Dragon of Rome Pagan with his Angels servants and Officers were cast also out of their Heaven of high power as a great Milstone cast into the Sea into the bottomless pit for ever more Rev. 12.9 ch 18.2 ch 20.3 The type-Dragon Pharaoh thus sinking himself for ever had then no seat or authority to give to another And this Dragon of Pagan Rome his Antitype thus sinking for evermore had no seat power or authority to give to the Sea-born beast secular and Papal who also existed not till after that Dragon fell for ever as aforesaid Thus we see the Prophetick type Pharaoh with his servants is so apposite to its antitype the first Dragon and his Angels that it seems a real and literal relating of it Both perished without power both had not to give both did not give the least power to any other But the Dragon gave his power and great authority to the beast Rev. 13.2.4 Therefore that was the second Dragon We shall now examine another Patern or Prophetick type and compare it with its antitype How art thou faln from Heaven O Lucifer Son of the morning How art then cut down to the ground Isa 14.12 Who was this that thus fell from Heaven and who was thus cut down but only the Representative of the Kingdom of Babylon And from what Heaven did they thus fall but from the Heaven of high power and authority in that Kingdom And this Dragon of Pagan Rome the Representative secular of subantitype Babel Rev. 17.5 was cast down from Heaven unto the Earth chap. 12.8 And what was this Heaven out of which he was thus cast but the Heaven of high power and authority in the Roman Empire And thus Mead and most expositors expound the word Heaven in those texts to be high power and authority and indeed those texts thus explain themselves This was that Heaven of power wherein this first Dragon stood when he stood before the Woman to devour her Child For in any other Heaven he could not stand with the Primitive Church And how did type Babel with her secular head fall from this Heaven of power And how did her penultimate antitype or sub-antitype Rome Pagan and her head the first Dragon fall also from the same Heaven of power and authority unto the Earth I answer type Babel and her head secular fell from that Heaven when she fell into the hands of Cyrus that subdued both her and him And sub-antitype Babel Rome Pagan and her head the first Dragon fell also from their Heaven of power when they fell into the hands of Constantine and his armies Michaels substitutes that conquered both her and him about the year 320. But type Babel and her captivated head rebelled in the days of Darius Hystaspes for twenty months But she and her faln head by that Robellion fell lower from Heaven unto the Earth For her Rebels in her slew the women of that City that they should not hinder them in their designed work And Sopyrus by a policy cruel to himself betray'd the men into the hands of Hystaspes So she as a further progress to her final depopulation lost very many both of her men and women She raising that Rebellion to regain her place was exceedingly weakened thereby It quite brake that conquered power which she had in peeces and her place was found no more in heaven So the first Dragon the then faln head of sub-antitype Babel or Rome Pagans sudu'd representative rebelled also against the Gospel Church and her Masculine Off-spring that had subdu'd him He persecuted the woman persecuted her chiefly under the form of an Arrian in the time of Constantius the second Julian Valens but prevailed not the Primitive Church prevailed against him and his place was found no more in heaven But Thirdly Seleucus after type Babel to her own utter ruine had rebelled as aforesaid drew five hundred thousand of her Citizens out of her to inhabit his by him new built Selusia wherefore As Cyrus drew her River dry and so subdu'd that City at first So Seleucus draining that City of her Inhabitants brought her to the next door to eternal desolation which soon after followed For the place where she formerly shone like a refulgent Star was a Forrest where the Kings of Persia used to hunt in St. Jeroms time How art thou faln from heaven O Lucifer son of the morning And so When the first Dragon the captive head of sub-antitype Babel or Pagan Rome had rebelled against the Gospel Church and his Victor her Manchild Then he and his Angels falling the faster from heaven for that Rebellion were cut down to the ground For the Churches Eagles of high power in the Roman Empire the Orthodox Emperours Valentinian and Theodosius with his Sons bound him the more for that Rebellion with cords which he could not cast from him and with strong chains their strict Edicts against Arrians and Heathens which he could never break Therefore thus begirt with the bands of eternal death he besought the second Dragon the Barbarians of the North to pity his deplored estate That second Dragon mindless of his miseries came about 407 and about 412 trod his feeble and dying remnant under his careless feet Thus dyed that Dragon poor as Codrus not having any inheritance nor heir to inherit But the Dragon gave his seat and great authority the Supremacy therein to the beast therefore that was the second Dragon That beast secular and Papal blasphemed them that dwelt in Heaven Rev. 13.6 By heaven there is meant the heavenly conversations of Saints whom that beast blasphemed Rejoyceye Heavens and ye that dwell in them chap. 12.12 There by heaven is meant not only the heavenly conversations of Saints but the high power and authority of the Primitive Church prevailing against the first Dragon and possessing his throne of power and authority in the Roman Empire out of which heaven of power he was cast as aforesaid For he had no other heaven held no other That was his only heaven in which he was where and when John saw him in heaven And this was that heaven in which the Primitive Church stood with him when he stood before her and was there without him after he was cast out when her Manchild or secular head sate sole Monarch in the throne of the Roman Empire But rejoyce ye Heavens c. By heavens here is more especially meant the Western Empire and Churches that were more heavenly minded more Orthodox and more fruitful in good works conform to Gospel rule then the Eastern Churches were who were much more corrupt with Heresies Arrianism and evil manners And therefore as they scarse could be counted true Churches and so called heaven were called the earth and the Sea Wo unto the Inhabitants of the Earth and the Sea For The Devil is come down to you having great wrath because he knoweth he hath but a short time ver 12. For That first Dragon acted by the
the Witnesses Sackcloth Prophesie run parallel in the same Epoche So the six Vials and this Cities duration synchronize with both which is plain from their temporal periods For The period of this threefold Mystery of iniquity in the tenth Chapter is thus exprest There shall be time no longer And its period in the sixteenth Chapter under or at the beginning of the seventh Vial as the former was under or at the beginning of the seventh Trumpets sounding is likewise thus exprest It is done And what is done The answer is made in the next verse but one And the great City was divided into three parts c. That is this threefold City was done ver 19. The scope and almost the express words of both texts is the same shewing That this threefold City or Mystery of iniquity should at the beginning of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet and pouring forth of the seventh Vial begin vigorously to be made manifest and the Mystery of God her Antithesis to be compleated that is The true Church should then begin more vigorously and visibly to expatiate and appear to all Sects and Nations For those periods It is done Time shall be no more are terms of expression that are synonymous in sense and are in both texts a twofold sacred record that the duration the more entire duration of this threefold City should be 1260 years synchronizing with the six Trumpets with the six Vials with the Witnesses Sackcloth-Prophesie and with all the rest of these twelve Epochaes Thirdly the duration of this threefold City is commensurated which are also the Epoche of the death of the Witnesses by three dayes and an half Rev. 11.9 11. In which texts the two former texts are more fully explained and the same period of this threefold City the third time repeated And first We see that the two Witnesses were to lye in that City dead for three dayes and an half ver 8 9. Therefore the end of those three dayes and an half was the period of the Witnesses death and of the duration as will appear of that threefold City For After three dayes and an half saith the text the Spirit of life from God shall enter into them ver 11. Therefore the end of those three dayes and an half must be the period of their lying dead in that City and the period also of that Cities duration For The same hour saith the text the tenth part of that City fell ver 13. And fell not to but from Apostacy in manners to pursue sincere truth and peace in Theory and practice or to use the words of the same text shall then begin to give Glory to the God of heaven that is Shall then begin to give Glory to God with greater vigour and visibility of true obedience then formerly And these three dayes and an half of the duration of the death of the Witnesses in that City and of that City till it should begin to fall as aforesaid are also conterminated as the same period the third time exprest with the beginning of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet vers 13. And the seventh Angel sounded c. Therefore these three dayes and an half of the more entire duration of this threefold City and of the death of the Witnesses therein synchronize with the six Vials the six Trumpets and the Witnesses Sackcloth Prophesie in 1260 years For those in this Chapter twice repeated three dayes and an half are the same three times and an half chap. 12.14 the same forty two Months chap. 12.2 And the same 1260 dayes in the next verse which being 1260 dayes annual are 1260 years For the durations of the death of the Witnesses and of this threefold City were pre-signified in Scripture both by three dayes and an half artificial or 42 hours and by three dayes and an half Annual or forty two Months as we shall fully and that so soon as we shall first lay down these twelve Epochaes instantly shew The Fifth Epoche is of the Gospel Churches grand revolt FIfthly The Gospel-Churches profligation and defection seems to retain the same time For We find her in Heaven holding forth though at last more remisly her primitive integrity of an Heavenly conversation till about 407 Rev. 12.1 And till then from about 292 in the Heaven of high Power and Authority in the Roman Empire For She casting the first Dragon from his seat there sate sole Regent in his Throne of power Her Eagles exalted both her and themselves into that Heaven ver 7. to the 12th But a falling away was to come and the Church fell fell from Heaven fled into the Wilderness for 1260 dayes Annual 2 Thess 2.3 Rev. 12.1 6 14. Therefore the Church fell from Heaven though not totally and finally in a twofold respect First in reference to her Heaven of high power Secondly In respect to her heavenly conversation Her fall in conversation caused her other fall She fell in part from her former Heavenly conversation Therefore She fell as the effect of that cause from her Heaven of high Power and Authority Her fall in conversation was Spiritual Her fall from Power was temporal In reference to both she according to those texts aforesaid stood in Heaven And in reference to both she fell from Heaven The manner of her fall from both is plain from her Patern or Prophetick type Lament 2.1 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a Cloud in his anger and cast down from Heaven to the Earth the beauty of Israel c. So God covered her the anti-type-Anti-type-Church with a Cloud in his anger and cast down from Heaven to the Earth the beauty of Gospel Israel For She like the Church of Ephesus left her first love forsook her first works works of Judgment Mercy and Faith and remembred not scarce yet remembreth from whence she fell Thus she fell first in her conversation from Heaven therefore God sent the second Dragon with a flaming Sword who cast her as were our first Parents out of Paradise out of her Heaven of power and Authority and drave her into the Wilderness for 1260 years chap. 12.1.6.14 Many Expositors call that falling away in conversation that grand and general revolt of the Gospel Church from Faith and Obedience Howbeit it was in her true members though much inwardly chiefly in outward appearance and practice The gradual aggresses of the Churches defection from about 340 to 407 we shall shew afterwards The sixth Interval THe sixth Epoche and this of a different denomination more fully proves the former is of the Churches abode in her place prepared of God which is twice recorded in two several texts of the same Chapter And the Woman fled into the Wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there 1260 dayes which being as we shall instantly and irrefellibly shew dayes Annual are 1260 years chap. 12.6 And there were given to the Woman two Wings of a great Eagle that
