the Babylonion that the Babylonian Kingdom was divided to the Medes and Persians the Kingdom therefore necessarily after it And the He Goat of Greece was moved with choler against the Ram of Persia and stamp'd upon Him that is subdued Him and therefore that must be the Third Kingdom of Brass All this notwithstanding it never distinguishes the Fourth Kingdom by its name Herein the Apocalyptic Proyhecy agrees It very plainly as we shall see describes a Monarchy or Kingdom yet it never expresses to us what Kingdom it was As Daniel tells us the fourth Kingdom in the Image is in the Legs of Iron and Feet and Toes part of Iron part of Clay and in the Visions of the Beasts the fourth Beast with its Feet of Iron its Horns and its little Horn was the fourth Kingdom upon Earth and yet never says in any part of his Prophecy what Kingdom it was even so the Revelation describes a Dragon giving His Throne Power and Great Authority to a Beast to whom Power was given over all Kindred People Tongues and Nations and therefore must have a Great Kingdom yet it never declares of what Nation or People this Kingdom should take its name Nevertheless if it be so evident as it hath been that no Kingdom came between the Grecian and the Romans no not so much as any Spiritual or Evangelical Kingdom of Christ as hath evidently appear'd by express Scripture History It is even Scripture Demonstration the Roman Monarchy was the fourth Monarchy and therefore must be the continuing Monarchy until it and all the rest shall be Broken by the Kingdom of Christ. There must be therefore some great Reason and which Prophecy would have us take notice of why it Throws so Resolvedly such a veil of Secresie over this Monarchy And we may plainly find it is for the sake of the last part of this Monarchy which is in a mystery an Apostasie comming out of a mystery of Iniquity a City in the mystery of an Apostate Adulterous Church and an Imperial Idolatrous power in the mystery of a Spiritual Supremacy For the sake of which last state of this Monarchy the first is not disclosed Because if the last were joyn'd as Prophecy hath joyn'd it The disclosing the first would disclose the last and that both should be joyn'd the very Prophetick frames require Thus the Covering this fourth Kingdom in Daniel and the Revelation doing the same in the Kingdom it describes argues they are both one and the same Kingdom and that He that would understand them must have Wisedom as the Prophecy admonishes to lay things together and to compare them For if this state had been openly Foretold the very opportunity and Action of this Apostasie had been surpriz'd The very Concealment is therefore to the prudent considerer a discoverery and an assurance what Kingdom it is And the unwary which are the multitude And even the wise under the Enchantment of the growing Apostasie knew little of it 2. The frame of the Divine prophecy is herein very admirable and observable in that there is no determinate form assign'd to the fourth Beast whereas the first had the Form of a Lyon the Second of a Bear the Third of a Leopard the Fourth had no Form at all ascrib'd to it Now the Reason of this is partly that the Ballance of Prophecy might be held even between the Concealment of its mind to the generality and the possible discovery of it by the wise and considering Reseacher of Prophecy If there had been a form given in Daniel and the same form given in the Revelation it had been too open and plain a discovery If there had been one form given in Daniel and another in the Revelation it had made a confusion so great that even the Serious and prudent searcher of Prophecy could not have Broken through except there had been such an Exposition as is given in the change as it were of Scenes as of the Persian Ram in Dan. 8. which was Emblem'd by a Bear c. 7. and of the Grecian He Goat c. 8. which was as a Leopard c. 7. and such an Exposition had been too open in this case The Prophecy of Daniel therefore gives no shape at all because the Prophecy in the Revelation would have a peculiar reason to give the fourth Beast in its first state or Legs of Iron and a Beast with Iron Teeth the form of a Dragon which Reason had not been ripe in Daniels Time as we shall see presently And it had great Reason to give the same Roman Beast in its last state peculiarly to shew its succession to the Three first Beasts first the form of a Leopard as in the Belly and Thighs because of its immediate succession to the Grecian Monarchy as it was Roman And then as by the Grecian Monarchy it succeeded the Persian Monarchy it is said to have the Feet of a Bear Especially as the Bears Fore-feet are its strength and resemble Arms in the Body of a Man and so agree with the Arms in the second Kingdom of the Image and then it had the Mouth or Head of a Lyon resembling the Head of Gold whereby its succession by the Graecian and Persian to the Babylonian is assured And thus the Calendar of Time in these successive Monarchies is firmly established and brought down and Recapitulated as in the last state of the Fourth Kingdom both as in the Image and as in the Vision of the Beasts wherein also it is to Expire Apply further to the Fourth Roman Kingdom in its last state the Legs of Iron all other parts of the Image being already dispos'd in the Dragon giving his name Beast absolute and without any Form which the Revelation ascribes so generally and Emphatically to the last state of the Roman Beast in the Head of Ten Horns as one with the whole Roman Beast and also with the Image and you have the Calendar of the Four successive Monarchies brought down to this last Roman state in an Emblem so lively and certain that no wit of Man could have Excogitated Onely the divine Spirit hath found it which is a great Assurance of Prophecy in this matter 3. It is yet to be Remark'd There must needs be many considerable variations betwixt the Prophecy of Daniel and of the Revelation Because both Time was so much further and higher advanc'd at that Time and also because it may well be expected The Revelation of the New Testament may according to the excellent Light of the Gospel throughout it excell the Revelation of the Old Testament or the Prophecy of the Prophet Daniel This is to be well settled in our Thoughts that we may not be stumbled or offended when in after particulars we observe the Variation And first there is this general variation that the Prophecy of the New Testament knowing that the Three first Kingdoms were pass'd off before the days even any of so much as the very first of the days of the New
in Nebuchadnezzars first Babylonian Kingdom there were those sudden Appearances of the Divine Kingdom in his Acknowledgments of God which Antichrist supplanting it made him the more exceedingly and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antichrist 4. As a further Care of Prophecy concerning the Calendar of Time and the Interposal of the Christian Empire it gives us this plain Account of the State of the Roman Bestian Empire during that Christian Empire viz. That by Reason of the Christian Empire that was not Bestian nor any of those Heads The Roman Beast lay wounded and it is said the Wound was a Wound unto Death and a Wound with a Sword and a Wound in one of the Heads and that we may take further notice of the Wound It is said His deadly Wound was healed and he did Live. Rev. c. 13. Now this Wound hath been much mistaken by some Interpreters as if it were the Wound given by the Barbarous Nations invading the Empire of which in the next particular we shall find another Account But it is very plain because the Wound was in one of the Heads and that the Christian Empire upon which the Barbarians fell most peculiarly was none of the Heads It must needs be that the Wound intended was on the Pagan Imperial Head whom Constantine the Great and Theodosius the Great besides other the Christian Emperors so remarkably Wounded even unto Death that It never recovered in a purely Pagan but only in the Pagan Anti-christian Head. To which because of the Congenialness of the one to the other the Dragon is said in prophetic Language to deliver his Throne Power and Authority by way of Succession and to live and to be worship'd in Him. So that though we are not plainly told it was the Draconic Head which we found to be the Pagan Empire was wounded yet in that it is said The Dragon was cast out of Heaven that the Dragon gave his Power Throne and Great Authority to the Beast and was worship'd in Him the World wondring after the Beast There is nothing more plain then that it was the Pagan Dragon that was wounded by the Christian Empire coming next after it and healed in the Beast coming in as a Head. This then was the Wound that the sixth Head as Pagan Idolatrous and bloody could not maintain its Supremacy and Imperialism till the Antichristian Head succeeds it but an Empire a Christian Empire prophetic of the Kingdom of Christ rooting out Pagan Idolatry and advancing Christianity so newly persecuted to death by Paganism came between by which though the Empire continued yet the Bestianism of the Empire was ready to dye and had dyed but that there was a decree to permit it to be Heal'd and Reviv'd within a short space in the Antichristian Beast which could therefore be no other then whatever succeeded the Christian Empire in Roman Beastian Supremacy though as we shall find only in an Image of Supremacy and therefore must be the Papacy else the Wound were not Healed to this day which were most contrary to Prophecy as destroying the frame of the Bestian Monarchies in Daniel and the whole Image of Things in the Apocalyps of John. Now this Note of the Beast wounded is so great an assurance of the Care of Prophecy over the Calendar given in Daniel though this Wound was not revealed in his Prophecy as improper to it and not to its Time as can be given and makes us more certain of the Truth of it then if that occasion of its Care had not been as the Truth of a Prediction is more seen by taking notice of a preternatural Accident and foretelling it then if such an Accident had not been we are therefore to consider the Prophecy of Daniel and John as all one Prophecy of the Divine Spirit in both and as but of one and the same Author writing several Prophesies in several Times and filling up the former by the latter And thus all History agrees That the Christian Emperors came after the Pagan Emperors and disabled their Idolatrous and persecuting Power And that after the Christian Emperors came the divided State of the Roman Empire in several Kingdoms and Kings united in the Papacy and hath continued to this very Day which must therefore be the Beast with his Ten Horns though all be convey'd as it ought to be according to this Prophecy in a Mystery and in an Image or else the Revelation cannot be a True Prophecy 5. There is another principal Note that the Sacred Prophecy of the New Testament gives on purpose to shew that the Bestian-Antichristian-Roman Supremacy in the seventh Head call'd the Beast and his Ten Horns did not immediately succeed to that Pagan Beastian Monarchy but that there was the coming between of a Christian Empire and that the Bestian Kingdom that followed that Christian Empire was the Papal Kingdom the knowledge and regard to which is of so great moment to this prophetic Calendar that Prophecy hath taken so great Care in it and It is thus to be understood The Four Monarchies succeding one another as in the Image of a Humane Body the Succession must be as by way of kind Communication as is between the several parts of the same body And this was to shew one Idolatrous Spirit a Spirit contrary to the Kingdom of God and of Jesus Christ inform'd and intelligenc'd the whole from Head to Foot. But though these Monarchies were so united in one Spirit and therefore as in one Body yet to shew the contrariety of each succeding to each former Kingdom they are in another Vision represented as Four Salvage Beasts each latter ravaging on that in power before it Thus the Persian as by a Belluine Might vanquished the Babylonian the Graecian the Persian the Roman the Graecian as Daniels Visions c. 7. c. 8. and all History make notorious And thus it was determin'd by God that the Ten Kings that came in as Feet of Iron in Succession to the Legs of Iron and the Horns in Succession to the Iron Teeth should come in as by way of Leaving or Legacying or kind Communication as from part to part And so indeed the Pagan idolatrous Empire did as it were naturally and spontaneously resign and dye into the Antichristian rising out of it thus it is represented after a prophetical emblematical manner by the Revelation The Dragon gave its Throne Power and Great Authority to the Beast that is the Pagan Emperor to the Papal Antichrist what ever distance of Time there was between them and so they worshipped the Dragon in the Beast as aforesaid Thus it was as between the Congenial one Pagan and Papal Beast and the Legs and Feet of the Image But then as the Vision of the Beasts imports each Kingdom succeding the former as by violence so these Horns or Ten Kings came by violence into the Empire for so it pleased the wise and Holy Governour of the World it should be The Nations foreign to the Roman Empire
