the great difficulty here is to get any Readers at all and to prevent the being sentenc'd without a Tryal That which does so affright the World from these things is the usual fancifulness and looseness of Discourses of this nature and their great Confidence and Assurance with little or no care to make sure of their foundation I do therefore think it requisite to assure all those that look upon this That the whole aim of my Endeavours here is to restrain all kind of Liberty of Imagination and to force an Assent by close and clear proof instead of surprizing it by an Ingenious Scheme and by the tempting agreements and lucky likenesses of Characters My great fear indeed is that the dry strictness of the Reasonings in it will turn away more from perusing it than the strength and cautiousness of it will please But that will still the more clear my Attempt from the common Prejudice It may be some motive to the belief of this That the only end of this Vndertaking was to find out a more satisfactory foundation for what the Excellent Mr. Mede has endeavoured to demonstrate in this way Whose known Reputation for his impartial and cautious Judgment in the interpretation of other parts of Scripture is sufficient to silence all inconsiderate Prejudices against his Performances of this kind There have indeed been some very great Names of late Grotius Dr. Hammond c. amongst our selves who have excused the Church of Rome from any concern in the Judgments of this Prophecy and that only by laying down another Scheme of Interpretation without any tolerable proof of it But it is a sufficient prejudice against their Authority that they are forced to such shifts for their foundation as the most Judicious and the most skilful of the Romish Interpreters themselves do cry See the Preface to my former Treatise out against as things that none but Men out of their Wits would own and such as they affirm to be contrary to the general sense of all kinds of Interpreters Jews and Christians Ancient and Modern And when they come to speak of the like kind of Phrases do declare that sense of them which these New Men account monstrous in the Interpretations of their Brethren to be so clear that all but those that are blind may easily see it Or such as is agreeable both to the usage of common Speech and to the usage of Scripture Or such as must necessarily be allowed Which is a sufficient Vindication of those Learned Interpreters of our own who have brought the same Charge against these Ingenious Innovators It would at the first much surprize any man to see these Learned Protestants so busie to ease the Church of Rome of this trouble from their Brethren when all the thanks that they can get for it from the most Judicious of those whose Cause they oblige by it is to be called Madmen and fools for their pains But in this they themselves do satisfy us They acknowledge that they came to the Interpretation of the Revelations with a design to serve by it It was more to answer Objections against some singular Notions than to unfold the Mystery of that Prophecy They came to force their way through the Difficulties that the plain and obvious sense of the Visions did lay in their way And nothing is more ordinary than to see men wrest any part of Scripture that will not comply with their fancy for some particular Opinions Their Expedient for Catholick Vnion of all Christian Churches by the Compliance of the Roman Their Assurace of the necessity of the conveyance of a Right Succession and Ordination by a Church that was not formally Idolatrous c. were altogether inconsistent with the Protestant sense of the Apocalypse It is as evident on the other side from the closeness and cautiousness of Mr. Mede's Explications and the impartiality of his Judgment upon all other Occasions that his whole aim was to make sure of the clear and certain sense of these Mysteries He bad no private Opinion that he came to advance by it or to make it a drudge to And his way of life and the wariness and the Ingenuity of his Spirit in all his other Expositions of Scripture did sufficiently secure him that Character of himself which his Modesty would only own viz. his freedom from studium partium But the present Age is so generally prepossessed with the Interpretations of these Learned Men That it is further necessary to remind those that look upon them as a great service to the Church of England That they are great Novelties See Dr. Bernard 's Discourses p. 139 to 160. in its Doctrine and if continued in will but expose it to the rest of the Reformed Churches for departing from them and from its own first Faith only to uphold some Prerogatives of its own Reformation to the undervaluing and undermining of the grounds of theirs It is manifest * Third Part of the Sermon against Idolatry p. 69. And 6th Part of the Sermon against Rebellion p. 316. by the Homilies approved of in our Articles as the faith of our Church That the Charge of Babylon upon the Church of Rome is the standing Profession of the Church of England And it continued to be the †Bishop Jewell p. 373. Bishop Abbot Antichristi Demonstratio Archbishop Whitgift Tract 8. p. 349. Bishop Andrews Tortura Torti Bishop Bilson p. 527. Bishop Morton Mr. R. Hooker 's Treatise of Justification sect 10 57. currant Judgment of all the best Learned Members of it till the end of the Reign of King James the First It was really believed in his time to be so clear and important a part of their Faith That both the Church and the Court did applaud the King in his publick defence of it though he did thereby plainly endanger the honour of his Character and the Interest of his Kingdom amongst all Roman-Catholick Princes As appears by Lessius's Epistle Monitory to them After that time This Doctrine of the Homilies came to be more out of fashion either to be civil to the Marriages of the succeeding Reigns or to take away all the advantage that the Serapatists might have from hence against the necessity of an uninterrupted Succession and Ordination in every Lawfully-constituted Church Which might also shew them the necessity of uniting with the Church of England It is certain that the extravagant Heats of those times were enough to make Learned Men run into unnecessary Extremes But the common Danger of late has now revived the Ancient Doctrine of the Church again which these Novelties did contradict All the best Learned in the Church have been engaged in charging the Church of Rome with formal Idolatry in exposing all Expedients for Vnion with it in demonstrating the necessity of a Separation from them whatever becomes of the Succession in disowning of all kind of Right of Supremacy there c. If therefore the Authority of
a Superior Authority in himself above that of the Emperor but because he judged the Emperor's mind to be contrary to the Council of Chalcedon And it was accounted a kind of Sacrilege to revoke any thing that was decreed in Council But neither could the Authority of the Pope nor of the rest of the Clergy hinder the Council from doing as Councils used to do that is from being of the same mind with their Emperor And so as Justinian would have it they condemned the three Chapters and pronounced an Anathema upon all those who should defend them or any part of them by the Authority of the Council of Chalcedon Whereas it is manifest that in that Council the chief of these things were particularly examined and Ibas and Theodoret the Authors of these Writings were received by the Synod as Orthodox and the r Concil Chalcedon Action 8 va Which when he had said All the Bishops cried out Theodoret is worthy of his Seat in the Church Let the Church receive its Orthodox Pastour c. And Action 9. c. 10. The Popes Legat Paschasius in the name of all the rest pronounces That upon reading the Votes of the most Reverand Bishops Ibas was approved by them For upon a review of his Epistle we acknowledg him to be Orthodox and for this Decree him to be restored to his Bishoprick and that the Church from whence he was unjustly put out be repaired And this Approbation of the Council of Chalcedon is quoted by Pope Vigilius against Justinian in his Constitution And decrees the contrary to him with this preamble We following the judgment of the Holy Fathers And afterwards These things therefore we having ordered with caution and diligence Epistle of Ibas in particular declared to contain in it no heretical Opinion Here was as great an instance of Imperial Authority over a Council as could well be given to make them define his Will to be an Inspiration of the Holy Ghost contrary to matter of fact And the Pope and his own Clergy were sufficient Witnesses of it to the World by refusing to subscribe to that falshood about a thing which their Eyes might be the Judges of in the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon In that Synod does Justinian also Authorize a new way of Anathema's in the Church and that was to curse the dead whom he judged not to have been right in the Faith which was a practise never before heard of And therein among the rest he curses Origen who in his time was accounted one of the most eminent Fathers of the Church for sanctity of life for profound Learning and his great Services to the Church So that if it has pleased God to pardon him and some of the rest their Speculative Errors they possibly may be those Saints in Heaven against which the Beast is said to open his mouth in blasphemy Rev. 13. 