with the Israelites through the Red Sea by Night The Name or Colour also of the Sea may not unlikely be alluded to in this Description Red being not an improper Epithet of Fire There may be also still a more Mystical meaning of this Sea mingled with fire the Spirit with the Bloud of Christ which for brevity sake I pass over and will onely adde a short Paraphrase upon the verse I first cited 3. In the street of the great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Aegypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is ordinarily rendred where also our Lord was crucified which is very good and easie sense if we referre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the great City and read which is spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt Parenthetically but if we referre it to or rather joyn it with Sodom and Aegypt the sense seems more harsh unless we understand an Ellipsis the supply whereof would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the street of the great City which is spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt and the City where our Lord was crucified that is the Prophet-murthering Jerusalem which certainly is alluded to be this Ellipsis how it will And the meaning of the Text I conceive to be this That that great Body Politick which pretends to be the Catholick Church though so grosly Apostatized from the Apostolick Doctrine and Practice is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Grotius speaks Spiritually or Mystically called Sodom Aegypt and the City where Christ was crucified with just reproach to their contrary Pretences As if the Spirit of God should speak thus Whereas this degenerate Church of Rome by boasting of their Profession of vowed Coelibate and perpetual Virginity would make show of being that true Virgin-Company and the holy and chast Spouse of Christ and of the Lamb I do pronounce them a Nest of unclean Birds as foul as Sodom and as polluted as Gomorra And whereas they would pretend to be the onely Church of my Son Christ who hath declared that if the Son make you free then are you free indeed and to be that Jerusalem that is free and is the Mother of all true Believers I do proclaim to all the World that they are Spiritually or Mystically that very Land of Aegypt and House of Bondage wherein my People are oppressed and tired out with tedious Superstitious and burthensome Observances that serve for nothing but to uphold the Pomp and Pride of that Spiritual Pharaoh and his unmerciful Task-masters a Tyrannical and Idolatrous Clergy And lastly whereas they would make men believe that they are that Holy City which is a Refuge and Protection to the Saints of God and a Shelter from Persecution where all tears shall be wiped from their eies that New Jerusalem that descended from Heaven which they were if they were what they boasted the true visible Church of Christ they are indeed a succession of that old Jerusalem the superstitious and burthensome Scribes and Pharisees who were the Crucifiers of my Son Jesus as these are to this very day of his true Members who himself accordingly as he has told them is persecuted so often as they are persecuted And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may respect as well the Members of Christ as himself notwithstanding it is the first Aorist For that is a good Note of Grotius his and a true one Aoristi sine designatione tempor is designant quod fieri solet And therefore here is intimated by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the often-Persecution of Christ in his true Members under this power of Antichrist For Crucifixion by a Diorism signifies any kind of Persecution Jerusalem therefore literally is not here understood under the disguise of Sodom and Aegypt which would not be any such mystical or spiritual meaning but a mere Synecdoche such as every School-boy understands but that Great City which is a Polity of men that pretend to be the onely true Catholick Church though so miserably Apostatized from the Faith This City in such a mystical sense as I have declared is called Sodom Aegypt and that Jerusalem that kills the Prophets and crucifies our Lord in persecuting his Members But the thing that we note now especially is their being called Aegypt for keeping the People of God in such Spiritual Slavery and Bondage 4. Which Slavery and Vassallage we may conceive also to be glanced at in the figure of the Whore of Babylon that rides upon the Beast For that this Imperious Clergy of Rome is so called seems not onely for that Babylon looks like the first Precedent of Idolatry in worshipping Belus but for their Tyrannical Pride and holding the people in such a forcible Captivity from under which no man might withdraw himself and make back toward Jerusalem and the true Temple of God but he exposed himself to the Cruelty of this bloudy Whore that sits as a Queen and saies she shall never see sorrow The Beast also being said to be rid by the Whore insinuates a kinde of beastly droyling and slavery the Christian Empire has groaned under for so many Ages Which that it might be more like a Beast an Horse or Mule that has no understanding they endeavoured to keep as ignorant as they could that the People might be the more patiently Priest-rid as the phrase is and carry their Riders with more ease and safety 5. These are the chiefest strictures that do occurre to my minde in the