that dwelt upon the Earth saith the Text and with them the Primitive Sects and dissenters blinded by this Architectors words and works words of deceit workes of false miracles came or rather as it were fled as the afflicted pursued Primitive Church also did into this tenfold City of deceit The Church fled into it out of necessity and constraint but the rest flowed to it so glorious were its buildings and its builders strong delusions instead of Zion and as to the true Catholick Church In this Decapolity of deceit especially in the time of the building of it did they that dwelt upon the Earth and the Dragons floods concenter in a deceitful unity and they and all Sects as the different Species in the Ark rested in her somewhat peaceable for a short space And thus much of the Son of perdition his coming with all deceivableness of unrighteousness when he first laid his foundation of deceit pulled down Primitive Church-Priviledges and built his Decharcy of the Apostacy from about 407 to about 620. We shall now shew his further proceedings after 620. The False Prophet's further Progress in supporting but with a much more remiss hand his new built City of Apostacy HE his work by him thus finished about the year 620 did not lay aside but less regarded his first but fitter instruments of deceit whereby he built that City Therefore it fell to many decayes for want of his wonted care and soon became as it were equally divided betwixt Christians and Mahumetans For The false Prophet remitting his usual stricter reignes of government began to indulge himself more then before to sensual delights would oft wallow in the filthy styes of Spiritual Sodom oft accompany himself with the beast in secular covetousness oft with the Dragon in voluptuous pleasures Nor did he so cast aside Secular and Spiritual wickedness but superadded sensual filthiness to both In a word he stearing a most irregular course ran the hazard to destroy his new erected Decaprincipality continuing and proceeding still worse till about the year 1210. Nor did he then reclaim himself but rather disclaimed to be some shelter as formerly to the Gospel Church nor did he so much defend her as before from the second Dragons fury but loosed the till then for about 1000 years bound first Dragon upon her That is he acted the Dragons part himself by persecuting her members after the manner of Dioclesian For he and by his procurement the King of France Commissioned Simon Earl of Montford to perpetrate most horrid Massacres upon her Then also that loosed Dragon or not long after sent abroad his bloody Inquisition breathing forth slaughter both to Papists and Protestants that had but so much as the least appearance of honesty or religion Howbeit the thus afflicted Church found some small shelter from Religious Kings Nobles and Emperours And the Gibelin Faction afforded her some succour But she continued thus troden under the loosed Dragons feet and driven by fierce storms and tempests till about the year 1417. Next and not without great need came in the Locusts a relief to the Church ready to perish by the rage of the loosed Dragon Apocal. 9.1 to the 12 ver But here may Elephants swim or rather these Texts seem fathomless Here difficulties with double files stand prepared to stop my progress Therefore I must of necessity first unty many Gordian knots seeming indissoluble Because these Locusts seem to be Reformists most deceitfully formal some refuge to the Church and so most difficult to be discerned though most contrary to them from true Saints men somewhat reformed in Doctrine nothing in manners but affecting manners more confining upon the deceiveableness of Spiritual wickedness then the usual practices perhaps of former Hypocrites But we shall first see what sacred Writt sayes of them And Smoak saith the Text ascended out of the bottomless pit and out of the Smoak came Locusts This shews them to be the Off-spring of those that hold forth only formal smoaky pretences of seeming-Religious deceits Secondly And smoak ascended out of the bottomless pit c. This also shews them to be the products of the bottomless pit whose duties devotions knowledge faith formal reformations and fruitless obedience are bottomless or have no bottom That is are without fidelity or veracity For veracity is the reality of truth the bottom of all gifts and graces without which they are inconform to Gospel rule and but formal smoaky deceits Therefore Reformation all reformation in Doctrine and not in Manners in Profession and not in Practice in Practice but not conform to Gospel Rule is bottomless reformation no reformation indeed but real deceits These Locusts seem the rather because said to ascend out of the bottomless pit to be the successors of the Gibelin Faction which and whose like Predecessors s ubservient to the secular horn of the Bicorn beast had regulated his temporal principality and spiritual superintendency with more seeming sober moderation and discretion of deceit during the time of his Spiritual horns extravagant and ambitious exorbitances for about 800 years In these Locusts at least near their latter end Anti-christ seems to end as he began at first with all or as it were double deceivableness For they had faces like the faces of men seeming sound doctrine and profession but neither so in deed but deceits ver 7. Secondly They had hair as the hair of Women a right ordered and right ordering discipline in appearance but that was nothing so but deceit ver 8. Thirdly They had Crowns like Gold like Crowns of righteousness and true obedience but they were not such but deceits ver 7. For they had O truculent cruelties of detracting covetousness teeth of Lions ver 8. They strictly in a blind profession profest Christ and pursued Covetousness eagerly Fourthly their shapes were like horses prepared to battel ver 7. And yet their shapes were partly like men partly like women and partly like unto Lions as we shewed before Therefore The Aggregate of their politick body was Chimaera multiformis a manifold monster of mysterious deceit But their shapes their principal shapes were like horses prepared to battel They were all more or less bent as in a military order against those that had not the seal of God in their foreheads All rallyed as in several Regiments in sundry factions against them But they were commanded not to hurt the Grass nor any green thing nor any Tree ver 4. That is not the servants of God that had his seal in their foreheads whose doctrine they partly espoused whose persons and professions though they followed not their manners they defended For That was as it were a command from God not to hurt but defend them because they much alike outwardly embrac'd the same common faith and profession Therefore They by an implicit command of a much like common profession were commanded not to hurt these but only those men that had not the seal of God in their
in the sight of the beast but that he might be assisted by him The three Heads were co-assisting this building the Dragon afforded matter and power the beast was the Magazine of both and made by the false Prophet the instrument to use that matter and power to perfect this threefold City the false Prophet was the Master builder of it For the Dragon by the false Prophets procurement gave his power and Authority the Supremacy therein to the beast And the false Prophet was the disposer or chief orderer of it that he might usurp Power over all unto himself therefore he sought to strengthen that beasts hands exceedingly subjugating by deceit the Nations under him And therefore the Text saith he deceiveth those that dwell upon the Earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast Miracles were for confirmation of Doctrine and to ratifie the Offices and Messages of Prophets and Apostles Exod. 4.5 8. Heb. 2.4 So the false Prophets miracles terminated as in their next and immediate effects in the deceitful confirmation First of his message and next of his seeming sound or somewhat Fundamentally sound but shallow Doctrine which was though Homousian and so far fundamentally sound both carelesly corrupt and shallow And first To confirm his pretended Apostolick message to them that dwelt upon the Earth that he might build the Nations in the political body of his beloved City and make them by deceit the matter of it therefore the false Prophet pretence to be sent to preach for how should he preach unless he were sent was one principal means at first and in all his Sects whereby he deceived them that dwelt upon the Earth And this means his supposed message or pretence to be sent to preach is the first means in order whereby he deceived them that dwell upon the Earth and built this City The second means was the next and immediate end of his pretended message his Doctrine of deceit which was somewhat fundamentally sound as we shewed before but carelesly corrupt and shallow For such Doctrine served best to make him deceive and be deceived The third means and that in order to confirm both his message and Doctrine was his false miracles And he deceiveth them saith the Text that dwell upon the Earth by means of those miracles c. where we clearly see that the Spirit of truth asserts That the false Prophets chiefest power to deceive the Nations was as the fountain of deceits in his false miracles For the Text saith not He deceived them that dwell upon the Earth by his false Doctrine or pretended message though he did that by both but he deceiveth saith the Text them that dwell upon the Earth by means of those miracles c. Every simple Impostor can deceive by unsound Doctrine but these miracles which the false Prophet wrought were as it were miraculous deceits Those miracles what they were and when and how wrought we shall shew afterwards Them that dwell upon the Earth There 's the matter of this threeforld Cities building And he deceiveth them there 's the manner and chief means in his Apostolical pretence doctrine and miracles by which he built this threefold City He the false Prophet there 's the Master-builder or it And If he had power in such sort to deceive them that dwelt upon Earth and could thus compel frame and mould the Nations by deceit then he must needs have power to deceive the second Dragon did deceive him caused him to accord with the wounded beast and give him his power and caused both to communicate or consign their powers to himself Rev. 13.2 4. Dan. 7.25 For there were two Dragons as we shewed and shall after more fully shew The first was Rome Pagans power secular till about 324 when his former might was much abated But he retained some strength till about 412. The second Dragon was at first the prevailing power of the Nations of the North that began to translate Rome Imperial about the year 407. This second Dragon by his military atchievements and enrichments thereby became the fountain of power to Papal Rome and a free dispenser of it For he gave his power seat and great Authority the Supremacy therein to the by himself wounded but after Decadiademick beast secular and papal But the false Prophet that seduced the Nations deceived this second Dragon opened his mouth of deceit and the earth opened saith the text her mouth and swallowed up that Dragons mighty floud chap. 12.15 He in some sort swallowed up that Dragon also That is He the mouth of the earth or Oracle of that mouth drew by deceit that Dragon with his forces and Nations to embrace the unity of the Church of Rome which was chiefly done from about 407 in the space of 200 years He gave but the false Prophet perswaded him to give his seat and power the Supremacy therein to the then rising beast secular and Papal and perswaded both to give or submit unto himself the pre-eminence of power For the first five hundred years after the false Prophet began to put his deceitful hand to this wicked work were times of reciprocal donations and receptions of great gifts to and from the Dragon Beast and false Prophet and from those that dwelt upon the earth And so the text saith expresly Rev. 11.10 And they that dwell upon the earth shall send gifts one to another As we shall also amply shew in its due place from Church-History therefore those gratifying times by sending gifts one to another were the false Prophets chief edifying times wherein he was most successful in building by deceit this threefold City For as Christ that Prince of true Prophets built his Church upon the sure rock of truth So this false Prophet Bicorne built her Antithesis this threefold City upon the seeming rock of false appearance and deceit And that it was the false Prophet that built this City by deceit the text expresly tells you chap. 19.20 Where this grand Master of false miracles is expresly called the false Prophet that wrought miracles before the beast to deceive He had the unhappyness to tie not the True-love-knot of Christian Charity but ternos tribus nodis colores three heterogene twists in a threefold cord of wickedness That threefold twist was begun but weakly begun about the year 407. But about the year 620 it was a threefold cord not easily to be broken then the false Prophet seemed somewhat to slack his hand that work never went on so well after But about 250 years before Atropos should cut that cord by a final excision it began to be divided into three parts and much raveled into Modern Sects Into three parts perhaps Papists Turks and dissentors from both And the great City saith the text was divided into three parts Lastly To these Arguments and Scripture evidences sufficiently proving that the false Prophet was the Master builder of this threefold City we shall add
