of the future prosperity of the Church upon Earth The 21 and 22. Chap. of the Apocalypse interpreted that in those Chapters the Church is described as victorious upon Earth and not as Triumphant in Heaven Pag. 357 Chap. XXIV The Characters of the Kingdom of the Church Eight are certain and five doubtfull What shall happen after this Kingdom What is meant by Gog and Magog There shall probably be a lesser kind of Antichrist a little before the end of the World. Pag. 375 Chap. XXV An Answer to the reasons of the Anti-millinaries against the Reign of a thousand years Pag. 388 THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PROPHECIES OR THE Approaching Deliverance of the CHURCH THE FIRST PART Of the Establishment of the Antichristian-Empire its Characters CHAP. I. Of the Seven Epistles to the Seven Churches That in all probability they are not Prophetical The Thoughts of Interpreters thereupon WHen I undertook this Work I had no Design to make a compleat Commentary on that which is Prophetical in the Revelations as did appear in the first Edition However when I observed that without designing it I had explained almost the whole Apocalypse I did believe that as for three or four chapters that remained to be explained I ought not to leave them behind tho they had no respect to the scope of this book which is to find out Antichrist learn when his Empire must end When one sees a system that is very perfect well attended with all the events foretold in this book this will give such a fair aspect of truth to all the parts of it as will be most easily perceived Moreover the publick may have observed that in the pourtraiture of Antichrist I have referred the Reader in many chapters as in the 13th the 17th to my Book of Prejudices Now us I have promised to epitomize the book of Prejudices I thought it would be more proper to bring out of that book into this present work all that respects the Prophecies their Explication on the subject of the description of Antichristianism than to refer a part of this to another Book So that in this second Edition there will be found an explication of all that is prophetical in the book of the Revelation We believe with the learned Joseph Mede that this book is divided into two parts The first is contained in the book sealed with seven seals which is to be seen in the beginning of the 5th Ch. And the second in the book which the Angel gave to St. John in the 10th Ch. The two little books move upon the same time the one the other reach even to the end of the World but they donot say the same thing have not the same object For the first little book that appeareth sealed with seven seals principally respects the affairs the adventures of the first Period of the fourth Monarchy viz. the temporal Roman Empire And the second book contains the destinies of the Church corrupted during the same ages the same duration of time this is what we call the Spiritual Roman Empire I say that the first book contains properly the destinies of the Empire not but that those of the Church are included in it too For that which God foretold should befall the Roman Empire was always with respect to the Church to its Persecutions the great Changes that befall it So that to speak properly the whole work respects the Church But the second little book which reaches from the 10th Chapter to the end respects the Church what was to befall it much more particularly yea more clearly The first thing that appears in the book of the Revelation is the seven Epistles to seven principal Churches of Asia Q. Whether the seven Epistles are Prophetical contained in the three first Chapters T is very much question'd whether these Epistles are Prophetical or not Some maintain that they are with a great deal of heat others deny it As for me I have nothing certain to say upon it So that I would not raise a prejudice against any person or any opinion by my own tho I am much more enclined to believe that there is nothing of prophecy in them but that all that is said in these Epistles refers to things that had happened in those seven Churches It is certain that the Revelation is nothing but an Epistle This is clear by its beginning end Now it was not usuall with the Apostles to direct their Epistles to the Universal Church in generall of all places all times as some would have St. John here to have done The Apostles were wont in their Epistles to rank in the first place what they had which was dogmatical Prophetical to write of afterward came that which respected what was moral This is the method of St. Paul. St. John on the contrary in this Epistle sets that which is moral therein before that which is Prophetical The reason is because he little design'd to stay upon that which is moral his principal aim was to relate the visions which God had given him Therefore he dispatcheth in the beginning that which was to make the least part of his Epistle which was less important that without diversion he might stick to that which he principally intended therein I see but one thing that seems mightily to favour the opinion of those that believe that the seven Epistles are Prophetical Why the H. Spirit wrote but to seven Churches 'T is the number of seven Why did the H. Spirit write to no more than seven Churches Were there not many more in Asia Were these the only ones in which there was any thing to be reproved or to whom the H. Spirit had something to say It seems therefore that the seven Churches are the Universal Church of all Ages divided into seven Periods But this reason doth not appear strong enough to me First because the number of seven is evidently consecrated in the Revelation The holy Spirit useth it in counting up all things the seven Spirits seven Lamps seven Angels c. Surely whatever we understand hereby 't is certain that the number of Spirits of Lamps of Angells is not reduced to the number of seven Not but that oftentimes the number of seven in the Revelation must be taken for a determinate number as in the seven Seals in the seven Trumpets the seven Vialls but that is when the division of time into Periods is treated of Now this is that which is doubtful that by these seven Churches are meant seven Periods And we shall also see hereafter that what is said to these seven Churches doth not at all agree with the events in what manner soever the times be divided So that this only thing that the H. Spirit maketh here seven Churches doth not prove that they are so many Period's of the duration of the Church 'T is probable that by these he means all
one of the latest Commentators on the Apocalypse and one of the most esteemed I found that he follows Mede in every thing save in the explication of the Harvest and the Vintage of the 14th Chap. the seven viols of the 16th and the death of the two Witnesses of the 11th Chap. that is that he had followed him in those places wherein he had succeeded well 't is in effect impossible to differ from him in those places But in those places where Mr. Mede was not Happy Dr. Moore is no more so than he If any other hath discovered these Truths he will oblige me that shall let me know it I shall be rejoyc't to understand that any other hath made the same discoveries this will confirm me in the perswasion which I have that I have found that which I inquired after After having proved in this second part that the end of the Reign of Antichrist is at hand I treat of that which is to follow after that Fall viz. the famous Reign of Christ upon Earth which hath been so often contradicted since the Beginning of the Christian Church I have inlarged a little upon it as being one of the most consolatory Truths which is in the whole Scripture I cannot but ascribe to a secret providence of God that Blindness which most Christians have been under hitherto concerning it for certain reasons God would not that they should see that Reign of Christ in the Prophecies tho it be there as clearly described as the Coming of the Messiah which yet the Iews will not see to be there you will therin find one Chapter for which the Iews are indebted to me for I re-establish them in their Rights and in their Hopes farther than Christians have as yet done Among the proofs of the Reign of a thousand years you will find an explication of the Type of the work of Creation which will not be unpleasant to those who love Mysteries I have nothing to say in vindication of this book It must run the common risque it must be left to the Judgment of the publick a Risque so much the greater in that treating of Prophecies no man thinks himself obliged to subscribe to the thoughts of those who interpret them I may well expect to be ill treated by others the learned and the wise as they pretend to be who mock at all Prophecies and all those who go about to interpret them these men are upon the borders of Impiety if they are not already plunged into it 'T is not for their sakes that I write I despise them at least their Judgment but I pray God for their salvation 't is for the comfort of the Good and upright that this work was undertaken God grant it may contribute to it if I am deceived I shall have but my common Lot with many others nevertheless I deserve some thanks for my good Intentions Let me add one word that this is not a book to be read Cursorily over and that but once I consent that it be read the first Time as a Romance but let such a one return to it and lay aside his Prejudices by little and little and at length accustom himself to those Idea's that at first seemed strange This advice I give chiefly to Roman Catholicks assoon as they perceive by the title of a Book that the design is to perswade them that their Religion is Antichristianism they fall into a rage and their Passion blinds them But yet for once let them take the pains to read it as a Romance and afterwards let them think that the matter deserves at least to be examin'd because no less than their Eternal Salvation is concerned in it I have no design to anger them I desire their Salvation 'T is the only end I propose God is my witness A Supplement to the Advice to all Christians This is what I have advertised the publick in the first Ediction in this second I find my self obliged to remove two scandals which I have learnt have been taken on the account of this book First there are some who believe the hopes I give of a Re-establishment within a few years may do much Hurt because all those who are thus perswaded will suffer themselves to sleep secure in the mean time in the Communion of the Roman Church saying if it be thus we may expect a while and bear our Captivity as well as we can we shall ere long see the end of it During which expectation they will still go to mass and joyn in the superstitions of the Church of Rome To this I have two things to say First that God's ends and ways are different from ours at this rate God should never have promised to deliver his Church that men might not grow secure in the Expectation of it God hath almost always hid Events from us and would not that at all times the Prophecies should be understood lest the knowledg and understanding of them should prejudice their accomplishment lest men should oppose it and stand upon their guard in that respect But who knows whether God ought not at last to make the Prophecies be understood that they may the more easily be fulfilled who knows whether so many of the Romish Communion who are already disgusted with their Religion may not open their Eyes by the Light which we set before them and resolve to become instruments in the hand of God for the accomplishment of this great work 't is certain that oftentimes Prophecies Counterfeit or Real have inspired those for whom they were made with the design to effect the things that were promised them after all when God discovers any truths of this nature he hath his reasons for doing so and we ought not to resist it upon pretence of some ill Consequences that would follow Ieremy during the siege of Ierusalem declared to all the world that the Chaldeans would take the City should he have forborn to speak that Truth which God had revealed to him because of some ill Consequences 'T is evident that nothing was more proper to lessen the courage of the Inhabitants and to promote the taking of the City of Ierusalem than such a discourse of the Prophet The other thing which I have to say on this first scandal is this that such who take occasion from this Book to continue in the Roman superstition waiting for deliverance have no need of this book to cherish the disposition they are in to remain there They are people who only search for Pretences to flatter themselves in the condition they are in and can never want them either here or there from this thing or another But in truth nothing can be more ridiculous than to take occasion from hence to continue in the Roman Church In three or four years or more there will be a great change in the Papacy we must than remain there waiting till that Change happen 't is to the same effect as if I should say I am in
five days The mystery of the four numbers I do not know whether any Interpreters have understood the mystery but see how I explain it First we must know that the first number of 2300 mornings and evenings must not be taken for 2300 days as Interpreters take it which forces them to go back to the very beginning of the reign of Antiochus Two thousand three hundred mornings and evenings taken for so many days 2300 mornings and evenings make but 1150 days make six years four months twenty days The prophanation ended in the 148th year of the Aera of the Seleucidae as we shall see So that we must go back even to the 142 year to find there the beginning of these six years four months and twenty days And it were necessary that the prophanation of the Sanctuary and the cessation of the daily sacrifice should then begin For the Prophet speaks expresly of the cessation of the daily sacrifice How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice And he receives this Answer for 2300 evening and mornings Yet 't is certain by the History of the Macchabees and by the Prophecy of the twelfth Chapter of Daniel that the prophanation of the Sanctuary and the cessation of the daily sacrifice begin not till three years after viz. the 145 year of the Aera of the Seleucidae I am perswaded therefore that we must understand by it two thousand three hundred sacrifices of the evening and the morning And this will not be scrupled by him that shall consider First That it is not usual in the holy Tongue nor in any other to say two evenings and mornings or three evenings and mornings meaning two days three days c. Secondly That the cessation of this daily sacrifice that was offered morning and evening being here spoken of to this question How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice a more proper and intelligible answer than this cannot be given viz. It shall be for two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings That is to say There shall be an interruption of two thousand three hundred sacrifices So that this number makes one thousand one hundred and fifty days See then these four numbers 1. Eleven hundred and fifty days which make three years two months and ten days 2. A time times and half a time which are three years and six months 3. One thousand two hundred fourscore and ten days which make three years and seven months 4. One thousand three hundred thirty five days that make three years eight months and fifteen days In the whole taking thirty days for every month a round number which the Holy Spirit hath chosen to avoid broken numbers arising from the inequality of the months Which appears by this that in the Revelat. 42 months and 1260 days are taken for the same thing 'T is so if 30 days be assigned to every month These four numbers are different and the later always exceeds the former There is six months and five days difference between the least and the greatest How can we reconcile this with the History We find this history in the four first Chap. of the first book of Macchabees The first Book of Macchabees is a book that deserveth esteem Though this book be not Canonical it deserves however a very great esteem and I do not at all doubt but it was left to the Church by a singular Providence of God that by it we might see the truth of Daniel's Prophecy and at the same time to instruct us in the different periods of the duration and end of Antichrist's Kingdom shadowed forth by that of Antiochus See then how we must frame the Chronology of the four first Chapters of this Book to the end we may find an admirable agreement between the events and these four numbers in the Prophecy To understand what we are about to say it must in the first place be observed that two things usually are Confounded that must be very carefully distinguisht in the persecution of Antiochus We must observe four periods in the persecution of Antiochus the first is the prophanation of the Sanctuary the second is the cessation of the daily sacrifice 'T is supposed that they are the same thing or at least that these two things lasted one as long as the other Which is not so for the prophanation of the Sanctuary began some months before the cessation of the daily sacrifice also it ceased sooner For the daily sacrifice began not again till some months after the sanctuary had ceased from being prophan'd see then the four Periods that must be observ'd in the persecution of the Jewish Church by Antiochus The first from the ceasing of the daily Sacrifice till its first beginning again The second from the beginning of the prophanation of the Temple by the Gentiles to the purification of the Temple begun by Macchabaeus The third from the beginning of the prophanation of the Temple by the Gentiles to the finishing the purification of the Temple by Judas Macchabaeus The fourth from the beginning the first prophanation of the Temple by the Geniles to its dedication consecration which was the very same day that the first daily sacrifice began again The four numbers in the Prophecy answer to these four Periods 1. The first number of 2300. evenings and mornings answers to the cessation of the daily sacrifice as is clear and this signifies that from the ceasing of the last daily sacrifice to the first beginning again of the daily sacrifice there was to be an interruption of 2300. sacrifices i. e. 1150 days which make three years two months ten days 2. The number of a time times and half a time i. e. three years and six months answers to the period that ran out from the first prophanation of the Temple by the Gentiles to the beginning of the purification of it by Judas Macchabaeus And this signifies that from the first prophanation to the beginning of the purification there were exactly 3 Years and 6 Months 3. The third Number which is 1290. days answers to the period that ran out from the first prophanation of the Temple by the Gentiles to the finishing the purification by Macchabaeus and this signifies that from the first prophanation of the Temple to the finishing its purification there were 1290 days i. e. three Years and seven months 4. Lastly the fourth number which is 1335. days answers to the period that ran out from the first prophanation of the Temple to its dedication and consecration And this signifies that from this first prophanation to the feast of the dedication there were 1335 days i. e. three years eight months and fifteen days The three last periods begin at the same point viz. the prophanation of the Temple by the Gentiles but they end at three different points One at the beginning of the cleansing of the Temple the other at the end of this cleansing and the third at the
