duo certissima there are two things most certain of which this is one Have not the Jews already received a very great Number of false Messiah's Did they not follow their famous Barchocheva in the reign of Adrian by whose orders more than a million of Jews that revolted from all parts under the conduct of this false Messiah were Massacred Why must he of whom Iesus Christ speaks be Antichrist Antichrist is not to have his seat at Jerusalem IV. But Antichrist must have his seat at Ierusalem Therfore he must be accounted by the Iews for the Messiah Another Chimaera If the Messiah must have his seat at Ierusalem why do they make him to come forth from among the ten Horns i. e. from among the ten Kings that must divide the Roman Empire at this day viz. Germany For that only at this day doth subsist under the name of the Roman Empire What connection what coherence can a Iew sitting in Ierusalem have with the ten Horns and the ten Kingdoms of Germany Why did they acknowledg a little before that Antichrist must be the last King that shall possess the Roman Empire What is there in common between the Roman Empire and the Empire of a Iew that must reign at Ierusalem Is it perhaps because Antichrist shall reign in Germany By the same reason the Persian Empire must have been the same with the Assyrian because the Persians did extend their dominion in all places where the Assyrians once did reign This dream is founded on what St. Paul saith that Antichrist must sit in the Temple of God and on what the H. Ghost saith that the two Witnesses whom Antichrist should slay should lie dead on the place of the great City where J. Christ was crucified now he was crucified at Ierusalem As to the first we say that the Temple of God can by no means signify the Temple at Ierusalem which was no longer the Temple of God since God caused this voice to be heard there Let us depart hence since God hath entirely abollisht the Mosaical service since the Law was abrogated and the Gospel Establisht The Temple of God is the very Christian Church wherin the throne of Antichristianism is raised up And as for that city in the Revelation where Jesus Christ was crucified 't is the Roman Empire in which the Saviour of the World was crucified 't is also the Empire of Antichrist who hath crucified Jesus Christ in crucifying his subjects Jerusalem is never called the great City without the addition of the Holy City V. Antichrist must hate Idols and not be an Idolater Why then is Babylon called the mother of whoredoms Who doth not know Antichrist is not to be an hater of Idols Dan. 11.38 that in a spiritual sense Whoredom signifies Idolatry Why do they confess that we must understand that place in Daniel concerning him that he shall worship Mahuzims These Mahuzims whatever they be are they not Idols He must not deny the coming of Christ in the flesh VI. He must deny the coming of Christ in the flesh St. John doth not say so He saith indeed that he that denies that Iesus Christ is come into the World and who doth not acknowledg an incarnate God is Antichrist in the sense wherin the same Apostle saith there are many Antichrists and in that sense wherin they that overthrow the foundations of the Christian Religion are Antichrists He is not to abolish the Mass VII He shall abolish the sacrifice of the Mass and shall make men renounce their Baptism This is not said in any place It is true 't is said of Antiochus that he shall cause the daily sacrifice to cease which he also did It is true also that in so doing he was a Type of Antichrist who hath caused the true sacrifices to cease which are prayers to God to substitute in their place the worship of Mahuzims and Demi-Gods How Antichrist is to overthrow three Kings VIII He is to overcome three Kings viz. those of Lybia Ethiopia and Egypt It is true also that this is expresly spoken concerning Antiochus and that it agrees to Antichrist as to the person of whom Antiochus was the Type And it is very certain this hath been accomplisht in the Roman Antichristian Empire in what sense soever we understand it For the Court of Rome hath destroyed three Kingdoms in Italy that of the Lombards that of the Goths and before these that of the Greeks These are the three Kingdoms which the Pope hath ruin'd to usurp his Temporalities He hath overthrown the King of Naples him of Sicily and him of Germany to make them his vassals He hath overcome the third part of those Kingdomes that have submitted to him because he hath usurped more than a third part of their Riches their Lands and their Iurisdiction How Antichrist causeth fire to come down from Heaven XII He is to cause fire to come down from Heaven It is enough to make fire come down from heaven to hurl Anathema's and lightnings on the heads of men to damn them if it were possible for him to do it and effectually to kill them For these are the lightnings tho painted ones that have set the Christian World on fire He is not to conquer by arms XIII He must conquer all the World by arms How can this be true seeing the H. Spirit saith expresly that the ten Kings which you your selves confess are co-temporary with Antichrist his friends and subjects shall freely give their power to him There will be no need therfore to conquer them by arms Moreover the Pope hath not been wanting to make use of carnal weapons to strengthen and encrease his Soveraignty Enoch and Elias must not return nor be killed XIV Enoch and Elias must come again in the time of Antichrist he must kill them and they must rise again These are ridiculous visions Jewish fables or tales made in imitation of them who always expect their Elias as well as their Messiah As for us we keep close to what the Lord J. Christ hath told us that Elias hath already come and that that Elias was Iohn Baptist who had the power and Spirit of Elias As for Enoch and his return it is a vision that hath not the least foundation in History or in Prophecy 'T is true Enoch was translated into Heaven but there is not one word whence we can hope for his return These are fables upon fables That Enoch and that Elias those two witnesses that must appear again in the time of Antichrist are hidden as they say in a retired place in the Earthly Paradise that subsists to this very day and which is invisible to all men Antichrist is not to style himself the only God. XV. Antichrist is to style himself God and the only God. How absurd is this How doth this agree with what you say that Antichrist must be received by the Iews as their Messiah that he is
to re-establish the law of Moses that he must set on foot again the Levitical worship How would the Iews receive him for their Messiah if he were so wicked a person as not to believe there were a God To what purpose should he rebuild the Temple of Ierusalem and why should he offer sacrifices to God in it if he made himself to be worshipped as the only God Besides it is clear enough that the Pope causes himself to be adored like a God tho he doth not call himself either the only God or the great God. Germany is not the Roman Empire that must be divided among ten Kings under Antichrist XVI He is not to come till the Roman Empire be entirely destroyed We shall afterwards take an occasion to examin this In the mean time consider what absurdities these men run themselves into According to them the Roman Empire doth yet subsist viz. in the branch of Germany According to them at the end of the World the Roman Empire shall be divided among ten Kings that shall be the Friends the co-temporaries and the supporters of Antichrist That is to say the Empire of Germany shall be divided into ten Kingdoms Those will be notable Kingdoms those ten Kingdoms on the other side the Rheine and do well deserve a place even ten times over in the Prophecies of Daniel and St. Iohn If Antichrist must not come till the Roman Empire be destroyed why did they confess that the little Horn in the 7th Chapt. of Daniel is Antichrist This Horn doth it not play the part of the fourth Beast i.e. of the Roman Empire Why do these Gentlemen agree to this that Antichrist is the seventh Head of the first Beast in the 13th of the Revelation which they together with us acknowledg to be the Roman Empire Why did Bellarmine grant that Antichrist is to be the last Roman Emperour The Roman Empire therfore shall not be destroyed when Antichrist shall come because that Empire shall continue under him Antichrist must come before the end of the World. XVII He is not to come but just at the end of the World. He is not to come till the last times But we shall hereafter examin whether the last times signify the three last years before the day of judgment And when we shall have proved that the 1260 Days of Antichrists reign are so many Years this point will be cleared up The Gospel hath been preached almost throughout the VVorld XVIII Before he comes the Gospel must have been preached throughout all the World. Indeed before the Antichristian Empire did appear and was perceivable the Gospel had been preached in that which they called the whole World from the time of the Apostles in all the extent of the Roman Empire and beyond it in all the then known World in the countries which they knew were inhabited and where they could enter without being hindred by the barbarity of those that dwelt there But this universal preaching throughout all the Earth without Exception must be consequent upon the fall of Antichrist and not a sign of his coming Further this term of Vniversal preaching even then must not be taken in the strictest sense For it may be there will be some Exceptions It is not necessary that Antichrist should be a Magician XIX Lastly Antichrist must be a Magician And that because he must work great signs and miracles by the help of Magick 'T is sufficient for the fulfilling of these Oracles that he doth his signs by illusion and the enchantment of mens senses by cheating and deceit and also by the help of the Devil without his making any compact with the Devil either direct or indirect The false miracles of Popery also are wrought by the cheats of the Priests or purely by lies or by the Devil that makes himself sport with their miserable devotion Seeing all these Characters of the Antichristian Empire are all false we must for the future examin and seek out what are the true Characters of it CHAP. XIII What are the true Characters of the Antichristian Empire They are three Tyranny Idolatry and great corruption of manners That we must not look on Tyranny alone as the sole Character of Antichrist The Antichristian Empire hath three names that note its three Characters WE are seeking after the Characters of the Antichristian Empire I believe we may hope to find them in the names which the Holy Spirit gives it For assuredly names are given by God to signify the nature of things I find that the Holy Spirit gives three names to that Empire He calls it Egypt and Sodom and lastly Babylon Egypt and Sodom in the eleventh of the Revelation where speaking of the death of the two witnesses C. 11.8 he saith their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great City which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt Babylon in as many places of the same book as 't is said in she is fallen she is fallen Babylon the great Come out of Babylon my people These three names signify the three Characters of that Babylonish Empire The name of Egypt signifies the pride Tyranny and Cruelty of Antichrist Egypt is the embleme of Tyranny Pride and Cruelty Of Tyranny because there the Israelites did groan under hard bondage in the chains of Pharaoh who tyrannised over them Of Cruelty because that cruel Prince did vex them sorely with hard labour and the death of their children whom he caused to be drowned in the river Nile Of Pride because this proud Tyrant rebelled against God with an intolerable pride saying Who is the Lord that I should obey his voyce Sodom signifies the great corruption of manners in the Antichristian Empire Sodom signifies the mighty corruption of manners and the reason of it may be easily apprehended It was neither Tyranny nor Cruelty that destroyed Sodom We do not read that she did aspire after the dominion It was not Idolatry at least we have no reason to believe that she was more notorious for it than the other Canaavites round about It was therefore only dissoluteness luxury and debauchery ease and abundance of bread as the Prophets speak Therefore when they would set forth a mighty corruption of manners they borrow an expression from hence and use the names of Sodom nd Gomorrha â—s 1.10 Hear the word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom give ear unto the Law of our God ye people of Gomorrha After which Isaiah falls not upon their Idolatry but upon their corrupt manners He reproaches them with nothing but their injustice and violence Babylon signifies the Idolatry of Antichristianism Lastly Babylon signifies Idolatry All do agree that Babylon was the fountain of all sorts of Idolatry From Chaldaea it spread it self over all the Earth That is the fountain and spring of men 't is also of false Gods. As she was the first fountain so she did continue the chief Seat of it
Let them inform us a little where are and who are the ten Kings that shall reign the same time with Rome Pagan who in Saint Iohns time had not begun to reign and who yet were to begin their reign at the same time with the Roman Emperours Is it not plain that these are ten Kings that must receive their birth from the ruin of the Roman Pagan Empire and compose an Antichristian Roman Empire under the rule of the prostitute and adulterous Woman i. e. the revolted Church and Spouse of Jesus Christ Sixthly v. 13. How can these words agree to Rome Pagan these i. e. these ten Kings have one mind and shall give their power and strength to the beast Did those Kings whose Kingdoms were conquer'd by the Roman Pagan Empire voluntarily give their power to the Beast Did not Rome Pagan by meer violence ravish away those great Estates of which she formed her Empire Can it be said that the Kings that were conquer'd and subdued had one mind Did they reign together with Rome Pagan were they not destroyed and their Kingdoms reduced into Roman Provinces This therefore can in no wise agree to the Pagan Period of Rome but doth very well to the Antichristian and Papal one For it is true that the ten Kings compose this Ecclesiastical Empire and submit themselves unto it It is true that they have one mind and that they have given their power unto the Beast For it was not by Force of Arms that Rome hath acquired this second Empire but by perswasion by illusion by the false religion by the communion of idolatry and by the Chimaera of an Empire of Jesus Christ on the Earth This is the only thing to be met with which the popish Interpreters have to oppose to prove that Antichrist must not sit at Rome and that Rome in this Chap. is Rome Pagan say they the ten Kings shall hate the Whore How the ten Kings shall destroy Antichristian Rome after they have built it C. 17. v. 8 16. De Rom. Pontif. l 3. cap. 13. sect 2. and make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire 'T is the Argument of Bellarmin which all the rest have adopted St. Iohn saith he predicts that the ten Kings that shall divide the Roman Empire and under the reign of whom Antichrist shall come shall hate the whore clothed in purple i. e. Rome and shall make her desolate and burn her with fire How then shall she be the Seat of Antichrist if in that very time she must be overthrown and burnt A mighty riddle hard to be solved We need but read on Saint Iohn immediately adds v. 17. For God shall put it into their hearts to fulfill his Will and to agree and give their Kingdom to the beast untill the Word of God shall be fulfilled Who doth not see that these are two distinct times In one of them the ten Kings shall give their power to the Beast by the cheat of a false piety and in the other being better instructed and recover'd foolish fondness they shall spoil that Empire which they shall have formed by their complaisance Men must be hardly prest upon that have recourse to such vain evasions as these The foolish self-contradiction of the Papists But observe their foolish self-contradiction Here Bellarmin and his adherents say that the ten Kings which shall divide the Roman Empire shall come in Antichrists time and that these are the same that shall make the Whore desolate i. e. that shall destroy the City of Rome viz. Rome that is here spoken of and which Bellarmin himself defines by the Whore clothed in purple that is to say Rome Now how will the ten Kings that must not come till the end of the World according to them be able to make desolate and burn Rome Pagan which hath no longer been in being for above 1300. years The ten Kings associated with Antichrist only three years and a half before the end of the World will be able to make desolate no other Rome than what will then be in being Now Pagan Rome will be no more it will be Rome Christian whose Empire he supposes must subsist to the end of the World and to the reign of Antichrist Men must have lost their understanding and be given up to a reprobate sense so to contradict both themselves and the Truth with so much dishonesty Lastly it is clear by the following Chapter which is the 18th that the great City which reigneth over the kings of the earth cannot be Rome Pagan but Rome Antichristian In the 18th Chap. he calls her Babylon whom just before he called the great city and even the popish Interpreters agree also that that Babylon is Rome Now he describes the fall of that Babylon i. e. of Rome in such a manner as cannot agree to any other but Rome Antichristian First He saith v. 3. that all Nations have drank of the wine of the wrath of her fornication We have already seen that this signifies that Idolatry to which Babylon hath drawn the Nations by her Charms and Enchantments which doth not agree to Rome Pagan Secondly v. 4. He saith come out of Babylon my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues 'T is plain this cannot be understood of any thing but of an Idolatrous Church whence God would draw forth his Elect. God never commanded his faithful Servants to go out of Rome Pagan they always remained in it Thirdly and lastly the manner in which the ruin of this Babylon is described can by no means agree to Rome Pagan The Holy Spirit represents it as a City burnt and entirely reduced to ashes the Merchants whereof and they that gained by her behold her desolation and her burning afar off And to conclude he signifies that it must be such a fall from which she shall never rise again And a mighty Angel took up a stone like a great Mill-stone and cast it into the sea saying Thus with violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down c. 18. v. 21. and shall be found no more at all Now this is not yet happened to Rome she hath been taken and retaken and pillaged several times but yet she subsists still so that this can't be understood but of the last ruin that must happen to Rome Antichristian And thus you have the proofs that shew that that Rome which all the popish Interpreters as well as we do find in the 17th and 18th Chap. of the Revelation cannot be Rome Pagan proofs which I call a demonstration for I maintain there is no man that can resist the force of them The confession of the modern Papists that Rome must be the seat of Antichrist Ribera Viega Cornelius à Lapide And the modern popish Interpreters have felt the force of them At this day they do confess that it is not Rome Pagan But
