particular Evidences of that Divine Reason nor with those vigorous Emotions of Zeal against such an unclean Communion as this Prophecy rightly apprehended would arm us with For certainly The Pen of this Divine Scribe was not made in vain I will therefore use the highest Diligence of Research and close Enquiry into the Prophecy concerning the City and the Times appointed to it and then concerning the Comming out of it and enforce the Charge here given to come out of it and all this as peculiarly deriv'd from this Holy Oracle in comparison of which all the Streams deriv'd from Antiquity are Low and Flat in shewing the Great Abominations of that City But Blessed is he that Readeth and They who Hear the Words of this Prophecy for now the Time is more at hand as to what we are now to Treat of than when the Oracle was first given although each part of this Prophecy was in its own Time and Order at Hand according to the Line wherein each Thing was to come to pass and which Line began in the Things that were first to come to pass and did come to pass from the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ which are but one Time in the Account of Prophecy as we say in Law The whole of each Term is but one Day and from thence the Revelation is dated as from its Epoch or Beginning-Point First therefore concerning the City there are such Characters as undeniably assure us This City can be no other than the City Rome that is here thus describ'd The City resembled by a Woman a not only Imperious but Charact. 1. Imperial whorish Woman is plainly Expounded by the Angel to be a City And it is usual in Prophecy to Figure Cities by that Embleme of a Woman and not only Cities but Churches as Revel c. 17. c. 18. Zion by a Woman grieved in Spirit the True Church in this Prophecy is often Typ'd by a Woman the New Jerusalem by the Bride the Lambs Wife And Adulterous Churches by Adulterous Women as Aholiab and Aholibah are the Pictures of Samaria Ezek. 23. and Jerusalem both as Adulterous Cities and Churches But this Woman this Imperial and Imperious whorish Woman is affirm'd to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all the Emphasis and Force of Expression that can be The City The Great That hath now saith the Apostle John that I am in writing it at this very present Time the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth Now a City that had then the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth undeniably imported a Capital City the Seat of an Vniversal Monarchy at that Time. For as a Monarch hath in the very nature of a Monarch all subordinate Magistrates under him and accountable to Him so an Universal Monarchy hath States and Kingdoms under it that however in their particular Kingdoms They may be over and above all others yet still their Power is Limitable and accountable to and may be Appealed from to the Universal Monarchy and Power When therefore This City is said to be The City The Great Having at that Time a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth It is to say the City spoken of was at the Time when the Revelation was given the Seat of an Vniversal Monarchy and that some Supreme Power had its Imperial Residence there took its Title from that City exercis'd its Power under that Title and as the then present Head of that City bore up the City by such Title so that it is said to have a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth because such a Power so related to it had a Kingdom over all other Kingdoms far and near or had such an Universal Monarchy or Kingdom Now what City that was that had then a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth in the sense now declared besides the Notices of Universal History in that matter it is most evident from Scripture that it must be even that very City Rome for Augustus at that time the Emperour of Rome when our Lord was Born made a Decree that All the World viz. the World of the Roman Empire which Aspir'd as it were to equal the very Habitable Earth in Extent should come under a particular Census Luc. 2. 1. or be describ'd that so an Account of the large Bounds of the Dominion the Numerousness Strength and Riches of the Subjects might be render'd to Him. We read in the History of the Acts of the Apostles how great the Honour was for any City to be accounted a Member of that City that its Natives might be the Free-Born of that City It made such a City no mean City The Immunity of being so Free-born was so great that many purchas'd it at an exceeding Rate who had it not by Birth We find the Apostle Paul though he was a Jew and immediately subject to the Jewish Law yet as it were directed by an Impulse of Providence Appeals to Caesar's Tribunal as the Highest upon Earth These and many other Expressions assure us what City it was that at the Acts 22. 28 Time Reigned over the Kings of the Earth And it was very necessary the Scripture that loves most in all weighty matters to be serv'd by its own Records should take this great Notice of the Roman Empire Because as the Fourth Monarchy it was of the Four the most Remarkable For in it Dan. 7. the Kingdom of Messiah that is to be so Universal a Monarchy indeed began to be set up in its Beginning and will in the End of the same Roman Monarchy be a Dominion under the whole Heaven given to the Saints of the most High the first of which is Accounted for in the History of the New Testament and the Last in this Grand Prophecy of it the Revelation But further to carry on the Certainty of this City being the City Rome at the time the Apostle John wrote the Revelation we may observe what is so well known That there was no Change in the State of the Roman Empire except a greater Enlargement of it from the Days of Christ and the Apostles to the Time of the writing the Revelation by the Apostle John. So that when This City is declar'd to be the City that Reign'd over the Kings of the Earth it is most evident Rome was the City intended It is therefore called the Great City according to the manner Charact. 