they bear the world in hand in the mean time that they are doing the work of God and promoting the Interest of the Kingdom of his Son Jesus This I say in general is the very Nature and Essence of Antichristianism And where this poison is imbibed into publick Authority that either one Person or Body politick or jointly both of them together if they be the first beginners or continuers of this Mystery of Iniquity in a due latitude thereof are assuredly that Antichrist there is such a noise of in the Christian world And for others that have it not in such a measure yet so far forth as they are Teachers Abetters or Obtruders of such Practices or Principles upon pretence of Religion as naturally frustrate the End of the coming of Christ they are so far also Antichristian 4. Wherefore he that has duly considered and satisfied himself what is the great Scope of the Gospel of Christ and finds but out which he cannot easily miss what things are contrary thereto if he but colour them over with plausible pretences of promoting the Interest of Christ he has ipso facto drawn the true Image or Idea of Antichrist whereby he may surely know him whereever he is Now that great Scope and those main concernments that the Gospel of Christ aims at are plainly these namely The extirpation of Idolatry out of the world as also A releasement of God's people from the improfitable burthen of Judaical Ceremonies which we may call the Privative End of the Gospel and The exaltation of the Divine life whose Root is Faith in God and of a world to come and the Branches Humility Charity and Purity as I have more at large discoursed in my Explanation of the Mystery of Godliness And in this is comprized the Positive End of Christ's coming into this world CHAP. II. 1. The rooting out of Idolatry by the Messias prophesied of by Jeremy That all the Gods that made not Heaven and Earth should perish 2. An explication of that Prophecy and an assertion of our Saviour's right of being worshipped for ever as the Eternal Logos who made Heaven and Earth 3. Proofs out of the Psalms that the Messias was to root out Idolatry 4. Several places in the New Testament witnessing against Idolatry and Image-worship 5. That the Spirituality of Christian Religion indigitated by our Saviour does abundantly evidence the unlawfulness of Image-worship or of what Idolatry else soever 1. THat God intended the rooting out of Idolatry by sending Christ into the World appears as well by those Prophecies of the Old Testament that foretel that all Idolatry shall be rooted out for by whom should it be done but by the Messias in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed as by several passages in the New Of the first sort is that in Jeremie chap. 10. where the Prophet puts this prophecy in the mouths of the Jews that were carried captive into Babylon Thus shall ye say unto them saith he The Gods that made not the Heavens and the Earth they shall perish from the Earth and from under the Heavens But the preceding context is so lively and magnificent and so close to our purpose that it ought not to have been omitted At the seventh verse therefore Who would not fear thee O King of Nations for to thee doth it appertain Forasmuch as among all the wise men of the Nations and in all their Kingdoms there is none like unto thee But they are altogether brutish and foolish the stock is a Doctrine of vanities Silver spred into plates is brought from Tarshish and Gold from Uphas the work of the workman and of the hands of the Founder Blue and purple is their cloathing they are all the work of cunning men But the Lord is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King At his wrath the earth shall tremble and the Nations shall not be able to abide his indignation And then follows this Prophetick denunciation against every undue object of Divine worship Thus shall ye say unto them The Gods that made not the Heavens and the Earth they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens 2. Things are exceeding clear in this Prophecy saving in that comparison of the King of Nations with the wise men of the Nations betwixt whom there is that infinite disparity that the collation seems hugely improper if the pure Deity be here conceived to be compared with any wise men whatsoever Grotius therefore ingeniously hinteth that it is meant of some of the wise men of the Nations that had been translated into the number of their Gods as Taautes for example which a little helps out one terme of the comparison these wise men being supposed to have been advanced to Divine honours after their death and to have been reckoned amongst the Gods But I must confess even that in the 86 Psalm Among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord there is none that can doe as thou doest has often puzzel'd me that the Prophet should vouchsafe to compare the Gods of the Nations which were but Deified Mortals or at best but particular Angels or Daemons in that higher sense with the pure infinite and omnipotent Deity which has made me often suspect that such passages as these are to be understood of the Messias who was also to be incarnated and to become the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thereupon after his sufferings to be declared King of Nations and the Worship of the whole Earth according as it follows in that Psalm All Nations whom thou hast made shall come Rev. 25. 3 4. and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy Name And you know he was the Logos or Word which was in the beginning without which nothing was made that was made As the Authour to the Hebrews also witnesseth Thou Lord in the beginning layedst the Foundations of Psalm 102. 25. the Earth and the Heavens are the work of thy hands Which is spoke of the Messias his time being there so plainly decyphered as appears in the 22 verse When the people are gathered together and the Kingdoms to serve the Lord. Whence that is also plain that Christ shall be ever the same and that his years shall have no end and that this Prophetick denunciation The Gods that made not Heaven and Earth shall perish from Vers. 27. the Earth and from under these Heavens cannot reach him But the worship of any thing else that is not the pure Deity is to be cast away according to the meaning of that Prophecy 3. That also in the 97 Psalm plainly shews that Idolatry is to goe down at the coming of Christ. Confounded be all they that serve graven Images that boast themselves of Idols worship him all ye Gods which the Author to the Hebrews does expresly interpret of Christ whereby he proves his Divinity and doth therewith disapprove of giving any Religious worship to
Sacerdotum praeparatur exercitus Which is a sign that in Gregory's judgment Antichrist was not to be born of the Tribe of Dan but of the Tribe of Levi whom we will further suppose to lay about him for the obtaining of this Levitical Sovereignty and for the advancement of his Episcopal Chair successively in some such manner as follows 3. First he will pretend that it is unfit that the visible Catholick Church being One should not be united under One visible Head Which reasoning yet though it make a pretty show at first sight being closely lookt into will vanish into smoke For this is but a quaint concinnity urged in the behalf of an impossibility For the erecting such an Office for one man which no one man in the world is able to perform implies that to be possible which is indeed impossible Whence it is plain that the Head will be too little for the Body which therefore will be a piece of mischievous Asymmetry or Inconcinnity also No one Mortal can be a competent Head for that Church which has a right to be Catholick and to over-spread the face of the whole Earth There can be no such Head but Christ who is not mere Man but God invested in Humane nature and therefore is present with every part of his Church and every member thereof at what distances soever But to set some one Bishop over the whole Church were to suppose that great Bishop of our Souls absent from it who has promised he will be with her to the end of the World and you may be sure not an idle Spectatour but a carefull Feeder and Governour of their Souls who do really believe in him and unfeignedly obey him 4. Nor does the Church Catholick on Earth lose her Unity hereby for she is under One common Head of the whole Church as well Triumphant as Militant which to come nearer to the Objection is a Visible Head of his Church to those that can approach his Court in that glorious Metropolis in Heaven where undoubtedly he is to be seen sitting on his Sapphire Throne in great Majesty and Glory and where his true Subjects in a small space of time may either see him themselves or at least converse with them that have frequent recourse unto him and wait in his presence And no man I think will say that any large Empire has an Invisible Head because the Emperour himself has placed his Palace in the chiefest Province of his Empire and never comes within the view of some parts of his Dominion and multitudes of men never see him as never having the opportunity of visiting those parts where the Emperour's Court is Whereas Jesus Christ the Head of his Church was seen here on Earth for a good space as also visibly to travel hence into the higher Regions of his Kingdom and in due time will visibly return hither again to take account of the Administratours of his Affairs in these lower Provinces Wherefore Christ is a more visible Head in his large Empire then any Emperour in his So evident is it that there wants no One Visible Head of the Church besides Christ himself 5. But yet notwithstanding all this this ambitious Patriarch I describe will bear the world in hand that it is very fit there should be One visible Head of the Church Universal which should succeed Christ or rather some one whom he would pretend to be Prince of the Apostles and that his Seat is that Apostolical Seat and that there is a necessity for Unity in the Church and for slaking all controversies there should be some one such though the Plea to any indifferent man cannot but seem very weak and frivolous For â—…as I have already intimated the Church will be sufficiently One by being under that One Head Christ Jesus and under One Law which is the Word of God which has been already proved sufficiently plain in all things necessary to Life and Salvation But for other things whether Ceremonies or Conceits they do not at all break the Unity of Christ's Kingdom but it will be truly and conspicuously his so long as it professes the Faith of his Apostles let them otherwise use what difference of Rites they will or differ as much as they can in unnecessary Opinions provided always that none of these Rites or Opinions be really and plainly against the Apostolical Doctrines which are the universal and irreversible Law of Christ's Empire upon Earth For thus the Church-Catholick being in this sort variegated in Externals will yet be visibly the Spouse of Christ though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though cloathed with a Vestment of various flower-work and colours 6. But for this high-flown Patriarch to pretend that his Seat is this Infallible and All-decisive Apostolical Seat is a Plea that can have nothing solid at the bottom For if there had been any such Prelation of some one of the Apostles over the rest it were of that great Moment if ending of Controversies in all succeeding Ages be of that Moment that it would have been recorded in the Scripture and would have ended or prevented all disceptations amongst the Apostles themselves or any others concerning them But quite contrary S. Paul declares that he is in nothing inferiour to the chiefest Apostles which plainly implies an Equality 2 Cor. 12. amongst them all Besides if it were so that some one Apostle had an Authority or Headship over the rest and had once his Residence in such a particular See it does not follow that he that succeeds him in that See should succeed him in that Headship or at all in his Apostleship but onely in his Bishoprick Nor is it credible that if this Prime and Oecumenical Apostle had designed his immediate Successour to the same latitude of Jurisdiction that the claim should not be made and acknowledged by the Universal Church in those more innocent and morigerous times Of so little weight are such pretences as these 7. But if such pretty Sophisms will not serve the turn since Ambition has inflamed the Patriarch's spirits he will leave no stone unmoved to accomplish his desire and what Sophistry cannot doe must be effected though by the coursest methods of either Worldly or Infernal policy That they may therefore obtain this absolute Ecclesiastick Sovereignty the Successours in this pretended prime Apostolical See we will suppose to stick at nothing But that they will forge or counterfeit Canons of Authentick Councils and make them speak for the Supremacy of their Patriarchate that they will countenance abet or allow Treasons and Murthers though upon Emperours and Emperesses Kings and Queens and their whole Posterity by some intrusted Instrument of State whose ambition instigated him thus bloudily to assassinate his Liege Sovereign that he might succeed him in his Kingdom or Empire Whereupon notwithstanding by parasitical fawning conniving or allowing nay by congratulating the success of so beastly an enterprize these eager Candidates for the Ecclesiastick Empire will not stick to
style represents under the figure of Animals or single Persons whether by the simple Appellation of Man or Woman or else such Conditions of man or woman as Whore Wife Witness or the like Now what Life and Spirit is to a natural Animal that is Rule and Power to figurative Persons or Animals in the Prophetick sense which are Bodies Politick And therefore as the loss of the one is the death of the one so the loss of the other is the death of the other And because there is a Spirit in all things even in those things that are inanimate the fading or vanishing of that spirit may be said analogically to be the Death of those things Instances are innumerable I will onely adde that as in the Hebrew Idiom not to be is to be dead so in analogie any thing that is not what it was namely any thing that is changed from its former condition this change thereof may goe for a kind of Death as Death is ordinarily said to be a Change 6. Desart That by Desart is meant Paganism Alcazar pronounces with great confidence speaking of the Woman in the wilderness In qua locutione notandum est per Desertum proculdubio figurari Gentilitatem For which opinion he produces a cloud of witnesses Clemens Alexandrinus Origen Ambrosius Basilius Hieronymus Gregorius Hilarius Hesychius c. The reason of which Hieroglyphick I conceive is this The Idolatry of the Pagans was much in Woods and Groves and on the tops of Mountains and wast places and the names of their Daemons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have reference to the fields and desarts Besides that Idolaters do not emerge above the pitch of the mere Animal life and their worship and devotion is little higher then that of the Elephant or Cercopithecus The Rapacity also and bloudy Cruelty of the Pagan Kingdoms farther fill out the congruity of the Type And consequently where such a condition of things is as this does typify that is to say whatever Kingdoms or Empires do paganize they do ipso facto become a Wilderness or Desart 7. Dragon The Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies Draco or Serpens and also Cetus as being the great Serpent or Dragon of the Sea And accordingly the Seventy render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it is a Figure of the Devil the ancient Cabbala of Moses may assure us and it may be though one be noted chiefly yet the Serpent there may have a Prophetick Henopoeia in it and signify the whole Principality of Satan that Kingdom of Darkness which has been ever in opposition against the Kingdom of God and therefore it is no wonder that those Kingdoms that have in such a special manner afflicted the Church have been represented under this Figure as Aegypt and the Roman Empire Awake awake put on strength O arme of the Lord awake as in the Esay 51. ancient days in the generations of old Art noâ—… thou he that hath cut Rahab that is Aegypt see Forerius and wounded the Dragon which is Pharaoh as Ezekiel plainly speaks out I am against thee Pharaoh King of Aegypt the great Dragon that lieth in the midst of the Chap. 29. Rivers And for that he lies thus in the Rivers he is called Leviathan as if he were a Water-serpent or a Whale Psalm 74. Thou brakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gavest him to be meat to thy people in the Wilderness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heads of the Leviathan as if this Leviathan as the Dragon in the Apocalyps had more Heads then one These considerations plainly intimate to us That the Seven-headed Serpent in the Apocalyps which is the Roman State or Kingdom is so represented not onely in regard of that old Serpentine form that tempted our first Parents but has a reflexion also upon that Tyrannical Kingdom of Aegypt which is typified under the image of a Dragon and Leviathan and that not only Rome Pagan has a share in this Type but Rome Pagano-Christian For all the Seven Heads are from the Body of the Dragon and the Beast that was and is not and yet is is as well the Dragon as not the Dragon and therefore is as well Aegypt and I wish I could not say more as the Church of God or the Kingdom of his Son Jesus 8. Drunkenness It is taken sometimes for the being so filled and intoxicated with the pleasures and affluences of this world as to be regardless and senseless of the things of God Esay 29. Stay your selves and wonder cry ye out and cry They are drunken but not with wine they stagger but not with strong drink For the Lord has poured upon you the spirit of deep sleep and hath closed your eyes the prophets and the rulers the seers hath he covered Such a remiss Stupor and Drunkenness does the prosperity of this world often cast men into Achmetes from the Indian Interpretations cap. 111. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any one dream he is drunk with wine riches and power will flow in to him proportionably to his dunkenness And he affirms the like in the following Chapter according to the sense of the Aegyptians and Persians There is also a Drunkenness from the Cup of Affliction which is often intimated in the Scriptures 9. Eagle Esay 40. 31. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not be faint And Exod. 19. 4. Ye had seen what I did to the Aegyptians and how I bare you on Eagles wings and brought you unto my self Artemidor lib. 2. c. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For poor men to dream they ride upon an Eagle it is good for it signifies they will be supported and well relieved by the rich Earth-quake So we usually turn the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but it signifies also more generally any shaking or concussion as Heb. 12. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the Author says this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the removing of those things that are shaken Hagg. 2. 21. Speak to Zerubbabel Governour of Judah saying I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and I will overthrow the Thrones of Kingdoms and I will destroy the strength of the Kingdoms of the Heathen This is a plain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The like ruine and overturning of things is set out but by what is the effect of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Earth-quake properly so called Jer. 4. 24. I beheld the Mountains and lo they trembled and all the Hills moved lightly Which verse 26 he interprets as Haggai before I beheld and lo the fruitful place was a Wilderness and all the Cities thereof were broken down c. Achmetes out of the Indian Persian and Aegyptian Onirocriticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Artemidor lib. 2. c. 46. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
