in it Dan. 7. the Kingdom of Messiah that is to be so Universal a Monarchy indeed began to be set up in its Beginning and will in the End of the same Roman Monarchy be a Dominion under the whole Heaven given to the Saints of the most High the first of which is Accounted for in the History of the New Testament and the Last in this Grand Prophecy of it the Revelation .. But further to carry on the Certainty of this City being the City Rome at the time the Apostle John wrote the Revelation we may observe what is so well known That there was no Change in the State of the Roman Empire except a greater Enlargement of it from the Days of Christ and the Apostles to the Time of the writing the Revelation by the Apostle John. So that when This City is declar'd to be the City that Reign'd over the Kings of the Earth it is most evident Rome was the City intended It is therefore called the Great City according to the manner Charact. 2 of speaking at that Time Roma Sacra Augusta Aeterna Rome the Sacred the Imperial the Everlasting Rome How often therefore doth the Revelation style it the Great City and Babylon the Great and The City and The Great This Woman is said to sit on Seven Mountains And the Holy Charact. 3 Spirit is so Industrious if I may so speak with Reverence to give this Notice of the Famous Seven-Hill'd Rome that it goes out of its way to give it For whereas the Beast only and not the Woman is Entitled to the Seven Heads Besides the Seven Heads of the Beast on whom the Woman sitteth the Woman her self is pourtrayed Sitting on Seven Mountains as The names of which are most universally known to be the Capitoline the Palatine the Aventine the Celan the Esquiline the Viminal the Quirinal Seven Heads besides the Beasts Heads I say so that the Divine Wisdom steps as it were aside to fetch in these Seven Mountains as the Cities Heads as an uncontroulable unmoveable Character and Assurance of this City For never was any City in the World so famously known by its Seven Htlls as the Seven-Headed City Rome There being then no possibility of Avoiding it the most zealous Partizans of Rome in its present State dare not deny that the Woman here describ'd and expounded by the Angel into a City is the very City Rome and no other They do therefore Acknowledge it There are but Two ways then to rescue Rome in its present State from the Dint of this Prophecy 1 That it was Heathen Rome the Prophecy intended and that therefore it hath had its Accomplishment many Ages ago 2. Or that it may be some State of Rome that is not yet nor hath yet been but is to be some short time before the End of the World. If therefore the Prophecy will not endure either of these that it is past or to come it is then Demonstration that it must be the Present State of Rome that is under the Thunder-stroke of the Prophecy Seeing All that Time enfolds in its whole Nature is either past present or to come Now that the State of Rome here describ'd is not yet past there are these two Evident Reasons 1. That whenever this Prophecy is fulfill'd there must be an utter Destruction Ruine and Desolation of the City for the Woman expounded to be the City Chap. 17. is the same whose Desolation is so amply and finally declar'd chap. 18. so that there can be no possible supposal it can be otherwise And that the Desolation is utter and Final besides the whole Course of it all along is most apparent by the Emblem of the Mill-stone thrown into the Bottom of the Sea as of Babylon of old that is a place of Wild Beasts at this Day Every thing in the whole Prophecy is levied on purpose to express a supreme Abolishment of this City out of the whole Nature of Things Now no such Abolishment of the City Rome hath yet been but it hath out-liv'd the Calamities that it suffer'd at any Time since the Prophecy and hath always so recover'd it self that it is at this day in Grandeur so that the Truth of the Prophecy must be wholly overthrown or not yet fulfill'd and so it must be yet to be destroy'd I say nothing of the Cities of the Nations Falling at the same Time that Great Babylon came in Remembrance before God because I would rest only upon what is most indubitably plain 2. The Glory of the Church and of the Kingdom of Christ the Bride the Lambs Wife making her self ready to the Marriage c. 19. 20. 21. and that whole Blessed change of Things answering the great Types of the Prophecy immediately follow the Desolation of this City Rome So in Daniel after the giving the Beast to the Flames as is here foretold also after the Final Destruction of Babylon the Kingdom under the whole Heaven is given to the Saints of the most High and Sathan chain'd shut up and seal'd into his own bottomless pit that he might deceive the Nations no more But that these Happy Things have not yet come to pass there needs nothing more to convince All that bear the Christian Name than the Imposture and Tyranny of Mahomet that hath rag'd within the very Bowels of the Christian World so long a space The most observant therefore of the Roman Commentators on this Prophecy finding how impossible it is to adjust the Prophecy of these two Chapters to Rome changed from Rome Imperial as Heathen to Rome Imperial as Christian have thought the second Interpretation the safer Refuge from the Terror of its Judgment here foretold and much the rather I doubt not because an Exposition resting on a Futurity can be less Evicted in its Disagreeableness than what bears on Things past and what is to be just at the End of the World can be hardlier confuted by shewing the ill-matehing of Consequences especially when the Consequences are so Great as the Day of Judgment only can parallel as they have truly enough consider'd then what was to have been so many Ages ago Attended with such Consequences as have not yet come to pass which every one can plainly charge But yet the due and close Search into this Prophecy will as much Confute this as the other as is now to be made evident which that it may be done I will lay down this Proposition and prove it from the whole Prophetick Table Rome in the present State is that which hath been from the Proposit Time the Imperial Name of the City Rome ceas'd and still continues that Symbolical mystical Woman or City upon which this Prophecy and the whole Designation of it perpendicularly or as we say point-blank Falls and not a Future Rome and Antichrist to be expected Three years and a half only before the Day of Judgment as some Papists would have it To prove this I use this General Argument
