Reason such an Apostasie Apostate Church and falling Star must have a Foundation in Antiquity even while the Church was pure and in Sufferings and that very Church and its Bishop bore a part in it and yet was every day more and more under the Aspect of that Caution given to it Rom. 11. 17 18 c. and cspecially when it was crown'd in Constantine The Apostasie must come to be such a high enthron'd Apostacy Arg. 7 and so obscuring over-shadowing covering the true Church under its self that the very Apostatiz'd Synagogue usurp'd the Title of the true Church and yet because God owns the true Church only he speaks only to that as having under it in his Account the false Church and as bearing in the Type of the false Church polluted with Idolatry spiritual Fornication horrible Corruption of Manners while indeed the true Church is oppress'd and its Members martyred and slain as Antipapal Witnesses by the false Church and the Antipas true Church carries the Name of the enthron'd false Church the high and lofty Pergamus and therefore the Things that would be great if the Church were directly guilty of them are call'd small things and the threatning diverts from that true Church and falls on the false Church only I will come to thee and slay THEM with the Sword of my Mouth and as a Church partly abhorring the Pollutions of the false Church partly excommunicated and anathematiz'd hath the Promise of hidden Manna in the former case and of the white Stone of Absolution as to the latter Now I appeal to all Protestants Whether this was not truly the State of Things in the depth of the Apostasie And I appeal to all judicious Considerers of the Epistle to the Church of Pergamus Whether such a State could be given in more expressive and significant Shades It is then most evident There must be a Time wherein the Mystery of Iniquity began to work seeing it did begin gradually and that Beginning must be within the Apostolical Times for the Apostle declares it so to begin besides from this Neighbourhood it derives a Pretence of Authority tho' indeed there can be from thence no Authority gain'd to Antichristianism seeing the Scripture and not Neighbourhood to the Apostles Time is our Rule and seeing any Authority no higher deriv'd is stain'd and blemish'd by that Apostolical Declaration yet a Face a Countenance of Authority will be thence deriv'd to deceive and delude with It is also most evident The Progress of it must afterwards grow so high to be a Synagogue of Sathan and after to be a Throne of Sathan so that from hence may arise the Symbols of Ephesus Smyrna Pergamus After the Time that Antichristianism did thus prevail seeing Argu. 8 it was not to be perpetual and everlasting however long and that the Ruine of it is first to be gradual and then at last sudden there must be some preparatory Wrestles and Struggles for the Eluctation and Recovery of the true Church after this Oppression and being muffled up under the Name of a false Church call'd Catholick and Vniversal and HOLY MOTHER CHURCH at the same Time yet in regard of the remaining Power of Antichristianism united with the Powers of the Kings of the Earth the state of the true Church must needs be still cover'd under the Appearance of such a false Vniversal Church over and above it and so must in that regard bear in Type the Name of that apostate Daughter Thyatyra while in the mean time its Charity Jezebel Daughter of Ethbaal c. Faith Patience Service Works against that false Church grow continually greater and greater to the very last and its disownings of the Depths of Sathan and not accepting them for Deeps of Religion are very evident and eminent to its Praise The suffering Jezebel therefore or the false Church regnant over it because it cannot help it are small things against it because but Types for yet it is accounted so perfect as to be commanded only to hold its own and no other Burden of Command impos'd on it but to hold fast what it had already whereas to suffer Jezebel had it not been over-power'd had been a very heinous thing Now so much therefore of this True Church as did so eluctate and force its way out of the False was while it was forcing its way under one Notion or Denomination and when it had forc'd its way under another and while it in any parts and portions of it continues in the midst and within the Bowels of Kingdoms and States still keeping up and submitting themselves to the Power of Antichrist It may still retain its name Thyatyra and although the Time or interval it properly measures when the whole True Church was compris'd in it may be past yet it may continue in Being in no higher State then of Thyatyra till the appearance of the Morning Star and the fall of the Tenth of the Great City Now it is most evident there have been such earnest Motions of the True Church from under the Tyranny of Antichristianism There still continue such in Antichristian States and Kingdoms according to their Power I demand therefore what more agreeable and expressive