devil and therefore called the Devil got by Rebellion so much power for a short space against the Inhabitants of the Earth and the Sea Egypt and the East Empire as to persecute many precious Saints in those infimous out-places that less regarded the truth of the Gospel in Doctrine and manners But he prevailed not or very little against the Western Churches who were much more sound in faâ—â—â— and manners and therefore called Heaven Rejoyc◠〈◊〉 and ye that dwell in them wo unto the Inhabitants of the Earth and the Sea c. But Of this I have written at large in my Tract against Chiliasm This first Dragon thus prevailed under his eighth and last head and chiefly under the form of an Arrian against the Inhabitants of the Earth and the Sea Egypt and the Eastern Empire from the death of Constans to the death of Valens about 18 years Then was he bound as we have shown before sufficiently by Theodosius and his two Sons with a new recruit of chains so strait that he could scarce breath or rather must breath his last Then seeking aid of the second Dragon that Dragon came but did not succour him sad poor dying distressed but destroy'd for ever about 412 the feeble relicts of him Therefore this first Dragon had not then nor long before any free power seat or authority But the Dragon gave his seat c. Therefore that was the second Dragon The first Dragon was Draco devictus a Dragon subdu'd by a woman She overcame him by the blond of the Lamb and the word of her testimony ch 12.11 But this second Dragon overcame that woman drave her into the wilderness killed her witnesses To wit about four hundred and seven ten or twelve when their testimony by which they overcame the first Dragon grew at least in works weak or in the words of the text when they had finished that testimony ch 11.7 ch 12.14 15 17. The first Dragon was an Indigena in the Roman Empire the second an Alienigena from the North Rome Pagan was the last clearest fullest type of the Antichrist predicted by Prophets and Apostles Rome Papal was the antitype or substance shaddowed forth by many types but last and above all by Pagan Rome whose head the first Dragon was as the second was the first head in Scripture order because the raiser up of Papal Rome But before I proceed I must first resell sundry opinions of many Learned writers For some affirm that all Prophesies under the Law were fulfilled at the death of our blessed Saviour or at the destruction of Jerusalem So they cut off the Prophets from giving testimony to the Apostles and the Apocalyps Secondly some affirm that all the Prophesies in the Apocalyps except the Dragons binding for 1000 years whom they also except in vain were fulfilled about 412 at the excision of Rome Imperial Then there can be no second Dragon beast or false Prophet commencing then And then this if not the whole design of the Apocalyps may seem a dream I must therefore take away of necessity these cardinal obstacles in the way of my progress to explicate those intricate Scriptures that are most needful to be unfolded and to make the Plain thereby the more perspicuous And first we shall prove though we have done that perhaps before sufficiently that the Prophets bare clear record to the Predictions prophetick promises and comminations in the Apostles and the Apocalyps and reached even Papal Rome That there were two Dragons needs no dispute Further proof of it might seem superfluous Howbeit even that also will hereby necessarily and irrefellibly appear The world so far as I find never took notice that there were two nor do the Learned Grotius Hammond and others that I see observe it because they stating the period of the Apocalyps and all prophetick Scriptures about the year four hundred and ten when Rome Imperial was translated so exclude both the second Dragon beast and false Prophet with Papal Rome and all modern Sects and so doing must exclude though they would except them the Mahumetans also from being any part of the Churches predicted Antithesis The more literal fulfilling of the Apocalyps in many things they with Mead and many others have learnedly observed which literal fulfilling in many things they find and I confess ended much about the years four hundred and ten or twelve But of many things that relate not to Pagan but to Papal Rome they take little or no notice nor are they misguided but by a general mis-supposition which may necessitate even the most Learned to the same mistakes For their not observing that there were two Dragons which also never any that I find observed necessitates them if not all expositors to the same aberrations Doctor Hammond or as well any other Learned or rational did or might had his suppositions been right very rationally thus argue The Dragon for neither he or any other perhaps supposed more than one ended with the computation of the Apocalyps for ever in four hundred and ten or twelve But the Dragon beast and false Prophet had all one and the same synchronick Epoche ending as aforesaid Therefore after four hundred and ten or twelve there could be never any Dragon beast or false Prophet much less any of them after that time as they could not be before apply'd to Papal Rome Papal Rome whom the Apocalyps it self thus absolveth must therefore remain free for ever from any such imputation as being any part of the body of Apostacy or of the Antichrist predicted by Prophets and Apostles His and their arguments were those suppositions right are very rational and indeed the very truth Nor did the Learned Grotius Hammond and others as it seems to me much observe That as some Rocks re-eccho the first sounds given three or four times as Trogus Pompeius witnesseth and I have oft observed so some prophesies sound forth several successive transactions in four or five reverberations For example The prophesie in Daniel of the abomination of desolation struck first Prophetically upon the cruel practises of Epiphanes and sounded forth the Jews sad calamities by his merciless persecutions but did not terminate there but sounded forth also the Jews desolations at the destruction of Jerusalem And when you shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel saith our Saviour c. Daniels dimidium hebdemadis of the same duration and denomination and makes Daniels prophesie of the desolation at the destruction of Jerusalem to be in the third Reverberation The conformity of that half week of years in its duration and denomination to its type under Epiphanes and its anti type under the Apostacy appears from these Texts Dan. 9.26 27. Rev. 11.2 3. The duration of that half week of years under Epiphanes and the Pharisees as in types was 1260 days literal but in their anti types 1260 years The desolations in those types were more literal but in their
the proper Epochaes of all Empires or Kingdoms recorded in Scripture are chiefly the durations of their Dominions over the Church and people of God Howbeit it concerns us here to take notice of this improper Epoche of the first Dragon because the Apocalyps indigitates it ch 17.10 11 where John saith five are faln and one is and another is not yet come and mentions his eighth Head also which was of the seven The duration of all which successively made that improper Epoche aforesaid But Pagan Romes proper Epoche was but about 460 years beginning when the third the Greek dominion which Daniel mentions ch 7. began to fall And when the Jewish Church about 56 years before the birth of our blessed Saviour fell under the jurisdiction of Pagan Rome Both these Epochaes both the proper and improper of the first Dragon or of Rome untranslated ended about the year four hundred and ten or twelve Then his seven Heads and also the eighth which was of the seven finally expired For the rest of the thousand years of this Dragons binding and that little season of his relaxation after them had not after four hundred and twelve any relation either to his proper or improper Epochaes Because he more literally bound though but in part for above an hundred years before four hundred and twelve was so long in being and never after And that time from the beginning of his being bound to 412 was part the last part of both his Epochaes But there then remained above eight hundred of his thousand years after four hundred and twelve in which eight hundred years time upwards that Dragon was not in being nor ever after For that Decacerastick red Dragon of Rome Pagan was never in being after four hundred and twelve nor ever can or shall be in future being Therefore he was bound for about eight hundred years after four hundred and twelve not literally but metaphorically or not otherwise then with the chains of eternal death That is the first Dragon subdu'd by the power and Authority of the Primitive Church-representatives was bound in part and more literally by their legal institutions and civil ordinances in the time of Constantius Constantine and their successors till about 412. To wit for about one hundred and twenty years which was all the time he was in being after he began to be bound but he was then bound totall but metaphorically for above 800 years by a privation of his being so long but indeed forever That is there was a cessation from him of his accustomed cruelties in the Christian world for above eight hundred years after four hundred and ten or twelve till about the year twelve hundred and twelve when he was loosed not literally but metaphorically loosed for not he but Simon Earl of Montsord commissioned from the Pope and the King of France re-induced Dioclesians bloudy practices and persecuted the Church after the manner of the first Dragon therefore As John the Baptist was said to be Eliaâ— because he came after the similitude of his zealous comport So the Dragon is said to be loosed in those bloudy renovators of that first Dragons cruelties But having treated upon this subject at large in the sequel where the seeming disparities in the compute of those thousand years are reconciled and the confident mis-conceirs of the contrary minded fully refelled I need not here insist upon it The improper Epoche therefore of the first Dragon ab Urbe conditâ until his Metropolis was taken plundred and burnt and his then late Empire translated in 412. was about 1164 years And his proper Epoche was but 460 years ending in 412 also which proper Epoche being shorter by eight hundred years then the proper duration of the second Dragon demonstrates irrefellibly two Dragons I proceed to the fourth Epoche The daration of the threefold City of the grand Apostacy THat the tenfold body of the Churches Antithesis Rome Papal was for matter and form threefold and had three the foresaid three heads synchronizing in 1260 years is from sundry texts sufficiently proved And therefore that tenfold City until it should begin effectually to discontinue must have with them the same Epoche For if these three heads of it were to continue 1260 years Then this City their threefold body must by a necessary individual continuity have the same Epoche But Secondly their and this Cities durations are in these two texts thus terminated It is done Rev. 16.17 There shall be no longer time ch 10.6 These two texts intend a time and thing The thing intended is this threefold City And the great this great City was divided into three parts c. ch 16.19 The time intended is first The duration of that City Secondly the Period of that duration The duration of it is necessarily imply'd It s Period is positively exprest And first Its duration is imply'd from its period in both texts It s period at the beginning of the seventh Vial is thus eâ—prest It is done ch 16. It s period at the beginning of the seventh Trumpet is thus exprest There shall be no longer time ch 10. No longer time that is the more entire duration of this threefold City or Mystery of Iniquity should be no longer than the sounding of the six Trumpets For the duration of that threefold City and indeed of all these twelve Epochaes is commensurated by the spaces of six Trumpets sounding and terminated with the beginning of the sounding of the seventh trumpet For when the sixth Angel was about to end the sounding of his sixth trumpet then the Angel of the Covenant sware by him that liveth for ever and ever that there should be time no longer But in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall begin to sound the Mystery of God should be finished c. Should be finished That is the City of God begun to be adorned as a Bride for her Husband should then begin to be free'd effectually from her former too careless contempt of things sacred of highest concernments or from treading them as it were under her feet And free'd also from the punishment and effect of that profaness to wit from being troden under foot of the Gentiles And those Gentiles this threefold City or Mystery of Inìquity should then begin as they shall be more by degrees daily convinc'd of their own wickedness and folly to abate their enmity and embrace Unity of sound Faith and Manners Secondly It is done that is the duration the more entire duration of this City should be done at the period of the sixth Vial or at the beginning of the pouring fourth of the seventh Vial. That is This City should stand all the time of the six Vials pouring forth all the time of the six Trumpets sounding and all the time which is one and the same time and thing of the Witnesses Sackcloth-Prophesie for 1260 years For as we have proved that the six Trumpets sounding and which is all one
manifest to themselves and others The signal congruity betwixt the seven Vials and 7 trumpets and that in all their transactions and in the series and places of their transactions shews plainly that both contrary to the opinion of many that are contrary minded run parallel and import if not all together for the most part the same times and things One and not the least of the Plagues of those six Vials and not the Plague of one particular Vial but of all the six is the restraint of spiritual Rain The duration of which is the next and last Epoche we shall here insist upon The Twelfth Epoche IS of the restraint of spiritual Rain And in handling of it I shall exert that promised Epitome of the series or the Mystery of Iniqnity by shewing some of the chief transactions of those twelve Epochaes for 1260 years I shall here also shew what that iniquity and those sins are which shut Heaven that it should not Rain And what that obedience to God and right to man is that shall open Heaven and bring down plenteous showers of temporal blessings and spiritual Graces upon all Churches and Nations The restraint of Rain in type was 1260 dayes literal Rain literal dayes This restraint of Rain was of spiritual rain for 1260 dayes annual That is for 1260 years That 's the Epoche of the restraint of Rain spiritual Rev 11.3 6. as 1260 dayes literal were in the type the restraint of literal Rain Luke 4.25 James 5.17 These have power to shut Heaven that it Rain not saith the text in the dayes of their Prophesie ch 11.6 And what the dayes of their Sackcloth-prophesie are the third verse expresly tells you that they were 1260 dayes to wit dayes annual that is there should be a restraint as in the patern of literal of spiritual Rain To wit of spiritual graces in a great measures or 1260 years No true Grace-figuring-rain fell in the Patern for 1260 dayes which shews the grievous restraint of spiritual Graces figured by Rain which should be in the Anti-type for 1260 years that is there should be rather a continued decay then any vigorous and visible return of frugiferous Graces for 1260 years Apostate Israel had water to keep them alive for 1260 dayes but no rain to refresh the Land That went daily back became more barren nor were the hearts of the people turned back to obedience till about the end of those 1260 dayes 1 Kings 18.17 So it seems Gospel revolting Israel was to be preserved as it were alive by some secret sick Graces for 1260 years but not raised to a fertile life so long or not until the spirit of life should first raise her Witnesses whose three days and an halfe of their Spiritual death is as a second record of confirmation the same Epoche with those 1260 years of Rain restrained So long the Land of Gospel revolted Israel in