c. That Lamb upon Mount Sion shall be this Antitype Mystery of God whom he declared to his Servants the Prophets And who shall that Lamb or so declared Mystery of God be I answer That Lamb shall be the Secular and Spiritual Representative of Christ Mystical the Gospel-Church revived and returned out of the Wilderness Chap. 11.9 11. Chap. 12.6 14. Ezek. 37.24 25. For the first Adam was the Mystery of God in a Figure who when God had formed him and breathed into him the breath of Life became a Prophetick Adumbration of the second Adam Christ Incarnate dead and risen from Death he was the Root of that first and of this Antitype-Mystery of God in the Text The first had and this shall have their being and denominations from him The first Man or Mystery of God was a Prophet The second Man was the Patriarch of all Prophets and both prophetically foretold the first by his Sleep the second by his Death and Resurrection this Antitype-Mystery of God who also lay dead and shall be revived by the breath of Life from God entering into him Chap. 11.9 11. Ezek. 37.14 And this Prefigured Mystery of God the chief end of Christ's coming and dying in order to God's Glory is the Mystery of God in the Text whom God declared to his Servants the Prophets and who is the principal subject of this sealed Book till he be finished and after shall be when the same Book shall be opened for evermore But Secondly If this Book be as the Text fully imports the Book of what God declared to his Servants the Prophets then it might seem to be the whole Scripture which also some of the best Expositors not rightly distinguishing say in effect as I noted before For the whole Scripture was given of God to his Servants the Prophets by Inspiration c. 2 Tim. 3.16 17. All the Scripture therefore might seem to be this sealed Book if it be the Book of What God declared to his Servants the Prophets which a Man may be the more apt to believe because Men Saints and Sects so live and so know and do as if there were no Scripture or as if all the Scripture were indeed sealed But in order to the opening of the Seals of this Book we must distinguish For Some Scriptures are not sealed in some respects and in others sealed Some are more some less sealed And In some respect the whole Scripture may be said to be sealed And first Some Scripture is not sealed in some respects and in other sealed For the Historical part of Scripture as Historical is not sealed But much of that that is Historical is also Prophetical And so it is or may be sealed For example The History of the Creation as it is Historical is not sealed But that History is also a Prophecy and holds forth the lost and supreme end of the Creation or the Antitype thereof which the Apostle calls a new Heaven and a new Earth 2 Pet. 3.13 A Man that is not unlearn'd may reade that God in the Beginning created Heaven and Earth and the things therein The History of them as it is Historical is not sealed But that History as also Prophetical points forth that promised new Heaven and new Earth and so it is or hath been sealed Isa 65.17 Chap. 66.72 Pet. 3.13 Rev. 21.1 5. So the History of the fall of the first Old World as it is an History is not sealed But that History is also a Prophecy and that World prefigured the fall of this present Old World The History holds forth the Causes of the fall of the first World and as that History is also a Prophecy so it foretells the same Sins in effect should be the Causes of the fall of this second Old World The Causes of the fall of the first were these in the History The wickedness of Man was great in the Earth and every imagination of the thoughts of his Heart was only evil continually All Flesh had corrupted his way and the Earth was filled with violence so that God repented that he had made Man and it grieved him at the Heart Mutato nomine tantum Change but that History as Christ himself doth into a Prophecy and the same Sins are the Causes but more redundant and dreadful in the Antitype of the fall of this present evil Old World As the days of Noah were so likewise shall the coming of the Son of Man be Matth. 24.37 Out Saviour adds that they knew nothing till the Flood came vers 39. Inadvertency was the Universal Flood-gate of all wickedness to that Old World and is to this That minded nothing and therefore knew nothing and this as much The History of the first we see is not sealed But as it is a Prophecy of this second it seems altogether sealed insomuch that Sects Saints and Professors rather say We are Rich and increased with Goods and have need of nothing than believe that the Sins of the Old World are devolved with advantage upon themselves The History of Type-primitive Israels flying from the Famine into the Wilderness and into her place there prepared of God literal Egypt where she was fed and nourished is not sealed Gen. 46.1 But the flight or the Gospel Church-Primitive from the face of the Serpent into the Spiritual Wilderness and into her place there prepared of Gâ—d Spiritual Egypt the Papacy with her Sects where she was fed and nourished for 1260 years is prophetically held forth in the foresaid History And this Prophecy in that History is or hath been long sealed Rev. 12.6 14. Chap. 11.8 We find the same Prophecy further cleared in another History Exod. Chap. 14. Chap. 