6. But besides this he brings in fashion another way of cursing in the Council which all the Rational World cannot but look upon as very strangely extravagant and that was to anathematize all such who did not damn all those whom they called Hereticks Which certainly was one of the highest Acts of Tyranny over the Consciences of the Universal Church and which of all their Injunctions was the most difficult to subscribe unto For whatsoever accommodating Interpretations men may find out to subscribe to a form of Faith which they do not believe in the common sense of the words yet they can never justify themselves in pronouncing the Curses of God upon all those who do not subscribe to it And yet both this and the former way of Cursing was from that time continued in the Church Never was there before such an appearance all at one time of a new assuming Power over the Church of God as in the conduct of all that business of the three Chapters insomuch that it was generally enough taken notice of to make the worship of the Beast appear a very strange and new thing and to make the World wonder after the Beast as it is said of him The Books of Facundus Bishop of Hermiana against that Emperor for these Arbitrary Proceedings are a sufficient Testimony what noise these things did at that time make in the World and nothing could have made them to be so slightly passed over in History but the greater Extravagancies of the Popish Councils that came afterwards That Bishop tells him s Facundus Hermianens ad Justinian Lib. 12. c. 3. cap. 5. That it was not lawful for the Emperor to intermeddle in this manner in the Office of the Priest shows him the Example of Vzziah and Dathan and that none but Christ alone can have a Kingdom together with a Priesthood That his Book was against the Decrees of the Council of Chalcedon and that no Emperor but he did ever before change the Decrees of a Council of his own head bids him look up into Heaven with the Eye of Faith and there see all those Blessed Fathers which he had accursed now Inhabitants of Heaven And speaking of the like haughtiness of the Emperor Zeno As if says he the Faith of all the Churches did depend upon the Emperor's Will and as if none must believe otherwise than the Emperor should command him to believe Baronius also does censure him as guilty of great Arrogance in presuming to set forth these Decrees concerning the Catholick Faith Anno 546. However we find Justinian still keeping his point against them all he defends this cursing of the Dead in a publick Edict of the Confession of his Faith and turns the Council into a Law of the Empire Novell 42. The Pope all this while whose Authority is pretended to be so absolutely necessary to the making of a Council declared himself contrary to all this was banished Petav. Ration Temp. part 1. l. 7. c. 7. for it and so ill handled in it that it was at last the cause of his Death So that here was a very clear appearance of the Imperial Roman Authority in the Church which appears to be the only soul and head of this which is called the fifth General Council For it could not have its name of a Council of the Roman Church from any at that time but the Bishops there assembled and the Imperial Authority which confirmed it To pretend that it was afterwards confirmed by another Pope and so made a Council is to give the Pope a power to change the nature of things For if it wanted its due Authority at that time it must be no Council at all and the Pope may as well be allowed to turn all the Religious Meetings of Bishops that ever were into Councils at his pleasure There was then nothing here but the worship of the Beast alone without the False Prophet to assist him But that all the Irregularities of these Procedures are chargeable upon the Roman Church as the beginning of the Tyrannical Exercise of their Power is
Prophecy of the Witnesses at the passing away of the Sixth Trumpet nor does it seem to be more necessary that the Forty Two Months of the time of the Beast should end before the Last Ruine of his Kingdom or when it comes only to be broken which yet is the whole strength of what he adds to defend it The Third Synchronism betwixt Babylon and the Healed Beast in the 13th Chap. supposes the Beast to be the same particular time and state of Roman Power without any proof and yet Grotius and others suppose them quite different Dr. More endeavours to show them to be necessarily the same by Eighteen Congruities of Characters which tho I think I am sure that many of them are not true yet are indeed sufficient to make any Man strongly persuaded of the perfect identity of the Two Beasts But they have nothing in them that does necessarily determine them to the same particular state and time of Roman Reign And yet the whole strength of the Demonstrative proof of the Synchronisms depends upon the necessity of these Suppositions The Fourth Synchronism is the total contemporation of the 144000 with the Beast upon the account of their state of mutual opposition from the first time of the Marked followers of the Beast But the utmost that this can prove is That they were Contemporaries from that time where they are mentioned together For the Party of the Beast were marked to be distinguished from the sealed Company But the 144000 were sealed only to escape the Judgments of the Trumpets which are no-where proved necessary nor to begin before the time of the Beast And Dr. More does add nothing to shew it necessary and yet the chief proof of the Connexion of the first part of the Visions with the latter does depend upon this in the first Synchronism of the second Part. I cannot but further add That Mr. Mede's and Dr. More 's Applications of the seventh and eighth King does seem to render the Synchronisms altogether ineffectual for convincing a Papist For after they had made the essential difference betwixt the six first Heads or Kings to be nothing but a different Title of the Civil Sovereign Power of See Judgments of God p. 4. Rome they make the seventh King to be nothing but a change of the Religion of the sixth King retaining still the same Title of the Sovereign Power which was his essential difference from that before him This seems to be contrary to six Examples in the same Figure and to almost six times as many in the Prophecy of Daniel A Papist would therefore hold them to their true Notion of the sixth Head and then pretend That the Imperial Title does continue still as the sixth Head and that the Synchronisms cannot therefore take place till that be changed All this I mention only to shew That there is still wanting a clearer Evidence to make good that excellent Design towards which Mr. Mede did give the first great strokes and for which he is to be acknowledged to have been the first clear Light that God gave the World for the illustration of these dark Mysteries which now appear to be the worthiest Entertainment of the best and the most judicious Vnderstandings This I have endeavoured to perfect But I must still acknowledge That tho I think my self sure enough of the strength of my Method for it yet I do not pretend to that which is strictly called Demonstration It is enough for me if I can proceed but upon such clear grounds and go on in so close a coherence from them as to force the assent of all wary and impartial Examiners of it with as little doubt concerning it tho not with so Absolute a Certainty of it as Mathematical Evidence uses to do I dare however be confident for the encouragement of the Reader That if he has found any satisfaction in the grounds of any Protestant Interpretations that others affirm themselves to be Abundantly and Mathematically certain of he will find them here much more cautiously and strongly secured and that the Elegant Systemes which have of late Monsieur Jurieu Eclaircissemens oü Systeme Nouveau much surprized the generality of those that look into these things have but a very blind and uncertain Foundation without such a proof of the first Principles of them as is here attempted I think I may also safely venture to assure the Friends of the Grotian way That the least degreee of impartiality in them will make them see it here shewn to be MUCH MORE CERTAIN a Preface to the Judgments of God upon the Roman Church That the chief Foundations of that Interpretation are contrary to the clear and obvious sense of the Prophetical Terms as well as to the general Judgment of Interpreters of all Parties in all Ages according to the Censure of the most Judicious of the Romanists than it is b La veritable clef de l' Apocalypse p. 115. That Grotius was Divinely Inspired c Ibid. Preface and that Mr. Baxter is the Greatest Man in England among the Protestants for seconding him d Ibid. p. 115. Or That they have made Mr. Mede's Systeme appear so absurd that it is to be abhorred according to the extravagant and hypocritical expressions of a late Incendiary of that Church to inflame Protestants against one another A TABLE OF PROPOSITIONS To be Inspected when any Proposition or Corollary or Rule is quoted to avoid the trouble of turning to it in the body of the Book BOOK I. Propositions Rules and Corollaries Proposit 1. BAbylon Revelat. 17. is the City of Rome in an Antichristian and Idolatrous Domination From hence are drawn these Rules of Interpretation Rule 1. Words of a plain signification are to be taken in the 17th Chapter of the Revelations in that sense in which they are generally taken in the World unless it be inconsistent with something more clearly known Rule 2. Words of a mystical signification must follow the use of them amongst the Prophets if not inconsistent with something more clearly known Rule 3. The same Words do signify the same things all over the Prophecy unless there be clear grounds against it Rule 4. The different Judgments of Learned Men ought not to weaken our Assent to what appears sufficiently clear after an impartial Examination especially if it be commonly acknowledged Proposit 2. Babylon signifies the same thing immediately before in and after the 17th Chapter Corollary Babylon is the same thing in the 14th Chapter as it is in the rest Proposit 3. The Judgment of Babylon in all Chapters is the desolation of Rome by Fire in the time of its Idolatrous Antichristian Domination Corollary Babylon cannot be Rome-Pagan Proposit 4. Every one of the Eight Kings Revelat. 17. reckoned up in order v. 10 11. is one of those called the Seven Kings in General v. 10. Corollary The Eighth King is one of the Seven Kings who had been in Rule before and was
