noted and so necessary an Expression to set off the quite different nature of him from all that went before he not being properly of that kind of Line For what communion or affinity had the pure Christian Caesars with the purely Pagan But now when he comes to this last Head which I cannot avoid for significancy to term Pagano-Christian the whole Empire from head to foot being supposed such this King he thinks good to call the Eighth because he being derived from a double Line takes in all Predecessors before him as well Christian as Pagan and therefore reckoning here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Succession from whom also he is derived he is rightly called the Eighth King and yet considering that he is a Paganizing or Idolatrizing Head as well as Christian he is said to be one of the Seven namely of those seven Kings that are noted by the seven blasphemous Heads of the Beast which were seven and no more This in my apprehension is the most easie and the most assured sense that â—…ny can desire of any place of Scripture 3. Nor need we distrust it for the seeming harshness of that Synecdoche by which the whole Beast is put for part namely the Head the speech being to be salved not onely by this Figure but confirmed by Example As Dan. 2. 38. Thou art this Head of Gold and yet this Head of Gold was a Type of the whole Kingdom of Babylon Wherefore it is plain that the whole Head of Gold is put for some chief part thereof Also Dan. 4. 20 22. The Tree which thou sawest which grew and was strong c. It is thou O King that art grown and become strong c. Where notwithstanding that Tree was an Emblem of his whole Kingdom and of the large extent of the Dominion thereof So that the King is here again called the Tree whenas indeed he was but part thereof the Root as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the stumping of the Tree to the ground was a Figure to represent the cutting him off from his Kingdom for a time Besides all which it is not sense without this Synecdoche for how can any Head be truly and properly the whole Beast 4. Wherefore the Eighth King is the Succession of the Christian Caesars for that time wherein the Empire Paganizes that is Idolatrizes in Christianity Which though their Succession be long and their Persons more then one at a time in some Ages yet by an Henopoeia they are expressed under the show of one single King For the Division into Seven was not by Individuals but by difference of Kind as I have above declared And therefore the Eastern and Western Emperours reigning at once in the Empire breaks no squares in this Prophetick way of Computation which reckons not by Individuals but by Sorts and Successions contrived into one Individual shape or show Which is the reason there is no mention of succession of Persons no more then enumeration of Years in this Book of the Apocalyps though it treat of things that fill the Period of almost two thousand years and that of this side of the Millennium 5. And is of the Seven This also intimates that the Seven Heads of Par. 2. Agr. 9. the Beast are Idolatrous Heads accordingly as they are declared Chap. 13. v. 1. Which is the evidence of the ninth Agreement of our second Parallelism 6. And goeth into perdition that is into final destruction as is intimated Par. 2. Agr. 7. also in the Thirteenth Chapter v. 5 and 10. where his time is set 1260 days but then death allotted him It is the seventh Agreement of our second Parallelism as I have noted already Ver. XII And the Ten Horns which thou sawest are Ten Kings which Par. 2. Agr. 11. have received no Kingdom as yet that is to say in S. John's time who liv'd in the reign of the Sixth Head under which the Beast fought and was slain by Michael in which Battel he is also represented with Seven Heads and Ten Horns but no Crowns upon these Horns their actual Coronation being not till the Seventh Head And therefore Which have received no Kingdom as yet answers to that Type of the Horns without Crowns upon them Which is the eleventh Agreement of our second Parallelism 2. But receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast that is to say Par. 2. Agr. 12. with the Beast whose name is Was and is not and yet is which is the Beast considered under the succession of the Seventh or last Head the healed or revived Head from the mortal blow it lay under the Kings receive power and are actually crowned Kings at the time of this Beast's getting again into Being And therefore this healed Beast his ten Horns are represented with ten Crowns on them Chap. 13. 1. which answers exactly to this present Text They receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast and is a manifest proof of the twelfth Agreement of our second Parallelism 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The meaning is I conceive But they are receiving power about the same hour with the Beast For the present Tense may intimate a productedness of the Action as being in fieri nor does imply but that they may be receiving though not in such a passive way as it does not involve with it some stout effort of their own towards the getting of this power for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have an higher sense and more active then so that they may be receiving I say this Roial power for some time together though some speed sooner then other some but none long without their booty For so I would understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a Diorismus that it does not signifie an Hour properly so called but any short space of time the measure of which Circumstances will make us the best to understand Wherefore I would render it But they receive power as Kings about the same time with the Beast so as it is understood Exod. 9. 18. Behold to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very great hail The Greek has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is plain from Exod. 36. 9. and several other places of Scripture The sense therefore is this That about what time the Beast should revive and be worshipped that is obey'd or in plainer English About what time the Empire should relapse again into Idolatry and be a-resuming the ancient Pagan Rites though placing them upon Christian Objects about that very time should the Empire be rending into Ten Kingdoms or these Ten Kings be catching at and receiving power as Kings all of them appearing and succeeding in their Enterprises within a little time from the first Degeneracy of the Empire into Pagan Idolatries and Superstitions which may be within the space of fourty or
fifty years See Mr. Mede's Diagram of the ten Kings Ver. XIII These have one mind and shall give their strength and power Par. 2. Agr. 13. to the Beast And therefore in the Thirteenth Chapter he is also adorned with this gift where he is described The Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns and upon his Horns ten Crowns which shews that even when they were actually Kings they were voluntarily the strength of this Beast For what strength in the Empire could have constrained them they being the very strength thereof Whence appears the thirteenth Agreement of our second Parallelism But the sense of this verse is briefly this These ten Kings shall be of one mind that is of one mind in matters of Religion shall be of the Religion of the Empire that is to say of the Pagano-Christian Religion whereby the Empire had again become a Beast and shall give their power and strength unto this Beast that is to say shall be ready even by force of Arms if need be or by what other power or authority they have to maintain this Beast in its beastly that is in its Idolatrous condition and Pagan-like Superstitions or else understanding all along a Synecdoche shall give the Pagano-Christian Emperour which is the Head of this Beast the aid or afford him the assistence of their Armies or forces if need should so require against all Opposers of this Pagano-christianism For the Emperour is look'd upon as the chief Champion and Generalissimo of all the Pagano-Christian Forces And though those Kings be distinct and absolute in their own Dominions yet looking upon them as held together in one upon the account of the Religion of the Empire of which the Emperour is by place the chief Champion these ten Kings may be considered as coming into a kind of subordination unto him and be conceived to be the Horns of this Head I mean of this Generalissimo or Emperour of that Army which makes War with the Lamb. But that Power which influences all is the Whore that rides the Beast 2. And truly when the Head of this Whore is once found to be so big as to out-top the Secular Head of the Empire the Emperours themselves and both pretends to and makes use of that boasted Jus utriusque gladii that is to say So soon as the Pope is found to act the Caesar as well as the Universal Patriarch there is no incongruity to allow him represented in two places as well as he sustains two parts and conceive him to be typifi'd as well in the last Head of the Beast as in the costly adorned Head of the Whore But my way is more distinct and more compliable with Grotius his opinion who stands so stoutly for the permanency of the Imperial Majesty to this day And it seems also reasonable to me to interpret Prophecie according to the sense and phrase of History Prophecie being nothing else but an Anticipative History And therefore the Series of Roman Emperours and Title of the Empire and the Body of the Empire continuing still though much contracted and being so look'd upon in History I should think it is the most natural way to interpret according to the common acknowledged phrase and sense of Historians But as I said if the Pope be conceived to supply the room of the Emperours as soon or as oft as he appears to out-top them even in Secular power and to prove the real Head of the Empire acting the Caesar as well as the Patriarch that Interpretation also is very approvable and unexceptionable For the Supreme Power of the Beast that was and is not is by the Angel look'd upon as one and the same Head provided it be but all along the Head of that Beast that is Pagano-Christian For the spirit of Prophecie takes no notice of any useless distinctions and discriminations Wherefore that Supreme Power that shall be found pagano-Pagano-Christian is still one Head in the style of this Prophecie as I have above noted And that which is under it though it were invested with the Title of Emperour will fall under the number of the Ten Horns after the division of the Empire into many Kingdoms Ten suppose at least or thereabout For I look upon the number to signifie Symbolically rather then purely Arithmetically Ver. XIV These shall make war with the Lamb. What is said of these Par. 2. Agr. 14. Ten Kings is said of the Beast in the Thirteenth Chapter That he should make war with the Saints which is the same as to war with the Lamb. Saul Saul why persecutest thou me And these Ten Kings being the Horns of the Beast what is done by them is done by the Beast So that the Beasts in both Chapters make war with the Saints according to the fourteenth Agreement of our second Parallelism As for the 16 and 17 verses of the Thirteenth Chapter the sense of them is this That no man of what degree soever that was not of the Pagano-Christian Profession for that is meant by receiving a mark in the hand or in the fore-head should have any traffick or commerce in the Empire or Territories of any of these Ten Kings which is a kind of besieging them with famine and therefore not unfitly reckoned under the Hostilities of War Which interdiction of all commerce and traffick is an effect of Excommunication by the Two-horned Beast Examples of which Warfare are obvious every-where in History Concerning the Name of the Beast and the Number of his name mentioned in those 16 and 17 verses I shall speak upon the last verse of this present Chapter 2. And the Lamb shall overcome them According to that in the Thirteenth Par. 2. Agr. 15. Chapter v. 10. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity This fifteenth Agreement of our second Parallelism is very manifest 3. And they that are with him are Called and Chosen and Faithful Par. 2. Agr. 16. Sutably to that in the Thirteenth Chapter v. 10. Here is the Patience and Faith of the Saints The great stress lies upon Chosen and Faithful Patience and Faith For many are called but few are chosen But those choice ones that are said to be with him are stout Souldiers that will follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes never leave him for any persecution whatsoever but be Firm and Faithful unto him be their Patience never so much exercised by sufferings In which is comprised the sixteenth Agreement of our second Parallelism CHAP. XV. Ver. XV. The seventh Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. XVI The folly of those Interpreters that understand the Burning of the Whore of the burning of the Houses of Rome by fire Ver. XVII The Ten Kings giving their Power and Kingdom to the Beast according to the will and purpose of God how stupendious an Arcanum 2. In what sense God may be said to put it into their hearts 3. That it is rather Fate then Policy that has carried on the affairs of the Whore
this Succession 12. That the little Horn does of necessity appertain to the Roman Kingdom become Ten-horned and Pagane-Christian at once 13. That it is of equal duration with the Whore and Two-horned Beast and at least coincident in time with them and the Beast restored 14. From which Equality and Coincidence he is discovered to be the Whore or Two-horned Beast 15. That the Patriarch of Rome is more especially concerned in this Type 16. The exquisite Applicability of the Characters of this Horn to the said Patriarch 17. The Application of those Characters that more particularly concern his opposing the Regal Office of Christ. 1. THat Prophecy also in Daniel of the little Horn that is said to change times and laws is an express Prediction of that Antichristian Opposition which is against the Regal Office of Christ. For that this little Horn is the same with the Two-horned Beast or the Whore in the Apocalyps I think no man will scruple that considers that this Horn is part of the Roman Kingdom which is decyphered by Ten Horns and that it belongs to that time when the Kingdom is actually Ten-horned which is not in succession but together as the Ten toes of the Statue which answer to these Ten horns do not signify the succession of Ten Kings but Ten Kings ranked in the same time as the Toes of the feet of the Image which have not properly a precedency but rather a co-ordination in Site 2. Now that the Fourth Kingdom which is prefigured by the iron leggs feet and ten toes of the Image and by the Beast with Iron teeth and ten Dan. 2. Horns is not that of the Lagidae and Seleucidae as Grotius would have it but the Kingdom of the Romans there are these weighty Reasons to convince us First It is the universal sense of all Ecclesiastick Writers That the Fourth Beast is the Roman Empire as both Cornelius à Lapide and Caspar Sanctius both of them Jesuites yet do roundly assort The words of the latter are these Est ergò omnium sententiâ innominata has atque â—…rribilis bellu a Romanum Imperium neque necesse est quonquam nominare cùm nemo non dicat 3. Secondly That it cannot be the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae as Grotius would bear us in hand in which odd conceit of his he forsakes the judgment of the whole Church of Christ to follow Porphyrius his who was a sworn Enemie to the Christian Religion appears from what is said Daniel 7. 23. The Fourth Beast shall be the Fourth Kingdom upon Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod majus erit omnibus regnis Which shall be greater then all Kingdoms so the vulgar Latine and Vatablus The Seventy also render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it agrees best with what follows and shall devour the whole Earth which must be understood in such a sense as Earth was before and shall tread it down and break it in pieces Which it could not be said to doe unless it were so great a Kingdom as is here intimated Now it is manifest that the Kingdom of the Seleucidae and Lagidae was neither greater more excellent nor a more victorious Kingdom then any of the three preceding namely the Babylonian Persian and that of Alexander the Great from whose Kingdom they would make this of the Seleucidae and Lagidae distinct Wherefore their Kingdom cannot be this Fourth This Inference is so plain to Gaspar Sanctius that he does though but justly yet very severely chastise Porphyrius for this errour which Grotius has so unluckily taken up For he breaks out into these words upon this Text Vide Porphyrii stuporem oscitantiam in cujus mentem venire potuit ut existimaverit regnum eorum qui Alexandro successere omnium esse maximum quódque omnem terram sibi subjecerit conculcaveritque cùm reliquis regnis longè fuerit infirmius ab omnibus concisum aut malè vexatum Nay the very Prophecy it self makes the Kingdom of the Successours of Alexander less then his in power and greatness Dan. 8. 22. where it is said that four Kingdoms shall stand up but not in the power of Alexander Which is they shall be inferiour to him Which questionless is meant of them joyntly it being a needless intimation of them single 4. Thirdly The Kingdom of the Iron leggs and toes and of the Ten-horned Beast with iron teeth are one and the same Kingdom according to Grotius his own acknowledgment which he makes that of the Seleucidae and Lagidae Now it is said that a Stone cut out of a Mountain without hands should break in pieces these leggs and toes Dan. 2. nay the whole Image of iron brass silver and gold and so succeed this Kingdom of the Seleucidae according to his sense of the Vision And Chap. 7. One like the Son of man in the clouds of Heaven comes to receive a Kingdom namely upon the destruction of Antiochus Epiphanes that little Horn amongst the ten in this fourth Kingdom of Grotius his framing of whom it is said at the 21. verse I beheld and the same Horn made warre with the Saints and prevailed against them untill the Ancient of days came and judgment was given to the Saints of the most High Which is the same with the Son of man his coming in the clouds of Heaven to receive the Kingdom of the Ancient of days ver 13. And both agree with the Stone cut out without hands to shew it is not the work of man but of the Ancient of days God himself and that this is indeed the very Kingdom of Christ as Interpreters ever have expounded it Which is a perfect contradiction to Grotius his dream That the Fourth Beast with iron teeth and the iron leggs of the Image denote the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae and that Antiochus is this little Horn. For Antiochus Epiphanes was dead almost two hundred years before Christ so much as preached the Doctrine of the Kingdom or had any Disciples to follow him and yet it is said Dan. 2. 44. And in the days of these Kingdoms shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed From which passage I doubt not but that phrase The Kingdom of God as also from that above The Kingdom of Heaven does so often occurre in the Gospel as also that Title which Christ so often gives himself of the Son of man And Grotius himself upon Matthew Ch. 8. 20. acknowledgeth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of man mentioned Dan. 7. 13. is to be understood of the Messias Wherefore it is impossible that the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae should be the Fourth Kingdom 5. But here Grotius contrary to his judgment when he wrote upon Matthew has found a device which is scarce to be uttered without horrour and astonishment So that I am infinitely amazed that a man otherwise so learned and laudable as he speaks of Porphyrius should be
is all one Kingdom But that of Alexander's is the Third according to Grotius his own Concession Now that that of his Successours of which Line are the Lagidae and Seleucidae is one Kingdom with that of Alexander's is evident out of Daniel Ch. 8. 21. The rough Goat is the King of Graecia and the great Horn that is betwixt his eyes is the first King Now that being broken whereas Four stood up for it Four Kingdoms shall stand up out of the Nation but not in his power This is one plain proof that the Kingdom of Alexander and his Successours is all one Kingdom For he calls Alexander the first King which necessarily implies that his Successours are the second and that therefore they all belong to one and the same Kingdom Nay he says plainly that these four Horns stand up for that great one that is in his stead What is this but to succeed in place of him as the Heads of one and the same Empire For no new Beast is said to succeed this Beast but the Horns the Horn. And then the comparing of them and saying but not in his power farther intimates a cognation and succession of one Line and that he does not speak of the Heads of two different Kingdoms Which appears farther from vers 8. Therefore the Goat waxed very great and when he was strong the great Horn was broken and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of Heaven But where should these come up but on that Head that had lost this great Horn which is compensated with four lesser ones though in their kinde notable For it is very incongruous and extravagant to phansy them to come up in any other And surely if they had belonged to any other Beast that Beast would not fail to have been named Wherefore they must either grow out of this Goat's Head or no where unless out of the ground which is ridiculous And therefore it is plain that Alexander's Kingdome and that of his Successours is but one Kingdome For that Goat is but one and the same Goat under the Succession of this variety of Horns 11. And yet there is still greater evidence of this truth from Ch. 7. 6. After which I beheld and lo another like a Leopard which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl the Beast had also four Heads and Dominion was given unto it That the four Heads of this Beast are the four Successours of Alexander namely Perdicca Seleucus Ptolemaens Meleager Grotius himself does frankly confess The Wings therefore denote the four Kingdomes Alexander's Empire was divided into after his decease which is still look'd upon as one Beast notwithstanding as the Roman is with its division into Ten Kingdomes noted by ten Horns or into Oriental and Occidental figured by the two Wings of an Eagle Here Grotius if he would speak out would make Alexander the Beast as he has Domitian and others in the Apocalyps against all the Laws of Prophetick Interpretation nay indeed against all rhyme and reason For he glosses thus Pardus varium Animal sic Alexander moribus variis But how grosly incongruous it is let any one consider For then would Alexander be inferiour to his four chief Officers and they would be the Head of him which is a Political Absurdity nay the Head of him when he ceased to be which is an Absurdity Metaphysical Wherefore Alexander is the first Head or great Horn of this Beast not the Body of it that he may be superiour to his four grand Officers and not be the Beast to bear these four Horns or Heads when he has quite ceased to be on this stage of things For these were not Heads nor Horns before he was dead Alexander therefore is the first of the Succession of the Heads or Horns of this Beast not the Beast it self But to come up closer to our business I say it is very manifest from these four Heads and four Wings that this Leopard is said to have that the Third Kingdome takes into it the four first Successours of Alexander Nothing can be more plain then this from the very Text. For the Leopard is described in the third place and immediately after him the Fourth Beast is mentioned and called the Fourth v. 7. Wherefore this four-headed Leopard is plainly the Third Beast But now that the succession of these four Heads even to Antiochus Epiphanes is the succession of one and the same Kingdome is plain from Ch. 8. 22. Now that being broken namely the great Horn where as Four stood up for it Four Kingdomes shall stand up out of the Nation but not in his power And in the latter time of their Kingdome the Original has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Seventy render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the very same with our English and there is no doubt of the Translation a King of fierce countenance shall stand up Which Grotius and every one acknowledges to be Antiochus Epiphanes Whence it is evident that the whole Succession of Alexander's Captains from the first four inclusively even to Antiochus his time is one Succession and one Kingdome For he calls the times of Antiochus the last times of their Kingdome Wherefore it is plain seeing that the Kingdome of Alexander is one and the same with the Kingdome of the four Captains for that is the Third Kingdome and the Kingdome of the four Captains the same with their Succession even to Antiochus his time that the whole Succession from Alexander to Antiochus is one Succession and one Kingdome If this be not demonstratively true there is no demonstration in Mathematicks But if this be true the Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae are not the Fourth Kingdome but the Kingdome of the Romans according as all sober men have hitherto held 12. Which we being so firmly assured of we shall easily know where to seek for this little Horn that is said to change times and laws For where can we finde it but amongst those many Horns in the Roman Kingdome or Empire not in the Greek to which Antiochus Epiphanes appertains And we have already plainly shewn that the Apocalyptick Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns is this Roman Kingdome and that this Beast once healed or in such a condition that it may be said of him that he is the Beast that was and is not and yet is which is when he is become pagano-Pagano-Christian is this Empire actually divided into Ten Kingdomes and that together with this Division the Empire began to relapse gradually into Idolatry by the Agency and Guidance of the Two-horned Beast or the Whore whom I have also shewed to be Synchronal to the healed Beast or the Beast that was and is not and yet is 13. But the Beast restored or healed his duration is 42 months which is 1260 daies or a Time and Times and half a Time For the abode of the Woman in the Wilderness is indifferently expressed by
