and Restorer m Therefore is Justinian chosen out by the people of Rome in their insurrection against Pope Innocent the 1st as the example of the greatest Roman Prince for the Emperour Conrad to resemble in favour of whom they declared in these Verses Imperium Teneat Romae sedeat Regat Orbem Princeps Terrarum ceu fecit Justinianus As Sigonius Lib. 11. de Regno Italiae does give the account of it so Procopius de Bello Persico makes Vitiges King of the Goths in his Letter to Chosroes King of Persia give Justinian this Character That it is his Nature to be always coveting of new things to which he had no Right And that he did aim at the whole World and every Mans Kingdom And in his description of Justinian's Buildings in his first Oration describes Justiman's Statue upon a Pillar holding a Globe in his Left hand to signify his Conquest of the World and stretching out the Fingers of his Right Hand towards the East to Command the Barbarians and Persians not to advance any further upon the Roman Empire without any Armour or Sword or Spear but only with a Cross upon the Globe to signify by what power he gained his Victories Which if it were to corrupt the Christian Religion was a Magnificent show of a False pretender to the power of Christ of the Imperial Authority in the Western Empire But as that made him eminent and remarkable enough to be taken notice of for the beginning or the restoring of a new Head of the Beast so did the great Bustle which he made in Church-matters signalize him as much for laying the first foundation of a general Uniformity in Religion His Contemporary n See Praefat. in Cod. Justiniani Procopius gives a Character of him that shows how much the Affairs of the Church were the concern of his heart He says of him That Justinian was so continually taken up with Church-men in private for the determining the niceties of matters of Faith that he lost his best time amongst them which he should have spent about his more weighty Coneerns And we do accordingly find him as fierce and severe in his Injunctions for a general conformity to the Definitions that were made about them In the beginning of his Reign He sets out o See Lib. 5. Cod. Justinian de summâ Trinitate an Edict concerning his Faith therein threatens all who should dissent from it that they should have no manner of indulgence And that upon the discovery of them they should suffer the Law as professed Hereticks which was to be banished the Roman Territories and which was never executed upon the generality of Dissenters before And here does his Faith appear to be made the Rule and measure of Orthodoxy to the whole Empire upon a Penalty which had terror enough in it This Faith he sends to Pope John for his concurrence with him in it And tells him that he did it to conform all to the Church of Rome that it was always his desire to preserve the Vnity of the Apostolick See and the state of the Holy Churches of God And for that purpose to bring all the Eastern Churches under his subjection and to unite them to the See of his Holiness p Ibid. l. 8 9 10. Pope John's Answer to him does repeat the same thing out of his Letter with great thanks to him As that he did preserve the Faith of the Roman Church and did bring all else under the subjection of it and did draw them into the Vnity of it Therein also does Justinian expresly call the Church of Rome the Head of all Churches and desires a Rule of Faith from the Pope for the Bishops of the East The Pope on the other side confirms the Emperor's Faith to be the only true Faith and that which the Roman Church did always hold and that whosoever should contradict that Faith must judge himself to be none of the Catholick Church And all this Intercourse betwixt the Pope and the Emperor is inserted into the Code of the Imperial Law as the Standard and Rule for all to conform to under the Penalty of being judged to be Hereticks that should either deny the Faith or the Authority of the Church that enjoin'd it and the q L. 5. c. de Haereticis Penalties against Hereticks was banishment Though the Emperor's Faith should be accounted Orthodox yet the inducing such a new Penalty which should force it upon the Consciences of all men as so necessary to salvation that a man could not possibly be a Member of the Catholick Church without the profession of it was certainly unwarrantable and the first beginning of that Tyrannizing Power in the Roman Church which made the whole World to conform to all its Arbitrary Decrees and to worship it with a blind obedience to all its most unreasonable Commands But the most publick Instances of the effects of the Emperor's zeal for Uniformity are the Synods that were called by him The first was that under Mennas against Anthimus Severus and Petav. Ration Temp. part 1. lib. 7. c. 7. others where after the condemnation of their Opinions they and all the other Hereticks with them were banished by the Emperor's Edict and very great Penalties says Evagrius l. 4. c. 11. were enjoined for all such as maintained their Opinions This indeed was the only means to arrive at a general Uniformity and Justinian had the first glory of it But this was nothing to his Behaviour in the Controversie about the three Chapters and in the fifth General Council as it is called which being after his Conquests of Africa and Italy found his Spirit in a right disposition to affect to exalt the Imperial Authority in the Church He first publishes a Book about those things and passes a censure Petav. Ration Temp. ibidem upon the three Chapters against the will and sollicitations of his Clergy then forces Mennas the Patriarch of Constantinople with the rest of the Patriarchs to subscribe to it sends for Pope Vigilius and after much reluctance he at last gets him to subscribe with the rest The next year Vigilius publishes a Decree in which with a Salvo to the Council of Chalcedon he does expresly condemn the three Chapters Justinian not content with this uses all means with Vigilius by threats and contumelies to condemn them absolutely without any mention of the Synod of Chalcedon but being not able to break him to it to shew him that the Bishop of Rome was set up for nothing but to be the Emperor's Property and to promote a general Conformity to the Imperial Religion Against the Pope's will he calls a General Council at Constantinople for this end which had always been the method of the former Emperors to unite the Differences about Religion and to make the whole Church conformable to their minds The Pope in the mean while declares against this Assembly not upon the account of any claim of
the great difficulty here is to get any Readers at all and to prevent the being sentenc'd without a Tryal That which does so affright the World from these things is the usual fancifulness and looseness of Discourses of this nature and their great Confidence and Assurance with little or no care to make sure of their foundation I do therefore think it requisite to assure all those that look upon this That the whole aim of my Endeavours here is to restrain all kind of Liberty of Imagination and to force an Assent by close and clear proof instead of surprizing it by an Ingenious Scheme and by the tempting agreements and lucky likenesses of Characters My great fear indeed is that the dry strictness of the Reasonings in it will turn away more from perusing it than the strength and cautiousness of it will please But that will still the more clear my Attempt from the common Prejudice It may be some motive to the belief of this That the only end of this Vndertaking was to find out a more satisfactory foundation for what the Excellent Mr. Mede has endeavoured to demonstrate in this way Whose known Reputation for his impartial and cautious Judgment in the interpretation of other parts of Scripture is sufficient to silence all inconsiderate Prejudices against his Performances of this kind There have indeed been some very great Names of late Grotius Dr. Hammond c. amongst our selves who have excused the Church of Rome from any concern in the Judgments of this Prophecy and that only by laying down another Scheme of Interpretation without any tolerable proof of it But it is a sufficient prejudice against their Authority that they are forced to such shifts for their foundation as the most Judicious and the most skilful of the Romish Interpreters themselves do cry See the Preface to my former Treatise out against as things that none but Men out of their Wits would own and such as they affirm to be contrary to the general sense of all kinds of Interpreters Jews and Christians Ancient and Modern And when they come to speak of the like kind of Phrases do declare that sense of them which these New Men account monstrous in the Interpretations of their Brethren to be so clear that all but those that are blind may easily see it Or such as is agreeable both to the usage of common Speech and to the usage of Scripture Or such as must necessarily be allowed Which is a sufficient Vindication of those Learned Interpreters of our own who have brought the same Charge against these Ingenious Innovators It would at the first much surprize any man to see these Learned Protestants so busie to ease the Church of Rome of this trouble from their Brethren when all the thanks that they can get for it from the most Judicious of those whose Cause they oblige by it is to be called Madmen and fools for their pains But in this they themselves do satisfy us They acknowledge that they came to the Interpretation of the Revelations with a design to serve by it It was more to answer Objections against some singular Notions than to unfold the Mystery of that Prophecy They came to force their way through the Difficulties that the plain and obvious sense of the Visions did lay in their way And nothing is more ordinary than to see men wrest any part of Scripture that will not comply with their fancy for some particular Opinions Their Expedient for Catholick Vnion of all Christian Churches by the Compliance of the Roman Their Assurace of the necessity of the conveyance of a Right Succession and Ordination by a Church that was not formally Idolatrous c. were altogether inconsistent with the Protestant sense of the Apocalypse It is as evident on the other side from the closeness and cautiousness of Mr. Mede's Explications and the impartiality of his Judgment upon all other Occasions that his whole aim was to make sure of the clear and certain sense of these Mysteries He bad no private Opinion that he came to advance by it or to make it a drudge to And his way of life and the wariness and the Ingenuity of his Spirit in all his other Expositions of Scripture did sufficiently secure him that Character of himself which his Modesty would only own viz. his freedom from studium partium But the present Age is so generally prepossessed with the Interpretations of these Learned Men That it is further necessary to remind those that look upon them as a great service to the Church of England That they are great Novelties See Dr. Bernard 's Discourses p. 139 to 160. in its Doctrine and if continued in will but expose it to the rest of the Reformed Churches for departing from them and from its own first Faith only to uphold some Prerogatives of its own Reformation to the undervaluing and undermining of the grounds of theirs It is manifest * Third Part of the Sermon against Idolatry p. 69. And 6th Part of the Sermon against Rebellion p. 316. by the Homilies approved of in our Articles as the faith of our Church That the Charge of Babylon upon the Church of Rome is the standing Profession of the Church of England And it continued to be the †Bishop Jewell p. 373. Bishop Abbot Antichristi Demonstratio Archbishop Whitgift Tract 8. p. 349. Bishop Andrews Tortura Torti Bishop Bilson p. 527. Bishop Morton Mr. R. Hooker 's Treatise of Justification sect 10 57. currant Judgment of all the best Learned Members of it till the end of the Reign of King James the First It was really believed in his time to be so clear and important a part of their Faith That both the Church and the Court did applaud the King in his publick defence of it though he did thereby plainly endanger the honour of his Character and the Interest of his Kingdom amongst all Roman-Catholick Princes As appears by Lessius's Epistle Monitory to them After that time This Doctrine of the Homilies came to be more out of fashion either to be civil to the Marriages of the succeeding Reigns or to take away all the advantage that the Serapatists might have from hence against the necessity of an uninterrupted Succession and Ordination in every Lawfully-constituted Church Which might also shew them the necessity of uniting with the Church of England It is certain that the extravagant Heats of those times were enough to make Learned Men run into unnecessary Extremes But the common Danger of late has now revived the Ancient Doctrine of the Church again which these Novelties did contradict All the best Learned in the Church have been engaged in charging the Church of Rome with formal Idolatry in exposing all Expedients for Vnion with it in demonstrating the necessity of a Separation from them whatever becomes of the Succession in disowning of all kind of Right of Supremacy there c. If therefore the Authority of
but yielded which the Jesuit Alcasar * In v. 2. c. 11. Apocalyps Notat 4. item ante Notation See Preface to the Judgments of God upon the R. C. affirms to be necessary and the contrary of it to be not at all agreeable to the Enigmatical style of the Revelations that is That the 1260 days are to be taken in a Mystical and not in the literal sense Those Notes would be the surest confirmation that that Church must be the Great Babylon For as the Mystical acceptation of a Day in Scripture is a Year so is it impossible to apply the Characters answering to those Marks in the Revelations to any Ruling Power besides for the space of 1260 together since the writing of the Prophecy Ex. gr Where-ever was there an Empire since the writing of the Prophecy but that of the Roman Church that Note 1 was so Universal for 1260 years together as to have all that dwell upon Earth Peoples and Multitudes and Rev. 13. 8. c. 17. 15. Nations and Tongues to worship it What Ruling Power but that so Ancient as to have the Blood of Prophets and Saints and of all that were slain upon Earth of Note 2 that kind for that space of time to be found in it What Rev. 18. 24. Rule but that had ever so long a duration in the World as to continue set upon an Hill much less upon seven Hills Note 3 for so great a space of time or so as to answer the whole length of the time of the Saracen and Turkish Empires Rev. 9. 1 13. in the Two first Woes Never had any other Church Note 4 such an Amplitude or variety of Believers as to have all Nations drink of the Wine of her Fornication or so Rev. 18. 3 c. 13. 7. as to have a blasphemous power over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations None but that was ever so eminently conspicuous for so long a time for the Succession Note 5 of its Bishops under one Supreme Patriarch as to be the Living Image of all the Civil Dignities of the Empire where Rev. 13. 12 14 15. it was under one Supreme Church-Head exercising all the power of the Civil Head or with Imperium in Imperio Nor did ever any Enemy of God's Church act for so long a time like the Red Dragon in its bloody Laws against the Note 6 Followers of the Lamb And yet so far agree with the Primitive Church in fundamental Doctrines as to answer the Character of a False Prophet with the Horns of Rev. 13. 11. the Lamb Christ but speaking like the Red Dragon to his Followers as the Church of Rome has done Whereever but there has there been such an union of Head and Note 7 Members for that length of time to apply the one mind Rev. 17. 13 17. of the Ten Kings to for their agreement together to give their power and strength and their whole Kingdoms to the Beast Never did any but that Church appear so long together with such a medly of Sanctity in some Doctrines Note 8 10. and outward appearances of a strict holiness of life joined with other abominable Doctrines and Practises to qualify it for the Horns of the Lamb and the Speech of the Dragon for the Idolatrous and cruel Commands of the Rev. 13. 12 15. Image Or for having the Form of Godliness in the latter 2 Tim. 3. 1 7. times and yet denying the power thereof Or for forbidding 1 Tim. 4. 3. to marry and commanding to abstain from Meats and yet maintaining Doctrines of Devils What Deceiving Power but that did ever shew so wonderful an efficacy Note 9 of its Doctrine as to make the Kings of the Earth and Rev. 17. 2. all Nations drunk with the Wine of its Fornication Or where did God ever send such an efficacious Delusion as to make men so strongly to believe a lye things clear contrary 2 Thess 2. 11. to the common Sense and Reason of all Mankind Note 11 The Glory of Miracles never appeared any where so long Rev. 13. 14. to make good the False Prophet's lying Wonders and his Matth. 7. 22. deceiving all that dwell upon Earth by the means of them And never was there but in the Roman Church so long a Reign of those that prophesied in the name of Note 12 Christ with Signs and Wonders to assure the Gift of Prophecy to them and so to answer the Character of the False Rev. 13. 14. Mat. 24. 24. Prophet working Miracles to deceive the World and even if it were possible the very Elect. Nor ever had any Power upon Earth so numerous Confessions of its Note 13 Adversaries for the application of these Notes of his Church in the Revelations to verify the Testimony of the Witnesses Rev. 11. 3. no Church or State in the World beside has made such an unhappy end of any thing near so many of its Enemies Note 14 as the Roman to assure us That it can be nowhere but there that the Image caused all to be killed Rev. 13. 15 16 17. that would not worship it nor receive its mark and name Nor did Temporal Felicity ever attend any other Note 15 Religion for half the time of the Roman Reign to make it possible to understand the Riches and Glory of Babylon to Rev. 18. 16 17. her last hour of any thing else If it should here be said That these 1260 years are to be verified of some Empire yet to come It must however be allowed That the present Roman Church is as like that Antichristian Empire for all the time that it is to continue and that for 1260 years as one thing can well be like another This would make one apprehend That Bellarmin was perfectly infatuated to make choice of such things for the marks of his Church as make it the very picture of Babylon the Great in the Revelations and shews the Use and great moment of the Notes of the Church as delivered by Cardinal Bellarmin So also for other Intricate Controversies E. G. If this Application of the Apocalypse were once secured who would much trouble himself to prove the formal Idolatry of the Church of Rome when it appears here to be the Mother of Harlots that has made all Nations Rev. 18. 3. drink of the Wine of her Fornication Or to defend any Reformed Church from the imputation of Schism when there is such an express Command to the People of v. 4. God to come out of her any ways with or without the countenance of Authority that they be not partakers of her Sins and so receive of her Plagues Or to contend much for the perpetual visibility of the true People of God when the Prophecy does so expresly distinguish betwixt them as unknown and a False Idolatrous and Apostate Church Ibidem Rev. 18. 4. c. 7. wherein they sojourn and does set them forth as persons