they are at a prodigious distance from it So the Prophet looking on these two resurrections the first and the last it is not strange that beholding them at so great distance he looked on them as joined together though they are a 1000 years distant from each other Moreover the H. Spirit from this first resurrection in which the Church must be deliver'd and which it may be is but a figurative resurrection would raise us up to the contemplation of the last and general resurrection because this first resurrection that must be before the 1000 years of the reign of Jesus Christ must be but an Embleme of the great deliverance of the Church when it shall be in one body translated from earth to heaven by the last resurrection 'T is usual with the Prophets to have holy sallies that from temporal things do transport them to spiritual and eternal ones Isaiah speaking of a sign that God would give to Ahaz and which he refused passes over many ages leaves there Ahaz and his sign Esai 7. and saith the Lord God shall give you a sign behold a Virgin shall bear a son The rest of the twelfth Chapter is not less profound but as it respects the duration of the persecution of Antiochus literally and mystically the time of the duration of the Kingdom of Antichrist we shall reserve it for that Chap. where we must speak of the duration of his Kingdom CHAP. XXIV In which are gather'd together 35. Characters of Antichrist that perfectly agree to the Papism and cannot agree to any but it A short portraiture of Antichrifi and his fearures AFter sounding all the fountains whence the pourtaiture of Antichrist is drawn I believe it will not be unuseful to gather together here all the strokes that we may see them all with one view and that we may discern the perfect conformity that is between that Antichrist and the Papism 1. It must be an Empire Rev. 13.1 for it is called a beast now in the Prophetick style a beast always signifies an Empire when Kings are treated of The Papism is an Empire in all the forms of worldly Empires ancient and modern We have proved it with the greatest evidence in our prejudices 2. It must also be a Religion 2 Thes 2. for it is called a mystery and it must be a false Religion for it is called a mystery of Iniquity and an apostacy There is only the Papism in which an Empire and a Religion are found both together 1 Tim. 4.1 8. 'T is true Mahomet made an Empire and a Religion at the same time But in Mahometanism the Religion is not the Empire nor the Empire the Religion and the Priests are not Soveraign Lords under the pretext of Religion Mahometanism is divided into many Aempires and yet there is but one Religion a proof that the Religion and the Empire are not the same thing The Papism is the only Religion that boasts of a Prophet always living Rev. 19.20 3. Antichrist must have a Prophet i. e. a man that saith he is infallible and that pretends to pronounce Oracles as well as the ancient Prophets For with the beast is joined the false Prophet The beast was taken and together with him the false Prophet that wrought signs before him There is no Religion in the World but the Papism that pretends to have an infallible head always pronouncing Oracles when it is necessary always speaking and always living This is a very peculiar Character and which should make us well discern him 4. The corruption of the Religion of Antichrist must principally consist in Idolatry 1 Tim. 4. 2 Thes 2. Rev. 17. for it is called apostacy a Doctrine of Daemons spiritual whoredom The Papism is a Religion in which Idols are re-establisht under new names We have also clearly proved it The Idolatry of Antichrist must be an idolatry of Christians Rev. 17. 5. This Antichristian Idolatry must be an idolatry of Christians which must be exercised in the Church and not without by the Spouse of Jesus Christ and not by a stranger For this idolatry is called adultery and conjugal unfaithfulness The Papism with its Idolatry retains the foundation of the Church and preserves Christianity 6. The chief City of this Empire and of this Religion must be a City seated on seven Mountaïns Rev. 17.9.18 and the great City which in the time of Saint John ruled over the Kingdoms of the Earth that is to say Rome The Papism hath for the capital of its Empire and Religion new Rome built where the ancient one was 7. This Empire was to form it self not by force but by craft by seduction and by the consent of the Kings of the West Rev. 13.13 that were to give their power to the beast The power of the Papism and the Bishop of Rome come by illusion rather than by the violence that both Kings and people have suffer'd 8. This Antichristian Empire must be a continuation of the fourth Monarchy which is that of the Romans Dan. 2.7 Rev. 13. as hath been shewn by the vision of Daniel's Statue by that of the four beasts and by the beast of the 13th of the Revel The Papism is a true continuation of the Roman Empire having the very same seat and very hear the same Provinces 9. This Empire must be only an Image of an Empire an Image of the Roman Empire Rev. 13.14 15. Yet this Image must speak and must be worshipped in all the Earth The Papism hath no arms nor citadels that really make an Empire it hath nothing but superstition and foolish fondness for all its arms however it speaks it threatens it promiseth it teacheth it seduceth and by this means it reigns 10. The Empire of Antichrist must have ten horns Rev. 13. end 17. that is to say ten Kings vassals and subjects props and upholders of its throne The Papism hath always had under it ten principal Kings that have worshipt and maintain'd its power 11. Antichrist must speak great things in his own behalf Rev. 13.5 but against God for they must be blasphemies The Papism saith of it self and its capital great and mighty things saying that Rome is eternal that she is infallible that the Pope is Superiour to all the Kings of the Earth the Spouse of the Church the Vicar of J. Christ God upon Earth his Holiness and most holy Lord. And these arrogant pretensions are true blasphemies against God against J. Christ and against the true Church the Spouse of J. Christ 12. Antichrist must raise wars and cruel persecutions on the account of Religion Rev. 13.7 For 't is given to him to make war against the Saints and to overcome them The Papism hath bathed it self in humane and Christian blood for six or seven hundred years 13. The Empire of Antichrist must be an Empire raised up again Rev. 13.3 an head mortally wounded but healed again The Empire of
v. 16. The second is called the vintage v. 19. And the other Angel thrust in his sickle into the Earth and gathered the Vine of the Earth and cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of God. It is plain at least that these two periods must be distant one from the other as much as ordinarily the harvest is from the vintage Now 't is well known that the prophecies represent in a little what the events shew in the great and consequently as the harvest is many days distant from the vintage it will be necessary that the two parts of the fall of the Antichristian Empire should be many years distant one from the other Now if meerly the fall of the Babylonish Empire takes up many years the flourishing and the strength of this Empire must take up much more time An Empire so strong can't be ruin'd in the twinckling of an eye and in one months time Moreover there must be an interval of rest between the harvest and the vintage All this necessarily supposeth more than three years and a half The 15th and 16th Chapt. contain the vision of the seven viols of the wrath of God that must be poured out on the Earth It is evident that all these seven viols respect the Antichristian Empire The first plague is an ulcer that seizes on the men that had the mark of the beast c. 16.2 The 15th viol is cast on the seat of the beast v. 10. at the seventh v. 19. the great City which is the same beast c. 15.2 is divided into three parts And before the viols were given to the seven Angels they that had obtained victory over the beast over his image over his mark and over his name are represented as rejoycing in the presence of the seven Angels that had received the seven plagues The fifth Argument the seven viols of the 15th Chap. are seven periods of the fall of the Antichristian Empire every one of these periods contains more than an Age. Fifthly All this makes it appear that these seven viols are seven periods included in the duration of Antichrists Empire under which God must pour out his terrible judgements on that Empire These seven periods must divide his duration into seven parts very near equal even though one should suppose that the seven periods contain this whole duration every viol and every period would have but six months to last according to the supposition of the Romish Doctors The truth is that these seven viols are included in the half of the duration of Antichrists Empire or a little more For 't is the History of the fall of that Empire If it lasts but three years and a half it is necessary that at the least it should be two years a growing so there will remain no more than eighteen months for these seven viols and to every period we must assign a little more than two months This is very plainly absurd There is no example of the like matter in all the Prophecies The seven seals the seven trumpets of the Revelation contain many ages 't is ridiculous to suppose that the seven viols contain but some months We shall see afterward that every viol extends it self to more than a 100 years The sixth Argument what is foretold in the 17th Chap. cannot come to pass in three years and a half Sixthly The 17th Chapt. represents to us the Empire and the Religion of Antichrist under the emblem of a woman sitting on a beast with seven heads and ten horns 'T is said this woman must make her self drunk with the blood of the Martyrs That first of all the ten Kings must give their power to the beast that afterwards c. 17.6 they must fight against the Lamb in favour of the beast v. 13. and that at last v. 14. these very same Kings must change their side and their opinion v. 16. Strip the whore make her desolate eat her flesh burn her with fire can so many changes in mens spirits and in the world can so many revolutions happen in three years and a half In the same Chapt. we find a head that lasts a little v. 10. The seven heads are seven Kings five are fallen the other is not yet come and when he cometh he must continue a short space I once believed that he that was to come and was to continue a little time was Antichrist But looking more carefully into the Text with reference to the events 't is plain that that can't be We must therefore v. 11. by him that was to continue a little time understand the eighth King. And the beast that was and is not even he is the eighth King. And this King is the second part of the head of the Emperors which being divided into two Christian Emperors and Pagan ones makes eight heads or eight Kings together with the other six This eighth head which is that of the Christian Emperors in truth lasted but a very little while viz. from Constantine to Valentinian who was assassinated by Maximus about 130 or 140 years See what the Holy Spirit calls a little time Judge if the Empire of Antichrist that must last longer than the eighth head must last but three years and a half The 7th Argument the duration of the Empire of old Babel is the figure of the duration of the Antichristian Empire Seventhly The 18th Chap. contains a larger description of the last ruin of this Antichristian Empire 'T is there represented as a great City called Babylon rich merchandizing pufft up with the concourse of people and of their riches carried thither for many ages Its inhabitants are described as Merchants grown rich by its commerce She is described as a City abounding in pleasure as well as in riches For all that contributes to pleasure and luxury enters into this description Chap. 1â— v. 12.15 Gold silver precious stones pearls purple silk sweet smelling vessels and most precious wood brass iron marble cinnamon v. 22. perfumes ointments incense wine oil musicians players on the harp pipers trumpetters In conscience is this the description of an Empire and of a City that must last but three years and a half that in that little space of time must be built raised enriched and ruined First of all the Antichristian Empire is called Babylon because ancient Babylon was its type and figure That Empire of old Babel lasted many ages and should these many ages be the type and figure of these three years and a half Can this be said or thought It happens well that the Prophets represent future things that are great by types that are much less This is the very nature of types They are little draughts of that which the event must produce at large So days in the types must naturally represent years But 't is absurd to say that years in the types represent but days in the things signified by the types
were ever seen Nay if we should interpret these changes which ought to happen onely by those which fell out in the last age surely we may say that never were greater and more surprizing alterations The Earthquake signifies the great change of the world by the Reformation In less then twenty or thirty years a great part of the Christian World was Reformed And at the same time there were dreadfull wars troubles and sheddings of blood in Germany in Flanders in Holland in England and in France as every body knows V. 19. And the great City was divided into three parts Behold something which does furnish us with a plain Character of this last period and of this last viol These words have not hitherto been understood but I perswade my self that it will be judged that they can be understood We have already said and shall hereafter prove it that the great City is not Rome strictly taken but Rome made up and joyn'd with its whole Empire In a word this City is the Antichristian Kingdom otherwise called the Latin Church A remarliable prediction of the division of the Latin Church into three principal parts Papists Lutherans and Reformed This City upon the pouring out of the seventh viol was to be divided into three parts This is exactly come to pass at the preaching of the Reformers the Antichristian Kingdom was divided into three one part remain'd with Antichrist one part did separate from him under the name of the Ausburg Confession A third part did separate under the Confession of those who are barely styled the Reformed Sweden Denmark and a great part of Germany make the second part England the Vnited Provinces the reformed part of France a part of Germany make the third part These are the three grand parts that divide the Western Church which is the great City Let this be attentively minded for I affirm that this passage does as it were speak with a tongue and is able alone to convince that our System of the seven plagues is a most undoubted truth This division of the great City into three parts so clearly points out the three Communions of the Latin Church that to deny it can proceed onely from unreasonable passion and opiniatrety And if we have hit upon the truth in this point we have done so in all for if this Character of the seventh plague is true and is already accomplisht all the other plagues are also accomplisht and if they are accomplisht I do boldly affirm they cannot be apply'd to any other events then those to which we have apply'd them And it must not be hoped that to obscure this evidence a fourth part may be made viz. the Church of England because of the controversies about Church government for the Church of England never refused to receive other Reformed ones into her Communion nor have these again ever refused to receive her into theirs We have alway professed the same Religion with the Church of England on the account of the perfect agreement of our Doctrine notwithstanding the difference of discipline and government When as the Lutherans have constantly refused to receive the Reformed into their Communion There is among the Lutherans themselves a difference in point of government Sweden hath Bishops Denmark hath none at least not such Bishops as those of Sweden and England and nevertheless this makes not a different Sect. There is also the same difference among the Reformed on this side the Sea for the Superintendants who are in many Reformed Churches of Germany are real Bishops and notwithstanding the Reformed are not divided one from another Thus in truth there are but three grand parts into which the Latin Church is divided i. e. Papists Lutherans and Reformed as they are called by one another or Catholiks Reformed Evangelici as they style themselves And the Cities of the Nations fell i. e. they fell with respect to Popery they departed out of the Antichristian Kingdom in the same sense that in the eleventh Chapter 't is said that the tenth part of the City fell And great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath These words let us see that the expression It is done did not signify the very point of the final ruin of the Antichristian Kingdom For behold after 't was said It is done Babylon comes in remembrance before God to give her the cup. Now these expressions signify both the future and the present time And indeed 't is within the duration of this period that God will remember Babylon to give her the last cup of his wrath And observe it that the great Babylon comes not in remembrance before God to give her the cup i. e. the last cup of her ruin till after her dividing into three parts This division is not her total ruin but after that she shall be thus divided into Papists Lutherans and Calvinists then God will prepare to give her the last cup of his wrath Which signifies that the division of the Latin Church into three parts must continue untill the compleat ruin of popery V. 20. And every Island fled away and the mountains were not found This is nothing but a Paraphrase and a description of the Earthquake which he had spoken of a little before for these are the effects of Earthquakes where mountains once stood they are not to be seen new Islands are produced and the old ones are often swallowed up But yet if any will interpret Islands to signify lesser States and Mountains great ones I do not contradict it for 't is really true that the Reformation hath already taken away from the Popedom and shall yet take away all States both small and great V. 21. And there fell upon men a great hail out of Heaven i. e. upon the Subjects of Antichrist this signifies the judgments of God which fall upon this Kingdom and these judgements are well known for it hath suffered of all kinds wars famines pestilences mortalities And men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail The Subjects of the Popedom have not hitherto been converted by all these chastisements but have always stuck firm to the Kingdom and Seat of the Beast whose head is cover'd with names of blasphemies The seven hour-glasses being run out the Kingdom of Autichrist must be at its end This is the seventh and last viol or hour-glass which thanks be to God will in a little time be run out now we have that which we seek namely an evidence that the Antichristian Kingdom is near its end We need not longer wait for the accomplishment either of all the seven plagues as some of our Interpreters say or of some of the seven plagues as others say It is done all is accomplisht we are in the last period of the seven yea we are at the end of the seventh period I am informed that since the first Edition of this work some
