of the Roman Empire into pieces Andreas Bishop of Caesarea some while at least after the time of St. Basil whom he quotes cap. 44. in Apocalyps at the mention of the Ten Horns of the Beast in the Revelations chap. 17. These Ten Horns or Kings says he Daniel also saw And then determines Babylon the City of the Beast and the Kings to be Rome according to the Opinion of the ANCIENT DOCTORS for many reasons but CHIEFLY because on the Fourth Beast in Daniel that is the Roman Empire were seen the Ten Horns And also because Antichrist when he comes is to appear as King of the Romans VNDER PRETENCE OF RESTORING THEIR EMPIRE Whence he makes it the Consent of the Ancient Doctors That the Fourth Beast is the Roman Empire an Argument to prove the Beast of the Revelatious that was like it to be so too and therefore Babylon to be Rome So also does Arethas Bishop of Cappadocia in his Comment upon the Revelat. chap. 13. refer the show of the Beast with the Ten Horns there to that of the Fourth Beast in Daniel and applies it to the Roman Empire But Pope Gregory the Great does more positively apply the N. B. Reign of the Little Horn to his own times which was certainly a time of Roman Rule In his 38 Epist ad Constant lib. 4. he applies all the Prophecy of Daniel concerning the Little Horn or Antichrist to those that would arrogate to themselves the Title of the Bishops of the whole Roman Empire as the Bishop of Constantinople did then pretend The King of Pride says he is near at hand And which ought hardly to be spoken he has also an Army of Priests prepared for him in allusion to the Little Horn as the same with The Beast in the Revelations who was accompanied and assisted by the False Prophet Because after this there is no different mention of any other Interpretation of the Fourth Beast in Daniel Ambrosius Ausbertus may be the general Representative of the Opinion of all those of latter date till the time of the Reformation He upon the 13th Chapter of the Revelations makes the Beast under the healed Head to be the same with the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast in Daniel And upon the 17th Chapter compares that Beast with the Fourth Beast in Daniel And there adds For what can be understood by the Fourth Beast but the Roman Empire in which those Ten Kings are mentioned after whom Antichrist is to arise It may therefore now be safely concluded as the least that can be inferred from these Testimonies of the Ancients That never was any Learned Man more mistaken about a matter of Fact of which he could hardly avoid the having a clear satisfaction about than Sir John Marsham has been in his Judgment about this part of the Visions of Daniel CHAP. III. What the Ancients do expresly agree in about the Schemes of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel Why they much differed from one another in some particular Characters of it The Vse that is to be made of their Vnanimous Agreement in some things The Necessary Consequences of what the Ancients do expresly agree in FRom the preceding Testimonies of the Fathers it appears That however different the Ancients might have been in particular Opinions about the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel yet they are found unanimously to agree in these General Conclusions 1. That the notion of the Fourth Beast in general as CONSENT of the Ancients the common subject of all its Horns is The Roman Monarchy 2. That the Ten Horns of it are a division of that Monarchy into so many several Kingdoms under Ten Kings 3. That the Little Horn of that Beast is Antichrist that should have a Kingdom within the bounds of the Roman Empire 4. That the Kingdom of Antichrist should continue till it should be destroyed by the Second Coming of Christ after the time that they wrote in Victorinus was indeed singular about the last of these For he judged Antichrist to have been a single Emperor of Rome about the time of the Vision But that was esteemed as very extravagant by others Some think says Augustine ad Marcellin Lib. 20. cap. 19. that Nero is meant by the Man of Sin 2 Thessal 2. 4. But I extremely admire at their presumption or their
the things at first mentioned these seem to be necessary Consequences that they must be supposed to own 1. That by the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel must be Consequences understood a Kingdom of the Romans to the last end of the Beast with all its Horns For by the same reason that they took that Beast to be the Roman Monarchy in any part of its time they must also own it to be the same in all the mentions of it or in any time of its Horns As the Third Beast is the Kingdom of the Greeks in in all the time of its four Heads or its four Horns cap. 7. cap. 8. They were all said in the 8th Chapter to be the King of Grecia that is One Ruling Nation at first united and afterwards divided And therefore the Little Horn and the Ten of the Fourth Beast must be as much Roman Sovereigns as the Little Horn and the five other in the He-Goat Chap. 8. were Graecian Rulers And this shews how contradictory it was to the notion of the Fourth Beast in which all the Fathers agreed to make the Ten Kings in it to be Destroyers and Ruiners of the Roman Kingdom as some of the Fathers did imagine And therefore by the Ruine of the Roman Empire they must be understood to mean nothing but the ruining the entire form of it as the breaking a thing in pieces is called the ruine and destruction of it but no more the end of the Roman Kingdom than the four Horns of the Goat were the end of the Kingdom of the Greeks 2. From hence also does it follow That the Ten Horns and the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast are a time of Roman Rule 3. That the Kingdom of Antichrist