And Galatinus That they reverence it almost as much as the Text it self So that this may be very well accounted the Sense of the whole Body of the Jews in those days He has not indeed any Comment upon the Book of Daniel But in his Paraphrase upon the four last Verses of the first Chapter of Zechariah the Four Horns there that scattered the Men of Judah and Jerusalem he determines to be Four Kingdoms captivating the Jews And so also on the 6th Chapter v. 5. he mentions the same four Kingdoms coming after one another What he did particularly understand by these four Kingdoms is plainly expressed in the Paraphrase upon Habakkuk 3. 17. concerning the end of the Nations that should captivate the Jews For says he the Kingdom of Babel shall not remain nor exercise Dominion in Israel the Kings of Media shall be slain and the strong Ones of Grecia shall not prosper the Romans shall be rooted out nor shall they gather Tribute at Jerusalem Now it was always agreed That whatsoever the Four Kingdoms in the 7th of Daniel were in particular yet that they were four successive Monarchies that should measure out the whole time of the Captivity of the Church of God from the Babylonian Conquest of the Jews to the time of the Kingdom of the Son of Man and that the end of this Captivity was to be at the end of the Times of the Little Horn as it is also expresly said Dan. 12. 7. When therefore Zechariah who was one of the next Prophets to Daniel in the Captivity is by the Paraphrast determined to signifie four successive Kingdoms captivating the Jews or scattering them which is Daniel's own expression for it ibid. And when the only Conquerours and Enslavers of that Nation are mentioned by the same Paraphrast to be the Babylonian Persian Grecian and Roman Monarchies it is manifest That he does thereby determine the four Kingdoms captivating the Church of God in the 7th of Daniel to be those four Monarchies only and therefore That the last of the four is the Roman Monarchy And this is sufficient to shew it to be then the general Opinion of the Jewish Church at that time That the fourth Kingdom in the 7th chapter of Daniel was the Roman Monarchy And this Opinion of the Jews in those times was made to be the Faith of Christians also in those days by our Saviour himself so far at least as to assure that fourth Kingdom not to belong to the Greek Monarchy which is all the present Concern in his Prophecies every-where about the Kingdom and Coming of the Son of Man which has been found unquestionably to be meant of the same Kingdom that in the 7th of Daniel is also called The Kingdom of the Son of Man and of the Saints as may be seen in the Proof of the 13th and 14th Propositions And then that Kingdom of the Son of Man being signified by Christ not then to be come nor to be expected till at least some while after his Death that is not till long after the end of the Greek Monarchy and yet being described in Daniel to come to the destruction of the Fourth Beast or Kingdom there does make it sure That that Fourth Beast and Kingdom could not certainly be any part of the Reign of the Greek Empire and therefore must it be that which succeeded the Reign of the Greeks or the Reign of the Romans if the Third Beast before it were the beginning of the Greek Empire as it is here by all acknowledged to be A still more particular Determination of the Fourth Beast and Kingdom in Daniel to the time of the Romans is that exact Picture of the same Kingdom in the Revelations of St. John and that also fixed to Rome as the Seat of its Empire See Propos 15. Which all the Ancients before Constantine looked upon to be so plainly set out as a Roman Domination that there was no doubt of it And this is a lasting Testimony of the Sense of the Christian Church about it in those times And when St. Paul before this describes the last Coming of Christ as the Son of Man in his Kingdom 2 Thes 2. he does it with just the same description of it and of that eminent Opposer of the Church of God just before his Coming as the Coming of the Son of Man is set out in the 7th chapter of Daniel by the Destruction of the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast which therefore could no ways belong to the Greek Monarchy that was past And then by his appeal to their knowledge of what it was that did then withhold that Enemy from appearing he plainly intimates That that Antichrist must come after the time of that Ruling Power of the Romans which was then Reigning This also does shew That it was a commonly-known thing amongst the Christians of those days that the time of the Fourth Beast or Kingdom that was next before the Second Coming of Christ was not then past as the Greek Empire was And this may suffice for the Judgment of the Apostolical times about the Fourth Beast in Daniel All these places in the New Testament are still further confirmed by the general Sense of Antiquity about them Whether the fourth Book of Esdras be of so ancient a date as the first Century or no yet that it was writ not long after may reasonably be presumed from St. Ambrose's Quotation of it in several places as a Book of ancient Tradition in his time As in Epist ad Horontian 2. ad Lucam Commentar And especially in Libro de Bono Mortis where he questions Whether that Esdras were not older than Plato And the 4th Book of Esdras doth plainly determine the Fourth Beast in Daniel to be the Roman Empire 2 Esdr 12. 