all the Protestant States of Europe did concern themselves to obtain from the Duke a Peace for those poor people A persecution began in Poland a while after and the Reformed were involved in the same ruin with the Hereticks Socinians and Antitrinitarians they were driven out of that Kingdom and were scattered in Transilvania Hungary and Germany At the same time a persecution begun in France immediately after the Pyrenaean peace the project of the ruin of the Protestants was laid at Court and hath been prosecuted till it hath been executed as we see at this day In the year 1671. began the persecution of the Churches of Silesia Moravia Hungary the consequents of which are the almost utter extinction of the true Religion in the Territories of the Emperor The two witnesses will in a little time be dead through the total extinction of the profession of Religion The Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them This Beast is the papacy where ever it is for 't is not only in Rome that the Beast is found but 't is in the whole extent of the jurisdiction of the ten Kings 'T is not therefore necessary that a persecution should be exactly rais'd by the Bishop of Rome that so it may be ascribed to the Beast 't is enough that it be raised in the extent of the popish Kingdom And their bodies shall lye in the street of the great City 'T is evident from these words that this last persecution must be rais'd only within the circumference of the great City i. e. the Babylonian and popish Kingdom in the Countries where it reigns On this account probably those Kingdoms Countries and States who are out of the jurisdiction of the Popedom and whose Soveraigns are Protestants must have no share in it Further the Prophecy saith that the war must be made against the two witnesses that prophesy cloathed in sackcloth which is the same with what we call preaching under the Cross this therefore only concerns the faithful who preach and are under the Cross so that the persecution must onely be rais'd within the bounds of the City i. e. the Babylonian Kingdom and against those who preach under the Cross Holland Sweden Denmark and all other States which have Reformed Princes and where the Reformation is the ruling Religion shall not feel it And we have ground to hope that the torch of the Reformation shall not be extinguisht And though at present the King of England is of the Romish Religion I dare notwithstanding perswade my self that his Kingdom cannot be reckoned as one of the streets of the great City seeing popery is not the ruling Religion there though it be the Religion of him that rules Therefore I do not believe that we must understand the prophesy of Vsher in the letter or strictest sense who says that the persecution must be general over all the Churches of Europe for we may understand it of all those where popery does rule 'T is true he fore-tells a massacre in England but besides that those who wrote this prophesy from his mouth might be mistaken 't is also possible that this holy man through the violence of his sorrow went further than the Spirit did carry him Notwithstanding the English ought to remember the massacre in Ireland circumstances then were not near so favourable to popery as they are now Men must not trust to this that the King of England will never consent to so barbarous an action I believe he will not but the Papists do not trouble themselves about the pleasure of their Soveraigns when they see any prospect of advancing their cause by any kind of Methods Therefore if the Protestants be wise they will not put weapons into the hands of their enemies The bodies of the two witnesses shall lye in the street of the great City 'T is to be observed that in the Text 't is not in the streets in the plural as the French translation reads 't is in the street in the singular And I cannot hinder my self from believing that this hath a particular regard to France which at this day is certainly the most eminent Countrey which belongs to the popish Kingdom Her King is called the eldest Son of the Church the most Christian King i. e. the most popish according to the dialect of Rome The Kings of France have by their liberalities made the Popes great at this day it is the most flourishing State of Europe It is in the middle of the popish Empire betwixt Italy Spain Germany England exactly as a street or place of concourse is in the middle of a City 'T is also foursquare as such a place i. e. almost as long as broad In a word 't is the place or street of the great City And I believe that 't is particularly in France that the witnesses must remain dead i.e. that the profession of the true Religion must be utterly abolisht This is already done by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and by the enormous cruclties of the Souldiers who have bin let loose upon the Protestants of whatsoever sex quality and condition If any stand firm they must either leave the Kingdom or be destroyed Thus within a little while the external profession of the Reformed Religion will be wholly abolisht there And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and Nations shall see their dead bodies and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put into graves i.e. The Truth shall be slain but it shall not be buried Burial is a degree beyond death and is always joyn'd with a total corruption and destruction And so 't is not an office of charity which is denyed to these two witnesses but a degree of ruin from which they are exempted The witnesses shall not be buried i.e. the Truth shall not be destroy'd And observe who they are who hinder their burial they are not the same with those who killed them Those who killed them are the Inhabitants of the street of the great City i. e. those who dwell in the most eminent part of the popish Kingdom which at this day is France Those who hinder their burial are the Tribes Languages People and Nations i.e. several neighbour nations yea 't is to be observed that the Propheey saith not simply The Tribes Languages and Nations but they of the Languages Tribes and Nations i. e. some chosen and elected out of the Nations the faithfull scattered in all the Nations of Europe shall hinder the burial and total destruction of the Reformation in France Nevertheless this does not wholly exclude those among the Tribes Languages and Nations who are not Elect. For 't is probable that all Europe shall contribute to hinder France from executing her design of extirpating the Truth But this signifies that the Reformed and the true Christians shall awaken Europe as well that part which is Roman Catholick as that which is Protestant to oblige it to look to
Among the considerations laid down by me in the Preface which induce me to believe that this persecution is the last I mention'd the singularities of it I named several such Behold one which in my judgement deserves to be added to the rest 'T is the horrible Edict which commands that the new Converts being sick shall communicate after the popish way This is the worst effect that ever was produced by the spirit of rage and reprobation And 't is not conceivable how a Clergy that will be called Christian can do such horrible actions The Edict ordains that they who will not communicate shall be sent to the Galleys if they recover There is none who is so mortally sick that is sure that he shall dye and fearing to recover he will also fear to go to the Gallies and this affrighting object is able to induce a sick man to communicate without faith and to worship that which he judgeth to be a piece of bread that is to say to commit a horrible sacriledge and an act of Idolatry and consequently to damn himself certainly So that properly this Edict is a trick of the Clergy to procure the damnation of all the new Converts This is perfectly to imitate that Italian who that he might take a compleat vengeance having his enemy in his power promis'd him his life on condition that he would deny God which having done he murther'd both his body and soul Will men never open their eyes to behold such objects as these The Reformation is foretold by three figures signifying three Methods And the spirit of life from God entred into them These words teach us how the Reformation shall be re-establisht in France for in these Prophecies I find three ways by which the Truth is establisht or re-establisht The first is by lightnings voyces and thunders thus after the seventh viol was pour'd on the air the Reformation in the last Age was made by lightnings voyces and thunders i. e. by the preaching of the Divine Oracles And the seventh Angel pour'd out his viol into the air and there were voyces and lightnings and thunders In this Prophecy thunders always signify the Divine Oracles The seven thunders that uttered their voyces in the tenth Chapter are the Oracles of God which ought to be uttered in the sequel Thus the Reformation was made in the last Age in a most sensible manner by the preaching of the word The Reformation shall come into France by way of internal grace But behold a second way of reforming A Spirit of life from God enters again into the dead Witnesses i. e. those who are at this day under oppression shall suddenly rise up again by a secret operation of grace and an extraordinary motion not by the means of preaching the word not by the ministry of some new Preachers but by a heavenly operation that shall open the eyes of them who are as yet in darkness and strengthen again the hearts of those who at this day have fallen through weakness At that time in all appearance the yoke of the Persecutor shall be broken a time of ease shall come and all those who at this day groan under the Captivity of Babylon shall lift up their heads and shall improve that season of calm to repair that which they are now forced to do by violence 'T is these words signify a Spirit of life from God not from any man nor by the ministry of any man but from God entred into them and their zeal was enlivened again But things shall not stay there God is preparing other wonders There is a third Reformation which shall be set on foot by way of Authority by the Royal power and this is expressed in the words that follow And the Witnesses heard a great voyce from heaven saying unto them Come up hither and they ascended up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies beheld them What heaven and lifting up to heaven signify in the Prophecies In the style of the Prophets heaven and lifted up to heaven is the Throne and to be exalted to dignity greatness and power even in the language of heathen Prophets for Apomasar in his Apostelismata insomniorum saith If a King dreams that he sits upon the clouds and is carried where ever he pleaseth this signifies that his enemies shall serve him But if he fancieth that he is carried up to heaven where the stars are this presages that he shall be lift up above all Kings The Prophets of God do also make use of these representations to signify the same thing Isa 14.13 Isaiah describes the exaltation of the King of Babylon by an ascending up into heaven I will ascend into heaven I will exalt my Throne above the stars And Jesus Christ saith of Capernaum that she had been lift up unto heaven but should be brought down unto hell 'T is therefore evident that God does here signify that some time after these three years and a half of death the Reformation shall be lifted up to a great glory but not every where 't is only in that place which is called the street of the great City and is after called the tenth part of the City for the total destruction of the Antichristian Kingdom must not happen untill some years afterward There will shortly be a Reformation in France by the Royal Authority And after These words signify that when the Reformation shall be establisht again in France by way of Divine immediate operation by which the zeal of the Apostates and of others who know the truth but with-hold it in unrighteousness shall be quickned again some space of time shall pass probably some years before France shall wholly throw off the yoke of popery That Kingdom shall not be entirely Reformed by way of Authority immedately after out Reformation shall be again set on foot by way of inspiration and recovering of zeal For and after signifies an interval of time but whether it shall be short or long is not expressed notwithstanding I see no likelihood that it shall be very long nor do I believe so They heard a great voyce from heaven Yet once again Heaven is the Throne 't is the Soveraign dignity which in a State is exactly the same that Heaven is to the Earth in light in lustre in good or bad influences in scituation and in elevation From Heaven i.e. from Authority and the Prince who reigns they heard a voyce they received an order not a small clandestinsilent voyce but a great voyce i.e. a publick command a solemn Edict and this voyce said to them Come up hither Then the Truth shall get up into the Throne and as God hath contrary to all probability given a popish Prince to England so God will give a Protestant Prince to France in spight of all oppositions of the Papists And the ascended up to heaven in a cloud i.e. Their elevation and that of the Reformed Religion shall be made publickly as the
elevation of Elijah and of Jesus Christ who were lift up above the clouds And their enemies beheld them Popery shall not as yet be destroy'd in France when this shall happen The Priests the Clergy and Monks shall be spectators of this great work But the end of popery in France shall come quickly after For the same hour-there was a great Earthquake mark the same hour he saith not and after as he had said to express a space of time between the resurrection of the witnesses and their ascending up even to the Throne But he saith the same hour to signisy that assoon as the Reformation shall be establisht by a solemn Edict of the Prince as by a great voyce from heaven the total destruction of popery shall happen as we are about to shew And the same hour there was a great Earthquake I will not spend time upon the signification of this representation an Earthquake For 't is known by all who are versed in the Prophets See Isa 170 13. and 24.19 20. Jer. 4.24 and 49 20. that in the Prophetick style an Earthquake signifies a great commotion of Nations that must change the face of the World because Earthquakes do overturn Cities Mountains and wholly change the face of a Countrey make Valleys where there were Mountains and Hills where there were Valleys and Lakes which were dry Land before and deserts of Countries which were inhabited so that 't is certain that according to this Prophesy in a very few years the face of the Antichristian Kingdom shall be changed but not every where It shall be only in the tenth part of the City which shall fall by this Earthquake The City signifies the Roman Antichristian Empire and not Rome alone And the tenth part of the City fell This is a passage where Interpreters have been short sighted not excepting our Joseph Mede who often hath so quick a sight To understand this we must first know what the City is Joseph Mede is mistaken together with all the rest when he understands this to mean precisely the City of Rome 'T is a truth which must be held as certain being one of the keys of the Revelation that the City the great City signifies in this book not Rome alone but Rome in conjunction with its Empire The name of this great City is Babylon Now 't is clear that Babylon is the whole Babylonian Kingdom Come out of Babylon my people 'T is not from the City of Rome that the Holy Ghost invites his Elect to come out 't is from the Church of Rome from the Babylonian Empire This passage alone together with that in this eleventh Chapter v. 8 And their dead bodies shall lye in the street of the great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was cruicified are enough to prove that the Babylonian City is not Rome alone Our Lord was not crucified in Rome and if we should here take crucifying in a figurative sense for the crucifying of the Religion of Jesus Christ this hath been sacrificed at Rome no more than in other places of the Latin Church In the 14th Chapter the Holy Ghost describes the fall of this City of Babylon Babylon is fallen is fallen that great City and in the same vision he fore-tells the ruin of the Antichristian Empire under the Metaphors of an harvest and a vintage which proves that this City is nothing else but the intire Kingdom of Babylon In the 18th Chapter the Prophet makes a long description of the desolations of this City under the Metaphors of a City of Merchandise which had a great traffick and was fill'd with pleasures and delightfull things Now 't is certain that the shamefull simony the wicked pleasures of the Papacy have not reigned less in the Provinces of the Babylonian Kingdom than in the Capital City from whence 't is again evident that the City signifies the whole Antichristian State. Lastly the constant opposition between the Holy City and the great City proves that the City includes the whole Antichristian Church even as the Holy City signifies the whole Christian Church De Launay hath confessed this in the eleventh Chapter of the Revelation and in the 16th but no exception is to be made every where the City and the great City Babylon signifies the intire Kingdom of the Papacy And the reason of this is evident old Rome made her whole Empire to be one only City by means of that right of citizenship which she bestowed on all who were of some considerable quality though they dwelt in the Provinces The citizens of Rome dwelt in all Countries now where the citizens of a City dwell there is the City this made Rutilius say Dumque offers victis proprij consortia juris Vrbem fecisti quod prius Orbis erat Thus it goes exactly in the Church of Rome which hath re-establisht the Roman Empire All those who are members of this Church are citizens of her capital City The Church of Rome is but one City Persons of all Nations are admitted into her Senate or Colledge of Cardinals The Tribunal which is called the Rota is constituted of Councellors taken out of all the Provinces which pay subjection to Rome Every Forreigner may come to be a Cardinal and every Cardinal may come to be Pope Therefore there are properly no Forreigners in that State no Papist is a Forreigner to the Church of Rome and that which they call the holy See. That which hath deceived Interpreters v. 9 1â— is the 17th Chapter where the City is called the Woman which sitteth on seven Mountains and that great City which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth This say they is the City of Rome and the Papists themselves do grant it and without doubt 't is Rome and we have above proved it but 't is Rome conjointly with her Empire Babylon signifies the whole Antichristian Empire and this Antichristian Empire is said to sit upon seven Mountains and to rule over the Kings of the Earth Rome must always be considered together with her Empire because this is true of its Capital City Nothing is more ordinary not to add that 't is constantly used than to denote a whole Kingdom by the ruling City Thus men always spoke of Rome Rome hath conquered the Nations Rome hath enlarged her Empire to the end of the World this signifies that the Roman Empire hath subdued all Nations and extended its bounds even to the utmost parts of the Earth The tenth part of the City is one of the ten Kingdoms that make up the Empire of the Papacy Chap. 17.12 13. This being supposed and proved that the City is the whole Babylonian and Antichristian Empire it must be remembred that this Empire of Antichrist is made up of ten Kingdoms and ten Kings who must give their power to the beast The ten horns which thou sawest are ten Kings These have one mind and shall give their power unto the