Time even to its final Desolation For its whole Ichnography or Representation is charg'd upon these Seven Heads in the last of which It is utterly Desolated The Heads therefore cannot be several Monarchies and Kingdoms For They are All the Heads of One Beast or Monarchy and so not several Monarchies or Empires They All bear up the One City Rome and so must be one Roman Supremacy Nor can they be single Kings or Monarchic Persons seeing neither would Seven Lives support the Grandeur of Eternal Rome as It was Call'd nor in Fact have any Seven so supported it from the Apostle John's Time much less Two One of which was then in Being although we cast in the Embolimean seventh King but not Head For since the Writing of the Apostle is above sixteen hundred Years and yet the Judgment Written in this Prophecy is not as yet Executed From the Time then that This City was said to have such an Ascendency as to have the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth to this time of the Desolation here Foretold the City Rome was to be kept up in Dignity by its sixth King then in Being by its seventh King no Head for a short space by its Eighth King and seventh Head under which it is to sink as a Mill-stone How impossible is it therefore these Kings should be other then Governments or Successions of several Persons or numbers of Persons in each Government Let us now lay together these Four Propositions and consider their Amount to that which we are upon That which we are upon is That the Present and not a Future Rome or Antichrist Falls under the Thunder-stroke of this Prophecy and that the People of God are call'd out of the present Roman City or Church The general way of proving this must be by finding that the Present Rome is upon the Eighth King and seventh Head Together with which It is to be destroy'd For that is the Rome out of which the People of God are call'd even that Rome that is to be hus destroy'd To find this we must consider the Eight Kings and Seven Heads under which Rome passes its whole Time and be able to judge of their Times To which end I have debated these Four Propositions 1. That these are Kings in Succession 2. That the Successions are immediate and without any void Time between 3. That the King that was no Head can have no Room but in the seventh place 4. That the seven and eight Kings are not single-Kings but several and a number of Kings under each King. Now let us consider the Amount of these four Propositions and it must needs be that these Things will follow That whatever King or sort of Government carried the City Consequ 1 Rome aloft in the Apostle Johns Time of writing the Revelation must be the sixth King for Five then were fallen with whom the Prophecy had no further to do then to give them as a mark of the City and of the Beasts carrying it One was then in Being which following the Five must needs be the Sixth We know both by History and by Scripture mentioning Augustus Consequ 2 Tiberius Claudius Caesar Emperours of Rome That the Head bearing up Rome in the Apostles Times was the Heathen Imperial Head And seeing there was no Time that Rome was more drunk with the Blood of Saints in universal Acknowledgment nor the Roman Empire more confessedly carryed the Names of Blasphemy then at that Time We know by the same universal Consent that of all others the sixth King must needs be a Head which decides so far the doubt betwixt the sixth and the seventh Kings which should be of them Two the Head seeing both could not and it assures us the sixth must be the Head. And indeed were not the Prophecy so puissantly against it It looked fair to be the Rome and Beast of that Time here meant but for great Reasons that can't be We know by undoubted History the Heathen Imperialism fell by Constantine in whom the Empire became Christian And seeing Consequ 3 there was no Inter-reign or breach in the succession of Kings after the sixth the seventh must immediately succeed And therefore It must be the Christian Empire because that immediately followed that Heathen from whence it appears how admirably agreeable the Prophecy and the Event are For as we have made evident by the words of the Prophecy the seventh King could be no Head carrying the Names of Blasphemy So the Christian Empire acknowledging the One God and the One Mediator the True God in whom is Eternal Life was free from this Brand and by wonderful Wisdom of Providence It was ordered that Constantine and other the Christian Emperours withdrew themselves much from Rome so that they did not as the Heads of the Beast bear Rome so high but It was in an Eclipse Constantine building the City Constantinople as a New Rome to shade the Old And which is wonderful assuring as Prophecy presents the Beast wounded in One of his Heads with a deadly wound so we know by History the Beast as an Idolatrous Empire was wounded in the Christian Victories over the Idolatrous Emperours and Chiefs Thus every way the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Another falls so duly upon the Christian Emperour that It is even to ravishment at the Wisdom of the very prophetical Grammar that so plac'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or One that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Another might follow big with Sense and yet veil'd with secresie and lastly This Empire continued but a short space viz. about an hundred and fifty years which was short compared with the five fallen before the Prophecy bundled together shorter by half than the sixth King then in Being but beyond comparison shorter then the eighth King who is plainly aim'd at and for whose sake the seventh King was cut so short in Time that he might have his full Time viz. of forty two prophetick Months as we shall see above twelve hundred years in ordinary account The only Objection I can possibly divine thus far is that because the form of Government was Imperial both under the Heathen and Christian Emperours The Heathen and Christian Emperour cannot be understood to be two forms of Government and so the sixth and the seventh Kings seem confounded into One and thereby this account is overthrown To this I answer first seeing we are sure the Heathen Empire Answ 1 must be the sixth King that then was It will very little alter the case as to the present Rome For It is certain that sixth King must be fallen we are also certain the seventh being to continue but a short space must be fallen also because the space from the sixth King hath been so very long From whence it will follow the Eighth and last King must be and must have been long in play and whoever is and hath been long so must be the eighth King and Rome must be this Rome