of Carthage after the time of these scruples of the Antimillenarians and before the degeneracy of the Church to which the aim of the Apocalypse is applied by Protestants viz. before the year 400 does in its 47th Canon ordain the Book of the Apocalypse to be read in the Church as Canonical Scripture And this Provincial Council is confirmed to oblige the Universal Church both the Greek and Latin by the sixth Synod in Trullo at Constantinople Can. 2. Anno 707. But it was unquestionably a Decree of the Greek Church where the Apocalypse had alone been scrupled But the most authentick Evidence of this is the Authority of the fourth Council of Toledo when it could not possibly be any Interest of the then Ruling Party of the Church to plead for the Apocalypse but might possibly enough endanger the Interest of it because it was about the year 640. after the time that the Protestants Applications of that Book do generally date the degeneracy of the Church of Rome from So that the sense of that Council is the Testimony of an Adversary to the General Consent of the Church about the Tradition of this Book The words of it are these The Authority of many Councils and the Synodical Decrees Concil Toletan 4. Can. 16. about the year 640. of the holy Bishops of Rome have determined the Book of the Apocalypse to have been wrote by John the Evangelist and to be received amongst the Books divinely inspired And because there are many that do not receive it for Authentick and scorn to read it in the Church of God if any one for the future shall refuse to receive it or to read it in the Church in the time of Mass from Easter to Whitsuntide he shall be Excommunicated By this it does appear how the Apocalypse came to lose its authenticalness among the meaner part of the Church It was it seems so disused in the Church that it passed for an useless Book the Interpretations that were given of it were either so fanciful or so little concerning the Times when it was neglected that it passed amongst them for a kind of Book of Dreams in which the Church was not concerned and which none knew the meaning of And this cannot much be wondred at when it is considered how little regard is had to these Revelations even in these days unto which they are by the best Learned amongst us judged to belong in matters of the highest importance for the Church to know But as for that suggestion That Cerinthus was the Author of the Apocalypse which was always the most current ground amongst those who rejected the Authority of it there is assurance enough of the falshood of it out of Irenaeus for he was the Scholar of Polycarp who was the Disciple and Companion of St. John to whom Irenaeus every-where attributes Euseb l. 5. Eccles Histor c. 18. the Apocalypse and writes against Cerinthus and reports from Polycarp the great detestation that St. John had against Cerinthus And how absurd a thing would it be to imagine that Irenaeus after so diligent so long and familiar a conversation with Polycarp the Companion of St. John as he particularly mentions of himself should make the Apostle to be the Author Lib. 3. contra Haeres cap. 3. of a Book which was really wrote by his worst Adversary to propagate his Errors Whatever was the true reason of the rejection of the Authority of this Prophecy it is certain That no Book of Scripture has had a more express and unexceptionable Tradition of its Apostolical Authority since it was confirmed by the Testimony of two Learned Martyrs soon after the writing of it who also had searched into all the Copies of it and were confirmed in it by those who were conversant with the Apostle himself that wrote it and that in the very times that it was scrupled it was believed to be Authentical by all the Eminently-learned Fathers of those days and that after the times that it had been scrupled it was owned by the General Consent of the Christian Church This I thought fit to premise for the full satisfaction of those that are altogether sceptical in the first foundation of these Interpretations But the Romanists whose whole concern it is to make every thing in this kind dubious do agree with all other Christian Churches in the World at this time about the unquestionableness of the Canonical Authority of this part of the New Testament And now it may appear to be our Duty and Concern to enquire with diligence after the best understanding that we can get of this Prophecy when we consider what pressing Motives there are to it more in this Book than in any other Book of Scripture beside In the beginning Blessed is he that readeth Rev. 1. 3. 13. 9. and they that hear the words of this Prophecy And again If any man have an ear let him hear And the matter of it is said to be The Revelation that God gave unto Jesus Christ to shew Chap. 1. 1. unto his Servants And that whosoever should add to or take Chap. 22. 18 19. from the words of this Book above any other should have the plagues of God added to him or his part of Eternal Life taken away The First BOOK THE Uniform Constant Notion Of the Term of THE BEAST All over the REVELATIONS CHAP. I. The Ground of the Method here used The first Proposition That Babylon is the City of Rome in an Antichristian and Idolatrous Reign Scruples moved against it The Demonstration of it from the Text confirmed by General Consent NOne could be more disposed to the common prejudices against the study of the Revelations than I was at the time that I first engaged in those things I had till then been so almost wholly confin'd to such Enquiries as are the closest Exercise of Ratiocination upon clear and sure grounds That I was come to have a natural aversion against all such loose Conjectures as the Interpretations of those Visions are generally reputed to be But Mr. Mede's Synchronisms and his offers at Demonstration in them which I lighted on by chance some years since in a solitary retirement did tempt my curiosity to enquire What could be the ground of such a confidence in one of so known a Character for a cautious and imparial Judgment in Scriptural Rev. XVII Expositions At the first cursory view of his performance I was extremely surprized to see such fair grounds of a clear Explication about so intricate and obscure a Subject And tho' upon a more critical examination of the strength of them I found most of his Synchronisms far short of a close and cogent proof in them yet I could not but think that the Subject might be capable of a more certain determination to the Conclusion that he aimed at I did thereupon set my self upon a particular search after a closer demonstration of that Application that he had made
the intricate Mazes of these Visions For Babylon and the Beast are represented as inseparable Companions in the 17th Chapter The Beast seems to be confined to that City by his Heads which are said to be the seven Hills upon which the City is seated And since it is already known what City Babylon is it cannot then be doubted but that the Beast who is said to be a King must be the King of that City So that if the Reign of Babylon has been clearly proved to be after the time of Rome-Pagan the Reign of the Beast must also be allowed to be as long after that time Now if any part of the Reign of the Beast was in being so long after the time of the Vision this does plainly determine what kind of Kings the Heads of the Beast must be whose Successions seem to be given on purpose to measure out the time betwixt the date of the Vision and the appearance of the last of them in Rule called The Beast for the Beast is determined by the Prophecy to be the third King in order after Him who reigned at the time of the Vision He is said to be an Eighth to Rev. 17. 11. him that was a Sixth at the time of the Vision From hence would any conclude That since the eighth of these Kings or the Beast is found to be in Rule after the time of Rome-Pagan that is some hundreds of years after the time of the Vision that His Reign and the other two Reigns before him from the time of the Vision in St. John's days could not possibly be the Reign of three single persons only for there were near three hundred years betwixt the time of the Vision and the full end of Rome Pagan before which the Reign of Babylon and The Beast have been proved impossible to be And within that space of time there were above thirty Successions of single Persons in the Roman Throne It would therefore next be necessary to enquire from the Roman History what else the first of these three Kings who is said to Reign at the time of the Vision could possibly be It will appear from thence that there was no other King of Rome at that time but a single Emperour Wherefore since it has been found impossible that it should be the single person of that Emperour who is meant by the King then Reigning there is nothing else that can be meant by it but that form of the Supreme Government which the Emperour's Title gave name to or the Imperial Government then in power And consequently by the same reason must all the three Kings of which The Beast is said to be the 8th or last be so many successive Changes of Roman Government from the time of the Vision Since therefore the first of these three Kings is known to be the Imperial Government in the days of St. John all that seems needful to be done to determine the time and the particular form of Roman Government that is called the Beast is to enquire from History what successive Changes there have been in the Roman Government since the time of the Vision For the next Change but one to the Imperial Government in those days must certainly be the Beast And Bellarmin is so far of the same