the creation of whom all other Magistracies were at an end all which ended at last in the Imperial Government The Jesuit Pererius confirms this upon the Fourth Beast of the 7th of Daniel Why that Beast is without a name and all the other three named Because says he in the other three Kingdoms there was but one kind or form of Government But the kinds of Government amongst the Romans were of several sorts First Regal then Consulary after that partly Tribunitical partly Consulary sometimes by Dictators sometimes by Emperours Where he leaves out only the Decemvirs who yet are sufficiently known to have been a peculiar Government distinct from the rest If it should be objected That the Triumviri Rep. Constituendae were as different a Government from all these it is to be considered that that was only the Rule of three single Men for one turn only And single Persons are no-where made an Head of a Beast That of the first Horn in the 8th of Daniel is the King of Macedon or Alexander and his Heirs Fenestella does also reject this as no Magistracy cap. 21. And these two forms of these Governments which are the most questioned viz. the Decemvirs and the Dictators have a very sufficient warrant for them from the best approved Writers of the Roman Affairs Livy says of the Decemvirs Book the IIId in the 300th and first year after the building of Rome The Government of the City was changed from Consuls to Decemvirs as it had been before from Kings to Consuls And Fenestella of the Dictators chap. 8. of the Roman Magistracy that they were so much the Supream Power of the Commonwealth that there was no Appeal from them and that they had the power of the Lives of the Roman Citizens and the entire Jurisdiction of the whole Commonwealth And that He was called the Master of the People for his Absolute Power by Alcasar and by Ribera in express words who says that the Roman Empire is now at an end Therefore is it that Grotius is so higly applauded for that Masterpiece of his in confounding the acceptation of a Beast and its Horns in Daniel by denying the fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter to be a Rule of the Romans which is the only true way to strike at the root of any setled Interpretation of the Beast or its Heads in the Revelations But then we see it was necessary for him to run into a greater absurdity than any of these to maintain it as his Opinion about the coming of the Son of Man has been already made to appear And there need no other proof of the falseness of his Interpretation of the Heads of the Beast than to be satisfied that the coming of the Son of Man in the 7th of Daniel is the Kingdom of Christ For that establishes such an uniform acceptation of the signification of the Heads and Horns of a Beast all over Daniel as makes his new contrivance about the seven Heads of the Beast in the Revelations to be against all the constant Prophetical use of them From hence then it does sufficiently appear That the seven Heads of the Beast are so many Sovereign Powers of the Roman Monarchy and because they are distinguished into five past at the time of the Vision one then in being and others to come it is certain also that they are successive and therefore by Proposition the 16th are they as many Changes of the Sovereign Power of that Empire as there are Successions amongst them By almost all Protestant Interpreters are these seven Heads determined to be at least seven Successions of the Sovereign Power of Rome But because there is no absolutely certain assurance of more than three successive Changes from the Text of which the sixth is the first Succession there signified by five are past one is All that can therefore be positively affirmed about the number of the successive Ruling Powers is That the three last are certainly successive Changes of the Ruling Power of the whole Roman Monarchy I dispute not here the successive Rule of the first five Heads but rather judge it to be highly probable that they are the five different Changes of the Roman Government that are ordinarily accounted upon e Bellarmin lib. 1. de Pontifice cap. 2. But neither was the Commonwealth governed always by the same Heads For in the beginning they had Consuls and Tribunes after he had before supposed Kings And when they were taken away Decemvirs Consuls and Tribunes were then recalled and sometimes had they Dictators and sometimes Military Tribunes with a Consulary Power But if any will further contend to have the Senate and the Interreges and the Triumviri Reipublic Constituendae to come in for a share of the Supream Government then the five Governments before the Imperial may be accounted to be those which had been in Rule from the first Succession of the Beast to the third Beast in Daniel ch 7. that is ever since the Roman Conquests of the Greek Monarchy and may be reckoned this way to be the Consuls Dictators Senate Interreges Triumviri Reip. Constituendae It is indeed usual to account all the Characters that are given to every Beast in Daniel from the time that it conquered the Beast that was before it And according to that the seven Heads may by some be thought necessary to be accounted for from the end of the Greek Monarchy The Roman Historians do reckon up the Changes of their Government in that order Bellarmin himself lib. 1. c. 2. de Pontifice does reckon up the same number of the Governments of Rome But yet it seems not to be plainly assured to us that the five first Heads may not have been all five in Rule at the same time before the sixth or at least not certain but that they might have succeeded by more than one single Head at a time As in the He-Goat in the 8th Chapter of Daniel it might be said that there was one Horn first and four more after it where there is a succession of five Horns and yet but one successive Change of the Ruling Power of the Greeks that is The division of that Monarchy into four after the time of the single Reign of one King over it CHAP. II. Rev. XVII The Eighteenth Proposition The Three last Kings of the Eight Rev. 17. 10 11. are Three immediately successessive Changes of Roman Government This demonstrated Bellarmin 's peculiar fancy of the signification of the number Seven The Eighth King one of the Six first returned into power The Nineteenth Proposition The Sixth King the Imperial Government at the time of the Vision Grotius examined in that point The Twentieth Proposition The Beast is the next Government of Rome but one to the Imperial at the time of the Vision Dr. Hammond 's Objection from the time being at hand answered WIthout any farther concern about the particular nature of the first five Heads or Kings it may be observed of the
name of King is given to Moses and the Judges of the Israelites And further That this Sixth King cannot be any single Ruler or Emperour which is the chief thing pretended to by those who will not have it to be the Imperial Government is most evident from this following Consideration viz. That then the Eighth King which is the Beast would have been the next single Emperour but one after him For the three Last Kings do immediatly succeed one another by Prop. praeced And then all the Characters and Attendants of the Beast must have been found verified of the next Emperour but one after the time of the Vision For by Prop. the 6th Corol. 2. Prop. 10. The Beast in all the Chapters of the Revelations is one and the same particular state of it under one of its Heads There must then have been Ten Kings that had no Kingdom at the time of the Vision who were yet such Masters of so many Kingdoms in the time of the next Emperour but one to it as that they should give their Kingdoms to that Emperour Rev. 17. 12 13. Rome must also have been so burnt with fire that it must have been finally ruined and have had all Soveraignty taken from it in the time of that Emperour v. 16. But in History we meet with Prop. 3. nothing like to this much less is there any account from History of the overcoming of any Emperour of Rome by the Christians v. 14. of those days nor that any Ten Kings confederated with that Emperour were conquered by them nor of any such Emperour that was destroyed by the Armies of Christ So that upon his Rev. 19. 19 20. Rev. 20. 4. death there was any such glorious Reign of the Kingdom of Christ over the Kingdoms of this World as is described immeately to succeed it But History is very full of the accounts of the afflicted and persecuted state of the Christian Church in those times which is quite contrary to that glorious Description of the state of the Church immediatly after the times of the Beast in the Revelations Besides that it has been proved that that Beast was to continue till the Second coming of Christ Corol. 1. Prop. 12. This seems to have been well enough observed by those who would have the Beast in the 17th Chapter to signify a single Emperour And therefore to evade those Confequences they are Grotius forced to make two or three distinct states of the Beast in the Revelations at the several mentions of him in chap. 13. chap. 17. chap. 19. But how evident it is that all the mentions of that Beast all over the Revelations do signify but one and the same state of him under his last Head may be seen by the whole process of the Demonstration of the 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Propositions The Sixth King or Head must therefore necessarily be the Imperial Government of Rome It is then unquestionable That The Beast called the Eighth King is that change of Roman Government Prop. 20. which was next but one to the Imperial Government of Rome at the time of the Vision For the Beast is the Eighth in immediate succession to the Sixth which is the Imperial Government Prop. 19. And it is The Beast under one of its Heads which signifies Supream Government under the Successive Reigns of many single Persons in that Government Prop. 16. Therefore must the Beast be the next Roman Government but one to the Imperial that Ruled at the time of the Vision By the preceding Proposition it appears what Absurdities and Inconsistencies they must fall into who would have the time of the Beast passed over almost as soon as it began One would think that there must be some great necessity that did force to these streights But the chief thing that is alledged for it from this Prophecy is That at the beginning of it it is said That the things were shortly to come to pass That the time was at hand And again at the end of it also That they were things which must shortly be done And that the Book should not be sealed because the time was at hand But these things have already been sufficiently considered pag. 114. And there is nothing more familiar in Speech than to say of things that require a great deal of time for the finishing them that they d will shortly be instead of They See References will shortly begin to be As one might say at Easter All the Summers work will shortly be upon us This Play will be acted presently though it be five hours in acting So about the Birth of Christ All things foretold of the times of the Messiah will shortly come to pass All the pretended necessity then comes now to be none at all Grotius could not have reflected more upon the Judgment of the most Eminent of the Roman Interpreters than to think it to be so plain that the time of the Beast was long since past from such obvious grounds as these and yet that this should never be found out by the most Judicious of them For it would save them all that trouble that they have to make it out that their present Church is not concerned in the Affairs of the Beast in which there would be no difficulty if it were so plain that the time of the Beast is long since past And besides it would keep them from granting so much as they do to the disadvantage of their Cause whereas in a concern of this nature 't is very unsafe to yield to any thing but what is necessary to be granted especially since what they do yield to does force them to such contradictions to what they allow to be the known significations of a Beast and its Heads or Horns in other places as we see in Ribera c. or to matter of fact as shall be made to appear against Bellarmin Prop. 22. who has granted so far as he has laid the whole stress of the Controversie betwixt us upon the truth of History CHAP. III. Rev. XVII The 21st Proposition What an Head of the Beast is in distinction to an Horn. This determined by Eleven Arguments What demonstrates an Head to be at an end The Sixth Head at an end when another Government was owned at Rome in the place of it TO take away all dispute that may arise about the distinguishing Characters of an Head of the Beast in the time of the last Head when there is ten Kingdoms to appear in the Roman Empire at the same time signified by the ten Horns This following Proposition is to distinguish an Head from an Horn. An Head of the Beast is that setled Sovereign Power of the Romans Prop. 21. whose Authority is owned to be Supream by the Government of the City of Rome 1. That it must be a setled Sovereign Power is confirmed from all the Examples of Daniel where there are no Heads or Horns to signify the Ruling Power of a
destruction of the Species or Soul of it that is of the Society of that People either by Slavery or by Subjection only to a new Authority Artic. 4 5 6. Ibid. Artic. 8. As Grotius determines concerning the continuance of the same body of People in the See References 9th Chapter of his Second Book de jure Belli Pacis And therefore were they still the commanding Authority of the Roman Empire 9. This is very learnedly confirmed by b Thus were the People of Rome the same under Kings Consuls and Emperours And Artic. 11. are the same at this day because they still retain that Society in Civil Government which they had formerly and therefore the Imperial Power did always reside in them as in the Body in which it lived For whatever the People of Rome could have formerly done of right before the time of the Emperours the same had they power to do upon the death of any Emperour before there was another chosen The Election of the Emperours did also belong to the People of the City of Rome and was oftentimes performed by the People either alone or by the Senate for them And those Elections which were made by first one and then another Legion of the Army were not valid by the right of those Legions for in a flitting Body there could be no certain right but from the approbation of the People It is no Objection against this that by the Decree of Antoninus all the Subjects of the Roman Empire were made Citizens of Rome For the rest of the Roman Subjects got nothing more by that Decree than what the Colonies and free Cities of the Empire and the Roman Provinces used to have which was to be partakers of the Roman Honours and to have the privileges of Quirites not that the Seat and Fountain of Government should be in other parts of the Empire as it was at Rome For that was not in the power of the Emperour to give who could not change the Fundamental Laws for the exercise of the Governing Power Nor was it any diminution of the Right of the People of Rome that the Emperours chose rather to live at Constantinople afterwards than at Rome For then also did the whole People of Rome confirm and make valid the Election which was made by a part of them at Constantinople who for that are called the Byzantine Quirites by Claudian And those of Rome did still preserve the Prerogative of their City and the honour of the precedence of their Consul which was no small Monument of their Original Right Wherefore all the Right which those of Constantinople had to chuse the Roman Emperour did depend upon the Will of the People of Rome To this purpose is that of Hieron Balbus de Conventione c. 13. But sometimes the Emperour was chosen by the Army who was then accounted rightly chosen if the Authority of the Senate and People of Rome did confirm it Ludovic â Rebeuberg a Caesarian Writer cap. 3. de juribus Reg. Imp. Romanor Charlemaign never called himself Emperour before he was anointed and crowned by Pope Leo The Romans with one Consent did give the Imperial Acclamations to Charlemaign And when he was crowned by Pope Leo they called him Caesar and Augustus M. Fribeius in the Comment In which way of Acclamation says he the popular Election both at Rome and Constantinople did at that time consist As Paulus Diaconus in Histor Miscella Anastas Bibliothecarius do testify Grotius himself in that same Chapter and the Comment on it where he shews as a Lawyer That it was always acknowledged to be the right of the Senate and People of Rome to determine the next Succession to the Government of the Roman Empire in the time of every vacancy That therefore all Elections of Princes and Laws were to be confirmed by them So that the Constantinopolitan Emperours were generally so confirmed and their Laws ratified by the Authority of the City of Rome And to give authority to their Government they had one of the Consuls and a part of the Senate of Rome generally residing with them as delegated from that City to give authority to their Orders as long as there was a good correspondence betwixt the Eastern and Western Empires And to show which of the Seats of the Empire was the chief Fountain of the Roman Power the Consul of the City of Rome always had the precedence So that as long as the Power of the Roman Senate and Consuls did continue at Rome which was till the Conquest of Rome by Justinian the Sovereign Power of that City must come in for a share at least in the then Ruling Head of the Beast which is all that is necessary to be here established 10. And the way to make any man a Roman in distinction to others that were Subjects of that Empire was to make him a Citizen of Rome which did manifestly shew that no Power could be properly said to be the Head of the Roman Empire that was without any Authority from the City of Rome 11. The City of Rome had also a very peculiar acknowledgment from the whole Government of the Empire that it was the Head and Fountain of all the Power of the Roman Empire and in a more eminent way than we read of any other City besides For all the Governors of the Provinces at their return from their Office used to lay down the Ensigns of their Authority at the Gates of the City of Rome before they entred the Town in acknowledgment of the first Fountain of their Magistracy which they did therefore thus signify to be resigned up into her hands when they returned home again L. ult de Officio Procons 12. Besides That during the whole time of the division of the Empire to the Reign of c Cod. Justinian Praefat. Consuetudo Romanae Urbis sequenda ab omnibus quia Roma est Caput Orbis Terrarum To this purpose do the Eastern Emperours before give the precedence to the City of Rome So all over Cassiodorus's Varior p. 41 112 207 302 311 319 341 348 359 361 390 396. Rome has the name of the Head of the World with such Characters as these in that City where Honour does always reside in the most sacred City none can be greater than he to whose care Rome is committed not only Rome tho in it are contained all things whatsoever is done in that City is almost in the eyes of the whole World If the Head of the World rejoyces all the rest must do the same not in the Provinces but in the Head of all things And this was just before the Reign of Justinian Justinian at least the City of Rome though no longer the Seat of the Empire was called and accounted the Metropolis of it and therefore was it for all that time called The Head of the World the Head of all things Wherefore by the Head of the Roman Empire that is by any Head