but Fire from Heaven To which destruction whoever do take upon them to adjudge men may very well be said to bring down fire from Heaven upon them which that Thunder-bolt of Excommunication does threaten 15. Flesh. By Flesh is understood in Scripture whatsoever is opposite to the Spirit and I mean in a Moral or Mystical way and that is all to be consumed by the Spirit and by Fire But more particularly Flesh signifies sometimes that which they vulgarly call Carnal Ordinances in some such sense as that is meant by S. Paul Are ye so foolish having begun in the Gal. 3. 3. spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh Where he speaks of the Law of Moses And the Author to the Hebrews more expresly who speaking Chap. 7. v. 16. of Christ and comparing of him with the Mosaick Aaron Who is made saith he not after the Law of a carnal commandment but after the power of an endless life And still nearer to our purpose chap. 9. ver 10. where he speaks of a service which stood onely in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal Ordinances imposed on them untill the time of Reformation By Flesh therefore may be understood all the external Ordinances and Institutes that men have rashly heaped upon Christianity whether merely useless or else Superstitious and Idolatrous for these are to the spirit of Christianity as the over-load of a fulsome and over-grown and unwholesome Flesh to the spirit of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 16. But there is another sense of Flesh taken much notice of in the Onirocriticks Artemidor lib. 3. c. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not good for a rich man to dream he eats his own flesh for it signifies the utter wasting of his riches or substance Achmetes c. 283. according to the Indian Persian and Aegyptian Interpreters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Like that of the Israelites eating the flesh or the Leviathan in the Wilderness for the Leviathan or Dragon is the King of Aegypt And again c. 285. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And lastly according to the Indians c. 87. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And compendiously and at once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Flesh is universally referred to gold and riches in the interpretation of Visions or Dreams 17. Floud See Water Fornication See Whoredom Frogs A Frog is an Hieroglyphick of Imperfection saies * Hieroglyph lib. 29. Pierius according to the sense of the Aegyptian Priests and he makes as if the occasion thereof was the observation of the half-finished generation of this Animal out of the slime of Nilus which he casts up in his overflowing after which this Creature is seen half-formed part Frog part Mud as * Lib. 1. Hieroglyph 25. Horus Apollo also expresly affirms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in that it is thus gendred of filth and mire I should look upon it as a fit Emblem of that Wisedom which is not from above but is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earthly Animal or Sensual and Devillish and is accompanied with bitter zeal and strife in the heart as the Apostle intimates just before and contrary to that Wisedom which is from above which is first pure not bemired with worldly lusts then peaceable not breeding contention nor full of words and brawlings like the importunate narsh and disharmonious Coaxations of Frogs so called in the Greek from that very ungratefull noise as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the shrilness and asperity of the noise they make much less forward to war and bloudshed or to the instigating of Princes and men in Power thereunto which the hoarse and harsh Coaxation of these Creatures may be a fit Symbol of and the rather if these Trumpeters to war be conceived to be such men as are as soft and unwarlike as these naked and slimy Animals no more fit to fight then they but be onely Trumpeters to war and confusion and that for their own Interest the zealous declamations and vociferations they make being in behalf of themselves as all the noise the Frog makes is with its tongue turned inwards towards its one gullet Whence that Creature seems a very lively Emblem of such Wretches as these Artemidor lib. 2. c. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ranae homines impostores scurras significant which has no small affinity with our larger description of them 18. Gemms and precious Stones See Crown God In the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Magistrates as well as God as appears from several places of Scripture And Artemidorus has taken notice of the Analogie even from the highest Antiquity lib. 2. c. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quicquid dominatur vim habet Dei And again lib. 3. c. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any rich man dream he is made a God it prognosticates a very great Principality For Princes are in a power of doing good and hurt in a manner equal to the very Gods CHAP. VII 1. Hail the signification thereof according to Scripture 2. And the ancient Onirocriticks 3. Harvest the evil and auspicious sense thereof 4. Head how clearly significative of Sovereign Power whether in Many or One. 5. Heaven and Earth 6. Horn. 7. Horse Islands 8. King and Kingdom 9. That Kinds or Sorts of things are sometimes expressed as if Individualls of the same Kind 10. Leopard Locusts 11. Male-childe Mark Measure Mill Month Moon 12. Mountain the several significations thereof 1. HAil Whenas Winds and Storms signify Political Commotions and Warres as is acknowledged by Grotius and all other Interpreters that they doe as in Daniel 7. 2. where the Four winds of Heaven are said to strive upon the great Sea well may a storm of Hail signify War and Incursion of the enemie and especially if they come from the North the congeledness of this Meteor bearing upon it the character of that Quarter Two eminent Examples of this Prophetick Figure we have in Esay The first Ch. 28. Behold the Lord hath a mighty and strong One which as a Tempest of Hail and destroying storm as a floud of mighty waters overflowing shall cast down to the Earth violently The crown of Pride the Drunkards of Ephraim shall be troden under feet Haec significant saith Forerius hostium adventum qui universum regnum Israel devastaturi erant But it is so plain it wanted no interpretation The other example is Esay ch 30. And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard and shall shew the lighting down of his arme with the indignation of his anger and with a flame of devouring fire with scattering and tempests and hail-stones For with the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down c. that is to say The forces of the Lord will come against Assur like Thunder and Lightening and Hail So plain is it that an Hail-storm is significative of the incursion and assault of an enemie according to the style of Scripture 2.
The like significancy is also acknowledged in the Onirocriticks Artemidor lib. 2. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The like he saith also c. 41. which have some similitude with that in Daniel But to come nearer to the point concerning Hail Achmetes out of the Indian Persian and Aegyptian Onirocritical Solutions c. 191. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But yet more particularly of Hail and more to our present purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one dream that Hail falls on a place he may expect a through and sudden incursion of the enemie And further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if he dream that the Hail hurt the stemms or stalks of the Corn accordingly as they are broken in the same proportion will the slaughter of men be upon the place 3. Harvest That cutting down Corn is significative of the death of men appears by that Apparition of twelve men seeming to mow the Corn-fields with sithes in Merchia upon which a pestilence followed But that mortality that is by war is still more fitly expressed thereby Achmetes out of the Indian Onirocriticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a King dream he sees harvest reaped in his own Countrey he will suddenly hear of the slaughter of his people This similitude is also used in Scripture Jer. 15. 33. The daughter of Babylon is like a thrashing-floor it is time to thrash her yet a little while and the time of her Harvest shall come But Harvest sometimes has a more auspicious sense as in that of our Saviour John 4. 35. Behold I say unto you Lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to Harvest And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit to life eternal that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together 4. Head That the Head of a Beast in these Prophetick Figures signifies that Person or those Persons in whom the Supreme Power resides is as infallibly to be concluded as the fourth Proportional in Arithmetick three Numbers being given For we have three terms of the Analogie here also viz. a Kingdom and the Sovereignty thereof and a Beast which is the Prophetick figure of a Kingdom Wherefore we cannot miss to say As a Kingdom is to the Sovereign Power thereof so is this Prophetick or figurative Beast to the Head thereof and alternately As the Kingdom to the Beast so the Sovereign Power of the Kingdom to the Head of the Beast Whence we see plainly that the Head of a Beast answers to the Supreme Power and that whether the Supreme Power be in one single Person or in many For as the Power abstractedly is not considered so neither the Persons abstracted from their Power but both in concreto make up this Head Politick And therefore if the Supreme be not but in many those many are the Head and not the less one Head for consisting of many persons no more then the Body is less one Body for consisting of many persons Nay if a man should follow the Symmetry of his Phancy rather then his Reason a Head of many persons to a Body of a vast multitude of persons would look more elegantly and proportionably then one single person As if a Beast were made of little wax bullets sticking together a head of one bullet put to it would not look so conformably as an head of many bullets such as the whole body consisted of 5. Heaven and Earth By Heaven and Earth is understood the Universe as Grotius has rightly noted upon Genesis and abundantly proved upon 2 Pet. 3. 13. But that by Heaven and Earth the Prophets sometime understand a Political Universe that is a Kingdom or Polity there needs no further proof thereof then what is found in Esay ch 51. 15. I am the Lord thy God that divided the Sea whose waves roared the Lord of Hoasts is my Name And I have put my words in thy mouth and have covered thee in the shadow of my hand that I might plant the Heavens and lay the foundations of the Earth and say unto Sion Thou art my people that is to say to make them that were but scattered persons and slaves in Aegypt before a Kingdom or Polity to be governed by their own Laws and Magistrates Again chap. 65. 17. For behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into minde But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that I create for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy Upon which Text Forerius Decrevi enim novum Orbem condere by which he means the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth that is his Church According to which sense also he interprets For as the new Heavens and the new Earth which I shall make shall remain before me so shall your Esay 66. 22. seed and your name remain Quam diu duraret novus Orbis i. e. Regnum Dei Ecclesiae c. And Grotius also though he look a-scue and is very shie himself best knows the reason at these places that have been mentioned yet he cannot abstain from interpreting the new Heaven and the new Earth Apocal. 21. of the state of the Church upon Earth And Dr. Hammond upon 2 Pet. 3. doth expresly acknowledge the new Heaven and the new Earth there mentioned to have a Political sense Which notion was worth the clearing because this general Analogie will make us the better understand what the parts of the Universe figuratively signify as to be called up into Heaven or cast down to the Earth and the like 6. Horn. Horn also signifies the Supreme Power of a Body Politick which is resembled to a Beast it being the highest part of the Beast and the Defender of his body It is the interpretation of the Angel in Daniel The great Horn is the first King And the ten Horns are interpreted ten Kings by the Angel in the Apocalyps For they were the height and summity of their respective Kingdoms though in some sort subordinate to the seventh Head of the Beast 7. Horse There is no express interpretation of that Animal in Scripture But a generous Horse with his Rider does naturally emblematize Rule and Command Which may seem also hinted to us from that of Psalm 45. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Prosper and ride which the Seventy turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prosper and reign But an Horse signifies also any success or fortune of him that rides on him So Achmetes out of the Indian Interpretations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If one dreams that he rides on Pharas which is a generous Steed which goes orderly and obediently he shall obtain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honour and renown proportionable to the Beast he rides on And so after he descants on the largeness thickness and length of the tail declaring that his power and train shall be answerable but if bob-tailed or thin of hair it signifies defect of power The halting of
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