15. where the Jewish Church-Primitive fled from the face of Pharaoh and his Host through the Sea into the Wilderness where she was fed and nourished forty Years Pharaoh and his Host fell in the Sea and Moses and Israel sang a Song of Thankfulness to God Exod. 15. The History is not sealed but it shadowed forth prophetically the Gospel Church-Primitive when she fled from the face of Serpent into the Spiritual Wilderness for 1260 Years And then or soon after she having gotten the victory over the Beast and being returned out of the Wilderness shall also sing a Song of Thankfulness and Deliverance the Song of Moses and of the Lamb saith the Text Rev. 12.6 14. Chap. 13.18 Chap. 14.3 Chap. 15.3 That History is not sealed but this Prophecy therein is or at least hath been long sealed The History of the seven years Famine in Egypt and in all Nations denoted by seven lean Beasts is sufficiently legible but those seven Beasts held forth prophetically the seven Heads of the secular Beast-Papal Chap. 13.1 And those seven Years of Famine prefigured the superlative scarcity of Faith and Good Manners in all Nations for above 1260 Years whiles those seven Heads have preheminence For as Pharaoh's Dream was doubled to shew the certainty of it so seven Years
who satisfied with these Answers before he died did it no doubt to promote the Truth and make it appear Mr. Caryl therefore whom I knew and from whose hand I had this Paper must stand instead here of my other unknown Opponent I shall not detein my Reader with a long Answer to his Objections but only make my Answers be a brief Introduction to a general Refutation of the most dangerous Errors and Mistakes in all Sects Saints and sorts of Professors that would actuate them into inevitable at least temporal Perdition if God in great mercy by removing them prevent it not My Opponent's Preface follows Reader farewell Thy true Friend T. H. THE PROGRESS OPPONENT IN several places of the Book which Mr. Thomas Harby is writing of the Exposition of several parts of the Revelation he affirms that what is treated of in the 19th and 18th Chapters respects only Rome-Pagan and Imperial and not Rome Papal and Antichristian Now in answer thereunto I shall offer a few particulars to consideration which I suppose will make it appear that what is treated of in the 17th and 18th Chapters hath respect to and is intended only by the Holy Ghost of Rome Papal and Antichristian and not of Rome Pagan and Imperial DEFENDENT Thus my unknown Opponent in the first place misrepresents the intent of my treatise by giving a false Title to it For my Book bears no such Title as an Exposition of several parts of the Revelation but is entituled What is Truth And my design in it is to shew what Truth is in Doctrine and Manners and to remove those manifold dangerous misstakes in all Sects and Church-Societies that until they be removed irresistibly withstand the true Peace conviction and reconcilement of all Sects and Nations nor Fathers Modern Writers and by Reason perhaps fully confirming the Truth of my Assertions from those Texts in the 17th and 18th Chapters But to my Opponent's chief Change in his Preface answer That he ought not to impute to me the gross Errors of his own inadvertency far I affirm not in my Book as he affirms I do that what is treated of in the 17th and 18th Chapters respects only Rome-Pagan and Imperial but I expresly apply some of those 〈◊〉 to Heathen Rome 〈…〉 the 〈◊〉 to Rome partly Heathen partly Heterodox and partly Christian and Orthodox but Apostate in practice chiefly under her eighth Head as the Râ—â—der may 〈◊〉 in the 44th and several other Pagâ—â— thereof But Secondly My Opponent himself in his eleventh Objection spoils his whole Preface aforesaid and overthrows the validity of all his Objections by affirming expresly what I assert his words are these Now the Roman Monarchy as it was Rome Pagan was ascended and had continued long before the time wherein â—ohn saw this Vision end five of the seven Heads of that Monarchy were fall'n Object 11. DEFENDENT And what 〈◊〉 evidence my Opponent give against himself and for the Truth and for me than this his own express Confession Aâ—tam est The Controversy is perfectly and fully ended by my Opponent's fâ—â—e acknowledgment For he in the very front of what he writes his Preface aforesaid undertakes and that 's his whole Design in all those Objections to make it appear that what is treated of in the 17th and 18th Chapter is intended by the Holy Ghost of Rome Papal only And yet he contradicting himself in this eleventh Objection saith expresly That five of the seven Heads of the Roman Monarchy as it was Rome Pagan were fallen Of which seven Heads we find no mention at all in any part of the whole Scripture but only in the 12th and 17th Chapters Therefore the Texts in the 17th and 18th Chapters hold forth contrary to what my Opponent affirms and in all his Objections undertakes to maintain the Roman Monarchy under its seven Heads as also my Opponent himself grosly forgetting himself fully grants in his said eleventh Objection And having granted that hath granted all and yeelded up the entire state of the whole Matter I should make by right no further reply at all to any of my Opponent's Objections For Pugna suum sinem cum jacet hostis habet All my work with