of the Beast in distinction from an Horn all would then have understood That Authority which was owned for Supream by the Senate and People of Rome And it has been concluded that the Angel did so explain his Figures as all the World would understand the literal sense of them to be if there were nothing clearer against it Chap. 2. It does therefore necessarily follow from hence That every Head of the Beast is at the end of its Reign when the Authority Corollar 1 of the City of Rome does own another setled form of Government for Supream in the room of it For then there is a new Head of the Beast constituted by Prop. preced And this shews us the necessity of the following Consequence That The sixth Head was at an end when the City of Rome owned another Corollar 2 setled Authority in the room of that Imperial Government which had continued from the time of the Vision 1. For every Head of a Beast is at an end when another differing form of setled Government is owned for Supream by the City of Rome by Corol 1. praeced And therefore must the sixth Head end with the end of that form of Imperial Government which had continued from the time of the Vision For the sixth Head is that form of Imperial Government by Proposition 19. 2. Again The sixth Head and the Reign of the City of Rome are by the Angel declared to be the same Roman Rule that was in being at the time of the Vision For of both it is said Rev. 17. 9 10. 18. that they were then in Rule and joined with the seven Hills in their Reign And that Head was the Imperial Government at that time by Prop. 19. Wherefore whenever that Imperial Power should be so cut off from the City of Rome that another setled Form of Government should be owned in the stead of it by the Authority of that City who would not assure himself That the Imperial Rule which had continued the Head of that City from the time of the Vision and which was said by the Angel to be the same Ruling Power with which the City of Rome is described at that same time must necessarily have then been at an end It may therefore assuredly be concluded that that sixth Head was at an end at the time that another different Form of Government was owned in the stead of it at Rome This last Conclusion does invite ones curiosity to enquire from the Roman History whether the Imperial Government were ever changed or interrupted by any other setled Form of Government since the time of the Prophecy For since the next Form of Government to the Imperial or sixth King is said should continue but a short space and that then should arise that King Rev. 17. 10 11. or Government called the Beast which is the end of all our search one may easily see that the discovery of a Change in the Imperial Government will determine the time of the Rise of the Beast which is the next Form of Roman Government but one to the Imperial that was in Rule at the time of the Vision And the following Account have we from the Roman History of all the considerable Changes of the Form of the Chief Government from the time of the Revelations CHAP. IV. Rev. XVII An Account of the several changes of the form of the Government of Rome from the time of the Vision The two Emperours were joynt-partners in the Government of the whole Empire like the two Consuls The 22 d Proposition the sixth Head was at latest at an end upon the Fall of the Western Empire in Augustulus The Barbarous Kings of Italy The Absolute Masters of Rome Objections Answered THE Imperial Power continued the same from the time of the mention of it in this Prophecy under the name of the King that was then in Rule till about the year 160 after Christ When Marcus Aurelius made Aelius Verus a sharer with him in the Imperial Power under the name of Augustus whereas there had never been before seen two Emperors with the names of Augustus at the same time And this was taken notice of for so new a face of the Government that some dated their Fasti Spartian in Vero Eutrop. 8. Consulares from thence as a new Epocha of time This way of taking others into the Society of the Empire with them was followed by other Emperors afterwards as Severus with his Son Caracalla Caracalla and his Brother Geta the Gordiani And in their time was there another Government set up at Rome it self called the Twenty Men who were chosen by the Senate to Administer the Affairs of the whole Commonwealth and Ambassadors were sent to all the Provinces of the Empire to contain them under the obedience of the Senate But this continued but a short time and gave way to the exaltation of Balbinus and Papienus to the Imperial dignity by the choice of those Twenty Men themselves and with the Interruption of some single Emperors after them The same Social Form of Empire returned again in Valerian with his Son Gallien And there were afterwards sometimes three and sometimes four Augustus's together which seems to be much like the change of a Dictator into two Consuls And the Dictators and Consuls are accounted two of the five Heads or forms of Government which were said to be past at the time of the Vision Another change was there in the Imperial Government When the Emperors became Christians and when the Laws of the Empire were made to conform to the Christian Religion This seems to some to be a change of the Government much more remarkable than any Political change and to deserve to be one of the two forms of Government that we are in quest of And besides it seems to be plainly described in the 12th Chap. of the Revelations as a very considerable change of the Government of the Empire under the show of the Fall of the Dragon upon which the Beast ascends into the Throne presently after in the 13th Chapter The change of Religion again by Julian the Apostate does thereupon seem to put in for a title to another form And thô the time of his Reign was very short yet it was as long as that of the Decemvirs who are determined by most of the approved Interpreters to be one of the Five Heads that were past at the time of the Vision Besides That his Reign was just almost the very same length of time that the Beast is said to Reign That is Three years and an half The division of the Empire into the Western and Eastern seats especially when it came to be setled by Theodosius seems to have a very fair claim to the title of a new Head or Change of the Imperial Government And like to the succession of the Consuls to the Kingly Government of Rome which are made two of the five forms of Roman Government that were past at the
returned into Power again Proposit 5. Every one of the Eight Kings Rev. 17. 10 11. is represented by one of the Seven Heads of the Beast Coroll 1. The Eighth King is one of the seven Heads that had ruled before and was revived again Coroll 2. The Eighth King called the Beast v. 11. is the Beast with that Head only which is last in Rule Proposit 6. The Beast all over the 17th Chapter is the Beast in the time of its last Ruling Head Coroll 1. The Beast in the 17th Chapter continues no longer than his last Ruling Head Against Grotius's Notion of the Beast after all his Heads Coroll 2 The Ten Horns belong to the Beast no longer than the time of his Last Head Against the same Proposit 7. The Beast all over the 17th Chapter of the Revelations is a particular Sovereign of Rome in the time of its Idolatrous Rule Proposit 8. The Term of The Beast all over the 13th Chapter does signify the First Beast shown v. 1. Corollar 1. By the Image Mark Name and number of the Name of the Beast chap. 13. is to be understood the Image c. of the First Beast Corollar 2. By the Beast with the False Prophet and with the Image Mark c. in all the other Chapters of the Revelations is to be understood the First Beast with all the same Attendants in Chap. 13. Proposit 9. The Beast in the 13th Chapter is a particular state of the Beast under one of its either Ruling Heads or Horns for all the time of the continuance of the Head or Horn. Corollar 1. The False Prophet or Second Beast Image Mark Name c. do in all the mentions of them in the 13th Chapter belong to that particular state of the Beast under either of one of its Heads or Horns Corollar 2. The Beast with the False Prophet Image Mark c. in all other Chapters signifies the same particular state of the Beast that it is signified to be in the 13th Chapter with the like Adjuncts Proposit 10. The Seven Heads and the Ten Horns in the 13th and 17th Chapters are the same things Corollar 1. The Beasts in the 13th and 17th Chapters are one and the same particular Beast in every successive state of the same Heads or Horns Corollar 2. The Beast in the 13th Chapter is the same particular state of the Beast with that in the 17th Chapter for the whole time of its continuance Corollar 3. The wounded and healed Head of the Beast Chap. 13. is the same Last Ruling Head of the Beast with that in the 17th Chapter Proposit 11. The Judgment of the Dead Rev. 11. 18. is the General Judgment at Christ's Second Coming Corollary The Reign of Christ over the Kingdoms of the World Rev. 11. 15. is Christ's Second Coming in glory Proposit 12. The Beast that killed the Witnesses Rev. 11. 7. is the same particular time of Roman Rule with the Beast in the other Chapters Corollar 1. The Beast in the Revelations is to continue till some Vniversal Reign of Christ over the Kingdoms of this World Corollar 2. The Beast and the Two Witnesses Chap. 11. are Contemporaries for the whole time of the continuance of them both BOOK II. PROPOSITIONS Prop. 13. THE Kingdom of the Son of Man Daniel 7. 13 14. is some Kingdom of Christ Jesus Prop. 14. The Kingdom of the Son of Man Dan. 7. is the Second Coming of Christ in glory Corollary The Kingdom of the Son of Man is Christ's Second Coming to Judgment Prop. 15. The Fourth Kingdom in the 7th Chapter of Daniel is the same thing with the Beast in the Revelations Coroll 1. The Last Ruling Head of the Beast in the Revelations is the same thing with the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast Dan. 7. Coroll 2. The Beast in the Revelations signifies the same particular time of Reign with the Fourth Beast in the time of the Little Horn Dan. 7. Coroll 3. The time of the Beast in the Revelations did not begin till after the division of the Roman Empire into Ten Kingdoms Coroll 4. The time of the Beast in the Revelations is not yet past Prop. 16. All over the Prophecy of Daniel By a Beast as the common Subject of its Heads and Horns is meant a Ruling Nation or People Part. 1. Part. 2. By the Heads and Horns of that Beast the several kinds of Supream Government in that Nation Part. 3. And if they be said to come after one another they denote so many Successive Governments in the same place Part. 4. But if they are described as ruling all at the same time then they signify so many divided Sovereignties in that one Ruling People or Nation Part. 5. And in both the kinds of them each particular Head or Horn does signify the whole time of all the several single Governours that reign either in the same form of Government when they signify successive Forms of Government or in the same particular division when they signify divided Kingdoms Observ 1. Every whole Figure signifying Dominion does all over Daniel signify a Ruling People or Nation Observ 2. The parts of whole Figures signifying Dominion do all over Daniel follow the Rule of the Heads and Horns of the Beast Observ 3. An Head and an Horn are indifferently used to signify the same Ruling Power of a Nation Observ 4. The distinguishing Character of a new Succession of an Head or Horn or of a new Succession of a different Government in the same place is a new name of the Sovereign Power publickly established Observ 5. All parts of Figures signifying Dominion do all over Daniel denote the whole successive Line of all the single Persons that reign either in the same form of Government or in the same part of a divided Nation or People BOOK III. PROPOSITIONS Prop. 17. THE Beast in the Revelations when taken for the common Subject of its Heads or Horns does signify the Rule of the Romans in general The Seven Heads of it the Successive Changes of the Government of that Nation The Ten Horns the division of that Empire into so many several Sovereignties Prop. 18. The Three last Kings of the Eight Rev. 17. 10 11. are three Changes of Roman Government coming after one another in an immediate order Prop. 19. The Sixth King Revelat. 17. 10. was the Imperial Government of Rome in the time of St. John Prop. 20. The Beast was that Supream Government of Rome which came next but one after the Imperial Government in St. John's time Prop. 21. An Head of the Beast is that setled Sovereign Power of the Romans whose Authority is owned for Supream by the City of Rome Coroll 1. Every Head of the Beast is at an end when the City of Rome does own another setled Power for Supream in the room of it Coroll 2. The Sixth Head was at an end when the City of Rome owned another setled Authority in the room of the Imperial Government that had continued
from the time of St. John Prop. 22. At the ruine of the Western Empire by the Heruli and Gothish Kings of Italy the Sixth Head was at the latest at an end Prop. 23. The Beast called the Eighth King Rev. 17. 11. is a Sovereign Power of Rome that is owned there for Supream at this present Corollar 1. The 42 Months of the Beast Rev. 13. 5. are at least 1260 Chaldaick Years Corollar 2. The 1260 days of the Two Witnesses Revel 11. 3. are the same concurrent time with the 42 Months of the Beast Corollar 3. The Two Witnesses in Sackcloth Revel 11. 3. do represent the whole True Church of Christ during all the time of the Reign of the Beast Prop. 24. The Second Beast Revel 13. 11. is a Church-head owned for Supream over all the Roman Jurisdiction and distinct from the First Beast Prop. 25. The Beast in the Revelations is a Secular Sovereign Power of the Romans confederated with an Ecclesiastical Roman Head in an Antichristian Idolatrous League and distinct from him Coroll 1. The Second Beast Revel 13. 