mind in this That according to him the true state of the difference betwixt them and us in this Affair is whether the Imperial Government at the time of the Vision has ever since that time been cut off which makes him take such pains to prove That the same Imperial Roman Government continues unchanged to this day And thus all the difficulty that remains seems according to him to be no more than to enquire after and rightly judge of the matter of Fact from History For he grants that nothing can be meant by The Beast his Heads and Horns but Roman Power Tho' he takes no notice of the distinction and order of Succession amongst them THE SEEMING evidence of the Conclusions before mentioned even in the judgment of the most Zealous and the most able Defender of the Roman Interest is a very satisfactory proof that the Angel that offered that Explication of the Mystery to the Apostle did really intend to be understood according as one would expect from the promise of an Explication of a Mystery from so Divine a Person And this is a great encouragement to any that is willing to take the pains for it to search after the true means to determine the right sense of this Explication The Angel first promises to unfold a Mystery begins it in very known Expressions goes on in other Characters that seem to be clear Who would not then positively conclude with himself that the main strokes and Mystical Characters in which it is expressed must certainly be intelligible enough by some means in our power especially when we find so many Excitations in this Prophecy to understand it But I saw so many miscarriages in attempts in this way and could find so little clear satisfaction in the most cautious Interpretations that I was afraid of nothing more than of being satisfied about these things too soon There are such fair Appearances and grounds for strong Presumptions That the greatest danger lies in being too ready to close with a seemingly obvious Sense of the Angel's Explication My aim was at assurance in these matters and the best way for that I concluded to be To search for difficulties to counterpoise the too much proneness of my Inclination to hasten to a determination There seemed to be a great variety of shows of the Beast which Grotius makes a great advantage of to the baffling of all the force of the best Demonstrations drawn from the Synchronisms of the several descriptions of it in the several Chapters There seems also to be a great ambiguity in the notion of The Beast There are no distinguishing Characters of the Heads from The Beast himself nor of their Nature in general nor of their Constitutive differences from one another and it seemed but a presumption to make all the rest of the Heads to take their determinate form from what was discovered to be the nature of the sixth Head upon which nevertheless does depend all the hopes of coming to a particular knowledge of the time of the Reign of The Beast and without the knowledge of the particular time of that Reign it is in vain to think of any thing of this nature These Considerations made me conclude That the Angel's Explication did suppose and direct to some other known Key to come to a full understanding of his mind It was obvious thereupon to apprehend that The Beast and his Heads and Horns being very mystical kind of Expressions it was necessary for the clearer knowledge of them to consult the common acceptation of them amongst the Ancient Prophets in like matters to these here before us according to Rule 2. I was soon satisfied in this I found by the unanimous
each particular description 1. As they are in the 13th and 17th Chapters both described with seven Heads and ten Horns so are they also characterized more peculiarly by one Head only of the seven The one by his Chap. 13. 3. Chap. 17. 11. healed Head and the Mouth of it The other by the 8th King or Head which was one of the seven Heads 2. The peculiar Head that the one is described by is an Head Ibid. wounded to death and healed again and under which The Beast with the same False Prophet that he is found with in the 13th Chapter does in all appearance come to his end and that Head therefore must be is Last Head and yet it cannot be distinct from the other Seven because it is but one of them healed and it comes after them all as the last of all and so must necessarily be an Eighth which was one of the Seven Now the Head of the other is expresly said to be an Eighth which was one of the Seven 3. It is said of the one that the World wondred at the Head Chap. 13. 3. deadly wounded and healed And of the other that the World Chap 17. 8. should wonder at The Beast which was and is not and yet is who is said to be the Eighth King or Head Which seems to be the same 4. The one is said to arise out of the Sea with the former Character of its Head wounded and healed again Chap. 13. 1. Chap. 17. 8. And the other to ascend out of the Bottomless Pit with the latter Character of Was and Is not and yet is which signifies the same And the word in the Greek for the bottomless Pit The Abyss is the common term in the Septuagint to signify the Sea and the Septuagint was the Copy that our Saviour and his Apostles referred to in all their Discourses and Writings 5. The one had Ten Kings in power with it signified by its Chap. 17. 12. Ten Horns who gave their power to it which they had not at the time of the Vision the other arose up with Ten Horns upon it all crowned which had no Crowns upon the Dragon in the Chapter before 6. The one is described by one particular mouth speaking Blasphemies Chap. 13. 1. Chap. 13. 5. v. 3. The other with one Head who is that Beast all over the 17th Chapter who is said to be full of Blasphemies Prop. 6. 7. The City of the one and the other was the same Babylon in one particular state of Idolatrous and Antichristian Tyranny Prop. 2. and which is said to be fallen in both which one would judge should signify one and the same particular time of Chap. 14. 8. Chap. 18. 2. that City Other the same Characters in both I omit here to mention because they may be accounted not such particular Characters As that they have the same Enemies the same kind of Friends and make the same kind of Wars and have the same variety of Success and Loss in Battel To make them then signify two different states of The Beast or of Roman Rule as the Beast is here agreed to signify there must at least these unlikelihoods be digested viz. That all these Characters together which are the same in both must be twice verified of the Roman Government viz. That it had twice a Supreme Government over it which came after Seven before it and yet was one of the Seven and Ten Kings twice confederated with such a Power at two several Changes of Roman Power in two several states of the same kind of Idolatry and Antichristian Tyranny of Rome and that Rome must have two eminent Ruines in the midst of all these same Circumstances twice repeated For these and many other very peculiar Characters must have been all at a time in conjunction or have belonged altogether at the same time to each of these same repeated States of the Beast Which would have been much like a Story of the throwing so many Dice out of a Box at two several times into just the same Order and Chances without any contrivance For all the credit of this way of Interpretation lies wholly upon the affirmation of the Interpreters themselves Would not this be to lay the plainest ground for an almost unavoidable delusion about the sense of a Prophecy For who would ever take such a representation of Two Beasts with so exact a likeness to one another in so many peculiar Characters with the same peculiar way of rise marks actions make and circumstances for two different States of that Beast and only because they are Two several Shows of it Can any one believe Rev. XIII XVII this of a Vision that men are exhorted to understand and which an Angel of God comes on purpose so to explain as to make an Apostle of Christ apprehend it was to tell him the mystery of these things for the edification of the Christian Church And the Rules for interpreting of which according to the common Apprehensions of Men in other Cases he himself See CHAP. 2. gave an earnest of in his own Explication Certainly unless it can be proved to be impossible for two Shows of a Beast to signify but one and the same state of it one would be very apt from hence to be confident That they are in these Chapters but Two Shows only of one and the same state of the Beast After all this particular Examination If we would be content with ordinary proof and such as makes men sure of almost all other places of Scripture that is what the Context does as it were of its own accord force one to be confident of The Consideration of the Histories of these Two Beasts and of their order and dependance upon one another would appear to be a sufficient ground for a full conviction of the certainty of this Truth For it is very obvious to observe That the 17th Chapter comes in about the conclusion of the History of The Beast of the 13th Chapter for nothing but to tell the Prophet as the Interpreting Angel himself does seem to intimate what was meant by the Beast and his Seven Heads and Ten Horns and by Great Babylon which had been the Subject of all the four Chapters before it To secure us in this Persuasion we see that the business of the 17th Chapter is brought in immediately after the 16th by one of those Seven Angels with the Seven Vials who had been just before employed about the Seven last Plagues that were poured out upon the other Beast in the former Chapter And the Introduction to all that this Angel had to communicate in the 17th Chapter is an offer from him to shew the Apostle the Judgment of that Great Whore called Babylon the Great which had been just mentioned before by that very name of Babylon the Great in the History of the other Beast at the end of the 16th Chapter And then again after the
