of it as the Vision of the c. 17. does For He as King having Power of Life and Death those whom He Kills lye in the Street of his Great Emperial City So then the City and the Beast are here first so nearly conjoyn'd and so again c. 17. How then comes the Tenth of this Great City to Fall whatever we understand by it for I will not now dispute that How comes it to Fall I say when It sits on the Beast It could not be if the Beast Himself did not Sink and how could He Sink if His Fourty two Months were not out For so long was given Him by Prophecy which in another Character is call'd Time Times and Half a Time and as apply'd to the Witnesses Three Days and a Half in Imitation of our Lord 's three Days in the Grave Till the Morning then of the Half Time and Day there could be no such Alteration in his Kingdom as the Reformation made and till that Time of the Forty two Months fully exhausted when the Twelve hundred sixty Days End also in the Rising and Glory of the Witnesses There cannot be a Fall of the Tenth of the City which He bears up the Grandeur of And to shew farther that this Beast that Slays the Witnesses is the same with the Beast c. 17. It is made known by that certain Mark of it the Ascending out of the Bottomless Pit and that we may know they are both the same with the Beast who hath the Fourty two Months c. 13. He makes War with the Saints who are the Seed of the Woman and Hold the Testimony of Jesus C. 12. Vlt. or are the Witnesses being thereunto Deputed by the Dragon who gave him his Throne and Great Authority and He that Beast is Taken c. 19. as is foretold also c. 13. He that leadeth into Captivity shall go into Captivity And the Ten Kings who give him their Power who make War with the Lamb and He overcomes them are Kill'd with the Sword of his Mouth c. 19. as was foretold c. 13. He that killeth with the Sword shall be killed with the Sword. All which farther Assure together with what hath been said before That It is one and the same Beast throughout the Prophecy of the Revelation viz. the Seventh Head of the Roman Empire and its Eighth King to whom the Ten Kings as Horns give their Power The second Oracle given us concerning the Period of the Forty two Months is c. 17. God hath put into the Heart of the Ten Kings to Do his Will or execute his Determination and to execute and perform One Determination untill the Words of God shall be fulfilled Now this Counsel Determination and Will of God is that which is explain'd what it is It is even that they should Give their Kingdom and Power to the Beast And how long Vntill the words of God shall be fulfill'd And Those words were declar'd c. 13. Authority was given to Him as a Beast of Ten Horns to continue Forty two Months The great Event therefore at the End of the Forty two Months is That then the Ten Kings shall Hate the Whore and make her Desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with Fire From whence it is evident how close the Union is between the City call'd the Whore and the Beast For while the Kings give their Power to the Beast they bear up the Beast who bears up the City while they fulfill the Decree of God for the Beasts Forty two Months They are One in giving Him their Kingdom and Power and so long They are drunk with the Wine of the Whores Fornication But when those Words are fulfill'd and those Forty Two Months then They hate the Whore and then this Tenth of the Great City Falls viz. the whole Circle of the Power given by these Ten Horns or Ten Kings who now Recall their Power from the Beast and that Tenthness of Power Falls also For however the Grammar of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not bear such an Exposition of it as should signifie the Ten King'd Power yet the Prophecy of Daniel in the Ten Toes of the Image the Ten Horns of the Beast and The whole Frame of the Prophecy of the Revelation concerning the Beast his Ten Horns or Ten Kings does forcibly oversway the nicety of Grammar and carries the Prophecy to this Sense and much the rather because as hath been argued The Twelve hundred sixty Days will be then ended and the Words of God fulfilled concerning the Bestian Power which lay so much in its Horns or Ten Kings persecuting the Witnesses Let us now recollect the Summ of this Argument in the Proof it gives The Argument runs thus The Roman City or Church sits on the Beast or Eighth Kimg who hath been in Possession of the Time allotted him by Prophecy so long as from the Seventh other King of a short space after the sixth King that was in the Apost John's Time till now within nine or ten Years of the Expiration of that Time as a Time allowable to remain for the fulfilling of All Events This is the Beast or eighth King bearing up that Rome whether City or Church out of which Gods People are Called But the present City or Church of Rome sitting upon the Pope is and hath been in that Possession so long That Time so allotted is expresly said to be Fourty two Months those Months must be Prophetical Months or Days for Years Those Months must be Time of the Moon and not of the Sun. Those Months being time of the Moon given by Prophecy must be taken and applyed to time of the Sun given by the same prophecy that they may be rated and known what time They contain According to the exactest Computation that can be made Fourty two Months apply'd to Twelve hundred sixty Days for Years must be Twelve hundred twenty two Days for Years that is Twelve hundred twenty two Years The Epoch or Beginning then of these Months fixed at the