Lineaments hereof could be given then in the Church of Thyatyra first espying and as under Affliction looking for the first dawns of Light and after advanc'd to Rule the Nations c. in the New Jerusalem After the Emersion and actual manumission of several parts of the True Church from Antichristianism and a settlement Argu. 9 in Recess and Separation from it some Churches through the Favour of Princes States and their Laws entred into a Condition of outward Splendor and Glory Riches Power and Authority of which the Sardius Stone may be a fit emblem But this outward Elevation not so becoming nor agreeable to the Patience of Christs Kingdom such a Church may be too much taken up about Rites and Jurisdictions and such extern Decencies and not press forward upon Things that remain in an order and sequence to the Kingdom of Christ and so fall under severe Censures This Church represents Churches which are yet accepted by Christ as True Churches they have on their own proper Title Names though but few that have not defiled their Garments And these few though best are not yet made the Church but the whole though in a sleepy and defiled State are the Church that has the few Names that had not defiled their Garments contrariwise in Pergamus and Thyatyra the false Church that calls it self the universal is not the Church but the Few suppress'd overcome Witnesses are yet the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the whole Earth which is a most remarkable Difference shewing Sardis a True Church Now since the Reformation it is known by general Observation There are such Churches that are in a State and Splendor Sardian but let the Application of the Characters remain till he comes that says He will Come
now the Church was indeed out of view by the Apostasie introduc'd by the Gentiles the Beasts people under the other Beast so that the False Church hid the True as in a wilderness The Gentiles crowded the True worshippers into a clos'd Temple The Daily was taken away The witnesses were in Sackcloth where then could the True Church be seen All was scatter'd no Body of a Church appear'd but the Antichristian to this state things grew more and more under the Regnancy of the Beast till the Woman was fled from the Serpent himself All this is then to be accounted to the Beast serving the True Church by Gods overruling Hand so far as that it was out of the Dragons reach who was deceived thinking to strike the True but the False lay bleeding In the mean time Satan however in his Serpentine and draconick Nature jealous of any thing of Christ even in his own Kingdom first persecutes the Empire by the Barbarians where He knew the woman very lately was by her bringing forth the Manly Birth He struck at it by way of distinction in his own Aym but finding He could not reach it by the rude strokes of the Barbarians but the Eagles wings had convey'd it away and finding that those Barbarous Nations setled by degrees into the Antichristian Christianity and so help'd it forward into the wilderness He then resolved to be sure of it attempted to swallow it by the Mahometan Flood But This neither distinguishing it nor succeeding because the Bestian Earth drunk up the Flood not only receiving it upon it self but maintaining the name Doctrine Profession and Church state of Christianity so far as is necessary absolutely to Antichristianisme and its Kingdom so drunk up the Flood by setting it self against the blasphemous monstrous Mahometan Imposture and with a deadly hate because Mahometanism is no less against Antichristianity than Christianity so the Serpent disappointed is wroth and as so necessitated determines now to sift for his Ends by Draconism refin'd into Beastianism Heathenism guilded with Christianity but pointed and edg'd with Antichristianisme which is a compound of the Dragon and the Beast And because this Antichristian state allowed such a thing as a Christian Church tho but it self only He can make war only with the womans seed And to the purpose and as we say with a Vengeance He makes War with the womans seed who keep the Commandments God and hold as witnesses the Martyry of Jesus that is by the Beast whose History immediately follows cap. 13. and to whom the Dragon deputed his power and seat even Great Authority which Delegation the other Beast that spake as a Dragon viz. the False Prophecy received and managed for him the Grand Beast until He came to his Image and Number and so the Dragon and the Beast continue together till the Beast is taken and cast into the Lake and the Dragon and all his Draconism bound Chain'd and Seal'd up by the Kingdom of Christ appearing Rev. c. 19. c. 20. v. 1. And this is the True History of Draconism as entred into Bestianism by which it plainly appears the scattering of the Power of the Holy People or the state of the Woman in the Wilderness is wholly owing to the Beast and his Bestianism whose are Time Times Half Time and that the Dragon and his Persecution were wholly defeated by the