small number of True Believets remain'd victims exposed to the Rage of an Army of an hundred thousand men which were let loose upon the Kingdom This I say again is without Example in any Histsry S. Cyprian in his Treatise de Lapsis seems to say that some such thing happened in the persecution of Decius but he himself in his Epistles makes it evident that the Apostacy was not so general for he remits those who had fallen to be judged at the return of Peace in the Assemblics of the Faithful who persevered so that the number of those that persevered must have been considerable In our time it would be difficult out of every Flock to make up an Assembly of such as persevere to judge the rest 'T is therefore an Event wherein we must admire the depth of Divine Providence 'T is a speaking Prodigy which tells us we are now in those last days when Christ should come and not find true Piety or true Faith upon Earth This is a Touch-stone for all Protestants their Brethren of France were not more wicked than others Wherefore we may believe that the same thing would happen in any other place on supposition of the same Circumstances and consequently that Christian courage and true Faith are at this day very rare and few Instances to be found Lastly this Affair tells us that God would melt the Heart of that People and suffer them to sink and be swallowed up that he may shortly raise to himself another a new People These are the Characters of this persecution which makes me regard it as very singular and extraordinary in its kind and consequently as a presage that God will shortly finish the establishment of his Kingdom and the Ruin of that of Antichrist If we only consider how this Persecution hath been more effectual than any the Church ever suffer'd it were enough to make us judge that the Devil now imploys his utmost force and power as apprehending 't is the last Time and that the ruin of his Kingdom is at hand When Paganism was ready to fall under Constantine he then excited the sharpest persecution under the Emperor Dioclesian These are the different Reflexions that conspired to possess me that the coming of our Lord was near to destroy the wicked one by the Breath of his Mouth I had a strong inclination to be certain and assured of the truth of these Thoughts which could no otherwise be done but by finding in the Apocalypse the accomplishment of those Circumstances which were to precede and accompany the fall of the Babylonish Empire With this design I betook my self to read over the Apocalipse not the several Commentators on that Book but the Book it self only with the Exposition of Ioseph Mede whom I formerly look't upon as a man inspired for the Interpretation of the Prophecies His Key of the Apocalypse and annexed commentary did heretofore charm me I could find nothing like it in all the other Expositors I added that of his Chronicles and his Book called The Apostacy of the latter Times which is a large Commentary on 1 Tim. Chap. 4. v. 1 2 3 4. And the Spirit saith expresly that in the last times there shall be some who shall depart from the Faith. Besides several excellent and curious things a part whereof you will find in this Treatise I met with in that Author the thing which I so eagerly sought for viz. the true Epocha of the 1260 years during which Time the Antichristian Empire should last he makes them to begin about the year of our Lord 450. or 455. by dateing them from thence they must end about the year 1710 or 1715. which agrees very well with my conjecture But Ioseph Mede who set me right at first in the beginning of the true path forsook me in the middle of the way and when the circumstances and preliminaries of the fall of Babylon were to be adjusted according to this Calculation which are so exactly described in the Apocalypse I found no assistance at all from him on the contrary he led me out of the way wherin he himself had put me and to make me wander and go astray According to the Epocha which he himself had mark't for the beginning of the 1260 years for the reign of Antichrist I should see the end of it in 25 or 30 years but according to Mr. Mede there must be many Ages to accomplish all things which are to be fulfilled before the period of the Kingdom of Antichrist In the 11th 14th 16th Chapters we have an account of the Circumstances and degrees of the Fall of that Empire the Eleventh Chapter speaks of the death of the two Witnesses for three days and half of their Resurrection and of the fall of the tenth part of the City c. In the 14 Chap. where the Fall of Babylon is divided into two Acts one is called the Vintage the other the Harvest In the 16th Chap. where the seven Periods of the declension and Fall of the Antichristian Empire are set forth by seven viols and seven Plagues of all this Ioseph Mede understood nothing yea supposing as he doth that of those seven Plagues not above two or three were come to pass in his Time he remits us far enough off for the accomplishment of the five others The Periods described by every Viol are each of them more than one Age so that we should have four or five hundred years yet to come before the end of the Kingdom of Antichrist If every one of the four viols that remain to be poured out were but of fifty years we should have yet two hundred years longer to wait I confess that after having read those places of the Apocalypse and reviewed them twenty times I understood nothing more therin I was only more and more confirmed that no man had rightly understood them In the midst of these distractions I yet begun my work without knowing well where I went. But I can say that God so opened mine eyes in the way that gave me unexpressible consolation for after having consulted the Eternal Truth above an hundred times with a deep Humility and very great Attention at length I received an answer at least I believe so and think it very plain that all that must precede the last Fall of the Antichristian Empire is fully accomplisht I have no right to require the same assurance from others neither do I require it But that which I demand at least is a little of that attention which I imployed in the meditation of those divine Oracles and then I am perswaded that if you are not as fully convinc'd as I am you will yet see reason enough not to condemn me of rashness In the first part of this work you will find nothing new for the substance of it for 't is a long time that Rome hath been called Babylon and that the Characters of the Antichristian Empire have been confest to be found in the Papacy I
believe nevertheless that you will find that Truth better cleared and made more manifest than hitherto it hath been This Controversie about Antichrist hath languisht for an hundred years it hath been unhappily abandon'd on a politick account and in obedience to Popish Princes 'T is a wicked Complaisance for which we are punisht and which hath cost us very dear for if we had perpetually exposed this Great and important Truth before the Eyes of the Protestants that the Papacy is Antichristianism they would not have fallen into that degeneracy and apostacy which we see at present How could they have resolved within themselves to submit to Antichrist and return to his Party But 't is so long since they heard it so called that they have forgot it They thought it was only a transport of zeal in the first Reformers from which we were now come off There was something in that neglect and forgetfullness which seems to discover the finger of God He would that this horrible catastrophe should happen and to that end permitted that this important Truth should be neglected and those controversies only which were but accessory should be minded and that this should be pass't over that the Papacy is the Antichristian Empire they who for want of giving heed to that Truth are fallen ought now to think of it and tremble to consider that they have voluntarily plung'd themselves again into that Babylon out of which God had so wonderfully delivered them In my opinion this is so fundamental a Truth that without it a man cannot be a true Christian to confound the Kingdom of J. Christ with that of Antichrist is an unsufferable Fault in some Ages for certain God hath permitted that Ignorance but we are not now in those times we must now declare for one party and stand our ground There is no Communion between Christ and Belial between the Prince of light and that Destroyer who is truly an Angel of Darkness that Controversy was so much stifled and laid asleep that our Adversaries believed it dead and thought that we had renounc't that Principle and the ground of all our Reformation for I cannot believe the Reformation to have been on a good foundation but on this account Some Protestants the reproach and shame not only of the Reformation but of the Christian name have contributed to efface these Ideas from the minds of men by turning to another sense what the H. Ghost saith of the Antichristian Empire making such Commentaries of the scripture as overthrow the design and meaning of it forging Histories at pleasure by that means to find the accomplishment of S. Iohn's Prophecies in the first ages of the Church At present therfore we must revive that Truth which we had almost suffered to dye This is the Time when we must indeavour to open the Eyes of the Princes and People of the Earth for behold now is the Time when they ought to eat the flesh of the Beast and burn it with fire strip naked the whore and tear off her ornaments and make a full end of Babylon Within a little while these great Things must come to pass 't is high time then to awaken men in order to it This is what I attempt in the first part of this work wherein I discover after another manner than hath been done hitherto the true Characters of that Antichristian Empire In which I must acknowledg my great obligations to my forementioned Author Joseph Mede for no man hath taken pains upon that subject with so much success as he You will see the admirable Type of Antichrist in the famous Antiochus carried farther than ever it hath been and the explication of the three years and half or 1260 days much clearer than ever hitherto it hath been made But I must here advertise that to comprehend the full force of my Arguments to prove the Papacy to be the Antichristian Empire to the reading of this work you must add that of my Lawful Prejudices against Popery for in that book you will find the proof of all the Characters of the Antichristian Empire inlarged I mean not only those Chapters wherein the explication of some passages in the Prophecies concerning Antichrist I apply them to the Pope and his Empire I speak principally of those Chapters where I describe the Corruption Covetousness Pride Idolatry Paganism the fabulous and lying Spirit of Popery all characters of Antichristianism as in this work is shown I desire all those who have any care of their salvation to Read those two pieces and I dare be confident that all those who have not a seared Conscience will be sensibly affected with what they shall there find and conceive a just Horror for that Religion which hath held the Truth under so long and cruel a Captivity That I may render my Lawfull Prejudices the more usefull to my design which is to make the Papacy appear to be the true Antichristianism I am resolved according to the advice that hath been given me to abridge it but instead of making a pure and simple abridgment I shall in contracting it change the Prejudices into so many Characters of Antichristianism and show that there is no one of those Prejudices but is a character of the Antichristian Empire If any thing retards this design it will be my desire to see whether Mr. Arnaud will make good the promise of F. Simon and reply to that Book So that when I Abridge that Book I may at the same time refute the Sophisms Mr. Arnaud is preparing This first part regards the Time past The second part contains the explication of Things Future or rather of those which we believe are yet to come there are many things therin which will certainly be surprizing to you as they were to me and if you read with any favourable opinion what I say upon the 11th 14th and 16th Chapters of the Apocalyps I cannot believe you will have much different Thoughts from mine I will not call them Conjectures let them be such to others I consent but as to me there is something more for I think I have discovered which are the two parts of the Fall of Babylon whereof one is called the Harvest the other the Vintage I believe that I have found the seven viols of the 16th Chap. to be already poured out which were supposed to be yet to come which to me is an argument that the Reign of Antichrist is near its end I know not whether others have discovered any thing of this before me I pretend not to have perused all the Modern Commentators on the Apocalyps on the Contrary I have read very few of them having experienc't that the diversity of Ideas that remain in the mind serve but to obscure the Truth and cause one to lose it Some I consulted before I made this second Ediction but I found nothing capable to make me alter my sentiments or that could furnish me with any new light Dr. Moore is
necessary to premise in the first place an Observation which I call the Key of the Revelation 'T is that this whole Book is nothing but a Paraphrase on what Daniel saith in the seventh Ch. of his revelations touching the fourth Beast Certainly this fourth Beast is the Roman Empire the fourth Monarchy And if some great strange events be found therin 't is always with respect to the Roman Empire that must endure to the coming of the Kingdom of J. Christ on the Earth VVhy God hath nor taken notice of other States in the Revelation The reason why God taking no notice of so many great events that happen without the bounds of the Roman Empire of the great Empires that are establisht the nations that are overturned the bloody Wars that are every where insists only on the fourth Monarchy or the Roman Empire is because god reveals not future events but with respect to the Church which he loveth which he conducts which he will instruct concerning his will. Now the Church was to be enclosed in or very near within the bounds of the Roman Empire I know that there were Christian-Churches in Persia it may be some in the Indies But all this was but a small matter Euphrates was the bounds of Christianity it spread it self but a little beyond it The Church therfore had no need to know that which should happen on the other side Euphrates nor to understand the foundation of the Empires of the Tartars the Kings of Persia the Mogulls the Chinois for all this had no respect to her Wherfore the Revelation saith not one word of them The Spirit of God also had no intention to instruct us in the adventures of the Empire of the Saracens that of the Turks but with reference to the fourth Monarchy Therfore we shall not see these two Empires that of the Saracens that of the Tarcks but only by the by in the fifth sixth Trumpets we shall not see them there but as the Scourges of God that fall on the fourth monarchy to vex to destroy it This observation is the Key of the Revelation For first it removes that difficulty which many make so great a stir about viz. that the Revelation as t is usually explained doth not at all touch on or if it doth 't is but by the by the greatest Revolutions of the World that happen'd in the East since 1200 years Yet once more it was not the work of him who would speak of nothing but the Church those Events that have in immediate reference to the Church Secondly This observation will teach us rightly to divide the times of the Revelation properly to apply the visions to each time to discover the events that are signified by those Visions We must know therefore that the fourth monarchy without comparison the greatest The division of the fourth Monarchy into two Periods most distinguished in the Prophecies is divided into two great periods The first is from the birth of Rome ab urbe conditâ which was the great Epocha of the Romans to the division of the Roman Empire into ten Kingdoms which was after the death of Valentinian the third about the year 455. For then the Empire was torn in pieces between the Greeks the Vandals the Goths the Burgundians c. it was I say divided into ten principal parts The second period of the fourth monarchy is since the division of the Empire among ten Kings the reunion of those ten Kings under one sole head that calls himself the universal Bishop to the end of this monarchy the coming of the fifth which is that of J. Christ on the Earth These two periods are very near of the same length viz. 1200 years or a little more The Lord J. Christ came into the world Anno V. C. 754. or 752. as Dionysius the lesser pretends The Empire was divided into ten Kingdomes about the year of J. Christ 455. i. e. in the year 1209 or 1207 of the city of Rome since that time under the Roman Gothish Kings the counting ab urbe conditâ was continued till the time of Dionysius the lesser a Roman Abbot a Scythian by nation who died in the year 540 according to Baronius who made his Paschal cycle in the year 527. T is about the year 530 that the Christian Aera began to be in use the counting by the years of J. Christ Then men left off counting ab urbe conditâ after they had used this Epocha about 1280 years However that be the period from the building of Rome to the division of the Roman Empire among ten Kings is more than 1200 years The second period of the fourth monarchy since its division among ten Kings to the end must be also above 1200 years The Prophecy makes it 1260 prophetical days i.e. 1260 years Now we must observe that in the time of St. Iohn i. e. in the time when he wrote the Revelation there was above two thirds of the first period of the fourth monarchy past gone For the wrote about the year 850 after the building of the city There remain'd therfore but a little more than 350 years of this first period But he had before him the whole entire second period of 1260 years Wherfore t is not very strange that he enlargeth himself much more on this later part than on the former So that we shall not find properly more than two chapters the sixth the eighth that respect this first period of the fourth monarchy and all the rest from the ninth ch inclusively to the 20th exclusively contains the events that belong to the period of the 1260 Years which is the second of the fourth Monarchy To render this truth more plain that the Prophecy of Daniel touching the fourth Monarchy is the Text on which the H. Spirit treats in the Revelation we must here view the Prophecy of Daniel apply it to divers parts of that of St. John. After this I saw in the night visions Dan. 7.7 behold a fourth beast dreadful terrible strong exceedingly it had great iron teeth It devoured brake in pieces stamped the residue with the feet of it it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it it had ten horns Daniel having asked the explication of this vision the Angel saith to him hereupon The fourth beast shall be the fourth Kingdom on the Earth v. 23. which shall be diverse from all Kingdoms shall devour the whole Earth tread it down break it in pieces This refers to the establishment of this Empire its conquests that were begun under the Consuls Dictators were finisht under the Emperours of which St. John. had seen a part some followed after him under whom also the Empire was always enlarged or at least preserved in its greatness even to the children of Theodosius It broke in