2. of speaking at that Time Roma Sacra Augusta Aeterna Rome the Sacred the Imperial the Everlasting Rome How often therefore doth the Revelation style it the Great City and Babylon the Great and The City and The Great This Woman is said to sit on Seven Mountains And the Holy Charact. 3. Spirit is so Industrious if I may so speak with Reverence to give this Notice of the Famous Seven-Hill'd Rome that it goes out of its way to give it For whereas the Beast only and not the Woman is Entitled to the Seven Heads Besides the
Seven Heads of the Beast on whom the Woman sitteth the Woman her self is pourtrayed Sitting on Seven Mountains as The names of which are most universally known to be the Capitoline the Palatine the Aventine the Celan the Esquiline the Viminal the Quirinal Seven Heads besides the Beasts Heads I say so that the Divine Wisdom steps as it were aside to fetch in these Seven Mountains as the Cities Heads as an uncontroulable unmoveable Character and Assurance of this City For never was any City in the World so famously known by its Seven Hills as the Seven-Headed City Rome There being then no possibility of Avoiding it the most zealous Partizans of Rome in its present State dare not deny that the Woman here describ'd and expounded by the Angel into a City is the very City Rome and no other They do therefore Acknowledge it There are but Two ways then to rescue Rome in its present State from the Dint of this Prophecy 1. That it was Heathen Rome the Prophecy intended and that therefore it hath had its Accomplishment many Ages ago 2. Or that it may be some State of Rome that is not yet nor hath yet been but is to be some short time before the End of the World. If therefore the Prophecy will not endure either of these that it is past or to come it is then Demonstration that it must be the Present State of Rome that is under the Thunder-stroke of the Prophecy Seeing All that Time enfolds in its whole Nature is either past present or to come Now that the State of Rome here describ'd is not yet past there are these two Evident Reasons 1. That whenever this Prophecy is fulfill'd there must be an utter Destruction Ruine and Desolation of the City for the Woman expounded to be the City Chap. 17. is the same whose Desolation is so amply and finally declar'd chap. 18. so that there can be no possible supposal it can be otherwise And that the Desolation is utter and Final besides the whole Course of it all along is most apparent by the Emblem of the Mill-stone thrown into the Bottom of the Sea as of Babylon of old that is a place of Wild Beasts at this Day Every thing in the whole Prophecy is levied on purpose to express a supreme Abolishment of this City out of the whole Nature of Things Now no such Abolishment of the City Rome hath yet been but it hath out-liv'd the Calamities that it suffer'd at any Time since the Prophecy and hath always so recover'd it self that it is at this day in Grandeur so that the Truth of the Prophecy must be wholly overthrown or not yet fulfill'd and so it must be yet to be destroy'd I say nothing of the Cities of the Nations Falling at the same Time that Great Babylon came in Remembrance before God because I would rest only upon what is most indubitably plain 2. The Glory of the Church and of the Kingdom of Christ the Bride the Lambs Wife making her self ready to the Marriage c. 19. 20. 21. and that whole Blessed change of Things answering the great Types of the Prophecy immediately follow the Desolation of this City Rome So in Daniel after the giving the Beast to the Flames as is here foretold also after the Final Destruction of Babylon the Kingdom under the whole Heaven is given to the Saints of the most High and Sathan chain'd shut up and seal'd into his own bottomless pit that he might deceive the Nations no more But that these Happy Things have not yet come to pass there needs nothing more to convince All that bear the Christian Name than the Imposture and Tyranny of Mahomet that hath rag'd within the very Bowels of the Christian World so long a space The most observant therefore of the Roman Commentators on this Prophecy finding how impossible it is to adjust the Prophecy of these two Chapters to Rome changed from Rome Imperial as Heathen to Rome Imperial as Christian have thought the second Interpretation the safer Refuge from the Terror of its Judgment here foretold and much the rather I doubt not because an Exposition resting on a Futurity can be less Evicted in its Disagreeableness than what bears on Things past and what is to be just at the End of the World can be hardlier confuted by shewing the ill-matching of Consequences especially when the Consequences are so Great as the Day of Judgment only can parallel as they have truly enough consider'd then what was to have been so many Ages ago Attended with such Consequences as have not