either of these latter and the first and the second are joyn'd together in the Vision of the Outward Court and the Two Witnesses Wherefore 42 months and a Time and Times and half a Time being the same with 1260 daies they are the same one with another But this little Horn in Daniel we speak of his reign is also set out by a Time and Times and half a Time Therefore it is of the same duration with the Whore or Two-horned Beast which is Synchronal to the Beast restored whose continuance is 42 months Wherefore it is a strong suspicion that there is a Coincidence at least of time if not of affairs or complication of natures if not Identity of some betwixt this little Horn in Daniel and those three Synchronals the restored Beast the Whore and the Two-horned Beast For that expression Dan. 7. 24. And another shall rise after them does not at all hinder since the Seventy translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behind them it signifying order of situation as well as of time And this being placed behind is the most convenient posture for such an exploit as is attributed to this Horn which is said to throw down or humble three Kings which is more by treachery and craft then open force 14. Now from this equality of time it will also follow that the duration of this little Horn is 1260 years by the last Consectary of our Joint-Exposition Which again shews how impossible it is this Horn should be Antiochus Epiphanes To which you may adde that it is said to be different from the rest of the Horns in the explication of them * Dan. 7. 24. And the ten Horns out of this Kingdome that is the Roman Kingdome as has been demonstrated are ten Kings that shall arise and another shall rise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behind them and he shall be diverse from the rest and he shall subdue three Kings Now I demand what one of the ten Kings or Kingdomes is so different from all the rest unless it be an Ecclesiastical Kingdome Wherefore the Coincidence of time with the pagano-Pagano-Christian Empire and the long continuance as also the difference of this Kingdome from the other ten is more then a strong suspicion that it is part of the succession of a Kingdome Ecclesiastick which is necessarily to run along with the Empire professing Christianity But if the question be whether this part of this Ecclesiastick Kingdome be the uncorrupted Kingdome of Christ or the Reign of Antichrist the solution is not difficult For that it is not the Kingdome of Christ is plain in that Christ is said to come to burn and consume it Whence it is manifest that the Church has not been out in their Conjecture in deeming this little Horn to be Antichrist and therefore say I the same with the Two-horned Beast and the Whore who is plainly Isochronal and I doubt not but Synchronal to this little Horn and is adjudged to be burnt in the Apocalyps as this little Horn is here in Daniel 15. To speak briefly therefore This little Horn is the Idolatrizing Clergy of the Empire but more chiefly and particularly that great and notorious part thereof under the Bishop of Rome who has been a more then ordinary stickler for both the obtaining this degenerate Ecclesiastick Empire in the Roman Empire and in lapsing and keeping down the Empire in Superstition and Idolatry and therefore is rightly said to be an Horn growing out of this Beast the Symbol Beast itself according to Grotius his own Confession intimating Idolatry 16. And if exquisite fitness of Application will assure us of the right sense of a Prophecy we cannot fail in this examining every character of this little Horn. For as it is little so is the Original of the Popes mean and obscure and their Secular Principality small in comparison of those Princes they have contested with Again As this Horn had the Eyes of a man so it is well known that for politick quick-sightedness there has not been any Body of men comparable to the Roman Hierarchy insomuch that it is Proverbial to say That the Roman Religion is nothing else but a mere trick of Policy to encrease and keep up the honour power and wealth of the Pope and his Clergy See Sir Edwyn Sandys his Speculum Europae and you shall finde this part of the Prophecy fulfilled to admiration and that it is not for nothing that this little Horn is said to have the Eyes of a man in it which is said of no Horn in all the Prophecies besides this Thirdly As this Horn is said to have a mouth speaking great things whether you mean thereby boasting of its own Sovereignty or Blaspheming it is well known that from this Horn are uttered such words as imply the Pope greater then all Princes and Emperours nay that he is not onely said to be Infallible but styled God and declared worthy of divine worship Fourthly For the humbling and subduing three Kings which this Horn is foretold to doe is it not long since performed by the Pope of Rome in his usage of Leo Isaurus in ruining the Kingdome of the Lombards to get to himself the Exarchate of Ravenna and in tormenting and disquieting Henry the Fourth and his Successours with his Thunder-claps and mischievous Political Plots till he wrested from them all their Right and Jurisdiction in Italy 17. Fifthly and to come nearer to our purpose in hand Whereas it is said that he shall speak great words against the most High and shall wear out the Saints of the most High and think to change Times and Laws and they shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time I say this Idolatrous Clergy has bid fair toward the fulfilling this Period of times already the Degeneracy of the Church beginning about four hundred years after Christ and which is more considerable they having received so notorious a Check in the Decursion of this Half-Time which is elsewhere called a Half-Day in which his swaggering is pretty well diminished and chastised Sixthly And for his wearing out and consuming the Saints of the most High he has done it even more bloudily and cruelly then the very Pagans on the Primitive Christians which is the most furious Opposition against the Regality of Christ that can be imagined thus to wast and destroy his true Subjects Seventhly And for his speaking great words against the most High that is against the Divine Sovereignty is it not plainly done in the Pope's pretences of having power to dispense with or lay aside the Laws and Injunctions of Christ of which we have given several Instances in our Idea of Antichristianism and such as are notoriously well known to appertain to that Church Besides that he is Reus laesae Majestatis Divinae in appointing Religious worship to his canonized Saints which is an Honour due to God alone Lastly In that he is said to change Times and Laws what
therein For we traffick not in Legendary Lies and false Miracles against the Sacred Title of Truth nor desire to keep the people ignorant of the Scriptures and to hold them in darkness against the Sacred Title of Light nor trespass against the Sacred Title of Life by making our Religion consist of dumb shows and heaps of dead Rites and Ceremonies nor derogate from the Divinity of Christ by giving Religious worship to Saints and Angels nor offend against his Paternity by making his Children a company of stocks and stones and by taking away the judgement of discretion from them and forcing them to believe as the Church believes right or wrong with Scripture or against it and are so farre from injuring the life of any Child of God by any captious and wicked Sanction that we profess nothing requisite to Salvation but what is plain in Scripture as appears from what has been already produced out of the Articles of the Church Which alone will also vindicate her from any imputation of the following points of Antichristianism against the Peace of Christ's Kingdome And for absolving Princes from their Oaths what Church unless that of Rome ever pretended to so blasphemous a Power 4. The next Antichristian Opposition and which occurrs in the next Chapter is that against the Divine Life in general Such as Idolatry and all manner of Superstition dumb Shows speaking in an unknown Tongue substituting silly Penances instead of real Repentance and Amendment of life all which our Church is so plainly and professedly against in her Articles and Homilies every-where and so acknowledgedly that I will not give my self the trouble of Citation Some not so well minded may peradventure be over-inclinable to imagine the Episcopal Office and Revenues to have a greater propinquity with that Hypothesis at the end of this Chapter then any indifferent man can possibly judge For he must be very ignorant of the Constitution of Christendome that does not plainly discern that in that Hypothesis it is the Papal Hierarchy that is perstringed and adumbrated which is done again more fully and particularly in the ninth and tenth Chapters For for my own part though I do not know the accurate values of the several Bishopricks of this Nation yet considering the largeness of their Dioceses and the great burthen as well of care as expensiveness in conscientiously executing the Function truly I cannot imagine them so great but that the weight of the Office will weigh down every-where the value of the Revenue and we reade in the Gospel that * Luk. 10. 7. the work-man is worthy of his hire And concerning the Office and Dignity itself it cannot sink into my minde that that Order of the Church which was instituted and in practice in those Ages thereof which were Symmetral can with any face or conscience be judged Antichristian And that the Church was Symmetral for about four hundred years after Christ is a demonstrable Consectary from my Joint-Exposition and that Joint-Exposition so convincingly evident that no Interpretation of any Scripture can be more 5. Whence I cannot but wonder that any true Son of the Church of England should be so shie of the Apocalyps or so fearful of it that they durst not touch it without a pair of Mittens of Grotius his making for fear it should bite them that is to say unless it be unfolded or rather folded up in Grotius his fond and groundless Explications For there is not any Book in the World that makes more for the establishment of the Crown and Church of England then this Holy Book of the Apocalyps if rightly and solidly understood A thing which that wise and sagacious Prince King James of blessed memory had discovered betimes and accordingly made use of it against the Usurpations of the Church of Rome And truly I finde nothing in the Apocalyps though the style seems Mysterious and Aenigmatical but what is very rational and look upon it as the most faithful and Philosophical writing that ever was penned A tast whereof we have in that Catalogue of the evil characters of them that are excluded the Holy City wherein bloudy and inhumane Zeal as also vain and imposturous Superstition is so plainly perstringed The former in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Murtherers the latter in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Sorcerers Exorcists or Enchanters and lying Legendists and in fearful intimidated spirits that are superstitiously inclined to submit to the delusions and lies of such shameless Deceivers These doth our faithful Redeemer of Souls who deals bonâ fide with Man-kinde to rescue their abused minds from the Tyranny and burthen of Superstition note with a mark of Infamy and Condemnation So fast a friend is the Lord Jesus to Humanity to Equity to Truth and Reason 6. And not to insist upon those passages of the Apocalyptick Visions that imply it which are more then one or two either there is the greatest Equity and Reason in the world that every Christian Prince should next under Christ be Supreme Head over all that part of his Church over which he is King or Sovereign over Clergy as well as Laiety in Causes Ecclesiastical as well as Civil and that not any Papal or Presbyterian Power should be above him as our English Episcopacy does most justly and professedly submit unto him For why should any Clergy-men expect of a Prince who has received like precious Faith with themselves to fall in his Power by becoming a Christian Which is as unjust as it were ridiculous to phansy that every proper man should be bound to remit so much of his natural stature as would make him goe lower then the Priest that baptized him For Christianity does not take away Nature nor Power but rightly employs it Could any of the Pagan Emperours think you have been brought over to the Christian Faith if the Bishop of Rome would have laid claim to the Headship of the Empire so farre as it became the Church of Christ or would they not have suspected the preaching the Kingdome of Heaven a trick of the Priests to make themselves Lords of the Earth No certainly a Prince once become Christian that is a Believer and Professour of the Apostolick Faith comprised in the Word of God in those plain and generally-confessed Points of our Religion is a Person so Sacred that nothing can mount above him for Headship in his own Dominions For the anointing of the Spirit whereby we believe to Salvation is infinitely more holy then any external Sacerdotal oil whatsoever Why may not then so sacred a Fountain be the Head and Influencer of the whole Church Or whether is Christ greater as he is Priest or King of Saints Or who had the preeminence in the Polity of the Jews the Kings or High-Priests of Israel And was not that Polity a Type or Figure of the Church of Christ The plain Law of Christ is indeed immutable and it ought to be so no
their own mis-practices lie more easy upon their minds by finding others like themselves must acknowledge his Authority and stand to his courtesy in a business wherein I have already described him very civil and humane We will therefore suppose the generality of the Clergie of this false Church foul and impure in actions words and behaviour and that nothing may be wanting to the heightning of this Idea of Antichristianism in this point we are upon and you may if you will suppose the same in others the High-priest himself as ill if not worse then any of the rest for Whoredoms Adulteries and Incests Which things certainly must have a wicked influence for the debauching all that part of Christendom that can have any respect for or owe any homage to this Sacerdotal Sovereignty 13. Finally that there may be nothing wanting to fill up the measure of this Antichristian Pollution or Impurity we do describe we will further suppose those Regions and Principalities that border nearest to the See of this Supreme Priest to be a second Pentapolis for the most hainous of all Uncleannesses I mean Sodomie it self Nay that the High-priests themselves shall be ordinarily so unholy that they shall be accounted tolerable if not praise-worthy provided they content themselves with what ever illicit pleasures they can enjoy from Women Masculine Venerie being so frequent even in the Heads of this Apostatized Church and That to be Pathicks were the next step to the highest Ecclesiastical Preferments or at least no stop at all thereto That this foul sin of Gomorrah is grown so much in request that Ecclesiastick Princes pride themselves in shewing their wit and eloquence in setting forth the pleasures of that Vice and precellency of it above any enjoyments from the Female sex and publish such beastly discourses with security and impunity from the Head of this unholy and unwholesome Synagogue who notwithstanding would thunder against the breach of a Monastick Vow or any Doctrine tending thereto with fire and lightning and it may be suppress any honest Satyr made to disparage the hainousness of that fulsom crime of Sodomie nay dispense with whole Families upon small pretences in so execrable a trade of Wickedness 14. And lastly That partly by the emboldening examples of this high Praesul's Court and partly by the strong temptations and importunities of a Monastick life Idleness and ineffectual forms of Devotion leaving the Body utterly unmortified nay more foul and lustful then in ordinary Secular men and their secluseness from women permitting them no other way to discharge their filthy burthens then by abusing themselves with Mankind we will further suppose that this noisom poison has spred it self generally in this false Christendom and that sundry Monasteries would abound with this sin of Gomorrah this impure heat piercing from that mouth of Hell the High-priest's Palace to the more cold and Northern climes of his Antichristian Dominion 15. Wherefore the very frame and constitution of this Pseudo-christian Polity being such as of its own nature is prone to bring forth so foul and poisonous fruits as these even the fruits of Sodom and the apples of Gomorrah and we supposing that it does actually bring forth such fruits even the uncleanest works of the Flesh Fornication Adultery Incest and Sodomy it self in so plentiful a manner how can we doubt but that this is a considerable Limb of Antichristianism or of Antichrist himself where they are found I mean this gross impurity so conspicuously opposite to the second Branch of the Divine Life and that this Polity thus infected if that may be said to be infection which is but the natural flower or fruit of the intrinsecal constitution of a thing with these several kinds of Uncleanness is that very City Antichristian in the highest measure which is mystically called Sodom as well as Aegypt and whose inhabitants Rev. 〈◊〉 are excluded out of the Holy City the New Jerusalem as perfectly opposite thereto and whose portion is the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second Death In which black list of the damned there are reckoned up amongst others * Rev. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whores and Whore-mongers be it simple Fornication Adultery or Incest as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Grotius interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abusers of themselves with Mankind and Pathicks to which answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dogs in the other Catalogue chap. 22. The fury of the lustfulness and obscoenity of Dogs making them promiscuously attempt one another without discrimination of Sex And this may serve briefly for a Description of that Limb of Antichristianism that opposes that Branch of the Divine Life which is Christian Purity CHAP. XIII 1. The excellency of Charity and that it is the very Life and Soul of the Polity of Christ. 2. A Description of the nature of Christ's Kingdom out of Scripture 3. A Collection of the Properties of his Government out of the fore-cited Predictions and that they are all the Effects of Charity 4. To which the Kingdom of Antichrist is opposite 5. The Oppression of the poor and needy by this Antichristian Polity 6. The defrauding men of their Estates upon a false pretence of Heresie 7. The imposition of barbarous Penances 8. Their unparallel'd Pride 9. Their raising of vile Calumnies against the professors of the Truth as the Pagans did against the Primitive Christians 10. Several Instances of these Antichristian Calumnies 1. THE last Branch of the Divine Life is Charity which is the Summity the Top-branch the Flower nay the very Quintessence of Christianity and the Life and Soul of that amiable and comfortable Polity and Kingdom of Christ which was predicted in the Holy Scriptures and should most immediately be seated in Ecclesiastick persons the Gravity Meekness and Exemplarity of whose Conversations and the influence of their powerful Doctrine and comfortable and equitable Discipline reaching to a more exquisite emendation of mens manners then the Civil Laws do ordinarily aim at that is to say to the making men more sober and more pure in their converse more fair and tolerable in their exactions more liberal and compassionate toward the poor more faithful and sincere more favourable and candid one to another then Political Laws can effect should erect that Kingdom of Christ upon Earth which would really prove the great Joy and Happiness of all the Nations of the World according to their desire and expectation For there is indeed nothing more desirable then Christ's Kingdom which we pray every day that it may come according to those descriptions thereof in the Prophets and Psalms 2. He shall judge the poor of the people he shall save the children of the Psal. 7â—… needy and shall break in pieces the oppressor He shall come down like the rain upon the mowen grass as showers that water the earth In his days shall the righteous flourish and abundance of peace
