belongs to those who practice according to the pure and undefiled Rules of Christian Worship given in this Prophecy 4 John to the Seven 6 Eminent Churches in Asia the Less Grace i. e. the free and undeserved Love and Assistance of God be unto you and 7 Peace i. e. all manner of Prosperity especially Spiritual from 8 him or The which is and which was and which is to come i. e. the Eternal and Immutable God Exod. 3.14 who can therefore reveal and will certainly accomplish all which is here foretold and which belongs unto his Church from the beginning unto the end of Time and from the 9 Seven Spirits i. e. the Holy Ghost or Spirit Zach. 4.2 6. which are before his Throne i. e. is present and of Counsel with him who sits on the Throne working and communicating Graces and Gifts by its Operations according to his supreme Good Pleasure and Determination 6 The Seven Churches particularly mentioned in the 11th Verse were the most eminent and flourishing of those which were under the peculiar Care and Government of John upon which account they might be very well made choice of by the Holy Spirit amongst many others which were then probably planted in Asia Minor now called Natolia Some Travellers particularly the Ingenious Mr. Spoon have remarked several Circumstances of their present Condition answerable to the Judgments denounced against them in the following Epistles which may render it something probable that they were immediately directed unto them although the Arguments brought by Dr. Moor and others seem to me to carry with them a full Conviction of what Grotius confesses that the seven Asiatick Churches are but a Pattern and Example of the sevenfold state and quality successive temper and condition of the Universal Church from the beginning to the end of it of which perhaps for it is not a thing unusual in Scripture there may be some intimation in their Names as Grotius has observed which might probably have been made out more clearly if we had a more particular account of the ancient History and circumstances of those Churches however that they are Mystical and not barely Literal Epistles I shall endeavour to prove by observations drawn from the Text it self in my following Annotations and shall not rest upon extrinsecal and more remote Arguments being sufficiently convinced of the frequent weakness of Reasoning upon such Topicks in these matters But upon an impartial consideration of all circumstances I cannot but be of opinion That these seven Asiatick Churches represent the seven Periods and Successions of the Vniversal Church which in correspondence to the Creation a Type of God's Transactions with his Church is according to the known Tradition of the Jews after six thousand years of Labour and Imperfection to enjoy a seventh of Peace Holiness and Perfection from whence the Pythagoreans whose Philosophy came from the East took their Doctrine of the perfection of this Number which is in Scripture and particularly in this Prophecy often made use of in what relates to Christ and his Kingdom and is a perfect number not upon an Arithmetical account for the Number Six is the first perfect Arithmetical one but upon a Mystical in memory of God's having finished and perfected his Works on the Seventb day and of the Sabbatical Rest of the Church in the Seventh Thousand Year of the World after Six remarkable Periods of it from Christ's Resurrection of which more hereafter on Chap. 20. 5. Howsoever thus much is certain That what is contained in these Epistles ought to be duly considered by all Churches that so they may avoid the Faults therein reprehended and the Punishments threatned in them For what is therein written is written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the World are come 7 Peace especially Spiritual being the greatest of blessings is put in Scripture to denote all manner of Prosperity 8 The That is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jehovah who is Being it self for these Words are an Explication of that Sacred Name See the Interpreters on Exod. 3.14 9 It is the Opinion of Mr. Mede Disc 10. and of Dr. Hammond on the place That by the Seven Spirits are to be understood Seven Angels But besides that as Grotius notes on the place Spirits are distinguished from Angels in the Fifth Chapter and that Chap. 4. 5. they are called the Seven Spirits of God which is a Title not given to Angels in Scripture it is not easily accountable why Angels should be placed in the same rank with the Persons of the Trinity and that before the Son and that Grace should be Prayed and Wished for from them when all good Gifts are said by the Apostle James Chap. 1. 17. to come from above from the Father of Lights and there being no form of a Salutation or Blessing in Scripture in the name of a meer Angel for the Angel Gen. 48.15.6 is Christ and not a created Angel such an Interpretation of these Words would give a greater Encouragement to Creature-Worship than can be imagined to have been given in this Prophecy which is so severe against all Idolatry and in which this very Apostle was twice reprehended for offering to give Worship to an Angel And therefore there being no necessity of interpreting the words in this Sense it is certainly the safest and the truest way in my Opinion to understand them concerning the Holy Spirit represented here by Seven Spirits in respect of his Various but Perfect Operations and Gifts denoted by Seven the Number of Perfection as we have already noted and shall declare more fully hereafter to the Vniversal Church in the Sevenfold successive State of it Whereupon Zach. 4. the Seven Lamps at the 2d Verse are at the 6th Verse said to be by God's Spirit That is from the Plenitude of the Holy Spirit which in those Seven Lamps diffused its Mighty and Perfect Operations But although Angels are not to be placed before Christ yet the Order of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity is not always observed in Scripture not in that very Apostolick Benediction 2 Cor. 13. where the Grace of Christ is placed first and in this Form of Benediction the Holy Ghost is put before Christ because more was to be spoken concerning him afterwards who was therefore more conveniently to be reserved unto the last place 5 And from 10 Jesus Christ who is the Faithful Witness of his Fathers Will and a Prophet worthy to be believed and the first begotten of or first born from the Dead by his being first raised which is a new Birth or a Regeneration Acts 13.33 and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth i. e. the chief Ruler and Disposer of the Kingdoms of Men especially the four Monarchies which shall be broken to Peices and consumed by his Kingdom Dan. 2 44.4 17. unto him that Loved us unto the Death John 15.13 and washed us from our sins in or by his own Blood shed for them 10 Note here the great