years 17. Wherefore assuredly as the Outward Court troden down by the Gentiles is Synchronal to the first six Trumpets in the seventh Seal so the Inward Court is Synchronal to the first six Seals which was the thing to be demonstrated and which is a Conclusion of excellent use and weighty consideration as may appear in its due place 18. Finally as our Middle Synchronals have thus necessarily detected those that precede so they will with like facility and certainty discover them that succeed For the Thousand years wherein the Saints reign Satan is bound the Palmiferous Company triumphs and the Heavenly Jerusalem is seen upon Earth all these must in some sense plainly Synchronize with the seventh Trumpet And the seventh Angel sounded and Apoc. 11. 15. there were great voices in Heaven saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever So that it is plain that the Millennial Empire of Christ and of his Saints is under the seventh Trumpet The Palmiferous Company Apoc. 7. 9. also immediately succeed the 144 Virgin Regiments which are Synchronal to the first six Trumpets whence necessarily this company of Palm-bearers are under the seventh The Fall of Babylon also conterminates with the sixth Trumpet and therefore the New Jerusalem which succeeds it must needs be found in the seventh And lastly Satan who fought with Michael all along the first six Seals and bore such sway in the Kingdom of Antichrist in the first six Trumpets cannot be said to be bound cast into the bottomless Pit and sealed up there for a thousand years till the Millennial Empire of Christ till the glory and brightness of the Heavenly Jerusalem upon Earth till the Victory and Triumph of the Palm-bearing Company that is till the sounding of the last Trumpet not onely the Series of the Synchronals but the very nature of the things themselves forcing the Ligation of Satan into this last Period of times This is very easie and plain But if any one be unsatisfi'd he may reade Mr. Mede Part 2. Synchronism 4 5 6 7. where he shall have a more full and copious demonstration of these Synchronals contemporizing with the seventh Trumpet But how this contemporizing is to be understood will better appear out of this following Chapter CHAP. VII 1. Mr. Mede's Account of placing the first six Vials within the sixth Trumpet 2. That the truth of this Account depends upon an unlikely sense of the Expiration of the Reign of the Beast as if immediately after 42 months it should entirely and universally expire 3. A caution touching the Interpreting of the Prophetick style 4. That the Expiration of the Reign of the Beast upon the Exit of the sixth Trumpet is but partial or speciminal argued from the seventh Trumpet 's being also called a Woe-Trumpet 5. As likewise from the seven Thunders 6. Two more Arguments to the same purpose 7. Lastly from the fixed Epocha's of the Middle Synchronals compared with the affairs of Europe 8. That it follows hence that all the seven Vials are naturally to take their places in the seventh Trumpet as being the seven last Plagues 9. The same further proved from the Song of the Harpers upon their victory over the Beast 10. And from the order of the Vision of the Vials as also from the appearing of the Temple out of which the Angels come after the sixth Trumpet and before any of the Vials be poured out 11. In what sense the Middle Synchronals are to be fulfilled at the Exit of the sixth Trumpet 12. A larger Declaration how all the Middle Synchronals expire together in what sense or degree soever they do expire 13. Of the commencing of the last Synchronals and what the time of the Millennium more eminently so styled 14. The serviceableness of the premising these orderly Synchronisms for his further search into the Prophecies that foretell the Lapse of the Church into Antichristianism 1. I Had almost omitted the placing of the Vials the first six whereof Mr. Mede ranges within the sixth Trumpet briefly upon this account Because they being the seven last Plagues of the Beast they are to begin with the inclining of the Beast to ruine But it was proved above that the 42 months of the Beast's domineering over the Saints and overcoming them expired with the last breath of the sixth Trumpet as all those middle Synchronals do And it is as true that the Throne of the Beast does not wax dark before the fifth Vial. Wherefore he concludes that at the least five Vials if not six precede the seventh Trumpet 2. Which Ratiocination of Mr. Mede's were very firm if we could be sure that the meaning of the Continuance of the Beast for 42 months were such as he supposes it namely That this Duration or Reign of his is to be understood absolutely That he shall reign so long and no longer and not comparatively That after 42 months he shall not reign with that full power and victory over the Saints so keeping them under that they cannot appear a distinct Polity able to defend themselves from his Tyrannies and Cruelties Which latter may be a warrantable meaning of the Prophecie as well as the other namely That as soon as there appears a Kingdom or Polity of truly Evangelical or Apostolical Christians not Superstitious nor Idolatrous nor Persecutive and Bloudy but such as joyn heartily with one another in the plain Points of Christian Religion and make no other Fundamentals then the undoubted meaning of the Word of God requires and leave men free in the rest That as soon I say as such a Polity as this is in being the 42 months of the Beast may be said to expire as to the entireness of his Reign and also for that there is that set on foot which will certainly be his ruine and therefore in the Prophetick style he is accounted as ruined already According to which tenour Mr. Mede has interpreted that of Esay * Chap. 21. 9. Babylon is fallen is fallen whenas in the time of Esay there was onely the first Ground-work laid for her ruine by the Medes who casting off the Assyrian yoke and rescuing themselves into liberty and building Ecbatana under their new King Deioces laid the foundations of a Kingdom fatal to the City of Babylon Nor can we well understand that in the Apocalyps upon the sounding of the seventh Trumpet to that height it seems to be spoken The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ. Chap. 11. 15. Of which I must confess I cannot but surmise the most sober meaning to be something parallel to that saying of our Saviour Now is the judgment of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast out and yet he kept Joh. 12. 31. possession till Constantine's time But in such a sense as the Kingdoms of the world at the beginning of
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
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
confirmation of the truth of our Idea of Antichristianism therefrom 4. A summary Representation of this Idea in the Oppositions and Defeatments of the Privative Ends of the Gospel as also of those noted Offices of Christ. 5. Of his Divinity and other holy Titles 6. Of the Divine Life in Root and Branches 7. A Parable to set out the salvage Injustice and Cruelty of this Antichristian Synagogue 8. The Apodosis of the Parable 9. That we have set out the Idea of the most real and essential Antichristianism that can be with an Answer to what may be objected to the contrary 10. That it is that very Antichristianism that is foretold in the Prophets the clearing whereof necessitates us to an inspection into them before we make any punctual Application of our Idea to the Apostasy of the Church 173 The CONTENTS of the Second Part OR SYNOPSIS PROPHETICA BOOK I. CHAP. I. 1. THat the Antichristianism we have so punctually described in our Idea and is for the general so notoriously known to have everrun the Church is in truth a kind of Pagano-Christianism 2. That it is incredible that there should be no Divine Predictions of so considerable a Change 3. The ill-spent pains of those Interpreters who endeavour to obscure such Predictions by distorting them to other useless meanings 4. Whether this Great Antichrist be prophesied of in the Epistle of S. John under that very Name 5. That Barchocab if applicable at all to the Text may be a Type of this famous Antichrist 6. That the mention of those many Antichrists in S. John was occasioned from the fame of that Great Antichrist predicted in Daniel 7. That there is much-what the same reason of the slowness of Christians in discovering the true Antichrist as of the Jews in discovering the true Christ. 8. That a fraudulent and Hypocritical Opposer of Christ may be as real and considerable an Antichrist as an open Enemie as also S. John's description as easily applicable to him 9. The inept Niceness of declining the Name of Antichrist and that the Title was put upon this great Enemy of the Church by the ancient Fathers occasionally from this Epistle of S. John 10. Certain Considerations proposed touching the Obscurity of the Prophetick style 205 CHAP. II. 1. Why Prophecies are wrapt up in some considerable Obscurity 2. An indispensable necessity of these kinds of involutions in regard of mans Free will 3. As also in regard of the Enemies of the Church both Men and Devils 4. A recital of such Schemes and Figures wherein this Obscurity does most-what consist 5. What Diorismus is with several examples of Numeral Diorisms 6. That it seems most safe to expound the Rev. 9. 5 10. five months of the Locusts according to this Figure 7. The reason of the use of Numeral Diorisms 8. From whence also some light is offered toward the understanding the reason of the uncertain designation of Vers. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. Examples of Proportional Diorisms 10. As also of Specifical 211 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 217 CHAP. IV. 1. Israelismus what it is 2. That the reason of the frequent use thereof is the Sacramentalness of the Jewish Church in reference to the Christian as appears in their Tabernacle and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. In the brasen Serpent Manna strucken Rock and fiery Law 4. In the High-priest's Robes in his entring alone once a year into the most Holy and in the Jews worshipping towards the Mercy-seat 5. In their bondage in Aegypt and in their escape through the Red Sea 6. What is properly a Prophetick Ellipsis 7. What the meaning of the Apocalyptick Book being written within and without 8. The difference of a Prophetick Ellipsis illustrated by example 9. Homonymia what it is and in what it differs from an Henopoeia of the second kind 10. What Metalepsis with the proof and examples thereof 11. Antichronismus what it is together with the rise thereof 12. That the three days and an half of the unburied Witnesses put for three times and an half is apparently resolvible into this Figure 13. What Icasmus is and that the frequency of the Figure does not so obscure Prophecies but that they are as intelligible as ordinary Heraldry 221 CHAP. V. 1. The great Usefulness of an Alphabet of Prophetick Iconisms 2. What the best way of attaining to the right sense of them 3. What weight the Onirocriticks of the Ancients may cast in toward the determining their meaning 4. That there is the same reason of the Signification and Interpretation of Dreams as there is of Visions provided they be merely Typical and not Complexional 5. Angels Their Ministery in all affairs of Providence a noted Supposition in the ancient Cabbala and in the Apocalyps 6. Ascension into Heaven 7. Air the special Region of Devils 8. Balances 9. Beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idolatrous Kingdoms 10. The reason of the Lamb 's signifying one single Person and of wild Beasts noting Idolatry as well as Cruelty 11. Blasphemy That it signifies Idolatry made out both upon the account of Reason use of Scripture and Authority of Interpreters 12. Bloud 13. Bow and Arrows Buildings Burial 226 CHAP. VI. 1. Candle 2. Character 3. Clouds of Heaven 4. Crown of precious Stones 5. Darkness Day Death 6. Desart 7. Dragon a figure of the Devil according to the ancient Cabbala and then of the chief Polities that oppose the Church 8. Drunkenness 9. Eagle Earth-quake 10. Eclipses 11. Eye an Hieroglyphick of Counsel and Prudence 12. Fishing Fish dead in the Sea 13. Fire the different significations thereof 14. Fire from Heaven its exact significancy of Excommunication 15 16. Flesh two notable significations thereof 17. Floud Fornication Frogs 18. Gemms and precious Stones God 232 CHAP. VII 1. Hail the signification thereof according to Scripture 2. And the ancient Onirocriticks 3. Harvest the evil and auspicious sense thereof 4. Head how clearly significative of Sovereign Power whether in Many or One. 5. Heaven and Earth 6. Horn. 7. Horse Islands 8. King and Kingdom 9. That Kinds or Sorts of things are sometimes expressed as if Individualls of the same Kind 10. Leopard Locusts 11. Male-childe Mark Measure Mill Month Moon 12. Mountain the several significations thereof 240 CHAP. VIII 1. Nakedness Paradise 2. Philtre That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Virus amatorium 3.
as being the seven last Plagues 9. The same farther proved from the Song of the Harpers upon their victory over the Beast 10. And from the order of the Vision of the Vials as also from the appearing of the Temple out of which the Angels come after the sixth Trumpet and before any of the Vials be poured out 11. In what sense the Middle Synchronals are to be fulfilled at the Exit of the sixth Trumpet 12 A larger Declaration how all the Middle Synchronals expire together in what sense or degree soever they do expire 13. Of the commencing of the last Synchronals and what the time of the Millennium more eminently so styled 14. The serviceableness of the premising these orderly Synchronisms for his farther search into the Prophecies that foretel the Lapse of the Church into Antichristianism 377 CHAP. VIII 1. That there are Three more Middle Synchronals that foretel the Churche's Lapse into Idolatry As the Vision of the Outward Court troden down by the Gentiles 2. The Woman in the Wilderness What meant by Wilderness 3. A brief account of the sense of the whole Vision 4. That there is an Hypallage in her being said to flie into the Desart like that of Hades being cast into the Fire and of the Kingdom being given to the Saints in Daniel 5. That our Interpretation of the Woman in the Wilderness does not clash with Mr. Mede's though different from it 6. The third Synchronal the Virgin-Company The meaning of the Number of their Regiments and of the new Song which none could learn besides them 7. How the Vision of these Virgin-souldiers implies the Lapse of the Church into Idolatry 383 CHAP. IX 1. Three more Prophecies predicting the Churche's Lapse into Idolatry As the Vision of the sixth Trumpet which is proved to respect the Roman Empire long after it became Christian. 2. That in this Vision the Greek and Latin Church are both apparently taxed of Idolatry and with Aggravations common to Pagans and them 3. That it appears from the same Vision of what great consequence it would be for Christendom to reform from this gross sin and that they are their best friends that plainly and freely rebuke them for it and for those other crimes reflected upon in this Vision 4. The Prophecy of Paul to Timothy proposed and the first part thereof expounded out of Epiphanius touching the Inspirers of this predicted Errour 5. As also that part that contains the Errour it self namely the worship of Daemons From whence it is plain the Prophecie concerns this notorious Lapse of the Church into Idolatry 6. As also from the Instruments of the Broaching this Errour 7. And from the mentioning of the Mystery of Godliness immediately before to which this Mystery of Iniquity is opposed 8. And lastly from the Times of the Lapse which are termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. Which is proved to be a proper Term of the Prophetick style denoting that Time and Times and half a Time which is the latter section of the continuance of the Fourth Monarchy 10. That the course of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of the Reign of Antichrist is indigitated by thâ—…se Numbers of Days in the last of Daniel 387 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 accords 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 393 CHAP. XI 1. The Reasons of his Prolixity hitherto in the Predictions of the Idolatry of the Church and of his future Brevity in the rest of the parts of Antichristianism 2. The Second member of Antichristianism prefigured in the Apoc. 11. 8. Witnesses lying slain in the Streets of the great City called Aegypt 3. A short Paraphrase and Exposition upon that verse of the Apocalyps 4. That the same thing seems to be prefigured in the Whore of Babylon her riding of the Beast 5. What Predictions concern the Opposition to the Priestly Office of Christ. 6. That the Two-horned Beast and the False-prophet are all one and that both prefigure the Antichristian Opposition against his Prophetick Office 7. That the Affliction of the true Prophets of Christ is prefigured in the Vision of the Two Witnesses as also the Antichristian Opposition against the Kingly Office 398 CHAP. XII 1. An Explication of the Vision of the Witnesses Ver. III. The reason why they are Two Ver. IV V. Why Two Olive-Trees and Candlesticks and what meant by their killing men by the fire that proceeds out of their mouths Ver. VI. That their power of shutting up Heaven from raining may be attributed to them onely by a Metalepsis 2. Or rather by a Zoopoeia of the second sort 3. According to which Figure they are said to smite the Earth with every plague of Aegypt And what the meaning of these Plagues may be Ver. VII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The War and Death of the Witnesses what they mean Ver. VIII Aegypt and the foregoing Plagues fitly mentioned together Ver. IX The meaning of Three days and an half and of the Bodies of the Witnesses lying unburied Ver. X. What meant by the Dwellers upon Earth Ver. XI What by the Spirit of God coming into the Witnesses Ver. XII That the true Witnesses do not invade Heaven but ascend thither when they are called Ver. XIII The Earth-quake City Fall of the City and the Slaughter of 7000 Names of men what they mean 2. That the Antichristian Opposition to the Regal and Prophetical Office of Christ is clearly prefigured in this Vision of the Two Witnesses 403 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
