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
the Application of it to the fall of Paganism by Constanstine's Conversion is That the Reign of Diabolical Rage in the Imperial Head against the Christan Church was then at an end and that Christianity was mounted on the Throne instead of it But there is no manner of hint about the end of the Imperial Head it self or of the change of it for a new Head It is only the change of the Reign of the Devil in that Head and therefore is it said to be Satan only cast down And though one would judge this to be a great change of Affairs yet there was no reason from hence to make the loss of the Dragon's Power the end of an Head because his Power never was the beginning of one The Imperial Head had not its denomination or distinctive Character from the other Heads upon the account of the power of the Dragon in it and therefore it cannot cease to be an Head only for having that power cast out of it That it was not the power of the Dragon that was the distinguishing Character of the Imperial Head from those that were before it is certain For the Red Dragon with the Seven Heads and Ten Horns must necessarily be some Roman Power persecuting the Church of God And then it must 1. Either begin at Pompey's Conquest of Judaea which was in the time of the Consulary Government and continued in the Dictatorship of Julius Caesar and so the Red Dagon would be in one or two Heads more besides the Imperial and therefore could not be the mark of distinction betwixt them and the Imperial If so then the continuance of the Imperial Government without the Dragon in it has all reason to be accounted the same Head still since the Dragon was no part of the essential difference of the Imperial Head from the two others that went before it and therefore does the casting out of the Dragon out of the Imperial Head make no change of that Property which made it an Head Or 2dly The Dragon must be the Roman persecution of the Christians And then the Imperial Head would have been begun a long time before the time of the Dragon in it which would plainly show that as the Imperial Government was an Head of the Beast before it was possessed by the Dragon so must it continue the same Head of the Beast after it was dispossessed of the Dragon 2. And whereas this Opinion seems to be countenanced from the immediate consequence of it in the 13th Chapter which is v. 3. the appearance of an Head wounded to death and healed again It is to be considered that the maintainers of this Opinion themselves do allow at least 140 years space betwixt the Fall of the Dragon and the Rise of that other Beast And then there is no Argument at all from the nearness of the two Visions to one another either to interpret that Fall of the wounding of any of the Seven Heads or to make so little a distance of space betwixt the Fall and the Rise of the Beast There is a plain mention of a flood cast out of the Dragon's Rev. 12. 15. mouth which in Prophetick Language signifying an inundation of vast multitudes of People does give opportunity and time enough for the wounding of the Head and the healing it again and this distance betwixt them is by our Adversaries said to be 140 years Indeed this very 13th Chapter does shew the power of the Dragon to be wholly spiritual considered by himself For he is represented here as active as he was before he was cast down which shews that he was only an Evil Spirit in one of the Heads and not the Head it self For then his casting down would have been the Dragon's deadly wound as the Head of the Beast that was before past is represented to be so wounded whereas the Dragon is as much in action after his fall as he was before He was then the same spiritual Power when he was in the Head and when he was cast out of it and therefore distinct from it 3. It will be further urged that this would make the Imperial Head continue an Head of the Beast after it was turned Christian whereas the Heads of the Beast are said to have the names of blasphemy upon them But it is known that things are called by the name of that which is most predominant amongst them And since the time of the Christian Emperors in that Head was inconsiderable in comparison of the time of Heathenism the Objection has no weight in it 4. But then it seems harder to answer that Character upon the Seventh Head or Gothish Kings It will not be so very difficult if it be considered That the Seventh Head is the mixed form of Imperial and Regal Government For it is not hard to find the beginning of that degeneracy of Christianity which is called Blasphemy in the established Roman Religion a WE find in St. Augustine contra Faustum lib. 20. c. 2. which was near an 100 years before this time that the Manachees would have the Orthodox to be like the Pagans And Faustus thence says Ye have turned the Idols of the Pagans into Martyrs whom you worship with the same kind of Invocations And the Edicts of Valens and Theodosius against the Adorations of the Image of Christ confirms it Hospinian pag. 49. The Worship of the Saints by Invocation c. seems to be very near akin to the Worship of the Lesser Gods amongst the Heathens and then it must needs be Blasphemy H. Salmeron praelud 7. in Apocalyps gives this very reason why by Babylon the Harlot must be understood Rome Heathen viz. because it did worship the Images of all the Gods in the Pantheon as the Saints of the Eastern Empire at that time And however different the Goths might be from the Romans in Opinion yet we have b Petavius Ration Temp. part 1. l. 6. c. 2. de Theodorico And tho according to the Religion of his Country he was of the Arrian Sect yet he defended the Rights and Liberties of the Roman Church with all faithfulness And Sigonius says of Odoacer before him That he gave the Bishops and the Churches their due respects lib. 15. de Imp. Occident And Baron Anno 476. that he gave the Catholick Church no trouble in Church-matters But sufficient Instances of the preservation of the Rights of the Roman Church by the Gothish Kings may be found in Cassiodorus's Book of Variar As Lib. 2. Ep. 28. There is first Theodoric's Profession that he ought not to force Religion upon any not upon Jews Lib. 3. Ep. 45. He mentions the Defenders of the Rights of the Roman Church Commissioners setled by himself and upon their complaint of an Injury enjoins his Deputy by all means to right them according to the former grants to the Roman Church Lib. 4. Ep. 20. orders the Restitution of Gifts taken away from the Church Athalaricus after him makes
would be but the taking of the word Latinos after the Ancient way of the Latins The False Prophet's punishment of those who had not the mark or name of the Beast is just the same with z The effect of the Papal Excommunications for this purpose does appear from the Bull of Pope Martin the 5th in confirmation of the Council of Constance and to be found at the end of it Which commands all Emperours Princes Lords and all Civil Magistrates as well as Ecclesiastical to expell all Hereticks out of their Territories not to suffer them to make Contracts or to exercise any kind of Merchandize amongst them the Papal-Excommunications For the hindering them from the Market or from buying and selling was one of the effects of the Excommunications of the Jews CHAP. VI. Rev. XIII Vnder the name of the Beast is comprehended all his under-Agents in the same design How the ten Kings give their Kingdoms to the Beast How the Character of speaking like the Dragon can agree with a Christian Bishop It cannot be any thing else THE particular instances explained in the former Chapter do clearly show that the exercise of the Power of the false Prophet does in all the parts of it regard the Beast as the principal concern of his design The Worship that he promotes is the Worship of the Beast The Image that he causes to be made is an Image made in honour of the Beast it self And the Worship that is given to it is because of its being the Image of that Beast that was deadly wounded and was healed again And the mark name and number of the name is the name of the Beast by which all Men were to own themselves the peculiar slaves of the Beast And this is no more than what the Character of that Power which the false Prophet did exercise in all these ways does plainly intimate to us for it is said to be the Power of the Beast it self exercised hefore him And therefore must the exercise of it be only upon his account and those that were employed in it were therefore but his Ministers and Instruments in it All which does signifie to us That the Supremacy of the Pope the Infallibility of the Church of Rome the blind Submission and Veneration that is paid to it the taking the name of a Roman Catholick the confining of all the publick Offices of Religion and Devotion to God and of the lively Oracles of God to the old Roman Language That all these things are done in honour of the Universal Imperial Power of the Romans or of the Empire of the City of Rome and that in the time of the Imperial Authority over Rome restored by Justinian And therefore are all these things signified to be the Worship of the Beast under the last Ruling Head because it is not a Civil honour that is given to this Empire and the Head of it But the giving them the Prerogative of Almighty God the Power of setting up a Spiritual Authority which shall give Law to the Consciences of Men according to their own will and pleasure and shall have the Spirit of God confined to their Arbitrary proceedings and the Curses of God to dispose of at their will against all that dissent from them The Beast therefore is the final Object of all the Worship N. B. and Honour that is given and therefore does generally comprehend in it all the under-Actors and Instruments in this Design where he is mentioned alone Thus ln the 17th Chapter of the