with great admiration Chap. 13. 15. And he had power to give life to the Image of the Beast that the Image of the Beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast should be a Par. 1. Agr. 6. killed Chap. 17. 7. And the Angel said unto me Wherefore didst thou marvell I will tell thee the Mystery of the Woman and of the Beast that a carrieth her which hath the b seven heads and ten horns Chap. 13. 11. And I beheld another Beast coming up out of the Earth and he had a Par. 〈◊〉 Agr. 7. two horns 1. And I saw a Beast having b Par. 2 Agr. 1. seven heads and ten horns Chap. 17. 8. The Beast which thou sawest a was and is not and shall ascend out of the b bottomless pit and goe into c perdition and they that dwell on the Earth shall d wonder whose names were not written in the Book of life from the foundation of the world when they behold the Beast that e was and is not and yet is Chap. 13. 2. And the a Par. 2. Agr. 3. Dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority 4. And they worshipped the a Dragon that gave power to the Beast c. See also verse 3. 1. And I stood upon the sand of the Sea and I saw a Beast b Par. 2. Agr. 6. rise up out of the Sea 10. He that leadeth into c Par. 2. Agr. 7. captivity must go into captivity he that killeth with the sword must be c killed with the sword 3. And all the world d Par. 2. Agr. 8. wondred after the Beast 8. And all that dwell upon the Earth shall worship him whose names are not d written in the Book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to a Par. 2. Agr. 3. death and his deadly wound was a healed 14. Saying to them that dwell on the Earth that they should make an c Par. 2. Agr. 5. Image to the Beast which had the wound by the sword and the Beast revived 15. And he had power to give life to the c Image of the Beast insomuch that the Image of the Beast should speak Chap. 17. 9. And here is the mind that hath wisedom The seven Heads are the a seven Mountains on which the Woman sitteth Chap. 13. 11. And I beheld another Beast coming up out of the Earth and he had a Par. 1. Agr. 8. two horns like a Lamb but spake as a Dragon Chap. 17. 10. And they are seven Kings five are fallen and one is and the a Par. 2. Agr. 10. other is not yet come and when he cometh he must continue a b Par. 2. Agr. 4. short space Chap. 13. 1. Having a seven heads and upon his heads the name of a blasphemy 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death and his deadly wound was b healed Chap. 17. 11. And the Beast that was and is not even he is the eighth and is of the a Par. 2. Agr. 9. seven and goeth into b Par. 2. Agr. 7. perdition Chap. 13. 1. Having seven heads and upon his heads the name of a blasphemy 10. He that killeth with the sword must be b killed with the sword Chap. 17. 12. And the ten Horns which thou sawest are ten Kings which have received a no kingdom as yet but receive power as kings a one hour with the Beast Chap. 13. 1. Having seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten a Par. 2. Agr. 11 12. crowns Chap. 17. 13. These have one mind and shall a give their strength and power to the Beast Chap. 13. 1. I saw a Beast rising out of the Sea a Par. 2. Agr. 13. having ten horns Chap. 17. 14. These shall make a war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall b overcome them for he is Lord of lords and King of kings and they that are with him are c called and chosen and faithfull Chap. 13. 4. Who is like to the Beast who is able to make a Par. 2. Agr. 14. war with him 7. And it was given him to make a War with the Saints and to overcome them 16. And he causeth all both small and great rich and poor free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand or on their foreheads 17. And that no man may a buy or sell save he that has the mark or the name of the Beast or the number of his name 10. He that leadeth into captivity shall b Par. 2. Agr. 15. go into captivity he that killeth with the sword shall be b killed with the sword Here is the patience and c Par. 2. Agr. 16. faith of the Saints Chap. 17. 15. And he saith unto me The waters which thou sawest where the Whore sitteth are a peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues Chap. 13. 7. And power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations 12. And I beheld another Beast come out of the Earth and he had a Par. 1. Agr. 7. two horns like a Lamb and he exercizeth a all the power of the first Beast before him Chap. 17. 16. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the Beast these shall hate the Whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire Chap. 13. There is nothing in this Thirteenth Chapter answering to the 16. verse of the other but that verse answers punctually to the main Title of the Vision which is The judgment of the great Whore But that this defect is no prejudice to the certainty of our Parallelism I have already noted Chap. 17. 17. For God has put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and give their Kingdom unto the Beast untill the a words of God shall be fulfilled Chap. 13. 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power was given unto him to continue a Par. 2. Agr. 17. forty and two months Chap. 17. 18. And the Woman which thou sawest is that great City which a Par. 1. Agr. 9. reigneth over the Kings of the Earth Chap. 13. 18. Here is Wisedom let him that hath understanding count the Number of the Beast for it is the number of a man and his number is a six hundred threescore and six 7. Thus you see the Two Visions of the Thirteenth Chapter wholy imbibed into the Vision of the Seventeenth excepting the Original of the Two-horned Beast of which I have given an account already And that it is naturally drunk in not dash'd in by force will appear from that joint-Exposition which I shall make of these two Chapters together interpreting those verses or parts of verses of the Thirteenth which I have subnected to each verse of the
mind of another Classis of Superstitions which might be invented contrary to the Faithfulness and Simplicity of the School of Christ to the illaqueating of mens consciences and misplacing their dependences upon Creatures more then the Creator and to the extinguishing of that comfortable inward sense of his invisible but omnipotent Omnipresence by interposing these vain and visible Objects which have neither force nor allowance for those uses they pretend to I mean the Exorcizing or Enchanting if you will of certain Natural Elements without any warrant of holy Scripture to endue them with a Supernatural power As if for example the Priest should pretend by the Exorcizing of the Creature of Salt by the living true and Holy God to make it become an Holy and Exorcized Salt for the health of both Body and Soul to as many of the believers as receive it and for the chasing away of every evil Phantasm and unclean Spirit by the aspersion thereof and so by the Exorcizing of the Creature of Water in the name of the Holy Trinity to endue it with a virtue of chasing away the Devil and Diseases and every disquieting thing out of an house by the sprinkling thereof and should recommend the use thereof for the besprinkling their chambers ever and anon therewith as also their sick folks their fields and vineyards for health and increase The Exorcizing of Wax-candles into a virtue of putting to flight the Prince of darkness with all his Retinue and of making them run away with fear and trembling from what-ever place they are lighted in The Exorcizing of the Creature of Oil by God the Father Omnipotent the Creator of all things that whosoever uses it the Troups of the Devil may be put to flight and that he may never be bit by the old Serpent Also the Exorcizing of Herbs or the Boughs of Trees the Exorcizing of Bells and the Priestly Vestments Is it not apparent that all these and as many more else as can be intented of this nature are mere Juggles and Impostures 2. But the Imposture would be more grateful and complete if we had some fine thing consecrated that were more portable and yet of a more universal influence as also more durable and permanent then most of the former And therefore the shape of some holy Plant or Animal thus exorcized