greatest moment for which the Angel was most concerned and being to be accomplished in the last place were more immediately to be referred to in the Answer which was to be returned The Question proposed then is How long it was to be to the End of all those things which he had seen of which the Particulars mentioned were to be fulfilled in the last place And the Words are to be rendred thus according to the Hebrew Text How long the Vision the Daily c. and not concerning the Daily the Question being How long the Vision as well as how long the Daily and the Transgression of Desolation Obs 3. This Question must in all propriety of Speech be meant concerning a Period of Time to be deduced from the beginning of the Events foretold to the End of them the Answer to the Question being That the Vision should be unto 2300 Days viz. from the Time when the Effect of the Vision should first take place according to which sense a (b) Jachiad in Daniel per L' Empereur Jew has thus acutely paraphrased this Verse Then the Angel answered That the Streights in which they were were to last from the very time of the Vision to the Evening or Night of the Morning or Day of the two thousand three hundred years Obs 4. It is expresly contrary to the very Words of the Text to date these days from the ceasing of the daily Sacrifice the Question being not How long shall it be from the polluting of the Sanctuary to the cleansing of it but How long shall the Vision be That is the whole Vision he had before seen concerning the Medo-Persian and Grecian Empire as well as the taking away of the daily Sacrifice Obs 5. The Subject-Matter of the Vision is 1. Concerning the Medo Persian Empire Ver. 20. 2. Concerning the Greek Empire their first King Alexander and the Division of that Empire into Four Kingdoms upon his Death Ver. 21 22. 3. Concerning a Little Horn or King who was to rise out of One of those Four Kingdoms in the latter time or at the latter End of their Kingdom Ver. 9 23. which I take to be at least principally and in its chief mystical sense the Little Horn or Antichristian King mentioned Dan. 7.8 which came up from amongst the Ten horns of the Fourth Beast which is the Roman Empire and is said here at the 9th Verse to come up out of the Four Notable Horns towards the Four Winds of heaven that is out of the Western part of the World or of the Vniversal Monarchy of the Grecians where the Roman Power was seated and where it first appeared in Macedon to encroach upon the Grecian and the (a) Mr. Mede page 654 749. Fourth Kingdom brought the Third into its Subjection by conquering Greece the Western and Head Province of that Empire Out of this Western Horn or Kingdom the Roman Power with its Little Horn amongst its ten horns came forth which alone is here mentioned because that by it the Exploits specified in the following Verses were chiefly to be performed many of which can also agree to no other and none of them to any so properly as to the Antichristian King who is certainly called a Little Horn in the 7th Chapter and has Characters given him there parallel to those in this Chapter as in speaking great things Ver. 8. in having a look more stout and fierce than his Fellows Ver. 20. in prevailing against the Saints and the holy people and in being broken without hands by the Ancient of Days Ver. 21 22. Obs 6. Although some passages of the Vision from Verse 9 to Verse 12. may be understood of Antiochus the Type of Antichrist yet all of it and especially the Exposition of it from Verse 23 to 25. cannot be possibly meant concerning him who understood not dark Sentences nor was a King of any great Policy or Craft as this little horn is described Verses 23 24 25. but is expresly noted by (a) Liv. lib. 41. Foy-Vaillant de Seleucid Imper. pag. 161-163 Historians to have behaved himself so strangely and so unequally that it was much doubted amongst the wisest whether he were a Fool or a mad man And the Characters given in those Verses of the little horn are so utterly inconsistent with the Story of Antiochus and are so agreeable to the Antichristian King that even Dr. Moor is at last forced to confess That this Passage was put in by the Spirit of Prophecy with a more peculiar respect to Antichrist himself in whom they are more eminently fulfilled than to Antiochus his Type Obs 7. A Day being taken in other parts of Prophecy for a Prophetical Day or a Day of Years there is no Reason why it should be understood otherwise in this place it being called here Evening-Morning upon another account as we have observed at the beginning of this Annotation and not to shew as Dr. Moor thinks that Prophetical Days are not here meant but Natural Days which will amount but to six Years three Months and twenty Days a very small space of Time and which can be brought to comport only with the six Years Prophanations of Antiochus which is but a part of the Vision and cannot be here referred to as appears from Observation 4th and the following ones Obs 8. The Vision begins with the Medo-Persian Empire as plainly appears from the Explication of it Verse 20. And if the Vision begins there then the Line of Time must begin there too because it is the measure of it according to Obs 2 and 3. Obs 9. The Vision ends at the cleansing of the Sanctuary as appears from Verse 14. Then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed viz. at the End of 2300 days which were to last to that time Which cannot be meant concerning the particular cleansing of it by Maccabeus from the Prophanations of Antiochus because this could not be called the Last End of the Indignation of God the Temple having been afterwards polluted and blasphemed by the Successors (a) 1 Maccab. 6 62.7 33-50 and Chap. 9. of Antiochus and trodden under foot and entirely destroyed by the Romans Obs 10. This Line of Time is not yet at an end because the daily Sacrifice of the Jews is not yet restored nor their Desolations determined but they are still in a despicable condition their Sanstuary and City being trodden under foot by the Turks who at present have it in their possession Obs 11. The beginning of the Medo-Persian Empire is to be dated by the Joynt Consent of History and of the latest and best Chronologers from the taking of Babylon by Cyrus from whence the Scripture reckons the first year of Cyrus meaning thereby the first year of his Reign over the Babylonion Empire which was the last of the Seventy Years Captivity of the Jews and the first of their Return into their Countrey upon the Edict of Cyrus Now from a due consideration of what hath been said we
