the great difficulty here is to get any Readers at all and to prevent the being sentenc'd without a Tryal That which does so affright the World from these things is the usual fancifulness and looseness of Discourses of this nature and their great Confidence and Assurance with little or no care to make sure of their foundation I do therefore think it requisite to assure all those that look upon this That the whole aim of my Endeavours here is to restrain all kind of Liberty of Imagination and to force an Assent by close and clear proof instead of surprizing it by an Ingenious Scheme and by the tempting agreements and lucky likenesses of Characters My great fear indeed is that the dry strictness of the Reasonings in it will turn away more from perusing it than the strength and cautiousness of it will please But that will still the more clear my Attempt from the common Prejudice It may be some motive to the belief of this That the only end of this Vndertaking was to find out a more satisfactory foundation for what the Excellent Mr. Mede has endeavoured to demonstrate in this way Whose known Reputation for his impartial and cautious Judgment in the interpretation of other parts of Scripture is sufficient to silence all inconsiderate Prejudices against his Performances of this kind There have indeed been some very great Names of late Grotius Dr. Hammond c. amongst our selves who have excused the Church of Rome from any concern in the Judgments of this Prophecy and that only by laying down another Scheme of Interpretation without any tolerable proof of it But it is a sufficient prejudice against their Authority that they are forced to such shifts for their foundation as the most Judicious and the most skilful of the Romish Interpreters themselves do cry See the Preface to my former Treatise out against as things that none but Men out of their Wits would own and such as they affirm to be contrary to the general sense of all kinds of Interpreters Jews and Christians Ancient and Modern And when they come to speak of the like kind of Phrases do declare that sense of them which these New Men account monstrous in the Interpretations of their Brethren to be so clear that all but those that are blind may easily see it Or such as is agreeable both to the usage of common Speech and to the usage of Scripture Or such as must necessarily be allowed Which is a sufficient Vindication of those Learned Interpreters of our own who have brought the same Charge against these Ingenious Innovators It would at the first much surprize any man to see these Learned Protestants so busie to ease the Church of Rome of this trouble from their Brethren when all the thanks that they can get for it from the most Judicious of those whose Cause they oblige by it is to be called Madmen and fools for their pains But in this they themselves do satisfy us They acknowledge that they came to the Interpretation of the Revelations with a design to serve by it It was more to answer Objections against some singular Notions than to unfold the Mystery of that Prophecy They came to force their way through the Difficulties that the plain and obvious sense of the Visions did lay in their way And nothing is more ordinary than to see men wrest any part of Scripture that will not comply with their fancy for some particular Opinions Their Expedient for Catholick Vnion of all Christian Churches by the Compliance of the Roman Their Assurace of the necessity of the conveyance of a Right Succession and Ordination by a Church that was not formally Idolatrous c. were altogether inconsistent with the Protestant sense of the Apocalypse It is as evident on the other side from the closeness and cautiousness of Mr. Mede's Explications and the impartiality of his Judgment upon all other Occasions that his whole aim was to make sure of the clear and certain sense of these Mysteries He bad no private Opinion that he came to advance by it or to make it a drudge to And his way of life and the wariness and the Ingenuity of his Spirit in all his other Expositions of Scripture did sufficiently secure him that Character of himself which his Modesty would only own viz. his freedom from studium partium But the present Age is so generally prepossessed with the Interpretations of these Learned Men That it is further necessary to remind those that look upon them as a great service to the Church of England That they are great Novelties See Dr. Bernard 's Discourses p. 139 to 160. in its Doctrine and if continued in will but expose it to the rest of the Reformed Churches for departing from them and from its own first Faith only to uphold some Prerogatives of its own Reformation to the undervaluing and undermining of the grounds of theirs It is manifest * Third Part of the Sermon against Idolatry p. 69. And 6th Part of the Sermon against Rebellion p. 316. by the Homilies approved of in our Articles as the faith of our Church