Settlement to the end of the world This they all agree in for the matter and scope of the whole Book tho' they infinitely differ about the Explication of the several parts of it And there cannot be a greater invitation to engage the curiosity of any that are concerned for Useful and Important Truths than that Consideration The great variety of the apprehensions of Interpreters about these things ought not to discourage mens hopes of a clear Interpretation more than the same differences amongst them about almost every other Book of Scripture For it will be found that they do almost as generally agree about the first Grounds of the Interpretation of these Visions as about other Books of Scripture that seem to be less mystical The Language of Prophecy already explained by accomplishments is in these things as sure a Rule of Interpretation as the more common Language of Scripture is for the other Books of it that are more plain And those that seem the most impartial in these things Mr. Mede B p. Usher Dr. More are very confident that there are plain grounds upon that foundation to build a demonstrative Evidence of the Sense of the chief design of these Visions upon With this encouragement it will be first enquired What sure grounds there are for the certainty of the Apostolical Authority of this Book as the only foundation of all satisfaction that can possibly be had from the clearest Interpretation of it There are two ways by which the Authority of any Book of Scripture is secured to us The First An Universal Tradition concerning it in the first Times of the Church soon after the writing of it And the Other The Determination of the Universal Church concerning it after some doubts and scruples concerning it And by both these ways of assurance is the Authority of the Apocalypse secured Two of the first Writers after the writing of the Apocalypse were Justin Martyr and Irenaeus Justin Martyr was contemporary with those who knew the Apostle whose Name it bears Anno 160. and that conversed with him and He in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew pag. 308. quotes the Apostle St. John about the Thousand Years under the Name of A certain man amongst them who was one of the twelve Apostles of Christ speaking of that matter in the Revelation which was given him which all know to be the Subject of the 20th Chapter of the Apocalypse And accordingly does Eusebius l. 4. c. 18. Eccl. Hist quote Justin Martyr as attributing the Apocalypse to the Apostle St. John But Irenaeus does the most satisfactorily put an end to all Controversie about this in his time and Irenaeus was contemporary with Justin Martyr And to assure us of the truth of what he affirms he says he had it from Polycarp whose diligent Auditor Lib. 3. contra Haeres cap. 3. he was and Polycarp was a Disciple of St. John himself and died a Martyr and so secures the truth of his Testimony But Irenaeus his Testimony concerning the Apocalypse is most full in his fifth book contra Haeres sect ult where speaking of the Number of Antichrist he says That that Number was in all the ancient and approved Copies and that he had it also confirmed to him by those who had seen St. John face to face There can hardly be given a more unquestionable or more particular Testimony concerning the true Author of a Book at any distance from the time that it was wrote in than this is Here is a particular search after all the Copies of it soon after the writing of it with the concurrent Testimony of those who knew the Author himself And further to shew the utter unlikelihood of any falsification of the Name of the Author of it a little after speaking of the Name of Antichrist Knowing this says he that if his Name Lib. 5. sect ult were to have been openly known at this present time it would certainly have been expressed by him who saw the Revelation for it is not long ago since he saw it but almost in this present Age at the latter-end of the Reign of Domitian The little distance betwixt the time of Irenaeus and the time of the writing this Book together with the care that he took to look into all the various Copies of it and the Traditions of the Ear-witnesses of the Apostle about it and the confirmation of his own Testimony in all this by dying a Martyr himself does silence all scruples about the Apostolical Authority of this Book But yet about 100 years after the time of Irenaeus Dionysius of Lib. 2. Alexandria in his Disputes against the Millenaries of his time does affirm That many of his Predecessors did reject this Book But then he says It was because they saw it obscure and full of too gross ignorance about the Millenarian state not from any new knowledge they had got of the forgery of it And their grounds were so small for it that tho' he was the chief Head of the Anti-millinarian Party yet he says he believed it to be divinely inspired Tho' from the difference of the Style of it from that of the Gospel and Epistles of John the Evangelist he judged it to be wrote by some other John contemporary with him And yet there are some expressions in the Revelations so peculiar to the Gospel and Epistles of John the Evangelist and used by no other Apostle that it must be either He himself or a very near Friend of his that must be the Author of them such as are The Lamb The Word The bearing record or witness of the Word They that pierced him shall see him The Testimony of Jesus Christ He that overcometh As I received of my Father c. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely and Let him that is athirst come And whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely Which are all expressions peculiar to the Gospel and Epistles of St. John St. Jerem indeed says That the Greek Church rejected the Authority of it But as Baronius well observes about it An. 96. St. Jerom must necessarily mean that only of the meaner and lower part of the Greek Church For as he there shews almost every one of the Greek Fathers does quote it under the Name of St. John the Apostle And Eusebius who relates the dissent of some of the Ancients about it and was the most eminent Antiquary of the Greek Church does name Justin Martyr Irenaeus Melito of Sardis Theophilus Antiochenus Origen Dionysius Alexandrinus the chief Writers of the Greek Church before him as Asserters of the Apostolical Authority of this Book If we go to the Judgment of after-Ages we have the Universal Consent of the Christian Church for the Canonical Authority of the Apocalypse after it had been scrupled by some which is the other way of assuring the right Tradition of a Canonical Book The third Council
of Carthage after the time of these scruples of the Antimillenarians and before the degeneracy of the Church to which the aim of the Apocalypse is applied by Protestants viz. before the year 400 does in its 47th Canon ordain the Book of the Apocalypse to be read in the Church as Canonical Scripture And this Provincial Council is confirmed to oblige the Universal Church both the Greek and Latin by the sixth Synod in Trullo at Constantinople Can. 2. Anno 707. But it was unquestionably a Decree of the Greek Church where the Apocalypse had alone been scrupled But the most authentick Evidence of this is the Authority of the fourth Council of Toledo when it could not possibly be any Interest of the then Ruling Party of the Church to plead for the Apocalypse but might possibly enough endanger the Interest of it because it was about the year 640. after the time that the Protestants Applications of that Book do generally date the degeneracy of the Church of Rome from So that the sense of that Council is the Testimony of an Adversary to the General Consent of the Church about the Tradition of this Book The words of it are these The Authority of many Councils and the Synodical Decrees Concil Toletan 4. Can. 16. about the year 640. of the holy Bishops of Rome have determined the Book of the Apocalypse to have been wrote by John the Evangelist and to be received amongst the Books divinely inspired And because there are many that do not receive it for Authentick and scorn to read it in the Church of God if any one for the future shall refuse to receive it or to read it in the Church in the time of Mass from Easter to Whitsuntide he shall be Excommunicated By this it does appear how the Apocalypse came to lose its authenticalness among the meaner part of the Church It was it seems so disused in the Church that it passed for an useless Book the Interpretations that were given of it were either so fanciful or so little concerning the Times when it was neglected that it passed amongst them for a kind of Book of Dreams in which the Church was not concerned and which none knew the meaning of And this cannot much be wondred at when it is considered how little regard is had to these Revelations even in these days unto which they are by the best Learned amongst us judged to belong in matters of the highest importance for the Church to know But as for that suggestion That Cerinthus was the Author of the Apocalypse which was always the most current ground amongst those who rejected the Authority of it there is assurance enough of the falshood of it out of Irenaeus for he was the Scholar of Polycarp who was the Disciple and Companion of St. John to whom Irenaeus every-where attributes Euseb l. 5. Eccles Histor c. 18. the Apocalypse and writes against Cerinthus and reports from Polycarp the great detestation that St. John had against Cerinthus And how absurd a thing would it be to imagine that Irenaeus after so diligent so long and familiar a conversation with Polycarp the Companion of St. John as he particularly mentions of himself should make the Apostle to be the Author Lib. 3. contra Haeres cap. 3. of a Book which was really wrote by his worst Adversary to propagate his Errors Whatever was the true reason of the rejection of the Authority of this Prophecy it is certain That no Book of Scripture has had a more express and unexceptionable Tradition of its Apostolical Authority since it was confirmed by the Testimony of two Learned Martyrs soon after the writing of it who also had searched into all the Copies of it and were confirmed in it by those who were conversant with the Apostle himself that wrote it and that in the very times that it was scrupled it was believed to be Authentical by all the Eminently-learned Fathers of those days and that after the times that it had been scrupled it was owned by the General Consent of the Christian Church This I thought fit to premise for the full satisfaction of those that are altogether sceptical in the first foundation of these Interpretations But the Romanists whose whole concern it is to make every thing in this kind dubious do agree with all other Christian Churches in the World at this time about the unquestionableness of the Canonical Authority of this part of the New Testament And now it may appear to be our Duty and Concern to enquire with diligence after the best understanding that we can get of this Prophecy when we consider what pressing Motives there are to it more in this Book than in any other Book of Scripture beside In the beginning Blessed is he that readeth Rev. 1. 