and bringing down the Fire of divine Vengeance by Anathemaes and Excommunications as from Heaven to the Bestian people that they should make an Image to the Honour and Glory of that Roman Pagan Idolatrous Empire that had such a wound by the sword of Constantine and Theodosius destroying Pagan Idolatry and yet did Live and did so plainly appear to Live in the New Antichristian Idolatry Especially in that Image now to be Dedicated to it viz. a new kind of Supremacy a Spiritual Ecclesiastick Supremacy that should have Power to speak and to Cause That All who would not worship that Image should be kill'd This I confess is in Daniel no more then Prophetical Analogy and Allusion but in the Prophecy of the Revelation It rises to the very Height of Argument That we may then understand this great point let us very strictly attend the Prophecy and we shall find that the Image is made to the first Beast that is to the Roman Idolatrous Supremacy consider'd as one and the same Beast though of different Heads yet necessarily One and the same Beast in both the Pagan and Antichristian Heads as if we suppose a Beast of Two Heads each and both would be the same Beast But the Roman Empire considered as Beastian having lost Supremacy in its Pagan and Imperial Head so wounded as hath been said The Hierarchick Beast or Roman Antichristian Hierarchy with its Two Horns like a Lamb of which the Bishop of Rome was even before the Christian Empire ceas'd a Principal and almost supreme part Exercises the power of the first Beast before it and in its sight that is before an Empire that was to become of a Pagan an Antichristian Beastian Empire and therefore surviv'd and it spake as a Dragon for the Restoring and Re-erecting a Beastian Supremacy And because by the decree of God and the state of affairs This could onely be an Ecclesiastick Supremacy which is a Supremacy but in an Image and in an Antichristian Supremacy which is not Pagan but in an Image There is a Revival of worshipping the Babylonian Prince in an Image but such an Image that could Speak and cause to be kill d All who would not worship according to its Antichristian Idolatry the Image of the Pagan and who would not profess slavery and vassalage under the Ecclesiastick or Pseudo-Spiritual Supremacy the Image of the Imperial So it would be effective of all Bestianism yet it would be to the former Bestian Pagan Head but as in an Image This is a most distinguishing assuring note of Prophecy whom it means wherever we can find this Bestianism as in an Image Let us then behold it in the Roman Papacy 1. To this Bestianism there is essentially required Monarchic Roman power and Supremacy And was there ever more plainly Monarchic Roman power then in several and for the sake of the number of Toes Ten Kings expresly noted to Receive power as Kings of great power and strength and Independency and then giving their Kingdoms Power and Strength to the Pope on a Spiritual account or as an Ecclesiastick supreme Just as All their Territories were held in Chief heretofore by their dependence upon and submission to a Roman Martial Emperour fear'd and obeyed of all in whose Court they had their Embassadors Residentiaries Leigiers Envoys In the same manner on a Spiritual account they submit to the Pope as the Holy Father as his Holyness as the Vicar of Christ and the onely Supreme on Earth over Consciences They unite in him have their several Ministers of Embassie with him and he hath put on and kick'd off Crowns Behold and say whether this is not the former Cesarean Supremacy and yet in an Image How fitly therefore does the Prophecy say They Receive power as Kings and yet with the Beast through the Destination upon them under a divine decree to give their Power thus as if they could not have it without him Thus his Great power lies in his Image and for all his vaunts of Ecce duo Gladii His Hornship were most Puny without this Image a very little Horn without it 2. Idolatry is a second essential Constituent of Bestianism in so much that as we have found The Christian Emperour tho' he had the Roman Supremacy and was in his latter Time much Antichristianiz'd yet was as the Kings of Judah of a Messiah-order The Pagan Emperors All Idolaters were also All Bestian however some as the Antonines Alexander Severus as also others of them were more more Humane Just so the whole order of Popes however some better some worse yet are all Bestiam because all Idolatrous But this Idolatry is in an Image It is therefore by the Spirit of Prophecy peculiarly styl'd in Daniel speaking great words against the most High which is expounded by John Blasphemies Now Blasphemy is a Form deriv'd from the Idolatry of the Ancient Israel under the Appearance of a Church of God They held the name of the true Jehovah and yet joyn d the Idols of the Heathen Your Fathers Blasphem'd me on the Hills This Idolatry Isa 65. 7. cover'd with the name of the True God is peculiarly call'd Blasphemy for it is the making the name of God a pander to Idolatry which is Blasphemy And this is most particular to the Antichristian Idolatry committed upon the name of God of Christ of Angels of Saints of Martyrs as in Honour of God and of Christ and so deriv'd on Images And whoever does not worship thus is Anathematiz'd as Prophane Sacrilegious Blasphemous Branded by the lying Spirit of Antichrist with some note of vengeance from Heaven even as Christians of old were vilified as Injurious to the Gods and persecuted as publick Pests and Causes of misfortune This Idolatry therefore strictly speaking is an Image made to the ancient Roman Idolatry not to the Pagan Names of Idols but under the Imagery of names truly great and sacred in themselves and who so far as they know it Abominate the Idolatry commited upon them as a prophetick Type of which John was Twice so severely restrain'd in his Veneration of the Angel This kind of Idolatry is therefore so notably according to the event defin'd a Blaspheming of God and of his Tabernacle viz. the Humanity of Christ and of Them who dwell in Heaven viz. Angels and Saints For these pretended Honors are in Heaven Interpreted as the greatest dishonors and Reproaches and so Blasphemies both upon the Excellency of the Divine Being and the Glory of his Saints so coursly Represented as also as if the Saints were pleas'd with such Entrenchments on the One God and One Mediator which is indeed to Blaspheme Them. 3. Bestianisd is Bloodiness Cruelty and Persecution Ravaging upon the Saints of God and of Christ Wearing out the Saints of the most High making war with trevailing over overcoming and killing the Witnesses of Jesus And this is also cover'd under the Imagery of Extirpating Heresie Blasphemy and Irreligion which are the odious
the Brass the Silver and the Gold To shew it communicated it self to the whole and by it the force of the blow was distributed through the whole so that All was Broken that made up that Composition of the Image with the Clay and so far as it was tainted with that Antichristianism it is utterly Broken and made as the chaff of the Summer Floor Now as if Samsons strength had pass'd from his Head and Locks where it first dwelt while the dimensions and particular Characters of his person remain'd and so come down from higher to lower to his very Feet and there Broken So have we seen the Monarchic Spirit aod Life here describ'd passing from Mettal to Mettal from part to part comming down to the Feet the Seat of that Antichristianism that is to be Broken and the whole Image with it to Powder And seeing these Feet and Toes have continued so many Ages beyond all the former parts how can we but earnestly pray for that happy Revolution and if we are not so in Love with that state as to pray so for it yet however we should fear and prepare for it Thus far I have been representing the real and solid part of the Calendar of which I cannot doubt the Satisfaction It hath given to every observing Mind It now remains that the numeral though mystic part of it be consider'd under that Characterism of it Time Times and Half a Time in the Prophecy of Daniel And that this may be understood It must be expounded to us by that so divinely Learned and truly infallible Key of it and of the whole Prophecy of Daniel the Apocalyptical Prophecy of the New Testament and the Exposition it gives is as in a Complication of Charactorisms of Time Twice forty two Months Twice twelve hundred and sixty days and Twice three Times and a Half but with the little variation of Three Days and a Half for the great Reason of alluding to our Lords three Days in the Grave that we might learn to find a deeper and more intimate part in the space given as our Lord was but a deep part of the first the whole of the second and a small deep part viz. the very dawn or Morning-Break of the Third Day in the Grave which yet is call'd being Three Days and Three Nights in the Heart of the Earth This plainly teaches us there was parallel-wise in these Time Times and Half a Time a deeper Tyranny of the Beast and of the Apostolical Church cclips'd by it and its Seed the Witnesses suffering under it in some parts of these Times then in others And These Things I have more at large handled in their proper place of the Line of Time and shall now only recal what is necessary to present this Time more at full And in the first place It is duly to be Remark'd that as the Spirit gave a Calendar however Mystic but just at the Rising of the Ten Horns on the Head of the Fourth Roman Beast which appears the seventh Head or Papacy in the Revelation with his Ten Horns or Kings and He a little Horn among them So in the Revelation It affixes those Charecterisms of Time to the Gentiles coming in to the outward Court and to the Witnesses putting on Sackcloth and to the Church fled into the Wilderness upon it as also to the Times of the Beast who is the seventh Head of the Fourth Beast in Daniel which we have proved to be Roman and to his Ten Horns and to