would be of sovereign use and content the Rose of Sharon or the Lily of the valleys the Dove or Lamb whose names are sacred to every Christian eare Wherefore a Golden Rose impregnated with joy and gladness from the Benediction of the holy High-priest of this Church and full of the fragrancy of remission of sins increase of faith though the effect be never found Divine protection and all prosperity were a Posie to wipe the Nose of a Prince withall And so the gentle Lamb made of some more flexible matter and elegantly limb'd suppose out of Wax but exorcized into powers and virtues little inferiour to that Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world as being made able by a certain sacred Exorcism or Benediction to preserve them that bear it about with them from all the assaults of the Flesh the World and the Devil from Pestilence Famine and sudden Death from all perils by Land and by Sea from Lightning from Tempests and from Abortion were a Present for an Emperor or Emperess Several such Instances as these might be excogitated all which I must pronounce to be against the faithful plainness and true power of the Gospel of Christ and to entrench upon the Reverence of the Name of God and to be a trespass of the Third Commandment Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain 3. Against which Precept I make account those Forms of Conjuration do evidently offend that are found in Books of Magick as in Cornelius Agrippa and Petrus de Abano where those Divine appellations Jah El Adonai Elohim Elohe Zebaoth Elion Sadai and the like are made the Elements of their vain and reprobate Art Which is a manifest argument that the Priest's Exorcization in the Names of God and his holy Attributes does not excuse him from the guilt of Enchantment since the Magicians themselves use the Names of the true God therein And as for the more general Notion of Enchantment Agrippa defines it to be nothing but The conveiance of a certain mirificent power into the thing enchanted by virtue of the words and breath of the Enchanter Nor will the phrases or passages of Scripture excuse the Priest from this impiety since this is both prescribed and practised by these Magicians Their Pentacles which they hang about their necks when they conjure which they forsooth for greater grace call the Pentacles of Solomon are adorned and fortified with such transcriptions out of holy Scripture Whence it is plain if any one would take notice of all the special Characters of such an Apostate Church as I am a-describing he could not omit amongst other Titles to brand them with the name of Enchanters or Sorcerers 4. Which they might deserve upon other scores which we have already intimated as in that they teach people certain Prayers in an unknown Tongue which they direct them to say for such and such purposes For what are these but Charms And the making of Jesus of Nazareth who was above sixteen hundred years ago crucified at Jerusalem upon the uttering a few words personally to appear flesh and bloud and bones all mantled over with the thin cloathing of certain Panaceous Species or loosely-hanging Accidents is a piece of Magick above the Witch of Endor's and all the Historical records of Necromancy in the world All which pretensions being so Epidemical or general in this Church we do characterize who can miss of notifying them by the style of a Society of Magicians or Enchanters For in that they are mere Pretences and have no real effect will not excuse the desert of so goodly a Title the profession and endeavour giving the Practisers sufficient right thereto As he that has been casting his Angle a good part of the day into the River and brings home no Fish may yet be rightly saluted Mr. Fisherman or Mr. Angler at his return though not without some kind of Scommatism at the bottom And he that professes Physick and has it may be as yet cured none but such as would have recovered as well without him though killed many is notwithstanding by all men termed a Physician And generally what men affectedly pretend to though they cannot perform it may justly by way of Scommatical reproach be entered into the particulars of their character for the making up the whole tale of their shame and reproof 5. What grounds they might make shew of for such Incantations as these I must confess I cannot so easily find For the Bloud of the Paschal Lamb wherewith the Israelites sprinkled the lintel and two side-posts of their doors was not charmed first to convey a virtue
some part That it is not an Absolute Inconditionate Promise to the Whole is plain in that the parties of Christendom differ so much in matters of Belief as they do But if it be to some part where is the nomination of that part in these Promises whereby their Right of Interpreting may appear to the world There is no Particular Church specified there neither Greek nor Roman neither Muscovian nor Armenian nor that of Prester John nor any other Church else Whence it is plain that no Particular Church can have any claim or right to any such privilege 6. Again suppose some Particular Church had a Promise how does it appear that the Promise is Inconditionate to this Particular Church and that it is not upon supposal that they will seriously and sincerely apply their mind to find out the Truth and purifie their Souls from all those worldly and sensual impediments thereto For this spirit of Infallibility cannot lodge in a body that is subject unto sin For Purity of heart and life is the very Light and Crystalline Organ the very Eye of the Soul and to think of a privilege of Infallibility without Holiness is like the imagining of a promise to see without Light or Eyes Wherefore it is such an Hypocritical conceit that a man cannot well tell whether it be more to be lamented or laughed at for a Church to pretend that God has an irresistible design of making them Infallible to every Punctilio of Controversie and yet not of making them Holy and Good But it is a sign they contemn or abhor Goodness as being contrary to their corrupt natures but desire the privilege of Infallibility as being agreeable to their natural pride and the boast thereof an instrument to bring about all their deceitful devices And therefore we might adde to this That it is questionable whether the Promise be to any Church visible but to such as the Apostles were chosen sanctified and faithful Regenerate men for none but these are truly the Church of Christ and if he make his Promise good onely to such as are his true Church it is sufficient 7. Moreover be this Promise Conditionate or Inconditionate we cannot but be sure that this Infallibility is not Universal as to all Objects whatsoever And therefore to meddle with such things as are not necessary to Salvation nor really edifying were to go beyond their Warrant or Commission and thereby to forfeit or at least to have no benefit of the promised Assistence 8. But let us particularly examine the Texts of Scripture themselves The first whereof infers no more then this That the Church of Christ shall never cease to be that Death shall never be able to prevail against her neither to extirpate her in this world or hinder her of a glorious Immortality in the world to come For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death or Abolition or The state of the dead But this may be true of the Church though it were not Infallible So weak is this first Allegation 9. As for the second it were well for the Alledgers if it were onely weak for it is strong against themselves and makes much for our Hypothesis who conceive this Infallibility to be Conditional For reade the whole Context entire and it runs thus If ye love me keep my Commandments and I will ask the Father c. which implies there is a Condition That they must love Christ and keep his Commandments if they expect that Spirit which will abide with them for ever that is as long as they lived for so the word ordinarily signifies in Scripture And it is further added that it is such a Spirit as the World cannot receive Which therefore does strongly imply that it resides not in those who are worldly and carnally-minded Which Conditionality of the Promise is also infinuated in the third place alledged When the Spirit of Truth is come he will Lead you or guide you into all Truth that is he will lead you as a Man not hale you or drag you as a Stone or a brute Beast which is not a free Agent So that we see plainly that this Infallibility is Conditional where-ever it is And though I doubt not but the Condition being performed the Promise will be made good to all men as far as it is necessary to their Salvation yet these places are not the best that may be produced to that purpose the Promise being not General here but directed to certain particular men in such circumstances as it is evident that it is meant to them in particular and does not infer any succession For the men that he speaks to there he decyphers to be such as he was present with and should be put in mind by the Paraclet what he had said to them when present such Joh. 14. 16 17. as were sorrowful upon the occasion of his departure with other like circumscribing circumstances that cannot belong to any succession of men but were proper to the Apostles to whom he then spake 10. As indeed Infallibility it self seems a Promise most proper to them they being to lay the Foundations of the Church and to build the House of God which they having done in terms plain enough as to all things necessary to Salvation the Promise of Infallibility needs reach no further the Church for ever hereafter being safe provided she keep but close to what is plainly delivered by the first Founders of her nothing else need be obtruded upon Believers by way of Infallible imposition 11. And as for that fourth citation where the Church seems to be called The Pillar and Ground of Truth If we admit of Cameron and Capellus 1 Tim. 3. 15. their ingenious conjecture upon the place viz. That The Pillar and Ground of Truth is to be disjoyned from the precedent words by a Colon at least and understand also what follows without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness to be onely a Parenthetical Elogium of the Mystery of the Gospel into which the Apostle was transported upon consideration of those weighty Points thereof which he was a-delivering God manifest in the Flesh c. so that The Pillar and Ground of Truth may be 1 Tim. 3. 16. the Preface to the grand Points of the Christian Truth which that Parenthesis being seposed do immediately follow according as it was usual with the Jews to prefix before such Fundamentalls of knowledge the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fundamentum Columna Sapientia this passage will be wholly disâ—…bled from making any shew of proof for what it was alledged 12. But if you will adjoyn this Title to the Church it was the Ephesian Church where Timothy resided which has vanished long agoe And what other Church then unless every Particular Church can urge this place for Infallibility which experience of contradicting one another does openly confute Besides that the style it self of Ground and Pillar may not
Church by laying claim to a Judgement of discretion I say he lays claim to no more then is of necessity given him as I have already demonstrated For if there be an appeal to the Reason and Conscience of a private man in the endeavouring to convince him he is ipso facto made Judge and if to be Judge in this sense is to be Superiour he is necessarily Superiour But I see no necessity that his being Judge thus for himself makes him Superiour to his Church Indeed if he judged for his Church he were thereby their Superiour but judging for himself onely he usurps no Superiority over the Church but onely is obedient to him that is Superiour to both that is to Jesus Christ following his plain Injunctions and Precepts whether written in the outward Word or legibly engraven upon the Table of his Heart To follow therefore the plain and inevitable dictates of his own Conscience which as the Tribunal of God is not to exalt a mans self above the Church but to submit a mans self to God and exalt him above all 11. Nor does a man herein equallize himself to his Church in that he does not define for others but for himself and professes himself in the mean time ready to obey the visible Church in such things as are not repugnant to the express Precepts of God and Christ and to those immutable Characters of Truth which he has imprinted upon the Souls of all men and which are there to be found unless gross violence and Interest has obscured or obliterated them 12. Nor in the last place does he make himself wiser then his Church which were also an odious imputation But without immodesty it may be thought that a private man may be more sollicitous of his own important Concerns and more faithfull to his own Eternal Interest then many thousand men put together and that therefore though he may not have so much wit and learning as these yet he may conduct his own affairs more safely then if they were put into their hands especially they that pretend to be guides to Heaven for others seeming to be wholy taken up with the things of this World as if they had forgot their intended journey It is not therefore a boast of Wisedom above the Church but a carefull sollicitude touching such things as the wise men of the World do not usually trouble themselves much about that may embolden some private sincere-hearted Christian to dissent from some Dictates of the Church professing himself in other things as weak and childish as they please remembring that Doxologie of our Blessed Saviour I thank thee O Father Matt. 11. Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight 13. Finally This Wisedom which they adhere to is plainly and evidently not the Dictate of their own private spirit which to oppose to the Church were indeed to make a mans self wiser then the Church but the plain and perspicuous Testimonies of the Word of God and the common and indubitable Notions of universal humane Nature writ by the Finger of that Eternal Wisedom which created all things on the spirits of all men that be in their wits and therefore is a plain and legible Copy of that Wisedom So that he that adheres thereto does not prefer his own Wisedom before the Wisedom of the Church but submits himself faithfully to the Wisedom of God to which the Church also ought to submit and not to efface as much as in them lies those imprinted Characters of Truth out of the Souls of men thereby to enslave them to themselves and to the corrupt Interest of their Kingdom of darkness and gross Imposture 14. But I have been more copious then was needfull or intended in confuting this dream of Infallibility We might have made shorter work of it and suddenly evinced the folly of that pretence by actual Errours that have been in the Church of God As surely the Church of the Jews was as really the Church of God as the visible Christian Church and has as magnificent promises as it in Isaiah For what is spoke Chap. 54. rebounds upon the Church of the Jews first as Grotius has observed and there it is said That they shall all be taught of God and that with everlasting kindness God will have mercy upon them And yet this Church was in so gross a mistake that the Governours and Grandees thereof knew not their Messiah when he was come into the world but put him to a most shamefull death But even in those times when there was a more palpable Residence of God's miraculous power with them they erred very hainously as in the worshipping the Golden Calf in the wilderness as also in the ten Tribes worshipping those in Bethel nay apostatizing all to the worshipping of Baalim saving seven Thousand which were so few in respect of the rest that Elijah took himself to be left alone And Ahab consulting the Prophets found by wofull experience that four hundred of them prophesied false and onely Micaiah true And * Ch. 5. 30 31. Jeremie complains of his times A wonderfull and horrible thing saith he is committed in the Land The Prophets prophesy falsely and the Priests bear rule by their means and my people love to have it so and what will you doe in the end thereof That is also a smart monition of his * Ch. 7. 4. Trust you not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord c. For all which they doe that call themselves The Temple of the Lord is not right as appears in the same Chapter where they are accused of committing Idolatry openly in the Cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem which could not be had they not fallen into the hands of blind and erroneous Guides which might cause them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths and yet in the mean time take up that presumptuous boast That the Law shall not perish from the Priest nor the Counsel from the Wise nor the Word from the Prophet no not then when they were imagining mischief against the true Prophets of the Lord as you may see Jeremie 18. But * Ch. 3. 6. Micaiah says plainly That the Prophets that are onely for easie times and for good chear Night shall be upon them and they shall have no vision and it shall be dark unto them that they cannot divine That such Seers shall be ashamed and Diviners confounded as having no answer from God And * Ch. 56 10 11. Esay complains that the watch-men of the City are blind that they are ignorant shepherds that cannot understand they all look to their own way every one for jollity or gain Thus clear is it that the Church of the Jews though it was in such a special manner espoused to God was
