seventh head of the beast with ten Horns is the Pope as Successor of the Emperors The Eight King is also the Pope as he is the Husband of the Roman church which Rules in conjunction with him over all Churches of the Papal Communion And the False Prophet is likewise the Pope as he is a false Teacher one who seduceth the world by his false Doctrines and who hath established the most Despotical Empire that ever was in the World upon the pretence of being the Supream Teacher of the Church 'T is true that the word Prophet signifieth usually one that Fore-telleth things to come but it is also evident that in the Scripture it doth sometimes signify only a Teacher Accordingly St. Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. 14. useth the Term Prophet to signify meerly a Teacher or one that Explaineth a Doctrine And it is in this sense that the Pope is stiled a False Prophet which is as much as to say a False Teacher one that teacheth false Doctrines because that as they are not Revealed so they are contrary to all Revelation We have already proved in the fore-going Illustrations that the Pope is the Seventh Head of the Beast with ten Horns that he is the Beast with two Horns and that he is the eighth King so that he is therefore the False Prophet and consequently Anti-christ Now if it do upon the other side appear that the Pope is Antichrist it will from thence follow that he is the False Prophet the eighth King the Seventh Head of the Beast with ten Horns and the Beast with two Horns And we will endeavour to give that light to these two Truths that all who have eyes to see may easily discern them That the Pope is Antichrist appeareth from this that there is nothing said in the sacred Scriptures concerning Antichrist but what perfectly agrees to the Pope 1 St. John tells us in the 4 th Chapt. of his 1st Epistle v. 3. that he is Antichrist who denieth that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh Now the Papal Doctrine of the Real presence answereth this Character in that Iesus Christ cometh not in Flesh upon their Altars being he is there according to the doctrine of the Romish Church after the manner of a Spirit which hath neither flesh nor bones There is nothing so August and sacred in the Papal Religion as their Eucharist their Host which they call God and Christs Body but a Christ that is not like unto his Bretheren a God that is not manifested in the Flesh. 2 St. Paul speaking of the Son of Perdition who is the Anti-christ tells us in the 2 d Epist to the Thessalonians chap. 2d v. 4. that he exalteth himself above all that is called God. Now Rulers are called Gods in Scripture Psa 82. v. 6. I have said ye are Gods. And the Pope does exalt himself over Kings and Emperors not only in the quality of Spiritual Father but in that of Lord of Lords and of an absolute Soveraign who disposeth of their Crowns and giveth them to whom he pleaseth Of which and acious and lofty attempt History doth furnish many examples 3 St. Paul saith that the Son of perdition exalteth himself above all that is worshipped Now the Sacrament is worshipped in the Church of Rome and to this end it is elevated by the Priest Exposed upon their Altars born about in procession carried to such as are sick by the Priest with a Bell rung before it whereby to give notice to all that are in the streets and in their Houses that they worship the Sacrament But yet the Pope do's Exalt himself above this grand object of the Churches Adoration in that he Travelleth no where without the having it carried before him as the chief of his Guard and with less state than he is born himself Therefore Cardinal Perron stiles the Sacrament the Popes Guard of Defence so that the March of the Son of God who is concealed under the vail of the Sacrament is accomodated unto and Governed by the Popes necessities and occasions and Christs Steps are ordered according to those of his Holiness When the Pope stops the holy Sacrament must stop also which is to say that Christ whom the Angels adore must wait upon the pleasure and depend upon the caprices and humours of the Pope And thus as belongeth unto the Son of Perdition to do the Pope exalteth himself above all that is worshipped 4 St. Paul tell us that the Son of Perdition sitteth in the Temple of God which cannot be meant of the Temple of Ierusalem because there hath been no such thing for these sixteen hundred years And if that Temple were yet it would not be the Temple of God seeing ever since the rejection of the Iews it is called simply the Temple and never the Temple of God. Tho it were to be now again rebuilt and made every way what it was before the time of Vespasian yet there would be no reason why it should becalled the Temple of God forasmuch as since the abolishment of the Levitical Service God dwelleth no more in Temples made with hands Act. 7. 