therefore they erring in the apprehension of the Excellency of that Object to which Divine worship is due as if it were so mean that there could be many such did not direct their worship to him but to a phancy or Idol of their own making to which they profanely attributed the name of Jehovah For the true Jehovah was not so vile a Being as there could be any partakers of Divine honour with himself And so it is with Christ who is the same true God blessed for ever He that gives Divine honour which is due to him alone unto Saints or Angels disclaims his Divinity and makes him but as one of them This would be one Antichristian way of undermining his Godhead by equallizing mere Creatures unto him 7. But there is another way or rather the same way but in an higher degree and consequently more Antichristian and that is the preferring that which is but a mere Creature though a blessed and glorious one before him or above him As for example if either Fraud or blind Devotion should exalt the ever-blessed Virgin not onely to that Divine honour of having Temples and Altars erected to her with Prayers and Invocations of her as in the worship of the rest of the Saints and Angels but that these Honours should be done much more frequently and more magnificently to the Virgin Mary then to Christ himself that is to say that there should be more Temples and Altars and more sumptuous erected to her then to Christ Jesus more Devotions Prayers and Offerings made to her then to him a greater acknowledgement of mercy and goodness from her then from him who poured out his Life in the bitter Agonies of his bloudy Passion for the Salvation of the World and lastly be ascribed unto her a Superiority and Authority over Christ to command him to doe this or that by virtue of that duty he owes unto her Certainly if this be not against the Divinity of Christ nothing can be thus to make him inferiour to a deceased woman even him that is perfect God as well as perfect Man For it is plainly to un-deify him if I may so speak and to declare him to be no God at all Which is as Antichristian an outrage against the Divinity of Christ as can be imagined For who is Antichrist if he be not that denies the Father and the Son 1 John 2. 22. who is one and equal with the Father And who denies the Godhead of both Father and Son but he that pronounces the Mother of Christ according to the flesh to be greater then them both as certainly she is if she be greater then either 8. The Fifth Title is The Everlasting Father The Seventy translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaning I suppose the world under the Messias The efficacy of which Title I conceive the Mystery of Regeneration to reflect upon Christ regenerating us into his own Image by the inward working of his Eternal Spirit All things that the Father hath John 16 15. are mine and it is no wonder he being one with the Father therefore said I that he the Spirit shall take of mine and shew it unto you Wherefore Christ regenerating the World which was to come by the operation of his Eternal Spirit he was rightly and fitly styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Father of the World to come or if you will The everlasting Father as being so in his own Essence and begetting Children to endless Eternities Of this Mysterie he treated in his converse upon Earth with his secret disciple Nicodemus Unless a man be born from above he cannot enter into John 3. 5 7. the Kingdom of God Marvel not that I said unto thee that we must be born from above The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but thou knowest not from whence it comes nor whether it goes so is every one that is born of the Spirit No unregenerate man is acquainted with the sense of the first rise and motion of the Spirit nor understands whither those actions and speeches tend that proceed therefrom But it is so with these as is said in the Apocalyps of the hundred forty four thousands who by virtue of their new birth sung a new Song which none could learn but the hundred forty four thousands Chap. 14. which were redeemed from the Earth by being born from above as our Saviour spake to Nicodemus These are the true Israelites in whose mouth is found no guile and who by the guidance of that Spirit by which they are regenerate follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes 9. Wherefore Christ being to his true Church so real a Father by a true and living Regeneration and Renovation of their Minds by his Spirit into such holy sentiments as appertain to all those that are indeed the Sons of God to treat them so as if they were mere Images made of wood or stone or rather dead matter to be carved upon and have the inscription of any thing that a pretended Infallible Power shall be pleased to engrave upon them this is an high Antichristian affront against the Paternity of Christ as if he did not beget living Children who have as certainly the sense of discernment in Spiritual things as any Animal birth has in Natural but that the number of his Elect were but a certain Tale of billets brick or stone to be hewen or carved or any way ordered according to the petulancy and imperiousness of a self-willed Power who under a pretence of an infallible and unfailing succession that must be in the Church has stept into the place of Christ. Maxima debetur puero reverentia is most true concerning every child of God For there is that Divine sense in them against which whatsoever is unholy and unsavoury will grate very hard and unpleasantly and what is false will be found by them very disharmonious both to those immutable Principles of Truth in their unprejudiced minds and also to the written Oracles of God which were penned down by the same Spirit by which this genuine off-spring of Christians are regenerated Wherefore as I said to use these as if there were no life no spirit no sense or discernment in them but that they must as passively without any Conviction or Appeal to any thing in themselves bear the Dictates of this usurping Power we describe as a Table-book or Paper-book which is irresistibly writ upon by that hand that pleases is an enormous Injury against Christ as he is the Everlasting Father and holy Regeneratour of his true Church into his own life and likeness But to murther and massacre these Children of his because they do so stoutly and exactly Patrissare so conscienciously and carefully tread in their Father's steps and witness his Truth to the world I leave to any man to judge if there can be imagined any thing more hellishly Antichristian against the Paternity of Christ then that For what can be more hostile and
after to satisfie the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh and the pride of life 11. Nor will this mischief stop here I mean in the neglect of Holy and Divine Meditation and of either usefull or generous Enquiries after Truth but every one being exalted in the conceit and apprehension of his own place and dignity especially he whose Superiority is so vast as to pretend to be the Universal Bishop of Christendom and higher then all the Kings of the Earth they will be driven on so far with that furious spirit of Ambition that they will not onely neglect but oppose every thing that is sacred and holy if it stand in competition with any devised method of getting in Riches to the Church that they may Lord it and carry it out bravely every man in his respective Office and Dignity Wherefore the genuine Simplicity of Christian Religion shall be corrupted and adulterated and Laws and Articles devised by this Infallible Priesthood that are point-blank against the Laws of Christ and the immutable Rules of sound Reason The ears of all men will be filled with deceitfull Figments and gainfull Lies such as we have already produced many Instances of the Merits of Christ's Passion vilified and maimed Truth and Justice banished persecuted and oppressed the Old and New Testament made but a dumb and dead letter that has no sense nor information in it but all Dictates must be immediate from the Church that is resolved to dictate nothing that is against her worldly advantage that is to say The two Witnesses must be slain and their carcasses lie breathless in the streets otherwise those that dwell on the Earth not those that Apoc. 〈◊〉 are redeemed from the Earth and have their conversation in Heaven will not be able to rejoyce in such a measure and to send gifts to one another that is mutually support and promote one anothers Interest and merrily share the World amongst themselves 12. It is plain therefore that such a Luciferian Polity as this would of its own nature clash with the Kingdom of Christ and totally defeat that Grand design of the Gospel which is the Renewing of the World in true Righteousness and Holiness For thus even those which should be the Salt of the Earth will of all men become the most unsavoury every mans judgment being bribed by either the present possession or earnest expectation of such vast and extravagant Preferments of which there being so many degrees the minds of the ambitious will find no rest till they come to the highest that is possible and therefore will be necessarily entangled and taken up with worldly projects even as long as they live and that with great vehemence and sollicitude the Objects seeming so great and making so glaring a show in their phancies And Ambition and Pomp in all ranks rendring them indigent of Money no inferiour Candidate can attempt the corrupting of the Superiour Authority without success and every one betime will get as much of Church-preferment as he can to be able to buy more Wherefore by Law or Dispensation men shall be inabled to hold not onely many Benefices but Bishopricks besides other Dignities in the Church by which means no Shepherd will be able to attend his own flock but instead of feeding them with wholesome Doctrine will help the Devil to infuse the worst poison that can be conveyed into mens minds namely That the whole business of Religion is but a device to enrich the Priest Thus necessarily and unavoidably by their absence and silence will they preach and inculcate Atheism and Infidelity into their scandalized Clergie For if the Salt it self become thus unsavoury what better can become of that which it is to season Will not Leudness and Irreligion overflow all 13. To be short All mens minds upon the reckoning being inflamed with Pride and Ambition and no mans Ambition being to be served without mony the Temple of God will as in times past be filled with buyers and sellers and the Church become a very Mart or Fair the Ecclesiastick Polity a City of Merchan dises and every particular Church a Merchant's Ship or Vessel of Traffick amidst the populosity of the World which the Prophetick style resembles to many waters But I will harp no longer on this string I have already made a Description full enough of such a Constitution or Frame of the Church as would in an universal manner oppose or disappoint the planting or growth of the Divine Life whereby it does sufficiently shew it self to be extremely Antichristian CHAP. VIII 1. That such a Frame of things as naturally tends to the extinguishing of Faith is highly Antichristian 2. That A trade of Worldliness in the Spiritual Guides is one part of this Frame 3. And a Self-ended policy in all the Doctrines and Practices of this Church another 4. Thirdly The profession of uncertainty and obscurity in the Christian Faith 5. Fourthly The necessity of being in a Church where there is no Interruption by misordination 6. Fifthly The bearing men down that Dissent in any thing takes away certainty in all things 7 12. Sixthly Lying Miracles 13 16. Seventhly A rabble of incredible Reliques 17. Eighthly Transsubstantiation 18. How naturally it super-induces Atheism 19. What a bundle of Impossibilities it is 20. That the pretended Infallibility of the Church is infinitely too light to weigh against it 21. Nor can it be made credible by the countenance of feigned Miracles 22. Several Characters of them that are excluded the Holy City comprized in this present Limb of Antichristianism 1. WE will now proceed to those main parts of the Divine Life the Root and the Branches Where it is obvious to take notice that what deads the Root whereby the whole Tree must necessarily wither cannot but be Antichristian to the highest pitch Wherefore if I describe such a management of Affairs in the Church as naturally tends to the extinguishing of Faith which is the necessary Root of the other Divine Graces no man will doubt but that I have delineated a very considerable Limb of Antichristianism 2. Of which the first point is what we last of all touched upon Such a Frame of Government and such sublimities of Dignities as would lapse the Church and immerse it into the World and thereby make them that should be the Salt of the Earth an unsavoury masse and of a secular dead insipid spirit relishing nothing of the Kingdom of God but wholy taken up with the Profits and Promotions of this present life For they would thereby look so like Unbelievers themselves that they would stagger the faith of all those under them and make them think that there was nothing to be expected after this life because their Leaders and Guides lived so exactly according to that Principle That there is nothing to be expected hereafter 3. Secondly The Exquisiteness of their Order and Policy in managing the affairs of their Ecclesiastick Empire if it did surpass all
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
though not immediately by the Ecclesiasticks themselves but by military men whose Instructers and Examples they are is most righteously laid upon this bloudy Prophet-murthering Synagogue herself this cruel and imperious Harlot drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus as well she may upon such Principles as I have supposed her to be of and rage even to immense Massacres which may exhaust thousands yea an hundred thousand at a draught CHAP. XVII 1. That this Opposition against the Divine Grace of Charity is a most substantial Limb of Antichristianism and the Character of them without the Holy City 2. That that repeated Catalogue of abhorred Titles in the Apocalyps is plainly a Synopsis of the main Characters of the Antichristian Polity we describe 3. The confirmation of the truth of our Idea of Antichristianism therefrom 4. A summary Representation of this Idea in the Oppositions and Defeatments of the Privative Ends of the Gospel as also of those noted Offices of Christ. 5. Of his Divinity and other holy Titles 6. Of the Divine Life in Root and Branches 7. A Parable to set out the salvage Injustice and Cruelty of this Antichristian Synagogue 8. The Apodosis of the Parable 9. That we have set out the Idea of the most real and essential Antichristianism that can be with an Answer to what may be objected to the contrary 10. That it is that very Antichristianism that is foretold in the Prophets the clearing whereof necessitates us to an inspection into them before we make any punctual Application of our Idea to the Apostasy of the Church 1. THat this last Limb therefore of our Description comprised in such things as are notoriously opposite to that Heavenly Vertue of Charity is a very substantial Limb of Antichristianism I think it is impossible for any one to doubt And therefore it is no wonder that the chief Character thereof which is writ in letters of bloud I mean that of Bloudy persecution which I last of all insisted upon is entred into that black list of Names which are excluded out of the Holy City of God Without are Dogs and Sorcerers and Fornicatours and Murtherers and Rev. 22. Idolaters and every one that loves and makes a lie Which I doubt not but is a Synopsis of the chief Oppositions to the Holy City or Body of Christ and therefore what can this other Body be but the very Body of Antichrist 2. And I look upon that brief comprehension of those detestable Titles as the more considerable and more exactly computed because the same summe though not the same words seems to be reckoned up in * Revel â—…1 〈◊〉 and 22. 25. two several places for where the words differ yet reckoning one thing with another we shall find the same extent of sense taken in For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are of equal extent with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as I had occasion to note above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will answer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such persons being understood in both as are seducible by false Doctrines and feigned Legends contrary to both the Word of God and common sense and have their spirits intimidated and basely enslaved and befooled with superstitious Falsehoods and Lies And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in both are understood such as coin false doctrines for the profit of their Church and invent lying Legends and obtrude supposititious Reliques upon the people to pick a peny out of their purses And lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are both included in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dogs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which intimates Unbelief of Religion is included in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are Brutes Religion being the property of a Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or abominable for masculine Venerie is included also in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but with a particular respect to their Species the Dog being so furiously lustfull as to spend promiscuously upon either Sex And now for the rest of the Titles in each Catalogue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one saving the terminations of the words which alters not the sense at all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exquisitely the same And therefore the Synopsis is plainly the same in both places 3. Wherefore enslaving Superstition Infidelity or Atheism Foul uncleanness of either kind Lying Legends and Doctrines false even to Impossibility and to the plain contradicting of Scripture the worst of Murthers the bloudy Persecution of the Saints professed Sorcery or Incantation or a pretence of doing more wonderfull things then the greatest Magicians of Aegypt and lastly gross Idolatry and open Image-worship all these I say being as well noted and so signally to be the opposites of the Holy City which is the Church of Christ as so execrable in the sight of God as expressely to be doomed or sentenced to be cast into the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone I conceive that my Idea of Antichristianism being made up chiefly out of these parts and explicitely comprising them all besides other particulars of the like nature it cannot be denied but that it is a true and perfect Idea thereof even upon the testimony of Holy Writ 4. But I dare briefly appeal to any mans Reason that has imbibed but the first Rudiments of Christianity and knows but common sense and has read any ordinary Carechism has the least spark of Grace in his heart or any relish of what is holy and divine whether the nature of those things of which I have composed this Idea of Antichristianism be not essentially and intrinsecally Antichristian For to take again a compendious view of what we have more largely exspatiated in and thereby to give judgement more safely on the whole matter what Hypothesis can be framed more Antichristian then this That a pack of men phansy them as numerous as you please should hold together under one domineering Head that would trample upon Princes and tread upon the necks of Emperours and kick their Crowns off with his foot and under pretence of being Successours to Christ and his Apostles though Christ told the boasting Jews who yet were unquestionably the posterity of Abraham that they were of their Father the Devil because they did his works claim notwithstanding an Infallibility of Judgement and Right of ordering all the affairs of the world in reference to Christ's Spiritual Kingdom but yet in the mean time in very truth seek nothing but the encrease of their temporal Honour and Power and to this end undermine and defeat the whole design of the Gospel not acting according to the Laws of Christ but making such Institutes and countenancing such Practices as bring in most wealth for the support of the Magnificence of this Tyrannical High-priest that takes it to be but his