11. is a Succession of Ecclesiastical Persons having Supream Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs Coroll 2. The Beast and the False Prophet are those Two Secular and Ecclesiastical Governours which are at this present time acknowledged Supream by the City of Rome and distinct from one another Coroll 3. The Present Imperial and Papal Power of the Romans are the Beast and the False Prophet Concerning the First Appearance of the Beast Query 1. Whether at the time of Justinian's Conquest of the Italian Goths there had not been at least two such Changes of the Secular Government of Rome since the time of St. John as might he called two different Heads of the Beast Query 2. Whether the First Rise of the Beast was not upon the Conquest of the Goths by Justinian THE SEVERAL OPINIONS CONCERNING THE BEAST IN THE APOCALYPSE IT is generally agreed by all the considerable Interpreters of all Churches in this present Age That Babylon and The Beast in the Visions of the Apocalypse do signify some Idolatrous State of Roman Reign For they all agree that by Babylon must be meant some Domination of Rome But there are three main Differences amongst them in respect of the Age to which they fix their Interpretations Some do apply these Visions to the Affairs of Rome-Heathen and so maintain that the time of the concern of these Visions is already past Others apply them to the times of Antichrist near the end of the World who contend that the matter of them is not yet begun to be fulfilled And others again Interpret them of the present times in which we live and of many Ages past since the time of Rome-Heathen There are some other Opinions that are a mixture of these but these are the only considerable Differences of the Interpreters of our present Age. 1. Those that lay this Scene in Rome-Heathen they make The Beast considered as the common Subject of his Heads and Horns to be the Roman Empire or Nation And when that Term is used only for Him who is called the Eighth King it is then the Roman Nation under that particular King or He himself Ruling the Romans The Seven Heads are Seven Persecutions of Roman Emperors either of so many single Emperors or of so many kinds of persecuting Emperors Of this Opinion are the latest of the Roman Interpreters and Grotius and Dr. Hammond c. 2. Those that defer the Application of these things to some State of Rome near the end of the World are more uncertain They will have many of the things that are said of Babylon alone by it self to belong to Rome-Heathen but far the greatest part of the Account of it and all that concerns the History of the Beast they determine to the time of the appearance of Antichrist three years and an half before the end of the World according to the litteral Acceptation of that space of time mentioned five several times within the compass of three Chapters Therefore are they forced to make the Beast signify The World of wicked Men in general when taken for the common Subject of its Heads and Horns But the particular State of it when used to signify the Eighth King only they determine to be either some Roman Antichrist or which is much the same the Devil in Antichrist in the time of the Reign of Antichrist as the 7th King in the Roman Territories The Seven Heads they would have to be Seven Ages of the World with the several Tyrants against the Church of God in each of them the Sixth of which was that Age in which St. John lived because it is said Five are past One is which appears to be the ground of all this Opinion that they may make the Sixth Head continue from St. John's time to the time of Antichrist near the end of the World whom they make to be the Seventh Of this Opinion are almost all the Roman Interpreters and ground themselves for it upon the general Opinion of the Fathers concerning the three years and an half of the Reign of Antichrist near the end of the World And Alcasar says of them that they think it so certain that there is no doubt to be made of it Disput in Argument totius cap. 13. Apocal. But Alcasar himself is of another mind and after twenty years Labour in this Study says That it is plain from the Characters of the Beast in the Revelations and from its Allusion to the Ten horned Beast in Daniel That this whole Beast is nothing but the Roman Empire Disputat in Argument cap. 13. Apocal. And that to fly to the Kingdom of the whole World for the Beast and to make the Seven Heads to be Seven Ages in it is so forced and wrested an Interpretation that any one may observe it Disput 1a. in cap. 17. Apoc. And that Ribera's Opinion does offer a fair occasion to the Hereticks to calumniate the Roman Church as being at last to be an Apostate from the Faith On the other side Cornelius à Lapide does thus censure the first opinion that interprets all of Rome Heathen and which therefore is forced to interpret the first part of the Visions of the ruin of the Jewish Common-wealth or Synagogue as Salmeron and Alcasar in particular so also Grotius and Dr. Hammond He says of this opinion in Prolegomen in Apocal. That it is 1. an Innovation 2. Mystical not Historical 3. Of a Prophecy it makes the Apocalypse an History for the Jewish state was down before the writing these things 4. Because it was against the agreeing-sense of the Fathers He says further in the same place That tho it was not flattery yet it was only a Love to and Reverence for the Apostolick See and a zeal for the honour of it that put Alcasar upon this opinion as he himself does ingenuously confess But Ribera says positively That he is blind that does not see that
the judging the Dead v. 18. cap. 11. Apoc. which Grotius and those of Alcasar's way interpret of the time of Rome-Heathen cannot be fulfilled before the time of the last Judgment Comment in cap. 10. Apocal. Numer 20. The Censures of both the Two former Opinions by the most eminent of the Romish Interpreters may very reasonably plead an excuse for a Third advanced in their stead by the Protestants and that is this That the Beast in general is the Roman Empire but when taken for the Eighth King is The Present Ruling Power of the Roman Church That the Seven Heads of the Beast are Seven successive Changes of Roman Government That the Sixth of them said to be in being at the time of the Vision is the Imperial Government The change of that into another form the Rev. 17. 10. Seventh King And the next to that The Antichristian Soveraignty of the Roman Church is the Eighth which is of the Seven And therefore the Three Years v. 11. and an half so often mentioned by Months and Days must be so many Prophetical Years as there are days in that Period according to the Examples that there are in Scripture to take a Day for a Year in a Prophetical Sense For this they seem to have all the Premises which are the main foundation of their Conclusion from the opinions of the Roman Interpreters themselves The General Notion of the Beast for the Roman Empire they have from Alcasar Bellarmine c. to whom agree Grotius and Dr. Hammond As also their acceptation of the Seven Heads for Roman Governours from the same Their making the Seven Heads to be so many successive Lines of Roman Sovereigns each of which contains under it a long Succession of single persons of the same sort is according to Alcasar's Notion of the Heads And Ribera tho he makes them not Roman Heads yet contends much for In cap. 13. Apoc. sect 2. their being Seven general sorts of Sovereign Power each of which contains under it a succession of many In cap. 17. Apoc. num 15. single Rulers of that kind according to all the known Examples of Daniel and other places of Scripture And then since the Prophecy says of one of these Kings viz. the Sixth That he was in being at the time of the Vision that could be no other sort of Sovereign Power that contained a Succession of many single Persons under it but the Imperial Government of the Romans And the determining of this does thereupon make it necessary that the rest of the Heads or Kings should be other Titles of the Government of Rome And what then can be pitched upon for this end with more reason than those other Changes of the Government of Rome which are frequently recorded by the Roman Authors Kings Consuls c. Whatever were the Five first Kings yet it is less dubious that that which is called the Beast must be the next Change of Roman Government but one to the Imperial that was in Rule at the time of the Vision And the Roman History does assure us That there has been at least Two such Changes since that time and that therefore The Beast must be somewhere in being at this present in the Ruling Power of the City of Rome because he is described to continue with Babylon and the Seven Hills to the Universal Kingdom of Christ Therefore do they conclude That it must be the present Ruling Power of the Church of Rome because it is described to be a Roman-Church-Power and it cannot possibly be any where else than there THE HEADS OF THE BOOKS BOOK I. THE Uniform Notion of The Beast all over the Revelation BOOK II. The Constant Signification of A Beast and its Parts all over Daniel BOOK III. The Particular Signification of The Beast and its Parts in the Revelations BOOK IV. The Application of the Characters of The Beast ERRATA These necessary to be Corrected before the reading of the Book PAge 23. l. 27. for it the reade it The. p. 105. l. 17. r. pag. 102. So also p. 107. l. 5. item l. 22. r. the same p. 108. l. 30. r. pag. 107. And l. 35. no full point p. 130. l pen. r. Prop. 7. p. 141. l. 12. for and with the Seventh King r. revived p. 180. l. 11. r. Corol. 2. Prop. 8. p. 192. l. ult r. pag. 157 158. In the Marg. r. chap. 4. lib. 3. p. 206. l. ult and p. 207. l. 10. for 140. r. above 40. p. 211. l. 27. dele twice p. 245. l. 28. r. Prop. 25. l. 30. r. Prop. 26. So also p. 247. l. 3. p. 270. l. 12. r. 261. Appendix p. 19. l. 9. a full stop l. 10. to be continued with l. 11. p. 26. l. ult for never r. after Notes of References necessary to be Corrected before reading P. 138. l. 20. strike outa. p. 139. l. 1. strike outb. p. 142. l. 36. r. a Consuls p. 143. l. 2. for c r.b. l. 4. for d r.c. p. 158. l. 16. The Note e to be set the line before the Notes following e are anticipated in the References as far asl. And p. 165. l. 14. r. e Panciroll and l. 23. for e r. f c. p. 190. l. 17. r. this Chapter p. 219. l. 12. r. Note s. p. 242. in the Marg. r. Note 5 6 on Chap. 7. Lib. 3. p. 259. The Notes are right but p. 266. the Notes answering them are postponed for g r. h for h r. i c. to the end p. 278. l. 8 9. r. Notes on the 4th Chapter p. 286. l. 23. r. m Paullus bb sup p. 311. l. 6 7. Notes bb cc transposed in the References p. 315. P. 313. l. 2. r. Note b on the 5th Chapter p. 315. l. 35. r. Note c on the 5th Chapter p. 316. l. 8. r. Note m. l. 17. r. Note l on the 5th Chapter Lib. 4. p. 317. l. 10. r. Ch. 5. l. 22. Notes b c d e on Chap. 4. and Note a Chap. 5. Lib. 4. l. 23. r. Chap. 4. l. 24. r. Notes i l on Chap. 4. and i on Chap. 5. Lib. 4. Other Faults less Considerable P. 81. l. 36. for by some r. by Him p. 116. l. 23. strike out possible to be p. 132. r. in the Marg. Chap. 6. Lib. 3. ibid. l. 23. to Nation add or his Western and Eastern Empire p. 143. l. 6. dele part last p. 149. r. Chap. 2. Lib. 1. p. 172. r. Epagomenae and elsewhere p. 180. l. 6. to Prop. 6. add Prop. 7. p. 238. l. 11. r. five days and a quarter l. 14. r. Roman years p. 251. l. 16. no full point p. 288. l. 14. r. Romijith Latinos Proper Names and Latin Quotations sometimes mistaken THE Introduction Concerning the Authority of the Apocalypse which is shewn to be unquestionable THE Book of the Revelations is acknowledged by all contending Parties to be the only distinct Prophecy that we have of the successive fortunes of the Christian Church from its first
found to signify the City of Rome in its Antichristian Domination by Prop. 1. 3. And the desolation of Babylon in the Prophets for which the same Expressions with these here are used does signify the last end of that Monarchy or Ruling Power 4. And besides It is the general usage of the Prophetical Writings to set out the last Ruine of a Ruling People by the desolation of the chief City of that Nation at the same time Thus is the Ruine of the Kingdom of Israel Judah Egypt and of the Babylonians represented by the Desolations of Samaria Jerusalem Noph and Babylon 5. But more particularly is it set forth in this Prophecy that the desolation of Babylon is not after the end of that Monarchy which it here represents For The Beast whose Heads do represent this City and is himself called the King of it is not dethroned till after the desolation of Babylon in the 18th Chapter as appears Chapters 19 20. And Chap. 16. 14 19. The Judgment upon Babylon is betwixt the meeting of the Strength of that Monarchy in Harmageddon and the last end of it in the 19th Chapter From hence it appears That Babylon in none of the mentions of it in the Revelations can be Rome Corollar Pagan This may safely be concluded from the name of The Whore here given to Babylon For when a Nation or City is said in Scripture to commit Fornication or to be an Harlot It signifies that Nation or City to have apostatized from the True Religion to Idolatry see the three first Chapters of Hosea And therefore must Babylon here signify Rome Christian turned Idolatrous which was not till after the time of Rome Pagan The name of Harlot is indeed given to Nineveh Nahum 3. 4. But that Prophecy was after that of Jonah in whose time the people of Niniveh are said to have believed in God and to have repented Jonah 3. 5 10. And so the Idolatry of Nineveh after that time was her Apostacy from the true Faith But it is much more confirmed from the preceding Propositions For Babylon is in all the mentions of it the same Antichristian state of the Reign of Rome by Prop. 2. And in that state of it it is desolated by Fire by Propos praeced But this was never known to have been done in the time of the Reign of Rome-Heathen There was nothing that had the least appearance of the desolation of Rome or of the dissolution of the Roman Government at Constantine's Triumphs over Paganism much less was there any thing like the least part of the description of the desolation of Babylon by fire as it is here most remarkably signified But Grotius and Dr. Hammond to uphold their applications of these things to Rome-Heathen will have Rome to be Babylon two hundred years after it was come under the Christian Emperors because there were a part of the Senate and now and then a Consul that were Pagans for that space of time after Constantine's Triumph over Paganism and therefore that the last desolation of Babylon by fire was at the burning of Rome by Totila An. 546. where the storm of the Enemies fury lay almost wholly upon the Pagan Party and the Christians were most saved by flying to the Churches In the first place it may here by the way be observed what becomes of the ground of Dr. Hammond's confidence That the things in the Revelations were all to be fulfilled in the Times next to the Age in which they were seen from what is said Chap. 1. 1. Things that must shortly come to pass For here are near five hundred years time allowed by the Doctor for the fulfilling them And then he makes the Turks also to be foretold in them besides by Gog and Magog which requires some hundreds Chap. 20. 8. of years more and yet the Doctor speaks with a great confidence and assurance of the fulfilling of all soon after the time that the Prophecy was given But without further concern about that let us now observe the strange absurdities of this Explication 1. According to this Rome must be Babylon or Rome for 200 years after that the Baylonish Throne in it had been pulled down and when its conquering Enemy the Christian Church had been for all that time triumphing in its room in the Imperial Throne in the publick Laws in all parts of the Government and in the publick places of Divine Worship 2. And then Rome Christian whilst it was the possession of a Rev. 18. 20. Christian Prince must be supposed to be burnt to bear the vengeance of Rome Heathen for shedding the Blood of Christian Saints and Martyrs so many years after that Heathenism had been there publickly triumph'd over 3. The Christians also who did then defend their City against Rev. 18. 4. another Christian Prince must be supposed to be called upon from Heaven to come out of it and so to give up their Masters Right to the Enemy lest they should be made to partake of the punishment of Rome for its Heathenism 200 years before to which they were the greatest Enemies for none was more zealous against Paganism than Justinian who was at that time Lord of Rome as appears by the severity of his Laws against it 4. Of the same extravagant nature must it be to make the Rev. 18. 20. Heavens the Apostles and Prophets and all the faithful Christians in the City at that time to triumph with joy at the burning of the Houses and Goods of most Christians and a few Pagans together and at the taking of a City by the Christian Goths from the Christian Romans 5. And the burning not a third part of Rome as Grotius confesses of this Exploit of Totila's and the slaughter of a few Pagans in it must be made to be the giving Rome-Pagan double revenge for the Blood of the Prophets and Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth by the Pagan Power of Rome Rev. 8. 6. all over the Empire It must be the giving Rome-Pagan the Cup of the Wine of the fierceness of the Wrath of God Chap. 16. 19 6. The Pagan Kings also of the Roman Empire which had committed Fornication with Rome-Pagan some hundreds of years before that is had complied with the Roman Idolatry must in this way be supposed to be alive to lament the sad condition Rev. 18. 9. of a Christian City at the taking it by a Christian Prince or at best the Heathen Kings then in the World no body knows when within many hundred miles of that City must grievously lament for the slaughter of some Pagan Romans with whom they had been used to comply in the Pagan Way Nothing indeed does make Grotius more to be suspected of intending only to play with this Prophecy or only to vex some hot Apocalyptical Men amongst his Adversaries than the seemingly-wilful Application of the Kings of the Earth that had committed Fornication with Babylon in the 18th Chapter