11. where the Roman Eagle is called The Kingdom that was seen by Daniel and called chap. 11. 39 40. The last Remainder of the Four Beasts c. CENTURY II. It is easie now to demonstrate the Consent of almost every one of the Ecclesiastical Writers in the following Ages for the Application of the Fourth Beast in Daniel to the Roman Empire from their Agreement about the time of the Coming of the Son of Man in the 7th of Daniel For they generally understanding that of the Second Coming of Christ Jesus into the World must make the Fourth Beast or Kingdom that it is there described to destroy to continue till that time and therefore certainly not possible to be the Greek Monarchy and then since it is as manifest that the first of those four Beasts is said to be Nebuchadnezzar's Dan. 2. 44. 7. 2. Kingdom or the Babylonians the fourth from thence must at farthest be the Romans But I will only pick out those amongst them that have mentioned something relating to this Fourth Beast together with that Coming of the Son of Man Justin Martyr is the next considerable Remainder of Antiquity after the times of the Apostles In
destruction of the Species or Soul of it that is of the Society of that People either by Slavery or by Subjection only to a new Authority Artic. 4 5 6. Ibid. Artic. 8. As Grotius determines concerning the continuance of the same body of People in the See References 9th Chapter of his Second Book de jure Belli Pacis And therefore were they still the commanding Authority of the Roman Empire 9. This is very learnedly confirmed by b Thus were the People of Rome the same under Kings Consuls and Emperours And Artic. 11. are the same at this day because they still retain that Society in Civil Government which they had formerly and therefore the Imperial Power did always reside in them as in the Body in which it lived For whatever the People of Rome could have formerly done of right before the time of the Emperours the same had they power to do upon the death of any Emperour before there was another chosen The Election of the Emperours did also belong to the People of the City of Rome and was oftentimes performed by the People either alone or by the Senate for them And those Elections which were made by first one and then another Legion of the Army were not valid by the right of those Legions for in a flitting Body there could be no certain right but from the approbation of the People It is no Objection against this that by the Decree of Antoninus all the Subjects of the Roman Empire were made Citizens of Rome For the rest of the Roman Subjects got nothing more by that Decree than what the Colonies and free Cities of the Empire and the Roman Provinces used to have which was to be partakers of the Roman Honours and to have the privileges of Quirites not that the Seat and Fountain of Government should be in other parts of the Empire as it was at Rome For that was not in the power of the Emperour to give who could not change the Fundamental Laws for the exercise of the Governing Power Nor was it any diminution of the Right of the People of Rome that the Emperours chose rather to live at Constantinople afterwards than at Rome For then also did the whole People of Rome confirm and make valid the Election which was made by a part of them at Constantinople who for that are called the Byzantine Quirites by Claudian And those of Rome did still preserve the Prerogative of their City and the honour of the precedence of their Consul which was no small Monument of their Original Right Wherefore all the Right which those of Constantinople had to chuse the Roman Emperour did depend upon the Will of the People of Rome To this purpose is that of Hieron Balbus de Conventione c. 13. But sometimes the Emperour was chosen by the Army who was then accounted rightly chosen if the Authority of the Senate and People of Rome did confirm it Ludovic â Rebeuberg a Caesarian Writer cap. 3. de juribus Reg. Imp. Romanor Charlemaign never called himself Emperour before he was anointed and crowned by Pope Leo The Romans with one Consent did give the Imperial Acclamations to Charlemaign And when he was crowned by Pope Leo they called him Caesar and Augustus M. Fribeius in the Comment In which way of Acclamation says he the popular Election both at Rome and Constantinople did at that time consist As Paulus Diaconus in Histor Miscella Anastas Bibliothecarius do testify Grotius himself in that same Chapter and the Comment on it where he shews as a Lawyer That it was always acknowledged to be the right of the Senate and People of Rome to determine the next Succession to the Government of the Roman Empire in the time of every vacancy That therefore all Elections of Princes and Laws were to be confirmed by them So that the Constantinopolitan Emperours were generally so confirmed and their Laws ratified by the Authority of the City of Rome And to give authority to their Government they had one of the Consuls and a part of the Senate of Rome generally residing with them as delegated from that City to give authority to their Orders as long as there