the fifth place therefore How plainly Antichristian would it be in them who pretend to be in a special manner the Successours of Christ if they should prove Incendiaries to War and busy Engineers of Destruction in Christendom witty in Cruelty and Revenge barbarous in Execution merciless to the poor hating them even for their Poverty sake poisoners of Princes even by that Bread wherewith they would pretend to feed their Souls to everlasting life and the High-priests themselves the Heads of this Antichristian Polity either the Contrivers or Applauders of such villainous Poisonings and Murthers 2. But sixthly and lastly The cruel and bloudy Persecution of the true and living Members of the Kingdom of Christ for their faithfull adhering to the plain and undoubted Commands of their Heavenly Sovereign who is styled King of Kings and Lord of Lords this certainly must be the most signal and capital Antichristianism that any Polity can be corrupted with and the most grossely and visibly opposite both to the nature of Charity which beareth all things and endureth all things which will not be over-severe to the wicked much less cruel to the good and also to the Description of Christ's Government who is said to redeem the Souls of the needy from deceit and violence and that their bloud is Psalm 72. precious in his sight He shall feed his Flock like a shepherd he shall gather Esay 40. his Lambs with his arme and carry them in his bosome This is the genuine spirit of the true Christian Pastours whether of high or low degree to be thus tenderly affected towards their Sheep But such as thwack them and beat them and violently drive them in stead of leading them by an Evangelical call and going before them in a way of Christian Example these are not Shepherds but Butchers and will easily drive them to the Shambles and see their throats cut without remorse 3. Persecution therefore of the Saints of God even for those things they approve themselves to be Saints in as in refusing to worship Images or to commit any other act of Idolatry in plainly and simply professing the truth of the Gospel and living according thereto conscienciously abstaining from all such things as it has declared unlawfull This is as manifest a Limb of Antichristianism as any can be exhibited to our view and were indeed notoriously Antichristian though it proceeded no further then to a partial loss of goods Imprisonment and Death without any further odious and aggravating circumstances But to be stripped stark naked of all a man has to perfect beggery not to be committed to a common Prison but to be thrust into some lonesome and loathsome cell or Dungeon upon moist straw or flags stinking with dung and ordure or else without this Tapestry the floor of it self being soft and miry enough that they may seem to need to pillow and it may be so streight that they scarce have room enough to lie at their length And then for their manner of Death when they are called unto it how unjust and barbarous were it to have their Integrity and Sincerity to their Saviour to be reckoned a crime more capital then Theft and Murther and therefore be punished with a severeâ—… death hanging or heading not serving the turn but they must undergoe that death which is most torturous and dreadfull Fire and Faggot must be the reward of their constant and faithfull obedience to their dear Redeemer and it may be with some extraordinary circumstances they not dispatching them with that favour that they do Murtherers of Fathers or Murtherers of Husbands or Conjurers and contractors with the Devil but lengthening their torments by the malicious artifice of pulleys dipping them in and then pulling them up again out of the flames as if they were ducking them in the Water rather then torturing them in the Fire Not sparing the Women big with child no nor the Child that has been baptized with fire as soon as born into the world but being mercifully transmitted out of the burst womb through the flames as untouched almost as the three Children in the fiery furnace has been cast again into that consuming Element by the cruel hands of the abhorred Hang-man setting less by the poor innocent Infant of an Heretick then by the litter of a Bitch or young Kitlings to whom none will be so barbarous as to burn them in the Fire but commit them rather to the mercies of that more soft and gentle Element of Water 4. What shall we say to the multitudes of those that are thus martyred I mean not onely in succession but at a clap by thirties fourscores and hundreds at a time either at one common fire-pyle or else in barns and dwelling-houses severe Officers with their iron weapons forcing them back as often as the heat and smoak would drive them out to seek cooler aire What to the racking and excarnificating their bodies before this last punishment to the cutting out their Tongues when they are brought to the stake that they may be in an utter incapacity of apologizing for themselves of praising God or edisying the people 5. It were a long business to set before your eyes all the ways that this Antichristian Beast this Pseudo-christian Polity and falsely-pretended Hierarchy of Christ might use in wreaking their spleen upon the faithfull witnesses of Jesus the living members of his true Church what outrages they and their Officers or Instruments and Adherents inflamed by the poison of their zeal may commit upon the harmless Flock of Christ sparing none of either Sex no not in the most compassionable circumstances bringing Women and that of great quality within three or four days after their delivery out of Child-bed into an abhorred prison using them with like cruel hardship they do others forcing them out of the Straw as it is called to tumble on a bed of flags in a raw and noisome Gaol-cabbin and within a while after stretching them so on the rack and piercing them so to the bone with the strings they tie their legs and armes and so shattering all their body that they leave them more then half dead upon the torture Hanging up others even while the Child is coming out of the Wombe ripping up the Bellies of others having first nailed down their hands and feet upon some board and having cut their Children in pieces stopping their bleeding flesh into the mouths of their Mothers opening the Wombs of others and putting their Children of a year or two old into them and so stifling them in their Mother's bloud hanging Men up by their privities at their own doors and Ministers of the Town after the same manner in their Church-porches scraping the hands lips and crown of such Priests as are converted to the true profession of the Gospel with sharp knives or broken pieces of glass dragging men by their legs whom they have half killed upon the rack like a dead dog or such like piece of Carrion
might have heard of Barchocab But there being no mention of any one famous Impostour above the rest in our Saviour's Predictions in Matthew it is very suspicable that this rumour was raised out of the Prophecy of Daniel touching that little mischievous Horn which certainly is a Prophetick Figure of that eximious Antichrist that was to come 5. The same Author also interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Barchocab and renders it Quis potest esse major impostor and I believe very rightly For it were a dilute business for the Apostle to describe Antichrist onely by the bare denial of Jesus his being the Christ that great King Priest and Prophet sent of God to whom all Nations should flow For such Antichrists are all Infidels which are innumerable Wherefore such a Denier of Christ is here intimated as by playing the Impostour and by making of himself Christ or by putting of himself into the place of the true Christ which is Jesus denies Jesus to be the Christ and so by denying him denies him that sent him and witnessed of him that he was his beloved Son whom all should hear Such an Antichrist was Barchocab especially who by making himself the Messias did thereby plainly deny that Jesus was he But as there were eximious Types of Christ amongst the people of the Jews and such as one and the same Prophecies touch as well as Christ himself so it is obvious to conceive that there might also Antichrists arise among the said people to whom all things befell in figures which were Types of the famous Antichrist in the Christian Church and that one and the same Text might point at both as it is not hard to conceive that this does For as for that great Antichrist which I have described in my Idea of Antichristianism it is plain that he puts Jesus out of his Kingly Priestly and Prophetick Office usurping all that himself or conferring it upon others as is there copiously declared Wherefore he making himself so absolute an Head of the Church he does ipso facto cut off Jesus from being Head of the same and thereby discovers himself to be that notorious Antichrist in Christendom And by denying that Jesus is that Supreme King Priest and Prophet to whom all are to listen and obey whose Decrees and Words are an immutable Law he does thereby deny also the Father that sent him as much as any other Antichrist amongst the Jews can be imagined ever to have done For which of them was ever said to have professed himself an Atheist 6. Which things duely considered will inable us with ease to understand also the meaning of what is writ in the fourth chapter of this Epistle of S. John where he saith That every spirit that confesses that Jesus is the Messias come in the flesh is of God and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus is the Messias come in the flesh is not of God and this is that spirit of Antichrist which you have heard shall come and is now already in the World The vulgar Latine hath it Et hic est Antichristus de quo audîstis quoniam venit nunc jam in mundo est Which implies they read not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of which Antichrist you have heard that he shall come And he addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like that of S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the futurity of a more notorious Antichrist is not excluded in neither place In this of S. John Grotius again understands the Impostour Barchocab but the Ancients even the Romanists themselves the famous Antichrist of the Fathers Whence it is confessedly true both from Grotius and the Romanists that such a Denier of Jesus his being the Messias or Christ come in the flesh is understood as is an Impostour and boasts himself to be that Christ whereby he denies Jesus to be him as I have noted upon the former Text. And the sense of both may be this namely That whereas those to whom S. John wrote had received a rumour or fame of that eximious Antichrist that was to come into the world in the last time occasioned I doubt not from Daniel's Prophecies of the little Horn and of that King of pride that would exalt himself above all the Event of these Prophecies being further off though at last certainly to come he fixes their minds upon such Antichrists as were nearer at hand and though but the Types and Figures of that great Antichrist to come some Ages after yet of more concernment to them to take notice of but in the interim describes Antichrist so that though it does more palpably point at these Types of the future Antichrist yet the Description more narrowly searched into takes fast hold also on that great Antichrist himself forasmuch as it is implied that it is one who by way of imposture puts himself into the place of Jesus who is the true Christ that King Priest and Prophet appointed by God to whom all must submit Which not onely Barchocab and such false Messiasses in the Jewish Common-wealth have done but he that has so made himself the Head of the Church as to null the Laws and Doctrines of Christ is deprehended to doe the like also 7. I must confess the Opposition and Intrusion of this grand Antichrist among Christians is more oblique and more subtil then the claim of those false Messiasses amongst the Jews but we are withall to take notice that the Christians Messias or Christ is more spiritual then what the Jews expected and therefore it is no wonder that their Antichrist be of another nature not a gross and violent Invader of the Empire of Christ but a more cunning Impostour and insinuating Hypocrite Nor are we to marvel that Christendom has been so slow-sighted in discovering this Antichrist after he was come the same thing happening to them that befell the Jews who could not discern their Messias when he daily conversed before their eyes For both these mistakes arose from a like prejudice and false prenotion of things the Jews decyphering in their minds such a Messias as should conquer Kingdoms for them and make them a rich and potent people upon Earth so crass and external a conceit had they of his Power and Office and the Christians prefiguring such an Antichrist as would cast away the external profession of Christ and directly and professedly oppose him in his Kingdom 8. But fraudulent and hypocritical Opposition is as true and a more mischievous Opposition then that which is open and direct And he that calls another Lord and King but professes a power of abrogating his Laws and of making what Laws he lists himself and of forcing this Prince's Subjects to obey them this man has really made himself King And therefore he that takes upon him the power to null the Laws of Christ and makes new ones of his own for the Rule of Christendom he in like
are such as these Apoc. 8. The third part of the Trees was burnt up The third part of the Ships was destroyed The third part of the Sea became bloud and ch 12. The third part of the Sun was smitten and the third part of the Moon c. where Third does not signify the proportion of that which was smitten to that which did escape but the Empire at large which was smitten is indigitated by this Number Which has a smack of the Cabbalistick Genius who use Numbers for the Symbols of things as I have already noted So the Tenth part of the City is not the Tenth of the City that then was but of a City whose extent bore but the proportion of a Tenth part to what it had been as Mr. Mede has carefully computed To this head you may also refer that Apoc. 18. Double unto her double according to her works and Fill unto her double Which is so definitively spoken as if she should be repay'd with as much more as she had injured others but the sense is onely that she should be pay'd home for all her injurious dealings 10. Examples of Specifical Diorisms are such as usual Synecdoches are that put the Species for the Genus which being a more determinate Object strikes the Phancy stronglier and with fuller gratification Thus is the Imagination more loudly alarm'd by being informed that such a Thing or Person shall be burnt or consumed with fire then if it were only said they should perish or be consumed and not specify the manner So to make warre is more determinate and specifick then to oppose and to be beheaded then simply to die or be killed and to be slain more specifick then to be destroyed and lastly King is a more specifick term and more fully strikes upon the phancy then Supreme Magistrate or whatever other appellation that is more general and consequently more dilute Which Examples of this third kind of Diorismus occurre up and down in the Apocalyps and indeed every where in the Prophets CHAP. III. 1. Hylasmus what it is with the kinds thereof 2. Eximious Examples of each kind 3. What the first and chiefest kind of Henopoeia 4. That one single Beast signifies a Body Politick demonstrated out of Daniel 5. That a Succession of Individuals is represented by one Individual 6. That one individual Beast represents a Kingdom or Body Politick from its rise to its fall 7. That one single Man or Woman does also represent a Body Politick in the Prophetick style 8. The second kind of Henopoeia what it is 9. What Zoopoeia with examples thereof 10. A second kind of Zoopoeia proved and illustrated from Examples 1. HYlasmus is a Prophetick Scheme bearing strongly upon the Phancy by exhibiting crass and palpable Objects such as in Logick would bear the Notion of Subject or Matter The first kind is coincident with Metonymia Subjecti as when a City is put for the Inhabitants or a Temple for them that worship therein Examples of this kind are frequent every where To the second kind I would refer such Representations as are from Buildings Pavements and the like which are compact of crass and palpable Materials but are Mystical or Spiritual Symbols of quite another thing Examples of this kind are the Inward and Outward Court of the Temple the one Symmetral the other Asymmetral which signifies the Christian Church one while in her Purity another while in her Apostasie to Idols So the Holy City troden down by the Gentiles signifies the Christian Church over-run with Gentilism So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this case is an Emblem of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Body Politick as Temple may be of the living Church of Christ. 2. An eximious Example of this kind of Hylasmus is the Description of Jerusalem Apoc. 21. with its high wall and twelve gates and by a Prophetick Diorism the measure of the City is concluded twelve thousand furlongs and the wall an hundred fourty four cubits and the Materials are Gold and Pearls and precious Stone And yet this City so Hylastically set out has a most Spiritual meaning and signifies nothing else but the Church of Christ reduced again to Apostolical Purity But the most notable Instance of a Prophetick Hylasmus is the Description of the Temple by Ezekiel to which I cannot say but this of S. John alludes in several passages And that it is an Hylasmus and not a literal Description I think any one will easily grant that does but peruse the 47 Chapter Lastly The destruction of the City Babylon in the Apocalyps is also a remarkable Example of this Scheme but though in the general it appertain to this second kind of Hylasmus yet things are there set out very much by the former kind which is a Metonymia Subjecti not continentis as before but occupantis the Objects of their Spiritual Negotiations being so crassly discovered and described 3. The next Prophetick Scheme is Henopoeia and the most graceful but withall as much obscuring as any And the first and chiefest kind thereof is this The collection of a multitude of Individuals into the show of one Individual as also of a Succession of Individuals or Multitudes into the show of one standing Individual This is an ancient method of delivering Mysteries as any one will discern if he throughly perpend the nature and truth of the ancient Cabbala Which that both Daniel and S. John I may adde S. Paul too have imitated in their Prophecies I think is easily to be evinced 4. Touching the collection of a Multitude into the show or representation of one Individual it is plain in Daniel for one individual Lion there denotes the whole Kingdom of the Babylonians one Bear the Kingdom Dan. 7. of the Medo-Persians one Leopard the Kingdom of the Greeks and the fourth Beast the Roman Kingdom It is true it is said The four Beasts are four Kings but the vulgar Latin has it four Kingdoms as also Theodotion and the Text says expresly that the fourth Beast is the fourth Kingdom upon earth So the Ram and the Goat in the eighth Chapter according to Grotius his own Interpretation out of the Hebrew Idiom though they be said to be Kings are Kingdoms And whereas it is written And the rough Goat is the King of Graecia and the great Horn that is betwixt his eyes is the first King unless this Goat either signifie a Succession of Kings or a Kingdom it is not sense yea though Succession yet it will be very harsh sense to make the great Horn the first King and the Body the rest Wherefore unless we would distort things beyond all measure the Body of the Goat must signifie the Kingdom of Graecia as the Horns the Supreme Power consonantly to what Grotius has written and I doubt not but his Interpretation is true And I think that scarce any one can be so weak but upon the reading of Daniel he will be assured that in Prophetick
Figurations one individual Beast signifies a Multitude of men ordered together into the Body of a Kingdom 5. But as the great Horn of the He-goat is said to be the first King so the four Horns undoubtedly signified four succeeding Kings in this divided Kingdom in their several series so that four Successions of Individuals so far as they would last were represented under the show of four single Individuals namely those four Horns And truly when it is apparent that one Individual Beast represents the succession of a Multitude for many Ages together who are mortal as well as single men coagmentated into the body of one Kingdom it were a very nice and humorsome thing to stick at the succession of single Persons being represented under the show of one Head or Horn. 6. And that one and the same Beast stands for a Kingdom or Empire from its rise to its fall is plain both in Daniel and the Apocalyps For the Four Beasts are said to rise out of the great Sea Dan. 7. and the destruction of the Fourth is set down in the same Chapter who is supposed to tread down the Third as the Third is after declared to vanquish the Second in the following Chapters And in the Apocalyps the Rise of the Beasts there is set down as also their destruction in the Lake of fire and brimstone Whence it is evident that one Individual Beast represents not onely a Multitude of men under one Government but the Succession of this multitude for many Ages even till it cease to be such a Multitude and consequently the successive Sovereignty of this multitude must be thus far represented be it in one or many by the Head or Horns of such Beasts unless we can phansy a Polity without an Head which would not be a Polity but Anarchy 7. Nor are Irrational Creatures onely made Henopoetick Types of a Multitude collected into one Government but also Rational As it is evident in the Woman in the Wilderness which it were ridiculous to understand of some one single Woman and not of the Body of the Church whose true and living Head is Christ Jesus The Woman also in Esdras signifies Sion or the people of God and it may be the Man there coming out of the Sea has some such sense For why may not one Man signifie a People or Multitude as well as one Woman And it is plain that the people of Israel is called the Son of God Israel my son my first-born And therefore the * 2 Thess. 〈◊〉 Son of perdition and that Man of sin need not signifie one single man or a succession of single men but a Body Politick under one Head of mischievous contrivances By the like Henopoeia also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the false Prophet signifies not one single Person or the succession of such single persons but a Collection or Body of Deceivers combining together under one Government These things are so easie and so obvious that I am afraid I shall seem to have insisted over-long upon them 8. I will onely note a second kind of Henopoeia which is also of useful consideration and that is when things of different natures are comprised under one Type We have a very warrantable Instance of this way of interpreting Prophecie Apoc. 17. where the Angel does declare that not onely Seven Kings but Seven Hills are couched under the Symbol of the Seven Heads of the Beast According to this Analogie it may not be unsafe to interpret Babylon both of the City of Rome and of the Hierarchy the Two Witnesses of the Old and New Testament of them under the Legal and Evangelical dispensation and of Magistracy and Ministery the Horns of the two-horned Beast of the two Imperial Patriarchates of the two Horns of the Bishop's Mitre and of the two-fold power of Binding and Loosing Which second kind of Henopoeia need not seem new nor strange the ancient Pythagoreans and Cabbalists concealing and crowding together under the Symbol of one single Number many and multifarious Notions 9. Zoopoeia is the typifying out some inanimate thing by what has life be it Person or any other living Creature or part of that Creature In which sense the Seven Hills being signifi'd by the Seven Heads of the Beast is a Zoopoeia As also it would be if we understood * Rev. 11. the Two Witnesses of the Two Books of the Old and New Testament and the * Rev. 19. Word of God riding the white Horse of the whole Bible But I shall in its due place intimate that these are but collateral senses and reducible to one more primary one by an Henopoeia The making of * Rev. 6. 〈◊〉 Hell to lacquay by him that rides the pale Horse seems a more absolute Zoopoeia as also that Gen. 4. The voice of thy Brother's Bloud crieth unto me from the ground where the actions of life are given to the bloud of a dead man 10. But we will here take notice also of a second kind of Zoopoeia which may seem less harsh and most elegant and that is when free Actions are attributed to free Agents of which notwithstanding they may be no more the causes then if they were inanimate Beings or not in being at all According to this Figure is that of Virgil in the mouth of Aenea slaying Turnus Pallas te hoc vulnere Pallas Immolat poenas scelerato ex sanguine sumit Pallas being dead is said to slay Turnus though he did nothing here towards the slaying of him but what he suffered onely gave occasion to Aeneas to take revenge According to which Figure of speech a more large Allusion or Parable might be raised As if Aeneas instead of slaying one single man had sacked a City put man woman and child to the sword burnt their houses and left them as an heap of stones in revenge of the death of Pallas he might say of his friend now dead that it was he that inflamed the courage of the Souldiers to scale the Walls that it was he that gave out that just though severe Edict of slaying man woman and child that it was he that burnt down their houses and laid their City level with the ground and lastly that it was he whom they deservedly found a more mischievous enemy to them after his death then while he was living Certainly this Figure of speech would be very intelligible and withall bear along with it an extraordinary height of Rhetorick and Elegancy According to this Scheme is that example in Scripture of * Revel 6. 9. the Souls crying under the Altar O Lord how long c. Which is nothing but a Parable signifying that their death required Vengeance from the Justice of God Eae animae saith Grotius corpore solutae multò magis quà m sanguis mortem toleratam testantur For he had said before Sanguis Abelis vindictam poscit sic animae martyrum Wherefore there is acknowledged a Zoopoeia in both cases