Prop. 6. Or removing the City from the seven Hills upon which it is built and therefore is it plainly impossible for the Beast not to be the Sovereign Power of Rome all over the 17th Chapter 2. And that also shews That the Beast exercises this Power over Rome in its Idolatrous Antichristian state because Babylon is but in that one state all over that Chapter Prop. 1. and Rule 3. And the first shew of the Beast to which all the mentions of the Feast afterward do relate by a Note of reference to that has a Woman riding upon him in all that Antichristian state which is her Character every-where else This is so plainly signified that it is as unanimously consented to b Alcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 5. Auctores omnes qui Romam Ethnicam c. All Authors who judge Rome-Heathen to be meant by the name of Babylon make the Beast every-where to be the Roman Empire And even those who interpret the Beast to signifie the whole multitude of wicked Men understand it of the wicked Romans not of those in America or out of the bounds of the Roman Empire by all sorts of Interpreters as to almost any thing that is said of these things CONSENT a ALL the Maintainers of the second Opinion which are the generality of the Church of Rome with the Fathers do all make the Beast to be the times of Antichrist as the last Head Alcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 5. Ii qui Bestiam Antichristum esse volunt eum constituunt ultimum esse Romanorum Imperatorum Those who make the Beast to be Antichrist affirm him to be the last of the Roman Emperours CHAP. VI. Rev. XVII Manifest Grounds for a strong presumption That the Term of The Beast does signifie the same particular state of the Beast all over the Revelations The mentions of it in the 13th and 17th Chapters every way parallel FOR a more full and determinate knowledge of the Nature and Characters of the Beast so often mentioned in these Visions it is very necessary to examine Whether every shew of it be one and the same state of the Beast For without some assurance of that all our knowledge of this kind will be confined to the bounds of the 17th Chapter 'T is true that by Rule 3. the Term of the Beast being the same peculiar mystical expression there is great reason to judge That it signifies every-where the same thing But there seems to be plain grounds given us to suspect the contrary for there are several different shews of it as if it were purposely designed to warn us thereby that they were so many new states of the Beast according to the variety of the successions of his Heads Wherefore in search of a more large and comprehensive knowledge of the Beast in the 17th Chapter one would be extremely desirous to find that every mention of the same Term in all the other Chapters did really signifie the same thing for thereby we should have a great many more Properties and Circumstances to judge of him and to determine his particular signification The more Marks that one has of a Beast the more easie will it be to find him and to distinguish him from all others that may resemble him The places where it would be judged to be the most likely to find the Term of the Beast to signifie the same thing with the Beast in the 17th Chapter are the Chapters just before and after the 17th and to them are we therefore directed for our first beginning in this search And first The mention of the Beast after the 17th Chapter would be concluded could be nothing else but the continuation of the History of the same Beast that is mentioned in the 17th Chapter for we find no mention made of any other Beast or of any new shew of a Beast betwixt the 17th Chapter and the 19th where we see the Beast brought upon the Stage again And who would not thereupon conclude That the Beast in the 19th Chapter with that Note of reference before it did certainly signifie the Beast that had been last discoursed of in the 17th Chapter before it And therefore is this unanimously agreed on amongst all Interpreters That it is the same Beast in both places as to the general Notion of the Beast And in that sense also is it granted to be the same Beast in the Chapters before the 17th For it does indeed necessarily follow from the former because the Beast before the 17th must be the same with that after it for they have both the same peculiar Attendants the false Prophet with the Image of the Beast and the Mark of it And therefore does Grotius with one or two more give general and comprehensive Notions of the Beast and false Prophet c. which are the same in all kind of states of the Beast and the one he calls Idolatry and the other Magick but withal applies these general Notions to very different things in particular in those several mentions of the Beast before and after the 17th Chapter So that in effect he still makes the Beast and false Prophet in one place quite different things in particular than they are in the other and the Beast in the 17th Chapter to be as different a thing from either of them He would have these several mentions of the Beast to be so many several states of it sometimes under Ten Kings and Seven Emperours signified by so many Heads and Horns sometimes to be but One Emperour and then to be the Beast with One Head only and sometimes to be the Beast with Ten Horns only without any of its Seven Heads But since there is little reason given for the proof of this but only the divers shews of the Beast it must be very hard for any that is the least impartial to shut his eyes against so many instances of an exact likeness and uniformity in very particular Characters in each of the several mentions of these Beasts that would strongly persuade a man that it was impossible but that they should signifie one and the same particular state of one and the same Beast Especially when he considers That the Angel did very manifestly intend that these Visions should be understood and after such a manner as the generality of the World would conclude from the expressions in them where there is any plain ground for it For example It has been already agreed Rev. XIII XVII That the term of the Beast must signify the same thing at least in general before in and after the 17th Chapter And in every of those Places he is certainly in a particular state by the Pag. praeced particular Actions and Characters that are given him Now would any one question whether the Beast were in one particular state of his Heads and Horns in these several places when there are these particular Circumstances and Characters that follow which are the same in
does hold good in this use of it also it will be explained how this First Beast does also signify the a ALcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 6. By the Beast out of the Earth is signified a multitude of Persons as well as by the Beast that came out of the Sea Ibid. As well the one Beast as the other are taken not for single Persons but for a great Multitude as the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel Ibid. As the Beast out of the Sea does contain in it all the Nations of the Roman Empire so also does the Beast that came out of the Earth Rule of the Romans but in another manner of Kingdom than that Chap. 18. See References of the first Beast is so as that they are both in being at the same time For this second will be found to signify their Church-Rule as the first does the Rule of the State Prop. 24 25. 3. It may also be objected That the two Horns of the second v. 11. Beast Chap. 13. according to Daniel must signify distinct Sovereignties Prop. 16. Observat 2 4. But since these Horns have no mark of Rule or Dominion joined with them and are particularly said to signify the likeness of that Beast to a Lamb that does sufficiently shew a particular exception of them from the general Rule in Daniel And yet they may also signify the two distinct Kingdoms or Jurisdictions of that Beast over the Temporal and Spiritual Affairs of that Nation After this how manifestly does it appear to be but a Contrivance only to serve a turn in b Alcasar in Apoc. c. 12. de 10 Corn. It is most evident that the Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel do signify the Roman Empire But those which are not Roman Commanders cannot be the Horns of that Beast Ibid. Ribera understands by the Beast the whole World which does easily fall to the ground of it self For it is evident that Daniel did prophesie of the Roman Empire only viz. in the Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast chap. 7. Ibid. Another Opinion of his is that the Roman Empire shall be Idolatrous which Conjecture is very vain and empty For then it would be another Empire as the Empire that is now in Greece is quite different from that which is represented by the Third Beast in the 7th of Daniel Idem in cap. 17. v. 11. But any one may easily see how forced all that Interpretation is à Lapide Ribera and a number of other See References eminent Persons of the Church of Rome to make the general notion of the Beast in the Revelations to signify the World in general and the seven Heads to be seven Ages of it with the several Tyrannical Powers which persecuted the Church of God in each of them notwithstanding that they are agreed with all other Interpreters about the Constant Uniform Signification of a Beast and of its Heads and Horns all over the Prophecy of Daniel and that the fourth Beast there in the 7th Chapter of Daniel is the particular Monarchy of the Romans and that the Little Horn of that Beast is the same with the last Head of this Beast in the Revelations And yet c Alcasar in cap. 12. Apoc. de 10 Cornibus Quod autem Romanorum Imperium sit extinctum prorsus videtur certum It seems to be altogether certain that the Roman Empire is destroyed Again It is evident that the Roman Empire is destroyed although the Provinces of it be in the possession of other Kings and Emperours Ribera in cap. 12. Apoc. num 14. de 10 Cornibus That which the forementioned Writers apply to the Kingdom of the Romans because that is now altogether annihilated we understand of the whole World over which the Romans reigned do they not shew the least intimation from the Text to countenance this Contradiction to their own Judgments about the same Words and Phrases nor offer to give any Example from the Figures of the like kind to ground their fancy upon Bellarmin indeed is more ingenuous he owns the known Signification of Beasts in Daniel and that the fourth of the 7th Chapter is in particular the same with that in the Revelations and from the certainty of both does acknowledge that the Beast in the Revelations does signify in general the Roman Empire and that the Heads of the Beast must be all Heads of the Romans and that the time of that called the Beast is not yet past And what more convincing proof can there be for the irresistible Light that there is for these things than to see so able a Judge of the concern of his Church in this Affair to be forced thereby to yield to it without any the least shew of advantage from it to serve the Cause that he is so zealous for But especially when we see him thereby forced to desert all the other Defences of his Brethren and to reduce the whole merit of the Cause about the Charge laid against his Church to this only issue viz. Whether the Imperial Roman Government that was in Rule at the time of the Vision has been since that time cut off and succeeded by another form of Government which is to reduce the whole Dispute about the matter of so great importance in the consequence of it to a question about the truth of a matter of fact only in History and which is given against him d Tacitus just about the time that the Revelations were wrote reckons them up in this order in the beginning of his first Book of Annals Kings were at first the Governours of Rome L. Brutus brought in the Consulary Government and Liberty Dictators were set up upon occasion The Decemvirs continued not above two years The Consulary Power of the Tribunes of the Soldiers lasted not long The Domination of Cinna and Sylla was soon ended and Pompey and Crassus yielded to Caesar and Lepidus and Anthony to Augustus who took all into his hands under the name of a Prince or Emperour Livy before him had given much the same account for all those Governments which had been up in his time in his 6th Book I have says he in the five former Books given an account of all the Wars abroad and the Seditions at home which the Romans have had from the first building of the City to the taking of it under Kings Consuls Decemvirs Dictators and Consulary Tribunes So Onuphrius Panvicinus in his Preface to his Fasti Consulares For the City was first under Kings Then succeeded Consuls and sometimes under Decemvirs and sometimes under Tribunes of the Soldiers with Consulary Power and sometimes under Dictators Cassiodorus in his Chronicon gives the same account of the Change of the Roman Government from Kings to Consuls and from them to the Decemvirs and the Consulary Government again interrupted by the Military Tribunes and during all these spaces of time the intermixture of Dictators upon
Monarchy in the time of the unsetled Confusions of a Nation As particularly the time of the Magi in the Persian Monarchy has nothing to distinguish it from the rest of it nor the time of the Confused Scuffles of Alexander's Captains after his death As may be seen in the 8th Chapter Where there is no mention of any change of Horns after the first great one till the rising of those four which did signify the four setled Kingdoms of the Greek Empire And next 2. That an Head of a Beast must be that Roman Power whose Authority is owned to be Supream by the Chief Government of the City of Rome one would think were sufficiently evident by the Interpretation that the Angel himself has given of the signification of the seven Heads For the same seven Heads which he interprets 1. to be seven Kings of the Romans do also signify the seven Hills of Rome to which the City of Rome is inseparably tied which does very plainly signify that all the seven Kings are Kings of the seven Hills or of that City which those Hills do signify What could be more closely joined together in a Prophetical Scheme to shew them to be inseparable Companions than to make both Kings and City to be represented by the very same Figure And therefore does it seem to be so very extravagant Ribera c. an Opinion of some to make the first five of these Heads to be perfect Strangers to the Romans and their Affairs Neither Bellarmin nor Grotius himself could have the confidence to assert this though it would have served their purpose better than any of those other strange Suppositions that they have advanced to answer their Adversaries 2. The whole time of the Roman Monarchy is set out by the Beast and the seven Heads by Prop. 15 and 16. And then the seven Heads being interpreted to signify the City of Rome do plainly determine the City of Rome to be the Royal Seat of that Monarchy during the whole time of it The Reign therefore of every Head must necessarily go along with the Authority of that City 3. No other Empire whatsoever in all the Figures of Daniel is so set out by its chief City as this of the Romans is So that the addition of the seven Hills to this Beast does more inseparably tye the Sovereign Authority of the Empire to this particular City and seems to be added on purpose to express something about this Empire which had been omitted in all others viz. The constant conjunction of the Sovereign Power of this Empire with the Authority of this City of Rome 4. And it was necessary to do this more than in the Figure of any other Monarchy because there are two kinds of Sovereign Powers in this Monarchy at one and the same time that is Heads and Horns To distinguish which at least in the time of the last Head there is no other mark in the Text but only the Authority of the City of Rome for the Head 5. The Authority of the City of Rome can be no more separated from the Sovereign Power of that Empire than the Beast can be separated from all its seven Heads 6. The flourishing and decaying condition also of the Roman Monarchy is set out by the flourishing and decaying condition of the City of Rome all over the Book of the Revelations In the time of the sixth Head the whole Monarchy is described by the Chap. 17. 4 18. Reign of the City of Rome over the Kings of the Earth In the time of the last Ruling Head Rome is described in a Majestick Appearance to express the Power of the Roman Rule over Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues And the ruinous and desolate State of the City of Rome is afterwards made use of to Chap. 16. 19. Chap. 18. signify the fall of that Empire and the last end of all Roman Rule All which is sufficient evidence That the City of Rome goes constantly along with the chief Head of that State 7. The Fates of the chief City of any other Empire that is mentioned by the Prophets do generally signify the condition of the chief Head or of the Sovereign Power that goes along with that City And the end of any such Ruling Power or Empire is expressed to be at the loss of their Royal City Thus is the flourishing and ruinous State of the Israelites set out by the like Characters of Samaria that of Judah by Jerusalem the rise and fall of the Babylonians by the glory or ruine of Babylon c. And therefore by Rule the 2 d. The Authority of the City of Rome must go along with every Head of the Roman Power unless there were any thing clear against it which is not pretended 8. But most especially must this be true of an Head of the Beast at the time that Rome enjoyed the Ensigns and Badges of the chief Authority of the Empire For that chief Authority is the distinguishing mark of an Head of the Beast And therefore it is impossible that in the division of the Roman Empire either into Two Empires or into Ten Kingdoms that the Emperour of Constantinople should be an Head of the Beast or of the Roman Monarchy any longer than he was owned and allowed either together with or without another Partner by the Senate and People of Rome whilst they did retain their usual Authority For as long as they continued in that Authority let their State be never so much diminished in comparison with what they had been yet they had all the qualifications that the Prophecy requires to be represented by an Head of the Beast They were still the Ruling People of the 7 Hills and the same continued Body with those that reigned in the most flourishing State of the City of Rome a GRotius de jure B. P. L. 2. c. 9. Art 3. Isocrates and Julian after him have said that Cities are immortal that is They may be so because the People are of that kind of Bodies which are made up of distant Parts and fall under one name which has one Soul or Spirit in it And that Spirit in a People is a full and perfect Society of Civil Life the first product of which is Government the bond by which the Commonwealth holds together the Vital Spirit which so many thousands partake in Now these Artificial Bodies are just like Natural Bodies A Natural Body ceases not to be the same for the change of some of the Particles of it while the Species continues the same So a River is still the same notwithstanding the continual succession of Waters in it so an outward accession may possibly add to or take from the dignity of a People but not make it another People And the way that a People ceases to be is either by the ruine of the Body of it when the Body of the People are lost by Earthquakes c. or Wars or Pestilence or by the