prove our notion of the Reign of Christ for a thousand years and the Triumphant state of the Church upon Earth before its final glorious Triumph in Heaven we might be furnisht from these last Chapters For they are not as is commonly supposed a description of the Church in Heaven The Prophecy of the nine last Chapters of Ezekiel is the same with that of the last Chapt. of the Apocalypse They exactly answer to the nine last Chapters of the Prophecy of Ezekiel That Prophet in those nine last Chapters sets forth in a figurative manner the condition of the Church of Israel after its restoration their glorious Kingdom and the wonderful Peace they should injoy after their return which return or recalling was to be after the fall of Antichrist St. John gives an account what the Church shall be after with relation to that Fall after it shall have bin accomplisht so that both these Prophets describe the Church as to the same Period and the same condition This will easily appear if we briefly run over that which remains of the Apocalypse It cannot be questioned but that our Prophet concludes the 20th Chapter with a description of the last day of Judgement The war of Gog and Magog follows upon the reign of a thousand years to the revolt of Gog and Magog succeeds their defeat after their defeat there is nothing but the last day which shall come and surprize the World in the twinkling of an eye This is signified by those words V. 11. Chap. 20. Then I saw a great white Throne and him that sat on it from whose face the Earth and Heaven fled way and there was found no place for them White as well as Purple is a Royal colour and withal a Priestly for the Priests were clothed in white The Holy Priest's garments on the day of Expiation according to the tradition of the Iews were called Bigdei Lavan white garments In like manner he that sat upon the Throne is our King and Priest The Earth and the Heaven fled from his face for they shall be burnt that they may be renewed V. 12. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God c. 'T is a description of the last Judgement to the end of the Chapter all this is plain The 21. v. 1. Chapter begins with these words And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away The first Vision of 21 Chapt. to the 9th V. respects that which follows the end of the world These words do evidently allude to what he had said just before and the Heaven and the Earth fled away As that was interpreted of what should happen at the last day of Judgement it is clear that these new Heavens and this new Earth must be understood in a literal and not a figurative sense for the new World after it hath been refined by fire And so the description we read of here even to the ninth Verse is that of eternal Rewards and Punishments 'T is true that which is spoken of the H. City v. 3 4. of the new Ierusalem coming down from Heaven prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband of the Tabernacle of God with men of his dwelling with them and they with him and that God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and that there shall be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain All this I say might very well be applied to the Church as victorious upon Earth but this description is determin'd by what precedes and by what follows to Eternal Glory by that which precedes which is the description of the last day of Judgement and by that which follows which is the description of everlasting Punishment but the fearful and unbelieving c. v. 8. shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death The 9th v. begins a new Vision The ninth Verse begins a new Vision and a more perticular description of the blessed Reign of Christ upon Earth In the same manner as the H. Spirit after he had in the 13th Chapter given an enigmatical and general description of the Antichristian Empire under the image of the two Beasts gives a more ample account of it in the 17th Chapt. So having in the 20th Chapt. described the reign of Christ though in few words he set forth that reign more at length afterwards that state of the delivered Church under the image of a great City called Ierusalem as after having set out the Antichristian Church under the image of a Beast and of an Empire he represents it under the Emblem of a great City called Babylon V. 9. And there came unto me one of the seven Angels which had the seven Viols full of the seven last plagues and talked with me saying come hither I will show thee the Bride the Lambs wife 'T is in all likelyhood the last of those seven Angels who had poured out the Viols and the same who show'd unto the Prophet the great City the mother of Fornications Cha. 17.1 Then came one of the seven Angels unto me which had the seven Viols and talked with me saying Come hither I will show thee the Judgement of the great Whore that sitteth on many Waters As it was this seventh and last Angel who had the Viols by whom the ruin of Antichrist was effected it doth most properly belong to him to show Babylon faln and Ierusalem rebuilt V. 10. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high Mountain and showed me that great City the Holy Jerusalem descending out of Heaven from God. This is somewhat like what the Devil did unto Jesus Christ when he carried him up into an high Mountain and shows him all the Kingdoms of the world what the Devil makes appear by illusion St. Iohn sees by vision That he was carried or seemed to be carried up into an high Mountain makes it plain that the Ierusalem he was to be made see from thence was here upon Earth and not the Triumphant Church in Heaven though it be called the Holy Jerusalem descending out of Heaven from God. She shall be descended from Heaven because she shall abound in Graces which come from thence she is called the great City and 't is the first time she is so called 'T is a detestable name which in all the preceding Prophecy is given only to Spiritual Babylon But 't is on this account that then the Church shall possess the multitude of the Nations as Antichristianism doth at present V. 11. Having the Glory of God and her Light wus like unto a stone most precious even like a Iasper stone clear as Cristal V. 12. And had a Wall great and high and had twelve Gates and at the Gates twelve Angels and names written thereon which are the names of the twelve Tribes of the children of Israel V. 13.
a part of the World. The Second Book contains the destinies of the Church properly taken as a Church distinguisht from the societies of the World. This is a much better notion than that of Mr. de Launay who tells us that the first book contains the History of the Church the second that of the Gospel What can be the adventures of the Gospell distinct from those of the Church How can those Prophecies that respect the Establishment the ruin of Antichrist be applied to the book of the Gospel unless it be in a very indirect manner For these events do directly respect the Church not the book of the Holy Scriptures That which God saith to St. John after he had caused him to swallow the little book of the 10th v. 11. Chapter Thou must prophesy again before many Peoples Nations Tongues Kings These words I say do plainly shew that this is a Prophecy wholly new which doth begin and pass over again all the periods of time This being so that is to say the first book included in the 5. 6. 7. 8. and 9th Chapters containing the destinies of the Roman Empire and the various changes that were to befall it even to the time of its utter ruin by the revolt of the ton Kings it is evident that they are greatly mistaken that endeavour to find the Pope and Anti-christ in the Star of the 8th Chapter called Wormwood It is true that in the 7th Ch. we find the vision of the 144. thousand persons that were Sealed who do belong to the History of the Church For these are they that have not defiled their garments with the Idolatries of Antichrist nor partaken of his fornications These are the same with the two Witnesses of the 11th Chapter that prophesy clothed in sack-cloth for 1260 days during the reign of Anti-Christ Babylon The H. Ghost hath placed these 144 thousand Sealed persons in the destinies of the Empire immediatly after the opening the first six seals before the opening of the seventh because the seventh Seal was to be subdivided into seven Trumpets which do reach even to the end of Antichrist's Empire Trumpets that were to contain the horrible corruption of the Church the Birth and Progress of her Idolatries It was therfore very reasonable to take notice of those whom God intended to exempt from those corruptions before the opening of the seventh Seal which was to bring so many evills on the Church as well as upon the World. This in my opinion being certain that the destinies of the Church do not begin before the 11th Chapter are prosecuted even to the end it will be necessary to consider the Chronology the History of these twelve Chapters from the 10th to the 22th the last As for the Chronology St. Iohn begins his Prophecy concerning the Church either from the beginning of the Christian Aera The Chrustian Church in the Apocalypse must be divided into three Periods i.e. from the birth of the Saviour of the World or at least from the time in which he prophecied which was in the reign of Trajan This duration of the Church from Jesus Christ's time is divided into three general Periods The First is that of the Christian Church in the four first Ages which were those of her purity the second is that of her Corruption Idolatries Antichristianism that was to endure 1260 years at the conclusion whereof an end must be put to the Babylonish Empire The third Period contains the reign of a thousand years during which the Church must have peace after which must follow the last judgment The first of these Periods is the shortest not lasting above 3 or 400 years And therfore St. Iohn doth not stay much upon it This is the Period which he describes in a few words in the beginning of the 11th Ch. And there was given to me a reed like a rod the Angel stood saying rise measure the temple of God the Altar them that worship therin But the court which is without the Temple leave out measure it not for it is given to the Gentiles the holy city shall they tread under foot forty two Months All the world is agreed that the Temple built by Solomon according to the orders of God was an Emblem of the Church This Temple had two Courts an inward and an outward one Here the H. Ghost represents the whole duration of the Christian Church by the extent of this Temple and its Courts Nothing is more proper to shadow forth the extent of time than the extent of place This inward Court that was measured by St. John together with the Altar them that worship therin is the first Period of the Church the Ages which we call the happy times of the Church which reach to the end of the fourth Age about 360 or 380 Years The rest of the Christian Churches duration till the reign of the 1000 years is shadowed forth by the outward Court The inward court is an Emblem of the pure Church the out ward court an Emblem of the corrupted Church which God leaves to the Gentiles to tread under food 42 Monthes This is the Christian Church turn'd Pagan by the admission of secondary Deities mediating Spirits Images Here is one thing that deserves to be carefully taken notice of between the duration of the Church in its purity and in its corruption there is exactly the very same proportion as there between the greatness the extent of the inward Court the outward one Those that have taken the pains to compute the extent of these two Courts according to that description of them that we meet with in the Iewish Authors both sacred prophanc find that the proportion of the inward Court to that without V. Villal-pand in Ezech. is the same with that of one to three a half Now there is the very same proportion between the duration of the Church in its corruption in its purity The corrupt Church lasts 42. Months that is three years a Half according to which the Church in its purity must not have lasted above one prophetique year which contains 360 Days that is to say 360 Years Indeed the Church did continue in its purity just so long About the year 360 the unhappy superstions about Reliques the invocation of Saints began to creep into the Church which quickly degenerated into Idolatry Thus the reign of Anti-Christian Idolatry hath lasted three times a half hath lâ—sted as long as the reign of pure Christianity This is the outward Court that is left out trodden under foot by the Gentiles prophaned by Idolatry which nevertheless is called the Holy City because there God did preserve his elect And they shall tread under foot the Holy City for 42. Months 'T is chiefly upon this Period of 42 Months that the Prophecies of the Apocalypse do turn
Christian We do agree that the Prophecies of the Eighth the eleventh of Daniel T is agreed that what is said of Antiochus agrees also to Antichrist that literally respect Antiochus Epiphanes the cruel persecution that he raised against the Church of the Jews belong also to Antichrist so that Antichrist is that King that shall do according to his will shall exalt himself magnify himself above every God Dan. 11.36 37 38. shall speak marvellous things against the God of Gods shall prosper till the indignation be accomplisht Neither shall he regard the God of his Fathers nor the desire of women nor regard any God for he shall magnify himself above all But in his Estate shaell he honour the God of forces a God whom his Fathers knew not shall he honour with gold with silver with precious stones pleasant things v. 41. He shall enter also into the glorious Land and many shall be overthrown c. We are agreed that it is he of whom St. Paul speaks in the 2d Chap. of his second Epistle to the Tessalonians consequently that he is that man of sin that was to be revealed when he that then did let i.e. the Roman Empire should cease to hinder that 't is he that is to sit in the Temple of God as if he were God whose Religion is to be a Mystery of iniquity who is to lift up himself above all that is called God. 'T is confest that the Antichristian Kingdom is to be a temporal Kingdom at the bottom whatever it may be as to outward appearance 'T is agreed that he shall establish this Empire two ways the first is by sword violence the second by cheating seducing 'T is acknowledg'd that he shall be a great Persecutor of the Church Lastly 't is confest all this must come to pass in that Period which the H. Scripture calls the later times 'T is acknowledged that the 11th Ch. of the Revelation contains an Epitome of the History of Antichrist that is is he that is to tread under foot prophane the Holy City for 42 Months afflict the two Witnesses that shall prophesy clothed in sack-cloth for 1260 Days that he is to kill the two Witnesses which are to remain dead on the places of the Great City three Days a half after which they shall rise again It appears by this account of the points wherin the Papists are agreed to that we are all of the same mind first as to all those places whence the main strokes of Antichrists picture are to be taken and secondly as to almost all the main strokes of which this Picture is to be composed It will appear afterwards that these truths wherin our enemies are agreed with us do quite overthrow those things wherin they differ from us CHAP. XII The Characters of Antichrist which we are not agreed about The false Antichrist of the Papists THe things in which we are not agreed are the false Characters of Antichrist which the Papists endeavour to establish with a design to hinder our sight of the true Characters of him and to obscure them The false Characters are these I. That Antichrist must be only one single Man and not a succession of Kings and Tyrants II. That the duration of his Kingdom is to be only three Natural years and a half and not three Prophetical years and half which make up 1260 years III. That he must style himself the Messiah and that the Jews must look upon him as such IV. That his Seat shall be Jerusalem that he shall rebuild the Temple there and that he shall re-establish the Mosaical Service V. According to Bellarmine Cotton the Jesuite he is not to be an Idolater For he is not to worship any Idol but shall worship the Devil in secret VI. He is to be of the Tribe of Dan of an obscure place and to raise himself by Arms. VII He is to deny the coming of Christ in the flesh VIII He shall do nothing in the name of Christ IX He shall abolish the sacrifice of the Mass X. He shall compel the Christians to renounce their Baptism XI He is to overcome three Kings the King of Lybia of Egypt and Ethiopia XII He shall cause sire to come down from Heaven and feign himself to be dead to counterfeit a resurrection XIII He is to hate Idols XIV He is to conquer the whole Worldy by Arms. XV. Enoch and Elias shall be the two witnesses of the eleventh of the Revelation that shall be sent against him XVI He is to kill the two witnesses Enoch and Elias XVII These two witnesses must rise again after they have lain dead three days and a half XVIII He is to possess all sorts of Treasures XIX He shall not only call himself God but the only God. XX. He is not to come till the Roman German Empire be destroyed XXI His coming is not to be till just at the end of the World he shall be defeated five and fourty days before the end of it XXII Before he comes the Gospel must have been generally preached in all parts of the World. XXIII He is to be a Magician Of these 23. Articles there are not above four or five of any importance It would be very tedious to confute all these false characters and it would be a work more unprofitable than long There is a very small parcell of them that are the principal ones which when they are destroyed all the rest fall to the ground of course naturally and necessarily For instance I. That he is to be only one single person II. That he is to reign only three natural years and a half III. That he is to come precisely at the end of the World. IV. That he is to be an open enemy of God and Christ styling himself Messiah and the King of the Jews V. That he is not to come before all that bears the name of the Roman Empire is destroyed These five points being proved to be false all the rest consequently will be so too These are the only things that are worth our taking notice of For as for the rest that Antichrist must be of the Tribe of Dan born in an obscure place that he shall cause fire to come down from Heaven that he shall feign himself dead that he may counterfeit a Resurrection that Enoch and Elias must come out of that earthly Paradise where they are kept in reserve to fight with him that he is to kill them that they must rise on the fourth day All this I say is so fabulous that it would be an injury to so understanding an Age as ours formally to confute such idle visions and so wholly destitute of any foundation All may be reduced to the single question-about the three years and a half of Antichrists duration This controversy may be reduced to one only point and it is that of the duration
