Gods. They placed these Gods in the Stars as souls in bodies therefore the Greeks called them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 runners as always going and always running as Plato saith in the Dialogue entitled Cratylus These Gods were so very much above the others that they believed them only immortal for the same Plato saith somewhere that the inferiour Gods were not immortal by their nature They called these inferiour Gods Daemons and they ascribed this distinction to Zoroaster In lib. de defectu graculorum They saith Plutarch seem to have removed great difficulties who have establisht a species of spirits called Daemons between the Gods and men They have found that they are these Daemons that do unite us with the great Gods and do conciliate them to us whether this Doctrine cometh from the Magi and Zoroaster or whether it drew its original from Thrace by Orpheus or from Egypt or from Phrygia The Papism makes no more distinction between the Saints and God than the Heathens did between the Gods and Daemons The Papism acknowledgeth the very same distinction And they must not tell us that it supposes but one Soveraign God and no inferiour Gods for the Saints are its true inferiour Divinities It calls them Divus and Diva as well as he was called Divus Augustus The Heathens put the very same difference between their great Gods and their inferiour ones as the Papism doth between God and the Saints For the superiour Gods were almighty and eternal and the other were created by the great Gods did not act but according to their orders and were not immortal in their own nature The Papists can't make a greater distinction between God and the Saints than this The Daemons were Mediators between God and men The superiour Gods of the Heathens were according to them so heavenly so sublime and so pure that they could not by themselves have any commerce with men nor abase themselves so far as to take care of humane affairs to govern them immediately and by themselves Therefore they establisht a kind of Daemons Plato in Symposio to be as Mediators and Agents between the Soveraign Gods and mortal men said Plato God doth not converse with men saith the same Author but all commerce between God and men is by the mediation of Daemons The Daemons are Messengers and Interpreters that come from God to men and go from men to God. They bring to men the presents of the Gods and to the Gods the prayers and homage of men He that would see this Theology more at large may find it in Plutarchs discourse de Defectu Ordculorum In Apuleius de Deo Socratis in Jamblichus de mysteriis and above all in Saint Austin in the eighth Book of the City of God with Ludovicus Vives's notes Now one drop of water is not more like another than this Pagan Theology is to that of the Papism God and Jesus Christ say they who are their great Gods are too sublime for us to address our selves directly to them We must have mediatours that may be more of our rank the souls of Saints and the Angels do this office for us They are the interpreters of our thoughts and our wants before God and they receive commission to do us good an serve us Therefore it is that prayers are addressed to them Therefore 't is that cures and deliverances are expected from them Lastly therefore 't is that men put themselves under their protection Hesiod the first author of the deifications of souls the first order of Daemons In the heathen Theology the mediators spirits were of two sorts One were humane souls the other separate intelligences The most ancient of the Greeks in which we see this deification of souls expresly is Hesiod who saith that by the counsel of Jupiter the great men after their death are establisht guardians and patrons of mortal men inspectors of their good and evil works destributors of riches and that in this consists their royal dignity Therefore afterwards this sort of Gods were called the Gods of Hesiod Plato entirely adopted this Theology and Eusebius quotes from this Philosopher these words touching the Heroes Euseb l. 3. c. 11. de praepar Evang. We will for the future serve and adore their sepulchers as of the Daemons following the advice of the Oracle Those that have the smallest acquaintance with the Pagan Theology and History The Laws of ancient Rome about the worshipping of Saints exactly like those of new Rome know this that the greatest part of their Gods were deified men They themselves made no secret of it it may be seen in Plutarch's book about the ceasing of Oracles The Laws of ancient Rome are express and remarkable hereupon Divos illos qui coelestes semper beati habiti sunt colunto eos quos in coelum merita vocaverint That the Saints should be worshipped as well those that had been always esteemed the happy inhabitants of Heaven as those that by their merits have been exalted into Heaven See another Roman Law like it Deorum manium jura sancta sunto hos letho datos divos habento That the rights of the Gods Manes should be inviolable and that they should be reputed for Saints after their death Is there not an admirable Providence in this that new Rome hath re-establisht the same Laws almost in the same terms And who can doubt after this whether Antichristian Rome hath renewed ancient Rome's Doctrine of Daemons A second rank of Demons separate spirits But besides these men become Daemons that ancient Pagan Theology did acknowledge others that were always such and that never had been men All the monuments of Paganism that we have are full of this Theology Apuleius expresses it in these words De Deo Socratis There is another sort of Daemons that are superiour and more august who being free from the bonds and dis-engaged from the chains of body have each of them received a certain particular strength and power 'T is from this rank of superiour Daemons that Plato hath taken those Daemons of which he believes every man hath one all his life time for a witness of his actions and a guardian How is it possible that one should not perceive this perfect conformity between the Pagan Theology and the popish Theology The Papists also make two sorts of mediatory spirits Exactly as the Heathens did so do the Papists make two orders of spirits that are the mediatours and protectors of men humane souls or glorified Saints and Angels naturally separate from matter The Heathens took Guardians from among those Daemons who had never been men the Papists assign to each man a guardian spirit but he is taken out of the order of Angels They call him the guardian Angel and every devout person recommends himself to his guardian Angel when the undertakes any thing of danger The Papism in the crection consecration and worship of Images hath perfectly
very little importance to know by what Spirit this hath been expresly said by that of the Prophets or that of St. Paul seeing it is the same Spirit And besides this we shall have occasion to say something o fit in one of the following Chapters CHAP. XXII The Characters of Antichrist in the Papism confirm'd by the great type of Antichrist Antiochus Epiphanes That which is spoken literally of this Antiochus agrees mystically to the Pope and the Papism THere is but one spring more whence I would draw the Characters of the Antichristian Empire viz. those Chapters of the Revelation of the Prophet Daniel where the most famous of the persecutors of the Jewish Nation is literally spoken of and the most fatal persecution that Nation endured The first Text of this prophecy is found in the 28th verse of the 11th Chapter to the end In the 28th verse of the 11th Cha of Daniel Antinchus Epiphanes is found according to the letter 28. Then shall he return into his Land with great riches and his heart shall be against the holy covenant and he shall do exploits and return to his own Land. 29. At the time appointed he shall return and come toward the south but it shall not be as the former or as the later 30. For the Ships of Chittim shall come against him Therefore he shall be grieved and return and have indignation against the holy covenant so shall he do he shall even return and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant 31. And arms shall stand on his part and they shall pollute the Sanctuary of strength and shall take away the daily sacrifice and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate 32. And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries but the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits 33. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many yet they shall fall by the sword and by the flame and by captivity and by spoil many days 34. Now when they shall fall they shall be holpen with a little help but many shall cleave to them with flatteries 35. And some of them understanding shall fall to try them and to purge and to make them white even to the time of the and because it is yet for a time appointed 36. And the King shall do according to his will and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above very God and shall speak mà rvellous things against the God of Gods and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished for that that is determined shall be done 37. Neither shall he regard the God of his Father nor the desire of Women nor regardany God for he shall magnify himself above all 38. But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces and a God whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold and silver and with precious stones and pleasant things 39. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange God whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory and he shall cause them to rule over many and shall divide the land for gain 40. And at the time of the end shall the King of the South push at him and the King of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots and with horsemen and with any Ships and he shall enter into the Countries and shall overflow and pass over 41. He shall enter also into the glorious Land and many Countreys shall be overthrown but these shall escape out of his hand even Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon 42. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the Countries and the Land of Egypt shall not escape 43. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver and over all the precious things of Egypt and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps 44. But tidings out of the East and out of the North shall trouble him Therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many 45. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas and in the glorious holy mountain yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him I find a pretty great agreement among Interpreters on this Chapter and the Verses which we have just now read By those of both communions it is agreed that 't is Antiochus called Epiphanes one of Alexander's successors that is here literally spoken of It is the very same that the other Prophecy respects in the eighth Chap. where the H. Spirit having represented to Daniel in a vision the Empire of the Medes and Pèrsians under the Emblem of a Ram with two horns he describes the Empire of the Greeks under the Emblem of a he-goat that had at first only one horn in the middle of his fore-head which being broken four other horns less than the first came in its place Afterwards from one of these four horns comes forth a little horn of which the prophecy thus speaks C. 8. v. 9 And out of one of them came forth a little horn which waxed exceeding great toward the South and toward the East and toward the pleasant land v. 10. And it waxed great even to the host of Heaven and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground and stamped upon them 11. Yea he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away and the place of his sanctuary was cast down 12. And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression and it cast down the truth to the ground and it practised and prospered 13. Then I heard one Saint speaking and another Saint said unto that certain Saint which spake How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot 14. And he said unto me unto two thousand and 300. days then shall the sanctuary be cleansed 'T is also to the same Antiochus that we must refer the whole 12th Chapt. of the same book of Daniel C. 12. v. 1. And at that time shall Michael stand up the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a Nation even to that same time and at that time shall thy people be deliver'd every one that shall be found written in the book 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the Earth shall wake some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame and contempt 3. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firnament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever 4. But thou O Daniel shut up the words and seal the book even
Elias are transformed into those two witnesses that were to prophecy clothed in sack-cloth for three years and a half which are the days of Antichrist There was no colour for making Enoch and Elias sojourn on the Earth 1260. years So that it was necessary to take the 1260 years of which the Revelation speaks for so many natural days which make three natural years and a half The name of Antichrist made them believe he would call himself Christ The Temple of God where St. Paul saith that the son of perdition must sit hath made them think of the Temple of Solomon and they have concluded that Jerusalem was to be the seat of this Empire Consequently that Antichrist must be a Jew and for the reasons we have observ'd above he must moreover be of the tribe of Dan and by consequence a single person Behold the visions which St. Irenaeus vends in his fifth book against Haeresies Why Antichrist was not known fooner The Fathers did copy one another without consideration visions for which we are apparently indebted to him that forged the false Oracles of the Sibyls in the second age They that came after him adopted these vain imaginations and added others to them The Ancients did copy one another almost without any judgement and always without consideration Those that were very fond of this vain phantome of a Chimerical Antichrist could not discern the Character of the true Antichrist The later ages have been much more enlightned The differences of the Popes with the Kings of Europe particularly with the Emperors open'd the eyes of many and made them see the Antichristian Empire in Rome Christian But being in part very fond of the old Idea of Antichrist in part being kept in by that respect they had for a See which they believed was once the Chair of Saint Peter in part through cowardice and want of zeal and above all because the time designed by providence was not yet come they stopt in the way and never reached to a perfect Idea of the Antichristian Empire And in this manner the prejudices the ignorance the passions the interest of the flesh and the subtilty of the Devil have detain'd the truth in profound darkness till in these later times God hath set them in a perfect light But one can't sufficiently wonder that in so great a light yet there have been two persons sufficiently prepossessed or ill enough disposed for the mistaking this Antichrist The learned Grotius and Dr. Hammond have unhappily and to the scandal of all Protestants used great endeavours to turn these prophecies of the Revelation another way The one through his being wedded to the papism which he defended with all his might against the late Andrew Rivet And the other apparently for the same reason as Grotius and it may be so through his jealousy for the Episcopal order imagining that if the Pope who caâ—â—â— himself the head of the Bishops should be made Antichrist some disgrace would redound thence to the whole Episcopal order But Joseph Mede the learned Vsher Arch-bishop of Armagh the learned Andrew Willet and so many other learned English men that appear so zealously for the government and order of Bishops have continued to find Antichrist and the Pope in the descriptions which the prophecies have left us of him And to speak freely I am so strongly perswaded of this as an Article of the faith of the true Christians that I can't hold them for good ones who deny this truth after the events and the labours of so many great men have made it so very evident I reckon the blindness of the papists and of their favourers in this point among those prodigies wherein we must acknowledge something super-natural The end of the First Part. THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PROPHECIES OR THE Approaching Deliverance of the CHURCH A work wherein it is proved that the Papism is the Antichristian Empire that that Empire is not far from its ruin that the present persecution may end in three years and a half After which the destruction of Antichrist shall begin which shall be finished in the beginning of the next Age and lastly the Kingdom of Jesus Christ shall come on the Earth The second Edition Corrected and Enlarged by almost a third part and the explication of all the Visions of the Revelation and of many Chapters concerning mystical Theology Tome the second Written in French by Mr. PETER JURIEU the present Minister of the French Church at Rotterdam And from this second Edition faithfully Englished LONDON Printed in the Year 1687. THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PROPHECIES OR THE Approaching Deliverance of the CHURCH THE SECOND PART Of the end of the Antichristian Empire when it must be destroyed the circumstances of its ruin and what shall be the Estate of the Church after the ruin of that Empire CHAP. I. Of the duration of the Kingdom of Antichrist A refutation of that dream that it must last but three years and a half Ten Arguments which demonstrate that that supposition is false and impossible IN the First Part of this Work we have found Antichrist and the Antichristian Empire in this we proceed to seek out the time and the circumstances of its end That we may succeed well in this enquiry we must do four things I. We must know how long the Antichristian Empire must last II. We must see where we ought to begin the 1260 days which the Holy Spirit assigns it III. After-wards we shall see where they must end IV. And lastly we shall seek for that which hath not yet been found in the Revelation that is the circumstances of the fall of that Antichristian Empire We shall begin with that question which we have above laid down as the chiefest one that is The time of the duration of that Antichristian Empire The importance of this question whether Antichrist must reign 1260 days or 1260 years The Roman Church supposeth that this duration cannot be above three years and a half i. e. 1260. natural days and we pretend this must be understood of 1260. prophetical days which are 1260. years 'T is so important a matter that on this all the rest depends If this supposition of the duration of Antichrist meerly and simply for three years and a half be false all that the Roman Church saith of Antichrist is false And if we have reason to say that the Antichristian Empire must endure 1260. years this Empire must of necessity have begun a long time since and having begun a long time ago it must of necessity also be the papism This is therefore a particular which we must carefully mind and in the beginning we must lay down these three indisputable principles I. That the duration of the 1260. days wherein the woman in the 12th Chapt. of the Revelation must be fed in the desart which is also called in the same place a time The 1260 days The 42 months The three years and half a time