Revelations there is no mention of the false Prophet or of the Image but only of the Beast and of the magnificent appearance of his Empire under the name of Babylon And therefore by the Beast must there be understood all his Ministers and Instruments joyned with him according to the nature of the several Characters that he is joyned with As in the time of the Mayres of the Palace in France by the name of the King must many times be understood the will of those Mayres to the prejudice of the Royal Authority because it was the King's Power that was exercised by them And all the Honour and Obedience that they had was upon the account of their being authorized by him So also do the Actions and Honour of the false Prophet and the Image go under the name of the Beast in that Chapter tho in reality they have been much to the diminution of the Imperial Authority It is enough to qualifie them to be comprehended under the name of the Beast that they concur with the Beast in his great design of making all the World to submit to an Ecclesiastical Authority of his own Creating as the acknowledgment of the Honour of his Empire For all the Worship that is hereby promoted is The Honour shown to the Imperial Power of the Romans which is submitted to as the only ground for any hopes of Salvation And that not upon the account of its being the Catholick Church of Christ but for that which is at present a contradiction to it viz. for being the Roman-Catholick Church Wherefore when the ten Kings are said to give their Power Rev. 17. 13. and Strength and Kingdoms to the Beast it is to be understood of their concurrence to advance the Roman Religion as the Imperial Religion of the Romans which was first set up and promoted by the Imperial Authority and so still continues to be defended and protected by it and therein does the Worship of the Beast more eminently appear because of the submission of crowned Heads to it who have no Superior upon Earth but God alone For it is very difficult to understand how ten Kings can be supposed to be of one mind and to agree to give their Kingdoms to the Worship of any Power upon Earth but only in this way of an Uniformity in a common Religion which is set up by the Will and to the Honour of another And here it is to be observed how exactly the Prophecy and the Event do agree with one another in respect of the Order which is observed in the Text. The Beast is described as beginning the Scene first and setting the design on foot And the false prophet and the Image come in afterwards to perfect and accomplish it which was very punctually verified by the beginning of the Universal Monarchy of the Church of Rome under the Imperial Authority and the advancement of it into a perfect Tyranny by the Roman Hierarchy So that after a while the False-prophet seems to take the power of the Beast out of his hands and to exercise it before his face and then the Beast had little to do himself in the management of it and seemed only to give Authority to what was done by others which is also now manifest from the common course of the Roman Church in their proceedings against Hereticks They judge condemn and pronounce sentence against them and then deliver them over to the Secular
Ordain That all usurped jurisdiction of any Bishops over another's Province shall be ipso facto void And that lest the fear of any Mans power should creep in under a shew of an Holy Function and so we should lose that Liberty insensibly and unawares which our Lord Jesus Christ did purchase with his own Blood the Ephesine Council not long after the time of Theodosius had made an excellent provision against any incroachment of any one part of the Christian Church over the rest so that though there might be some irregular exercise of the Imperial Authority yet whenever any considerable Diocese should have stood up for their Liberty though against the Roman Church they had a right to plead for it from that Council In this estate did things continue till the fall of the Western Empire and then the Arrian Goths being the Masters of Rome and the West there was a composition betwixt them and the Eastern Emperors for a f It appears from Cassiodor Variar L. 10. Ep. 26. That the Gothish Kings did not press any in Italy to their way Theodate to Justinian says there Since the Deity suffers many Religions to be we dare not enjoyn one alone to be followed For we remember it is said That Men must sacrifice willingly to the Lord not at the command of any one to force them to it With good reason therefore does your Piety invite us to that which the Commands of God do require And in the time of Justin before Thedoric forced him to leave off persecuting the Arrians in the East And Zeno and Anastasius before Justin are represented as Lovers of Peace and Union rather than a strict Conformity of which Zeno's Henoticon is an example Petavius says of the Emperour Anastasius That he gave every Man liberty to profess what Sect he pleased Rationar Temp. Part 1. l 7. c. 3. Theodoric to all the Jews lib. 2. ep 27. Gassiodor Variar We cannot says Command Religion because none is to be compelled to believe against his Will mutual Tolleration of Orthodoxy and Arrianism in their respective Jurisdictions And before that had the Emperors Zeno and Anastasius contrived a form of Faith for a Comprehension and Union and did connive at a general Liberty of Conscience But the Emperor Justin after them begins the Project of an Vniversal Conformity to the Roman Religion At the sollicitations of Pope Hormisda he makes g See Petav. Rationar Temp. Part. 1. l. 7. c. 3. Item Anastasius Bibliothecar in Hormisdâ an Union betwixt the Greek and the Latin Church which had been in a Schism against one another near forty years After that in Pope John's time sets out several Edicts against h Petav. ibidem Item Blondus de Inclinat Rom. Imp. in Occidente Pag. 37. Pope John in whose time the Emperour Justin being wholly set upon rooting out all the Heresies throughout the Eastern parts deprived all the Bishops of that Sect of their Places and put their Ministers out of their Churches And a little after not only the Eutichyan Heresy but all kind of different Parties were suppressed throughout all the East Anastasius Bibliothecar to the same purpose in Joanne 1. the Hereticks and heavily persecutes them so as even to suppress all kind of Heresie throughout the Eastern Empire But he was forced by i Anastasius Bibliothec. in Joanne 1. gives an account of Theodoric's sending Pope John in an Embassy to Justin to acquaint him That he would ruine all the Catholicks in Italy if he did not restore the Arrians in the East to their Dignities and Churches And that Justin did thereupon comply with him Theodorick king of Italy to desist and so his Design came to nothing But however there was so good a Correspondence by this means setled betwixt the Emperor and the Bishop of Rome for that common Interest that the Emperor submits to be crowned by the Pope which was the k Petav. Rationa Temp. Part 1. l. 7. c. 3. The Emperour received the Pope with all honour and was the first that received the Imperial Crown at the Popes Hands Anastas Bibliothec. in Joanne 1. first Example of that kind and got the name of Justin l Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat pag. 141. Item Anastas Bibliothec. in Joanne 1. the Orthodox for his Piety to the Church This good Correspondence betwixt the Secular and Ecclesiastical Power of Rome was the only means to carry on an Vniversal Vniformity in the Roman Religion For the Imperial Authority was now confined to a very small Jurisdiction and the rest of the Empire was divided into several Kingdoms which had no other Secular Sovereign to command them but their own particular Kings There was therefore no other way of reducing them all to one Religion but by the advancement of a Spiritual Roman Authority to be the principle of Vnity amongst them whose business it should be to overawe the Conscience with the Curses of the Church for the enforcing the execution of the Imperial Penalties For as the Imperial Laws were for every thing else the standing Laws of these divided Kingdoms so the only way to make their Edicts and Sanctions of Councils about Church-matters to take place amongst them was to have them confirmed and enforced by the Authority of an Universal Head of the Church And though the Church Head seems by this to be the principal in all this Affair yet the Temporal Penalties of the Laws being the only certain means to effect an Universal Conformity and this Sovereign Head of the Church himself being also a Creature of the Imperial Power to carry on his design of Uniformity in the Roman Religion as has been observed all the Obedience that Chap. 22. is given by other Princes and their Subjects is really nothing but the Worship of the Beast or of the Imperial Religion and they give their Kingdoms to the Beast when they force their Subjects to submit to that Religion There was nothing that could make it look more like the worshipping of that Roman Authority than this Submission of the Ten Kings who were absolute in their Kingdoms and had as much right to appoint the Laws of Religion to their Subjects as the Roman Emperor had in his own Territories But by this conformity to the Romans they did seem to lay down their N. B. Crowns at the feet of that Nation and to adore them as the great Dictators and Oracles of the Will of God There is indeed not the least appearance of so general an Uniformity at the end of the Reign of the Emperor Justin who as has been observed was not able so much as to bring it about within the bounds of his own Territories But Justinian immediately after him appears in this Design like a new Blazing-star in the East whom all the World began to be afraid of One would indeed from a cursory view of his History be apt to entertain no other Idea of him than as a very eminent Conqueror