Prophetick Visions that are applicable to this second member of Antichristianism and that onely in this general way That of S. Paul is more particular Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats but so easie to be understood that the naming thereof is sufficient And therefore I shall pass to the next branches of Antichristianism those Oppositions that would run down the Sacred Offices of Christ as he is King Prophet and Priest The grand Injury against the last of which is this The making other Mediatours besides Christ and giving them Religious worship which is predicted in S. Paul and Daniel in those places we have already produced and expounded touching the Daemons or Mauzzim or else the suppressing or slighting the chief use of the Death of Christ which is a comfortable ease of Conscience from all suspicion of God's displeasure or fear of punishment in the other world for want of satisfaction for our misdeeds here so long as we have repented of them sincerely and have amended our lives according to the word of Christ. Which abuse is one grand piece of that Slavery and Bondage that the People of God are held under in this Spiritual Aegypt and therefore is generally prefigured in that Type we have already explamed and also in the Whore of Babylon according to what we have above intimated So that we may pass over this Office of Christ and proceed to his Kingly and Prophetick Office 6. The Opposition to the latter whereof is plainly predicted in the mention of the False-Prophet in the Apocalyps
Caesarem where he saith this City is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Nicetas Urbs Septicollis by Paulus Diaconus and that it is so acknowledged by Janus Dousa and by Mr. Richard Knolls in his Turkish History To which I will adde what I finde in Theatrum Urbium That Scholarius Patriarch of Constantinople in his Enarratio Vaticinii de Turcici Reg ni interitu styles the City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dilichius also in his description of the City not onely mentions the seven Hills but tells also what magnificent structures stand upon them And lastly Ludovicus Gotofredus Muri ejus saith he speaking of this City sunt incredibilis altitudinis complectentes ambitu suo septem Colles So that though there be not so ancient and early mention of the Seven Hills of Byzantium or Constantinople as of those of Rome and that it may be probably conceived that upon the Emperour's pleasure of having the City called New Rome they would also finde seven Hills in it in emulation of the old Imperial City whether there were just Seven or no I mean though there might be more then seven or if fewer take occasion to phansy one and the same Hill for some little unevennesses in it to be more then one yet I cannot well distrust but that there is a tolerable ground for this Title and being that it has obtained in the Writers of her History I will not gainsay but that she may also goe for Urbs Septicollis Which will be no inconvenience to our Interpretation but a further confirmation of our Exposition of the Two Horns of the Beast which I conceive to be the two Imperial Patriarchates the Roman and Constantinopolitan which shews the extent of that Pseudo-prophetick Beast that it reached over the whole Empire as well Oriental as Occidental And here we finde the Seat of the Whore as broad these Seven Hills not confining her as is usually conceived to Old Rome but permitting her to reside also at New Rome or Constantinople there being Seven Hills Paral. 1. Agr. 〈◊〉 there as well as at the other Seat but not so famous as those other as the fame of her whoredomes is not so great from the one as from the other According to which sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would be rendred Septem capita septeni sunt montes The seven Heads signifie the two Septenaries of Mountains the one at Rome the other at Constantinople From whence the eighth Agreement of our first Parallelism is cleared Ver. X. And they are seven Kings that is They signifie seven sorts of Supreme Governours which are called Kings here by a Diorismus or an Hebraism who understand by King and Kingdom any Body Politick with the supreme Power thereof be it in one or in many And these Seven Sorts are not seven Individuals of different sorts but the whole Succession of each sort by an usual Henopoeia And that seven different Sorts of Governours may be called Seven Heads as well as seven Individual Persons I think is demonstrable by Reason because there is a greater difference betwixt Kind and kind then betwixt Individuals of the same kind Whence I wonder that Grotius should call seven forms of Government taken concretely as every one does take them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whenas if there be such a sevenfold difference in the supreme Powers in the succession of an Empire the Empire once considered as a Beast it will be ipso facto Seven-headed whether we will or no. So farre is it from being a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is a natural and inevitable truth 2. Now the Division of the succession of the Supreme Powers of the Empire is made naturally thus This Power was either in many or in one In many as in the Consuls the Tribuni Militum the Decemviri In one as in the Kings Dictatours and Emperours Which Emperours I will again divide into Pagan Christian and Pagano-Christian So that the whole line