48. So that the Temple here meant is the Christian Church which by the holy Apostles is called the Temple of God. There it is that the Pope sitteth as is here very well expressed And there he is shewed as if he were a God. For they speak of nothing but of the Holy Chair the Chair of St. Peter and of the Roman Chair They use to say that such a one doth now sit or that such a one possesseth the Holy Chair And indeed the Pope sitteth there as a Judg giving out Decrees and Oracles as an Infallible Iudg and as the Soveraign Iudg of Coutroversies So that the Pope as the Son of Perdition sitteth in the Temple of God. 5 St. Paul says further of the Son of Perdition that he sheweth himself that he is or as if he were God. Now the Pope behaveth himself as God not only because he dispenseth with the Law of God and as if he were God requireth obedience to his own Laws under pain of damnation and because he boasteth as a God to have the Keys of Hell and Paradise but because upon the day of his Election he is carried into the great Church and there placed upon the great Altar with the Bible under his feet and worshipped both by all the Cardinals and by all the people with an Adoration that is more than a Civil one 6 St. Paul says moreover of the Son of Perdition that his coming is with all Power and Signes and lying Wonders Which Character of Anti-christ is also as discernable in the Pope as the former are in that his Authority as well as his Doctrine is founded upon Miracles Nor is there amy thing else to be met with in their Legends and in the Lives of those Saints whom the Popes have Canonised But they are Lying Wonders and whose falsity is so
evident as to stare us in the face Forasmuch as the tendency of them is not to support the Truth of the Gospel and to bring Glory to God but to uphold Error and to give Glory to Creatures Nor hath St. Paul pronounced any thing concerning the Son of Perdition which more fully agrees to the Pope than this doth Who can then doubt but that the Pope is the Son of Perdition and Antichrist The Iews being dazzled and confounded with the Miracles of our Saviour they cried out in the 7. of St. Iohn v. 31. when Christ cometh will he do more Miracles than these which this man hath done So I cannot but say that when I consider the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which robs the Son of God of that Flesh which he assumed in order to our Salvation and when I behold the pride of the Pope not only in exalting himself above Kings and Emperors but above the very Sacrament which they adore making himself equal to God and causing that they worship him as God I say that I cannot but declare that I am ready to cry out with a just astonishment when the Son of perdition cometh can he carry Heresy Pride Impiety and Sacriledg to a greater height than the Pope hath done Finally the most lofty as well as the most usual Title of the Pope is that of Vicar of Iesus Christ and this is what the word Antichrist exactly signifies In the 13. chap. of the Acts v. 7. Paulus Sergius is stiled in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Proconsul or the Vicar of the Consul the Term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antichrist is a word of the same form so that if one would say in Greek the Vicar of Jesus Christ he can use no other term if he would speak roundly than that of Antichristâ—s And therefore the Church of Rome by calling the Pope the Vicar of Christ doth thereby declare him to be Antichrist And she is herein like Balaams Ass which spake against and to the reproach of his Master 'T is true that St. Iohn does understand by Antichrist one that is an Adversary of Iesus Christ but it is withal true that the Pope cannot stile himself the Vicar of Iesus Christ without declaring himself to be his mortal Enemy whatsoever profession he maketh to the contrary No more than he that is a married man's Rival can stile himself his Vicar without being his deadly Enemy and without doing him a most bloody Wrong So that the Pope by calling himself the Husband of the Church and by taking to him under that Notion the Title of Vicar of Iesus Christ is the true Antichrist the Enemy and Rival of Iesut Christ That the Pope is a False Prophet and a false Teacher as well as Antichrist which we have proved we need only to observe two Prophesies one of St. Paul and another of Jesus Christ for the clearing of it St. Paul in his first Epist to Timothy 4. chap. v. 1. saith thus The Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils speaking Lies in Hypocrisie forbidding to Marry and commanding to Abstain from Meats which God created to be received with thanksgiving Now the Pope does forbid Bishops and Priests to marry and tho she alloweth both the one and the other to have Concubines yet he will not suffer either a Bishop or a Priest to be joined to a Wife by lawful Matrimony He also prohibiteth and that upon pain of Damnation the eating of Flesh in Lent and upon Fryday So that from hence he is a seducing Spirit a Teacher of Lies and a False Prophet Iesus Christ likewise says in the 24 Chapter of St. Matthew v. 24 25 26. that there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great Signs and Wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very Elect. Behold I have told you before wherefore if they shall say unto you behold he is in the Desert go not forth behold he is in the secret Chamber believe it not He must be under a supernatural blindness who doth not in this Prophesie of the Son of God see the Doctrine of the Real Presence as the Pope teacheth it by his Emissaries 'T is in vain that the Papists seek to relieve themselves from this Exposition by flying to the Testimony of the Fathers because none of them have taken notice of the Real Presence in this passage as we pretend to do For how should the Ancient Fathers observe a thing of which there had then nothing appeared in the Doctrine of the Church It being in the beginning of the ninth Age that Paschasius first brought it upon the stage and it not