A DEMONSTRATION OF THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF THE Protestant Applications OF THE APOCALYPSE Together with the Consent of the Ancients Concerning the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel and The Beast in the Revelations By DRUE CRESSENER D. D. LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against Stocks-Market M DC XC TO THE QUEEN MADAM THE Intent of these Papers is to make a more certain Discovery of the Sense of some Divine Oracles which have foretold the Successive Revolutions of all the Great Empires in which the Church of God was to sojourn till it should come to triumph over the Kingdoms of this World If they prove to be satisfactorily clear Religion and Empire being the Subject-matter of them They seem to be the most proper Object of the Meditation of Christian Princes We are now in the concluding part of the Last of these Empires And Your Majesty's Late Wonderful Successes have so promising an Aspect on that part of the Predictions That they seem to appropriate all Addresses of this kind to Your Royal Court. I have therefore thought it a duty to offer that which I have already published on this Subject to the Hands of His Majesty And Your Majesty's peculiar Share in the Throne does seem to demand This of me as the Remainder of a Debt from one that has once approached it This Part is indeed the whole Strength and Foundation of the former and for that reason ought to attend it to the same Place to confirm the Hopes of a Glorious Success of both Your Majesties Endeavours for the Revival of the Oppressed Reformation Madam We have already seen a very surprizing beginning of this Recovery in the late Providential manner of the Return of the Protestants of Savoy through the midst of their most Inveterate and most Powerful Opposers The first date of that General Suppression of the Protestant Profession in Roman States which in the Prophecy is called The Death of the Witnesses in Sackcloth is supposed to commence from the Last Considerable Abjurations of the new Converts abroad some while after the Revocation of the Edict of Nants And then That which in the Prophecy is called Their Resurrection three days and an half after their Death must fall just about the time that the Vaudois did Revive and Resettle the Publick Profession of their Religion after their return to their Ancient Habitations The Vaudois and their Neighbours have been so much the Main Body of the Witnesses for many Ages before the Reformation That since the first Revival is agreed from the Prophecy to be in one particular place only they may safely be allowed to be the first promising beginning at least of that Revolution The Proper Kingdom of France did indeed seem from the present Posture of Affairs to be the most likely to be the first Scene of this Revival The other Treatise pag. 139 140. But it has been shewn that there is nothing in the Prophecy that does fix the first beginning of it there And that the Persecution in France and Savoy being executed by the same Instruments may very well pass for one and the same thing This Madam is the first encouraging Earnest of that Great Deliverance which the Oppressed Church does groan for and look up to Heaven and to Your Protection to accomplish But whatever may become of these remote Conclusions relating to present Affairs it will be no prejudice to what I here offer which is the only necessary and Great Concern of the Protestant Interpretations and the sole foundation of them It will here appear to remain still firm and unshaken That the Church of Rome is the main Object of the Judgments of this Prophecy The Foundation of a Building may be setled upon a Rock though some parts of the Superstructure should fall for want of an immediate and close coherence with it And if this first Foundation be but once agreed on and well regarded by all Parties of Protestants it is easie to see how influential it must needs be for the strengthening of the Common Interest of the Reformation The dreadful Characters that are here set upon the Common Enemy and the Divine Intimations of the joint concern of all the Reformed Churches in the League against them as the Witnesses and People of God And the Present Crying Miseries of their Enslaved Brethren are more than sufficient to make them silence all their little Unnecessary Heats and Animosities against one another and to make them unite with zeal to strengthen the Hands of Your Majesties against the most refined Barbarities of the Great Oppressor that were ever yet heard of There are indeed but small Grounds to hope That Protestants will of a sudden agree upon this Foundation whatever Evidence there may be for it The Enquiry into these matters is so out of fashion and lies under so general a prejudice that I found the Press every-where affrighted from undertaking the Charge of this Publication And I am bound to acknowledge That nothing less could persuade them to it than the warm Recommendations of a Person whom Your Majesty's Favour has eminently rewarded for his Long continued Labours in all the ways by which the Church can be either piously edified or learnedly defended It is indeed owing to My Lord Bishop of Chichester if any thing here does prove to be of Publick Use Madam This General Unconcern seems chiefly to be the effect of the Popish Marriages in the Three Last Reigns Nothing was more the Doctrine of our Church to the end of the Reign of King James the First than the Charge of Babylon and Antichrist upon the Roman Church but it seemed something too rude a Charge both to Church and Court when the Queen came to be concerned in it and none but some very few of the most Sincere and Disinterested amongst the Learned would appear in it I have therefore apprehended it to be the most effectual way for the making this the Currant Study of the Age again to procure the Royal Stamp upon it by Your Majesty's favourable regard of this Performance I am encouraged to hope That it may not displease the Impartial Examiners of it And Your Majesty's Pious Zeal to promote True Religion and Vertue has already began to make all good Designs for the Protestant Interest the Fashionable Study of all about You. That we may long have the Powerful and Charming Influence of this Great Example for the improvement of all Useful Knowledge is the Zealous Prayer of MADAM Your MAJESTY'S Most Obedient Subject DRUE CRESSENER THE PREFACE Concerning the Strength and Usefulness of the Work and the Confirmation of it by the Event and the Defects of the Synchronisms MOST Writers are so happy as to be able to think themselves sure of Readers enow and all their care is to make them Courteous and gentle by a Preface But there are so few that can have the patience to hear of any thing about the Revelations that
People into Civil and Ecclesiastical Persons the King and the High-Priest especially where the Church of God is which is the present Case As this does go along with all well-ordered Societies so it is exemplified in two of the Instances here referred to out of the Old Testament Or 2. The Church may here be represented by Two upon the account of the known peculiar Character of the Christian Church in distinction to that of the Jews all over the New Testament where it is every-where represented as one Church made up of Jews and Gentiles one Common Society with those two great constituent Parts in it upon the account of which it was originally called the Catholick Church Thus do we find †St. Paul almost continually insisting upon this Two-fold distinction in the Church and the chief ground of Rom. 3. 30. 4. 16. 9. 24. 10. 12. 11. 17. 15. 8 9. 1 Cor. 1. 24. 7. 18 19. Gal. 27. 8. 4. 22 24. 6. 15 16. Ephes 3. 6 9. all his earnest Motives to Unity and Mutual Communion for the making the Christian Church but one thing is that all the World both Jews and Gentiles are but one Church of Christ As Ephes 2. 14 15 16 17 18. and Chap. 3. 6. and Chap. 4. 1 2 3 4 5 6. And this is every-where represented by him as the great Mystery of God in the bringing the Gentiles to be one Church with the Jews Ephes 1. 9. 3. 3 9. Colos 1. 26 27. This Book of the Apocalypse does also generally run upon that distinction As Chap. 5. 5. The number of the Jewish Elders gathered out of all Nations And Chap. 7. 4 9. The 144000 out of the Jewish Tribes but figuratively taken and the Great Multitude of all Nations So also Chap. 14. 1 6. The 144000 and all Nations and Kindreds and Tongues and People And Chap. 19. 4 6. The 24 Elders represent the Jewish part and the Voice of the Great Multitude the Gentiles though both figuratively And the Church is every-where set forth as the Jewish Temple or Synagogue set open to all people This also we find every-where foretold in the Old Testament as the peculiar distinction of the Church of the Messiah from that of the Jews That it should be the Church of both Jews and Gentiles And this does our Saviour also make the distinguishing Badge of his Church For this reason did he make choice of Baptism to be the Initial Rite of all Nations into his Church which by the Jews had always before been made the distinguishing Rite Matth. 8. 11. 21. 43. 22. 9. 24. 14. John 11. 52. betwixt themselves and the Gentile Proselites He also upon the same account ordered the Memorial of his own Death to be the Communion-Feast or the common Union of Jews and Gentiles in his Church or the Communion of Saints of all kinds instead of the Paschal Lamb which was the distinguishing Ceremony of the Religion of the Jews from all the rest of the World besides And thus also does he himself signify his Church to be One Fold made up of two sorts of Sheep John 10. 