himself Chap. 8. Vers 9 10. As Josephus affirms of him also from the Ancients and he did not conclude them till after the Persian Monarchy was begun under Cyrus chap. 10. 1. So that he lived under the Babylonian and Persian Monarchies and names them both and the Graecian And he Prophecies of the whole Graecian Monarchy in particular under the Figure of a Beast Chap. 8. as is by all granted When therefore we find in the 7th Chapter just before the 8th the mention of three Kingdoms succeeding one another represented by three Beasts The Two first of which the Prophet knew to be the Babylonian and Persian Monarchies as all do grant What ground in the world have we to question whether he means by the third Beast or third Kingdom the whole Graecian Monarchy from its Conquest of the Persian since it is acknowledged that in the very next Chapter after this 7th he foretells that whole Monarchy of the Greeks under the Figure of a Beast There is certainly more ground from the Prophecy to conclude that he means by the third Beast in the 7th Chapter the whole time of the Greek Monarchy from its Conquest of the Persian than that by the first of the three must be meant the whole Babylonian Monarchy For the Babylonian is not any where else said by name to be represented under the Figure of a Beast as the Grecian is in the 8th Chapter immediately after We have reason therefore to be confident that the Prophet that understands by the first and second Beasts the Babylonian and Persian Monarchies to their last end cannot by the third understand only a part of the Graecian Monarchy after the Persian and by the fourth the remaining part of it And if men may be allowed thus to disregard all examples of the significations of things of the same nature they may chuse any interpretation that they can fancy and with the same freedom may they maintain That by the first Beast is meant the single person of Nebuchadnezzar alone and by the second another Conqueror some Hundreds of years after and by the third Pompey and by the fourth what they please If they may interpret one of these Figures to be a single person There is as much reason to make them all of the same kind And to affirm any thing thus at all adventures without any regard to the known examples of the same kind is both against all the Rules of any other Interpretations of Scripture and takes away all manner of hopes of being able to determine the sense of any Scripture 10. To this may be added That the Order and Time of the several Visions do confirm this Application of the four Beasts in the 7th Chapter to the four succeeding Monarchies from the Prophets time For as these four Beasts have been found to be the same with the four Kingdoms in the 2d Chapter Page 104 c. so does it appear from the time of the first of them in the 2d Chapter compared with that of the first in the 7th That they must be both the whole Babylonian Monarchy not any single Reign because that in the 2d is applied to Nebuchadnezzar and that in the 7th was seen in the time of Belshazzar after the death of Nebuchadnezzar and therefore must the first Kingdom in both Chapters signify an Empire common to Nebuchadnezzar and those that came after him That is the whole Monarchy Now the 8th Chapter whose vision was after that in the 7th Chapter assures us by the same kind of Figures viz. by Two Beasts That the two next Kingdoms are the Persian and Graecian Monarchies by name to the time of their last end And when the Prophet had thus seen afterwards the Persian and Graecian Monarchies represented by the Figures of Two Beasts Can it be with any manner of Reason thought that he could Judge the 2d and 3d Beast in the 7th Chapter to be any other Kingdoms than those very same which he had in the 8th Chapter seen represented by the same kind of Figures and which were made known to him to be Kingdoms that should succeed in order to the first in the 7th Chapter and which he knew in the time of Cyrus by his own experience was verified of the Persian Especially if it be considered that there is not the least intimation from him to make any think the second and third Kingdoms in the 7th Chapter to be different things from the Persian and Graecian Kingdoms known by name in the 8th Chapter 11. It is impossible That the fourth Kingdom in the 7th of Daniel should be a Kingdom of the Graecians because it was to be consumed by the Kingdom of the Son of Man in the 2d Chap. which has been found to be most unquestionably some Kingdom of Christ upon Earth by Prop. 13. For the Graecian Monarchy was totally destroyed long before the Birth of Christ And it has been observed how monstrous a shift that of Grotius is upon this occasions such as may very well amaze any one that considers it and his great abilities together To be constant to his Hypothesis he will have the Kingdom of the son of Man signify the Kingdom of the Romans and Dan. 7. 14 22. the Kingdom of the Saints to begin at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Auxiliary Armies of the Romans who therefore must be called the People of the most High because The people amongst whom God was to have his Church But the extravagance of this has been formerly considered and nothing can give us better satisfaction what absurdities he is capable of owning for the sense of a Prophecy when he has set his heart upon a supposition that needs it 12. The end of the Fourth Beast is at the destruction of the little Horn. But if the Fourth Beast were the Graecian Monarchy The Little Horn must be Antiochus Epiphanes as is by all granted and then at the end of him the whole time of that Monarchy must be ended Whereas the Graecian Monarchy continued above an Hundred years after his death 13. The Little Horn of the Fourth Beast was to continue till v. 22. the Saints came to possess an Universal Kingdom over all the World which since it is acknowledged to signify a Reign of Christianity in the World is certain could not happen till some Hundreds of years after Antiochus Epiphanes and therefore neither could he be the Little Horn nor the Fourth Beast the Graecian Empire 14. The Time Times and the dividing of Time at the end of v. 25. which The Little Horn and the Fourth Beast to which it belongs are said to be destroyed are the same times with the time times and an half in the 12th Chapter pag. But those in the 12th Chapter end before Christ's coming to the last Judgment ibid. And therefore cannot the Little Horn and the Fourth Beast be any time of the Graecian Monarchy 15. The Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter is so far from
Head seem to be so wholly intent upon the Charge of Antichristianism upon the Church Most Protestants of Rome that they neglect all known and acknowledged Examples of the difference of the Heads of Beasts to fix their Charge And to hold to it they are forced to wrest the natural and plain sense of the 10th verse of the 17th Chapter of the Revelations and to find out some far fetched Criticisms to make it good As the making of the 7th of those Seven Kings that are said to be the seven Heads to be none of those Heads And Dr. More 648. as the making 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to denote the Seventh King to be quite different from the rest does appear to be See Prop. 4. They are also forced to make the wounded and the healed Mr. Mede Head to be two distinct Heads of the seven which is contrary to the plain Expressions of the Prophecy which mention it to be seen but as one and the same Head wounded and healed and is also contrary to the common acceptation of a Head wounded and healed which can be but one Head Others of them are forced to make the Seventh King and the Eighth to be the same thing and for that end to transpose the latter end of the 10th verse and to make it come after the Monsieur Jurieu Accomp des Prophecies pag. 190. 2d Edit Most Protestants beginning of the 11th contrary to the natural order of the Text. Those that would fix all the Charge of the Beast and the False Prophet upon the Papal Power only are forced to make nothing of the plain Characters by which they are distinguished from one another when named together nor of the Change of the name of the Civil Government of the Romans at the fall of the Western Empire though that was the only difference betwixt the first six Heads of the Beast according to their own Opinion For the first six Heads were all of the same Religion that is Pagans And upon this account is it that most of them are forced to make the first appearance of the Beast to be of a very uncertain date that is according to their fancy about the first great appearance of the Papal Power which cannot well be fixed Whereas the first Rise of the Beast must have been a very visible and remarkable Change of the Supream Power of Rome from that which was the 7th Ruling Power of it to the 8th called the Beast It is upon this account that some of those who incline to the former Opinion and yet do plainly see that the Beast must be a Change of the form of the Civil Power of the Empire do therefore make the Ten Kings with the Papal Power to be the Beast that is the Eighth King or last Ruling Head But what Prop. 6. an absurdity do they fly to in this when it is manifest that the Ten Kings were the Ten Horns and none of the Seven Heads Others of them indeed defer the Rise of this Papal Beast to that manifest Change of the Imperial Power at the fall of the Western Empire in Augustulus as the end of the true Christian Emperors who are their Seventh King but then they are forced to make nothing of the succeeding Sovereign Power of the Italian Kings of Rome who were as Absolute Sovereigns of it notwithstanding their Royal Seat at Ravenna as any of the Western Emperors had been from the time of Honorius who first made Ravenna the Imperial Seat They are also forced to pass over the Change of the Regal and Imperial Power of Rome to the pure Imperial Government at the recovery of Rome by Justinian as of no account for a new Head though they must own the Eastern Emperors to have been as much Sovereigns of Rome at this Re-conquest of it as the Western were before the loss of it and when they were the acknowledged Sixth Head This appears from the Power of the Eastern Emperors Exarchs after the recovery of the West The Fourth BOOK THE Application of the Characters OF THE BEAST In the REVELATIONS CHAP. I. The force of the Applications of the Characters of the Rev. XIII Beast to confirm the first date of his Reign A Caution to those who have taken up with a former Hypothesis The uncouth Composition of the Beast of the Parts of a Lyon of a Leopard and of a Bear applied to an absolute exactness The Rising of the Beast out of the Sea The Continuance of his Reign for 42 Months AFTER the more close and demonstrative way of proof that has been made use of to determine the particular nature and first Rise of the Beast It will much confirm the knowledge that is now had of him to see how easie and natural the Application of all the other Circumstances of his History will appear to be upon this foundation And this may serve for an additional proof à posteriori as the Demonstrations of the principles of natural things by their causes are much strengthned by their perfect agreement with all the effects that we can apply them to or with all that experience does teach us of them But yet it must always be remembred That though the Application of an Instance or two should seem to be something harsh or forced That no man ought for that to question the former Conclusions unless upon a new examination he can find them less necessary than they did at first appear No man ought to doubt of a plain and manifest truth because he sees it to be seemingly inconsistent with some other Conclusions that are deduced from it which are not so plain and necessary I know not of any such harshness in any of the Applications that I am now going to make but rather think them so well agreeing with the Characters of the Text that they are enough to surprize one into an admiration of the Congruity of them But I interpose this as a convenient Caution to those who may find a convincing evidence in the proof of the maint Point to which the Applications are fixed but by reason of some prejudices and long use of a former Hypothesis may not think some of the Applications so well fitted to the Prophecy as they will imagine their own to be For this will be apt to make them judge many things which to all others would appear very tolerable at least to be harsh and uncouth to them To begin then with the figure and composition of the Beast It is said to be in the several parts of it like a Lyon a Leopard Rev. 13. 2. and a Bear which do manifestly refer to its being the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel which is there represented immediately after the account of the Three Kingdoms shown by v. 7 23. those Three Beasts and is said to have devoured them And those Three Beasts are agreed to be the Babylonian Persian and Book the IId Graecian Monarchies The
mentions the Emperour Henry's Charge against Pope Paschal Ann. 1107 He says there of the Papal Power That they take an Oath of every Bishop to own all that for Law that they shall say This Oath is described lib. 2. Decret Tit. 24. where they swear to obey all the Popes Commands and to assist him against all that shall oppose themselves Papal Authority and the Church of Rome as necessary to Salvation and as dictated by an Infallible Authority with the claim of Infallibility as an inseparable Prerogative of their Authority Of the same Nature is the exercise of the power of the Keys in that Church by which they confine all Divine Favour and all Right to the Kingdom of Heaven to the Communion of the Roman Church and only as Roman and by which they pretend to have the Power of the Curses of God and of Eternal Damnation in their Hands to pronounce against all those who own not that Divine Authority and Infallible Spirit in them by which they appear as in the place of God in the Church For by this does the Church of Rome appear manifestly to sit as a Goddess in the Church Catholick to which all must submit with all the outward Worship of their Bodies and the inward Veneration of their Souls as the only Oracle of God in all its Decisions and Definitions of Faith and Worship and as the immediate Voice and Thunder of God from Heaven in all its Anathema's and Excommunications And all this about matters which either were never made to be the Will of God by any other Authority but the meer Will of the Roman Church Or which are known to be absolutely contrary to the revealed Will of God the Light of Natural Conscience and to the common Sense and Reason of mankind which is the Candle of the Lord and the most fundamental Prov. 20. 27. Criterion of the Truth or Falshood of Revelations or Inspirations But some will question whether all this can amount to the charge of commanding Men to Worship the Beast and his Image with Divine Honours tho these things should be done without any warrant from God for them because God himself is intended for the only Object of all that Worship that is thus enjoyned This doubt may soon be resolved by what Men would judge of the Worship of Nebuchadnezzar's Image tho he should have pretended that it was the peculiar Presence of the God of Israel as well as his own Image and that it was to be Worshipped upon the account of that immediate Union of the True God with himself and his Image Or by what Men can think of the Worship given to Simon Magus under the supposition of his being the Father Son and Holy Ghost at several appearances Whether would the Adoration be excused for being intended to the True God I would but demand of any sorts of Christians what they would think of such an unbounded Power as has been mentioned in any Party of Men from whom they differ which should now arise with these Claims of Superiority and Jurisdiction over the Universal Church of Christ upon Earth and should force Mens Consciences to acknowledge these Claims to be due by Divine Right and should really think them to be so upon as slight Grounds as the Church of Rome does now believe its own pretences upon and should exercise these new powers with as zealous designs for God's Service as they of that Church seem to do It would be hardly possible for any of a differing Party to forbear the charging of this new Pretender with the Character of sitting like a God in the Temple of God or in the Christian Church For he that requires meer human Laws to be accounted Divine Inspiration which yet are nothing but his own will he plainly makes his own will a Divine Law And if he forces it upon all the World for such he makes his own will the Universal Lord of the Consciences of Men which is the peculiar Prerogative of God alone Without all question if the King of France and the Assembly of his Clergy should use the same methods and pretences that they have done to the Protestants to force the Consciences of the Papal Party all over the World to the Opinions of the Gallican Church they would not stick to charge him with the Character of usurping upon the peculiar Prerogative of God in his Church I do take it all this while for granted That the Claim for this Universal Power in the Church of Rome and to the Title of Infallibility is unwarrantable and that is so easie a thing to be satisfied about that I think it not needful here to dilate upon it There needs no better satisfaction to be had about it than what the slightness of the grounds that are alledged for this Authority compared with the vast importance of the thing that they are to prove does at the first sight offer to any that are impartial But others have made it their business and to them I remit it The unwarrantableness of this Claim is supposed in the Objection And if that be once granted let the intention of the Church of Rome be never so fair in its Exercise of this Power the instance above-mentioned will make it sufficiently clear how just the charge of the Worship of the Image is due to it tho it should exercise this power over the whole Church of God within much more moderate bounds than it is known to do The reality of their intention may without any difficulty be believed For it was long since foretold that the time would come that whosoever killed the true Members of Christ should John 16. 2 4. think that he did God service in it And it is said to be foretold on purpose that when the time should come we should remember that it had been told us of them St. Paul does give the example of it Acts 22. 3 4. Acts 26. 9 10 11. in himself he verily thought with himself that he ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth and accordingly did them For he shut up the Saints in Prison when they were put to Death he gave his Voice against them He even compelled them to blaspheme and was exceeding mad against them and yet was zealous towards God while he was Persecuting that way unto the death And yet surely none would ever maintain that the zealous intention of these cruel Actions would excuse them from the guilt of Inhumanity and Murder The sincerity of the Intention in all these Diabolical acts of Antichristian Tyranny does only denote how absolute the power of the Devil is in them by the power he has over them to make them believe that it is the doing God service all the while that they are acted by the Rage of the Devil Wherefore it may now be safely concluded That the great malignity of the Worship of the Beast and his Image does lie in the Acknowledgment