Life and Death to himself which he gave to the Image and therefore be Supream From hence it would be inferred That The Second Beast is a Pontifex Maximus of the Romans after the time of the Heathen Emperors For by Propos preced the Second Beast must be a Supream Church-Head of the Romans which is a Pontifex Maximus And by the same Prop. he must be distinct from the First Beast who is another Supream Head of the Romans by Propos 20. And till the time of the Emperor Gratian the Pontifex Maximus was not a really distinct Head of the Romans from the Emperors the Emperors till then were both the Pontifex Maximus and the Supream Civil Head And now it may be safely determined That By the Beast in the Revelations is meant a Secular Sovereign Proposit 26. See References Power of the Romans c Mede in c. 13. Apoc. v. 1. These Two Beasts are tied to one another by the nearest relation to one another and both of them do together Reign over the same part of the World The First or Ten Horn'd Beast we may call The Secular Power the Two Horned Beast The Ecclesiastical Power And on v. 11. The first Beast is a Secular Power this an Ecclesiastical which does exercise the chief Ministerial power of the first Beast and his Blasphemies Aventin Histor Boior Lib. 7. The Bull of Pope John against the Emperor Lewis does there recount That from the time of Charlemaigne the Empire was a Fiefe of the Papal power and so must be conferred by the Pope to be in union with him for the assisting the Church in its Acts. The Emperor in Answer to it Challenges it to be his right to elect the Pope so that both agree that they are to be immediately united to one another confederated in an Idolatrous Antichristian Rule with an Ecclesiastical Supream Head of that Nation which is distinct from it For the principal Agent is the False Prophet The design and business of all the Power that is exercised Idolatrous Worship the Instrument that executes all the Orders about it the Image which was made by the False Prophet and the Beast joins in all as the chief Supporter of it And the Tyranny exercised in it against the Followers of the Lamb does sufficiently shew how Antichristian a Design it is that they are engaged in and the real distinction betwixt the Beast and the Church-Head his Confederate is assured from Prop. 25. This Confederacy does shew the Second Beast to be no single Person For the False Prophet continues to the end with the First Beast and the First Beast is the Succession of many single Prop. 15 20. Persons in the same Form of Government as an Head of a Beast is known here to signify And therefore The Second Beast is a d Alcasar in c. 13. Apoc. Sect. 6. By the Beast of the Earth or second Beast is signified a multitude of persons as well as by the Beast of the Sea or the First Beast as well the one as the other of these Beasts is the Scheme of a numerous multitude and not of a single person as in the 7th of Daniel Succession of Ecclesiastical Persons having the Corollar 1 Supream Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs See References Wherefore without any further scrupulous search for the moment at which the Beast began his Reign let the particular Change of the Government of the Romans which made the Beast at first to appear be what it will and never so difficult to know yet now it may be safely concluded That The Beast and the False Prophet are those two Forms of Secular and Ecclesiastical Government really distinct from one another Corollar 2 which are at this present time acknowledged for Supream by the Authority of the City of Rome For the Beast is the last Ruling Head of the Romans by Corol. 2. Prop. 6. And therefore is that which is owned for Supream at Rome by Prop. 21. And he is owned there for Supream at this present time by Prop. 23. And he is a Saecular Sovereign Power of Rome distinct from an Ecclesiastical Head there owned and confederate with him by Prop. 25. And that Ecclesiastical Chief Head of Rome is the False Prophet by Coroll 1. Prop. 25. Wherefore the Beast and the False Prophet must be those Secular and Ecclesiastical Heads of Rome distinct from one another whose Authority in those several kinds are at this present there owned If so Then how can one avoid from being assured That The present Imperial and Papal Power or Authority of Rome are Corollar 3 the Beast and the False Prophet For there are no other Secular or Ecclesiastical Sovereign Powers of Rome whose Authority in those several kinds are there acknowledged for Supream and as really distinct from one another Note 6. Corn. à Lapide but only the Papal and Imperial Power and we are sure that they must be both of them in being at this present time by Coroll 2. Prop. 26. And besides The present Imperial Power has all its title from the City of Rome and was generally used to have a e The German Writers who defend the Imperial power from any dependancy upon the Papal and therefore look upon the Coronation of the Emperor at Rome as unnecessary yet grant it to be the usual and common form of confirming the Roman Empire upon him by the people of Rome Hieron Balbus de Coronatione Cap. 21. says That the place assigned for the Coronation of the Emperor with the Imperial Crown is at Rome For which he quotes Clem. Roman de jurcjurand D. c. venerabilem and says in his plea against the necessity of the Crowning of the Emperor at Rome That it is only positive Law that ordains it whereas the Emperor is above all such kind of Law Which shows however That that was the Law That the Coronation should be at Rome And makes this another Argument for his side That thô the Pope be ordained to be Inaugurated at Rome yet that he dispenses with it and so therefore might the Emperor Which intimates That Rome is as properly the place from whence the Imperial Crown comes as it is for the Papal Mitre And then concludes the Chapter That it is not material where the Coronation be provided it be done by the Pope or his Legate Which confirms the Authority of it to be from Rome and therefore adds That before the Translation of the Empire from the Greeks to the Germans the Coronation used to be performed by the Praefect of the City And that does manifest that the Pope in that Solemnity does stand only as the Head of the People of Rome instead of the Praefect of the City of Rome Albericus in Indice verbo Coronâ says That the Emperor receives three Crowns The first of Silver in Germany An Iron one in the Dutchy of Millan and a Golden one for the Roman Empire particular Crown from thence and the
powers of it are acknowledged by the Authority of Rome to belong to them f Ludovic à Bebenburg tho on the German or Caesarian side de juribus Regni Imp. Rom. pag. 5. The Reason why he that is elected is called King of the Romans is both in reverence to the Most Holy Roman Church and in honour of the City of Rome whose People had formerly the Monarchy of the Empire M. Freherus in Commentario Hence that proud Voice of Rome at the Coronation of the Emperor Henry the VIIth I confirm unto the Prince the Sovereign Power with the Crown of Crowns and give him command over the Cities and Nations of the World Let the Eagles defend my Glory And in the Seal of Charles the IVth with which the Golden Bull the Instrument for the present manner of the Imperial Elections is sealed and other publick Instruments The City of Rome is in the stamp of it with this Motto Roma caput Mundi regit Orbis fraena rotundi Goldast Politic. Imperial pars 5. p. 349. Sed postquam Christiana Orthodoxa Religio c. But after that the Christian and Orthodox Religion prevailed so as to make a noise all over the World And that by this means the High-Priests at Rome came to be adored by Princes Kings and Emperors with the greatest humility and a singular kind of devotion it came to pass that by the common Consent of all Christian People that of the two several States of the Christian World The one should be govern'd by the Popes the other by the Emperors But yet so that the Emperors should acknowledg both their Imperial Dignity and Power to proceed from the Popes of Rome as the true Mediators and Intercessors for them But this is further confirmed by the Civil Law which suffers not the Imperial Majesty to be subject to any human Laws but on the contrary does openly declare it to be above all human Privileges and Laws Bellarmin shews Lib. 3. de Translat Imp. Roman in Germanos That the present way of electing the Emperor was setled by Pope Gregory the VIIth in the Golden Bull to confer the Power and Authority of Emperor of Rome upon the Person elected by them and chap. 12. lib. 1. says That all kind of Christian Princes whatsoever have acknowledged the Roman Empire to have been amongst the Germans ever since the Year 800. Goldastus in his Politic. Imperial part 1. p. 76. sets down the particular form of the Oath that the Electors take before their choice to this effect I. N. by the help of God will chuse a Temporal or Secular Head for all Christian People that is a King of the Romans to be advanced to be Emperor And it is the Order of the Golden Bull That they should not depart from the City of Francfort till the major part of them have elected a Temporal Head for all Christian People that is A King of the Romans to be created Emperor Aventin l. 6. Histor Boior Pope Adrian in his Letter to the German Princes tells them That the Roman Empire was translated from the Greeks to the Almaines so as that their King was not called Roman Emperor till he was crowned by the Pope Before his Consecration he was but King after his Consecration he became Emperor From whence then says he had he the Empire but from Us And afterwards gives this reason for it For Rome is our Seat The Seat of the Empire is Aix in the Forest of Ardenne Radevicus l. 1. c. 16. Frederic the Emperour who had denied all Subjection to Pope Adrian yet in his very defence of himself for it says thus The first Voice in our Election we owe to the Archbishop of Mentz and then to the other Electors in their Order Our Regal Unction to the Bishop of Cologn and the last which is the Imperial Unction only we have from the Pope Ibidem And Pope Adrian presently after in his Subjection to the Emperour minds him That his Magnificence had acknowledged That it was the Pope that set the Imperial Crown upon his Head Cornelius à Lapide upon the 10th v. of the 17th chap. Apoc. To confute that Opinion that would have the seventh King succeeding the Emperours to be the Pope The seventh says he is here said should continue but a little while whereas the Pope and the Emperour have continued a long while together The Pope therefore did not succeed the Emperours in the Roman Empire but continues there together with Them as we see now the most Serene Ferdinand to be the Emperour of the Roman Empire and our most Holy Lord Paul V. to be the High-Priest or the Pope of the Roman Church Grotius in Respons de Antichristo The German Princes chuse the Emperour but their Choice must have the Approbation of the City of Rome which has conferred their Right and Power upon the Pope from that Approbation has the Emperour the Title of ROMAN EMPEROUR and many things in Italy which belonged to the ancient Roman Empire from whence comes the Homage that is done him for the Dutchies of Milan Montferrat Mantua and many other Privileges there besides Nor can it be said upon this account That the Emperour is made by the Pope for the Authority of the Roman Empire was always the same even when the Emperours were some Thracians some of Illyricum and some of Hungary And so was it afterwards with Charlemaigne and now with the Princes of Germany See Grot. c. 9. lib. 2. de Jure Belli Pacis and in the Commentary of it in Prop. 21. Lud. à Bebenburg cap. 5. It is apparent from History That Germany even after the Division of the Empire of the Franks was accounted a Kingdom by it self that is distinct from the Title of the Roman Empire M. Freherus in his Comment upon this Our Emperours at this time observe this in their Title Emperour of the Romans King of Hungary Bohemia Dalmatia c. Ludovicus the Emperour the Son of Pius was called King of Germany which was almost from the first times of the division of the Territories of Charlemaigne He does also in the next Chapter shew That the seven Electors chuse the Emperour as a College or as the Representatives of all the Princes and People that are subject to the Roman Empire which Authority is conferred upon them from the City of Rome by the Golden Bull of Charles IV. If it shall be objected That the Constantinopolitan Emperours were the only true Roman Emperours and were unjustly deprived of their Western Dominions by the Pope it is to be remembred That the Constantinopolitan Emperours themselves confirmed the Title of the Western Emperours Lud. à Bebenburg cap. 5. and M. Freherus in his Comment there proves that Transaction betwixt the Eastern and Western Emperours by the Authority of Ado Rhegino Philip of Bergamo Platina Voluterranus Egnatius especially that of the Eastern Emperour Michael which was published in St. Peter's Church at Rome and confirmed
by Pope Leo. as Kings and Emperors of the Romans and they are owned for such by all Christian Princes in their Treaties with them The Pope also who confers this Right and Title of Roman Emperour is by Custom and Prescription the g Clementin de sententia re judicata That Law was made by Pope Clement V. against Henry VII That in the time of the Interregnum or Vacancy after every Emperour's death the Pope should have all the Power over the Imperial Countreys and Towns The Administrator of the Empire in time of a Vacancy and is the Representative of the Senate and People of Rome in whom the power of chusing or approving the Head of the Roman Empire did always reside how various soever the way of chusing him was as Grotius informs us in his Notes upon the 9th Chapter of his 2d Book de jure Belli Pacis Bellarm. de Translat Imp. Rom. Note 1 2. on Chap. 3. These Rights of the present Roman Emperor are also confirmed by that Civil Law which was always in former times the General Law of all Nations and is so now for the greatest part of it and his Title has been acknowledged by the Constantinopolitan Emperors themselves His Power in disposing of the Fees of the Roman Empire in h Blondus Trithemius Sabellicus Cuspinian c. and almost all Historians do blame the Emperour Rodolph of Hasburg for selling the Fees of the Imperial Towns and Principalities in Italy But the Popes were well pleased with it because it kept the Emperours at greater distance from them Italy he is continually in the exercise of and has publick homage done him for the Dutchies of Milan Mantua Modena Montferret c and for other Rights in these Parts i Grot. Respons de Antichristo in Not. 6. of this Chapter His being of the German Nation signifies no more against him than it did against others that they were of Thrace or Dalmatia or Hungary Besides there is a plain distinction in his Titles betwixt that of Caesar or the Emperor of the Romans and his being King of Germany Hungary Bohemia It can be no objection against this That the Imperial Power has no exercise of Authority over the City of Rome or over all the Jurisdiction of the Roman Empire For 1. His Absence from Rome and from the particular Government See References of it is no greater Argument against his being the Head of that City as it is a part of the Empire than it was against those Roman Emperors who first left the City of Rome to its own disposal and seated themselves at Ravenna And tho the Authority of the present Emperor be now less at Rome than it was in the days of those Emperors yet as long as he is still owned there as Lord paramount of the whole Empire of that City a particular privilege of exemption from the execution of his Orders among the inhabitants of Rome is no more than the asserting it to be a privileged place within the extent of his Jurisdiction Besides that it is by k The Popes themselves pretend no other Right to the City of Rome than the Donations of their Emperours and these were upon occasion recalled The most famous instance of which was no later than the year 963. when Pope Leo VIII made a most solemn Renunciation of all the Imperial Donations that had been given to his Predecessors and this for Himself and his Successors to the Emperour Otho I. and his Successors and to this subscribed the Archbishops Cardinals and all the Clergy there and the Consuls Senators c. and all the Civil Governours of the City of Rome and the Papacy as is recorded by Theodoric à Nyem There was indeed continual Differences betwixt the Popes and Emperours about these Donations and the Popes were not wholly in the free possession of the Government of it till it was given away by the Emperour Charles IV. who in lieu of it had the Golden Bull to chuse the Emperour of the Romans in Germany Blondus in his 2d Decad. lib. 10. gives that account of Pope Innocent VI. That he would not give him the Imperial Crown but upon this Condition That he should not keep his publick Meetings there nor make any Order about the Romans without the advice of the Pope and that he should not keep any constant Court at Rome or in Italy Thus was the Emperour Sigismund brought afterwards to do much the same thing by Pope Eugenius about the time of the Council of Constance and that under the name of Confirming the Donations of Constantine and of the other Princes the consent of the Emperors themselves that they exercise no temporal Superiority there And that Power which they have lost there is only upon the account of their power there exercised before them by a Church-Head according to the Letter of the Prophecy Rev. 13. 12. 2. As for the inconsiderableness of his Power or Authority over the Jurisdiction of the Roman Empire it is no more than what is foretold of him in the Figure of the Beast For it is expresly signified in the Figure that he should be but the Head Rev. 13. 1 chap. 17. 12. of the Roman Empire when it was divided into l Aventinus in Annal. Boior lib. 7. Eberhard Archbishop of Saltzbourg about the year 1240. describes the Usurpations of the Papal Authority over the Imperial with application to the Beast in the Apocalypse The Emperour says he is now no more than a Name the Ten Kings who have parted the World amongst them do Destroy it rather than Govern it Under them is grown up that little Horn which has Eyes and a Mouth speaking proud things What can be clearer than this Prophecy Turn over the Annals all the strange things which our Master forewarn'd us of are already come to pass Ludovic à Bebenburg de Jurib Reg. Imp. Rom. cap. 9 shews That the Imperial Authority stands upon the same Title that Charlemagne left to his Sons by Inheritance the way by Election succeeded into the same Right and so the Imperial Power has still the same Title over the Lands and Kingdoms that were subject to the Roman Empire tho he is not in the actual possession of them Eleven distinct Sovereignties represented by the Ten Horns with Crowns upon them and the last Ruling Head amongst them And therefore must the Head be really but a titular Head of that whole Empire and not in the actual possession of all the Jurisdiction of it And since the Beast is a Roman Secular Power in being at this present by Coroll preced And there is no other Secular Power of the Empire who is acknowledged to be superiour to all the rest by the Authority of the City of Rome but he alone The smalness of his Dominions cannot hinder him from being a Secular Head of Rome Besides He is in the actual possession and exercise of many priviledges