the Woman persecuted by the Dragon making War with its Seed by the Beast to whom he gave his Throne Power c. Killing her Seed the Witnesses By which as also by the very express use of Three Times and Half the Spirit hath if we will receive it demonstrated to us That the Ten Horns and Little Horn in Daniel and the Beast and its Ten Horns in the New Testament-Prophet John are the very same Kingdom And the Time is doubled in the Witnesses and the Woman both for the certainty and also explanation of the Church not to be found as the Beasts and Romanists vaunt before Luther but Collectively as a Church Woman or Mother Hid in the Wilderness and yet districutively War'd with and kill d in single Saints or Witnesses as its Seed Now it is most Evident that in every one of these Characterisms of Time Three equal parts and a Half part of Time are still most clearly and peremptorily defin'd that we may thereby be most assuredly guided in the Calculation or Computation of the whole space And then they are made up into eighty four Indictions giving a broad Indication It was a Time soon after Constantine that was intended to be defin'd For so soon after Him Indictions came to be general Characters of Time being as Chronologers most agree instituted under him That we may then find the fundamental Reason of this Time we must consider that the Kingdom of Christ having made an Appearance and given a Specimen of it self as hath been shewn It was Estop'd by that Oath of Christ There shall be Time Times and half a Time for that Kingdom to be under an Eclipse In which Time That He the little Horn made so Famous Dan. 7. should scatter the Power of the Holy People or drive the Church into the Wilderness for those Times and Half a Time. Accordingly Revel 12. This very Eclipse is represented to come to pass For the Kingdom of Christ from Constantines Christian Retgn to the Death of Theodosius the Great as the Church cloathed with the Sun had the Bestian Pagan Kingdom compar'd with the Moon under its Feet as it were diametrally Hereupon there begins a gradual darkness or Eclipse upon the True Church For the Pagan Bestian Kingdom being now to become Antichristian-Beastian That Antichristian Beastian Kingdom borrows as the Moon in an Eclipse does most Light and Glory from the Sun and yet Eclipses that Light from the World For it turns its own dark obscure shade downward and retires the Light from above How does this most admirably Resemble the Antichristian Church in which former Paganism finding it self so to lye under the Sun takes as it were the advantage to guild it self with the Beams of Christianity It takes upon it self the Apostolick Faith the Acknowledgment of Scripture the names of Christ and of his Saints the style of Catholick Church And all this it does That it may engross to it self Those Titles of honour and Glory that Riches and splendor which is onely due to the True and pure Christianity in the Kingdom of Christ Hereby it robs the World of the Light and glory of Christianity for instead of those powerful and enlivening rays it casts upon the Earth Idolatry Superstition Ceremony Foppery of Religion which are ancient Paganism Antichristianiz'd and must needs chill make wan and pale all appearances of Gospel Truth so far as any were but in deed rather darken and obscure them altogether as truly Gospel
Testament gives no Representation of them any further then as They are Recapitulated in the Beast So that the whole Apocalyptick Prediction appertains onely to and gives the Schemes of the state of the Roman Empire after it had subdued all the Three first Kingdoms under it self and become the Vniversal Monarchy of the World. And this it does with Relation to the Church of Jesus Christ as its principal object and aim which is a most remarkable Consideration Assuring us the Revelation is a Continuation and further Explication of what remain'd unfulfill'd of Daniel's Prophecy from those very first days of the New Testament or when They began That we may then go on with the Prophecy of Daniel As the Calendar we are upon was most declaredly brought down to the Roman Monarchy at the Birth of Jesus Christ So there are several Periods of the Calendar from that Time wherein the Prophecy of Daniel and of the New Testament Agree most Illustriously with History in Relation to the Roman Empire Period 1 It is most notorious notwithstanding the Birth Death Resurrection Ascension of Jesus Christ and the Apostolical preaching The Roman Empire continued one and continued Pagan in the supreme Powers and in the Body and Bulk of the People From hence it is evident the Calendar was not Run out because the Kingdom of Christ did not onely not Fill the Earth but did not consume other Kingdoms as it is first to do before it Fills the Earth And therefore no Interpretation of Filling the Earth with the Gospel or Spiritual Kingdom can stand Good And further the Calendar was not come down to the Feet and Toes of the Image nor into the Head of the Beast dishevelling it self into Ten Horns as it must in its last state But during the Pagan Empire it remained perfectly One and therefore was not in its last state Now of this Pagan Empire Two Things are most known That Jesus Christ having come into the Flesh under the Roman Monarchy Sathan the old Serpent and Dragon being aware that that Kingdom which shall utterly destroy his Kingdom was entred He as a Dragon watch'd that manly Birth to destroy it if it were possible first He then inhabiting the Pagan Roman Empire it is fitly Resembled to a Dragon in regard of that Spirit that inhabited it by a most particular influence over it And because when Christianity began to spread it self in that Empire in a multitude of Christians It had a Jealous eye over it and over the Empire it might raise Therefore by Ten so known and Famous Persecutions it endeavour'd as a Dragon to devour it and to surprize that Supreme Monarch Jesus Christ who should Rule the Nations with a Rod of Iron which the Christian Church compar'd to a Travelling woman was to Bring forth Herein the Pagan Empire is Resembled to Pharoh the Egyptian King of Old who fearing the overgrowth of Israel into a Kingdom as a Dragon lying in the Nile waited to devour it by Killing the Male Children And thus Herod the Roman Vassal though King of the Jews watch'd to have devour'd Jesus Christ the Incarnate King who shall sit on the Throne of his Father David and of whose Kingdom there shall be no End. Thus admirable is the Concinnity and Agreement between the Pagan Emperors of Rome that was to be a Spiritual Egypt and the Dragon How plain therefore is the Calendar of the Roman Empire in this particular to the very last of it as Pagan Dioclesian and the other last Heathen Emperors being among the Persecutors of the first rank and therefore we must needs be certain whereabout the Time of the Calendar then was For we know this state lasted about 300 Years after the Resurrection and in the clearness and particularity of this the New Testament exceeds the old Consider further this Imperial power with relation to the rest of the World and it was Salvage Dreadful and Terrible as Daniel styles it and as the Revelation styles it as a Dragon devouring and Consuming all other powers as with Iron Teeth and stamping on them as with Legs of Iron on which account the Dragon is said as it were to sweep down the Third part of the Stars or other Princes Rev. 12. 4. and powers of the World with its Syrma its Tail or Train of Power and enlarged Empire And in that it is call'd the Third part of the Stars It thus sweeps down It is agreeable that its Succession to the Third or Graecian Empire should be Connoted which it so particularly drew down from whence the Third or Third part becomes in this Prophecy a Cypher or private Character of the Roman Empire Whether in the West the most proper peculiar Rome and Roman Empire or in the East that affected also to be call'd Roman Empire even as Constantinople New Rome and These Two are therefore in these Prophetick Hieroglyphics call'd Two Wings of the one Great Eagle or Roman Empire And that we may know the Prophetick Calendar was taken care of in this Pagan state of Roman Empire the whole Roman Beast that is said to be diverse from the other Beasts in regard of its many and more Eminently Seven forms of Government very strange to the other Three Kingdoms before it especially in the last the Papal Supremacy was pictured as with Seven Heads Heads of that City that when St. John wrote the Revelation Reign'd over the Kings of the Earth and therefore could be no other then Rome And it is particularly said Five were Fallen One then was which we know could be no other then the Pagan Emperors Thus exact is the Calendar or account of Time till Constantine under whom the Empire became Christian Because all History Agrees whereabouts in Time it was Period 2 The second Period of the Roman Empire since the Resurrection according to Prophecy and most known in History is the Christian Roman Empire under Constantine and his successors And the Time is very well known in History and Agreed whereabouts it was But it must be acknowledged this Period or change of the Empire from Pagan to Christian is not at all shaddowed in Daniel's Prophecy in either of the Two Visions of the Image or of the Beasts it hath no Lines or Mentions And the reason is very clear and plain For when the Spirit of Prophecy was pleas'd to give a Calendar of Time by Two Visions Both representing a Monarchic Frame though of Four Monarchies Yet they were but One in a Bestian enmity and Contrariety to the great Kingdom of Jesus Christ A Christian Monarchy that was given for a short space as an Emblem shade or Specimen though but a dark one of that Kingdom of Christ could have no proper place there but must have confus'd the Frame But as if it were on purpose to compensate the silence of the Christian Monarchy in Daniel and because it may seem a Discontinuer in the Bestian Calendar of Kingdoms and in that Frame of Four and
