Miracles and Kainish Persecutors had they but Power and in the mean time gross Idolaters and either lovers of lying Legends or Inventours of them These unclean Birds are kept out of the New Ierusalem but have their dismal haunts in the rubbish and ruines of the demolished Babylon as has been observed above 16. I Iesus have sent my Angel to testifie unto you these things in the Churches alluding to the Churches in Asia which signifie the whole succession of the truly Catholick and Apostolick Church to the end of the world The Churches therefore for whose use this Book was written are the Churches in Smyrna Pergamus Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea The whole Book of the Apocalypse is as it were an Epistle to them all as they are concerned in their several Successions Which passage is a farther confirmation of the Prophetical sense of the Epistles to the seven Churches in Asia I am the Root and the Off-spring of David * Which may denote his Divinity and Humanity as also his being the Off-spring or Son of David the true Messias his Right to the Kingdoms of the Earth as it is foretold in the second Psalm Ask of me and I will give thee the Nations for thine Inheritance and the utmost parts of the Earth for thy possession And therefore because of the greatness and glory of his Kingdom it follows And the bright Morning-Star In the Sardian Interval he was onely the Morning-Star here the bright Morning-Star which is a sign this saying glances at the Philadelphian Interval in the commencement thereof under the last Vial which sutes with the saying of S t Iohn in the next Verse 17. And the Spirit and the Bride say Come The Spirit because this is the commencement of those Times that are properly called the Reign of the Spirit by the Cabbalists And the voice of the Bride is added as a Testimony of the Churches desire of the settlement of things into the Glorious Condition of the New Ierusalem upon the destruction of the blood-drunken Idolatrous Babylon And let him that heareth say Come that is Let him pray for the acceleration of so glorious a settlement of things And then our Saviour speaks for this latter part of the Chapter from vers 10. to the end is a kind of Dialogue as both Peganius and Grotius have observed And let him that is athirst come that is He that sincerely hungers and thirsts after Righteousness And whosoever will that is whosoever has a Will and Desire let him take the waters of Life freely Let him enjoy the happy priviledge of this Living City of God and so grow up in all true Holiness and Godliness in Communion of the Spirit This priviledge shall he enjoy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gratis or freely without money as the Prophet speaks 18. For I testifie unto every man that heareth the words of the Prophecy of this Book If any one shall add unto these things Interpreters and not without reason take this to be a commination to terrifie men from being so negligent as to let any Errata slip into the Copies of this Book of Prophecies where every word was so curiously weighed by the Pen-man thereof or from being so bold as on purpose to alter any thing therein by adding or taking away * But I conceive also there is besides this a 〈◊〉 sense and that it is a prohibition from bringing in their carnal Inventions to add inconsistently with the pure Apostolick Doctrines and Institutes of this City Whosoever would do any such thing God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this Book whether they concern this Life or that which is to come the sulphurous lake of fire which is the second Death 19. And if any man will take from the words of the Book of this Prophecy and be faint-hearted or of little or no Faith and contend there never will be such an Excellent State of the Church upon Earth God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life and out of the Holy City and from the things that are written in this Book He shall never be able to enter into the blessed New Ierusalem state by reason of his unbelief 20. He that testifieth these things saith Surely I come quickly that is for the fulfilling of the Visions of the first six Seals and what contemporizeth with them to assist his Church and support them in their Smyrnean Affliction and to defeat the Enemy under the sixth Seal To which Saint Iohn answers Amen Even so Come Lord Iesus This was seasonable for Saint Iohn to say in his time in reference to Christs Coming to subvert the Power of the old Dragon and abolish Paganical Idolatry and Tyranny As it was also in the Pergamenian and Thyatirian Intervals for the oppressed and afflicted Church to say in respect of his coming to judge the Great Whore the Pagano-christian Hierarchy who had been drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus And in the Sardian that he would consummate the Judgement begun to be executed on the false Prophet who is perfectly to be consumed under the seventh Vial. And lastly in the Laodicean Interval it will be again very seasonable by reason of the inclining of things again to worse to pray Come Lord Iesus come quickly to that general judgement when Death shall be swallowed up into Victory and all the Saints shall be translated into the incorruptible state of heavenly Bliss and Glory And this whole Book of Prophecies being as it were one entire Epistle Monitory to the Church of God throughout all Ages of the world as there is mention Vers. 16. of witnessing these things to the Churches in Asia no doubt that is over the face of the whole Earth and successively through all Ages or Intervals from Saint Iohn's time to the end of the world Smyrnean Pergamenian Thyatirian Sardian Philadelphian and Laodicean This whole Book I say being such a general Monitory Epistle it is but sutable that he conclude with that usual form of valediction in the Epistles of the Apostles 21. The Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ be with you all Amen NOTES CHAPTER XXII Vers. 16. Which may denote his Divinity and Humanity c. This any one that firmly believes the Divinity of Christ and that he is the Eternal Logos united with the Humane Nature will easily admit to be suggested here though Grotius is content to understand no more by Radix Davidis than Surculus Davidis and I must confess that according to the use of the Hebrew word Radix is sometimes the same with Surculus But being that Root ordinarily signifies that from which another grows not that which grows from another and that this sense here is both true and more ample and sublime and therefore more sutable to the Genius of the Apocalypse I thought it was more probable to be meant here as also in the fifth Chapter And generally the Ancients go
Reader for the taking notice of it by makeing use of it here as a Note of the ending of the time of the first wo-Trumpet Wherefore the sense is Chap. 11. vers 14. of The second wo is past Here ends the time of the second wo-Trumpet or sixth Trumpet namely with the Rising of the witnesses or inchoative destruction of the Beast or expiration of his 42. Months Whence this Note is plainly intended for a Note Synchronistical to show that the end of the fourty two Months of the Beast and the end of the sixth Trumpet do Synchronize Which therefore is a thing of admirable importance For the Beast and 144000 sealed Virgins Synchronizing Synch 4. Part. 1. and the commencing of the sealed ones being just at the beginning of the first Trumpet Chap. 7. the Beast also begins and ends with the six first Trumpets whence the time of the sealing of these Virgins and this Note The second wo is past are as it were the two hinges on which all the middle Synchronals hang as M r Mede has very well observed And this I think is a sufficient answer to R. H. his question wherefore were those remarkable closes added to the fifth and sixth Trumpets But the ends he would have them added for I have demonstrated cannot be Which is the greater confirmation they were added for this which is a most worthy and admirable end and becoming the stupendious artifice of this Book To the third argument of M r Mede he answers Admit that passage Thou must prophesie again c. to emply two main Prophecies one of the Sealed Book the other of the Opened Book or that the Book maybe divided into two Tomes and the second begin at Chap. 10. vers 8. yet it does not