16. But this does most eminently appear in the History of the Actions of the Apostles after Jesus had committed the sole management of his Church to them The chief Subject of the Book of their Acts is to set forth this new appearance of the Christian Church with these Two different kinds of Members in it Indeed this twofold distinction of the Members of the Christian Church had its foundation in the known division of the whole World into those two general Parts of it Jews and Gentiles both always before and at the time of the writing this Prophecy And this distinction was always preserved in memory by the frame of the Jewish Temple and its distinction of the two Courts of the Jews and Gentiles and so seems to be the most likely to be here referred to because the most obvious and commonly known division of the Church of God into Two But what strength soever this Account of their being called Two may seem to have yet the demonstration of their real nature in general before given does not at all depend upon it This is intended only for a probable illustration of that Character And since by the discovery of their Nature they must represent the whole Christian Church for many Ages there must be some reference in this Character of it to some twofold division of the Christian Church which must distinguish it from the Jewish and none was better known for such than that which has been here pitched upon not that of the Old and New Testament nor that of the Churches of the Waldenses and Albigenses which some would have that number to refer to a THUS does Ribera interpret the three days and an half in Chap. 11. v. 9. that they signify that the Tyranny of Anti-christ shall not be continued above three years and an half according to that of Ezek. 4. I have given thee a day for a year Though afterwards upon the 20th Chapter of the Apocalypse he does in express terms contradict this very Interpretation When ever says he did Lyranus see a day taken for a year And though in Ezekiel God said I have given thee a day for a year yet what ground is this to take a day for a year in Scripture Alcasar also upon the 2 d verse Chap. 11. Apocalypse does determine That the 42 months and the 1260 days must necessarily be taken in a mystical and not in a literal sense Notatione quarta in vers 2. And they both agree with Bellarmin l. 3. de Pont. c. 8. that the 42 months and three years and an half must be understood according to the Caldaick Account CHAP. VI. Rev. XIII The 25th Proposition The Second Beast Rev. 13. an Vniversal Church-Head distinct from the First The 26th Proposition The Beast A Secular Head confederated with an Vniversal Church-Head but distinct from Him The Second Beast a succession of many single Persons The Beast and the False Prophet are the present Secular and Ecclesiastical Roman Heads or the Imperial and Papal Power Objections answered THere have been sufficient grounds of Assurance given that the Beast is really in being at this present time It is in the next place necessary to enquire after those Characters of him that do distinguish him from all other Sovereign Powers upon Earth The greatest difficulty in this Affair arises from the great resemblance that there seems to be betwixt the First and the Second v. 1 11. Beast in the 13th Chapter of the Revelations For they are described as two distinct Sovereign Powers in one and the same Roman Dominion The Second Beast is said to exercise all the power v. 12. of the First Beast before him And therefore do we find these two Beasts confounded together by many of the best esteemed Interpreters It may then be
by which he is every-where owned for the Chief Head of all Christian Princes For this reason is it That m Bellarmin l. 1. c. 5. de Translat Imp. Rom. proves That the Western Emperours Title to that part of the Roman Empire was acknowledged by all Princes and particularly by the Emperour of Constantinople after the confirming that Title upon Charlemagne And chap. 12. shews the same to have been owned to the German Emperours by all Christian Princes ever since the year 800. And cap. 5. lib. 3. de Pontifice gives this proof of it That for this cause the German Emperour has the precedence of all other Kings tho far more considerable and powerful than himself And next That he has the Consent of the Representatives of the People of Rome for it Ludovic à Bebenburg de Jurib Reg. Imp. cap. 11. does first shew That the Imperial Coronation must certainly give the Emperours more than a Name and that therefore it does give them a Title of Superiority over all the Territories that were under the Jurisdiction of the Roman Empire tho they be not now de facto or actually under the Emperour's Power as that he can legitimate Bastards in them in order to Inheritance restore those that have been publickly disgraced to their Reputation again make Laws and such-like things which of right are only reserved to the Imperial Power to do And unless the King of the Romans got something which he had not before by being made Emperour he could not be said to be advanced to the Imperial Dignity which is the word in the Election Rex Romanorum in Caesarem promovendus Imperator futurus and then the Law would be for words only and not for things contrary to C. Communia de Leg. 2. extr de elect C. Commissa and the difference of the Names would intimate no difference betwixt the Things contrary to Jura 21. distinct C. Clerus c. de Codicel l. si idem he and his Ambassadors have the precedence given them in all publick Appearances And upon this account also is he in n See Ludovic à Bebenburg Not. praecedent Idem cap. 15. shews how the Emperour has the mediate Power in all Kingdoms under the Jurisdiction of the Roman Empire and the Kings the immediate Power To the same purpose is that p. 191 200. S. Rom. Imp. Jus Publicum The Emperour alone has the Power of Legitimating of Bastards of restoring the Disgraced and prescription beyond the Memory of Man against Imperial Rights is of no validity An Order of the Imperial Chamber is an Universal Jurisdiction over all the Subjects of the Roman Empire as well those that are its immediate as those that are it s more remote Subjects the exercise of some Right reserved to him over the Subjects of other Princes in case of the denial of Justice to them or of the neglect of it and in cases of Appeal though not with any power over the persons of Princes Whether this be fit and allowable I will not dispute It is certain that these Rights he has a long time been in actual possession of which usually confirms a Right and are acknowledged to be his due by the Authority of the City of Rome at this present and not allowed to any other Prince beside So that there is none else that has the least appearance of being the one Secular Head of Rome in the midst of Ten Horns or the division of the Roman Empire into Ten Kings If it should be further urged That those dreadful Acts of Antichristian Tyranny over the whole World which are attributed to the Beast do very little suit with the Power of the Imperial Government at present It must be considered That there is a plain description of two different States of the Power of the Beast in the Prophecy it self The first before the Rise of the Second Beast or False Prophet and there he is described as acting upon his own bottom and it is said that all the World did worship him and that he had power over all Tongues and Nations c. And that Rev. 13. 8. does very well answer any time of the Imperial enforcement of the Roman Religion by their Laws and their Execution of the Acts of Councils before the Popes had got the whole Superiority into their Hands For then the Imperial Power was the only Roman Power that was worshipped or whose Will and Law about Religion was set up for the Laws of God to the World But then there is another State of the Power of the Beast after the Rise of the Second Beast or False Prophet where all his v. 12. Power is exercised before his face by another and in that state the charge of Anti-christian Tyranny over the whole World does belong to the Beast as he is confederated with those who act all these things and it is attributed to the Beast only upon the account of his continuing still the Secular Head of that Confederacy As any Cruelty done by the Officers of any Army against the Enemy is said to be all done by the General But to shew us that all this mischief was chiefly chargeable upon his Confederates and Instruments only We see all that Tragical part acted by the Image of the Beast which was inspired by the False Prophet who is described as the principal Actor in all the Bloodshed and Murther of those who would not worship the Beast or his Image And that this Image is a thing quite distinct v. 15 16 17. from the Beast will be made afterwards to appear as also how both the Beast and his Image are the Objects of the false Worship enjoined But yet after all It cannot but be acknowledged that it is every way more certain and unquestionable that the present Papal Power must be the False Prophet how dubious soever his real distinction from that which is called the Beast may seem to be For the Character of the False Prophet cannot possibly fit any other Church-Head of Rome at this time in being but o See Note the first upon the fifth Chapter only that Power And the False Prophet must necessarily be now in being because the Beast his individual Companion whoever he is to the last end of them both is certainly now in being Rev. 19. Propos 23. CHAP. VII Rev. XIII The first Query Whether at Justinian 's Recovery of Italy from the Goths there had not been Two Changes of Roman Government since the time of the Vision THus far there seems to be a general agreement amongst almost all kind of considerable Interpreters who make The Beast to be a Roman Power in being at this present time and this seems sufficient for the main use that is to be made of this kind of knowledg But because Mens minds are usually very uneasy under such a general assurance of the main foundation without a more particular determination of the first rise of
