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
cup of Fornications to the Kings of the Earth intoxicated with the Grandeur and Riches as also with the Sensuality of her Lusts and Adulteries Encircled therefore with these Seven and Seven of Heads for Assuring the City and for the greater flourish of the Type The Woman sits on high and the Two Sevens of Heads are expounded by the Angel to be Seven Hills or Mountains unmoveable Heads And They viz. the Heads not There as the English Translation too Low are Seven Kings who are the moving living Heads of the Beast on which she sits and by the Flitting or Remove of the Principality from one Head to another the Times of the Woman or of the City as we shall see are to be dated for though the Heads are always united to the Beast as all one Animal or Bestial living Creature however monstrous it may seem yet the Kingship of the Heads was in a Succession till it came to the last King under which it now is and hath been so long Now among these Seven Heads that were Kings there was a Seventh King cast in that was of another kind as being no Head which is of very great consideration in this prophetical Portraicture as we shall find and He comming in makes the Seventh Head the Eighth King. That we may be therefore guided by this whole Type to the certain knowledge of the present State of this City I will lay down these four Propositions with the proof of each These Seven Heads and Eight Kings are not together Kings or Propos 1. in the Exercise of Sovereignty at one and the same Time but are in a Succession or after one another This is most undeniable for Five had been before the Prophecy given to the Apostle and were Fallen viz. from their Principality or Exercise of Sovereignty else they were not Fallen for they are still represented on the Beast and never part from it as in the Prophetick Image but pertain to the Integrity of the Beast or Roman Imperialism from first to last which always consists of all its Parts They were Fallen then in regard of Principality or Exercise of Sovereignty which they had in their proper Time or Season Their union therefore to the Beast preserves them still their place as Heads in the prophetick Sculpture but not as Kings still in Being Now these Five Fallen Heads are given as in One or as in a Knot and Clamp together the Prophecy being little concern'd in their exact Distinction or Succession it being enough to it that there were before the Prophecy Five Supreme Roman Governments which as we shall see It calls Kings Whether they were just in an order or whether traversing one another it is all one as to the Prophecies Concern in them The Caution therefore in the Prophecy in this matter is very observable knowing what objection might be made concerning the Succession of the Kingly Consular Dictatorian Tribunitial and Decemviral Power the so well known several Governments of the Roman States It gives them in a Heap of Five together Signifying It intended no more than to mark by them the Beasts Heads before the Prophecy as past or Fallen and only Remarks the Succession of the One that then was and that It was not while the Five were and that they had been and were Fallen before the Prophecy was given which sufficiently demonstrates the Succession betwixt the Five and the One then in Being which is all the Prophecy aims at and troubles not it self with the order of the Five among themselves any farther than that Five such were and that they drew along the Times of the City to the Succession of the One then in Being The Seventh was plainly to be a King but was not yet come but was to come and to continue but a short space when He came which farther assures the Succession For seeing He was not come He could not be together with the Sixth King who then was nor could He be at the same Time with the succeeding Eighth in whom the City was to be destroy'd for He was to continue but a short space And then after Him the Eighth King follows the Eighth viz. in strict Order because the short-liv'd Seventh came between Him and the Sixth But the Eighth was of the Seven viz. of the Seven Kings who were also the Seven Heads there must be therefore a Succession between the Seventh short-liv'd and the Eighth because the Seventh and Eighth imply so much the Seventh is to continue a short space The Eighth therefore necessarily is suppos'd not to be so curtailed in Time Both Kings and so not together and the Other Seventh no Head for the Eighth was of the Seven Kings that were Heads From all which it is most impossible but that a Succession must appear most manifestly There is no Appearance of the least of an Hiatus or Gap Propos 2. there is no Interreign no vacuum or empty space in the Succession betwixt the Sixth King then in Being the Seventh and the Eighth in which onely the Prophetick Time is concern'd but all the Caution against it that can be for why was this Seventh King who was no Head put in but that he might stand as an Embolimean or double Seventh King like our Embolimean or double Twenty fourth of February in every Embolimean or Intercalar or as we usually speak Leap-year that there might be no disorder in Time as here no Gap in the Succession For thus only could the Succession of these Kings exactly Lead the Course of the Cities Time So that the Spaces of it might be measur'd thereby But if Those Seven Kings only that were Heads had been nam'd while there was Another between that was no Head and he had not been Nam'd There must have been a Leap of Time from the sixth to the seventh Head and no Account of the Seventh King making the seventh Head the eighth King to have swell'd up that space of the seventh King's Time into Appearance and Notice From whence it is Evident that the Seventh King no Head of the Beast that Carries the Woman and yet A King of the City is cast in to keep the Course and Current of the Prophetic Time strait and tight For if the very exact Pourtraicture of the Beast had been only design'd It had been more Just and Even without any mention of the Seventh King that pertain'd not to the Beast nor to the Woman as carried by the Beast But It was absolutely necessary that King also should be mention'd that the Time of the Prophecy with Relation to the Beast and the City might be under just Computation which it could not have been except the Seventh King being King of the City as before said and Coming between the sixth King and Head and the Eighth King but seventh Head had been plac'd in his Regular Succession however it seem to interrupt the state of the Beast who for that time as we shall see lay wounded and so was to