follow that the second part must begin ab ovo or from the same Epocha with the former But I answer the Vision reaching to the very utmost Goal of the Apocalyptick race from such a time before we come at the eighth verse as I have clearly proved there is all the reason in the world S. Iohn being bid to prophesie again that his prophesying should commence from the same Epocha As if one should intend to write two Tomes of the affairs of any Kingdom the one Secular the other Ecclesiastical and that in his first Tome he had deduced his secular History to the last year it is impossible to imagin but in his next Tome he would begin his Ecclesiastick story from the same Epocha that the secular began from To the fourth and last he answers not unappositely We read not saith he that the voice Chap. 10. vers 8. was as the sound of a Trumpet and therefore not likely to relate to the voice Chap. 4. vers 1. but rather to the voice Chap. 10. vers 4. For that voice Chap. 4. vers 1. is said to be as the sound of a Trumpet but this not This is the first part of his answer but he proceeds But to what purpose he would have the Reader saith he to take notice of this I cannot tell Is this an Index that the Prophecy of the little Book as he calls it doth contemporate with the Prophecie of the Seals No more than the voice Chap. 4. vers 1. is an Index that the Prophecy of the Seals doth contemporate with the Vision of the Seven Churches c. But I briefly reply to the first That seeing Ellipses are so usual in the Apocalypse that the sense may not lye over bare M r Mede has with judgment made this supplement as of a Trumpet it being in all likelihood the same voice that spoke to him at the beginning of the Vision of the seven Churches and of the Prophecy of the Seals Chap. 4. v. 1. Nor is it said here not to be as the sound of a Trumpet but only that qualification is not mentioned for the reason abovesaid But that it should be the voice mentioned vers 4. of this tenth Chapter is not at all likely First because then it would have been only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. And the voice which I heard from Heaven said unto me and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would be superfluous But then in the second place it being added there ought to be understood something more or different in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than simply in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and methinks it is very obvious to conceive what it is if we recur to Chap. 1. vers 10. where Iohn is said to hear behind him a great voice as the sound of a Trumpet that is a loud sonorous or canorous voice And then to Chap. 4. v. 1. where the voice he there hears from Heaven is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as of a Trumpet talking loudly or canorously with him Here the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak aloud is put instead of the great voice Chap. 1. vers 10. and that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has sometimes this peculiar signification not to speak simply but to speak aloud is observable in that verse of the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is loudly speak out thy letters as the following words also imply And let the inscription on thy leaves be more than ordinary express But what is yet more to the purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which besides the usual signification is very often by the Seventy rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He cryed also in my ears with a loud voice Ezek. 9.1 so is it also in the same sense rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proclaim in the ears of the people saying Judg. 7.3 And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which has no other signification but of loud clamour or vociferation yet by the Seventy Esa. 58.9 it is rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clamabis dicet Thou shalt cry and he shall say Here am I. And to come nearer to the present Chapter vers 3. The voices of Thunder I think are loud and sonorous enough and yet the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The seven Thunders uttered their voices From whence we see plainly that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 8. is not there prefixed for nought but that it signifies a speaking to Iohn with a loud and sonorous voice such as was the voice Chap. 1. vers 10. and Chap. 4. ver 1. expressed by a Trumpet Now therefore being it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implies a speaking thus sonorously to him again and that voice vers 4. of this Chapter is not said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it cannot be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak in such a loud tone again it having not done so yet once and therefore of necessity it must be referred to Chap. 4. vers 1. From whence it is evident that that supplement of
Apocalypsis Apocalypseos OR THE REVELATION OF S t JOHN the Divine unveiled CONTAINING A Brief but perspicuous and continued EXPOSITION From Chapter to Chapter and from Verse to Verse of the whole Book of the APOCALYPSE By HENRY MORE D. D. Ecclesiastic Chap. 39. He that giveth his mind to the Law of the most High and is occupied in the Meditation thereof will seek out the Wisdom of all the Ancient and be occupied in Prophecies Ezech. Chap. 43. vers 10. Thou Son of Man shew the House to the house of Israel that they may be ashamed of their Iniquities and let them measure the pattern LONDON Printed by I. M. for I. Martyn and W. Kettilby at the Bell and the Bishops-Head in S t Paul's Church-yard 1680. THE PREFACE TO THE READER READER THat thou mayest with better acceptance peruse my Exposition of this Book of Prophecies the Apocalypse I thought fit to say something by way of Preface First concerning the Book it self not only the Authentickness and Intelligibleness but also concerning the Excellency thereof Secondly concerning the grounds I go upon and the Truth of my Exposition And thirdly and lastly concerning the great Usefulness thereof That this Book is Canonical and of Divine Inspiration is confirmed by the Authority and Suffrage of the Church Universal both Roman and Reformed And though it had no external Confirmation the truth of Predictions in that large comprehension of things that it reacheth to and the holiness of that Spirit that breaths in it to any intelligent Reader will certainly prove it to be a Book Divinely inspired Not to add that the very Wit as I may so say and Artifice in it seems not to be Humane but Angelical It was indeed doubted of at first and the Authority thereof called into question but the occasion of questioning it was because it was in the hands of very few it being dangerous for the Christians to let this Book of the Apocalypse that does plainly predict as it might seem the burning of the City of Rome situated on seven Hills and having Rule then over the whole Earth so freely to go about as those others of the New Testament did And therefore this Book being so generally unknown when they began to determine what Books were Authentick and what not they might very well be at a loss concerning it Besides that Cerinthus and others overmuch Judaizing Christians who drew those things written of the first and second Resurrection and the New Jerusalem and the thousand years Reign of Christ to their Carnal Iudaical conceits made them more shie how they admitted this Book for Authentick Nay some as Gaius an ancient Author in Eusebius relate that Cerinthus the Chiliast was the writer of it Others who yet thought well of the Book that John the Presbyter a Disciple of the Apostle not John himself was the Author thereof The occasion of which might be as Grotius ingeniously conjectures because that John the Presbyter had the Book in his custody whence some out of mistake might deem him the Author thereof But by the Authority of the chiefest Fathers and upon a more narrow search and examination of the business it is now out of question with all Christian Churches that this Book of the Apocalypse is Authentick and Canonical and writ by John the Evangelist and Divine so called for his more plainly and peculiarly declaring the Divinity of Christ beyond any other of the Evangelists Now for the Intelligibleness of the Book Though