Cessation of the Christian Emperour the prophetical Seventh King which was in the Year of our Lord 475 must needs reach to the Year 1697. The Twelve hundred sixty Days or Years both of the Witnesses and of the Woman ending necessarily at the same time for the one cannot out-last the other must begin thirty eight Years before the Months viz. 437. But because the Witnesses could not be supposed to put on their Sackcloth without just Occasion given the Gentiles under the other Beast Treading the Holy Court must have begun their Fourty two Months when the Twelve hundred sixty Days of the Witnesses Sackcloth and the Womans Wilderness State began also viz. 437. It is no matter what became of the Gentiles Fourty two Months after the Beast first Risen and grown up to his Image and Power to enforce the Worship of it and the receiving his Mark Name or of the Number of his Name viz. at 725 his Famous 666. For then
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
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
Present and not a Future Rome or Antichrist Falls under the Thunder-stroke of this Prophecy and that the People of God are call'd out of the present Roman City or Church The general way of proving this must be by finding that the Present Rome is upon the Eighth King and seventh Head Together with which It is to be destroy'd For that is the Rome out of which the People of God are call'd even that Rome that is to be â—hus destroy'd To find this we must consider the Eight Kings and Seven Heads under which Rome passes its whole Time and be able to judge of their Times To which end I have debated these Four Propositions 1. That these are Kings in Succession 2. That the Successions are immediate and without any void Time between 3. That the King that was no Head can have no Room but in the seventh place 4. That the seven and eight Kings are not single Kings but several and a number of Kings under each King. Now let us consider the Amount of these four Propositions and it must needs be that these Things will follow That whatever King or sort of Government carried the City Consequ 1. Rome aloft in the Apostle Johns Time of writing the Revelation must be the sixth King for Five then were fallen with whom the Prophecy had no further to do then to give them as a mark of the City and of the Beasts carrying it One was then in Being which following the Five must needs be the Sixth We know both by History and by Scripture mentioning Augustus Consequ 2. Tiberius Claudius Caesar Emperours of Rome That the Head bearing up Rome in the Apostles Times was the Heathen Imperial Head And seeing there was no Time that Rome was more drunk with the Blood of Saints in universal Acknowledgment nor the Roman Empire more confessedly carryed the Names of Blasphemy then at that Time We know by the same universal Consent that of all others the sixth King must needs be a Head which decides so far the doubt betwixt the sixth and the seventh Kings which should be of them Two the Head seeing both could not and it assures us the sixth must be the Head. And indeed were not the Prophecy so puissantly against it It looked fair to be the Rome and Beast of that Time here meant but for great Reasons that can't be We know by undoubted History the Heathen Imperialism fell Consequ 3. by Constantine in whom the Empire became Christian And seeing there was no Inter-reign or breach in the succession of Kings after the sixth the seventh must immediately succeed And therefore It must be the Christian Empire because that immediately followed that Heathen from whence it appears how admirably agreeable the Prophecy and the Event are For as we have made evident by the words of the Prophecy the seventh King could be no Head carrying the Names of Blasphemy So the Christian Empire acknowledging the One God and the One Mediator the True God in whom is Eternal Life was free from this Brand and by wonderful Wisdom of Providence It was ordered that Constantine and other the Christian Emperours withdrew themselves much from Rome so that they did not as the Heads of the Beast bear Rome so high but It was in an Eclipse Constantine building the City Constantinople as a New Rome to shade the Old And which is wonderful assuring as Prophecy presents the Beast wounded in One of his Heads with a deadly wound so we know by History the Beast as an Idolatrous Empire was wounded in the Christian Victories over the Idolatrous Emperours and Chiefs Thus every way the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Another falls so duly upon the Christian Emperour that It is even to ravishment at the Wisdom of the very prophetical Grammar that so plac'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or One that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Another might follow big with Sense and yet veil'd with secresie and lastly This Empire continued but a short space viz. about an hundred and fifty years which was short compared with the five fallen before the Prophecy bundled together shorter by half than the sixth King then in Being but beyond comparison shorter then the eighth King who is plainly aim'd at and for whose sake the seventh King was cut so short in Time that he might have his full Time viz. of forty two prophetick Months as we shall see above twelve hundred years in ordinary account The only Objection I can possibly divine thus far is that because the form of Government was Imperial both under the Heathen and Christian Emperours The Heathen and Christian Emperour