my Opponent is done for me by him For the Objections being fully answered from his own Confession and from Scripture exactly concurring therewith and with my Assertion put a final period to all further dispute But because that Person of great Worth that gave me this Paper enjoin'd me to make Replies to each Objection for some of them seem far more substantial and deserve an Answer and because the prosecuting of them to a full refutation may be a great blessing to all Ages and Nations I shall make some answer to each And therefore Thirdly We find in his tenth Objection a second contradiction more absurd than the former The seventh Head says he was Papal Rome His words are these Now Papal Rome was the seventh Head and he is the eighth and to prove it falsly quotes Rev. 17.11 Here my Opponent will needs shew himself to be some self-contradicting Euripus of contrary Winds and Tides for he in his Preface pretends to make it appear That what is treated of in the 17th and 18th Chapters hath respect to and is intended only by the Holy Ghost of Papal Rome then he in his eleventh Objection contradicts all that and saith Now the Roman Monarchy as it was Rome Pagan was ascended and had continued long and five of the seven Heads of that Monarchy were fallen where he makes those seven Heads all Papal in his Preface all Pagan And then He in his tenth Objection contradicts all in his Preface and all his own gain-sayings of it in his eleventh Objection and saith Now the seventh Head was Papal Rome Papists may well grow proud and persist impenitent to the Death when they see Protestants of Note no better armed to oppose them But such self-contradicting Absurdities as these are common with those that list to be contentious I therefore less blame my Opponent and come to see what further stuff he offers to the Reader Papal Rome says he was the seventh Head and he is the eighth Rev. 17.11 Where note First That my Opponent falsifies the Scriptures The seventh Head says he is the eighth and quotes the Text above-said for it This is Scripture of my Opponent's own making for there is not one word in that Text to any such purpose to wit That he the seventh Head is the eighth But the Texts say expresly That the Beast that was and is not vers 11. and shall ascend and go into Perdition vers 8. even he is the eighth in which words not one word is found as my Opponent asserts and pretends to find that the seventh Head is the eighth Thus my Opponent casts Blasphemy upon the Sacred Scripture makes it hold forth shameful Absurdities and contradict it self Nor is this my Opponent's by him immediately contradicted and yet owned Opinion
only that the seventh Head was Papal Rome's power secular but it 's the shameful and unparallel'd Absurdity of most Apocalyptick Writers and of many Men of great Abilities We shal therefore less minding my Opponent's sayings and unsayings make reply to this common mistake of confident Writers Five are fallen and one is These six as all Writers my Opponent not excepted confess were the Heads of Heathen Rome We have now six to one odds to evince the Reader that the seventh Head also was not Rome Papal but appertained to Rome Literal when partly Heathen partly Christian but Hetrodox and partly Orthodox but beginning to apostate in practice But how shall we fully prove it We need not go far from the Text to prove it And I saw a Woman says John sit upon a scarlet-coloured Beast having seven Heads c. Ch. 17.3 Having seven That is habens tenens septem owning possessing seven Therefore that Scarlet-Beast the Roman Red Dragon Chap. 12.3 had owned possessed all the seven They were his Heads and belonged to none besides and therefore his seventh Head was not Rome Papals Power secular but was the seventh Head of Heathen Rome's Scarlet Beast because he had not only six but he had owned seven Heads saith the Text and his eighth his dying scarce perfect last Head and therefore sometimes not numbred with the seven was also the Head of the same first Dragon or Scarlet Beast because he was of the seven Chap. 17.11 That is He was an eighth successive sick power of the same politick Body who both together went into Perdition expired together for ever about the year 412. Chap. 17.8 11. There was a Man of great Stature that had on each hand six Fingers and six Toes on each foot 2 Sam. 21.20 But how shall we prove it that he had six Fingers on each hand and six Toes on each foot And what need is there of any such enquiry The Text it self says expresly that he had six and that 's proof enough So the Roman Red Dragon in the 12th Chapter or the Scarlet-coloured Beast in the 17th Chapter had seven Heads and also an eighth which was of the seven But how shall we fully prove it And what need is there of any such Question The Texts say expresly that he had seven and an eighth also And I saw a Scarlet-coloured Beast having seven Heads Chap. 12.3 Chap. 17.3 and an eighth also vers 11. and that 's proof enough proof express from Sacred Scripture there needs no more All my Opponent's Objections are therefore the third time perfectly and fully refelled and the undeniable refutation of all Writers consentient with him made perfectly concludent For no Man living that is sober can pretend to expect any further or fuller proof from Scripture than the express words