some sort also dead did or should decay daily inGarces grew unnatural growing seeds and became terra tota dehiscens a most barren dry Land all parched into cracks and ClyftsofSchisms full of errours and evil manners And yet a people fondly pleased with the opinion that they have repented whiles their hearts according to theintent of this Prophesie are not turned back from the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and pride of life which threefold covetousness is Idolatry the grand Idols of Anti-christ sensual secular and spiritual and threefold root of all evil They Nor are true Saints free from the same faulr turn to a form not to the power of godliness get faces like faces of men Hair like the Hair of Women but retain teeth of Lions Rev. 9.7 8. And what 's repentance If it be not some sound shallow carelesly shallow Doctrine in a fruitless form they know not what it is They place repentance in the strict pursuit of their own Seers blind prescripts And why were not the hearts of legal Apostate Israel turned back till about the end of 1260 dayes Because they turned their backs upon obedience and their faces from repentance all that time That time was the Interval the Epoche of type Israels grand Apostacy And 1260 dayes annual or years are the Anti type duration of the Gospel-Churches grand defection from faith and obedience But this fully confirms it to wit because we find here the same duration of 1260 years to be the Epoche of the restraint of spiritual Rain of spiritual Graces figured by Rain which necessarily infers for what can Earth without water bring forth the Churches and her witnesses defection at least in part just so long Therefore these 1260 years were to be that time wherein Gospel revolted Israel and true Saints too much should turn their backs upon obedience and faces far from works worthy of repentance That time wherein self-seducing Professors retrograde by going forward and run into perdition whiles they seek to shun their own ruine But they have been busie as he was here and there whom the disguised Prophet personated About what In seeking things that belong unto their peace to wit according to the common careless blind custom of formal Professors But never did they know little did they ever think that they were only busie all that time in turning their backs upon obedience and faces from repentance A man would think they verily believe that their blind zea lous endeavours are a perpetual pursuit of true repentance and things that belong unto their peace whiles they thereby turn their backs upon both Little did the blind Syrians believe they turned their backs upon Dothan when they went forward with their faces wards Samaria Little did the Pharisees think they did by all their devout endeavours hide the things that belonged to their peace from their own eyes And as little does the Anti-christian world believe they take a wrong course whiles they by their proud and profane contempt of things profitable put felicity far from them and exile peace They well content as the Parisees were with their wonted knowledge will not know these things what profit cometh say they by knowing of them This is not the course that such Professors take to obtain the Rain of righteousness but the ready way though they will in no wife see it to shut Heaven that it rain not Eliah prayed and endeavoured earnestly that the hearts of apostate Israel might be turned back which was not done till about the end of those 1260 dayes of Rain restrained Then their hearts were turned back from halting betwixt two Opinions and from dead idols to serve the living God That was done in a shadow and so less permanent But it may seem more then probable that the hearts of revolted Gospel Israel about the end of those 1260 years restraint of spiritual Rain shall begin to turn back from halting not betwixt two but many opinions to a permanent unity of true faith and manners That Anti-christ sensual secular and spiritual may then begin
Grapes grow all on thorns But Professors proud and Pharisaical the stony ground are ever most diligent in dressing the basest Briers of ambition that bring forth nothing but evil surmises rash censures and all uncharitableness Only from pride come contentions and these fires issue forth as Jothams Parable proved only or chiefly fromthe Bryers of pride and ignorance which the stony ground produceth And this profaneness the devotion of pride is that principal sin that shuts Heaven and the chief corner-stone in the Fabrick of the Apostacy of Anti-christ which comes next to be handled CHAP. VII An Epitome of the Series of this threefold Mystery of lniquity wherein some chief Transactions of this Interval of Rain restrained and of all the twelve Epochaes for 1260 years are briefly handle d. I Have therefore insisted the more upon this stony grounds spiritual profaneness as the principal Foundation of the Apostacy and shall therewith instantly present the Reader with the structure of it erected chiefly upon this ground For I shall here take liberty to insist a little upon this Epoche of Rain restrained Because I shall from hence more evidently demonstrate the Commencements not only of this but of all the twelve Epochaes and therewith propose this promised short Epitome of the grand Apostacy To which also some necessity upon the Rea dersa ccount constrains me Because such as are weakest to apprehend are readiest to ask questions before they understand the grounds of their own demands or know what they ask and are no less uncapable of conviction from the most rational solutions which weakness or indisposition is double for want of some short and perspicuous Map of the Series of things to be first conceived Wherefore we shall first Distinguish Anti-christ sensual secular and spiritual shew which of the three is chiefly that Son of perdition intended by the Apostle 2 Thes 2.3 Secondly we shall shew when and in what manner all three came Thirdly whereas the Bicorn-beast came up out of the Earth we shall further shew what Earth brought him forth Fourthly we shall shew how and when that Pseudoprophetick-beast laid his Foundation of deceit and began to build thereon the body of Apostacy Fifthly how and when he to that intent took away from the primitive Church her power and Church-priviledges Sixthly we shall shew his progress in building upon that forged Foundation Seventhly we shall shew how the threefold man of sin is bound as in a threefold chain of darkness by a threefold inconviction of sin of righteousness of judgment whereby they cannot discern those sins that shut Heaven nor that righteousness which should open it Therefore we shall shew what those sins chiefly are that shut Heaven And Lastly what that righteousness to men and true obedience to God is that shall open Heaven and be the means the only means under God to bring down showers of temporal blessings and divine Graces upon all Church-Societies Sects and Nations And first we shall distinguish Anti-christ sensual secular and spiritual Sensual Anti christ or his first appearance in power was the second Dragons military Forces when he came in the Van of them invaded the Christian world and made Rome Imperial tributary about the year 407 For that Floud filled the Christian world with Heathenism gross Herefies all sensual profaneness which body sensual and Heretical conjunct with such as themselves were in those Nations they subdu'd then created and hath from that time continued Anti-christ sensual Secondly secular Anti-christ rallyed under his Head the Decapolit-beast not Pagan but Papal were the more worldly-minded Professors and powers of the ten Nations of Rome Papal who falling more fully from Faith and obedience about or after the year 407 at first constituted and have ever since in their like successors continued Anti christ secular And these more strict and orthodox but covetous Professours in all Sects are the moresecular part of the body of Apostacy Thirdly Spiritual Anti-christ rallyed under his proper Head the false Prophet or Bicorn beast Papal was the proud factious blind busie Professors most strictly formal who falling more fully from faith faith of veracity about or a litle after 407 at first constituted and their successors continued Anti-christ spiritual And these somewhat Orthodox but proud and Factious are in all Sects the more spiritual part of the body of Apostacy But Secondly all three will be much more clearly distinct by our further shewing when and in what manner all three came And first Anti-Christ sensual or his Supream power was about the year 407 an Alienigena of the Northern Nations without the pale of Rome Imperial But after he had invaded as it were vanquish'd the Roman Empire he became in short process of time a proselyte in the body of apostacy being drawn unto it by the Bicorn-Pseudo-prophetick-beast that deceiv'd those that dwelt upon the earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do c. Rev. 13. 14 For that bicorn Beast won Anti-christ sensual and his floud-like armies and Alie's originally Heathens and Arrians to a kind of Pseudo-christianity in the body of Apostacy wherein he and his successors or the major part of his political body held or might hold all the proprieties of sensual Anti-christ under a loose careless trivial fruitless profession of Christ for 1260 years The Mahumetans carryed on his more literal and loose Christians his more spiritual progress But Anti-christ secular and spiritual who or whose superintendents are more properly that Son of perdition of whom the Apostle speaks were Indigenae in the Roman Empire and are most properly that matter or body of the Apostacy Having thus far described and distinguished all three we shall as we have already shewed when further enquire in what manner Anti-christ sensual came And secondly when and in what manner Anti-christ secular and spiritual the more proper body of the son of perdition first came And first Anti-christ sensual under the conduct of his proper head rhe second Dragon came torrenti similis like an all overturning deluge about the year 407. And the Serpent saith the text cast waters out of his mouth as a floud after the Woman that be might cause her to be carryed away of the floud Rev. 12.15 But by that floud of Military Forces he could not so carry her away as to destroy her for that was his intent as the text imports and his practice proved but he caused her to flee into the Wilderness for 1260 years ver 6.14 After her flight he went and made war with the remnant of her seed ver 6. And when her Witnesses had finished their primitive Testimony about the year 407 he overcame and killed them chap. 11.7 He then also finally slew the first Dragon that had invited him for a refuge by the conqueâ—ing Swordof his floud-like Armies translated his or rather the Christian Princes Decapolit-Empire and seated himself in the major part of it till he gave his power
and authority the Supremacy therein to the by him first wounded Beast Deca-diademick Papal ch 13.7 4. Thus we see the coming of Anti-christ sensual was with all visible and open violence and in a Profession of literal Heathenism and gross Heresies therefore he did not nor could come secret and undiscerned as the Son of perdition did with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness For he was so far from coming with all deceiveableness of a non-appearance that he came as Sodom not ashamed disclosed her sins openly manifest and apparent therefore the Church saw him openly could not but see him and fled from his face into the Wilderness for 1260. years Verse 6.14 Sundry texts so expresly assert the Series of this second Dragon and of the then chief part of the body of Anti-christ sensual his flouds of visibly profane and most wicked men and manners that it seems impossible to be doubted or contadicted And sundry faithful Church-Histories uncontroulably determine though by undeniable collection and consequence the time and manner of his coming as aforesaid and will further appear But Secondly Anti-christ secular and spiritual the more proper body of the Apostacy and son of perdition came about the year 412. also under the conducts of the Sea-born and Bicorn beasts Papal with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness whereby they least appeared what they were indeed when they came 2 Thes 2.10 Rev. 13.13 14. But this threefold distinction as also how and when each came at first will be much more clear by shewing what earth brought forth the bicorn false Prophet And therefore And I saw another beast saith the text come out of the earth and he had two horns like a Lamb c. ch 13.11 Out of the earth Non omnis fert omnia Tellus The false Prophet Bicorn and Papal grew not out of every ground The High-way least honour'd him he it as little therefore gross Heresies and open profaneness fruits of the High-way ground which neither could hide him nor be hid from others he at fitst at least affected not nor was that his native soil that brought him forth But the thorny and stony grounds the truer Parents of all deceits were the producers of him Those Professors especially the stony ground gave him his first being and their professions furnished him with all deceits For the stony ground deceives not some single persons but the whole body of the Apostacy of Anti-christ that is this Rocky ground Professors lightly over-lay'd with a trivial and superficial earth of shallow knowledg and obedience deceives its painful Sowers and all that see it It were fondness they think to say At quando Messis when they see it send forth seeds of Grace so fast But it forthwith retracts its fertility and like a Furnace consumes that seed it cherished before and is most cruel in killing the Witnesses of the truth For the blind and ambitious Off-spring of the stony ground brings of all evil Reports the worst against all good men and Manners because blind Vipers of all Serpents bite forest and they of all other are most deadly And Secondly It deceives themselves most If we say they have Grace like a grain of Mustard-seed we need no more A little is enough the least sufficient They are much deceived though they in part say the truth For Grace like a grain of Mustard-seed is sufficient for the fimplest weakest sincere Professor But a careless contented proud knowledge though it be never so great is quite contraryto