Bestian Apostacy conveying the Church from the Serpent till He wrought by the Beast and made over his Power to Him in revenge upon the Womans Seed it self being still safe Now how admirable is all this according to the Symbols the Beast still in all appearance and semblance secures Christ on the Throne while it supplants his true Kingdom and Power for how could Antichrist's Kingdom stand if Christ were not in Title upon the Throne But how could it stand if Christ did indeed reign No it presently falls then or rather vanisheth away Again the Wings of the Apostatiz'd Empire while they convey the true Church out of all ordinary Visibility yet secure it in the Name and Notion of a Church the Beast's Earth thus helps it for a Christian Church is his Claim and Title to his Kingdom but it must be hidden for a true Christian Church visible destroys his Kingdom Thus all things even to Astonishment at the divine Prophetick Wisdom have a Harmony in Truth greater than that of the Spheres in Imagination Mahometans and Pagan Infidels by subverting Christianity necessarily overthrow Antichrist's Kingdom also it is in indispensable need of Christianity so far as a Pretence goes but the Brightness and native Glory consumes it while Christianity under a false mask supports it true Christianity scorches it to nothing as will be seen at the Vial pour'd into the Sun true Christianity and the Church therefore must be hidden and in the Wilderness and its Seed persecuted as if not of the Church that false Christianity and the false Church may reign in its Absence under its Name and Appearance Thus while the Dragon persecutes in his Aim and Intention the Christian Church the Apostacy pretending it self the Vniversal Church conveys the true Church into a Wilderness and so befriends the Notion of a Church while it conveys it out of sight the Dragon by the Beast makes War with the Seed and scatters them that they could not possibly be found in the Body of a Church not but that the Church was truly visible in the single Witnesses however anathematiz'd but it could not be reach'd in a Body even by the Serpent himself for it was not in a Body and yet the Notion of a Church was dear to the Antichristians for They and the Beast usurp'd it At this Time therefore according to this Prophecy it could be no Argument against the Church Where was it or It was not visible in a Body for it was not to be visible in a Body but in the Suffering scatter'd Seed So that it was hid from the very Serpent And yet even to the end of the 1260 Days there is a Mahometan Draconism levelling at Christ Christianity and the true Church but falling almost wholly upon the false Church and the Antichristian King and his Subjects who is therefore always principally concern'd to drink up this Flood and so helps the true Church by his Earth There is nothing at the present I can think necessary to add to this Explication of the Apocalyptical Dragon but that the whole Vision Rev. 12. to v. 13. is presented as in Heaven so that the Assumption of the manly Birth the Joy upon the Dragon 's casting down upon the Kingdom of our God being come c. is given as in Heaven and is reserved also in Heaven till the glorious Appearance of Christ and there is no more but such an imperfect cognisance of those great Things upon Earth as was given by the Christian short Empire to be expected till that glorious Kingdom of Christ at the end of the Beast's Reign which may
to shew himself a Beast whereas yet he could not appear so but must remain in his State Is not till this fall and after it too even till he came to his number that Prophecy might be fulfilled when he ascends out of this Abyss And though his fall was but to the Earth yet because instead of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven he pretended to he had only the Key of the bottomless Pit he is justly said to rise out of it for that he ascended what was it as the Apostle argues in a much better Case but that he descended first Ephes 4. 9. for seeing he rises to his Power by the Efficacy of his deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish by his sathanick Signs and Wonders by his excommunicational Thunders from beneath by which he affrights men downwards and that much of his Potentacy lies in the management of a false Hell of his own founding It is very proper to him to ascend out of the bottomless Pit and the Power of the Keys he assumes is very ominous to him for what he calls Keys is this one Key of the bottomless Pit and so in just derision of him he carries this device in Prophecy The Key of the bottomless Pit was given him I confess The Patriark of Constantinople was the First in this Assumption the Emulation of which mov'd Gregory it is to be fear'd as a lower cause to so high an Exclamation but though he was First yet he was not to have the Key of the Abyss in Supremacy for Prophecy sees not as Man sees by degrees and as in parcels but at once it therefore calls him that fallen Star alone who was