the single Persons that Rule in that Division or Form of Government that is signified by Prop. 16. each Head and each Horn. 5. And still more inconsistent is it to make the Beast and his Seven Heads to be Roman Powers and yet Antichrist signified by the Eighth King which was one of the Seven not to Most of the Romish Interpreters come till after the end of all Roman Rule or that the Fourth Beast in the Tenth of Daniel should be the Roman Empire and yet the little Horn of that Beast not to appear till after the destruction of the Roman Empire For this would make the little Horn of the Beast to be no Horn of it but to appear after the ruin of the Beast whose Horn it is which is a contradiction 6. Of much the same nature is that Absurdity That the Beast called the 8th King is Antichrist a little before the end of the World and yet that Babylon that is described to go all The same along with it and to be destroyed before it is Rome Heathen 7. Nor does it much help the matter to affirm That Babylon does signifie both Rome Heathen and Rome in the time of Antichrist about the end of the World For by by Prop. 2. and 3. it is evident That Babylon is in all Ribera c. the mentions of it in the Revelations one and the same state of Rome in the Reign of the Beast and in which it is destroyed 8. That Opinion which makes the Heads of the Beast to be single Persons and yet the Reign of the Beast to continue at Grot. Dr. Hammond Prop. 6. and Coroll least to the time of Justinian is inconsistent with the determination of the term of the Beast in the Prophecy to the last Head of the Beast For if the Beast be nothing but the Beast under its last Head and all the Seven Heads be but so many Successions of single Rulers only it is impossible that the time of the Beast should continue many years after the time of St. John for the Sixth Head was then in Rule Rev. 17. 10. 9. And upon the same grounds it is impossible That the Ten Horns of the Beast should be after the time of the last Grot. Dr. Hammond Corol. 1. Prop. 12. Head of the Beast or that the time of the last Head of the Beast should be yet past because the Beast continues to the Second Coming of Christ and is the same with the Reign of its last Head Prop. 6. and its Corollaries 10. Amongst those Opinions which make the Heads of the Beast to be so many Successions of Roman Power I could not entertain any of them about the constitutive difference of one Head from another but that which made it to consist only in the setled change of the name of the Civil Power because that was the only known difference of Successive Horns in Daniel ch 8. and of the five first Successive Heads in the Revelations and besides the only difference betwixt all kinds of Heads or Horns upon the same Beast whose signification is agreed on is nothing but the different name of the Civil Power either from its peculiar Terrritory in those that are represented to rule all at a time in a divided Monarchy or from the different appellation in those that succeed one another in an intire Empire So is it above sixty times in the agreed examples of Daniel and the Revelations See discourse on Query the 2d And therefore I could not but look upon Alcasar's determination of the Seven Heads to Seven Roman Persecutions of the Church as arbitrary and much more the opinion of those Protestants who agree that the only Constitutive Difference of the Six first Heads of the Beast is nothing but a different name of the Civil Power for they were all Six of the same Mr. Mede Dr. More Religion and yet will make the Two last Successions of the Eight which compleat the Seven Heads to be nothing but Two Changes of Religion under the same Civil Head with the Sixth For this is to make a new Rule for the difference of the Two last Successions without any ground for it from the Prophecy and contrary to all the known and acknowledged Examples either in the rest of the Heads of the same Beast or in the Heads and Horns of other Beasts and gives great advantage to the Papists to despise the Protestants Application The Pleas for it may be seen answered in Answer to Objection 1 2 3 against the 2 d Query 11. There is so plain a distinction in the Second Beast of the 13th Chapter from the first Beast there and the one so manifestly Most Protestants Prop. 24 c. set forth as an Ecclesiastical Power under the Character of the False Prophet in distinction to the other whose Image and Honour he is altogether employed to advance that I could never yield to make them but one and the same thing viz. The Papal Power only But yet because they make but one joint Confederacy for the interest of a false Religion against the true Church they are therefore sometimes promiscuously used to signifie the actions of one another in that common concern and the Image and Babylon are in the same manner used Thus is Babylon said to be fallen chap. 14. 8. to signifie the decay of the Power of the Image and the Beast in the 17th chapter is said to have the Power and Strength of the Ten Kings given him which belongs properly to the Image of the Beast 12. It seems to be a very unnatural force upon the Text to make the Seventh King none of the Seven Heads in chap. Dr. More c. 17. 10. For it is manifestly reckon'd up in order as one of those Seven Kings which in the beginning of that verse are said to be the Seven Heads and without making it one of the Seven Heads there will be but Six Heads upon the Beast in the 13th chapter Prop. 4 5. For it is agreed that it was the Sixth King and Sixth Head that was there wounded and it must be the same Head that was seen healed which also is agreed to be the Eighth King and last Ruling Head If therefore the Seventh King were no Head there would be no new Head after the Sixth but only the Sixth healed of a wound whereas there were Seven really distinct Heads seen upon the Beast That which is pleaded for the ground of this Opinion is answered in the Answer to the 1st 2d and 3d Objections against the Second Query It will much confirm the strength of the whole Process of the Propositions before laid down to observe to what strange shifts those Interpreters have been put that own any part of the Demonstration and yet will stand out against the Conclusion Those that own Babylon to be Rome but not the present Rome Christian are forced to make it to be Either Rome Pagan
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
Diaconus de Gest Longobard c. 37. who was near those times Phocas says he at the request of Pope Boniface did Decree That the See of the Church of Rome should be the Head of all Churches because that the Church of Constantinople did write it self the first of all Churches See Note g on this Chapter Our Lords the Emperors Our Most Gracious and Pious Lords and subscribed themselves Their meanest Servants And that which is the chief flower of their Authority their Universal Headship or Supremacy over the Catholick Church was begged m Boniface the 3 d did so far acknowledg this Title of Universal Head to be the Emperour's favour That he has the Emperour's grant for it proclaimed at Rome in a Council of 62 Bishops Platina in Boniface 3. Sigonius says That Boniface sent an Embassy to Phocas to desire it by which means he obtained that Decree of the Emperor Phocas by Boniface and could not be obtained but by the drudgery of an approbation of Murder and Assassination and then also not without n The Contest about the Universal Headship appears plainly to have continued from the Order of the Council of Chalcedon for the place of the Patriarch of Constantinople The Law of the Emperors Leo and Anthemius l. 16. c. in fin de Sacros Eccles for the superiority of the See of Constantinople was soon after that Council Pelagius the 2 d. condemns John Patriarch of Constantinople for that claim and so does Gregory the 1st after him See Note g on this Chapter Platina says in Boniface 3. Though his pretentions were not always obeyed yet there has ever since that time been a Schism betwixt the Greek and the Latin Church Bellarmin in Praefat. in lib. de Pontifice The Greeks opposed the Popes Supremacy in the year 451. in the Council of Chalcedon and in the year 600. declare the Bp. of Constantinople Universal Bishop great contests against it as an usurpation upon the Rights and Liberties of other Churches to mind him by whose favour only he came to possess it For the Emperor o Cuspinian de Caesaribus p. 140. Mauritius wrote to Pope Gregory To obey John Patriarch of Constantinople as if Head Patriarch of all others Mauritius just before had commanded Pope Gregory to acknowledg John Patriarch of Constantinople for the Universal Head There is great reason then to account the Honour shown to the Papal Authority and his Clergy which are the Life and Soul of the Roman Church to be an honour done to the Power that raised him and supported him 4. The Worship that is given to the Roman Religion may well be called the Worship of the Imperial Authority because it is the Secular Arm that makes the Church-Laws to be obeyed and thereby it does appear That it is the owning of these Laws by the Secular Power for its own will and command that gives all the life and force to them and that therefore they are obeyed as the Laws and Will of that Power only The Church might make what Laws it pleased to the Consciences of men Their Anathema's would not have been much regarded by those who knew them to be unwarrantable But that which sets the edge upon them is the Secular Arm of the Civil Power 'T is then the Secular Arm that is in reality the chief thing that is worshipped or whose will is complied with as the Will of God and as the Law of his Religion It is therefore very properly the Worship of the Beast both before the division of the Empire