3. 13. 9. and they that hear the words of this Prophecy And again If any man have an ear let him hear And the matter of it is said to be The Revelation that God gave unto Jesus Christ to shew Chap. 1. 1. unto his Servants And that whosoever should add to or take Chap. 22. 18 19. from the words of this Book above any other should have the plagues of God added to him or his part of Eternal Life taken away The First BOOK THE Uniform Constant Notion Of the Term of THE BEAST All over the REVELATIONS CHAP. I. The Ground of the Method here used The first Proposition That Babylon is the City of Rome in an Antichristian and Idolatrous Reign Scruples moved against it The Demonstration of it from the Text confirmed by General Consent NOne could be more disposed to the common prejudices against the study of the Revelations than I was at the time that I first engaged in those things I had till then been so almost wholly confin'd to such Enquiries as are the closest Exercise of Ratiocination upon clear and sure grounds That I was come to have a natural aversion against all such loose Conjectures as the Interpretations of those Visions are generally reputed to be But Mr. Mede's Synchronisms and his offers at Demonstration in them which I lighted on by chance some years since in a solitary retirement did tempt my curiosity to enquire What could be the ground of such a confidence in one of so known a Character for a cautious and imparial Judgment in Scriptural Rev. XVII Expositions At the first cursory view of his performance I was extremely surprized to see such fair grounds of a clear Explication about so intricate and obscure a Subject And tho' upon a more critical examination of the strength of them I found most of his Synchronisms far short of a close and cogent proof in them yet I could not but think that the Subject might be capable of a more certain determination to the Conclusion that he aimed at I did thereupon set my self upon a particular search after a closer demonstration of that Application that he had made
these New Interpreters does still prejudice any that are otherwise curious against these kind of Enquiries here is all this to make them very uneasie under it viz. That they rely upon such for it as the best Judges amongst those whose Cause they most befriend by it do impartially cry out against as Men void of common Sense for the grounds that they go upon for it and that they prefer the Judgment of these men in opposition to the Doctrine of the Church of England it self and of the best Learned and the most impartial Defenders of it almost ever since the Reformation and also in opposition to the Judgment of all Reformed Churches besides I do moreover here pretend to lay a surer and deeper foundation for the demonstration of the Protestant Applications than has yet been offered which may make my endeavours for it at least worth the examining And for the better apprehending of the force of all I will here give a general Idea of my whole process in it The chief foundation of my Design is the constant usage of Figures of the like kind in the Prophecy of Daniel For there is this great advantage from Daniel's Figures That they are both the Original Copy of that in the Revelations and have also a great variety of like Schemes and were almost all of them fulfilled before the writing of the Apocalypse as it has been by the Consent of the Learned See Consent of the Ancients at the end of almost all Parties and Ages agreed upon This makes the signification of the Schemes of Daniel to be certainly determined and to be so many Data and Rules for the determination of the like but less known Phrases in the Revelations I have therefore taken some pains to make sure of the Interpretation of the Figures of Daniel in such a way of proof as I hope may bear the most critical Examination which was never before clearly done but is the most requisite of any thing for a full satisfaction about the sense of the Apocalypse For by this means I have reduced all the kinds of Schemes signifying Dominion to certain and uniform Definitions which is a much larger Basis to establish the Interpretation of these Mysteries upon and which I found much wanting in Mr. Mede's and Dr. More 's Method The Prophetical Terms in the Revelations do by this appear to have been well known to the Apostle before and the signification of the chief of them to contain in them so large a space of time as determines their accomplishment to many Ages after his time which is a great confirmation of the Divine Authority of the Prophecy This is the whole business of the Second Book which ought to be the most nicely and attentively examined But to make the demonstration of this the more secure I thought it most convenient to make use of some of the most undoubted and acknowledged things about Babylon and the Figure