whether the Antichristian Kingdom shall be destroy'd by sword fire and bloodshed I see nothing in the whole Revelation which obliges us to believe so for though in this and several other passages the ruin of popery is painted out in expressions borrowed from war slaughter and bloodshed yea in the most terrible and high expressions nevertheless this may very well be understood figuratively for the destruction of Paganisme is painted out in almost the same expressions by the Prophets though it was brought to pass without bloodshed As the Kingdom of the Beast was formed without war by the sottish complaisance of the Kings of the Earth who suffered their power to be snatcht from them or rather did voluntarily surrender it so this Antichristian Kingdom may perish without weapon by a word of two Letters The Princes of the Earth need onely say NO and the tyranny of Antichrist will fall to the ground And as for Idolatry which is the other part of Antichristianism the word and grace of God must destroy it Nevertheless I am willing to submit to the general consent of Interpreters of both Communions who unanimously hold that in the ruin of the Antichristian Kingdom there shall be a great effusion of blood and that Babylon the capital City of that Kingdom shall be laid in ashes I am willing therefore to believe that there shall be some bloodshed not for any passages in the Revelation but for these two Reasons Rome must be miserably destroyed 1. The first that 't is not probable that the Pope and his Partisans will yield without resistance they will stand out and in defending themselves will attaque in which attaque they shall perish 2. The second it seems agreeable to the Divine justice that the City of Rome that for two thousand years is the Mistress of the World the tyrant of the universe which hath shed so much blood and has bin delug'd with so many impurities should be overwhelmed and the World be avenged Ierusalem who was not guilty of such excess is ruined by a dreadful destiny 'T is not probable that God makes ready a less destruction for the City of Rome Here the last lacking of Rome is fore-told If this be so this passage without doubt is one of those that foretell this bloody Tragedy The City which is spoken of here without the City must be Rome But we have said before and shall hereafter prove that this word ought to be taken only for Rome in conjunction with her Empire Here 't is Rome alone and not her Empire 'T is true but the reason is that when she shall be laid waste in the manner that is mention'd here she shall have no more any Empire all her Provinces shall be revolted she shall be left alone of her whole party so that in this place she ought to appear all alone And the City cannot signify any more then the City of Rome because she shall have no more any dependent Provinces excepting that which is called the patrimony of St. Peter which Joseph Mede believes is meant by these thousand six hundred furlongs For he saith that the Countrey that reaches from the walls of Rome unto the river Po contains 200 Italian miles which make exactly 1600 furlongs If this conjecture be true as 't is probable this signifies that all the forces which the Pope shall be able to get together shall be wholly destroy'd without the City i. e. without Rome in that part of the Country which lyes betwixt Rome and the River Po. CHAP. XII The explication of that part of the eleventh Chapter where the last persecution made by Antichrist is fore-told which is the present persecution in France The death of the two witnesses who shall not be buried by means of the succour brought by the enemies of France THe first Chapter in the Revelation where the ruin of Antichristianism is fore-fold is the eleventh We passed over it for the reasons above mention'd We come again to it at present and place it the last that we may place it according to the order of events We have observed that there is found in it an Epitome or short draught of the whole History of the Church from the resurrection of Jesus Christ untill his coming into the World to erect his Kingdom there The pure Church of the three first ages is hid under these words measure the Temple and the Altar and those that worship therein And the corrupted Antichristian one under the Gentiles who must tread under foot the holy City forty and two months That is the outward Court but the Court that is without the Temple leave out and measure it not for it is given to the Gentiles This outward Court as Vsher hath divinely explain'd it in his Prophecy signifies Christians in appearance whose Religion consists in the performance of some external duties of Christianiâ—y without having the inward life or the true Faith which should unite them to Jesus Christ But those who worship in the Temple and before the Altar are those who sincerely worship God in spirit and truth whose souls are his Temples in which he is adored and honoured with the most inward thoughts of their hearts and who offer unto him a constant sacrifice not onely of their lusts but of their whole selves Thus this holy man speaks and I confess that I see in his words the Character of the spirit of God. These are the true worshippers whom God does measure and whom he makes account of and these are those who possessed the Church during the three or four first ages But afterward the Church became an outward Court was filled with feigned worshippers who made Christianity to consist in an appearance of piety and in external Ceremonies Then God pronounc'd concerning this Court let it be given to the Gentiles for forty and two moneths Then Paganism Idolatry the worship of subordinate Gods Mediators and a thousand heathenish Ceremonies were introduced into Christianity And this outward Court these formal outside worshippers were given up to a spirit of error and superstition to begin Antichristianism and make it continue twelve hundred and sixty years We have also in this Chapter the Church under the Cross persecuted and hid in Babylon in the two Witnesses who prophesied cloathed in sackcloth a thousand two hundred and sixty days We have in it the sound of the last Trumpet and the thousand years reign of Jesus Christ and the Church For at the sound of the seventh Trumpet the Kingdoms of the Earch become Gods and his Christs Lastly we have in it a remarkable event which must come to pass at the end of the reign of Antichristian popery and 't is expressed in these terms V. 7. And when they shall have finisht their testimony the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them V. 8. And their dead bodies shall lye in the street of the great City
makes this renewed Paganism of Popery to be in less credit and esteem than formerly Men begin to disgust the popish superstitions They speak of the Invocation of Saints with contempt and boldly condemn the excess of it and call it Idolatry when they speak of it in private They wish Images were banisht from their Churches that it might not be a scandal and an offence to us They begin to confess that there was no necessity for the taking away the Cup. They acknowledge that a man may be saved without Indulgencies by the sole merit of I. Christ They would restore the reading of the Holy Scriptures to the People They suppress the Authority of the Pope and speak of it with scorn They despise his Thunders and if he begin to murmur they talk as loud or louder than he They indeavour to establish this Doctrine that under pretence of Religion or for the preservation of it 't is not permitted to subjects to take up arms They mollify and sweeten all the Doctrines of Popery I have taken notice of this in another place and again observe it this cannot hold long this state and posture of the Papacy is violent Since it is freely confest that the adoration of one God is sufficient without that of Saints and Images they must shortly conclude that for things unnecessary they ought not to scandalize one half of the Christian World and shut the Gate against the Iews and the Mahometans Never were there so many in the Church of Rome as now who acknowledge the vanity impurity of their Superstitions Every man hath the liberty of his own thoughts but I profess that to me these are great presages of the approach of the last work of God for the establishment of his Kingdom and the ruin of that of Antichrist My spirit was in this frame when this last and great Persecution in France began I therein took notice of several Characters that confirmed me in the belief that we were in the last times of the Period of 1260 years and that this is the last Persecution spoken of in the 11th Chap. Revel Singular Characters in the present persecution which presage that it shall be this last And when they shall have finiht their Testimony the Beast who ascendeth out of the bottomless Pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them And their dead Bodies shall lye in the street of the great City three days and a half For there are so many things singular and irregular in this Persecution that without prophaness and a denial of Divine Providence we cannot but acknowledge the hand of God therein 'T is singular and more than usual whether we consider the Authors of this Persecution and the manner of it or whether we consider the Subjects that suffer it and in what manner they suffer As to the Persecutors themselves There is First a Prince who hath the chiefest obligation to us for the Crown he wears which entred into his Family by the person of his Grand Father a Prince to whom we have always paid obedience and submission without the least shadow of Rebellion a Prince for whom we preserved the Crown in his minority and who hath not scrupled to testify that we did so a Prince who is wise and understanding as to his own Interests and those of the States of Europe who yet in despite of his own Interest hath done all that which the House of Austria would have dictated to him to do if she had imployed her Emissaries in his Council who destroys his own Subjects who makes innumerable Male-contents who throws eternal seeds of rebellion and war in his own Dominions who disobliges his Protestant Allies and alienates them in such a manner almost as never to be reconciled The Protestant States and Princes have been always the principal Allies of France Swede Denmark England the Low-Countries the Switzers and the Protestant Princes of Germany These are they that have supported it when the House of Austria threatned the liberty of all Europe And these are they who assisted France to humble the House of Austria so low as now it is and consequently that have advanced France to that point of Grandeur she is now at But Time will shew how great a wound France hath now made in the heart of all her ancient Allies We see already that this Persecution makes the discord and dissention cease that was between the Protestants and brings them nearer an union and reconciliation than before God will let us see something farther of that kind However it must be confest that there is something therein which is not to be understood by man that so wise a Court should violate all the rules of good policy which is the Soul of States and the spring of all their motions If we look upon the Clergy that seems to have been the Sollicitor of this Persecution it will appear no less extraordinary 'T is not an Ignorant and superstitious Clergy as was that of the last Century These are understanding and knowing persons Men of learning and prudence freed from the ridiculous affectation and prejudice of a Monastic Spirit who have little zeal for the Romish Ceremonies who flight their worship at least for the most part of it who have much knowledge of the Truth and at the bottom but very little Religion In a word they are such as know very well that we are not in the wrong or at least that altogether and in every thing we are not Nevertheless they persecute us more cruelly than the most furious Monks or inraged Inquisitors have ever done They act therefore against their own light which is so far very strange and surprizing But what is more astonishing they act against the most sacred Principles of their Religion There is nothing among them more venerable than the Sacraments and nothing esteemed more criminal than the violation of them To administer the Sacrament of Pennance to give absolution to a Sinner to an Heretick who is not penitent who saith and declares openly without hiding or concealing it that he perseveres from his very heart in his sin and Heresy and never renounc't it but by constraint and violence to give I say absolution to such a man according to the definition of their loosest Casuists 'T is Sacriledge to give the Sacrament of the Altar to a man that professeth he believes nothing of it and acknowledgeth nothing there but meer Bread 't is a Sacrilegious Communion Should it not affect the Hearts and even the Imaginations of those persecuting Bishops and Priests to think of the innumerable Sacriledges that by this means are every day committed They absolve a multitude of wretched People who protest that by meer force and violence they were constrained to sign the abjuration of their Religion and to get out of the hands of a thousand Executioners who devour'd and destroyed 'em and gave them no rest day or night The Priests and Bishops who
an house that is on Fire and that is ready to Fall I have good assurance that in three or four years it will be rebuilt therfore expecting that I must suffer my self to be burned in it or to perish under its ruines I am near a filthy and poisoned water in a little time some one will come and cleanse the fountain and render it wholsome in the mean time expecting that let us drink of it A man must be besides himself that should argue after this rate no less must he be that shall reason as these cowards and Apostates do Within some years the Reformation shall revive waiting for that I will continue in a wicked Religion wherin I cannot be saved I will pertake it its Idolatry and basely suppress the truth of God within my breast A sin of a quarter of an hour is enough to destroy a man Eternally and shall it be thought that the Idolatry and most shamefull Hypocrisy of two or three years are venial crimes To betray a mans Conscience and the Truth by one single act deserves Hell and they flatter themselves that God will Indulge them in a treason continued in for several years they who reason after this manner have they any revelation from God that they shall live three or four years longer or that they shall have the leasure to repent and what will become of them if they dye in that treasonable state so far is the Hope that I give from being capable to make them continue where they are that nothing can be more effectual to make them quit it Their Possessions and profit is that which retains them could they be perswaded that in a few years they should recover them again it would not be so difficult to forsake them now The other scandal which I know hath been taken is concerning the Reign of a thousand years many Divines in this country have greatly murmured at it even so far as to threaten to complain of me I am sorry it is so for I should be glad not to displease my Brethren In the mean time I patiently expect what they will do in it and by waiting I shall know whether our Conducters intend to make new Articles of faith and whether Cocceanisme be become an intolerable Heresy M. Cocceius upon the 11th Chap of the Apocalypse proves this Reign of Christ upon earth by the same passages and the same arguments as I do Except that he refers not to this the thousand years of the Dragon being bound in the 20th Chap. Since my arrival in these Provinces I have fallen in with nothing of that famous Divine but in this article If I should have agreed with him in some others I should not be a shamed of it and I know not what trouble any one can give me for one only article of agreement with many Able Divines who are Good men and very orthodox But I would fain know what it is in this opinion that so much offends these Gentlemen Is it any thing contrary to any Doctrine of faith and which doth directly or indirectly strike at the foundation It is worth while to know that such as can produce a little of their own and labour usefully for the glory of God if they hate the Spirit of Licentiousness are not like to become slaves to certain prevailing opinions only on this account because they are prevailing I shall conclude by advertising the Reader that he will find this second Edition to be inlarged throughout the whole book especially as to what is Prophetical in the Apocalypse which was not explained in the first Edition It was believed that by showing a compleat system of all the Events foretold in that book we should give the more light to each of the several Visions for we shall find that every thing is well followed and that the order of the Prophecies is the same with that of the Events or for the most part is so THE TABLE OF CHAPTERS Of the First PART Chap. I. OF the seven Epistles to the Seven Churches That in all probability they are not Prophetical The Thoughts of Interpreters thereupon Pag. 1 Chap. II. An Explication of the Vision of the four living Creatures and of the twenty four Elders contained in the fourth Chapter Pag. 19 Chap. III. The Key of the Revelation This book is no other than a comment on what Daniel saith in the seventh Ch. of his Revelations touching the fourth Beast and the fourth Monarchy Pag. 28 Chap. IV. The System of the seven Seals and the seven Trumpets that denote the great events and bring the World to its end Pag. 36 Chap. V. The Explication of the Vision of the six first Seals according as it is in the sixth Chapter of the Revelation Pag. 44 Chap. VI. An Explication of the four first Trumpets which are the five degrees of the fall of the Roman Empire or the Soveraignty of Rome Pag. 55 Chap. VII An Explication of the Visions of the fifth and sixth Trumpet wherein are seen the Empires of the Saracens and Turks Pag. 65 Chap. VIII The Explication of the tenth Chapter of the Revelation Pag. 76 Chap. IX A short System of all the Events of the Church which are noted in the Apocalypse and first of all an Epitome of the Chronology Pag. 83 Chap. X. A short System of the Events fore-told in the Revelation concerning the Church as to the Historical part Pag. 94 Chap. XI Several things that all are agreed on in reference to Antichrist which will serve to clear up those wherein we are not agreed Pag. 101 Chap. XII The Characters of Antichrist which we are not agreed about The false Antichrist of the Papists Pag. 107 Chap. XIII What are the true Characters of the Antichristian Empire They are three Tyranny Idolatry and great corruption of manners That we must not look on Tyranny alone as the sole Character of Antichrist Pag. 119 Chap. XIV That the three Characters of the Antichristian Empire do perfectly agree to the Empire of the Papism Proofs out of History and Prophecies Reflections upon the Prophecy in the second Chapter of the second Epistle to the Thessalonians and upon the end of the Roman Empire Pag. 127 Chap. XV. An Explication of the Vision of the thirteenth Chapter of the Revelation and of the two Beasts that appear therein Pag. 139 Chap. XVI The Explication of the seventeenth Chapter of the Revelation where the Empire of the Papism is plainly described Pag. 156 Chap. XVII Babylon in the seventeenth and eighteenth Chapters of the Revelation is Roman-Antichristian and Papal and not Rome Pagan Pag. 163 Chap. XVIII More proofs that the Characters of the Antichristian Empire do agree to the Papism A Proof drawn from the fourth Chapter of the first Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy The translation of that passage amended Pag. 177 Chap. XIX That the term of Apostacy is not too big to express the Papism by that Apostacy signifies Rebellion and Idolatry why
the other Churches of Asia and if any will have it so all those that were at that time in the world And he chose among these seven the names of the principal ones intending that the other lesser Churches should reckon that as spoken concerning their present estate which is spoken to the seven principal ones among them 2dly Who knows whether there were at that time more than seven considerable Churches in Asia The other were so very much below these for Dignity Grandure Excellency that the H. Spirit judged it not proper to make any account of them the Advertisements that he gives to these seven Churches being sufficient for the Disorders which might be in all the others which Disorders were apparently the same For 't is usuall enough for little flocks to follow the examples of the greater ones Lastly it doth not appear that the holy Spirit in what follows hath divided the duration of the Church since J. Christ's time to the end of the world or to the coming of Jesus Christ's Kingdom into seven Periods For the seven seals the seven Trumpets the seven Vialls do not each of them take up all time They succeed one another The seventh seal brings forth seven Trumpets the sixth Trumpet is subdivided into seven Vialls It had been very methodical in a Revelation after having obscurely mark'd out the seven Periods of the Church by the seven Epistles to describe the same times by seven other Characters more observable more distinct This is indeed what some modern writers do believe that God hath done pretending that the seven seals the seven Trumpets are co-temporary divide the duration of the Christian Church into seven Periods as the seven Epistles to the seven Churches do But this opinion will not appear probable to those that study the Prophecies the events with any application of mind I look on that as nothing that is said to support the mystery of the seven Churches viz. that we do not see that such things happened in the seven Churches of Asia which are there named as have any resemblance with what the H. Spirit saith to them How should we see it seeing we have not the particular History of those Churches in that time Besides tho we do not know the particulars of those events yet there is nothing in the seven Epistles which doth not very well agree with the Estate of the Church that then was without any necessity to seek out events mystically meant in future ages The applications that are made of the seven Epistles to the seven Periods are not happy The principal thing that hinders me from closing with the opinion of the Prophetical sense of the Epistles is that I do not find that the applications which are made of them to the Ages that have past since the Apostles do answer expectation 'T is true there are some places where the applications are not unhappy But seeing this is not to be met with every where I believe that they have hit luckily by chance Otherwise the Prophecy should every where agree with the events To the end one may better judge of the force of this last reason I shall set down two or three of the mystical interpretations that are given to these Epistles This will please those who cannot or will not go to seek them in their Springs I begin with that of Patrick Forbes a Scotch Divine The explication of the mystery of the seven Churches by Forbes that lived died in the beginning of this age According to him the Church of Ephesus signifies the Primitive Church of the three first Ages The Praises which the H. Spirit gives it I know thy works thy labour how thou canst not bear them which are evil c. These praises I say may well agree to the Church of the three first Ages But those which God gives to the Church of Thyatira afterwards are greater Yet 't is certain that the fourth Period of the Church did not come near the Church of the three first Ages in fervency purity The Nicolaitans that are spoken of in this Epistle to the Church of Ephesus may signifie all the Hereticks all the kinds being meant by one But seeing the Church of all Ages hath had its Hereticks this character can't distinguish this Period from the others The second Epistle is to the Church of Smyrna Forbes would have this to be the Period in which the Arrians Macedonians Nestorians Eutychians reigned That is to say that this Period will comprehend the fourth the fifth Age. But how can these words be applied to those Ages I know thy works thy Tribulation thy poverty but thou art rich I know the blasphemy of those that say they are Jews but are not but are the Synagogue of Satan See here are praises that are no whit inferiour to those that were given to the Church of Ephesus Yet 't is certain that the Church in these Ages was corrupted lost all the beauty it had in the three first Ages of the Church Its manners were corrupted its worship was marred by the invocation of Saints the worship of Reliques What will become of that Persecution of ten days that God predicts to this Church of Smyrna 'T is true the Church was persecuted under the Arrian Emperours but it doth not appear very well why this is described by number of ten days The third Epistle is directed to the Church of Pergamus according to Forbes this is the Period of the reign of Antichrist The foregoing Periods were but of two or three hundred years this must be above a thousand years Here is found something that is pretty like this Period I know where thou dwellest even where Satan's seat is To which may be added that the martyr Antipas spoken of in this Epistle signifies Anti-papa an Enemy opposing the Pope that this signifies all those that have opposed the tyranny of Antichrist But the rest doth by no means agree to this Period I know thy works that thou holdest fast my name hast not denied my faith These praises do by no neans belong to a Church so corrupt as was that of the third Period under the reign of Antichrist Thou hast them that hold the Doctrine of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the Children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto Idols to commit fornication By this must be meant those evil Christians that joined in with the Antichristian Idolatry Now these people are not well described by thou hast them for this imports that it was not the body of the Society And on the contrary under the Antichristian Empire the greatest part of men did partake of his abominations The fourth Epistle is directed to the Church of Thyatira to which the H. Spirit gives these great praises I know thy works Charity service Patience that thy last works are more than the