cannot be understood to be two forms of Government and so the sixth and the seventh Kings seem confounded into One and thereby this account is overthrown To this I answer first seeing we are sure the Heathen Empire Answ 1. must be the sixth King that then was It will very little alter the case as to the present Rome For It is certain that sixth King must be fallen we are also certain the seventh being to continue but a short space must be fallen also because the space from the sixth King hath been so very long From whence it will follow the Eighth and last King must be and must have been long in play and whoever is and hath been long so must be the eighth King and Rome must be this Rome under him and this Rome and He must be destroyed together and if we will believe the Prophecy all this must be sure And so as I say the difference cannot be great For under whomsoever the City now is He must be the eighth King Rome borne up by Him must be the Rome here described and must be destroyed with Him the Beast and the People of God must come out of it as It is and hath so long been in the eighth King. Although the form of Government under the Heathen and Answ 2. Christian Emperours was alike and the same Imperial Form yet the Spirit and Soul of the Government being so purely Christian in Gods Account It highly merited to be reputed and given as a new Succession of Kings as a distinct seventh King being so much Another so much different from those before and from that after it although It had great Failings even as the Kings of the House of David had and yet were in substance a Line of Honour in the sacred Register By all this we must know the seventh Head but eighth King Conseq 4. must have immediately succeeded at the expiration of the Christian Empire because that continued but a short space after the Heathen Empire in Being in the Apostles Time but a long Time hath now run out and yet Rome is in Grandeur Whatever Name hath therefore carryed the Name of Supremacy derived from the City Rome it self and borne up that in Grandeur above the Kings of the Earth at any Time or at this day and more
the Beasts Months support the Seventh Headship and the Roman City or Apostate Church and the Gentiles Months Merge or are drowned in them The Months and Days being given under the Character of Time Times and Half a Time and three Days and a half when they arrived to the Beginning of the half Time and Days such a partial Rising of the Witnesses and Retrenchment of the Bestian Kingdom such a Fall of some of the Ten Kings from the Beast as was seen at the Reformation was allowable by Prophecy after the manner of our Lord 's three Days and Nights in the Heart of the Earth and was a Pledge of the complete Fall of the Beast and of the City's Fall from their whole Ten Mark those Kings who bewayl Babylon c. 18. 9. cannot be those Ten Kings who at last Turn to hate the Whore who they are will not be known till that Burning of Babylon shall be better understood King'd Principality at the end of the half Time or 1697. At the same time when the Days of the Witnesses and the Months of the Beast End The Turkish Second Woe or Tyranny shall pass away and cannot sooner because it is the Second Woe Trumpet upon the Bestian Kingdom lasting till its Fourty two Months End Which being an Observation foreign to this Matter needs not be enlarged yet well observ'd adds strength to the whole The last Argument I shall use to perfect all that hath been said already Last Arg. shall be an Appeal to All that in any degree know the State of the World whether the Condition of Papal Rome since the time especially of the Beasts receiving the Key of the Bottomless Pit as a Fallen Star in the Days of Phocas his coming to his Number and Image in the days of Leo Conon hath not answer'd the Characters of Prophecy Does the Prophecy signifie a City perpetuating Eternal Rome in a Ann. 725. Church as False Impure and Adulterate as the Mother of Harlots Imports Which Title cannot be due in its highest degree but where True Religion is Prostituted as appears in Aholiab and Aholibah And hath not Rome been such a One as Papal in all its Idolatrys Superstitions and Sensualities Does the Prophecy Represent a Caesar in an Image and hath not the Pope's Tripple Crown elevated upon his Spirituality and Vicarship of Christ been such a One Does the Prophecy speak Rome in all the Grandeur of Scarlet Purple and precious Stones And is not the Splendor of Rome its Pope Cardinals and Hierarchy such Does the Prophecy set out an Universal Propagation of the Fornications of such an Imperious Whorish Woman prevailing upon Kings Nations Kindreds and Languages and what hath Papal Rome pretended more forcibly to than such an Vniversality of its Religion which is called Filthiness Spiritual and Bodily and All Abomination Does Prophecy set out the Idolatrys of such a City and its Prince by the Blasphemy of God of his Tabernacle of All that dwell in Heaven and this openly avow'd by a Title writ on her Forehead according to the manner of the most Infamous Prostitutes and of Babylon Mad of Graven Images and yet all under a Mystery So as to be doubted whether Idolatry is justly charged upon it by even Those who deeply suspect it And is not this and hath not this been the State of Rome most Remarkably since the Days of Leo Conon Does the prophecy Represent a Bestian War with the Saints a Causing that all who would not Worship the Image should be Kill'd and proscribing them that they should not Buy nor Sell All Great