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
in any thing here by the Authority of his Judgment only And the most a Cornel. Ã Lapide in cap. 17. Apocalyps v. 2. Ex dictis patet non esse probabile c. From what has been said it appears That it is not probable what a Learned Man has imagined viz. That those things which we meet with in this and the following Chapter may be understood of the Sacking of Rome by Alaricus Gensericus Odoacer and Totila for those Exploits were not done by Ten Kings as it is in the Text but by single Kings Nor were they so considerable as that shall be which is described in the following Chapter that is the last and never-before-parallell'd Ruine of Rome So also Malvenda pag. 186. in cap. 19. v. 9. Apocalyp It is manifest That this denotes the burning of Babylon that is of Rome in the end of the World Idem pag. 187. Equidem si cuncta c. For if what the H. Evangelist has delivered from the 11th verse Chap. 18. Apocal. be observed one may see very plainly from thence That John did undoubtedly prophesie of that state in which Rome should be about the end of the World Bellarmin lib. 4. de Pontif. cap. 4. Nor is it any Objection against this That Rome is to be laid waste and burnt according to Rev. 17. 16. For this will not be till about the end of the World Ribera in cap. 18. Apoc. v. 21. But the Greatness of the Stone signifies something more viz. That Babylon is to be utterly destroyed so that there shall be no footsteps of it to be seen And v. 22. After this manner do the Prophets usually speak of Cities that are ruined Jerem. 25. Malvenda de Antichristo pag. 185. The first Opinion viz. That Rome will be an Idolatrous Harlot in the time of Antichrist is probable because Rome which is to be destroy'd about the end of the World must be destroy'd for some Crime against the Church of Christ Ribera pag. 455. in cap. 14. Apoc. num 44. For that Rome shall be utterly burnt not only for its former sins but also for those which it shall commit in the last times is so manifestly to be known from these words of the Apocalypse that the silliest man in the world cannot deny it Eminent of the Roman Interpreters do also agree in this Opinion and shew it to be the mind of the b Alcasar Notat 13. Prooemial The Ancient Fathers did agree That the Roman Empire shall continue till the City of Rome shall be burnt with corporeal Fire and that also by Ten Kings Ancient Fathers It is a great confirmation of the evidence of these inconveniences against the making Babylon Rome-Heathen That they have forc'd the most judicious and ingenuous of the Roman Interpreters rather to venture upon applying all to the City of Rome in an Apostacy from the Roman Church about the end of the World for three years and an half acording to the time of forty two months or twelve hundred and sixty days assigned for the Reign of the Beast tho' they have thereby manifestly endangered the Two Chief Notes of their Church that is Vniversality and Infallibility For Babylon must then seduce All Nations and All the Kings of the Earth which must at least signifie all the Nations within the bounds of the Roman Empire which must be vastly greater than the rest of the Roman Church and then it would have the Authority of Rome it self at that time and of all its Empire to make it a fallible and deluding Roman Church greater than any remaining part of that Church But the certain Obstacles against this are first That Rome must thus be supposed to get the Conquest of all Nations Rev. 17. 18. and of all the Kings of the Earth within three years time for that is made to be the time of her Reign and not only to get such a miraculous Conquest in that time but also to make all Nations own her Idolatry in that space of time which must be a far greater Miracle than ever God Rev. 17. 2. yet suffered the Devil to work in the World and that also against all the Light and Resolution of mens Consciences to the contrary which is a more difficult matter to bend against the Natural Course of it than the subject-matter of any other Miracle Rome must also by this be supposed to advance all Merchants to an incredible Stock of Wealth and Riches within Rev. 18. 15. the space of three years and an half by Foreign Traffique with her For these Merchants are to be all that trade by Sea and the Great Men or Princes of the Earth And how monstrous a thing is this to think of Foreign Merchants v. 17. within so short a time when the business of but one ordinary Voyage does take up the best part of one of those years This the chief Author of this Opinion Ribera does ingenuously confess to be a very hard thing to imagine the manner of and that He himself does account it a wonderful and miraculous thing and thereby does seem to allow us the liberty of taking it for a kind of incredible thing as Miracles before they are done are generally accounted to be And then this makes it at least very highly probable That the time of forty two months or of one thousand two hundred and sixty days of the Reign of Babylon with the Beast who carries her and to whose Seven Heads she is always fixed must be understood in such a mystical sense as will give time enough for the things that are described to be done in that Reign and according to the use of such parts of time in a mystical sense amongst the Prophets by Rule 3. which will make the time of Babylon to begin many Ages before the end of the World From hence then it appears That we have this encouragement already for our hopes of a clear Determination of the Application of this Prophecy viz. That there are but three ways yet pitched upon for the Application of it that is to Rome-Pagan to Rome-Christian and to Rome about the end of the World The first of which has been found to be very Absurd and the last Incredible And this is an inviting fore-tast of the satisfaction that may be expected from the more orderly and cautious Examination of the Grounds of all clear Determinations concerning these Visions CHAP. IV. Rev. XVII Inferences drawn from the former Chapter to discover the Nature of the Three last Heads of the Beast and the time of the Reign of the last called The Beast An Account of the Author's Method THE determination of the Reign of Babylon to the times after the end of Rome-Pagan which seems now to be unquestionable does offer a very fair light for some general discoveries about the Mystery of the Beast and his Heads which seem by the order of them to be designed to be the Clue to direct us in
former A Carved Image is indeed but the dead likeness of some single Person But an Image of a Publick State that is alive as this is must be some Ruling Power in the same State that has a very lively resemblance to it for it is in being at the same time with it the Beast and his Image are ordinarily described to be together And the Image is made in honour of the Beast and so must like the Images of the Emperors be within the bounds of the Authority of the Beast And besides is made by a False Prophet in the exercise of the Power of the Beast This living Image then must necessarily be an Universal Rule of the World like to that of the Imperial Roman State And accordingly we find it speaking and commanding all the World to worship it chap. 13. 15. forcing all men to receive the mark of it and to take the name of it v. 16. which shows the extent of its Power to be as large as that of the Imperial Power its Original It had also power of life and death in it v. 15. which is the peculiar Prerogative of Supream Power Now this was all for nothing else but the enforcing of False Worship which it was inspired with life by a false Prophet to effect And one of the Punishments was Excommunication v. 14. v. 17. That men might not buy or sell which was an usual punishment d Selden de Synod l. 1. cap. 7. De effectibus Excommunicationis He that was excommunicated with either greater or lesser Excommunication was said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the effects of them were Separation from Converse from the Synagogue from the publick Assemblies from all the People and Commonwealth of the Jews And he that was accursed with Cherem was not to have any Commerce with any but just so much as to get Victuals of the Elders of the Synagogues amongst the Jews All which denotes it to be an Ecclesiastical Power equal to the Secular Power for the universality of its Jurisdiction Indeed what kind of Power within the same Bounds and Territories can it possibly be but Ecclesiastical that can be a living Image of the Secular Exercising Supream Authority at the same time with it and in the same places as this is described This Image therefore must be a Church-Rule equal to that of the State And since the Jurisdiction of it is Universal or Catholick and also Roman can it be any thing else but the Roman-Catholick-Church And since all the life that it has is inspired into it by the False Prophet who is already known to be the Papal Power Corol. 3. Prop. 25. what plainer description could we have had of the Roman-Catholick-Church under the Pope Or what can there be that is a e Leo Sermo 1. de Natali Apos Rome has a larger Jurisdiction in its Spiritual Reign than it had formerly in its Worldly Empire Bellarm. l. 5. de Pontif. c. 6. From whence it appears That the Pope is greater than the Emperour c. Stenelius Eugubinus lib. 1. de Donat. Constant By the Exaltation of the Papacy Rome has recovered a Greatness very little different from that of the Ancient Empires since all Nations from the East to the West reverence the Pope of Rome in the same manner as they formerly did the Emperours See the expressions of Pope Gregory VII of his own Authority Greg. 7. Epist 37. The Roman Ceremonial l. 1. c. 2. shews this to be the manner of investing the Pope with his Authority I invest Thee with the Authority of Pope that Thou maist Rule over the City and the World Urbi Orbi more exact living Image of the Roman State under the Imperial Power For the Head of it has a Jurisdiction equal to the Head of the State Both Pope and Emperor have long since had the Title of The Lords of the World They have both a Triple Crown tho for different Jurisdictions They are both called King of Kings The body of the Image is just the same with that of the Beast The Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions are parted out exactly according to the divisions of the Civil Government of the Empire The Patriarchs Archbishops and Bishops had their Ranks and Places every-where according to the Divisions of the Provinces of the State and the name of the Ecclesiastical Diocesses did arise from the distinction of the several Civil Diocesses of the Empire by Constantine And it is established by the Canons of f Concil 6º in Trullo Can. 37. The Canon which was made by the Fathers we do also observe which says thus If any City be or shall be new raised by the Royal Power the Ecclesiastical Dignity shall follow the Publick and Civil state of it two Synods That if any City were newly raised by the Emperor the Ecclesiastical Dignities there should be conformed to it So that the Church and State did run parallel to one another through the whole Body of the Roman Empire just like the Arteries and Veins in the Body of Man and observed the same proportion every-where to one another a MAlvenda de Antichristo pag. 234. de 10 Cornibus The number Ten is very often in Scripture used indefinitely for a great many CHAP. III. Rev. XIII Wherein the Worship of the Beast and of his Image doth consist BY the process of the former Chapter we have all the Confederates in the design of the Beast discovered to us There is the Imperial Roman State for the Beast with his last Head The Image and false Prophet for the Roman Catholick Church and the Pope The ten Kings giving their Kingdoms to the Beast for those Roman Catholick Kings who force their Subjects to submit to the Roman Religion enjoyned by the Papal Power or Imperial Authority And now it is to be examined what is meant by Worshiping the Beast and his Image It is certain in the first place That the words here used to express the Worship of the Beast and his Image are the same with those which were in use at the time of the Vision to signifie the Adoration given to the Emperors and their Images publickly set up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and adorare were the terms in common use amongst the Greeks and Latines of those times to express that profound Reverence which was paid to the Emperor and his Image And then there seems to be nothing more required to make Application of this Phrase but only to show what obedience was given to the Secular and Ecclesiastical Authority of Rome by all the World from the time of Justinian But because we find that the a GRotius in Decal Nor did the first Christians think it contrary to their Religion to fall down before the Emperours Images But when they afterwards joined the Images of false Gods with their own they chose to endure any thing rather than to worship them first Christians did pay that Reverence before-mentioned to the