needless and diametrically opposite to the meaning and design of the Death and Passion and complete Satisfaction made by our Blessed Saviour himself 9. This doctrine seems abominable enough of it self but if we consider upon what grounds and with what circumstances it may be foisted into the Church by that Antichristian power we are a-describing it will be yet infinitely more hatefull and execrable Judas betrayed Christ for a piece of mony into the hands of them that crucified him for which his memory is accursed to all posterity And yet Christ was betrayed but to that which he was willing to undergoe namely He willingly underwent the wrath of God that he might shelter us from it which was the very end of his Agonie and Passion Now suppose this false Church we are depainting should for a piece of mony betray the very End and Design of Christ's Passion and quite frustrate and evacuate it were not Christ worse betrayed here then by Judas himself For Judas betrayed him but to what he had a mind to that he might be an Oblation to God for the remission of sins to all Believers But this Antichristian Church frustrating him of the End of his Suffering more barbarous then Judas betray the Saviour of the World to an unwilling death and disappoint him of that prize for which alone he parted with his dearest bloud and are more truely the Murtherers of this Just one then the very Jews that Crucified him robbing him of that which was the life in his death and prized by him above his own life that is to say His being a sufficient Sacrifice and Atonement for the sins of the whole World Which holy and weighty Article of the Christian Faith that Church which barters away for gain to scare the people into the belief of a necessity of buying Pardons and Indulgences of hiring Priests to sing their Souls out of Purgatory of redeeming themselves by summes of mony from cruel imposed Penances must needs in this point Antichristianize in the highest and most hainous manner against the Sacerdotal Office of Christ that can be imagined 10. This is the wicked Fraud they commit and the Mischief is not unproportionable For by the persuading of men that they are justified by their own Merits and must satisfie for themselves for all their sins and offences either in this life or that which is to come or both nay indeed in both unless they die so perfect as no modest man will ever imagine himself they put the minds of the serious upon an intolerable rack of sollicitude about the torments of Purgatory which they affrightfully set out to be of the same nature though not of the same continuance with those of Hell or swell the minds of the vain-spirited with unwholesome tumours of Pride upon conceit of such merit as never was nor ever can be in any man living that is a mere man and lastly deface the peculiar glory of Christ and his Religion in which there does really breath nothing but sweetness and pity and tender compassion our Head and Sovereign the Lord Jesus sustaining those great torments both of minde and body on the Cross to set his People free that they might serve him in a way of Love and Ingenuity contrary to that bloudy and cruel vassalage in which Satan aforetimes had enslaved the world Wherefore this false Church by the Fiction of Purgatory and the bloudy and cruel Penances imposed on the flock of Christ by merciless Flagellations and excoriations of the flesh more like the Priests of the Devil that old Tyrant then like the Ministers of the Gospel of the Son of God would make Christendom of one hue again with ancient Paganism and sell the children of Israel into a second Aegyptian bondage to be afflicted and oppressed under those hard Task-masters which state of things how grossely Antichristian it is I have already abundantly noted 11. But yet there is a further opposing of Christ's Sacerdotal Office and that very considerable as he intercedes and meditates for us with God Concerning which the Scripture is very express as in the former case That Christ was offered but once so in this That our Mediatour is but one For there is one God and one Mediatour between God and men the Man 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransome for all to be testified in due time Where not onely the doctrine is asserted That there is but one Mediatour but the reason subjoyned Who gave himself a ransome for all Which being peculiar to him alone there can be no Mediatour betwixt God and Man but he And the merits of his Passion and all the perfections of his life are of so infinite virtue as being the declared Son of God that to joyn the Merits of any Saints or Angels with his in this behalf would be a reproachfull and blasphemous derogation to the Supereminency of his condition Wherefore the Right of Mediatourship upon point of Merit being Christ's alone it must of necessity be an act of Antichristianism and an injury against Christ's person to joyn any other with him in that Office as if he himself were not sufficient but were so weak and unable for that Function that he wanted coadjutors 12. As for those Allegations That God will spare a City for fifty righteous in it and that he would protect Jerusalem for his servant David's sake because he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and that he will be mercifull to thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandments No reasonings from these Scriptures will reach the matter in hand For these are all about Temporal concernments and the Fate of the righteous would be involved in that of the wicked in the first instance As for that of David he is acknowledged a Type of Christ but the Sun being up the Night is fled away Nor do I see that any thing can be inferred out of that of Exodus but that the posterity of the just if they continue so shall be continued These therefore are but pretences and can never reach the case that I would decypher which is this That we should put up our Prayers to this or that Saint intreating them that they would intercede for us as if they had the same privilege that Christ has who is God as well as Man and therefore is every where ready to hear us 13. Wherefore this is to rob Christ of his honour and privilege to presume that the Saints have a kind of Omnipresence or Omnisciency which is onely proper to him As also in a solemn Religious way at the Altar and in the Temple of such or such a Saint to pray to God in the Merits of these Saints to grant this or that petition were it not to proclaim openly that there is a deficiency in the Merits of Christ our great Mediatour when we thus seek refuge in the names and merits of others How Antichristian then would it be