quite take away to say nothing of other Passages We know likewise Book 2. Ch. 5. Sect. 5. by wofull experience what wild Applications Enthusiasts make of the Ten-horned Beast and the Whore of Babylon phansying in their mad mistaken zeal every legitimate Magistrate that Beast and every well-ordered Church that Whore as that famous Romantick Knight in his inflamed courage and distempered phancy encountred the next Wind-mill he met for a Giant and innocent Flocks of sheep for so many Armies of men 4. But he that will but take notice of what I have so plainly proved An Instance of such an Interpretation in the Vision of the Resurrection of the two Witnesses with the use thereof against the Quakers Familists That the middle Synchronalls must needs cease together as also that our Reformation in England was an eminent Speciminal Completion of the Resurrection of the Witnesses he cannot fail of being rid of this phrensy for ever and of finding himself sufficiently fortified against all those extravagant Sects that bear themselves so stiff in these times and more particularly against the high-flown conceitedness of Quakers and Familists who can so easily part with all our Religion that referres to the Personal Offices of Christ under the pretence of knowing no man after the Flesh. For if the Protestant Reformation as in other parts so here in England especially be the Resurrection of the Witnesses as most certainly it is it is as certain and assured that Familism and Quakerism are mere Enthusiastick Freaks in that they reject or despise all those things that are so fully declaredly and universally attested by this cloud of Witnesses or rather by these Witnesses ascending up into Heaven in a cloud The Completion of which Prophecy I conceive fell out most fully and orderly in our English Reformation where the Ecclesiastick Witness mounted the highest among the Reformed Churches into this Prophetick Heaven Which may serve for a just Reproof also to those of the Presbyterian Party that either have or do envy him that Residence And again for the Quakers and Familists that are such Gigantick self-sufficient Religionists and scorn and contemn that part of the Testimony of these Witnesses which is Remission of sins in the Bloud of Christ and the being justified and acquitted by the merits of his Passion how silly and ignorantly proud they are in this point appears in that the Witnesses deliverance from the bondage of that Roman Pharaoh is plainly attributed to their passage through this Red Sea And we know that the first Protestant Reformers began with the point of Justification in this very sense wherein the Mystical Aegyptians were overthrown horse and man Which I doubt not but that Epinikion Revel 15. alludes to as * See Book 1. Ch. 4. Sect. 5. Book 2. Ch. 11. Sect. 2. I have proved more particularly in its proper place 5. Wherefore it is apparent of what great force this ought to be And for the settling this Church and Nation in peace as also for the establishment of other Protestant States and Kingdoms to reconcile the minds of all the Sectaries to the Church the Confession of her Faith as also her Institutes being the same with those of these Witnesses who were by special Providence called up to Heaven and by the fulfilling of that Divine Prediction approved for the Witnesses of God and of the Truth And likewise of what great usefulness it is for the peace and settlement of all Protestant States and Kingdoms they being so well assured from hence that it were to strive against the stream nay to fight against God and the determinations of Providence to superinduce upon a People such Antichristian Opinions or Practices as have been witnessed against by these approved Witnesses of God For there is neither wisedom nor understanding Pro. 21. 30. nor counsel against the Lord. For in such cases as this God who can seize the hearts of men at his own pleasure and illuminate their eyes may so enlighten the people as to make them see more then their professed Prophets whose sight may be blinded because the reward of unrighteousness is found in their hand that is to say because carnal Interest has laid wast their judgment For then the case would be much like that of Balaam 's riding the Asse whom he cudgels on this side and on that side to keep him in the path that leads most directly to his own self-ended design But the Beast being more affraid of the drawn sword of the Angel then of the furious blows of the Prophet runs him out of the way and crushes his leg against the wall For no humane force can drive any mortal Creature against the power and terrour of God Wherefore it is of great consequence for them in Authority not to be ignorant of the meaning of Prophecies that they may be sure not to fall into this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor to stear their Affairs against the Current of Divine Providence Which Ignorance our Saviour seems to exprobrate to the Jews Ye Hypocrites ye can discern Luke 12. the face of the Sky and of the Earth but how is it that ye do not discern this time So far is the finding of the true sense of the Prophecies from causing tumults and disquietnesses in States or Kingdoms whenas on the contrary the right understanding of them tends so much every way to their firm settlement and peace 6. And now touching the third Allegation wherein I find little That the laudableness of Mr. Mede's performance in interpreting Prophecies is no bar to the usefulness of this present Treatise propension in my self to be over-loquacious yet I shall not altogether neglect it but briefly answer First That if I had only made a Collection of the most sound and unexceptionable Interpretations of such Prophecies as concerned my Idea of Antichristianism this had been no impertinent performance but necessary for the proving what I had avowed namely That my Idea was a Description of such an Antichristianism or Antichrist as is prefigured or foretold in the Holy Scriptures Which bare Collection of Interpretations would notwithstanding have had their peculiar usefulness distinct from that of Mr. Mede whose enterprise was to interpret the whole Apocalyps in order But in this Collection the Reader would be put to the trouble of perusing only such Prophecies as are for the making good the present point we are upon and which is of so vast concernment Which usefull Compendiousness is a thing very considerable with those that abound not with over-much leisure and yet would gladly be satisfied in so weighty a Controversy Again I have produced and explain'd several Prophecies that Mr. Mede never meddled with Besides that I have made use of none of his Expositions which I have not either rectified or corroborated or some way or other improved as he has done with very good success in several Interpretations of others To say nothing of our full and
History of Christ and his Apostles but introducing thereupon such a face of Idolatry and Heathenish Superstition and barbarous Cruelty against the true Servants of Christ that by those whose judgments are more free and piercing such a state of the Church cannot but be deemed rather a Revival of Paganism then an uninterrupted Succession of true Christianity in the world or to use the softest language that the truth of the thing will admit of it cannot be judged pure and unadulterate Christianity but a kind of Pagano-Christianism the Pagan Rites Idolatries and Superstitions being practised upon Christian Objects and this Paganism in this pretended Christianity being maintained with as ferine cruelty as Paganism it self was in the time of the Heathen Emperours It remains now according to our proposed Method to search into the holy Oracles to find out Whether such a kind of Antichristianism as I have described be not prefigured therein and Whether so horrible a Mutation in the Church of Christ which for the general it is apparent even in the judgements of all that are not wilfully blind has for these many Ages seized upon the Church was not predicted of old by the Prophets or Apostles or by both 2. For it seems to me a wonderfull thing and incredible That God who was so carefull and watchfull over the Church of the Jews foretelling their Captivities and Returns out of Captivity and fore-advertising them in a manner of all their affairs of Importance by the mouths of his Prophets sometimes many hundred years before should leave the Church of Christ for so great a number of Ages without Ephod and without Teraphim without Prophets or timely Predictions what things would betide her in the decursion of so long a space as twelve or thirteen hundred years together to let her be bewildred thus in so endless a Night and leave her floating upon the waves without any Cynosura to stear by Wherefore I do not doubt but Christ has been so faithfull to his Spouse that he has left some Oracular Records wherein a man may reade if he come with unprejudiced eyes in a very legible Character the state and condition of the Church and this grand Apostasy of it with the most notorious circumstances thereunto appertaining that is to say He shall find in a manner all those Heads of Antichristianism which I have insisted upon intimated some way or other and charged upon that Church especially which History has found so guilty thereof 3. Which thing I being so fully persuaded of in my own judgement cannot without a great measure of grief or indignation reflect upon the misspent pains of some learned Pens who have endeavoured to pervert all those illustrious Prophecies whether in Daniel the Apocalyps or other places that do forewarn the people of God of this grand Degeneracy of the Church unto some other sense and meaning though never so forced and frivolous though never so strained and inconsiderable thereby obscuring both the glorious Providence of God of whose watchfulness over his Church the true and easy sense of these Prophecies is a most ample witness as also hindering that benefit which was to accrue to us by the right understanding of these holy Prefigurations and Predictions which if rightly interpreted would be of wonderfull great virtue for the reclaiming of the world and converting of Christendom to that ancient and Apostolick purity as well in Practice as Doctrines from which they have so long time swerved Wherefore out of a due sense of the Honour of God and the Interest of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus I hold it fit to bring into view all those Prophecies as well of the Old as New Testament that have been by the Ancients understood of this Antichristian Apostasy and with an unprejudiced freedom and impartiality to unfold the meaning of them Which I hope I shall doe with that plainness and simplicity of evidence offering so unforced so easy and so natural a sense of things and so coherent with undubitable Principles that there is no man that is not grosly prejudiced but will receive full satisfaction concerning the true meaning of these Divine Oracles 4. I must confess that it is hard to produce any Text of Scripture wherein this Apostatized state of the Church is undoubtedly foretold under the very Name of Antichrist though that Name be found more then once in the Epistles of S. John But though some do yet I dare not contend that this Antichrist or Antichristianism which I have hitherto described is so clearly pointed at in every one of those places Not onely Grotius but Mr. Mede himself understands those Antichrists of the Pseudo-christs that our Saviour foretells of in Matthew which should start up before and after the destruction of Jerusalem which was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last hour of the Jewish Commonwealth But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is indifferently rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel being the last the time of that Kingdom may be also intimated by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence that in S. John * 1 Ep. 2. 18. My little children it is the last hour and as you heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that that famous Antichrist will come even now there are many Antichrists whereby we know it is the last hour may bear this sense upon supposition the Prediction is somewhat Elliptically set down That the last time in Daniel's Kalendar of his Four Kingdoms that is to say the last Kingdom was then a running on which is the Roman during which Kingdom the Little horn which here is called Antichrist shall come upon the stage This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he that famous Antichrist whom you may have heard of out of Daniel but this is a greater distance off Wherefore to speak what more pressly concerns you Even now there are many Antichrists which not Daniel but our Saviour foretold of whereby again we know it is the last hour but I mean not of the Four Kingdoms of Daniel but of the Jewish Commonwealth according as our Lord has predicted Or more briefly thus My little children it is the last hour that is to say the last Kingdom of the Four namely the Roman and as you have heard that that famous Antichrist will then come viz. in that last hour so also now in the last hour of the Jewish Polity there are many Antichrists whence we may gather it is the last hour thereof these many Antichrists according to prediction attending this last hour as that one famous Antichrist that In some such sense as this I do confess that that Antichrist or Antichristianism which I have hitherto treated of may be by very Name intimated in this Text of Scripture though I shall quarrel with no man that would interpret it otherwise Grotius expounds this famous Antichrist of whom they
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
As also chap. 17. the Seven-headed Beast there exhibited is said to be the Beast that was and I pray who was that but the Dragon and therefore this Draco redivivus or this Image of the Dragon cannot but be an Idolatrous Empire or the Empire again becoming Idolatrous And lastly lest the Reader should not be heedful enough to observe the Idolatry of the Seven-headed Beast in the 13 and 17 Chapters from this consideration I have named the Spirit of God has farther and more expresly stigmatized him with this Note in both those Visions placing the Name of Blasphemy on his Seven Heads in the 13 Chapter and declaring his Body to be full of the Names of Blasphemy in the 17 by Blasphemy meaning Idolatry as I have abundantly proved in my Prophetick Alphabet 6. Fourthly That these Visions exhibit the Roman Empire Idolatrous through all the time it was so or was to be so appears First from the general nature of these Prophetick Figures where a Beast signifies a Kingdom See Chap. 3. Sect. 6. or Empire in its entire succession and duration unless any thing be intimated to the contrary Which is clear as well from those examples in Daniel where the Four Beasts signifie so many Kingdoms in their entire Successions as also from the very nature of that Prophetick Scheme which we call Henopoeia which always goes along with these Iconisms of Beasts For an Henopoeia is nothing else but a Collection as well of Succession as of Multitude into one Individual Form or Shape be it Humane or Belluine Again in that the Seven-headed Beast in the 13 Chapter is said to be the Image of the Dragon and the said Beast in the 17 to be the Beast that was which certainly was the Dragon this shews that those Visions intend to represent the Empire through all the times of its being Idolatrous as well the times of its primitive or purely Pagan Idolatry as of the Image or Restauration thereof in a Paganish or Idolatrous kind of Christianity Or more fully thus This Seven-headed Beast is represented under some one of his Heads to fight and to be wounded to death but after to be revived also to have been for a certain time and then to cease to be but after to be again and then finally to perish Wherefore the whole Duration and Continuance of the Beast seems to be comprised therein divided into two parts by this death and interceasing of the Beast for a time Of which the plain sense is this The Roman Kingdom or Empire has been and shall be a Beast that is to say Idolatrous for a certain series of time then cease to be so for a while but after be Idolatrous again and then cease to be so for ever These Prophetick Figures therefore I mean these Beasts that exhibit this sense must needs imply these two entire parts of time wherein the Empire is represented Idolatrous as he that divides a Line into two divides the whole Line into two parts To all which you may adde That the Seven Heads of the Dragon being represented as actually crowned whenas yet Five were gone in S. John's time and but one present and therefore the Seventh not yet in being it plainly intimates that the whole Duration and Succession of the Beast is exhibited at once Which is still more evident in that the Seventh Head is the last under which the Beast perisheth together with that Head as that Elliptical Text doth certainly imply chap. 17. 11. the entire sense whereof is this And the Beast that was and is not even his Head is the Eighth and is one of the Seven and he together with his Head goes into perdition as I shall have occasion more fully to note in its due place Wherefore it is reasonable to conceive that the first Head reaches to the first beginning of the Beast that is of the Roman Empire as well as the last to its destruction Nor will I adde that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 connoting the Roman Empire as well as the Devil may also connote the antiquity of the one as well as of the other 7. Fifthly and lastly That the Seven-headed Beast represents the Roman Empire no further then as Idolatrous which is the last part of our Assertion will appear from this That this Prophetick Image or Iconism of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Fera is not used for the Representation of any Empire but what is Idolatrous as I have already intimated and therefore if it should stand for a Kingdom or Empire while it is not Idolatrous it would be like a false affirmation in words and prove an Emblematical slander The names of Blasphemy also on his Heads and on his Body make this Seven-headed Beast still more inept to represent any Kingdom while it stands free from Idolatry I mean the Life and Being of the Beast is thus inept But the slaughter of the Beast or extermination of him out of Being may signifie that an Empire that was Idolatrous and consequently according to the Prophetick style a Beast ceases to be so still And considering that the Roman Empire as an Empire has not yet ceased to be but that it did cease to be Idolatrous upon Constantine his turning Christian it is manifest that the Beast's being slain or ceasing to be is to be understood of that state of the Empire For from Constantine's time till the entrance again of Idolatry into the Empire the Beast in life and being was an inept Emblem thereof and as I said a mere Hieroglyphick slander But as the slain Beast during the time it lies slain comprises in it all the time of the Empire 's pure Christianity so the Beast as yet not slain as also after the slaughter again restored to life comprises all that tract of time of the Roman Kingdom or Empire's Idolatry as well that before as that after the flourishing of pure Christianity in it Which is another plain discovery of the truth of the fourth part of our Assertion 8. It is abundantly plain therefore from what we have alledged That the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns signifies the Idolatrous Roman Kingdom or Empire quatenus Idolatrous that is to say when and so long as Idolatrous and no longer Which is one considerable Argument to evince that the Seven Heads of the Beast are not Seven single Persons succeeding one another but Seven sorts of Supreme Governours For what seven Persons can fill out the time of the duration of the Empire while Idolatrous and not leave it many hundreds if not above a thousand years destitute of Sovereign Power and so make it a Beast living so many Ages without an Head then which nothing can be more absurd 9. But this is not our onely Argument though it alone may seem sufficient to prove our main Thesis For it may be farther confirmed by reflecting on the nature and description of these Seven Heads for what they are set out by ought to be conceived as