the time of the continuance and the last period of so formidable a power as that of the Beast and the False Prophet is described to be I will now proceed to propound my apprehensions about those particular circumstances which is so much the more necessary because almost all the applications of the many Characters and Properties of the Beast do seem to depend upon such a particular determination And because I know it will be difficult to prevail with any who have framed to themselves an Hypothesis of their own about these things to see any convincing proof for the way that I make choice of To be civil to the Understandings and Assurances of others I will now propound my own particular Application under the name of Queries instead of Propositions thô to my self they may appear to be of much the same strength I would therefore first have it considered Whether at the time of Justinian 's Conquest of the Italian Query 1 Goths there had not been at least Two such Changes of the Secular Soveraign Power of Rome since the time of the Visions about the Beast as might be called Two different Heads of the Beast For the Secular Soveraign Power of Rome at the time of the Vision was the Imperial Government and Sixth Head by Prop. 19. and 5. And the Imperial Government as the Sixth Head was changed at latest upon the ruin of the Western Empire by the Heruli and Goths by Prop. the 22. There remains then nothing more to be done for the determining of this question than to show That the Succession of the Heruli and Goths to the Government of Rome and Italy did make a new Head of the Beast For then it will not be questioned but that the Conquest of the Goths by Justinian did also make the other Head that was to be revived That the Succession of those Barbarous Kings at Rome did make a new Head of the Beast appears from the definition of an Head of the Beast Prop. the 21st For upon the ruin of the Western Empire by these Kings and their Reign over Rome and Italy The Supream Secular Power of Rome was changed and another owned there in the place of it Thô the one part of the Imperial Head remained still sound at Constantinople yet by the change of the other part of it which did more immediately preside over the City of Rome the Soveraign power of the Romans came to be divided betwixt a King and an Emperor And so that which was a form of Government purely Imperial before came to be a mixture of Kingly and Imperial Government For that the new Kings of Italy and the Eastern Emperours made still but one Supream form of Roman Government thô divided in the Seats of their Empire appears from the state of the Imperial Government before the ruin of the Western Empire by these Barbarous Kings The Eastern and Western Emperor were then but one and the same Imperial Head Thô they had Two different Kingdoms they had both of them their Authority Chap. xvii pag. 157 158. from the a SEe Note the second on Chap. 3. Grotius de Jure Bell. Pac. lib. 2. c. 9. Art 11. and in the Annotat. Onuphrius Panvinius lib. Fastor does frequently make mention of the Constantinopolitan and Roman Consuls and shews them to have been indifferently chosen from either of those Cities See Pancirollus in Note 2. Chap. 4. same people and Senate of Rome and therefore were there half the Senate and one of the Consuls ordinarily residing at Constantinople The Laws also of the Empire were joyntly subscribed by both and do now in the Code bear the names of both the Emperors and it is the Subject of a great part of Pancirollus's Explication of the Notitia Imperii to show that the Military Ensigns and the Arms of the chief Dignities of the Empire were almost every one of them Figures on purpose contrived by the Emperors and given by their Authority to represent the Vnity of the Roman Empire all over the World under the divided shares of the Two Imperial Heads of it as has Ch. 17. been before observed page 148. And thus were the Two Empires but like the Two Provinces of the Two Consuls of Rome which nevertheless were but one Vnited Supream Government of the Romans Now all the change of this Imperial Partnership in the Government by the change of the Western Empire was the introducing the Kingly power into that share of the Empire For in every thing else The new Kings observed b Sigonius de Occident Imper. lib. 15. Odoacer did humble the Authority of the Senate and Consuls but in every thing else he retained the Old Constitutions of the Commonwealth and the Rights and Names of the Magistrates gave the Bishops and Churches their due respect And speaking of Theodorick after him lib. 16. He retained the Roman Magistrates and because he reigned by the Emperour's Favour and the Consent of the Senate he laid aside his own Country Habit and wore the Purple and the Royal Robes He set up a Kingdom every way like the ancient Western Empire Joan. Fersius Silesius de Praefectura Praetor Theodoric retained still the Roman Laws and Customs and the very same Magistrates so that the Citizens of Rome were ashamed to create them themselves Cassiodor lib. 3. Variar Ep. 43. Theodoric says We delight in governing according to the Laws of the Romans whom we desire to maintain by our Arms. And all over that Book nothing is more frequent than the mention of the Roman Commonwealth for the Kingdom of the Goths in Italy And the whole business of it is The Kings or Governours Letters for the administration of the Civil Government after the same manner and by the same kinds of Magistrates that the Western Empire had been govern'd by before Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat pag. 867. speaking of the Gothish Government in Italy But altho they changed not any Roman Constitutions as the Senate the Praefects the Comites the Curators and the like yet they did ordinarily model them after their own fashion but yet all in imitation of the Roman Laws and Dignities And pag. 128. Then began Italy to breathe and flourish again and Theodoric when he saw the Romans whom he had an affection for very much bent upon their ancient Liberties he commanded all things should be administred by Roman Magistrates He committed the whole Government of the City to the Senate and People of Rome but so as that he himself chose the Praefect of the City the old form See References of Government which they found in use at their coming to the Crown as appears from all the History of their Government They changed no Roman Custom says Rubeus And it may H. Rubeus Histor Raven p. 128 167. more particularly be seen in Cassiodorus's Variarum That they retained all the same Magistrates by which the Government of the Western Empire was administred Besides the fall of
of Competitors to the Kingdom and besides not owned as heads of Rome that there is no reason to account it any setled change of the Imperial Head Prop. 21. part 1. Hugo of Arles had indeed the Principality of Rome with Marozia but he was presently cast out of it again Besides that r Ibid. cap. 14. The German Writers account Conrad and Henry Auceps Emperors in succession to Ludovicus the immediate Emperor before them and then there will not be above 8 years of vacancy others reject these two because they were not anointed and crowned by the Pope But the Germans do much dispute the necessity of that the Kings of Germany with whom the Imperial Title of Rome had continued by right of Succession from Charlemaigne till that time did still retain the same right in appearance because they were neither formally disowned by the City of Rome nor had any other set up there in their place For the Kingdom of Italy was then accounted a particular Jurisdiction by it self distinct from the City of Rome And the Pope was by that time almost absolute in that City So that all that could be inferred from hence would be that the False Prophet acted for a little time without the Beast 9. And this last Observation may occasion a Scruple How the Emperors can be said to be an Head of the City of Rome when some hundreds of years they have had no more than the bare Title of it The easie Answer to this is That all that is required to make an Head of the Beast is to be Å¿ See Note the 6th on the 6th Chapter a setled Secular Authority owned for Supream at Rome And 't is no wonder that he should be called an Head of it and have so little power or influence over it For all his power was to be exercised before him by another Church-Head distinct from him It cannot be thought necessary Rev. 13. 12. for the Emperor to be particularly resident at Rome to be the Head of Rome For then the Roman Emperors ever after the making Ravenna the Imperial Seat by Honorius must have ceased to have been the Heads of Rome 10. It may then be replied That the Constantinopolitan Emperors in the time of the Gothish Kings of Italy had the Title of the Imperial Head of Rome and upon that account should seem not to have been changed from the time of the Vision But it must be remembred That it is not sufficient to have a Title only but that Title must be owned by the chief Authority of the City of Rome for the sole Secular Sovereign Power of it Whereas it has been made to appear that in the Reign of the Gothish Kings of Italy the Constantinopolitan Emperors were far from being owned for the only Sovereigns of Rome For they were no further owned to have any thing to do there than what the t All Historians give an account of the Imprisonment of Pope John the First for crowning the Emperor Justin in the East and of the absolute Sovereignty of the Gothish Kings over the City of Rome See Notes on the 4th Chapter Lib. 3. Kings of the Goths who were then in the real and actual possession of Rome did allow them as Partners with them in the Honour of the Title of that City 11. It may also be objected That the Emperors have been very often in Wars with the Popes which is contrary to the strict Confederacy that is every-where expressed to be betwixt the Beast and the False Prophet But since they have been notwithstanding at a constant agreement in the great design of their Confederacy which is persecution for false Worship their occasional differences about other things is not to be regarded at most not more than the Differences betwixt the Popes and the Ten Kings who yet give their Kingdom to the Beast 12. How also can the Ten Kings be said to have given their power to the Beast about the time of Justinian when they were many of them Arrians at the greatest distance from the Religion of Rome The Answer to this is That they were soon brought under the Authority and See of Rome France Spain and all Justinian's Conquests changed about the end of that Age. 13. If it be said That when the Roman Empire was divided into Ten Kingdoms distinct from one another there could be no one Secular Head that could deserve to be called the Beast It may be answered That the Beast is but such an Head of the Roman Empire as has a superior Right to the Authority of the chief City of the Empire while the whole body of it is divided Prop. 21. into ten Sovereignties and by that Right has a claim to a Jurisdiction paramount to them all And such is the claim of the present Emperors to u See Notes m and n on the 6th Chapter reserved Rights over all the divided Kingdoms of the Roman Empire And there is at present so great and publick an acknowledgment of the German Emperor's Superiority over over other Kings only as he is Roman Emperor That as has been observed he is suffered to have the precedence of Kings who have both a much larger Dominion than he and a much ancienter Title and who take place of him before he has the Imperial Title when he has nothing but his Hereditary Countries But that which is chiefly to be regarded for the qualifying him for this character of an Head amongst the Ten Horns is That he is properly said to be the Roman Civil Head of those Ten Kings in one common Design that they are all engaged in because he is so acknowledged to be by the False Prophet who manages them all for that end and gives Him the Title of their Head in it 14. It may be further enquired How it can be said That the Imperial Power has subdued three Kings as it is said of the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel It is answered That whatsoever is said there of the Little Horn is to be understood of the Beast in the Revelations in his joint confederacy with the False Prophet as one Thing engaged in one Design And then whatsoever is done by the False Prophet in that Design will be said to be done by the Beast so that the subduing of the three Kings may thus be either x Hierom. Rubeus Histor Ravennat pag. 145. says That Justinian built that Magnificent Temple of Sancta Sophia in memory of his Persian Vandalic and Gothick Victories Cuspinian de Casaribus pag. 139. gives an account of Belisarius's Expedition against the Persians and that he entred in a Triumph into Constantinople for that Conquest And pag. 140. says That he had a most Pompous Triumph from the Spoils of the Vandals being then Consul in ordinary And pag. 141. says That when Justinian had recovered Italy and subdued Africa and Persia he put the Glory of his Victories into his Titles Justinian's Conquests or y
former A Carved Image is indeed but the dead likeness of some single Person But an Image of a Publick State that is alive as this is must be some Ruling Power in the same State that has a very lively resemblance to it for it is in being at the same time with it the Beast and his Image are ordinarily described to be together And the Image is made in honour of the Beast and so must like the Images of the Emperors be within the bounds of the Authority of the Beast And besides is made by a False Prophet in the exercise of the Power of the Beast This living Image then must necessarily be an Universal Rule of the World like to that of the Imperial Roman State And accordingly we find it speaking and commanding all the World to worship it chap. 13. 15. forcing all men to receive the mark of it and to take the name of it v. 16. which shows the extent of its Power to be as large as that of the Imperial Power its Original It had also power of life and death in it v. 15. which is the peculiar Prerogative of Supream Power Now this was all for nothing else but the enforcing of False Worship which it was inspired with life by a false Prophet to effect And one of the Punishments was Excommunication v. 14. v. 17. That men might not buy or sell which was an usual punishment d Selden de Synod l. 1. cap. 7. De effectibus Excommunicationis He that was excommunicated with either greater or lesser Excommunication was said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the effects of them were Separation from Converse from the Synagogue from the publick Assemblies from all the People and Commonwealth of the Jews And he that was accursed with Cherem was not to have any Commerce with any but just so much as to get Victuals of the Elders of the Synagogues amongst the Jews All which denotes it to be an Ecclesiastical Power equal to the Secular Power for the universality of its Jurisdiction Indeed what kind of Power within the same Bounds and Territories can it possibly be but Ecclesiastical that can be a living Image of the Secular Exercising Supream Authority at the same time with it and in the same places as this is described This Image therefore must be a Church-Rule equal to that of the State And since the Jurisdiction of it is Universal or Catholick and also Roman can it be any thing else but the Roman-Catholick-Church And since all the life that it has is inspired into it by the False Prophet who is already known to be the Papal Power Corol. 