of the Beast in the Revelations which do the most openly and unquestionably determine the scene of these things to one certain Empire Whereby the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel which is proved necessarily to be the same with that in the Apocalypse is more certainly made known and all the rest of the Kingdoms there mentioned more unavoidably confined in their particular significations This therefore was thought fit to be premised in the First Book In the doing of this I had another aim which I apprehended to be of very useful importance and that was to make sure of the foundation of Mr. Mede's Syncronisms that is That the Term of the Beast all over the Revelations does denote but one and the same particular state of it the want of a close proof of which gives a great advantage to the Grotian Interpretation to evade the force of his Demonstrations by taking that Term in various acceptations Dr. Moor has indeed taken great pains for this purpose but I could not be satisfied till I found it more absolutely necessary for that term to be every-where but the same particular state than his Eighteen Congruities or Likenesses do seem to make it The Third Book does apply the general Notions in the Two former to the Beast in the Revelations Thus far I have generally endeavoured to carry on my whole Process upon Principles common to all the several ways of Protestant Interpreters and have therefore offered mine own particular Apprehensions about the Application and first date of the Reign of the Beast by way of Queries only that I might lay the stress of the business upon a foundation large enough to fit almost all the different Judgments of Protestant Interpreters and not venture it upon the narrow bottom of one particular man's Fancy and Method And I have made use of no Authorities to confirm any thing of moment but the Consent of Papists themselves And their Consent about almost all the Propositions in the First and Second Book which are the Principles and foundation of the Design was a very great confirmation to me of the strength and certainty of all that follows But yet I am so throughly sensible of the strange and violent heats that the study of these things do generally possess all men with that engage in it that I must desire that Justice of the Reader not to be deterred from the perusal of this performance by the confident Censures of any that may observe some small Conclusions here not so agreeable to their own Fancies For the most eminent and admired in other parts of Learning have been found to be the most absurd and gross in their Confident Mistakes about these matters Nothing indeed does make men so obnoxious to mistakes here as a more than ordinary measure of quickness of Parts and of assurance from great improvements in other ways If I have at all succeeded in this Attempt I must wholly attribute it under God's assistance to the peculiar scepticalness of my nature and the continual distrust of my own Apprehensions and Performances which would not suffer me to fix upon scarce any thing before I had by often repeated corrections of my first thoughts about it made it appear not only clear but necessary to me It is enough to revive the Curiosity of the present Age for the examination of this Attempt to reflect but upon the peculiar advantages of it if performed My Design The Usefulness of the Design is to give a clear and necessary proof That the Church of Rome is that Great Enemy of God's Church which is much the business of the Revelations And one very great advantage of this would be That it would cut off many voluminous and intricate Disputes which take up so much of the choicest time of the Best Men. If it were once made sure That God had here so openly exposed the distinguishing marks of that Church almost every one of Bellarmin's Notes of his Church ought without any dispute to be granted him Nay If that alone be
that the Roman Church has set up for the Orthodox way of interpreting Scripture in the second Session of the Council of Trent Can. 3. viz. That none should presume to interpret Scripture against the unanimous Consent of the Fathers By which we have the Approbation of the chief Adversary in our present Case for the soundness of any thing that has this Authority for it and the mouths of all its Members are hereby stopped from opposing that which is so confirmed For a clearer satisfaction in this I will give the Tradition of it from the several Writers in every Century of the first Ages after Christ But for those that may account that either tedious or uncertain it will be sufficient to hear what the Modern Authors of all Parties have delivered as the common Consent of the Ancients As for the Judgment of the most Learned of the Roman Church it has been particularly shewn in the Preface to my Judgments of God upon the Roman Church Second Part That their best Commentators Malvenda Viega Alcasar Pererius do with a great deal of Heat and Zeal affirm That All find it unquestionable both Jews and Christians That it is commonly agreed upon by all that profess the Name of Christ That it is the common Road and the King's High-way That it is the common Opinion of the Learned That all do interpret it so viz. That the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel is the Roman Empire and look upon it as a perfect