But not for their Idolatry onely but also for their bloudy Tyranny as the same Grotius has noted excellently well upon Matth. 20. where Christ declaring that he that would be greatest and first in his Kingdom must be the minister and servant of the rest and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not lord it or swagger it over his inferiours as the Rulers of the Gentiles doe Haec oppositio saith he ostendit cur apud Prophetas Imperia mundi Bestiarum Regnum Christi Hominis imagine depingantur Where by Bestiae we are to understand wild Beasts as the word usually signifies and in that sense will exactly answer to the Seventy's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence the Latine word Ferae which always signifies wild Beasts is derived by turning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Aeolick Dialect Otherwise the Kingdoms of the world might be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the four Beasts in the Apocalyps which allude to the Camp of Israel distributed into four quarters as Mr. Mede has rightly observed are called and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that being a very unfit Title for any Polity where Humanity and Equity bears sway 10. But much less fit would it be for the true Body of Christ but least of all for the Lamb himself nor the Lamb a fit Prophetick Representative of one single person but that Christ had got that Title before being called by John The Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the World as being indeed that Paschal Lamb whose Bloud is the Salvation of his people Wherefore unless there be some such bar as this which is an Instantia Monodica it is most assuredly true That an Animal or Beast in the Prophetick style signifies not one single Man but a Company Polity or Kingdom For how can they be said to have Horns and Heads and those Horns and Heads be expressly by an Angel from Heaven interpreted of Kings if the whole Beasts did not signifie not single persons but Kingdoms But why these wild Beasts should imply Idolatry as well as Cruelty in their Type the reason lies a little deeper but yet is not fathomless which I conceive is this Because Idolatrous worship is lodged within the Verges of the mere Bestial or Animal nature as may appear from what I have wrote in my Mystery of Godliness to which for brevitie sake I refer the Book 2. chap. 10. Reader 11. Blasphemy Blasphemy for Idolatry is also an Icasmus and the Analogie is discernible enough For what reproachful words are concerning God to the Ears the same is the worshipping of Images or any Creature with religious worship to the Eyes For by either way is declared that which is a contumely and vilification of God And therefore it is no wonder that the Prophetick style affecting an artificial concealment substitutes one kind of Blasphemy for another that Blasphemy which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom distinguishes of Divine Predictions But it is observable that the Scripture also in several places terms Idolatry Blasphemy As in Esay I will recompense into their bosoms your iniquities Chap. 65. 7. and the iniquities of your fathers together saith the Lord which have burnt incense upon the mountains and blasphemed me upon the hills which certainly was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by their acts of Idolatry Qui colunt Idola quasi Deos exprobrant Deo arrogantiam Divinitatis saith A lapide The like express passage is in Ezekiel Thus saith the Lord God Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me in that Chap. 20. 27 28. they have committed a trespass against me namely when I brought them into the Land for the which I lifted up my hand to give it to them then they saw every high hill and all the thick trees and they offered there their sacrifices and thereby presented the provocation of their offering c. which the same Interpreter again expounds of their Idolatries as also Gaspar Sanctius Again Deuter. 31. When they shall have eaten and filled themselves Vers. 20. and waxen fat then will they turn to other Gods and serve them and provoke me so our Translation but the Hebrew has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is properly they will blaspheme me as it is translated by the Seventy in Esay 52. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred Ezek. 35. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word in the Original Lastly it is observable also that in Psalm 69. 9. where the Prophet David says The reproaches of them that reproached thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same as if it had been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are fallen upon me the Chaldee Paraphrast interprets it of that reproach which God receives by communicating his Worship unto Idols whenas yet it is expressed by Blasphemie or contumely of words for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Wherefore seeing the children of Israel are said in their prevaricating in the Worship of God and turning to Idols to blaspheme it is very easie to conceive by the rule of Conjugates that this Idolatry of theirs may well be called Blasphemy Accordingly therefore Alcazar interprets the Names of Blasphemy in the Apocalyps on the seven Heads of the Beast of the Temples of Idols and Grotius paraphrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plena diis qui ità dicebantur in veri Dei injuriam So easily is it acknowledged on all hands that Blasphemy may be put for Idolatry And it is the most happy and significant Icasmus that can be nothing expressing the detestable nature of Idolatry so well as it For Idolatry is as absolute a subsannation and vilification of God as malice could invent and as ill as if they should call him by the names of all that base liveless matter that they make their Images of and proclaim him no better then it For they giving Divine worship to it make it equal to him And this Blasphemy is proportionable in other more worthy Objects that are not God for they are infinitely worthless in comparison of him and therefore it is an infinite reproach and horrid blasphemy against God to worship any thing besides him 12. Bloud That Bloud is an Hieroglyphick of Slaughter Providence it self seems to take for granted in praemitting that Prodigie of raining Bloud before the eruptions of war and bloudshed as History reports and all men naturally interpret And where the Apostle says Ye have not resisted unto bloud the meaning is unto death be it mystically or naturally meant But even there where Death is meant mystically there is mention of Bloud as when the Prophet is charged to denounce to him that sins Ezek. 33. 8. against the Law of God with an high hand that he shall surely die speaking of eternal death yet upon the
the Horse also signifies impediments in the affairs of the Rider and his contumacy and intractableness if he be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hard-mouthed the Rider's both fault and affliction And several other things in the Horse are in like manner referred to him that rides him c. 152. And again c. 233. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And presently after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of all which it is plainly manifest that these Horses are the Symbols of the Conditions of their Riders or of the People over which they are set who are the Beast they ride upon Which will facilitate the understanding of the Visions of the Four Horses in the Apocalyps whose Riders are easily conceived to be Commanders who are properly Emperours and what is signified in the Horses to respect either the Empire or the Emperours themselves Hour See Time Islands That Islands may signifie persons of greater Dignity their eminency or bearing themselves above the Planicies of the Sea does intimate to us But that they may sometimes signifie Temples or places consecrate their being disterminated from other Land as these Edifices are from all other Houses may well allure a mans imagination to believe See Mr. Mede upon the Sixth Seal 8. King and Kingdom If King be look'd upon as one distinct kind of Sovereignty when it is put for Supreme Governour it may either be an Icasmus for every Supreme Governour is to his Body Politick as a King to his or else a Diorismus which is a kind of Prophetick Synecdoche as I have said setting down the Species for the Genus But if it be so as Mr. Mede seems abundantly to have proved in his Regnum Romanum est quartum Regnum Danielis that King and Kingdom in the Hebrew is as large in use of signification as Supreme Power and that Body that is subject thereto be it Kingdom or Commonwealth then to use King promiscuously of any Supreme Power calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Apoc. 17. it is onely an Hellenism and the calling the Seven Heads there Seven Kings needs neither the solution into a Diorismus nor Icasmus but onely an Henopoeia for those Heads amongst them which are conceived to be such a Sovereignty as resides in many 9. And that they are said to be Seven Kings and not seven sorts of Kings that is no unusual manner of speech for we say Four Moral Vertues Five Senses Three Physical Principles Four Passions and the like for three kinds and four kinds of Principals and Passions and so of the rest So the Four Beasts in Daniel that are said to rise out of the Sea are four kinds of Beasts not Individuals of the same kind And the Two Witnesses in the Apocalyps are Two several kinds of Witnesses as Grotius himself acknowledges But were it not that use has made it thus familiar to call seven sorts of Kings seven Kings were a Diorismus the speech being more restrained and determinate For an Individual is more determinate then the Species and the Species then the Genus So little difficulty is there in calling seven sorts of Supreme Governours Seven Kings as the Text of the Apocalyps does chap. 17. 10. 10. Leopard Achmetes c. 272. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Leopard signifies an unreconcilable Enemy And in the same Paragraph he saith If a Commander dreams that he fights with this Animal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cum hoste potente fraudulento formidoloso bellum geret Locusts That Locusts signifie numerous Armies of men pillaging and destroying a Country is plain from Joel 1. 6. For a Nation is come up upon my land strong and without number whose teeth are the teeth of a Lion and be hath the cheek-teeth of a great Lion He hath laid my Vine waste and hath barked my Fig-tree he hath made it clean bare and cast it away the branches thereof are made white By Nation the Jews and Vatablus with others understand a multitude of Locusts but that is but the Type The Persians and Babylonians as also other Nations that were to lay waste Judaea are signified thereby according to Munster and Clarius Grotius also interprets it of the Armies of Phul and Salmanasser Also in the next Chapter vers 2. the gloominess and darkness of that day is imputed to the cloud of Locusts that flie in the aire and their sudden lighting on the place compared to the morning spread upon the mountains And v. 3. The land is as the garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate wilderness namely by reason of their devouring all the green herbs where-ever they come That is the Interpretation of several Hebrew Expositors as also of Vatablus Castalio Drusius Liveleius But Munster and Grotius expound it of the numerous Armies of the Babylonians and Assyrians that were to waste and destroy Judaea Achmetes c. 300. according to the mind of the Indians Persians and Aegyptians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The latter part of which Aphorism is to be referred to the Indian Onirocriticks and does assuredly allude to that of Joel And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any King or Potentate see Locusts come upon a place let him expect a powerful multitude of Enemies there and look what hurt the Locusts doe the enemy will doe mischief proportionably 11. Male-child As the Woman that brings forth is not a single woman but the Apostolick Church so the Child must not be a single person but a company Apoc. 12. to which Grotius also subscribes And Andreas upon the place Filius masculus est Ecclesiae populus the Mystical Christ. Totus enim Christus Caput Corpus est as * Cassandr Consult Art 7. Cassander has noted out of S. Austin If 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore may be understood of a Multitude under one Head why may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thess. 2. 3 Measure See Balance Mark See Character Mill. Achmetes out of the Onirocriticks of the Indians c. 194. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If any one dream he has a Mill grinding he shall prosper in his employment and live in affluence proportionably to theâ—… thickness and fairness of the Mill-stones c. And cap. 195. out of the Persian and Aegyptian Interpretations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Month. See Time Moon See Sun Moon and Stars 12. Mountain Mountain may have several significations As first it may signifie the Temples or Holy places of Idolaters of which there is frequent mention in Scripture under the title of High places Jer. 3. 23. according to the vulgar Latin Verè mendaces erant colles multitudo montium verè in Domino Deo nostro salus Israel Upon which Grotius Colles illi in quibus Idola colebantur nos deceperunt Secondly Mountains signifie Cities Esa. ch 13. 2. concerning Babylon Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain Forerius out
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apocal. 12. that great red Dragon with seven Heads is so called from his Sanguinolency But that his Seventh head 's growing out of this red body signifies that this Beast will be cruel also under the Seventh Head and that this Cruelty it self is part of the Image of the Beast this every one has not noted 5. Resurrection That the Resurrection of the dead has a Political sense as well as a Theological or Physical may appear plainly from Ezekiel 37. 9. Then said he unto me Prophesy unto the wind prophesy son of man and say to the wind Thus saith the Lord God Come from the four winds O breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live So I prophesied as he commanded me and the breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet an exceeding great army That this is to be understood in a Political sense concerning the restoring of the people of Israel to their own Land out of thraldome and captivity is plain from the very mouth of God himself in the following verses Then he said unto me Son of man these bones are the whole house of Israel Behold they say Our bones are dried and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts Therefore prophesy and say unto them Thus saith the Lord God Behold O my people I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel Whence it is plain that to be cut off to be slain and to rise from the dead has as I said a Political sense as well as a Natural or Theological and that Resurrection is a Recuperation of such rights and liberties as have been taken away and a deliverance from persecution affliction and bondage Achmetes cap. 5. according to the Indian doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And cap. 6. according to the doctrine of the Persian Onirocriticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And lastly according to the Aegyptians c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense of all which put together is That the dreaming of men rising from the dead signifies the execution of Justice and deliverance from war bondage and affliction 6. Rivers A River has a double consideration The first in respect of its Original and its recourse thither which is hinted Ecclesiast 1. 7. All the Rivers run into the Sea yet the Sea is not full unto the place from whence the Rivers come thither they return again According to which consideration supposing the Sea a Type of the Extent of the Jurisdiction or Empire of any Potentate as it indeed is Rivers will signifie any Emissary Powers from thence whether Armies or Provincial Magistrates or what Agents abroad soever that are under this chief Power and so act in reference to it These may according to exact Analogie be called Rivers because both themselves and their affairs have recourse to the main Sea the amplitude of that Jurisdiction to which they belong Achmetes c. 178. according to the mind of the Indians Persians and Aegyptians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense of which is That any great King is resembled by the Sea I suppose he means his Kingdom and as all Rivers run into the Sea so the wealth of the world to him And again to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That new Rivers running into the Sea signify new Revenues accruing to the King or Kingdom from people afar off suppose made Provinces by his power 7. The other consideration of Rivers is their limpidness and irrigation but in this respect they have either a Spiritual sense or more Mundane The former appears from what our Saviour hath said John 7. 38. He that believes in me out of his belly shall flow Rivers of water This he spake of the Spirit which they that believed in him should receive The fruit of which Spirit as it is communicable to the generality of the Church is Righteousness Peace and Joy according to that Onirocritical solution of Astrampsychus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of this Water our Saviour Christ John 4. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life Like that in Esay 58. And thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not But Waters are also meant of worldly affluency Jerem. 31. 12. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Sion and shall flow together for the goodness of the Lord for wheat and for wine and for oil and for the young of the flock and of the herd and their soul shall be as a watered garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all Achmetes c. 176. according to the Aegyptian Solutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rivers that water the soil are interpreted of mans livelihood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one sees a River that uses to water the country dried up it portends death sorrow and affliction 8. Saints The first style of Saintship belongs to the Israelites who were a separate people set apart from other Nations and made holy to the Lord by adhering to that Law he gave them not contaminating themselves with the Idolatrous Institutes of the Gentiles Deuteron 33. 2. The Lord came from Sinai and rose from Seir unto them he shined from mount Paran and he came with ten thousands of Saints that is to say saith Vatablus cum populo Israel quorum fuerunt quidem multa millia licèt nâ—…n singuli Sancti tamen sancta fuerunt millia quòd Deus illos sanctificâsset in populum suum illos sibi segregâsset And further in the following verse Yea he loved the people all his Saints are in thy hand Which is plainly spoke of the Israelites according to that sense in Exodus ch 19. v. 5 6. where they are called a peculiar treasure above all people and also a Kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation And this they are said to be if they obey his voice and keep his Covenant Whence it is easy to conceive that those Christians succeed into this Title that are purely Evangelical and do not contaminate themselves by any Idolatrous Practices against the Command and Covenant of God they are Saints in this peculiar and separate sense in that they do not mingle with the Rites of the Gentiles but keep themselves to the Commands of that one Master Christ. If they doe this sincerely and constantly and truly there is little doubt of their sincerity that did not stick to lay down their lives for the truth though they be not so wise and plausible according to the mode of the world nor devoid of all blemishes of humane infirmity yet undoubtedly they are those Saints of which there is so frequent mention in the Apocalyps and are the true Israel of God under whatsoever hardship or low condition of fortune they
may be found to disguise the worthiness of their persons For the Witnesses were to be clothed in sackcloth a thousand two hundred sixty days Scorpion See Serpent Scorched by the Sun Achmetes Onirocrit c. 167. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one dream that the Sun has scorched him much he will be punished by the King proportionably to that scorching according to the doctrine of the Aegyptians Indians and Persians 9. Sea Waters signifying people as the Angel tells S. John the gathering together of people into one Body Politick Kingdom or Jurisdiction may fitly be called a Sea in the Political world as the gathering together of the Waters is so termed in the Natural Gen. 1. And the whole University of Kingdoms or a great part of them may according to this analogie be called either the great Sea or Ocean as is figured out also in the Vision of Daniel Ch. 7. I saw in my Vision by night and behold the four winds of Heaven strove upon the great Sea Where by Winds undoubtedly is meant War as well as by the great Sea a comprehension of several Kingdoms in which this bluster and tempest of War is made one Kingdom fighting against another to enlarge their dominions This analogie of the Sea is also acknowledged in the Interpretations of the Indians Persians and Aegyptians Achmetes c. 178. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any dream he is Master of the Sea he will be entire successour in the whole Kingdom And so likewise of the Winds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a King see the Sea troubled by a wind from a known quarter â—…e will be molested by some Nation from that quarter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if he see the Sea calm he will enjoy his Kingdom in peace This interpretation therefore of the Sea will farther confirm that of the Rivers Serpent That notorious Serpentine shape which deceived Adam and Eve and lapsed them into rebellion against God cannot but assure any one that in Scripture all the Serpentine kind that are described in Prophecy do in all likelihood refer to the Kingdom of the Devil Ship That a Ship as well as a Mill may be an Hieroglyphick of Profit any one may easily conceive if he think but of Merchandizing Achmetes according to the mind of the Aegyptians and Persians c. 180. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one dream he builds Ships he shall grow rich proportionably to the number of the Ships he builds But out of the foregoing Chapter according to the doctrine of the Indian Interpreters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is an interpretation as far fetched as from the Indies indeed Nor is it easy to conjecture why a Ship should intimate the congregating of men for the celebrating religious Mysteries unless we conceive a Ship to represent a Temple Which why we should I know not unless because they are disterminated and solitary buildings as Temples are not joyned to one another no more then a Temple to other Houses But in that it is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Navis mercatoria it may be the profit of the Priest from sacrifices or offerings to Idols may be alluded to And whether any darker recesses in the Ship may represent the Adyta in Temples I know not Such particularities I leave to every mans phancy to pursue at leisure Slain See Resurrection Slaughter See Death 10. Sun Moon and Stars The Sun and Moon have either a Spiritual signification or a Secular Of the Spiritual signification of the Sun there is an example where Christ is called the Sun of Righteousness as he is by the Prophet Malachi Also the Apostle to the Ephesians Awake thâ—… that sleepest that Christ may give thee light The Moon also may have a Spiritual signification supposing it to typifie the Mosaical dispensation Which it may very well doe both because it is a light and a far dimmer light then that of the Gospel as also in allusion to their New Moons and other Festivals of the Jews the order of which depended on that Planet See Mr. Mede on Apocal. 12. To which you may adde That as the Law of Moses is compared to the Moon so may the Light of the Gospel of Christ be compared to the Sun For that the Word of God is compared to Light is plain from that of David Thy word is a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my path And Psalm 119. 105. that great Lamp of the Universe the Sun is the clearest Light men can walk by Whence that vulgar expression of the Sun-shine of the Gospel was framed by very warrantable analogie and does further assure unto us that the Light of the Gospel may also be one Spiritual signification of the Sun 11. The Secular signification of Sun and Moon is when they signifie the Power and Glory of this world And that either generally and at large as Jerem. 15. 9. Her Sun is gone down while it was yet day Which the Targum renders Their glory passed from them in their life-time The like to which is in Amos 8. 9. I will cause the Sun to goe down at noon and I will darken the Earth in the clear day Vatabl. Cùm eritis in supremo felicitat is gradu tunc indè vos dejiciam infelicissimos reddam Again Esay 60. 20. Thy Sun shall no more goe down neither shall thy Moon withdraw herself that is to say Thou shalt have uninterrupted glory and prosperity as it follows presently after The days of thy mourning shall be ended In such places as these Sun and Moon have not a sense determined to any particular Dignity in a Kingdom but signifie onely at large the Glory and Prosperity thereof 12. But in other places there may be a more particular meaning of these Lights For as there is a Political Universe as well as a Natural as I have already shewn which has its Heaven also as well as Earth so there must be something answering in the Political Heaven to those chief conspicuous parts of the Natural the Sun Moon and Stars Whence it will follow that he that is chief in a Political world must be the Sun thereof as may appear though in an inferiour instance touching a Body Oeconomical Gen. 37. 9. viz. the Dream of Joseph that the Sun and the Moon and the eleven Stars made obeisance to him Which Jacob unriddling What is this dream saith he to his son that thou hast dreamed Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to how down our selves to thee to the Earth Wherefore if these Symbols signifie so distinctly in a Family which is but a Body Oeconomical much more is it to be expected that it may signifie so in a Body Politick Achmetes according to the mind of the Indians Persians and Aegyptians cap. 167. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the next chapter he calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second or lesser King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he calls in the following chapter 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense of all which is in brief that in the interpretation of Visions or Dreams the Sun immutably represents the King the Moon the next in power to him the Planet Venus the Queen and the rest of the bigger Stars the Princes or Nobles of the Kingdom 13. Which is not so superstitiously to be understood but that if there were no Queen any third in dignity might be represented thereby For this Venus is also Lucifer which the Hebrews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under which the mighty King of Babylon is represented Esay 14. 12. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer son of the Morning how art thou cut down to the ground that didst weaken the Nations Which seems to be against the analogie of the Onirocriticks which say the Sun signifies the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But they do not say a Star may not signifie him especially when he is not compared with his own Nobles and Princes but with other Kings For a plurality of Suns is unnatural Wherefore in that case the Parable is to be made from the Stars onely and the chiefest King is the greatest and most glorious Star Whence when the Roman Empire had two Caesars unsubordinate to one another they could not well be called Suns but Stars though glorious ones Which agrees well with Mr. Mede's interpreting of that great Star that fell at the sound of the third Trumpet of the expiring of the Western Caesareate 14. But that there is a more Mystical sense of Stars also may appear in that Promise of Christ * Revel 2. 28. I will give him the Morning-star But where Christ saith * Chap. 22. 16. I am the root of David and the bright Morning-star I know not but that may be understood in a Political sense for all Kingdoms had not then nor have yet submitted unto him But where Stars signifie Angels that is more Cabbalistical Apocal. 1. 20. The seven Stars are the seven Angels of the seven Churches According as they signifie also in Job 38. 7. When the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy As many of which as kept not their station but fell into this terrestrial pollution may well be called Fallen Stars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stars fallen from Heaven to the Earth According to which that Apocal. 9. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is nothing but a Periphrasis of some one fallen Angel or Devil who afterwards is called the Angel of the Abyss a great Officer in the Kingdom of darkness That this is the sense is plain in that it is said not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the preterperfect Tense It may not be impertinent also to adde what * Lib. 2. Hieroglyph 1. Horus Apollo says of this Hieroglyphick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. IX 1. Tail Temple 2. Throes Throne of God 3. Thunder an Iconism of Divine assistence for the discomfiting of the Enemies 4. Other more mystical meanings thereof 5. Time Hours Days That Day signifying a Year is an Icasmus 6. The appropriation of Months and Days to the story of the Wicked and Righteous with an inference from the latter of a latitude of compute in the 1260 days in the Apocalyps 7. Trees Vintage Water 8. White-clothing Wilderness Winds 9. Whore and Whoredom 10. The exquisite Analogie Idolatry bears thereunto 11. Wine-press 12. That it signifies also spiritual Destruction and slaughter 13. Woman and Women 14. Worship World 15. That the Prophetick style is so determinately intelligible that the endeavour of understanding Prophecies is most unjustly reproached for any insuperable difficulties therein 16. Certain Rules to try Interpretations of Prophecies by which are more warrantable and genuine which less 1. TAil The Tail of a Beast is that part that follows or comes behind to which therefore the Train of a great Prince or Potentate will correspond in Analogie But me-thinks the Analogie is most exact in Serpents of a great length who therefore have a long train following them But it is significant enough in other Animals also as the Onirocriticks have taken notice Achmet c. 152. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any one dream he rides on a generous Steed such as the Persians called Pharas having a large Tail thick of hair and long he shall have a Retinue or Train of Men or Officers answerable to the fulness and length of the Tail This Analogie will hold good from Nobles to Princes and Emperours or any Sovereign Power over a State or Kingdom In which case their Forces and People are their Train or Tail Temple To omit those more Mystical or Moral meanings of Temple it signifies sometimes in the Prophetick style a People consecrated to God by an outward profession of him and so set apart from other Nations as consecrated Places are from other buildings or plats of ground 1 Tim. 3. 15. That thou maiest know how to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church And Rev. 3. 12. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God which both Grotius and Dr. Hammond interpret of the Church Visible Grotius of the Sardian Dr. Hammond of the Church Catholick 2. Throes of Child-birth The Throes of Child-birth are a Figure or Image of great endeavours to bring something to pass not without much difficulty pain and danger And the compassing their end is a delivery of what they were big with and a deliverance from the pain and danger they laboured under There are several examples of this Iconism in the Prophets Jer. 30. 6 7. Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins as a woman in travail and all faces are turned into paleness Alas for that day is great so that none is like it it is even the day of Jacob's trouble but he shall be saved out of it Also Esa. 66. 7. Before she travailed she brought forth before her pain came she was delivered of a man-child which Interpreters usually understand of the sudden Birth of the Church I mean of the sudden Conversion of the Gentiles to it Grotius of the deliverance of Judaea by Maccabaeus Throne of God The Throne of God signifies a great Throne a magnificent Throne according to that usual Hebraism where Nouns joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acquire a sense of excellency vehemency or greatness So the Trees of God the Cedars of God the Mountains of God are great and high Trees Cedars and Mountains the Fire of God a vehement Fire and the like According to which the Throne of God is an high and exalted Throne a Royal or Imperial Seat from whence the Political World is ruled as God from Heaven rules the whole Universe 3. Thunder Thunder and Lightning signifies the disjection and dissipation of the forces of War Esa. 29. 6. Thou shalt be visited of
with great admiration Chap. 13. 15. And he had power to give life to the Image of the Beast that the Image of the Beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast should be a Par. 1. Agr. 6. killed Chap. 17. 7. And the Angel said unto me Wherefore didst thou marvell I will tell thee the Mystery of the Woman and of the Beast that a carrieth her which hath the b seven heads and ten horns Chap. 13. 11. And I beheld another Beast coming up out of the Earth and he had a Par. 〈◊〉 Agr. 7. two horns 1. And I saw a Beast having b Par. 2 Agr. 1. seven heads and ten horns Chap. 17. 8. The Beast which thou sawest a was and is not and shall ascend out of the b bottomless pit and goe into c perdition and they that dwell on the Earth shall d wonder whose names were not written in the Book of life from the foundation of the world when they behold the Beast that e was and is not and yet is Chap. 13. 2. And the a Par. 2. Agr. 3. Dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority 4. And they worshipped the a Dragon that gave power to the Beast c. See also verse 3. 1. And I stood upon the sand of the Sea and I saw a Beast b Par. 2. Agr. 6. rise up out of the Sea 10. He that leadeth into c Par. 2. Agr. 7. captivity must go into captivity he that killeth with the sword must be c killed with the sword 3. And all the world d Par. 2. Agr. 8. wondred after the Beast 8. And all that dwell upon the Earth shall worship him whose names are not d written in the Book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to a Par. 2. Agr. 3. death and his deadly wound was a healed 14. Saying to them that dwell on the Earth that they should make an c Par. 2. Agr. 5. Image to the Beast which had the wound by the sword and the Beast revived 15. And he had power to give life to the c Image of the Beast insomuch that the Image of the Beast should speak Chap. 17. 9. And here is the mind that hath wisedom The seven Heads are the a seven Mountains on which the Woman sitteth Chap. 13. 11. And I beheld another Beast coming up out of the Earth and he had a Par. 1. Agr. 8. two horns like a Lamb but spake as a Dragon Chap. 17. 10. And they are seven Kings five are fallen and one is and the a Par. 2. Agr. 10. other is not yet come and when he cometh he must continue a b Par. 2. Agr. 4. short space Chap. 13. 1. Having a seven heads and upon his heads the name of a blasphemy 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death and his deadly wound was b healed Chap. 17. 11. And the Beast that was and is not even he is the eighth and is of the a Par. 2. Agr. 9. seven and goeth into b Par. 2. Agr. 7. perdition Chap. 13. 1. Having seven heads and upon his heads the name of a blasphemy 10. He that killeth with the sword must be b killed with the sword Chap. 17. 12. And the ten Horns which thou sawest are ten Kings which have received a no kingdom as yet but receive power as kings a one hour with the Beast Chap. 13. 1. Having seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten a Par. 2. Agr. 11 12. crowns Chap. 17. 13. These have one mind and shall a give their strength and power to the Beast Chap. 13. 1. I saw a Beast rising out of the Sea a Par. 2. Agr. 13. having ten horns Chap. 17. 14. These shall make a war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall b overcome them for he is Lord of lords and King of kings and they that are with him are c called and chosen and faithfull Chap. 13. 4. Who is like to the Beast who is able to make a Par. 2. Agr. 14. war with him 7. And it was given him to make a War with the Saints and to overcome them 16. And he causeth all both small and great rich and poor free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand or on their foreheads 17. And that no man may a buy or sell save he that has the mark or the name of the Beast or the number of his name 10. He that leadeth into captivity shall b Par. 2. Agr. 15. go into captivity he that killeth with the sword shall be b killed with the sword Here is the patience and c Par. 2. Agr. 16. faith of the Saints Chap. 17. 15. And he saith unto me The waters which thou sawest where the Whore sitteth are a peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues Chap. 13. 7. And power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations 12. And I beheld another Beast come out of the Earth and he had a Par. 1. Agr. 7. two horns like a Lamb and he exercizeth a all the power of the first Beast before him Chap. 17. 16. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the Beast these shall hate the Whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire Chap. 13. There is nothing in this Thirteenth Chapter answering to the 16. verse of the other but that verse answers punctually to the main Title of the Vision which is The judgment of the great Whore But that this defect is no prejudice to the certainty of our Parallelism I have already noted Chap. 17. 17. For God has put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and give their Kingdom unto the Beast untill the a words of God shall be fulfilled Chap. 13. 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power was given unto him to continue a Par. 2. Agr. 17. forty and two months Chap. 17. 18. And the Woman which thou sawest is that great City which a Par. 1. Agr. 9. reigneth over the Kings of the Earth Chap. 13. 18. Here is Wisedom let him that hath understanding count the Number of the Beast for it is the number of a man and his number is a six hundred threescore and six 7. Thus you see the Two Visions of the Thirteenth Chapter wholy imbibed into the Vision of the Seventeenth excepting the Original of the Two-horned Beast of which I have given an account already And that it is naturally drunk in not dash'd in by force will appear from that joint-Exposition which I shall make of these two Chapters together interpreting those verses or parts of verses of the Thirteenth which I have subnected to each verse of the
a Decreer of Idolatrous practices and a publisher of Doctrines of Adulterate Worship Whence the fifth Agreement of our first Parallelism is manifest both the Whore and the Two-horned Beast being found Introducers of Idolatry under pretence of promoting Christianity 6. That was the meaning of the Lamb-like Horns and Dragon's speech of the Two-horned Beast But concerning his rising up out of the Earth which is peculiar to him other Beasts being described both in Daniel and the Apocalyps to rise out of the Sea the Winds also bustling against one another on the surface thereof in those four Beasts in Daniel this discovereth this Beast to be quite of another kind getting up not by War nor by power of the Sword as the Potentates of the world doe but in a more still and concealed way and from a meaner condition Cui origo privata Apoc. 13. 11. non publica saith Grotius and he addes further Mos est Hebraeorum vocare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 populum terrae And Molinaeus also upon the Text Sic Latini homines novos ex sordibus provectos ad nobilitatem opes vocant Terrae filios ipsáque Scriptura dicit Deum attollere humilem expulvere Which how true it is of the Whore and the Two-horned Beast every one knows CHAP. XIII Vâ—…r VI. What is meant by the Martyrs of Jesus 2. The sixth Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. VII That the Woman is not Rome Heathen demonstrable from the Beast that carries her 2. That she rides the whole Empire 3. That the Two Horns of the Beast are the Two Imperial Patriarchates but by an Henopoeia may glance also at the Power of Binding and Loosing and at the Horns of the Episcopal Mitre 4. The seventh Agreement of the first Parallelism 5. The first Agreement of the second Ver. VIII What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. That the end of the Vision of the Beast in this Chapter is to represent the Empire in that Succession wherein it is pagano-Pagano-Christian 3. That the prolixity of the Title hinders not but that it may be called the Name of the Beast 4. The meaning of the Name 5. That the Angel having considered the whole Successions of the Roman Kingdom or Empire fixed his mind on that time the Empire was purely Christian and why And that is thence appears what succession of the Beast's time is understood 6. As likewise from his name a little varied into Was is not and yet is Whence the fifth Agreement of the second Parallelism is also evinced 7 8. How the Angel came to give the Beast these Names And that there is an Ellipsis in the Angel's saying The Beast which thou sawest was and is not c. 9. That the Name Was and is not and shall ascend c. signifies the successive Order in being not the actual being or not being of the Beast with a confirmation thereof out of Alcazar 10. A plain Eviction from the Name Was is not and yet is that Was and is and is not do not signifie actual Existence or Non-existence but order of Existence and Similitude 11. That Is not and yet is would neither be good sense nor any elegancy unless the Laws of a right Contradiction were closely touched on in this mysterious Assertion 12. And yet that an absolute Sameness in either Essence or Qualification could not be under this affirmation and negation without falsity Whence Similitude is necessarily intimated thereby 13. That the certainty of the meaning of this Title Was is not and yet is confirms the sense of the former and demonstrates a latitant Ellipsis in the Application of these Names of the Beast which is farther argued from other considerations 14. Why he interprets the Re-existence or Image of the Beast of the Empire 's becoming Idolatrous again rather then of the Revival of its ancient Polity in the Pontifical Power 15. The third Agreement of the second Parallelism 16. The sixth Agreement 17. The seventh 18. The eighth Agreement 19. The third Agreement again noted with a Confirmation therefrom of the above-mentioned Ellipsis 20. That near Resemblance stands for Identity in common elegancy of speech Whence The Beast that was is not and yet is and the Image of the Beast is again evinced to be all one and the fifth Agreement of our second Parallelism thereby farther confirmed Ver. VI. ANd I saw the Woman drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus that is to say with the bloud of the Saints which were the Martyrs of Jesus Which were not Martyrs for the Doctrine of this or that seducing Spirit or false Teacher who might besot them with a foolish confidence and hardy resolution of laying down their life to witness to a Lie cunningly contriv'd for the Interest Advantage of the Inventours of it No these were the close followers of the Lamb Jesus Christ and trode in his footsteps onely and in the footsteps of them that faithfully followed him I mean the Apostles according to their own direction Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ. And him they did follow through prosperity and adversity through good report and 1 Cor. 11. 1. evil report through life and death it self 2. Whose Death is imputed here to the Whore because she by her counsel and animation stirs up the Seven-headed Beast to this Murther and Bloud-shed Accordingly as it is said of the Two-horned Beast that he gave life and animation to this revived Beast and made this breathing Image speak and cause as many as would not worship that is obey and submit to the commands of the Image of the Beast even in those things wherein it was the slain Beast's Image viz. in Idolatry that they should be killed Which is plainly the sixth Agreement of our first Parallelism Ver. VII I will tell thee the mystery of the Woman and of the Beast that carrieth her Which Mystery of the Woman he unlocks by unfolding first the order and succession of the Beast that carrieth her for that is a demonstration that it is not meant of Rome Pagan as I have clearly proved in the eleventh Chapter of this Book and consequently that the meaning of this Mystery of the Whore's Title which displays her nature is such as I have declared upon the Fifth verse in the fore-going Chapter 2. Here we shall onely note that her riding of the Beast implies her to be such a Polity as had the Governance of the whole Empire was not confined to one part thereof As he that rides an Horse is not conceived to ride one part of him and leave the other unridden but to ride the whole So the Whore rides the whole Beast that is the whole Empire as well Oriental as Occidental Which agrees with the description of the Two-horned Beast whom I conceive to be so depainted in the Vision because of the two Imperial Patriarchates the one at Rome the other at
coherence or ligation with the time of the Prophet but onely with one another For so far forth as is expressed in this verse the signification is onely of succeeding Order in Existence and Non-existence and Re-existence which changes upon that consideration are indeed tied to one another but free as yet from being fixed to the Prophet's time or any ones time else Which thing though I have been so carefull to make good yet is an apprehension so easy to admit that Alcazar in his Exposition supposes it without asking leave or giving any account For he understanding the revived or re-existent Beast of the persecuting Empire under Julian the Apostate whom he makes the eighth King and acknowledging the Visions exhibited to John in Domitian's time when the Roman Empire was actually persecutive does evidently implie that The Beast which thou sawest was and is not is not to be understood of Existence or Non-existence joyned with the time of the Vision for it had been false to say the Beast is not in Domitian's time but onely of permutations and successions of the Condition of the Empire Cùm igitur saith he persecutiones interrumpendae forent hâc ipsâ interruptione significatur quod Angelus ter repetit capite decimo septimo dum ait de Bestia Fuit non est Erat non est Quod idem est ac si diceret Modò est modò non est Which phrase signifies no set time of Existence or Non-existence but onely the vicissitude of them This upon the Thirteenth Chapter and to the same purpose he speaks upon the Seventeenth where he asserts that by the Beast that was and is not the Angel onely intimates that there would be an Intermission of Persecution I might adde also that our Protestant Expositours go generally upon the same supposition as Paraeus has noted But this point I hope is abundantly cleared 10. And what has been said of this first Description of the Beast Was is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition is to be understood of the second Was is not and yet is namely that it is the Name Nature or Character of the Beast not any Assertion concerning his present Existing or Not-existing For of that Idolatrous Empire which is here indigitated it could not be properly said when S. John wrote that it was but is not for it did then continue still in an uninterrupted being Nor could it be said of it Is not and yet is for it was not the Image of the Pagan Idolatrous Empireâ—… but that very Empire it self And it is remarkable that this Beast is described as to come hereafter out of the bottomless pit and that the world shall wonder at him when he ascends again upon the Stage beholding the Beast that was and is not and yet is Where therefore neither Was nor Is not have any connexion or ligation with that present Age of S. John seeing it is so evident that Is has not the prediction being not of a present Beast but of one to come And indeed to me it seems very improbable that the Title or Name of the Beast would have been so presently in the same verse repeated again with this little variation had it not been done on purpose to be a Key to the meaning of the former Title and to cast the considerate Reader upon such a sense as I have pitched upon But to reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to make the Prophecy guilty of a sapless and useless Tautologie and to deface in it a special Note and Mark of direction to the true meaning thereof But we proceed 11. Nor can Is not and yet is be understood of any Object but with a close touch on the known laws of a right Contradiction Which is the Mysterious dress which is here affected to excite amusement and without which it will not sound like either sense or an Elegancy The same thing therefore in some sense or other must be affirmed and denied of the same Subject Wherefore as by that part of the Title Was and is not it is naturally understood he is not what he was and as Is not is to be understood in the same extent that Was as if Was intimate his whole Existence Is not must take away his whole Existence and if Was intimate onely the Condition or Qualification of Existence Is not must take away just so much and no more So Is not and yet is must be understood in the same extent and the Object of their Affirmation and Negation must be equal that is to say either the whole Existence of the thing must be affirmed and denied or the same Condition or Qualification 12. The former in this case cannot be pretended to it being so real a Contradiction that it is a down-right Falsity And in the latter if there were a perfect Sameness it would be as rank and as unreconcilable a Contradiction As suppose a man were a King and should be deposed for a time but then afterwards be restored to his Kingdom in as full power as ever it were a real contradiction and gross falshood to say He is not King as well as He is King Whence the fondness of Hugo Grotius his interpretation is detected who makes Domitian the Beast that is not and yet is For it could never be said of him while he was Emperour that he was not Emperour or while he was not Emperour that he was Emperour because to be Emperour was utterly the same Condition at both times he was so if he was so twice For which he has no evasion but by reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But when this sameness is in some respect defective and verges rather towards similitude then exact Identity then indeed this Riddle is proper and though the Aenigma seems to amuse a man with a contradiction yet it declares a truth As is apparent in our Interpretation of the Beast that Paral. 2 Agr. 5. is not and yet is which is this That the ancient Idolatrous Empire is not and yet is where both parts are true For as to the manner of Idolatry it is the same Beast but in respect of the persons whom they would worship it is not the same and therefore as I have already noted is also called the Image of the Beast 13. Wherefore this second Title of the Beast Was and is not and yet is being thus plainly discovered not to signify existence but condition and order of succession it is a farther assurance that our Interpretation of the former Title of the Beast is true also and that the omitting of the Intersertion or subjunction of This is his Name or Property or the like is a mere Prophetick Ellipsis and Artifice of concealment warrantable upon a double ground either as spoken rapturously and ecstatically and therefore thus Elliptically or else because there are Examples of such an Ellipsis in other places of Scripture and in the very