true Grace which is ever growing Sincere Professors grow daily in grace and in the knowleage of our Lord Christ But a careless contented shallow knowledge continually resists the Grace of God is ever busie in bringing evil reports upon it and watcheth to work the ruine of the Witnesses of it This is not that which hypocrites take it to be the grace of God either like a grain of Mustard-seed or in any measure Nor did our Saviour say that the Kingdom of God was like a grain of Mustard-seed standing at a stay but like a grain of Mustard-seed which though a small seed grows as it were into a Tree The Son of perdition should come with all deceiveableness And this spiritual profaneness of a contented shallow literally sound knowledge with like obedience was the way of that son of perdition Therefore He did not could not come as an Arrian or Mahumetan or as Antichrist sensual came There was nothing so great deceievableness in such gross Heresies and open prophaness which appertain as more manifest to Antichrist sensual and not so properly to this secular and Spiritual son of Perdition who should come and came about the year 407 not with open manifest or gross Heresies and manners conform but with all deceiveableness of appearance of truth in knowledge obedience Doctrine profession Miracles and pretences to be the true Catholick Church These are the Angelical colours of deceiveableness under which he and chiefly his Super-intendents works secure and as it were unseen all works of spiritual wickedness and under which he came Of all these we shall speak briefly and in some order but leave their Miracles to their proper place And first of the deceiveableness of their pretence to be the Catholick Church It was the Apostacy over which the Super-intendents this Man of sin presided that seemed Catholick or universal And that body of Apostacy was the Antithesis to the true Catholick Church Herein they deeply deceived those that dwelt upon the earth and were themselves deceived The text saith A falling away must come 2 Thes 03. That is there should be a grand and general revolt of the gospel-Gospel-Church from Faith and obedience say some Expositors They are so many and common we need not quote them But there could not be a general revolt of Saints from all inward Faith and from at least some outward weak and scarce-visible obedience Such therefore must be excepted But otherwise the Apostacy might seem general We shall search the truth of it in the Types and in their Anti-type And first The Apostacy of Israel under the Pharisees might seem general and the Pharisees might pretend by the generality to be with their followers the true Catholick Church Secondly The Apostacy of Israel under Ahab might pretend by the generality to be the Catholick-Church Thirdly The Apostacy of Israel in the Wilderness when the perfidious Spies searched the Land of Promise might pretend by the generality to be the Catholick Church For all Israel to a man about four excepted fell from Faith and obedience They all observed literally legal Ordinances so far as we find well enough but rejected the Prophetical traditions that promis'd them the Land of Promise They fell from Faith in the Promises from Faith of veracity and from obedience All fell away except as aforesaid All rebelled against God against Moses and Aaren and would have stoned the two faithful Witnesses that were sent Numb 14.9 10 11. Therefore the ten Spies
porters of evil reports dyed immediately by the Plague and all Israel whom they had infected with the Pestilence of that Apostacy all to a man from twenty years upwards two excepted dyed in the wilderness ver 29. And all that sad Prophetick story is told as it were mutato nomine of their Anti-type the body of Apostacy who by their generality pretend to be the Church Catholick who cast away look not after the Promises in the Prophetick Scriptures nor after substantial truth and obedience but basely espouse a trivial superficial shallow though somewhat literally sound knowledge with obedience conform which is the productor of evil reports blasphemies persecutions and the path-way that the son of perdition came when he came with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness about the year 412 as will instantly appear For this way is deceiveableness it self most deceitful and that sin chiesly that shuts Heaven whiles they and their complices conceive it to be the only Key to open it This was the way of his coming about the year four hundred seven ten or twelve let us turn therefore our eyes to about that time to see more clearly both the time way and manner of his coming St. Hierom's Record and he 's the fittest testator here best occurreth his commencement at such a time and in such a manner as the Apostle predicted and I here have briefly described Of him Erasmus as Clarkes Church-History witnesseth thus writeth Quis doces aptiùs quis delectas urbanùs St. Jerom was in Erasmus esteem as it might appear the best Teacher and most delightful writer of all the Fathers He also lived and was at Rome in that very juncture of time when the Christian world was turning upon the hinge of Apostacy and commencing that grand revolt which â—he Apostle speaks of Therefore his Authority the best of any may here stand good But he about the year 406 as we shall shew call'd Rome-Christian the Meiropolis of the then revolting world a receptacle of Devils and faln Babylon And St. Jerom sure a most vigilant Father of the Church and a sober Writer would not have called Rome-Christian then-reviloing faln if he had not seen good reason or rather real truth for it that she was then faln or in falling But he gave sufficient reasons and those reasons we shall afterwards abundantly shew to be real truths For it follows * When I livea saith he in Babylon an inhatitant of the purple whore after the Roman Laws I would have written something of the holy Ghost and have dedicated the Treatise to the Bishop of that City And behold that seething pot which was seen in the Prophet Jeremy looking out of the North beginneth already to buil and the Senate of Pharisees cryed out at me all at once Neither was there so simple a Scribe in all that ignorant Rabble which conspired not against me wherefore I am now as it were out of Captivity neturned to Jerusalem c. Tempora mutanfur A sudden change into a strange Antithesis Rome of late the City of Righteousness revolted as in a moment to be the Head of the Mystery of Iniquity and her Professors once fruitful in all good works were turned Pharisces And the Senate saith he of Pharisces cryed out at me all at once neither was there so simple a Scribe in all that ignorant Rabble that conspired not against me Against whom Against St. Jerom whom the Papists themselves acknowledge to be a Reverend Father of the Church Ah persidious people of the City of Apostacy How soon is the Metropolis her self of the Primitive Church become unstable as waters and the once firm sear of her faithful Witnesses revolted from Faith and manners For the manners of that upstart proud Catholick-Church pretending Apostacy were mores Iniquissimi most inhumane above Heathens insolencies even to St. Jerom one of the ablest and most worthy Fathers of the Church who apparently had more serious and real worth and solid depth of good ground in him then all the petty pibble Quarry of that proud Senate of Pharisees had And this anti-type Church-Catholick pretending Apostacy when she but began to put forth her rebellious head and first opened her blasphemous mouth against the faithful Witnesses of the truth had as much as all her Types had deceitful grounds sufficient to pretend to a Church-Catholick and might and probably did thus plead Why Jerom do you coms by your Dedications to dictate to us as if we needed your instructions in the tenents of the Homousian Faith Had we needed your help we had sent for you And what need do you think can the Supream Representatives of the Catholick-Church here have of your help a single and obscure person And will you insult alone over the Catholick-Church tax ber with covetousnesse rash censures want of Charity Oppression Apostacy and we know not what Is this your Christian meckness and submission Cannot the City live in peace for you nor the Church in quiet We all all here as one man disdain your daring boldness and detest your pride And the Senate of Pharisees said Jerom cryed out at me all at once c. The Apostacy the truth-opposing Apostacy was or then seemed Catholick and the true Catholick-Church fled or was then flying away into the Wilderness That wicked apostacy even in her Infancy had aspired to the false title of the true Catholick-Church whom she most persecuted and conspired against her most faithful Witnesses And that if the Records of many besides Jeroms may be believed in the Metropolis of the true Primitive but then revolting Church This Apostacy therefore as her Types were seemed general or Catholick and did deeply deceive her self and those that dwelt upon the Earth with the falsly arrogated or stoln title of the true Catholick and Apostolick Church St. Jerom was no base Porter of evil reports no morose â—ash tâ—â—ie accuser but the most faithful of all the Fathers at least then living to reprove exhort correct rebuke instruct Et quis docet aptiùs None taught with more sincere and true Christian candor But relapsing Rome thus reproved plainly by him pay'd dear for her Apostacy and obstinate impenitence For about the very next year and that fully confirms the truth of his reprooss and the equity of his just complaints was Rome besieged made tributary and the body of her Christian Empire began to be translated And about five years after the City the second time besieged was taken plundred burnt and almost totally depopulated by the Plague Sword Famine Fire Then might that miserable City call on Jerom and cry Solon Solon Then was the first and best head of the Sea born beast secular and Papal wounded as it were unto death upon the day of his Birth or so soon as he was brought forth And then Rome Papal or the tenfold body of Apostacy persisting still obstinate and impenitent was with her revolting head or Metropolis the Ruines of Rome literal given up
proud Pharisees a Synagogue of Censorious Hypocrites seat of the Mystery of iniquity Mother of the Son of perdition and the Spiritual Metropolis of the body of Antichrist But here we might enquire who possibly this Angel might be that cryed thus mightily with a strong voyce I answer The seven Stars were seven Angels or overseers of the seven Churches of Asia Ch. 1.20 Therefore This Angel might be for he could be no imaginary or Chimaera-Angel that cryed mightily and was never heard and filled the Earth with his Glory and yet was never seen some overseer of at least some part of the Gospel Church And if so why not Saint Jerom For never any Angel or Overseer of the Primitive Church after the Apostles times cryed so mightily with a strong voice saying Babylon the great is fallen c. But both Papists and Protestants and both unawares plainly import in the delineation of his person that Saint Jerome was indeed this Angel For as both draw Gregories Picture with a Dove at his Ear both make Jeronies Effigies with a Lion at his Foot which is a plain-speaking Hieroglyphick that truly expounds the Text For it evidently imports That as the Lion is King of the beasts so Jerom was the Prince or chief of all the Primitive Fathers For. Secondly The Text saith An Angel having great power cryed mightily with a strong voyce Ch. 18 1 2. And this device Saint Jeroms Picture or Emblem thus drawn as aforesaid by Papists and Protestants imports That the voyce of Saint Jeroms Pen was a strong voyce like the roaring of a Lion Thirdly That which that mighty Angel cryed with a strong voyce was this Babylon the great is fallen c. And that which Saint Jerom cryed with a strong voyce which denotes him undeniably to be the same Angel was the very same thing in the same words To wit Babylon the great is fallen c. No man ever cryed so mightily with a strong voyce as Jerom did against the grand Apostacy at the very beginning of it Therefore Saint Jerom is most likely to be this Angel that cryed thus mightily with a strong voyce Babylon to wit Rome Imperial Babylons penultimate Antitype is fallen c. And therefore the Authority of Jerom alone much more joyned with the witness of sacred Writt and of many Writers is more then sufficient to confirm the Truth of the time when Primitive Apostate Rome fell and when the Papal Apostacy commenced The same is also superabundant to prove that the City called Babylon in the seventeenth and eighteenth Chapters was Rome Imperial Apostate in manners And thereby to refell their opinions that seeming to make it their study how to adde to or diminish from the words of the book of sacred vision assert the contrary It may serve also to undeceive many sober Writers that hold the same errors and so to be a Key to open those Arcana Theologiae mysterious sacred Truths that contain the richest treasures of the greatest mercies to present and after ages For as one Ring wanting or misplaced in a Watch makes the whole Watch be of no use so one much more many Texts misunderstood may make the whole Prophetick Scripture or at least part of it to be of disuse as a book fast sealed and must needs confound the true meaning of many Texts But If Saint Jerom was as both Papists and Protestants though implicit to them thus import that Angel of great power Then that Angel or however Saint Jerom cryed mightily with a strong voyce saying not only that Babylon the great was fallen but that Rome Primitive then commencing Papal and Apostate was that falling City that then fell from faith and manners He had the Record of the fittest Primitive Fathers as well as reason and sacred Scriptures co-asserting what he so cryed with a strong voyce And this irrefellibly refells those confident Opinions of very many fond Opinionists and of some sober Professors who affirm that the great City called Babylon and said to fall in the 17 and 18 Chapters was at her final dissolution Papal Rome only whose five first heads the Scripture sayes it fell before John wrote above four hundred years before Papal Rome was in being but I leave such shameful inconsequences to the sober Reader But that falling City in the 17. and 18. Chapters which