it is a representation of Christ the humane nature of the Messias united with the Eternal Logos and according to his Divinity every where existing in the Father as well as according to his Humanity he is here represented distinctly from him Thousand thousands ministred unto him and Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him This Judgment of the little Horn is so magnificently set out as if it were the last Judgment of all and I do not doubt but that it alludes to it and touches upon it in the following words The Iudgment was set and the Books were opened This sitting of the Judgment corresponds with that Apoc. 20. 11 12. Where there is a White Throne and the Books are opened and this is at the Final Judgment and General Resurrection immediately preceeding the Conflagration which in another sense this Fiery description here in Daniel sutes very well with and then the Fiery stream out of the mouth of the Ancient of Days will presignifie that final Sentence Depart from me ye accursed into everlasting Fire But Ver. 4. of the same Chapter And I saw Thrones and they sat upon them c. This answers to the ninth Verse of this seventh of Daniel And I beheld till the Thrones were set For these Thrones are set to judge the little Horn the same with the Whore or False Prophet which is said together with the Beast Apoc. 19. to be taken and cast both alive into a Lake of Fire burning with Brimstone which is to come to pass under the Seventh Vial which immediately preceeds the coming down of the New Ierusalem and the Reign of the Saints Here is onely the difference betwixt these Two Sessions that the Apocalyptick Session mentions only the Reign of the Saints this the instant dooming and executing the Doom of the little Horn in order thereto and the giving the Son of man the Kingdom But being that Corruptio unius is Generatio alterius and the things are so closely connected we may very well admit that these Two preceding Sessions or Sentences declared therein have a considerable correspondence one with another that in the Apocalypse manifestly belonging to this part of this Judgment here in Daniel that gives the Kingdom to the Son of man So that so far the correspondence is palpable 11. I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the Horn spake namely Such blustering and boastfull words as were recited above upon Ver. 8. to see what would become of this Horn that so magnified himself above all and had acted accordingly in deposing Kings and trampling upon the Necks of Emperours and murthering massacring and burning God knows how many Hundred thousands of innocent Christians for not submitting to his Tyranny and Idolatry I beheld even till the Beast was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning Flame What then is the Beast destroyed and the little Horn escape punishment This therefore is a very compendious and Elliptical Form of Speech But the Sense is fully made out by S. Iohn Apoc. 19. 20. For it is impossible but the little Horn must be concerned in that destruction of the Beast himself being the Two-horned Beast in the Apocalypse Chap. 13. but in this Chapter stiled the False Prophet for his false pretence to Infallibility And the Beast was taken says he and with him the False Prophet that wrought Miracles before him that is who transubstantiated Bread into a Man and brought Fire from Heaven and had power over Purgatory and Hell thither to strike innocent Souls by his fulminant Excommunications These both were cast alive into a Lake of Fire burning with Brimstone And thus the Fourth Empire the Roman as to its Idolatrous Tyranny of which the Pope makes himself the Head as his Canonists and Theologers declare is quite demolished under the Seventh Vial. 12. As concerning the rest of the Beasts they had their Dominion taken away that is And if any one shall be so curious as to enquire what became of the rest of the Beasts the other Three above mentioned let that suffice that their Dominion was taken away and that Yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time they had their certain periods allowed them too by the Doom of the Ancient of Days This is enough as touching them but the great business of all is touching the Fourth Beast the Roman Empire forasmuch as the true Church of Christ for so long a space of time is so much concerned therein and therefore that deserves more special observation and enlargment The Affairs of the Iews under the Three first Beasts are not considerable in respect of these of the Christians And therefore the Three first Beasts in this Vision seem to be brought in meerly as a preamble to the Fourth and the Fourth with the Three first to be first described as being of one sute namely Idolatrous But then there is a Fifth Kingdom which is Christ with his true Church commencing in the Apostles times and lasting till the end of the World Of which in the following Verse 13. I saw in the night Uisions in this Divine Dream as was above-said And behold one like the Son of man The Son of man is a Title which Christ so inculcatedly assumes to himself to whom the Kingdom does belong that it is impossible but he should have a regard to this very place in the so perpetually using that style touching himself And therefore it being Christ it is plain that the second Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity is here exhibited in this Divine Vision as well as the first and third as I have noted they all Three are in the Vision of Ezekiel This Title of Christ the Son of man occurrs in innumerable places I need name none And yet there is one I will not omit Matth. 26. 64. When the High Priest had adjured him to tell him if he was Christ the Son of God Iesus saith unto him Thou hast said Nevertheless I say unto thee though thou hast hit it already yet I will give thee a further confirmation thereof Hereafter shall you see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of Power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven namely as it were at the head of the Roman Army to take vengeance of the murtherous unbelieving Iews I say the Roman Army out of which People especially he was to raise to himself his Kingdom the Church Which yet was but Regnum Lapidis as I noted in the foregoing Vision but would be in time Regnum Montis Came with the Clouds of Heaven To be carried with the Clouds of Heaven denotes that a King shall be master of his Enemies and get glorious Victory saith Achmetes And the destruction of the Iews was the establishing of the Church of Christ or his Kingdom among the Gentiles the Romans especially whose Empire became at last Christian. And came to the Ancient of Days and they brought him near before him
Time is naturally divided into two parts The Time before the beginning of the ten persecutions which began in the tenth of Nero and the Time from thence to Constantine when the Pagan Persecutions ceased The former is the Ephesiâ—…e Interval the latter the Smyrnean The Persecutions are threatned in the former executed in the latter So we see the order of these four Churches placed according to the order of Time and known History And the Sardian Interval naturally follows where there is no complaint of eating things offered unto Idols as in the two former the Pergamenian and Thyatirian Intervals which intimates that the true non-Idolatrizing Church had now whenas before she was but the Woman in the Wilderness become according to Promise in the Thyatirian Interval a visible conspicuous Church and Polity of her self got from under the Pagano-Christian Yoke as well as the Primitive Church before had got from under the Pagan Not that this is the best constitution of the Church that ever will be though incomparably or if you will infinitely better than Popery but that it is introductory to the Blessed Millennial State when the New Ierusalem descends upon Earth according to the Prophecies in the Opened Book For now Prophecy shews the order of these latter Intervals not History as being things to come And it is said expresly to the Church of Philadelphia I will write upon thee the name of the city of my God even of the New Ierusalem c. But now as in the Visions of the Opened Book Prophecy after the thousand years Satan is let loose and Gog and Magog besieges the Holy City so after this excellent Philadelphian Interval succeeds the Laodicean who by their laziness and their luke-warmness will permit Gog and Magog to grow upon them and as Fire from Heaven puts an end to that Siege so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laodicea combusta puts a Period to this Stage of the Earth together with the Church So that the account of the placing of the Seven Churches without any respect to Paronomastical Allusions you see is steady and orderly and according to Time and History for what is past and according to the Prophecies in the other part of the Apocalypse for what is to come Which ordering of them who can be so stupid as not to acknowledg to be done by design From whence again it will follow that this Vision of the Seven Churches is a Prophecy properly so called of the Condition of the Church from the beginning to the end And the same will be still more particularly and exquisitely proved by the Paronomastical Allusions of the Names of these Churches and other Names that occurr in the Epistles to the Churches But as the former way of Proof I have pursued but sparingly so I must let this alone altogether both because it would take up too much space whenas my Notes are swollen to too great a bigness already and because