Half a Time but two Times or two years so that the whole is Three years and a half Let us then calculate the forty two Months and we find They answer just Three years and a Half so that when we come to find as we shall do all along by the compare that the little Horn among the Ten Horns in Daniel and the Beast in the Revelation however they may seem to differ are the very same Even the Forty two Months will demonstrate that the Times and Half are three Years and Half as forty two Months in general Account make Now if They are Three Years and a Half we know certainly They must be prophetically multiplyed according to the standard of All prophetical Time given to Ezekiel c. 4. except there be a plain Reason against it each day of each year must become a Year Besides no Time so small as Three years and a Half can serve such a Kingdom as that of the Beast's The General sense of the Calendar then being thus establish'd the next thing to be done is to fix the Epoch of the Calendar which is as it were the Foundation of every Calendar Now seeing the Prophecy of the New Testament gives as we have found so clear an Account of the Time of the Christian Empire interposed to the Roman Bestian Empire betwixt the Pagan and the Antichristian of which Daniel says nothing we may from thence learn the most precise and definite Time of the Succession And It is evident The Succession must be immediately after the Abdication of Empire by Augustulus which was the very Time of the decease of the seventh King and therefore as close as Succession is to Succession so close must be the Antichristian Empire to the Christian Empire For so the general Laws of Succession require And much more when God interpos'd an Empire that should be an Emblem of the Kingdom of Christ till that was done out of the midst by an Ordination as Supreme as It was there set there could be no Succession so that It could not be till Abdication Thus on one side On the other side seeing It was an unnatural Interposal betwixt the Pagan-bestian and the Antichristian-bestian Kingdom as soon as ever that Christian Empire was according to that most pregnant Expression of the Apostle done out of the midst That Separation and distance made as it were by violence and not willingly betwixt Bestian and Bestian clos'd up and as in the moment Bestian reunited to Bestian as by an Elastic force of self Restitution so that the Succession could be no longer delay'd then just the Abdication of Augustulus And by the way we may observe Abdication whether out of fear and necessity or a desertion out of Resolution rather to part with Government than to govern according to the fundamental contract of Government is a doing a Government out of the midst and makes a good and valid Succession in Gods Account even where He had so particularly order'd a Succession because Government is so necessary that no vacuum can be allowed * Oporâ—â—t Imperaâ—â—rem stantem Râ—gem regenrem Emâ—ri The Powers therefore that are Powers in Being and in the actual Execution of Justice are ordained of God and to be obey'd Rom. 13. 1. 2. For thus it appears here the seventh King was according to Prophecy to continue only a short space and being constrained by Odoacer the Barbarian Conqueror to renounce Government Himself took the Title of King of Italy and not of Rome the Providence of God so ordering it as it were to keep the Succession clear and so the Succession immediately vested in the seventh Head and Eighth King that is in the Antichristian Papacy And of this the Sacred Prophecy gives all the Testimony possible for when it gives a series of Kings One after another and says Five were fallen One is Another is not yet and when He Revel 17. 10. comes must continue a short space and the Beast is the Eighth It is plainly to say though in other words The Eighth King who ever He is that is the Beast succeeded immediately to the seventh who was the Christian King or Emperor Now seeing whoever was the Supreme of Rome all along hitherto and must continue so till the Kingdom of Christ must have succeeded the Christian Emperor and been the Beast I do but ask then who hath demanded claim'd and been defended by the Ten Kings as Supreme of the City Rome for hundreds of years He must be This Beast Again because the Ten Kings as Feet of Iron with the Feet of Clay and as Horns with the Head were to have a Succession at equal dates with the seventh Head and Eighth King the Prophecy having so definitively given the Time of the Beasts Succession that it was whenever the seventh Head ceas'd It gives also the Time of their Succession that It was at the very same Time even at * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The like manner of defining Time is other Times used in the New Testament John 4. 52. Acts 10. 30. One Hour with the Beasts Receiving Power That is At the very same Time the Beast received Power They received Power also for they received Power at one Hour with the Beast and therefore the Feet of Iron and of Clay and the Head and the Ten Horns together received Power immediately upon the Abdication of the Christian Emperor which was at 475. The same Phrase or manner of speaking is therefore us'd concerning both Power was given to the Beast to continue Forty two Months That He might do all Things spoken of Him from First to Last He had Power to continue forty two Months or Rev. 13. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his whole Action Power was given to Him during the space of Forty two Months so the Ten Horns received Power as Kings Rev. 17. 12. though They had a motion and violent Action before yet as in the Apostles Time They had no Kingdom so They had no Right of Succession until the Beast received Power and They then received Power as Kings of a lawful Succession even at one and the same Hour with the Beast And now seeing the Beast and the Ten Kings received Power together there must be some very Cardinal Time for them to receive their Power in the Ten Kings altogether with one another and then They altogether with the Beast and the Beast together with every one of them This I say cannot be in Reason supposed without some supreme and eminent Designation of Prophecy concerning the Time when It should be and when God would be pleas'd to have it so accounted to be for could so many Kings who by various Accidents and Emergents of War arose to Kingly Power some at one Time and some at another be suppos'd to receive Power together at one and the same Hour Historically and in matter of Fact Besides according to all History It was not so some of these Kingdoms got up
and this indeed was turning Christianity as much as is possible into Fable according to that Papal Prophaness that styl'd it so when themselves had made it so Together with this obscuring of Truth that Honour and Glory most due to the Church of Christ and to his Servants that should fill the World is so intercepted by the Children of the Night usurping it that while the Church is in the Wilderness and unseen tho' cloath'd with the Sun its Seed the Witnesses that should shine with the same Beams are cover'd with Sackcloth according to the Prophetical allusion the Sun became as Sackcloth of Hair and Kill'd all the day long Never was shade or portraicture thus fitted to the life but who as the divine Spirit can at the same Time hide in Cyphar and yet declare the thing plentifully as it is But now this Time of the Eclipse is determin'd to be Twelve Hundred sixty prophetical days or years of the Sun whose state is to guide and determine this Time In which regard the Moon that is the Times of the Moon are under its Feet and to be guided and over-rul'd by it It comes then to be consider'd that the Times of the Moon are not equal to the Times of the Sun For the Time in which the Moon measures the Zodiac twelve Times and hath as often New Congresses with the Sun and thereby makes the lunar year is agreed to be as near as can be computed a thirty eighth part less then what the Sun requires to visit the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac and to give twelve meetings to the Moon in its yearly Course so that the Moon is advanced near eleven days in the stage of a New Year before the Sun hath finish'd any year Proportionably the Beasts Times and Half Time are expounded in the Revelation by Forty two not only Months but Moons For every several Month is as under another Moon call'd therefore a New Moon and therefore Months must be Times of the Moon for they are Moons but the Moon is not the Sun If therefore These Moons had begun at the same Time the twelve hundred sixty days began They must have ended Thirty eight years sooner then They could end according to the Symbol For then the Eclipse should have lasted when the Moon had no longer been so posited as to intercept the Suns Beams that is the Glory of Christ in his Church Therefore in the Jews Times from whom This as All the other Types in this Prophecy relating to the Church and Servants of Christ are taken There was the Intercalation of a second Adar the last Jewish Month betwixt each precedent and following year that was to be intercalar that it might supply the hollow or vacuity in the Moons Time and guide the Paschal New Moon in its due regard to the vernal Sun to keep Time with it Now the Rule of this Intercalation because the balance betwixt the Motion of the Sun and of the Moon was the Decem-Novennal Cycle or so generally known Golden Number And lastly this Intercalation was generally necessary but every Third year of all which particulars the Treatise of that learned Jew Maimonides concerning the New Moons and Intercalation is a Great Testimony and his sixth Chapter gives Great Light to the Type we are are upon For proportionably The Forty two Months of the Gentiles are as Intercalary to the Months of the Beasts and begin Thirty eight years before them and are as it were a second supplemental Adar to the Time of the Draconic sixth Head and come in as a fit space of the Dragons giving his Throne to the Beast For the Barbarous Nations are call'd Gentiles because They ravag'd on the Christian Empire the Emblem of Christs Kingdom though indeed Sathan by Them as hath been say'd miss'd his Aim For the Empire was now Antichristianiz'd and the True Church hid Yet their coming into the outward Cuort of the Empire and of the Profession of Christianity and to become the Beasts People manag'd at first by the other Beast or Antichristian Roman Hierarchy God was pleas'd to ordain as the beginning of the Apostasie upon which the Witnesses put on their Sackcloth and the Woman actually fled into the Wilderness and the Twelve hundred sixty days began And because the Beasts Moons did not begin till thirty eight years after Here is the Intercalation of the Thirty eighth part the Beasts Moons would want and given in two Nineteens or Cycles of the Moon setting right the Moon to the Sun that so the Moon of the Antichristian Bestian Kingdom might be in its just Time under the Suns Feet with which the Church was cloath'd to Eclipse it Now this Type is so wonderful as not possibly to fall into this Model of Time by chance with that admirable Congruity and therefore cannot be look'd upon but as divinely design'd and so to be accepted as demonstrative That the Beasts Months beginning at 475. There must have been Thirty eight years of Bestian preparatory Time before them with the first of which the twelve hundred sixty days or years beginning All may end together 1697. And if it be ask'd what becomes of the Months of the Gentiles after the Beasts Months enter'd and of the Action of the other Beast or Antichristian Hierarchy who exercis'd the Power of the First Draconic Beast and spake as the Dragon not dead but to live in the Antichristian Beast The Answer is The Gentiles Months merg'd into the Beasts who had Power given Him over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations as an Antichristian Head and so though for the Grace of the Type They are given as Forty two Months yet They are drown'd in the Beasts Months after They have done their Service of Intercalation before the Beasts Months began even as smaller Accounts of Time are swallowed up in that of the Reigns of Supreme Princes dating All Times Then also the other Beast became the Beasts false Prophet the Tutor or Guardian of his Infantile Power till He came to his manly Number 666. and after that his Inseparable Spirit and Intelligence as hath appear'd in all Councels before the Beasts Times wherein the Hierarchy had been Heaving the Papacy into an Antichristian Idolatrous Supremacy The Dawn of which was visible in the Councel of Chalcedon within the Gentiles Intercalary Months within his Times confirming and swelling it to a Height as in the second Councel of Nice and in the Lateran Councels of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries Or supporting the declining State of it as in that last Famous Councel of Trent in his Half Time. But besides all that hath been spoken let us but take Time Times and Half a Time and we may by one easie way of Argument and in which any one may satisfie himself assure our selves in this determination of Time that I have made For when a Calendar of Time is given in Time Times and Half a Time as the measure of that space wherein a Kingdom and Government