was a good correspondence betwixt the Eastern and Western Empires And to show which of the Seats of the Empire was the chief Fountain of the Roman Power the Consul of the City of Rome always had the precedence So that as long as the Power of the Roman Senate and Consuls did continue at Rome which was till the Conquest of Rome by Justinian the Sovereign Power of that City must come in for a share at least in the then Ruling Head of the Beast which is all that is necessary to be here established 10. And the way to make any man a Roman in distinction to others that were Subjects of that Empire was to make him a Citizen of Rome which did manifestly shew that no Power could be properly said to be the Head of the Roman Empire that was without any Authority from the City of Rome 11. The City of Rome had also a very peculiar acknowledgment from the whole Government of the Empire that it was the Head and Fountain of all the Power of the Roman Empire and in a more eminent way than we read of any other City besides For all the Governors of the Provinces at their return from their Office used to lay down the Ensigns of their Authority at the Gates of the City of Rome before they entred the Town in acknowledgment of the first Fountain of their Magistracy which they did therefore thus signify to be resigned up into her hands when they returned home again L. ult de Officio Procons 12. Besides That during the whole time of the division of the Empire to the Reign of c Cod. Justinian Praefat. Consuetudo Romanae Urbis sequenda ab omnibus quia Roma est Caput Orbis Terrarum To this purpose do the Eastern Emperours before give the precedence to the City of Rome So all over Cassiodorus's Varior p. 41 112 207 302 311 319 341 348 359 361 390 396. Rome has the name of the Head of the World with such Characters as these in that City where Honour does always reside in the most sacred City none can be greater than he to whose care Rome is committed not only Rome tho in it are contained all things whatsoever is done in that City is almost in the eyes of the whole World If the Head of the World rejoyces all the rest must do the same not in the Provinces but in the Head of all things And this was just before the Reign of Justinian Justinian at least the City of Rome though no longer the Seat of the Empire was called and accounted the Metropolis of it and therefore was it for all that time called The Head of the World the Head of all things Wherefore by the Head of the Roman Empire that is by any Head
Prophecy of the Witnesses at the passing away of the Sixth Trumpet nor does it seem to be more necessary that the Forty Two Months of the time of the Beast should end before the Last Ruine of his Kingdom or when it comes only to be broken which yet is the whole strength of what he adds to defend it The Third Synchronism betwixt Babylon and the Healed Beast in the 13th Chap. supposes the Beast to be the same particular time and state of Roman Power without any proof and yet Grotius and others suppose them quite different Dr. More endeavours to show them to be necessarily the same by Eighteen Congruities of Characters which tho I think I am sure that many of them are not true yet are indeed sufficient to make any Man strongly persuaded of the perfect identity of the Two Beasts But they have nothing in them that does necessarily determine them to the same particular state and time of Roman Reign And yet the whole strength of the Demonstrative proof of the Synchronisms depends upon the necessity of these Suppositions The Fourth Synchronism is the total contemporation of the 144000 with the Beast upon the account of their state of mutual opposition from the first time of the Marked followers of the Beast But the utmost that this can prove is That they were Contemporaries from that time where they are mentioned together For the Party of the Beast were marked to be distinguished from the sealed Company But the 144000 were sealed only to escape the Judgments of the Trumpets which are no-where proved necessary nor to begin before the time of the Beast And Dr. More does add nothing to shew it necessary and yet the chief proof of the Connexion of the first part of the Visions with the latter does depend upon this in the first Synchronism of the second Part. I cannot but further add That Mr. Mede's and Dr. More 's Applications of the seventh and eighth King does seem to render the Synchronisms altogether ineffectual for convincing a Papist For after they had made the essential difference betwixt the six first Heads or Kings to be nothing but a different Title of the Civil Sovereign Power of See Judgments of God p. 4. Rome they make the seventh King to be nothing but a change of the Religion of the sixth King retaining still the same Title of the Sovereign Power which was his essential difference from that before him This seems to be contrary to six Examples in the same Figure and to almost six times as many in the Prophecy of Daniel A Papist would therefore hold them to their true Notion of the sixth Head and then pretend That the Imperial Title does continue still as the sixth Head and that the Synchronisms cannot therefore take place till that be changed All this I mention only to shew That there is still