that the Apostle might not seem to contradict what he had said just before concerning the Dead rising first the surviving Saints should be caught up in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air to be with him to all Eternity in Heaven Which is also asserted by the Apostle at the 15th Verse where he says that the Saints who shall be alive at the Day of Judgment shall not prevent them which are asleep that is shall not rise before them or shall not (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nequaquam assequemur sive attingemus Ludov. de Dieu attain the same State of Incorruptibility and Immortality they shall enjoy at the very moment of the sounding of the last Trump until afterwards which distance of Time is not determined by the Apostle and may be many Years for ought that is asserted in this place by him because the same word is used 1 Cor. 15.23 concerning the distance betwixt Christ's Resurrection and that of the Dead Saints which is now almost the space of seventeen hundred Years And although the Apostle 1 Thes 4.17 seems to assert that the Living Saints shall be caught up together with the Dead Saints yet those words must not be so understood as if the Living Saints were caught up at the same moment that the Dead Saints rise for then the Apostle would contradict himself but must be understood according to the acceptation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.12 viz. that they shall be caught up in their own Order and Time as well as the other and be in the like State with them or else do rather refer to the last joynt Ascent of both together into the higher Regions of the Air the appearance of Christ hitherto having been perhaps in some lower parts of it in order to their being for ever with the Lord. This and such like Parallels betwixt the Doctrinal and Prophetical parts of Scripture as to this Point of the Resurrection did incline me to understand it in a litteral Sense which I was for a long while averse to as I since find Mr. (a) Pag. 770. Epist. 20. Mede was until by a more close consideration of what Dr. Beverley hath discoursed on this Point I was fully convinced 22 By Second Death is meant Final Eternal Punishment to distinguish it from the First Death of the slain with the Sword of Christ's Mouth for at the very beginning of Christs Kingdom the Wicked are slain by the Conviction Sentence and Condemnation of Christ's Gospel and Appearance which is called the making of his Foes his Footstool Psalm 110.1 1 Cor. 15.25 Rom. 16.20 Heb. 2 5-9 whereby the first Act of Christ's Regal Power at his first sending of the Rod of his strength out of Zion to bring his Enemies under the Footstool of his Throne seems to be signified under which they lie in a state of Death that is Condemnation and Inability to act any thing against Christ's Kingdom until the Thousand Years are accomplished when they are permitted to break forth into open Enmity and Hostility and are at last utterly subdued and cast into the Lake to suffer Eternal Punishments and the Son shall put down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or abolish and bring to naught all his Enemies even Death it self the last Enemy to be subdued 1 Cor. 15.24 26. But those who are partakers in the first Resurrection being found alive at Christ's first appearing in his Kingdom are continued in that State and suffer no Death at all neither the first proceeding from the Convictions of Christ's Gospel and Judgments nor the second of final Condemnation 23 They may be said to Reign with Christ in the sense that we are said to be crucified with Christ and to live with him for the Personal (a) See Dr. Homes and Mr. Mather de Signo Filii Hominis Reign of Christ upon Earth cannot be proved from Scripture whatsoever Glorious Appearances may be of his Humanity from his Throne in the Clouds and the possession of the Kingdom is given to the Saints in Daniel of which more hereafter as occasion offers 24 Here it may be observed 1. That the same individual Thousand Years are meant throughout the whole Chapter as appears from the Greek Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby reference is made to each foregoing Thousand Years and it is shewn that they are the same For Satan is bound a Thousand Years Verse 2. and is restrained Verse 3. from deceiving the Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 during the same thousand Years The Dead Saints and Martyrs live and Reign with Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the same space of Years Verse 4. during which also the Wicked are in a state of Death Verse 5. The Living Saints are partakers in the first Resurrection during a Thousand Years Verse 6. at the End of which very Thousand Years Satan is loosed Verse 7. Whence it will follow that the Thousand Years during which Satan was bound are the same with those during which the Living Saints Reigned with Christ and that they are the same with the Thousand Years assigned to the Dead Saints raised and the Dead State of the Wicked because they which agree in one Third must agree amongst themselves 2. That there are but three sorts of Mankind to whom the Thousand Years are assigned viz. The Dead-raised Saints and Martyrs The Dead Wicked raised to a Spiritual and Political Death and the Living Saints changed for there are only so many parts or sorts of Mankind in the state of the Thousand Years and it is not assigned to any Living-Wicked who shall live wickedly and then die because whatsoever liveth at all shall live Ezek. 47.9 7 And when the foregoing Thousand Years during which he had been bound and restrained from deceiving the Nations Verse 2 3 were expired Satan shall be 25 loosed out of his Prison i. e. his close Restraints from all power and liberty of Temptation shall be taken off 25 Satan who was always a Prisoner and in everlasting Chains under Darkness unto the Judgment of the Great Day was more peculiarly restrained during the Thousand Years from all power of Temptation which he had exercised notwithstanding his Chains of Darkness from the time of his Fall from his first Estate until then when he was closely confined by the Glorious Appearance of Christ and his Kingdom in the New Heaven and Earth but when that Appearance was withdrawn from the New Earth then Satan was as it were loosed and at liberty to tempt which he could not do whilst the Holiness Righteousness Truth and Justice of Christ's Kingdom appeared in their full Power and Glory 8 And shall go out of his Prison and Restraints to and fro in the Earth seeking whom he may devour to deceive the 26 Nations which are in the four * quarters or Corners of the Earth Gog 27 and Magog i. e. the Enemies of God and his Christ Ezek. 38.2 3.39 8. Rev. 19.18 19 21.