yet come to pass which every one can plainly charge But yet the due and close Search into this Prophecy will as much Confute this as the other as is now to be made evident which that it may be done I will lay down this Proposition and prove it from the whole Prophetick Table Rome in the present State is that which hath been from the Proposit Time the Imperial Name of the City Rome ceas'd and still continues that Symbolical mystical Woman or City upon which this Prophecy and the whole Designation of it perpendicularly or as we say point-blank Falls and not a Future Rome and Antichrist to be expected Three years and a half only before the Day of Judgment as some Papists would have it To prove this I use this General Argument That which 1 General Argum. gives us the distinguishing States and Times of this City according to this Prophecy and according to the General Reason of Things must be the distinguishing of the Times and States of its Seven Heads and Eight Kings Even as in all States Kingdoms and Cities their Times are given by the Reigns of the Princes and by the Governments over them If then by the computing the Times of these it shall appear the present Rome is this Woman or City the Demonstration will be secure Now Thus is the whole Prophetick Frame This City sits on a Beast of Seven Heads for those Seven Mountain-Heads are by the By and only to give the presumptive Knowledge of this City so fam'd for its Seven Mountains the certain and more accomplish'd assurance even to Plerophory of which is its having at that Time a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth yet this of the Mountains joyn'd with it establishes it in the Evidence of Two most undoubted Testimonies of it Yet still it is to be consider'd the Woman sits on the Mountains only as a City is describ'd by its Scituation and this City by its Scituation on Seven Mountains which is a very Grand Character of it But the Woman sits on the Beast of Seven Heads as a Man or Woman are carried aloft on the Beast that bears them or on which they Ride so this Woman sits as a City fast seated on Seven Mountains and as an Imperial Woman Riding in State on the Beast that bears as the Prophecy expresly styles it or carries her and offering her Golden
suffer that Disorder in this his prophetical Representation The King that was no Head can have no room in the Order Proposit 3. of Succession but just in that Seventh Place For the Seven Heads are seven Kings viz. Seven that are also Heads Seeing then there are Eight Kings although but seven Heads There must be one of these Kings who is no Head Else there must be eight Heads which contradicts the Prophecy Which Place then the King No Head holds must be enquir'd It cannot be any of the Five Fallen For they are in Construction of Speech necessarily Heads For those seven Heads are Seven Kings Five of which Kings who were Heads are Fallen So the very Frame of the Words requires But besides the Five are put together and so must be of a Kind and therefore All alike Heads or All alike no Heads if All no Heads where then can be the Seven therefore of necessity All Heads And There is nothing more in the Mind and Design of the Prophecy than to assure us the Eighth King is a Head For whereas He is the Eighth in Number of Kings He is Transpos'd backward and made the Seventh viz. Head. For so he must be when of the Seven Seven Take them either as Kings or Heads both which as together and in one are Sevens and no other are Sevens but they who are both Kings and Heads For the seven Heads are seven Kings And it is plain He is last of the seven and so must be the seventh viz. Head and King. The Dispute then can only lye betwixt the seventh and the sixth Kings which of those Two shall be the King who yet is no Head. Now the very Contexture of the Words necessarily determines us upon the sixth as Head as well as King or at least strongly enclines us For Five Kings that are Heads are Fallen And One is One what but of the Heads who are Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Another is not yet Come Another what but King Yet not Head For He is Another For when such a Point of difference is to be decided there is great Reason to give the word Another a greater weight of Sense then only a casual Word of Order but it seems the Spirit of Prophecy chose that word One that the word Another might fall emphatically and yet concealedly as possible to be casually where He would have it just Fall. Further when He Comes He must continue but a short space which is said only of the seventh King and no Head For the Five are put together The Sixth is The Eighth goes indeed into Perdition but after how long Time is here but Intimated Only the seventh is of short space who being no Head of the Beast that Carries the City ought to be of short space only For neither the Beast nor such a City could have survived long if the King no Head had been of long duration But they were to survive long Lastly the Eighth is expresly said to be of the Seven immediately after the Seventh had made an Interruption between the Heads being no Head Himself but if the seventh King had been a Head and the sixth none we might have expected what Falls so on the seventh King would have been fix'd on the sixth King to distinguish it from being a Head and what is set on the Eighth King to assure Him to be a Head would have been in the same measure Communicated to the seventh King to assure Him to be a Head as well as King if the sixth King had made a Chasm or Breach betwixt the Heads whereas All falls fit on the seventh King on all sides to be no Head. But though All This be enough yet we shall have much more to Assure us when we come to know who these Heads are that of all most indisputably the sixth must be a Head and the seventh could be no Head seeing the heads are Full of the Names of Blasphemy These seven Kings are not seven particular Kings or single Proposit 4. Monarchic Persons but seven Governments having each a Number or Succession of such single Kings under them For Kings in Prophetic Scripture signifie Kingdoms and not only single Kings So Dan. 7. 