3. Prop. 25. what plainer description could we have had of the Roman-Catholick-Church under the Pope Or what can there be that is a e Leo Sermo 1. de Natali Apos Rome has a larger Jurisdiction in its Spiritual Reign than it had formerly in its Worldly Empire Bellarm. l. 5. de Pontif. c. 6. From whence it appears That the Pope is greater than the Emperour c. Stenelius Eugubinus lib. 1. de Donat. Constant By the Exaltation of the Papacy Rome has recovered a Greatness very little different from that of the Ancient Empires since all Nations from the East to the West reverence the Pope of Rome in the same manner as they formerly did the Emperours See the expressions of Pope Gregory VII of his own Authority Greg. 7. Epist 37. The Roman Ceremonial l. 1. c. 2. shews this to be the manner of investing the Pope with his Authority I invest Thee with the Authority of Pope that Thou maist Rule over the City and the World Urbi Orbi more exact living Image of the Roman State under the Imperial Power For the Head of it has a Jurisdiction equal to the Head of the State Both Pope and Emperor have long since had the Title of The Lords of the World They have both a Triple Crown tho for different Jurisdictions They are both called King of Kings The body of the Image is just the same with that of the Beast The Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions are parted out exactly according to the divisions of the Civil Government of the Empire The Patriarchs Archbishops and Bishops had their Ranks and Places every-where according to the Divisions of the Provinces of the State and the name of the Ecclesiastical Diocesses did arise from the distinction of the several Civil Diocesses of the Empire by Constantine And it is established by the Canons of f Concil 6º in Trullo Can. 37. The Canon which was made by the Fathers we do also observe which says thus If any City be or shall be new raised by the Royal Power the Ecclesiastical Dignity shall follow the Publick and Civil state of it two Synods That if any City were newly raised by the Emperor the Ecclesiastical Dignities there should be conformed to it So that the Church and State did run parallel to one another through the whole Body of the Roman Empire just like the Arteries and Veins in the Body of Man and observed the same proportion every-where to one another a MAlvenda de Antichristo pag. 234. de 10 Cornibus The number Ten is very often in Scripture used indefinitely for a great many CHAP. III. Rev. XIII Wherein the Worship of the Beast and of his Image doth consist BY the process of the former Chapter we have all the Confederates in the design of the Beast discovered to us There is the Imperial Roman State for the Beast with his last Head The Image and false Prophet for the Roman Catholick Church and the Pope The ten Kings giving their Kingdoms to the Beast for those Roman Catholick Kings who force their Subjects to submit to the Roman Religion enjoyned by the Papal Power or Imperial Authority And now it is to be examined what is meant by Worshiping the Beast and his Image It is certain in the first place That the words here used to express the Worship of the Beast and his Image are the same with those which were in use at the time of the Vision to signifie the Adoration given to the Emperors and their Images publickly set up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and adorare were the terms in common use amongst the Greeks and Latines of those times to express that profound Reverence which was paid to the Emperor and his Image And then there seems to be nothing more required to make Application of this Phrase but only to show what obedience was given to the Secular and Ecclesiastical Authority of Rome by all the World from the time of Justinian But because we find that the a GRotius in Decal Nor did the first Christians think it contrary to their Religion to fall down before the Emperours Images But when they afterwards joined the Images of false Gods with their own they chose to endure any thing rather than to worship them first Christians did pay that Reverence before-mentioned to the
necessary to the Emperors for upholding their Power in the midst of the Invasions of the Barbarous Nations the Emperors were willing to enlarge their Authority to make use of it for the management of their own Affairs And after that the Divisions of the Roman Empire were setled in so many Sovereign Princes that Church-Authority which they themselves had now lost in those several Kingdoms they were not unwilling to bestow upon the Chief Bishop of their City and so by small advances he came at last to get the Title of Occumenical Bishop and Vniversal Head of the Church of Christ upon Earth But yet still did the Emperors retain their Power of the setting up of every new Bishop of Rome The Emperors m This is thus well expressed by John Wex de Antichristo p. 119. And so the Ten Kings delivered to the Beast their Kingdoms which they had got at the dissolution of the Western Empire according to Apoc. 17. 12. For after that the Western Empire was broken in pieces all the Kingdoms of the West did join again together in one body that by the bonds and tye of the Babylonish Superstition of the Bishop of Rome they might fight against the Lamb. Consent was still held necessary for the confirmation of the Election as the Chief Power upon Earth that gave him his Authority And upon this account he was set up as the Emperor's Deputy and Creature to be the Universal Head of the Roman Church in all the divided Kingdoms of the Roman Empire which now would own no other Secular Head of the Churches in them but those Sovereigns which ruled them And thus came the divided Roman Empire to be n one entire thing again and the several Kings in it to own one Roman Head again set up by the Imperial Authority Things continued not long in this mere spiritual and Ecclesiastical State The new Ecclesiastical Head used all ways to make himself universally acknowledged for such And to that end as Head of the Church he assumes a power of executing the Canons of Councils upon Sovereign Princes to the depriving them of their Kingdoms if they refused to execute the Orders of the Church upon all those that were disobedient to it and that even to the punishment of death From hence then we have a perfect Idea of the worship of the Beast and of his Image from the first Rise of the last Ruling Head or of the Imperial Power restored by Justinian The Imperial Authority was at first the sole Head of the Roman Catholick Church Afterwards the Submission of the divided States of the Empire to one Ecclesiastical Sovereign who was set up by the Emperor made this new Empire the exact Image of the first in respect of the Church-Government of it And the Manager and Contriver of this new Model is in History the Bishop of Rome and is in the Prophecy called the False Prophet CHAP. V. Rev. XIII Four Grounds for the applying of the Worship of the Beast to the Imperial Power How the False Prophet does Exercise all the Power of the First Beast causes all the World to Worship him makes them make an Image to him Gives Life to that Image and makes All receive its Mark c. BY the Observations in the preceding Discourse it is easie to see How justly the Worship of the Beast may be applied to the Imperial Authority after the degeneracy of the Christian Religion 1. For the Imperial Authority as has been observed p. 221. was 〈…〉 a long while the only commanding Head of the Roman Religion and the a SOcrates Proam in l. 5. We have therefore in the whole course of out History given an account of the Emperor's interest in it because that since they began to embrace the Christian Religion Ecclesiastical Affairs did seem very much to depend upon them so that the most eminent Councils were in times past and are at this day summoned by their consent and procurement See Notes on the third Chapter b c d e f g i k The Emperours had always the Right of Investing Church-Governours in their several jurisdictions till the Council of Worms in the year 1122. And then the Emperour Henry the 3d. wearied with the vexations occasioned him by the Popes gave up his Right of the Staff and the Ring the Ceremonies of the investiture to Pope Calixtus the 2d Aventin Histor Boior l. 6. The Abbot of Ursperg in his Chronicle gives the form of this Concordat betwixt the Emperour and the Pope And the Pope in return agrees for the future That the Elections of the Bishops and Abbots c. should be performed in his presence c. And that He that was Elected should receive the Regalia of the Emperour by the Scepter And this was called the Uniting of the Royal Power with the Priesthood and long endeavoured after under that Name Cardinal Cusan Concordia Catholic c. 6 7 8 9. Affirms That every Emperour and Prince in their several Jurisdictions are of God alone and that it belongs to the Emperours to summon General Councils and to regulate the Procedures in them and to every Prince to do the same in his respective Territory for National and Provincial Councils And that if the Pope be negligent in these things the Emperour ought to make use of his Authority in all such Cases That the Emperour always presided in the Councils assisted with fifteen or twenty of the Nobles of his Court whom he made to take place before all And He and his Legats propounded the matters that were to be considered Pererius in Apoc. Disp 5. de Constantino Then came the Imperial Majesty first into the Church which was then Armed with both the Swords c. For though from the first The Church had that Sword viz. the Secular Sword yet then first began the facility and conveniency of exercising it against whomsoever it pleased only Soveraign Authority upon Earth that was acknowledged in all Ecclesiastical Affairs so that all obedience given to the erroneous Acts of those Councels was really an obedience to the Emperors will only For those things had no obliging power in them to overrule the Conscience upon the account of the Councels Authority And therefore since it had been long before that time received as a maxime by those who owned that Councel That all was there done by the b Socrates l. 1. c. 6. Ep. 4. Constantine unto the Churches He there tells them That whatsoever is decreed in the Holy Councils of Bishops is to be attributed to the Will of God And of the Sentence of the Council of Nice in particular Ibid. Ep. 2. to the Church of Alexandria For that which has been agreed upon by the 300 Bishops is to be taken for nothing but the determination of God himself The Holy Ghost residing in the minds of such worthy persons and inspiring them with the Divine Will of God himself Concil Constantinop Universal 6. Action 17. sub finem The
Council thus speaks We have pronounced a definitive Sentence free from Error certain and Infallible by the assistance of the Holy Spirit inspiration of the Holy Ghost The Emperour 's mere will was thereby made a Divine Law obliging the Conscience under the notion of the immediate will of God whenever the things enjoyned were really no part of his declared will And thus came the Emperours to make good the Title of Their c Cod. Justinian tit Trinitat l. 3. Theodos Valentinian Hormisdae P. P. According to those Laws which have already been made by our Divinity How much Our Divinity abhors And Novell 126. A most manifest constitution Of Our Deity Nostri Numinis Baronius Anno. 419. Honorius the Emperour gives this order to Symmachus Praef. Urb. upon the information sent him about the Schism of Boniface and Eulalius We Command that Boniface forthwith depart and obey our Celestial Command And Symmachus in Answer to Honorius's further order to receive Boniface returns this We having published the Celestial Decree every one was rejoyced at it Pancirol Notit Imp. Orient p. 109. The Emperour did first subscribe his name to the Rescript before any else A. A. Manu Divina Ibidem p. 172. 6. And thus used the Prince to subscribe his Hand A. M. D. That is August Manu Divina Novel Valentinian l. de Homicidio casu And those who had the Emperours hand to their Letters are said to be pricked or pointed down by the Divine Hand lib. 4. c. de Advocat dicitur jamjam Justinian calls this A Divine Marking out Divinam subnotationem l. 1. in fin c. de Justin c. confirmand Accordingly had the Emperours Letters-Patents the name of Sacra in distinction to all other Licenses So Zeno Lib. penult c. de Re Militari We allow none for the future to be Listed either in their Horse or Foot without the Commendatory Letter of our Divinity sine numinis nostri sacra probatoria And afterwards That they only be listed on the Confines or in the Lists who have a License for it from Our Divinity Probatorias sc Sacras a nostra Divinitate And Pancirol Notit Imp. Orient pag. 255. Observes in general That the Actions and Affairs of the Emperours have every where in the Civil Law the epithete of Divine as His Divine Indulgence His Divine Delegation His Divine Sanction His Divine House c. Divinity which was before the stile of their common Edicts upon much more proper and real grounds than ever before was thought of and the obedience that was given to their will in such things under the notion of the dictate of the Divine Spirit and as necessary to Salvation to be believed was the giving them a Divine Honour and the worshipping of their will as the Will of God 2. All the honour and preference that is given to the Roman Church is said even by General Councels which did first distinguish this Church from the rest to be given it only because Rome was the Imperial City of the World All the Worship then that is given to the Roman Church is given it only in Honour of the Imperial Authority of that City and so the worshipping of that Church is the worshipping of that Authority d Concil Constantinopol sub Gratiano Theodosio Canon 5. So Socrates l. 5. c. 8. And Sozomon gives this Reason for it l. 7 c. 9. Because that Constantinople had not only the same name and a like Senate and Magistrates with Rome but did also carry the same Ensigns of Authority after the manner of Rome and was equal to old Rome in all Rights and Honours The second General Councel at Constantinople did decree That the Bishop of Constantinople should be the next in precedence to the Bishop of Rome because that City was new Rome And this is thus explained by the Fathers of the 4th General Councel of Chalcedon at their confirmation of equal Priviledges to the See of Constantinople with those of the See of Rome The Fathers say they gave the See of old Rome its Priviledges upon the account e Concil Chalcedon sub Mareiano Valentin Canon 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for its being the Reigning City Baronius Anno. 448 Cites Valentinian's acknowledgment of the See of Rome Novell 14. That the merit of St. Peter the Dignity of the City and the Authority of the Synod were the foundations of its Primacy If there had been a Divine Right it would have been a diminution to it to speak of the other And in the year 451. He quotes Galla Placidia's Letter to her Son Theodosius about that Affair who says there That it did become them to keep up a due reverence to the City of Rome because it is the Lady of all the rest A clear evidence of the ground of the Primacy of the See of Rome is that Law of the Emperour Leo l. 6. l. 15. and in sin c. de Sacros Eccles which was made a little while after the Councel at Constantinople when the Empire of Rome in the West was just falling We judge and ordain says he That the Most Holy Church of this Most Religious City of Constantinople the Mother of our Piety and of all Christians of the Orthodox Religion and the Most Holy See of this Royal City for ever have for the future in consideration that it is the Imperial City All Priviledges and Honours over the Creations of Bishops Right of Precedence before all others and all other things which they shall be known to have had either before or during our Reign And that this continued appears from l. 16. c. de Sacros Ecclesiis The Church of Constantinople is Head of all other Churches Upon this account also was it as Guicciardin observes l. 4. Histor That the Bishops of Ravenna and Constantinople so often disputed the Primacy with the Bishop of Rome because that it was thought that the chief Seat of the Church followed the residence of the Imperial Power And the Arch-bishop of Ravenna in particular refused to receive the Pall from the Bishop of Rome in acknowledgment of the superiority of the Pope for the Reign of four Popes together viz. Martin 1. Eugenius 1. Vitalian and Adeodat and they were therefore called Autocephali or Self-headed by the Popes in memory of it Anastasius Bibliothec. in these Popes lives says that it was against the Supremacy that they contended of the Imperial Authority of it upon the same account did the Hundred and fifty Bishops at Constantinople give the same Priviledges also to the See of New-Rome judging it in all reason fit That a City adorned with a Senate and an Imperial power should enjoy the same Priviledges with Old Rome 〈…〉 like unto it to have the tokens of Majesty in Ecclesiastical Affair The Synod in Trullo gives the general reason of this from 〈◊〉 Ancient Canon of the Church in its Thirty eighth Canon which was That the Ecclesiastical dignities should follow the Imperial Orders