Emperors and their Images as well as the Pagans It is manifest that there must be something more here meant than a bare external Civil Veneration of the higher Powers as the Ordinance of God It must be something very much like the Worshipping of Nebuchadnezzar's Image and of those Babylonian Kings in such a manner as not to be allowed the exercise of the true Religion And nothing less than this can answer the Character of the man of sin 2 Thes 2. 4. who is said to exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped So that be as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God And by the consent of all Interpreters that Prophecy does certainly belong to that state of things that is represented by the Beast and his Image By this then it appears that by the Worship here mentioned must be understood the giving of Divine honours or the peculiar Prerogatives of God or Christ to the Beast or his Image that is to the Civil and Ecclesiastical Authority of the Romans after the Restauration of the Imperial Roman Government in the West The unquestionable way to effect this would be to make * Grot. Responsde Antichristo pag. 77. I detest every thing that belongs to the Spirit of Antichrist that is the imposing persecuting Spirit And that has appeared not only near the Tyber but about the Lake Lemanus and in other places the Arbitrary will and pleasure of the Supreme Authority of the Roman State or the Church to be acknowledged for the Law of God Divinely inspired or to be publickly obeyed as such by outward compliance with it This is certainly to set up ones own will for the will of God and so to stand ones self in the place of God to the World And if this be exercised with an irresistible power over the Universal Church of Christ upon Earth it is plainly the showing ones self to be a God in the Temple of God For there could nothing else be understood by the Temple of God after the Destruction of Jerusalem but the Christian Church which also has that name in several places of the same Apostle's Writings A still much higher improvement of this Worship is it if it be enjoined as necessary to Salvation to believe these Arbitrary Decrees to be the Inspirations of God and to obey them But especially if these Decrees be not only about things left indifferent by the Word of God but are also Injunctions contrary to the Will and Word of God For this is to oppose and exalt ones self above God in the Temple of God And if this be done with the shew of the Authority of God himself in it this is to oppose all that is called God shewing himself to be God For he does certainly make himself very near as absolute a Sovereign of a Nation who does unjustly exercise all the Acts of the Sovereign Power of it against the will of the undoubted Prince of it but yet under the name of his Authority as he that does it by an open Usurpation of the Title of the Sovereign Power This Power and Authority is carried on with a still greater arrogance and claim of divinity in it if it pretends to a Title of Infallibility in all that it can enjoin For as this Divine Attribute is the fundamental ground of all the highest Acts of Faith in God so is it a claim of an infinite power in men and does give b Thomas de Albiis in his Tabulae Suffragiales does the best lay open the dreadful Consequences of establishing Infallibility in any Head of the Church or any where where it really is not Tab. 20 21. This Claim in reference to the Pope he proves there to be the Mother of all Heresies and the worst of all sins because if those who claim it should err it would lead all the Church into the same without any possibility of remedy There is the same reason for that Claim in any Governing-part of the Church where that Privilege really is not Authority to all the Acts of their own Will frees them from See References all Bounds and Measures or Rules to distinguish betwixt Truth and Falshood sets them out of the reach of all humane Judicature and makes their Will and Pleasure the last Appeal for all Controversies and their Arbitrary Decisions to be the Oracles of God How inconsiderable does the Worship of Nebuchadnezzar's Image appear to be in comparison with this profound Veneration of the Soul and Conscience given to the arbitrary false and wicked Decrees of either ignorant or designing Men under the Character of the Word and Will of God And all these particulars are made good in the matter before us by the Imperial Laws and their Sanctions and Edicts to force their own Faith in indifferent things And the Errors of General Councils upon the Consciences of the whole Christian Church Catholick to be assented to as c It had been the common stile of Councils ever since the Council of Nice to publish their Decrees under the Title of Things Divinely Inspired Thus does Socrates shew lib. 1. cap. 6. Ep. That Constantine there says of the Decree of the 300 Bishops at Nice That it was to be looked upon as the Sentence of God himself And ibid. Ep. 4. To the Churches he says of all Councils That whatsoever is decreed in the Holy Councils of Bishops the same is to be attributed to the will of God Cardinal Julian's Harangue to the Deputies of the Bohemians in the Council of Basil tells them That the Decrees of Councils are not less to be believed than the Gospel because it is THEY that give AUTHORITY to the Scriptures Divine Truth See References and many times as necessary to Salvation and the giving of the Secular Arm to execute the like Injunctions of the Roman Church Of this kind also are the unwarrantable Acts of Councils and the unlawful Canons of the Roman Church inforced by the d By vertue of such Orders from that Power as these Determinations in the Decretals and Glosses do authorize viz. That the Pope of Rome is by the Order of God set over the Nations and Kingdoms That it belongs to the Pope to depose the Emperour and all other Kings and States and to assign them Deputies That the Pope is to be esteemed the Vicar of Jesus Christ for all things here upon Earth in Heaven and Hell That he can make that which is square to be round Injustice to be Justice that which is nothing to be something That he has an Absolute Power of Judging and that justly Against the Law of Nature Nations and of particular Countreys Human and Divine above and against Right against all Decrees and Orders of Council That he can dispense with the Injunctions of the Apostles And these Glosses the Popes do recommend to the Publick as AUTHENTICK See Jus Canonic Gregor 13. Aventin lib. 6. Histor Boior
mentions the Emperour Henry's Charge against Pope Paschal Ann. 1107 He says there of the Papal Power That they take an Oath of every Bishop to own all that for Law that they shall say This Oath is described lib. 2. Decret Tit. 24. where they swear to obey all the Popes Commands and to assist him against all that shall oppose themselves Papal Authority and the Church of Rome as necessary to Salvation and as dictated by an Infallible Authority with the claim of Infallibility as an inseparable Prerogative of their Authority Of the same Nature is the exercise of the power of the Keys in that Church by which they confine all Divine Favour and all Right to the Kingdom of Heaven to the Communion of the Roman Church and only as Roman and by which they pretend to have the Power of the Curses of God and of Eternal Damnation in their Hands to pronounce against all those who own not that Divine Authority and Infallible Spirit in them by which they appear as in the place of God in the Church For by this does the Church of Rome appear manifestly to sit as a Goddess in the Church Catholick to which all must submit with all the outward Worship of their Bodies and the inward Veneration of their Souls as the only Oracle of God in all its Decisions and Definitions of Faith and Worship and as the immediate Voice and Thunder of God from Heaven in all its Anathema's and Excommunications And all this about matters which either were never made to be the Will of God by any other Authority but the meer Will of the Roman Church Or which are known to be absolutely contrary to the revealed Will of God the Light of Natural Conscience and to the common Sense and Reason of mankind which is the Candle of the Lord and the most fundamental Prov. 20. 27. Criterion of the Truth or Falshood of Revelations or Inspirations But some will question whether all this can amount to the charge of commanding Men to Worship the Beast and his Image with Divine Honours tho these things should be done without any warrant from God for them because God himself is intended for the only Object of all that Worship that is thus enjoyned This doubt may soon be resolved by what Men would judge of the Worship of Nebuchadnezzar's Image tho he should have pretended that it was the peculiar Presence of the God of Israel as well as his own Image and that it was to be Worshipped upon the account of that immediate Union of the True God with himself and his Image Or by what Men can think of the Worship given to Simon Magus under the supposition of his being the Father Son and Holy Ghost at several appearances Whether would the Adoration be excused for being intended to the True God I would but demand of any sorts of Christians what they would think of such an unbounded Power as has been mentioned in any Party of Men from whom they differ which should now arise with these Claims of Superiority and Jurisdiction over the Universal Church of Christ upon Earth and should force Mens Consciences to acknowledge these Claims to be due by Divine Right and should really think them to be so upon as slight Grounds as the Church of Rome does now believe its own pretences upon and should exercise these new powers with as zealous designs for God's Service as they of that Church seem to do It would be hardly possible for any of a differing Party to forbear the charging of this new Pretender with the Character of sitting like a God in the Temple of God or in the Christian Church For he that requires meer human Laws to be accounted Divine Inspiration which yet are nothing but his own will he plainly makes his own will a Divine Law And if he forces it upon all the World for such he makes his own will the Universal Lord of the Consciences of Men which is the peculiar Prerogative of God alone Without all question if the King of France and the Assembly of his Clergy should use the same methods and pretences that they have done to the Protestants to force the Consciences of the Papal Party all over the World to the Opinions of the Gallican Church they would not stick to charge him with the Character of usurping upon the peculiar Prerogative of God in his Church I do take it all this while for granted That the Claim for this Universal Power in the Church of Rome and to the Title of Infallibility is unwarrantable and that is so easie a thing to be satisfied about that I think it not needful here to dilate upon it There needs no better satisfaction to be had about it than what the slightness of the grounds that are alledged for this Authority compared with the vast importance of the thing that they are to prove does at the first sight offer to any that are impartial But others have made it their business and to them I remit it The unwarrantableness of this Claim is supposed in the Objection And if that be once granted let the intention of the Church of Rome be never so fair in its Exercise of this Power the instance above-mentioned will make it sufficiently clear how just the charge of the Worship of the Image is due to it tho it should exercise this power over the whole Church of God within much more moderate bounds than it is known to do The reality of their intention may without any difficulty be believed For it was long since foretold that the time would come that whosoever killed the true Members of Christ should John 16. 2 4. think that he did God service in it And it is said to be foretold on purpose that when the time should come we should remember that it had been told us of them St. Paul does give the example of it Acts 22. 3 4. Acts 26. 9 10 11. in himself he verily thought with himself that he ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth and accordingly did them For he shut up the Saints in Prison when they were put to Death he gave his Voice against them He even compelled them to blaspheme and was exceeding mad against them and yet was zealous towards God while he was Persecuting that way unto the death And yet surely none would ever maintain that the zealous intention of these cruel Actions would excuse them from the guilt of Inhumanity and Murder The sincerity of the Intention in all these Diabolical acts of Antichristian Tyranny does only denote how absolute the power of the Devil is in them by the power he has over them to make them believe that it is the doing God service all the while that they are acted by the Rage of the Devil Wherefore it may now be safely concluded That the great malignity of the Worship of the Beast and his Image does lie in the Acknowledgment
of an Vniversal Arbitrary Jurisdiction over the Consciences of all Men in the Governing-Power of the Roman State and Church I need add nothing else to make the Character of it comprehensive enough of all the particulars included in it For this unbounded Power especially when secured by the Plea of Infallibility does comprehend in it all the Tyrannical impositions that can enslave the Souls of Men to give an Absolute and Divine Reverence to the Supreme Power An ungrounded belief of an Infallible Spirit in Men in the exercise of their Jurisdiction over the Conscience does oblige a Man to a blind Faith in them for every the most absurd and extravagant thing that they affirm and to a blind obedience to all their most Unreasonable and Arbitrary Injunctions It binds him to renounce all use of his Understanding that should enable him to discover a falshood and to stifle all the Light of Conscience in him which would make him discern betwixt good and evil And by this means does it not only lay a Man open to the inspirations and illusions of the Devil but to take them also for the Oracles of God and makes him uncapable of the Grace of Repentance This does make it easie to understand how the Worshippers of the Beast do also Worship the Dragon who gives Power to him For this Power being not of God but of the Dragon and for his service as it is expresly said to be the Worship that is paid to it is the Worshipping of that e Ribera on 16 B. cap. 13. moves a Doubt How Antichrist that is to deceive the World with a false shew can perswade them to worship the Devil or Dragon And thereupon says The Interpreters do thus answer Men shall worship Antichrist But because he shall have his Power from the Devil by worshipping of Him they shall worship the Devil So Aretas Primatius Ausbertus Haymo Ambrosius Anselmus Dragon or of the Devil for whose service it is Besides that the Devil or Dragon is represented as the constant companion of the Beast to the last and so must be the Inspirer and Manager of the Beast in all he does And then the Devil may be said to be as really in the Throne again as he was in the Red Dragon so that the Dragon by that does become the Life and Soul of the Beast and both together make one and the same Body of Sovereign Power that is worshipped And this does very well express the Tyrannical Persecutions of the Faithful Members of Christ by the Roman Powers which is almost the whole Character of the Red Dragon in the Rev. 12. 3. Chapter before this and for which he wears those bloody Colours CHAP. IV. Rev. XIII An Essay to apply the Idolatrous Worship of the Beast to the Imperial Power The Church no Monarchy before Constantine With him came in the Monarchical Form of Church-Government with an Ecclesiastical Senate The Resemblance of the Imperial Power in the Church both as to the Legislative and Executive part of the Government with the Civil Power in conjunction with the Roman Senate The first Ground of the Authority of the Bishops of Rome THE Charge of the Idolatrous Worship before-mentioned may seem at the very first sight to be just enough for the Worship of the Image or of the Church of Rome and of the Papal Authority which is the Head and life of it But it may not appear to be so easie to apply the Worship of the Beast to the Secular Imperial Power For a clear satisfaction in this It will be convenient to take a view of the different states of the Church when under Persecution and when advanced to the Imperial Throne It is very evident that the Catholick Church however united it might be yet was certainly no Monarchy in the times before Constantine The Bishop of Rome who is the only pretender to the Sovereignty at that time is sufficiently known to have had then but a very limited Jurisdiction and nothing did pass for a Law of the Church but what was decreed by the Common Assembly of the Governours of it The Church did much resemble the Union and Government of the States of the United Provinces The Bishop and his Clergy were the standing Authority of every particular Jurisdiction and the People and inferior Clergy were generally the Electors of the Bishops into their particular places and the general Assembly of them all in Council was the Supream Authority of the Church By them were Laws made and they were accounted the last Appeal for the determination of all material Controversies about Jurisdiction Upon Constantine's Conversion a THe Jesuit Pererius Disp 5. in Apocalypsin De Constantino Then was the Imperial Majesty first brought into the Church and the Church came to be armed against its Enemies with two Swords The one the Temporal Sword in the hands of Seculars or Laics and of Christian Princes the other Spiritual in the hands of the Church-Prelates but chiefly that in the Papal Power there appeared a new form of Government in the Church That which before was but an Aristocracy comes now to be a Monarchy under an Emperor and an Ecclesiastical Senate but yet with so much deference to the Emperor as he might evidently be perceived to be the Supream Governour of the whole Church It was b Constantine summoned the Council of Nice and presided there Euseb vit Constantin l. 1. c. 37. l. 3. c. 6. And before had commanded and enjoyned the meeting of the Synod of Arles Euseb l. 10. c. 5. The Council of Sardica was summoned by the Order of the two Emperours Constantius and Constans Sozomen l. 3. c. 10. The Synodical Epistle of that Council in Theodoret. l. 2. c. 8. says The Emperours well-beloved of God gathered us together from divers Cities and Provinces and have ordered us to hold a Synod in the Town of Sardica So also Athanasius Apol. 2. of the same thing By the Edict of the most religious Emperours Constans and Constantius The Second General Council at Constantinople was summoned by the command of the Emperor Theodosius as Socrates expresly says l. 5. c. 8. Theodoret. l. 5. c. 9. that they were assembled by the Letters of the Emperor The Synodical Epistle of the Council 1 Tom. Concil expresses their being assembled at the Emperor's Command and desire him to confirm their Decrees by his Judgment and Seal The Third General Council at Ephesus Epist Synodal ad Theodos apud Cyrill Tom. 4. Concil We present our Persons in the Synod that you have commanded c. And they desire leave of the Emperor with all humility to go to their several homes till the business was determined And the Emperor in his confirmation of it says The Emperor duly informed of all is well satisfied that the Holy Synod has done all things Canonically Soon after this does Theodosius call another Council at Ephesus and says of Dioscorus to that Council We