the Reader may peruse what I have copiously enough writ in my Exposition it self I will onely here take notice that if the Paronomastical Allusions all along from the beginning to the end suit exquisitely to the order of Time and Things as I am well assured they do they are also a notable confirmation or demonstration of the Visâ—…on of the Sevâ—â— Churches being a Prophecy properly so called of the state of the Church from the beginning to the end that it was as ceâ—â—ainly intended a Prophecy by the Spirit of God as the skilfull Structure of the Bodies of Animals are an assured Argument of his Providence or that Flower-work or Imagery in Carpets or Clothes made of variously coloured Feathers which are things light and slight enough one would think are an argument of the Art of the Indians that are said to make them And for my part I look upon this Paronomastical way let others make as light and slight of it as they will to be made use of on purpose because as it is where seriously taken notice of a sufficient key of Revealment so it is here as pleasant a pieâ—…e of the Artifice of Concealment from high and lofty Wits that would be likely to stalk over such Allusions with a disdainfull gate and overlook them There being more ways than one wherein that of the Apostle may be verified That God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise THE END Errata sic corrige PAge 60. l. 8. For is rightly r. is rightly p. 96. 〈◊〉 r. Geniconâ—â—a ibid. r. Idiconâ—â—a p. 105. l. 11. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 114. l. 11. r. good p. 116. l. 7. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 117. l. 15. r. retracting ibid. r. â—… p. 119. l. 1. r. Mithridath p. 121. l. 5. r. 202 We. p. 122. l. 6. r. Pamphylia p. 152. l. 32. r. from uttering p. 176. l. 31. r. called in p. 228. l. 4. r. therein accordingly p. 257. l. 19. r. Ioint-Exposition Books Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-yard HEnrici Mori Cantabrigiensis Opera omnia tum quae Latinè tum quae Anglicè scripta sunt nunc verò Latinitate donata Fol. 3 Voll Apocalypsis Apocalypseos Or The Revelation of Saint Iohn Unveiled Quarto His Tetractys Anti-Astrologica A Confutation of Judiciary Astrology in Answer to Iohn Butâ—…er B. D. Quarto His Remarks on Judge Hales's Treatise of Fluid Bodies Octavo Answers and Replies in Defence of his Antidote against Idolatry Octavo T. Burneti Telluris Theoria Sacra Orbis Nostri Originem Mutationes Generales quas aut jam subiit aut olim subiturus est complectens Figuris Aeneis Quarto 1681. Dr. Falkner's Libertas Ecclesiastica Octavo Christian Loyalty Octavo Vindication of Liturgies Octavo Dr. Sherlock's Discourse of the Knowledg of Iesus Christ with a Defence and Continuation Octavo A Reply to a Pamphet called The Mischief of Impositions which pretends to answer the Dean of St. Paul's Sermon concerning the Mischief of Separation Quarto 1681. N. Resbury's Sermon Preached at the Anniversary Meeting of the Charter-House Scholars On Monday December 13. 1680. Quarto His Sermon at the Funeral of Sir Alan Broderick Kt. November 25. 1680. Mr. Long 's History of the Donatists Octavo His Character of a Separatist Octavo The Nonformists Plea for Peace impleaded against Baxter Octavo Against Hales of Schism with Mr. Baxter's Arguments for Conformity Octavo The Spirit of Enthusiasm Exorcised in a Sermon before the University of Oxford on Act-Sunday Iuly the 11 th 1680. By G. Hicks D. D. Quarto The Spirit of Popery speaking out of the Mouths of Faâ—…atical Protestants Grovâ—…i Responsio ad nuperum Libellum qui inscribitur Celeusma seu Clamor ad Theologos Hierarchiae Anglicanoe c. Quarto Mr. Grove's Vindication of the Conforming Clergy Quarto A Farewell to Popery to Dr. Nichols Vice-Chancellour of Oxford and Warden of New Colledge from Walter
days are not symbols of so many years as elsewhere which Calvin also observes but are to be taken in the literal sense as was above declared though the other part of the interpretation touching Antiochus Epiphaâ—…es may have also a further meaning touching Antichrist But it is here to be noted that the Angels giving notice to Daniel that the Vision of the 2300 days is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a plain truth no aenigma but that the days signifie days in a literal sense does imply that unless there be some such notice to the contrary that they signifie aenigmatically and stand for years as in Dan. 12. 