and Small Rich and poor who will not receive the Mark c a City Drunk with the Blood of Saints and what can we say but that the Excommunication of Princes deposing and Depriving them the Interdicting of Kingdoms Massacres Martyrdoms Inquisitions Ravages upon the World on the account of that Religion Falsly so call'd have answer'd the prophecy Do other prophecys of Scripture say there should be a Grand Apostasie out of which should come a Man of Sin and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one above all Law and Control as Supreme and Infallible justly styl'd a Beast One sitting in the Temple of God exalting Himself above All that is called God or is Worshipped That though the Mystery of Iniquity was then at Work for Him yet that He could not be Revealed but in his Season Do we not see such a One that hath been long in the World claiming from the Apostles whom yet the elder Ages of Christianity knew not till the Time pointed out by Prophecy was come A Lord God the Pope as hath been Blasphem'd Does that same prophecy say The Lord will Consume that Man of Sin with the Glory of his Coming and with the Brightness of his own Appearance And do we not see at this Day his Times drawn out and lengthen'd beyond parallel for such an Appearance And does not the prophecy of the Revelation say the same Thing For his utter Destruction is not till the Heavens open to Christ Revel 19. Does not another Prophecy say Some a certain Sort and Society or Community of Men shall Depart or Apostatize from the Faith giving heed to wandring Spirits as Divels are called and to their Apparitions and so to Doctrines of them as Daimons and of the Worship of them through Or Saints departed the Hypocrisie of Lyars and Legendary Priests who disguising themselves in the Garb of extraordinary Holy Persons Coyn such Stories of such Spirits appearing to them to draw others to Worship them having in the mean time their Consciences seared with a hot Iron whose Badges by which They are to be known are Forbidding to Marry and to Abstain from Meats making these Things the Cognisances of their Orders And have we not seen this Scripture fulfilled Did not the Apostle John Foretel a Great Antichrist of which the Little Antichrists in his Days were but Forerunners and did He not Foreshew a great Idolatry coming upon the Christian World in Derogation from the One Jesus Christ who is the True God and Eternal Life on which account He makes it the Farewel of his Epistle Little Children keep your selves from Idols Amen And have we not seen that great Idolatry against the New Testament in the Invocation of Angels of Saints and above all of the Virgin Mary as a plain Violation of the One Mediator Jesus Christ Equal to the Idolatry against the One God and the Worship of Him and that in all kinds of Imagery and even in a piece of Bread These certain Matters of Fact and of daily Experiment joyn'd with the Prophecy cannot but give a Plerophory a full measure of Assurance That this present Rome is that Community City or Church out of which we are call'd if we would be the People of God. Having now so far demonstrated that the City Church and Community out of which we are commanded to come is the very present Papal Rome It remains
of Scripture give to the Expositions and Discourses out of Doctrinal parts of Scripture And certainly had God stirr'd up the Spirits of the Reformed by the most industrious Indeed prophecy if not thus conceal'd could not have been fulfill'd Searches into the Word of God to have conjoyn'd the one with the other and to have bestow'd that Time and Diligence in the Explication of Prophecy of Scripture that they have done in Researches into the Ancients the Controversie had been long ago at an end and the Apostasie exploded But God hath in the deep ways of his Judgment reserved the lustre of open Prophecy to the Times nearer to the Kingdom and Coming of Christ and the Brightness of his Appearance that so the Man of Sin May be consum'd by it Hereby arises a Judgment upon other Prophesies of Scripture that respect this Grand Apostacy as that of the Apostle John's Spirit of Antichrist and The Antichrist For whatever Community or City under the Name of a Church is continually saying Who shall go up to Heaven as to other Mediators besides the One Mediator Brings down Christ from Above as if He had not Ascended or were not Set down on the Right Hand of God to make Intercession for us And when the same False Church is continually Saying Who shall descend into the Deep of Purgatory by those many Sacrifices and ways of Propitiation This is to bring up Christ from the Dead as if He Himself had not made a perfect Sacrifice Once for all All which are a perfect Denial that Christ is come in the Flesh and an Antichrist in many regards worse then Judaism and always branded as Heatheanism in the Prophecy and the very worst of Heathenism This Prophecy rightly understood would expound to us that whole prophetical Chapter 2. Pet. 3. those Predictions of our Saviour concerning the Signs of his coming and of the End of the World Those three Mystical Cities Sodom Samaria and Jerusalem that are never to be recover'd that Edom the Border of wickedness against which God hath indignation for ever It would expound to us that Discourse of the Apostle against any Church being so wise in its own conceit as to think it self perfect till the Calling and Conversion of the Jews Those dreadful Menaces on the then truly Famous Roman Christian Church of its being Cut off and that more