power who are the executioners of the Sentence All that the Civil power does in it is but to follow the commands of the Church and to strike the last stroke only which is all that can make them be said to have an hand in it And thô it must be confessed that the Secular part in it is that which does the most effectually persuade to the worship of the Beast yet it is plain That the Church is the principal Agent in that also because they overawe the Civil Power into compliances with them which does very naturally answer the power of the Image in the Prophecy to cause all those who would not worship it to be killed The False-prophet is the Head of this Image and so is the chief manager of this Church-Tyranny and therefore is it accordingly said of him That he spake like a Dragon or like that Red Dragon in the 12th Chapter just before and found to be the Devil raging against the followers of the Lamb. If any one should question a COrnelius à Lapide in c. 13. Apoc. v. 11. The Two Horns according to Josephus Acosta l. 2. De temporibus Noviss c. 17. are the Ensigns of the Episcopal Dignity viz. the Mitre or the Episcopal Crown It should seem therefore by this That this false Prophet should be some Apostate Bishop a great pretender to Religion It is not therefore the Mitre but some Mitred Apostate that is here set out who shall treacherously abuse these Horns of Christ the Lamb to propagate the Party of Antichrist And before when he had reckon'd up the several opinions about the 2 d Beast In the fourth place says he the best opinion is that of Irenaeus Tertullian Ribera Viega and others who by this Beast understand some Eminent Pastor of the Church the forerunner and Preacher up of Antichrist Viegas in c. 13. Apoc. v. 11. after the mention of the opinion of others But Andreas Caesariensis and Irenaeus to me seem to have been much more in the right who understand by the 2d Beast some Eminent Preacher the â—â—â—erunner of Antichrist The Armour-bearer of Antichrist as Irenaeus whether so dreadful a character of a Beast speaking like a Dragon or like the Devil can belong to a Christian Bishop of so great eminency in the Church of Christ as the Bishop of Rome is he may easily be satisfied if he considers that by his description he ought to be nothing less than such a person For that he must be the Head of a Roman Church extended over all the World has been shown from his Character of being a Church-Head over the same extent of dominion that the Beast did Rule in For he exercised all the power of the Beast And then that he must have the show of the chief Head of the Christian Church appears from his having Two Horns like a Lamb. For the signification of a Lamb all over the Book of the Revelations is nothing but the person of Christ It would indeed have a more plain reference to the other mentions of that word if it were said like THE Lamb. But we have Grotius's Authority for it upon this place which in Criticisme is of the best account when Impartial That nothing is more ordinary in Scripture then to b Ribera upon this place of the Apocalypse after he had pleaded for the indefinite signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the absence of the Article concludes But yet this which I have said of Articles is not always observed by the Greeks Alcasar upon the same The Article is wanting and yet it is an allusion to the Lamb Cap. 5. omit the Article of reference before a word which should denote its relation to the former mentions of it where yet the sense does shew it to be necessary to be understood It appears then from the description of him that he must be as it were c Malvenda de Antichristo pag. 348. quotes Irenaeus for making Antichrist a pretender to be Christ upon Earth And Lactantius affirming that he should falsly pretend himself to be Christ And pag. 349. says That it is the consent of the Fathers That Antichrist shall take away Idols And shall set himself up in the Temple of God as Antiochus Epiphanes had his own Image put into the Temple at Jerusalem who yet Worshipped his own Country Gods and obtruded them upon the Jews He contends indeed That the Temple of God in which Antichrist must sit is the Temple of Jerusalem But Pererius the Jesuit upon the 7th of Daniel quotes Theodoret Damascene and others of the Fathers Interpreting it of the Christian Church For that says he is the only true Temple of God And then Antichrist must be like Christ the Head of the Church And pag. 351. Malvenda shows how Antichrist shall pretend himself to be true God according to the agreeing sense of the Fathers viz. As Nebuchadnezzar Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar the latter of which did certainly do no more than order himself a like worship with the gods And Antiochus Epiphanes who is made the Type of Antichrist did set up the Statue of Jupiter Olympius in the Temple as well as his own And is said by Malvenda to have Consecrated the Temple of Jerusalem to Jupiter Olympius and the Temple on Mount Gerizim to Jupiter Hospitalis It is not therefore necessary according to Malvenda that Antichrist should set himself up as the one supreme God or Christ Irenaeus pag. 483. Edit Erasmi de Antichristo Of whom the Apostle in the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians He shall sit in the Temple enendeavouring to show himself to be Christ Bellarmin also says Lib. 1. de Pontif. cap. 1. That by the common agreement of all Christians Antichrist is understood to be some Eminent False Christ a Vice-Christ or pretend to be the Vicar of Christ which is the same as both of them are also the same with an Antichrist Besides this Beast thus described in one place with Two Horns like a Lamb in the other Chapters is called the False Prophet To acquaint us that the Horns of the Lamb were but the outward show of the Christian Spirit So that if we put these two Characters of him together and then add the other of his speaking like a Dragon and consider that the name of a Dragon is very ordinary in this Book and that it every where else relates to the representation of the Devil in the 12th Chapter just before this as a raging Red Bloody Dragon What can more manifestly denote him to be A False Prophet in Sheeps cloathing but inwardly a Ravenous wolf How could this have been more clearly expressed in a Prophecy where the Lamb and the Dragon are in a very peculiar manner and very commonly restrained to signifie Christ and the Devil And what could more openly show us the difference betwixt the Dragon in the 12th Chapter and the Beast in the 13th thô both enemies to the Christian
Faustus the Manichee The occasion of this Idolatry not enforced by effectual Laws till Justinian 's Reign I Have been the more particular in the Explication of the worship of the Beast because that is made in the Prophecy to be the chief malignity of his Power For the exercise of his Tyranny over the Consciences of Men is that which gives life and spirit to all the Corruptions of the True Religion which the Roman Church sets up for the indispensable Laws of the Christian Faith The Idolatry of the Church of Rome alone by it self would want the greatest part of the frightful Appearance in which the Beast is described and which the enforcing it upon the Consciences of all men by the secular Arm has set it forth into the sense and feeling of the World But besides the Characters of the Malignity of the Beast which are generally summ'd up in the Worship of him there is also a particular description in the 17th Chapter of the Idolatrous state of the Roman Church under the name of Babylon the Great Whore which is a known term amongst the Prophets to express the Idolatry of a Nation which had been the True Church of God And this charge of Idolatry is brought against the Church by the Prophets not only when they worshipped strange Gods but also when they worshipped the True God by corporeal Representations as it has been sufficiently made out of late by the disputes about Aaron's and Jeroboam's Calves and may be sufficiently shown from that one place in Hosea chap. 4. 15. Though thou Israel play the Harlot yet let not Judah offend and come ye not See the Dean of St. Paul's Discourse of the Idolatry of the Church of Rome and Papists not misrepresented to Gilgal neither go ye up to Bethaven nor swear the Lord liveth where their Idolatry is made to consist in a Religious Oath to Jehovah or to the true God in the places where the Calves were placed And that they did really intend all that worship to the True God appears further from Chap. 8. v. 13. They sacrifice flesh for the Sacrifices of my Offerings and eat it but the Lord accepteth them not And that they applied themselves to the Calves in those Sacrifices appears from Chap. 13. 