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-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
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
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
eventus rerum ostendit omnes res simul divinas humanásque commiscens Wherefore things being thus understood such a transient Scamble as this can be no legitimate Form of Government but the present Confusion of the Roman State let these Usurpers call themselves what they will or what-ever others out of fear or Courtship might call them 9. But if we take this Affair by the other ear and will look upon Octavius Augustus as he was Heir to Julius Caesar in whom was the Supreme Power of the Empire and also as upon one to whom the Senate had given a Precedency before the Consuls themselves and a Power unbounded by Law insomuch that he might rationally be deemed the Prince of the Commonwealth and that onely upon design he invited and permitted Antony and Lepidus to partake of his Principate for the better suppressing of Brutus and Cassius and then of his Partners one by the other these Triumviri will be found really three Emperours as there have been two and three and four at a time in other occurrences of affairs of the Empire as is well known to any one that knows any thing in History and not any Species of Government distinct from the Sixth kind which is that of the Emperours For they being three Generals of the Imperial Forces Antony of the Eastern Octavius of the Western and Lepidus of the African and of power unaccountable or unsubordinate to any other Magistracy what were they indeed but Three Emperours at once in that Notion that the Roman Monarchs were after called Emperours And accordingly in History Augustus is reckoned to have reigned as Emperour from the decease of his Father Julius To which sense Suetonius speaks Atque ab eo tempore exercitibus comparatis primùm cum Marco Antonio Marcóque Lepido dein tantùm cum Antonio per duodecim ferè annos novissime per quatuor quadraginta solus Rempublicam tenuit Upon which Nauclerus thus comments Regnavit annis quinquaginta sex duodecim cum Antonio Lepido solus verò quadraginta quatuor And Chronologers as well of the Pontifician as Protestant Party fix the beginning of his Reign ab U. C. Anno 710. 10. Wherefore these Triumviri Reipublicae constituendae being either no Magistracy at all of the Roman State or coincident with that of their Emperours and being also declined in the enumeration of the Forms of Government by the Roman Historians or else acknowledged of the Line of the Sixth Head that is to say of the Order of Emperors it is plain that there was sufficient if not a necessary ground of not reckoning this Triumvirate amongst the Heads that had passed in S. John's time and that therefore the truth of History agrees exactly with the Vision that saith Five are fallen not Six nor Seven For no Historians reckon otherwise and what can be more satisfactory then that Prophecie speaks in the very language of History Or what Harshness or Indecorum is it to conceive the Vision to number onely so many distinct Heads as are plainly and confessedly both Heads and distinct and are taken notice of up and down in History for the remarkable Governments of the Roman State whenas those that are omitted in the Vision are also pretermitted in Historical Narrations as either not agreed upon for distinct Heads or disclaimed to be so 11. And truly if there had been any other Forms of Government that might have seemed to disturb this solemn Number of Seven provided they had had a very near affinity with some or other of the chief Seven they might have been reckoned as one with such as they had so near agreement to and so the Beast be still Seven-headed as Nilus Seven mouthed those distinct Rivolets that flow near the main Streams of this Septemfluous River being reckoned as one with those principal ones and Nilus never the less celebrated by the Epithets of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 up and down in Authentick Writers Which liberty had been very tolerable nay indeed unexceptionable in those Five Heads that already had passed the account for the future on which all the weight lies being so certainly fixed in the Sixth whose course was in the Apostle's time that it could breed no disorder nor confusion 12. And yet we find a greater exactness then so Whence it is manifest that we have the greatest assurance we can desire of the true sense of this Vision as to this point forasmuch as we have above demonstrated that the Seven Heads of the Beast must be so understood as may reach through the whole Succession of Heads from the beginning to the end and therefore must be the several Successions of so many Sorts of Supreme Governours not Seven single Persons and then find also de facto that Five of these Successions do so exquisitely fit the number of those Five Forms of Government which according to History were past in S. John's time and that the Sixth Government in succession which is that of the Pagan Emperours was that very Head then in Being Which things fall out so accurately that a man would think that Scepticism it self could scarce refrain giving assent to so plain a Truth 13. We have therefore made good that there are just Six sorts of Supreme Powers from the beginning of the Roman Kingdom to the Apostle's time namely Regal Consular Tribunitial Decemviral Dictatorial and Imperatorial For that of the Interreges was a Regal Power if considerable at all and therefore does naturally fall under the Type of one single Head as that also of the Triumviri of constituting the Common-wealth if it was not a state of war and confusion was also an Imperatorial Power though disguised under that other name and therefore falls under the Sixth Head as must needs seem very easie and natural to him that considers how Collective and Henopoetical as I may so speak the Prophetick Types are The consideration of the Collectiveness and Unitiveness of which Types on the one side and of the express and explicit enumeration in History of Five distinct sorts of Government before the Emperours on the other side must necessarily cast a man into an unshaken security that the Spirit of Prophecy would reckon neither more nor fewer kinds of Governours before the Emperours then Five Which point being cleared I pass to the second which is the more fully declaring how fitly and rightly that degenerate estate of the Empire which is prefigured by the Beast that was and is not and yet is is also styled the Image of the Beast CHAP. XVII 1. That a Relapse of the Empire into Idolatry in general were sufficient to make it the Image of the old Pagan Empire and yet that the Resemblance is more exquisite and particular 2. That there was an intended imitation of the Pagan Rites in the Church degenerating 3. The Pope compared with the Pagan Caesars and his Cardinals with the Roman Senate 4. The Tutelar Saints compared with their Tutelar Deities
universal Antiquity attesting that S. John was banished into Patmos under him and that there he received the Apocalyps there is nothing to give a stop to the Conclusion but that we may inferre that the whole Volume of those Visions was there wrote by him towards the latter end of Domitian's reign as Irenaeus has affirmed the Second Persecution beginning not till the tenth year of Domitian I mean the latter end of his real and uncontrovertible reign when he succeeded his Brother Titus not that imaginary one in his Father's absence for he was not then truly Emperour And though we should admit he had two reigns if the end of his reign be mentioned at large as it is here in Irenaeus it must either signifie the end of all that time he reigned or the end of his more notorious and confessed reign which is here all one and therefore most certainly understood So that there is no avoiding the Authority of Irenaeus by this sleight Not to adde that there is no Persecution taken notice of in all Vespasian's reign and therefore no Patmos for S. John and consequently no Prophecy as I have noted above So that there is not the least shadow of probability that the Apocalyps was wrote at any other time then in what Irenaeus has declared it to be 13. The Apocalyps it self also witnesses against this dream of S. John's being in Patmos under Claudius his reign in that general Preface to all the Visions I John who am also your brother and companion in tribulation and in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ c. Which shews it was a time of great distress amongst the Christians and of smart Persecution Which was so to none but John if this was in Claudius his time at least not in Asia to which Churches he writes But there is yet another more apposite place for our purpose I mean the Martyrdome of Antipas Bishop of the Church of Pergamus who suffered under Domitian about the tenth year of his reign That which I note as most remarkable in his story is That he was solicited by the Governour of the place to renounce Christianity because it was but a Novelty urging upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same argument which the Papists use to seduce our modern Antipae or Antipapists But that which I drive at is this That the mention of Antipas his Martyrdome as past in the very beginning of this Book of Visions does plainly detect that they were all seen after the beginning of the second Persecution which was under Domitian and above twenty years after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus For that the Record of Antipas his Martyrdome is true there can be no doubt his mention in the Apocalyps engaging the Church to take more then ordinary notice of that Martyr Nor can any After-figments concerning his suffering I mean the manner of it make the faith of the Church at all suspected concerning the time So solid assurance is there every way that this Volume of Apocalyptick Visions was delivered to John in Patmos at the latter end of Domitian's reign and so convincing evidence on every side that he must be Sceptical even to dotage that after due consideration can at all doubt of it 14. The eviction of which truth I have thus copiously and industriously wrought out because it does not onely lay flat to the ground all the Interpretations of Grotius in these Thirteenth and Seventeenth Chapters but also all his Expositions of the Seven Seals and Seven Trumpets and consequently of the whole Book of the Apocalyps For he interprets the Seals and Trumpets of things that happened many years before this Prophecy which makes the Apocalyps as good sense as if it were a Foretelling of things that were past whenas the Preface to the whole Book runs expresly thus The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to shew unto his servants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as are shortly to come to pass But according to Grotius his Interpretation of the Seals and Trumpets which are a chief part of the Prophecy and also of the Battel betwixt Michael and the Dragon and several other Visions the Preface should have run thus The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to shew unto his servants what things came to pass some while ago Which things being also set down so Aenigmatically as if he had a minde to hide what was plainly brought to light in actual Events the Title might have been more properly the Obvelation or Obscuration then the Revelation So fruitful is one Absurdity once admitted for the encrease and multiplying many others CHAP. III. 1. That as Grotius has mis-timed these Visions so his Interpretations are accordingly absurd and incongruous 2. The groundlesness of his beginning the Compute of the Seven Heads at Claudius and ending it in Domitian 3. The dim-sightedness of the ancient Fathers that could not discern Domitian to be the Beast that was and is not though they stood so exceeding much nearer him then Grotius 4. The trivialness and falsity of this Conceit of his 5. The second third and fourth Absurdities of Grotius his Exposition of this Seventeenth Chapter 6. The fifth sixth seventh and eighth Absurdities 7. The ninth tenth eleventh and twelfth 8. The thirteenth fourteenth fifteenth and sixteenth Absurdities of his Exposition 1. WHerefore the Foundation of Grotius his Expositions being so false and flitting and such as cannot but shrink if it be hard pressed upon the structure cannot be sound nor well shapen but forced distorted and difform For if Prophecy will fit as well those times they aim not at as those they do they will be clouded with such invincible obscurity that they will lose both their usefulness and authentickness We shall shew therefore that Grotius as he has gone upon a false Ground so his Expositions of these Seventeenth and Thirteenth Chapters are answerably harsh and unapplicable and that he has left the plain road and rush'd through hedge and ditch and pulled up all fences to gather a Nosegay of Flowers that both smell ill and immediately wither in his hand in the very gathering of them 2. Supposing then that the Visions of the Seventeenth and Thirteenth Chapters were imparted to S. John in Vespasian's time which yet to me is undoubtedly false let us take this brief view of the Harshnesses and Incongruities of his Interpretation As first Whereas he makes the Seven Heads of the Beast to be Seven Emperours five whereof were gone in Vespasian's time namely Claudius Nero Galba Otho Vitellius I have shewn already that there is no reason at all for his beginning his compute at Claudius John neither being banished in his reign nor he being so ill an Emperour as his Predecessour Caius Caligula and the Church reckoning not their Persecutions before Nero nor any complaint made of Nero's successours till Domitian that these should be such Heads of Blasphemy above the rest of the
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