necessary to premise in the first place an Observation which I call the Key of the Revelation 'T is that this whole Book is nothing but a Paraphrase on what Daniel saith in the seventh Ch. of his revelations touching the fourth Beast Certainly this fourth Beast is the Roman Empire the fourth Monarchy And if some great strange events be found therin 't is always with respect to the Roman Empire that must endure to the coming of the Kingdom of J. Christ on the Earth VVhy God hath nor taken notice of other States in the Revelation The reason why God taking no notice of so many great events that happen without the bounds of the Roman Empire of the great Empires that are establisht the nations that are overturned the bloody Wars that are every where insists only on the fourth Monarchy or the Roman Empire is because god reveals not future events but with respect to the Church which he loveth which he conducts which he will instruct concerning his will. Now the Church was to be enclosed in or very near within the bounds of the Roman Empire I know that there were Christian-Churches in Persia it may be some in the Indies But all this was but a small matter Euphrates was the bounds of Christianity it spread it self but a little beyond it The Church therfore had no need to know that which should happen on the other side Euphrates nor to understand the foundation of the Empires of the Tartars the Kings of Persia the Mogulls the Chinois for all this had no respect to her Wherfore the Revelation saith not one word of them The Spirit of God also had no intention to instruct us in the adventures of the Empire of the Saracens that of the Turks but with reference to the fourth Monarchy Therfore we shall not see these two Empires that of the Saracens that of the Tarcks but only by the by in the fifth sixth Trumpets we shall not see them there but as the Scourges of God that fall on the fourth monarchy to vex to destroy it This observation is the Key of the Revelation For first it removes that difficulty which many make so great a stir about viz. that the Revelation as t is usually explained doth not at all touch on or if it doth 't is but by the by the greatest Revolutions of the World that happen'd in the East since 1200 years Yet once more it was not the work of him who would speak of nothing but the Church those Events that have in immediate reference to the Church Secondly This observation will teach us rightly to divide the times of the Revelation properly to apply the visions to each time to discover the events that are signified by those Visions We must know therefore that the fourth monarchy without comparison the greatest The division of the fourth Monarchy into two Periods most distinguished in the Prophecies is divided into two great periods The first is from the birth of Rome ab urbe conditâ which was the great Epocha of the Romans to the division of the Roman Empire into ten Kingdoms which was after the death of Valentinian the third about the year 455. For then the Empire was torn in pieces between the Greeks the Vandals the Goths the Burgundians c. it was I say divided into ten principal parts The second period of the fourth monarchy is since the division of the Empire among ten Kings the reunion of those ten Kings under one sole head that calls himself the universal Bishop to the end of this monarchy the coming of the fifth which is that of J. Christ on the Earth These two periods are very near of the same length viz. 1200 years or a little more The Lord J. Christ came into the world Anno V. C. 754. or 752. as Dionysius the lesser pretends The Empire was divided into ten Kingdomes about the year of J. Christ 455. i. e. in the year 1209 or 1207 of the city of Rome since that time under the Roman Gothish Kings the counting ab urbe conditâ was continued till the time of Dionysius the lesser a Roman Abbot a Scythian by nation who died in the year 540 according to Baronius who made his Paschal cycle in the year 527. T is about the year 530 that the Christian Aera began to be in use the counting by the years of J. Christ Then men left off counting ab urbe conditâ after they had used this Epocha about 1280 years However that be the period from the building of Rome to the division of the Roman Empire among ten Kings is more than 1200 years The second period of the fourth monarchy since its division among ten Kings to the end must be also above 1200 years The Prophecy makes it 1260 prophetical days i.e. 1260 years Now we must observe that in the time of St. Iohn i. e. in the time when he wrote the Revelation there was above two thirds of the first period of the fourth monarchy past gone For the wrote about the year 850 after the building of the city There remain'd therfore but a little more than 350 years of this first period But he had before him the whole entire second period of 1260 years Wherfore t is not very strange that he enlargeth himself much more on this later part than on the former So that we shall not find properly more than two chapters the sixth the eighth that respect this first period of the fourth monarchy and all the rest from the ninth ch inclusively to the 20th exclusively contains the events that belong to the period of the 1260 Years which is the second of the fourth Monarchy To render this truth more plain that the Prophecy of Daniel touching the fourth Monarchy is the Text on which the H. Spirit treats in the Revelation we must here view the Prophecy of Daniel apply it to divers parts of that of St. John. After this I saw in the night visions Dan. 7.7 behold a fourth beast dreadful terrible strong exceedingly it had great iron teeth It devoured brake in pieces stamped the residue with the feet of it it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it it had ten horns Daniel having asked the explication of this vision the Angel saith to him hereupon The fourth beast shall be the fourth Kingdom on the Earth v. 23. which shall be diverse from all Kingdoms shall devour the whole Earth tread it down break it in pieces This refers to the establishment of this Empire its conquests that were begun under the Consuls Dictators were finisht under the Emperours of which St. John. had seen a part some followed after him under whom also the Empire was always enlarged or at least preserved in its greatness even to the children of Theodosius It broke in
was establisht with a terrible havock such as a hideous monster that should rise out of the sea and of an enormous greatness would cause making the waves to foam blowing the water with his nostrills and sending out terrible bellowings 'T is the emblem of the manner wherby the Roman Empire was establisht This Beast hath seven Heads The Spirit explains this of so many Kings and so many mountains The seven heads are seven Kings and seven Mountains See here the Character of Rome together with its Empire It sits on seven Heads that is to say on seven Mountains and it had seven Kings that is to say seven forms of Soveraign Governments We have already reckon'd them up in the foregoing Chapter 1. Kings 2. Consuls 3. Decemvires 4. Tribunes of the people 5. Perpetual Dictators 6. Emperours 7. Popes He hath ten Horns The Prophet doth not say how these Horns were distributed on the Heads But however it is certain The ten Horns are only on the seventh head that they were all on the seventh Head that is to say on the Head of the Popes For 't is under the Papal Dominion that the Roman Empire is divided among ten Horns that is to say among ten Kings Europe that obeyeth the Pope is divided into ten Principal Kingdoms 1. Germany 2. Hungary 3. Poland 4. Suedeland 5. France 6. Spain 7. Italy 8. England 9. Portugal 10. Scotland The other Kingdomes and States were dependencies on these From the first division of the Roman Empire that happened in the fifth Age the partition was made among ten Kings also as we shall observe afterwards Horns always signify power in the Scripture this is known So that these ten Horns must be powers But no signify that these Powers are Soveraign ones and not subordinate the Spirit gives them Diadems They are Soveraigns in name but in truth they are dependents on the seventh head which is the Pope and the Papism For the Papism subjects all Kings to the Pope On the heads there is a name of blasphemy This is not on one of the heads but on all of them And the name of blasphemy is that of the Queen of the universe which she vvould always bear since she attained to her greatness Terrarum Dea Gentiumque Roma 'T is the title of Rome eternal as Saint Ierome hath observed Ad Algas quaeft 11. The Roman Emperours made themselves be called your Divinity They built Temples to them they burnt incense to their Genius they sacrificed to them The seventh head hath also its names of blasphemy The Pope is called his Holiness Vice-God God on Earth Vicar of Jesus Christ Rome under his Dominion is called infallible Rome eternal Rome The Dragon give him his power 'T is the Devil which gives to the Roman Empire the false Religion the idolatries and heresies by which it makes war against God the ambition the cruelty and the covetousness by which it makes war against men And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death 1.3 and his deadly wound was healed and all the world wondered after the Beast The Prophet doth not say what head was wounded but it can't be doubted but that it was the last save one For that which comes in the place of that which is wounded lasts to the end Therefore the head wounded to death must be the sixth and the resurrection of this head must make the seventh head or the seventh Government The sixth head is that of the Emperours 'T is wounded by the Goths and the Vandals The Roman Empire is destroyed But it rises again under another head and a new kind of government viz. that of the Popes De Donat Constant In the power of the Papacy is brought forth again if not the grandure of the ancient Empire yet at least a form of government that is not very much different from that by which all the nations once obeyed the Emperours 'T is the confession of Steuchus Bishop of Agobio All the World wondered after the beast The Earth being astonisht to see the Roman Empire establisht under the new name of the Roman Church follows this new Beast submits to this Church being ravisht with this dignity that appeared to list up Christianity to the height of grandeur it submitted to this Chimoera of the spiritual and temporal Principality of the Church of Rome And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies After this v. 5â— 't is only the seventh head that is treated of which is called the Beast simply because 't is the longest duration of the fourth Monarchy 'T is therefore this seventh head the Pope and the Papism that brings forth these great things Can there be any thing greater than that which the Roman Church saith of it self that she is the Spouse of Christ the Queen of all the Churches the infallible Judge of all controversies the Ark out of which there is no salvation the Divinity to which all nations must pay homage the common mother of all Christians the Soveraign of the Kings of the Earth that can depose them transfer their Crowns and give them to whom she thinks fit see the great things and these great things are blasphemies This is clear For to attribute that to her self which belongs only to God is to blaspheme And power was given to him to continue forty and two months 'T is still the seventh head that is treated of 'T is to it that the period of forty and two months of twelve hundred and sixty days that is to say of twelve hundred and sixty years is assigned 'T is clear that these forty two months do not respect the entire Beast that is to say the seven heads or the seven Governments for after the third verse 't is only the seventh head that is spoken of Moreover the seventh Monarchy in its whole extent hath lasted almost twice forty two prophetical months as we have before observed 'T is therefore the duration of the Antichristian Empire or of the second period of the fourth Monarchy that must be extended to 1260. years He opened his mouth in blasphemy against God. â— 6. 'T is to blaspheme God to attribute to it self his power as the Roman Church doth against his name that is to say against his glory The Papism ravishes away the glory from God to give it to the creatures Against his Tabernacle that is to say against his Temple and his Church in calling the true Children of God which are his house heretiques and schismaticks Against them that dwell in Heaven These are the Saints and Angels of whom the Papism makes idols and whom by consequence it greatly injureth And it was given to him to make war with the Saints v. 7. and to overcome them 'T is well enough known how the Papism hath employed Anathemaes thunders fire and sword to extinguish the truth and to destroy the faithful And I beheld another beast coming out of
seventeenth Chap. 17.8 That they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names are not written in the book of Life when they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is Fourthly The Beast in the 13th Chap. makes war with the Saints Chap. 13.7 and 't is given to him to overcome them That in the 17th Chap. carries a Woman Chap. 17. â— that makes her self drunk with the blood of the Saints Fifthly The Beast of the 13th Chap. receives a deadly wound in one of his heads which dies and rises again The Beast in the 17th Chap. was and is not Chap 7.7 8. and must ascend out of the bottomless pit or the deep was and is not and yet is Who doth not see that the latter is an explication of the former The Beast was and is not because his head hath been mortally wounded He is however and must ascend out of the bottomless pit because his deadly wound shall be healed and the Beast shall rise again Sixthly The Beast in the 13th Ch. hath ten horns which signify ten Kings That in the seventeenth hath likewise ten Horns and the ten Horns which thou sawest are ten Kings Why there is not a Woman sitting on the Beast of the 13th Chap. as there is on that of the 17th These so exact and perfect resemblances plainly shew that these two Beasts are one But why is there a Woman seen sitting on the second Beast and none upon the first we have already hinted the reason In the thirteenth Chap. there are two Beasts which by the confession of all Interpreters even the popish ones themselves signify one and the same thing only the Beast with the seven heads signifies the Empire and the Beast with two horns like those of a Lamb signifies the Religion And these two Beasts together signify the Roman Empire raised up under the name of the Church and under the outside of Religion In the 17th Chap. the second Beast which signifies the Religion doth not appear but in the place thereof appears a Woman riding upon the Beast to signify the Religion And this for the greater clearness because the seventeenth Chap. is an explication of the visions of the thirteenth For the greater clearness I say for the corrupted Church is much more clearly signified by a Woman than by a Beast In all the Scripture the Church is always represented to us as a Spouse and a Woman and the corrupt and idolatrous Church as a debauch'd Woman and an Adulteress This is too well known to need any proof Behold therefore this corrupted Woman this adulterous Spouse of J. Christ And the H. Spirit could not have described her in a more lively manner and more proper for us to know her This being supposed that the Beast in the thirteenth Chap. of the Revelations is the same with that in the seventeenth the later cannot be Rome Pagan because by the consent even of all the popish Interpreters the two Beasts in the thirteenth Chap. represent the Empire of Antichrist On this confession and upon what we have just now proved we argue thus The Woman in the seventeenth Chapter by the consent of the popish Interpreters is Rome And by the consent of the same Interpreters the Beast in the thirteenth Chap. is Antichrist Now according to what we have just now proved the Beast of the seventeenth Chapter and the thirteenth are one and the same Beast Whence it is clear that Rome must be the seat of Antichrist and that Rome in the seventeenth Chapt. is not Rome Pagan That Rome in the seventeenth Chapter is not Rome Pagan appears not only by the comparison Rome in the 17th Chap. is not Rome Pagan which we just before made of the two Beasts but also if we consider the Beast of the 17th Chap. all alone and without reference to that in the 13th Chapter God never calls the Pagan Societies VVhores and Adulteresses I. First of all there is a prostitute adulterous and debauch'd Woman sitting upon this Beast Every one knows that in the Holy Scriptures Adultery figuratively signifies Idolatry Now we shall never find any one single instance where the Holy Spirit calls the Pagan Societies Women and Spouses Whores and Adulteresses This name is given only to a corrupted Church And the reason is plain because the Pagan Societies having never plighted their faith to God have not broken it and never were his Spouse they are not therefore unfaithful and adulterous in his account So that this adulterous Woman cannot here be Rome Pagan but that Rome that hath plighted her faith to Jesus Christ and broken it that Rome that styles her self the Spouse of Jesus and yet doth prostitute her self to others Secondly This Women is represented to us as having in her hand a Cup of abominations of her whoredoms of which she makes all the World to drink i. e. she endeavours to draw all the Nations of the Earth to her Idolatry Now Rome Pagan never troubled her head to change the Religion of those people she had conquer'd nor to force them to worship the same Gods as she did On the contrary every one knows she carried strange Gods in Triumph and built Temples for them within her own walls Thirdly These words the Beast which thou sawest was and is not and must ascend out of the bottomless pit or the deep can by no means agree to Rome Pagan For this plainly signifies that the Empire spoken of must perish and be swallowed up and afterwards be re-established Now Rome Pagan and its Empire have been swallowed up but as Rome Pagan it is not raised up again Besides we may observe by the by that we do not deny but that Rome Pagan is represented by this Beast for the Beast represents the Roman Empire in its whole duration and in both its periods the Pagan period and the Antichristian period The Beast which thou sawest was and is not there is the Pagan Period and must ascend out of the bottomless pit or the deep there is the Antichristian period Fourthly It is said of this Beast And the Inhabitants of the earth whose names are not written in the book of Life shall wonder seeing the beast which was and is not and yet is This signifies that men shall give him homage and that this homage shall be given to him only by the enemies of Jesus Christ and the Reprobates It is not therefore Rome Pagan for the true Christians obeyed and gave a voluntary homage to the Roman Empire in its Pagan period just as the other subjects of the Empire But since it was raised up again and is no longer what it once was they have no longer obeyed it Fifthly That which is said of the ten Kings can by no means agree to Rome in its Pagan Period The ten Horns which thou sawest are ten Kings which have not yet begun to reign but shall receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast v. 12.