called Sodom for the Filthiness of its Fornications and dreadful Burnings that it is devoted to And Aegypt first for its Oppression of the Saints with whose Blood it is Drunk Then for the Plagues that will come upon it and lastly for its Pharaoh-like Principality first in the Pagan Dragon and then its Draconick Pope to whom the Dragon consign'd His Power And to follow all the Emblems of the City as on purpose to bring it Home to Rome It it both Resembled to the City where our Lord was Crucified signifying its Whoredom to be like the Whoredom of that Infamous Aholibah or Jerusalem the False Whorish Church and under the Jurisdiction of Rome so much at that Time that not without the most Notorious Sentence of the Roman Judge Pontius Pilate Our Lord was Crucified which was for the very Service of this Prophecy so particularly we may Believe Recorded that in that Sense the very City Rome was the City in which Our Lord was Crucified All this Affects this City so that its Tenth Falls Now this City sits on the Beast For to shew it is the same City that sits on the Beast when the Beast the very same Beast that Ascends out of the Bottomless Pit c. 11. c. 17. Kills the Witnesses Their Dead Bodies lye in the Street of that Great City which plainly joyns the Beast and the City together the City as the Imperial Residence the Beast as the King of it as the Vision of the c. 17. does For He as King having Power of Life and Death those whom He Kills lye in the Street of his Great Emperial City So then the City and the Beast are here first so nearly conjoyn'd and so again c. 17. How then comes the Tenth of this Great City to Fall whatever we understand by it for I will not now dispute that How comes it to Fall I say when It sits on the Beast It could not be if the Beast Himself did not Sink and how could He Sink if His Fourty two Months were not out For so long was given Him by Prophecy which in another Character is call'd Time Times and Half a Time and as apply'd to the Witnesses Three Days and a Half in Imitation of our Lord 's three Days in the Grave Till the Morning then of the Half Time and Day there could be no such Alteration in his Kingdom as the Reformation made and till that Time of the Forty two Months fully exhausted when the Twelve hundred sixty Days End also in the Rising and Glory of the Witnesses There cannot be a Fall of the Tenth of the City which He bears up the Grandeur of And to shew farther that this Beast that Slays the Witnesses is the same with the Beast c. 17. It is made known by that certain Mark of it the Ascending out of the Bottomless Pit and that we may know they are both the same with the Beast who hath the Fourty two Months c. 13. He makes War with the Saints who are the Seed of the Woman and Hold the Testimony of Jesus C. 12. Vlt. or are the Witnesses being thereunto Deputed by the Dragon who gave him his Throne and Great Authority and He that Beast is Taken c. 19. as is foretold also c. 13. He that leadeth into Captivity shall go into Captivity And the Ten Kings who give him their Power who make War with the Lamb and He overcomes them are Kill'd with the Sword of his Mouth c. 19. as was foretold c. 13. He that killeth with the Sword shall be killed with the Sword. All which farther Assure together with what hath been said before That It is one and the same Beast throughout the Prophecy of the Revelation viz. the Seventh Head of the Roman Empire and its Eighth King to whom the Ten Kings as Horns give their Power The second Oracle given us concerning the Period of the Forty two Months is c. 17. God hath put into the Heart of the Ten Kings to Do his Will or execute his Determination and to execute and perform One Determination untill the Words of God shall be fulfilled Now this Counsel Determination and Will of God is that which is explain'd what it is It is even that they should Give their Kingdom and Power to the Beast And how long Vntill the words of God shall be fulfill'd And Those words were declar'd c. 13. Authority was given to Him as a Beast of Ten Horns to continue Forty two Months The great Event therefore at the End of the Forty two Months is That then the Ten Kings shall Hate the Whore and make her Desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with Fire From whence it is evident how close the Union is between the City call'd the Whore and the Beast For while the Kings give their Power to the Beast they bear up the Beast who bears up the City while they fulfill the Decree of God for the Beasts Forty two Months They are One in giving Him their Kingdom and Power and so long They are drunk with the Wine of the Whores Fornication But when those Words are fulfill'd and those Forty Two Months then They hate the Whore and then this Tenth of the Great City Falls viz. the whole Circle of the Power given by these Ten Horns or Ten Kings who now Recall their Power from the Beast and that Tenthness of Power Falls also For however the Grammar of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not bear such an Exposition of it as should signifie the Ten King'd Power yet the Prophecy of Daniel in the Ten Toes of the Image the Ten Horns of the Beast and The whole Frame of the Prophecy of the Revelation concerning the Beast his Ten Horns or Ten Kings does forcibly over-sway the nicety of Grammar and carries the Prophecy to this Sense and much the rather because as hath been argued The Twelve hundred sixty Days will be then ended and the Words of God fulfilled concerning the Bestian Power which lay so much in its Horns or Ten Kings persecuting the Witnesses Let us now recollect the Summ of this Argument in the Proof it gives The Argument runs thus The Roman City or Church sits on the Beast or Eighth Kimg who hath been in Possession of the Time allotted him by Prophecy so long as from the Seventh other King of a short space after the sixth King that was in the Apost John's Time till now within nine or ten Years of the Expiration of that Time as a Time allowable to remain for the fulfilling of All Events This is the Beast or eighth King bearing up that Rome whether City or Church out of which Gods People are Called But the present City or Church of Rome sitting upon the Pope is and hath been in that Possession so long That Time so allotted is expresly said to be Fourty two Months those Months must be Prophetical Months or Days for Years Those Months must be Time of the Moon and not of the
Sun. Those Months being time of the Moon given by Prophecy must be taken and applyed to time of the Sun given by the same prophecy that they may be rated and known what time They contain According to the exactest Computation that can be made Fourty two Months apply'd to Twelve hundred sixty Days for Years must be Twelve hundred twenty two Days for Years that is Twelve hundred twenty two Years The Epoch or Beginning then of these Months fixed at the Cessation of the Christian Emperour the prophetical Seventh King which was in the Year of our Lord 475 must needs reach to the Year 1697. The Twelve hundred sixty Days or Years both of the Witnesses and of the Woman ending necessarily at the same time for the one cannot out-last the other must begin thirty eight Years before the Months viz. 437. But because the Witnesses could not be supposed to put on their Sackcloth without just Occasion given the Gentiles under the other Beast Treading the Holy Court must have begun their Fourty two Months when the Twelve hundred sixty Days of the Witnesses Sackcloth and the Womans Wilderness State began also viz. 437. It is no matter what became of the Gentiles Fourty two Months after the Beast first Risen and grown up to his Image and Power to enforce the Worship of it and the receiving his Mark Name or of the Number of his Name viz. at 725 his Famous 666. For then the Beasts Months support the Seventh Headship and the Roman City or Apostate Church and the Gentiles Months Merge or are drowned in them The Months and Days being given under the Character of Time Times and Half a Time and three Days and a half when they arrived to the Beginning of the half Time and Days such a partial Rising of the Witnesses and Retrenchment of the Bestian Kingdom such a Fall of some of the Ten Kings from the Beast as was seen at the Reformation was allowable by Prophecy after the manner of our Lord 's three Days and Nights in the Heart of the Earth and was a Pledge of the complete Fall of the Beast and of the City's Fall from their whole Ten Mark those Kings who bewayl Babylon c. 18. 