when all the Secular Authority was only Imperial and also after the appearance of the p Canon 3. Concil Lateranens 1. The Secular Powers are enjoyned to take an Oath to prosecute Hereticks to the Rooting them out of their Territories And those Princes that neglect to do thus are to be Excommunicated and their Subjects Absolved of their Oath of Allegiance to them and their Lands to be exposed to the Seizure of Catholicks See Note c and f on Chapter 4. The Council of Milan and Arles send to their Emperours to make their Decrees effectual Aeneas Sylvius afterward Pope Pius 2d Epist l. 53. We are all of the same Faith with our Princes If they were Idolaters we should be so too and should deny not only the Pope but Christ himself also if the Secular Power did but press us to it Otho Frisius in prol l. 4. Chronic. There are two persons set up in the Church The Sacerdotal and the Regal the one to execute the Ecclesiastical Censures by the Spiritual Sword the other carries the Material Sword to execute the Secular Sentences And as Spiritual possessions are under the jurisdiction of the Spiritual Sword so are the Dignities of this World as Dutchies Counties c. under the jurisdiction of the Material Sword Ten Kings in it because N. B. they are found to give their Kingdoms to the Beast or to that Religion which the Imperial Authority does set up For this end alone is it that the Imperial Authority has its confirmation at present from q Goldast Polit. in Imperial H. 1. pag. 72. Speaking of the Installation of the Roman Kings or Emperours They do then require an Oath from the Supream Monarch of the whole World To defend the Roman Church to exterminate Hereticks and to secure the Dignity of the Pope by all manner of ways Glabar l. 1. Histor in fine Benedict the 9th made this Decree That none should be called or taken for Emperour but He whom the Pope for his good behaviour shall make choice for a fit person for the Common-weal and upon whom he shall set that Imperial Crown which is a Golden Apple set with Jewels and a Cross in the middle of it viz. To denote the end of his power to be to defend the Church And such is every Imperial Crown of every particular Prince Clementina unica de jure jurando Gives the Oath that the Emperour takes to defend the Rights of the Church the Head of the Church that it may enforce the Spiritual Power of the Church and by this means do both the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power come to be Worshipped in one and the same Act of obedience From hence it is now easie to apprehend how the false Prophet does exercise all the power of the first Beast before him For Rev. 13. 12. since the first Beast is found to be the Imperial power the exercise of all his power must be an Universal Supremacy over the Roman Catholick Church and this does very well answer the Popes exercise of the power of both the Roman Swords And it is said to be done before the first Beast as that signifies in Honour of him or in Honour of the chief seat of the Empire The first great effect of this power is to cause all the world to Ibid. worship the first Beast And that is when the Papal Authority does either make the World receive the Imperial
Church in the same Seven Headed Ten Horned Empire or better satisfy us why there needed two different figures of Dragon and Beast to signify those two kind of Hostilities against the Church of Christ For by this it appears that the Beast and the False Prophet were to be in outward appearance the most directly contrary to the Dragon that could be and even to look like Christ himself and therefore that this False Prophet must really be such an one of that Kind as our Saviour calls d See Malvenda Not. praeced And the Fathers agree That Antichrist shall take away the Worship of false Gods See Irenaeus Not. Praeced Arethas in V. 11. c. 13. Apoc. Two Horns of the Lamb because he shall feign himself to be kind and benign that he may deceive Idem in v. 14. He doth Miracles That Antichrist might be thought to be Christ a False Christ or a false pretender to be his Deputy and Vicar upon Earth The Character of which kind of False Christs and False Prophets in being able to deceive the very elect by their great Wonders and Signs is just the same with the power of this eminent False Prophet for doing great wonders also for deceiving all those that dwell upon Rev. 13. 14. earth by the Miracles which he had power to do Wherefore the speaking like a Dragon in this False Prophet with the appearance of a Lamb must signify his speaking or commanding under the vizard of the Vicar of Christ the same kind of acts of Cruelty and Tyranny for an Idolatrous worship which the Red Dragon was active in against the Woman in the Chapter just before The profession of Christianity is now we see so far from excusing the Bishop of Rome from the Character of the False Prophet That it is necessary for him to be a more eminent Professor of that Religion than any other person in the Church to be capable of having it applied to him And the enforcing of false-worship by all the Arts of Cruelty under the pretence of the Authority of Christ does therefore fill up the whole Character that is given of his having the Horns of a Lamb and speaking like the Red Dragon for nothing does more resemble the nature of the Devil than Antichristian Tyranny under the Mask of Piety Well therefore may the Dragon be said to give his power to the Rev. 13. 2 3. Beast since the Devil may be safely enough supposed to inspire this design of carrying on this Adoration of the Roman Power and of that Church by force of Arms and sanguinary Laws like the Reign of the Red Dragon in the time of Heathen persecution described in the Chapter just before By this may be understood the true meaning of the casting V. 9. down of the Dragon with the Seven Heads and the Ten Horns out of Heaven in the 12th Chapter For as that Figure has the proper mark of the Roman Empire in the Seven Heads so must it be the Devil inspiring the Roman Empire to bloody Acts against the followers of the Lamb who are said to have overcome him by not V. 11. loving their lives unto the Death Wherefore the casting down of the Dragon out of Heaven can signify nothing else but the mortifying of the Pagan Power against the Christian Church after the conversion of the Imperial Head to the Christian Religion For since the Beast is found to arise with Justinian and the fall of the Roman Dragon is in the Text described to be before the time of the Beast and yet to be after the time of St. John the Dragon can be no other raging power of the Devil Reigning at Rome and Tyrannizing over the Christian Church but only the Devil raging in the Heathen Emperors before the Conversion of Constantine From the time of Constantine to the Reign of Justinian there was no such Roman Tyranny exercised against the Christians that had the least show of so dreadful an appearance and whatsoever any professed Christian Emperors might do in that kind must be under the appearance of the qualities of the Lamb and so be another Beast different from the Dragon It is certain that at this appearance of Christianity upon the Imperial Throne this Prophecy was apprehended to be so plainly fulfilled That Constantine's Effigies was set up in publick over his Palace-Gate trampling upon a wounded Dragon which says Eusebius was done to signifie his conquests of those Tyrants Lib. 3. c. 3. de Vita Constantini that oppressed and persecuted the Church at the instigation of the Devil in allusion to the Books of the Prophets where the Devil thus raging against the Church is called a Dragon And Constantine himself Socrat. l. 1. c. 6. in his Epistle to Eusebius for the repairing of the Churches calls his conquest of Licinius who was the last of the persecuting Heathen Emperors The foiling of the Dragon and the restoring of Christian Liberty to all Men. By the same reason whatsoever is expressed to follow the Dragons fall and to be before the rise of the Beast must be understood of the Roman Empire turned Christian before the time of Justinian and therefore the Dragons casting a flood of water out of his mouth to carry away the Woman with it must be understood Rev. 12. 15. of some great inundation of multitudes of Pagan people upon the Roman Empire that was able to have carried away and to have buried the true Church in it For waters are interpreted to signifie multitudes of people in the 17th Chapter A Flood therefore must denote e Victorinus in v. 15. cap. 12. Apoc. The Waters which he cast out do signify the Army that followed him Ribera on the same place Interpreters agree That by the Waters Persecution that is of multitudes is understood The Devil sent an Army to Persecute the Saints that fled into the Wilderness Sabo Tyconius He cast out Waters after her That is the Violence of Persecutors And afterwards It signifies an Army of Persecutors Andreas Primatius Haymo and Ausbertus say the same and quote that of Psalm 122. When Men rose up against me To which may be added many other places in the Psalms concerning the Floods and Water-floods some very extraordinary overflow of such multitudes And was there ever any thing more exactly answerable to this than that prodigious inundation of barbarous Nations over all the Western Empire presently after the full accomplishment of the Victory of Christianity over Heathenism about the times of Theodosius St. Jerome describes those times with the characters of the last dismal state of things which should be the forerunners of the end of the World The swallowing up of this flood by the Earth to help the Woman can V. 16. thereupon be nothing else but the Leagues that were made with these people with the several allotments of habitation to them within the bounds of the Roman Empire as one people with the Romans and their entrance