That the Charge of Babylon upon the Church of Rome is the standing Profession of the Church of England And it continued to be the †Bishop Jewell p. 373. Bishop Abbot Antichristi Demonstratio Archbishop Whitgift Tract 8. p. 349. Bishop Andrews Tortura Torti Bishop Bilson p. 527. Bishop Morton Mr. R. Hooker 's Treatise of Justification sect 10 57. currant Judgment of all the best Learned Members of it till the end of the Reign of King James the First It was really believed in his time to be so clear and important a part of their Faith That both the Church and the Court did applaud the King in his publick defence of it though he did thereby plainly endanger the honour of his Character and the Interest of his Kingdom amongst all Roman-Catholick Princes As appears by Lessius's Epistle Monitory to them After that time This Doctrine of the Homilies came to be more out of fashion either to be civil to the Marriages of the succeeding Reigns or to take away all the advantage that the Serapatists might have from hence against the necessity of an uninterrupted Succession and Ordination in every Lawfully-constituted Church Which might also shew them the necessity of uniting with the Church of England It is certain that the extravagant Heats of those times were enough to make Learned Men run into unnecessary Extremes But the common Danger of late has now revived the Ancient Doctrine of the Church again which these Novelties did contradict All the best Learned in the Church have been engaged in charging the Church of Rome with formal Idolatry in exposing all Expedients for Vnion with it in demonstrating the necessity of a Separation from them whatever becomes of the Succession in disowning of all kind of Right of Supremacy there c. If therefore the Authority of
these New Interpreters does still prejudice any that are otherwise curious against these kind of Enquiries here is all this to make them very uneasie under it viz. That they rely upon such for it as the best Judges amongst those whose Cause they most befriend by it do impartially cry out against as Men void of common Sense for the grounds that they go upon for it and that they prefer the Judgment of these men in opposition to the Doctrine of the Church of England it self and of the best Learned and the most impartial Defenders of it almost ever since the Reformation and also in opposition to the Judgment of all Reformed Churches besides I do moreover here pretend to lay a surer and deeper foundation for the demonstration of the Protestant Applications than has yet been offered which may make my endeavours for it at least worth the examining And for the better apprehending of the force of all I will here give a general Idea of my whole process in it The chief foundation of my Design is the constant usage of Figures of the like kind in the Prophecy of Daniel For there is this great advantage from Daniel's Figures That they are both the Original Copy of that in the Revelations and have also a great variety of like Schemes and were almost all of them fulfilled before the writing of the Apocalypse as it has been by the Consent of the Learned See Consent of the Ancients at the end of almost all Parties and Ages agreed upon This makes the signification of the Schemes of Daniel to be certainly determined and to be so many Data and Rules for the determination of the like but less known Phrases in the Revelations I have therefore taken some pains to make sure of the Interpretation of the Figures of Daniel in such a way of proof as I hope may bear the most critical Examination which was never before clearly done but is the most requisite of any thing for a full satisfaction about the sense of the Apocalypse For by this means I have reduced all the kinds of Schemes signifying Dominion to certain and uniform Definitions which is a much larger Basis to establish the Interpretation of these Mysteries upon and which I found much wanting in Mr. Mede's and Dr. More 's Method The Prophetical Terms in the Revelations do by this appear to have been well known to the Apostle before and the signification of the chief of them to contain in them so large a space of time as determines their accomplishment to many Ages after his time which is a great confirmation of the Divine Authority of the Prophecy This is the whole business of the Second Book which ought to be the most nicely and attentively examined But to make the demonstration of this the more secure I thought it most convenient to make use of some of the most undoubted and acknowledged things about Babylon and the Figure of the Beast in the Revelations which do the most openly and unquestionably determine the scene of these things to one certain Empire Whereby the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel which is proved necessarily to be the same with that in the Apocalypse is more certainly made known and all the rest of the Kingdoms there mentioned more