9. cannot be those Ten Kings who at last Turn to hate the Whore who they are will not be known till that Burning of Babylon shall be better understood King'd Principality at the end of the half Time or 1697. At the same time when the Days of the Witnesses and the Months of the Beast End The Turkish Second Woe or Tyranny shall pass away and cannot sooner because it is the Second Woe Trumpet upon the Bestian Kingdom lasting till its Fourty two Months End Which being an Observation foreign to this Matter needs not be enlarged yet well observ'd adds strength to the whole The last Argument I shall use to perfect all that hath been said already Last Arg. shall be an Appeal to All that in any degree know the State of the World whether the Condition of Papal Rome since the time especially of the Beasts receiving the Key of the Bottomless Pit as a Fallen Star in the Days of Phocas his coming to his Number and Image in the days of Leo Conon hath not answer'd the Characters of Prophecy Ann. 725. Does the Prophecy signifie a City perpetuating Eternal Rome in a Church as False Impure and Adulterate as the Mother of Harlots Imports Which Title cannot be due in its highest degree but where True Religion is Prostituted as appears in Aholiab and Aholibah And hath not Rome been such a One as Papal in all its Idolatrys Superstitions and Sensualities Does the Prophecy Represent a Caesar in an Image and hath not the Pope's Tripple Crown elevated upon his Spirituality and Vicarship of Christ been such a One Does the Prophecy speak Rome in all the Grandeur of Scarlet Purple and precious Stones And is not the Splendor of Rome its Pope Cardinals and Hierarchy such Does the Prophecy set out an Universal Propagation of the Fornications of such an Imperious Whorish Woman prevailing upon Kings Nations Kindreds and Languages and what hath Papal Rome pretended more forcibly to than such an Vniversality of its Religion which is called Filthiness Spiritual and Bodily and All Abomination Does Prophecy set out the Idolatrys of such a City and its Prince by the Blasphemy of God of his Tabernacle of All that dwell in Heaven and this openly avow'd by a Title writ on her Forehead according to the manner of the most Infamous Prostitutes and of Babylon Mad of Graven Images and yet all under a Mystery So as to be doubted whether Idolatry is justly charged upon it by even Those who deeply suspect it And is not this and hath not this been the State of Rome most Remarkably since the Days of Leo Conon Does the prophecy Represent a Bestian War with the Saints a Causing that all who would not Worship the Image should be Kill'd and proscribing them that they should not Buy nor Sell All Great and Small Rich and poor who will not receive the Mark c a City Drunk with the Blood of Saints and what can we say but that the Excommunication of Princes deposing and Depriving them the Interdicting of Kingdoms Massacres Martyrdoms Inquisitions Ravages upon the World on the account of that Religion Falsly so call'd have answer'd the prophecy Do other prophecys of Scripture say there should be a Grand Apostasie out of which should come a Man of Sin and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one above all Law and Control as Supreme and Infallible justly styl'd a Beast One sitting in the Temple of God exalting Himself above All that is called God or is Worshipped That though the Mystery of Iniquity was then at Work for Him yet that He could not be Revealed but in his Season Do we not see such a One that hath been long in the World claiming from the Apostles whom yet the elder Ages of Christianity knew not till the Time pointed out by Prophecy was come A Lord God the Pope as hath been Blasphem'd Does that same prophecy say The Lord will Consume that Man of Sin with the Glory of his Coming and with the Brightness of his own Appearance And do we not see at this Day his Times drawn out and lengthen'd beyond parallel for such an Appearance And does not the prophecy of the Revelation say the same Thing For his utter Destruction is not till the Heavens open to Christ Revel 19. Does not another Prophecy say Some a certain Sort and Society or Community of Men shall Depart or Apostatize from the Faith giving heed to wandring Spirits as Divels are called and to their Apparitions and so to Doctrines of them as Daimons and of the Worship of them through Or Saints departed the Hypocrisie of Lyars and Legendary Priests who disguising themselves in the Garb of extraordinary Holy Persons Coyn such Stories of such Spirits appearing to them to draw others
hence Let us then consider the Importance of this Voice and it is plainly the Separation of the People of God and so of every Person among us if we are of his People from any Communion with that City or Community concerning which we shall by the Light of this Prophecy duly weigh'd and consider'd be convinc'd that It is the City symboliz'd or set out by this Mystical Woman And our Separation must be proportionable to the danger of being tainted or struck with the Contagion of its Sins or Apprehended and Reach'd by the Thunder-shaft of its Plagues For so is the Charge Come out of her my People And so is the Enforcement Lest ye be partaker of her Sins and lest ye Receive of her Plagues Now that we may do this It is highly Expedient at least to use the utmost Enquiry into this Prophecy that we may know by the Characters of it What and what manner of City the Spirit of God in it doth signifie and what or what manner of Time also It hath denoted or else we cannot so well judge what is 1 Pet. 1. 