thereupon into the Church And thus comes the Roman Empire to appear with Ten Kingdoms in it shown by the Ten Horns and this was the helping of the Woman because the Church by this got her freedom and peace and gained these Barbarians to her But the Dragon is said to be still in great fury against the Woman and therefore went to make War with the remnant of her seed which Rev. 12. 17. keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ where we may observe a plain distinction made betwixt the Seed of the Woman The Warr that the Dragon makes is with that part of her Seed which keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony or are the Witnesses or Martyrs of Jesus Christ which intimates that the Rest of her Seed should depart from the Commandments of God and from the truth of the Gospel of Christ By this we have a new scene opened about the enmity of the Dragon against the Church The Time of it is after the Settlement of the Divisions of the Empire in those Kings of the Barbarians signified by the swallowing up of the great flood by the earth That is after the rise of the Ten Kings in the Roman Empire and the party against whom this War is carried on are the Godly Seed of the Woman not against all her Seed but against those only who keep God's Commandments and are the Witnesses or the Martyrs of Jesus or as they are elsewhere called The Witnesses in Sackcloth How this was brought to pass That which does immediately follow this design of the Dragon does inform us For immediately upon it appears a Beast with all the same Emblems of the Roman Empire that the Dragon had and to him the Dragon Rev. 13. 1. is said to give his Power and his Seat and great Authority v. 2. And thus does the Dragon fulfill the intention that he had just before to War with the chosen Remnant of the Womans Seed He does not appear himself in it but inspires another set up in his place to do it By which it is evidently signified That this new war with the dutiful part of the Womans Seed is not managed by any Roman Power which is openly known to be the professed Enemy of God and of the Christian Religion as that Government of the Empire was which had the open appearance of the Devil's management in it And if it were not such a Power that should appear like an open professed Enemy of the Christian Religion it must be such as must profess that Religion and out of a pretended zeal to it exercise all the Tyranny of the Devil or Dragon against the true professors of it For all the great business of the Beast is Religious worship and if that Religion be not professed enmity to the Christian because that would make it the open show of the Dragon as it was before his fall It must then be a zealous outward profession of the Christian Religion to persecute and to destroy the true maintainers of it This does determine the time of the first settlement of the Woman in the Wilderness for the space of a Time Times and an half For thô it be said Chap. 12. 6. That She fled into the Wilderness yet it is not there said that she was setled there but only that she had a place prepared for her there to be fed for One Thousand two Hundred and Sixty days And besides after many great Actions intervening she is said at the 14th Verse to be but then in a condition to fly into the Wilderness and after she was flying thither the Dragon cast out a flood after her and hindred her settlement there till that was swallowed up and therefore did her Time Times and Half-time begin but just at the same time with the Dragon 's persecuting the remnant of her Seed which was just at the first rise of the Beast and so confirms the Synchronism of the Woman and the Beast for their whole time We are therefore now to enquire from the History of the Christian Church how it can be said that from the time of Justinian all the true Professors of the Christian Faith were forced by Tyrannical usage to worship the Will of the Christian Roman Emperors about matters of Religion thereby to fit the Characters here given to the Beast to the Imperial Head restored in the West And thus we find that at the Time that the Christian Church The Woman was secured in the Two Imperial Seats of the East and West the two Wings of a great Eagle from all the inundations of Pagan people or from the face of the Serpent The Devil did then set up persecution in the Roman Throne against the true and faithful Members of the Christian Church The Remnant of the Seed of the Woman which keep the Commandments of God while she her self was in the Wilderness or in a place of security CHAP. VII Rev. XIII The particular point of the first date of the Rise of the Beast enquired after in order The first conception and progress of the chief Malignity of the Beast It entred with Theodosius and was setled by Justinian And appears to have been the enforcing of Vniversal Conformity by Penalties able to make the generality of the World to comply against their Consciences Justinian 's peculiar Talent in the setling this Method for Conformity FRom the former Account of the over-ruling Authority of the Christian Emperors in all Church-Affairs and of the great veneration which they had for the Councils assembled under them it is obvious for any one to conclude That they lay very open to the danger of requiring Divine Honours to be given them For this must needs make them very apt to command many things which God has left free and undetermined to be received for Points of Faith necessary to Salvation as inspired by the Holy Ghost in Council And it is evident that in such a case the will of him that enjoins such things is taken for the Will of God and so he may very well be said to require the Honour of God to be given to his own will One cannot but think it very probable upon this account that such a kind of Worship as is called the Worship of the Beast was sometimes enjoined before the Rise of the Beast since there were many Erroneous Councils before that time And it may be many things in Orthodox Councils made to be Inspirations of the Holy Ghost and pressed upon the Consciences of men as Divine Oracles necessarily to be obeyed which were but the mere Arbitrary Injunctions of men But yet though the same kind of Worship might have been commanded before his appearance yet it could not be the worship of the Beast till it was the owning of the Roman Authority for the Will of God in those particular Circumstances of Antichristian Idolatry and Tyranny in which it is described to be all over the
Prophecy And this it came not to be till it was the worship of the last Ruling Head in the midst of the several divided Kingdoms of the Roman Empire according to the description of it in the show of the Figure Chap. 13. 17. And besides there is one peculiar circumstance in the worship of the Beast which was never fulfilled till the time of his Reign and that is an actual conformity of all the whole world to it How peremptory soever the command for that Worship might be before yet it will appear that it could not long obtain amongst all those that were of a contrary judgment before the setled establishment of it at the new return of the Imperial Government in the West The reason that I give for this is because the Laws and Commands of the Emperors for Uniformity either had not before that time any penalties in them sufficient to make all the world to comply with them or were hindred from any setled continued execution of them The Penalties annexed to their Laws for Conformity were generally either nothing but Anathema's which Dissenters would not value or deprivations of Clergy-men and Military men And the pulling down and confiscating the publick Meeting-place or prohibitions to all men against coming into the Imperial City And there was no force in these Penalties for an Universal Conformity And the Commotions in the Western Empire would not allow the other severe and more general Penalties to have any constant effect We see Honorius soon after alledging this reason for his renewing his Commands for the terrifying of Hereticks viz. because he was then delivered from the fear of Attalus the Tyrant and Alaricus the Gothish King Now says he that the Oracle is taken away by whom they were encouraged to the exercise of their Heretical Superstition Let all the Enemies of the Holy Law know that they shall be punished with Banishment and also to blood if they will dare to meet still in publick Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat lib. 2. pag. 78. Wherefore it can never be thought that there was any thing of this General Conformity in the 4th or 5th Centuries either in the Reign of the Orthodox or Arrian Emperors Constantine seems to have gone as high in his Commands as most that came after him till the time of Theodosius We have a SEE Note the 8th on the 2d Chapter Socrates l. 1. c. 6. in his Edicts and Epistles all the great apprehensions that the World had of General Councils as immediately inspired by the Holy Ghost as the only Warrants for Unity and Uniformity and as vested with a power of denouncing the Curses of God upon Dissenters We find there the suppression of all their b Euseb de Vita Constantini l. 3. c. 63. To the Hereticks We Enact and Command by this Law That none of you shall dare hereafter to meet at Conventicles and that all those places where you were wont to keep close meetings be demolished provided also that you shall not keep any meetings either in publick or in private Houses or in remote places c. 64. And threatned their maintainers with punishments Conventicles the deposing of dissenting Bishops and which seems more terrible than any thing that we find in his Successors the c Socrates l. 1. c. 6. Constantine to the Bishops and People For as soon as he be taken our pleasure is That his Head be stricken off his Shoulders Sozom. l. 1. c. 21. penalty of death threatned to those that should conceal any of