have already done 't is enough to fulfil the Prophecy which saith That God sent them to kill the men of the third part of the Earth i. e. of Europe And the number of the Army of the Horsmen was 200. Thousand Thousand The Turks certainly are originally Scythians Tartars and Nomades people that had nothing but Horsmen in their Armies The formidable Infantry of the Turks which they call the Jannizaries was not instituted till about the year 1300 by Ottoman the Founder of the Empire which at this day possesseth Constantinople Before that their chief strength was in Cavalry The Prophet maketh it prodigious for its number All the World knows the thing happen'd exactly according to the literal sense He also describes them in a hideous manner They that sate on the Horses v. 17. had Breastplates of Fire and of Jacinth and Brimstone That is to say the heads of these Horsemen were like globes of fire whence came forth flame and smoke The heads of the horses were as the heads of Lions out of their mouths issued Fire Smoke Brimstone This Fire this Smoke and this Brimstone seem to be a description of Gun-powder and its effects And this may well signify that the Turks should make their principal desolations in the Empire of the fourth Monarchy after the invention of canons and fire-arms whence come forth lightnings flames sulphur smoke which indeed did come to pass These horses that vomit up flame smoak have also tails like unto Serpents with which they do hurt viz. in spreading their poison And this is common to them with the Locusts of the fifth Trumpet 'T is the venom of the wicked Religion of Mahomet which the Turks have established spread in all places where they have establisht their dominion They that were not Killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands that they should not Worship Devills idols of Gold Silver Brass Stone Wood which neither can see nor hear nor walk Neither repented they of their Murders nor of their Sorceries nor of their Fornication nor of their Thefts This signifies to us that the Periods of the sixth Trumpet and the ravages of the Turks is that of the corruption of the Church in the fourth Monarchy in the Antichristian Kingdom a period during which there reigned Idolatry worshipping of Demons or second Mediatory Gods Images placed in the Temples Oratories depravation of manners by Poisonings Assassinations Sodomies Incests Adulteries and other impurities Thefts Robberies and Violent Dealings And in truth the Roman Church since the tenth Age fell into such shameful Idolatry and such horrible Corruption of Manners that never was any thing like it seen in the History of the World. This point may be seen justified at large in our just Prejudices against Popery CHAP. VIII The Explication of the Tenth Chapter of the Revelation THe ninth Chapter ends the first part of the Revelation and the tenth begins the second wherin is what we seek after viz. Antichrist the time of his continuance and the circumstances of his end This tenth Chapter is properly the preface to the second little book We must explain it here before we proceed And I saw another mighty Angel come down from Heaven clothed with a Cloud v. 1. J. Christ appears a second time for a second vision a Rain-bow was upon his Head his Face was as it were the Sun his Feet as Pillars of Fire 'T is clear by this Pomp that this Angel is Jesus Christ They are very near the same colours wherwith he was described in the first chapter of the book his Countenance was like the Sun his Feet like unto fine Brass This is an Argument that here a new Prophecy begins a second act of this great piece 'T is Jesus Christ the Prophet of Prophets that must cause these Visions to enter The differenes between the first little book of the Revelation the second He had in his hand a little Book open he set his right Foot upon the Sea his left Foot on the Earth See here a little book different from the first which was given to the Lamb in the fifth chapter Another argument that 't is a Revelation wholly new of another order The first book contained the Destinies of the Empire and this contains the Destinies of the Church The first book was Written without within by reason of the multitude of events that were to befall the fourth Monarchy the adventures wherof God would foretel until the coming of the fifth Monarchy that is to say the Kingdom of Jesus Christ The first book was Sealed with seven seals But this later one is a little book opened 'T is because the first part of the Revelation which respects the destinies of the Empire is incomparably more obscure more difficult to be understood than the second The destinies of the Church are more Clearly predicted than those of the Empire In this second part which respects the destinies of the Church Antichrist is very plainly seen all those things that must befall the Antichristian Empire But the first part of the Revelation which contains the destinies of the Empire is so obscure that hardly any thing of it is understood tho at this day all the events are come to pass the prophecies fullfilled Joseph Mede in my opinion is the first that understood any thing of it He set his right foot on the sea his left foot on the Earth This signifies his Empire over the whole terrestrial Globe composed of Earth and water it signifies also that what he was about to fore-tell respected all the men that dwell in the world He set his right foot on the Sea. The Sea in respect to the land of Canaan was on the West this signifies that the West should be the principal Theater of the Adventures of the Antichristian Empire which he was going to describe And he cried with a loud voice as when a Lion roareth v. 3. when he had cried seven Thunders uttered their voices This roaring of a Lion was a presage that that which he was about to predict was terrible As in truth nothing is more fatal to the Church VVhat voices thunders signify in the Revelation especally in the second part than the Empire of Antichrist Seven thunders uttered their voices In this Book Lightnings Thunders Voices always signify the words oracles of God. The seven Thunders of this second little book are exactly the seven Spirits of the former For both the seven Spirits the seven Thunders signify the divine Oracles Spirits because of him that dictates them Thunders because of their efficacy because they beat down to the ground they astonish they shake Seven because of their perfection When Jesus Christ by his roaring had given the presage of Future Events the Oracles were given pronounced concerning those Events
And when the seven Thunders had uttered their Voices v. 4. I was about to write A sealed vision is an obscure vision I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me seal up those things which the seven Thunders uttered write them not A Sealed Book a Writing a Word sealed according to the Style of the Scripture is a word that is not understood 1s 29.11 The Vision of all is saith Esay as a book that is sealed that is to say you shall not understand it God saith to Daniel seal up the vision Dan. 8.26 for it shall be for many Days And in another place O Daniel shut up the words Dan 12.4 seal the book even to the time of the end many shall run to fro knowledg shall be encreased That is to say God will not have the Prophecies be understood till a certain time In like manner the Prophecy that respected Antichrist was Sealed up till an appointed time For above ten whole ages nothing of It was understood or so little that 't is to be reckon'd as nothing And write them not that is to say do not express them in such terms that in them the events may be read at least not very soon V. 5. And the Angel which I saw standing upon the Sea and upon the Earth lifted up his Hand to Heaven V. 6. And sware by him that liveth forever 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 which are therein That there should be Time no longer V. 7 But in the days of the Voice of the seventh Angle when he shall begin to sound the Mystery of God should be finisht as he hath declared to his Servants the Prophets VVhen the last Trumper must sound The Voice of the seventh Trumpet is that which must sound at the moment of the last Fall of the Antichristian Empire when Popery shall be destroyed Then all the Nations shall turn unto God to make up the Kingdom of Jesus Christ that is yet to come as appears by these words The seventh Angel sounded Ch. 11.15 and there were great Voices in Heaven saying The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever Here our Angel swears that in that time that is to say when the Kingdoms shall be reduced to Jesus Christ Time shall be no longer Time in this place is not opposed to Eternity as if the Angel would say that then the World shall end and Eternity begin but his meaning is that the times afforded to Antichrist shall be ended shall be no more It must be remembred that the Holy Spirit as well by the mouth of Daniel as by that of St. John assigns to Antichrist a time times half a time This shall be no more There shall not be neither time nor times nor half a time for Antichrist Time shall be no more for his reign it shall be the time of his total destruction Then the mystery of God shall be finisht as he hath declared to his servants the Prophets viz. The mystery of this glorious reign of Jesus Christ on the Earth which hath been foretold by all the Prophets in so magnificent a manner as we shall shew in the process of this work which Daniel saw so clearly as to mark the time circumstances of it And the voice which I heard from heaven v. 8 spake to me again said Go take the little book which is open in the hand of the Angel which standeth upon the sea upon the Earth And I went unto the Angel v. 9 said unto him give me the little book And he said unto me take it eat it up it shall make thy belly bitter but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as Honey The voice which he heard from Heaven is the same as spoke to him in the beginning of the book I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day heard behind me a great voice as of a Trumpet saying I am Alpha Omega the First the Last And this also shews that this here is a new prophecy not the continuation of the first For the same voice of God the Father that began the First Revelation returns begins the second as the same Jesus Christ also appears again a second time Saint John receives the book from the hand of the Angel that is to say of Jesus Christ because 't is he that sends the Prophets that inspires them by his Spirit This little book is Saveet in Saint John's Mouth because the Spirit of prophecy the glory of being the mouth of God from heaven pleases the inclination of men that love honour But this little book Made his belly bitter because that after having reflected on the events which he was about to fore-tell after having digested consider'd them in his own breast he found them so dreadful that they filled his soul with sorrow And he said unto me v. 11. thou must prophecy again before many people nations tongues Kings These words do no longer leave any cause of doubting whether this be a new prophecy not a continuation of the First Thou must make a Second Prophecy to Kings People Nations wheras what thou hast prophecied to them respected their Temporal state for the future that which thou shalt foretell them respects their Spiritual state the things of Religion CHAP. IX A short System of all the Events of the Church which are noted in the Apocalypse first of all an Epitome of the Chronology The history of the Church is not to be found but in the last eleven Chapters of the Apocalypse WE must not seek for the History of the Church in the First Nine chapters of the Apocalypse Joseph Mede is the first that hath discover'd that the Apocalypse consists of two bodies of Revelations meant by two Books the first of which we find in the beginning of the fifth Chapter v. 1. And I saw in the right hand of him that sate on the throne a book written within on the back side sealed with seven seals The other we find in the 10. Chap. v. 2. And he had in his hand a little book open he set his right foot upon the sea his left foot on the Earth It is plain that these two Books are two bodies of Revelations perfect in their kind different each from the other that both the one the other run through all reach to all the times from the beginning of the Revelation of St. John even to the end of the World. One cannot imagine any thing more reasonable than this that the First Book contains the destinies of the World the Empire the Church also in respect to her Temporal as far as she is
a part of the World. The Second Book contains the destinies of the Church properly taken as a Church distinguisht from the societies of the World. This is a much better notion than that of Mr. de Launay who tells us that the first book contains the History of the Church the second that of the Gospel What can be the adventures of the Gospell distinct from those of the Church How can those Prophecies that respect the Establishment the ruin of Antichrist be applied to the book of the Gospel unless it be in a very indirect manner For these events do directly respect the Church not the book of the Holy Scriptures That which God saith to St. John after he had caused him to swallow the little book of the 10th v. 11. Chapter Thou must prophesy again before many Peoples Nations Tongues Kings These words I say do plainly shew that this is a Prophecy wholly new which doth begin and pass over again all the periods of time This being so that is to say the first book included in the 5. 6. 7. 8. and 9th Chapters containing the destinies of the Roman Empire and the various changes that were to befall it even to the time of its utter ruin by the revolt of the ton Kings it is evident that they are greatly mistaken that endeavour to find the Pope and Anti-christ in the Star of the 8th Chapter called Wormwood It is true that in the 7th Ch. we find the vision of the 144. thousand persons that were Sealed who do belong to the History of the Church For these are they that have not defiled their garments with the Idolatries of Antichrist nor partaken of his fornications These are the same with the two Witnesses of the 11th Chapter that prophesy clothed in sack-cloth for 1260 days during the reign of Anti-Christ Babylon The H. Ghost hath placed these 144 thousand Sealed persons in the destinies of the Empire immediatly after the opening the first six seals before the opening of the seventh because the seventh Seal was to be subdivided into seven Trumpets which do reach even to the end of Antichrist's Empire Trumpets that were to contain the horrible corruption of the Church the Birth and Progress of her Idolatries It was therfore very reasonable to take notice of those whom God intended to exempt from those corruptions before the opening of the seventh Seal which was to bring so many evills on the Church as well as upon the World. This in my opinion being certain that the destinies of the Church do not begin before the 11th Chapter are prosecuted even to the end it will be necessary to consider the Chronology the History of these twelve Chapters from the 10th to the 22th the last As for the Chronology St. Iohn begins his Prophecy concerning the Church either from the beginning of the Christian Aera The Chrustian Church in the Apocalypse must be divided into three Periods i.e. from the birth of the Saviour of the World or at least from the time in which he prophecied which was in the reign of Trajan This duration of the Church from Jesus Christ's time is divided into three general Periods The First is that of the Christian Church in the four first Ages which were those of her purity the second is that of her Corruption Idolatries Antichristianism that was to endure 1260 years at the conclusion whereof an end must be put to the Babylonish Empire The third Period contains the reign of a thousand years during which the Church must have peace after which must follow the last judgment The first of these Periods is the shortest not lasting above 3 or 400 years And therfore St. Iohn doth not stay much upon it This is the Period which he describes in a few words in the beginning of the 11th Ch. And there was given to me a reed like a rod the Angel stood saying rise measure the temple of God the Altar them that worship therin But the court which is without the Temple leave out measure it not for it is given to the Gentiles the holy city shall they tread under foot forty two Months All the world is agreed that the Temple built by Solomon according to the orders of God was an Emblem of the Church This Temple had two Courts an inward and an outward one Here the H. Ghost represents the whole duration of the Christian Church by the extent of this Temple and its Courts Nothing is more proper to shadow forth the extent of time than the extent of place This inward Court that was measured by St. John together with the Altar them that worship therin is the first Period of the Church the Ages which we call the happy times of the Church which reach to the end of the fourth Age about 360 or 380 Years The rest of the Christian Churches duration till the reign of the 1000 years is shadowed forth by the outward Court The inward court is an Emblem of the pure Church the out ward court an Emblem of the corrupted Church which God leaves to the Gentiles to tread under food 42 Monthes This is the Christian Church turn'd Pagan by the admission of secondary Deities mediating Spirits Images Here is one thing that deserves to be carefully taken notice of between the duration of the Church in its purity and in its corruption there is exactly the very same proportion as there between the greatness the extent of the inward Court the outward one Those that have taken the pains to compute the extent of these two Courts according to that description of them that we meet with in the Iewish Authors both sacred prophanc find that the proportion of the inward Court to that without V. Villal-pand in Ezech. is the same with that of one to three a half Now there is the very same proportion between the duration of the Church in its corruption in its purity The corrupt Church lasts 42. Months that is three years a Half according to which the Church in its purity must not have lasted above one prophetique year which contains 360 Days that is to say 360 Years Indeed the Church did continue in its purity just so long About the year 360 the unhappy superstions about Reliques the invocation of Saints began to creep into the Church which quickly degenerated into Idolatry Thus the reign of Anti-Christian Idolatry hath lasted three times a half hath lâ—sted as long as the reign of pure Christianity This is the outward Court that is left out trodden under foot by the Gentiles prophaned by Idolatry which nevertheless is called the Holy City because there God did preserve his elect And they shall tread under foot the Holy City for 42. Months 'T is chiefly upon this Period of 42 Months that the Prophecies of the Apocalypse do turn