of him into Being that is An Idolatrous Clergy makes again an Idolatrous Empire one of them cannot be without another nor continue longer one then another from the very nature of the things themselves So that it is manifest that the perpetual connexion of the nature of the things signified by those Visions assures them to us to be Synchronal to begin continue and end together And thus by the plain and palpably-demonstrable sense of the Visions of the Thirteenth and Seventeenth Chapters do we gather infallibly That the Two-horned Beast the Whore of Babylon the Beast that was and is not and yet is or the Beast Healed or Revived which is said to have seven Heads and ten crowned Horns are Synchronal one to another 2. But there are four Visions more Synchronal to these three which may after the same manner be demonstrated to be so I mean from the natural and necessary connexion betwixt the things themselves prefigured or by their perfect Identity under several Schemes and Types the things that they naturally signifie being already contained in the three first Synchronalls or else by way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or continued Opposition to them As by way of Identity the False-Prophet that is the whole Body of false Prophets must needs be Synchronal to the Two-horned Beast or the Whore they being but the same things under several Types or Terms By way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or opposite Correspondency as the Mournful Witnesses and the Virgin-Company For supposing the true Church never failed to be as all are agreed upon there must needs run along with the times of the Whore or Two-horned Beast the Virgin-Company and these Mournful Witnesses in correspondent Opposition to them and the latter by a causal Connexion with them and therefore may be an example of the first way mentioned though not instanced in before The Subject also of those two mixt Visions is necessarily implied in the same time with the three first Synchronals upon this granted Hypothesis That the true Church never fails For then the Woman in the Wilderness what is it but this pure Virgin-Church hid in the Paganizing Empire which is the Image of the Beast and what the Exteriour Court of the Temple troden down by the Gentiles but the Christian Empire dedicated to Christ and the true worship of God over-run again with a new kinde of Gentilism or Idolatrous worship which so overflows that the true and Virgin-Church is hid in a manner in this deluge of Idolaters at least troden down and debased and made the Abjects oâ—… Christendome Wherefore I say from the very nature of the things themselves and close connexion they have one with another there is a very palpable Evidence that the Whore the Two-horned Beast the restored Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns the False-Prophet the Virgin-Company the Woman in the Wilderness the two Witnesses the Exteriour Court of the Temple troden down by the Gentiles are all Synchronal one to another 3. But we will not altogether omit that more abstract way Mr. Mede has gone to prove these Synchronals First then it is plain that the Woman in the Wilderness the Ten-horned Beast restored the Exteriour Court troden down by the Gentiles the Mourning of the two Witnesses are all of equal time For the Woman's stay in the Wilderness is noted by a time and times and half a time as also by 1260 daies both which expressions signifie Three years and an half literally The Ten-horned Beast restored his continuance is set down by 42 months as also the Conculcation of the Outward Court and the daies of the Mourning Witnesses are 1260. All which terms of time are equal to those of the Woman in the Wilderness and are literally Three years and an half Of all which if any one signifie Symbolically I think there is no body that can be so Sceptical or perverse as to deny that the other doe so too Now that these four are not onely Equal but Synchronal will appear briefly thus 4. The Woman in the Wilderness and the Ten-horned Beast restored begin together For while the Woman hastens into the Wilderness the Dragon casts a floud out of his mouth to carry her away if he could before Apocal. 12. 15. she came thither But he missing his aim and driven on with Fury betakes himself to another course immediately restoring the Ten-horned Beast and endowing him with his forces his Throne and his Apocal. 13. 2 3. mighty Power Wherefore the Woman could no sooner get into the Wilderness but the Dragon had furnished out an Enemy against her But it is evident that equal Times beginning at one and the same Epocha are Synchronal 5. The Ten-horned Beast restored and the Mourning of the two Witnesses end together For at the end of the sixth Trumpet the Witnesses Apoc. 11. 12 14 15. ascend into Heaven and at the beginning of the seventh which is conterminous to the end of the sixth this Acclamation is from Heaven All the Kingdomes of the World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ. Whence it is plain in some sense or other that the 42 months which is the time of the Reign of the Ten-horned Beast restored do then expire But Times that are equal and expire together are also Synchronal 6. The Mourning of the two Witnesses and the Conculcation of the Holy City or Exteriour Court by the Gentiles begin together as appears Apocalyps 11. where it is plainly implied that they commence at one and the same time I mean the Mourning of the two Witnesses and the Vers. 2 3. Object of their Sorrow the Holy City troden down by the Gentiles And besides at the end of the sixth Trumpet the Witnesses ascend into Heaven â—…d at the beginning of the seventh the Gentiles are said to be wroth by reason of the judgements of God upon them So that this Synchronism though considering the Synchronals were before found equal Vers. 18. it be needless is made fast at both ends But the Woman in the Wilderness being Synchronal to the Ten-horned Beast restored this Ten-horned Beast to the two Witnesses these two Witnesses to the Treading under foot the outward Court or Holy City it is manifest that all four are Synchronal one to another But in virtue of our Joint-Exposition it is demonstrable also that the Whore the Two-horned Beast and the Ten-horned Beast restored which is plainly the Beast that was and is not and yet is are Synchronal one to another For the Whore and the Two-horned Beast are all one Company or Condition of men by whose persuasions and directions the Pagan Empire which had been wounded to death by the pure Preaching of the Gospel was again made to Paganize and so was healed of that wholsome wound and revived again into that former Idolatrous state and became the Beast that was and is not and yet is From whence it is plain that the Authours of this Restauration
followers For it is too dilute and frigid a Gloss to make no more of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then to turn it off with a Posthac or Hereafter as if the term of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had not passed into a phrase of Art already and had not been defined long since by the Angel in Daniel or at least was not a necessary Consectary from Chap. 12. his Definition who being asked how long to the end of these wonders he held up his right hand and his left hand unto Heaven and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time and times and half a time And being again asked by Daniel to declare more plainly when the end of those things should be he gives this Answer That the words are sealed till the time of the End which is so called as being that notable section of time that lies next to the end of the Fourth or Last Monarchy but presently after addes this hint to point him to this time of the End That from the time that the daily Sacrifice should be taken away and the Abomination that makes desolate set up should be 1290 days but that blessed he should be that came to the 1335 days 9. Now the end of those things Daniel enquired after reached as appears from the Text and general consent of Expositors even to the Day of Judgment however that phrase is to be understood Whence it is rational to conceive that Daniel's Prophecies reach through those four famous Monarchies or Kingdoms the Babylonian Persian Greek and Roman and that the Roman Kingdom conterminates or synchronizes with the fulness of time or the end of Times and Ages and being the Fourth and last division of this Sacred Kalendar of Prophecies as Mr. Mede calls it may rightly be termed the last times or last days in which the Messias was expected and came But after Christ's coming seeing there would be a very marvellous and notorious reign of Antichrist during this Fourth Monarchy or last time who is figured out in the Two-horned Beast and the Whore of Babylon which are of the Middle Synchronals of the Book-prophecie and which I have already demonstrated to begin about 400 years after Christ and that the time of their continuance is the same with a Time and Times and half a Time and that this is 1260 years it is evident that this share of time is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter times of these last or the time of the End as lying next thereto and the very times the Angel speaks of in this Chapter where he asserts with an Oath that those Wonders that is that prodigious Reign of Antichrist should continue for a time and times and half a time but that when he shall have accomplished to scatter Dan. 12. 7. the power of the holy people namely the Jews then all things spoken of shall be finished Which is the very same with that in the Apocalyps where the Angel swears by him that lives for ever that there should be no more time saving in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel Apoc. 10. 7. when he shall sound and the Mystery of God be finished as he has declared to his servants the Prophets alluding particularly to this of Daniel This is the right meaning of this passage of the Revelation according to common sense and Grammatical construction Which plainly shews that the Time and Times and half a Time end with the sixth Trumpet From which considerations it is evident to any one that is unprejudiced that this term of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a term of the Prophetick style the same with the Time of the End with an allusion to that Sacred Kalendar of Daniel consisting of the four Monarchies as being the latter section of the continuance of the last running on along with the Reign of Antichrist For so does the Church generally interpret that Time and Times and half a Time in Daniel 10. And that they do belong to the Reign of Antichrist even in our sense Mr. Mede has in my judgment most convincingly made good even from those numbers of 1290 days and 1335 days in his little Treatise of those Numbers which he calls Revelatio Antichristi Which were certainly given as a Key to open the truth of Daniel's Prophecies concerning the reign of that Man of sin and the time of his Discovery The words Dan. 12. 9. are closed up and sealed till the time of the End that is till these latter times but the wicked shall not then understand them but the wise shall and may be assured of them by this Key of Numbers of years from the Epocha of Antiochus his prophaning the Temple compared with the Event the first notable Instances of Revealing of this Man of sin The first of these Numbers from that Epocha ends in the year of our Lord 1120 the latter in the year 1165. For I have already so undeniably demonstrated that Days stylo Prophetico do signifie Years both in this Treatise and in my * Book 5. Ch. 15. Sect. 2. Mystery of Godliness that I think no man will doubt of it and that they cannot signifie Days here Mr. Mede has with no less evidence evinced Now the Event is exact to Admiration For in the year 1120 a true and perfect detection or description of Antichrist came forth and not till then as you may see by that compendious account which Mr. Mede has given thereof The ending of the other Period is also notable for the Waldenses and Albigenses in whose times the Mystery of Iniquity was more fully detected and by more numerous Companies protested against Whence they are said to be blessed that reach to those times by reason of the great clearness of the Light of the Gospel that shined forth nor less happy they that then also suffered for witnessing to it but certainly much more blessed by reason that their Reward should be greater and more singular For the Prophecie declares how things are in truth and reality and not according to the judgment or sentiments of the soft and false carnal mind See that judicious Author Mr. Mede for I cannot dwell upon these things I will onely adde for a farther assurance of Mr. Mede's Exposition that no other will hold water For it is not likely that these Numbers of Days should be any Interpretation of the Extent of the above-mentioned Time and Times and half a Time they both of them varying from the just measure of that Period and the sense also of that Aenigmatical expression being not so hard but that all hit on it and agree in it To which you may adde that the Epocha from Antiochus will not comply with this design and it is hard to make that Epocha signifie otherwise then literally with any credibility of meaning As also that this way the main difficulty about which Daniel was so solicitous will not be satisfi'd which was When this
Accordingly as Pareus renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tum flebunt Apoc. 18. 9. And by King is here meant as else-where in Daniel a State or Kingdom And that the Roman is here meant the order of Succession implies it following the Greek according to all Chronologie and according to the sense of Historians is conceived to succeed the Greek upon the Romans Conquest of Macedonia which was in the latter times of Antiochus So fitly do things fall in for matter of time in our Hypothesis which does promise an easie flowing of the sense all along which is this 5. In the first of these verses That the Roman State or Kingdom towards the end of Antiochus his reign shall carry all before them and domineer as they list they shall exalt themselves and make themselves greater then any Kingdom For to conquer a Nation is to conquer their Gods whom the Romans vocally called out of those Cities they took by a certain Charm I spoke of above and so led away the Gods of the Nations as it were captive as well as the people Nay the Officers of this State spoke marvellous things and blasphemous against the God of Gods that is against Christ Jesus himself when he was so mocked and despightfully used by his Persecutors and Crucifiers and yet they prospered and were successful in the Empire notwithstanding all this their villainy towards Christ and bloudy persecution of his Members wherein he was again reproched and blasphemed till the determinate time of this Rage ran out and that the Empire became Christian. For as it follows in the next verse the time was next to succeed wherein the Roman Empire should contemn neglect and cast off the Gods of their Ancestors that is the Pagan Gods and turn Christians but that withall Marriage which was in so high esteem with the Romans before as it appears by those Laws which were called Julia and Papia which Constantine abrogated should be much slighted at first but in process of time be superstitiously forbidden as well to Priests as Monks that Man of sin then getting the rains of the Empire into his hands who respected not any God but for his nulling the Laws of Christ and trampling on the necks of Princes is justly said to magnifie himself above all according as it is written of him in the Epistle to the Thessalonians 6. And sutably to this lawlesness and contempt of God it follows in the next Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say For together with or besides for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will signifie so God will he honour Mauzzim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in sua ditione Grotius renders it referring it to Antiochus The Latine reads in loco suo referring it to the Idol Mr. Mede in his Seat referring it to Christ the true God There may be also another sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. super basin ejus as if that honour done to the Mauzzim was grounded in the honour intended therein to Christ which is the plea of the Pontificians The sense therefore briefly is this That it is plain that this Roman Power as was said in the foregoing verse has cast away the true fear of God from them and exalt themselves above every thing that is called God even Christ himself in that against the express Law of God they doe Divine honour to the Mauzzim though in pretence of worshipping thereby the true God with gold and silver and wooden Statues and with whatsoever is costly and precious as it immediately follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Even together with a God whom their fathers knew not that is Christ who was truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very stranger amongst the Roman Deities and such as the ancient Romans never sacrificed to will he worship them viz. the Mauzzim with gold c. Whence it is plain that the Daemons spoke of by S. Paul are here prophesied of For these Mauzzim are they namely the Saints by this Idolatrizing Empire turned into Daemons which are here called Mauzzim by a wonderful strange prevision of God this Hebrew word being for sense the very language of those that by too superstitious a zeal and affection towards the Saints brought in this Daemon-worship placing a more sensible trust and repose in their Reliques and Protection then in the Omnipresent God himself These therefore they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Towers Fortresses Walls Bulwarks Guards Protectors and what not All which Mauzzim does naturally and properly signifie as you may see more at large in Mr. Mede So easily does the sense flow concerning the abuse of Saint-worship who though Christ be pretended in all that Divine honour done to them yet it is plain they go partners with him in the Dedication of Temples and other Religious worship 7. Which this last verse seems to aim at also in those words so artificially couched 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The holds of the Mauzzim with the strange God as if they were Joint-Tenants which Holds are the Holy Houses Churches Chappels Monasteries dedicated to the honour of Christ and the Saints For these Holy Places are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strong Holds in allusion to Mauzzim which has a warlike sense in it and signifies military Protectours and Champions whose Houses therefore may well be called Strong Holds The sense of the whole verse is this And this Roman Power shall erect Temples and other Religious Houses to Christ and the Saints where Christ is indigitated by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strange God he being both according to his Humanity born of a stock distinct from all the Heathen Nations so that he is more strange then any other could be in that respect and also being perfect God and perfect Man which is such a Deity as never the Nations had any thought of before so singularly significant is this Description of Christ in this Prophecy by this name of a strange God But that he being once known to them they should give him condign honour saving that they should share part thereof amongst the Mauzzim and make them also Rulers over the Empire dividing the world amongst them as a Reward of their Sufferings as is pretended one Saint being constituted Patron or Protector of one City or Countrey another of another accordingly as I have above more fully Book 1. Ch. 17. Sect. 4. declared 8. This is so clear and easie a sense thâ—… it is no wonder that S. Paul saies that the Spirit speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expresly that in the latter times that is to say in Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time which is the latter part of the continuance of the Roman Empire men should Apostatize from the Faith and embrace the Doctrine of Daemon-worship or the worship of the Mauzzim To which Prophecy the Event is so exactly answerable that a man must be strangely blinded with prejudice that cannot see it as also a
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
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-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-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