wanting a clearer Evidence to make good that excellent Design towards which Mr. Mede did give the first great strokes and for which he is to be acknowledged to have been the first clear Light that God gave the World for the illustration of these dark Mysteries which now appear to be the worthiest Entertainment of the best and the most judicious Vnderstandings This I have endeavoured to perfect But I must still acknowledge That tho I think my self sure enough of the strength of my Method for it yet I do not pretend to that which is strictly called Demonstration It is enough for me if I can proceed but upon such clear grounds and go on in so close a coherence from them as to force the assent of all wary and impartial Examiners of it with as little doubt concerning it tho not with so Absolute a Certainty of it as Mathematical Evidence uses to do I dare however be confident for the encouragement of the Reader That if he has found any satisfaction in the grounds of any Protestant Interpretations that others affirm themselves to be Abundantly and Mathematically certain of he will find them here much more cautiously and strongly secured and that the Elegant Systemes which have of late Monsieur Jurieu Eclaircissemens oü Systeme Nouveau much surprized the generality of those that look into these things have but a very blind and uncertain Foundation without such a proof of the first Principles of them as is here attempted I think I may also safely venture to assure the Friends of the Grotian way That the least degreee of impartiality in them will make them see it here shewn to be MUCH MORE CERTAIN a Preface to the Judgments of God upon the Roman Church That the chief Foundations of that Interpretation are contrary to the clear and obvious sense of the Prophetical Terms as well as to the general Judgment of Interpreters of all Parties in all Ages according to the Censure of the most Judicious of the Romanists than it is b La veritable clef de l' Apocalypse p. 115. That Grotius was Divinely Inspired c Ibid. Preface and that Mr. Baxter is the Greatest Man in England among the Protestants for seconding him d Ibid. p. 115. Or That they have made Mr. Mede's Systeme appear so absurd that it is to be abhorred according to the extravagant and hypocritical expressions of a late Incendiary of that Church to inflame Protestants against one another A TABLE OF PROPOSITIONS To be Inspected when any Proposition or Corollary or Rule is quoted to avoid the trouble of turning to it in the body of the Book BOOK I. Propositions Rules and Corollaries Proposit 1. BAbylon Revelat. 17. is the City of Rome in an Antichristian and Idolatrous Domination From hence are drawn these Rules of Interpretation Rule 1. Words of a plain signification are to be taken in the 17th Chapter of the Revelations in that sense in which they are generally taken in the World unless it be inconsistent with something more clearly known Rule 2. Words of a mystical signification must follow the use of them amongst the Prophets if not inconsistent with something more clearly known Rule 3. The same Words do signify the same things all over the Prophecy unless there be clear grounds against it Rule 4. The different Judgments of Learned Men ought not to weaken our Assent to what appears sufficiently clear after an impartial Examination especially if it be commonly acknowledged Proposit 2. Babylon signifies the same thing immediately before in and after the 17th Chapter Corollary Babylon is the same thing in the 14th Chapter as it is in the rest Proposit 3. The Judgment of Babylon in all Chapters is the desolation of Rome by Fire in the time of its Idolatrous Antichristian Domination Corollary Babylon cannot be Rome-Pagan Proposit 4. Every one of the Eight Kings Revelat. 17. reckoned up in order v. 10 11. is one of those called the Seven Kings in General v. 10. Corollary The Eighth King is one of the Seven Kings who had been in Rule before and was
or Kingdoms of one and the same Ruling People if they be described to be in Rule all at the same time And in both these kinds do the several Heads or Horns signify the continuance of that Government or divided Kingdom to their last End To this whole Discourse about the Sixteenth Proposition do the generality of the Roman Interpreters agree which all must CONSENT necessarily do who grant as they do that the Fourth Kingdom in the 7th of Daniel is the Roman Monarchy The only difference of some of them from the rest is that the Ten Kings and the 11th after them shall be after the whole Roman Monarchy is ruined and has lost the name a GRotius de jure B. P. L. 2. c. 9. Art 3. Populus est ex eo corporum genere quod ex distantibus constat c. The people are a Body of the kind of those which are made up of things distant from one another Item Art 8. It matters not which way they are Governed either by Monarchs or by many or by the multitude For it is the same Roman people under Kings Consuls and Emperors The Third BOOK THE Particular Signification OF THE BEAST And its Heads and Horns In the REVELATIONS CHAP. I. The Interpretation of The Beast in the Revelations and Rev. XVII of its Heads and Horns in the 17th Proposition Three Objections answered The inconsistency of the Roman Interpreters