of Texts where they are literally intended Therefore neither could that Scarlet Beasts six Heads nor his seventh be as my Opponent says and unsays he and they were the secular Representatives of Papal Rome Why then do so exceeding many great Writers thus gainsay the Truth in Scripture so undeniably manifest Here 's their misery and the mistake of all Apocalyptick Expositors I can scarce exclude any except Papists whom it concerns not that they seek not the seven Heads of the Papal Power secular under the seven Trumpets and seven Vials where only they may be found But they seek that successive Heptarchy and its seven Heads among the eight Heads of the Scarlet Beast where they can never be found because that Scarlet Beast of Literal Rome with his eight Heads perished for ever before that Papal Representative or any of his seven Heads could possibly exist 2 Thess 2.6 7. For it was impossible that the Papacy should arise up in Power till Imperial Rome that letted her rising was removed Her final Removal began about 407 in an Earthquake a dashing of Nations after the opening of the seventh Seal and about the time when the first of the seven Trumpets which respect the Papacy began to found Rev. 8.5 I have also given in my first Treatise the Historical Series of the performances of these Prophecies perhaps conform to the true intent of their Predictions Wherefore if we may believe Sacred Writ or the Records of Gospel-Witnesses and it proud Professors minding nothing will not still persist to add to or diminish from the words of the Book of this Prophecy to their own 〈◊〉 there 's Proof enough Scripture-proof abundant to make it fully concludent that the Tests in the 17th and 18th Chapters hold forth Pagan Imperial and also Christian Rome Apostate in Manners as my first Treatise shews at large and that they do not respect Papal Rome solely and alone as my Opponents seeks to prove and disproves it himself nor Papal Rome at all otherwise than as Rome Literal chiefly under her eighth Head held forth as a figure of it the Papal grand Apostacy We now return to my Opponent OPPONENT Object 1. If we consider the whole Scope and Intendment of this Vision which begins at the fifteenth Chapter and is continued in the 16th 17th and 18th Chapters all which have respect to the state of Papal Rome c. DEFENDENT That the Visions of the Vials begin in the fifteenth Chapter and that they respect the state of Papal Rome I deny not That the full account of their being poured forth is begun and ended in the 16th Chapter and not continued in the 17th and 18th Chapters as my Opponent says they are I affirm For we find the 7th and last Vial poured out in the 17th Verse of the 16th Chapter and the first poured forth in the second Verse of the same Chapter But that Text in the 17th Verse concurring with the same Record upon Oath by the Living God in Chap. 10.6 7. saith expresly It is done Chap. 16.17 And What was done The Vision of the seven Vials and of the state of Papal Rome under them was done or ended in the 16th Chapter and therefore is not continued as my Opponent says it is in the 17th and 18th Chapters It is done saith the Text Chap. 16.17 These two Texts that in the 10th Chapter and this in the 16th assert the same thing done at the same time For that Prophetical Record upon Oath by the Living God in the 10th Chapter was to be performed after the end of the first six Trumpets and about the beginning of the seventh when the Witnesses should finish or be about to finish the 1260 Years of their Sackcloth-Prophesie And this Text in this 16th Chapter corresponds exactly therewith witnessing that the same thing should be performed at the same time to wit After the first six Vials and at the beginning of the seventh so exactly congruous are the seven Trumpets and seven Vials in what they hold forth There shall be no longer time no longer time of the Papal grand Apostacy standing firm or without any effectual stroke tending to its discontinuance Chap.
10.6 It is done saith the Text expresly Chap. 16.17 And thus my Opponent's first Objection and in that all the rest falls to dust with one stroke from the very words of the Text besides those upon Oath by the Living God in the 10th Chapter expresly gainsaying it Nor is my Opponent herein faulty alone but all Writers and Teachers consentient with him must be like him at a loss in mistaking the Matter of sundry Texts ahd Chapters not knowing where it begins nor where it ends nor what they hold forthe Nor are such mistakes peculiar to him or them alone but incident as an Epidemick Disease almost to all Writers For the most able and Orthodox I can except very few are not free from many mistakes that work setled habits of Error against Truth and Reason My Progress theresom till such false Foundations be first removed may give great offence to such and satisfie few For so many misapprehensions work as it were an universal incapability and where the Subject is uncapable the Agent cannot operate I am driven therefore here by urgent constraint and unavoidably as the Reader may plainly perceive to a brief Digress that I may remove those mistakes that obstruct them in reading and my success in writing for otherwise they must needs read both the Scriptures and those Books that best unfold them with little profit if