for us That he might purchase to himself a glorious Church not having Ephes. 5. 27. spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without â—…mish Which being the very End of Christ's coming into the world of the suffering all those hardships during his pilgrimage here on Earth and of submitting himself to the shamefull and unexpressibly-painfull Death of the Cross for any to oppose supplant or any ways to defeat this so serious and earnest design of his by any countenanced method or constitution of things would certainly be Antichristian in the highest measure Let us now therefore consider distinctly and articulately the most material ways of opposing or supplanting this design laying before us in view such depraved Laws Constitutions or Practices in a Church as tend to the extinguishing the Divine Life in general or are more particularly directed against the Root or Branches thereof namely either against Faith that is to say the belief of the Summe of Christianity or else against those inestimable Graces of Humility Purity and Charity 2. For the depainting of this Opposition against the Divine Life in general I need not put my pencil into any new colours Those multifarious ways of Idolatry and Superstition which I have noted in the first Book I. ch 12 17 18 c. and second Limb of Antichristianism and which carrie mens minds out to external exercises that profit nothing but elude the right intention of Zeal and Devotion which should better our spirits and make us more inwardly and vitally holy and righteous these do certainly of their own accord lay asleep or suffocate the Life of God in the Soul and like false food either poison or starve it Those Oppositions also that were against the Offices of Christ the vilifying his Law the removing it from the eyes of the people or the reading of it and their publick Service in an unknown Tongue the interpreting his serious Commands for slight Advices left to our pleasure to follow or forbear false Glosses put upon the Oracles of God by pretended infallible Interpreters the defeating that mighty Engine of Obedience to Christ which is the affectionate Meditation upon his Death and Passion his direfull Sufferings for us by diverting of our Thoughts and distracting them by several insignificant Objects pety Advocates and Patrons that run away with our Devotions and rob Christ of his honour and our Souls of the chief means of their Sanctification and Salvation These with several other particulars I might instance in are plain Antichristian Assaults and Oppugnations of the Divine Life in general and tend to the sweeping of all away before them 3. To which you may adde those ungodly surmises That it is sufficient to number over our Devotions without defixing our Mind upon what we say and that a more hovering and general attention will serve the turn our particular Thoughts wandring to what else we please That the Sacraments confer Grace ex opere operato it being the very difference betwixt the Sacraments of the old Covenant and the new that the former confer Grace ratione operis operantis the latter ratione operis operati and That any inward good Motion is not requisite in him that receives the Sacraments What can more relaxate those earnest breathings and hearty aspirings of our Souls towards a real renovation of our natures into true holiness and righteousness then such corrupt conceits as these 4. The feeding also the people with dumb shows instead of searching their Consciences and exciting their zeal by intelligible Exhortations or Forms of Devotion that will re-minde them of their duty and imprint upon them the sense of such holy things as they stand in want of and inflame their desire after them this also would be a defrauding of the Divine Life of that food which it should be increased and nourished by As also would be that conceit generally of all Acts of Religion that the duty of the Act is done if the Act be but externally done be the Principle what it will though it neither proceed from nor reach to that fountain of life which ought to be ebullient in every Regenerate Christian and without which no man can reasonably esteem himself regenerate Certainly such Opinions Customes and Usages as these must needs wear out true and living Holiness out of the World 5. And yet we may conceive a further Antichristian poison that will wonderfully damp and benumme men in all their endeavours after true Sanctity and that is easy Absolution and slight Penance after formal Confession For Confession which is so rigorously extorted by this Antichristian Church I am now describing being accompanied with a conceit that upon their Absolution and performance of imposed Penances they are then right and straight and in as secure a condition as if they had never sinned the just chastisements of their offended Consciences being slaked by the soft and false interposal of the Priest's pretended Authority to absolve where God has bound as certainly every one is bound over to that eternal doom at the last day let the Priest pretend the power of loosing him here as much as he will and he shall answer for what he has done in the flesh which no Absolution nor Penance can clear him from unless he really forsake his wicked ways and become a sincere Convert to God I say from this constitution of things touching Absolution and Penance it must needs follow that the raines will be let loose on the necks of all men they being given to understand what a slight thing it is to sin against God when they can have their reconcilement upon such easy terms Whenas it would be a greater awe upon mens spirits to let them be condemned or acquitted by their own Consciences being so well assisted by the Word of God and the Light of Reason and Nature to lay the Law against them and never to leave urging them till they have emerged into a competent sincerity of heart Which when they have arrived to Christ within them and his Word without them will absolve them and give them peace of mind and if need be they may also receive Absolution from some sober and faithfull Priest whose honesty and exemplarity of life has fitted him for so serious a function as I have intimated above where I had slipt aforehand into this Argument 6. But the most outrageous Antichristian effort against the Divine Life would be the persuasion that upon the paying of certain tolerable summes of mony and doing some slight superstitious performances or other they shall obtain by virtue of the supreme Ecclesiastick Authority plenary Indulgences and Pardons for vast numbers of years and the certainty of freeing of themselves or their friends from Purgatory As for example suppose that some Churches or if you will many may have purchased from the Ecclesiastick Sovereignty a perpetuity of plenary Indulgence so that he that prays before such an Altar in this Church
Monitor ad Caesar. c. King James of ever-blessed memory has smartly and justly taxed them sub larvata simulatione curae spiritualis animarum regna exhaurit orbémque Christianum caede sanguine miscet to this Power I must confess the Visions of the Apocalyps are somewhat more severe as it is most fit they should be For this Power except so much therein as agrees with the Primitive Ages of the Church comprising in it nothing but a masse of Frauds and Impostures of Superstitions and Idolatries and bloudy and Antichristian Cruelties the Visions of the Apocalyps were not the Visions of God if they predicted not ill to so ungodly and Diabolical a Polity And yet if I might profess freely my opinion were but that heap of wicked stuff cast out and abolished and all her false Merchandizes every-where interdicted as they are here in England such a purification as this would undoubtedly fulfill the prediction of the burning of the Whore of Babylon with fire according to the primary sense or scope of these Visions and the Church and whatsoever is comely and usefull be saved from any farther or severer Castigations provided they did not Antichristianize in what is left and place all their Religion merely in an outward though unexceptionable Form neglecting the indispensable Laws of the Life of God and of honest and laudable Morality So little reason have any to be affraid of the right sense of the Apocalyps in those Visions unless they have a favour for the Kingdom of sin and dominion of the Devil in the World 11. Again I must confess also that I cannot but dissent from Mr. His difference from Mr. Mede's way in expounding the three days and an half of the death of the Witnesses and in the placing of the Vials c. Mede in his expounding the three days and an half wherein the Witnesses lay slain three years and an half and not three times and an half which is a mistake of no small consequence As also in his placing of six of the Vials within the sixth Trumpet whenas I have shewn reason I think sufficient why they should be all ranged within the seventh Upon which supposition the pouring out of the first will follow the ascension of the Witnesses into Heaven in a cloud with a very close and natural coherence and such as is intimated in the very Text. For it is said that they ascended up into Heaven in a cloud and their Enemies beheld them and you may be sure Apoc. 11. 