dismembred pieces of the ancient Roman Empire as well as the other Kingdoms of Europe It retains the name of the Roman Empire its head is called the King of the Romans What of all this Is it necessary only to retain names and vain titles to be in possession to the thing and to exercise the rights belonging to it The Jews retain the name of the people of God of the chosen people of the Lords inheritance by way of exclusion of all the nations of the Earth but doth it follow that they are what they once were and what to this day they call themselves We therfore may justly say the Roman Empire is destroyed and was abolisht when the Goths the Vandals and the Huns rent it in pieces and divided it into so many parts took away the rule from the City of Rome and made it the chief City only of a part of that ancient Empire And indeed 't is then that the Antichristian Empire was born or at least began to be Revealed that is to say to become sensible and this was in the fifth Age. But this doth not agree with the other Prophecies for according to St. John and Daniel the fourth Monarchy which is that of the Romans must continue till the Kingdom be given to the Saints and all the Nations of the World be reduced to the obedience of Jesus Christ The Roman Empire according to the Prophecy of St. John and Daniel is not yet ended v. 17 18. This is in the seventh of Daniel There he makes four Beasts i. e. four Monarchies or four Empires These four Beasts are four Kings that shall arise out of the Earth But the Saints of the most high shall take the Kingdom and possess the Kingdom for ever even for ever and ever He places nothing at all between the end of the fourth Beast or the fourth Empire and the Kingdom given to the Saints Now if the fourth Monarchy did cease in the fifth Century then the fifth Monarchy which is the Kingdom of J. Christ being not begun there would be the space of 12. or 13. hundred Years between the fourth Monarchy and the reign of J. Christ upon the Earth One can't conceive why the H. Spirit should leave so wide a gap of time in the Prophecy This is yet more evident by what follows The Angell that explains the vision to Daniel saith to him v. 23. The fourth Beast shall be the fourth Kingdom upon Earth which shall be diverse from all Kingdoms and shall devour the whole Earth and shall tread it down v. 24. and break it in pieces And the ten horns out of this Kingdom are ten Kings that shall arise and another shall arise after them and he shall be diverse from the first and he shall subdue three Kings v. 25. And he shall speak great words against the most High and shall wear out the saints of the most High and think to change times and laws and they shall be given into his hand untill a time v. 26. and times and the dividing of time But the judgment shall sit and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end And the Kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High c. He had said before on occasion of the fourth Beast and his little Horn I behold them v. 11. because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake I beheld even till the beast was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame 'T is clear that the ten Horns or the ten Kingdoms together with the little Horn that subdues three Kings are a continuation of the fourth Beast and make but one Monarchy together with it which Monarchy must endure till the Kingdom be given to the people of God. The same thing plainly appears in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar Chap. 2. and the explication which Daniel gives of it Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream a great Statue whose head was of Gold his shoulders and his arms of Silver v. 32. his belly of Brass his legs of Iron v. 33. and his feet divided into ten Toes were partly of Earth and partly of Iron v. 34. A Stone cut out of the mountain without hands breaks this statue in pieces mingles the Gold the Silver the Iron and the Brass and reduces them all to dust Daniel explaining this dream declares that the head signifies the Monarchy of the Assyrians of which Babylon was then the capital city since the ruin of Nineveh and Nebuchadnezzar the head That the shoulders of Silver signify a second Monarchy and the belly of Brass a third v. 40. And the fourth Kingdom shall be like Iron for as much as Iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things All the World is agreed that this is the Roman Monarchy After which follows not the destruction but the division of that Empire among ten Kings And wheras thou sawest the feet and toes v. 41. part of potters clay and part of iron the Kingdom shall be divided viz. into ten other Kingdoms as the feet into ten toes For the ten toes of the statue and the ten horns of the Beast are the same thing which all Interpreters have acknowledged Among these ten Kings must he come that must subdue three i. e. Antichrist As therefore the ten Toes make a part of the Statue and the ten horns a part of the Beast 't is plain that the ten Kings that must arise from the division of the Roman Empire and the reign of Antichrist that must establish himself by the ruin of three of those Kings are the continuation of the Roman Empire and the Roman Empire it self Now immediately after and without any thing happening between comes the reign of Jesus Christ and of the Holy people signified by the little stone cut without hands out of the mountain And in the days of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom v. 44. which shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever The same thing is evident by the Revelations of Saint John. The first Beast in the 13th of the Revelation in certainly the same with the fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel 't is the Roman Empire We have seen before that 't is agreed that the second Beast in the same Chapt. which had but two horns is the same with the fore-going Beast that had ten Now the foregoing Beast is the Roman Empire the second Beast is the Empire of Antichrist Whence it is plain that the reign of Antichrist must be the continuation of the Roman Empire Saint Iohn after having described the Roman Empire continued under Antichrist in the 13th Chap. carries on this continuation in the 14th Chap. to the total ruin of
on their Forehead and the actions of one in their Hands This is what is meant by the Mark of the Beast and not some particular mark and one Properly so called Here is wisdom v. 18. let him that hath understanding count the number of the Beast for it is the number of a man and his number is six hundred threescore and six If so much had not been wrote about this here would be a subject to write a great deal upon But in a few words I can't doubt but that they who have reckoned the numeral power of the letters of the name of the Roman Church and of its Pope have hit upon the sense of the Prophecy 'T is the number of his name that is to say expressely contained in his name 'T is a number of a man that is to say 't is a number that must be understood according as men do count not in a prophetical and Mysterious style which oftentimes under one number hides another unknown number But in what language must we count the numeral letters of the name of the Beast 'T is easy to determin that The Prophecies must be explained according to the language of the Prophets There are two languages of the Prophets Hebrew and Greek Look for the name of the Roman Church in these two languages In Hebrew you will find Romiyth and in Greek Lateinos The first signifies the Roman Beast or the Roman Church The second signifies the Emperour or the Latin Pope And in the one and in the other there is exactly six hundred threescore and six Here I might stop with reference to the number 666. And 't is with some difficulty that I enter upon the depths of the interpretation of those Authors who would have this Number 666. respect not the Name of the Beast but of his Empire They pretend that as the Number 144. is consecrated to signify the Empire of J. Christ The number 144. denotes the whole Church because of twelve its square-root which appears by the 144. thousand Sealed ones pretty often mention'd in the Revelation in like manner the Number 666. mystically denotes the entire Empire of the Beast and its principal Characters They observe that the Number 144. hath for its square root the Number twelve For twelve multiplied by it self twelve times twelve makes 144. The Number of twelve is sacred because of the twelve Patriarchs of the ancient Israel and the twelve Apostles that are the Patriarchs of the new Israel So the Number 144. that mystically signifies the whole Church of I. Christ is founded on the Number twelve That is to say the whole Christian Church is founded on the Apostles who make one divine Hierarchy Wherefore the number twelve bears sway in all the parts of the description of the Jerusalem which we read of in the 21. Chap. of the Revelation She hath twelve Foundations twelve Gates twelve angells twelve Tribes twelve thousand Furlongs The Tree of Life which is in the midst of the place bears twelve Sorts of fruits every year and lastly the Wall is of 144. Cubits i.e. twelve times twelve So the Church which hath her root in the number twelve by the multiplication of this number twelve by it self makes 144. a sacred Number But the number 666. which is exorbitant and which exceeds the number of twelve and hath not this number twelve for its root is the emblem of the Antichristian Church which is not founded on the twelve Apostles which hath not twelve Articles of Faith but many more In a word as the Number 666. hath no relation to that of twelve so the Antichristian Church hath no relation to the Christian and Apostolical Church Potter's opinion of the number 666. An English Divine one Potter hath carried this notion further than others have done in an express treatise which he hath made about the mystery of the Number 666. He pretends that as the Number of 144. is not mystically designed to signify the Church and the Empire of I. Christ but for the sake of the Number 12 which is its square root and on which it is built in like manner also the Number 666. is not mystical but by reason of the square root on which it is raised so he would have it that we should extract the root of the Number 666. and believes 't is in this root that we must seek after the Mystery of the Empire of the Beast Arithmeticians call the square root of a Number given that number VVhat the square root is by which in multiplying it by it self the number given is produced whether there be any remainders or no. For instance 10 is the square root of an 100 because ten multiplied by it self 10 times 10 make a 100 without any remains The square root of 55. is seven because multiplying 7 by it self 7 times 7 make 49 and a remainder of 6 makes 55. According to this the square root of the number 666 is 25 25. Is the square root of 666. for 25 multiplied by it self makes 625. with a remainder of 41. which makes 666. This being supposed that 25 is the square root and the foundation of the Number 666 he pretends that as 144 founded upon 12 represents the whole Church founded upon the holy Hierarchy of the 12 Apostles in like manner 666 represents the whole Antichristian Empire of the Papism founded upon the Antichristian Hierarchy And to make appear how exact the opposition to the Christian Hierarchy is he shews that as the Number 12. bears sway in the whole composition of Ierusalem which is the Church and the holy City 12 Foundations 12 Gates 12 Angells 12 thousand Furlongs 12 forts of Fruits in like manner the number 25 bears sway in all the Popish Hierarchy The number 25. bears sway in the Papal hieraachy I. In the number of the Cardinals who according to their first institution were 25 wheras the Apostles were but 12. II. In regard to the number of Churches into which Rome Christian was at first divided which were 25. wheras the heavenly Jerusalem hath but 12 Gates The Churches in which they did baptize answering to the Gates of the City because Baptism is the entrance into the Church III. In the number of the Parishes or Tribes which in Rome were 25 wheras the Jerusalem that comes down from above hath but 12 Tribes as appears by the 21 of the Revelation IV. In the number of the Foundations of Rome which are 25 Cardinalls originally and anciently composing the sacred Colledg that is called the foundation of the Church wheras the Holy City hath but 12 foundations which are the 12 Apostles V. In the number of Angels i.e. Pastors who are in number 25 Pastors Cardinals Pastors of Pastors wheras the Jerusalem in the Revelation knows but 12 Angels 12 principall Pastors which are the 12 Apostles VI. In the number of the Gates of Rome which were 25. wheras Jerusalem hath but 12. VII In the extent
into perdition See here an eighth King that belongs to the Roman Empire And this eighth King is of the seven he is of the number of the seven Governments It must necessarily be that this eighth King must come from hence that one of the seven is divided into two And 't is the Head of the Roman Emperours divided into two For the Roman Emperours are either Pagans or Christians The conversion of the Emperours made so great a change that the Christian Emperours deserved to be reckon'd for an eighth head However because they last but a short space and because in respect of their Temporal they were perfectly like the fore-going Emperours the Holy Spirit ranks them under the seventh head And when he cometh he must continue a short space That is to say when the second part of the Head of the Emperours shall become viz. the Christian Emperours it shall not continue long Indeed the Christian Emperours did not possess the Empire but from the conversion of Constantine to Valentinian the third about 130 or 135. years Besides the transposition of the words which I have supposed doth not make any difficulty here for if I made a commentary I could easily bring examples much more harsh in the writings only of the N. Testament And the ten Horns which thou sawest v. 12. are ten Kings which have received no Kingdom as yet but receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast These are the ten Kings or the ten Kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was rent when the Imperial power was destroyed in the West And the same time that the ten Kings were made the Beast that is to say the second Beast of the 13th Chapter the Beast with two Horns the Roman Church began to form its Empire This is one of the most remarkable places of the Prophecies to find the point of the birth of the Antichristian Empire Therfore it deserves a larger reflection which shall be found afterwards in its proper place v. 13. These have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the Beast These ten Kings or these ten Kingdoms shall voluntarily submit themselves to the yoke of the Roman Church For she shall not obtain her dominion by the way of Conquest but by the way of illusion of seduction and perswasion She shall perswade the Kings of the Earth to give her their power In truth this did so happen The Princes doating on this Idol of St. Peter's Chair the Apostolical See raised this throne so high that it was like afterwards to have swallowed them up These shall make war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them v. 14. They shall lend their arms and their power to the Roman Church to smother the truth But the truth of Jesus Christ shall surmount them shall enlighten them and get such a victory over them as shall be happy for those that are overcome England Sweden Denmark and many other States have been already overcome in this manner And he saith unto me v. 15. the waters which thou sawest where the whore sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues This Woman this corrupted Church shall have the multitude for her she shall ascribe great honour to her self from thence and make use of that as an argument that she is the true Spouse of Jesus Christ And the ten Horns which thou sawst upon the Beast these shall hate the whore v. 16. and make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire c. We shall have occasion afterwards more than once to reflect on these words Therfore we shall say nothing of them at present The woman which thou sawest is that great City v. 1◠which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth The great City is not precisely the City of Rome 't is the Roman Church that hath its seat at Rome on the seven Mountains This is an important truth that the great City in the Revelation signifies not Rome precisely but Rome conjunctly with its Ecclesiastical Empire It should be proved but we must reserve the proofs for another place where it will be very material for us to fix this what the City signifies CHAP. XVII Babylon in the 17th and 18th Chapters of the Revelation is Rome Antichristian and Papal and not Rome Pagan THe 17th Chapter is one of those wherin the description of the Antichristian Empire is certainly contained We have applied it to the See of Rome with the same success as we have done the foregoing Prophecies But we have some considerations to add to prove that that City spoken of in that Chapter is Rome together with its Empire of Christian become Antichristian That Rome Christian and not Pagan is Spiritual Babylon the seat of Antichrist 'T is a place where the Papists find themselves reduced to mighty straits They have confessed that the 11th and 13th Chap. of the Revelation spoke concerning Antichrist But because in the 11th Chap. the seat of Antichrist is called the City where I. Christ was crucified they will not acknowledg it to be Rome And because in the 13th Chap. Rome is not named they will by no means have it to be found there But in this 17th Chap. they are forced to see Rome in the city on seven Mountains and in that great city that reigned over the kings of the Earth This brings them to the last extremity and we need but see what they say on this point to convince them that their Holy Roman See is the seat of the Antichristian Empire 1st They say that Rome in this 17th Chap. is Rome Pagan and not Rome Christian Bellarm. l. 3. de Pontif Rom. c. 13. The falsness of this supposition is evident First it is clear that the Beast which carries the woman The first Beast of the 13th Ch. and that of the 17th are the same is the same with that Beast that ariseth out of the Sea in the 13th Ch. This had seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten Crowns and upon his heads the name of blasphemy The Beast in the 17th Ch. is described after the same manner The Woman sate upon a scarlet-coloured Beast full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and ten Horns Secondly the Beast of the 13th Ch. ariseth out of the Sea. C. 13.1 C. 17.3 And I saw à Beast rise up out of the Sea. That of the 17th Ch. ascends out of the bottomless pit or the deep Chap. 17.8 The Beast that thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit or the deep Now the deep and the sea in the visions are the same thing Thirdly Chap. 13.3 'T is said of the first Beast that all the World wonders after the Beast That all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him v. 8. whose names are not written in the book of Life 'T is said also of that in the