very little distant from it as not to destroy the very symbol of the Half Time is so certain a Barrier of that Half Time and the Cessation of the Christian Empire so certain an Epoch of the three equal Times that we cannot fail of proportioning them all amongst themseves and knowing the longest of their duration can be but till 1697. The Calendar being thus determin'd let us consider the distribution and as the Half Time hath appear'd to be a Time of declination So the first Time Comprehended his succession his ascending to Supremacy receiv'd from Phocas ratified by a Councel at Rome soon after and so onwards his Bestianism and Idolatrous establishing Imageworship by the second Counsel of Nice His becomming a little Horn and rooting up any Horns in his way his disposing of Crowns and Excommunicating Emperours All which he attain'd before 797. the Period of his first Time acording to the ballance of it with the 1260. day And the constituting and Crowning as Emperour Charls the Great of France very close to it in the year 800. and within it if we Calculate the Times and Half of the little Horn as we may with very little variation do within themselves This Observation of the Beast rising as from an Infantile State shews us The Revelation considers his succession as an Imperial Bestian Seventh Head bearing ten Horns who becoming within his first Time a little Horn also himself rises according to Daniel to his number at his powerful and effective Image And this arising to and settlement of power very naturally agrees with the first Time of any Potentacy His two Times however full of variety of accidents as All worldly power is yet speak one main and deep of power as the two Times are joyn'd but with some little distinction as they are two Times in which there was a spread of the roots and Branches of Bestian power viz. in the coupling of the two Times and so we may observe at that very Time viz. in the Eleventh and Twelth Centuries enlarged Idolatries to the Hoast more Blasphemous assumptions in the Temple and Church of God His Persecution of the Saints and Churches of Christ more Bloody the History of the Albigenses and Waldenses is the Pyramid of it His Exaltation of himself above all even the highest Names of Majesty and Empire more prodigious and Luciferian as the History of his Treaty of the German Emperors and of our own King John are abundant Testimonies These things were most notorious about the latter part of the First of the two Times ending 1157. and the second of the two Times beginning when the other ended The Half Time is remarkable for the Cutting off such a Lap of his Bestian Purple and Scarlet with so much Dishonor the Continuance yet of so Great a part as necessary to his Half Time and that yet more Infamous and Destructive stroke on these Feet of Clay that now hangs over Him and will certainly Fall by his Periodical and Fatal 1697. Thus every way is our Calendar assur'd in the whole and in the Distribution And with how great Grace do these three Times and Half agree with that Moon intercepting and so Eclipsing the Glory and Kingdom of Christ first partial till after the middle of the First Time then total till the end of the Two Times At the Half Time the First Re-appearances of Light were very surprizing But there is yet an obscurity But It shall at last so go off So that the Sun of Righteousness shall shine out in its Strength and the Light of one Day shall be then as the Light of any seven that have been hitherto since the Reformation Object Now if It should seem any Disparagement to the Calendar that the Turkish so vast Empire hath no place in it though seated in so large Traicts of the Ancient Roman Empire and in the Imperial City of its Eastern Empire Constantinople call'd New Rome Answ The Answer is clear It is so far from disparaging the Calendar that It much strengthens and Illustrates it For It hereby is most evident that only those Four Monarchies we have so much spoken of make the Calendar and only in that order wherein the Divine Spirit plac'd Them so that neither Persia nor Graece whatever Greatness They have had since the former was demonarchiz'd by Alexander and the latter by the Romans have any place in this Calendar And though the Turkish Power hath invaded so much what was heretofore Roman Empire Yet It hath been on purpose so plac'd by Divine Vengeance that It might the more closely offend and annoy the Apostate Roman State and be a more effective Woe upon it In the mean Time It hath been so limited that It could never possess Rome nor the Amplitude of the Western Empire Yet it is evident Prophecy is not ignorant of the Mahometan Greatness but most abundant in the descypharings of it both in Daniel Dan. 11. 40. under the King of the South as the Saracens and of the North in the Turks and so in the Revelation chap. 9. in the First Woe Trumpet of the Locusts and the Second Woe Trumpet of the Armed Horsemen and that They Both Fall in with the Times of the Calendar and are as much engrafted into it as They have been or are into the Roman Empire as hath been shown in the Line of Time where It ought to be and the Times of the present Mahometan Kingdom in the Turks shall certainly take End with this Calendar when that Apostate Bestianism shall cease to require so Great a Vengeance upon the Christian World on which Account when the Witnessess enter into Glory at the Period of the 1260 Days It is said the second Woe is past but a Greater Third Woe immediately seizes the Apostasie even the succeeding Kingdom of Christ The naming of which by way of strongest Interest should oblige us to watch and keep our Garments that our Shame may not be seen For as that Kingdom will put an utter end to all Pagan Imperialism in the World by ways and Methods known to Him who does whatever He pleases and as It shall utterly destroy Antichristianism which we so Highly have disavowed So It will be as severe on all Formal Ceremonial Persecutory Protestancy and not only that but all Prophane Irreligious Protestants unreform'd in Heart unreform'd in Life For It is a Kingdom of Truth Righteousness and Peace not in Word but in Power And seeing It is certainly so near as I have Represented and that All the Policy and Power of the World can no longer interpose against it but that Christ will take to Himself his Great Power and Reign however Angry the Nations will be at it and will destroy them that have destroyed so long the Earth and will stay the Wicked with the Rod of his Mouth and with the Breath of his Lips How diligent should All be to prepare for so Happy a Revolution if we are found of Him in Peace
46. to 53. under the Papacy and the Ten Kings as can be no way overcome by so much as an Atheist or Papist that will consider The Numeral Calendar of Times and Half a Time is made out by Ballance with the 1260. days and Forty two Months 〈◊〉 54. to â—4 as the Time of the Eclipse of the Church of Christ by the Bestian Moon under its Feet Giving Great understanding of the Calendar both in Allusion to an Eclipse one of the surest Characters of Time in Chronology and also most exactly Calculated in its Time of Duration and various degrees of Beginning Middle and Going of And the Application of a Calendar onely to the Little Horn in Daniel and to the Time of the Bestian Tyranny in the Revelation shews us They must be both the same and that therefore we must be Right in the duration knowing the Epoch of the Times and of the Half Time This is discours'd at large and then by way of Brief Recollection That if the Beasts Times and Half Time are taken alone and Divided and Multiplyed by themselves according to that fix'd Epoch of the Times and of the Half Time They must needs end at 1697. The succession of the Kingdom of Christ is demonstrated necessarily to follow at the end of the half Time together with some Practical p. 64. to the End. Intimations If then to the succession of the Graecian Monarchy in its Divided state we have express Scripture for the Calendar if all History assures us the Roman Empire swallowed that and Scripture present it then in its Greatness even to an Article of Faith and hath both by a real Conspicuous Agreement betwixt it and Prophecy all along presented it to us in its State to this day and given us a Numeral Calendar that tho' Mystick is to be and is I solemnly Assert with undoubted Certainty unlock'd to us as ending at 97. And that nothing can Follow but the Kingdom of Christ Let us being so near a Kingdom that cannot be shaken have Grace wherewith to serve God with Reverence and Godly fear For Our God is a Consuming Fire Hâ—b 12. 28. Besides some small Mistakes in Pointing these few Faults have escap'd which the Courteous Reader is desired to mend thus Page 4â— line 6. for were read we p. 46. l. 28. point thus Compos'd are The p. 50 l. 40. r. Bestianism p. 64. l. 30. r. slay p. 66. l. 26. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A DISCOURSE UPON Those two Grand Visional Dreams of Daniels Prophecy The Dream of the Image given to Nebuchadnezzar and Interpreted by Daniel Chap. 2. And the Dream of the Four Beasts given to Daniel Ch. 7. Wherein it is endeavoured to be proved That These Two Visions are a Calendar of Time comprehending the whole Space from the Time of Nebuchadnezzar's Vniversal Monarchy to the Kingdom and Dominion of Christ under the whole Heaven The Proclaimings whereof shall be heard as from Heaven 1697. I Have in the Foregoing Discourses Adjusted these Visions of Daniel and his whole Prophecy to the Time of Ezekiels Prophecy and particularly to that Cardinal Vision * c. 40. c. of the Glorious Temple and City and therein to the last Joynt of the Line of Time before it viz. the 390 days at the end of which as I have shewn Ezekiel had that so great Vision giving a visional Cessation to his Bearing the Iniquity of the House of Israel I have adjusted also the first of these visions to Nebuchadnezzar's Supreme Monarchy by his Conquest of Egypt viz. to the Second year of it and the twenty seventh of Jehoiachins Captivity and the Thirty fifth of Nebuchadnezzers general Reign Now in all these partiâ—ulars these Two visions have deep Interest as I have shown I now address my self onely to this point to prove that these Two visions are a Real and Substantial Calendar of Time to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ when the Sanctuary shall be Cleans'd according to that Great Note of Daniel's Third vision at the End of the 2300 Evenings and Mornings and most Agreeing with Ezekiels Prophacy when also according to that Prophecy the Everlasting Throne shall be Ezek. 47. 