to re-establish the law of Moses that he must set on foot again the Levitical worship How would the Iews receive him for their Messiah if he were so wicked a person as not to believe there were a God To what purpose should he rebuild the Temple of Ierusalem and why should he offer sacrifices to God in it if he made himself to be worshipped as the only God Besides it is clear enough that the Pope causes himself to be adored like a God tho he doth not call himself either the only God or the great God. Germany is not the Roman Empire that must be divided among ten Kings under Antichrist XVI He is not to come till the Roman Empire be entirely destroyed We shall afterwards take an occasion to examin this In the mean time consider what absurdities these men run themselves into According to them the Roman Empire doth yet subsist viz. in the branch of Germany According to them at the end of the World the Roman Empire shall be divided among ten Kings that shall be the Friends the co-temporaries and the supporters of Antichrist That is to say the Empire of Germany shall be divided into ten Kingdoms Those will be notable Kingdoms those ten Kingdoms on the other side the Rheine and do well deserve a place even ten times over in the Prophecies of Daniel and St. Iohn If Antichrist must not come till the Roman Empire be destroyed why did they confess that the little Horn in the 7th Chapt. of Daniel is Antichrist This Horn doth it not play the part of the fourth Beast i.e. of the Roman Empire Why do these Gentlemen agree to this that Antichrist is the seventh Head of the first Beast in the 13th of the Revelation which they together with us acknowledg to be the Roman Empire Why did Bellarmine grant that Antichrist is to be the last Roman Emperour The Roman Empire therfore shall not be destroyed when Antichrist shall come because that Empire shall continue under him Antichrist must come before the end of the World. XVII He is not to come but just at the end of the World. He is not to come till the last times But we shall hereafter examin whether the last times signify the three last years before the day of judgment And when we shall have proved that the 1260 Days of Antichrists reign are so many Years this point will be cleared up The Gospel hath been preached almost throughout the VVorld XVIII Before he comes the Gospel must have been preached throughout all the World. Indeed before the Antichristian Empire did appear and was perceivable the Gospel had been preached in that which they called the whole World from the time of the Apostles in all the extent of the Roman Empire and beyond it in all the then known World in the countries which they knew were inhabited and where they could enter without being hindred by the barbarity of those that dwelt there But this universal preaching throughout all the Earth without Exception must be consequent upon the fall of Antichrist and not a sign of his coming Further this term of Vniversal preaching even then must not be taken in the strictest sense For it may be there will be some Exceptions It is not necessary that Antichrist should be a Magician XIX Lastly Antichrist must be a Magician And that because he must work great signs and miracles by the help of Magick 'T is sufficient for the fulfilling of these Oracles that he doth his signs by illusion and the enchantment of mens senses by cheating and deceit and also by the help of the Devil without his making any compact with the Devil either direct or indirect The false miracles of Popery also are wrought by the cheats of the Priests or purely by lies or by the Devil that makes himself sport with their miserable devotion Seeing all these Characters of the Antichristian Empire are all false we must for the future examin and seek out what are the true Characters of it CHAP. XIII What are the true Characters of the Antichristian Empire They are three Tyranny Idolatry and great corruption of manners That we must not look on Tyranny alone as the sole Character of Antichrist The Antichristian Empire hath three names that note its three Characters WE are seeking after the Characters of the Antichristian Empire I believe we may hope to find them in the names which the Holy Spirit gives it For assuredly names are given by God to signify the nature of things I find that the Holy Spirit gives three names to that Empire He calls it Egypt and Sodom and lastly Babylon Egypt and Sodom in the eleventh of the Revelation where speaking of the death of the two witnesses C. 11.8 he saith their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great City which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt Babylon in as many places of the same book as 't is said in she is fallen she is fallen Babylon the great Come out of Babylon my people These three names signify the three Characters of that Babylonish Empire The name of Egypt signifies the pride Tyranny and Cruelty of Antichrist Egypt is the embleme of Tyranny Pride and Cruelty Of Tyranny because there the Israelites did groan under hard bondage in the chains of Pharaoh who tyrannised over them Of Cruelty because that cruel Prince did vex them sorely with hard labour and the death of their children whom he caused to be drowned in the river Nile Of Pride because this proud Tyrant rebelled against God with an intolerable pride saying Who is the Lord that I should obey his voyce Sodom signifies the great corruption of manners in the Antichristian Empire Sodom signifies the mighty corruption of manners and the reason of it may be easily apprehended It was neither Tyranny nor Cruelty that destroyed Sodom We do not read that she did aspire after the dominion It was not Idolatry at least we have no reason to believe that she was more notorious for it than the other Canaavites round about It was therefore only dissoluteness luxury and debauchery ease and abundance of bread as the Prophets speak Therefore when they would set forth a mighty corruption of manners they borrow an expression from hence and use the names of Sodom nd Gomorrha â—s 1.10 Hear the word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom give ear unto the Law of our God ye people of Gomorrha After which Isaiah falls not upon their Idolatry but upon their corrupt manners He reproaches them with nothing but their injustice and violence Babylon signifies the Idolatry of Antichristianism Lastly Babylon signifies Idolatry All do agree that Babylon was the fountain of all sorts of Idolatry From Chaldaea it spread it self over all the Earth That is the fountain and spring of men 't is also of false Gods. As she was the first fountain so she did continue the chief Seat of it
that Empire to the judgement that God causes to fall on the Kingdom of Antichrist to the harvest and to the vintage i. e. to the total destruction of the Devils Kingdom The following Chapters carry on the matter also to the reign of Jesus Christ the description of which begins in the 20th Chap. of the book There is nothing comes between whereby it is clear there is no interval of time nor any Monarchy between the Roman Empire and the Monarchy of J. Christ and so that the Antichristian Empire that must immediatly procede the reign of Jesus Christ is the continuation of the Roman Empire The same thing is evident from the 17th Chap. which is an explication of the visions of the 13th The 13th Chap. speaks of two Beasts the one had seven heads and ten horns the other hath but one head and two horns The 17th Chapt. speaks no more of the second Beast It speaks only of a woman riding on a Beast of seven heads and ten horns 'T is because the second Beast at the bottom was no more than a continuation of the first i. e. it was no more than the continuation of the Roman Empire Therefore the Holy Spirit in explaining the adventures of the first Beast pretends to explain those of the second also For otherwise if the two Beasts had been different 't is plain the H. Spirit would not have been wanting to have spoken of the one as well as of the other in the 17th Chap. where he explains the visions of the Beasis Now this Beast with seven heads and ten horns i. e. the Roman Empire must reach to the end of the persecutions and to the reign of J. Christ This appears plainly in the 18th and the following Chapters where the ruin of Antichrist is represented and described at large If these proofs did not suffice to prove that the Empire of Antichrist must be a continuation of the Roman Empire one might bring others from the comparison of the two Beasts of the 13th Ch. For 't is clear that 't is one and the same Empire represented by two Beasts And the thing is so plain that the Popish Authors themselves do acknowledg it We have heard Bellarmin confess it and say that Antichrist must be a King possessing the Roman Empire but without the name of the Roman Emperour He that did possess in the time of St. Paul and was to be removed out of the way before Antichrist came is the sixth head of the Beast with ten Horns and seven heads If this be so what must we understand by those words of St. Paul only he that now letteth or possesseth will let or possess till he be taken out of the way and then shall that wicked one be revealed It doth not import till the Roman Empire be abolisht as the Ancients did believe and as the Agents of Antichrist at this day would fain perswade us We must remember that in the Beast in the Revelation with seven Heads and ten Horns the seven Heads are seven forms of Governments under which the Roman Empire hath past 1. Kings 2. Consuls 3. Decemvires 4. The Tribunes of the People 5. Perpetual Dictators 6. Emperours 7. and lastly Popes Every one of these Heads and these Governments hath had its time one hath passed away and another hath come in its place In the time of St. Paul the Head of the Emperours was in possession And 't is of that we must understand those words of his Prophecy only he which now with-holdeth or possesseth i.e. the Head of the Emperors shall cease at Rome and then the Antichristian Kingdom shall be revealed and quickly form the seventh Head which shall be that of the Popes calling themselves the Vicars of J. Christ but being indeed the true Antichrists And thus you have what I thought necessary to be added for the explication of that Prophecy of St. Paul contained in the 2d. Ep. to the Thessalonians CHAP. XV. An explication of the Visions of the thirteenth Chapter of the Revelation and of the two Beasts that appear therin WE come now to the description of the Antichristian Empire according as we find it in the Revelation a book particularly designed to describe it to us 'T is found above all in the 13th Chapter Two Beasts are seen in this Chapter We shall immediately examin both the one and the other following the Text word for word V. 1. And I saw a Beast rise out of the sea having seven Heads and ten Horns and upon his Horns ten crowns and upon his Heads the name of Blasphemy 2. And the beast which I saw was like unto a Leopard and his feet were as the feet of a Bear and his mouth as the mouth of a Lion and the Dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority There is no need that I should observe here that in the style of the Prophets a Beast signifies an Empire A beast signifies a worldly Empire enemy of God. All the world knows it and confesses it It must only be noted that a Beast signifies an Empire that is worldly terrestrial and an enemy to God. The Kingdom of God and of Jesus Christ that must be given to the Saints after the fourth Monarchy is never represented under the image of a Beast The Beast that appears here is the fourth Monarchy which we have seen described in the text of the seventh Chapter of Daniel The Prophet had said that it was diverse from all the other Beasts And Saint John in the explication of it saith that it was composed of the shape of a Lion a Leopard and a Bear wheras the fore-going Beasts had but one simple shape The First was as a Lion with the wings of an Eagle The second was as a Bear and the third as a Leopard But this fourth Monarchy hath all the strength and all the advantages of the tree others together 'T is couragious and strong as a Lion. It had the swiftness of a Leopard in its conquests It hath the firmness of a Bear whose large feet make a firm basis for its whole body The Holy Spirit lays before the Prophets eyes this Roman Monarchy whole and entire Why the fourth Monarchy appears entire in the Revelation about a third part of it was already past because this Monarchy was to be the subject on which all the great events were to turn And to know and object well it must not be shewn by pieces but all entire So that 't is reasonable the Prophet should see this Beast or this Monarchy in its whole extent He riseth out of the Sea. This is not what was said in the eleventh Chapter he riseth out of the bottomless pit The bottomless pit and the sea are not the same thing The bottomless pit is Hell. Here the sea signifies a great number of people The Roma Monarchy rose from the midst of the people as a monster that should rise out of the sea 'T is because it
part of that homage that is due to him 'T is not without a great mystery of Providence that such extravagant Ideas and such as are not according to the intention of the H. Spirit should be affixed to the names designed to signify the Antichristian Empire and its head For example the man of sin the son of perdition the Beast with seven heads full of blasphemies the great Whore the Cup of abomination Antichrist Excessive Ideas I say have been affixed to these names as if hereby it were signified that the person and the Empire designed by these names should have nothing of the Christian yea nothing of humane in it and that they should be prodigies of impiety madness blasphemy and impurity The same thing hath happen'd in the term Apostacy to which hath been affixed the Idea of an utter renunciation of the faith And this hath not come to pass without a singular Providence of God who would not have Antichrist to be known to the end that during his birth and establishment no man might oppose him Our second Observation is that the word apostacy in the Scripture use of it answers to the Hebrew word mered rebellion The word Apostacy properly signifies rebellion and marad to rebel 'T is very usual with the 70. Interpreters to render these Hebrew words by those of to apostatize and apostacy whether it be rebellion against God or rebellion against men that is treated of The Reubenites and Gadites returning home after they had assisted their Brethren to settle themselves on the other side of Jordan built an Altar on the bank of the river The other Tribes imagining that the Reubenites Gadites intended to sacrifice on that Altar against the commandment of God they say to them ye rebel against the Lord. Josh 22.18 19. Timeredou which in the Greek is rendred you are become Apostates from the Lord. On the other hand the Reubenites justifying themselves say the Lord knows if this thing be done in rebellion They use this word mered and the septuagint have rendred it by that of apostacy When the Spies returned Joshuah and Caleb being desirous to induce the Israelites to pursue their journey to endeavour the conquest of the Land of Canaan according to the intention of God they say to them revolt not al timeredou and the Greek hath it do not turn apostates Instances are without number and 't is sufficient to have intimated it According to this use of the word which is certainly the Scripture use of it 't is evident that the Papism is a true apostacy a rebellion a revolt To be an Apostate in the Scripture sense Apostacy doth not always signify a total defection it is not necessary that a man should utterly abandon the true God. When the Israelites on this side Jordan accuse the Reubenites of an intention to turn Apostates do not revolt they do not so much as suspect that they intend entirely to renounce God but only to build an altar against the Altar of Moses to sacrifice to that God that brought them out of Egypt Do not apostatize say they to them in building you an Altar besides the Altar of the Lord our God. When Caleb and Joshuah say to the Israelites on the occasion of their refusing to go towards the Land of Canaan do not apostatize they did not apprehend that the Israelites were minded to chuse another God but only that they would revolt from the orders of the true God but yet without renouncing him for their God. How the Papism destroys the Articles of faith It is not therefore necessary that the Papism should be a formal and entire renunciation of the faith it is enough that 't is a revolting from the faith Now certainly the Papism is so There are none of the Articles of the Christian faith which it doth not destroy and against which it doth not plant its engines There are rebels that do in words acknowledge a Prince for their King who yet do not cease to make war against him This is the ordinary way of rebels The Papism doth perfectly the very same thing It doth homage in words to the principal Articles of the Christian faith but indeed it fights against them it destroys them It acknowledges a God manifest in the flesh but it revolts from this Article and destroys it by another carnal God or a God in the flesh i. e. the Bishop of Rome to whom it ascribes a double power which agrees to Jesus Christ alone and which even Jesus Christ himself would not exercise while he was here upon Earth It destroys also this God manifest in the flesh by another Jesus Christ incarnated breaden transubstantiated indivisibly united to the accidents of the bread and of this false Christ it makes a true Idol It believes one Jesus the redeemer of the World but it destroys this article of faith and revolts from it in saying the Saints are our mediators in offering to God their merits besides the merits of Jesus Christ and in praying to God in their name and by their intercession It believes one only God but it revolts from this article in supposing new objects of worship to which it renders a truly religious worship It believes that the blood of J. Christ cleanseth us from all sin but it revolts from this Article divers ways in seeking out strange satisfactions and in supposing a purgatory the use of which is to expiate the sins of men 'T is an Apostacy from the faith to introduce that Which is beside the faith And that we may clearly understand that all these things and others of the like nature may very well be called an Apostacy from the faith we must again make use of that passage in the 22th Chapt. of the book of Joshua where the Israelites say to their brethren do not apostatize in building an Altar besides the Altar of the Lord. These words shew that one may be an apostate not only by bringing things into Religion which are against Religion but also in promoting things that are besides Religion For they do not say against the Altar but besides the Altar Now in this sense it is clear that the Papism is an Apostacy For besides the true object of worship it introduces new objects of religious adoration besides the sole and only Jesus it introduces many saviours besides the sole Intercessor many intercessors besides the sole sacrifice another sacrifice besides the true Sacraments false ones The Papism introduceth doctrines worship both against the faith besides the faith therfor 't is a true revolting or apostacy from the faith The Papism is an Apostacy if it he considered alone My third Observation is this that to have a right knowledge of the Papism we must not look upon it as is usually done as compounded with the opinions and worship of Christianity which it hath retained This is one of the great artifices of the Devil and his Agents to make us