forced to it by the vertue of Reliques and merit of a Saint A blind man received his sight by putting a cloth to his eyes that had touched the Coffin of the Martyrs The people by their credulity make such sort of Miracles every day The Miracles were false ones St. Austin had a good share of this credulity But though it were true the Devil might do things much harder than this of restoring sight to a man that had not seen for some time Besides God that was willing that his decrees should be accomplish'd let loose the rains to the spirit of illusion We need but follow the History of the Church and the Legends of the Saints and there we shall find every where these dreams these visions these apparitions of Souls Saints speaking the Virgin Mary appearing to her devotoes the whole designed not to confirm the Doctrines of Christianity but the invocation of Saints the adoration of the Virgin the adoration of Images the Mass Purgatory and other parts of the Antichristian abomination And this fountain of seduction was open'd in part by deceiving spirits among men wicked superstitious wretches Priests and Monks in part by the wicked spirits that perpetually surround men to deceive and mock them The last Character of the Religion of Antichrist here express'd is the Doctrine of Devils or of Daemons giving up themselves to deceiving spirits and to Doctrines of Daemons The Doctrines of Devils or of Daemons what they are The common opinion is that by the Doctrines of Devils or of Daemons we are to understand those Doctrines of which the Devil is the Author and inventor and that bear upon them a Diabolical Character Joseph Mede hath made a new conjecture upon it and which I believe we owe to him He understands by Daemons not wicked spirits that are represented as dwelling in Hell but those spirits which the Heathens worshipt as Mediatours between God and men whom in truth in their Theology they called Daemons For then the word was not taken in an ill sense and Daemons were properly in the Heathen Religion secondary Gods subject to the great Gods. By the Doctrine of Daemons he understands a Doctrine of which Daemons are the object not the authors And according to him the sense is that men in the Antichristian Religion would renew the Divinity and the worship of these mediatory spirits called Daemons that Paganism shall be introduced into the Religion of Jesus Christ that therein shall be establisht a second order of Divinities besides the three adorable persons of the Trinity that dead men shall be invocated in this new Paganism in the same manner as was practised under the old that their Reliques shall be honour'd Statues shall be erected to them Images shall be consecrated for them which shall be worshipp'd that Temples shall be built for them and sacrifices be offer'd to their honour that apotheoses or canonizations shall be renew'd that Miracles shall be feign'd to be done by these Images and these Demy-Gods that Trees shall a new be set up with Trophies which are the Crosses before which men shall prostrate themselves that it shall be pretended that God comes to dwell here below in a piece of consecrated bread just as in the ancient Paganism it was pretended that the Gods by vertue of the consecration came to dwell in their Images Popery hath certainly Devils for its Authors Which interpretation soever we follow 't is certain that Antichristianism is found here It is composed of Doctrines that are truely Diabolical and that have Devils for their Authors 'T is a Doctrine of Devils that hath establisht that Tyrant in the Church who hath exercised so much fury there who pretends to be King of Kings and Lord of the Lords of the Earth who exalts himself above all that is called God who saith he can't be judged by any one but though he should lead men to Hell by troops he must be suffer'd to do it and be left to God to be judged 'T is a Doctrine that hath the Devil for its Author which sets up other objects of worship besides God that gives Iesus Christ companions and believers other Saviours It was no other than the Devil that could inspire Christians with the thoughts of adoring Images and bringing in afresh that Paganism that was once buried 'T was the Devil the father of lies that form'd that monster of Transsubstantiation that hath contrived that prophane sacrifice of the Mass and who of a Sacrament hath made a wretched Idol of it and so to keep to the common opinion the true Religion will not lose any thing by it By Doctrines of Daemons we must understand Doctrines that have Demi-Gods for their object However I confess I have resolved on Joseph Mede's sense It hath not been without weighing things and I did a long time believe that this interpretation was much more ingenious than solid But after I had well thought on it I judg'd the quite contrary and that for these reasons I. First This expression Doctrine of Daemons doth not more naturally signify that the Doctrine spoken of hath Daemons for its Authors than it doth that it hath them for its Object For it is certain that in all languages these sorts of propositions are aequivocal We say the love of God to signify the love of which God is the object more naturally than to signify that love of which he is the Author We say the knowledge of bodies to signify that knowledge of which bodies are the objects the knowledge of the stars to express Astrology a treatise of Angels to express a book not made by the Angels but treating of them The same aequivocal speech and the same usage is to be met with in the sacred books In the sixth Chapt. of the Epistle to the Hebrews the Apostle speaks of the Doctrine of Baptisms Heb. 6.2 i. e. of the Doctrine that hath Baptism for its object St. Luke saith that the Pro-consul Sergius was astonished at the Doctrine of the Lord Act. 13.12 i. e. the Doctrine treating of the Lord. Gal. 2.20 Acts 3.16 The faith of the Son of God and faith of his name is the faith not which hath Jesus Christ for its Author but its object And thus you see we have already gain'd one point viz. that Grammar can put in no obstacle to this Interpretation By the Doctrine of Daemons must be understood the Idolatry of Popery II. My second reason is because explain it how you will I am perswaded that by the Doctrine of Devils or of Daemons is meant the Idolatry which Antichrist was to re-establish in the Church For this is that which distinguishes that Religion from the Christian Religion and which renders it abominable It will be said that there are some things in the Papism which are not less abominable than its Idolatry that is the usurpation of Jesus Christs power by the Pope I confess it But besides that this
usurpation is joined with Idolatry seeing they make an Idol of the Pope I say there is in Antichristianism an Empire and a Religion The Empire is Diabolical Tyrannical Antichristian and may well be called and Empire of Devils as having them for its Authors And 't is in this respect of an Empire and a Tyranny that St. Paul principally considers Antichristianism in the second Chapter of the second Epistle to the Thessalonians For there he represents the head of this Empire as a Tyrant that sits himself down on the Throne of God and was to possess the Empire when he that then held it was cast down 'T is true that he considers siders it also a little as a Religion for he calls it a Mystery and saith it shall be establisht by false signs and false miracles But in this fourth Chap. of the first Epistle to Timothy he considers Antichristianism purely as a Religion and not as an Empire Therefore he speaks only of Apostacy Spirits Deceivers and of Doctrines Now that which is most abominable in the Papism as 't is a Religion is without doubt its Idolatry and not its heresies and consequently this is what we must here understand by the Doctrine of Devils or of Daemons For the Apostle intends by that to note that which is most criminal in the Papism Seeing therefore we must necessarily understand by these words Doctrine of Daemons the Antichristian Idolatry why should we not believe that the Apostle Saint Paul calls it so by way of allusion and comparing it with the heathen Religion and Theology Antichristianism is considered in the Prophecies sometimes as a Religion somtimes as an Empire I have just before made a distinction which I desire may be observed because 't is of great use for the understanding the Prophecies of the Revelation on this argument of the estate of Antichrist 'T is this that the H. Spirit sometimes speaks of it as of a Religion sometimes as of an Empire Indeed he considers it much oftner under the notion of an Empire than under that of a Religion In the 13 14 16 17 and 18th of the Revelation where Antichristianism is represented as a Beast vith two horns or seven heads and ten horns â—nd as a City called Babylon 't is under the Idea of an Empire For in the Prophetical visions Beasts always signify Kings and Empires But in the 11th Chap. Antichristianism is represented as a Religion for it is called Paganism and is shadowed forth under the emblem of a Temple that is prophaned Leave out the Court which is without the Temple and measure it not for it is given to the Gentiles In those places where it is represented as a Whore where the Cup of its abominations is spoken of and where it is said it shall seduce the inhabitants of the Earth by the signs that it shall work it is consider'd as a Religion because worship idolatry miracles and signs belong to Religion The Doctrine of Daemons Antichristian Paganism are the same thing III. The H. Spirit 's representing the Antichristian Religion as a Paganism is to me a new reason that perswades me that in the Text of St. Paul which we are now discoursing of by the Doctrine of Daemons we must understand that doctrine of which Daemons are the object For I look on these two Texts as Parallel this of the Revelation the out ward Court is given to the Gentiles and this the apostacy of the son of perdition shall be a Doctrine of Daemons Now it is certain that in that Text in the eleventh of the Revelation is precisely meant that Paganism that Pagan Theology and that Pagan service that were introduced into the Christian Religion and consequently here by the Doctrines of Daemons we must understand the Pagan Religion that worshipt Daemons or Antichristianism that hath made for it self a Religion altogether like it in worshipping new Daemons God could not but predict the introduction of Paganisin into the Christian Church IV. But the principal reason that persectly perswades me is the â—â—â—…ent which is always the best or rather the oâ—â— sure Interpreter of prophecies One thing is curtain viz. that there is a perfect conformity between the Thelogy and worship of the ancient Paganism and the Antichristian Religion of the Papism This was not done by chance God permitted it God foresaw it and without doubt God hath predicted it For there is no likelihood that having carefully marked in the Prophecies events incomparably less considerable he should forget this 'T is true one may say that the Prophecy of it is found in these words of the Revelation the outward Court shall be given to the Gentiles and in those places where the Antichristian and popish Religion is compared to adultery and the corrupted Church to a whore But the first seems to me to be too obscure and the second too general I can't believe but that God would leave us some Oracles more clear and less general to predict this admirable conformity which is between the worship of the ancient Paganism and that of Antichristianism Now this Text more express and more clear then the others I do not find elsewhere To set forth this last proof in all its strength we must consider some points of this conformity They may be seen already in those two Chapt. of the second part of our Prejudices where we have shewn the conformity between Popery and Paganism But not to give any the trouble of leaving this book to find out the proof of this truth that the worship of Daemons among the Heathens and this of the Saints in the Papism are alike we will here give an abstract of it The Articles of the Pagan Theology Religion touching Daemons The Pagan Theology about good Daemons is reserred to these Articles I. They said that besides the great Gods there were inferiour Divinities that received all their power from the superiour Gods. II. The inferiour Divinities were either consecrated Heroes and deified souls or spirits naturally and originally separated from matter III. Their office was to be mediatours between men and the great Gods to execute their orders in favour of men and carry the prayers of men to those superiour Gods. IV. To the honour of the one and the other i. e. of Daemons or spirits as well those that were consecrated souls as those that were naturally separated from matter they made Images built Temples and by vertue of the consecration they made them come and dwell in those Images and Temples V. Besides this they did adore and worship the ashes and the reliques of their Heroes These are the Articles to which the Theology of the Pagan Daemons was reduced Paganism acknowledg'd inferiour Gods called Daemons First They held inferiour Divinities that were infinitely beneath the great Gods. 'T is a thing so known that there is no need to prove it They called their great Gods Dii superi Dii coelestes Soveraign Gods and heavenly
the Bishop of Tours stufft their Books with these Fables designed to establish Idolatry and make us invocate the Saints as our patrons He of Tours made a book on purpose entituled de Gloriâ Martyrum These Fables go to this very point of impudence as to bring in the martyrs themselves desiring of God that the men that invoke them and the prayers that are made in their name The Fables of Simeon Metaphrastes tending to make men invocate the Saints may be heard Simeon Metaphrastes reports that Saint Barba as she was a dying desired of God that all those who should in their prayers make mention of her combat and her martyrdom should be kept from all sorts of contagious diseases and that they should not be touch'd with any evil in their bodies and their persons And he saith of St. Blaise that on a certain day he pray'd to God in these words If any evil happen to any man or child or even any beast and my name be called upon over them saying Hasten to help by reason of the intercession of thy servant Blaise give presently a cure every where to the glory of thy holy name He makes him also speak after the same rate to a Woman to whom he had restored her Hog which a Wolf had eaten up and who return'd him thanks for it Woman always celebrate may memoâ—y and nothing shall be wanting in thy house and if it shall come to pass that any other in imitation of thee shall celebrate my memory also be shall obtain of my God a perpetual Blessing all the days of his life One may easily see whither the spirit of lying in these Fables tended it was to cause men to invocate these Saints We must also see the History of the establishment of Images and how many miracles were wrought to introduce this abominable devotion 'T is the same with respect to the Adoration of the Sacrament of which they have made an Idol Books are full of fabulous miracles which the Devil wrought or made the Monks write for the establishing this Idolatry This is so notorious that it would be useless to bring proof of it The Authors of the Legends had consciences seared insensible and hard The Apostle to perfect the pourtraiture of these Impostors that have corrupted the Christian Religion in introducing Antichristianism saith that they are seared in their consciences All parts where the Fire and the Searing-iron have passed become callons hard and consequently insensible The Apostle could not better describe to us the disposition of these Authors of Lies that have written Legends for us For in truth they have lost their sense they are such fools stupid and senseless There is nothing that is ridiculous and absurd which they were not capable of digesting The most plain absurdity and impiety they are not sensible of and their conscience is as if it were of iron and marble They have a heart of lead and a mouth of iron said Canus Bishop of the Canaries concerning them The Fables of Heathenism are not more filthy nor more shamefull than theirs They introduce the Virgin Mary embracing the Monks suffering them to feel her bosom giving them milk out of her breasts wedding them and marrying her self with them They make Images of wood and stone to speak they make their Saints do filthy and foolish actions which they would have to pass for miracles This may be seen largely proved in the second part of our just Prejudices The pronoun Some doth not exclude the multitude I know not of any thing further in this Oracle of the fourth Chapt. of the first Epist to Timothy that can leave any scruple behind it unless it be the pronoun Some for this word doth not seem to agree with this so general and Apostacy seeing on the contrary it seems to signify that the number of Antichristian Apostates shall not be great in comparison of others 'T is answered 1st That the pronnoun Some doth not always exclude the multitude but only signifies there will be Exceptions We need no other instance than that of the Jews of whom St. Paul speaking in the 11th Chap. to the Romans saith Some of the branches were cut off 'T was the revolt and rejection of the Jews that was signified thereby And what is this Some that is to say almost all For the entire Nation of the Jews is engaged in this revolt There was but a small number of the Jews that believed on Jesus Christ and believed truely And certainly the proportion that is between the small company of the faithful that love not the Beast and those that adore him is greater than that which was between the converted Jews and those that have remained unbelievers these 16 hundred years The same Apostle speaking of the Israelites in the Wilderness that worshipped the golden Calf 2 Cor. 10.7 saith Be not ye Idolaters as some of them were Now these Some Exod. 32.3 were all for Moses saith expresly that all the people brake off the golden ear-rings which were in their ears In the same manner he saith in the same place Let us not tempt Christ as some of them tempted him Let us not commit fornication as some of them committed Now it is certain that these some signify the far greater part and it only shews that there were some exceptions The Apostle might the rather use this like expression because the Antichristian idolatry and Apostacy were shadowed forth by these revolts of the people of the Jews in the Wilderness To this we may add that the Apostle St. Paul considers this evil not in its last period but in its beginning Now it is certain that the introduction of idolatry into Christianity began by a small number of bigots superstitious men and false devoto's Other persons besides those against whom we dispute may wrangle also about this term the later times and say that we cannot reasonably call the times that last 12. or 13. hundred years and that began so long before the end of the world the later times The Papists I say against whom we dispute can't make use of this difficulty because they apply this Oracle to the Encratites and the Manichees the first of which were known in the second Age and the others in the third Those were times yet further distant from the end of the world than those ages where we place the Antichristian Empire When we shall speak of the duration of the Antichristian Empire we shall have occasion to say why the ages of its Empire are called the later times These words with which the Oracle begins the Spirit saith remarkably or expresly would well deserve some consideration to know whether they ought to be understood of some Oracles in the Old Testament so that the sense should be The Spirit hath said expresly by the ancient Prophets or of a present inspiration so that the Apostle would say the Spirit gives me to understand very clearly But 't is of