Pretences and punish the Faults of this Succession and to purge and purifie it 38 Thyatira is distant from Pergamus about Forty Eight Miles and there is not now so much as One Christian Church in it Stephanus the Geographer tells us that this City which was before called Pelopea and Semiramis was named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and afterwards Thyatira by Seleucus Nicanor upon the News he received there of the Birth of a Daughter Which Name may therefore denote according to the Allusion observed in the other Names An idolatrous Daughter of an idolatrous Mother Jezebel who was as the Scripture Notes 1 Kings 16.31 The Daughter of Ethbaal the King of the Zidonians and therefore fit to represent the Woman described Chap. 17. of this Prophecy who was the Idolatrous Mother of the Apostate Daughter or Church of this Succession and the Daughter of Paganism as Jezebel was of Ethbaal the Zidonian 39 Christ here makes himself more plainly known than he had hitherto done and that by his Supreme Title the Son of God because that his Kingdom was now to arise more visibly out of the Apostasy and therefore to be owned and protected by him their Supreme Sovereign who was to destroy their Enemies and give them power over the Nations 19 I know thy Works in order to the propagating of my Kingdom and Charity or Love and Zeal towards me which thou hast not left or abated Verse 4. and Service in thy Ministry and towards the poor Saints Rom. 15.25 31. 2 Cor. 8.4 and Faith and Patience during the Corruptions and Persecutions of the Apostasy and 40 thy Works and the last works of the Church typified by this State to be performed by them at Christ's coming to his Kingdom Verse 25 26. to be more in Number and Quality then the first Works at their first remarkable Rising out of the Apostasy 40 Here their Works are twice mentioned and their last are said to be more than their first whereby is signified the the Faithful of this Succession whom we have supposed to be the Waldenses and Albigenses should towards the approach of Christ's Kingdom do things surpassing their first Works which yet were very great they having at first proselyted an incredible Number of all Ranks and Nations as appears from History and even the Confession of their Enemies for which see Vsher Thuanus and a late English Treatise 20 Notwithstanding I have a few or some little things against thee because thou sufferest 41 that Notorious Cursed woman 2 Kings 9 34. Jezebel 42 i. e. the Papal Apostasy which calleth her self a Prophetess i. e. pretendeth to and boasteth of Infallihility 43 and miraculous Gifts to teach and to seduce by her cunning Devices 2 Kings 9.22 my Servants professing Christianity to commit Spiritual Fornication by Idolatry and to eat things sacrificed unto Idols See Verse 14. 41 The True Church is blamed for suffering the Apostasy although they were kept under by its Power and Dominion because it was as yet so imperfect in its Gifts and Graces as not to be able utterly to cast out those Corruptions which cannot stand against the power of God's Word when it appears in its utmost Efficacy 42 A fit Type of the Romish Apostasy 1. for Idolatry 1 Kings 16.31 32. 2 Kings 9.22 2. for Cruelty and persecuting of God's Prophets or Witnesses that protested against Idolatry 1 Kings 18 4.19 2 10. 2 Kings 9.7 3. for stirring up Ahab or the Secular Magistrate to persecute God's Servants and to draw them to Idolatry by false witnessing against them 1 Kings 21.8 9 10 25 26. 4. for her Paint and Whorish Attire and her Witchcraft or subtile Allurements to entice to Idolatry and keep Men in her Communion and her impudent impenitence 2 Kings 9.22 30. and lastly for the manner of her Destruction which was so entire as that of the Apostasy will be Vers 27. that nothing remained of her but so much as might serve for a Monument of her Destruction 2 Kings 9 35-37 43 Which Doctrine began to be advanced in this Succession of the Church by the Schoolmen who appeared A. D. 1200. And perhaps Jezebel might have been one of the Prophetesses of Baal for we read 1 Kings 18.19 that an hundred of them eat at her Table it being probably their Office to provide for and Minister to the Prophets which may also be further conjectured from her conversing with them it being usual for the Disciples of the True Prophets to be seized with their Enthusiasms as Saul was when he was amongst the Prophets which might be imitated by the evil Spirits in the idolatrous Prophets 22 And I gave her space 44 to repent of her Fornications i. e. her Idolatry and she repented not 44 Which may be dated from the time of the more publick Appearance of the Witnesses under the General Name of Waldenses about A. D. 1100. or rather if we compare this place with its parallel Chap. 9.20 21. from the Inroads of the Turks into the Eastern Empire ending in the taking Constantinople A. D. 1453 until the Reformation A.D. 1517. when the Sardian State began at the appearing of Luther which great punishment of God upon the Eastern Empire for its Idolatry having not its due influence upon the Western God was pleased to raise up Princes who threw off the Romish Vsurpations and Corruptions and openly owned and protected the Reformation which is the Sardian State of the Church as it is favoured by Protestant Princes as that of Thyatira is the Type of the True Church under the Oppression of Popish ones that being the Church-State immediately following the foregoing Pergamenian State which was under the power of Satan's Throne in a hidden condition having in it Idolaters which it could not cast out because of the power of the prevailing part of the Church For Thyatira's suffering of the Woman was not a willing connivance but one arising from a necessity of the great Oppression she was under and the imperfectness of their Church-State for if it had been a voluntary connivance at Idolatry Christ would not have said that he had only a few or some small things against them Neither would this State have been approved by him so far as to bid them hold fast that which they had already And this space is typified by the time of Repentance which God gave Jezebel which was from Elijah's denouncing Judgment against her 1 Kings 21.23 until her Death accompanied with an impudent impenitence 2 Kings 9 30-37 22 Behold I will cast her into a Bed 45 of languishing Psalm 41.3 and them that commit Adultery with her by being Partakers with her in Idolatry Chap. 17.2 into great tribulation at the pouring out of the Vials chap. 16. except they repent 46 of their deeds 45 Instead of the Beds of her Whoredom and Idolatry alluding to Jezebel's Adultery And it is apparent that the Romish Church hath been in a languishing and decaying Condition ever since the appearing