or the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast is to begin among the Romans after the division of that Monarchy into Ten Kingdoms and is to continue from its first Rise to the Second Coming of Christ in Glory For the Little Horn continues with the Fourth Beast till it is destroyed by the Kingdom of the Son of Man 4. That the notion of a Beast all over Daniel is the Monarchy of one Conquering Nation only from the time of its Conquest to the last end of it For there is a general Agreement that the other Three Beasts in the 7th of Daniel do signify the Babylonian Persian and Graecian Monarchies till they came to be subdued And the Two Beasts in the 8th Chapter are said expresly to be of the same kind The Ram is called the Kings of Media and Persia V. 20. V. 3. and the Two Horns are represented as rising up the one after the other to denote the succession of the Persian to the Median Line till he is there subdued by the He-goat The He-goat also tho he be called the King of Greece in the single Person yet is said to have four Kings succeeding after one great one set forth by a V. 21 22. first great Horn and four rising up after it and is described to continue to the latter time of that Kingdom whose Character is V. 23. owned to be the fourfold Kingdom 5. That the signification of Heads and Horns of Beast all over Daniel is The several Supreme Powers in that Nation which is represented in general by the Beast If these Heads or Horns be said to come one after another they denote a succession of so many different Supreme Magistracies in the same place But if represented as rising up altogether they signify the division of that Nation into so many distinct Sovereignties or Kingdoms And also the continuance of each Succession of the Successive Heads or Horns and the continuance of each division of the Contemporary Heads or Horns till the change of either of them This all agree in about the four Heads of the Leopard in the 7th Chapter which signify so many distinct Kingdoms in the Greek Monarchy and about the successive Horns of the Ram in the 8th Chapter which signify the Succession of the Persian to the Median Government in the same Nation of the Medes and Persians according as that Kingdom is called both under the V. 8 12 15. Median and under the Persian Kings as thrice in Daniel 6. under the Medes and all over the Book of Esther in the time of the Persians The Horns of the He-goat also in the 8th Chapter are agreed to represent first the united Monarchical Government of the Greeks under one King and then the Succession of the fourfold Kingdom of the Greeks after it 'T is true the Little Horn coming out of one of the four in the 8th Chapter agreed to be but one single King makes no change in that fourfold Kingdom though he be described as coming after the four But then it is plainly intimated that he is not an Horn distinct from the other four but only a part of that out of which he is said to come and not to come after it Wherefore here are eleven acknowledged Instances of the proof of the beforementioed Rule about the signification of Heads and Horns And then for the remaining Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast and Little One after them in the 7th Chapter there wants nothing to assure their conformity to it but to prove that they belong to the same Nation that is represented by the Fourth Beast there And that is assured from the preceding Consequence For these Horns are but parts of that Beast which in the whole time of it signifies but one Nation only The Fathers indeed do seem generally to agree That the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast and consequently the Ten before him can be nothing but Roman Powers whatsoever is pretended to the contrary Andreas Caesariensis in his Testimony before-cited expresly says That the Ancient Doctors made Babylon in the Revelations to be Rome because they looked upon the Beast there whose City Babylon is to be the same with the Little Horn upon the Fourth Beast or the Roman Empire And Bellarmin does as good as say the same Lib. 3. de Pontif. c. 16. The Fathers say that Antichrist was to come as a Monarch of that Empire the Seat of which had been at Rome Thus for instance When Justin Martyr tells Trypho that Antichrist signified by the Little Horn was just at hand when the Roman Empire was then flourishing who could understand that of any thing but the Roman Empire When Irenaeus guesses his name to be Latinos because that he says was the name of his Kingdom he does plainly fix him upon the Romans When Tertullian makes the Ten Kings of the Roman Empire to bring on Antichrist and says That his time is at hand that is in the height of the Roman Empire he intimates the same thing Hippolytus makes him to arise amongst the Ten Kings whom he calls the Kings of the Roman Empire Cyprian and all the Fathers that make the Kingdom of the Stone or of the God of V. 44. Heaven