11. our Duty or what our Danger For though I would allow with as much Largeness of mind as can be desir'd that by the General Rules of Universal Scripture we may without the particular Understanding of this Prophecy be secur'd from both the Impurities and from the Judgments of this City by Adhering to the Truth and Purity and Mercy of the Christian Religion in Doctrine Discipline Worship and Practise according to the just measures of the Word of God yet we cannot do it with those particular Evidences of that Divine Reason nor with those vigorous Emotions of Zeal against such an unclean Communion as this Prophecy rightly apprehended would arm us with For certainly The Pen of this Divine Scribe was not made in vain I will therefore use the highest Diligence of Research and close Enquiry into the Prophecy concerning the City and the Times appointed to it and then concerning the Comming out of it and enforce the Charge here given to come out of it and all this as peculiarly deriv'd from this Holy Oracle in comparison of which all the Streams deriv'd from Antiquity are Low and Flat in shewing the Great Abominations of that City But Blessed is he that Readeth and They who Hear the Words of this Prophecy for now the Time is more at hand as to what we are now to Treat of than when the Oracle was first given although each part of this Prophecy was in its own Time and Order at Hand according to the Line wherein each Thing was to come to pass and which Line began in the Things that were first to come to pass and did come to pass from the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ which are but one Time in the Account of Prophecy as we say in Law The whole of each Term is but one Day and from thence the Revelation is dated as from its Epoch or Beginning-Point First therefore concerning the City there are such Characters as undeniably assure us This City can be no other than the City Rome that is here thus describ'd The City resembled by a Woman a not only Imperious but Charact. 1 Imperial whorish Woman is plainly Expounded by the Angel to be a City And it is usual in Prophecy to Figure Cities by that Embleme of a Woman and not only Cities but Churches as Revel c. 17. c. 18. Zion by a Woman grieved in Spirit the True Church in this Prophecy is often Typ'd by a Woman the New Jerusalem by the Bride the Lambs Wife And Adulterous Churches by Adulterous Women as Aholiab and Aholibah are the Pictures of Samaria Ezek. 23. and Jerusalem both as Adulterous Cities and Churches But this Woman this Imperial and Imperious whorish Woman is affirm'd to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all the Emphasis and Force of Expression that can be The City The Great That hath now saith the Apostle John that I am in writing it at this very present Time the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth Now a City that had then the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth undeniably imported a Capital City the Seat of an Vniversal Monarchy at that Time. For as a Monarch hath in the very nature of a Monarch all subordinate Magistrates under him and accountable to Him so an Universal Monarchy hath States and Kingdoms under it that however in their particular Kingdoms They may be over and above all others yet still their Power is Limitable and accountable to and may be Appealed from to the Universal Monarchy and Power When therefore This City is said to be The City The Great Having at that Time a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth It is to say the City spoken of was at the Time when the Revelation was given the Seat of an Vniversal Monarchy and that some Supreme Power had its Imperial Residence there took its Title from that City exercis'd its Power under that Title and as the then present Head of that City bore up the City by such Title so that it is said to have a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth because such a Power so related to it had a Kingdom over all other Kingdoms far and near or had sueh an Universal Monarchy or Kingdom Now what City that was that had then a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth in the sense now declared besides the Notices of Universal History in that matter it is most evident from Scripture that it must be even that very City Rome for Augustus at that time the Emperour of Rome when our Lord was Born made a Decree that All the World viz. the World of the Roman Empire which Aspir'd as it were to equal the very Habitable Earth in Extent should come under a particular Census Luc. 2. 1. or be describ'd that so an Account of the large Bounds of the Dominion the Numerousness Strength and Riches of the Subjects might be render'd to Him. We read in the History of the Acts of the Apostles how great the Honour was for any City to be accounted a Member of that City that its Natives might be the Free-Born of that City It made such a City no mean City The Immunity of being so Free-born was so great that many purchas'd it at an exceeding Rate who had it not by Birth We find the Apostle Paul though he was a Jew and immediately subject to the Jewish Law yet as it were directed by an Impulse of Providence Appeals to Caesar's Tribunal as the Highest upon Earth These and Acts 22 28 many other Expressions assure us what City it was that at that Time Reigned over the Kings of the Earth And it was very necessary the Scripture that loves most in all weighty matters to be serv'd by its own Records should take this great Notice of the Roman Empire Because as the Fourth Monarchy it was of the Four the most Remarkable For
Power or as the Word signifies a Priviledge or Authority was given Him It sets out though not a Lawful Authority that was to be obey'd as is most apparent by every thing pertaining to this Beast yet It imports a signal permission and ordination of God's to that purpose and that He carryed the Woman as a King or Head of the Beast viz. of the Idolatrous Empire and by a Figure or Synechdochically the Beast Himself as Head oft denotes the whole Body For the driving this home to the purpose I am sensible It will be necessary to give Proof That the Beast c. 13. and c. 17. are one and the same Beast For if the Beast were not the same in both Chapters we could indeed have no guidance from the forty two Months assigned to the Beast c. 13. concerning the Time of the Beast c. 17. But if it be one and the same Beast in both Chapters then the forty two Months must needs be the Gauge of the Duration of the Beast c. 17. as It is c. 13. Now besides many Agreements between the Two Representations assuring them one and the same that would require much Discourse and Consideration of the whole Frame of this stupendious Point of the Prophecy I shall as I have endeavour'd all along in each Branch of this Discourse choose One that requires least Discourse and yet is most undeniable that is the Beast in the Beginning of chap. 13. who had one of his Heads Wounded and the Deadly Wound was healed is the Beast that had the Fourty Two Months limited to Him The very same Beast had by the Ministry and Service of the other Beast of whom I will not now enquire It being unnecessary to the Force of this Argument The very same Beast I say had an Image