of succession of these Supreme Powers is divided first into two equal parts and then each of those two subdivided into three and then one part of the second subdivision into three again So that the whole line does naturally fall into eight parts agreeably to the History of things and declaration of the Prophecy For there are plainly numbered Eight Kings though but Seven Heads of the Beast For under the Christian Emperours the Empire was no Beast and therefore there could be no Head thereof 3. Nor know I any tolerable solution of this Riddle of Eight Kings and yet but Seven Heads but this For the shortness of the stay of the Christian Succession cannot put them out of the number of the Heads since the stay of the Decemviri was above fourty times shorter Wherefore it is not this but because the Empire during their succession was not a Beast nor they either fit or actual Heads of one but were onely Heads or Kings of the undegenerated and not-yet-again-Paganizing Empire Which therefore was the time of the Death of the Beast when he was not and therefore was to have no Head nor could have any 4. Nor is there the least ground of any Cavil against our last Subdivision which is of Emperours into Pagan purely Christian and Pagano-Christian as if there were not a cause fundamental enough of this last Distribution Whenas on the contrary there is such a strong Opposition betwixt the two first members thereof that one outs the other the seventh King being the wounder and killer of the sixth Head And forasmuch as when a Religion is made the Religion of a Kingdom or Empire it is in a sort the Law of that Empire it may be rationally conceived that there is even a Political difference betwixt a Christian and a Pagan Emperour And lastly be that how it will it is plain to all men that there is a very eminent and notorious difference betwixt a Christian and a Pagan Emperour and of more concernment to the Church of God then any Political Distinction of Government And that which most concerns his Church we may be assured God takes most notice of and therefore would be as likely to distinguish the succession of Supreme Governours by this difference as by any 5. Nay I think I may safely adde that it is likely that when once the Angel had come to the division of the Heads or rather Kings into Christian and Pagano-Christian he did wholly neglect the confideration of the Political differences of forms of Government in the Empire that notion being now impertinent to his design and contented himself with the distinction of them from the account of Religion onely But till this he numbered according to the distinction of Political form they all of them till now agreeing in pure Paganism So that the sense of The Beast that was and is not his Head is the eighth King seems to be this That supreme Power be the Political frame or Title of it what it will which is
man But there is no numbering of one Number given but by extracting of the Root 10. Wherefore as the Square-Root of 36. may rightly be conceived to detect that that famed Tetractys had a relation to the Hexameron of Moses and signified that every Day 's Creation had its Foeminine Principle as well as Masculine the First it self not excepted which is consonant to that Aphorism of the Jews Nulla virtus divina descendit sine indumento and to Moses his assimilating the First Day 's Creation to Light so the Square-Root of this Number of the Beast may also detect to whom this Vision of the Two-horned Beast doth belong And I have already shewed in my Mystery of Godliness that the Root of this Number is 25 and that Book 5. Ch. 16. Sect. 8. it does plainly agree with several substantial Observables concerning the Church of Rome and their City and that in a perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 12 which is the Root of 144 the number of the Regiments that appear with the Lamb on Mount Sion Which things being sufficiently cleared in the said Treatise and may be more copiously understood out of Mr. Potter I shall spare to speak any thing farther of them in this place but wholly remit the Reader thither for satisfaction 11. In the mean time I will not stick to conclude that it is apparent Paral. 2. Agr. 9. partly from what I have delivered there and partly from what is added in this place That the Seat as well of the Two-horned Beast as of the Whore is at last in their respective Visions determined to Old Rome as being the most permanent and conspicuous Residence of the Apostatized Priesthood and such as by being so notorious an Instance of this Wickedness becomes a Measure and Rule of comparing and judging of the greatness of the Apostasy of other Churches by their nearer accession and agreement to this Queen of Harlots And therefore by intimating the Name Number and Seat of this chief part of the Apostatized Clergy it gives us the clear knowledge and fast apprehension of the whole corrupted Body and all the parts thereof where-ever and how long soever they be found within the Boundaries of the Roman Empire But when once they are swallowed up and washed off by some extraneous Power and fall under the Jurisdiction of some other Empire I must confess though we may judge these too by this measure I do not see how they then can so well be concerned or aimed at in these two Prophecies both the Two-horned Beast and the Whore being look'd upon as Riders and Guiders of the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns and therefore supposed within the Roman Empire Which is a plain cause why these Prophecies have laid so fast hold on the Church of Rome in the conclusion of them as if she were in a manner solely concerned For it was fit so to doe by reason of her Permanency in Duration as well as Eminency in wickedness Which may be one reason also why this body of the adulterate Clergy is called the Beast with two Horns because all those Patriarchates annumerated to the Greek Church were betimes swept away a new Empire overflowing them whenas the Patriarchate of Constantinople was free from this inundation till about two hundred years ago So faithful is the Spirit of Prophecy in the Prefiguration of Events as he may easily see that pleases to consult History In the mean time as I said it is manifest enough that the Seat as well of the Whore as the Two-horned Beast in each Vision is determined to Old Rome Which is the last Agreement of our first Parallelism 12. As the last of our second is That the Seat of the Seven-headed Par. 2. Agr. 1â—… Beast is left free in either Vision and not fixt to any Metropolis Indeed the Seven Heads of the Beast being also interpreted of the Seven Hills of Rome it is apparent that the Beast has some relation to that place and must have some Title or denomination from that City else why should the Beast's Heads have any thing to doe to typifie those Seven Hills But the Prophecy as it were datâ operâ declining the fixing the Imperial Seat of the Seven-headed Beast bestows that Privilege on the Whore assigns her the Seven-Hilled seat saying The seven Heads are seven Hills where the Whore sitteth Which is admirably agreeable to the event For indeed Rome has been the constant See of the Whore but the Seat of the Seven-headed Beast has been very changeable some time at Rome then at Constantinople and lastly in Germany 13. And thus we have seen the exquisite Congruity and Coincidence of all the parts of the Visions of these Thirteenth and Seventeenth Chapters one with another which though they be so accurately correspondent yet I must confess not altogether so adequately but that the Vision of the Whore bears a more press and close respect to the Church of Rome all along and besides the plain designment of her Seat which is common to both her gorgeous attire and bloud-thirstiness or rather her being so lavishly bloud-drunk as she is described seems to appropriate the Vision more peculiarly to her then the Greek Church Which Drunkenness as well as Gorgeousness of Apparrel though it be not all along the reign of the Whore yet according to the nature of these Prophetick Figures which exhibit the whole Succession of affairs under one joint show they were without any discrimination to be represented at once Which Consideration may take off any the like scruple in these Prophetick Schemes and Representations For what was done but for a while adorns those Images as much as what is permanent there being no mention of Succession of time but all represented at once 14. And therefore though that Inscription Mysterium upon the Pope's Crown which was questionless in imitation of the Inscription on Aaron's Mitre all his vestments and ornaments being so industriously imitated in the Pontifical Habiliments be now turned into Julius Pontifex Maximus yet it is not the less probable that it was glanced at in this Description of the Whore The truth of which Story Bishop Dounham does assert with all imaginable confidence Quod autem ait in fronte Meretricis De Antichristo lib. 1. cap. 7. scriptum fuisse nomen Mysterium id in Romano Pontifice completum esse pro comperto habemus Which passage is so confessed a truth that Lessius in his Answer to King James could not deny it Wherefore as our Saviour Christ's uttering that first verse of the twenty second Psalm My God my God why hast thou forsaken me intimated to the world that the whole Psalm was a Prophecy of his Passion so this first word of the Name of the Whore of Babylon on the Papal Tiara was an indication that the whole Name or Title belonged to the Pope with his Clergy and that they are this Great Whore that has made drunk the
Saints in Daniel 5. That our Interpretation of the Woman in the Wilderness does not clash with Mr. Mede's though different from it 6. The third synchronal the Virgin-Companie The meaning of the Number of their Regiments and of the new Song which none could learn besides them 7. How the Vision of these Virgin-souldiers implies the Lapse of the Church into Idolatry 1. BEsides those notable and leading Prophecies of the Idolatry of the Church in the Thirteenth and Seventeenth Chapters of the Revelation there are farther Intimations of the same Lapse in other places Indeed no less then six of the seven Middle Synchronals of the Prophecies of the opened Book are Predictions of this Idolatrous state of the Church Three of which we have done withall namely the Whore of Babylon the Two-horned Beast and the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns The first of those three behind is the Outward Court or Holy City troden under foot by the Gentiles for the space of 42 months Which Apoc. 11. Outward Court or Holy City that it is to be understood of those that make a visible profession of Christianity in the world appears from the evidence of the Synchronisms that of the Temple or Inward Court reaching from the beginning of the Church