17. what are call'd Four Kings no one doubts Mean Four Kingdoms Accordingly v. 23. the Fourth King is Interpreted to be the Fourth Kingdom In this Prophecy proportionably the Beast with Seven Heads is the whole Roman Empire or Kingdom according to the old Prophetic Emblem of Heathenish Monarchies from its first Foundation and Beginning to its last Overthrow in which Rome the Imperial City hath been always by the Seven Headed Beast Exalted and borne on High. The Heads are the several Governments and Forms of Empire that have each in their several Seasons exercised Supremacy and Sovereign Authority in that Monarchy State or Kingdom Five of which the Prophecy as before nam'd binds up together as uninteressed in their Duration or Succession The Last of these Heads which is the Seventh and Eighth King is eminently styl'd the Beast because His Supremacy is chiefly treated of by this Prophecy and in which the whole City and All goes into Perdition with Him. Now to demonstrate that these Heads and Kings must be Forms of Government let us consider one and the same City the City Rome is Carried upon the Beast of these Seven Heads together with the Cast-in King its whole Time even to its final Desolation For its whole Ichnography or Representation is charg'd upon these Seven Heads in the last of which It is utterly Desolated The Heads therefore cannot be several Monarchies and Kingdoms For They are All the Heads of One Beast or Monarchy and so not several Monarchies or Empires They All bear up the One City Rome and so must be one Roman Supremacy Nor can they be single Kings or Monarchic Persons seeing neither would Seven Lives support the Grandeur of Eternal Rome as It was Call'd nor in Fact have any Seven so supported it from the Apostle John's Time much less Two One of which was then in Being although we cast in the Embolimean seventh King but not Head For since the Writing of the Apostle is above sixteen hundred Years and yet the Judgment Written in this Prophecy is not as yet Executed From the Time then that This City was said to have such an Ascendency as to have the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth to this time of the Desolation here Foretold the City Rome was to be kept up in Dignity by its sixth King then in Being by its seventh King no Head for a short space by its Eighth King and seventh Head under which it is to sink as a Mill-stone How impossible is it therefore these Kings should be other then Governments or Successions of several Persons or numbers of Persons in each Government Let us now lay together these Four Propositions and consider their Amount to that which we are upon That which we are upon is That the
of the Seventh Head who is the Eighth King But that It will exactly Comport with the Argument we are upon viz. That it is a time sufficient to the definings of the Time by this propheey is to be seen under the Third Point for the management of the Argument upon which I am now entring There must be good Evidence of the well-fixing the Beginning Point 3. or Epoch of this Time according to the Prophecy and according to the Event also And the Event that is to be fixed at the End must appear to be sufficient defin'd by Prophecy both as to the City or Woman carryed by the Beast and inclusively as to the Beast also This Point divides it self into these two Branches 1. The well-fixing this Epoch or Beginning of these twelve hundred twenty two Years according to Prophecy and according to the Event 2. And in the same manner to fix the Event to be evpected at the End. For the well-fixing the Epoch or Beginning of the Number of Branch 1. these Years according to Prophecy and according to the Event it self 1. I must recollect and enforce what I have before largely insisted upon when there is a Succession of Kings According to that Maxim in Successive Governments The King never Dyes whenever therefore the sixth King that was in the Apostles time expir'd the seventh must needs Succeed For the Succession and Entail is made by God himself and therefore must stand firm and sure And when the Seventh expir'd as necessarily on the same account must the Eighth Succeed who was also the Seventh Head And according to this inviolable Succession the Apostle to this very same purpose speaking of the Man of Sin his being Revealed in his Time declares as a stop upon Him however the Mystery of Iniquity was so early at work however earnest He was to Succeed yet the Succession which was the Thing that held close and strong would Hold its Hold So that the Man of 2 Thes 2. Sin could not be Revealed before his Season or proper Time within his Time Times Half Time For he that Holdeth viz. the Dan. 7. 25. 12. 