The proofs of it may be seen in our just prejudices against Popery for there I have shewed these excesses that smell of the spirit of reprobation and that they have had for their authors a Saint Dominick and his Jacobins a Saint Francis and his Cordeliers and generally all the order of the Monks The Idolatry of the Papism was establisht by the Fables and fictions of the Monks By what means did these persons establish Idolatry by hypocrisy and lying by the hypocrisy of liars seared in their consciences Behold preciesely the very way by which the Roman Clergy and generally the Priests and Monks as well those of the East as of the West have establisht Idolatry by profound hypocrisy by lies and fables How many false visions were there to establish the invocation of Saints How may false miracles You should consult the Legends on this point and if any will not give himself that trouble let him read eleven Chapters of our prejudices in the second part from the 11th to the 23th We have given our selves the trouble to make a considerable collection of the horrid filthy shamefull falsities which the Papism its Priests and Monks have advanced to uphold the idolatrous worship of Saints Reliques and Images And it should be observ'd that this spirit of fables was introduced into the Church exactly at the same time that the Antichristian Idolatry began to enter into it The lives of the ancient Monks Paul Anthony Hilarion c. were written by St. Jerom without honesty and judgment The History of the Church from this very time begins to be a Romance where 't is extreme difficult to distinguish truth from lies Under Julian the Apostate Babylas the Martyr begins to work miracles by his Reliques For near 350. years there was not a miracle wrought by Reliques ever heard of But under the reign of Julian the Apostate who succeeded the children of Constantine Babylas the Martyr sometime Bishop of Antioch made a martyr in Decius's persecution interred in a Suburb of Antioch called Daphne more than a hundred years after his death thought of working the first miracles Julian the Apostate would consult the Oracle of Apollo of Daphne who not being willing to answer and conjured at least to tell the reason of his silence said it came from hence that the bones of the Martyr Babylas were interr'd near his Temple This is the most ancient History of a miracle wrought by Reliques that we have been able to discover So the corruption of Christianity began in the same place where the faithfull began to be called Christians It was not very long before miracles were seen wrought by other Reliques St. Ambrose was inform'd in a vision where the bones of the Martyrs Gervais and Protais were interred they went to seek them they carried them in great pomp to the Church and they did not fail immediately to work great miracles This was found so good and so proper to beat down the remainders of Heathenism that this torrent gained ground every where Miracles wrought by Reliques were look'd upon as new in the 4th Age. Orat. adversus Games But that which is highly observable is that the Authors who report these facts as true confess that this was new and had not been seen since the Apostles time St. Chrysostom speaking of Babylas saith if any one will not believe the things done by the Apostles let him mind those that are done in this age and cease impudently to deny the truth He doth not send them back to the times immediately fore-going he doth not say if any one will not believe the Miracles that are always wrought in the Church let him believe that which he sees at present But he sends them back to the Apostles as if nothing of the like nature had been seen since them St. Ambrose also saith it plainly enough speaking of the Miracles wrought by the Reliques of Gervais and Protais He reckons up the Miracles of these two Saints Epist and Marcell Soror l. 7. and finds nothing like it since the Apostles time Wherefore after he hath made an enumeration of the Miracles of these Saints he makes one of those of Jesus Christ and his Apostles which he sees renewed and saith nothing of any that were wrought in the ages immediately fore-going St. Austin that was very fond of the same superstition makes the same acknowledgement in the 8th Chapter of the 22th Book of the City of God whence the Papists pretend to draw so great advantage to themselves 'T is true he there makes a History of many Miracles wrought by Reliques but he acknowledgeth this is all new We have given order saith he for the making publick memoirs and books for the reading of these Miracles before the people seeing that in our time the signs and miracles of the ancient times were renewed It was therefore new and had not been since the ancient times Now it is certain that these pretend miracles had for their Author the Spirit of lying and for their spring the Hypocrisy of Lyars It was the Devil that abused these good men The fable of Protais and Gervais very plain in St. Ambrose to lead them to superstition and idolatry that which St. Ambrose himself saith of those Saints Gervais and St. Protais is very proper to make one suspect a cheat The inhabitants of Milane desire him to build in their City a Temple like that at Rome I Ubi supra will do it saith he provided I can but find some Reliques He had them not as yet he knew not where to find them but lo he is in quest of them and hereupon subiit veluti cujusdam ardor praesagii behold he was inflamed with a certain fire that savoured of presage and inspiration He makes them search in a certain place he there finds two bodies of Gyants We found two men of extraordinary bigness such as the ancient time did yield In-venimus mirae magnitudinis viros duos ut prisca aetas serebat Ossa integra sanguinis plurimum The bones were yet entire and there was a great deal of blood Would you not say that he speaks of the time wherein Polyphemus and the old Giants lived Men I warrant you were much bigger in the third Age under the Empire of Decius than under that of Gratian and Valentinian I don't know whether it be apparent that God chose martyrs from among the Giants They are a sort of people the enormous mass of whose bodies dies is usually a sign of the vices of their souls at is usually a sign of the vices of their souls at least of that fury and warlike heat which is not the Character of a Saint But it was necessary every thing in the fable should be great even to the bodies of those that were found This spirit of lying and fables increased and grew with the reign of Idolatry In the sixth Age the two Gregories one the Bishop of Rome the other
very little importance to know by what Spirit this hath been expresly said by that of the Prophets or that of St. Paul seeing it is the same Spirit And besides this we shall have occasion to say something o fit in one of the following Chapters CHAP. XXII The Characters of Antichrist in the Papism confirm'd by the great type of Antichrist Antiochus Epiphanes That which is spoken literally of this Antiochus agrees mystically to the Pope and the Papism THere is but one spring more whence I would draw the Characters of the Antichristian Empire viz. those Chapters of the Revelation of the Prophet Daniel where the most famous of the persecutors of the Jewish Nation is literally spoken of and the most fatal persecution that Nation endured The first Text of this prophecy is found in the 28th verse of the 11th Chapter to the end In the 28th verse of the 11th Cha of Daniel Antinchus Epiphanes is found according to the letter 28. Then shall he return into his Land with great riches and his heart shall be against the holy covenant and he shall do exploits and return to his own Land. 29. At the time appointed he shall return and come toward the south but it shall not be as the former or as the later 30. For the Ships of Chittim shall come against him Therefore he shall be grieved and return and have indignation against the holy covenant so shall he do he shall even return and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant 31. And arms shall stand on his part and they shall pollute the Sanctuary of strength and shall take away the daily sacrifice and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate 32. And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries but the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits 33. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many yet they shall fall by the sword and by the flame and by captivity and by spoil many days 34. Now when they shall fall they shall be holpen with a little help but many shall cleave to them with flatteries 35. And some of them understanding shall fall to try them and to purge and to make them white even to the time of the and because it is yet for a time appointed 36. And the King shall do according to his will and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above very God and shall speak mà rvellous things against the God of Gods and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished for that that is determined shall be done 37. Neither shall he regard the God of his Father nor the desire of Women nor regardany God for he shall magnify himself above all 38. But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces and a God whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold and silver and with precious stones and pleasant things 39. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange God whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory and he shall cause them to rule over many and shall divide the land for gain 40. And at the time of the end shall the King of the South push at him and the King of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots and with horsemen and with any Ships and he shall enter into the Countries and shall overflow and pass over 41. He shall enter also into the glorious Land and many Countreys shall be overthrown but these shall escape out of his hand even Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon 42. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the Countries and the Land of Egypt shall not escape 43. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver and over all the precious things of Egypt and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps 44. But tidings out of the East and out of the North shall trouble him Therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many 45. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas and in the glorious holy mountain yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him I find a pretty great agreement among Interpreters on this Chapter and the Verses which we have just now read By those of both communions it is agreed that 't is Antiochus called Epiphanes one of Alexander's successors that is here literally spoken of It is the very same that the other Prophecy respects in the eighth Chap. where the H. Spirit having represented to Daniel in a vision the Empire of the Medes and Pèrsians under the Emblem of a Ram with two horns he describes the Empire of the Greeks under the Emblem of a he-goat that had at first only one horn in the middle of his fore-head which being broken four other horns less than the first came in its place Afterwards from one of these four horns comes forth a little horn of which the prophecy thus speaks C. 8. v. 9 And out of one of them came forth a little horn which waxed exceeding great toward the South and toward the East and toward the pleasant land v. 10. And it waxed great even to the host of Heaven and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground and stamped upon them 11. Yea he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away and the place of his sanctuary was cast down 12. And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression and it cast down the truth to the ground and it practised and prospered 13. Then I heard one Saint speaking and another Saint said unto that certain Saint which spake How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot 14. And he said unto me unto two thousand and 300. days then shall the sanctuary be cleansed 'T is also to the same Antiochus that we must refer the whole 12th Chapt. of the same book of Daniel C. 12. v. 1. And at that time shall Michael stand up the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a Nation even to that same time and at that time shall thy people be deliver'd every one that shall be found written in the book 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the Earth shall wake some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame and contempt 3. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firnament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever 4. But thou O Daniel shut up the words and seal the book even
times and half a time are the same poriod times and half a time The 42 months during which the Court must be left to the Gentiles according to what is said in the 11th Chap. The 1260 days during which the two witnesses are to prophecy clothed in sackcloth as 't is fore-told in the same 11th Chapter And lastly the 42. months given to the first beast of the 13th Chapter of the Revel to excercise his power All these different periods I say are one and the same period and signify the duration of the Antichristian Empire This can't be disputed The second principle is this that in that Prophecy the days the years and the months may be taken for natural days months and years or for prophetical ones a day for a year Sometimes the Prophets count the time as other men do This might signify natural days for sometimes the Prophets do so speak they reckon the time as other men do Jeremy reckon'd 70 years for the duration of the captivity and these years are natural ones 'T is certain also that in the period of the thousand years designed for the reign of the Church after the destruction of Antichrist the years are taken for natural years But it is not less certain The Papists cannot deny but that the 1260 days may signify 1260 years Chap. 9. Chap. 4. v. 4.6 that these days and these years may be taken mystically for prophetical days and years 'T is confest that the 70 weeks of Daniel signify 70 weeks of years God said to Ezekiel Thou shalt sleep on thy left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it according to the number of the days that thou shalt lye upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity I have appointed thee each day for a year Numb 14.34 God said to the Israelites according to the number of the days in which ye searched the Land even 40 days each day for a year shall you bear your iniquities even 40 years This could not be obscure to the Israelites who were accustom'd to this style and who knew there were weeks of years in their Calendar as well as weeks of days and that a week of years answered to that of days one year for one day The third principle is this that here the number of three years and a half 42 months and 1260 days cannot signify an indefinite time As it sometimes happens The number 1260 must be a definite number not an indefinite one that the Holy Spirit by a determinate number means an undetermin'd one A way that would be extreamly advantagious to the partisans of Rome For when one shall have demonstrated that 't is absolutely impossible that that which is predicted concerning the Antichristian Empire can be fulfilled in the compass of three years and a half it would be very useful for them if they could say we must not take this so strictly in the literal sense that it may signify three times ten three times twenty or more according as the Holy Spirit oftentimes means an indefinite number by a definite one But here that cannot be There are certain numbers by which the Prophets use to describe an indefinite time by reason of a certain priviledge those numbers have As that of three because 't is the first odd number the number of the persons of the Trinity that of seven because of the seven days of the creation that of twelve because of the twelve Patriarchs the twelve Tribes and the twelve Apostles that of 100 and that of 1000 because these are numbers that according to the custome of men are often designed to signify a great undetermin'd quantity But we shall not find any examples of broken numbers as that of three and a half of 42 and 1260 taken for indefinite numbers 'T is true the Revelation speaks of the 144 thousand sealed ones Now the number of 144 is not less a broken one than that of 42. But 't is because 144 is the product of that of 12 multiplied by it self The Holy Spirit takes twelve thousand sealed persons of every Tribe 12 times 12 make 144. Here a reason can't be given why God should choose 1260 days to mark out an indefinite time There is no middle way therefore they must be so many years It must be 1260 years or 1260 days and no more or so many simple days So that when we shall have proved that the course of this Empire is not three years and a half we shall have proved also that 't is 1260 years To prove that 't is not three years and a half we need but run through the History of this Empire according as we find it in the book of the Revelation The first Argument against the three years and half One half of the Revelation would be taken up in giving an account of the events of only three years and a half First of all we must know that according to the greatest part of Interpreters almost the whole Revelation is spent in fore-telling us and setting in order the events that must happen to the Church during this reign of Antichrist At least it is certain that 't is the subject of one half of this book the 11th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th and 19th Chapters contain the birth progress finishing ruin and fall of this Antichristian Kingdom Let any one judge if there be any likelyhood that this only prophetical book which the Apostles have left us for the time of the N. Testament moves but upon three years and a half and hath omitted the events of almost two thousand years So that the general Idea of this Prophecy can't bear this imagination but let us come to particulars Second Argument these three years and a half can't agree with what is said of the first beast in the 13th Chap. of the Revelation Second The 11th Chapt. begins to speak of this Antichristian Empire but because this is but as a general History and an abridgement 't is in this general account that the vision of the three years and a half is hid and 't is from hence it hath been taken Let us see if this can agree with the places where the Prophet enlargeth this short description We have in the 13th Chap. a representation of this Empire under the emblems of two beasts of which one had seven heads and ten horns and the other but one head and two horns We there see in the first place a beast with seven heads and ten horns It hath been confessed to us that this is Antichrist We have proved that the word beast signifies an Empire consisting of a founder and his successors Now see a fine succession and a very considerable time that same of three years and a half to be called an Empire and to be meant by a beast Certainly this beast with seven heads and ten horns is the Roman Empire in its whole extent from its founder Romulus even to Antichrist who