Januarius does expresly order his Legat to go according to the Laws of Justinian's Code And of Januarius It must be considered that it was done perfectly against the Laws to draw him by force out of the Church which he says ought to be punished as High-Treason l. 11. Ep. 54. Sigonius de regno Italiae l. 5. The Emperor Lotharius declares for a Council at Pavie to regulate the Clergy thereupon follow'd a great Disorder at Rome But Pope Leo in his Letter to Lotharius affirms That he did observe his Laws and his Predecessors and would always observe them desiring him also that the Roman Law might be kept for the future as it had been before And the Executions of the Canons of the Church upon irregular and disobedient Bishops by Deprivations c. was by the Imperial Authority The Church-Rights were still indeed preserved for a while in Elections Church-goods c. But the whole External Government of it was managed by the Imperial Authority in almost as absolute a manner as the Civil Government f Concil Milevitan See Note c of this Chapter ibid. Canon 17. They desire an Imperial Law to enforce the Canon of the Council upon Contemners The Emperor Marcian in Action 6. Concil Chalcedon After the declaration of the Catholick Faith by the Holy Synod we have thought it just and expedient to take away all dispute and contention about it for the future And therefore c. where he proceeds to the inflicting punishment upon the several Offenders against the Canons They made Laws about Apostates and Hereticks and their Books about Churches about the regulation of the Clergy in Elections of Bishops about the Qualifications and Depositions of Bishops And these Laws were very ordinarily executed upon Bishops according to the Emperor's will But that which does the most fully shew what share the Emperors had in the Government of the Church and in the Canons of Councils is the 45th of Justinian's Novels where all the Canons of Councils are turned into Laws of the Empire Indeed the general definition of the Law in the Code together with the explication of it there does expresly determine the will of the Emperor to be the only rule and measure of Law either in Church or State The general definition of a Law is in these terms Whatever C. de Offic. Principis the Prince declares to be his Pleasure has the force of a Law upon which it follows Wherefore whatever the Emperor does appoint by the Subscription of the Bishops or decrees of his own knowledge or does publickly declare by word or does command by Edict does appear to be a Law Where it is evident That the Acts of Councils became Laws of the Empire only by the Emperor's will in Council and had nothing in them to enforce them upon those who would dissent from the Council as erroneous g Sozomen l. 3. c. 10. By the Order of the two Emperors it was decreed That the Bishops of each Party should meet at a set day at Sardica a City of Illiricum The Synodical Epistle of that Council says the same So also Balsamon in his Preface to that Council And Socrat. l. 2. c. 16. before the Emperor's command for it We do accordingly see what effect the fear of the Imperial Authority had upon the Councils themselves For all the Councils assembled under Arrian Emperors were of the same mind with the Emperor that called them And if some should think that it was rather the judgment of their own Consciences they must then allow that the generality of the Governours of the Church were really Arrians and sincerely Orthodox within the space of less than thirty years It is certain that the Arrian Council of Ariminum was more than twice as numerous as the biggest General Councils besides The Councils indeed were of the same mind with the Emperor that called them And it is well worth the observing how the Bishops of the East and West divided at the Sardican Council about the business of Athanasius according to the different minds h See Note c and f of this Chapter Constantine Universal Bishop of Constantius and Constans who sent them thither By this then it appears that the Imperial Authority did from its first owning of the Christian Religion look so big in the Church that those of the highest Character in it did bow down to its will and pleasure And when withal it is considered that all the Parts of the Catholick Church were under this Roman Government it is plain That the proper appellative of the Christian Church at that time was the Roman Church because Roman and Catholick were of the same import when all the World was Roman And the Principle of Political Vnity amongst them all which made them one Body and one Church in the face of the World was their owning the Roman Emperor with his Ecclesiastical Senate or General Council for their Supream Ruler and Governour It appears then that the Imperial Power was the Supream Authority at that time in the Church upon Earth General Councils were but his Senate And whether they were in the right or the wrong it was his consent that gave them their i Baronius Anno 418. about the Schism of Boniface and Eulalius for the Papacy Symmachus Governor of the City writes to the Emperor Honorius Because it belongs to your Piety to determine it I thought I ought forthwith to consult Your Majesty about it Thereupon Honorius writes back We command by Our Positive Order that Boniface do forthwith leave the Place and obey the Celestial Commands that is the Imperial Order idem Anno 419. which was obeyed So was it ordained by Athalaricus King of Italy after the fall of the Western Empire that in case of wrong the Clergy should appeal to the Secular Court Cassiodor Variar l. 8. Ep. 24. l. 9. Ep. 15. So also does Justinian Novell 123. command the Bishop of Rome to execute an Order of his jubemus Episcopum Romanum See Dr. Barrow's Supremacy of the Pope from page 324 to 372. Instances of Emperors appealed to in Ecclesiastical Affairs Popes not intermedling The Donatists appeal from the Council of Arles to the Emperor Constantine after two Councils appointed by him to decide the difference who does thereupon assign them to meet at the Council of Milan S. Augustin contra Crescon l. 3. c. 71. and Ep. 162. 68. And Flavian Bishop of Constantinople was beaten and banished for appealing to the Court of Rome from the Synod at Ephesus Petav. Ratio Temp. part 1. l. 6. c. 19. actual force for a general outward compliance and without this Imperial Assent we find scarce any Symbol of Faith or Canons of discipline publickly or universally enjoined after the Emperors were become Christians But after the Decrees of either of those kinds were concluded upon in Council it was the Emperor's Sanctions and Edicts that gave them the effectual force of a Law to the
whole Church which shows the Emperor's share in the Legislative Power of the Church to be near a-kin to his Power in the Senate about Civil Affairs but at least very near as great in the Councils as the Papal Authority was afterwards before it came to its full height And then in the Execution of the Laws and Canons of the Church the Imperial Authority appears every-where to be the last resort and the last Power that they k Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat p. 180. The Archbishops of Ravenna do there contend with the Popes of Rome for the Superiority John the Archbishop had many of the Italian Bishops of his Party in it And Sigonius de Regno Ital. l. 2. Blondus Decad. 1. l. 9. Ann. 608. gives an account of this Contest of Ravenna with Rome all the days of Pope Martin the First Eugenius the First Vitalian and Adeodat They would have no Pallium nor Consecration from Rome in acknowledgment of any dependance upon them S. Hierom. ad Evagre If you dispute about the Authority of the whole World Orbis major est Urbe Wheresoever there is a Bishop whether at Rome or Eugubium at Constantinople or Rhegium he is of the same Dignity and of the same Priesthood Cardinal Cusan l. 2. c. 12. shews that all Bishops are equal But the execution of their Office is bounded by Human Laws and Orders which if they come to cease those Differences of Greater and Less return again to their natural Right that is to an Equality Aeneas Sylvius Comment l. 2. Before the Council of Nice every Bishop lived independent in his own Jurisdiction appeal to for redress Dr. Barrow p. 324. to p. 372. Grot. in Decal Praecep 2. Note the 3d. or for correction of Church-Governours which shews it to have had also the full possession of the Executive Power And accordingly do we find the Title of the Vniversal Bishop of the Church in respect of the External Government of it assumed by Constantine In this state did the Imperial Authority continue in the Church when the exercise of its power was the most unblameable So that here was a Roman Catholick Church established from the very first appearance of the Imperial Throne in the Church and no other Political Vnity was there then of the Roman Church but only this Imperial Headship The particular Jurisdiction of the l Ludovic Bebenberg de jurib R. Imp. Romanor pag. 142. In Commentar M. Freherus When the Emperor Henry had objected to the Romans why against the custom of their Ancestors they had chosen them a Pope without the leave of the King The Pope excused himself that he was chosen by force but that he would not be consecrated till he did perfectly understand by an Embassy that both the Emperor and the Princes had consented to his Election Hieron Balbus de Coronatione cap. 14. It had been an ancient Custom that the Clergy and People of Rome should nominate the Pope After which it was in the Emperor's power to confirm or invalidate the Election and as he pleased either to admit him or to substitute another in his room c. Agatho 63. distinct And this Custom continued to the time of Pope Adrian Anno 815. who would have changed it But the old Custom obtained again of expecting the Pope's Confirmation from the Emperor as Platina observes in Gregor 9. in the Year 1072. Gregory was reconciled to the Emperor Henry who confirmed him Pope as it was then the custom Caronza Concil summa pag. 437. Severinus Papa in locum Honorii subrogatus ab Isaacio Hexarcho in Pontificatu confirmatur c. Severinus was confirmed Pope by Isaac the Hexarch of Italy For the Election by the People and Clergy was not accounted valid in those days unless the Emperors or their Exarchs had confirmed them Platina says the same in Severinus And Blondus the same with this of Caranza l. 9. Decad. 1. and adds That the Confirmation was put off for a year and an half because Isaac did not go from Ravenna to Rome before Sigebert in his Chronicle mentions a Council held by Charlemaigne at Rome before he was crowned Emperor by virtue of his being made Defender of the Church by Adrian And there Adrian and 150 Bishops did confer the Right of chusing the Pope upon Charles and of ordering the Apostolick See and the Dignity of the Prince The same is mentioned by Gratian D. 69. c. Hadrianus 22. And by Sigonius de Regno Ital. l. 4. In the time of the Emperor Ludovicus the Son of Charlemaigne upon Pope Stephen's being elected contrary to the Order without the Emperor's Command Stephen to mend the matter makes this Order in the Canon Quia Sancta D. 52. Because the Roman Church suffers great Violences at the Death of the Pope when the Election is made without the Emperor's knowledge We ordain That when the Bishop of Rome is to be chosen that he be elected in a full Assembly of the Bishops and Clergy and in the presence of the Senate and People and so being chosen in the presence of the Legate of the Emperor that he be consecrated Baronius Anno 827. says of the Election of Pope Valentinus That his Consecration was deferred till the Emperour should be consulted about it Pope Leo the Eighth Anno 963. makes this Order in behalf of the Emperor Otho That according to the Example of Adrian Bishop of the Apostolick See who granted unto the Emperor Charles the ordering the Apostolick See That he likewise with all the Clergy did constitute and by his Authority corroborate to his Lord Otho first King of the Theutons and to his Successors in the Kingdom of Italy The power of chusing a Successor and of disposing of the Bishop of the Sovereign Apostolick See and for that purpose that the Archbishops and Bishops should take investiture from him And that none for the future should take upon them the power of electing or consecrating the Bishop of Rome or of any other See without the Consent of the said Emperor D. 63. in Synodo 23. The Title of the Canon in Gratian is The Election of the Bishop of Rome does of right appertain to the Emperor Bishoprick of the City of Rome was in no other account for Supremacy than the rest of the Episcopal Jurisdictions and all of them were confined to their own particular Territories But it was reputed just and fitting at the coming in of the Emperors into the Church that the Bishop of their Ruling City should have a mark of distinction from the rest as an honour due to the Emperor's Court and Residence And thus came the Bishop of Rome to have the precedence of all other Bishops in the Church And upon the same account had Constanstinople the second place to that of Rome when that City became the Seat of a new Empire This Primacy gave the Bishops of Rome a great advantage over the Interests of their Fellow-Bishops And being become very
necessary to the Emperors for upholding their Power in the midst of the Invasions of the Barbarous Nations the Emperors were willing to enlarge their Authority to make use of it for the management of their own Affairs And after that the Divisions of the Roman Empire were setled in so many Sovereign Princes that Church-Authority which they themselves had now lost in those several Kingdoms they were not unwilling to bestow upon the Chief Bishop of their City and so by small advances he came at last to get the Title of Occumenical Bishop and Vniversal Head of the Church of Christ upon Earth But yet still did the Emperors retain their Power of the setting up of every new Bishop of Rome The Emperors m This is thus well expressed by John Wex de Antichristo p. 119. And so the Ten Kings delivered to the Beast their Kingdoms which they had got at the dissolution of the Western Empire according to Apoc. 17. 