4.19 Salaho Ddin who took Aegypt from the Saracenick Chalifs about A. D. 1169. where the Turkish and Circassian Mamlucs i. e. Slaves or Servants afterwards bore sway for about 275 years as Dr. Pocock informs us in his Supplement to Abul-Pharajai But on a sudden A. D. (d) Abul-phar p. 280-368 1202. there arose a New Empire in the World the Mogul-Tartars or Tatars called so from a (e) Bizar de reb Perfic River in that Countrey of that Name falling in upon the Eastern Empire of the Turks and making Incursions as far as Asia Minor which the Arabians call Rumaea and at last taking Bagdad A. D. 1258. whereby the Dynasty of the Arabian Mussulmen was transferred unto the Kings of the Mogul-Tartars according to Abul-pharajai which Empire nevertheless lasted not long in those parts for it was broken by mutual Discords about A. D. 1335. where Dr. (a) Supplem ad Abul-phar pag. 1-6 Pocock places the end of that Dynasty nothing considerable being performed by them until the Time of Tamerlan Timur Lenc who died A. D. 1404. Since which time they have contained themselves within their own Eastern bounds and have not carried their Arms into the Western parts This great and terrible Invasion gave occasion to the Rise of the (b) Annal. Turcici Pandect Turcic Histor. Musulman per Leunclav Pocock Supplem ad Abul-phar pag. 41-53 Ottoman Turks who being beaten out of Asia by the Mogul-Tartars and hearing of the Fame of the Sultans of Iconium began their March from the Province of Mahan in the Dominions of the Persians towards Asia Minor A. D. 1214. under the Conduct of Solyman-Shahum to one of whose Sons he himself being drowned at the passing of Euphrates Aladin Sultan of Iconium assigned a Portion of Land near the Mountains of Armenia From which small beginnings they raised themselves by their Valour and the Favour of Aladin to such a heighth that A. D. 1299. (c) Dr. Pocock Supplem pag. 42. Othman commonly called Ottoman Solyman's Grandchild took the Name of Sultan and so enlarged their Dominions that his Son he himself dying A. D. 1325. took Brusia formerly Prusa a City of Bithynia either that Year or very soon after and made it the First Seat as Hadrianople was afterwards and Constantinople is now of the mighty Ottoman Empire which (d) Leunclav Histor pag. 78 85 93. succeeded the Aladinian Sultany after it had been established in Asia Minor about Ninety Years Since which time their History is so well known that I shall not further insist upon it having brought it down to the Times here mentioned viz. their most Famous passing the River Euphrates and that at a time as (a) Narrat Turcic pag. 41. Camerarius has very well noted when Ecclesiastical Authority had advanced it self above the Civil and Divisions and Superstition had much encreased amongst Christians Now the Cause why this great Empire should be Characterized by Four Angels bound in the River Euphrates and afterwards loosed is a thing worthy our disquisition and it may perhaps be for these Reasons 1. Because that the Kingdom of the Turks was divided into Four Proefectures or Principalities whilst they were bound in the River Euphrates that is had made no Incursions into those Western parts which are bounded by that Famous River For so we are expresly told in the Relation (b) Excerpt e Legat. inter Histor Byzant pag. 106-108 of an Embassy from the Scythian Turks to Justin Junior about A.D. 570. where the Turkish Embassadours being asked hy the Emperour concerning the State of their Kingdom tell him that the Chief Power was indeed solely in their King Disabulus but that their Kingdom was divided into Four 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Principalities 2. At their most memorable passing the River Euphrates they were under the Command of Four (c) Pocock Supplem pag. 41 42. Captains viz. Solyman (d) Leunclav Hist pag. 86. Shahum and his Three Sons and upon the death of Solyman who was drowned in the passing of that River a circumstance not altogether to be disregarded they were again under Four Commanders viz. Otrogules and his Three Sons of whom Ottoman was one who upon their being loosed by having power from God to pass the River Euphrates laid the Foundations of that mighty Empire All which are no obscure Circumstances but most notable and most famous passages of their History the Number of Four Illustrious Families being so remarkable amongst them that (a) Pandect Turcic pag. 411. Paris edit ad calcem Chalcondyl Leunclavius hath a particular Chapter about 3. They are not only remarkable for (b) Leunclav Hist 86 87. pag. Four Chief successive Families viz. the Seljukian Aladinian Oguzian and Ottoman but if Mr. Mede's Observation prove true they were actually divided into Four Tetrarchies or Sultanies whilst they were bound in Euphrates And lastly Because the Spirit of God in delivering Prophecies which are on purpose dark and aenigmatical may allude to many passages and circumstances in one and the same Type and Figurative Expression some less known and obvious than others to excite men's Industry why may not the Turkish Potentacy be signified by Four because of the Vniversality of its Conquests described Dan. 11 40-45 Four as Dr. Moor observes standing for a Note of Vniversality in the Cabbalistick Mysteries especially in the Graecian Monarchy which it was more immediately designed to kill or destroy For as the Horns of the Altar from which the Voice comes Vers 13. are Four to signifie the Vniversal Extent of Christ's Church so are there here Four Angels loosed to shew that this Woe was to fall Vniversally upon the Grecian Church and Monarchy described in Daniel Chap. 8.8 by Four Notable Horns towards the Four Winds of Heaven For the Turkish Empire as that Judicious Historian Mr. (c) Turkish History in the Preface and pag. 981. Knolls has observed hath brought fatal mutations not upon Christendom only but the whole World having under its Command the chief and most Fruitful parts of Europe Africa and Asia and having fixed it self almost altogether even in the self same Kingdoms Countries and Regions as belonged to the Greek Empire For although the Third of the Earth and of Men be the Symbol of the Grecian Empire yet in respect of its Vniversality it may also be represented by the Number Four 20 To bind is to hinder and restrain as appears from Rev. 20.2 and that by secret Impulses and Instincts as the Word is taken Acts 20.22 And from hence we may learn That the Bounds of Empires and their progress are from God as are also the Providential Seasons in which he lets loose Barbarous Nations to chastise Christians 21 A great River upon which the Old Babylon the Type of the Antichristian City stood it was the fatal Boundary of the Roman Empire and was so oftentimes to the Turks they making but small Advances beyond it except in Asia