they are not first well informed where the Matter in the Texts and Chapters begins where it ends and what they hold forth These Remora's therefore must be first removed Such an Intendment provided it be effectual do all future Ages call for and the present claims to refel Errors to reform Manners to heal the Churche's almost deadly wounds made wide besides no few failings of her own by the perverse ignorance of sundry subdivisions and to procure the Peace Conversion and Reviction of all Sects and Nations Something hath often been pretended but not effectually and in earnest intended to these ends I shall therefore with humble submission to the Judgments of Men more able endeavour as a duty indispensable to God and to his Church to shew briefly what sundry Texts and Chapters not only in the Scriptures counted plain but in the Prophets and in this compendium of Prophesies the Apocalyps hold forth and where the Matter in them begins and where it ends I promised to explain more fully some Texts handled in my first Treatise and it falls in most fit here to perform my Promise Nor let any grudg at this brief Digress for it may perhaps prove not only useful but needful for all that read the Scriptures both the Prophetical and those called plain and for all that shall hereafter Preach or Write upon either Howbeit such as before they read it had rather omit it may pass it by though with mach less profit to themselves and proceed where I return to prosecute my Answers to these Objections THE DIGRESS MAN made last was the most perfect Creature God made on Earth So this last Book of Holy Writ the Apocalyps is sacrae caput culmen Scripturae the consummate perfection of all the Scripture and an Abstract of it 'T is true it 's most despised by Ideots and Hypocrites and that 's the praise of it But as all the Tribes of Israel had Jerusalem and the Temple as their Metropolis and Center so all the Scriptures concenter in this last Book and are perfected and explained by it Would any know what God hath declared to his Servants the Prophets Here he may find it and find the supream end and intent of it in order to God's Glory and the ineffable good of Men Rev. 10.7 Is or hath any Book of Sacred Scripture been sealed with seven Seals Here we may find the truth of it asserted and how its Seals were and may be opened Chap. 5th 6th to Chap. 10.2 8 9 10. The Church till this Work be well begun must needs wander in the Wilderness and find no way forth For this Book being sealed was the cause of her Ingress and it being opened must be the only means under God of her Egress or coming out of it The Serpent brought Sin and Death upon all Men by beguiling Eve That Cause and those Effects are since grown into an excess of greatness but we find in this last Book an undefiled Company that shall be without guile and without fault before the Throne of God and how that State may be attained Chap. 14.4 5. Without Guile That is Men shall not as they do and have done deceive and be deceived and Sin and Death shall not have dominion as now and heretofore they had That those deceits of the Serpent whereby he beguiles as he did from the beginning the whole World to bring it with speed to Perdition may by being made manifest miss of their end and his aim is the Subject principally intended in this Digress It 's the Opinion of some Professors that what is contained in this last Book of Holy Writ concerns Asia only without further extent because it 's written to the seven Churches of Asia and Babylon therein mentioned was and Euphrates therein also exprest is in Asia I Answer Sodom and Egypt are also therein mentioned and Sodom is not in being and Egypt is in Africa But Sodom and Egypt in Chap. 11.8 are spiritually so called saith that Text expresly That is they are such in substance as Sodom and Egypt were in a figure Babylon now in being is not that City formerly so called but another built in another place but the first of that name is not now nor was that we find in being when John wrote This City therefore so called in these Texts is also not that literal City but is expresly called Mystical Chap. 17.5 And so Euphrates on which this Spiritual City likewise stands and is supported by it is to be understood Spiritually also that is Euphrates was to prototype Babylon or the first forerunner of her Antitypes the many Waters of that literal River which denoted in the last City and last but one of that metaphorical name Rome literal and Rome Papal both called Babylon Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues Ch. 17.1 15. Ch. 11.9 We find in Chap. 17.5 Mystery Babylon the Great c. There revolted Rome Imperial ruling ten Nations is intended and her River her Euphrates is held forth in the same Chapter vers 15. And great Babylon came in remembrance before God Chap. 16.19 There Papal Rome containing ten Nations is intended Chap. 13.1 and her River her Euphrates is held forth in Chap. 9.14 Chap. 11.9 Chap. 16.12 So then not that literal City in Asia called Babylon but two spiritual Cities so called Rome Imperial and Papal Rome are intended in these Texts Here almost all Protestant Writers mistake and their mistake brings a multitude more with it for they take that City called Babylon in the 17th and 18th Chapters to be one and the same City with this in Chap.