12. For after that the Western Empire was broken in pieces all the Kingdoms of the West did join again together in one body that by the bonds and tye of the Babylonish Superstition of the Bishop of Rome they might fight against the Lamb. Consent was still held necessary for the confirmation of the Election as the Chief Power upon Earth that gave him his Authority And upon this account he was set up as the Emperor's Deputy and Creature to be the Universal Head of the Roman Church in all the divided Kingdoms of the Roman Empire which now would own no other Secular Head of the Churches in them but those Sovereigns which ruled them And thus came the divided Roman Empire to be n one entire thing again and the several Kings in it to own one Roman Head again set up by the Imperial Authority Things continued not long in this mere spiritual and Ecclesiastical State The new Ecclesiastical Head used all ways to make himself universally acknowledged for such And to that end as Head of the Church he assumes a power of executing the Canons of Councils upon Sovereign Princes to the depriving them of their Kingdoms if they refused to execute the Orders of the Church upon all those that were disobedient to it and that even to the punishment of death From hence then we have a perfect Idea of the worship of the Beast and of his Image from the first Rise of the last Ruling Head or of the Imperial Power restored by Justinian The Imperial Authority was at first the sole Head of the Roman Catholick Church Afterwards the Submission of the divided States of the Empire to one Ecclesiastical Sovereign who was set up by the Emperor made this new Empire the exact Image of the first in respect of the Church-Government of it And the Manager and Contriver of this new Model is in History the Bishop of Rome and is in the Prophecy called the False Prophet CHAP. V. Rev. XIII Four Grounds for the applying of the Worship of the Beast to the Imperial Power How the False Prophet does Exercise all the Power of the First Beast causes all the World to Worship him makes them make an Image to him Gives Life to that Image and makes All receive its Mark c. BY the Observations in the preceding Discourse it is easie to see How justly the Worship of the Beast may be applied to the Imperial Authority after the degeneracy of the Christian Religion 1. For the Imperial Authority as has been observed p. 221. was 〈…〉 a long while the only commanding Head of the Roman Religion and the a SOcrates Proam in l. 5. We have therefore in the whole course of out History given an account of the Emperor's interest in it because that since they began to embrace the Christian Religion Ecclesiastical Affairs did seem very much to depend upon them so that the most eminent Councils were in times past and are at this day summoned by their consent and procurement See Notes on the third Chapter b c d e f g i k The Emperours had always the Right of Investing Church-Governours in their several jurisdictions till the Council of Worms in the year 1122. And then the Emperour Henry the 3d. wearied with the vexations occasioned him by the Popes gave up his Right of the Staff and the Ring the Ceremonies of the investiture to Pope Calixtus the 2d Aventin Histor Boior l. 6. The Abbot of Ursperg in his Chronicle gives the form of this Concordat betwixt the Emperour and the Pope And the Pope in return agrees for the future That the Elections of the Bishops and Abbots c. should be performed in his presence c. And that He that was Elected should receive the Regalia of the Emperour by the Scepter And this was called the Uniting of the Royal Power with the Priesthood and long endeavoured after under that Name Cardinal Cusan Concordia Catholic c. 6 7 8 9. Affirms That every Emperour and Prince in their several Jurisdictions are of God alone and that it belongs to the Emperours to summon General Councils and to regulate the Procedures in them and to every Prince to do the same in his respective Territory for National and Provincial Councils And that if the Pope be negligent in these things the Emperour ought to make use of his Authority in all such Cases That the Emperour always presided in the Councils assisted with fifteen or twenty of the Nobles of his Court whom he made to take place before all And He and his Legats propounded the matters that were to be considered Pererius in Apoc. Disp 5. de Constantino Then came the Imperial Majesty first into the Church which was then Armed with both the Swords c. For though from the first The Church had that Sword viz. the Secular Sword yet then first began the facility and conveniency of exercising it against whomsoever it pleased only Soveraign Authority upon Earth that was acknowledged in all Ecclesiastical Affairs so that all obedience given to the erroneous Acts of those Councels was really an obedience to the Emperors will only For those things had no obliging power in them to overrule the Conscience upon the account of the Councels Authority And therefore since it had been long before that time received as a maxime by those who owned that Councel That all was there done by the b Socrates l. 1. c. 6. Ep. 4. Constantine unto the Churches He there tells them That whatsoever is decreed in the Holy Councils of Bishops is to be attributed to the Will of God And of the Sentence of the Council of Nice in particular Ibid. Ep. 2. to the Church of Alexandria For that which has been agreed upon by the 300 Bishops is to be taken for nothing but the determination of God himself The Holy Ghost residing in the minds of such worthy persons and inspiring them with the Divine Will of God himself Concil Constantinop Universal 6. Action 17. sub finem The
Council thus speaks We have pronounced a definitive Sentence free from Error certain and Infallible by the assistance of the Holy Spirit inspiration of the Holy Ghost The Emperour 's mere will was thereby made a Divine Law obliging the Conscience under the notion of the immediate will of God whenever the things enjoyned were really no part of his declared will And thus came the Emperours to make good the Title of Their c Cod. Justinian tit Trinitat l. 3. Theodos Valentinian Hormisdae P. P. According to those Laws which have already been made by our Divinity How much Our Divinity abhors And Novell 126. A most manifest constitution Of Our Deity Nostri Numinis Baronius Anno. 419. Honorius the Emperour gives this order to Symmachus Praef. Urb. upon the information sent him about the Schism of Boniface and Eulalius We Command that Boniface forthwith depart and obey our Celestial Command And Symmachus in Answer to Honorius's further order to receive Boniface returns this We having published the Celestial Decree every one was rejoyced at it Pancirol Notit Imp. Orient p. 109. The Emperour did first subscribe his name to the Rescript before any else A. A. Manu Divina Ibidem p. 172. 6. And thus used the Prince to subscribe his Hand A. M. D. That is August Manu Divina Novel Valentinian l. de Homicidio casu And those who had the Emperours hand to their Letters are said to be pricked or pointed down by the Divine Hand lib. 4. c. de Advocat dicitur jamjam Justinian calls this A Divine Marking out Divinam subnotationem l. 1. in fin c. de Justin c. confirmand Accordingly had the Emperours Letters-Patents the name of Sacra in distinction to all other Licenses So Zeno Lib. penult c. de Re Militari We allow none for the future to be Listed either in their Horse or Foot without the Commendatory Letter of our Divinity sine numinis nostri sacra probatoria And afterwards That they only be listed on the Confines or in the Lists who have a License for it from Our Divinity Probatorias sc Sacras a nostra Divinitate And Pancirol Notit Imp. Orient pag. 255. Observes in general That the Actions and Affairs of the Emperours have every where in the Civil Law the epithete of Divine as His Divine Indulgence His Divine Delegation His Divine Sanction His Divine House c. Divinity which was before the stile of their common Edicts upon much more proper and real grounds than ever before was thought of and the obedience that was given to their will in such things under the notion of the dictate of the Divine Spirit and as necessary to Salvation to be believed was the giving them a Divine Honour and the worshipping of their will as the Will of God 2. All the honour and preference that is given to the Roman Church is said even by General Councels which did first distinguish this Church from the rest to be given it only because Rome was the Imperial City of the World All the Worship then that is given to the Roman Church is given it only in Honour of the Imperial Authority of that City and so the worshipping of that Church is the worshipping of that Authority d Concil Constantinopol sub Gratiano Theodosio Canon 5. So Socrates l. 5. c. 8. And Sozomon gives this Reason for it l. 7 c. 9. Because that Constantinople had not only the same name and a like Senate and Magistrates with Rome but did also carry the same Ensigns of Authority after the manner of Rome and was equal to old Rome in all Rights and Honours The second General Councel at Constantinople did decree That the Bishop of Constantinople should be the next in precedence to the Bishop of Rome because that City was new Rome And this is thus explained by the Fathers of the 4th General Councel of Chalcedon at their confirmation of equal Priviledges to the See of Constantinople with those of the See of Rome The Fathers say they gave the See of old Rome its Priviledges upon the account e Concil Chalcedon sub Mareiano Valentin Canon 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for its being the Reigning City Baronius Anno. 448 Cites Valentinian's acknowledgment of the See of Rome Novell 14. That the merit of St. Peter the Dignity of the City and the Authority of the Synod were the foundations of its Primacy If there had been a Divine Right it would have been a diminution to it to speak of the other And in the year 451. He quotes Galla Placidia's Letter to her Son Theodosius about that Affair who says there That it did become them to keep up a due reverence to the City of Rome because it is the Lady of all the rest A clear evidence of the ground of the Primacy of the See of Rome is that Law of the Emperour Leo l. 6. l. 15. and in sin c. de Sacros Eccles which was made a little while after the Councel at Constantinople when the Empire of Rome in the West was just falling We judge and ordain says he That the Most Holy Church of this Most Religious City of Constantinople the Mother of our Piety and of all Christians of the Orthodox Religion and the Most Holy See of this Royal City for ever have for the future in consideration that it is the Imperial City All Priviledges and Honours over the Creations of Bishops Right of Precedence before all others and all other things which they shall be known to have had either before or during our Reign And that this continued appears from l. 16. c. de Sacros Ecclesiis The Church of Constantinople is Head of all other Churches Upon this account also was it as Guicciardin observes l. 4. Histor That the Bishops of Ravenna and Constantinople so often disputed the Primacy with the Bishop of Rome because that it was thought that the chief Seat of the Church followed the residence of the Imperial Power And the Arch-bishop of Ravenna in particular refused to receive the Pall from the Bishop of Rome in acknowledgment of the superiority of the Pope for the Reign of four Popes together viz. Martin 1. Eugenius 1. Vitalian and Adeodat and they were therefore called Autocephali or Self-headed by the Popes in memory of it Anastasius Bibliothec. in these Popes lives says that it was against the Supremacy that they contended of the Imperial Authority of it upon the same account did the Hundred and fifty Bishops at Constantinople give the same Priviledges also to the See of New-Rome judging it in all reason fit That a City adorned with a Senate and an Imperial power should enjoy the same Priviledges with Old Rome 〈…〉 like unto it to have the tokens of Majesty in Ecclesiastical Affair The Synod in Trullo gives the general reason of this from 〈◊〉 Ancient Canon of the Church in its Thirty eighth Canon which was That the Ecclesiastical dignities should follow the Imperial Orders
for the precedence of the Cities to which they did belong And Baronius himself does openly acknowledg this An. 39. 10. The Ancients says he observed no other Rule in instituting the Ecclesiastical Sees than the division of Provinces And the Prerogatives before established by the Romans But the Authority of the Councel of Chalcedon in the particular Case of the Bishop of Rome is an unanswerable evidence for it was the biggest of all the first four famous General Councels which Pope Gregory did reverence as the four Gospels And this was there carried f See the contest betwixt the Pope's Legats and the Councel about this Affair Concil Chalcedon Action 16. where it was in fine determined against the Legats by the Judges and Council Bellarmin acknowledges this in his Preface to his Book de Pontifice The Greeks says he opposed this That is the Universal Supremacy of the Pope in the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451. against the will of the Bishop of Rome thô then at the greatest height that he ever had been which does manifest the sense of the Councel to be contrary to the tenure that the Pope claimed to hold by And further That this was the true aim of the Councel does appear not only from Pope Leo's Exception against this Decree but also by the opposition that there was ever after betwixt the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Bishop of Rome about the precedence till the time of Boniface who got the Title of Universal Bishop but yet not without much opposition from the Greeks upon the account of the change of the Seat of the Empire to Constantinople By this then it appears that the Imperial Power was the principal object of the Worship that was given to the Roman Church because it was given to that Church only in veneration of that Power For that for whose sake a thing is honoured is the principal object of that honour And g Platina in Bonifacio tertio He obtained of the Emperor Phocas That the Seat of St. Peter should be called and esteemed to be the Head of all Churches but yet not without great contention about it many affirming that there ought to be the nrst and chief See of the Church where the Head of the Empire was Anastasius Bibliothecarius in Bonifacio 3. He obtained of Phocas That the Apostolick See of St. Peter should be the Head of all Churches whereas the Church of Constantinople did write it self the chief of all Churches Caranza Concil Summa p. 369. Bonefacius 3. He obtained c. That the See of St. Peter should be accounted the Head of all Churches which Title the Church of Constantinople did challenge to it self evil Princes favouring it and affirming that the chief See of the Church ought to be there where the Head of the Empire was that is at Constantinople Gregor M. just before Boniface is full of the mention of the Patriarch of Constantinople's claim to the Title of Universal Bishop in his 4th 6th and 7th Book of his Epistles Boniface the Third notwithstanding all his good services to Phocas could not get the Title of Universal Bishop without much opposition from the Greeks upon the account of the change of the Seat of the Empire to Constantinople 3. The chief Head and Life of the Roman Church is the Papal Authority 'T is that which is the contriver of that Image and is also the evil spirit of it that instigates it to all the mischief that it does Now the Popes of Rome were nothing but h Edictum sive Decretal Pap. Hilarii Ep. 11. About the Year 476. when the Western Empire fell into the hands of the Barbarians and so the Pope seemed to be the sole Head of the Church of Rome It has also been decreed by the Laws of Christian Princes That whatsoever the Bishop of the Apostolick See should upon examination pronounce concerning Churches and their Governours should with reverence be received and strictly observed Dr. Barrow 's Pope's Supremacy p. 244. speaking of the Episcopal Sees before the time of Constantine so stood the Order of Church-Dignities till it was confirmed by the Council of Nice backed with Imperial Authority What before was but custom by so August a Sanction became Universal Law and with such veneration as by some was accounted immutably and everlastingly obligatory as appears in Pope Leo's Maxims This does best appear from the ground of the Supremacy of the Pope which was because they were the Bishops of the Emperor 's chief Seat And also from the Authority by which they came by it which was by the Imperial Laws by whom their Primacy was established See Not. preced And they were set up and deposed by the Emperors at pleasure and were created by them the Emperours Creatures No Election of the Bishop of Rome was valid till after the i Caranza Concil summa in Severino Ann. Dom. 634. Severinus was set up in the room of Pope Honorius by Isaacius the Emperor's Exarch or Deputy in Italy For in those days the Election of the Clergy and People was not accounted valid unless the Emperors or their Exarchs did confirm it After he had before observed in Pelagius the Second Ann. Dom. 580. That Pelagius was created Pope without the Roman Prince's Authority against the usual custom For in those days nothing was done by the Clergy in the Election of the Pope without the Emperor's Approbation But there was no conveniency at that time of sending to the Emperor at Constantinople because Rome was then besieged by the Lombards But he afterwards begged pardon for it by his Legat Gregory But in Adrian the Third he does thus more remarkably confirm this Custom This Pope Ann. Dom. 888. was so stout as in the beginning of his Pontificate to bring in this Law to the Senate and People That the Authority of the Emperor should not be waited for before the Creation of the Pope This was so commonly acknowledged that it appears that the Popes used to pay a sum of money to the Emperors for their Confirmation Canon Agath 21. Can. distinct 63. See Note 1 on Chapter the Fourth Onuphrius Panvinius gives an account of the first Rise of this Custom at Justinian's Conquest of Italy In Pelag. 2. The Goths says he being beaten out of Italy by Narses and Italy together with the City of Rome being made a part of the Eastern Empire under Justinian the Emperor by the Authority of Pope Vigilius there was a New Custom brought up in the Assemblies for the Elections of the Popes which was that upon the death of the Pope there should forthwith be an Election made by the Clergy the Senate and the People after the manner of the Right of Majors But the new elected Pope could not be consecrated or ordained before his Election was confirmed by the Emperor at Constantinople nor before he had the Emperor's Letters-Patents for his Consecration in order to enter upon the Papal Jurisdiction For