Historians have observed the Reformation was remarkably preserved by many strange Accidents amidst the unaccountable Humours of a Cruel and Vain-glorious Prince As by the Intrigues of Woolsey for the Papacy and his missing of it which if he had obtained no doubt says Fox the Authority of that See had never been exterminated out of England By the Sollicitations of the Emperour with the Pope the Easiness of the Pope to grant the Bull and again his Stiffness in denying it but especially by his rash and precipitate Sentence against the King and that contrary to the ordinary Forms of proceeding in his own Courts which if they had observed the Breach betwixt them had been made up the King's Submission arriving at Rome but Two Days after the Sentence given But as our late Ecclesiastical Historian judiciously observes God in his wise and unsearchable Providence had designed to draw other great Ends out of this Rupture and therefore suffered them that were most concerned to hinder it to be the chief Instruments of driving it on The unprosperous proceedings of Q. Mary and the strange Preservations of Q. Elizabeth together with other remarkable Instances of God's Providence in the Times of Persecution are largely insisted upon by our Laborious Martyrologist at the End of his Third Volume which I shall not therefore mention as neither the secret (a) Cardin. Bentivol History of the Wars of Flanders page 6. Correspondencies betwixt Philip the 2d of Spain and the King of France for the Extirpation of Protestantism discovered by William Prince of Orange the Measures (b) Mezeray page 651 653. taken for exterminating it by the Spaniards and French at a Treaty wholly defeated by the sudden Death of Henry the Second the Effect which the French (c) Mezeray page 651 653 957. Massacre met with contrary to the Design of those who contrived it whereby it was turned rather to the strengthening and security of the Protestants than their utter Ruine as it might have done to omit the Defeat in Eighty Eight the Gunpowder Treason and the later Deliverance fresh in our Memories for which I refer the Reader to a Sermon preached by Bishop Burnet before the Queen on July the 16th 1690. 5. The Reformation was an appearance of the Kingdom of Christ as it cleared up the True Notion and Nature of his Spiritual Kingdom in the Souls of Men by instructing them in the Nature of Faith and of Justification by Christ's Merits to which as Mr. Fox (d) Vol. 2. page 80. hath judiciously observed the Success of the Reformation was very much owing those Doctrines having been mightily obscured by a wrong Notion of good Works and the Doctrine of Merits one of the most Fundamental Errors of Popery And it very much also contributed to this End by stripping Religion of much of its vain Pomp and unedifying Ceremonies which do not promote true inward Piety but distract the Mind which being of a limited Capacity cannot well attend at once to two Objects of so different a Nature as sensible and intellectual ones are For the External Pomp of Religion and its gawdy Ornaments are very contrary to the Simplicity of the Gospel in which only Two External Rites and those very plain and simple ones were instituted viz. Baptism and the Lord's Supper Christian Religion consisting chiefly in the heart and Affections and in Externals as they conduce to inward Holiness according to what our Saviour hath told us concerning his Kingdom Luke 17.20 that it cometh not with observation that is is not (a) See Grotius on the place and Hammond attended with Pomp Splendor and Riches but is a Spiritual (b) Rom. 2 19. and 14.17 Kingdom in the Heart and Spirit consisting not in Meats and Drinks but in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Whereupon the (c) Sleidan page 53. Mezeray page 948 957. Reformation retrenched much of the superfluous Riches of the Church which are apt to corrupt the best mens minds and lessened much of the Secular Grandeur Preheminence and Superiority Titles and Honours of the Clergy whereby the Church becomes too like a worldly Kingdom Whereas Christ plainly declares that his Kingdom is not of this World John 18.36 and (d) Matth. 20 20-28 Luke 22 24-30 forbids his Apostles all secular Jurisdiction and the Affectation at least of Titles of Honour and Authority Lastly It was an appearance of the Kingdom of Christ as it shook and made a breach in that of Antichrist which it is at last utterly to break in pieces consume aed destroy Dan. 2 44.7 26. And this it did after a most signal manner by drawing of many Kingdoms and Princes from the Antichristian Corruptions of Popery But as the Reformation was an Appearance of Christ's Kingdom so it must be confessed that it was but an Imperfect one by reason of the sealing up or putting a stop to those things which the Seven Thunders uttered which would otherwise have produced Christ's Kingdom in Glory and have broken in peices the Kingdom of Antichrist And that such a stop was put to its Efficacy will appear from these Considerations 1. Because the Reformation was not attended with Miracles which our (a) Matth. 12.28 Luke 10 9.11 20. Saviour makes to be a certain Sign of the coming of his Kingdom And if it were the Sign of its first coming have we not reason to expect that it shall be so of its Second But this Gift cannot be expected whilst Antichristianism prevails so mightily in the World whose encrease was the Cause of the Cessation of Miracles in the Church which lasted for a considerable time as hath been shewn by the Learned Mr. Dodwell in his Dissertations on Irenaeus and Cyprian beyond the Infancy of the Gospel and the first propagation of it for which Age therefore they could not only be designed and gradually decreased as the Errors and Corruptions of the Church encreased 2. According to the Parables of our Saviour Matth. 13. concerning his Kingdom the Enemy soon sowed Tares in it whilst men slept which choaked and perverted the Word of the Kingdom at first preached in many things and the Men which it gathered of every kind bad as well as good brought in a mixture of their own sins and infirmities into it For not only (a) Mezeray page 948. Camden Elizab. page 26. Fox 's Martyr Vol. 3. page 105 442 537. Politicians and wicked Worldlings carried on their private Designs which the Reformers here in England complained much of as to the point of Sacriledge but the Good Men who most effectually promoted it had their Weaknesses and Infirmities (b) Sleidan 21 43. passim Luther and (c) Adam Vit. Calv. page 109 See Calvin's Answer to Officium viri pii Calvin although extraordinary Persons and of great Piety were both Men of very warm Tempers and were sometimes too violently transported and the latter is thought to have had a too