7. sixth King in his Time the seventh in his Time would Hold his Hold till each King and the last especially was Remov'd out of the way by that supreme dispose of Providence or done out of that middle space determin'd by God And then by due Advances was that Wicked One Revealed Now who that considers that Man of Sin of the Apostle Paul and the Beast of the Apostle John can think of them and not think them the same But that is not the present Business to prove them the same but this Prophecy it self is demonstration enough as before explained Thus far the Matter is determined according to the Prophecy whenever the Seventh King asserted to be the Christian Emperour expir'd viz. by a Civil Death or the Cessation of the Imperial Name and Power immediately the Eighth King according to Prophecy must succeed and bear up the Roman City in Grandeur and whoever hath Borne up that City in Supremacy since that Time must be according to Prophecy that Eighth King the Beast Now I Appeal to all the World what the Year was when the Western Imperial Name Fell and it is known in all History to be the Year of Our Lord according to general Account 475 from whence Time since passed Allows these Forty Two Months their full space of 1222 years within Nine or Ten years as shall be further urged presently I appeal in the same manner also what Name or Power hath Borne up Rome since that Time claiming Supremacy Himself and giving it to that City For He must be the Eighth King or the Beast who hath so born the City or the Prophecy must be False and who knows not it is the very Bishop or Pope of Rome that hath so done For in the wonderful Disposes of God No one hath claim'd a Title of Empire from that City since that Year No one hath Advanc'd that City by Imperial Residence since that year but the Pope of Rome Alone and He hath done it to all Intents and Purposes in the Face of all the World. The Last Roman Emperour left that Title Bishop of Rome in Being when He Fell It hath survived ever since * Their so much vaunted Succession witneseth this Point For little Failures or Interruptions make no difference where the same Title and Supremacy still run on It was then proclaim'd by Jerome Antichrist was Born and ever since he hath been growing up till He came to his Manly Age and to his Consistent Age according to Prophecy But since the Times of Reformation indeed He hath been in a Decay and so He ought to be by Prophecy and however He may summon his whole strength now at last yet it shall be only to Dye and thus the Thing is justifi'd in the Event and thus the Time of His the Beasts and the City Romes Supremacy united to Him as the Rider to the Beast under the Name of a Church hath had so long of its Forty Two Months I know there are some Objections but none can avail against Prophecy so clearly so demonstratively Explain'd I will very briefly pass over them The Bishop of Rome cannot be this Beast of the Seventh Head Object 1. and therefore not the Eighth King nor Rome the City borne up by Him because He owns the True God and Jesus Christ how then can He be a Head full of the Names of Blasphemy or Rome the Famous Church of the World be Babylon the Mother of Harlots Whatever may be the Profession of the True God yet when Answer that Profession is Adulterated with Idolatry and stain'd with the Blood of Saints God accounts of those Powers and People according to what His Word declares Zedechiah was a Profane Wicked Prince and that latter Succession of wicked Princes after Josiah Lyons Idolatrous Israelites are said from the very Beginning to blaspheme God Samaria and Jerusalem are those Infamous Prostitutes or Harlots call'd Aholah and Aholibah This Prophecy Ezek. 20. 27. c. 23. hath therefore determin'd that Doubt what Esteem God hath and All his People are to have of both of the Pope and his Church And there is no Fence against the Divine Oracle The Man of Sin sits in the Temple of God and Exalts Himself as God and shews Himself that He is God which is both Blasphemy and Idolatry and He bears the Name of it in being called Holiness and our Holy Lord. According to the very Explanation of Prophecy given There Object 2. is not a close Succession of Heads though there should be of Kings For between the sixth and the seventh Head was the Christian Emperour who though He was a King was no Head and the seventh Head did not Succeed till the Christian Empire Expir'd The Prophecy expresly tells us the Beast was deadly Wounded in Answer one of his Heads
especially for a long space together since the Fall of the Heathen Empire and since the Fall of the Christian Empire and of its very Imperial Name must be the eighth King be the Name what It will And Rome sitting upon that Beast as that which hath drunk into it self the Name of the whole Beast must be that Rome and its eighth King from whom the People of God are to separate that they may not partake of their Sins nor receive of their Plagues or else the Prophecy can have no sense or its sense cannot be True. And seeing we know that All This Time Rome hath incorporated the Name of a Church with the Name of a City and that the Bishop or Pope of Rome hath had the Supremacy of that City and Church and carried it on high riding as a Queen in State by Virtue of that Supremacy since the fall of the Imperial Name first as Pagan and then as Christian we must know that He is the Beast the eighth King and seventh Head and that Rome as a Church now more then a City though a City too is that very Rome from which the People of God are to come