Eighth substituted in his place by the Emperor's Approbation And the Old Law that there should be no consecration of the Pope without the Emperor's Order was renewed by the Authority of the Pope and another Council and Anathema and Banishment was the punishment of the Disobedient D. 63. C. In Synodo 23. See Note l on the Thirteenth Chapter Theodor. Ã Niem says He saw the Patent from whence this was drawn preserved at Florence in testimony of the Imperial Dignity and he lived under John the XXIIId The Emperor Henry the Second upon complaint of great Disorders of the Roman Church goes in the year 1046. to Rome there deposes Gregory the Sixth and fets up Clement the Second and the Romans swear to him that they would never chuse them any Pope without his Consent And upon the meeting of a great Council there it is ordained that the New-elected Pope shall not be so accounted till the Authority of the Emperor should confirm it and that the Pope ought not to be created without his Authority Petr. Damian in lib. Gratis Platina Onuphr in Clement 2. The Council of Lateran Ann. 1055. order the Election of the Pope to be begun by the Cardinals and the rest of the Clergy and People to consent to it and adds seeing nevertheless the Honour due to our dear Son Henry who is at present held for King and to be Emperor afterwards as we have granted to him and his Successors who shall obtain this right in person of the Apostolick See In the Synod at Rome in the Year 1106. is that dreadful Charge drawn up against Gregory the Seventh or Hildebrand for aspiring to the Papacy without either the Consent of the Emperor of the Romans or the Senate or People In the Year 1107. the Emperor Henry the Third sets forth a Remonstrance against Pope Paschal the Second and concludes That although by Right and force of Arms he could retain the Ancient Custom observed of so long time by so many Holy Fathers touching the Election of the Popes and the Right of Investitures yet he should not much trouble himself about it if they would return him the Estates and Chattels which they retained by the Gifts of the Laity and would content themselves with the Title Aventin Histor Boior L. 6. And upon taking Pope Paschal Prisoner by Henry it was sworn to by the Pope That the Right of confirming or investing the new chosen Bishop should be always in the Emperor and none should dare to own them before they were invested by the Emperor's Command Sigebert says thus concerning this Affair Chron. Ann. 1111. The King or Emperor would use the Authority which the Emperors had used since the time of Charlemaigne for 300 years and more under 63 Popes 1118. Gelasius the Second succeeded Paschal the Second and was created without the knowledge of the Emperor Henry who thereupon returns from Padua to Rome and consecrates Gregory the Eighth in his place 1165. Paschal the Third was confirmed Pope by the Council of Wurtzbourg where this Remarkable Decree was made That for the future no Pope should be created but after the Ancient Fashion by the Consent of the Emperor Aventin Hist Boior L. 6. And afterwards That the Pope should be called only Nuntius Christi and not to be the Rival of the Imperial Power And an oath was thereupon taken by all there present The Universities of Oxford and Paris agree about the Year 1404. that the Emperor has right of Patronage to the Pope and to the Roman Church That the Election of the Pope does not appertain of divine Right to the Cardinals but to the People and the Confirmation of him to the Emperor Epist Universit Paris Editae A. Hutten Ann. 1520. Emperor's confirmation of him and was the Imperial Authority that did many times call them k Nothing is more common in the History of the Church than the summonings and depositions of Popes by the Emperors to an account for their irregular actions and depose them The usual Titles that the Bishops of Rome gave their Emperors were l Guicciard Histor L. 4. In this time of the Exarchat that is after Justinian's recovery of Italy the Bishops of Rome had no Civil Power passing their lives under the subjection of the Emperors without the Authority of whom or of their Exarchs they durst not receive or exercise the Pontifical And therefore their Addresses to the Emperors must be proportionably submissive as follows 601. Gregory the Great who by the Romanists is made the Example of a Good Pope in his Second Book Ep. 62. 65. to the Emperor Mauritius hath these Expressions He is guilty before the Almighty who in all that he says or does is not clear towards His Most Serene Lords and I the Unworthy Servant of Your Piety If c. And I when I speak thus to My Lords what am I but dust and a Worm of the Earth c. Power is given My Lords from Heaven over all men I have committed will Christ say my Priests or Bishops into thy hands And l. 2. Ep. 64. my tongue cannot express the favour that I have received of the Almighty and of the most Serene Emperor My Lord. And Ep. 52. I have sent him to the Feet of My Lords And yet Gregory speaks boldly enough to him when he reproves him as his Confessor L. 2. Ep. 64. And L. 6. Ep. 11. to Anastasius Bishop of Antioch All that are advanced into Holy Orders ought always to give thanks for it to Almighty God and always pray to God for the Life of our most Pious and most Christian Lord the Emperor Pope Agatho Concil 6. Act. 2. and 4. tells the Emperor That he gave ready obedience to the things that were commanded him by the Sacred Letters Patents of his most Clement Fortitude And that again To do his due obedience to the Emperor in making the Bishops of those parts Address themselves to the Most Pious Feet of his Goodness calls Rome the Servant City of his most Serene Empire often uses according to your most Pious Command And we beseech you upon the bended knees of our Soul 800. Ado Viennensis in Chronic. An. 798. Aimoin l. 4. c. 90. Refute the Coronation of Charlemaigne by Pope Leo. And that after the Acclamations of the People He was adored by the Pope after the manner of the former Emperors And Salvian in Epistolam ad Parentes Explains what is meant by the manner of the Ancient Emperors He says That As Servants they kissed the feet of their Masters An. 854. Pope Leo the 4th writes to the Emperour Lotharius That he observed His and his Predecessors Commands and should always observe them Dis 10. c. 9. An. 1158. Pope Adrian the 4th Together with all the Cardinals and Clergy send to the Emperour Frcderick and acknowledg him Lord and Emperour of the City and of the World Urbis Orbis Raderius de Gestis Frederici l. 1. c. 22. Paulus
Diaconus de Gest Longobard c. 37. who was near those times Phocas says he at the request of Pope Boniface did Decree That the See of the Church of Rome should be the Head of all Churches because that the Church of Constantinople did write it self the first of all Churches See Note g on this Chapter Our Lords the Emperors Our Most Gracious and Pious Lords and subscribed themselves Their meanest Servants And that which is the chief flower of their Authority their Universal Headship or Supremacy over the Catholick Church was begged m Boniface the 3 d did so far acknowledg this Title of Universal Head to be the Emperour's favour That he has the Emperour's grant for it proclaimed at Rome in a Council of 62 Bishops Platina in Boniface 3. Sigonius says That Boniface sent an Embassy to Phocas to desire it by which means he obtained that Decree of the Emperor Phocas by Boniface and could not be obtained but by the drudgery of an approbation of Murder and Assassination and then also not without n The Contest about the Universal Headship appears plainly to have continued from the Order of the Council of Chalcedon for the place of the Patriarch of Constantinople The Law of the Emperors Leo and Anthemius l. 16. c. in fin de Sacros Eccles for the superiority of the See of Constantinople was soon after that Council Pelagius the 2 d. condemns John Patriarch of Constantinople for that claim and so does Gregory the 1st after him See Note g on this Chapter Platina says in Boniface 3. Though his pretentions were not always obeyed yet there has ever since that time been a Schism betwixt the Greek and the Latin Church Bellarmin in Praefat. in lib. de Pontifice The Greeks opposed the Popes Supremacy in the year 451. in the Council of Chalcedon and in the year 600. declare the Bp. of Constantinople Universal Bishop great contests against it as an usurpation upon the Rights and Liberties of other Churches to mind him by whose favour only he came to possess it For the Emperor o Cuspinian de Caesaribus p. 140. Mauritius wrote to Pope Gregory To obey John Patriarch of Constantinople as if Head Patriarch of all others Mauritius just before had commanded Pope Gregory to acknowledg John Patriarch of Constantinople for the Universal Head There is great reason then to account the Honour shown to the Papal Authority and his Clergy which are the Life and Soul of the Roman Church to be an honour done to the Power that raised him and supported him 4. The Worship that is given to the Roman Religion may well be called the Worship of the Imperial Authority because it is the Secular Arm that makes the Church-Laws to be obeyed and thereby it does appear That it is the owning of these Laws by the Secular Power for its own will and command that gives all the life and force to them and that therefore they are obeyed as the Laws and Will of that Power only The Church might make what Laws it pleased to the Consciences of men Their Anathema's would not have been much regarded by those who knew them to be unwarrantable But that which sets the edge upon them is the Secular Arm of the Civil Power 'T is then the Secular Arm that is in reality the chief thing that is worshipped or whose will is complied with as the Will of God and as the Law of his Religion It is therefore very properly the Worship of the Beast both before the division of the Empire when all the Secular Authority was only Imperial and also after the appearance of the p Canon 3. Concil Lateranens 1. The Secular Powers are enjoyned to take an Oath to prosecute Hereticks to the Rooting them out of their Territories And those Princes that neglect to do thus are to be Excommunicated and their Subjects Absolved of their Oath of Allegiance to them and their Lands to be exposed to the Seizure of Catholicks See Note c and f on Chapter 4. The Council of Milan and Arles send to their Emperours to make their Decrees effectual Aeneas Sylvius afterward Pope Pius 2d Epist l. 53. We are all of the same Faith with our Princes If they were Idolaters we should be so too and should deny not only the Pope but Christ himself also if the Secular Power did but press us to it Otho Frisius in prol l. 4. Chronic. There are two persons set up in the Church The Sacerdotal and the Regal the one to execute the Ecclesiastical Censures by the Spiritual Sword the other carries the Material Sword to execute the Secular Sentences And as Spiritual possessions are under the jurisdiction of the Spiritual Sword so are the Dignities of this World as Dutchies Counties c. under the jurisdiction of the Material Sword Ten Kings in it because N. B. they are found to give their Kingdoms to the Beast or to that Religion which the Imperial Authority does set up For this end alone is it that the Imperial Authority has its confirmation at present from q Goldast Polit. in Imperial H. 1. pag. 72. Speaking of the Installation of the Roman Kings or Emperours They do then require an Oath from the Supream Monarch of the whole World To defend the Roman Church to exterminate Hereticks and to secure the Dignity of the Pope by all manner of ways Glabar l. 1. Histor in fine Benedict the 9th made this Decree That none should be called or taken for Emperour but He whom the Pope for his good behaviour shall make choice for a fit person for the Common-weal and upon whom he shall set that Imperial Crown which is a Golden Apple set with Jewels and a Cross in the middle of it viz. To denote the end of his power to be to defend the Church And such is every Imperial Crown of every particular Prince Clementina unica de jure jurando Gives the Oath that the Emperour takes to defend the Rights of the Church the Head of the Church that it may enforce the Spiritual Power of the Church and by this means do both the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power come to be Worshipped in one and the same Act of obedience From hence it is now easie to apprehend how the false Prophet does exercise all the power of the first Beast before him For Rev. 13. 12. since the first Beast is found to be the Imperial power the exercise of all his power must be an Universal Supremacy over the Roman Catholick Church and this does very well answer the Popes exercise of the power of both the Roman Swords And it is said to be done before the first Beast as that signifies in Honour of him or in Honour of the chief seat of the Empire The first great effect of this power is to cause all the world to Ibid. worship the first Beast And that is when the Papal Authority does either make the World receive the Imperial
Laws and their Sanctions of Councils as the Will of God about the way to Salvation or make them receive the Roman Religion it self as the Gospel of Christ only upon the account of its being the Doctrine of the Roman Church which has all the Authority that it lays claim to from the will of the Emperors only in veneration to the Majesty of that Empire and the Supream Ruler of it or when the Pope does make the Emperors to be owned for the r Gregor 7. Ep. poll 18. l. 6. Richard Prince of Capua takes this as part of his Oath to the Pope I will acknowledg the Emperour Henry for every thing else and will Swear fealty to him when I shall be exhorted to it by thee or thy Successours always with the exception of the Holy Church c. And it is the general practice of that Church in case of the Emperor's failure of this Defence of the Church or in case of Heresie contrary to it He is to be deposed defenders of the Faith of that Church by a Divine Commission to them from his hands at their confirmation in the Imperial Dignity and thus recommends them under that Sacred Character as the immediate and special Ordinance of God in the Roman Church whose will must be submitted to in their commands for the owning of the Infallibility of the Roman Church or the Divine inspiration of it in all things The next exercise of the False Prophets power is by all the deceitful Arts of persuasion to get the World to make an Image to Rev. 13 14. the Beast which does set out the great industry of the Papal Power upon its exaltation to the Supremacy over the Church to make the Church of Rome to be as Universal an Empire over the World as the Civil state of it was and so to be the Image of the Roman Empire When this was obtained it is said That he had power also to V. 15. give life to this Image and questionless all will own the Church of Rome to have almost all its life from s This appears from the Oath that all the dignified Clergy of the Church of Rome take at their Creation the form of which is thus set down Lib. 2. Decret Tit. 24. I N. N. by the Grace of God and of the Apostolick See Bishop of c. will assist for the retaining of the Roman Pacy and the Regalia of St. Peter and to the maintaining them against every Man I will take care to preserve encrease defend and further the Rights Honours Priviledges and Authority of the Roman Church of our Lord the Pope and his Successors I will prosecute and suppress to my power all Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebels against our Lord the Pope Add to this the Oath that the Emperour and Kings take at their Coronation to defend the Rights of the Apostolick See and then the Papal Authority seems to be the sole Head of the Image and the inspirer of it the Papal Authority in it Of which there could be no more lively a proof than to Ibid. make the Image speak and cause all to be killed that would not worship it And does not this very exactly agree with the Decrees and Canons of that Church put in execution by its own Courts of Judicature and by the concurrence of the Secular Arm which it makes its Officers and Executioners It is known That any dissent from the Faith of that Church is judged by them to be Herefie and that the punishment of Heresie is death And since all the Government of the Church is made a Papal Monarchy and the Pope the Supream Head of it it is very properly said that he does cause the Church to do all these things The last mentioned exercise of the False-Prophet's power is to make all men receive a mark in their hand or forehead or to Rev. 13 16 17. have the name of the Beast or the number of his name This seems to be very mystical at the first sight of it But the custom of all the Eastern parts to give their Soldiers and Slaves a mark to know them for their own does make it plain that it is to be understood of some t Malvenda de Antichristo Pag. 434. Let it therefore be taken for clear and undoubted which all the Fathers did unquestionably teach That this number of the name of the Beast 666 does not relate to either the birth or death of Christ or to any kind of duration or space of time but that it is to be the real name of Antichrist And he there mentions Romanists and Latines Alcasar in c. 13. Apoc. de Charactere Bestiae The Mark says he is not here any thing distinct from the number and the name 1. because it is said the Mark or the Name or the Number of the Name which does not intimate three distinct things but only three distinct Names of the same things 2. Because Chap. 20. Apoc. it is said That all that had not received the Mark of the Beast did Reign with Christ where the Mark includes in it the Name and Number 3. Because Chap. 14. 9. It is said also of the punishment of the followers of the Beast That it was to those who should receive the Mark where all that had the name and the number are also comprehended He there also adds That it was the Custom for Soldiers to receive the name of their Prince in their Skin So Vegelius l. 1. c. 8. and l. 2. c. 5. Soldiers are Listed by being pricked in the Skin with the name of the Prince or General So Lipsius l. 1. c. 9. Quotes Justinian's Code for it St. Augustine Chrysostom and Prudentius The Society of Bacchus were thus marked with an Ivy-leaf peculiar mark and name which does distinguish those of the Roman Church from all other Christians But that which does the best open the mystery of these expressions is that observation of Grotius upon this place That it was a common fashion in St. John 's time for every Heathen God to have a particular Society or Fraternity belonging to him and the way of admitting any into these fraternities was 1. By giving them some Hieroglyphick mark in their Hands or Forehead which was accounted Sacred to that particular God as that of an Ivy-leaf to own themselves of the fraternity of Bacchus 2. By Sealing them with the Letters of the name of that God And 3. with that number which the Greek Letters of their name did make up for the Numeral Cyphers of the Greeks were the Letters of the Alphabet Thus the Greek Letters of the Name of the Sun did in all make up 608. And therefore his fraternity were marked with XH A very great confirmation of this way of interpreting the Name and Number of the Name is Irenaeus's Testimony from Irenaeus l. 5. c. 24. the mouth of those who had received it from St. John That the Number of the Name of