may make some advance to the setling of the beginning of the Gentiles Months For if these 2300 years are a Line of Time reaching from the first year of Cyrus to the cleansing of the Sanctuary Then if we gain the true Epoch of Cyrus's First Year we may by consequence find out the Period of these Years and the beginning and end of the 1260 years of the Witnesses and of the Forty Two Months of the Gentiles And here because the Reasonings of Chronologers are very dubious and their Epochs very different and of an uncertain Foundation as (a) Epitom Baron pag. 11. Spondanus with just reason complains I shall only desire this one equitable Postulatum to be granted me viz. that the Scripture Accounts of Time as they are given us in the Hebrew (a) Hanc supputationem recentiores Chronologi qui post Scaligerum Floruere uno ferme consensu complexi sunt Anton. Pagi Appar Chronol Pag. 1 2. Text may be received as Authentick when they are supported by reason evidence from profane History and the consent of the latest Chronogers amongst whom I shall pitch upon Spanhemius (b) Chronol Introduct ad Eccles Histor. as one of the latest and the most accurate in his accounts consulting others as there shall be occasion Now if we guide our selves by this Postulatum we shall perhaps find this following Scripture Calendar to be most exact   Years A. M. From the Creation to the Flood 1656. 2083. From thence to Abraham's coming out of Chaldea Spanhem à pag. 135 ad 140. 427. 2513. To the Israelites coming out of Aegypt Spanhem pag. 142. 430. 2993. To the beginning of the building of the Temple in the fourth of Solomon 1 King 6.1 Spanhem à pag. 143-145 480. 3029. To Solomon's death and the revolt of the Ten Tribes immediately upon it in the first year of Rehoboam 1 King 6 1.11 42. Spanhem 149. 36. 3459. ante Chr. 528. From the First Year of Rehoboam to the First of Cyrus's Reign over Babylon which was the End of the 70 Years Captivity 430. This Number is gathered by adding the 390 Years of Ezekiel's bearing the sin of Israel to the Forty Years of his bearing Judah's sin Ezek. 4.4 5 6. In which Chapter the Prophet shews 1. That Jerusalem would be besieged and the Temple and City burnt according to what Jeremiah had prophesied the Truth of which the People beginning to call in question there having passed now Five Years since their Captivity without any appearance or likelihood of it the Prophet is commanded Verse 3. to lay siege to Jerusalem in a Type to be a sign to them of the real siege approaching 2. The Prophet is also commanded Verse 9. to lie 390 Days appointed by God himself to signifie Years Verse 6. upon his left side to bear as in a Type the Years of the Punishment of the House of Israel or the Ten Tribes And then is expresly commanded to lie again Verse 6. on his right side to bear the Years of the Punishment of the House of Judah Forty Days after he had accomplished the Three Hundred and Ninety thereby plainly shewing the Forty to be different from the Three Hundred and Ninety and not included in them as Interpreters generally make them with plain Violence to the express Words of the Text. 3. It is evident from the 13th Verse that the penitential and course Dyet prescribed to the Prophet during the streightness of the Siege a freer Dyet perhaps being permitted him the remaining Forty Days after it is not only a Type of the Famine and Misery they were to suffer but also of the defiled and polluted Bread they were to eat among the Gentiles during their Captivity which is there evidently referred to and not only the Siege of Jerusalem 4. By the mention of the House of Israel and Judah separately and distinctly from each other and by God's assigning a distinct Term of Years to each is plainly intimated that they are represented in this Vision as in a divided state 5. The Years therefore of their Iniquity Verse 5. which the Prophet was to bear must be the Years of their Iniquity whilst they continued in a divided state which can be no other then the Years from their first Division and Idolatry under Jeroboam until the End of the Captivity some of them were then under particularly referred to Verse 13. So that the Prophet does here in a Vision shew them in Prophetical Days for Years how long their Captivity should last and that it should not be ended untill Four Hundred and Thirty Years were compleated from the time of their Division and Idolatry which was the Iniquity for which they were carried Captive and for which he was to bear their punishment in a Vision shewing the time from their Defection to the End of the Captivity Concerning which Prophetical and Symbolical Line of Time it is also further to be noted 1. That the greater Number of Years of Punishment are allotted to the Ten Tribes because they were First in the sin and deepest in the Guilt Whereas the Two Tribes because they walked (a) 2 Chronicl 11 17.12 1. Three Years after the Division in the ways of David and Solomon and were less guilty then the other have their punishment assigned them after the other and that of a less continuance And the Prophet when he bears their Guilt is commanded to lie on his right side to shew the greater Esteem God had of them whereas he was bid to lie on his left when he bore the Iniquity of Israel which being the less worthy side of the Body thereby is denoted the less value God had for them 2. It may be observed that this Number Four Hundred and Thirty is made up of Two Numbers 1. Of Forty which is the time that the Children of Israel were to bear the punishment of the Apostasy of their Fathers Forty Days each Day for a Year Numb 14.33 34. And 2. (a) 390 7 2730 Of 390 a Number which if multiplied by Seven makes up 2730 Days for Years the exact Sum (b) 390 40 2300 2730 of the 390 and 40 Days in Ezekiel and of the 2300 Evenings-Mornings in Daniel whereby is signified by the multiplying the first Term of their punishment by the Number Seven that the Jews should lie under a State of punishment for their Iniquities for 2730 Years a multiplication of punishment by seven times being the proportion of punishment settled by God with respect to his people Levit. 26.18 21 24 28. and that after the fulfilling of that Term of Years allotted to their bearing of their Iniquity God would restore them to their Land and remember his Covenant according to what God hath promised Levit. 26 40-46 Whereby the Extent of the 2300 days of Daniel to the End and to the last End of the indignation Verse 19. and to the cleansing of the Sanctuary is wonderfully exemplified And now from hence we have