there is a marvellous artifice of Concealment in it yet there is as sure an artifice of Revealment as I hope will appear by this our Exposition And why Prophecies should be obscurely writ and in what this obscurity consists I have sufficiently elsewhere declared The chief obscurity is in the Prophetick stile which when it is opened to a Man the sense will run clear As he that understands any other Language different from the Vulgar if the Book it is writ in be good sense he without difficulty will find it out And as it would be absurd in him that understands not that language to complain of the obscurity of the Book so it is as childish for him that will not take the pains which is not much to understand the Prophetick stile to complain of the obscurity of the Apocalypse But that it is intelligible all sorts of Christians Reformed and Unreformed have given their suffrage thereto in writing Commentaries upon it And it is no less than blasphemy against the Holy Ghost that inspired this Prophecy to say it is simply unintelligible as if Christ trifled with his Church in a thing so exceeding serious as this Book of Prophecies seems to be The Excellency whereof is notably set out if not also the necessity of reading and understanding it chap. 1. vers 3. Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this Prophecy and keep those things that are written therein which they cannot do unless they understand them And so chap. 22. vers 7. Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the Prophecy of this Book Which is chiefly performed by Faith and Constancy to the True Church of Christ against either the Dragon or Antichrist which he cannot do if these Prophecies were unintelligible nor can there any blessedness accrue to a man from reading a Book he understands not But the sayings thereof understood and kept being so effectual a way to blessedness it must needs argue the excellency of the Book But there is yet a further illustration of the Excellency thereof from what occurrs chap. 5. vers 2. which concerns the greatest part by far of this Book and that which some phansie the only Prophetical part thereof namely the Visions of the Sealed Book and of the Opened Book For what was contained in the Opened Book lay open by virtue of the breaking up of the Seals In that Chapter is the highest Encomium of this Book of Prophecies that the Wit and Rhetorick of men or Angels can invent or utter For first it is said vers 2. And I saw a strong Angel proclaiming with a loud voice Who is worthy to open the Book and to loose the Seals thereof And no man in Heaven nor in Earth neither under the Earth was able to open the Book neither to look thereon This therefore must be a most excellent and transcendent Book of Secrets and Predictions that neither Angels Men nor Infernal Spirits can reach to the knowledge of by virtue of their own faculties And then it follows And I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and read the Book and to look thereon Which further argues that it is a Book not only of rare secrets and vast comprehensive Predictions but more than ordinary desirable if not necessary to be known And lastly when the Lion of the Tribe of Judah that is Christ the Lamb under another expression and figuration was found worthy and had taken the
Chap. 8. The Apostle Iohn calls Love And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Amor as also dilectus amatus which will answer to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Platonists which is the highest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all Vers. 14. And whose name denotes the nature thereof c. For Laodicea signifies either the Righteousness of the People that is an external popular mode of Righteousness the inward Life and Spirit decaying which is too much the state of Laodicea Or it signifies the judging of the People because in this Interval of the Church namely at the end thereof Christ will come visibly to Judge and Sentence all People to their final doom CHAPTER IV. HItherto reaches the first part of this Book of Prophecies which has this peculiar and distinctly from the other two that follow That as they run altogether upon real Symbols or Iconismes Representations or Images of what is foretold taken from Things this first part did most what run upon Nominal or Paranomastical Iconismes or Images consisting in allusion to Words or Names that signified the condition of things foretold as was obvious to observe in the explication of that first part of this Book The second part now begins and that as high and reaches as far as the first that is it reaches from the beginning of the Christian Church to the end of the world And it is to be observed that as this former part the so far extended Prophecy of the Churches was ushered in by a voice like a Trumpet and the glorious Representation of Christ in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks so here in this sealed Book-Prophecy here is again the voice like a Trumpet and Christ again represented in a glorious manner to shew the parity of these two Prophecies and that they are of the like concern and extent Which will appear more plain in the Interpretation after the Introduction in this Sealed Book-Prophecy which takes up the fourth and fifth Chapters is explained 1. After this I looked and behold a door was opened in Heaven After this Vision of the Seven Churches was past and I come to my self again having occasion to look upwards behold a door seemed to be opened in Heaven And the first voice which I heard was as if it were of a Trumpet talking with me And lo the first voice which I heard before the Vision of the Seven Churches as of a Trumpet talking with me saying Come up hither and I will shew thee the things which must be hereafter that is the Representations or Prefigurations of those future things 2. And immediately I was in the spirit which is a sign he was again come to himself before And behold a Throne was set in Heaven and one sat on the Throne Being thus caught up in Spirit in this Ecstasie I presently saw a Throne set in Heaven and one sitting on that Throne with great Majesty 3. And he that sat was to look upon like a Iasper and a Sardine Stone A Iasper and Sardine Stone the one famous for the firmness thereof denoting the strength or rather the Omnipotency of the Divinity the other for the red fiery colour of it denoting the piercing activity of the Divine Nature or the colour of Fire is here made choice of as being the root of Light to show that he that sits here on the Throne is God the Father Which answers to that appearance of Fire in him that sits on the Throne in Ezechiel's Vision to whom the Rainbow belongs Which is there God the Father with which this Vision has no small affinity as may appear because the Rainbow is seen also here about the Throne in sight like an Emerald that imitates the most pleasing colour of the Rainbow or Halo as it follows in the Text And there was a Rainbow round about the Throne in sight much like unto an Emerald 4. And round about the Throne were four and twenty seats and upon the seats I saw four and twenty Elders sitting cloathed in white rayment and they had on their heads Crowns of Gold Here it also varies from that Vision of Ezechiel as being framed for a Type of the future State of the Church when the New Ierusalem descends from Heaven and the Tabernacle of God is with men And therefore the four and twenty Elders are here said to sit round about the Throne as the Priests and Levites were pitched next the Tabernacle But in that they wear Crowns as well as white Rayment it implies the sanctity of the Kings in that State of the Church which this Type points at those renewed Apostolick Times in the New Ierusalem when the Conversion of the Jews will add the Heads of their twelve Tribes to the number of the twelve Apostles which these twenty four Elders or Princes of Nations may answer to And in that there is no one besides God and the Lamb here that appears to be Supream over them it signifies that in those Times the Popes Pretenses will vanish and that Kings and Princes then of the Christian Profession will know themselves and be acknowledged by all to be in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil within their own Dominions next and immediately under Christ Supream Heads and Governours 