fraud and violence which the Tyrant was to make use of to pervert the nation of the Jews the constancy of some the falling of many And all this without doubt agrees to the head of the Papism as well as to Antiochus the application is easy every one may make it For all the world knows how many frauds have been used by the Papism to engage the true believers in a revolt and how always violence hath been used together with fraud In the 36. v. the H. Spirit pursues the description of the Tyrant and saith This King shall do according to his will and shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every God and shall speak marvellous things against the God of Gods and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplisht for that that is determin'd shall be done This is so like what St. Paul saith that the son of perdition shall exalt himself above all that is called God The Pope exalts himself above all that is called God. and that he shall sit in the Temple of God as if he were God And to that which St. John saith of the First Beast in the 13th Ch. that there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and that he open'd his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven This I say is so like that t is inpossible not to see that 't is the same thing This passage of Daniel gives us a great deal of light for the understanding that of the Revelation When we would apply these words to the Papism and its head he shall exalt himself above all that is called God and speak blasphemies against God they cry out 't is notorious to all the world that the Pope calls himself the most obedient servant of the true God and doth not blaspheme his name Just the very same is said of Antiochus he shall magnify himself above every God He shall not regard the God of his Fathers and he shall not regard any God. Antiochus and the Pope have exalted themselves above every God not by Atheism but by Pride This doth not appear in his History 'T is well said that he was a wicked person and I would easily believe it but the Prophecies do not predict the thoughts of the heart but events Now as to the event so far was Antiochus from being impious towards his Gods and from exalting himself above them that on the contrary he had a furious and outragious zeal to cause them to be worshipped Never did any idolatrous Prince carry this false zeal so far He did not persecute the Jews to make them become Atheists but to make them worship Jupiter Olympius whose Idol he had caused to be placed in the Temple This is to exalt ones self above God to mount to that pitch of Pride to which Antiochus and the Popes have mounted CHAP. XXIII A notable Prophecy of the Mahuzim that Antichrist was to worship The whole found admirably accomplisht in the Papism What is the literal sense of the Prophecy with respect to Antiochus An explication of the beginning of the 12th Chap. of Daniel applied to Antiochus and the Papism IN this Prophecy which literally respects Antiochus Dan. 11. v. 37 38 39. and mystically Antichrist the most considerable passage is this Neither shall he regard the God of his Fathers nor the desire of women nor regard any God for he shall magnify himself above all But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces and a God whom his Fathers knew not shall he honour with gold and silver and with precious stones and pleasant things Thus shall be do in the most strong holds with a strange God whom he shall acknowledge and encrease with glory and he shall cause them to rule over many and shall divide the Land for gain The Papism doth not only agree that we understand this Oracle of Antichrist but with its utmost force endeavours to have it so understood because it hopes to draw great advantages to it self thereby A notable Oracle concerning the Mahazim which Antichrist must worship pretending that nothing of this doth agree to the Pope He hath not abandoned the God of his Fathers he doth not worship the God of Mahuzim That 's the word in the original which our translation renders the God of forces Our Ioseph Mede thinks quite contrary to this he is so far from believing that this cannot agree to the Pope and to the Empire of the Papism that he believes that St. Paul had a regard to this Oracle when he saith in that passage of the fourth Chapt. of the first Epistle to Timothy that the Spirit saith remarkably or expresly that some shall depart from the faith and shall teach Doctrines of Daemons To understand his notion which assuredly is pretty and ingenious we must represent the Text of Daniel according to his version which is much better than our ordinary one 36. And a King shall do according to his will c. In this Verse there is no essential difference between our vulgar translation and that of Ioseph Mede 37. He shall not regard the God of his Fathers nor the desire of women nor regard any God but shall magnify himself above every God. 38. For he shall honour the God of Mahuzim besides the true God in exalting them together with him in his seat And together with this God whom his Fathers knew not he shall worship the Mahuzim with gold silver precious stones and desirable things 39. He shall make strong holds of the Mahuzim with the strange God whom he shall acknowledge he shall multiply the honour and make them rule over many and shall divide the Land for a recompence Here Ioseph Mede by the unknown God understands Iesus Christ whom ancient Rome knew not and whom the new Romans know and worship Together with this God whom his Fathers knew not he shall worship the Mahuzim Mahuzim the unknown God in this Prophecy are not the same thing Interpreters ordinarily confound these Mahuzim with the unknown God and the Papists say 't is the Idol that Antichrist shall worship But it is clear that the Mahuzim are distinguish'd from the unknown God. For in the 39th verse the H. Spirit clearly distinguishes the Mahuzim from the strange or unknown God in saying he shall make strong holds of the Mahuzim with the strange Gods. hhim Elohah necar So that these words serve as a comment on those that go before which have the same sense but are a little different The Prophet doth not use the praeposition hhim which signifies with besides but uses the particle L. which usually signifies to L'Elohah Mahuzim which may be translated to the God of Mahuzim He shall give honour to the God of Mahuzim So in the same Verse the Spirit adds and he shall glorify or he shall give glory and honour L'Elohah to the God whom his Fathers knew
a very bad smell which hath reacht even to us it formed a most frightfull object upon which the adorers of the Pope and of the so called holy seat cannot even now adays reflect without horror and indignation This plague fell upon the Earth i. e. upon the globe or whole mass of the Antichristian world For the members and the head the whole and the parts were cover'd over with this dismal corruption This corruption was and is 20 this day a terrible blow to Popery And further it cannot be express'd how great a plague how sore a blow this See received from hence For this gave occasion to the Emperors to meddle with the affairs of Rome and its Bishops The Successors of Charlemaine having let go this fair patrimony kept themselves in Germany during which time the Popes got strength and made themselves Masters But the excesses of the Court of Rome obliged the Otho's Emperors of Germany to march into Italy there they corrected and deposed some Popes and chose others to their mind They revived the ancient right which the Emperors had of confirming Popes after their election which was a very sore mortification of which they did not recover untill Gregory the VII And besides this corruption rendred the See of Rome contemptible to all nations In some Countries men took liberty to write very bitter invectives against it some of which are come to our hands This is a wound that bleeds even at this day and affords us a very strong argument against the pretentions of infallibility and supremacy challeng'd by the Church of Rome For we will never cease to object and very rationally that God is too good and too wise to suffer the Seat of his Vicar and of an infallible Vicar to be infected with so dismal a corruption These considerations let us see that none ought to object against us that we make one of the plagues of the Antichristian Empire to be that corruption which is one of its Characters The same thing we shall see in the fourth plague where we will make it appear that the tyranny of the Antichristian Kingdom which is one of its Characters is notwithstanding become one of its plagues When these Characters are risen to an immoderate height they become sensible they discover Antichristianism and by discovering it they destroy it for its safety consists in being a mystery it is a mystery of iniquity This is the first plague and the first period of Antichrists declining this period lasted above a 150 years for this corruption continued for a good space of the eleventh Age. The second and third plagues are thus set down v. 3. And the second Angel pour'd out his viol upon the sea and it become as the blood of a dead man and every living soul dyed in the sea v. 4. And the third Angel pour'd out his viol upon the rivers and fountains of waters and they became blood Waters signify people the sea of blood the Croisades Observe that the sea and waters in Prophetick visions signify people or nations this is so well known that it needs not to be proved And supposing that this Emblem is not common in other Prophets it is most evidently so in St. John. Come saith the Angel to him Chap. 17. v. 15. I will shew thee the judgement of the great whore which sits upon many waters The waters which thou sawest where the whore sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages The first viol was pour'd out upon the earth i. e. upon the whole Globe for earth contains both dry and moist The corruption of manners was spread over the head and the members over the papal Seat and all its subjects But this second viol is pour'd only upon the waters the sea and the rivers i.e. upon the people of the Antichristian Empire or upon the different Nations Tribes and Languages as the Spirit does express it it falls not upon the Head and the Seat on the contrary it is the Seat of the Beast which contributes to this Plague The waters of the sea were turn'd into blood and every living soul dyed What more native and lively representation could have been made of the Rage of the Croisades In all languages and in all sorts of style a sea of blood rivers of blood streams of blood signify a very great slaughter Now the proper Character of the Croisades is slaughter murther which falls not upon the head of the Antichristian Empire but upon the people all was there turn'd into blood Never was there such a prodigious effusion of blood in the sea i. e. among the peoples In the first Croisade there dyed more then two millions of men in three or four year 'T is evident that God did lead these wretched creatures as it were to the shambles that they should find the punishment of their crimes the took away so great a quantity of blood that he might cure the Ulcers of Christendom For that he might purge it of that vast rabble he permitted the Devil to inspire them either with such a sottish superstition or an extravagant ambition that they must go and deliver the holy Land or go and conquer Kingdoms in the East This plague lighted only on the sea not at all on the dry land upon the subjects of the Popedom not at all upon the Popes On the contrary the Popes improved that evasion to greaten their power to plunder whole Countries to make Generals of Armies to act as soveraign Monarchs and to lay a heavier yoke upon Kings whom they order'd to march and sent them as their slaves into the East and during their absence plundred their Kingdoms We must not imagine that all the plagues laid down by St. John must tend to the ruin of the See of Rome or to the diminution of its power for some are to light upon the head of that Empire to crush it others upon the people to punish them because they worship the Beast the plague of blood and slaughter is for the people This plague of the Croisades is divided into two plagues because of its long duration for it lasted 200 years from the end of the eleventh Age untill the end of the thirteenth The third viol which makes the third plague fell only upon rivers i. e. upon lesser waters because after a hundred years the fury abated there was no more marching of the whole West unto the East only that of some particular nations as of the Freneh among others under the conduct of St. Lewis and consequently the effusion of blood was much less there were only rivers of blood whereas the former Croisades had made a sea I shall add this explication which I have given does exactly agree with the Genius and Emblems of the Prophets The Prophet Ezec. 32.6 says to Egypt I will water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest even to the mountains There must be no less then a sea of blood to overflow a Countrey