Imperial Seat at Rome and his great 11 Authority Rule or Government 7 7 7 From hence it appears that this was the Fourth or Roman Monarchy because it is represented as made up of the Three former whose People and Nations it conquered and out of whose Ruines it grew and because it had all the evil Qualities and Properties of Subtilty and Cruelty which are thought to be (c) See the Interpreters on Daniel 7. signified by these Beasts which Fourth Beast having no shape 〈◊〉 Daniel has here one given it in which the Parts and Shapes of the Image and the Beasts in Daniel are united into one Fourth Beast Only it is to be observed that the Order of the Parts of this Beast is contrary to that in Daniel the Leopard being placed first because it represented the Grecian Monarchy which immediately preceded the Roman which this Beast was like unto in its Body as it was in its Mouth to the Lion which corresponds to the Head of the Image and in its Fore-Feet to the Bear whose strength lies in his Fore-Feet which answer to the Arms of the great Image as the Hinder-Feet or Legs do to its Legs and Feet the proper situation of the Fourth or Roman Monarchy And the Dragon answers exactly to the first appearance of the Fourth Beast Dan. 7.7 and the Beast it self with its Ten Kings to the Ten Horned appearance of that Beast and the Little Horn amongst them Dan. 7.7 8. These being but several Symbols and Hierogliphicks of one and the same thing viz. of Four successive Vniversal Monarchies 8 By the Dragon is meant as hath been before observed on Chap. 12.3 the Imperatorial Pagan Power or the Heathen Emperours of Rome the sixth Head as under the Influence of Sathan who is mentioned chiefly with reference to the Roman Monarchy in this Prophecy which has the Character of Satanicalness above all the rest 9 Here the Succession of the seventh Head or the Antichristian King to the sixth Head or the Pagan Emperours is described by the Dragon 's giving him his Power which came to pass at A.D. 476. when the Christian Emperours the seventh King but no Head as is shewn on Chap. 17 8-13 ceased and the Antichristian King succeeded And the latter is represented as receiving Power from the former by immediate Succession although there were about an hundred and Fifty Years distance betwixt them because it was the next immediate Head to it although not the next King who being a Christian one is of no account in the Annals of the Beastian Kingdom as the Jews and Eastern People were wont to omit the History and Chronology of Vsurpers and because the Dragon's Antichristian Successor was then in Being although withheld from his actual Succession by the Christian Emperours according to 2 Thes 2. as is fully shewn on Chap. 17. And the Dragon is said to give his Power to the Beast that is secretly to convey and willingly to resign it to him because of the insensible Change of Paganism into Antichristianism and the Agreeableness betwixt them 10 This being a Roman Beast the Seat or Throne given it must be at Rome too Which was by a wonderful Interposal of Providence kept as it were empty for the Beast Constantine removing from thence to Byzantium and the Western Emperours residing mostly at Milan and Ravenna by which means the Power of the Papacy encreased at Rome and the Dragon made sure of his Seat for his Successor which he began to do as soon as he perceived that he must depart by so influencing Dioclesian and Maximian under the disposals of Providence that the one should live at Milan and the other at Nicomedia and resign the Empire in those Cities and not at Rome And this is a thing so evident from History that it is expresly mentioned by Laonicus (a) De reb gest Imperat. Turcar. edit Paris pag. 3. Blondus instaurat Rom. lib. 3. Steuch Eugub de Constantin Donat. lib. 1. Chalcondylas an Athenian whom I mention to shew that it was a thing so notorious that Strangers took notice of it with this Notable Remark That the Romans although Masters of the greatest Empire in the World left Rome to the High-Priest and passed into Thrace unto Constantinople under the Conduct of Constantine After the Division of the Empire into Eastern and Western Rome was so much neglected by the Western Emperours that there are frequent Complaints of that City in (b) Sâ—gon de Imper. Oceident lib. 10. pag. 167. edit Hanov. Claudian that Milan was preferred before it and when Augustulus abdicated Odoacer retired to Ravenna leaving Rome to the Papacy which came then into succession as its proper Seat and although (a) Sigon ibid. lib. 16. pag. 271. Theodorick acknowledged that it was a Crime to be absent from that City yet as if a Providential Fate had determined him contrary to his own Will and Choice he immediately after a splendid Triumph retired from it to Ravenna where his Successors the Gothick Kings resided And it is further to be observed that when the Beast succeeded into the Dynasty or Power and Seat of the Dragon that Odoacer called not himself Emperour of Rome which was the Seat of the Beast but King of Italy and that although there have been since the Time of Augustulus the last Emperour of Rome Kings of Italy Roman Emperours and Kings of the Romans yet there hath been no Supream Governour who hath had the Imperial Title of the City of Rome it self at least for any long time but the Pope who is peculiarly styled the Pope of Rome and hath the Supreme Government of it See more on Chap. 17. 11 This refers to the Authority the Pope hath in the Empire in Union with the Ten Kings of whom he is Head See on Chap. 17. 3 And I saw 12 one of his Heads to wit the Sixth the Pagan Emperours as it 13 were wounded or slain to death by the Christian Emperours and his to wit the Beast's deadly wound in its sixth Head was healed by its survival in the seventh Head which succeeded it See Verse 14. and Chap. 17.8 11 and all the * World wondred after the Beast i. e. were wonderfully taken with him and followed him with implicit Consent and Applause 12 It is evident by comparing Rev. 17 8-13 with this Verse that by this wounded Head must be understood the Pagan Emperours the sixth Head wounded by the Christian Emperours the seventh King 13 Here we may observe that the Sixth Head is not said to be dead but to have a Wound which seemed (a) Arethas in locum to be deadly or to be wounded as it were to death whereby may be denoted that although the Pagan Imperialism the sixth Head never came again into Succession for any long time the Roman Monarchickness of it only remaining under the Christian Emperours and not its Pagan Idolatry and Bloody Temper against Christianity that yet Paganism was not so