Arrius's Books and not deliver them up to be publickly burned but there was nothing in all this that did oblige the generality of the Arrians to Church Communion The Laws of Theodosius were indeed something more severe and of more force for a general conformity d Cod. Justinian lib. 1. de Summa Trinitat Theodos Edict ad pop Constantinop We will have all the people of our Empire be of that Religion which St. Peter the Apostle delivered to the Romans and which it is manifest that Pope Damasus does now follow and Peter Bishop of Alexandria And we command those that follow this Law to take the Name of Catholick Christian upon them and the rest only the name of Hereticks we decree shall be chastised by a Divine Vengeance first by Excommunication and afterwards also by the Revenge of the motions of our own mind as Heaven shall incline us And all over the Theodosian Code Tit. de Haereticis there are nothing but Laws either for pulling down the Meeting-houses of Hereticks or for punishing them and that even to Banishment So Cod. Theodos l. 15. Tit. 5. de Haereticis l. 16. Tit. 4. de his qui supra Religionem contendunt Lex secunda item lex tertia c. 67. de Haereticis l. 21. item l. 26. And Inquisitors appointed l. 9 13 15 31 32 35 52. Cod. de Haereticis Socrates l. 3. c. 4. The Emperour Basilicus's Edict there does mention and enforce Theodosius's Laws viz. That Laicks be punished with Banishment and Confiscation of Goods and Bishops with Deprivation to the Roman Church But whatsoever force these Laws might have yet we may be sure that the inundation of the Barbarous Nations who Baron Anno 585. were generally Arrians all over the whole Empire a few years after must necessarily put an end to that General Uniformity Socrates who lived in those times does indeed tell us That Socrat. l. 5. c. 2. 4. 20. as Gratian before him had granted a general Toleration so Theodosius constrained none of the Sects to be of his Communion but gave them the free exercise of their Religion in publick without the Walls of the City But Sozomen lib. 7. cap. 4 and 5. and Theodor. 5. 15. asserts the quite contrary of Theodosius that he made Decrees for punishing the Arrians with the greatest Severities To the same purpose Philostorgius l. 9. c. 19. If indeed we come narrowly to search into the Laws of Theodosius Arcadius and * Honorius ad Heraclian Comit Africâ An. 411. Sciant omnes Sanctae legis inimici plectendos se poenâ proscriptionis sanguinis si ultra convenire in publicum tentaverint Honorius one may very reasonably question Socrates's fidelity in this account of those times However the Confusions of the Empire by the Inundations of the Barbarians till the fall of the Western Empire may with all reason be judged to have given a continual interruption to the execution of the severest Laws of this kind at least to that general Conformity which is made the Character of the Power of the Beast And then the momentary appearance of this Power of the Beast for so inconsiderable a time can be taken for nothing but his endeavour to appear and which upon its first rise was immediately crushed It is certain that e Concil Ephesin Canon 8. Upon the complaint of the Cyprian Bishops against the Bishop of Antioch's usurped jurisdiction over them They
and Restorer m Therefore is Justinian chosen out by the people of Rome in their insurrection against Pope Innocent the 1st as the example of the greatest Roman Prince for the Emperour Conrad to resemble in favour of whom they declared in these Verses Imperium Teneat Romae sedeat Regat Orbem Princeps Terrarum ceu fecit Justinianus As Sigonius Lib. 11. de Regno Italiae does give the account of it so Procopius de Bello Persico makes Vitiges King of the Goths in his Letter to Chosroes King of Persia give Justinian this Character That it is his Nature to be always coveting of new things to which he had no Right And that he did aim at the whole World and every Mans Kingdom And in his description of Justinian's Buildings in his first Oration describes Justiman's Statue upon a Pillar holding a Globe in his Left hand to signify his Conquest of the World and stretching out the Fingers of his Right Hand towards the East to Command the Barbarians and Persians not to advance any further upon the Roman Empire without any Armour or Sword or Spear but only with a Cross upon the Globe to signify by what power he gained his Victories Which if it were to corrupt the Christian Religion was a Magnificent show of a False pretender to the power of Christ of the Imperial Authority in the Western Empire But as that made him eminent and remarkable enough to be taken notice of for the beginning or the restoring of a new Head of the Beast so did the great Bustle which he made in Church-matters signalize him as much for laying the first foundation of a general Uniformity in Religion His Contemporary n See Praefat. in Cod. Justiniani Procopius gives a Character of him that shows how much the Affairs of the Church were the concern of his heart He says of him That Justinian was so continually taken up with Church-men in private for the determining the niceties of matters of Faith that he lost his best time amongst them which he should have spent about his more weighty Coneerns And we do accordingly find him as fierce and severe in his Injunctions for a general conformity to the Definitions that were made about them In the beginning of his Reign He sets out o See Lib. 5. Cod. Justinian de summâ Trinitate an Edict concerning his Faith therein threatens all who should dissent from it that they should have no manner of indulgence And that upon the discovery of them they should suffer the Law as professed Hereticks which was to be banished the Roman Territories and which was never executed upon the generality of Dissenters before And here does his Faith appear to be made the Rule and measure of Orthodoxy to the whole Empire upon a Penalty which had terror enough in it This Faith he sends to Pope John for his concurrence with him in it And tells him that he did it to conform all to the Church of Rome that it was always his desire to preserve the Vnity of the Apostolick See and the state of the Holy Churches of God And for that purpose to bring all the Eastern Churches under his subjection and to unite them to the See of his Holiness p Ibid. l. 8 9 10. Pope John's Answer to him does repeat the same thing out of his Letter with great thanks to him As that he did preserve the Faith of the Roman Church and did bring all else under the subjection of it and did draw them into the Vnity of it Therein also does Justinian expresly call the Church of Rome the Head of all Churches and desires a Rule of Faith from the Pope for the Bishops of the East The Pope on the other side confirms the Emperor's Faith to be the only true Faith and that which the Roman Church did always hold and that whosoever should contradict that Faith must judge himself to be none of the Catholick Church And all this Intercourse betwixt the Pope and the Emperor is inserted into the Code of the Imperial Law as the Standard and Rule for all to conform to under the Penalty of being judged to be Hereticks that should either deny the Faith or the Authority of the Church that enjoin'd it and the q L. 5. c. de Haereticis Penalties against Hereticks was banishment Though the Emperor's Faith should be accounted Orthodox yet the inducing such a new Penalty which should force it upon the Consciences of all men as so necessary to salvation that a man could not possibly be a Member of the Catholick Church without the profession of it was certainly unwarrantable and the first beginning of that Tyrannizing Power in the Roman Church which made the whole World to conform to all its Arbitrary Decrees and to worship it with a blind obedience to all its most unreasonable Commands But the most publick Instances of the effects of the Emperor's zeal for Uniformity are the Synods that were called by him The first was that under Mennas against Anthimus Severus and Petav. Ration Temp. part 1. lib. 7. c. 7. others where after the condemnation of their Opinions they and all the other Hereticks with them were banished by the Emperor's Edict and very great Penalties says Evagrius l. 4. c. 11. were enjoined for all such as maintained their Opinions This indeed was the only means to arrive at a general Uniformity and Justinian had the first glory of it But this was nothing to his Behaviour in the Controversie about the three Chapters and in the fifth General Council as it is called which being after his Conquests of Africa and Italy found his Spirit in a right disposition to affect to exalt the Imperial Authority in the Church He first publishes a Book about those things and passes a censure Petav. Ration Temp. ibidem upon the three Chapters against the will and sollicitations of his Clergy then forces Mennas the Patriarch of Constantinople with the rest of the Patriarchs to subscribe to it sends for Pope Vigilius and after much reluctance he at last gets him to subscribe with the rest The next year Vigilius publishes a Decree in which with a Salvo to the Council of Chalcedon he does expresly condemn the three Chapters Justinian not content with this uses all means with Vigilius by threats and contumelies to condemn them absolutely without any mention of the Synod of Chalcedon but being not able to break him to it to shew him that the Bishop of Rome was set up for nothing but to be the Emperor's Property and to promote a general Conformity to the Imperial Religion Against the Pope's will he calls a General Council at Constantinople for this end which had always been the method of the former Emperors to unite the Differences about Religion and to make the whole Church conformable to their minds The Pope in the mean while declares against this Assembly not upon the account of any claim of