see what they say viz. that that Rome that now is towards the end of the World shall be corrupted become idolatrous debauched that she shall shake off the yoke of Jesus Christ and carry her disorders as far as Rome Pagan But yet however that it must not be the seat of Antichrist who must be accompanied with his ten Kings have his habitation at Jerusalem and come to Rome when it is turn'd Idolatrous and Pagan to destroy and ruin it as he will also do See the words of Viega on the eighteenth of the Revelation One may plainly gather from the infinite number of precious merchandises and of all sorts that are here noted that Rome in the last times after her Apostacy shall attain to soveraign power and great riches and that her Empire shall extend it self throughout the World upon the ten Kings so often named For that these mighty riches do not belong to Rome Pagan it is clear by these words Come forth of Babylon my people For this shews that 't is not ancient Rome that is here spoken of in which there were no faithfull ones but that Rome that shall flourish in the last times Then therefore the City of Rome shall greatly flourish and its Empire shall be very large She shall live in pleasures and have great abundance of all things And at the same time she shall be enslaved to Idolatry be full of Superstitions sacrifice to Doemons and false Deities And by reason of the vast quantity of the blood of the Saints that shall be shed by her under the Emperours of Rome by a terrible but a very righteous judgement of God she shall at last be made desolate and burnt by ten Kings See what the force and evidence of the truth hath drawn from the mouth of the worshippers of Rome What prodigious whimsies are these To what extremity must these men have been reduced The Scripture speaks of but one Antichristian Empire The Church never imagin'd there was more than one and lo here are men that make a couple The first shall be in Rome corrupted for according to them Rome in the last days must have a great Empire must subdue Kingdoms and draw them together with her self into a revolt from Jesus Christ Lo therefore there 's one Antichristian Empire at Rome what need have we of another Antichrist sitting at Jerusalem Moreover this Chimaera is founded on this principle that the Beast in the 13th Chapt. which according to them represents Antichrist is not the same with the Beast in the 17th Chap. with the great City that ruleth over the Kings of the Earth and with Babylon spoken of in the 14th and the 18th Chapt. Now we have confuted this ridiculous imagination and have demonstrated that Babylon the great City the Beast of the 13th and the 18th Chapter are the same thing This Chimaera is so ill to be defended that the more modern Papists have abandon'd it and at last have been forced to acknowledge that Rome must be the seat of Antichrist that the great City spoken of in the 11th Chapter where Jesus Christ was crucified is not Jerusalem but spiritual Babylon spoken of afterwards and Bernard de Montreuil that hath write since the rest though he retains that ancient dream that Antichrist must come out of Jerusalem yet he confesses however that the Babylonish Empire and the Antichristian are not two Empires that must succeed one another and the one destroy the other according to the supposition of those we were just now speaking of He confesseth that Rome shall be the chief City of Antichrist's party that Antichrist must defend it and that the ten Kings of the Beast are the subjects of its grandeure and that of Antichrist the head of the League the Monarch of the time He calls Antichrist the Prince of the Apocalyptical Babylon And he confesseth that this Babylon is Rome therefore he acknowledgeth that Rome must be Antichristian and the capital City of Antichrist Babylon saith he is the Mistress the Queen the Empress of the kingdom of Antichrist Not daring to call Rome Babylon On the 24. Chapt. he defines it however by Western Babylon who being perverted instead of obeying the Laws of the piety of the first age shall in her pride cause her self to be called the great and the independant and shall become much worse under the reign of Antichrist than ever Eastern Babylon was After these confessions there remains no other help for the popish Doctors to hinder their Rome from being acknowledged to be Rome Antichristian but the Chimaera of the three years and a half 's duration of Antichrists kingdom It is true say they that Rome must be possessed by Antichrist that he must establish Idolatry there that Rome must become worse than Rome Pagan was in the time of St. John and than Eastern Babylon in the time of the Prophets but this must last but three years and a half When therefore we have destroyed this ridiculous dream of three natural years and a half we shall have demonstrated that Rome at this day is the true Seat of Antichrist and then I shall make them this Argument Babylon in the Revelation is the seat of the Antichristian Empire the same thing with the prostitute Woman with the Beast with seven heads and ten horns All this is Rome become Antichristian and the seat of Antichrist Which is plain either by what hath been invincibly proved or what the Papists themselves have confessed Now this Antichristian Roman Empire must endure not 1260. natural days but 1260. prophetical days i. e. 1260. years Therefore it is evident that the Antichristian Empire which must be at Rome cannot be that chimerical Empire of Antichrist of three years and a half that must conclude 45. days before the end of the World and that 't is that of Rome which hath endured so long already The consequence is plain because all do acknowledge the World must not and cannot according to the decrees of God endure yet twelve or thirteen hundred years to make room for the reign of Antichrist and a thousand years more at the end of that to make room for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ the truth and certainty of which we shall prove So that if the reign of Antichrist must endure 1260. years it is necessary that it subsist at this present time and that it hath begun a long time since This is I say a demonstration which I have in readiness for these Gentlemen when I shall have proved the only thing in this argument that can be called in question viz. that the 1260. days of Antichrist cannot be understood of so many natural days I would prove this truth presently were it not that it regards the time of the duration of the Antichristian Empire of which we shall have occasion afterwards to speak Wherefore now we shall continue to give you the explication of the Prophecies that contain the Character of this Antichristian Empire CHAP. XVIII
God whom his Fathers knew not he shall honour them Together with J. Christ the God unknown to the ancient Romans he shall worship second Gods and patrons He shall honour them with gold silver precious stones and desirable things We need only see the places famous for the devotion of the Papism Those places I say where some Saint or some one of our Ladies is famous for her miracles there are seen treasures where silver gold and precious stones are in abundance The Saints and the Reliques are the fortresses of the Papism He shall make strong holds of the Mahuzim Certainly so we may call the Temples the Chapels and the places consecrated to the devotion of Reliques and of the Saints These are fortresses for the people look on them as their preservers When a City would obtain a favour from Heaven she sets up the shrines of her Saints when she hath lost them she believes she hath lost her protectors when in the war they have been taken away peace being restored she brings them again into the Churches in pomp as tutelary Gods and protectors One City hath a bit of the true Cross and other the head or body of a Martyr Lo what is to her instead of a fortress and a citadel under which she believes her self to be in safety This is the idea which superstitious persons have had of this criminal devotion from the very time that it began to appear in the world We must see what Saint Ambrose saith to his sister in the Epistle which we have cited above He speaks of the bodies of Protais and Gervais as of two tutelar Angels under whose care they had been without knowing it Mom. 32. in Epist ad Rom. St. Bazil in the Homily on the 40 Martyrs saith of them These having taken possession of this Country are to it like so many towers joined together against the invasions of our enemies St. Chrysostome speaking of the Reliques of St. Paul and St. Peter that are at Rome saith that those bodies do fortify that City more than the towers and ten thousand ramparts Venantius Fortunatus a Christian Poet who lived about an age after the birth of Idolatry calls the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome ramparts and towers A facie hostili duo propugnacula proesunt Quos fidei turres urbs caput orbis habet Those that followed spoke after the same rate He shall multiply the honour and make them rule over many and shall divide the Land for a recompence Is not this exactly what the papism doth to its Saints It makes them rule over States it divides the Earth among them St. Iames rules over Spain St. Denis and the Virgin over France every Country hath its Protectors and its Patrons So you have in a few words the exposition of this famous and important Text. That which follows to the very end of the Chapt. seems to belong more to Antiochus than to Antichrist However it may agree both to the one and the other But I find no great necessity to find Antichrist there because we find him enough elsewhere The Prophecy of the Mahuzim may have a literal sense with respect to Antiochus It may be asked whether the Text touching the Mahuzim and the worship of a strange God can agree to Antiochus in the literal sense To speak the truth this part of the prophecy seems to be one of those that do not agree to the type but only to the person represented by the type For we do not find that Antiochus made himself new Gods nor that he rejected the God of his Fathers nor that he worshipt an unknown God nor that he had Mahuzim that is to say protectors besides his old false Gods. But see what I believe All this with respect to Antiochus is a prophecy that referrs to the Temporal not the Spiritual the Empire not the Religion And on the contrary with respect to Antichrist it principally respects Religion They are his adventures with the Romans that are hare declared So that with respect to Antiochus these are his adventures with respect to the Romans This Tyrant was the most insolent and the proudest of all men he exalted himself above all the Gods i. e. above all the neighbouring Countries and all the Kings his allies The Countries are often meant by the Gods that ruled there Bel boweth down If. 46.1 Nebo stoopeth That is to say the Chaldaeans and the Babylonians are perisht This use of the word is usual enough with the Prophets So Antiochus is said to have exalted himself above all the Gods i. e. above all the Countries the protection of which is committed to divers Gods. He regarded not the desire of women i. e. being a debauched person he despised marriage but he worshipt Mahuzim in his seat If one would translate this word into Greek word for word it must be rendred by Romaious the Romans For the word Romans in Greek signifies strong or puissant being derived from the word Rome that signifies strength and this is also what the Hebrew word Mahuzim signifies So that having respect to the signification of the word Romaioi it cannot otherwise be rendred in Hebrew than by Mahuzim Now this is what did exactly come to pass This so fierce a Prince was obliged to render homage to the Romans to pay them tribute of gold of silver and precious stones The second Book of Macchabees saith that Nicanor appointed a tribute to King Antiochus Epiphanus that was to come to the Romans to wit two thousand Talents He shall build strong holds for Mahuzim that is to say the Romans This also came to pass Antiochus was obliged to leave to the Romans the Provinces of Asia which are on the other side mount Taurus And so he put that great list of mountains in Cilicia as a rampart and a fortress between the Romans and him These Romans were Gods whom his Ancestors knew not For the first founders of the Empire of the Greeks Antiochus rendred homage to the Romans new Gods whom his Ancestors knew not Appian in Syriacis Titus Livius l. 38. Alexander and his Successors had not heard the Romans so much as spoken of It was Antiochus the Grand-father of Antiochus Epiphanes that first of all felt the effort of their might that left Asia to them and obliged himself to pay them 500. Talents for the charges of the war 2500. Talents when the Senate should ratify the Treaty ten thousand five hundred Talents at several payments within twelve years Hereupon this difficulty may arise that it was then the father of Antiochus that rendred homage to the Romans and not he himself It must be answer'd that Antiochus Epiphanes must not here be distinguisht from his father First because it was in his time that this servitude began and he himself was given as an Hostage to the Ramans for a pledge of the fidelity of his father Secondly He continued the same servitude and
out the truth There is a particular Providence that presides over the the understanding of Prophecies as we have observed God would not have them understood in every age because this would hinder their accomplishment But when they are just ready to be fulfilled God permits them to be penetrated into and the things which we see come to pass from day to day open mens eyes The great point is to know where we must begin the 1260 years In this matter the whole depends on our knowing where we must begin the 1260 years that are assigned for the reign of the papism And there are as many opinions about that as there are men Some begin them with Boniface the third Successor to Gregory the great because they would be favourable to Gregory the first who seems to have had very good things in him And because his Successor was the first that assumed the name of Vniversal Bishop Others descend lower and begin the 1260 year at the time when Images were establisht Some come as far as to the 11th Age and to the reign of Gregory the seventh who was insolent to a higher degree than any of his Predecessors dared to advance themselves unto There are some also that come as far as to the 12th Age. The fountain of their errour that descend so low for the beginning of the 1260 years I shall not amuse my self with mentioning much less with confuting all these Opinions I shall only say this boldly that they who go so low to find out the beginning of the 1260 years are in an errour That which hath deceived them is this they imagine we must not begin the Antichristian Empire till the time that Idolatry and Tyranny were arrived to their height in the Church in which I am throughly perswaded they deceive themselves Another cause of their being deceived is this having this truth in mind that Rome must be the head of the Antichristian Empire they will not begin that Empire before the Roman Church was most notoriously remarkable for her pride among all the Churches When any make a history of an Empire they must begin it from its original Totally to remove these two mistakes it must be observed that in every country and in every language when any would make a History of an Empire and a Kingdom they begin it from its orginal They that make the History of the Franks or Frenchmen among the Gauls do not fix their beginning on that time when the French were masters of all the Gauls from the frontier of Flanders to the Alps and the Pyrenaean mountains For that happen'd very late But they begin with the first entry of the Franks into Gaul and their first establishment on this side the Rhine When any make a History of the Empire of Rome they begin the Roman History from the first foundation of that City so they reckon'd in Rome it self ab Vrbe Conditâ And this way of reckoning continued till the fifth age when the Christian account began to be in use and men reckon'd by the years of Jesus Christ Moreover 't is the custome of the Scripture and of the Holy Spirit as well as of the World 'T is said the sojourning of the Israelites in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years yet they were not in that slavery above 210 years But the Holy Spirit reckons from the time of the calling of Abraham and his passing into Canaan where he and his off-spring were strangers 'T is therefore all the time of the pilgrimage of the family of Abraham which God begins from its original Lastly 't is the stile of the Prophets and particularly in the Prophecy we are treating of The fourth Beast is the Roman Empire all the World agrees in that where doth the Holy Spirit begin the History of that Beast or of that Empire not at the point of its grandeur which happen'd not till above 400 years after its original but from the point of its birth and that is clear because he ascribes seven heads to that Beast Heads which signify so many Governments under which Rome hath passed Now the first of these Governments is that of Kings under whom Rome in the beginning was no more than a great Village and afterwards a very little City without dependencies This principle therefore must be supposed that the H. Spirit dates the Antichristian Empire from its original 'T is not necessary that the first seeds of Antichristiaenism should have been conceived at Rome The other mistake that we must get rid of is this that Rome is precisely the place where the Empire of Antichrist must have its birth 'T is not so Antichristianism is born every where and it might very well be born in the East before it came to fix its seat in the West That which makes men affix the birth of the Antichristian Empire precisely to Rome is because being struck with what Saint Paul saith that the man of sin must exalt himself above all that is called God they have confined Antichristianism principally and almost solely to tyranny and Pride and have imagined that the birth of Antichristianism was not to be found but in that City which had always been and which afresh was to be the Throne of Pride But herein they have been deceived Antichristianism consists no less in idolatry and corruption of manners than in tyranny in such a manner that in all places where we see the birth of Idolatry Superstition and Corruption there without doubt Antichristianism is born These principles being laid down the three Characters which we have affixed to the Antichristian Empire by reason of its three names must be remembred Idolatry because 't is called Babylon the mother of fornications and abominations corruption of manners because 't is called Sodom Pride and Tyranny The three Characters of Antichristianism began in the fourth Age and first of all superstition because 't is called Egypt When these three sins began to be establisht in the Church Antichristianism began to enter into it Now 't is certain it was towards the end of the fourth and in the whole fifth Age that these disorders received their birth The superstition of Reliques the veneration and worship of them and immediately after the invocation and intercession of the Saints were introduced about the year 360. or 380. Already before this time that superstition had begun among the people I do not at all doubt but that women and simple persons especially those that were but newly converted from Paganism were the first Authors of it Devout ignorant people easily fall into superstition It had been a very ancient custome to frequent the Martyrs tombs there to celebrate their memory to pray for them and there to pray for themselves For in Eusebius's time men were wont to assemble themselves at the sepulchers of the Martyrs to say their prayers upon their sepulchers and there to honour their most happy souls The Papists in this passage would