11 12. Wherefore shut up the Uision that is to say Having exactly writ this Vision with the explication lock it up safely that the Original may be kept to compare with the Event So Grotius as well as Cornelius à Lapide and Calvin For it shall be for many days The time from the Prophecy to the Event will be a long time betwixt Three and Four hundred years For from Belshazzar's Reign to Antiochus Epiphanes is about 380 years 27. And I Daniel fainted and was sick certain days namely By reason of my converse with and consternation of mind from the hearing and seeing of those Angelical Powers so much removed above the condition of us Mortals and also out of sadness for the prophanation of the Sanctuary and great calamities of my Nation which were foretold me Afterwards I rose up and did the King's business that is After I had grown well again I went about the business the King sent me for into Susiana where I was when I saw this Vision And I was astonished at the Uision that is I lookt with an astonished or forlorn look by reason of the Vision I had seen that portended so much ill to my people But none understood it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 None understood what the matter was with me that I lookt so sadly and ghastly on it Quà m diligentissime poteram dissimulabam dolorem meum To that sense Grotius interprets the place and before him Theodoret Maldonat and Gasper Sanctius NOTES Upon VISION III. Ver. 5. That strange exploit of his literally taken c. His climbing up with his Soldiers a steep Rock as natural Goats are said to do The Story is in Iustin lib. 12. cap. 7. Peragrata India cùm ad Saxum mirae asperitatis altitudinis in quod multi populi confugerant pervenisset cognoscit Herculem ab expugnatione ejusdem Saxi terrae-motu prohibitum Itaque cupidine Herculis acta superare cum summo labore ac periculo potitus Saxo omnes ejus loci gentes in deditionem accipit Ver. 8. Ptolemaeus the Son of Lagus Sovereign of Aegypt c. The Authentickness of this distribution to be applied to the Four Horns that is the notable ones as the Four chief Successours of Alexander appears from Diodorus Siculus lib. 19. p. 727. Where upon Cassander Ptolemaeus and Lysimachus their making peace with Antigonus the Sum of the form of Agreement was this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say That Cassander should be chief Commander of Europe till Alexander the Son of Roxana came to Age and Zysimachus should be Lord of Thracia and Ptolemaeus of Aegypt with the Cities conterminous in Africk and Arabia And Antigonus should be Prefect of all Asia And the Greeks live after their own Laws And thus they continued but advanced in title For upon Demetrius his Naval victory over Ptolemy and notice given thereof to his Father Antigonus Antigonus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 puffed up at the greatness of the success put upon himself a royal Crown and took to himself the title of King Which out of emulation and to shew himself not at all discouraged by that late defeat Ptolemy did also and in imitation of him Lysâ—…machus and Cassander Which things Iustin also witnesses lib. 15. cap. 2. And Seleucus a supernumerary to the Four notable Horns who did rise up after Ptolemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lately having acquired the Satrapies of Syria superior to adjoyn to his former Prefecture crowned himself King also Diodor. lib. 20. p. 761. But that the above-named Four Horns still continued tight till Seleucus routed Antigonus and his Son and so succeeded in their place is plain from Diodorus For there is mention how Cassander Lysimachus Seleucus and Ptolemaeus by common consent made war against Antigonus lib. 20. p. 787. his ambition threatening to swallow up all And wheâ—…as some leave out Lysimachus out of the number of the Four first notable Horns it is without reason and against the testimony of this excellent Historian Diâ—…dorus Siculus who reckons them together and gives us to understand that Seleucus came on afterwards as a supernumerary helpt to this his power which afterward proved so considerable by the favour of Ptolemy as part of the very Title of the Nineteenth Book of Diodorus gives us to understand which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. How Seleucus receiving a small Army from Ptolemy made himself Master of Babylon and recovered his former Satrapy and Prefecture again And that Lysimachus may not be thought unworthy of the rank of those Four notable Horns consider what Iustin says of him Erat hic Lysimachus illustri quidem Maoedoniae loco natus sed virtutis experimentis omni nobilitate clarior quae tanta in illo fuit ut â—…nimi magnitudiâ—…e Philosophiâ ipsâ viriumque gloriâ omnes per quos Oriens domitus est vicerit So little 〈◊〉 is there but that according to Thomas Lydiat out of Diodorus he should be reckoned one of the Four notable Horns after the breaking of that first great one Ver. 9. But of the Kingdom of the Seleucidâ—…e c. The truth of what is said here will be the more easily acknowledged from what we have produced upon the foregoing Verse