by the dissention of two Popes we ought to summon the one and the other and to determine the difference by the Advice of the Orthodox at the day of meeting declares that the right of assembling them did belong unto him For so says he did Constantine Theodosius Justinian Charlemaigne Radevicus l. 2. Ã cap. 52. ad c. 65. Grotius Respons de Antichristo Gregory the Great acknowledges the Emperor to be His Lord and obeys his Edicts And the Imperial Power was very magnificently exercised upon the Popes themselves by the Otho's And Rome had its Magistrates set over it that were sworn to the Emperor Onuph Panvin l. de Fastis pag. 61. From the time of Justinian the Power of the Consuls ceased at Rome And it was governed by the Emperor's Exarchs and by a particular Duke over the City of Rome Hieron Rubeus Histo Ravennat Anno 590. Alberic de Rofat a Famous Lawyer shows in verbo Roma that Rome was under the Emperor's disposal to the time of Innocent the Second and that the Popes acknowledged the Emperors their Lords by the Bishops of Rome Their ordinary Style was Our Lords the Emperors and themselves their meanest Servants They got indeed not long after the Title of Vniversal Bishop over all the whole Church but it was then known to be got hh See Note m on Chap. 4. and the Note g ibidem Ludovic Bebenburg de jurib Reg. Imp. Rom. Edit Heidelbergi pag. 46. The Greeks a long while before the Translation of the Empire to Charlemaigne were departed from the obedience of the Roman Church setting up the Church of Constantinople for their Head And because that Church did write it self the first of all Churches Phocas the Emperor at the request of Boniface the Third decreed that the Church of Rome should be the Head of all Churches by the Emperor's Allowance and Protection in it And the very opening the Pantheon for the worship of the Saints was wholly ii Anastas Bibliothec. in Bonifacio Quarto At the same time he begg'd of the Emperor Phocas the Temple called Pantheon which he made the Church of the Blessed Virgin and all the Martyrs by the Emperor's Grant and Favour But notwithstanding this Grant we see kk See Note b c e x on this Chapter the Imperial Jurisdiction over the Councils still continuing ll See the Sixth General Council in Note b on this Chapter The Sixth General Synod is acknowledged in the Acts of it to be called by the Emperor Constantine to be wholly managed either by himself or such as he deputed in his absence to be confirmed by him and to be made an Imperial Law by his Edict for the observance of it Concil Univers 6. Action 18. Therein also do we find Pope Honorius anathematized for an Heretick But Justinian's Fifth Council with all the Extravagancies of it though called managed and enforced by the Emperor 's sole Power against the will of Pope Vigilius is there made a perpetual Concil 6. in Trullo Action 18. Edit Constantin Rule for the Church and of equal Authority with the first four famous Councils which Gregory the Great did reverence like the four Gospels and Justinian's Faith there celebrated by Pope Agatho as a great Pattern Thus did things continue till that famous Breach betwixt the East and the West about the Point of Image-worship and yet at that time did Gregory the Second who rebelled against the Emperor Leo Isaurus call him the King and Head of the Christians And long after that did the mm See Notes i l xx on this Chapter Platina in Pelag. 2. Pelagius having been elected by the Clergy and People without staying for the Emperor's leave because the Lombards did then besiege the City sent Gregory his Deacon to excuse it to the Emperor at Constantinople Because says Platina the Election of the Clergy signified nothing in those days without the approbation of the Emperor Blondus Decad. 1. l. 9. de Severino 1. Honorio Then was that Custom observed that he that was chosen Bishop of Rome was not crowned till the Exarch came from Ravenna to confirm him D. 63. c. Hadrianus 22. Sigonius de Reg. Ital. l. 4. By the Consent of all the Great Men of Rome there assembled it was agreed that Charlemaigne should have the power of electing the Pope and of ordering the Roman Church D. 63. c. in Synodo 23. Pope Leo the Eighth Anno 963. in a Synod at Rome consents to that Canon That none shall be elected Pope but by the Emperor's leave The Title of the Canon in Gratian is The Election of the Bishop of Rome belongs of right to the Emperor And also two years before at his reception at Rome Ann. 961. the Romans swear Fealty to him and that they would never elect a Pope without his leave nor ordain him without the Consent and Election of the Emperor Otho and the King his Son Luitprand l. 6. c. 6. Aventin l. 5. Annal. Boiar Till his time Gregory the 7th the Popes used to be chosen by the Clergy Nobility People and Senate and above all came in the Emperor's Authority to confirm it The Council of Worms says the same of Gregory Sigonius de Reg. Ital. lib. 9. The Diet of Ratisbonne 1322. published a long Decree against Pope John XXII and amongst other things declare against the Pope's Election without the Emperor Aventin l. 7. Popes not only continue to be confirmed by the Emperors but also to be chosen by them But since it was necessary for this universal conformity to the Roman Worship to be managed by a Church-Head after the division of the Empire into so many absolute Civil Sovereigns there can be no dispute in this case about the Imperial share in the worship of the Beast though the Papal Power should afterwards appear to be the almost only active thing in this Affair For it must necessarily be so to fulfil that which is said of the False-prophet that he did exercise all the power of the first Beast and caused the World to worship that Beast and made men make an Image to it which they must worship under pain of death For the power of the Roman Church under the Pope does exactly answer these things and this being all done in honour of the Imperial Command of the City of Rome makes it still the worship of the Imperial Power CHAP. VIII Rev. XIII The first date of the Idolatry of the Roman Church very early The worshipping of Images or Saints in honour of the True God Idolatry shown from Hosea 4. 15. and chap. 8. 13. compar'd with chap. 13. 2. So also chap. 8. 5. Idolatry begun in Justinian 's days proved from the Second Council of Nice The 82 d Canon of the Synod in Trullo From the Zeal of Serenus From the 26. c. Episc Clero Saint-worship in use before St. Augustin 's days and unquestionably in his time shown from the Accusation of
Body though that be the same with what is said of the Fourth Beast alone that is that he had devoured the other three But this Apprehension might easily induce them first to fancy the Beast to be at least all those Four Monarchies that are mentioned in Daniel And 2. when that was done they might as easily thereupon be brought to extend the notion of it to contain the whole World in it from the representation of the Seven Heads upon it the number seven being then generally accounted in the Learning of the Jews and Christians to be a signification of the whole sum of the kind of things with which it was joined And then it was obvious to fancy the Seven Heads to be some seven parts of time that should measure out that blasphemous or ungodly time of the World from the first beginning of it to the last end of it And yet all the ground for this was nothing but that mention of the parts of the Four Beasts in the 7th of Daniel in the make of the Body of the Beast in the 13th Chapter of the Revelations which the Fourth Beast in Daniel is said to have devoured The Fathers that came after the time of Constantine and that saw the Roman Empire turned Christian could not it seems ever bring it into their minds to think That God would ever suffer the Roman Empire to relapse again into Infidelity or to appear in the dreadful Characters of the Tyranny of the Beast against the Church And yet they must stand to that if they allowed Babylon to be Rome or the future times of the Beast to belong to the Roman Empire They therefore interpret Babylon to be the General City of all Wicked Men all the World over and the Beast to be the World of Wicked Men and the Seven Heads to be either all the Tyrannical Powers of the World that had or should persecute the Church of God or all the Wicked Emperors only of that Time Heathen or Arrian That which might the more easily dispose them to this was the Clamours of the Arrians and Donatists against the then Orthodox Party that they were the People of that Babylon that is so dreadfully set out in the Revelations For it was very obvious for any that had zeal enough to make the Change of Religion to be the Change of one of the Heads of the Beast and so to account the Sixth Head to be the Heathen Emperors only the Seventh King to be the short continuance of Imperial and professed Arrianism under Constantius Valens c. as the time of the Seventh King is described And the Eighth King called The Beast to be the return of that which these called Idolatry and Blasphemy but others Orthodoxy under the rest of the Emperors that succeeded and that were in the time of this Charge in power If we consider That by some of the best Learned and Cautious Mr. Mede Dr. More Interpreters of this present Age the change of Religion in the Imperial Head is made to be the end of the Reign of that Head it will appear very reasonable to judge That these Clamours of their Adversaries might be thought to have some ground for them if they should allow The Beast and Heads to be Roman Powers only And this Consideration might very well make them conclude that Babylon could not be Rome nor the Heads of the Beast to be so many Successions of Roman Government at least if they thought it to be undoubted That the then called Orthodox Party could not possibly be concerned in the Characters of the Beast For That the Orthodox were then charged by their Adversaries with the Application of Babylon and the Beast to them is evident That which is the clearest Instance of this nature is that which Bede in his Preface to his Comment upon the Revelations says of Tyconius an Eminent Donatist and whom he commends for his Interpretation He there says That Tyconius who had suffered in the Cause of the Donatists with the rest of his Brethren That he did apply all the Persecutions in the Revelations to the Actions of the then present Church of Rome against those of his Party And Primasius another of his Followers does also in his Comment upon this Book affirm much the same of him in his Preface So also does the Imperfect Work upon St. Matthew wrongly attributed to Chrysostome charge the Governing party of the Roman Church about the same time with much the same accusations in several places of it and Bellarmin informs us Lib. 3. de Pontif. c. 11. That the Orthodox Africans were called Romanists by the Arrians as a name of reproach Whatever was the true Reason of this new Interpretation of the name of Babylon it is certain that it was against the opinion of all the Fathers before as the most Learned of the Roman Interpreters do often acquaint us and as may be seen from Irenaeus in particular Lib. 5. Contra Haeres And from Tertullian in Apolog. Victorinus c. And there could be no greater Reason to move them to it than the clamours of that discontented Party But after the inundation of the Barbarous Nations all over the Roman Empire and the settlement of their several Kingdoms within the Bounds of it Andreas Caesariensis and Arethas as if they had now plainly seen the division of that Empire amongst the Ten Kings represented by the Ten Horns of the Beast seem to be not so well satisfied about the Mystical way of Interpretation which they had received from those before them But yet for fear of fixing the Characters of Babylon upon the then present times of the Roman Church they are very cautious of determining any way They show how many meanings Babylon may have in it it may either be the whole World of the Wicked in general or Babylon in Persia or Old Rome or New Rome and the Seven Heads of the Beast may be either all the wicked Emperours or Seven Ages of the World c. And yet when they come to bethink themselves again Babylon must sometimes be Rome with them according to the Ancient Fathers and yet that it cannot be Old Rome because that had lost all Majesty of Empire And then what Rome can it be else And that Antichrist when he comes must be a Monarch of Rome See Andreas Caesariensis on the 13th and 17th Chapters of the Revelations All which shows That the only thing that can be depended upon as the Authoritative sense of the Ancients is their Geneneral Agreement about the nature of the 4th Beast in Daniel and about the relation of the Beast in the Revelations to it And the immediate consequences of that unanimous consent If now it should be thought to be a great prejudice against the clearness and easiness of the Protestant Applications of the Apocalypse to the Church of Rome That that Interpretation was never heard of for many Ages together after the time that the beginning of the Apostacy
whole Church which shows the Emperor's share in the Legislative Power of the Church to be near a-kin to his Power in the Senate about Civil Affairs but at least very near as great in the Councils as the Papal Authority was afterwards before it came to its full height And then in the Execution of the Laws and Canons of the Church the Imperial Authority appears every-where to be the last resort and the last Power that they k Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat p. 180. The Archbishops of Ravenna do there contend with the Popes of Rome for the Superiority John the Archbishop had many of the Italian Bishops of his Party in it And Sigonius de Regno Ital. l. 2. Blondus Decad. 1. l. 9. Ann. 608. gives an account of this Contest of Ravenna with Rome all the days of Pope Martin the First Eugenius the First Vitalian and Adeodat They would have no Pallium nor Consecration from Rome in acknowledgment of any dependance upon them S. Hierom. ad Evagre If you dispute about the Authority of the whole World Orbis major est Urbe Wheresoever there is a Bishop whether at Rome or Eugubium at Constantinople or Rhegium he is of the same Dignity and of the same Priesthood Cardinal Cusan l. 2. c. 12. shews that all Bishops are equal But the execution of their Office is bounded by Human Laws and Orders which if they come to cease those Differences of Greater and Less return again to their natural Right that is to an Equality Aeneas Sylvius Comment l. 2. Before the Council of Nice every Bishop lived independent in his own Jurisdiction appeal to for redress Dr. Barrow p. 324. to p. 372. Grot. in Decal Praecep 2. Note the 3d. or for correction of Church-Governours which shews it to have had also the full possession of the Executive Power And accordingly do we find the Title of the Vniversal Bishop of the Church in respect of the External Government of it assumed by Constantine In this state did the Imperial Authority continue in the Church when the exercise of its power was the most unblameable So that here was a Roman Catholick Church established from the very first appearance of the Imperial Throne in the Church and no other Political Vnity was there then of the Roman Church but only this Imperial Headship The particular Jurisdiction of the l Ludovic Bebenberg de jurib R. Imp. Romanor pag. 142. In Commentar M. Freherus When the Emperor Henry had objected to the Romans why against the custom of their Ancestors they had chosen them a Pope without the leave of the King The Pope excused himself that he was chosen by force but that he would not be consecrated till he did perfectly understand by an Embassy that both the Emperor and the Princes had consented to his Election Hieron Balbus de Coronatione cap. 14. It had been an ancient Custom that the Clergy and People of Rome should nominate the Pope After which it was in the Emperor's power to confirm or invalidate the Election and as he pleased either to admit him or to substitute another in his room c. Agatho 63. distinct And this Custom continued to the time of Pope Adrian Anno 815. who would have changed it But the old Custom obtained again of expecting the Pope's Confirmation from the Emperor as Platina observes in Gregor 9. in the Year 1072. Gregory was reconciled to the Emperor Henry who confirmed him Pope as it was then the custom Caronza Concil summa pag. 437. Severinus Papa in locum Honorii subrogatus ab Isaacio Hexarcho in Pontificatu confirmatur c. Severinus was confirmed Pope by Isaac the Hexarch of Italy For the Election by the People and Clergy was not accounted valid in those days unless the Emperors or their Exarchs had confirmed them Platina says the same in Severinus And Blondus the same with this of Caranza l. 9. Decad. 1. and adds That the Confirmation was put off for a year and an half because Isaac did not go from Ravenna to Rome before Sigebert in his Chronicle mentions a Council held by Charlemaigne at Rome before he was crowned Emperor by virtue of his being made Defender of the Church by Adrian And there Adrian and 150 Bishops did confer the Right of chusing the Pope upon Charles and of ordering the Apostolick See and the Dignity of the Prince The same is mentioned by Gratian D. 69. c. Hadrianus 22. And by Sigonius de Regno Ital. l. 4. In the time of the Emperor Ludovicus the Son of Charlemaigne upon Pope Stephen's being elected contrary to the Order without the Emperor's Command Stephen to mend the matter makes this Order in the Canon Quia Sancta D. 52. Because the Roman Church suffers great Violences at the Death of the Pope when the Election is made without the Emperor's knowledge We ordain That when the Bishop of Rome is to be chosen that he be elected in a full Assembly of the Bishops and Clergy and in the presence of the Senate and People and so being chosen in the presence of the Legate of the Emperor that he be consecrated Baronius Anno 827. says of the Election of Pope Valentinus That his Consecration was deferred till the Emperour should be consulted about it Pope Leo the Eighth Anno 963. makes this Order in behalf of the Emperor Otho That according to the Example of Adrian Bishop of the Apostolick See who granted unto the Emperor Charles the ordering the Apostolick See That he likewise with all the Clergy did constitute and by his Authority corroborate to his Lord Otho first King of the Theutons and to his Successors in the Kingdom of Italy The power of chusing a Successor and of disposing of the Bishop of the Sovereign Apostolick See and for that purpose that the Archbishops and Bishops should take investiture from him And that none for the future should take upon them the power of electing or consecrating the Bishop of Rome or of any other See without the Consent of the said Emperor D. 63. in Synodo 23. The Title of the Canon in Gratian is The Election of the Bishop of Rome does of right appertain to the Emperor Bishoprick of the City of Rome was in no other account for Supremacy than the rest of the Episcopal Jurisdictions and all of them were confined to their own particular Territories But it was reputed just and fitting at the coming in of the Emperors into the Church that the Bishop of their Ruling City should have a mark of distinction from the rest as an honour due to the Emperor's Court and Residence And thus came the Bishop of Rome to have the precedence of all other Bishops in the Church And upon the same account had Constanstinople the second place to that of Rome when that City became the Seat of a new Empire This Primacy gave the Bishops of Rome a great advantage over the Interests of their Fellow-Bishops And being become very