The 8th Argument spiritual Babel is represented as a City en riched by a long commerce Eighthly Moreover doth a City become rich in three years and a half What kind of commerce then must that of this Antichristian Empire be that shall make the fortunes of her merchants in so little a time The H. Spirit borrows these figures from what is done and seen inhumane life 'T is seen therein that Cities become rich and powerful by long commerce But never were any of them seen to attain to a surprizing greatness by two or three years commerce Lastly A City and an Empire that are raised and destroyed in three years and a half have not time to gather together voluptuous things The 9th Argument spiritual Babylon is represented as having enjoyed a long peace and to enjoy them It must always fight to conquer to grow greater or to defend it self If the Antichristian Empire lasts but three years and a half this is not too much to establish its greatness by sword and by fire and to repell that force that must destroy it Of necessity Antichrist and his adherents must always be in violent motion in trouble and in war. Whereas the description of spiritual Babylon imports the possession of a long peace during which she must heap together both all the riches and all the pleasures of the World. The 10th Argument the ruin of the Babylonish Empire according to its description in the 19th Ch. cannot be wrought in three years and a half The 19th Chapt. is the last where in the ruin of this Empire is described to us We there see him who is called the faithful and the true and the Word of God i. e. J. Christ that prepares himself for the combat that causes the armies of Heaven to follow him that calls all the birds of Heaven and all the beasts of the Earth to the slaughter that gives battels that obtains the victory that casts the beast and the false Prophet into the lake of fire and brimstone For this alone more is necessary than three years and a half For an Empire so vast so large and so strong as that of Antichrist must be is not destroyed in a few days CHAP. II. The last Argument against the Chimaera of three years and half taken from the time during which the Temple was prophan'd by Antiochus Four quite different times set down for that in Daniels Prophecies An explication and a reconciling of those four times An application of these four times to the Kingdom of Antichrist and the ruin of that Kingdom I Draw my last Argument against this chimerical duration of three years and a half from the most famous of all the types of Antichrist viz. Antiochus Epiphanes 'T is he that persecuted the Church that oppressed it that defiled the Temple that caused the daily sacrifice to cease for the space of three natural years and a half Wherein it is evident that God hath set him as a type of Antichrist who during the space of three prophetical years and a half was in like manner to seize on the Church to fill the Temple of God with Idols and make the pure service of God the continual sacrifices of praises and prayers which God hath reserved for himself alone to cease Now we must remember this maxime which we have already advanced in the fore-going Chapter viz. that types are oenigmatical and short pictures of great events great in their extent as well as in their qualities Types are short pictures in a little This maxime is evident it hath no need of proofs And according to this principle seeing the times must be short as well as the other strokes it is clear that contracted years cannot be better represented than by days not by months for a month is the revolution of the Moon and consequently it can't be proper to represent the revolution of the Sun which is a quite different Star. But the day and the year are the revolutions of the Sun the year is the great revolution the day the little one If one would represent in short the great revolution of the Sun one can't do it better than by the small revolution of the same Star. And thence I conclude that the oppression of the Church by Antiochus who was the type having lasted 1260 little revolutions of the Sun they must represent so many of the great revolutions of the same Star. I spend a Chapter on this last proof because in the duration of the oppression of the Jewish Church by Antiochus Epiphanes there are considerable difficulties which spring from the differences of the Prophecies of Daniel and the events such as the first book of the Macchabees represents them to us I hope that the clearing these difficulties about the duration of the persecution of Antiochus will give us such light into the duration of the Kingdom of Antichrist as will please the curious Four times noted by Daniel for the duration of Antiochus's persecution We must therefore observe that the Prophet Daniel describes the time of the duration of the persecution that was to befall his nation in four different manners First of all he saith in the eighth Chap. after having spoken of Antiochus Epiphanes under the embleme of the little horn C. 8. v. 13. Then I heard one Saint speaking and another Saint said unto that certain Saint that spake How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot And he said unto me unto 2300 days then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed v. 14. Daniel reassuming the affair of Antiochus in the eleventh Chapter and continuing it in the twelfth observes three time Cap. 12. v. 6 7. And one said to the man clothed in linnen which was upon the waters of the river How long shall it be to the end of these wonders And I heard the man clothed in linnen which was on the waters of the river when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven and swore by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time times and a half It is plain this signifies one year two years and half a year three years and a half So then you see the second time The third is observed in the same Chapt. C. 12. v. 11. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up there shall be 1290 days Lastly The fourth time is found in the following verse Blessed is he that waiteth v. 12 and cometh to the 1335 days See then four different numbers Two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings 2300. A time times and half a time 1260. that make three years and a half and days One thousand two hundred fourscore and ten days 1290. And lastly 1335. one thousand three hundred and thirty
day of consecration or dedication 'T is to this Chronology that we must accommodate the History of the first Book of the Macchabees as we shall presently do The Chronology of the persecution according to the book of the Macchabees First we must find a fixed and a certain point in the History of the Macchabees and the persecution See 't is that of the consecration and dedication of the Temple And on the 25th day of the 9th month which is the month Kaslen in the 148 year they arose betimes in the morning 1 Macc. c. 4. v. 51 53 54. and offer'd the sacrifice according to the Law on the new Altar which was dedicated the same time and the same day wherein the Nations had prophaned it This is the day of the dedication This is the beginning again of the first daily sacrifice We have seen that from the beginning again of the first daily sacrifice reckoning backwards we find 2300 sacrifices interrupted i. e. 1150 days or three years two months and ten days and consequently the cessation of the first daily sacrifice must fall on the 15th day of the seventh month of the 145th year of the Aera of the Seleucidae For from the tenth day of the seventh month of the year 145 to the 25th day of the nineth month of the year 148 there is exactly three years two months and ten days We have also seen that from the dedication of the Temple which is the same day with that of the daily sacrifice's beginning again counting backward to the first prophanation of the Temple there are 1335 days i. e. three years eight months and fifteen days And since the day of the Dedication falls on the 25th of the ninth month of the 148th year of the Seleucidae the first prophanation of the Temple must fall on the fifth of the first month of the year 145 and consequently that the Temple was prophaned six months and some days before the ceasing of the daily sacrifice But for the greater clearness we must relate the History as 't is in the Macchabees The History of the first book of the Macchabees fixed to its true times 1 Macc. c. 1. v. 21 22 23. and fix it to its true times In the 143 year Antiochus having overcome Ptolomy King of Egypt passed by Jerusalem took it pillag'd it and carried away the vessels of the Temple Now after Antiochus had smitten Egypt he returned again in the 143 year and went up against Israel and Ierusalem with a great multitude and entred proudly into the Sanctuary and took away the golden Alter and the Candlestick and all the vessels thereof This is not that which is called the prophanation of the Sanctuary For 't is idolatrous and impure worship that prophane the house of God 't is not violence and pillaging it 1 Macc. 1. v. 30 31 32 33 34 35. And after two years fully expired the King sent his chief Collector of Tribute who came to Ierusalem with a great multitude And spake peaceable words to them but all was deceit for when they had given him credence he fell suddenly on the City and smote in sore and destroyed much people of Israel and took the spoils of the City and set it on fire c. Then built they the City of David with a great and strong wall and made it a strong hold for them Then it was the prophanation began after two years fully expired reckoning from the 143d year inclusively this falls on the beginning of the year 145 in the first month 'T was then I say the Temple was prophaned by the Apostates of the Iewish Nation This also is what that Author saith expresly v. 36.37 For it was a place to lye in wait against the Sanctuary c. They shed innocent blood on every side of the Sanctuary and defiled in That is to say Menelaus the Apostate Sacrificer sacrificed together with his fellows in the Temple to the Heathen Gods. But observe the daily sacrifice did not yet cease The Apostate Menelaus did what Ahaz the father of Hezekiah had done and what Manasseh had done he prophaned the Temple by false worship however without causing the worship of the true God to cease There 't is Apostates begin At first they would fain reconcile God and the Devil afterwards by degrees they advance to a total Apostacy Antiochus's men were six weeks a building the City of David to make a Citadel of it when that was done they thought themselves strong enough to undertake every thing They finisht what they had begun entirely abolisht the Mosaical worship caused the daily sacrifice to cease six months and five days after the prophanation of the Temple the tenth day of the seventh month v. 54. Two months and five days after they arrived at that height of boldness as even to put the Idol of Jupiter Olympius in the Temple of Jerusalem In the fifteenth day of the month Caslen in the 145th year they set up the abomination of desolation on the Altar of the Lord and built Altars in all the Cities of Judah on every side This desolation lasted till the tenth day of the seventh month of the year 148 the day wherein Macchabaeus entred again into Jerusalem visited the Holy places and undertook the cleansing of them Then said Iudas and his brethren 1 Mae 4.36 c. our enemies are discomfited let us go up to cleanse and dedicate the Sanctuary And all the Army met together and went up to the Mountain of God and saw that the holy place was forsaken and the Altar prophaned c. And Iudas chose Priests of blameless conversation c. who cleansed the Sanctuary and bare our the defiled stones into an unclean place I suppose I say that this work was begun the tenth day of the seventh month of the year 148. And so from the tenth of the first month of the year 145 there are exactly three years and a half the very time marked by the Prophet for the duration of the prophaning of the Sanctuary Then therefore this prophanation of it ceased Afterwards I suppose they were one entire month in cleansing the Temple and carrying away the filth which the Heathens had laid in it and taking way the stones of the Altars that had been built and of the great Altar that had been prophaned by the Idol of Jupiter Olympius Add one month i. e. thirty days to 1260 days you make 1290 days which is the account we find in the 11th verse of the 12th Chapter of Daniel From the time that the abomination of desolation shall be set up shall be 1290 days which are three years and seven months that is to say since the prophanation of the Temple to the finishing its purification But after the finishing this purification the Temple was not yet in a condition to sacrifice in For they were fain to build a new Altar and make utensils all new in the place of those that
the Schisme did shake off they yoke the City of Bolonia made a Law that the Benefices of that Church should be conferred upon none but of that City and Territory To conclude it cannot be expressed by how many ways that grand Schisme which divided the Sun of the Antichristian World did spoil it of its strength and lustre After this time the Authority which the Popes had so mischievously used to ruin the Kings and Kingdoms of Europe did scarce do any more mischief 'T is evident that then the Kingdom of the Beast was darkned because by this Eclipse it lost half of its beams i.e. of its Authority They grawed their tongues for pain History must be consulted to know how many calamities wars combats how much shedding of blood rage and fury did spring from this shameful Schisme Every one of these Popes gnasht his teeth and bit his tongue against the Antipope There were nothing but thunderbolts excommunications Croisades wars and combats of one against another Nay still to this day the slaves of the papal Seat are vext to the death when we prefs them with this thing But under all their sorrows they blasphemed the God of Heaven and repented not of their deeds In those Ages Idolatry was so far from loosing any thing that it encreased then was the reign of Monks of superstition of Fables of Legends and a thousand abominations In that age Simony was come to its height While the Court of Rome sate at Avignon is invented a thousand wayes of selling holy and prophane things Crimes Paradise Sacraments Minisâ—ry Marriages and in a word everything Then came abroad that famous book the Tax of the Roman Chancery and Penitentiary which at that time and yet every day forces to make the Kingdom of the Beast full of darkness This period lasted from 1305 untill 1440. CHAP. IX The sixth Plague are the Turks who pass aver the Bosphorus and invade the Greek and Latin Empires The three unclean spirits which come out from the mouth of the false Prophet are the papal Laws armed with Excommunications I Have carried on my conjectures untill I came hither and did somewhat content my self in what I had said about the five first Plagues The certainly of what hath been said ought to be encreased by that which follows but I confess that the remainder of this Chapter was thick darkness to me And understanding nothing of it I put it among those things that are to come according to the usual custome of them who Interpret Prophecies who say of every thing which they understand not that it is not yet come to pass And this made me ready to think that my perswasion as to the five first plagues was but a meer opinion For in the framing of systems whether they be of Principles and conclusions or of Events contain'd in Prophecies we must pierce through them all that we may see them clearly and be assured of their truth Whilest I thought that the remainder of the Chapter concerned the time to come I was content to understand nothing of it but I was afflicted with the fear that the end of Antichristianism was not at hand But at last after I had knockt twice thrice four five yea six times with devout attention and deep humility I believe that the door is open'd to me I dare speak thus though I know that some have said that this savours of Enthusiasme to whom I answer that there is one Article at least more in my Creed then there is in theirs viz. I believe in the Holy Ghost and his operations I am in this matter a Disciple of the Author of the enquiry after Truth and am perswaded that we see no truths but in God and by the assistance of God we contribute nothing besides our attention our prayers and our desires However I think that I have found out the two plagues that follow in this Chapter and by this means that which was only a conjecture of mine concerning the five fore-going is risen to a real perswasion I am therefore perswaded that through the Divine assistance I have pierced into the Systeme of the seven periods a favour for which I will render to him immortal thanks as long as I live For I confess that I cannot express the ravishing consolation that my heart hath felt in seeing such evident reasons to perswade me of the approaching deliverance of the Church If these two plagues had been yet to come I felt my heart began to fà int at the prospect of the dismal calamities which now oppress the Church without reckoning those which do still threaten her Hope deferred maketh the heart sick saith the Wise man. Sixth plague v. 12. And the sixth Angel pour'd out his viol upon the great river Euphrates and the water there of was dryed up that the way of the Kings of the East might be prepared The Kings of the East and the river Euphrates do give light to this Text. As for the Kings of the East we cannot doubt but that they are the Turks for they are the only Kings of our East They possess exactly that part of the Roman Empire which is called the East and hath kept the name of Natolia in the Text they might have been translated the Kings of Anatolia for that is the word which is used Now all know that the Turks are the Kings of Natolia As for Euphrates we find it in the sixth Trumpet as it is here in the sixth plague v. 13. And the sixth Angel sounded and I heard a voyce from the four horns of the golden Altar Revel ch 9. which is before God. v. 14. Saying to the sixth Angel which had the Trumpet loose the four Angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates v. 15. And the four Angels were loosed which were prepared for an hour and a day and a moneth and a year for to slay the third pare of men v. 16. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand and I heard the number of them v. 17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision and them that sate on them having brest-plates of fire and of jacinct and brimstone and the heads of the horses were as the heads of Lions and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone The most skillful Interpreters have in this Metaphorical description discerned the Turkish Cavalry which was formerly so formidable The Turks and their invasions are foretold in the 9th chapt of the Revelation and after the reading of what Joseph Mede hath wrote upon this I think it cannot be doubted that the thing is so This barbarous Nation which came out of Tartary had carried on its conquests even to Euphrates nigh to which if formed four Dynasties or Governments and there it abode a long time these are the four Angels who were bound behind Euphrates This River for some time served as a boundary or barriere of the Empire of