made him capable of suffering death This is all spoken of our Head and Captain and yet it may be not without some reflexion upon his Body the Church To whom also the riding upon white Horses belongs as appears in the fourteenth verse They have also flammeous and fiery eyes because of their Intellectual Graces and it is said that the Spiritual man discerneth all things 1 Cor. 2. They have also a name that no man knows besides themselves which is their New birth or the participation of the Divine Nature Their garments also are died in bloud in that so many have suffered Martyrdom for the testimony of the Gospel against the Idolatry and Tyranny of Antichrist and all have been martyr'd that is slain and mortifi'd as to the life of sin and besprinkled also with the bloud of the Lamb in the pardon of what-ever Transgressions are past And lastly they are to be crowned and reign as Kings upon earth for the Kingdom is given to the Saints of the most High Dan. 7. 6. But to return to the Description of this Heavenly Heros A sharp-edged Sword is said to go out of his mouth Which is analogical to that in the Hebrews The word of God is quick and powerful sharper then any two-edged Heb. 4. sword And in that he is said to rule the Nations with a rod of iron it is an allusion to the second Psalm which is a Prophecie of the Messias Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel Which is a Prophetick Symbol of that wonderful contrition of heart that the powerful Word of God makes when sincerely and seasonably evibrated against the enemies of his Kingdom as in the Epistle to the Hebrews it is said to divide asunder and cut betwixt soul and spirit and hew down into the very joints and marrow Such is the Militia of this Heavenly Host. He shall smite the Earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips will he slay the wicked Esa. 11. 4. 7. And in that he is said to tread the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God it looks as if it referred to that of Esay 63. Who is this that comes from Edom with his died garments from Bozrah this that is glorious in his apparel travelling in the greatness of his strength I that speak in righteousness mighty to save Which answers to that in this present Vision Whose name is Faithful and True and in righteousness doth he judge and make war But it follows in Esay Wherefore art thou red in thy apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat I have troden the wine-press alone and of the people there was none with me For I will tread them in my anger and trample them in my fury and their bloud shall be sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain all my raiment For the day of vengeance is in my heart and the day of my redeemed is come This answers to what is said of the Rider of the white Horse in this Vision that he was clothed in a vesture dipt in bloud Which in both these Prophecies referrs both to the Passion of Christ and his Spiritual Victories over his Enemies The Wine-presses also answer to one another in each Vision And being that the Harvest is as our Saviour says the end of the world the Vintage which is something later then it must be a later part of the end of the world So that this Vision of Edom and Bozrah will very well sute in that respect also to this of the Apocalyps And it is farther considerable that Bozrah signifies Vintage and Edom the carnal persecutive Church real enemies to the true Jerusalem as the Edomites were to Israel And I need not adde that Edom and Ismael are Types of one and the same thing So that the warfare seems plainly to be spiritual as it may be I shall take occasion to clear up more fully in another place 8. Lastly in that it is written upon his thigh KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS it shews the Royal Descent of Christ even according to the flesh as if he had laid claim to this Sovereignty by descent from David the King accordingly as it is said Chap. 22. I am the root and off-spring of David and the bright morning-star The root of David as to his Divinity and the off-spring of David as to his Humanity But the meaning of this part of the Vision is That the Word of God that is to say the Law of Christ inward and outward is at last in conspicuous Triumph though it had been kept under and plainly troden into the dirt for so long a time in the Reign of the Two-horned Beast or the Whore 9. But that the Church of Christ which is his Body has also a share in this part of the Vision is easily discoverable For in that this Title of King of Kings and Lord of Lords is written upon his thigh it signifies also the Dominion of his posterity the Church as Ribera and Alcazar have rightly noted and accordingly as it is said else-where in the Apocalyps He has made us Kings and Priests c. And for the treading of the Wine-press of the wrath of God or the subduing of Edom does not Christ doe it by the powerful and convictive zeal of his Saints and faithful Ministers of his Word who seriously and weightily laying the Law and the heavy wrath of God against Sinners to the hearts and consciences of these carnally-complexionated Edomites squeeze out if I may so speak their corrupt bloud that is the principle of that ungodly life in them for in the bloud thereof is the life thereof and so making them dead as to sin after revive them into righteousness unto everlasting Salvation And so for that sharp-edged sword which is here said to come out of the mouth of Christ it is in effect the very same that comes out of the mouths of his Saints who rule the world by convincing them of their wickedness and causing them to return to God This sharp piercing and vehement Reproof out of the mouths of the people of God against the Beast and the False Prophet is here said to be a Sword coming out of the mouth of Christ because their mouths are his mouth by right use and possession and he inspires by his Spirit and they are onely his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that transmit this fiery Law this blast of fire and flaming breath as it is called in Esdras whereby the wicked are consumed They are I say but as a seized Gate or Passage through which or in which this sharp-edged Sword wherewith the Nations are smitten is so powerfully brandished by our victorious Saviour For this Flame and this Sword I take to be clear Truth and sound and searching Reason inspired from the Eternal Word which whetted with an holy sincere and unaffected kind of Enthusiastick Zeal
And do they not make the Will of the Pope a Law Supremum Numen in terris at whose beck and nod all things are to be done right or wrong nay they cannot be wrong if he will have them Which is to make him have an heart like God indeed not onely an irresistible but infallible one Thus high has he clombe in the confidence of his own subtilty and policy But the terrible of the Nations shall draw their swords against the beauty of his wisdom and they shall defile his brightness saith the Prophet Which what it is in the literal sense is easy to understand and accordingly is applicable to the King of Tyre and may ex accidenti be also applicable to the destruction of Rome But it may also have a more Mystical sense And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they render robustos gentium may signify nothing else but the zealous and resolute Assertours and Abettours of Truth then which nothing is more robustious and strong Great is Truth and mighty above all things Esdras 4. These stout Champions therefore shall draw their swords against the beauty of his wisedom that is to say They shall use the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God even that Sword that comes out of his mouth that rides on the white Horse which is unsophisticated Reason and Scripture against the finely-wrought subtilties whether Scholastick or Politick and all the plausible and goodly fair pretences of the Pontifician wisedom and the Glory of the Gospel shall darken the Seat of the Beast as the Sun-shine obscures or puts out the light of every artificial Fire Thus shall the Pontifician Power perish from the midst of the Nations 6. And then as for that more then Imperial Majesty and Splendour in the Pope's Habiliments it is said of this King of Tyre Every precious stone was thy Covering the Sardius the Topaz and the Diamond so as it is said of the Whore of Babylon that she was decked with gold and precious stones and pearles Which Pontifician Power though it be prefigured by the image of a Woman in the Apocalyps the better to set out the Meretricious Mysteries of that Church yet the Haughtiness thereof and more particularly that of the Pope seems also to be typified in the King of Babylon For is it possible that any one should doubt but that Babylon being such an acknowledged Type of the Antichristian Church the Head of this Antichristian Church is likewise typified in the King of Babylon 7. Let us hear therefore what Esay saith of this exalted Potentate in the fourteenth Chapter Verse 12. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer son of the Morning how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the Nations 13. For thou hast said in thy heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North. How every Nation is weakened by the power of the Pope we have adumbrated in our Idea of Antichristianism His ascending into Heaven stylo Prophetico and his exalting himself above the Stars of God which is the Stars of the greatest magnitude in this Heaven is as much as his clambering into Imperial Power and his advancing himself above all the Kings and Princes of the Roman Empire His sitting upon the Mount of the Congregation is his sitting in the Temple of God So that there seems to be a double Allusion both to the Mount of the Temple of God at Jerusalem and to the Mountains or if you will some one peculiar Mountain at Rome which is the chief City of the Church of Christ. This sitting upon this Mount of the Congregation or the Church of God is marvellously coincident with that Prophecy of his sitting in the Temple of God Nor is In the sides of the North put in for nothing though a thing of little moment in the letter for it seems to foretell that the Dominion of the Pope was to spread more notoriously Northward and we know he could never make any great business of the Southern Churches the African ever resisting him very stoutly Besides other considerations which for brevity I omit Ver. 14. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will be like the most High That is to say I will be above all Rule and Dominion I will be absolute uncontrollable infallible as God 15. Yet thou shalt be brought down to Hell to the sides of the pit 16. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee saying Is this the man that made the Earth to tremble that did shake the Kingdoms The meaning is Is this the man that did terrifie the world with his dreadful Thunder-claps of Excommunication and by the great Interest he had in the Princes of the Empire and by the power of his Clergy could unhindge and dissettle Principalities and Kingdoms by reason of the blindness and Superstition of the People 17. That made the world as a Wilderness and destroyed the Cities thereof that opened not the house of his Prisoners That is to say That filled the Empire with intestine Warres by his wicked Incendiaries and so brought great depopulations and destructions upon Cities rather then he would let goe those that he held captive in this Babylonish or Aegyptian Slavery Many of whom were most barbarously abused in the close Prisons of the Inquisition and treated with such Cruelty as exceeds all the Tragick stories of the bloudy and persecutive Infidels 18. All the Kings of the Nations even all of them lie in glory every one in his own house That is The Dynasties or Polities of the Nations the Secular Kingdomes and Powers have and shall expire with glory in comparison of thee and have an honourable Burial and Memorial 19. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch as a carkass troden under foot The meaning is That the Pontifician Power shall not expire with any honour at all but the very Memorial thereof shall be abominable and execrable it shall not have that Kingly Burial whose dead Bodies were embalmed with Aromatick odours and Sepulchres adorned with goodly and splendid Artifice but shall be as a stinking Carkass cast into the high-way that offends the eyes and nostrills of every one that passes by So unsavoury a stench shall arise from the Records of this bloudy and Idolatrous Antichristian Polity as is intimated in this last verse Ver. 20. Thou shalt not be joyned with them in Burial because thou hast destroyed thy Land and slain thy People See Homily against Rebellion part 〈◊〉 6. That is to say As thou art a Power distinct from that of the Secular Powers and Potentates of the Earth so thy Fate shall be distinct and singular for thy Memorial shall be accursed and thy Name an hissing to Posterity And the reason is also singular Because thou hast destroyed thy Land and slain
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
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
the Pope's Crown and of a Woman-Pope 305 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 317 CHAP. XVII 1. That a Relapse of the Empire into Idolatry in general were sufficient to make it the Image of the old Pagan Empire and yet that the Resemblance is more exquisite and particular 2. That there was an intended imitation of the Pagan Rites in the Church degenerating 3. The Pope compared with the Pagan Caesars and his Cardinals with the Roman Senate 4. The Tutelar Saints compared with their Tutelar Deities as also of adoring of what they eat 5. The minute multiplication of the Pagan Deities compared with and found to be out-gone by this Pagano-Christian Church in the Presidents of Physick and Rural Affairs 6. As also in the Presidents of Trades or Courses of Living 7. The Saints and Heathen Deities compared in their Offices and how punctually they have surrogated the Blessed Virgin into the place of Venus and the Moon 8. Most lively Lineaments of Restored Paganism in dedicating the Pantheon to the Virgin and all the Saints as also the Seven Hills to seven several Saints in erecting Altars and Images thereon in adorning these Images in appointing Festivals in Adoration and Prayers in Oblations of Wax-candles and Incense in carrying their Images in Procession and hiding them in Lent 9. In Vows Oathes Deifying dead men Pilgrimages Miraculous Cures with the Monuments of them hung up in the Temples 10. In Aspersions and Purifications by Holy Water 11. In the driving away the Devil by the jangling of baptized Bells 12. In their Jubilees general manner of celebrating their Festivals 13. In fetching in May in running about the fields with light Torches in their hands in sprinkling their Beasts with Holy Water by the Friars of S. Antony in leaping over S. John's Fires in Baptismal Spittle in their Master of Misrule at Christmas in their Carnavals and other Festivals 14. That the Image of the Beast is also in some sort revived in their Funerals 15. But more considerably in their Religious Fraternities under this or that Saint 16. As also in their shorn Crowns in their Vows of Virginity and in their Ninevites or Flagellants 17. In their pretence of bringing down Christ bodily and personally at the Mass 18 19. As also in their more pompous Processions 20. The great Usefulness of the Observation of the punctual correspondency of the Events hitherto to the Predictions touching the state of the Church 21. His amazement and astonishment at Grotius that he should decline so clear and easie a meaning of the Image of the Beast and take up with one so impossible and so unprofitable 323 BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. The great Usefulness of shewing the folly of Ribera's and Grotius his Expositions of these two Chapters of the Apocalyps 2. That according to Ribera the Beast is the Devil 3. The seven Kings the wicked Kings of the seven Ages of the world 4. That five of these Ages were gone over in S. John's time and that the Reign of Antichrist is the seventh and Rome Heathen the Whore 5. The general Usefulness of our Joint-Exposition 6. That the Beast is not the Devil proved there-from by several circumstances Nor the seven Heads seven such Ages by the deadly wound in the sixth Head 7. Nor the Whore Rome Heathen more then the Two-horned Beast 8. That the Devil cannot be the Beast that was and is not c. proved by arguments not leaning on our Joint Exposition 9. Farther proof from that part of his Name and yet is with a Vindication of that reading 10. A confutation of Ribera's Exposition of the seven Heads from the groundlesness and exceptionableness of his division of the duration of the world into seven Ages 11. From the Ununitableness of the Kings of the Age into one Head 12. From the Devil's eminency and superiority over these Heads 13. From the leaving neither room nor time for an eighth King 14. From the disproportionableness of the seventh Age of the world to the rest and especially to the strange Feats they say Antichrist is then to atchieve 15. And lastly from the seven Hills necessarily appropriating those seven Heads to the Roman Empire 16. That these Expositions of Ribera as also of the rest of the Roman Interpreters were very weak even in Grotius his own judgment which set him upon minting new ones 336 CHAP. II. 1. What the meaning of the Scarlet Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns and of the Woman riding him is according to Grotius 2. A Confutation of Grotius his Interpretation out of our Joint-Exposition 3. Two main Grounds or necessary Supporters of Grotius his Interpretation The one That S. John reckons the Seven Heads beginning at Claudius with the Confutation thereof 4. The other That this Vision was wrote in Vespasian's time with a Discovery of the weakness and falseness of that Opinion 5. That Claudius his banishing the Jews from Rome falls many degrees short of a proof that John was then exiled into Patmos And that Impulsore Christo in Suetonius does not so much as evince that any Christians were then expelled the City 6. And if the Decree reached Christians it does not strait follow that S. John was concerned therein 7. An Answer to a Passage in Epiphanius alledged for S. John's Exile then 8. An Answer to another alledged to 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 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