would be but the taking of the word Latinos after the Ancient way of the Latins The False Prophet's punishment of those who had not the mark or name of the Beast is just the same with z The effect of the Papal Excommunications for this purpose does appear from the Bull of Pope Martin the 5th in confirmation of the Council of Constance and to be found at the end of it Which commands all Emperours Princes Lords and all Civil Magistrates as well as Ecclesiastical to expell all Hereticks out of their Territories not to suffer them to make Contracts or to exercise any kind of Merchandize amongst them the Papal-Excommunications For the hindering them from the Market or from buying and selling was one of the effects of the Excommunications of the Jews CHAP. VI. Rev. XIII Vnder the name of the Beast is comprehended all his under-Agents in the same design How the ten Kings give their Kingdoms to the Beast How the Character of speaking like the Dragon can agree with a Christian Bishop It cannot be any thing else THE particular instances explained in the former Chapter do clearly show that the exercise of the Power of the false Prophet does in all the parts of it regard the Beast as the principal concern of his design The Worship that he promotes is the Worship of the Beast The Image that he causes to be made is an Image made in honour of the Beast it self And the Worship that is given to it is because of its being the Image of that Beast that was deadly wounded and was healed again And the mark name and number of the name is the name of the Beast by which all Men were to own themselves the peculiar slaves of the Beast And this is no more than what the Character of that Power which the false Prophet did exercise in all these ways does plainly intimate to us for it is said to be the Power of the Beast it self exercised hefore him And therefore must the exercise of it be only upon his account and those that were employed in it were therefore but his Ministers and Instruments in it All which does signifie to us That the Supremacy of the Pope the Infallibility of the Church of Rome the blind Submission and Veneration that is paid to it the taking the name of a Roman Catholick the confining of all the publick Offices of Religion and Devotion to God and of the lively Oracles of God to the old Roman Language That all these things are done in honour of the Universal Imperial Power of the Romans or of the Empire of the City of Rome and that in the time of the Imperial Authority over Rome restored by Justinian And therefore are all these things signified to be the Worship of the Beast under the last Ruling Head because it is not a Civil honour that is given to this Empire and the Head of it But the giving them the Prerogative of Almighty God the Power of setting up a Spiritual Authority which shall give Law to the Consciences of Men according to their own will and pleasure and shall have the Spirit of God confined to their Arbitrary proceedings and the Curses of God to dispose of at their will against all that dissent from them The Beast therefore is the final Object of all the Worship N. B. and Honour that is given and therefore does generally comprehend in it all the under-Actors and Instruments in this Design where he is mentioned alone Thus ln the 17th Chapter of the Revelations there is no mention of the false Prophet or of the Image but only of the Beast and of the magnificent appearance of his Empire under the name of Babylon And therefore by the Beast must there be understood all his Ministers and Instruments joyned with him according to the nature of the several Characters that he is joyned with As in the time of the Mayres of the Palace in France by the name of the King must many times be understood the will of those Mayres to the prejudice of the Royal Authority because it was the King's Power that was exercised by them And all the Honour and Obedience that they had was upon the account of their being authorized by him So also do the Actions and Honour of the false Prophet and the Image go under the name of the Beast in that Chapter tho in reality they have been much to the diminution of the Imperial Authority It is enough to qualifie them to be comprehended under the name of the Beast that they concur with the Beast in his great design of making all the World to submit to an Ecclesiastical Authority of his own Creating as the acknowledgment of the Honour of his Empire For all the Worship that is hereby promoted is The Honour shown to the Imperial Power of the Romans which is submitted to as the only ground for any hopes of Salvation And that not upon the account of its being the Catholick Church of Christ but for that which is at present a contradiction to it viz. for being the Roman-Catholick Church Wherefore when the ten Kings are said to give their Power Rev. 17. 13. and Strength and Kingdoms to the Beast it is to be understood of their concurrence to advance the Roman Religion as the Imperial Religion of the Romans which was first set up and promoted by the Imperial Authority and so still continues to be defended and protected by it and therein does the Worship of the Beast more eminently appear because of the submission of crowned Heads to it who have no Superior upon Earth but God alone For it is very difficult to understand how ten Kings can be supposed to be of one mind and to agree to give their Kingdoms to the Worship of any Power upon Earth but only in this way of an Uniformity in a common Religion which is set up by the Will and to the Honour of another And here it is to be observed how exactly the Prophecy and the Event do agree with one another in respect of the Order which is observed in the Text. The Beast is described as beginning the Scene first and setting the design on foot And the false prophet and the Image come in afterwards to perfect and accomplish it which was very punctually verified by the beginning of the Universal Monarchy of the Church of Rome under the Imperial Authority and the advancement of it into a perfect Tyranny by the Roman Hierarchy So that after a while the False-prophet seems to take the power of the Beast out of his hands and to exercise it before his face and then the Beast had little to do himself in the management of it and seemed only to give Authority to what was done by others which is also now manifest from the common course of the Roman Church in their proceedings against Hereticks They judge condemn and pronounce sentence against them and then deliver them over to the Secular
Church in the same Seven Headed Ten Horned Empire or better satisfy us why there needed two different figures of Dragon and Beast to signify those two kind of Hostilities against the Church of Christ For by this it appears that the Beast and the False Prophet were to be in outward appearance the most directly contrary to the Dragon that could be and even to look like Christ himself and therefore that this False Prophet must really be such an one of that Kind as our Saviour calls d See Malvenda Not. praeced And the Fathers agree That Antichrist shall take away the Worship of false Gods See Irenaeus Not. Praeced Arethas in V. 11. c. 13. Apoc. Two Horns of the Lamb because he shall feign himself to be kind and benign that he may deceive Idem in v. 14. He doth Miracles That Antichrist might be thought to be Christ a False Christ or a false pretender to be his Deputy and Vicar upon Earth The Character of which kind of False Christs and False Prophets in being able to deceive the very elect by their great Wonders and Signs is just the same with the power of this eminent False Prophet for doing great wonders also for deceiving all those that dwell upon Rev. 13. 14. earth by the Miracles which he had power to do Wherefore the speaking like a Dragon in this False Prophet with the appearance of a Lamb must signify his speaking or commanding under the vizard of the Vicar of Christ the same kind of acts of Cruelty and Tyranny for an Idolatrous worship which the Red Dragon was active in against the Woman in the Chapter just before The profession of Christianity is now we see so far from excusing the Bishop of Rome from the Character of the False Prophet That it is necessary for him to be a more eminent Professor of that Religion than any other person in the Church to be capable of having it applied to him And the enforcing of false-worship by all the Arts of Cruelty under the pretence of the Authority of Christ does therefore fill up the whole Character that is given of his having the Horns of a Lamb and speaking like the Red Dragon for nothing does more resemble the nature of the Devil than Antichristian Tyranny under the Mask of Piety Well therefore may the Dragon be said to give his power to the Rev. 13. 2 3. Beast since the Devil may be safely enough supposed to inspire this design of carrying on this Adoration of the Roman Power and of that Church by force of Arms and sanguinary Laws like the Reign of the Red Dragon in the time of Heathen persecution described in the Chapter just before By this may be understood the true meaning of the casting V. 9. down of the Dragon with the Seven Heads and the Ten Horns out of Heaven in the 12th Chapter For as that Figure has the proper mark of the Roman Empire in the Seven Heads so must it be the Devil inspiring the Roman Empire to bloody Acts against the followers of the Lamb who are said to have overcome him by not V. 11. loving their lives unto the Death Wherefore the casting down of the Dragon out of Heaven can signify nothing else but the mortifying of the Pagan Power against the Christian Church after the conversion of the Imperial Head to the Christian Religion For since the Beast is found to arise with Justinian and the fall of the Roman Dragon is in the Text described to be before the time of the Beast and yet to be after the time of St. John the Dragon can be no other raging power of the Devil Reigning at Rome and Tyrannizing over the Christian Church but only the Devil raging in the Heathen Emperors before the Conversion of Constantine From the time of Constantine to the Reign of Justinian there was no such Roman Tyranny exercised against the Christians that had the least show of so dreadful an appearance and whatsoever any professed Christian Emperors might do in that kind must be under the appearance of the qualities of the Lamb and so be another Beast different from the Dragon It is certain that at this appearance of Christianity upon the Imperial Throne this Prophecy was apprehended to be so plainly fulfilled That Constantine's Effigies was set up in publick over his Palace-Gate trampling upon a wounded Dragon which says Eusebius was done to signifie his conquests of those Tyrants Lib. 3. c. 3. de Vita Constantini that oppressed and persecuted the Church at the instigation of the Devil in allusion to the Books of the Prophets where the Devil thus raging against the Church is called a Dragon And Constantine himself Socrat. l. 1. c. 6. in his Epistle to Eusebius for the repairing of the Churches calls his conquest of Licinius who was the last of the persecuting Heathen Emperors The foiling of the Dragon and the restoring of Christian Liberty to all Men. By the same reason whatsoever is expressed to follow the Dragons fall and to be before the rise of the Beast must be understood of the Roman Empire turned Christian before the time of Justinian and therefore the Dragons casting a flood of water out of his mouth to carry away the Woman with it must be understood Rev. 12. 15. of some great inundation of multitudes of Pagan people upon the Roman Empire that was able to have carried away and to have buried the true Church in it For waters are interpreted to signifie multitudes of people in the 17th Chapter A Flood therefore must denote e Victorinus in v. 15. cap. 12. Apoc. The Waters which he cast out do signify the Army that followed him Ribera on the same place Interpreters agree That by the Waters Persecution that is of multitudes is understood The Devil sent an Army to Persecute the Saints that fled into the Wilderness Sabo Tyconius He cast out Waters after her That is the Violence of Persecutors And afterwards It signifies an Army of Persecutors Andreas Primatius Haymo and Ausbertus say the same and quote that of Psalm 122. When Men rose up against me To which may be added many other places in the Psalms concerning the Floods and Water-floods some very extraordinary overflow of such multitudes And was there ever any thing more exactly answerable to this than that prodigious inundation of barbarous Nations over all the Western Empire presently after the full accomplishment of the Victory of Christianity over Heathenism about the times of Theodosius St. Jerome describes those times with the characters of the last dismal state of things which should be the forerunners of the end of the World The swallowing up of this flood by the Earth to help the Woman can V. 16. thereupon be nothing else but the Leagues that were made with these people with the several allotments of habitation to them within the bounds of the Roman Empire as one people with the Romans and their entrance
Ordain That all usurped jurisdiction of any Bishops over another's Province shall be ipso facto void And that lest the fear of any Mans power should creep in under a shew of an Holy Function and so we should lose that Liberty insensibly and unawares which our Lord Jesus Christ did purchase with his own Blood the Ephesine Council not long after the time of Theodosius had made an excellent provision against any incroachment of any one part of the Christian Church over the rest so that though there might be some irregular exercise of the Imperial Authority yet whenever any considerable Diocese should have stood up for their Liberty though against the Roman Church they had a right to plead for it from that Council In this estate did things continue till the fall of the Western Empire and then the Arrian Goths being the Masters of Rome and the West there was a composition betwixt them and the Eastern Emperors for a f It appears from Cassiodor Variar L. 10. Ep. 26. That the Gothish Kings did not press any in Italy to their way Theodate to Justinian says there Since the Deity suffers many Religions to be we dare not enjoyn one alone to be followed For we remember it is said That Men must sacrifice willingly to the Lord not at the command of any one to force them to it With good reason therefore does your Piety invite us to that which the Commands of God do require And in the time of Justin before Thedoric forced him to leave off persecuting the Arrians in the East And Zeno and Anastasius before Justin are represented as Lovers of Peace and Union rather than a strict Conformity of which Zeno's Henoticon is an example Petavius says of the Emperour Anastasius That he gave every Man liberty to profess what Sect he pleased Rationar Temp. Part 1. l 7. c. 3. Theodoric to all the Jews lib. 2. ep 27. Gassiodor Variar We cannot says Command Religion because none is to be compelled to believe against his Will mutual Tolleration of Orthodoxy and Arrianism in their respective Jurisdictions And before that had the Emperors Zeno and Anastasius contrived a form of Faith for a Comprehension and Union and did connive at a general Liberty of Conscience But the Emperor Justin after them begins the Project of an Vniversal Conformity to the Roman Religion At the sollicitations of Pope Hormisda he makes g See Petav. Rationar Temp. Part. 1. l. 7. c. 3. Item Anastasius Bibliothecar in Hormisdâ an Union betwixt the Greek and the Latin Church which had been in a Schism against one another near forty years After that in Pope John's time sets out several Edicts against h Petav. ibidem Item