irrecoverably than the Jews who shall be grassed in again e're the end of the World into their own Olive But it is beyond my Intention to ingage further into these Things and it is enough to give only Intimations of them It shews us the Care God hath taken of his Servants in all Times since the first working Inference 2. of the Mystery of Iniquity to preserve them out of the Midst of this Congregation and Assembly of the Dead these Deeps of Hell the Damnation of those who are given up to the strong Delusions of Believing so horrible a Lye upon Christianity as Popery is who perish in not Receiving the Truth in the Love of it Who Believ'd not the Truth but had Pleasure in the Deceivableness of Vnrighteousness whose names are not written in the Lambs Book of Life from the Foundation of the World Who are led away with the Errors of the Wicked God hath graciously Sealed his own Servants whom he hath chosen to Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of Truth who are not wandring Stars falling from their own Stedfastness but fix'd by Grace as the Wise who shall shine as the Firmament and as the Stars for Ever let us therefore Consider the several Methods of the Grace of God herein and the various degrees of it according to the variety of Times and of the various Temptations upon them to Seduction All which have been so many Comings out of his People from this Babylon 1. That which hath been Universal to all his Saints and Servants hath been the Ingaging them to stand fast in the Traditions The True sincere Traditions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ first in the immediate word of the Apostles Preaching by the Holy Ghost sent from Heaven and then Sealed in Scripture without taking from or adding thereto in Doctrine Worship Practise or Government 2. When this Apostasie was risen so High that the Gentiles were come to their Forty two Months His Servants were so observant of it that they immediately put on their Sackcloth This was precisely their Testimony Finish'd before their prophecy ends Rev. 11. 7. and Prophecied in it against the Apostasie and when the Apostasie rose higher and became a Throne of Satan the Pope became a Balam an exalted False Prophet yet they did not Deny the Name of Christ but held fast his Name Even in the time when Antipas or the Anti-Papal Martyrs were slain Although in the mean time They might not be wholly free from some of the shade of that Doctrine on which account It is said They had those who held the Doctrine of Balam and are call'd the Church of Pergamus that High Tow'ring Church that was then aspiring higher and higher These Witnesses were retired out of it while in the midst of all that Corruption and they Fed on hidden Manna and were satisfied with the Absolution of the White Stone peculiar to themselves which all the World Damn'd for Hereticks which shewed they were retired form Rome and call'd by its Name as if of that Church although thus gently censur'd 3. When this City was become Jezebel the Mother of Harlots under the Name of a Church and that the Witnesses of Christ were slain by her and her Prince that had sold Himself to Work Wickedness before the Lord They then declar'd against it as such a Painted Prostitute and separated from it though they were encompass'd with it as with Lyons and Men set on fire with Rage to Burn them Alive and were forced to suffer this False Church while they were come out so far as not to have nor had it in the Account and Reputation of a Church and yet in signification of being in the midst of it are called Ihyatyra One of its Names 4. The Churches of the Reformation made not only an avow'd Separation from it by Coming out of it but by Laws and Sanctions prohibited the Superstitions and Idolatrys of it and of its Prince who ought to be under this Two-fold Caution as the Church of Sardu is Admonish'd and They under it 1. Of pursuing the Reformation to the utmost according to the Highest Spirit and Truest Perfection of it being else in Danger of being Reprov'd for not having their Garments Pure and undefiled nor their Works filled up before God in a perfect Coming Out 2. Of not receiving back into a Sufferance or Toleration the open bare-fac'd avow'd Sins of Spiritual Sodom and its Impurities seeing the Providence of God hath so far deliver'd them lest Many Return as a Dog to the Vomit and have Complacency in what was cast out with Detestation by a Nation and Church 5. But whereas these Things have not yet been done by the Servants of God so avowedly under the Banner of this Prophecy when the Beast's Forty Two Months are out There shall be more Solemn Voices that Babylon is Fallen is Fallen and if any Man continue to Worship the Beast c. He shall Drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God without mixture That All may Come Out and Reform 9. When the Vials are about to be powred out as the Plagues of Aegypt and Fire from Heaven upon this Spiritual Sodom and Aegypt there may be some Romanists in it who pertain to the Election of Grace on whom the Lord being Merciful to them He lays hold and pulls them as Brands out of the Burning and even forces them to come Out as of old He pull'd Lot out of Sodom that very Moment and with a Holy Violence of Grace to them Rescues them from the Flames After that Time He that is Filthy shall be Filthy still He thai is Vnjust shall be unjust still But He that is Justified from that Apostasie shall be for ever juctified from it After that time there is neither Reformation nor Apostasie FINIS