those Opinionists imagine to be Papal Rome was the literal City of Rome of Imperial Pagan egressive Papal ingressive She as egressive was Pagan and Imperial from which she then fell for ever She as ingressive was but the Spiritual Metropolis of Papal and Apostate Rome to which she then fell For Papal Rome only went on though at first with more mildness and less violence in the same Apostacy for which Primitive Rome fell Pagan and Imperial Rome that Apostacy of the more Orthodox was the cause of it then fell for ever And Papal Decapolite Rome then rose up by that sall of her said forerunner in that Apostacy Seventhly I would have written saith Jerom something of the Holy Ghost and have dedicated the Treatise to the Bishop of that City Jerom it seems did not disdain either the Title or Office of a Bishop but the abuse of that Office in any person He would have dedicated his Book to the Bishop of that City but found no acceptance from him or his associates For Eighthly And the Senate of Pharisees saith he cryed out at me all at once c. This shews the excessive insolence in the very ingress of it of the grand Apostacy who most pretending to advance Learning and Religion were so far from both that Saint Jeroms book found no acceptance from any of them what book could be better pen'd by man at that time then Saint Jeroms was or be more necessary then that of his upon the Holy Ghost against Arrianisme that then threatened to swallow up the Church of Christ the Christian Empire and indeed all true Learning and Religion But so far was he or it from finding due acceptance that he found perhaps not one man amongst them that would take the pains to read it or that through cursory reading of it could understand it Such might answer him in scorn That his book was too high for their low capacitys to comprehend They were no doubt too wise to read it too learned to understand it Such Learned Non-intelligists now are many Or they had they might imagine better books of their own making or made by orhers to better uses besides much business of highest concernment wherein they busied themselves no doubt to as good purposes as they that take in hand to tresure up thewind Suppose a man I but suppose it in these last times of that Apostacy should write a Treatise effectual to refell errors to reform manners to compose those divisions in and against the Church that threaten like leakes in a weather beaten ship to sink her and to take peace from the Earth I doubt not but the
Dragon gave by degrees his Seat and great authority to the Ten-crowned Beast Papal by submitting his Nations to this Bicorn Builder who had power to deceive those Nations by means of his Miracles Ch. 13.14 to become the matter of his ten fold Polity which his industrious hand was then contriving Lumbardy and Scotland both Kingdom I leave to the Readers liberty Lastly Italy was the tenth Nation which the False Prophet edified upon his Tu es Petrus in this ten fold Tripolity His operating hand was first upon it and last in framing of it to his absolute purpose He to that end supplanted the Kings of the Lumbards in Italy Conspired against and by conspiracy slew the Exarches and Officers of the Greek Empire residing in Italy Here saith Baronius was an end of the Dukes and Governours whom the Emperour was wont to send to command in Rome and places adjacent And here we end our brief discovery how the Bicorn beast built up the Papal Decapolity out of the matter of the Apostacy I approve not that common Opinion of many Expositors that find ten petty Kingdoms and those to no purpose in Europe They placing them chiefly betwixt the Rheyne and Danubius thus name them Alemanni Ostrogothi Visogothi Hunni Saxoni Suevi Alani Vandali Burgundiones Franci most of which were petty if I may so call them Kingdoms of no continuance And so as if Caesars Effigies upon his Coyn could be greater then his person or the Mapp of a Country larger then the Country it self the Nations of the Prototype-Monarchies Chaldaean Persian Greek Roman must be far greater then the ten Nations of their Antitype Rome Papal whom they did but prefigure or shadow forth Their tenent so trivial I reckon not worth refuting But the ten Nations aforesaid were large Provinces under Pagan Rome after under Rome Orthodox And Lastly were ten large Kingdoms in Papal and Decapolite Rome That is they were all at least freed from the bondage and power of Rome Imperial The Supream secular powers of those ten Nations were the ten crowned horns of the Sea-born beast ch 13.1 Here the Reader may observe That three distinct powers secular are represented in the Apocalyps by three different and distinct beast The first is Bestia decem habens cornua sine coronis a Beast with ten Horns uncrowned The second is Bestia decem armata Cornibus coronatis a Beast with ten Horns crowned The third is Bestia Gentium Regna transferens vel bestia intermedia the beast that Translated the Kingdoms of the falling Empire The first with ten Horns uncrowned was the first Dragon or the powers secular of Pagan Rome whose five first heads were fallen before our blessed Saviour was born five are fallen saith the Text ch 17.10 He letted and should let the rising up of Papal Rome till he was taken out of the way Him the 12 17 and 18 Chapters as also Thessal 2.7 hold forth The second Beast with ten Horns crowned was this Seaborn-beast Secular and Papal or the Secular powers of those ten Nations aforesaid whom the false Prophet deceived into a Papal-Decapolity by means of his false Miracles which he had power to do ch 13.14 The five first heads of the this ten-crowned beast were so far from being fallen before Christ was born that neither was that beast nor any one of his heads in being for above four hundred years after the birth of our Saviour This Beast these Texts hold forth ch 13.1 2 3. c. ch 16.13 The third Beast Bestia Regna transferens was the second Dragon who took away him the first Dragon that letted the rising up of Papal Rome and gave added his power and great Authority the Nations which he took from him to her crowned Beast secular being induced thereunto by the deceit and procurement of the Bicorn beast as we have shown immediately before This intermediate Beast or second Dragon these Texts hold forth ch 11.7 ch 13.2.4 ch 16.13 In these things I confess and many other I do as a duty to be done of necessity stear my course contrary to the Currents of all at least all modern Writers whereby I am incident to incurre the displeasure of many Howbeit it seems to me no small fault of injustice and ingratitude in those that being by long assuetude cemented to their errors wherein all Writers perhaps have misled the way cannot be content to be inconsentient to the truth themselves but are apt to conceive a prejudicious amaritude and that before they read or know what they write against those that would by undenyable eviction of reason convince them of their errors and manifest to them nolentibus volentibus not only the great dangers but the grossness of their mistakes The Premises aforesaid may at present fully refel many that pretending to unfold them pour forth confusion as a flood upon sacred Scriptures and make them much more obscure and dark by their confident false glosses and Expositions They may serve also to undeceive many sincere but seduced professors and sober Writers that are led away with the same errors But I return The superindents of the False Prophet Pagan the Roman Emperours who were summi Pontifices fell rather short of this expansive superintendency over which the false Prophet Papal presided And what was the means by which he built this tenfold City He cometh saith the Text withal deceiveableness c. That is He deceived those that dwelt upon the Earth those Nations chiefly aforesaid by meanes of those Miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast Of which miracles I have hinted something before but shall insist upon them more fully afterwards Secondly He laid his forged or at least falsely applyed Foundation by deceit in Doctrine He perverted the Text to cause them that dwelt upon the Earth to believe contrary to truth and the true Faith That Peter was the foundation of the Church that the Pope his supposed successor was the same by succession sole Apostolick-Bishop Primate over all Churches and Supream over all Kings and Councils Those that dwelt upon the Earth those thus deceived ten Nations chiefly There 's the matter of this tenfold Cities building He deceived them There 's the meanes his pretended message doctrine of deceit and false miracles by which he built it His Doctrine was a shallow fruitless but somewhat literally sound Doctrine destitute of right and charitable application And such meanes is fittest to make way for lying miracles and both these the most effectual meanes eruere Ecclesiam aedificare mysterium iniquitatis to destroy the Church and Saints all solid knowledg of the truth and true obedience by slanders evil reports and wicked contrivances against all that is good For That 's proper especially to such profane affected shallow knowledge and obedience Therefore The son of perdition was not to come in the Van of Apostacy with gross Heresie and open scandalous practices like the Arrians or Mahumetans
This is not the way of his coming nor could he come this way This is via non satis deceptiva There 's not deceit enough in such open enormities to deceive the Nations This had been the way to deceive none and to be seen of all Had he come this way not of deceit but apparent wickedness he had not laid his foundation of fraud in his misapplyed Tu es Petrus had not had power to pull down the Primitive Church nor to assume her proprieties and priviledges to himself to build his Apostacy therewith in her place Nor could he have drawn the Nations those that dwelt upon the Earth saith the Text nor the Primitive Church her self to be the Burgers of his new built City had he come with open hostility profaneness and gross Heresies This had been the way to affright her and them and to make both fly from his presence as the Church then also did from the face of the Serpent or second Dragon ch 12.14 For Such professed hostility open profaneness and gross Herefie best befits the Pseudoprophetick superintendent of Antichrist sensual seated in Spiritual Sodom and her head that Dragon who about the year 407 came not like this Bicorn Lamb-like builder with all deceivableness but with open violence armies of gross Hereticks Heathens and Arrians to kill the Church and her witnesses or to cause her saith the Text to be carryed away of the flood To wit By that flood of Military Forces vers 15. wherewith he vanquished Rome Imperial That so neither she nor any part of her being quite carryed away might be ever seen any more Therefore He did not deceive and draw her by fraud but by force drave her to fly with two wings of a great Eagle as into her subterfuge into this Tripolity of deceit which the false Prophets hands had constituted or was in constituting of it of ten Nations For That City of deceit and persecution but of her preservation from corporal and total destruction by that second Dragon the Text calls Her place prepared of God ch 21.6 And the woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there 1260 dayes The same place and the same time is set down the second time in the same Chapter vers 14. For Though the False Prophet by Gods permission built this ten-fold City of Apostacy yet it was a place prepared of God for the purpofe aforesaid To wit To preserve his Church not from all persecution but from a total destruction by the rage of the second Dragon from whose face the Church then fled for 1260 years ver 14. For the false Prophet built that City a City both of affliction and refuge to the flying Church But God gave him power all power into his hands to crect that Decalabyrinth of errour Whose coming is with all power saith the Apostle 2 Thes 2.9 He shall wear out well nigh wear out the Saints of the most high and think to change times and Laws and they shall be given into his hands the Laws of power or all power as it were by a Law shall be given into his hand for three times and an half or 1260 years to be a refuge as well as a scourge to the Church so long Dan. 7.25 For as God prepared a Fish and that Fish to be a place for flying Jonah not as a Tombe to interre him in lasting oblivion but as a Womb to preserve him for a future birth to a better life So God prepared Rome Papal with her Sects for his flying Church as a womb to preserve her from perishing and for a future production of her to a far better reviction And the Woman fled into the wilderness into her place prepared of God where she is nourished for 1260 dayes from the face of the Serpent Apocal. 12.6.14 The time in Type and Antitype and how God prepared Rome Papal with her Sects to be a place to preserve his Church for 1260 years from perishing by the second Dragon we shall shew afterwards And therefore Male creditur Hosti It s dangerous trusting to Turkes and Mahumetants the main continued stem and Off-spring of this second Dragon For though they pretend to some slavish allowance of liberty to Christians and Sects for which some Sects and wicked professors wish them before Papists and indeed above others more Orthodox it may be undoubtedly expected That had they the power absolute in their own hands over all Christians they would Massacre all as they did formerly in Spain for the very name of Christ For so their like Pagano-arrian predecessors at the ingress of this second Dragon about 407 came with flood-like armies and with full purposes to destroy utterly the Gospel Church But The false Prophet came with all deceivableness Laid his foundation of deceit pulled down Church priviledges and built his Decapolite state of Apostacy under a strict and specious pretence of the Catholick and Apostolick Faith confirmed by many dreadful false Miracles and in shew of all meekness as being the servant of the servants of God and the tender Father of all the Fathers of the Church when all was nothing but a strongly deluding fraud in a superficial affected shallow knowledge and profession fruitful only in persecution and in bringing evil reports upon the best men then living A knowledge and profession casting the imputation of innovations upon their antient Catholick and most solid Truths as in the examples of the sixth Council of Carthage Saint Basil Jerom Augustine and others And calling their own Innovations Antient and Catholick Truths and Customes So Innocent the first did about his pretended antient right of Supremacy in his Epistles to the Bishop of Roan Augustine and others You have saith he to Saint Augustine had due regard of the Apostolick honour I say of him who hath the care and charge of all Churches in asking advice of him in these perplexities and intricate causes following therein the antient Canon which you know as well as my self to have ever been observed in all the world And yet Augustine and the sixth Council of Carthage clearly proved this his pretence of an antient and Catholick practice in all the world to be a notorious and remarkable lie in those four first Fabers of the Apostacy To wit Innocent Zosimus Boniface and Caelestin For The Son of perdition in all his Sects and Off-spring seeks seeks diligently to suppress solid truth and sincere obedience by casting the lying Imputation of innovation upon it and to preferre a shallow fruitless knowledge in a proud careless covetous practive as antient Catholick and Apostolick Thus he cast down the power of the Primitive Church and built his Apostacy in her place That is the Bicorn Seer by deceit by all possible deceivableness built this City And as the bands of the blinded Syrians sent to Dothan came instead of it to Samaria so these ten Nations with the Dragons floodlike armies or they