to have this Key although the other was a falling Star also and spake as a Dragon He is then and he alone He that hath under Sathan the Key of the bottomless Pit and though an Angel is call'd afterwards the Angel of the bottomless Pit whom we shall find in its due place very diverse from this Star who may seem to have a better right to this Key we shall yet find he was only a Warlike King of the Locusts under the Title of a Prophet the false Prophet Mahomet but was not could not be this Star whose fall must be from Heaven perpetual even as his aspiring Pretensions to Heaven are so continual as shall be further declared as one who once had a fixation in Heaven which Mahomet never had He that ascends out of the bottomless Pit is he that open'd it and let out the Smoke he opens it he lets out the Smoke out of which the Locusts came but against his own Intention he intended himself to ride in this Cloud as in an infernal Chariot alone but with the Smoke Sathan also ascended and became an Angel of the bottomless Pit in the King of the Locusts who were the Flood out of his Mouth propagating his Kingdom by both the Star and by the King of the Locusts The latter of which was principally a great Judgment of God on the Antichristian Star as shall be shewn at large In the mean Time we find the other Beast ministring to this delivery of the Key of the bottomless Pit under the decree and judicial Ordination of God For they made Trial for him of the Efficacy of the Lamb-like Horns joyn'd with the draconick Idolatry and Persecution and so exercis'd the Power of the first Beast before him while he as one and the chief Revel 13. among them look'd on They essayed the calling fire from Heaven and working lying Miracles in his sight to establish the Grandeur of false Prophecy they stirred up all to worship the first Beast viz. The Roman idolatrous Supremacy and to make an Image of Vniversality to it in such a Roman Catholick Supremacy as of the Vicar of Christ on Earth And even the Eastern Horn that aspired for it self above this Beast yet by approving the Idea by making the Experiment by assuming the Title provok'd and inkindled the Ambition of him who by the divine Decree had the Permission got the Possession and hath for many Ages wedg'd himself fast into it and left the other Horn leisure only to be angry at his defeat while his vain claim justifies the thing as lawful and desirable and therefore gave the occasion to the High sounding Voice of Gregory the Great And it is very observable on this very account the Divine Justice fell all along severely upon the Eastern Empire and Patriarchate by the two first woe-Trumpets especially at the taking of Constantinople and to this day lies heavy upon them so that as the Grecian Emperours gave first to the Constantinopolitan Patriarch and then to the Bishop of Rome this Antichristian Vniversality so most distinctly the Wrath of God was very dreadful upon both the Empire and the whole Hierarchy as so antichristianizing and so it continues and will so far conjoyn them in the Punishment of the Beast and false Prophet as they shall not divorce themselves from them by Repentance For this Prophecy looks upon both the Eastern and Western Hierarchy as one and the same Beast with two Horns under the same grand Beast and their People as one Body of Men Gentiles Inhabitants of the Antichristian Earth and Sea and as two Wings of the same Eagle And they all along are both punish'd in and with one another 'T is not the lesser Controversies among themselves concerning Primacy or some other matters that can dissolve the Antichristian Vnion wherein this Prophecy leaves them it must be sincere Repentance turning from Idolatry Superstition Enmity to the pure Religion and from Pride and Tyranny enjoyed only by one one of the Horns indeed for many years as most nearly allied to the Grand Beast but affected by both that must make that Wall of Partition that hath not yet been made between the Eastern and Western Antichristians or between any parts of each and their Antichristianism In the Interim from this very Time we are upon the Beast falling as a Star to the Antichristian Earth receives as Latin that is strictly Roman the Universality of both East and West as was always design'd by God to be so given or permitted and so by degrees enlightens Rome when all the Rulers of the Day and even of the Night were smitten gone down and set and now he begins to carry the Woman on high even at his first ascending and so gradually as he ascends to his Number And hereby the fallen Star appears to be the same Beast that rises out of the bottomless Pit to war with the Witnesses and therefore must be the same that wars with the Saints who are the Witnesses and who is led captive or taken by the Lamb and his Army of the faithful and true and goes into Perdition that is is cast into the Lake and so the same throughout And when he is so cast into the Lake an Angel of another Character does not fall but descends from Heaven