7 c. set up These Two then and indeed the Third vision of Daniel give the Time how Long That great vision of Ezekiel shall be vision onely and put nothing into Act and Effect The Third vision which is Exactly numeral I have already publish'd the probation of as Reaching that End. Without any further preface therfore I lay down these following Arguments to prove that these Two visions are such a Substantial real Calendar and contain also a short Hieroglyphical numeral Calendar of Time Times and Half a Time that Falls into all the Variety and yet Complication of the Characters of Time in the great Prophecy of the New-Testament the Revelation which together with the real Substantial Characters of these visions make the Time demonstratively certain that the succession of Christs Ringdom shall be 1697. Argu. 1 The first Argument I shall Level to this point shall be That These Two Dreams or visions are made so Remarkable by God that They are worthy to be such a Calendar of Time as I affirm of Them Now the first vision as laying the Foundation is fuller of outward pomp and more prepar'd for publick and universal notice But the second is more Inward to the Glory and Kingdom of Christ as a second and more perfecting Hand drawn upon the First The First visionary Dream was granted to Nebuchadnezzar in whom an Vniversal Monarchy then Resided which made him a fit Head of that Image and of that Time also to be continued all along in a Course descending from the Head to the several parts even to the Feet and Toes and then and there to be Broken in pieces and to be succeeded by the Kingdom of Christ And as in preparation to this very purpose the Greatness of this Monarch is so often Amplyfied in the Prophets He is several Times Call'd by God Nebuchadnezzar My Servant as the Great not onely Substitute of Divine power but as the proto Type of it as it shall appear in Christ God gave Him All Nations to serve Him even the Beasts of the Field and the Fowls of the Heaven Jeremiah was Commanded to send Yokes to all Nations as a Symbol of serving Him and submitting to his Yoke Ezekiel calls Him King of Kings a style Prophetick of Christs supreme Title and the Mighty one of the Heathen Daniel represents him by the great Tree whose shaddow cover'd and protected the very Fowls of Heaven and Beasts of the Earth and All Flesh was Replenish'd with its Fruit. His Greatness reach'd to Heaven and his Dominion to the End of the World. This made Him the Head of Gold the Beginning of the Vniversal Monarchy that was to succeed in the Persian Grecian and Roman States and to Foreshow what a Kingdom the Kingdom of Christ was to be in its
transplanted themselves from their own Seats and by armed force plac'd themselves in Italy and the several parts and Provinces of the Roman Empire And yet they all made still the same Roman Monarchy and the same Beast because whereas the Persian King succeding the Babylonian did not place his Royal Greatness in Babel but in Shushan nor Alexander in Persia but in Graece nor the Roman in Graece Persia nor Babylon but transferred all to Rome The barbarous Nations on the contrary do not remove the Potentacy from the Roman Territories to the Countries from whence they came but continue it where they found it and Inhabit and Inherit the former Residencies of Roman Power and so are the same Empire in Feet of Iron and of Clay For if the Feet of Iron make no Transplantation much less would or could the Feet of Clay much more tyed to the same Earth from whence they sprung and above all to the Roman Earth of St. Peter where He say they as Bishop left the print of his Foot as in Clay that the Roman Hierarchy might sprout from it And they are all the same Beast also whereby the Calendar and Succession is maintained for to shew the same Idolatrous and Hostile Spirit to the Kingdom of Christ influx'd all the Dragon gave his All as was noted before and the whole is as nearly allyed as part to part in the same Body acted by one and the same Spirit And this was all certainly an Illustrious and adorable Care of Providence over Prophecy That Things should be just thus that Prophecy might be fulfilled in the Roman Monarchy continuing One and the same Monarchy as we shall see in Ten Kings united in one Ecclesiastic Roman Supremacy as Ten Horns in one Head and the Capital Imperial City Rome was continued for the same Head by a most astonishing and even amazing Ordination of God as the other Capital Cities within the Roman Dominion for the Ten Kings each in their own Kingdoms But still there were all the Violences of War made use of for the Succession of the Ten Kings as Feet of Iron and they were as necessary for the Feet of Clay to rise in the midst of those Noises stilly silently unobservedly to their Grandeur and the Supremacy of One Pontiff even He of Rome among them To adjust therefore every thing to this Succession with the Decorum of the prophetical Types let us now observe the admirable Concert of Providence and Prophecy in this Period In the first place therefore as a great Emblem of the Glorious Kingdom of Jesus Christ and his Vniversal Monarchy over all Nations and especially his Triumph over that Ancient Kingdom of Sathan Pagan and Heathenish Idolatry wherein Himself and his Angels and the Demoniz'd Spirits of his Servants were so immediately worship'd there is a wise Ordination by God of a Christian Empire to remonstrate this Victory in an Empire then own'd as the Vniversal Empire of the World and where Heathenism had seem'd to Triumph over Christianity but Christians thus overcame by the Blood of the Lamb by the word of his Testimony and by Christians not Loving their Lives unto Death This Empire therefore enter'd as into the Heart of the Fourth Monarchy in Daniels Visions by a High Dominion and Ordination of God though so contre-natural to it that on all Accounts It is as a casting Sathan out of Heaven and as it were the Coming of the Kingdom of our God. The whole Order therefore of these Emperors throughout the whole Time of the Christian Empire is so far all one order Revel 17. v. 10. that from first to last they are All one seventh King as the Kings of Judah were All One House of David but this Empire in its former and in its latter Times differ'd much in the purity of the Christian State and in the Illustrious Presence of God with it as Zedekiah and those latter Kings did from David and Solomon yet so that while the order it self stood there could be no Succession of the Bestian Kingdom for they are specificly distinct which is a note of great weight in the Calendar and it is even demonstrated That all those Christian Emperors in sacred Register are but One because They are called One other King and that they are specificly distinct because the Eighth is of the Bestian Heads the seventh before it is not But now as to our Note this Christian Empire look'd like an Infracture on the Calendar for that a Succession was due to the Feet of Iron and Clay and to the Ten Horns and to the little Horn that is to the Ten Kings and the Papacy as soon as ever the Legs of Iron and Head as of the Teeth of Iron that is the Pagan Empire was depriv'd of supreme Power so that this Christian Empire according to Daniels Visions was to have dyed as soon as it was born Prophecy therefore as it were remembring in the New Testament what it self had said in the Old and as conscious of the short space This Empire was to continue and knowing well That there were four Trumpets of War decreed and prepar'd as Storms and Tempests to remove it in the very next Vision to that of Heathenism desolated which was Revel 6. last It presents four Angels c. 7. 1. Holding the four Winds that They should not blow by those Trumpets c. 8. and a charge is given them to take heed to their Commission that they should not let out those Winds until the Servants of God were sealed in their Foreheads that is That the Christian Empire should continue and continue in Glory and Peace till Things were prepared for the Succession of Antichrist that Man of Sin or Beast as this Prophecy styles Him and as we shall find presently that sealing of the Servants of God in the Forehead imported Till the Feet of Clay then were ready for their Succession the Feet of Iron should not succeed for they were Feet together though of so different a Mettal and not to cleave nor the Ten Horns till the little Horn though in another appearance viz. of a Head in the New Testament-Prophecy should be ready for his Succession also for at the same Hour Both were to receive Power Now what does this so peremptory Charge import but a miraculous as it were and immediate over-rule of the natural course of Things according to Daniels Visions and the vertue of it lasted in full force from the Christian Empire of Constantine the Great till the Death of Theodosius the Great Then there was such a Relaxation of this Charge that the Angels prepared Themselves to sound but did no more then prepare Now how agreeable is this to History soon after Theodosius's Death these Clouds and Storms began to hover and hang but did not fall in their full effect of doing the Christian Empire out of the middle as the Apostle speaks 2. Thess 2. 7. where it stood as a Wall of partition betwixt the Bestian Times
of the Pagan Empire and the Times of the Antichristian Bestian Empire that They could not meet but then according to Daniels Prophecy expounded by the Revelation They clos'd for then the Dragon or Pagan Empire gave its Throne and Great Authority to Antichrist or the Bestian Empire and the Antichristian Times began And thus the man of Sin was held back as the Apostle said that He might be revealed in his own Time and the middle Time being of an arbitrary interposal but Divine is an Inter-reign of no Account in the Bestian Empire but all comes naturally together that the Dragon as was said Gave his Throne c. as if there had been no Interruption And how decorous now to the Type is All the State of Things as to the Heathen Empire remov'd 1. It was absolutely necessary to the Succession of the Papacy the Heathen Empire should be removed It was then most decorous it should be done by a Christian Empire the Emblem of the Kingdom of Christ and not that the Feet and Toes of Iron of the Roman Bestian Empire should ravage on the Legs of Iron nor the Horns of the seventh Head on the sixth Head which according to prophetic Representation kindly yielded the Succession to it as was said 2. The Christian Empire gave Great Advantage to the Feet of Clay or the Antichristian Hierarchy to negotiate their own power by the Favour of Christian Emperors and their Donations of Titles and Revenues to Christian Bishops and to a Christian Clergy as they affected to be call'd And Shoales of People then coming in to the Princes Religion there was a condescending to the Pagan Divi consecrated Temples Holy-days Priests Pontiffs Rites to the Dead Images So that Resemblances were found for them of a Christian Name until Things came to that pass that the Servants of God were seal'd that is the true Christian Glory was stay'd seal'd up and reserv'd to the future Time of the New Jerusalem and secur'd for that against Antichristian Contagion The Gentiles in Pagan Rites enter'd into the outward Court or Profession of the Christian Name and the True Worshippers retir'd into the Temple The Witnesses put on their Sackcloth out of whith they are not yet and the True Christian Church fled into the Wilderness in which it is still Hid though not so close since the Reformation but yet waits the perfection of the Reformation All which are Expressions of the Antichristian Succession together with the Ten Kings and for which the Trumpets were stay'd from sounding till he who judg'd Righteously of the True Epoch of the Apostasie gave them leave to sound In the second place as to the removing of the Christian Empire how admirably fitted are the Types also For seeing the Bestian Supremacy in the seventh Papal Head and the Ten Kings could not be till all Light of the Sun Moon and Stars of the Christian Empire were darkned and the Empire it self quench'd as a Lamp in Water and Rome so often taken and re-taken that it had no Title of Supremacy over it but that of Bishop and the whole Glory of the Empire blasted as by Hail mingled with Fire who so fit to do this as Barbarian Nations whom Prophecy brands as the Instruments of Sathan the Dragon persecuting the Woman the Church that brought forth the manly Child and who were to be the Horns of the