out of Diodorus and Iustin. But I cannot here but take notice of the well grounded confidence of Thomas Lydiat who in his Emendatio Temporum Anno Mundi 3693. writes thus Videtur verò nobis pace omâ—…inum ipsum 〈◊〉 Imperium hoc tempore Babylone institutum aliquaâ—…to post caetera illa quatuor Successorum Alexandri â—…uisse parvum illud Cornu juxta Danielem Prophetaâ—â— ab uno eorum exoriens quandoquidem Selâ—â—cus 〈…〉 initium Ptolemaeo acceptâ—â— retulerit ac 〈◊〉 sâ—…pra ipsum evectus fit The reasons are manifest from the foregoing Note on the Eighth Verse And of these Two main Kingdoms of the Lagidae and Seleucidae he adds this observation that the Epocha of the Anni Seleucidâ—…rum is at this very day by the Arabians Saracens and Mahoâ—…etans called Dhilcarâ—…aâ—â—â— from these Two Horns so remarkable in History and the Prophecy of Daniel Which is the Genius of the Prophetick style to give as it were Two strokes at once c. viz. A more general stroke and a more particular touch and that in the series of the same words The former whereof for
must be cast away as if it were neither precious nor a Corner-stone and be bestowed again on a Pagan people the Romans For so Grotius does not stick to profess Idem Lapis Filius hominis and he made the Son of man before the people of Rome But can a man believe that the Original or success of that people was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing brought to pass by the special power and Spirit of God and not more humano according to the usual course of the World and that not of the best kind their beginnings being helped on by a rabble of Ruffians and Robbers 7. No but that is not Grotius his gloss you will â—…ay Let us therefore hear what it is Lapis abscissus de Monte sine maâ—…ibus according to him is Exercitus populi qui suae esset spontis nullique Regi pareret cujâ—…s populi origo à Monte nempe Palatino In which there is nothing sound nor solid For was this Roman Army any thing more suae spontis in that they had not a Kingly Government at Rome That supreme Power of Consuls and Senatours was as directive and coactive as if it had been Regal So that the motion of this Army was never the more spontaneous for this Again The Stone cut from the Mountain without hands implies that it was then spontaneously divided from the Mountain when it is said to be cut thence But when the Romans first issued from Mount Palatine yea so soon as they were Populus Romanus Regal Government was amongst them it being the first Government of this â—…eople and therefore they were not then Populus suae spontis according to Grotius his own conceit so that he cannot bring both ends together And lastly To interpret Mountain here in a litteral sense is unskilfully done and not according to the analogy of the Prophetick Style nor the very intimation of the present Text which says the little Stone became a great Mountain it self and filled the whole Earth Wherefore this Mountain signifying not litterally but politically there is no question but the other does so too and that the Stone is in some sense homogeneal to this rocky Mountain Whence the sense is plainly this That out of the great Mountain that is the Roman Empire there should be a people raised not by human power or policy but by the Spirit of God and the preaching of the Gospel by Iesus Christ and his Apostles which should be a peculiar people to him and becomâ—… the Subjects of his Kingdome that is to say That the Church of Christ should be cut out of the Roman Empire without human help This is a most easy and undistorted sense and against which there cannot be made the least exception 8. Fourthly which I have already intimated above The Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast with Iron Teeth and the Ten Toes of the Iron Legs of the Statue signify the same thing Wherefore it is plain sith the Ten Toes imply a Coexistence of the Ten Horns by reason of the coordination of their Site that there must be Ten Kings together in the Fourth Kingdome But in the Kingdome of the Seleucidae and Lagidae there were not Ten Kings together all at once Therefore that Kingdome is not the Fourth 9. Fifthly Antiochus Epiphanes part of this Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae is said to riâ—…e up in the latter time of the Kingdome of the successours of Alexander Dan. 8. 22 23. Wherefore this Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae has expired near two thousand years ago But the Kingdome of the Fourth Beast reaches even to the day of Judgment Dan. 7. 