2. They say of them Let the men that sacrifice kiss the Calves which does all belong to Ephraim and to Samaria who had just before been mentioned for their Calves so that their swearing by the Lord and their sacrificing of his Offerings which are said before to be done at Gilgal and Bethaven the places of the worship of the Calves cannot possibly be understood of any other intention of worship than to the True God in the presence of those Calves So again Chap. 8. v. 5. Thy Calf O Samaria hath cast thee off mine Anger is kindled against thee where the kindling God's wrath against them is called their being cast off by their Calf as they had represented the presence of God in his House by that figure Now for this kind of Idolatry we need not be long in seeking after the recovery of the Western Empire by Justinian We find that in the Second Council of Nice about 200 years after that they insisted Act. 7. upon the old Tradition and practice An. Dom. 787. Petav. of the Universal Church for the use of Images which though it cannot be verified of so long a practice of the Church as they pretend nor it may be of that degree of honour which they defined for any time before yet we cannot think such an Assembly of men from all parts of the World so impudent as to plead ancient Tradition and long practice for that to which there had been nothing like in use of the Church before their time But the proof of it which they alledge out of the 82d Canon of the Sixth Council in Trullo which was near an hundred years before that time is a very clear instance of such practices in the An. Dom. 707. Petav. Church so little a while after Justinian That Canon ordains That the Image of Christ as the Lamb of God should be received amongst the rest of the Venerable Images which gives us to understand that Images were then frequent in Churches And the 73d Canon of that Council does intimate to us what use was made of the Images that were made to represent the Person of Christ For it ordains That Adoration should be given to Christ by the figure of the Cross and to shew their reverence to it that it should never be engraven upon the Church-floor lest it should seem to be trampled under foot and triumphed over By both these Canons it did appear that Images were then commonly used with great veneration if not adoration in the service of God So common a practice as this not much above 100 years after the Reign of Justinian may very safely be concluded to have been begun in his days And indeed it is evident to have been then in use by that celebrated Act of * Baronius Anno 591. Screnus Bishop of Marseils in breaking the Images that he found to be adored in his Churches And this was but about 40 years after the death of Justinian and must be supposed to have been some while in use before it came to be so grosly abused as to stir up the zeal of Serenus to break them which Pope Gregory the First tells him never any Bishop before him ever did And Hospinian's Account of the first occasion of Images in the Church Histor Monachatus pag. 49. does agree well with this He makes the Irruption of the Barbarians upon all the Roman Empire to have been the occasion of introducing the custome of Images which they had been always used to in their Paganism and were indulged in it upon their conversion in a new way and their Irruption was long before the time of Justinian There also he affirms that Gregory himself was the Establisher of the Invocation of Saints and of the use of Images which might well be looked upon as the earnest of spiritual fornication in the Church before they came to be openly adored and therefore might denominate the Church an Harlot as that name may well enough be given to an Adulteress from her first entertaining of the sollicitations of her Paramour But even in the days of Justinian according to Caranza's Explication of the second Canon of the Second Synod of Tours it appears that Images were so commonly received in the Church that there was a place set a part for them upon the Altar called by the name of the Armarium Caranza Annotat. on 2d Canon Synod the Second And it appears from the 26th Law of Justinian's Code Tit. de Episcop Clero that the Image of the Cross and the Reliques of the Saints were looked upon to be so holy as to be thought fit to have an Imperial Law made that they should not be set up in any Prophane or Common
rash Conjectures Many other Agreements of the Ancients about these matters are instanced in by Bellarmine Lib. 3. de Pontifice some of which must indeed be granted But they are such as are no ground of concluding upon the sense of the place to which they refer because they themselves do often acknowledge themselves to be incapable Judges of the determinate Signification of those things upon the account of their ignorance of the Event that they referred to and by which alone they apprehended them capable of being certainly known Thus Theodoret upon the 12th Chapter of Daniel 8 9. where the Prophet professes he understood not what he heard And the Angel confirms it to be because the words were sealed up but afterwards many should understand explains it thus But when the thing shall come to pass they shall plainly understand the things that were foretold So also Andreas Caesariensis concerning the number of the name of the Beast Revel 13. The exact knowledge says he of the number and of every thing else besides that is delivered about Antichrist Time and Experience will discover to Prudent and Sober Enquirers And Irenaeus upon the same matter judges it to have been on Lib. 5. cont Haeres cap. ult purpose concealed that it might not be known till it came to be fulfilled And after Cautions put in against Conjectures 'T is therefore says he much the surer way to stop our Conjectures till the Prophecy be fulfilled And this is given as a general Rule for every thing of this nature that is not very plain and clear before the Event By which it appears That the Fathers did not think themselves in a capacity to determine the meaning of the particular Circumstances in the Prophecies about Antichrist because they were generally agreed that he was still to come And that therefore the particular Characters of his appearance did depend upon Events in after-times for the clear understanding them Now all those Opinions for which Bellarmin cites the Consent N B. of the Fathers are such as depend upon this Supposition That the Time Times and the dividing of Time which is the time assigned to the continuance of the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel Dan. 7. 25. do not signify any longer time than Three years and an half according to the common acceptation of A Time in the Prophecy of Daniel Upon this account it is that many Fathers have agreed that Antichrist must be a single Person and consequently That the Ten Kings signified by the Ten Horns must also be so many single Kings as well as the Little Horn that denotes Antichrist It is also for this reason that they agree That the Roman Empire must be ruined at his appearance by the Ten Kings viz. because by this his Time is made to be but Three years and an half before the end of the World or the Second Coming of Christ unto which the time of the Little Horn is described to continue The Fathers indeed might easily be induced to take the Times or 1260 days of Antichrist in the literal sense because they living under the Reign of the Sixth Head of the Beast which had ruled from the time of the Vision they saw no necessity for that sense in which days and weeks are used amongst the Prophets and so were then obliged to judge according to the First Rule of all sound Interpretation Chap. 2. Book I. of this Part. But the Agreement of the Fathers in these things is not so perfectly Vnanimous as Bellarmin would make it to be Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew concerning this very place in Daniel tells him That by A Time the Jews themselves understand sometimes an 100 years according to which says he the Man of Sin must needs reign 355 years And Augustin ad Marcellin Lib. 20. cap. 19. Some says he understand by the Man of Sin not one Prince only but as it were an whole Body that is a great Multitude of Men. And Primasius speaking of the Beast and the False Prophet â—â— c. 19. Apoc. that is says he the Devil and Antichrist or his Chief Rulers and his whole Body So also do we find in the Testimonies of Irenaeus Tertullian Hippolitus Lactantius Victorinus Jerom that they made the Ten Horns of the Beast to be no more than a Division of the Roman Empire whereas Bellarmin pretends that the Fathers are agreed that they signify the utter destruction of that Empire And Andreas Caesariensis does expresly contradict him in this in his Testimony where he says That most of the Ancient Doctors did understand Ten Kings of the Roman Empire by the Ten Horns of the Beast There are many other things for which Bellarmin brings the Consent of the Fathers in which he has been found to be much mistaken particularly by Bishop Andrews Respons ad Bellarmin Now from the former Considerations about the Agreement and the differences of the Opinions of the Ancients it may be observed That their Testimonies about things that the Church has not positively defined as the present case is are of the nature of all other humane Testimony Where they all agree in a sense of which they were capable Judges in their time it is a very great presumption that it is the plain and obvious sense of that place But where they differ from one another their Authority is to be resolved into the strength of the grounds of their particular Opinions And those amongst them who in any particular circumstances speak things contradictory to what was so generally agreed on from the plain evidence of the Text may be as little our concern as the Paradoxical Opinions of some Learned Men in our own Age. They themselves we have seen do acknowledge themselves uncapable Judges of most of the things in the Prophecy of Antichrist and the absolute need there was of further time and experience of the Events to be able to speak with any likelihood of truth about them The use therefore that is to be made of these Agreements of the Ancients about the places of the Prophecy of which they were capable Judges at that time is To confirm the natural sense that is offered from the Text and not to give any a prejudice against new senses of the Prophecy about such things in this Age so many Ages since it was wrote And as strong a presumption is it against the fixing of the full accomplishment of the Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelations to any Events before or in the Grotius Dr. Hammond time of the Fathers to see them so generally to agree in their silence about any such Interpretation It would indeed be matter of astonishment to us if the things of these Prophecies should have been past before the times of these Learned Inquirers into the meaning of them And yet that they should unanimously agreee that they were not to be fulfilled till a long time after From the General Agreement of the Ancients in