to the time of its Lapse into such a Condition as was not commensurable to the Reed of the Angel and therefore rejected The Court that is without the Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast it out so the words signify But the Outward Court belongs to the Inward and the Jews having been cast off long before it is plain from hence that all this is understood of Christendom Nor is it any more wonder that the Jewish Temple or Courts thereof should typify the Christian Church then that their Tribes did Chap. 7. For this is but an usual Israelism Wherefore Christendom being the Scene of these Transactions and it being presently after added concerning this Outward Court that it is given to the Gentiles and that they shall tread under foot the Holy City fourty two months which Holy City and Outward Court is in a maâ—…ner the same thing the very Camp of Israel being the Outward Court in the Wilderness and this Outward Court the Receptacle of the People of Israel at their solemn times of worship when the Temple was built as Mr. Mede has well observed it is evident Christendom was to be over-run with Gentilism that is with Paganism the life and soul whereof is Idolatry so long a time forasmuch as the Holy City or Outward Court is supposed here in being that is to say a people that do profess Christianity and are externally dedicated to God but in the interim are over-grown with an Heathenish kind of Superstition and Idolatry And in that this Outward Court is said to be given to the Gentiles that is answerable to what is wrote in Ch. 17. For God has put it into their hearts Ver. 17. to fulfill his will and to agree and give their Kingdom unto the Beast untill the words of God shall be fulfilled So fatal as I may so speak does this Apostasy of the Church seem to be and so little reason have those great Politicians of Italy to sacrifice to their own Nets as I have above noted and impute all to their own wit when they have apparently hitherto rowed with the stream But the times are coming wherein they will find the course of things turned and their Resistence of a due Reformation a fighting against God Which is worth their observing that they may take up in due time 2. The next of those latter Synchronalls is The Woman in the Wilderness namely That Woman that * Apocal. 12. 1. wears upon her head a Crown of twelve Starrs whose glory it is to be that pure and Apostolick Church uncontaminated with after-Superstitions and Idolatries that Woman that is said * Vers. 2. to travail in birth and was pained to be delivered and after long throes and pangs that is to say sharp persecutions at last * Vers. 5. brought forth a Male-childe that should rule the Nations This Woman not changing place herself is notwithstanding said * Vers. 14. to have the wings of an Eagle given her whereby she fled into the Wilderness there to be secured from the persecution of the old red Dragon which is the bloudy Pagan Powers of the Roman Empire as yet unconverted to Christianity And indeed by being thus escaped though but into a Wilderness she was sheltred from them But in that she is said to be in a Wilderness it is an intimation that she is hid and blended amongst them that under the outward profession of Christianity did again Paganize in their Superstitious and Idolatrous Worship as you may understand out of the acknowledged meaning of Wilderness in the Prophetick-Alphabet For that Men not a mere Solitude of Trees and Beasts is understood by Wilderness is plain also out of that in the Evangelist The voice of one crying in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths straight Which he spoke not to Beasts Matt. 3. 3. and Trees but to Men whom these resemble when they are wholly taken up in the functions and delights of the mere Vegetal and Animal nature of which Superstition and Idolatry is one part as I have above intimated 3. The sense therefore of this Prophecy is this That the pure and Apostolick Church though sheltered therewithall for a time from the red Dragon was over-run with a kind of Christiano-Paganism from one side to the other from the East wing to the West wing of the Eagle or Roman Empire which because it had its Eastern and Western Caesars is figured with two wings and that with greater facility then the Leopard in * Chap. 7. 6. Daniel with four which signified the quadripartition of the Greek Empire into four parts This therefore intimates the Greek Church as well as the Latine to be culpable in this matter of Idolatrous worship correspondently to what I have said of the two Horns of the Beast that they intimate the two Imperial Patriarchates that of Rome and the other of Constantinople the two chief Summities of the Idolatrizing Clergie This I doubt not but is the meaning of the Woman in the Wilderness though it seems something hard that she is said to fly into this Desert this Desert rather coming upon or over-running her in the thing signified 4. But it is an Hypallage of which this is no solitary Example but like that of casting Hades into the lake of fire and brimstone whenas that fire is rather cast into Hades at the Conflagration of the world by Thunder and Lightening 2 Figure even needlesly affected for Elegancy sake by Poets Brutium ponto feriente Corum Such an Hypallage as this I suspect also to be in Daniel ch 7. where he speaks of the Kingdoms under the whole Heaven being given to the Saints of the most High