12. with a very envious eye and with much wrath and bitter exulceration of spirit accordingly as it is said Ver. 18. And the Nations were angry This is presently upon the blast of the seventh Trumpet And the first Vial answerably thereto is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apoc. 16. 2. an evil and wicked Ulcer or Sore Which does very significantly indigitate that rancour and exulceration of spirit that fell on them that had the Mark of the Beast upon their seeing the exaltation of the Witnesses and hearing the Triumphal Song of those mystical Israelites that had escaped the Tyranny of the Roman Pharaoh by betaking themselves to the safeguard of the Red Sea in such a sense as I have above intimated These are considerable Examples of differences betwixt Mr. Mede 's Interpretations and mine From which several others must necessarily flow as depending thereon beside others that depend not on these which were to little purpose to note particularly But they all put together will not amount to any such summe as will at all impair that rich stock of honour and esteem which will be for ever due to so excellent a Writer whose Modesty Judgment and usefull Industry will I doubt not be admired and applauded to all posteritis For there is no reason at all that those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I mention here should derogate any thing from either that singular ability Mr. Mede had of interpreting Prophecies or from the credit of other performances of his in this kind where he had more maturely considered things and therefore according to the accuracy of his Judgment had perfected his Interpretations beyond all just exception But these that I differ from him in he does ingenuously confess to be but certain Specimina which he had communicated to his private friends nor did look upon them himself as throughly concocted and completed 12. These are the main prejudices that seemed to encumber our Design The reason of the Prolixness of his Alphabet of Prophetick Iconisms which I think I have clearly removed As for particular Exceptions they are of less moment such as might be made against the Prolixity and Inadequateness of my Alphabet of Iconisms my Confutation of Grotius onely and that with some sharpness in some places and lastly my uncharitable Liberty in applying those Prophecies of the Apocalyps and other Scriptures which by the ancient Fathers and more modern Writers even of the Romanists themselves are understood of the famous Antichrist unto the Papacy and Church of Rome To which I shall briefly answer and in order To the first That that Alphabet of Prophetick Iconisms is neither prolix nor inadequate to the whole design I had in mine eye when I compiled it though it be much too long for the use of the present Treatise But we are to remember that I had occasion to write of other Visions in my Mystery of Godliness which are pretermitted here as not appertaining to our present Scope But the use of this Alphabet is extendible also to that former Writing as likewise to a future design in my last part of the Mystery of Iniquity where I shall have occasion to range very far into the Prophecies of the Apocalyps besides other Divine Predictions even upon this very account more fully and accurately to examine whether those Comminations that threaten destruction to the Fourth Beast and the Whore or by whatsoever other Figures those Powers are indigitated do primarily signify any bloudy or boisterous destruction such as the keen Fifth-Monarchy-men or any other Enthusiasts are over-forward to imagine or whether the Mystery of God may not rather be accomplished in such an orderly Reformation as was made by the Sovereign Power of England in King Edward and Queen Elizabeth 's time Which can be no affrightfull news to any that have any Knowledge of God or Love of the Truth For assuredly that was an eminent Example of Christ's Re-visiting the World in the behalf of the faithfull and of his coming again to Judgement in thus judging the Whore and rescuing this part of his Kingdom here in this Island out of the hands of that Man of Sin though few have taken due notice hereof or had a right notion of this so marvellous Event 13. And therefore it is a wonder to me that there are so many that talk so loud of the Spirit of Elias and pretend to be in that Dispensation A Description of
and which the Church of Rome does most of all stick to and applaud herself in I mean Ribera and Grotius and shew plainly how fond how forced and indeed how impossible their Expositions are that even prejudiced men themselves may be ashamed hereafter to take shelter in such wretched subterfuges 2. Ribera's Exposition of the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns that was and is not and yet is and of the Whore of Babylon that rides on him is briefly this The Beast is the Devil considered in reference to his condition of reigning or not reigning in the world In Bestia non Diabolus intelligitur sed Diabolus regnans Wherefore whereas it is said The Beast which thou sawest was and is not he interprets it thus The Devil in the foregoing Ages before Christ was Diabolus regnans but in S. John's time he was not Diabolus regnans because then the Prince of this world was cast out And therefore in this sense he is said to be the Beast that was and is not but will be Diabolus regnans again in Antichrist which is the Seventh Head in whose reign he comes up again out of the bottomless pit 3. The Seven Kings are the wicked Kings of the Seven Ages of the world from Adam to the last Judgement The first Age is from Adam to Noe in which Cain and the Giants are particularly taxed The second from Noe to Abraham wherein Nimrod is perstringed The third from Abraham to David wherein the Kings of Aegypt and other people are noted for Persecutours and Opposers of the People of God The fourth from David to the Captivity of Babylon wherein the people of the Jews were much afflicted by the Kings of Assyria The fifth from the Captivity of Babylon to the coming of Christ wherein they were much afflicted by the Chaldeans and Greeks The sixth from the coming of Christ to the coming of Antichrist wherein the Church has been much persecuted by the Roman Emperours and by the Turks and Saracens and may be still more by such as may arise hereafter The seventh from the coming of Antichrist to the last Judgment wherein Antichrist with his ten Horns that is ten Kings shall persecute the Church worse then ever 4. Five of these Heads that is of these Ages with their wicked Kings were gone over in S. John's time one Age was then and still continues the other that is the Seventh and Last is not yet come but when it is once come it must continue but a little while that is to say three years and an half or fourty two months Antichrist being that Beast in the thirteenth Chapter according as he interprets it And lastly for the Whore that rides this Beast that was and is not he says it is Rome Heathen This is a clear and faithfull Proposall of Ribera's Exposition as any one may see that will have recourse to him upon the place Let us now see how much or rather how little truth there is in it 5. In the Examination whereof as also of the following Exposition we may discern the Usefulness of our demonstrating so plainly That one and the same thing absolutely is understood by the Seven-headed Beast in the Thirteenth Chapter and by the Seven-headed Beast in the Seventeenth as also by the Whore of Babylon and the Two-horned Beast For this even of it self will easily detect the Trivialities and Faulterings of