5. And out of the Throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices and there were seven Lamps of fire burning before the Throne which are the seven Spirits of God There is also mention of Lamps and Fire and Lightning though no Thundring in the Vision of Ezechiel which is the Representation of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ which is here again typified but as a State to come of the Church here on Earth And the seven Lamps of Fire are either * all the ministring Angels or all the living and quickening Graces of the Spirit of God 6. And before the Throne there was a sea of glass like unto Crystal This is not found neither in the Vision of Ezechiel but is an Emblem also of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ it being the pure laver of Regeneration the being baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire which the seven Lamps also betoken And in that it is called a sea of glass it may signifie the pure transparent condition of the Church which is a multitude as Sea signifies the fixed purity thereof being ever penetrated by the presence of the seven Lamps of Fire which are the seven Spirits of God And * in the midst of the Throne and round about the Throne were four Beasts full of eyes before and behind These four Beasts full of eyes before and behind have plainly a resemblance of the four Beasts in Ezechiel's Vision but may here more particularly relate to the four Camps of Israel which was a Type of the New Israel of God But in that they are said to be full of eyes before and behind it implies they look backward and forward into the Histories of Times past and unto the Prophecies and Predictions of things to
For that this belongs to Rome the wonted character Third plainly shews Therefore under this Trumpet there is no longer at last any King of Rome denoted by the Sun nor Consular Power nor Senatorian nor the Power of other known Ancient Magistrates of Rome denoted by the Moon and Stars but the City at last namely after that from the year 542 in the Ostrogothick War by Belisarius and Narsus Iustinian's Generals it was deprived of the Consular Power and after taken twice by Totilas and burnt and retaken by Narses and a little after struck to the ground by thunder and lightning and tempest being despoiled of all Ancient Ranks of Roman Magistracy sunk to that ignoble and obscure Title of the Dutchy of Rome and after was forced to pay Tribute to Ravenna under the Exarchate a City that before had been subject to her In which inglorious state she continued till the year 750 Which year is the Epocha of that notable Interval of the Kingdom of the Saracens from the beginning of the Caliphate of the Abasidae who first made Bagdad their Imperial Seat to the taking of the said Bagdad by Togrulbeck King of the Turks which was in the year 1055. And this is the easie and natural sense of the fourth Trumpet and perfectly fills up the scope thereof 13. And I beheld and heard an Angel flying through the midst of Heaven saying with a loud voice Wo wo wo to the Inhabiters of the Earth by reason of the other voices of the Trumpet of the three Angels which are yet to sound These Woes are denounced against the Roman Empire who by this time besides the guilt of the blood of the Primitive Martyrs had in a gross manner lapsed into a kind of Paganochristian Idolatry which they would be found in under these following Trumpets and in cruel persecutions of the Apostolick Members of the Church that would not submit to their Idolatrous Paganochristianisme Wherefore vengeance proportionable to their redoubled wickedness shall be poured down upon them under the voices of the Trumpet of the three Angels that are to come NOTES CHAPTER VIII Vers. 7. As a character of the Roman Empire c. That the third part or subtriple proportion is a character of the Roman Empire will appear from Chap. 12. vers 4. where the Dragon with seven Heads and ten Horns which is undoubtedly the Roman Empire Pagan is said with his taile to have drawn the third part of the Stars of Heaven and cast them to the Earth Which in the Prophetick stile is as much as to say that he had brought down a third part of the Princes or Rulers of the known world in that time and subjected them to himself that is that the Roman Power had subdued a third part of the Powers and Principalities of the World to her self For Heaven and Earth are the parts of a Political World as well as of a Natural And the Stars of the Political World are the several Princes or Rulers thereof But when they are subjected to some other great Potentate then they cease to be fixed Stars but fall to the Earth that is to the low estate of subjection or are utterly extinct And in that they are said to be cast down by the taile of the Dragon by his taile is understood his Retinue his Train Military especially his Armies and Forces whether by Land or by Sea This is a most assured sense of the Prophetick stile and that therefore the amplitude of the Roman Dominion is hinted by the third part of Stars cast down to the Earth by the Dragons Taile as if it were about the third part of the known world in S t John 's time And that consequently this subtriple proportion is an intended character of the Roman Empire whereby we may know that such or such a Vision belongs to it And thus to give characters from Numbers and Proportions is according to the Cabbalistical mode and the very Genius of this Book which is Cabbalistical And it is absurd to think there should be so repeated a mention of a third part so perpetually of things as if Divine Providence had a peculiar pique against the third part of things or persons more than any other part as it may seem in at beast a dozen places in the Apocalypse were it not there were this mystery under it CHAPTER IX 1. ANd the filth Angel sounded and I saw a Star * fallen from Heaven to Earth that is a lapsed Spirit or Angel a Devil if you will For as a Star signifies an Angel so a fallen Star a lapsed Angel And to him was given the Key of the bottomless pit That is he had great Power in the Kingdom of darkness of which a Key is a Symbol 2. And he opened the bottomless Pit and there rose a smoke out of the Pit as the smoke of a great furnace That is there arose a hot and hellish zeal conjoyned with dark Ignorance for the Imposturous Religion of Mahomet And the Sun and the Air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the Pit That is the Gospel of the Sun of Righteousness was endeavoured to be clouded and eclipsed by the over-running force and false pretenses of Monotheisme and of a more pure worship in Mahometisme 2. And there came out of the smoke Locusts upon the Earth That is under this dark ignorant and false pretense the Saracens professors of the Mahometan Religion spread themselves over the Earth And unto them was given power as the scorpions of the Earth have power to have their sting and poison in their taile which deadly sting and poison in the Saracens was the falseness of their Religion which they transfused at the end of their conquests That was the poisonous sting to all conscientious Christians and to others it was at least poison if not a sting 4. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the Earth neither any green thing neither any tree Which here in Analogie stand for several orders of Men as the Locusts for the Saracens But only those men that have not the seal of God in their foreheads which intimates that notwithstanding the grassations of these Impostors the truly Apostolick Church would be kept safe And there is mention made of Men to insinuate that these Locusts were also men not mere insects For Locusts do not fall upon Men but upon Grass and Trees 5. And to them it was given that they should not kill them That is that these Saracens should indeed infest the Roman Empire sore but not destroy it quite as after happened by the Euphratean Horsemen But that they should be tormented five months that is during their time of lying upon it called here five months in allusion to the time of Locusts who live about that space of time as Naturalists relate But their continuance in vexing Italy was not much above five months of years if that may be particularly glanced at And their torment was as