the Revelation sets forth the Dragon as broken loose giving his power to the Beast and devouring the whole world Once again this is a blindness which I cannot conceive If there was no other argument against these two Hypotheses this alone would be enough to convince me of their falsity namely the terrible confusion into which these Authors do put the Visions of the Revelation To any one who hath studyed them it is evident that the Prophet hath observed the Order of History at least in the gross of events He had several visions concerning the same thing and in the order of these vision the order of all their circumstances does not alwayes in every thing agree with the order of events and this we have observed and cleared But I say it again the gross is alwayes according to the order of history this order is observed in the Revelation that the birth and progresses of Antichrists Kingdom are laid down before its fall Now the Authors we have spoken do make St Iohn guilty of a Parachronisme of two thousand years After he had finisht the narrative of the ruin of Antichrist and gone through a Period of 1260 years which if we add to them the space from the Incarnation of Christ unto the revelation of the son of perdition make almost two thousand years After this I say they make him on a sudden to go back as far as the beginning of the Christian Church Is there any other instance of such confusion in this book Let them shew it What mean those words After this so the French version which begin the 20 Chapter and denote always not only the succession of visions but of times This work is already large than I intended to make it but notwithstanding I cannot forbear to lay down a few of our arguments there are so many that one might crush the contrary opinion with number but I shall only urge the principal ones I shall open as it were four springs of arguments Four springs of arguments that demonstrate the trath of Christs reign upon earth which I shall leave every man liberty to sound and dive into contenting my self with producing them and drawing from them the principal evidences which clearly discover this future reign of our Lord Iesus Christ The firs spring is the fifth Monarchy promised to the Saints My first spring or source of arguments will be in the Prophecies that speak of a fifth Monarchy reserved for the Saints 'T is impossible to find a rational sense in them without supposing this thousand years reign There are two remarkable ones in the book of Daniel In the 2. Chapter Nebuchadnesar sees a statue whose head was of gold the shoulders of silver the belly of brass the leggs of iron the feet and toes partly of iron and partly of earth The Prophet interprets to him these four metals of the statue that they are four great Monarchies The iron leggs by consent of all signifie the fourth Monarchy which is the Roman The feet and the ten toes partly of iron and partly of earth signifie the ten kings or Kingdoms which were to divide the Roman Empire and weaken it at the same time And wheras thou sawest the feet and the toes Dan. 2. v. 41 42. part of potters clay and part of iron the kingdom shall be divided but there shall be in it of the strength of iron forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixt with miery clay And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken These ten toes are the ten Kings which were to make up the Kingdom of Antichrist and reign together with him in the last Period of the Roman Empire during the 1260 years marked in the Revelation Now hat happens at the end of the reign of these ten Kings and of the fourth Monarchy v. 44. And in the dayes of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever Behold a fifth Monarchy different from the ten Kings The Monarchy promised to Christ cannot be placed in the Ages by past which must break them in pieces and must continue after them for ever i.e. untill the end of the world 'T is granted that this Kingdom that shall never be destroyed is that of Iesus Christ But is it not as clear as the day that this Kingdom must not appear untill after that the ten Kings and the ten Kingdoms shall have been broken ' in pieces by this fifth Monarchy I confess I have nothing to say to them who are incapable of beholding this evidence and I do not conceive how it can be said that we must go back beyond the ten Kings that we may place the Monarchy of Iesus Christ before them when the Prophet so plainly placeth it after the ten Kings Is it not expresly said that his fifth Monarchy must break in pieces and destroy these ten Kingdoms How therefore can it go before them or have its duration parallel to theirs In the seventh Chapter of the same Prophecy we have the same four Monarchies under the Images of four Beasts 'T is confessed that the fourth Beast that had ten horns is the Roman Empire all our writers grant that these ten horns that signifie ten Kings are the ten Kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was divided after the time of Valentinian the third and that those ten horns reign together with the little horn which is Antichrist When the Prophet had seen both the fourth Beast and the three first wholly destroyed and their bodies burnt with fire he adds And I saw in the might-visions Chap. 7. v. 13. and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came unto the Ancient of dayes and they brought him near before him and there was given him dominion and a glory and a Kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed And to the same purpose in the explication of the vision v. 24.25 And the tend horns out of this Kingdom are then Kings that shall arise and another shall arise after them and he shall be diverse from the first c. And he shall speak great words against the most high and shall wear out the saints of the most high and think to change times and lawes and they shall be given into his hand untill a time and times and the dividing of times c. All are agreed that Antichrist is here intended and all Protestants grant that this is the Papacy and that its reign is to last 1260 years Now what is to happen after this time and times and a dividing or half
converted becomes an Apostle and the instrument of the conversion of the Gentiles the converted Iews shall compleat the conversion of the most remote Pagan Nations in the utmost corners of the World. This doubtless is that admirable return of the Iews and their advancement to the Soveraign dignity of the Church which Ezekiel represents in the 37. Chapter of his Prophecies under the Image of a Resurrection This also is that which St. Paul calls Life from the Dead Ezekiel saw a large Valley covered with dead Bones These dead Bones are the House of Israel saith the Holy Spirit They came together and sinews and flesh came upon them and the Spirit of the Lord entred into them The Prophet speaks farther in the following Chapters of the Victories this renewed Israel should obtain over Gog and Magog the Enemies of the Church After which in the nine last Chapters he makes a figurative description of this Kingdom of the Iews and of the Messiah and of the Church perfected upon Earth under the Emblem of a magnifick Temple whereof he describes the Parts the Apartments and several Buildings the Altar Priests Victims the Land of their possession and a new division of it This in my opinion is the mystery of the nine last Chapters of Ezekiel Chap. 45. which have appeared so unintelligible to most Interpreters I conclude this Chapter by saying that the Papism makes it hereby plain that it is the true Kingdom of Antichrist by their cruel persecution of the Iews That Mystery of iniquity comprehends nothing of the Mystery of Godliness and sees not that God hath reserved that Nation to manifest in them his greatest wonders and consequently that they ought not to be destroyed by flames as in Spain and in those Countries where the inquisition is in force CHAP. XVIII The third Head of Arguments for the future Kingdom of Christ and the Church So many Prophecies which concern the compleat Victories of Jesus Christ the Holiness of the Church and its perfect prosperity which have never yet been accomplisht MY third Head of Arguments to show that we are to expect a Kingdom of Christ upon Earth are the Prophecies not yet accomplisht and which cannot be fulfilled unless such a Kingdom do come This would be a large subject and yield matter for several books and those good ones too whereby the World might be informed of several things they know not But this Book is larger already then I would have had it I shall therefore content my self briefly to show and endeavour to perswade that there must be a Time which we have not yet seen for the fulfilling of several Prophecies which were delivered on purpose to describe the Kingdom of our Lord Iesus and give us the Characters of it The most ancient Oracles are not perfectly fulfilled The most ancient and most remarkable of all the sacred Oracles is that which God himself pronounc't to Adam The seed of he Woman shall bruise the Serpents head and â—hee shall bruise his heel 'T is agreed that the Head signifies Empire and Power So that Prophecy imports the victory of Christ and his Children over the Kingdom of the Devil and that they shall destroy it Now this is a promise not yet accomplisht in the History of the Church we have no age wherein it could be said that the Kingdom of Christ prevailed over that of Satan It is an observation we cannot mind too much that we must carefully distinguish here between Life and Kingdom or Reign Life signifies existence but Reign imports actual Domination and Rule Iesus Christ 't is true in every age hath had a party subsisting in the World and in that respect hath been victorious over all the attempts of Satan whose end was to destroy him and 't is some kind of victory over an Adversary to prevent him from attaining his end but this can never be called a full and compleat Victory It is necessary to that to be the predominant prevailing Party whereas that of Iesus Christ hath alway been opprest either by Paganism or by Mahometanism or by Antichristianism Such a time therefore is to be expected wherein the party of true Christianity shall prevail over and utterly extinguish the Empire and Kingdom of the Devil All the nations of the earth have not been blessed in Christ 49 Gen. The second Prophecy is that which was given to Abraham In thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blest which signifies that the righteousness of Christ shall spread it self over all Nations to the same sense is that other Prophecy Shiloh shall come and to him shall the gathering of the People belong 'T is true almost all Nations have been invited to the knowledge of God many have been actually brought to it but many have not yet been called much less converted And among those Nations which have been converted the Bad hath so far exceeded the good that it cannot be truly said that the multitude of the People belong to Christ Nevertheless I am confident that shall come to pass and that the number of the Good shall one day as much exceed that of the wicked as now the number of the wicked doth that of the Good. But that these Oracles are not accomplisht we shall be fully convinc't if we proceed to those Prophets who were sent on purpose to Characterize the Kingdom of J. Christ Among whom the Prophet Isaiah shines as a Sun among the Stars It would be necessary to make a just Commentary on all his Book to make it plain that what he fore-told is not come to pass For most of his Prophecies have for their object this glorious and blessed state of the Church in its last Period But to be as short as may be I shall reduce all that he hath said of the Church under the Messiah to these two Articles 1. It s Righteousness and Holiness 2. It s Peace and Prosperity and shall make it evident that neither the one or the other have been fulfilled to that degree which they ought to be fulfilled according to those Prophecies For the Righteousness and Holiness of the Church Chap. 11.6 c. Prophecies of the future Holiness of the Church the Prophet Isaiah saith That the woolf shall feed with the Lamb the Leopard lie down with the Kid the Calf and the young Lion and the Fatling together and a little child shall lead them The Cow and the Bear shall feed their young ones shall lie down together and the Lion shall eat straw like the Ox And the sucking Child shall play on the hole of the Asp and the weaned Child shall put his hand on the Cockatrice den They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy Mountain for the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea. Behold the most ravishing and fair description of it that can be seen It amounts to a return of the State of Innocence 'T
is plain the Prophet borrowed his Characters of it from that Happy state of the first Man wherein he was filled with the knowledge of God and his Righteousness And during which the brute Animals were innocent kind and gentle as himself 'T is also undeniable that this Prophecy respects the days of the Messiah But I would fain be told sincerely whether this oracle hath ever yet been accomplisht in what time in what place in what age or generation of the world It will doubtless be answered that it was in the Apostolical Church and in the time of the Apostles for only in that new-born Church could it be said that there was none to hurt or destroy that Wolves and Lions and Bears became Lambs The Prophecies which fortold the great holiness of the Church are not accomplisht Yet even in that new-born Church Wolves and Lions might be found But it cannot be of that Church which the Prophet there speaks because he speaks of a time when the knowledge of the Lord should fill the Earth which then it did not For this great Holiness this admirable union is represented to us only in the Church of Ierusalem Moreover we see not that this lasted for any considerable time There is a great deal of difference between the Church in the first Chapters of the Acts when Believers had but one heart and one soul and the Church we read of towards the end of the same Book where were false zealots who opposed St. Paul for having preached to the Gentiles Besides Isaiah speaks not of the Holiness of some particular persons but of a general Sanctification That a time shall come when Righteousness shall universally cover the societies of men as the waters cover the bottom of the Sea. I know well enough that the Prophets do oftentimes make use of the figure called Hyperbole But in truth the Hyperbole here would be forc't and carried too far and would not be intelligible if the Holy Spirit should so describe the Church of the first Ages where wee some Incestuous some Adulterers some Heretiques Schismaticks Apostates and all sorts of crimes We need but read the writings of St. Cyprian De Lapsis to be assured that in the good days of the Church there were already things very horrid and abominable Every one may think as he shall please but for my own part I expect from this prophecy such an age wherein Holiness shall as much exceed vice as vice now doth exceed and overtop vertue We read also in the same Prophet Chap. 32. v. 15 16. that the Spirit shall be poured from on high upon us and the wilderness be a fruitfull field and the fruitfull field a forrest Judgement shall dwell in the wilderness and Righteousness remain in the fruitfull field The work of Righteousness shall be Peace and the effect of Righteousness quietness and assurance for ever An high way shall be there and a way and it shall be called the way of Holiness the unclean shall not pass over it but it shall be for those the wayfaring men Chap. 35.8 9. though fools shall not err therein No Lion shall be there nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon Chap. 54.13 14. it shall not be found there All thy Children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the Peace of thy Children thou shalt be establisht in Righteousness Chap 59.21 22. This is the Covenant I will make with you saith the Lord my Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth or out of the mouth of thy seed nor of thy seeds seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever And they shall call them Chap. 62.12 the Holy People the redeemed of the Lord and thou shalt be called sought out a City not forsaken Chap. 31.33 Add to this the Prophecy of Ieremy This shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my People and they shall teach no more every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest saith the Lord. These Prophecies speak four things 1. They paint out the State of the Church under the Messiah 2. They describe it by a more then ordinary Holiness that shall every where be poured out 3. By a persevering Holiness to which no return to vice or no apostacy shall succeed For 't is said the Spirit of God shall not depart from them or their seed or seeds seed 4. Lastly This is a Holiness whereof the Jewish Nation is to have the chiefest part For 't is to that People and concerning them that God speaks Now I demand whether any one can show me that age of the Church wherein such an Holiness which answers the Idea given us by these Prophecies can be found where we shall meet with a persevering Holiness If the Church for any time hath been pure that hath not continued from one Generation to another yea let such an Age be named wherein the Israelitish Nation did pertake of this Evangelical Holiness Hath not that People been always obstinate unbelieving Enemies to Christ without faith in respect of men as well as in reference to God we must than open our eyes and confess that there shall be a Kingdom of Holiness such a one as shall fill all Nations and not subject to those unhappy Revolutions that by corruption have changed the face of the Church from year to year Thus far Righteousness and Holiness Next we are to consider the Peace and Prosperity of the Church Glorious Prophecies of the peace of the Church whereof the Prophets speak more largely and in an higher strain because under the Images of Temporal Prosperity they set forth that Spiritual Prosperity which we have spoken of under the names of Holiness and Righteousness Concerning Peace Is 2.4 the Prophet Isaiah saith that they shall beat their swords into Plough-shares and their Spears into pruning-hooks that Nation shall not rise against Nation neither shall they learn war any more Concerning its future Prosperity he saith c. 41.18 19. The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstop't the lame shall leap as the Hart and the tongue of the Dumb shall sing for joy I will open Rivers in high places and Fountains in the midst of Valleys I will make the wilderness a Pool of water and the dry Land springs of water I will plant in the wilderness the Cedar the Pine the Myrtle and the Olive-tree and I will set in the desert the Fir-tree the Pine and the Box-tree together c. 49.10 11. They shall not hunger nor thirst neither shall the heat or Sun smite them for he