the hand of God to inflict the plagues Thus in the second and third plagues which are the Croisades the Pope is not the sufferer 't is he who makes others suffer 't is he who sends many millions of his subjects to be murther'd and slain yea this very thing proved a great augmentation of his power In the same manner this fourth plague falls upon the Antichristian people and therefore in the following plague the Spirit saith that the viol was pour'd on the seat of the Beast to signify that the people or subjects of the Beast should not be the chief sufferers by it The abuse of the papal Authority did tend to its ruin I answer in the second place that the prodigious advancement of the papal Authority which in truth brought Antichristianism unto its perfection yet not withstanding was one step to its ruin If the Popes had kept within the bounds which they did in the preceding ages if they had not medled with secular affairs to dispose absolutely concerning them perhaps the See of Rome had not been thought to be Antichrist but then it was that this truth became so sensible that every one perceiv'd it The abuse of the Ecclesiastical power in the ninth age made some perceive that Rome was the mystical Babylon Thus Gontier Bishop of Colen and Thetgaut Arch-bishop of Triers nam'd it in the ninth Age. But after the eleventh Age this truth was so demonstrated that we of this Age do not speak it more plainly and confidently We may judge by that excellent passage of Eberard Bishop of Saltsburg See Aventin Annal. Boior lib. 4 pag. 330. which we cited out of Aventin in the tenth Chapter of the first Part of our Prejudg After that time there never wanted those who asserted the same thing Thus the dismal abuse of the papal Authority was and is still a sore plague to that See for 't is one of the strong Arguments by which we prove that it is Antichrist Men were scorcht but they repented not to give glory to God. The Germans cryed out very much against Babylon and Antichrist but they did not forsake them or renounce their Idolatry on the contary they blasphemed the name of God who had power over these plagues for those Ages were exceeding wicked and corrupt v. 10. And the fifth Angel pour'd out his viol upon the seat of the Beast and his Kingdom was sull of darkness and they gnawed their tongues for pain v. 11. And blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their pains and their sores and repented not of their deeds This is the fifth plague I ask not any favour for my conceptions about it let them be examined with the utmost rigour if they are not liked let them be disregarded but for my part I cannot abandon them untill the times and events do undeceive me but those events shall never be seen Who can doubt that by the seat of the Beast is meant Rome and when was it that the viol of the wrath of God fell upon this seat i.e. Rome It was when it lost its Sun the Sun which is spoken of in the preceding plague i.e. its Pope the papal Court that like a gulf or whirle pool drew to it all the riches of the Kingdoms of Europe A prophecy of what fell out when the Popes left Rome to go to Avignon In the year 1305 Clement V. left Rome to go and dwell at Avignon The City that was mistress of the World became desolate a very desert and a shadow of its self during those 74 years when its Masters kept their Seat at Avignon The viol fell upon the Seat of the Beast and his Kingdom was full of darkness 'T is not only said that his Seat was darkned but his Kingdom And indeed till that time the Kingdom of the Beast the Authority of the Pope the Glory of the Holy See as'tis call'd had never suffer'd such a strange and terrible an eclipse This removal of the papal Seat unto Avignon was the cause of a Schism At the end of 74 years Gregory XI compelled by the complaints of the Romans brought back the Seat to their City But after his death the Cardinals who were â—lmost all French resolved to have a Pope of their own Nation the Citizens of Rome fearing lest a French Pope should return into France forced the Colledge of Cardinals to chuse an Italian to be Pope who call'd himself Vurban VI. The Cardinals incensed at the force which was used in the election contrived to revolt which they did and chose another Pope who call'd himself Clement VII he held his Seat at Avignon and his Successors for 40 years in the mean while Vrban VI. and his Successors at Rome had one part of the Church of Rome under their obedience At that time the Sun of the Antichristian World was divided into two The great Schism of the West was a terrible plague to the Antichristian Empire as it happens to the Sun and the Moon when they are eclipsed it was eclipsed and darkned The Church of Rome suffer'd the greatest reproach imaginable Jesus Christ had no less then three or four Spouses at one time This is a piece of History which confounds popery even at this day which destroys its foolish pretences unto an uninterrupted succession an undivided unity and infallibility from hence we draw a conclusion against it which cannot be avoided Then the Kingdom of the Beast was darkned Princes despised the Popes and made themselves their Judges whereas formerly Popes had judged Kings They made them be deposed they call'd by their own Authority the Council of Constance where Popes were subjected to Councils and accounted deposable as in effect there were three who were there actually deposed Till that time Censures and Excommunications had been the strongest beams of the Antichristian Sun the most efficacious methods of his domination But then men began to despise them There was nothing but excommunicating of one another the Western Church was divided into two Obediences that which obeyed one Pope was excommunicated by the other and by this means all Europe lay under excommunication which made it contemptible and the people who once respected the Censures with incredible trembling began to discern that these thunderbolts were vain and empty things And this brought a considerable darkness upon the seat of the Beast and the papal power for all Europe groaning under the slavery of the Popes every one began to think of recovering their liberty Germany refused to submit to Reservations and Expectations means which the Court of Rome make use of to make her self Mistress of all Benefices France not only rejected Reservations and Expectations but annull'd Annats Provisions and all other exactions of the Court of Rome Then were laid the foundations of the pragmatick Sanction which gave the Popes so much trouble because it cut off all the simonaical tricks which the Court of Rome used to enrich her self even Italy it self during
whether the Antichristian Kingdom shall be destroy'd by sword fire and bloodshed I see nothing in the whole Revelation which obliges us to believe so for though in this and several other passages the ruin of popery is painted out in expressions borrowed from war slaughter and bloodshed yea in the most terrible and high expressions nevertheless this may very well be understood figuratively for the destruction of Paganisme is painted out in almost the same expressions by the Prophets though it was brought to pass without bloodshed As the Kingdom of the Beast was formed without war by the sottish complaisance of the Kings of the Earth who suffered their power to be snatcht from them or rather did voluntarily surrender it so this Antichristian Kingdom may perish without weapon by a word of two Letters The Princes of the Earth need onely say NO and the tyranny of Antichrist will fall to the ground And as for Idolatry which is the other part of Antichristianism the word and grace of God must destroy it Nevertheless I am willing to submit to the general consent of Interpreters of both Communions who unanimously hold that in the ruin of the Antichristian Kingdom there shall be a great effusion of blood and that Babylon the capital City of that Kingdom shall be laid in ashes I am willing therefore to believe that there shall be some bloodshed not for any passages in the Revelation but for these two Reasons Rome must be miserably destroyed 1. The first that 't is not probable that the Pope and his Partisans will yield without resistance they will stand out and in defending themselves will attaque in which attaque they shall perish 2. The second it seems agreeable to the Divine justice that the City of Rome that for two thousand years is the Mistress of the World the tyrant of the universe which hath shed so much blood and has bin delug'd with so many impurities should be overwhelmed and the World be avenged Ierusalem who was not guilty of such excess is ruined by a dreadful destiny 'T is not probable that God makes ready a less destruction for the City of Rome Here the last lacking of Rome is fore-told If this be so this passage without doubt is one of those that foretell this bloody Tragedy The City which is spoken of here without the City must be Rome But we have said before and shall hereafter prove that this word ought to be taken only for Rome in conjunction with her Empire Here 't is Rome alone and not her Empire 'T is true but the reason is that when she shall be laid waste in the manner that is mention'd here she shall have no more any Empire all her Provinces shall be revolted she shall be left alone of her whole party so that in this place she ought to appear all alone And the City cannot signify any more then the City of Rome because she shall have no more any dependent Provinces excepting that which is called the patrimony of St. Peter which Joseph Mede believes is meant by these thousand six hundred furlongs For he saith that the Countrey that reaches from the walls of Rome unto the river Po contains 200 Italian miles which make exactly 1600 furlongs If this conjecture be true as 't is probable this signifies that all the forces which the Pope shall be able to get together shall be wholly destroy'd without the City i. e. without Rome in that part of the Country which lyes betwixt Rome and the River Po. CHAP. XII The explication of that part of the eleventh Chapter where the last persecution made by Antichrist is fore-told which is the present persecution in France The death of the two witnesses who shall not be buried by means of the succour brought by the enemies of France THe first Chapter in the Revelation where the ruin of Antichristianism is fore-fold is the eleventh We passed over it for the reasons above mention'd We come again to it at present and place it the last that we may place it according to the order of events We have observed that there is found in it an Epitome or short draught of the whole History of the Church from the resurrection of Jesus Christ untill his coming into the World to erect his Kingdom there The pure Church of the three first ages is hid under these words measure the Temple and the Altar and those that worship therein And the corrupted Antichristian one under the Gentiles who must tread under foot the holy City forty and two months That is the outward Court but the Court that is without the Temple leave out and measure it not for it is given to the Gentiles This outward Court as Vsher hath divinely explain'd it in his Prophecy signifies Christians in appearance whose Religion consists in the performance of some external duties of Christianiâ—y without having the inward life or the true Faith which should unite them to Jesus Christ But those who worship in the Temple and before the Altar are those who sincerely worship God in spirit and truth whose souls are his Temples in which he is adored and honoured with the most inward thoughts of their hearts and who offer unto him a constant sacrifice not onely of their lusts but of their whole selves Thus this holy man speaks and I confess that I see in his words the Character of the spirit of God. These are the true worshippers whom God does measure and whom he makes account of and these are those who possessed the Church during the three or four first ages But afterward the Church became an outward Court was filled with feigned worshippers who made Christianity to consist in an appearance of piety and in external Ceremonies Then God pronounc'd concerning this Court let it be given to the Gentiles for forty and two moneths Then Paganism Idolatry the worship of subordinate Gods Mediators and a thousand heathenish Ceremonies were introduced into Christianity And this outward Court these formal outside worshippers were given up to a spirit of error and superstition to begin Antichristianism and make it continue twelve hundred and sixty years We have also in this Chapter the Church under the Cross persecuted and hid in Babylon in the two Witnesses who prophesied cloathed in sackcloth a thousand two hundred and sixty days We have in it the sound of the last Trumpet and the thousand years reign of Jesus Christ and the Church For at the sound of the seventh Trumpet the Kingdoms of the Earch become Gods and his Christs Lastly we have in it a remarkable event which must come to pass at the end of the reign of Antichristian popery and 't is expressed in these terms V. 7. And when they shall have finisht their testimony the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them V. 8. And their dead bodies shall lye in the street of the great City
beast From which 't is clear that the tenth part of the City signifies here one of those ten Kingdoms under the authority of the Antichristian Kingdom A tenth part of the City fell i.e. one of these ten Kingdoms which make up the great City the Babyonian Empire shall forsake it This therefore is exactly that which must happen within a little while after the three years and a half of the total suppression of the Truth shall be exspired and a while after that the Witnesses shall be rais'd i.e. after the profession of the Truth shall be rais'd to life again in France and elsewhere And then the same hour immediately after that the Reformation shall be establisht by a Royal Edict without delay There shall be an Earthquake and a tenth part of the City shall be overturn'd Mark that the Earthquake i.e. the great alteration of affairs in the Land of the Papacy must for that time happen only in the tenth part of the City that shall fall for this shall be the effect of this Earthquake Frahte shal shortly fall not by a ruin of the Monarchy but by a ruin of Pepery Now what is this tenth part of this City which shall fall In my opinion we cannot doubt that 't is France This Kingdom is the most considerable part or piece of the ten horns or States which once made up the great Babylonian City it fell this does not signify that the French Monarchy shall be ruin'd it may be humbled but in all appearance Providence does design a great elevation for her afterward 'T is highly probable that God will not let go unpunisht the horrible outrages which it acts at this day Afterward it must build its greatness upon the ruins of the papal Empire and enrich it self with the spoils of those who shall take part with the Papacy They who at this day persecute the Protestants know not wither God is leading them this is not the way by which he will lead France to the height of glory If she comes thither 't is because she shall shortly change her road Her greatning will be no dammage to Protestant States on the contrary the Protestant States shal be enricht with the spoils of others be strengthned by the fall of Antichrists Empire This tenth part of the City shall fall with respect to the Papacy it shall break with Rome and the Roman Religion One thing is certain that the Babylonian Empire shall perish through the refusal of obedience by the ten Kings who had given their power to the Beast The thing is already come to pass in part The Kingdoms of Sweden Denmark England and several Soveraign States in Germany have withdrawn themselves from the Jurisdiction of the Pope They have spoyl'd the harlot of her riches They have eaten her flesh i.e. seiz'd on her Benefices and Revenues which she had in their Countries This must go on and be finisht as it is begun The Kings who yet remain under the Empire of Rome must break with her leave her solitary and desolate But who must begin this last revolt 'T is most probable that France shall Not Spain which as yet is plunged in superstition and is as much under the tyranny of the Clergy as ever Not the Emperor who in Temporals is subject to the Pope and permits that in his States the Archbishop of Strigonium should teach that the Pope can take away the Imperial Crown from him It cannot be any Countrey but France which a long time ago hath begun to shake off the yoke of Rome 'T is well known how solemnly and openly war hath been declared against the Pope by a Declaration of the King ratified in all the Parliaments by the decisions of the Assembly of the French Clergy by a Disputation against the Authority of the Pope managed in the Sorbon solemnly and by order of the Court. And to heighten the affront the Theses were posted up even upon the gates of his Nuntio Nothing of this kind had hitherto happened at least in a time of peace and unless the Pope had given occasion by his insolences Besides this Superstition and Idolatry lose their credit much in France There is a secret party though well enough known which greatly despiseth the popular Devotions Images worship of Saints and is convinced that these are humane institutions God is before-hand preparing for this great work To this it may be objected that for the last hundred and fifty years the Popes Empire hath not been made up of ten Kings because the Kings of England Sweden Denmark c. have thrown off his Government and consequently France is not at this day the tenth part of the Babylonian Empire for 't is more then a tenth part of it But this is no difficulty for we must know that things retain the names which they bore in their original without regarding the alterations which time does bring along Tho at this day there are not ten Kingdoms under the Babylonian Empire 't is notwithstanding certain that each Kingdom was called and ought to be called in this Prophecy the tenth part because the Prophet having described this Empire in its beginning by its ten horns or ten Kings 't is necessary for our clear understanding that every one of these ten Kings and Kingdoms should be called one of the ten Kings or of the ten Kingdoms with respect to the original constitution of the Antichristian Empire Seeing the tenth part of the City which must fall is France this gives me some hopes that the death of the two witnesses hath a particular relation to this Kingdom 'T is the street or place of this City i.e. the most fair and eminent part of it The Witnesses must remain dead upon this Street and upon it they must be raised again And as the death of the Witnesses and their Resurrection have a relation to the Kingdom of France it may well fall out that we may not be far distant from the time of the Resurrection of the witnesses seeing the three years and a lalf of their death are either begun or will begin shortly And in the earthquake were slain seven thousand in the Greek it is seven thousand names of men and not seven thousand men I confess that this seems somewhat mysterious in other places we find not this phrase names of men put simply for men Perhaps there is here a figure of Grammer called Hypallage casus so that names of men are put for men of name i.e. of raised and considerable quality be its on the account of riches or of dignity or of learning But I am more inclined to say that here these words names of men must be taken in their natural signification and doe intimate that the total Reformation of France shall not be made with bloodshed nothing shall be destroyed but names such as are the names of Monks of Carmelites of Augustines of Dominicans of Iacobins Franciscans Capucines Iesuites Minimes and an infinite company of others