invincible circumstances and inviting opportunities which God by his permissive or more positive Providence brings into the world to try or rather discover what is in the hearts of the wicked and which he is well assured will naturally take effect in those that are lapsed into this lower Fate are look'd upon as Suggestions or Transmissions and Motions upon the hearts of men from God himself and that by such a providential frame of affairs of his allowing at least if not contriving the minds of men are determinated to act thus or thus And no other way then this need we understand touching Pharaoh's heart being hardened by God the grand cause whereof was his permitting the Magicians to emulate if not equalize the Miracles of Moses for the most part for so the Text runs And the Magicians did so with their Inchantments and Pharaoh's heart was hardened And it is as easie to conceive that it might be permitted to the Pseudo-prophetick Beast by the officious Assistence of the Powers of Darkness to doe such Miracles and use such ways of imposing upon the Ten Kings as would certainly enough determine them to the Idolatrous Religion of the Empire But that they were thus certain to be deceived is the fault of their own lapse and of the after-Consequences of it not any Injustice in God 3. But it is here seasonable to consider lest that School of false Prophets sacrifice too much to their own Nets and too lavishly applaud the marvellous pitch of their own policy and the policy of their predecessours how the Romish Politicians have hitherto rowed in a manner with the stream and how God has winked at the times of this Ignorance But let them be assured that the Night is far spent and the Day is at hand wherein God will no longer wink nor men be so universally asleep and in so deep a sopor but that they will be easily awaken'd by that voice of S. Paul commanding all men every where to repent or if you will of John the Baptist Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand For there is no other prevention of that dreadfull and peremptory judgement against the Great Whore who being lulled in security by long and fatal successes saith in her heart I sit as Queen and am no widow and Apoc. 18. 7. shall see no sorrow then by casting away her Idols and by serving the living God Otherwise the stream of Fate and Providence will turn and that Doom shall be fulfilled upon her in the most unwelcome sense Therefore shall her plagues come in one day death and mourning and famine For strong is the Lord God that judgeth her For her time of prosperity is set as is plain by what follows in this present verse of this Seventeenth Chapter 4. Untill the words of God be fulfilled That is These Ten Kingdoms which were contributed to the making up the Ten-horned Beast which was to be rid by the Whore and be at her devotion will be in this subjection but such a time as is decreed by God and predicted by his Prophets So long indeed they will be her servants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till the words of God be fulfilled spoken by the mouth of the Prophet Daniel but no longer For in Daniel 7. it is plainly said of the little Horn that there takes upon him to change Times and Laws that is that makes what Festivals and Solemnities he pleases and for his own advantage appoints Laws and Institutes not onely new but grosly clashing with the known Laws of God that they shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time But then it presently follows But the Judgement shall sit and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it to the end This 17 th verse therefore gives a reason of the unexpected hatred and hostility of the Ten Horns against the Whore in the foregoing verse namely That their giving their Kingdoms to the Beast which is their professing of that Idolatrous Religion they were intoxicated with by the Whore that rides the Beast was to be but for a determinate time foretold by the Oracles of God but that Period expiring the Scene of things would fatally change and the doom of the little Horn or of the great Whore would be executed upon them And there is no kicking against Acts 9. the pricks as our Saviour told Saul out of Heaven And I wish those whom it most concerns would believe the voice and so become of Persecuters the true followers of Christ and living members of his body the truly Catholick and Apostolick Church and would cease to be the Body of an Harlot 5. But we may observe from the joint consideration of these two verses together That these Ten Kings their giving their Kingdoms to the Beast and their being in league with the Whore is all one For their being guided by this Whore makes the Empire Beast by making it Idolatrous And for these Ten Kingdoms though their Kings be called the Horns of the Beast as the four Successours of Alexander are called the four Horns of the Greek Empire divided into four shares yet these Kingdoms themselves may be look'd upon as the greatest share of the Body of the Beast while they are at the devotion of the Whore and profess her Idolatrous Religion Whence their flying upon the Harlot to consume her is ipso facto the dissolving or destroying the Beast that is the making the Empire to cease to be Idolatrous Wherefore it is plain that the continuance of this Ten-horned Beast is Par. 2. Agr. 17. said to be determined by God in this Chapter as well as in the Thirteenth where it is said that it is given unto him to continue fourty two months which is plainly three years and an half the same that a Time and Times and half a Time Whence the truth of the seventeenth Agreement of our second Parallelism is cleared Ver. XVIII And the Woman which thou sawest is that great City which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth The adjection of this last part of the Interpretation is of special consequence and very answerable to the event of things For this Idolatrous Hierarchy having at first as magnificent a Seat in the Oriental part of the Empire as the Occidental and both these Imperial Patriarchates being in a manner alike engaged and alike active or at least alike authoritative in the debauching of the Empire with Idolatrous doctrines and practices the Seat of the Great Whore is not restrain'd necessarily to one place more then another at first But because afterwards this Occidental Patriarchate did so much emerge above the other and exceed the other not onely in his peremptoriness and activity in keeping up and propagating Idolatry and is so foully besmeared or rather has been so swinishly drunk with the bloud of the Witnesses of Jesus but also besides all this did acquire to himself the Right and Title of
Inhabitants of the Earth with the cup of her Fornication This Inscription on the Pope's Crown and the chusing of a Woman-Pope who besides other feats betrai'd herself to be a Whore by falling into labour in the streets of Rome at a solemn Procession and did therein by a palpable Hieroglyphick insinuate to the world that Rome was indeed the Seat of that great Apocalyptick Strumpet are two notorious Specimens of that Jocantry and Festivity as I may so speak that is sometimes observable in Divine Providence answerable to that Ludibundness in Nature in her Gamaieu's and such like sportful and ludicrous Productions And verily this Accident of a Woman-Pope is as assured a truth as that of the Inscription if the Testimonies of above threescore Authors and that of the Romish Party may be thought sufficient to assure it All which are produced by Gabriel Powel in his Theological Disputations De Antichristo Lib. 1. cap. 28. Thes 7. But these things I was not hasty to interweave in my Exposition of these Chapters the contexture of things being abundantly clear and full and firm without them CHAP. XVI 1. What remains for the making up the fullest assurance that can be desired of the truth of our Joint-Exposition 2. That the Roman State from the beginning to the end is to be look'd upon as One Kingdom or Empire appears out of Florus 3. That there had been Five sorts of Supreme Magistrates in S. John's time in the Roman State Reges Consules Tribuni Consulares Decemviri Dictatores and that the Tribuni Plebis were no Supreme Power 4. Nor the Tribuni Militum simply so styled 5. But that the Decemviri and Tribuni Consulares were 6. As also the Dictators 7. That there had been no more then Five sorts of Supreme Governours in S. John's time and that the Interreges were not nor were at all reckoned by Historians a Supreme Government distinct from that of Kings 8. That the Triumviri Reipublicae constituendae was either a Scuffle and Confusion in the Roman State 9. Or else a formal Caesareate exercised by Augustus Lepidus and Antonius 10. That there is full and sufficient ground from Reason and History not to reckon the Triumvirate of constituting the Commonwealth a Sixth Form of Government distinct from Emperours and the Five fore-going Forms 11. That though there had been some other Forms truly distinct but yet of a near affinity with some of the other it had not been so harsh to have accounted them one with those they had that nearness with 12. But that there is a greater Exactness then this in the Application of this Vision and such as Scepticism it self can hardly doubt of 13. The Conclusion of the whole drift of the Chapter with a fuller enforcement of the truth thereof 1. I Have now finished my Joint-Exposition of these 17 th and 13 th Chapters of the Apocalyps saving that I am more fully to confirm that part concerning the Seven Heads being Seven sorts of Supreme Governours succeeding one another in the Empire as also more particularly to indigitate How exact an Image of the Beast that was slain the Revived Beast became in points of Superstition and Idolatry To which if I adde a solid confutation of Ribera's Interpretation of the Seven-headed Beast as also of Grotius his I think there will be nothing wanting to the greatest assurance of the truth of our Interpretation that any one can desire 2. In the first the Controversie is onely concerning the Six first Heads Whether from the Kings to the Pagan Emperours speaking inclusively there were Six Forms of Government and no more or if you will Whether there were just Five before the Roman Caesars That the Roman Kingdom or Empire is to be reckoned from their first Kings downwards I think no man will scruple nor that it is all along the same Beast as well as Florus considers it as one Man and distinguishes his Ages allotting the first 250 years from Romulus to the Infancy of the Roman People or Empire and then 200 years more to its Youth and then 250 years more which reached to Augustus his time to the Manly Age of the Empire but the next 200 years he calls Senectutem Imperii Which shews plainly that he looks upon the whole Succession as one and the same Empire though under several growths which yet was longer-lived a great deal then to be accounted old in Trajan's time Wherefore History it self looking upon the whole Succession of the Roman People as one Body Politick there can be no harshness at all in describing this Body by such a number of Heads as reached from the first beginning of this Succession to the last Period of the Empire 3. Five whereof had passed away in S. John's time and no more nor no fewer then Five as I come now to make good namely Kings Consuls Tribunes Decemviri and Dictators For the People of Rome had never any other Supreme Powers over them but these before their Caesars viz. Reges Consules Tribuni Consulares Decemviri Dictatores Of Kings and Consuls there is no controversy at all Now for these Tribuni Consulares they are so called to distinguish them from the Tribuni Plebis and the Tribuni Militum ordinarily so styled neither of which were the Supreme Powers of the Roman State or Empire For the Tribuni Plebis were rather Plebis then Populi Romani Magistratus And for those few years wherein they hindered the chusing of other Magistrates the City was look'd upon to have no Magistracy at all Quatuor annis sine Magistratibus Roma fuit saith Sextus Rufus of that time Which condition of the City Diodorus Siculus also calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that likewise of Marcus Varro in Gellius plainly shews that they could be no Supreme A. Gell. Noct. Attic. lib. 13. cap. 12. Power In Magistratu habent alii Vocationem alii Prensionem alii neutrum Vocationem ut Consules alii qui habent Imperium Prensionem ut Tribuni Plebis alii qui habent Viatorem Neque Vocationem neque Prensionem ut Quaestores caeteri qui neque Lictorem habent neque Viatorem Where it is plain that the Tribuni Plebis are reckoned amongst them qui non habent imperium and therefore are no Supreme Powers 4. No more are the Tribuni Militum simply so styled as appears out of that of Livy Disciplinâ enim militari miles Centurionis Centurio Liv. lib. 8. Tribuni Tribunus Legati Legatus Consulis paret imperio But the Tribuni Militum Consulari potestate are those Tribuni Consulares which I have already named Of which Fenestella Penes quem sanè Magistratum De Magistr Roman c. 16. ut ipsum nomen indicat eadem quae apud Consules potestas erat collata est nominibus tantùm immutatis ac Plebis ratione haberi â—…oeptâ 5. That the Decemviri was a Supreme Power is plain out of Livy Anno trecentesimo altero quà m condita
Concretes in the same kind but a handsom Repository for different matters signifiable by one Type as is easie to be understood from what is declared concerning that Scheme Eighthly If Domitian be the Beast and the Whore the Roman Power then the Roman Power rides on Domitian's back as if Domitian were not the Head but the Body of the Empire or if you will metamorphoz'd by this marvellous Interpretation into Apuleius his Ass for the Roman Power to ride on But then again Domitian being chief of the Roman Power himself he must by this account ride also upon himself and make a wonderful Centaure such as the deepest-witted Poets never so much as dream'd of 7. Ninthly If the Whore be the Roman Pagan Power how can she be said to be the Mother of Fornications and out of her Cup to intoxicate the Kings of the Earth with that kind of wickedness whenas all the Earth before the Empire was Christian were Idolaters of themselves and stored Rome her self with multifarious kinds of Idolatry Which Objection neither Grotius nor any one else with all the fetches they have will be ever able to assoil Tenthly This Inscription on the Whore of Babylon Babylon the Great Apoc. 17. 〈◊〉 the Mother of Fornications cannot be understood of Rome Heathen as Grotius would have it because there is prefixed Mystery before it which would be a sorry Mystery indeed if it were onely a bare Synecdoche and should intimate no more then that Rome Pagan was another Babylon that is to say an Idolatrous City O the depth of the Mystery In the eleventh place Those ten Kingdomes which Grotius would insinuate to be the ten Horns were not Kingdoms intra fines Imperii Romani as he speaks before the Conversion of the Empire to Christianity nay indeed before the subversion of it or discerption into many Kingdoms how then could these Kings give their Power to the Beast I mean not Apocal. 17. 13. onely to Domitian who is farther removed from them but to the Roman Pagan Idolatry which by this time of Discerption had ceased to be the Religion of the Empire Or how can they be said to eat the flesh of the Whore and burn her with fire whenas the City of Rome had ceased to be Vers. 16. the Pagan Whore before these Kings were in being much more before she was assaulted and sacked by Totilas which was Anno 547. whenas Gentilism was cast out and the Temples of their Idols demolished all over the Empire about the year 399. the very next to that wherein according to the Devil's mistake upon his survey of the proportion betwixt the Inward and Outward Court of the Temple Christianity was expected by the Heathens to expire And again in the twelfth place How can those Ten Kings which Grotius assigns be said to fight against the Lamb in his sense that is against Christianity Apoc. 17. 14. in the behalf of the Roman Pagan Idolatry whenas the Empire had then become Christian and was not that Pagan Beast to whom they should lend their aid and power against the preaching of the Gospel Was it a likely thing that such ten Kings that were foes to Christianity should as Grotius speaks intra fines Imperii Romani Romanis ipsis concedentibus regnare So impossible is Grotius his Interpretation concerning the ten Horns every way 8. In the thirteenth place This destruction of Babylon is a perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full and final destruction set out by the casting a Milstone into the midst of the Sea But none of Grotius his Ten Kings ever destroyed Rome in such a manner In the fourteenth That exhortation to the People of God to goe out of Apoc. 18. 4. Babylon lest they partake of her sins can make no good sense in Totilas his time For would the Angel have all the Christians leave the City of Rome in the year 546. and for several years upwards toward Constantine's time because there might be some Pagan Idolaters still amongst them and not rather keep the City for the better suppressing Idolatry and quite extinguishing it and not let it spread more by the receding of the hearty Christians out of it Truly this gloss of Grotius is very ridiculous and incredible that makes the Angel utter such an irrational Exhortation Fifteenthly If Come out of her my people lest ye partake of her sins be as Grotius interprets Tu popule mi ubi apparuerit Totilae exercitus exite ad Basilicas Apostolorum extra Urbem it will follow that to have returned again into the City after Totilas was gone had been to return into Babylon and partake of her sins again Which is a very vain and fond conceit 9. Lastly His interpreting that Instigation Reward her as she has rewarded you to be made to Totilas and the Goths is harsh and groundless For what injury had Rome done to the Goths but rather the Empire was injured by them And therefore Grotius is sensible of the ill service that Pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does his Interpretation and upon that account applauds a certain Manuscript that has left it out but not very loudly it being so generally contradicted by other Copies Sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abest in MS. non malé CHAP. IV. 1. That this Mis-timing of Visions must needs cast Grotius into the like Absurdities in interpreting the Thirteenth Chapter and that his Exposition of the first verse thereof is guilty of at least nine or ten 2. Four gross Contradictions in the second 3. As many Incongruities or Weaknesses in the third 4. As also in the fourth and fifth 5. Two Absurdities in the sixth and seventh 6. As many in the eighth 7. Three Difficulties in the exposition of the tenth verse 8. Five Incongruities in the eleventh 9. His gross Interpretation of the twelfth verse 10. Four Absurdities in the thirteenth 11. Eight Incongruities or Weaknesses in his expositions on the fourteenth verse 12. Three in the fifteenth 13. Three or four more in the sixteenth and seventeenth 14. And nine more in the eighteenth verse 15. The astonishing consideration of the Absurdness of Grotius his Expositions compared with his Parts and Learning 16. An useful Illation from this weak performance of his That all the Expositions of the Romanists upon these two Chapters are superlatively frivolous and incredible 1. THus many Incongruities and Inconsistencies that I may not say Impossibilities and Contradictions are there in 〈◊〉 Exposition of this Seventeenth Chapter Let us now see how successful he is in the Thirteenth where he taking the same liberty of applying the Prophecy to times it was never meant of it will be a wonder if we finde not the Interpretation alike harsh and incongruous Let us pass therefore through the whole Chapter from verse to verse Where In the first he makes the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns to be the Roman Idolatry whose Heads are seven Hills and whose Horns are ten Kings namely
by re-introducing Idolatry again into the Empire and by Paganizing upon the Objects of Christianity Which may be also farther confirmed from the sixth Seal where Heaven and Earth seem to fall together and the whole Political Universe to be dissolved and yet the Roman Empire it self stood still in Being onely there was a change from Paganism to the Christian Faith Of which sixth Seal Mr. Mede himself notes thus I am verò Mutationis hujusce Objectum est Imperium Romanum at non quà politicè à Caesaribus gubernatum sed quà Satanae principi ejúsque Angelis Daemonibus religioso nomine subditum Wherefore it is evident that according to the Prophetick style this Fourth Idolatrous Monarchy may be destroyed by the mere extermination of Idolatry out of it again and whatsoever is Antichristian and that thereupon ipso facto the true Kingdome of the Saints of the most High begins though not an hair of any mans head falls to the ground nor any Prince or Subject be injured in any of their Rights or Possessions This Consectary is exceeding plain and as highly useful for the asswaging that furious heat in some kinde of Fanaticks that expect such a Kingdome of the Saints as the Jews did a Messias one that would serve their temporal Advantage But the love of the world has blinded both their judgements alike Consect VIII That no Exposition of the Seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalyps that makes not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Seventh King purely Christian can be true and perfect 7. This will easily appear if we consider that wonderful Harmony which is found upon this supposition betwixt the Thirteenth and Seventeenth Chapters where the Beast is said to be slain in one of them and to cease to be in the other to be the revived Image of the Beast in one and the Beast that was is not and yet is in the other That though there be eight Kings yet there are but seven Heads of the Beast which nothing can salve but this Hypothesis For while the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reigned the Beast was not But if that Head was not purely Christian but Idolatrous the Beast was still in Being and had eight Heads in the computation of the Angel himself But it is plain that there is supposed in the Beast a ceasing to be from those words Was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless Pit which that excellent Interpreter Mr. Mede has failed to give their genuine sense for want of this supposition For he saith it may be said of this Beast and that in S. John's time jam olim eam fuisse necdum See Preface Sect. 7 8 9. tamen natam esse which to an unprejudiced minde must needs sound very harshly applied to the words of the Text. For no man will say of a thing still in Being It was much less adde and is not Such an harshness as this grates so hard upon my senses that if I could not understand the Prophecy without such violence against the ordinary meaning of words I should be much dis-heartened from giving my assent But Mr. Mede has done so singularly well in other things that we may well excuse him in this Consect IX That the Whore of Babylon sits not now at Constantinople but that Old Rome is if we may so speak her Seat Imperial 8. The truth of this Consectary appears from several Conclusions in our Joint-Exposition 1. That the Whore of Babylon rides upon the Roman Empire and guides and governs it in matters of Religion which is not true of the Turk at Constantinople 2. The Whore sits upon that Seven-hill'd City that was as it were the Lady of the World in Saint John's time that is given as the surest character of her Seat which we know Constantinople then was not 3. The Name of the Beast is found to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Beast with two Horns being the same with the Whore it is plain that this Whore is seated in Italy And though Bishop Mountague has shewed his wit and pleasantry in finding the number 666 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet I think he did it onely to sport with his despised Opposers and to play upon their ignorance For how can 666 be supposed to be meant for the Name of Mahomet whose Name is wrote so variously in Greek Historians For in Nicetas he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Chalcocondylas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Joannes Cantacuzenus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ducas Michael 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and lastly in Joannes Cananus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is no where called that I can meet with nor is it likely that his name would end in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that I suspect that it is onely a witty Commentum of the Bishop's to make himself merry withall 4. The famousness of the Seven Hills at Rome does so drown the notice of the other that it is not likely but they are though not onely yet chiefly aimed at in the description of the Seat of the Whore But if one of the Cities onely were aimed at it were intolerable to conceit that the Prophecy is so lubricous and defective as when there were two Cities the one exceeding famous for her Seven Hills the other so little famous that it is frequently question'd whether she has Seven Hills or no that it should understand this latter by the Seven-hilled City and not the former there being no intimation in the Text given to understand it of the latter or any way to determine it thereto 5. The Whore or Antichrist that sits on the Seven Hills was many hundred years as appears by the fourth Consectary before the Turk was Master of Constantinople which happened not passing two hundred years ago so that Antichrist it should seem sat a thousand years besides the cushion 6. Upon the fore-head of the Whore of Babylon is written Mystery but the Turk is an open and professed Enemy of Christians 7. And lastly The Whore or Antichrist is the debaucher of the Empire with Idolatry and the worshipping of Idols the Turk a destroyer of them So fond is their conceit that can imagine the Turk to be the Antichrist prefigured in the Apocalyps Consect X. That the Church of England or any other Protestant Churche's departing from the Church of Rome is no Schism 9. This is plain at first sight out of our Joint-Exposition Nor can it be Schism to doe that which it were a sin to omit the doing of or if that will not serve which we are exhorted to doe by the voice of God in the Apocalyps Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues Which is a Monition worth the Apoc. 18. 4. listening to for as many as tender their safety and salvation their security from sin