made to Him with which He is ever after so conjoyn'd that the Beast and his Image go inseparably together the very same Beast had the Number of his Name as also his Mark made particular unto Him All these the Beast that had the Fourty Two Months decreed to Him undeniably had for the Prophecy Affirms it in several express Words Calling the Beast that had these the First Beast the Beast that had a Wound by a Sword and did Live the Beast whose Deadly Wound was healed Now the very same Beast that hath the Image the Mark the Name the Number of the Name and was worshipped is He that is carryed all along with these infallible Characters upon Him through every Chapter of this Prophecy after his Description c. 13. till He is brought together with the Woman the City or Church under the seventh Vial and both utterly destroyed c. 19. And they who had gotten the Victory over his Image Mark Name Number of his Name and would not Worship Him nor his Image celebrate the Judgments of God made manifest upon the Woman the City and upon Him Cast into the Red Sea or Lake of Fire as Moses and the Israelites upon the Brink of the Red Sea of Old sung the Praises of God in casting Pharaoh and all his Host into that Red Sea a kind of Type of this Destruction c. 15. And after all was fully executed upon the City carryed upon the Beast upon the Beast Himself and upon his false Prophet and their whole Party They who are first and most eminent in the first Resurrection are they who had not worshipped the Beast nor his Image nor receiv'd his Mark nor his Name so manifestly referring to the Beast who had All these who is the Beast that had the Forty two Months assign'd to Him. c. 13. And indeed It is so far from two Beasts that there is not except that Beast whom the Prophecy calls the other Beast who had no Image Mark Name nor number of Name any more Beasts then this One Beast who had all these who is kept so distinct as not to be confounded by the special care and caution of the Divine Spirit And that other Beast first ministred to this grand Beast till He came to his Number and after serv'd Him as his false Prophet and they were adjudged both to the Lake together which I hope is full proof that the same Beast who had the forty two Months assigned to Him is the very Beast who bears Rome aloft in this c. 17. and supports its Time at this day And now the Time assign'd is very express in this Prophecy viz. Forty two Months which was the first point to be made out There must be substantial proof that the Time assign'd will Point 2 bear such a length as may comport with the Argument that is to reach from the Expiration of the seventh King above twelve hundred years ago and so onward till the Times of this Eighth King and seventh Head shall end also Now It is at first sight evident Forty two Months are naturally understood a Time so very short and curt that They afford no room nor space for Action that is great and considerable But it is as evident there is a Cyphar or prophetick Short-hand for Time that multiplies Days into Years and weeks of days into weeks of years and so consequentially and proportionably Months of Days into Months of Years and so proportionably these Months of Days into Months of Years And this hath been Standard for the Rate of prophetick Time ever since It was first set and seal'd by God Ezek. 4. 6. I have appointed thee each day for a year And that therefore It should be so here there is greatest Reason 1. Because It is eminent stupendious profoundest Prophecy even this whole Book of Revelation and particularly this of the City and of its Prince the Beast and requires deepest search and a Mind that hath Wisdom as is more than once admonished in this very point and part of the Prophecy that concerns the Beast as if it were the most dark misterious and lowest laid of any Thing in this whole Volume of Prophecy so that if ever there be place for such Interpretation of Time here it is 2. The necessity of deferring to the Prophecy it s own Grandeur requires this Interpretation of Time For when it portrays such a Power as the Beastial Power and Principality every stroke of which is great and admirable when It draws such a City or Community sitting upon it so every way wonderful as that John wonder'd with great Admiration and that principally and in a manner solely in relation to this Beast of the seventh Head and Eighth King and at the Woman upon Him. If the whole of this Grandeur Power and Principality both of the City and of the King for both are to be destroyed together were coup'd up within the short space of three years and a half how small and petite must the Prophecy be in describing with so great State and Eloquence of Types and words such a Mushrome City and Prince that should Rise and Fall before they could be known to Live or be warm in that
to Worship them having in the mean time their Consciences seared with a hot Iron whose Badges by which They are to be known are Forbidding to Marry and to Abstain from Meats making these Things the Cognisances of their Orders And have we not seen this Scripture fulfilled Did not the Apostle John Foretel a Great Antichrist of which the Little Antichrists in his Days were but Forerunners and did He not Foreshew a great Idolatry coming upon the Christian World in Derogation from the One Jesus Christ who is the True God and Eternal Life on which account He makes it the Farewel of his Epistle Little Children keep your selves from Idols Amen And have we not seen that great Idolatry against the New Testament in the Invocation of Angels of Saints and above all of the Virgin Mary as a plain Violation of the One Mediator Jesus Christ Equal to the Idolatry against the One God and the Worship of Him and that in all kinds of Imagery and even in a piece of Bread These certain Matters of Fact and of daily Experiment joyn'd with the Prophecy cannot but give a Plerophory a full measure of Assurance That this present Rome is that Community City or Church out of which we are call'd if we would be the People of God. Having now so far demonstrated that the City Church and Community out of which we are commanded to come is the very present Papal Rome It remains that we enforce the Command it self to come out of it by particular Inferences from it For hence It appears how necessary It is for Christians in general Infer 1 to know and to take notice that there is such an Apostacy from Christian Religion disguised under the Name of Catholick Christianity that hath concentred it self in Rome under the name of an Vniversal Church and in such a Head of it as the Pope under the name of Head of the Church and Vicar of Christ The Apostle not only speaking Face to Face Not only when with them but by Epistle when at distance from them writing to the Thessalonians thought it a point of great Moment and of deepest Interest to inform them of it and to possess them of it and in them all