them that do these miraculous feats when any are done so that the sense is easie enough either way Not to add that by a just reproach to their worshipping of Saints and Angels they are said to worship Devils For who but a Devil would receive Religious Worship or at least to worship false Objects according to that of Psalm 98. v. 5. All the Gods of the Heathen are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the very word here in this verse And the Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no gods but vain objects of worship called in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there being no true objects of worship but he that made the Heavens See my Synopsis Prophetica Book 2. cap. 10. And M r Mede 's Apostasie of the latter Times ch 3 and 4 CHAPTER X. THe Euphratean Horsemen having over-run and destroyed and fully seized on the Eastern part of the Roman Empire natural method will prompt us to expect that what follows in this Prophecy of the sealed Book should refer to the Western parts of the Empire and concern the highest Dominion there to wit the Bloody Idolatrous Papal Hierarchy that Antichrist that exalts himself above all that is called God or worshipped the Prophet Balaam Lord of the People and who had made the Secular Power a Balak an empty cypher or an Ahab that is wholly guided or directed by the Prophetess Iezebel So that this Papal Hierarchy in the West being in reality the Highest Power by Usurpation and the Antichrist exalting himself against Christ and above him we may rationally expect that the last Wo-trumpet which contains the residue of the Sealed-Book-Prophecy carries in it such things or alterations as tend to the downfall of Antichrist and restoring and enlarging the Kingdom of Christ in these parts of the Roman Empire and over the whole Earth And therefore accordingly it is said 1. And I saw another mighty Angel come down from Heaven one distinct from the seven Trumpet-Angels cloathed with a cloud that is clouds and darkness were round about him a thick cloud charged with thunder And a Rain-bow was on his head which betokens he came in the Glory of the Divinity even in the Glory of God the Father for the Rainbow in the Vision of Ezechiel so signifies And therefore this mighty and victorious Angel must be Christ and a further intimation hereof is from what follows And his face was as it were the Sun For so he appeared to Saul when he cryed out to him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and such was his description when he appeared in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks And his feet as Pillars of fire as it were coming out of the cloud and reaching to the Earth which are tokens of the great wrath of the Son of God or Christ and his coming to judge and take vengeance of his Enemies His feet was as fine Brass in the Thyatirian Interval here they are like a Pillar of fire 2. And he had in his hand a little book open which contains all the Visions of the Prophecy of the opened Book as we at first noted And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the earth standing in that Majestick manner and laying claim to or seizing himself as it were on his right by Sea and Land See ch 12.9 ch 13.11 3. And cryed with a loud voice as when a Lion roareth which is another intimation that it is Christ the Lion of the Tribe of Iudah And who in this majestick posture and terrible roaring could so well be said to set himself against Antichrist or the Papal Hierarchy as Christ The Roman Empire Eastern and Western too was sorely vext and scourged by the Scorpio-Locusts the Saracens and Eastern quite destroyed after by those Euphratean Centaures the Turks But the Papal Empire or Hierarchy here in the West Christ himself with his Apostolical Legions of Reformed Christians will utterly demolish and destroy as it is elsewhere said of the Ten Horns or Kings that at last they shall hate the Whore make her desolate eat her flesh and burn her with fire This loud roaring therefore of this Lion of the Tribe of Iudah sets off in general the anger and victorious terrour of Christ in assaulting and overcoming the Kingdom of Antichrist or the Papal Hierarchy and glorious Erection of his own Kingdom These in general are the affairs of this last space of the Sealed-Book-Prophecy And whereas it is said when he cryed or while he cryed seven thunders uttered their voices This is a distribution of the aforesaid space into seven parts which will be very serviceable for the orderly disposing of the Visions of the Opened-Book-Prophecy These seven Thunders may be seven Bath-Cols that is seven Oracles or Voices delivered in the midst of a Thunder and the last Thunder which betokens the turning of the Earth into a Lake of Fire by thundering and Lightning might happily send out some such voice as this Go ye accursed into everlasting fire This is the doom of them that adhere to the bloody imposturous and Idolatrous Papal Hierarchy 4. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices I was about to write namely what they said And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Seal up those things that the seven thunders uttered with an allusion to this Sealed Book of Prophecies as if he should say Though the seventh Seal be opened yet as to this part thereof let it be as sealed again for it is needless here so particularly to declare things touching the destruction of the Papal Hierarchy which agrees very well with what follows according to the reading of the Biblia Regia Andreas and others And thou shalt write them hereafter not And write them not namely in the Opened-Book-Prophecies where these affairs of the destruction of Antichrist and of the advancement of Christs Kingdom shall be more fully and particularly delivered which is a marvellous manner of transition from the Sealed-Book-Prophecy to the Opened-Book-Prophecy and sutable to the usual majestickness of this Book of the Apocalypse 5. And the Angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven as using that usual Ceremony of posture in swearing 6. And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever who created heaven and the things that therein are and the earth and the things that therein are and the sea and the things that are therein This is a mighty and vehement asseveration but it is concerning a thing that sunk flesh and blood are too too incredulous of which makes Christ in his Epistle to the Church of the Laodicean Interval which includes his coming to judgment and his putting an end to the Scene of things here on Earth use as vehement asseveration as might be by calling himself the Amen the faithful and true Witness
and the beginning of the Creation of God and therefore he who could also put an end to it And so here there is the like vehement asseveration that the stage of the Earth must have an end at the last Thunder which will bring upon it the Conflagration For so he saith That there should be time no longer that is That there shall be here no more time upon Earth 7. Saving in the dayes of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall sound and the mystery of God be finished as he has declared to his servants the Prophets that is Those predictions be fulfilled which in such a mystical and symbolical stile God hath foretold by his Prophets Isaiah Daniel and Ezechiel and others which reach to the very end of the world or of the stage of things on this Earth And this is the first part of this marvellous Transition from the Prophecy of the Sealed Book to that of the Opened Book 8. And the voice which I heard from Heaven namely at the beginning of the Sealed-Book-Prophecy spake unto me again in the tone of a Trumpet suppose as it did before And said Go and take the little Book which is open in the hand of the Angel which standeth upon the Sea and upon the Earth Namely in the hand of Christ now in the form of an Angel as before in the form of a Lamb but the same person still under another form as it is the same Book though opened now when sealed before But this new change in both denotes a new series of Prophecies from the beginning of the Church to the end of the world as those of the Sealed Book were 9. And I went unto the Angel and said unto him Give me the little Book And he said unto me Take it and eat it up and it shall make thy belly bitter but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey that is Though the knowledge of future things may be pleasant and tempting to the curious Reader of this Book yet when he shall throughly digest it or understand it it will be bitter by reason of the several sad and bitter things contained in it As the sad persecution of the Primitive Christians in the Smyrnean succession of the Church and the foul Apostasie of the Church into gross Idolatry under the Reign of Antichrist or the Whore of Babylon and the most barbarous persecutions of them that will not submit to her wicked and Idolatrous Tyranny And there is bitterness enough for her too at the last which makes her paramours so loth to understand this Book of Prophecies aright 10. And I took the little Book out of the Angels hand and ate it up and it was in my mouth sweet as honey and as soon as I had eaten it my belly was bitter that is my stomach was bitter which is a prefiguration of the condition of those that shall read this Book and rightly digest it that is truly understand it Though there be pleasure in the understanding it yet when these sad things touching the Church were to come it could not but be bitterness to them that is the Book is of that nature that it would so affect a Christian. 