time of the End would be not of what extent it was Unto the course of which I mean of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the time of the End which is that Time and Times and half a Time these Numbers of 1290 and 1335 do in a special manner direct from the above-said Epocha as you may see at large if you consult that excellent Interpreter I referred to before The Angel tells Daniel The words shall be sealed till the time of the End and Mr. Mede shews plainly how the matter is revealed in this time of the End and even in those very points of this Time which these Numbers direct to which is worth our consideration and admiration CHAP. X. 1. Epiphanius his Exposition of the Prophecie of Paul to Timothy confirmed from the reference it has to that in Daniel 2. Grotius his miss-timing this Prophecie of Daniel and applying it to Antiochus how rash and groundless 3. A Confutation of his Application 4. The right timing this Prophecie by Calvin and Mr. Mede who both interpret it of the Roman State and Empire 5. A more particular account of the two first verses of the Prophecie Mr. Mede's way 6. As also of the third 7. And fourth 8. That the sense of this Prophecie so clearly accordâ—… with that of S. Paul that it is manifest he refers to it in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. That though this Interpretation of Mr. Mede be unexceptionable throughout yet the two first verses of the Prophecie may be otherwise expounded and more suitably to S. Paul's Prophecie in his Epistle to the Thessalonians 1. WE see therefore what small reason Grotius has to turn off these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a frigid and undeterminate Posthac when they signifie in this place at least so punctually and determinately Which is yet impli'd still more plainly in that the Apostle says that the Spirit speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which intimates some Record where this Prophecie is written in a manner totidem verbis For if there be any force in reasoning from words and phrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie some such thing not simply Inspiration but verbal description of what is inspired Which advantage neither Grotius nor any one else I think can alledge for their Interpretation if it agree not with this which Epiphanius first so happily lighted upon and Mr. Mede has so marvellously well improved and is found most exactly to agree with that Prophecie of Daniel which shall be the last Prediction of the Churche's lapsing into Idolatry which I intend to produce The words are these Then shall a King doe according to his will and he shall exalt himself Dan. ch 11. v. 36 37 38 39. and magnifie himself above every God and shall speak marvellous things against the God of Gods and shall prosper till the Indignation be accomplished for that that is determined shall be done Then he shall not regard the God of his fathers nor the desire of women nor regard any God for he shall magnifie himself above all For together with God in his seat he shall honour Mahuzzim yea together with a God his Ancestors knew not shall he honour them with gold and silver and with precious stones and pleasant things And he shall make the Holds of the Mahuzzim jointly to the forein God whom acknowledging he shall increase with honour and shall cause them to rule over many and shall distribute the Earth for a reward 2. This is Mr. Mede's Translation of the Text which is very easie and natural as to rules of Grammar and Criticism as I shall take notice afterwards In the mean time I cannot but observe how groundless and irrational Grotius his Interpretation is who expounds all this of Antiochus both against the stream of Antiquity who always suspected Antichrist to be here prefigured and against all probability of things For to pass by the direction of those Numbers above mentioned that fall into that Time and Times and half a Time that comprise the continuance of the Wonders Daniel enquires after which Wonders are intimated in this present Prophecie as well as in that of the little Horn as also the necessary determination of this Time and Times and half a Time by the Middle Synchronals of the Apocalyps who can imagine that the Series of Daniel's Visions Chap. 11 and 12. that reach to the day of Judgment as certainly they do should admit of so vast an Hiatus or gap as from the Gests of Antiochus to the end of all things neglecting that long tract of time betwixt in which the Church is so much concerned Wherefore Calvin has judiciously adventured to interpret these verses of the Roman Empire which immediately succeeded the Greek in the last times whereof Antiochus is said to reign according to the Prophecie of Daniel though he has over-rashly on the other side rejected the opinion of the Ancients who suspected Antichrist concerned in these verses Mr. Mede therefore has most happily joyned them both together as we shall see anon 3. Now accordingly as Grotius has miss-timed the Prophecie so his Applications are alike cold and incongruous For he cannot make good that Antiochus was a Rejecter of the Gods of his Fathers nor of the love of Women against which the Roman Writers themselves expressly witness For à Lapide upon the place affirms that he both worshipped the Gods of his Fathers and made the Jews doe so too and both Gâ—…sper Sanctius and he tax Antiochus for his Mulierosity and excess in Luxury And as touching Mauzzim besides that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural number is not so likely to be the proper Name of any one God he does not make it out by any History that Antiochus was such a zealous worshipper of this Modin as he would have him called or that he had a Temple built to him in Modin which is a City in Judea cut out in a Rock and in all likelihood was a strong Hold and therefore was called Modin but without any reference to this imaginary Modin of Grotius the strange God of whom Antiochus should be so zealous a worshipper For which conceit he brings no proof but 1 Mac. 2. 15. where the Officers of Antiochus are said to make the Jews to sacrifice in Modin but not to the God Modin So that Grotius his whole Interpretation is but a mere precarious phancy Let us now cast our eyes upon Mr. Mede's 4. Mr. Mede therefore accordingly as Calvin before him supposes that at the thirty sixth verse of this eleventh Chapter the Prophecie of Antiochus breaks off and that the Roman Kingdom comes into consideration Which is not doubtful and conjectural but necessary from the reasons already intimated Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rightly rendred Then shall a King doe according to his will For that particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of such a lax sense that there is no injury done in putting upon it this determinate meaning
are said to ascend up to Heaven in a cloud it seems an Allusion to Christ's Ascension after his Crucifixion which is also alluded to here in the eighth verse And the time of Christ's mournfull Prophecy before his Resurrection was about Three years and an half if we may believe Chronologers to make the Allusion still more perfect Ver. XIII And the same time there was a great Earth-quake and the tenth part of the City fell and in the Earth-quake were slain seven thousand Names of men and the Remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of Heaven That an Earth-quake signifies Political Commotions and change of affairs is obvious to any one to note But that the City here mentioned should be understood not of a City of brick or stone but a Polity has not been so easy for every one to hit on But I conceive it is plain enough that this City is the very City mentioned in the eighth verse which is called the great City and this great City is the Whore of Babylon and the Whore of Babylon is nothing but the body of the Idolatrous Clergy in the Empire who appertain to the seventh or last Head of the Beast which is an Head of Blasphemie as well as the six first that is to say an Idolatrous Head Whence we may understand what is meant by these Seven thousand Names of men For neither seven nor thousand signify any determinate number though by a pleasant Diorismus they seem to doe so but onely the nature or property of those Names of men that are said to be slain namely That they are Titles Dignities Offices or Orders of men belonging to the State of Christendom as under the Seventh Head that is become Idolatrous and Antichristian And in that this Number Seven is multiplied into a Thousand it signifies a perfect and durable nulling all such Offices and Orders of men Which if Mr. Mede had taken notice of it would have saved him the labour of making out the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and also the solicitude touching the proportionableness of the Number of the slain For no men at all here are necessarily implied to be slain but onely all Antichristian Offices and Fraternities to be dissolved and abrogated and things to be reduced to the purity of the first four hundred years For to slay by a Diorismus signifies nothing else but a causing a thing to cease to be This I little question but is the true meaning of this place And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will have a sense marvellous coincident therewith But that there is any design upon the brick and stone the walls and buildings of Rome either in this present Vision or any other in the Apocalyps I do profess my self for the present so dim-sighted as not to discover the Papal Polity by an Hylasmus not the material City being understood in all the denunciations against her so far as I see yet So that if she be to be burnt or sack'd or sunk by Earth-quakes it may be but a By-Accident and not directly pointed at nor prefigured in the Apocalyptick Visions But if such a thing should happen in such circumstances as should in a special and peculiar way fit with some of these Prophecies it will be therein comprised by an Henopoeia of the second sort as I have intimated in my Prophetick Schemes But be this how it will I make no question but this thirteenth verse of the Chapter we are upon concerns mainly if not onely the Idolatrous Clergy it self But it is said of the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the remnant that they were indeed affrighted and amazed but gave glory to the God of Heaven as being just in his judgments 2. Out of what I have written here and in my Mystery of Godliness I think it is evident enough that that Antichristian Opposition that is made Book 5. Ch. 17. Sect. 8. against the Prophetick and Regal Office of Christ is clearly prefigured in this Vision of the Two Witnesses who are said to lie slain in the street of the great City during the Conculcation of the Outward Court of the Temple by the Gentiles And truly though some please themselves in conceiting this Vision such an invincible puzzle I cannot but prosess that the fense thereof seems to me as clear as the Meridian Sun And for that special Knot therein imagined to lie in the eighth verse how these Witnesses can be understood of Christendom their bodies being said to lie dead in the City where our Lord was crucified which must be Jerusalem I have already intimated that this City is called the old Jerusalem spiritually or mystically as well as Sodom and Aegypt And if any one have an heart to hear for it requires no great labour of the head to understand it the brief and plain sense of this verse is this That these Two Witnesses shall lie despoiled of all Respect and Power in the Precincts of the Jurisdiction of that Church which hitherto has always been the greatest and is now very large indeed consisting of mere formal carnal and Hypocritical Professours of the worship of the true God in which Church our Lord also was crucified What can be more easy and plain then this For it onely supposes that this carnal Hypocritical Witness-slaying Church of the Christians is one succeeding City Synagogue or false Church with the formal Hypocritical Prophet-murthering Church of the Jews Which is a plain truth whether this Prophecy suppose it or no. But we proceed CHAP. XIII 1. That the little Horn in Daniel is a Type of that Power which should oppose the Regal Office of Christ. 2. That the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel is not that of the Lagidae and Seleucidae but the Roman proved from the universal Consent of Ecclesiastick Writers 3. From the eminency and greatness of the Fourth Kingdom 4. From the distance of time betwixt the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae and the Kingdom of the Stone cut out without hands or the Kingdom of the Son of man which is also the Kingdom of Heaven or of God 5. Grotius his fond and profane Interpretation of the Son of man as if thereby were meant the People of Rome 6. The like extravagancy in his interpreting the Stone cut out without hands of the same People 7. The unsoundness of that conceit more particularly discovered 8. The Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae farther proved not to be the Fourth Kingdom from the Coexistence of the Ten Kings according to Type 9. From their vastly-differing Periods the one ending according to Daniel presently after Antiochus the other not before the Day of Judgment 10. From Daniel's making the great Horn the first King in the Third Kingdom and four lesser to grow up after him on the same Goat's Head 11. From the four Heads of the Leopard which are the four Successours of Alexander in this Third Beast or Kingdom and from Daniel's reckoning Antiochus in the latter end of
miss-led into so bad an adventure The Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven according to him is Populus Romanus nullum intra se habens regem When our Saviour Christ intimated to the high Priest that he was that Son of man that should come in the clouds of Heaven it seem'd so high an Arrogation that he rent his clothes and said he had spoken blasphemie And truly I think that neither Jew nor Christian can well acquit Grotius of that crime who attributes that which is the peculiar character of the Messias to a Prophane and Pagan people and that forsooth because they had no King as if they were ever the better for that But they had Kings at first and both in the Infancy of their Empire and afterwards they had a Supreme Power so great and imperial as may excuse them from the least shew of Contempt They had always over them a Sovereignty so that they could not be deemed the Son of man for any such private condition For the Summa Potestas is the Summa Potestas under what name or form soever and of the same real grandeur Besides that they were a most glorious and victorious people before Antiochus his time So that it is a very dilute and sapless conceit of Grotius to apply the phrase of the Son of man to them for any inconsiderableness in them or obscurity For they were not so in the times of Antiochus 6. Again the Kingdom of the Son of man and the Stone cut out without hands are all one both in truth and according to Grotius his own Concession But this Stone is Christ and his Kingdom as being Heavenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing erected not by humane power but by the power and Spirit of God That this is the meaning of without hands is the general vote of Interpreters S. Jerom Irenaus Justin Epiphanius S. Augustin Theodoret and several others Where think you does Grotius take shelter now Why This Figure which is so appropriate to Christ and mentioned of him so often in the New Testament This Stone must be cast away as if it were neither precious nor a Corner-stone and be bestowed again on a Pagan people the Romans For so Grotius does not stick to profess Idem Lapis Filius hominis and he made the Son of man before the people of Rome But can a man believe that the Original or Success of that people was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing brought to pass by the special power and Spirit of God and not more humano according to the usual course of the World and that not of the best kind their beginnings being helped on by a rabble of Ruffians and Robbers 7. No but that is not Grotius his gloss you will say Let us therefore hear what it is Lapis abscissus de monte sine manibus according to him is Exercitus populi qui suae esset spontis nullique regi pareret cujus populi origo à monte nempe Palatino In which there is nothing sound nor solid For was this Roman Army any thing more suae spontis in that they had not a Kingly Government at Rome That Supreme Power of Consuls and Senatours was as directive and coactive as if it had been Regal So that the motion of this Army was never the more spontaneous for this Again The Stone cut from the mountain without hands implies that it was then spontaneously divided from the Mountain when it is said to be cut thence But when the Romans first issued from mount Palatine yea so soon as they were populus Romanus Regal Government was amongst them it being the first Government of this People and therefore they were not then Populus suae spontis according to Grotius his Conceit so that he cannot bring both ends together And lastly To interpret Mountain here in a literal sense is unskilfully done and not according to the analogy of the Prophetick style nor the very intimation of the present Text which says the Little stone became a great Mountain itself and filled the whole Earth Wherefore this Mountain signifying not literally but politically there is no question but the other does so too and that the Stone is in some sense homogeneall to this rocky Mountain Whence the sense is plainly this That out of the great Mountain that is the Roman Empire there should be a People raised not by humane power or policy but by the Spirit of God and the preaching of the Gospel by Jesus Christ and his Apostles which should be a peculiar people to him and become the Subjects of his Kingdom that is to say That the Church of Christ should be cut out of the Roman Empire without humane help This is a most easy and undistorted sense and against which there cannot be made the least Exception 8. Fourthly which I have already intimated above The Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast with iron teeth and the Ten toes of the iron leggs of the Statue signify the same thing Wherefore it is plain sith the Ten toes imply a Coexistence of the Ten Horns by reason of the coordination of their Site that there must be Ten Kings together in the Fourth Kingdom But in the Kingdom of the Seleucidae and Lagidae there were not Ten Kings together all at once Therefore that Kingdom is not the Fourth 9. Fifthly Antiochus Epiphanes part of this Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae is said to rise up in the latter time of the Kingdom of the Successours of Alexander Dan. 8. 22 23. Wherefore this Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae has expired near two thousand years ago But the Kingdom of the Fourth Beast reaches even to the Day of Judgment Dan. 7. 9 10. And I beheld till the thrones were cast down and the ancient of days did sit His throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as burning fire A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the Judgment was set and the Books were opened c. That this is the Description of the Day of Judgment is the general Opinion of both Christians and Jews and answers exactly to the Lake of fire and the opening of the Books Apocal. 20. which Grotius himself does interpret of the Last Day Whence we may safely conclude that the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae is not the Fourth Kingdom as having ceased so long before that time though we understood the Day of Judgment in the sense of the Rabbins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to which the meaning of I beheld till the thrones were set and the Books were opened is this That the Prophet Daniel had a prospect even to the utmost end of that great Day But he begins more particularly at the beginning of that Day in the eleventh verse But this I have onely noted by the bye 10. Sixthly and lastly Alexander's Kingdom and that of his Successours