Christians Learned or Unlearned And the Love of God the Father gave the Revelation to Jesus Christ to shew it to his Servants as containing this as One of the greatest Points of it viz. Concerning this Apostasie the Seat and Residence of it this Prostituted Church and City and the Beast the Prince of it It can therefore be no such mysterious or unnecessary Doctrine as It is generally suppos'd but hath its greatest and most Fundamental Uses That the true Christianity may by the Compare be more known and understood in its true Beauty and Excellency being a Pure Solid Even Supreme Extract and Cube given from the Increated Unerring Wisdom of God in the Face of Jesus Christ Divine Heavenly Spiritual Pure and Chaste Full of Mercy and of all good Fruits But Popery is an Irregular Odd Traditional Christianity made up of Idolatrous and Superstitious Rites Pomp Riches and Pleasures of Sensuality All of the present Evil World full of Rage Cruelty and Blood against All who do not swallow their monstrous Articles of Faith and submit to that slavery of their Antichristian Government To keep men therefore wholly to that Excellent Rule of the Word of God in Doctrine Worship and Practice and under that most merciful Discipline it is necessary to know the Goodness of the One by the Badness of the other That one Grand Reason of the so sad Imprevalency of so excellent a Religion as the Religion of Jesus Christ might be understood The great Eclipse of it is by so foul an Apostacy and Mystery of Iniquity casting so black a shade upon it and such a Cloud of Tares upon the Field of Wheat And this hath so universally obscured Christianity and allay'd its Supreme Excellency and turn'd it into so worldly a Religion that it neither hath nor can be Refin'd to it self till that whole Apostasie be consum'd out of the World And then but not till then there will be another Face of Christianity And this is necessary to be known to abate the Scandal That the dark Interposition between the Kingdom of Jesus Christ according to all the Prophecies of Scripture due to him at his Resurrection and the glory of it may be duely apprehended For the Mystery of Iniquity work'd early that it might arise to the taking away the true daily Sacrifice of Christian Religion and scattering the power of the Holy People for Time Times and half a Time. Now this is most necessary to be known to take off the Scandal of so many Massive Prophecies and Promises as were to ensue on the Kingdom of the Messiah both in relation to the Jews and to the whole World of Mankind not yet come to pass but we ought against it deeply to consider There was to be forty two months of the Gentiles and of the Beast running parallel to the twelve hundred sixty days Sackcloth of the Witnesses and the Wilderness-state of the Church all which was to be by the Fathers own Appointment who reserv'd Times even as that Day and Hour in his own Cognisance or Right of Dispose before the Kingdom of Christ and the glorious Accomplishment of the Prophecies such as Esay 2. 1. Zech. 14. with innumerable more which being so peculiar to that Kingdom cannot be adjourn'd to the Day of Judgment as generally understood For then Christ shall render up the Kingdom to God and the Father and God shall be All in All. There arises in the wise Ordination of God a mutual Justifieation of the Prophecy by the Separation from Rome upon the general Principles and Rules of the Word of God without close and strict and express Attendance to the Prophecy or deriving Directions from that for how is the Prophecy honour'd and vindicated in commanding to Come out of that City and Church which Holy Wise and Conscientious Christians see Reason and just Grounds from its extream Pollutions in Doctrine Worship and Practice and the Imperiousness of its Tyranny to come out from although they did not understand Prephecy so commanding them And how could Prophecy be either understood or fulfill'd if Things were not so bad upon such Fundamental Accounts How could it be verified that Prophecy were so to be interpreted if there were not so great Reasons for Coming out supposing there had been no such Prophecy On the other side How is the Separation justified by the Prophecy thus rightly expounded and interpreted For who might not scruple that so great and so long an Apostacy should grow up out of the Profession of Christianity and that the Prophecy of the New Testament should not have seen and foretold it So that it were without this Reason also hardly to be believed with that firmness and full Assurance that now it is viz. that such an Apostacy is And why
should there be no easier a Remedy might men say than a Separation so solemn and avowed a Separation if there were not the Grand Prejudice against so guilty a Community that Prophecy hath long ago pass'd upon it There ought at least to be all means of Reconciliation perpetually us'd And who could believe they should be so long after so many Debates ineffectual if there had not been a Prophecy commanding the People of God to come out of it and not to expect its Repentance So that either it would not have been so bad as to necessitate such a Separation or we may be certain there is Prophecy concerning it Such a Prophecy and such an Apostacy undoubtedly belong to and interlock one within another Lastly what greater or better Determination of these everlasting Disputes than to seek into Divine Prophecy and to find them determin'd and decided so long ago by it against that prostituted Church and mystical City and on the side of the Separation This certainly in the nature of the Thing must surer and more speedily make an end of Controversie than those endless Combatings out of Antiquity for when all the Incertainties of the ways of Discourse among the Ancients may leave us in an Amaze and bewildred the Testimonies of God are sure Again Those Ancients might be deceived as Men but the Rightousness of Divine Oracles is Everlasting yea how great Certainty do these Prophetick parts of Scripture give to the Expositions and Discourses out of Doctrinal parts of Scripture And certainly had God stirr'd up the Spirits of the Reformed by the most industrious Indeed prophecy if not thus conceal'd could not have been fulfill'd Searches into the Word of God to have conjoyn'd the one with the other and to have bestow'd that Time and Diligence in the Explication of Prophecy of Scripture that they have done in Researches into the Ancients the Controversie had been long ago at an end and the Apostasie exploded But God hath in the deep ways of his Judgment reserved the lustre of open Prophecy to the Times nearer to the Kingdom and Coming of Christ and the Brightness of his Appearance that so the Man of Sin May be consum'd by it Hereby arises a Judgment upon other Prophesies of Scripture that respect this Grand Apostacy as that of the Apostle John's Spirit of Antichrist and The Antichrist