11. And he said unto me Thou must prophecy again that is Thou must run over again from the same Epocha of time this race of prophecying that is foretell as before the fate or state of the Empire so now the fate or state of the Christian Church from the beginning thereof to the end of the world Before many Peoples and Nations and Tongues and Kings that is to their faces so that they may all understand how they are concerned in this Prophecy of the opened Book And thus is the Transition from the Sealed-Book-Prophecy to the Opened-Book-Prophecy in both the parts thereof fully finished Now follow the Visions themselves of the Opened-Book-Prophecy and that in a sufficiently natural and rational order those Visions that reach from the beginning of the Church being placed first NOTES Chapter X. Vers. 7. Saving in the dayes of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall sound c. Instead of But in the dayes I have rendered it Saving in the dayes the sense of this verse in the Original being exceeding imperfect and ungrammatical unless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be supposed to be put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saving or except And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies so sometimes is abundantly plain out of several instances in the New Testament Mat. 20.22 But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except to those for whom it is prepared of my Father And Mat. 7.8 compared with Mark 9.8 where the former has it And when they lift up their eyes they saw no man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 save Jesus only the latter has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is plainly put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and our English Translation renders it save Jesus only These and other such like places has Grotius himself noted to our hand which makes it manifest that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifies as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except or saving And being the sense is maimed in this place of the Apocalypse unless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be so rendred it is plain that it is the sense of this particle here And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have rendred when he shall sound not when he shall begin to sound as if it were restrained to the beginning of the sounding because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies no such thing See my Ratio Synchronistica cap. 2. sect 3. Wherefore it is plain that the Angel swears there shall be no more Time on Earth saving in the space of the seventh Trumpet and that therefore there will be an end of this terrestrial Scene of things contrary to the confident conceit of those scoffing Atheists 2 Peter 3.3 And moreover that since we are at the end of all in this seventh Verse that there is a beginning of a new series of Prophecies from the first Epocha afterwards CHAPTER XI 1. ANd there was given to me a réed like unto a Rod and the Angel stood saying Rise and measure the Temple of God and the Altar and those that worship therein That is all that space that is contained within the inward Court. In the first part whereof is the Temple which consists of the Sanctum and Sanctum Sanctorum and in the latter part thereof stands the Altar of Holocausts which whole space therefore is Thysiasterion or the place of sacrificing and was not to be rendred Altar but the place where the Altar stands For the Priests did not worship in the Altar but in the place where the Altar was erected Which place the Greek Text calls Thysiasterion And in that it is said Measure them that worship therein it
Cabbalists that saying of R. Moses Corduero will evince Quando Neschamah exit in hunc mundum duas Aves id est duos Angelos custodes ex arbore volitare cum ea And Tertullian himself briefly and smartly Omnis Spiritus ales est hoc Angeli Daemones Every Spirit is a Fowle or Bird whether they be Angels or Devils CHAPTER XX. HItherto none of the Visions of the Opened Book have reached any further than to the last Vial which takes up the forepart of the Philadelphian Interval To which Church it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou hast a little Army so Grotius Which Army is that which is under the Command of that victorious Heros on the White Horse And the effect of his victory will make good what Christ promises to the Philadelphian Church Behold I will make them of the Synagogue of Sathan which say they are Iews that is Christians and are not but the slaves of Antichrist Behold I will make them come and worship before thy feet The residue of the Visions of the Opened Book take up the following part of the Philadelphian Interval and the whole Laodicean and so reacheth to the end of all Or for more distinctness it takes up the space of the six last Thunders as the effusion of the Vials did the first 1. And I saw an Angel come down from Heaven whose Commission therefore must be from God having the key of the bottomless pit the supposed habitation or prison rather of Evil Spirits And the having the Key thereof signifies the having Power and Authority to do things there For the very Kingdom of the Devil is subject to the Power of God And a great chain in his hand which is the Power of Legislation or making Laws as some as to the sense well though not so critically derive Lex à ligando which are bonds and iron chains to tye up the wicked from doing mischief By this Angel therefore according to the Apocalyptick stile after the abolishing the Antichristian and Infidel Power are those persons understood that are impowered from God to make Laws for the more sure support of the recovered Kingdom of Christ. 2. And he said hold on the Dragon that Old Serpent which is the Devil and Satan that is the surviving wicked Ones of the Earth for whom the Dragon the Old Serpent and the Devil is here put as the Angel before for those Evangelical Legislators And the Dragon is here explained by the Devil and Old Serpent that the sense might not be restrained to the remainder of Pagans but reach also to those of the Antichristian Party now subdued which were the two-horned and ten-horned Beast to whom the Dragon yet gave his power By these express severe Laws touching the indispensable duties of a Christian not insignificant trifles and superstitions is the Dragon that is the wicked ones of what denomination soever to be laid hold on This is the constitution of the New Polity after the abolishing of the Antichristian Tyranny where it was more safe to serve the Devil and Antichrist than to approve a mans self the faithful Servant of Christ. This Constitution of things being setled which is dispatched within the space of the second Thunder then it follows And bound him a thousand years which is the Time of the third Thunder and of the blessed Millennium properly so called Which reaches to the end of the Philadelphian Interval 3. And cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he deceive the Nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled Therefore during the happy Millennium of the Reign of Christ he is as close a prisoner as can be imagined or expressed Which is a demonstration this Millennium is not yet come The Parable is of the Devil but so as to be understood of his Children here on Earth that they shall be kept under with iron or adamantine chains of rigid severe and inviolable Laws nor be permitted to do any thing that is really Profane Wicked or Antichristian nor to tempt or seduce others to do it They shall have no publick permission or connivance for such things And after that he must be loosed a little season namely in the Laodicean Interval the Evangelical Party growing more coole and remiss and the Church degenerating in many from the state of Philadelphia to that of Laodicea of whom Christ complains in his Epistle to her This loosing of Satan is conceived for order and distinctness sake to happen under the fourth Thunder 4. And I saw Thrones and they sate upon them and Iudgment was given unto them This Vision runs back as it was usual in the former to do and commenceth with the second Thunder Then were there Judges sitting upon Thrones and they gave judgement touching the Christian Confessors and Martyrs whether under Antichrist or the Red Dragon as follows And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Iesus and for the Word of God * And I saw also those which had not worshipped the Beast nor his Image neither had received his Mark upon their foreheads or in their hands Of these two distinct sorts it is said in common 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they lived as being true of them both and reigned with Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a thousand years but the thousand year viz. of the blessed Millennium but it is not said where and therefore it is to be understood the Martyrs in Heaven where Christ is personally and visibly present the other with their Successours on Earth where Christ is also present but by his Spirit these in bodies Terrestrial those Revivificated into their bodies Coelestial and Glorified an early priviledge peculiar to the Martyrs And therefore it follows 5. But the rest of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lived not again much less were thus revivificated as the Martyrs were till the thousand years were finished Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being made use of and it being unproper to be said of the Confessours with those that succeed them they being considered as alive on Earth must needs respect those that are said to have been beheaded to insinuate their priviledge or different condition from all others and that though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might be truly said of them as being they that were to be revived into their glorified bodies at the beginning of the Millennium yet it was not to be said of any other men it not being to be fulfilled of them until the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till the thousand years of the Millennium be expired nay till the end of the Laodicean Interval under the sixth Thunder This is the first Resurrection This namely of the Martyrs according to the Opinion of the Primitive Fathers and that intimation to the Church of Smyrna Chap. 2. vers 11. when so many Christian Martyrs suffered He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death as to whom
as of a Trumpet made by M r Mede is added with judgment and truth To the second part of his objection I answer briefly and confess that this canorous voice like a Trumpet in this Chapter vers 8. is no more an index that the Prophecy of the little Book doth contemporate with the Prophecy of the Seals than the voice Chap. 4. vers 1. is an Index that the Prophecy of the Seals doth contemporate with the vision of the seven Churches But withal I affirm that the voice Chap. 4. vers 1. is an Index that the Prophecy of the Seals does contemporate with the Vision of the seven Churches and that the Vision of the seven Churches is a Prophecy commencing with the beginning of the Church and reaching to the end of the world as I have made good by no less than twenty firm arguments in the last Chapter of my Exposition of the Vision of the seven Churches So fitly do all things fall in together M r Mede's way But no sense to be made of them any other way Nor is that which R. H. takes notice of Disp. II. Ques 5. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Preface to the Vision of the Seven Churches Rev. 1. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Preface to the Prophecy of the Seven Seals Chap. 4. vers 1. as if the events of the Seals should be after the events of the Vision of the Seven Churches and begin a good while after them of any validity against the contemporizing of the Vision of the Seven Churches with the Prophecy of the Seven Seals For this is but another notable example of which I have given several in my Notes of that Apocalyptick figure which we call Lemmatosynechia or the holding together of the external cortex of the Apocalyptick narrations But according to the sense of all Interpreters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has no reference here to the things of the Seven Churches but only signifies things which shall be hereafter which hinders not but that they may contemporize with the future things of the Seven Churches All take it in that sense which Beza translates it in Quae oportet fieri posthac which must be hereafter as our English rightly renders it Which had been good sense though it had been said in the very beginning of the Apocalypse according to Ribera his own interpretation who without any reference to what belongs to the Seven Churches understands by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things which must be hereafter Decursum Ecclesiae à tempore Iohannis ad finem seculi Aperit saith he argumentum sequentis Prophetiae To which I may add that it is a mistake in R. H. that he makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a proper Preface to the Vision of the Seven Churches whenas it is rather a general Preface to all the three Prophecies of this Book and true of them all that they contained some things that were then to come to pass quickly as it is true of them all that they are the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him c. And what I was a going to say That there can be no sense made of the Apocalypse but M r Mede's way a notable pledge of the truth thereof is in that that egregious learned writer Hugo Grotius who so humanely when he saw the Romish Interpreters so foully stick in the mire and make such pitiful sense of things offered his helping hand in their behalf but with so little success that R. H. himself to give him his due has all along notably well confuted the Grotian way though to enemy at all to the Romanists but out of like kindness to them that Grotius seems to have born he to wipe off that charge from the Church of Rome that she might not be taken for the Whore of Babylon by a marvellous invention makes her as innocent and clear of that fault as the Child yet unborn namely by laying the Scene of the affairs of the Apocalypse not in Europe no by no means but in Asia and by affirming that all the Visions are to be fulfilled in their litteral sense and that there is no mystical meaning of them in any place but where they are explained and acknowledged to be such in the very Book it self and consequently that none of these Visions are yet fulfill'd and he adds not to be fulfilled but in such order as they are set And therefore no Whore of Babylon to appear upon the stage no not so much as in Asia it self much less in Europe at Rome in Italy till there be a great shaking and concussion in the Heavens and the Sun it self become as black as Sackcloth made of Goats Hair and the Moon as red as blood and the Stars fall from Heaven in clusters to the Earth and that there be such great Earthquakes that every Mountain in the Earth shall be moved out of its place and every Island in the Sea also which be the events of the sixth Seal Rev. Chap. 6. vers 12. And that there be just 12000. young men of every Tribe of Israel sealed with the Seal of God in their foreheads Chap. 7. Moreover it must rain hail and fire and blood upon the land of Asia and a sulphureous mountain burning with fire must be cast into the Asiatick Sea and the third part of