madness and to shew ones felf void of sense to think otherwise Gaspar Sanctius gives a remarkable reason to this purpose why it is needless to name any of the Ancients of this Opinion and that is Because there is no Body that says otherwise And this Testimony of the Romanists is so much the more unquestionable because they can make no advantage of it by affirming it but on the contrary do thereby grant the main Foundation of their Adversaries Applications of the Revelations to their Church which makes their Judgment about the Consent of the Ancients in this appear to be clear and impartial Mr. Mede may be more reasonably suspected of partiality because of his particular engagements in the Interpretations of the Apocalypse but yet never do we find his Integrity questioned for misrepresenting the Opinions of the Authors that he quotes And thus does he speak of the Application of the Fourth Kingdom in the 7th of Daniel pag. 964. This has been the constant Tradition of the Church since the Apostles days to this last saeculum and was of the Church of the Jews before and at our Saviour's time viz. That it was the Roman Empire Rabbi Abarbenel's Testimony is sufficient for the Consent of the Comment in Dan. Pag. 42. Col. 1. Jewish Writers being known to be one of the most Learned of their Nation Our Masters says he are right in THEIR TRADITION That the Fourth Beast does signifie the Roman Emperours whereby it appears to have been the common Tradition of the Learned Jews Here then have we the most impartial Judgment of the Learned Moderns of All Parties Jews and Christians That both the Ancient Fathers and the Ancient Rabbi's are all unanimous in this Interpretation of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel But the most authentick Testimony of the Consent of the Ancients in this is that of St. Jerom who is known to have been the most curious and diligent in his search into the Writings of the Learned in his time as appears from his Book De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis In his Explication of the 7th Chapter of Daniel after he had animadverted upon Porphyry's Opinion as a perfect madness who would have the Fourth Beast to be a part of the Grecian Monarchy he concludes thus Let us therefore affirm that which ALL ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS have delivered to us That about the end of the World when the Kingdom of the Romans is to be destroyed there shall be Ten Kings who shall divide the Roman Empire amongst themselves and there shall arise after them an eleventh small King c. Where we see plainly that by the Beast its self was universally understood the Roman Empire This he affirms to have been an Universal Tradition of Church-writers before him And what is there almost in the whole Body of our Religion that has a more Authentick Testimony of being an unquestionable Tradition of the Vniversal Church And this is further confirmed by the general Custom of the Christians in the first Ages to pray for the Safety of the Roman Empire lest the Ruin of that should bring on the times of Antichrist and the end of the world as Tertullian does affirm of them in that known place of his Apology and Lactantius Theophylact St. Jerome and Oecumenius are cited by Bellarmin in confirmation Lib. 3. De Pontif. Cap. 5. of the same general Custom of the Church in After-times And it is apparent from all the mentions of Antichrist amongst the Fathers That they make him to be the same with the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel which shews that they made the Fourth Beast to be certainly after the time of the Greek Monarchy because the end of it with the Little Horn was to bring on the end of the World Therefore does Erasmus in his Comment upon cap. 29. lib. 20. Augustin ad Marcellin reckon up Lactantius with St. Jerom to affirm That all Writers had agreed in that Opinion That the times of Antichrist was to be after the division of the Roman Empire as it is set out by the Ten Kings and Little Horn of the Fourth Beast These Testimonies about the general Sense of the Ancients of all Churches about this Point may seem to be a sufficient proof of their Judgments about it But because some of late very * eminent for Learning and Ingenuity have fancied another Interpretation of the Fourth Beast and especially because one of them †as much famed for an Antiquary as any of them has positively affirmed it to be the general Judgment of the Ancients That the Fourth Beast is quite another thing than the Romans it may be more satisfactory to set down here the Tradition of every Century of the Christian Church concerning this almost ever since the Romans came to be that Fourth Beast at their Conquest of the Greek Monarchy CHAP. II. The particular Tradition of the Consent of the Ancients in every Century since the time of Christ in their Application of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel to the Reign of the Romans FIRST CENTURY THE Chaldee Paraphrast on the Prophets is the most ancient Evidence but Scripture what was the current Opinion of the times near our Saviour about the Four Monarchies of Daniel for he both lived about those times and his Exposition was always reverenced by the Jews as of so unquestionable Authority that none ever dared to contradict it says Lyranus in Comment on cap. 8. Isai