Constantinople against the Turks But they leapt over this barriere and spread themselves as far as the Euxine Sea and the Bosphorus and the Aegean Sea or the Archipelago The Croisades about the end of the eleventh Age drove them back took from them Nice and a part of the lesser Asia But afterwards they came again and wasting the Grecian Empire they took all away from it as far as the Sea called Bosphorus and as far as the Archipelago Behold these are the Kings of the East which appear again in our sixth viol behold the Euphrates which again comes upon the stage But what is this Euphrates Here Euphrates is the Thracian Bosphorus the second barriere of the Turks In this Prophecy whatever serves as a barriere to the Turks is called Euphrates because this River was the first barriere which did seperate that people from Christendom After the Turks had got over that River they find another Euphrates viz. the Bosphorus This in their last irruptions was the same that Euphrates had been in their first namely a barriere that for a little while stopt their course though at last they leapt over it This figure is very ordinary in Orators and consequently there is ground to seek it in Prophets whose style is much more figurative Thus one will say Here are my Herculis's pillars meaning here I will bound my conquests another will say Here are my East-Indies meaning here I will bound my longest voyages A third says This is my Louure meaning this is my Palace or residence So it might be said of the Turks stopt behind the Bosphorus This was their Euphrates therefore the Sea call'd Archipel and the Bosphorus of Thrace in the thirteenth age were the barriere that parted the remainder of the Greek Empire and the Empire of the Turks But at the end of the 14th age the Turks under the conduct of the proud Bajazet and by means of the treachery of the Genuese who let their Gallies to them they passed the Bosphorus made themselves masters of all Thrace fixed the Seat of their Empire at Adrianople and plundred all Greece insomuch that the Greek Emperor had scarce any thing left besides the City of Constantinople Tamerlain tamed the pride of Bajazet and for a while stopt the fury of this torrent But the Children and Successors of Bajazet soon after carried on their conquests and 50 years after quite ruin'd the remainder of the Greek Empire Mahomet II. took Constantinople in the year 1452. After which the Turks overflowed as a torrent conquer'd all Greece Macedonia Albania Slavonia Croatia Bulgaria Hungary and extended the bounds of their Empire even unto the borders of Germany Here therefore the Archipel and the Bosphorus which is joyn'd to it are called Euphrates because this Sea served as a barriere against the Turks as Euphrates formerly had done this was the Euphrates of that time and the Holy Ghost kept the name of Euphrates in this second barriere that we might in this Text the more certainly discern the Turks who had passed over Euphrates when they first invaded the Greek Empire and Christendom The Latin Church suffered infinitely by the passage of the Turks into Europe This is the sixth plague which may be well called the plague upon the Kingdom of the Beast for that Kingdom did infinitely suffer by it 'T is true the first desolations fell upon the Greek Empire but as I have already remarkt the great Idolatries which reigned in the Greek Church had made it become a Province of the Antichristian Empire it was indeed separated by a schisme from the Latin Church notwithstanding it was a Province Besides this the Latin Church the Kingdom of the beast was infinitely a loser How many fair Provinces and brave Kingdoms were rent off from the West by the Turks How often have the Turks vexed Italy nay even Christian Princes have used them to mortify the Popes besides what they have already done we know not what they must do hereafter The Holy Ghost seems to intimate that God hath placed them there for some greater work than that which they have already performed for the Spirit saith that the way of the Kings of the East might be prepared without telling us what work they are to do and the reason is because their greatest work must not be done under the sixth plague but at the end of the seventh God hath thought it sufficient to tell us that he hath placed them on this side the Bosphorus and brought them even to the borders of Germany to be the instruments of his great work at least this is the opinion of many who are taken with the Prophecies of Drabicius They are perswaded that the Turk must destroy Rome The present state of his affairs does not promise this for since the Ottoman Empire was founded he was never brought so low But I confess that this is far from weakning my opinion that the Turk must be the Instrument of the vengeance of God against Rome for 't is this that does confirm me in it for I look on this year 1685 as a Critical year in this great affair God hath brought low the Protestants and the Turks at the same time that he may raise them up at the same time and make them the Instruments of his vengeance against the Babylonian Empire Notwithstanding as I do not found my predictions upon the visions of Drabicius but upon those of Saint John and he saith nothing that does determine me I am in suspence whether the Turks have been placed so nigh the Kingdom of the Beast to bear a part in destroying him or to be honoured with the blessing of conversion upon the sight of that great work of God. I am perswaded that a few years will inform us which of these is the truth From 1390 until 1526. The duration of this period is about 125 or 130 years In the year 1529 the Turks came and besieged Vienna Charles the fifth made them raise teir siege Since that time they have not made any great progress into the Kingdom of the Beast And this sixth plague exactly brings that Kingdom unto the time of Luthers preaching of which the consequences are fore-told in the seventh plague as I hope a Parenthesis of a great depth and obscurity V. 13. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the mouth of the false Prophet V. 14. For they are the spirits of Devils working miracles which go forth unto the Kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battel of that great day of God Almighty V. 15. Behold I come as a thief c. V. 16. And he gathers them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armegeddon Behold great affairs untill now finding nothing better I was contented with the conjecture of those who by these three unclean spirits understand the
Monks nay I found this explication very serviceable I ranked the Monks into three Classis begging not begging and mixt as the Jesuites are who have according to their Statutes no Estates or possessions and yet do not begg as the Custome is 'T is certain that these are unclean spirits for all the corruption of the Christian Religion is come from them they go out to the Kings of the earth to unite them against the true Religion but however exact this notion seems to be I could never find in it the setled rest of a mind which believes that it hath found the truth At last I found that rest and three things by the assistance of God gave me light about this matter the word mouth that of spirit and spirit of the mouth and that of Armageddon these three words have fully perswaded me that these unclean spirits signify papal Laws and the Oracles of the Seat of the Beast armed with excommunications and Curses The three unclean spâ—rits are the Oracles of the Pope as the seven spirits of God are the Divine Oracles First that the term mouth is taken for speech examples are so many that 't is scarce necessary to cite any Put away from thee a froward mouth that is Put away from thee perverse speech A wicked man walketh with a froward mouth The mouth of the just is a fountain of life i. e. the speech of the just The Messiah speaking by the Prophet Isaïah chap. 49.2 he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword i. e. my speech or word this is a figure which is usual in all languages Secondly the term spirit signifies so often word or Oracle that the places cannot be numbred The 7 Spirits are the 7 Oracles Revel 1.4 Chap. 3.1 Chap. 4.5 Chap. 5.6 In the beginning of this book mention is made of seven spirits and from the seven spirits which are before his Throne these things saith he that hath the seven spirits and the seven stars And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne which are the seven Spirits of God and Christ himself is represented as having seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of God seni out into all the earth 'T is certain that these seven spirits are the same thing with the seven thunders of the 10th Chapter i. e. the seven words or Oracles which sound like thunders Now 't is clear that by these seven spirits we ought to understand the Divine Oracles which were inspired into the Prophets and Apostles by the Holy Spirit First because these are joyn'd with the seven stars Ch. 1 2â— he that hath the seven spirits and the seven stars for the seven stars are the Angels of the seven Churches i. e. the seven Pastors and this signifies the seven Oracles which proceed from the seven stars Secondly these seven spirits are called lamps he had seven lamps which are the seven spirits and this is the proper title of the word of God Thy word is a lamp unto my feet Ps 119. And 't is the proper office of the word and Oracles of God to serve as a lamp to enlighten souls and the world Lastly 't is said that these seven spirits of God are sent into all the world This can signify nothing but the sacred Oracles which are sent and preacht by the Apostles through the whole earth 'T is in this sense that our Saint John takes the word spirit in the fifth Chapt. of this first Epistle There are three that bear record on earth the spirit the water and blood By water and blood I cannot doubt but that the two Sacraments of the Church are understood Baptism is the water the Eucharist is the blood and the third or rather the first and principal of these witnesses is the spirit i. e. the word Lastly this is the name which Saint Paul often gives to the Gospel 2 Cor. 3.6 the Letter kills but the Spirit quickens we are Ministers not of the Letter but of the Spirit 'T is certain that the Letter signifies the word of Moses and the Spirit the word of Jesus Christ The three spirits of Antichrist are opposed to the seven spirits of J. Christ I cannot therefore doubt but that the Holy Ghost by these three unclean spirits of the Beast and the false Prophet intends the false and impure Oracles of popery opposed unto the seven Spirits of God who are before his Throne and go forth from him The opposition is so sensible that it cannot but be discerned the Spirits of God are sent out into all the Earth the spirits of the beast likewise go unto the Kings of the Earth The Spirits of God are lamps which being set on some high place do give light but these are like the froggs creatures of the night and of darkness that croak in the night and love the bottoms of waters As therefore the Spirits of God are undoubtedly his Oracles there is no cause to doubt that those unclean spirits of the beast and false Prophet are the false Oracles of Antichrist The spirit coming out of the mouth always signifies word In the third place Spirits coming out of the mouth so clearly denote words that it cannot be enough admired that none hath seen this First every thing which comes out of the mouth in a figurative style See also Ch. 1.16 2.15 Isa 11.4 signifies words 'T is said in the 19. Chapt. v. 15 that out of his mouth came a two-edged sword All know that this signifies the word of God that comes out of the mouth of Jesus Christ Isaiah saith that the Messiah shall smite the Earth with the rod of his mouth and slay the wicked with the breath of his lips a notable passage for explaining plaining that upon which we now are spirit or breath is there taken in the sense that we lay down the spirit of his lips is the speech of his lips And the rod that comes out of the mouth of the Messiah is also evidently his word or speech This is usual in all languages 't was said that lightnings came out of the mouth of Pericles we say every day there come flames arrows c. out of the mouth of such or such every one understands that this signifies words but above all the spirit of the mouth is never taken in any other sense Saint Paul saith that Jesus Christ will come and destroy that wicked one by the spirit of his mouth we have even now heard Isaiah call the word of the Messiah 2 Thes 2.8 the breath or spirit of his lips Ps 33.6 The Prophet David saith that the Heavens were made by the word of the Lord and all their host by the breath or spirit of his mouth There is none who is not perswaded that the word that formed the heavens and the breath or spirit of the mouth of God are the same thing Besides the figure is so natural and comely that we necessarily fall upon
it speech or words are formed in the mouth by the wind the breath of the lungs thus it is the breath or spirit of the body besides this it discovers the sentiments and thoughts and thus it is the breath or spirit of the soul After all this I do not think that any can in the least doubt but that these three spirits that come out of the mouth of the false Prophet are the false Oracles and Laws of this false Prophet These things are like those riddles which when they are unriddled we wonder that they were not sooner guessed for there was never any thing more easy to be understood The third expression which God made use of to enlighten my mind is that of Armageddon which Saint John saith is a Hebrew word the learned know The Syriak in the age of St. John was called Hebrew that the Hebrew language in the time of St. John was Syriack and Chaldee This is the language that our Saviour spake 't is that which is called the Hebrew tongue Acts 22.2 where 't is said that the people of Jerusalem kept silence while St. Paul spake to them in the Hebrew tongue He would not we are sure speak to them in Bible-Hebrew for they understood it not at that time 'T is this language which in the Gospels is often called Hebrew and yet the expressions set down are found to be Chaldee Armageddon signifies a cutting off by a Curse or Anathema or Syriack as Golgotha Talitha kumi Gabbatha c. Now the word Armageddon without any straining signifies in the Chaldee or Syriack Cutting off by a Curse or Excommunication Gedad signifies to cut off to cut asunder Giddou ilana cut down the tree said the Angel in the vision related in the third Chap. of Daniel so Geddon signifies cutting off The word Herem in the Hebrew and Harma in the Chaldee is a word which we find in our Bibles at every step under the phrases of cursing abstaining from the cursed thing This is accursed which the 70 have every where translated anathema this is the term which the Apostle Paul uses when he would excommunicate all those who love not the Lord Jesus Let him be Anathema Maranatha let him perish in Armageddon and 't is the same word that the Jews used in the time of Saint John and which they still used to signify their great Excommunication Thus if you joyn these two words Harma and Geddon you have exactly without any alteration A cutting off by a Curse by Excommunication or an Anathema Now what can be meant by the spirits which come out of the mouth of the false Prophet and which are gathered or placed in Armageddon i. e. under the shelter and under the defence of a cutting off by a Curse or an Anathema but the orders laws and false Oracles of the Popedom and the Antichristian head 'T is known that there is a Curse and a Armageddon at the end of the every Canon 'T is known that the Canon Law saith Decret Gratiani causa 2. quest 1. Canon gen We declare to be anathema and accursed for ever before God and a prevaricator against the Catholick Faith every King Bishop or other Magistrate who shall violate and suffer to be violated in any kind the Censures of the Popes of Rome Behold the scale of all the papal Laws Lastly 't is known that through one of the sorest judgements of God that ever was felt the subjects of the Popedom suffer'd themselves to be seized with such a fear of these Armageddons or Excommunications with a Curse that this very thing was a rampart and an inviolable asylum to protect all the attempts and all the crimes of the Clergy The whole strength of the Ecclesiasticks consisted in Armageddon but this supply never fail'd them whatever they did whatever they undertook men endured every thing out of fear of the Anathema and the Curse To avoid these imaginary thunderbolts Subjects revolted and broke their Oath of Allegiance Kings abandoned their Crowns as John King of England did who that he might obtain of Innocent III. the taking off of an Excommunication or Interdict laid upon England surrendred himself and all his Subjects to be the Popes slaves All publick service of God was made to cease in a great Kingdom Churches were shut up the sick died without Sacraments the dead remained unburied Excommunicated persons through a ridiculous sillyness of the people became odious to all that were not It matter'd not whether the Excommunications were unjust or no 't was enough that they were denounced By means of this the Clergy defended their plunders and robberies as Father Paul hath excellently remarkt in his Treatise of Benefices The people saith he were so afraid of Censures that nothing did terrify them more 'T was even amazing to see that Captains and Souldiers who plunder'd any man without the least concern at the sin committed against God as desperate and profligate wretched as they were yet with great respect spared whatever belonged to the Church only from the dread which they had of its Censures And on this ground many ordinary people gave their goods to the Church that so they might shelter themselves from the rapine of the Souldier Thus the Laws and Ordinances and goods and crimes and enterprises of the Church were all under shelter and in a place of safety in Armageddon I do not think that there can arise any doubt in any ones mind concerning what we have now said But to give the fuller confirmation to these truths let us go over all the expressions used in this Prophecy From whence these three unclean spirits do come And I saw three unclean spirits like froggs come out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the mouth of the false Prophet The Dragon is the Devil the Beast is the Empire of the Popedom and the false Prophet is the Pope these are the three springs of false Oracles The Devil is he who inspires them all those decrees and those Canons which overthrow the true Religion of Jesus Christ can come from none but him They likewise come out of the mouth of the Beast for 't is the Church of Rome that makes them hence they are called the Canons of the Church the Laws of the Church and its decisions And lastly they come from the false Prophet for the Pope is the mouth of the Church he is in fallible when he speaks ex Cathedra all his decisions are seased with the word Armageddon and of the grand Excommunication Why three unclean spirits These spirits or Oracles are three in number not of the number seven for this number is sacred and proper to signify the sacred perfection of the Divine Oracles which thing the Holy Ghost intimates not only by seven spirits but also by seven thunders Nevertheless seeing the Oracles of the false Prophet of Antichrist are perfect in their kind i. e.