't is not that which the H. Ghost would immediately describe because he would that we should be kept ignorant of it So that those Descriptions have an immediate relation to the flourishing State of the Church in the last Period and by analogy they may be transfer'd to the blessings of Paradise 2. Type the Rest after the Babylonish captivity The Captivity of Babylon was doubtless another Type of the Captivity of the Church under Antichrist and therefore the Papacy is called the City of Babylon and after that Captivity the People returned to their own Land and lived peaceably there So doubtless the Church being delivered from the bondage of Antichrist shall return to its rest here on Earth 3. Type the Rest after the persecution under Antiochus The Persecution of Antiochus was also a Type of the Persecution which the Church hath suffered under Antichrist Now after the three years and half of that Persecution the People of the Iews returned to the possession of their Temple and rose to a more flourishing condition than they had ever been in since their coming out of Babylon 4 Type the number seven which is so often mentioned I leave these and many other Types which may be found to insist on one which I find to be very evident and convincing 'T is that which may be found in the number of seven 'T will be granted that this is a mysterious and sacred number and that it signifies perfection 'T is on this account it is mentioned so often in the Apocalypse There are seven Churches seven Stars seven Candlesticks seven Spirits seven Lamps seven Eyes seven Horns of the Lamb seven Plagues seven Trumpets seven Thunders seven Viols So in the Books of Moses the seventh day is Holy and the seventh year was the year of Rest and the seven times seventh year was the great Jubilee The living Creatures entred into the Ark by sevens the first-born of every beast remained seven days with its Dam the male Children were to be seven days old before they were circumcised the Candlestick of the Tabernacle had seven Lamps a Woman after her uncleanness a Leper after he was cured of his leprosy were to be purified for seven days It would be too long to recite all the Examples of this nature which might be mentioned for the number seven is almost every where to be found For what reason is it so who sees not that this number signifies Completion and Perfection and of what can it signify the Perfection if not of the greatest work of God that for which all his other works were wrought that is the Church If then the 7th the be every where sacred why is not the seventh Period reckoning from the creation of the World also sacred and a Period of perfection It will be said the number seven is sacred because of the seventh day which was consecrated to the service of God but why hath God chosen the seventh day to be holy and a day of rest for man is it not plainly to signify that the seventh day or the seventh Period of the Church shall be a time of Holiness Tranquility and Peace The 7th day of the Creation a type of the seventh period of the Church The seventh day they farther tell us was consecrated to Rest and Holiness because God created the World in six days and rested on the seventh Behold now we are at the Spring Head and can rise no higher but here also we shall find an excellent Type of our seventh Period 'T is here I would ask with boldness Wherefore God created the World in six days and rested on the seventh Why did he not imploy five days eight ten or twelve in the work of Creation but precisely seven Certainly the infinite wisdom of God will not permit that he should do any thing without reason Here is this reason because he intended to hold the Church in an imperfect state for six Periods of Time labouring in that great work for which he made all others and causing it successively to pass through seven degrees We must not say that the Sabbath the seventh day on which God rested was the image of that great Rest into which the Church is to be brought after he shall have compleated it upon Earth for the seventh Period ought to bear proportion to the other six whereas Eternity hath none with Time much less with one day So that the seventh Period cannot be the Eternal Rest It must be a Time that bears proportion to the six preceding Periods As then after six days of labour God finisht his work by a day to which he affixt Holiness and Rest as its Characters there must likewise be for the Church after six days of sins and sufferings one last day that is to be distinguisht by those two Seals Peace and Holiness upon Earth Not but that the Sabbath is also a figure of the Eternal Rest but 't is because these thousand years of Peace and Holiness on Earth shall be the image of that perfect Peace and Holiness which the Church shall injoy in Heaven and so 't is a mediate Type of the Eternal Rest These thousand years I confess have no proportion with Eternity but it is not to be a Type in the duration of the Time but in respect of the state of Peace and Holiness Images of the Coelestial Peace So these thousand years may be Types of the Heavenly Glory but the seventh day could not be the immediate Type because of what was said before Because the seventh day of the Creation is a Period of the same nature with the six preceding and which by consequent ought to bear proportion to them It will be said that 'T is easy to make these suppositions hut difficult to prove them But I have a sure Method for the proof of this when the several parts of a System support one another even therein they are proved in an Hypothesis that is false there is alway some part inconsistent with it self Now I will make it evident that the seven days of the Creation do perfectly answer to the seven Periods of the Church that in every one of those days such works were wrought which were exact Emblems of the Events which have happened and of the things which were done in every Period of the Church answering to every day If I make it evident that in the six Periods of the duration of the Church which are past we have seen those things which were painted out by the six days of the Creation so that the first Period contains that which was figur'd by the work of the first day the second Period that of the second and so of the rest if I say I can do this methinks it will then be proved that what was done in the seventh day of the Creation is the image of that which shall be done in our seventh Period of the Church The parts of this System do admirably support one
in the preceding Chapters where I have shown that Empire and a Kingdom Peace and Prosperity are promised to the Church of Christ in such a manner as hath never hitherto been fulfilled Object VVhen Christ shal come the Church shall be most corrupt 4. After this they tell us that when God describes those Times which shall immediately precede the end of the World instead of representing them as a golden Age they are painted out as an Age of Iron and darkness Iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold false Prophets and false Christs shall arise they shall work signs and wonders to deceive if possible the very Elect. Math. 24. v. 12.24.37 The coming of the Son of man shall be as the days of Noah When the Son of man shall come Luke 18. c. 8. he shall not find faith upon Earth And 2 Ep. Thessal 2. chap. 't is said the Lord shall destroy the man of sin by the brightness of his coming But all this is grounded on a false supposition viz. that there shall be no other coming of Christ but for the last final Judgement which is not true the coming of Christ here spoken of is that to settle the Peace and Glory and Kingdom of his Church and we may be certain that this is meant in almost all the Passages where the coming of Christ is spoken of It is true that when Christ shall come to destroy the Antichristian Kingdom he shall not find true Faith upon Earth that is very little of it Experience confirms this for we are now in that very time Farther when Christ shall come the third and last time for the last Judgment it may well be that there shall be a great scarcity of faith piety in the World at that time for Gog and Magog shall be increas't there shall be a great seduction upon Earth and a great affliction upon the Church So that these Prophecies shall have their accomplishment whenever Christ comes They were fulfilled at his first coming when he came in the flesh for the Church was then exceedingly corrupted and so at his second coming when he shall come to destroy the Antichristian Kingdom For in our days there is a very great corruption and shall be at his third coming for at the end of the world there shall be an Insurrection against the Church and against the Son of God. 5. Object The day of Judgement would not then be unknown 5. It will farther follow say these Gentlemen that the Hour and the day of Iudgement would not then be unknown as our Lord J. Christ hath said it is For if just after the fall of the Antichristian Empire the reign of Christ for a thousand years must take place we likewise know that at the end of that Reign of a thousand years shall be the day of Judgment First you must know that our Lord J. Christ saith not that the day of the last Judgment shall be alway concealed he only saith that no man then knew it concerning that day saith he knoweth no man. That depends on the fixing the time of the 1260 years for the reign of Antichrist Now no man knew for certain at that time when the 1260 years should begin God did not permit that it should be well known till this last Age which is as also the last of the reign of Antichrist for 1260 years Moreover after having well fixt the Epocha of the birth of Antichrist that we may discover his end yet can we not thereby come to the exact knowledge of the day of Iudgement 1. Because we know not whether the thousand years of the reign of the Church must begin just at the end of the 1260 years of the reign of Antichrist We may say the contrary without saying any thing that is improbable that the thousand years are not to be computed but from the compleat establishment of the Kingdom of Christ 2. We cannot tell whether the Period of a thousand years is to be exactly so much neither more or less for the H. Ghost is not so critical and precise and often makes use of a round and certain number to signify one that is uncertain unless when he makes use of a broken number as three and half for then we cannot doubt but we are to reckon exactly so much So that these two things being always doubtfull we can never know the precise time of the Judgement day 6. Object The world would then last a long while 6. After this they say that if the Church must reign a thousand years on Earth the World is yet to last for a long time which is not likely it should because the Apostles even in their days spoke of the end of the world as a thing approaching and near at hand We are in the last times saith St. Paul. The coming of I. Christ is at hand saith St. James My littie children It is the last time saith St. John. They ought to confess that these passages make against them instead of being for them The Apostles called their Days the last times and the last hour and yet almost two thousand years have passed since Those Texts therefore must not be taken in too rigid a sense We have spent one Chapter on purpose in this Book to explain those Passages 7. Object The Scripture speaks but of one Resurrection 7. Lastly they tell us that according to the Scriptures at the coming of our Lord J. Christ All the Dead must be raised at once the Righteous and the Wicked which agrees not with the supposition of the Millenaries who would make one part of the Dead to rise at the beginning of the reign of a thousand years and the rest at the end of it But how can any one say that the Scripture saith that when it speaks the quite contrary that one part of the Dead must rise first which is the first Resurrection and that the Rest of the Dead are not to rise till the thousand years are fullfilled There are some passages 't is true wherein the Resurrection of the Good and Bad is spoken of as that which shall be at the same time and so it shall accordingly be for this first Resurrection will be but of a very few viz. of the Ancient Martyrs The remainder of the Faithful shall not be raised till the end of the World. Many Dead were risen with Christ when he rose and are certainly with him body and soul in Heaven Notwithstanding this the Scripture speaks of the Resurrection of all the Dead as a thing deferr'd and adjourn'd to the last Day because one little Exception destroys not a general Rule 'T is strange that these Gentlemen find so much difficulty in this first Resurrection Methinks they should remember the many Saints who were raised with Christ Why may not Christ raise some of the New Testament Saints at the coming of his Kingdom as well as raise some of the Ancient Patriarchs when he rose from the Grave However notwithstanding all that I have said on this subject of that first Resurrection I once again declare that I am not sollicitons to decide it Therefore I have and do again place it among those things which are doubtful I am informed that the learned and famous Prof. Mr. Witsius of Vtrecht hath thought fit to declare his mind on this subject in some publick Lectures I am told that he agrees with me concerning a great change which is to be in the Church before the end of the World with respect to Manners Union in Doctrine and the spreading of the Christian Faith as well among the Iews as among the Nations which as yet are Pagan He is also willing De X Tribubus Israelis c. 9. §. 1. cap 11. § 17 that the Iews should hope to return to their own Land and rebuild Ierusalem I would ask no more and am more rejoy't to meet with the concurrence of so great a man in that which is Essential than I can be troubled that he differs from me concerning that first Resurrection for I must acknowledge that I meet with very great difficulties about it But when I look upon it on that side and in that manner as I have represented it I find it to be very probable Nevertheless I am far from being fully perswaded of the Truth of it as I am concerning those Arâ—â—cles wherein we two agree These I think are all the Objections wherewith these Gentlemen oppose us For I regard not what they say when they tell us That this Reign of a thousand years is a Iewish vision a Fancy derived from the impure Fountain of their Traditions This is to declaim and not to prove 'T is not impossible but there may remain something that is good among the Traditions of the Iews at least St. Paul and St. Iude believed so The first learnt from their Tradition the names of the Magicians of Aegypt who opposed Moses and likewise those words of Moses I exceedingly quake and fear which we no where read in the Old Testament And St. Iude learnt from thence the combat of Michael the Arch-angel with the Devil for the body of Moses also the Prophecy of Enoch They urge likewise against us a multitude of ancient and modern Authors But I had rather give credit to Iustin Martyr and Papias who might have seen St. Iohn than to all those who have wrote since God hath his particular reasons why he will not that the Prophecies should be understood in every Age. FINIS
to the time of the end many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increas'd 5. Then I Daniel looked and behold there stood other two the one on this side of the bank of the river and the other on that side of the bank of the river 6. And one said to the man clothed in linnen which was upon the waters of the river How long shall it be to the end of these wonders 7. And I heard the man clothed in linnen which was upon the waters of the river when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time times and a half and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people all these things shall be finished 8. And I heard but I understood not Then said I O my Lord what shall be the end of these things 9. And he said Go thy way Daniel for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end 10. Many shall be purified and made white and tried but the wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand 11. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up there shall be 1290. days 12. Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days 13. But go thou thy way till the end be for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days As Interpreters agree that these Prophecies in the literal meaning of them are concerning Antiochus Epiphanes the great persecutor of the Jews and the true Religion so almost all agree also that this mystically referrs to Antichrist And 't is a truth I do not at all doubt of Antiochus was a type of Antichrist we shall see such clear proofs of it that it will not be possible to doubt of it As the principle is commonly perceived I will suppose it and will not give my self the trouble to prove it any otherwise than in applying all that to Antichrist that is said of Antiochus I will only make some remarks to confirm this truth I. Both good and bad under the N. Testament have had their types under the Old. We must observe that all the things that were to happen under the New Testament had their types under the Old. It is not only Jesus Christ that had types for his person for his offices for his good works his enemies also have had their types The actions of the Saints have been typical the victories of Sampson over the Philistins those of David over Goliah were types of the victories of Jesus Christ All the world believes it and no one doubts it It must be acknowledged also that the criminal actions of eminent persons have been typical likewise If on one hand there have been persons and actions typical of the good there have been also persons and actions typical of the evil Cain was a type of the enemies of Jesus Christ coming of the seed of the woman he was a type of the seed of the Serpent and his action against his brother was a typical sin that representeth the persecution which the Devil was to bring upon Jesus Christ and his Church The sin of Esau that despised the right of primogeniture and sold it for a mess of broth was a type of those prophane ones that renounce the benefits of the World to come for the vanities of this present World. Lots wife that looked towards Sodom and the Israelites that turn'd their eyes towards Egypt after they were gone forth from it are types of those miserable persons who after they have been drawn from sin by the grace of Jesus Christ are eager after the World from which they were departed and return to it again As therefore Jesus Christ hath had his types Antichrist haâ—â— had his types as well as J. Christ without doubt Antichrist had his too and that in great number Cain Goliah Pharaoh Nebuchadnezzar and the other oppressors of the truth and the faithful have been types of Antichrist Among these types there was not any one more noted and more pâ—ain than Antiochus who made the continual sacrifice cease for three years and a half who made the Church desolate who made almost the whole Nation fall into Apostacy who prophaned the Temple and cruelly persecuted those that persevered in the true Religion So that as in the types of Jesus Christ we seek for and find his Characters in like manner in Antiochus and that which the Prophecies say of him we may find the Characters of Antichrist But we must observe there are two sort of Prophecies one that directly respect the principal subject the other that respect it only mediately and indirectly and by the means of some type to which the literal sense of the Prophâ—cy doth belong For example the Prophecy of the 53. Chap. of Esai respects J. Christ immediately and without the intervention of any type There are Prophecies wherein the things agree partly to the type partly to the person signified by the type But the 45th Psal and the second respect Jesus Christ but mediately and by the intervention of the type In the second Psal the type is David to whom belongs the literal sense of the Psalm In the 45th Psal the type is Solomon and 't is him the literal sense of the Text respects These two sorts of Prophecies ought to be handled differently Those of the first rank i. e. those that refer only and immediately to Jesus Christ must be applied only and uniformly to Jesus Christ in all their parts But those of the second rank are much harder to be disintricated For there are some things that belong only to the person that is the type Others that belong only to the person that is represented by the type and lastly others that belong both to the one and the other For example in the 45th Psal these words Thy throne O God is for ever and ever the scepter of thy Kingdom is a scepter of Righteousness c. O God thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above all thy fellows These words I say cannot without great violence be applied to Solomon For Solomon is not a God and it can't be to him that the H. Spirit saith Thy throne O God c. There are other words in the same Psalm which certainly respect Solomon as a type and J. Christ as the person represented by the type For example Thou art fairer than any of the children of men v. 3. Grace is poured into thy lips because God hath blessed thee for ever Lastly I am certain there are other words that agree only to Solomen and that it is not at all necessary to refer them to Iesus Christ For example these words v. 10. Daughters of Kings are among thy