being received and authorised by the Pope till in the eleventh How could the Fathers then that lived in the first 800. years divine of an event for which they had no foundation towards the bottoming a Conjecture seeing from Adam down to this day there was never any thing seen like it In a word the Fathers were not Prophets and their knowledg was bounded as well as that of other men It being so we are not to wonder that the Fathers did not understand the meaning of this Prediction of our Saviour before it came to be cleared by the Accomplishment which is the only sure Interpreter of Prophesies But if we do not understand it after the help of having seen its completion we shall have no excuse to alledg for our selves For all the Characters of the Real Presence of Christ's Body do evidently appear in this Prediction This Presence as it is taught by the Pope is invisible begetteth Adoration and placeth Christ in a Box or Cupboard which the Papists stile the Pix yea in many Boxes and is founded upon Miracles And if all these Characters be found in the Prophesie of our Saviour what can we desire more towards our being convinced that Iesus Christ foretold it as a false Doctrine that should be advanced by a False Prophet Now it is apparent that all these Characters are found in the Doctrine here predicted by our Saviour 1. The Presence here spoken of is Invisible because Iesus Christ tells us that the false Prophets shall say Lo here is Christ lo he is there To what End would he say of the Presence of a true Human ' Body Behold it is here behold it is there if it were not to instruct us that this Presence shall be invisible and according to the manner of a Spirit For if it were visibly present there would be no need to be advertised of its presence Nor would Iesus Christ have said Believe it not For how would he forbid to believe a presence of his Body that should visibly appear Would he have us to contradict the Testimony of our own Eyes 2. The Advertisement Behold he is here lo he is there can be given upon no other design but to intimate
consummation of all Ages They have reason to disclaim the opinion of the ancient Millenarians as carnal and absurd But there is no cause of counting it a carnal opinion to believe that the Church shall enjoy Tranquillity and Peace for a thousand years during which time she shall have no visible Enemies by whom to be oppressed Antichrist being totally destroyed and all the Nations of the world enlightned with the knowledg of the Truth In a word to believe as is the common opinion now that the thousand years Reign shall be spiritual and that it will consist in this that the number of true Christians shall be greater than ever it hath been their knowledg more large their Assemblies more holy their Love more strong their Zeal more ardent and that there shall be a most perfect peace both inward and outward Neither hath Jesus Christ nor have his Apostles said that the Cross and Tribulations shall be the Livery of Christians and the path to Paradise to the end of the world nor have they any where declared that the Church is never to enjoy any long peace here on the Earth For both St. Iohn and the Prophets give us ground to hope for such a calm and Tranquillity As for St. Iohn it was not possible for him to speak of it in a more express manner than he hath here done For after he had foretold the destruction of Babylon of the Beast and of the false Prophet whose rage had wearied the Church with so many persecutions and for so many Ages he doth now represent Satan's being cast into prison that he might not deceive the Nations for the space of a thousand years How can the Church be persecuted during this whole time wherein Satan shall be bound and the Nations no more deceived the Papacy being either wholly abolished or so weakned that it cannot lift up its head This peace of the Church is then a natural and an infallible consequence of Satan's being cast into Prison St. Iohn further added I saws say's he the Souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Iesus and which had not worshipped the Beast and they reigned with Christ a thousand years this is the first Resurrection This Reign can be nothing but a State of Tranquillity and of a profound Peace of the Church because it is set in opposition to her state of Bondage Trouble and Oppression during the cruel and bloody Reign of Antichrist As to this first Resurrection it cannot be meant of that from the Grave of Sin which is the Souls Conversion and Sanctification For St. Iohn designs it by the Relative This because of its reference to what he had said Now he had not spoken one word of the Resurrection from Sin but had discoursed only of living and Reigning with Christ a thousand years and of Thrones that were given whereon to judg i. e. to reign which expresseth a flourishing condition of the Christian Church and that she is to have sway and Authority over all the world for a thousand years But it can no way 's agree to that Resurrection which consisteth in Sanctification Is it then to be thus that the Martyrs are to be raised and to live on the Earth a thousand years with Jesus Christ It is certain that this opinion containeth nothing that interferes either with Reason or with Faith. For this being the only place of the Bible wherein this particular Resurrection of the Martyrs is spoken of and that in all other places the general Resurrection is mentioned 't is most safe and most agreeable to the Analogy of Faith as well as most conformable to the Stile of the Prophets to understand by this Resurrection the deliverance of the Church from all her Enemies and her State of peace and Tranquillity For Afflictions being called a Death Ezek. 37. 