they are at the height of impurity there must have been a number denoting the perfection assigned to them now no other could be found but that of three Besides these unclean spirits are of the number three because of the three springs or sources the Dragon the Beast and the false Prophet as if every one must have one of his own And further 't is a wonderful providence of God that the body of the Canon Law which is the heap of the papal Laws is divided into three parts which appear'd in the World at three different times The Decree of Gratian is the first part Three parts of the Canon Law that answer to these three unclean spirits and it was compiled in the twelfth Century After this came the second part under the title of the Decretals of Gregory IX The third part is made up of the Bulls of Popes called Clementines publisht at the Council of Lions by Clement V. of others called Extravagants others called common and common extravagants These are the three parts of the Canon Law which are in truth three unclean spirits for there is nothing so monstrous and so contrary unto the spirit of Christianity The papas Laws have three unclean spirits pride covetousness unchastity Lastly these papal Laws are set forth by the number of three unclean spirits because there are in effect three spirits of impurity that do reign in them Pride Covetousness and Vnchastity Pride for first nothing is more proud then the design of the Popes in general to give Laws to the World to make Emperors to give a body of Laws which all shall use to call themselves infallible to pretend to pronounce Oracles to thunder out Bulls upon the heads of Kings and of all men Covetousness for in the papal Laws every thing tends to profit the Rules of the Roman Chancery and Penetenciary do make up a part of the Roman Laws and in them every thing is sold not the most abominable crimes excepted If we would examine the Laws of the Popedom they are all for gain and tend to the exercise of a most abominable simony They that will may consult the first part of our prejud against popery without reckoning up many other books where the same matter is treated Vnchastity hath its share for in these Laws such filthiness is to be found as cause horror the rules of the Penitenciary do enough prove this This same is found in the Decree of Gratian in Buchard the famous Canonist First part chap. 28. Apolog. for the Reform VVhy the Oracles of popery are compare to Froggs and in such like Authors I have given some specimen's in my Prejugd and in my Apology for Theodore Beza 'T is for this reason that the Oracles of the false Prophet are compared to Froggs the Oracles of God are Eagles that flye in pure air but the Oracles of popery and false Religion are creatures that love the dirt that descend into pits and live there They make a great noyse in times of darkness as Froggs do in the night but will immediately be silent as soon as the Sun of grace is risen that is when it shall dissipate all the shadows of false Religion These are the spirits of Devils working miracles For these papal decisions these orders of the Antichristian Kingdom that they may establish the adoration of idols the invocation of Creatures the idolatry of bread are supported by signs and a thousand lying miracles But 't will be objected these decisions do not work miracles whereas the Text here saith that these three unclean spirits work miracles A very slight difficulty For seeing the Holy Ghost represents these Laws of the Popedom as spirits i. e. as persons and as intelligent existing substances there must be actions ascribed to them Actiones sunt suppositorum say the Schools Thus Saint John ought necessarily to speak of miracles wrought in favour of the papal Laws and Papists as of miracles that are wrought by them They go forth unto the Kings of the Earth and of the whole World to gather them to the battel of that great day of God Almighty The Bulls of Popes are as so many thundering messengers who are sent to Princes and who threaten order and command them to make Croisades to destroy pretended hereticks and to employ temporal weapons to execute the orders of the spiritual Authority and also command them to enjoyn the observation in all places of idolatrous worship wicked Canons and the proud government which the Popedom hath establisht by its decrees All this unites together and gathers the Kings of the Earth makes one body one army of persons joyn'd in a bond of a most real conspiracy who fight against God and seek to rob him of his honour and glory The day of battel is the whole duration of the Antichristian Kingdom Interpreters have entertain'd a false notion in imagining that by the day of battel is to be understood the very time in which Antichrist must be destroy'd For 't is the whole time of the Antichristian Idolatry and Tyranny though especially of the last period of Antichrist i. e. of Antichrist declining or approaching to his fall This time is called the day of God Almighty because at the end of this day or time God shall display his vengeance against these Kings who are leagued against him through means of the papal and Ecclesiastick Laws and decrees During three parts of that day and battel against God his Church is worsted but in the last part of the battel God shall overcome These Kings of the Earth are gather'd together in Armageddon The place Armageddon is the place from whence the thunderbolts of excommunications and curses do come forth i. e. the See of Rome and of the Pope or the Vatican whose thunderbolts have so often consumed whole Countries All the Kings who are subject to the Popedom are gather'd leagued and united in this place and by this place Seeing the Prophet had represented the papal Laws as spirits and persons he ought in the same manner to represent the Excommunication or Curse as a place which unites and gathers together the men who are contain'd in it Behold I come as a thief blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame This is a Parenthesis which hath relation to the battel that the papal laws censures interdicts anathema's decisions and Papists do fight against the Truth and the Faith to admonish the faithfull that they be upon their guard against so many assaults and so many lying Oracles which deceive the minds and hearts of men Why God places these three unclean spirits of papery under the sixth viol First reason There remains only one difficulty and that is to know why the Holy Ghost places these papal spirits or Laws under the sixth viol but the reasons are evident enough This sixth viol begins its period in the year 1390. when the Turks began to
14 15 16 c. Thus saith the Lord the labour of Egypt and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans men of stature shall come over unto thee and they shall be thin they shall come after thee in chains they shall come over and they shall fall down unto thee they shall make supplication unto thee saying Surely God is in thee there is none else c. v. 23 25. I have sworn by my self the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto me every knee shall bow every tongue shall swear In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and glory In the 49. Chapter throughout and especially from the thirteenth Verse Sing O Heaven and be joyfull O Earth and break forth into singing O mountains for God hath comforted his people and will have mercy upon his afflicted But Sion hath said the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me Can a woman forget her sucking child c. Thy children shall make haste and thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee Lift up thine eyes round about and behold all these gather themselves together and come to thee as I live saith the Lord thou shalt surely cloath thee with them all as with an ornament and bind them on thee as a Bride doth c. Then shalt thou say in thy heart who hath begotten me these seeing I have lost my children and am desolate a captive and removing to and fro and who hath brought up these Behold I was left alone these where had they been c. And Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and Queens thy nursing mothers and they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth and lick up the dust of thy feet and thou shalt know that I am the Lord for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me One might transcribe the whole Prophet for he is filled with these great promises Read the 54 the 61 the 65 the 66 and above all the 60 Chapter where he speaks to Ierusalem Arise shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee For behold the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people but the Lord shall arise upon thee his glory shall be seen upon thee And the Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising Lift up thine eyes round about and see all they gather themselves together they come to thee thy sons shall come from far and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side Then thou shalt see and flow together and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged because the abundance of the Sea shall be converted unto thee and the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee c. And the sons of the strangers shall build up thy walls and their Kings shall minister unto thee for in my wrath I smote thee but in my favour have I had mercy on thee All the rest of the Chapter hath the same strength and the same sense These Oracles can't be applyed to the resettling of this people after the Babylonian captivity We ask when these Oracles have been fulfilled was it when this people was brought back out of the Babylonian captivity But how can any man speak at this rate what extravagant figures would these be Because this people rebuilt the City of Ierusalem and the Temple and formed a petty State in Syria under the Maccabees could any one say that their Empire should be as large as the whole world that all the Kings of the earth should pay them homage that their children should be without number c Besides have not all these Oracles a Character of spirituality which shews us that God promiseth to give the Iews light knowledge holiness righteousness Thy people also shall be all righteous saith the Prophet But 't is well known the government of the Maccabees was not of this nature 'T is therefore certain yea 't is owned by all that are able to pierce into the spirit of the Prophets that all these blessings have relation unto the times of the Messiah Let any one tell us what blessings the Nation of the Iews hath received by the Messiah These Oracles have not been accomplisht since the coming of the Messiah For almost two thousand years this miserable Nation is scatter'd throughout the Earth it is the excrement the curse off-scouring of all it sighs under a long and cruel captivity Matters shall they then go off thus the end of the World will come the Iews shall perish in their miseries If this be so certainly all these Prophecies are cheats the Holy Spirit hath deceived this Nation all their Oracles are false and God hath born them up with vain hopes for this is trifling with God and men to say that these promises were accomplisht in that small number of Iews who were converted to Christianity When those Iewish Christians were so bad Christians that they only served to found a cursed heresy and sect which hath born the name of Ebionates and Nazarens 'T will without doubt be said that the Iews shall have the fulfilling the these great promises through their return and calling which will be at the end of the World. Indeed 't is a Position in true Christianity that the Iews shall be called again A thousand Oracles some of which we have cited promise this The Miracle by which God doth preserve this Nation proveth it as I think most irresistably For lastly 't is a thing that hath no example and cannot be imagined that God should for two thousand years preserve this people scatter'd among other Nations yet without mixing it self with them or learning their manners their Religions their fashions which all other dispersed Nations do This plainly speaks that God preserves them for some great work Now this being supposed that the Iews shall be converted if presently after the World shall end and if neither the present Iews nor their posterity do enjoy the glorious advantages that are promised to them how shall they see the effects and accomplishment of so many Oracles Here are infinite millions of souls of Iews which perish for seventeen hundred years together only a small number of this people shall be saved in the last years of the World. Is this enough to answer those great Idea's raised by the magnificent promises made to this Nation The Messiah was promised to the Jews and hitherto he hath only brought evil upon them Besides we must observe that the Messiah belongs to the Iews he was promised to the Iews this Nation from its very original hath been fed with the hopes of the Mesiah's coming as of such a good which was too great to be described At last he comes and this people instead of seeing those great promises accomplisht sees their Temple burnt their capital City razed their Service abolisht their
is plain the Prophet borrowed his Characters of it from that Happy state of the first Man wherein he was filled with the knowledge of God and his Righteousness And during which the brute Animals were innocent kind and gentle as himself 'T is also undeniable that this Prophecy respects the days of the Messiah But I would fain be told sincerely whether this oracle hath ever yet been accomplisht in what time in what place in what age or generation of the world It will doubtless be answered that it was in the Apostolical Church and in the time of the Apostles for only in that new-born Church could it be said that there was none to hurt or destroy that Wolves and Lions and Bears became Lambs The Prophecies which fortold the great holiness of the Church are not accomplisht Yet even in that new-born Church Wolves and Lions might be found But it cannot be of that Church which the Prophet there speaks because he speaks of a time when the knowledge of the Lord should fill the Earth which then it did not For this great Holiness this admirable union is represented to us only in the Church of Ierusalem Moreover we see not that this lasted for any considerable time There is a great deal of difference between the Church in the first Chapters of the Acts when Believers had but one heart and one soul and the Church we read of towards the end of the same Book where were false zealots who opposed St. Paul for having preached to the Gentiles Besides Isaiah speaks not of the Holiness of some particular persons but of a general Sanctification That a time shall come when Righteousness shall universally cover the societies of men as the waters cover the bottom of the Sea. I know well enough that the Prophets do oftentimes make use of the figure called Hyperbole But in truth the Hyperbole here would be forc't and carried too far and would not be intelligible if the Holy Spirit should so describe the Church of the first Ages where wee some Incestuous some Adulterers some Heretiques Schismaticks Apostates and all sorts of crimes We need but read the writings of St. Cyprian De Lapsis to be assured that in the good days of the Church there were already things very horrid and abominable Every one may think as he shall please but for my own part I expect from this prophecy such an age wherein Holiness shall as much exceed vice as vice now doth exceed and overtop vertue We read also in the same Prophet Chap. 32. v. 15 16. that the Spirit shall be poured from on high upon us and the wilderness be a fruitfull field and the fruitfull field a forrest Judgement shall dwell in the wilderness and Righteousness remain in the fruitfull field The work of Righteousness shall be Peace and the effect of Righteousness quietness and assurance for ever An high way shall be there and a way and it shall be called the way of Holiness the unclean shall not pass over it but it shall be for those the wayfaring men Chap. 35.8 9. though fools shall not err therein No Lion shall be there nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon Chap. 54.13 14. it shall not be found there All thy Children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the Peace of thy Children thou shalt be establisht in Righteousness Chap 59.21 22. This is the Covenant I will make with you saith the Lord my Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth or out of the mouth of thy seed nor of thy seeds seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever And they shall call them Chap. 62.12 the Holy People the redeemed of the Lord and thou shalt be called sought out a City not forsaken Chap. 31.33 Add to this the Prophecy of Ieremy This shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my People and they shall teach no more every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest saith the Lord. These Prophecies speak four things 1. They paint out the State of the Church under the Messiah 2. They describe it by a more then ordinary Holiness that shall every where be poured out 3. By a persevering Holiness to which no return to vice or no apostacy shall succeed For 't is said the Spirit of God shall not depart from them or their seed or seeds seed 4. Lastly This is a Holiness whereof the Jewish Nation is to have the chiefest part For 't is to that People and concerning them that God speaks Now I demand whether any one can show me that age of the Church wherein such an Holiness which answers the Idea given us by these Prophecies can be found where we shall meet with a persevering Holiness If the Church for any time hath been pure that hath not continued from one Generation to another yea let such an Age be named wherein the Israelitish Nation did pertake of this Evangelical Holiness Hath not that People been always obstinate unbelieving Enemies to Christ without faith in respect of men as well as in reference to God we must than open our eyes and confess that there shall be a Kingdom of Holiness such a one as shall fill all Nations and not subject to those unhappy Revolutions that by corruption have changed the face of the Church from year to year Thus far Righteousness and Holiness Next we are to consider the Peace and Prosperity of the Church Glorious Prophecies of the peace of the Church whereof the Prophets speak more largely and in an higher strain because under the Images of Temporal Prosperity they set forth that Spiritual Prosperity which we have spoken of under the names of Holiness and Righteousness Concerning Peace Is 2.4 the Prophet Isaiah saith that they shall beat their swords into Plough-shares and their Spears into pruning-hooks that Nation shall not rise against Nation neither shall they learn war any more Concerning its future Prosperity he saith c. 41.18 19. The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstop't the lame shall leap as the Hart and the tongue of the Dumb shall sing for joy I will open Rivers in high places and Fountains in the midst of Valleys I will make the wilderness a Pool of water and the dry Land springs of water I will plant in the wilderness the Cedar the Pine the Myrtle and the Olive-tree and I will set in the desert the Fir-tree the Pine and the Box-tree together c. 49.10 11. They shall not hunger nor thirst neither shall the heat or Sun smite them for he