unavoidably confined in their particular significations This therefore was thought fit to be premised in the First Book In the doing of this I had another aim which I apprehended to be of very useful importance and that was to make sure of the foundation of Mr. Mede's Syncronisms that is That the Term of the Beast all over the Revelations does denote but one and the same particular state of it the want of a close proof of which gives a great advantage to the Grotian Interpretation to evade the force of his Demonstrations by taking that Term in various acceptations Dr. Moor has indeed taken great pains for this purpose but I could not be satisfied till I found it more absolutely necessary for that term to be every-where but the same particular state than his Eighteen Congruities or Likenesses do seem to make it The Third Book does apply the general Notions in the Two former to the Beast in the Revelations Thus far I have generally endeavoured to carry on my whole Process upon Principles common to all the several ways of Protestant Interpreters and have therefore offered mine own particular Apprehensions about the Application and first date of the Reign of the Beast by way of Queries only that I might lay the stress of the business upon a foundation large enough to fit almost all the different Judgments of Protestant Interpreters and not venture it upon the narrow bottom of one particular man's Fancy and Method And I have made use of no Authorities to confirm any thing of moment but the Consent of Papists themselves And their Consent about almost all the Propositions in the First and Second Book which are the Principles and foundation of the Design was a very great confirmation to me of the strength and certainty of all that follows But yet I am so throughly sensible of the strange and violent heats that the study of these things do generally possess all men with that engage in it that I must desire that Justice of the Reader not to be deterred from the perusal of this performance by the confident Censures of any that may observe some small Conclusions here not so agreeable to their own Fancies For the most eminent and admired in other parts of Learning have been found to be the most absurd and gross in their Confident Mistakes about these matters Nothing indeed does make men so obnoxious to mistakes here as a more than ordinary measure of quickness of Parts and of assurance from great improvements in other ways If I have at all succeeded in this Attempt I must wholly attribute it under God's assistance to the peculiar scepticalness of my nature and the continual distrust of my own Apprehensions and Performances which would not suffer me to fix upon scarce any thing before I had by often repeated corrections of my first thoughts about it made it appear not only clear but necessary to me It is enough to revive the Curiosity of the present Age for the examination of this Attempt to reflect but upon the peculiar advantages of it if performed My Design The Usefulness of the Design is to give a clear and necessary proof That the Church of Rome is that Great Enemy of God's Church which is much the business of the Revelations And one very great advantage of this would be That it would cut off many voluminous and intricate Disputes which take up so much of the choicest time of the Best Men. If it were once made sure That God had here so openly exposed the distinguishing marks of that Church almost every one of Bellarmin's Notes of his Church ought without any dispute to be granted him Nay If that alone be
but yielded which the Jesuit Alcasar * In v. 2. c. 11. Apocalyps Notat 4. item ante Notation See Preface to the Judgments of God upon the R. C. affirms to be necessary and the contrary of it to be not at all agreeable to the Enigmatical style of the Revelations that is That the 1260 days are to be taken in a Mystical and not in the literal sense Those Notes would be the surest confirmation that that Church must be the Great Babylon For as the Mystical acceptation of a Day in Scripture is a Year so is it impossible to apply the Characters answering to those Marks in the Revelations to any Ruling Power besides for the space of 1260 together since the writing of the Prophecy Ex. gr Where-ever was there an Empire since the writing of the Prophecy but that of the Roman Church that Note 1 was so Universal for 1260 years together as to have all that dwell upon Earth Peoples and Multitudes and Rev. 13. 8. c. 17. 15. Nations and Tongues to worship it What Ruling Power but that so Ancient as to have the Blood of Prophets and Saints and of all that were slain upon Earth of Note 2 that kind for that space of time to be found in it What Rev. 18. 24. Rule but that had ever so long a duration in the World as to continue set upon an Hill much less upon seven Hills Note 3 for so great a space of time or so as to answer the whole length of the time of the Saracen and Turkish Empires Rev. 9. 