Blondus de Inclinat Rom. Imp. in Occidente Pag. 37. Pope John in whose time the Emperour Justin being wholly set upon rooting out all the Heresies throughout the Eastern parts deprived all the Bishops of that Sect of their Places and put their Ministers out of their Churches And a little after not only the Eutichyan Heresy but all kind of different Parties were suppressed throughout all the East Anastasius Bibliothecar to the same purpose in Joanne 1. the Hereticks and heavily persecutes them so as even to suppress all kind of Heresie throughout the Eastern Empire But he was forced by i Anastasius Bibliothec. in Joanne 1. gives an account of Theodoric's sending Pope John in an Embassy to Justin to acquaint him That he would ruine all the Catholicks in Italy if he did not restore the Arrians in the East to their Dignities and Churches And that Justin did thereupon comply with him Theodorick king of Italy to desist and so his Design came to nothing But however there was so good a Correspondence by this means setled betwixt the Emperor and the Bishop of Rome for that common Interest that the Emperor submits to be crowned by the Pope which was the k Petav. Rationa Temp. Part 1. l. 7. c. 3. The Emperour received the Pope with all honour and was the first that received the Imperial Crown at the Popes Hands Anastas Bibliothec. in Joanne 1. first Example of that kind and got the name of Justin l Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat pag. 141. Item Anastas Bibliothec. in Joanne 1. the Orthodox for his Piety to the Church This good Correspondence betwixt the Secular and Ecclesiastical Power of Rome was the only means to carry on an Vniversal Vniformity in the Roman Religion For the Imperial Authority was now confined to a very small Jurisdiction and the rest of the Empire was divided into several Kingdoms which had no other Secular Sovereign to command them but their own particular Kings There was therefore no other way of reducing them all to one Religion but by the advancement of a Spiritual Roman Authority to be the principle of Vnity amongst them whose business it should be to overawe the Conscience with the Curses of the Church for the enforcing the execution of the Imperial Penalties For as the Imperial Laws were for every thing else the standing Laws of these divided Kingdoms so the only way to make their Edicts and Sanctions of Councils about Church-matters to take place amongst them was to have them confirmed and enforced by the Authority of an Universal Head of the Church And though the Church Head seems by this to be the principal in all this Affair yet the Temporal Penalties of the Laws being the only certain means to effect an Universal Conformity and this Sovereign Head of the Church himself being also a Creature of the Imperial Power to carry on his design of Uniformity in the Roman Religion as has been observed all the Obedience that Chap. 22. is given by other Princes and their Subjects is really nothing but the Worship of the Beast or of the Imperial Religion and they give their Kingdoms to the Beast when they force their Subjects to submit to that Religion There was nothing that could make it look more like the worshipping of that Roman Authority than this Submission of the Ten Kings who were absolute in their Kingdoms and had as much right to appoint the Laws of Religion to their Subjects as the Roman Emperor had in his own Territories But by this conformity to the Romans they did seem to lay down their N. B. Crowns at the feet of that Nation and to adore them as the great Dictators and Oracles of the Will of God There is indeed not the least appearance of so general an Uniformity at the end of the Reign of the Emperor Justin who as has been observed was not able so much as to bring it about within the bounds of his own Territories But Justinian immediately after him appears in this Design like a new Blazing-star in the East whom all the World began to be afraid of One would indeed from a cursory view of his History be apt to entertain no other Idea of him than as a very eminent Conqueror
a Superior Authority in himself above that of the Emperor but because he judged the Emperor's mind to be contrary to the Council of Chalcedon And it was accounted a kind of Sacrilege to revoke any thing that was decreed in Council But neither could the Authority of the Pope nor of the rest of the Clergy hinder the Council from doing as Councils used to do that is from being of the same mind with their Emperor And so as Justinian would have it they condemned the three Chapters and pronounced an Anathema upon all those who should defend them or any part of them by the Authority of the Council of Chalcedon Whereas it is manifest that in that Council the chief of these things were particularly examined and Ibas and Theodoret the Authors of these Writings were received by the Synod as Orthodox and the r Concil Chalcedon Action 8 va Which when he had said All the Bishops cried out Theodoret is worthy of his Seat in the Church Let the Church receive its Orthodox Pastour c. And Action 9. c. 10. The Popes Legat Paschasius in the name of all the rest pronounces That upon reading the Votes of the most Reverand Bishops Ibas was approved by them For upon a review of his Epistle we acknowledg him to be Orthodox and for this Decree him to be restored to his Bishoprick and that the Church from whence he was unjustly put out be repaired And this Approbation of the Council of Chalcedon is quoted by Pope Vigilius against Justinian in his Constitution And decrees the contrary to him with this preamble We following the judgment of the Holy Fathers And afterwards These things therefore we having ordered with caution and diligence Epistle of Ibas in particular declared to contain in it no heretical Opinion Here was as great an instance of Imperial Authority over a Council as could well be given to make them define his Will to be an Inspiration of the Holy Ghost contrary to matter of fact And the Pope and his own Clergy were sufficient Witnesses of it to the World by refusing to subscribe to that falshood about a thing which their Eyes might be the Judges of in the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon In that Synod does Justinian also Authorize a new way of Anathema's in the Church and that was to curse the dead whom he judged not to have been right in the Faith which was a practise never before heard of And therein among the rest he curses Origen who in his time was accounted one of the most eminent Fathers of the Church for sanctity of life for profound Learning and his great Services to the Church So that if it has pleased God to pardon him and some of the rest their Speculative Errors they possibly may be those Saints in Heaven against which the Beast is said to open his mouth in blasphemy Rev. 13. 6. But besides this he brings in fashion another way of cursing in the Council which all the Rational World cannot but look upon as very strangely extravagant and that was to anathematize all such who did not damn all those whom they called Hereticks Which certainly was one of the highest Acts of Tyranny over the Consciences of the Universal Church and which of all their Injunctions was the most difficult to subscribe unto For whatsoever accommodating Interpretations men may find out to subscribe to a form of Faith which they do not believe in the common sense of the words yet they can never justify themselves in pronouncing the Curses of God upon all those who do not subscribe to it And yet both this and the former way of Cursing was from that time continued in the Church Never was there before such an appearance all at one time of a new assuming Power over the Church of God as in the conduct of all that business of the three Chapters insomuch that it was generally enough taken notice of to make the worship of the Beast appear a very strange and new thing and to make the World wonder after the Beast as it is said of him The Books of Facundus Bishop of Hermiana against that Emperor for these Arbitrary Proceedings are a sufficient Testimony what noise these things did at that time make in the World and nothing could have made them to be so slightly passed over in History but the greater Extravagancies of the Popish Councils that came afterwards That Bishop tells him s Facundus Hermianens ad Justinian Lib. 12. c. 3. cap. 5. That it was not lawful for the Emperor to intermeddle in this manner in the Office of the Priest shows him the Example of Vzziah and Dathan and that none but Christ alone can have a Kingdom together with a Priesthood That his Book was against the Decrees of the Council of Chalcedon and that no Emperor but he did ever before change the Decrees of a Council of his own head bids him look up into Heaven with the Eye of Faith and there see all those Blessed Fathers which he had accursed now Inhabitants of Heaven And speaking of the like haughtiness of the Emperor Zeno As if says he the Faith of all the Churches did depend upon the Emperor's Will and as if none must believe otherwise than the Emperor should command him to believe Baronius also does censure him as guilty of great Arrogance in presuming to set forth these Decrees concerning the Catholick Faith Anno 546. However we find Justinian still keeping his point against them all he defends this cursing of the Dead in a publick Edict of the Confession of his Faith and turns the Council into a Law of the Empire Novell 42. The Pope all this while whose Authority is pretended to be so absolutely necessary to the making of a Council declared himself contrary to all this was banished Petav. Ration Temp. part 1. l. 7. c. 7. for it and so ill handled in it that it was at last the cause of his Death So that here was a very clear appearance of the Imperial Roman Authority in the Church which appears to be the only soul and head of this which is called the fifth General Council For it could not have its name of a Council of the Roman Church from any at that time but the Bishops there assembled and the Imperial Authority which confirmed it To pretend that it was afterwards confirmed by another Pope and so made a Council is to give the Pope a power to change the nature of things For if it wanted its due Authority at that time it must be no Council at all and the Pope may as well be allowed to turn all the Religious Meetings of Bishops that ever were into Councils at his pleasure There was then nothing here but the worship of the Beast alone without the False Prophet to assist him But that all the Irregularities of these Procedures are chargeable upon the Roman Church as the beginning of the Tyrannical Exercise of their Power is
by the dissention of two Popes we ought to summon the one and the other and to determine the difference by the Advice of the Orthodox at the day of meeting declares that the right of assembling them did belong unto him For so says he did Constantine Theodosius Justinian Charlemaigne Radevicus l. 2. Ã cap. 52. ad c. 65. Grotius Respons de Antichristo Gregory the Great acknowledges the Emperor to be His Lord and obeys his Edicts And the Imperial Power was very magnificently exercised upon the Popes themselves by the Otho's And Rome had its Magistrates set over it that were sworn to the Emperor Onuph Panvin l. de Fastis pag. 61. From the time of Justinian the Power of the Consuls ceased at Rome And it was governed by the Emperor's Exarchs and by a particular Duke over the City of Rome Hieron Rubeus Histo Ravennat Anno 590. Alberic de Rofat a Famous Lawyer shows in verbo Roma that Rome was under the Emperor's disposal to the time of Innocent the Second and that the Popes acknowledged the Emperors their Lords by the Bishops of Rome Their ordinary Style was Our Lords the Emperors and themselves their meanest Servants They got indeed not long after the Title of Vniversal Bishop over all the whole Church but it was then known to be got hh See Note m on Chap. 4. and the Note g ibidem Ludovic Bebenburg de jurib Reg. Imp. Rom. Edit Heidelbergi pag. 46. The Greeks a long while before the Translation of the Empire to Charlemaigne were departed from the obedience of the Roman Church setting up the Church of Constantinople for their Head And because that Church did write it self the first of all Churches Phocas the Emperor at the request of Boniface the Third decreed that the Church of Rome should be the Head of all Churches by the Emperor's Allowance and Protection in it And the very opening the Pantheon for the worship of the Saints was wholly ii Anastas Bibliothec. in Bonifacio Quarto At the same time he begg'd of the Emperor Phocas the Temple called Pantheon which he made the Church of the Blessed Virgin and all the Martyrs by the Emperor's Grant and Favour But notwithstanding this Grant we see kk See Note b c e x on this Chapter the Imperial Jurisdiction over the Councils still continuing ll See the Sixth General Council in Note b on this Chapter The Sixth General Synod is acknowledged in the Acts of it to be called by the Emperor Constantine to be wholly managed either by himself or such as he deputed in his absence to be confirmed by him and to be made an Imperial Law by his Edict for the observance of it Concil Univers 6. Action 18. Therein also do we find Pope Honorius anathematized for an Heretick But Justinian's Fifth Council with all the Extravagancies of it though called managed and enforced by the Emperor 's sole Power against the will of Pope Vigilius is there made a perpetual Concil 6. in Trullo Action 18. Edit Constantin Rule for the Church and of equal Authority with the first four famous Councils which Gregory the Great did reverence like the four Gospels and Justinian's Faith there celebrated by Pope Agatho as a great Pattern Thus did things continue till that famous Breach betwixt the East and the West about the Point of Image-worship and yet at that time did Gregory the Second who rebelled against the Emperor Leo Isaurus call him the King and Head of the Christians And long after that did the mm See Notes i l xx on this Chapter Platina in Pelag. 2. Pelagius having been elected by the Clergy and People without staying for the Emperor's leave because the Lombards did then besiege the City sent Gregory his Deacon to excuse it to the Emperor at Constantinople Because says Platina the Election of the Clergy signified nothing in those days without the approbation of the Emperor Blondus Decad. 1. l. 9. de Severino 1. Honorio Then was that Custom observed that he that was chosen Bishop of Rome was not crowned till the Exarch came from Ravenna to confirm him D. 63. c. Hadrianus 22. Sigonius de Reg. Ital. l. 4. By the Consent of all the Great Men of Rome there assembled it was agreed that Charlemaigne should have the power of electing the Pope and of ordering the Roman Church D. 63. c. in Synodo 23. Pope Leo the Eighth Anno 963. in a Synod at Rome consents to that Canon That none shall be elected Pope but by the Emperor's leave The Title of the Canon in Gratian is The Election of the Bishop of Rome belongs of right to the Emperor And also two years before at his reception at Rome Ann. 961. the Romans swear Fealty to him and that they would never elect a Pope without his leave nor ordain him without the Consent and Election of the Emperor Otho and the King his Son Luitprand l. 6. c. 6. Aventin l. 5. Annal. Boiar Till his time Gregory the 7th the Popes used to be chosen by the Clergy Nobility People and Senate and above all came in the Emperor's Authority to confirm it The Council of Worms says the same of Gregory Sigonius de Reg. Ital. lib. 9. The Diet of Ratisbonne 1322. published a long Decree against Pope John XXII and amongst other things declare against the Pope's Election without the Emperor Aventin l. 7. Popes not only continue to be confirmed by the Emperors but also to be chosen by them But since it was necessary for this universal conformity to the Roman Worship to be managed by a Church-Head after the division of the Empire into so many absolute Civil Sovereigns there can be no dispute in this case about the Imperial share in the worship of the Beast though the Papal Power should afterwards appear to be the almost only active thing in this Affair For it must necessarily be so to fulfil that which is said of the False-prophet that he did exercise all the power of the first Beast and caused the World to worship that Beast and made men make an Image to it which they must worship under pain of death For the power of the Roman Church under the Pope does exactly answer these things and this being all done in honour of the Imperial Command of the City of Rome makes it still the worship of the Imperial Power CHAP. VIII Rev. XIII The first date of the Idolatry of the Roman Church very early The worshipping of Images or Saints in honour of the True God Idolatry shown from Hosea 4. 15. and chap. 8. 13. compar'd with chap. 13. 2. So also chap. 8. 5. Idolatry begun in Justinian 's days proved from the Second Council of Nice The 82 d Canon of the Synod in Trullo From the Zeal of Serenus From the 26. c. Episc Clero Saint-worship in use before St. Augustin 's days and unquestionably in his time shown from the Accusation of
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