Abraham it began to assume a new form she had then Sacraments and the distinction of People began By Moses the Church took another form quite different from the Preceding By Christ she became incomparably more perfect By the rise and growth of Antichrist the Church was intirely changed By Antichrist's being at the Height the Corruption was also at the Highest and at length by the fall of Antichrist she must put on another face This being supposed that the seven Periods answer to the seven days we must observe in every of those Periods such Events and such things as answer to the several works of the Creation done on every day so that what was made on the first day may resemble that which happened in the first Period of the Church and that which was done on the second day be the image of what happened in the second Period and so of the following If we find a perfect correspondence between the Copies and the Original between the Types and the things which we pretend were represented by them we shal have reason to believe that 't is some what more than a sport of wit or the effect of Fancy and Imagination which is the next thing we are to consider CHAP. XXI The Explication of the Mysteries signified by the Chaos by the Creation of Light by the separation of the Waters and by the Creation of the Plants The first days of the Creation and the three first Periods of the Church I Intend not to stay long upon what is well known and hath been said already and therefore shall speak but little of the Chaos We see plainly that this confused Mass without form and void which was properly nothing but a vast Abyss covered with darkness was the image of that sad estate to which sin had reduced the World. It was without form spoiled and defaced by sin for it had nothing at all of beauty It way confused for every thing there was in disorder that which should have been above was below God was blasphemed instead of being worshipt and self-love had placed the Creature on the Throne of God. It was empty and void for nothing that was good could be found in the World. It was covered with darkness for a stupid ignorance might be observed to reign there This was the state of the World out of which the Church was to be drawn as a new World God was doubtless the Creator of unshapen Mass and I doubt not but we have an account of its Creation in the first Verse In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth 'T is not as is commonly thought an abridgment of what is more amply and by particulars related afterwards 'T is the Creation of the Chaos called Heaven and Earth because it possessed that place which the Heaven and the Earth now do possess and because it contained the matter of them This is plain enough by the second Verse and the Earth was without form and void c. 'T is the description exactly of that Earth which he was speaking of in the first Verse Why 't is not said expresly that God created the Chaos Nevertheless though God created the Chaos 't is but implicitly said so for Moses saith not that God made the Earth without form and void Which may import that though God do govern that which we call the wicked World and that enormous Mass is not formed without his Providence nevertheless he will not be acknowledged the Author of it because he is not the Author of Evil. God appoints no certain day to this Chaos which is the Image of the corrupted World. 1. Because this Chaos hath its reign and extention during the whole six days of the spiritual Creation VVhy the Chaos hath no assigned day for 't is the perpetual fund whence God draws all the parts of the intelligible World which is his Church as the Chaos was the fund from whence by little and little God drew all the parts of the Vniverse 2. God assigns it no particular day because 't is the Empire or darkness into which the Light and the day cannot enter He produced not the Chaos by a Fiat saying let there be a Chaos as he created the Light because the Word of God doth not make the wicked World by its efficacy this World produceth it self by its own corruption Lastly he gives it not his Approbation he says not and God saw that it was good he blesseth it not as he did the works of the six days because God seeth nothing good in the carnal World instead of blessing it it is under his curse VVaters in all the Type of the Creation signify People In the mean time the Spirit of God moved upon the waters Waters in the Language of the Prophets and of the Types do signify People This we have observed before and is too well know to need to be proved This we must remember that Waters signify People in all the Type of the Creation The Spirit of God moved on the waters of the Chaos to prepare that matter to bruise and reduce it into little parts and to introduce the dispositions to receive that form which he intended to give it God intending to draw his Church out of the World and from among the Nations hath presided over them by a wise providence What is signified by the Spirits moving on the Waters If he had intirely abandon'd the World to it self after the entrance of sin it had been impossible to draw thence the intelligible World. It would have fallen into a total deprivation of Light Equity and Goodness and into that Spirit which the Scripture calls a spirit of slumber past feeling and a reprobate sense But the Spirit of God hath presided over these Waters he hath preserved and kept up in the World some fragments and remainders of Light Conviction Conscience the knowledge of God the distinction of right and wrong and the apprehension of future rewards and punishments We may see every where this motion this action of the Spirit of God on the Waters that is the People of the World even to the approach of the fourth Period which is that of our Lord Iesus Christ God was then about to give a Form to the Church to this intelligible World which properly speaking it never yet had Then he caused in the World such things as would dispose to this great work he prepared his matter by the study of Philosophy which drew men from that stupidity that before rendred them uncapable of receiving the Light of Truth He dispersed the Iews who carried every where the knowledge of the true God and made an infinite number of Proselites He caused the Bible to be turned into the Greek Tongue which then spread and prevailed in the World and guided the Heathen insensibly to a dislike of their Idols and their Religion This is the Mystery of the Chaos The Mysteries of â—he first day of the Creation In
Christ unto the birth of Antichrist i. e. till the middle of the fifth Century In this Period we have the Sun of Righteousness so Jesus Christ is called by the Prophets and Evangelists John c. 1. The Light which inlightens every man that comes into the world So by the Apostles The Father of Lights in whom is no shadow of change James 1. i. e. a Sun that hath no Tropicks The Parrallel of the Moon with the Church The Parrallel between Iesus Christ and the Sun is too manifest and easy to make to be long insisted on I will rather speak somewhat of the Moon which is an admirable Emblem of the Church 1. The Moon hath all her Light from the Sun The Church hath all her Beauty Holiness Vertue and Glory from I. Christ 2. The Moon retains some spots and those considerable ones in her borrowed Light the Church hath many great and plain defects in her vertues 3. The Moon hath no fixed Light she often changeth and is sometimes more and sometimes less inlightned The Church remains not long in one state she is always rising or falling she looseth some of her Light and then receiveth more she defiles herself and then is cleansed and hath Periods almost as regular as those of the Moon 4. The Moon besides her constant and periodical decrease suffers Ecclipses and sometimes total ones The Church besides her ordinary declensions is sometimes so Ecclipst as not to appear which is more or less according to the inundations of Herely or the corruption of manners 5. 'T is not the fault of the Sun but of the Moon it self that these Ecclipses happen she plungeth herself in the shadow of the Earth and so deprives herself of the Sun. The Ecclipses of the Church by the loss of Truth or vertue happen in like manner because she falls into sin and falshood which is shadow and darkness the product of Earth and Hell. Your sins have separated between God and you 6. When the Moon is Ecclipst she becomes black and puts on a frightfull Aspect when the Church suffers herself to lose the Light of the Sun her visage becomes deformed by her disorders and crimes Why doth not the Church appear but in this fourth Period since she was created from the beginning of the World so the Moon which was a figure of the Church should have been created on the first day I answer that the Church may also be found in the three preceding Periods but in the first and second day 't is a Land covered with waters The Church is mixt and confounded with the People of the World and even covered and hidden among 'em In the third she appears as a dry Land that is visible but as yet it is but Earth producing Plants and Fruits In our fourth Period she is advanc't from the quality of Earth to the dignity of the Stars she becomes a Moon a luminous body which may be seen afar off which spreads its rays throughout all the world Stars of six magnitudes images of the six orders of Teachers In the fourth day there were also Stars which are of six different magnitudes from the first to the sixth In our fourth Period we have several Teachers as shining Stars but they lessen by degrees The Apostles are the Stars of the first magnitude Apostolick Persons were Stars of the second magnitude their Disciples who lived in the second Century were Stars of the third the Doctors of the Church in the third Century were Stars of the fourth magnitude Those of the fourth Century were of the fifth magnitude Lastly in the fifth Century when the good days of the Church ended there were more Teachers more Stars in number but they were but of the sixth magnitude their Light began to be obscured by mixing with the darkness of Superstition and Heresy After them in the following Ages we see no Stars but under a Cloud the witnesses covered with sackcloth Christians concealed and hidden among the multitude of those who were sunk into error and Idolatry In this Period there is also another sort of Stars viz. Confessors and Martyrs who shined as Stars of the first magnitude and the common sort of the Faithful who are truly Stars though but of the sixth magnitude Lastly in the fourth Period we find Planets wandring Stars Apostates Iudas's and such as Hymenaeus and Philetus who concerning the Faith made shipwrack Mysteries of the 5th day We proceed to the fifth day of the Creation The fifth Period is that from the rise of Antichrist to his Completion from the fifth Century to the eleventh In the fifth day God said Let the waters bring forth Fishes abundantly or moving Creatures which have life and Fowl that may flie above the Earth in the open firmament of Heaven Behold two sorts of Creatures Birds and Fishes and they are to be Emblems of men who should rule in the fifth Period of the Church It may be the name of Bird may prove a good Omen to some one would think we should find something of good there because Birds are a kind of Coelestial Creatures but we must remember that in the two following Periods we shall meet with nothing that is good because they belong to Antichrist If there be any thing good in these two Periods 't is the remnant of the fourth for all is evil that belongs to their perticular Character So that by Birds we understand men of rash and daring spirits who would pierce beyond the Clouds attempting to reach unto God himself and have done violence to his Holy Mysteries by their bold Inquiries Such was Arrius who would dive into the mystery of the Eternal generation of the Son and was there stumbled Such was Macedonius who would fathom the Mysteries of the Procession of the Holy Spirit and not being able to effect it made him a Creature as Arius did the Son. Such was Eutyches who not being able to fathom the Mysteries of the union of the two natures in Christ did confound them Such was Nestorius who lost himself in searching into the manner of the Vnion of the humane Nature with the Divine Person and so establisht two Persons in Christ and I know not how many more such Birds there were men of bold and daring spirits who did great mischief to the Church We need but consult History to be informed 'T is true among those Birds there were some whose flight was happy enough The fourth and fifth Centuries produced some Eminent Doctors in comparison of the preceding The first Doctors of the Christian Church after the Apostles were but poor Divines they could flye but a little way There is more Divinity in one piece of St. Austin then in all the three first Centuries Origen excepted who was the Eagle of his Age. But those Birds who made some happy flights were yet guilty of great faults and often lost themselves by endeavouring to go too far The Fish of the fifth day are Antichrist
'T is S. Iohn that received the Reed in the 11th Chap. to measure the Temple and the Altar there was given me a Reed like unto a rod and the Angel stood and said rise and measure the Temple But here 't is an Angel that measureth an Agent of an higher order than the Apostle 3. Lastly S. Iohn hath only a rod given him a reed to measure with a weak Justrument and of little value but here the Angel measures with a Golden reed All which sets forth the great excellence of the Church in this last period that it should surpass even the Primitive Church as much as a city exceeds a Temple an Angel a man or a Golden Rod an ordinary cane or reed The city was built foursquare the square is an emblem of Rest because that figure of all others is most proper to keep firm which signifies the tranquility and immutable Peace of this Church The square also relates to the number Twelve which occurs so often in this description for 12 is a square number that shows three on all sides Three a number of perfection as well as seven to signifie that on what side soever you look upon this Church whether in regard of its Holiness or Knowledg or Peace or Glory she shall be every way perfect These are the four sides of the square Holiness Knowledg Peace and Glory and this Perfection she hath from the number Twelve viz. from the twelve Apostles He measured the City with the Reed 12 thousand Furlongs This is not to be understood of the circumference of her Walls or of their diameter or their Heighth but of the whole Body of the City taken together as a Cube that contains 12 thousand furlongs counting every thing There are 12 foundations which are the 12 Apostles or rather the 12 Articles of faith Every foundation answers to a thousand Cubits i. e. that every of the Apostles by his doctrine and preaching did increase the Church and contribute to its building and to the gathering of the saints in the same proportion which a foundation of one cubical foot or therabouts hath to a thousand furlongs This signifies the great Increase and multiplication of the Church The length the breadth the Heigth of the City were Equal that is it was in all accounts a perfect Cube throw a Die where you please it will alway find a place to rest So shall be the Church of the last period what ever Commotions may happen she shall not lose her rest nothing shall be able to destroy or hinder it Interpreters have no reason to make an objection here that a City that is as high as large would be a monstrous pile for every thing here is beyond the ordinary rules among men to signifie that this Holy Society shall not be governed as Humane societies now are Besides this the great Equality of this City in all its dimensions seems to me to denote that admirable Equality between all the Saints which shall take place in the seventh period of the Church not that all difference of Conditions shall be absolutely laid aside there shall still be superiors and Inferiors Rich and Poor some to Govern and others to obey but those great distances between mens conditions shall then be filled up by Charity and Love wheras now they are inlarged and widened by Pride and vanity Then he measured the Wall 144 Cubits Here is the number 144 which is sacred because of the number 12 which is its Root 't is easie to apprehend why the Wall is 144 Cubits 't is because it is raised upon 12 Foundations and the wall of the City had twelve Foundations Build upon twelve raise another number by multiplying this by it self and you make 144. for 12 is the square root of 144. Every building of the Church is raised upon the 12 Apostles and in its raising she is multiplied as in building upon 12 you make 144. and these 144 Cubits are not to be taken for the same thing with the 144 thousand who were marked which are the whole body of the Saints These 144 Cubits are in the walls of the City and not in the whole City This wall is that which gives protection to the City and the Church it is Truth and the Holy Ministry by whom that Truth is preached so that the 12 Foundations are the Principal Pastors with the Truths they teach viz. the 12 Apostles and the 144 Cubits are the whole Evangelical Ministry built upon the 12 Apostles as their first Teachers He measured the wall according to the measure of a man i. e. of the Angel that denotes that the Angel in giving to a wall one hundred forty four Cubits founded upon twelve hath therin followed the ordinary way of Computation among Arithmeticians who by multiplying twelve by it self make one hundred forty four And the building of the wall was of Iaspar and the City was of pure Gold like unto clear glass The distinction of men according to their different qualities is conveniently and commonly enough made by the Emblem of Metals men of low and base Spirits sunk into degeneracy and vice are well represented by Lead Iron is the Emblem of Cruel and hard-hearted persons who are void of Pity Brass doth well enough represent such as glitter and make a show of more than they are or have for Brass imitates the colour of gold but is short in value Silver is an Emblem of those who are in some sort vertuous but not in the first rank Lastly Gold is the Emblem of such spirits as are pure solid firm and truly vertuous This is that which the H. Ghost would teach us that the Church in this last Period shall be made up of such persons as are of sincere and approved piety of a vertue that is bright and solid therfore the City is said not only to be of Gold but of gold clear as Crystal Nevertheless as in every Church the Ministry ought to possess a more eminent degree of Christian vertues than others the wall which signifies the Ministry of the Church in the seventh Period is said to be of Iaspar and precious stones more valuable than gold V. 21. And the 12 Gates were of 12 Pearls every several gate was of one Pearl We have seen how the 12 Gates signifie the 12 Apostles the Guards Guides and Porters as it were of the Church we might easily discover a resemblance between the Apostles and Pearls but 't is sufficient to understand that the design of the H. Ghost is to show that these 12 Men are of an inestimable value All the riches of the world cannot be a sufficient price for 12 Pearls big enough to make 12 Gates of Cities and herewith we must know that when the spirit of God puts so high a price upon weak men like our selves when he calls them Iaspars and precious stones the Gates and Foundations of a City he doth not look upon 'em in themselves but considers them with that treasure
of the Gospell committed to their charge This Gospell is the Pearl of great Price which when one had found he went his way and sold all that he had to purchase it This is the Treasure of which S. Paul speaks when he saith we have this treasure in Earthen vessels The Apostles with Evangelical truth in their Breasts are the 12 foundations the 12 Gates and the walls of the City They are Every thing with this for Truth is every thing and without it they are nothing V. 22. And I saw no Temple therin for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple This must be understood as the words of another Prophet who speaking of the Church in this period saith Every man shall not teach his Neighbour for they shall be all taught of God which doth not import that the Ministry shall be abolisht but that the increase of Knowledg shall be so great that ordinary men might rather be Teachers than need to be taught doubtless there shall be Temples to the end of the world and places set a part for publick worship But it shall hardly be necessary to distinguish places for divine service because God shall be every where served in perfection The Lord and the Lamb shall be its Temple God shall dwell in them and they in God the union of holy souls with God shall be most intimate and reciprocal V. 23. And the City had no need of the sun nor of the moon to shine in it for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light therof Here the sun and the Moon do signifie created lights which cause a succession of day and night and these Luminaries are Emblems of the manner wherin the light of Grace is now dispenst There is now a mixture of Light and Darkness of Day and Night in the same Church and in the same soul It shall no more be thus in the Church of the seventh Period The air of that Church shal be always full of Light. God shall abundantly impart knowledge to the Souls of the Saints in a more immediate manner without any created Luminary V. 24. And the Nations of them which are saved shall walk in the Light of it and the Kings of the Earth do bring their glory and honour into it V. 25. And its Gates shall not at all be shut by day for there shall be no night there V. 26. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the Nations into it V. 27. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth or that worketh abomination and a lie but they who are written in the Lamb's book of Life Here is the perfect and compleat calling of the Gentiles who shall joyn themselves with the converted Iews to compose this glorious Church The Holy Ghost seems to intimate as if there should be none but the Elect and no Reprobates At least if there be any Hypocrites that their number shall be so small as not worthy to be counted Then he shewed me a pure River of water of life clear as Chrystal proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb. 'T is so well known that water in the Scripture stile signifies grace and the Divine Spirit that 't is needless to remark it Ho every one that thirsts come to the waters out of his belly shall flow living waters but he spake of the Spirit which they should receive who believed on him So that the River which proceeds out of the Throne of God is that vital Spring of Spirit and Grace which God will most plentifully dispense to this Church It is the same River which the Prophet Ezekiel saw coming out of the Temple Chap. 47. at first it was no higher then the anckels but by little and little the increase was such that you must be obliged to swim to pass over it 'T is the Emblem of that measure of Grace which is always progressive and in theses last and happy days shall flow as the Sea. V. 2. In the midst of the street of it and of either side of the River was there the Tree of Life which bare twelve manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every moneth and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the Nations This is almost copied from Ezekiel so that we may see it describes the same thing Ezekiel said that on the bank of the River were very many trees on the one side and the other fruit trees whose leaves shall not fade neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed it shall bring forth new fruit every moneth This farther denotes Grace which is our meat and drink to satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst which is the Manna in the Wilderness and Water out of the Rock The fruits of this tree shall be for the healing of the Nations Ezekiel saith the leaf thereof shall be for medicine v. 12. That Grace which shall be our food shall also supply the use of Physick Every one may see here a manifest allusion to the Earthly Paradise to its Rivers and to the Tree of Life that was there To denote that the Church in this her last Period shall be a true Paradise where plenty and abundance of all blessings may be met with 'T is of this reign and of this last Period of the Church that the last part of the eleventh Chapter is to be understood We have already seen how that Chapter is an Epitome of what shall befall the Church In the first part we have a short account of the happy state of the Church during the time of its purity In the second the reign of Antichrist is described and the last persecution which the Church shall suffer And in the Third we have the glorious state of the Church after she hath subdued her enemies This is the Prophecy V. 15. Chap. 11. And the seventh Angel sounded and there were great voices in Heaven saying the Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever V. 16. And the four and twenty Elders who sat before God on their seats fell upon their faces and worshipped God. V. 17. Saying we give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy great Power and hast reigned V. 18. And the Nations were angry and thy wrath is come and the Time of the dead that they should be judged and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy Servants the Prophets and to the Saints and them that fear thy name smal and Great and shouldst destroy them which destroy the Earth V. 19. And the Temple of God was open'd in Heaven and there was seen in his Temple the ark of his Testament and there were lightnings and voices and thundrings and an Earthquake and great Hail We have observed that the seven Trumpets followed upon the seven seals and were