9 10. And I beheld till the Thrones were cast down and the Antient of days did sit His Throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as burniâ—…g fire A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him * the Iudgment was set and the Books were opened c. That this is the description of the day of Judgment is the general opinion of both Christians and Jews and answers exactly to the lake of Fire and the opening of the Books Apoc. 20. which Grotius himself does interpret of the last day Whence we may safely conclude that the Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae is not the Fourth Kingdome as having ceased so long before that time though we understood the day of Judgment in the sense of the Rabbins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to which the meaning of I beheld till the Thrones were set and the Books were opened is this that the Prophet Daniel had a prospect even to the utmost end of that great day But he begins more particularly at the beginning of that day in the eleventh verse But this I have onely noted by the by 10. Sixthly and lastly Alexander's Kingdome and that of his Successours is all one Kingdome But that of Alexander's is the third according to Grotius his own concession Now that that of his Successours of which Line are the Lagidae and Seleucidae is one Kingdome with that of Alexander's is evident out of Daniel Ch. 8. 21. The rough Goat is the King of Graecia and the great Horn that is betâ—…ixt his eyes is the first King Now that being broken whereas Four stood up for it Four Kingdomes shall stand up out of the Nation but not in his Power This is one plain proof that the Kingdome of Alexander and his Successours is all one Kingdome For he calls Alexander the first King which necessarily implies that his Successours are the second and that therefore they all belong to one and the same Kingdome Nay he says plainly that these Four Horns stand up for that great one that is in his stead What is this but to succeed in place of him as the Heads of one and the same Empire For no new Beast is said to succeed this Beast but the Horns the Horn. And then the comparing of them and saying But not in his power farther intimates a cognation and succession of one Line and that he does noâ—… speak of the Heads of two different Kingdomes Which appears farther from vers 8. Therefore the Goat waxed very great and when he was strong the great Horn was broken and foâ—… it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of Heaven But where should these come up but on that Head that had lost this great Horn which is compensated with four lesser ones * though in their kind notable For it is very incongruous and extravagant to fansy them to come up in any other And surely if they had belonged to any other Beast that Beast would not fail to have been named Wherefore they must either grow out of this Goat's Head or no where unless out of the ground which is ridiculous And therefore it is plain that Alexanders Kingdome and that of his Successors is but one Kingdome For that Goat is but one
to the Churches in Europe Asia and Africk For certainly the Church had disspred it self into all these Quarters of the world by that time As if the Spirit of Truth were a respecter of persons For these are not the Letters of Iohn but of the Holy Ghost But our Answer is ready at hand * That for the significancy of the word Asia to comport also with the significancy of the names of the seven Churches Asia alone was pitched upon But according to the Prophetical sense the true Catholick Church is writ unto under such distinct conditions as she was to vary into unto the end of the world So that there is no Partiality nor Acception of Persons in this Thirdly If a man demand touching the order or precedency of these Seven Churches that are writ unto What a plain and manifest account is there to him that compares the Epistles in their Prophetical sense with the Intervals of the Church Catholick lying in that order that these Churches are ranged This is a satisfactory reason and worthy the Spirit that wrote these Epistles But whether they are ranged in this order * because that a Letter-carrier going from Patmos his first journey will be to Ephesus and then to Smyrna and so in order till he come to Laodicea whether the holy Spirit of Prophecy regarded that in the dictating of his Letters though Alcazar the Jesuit be for it I cannot but suspend my judgment and that not without a smile But of this Ataxie more particularly anon 3. Fourthly If it be demanded why just Seven Churches in Asia are writ to neither more nor less especially that in Thyatira according to the acknowledgment of Epiphanius being then not founded but after the writing of these Epistles it is hard to give a satisfactory answer in the Literal sense For to say this Book of the Apocalypse affects the number Seven and that because it runs upon the number Seven altogether in the ensuing part of the Book which is Prophetical it therefore for Conformity sake