the Roman Idolatrous Empire is continu'd in Life and is healed of his deadly Wound by making an Image to Him who is the Seventh Head and Eighth King. The Papacy is not a real Martial Civil Sovereignty but it is the Image only of One It is yet nevertheless Haughty for it is Ador'd and Worshipped It Assumes Power over Princes and disposes Kingdoms It is nevertheless Cruel and Enforcive for it Kills All who will not Worship that Image It Causes All to receive its Mark or proscribes them how great or small soever It Arrogates not only a Crown but a Tripple Crown This Beast in an Image is therefore the Beast that is not yet is viz. is not the same yet the same the same in Real Power yet in an Image too viz. Spirituality of Power is an Image of Power but enforcing that Power by its Horns it is a Real Power and so Is not yet Is c. 17. 8. But It may be said it was long er'e these Kings gave their Object 2. Power thus to the Beast It is most true it was so even as It was er'e He came to his Answer Number For therefore Prophecy sets this Beast in View Rising with his Ten Crowned Horns first out of the Sea those Troublesome Commotions in the World when Rome Fell as a Burning Mountain into the Sea. But at the Rising of this Beast out of the Bottomless Pit whither He went down when He became a Fallen Star * When Phocas gave Him the Title of Vniversal An. 606. with the Key of it to Open it and Ascended Rev. 9. 1 2. Then did He Receive the Kingdom and Power of these Horns till He goes into Perdition For the once noting Him to Rise out of the Sea and Twice to Ascend from the Bottomless Pit shews He had a double Rising One by way of meer Providence as out of the tumultuous Sea of worldly Affairs that necessitated the Emperour to abdicate Empire and to leave Him the only Name of Supreme Eminency in Rome but then He was not till after as an Antichristian False Spiritual Power or Vicar of Christ He assum'd a Kingdom an Universal Kingdom as having the Keys of Eternal Damnation in his Hand viz. of the Bottomless Pit. If the Pope be an Eighth King a Roman Supreme Power and Object 3. the Head to whom the Ten Kings give their Power Why is it not then Lawful to acknowledge Him as the Roman Caesar was to be acknowledg'd by Christ's own Command and as the Crowned Horns or Ten Kings are to be acknowledg'd who give Him their Kingdom and Power No Kings or Powers may be acknowledg'd in their Idolatrous Answ 1. or Superstitious Commands No Caesars no Kings and much more no Popes can be so Obey'd 2. But upon this very Account He ought not at all to be acknowledg'd because He is a King only in an Image and in reality a Fallen Star a Corrupted Antichristian False Spiritual Power Undermining and Usurping the Kingdom of Christ and so to be abhorr'd and detested and his Adulterous Idolatrous Church or City to be separated from and to be Come out of And thus I have I Trust evinc'd the Settlement of the Epoch or Beginning of these Fourty Two Months both by the Prophecy and by the Event and come now to fix the latter Branch or what Prophecy hath determin'd concerning the End or Period of these Months although that cannot be declar'd in the Particulars or manner of the Event but must be waited for till He shall shew them who hath Reserved them in his own power till their appointed Season But in the mean time He hath given us the Bulk of the Events which at the end of these Months shall be in their Motion and continual Progress till all be Accomplished and no Iota of the Prophecy Fall to the Ground Now to make this Point as plain as Prophecy hath made it It is to be consider'd in the two Grand Oracles that are given of it and Relate to the very End of the Twelve hundred sixty Days and so consequently to the End of the Months or to the End of the Months themselves implying the End of the 1260 Days As to the End then of the Twelve hundred sixty Days since the Witnesses are to be in Sackcloth during them whenever the Witnesses come into a splendid State It is certain They can be no longer in Sackcloth For such a State and such a Sackcloth can by no possible means Agree And then it will as certainly follow the Twelve hundred sixty Days are at an End when they change their Sackcloth for Garments of Praise For all those Twelve hundred sixty Days they are to be in Sackcloth Although therefore the Prophecy does not positively say the Twelve hundred sixty Days are at an End yet in that It says they were Called up to Heaven in a Cloud and their Enemies beheld Them It must needs be that the Sackcloth must be dropp'd when they are Chariotted in a Cloud and Ascend and so then It does by necessary Implication say that the Twelve hundred sixty Days are at an End For else the Witnesses could not part with their Sackcloth being determin'd to it for so long And so long the Womans the Churches Twelve hundred sixty Days last For as their Times are equal so their States Reciprocate When therefore the Twelve hundred sixty Days are by Consequence absolutely necessary ended the Fourty Two Months are wheeled along with them to their Period And that affects the City the Great Spiritually called Sodom for the Filthiness of its Fornications and dreadful Burnings that it is devoted to And Aegypt first for its Oppression of the Saints with whose Blood it is Drunk Then for the Plagues that will come upon it and lastly for its Pharaoh-like Principality first in the Pagan Dragon and then its Draconick Pope to whom the Dragon consign'd His Power And to follow all the Emblems of the City as on purpose to bring it Home to Rome It it both Resembled to the City where our Lord was Crucified signifying its Whoredom to be like the Whoredom of that Infamous Aholibah or Jerusalem the False Whorish Church and under the Jurisdiction of Rome so much at that Time that not without the most Notorious Sentence of the Roman Judge Pontius Pilate Our Lord was Crucified which was for the very Service of this Prophecy so particularly we may Believe Recorded that in that Sense the very City Rome was the City in which Our Lord was Crucified All this Affects this City so that its Tenth Falls Now this City sits on the Beast For to shew it is the same City that sits on the Beast when the Beast the very same Beast that Ascends out of the Bottomless Pit c. 11. c. 17. Kills the Witnesses Their Dead Bodies lye in the Street of that Great City which plainly joyns the Beast and the City together the City as the Imperial Residence the Beast as the King