think any man can imagine they could be the true Church Wherefore if they could not possibly be the Saracens nor Monks and Friars nor possibly be the true Church Then I conceive with submission at least unless any can give a better account of them they were if I may so say a Semi-Papal body of Apostacy Formalists in Profession Papists in Practice that sprung up about the year 1417. when the fifth Angel might begin to sound And that they might have some footing or beginning in those Victorious Taborites whose Victories had been more happy had they not fought against their Superiours Howbeit they were to be some relief to the Church and many amongst them though perhaps not of them might chiefly intend that though the most might do it for seditious and self-ends For I partly shewed before That there is Antichristus adjuvans and Antichristus destruens Antichrist in some respects helping the Church And Antichrist seeking to destroy her And First Antichrist seeking to destroy her And the Dragon the second Dragon cast out of his mouth waters as a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood Chap. 12.15 That is that he might destroy her For gross Hereticks such as the Arrians then were and the Mahumetans are and all sensual carelesly-ignorants and loosly-inanimadversive Professors constitute Antichrist sensual and their design is had they power to do it to destroy utterly the Church and Saints But Secondly There is Antichristus aliquando adjuvans Antichrist sometimes and for self-ends helping the Church And the Earth saith the Text helped the Woman c. Ver. 16. That is The Earth men minding Earthly things and her son the Bicorn-Beast whom she brought forth She I say her son the Papal Apostacy then new sprung up affecting for the said ends a fruitless formal though somewhat literally sound Doctrine and Profession helped the Woman and swallowed up the flood which the second Dragon cast out of his mouth to destroy her That is She helped her by converting through deceit his Nations and Military Forces to the unity of the Church of Rome And he deceiveth saith the Text those that dwell upon the Earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do c. Chap. 13.14 And these Locusts no doubt were a new Progeny and a principal part of Antichirst adjuvant that helped the Church as the Earth had done against the Floods of the second against the swelling Floods of the loosed Dragon To wit Against those Church-persecuting Papists that revolted from being some shelter to her as formerly to work by all wayes and means to destroy her They helped her I say not as their Predecessors did the second Serpent's by swallowing up this Food of the loosed Dragon nor by killing his Military Forces But they being commanded not to kill them tormented saith the Text those men to wit those Church-persecuting Papists that had not the seal of God in their foreheads for five moneths which are one hundred and fifty years That is They tormented those true-Church-destroyers by abating their power by alienating their proprieties and assuming to themselves their Church-Revenues And so the Text saith expresly And to them it was given that they should not kill them but that they should torment them five Moneths Chap. 9.5 And if they did thus bend the Forces of their Superficial Fruitless Formal though their Doctrine was somewhat Literally sound Knowledge and Profession against the true Church and Saint-Persecuting Papists it was the best service they could do for want of better to the true Church and Saints then ready to perish by the unbridled rage of the loosed Dragon Nay say some these Locusts were the Saracens And this Opinion seems part of their Smoak For when I pray did their Apollyon ever see the Mahumet-Saracens so much favour true Saints How came they so quick-sighted to see the Seal of God in their foreheads who bound them as these Locusts were by a Law that they should not hurt any green thing the servants of God when were they commanded by any command either express or implicit to spare or protect true Saints and to torment the Papists their persecutors Boniface we read received them into pay to invade Sicily to war against Christians and by that means against Saints But when did Saints and Saracens so comply Such Doctrine may well serve to teach Christians to fall in love with Mahumetans and turn Turks And how should a proud trivial contented knowledge joyned with a covetous blind Profession bear better light But many men Learned Religious say these Locusts are of our Opinions as in many other things that those Mahomet-Saracens were these Locusts More 's the misery and the greater pity that such men either Learned or Religious should so mislead or be misled Or it may at least serve to shew as a means to humble them the more the instability and weakness of some able and sincere witnesses of the truth Here we may mark with admiration how appositely the wise and Almighty hand frames Similitudes in Sacred Scripture For what Creature did God ever make that loves like the Locusts to live in dark Clifts and Smoak ascending from Subterranean fires in which places I have seen them like Bees about to swarm in great abundance And what Professors love to live in the Smoake of a fruitless blind zeal formal Worship and a Superficial though somewhat sound Doctrine than these Locusts do Smoake is insufferable to all Creatures living except to Locusts Nor can any men in the least Moral or ingenuous endure a smoaky empty ignorant proud barren Profession but only Locusts and Hypocrites The Vulgar observation though that may be true that these Creatures live but five moneths in the open fields I voluntarily omit But these Locusts in the Text were to torment men saith the Text expresly for five moneths Vers 5. And they had power to hurt them saith the second Text for five moneths Vers 10. Five moneths counting a day for a year make just one hundred and fifty years And these Locusts if we count from about 1417 when they most probably might begin to about 1567 continued in chief power to torment the Saint-persecuting Papists for five moneths of dayes Annual or about 150 years For Zisca alwayes Victor Signally beat the Imperial Armies in eleven battels about the year 1417. And after his death Procopius and his Confederates beat them in two Battels about the year 1424. But what are they or their Armies to these Locusts 'T is said Castra sequentes vix pietas sequitur Little Religion attends Armes Howbeit Procopius and Zisca their Leaders might be men of much valour and piety but the major part of their Armies as will appear seemed to have some Lions teeth like these Locusts After those battels these if I may so call them Modern Formalists though many true Saints might be amongst them expatiated and prevailed against the
Apostles Such Sects nevertheless come nearest to true Churches that holding forth sound Doctrine are sound most fruitful in the practice of good Manners Sects are either more General or more Special Sects more Special are Societies of Professors fallen from sound Doctrine or good Manners and separated from Churches more sound then themselves The more General Sect are such Professors in all Sects and Churches as are fallen though not from sound Doctrine from the practice of good Manners Doctor Colet calls this Sect The Sect of evil Manners Many Saints at least men somewhat Moral and Ingenuous may be found in many Sects who are the supports of them and are usually least regarded and most persecuted in and by those Sects For Locusts are apt to creep into and corrupt through Inadvertency Pride Ignorance and avarice all Sects and even the truest and best Church-Societies Cause Dissentions in them oppose diligence and fidelity and endanger to destroy them Therefore it is not my design in this Treatise to fall foul as Weather-beaten Ships at Sea upon any Sects or Church-Societies but in love to reprove them plainly and to manifest to them their manifold gross and dangerous mistakes in Opinions and Manners of which their inconviction though they little mind it is their greatest misery they do or can sustain on Earth To that end I shall beginning at the Foundations of both endeavor to distinguish the true Church and Saints from false Professors in all Sects and Churches And first The Rock whereon the true Church is built is Christ alone Sunt caetera Arenae All other Formal fruitless Christ-pretending Professions are but Sands of deceit or Smoake whereon the Apostacy of Antichrist and all false Practices are built The first Superstructure upon the true Rock is Animadvertency For Faith comes by hearing and hearing by Animadvertency to hear He heareth to very little purpose that minds not much what or how he hears For Secondly the first Superstructure upon the sandy Foundation of the Apostacy of Antichrist is inanimadvertency or a careless unmindfulness To hear profitably or To do what they hear Animadvertency the first Superstructure upon the sure Rock is threefold a mindfulness to hear to expect and to practise what is heard and read and brings forth a threefold operative Grace Faith Hope and Charity though true Animadvertency and more accepted of God is a fruit of that threefold Grace Inanimadvertency the first Superstructure upon Sandy Foundations is threefold Non animadversive Semi-animadversive Mis-animadversive and brings a three-fold effect contrary to Faith Hope Charity To wit Perfidy false confidence and rash and censorious uncharitableness This threefold inadvertency opposite to true Repentance is the threefold Substructure of Antichrist Sensual Secular and Spiritual And first Non-animadvertency is the Substructure of Antichrist sensual or of such Professors as mind nothing orlittle else but loose Profaneness Such were the men of the Old World They knew nothing saith the Text till the Flood came c. And no marvel For how should thew know any thing that minded nothing Non-advertists are very Beasts both have hearts alike to mind nothing Therefore both perished alike in the Flood These slothful Citizens of Spiritual Sodom regard not to read the Scriptures that testifie of Christ or Books that unfold the meaning of them Or they read both but mind not through sensual levity and folly to understand what they read Such were the Men and Swine of Gadara They cared not to know Christ the living truth and these care as little to know what truth in practice is So far are they from that that they mind not so much as the proper objects of right-producing Animadvertency or the Principles of the practice of good manners which Principles because little minded by most Professors through almost a general inanimadvertency we shall insert in the sequel Such Non-advertists are the Owles of Ignorance unclean and hateful Birds that hate the light and would were it in their power utterly extinguish it and destroy the Witnesses of it For truth in Doctrine and Manners is directly contrary to the bruitish ignorance of Non-advertists Therefore they oppose both by a direct opposition Yet these seek shelter for their sins of bestial ignorance under some careless Formalities or in some corner of the Court that was cast out and given to the Gentiles and receive the Seed of Grace like the High-way-ground let it lye where it 's scattered till it 's lost but it takes no Root there as it did in the Thorny and Stony grounds Secondly Semi-advertency is the Substructure of secular Apostacy or of men minding Earthly things These Professors for such as the cause is such is the effect Worship God by halves do good Works by halves are half-Christians in shew in deed Heathens And though Spiritual Egypt owns them are much like those Samaritans that succeeded captive Israel in their vacant Habitations They worshipped the Lord and worshipped their Idols also And these Locusts are such Semi-advertists seem to serve God by halves but in deed covetousness which is Idolatry altogether They were Men and Women in appearance Lions in practice winged Horses in pursuit of their practices For Semi-advertists assume several shapes according to which their evil manners differ Under these men if I may so call them not only good men but good works suffer Martyrdom They spin many threds of good works and go on for a space But their Lions teeth of avarice before these good works be finished bite in pieces those threds and lay those good works a bleeding All their good works are Opera refuga works of Apostacy They begin many and perfect none For Thorns sprang up in the Thorny-ground and choaked the good Seed And these are that Thorney-ground wherein Cavils Slaunders Quarrels Missuppositions Pretences Excuses and Busie neglect of the best things springs up and through Pride and Covetousness choake every good Work before it be finished Pilate was guilty of this sin so was Saul Both did very much and then turn'd Apostates in not perfecting what they had begun True Saints are oft guilty of these sins and pay dear for their Semi-advertencies and half performances For Moses omitted to circumcise his son therefore God met him and would have kil'd him 'T is like he lay sick near unto death So the Prophet sent to Bethel had performed within a very little all the task that God sent him to do But a Lion met him and slew him because he left part a very little part of his work undone Little do many true Saints imagine that the cause of their losses languishing sicknesses and oft untimely deaths is their Semi-advertency causing careless half-performances and keeping them back from perfecting any good work Such Saints can scarce be discerned by theirs Works from Locusts and Hypocrites Semi-advertency is so much worse then Non-advertency as Apostacy is worse than Profaneness or as To know and profess the truth and oppose it is worse than