man upon earth may dispense with one tittle thereof But for authorizing Interpretations Opinions and the Rites and Ceremonies of Religious Worship either this is in a Christian Prince's power and not in the Priest's or else his Kingdome and safe administration thereof is not in his power For all these things according to the Eternal Law of Nature and of Reason are to be in the hand of him that is Supreme Governour and it is a contradiction to his Supremacy if it be not so For he that holds the rains of the Souls of men rules their whole Persons and the strongest rains are those of Religion And therefore if any Power distinct from the Kingly pretend to the right of ordering the affairs of Religion farther then his allowance and liking that Power is really the King and the King himself a precarious Power to be blown about and blown out of his Throne by the false breath of these pretenders to the Headship of the Church as often and as violently as they please Wherefore as the plain and confessed Law of Christ is immutable so what is doubtful and merely Ritual is to have its interpretation change or continuance at the judgement and discretion of every Christian Prince who has most justly and necessarily the power of accommodating such things to the peace composure and prosperity of his Kingdome Nor have the Ecclesiastick Powers any right in an immutable and essential manner to affix to the Christian Religion any thing that is not expresly and declaredly comprised therein according to the Divine Authority of the Scriptures For it is an high wrong to that Religion which is to be Everlasting and Universal to be bound and fettered with either Rites or Opinions that are but Temporary or Topical or that the Errours and Mistakes of dark Antiquity should become as a Law of the Medes and Persians to more serious and clear-sighted Posterity or what was fetched up upon some transitory emergency that all the importunities and necessities of after-Affairs of the Church or any parts thereof should not be able to conjure it down again for the making the Gospel more freely to run and be glorified 7. And therefore most apertly and judiciously has our Church declared in her Homily of Fasting That God's Church ought not neither may it be tied to any order now made or hereafter to be made and devised by the authority of Man but that it may lawfully for just causes alter change or mitigate those Ecclesiastical Decrees and Orders yea recede wholly from them and break them when they tend either to Superstition or to Impiety when they draw the people from God rather then work any edification in them And in the Book of Articles she again plainly asserts That it is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places Article 34. one or utterly alike for at all times they have been diverse and may be changed according to the diversity of Countries Times and mens manners so that nothing be ordain'd against God's Word And lastly in the close of that Article Every Particular or National Church hath authority to ordain change and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by Mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Which Affairs of so dispensable and changeable a nature if they could be ordered by a power distinct from and independent of the Supreme Power of any Christian Nation and affecting and relishing a private Interest of their own what wilde commotions and confusions might they cause in a Christian State while they gore and spurre up the Ass to goe that way where he sees the Angel of the Lord with a drawn sword to drive him back Wherefore it is most safe and just that in all preter-Essentials to Christian Religion the Supreme Magistrate in every Christian Nation have the allowing or disapproving of them and that no Rites nor Opinions pass into Decrees but by his Authority that the Priesthood may not be able as they ought to be so faithful to their Prince as not to be willing to teach or decree any thing against his Interest whose Subjects they are or against the Safety Peace and Prosperity of the whole State of which they are but part and therefore ought to have no power to doe any thing independently of the Prince who is the Common Father of his whole Countrey and whose Interest is the good and welfare of all Who therefore must needs be the Head of the Church over all Causes and Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil as our Church does plainly acknowledge that vital Influence may indifferently flow from him into all the members of his Dominions But this is a point that might have been more seasonably deferr'd till we came to the Antichristian Opposition to the first branch of the Divine Life which is Humility and which the superlative Pride of the Papal Supremacy does so apparently affront But that there is not the least smutt of Antichristianism in Episcopacy itself I have already abundantly evinced 8. Now concerning those Oppositions that be made against Faith the Root of the Divine Life our Church is so plainly free from them as any one may perceive that pleases but to recount them that it is enough merely to intimate so much Onely I cannot let go this seasonable opportunity of triumphing in her behalf in that she is so throughly reformed from that notorious though subtle and slim piece of Antichristianism I mean that Self-ended Policy in those Doctrines and Practices which are so many in the Church of Rome and so profitable and yet Our Heavendirected Reformation has perfectly refined us and cleansed us from them all The consideration whereof must needs make our Mother the Church of England look very lovely and amiable to every ingenuous and discerning eye who cannot but bless God for that due judgment and faithfulness which he put into our Royal and Reverend Reformers and must be a great satisfaction to every honest Priest or Minister of our Church that he neither feeds himself nor the people with Lies after the manner of the Roman Priesthood nor puts one morsell of bread into his mouth filched from the Laiety by fraud and imposture and that as he labours in the Gospel so he lives by the Gospel and not by Figments and cunningly-devised Fables 9. Those Oppositions also against that Divine Grace of Humility which are specified in the ninth tenth and eleventh Chapters that our Church is cleared from them it is more apparent to any one that considers them then that I need give my self the trouble of particularly making it out The Pope's Supremacy is not onely declared against but sworn against as is very just and right And though there be peculiar Habits for Clergy-men yet as I have noted above our Church does professedly declare there is no Holiness in any such things but that they are for decency and distinction And distinction betwixt Laiety and Clergy is as
like extravagancy in his interpreting the Stone cut out without hands of the same People 7. The unsoundness of that conceit more particularly discovered 8. The Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae farther proved not to be the Fourth Kingdom from the Coexistence of the Ten Kings according to Type 9. From their vastly-differing Periods the one ending according to Daniel presently after Antiochus the other not before the Day of Judgment 10. From Daniel's making the great Horn the first King in the Third Kingdom and four lesser to grow up after him on the same Goat's Head 11. From the four Heads of the Leopard which are the four Successors of Alexander in this Third Beast or Kingdom and from Daniel's reckoning Antiochus in the latter end of this Succession 12. That the little Horn does of necessity appertain to the Roman Kingdom become Ten-horned and Pagano-Christian at once 13. That it is of equal duration with the Whore and Two-horned Beast and at least coincident in time with them and the Beast restored 14. From which Equality and Coincidence be is discovered to be the Whore or Two-horned Beast 15. That the Patriarch of Rome is more especially concerned in this Type 16. The exquisite Applicability of the Characters of this Horn to the said Patriarch 17. The Application of those Characters that more particularly concern his opposing the Regal Office of Christ. 410 CHAP. XIV 1. The Vision of the Rider of the white Horse Apocal. 19. proposed 2. A general account of that Vision 3. What meant by the white Horse what by the flammeous eyes of his Rider 4. What by his Name known onely to himself 5. What by his garment dipp'd in bloud and that this as also the precedent Characters are applicable to Christ's Body the Church 6. The meaning of the Sword coming out of his mouth 7. And of the treading the Wine-press of God's wrath 8. The meaning of the Inscription upon his thigh in reference to himself 9. As also in respect of his Church to which it is applicable As also the treading of the Wine-press and the Sword coming out of his mouth 419 CHAP. XV. 1. That the rest of the Sacred Titles of Christ are referrible to the Prophecies we have already treated of 2. As likewise all the Oppositions to the Divine life in general saving that of turning the Church into a City of Merchandises 3. Which seems predicted in the Lamentation over the Ruines of Babylon Apoc. 18. Ver. 11. The meaning of the eleventh twelfth and thirteenth verses Ver. 14. Of the fourteenth fifteenth and sixteenth Ver. 17. Of the seventeenth eighteenth nineteenth and twentieth Ver. 21. The Exposition continued from the twentieth to the end of the Chapter 423 CHAP. XVI 1. This mystical sense of the burning of Babylon confirmed out of his Joint-Exposition and from Alcazar's Interpretation and that the same is prefigured in the destruction of Tyre 2. How lively the Patriarch of Rome is typified in Ezekiel by the King of Tyre 3. Another Vision to the same purpose in the same Prophet 4. A third Vision in Esay concerning Esay 23. Tyre typifying Rome Pagan Christian and then Pagano-Christian Ver. 18. That Tyre that is Rome will be reformed from her Pagano-Christianism and become purely Christian again and Apostolick according to this Vision 6. That these Visions of Tyre must needs have a farther meaning then what literally concerns that City 7. An Exposition of the eighteenth verse of the last Vision comprising the Prediction of the Reformation of Rome Pagano-Christian 8. What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a general reflexion upon the appositeness of these four last Prophecies for the setting out the Merchandising of the Church of Rome in the management of her Ecclesiastick Affairs 429 CHAP. XVII 1. Their lying Legends perstringed in S. Paul's Prophecie of the Latter times 2. A more full Prefiguration of that Antichristian Opposition that is against Faith in part of his Prophecy of the Man of Sin 3. A clear Exposition of that part of the Prophecy 4. Strictures in the Apocalyptick Visions to the same purpose 5. The Pride of the Bishop of Rome prefigured in the King of Tyre as also his Downfall and how 6. His gorgecus splendour set out both in the King of Tyre and in the Whore of Babylon 7. The Pride and Downfall of this Patriarch typified in the King of Babylon The meaning of the twelfth and thirteenth verses Ver. 14. The meaning of the Prophecy from the fourteenth to the nineteenth verse Ver. 20. An Explication of the twentieth verse 10. Farther Prefigurations of the Papal Pride in the Whore and the little Horn. 11. An easy and genuine Exposition or Paraphrase of the thirty sixth and the thirty seventh verses of the eleventh Chapter of Daniel wherein the Impious Self-elation of the Bishop of Rome is clearly foretold 12. That the sense of the two following verses of this Prediction may be still the same with Mr. Mede's 435 CHAP. XVIII 1. That the truth of the foregoing Paraphrase may be assured out of Saint Paul's Prophecy of the Man of Sin The three first verses thereof interpreted Ver. 4. Wherein this Man of Sin exalteth himself above all that is called God and what it is to snew himself to be God Ver. 5. The meaning of to be revealed in his time and what that is that withstandeth Ver. 7. The Mystery of Iniquity doth already work how to be understood and who the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 8. What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what the meaning and manner of his destruction with an intimation of the exquisite Applicability of this Prophesy to the Papal Power and Imposture 2. A short Parallel betwixt the little Horn in Daniel and this Son of Perdition 441 CHAP. XIX 1. A summary Proposal of Grotius his Exposition of the foregoing Prophecy 2. That the coming of Christ in this Prophecy cannot be understood of the Destruction of Jerusalem 3. Nor Apostasy attributed to Caius nor he said to sit in the Temple of God nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fit so well with Vitellius 4. That Caius his purpose of placing his Statue in the Temple was no Mystery of Iniquity but gross Prophanevess 5. Grotius his ridiculous luxation of the sense of the Prophecy in making Caius the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition concealed by Vitellius his standing in the way and yet upon Vitellius his removal not Caius but Simon Magus to be the man revealed and destroyed 6. That in all likelihood the Story of Simon Magus is a Fiction and from what Occasion 7. That if it were true it is not so applicable this wicked man Simon being not consumed by the Spirit of Christ's mouth but onely his Coach and Horses 8. That Grotius makes Paul prophesy of things past his Epistle being written ten years after Caius his death with a full Answer to Grotius his first Argument to the contrary 9. An Answer to the
That Magical words were used in the mixing of Philtres 4. Pillars Rain Red. The seventh Head of the red Dragon what it intimates 5. Resurrection That to be cut off and stain signifies also Politically 6. Rivers what they signifie in reference to the Sea 7. What in respect of their limpidity and irrigation 8. Saints Scorpion Scorched by the Sun 9. Sea Serpent Slain Slaughter 10. Sun Moon and Stars The spiritual signification of Sun and Moon 11. A secular signification of them in general 12. A more particular signification of them in that sense 13. In what sense the King of Babylon is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lucifer and the Western Caesar a Star in the Apocalyps 14. A more mystical signification of Stars and what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies 245 CHAP. IX 1. Tail Temple 2. Throes Throne of God 3. Thunder an Iconism of Divine assistence for the discomfiting of the Enemies 4. Other more mystical meanings thereof 5. Time Hours Days That Day signifying a Year is an Icasmus 6. The appropriation of Months and Days to the story of the Wicked and Righteous with an inference from the latter of a latitude of compute in the 1260 days in the Apocalyps 7. Trees Vintage Water 8. White-clothing Wilderness Winds 9. Whore and Whoredom 10. The exquisite Analogie Idolatry bears thereunto 11. Wine-press 12. That it signifies also spiritual Destruction and slaughter 13. Woman and Women 14. Worship World 15. That the Prophetick style is so determinately intelligible that the endeavour of understanding Prophecies is most unjustly reproached for any insuperable difficulties therein 16. Certain Rules to try Interpretations of Prophecies by which are more warrantable and genuine which less 253 CHAP. X. 1. The order and entrance of his Search into the Prophecies beginning at the Seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalyps 2. That the Seventeenth Chapter and the Thirteenth treat adequately of the same Subject proved by Two Parallelisms of Agreements 3. The Parallelism of Agreements betwixt the Two-horned Beast and the Whore of Babylon 4. The Parallelism of Agreements betwixt the Seven-headed Beast with ten Horns in the thirteenth Chapter and the Seven-headed Beast with ten Horns in the seventeenth 5. That the Parallelism of the Seven-headed Beasts in those Chapters is perfectly adequate and exact And also of the Two-horned Beast and the Whore saving that her Original is omitted and her Destruction mentioned in the Seventeenth Chapter of both which a sufficient account is rendred 6. The Adequateness of these Parallelisms demonstrated by comparing the Seventeenth and Thirteenth Chapters so as it may appear that the one does wholly imbibe the other saving in what is above excepted 7. That the naturalness and unforcedness of this Imbibition shall be made good by a joint Exposition of the two Chapters 261 CHAP. XI 1. The great importance of proving the Seven Heads of the Beast to be Seven Sorts of Governours 2. That the proving of the Seven-headed Beast to signify the Idolatrous Roman Kingdom or Empire quatenus Idolatrous will go far toward the proof of the former Position 3. That the Seven-headed Beast is a Kingdom or Empire 4. And particularly the Roman 5. That it is the Idolatrous Roman Kingdom or Empire 6. That it is this Idolatrous Empire or Kingdom through all those Ages it is Idolatrous 7. That it represents the Roman Kingdom or Empire in those Ages onely in which it is Idolatrous Whence the true meaning of the slaying of the Beast and a farther confirmation of the foregoing Assertion is to be understood 8. That this adequate Representation of the Idolatrous duration of the Empire implies that no Seven single Persons can be the Seven Heads thereof 9. The same conclusion inferred from the Stigmatizing these Seven Heads with the note of Idolatry whenas more then Seven nay all of the Pagan Emperours were Idolaters 10. Also from the ordinary form of speech in distinguishing Animals by the number of their parts 11. And finally from the certainty of the Seventh Head's being not one single Person but a Succession 12. That what-ever Interpretation supposes these Seven Heads Seven single persons is not onely false but impossible 13. That it follows from what has been evinced That the Beast in the 17 chap. of the Apocalyps is the Roman Empire degenerated again into a kind of Paganism 14. As also that the Whore of Babylon is not Rome Pagan but Pagano-christian 15. And that the coming of Antichrist at the very last end of the Worldis a Chimericall Fiction 16. The true Subject of the Visions of the 17 and 13 Chapters of the Revelation 269 CHAP. XII 1. The Scope and Order of his Joint-Exposition Ver. I. What is meant by Whore 2. What by her Greatness 3. That she is not Rome Heathen but Rome Pseudo-Christian Ver. II. Who the Kings of the Earth and what their Drunkenness 2. The first Agreement of the first Parallelism made good Ver. III. That the Two-horned Beast and the Whore's being in the wilderness might have made one of the Agreements of the first Parallelism 2. The second Agreement of the first Parallelism 3. What meant by the scarlet colour of the Beast 4. The second Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. IV. The Woman 's purple and scarlet and precious stones and pearls what they signify 2. And how plainly the third Agreement of the first Parallelism is evinced 3. What is meant by the Cup of abominations in the hand of the Whore 4. That it is a Philtrous Cup with an inference therefrom of the truth of the fourth Agreement of the first Parallelism 5. The chief charm used in the mingling of this Philtre 6. Fire from Heaven Excommunication 7. Other Miracles for the promoting Idolatry 8. What the golden Cup signifies in respect of the Metall Ver. V. The names of Whores inscribed on their foreheads 2. That the whole sentence is the Whore's Name and how ridiculous it is to understand by Mystery a mere Synecdoche 3. The Interpretation of these parts of her name Mystery and Babylon 4. As also of Babylon the Great the Mother of Fornications 5. A demonstration of the fifth Agreement of the first Parallelism 6. The different Rise of the Two-horned Beast from Others 276 CHAP. XIII Ver. VI. What is meant by the Martyrs of Jesus 2. The sixth Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. VII That the Woman is not Rome Heathen demonstrable from the Beast that carries her 2. That she rides the whole Empire 3. That the Two horns of the Beast are the Two Imperial Patriarchates but by an Henopoeia may glance also at the Power of Binding and Loosing and at the Horns of the Episcopal Mitre 4. The seventh Agreement of the first Parallelism 5. The first Agreement of the second Ver. VIII What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. That the end of the Vision of the Beast in this Chapter is to represent the Empire in that Succession wherein it is pagano-Pagano-Christian 3. That the
prolixity of the Title hinders not but that it may be called the Name of the Beast 4. The meaning of the Name 5. That the Angel having considered the whole Successions of the Roman Kingdom or Empire fixed his mind on that time the Empire was purely Christian and why And that it thence appears what succession of the Beast's time is understood 6. As likewise from his name a little varied into Was is not and yet is Whence the fifth Agreement of the second Parallelism is also evinced 7 8. How the Angel came to give the Beast these Names And that there is an Ellipsis in the Angel's saying The Beast which thou sawest was and is not c. 9. That the Name Was and is not and shall ascend c. signifies the successive Order in being not the actual being or not being of the Beast with a confirmation thereof out of Alcazar 10. A plain Eviction from the Name Was is not and yet is that Was and is and is not do not signifie actual Existence or Non-existence but order of Existence and Similitude 11. That Is not and yet is would neither be good sense nor any elegancy unless the Laws of a right Contradiction were closely touched on in this mysterious Assertion 12. And yet that an absolute Sameness in either Essence or Qualification could not be under this affirmation and negation without falsity Whence Similitude is necessarily intimated thereby 13. That the certainty of the meaning of this Title Was is not and yet is confirms the sense of the former and demonstrates a latitant Ellipsis in the Application of these Names of the Beast which is farther argued from other considerations 14. Why he interprets the Re-existence or Image of the Beast of the Empire 's becoming Idolatrous again rather then of the Revival of its ancient Polity in the Pontifical Power 15. The third Agreement of the second Parallelism 16. The sixth Agreement 17. The seventh 18. The eighth Agreement 19. The third Agreement again noted with a Confirmation therefrom of the above-mentioned Ellipsis 20. That near Resemblance stands for Identity in common elegancy of speech Whence The Beast that was is not and yet is and the Image of the Beast is again evinced to be all one and the fifth Agreement of our second Parallelism thereby farther confirmed 286 CHAP. XIV Ver. IX What is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that Siracides seems to allude to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his description thereof 2. That Constantinople is also allowed to have Seven Hills and that it makes for the proof of the eighth Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. X. That the making the seven Heads seven sorts of Governours is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a natural and necessary truth 2. How naturally the different successions of the Supreme Powers of the Roman Empire fall into eight parts 3. The onely true reason why there are numbred Eight Kings though but Seven Heads of the Beast 4. That the dividing of the Emperours into Pagan Christian and Pagano-Christian is aimed at or supposed in the enumeration of the Eight Kings is an unexceptionable Truth 5. That it is most credible that after the Sixth King no other account of distinction of the Supreme Power of the Empire was look'd upon by the Angel but what respected Religion 6. A demonstrative Inference from One is that there is an Ellipsis in The Beast that thou sawest was and is not c. 7. Why Apocal. 17. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence the last subdivision is confirmed and the tenth Agreement of the second Parallelism made good 8. The fourth Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. XI That the description of the Beast is his Name and part thereof used for the whole as in the Name of God which farther confirms the above-mentioned Ellipsis 2. The easie and genuine meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. That the meaning of Verse 11. The Beast that was and is not he is the eighth is that his Head is the eighth 4. That the Eighth King by an Henopoeia may admit of more Caesars then one reigning at a time and why 5. The ninth Agreement of the second Parallelism 6. The seventh Agreement Ver. XII The eleventh Agreement of the second Parallelism 2. The twelfth Agreement 3. The meaning of Verse 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. XIII The thirteenth Agreement together with the meaning of Verse 13. being of one minde and of giving their strength and power to the Beast 2. That the Pope once emerged above the Emperour even in Secular Power may continue the succession of the seventh Head there being nothing else intended thereby but the secular Pagano-christian Sovereignty of the Empire Ver. XIV The fourteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism 2. The fifteenth Agreement 3. The sixteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism 296 CHAP. XV. Ver. XV. The seventh Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. XVI The folly of those Interpreters that understand the Burning of the Whore of the burning of the Houses of Rome by fire Ver. XVII The Ten Kings giving their Power and Kingdom to the Beast according to the will and purpose of God how stupendious an Arcanum 2. In what sense God may be said to put it into their hearts 3. That it is rather Fate then Policy that has carried on the affairs of the Whore so prosperously hitherto with an Admonition thereupon 4. The meaning of Until the words of God be fulfilled with a farther Admonition to the Apostatized Church 5. The eviction of the truth of the seventeenth Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. XVIII Why the Seat of the Whore is so determinately affixed at last to Old Rome in this Prophecie 2 3. A clear and confessed evidence that Old Rome is here pointed at as the Seat of the Whore with a short Paraphrase upon the sense of the Verse 4. That the Seat of the Two-horned Beast is also fixed to Old Rome and of the Cabbalisticalness of the Apocalyps 5. That the Numeral Name of the Beast is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that it is so to be written and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proved from the ancient Orthography of both the Greek and Latin Tongue 6. That the ancient Latines who usually sounded long i as a Diphthong pronounced their Vowels nearest to the Greeks 7. How exquisitely this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to Events 8. That the finding the number 666 in other names does not at all weaken the determinate applicability of this 9. In what sense 666 is called the number of the Beast 10. The application of the Root thereof illustrated from the Cabbalistical application of the Root of the Tetractys 11. The last Agreement of the first Parallelism 12. The last Agreement of the second 13. That the Vision of the Whore is more appropriate and peculiar to the Church of Rome 14. Of the Inscription Mysterium on