1 13. in the Two first Woes Never had any other Church Note 4 such an Amplitude or variety of Believers as to have all Nations drink of the Wine of her Fornication or so Rev. 18. 3 c. 13. 7. as to have a blasphemous power over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations None but that was ever so eminently conspicuous for so long a time for the Succession Note 5 of its Bishops under one Supreme Patriarch as to be the Living Image of all the Civil Dignities of the Empire where Rev. 13. 12 14 15. it was under one Supreme Church-Head exercising all the power of the Civil Head or with Imperium in Imperio Nor did ever any Enemy of God's Church act for so long a time like the Red Dragon in its bloody Laws against the Note 6 Followers of the Lamb And yet so far agree with the Primitive Church in fundamental Doctrines as to answer the Character of a False Prophet with the Horns of Rev. 13. 11. the Lamb Christ but speaking like the Red Dragon to his Followers as the Church of Rome has done Whereever but there has there been such an union of Head and Note 7 Members for that length of time to apply the one mind Rev. 17. 13 17. of the Ten Kings to for their agreement together to give their power and strength and their whole Kingdoms to the Beast Never did any but that Church appear so long together with such a medly of Sanctity in some Doctrines Note 8 10. and outward appearances of a strict holiness of life joined with other abominable Doctrines and Practises to qualify it for the Horns of the Lamb and the Speech of the Dragon for the Idolatrous and cruel Commands of the Rev. 13. 12 15. Image Or for having the Form of Godliness in the latter 2 Tim. 3. 1 7. times and yet denying the power thereof Or for forbidding 1 Tim. 4. 3. to marry and commanding to abstain from Meats and yet maintaining Doctrines of Devils What Deceiving Power but that did ever shew so wonderful an efficacy Note 9 of its Doctrine as to make the Kings of the Earth and Rev. 17. 2. all Nations drunk with the Wine of its Fornication Or where did God ever send such an efficacious Delusion as to make men so strongly to believe a lye things clear contrary 2 Thess 2. 11. to the common Sense and Reason of all Mankind Note 11 The Glory of Miracles never appeared any where so long Rev. 13. 14. to make good the False Prophet's lying Wonders and his Matth. 7. 22. deceiving all that dwell upon Earth by the means of them And never was there but in the Roman Church so long a Reign of those that prophesied in the name of Note 12 Christ with Signs and Wonders to assure the Gift of Prophecy to them and so to answer the Character of the False Rev. 13. 14. Mat. 24. 24. Prophet working Miracles to deceive the World and even if it were possible the very Elect. Nor ever had any Power upon Earth so numerous Confessions of its Note 13 Adversaries for the application of these Notes of his Church in the Revelations to verify the Testimony of the Witnesses Rev. 11. 3. no Church or State in the World beside has made such an unhappy end of any thing near so many of its Enemies Note 14 as the Roman to assure us That it can be nowhere but there that the Image caused all to be killed Rev. 13. 15 16 17. that would not worship it nor receive its mark and name Nor did Temporal Felicity ever attend any other Note 15 Religion for half the time of the Roman Reign to make it possible to understand the Riches and Glory of Babylon to Rev. 18. 16 17. her last hour of any thing else If it should here be said That these 1260 years are to be verified of some Empire yet to come It must however be allowed That the present Roman Church is as like that Antichristian Empire for all the time that it is to continue and that for 1260 years as one thing can well be like another This would make one apprehend That Bellarmin was perfectly infatuated to make choice of such things for the marks of his Church as make it the very picture of Babylon the Great in the Revelations and shews the Use and great moment of the Notes of the Church as delivered by Cardinal Bellarmin So also for other Intricate Controversies E. G. If this Application of the Apocalypse were once secured who would much trouble himself to prove the formal Idolatry of the Church of Rome when it appears here to be the Mother of Harlots that has made all Nations Rev. 18. 3. drink of the Wine of her Fornication Or to defend any Reformed Church from the imputation of Schism when there is such an express Command to the People of v. 4. God to come out of her any ways with or without the countenance of Authority that they be not partakers of her Sins and so receive of her Plagues Or to contend much for the perpetual visibility of the true People of God when the Prophecy does so expresly distinguish betwixt them as unknown and a False Idolatrous and Apostate Church Ibidem Rev. 18. 4. c. 7. wherein they sojourn and does set them forth as persons