endeavour to shew briefly what their use and meaning is Wherefore we shall distinguish by their respective works or fruits they bring forth betwixt the sealed and Conscript-Churches and betwixt both and those that have not the Seal of God nor his Name in their foreheads And first The works of the flesh are manifest c. Gal. 5.19 Such works are not sealed works nor deceitful God sets no Seal to the doers of them vers 21. nor are they much deceitful For there is no great deceit or Mystery in the more proper works of the flesh which are manifest Of these I have written at large before and therefore need not now insist upon them But Secondly The practice of Truth-pretending Formalists is Justitia insigillata deceptiva an unsealed half-performed righteousness of deceit It was commanded them saith the Text that they should not burt the Grass neither any green thing nor any Tree but only those Men which have not the Seal of God in their forebeads Ch. 9.4 That is The Locasts as it were by a command from God ver 5. should torment Truth-pretending Church-persecuting Papists that had not the Seal of God in their foreheads with like retaliation as they had persecuted and tormented the Saints of God that had his Seal in their foreheads Nor had these Locusts themselves his Seal as neither Type Egypt nor the Locusts that tormented her had the Seal of the Covenant and the practice of those Papists and these Locusts that tormented them being both alike unsealed was a persecuting practice and a righteousuess not sealed but deceitful shewing that the doers of such rash violence have not the Seal of God Fiat tamen justitia Right must be done to evil-doers and not with-held from the well-deserving To omit either or do both negligently is not the least pe secution as we have seen in Eli and others Such persecution on the right hand or left is though almost universally practised by such as are sealed the practice properly of those that have not the Seal of God in their oreheads Thirdly The practice of those 144000 that were sealed with the Seal of God is Justitia sigillata vera sedvix-manifesta true righteousness through much weakness and many deficiencies not clearly manifest These 144000 were not the aggregate of the whole Gospel-Church but a select part of it excluding the outward Court that was cast out and given to the Gentiles Chap. 11.2 For the son of perdition was to sit as God in the Temple of God yet was not sealed or accepted of Him as a select member of his Church 2 Thes 2.4 The Seal of God is inward or outward 2 Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God standeth sure having this Seal The Lord knoweth who are his And Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity The Lord knoweth who are his There 's the inward and invisible Seal And let him that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity There 's the outward and more visible Seal of God in the foreheads of his Saints wherewith these 144000 were sealed Primitive Saints were wont to shew their Faith by their Works Jam. 2.18 And so these 144000 especially at first did for a long time But they though sealed with the Seal of God were not like the Church of Thyatira of whom this record is given of God I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patitience and thy works and the last to be more than the first Rev. 2.19 But the works of these 144000 were more and more perfect at first than at last For the Seal of God in their foreheads though it might suffer some decay at the grand Apostacy about or before 412 continued competently visible near a thousand years Tum vetus ipsa dies extenuabat opus Then the impression of the Seal of God in their foreheads was much defaced and their departing from iniquity less apparent Wherefore God loosed the first Dragon out of the bottomless Pit after he had been bound about 1000 years upon the Gospel-Church fallen from her first Love and Works But God hath since greatly multiplyed as he did the Type-fallen-Womans her sorrows not by her bearing many Children but by suffering for her sins her Children to wound her with many Darts of afflicting Calamities and to rend her into Schisms Subdivisions which Balm can scarce heal nor any Art bind up Were any of her sons so dutiful to her so faithful for her as to tell her and declare unto her her deplorable and desperate condition 't were in vain she minds it not but lyes as it were insensible upon her sleepy Pillow seems to have given her self up to inanimadvertency and forgetfulness begins many good works forgets to finish them Torpor corpus totum tenuit sopor animam A desperate insensibility hath seised upon the Members of her Body and a deep sleep on her Senses She is Quasi Ecclesia moritura non mortua as a dying Church only not dead But God shall wipe away all tears from her eyes Ch. 7.17 Ch. 21.4 He hath promised it and will perform it which must be done if ever it be done by his writing the Name of God in the foreheads of his servants her sons So may she be revived in her Off-spring For Fourthly These 144000 in the 14th Chapter are the same Gospel-Church redeemed as it were from death Redeemed from the Earth saith the Text ver 3. Both are the same Church but in different respects and times For the 144000 in the 7th Ch. to the 9th vers were the Church of God fed in the wilderness for 1260 years Ch. 12.6 14. But these 144000 shall be the same Gospel-Church fix't upon Mount Zion Ch. 14.1 That 144000 in the 7th Chapter was Ecclesia sigillata the sealed Church of God But these 144000 shall be Ecclesia conscripta the same Gospel-Church having the Name of God written in her forehead That sealed Church triumphed over Primitive Apostate Rome Ch. 18.20 Ch. 19. to the 7th vers This conscript-Church the same Church in succeeding times should triumph over Papal Rome Ch. 15.2 3 4. Therefore Both differ much in distance of time For that 144000 in the 7th Chapter were sealed long before these 144000 in the 14th Chapter should have the Name of God written in their foreheads And Lastly They differ much though both the same Church in preceding and succeeding times in respect to things For Those 144000 in the 7th Chapter sealed above 1200 years before the Name of God should be written in the foreheads of these their successors were not though so long before them called The first-Fruits But these 144000 in the 14th Chapter though so long after those former are called The first-fruits redeemed from the earth and from among men vers 3.4 Therefore it requires necessarily our serious disquisition to examine For what causes these the conscript Church are called The first-fruits so long after those in the 7th Chapter
covetous and his practices partial or but in part And such services to God joyned with covetousness Also all half performances and commixt worshippings of God and Baal Christ and Belial or of God and Mammon and all haltings betwixt two contrary Practices or Opinions are Spiritual Sorceries and are expresly compared to Witchcraft and Idolatry 1 Sam. 15.22 23. Because the best works of such Professors are mixt Heterogene or Lincy-Woolsy works of deceits and wicked exemptions from sincere practice and true obedience Fourthly Nor of their Fornications Literal Fornications in sensual Antichrist are many But the Fornications of the Mystery of Iniquity and these intended in the Text are the same are more Spiritual And what are they When few or many joyn in outward-worship or in any Church-Society to act Spiritual-filthiness That 's Spiritual fornication That is when such come together not for the better but for the worse Not to be more fruitful but more barren in good works when they meet together not to edifie but to increase strise and ignorance This and such like conjoynt-practices are Spiritual fornication It is an absurdity in the very name of a true Church That God should call any people out of the world to practise covetousness Or to become Vines bringing forth if any fruits for themselves for their Proselytes Co-associates nothing for others nor to further any thing that 's profitable or honest But the Conscript-Church shall not be defiled with Women for they are Virgins Ch. 14.4 That is Her sacred company shall abhor the pollutions of this Spiritual filthiness and be redeemed from the Earth and among men to God and the Lamb ver 3 4. But it 's contrary to the Nature of a true Church That she should be called or redeemed of God from the Earth to follow Earthly things Or that she should be redeemed from among men to mind nothing or to omit good manners and be ignorant of them Such co-adjoynings as produce these or such like ends are Spiritual fornications far from the ends of that conscript incontaminate Company But there is no Church till those first fruits appear can be free from gross pollutions of Spiritual fornication because they have not their hearts turned back they yet repented not saith the Text of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their fornications Nor Fifthly Of their Thefts And what are they To diminish or derogate from the due woâ—th or works of any man is Spiritual thievery Such are all half-performances like that of the unjust Steward's who set down but fifty measures of Oyl where an hunred were due And therefore All witnessing of the truth in words and works as Pilate did by halves seconded by recidivations or oppositions are Spiritual thievery and murderous thefts as that in Pilate was All careless or willful derogations from the true meaning of the Scriptures or from the truth in the Writings of those that rightly unfold them are spiritual thievery and such detractors have all plagues that can be possible denounced against them Revel 22.19 And therefore To affirm that no right collection can be made nor clear conclusion drawn from Prophetick-Scriptures is Sacrilegious and Blaspemous Theft as I shall further shew in the second pare in answer to that mistaken Assertion Scriptura symbolica non est argumentativa Blind Hypocrites will by no means believe that inanimadversive men that mind not hear not read not the incomplex Principles of right in itself and that 's the shame and folly of beastial Professors be they never so literate or seeming Religious must needs be wicked men But their practice is a continual derogation from the truth and their works at best but works of darkness and ignorance wrought without any Rule of Reason And therefore must be Spiritual theft of necessity For Thirdly Ut jugulent homines surgunt de nocte latrones Theft is the proper work of darkness And Spiritual Theft delights most therein It oft makes the Truth itself to be a mysterious means to practise Murder and promote Robberies So Doeg by speaking the truth when he should not and by not speaking the whole truth robbed David of his due repute with Saul and robbed the Priests of the Lord of their lives A theft like unto this but much worse is when Men and Saints as they commonly do raise slanders from shadows and say They hear such and such evil reports from the mouthes of other men That many affirm the same c. But never name who those speakers are conceal those slanderers or rather feign such to be whereas in deed there were never any such speakers nor such things spoken Or at least they make it not appear and De non apparentibus non existentibus eadem ratio Things that appear not to be are not in being in the Eye of Reason and Judgment of Equity This way of wounding men is a most wicked way of lying defamation Such fictitious slanders did Doeg never produce against David or the Priests of the Lord These Speluncarum mendacia Thefts least perceived whereby many are robbed of their Lives ruinated in their Estates come out of dark Dens But indeed those reporters themselves where the first pretended speakers are not produced are those Robbers and Thieves that slay others by the Sword of their slanderous tongues Ad fabulas credendas facilitas An easiness to believe lyes or a disposition apt to derogate rash censoriousness is a thievish disposition and denotes that such depravers are Spiritual Thieves Such surreptitious Professors where they prevail are the excision of Mercy and Equity and supplant all good Manners because they steal away the hearts of the Ministers of Justice as Absalom did the hearts of Israet and make them basely subservient to Sycophants and to receive and believe lyes It 's the most deplorable demonstration of base degenerosity in Men and chiefly in Magistrates to suffer themselves to be made miserable preys so they seem strict and religious to Depravers and Hypocrites Nor was there said Jerom so simple and mean a Scribe that conspired not c. But now we may rather say There is no such sordid Pickthank or ignorant depraver no such treacherous Ziba or slavish servant nor a Lad so silly or illiterate that is not sufficiently able to carry away an hundred Captives and to alienate through lying defamations their Judgments and Affections far from doing right or shewing mercy And therefore Thou shalt not run with a multitude to do evil For he that runneth with a multitude of evil men is a member of that multitude So Men and Ministers of Justice that suffer themselves to be in such sort basely stoln away by Spiritual Thieves make by that means themselves Thieves These now more than ever increasing worshippings of Idols and these Spiritual Murders and Sorceryes and Fornications and Thefts are the sins of which Men and Saints have not yet repented And from which their hearts and hands must be turned