2 3. Isaiah 26. 14 19. and 2 Cor. 1. 9 10. by consequence Deliverance from Afflictions may be called both a Resurrection and a first Resurrection not only because it goes before the general but because it is a pledg and a forerunner of it They whom Babylon had condemned to death as Hereticks were esteemed by her Followers to be damned and to undergo the second Death But when the Church shall come to be delivered from her Enemies her Martyrs shall then be fully justified And when she comes to Reign a thousand years her Martyrs shall then be acknowledged to be happy and to be Reigning with Christ Thus it is clear that they shall be blessed who have part in this first Resurrection And herein the Martyrs will have a part because their Honor shall be established and their Memory universally blessed But it may be said that this seems to import that all who shall live in the Communion of the Christian Church during the time of the 1000. years Reign shall be saved and that all they who have part in this first Resurrection shall be delivered from the power of the second Death If one should believe so it would be no Heresie nor can the will of God concerning this be known by any nor how far he will extend the effusion of his Grace It may be that he will then pour out his Spirit upon all Flesh and that all Christians then shall be really and in truth a willing People in the beauties of Holiness a Holy Nation and a Royal Priesthood And it would seem as if St. John favoured this opinion in that he saith not meerly blessed is he but Blessed and Holy is he who hath part in the first Resurrection At the least we may truly say that whereas hitherto Worldlings and Hypocrites have exceeded the number of sincere Christians the thousand years Reign will shew us the contrary and that more than a third part of the seed of the word shall then fall into good and honest Hearts and shall bring forth eighty and a hundred for one Nor is there any thing carnal in this Millenarian opinion but all doth become the magnificency of the Prophecies and all is suteable to the wisdom of God and to the infinite riches of his Grace Nor is it St. Iohn alone who hath promised this Reign of a thousand years but Daniel and Isaiah have also promised it tho' less clearly than this Apostle as there was reason Daniel says in his second Chap. v. 35 44 45. that the Image which appeared to the King of Babylon in his Dream was broken in pieces by a little stone cut out of a Mountain and that this little Stone cut out without a hand became a great Mountain and filled the whole Earth This little Stone is the Christian Church the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which is to out-live the destruction and ruin of the Papal Roman Empire represented by the Feet of the Image and that after the subversion of all Empires which are contrary to this of the Son of God it is to spread it self throw all Nations This is not yet fulfilled but it must be
had expressed the sufferings that were past For the Martyrs having demanded how long Lord ere thou avenge our Blood It was answered unto them that they should yet rest for a little season until their fellow Servants also and their Bretheren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled So that as the complaint of the Martyrs expresseth the persecutions of the Church under the Pagan Emperors the answer is a prediction of the sufferings which the Church was to undergo under the Papal Antichristian Kingdom Moreover we may here observe who it is that is a true Martyr They are those who are slain for the Word of God. So that this Title cannot be denyed to Protestants because it is only out of hatred to their Religion that they are killed Nor are they put to death for any other cause but for the Word of God and for the holding that their Religion is certain supported by a Soveraign and Divine Authority full and sufficient for Salvation And is not the maintaining the rights and perfections of Gods Word a maintaining of Gods cause Is it not to die for Jesus Christ to suffer death because they will not consent to the injuries which the Papists do to his Gospel V. 12. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth Seal and lo there was a great Earth-quake and the Sun became black as sackcloth of Hair and the Moon became as Blood. V. 13. And the Stars of Heaven fell unto the Earth even as a Fig tree casteth her untimely Figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind V. 14. And the Heaven departed as a Scrowl when it is rolled together and every Mountain and Island were moved out of their places V. 15. And the Kings of the Earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief Captains and the mighty men and every Bondman and every Freeman hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the Mountains V. 16. And said to the Mountains and Rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. V. 17. For the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand There appeareth not here any Horseman nor any living Creature no more than there did at the opening of the fifth Seal and the reason is because what is concealed under this Seal extendeth