For whatever Community or City under the Name of a Church is continually saying Who shall go up to Heaven as to other Mediators besides the One Mediator Brings down Christ from Above as if He had not Ascended or were not Set down on the Right Hand of God to make Intercession for us And when the same False Church is continually Saying Who shall descend into the Deep of Purgatory by those many Sacrifices and ways of Propitiation This is to bring up Christ from the Dead as if He Himself had not made a perfect Sacrifice Once for all All which are a perfect Denial that Christ is come in the Flesh and an Antichrist in many regards worse then Judaism and always branded as Heatheanism in the Prophecy and the very worst of Heathenism This Prophecy rightly understood would expound to us that whole prophetical Chapter 2 Pet. 3. those Predictions of our Saviour concerning the Signs of his coming and of the End of the World Those three Mystical Cities Sodom Samaria and Jerusalem that are never to be recover'd that Edom the Border of wickedness against which God hath indignation for ever It would expound to us that Discourse of the Apostle against any Church being so wise in its own conceit as to think it self perfect till the Calling and Conversion of the Jews Those dreadful Menaces on the then truly Famous Roman Christian Church of its being Cut off and that more irrecoverably than the Jews who shall be grassed in again e're the end of the World into their own Olive But it is beyond my Intention to ingage further into these Things and it is enough to give only Intimations of them It shews us the Care God hath taken of his Servants in all Times since the first working Inference 2 of the Mystery of Iniquity to preserve them out of the Midst of this Congregation and Assembly of the Dead these Deeps of Hell the Damnation of those who are given up to the strong Delusions of Believing so horrible a Lye upon Christianity as Popery is who perish in not Receiving the Truth in the Love of it Who Believ'd not the Truth but had Pleasure in the Deceivableness of Vnrighteousness whose names are not written in the Lambs Book of Life from the Foundation of the World Who are led away with the Errors of the Wicked God hath graciously Sealed his own Servants whom he hath chosen to Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of Truth who are not wandring Stars falling from their own Stedfastness but fix'd by Grace as the Wise who shall shine as the Firmament and as the Stars for Ever let us therefore Consider the several Methods of the Grace of God herein and the various degrees of it according to the variety of Times and of the various Temptations upon them to Seduction All which have been so many Comings out of his People from this Babylon 1. That which hath been Universal to all his Saints and Servants hath been the Ingaging them to stand fast in the Traditions The True sincere Traditions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ first in the immediate word of the Apostles Preaching by the Holy Ghost sent from Heaven and then Sealed in Scripture without taking from or adding thereto in Doctrine Worship Practise or Government 2. When this Apostasie was risen so High that the Gentiles were come to their Forty two Months His Servants were so observant of it that they immediately put on their Sackcloth and Prophecied in it against the Apostasie and when the Apostasie rose higher and This was precisely their Testimony Finish'd before their prophecy ends Rev. 11. 7. became a Throne of Satan the Pope became a Balam an exalted False Prophet yet they did not Deny the Name of Christ but held fast his Name Even in the time when Antipas or the Anti-Papal Martyrs were slain Although in the mean time They might not be wholly free from some of the shade of that Doctrine on which account It is said They had those who held the Doctrine of Balam and are call'd the Church of Pergamus that High Tow'ring Church that was then aspiring higher and higher These Witnesses were retired out of it while in the midst of all that Corruption and they Fed on hidden Manna and were satisfied with the Absolution of the White Stone peculiar to themselves which all the World Damn'd for Hereticks which shewed they were retired form Rome and call'd by its Name as if of that Church although thus gently censur'd 3. When this City was become Jezebel the Mother of Harlots under the Name of a Church and that the Witnesses of Christ were slain by her and her Prince that had sold Himself to Work Wickedness before the Lord They then declar'd against it as such a Painted Prostitute and separated from it though they were encompass'd with it as with Lyons and Men set on fire with Rage to Burn them Alive and were forced to suffer this False Church while they were come out so far as not to have nor had it in the Account and Reputation of a Church and yet in signification of being in the midst of it are called Thyatyra One of its Names 4. The Churches of the Reformation made not only an avow'd Separation from it by Coming out of it but by Laws and Sanctions prohibited the Superstitions and Idolatrys of it and of its Prince who ought to be under this Two-fold Caution as the Church of Sardis is Admonish'd and They under it 1. Of pursuing the Reformation to the utmost according to the Highest Spirit and Truest Perfection of it being else in Danger of being Reprov'd for not having their Garments Pure and undefiled nor their Works filled up before God in a perfect Coming Out 2. Of not receiving back into a Sufferance or Toleration the open bare-fac'd avow'd Sins of Spiritual Sodom and its Impurities seeing the Providence of God hath so far deliver'd them lest Many Return as a Dog to the Vomit and have Complacency in what was cast out with Detestation by a Nation and Church 5. But whereas these Things have not yet been done by the Servants of God so avowedly under the Banner of this Prophecy when the Beast's Forty Two Months are out There shall be more Solemn Voices that Babylon is Fallen is Fallen and if any Man continue to Worship the Beast c. He shall Drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God without mixture That All may Come Out and Reform 9. When the Vials are about to be powred out as the Plagues of Aegypt and Fire from Heaven upon this Spiritual Sodom and Aegypt there may be some Romanists in it who pertain to the Election of Grace on whom the Lord being Merciful to them He lays hold and pulls them as Brands out of the Burning and even forces them to come Out as of old He pull'd Lot out of Sodom that very Moment and with a Holy Violence of Grace to them Rescues them from the Flames After that Time He that is Filthy shall be Filthy still He that is Vnjust shall be unjust still But He that is Justified from that Apostasie shall be for ever justified from it After that time there is neither Reformation nor Apostasie FINIS