chuses this number in writing to the Churches though Literally understood seems but a meagre mean and trifling account a design unworthy the Holy Spirit that dictated this Book But the using this number Seven all over is rather an intimation that the Book is Prophetical all over and that these Epistles are also a Prophecy accordingly as we have explained them And taking them so the Answer is plain and obvious viz. The number Seven is here chosen out as Symbolical it being the note of Vniversality whence the Pythagoreans as I elsewhere have noted call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore Seven and no more than Seven Churches are writ unto as standing for the seven Intervals of the Church from the beginning to the end of all Fifthly If it be demanded why these seven Churches rather than any others which in all likelihood may have the same Vertues and Vices that these are commended and taxed for The Reason of this is writ in the very Notation of their Names every Name being significative of the Condition of the Church Catholick in that successive Intervall of time that this or that Church so named standeth for and in such order as they are repeated Sixthly If one require a Reason why Christ is described by holding the seven Stars in his right hand in the Epistles to the Churches of Ephesus and Sardis why the same description in both or why in either In the Literal sense it will be hard to find any peculiar Reason but in the Prophetical sense already declared it is obvious For the seven Stars signify all the Pastours whether in present existence or succession And Ephesus is the begnning-state of the Church and therefore it is both very seasonable and methodical to represent the First Founder Sustainer and Continuer thereof by this Emblem Lo I am with you to the end of the World And that this again is hinted at in the Epistle to the Church of Sardis is with evident Proportion and Analogy to the Affairs of the Church there represented For the Church of Sardis is as it were the beginning again or the emerging of the true Church or Kingdome of Christ out of the Power and Kingdome of Antichrist 4. Seventhly Why the Church of Ephesus of all other Churches should be commended for their trying false Apostles Why might not other Churches be attacqued by them and also discover them as well as the Church of Ephesus The Solution of which Problem is easy in this Mystical sense of the Epistles * that places the Ephesine Interval within the Apostles times but the rest on this side of them Eighthly If any one demand why it is said to the Church of Smyrna more than to any other Church Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee the Crown of life and again He that overcometh shall not 〈◊〉 hurt by the second death In the Literal sense it will be very hard to find any peculiar Reason why this might not as well be said to the Church in Pergamus where there was killing for Religion it seems by the mention of the Martyr Antipas I but there was no obtaining the Crown of life there in any peculiar sense but the Crown of life that is the Imperial Crown was given to the sufferings of the Primitive Martyrs under the Ten Persecutions to whom also according to the opinion of the Antient Church the Promise of the first Resurrection belonged Which is here obliquely glanced at according to the mode of the Apocalyptik style that loves to hint things by Ellipses in that Promise He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death implying thereby that he shall be made partaker of the first Resurrection Ninthly If any one will again object more particularly against the Ataxie of the Churches that they are raâ—…ged neither according to the merit nor congeneracy of their Conditions pretending that it had been far better to have joyned the two irreprehensible together Smyrna and Philadelphia against whom there is no complaint at all and then Ephesus Sardis and Laodicea against whom there is no complaint of eating things offered unto Idols and afterwards Pergamus and Thyatira in which Churches alone there is If any one I say contend that this method had been more exact truly in the Literal sense it will be hard to frame an handsome and satisfactory answer especially if he urge that God is the Authour of Method as well as the God of Order But in this Mystical or Prophetical sense the Answer is solid and exquisite and much what the same that was given to the like difficulty more generally propounded before namely That the Churches of Asia are named in that order the Successive intervals of the Church Catholick were to proceed in of which these Asiatick Churches are but the Symbols or Hieroglyphicks And therefore those two Intervals of time which take in the Reign of the Beast and the False Prophet viz. the