these Expositions 6. That the Beast that was and is not cannot be Regnum Diaboli as Ribera speaks vel Diabolus regnans in mundo per sua membra qui ab initio fere mundi regnare capit in hominibus is demonstrable from the Beast with seven Heads in the thirteenth Chapter which is the same Beast and whose time of continuance is but fourty two months Which is a sign that Ribera is quite out of the story For the same numericall Beast must have the same duration of time Again he makes the Beast in the Thirteenth Chapter to be Antichrist but this the Devil which is another faultering in his narration But further whenas the Beast in the Thirteenth Chapter is said to come out of the Sea it is plain according to the usual meaning of that Type in the Prophetick style that it is a Body Politick consisting of Men But how can the Devil be such with his dark Legions they are not Men but Devils nor to be led captive nor to be killed with the sword as it is said of the Beast there mentioned Moreover the Dragon that is the Devil is said to deliver his forces to the Seven-headed Beast in that Chapter how then can the Beast be the Devil To all which you may adde That the Sixth Head of the Beast in that Chapter is wounded to death not to be healed till the Revival of the Beast and the Recovery of him in the Seventh Head But how can the wicked Kings of the Sixth Age be said to be wounded to death or the Beast not to revive till the Seventh Head when the Church of Christ has been so dreadfully persecuted in the Primitive Times and is to this very day so cruelly infested by the Turks as heretofore by the Saracens These actions are no signs of the Sixth Head being wounded to death more then the foregoing Heads nor so much neither Lastly how can the Devil in this Seventeenth Chapter be the Image of the restored Beast that had received the deadly wound For the Devil when he is again regnant will not Pagano-christianize as I may so speak but grosly Paganize or Judaize as our Adversaries confess and therefore will not be an Image but either the Thing it self or not so much as an Image but a Thing quite different 7. And for the Whore that rides on the Beast I might demand in what sense Rome Heathen has two Horns like a Lamb with other such enquiries which for brevity sake I omit I will rather take notice how indecorous it is to phansy Rome Heathen to ride the Devil whenas it is more proper to conceive her rid that is to say guided and acted and instigated by him 8. But that the Beast that was and is not is not the Devil we shall now evince by other arguments without relation to the Thirteenth Chapter As first If the Devil be a Beast that which makes him so is the wickedness of his nature his persecutiveness of the Church of God and his endeavour of erecting against him a Kingdom of Idolaters Now the Devil has never ceased to be such from the beginning of the world to this very day This is the very nature of the Beast and his nature is not yet slain in him nor ever was nor ever will be Wherefore it never was nor ever will be true of him That he is the Beast that was and is not For to be regnant and then cease to be regnant does not make him to be a Beast and then no Beast but onely no regnant Beast But that also is false that
there to be understood being wounded to death in one of his Heads in that fight and healed so that all wondred after him I would demand of Grotius which of these Emperours was wounded to death in a fight with Michael and was then revived again to the wonder of the world Again there are but seven Kings in the Thirteenth Chapter how come there to be eight in the Seventeenth Thirdly The eight Kings in the Seventeenth Chapter are all Idolatrous according to him but the Inscription of Idolatry is onely upon seven Heads in the Thirteenth which implies the Beast had no more then so Of which things there can be no sense unless according to such an Explication as I have already exhibited Furthermore If the Beast in the Seventeenth Chapter be the Roman Pagan Idolatry how comes it to continue but fourty two months in Grotius his sense for that is the continuance of the Seven-headed Beast in the Thirteenth Himself also acknowledges the Ten Horns of one Beast not to be the same with the Ten Horns of the other I omit to note that Dominatio Romana which he says is the Babylonish Whore in the Seventeenth Chapter is not the same with Magia in the other Chapter whenas notwithstanding I think it clear enough that the Whore of Babylon and the Two-horned Beast are the Types of one and the same thing But this I confess may well seem too Magisterial to make my own Exposition though never so true a Rule for others Wherefore I shall wholly release Grotius from any such unequal terms and examine his Interpretations of these two Chapters of the Apocalyps upon free and common Principles such as all men do appeal to 3. And that first in a more general way searching into the solidity of two main Grounds which he supposes The one That S. John begins the reckoning of the seven Heads of the Beast from Claudius the other That this Vision of the Whore of Babylon and the Beast that was and is not was wrote by S. John in Vespasian 's time Which Grounds are so necessary for his Interpretation that without them it is not onely incongruous but impossible forasmuch as Five are said to be fallen and one to be c. which therefore this Interpretation necessarily requires and implies to be Vespasian and that he then was when this Vision was either seen or wrote Wherefore his Reasons for these Grounds deserve a more diligent Examination For the first of which he alledges these two First That Claudius was the first persecuting Emperour I mean that persecuted the Christians Which yet is contrary to the whole stream of Antiquity who fix the first Persecution upon Nero omitting that expulsion of the Jews from Rome as a thing either inconsiderable or as not properly appertaining to the Christians as such but as they were Jews But so far as I see Caius the Predecessor of Claudius afflicted both Jew and Christian more by his enormous Extravagancies then ever Claudius did concerning which Grotius himself has wrote in his Notes upon 2 Thess. 2. Moeror metúsque maximus Judaeorum Christianorum plenum habuit effectum So that the Epoche might have begun at Caligula as well as Claudius according to this rate which shews the Exposition to be but arbitrarious Besides if the Epoche begin at Claudius because a Persecutor why did not the account break off where Persecution ceased For Galba Otho Vitellius Titus and Vespasian are none of them infamous for any persecution The other reason why this Epoche is fix'd on Claudius is because S. John himself was banished into Patmos in Claudius his time and therefore S. John accounts from the time of his Banishment as Ezekiel from the Epoche of his Captivity But this is a very weak Allegation For Ezekiel did not compute the time from his particular Captivity but from the Captivity of Jeconiah as you may see again and again in Gaspar Sanctius upon Ezekiel Besides that it is one thing for a man to compute what happened to himself as Ezekiel did from the time of his private Captivity and another to reckon the succession of Kings or Emperours from so private an Epoche And then which is still worse it is not at all probable that S. John was banished into Patmos in the reign of Claudius not onely because he suffered not as a Jew but as he was a witness of Jesus but also because he has not set down that Epoche which had been very necessary and but ill omitted if there were any such great stress lay upon it as to assure us of the truth of the main Visions of the Apocalyps Adde to this that S. John was not at Rome and therefore unconcerned in this Edict of Claudius and if he had been there or where-ever else he was there is no mention made of any confinement to places in these Expulsions And we see that Act. 18. Aquila and Priscilla that were expelled from Rome abode securely enough in Corinth to whom S. Paul joyned himself and wrought on his Trade with them And lastly it is against the whole current of Antiquity Irenaeus Origen Tertullian Eusebius Hieronymus Nicephorus Victorinus Primasius Andreas and Aretas