out because of the foulness of its Antichristian and Idolatrous Fornications and because of the Horror of that Vengeance to be exacted upon it of which the Judgment upon Sodom the Plagues upon Aegypt and the Vengeance on Samaria and Jerusalem were but Types For It is that Edomitish Border of Wickedness against which God will have Indignation for ever For if Rome and no other be the City as we have seen beyond Contest it is the Pillars of its Time from the Prophecy are so high and lofty that they cannot be over-seen The sixth King then in Being when the Apostle John writ is one Pillar the so more than Monumental Destruction of so Imperious a City is the other Pillar Whatever time runs between these Two Pillars by the express Words of the Prophecy are given to the sixth King then in Being to the short space of the seventh King and the whole how long soever after to the seventh Head and Eighth King. It being then sixteen Ages since the Apostle Writ It is undeniable these Kings must be Governments or distinct Supremacies having each many single Persons under them else they could not sustain so long a space and the seventh fewest because the shorttest The Government that was in the Apostles time is long Fallen no one can question suppose then the seventh King were disputable who He is the Eighth must yet be in Action because the Seventh had so short a space Whoever the Eighth is He must be as close united to the City Rome as the Rider is to the Beast on which such Riders sit I appeal therefore to all the the World that can but understand Sense when it is most plainly laid before them who this can be but the Pope of Rome who alone and no other with Him hath been thus united to Rome the City and Church above these last twelve hundred Years From all which it most absolutely follows the Present Rome is the City and Church that is to fall under those Plagues for her Sins out of which therefore the People of God are call'd that they may not partake of their Sins nor receive of its Plagues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which I undertook to demonstrate and is I doubt not in every considering Mans sense demonstrated as far as is necessary by a general Argument But I shall yet give farther Assurance of it and Answer all Objections under the following Arguments which shall be yet more particular If it can be proved that the Beast that carries the Woman and Argu. 2. is that seventh Head and Eighth King of which so much hath been already discoursed hath been in the Possession of the Time expresly design'd by Prophecy to that Beast that carries the Woman as the seventh Head and Eighth King and is now in the Possession of that Time and that it ought to be so long as it hath already is now and must still continue to be This will be yet more particular proof of the Woman that it is the present Rome out of which the People of God are call'd to come For the due management of this Argument Three Points are necessary The Time it self of the Beast must be assign'd by express Point 1. Words of Prophecy that there may be certain Knowledge of that what it is There must be substantial Proof offered that the Time assign'd Point 2. will bear such a Length as will Comport with this Argument Seeing the Event at the End cannot yet as a matter of Fact Point 3. give Evidence that the Time is justly assign'd there must be good Evidence of the well fixing the Epoch or Beginning of that Time according to the Prophecy and according to Event also and the Event that is to be expected at the End must appear to be sufficiently defin'd by Prophecy both as to the City or Woman carried by the Beast and inclusively as to the Beast also I begin with the First Point viz. That the Time of the Point 1. Beast is expresly assign'd by Prophecy For which I Vouch that known Place Revel 13. 6. And Power Right or Authority was given to Him the Beast to continue as the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyn'd with a Word of Time generally signifies in the New Testament Fourty Two Months Now in that Power or as the Word signifies a Priviledge or Authority was given Him It sets out though not a Lawful Authority that was to be obey'd as is most apparent by every thing pertaining to this Beast yet It imports a signal permission and ordination of God's to that purpose and that He carryed the Woman as a King or Head of the Beast viz. of the Idolatrous Empire and by a Figure or Synechdochically the Beast Himself as Head oft denotes the whole Body For the driving this home to the purpose I am sensible It will be necessary to give Proof That the Beast c. 13. and c. 17. are one and the same Beast For if the Beast were not the same in both Chapters we could indeed have no guidance from the forty two Months assigned to the Beast c. 13. concerning the Time of the Beast c. 17. But if it be one and the same Beast in both Chapters then the forty two Months must needs be the Gauge of the Duration of the Beast c. 17. as It is c. 13. Now besides many Agreements between the Two Representations assuring them one and the same that would require much Discourse and Consideration of the whole Frame of this stupendious Point of the Prophecy I shall as I have endeavour'd all along in each Branch of this Discourse choose One that requires least Discourse and yet is most undeniable that is the Beast in the Beginning of chap. 13. who had one of his Heads Wounded and the Deadly Wound was healed is the