that Sea be turned into blood And a great blazing Star fall from Heaven burning and flaming like a torch which shall break asunder and fall into the third part of rivers and into the third part of the springs of waters throughout the land of Asia And the third part of the Sun shall be smitten with darkness and the third part of the Moon and the third part of the Stars Chap. 8. There shall be also a bottomless Pit opened out of which such a smoke shall arise that men shall not see the light of the Sun in the land of Asia And strange kind of Locusts with tayls of Scorpions heads with crowns of gold on them faces like men and hair like women and with wings that make such a dreadful noise as if it were the noise of Chariots drawn with horses running furiously to battle these shall swarm in the land of Asia and sting and vex men very sore There will also appear in the said Land an innumerable number of strange kind of Horses with their Riders upon them The heads of the Horses in shape like the heads of Lyons and out of the mouths of every one of them shall come forth fire smoak and brimston Their tayls also shall be like Serpents with heads and mouths and by the fire smoak and brimston coming out of their mouths and by the Serpents heads and mouths at the end of their tayls shall the third part of men be slain in Asia about the river Euphrates Paraph. R. H. 9. Furthermore before the Whore of Babylon be in being that Emperess of the World and debaucher of the Kings of the
earnest for the conversion of the Jews though he is utterly mistaken in the application of the Apocalyptick Visions to that event With the Seventh Vial synchronizeth the Treading of the Wine-press and also the Battle of the Rider of the White Horse and how necessarily these three Visions are tied together in one time my Exposition of the Apocalypse does clearly demonstrate that the fulfilling of all these three Visions are an utter destruction of Babylon the Roman Hierarchy and as it were an universal conversion of the heathenish Unbelievers to the Faith of the Gospel Wherefore the City Babylon being thus destroyed with the Second Thunder naturally synchronizeth the Descent of the New Ierusalem that City or Polity coming down from Heaven and quite contrary to the carnal and tyrannical City or Polity of Babylon Under the Second Thunder therefore is the constitution of Laws for universal Christendom by a truly holy and truly Oecumenical Council really inspired from Heaven With which time therefore naturally synchronizeth the Laying hold of Satan And this City or Polity the New Ierusalem thus constituted being the Kingdom of Christ the duration thereof does of necessity immediately follow under the next that is the Third Thunder and is that Millennial Reign of Christ properly so called wherein his Laws and Discipline are vigorously and faithfully executed and observed Whence with this Millennial Reign the close Imprisoning of Satan for a thousand years is rightly conceived to synchronize Which time of his Imprisonment his letting loose again immediately following it is evident that his letting loose synchronizeth with the Fourth Thunder And the besieging the Holy City by Gog and Magog as an effect of this with the Fifth And the coming of Christ to judgment to defeat the Besiegers with the Sixth Thunder From whence it follows that the New Ierusalem or Holy City continues all the time of the Third Fourth Fifth and Sixth Thunders though the Millennial Reign of Christ properly so called is contained within the space of the Third Thunder and the Palm-bearing Company within the space of the Second and Third For when the Devil has got loose again their Palms may be justly conceived to wither in their hands and yet considering they are still in their hands you may phansy if you will that they reach from the Second Thunder to the Seventh as the Exclusion of the Wicked Rabble out of the Holy City reaches through the Third Fourth Fifth and Sixth Thunders And lastly with the Seventh Thunder synchronizeth the Conflagration of the Earth by Thundering and Lightning properly so called as also the consummate Salvation of the Saints or their transvection into those eternal Mansions of glory These are the main Postmedial Visions of the Opened Book-Prophecy and you see how natural their order is thus disposed under the Seven Thunders which fill the Seventh Trumpet of the Sealed Book and what cognation there is betwixt those Visions that are made to synchronize one with another We will only add how they correspond with the Intervals of the Churches And it is observable that as the Ephesine and Smyrnean Interval did totally symbolize with the Antemedial Visions and eight of nine parts of the Pergamenian and the whole Thyatirian Interval with the Medial so the Sardian Philadelphian and Laodicean Intervals do most conspicuously symbolize will these Postmedial Visions For as the effusion of the Vials is ushered in with Musick Chap. 15. so the very name of Sardis is as much as Canticum laetitiae a Song of joy And as the state of the first Six Vials is but an unsetled imperfect state in comparison of what is to come so the Interval of the Church of Sardis whose Works are said not to be perfect before God is terminated with the Sixth Vial. But Philadelphia that excellent state of the Church that Interval reaches through the Seventh Vial and the Second and Third Thunder it being the Philadelphian Army which Christ so commends in his Epistle to that Church that atchieves that notable victory under the Seventh Vial and it being expresly said to that Church That the name of the City New Ierusalem should be writ upon her which cometh down from Heaven which cometh to pass under the Second Thunder And lastly The Interval of Laodicea synchronizing with the Fourth Fifth and Sixth Thunders The First whereof is the loosing of Satan The next the Siege by Gog and Magog and the last The coming of Christ to Iudgment how congenerous this is to the remisness of Laodicea who brought this Siege upon her self by her lukewarmness and laziness is obvious to observe And also how well the name of Laodicea which signifies the Iudging of the People agrees with Christs coming to judge the people under the Sixth Thunder Wherefore in virtue of the Angels Interpretation Chap. 17. that Royal Key of the Apocalypse with the addition of irrefutable Synchronisms there being given such a coherent Mystical sense throughout all parts so wonderfully harmonizing one with another And according to the Angels Interpretation a litteral sense being impossible in the middle Synchronals whereby we are assured also of the mystical sense of the Antemedial and Postmedial Visions I dare appeal even to R. H. himself if there be not more rhythme than Reason in those drolling Verses of his made in imitation of Martials upon Sabidius O litteral sense I love thee not the cause I cannot tell This only I can say of thee I love thee not farewel And whether it had not been more advisable for him to have abstained from medling with these holy and mysterious Oracles of God than to have rushed upon them with so little reverence and fear and to have bethought himself that a person so Learned and Pious as M r Mede and pursuing these studies with that Care and Devotion could not easily be mistaken in the main Nor has R. H. produced any thing material against any part of M r Medes Interpretations no more nor so much as against his Synchronisms I will only give a taste of one or two of his best Objections that you may judge thereby of the rest For my Epilogue is swollen too big already Against the Rider of the White Horse in the first Seal his being Christ miraculously assisting his Church in the Apostles Times he objects That it is Christ viz. the Lamb that showeth the Rider of the White Horse by opening this Seal and the Revealer and the Revealed cannot be the same As if a man could not show himself in person if he will and so be both the Revealer and the Revealed much more in representation or Image Not to add that it is the Angel that is the shower of the whole Scene of this Vision and makes a double representation of Christ here the one as he is the chief Revealer of the Vision the other as a Principal Person beginning that Scene that the Vision of the Seals represents That Objection is more material touching the first Trumpet