not through the whole course of the History of the Roman Empire and of the Church of God. Seeing that which is comprehended under this Seal is only one of the Revolutions that was to befall the Roman Empire There were three changes to overtake it By the first it was to pass from Paganism to pure and uncorrupted Christianity By the second it was to pass from pure and simple Christianity to a Christianity mixed and corrupted which is no other thing but Antichristianism or Popery And by the third it is to pass and return from Christianity corrupted and from Popery to a Christianity that is pure and freed from all the Errors and Superstitions of Antichrist This last change will be under and upon the effusion of the Vials and the Reformation that was made the last Age is a sample and earnest of it The Second was to appear under the Trumpets And the first was that which came to pass under this sixth Seal In all the changes there is spoken of the Heaven of the Sun of the Moon of the Stars of the Sea of Earthquakes of the removing of Mountains because it is the stile of the Prophets to express Revolutions which fall out in the world with reference to Religion in terms that agree to a change in the whole Universe Thus the Apostle St. Peter Act. 2. 14. c. applyeth the Prophecy of Ioel to the establishment which God begun to give unto the Christian Religion by the pouring forth of the Holy Ghost In that day I will pour out of my Spirit upon all Flesh and on my Servants and on my Handmaidens and they shall prophesy and I will shew wonders in Heaven above and signs in the Earth beneath Blood and Fire and Vapours of Smoak the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into Blood. 'T is not probable that the Holy Spirit should omit that memorable change which befel the Empire when the Emperors were no more Heathen Persecutors but Christian Favourers of the Gospel which if it be not comprehended under this Seal there is not the Footstep or mention of it in the whole Revelation And withal that Event doth accord the best of the World with this Vision For if the Enemies of Christs name appear here astonished desperate hiding themselves in the Mountains and crying to the Rocks fall on us and hide us from the Wrath of the Lamb all this accordeth admirably with the Event For History recounts unto us how the Judgments of God fell after a terrible manner upon the five last Heathen Emperors who had persecuted the Christians with an unbridled rage Diocletian and Maximian voluntarily laid down the Imperial Dignity being pressed to it by the sole remorse of their Consciences which gave them no quiet Maxentius was thrown headlong from the Milvian Bridg into the Tyber and in that very place where he had laid an Ambush for Constantin Maximin who had pulled out the Eyes of Christians lost his own Eyes by a disease that was as loathsome as it was painful and Lieinius was murthered by the Garrison of Thessalonica After that Constantin was arrived at the Empire all the Edicts against the Christians were repealed the Christian Religion was established by publick Authority the Idolatrous Temples were either pulled down or consecrated to the service of the true God their Altars were overthrown and the Heathens being stript of all Honors were sent into the Villages from whence they came to be stiled Pagans that is Inhabitants of the Villages a Title by which the Christians had been denominated before V. ILLUSTRATION Of the four Angels that withheld the four Winds and of the Angel that had the Seal of the living God. REV. CHAP. 7. V. 1. After these things I saw four Angels standing on the four corners of the Earth holding the four Winds of the Earth that the Wind should not blow on the Earth nor on the Sea nor on any Tree V. 2. And I saw another Angel ascending from the East having the Seal of the living God and he cried with a loud voice to the four Angels to whom it was given to hurt the Earth and the Sea. V. 3. Hurt not the Earth neither the Sea nor the Trees till we have sealed the Servants of our God in their foreheads IF those four Angels be good Angels then the withholding the four Winds must be something likewise that is good And that they are good Angels appeareth from thence because the Angel that had the Seal of the living God spake unto them as Angels of God. Hurt not says
of the Iesuites who are justly esteemed for great Masters in hypocrisy 11 'T is said of these infernal Locusts that they had a King over them which is the Angel of the bottomless pit whose name in the Hebrew is Abaddon but in the Greek Appollyon The Iesuites have also a King whom they vow to obey implicitely in all things This King is the Pope The Holy Spirit clearly expresseth him by the Term Abaddon For this Abba signifieth Father as well as that of Pope doth But the Holy Spirit makes him an Abaddon an Appollyon which signifieth destroyer This King of the Locusts is an Idol who will destroy all that worship him And this is to worship him to believe him Infallible and to render him a blind obedience and which knows no limits 12 Finally it is said of these Locusts of the bottomless pit that their power was to hurt men five moneths If the Holy Ghost had mentioned this only once we might have thought that it was only a bare allusion to natural Locusts which do neither make a noise nor do appear save from May till September But the Holy Spirit not being satisfied with the mentioning of it at the beginning of this description of the Locusts v. 5. but repeating it again at the end v. 10. he do's thereby inform us that he intendeth more than a bare Allusion and that he would hereby mark out unto us the time allotted and prescribed to the Iesuites for them to exercise their power in and in which they are to be so formidable every where in the world This Time is designed by five Moneths which are without doubt of the same nature with the fourty and two mon'ths which make up the duration of the Beasts Kingdom and which shall be proved to be prophetick mon'ths whereof each amounteth to thirty years According to which exposition five mon'ths signisie one hundred and fifty years forasmuch as five times thirty make 150. 