and against the universal suffrage of both Papists and Protestants who with one voice declare that S. John's Exile into Patmos was under Domitian But I need not insist on these things so much for the present sith the confutation of his second Ground will make this vanish also 4. Which second Ground is That the Vision of the Whore and the Beast was wrote by S. John in Vespasian 's time But unless it was seen then it will not serve the turn forasmuch as it is not the voice of S. John but of the Angel that says Five are fallen and one is and therefore the Vision as well as the writing thereof must be in Vespasian's time And also in the Island Patmos because once and for all at the beginning of this Book of Visions he saith they happened to him in the Isle of Patmos and never gives any other intimation throughout the whole Book whence it is incredible but that they all befell him in that Retirement Which things I note to meet with Grotius his supposition in his De Antichristo That though S. John was banished into Patmos under Claudius yet he was out of the Island in Vespasian's time From whence I would infer that the Vision of the Whore and the Beast was not seen by John in Vespasian's time Which is the utter destruction of Grotius his Exposition as I noted before 5. And this alone of his own concession were enough to put an end to this Debate but it being a matter of such great consequence I shall insist a little larger upon it and no less then demonstrate the utter insufficiency and weakness of this Ground of Grotius Wherefore sticking close to the Catholick suffrage of Antiquity and of all Writers as well Protestants as Papists let us again consider what
of Armenia Thracia Galatia Pontus Judaea Arabia Adiabena Suevia Alpes Cottiae and Alpes Idionni From which account notwithstanding he varies in his second Notations And concerning which I will omit to note any thing farther then that such 1 petty Kings as some of them are in comparison of the Roman Empire especially could not well deserve the name of the Horns thereof and that in reference to Idolatry 2 as if they were so peculiar Defenders of it For there is no History that mentions their goring any one so particularly and considerably in the behalf thereof and Judaea is an unsutable Horn for an Idolatrous Head to wear Besides that their 3 wearing of Crowns seems too magnificent an ornament for them that are acknowledged besides the scantness of the Territories of some of them to be Tributaries to the Roman State So that the Invention seems something faint touching these Ten Kings and the Prophecy useless they tending to no notice of any thing to the Church that might at any time be useful for them But now concerning the Beast it self Besides that it is 4 not according to the Prophetick style to interpret a Beast to be a Vice but a Body Politick how can the 5 Roman Idolatry be represented thereby sith it is said to ascend out of the Sea which Grotius confesses to signifie ortum habere But the Roman Idolatry could not be prefigured to S. John as a thing to arise hereafter since it had been in the world so many Ages agoe and did still continue Wherefore it was not to 6 begin with the fourty two moneths to come nor was to end with them in Grotius his sense Nor did the Deifying of their Caesars make a new Idolatry no more then taking other Deities into their worship Nor did that Idolatry 7 continue but fourty two moneths as Grotius expounds moneths in this place I say neither the Roman Idolatry nor Cruelty continued but fourty two moneths and therefore the Beast here described cannot be Idololatria ferino more saeviens in that meaning Grotius would have it Adde to all this That the making the Seven Heads to be the Seven Hills of Rome is a very unlikely Exposition here both because in the foregoing Chapter these Heads are said to be 8 crowned which is not proper for Hills and one of them in this Chapter to be 9 wounded and healed again which is as little proper to these dead Heaps of Earth as also it is very harsh to 10 clap on seven Heads and ten Horns in a Concrete sense upon a Beast that is an Abstract Which is as harsh as to make the body of a Bull Redness in the Abstract and then to set a solid Head and Horns upon him of hard bone and flesh c. If a man will be so curious as to count he will finde Grotius his Interpretation guilty of at least nine or ten Weaknesses or Incongruities in this very first verse But we proceed 2. In the second he makes Claudius the Body of this Beast which is Panther-like and Domitian the Mouth thereof then which nothing can be more extravagant For this Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns he acknowledges to be the Roman Idolatry in the 17 th Chapter also Whence it will follow 1 That Claudius is both the Body of the Beast and one of the Heads and 2 Domitian both Body Head and Mouth as may appear from what was noted in the foregoing Chapter And also which is as harsh as any thing Claudius being the Body of the Beast and Domitian the Mouth 3 the Body will be without a Mouth for as many years as there are betwixt Claudius and Domitian's reign which was about fourty years The 4 Dragon also giving his power to the Beast and his Throne can be no Prophecy of the Roman Idolatrie's receiving of it because that was done many Ages before 3. In the third he makes the Head of the Beast wounded to death to be the Capitol and the healing thereof the building of it up again by Vespasian upon whose Coin was stamped Roma resurges 1 Now first I say that it is an hard Metaphor to say an Edifice of wood or stone is wounded to death and then healed But suppose the Capitol wounded 2 the Hill was not hurt at least not wounded to death so that unless there were seven Capitols as well as seven Hills the Conceit will come off very hardly but if you leave the Capitol and take to the Hill the Hill can no more be said to be wounded then a mans Head whose Hat is onely cut Again the main thing aimed at by Grotius in interpreting this wounded Head of the fall of the Capitol is not true 3 For Idolatry was not at all lessened by the fall of the Capitol nor the fear of the Romans that the worship of Idols would fall after it but that the Empire would be ruined by the incursion of the Northern Nations and upon this account is that Omen inscribed upon Vespasian's Coin Roma resurges And lastly whereas it is said that all the world wondered after the Beast upon the healing of his deadly wound it is manifest that some 4 stranger thing then the building up the Capitol must be understood thereby For was it any wonder to strike all the world that the Capitol should be built up again by so rich a City and the Lady of the world Truly the great wonder had been if they had not re-built it 4. In the fourth he interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idololatriae inservierunt which is as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 they worshipped Idolatry Which is a very hard phrase In the fifth here Domitian is made the Mouth of the Beast as was said before and by attributing the reign of the Beast to him 2 the whole Beast and this because Domitian's Persecution is supposed to be but three years an half for he began to persecute saith Grotius in the thirteenth year of his Reign and was slain in the sixteenth 3 But this does not prove that his Persecution was just three years and an half and Baronius and other Chronologers place the beginning of that Persecution in the tenth year of his Reign Besides 4 the Text does not say He shall persecute three years and an half but continue so long But Domitian continued above three years and an half for he reigned sixteen years according to Grotius his own confession 5. In the sixth and seventh he makes Domitian still the Beast and expounds And there was power given him over every Tribe and People and Language of the power of his Example to a more impudent exercise of Idolatry That 's one shift Another is this That in his reign the Dacae Catti and Sarmatae were overcome and the Roman Idolatry propagated thereby as if it were a worse Idolatry then that of those Barbarians But let any one judge if such a lank and improper sense as this can fill out the meaning