with themselves Bellarmin more Ingenuous but forced thereby to give up the Cause Grotius to mend the matter runs into greater Absurdities than any of them Conjectures about the first Five Heads AFTER the knowledge of the Constant Vniform Signification of a Beast and of the Heads or Horns of a Beast all over the Prophecy of Daniel any one would be ready to conclude with himself That it was no hard matter now to determine the signification of the Heads and Horns and of the Beast it self which is the Subject of all the latter part of the Revelations since it has been already found that all those peculiar Figures of Empire and Sovereignty and the particular Phrases and Style belonging to them in the Revelations are just the same with those of the like kind in Daniel and are not so distinctly to be found in any other of the Prophets besides But the undoubted confirmation of this is the assurance that we have of the 15th Proposition For by that it appears That the Beast in the Revelations is the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel and that it has the same and that a very great many most peculiar Characters and Expressions attributed to it by which that Beast in Daniel is described Wherefore according to all the Examples that are to be found in that Prophecy from whence it appears that these Figures in the Revelations and the most peculiar Expressions about them are taken it is unquestionable That The Beast in the Revelations in its general notion as the common Prop. 17. subject of its Heads and Horns does signify the Rule of the Romans in general The Seven Heads of it successive Changes of the Sovereign Power of that Nation The Ten Horns the division of that Empire into so many distinct Sovereignties There need no more be said for the proof of this than that the Seven Heads are said to succeed in this order Five one another c. to shew them to be successive Revel 17. and that the Ten Kings are described as acting all together with the Beast For according to the signification of a Beast and its Heads and Horns with these Characters in Daniel they must signify so many successive Sovereign Powers and so many divided distinct Kingdoms of one and the same Nation by Prop. 16. And the Prophecy of Daniel is the chief Example of the mystical use of Beasts and their Parts and to which all the Expressions about the Beast in the Revelations are found to refer Proposition 15. And the Beast in the Revelations is certainly some Roman Rule by Prop. 6. Therefore by Rule the 2 d The Beast its Heads and Horns do signify the Rule of the Romans under so many successive Changes of the Sovereign Power and divided into so many distinct Sovereignties as are represented by its Seven Heads and Ten Horns But it may possibly be pretended that there are clear grounds in the Revelations against the making the Prophecy of Daniel a Rule of Interpretation for the Figures in the Revelations For the Figures in the Revelations have a different use from those in Daniel For example 1. There are three several shows of one and the same Roman Monarchy and following immediately one after another from the 12th to the 18th Chapter of the Revelations which according to the use of such succession of Figures in Daniel must signify three several Ruling Nations Prop. 16. Besides that one of these three Beasts is expresly described in succession to the other Chap. 13. 2. But it must be remembred That it is according to the use of the Figures in Daniel to represent the same Kingdoms by different Figures in different Visions as in the 2d and 7th Chapters And in the 8th Chapter two of those same Kingdoms by two new Beasts and it is certain that the two Shows in the 13th and 17th Chapters are in two several Visions and that they are one and the same particular state of the Beast by Coroll 2. Prop. 10. And though the Beast in the 13th Chapter be described to be in succession to that in the 12th Chapter yet 1. it is described as a new Vision of a Beast with the same proper marks upon it which the other had before it viz. the Seven Heads and Ten Horns And next it must be considered That though they be two different Beasts yet it is plainly said That the one is Satan Chap. 12. 9. or the Devil and so does signify only a spiritual Rule of the Devil in the Roman Empire and no different Temporal Empire from the other and then it signifies no more to the making two different Monarchies than Nebuchadnezzar's Image to the constituting of a new Monarchy of the Babylonians distinct from that which was represented by the Head of the other Image Chap. 2. 2. It will be further urged that in the 13th Chapter There are Two Beasts represented as rising up after one another which according to Prop. 16. Part. 1. must signify in Daniel's way two different Ruling Nations This would signify very much by Rule the 2 d if the Text did not make it appear that they were not successive to one another But it is expresly said That the Second Beast did exercise all the power of the First Beast before him and that all Chap. 13. 12. for his Service as appears v. 12. The Text does therefore expresly affirm that the power of them both is but one and the same power or Ruling Nation And yet to show that the signification of a Beast in Daniel