Antichristian Beast by whose Mediation the Dragon gave his power to Him But this Empire however it carried the Name of Christian and bore the Emblem of the Kingdom of Christ still as Jerusalem even after the Crucifying of Christ was call'd the Holy City yet it was so deeply by this Time Antichristianiz'd that the Judgment of God administer'd by these barbarous Nations did indeed pursue it For he abhor'd the Idolatrous Prostitutions and Relapses to Paganism under the disguise of Antichristianism from which he had so wonderfully rescued it As therefore of old He gave up Jerusalem to be either Captivated or destroyed by litteral Babylon on whose Idolatries it doted even so He now delivered up the Christian Church and Empire as so Antichristianiz'd to be either destroyed or enslaved by those Feet of Iron and Clay and that seventh Head and its Ten Horns so that what Sathan did with a Hellish malice God most Righteously and Supremely though most severely executed by Him. And thus we have brought down the Calendar and settled it on that great pillar of Time the Christian Empire Inaugurated in Constantine Illustrated a new in the great Theodose and Vacated in Augustulus from which as we shall find the man of sin in his own Times as the Apostle calls them commencing and of which we have a numeral Calendar given us by Prophecy And the Time where we are to begin we are most certain of by History That it was close to 475 from whence therefore it is to be dated for then Augustulus was compell'd to Abdicate Empire Then therefore Antichristian Times began as I shall now go on to make out and to shew the state of Things from that Time going on till now as we all in great measure must needs know to be very Astonishingly agreeing with Prophecy I have now I say brought down the Calendar in my own Judgment and I offer it to the Judgment of all the Serious supposing it acording to the Spirit of God and therefore undeniable to the fourth Roman Monarchy establish'd upon an Article of Faith at the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ I have led it from thence through the Pagan State of it of which a Dragon watching a Manly birth to devour it is an Emblem so significant of the dreadful Persecutions for above 300 years after Christ as to be even demonstrative and so conducted it to the Christian Empire of which the Dragon cast out of Heaven and a Manly Child caught up to the Throne of God in a Kingdom decreed him as in Heaven though not immediately Appearing on Earth as is manifest by the Churches flying into the Wilderness is an Emblem so Beautiful and Inviting as not to be refus'd And if we do but yield that to be the Emblem of the Roman Monarchy first persecuting Christianity and then it self becomming Christian we are of necessity concluded that either that Christian Empire was all the Kingdom of Christ or that the Roman Monarchy is that Roman Fourth Monarchy still in a direct opposition to the Kingdom of Christ For so the Fourth Monarchy must be the fourth Monarchy till then and if the Roman be the Fourth that must be so Now that that Christian Empire is not the Kingdom of Christ we must needs know because it did not consume all other Kingdoms and because that of Christ shall never end but that of a Christian Empire would continue but a short space About an 150 years was the bounds of it And violently it was made to cease by the Barbarian Force which Prophecy calls the Dragon persecuting that Christian Church that brought
forth as a short Emblem of the Kingdom of Christ in that Christian Empire the Manly Birth Christ as a Soveraign And least we should think it had a succession and so an endurance in the Papacy and Christian Kings and Emperours that rose out of its ruins we find according to Prophecy All that succession is involv'd in the dark Portraictture of a Beast and its Ten Horns That true Christianity that brought forth that Empire is close Hid in the Wilderness for 1260 years till the end of which it cannot return besides even that Papal state suppose it had been a succession of a Christian Kingdom It hath been if I may so speak Woe Trumpetted by the Saracens and Turks for so great a space that as hath been said it could not be the Kingdom of Christ and therefore must be the Kingdom of Antichrist For so we find the Beast as an Eighth King succeeded the Seventh or Christian King after a short space and the very same Beast of the Seventh Head succeeded the Sixth Pagan King wounded in his Head so his succession was double In Time He succeeded the Christian Emperour as Bestian He succeeded the Pagan sixth King who according to Daniel gave him his Throne Power and great Authority For the Papacy in his Ten Kingdoms devoted to him is a Pagan Christian or Antichristian Supremacy Thus it was and thus it ought to be that Prophecy might be fulfill'd Thus far then we are most assured whatever succeeded the Pagan Empire in Time was the short spac'd Christian Empire whatever succeeded the short Christian Empire in Time must be the Beast that notwithstanding the Interposal of the Christian Empire is united according to Daniel to the fourth Bestian Kingdom and according to the Revelation to the Dragon And seeing no other succeeded the Christian Empire in Time but the Papacy and the Ten Kings Therefore that is the Continuation of the fourth Monarchy in the Image as Feet of Clay and of Iron and in the vision of the Beasts as the Beast and Ten Horns and remains and shall remain so until it shall be Broken by the Kingdom of Christ Period 3 Our Calendar Reaches down to 475. by Prophecy and by History and here there enters a Bestian state which will take up more then Half the Time from the giving of these visions to Daniel and a Moyety or thereabouts of the whole Time that the fourth Kingdom had so much as a Being even at the Vrbs Condita or the building of the Roman City more then the Time thrice over that it came into this Calendar which was at the Cessation of the Graecian Empire Because therefore this Time would be so long it pleased the infinite wisdom and goodness of Holy Spirit of Prophecy to give some light before hand to his Servants how long this Time should last It pleas'd it I say to give here a Numeral though a mystic Calendar even just here and to tell us that Laws and Times should be given for Time Times and the dividing of Time into the Hand of the little Horn. And why seeing were are bound to search as far as we can what and what manner of Time the Spirit of Christ did signifie was it given here rather then in any other part of the vision of the Beasts if it had not been the pleasure of God that we should know before hand how long this last Bestian state should exist For if we had been to wait the event onely There had been less need of a Calendar here then in any other part of the vision For the Kingdom of Christ immediately comming into its succession after the Times of this last Roman state It will give a more Indubitable Resound of its event than any other event of the vision can be suppos'd to do It was certainly therefore given to define Time before hand But if with the Comment of Prophecy it self in the Revelation it were not to be understood Then it must be given to no end Let us therefore be encouraged to search it For it is certainly to be understood as I hope we shall find And that we may understand it These Two Things are necessary 1. To expound the Calendar in its Epoch or beginning and in its just Course Extent and Period and then Secondly to Adjust by the Symbols of Prophecy and the most noble Assurances of History or rather of our own knowledge and Experience The Things being much in Being and Existence at this Day the Congruity of Events according to it so far as They are already pass'd and thereby to derive the most ascertain'd Expectations of what is yet to come Now that we may do the first it is necessary that we concert Time Times Half a Time with Forty two Months which are the Apocalyptick Calendar for the Regnancies of the Beast and his Ten Horns or various Kingdoms according to the Resemblance of the Ten Toes in the Image which have been already prov'd to be in an immediate succession to the Christian Empire In the first place therefore we must observe the Correspondence betwixt the Time Times and Half a Time and the Forty two Months Let therefore Time signifie a year according to that note Prophecy hath undoubtedly on purpose provided us with of Seven Times passing over the Head of Nebuchadnezzar in his Lunacy for that Times should be more than Years the course of his Conquests till within about Ten years of his Death will not allow for in the Twenty seventh year of Jehoiachins Captivity He made as it appears his last Conquest and had been as we may perceive by Ezekiels Prophecy in a continual course of Victory to that Time as hath been more at large in a former Discourse discussed Now that Twenty seventh of Jehoiach must be the Thirty fifth of Nebuchad for Jehoiakims Third was his First Add therefore the last eight of Jehoiakim to Jehoiachims Twenty seventh they make Nebuch Thirty fifth and Evilmerodachs First who according to Scripture succeeded Nebuchadnezzar his Father falling on Jehoiachins Thirty seventh there remained Ten to Nebuch when Ezekiel prophesied his Conquest of Egypt within which Ten the seven of his Delirium must be comprehended the seven Times therefore could not signific more then seven Years For his Life we see would not allow more nor can They in any fair supposal signifie less there being no determinate measure of Time worthy to be call'd Times except Months and seven Months is a Time much too short for his being turn'd out as among the Beasts or that the stump or little short Time of his Reign should be so Banded with Iron that It might be secur'd to Him. Now I have thus industriously debated this Matter because I would gain by it that I think cannot now be deny'd That a Time in Time Times c. denotes a year If then a Time denotes a year Times joyn'd with Half a Time must denote two Years because there is no medium betwixt One Time and