is plain the Prophet borrowed his Characters of it from that Happy state of the first Man wherein he was filled with the knowledge of God and his Righteousness And during which the brute Animals were innocent kind and gentle as himself 'T is also undeniable that this Prophecy respects the days of the Messiah But I would fain be told sincerely whether this oracle hath ever yet been accomplisht in what time in what place in what age or generation of the world It will doubtless be answered that it was in the Apostolical Church and in the time of the Apostles for only in that new-born Church could it be said that there was none to hurt or destroy that Wolves and Lions and Bears became Lambs The Prophecies which fortold the great holiness of the Church are not accomplisht Yet even in that new-born Church Wolves and Lions might be found But it cannot be of that Church which the Prophet there speaks because he speaks of a time when the knowledge of the Lord should fill the Earth which then it did not For this great Holiness this admirable union is represented to us only in the Church of Ierusalem Moreover we see not that this lasted for any considerable time There is a great deal of difference between the Church in the first Chapters of the Acts when Believers had but one heart and one soul and the Church we read of towards the end of the same Book where were false zealots who opposed St. Paul for having preached to the Gentiles Besides Isaiah speaks not of the Holiness of some particular persons but of a general Sanctification That a time shall come when Righteousness shall universally cover the societies of men as the waters cover the bottom of the Sea. I know well enough that the Prophets do oftentimes make use of the figure called Hyperbole But in truth the Hyperbole here would be forc't and carried too far and would not be intelligible if the Holy Spirit should so describe the Church of the first Ages where wee some Incestuous some Adulterers some Heretiques Schismaticks Apostates and all sorts of crimes We need but read the writings of St. Cyprian De Lapsis to be assured that in the good days of the Church there were already things very horrid and abominable Every one may think as he shall please but for my own part I expect from this prophecy such an age wherein Holiness shall as much exceed vice as vice now doth exceed and overtop vertue We read also in the same Prophet Chap. 32. v. 15 16. that the Spirit shall be poured from on high upon us and the wilderness be a fruitfull field and the fruitfull field a forrest Judgement shall dwell in the wilderness and Righteousness remain in the fruitfull field The work of Righteousness shall be Peace and the effect of Righteousness quietness and assurance for ever An high way shall be there and a way and it shall be called the way of Holiness the unclean shall not pass over it but it shall be for those the wayfaring men Chap. 35.8 9. though fools shall not err therein No Lion shall be there nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon Chap. 54.13 14. it shall not be found there All thy Children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the Peace of thy Children thou shalt be establisht in Righteousness Chap 59.21 22. This is the Covenant I will make with you saith the Lord my Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth or out of the mouth of thy seed nor of thy seeds seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever And they shall call them Chap. 62.12 the Holy People the redeemed of the Lord and thou shalt be called sought out a City not forsaken Chap. 31.33 Add to this the Prophecy of Ieremy This shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my People and they shall teach no more every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest saith the Lord. These Prophecies speak four things 1. They paint out the State of the Church under the Messiah 2. They describe it by a more then ordinary Holiness that shall every where be poured out 3. By a persevering Holiness to which no return to vice or no apostacy shall succeed For 't is said the Spirit of God shall not depart from them or their seed or seeds seed 4. Lastly This is a Holiness whereof the Jewish Nation is to have the chiefest part For 't is to that People and concerning them that God speaks Now I demand whether any one can show me that age of the Church wherein such an Holiness which answers the Idea given us by these Prophecies can be found where we shall meet with a persevering Holiness If the Church for any time hath been pure that hath not continued from one Generation to another yea let such an Age be named wherein the Israelitish Nation did pertake of this Evangelical Holiness Hath not that People been always obstinate unbelieving Enemies to Christ without faith in respect of men as well as in reference to God we must than open our eyes and confess that there shall be a Kingdom of Holiness such a one as shall fill all Nations and not subject to those unhappy Revolutions that by corruption have changed the face of the Church from year to year Thus far Righteousness and Holiness Next we are to consider the Peace and Prosperity of the Church Glorious Prophecies of the peace of the Church whereof the Prophets speak more largely and in an higher strain because under the Images of Temporal Prosperity they set forth that Spiritual Prosperity which we have spoken of under the names of Holiness and Righteousness Concerning Peace Is 2.4 the Prophet Isaiah saith that they shall beat their swords into Plough-shares and their Spears into pruning-hooks that Nation shall not rise against Nation neither shall they learn war any more Concerning its future Prosperity he saith c. 41.18 19. The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstop't the lame shall leap as the Hart and the tongue of the Dumb shall sing for joy I will open Rivers in high places and Fountains in the midst of Valleys I will make the wilderness a Pool of water and the dry Land springs of water I will plant in the wilderness the Cedar the Pine the Myrtle and the Olive-tree and I will set in the desert the Fir-tree the Pine and the Box-tree together c. 49.10 11. They shall not hunger nor thirst neither shall the heat or Sun smite them for he
't is not that which the H. Ghost would immediately describe because he would that we should be kept ignorant of it So that those Descriptions have an immediate relation to the flourishing State of the Church in the last Period and by analogy they may be transfer'd to the blessings of Paradise 2. Type the Rest after the Babylonish captivity The Captivity of Babylon was doubtless another Type of the Captivity of the Church under Antichrist and therefore the Papacy is called the City of Babylon and after that Captivity the People returned to their own Land and lived peaceably there So doubtless the Church being delivered from the bondage of Antichrist shall return to its rest here on Earth 3. Type the Rest after the persecution under Antiochus The Persecution of Antiochus was also a Type of the Persecution which the Church hath suffered under Antichrist Now after the three years and half of that Persecution the People of the Iews returned to the possession of their Temple and rose to a more flourishing condition than they had ever been in since their coming out of Babylon 4 Type the number seven which is so often mentioned I leave these and many other Types which may be found to insist on one which I find to be very evident and convincing 'T is that which may be found in the number of seven 'T will be granted that this is a mysterious and sacred number and that it signifies perfection 'T is on this account it is mentioned so often in the Apocalypse There are seven Churches seven Stars seven Candlesticks seven Spirits seven Lamps seven Eyes seven Horns of the Lamb seven Plagues seven Trumpets seven Thunders seven Viols So in the Books of Moses the seventh day is Holy and the seventh year was the year of Rest and the seven times seventh year was the great Jubilee The living Creatures entred into the Ark by sevens the first-born of every beast remained seven days with its Dam the male Children were to be seven days old before they were circumcised the Candlestick of the Tabernacle had seven Lamps a Woman after her uncleanness a Leper after he was cured of his leprosy were to be purified for seven days It would be too long to recite all the Examples of this nature which might be mentioned for the number seven is almost every where to be found For what reason is it so who sees not that this number signifies Completion and Perfection and of what can it signify the Perfection if not of the greatest work of God that for which all his other works were wrought that is the Church If then the 7th the be every where sacred why is not the seventh Period reckoning from the creation of the World also sacred and a Period of perfection It will be said the number seven is sacred because of the seventh day which was consecrated to the service of God but why hath God chosen the seventh day to be holy and a day of rest for man is it not plainly to signify that the seventh day or the seventh Period of the Church shall be a time of Holiness Tranquility and Peace The 7th day of the Creation a type of the seventh period of the Church The seventh day they farther tell us was consecrated to Rest and Holiness because God created the World in six days and rested on the seventh Behold now we are at the Spring Head and can rise no higher but here also we shall find an excellent Type of our seventh Period 'T is here I would ask with boldness Wherefore God created the World in six days and rested on the seventh Why did he not imploy five days eight ten or twelve in the work of Creation but precisely seven Certainly the infinite wisdom of God will not permit that he should do any thing without reason Here is this reason because he intended to hold the Church in an imperfect state for six Periods of Time labouring in that great work for which he made all others and causing it successively to pass through seven degrees We must not say that the Sabbath the seventh day on which God rested was the image of that great Rest into which the Church is to be brought after he shall have compleated it upon Earth for the seventh Period ought to bear proportion to the other six whereas Eternity hath none with Time much less with one day So that the seventh Period cannot be the Eternal Rest It must be a Time that bears proportion to the six preceding Periods As then after six days of labour God finisht his work by a day to which he affixt Holiness and Rest as its Characters there must likewise be for the Church after six days of sins and sufferings one last day that is to be distinguisht by those two Seals Peace and Holiness upon Earth Not but that the Sabbath is also a figure of the Eternal Rest but 't is because these thousand years of Peace and Holiness on Earth shall be the image of that perfect Peace and Holiness which the Church shall injoy in Heaven and so 't is a mediate Type of the Eternal Rest These thousand years I confess have no proportion with Eternity but it is not to be a Type in the duration of the Time but in respect of the state of Peace and Holiness Images of the Coelestial Peace So these thousand years may be Types of the Heavenly Glory but the seventh day could not be the immediate Type because of what was said before Because the seventh day of the Creation is a Period of the same nature with the six preceding and which by consequent ought to bear proportion to them It will be said that 'T is easy to make these suppositions hut difficult to prove them But I have a sure Method for the proof of this when the several parts of a System support one another even therein they are proved in an Hypothesis that is false there is alway some part inconsistent with it self Now I will make it evident that the seven days of the Creation do perfectly answer to the seven Periods of the Church that in every one of those days such works were wrought which were exact Emblems of the Events which have happened and of the things which were done in every Period of the Church answering to every day If I make it evident that in the six Periods of the duration of the Church which are past we have seen those things which were painted out by the six days of the Creation so that the first Period contains that which was figur'd by the work of the first day the second Period that of the second and so of the rest if I say I can do this methinks it will then be proved that what was done in the seventh day of the Creation is the image of that which shall be done in our seventh Period of the Church The parts of this System do admirably support one
'T is S. Iohn that received the Reed in the 11th Chap. to measure the Temple and the Altar there was given me a Reed like unto a rod and the Angel stood and said rise and measure the Temple But here 't is an Angel that measureth an Agent of an higher order than the Apostle 3. Lastly S. Iohn hath only a rod given him a reed to measure with a weak Justrument and of little value but here the Angel measures with a Golden reed All which sets forth the great excellence of the Church in this last period that it should surpass even the Primitive Church as much as a city exceeds a Temple an Angel a man or a Golden Rod an ordinary cane or reed The city was built foursquare the square is an emblem of Rest because that figure of all others is most proper to keep firm which signifies the tranquility and immutable Peace of this Church The square also relates to the number Twelve which occurs so often in this description for 12 is a square number that shows three on all sides Three a number of perfection as well as seven to signifie that on what side soever you look upon this Church whether in regard of its Holiness or Knowledg or Peace or Glory she shall be every way perfect These are the four sides of the square Holiness Knowledg Peace and Glory and this Perfection she hath from the number Twelve viz. from the twelve Apostles He measured the City with the Reed 12 thousand Furlongs This is not to be understood of the circumference of her Walls or of their diameter or their Heighth but of the whole Body of the City taken together as a Cube that contains 12 thousand furlongs counting every thing There are 12 foundations which are the 12 Apostles or rather the 12 Articles of faith Every foundation answers to a thousand Cubits i. e. that every of the Apostles by his doctrine and preaching did increase the Church and contribute to its building and to the gathering of the saints in the same proportion which a foundation of one cubical foot or therabouts hath to a thousand furlongs This signifies the great Increase and multiplication of the Church The length the breadth the Heigth of the City were Equal that is it was in all accounts a perfect Cube throw a Die where you please it will alway find a place to rest So shall be the Church of the last period what ever Commotions may happen she shall not lose her rest nothing shall be able to destroy or hinder it Interpreters have no reason to make an objection here that a City that is as high as large would be a monstrous pile for every thing here is beyond the ordinary rules among men to signifie that this Holy Society shall not be governed as Humane societies now are Besides this the great Equality of this City in all its dimensions seems to me to denote that admirable Equality between all the Saints which shall take place in the seventh period of the Church not that all difference of Conditions shall be absolutely laid aside there shall still be superiors and Inferiors Rich and Poor some to Govern and others to obey but those great distances between mens conditions shall then be filled up by Charity and Love wheras now they are inlarged and widened by Pride and vanity Then he measured the Wall 144 Cubits Here is the number 144 which is sacred because of the number 12 which is its Root 't is easie to apprehend why the Wall is 144 Cubits 't is because it is raised upon 12 Foundations and the wall of the City had twelve Foundations Build upon twelve raise another number by multiplying this by it self and you make 144. for 12 is the square root of 144. Every building of the Church is raised upon the 12 Apostles and in its raising she is multiplied as in building upon 12 you make 144. and these 144 Cubits are not to be taken for the same thing with the 144 thousand who were marked which are the whole body of the Saints These 144 Cubits are in the walls of the City and not in the whole City This wall is that which gives protection to the City and the Church it is Truth and the Holy Ministry by whom that Truth is preached so that the 12 Foundations are the Principal Pastors with the Truths they teach viz. the 12 Apostles and the 144 Cubits are the whole Evangelical Ministry built upon the 12 Apostles as their first Teachers He measured the wall according to the measure of a man i. e. of the Angel that denotes that the Angel in giving to a wall one hundred forty four Cubits founded upon twelve hath therin followed the ordinary way of Computation among Arithmeticians who by multiplying twelve by it self make one hundred forty four And the building of the wall was of Iaspar and the City was of pure Gold like unto clear glass The distinction of men according to their different qualities is conveniently and commonly enough made by the Emblem of Metals men of low and base Spirits sunk into degeneracy and vice are well represented by Lead Iron is the Emblem of Cruel and hard-hearted persons who are void of Pity Brass doth well enough represent such as glitter and make a show of more than they are or have for Brass imitates the colour of gold but is short in value Silver is an Emblem of those who are in some sort vertuous but not in the first rank Lastly Gold is the Emblem of such spirits as are pure solid firm and truly vertuous This is that which the H. Ghost would teach us that the Church in this last Period shall be made up of such persons as are of sincere and approved piety of a vertue that is bright and solid therfore the City is said not only to be of Gold but of gold clear as Crystal Nevertheless as in every Church the Ministry ought to possess a more eminent degree of Christian vertues than others the wall which signifies the Ministry of the Church in the seventh Period is said to be of Iaspar and precious stones more valuable than gold V. 21. And the 12 Gates were of 12 Pearls every several gate was of one Pearl We have seen how the 12 Gates signifie the 12 Apostles the Guards Guides and Porters as it were of the Church we might easily discover a resemblance between the Apostles and Pearls but 't is sufficient to understand that the design of the H. Ghost is to show that these 12 Men are of an inestimable value All the riches of the world cannot be a sufficient price for 12 Pearls big enough to make 12 Gates of Cities and herewith we must know that when the spirit of God puts so high a price upon weak men like our selves when he calls them Iaspars and precious stones the Gates and Foundations of a City he doth not look upon 'em in themselves but considers them with that treasure