'T is already more than 150 years since the Iesuites have been in the world But it is not the duration of that Society from its first Institution to its End that is here treated of That alone which is here intended is the Time that their power should continue And if you ask what power I say that to torment men Now they received this power but from the Pope The Pope did not give it unto them otherway's than by the Bull by which he confirmed their Society Nor was this Bull granted till the year 1540 that Pope Paul III. Emitted it in the mon'th of October 'T is in the vertu ' of this Bull that the Iesuites have had esteem and that they have authority to do all the mischief that they have done within the bounds of the Papal Kingdom From whence it may follow that they shall not be in a condition to torment men for above three years from this time For being now in the year 1687. there are 147 years run out since the date of the Bull of Pope Paul III So that there seem to remain but three years until their having accomplished their five prophetical Mon'ths and until their having exercised their power of Tormenting men for 150 years But if any in order to lessen the probability which is in this conjecture shall object that there have been at least 23. Bulls published in favour of the Iesuites from the year 1540 until the year 1598 and that by five Popes namely Paul III. Iulius III. Pius IV. Pius V. and Gregory XIII and that the power to Torment was not given unto the Iesuites at once but successively aud by degrees each Bull advancing their priviledges And that therefore we cannot define the precise time when this power begun so as to be able to determine from thence when it shall end I answer that none of the following Bulls having derogated in any one priviledg from the first Bull it is but reasonable that we should fix and take up at the first which was granted in the mon'th of October 1540 forasmnch as it was that which established the Society and which is the foundation of all the other Bulls It seems impossible either to destroy or to weaken the power of these Locusts in that they have so strongly established themselves in the Courts of all Princes Nor is there any appearance that Monarchs should attempt it seeing they imploy them in their affairs of State as well as in those which relate to their Consciences But nothing is impossible to God who is the Protector of Kings and who holds their hearts in his hand He hath marked out unto the Iesuites the duration of their power And it shall not exceed five mon'ths continuance which is the same with that of 150 years It is withal extreamly probable that God will make use of Kings for destroying the power of the Locusts as he will serve himself of them for the subverting of Babylon and as he had imploy'd them for the ruin of the Templers who were not near so much hated as the Iesuites are and whose vast Revenues was the greatest reason that Princes had to rid themselves of them and to seise their Estates The Crimes whereof they were accused were but in truth a pretence It may yet be objected against this exposition that the Locusts arose out of the bottomless pit under the fifth Trumpet and that it is more than five prophetical Mon'ths more than 150 years from the sounding of the fifth Trumpet to the Sounding of the sixth under which we now are And by consequence that the Iesuites are not the Locusts seeing they did not appear till under the sixth Trumpet So that the five Mon'ths of the duration of the power of the Locusts must be ill apprehended and ill explained I answer that if the two and forty Mon'ths of the continuance of the Beasts Kingdom amount each of them to thirty years as shall be demonstrated in its place we are not to question but that these five prophetick Mon'ths being indisputably such as they are must constitute 150 years 'T is true that there is a great deal more than an hundred and fifty years to be allowed for the course of the fifth Trumpet to the sixth under which we live and under which the Iesuites came into the world But we laid this down as a foundation at first that all Monks and Fryers are represented by the Locusts as there is no part of the Character of the Locusts but which agrees to them all And tho' the Iesuites be risen above 300. years after the Cordeliers and the Iacobins yet it doth not follow that they ought not to be ranked with those Orders that sprung up before seeing they all make but one Body of Regulars and are all equally both the Creatures and the Supporters of the Pope And the reason why the Holy Spirit had the Jesuites chiefly in his aim is because they are the accomplishment of this new Pharisaism the top of the Mystery of Iniquity and the last as