Body though that be the same with what is said of the Fourth Beast alone that is that he had devoured the other three But this Apprehension might easily induce them first to fancy the Beast to be at least all those Four Monarchies that are mentioned in Daniel And 2. when that was done they might as easily thereupon be brought to extend the notion of it to contain the whole World in it from the representation of the Seven Heads upon it the number seven being then generally accounted in the Learning of the Jews and Christians to be a signification of the whole sum of the kind of things with which it was joined And then it was obvious to fancy the Seven Heads to be some seven parts of time that should measure out that blasphemous or ungodly time of the World from the first beginning of it to the last end of it And yet all the ground for this was nothing but that mention of the parts of the Four Beasts in the 7th of Daniel in the make of the Body of the Beast in the 13th Chapter of the Revelations which the Fourth Beast in Daniel is said to have devoured The Fathers that came after the time of Constantine and that saw the Roman Empire turned Christian could not it seems ever bring it into their minds to think That God would ever suffer the Roman Empire to relapse again into Infidelity or to appear in the dreadful Characters of the Tyranny of the Beast against the Church And yet they must stand to that if they allowed Babylon to be Rome or the future times of the Beast to belong to the Roman Empire They therefore interpret Babylon to be the General City of all Wicked Men all the World over and the Beast to be the World of Wicked Men and the Seven Heads to be either all the Tyrannical Powers of the World that had or should persecute the Church of God or all the Wicked Emperors only of that Time Heathen or Arrian That which might the more easily dispose them to this was the Clamours of the Arrians and Donatists against the then Orthodox Party that they were the People of that Babylon that is so dreadfully set out in the Revelations For it was very obvious for any that had zeal enough to make the Change of Religion to be the Change of one of the Heads of the Beast and so to account the Sixth Head to be the Heathen Emperors only the Seventh King to be the short continuance of Imperial and professed Arrianism under Constantius Valens c. as the time of the Seventh King is described And the Eighth King called The Beast to be the return of that which these called Idolatry and Blasphemy but others Orthodoxy under the rest of the Emperors that succeeded and that were in the time of this Charge in power If we consider That by some of the best Learned and Cautious Mr. Mede Dr. More Interpreters of this present Age the change of Religion in the Imperial Head is made to be the end of the Reign of that Head it will appear very reasonable to judge That these Clamours of their Adversaries might be thought to have some ground for them if they should allow The Beast and Heads to be Roman Powers only And this Consideration might very well make them conclude that Babylon could not be Rome nor the Heads of the Beast to be so many Successions of Roman Government at least if they thought it to be undoubted That the then called Orthodox Party could not possibly be concerned in the Characters of the Beast For That the Orthodox were then charged by their Adversaries with the Application of Babylon and the Beast to them is evident That which is the clearest Instance of this nature is that which Bede in his Preface to his Comment upon the Revelations says of Tyconius an Eminent Donatist and whom he commends for his Interpretation He there says That Tyconius who had suffered in the Cause of the Donatists with the rest of his Brethren That he did apply all the Persecutions in the Revelations to the Actions of the then present Church of Rome against those of his Party And Primasius another of his Followers does also in his Comment upon this Book affirm much the same of him in his Preface So also does the Imperfect Work upon St. Matthew wrongly attributed to Chrysostome charge the Governing party of the Roman Church about the same time with much the same accusations in several places of it and Bellarmin informs us Lib. 3. de Pontif. c. 11. That the Orthodox Africans were called Romanists by the Arrians as a name of reproach Whatever was the true Reason of this new Interpretation of the name of Babylon it is certain that it was against the opinion of all the Fathers before as the most Learned of the Roman Interpreters do often acquaint us and as may be seen from Irenaeus in particular Lib. 5. Contra Haeres And from Tertullian in Apolog. Victorinus c. And there could be no greater Reason to move them to it than the clamours of that discontented Party But after the inundation of the Barbarous Nations all over the Roman Empire and the settlement of their several Kingdoms within the Bounds of it Andreas Caesariensis and Arethas as if they had now plainly seen the division of that Empire amongst the Ten Kings represented by the Ten Horns of the Beast seem to be not so well satisfied about the Mystical way of Interpretation which they had received from those before them But yet for fear of fixing the Characters of Babylon upon the then present times of the Roman Church they are very cautious of determining any way They show how many meanings Babylon may have in it it may either be the whole World of the Wicked in general or Babylon in Persia or Old Rome or New Rome and the Seven Heads of the Beast may be either all the wicked Emperours or Seven Ages of the World c. And yet when they come to bethink themselves again Babylon must sometimes be Rome with them according to the Ancient Fathers and yet that it cannot be Old Rome because that had lost all Majesty of Empire And then what Rome can it be else And that Antichrist when he comes must be a Monarch of Rome See Andreas Caesariensis on the 13th and 17th Chapters of the Revelations All which shows That the only thing that can be depended upon as the Authoritative sense of the Ancients is their Geneneral Agreement about the nature of the 4th Beast in Daniel and about the relation of the Beast in the Revelations to it And the immediate consequences of that unanimous consent If now it should be thought to be a great prejudice against the clearness and easiness of the Protestant Applications of the Apocalypse to the Church of Rome That that Interpretation was never heard of for many Ages together after the time that the beginning of the Apostacy