much sooner then others It is therefore on a Prophetical Account and on positive determination of the Time by Divine Authority God by whom Kings Reign and who dates Kingdoms as He pleases dated the Power of the Beast and the Power of these Ten Kings All to an Hour and He hath told us when It was It was when that peculiar Christian Empire of Rome He had set up was by his Providence superseded before that though these Kings were Kings and the Bishop of Rome Bishop of Rome yet they were Kings and the Pope of Rome Pope of Rome under one Imperial Head who stood by Divine Appointment as their Supreme Lord He was their Head by a Divine Right and They All under Him and in that Right in a dependence upon him even as Herod on Augustus though not in Fact for He who gives the Kingdoms of the Earth to whom He pleases declares so and tells us The Beast came into his Hour as an Eighth King when the seventh gave up and though the sixth Head or Pagan Emperor was gone off so long before yet as in the Water or Air when the interposing Body is removed the ambient Air and Water from every side immediately clap together so the Bestian Pagan and the Bestian Antichristian Kingdom does when the Christian Empire was done in the Apostles Phrase so full of this Sense Out of the midst Having therefore clear'd and made Good the Epoch of the Time Times Half Time I will now before I proceed to consider their extent shew how great the Agreement of what we have seen in the state of the Roman Empire since the Christian Empire in it was done out of the midst how great I say the Agreement of it with Prophecy is which will make good that Solid Substantial part of the Calendar and shew us How plainly Time hath run on according to the Aqueducts and Chanels foretold to it so long before in these following Observations Observat 1 Let us then observe the Papacy the Cardinalism the Episcopacy the whole Roman Hierarchy and their dependencies in so great numbers on the one side and on the other the several Kingdoms into which the Roman Empire hath been so long and is still parted with the warlike Kings and People thereof And I may appeal to all the World whether there could be a fitter Emblem or Representation on both parts then Feet part of Iron part of Clay What weaker then the one What more Potent and puissant then the other And yet notwithstanding the weakness of the one and the puissance of the other The Ten Kings Agreeing to give their strength Power and Might and their Kingdom to the Beast They make the Pope a Seventh Head of Roman Supremacy and Vniversality and the Hierarchy Feet Foundations of Government and of the state of the World by being mingled with the Iron however They do not cleave Surely this matter being so well known as to run into sense we see it with our eyes as to the Event and the Emblem as easie to be understood as Familiar as the Notices of Iron Clay Feet of which the Emblem is compos'd are The attent consideration then would convince even an Atheist of the Truth of Scripture Prophecy even a Papist that the Roman Hierarchy is intended how much more then may it convince Protestants The Kings have also made the Pope a little Horn They have given him Territories Guards Forces Revenues as a King pulling up the Gothick the Graecian the Lombardic power as Three Horns before Him wherein Martell Pipin Charlemaign and Ludoviâ—us pius were his great Benefactors But all this was but very inconsiderable in compare with the rest as to an Iron Potentacy were it not for the Spiritual Supremacy the Riches of which is Incomputable Therefore he Looks with the Eyes of a man as the only Infallible Seer of the Christian World He hath a Countenance more stately then his Fellows the other Ten Kings over whom he hath a Mouth speaking great Things in the challenges of Supreme Dominion as the Vicar of Jesus Christ and as in his place King of Kings and Lord of Lords He hath Times and Laws given into his Hand and a Calendar of Time peculiar to Him He hath been for several Hundreds of years the great Leviathan in the Christian World the Chief of the Sons of Pride and of the ways of Providence and God's Government of the World That a Horn so weak in its true Anatomy and Intrinsick value should have borne such a sway in the Empire and Governments of the Earth piercing even to the Indies and formerly unknown parts of it who that reads Daniel in compare with what he hath seen known read or even heard of the Papacy will not rather think Daniel of late years took the Portraicture and writ the Character of the Papacy then spoke of it at the distance of so many Ages before it But he was guided by Him to whom all Things past present and to come are an even Now. In the same manner let us reflect upon the Cardinalism Arch-Bishops and Inferior Clergy with their Innumerable Train of officers as on the Feet of Miry Clay the Beast rising out of the Earth more often in their originals not of the Blood of Kings and Nobles weak in their warlike Prowesse Prophets teaching lyes who are the Tail of Mankind Yet with these as with the Seed of Men poor weak Inconsiderable men sprung from the Earth The feet of Iron mingle themselves and make together the Feet of the Image as equally essential parts of Government and the Clay is as we say Cheek by Jole with them These Merchants of Rome become the Grands of the Earth I desire no other but a Free Impartial Frank Judgment upon the Evidence now given that the Papacy and Roman Hierarchy are most lively Represented by the long and so known Conjunction of the Powers of Clay in Conjunction with those of Iron the Kings and Princes lying within the Roman Dition Observat 2 Equal to the first is the second Observation wherein we shall find the present state of the Roman Empire tyed and linck'd to Prophecy both in Daniel and the Revelation in that great and Remarkable point of Agreement An Image made to the Beast and the Beast joyn'd so often after with his Image and the Beast and his Image Let us then reflect on the Famous Memoir of Prophetick History in the first universal Monarch the Golden Head of the primitive Litteral Babylon Nebuchadnezzar in conceipt of that mighty Image He had seen in a Dream so divinely expounded and of which Himself was the Head of Gold would be worshipped and obeyed in the Counter-point of that Image set up and whoever would not worship that Image was to be cast into a fiery Furnace In like manner the other Beast or the Antichristian Hierarchy to raise up the Papacy as another Golden Head of mystical Babylon said by way of Oracle and with lying Wonders
Sambenitoes Disguises clap'd on Saints and the Imagery put upon them by that Bestianism in an Image even as Pagan Persecutors cover'd Christians with the Skins of Beasts and the more cruel Imputations of Beastlike Enormities to them And to sum up all how exact is Prophecy in the manner of the Execution of this Feral Rage The Image speaks and causes to be kill'd All who do not worship which is as it were Word for Word The Spiritual power Delivering up to the Secular This Spiritual Bestianism as it is part of Clay can put no man to death It must be done for it by the Iron of the Feet and yet this Little Horn hath often appear'd in Armour as in Iron and found means to push and gore to death by himself and to make Good the Prophecy He is a Horn yet but a Little one and therefore it is generally done by the other Horns for Him when Iron is required Now in all this Imagery There appears a Recapitulation of the whole Image commanded by the King of Babylon to be worshipped In the wise Providence of God the last state of the Image is enshrin'd as it were in an Image sets up the great Idolatry of Image-worship cas'd up and veil'd under reverence to God and to Christ and to the Holy ones And for the sake of this Imagery the Servants of God are made Sacrifices to Flames and all kinds of death really and effectively though under an Image and by an Image In the same manner there is a Recapitulation of the Beasts in the Little Horn For He is Leopard as it were all over Antiochus that infamous Little Horn of the Graecian Leopard in its four Heads was his exact Type betwixt whom and this Roman Beast Daniel twice notes the succession passing over the Pagan Empire c. 8. 23. c. 11. 36. This Beast had also the broad Feet of a Bear resembling Hamans Letters sign'd by the Persian Ahasuerus throughout his 150 Provinces to put to death the Jews So the Beast by his Ten Kings throughout his Kindred Tongues and Nations causes the Witnesses to dye by the decrees like the Mouth of the Babylonian Lyon Nebuchadnezzar commanding Idolatrous Image worship And thus we see every way what a definitive Character of the last Roman state the Image made to the Beast is Observat 3 Let us observe how Prophecy is Fulfill d in the last state of the Image in that Character or Note of the Feet as part of Iron part of Clay that tho' the Iron and the Clay shall mingle They shall not Cleave This is admirably answer'd in Two Things 1. In the notorious distinction of Ecclesiastick and Secular or Laic the latter of which cannot without great Profanation and even sacriledg be confounded with the Former A thing very strange to Apostolick writings wherein the whole Flock are call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Holy Priesthood the Church And the Ministers of the Gospel Elders and Presidents noting onely order and not distinction of any other kind Although therefore the Spirituality as They are call'd often invade the Secular Authority and Power Yet it is in the Guarb and Canonical habit of Spiritual and Ecclesiastic to keep that Character High and Indelible herein the Little Horn was in Daniel's Prophecy Remark'd so diverse from the other Horns Dan. 7. 24. 2. It imports the always separableness and the certain Separation that shall be betwixt the two Powers when these Ten Kings shall hate the Whore and burn her Flesh with Fire So that though the Kings or Feet of Iron as well as of Clap shall be broken as is foretold of Them Yet it is to be understood onely as they are parts of the Image and as together with the Clay they make the Feet of the Image and are as Horns on the Head of a Beast whenever they separate themselves from the Papacy They become Princes of the Reformation and if zealous and sincere therein They are with the Lamb as his Faithful Called and Chosen And of this for near these Hundred and Eighty years last past God hath been pleas'd to give an Exemplar though but very Imperfect in Comparison of what shall be in that Separation Princes and States styled Protestants have made from the Church and Pope of Rome But how dark and obscure is it and how much brighter shall it be when it shall be done universally by all these Ten Kings and their Kingdoms when the Apostasie shall be drawn of and the Kingdom of Christ shall be in its succession The very same ought to be acknowledg'd of the Reformed Episcopacy It is by no means to be confounded with the Feet of Clay whose Idolatrous Apostasie degrades them to so low a Station Yet it were to deal deceitfully in the divine Prophecy not to say That a much higher state of the Churches of Christ shall supersede present Constitutions by the very dawns of the glory of the Kingdom of Christ. Observat 4 It is no Indiscernable Character of this Roman state in its Feet of Iron and Clay that it remains to this day waiting as it were for that stroke from the Stone cut out of the Mountains without Hands For it hath already as hath been noted consum'd more Time then had pass'd before it from that so fam'd Ere of Vrbs condita or the building of Rome But because this is matter yet to come and when it is come will put all out of doubt I shall onely observe that as in these two Visions of Daniel so in the Apostle Paul and in the Revelation Notes of Ruin Comsumption Abolition Son of Perdition going into Perdition Being deliver'd to the consuming Flames the Beast taken with his false Prophet and cast into the Lake are Brands deeply set upon Him and together with his Consumption the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ is declared which is so certain an Assurance that neither the Kingdom of Christ is yet come nor this last state of the Roman Monarchy yet past that a greater cannot be given And when these things are Then shall the whole Image in its Idolatrous Frame and Composure Fall and be Broken and Rise no more For the Roman Monarchy in the Feet is the very Foundation of the whole Image As the Feet are to all parts of the Body So also are these Feet and Toes to the Image And because They are part of Clay thither is the stroke especially directed and there is the Image to be broken Now as the Gold of the Head Communicated its lustre the Silver Brass and Iron Communicated their value and strength to all the parts and as the Greatness of the whole Image gave it Dread and Majesty and an Vniversality of power So the Clay on which the Image stands as part of the Feet and Toes Communicated its Weakness Brittleness and under those as Types its Antichristianism to the whole So that the Clay Symbolizing that Antichristianism is inserted in the middle Dan. 2. 45. betwixt the Iron